mambo revisited

Last week I had agreed to accompany these 2 kids to Zouk's infamous Mambo Night. They thought it would be good to get 'exposed to the happening things'. Ha. So standing in the uber long queue to get in, surrounded by gaggles of teenyboppers, I wondered if I had made a mistake. I was obviously in a whole other age bracket from the rest of the crowd. :)

People-watching at Mambo Night as an Old Fogey yields great fruit. Unlike a regular club with people my age, you can go really invisible here. Nobody wants to check out or chat up the Lao Aunty after all right?

Things to note:

#1: Many Mambogirls like to wear that hip-bone shearing, low-cut denim skirt as popularised by Mischa Barton of the O.C.
Team it with long straight hair and lashings of plastic beaded jewellery. A popular runner up look - the evergreen lowcut cami and low-slung jeans combo. Sure-fire combo to get people staring at you especially when one has drunk too much, passed out on Jiak Kim Street itself and Zao-geng for the whole world. Nice.

And SCENE - "SAndra! Do NOT Slide down on me! Get up. Come on STAND up!" Girl trying to hoist up friend who had slithered off a bench and onto the road, said-low slung jeans sliding dangerously half-down her bum. Her valiant friends
had to struggle with simultaneously hoisting her as well as her jeans back up the bench. She thanked them by throwing up. Friends loyally held her hair back and rubbed her back. Ah....undergraduate friendship! Those were the days.

#2: Mamboguys are a lot better dressed and dance way better than mamboguys from my era. Gelled up Japanese street hair is de rigeur, teamed with polo tee with collar turned up (preppie look), or t-shirt with some nutty graphic (street look). Adventurous ones added on a funky jacket.

#3: Mass Dance is in. Gone is the one-finger in the air, shake your booty like you just don't care male undergrad dance.
Apparently everybody has studied the same library of dance moves and do it together like some kind of Dance Dance Revolution or Para Para thing. And they do it with frightening intensity! You ain't seen nothing yet till you have seen the moves to Sqaure Rooms. The action for the chorus is reminiscent of the moves I used to make with my fingers for Itsy Bitsy Spider. Brrrr.

#4: Zouk is like the new Church for the kids. When Michael Jackson's Heal the World came on, this wierd hush came over the crowd, everyone sang in unison as if it was some great hymnal. They did it for Black Eyed Peas "Where Is The Love as well". It was kind of bizarre. I still hate the MJ song I realise - "There are people dying! If you care enough for the living, make a better world for you and for me!" Come on....Gah the sugariness! the empty goody-goody lyrics!

#5: They play some one-kind of bizarre songs - techno Dancing Queen anyone? GhostBusters?
Oh and they played Timmy Thomas 'Dying Inside to Hold You". Ten years has not been enough to kill my hate for that song. Gah!

All in all, had a pretty good time actually. But like the Old Fogey that I am, the nicest part was the post Mambo, go Geylang for cold soya bean drink bit.

"So would you go back again? Did you have fun?"

"Ya maybe. Did not recognise many of the songs. I don't get out much. Swakoo."

"It's ok, lah. Not important to fit in to the culture. You got a lot going for you already. It's fun, just go with a bunch of good friends you can trust but don't need to keep going back. Enjoy the fun parts but don't go looking for the darker side of it."

"Got darker side meh?"

"Ya....its stuff you only notice when you get older lah. It was all happening right in front of you but you were too busy looking at the ParaPara platform dancers."

"Ya you know like that horrijible Pussycats Dolls song? Dontcha wish ya girlfriend was HOT like me? Dontcha wish your girlfriend was WRONG like me? DONTCHA! All those girls trying too hard to be sexy to get the attention of the guys."

"Gross. Mmmm soya bean."

:)