Down the Rabbit Hole: Hip Hop in Bulgaria

Had a long, tough week (two weeks? three weeks? it all blends together) getting ready for and then giving semester exams. We have a 3 day weekend now before second semester starts. Several ambitious faculty hopped a cheap flight to Rome, but I decided that was crazy, as I have far too much grading to do before Monday (and comments! always the comments!).
Lucky for me this meant I was in town to attend a friend's birthday party at My Mojito, a local bar/dance club. I'd been before on a Friday night in August, when it was a trendy, expensive, euro-chic disco. On a Thursday night in February, the main dance floor is closed off, and a DJ is spinning for the weeknight crowd from a make-shift booth behind the bar. The DJ was playing hip-hop, and though I'm no connoisseur, I think it was all American and mostly stuff I'm familiar with: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, WuTang Clan, the Roots, K'Naan, Cypress Hill, and a little cheesy Sir-Mix-a-Lot thrown in for booty-shaking good measure.

At 10:45 when I got there, our party of 10 or so kind of dominated the lounge, but by midnight, it was filling up, and people were starting to dance. The people-watching was fantastic. Picture, if you will, what your image of the crowd would be in any major US city playing the music I listed above.
This is not what we saw.
Apparently, hip-hop in Bulgaria is the haven for the freaks & geeks. I mean that in the nicest possible way.
There was very little of the "everyone dressed in black, lots of bling, lots of perfume" Eurostyling I'd come to know and love. Instead, it was like stepping into a Seattle coffeehouse scene, or maybe a Doc Marten's commercial. Lots of frumpy t-shirts and designer sweatshirts. In a country without much of a gay/lesbian community, it also seemed (surprisingly) that the lesbians were out in force. Fantastic! I'm glad there's a more tolerant place available then I had seen so far.
On the other hand, there's the guys. The dudes wearing big Fubu jackets and Hollister hoodies? I don't know how else to describe them except: chumps. I'd think about White Men Can't Jump, except I think Woody Haroldson could have schooled any of them at basketball. They were friendly enough, and I'm glad they were out having a good time, but it was weird for me not to feel like the intimidated poser white dude for once.
My personal favorite for people watching was the gentleman we came to know as "brown hoody guy."

Lead singer of Weezer (not Brown Hoody Guy, but there is a resemblance)

Imagine the lead singer of Weezer (or Buddy Holly, if you're of that generation) minus most of the cool. Make him short (sub 5 feet?). Give him a hint of a hunched back. Then make him solo on Dance Dance Revolution all night, a little off beat. And make him fearless. It was awesome. The little white dorky guy was rocking out to the hip-hop, completely un-self-consciously. I just couldn't stop watching. Don't ever stop dancing, Brown Hoody Guy!