MAN ABOUT TOWN
TEXT
JACKSON BIKO
ART
MOVIN WERE
DRINKING
ALONE
Jackson Biko, is a lover of whisky and
people watching. He likes to walk the
shadows of the city at dusk, picking
conversations of a people spurred by the
night and by their drink.
I
do not drink alone. I never drink
alone. I admire guys who walk
into a bar and order a stiff one
and sit there alone with their
thoughts. Staring into their
glasses. Not bothering with their
environ. Ignoring the music. Then
they have two, three doubles and
then ask for the bill. Then they walk
away from it all, like they were never
there. They go home. Or in a cave
somewhere. Or whatever forsaken
place it is that people who drink
alone go to.
I think I would die of depression
if I drunk alone. I think I would feel
forsaken, lost and aggrieved. I would
drown my drink and head straight to
talk to a priest. Maybe I would weep
as I confessed my sins. Maybe my
lips would tremble as I narrated my
woes, and all the love I gave that did
not go bequeathed. I would mostly
likely be the sob who used words
like “bequeathed.”
It is for these reasons that I avoid
drinking alone. Well, that was until
I found myself on top of the tallest
50.
building in Bangkok, Baiyoke Sky
Hotel. The bar - The Rooftop Bar
- sat perched on the 83rd floor,
overlooking the stunning vista of the
city with burning tendrils of roads
and trains crisscrossing the city.
Stunning. I sat against the window,
my nose pressed to it, ignoring my
Cuba Libre. I did not feel like having
a whisky or a cognac, and when
the waiter suggested a cocktail, I
asked for a Cuba Libre because I
once watched a movie where this
deadbeat musician would drink
it backstage in a small grumpy
backstreet bar where he was trying
to pick the pieces of his life, career
and passion. A befitting drink for the
mood I was in up there on the 83rd
floor like the undecided soul of a
departed soldier.
I was finally drinking alone and
hating every moment of it. I did not
want company either. I w