BIG WEEK AHEAD

And I hope I'll get through the fun in one piece.

1.       UP Diliman gig on the 31^st of August at the CS Ampitheatre – Call me promdi and gullible but I still place UP in a pedestal. The green grounds. The endless possibilities of learning. The freedom of speech. The great minds. They have it all. Even their tapsilog and isaw are holiness personified. I always dreamt of doing UP Fair just to feel like an adopted exchange student on stage doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance moves. Mababaw nga kaligayahan ko.

My mom didn’t allow me to take the UPCAT, you see. She wanted me stuck in Bicol so they will be there to fend off outside influences like over-preachy religious ministers and bad medicine. The result? I became anti-religion and tried all the drugs I can get my hands off for the heck of it.

I would have taken up Creative Writing. I can imagine myself spewing jargons about Nietzsche or Eliot and acting all vigilant to the present administration. Yes I am resorting to clichés. I apologize,  dear Maroons.

2.       Solo acoustic/ukulele gig on the 31^st of August at Autonomy Bar – I’m going to do a little intermission number for my company’s sports victory fest. Already delayed for 3 months, I am proud to say I pulled off the planning and reservation easily once the funds were released. The challenge is to offer a good time to the 270 members of the department for a measly 10 thousand pesos. Thinking about it, it’s a difficult proposal and I assure you it is. You can’t feed 270 mouths with Jollibee 39ers. I mean I like their lumpia shanghai meal but where’s the fun in that? You simply know that 39 pesos worth of meal doesn’t give you that champion treatment that you deserve. Plus it ain’t even enough. The solution? Filtering. Put them in a bar on a salary day. Feed them, let them order drinks. Once the tab reached 10 thousand pesos, the people will be informed about the dilemma and ask them to have a personal tab. You can’t leave and cut the party short when you’re enjoying it, right? But it’s not black mail. My teammates will be informed of the limits before the party starts. O well, the hassle of budgeting.

3.       Mini-thesis/Term Papers – I feel bad that I will be absenting myself from my MA classes this Saturday. But what can I do?  First is first, you can’t absent yourself from the once-in-a-lifetime recording session – happening also this Saturday. Paper works made me resign from my 6-year counselor/psychometrician job (among other things). So imagine my dismay that I have to go through it again and this time, I’m the one paying the school to make me do all these horrendous things! But all is good, all is good. I love psychology so much; I need to find ways to get me up and going. September is a busy month for me. Semester is ending. In less than 2 years, I’ll have an asking price for each advice I give. I kid, I kid. Or am I?

4.       Your Imaginary Friends  recording session on Sonic State Audio – Finally after 2 years of waiting, my band will start tracking two songs from the new EP tentatively titled “Silence is a Villain” this Sept 1-2. The two songs that will be recorded are Your Silence is the Villain (the 1^st single) and Beyond Euphemisms . Both songs are machined from bitterness and heartbreaks. Emo kami p're.

        Hope this new EP will successfully emit a transatlanticism vibe. A huge departure from the 1st one whose coming of themes placed us in the "cute-easy listening" category.

         Speaking of cute, A group of Scholasticans is making a documentary about the band. They will be documenting the gig later at UP and the Saturday recording sessions. Watch for it too. 

        Swell time!

OPM IS A ZOMBIE

I read that trending OPM-is-Dead article but did not really react as badly as the others. I thought the writer presented good points. The only mistake there is not emphasizing the word “trends” in the article, and the lack of acceptance of the factor that is “change”. And oh, nostalgia can be a bad thing too. That is why some musicians are taking it way too personally.

Since we are talking about our music scene in general, here are my two cents:

1.        Trends come and go. That’s why we call 90’s the heyday of pinoy rock  and 2002 became like the 2^nd coming (with Bamboo, the 4^th incarnation of Maya, Kitchie Nadal, Hale etc. dishing hit after hit). But it doesn’t hide in its coffin after the shifting of another trend like a dried-up Edward Cullen. Rock music and Band-Rito-Banda-Roon is yes, just another trend.  But the music stays even without the support of media. It is not dead. We just need to look and listen.

2.       Major labels usually sign mediocre acts so they won’t have problems in marketing them. You can’t blame them. The corporation looks for profit to keep the wheels turning.  It doesn’t mean they are providing us with quality output. In conclusion, the muzak you hear on radio doesn’t represent the whole of OPM.

3.       Indie is the new mainstream. So imagine the confusion nowadays. It's not necessarily a bad thing. All genre of music should be given equal chance to be heard. Hope all the media outlets follow suit in giving them equal opportunities.

4.       There is no excuse for not finding good music. Internet is a mere 15 pesos-per-hour charade. Wi-fi in popular establishments is free. and you got the over-advertised net sticks from clashing telecommunication networks. All the odds of you discovering a new favorite band is sky-high.

5.       Unbiased opinion : Artists here may not be original (but then again,  who are?) but they do steal the right elements. They sound better. They play better (that’s according to organizers and soundtechs from different Asian countries),  and they sure know how to write. We're not the best English-speaking Asian country for nothing.

6.       High-fives to people who still go to gigs. Who share music videos and suggests unknown bands to friends. Who buy original EPs and LPs. Who listens and acts like fans. You keep the fire burning. Nothing more gratifying than seeing people enjoying art as it is and doing their roles in spreading the good news --- that Original Pinoy Music is alive and kicking butts.

7.        Ian Mackaye said it best in the 10 year anniversary of Spin magazine: 

Spin: So you have no nostalgia for alternative rock's heyday?

IM: No, I'm not nostalgic for that period at all. I'm not a nostalgic person. I don't think any more or less about '91 than I do about '81; that's just the number that was on the year. You have to understand, I'm not an anniversary-issue guy. I could give a fuck about that. What's important about Spin is what it's doing now. What you should do is put U.S. OUT OF IRAQ on your cover and just declare it, so other people who know and feel in their hearts that this war is wrong don't have to feel so lonely and isolated. That's more interesting to me. I don't think, "Oh, those were the heydays." That's just boring. You can only imagine how many people come up to me and talk about "back in the day." The fact is, the most important music in the world is the music being made right now, because it's the only thing that has a chance of changing things.

BARNEY

And we hope for purple dinosaurs to hug us with uncompromised affection.

 Then we realize purple dinosaurs with lock-jawed smiles and over-eager imaginations they want to share with unsuspecting children can be shady characters at work. Imagine Sarah Geronimo as.... Sarah Geronimo. Scary.

It is like a train ride to the unknown -- believing this dinosaur who likes to strut his tail in the tune of some head-creeping nursery tunes. You don't necessarily know where you are going but it's up to you to decide if you want to enjoy the ride. 

HOW DO YOU SLEEP?

I checked the headlines again when I bought a piece of gum in that little store by the road.
A well-deserved hysteria over Sec. Robredo's death.
No signs of you.

Bumatay was filled with commuters today,
making it hard for me to catch a sogo-route jeep that wouldn't let me
hang my butt out in mid-air.
Same fare, same mode of transportation, different levels of comfortability.
Anything to be a stereotype.

I fell asleep minutes after 11 last night. I consider that an achievement.
I celebrated with a banana and 3 pieces of chocolate chip cookie this morning.
Not minding that I was 47 minutes late.

Becoming fond of this site www.scribophile.com.
their free trial version let you post your work (either poems, essays, stories etc)
and get critiqued. very courteous but intuitive members too.
if you're trying to be a serious writer, it wouldn't hurt if you let good writers tell you
that your style is full of sh*t.

My band's new song "Take my Chances" (tentatively titled) is constantly playing in my head.
I talked to the subject of that song last night. Her affection is nowhere to be found.
So much for change.

the tea party is over?

the good thing about having your own personal blog space is that you can do a bad beat poetry

or a stream-of-consciousness musing and still act as if you are a hell of a writer even though it is only laziness that's pulling you down to do a full-blown paragraph. 

Guilty.

Kathy jokingly derided me at B-Side for being too depressed as seen on my various tweets. "maging masaya ka naman". She have teased me three times on various occassions about this subject matter. I would respond with a sheepish smile and answer "eh ganun e". 
I love humor just like the next guy. I find being morose humorous though. 

that's the difference. I am laughing at myself.

Warm tea with lemon. in a happy Father's day green cup. A company present. Appreciation is genuine. I love being a dad, no doubt.
I also wonder what if I did withdraw or used a condom on that fateful night, September 2002. 
will my life be any different? Would maturity knock on my head earlier? 
Well I like to think I only matured (-- or became conscious of my flaws) when I got separated from my wife. So she's obviously part of the plot all along.
 Loneliness does those things to you. A perspective you don't want to welcome, but need to.

I realized trying to write about me being mature is immature.

I am loud.

But loud words in paper is different from being deafening.

Hopefully the guy I'm going to refer to the HR get hired so I will have that needed cash to feed myself. Many people are starting to notice that I'm getting thin. Poverty is the easiest excuse, but lack of love will be overly dramatic.

so yeah, poverty.

I envy people who are driven to blog and blog and blog. I am a lazy ass. I write poetry and songs for cathartic purposes but I can't for the life of me, give out an honest-to-goodness summary of what I'm really going through.

I'm comfortable hiding under metaphors.

sip.

something about doors

Tuesdays. Raining. 15 pesos in my pocket.

One day before payday.

Payday for loans.

Craving for maki. To think I hate Japanese food.

Irony.

30 and broke. 30 and single. 30 and…30.

I laugh at young adolescents who whine about lack of adventures.

They have a choice. They chose to whine.

Friction. Or the lack thereof.

Can’t remember the time I let myself go.

I always have a problem with restraint.

Dinner last night with a friend made me think

loneliness in Paris is the same in Manila.

Just fancier. Postcard-like.

Spinach is good.

I never thought I’ll appreciate the texture

Or the slimy color, but I did.

Did not grow biceps though.

Need to settle with myself.

I miss being OK.