crank what?

my brothers are, unmistakably, more immersed in no other stream but the mainstream when it comes to their music tastes, and most of the time it's too much in the mainstream. while i have no problem listening to my own music library (thanks to my own laptop) which maintains a certain distinctness while having some sort of connection (perhaps 30-40% of the contents are similar between the two), i still feel pretty bothered at the direction theirs is going. let's compare.

fall out boy? okay, that's fine. i have my own stash, but only because 90% of my fall out boy content involves kanye west in mash-ups. it's decent. avril lavigne? ew. while "hot" is interesting due to the... well, interesting tempo changes within the song, and while she still puts out a good melody, it's still painfully bland when you listen to it. sorry, dianne.

kanye west? definitely. t-pain, akon? best hook singers at the moment, definitely. but we scroll down to mr. soulja boy tell 'em (yes, that's his whole handle) and here i am, flabbergasted. somehow crank that is way more inane than anything lil' jon and/or the ying-yang twins have tried to put out. hell, i'd even bet that jim jones and his ballin' self is better than this kid. i do applaud him for producing his entire album all by himself, but tell me, is that why it sucks? is the fact that he did his own producing something to marvel at or the cause of his stupid song? i mean, the song consists of his multi-tracked voice... and synthed jamaican-style steel drums. while i love steel drums, it's boring when you get to the first time the hook is sung. or spoken. whatever.

and these are the kinds of songs (crunk and 70%-80% of mainstream hip-hop) that are killing the hip-hop genre. i empathize with kanye when he started bitching that he didn't get any VMAs, not because i think graduation was a magnum opus (the college dropout is still the best one in my opinion), but because he's been working so hard to be different and to rise up against the tide of inane hip-hop songs (even though "golddigger" walks that fine line). i believe he and chamillionaire (go listen to ultimate victory, which, curiously, does not have any profanity. applaud) are leading some sort of revolution, some sort of new wave. the gym class heroes are one of their foot soldiers, the hook singers are their specialists, and the producers, oh, the producers, are their strategists and tacticians.

the mainstream is the mainstream because the mainstream is generally stupid. only a few are barely recognized as diamonds in the rough. here i wonder why they can't be the ones who consistently rack up number one spots. fuck you, soulja boy, your potential is seemingly wasted at the moment - if you rapped smarter, i'd be a big fan by now. and this wraps up tonight's ranting.

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Now playing: Kanye West - I Wonder
via FoxyTunes

round three

there is a new enemy of the state once again, and this time around, it's mr. jimmy kimmel. another person whom i'm a fan of. not as much as jon stewart, but i like jimmy kimmel's work. he's always been entertaining, especially on the man show. i don't worship him like a god or something but i don't hate him either. i'm just a fan. i like his work.

anyway, the deal is jimmy kimmel made a racist (it sucks to be politically correct sometimes) comment towards us while interviewing josh hartnett, who just happened to finish shooting a movie in davao. kimmel joked with josh that had he been kidnapped in mindanao, we wouldn't be able to read the ransom note because "they probably don't speak english in the philippines."

wow.

for the first time, yes, i am offended by this comment. but! yes, there is a but. because i'm a level-headed person. but 1) i'm not offended to the point of making a death threat, 2) there is some truth to his statement (the truth does not lie in us not speaking english, but us not speaking english right), and 3) i understand the inner workings of comedy enough to take it like a man. because there will always be racist jokes as long as everyone has a little racist inside of them. and when you have a little racist inside of you, you will laugh at racist jokes. not all of them, but you will eventually laugh at one once in your life. hell, most filipinos discriminate fellow filipinos. who hasn't made fun of a visayan accent? or the skin color of an aeta?

so it didn't really take long for me to get over kimmel's statements, because hell, i'm already countering him as we speak just by writing this entry. see folks, this is the better way to profess your anger. drop the pitchfork.

what really bugs me is this tabloid opinion article pertaining to the issue. it's by a certain jojo gabinete, who says he is currently living in the US. mr. gabinete, i'm calling you out. why? because you're an idiot.

you see, mr. gabinete took the time to write up an article to counter jimmy kimmel's comments. of course, knowing the nature of filipinos, when i say "counter", i really mean "talk shit and bash the person". while mr. gabinete does acknowledge the fact that most filipinos are totally "teh suck" at grammar and diction, it is only common sense that surely, this guy knows what he's talking about, and surely, he's better than most filipinos and doesn't suck at grammar. or diction. i don't know about diction but can i just say that his article only made us look even dumber than smarter (by, in fact, knowing how to speak english). the article started out just fine but towards the end, it was already looking like a twisted-metal car accident on the autobahn, and what's more annoying was his self-righteous air, writing all that stuff like he was some poet laureate. fail.

and because of his disastrous english, all his fiery thunder and rage were totally fucked up by him not knowing how to write in grammatically proper english. any american can read your article and tell that it's an ugly piece of writing and tell you that you fucked up your sacred english. so where does that put us now? sure, you did prove that we speak english, but you didn't make us look any smarter, jackass. next time, leave the holier-than-thou act to those who can do it right. and don't publish it on a tabloid, because it screams small-time and irrelevant. sorry, but that's just the way it works.

if you can't walk the walk, don't talk the... fuck it, if you can't even talk the talk, don't talk.

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Now playing: Luther Vandross - Dance With My Father
via FoxyTunes

down low on the stream

for the past couple of months, i've replaced good, ol' fashioned limewire with the sheer awesomeness that is bittorrents. for the uninitiated, this allows me to download bigger things such as full games, movies, tv shows, and whole albums intact and at breakneck speed. the newest version of limewire finally has support for torrents, but is it just me, or did it also become as buggy and slow as well? either way, i haven't started up limewire for a while now.

now, because it is now possible to download whole discographies without sweating your brow, because it is now easier to download all of that artist's brand-new album, what kind of threat does this pose to the music industry? bigger loss of money, that's what. i will admit that i've already resorted to downloading complete new releases on torrent (save for the eagles' new album, which i shelled out my precious money for). and i'm guessing so have many other people.

but have we really figured out why? why we choose to do it all free, preferring to wait for the download instead of paying for the real thing? especially here, in the philippines?

to anyone who's ever bought any cd save for blanks in their entire life (especially here), the answer is obvious: it just costs way too much.

case in point: eagles new cd ran for P515. good deal, considering that it's a double disc. that's around $11. while full albums run for $15-20 in the states, it's not right to compare, because of inflation. yeah, if you're american or a balikbayan, you'd rather buy these stuff here, but what of us natives? yeah, it just costs way too much.

better solution? re-introduce and popularize the system of releasing singles and EPs. yep. it works wonders - it's cheaper, more accessible to casual fans of the artist, and brings usually more material than an ordinary album would. while not to say that singles are virtually nonexistent in the philippines (the remake of santana's why don't you and i with alex band instead of chad kroeger was released here, and for P250 i think, so that'd be around $6), it's an age-old system that would totally cut down on unnecessary downloads, and it would help the record industry, both local and international. now if you really want to make it appealing, put out singles in flash drives! kanye is doing it, we should too.

another good strategy is to open up an itunes store for the philippines. the folks at apple are real geniuses for coming up with the itunes store. it's a wonderful place on the internet, especially for those who love love music. with the itunes store and a credit card (something also needs to be done about this; teenagers make up a big part of the downloading demographic) you can download that hot new single tearing up the radio really cheap and guilt-free. hell, if you can't bring over the itunes store, i challenge someone in the record industry to make a philippine equivalent. just don't be too tacky with it.

so the next time you see a news piece about the RIAA, and if they're condemning illegal downloads, don't feel that guilty. it's not your fault music is expensive. it is your fault, however, if you do choose not to pay the artist by resorting to illegal downloads.

holiday of the dead

a few observations regarding the state of dead holiday celebrations (that includes halloween, all saints' and all souls' days):

• regarding the state of ayala alabang halloweens, i don't see the logic of all the outsiders excitedly queueing up rather early to get first dibs at all the candy at madrigal avenue, which i shall now nickname 'the strip'. (it seems that the once-rockin' aava halloweens have devolved to being mainly in madrigal, whereas before you can go to any corner and see almost everything lit up. when we went to kuks's house last night, which is in acacia avenue, everything was quiet. either no one really set up for anything major there, or it was already past 7-8 pm... at which time i recall there would still be people, so it's gotta be the former.) i mean, sure the candy is free, but you're not exactly gonna get by on candy! maybe if the homeowners were handing out free cheeseburgers, i'd understand, but this is candy! what's all the hubbub on sweets? i understand that they're kids, but it seems that the parents were the ones pressuring the kids to get candy like it was a survivor challenge. you don't sweat out the mid-afternoon lining up just to get all the candy down the strip! it's just not logical!
• i actually just got back from the cemetery tonight, and let me tell ya, there was a concert, headlined by mymp themselves. the main gripe about this is that there is no sense at all playing a concert in a cemetery. i would completely understand the food stalls but not any concerts. you know how manila memorial park doesn't have concerts on all saints' day? yeah, that's professional. i'm not exactly oh-so-religious these days but i do realize the sanctity of reverence. having a mosh pit (ironically there wasn't one, as the local rock band tanked) does not equal reverence.
• and on to the news once again. i don't know how it happens, but people are dying in cemeteries. very ironic, yes, but i'm sure that the people who died today while visiting their dead never planned on joining them on the days of the dead. what kind of sheer idiocy happens at the really-really-cramped manila cemeteries? it's like we have our own local version of jim morrison's grave! people are indeed really stupid, if people have to die due to stupidity on this day. (and tomorrow.)

there you have it. anyway, i bought the new eagles' album last night. review to come on multiply when i feel like it or when i've listened to enough of it to judge it right, whichever comes first. cheers.

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Now playing: Eagles - How Long
via FoxyTunes

what i learned today from long lines and industrial-strength ink

so i was forced to vote in the SK elections this morning (learning process. then we're carefree about however we want to vote next time - which is never). the highlight(s) of the whole shebang were an old man humorously trying to join in the line of us SK voters (because, he says, he's "seventeen". don't worry, he wasn't even half-serious), discovering an uncle's long-lost real name, and finding out that the moran family is an amalgam of all the other "it" families in sta. rosa. i'm actually amazed that we're not suffering from inbreeding.

i was also amazed at the fact that i was actually wasting taking some time out to vote for people i barely don't know. my dad told phim and i to vote whoever had "rico" in his name, because apparently he/she was a relative. it seems that while sta. rosa may be a city, it's still not big enough. that or the whole clan was amusingly bigger than i thought it really was.

in other news, leiron and i are world-building for a new fantasy e-novella we're writing (yes, i'm calling it a novella... but only for now). if it goes well, we might be singing to the tune of "we got a hit". good news.

plug: go buy the eagles' new album! quoting will smith, "don't download, go out and buy the record!" for the record, i will personally be refraining from torrenting the album - i'm spending cash, because the eagles deserve to be paid.

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Now playing: Brad Paisley - We Danced
via FoxyTunes

part two! part two!

have you heard the latest? jon stewart calls cory aquino a slut!

and here i call it once more:

SO WHAT?

i have said earlier that you're not supposed to take desperate housewives seriously. guess what: ALL THE MORE you're not supposed to take jon stewart seriously!

to all of you calling him the "worst comedian ever": have you ever even watched a single damn episode of the daily show? do you know how many times he rags on each and every politician, including dubya himself, in one episode because they fucked up on real news? do you see each and every politician sending him hordes of forum and blog posts telling him to stop it with the damn daily show? no, you don't!

you think he really meant it deep down to call cory and thatcher a slut? you think he's really picking a fight? it's part of the show, people! learn to live with it! he's a comedian, and his political views haven't been more right than any straight political show on tv. all of you who are anti-bush, watch the show and see how he rags on bush, in the funniest ways ever.

jesus, philippines, learn to differentiate the damn difference, i'm getting sick and tired of everyone's all-caps "WE DEMAND A PUBLIC APOLOGY" bullshit. you might as well send a letter to the screen actors guild and tell them to put "don't put filipino jokes in movies and television" in their guidelines.

guess what, guys: i've seen the clip, and i have found it funny. call me whatever, but just by being level-headed, i win and i totally own everyone who wants a public apology. it's funny because it's funny, it's funny because it's not trying to be as tongue-in-cheek as DH was. it's funny because it wasn't trying to generalize on every one of us, it's funny because it was targeting a political figure, one whom we've already targeted before.

oh, and for the uninitiated: the daily show is on comedy central, not on CNN. yeah, you lose, you're owned because you were fooled.

black, white, cuban or asian

so the latest issue tonight is this desperate housewives clip that's making the rounds of the general philippine sphere of internet influence. (i made that up, doesn't it sound cool?) what's interesting about it is that teri hatcher's character makes a racial slur about filipinos (she says a line along the... lines of, "can i check your medical certificate, i just wanna make sure you're not from some med school in the philippines") and now it seems that most people are so much into an uproar that they're forwarding chain messages and they actually have a petition.

all i can say to that is, "wow". and to quote my very good friend mondi, "take a chill pill".

so the writers said a racial slur. from what i've heard, it's not the first time it happened in DH. and besides, DH is a show that is definitely not meant to be taken seriously. have you seen the crazy-ass shit that goes on in it? seriously, folks, if i had a penny each time i heard a racial slur against us on american television, i'd probably have a lot of dollars.

that's exaggerating already, but my point is it happens all the time. not just against us, as i'm sure you know. not that i'm condoning it either, but it's so commonplace that it's not surprising anymore. and besides, didn't jesus tell us to cast the first stone only if we are clean from sin?

point is: don't support this petition, it's just a waste of your time. start petitioning only when you can get miriam to shut up.

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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
via FoxyTunes

uaap =/ wwe

no, that's not a smiley. it's the "not equal to" sign. i've been trying to write this post for the past couple of days now, and i just couldn't get the groove. now that (both) the ateneo-lasalle series have concluded in our favor, i finally have my thoughts organized. this is mainly about the accusations of game fixing.

the promotion of the two entities may be based on the same principles, down to the heat of the rivalry, down to who's the most over worker in both teams, down to the booking of an ateneo-lasalle game every other day, but at the end of the day, the differences are significant.

you can't book a botched free throw, you can't book a fight breaking out, you can't book each and every foul thrown in the way, you can't book chris tiu not performing his best. it can't be done. it's not possible.

i may be a bit naive in my statements here, i do accept that it may be existent, but i'm too much of a wrestling fan to know what's actually predetermined and what's not. even though i mark hard every time i tune in to raw, smackdown, or ecw, suspending my disbelief.

you can't book it. it's pure skill, pure coincidence that it came to this. you can't book heart.

hey who's to say, you know i might have changed it all / post for allie

this morning allie and i, after our first periods and her cutting her second period, were musing about the direction our college lives are going. as of this moment, i'm failing my kas1 subject (can you believe failing both tests, the map test horribly and the first long exam by a margin - however the term is not over yet and there are still a number of things that can at least save me from a 5) and she's failing her math17 (which is a bigger problem because it's a major in her course). somehow i've decided to accept, with these kinds of grades, that i'm not shifting out sooner than i thought it would be. or maybe even not at all. or maybe shifting but not to the course i had planned to shift to. either way, it's a tough choice.

the thing is, we were musing about how we hated college because of all its pressures (on our oh so fragile first-year selves) and how we wanted to transfer to DLSU because at least, i had gotten in the course i applied for there. we then went from that to thinking about what the hell is gonna happen to our futures this way. strictly speaking and horribly cliched, i want my kids to not live how i'm living right now.

from that, we went to reminiscing about how we didn't have to work our asses off as hard in high school, about how i could sleep in ms. barcelona's class and she would still give me a grade enough to get a third honor, about how we never really had to lose limbs and minds all the damn time back then. what the hell happened? chua's supposedly a DL and we're here struggling the hell through first freaking sem.

i guess we learned a little late that this is, to blatantly steal a tired phrase, a whole new ballgame. this is not high school, my physics teacher isn't sir lasap, my math teacher isn't sir chavez, my english teacher isn't ms. denden. and you know what, it sucks, but who are we to do anything about that? we learned a little late that you're not supposed to just be sitting there when you have to do something.

however, luckily it isn't too late to learn that a completely rejuvenated hustle can still save you. it still could. it's not over.

though, i've yet to learn what i really really really REALLY want to do with this life of mine.

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Now playing: Garth Brooks - The Dance
via FoxyTunes

beautiful ink part 2

with the invention of the keyboard, the traditional pen and paper has been quite overlooked, and damn, that's quite the shame. there is a certain something in just taking a pad of paper and your favorite pen that writes just exactly the way you want it to write, that feels right as you trace lines and curves on the surface of the paper, and just plain letting loose. screw typing - the real you bleeds out as the ink of the pen.

i once read something from julie andrews, something her husband had told her - to just write and write away, because you can always go back and make changes. i just love letting loose with a pen because with it i am truly candid and there is less bullshit in what i say. if you just wield a keyboard, you can quickly cover yourself up without anyone noticing.

however, the instruments are only one-half of it. for some, rarely does the drive that makes the pen go and your fingers cramp come to them. it's the more frustrating part of the whole process, really. if you always had inspiration, you'd be making millions right about now. or you do have the inspiration but you're too slow to pin it down, and it flies away as another wasted opportunity.

and love can only go so far.

living someone else's life

i just got wind that westlife's covering home by michael buble for their next single. (that would make it the second song also called home in their catalog.) while i respect westlife as a cover band now (they sort of pigeonholed themselves into the category anyway... they did it sparingly and surely early in their career but now they're blatantly turning it into a living - but do listen to their rendition of more than words and all out of love), it annoys me that home became their next target.

why? aside from the fact that i am indeed a big buble fan (and i do see the irony that he also makes a living singing covers, but the main difference is that michael is singing a genre that does call for covers and innovation), they're completely rearranging the song from quiet, chilled love song to a power ballad replete with the trademark westlife backing chorale.

once again, it may be a matter of getting used to, but i don't like it. messing with michael's chemistry is not a wise move, in the case of more mainstream pop artists. this song doesn't need your help.

on the day that i die, i'd like songs to be sung

so i was listening (or more like forced to listen) to the news earlier tonight and they were still going on about chris mendez's funeral a day later. ah, well, who watches the news on sunday anyway? anyway, of course i wasn't paying that much attention (however, his mother sounded like a witch casting an evil curse to the murderers when she talked) but wasn't tuned out completely: i heard the background music, and man, was i both amused and iffed at the same time. (by the way, if you're wondering about what my stand on the whole hazing issue is, i blame the victim - why'd you join if you probably knew that you couldn't handle the haze?)

so the point that i'm trying to drive at here is that when i die and when we're all on the march to the sematary, i don't want the hearse to be playing the funeral home's damn stock, slow, dreadful mourning dirges. no, let's be more creative than that, could we please? i'd want you to feel anything other than boredom in a funeral.

the last playlist:

1. the allman brothers band - in memory of elizabeth reed
2. the who - old red wine
3. tupac - i wonder if heaven got a ghetto or only God can judge me (di naman kasi ako nakatira sa public housing/ghetto eh)
4. alter bridge - in loving memory and/or preferrably, metalingus
5. creedence clearwater revival - long as i can see the light
6. derek and the dominoes - the latter half of layla
7. eagles - already gone (yes i'm taunting ya)
8. queen ft. elton john and/or queen + paul rodgers - the show must go on (MUST be either one of those two versions, nothing else)
9. T.I. ft. jamie foxx - live in the sky
10. U2 - city of blinding lights
11. and lastly, to close powerfully, rush - YYZ

obviously the list is subject to change as long as life goes on and i'm still alive. =))

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Now playing: John Cena and Tha Trademarc - Summer Flings
via FoxyTunes

because whatever will be, will be

at first play, i didn't like queen's innuendo. i thought it was too slow, too crawling, freddie's rough vocals partially wrecking the song (though this would be the case in late queen albums anyway), steve howe's guitar solo only eliciting a meh from me, etc etc. in short, i thought it was a stain in what was a good greatest hits II compilation (next to headlong, but its tempo saved it a little).

but of course, such music that grows on you over time does exist, and innuendo is one of them. maybe my first time hearing it, it was a fleeting moment. maybe i wasn't paying attention too much. first, i gained respect for the classical guitar solo, followed by brian may's own rendition of it on electric guitar. then i gained respect for the very elaborate orchestration. and then i really just loved it for what it is, down from the first note to the lyrics. then i learned it was a tribute to led zep's kashmir. (it does sound somewhat like it. makes it better.) that just took the cake.

so, here it is - innuendo. one of the most underrated masterpieces in the catalogue.

why does love got to be so sahaaad

this morning (somehow i just don't want to sleep yet) i'm downloading the rest of layla and other assorted love songs - which is, like, the songbook of songbooks about unrequited love - while downloading allman brothers band songs (there's a connection between the two, figure it out, click the link, read). they're quite ethereal, perfect for a long night.

anyway, i'll upload the pictures when i regain the gumption to even think about some of them.

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Now playing: Derek & the Dominos - Bell Bottom Blues
via FoxyTunes

she can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye

it seems that don henley was right, apparently, it's interesting when people die. i can't take the news anymore, friends, ladies and gentlemen. it's sickening now. i know i'm strong of heart and definitely not the queasy type, but jesus, every anchorperson who's on at 7:30 tells of murders and deaths with such an interested, and almost, just a teeny bit, happy tone!

i personally like mike enriquez but i just can't get with the program here anymore. he says the word "patay!" as if he's actually happy about it. i'm sure he doesn't really give a rat's ass about what happened or who died, since that's pretty much 60% of everyday news, but damn it, he makes it sound like war is finally over and peace finally reigns on earth. okay, i'm exaggerating, but any tone that is not somber when talking about death and destruction, jesus, it's just not right.

the news has no more integrity, my friends. right now its only use is to tell us when to not get up early.

but we can always whistle that mike post theme! that's the beauty of suspension of disbelief, isn't it?

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Now playing: Chicago - Mongonucleosis
via FoxyTunes

out of my hair

some two weeks ago (actually i don't clearly remember when it began) my mother started pestering me about having a haircut. obviously, i not-really-all-that-politely declined to her suggestion. not so obviously, i thought the discussion ended at that. apparently not, i shoulda thought so.

i would've been fine with normal pestering, really, but after a while she began to cite reasons that ranged from the subjective ("it looks ugly") to the absurd (it causes my slight sudden outbreak of pimples - it does come as a surprise really because my face is generally pimple-free) to the so-degrading-it's-kinda-pathetic-really (mukha akong taong grasa, to which i responded that negs looked more like a hobo with his scraggly beard =)) peace, my brother) to backfired degradation (i look like a lion, to which i said, cool) to comparison with my friends (si leiron ba nagpapagupit?).

my stance is, obviously, no. i am not ready to go back to hair hell zobel put us guys into. because really, i would much rather look like james howlett or rufus scrimgeour or better yet, lionheart himself, than either stan laurel or oliver hardy. sometimes i do feel that shorter hair does look more organized, but it's so... blah.

i shall keep resisting the scissors until... i don't know. =))

anyway, i watched silent hill yesterday and really wasn't the least bit disturbed. i did love how it does the flashbacks. kinda reminds me of the fayth flashbacks myself.

vida loca

this morning, on DZBB (yes, i know, it's news, but i was trying to sleep, so...), mike enriquez and joel reyes-zobel were going on with this piece of news about indian families having a lot of kids, and in a statement the indian government released in response to that certain phenomenon, they implore the males to control their libidos.

in reaction to that, mike goes on the most awesome rant i've ever heard from him; it's obviously too long to remember but the gist of it was:

why are you only telling guys to control the heat? girls get horny too!

owned.

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Now playing: Hall and Oates - She's Gone
via FoxyTunes

rain, please tell her that i love her so

i'm actually a little disappointed that classes are suspended today - on a day that classes are naturally suspended, and by the fact that i don't get to keep the house for myself.

ah, well. next wednesday is definitely gonna be a little better.

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Now playing: Dan Fogelberg - Rhythm of the Rain
via FoxyTunes

this is mine, you can't take it

i confess that i'm a hoarder.

the reason why it took me this long is not because i've been in denial, but rather, i've been unaware that i am, in fact, hoarding. it was only when reading a classmate's concept paper draft a coupla' weeks ago, wherein she wonderfully defined what hoarding is.

case in point: i have 2200+ songs and i only listen to, what, 30% of them in any given period of time? some songs i haven't even heard yet? but i don't throw things away because, ya know, i might use them in the future. or not.

another would be the stashes of things i have in my wallet. i keep receipts and never throw them out (one good example is the receipt from this day. it's all faded and gray already, but i still keep it!) and if you would check out the "secret pocket" in the wallet, you'll see that it's full of such flotsam and jetsam (without water). which reminds me, i have to retire this wallet as well.

my senior year things (books, 2nd & 3rd term papers) are still stacked up in a little niche in my room. i don't know when i'll throw them out. in fact, i don't know when i'll throw anything out. it's not directly bothering anything in my life, so why bother, right? it's a little problem that isn't bothering anyone and it really ain't that bad (i'm not exactly filling up an apartment with little tchotchkes i find in the street).

so, this is mine, and you can't take it.

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Now playing: George Harrison - Got My Mind Set On You
via FoxyTunes

good guys need a break

shit. i suddenly feel like adam sandler in click. no, i didn't receive a universal remote, but i feel like i was just on autopilot for a few minutes.

i gotta get unhooked from this thing. or maybe it really is just short-term memory loss.

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Now playing: Boney James/Rick Braun - R.S.V.P.

pulsus, fidelitas, veneratio

tonight i have proved to myself (and certain other people) that my hustle will be a force to be reckoned with. same goes for my loyalty, because, anyway, without loyalty there is no hustle. i own.

i am "material". =))

my respect needs work, though.

you belong to the city

by spending a big chunk of my money (when i say a big chunk i mean i am left with barely enough to pay for an fx ride) last saturday to invest in a new copy of SimCity 4 (the old copy i lent humphrey and i never got it back. it's okay, it was a little defective anyway). and i gotta say, it's money well spent. it ain't common that i get to say something like that anymore.

since i am a little rusty i got a nudge over at gamefaqs. now i would consider myself a good mayor... if i decided on keeping my city a little hamlet in the san francisco region. but an urban jungle must sprawl, and as it grows, you have to feed it, and as you feed it, you waste more money on maintaining big things. therefore, my budget is currently a sinkhole, compared to when the city was a little smaller, i was earning.

guess it's time to build a neighbor.

and i would like to get simcity: societies but man, new things don't run smoothly (*cough*oblivion*cough*)

animo baby

i may be in college, and external influences are always trying to persuade me to change colors, but i'm keeping green.

i still have my ties, my people, my boys and my girls back at the green side. so no, i don't imagine myself 100% maroon, but there is this natural support that you give the school you're in, however minimal. after all, they did take you in out of how many people.

the soljah

in accordance with my newest-ever mantra for my life (for those of you reading this on multiply, just look up at the header), here is a "progress report" of sorts.

hustle - i've been giving the better part of my hustle for little or nothing.
loyalty - i've always been loyal, but once more, for little or nothing.
respect - i give all my respect but i rarely see it go my way.

now without going on too long and sounding like a fanboy, i shall end with this. life is hard but one has to keep going. might as well, because something better might be waiting.

meanwhile, i couldn't find a better song to convey my thoughts than terry kath's indignant declaration of wanting freedom. i just wanna be free, from all the hurt, from all the pain. i just want to end these lonely hours, end these lonely days.

the overlap

today/yesterday i cooked my first-ever plate of pancit (yes, the version we love the most). though since i am a beginner and i haven't cooked anything other than rice in a long while (3rd year t.h.e. i miss you), it was too soggy and rather spaghetti-like.

i have learned, oh, i have learned indeed. and i'm missing you but i can't find the confidence and the willpower to pick up the phone.

turn the eagles up

i am slowly beginning to have this grudge against the AM band. like i said before, the news is a stressful little creature, so i try my best to avoid it as much as possible - either by playing one of the twelve cds or switching to the FM band, where i listen to only one station anyway (RJ. bite me). i wanna listen to the eagles, they wanna listen to the news. what gives?

like don henley sang in his annoyingly synth-driven song, and i agree with it all the way, "people love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry. / it's interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry."

so i am forced to listen to the god damned news, which in turn forces me to lose my faith in humankind. what did i hear tonight? rod strunk. the highlight of that news coverage was the american homeless shelter dudes who gave some statements (especially the black guy. you don't hear much black guys on philippine AM radio). what else? kids (read: teenagers) storming and stampeding down comelec just to register themselves for the damn SK. as if there was no greater show of stupidity. man, am i ashamed or what.

the only respite i get is when mike enriquez does his endorsements. now that, my friends, is how you advertise. no stupid, inane jingles and songs, no dumb catchphrases and taglines. mike enriquez is like jbl; he knows how to put over something. the only problem i have is that he overdoes it (think, after every other commercial break he's got something to patronize).

this is why i live, breathe and think music. it's the only way. FM > AM. screw the damn news, you'll just die early from all the stress you'll get from listening to all the dirty laundry. you only listen to the news for suspension announcements, period. and foreign exchange rates. showbiz news ain't even funny - it's useless. if i were kris aquino i'd take a macho gun and shoot down any reporter who tries to ask about what james yap gave me for our 2nd wedding anniversary.

why not just listen to RJ 100.3? if you tune in from 5 'til 6 in the morning, you get an hour-long beatles marathon. saan ka pa?

not going quietly

for reasons i have already all but forgotten right now (read: it has been reduced to 'for kicks'), i have been counting the number of hours of sleep i get, every time i wake up. maybe, this is to estimate how long my tank will run for the day (which is nullified by the fact that i get to refill it when i sleep in the car - of course, in the case of lack of sleep).

today i woke up at 'round 9:30 am after having an unusual dream, yet something i have already seemed to dream about before. so, that gives me roughly 10 hours of sleep.

yet, i still have eyebags. what gives?

we're gonna find out, pretty mama, what turns on your lights

as i type this i am watching the eagles' farewell concert I, live from melbourne, australia, being telecast over at star world. man, these guys are the shit - they're still class acts even though they're 'round 40-60 years old. of course, it seems that don henley has never hit puberty, but that's what makes the songs great, innit?

it's a shame, however, that don felder had to be kicked out from the group. i had always thought that don felder > joe walsh (as seen on hotel california from hell freezes over) and i really wanted to hear visions... as if they would actually play it. joe walsh was always the mid-tempo slow rocker kinda guy (listen to his songs, from rocky mountain way to the rather candidly amusing I.L.B.T.s) and i preferred don felder's much more energetic style.

timothy schmit is as mellow as ever. i prefer his high voice to don henley's.

one of these naaaaaaaaghts!

longing

missing lazy summer afternoons.

i still say give the weekend back its dignity, it has long lost it. how disgraceful.

you arrive in my life like a fragrance

the downside of having a great start to the weekend is that subsequently, you feel lazy to try and accomplish anything productive.

and that you really don't look forward to going back to the drabness of school on a gray monday, because, well, we can always meet at the mall, can't we?

and it seems that doing anything that even slightly resembles schoolwork is already raising the white flag on your weekend. please, give the weekend back its dignity!

the boy who heard music

along with edge and a few other of my peers, mr. pete townshend is one writer that i am quickly growing to love. lately it seems that i keep wishing that i could write like he does (both songs and blog entries). his writing style is quite different from his songwriting style, but you can see, and if you do listen to the music of the who, that there is a certain connection and similarity in his creation of the two separate media, which you really can't point out, because it's just... there.

there is something about the way he writes. i guess it's his years. years of writing lyrics have probably made writing about your life plainly as it is seem easier. somehow i still couldn't find all of the confidence that allowed me to write like i did some three years ago. where is the romeo moran that gave little damn to what others thought of his writing?

but the more important question is, do we want to see him again?

under my artificial moonlight

the current soundtrack to my life:

1. creedence clearwater revival - fortunate son, from the album willy and the poor boys. it almost completely describes my life up to the present.
2. derek & the dominoes - layla, from the album layla & other assorted love songs. if fortunate son described my life, layla describes my love life. most of it, at least. plus the present as well. clapton is a genius.
   
3. don henley - the last worthless evening from the album the end of the innocence. what i really want to say is something along the lines of this song.
4. eagles - you never cry like a lover from the album on the border. somewhat something i'd like to say to a few certain people.
5. the who - odorono from the album the who sell out. i'm not saying i stink - i just wish all commercial jingles were like this. (some, however, are on that direction already.)

and on another note, y'all gotta download jenny by the flight of the conchords. you'll love it, i promise you.

could you actually bet your life today? and win?

look at your calendars!

wait, you already know?

damn.

ah, of course.

the media has been constantly reminding you for the past week that today's date is july 7, 2007. when you numerize that it becomes 7/7/[0]7. what does that mean? will you win the lotto today? will the girl you've been chasing say yes to you? will you finally get that new gadget you've been eyeing forever?

if by 11:59 tonight, you can answer yes to any or all of the questions i just asked you up there, then, well, congrats. you are, in creedence clearwater revival's terms, a fortunate son. or daughter. or better yet, child.

however, that's such a long shot! the media (and to a certain extent, the church, but they're a different story) has been hyping today, because the slots all stop at the right places to form the jackpot number, and apparently you're supposed to be extremely lucky. some have turned them into gimmicks (hello gma, though you're entitled to) and lots of people are buying.

newsflash. nothing special's gonna happen to everyone. maybe some people will get lucky today, but not everyone. the media has taken a piece of pop numerology, pimped it and showed it to the world, preaching that today, of all days, is the day. for what? dunno. the world didn't end on june 6 last year, what makes you think today should be any different?

oh, and if it makes a difference, according to wiki, many people died today. how's that for their luck, huh. on the other hand, al gore's brain-child, live earth, happens today - which according to sir roger daltrey, is quite unnecessary, really.

i hope you had a happy triple seven. if there is one person who is definitely up on his luck, it's gotta be bruce willis - as john mcclane. if y'all haven't watched it yet, y'all gotta go see it, y'hear?

stuck in a moment i couldn't get out of

random thoughts, for i am unwinding. emotional stress, y'know.

- okay, now that the misconception has been cleared up, i have made up my mind. i want that phone. i want that phone. phone > flash drive/mp3 player. i want it. i might even go so far as to say that i need it. i don't care how long it takes, i want it.

- this week i've learned two things on the piano: the opening notes of michael buble's everything, and the famous three-chord riff of the who's baba o' riley.

- i don't get it, music one has almost a complete back catalog of U2, but they're not carrying queen, eagles, or even the who's live at leeds? the concept of the "greatest hits" album is overrated, people; however, it is handy for the casual fan. especially when they cost only 'round P365. hooray for the "gold" collections!

- speaking of music one, now that i think of it, here are the CDs on my wish list (because, you know, i'm already feeling guilty enough for downloading and burning whole albums): the joshua tree and achtung baby by U2, the long road to eden by the eagles (when it comes out later this year), live at leeds by the who, chronicle (volumes one and two) by creedence clearwater revival, and the gold collections of both cream and the allman brothers band. and maybe rush's gold collection as well. oh, and that tribute to queen has piqued my interest.

- rush's 2112 has finished downloading! time now to immerse myself in geddy lee's rather annoying, high-pitched voice. still don't know how i can stand it. not.

music philosophy pt. 2

there is a corollary to my previous posts, and it involves old songs.

i do realize that listening to classic rock/classic pop/old songs in general does not equal to listening to what is mainstream in the present, and that would fall under the non-conformist category.

but!

the 'classic' genre is called classic for a good reason - they were mainstream back in their day. therefore, you can be considered conforming... just not with your generation. it was the 'in' thing some years ago - just not now - but the fact remains that it was the in thing after all.

despite stepping in each other's territory sometimes, nostalgia is quite different from being a bit esoteric.

music philosophy

picture this.

a typical 16-year-old is at a music store, and he has P500 to spend on one cd. of course, he could come back next week with another 500 to spend on another cd. however, the focus is on the now. he would be bragging telling friends about his purchase later on, and of course this typical teenager would be conscious of his purchase, which would be in direct relation to his music tastes, which would be in direct relation to his social standing. (i.e. [bleeding heart] emo = laughingstock. or something like that.)

so what does he buy?

3 out of 5 times (okay, so i just made up that stat but hey) he will buy a cd of a band that the number of people who have heard of them is less than or equal to the fingers on your hands. why? because it looks cool. however, that answer would be too broad, and this is the real answer: you start listening to a band almost no one else knows, you tell people about it, it will generate curiosity, it will become a new trend, and you feel accomplished for having discovered gold.

of course, the average teenager will not realize that. he'll just stick with the answer of "yes, it does make me look cool."

despite that, almost all the time, he will get into the music he chose to listen to, but deep down it's a forced feeling, and almost all the time, when he hears once more the music he gave up, it'll be like a sort of homecoming reunion that he's not gonna drop those songs just yet, before going back to ol' pretentious, nonconforming him.

wait, there's a term for these people. ah, yes. poser. however, i am above such terms, though such people do exist, trust me.

anyway.

be it for the reason that you are trying to look good, or you are into bands no one else knows, or you hate pop, the thing is, nonconformity (at least in music trends, i'm not sure about other trends) is starting to become the new conformity, whether it is intentional or not. i've noted such a trend, and it did emerge passively.

i'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing - well, maybe it is for those who don't like being called conformists - but what it does is create an amusing paradox, that goes like this: if you are a nonconformist, then you would have to be a conformist now - but being a conformist defies the definition of nonconformity.

so what are you?

anyway, there is a corollary (for lack of a better word) to all this, which i'll talk about in the next post. enjoy.

tormented and torn apart

i've never been the type to relentlessly plague my friends with my problems. it's either my pride, respect, or both, but i don't like bothering them with my whining unless it's something deadly serious. in fact, there's only one person so far who i pour everything to, but even then i get all conscious that she might find it all a bit too much.



so far, she hasn't, bless her heart.



this may come back to bite my ass in the future, what with keeping it all inside and such. i don't even know exactly what keeps me sane right now. i mean, i realize that it is my friends who do keep me sane when they talk to me, but what about them ropes me back to sanity?



there is a point in time wherein we think too much for our own good, friends.

if you love someone...

(from this page)

shakespeare:
if you love someone,
set her free.
if she ever comes back, she's yours,
if she doesn't, here's the poison, suicide
yourself for her.

optimist:
if you love someone,
set her free.
don't worry, she will come back.

suspicious:
if you love someone,
set her free.
if she ever comes back, ask her why.

impatient:
if you love someone,
set her free.
if she doesn't comes back within some time forget her.

patient:
if you love someone,
set her free.
if she doesn't come back, continue to wait until she comes back.

insecure:
If you love someone
WHY IN THE FIRST PLACE SET HER FREE???

so, which is it? (more thoughtful version to come soon.)

dream, and they might come true

there is something in some dreams that make us want to stay asleep forever.



you dream of something good that happens to you, something that, theoretically, can happen in real life, but given current circumstances, won't be happening at the moment you wake up or in the very immediate future.



you curse the very moment that you're shaken back to reality, be it because of your traitorous body clock, disrespectful roommate, annoying neighbor, or whatever it was that disrupted your wonderful hibernation.



you desperately try to get back to sleep, carrying the sheer hopes of trying to weave yourself back into that wonderful scenario that was playing out before you were rudely awakened. but, alas, a different plotline presents itself, and you stand there in regret; yes, even in a dream state, your mind can be set to that.



no matter how absurd it may sound to other people, or even to yourself, deep inside your heart, you know it's the reality you want to be in, the reality you'd rather live in. so, you carry on through your day wishing that what happened inside your subconscious really happened, wishing that you can get back to that perfect sequence, feeling that same emotion that got your heartbeat racing even while asleep.



it may seem all wishful thinking, but man is allowed to wish and hope, no matter how foolish or naive it is - because deep in your heart, you know you're right.

i hope i die before i get old (...?)

it's 13 and a half hours 'til my birthday and for the second time in a row, i am not exactly hyped.

i mean, you could all understand why if this was last year - i was not here. this time around, it's a little more unusual since, technically, i have got what i need. i've got locations, i've got the time, i've got my friends (well, a good part of them); the most unusual thing i don't got is the will.

maybe because i've proven to myself that i can survive a lonely birthday. or maybe because i recently got wind of the fact that some of my friends apparently have a problem with me. or maybe because i know that if i invite all the usual people, we wouldn't be complete even if both parties wanted to attend. or maybe, just maybe, i've already bored myself with the happenings that usually surround my birthday (seeing as i've been doing this schtick for three years already and i rarely see any variation).

or maybe all of that, combined.

whatever happens tomorrow is guaranteed to be a result of a fickle whim. who knows where i'll go, what i'll do, who i'll ask to come along. just be prepared for last minute shindigs.

going back

after much self-deliberation (read: 10 minutes of wondering whether i should), i have decided to move back to my old blogger URL. this'll now be the last post under the highly successful pepseehcola name, which had a good run for the past three years.

why the decision? i felt that i needed to write without restriction, which, sadly, this domain has given me for quite some time now. why it has restricted me, i'll keep to myself.

if you don't know the old blogger address, just hang tight. ask and you shall receive, like the big book says.

i'm letting this stay here for a few days before i finally make the move, just for people to see.

and, this is it. au revoir, cola, bonjour, old friend!

won't get fooled again

with every election, there are winners and there are losers. this equation would be great and all, but in this election, there are election fraud complaints flying in like bullets from a drive-by from what seems like all the losers in the country.



i mean, come on, it's one thing to lie to the people in your campaigns, but it's a whole new ballgame when you try to discredit your opponent by negating whole municipalities of elections on bases of "vote tampering" (which i'm sure happened for you, too, you hypocritical jackass). can't our very much-maligned politicians take a damn break?



the political atmosphere here isn't helping very much in wanting to convince me to participate in any nation-making activity whatsoever, and so, my right to vote is still voluntarily forfeited. suck on that.



on the bright side, peso's getting stronger and stock market's going up.

the sounds of music

condolences to my headphones, which i've retired a couple of weeks ago. the left ear no longer plays me sweet sound, and the cushions won't say on for more than a day.



it served me well when i needed them, whenever i needed to space out for a bit. sure, they cut me off from the rest of the world whenever i turned them up, but it was damn worth it. now i have to resort to using my laptop speakers, since my rather old edifiers here are starting to distort sound. my sony earphones are now officially owned by my brothers, so i can't use them.



the omniscient and the wise sir joseph guzman told us once that earphones guaranteed the death of social interaction. now, that would be true if everyone in the world had earphones, but no, people still recognize common courtesy and the importance of when to take 'em off. though, he did say that when we were all tuned in to our own sounds.



either way, i need new ear/headphones, preferrably the latter, and preferrably with comfy cushions for the ear, like my old ones. i can't listen to music around here without people telling me to turn it down, and i don't roll like that.

point to ponder

"there's a trick to the Graceful Exit. it begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. it means leaving what's over without denying its validity or its past importance in our lives.



it involves a sense of the future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving on, rather than out.



the trick of retiring well may be the trick of living well. it's hard to recognize that life isn't a holding action, but a process. it's hard to learn that we don't leave the best parts of ourselves behind, back in the dugout or the office. we own what we learned back there. the experiences and the growth are grafted onto our lives. and when we exit, we can take ourselves along - quite gracefully."

- ellen goodman, reader's digest june 1984

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why don't you all f-fade away?

like i have stated over and over again in this very particular blog (and i'm sure some of you are already sick of it), i have no interest whatsoever in politics.



85% of the people running the country and running so that they can run the country right now are useless. when i say "useless", i actually mean "nothing good and/or new is happening to this country while they're in office". look, nothing's in peace. squabbles and corruption pollute the government.



that's why i withdrew all my faith in most of them old folks and put it all in our generation. we've got a generation full of budding leaders that clearly spell out and are all about "progress", and while you're at it, "morals". we don't plan on stealing taxpayers' money, we plan on raising these 7,000 islands out of the shit it's currently buried waist-deep in.



i forfeit, that's damn right, i forfeit my right to vote until i see people i actually, personally know on billboards and commercials, because i know they're worth the publicity and the hype. it may seem like blind optimism to you but i've got good reason to hold on to it until i'm proven horrendously wrong.



and in ending this, let me quote the timeless roger daltrey: "i'm not tryin' to cause a b-big s-s-sensation, i'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation."



Technorati Tags: politik

we thought we could change this world with words like "love" and "freedom"

it's almost sunday already. how quickly time flies, but i'm not having fun.



if only you can walk through time. if only you can undo your wrongs. if only you can unsay words.



but if we could, then we would not know the feeling of regret. we would not make mistakes and therefore learn from them. we would become shallow.



but then... we would not have wounds that have lasting scars. we would not feel pain, and we would know only happiness.



what is more important, then? wisdom or happiness?

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beautiful ink

i recently came to the conclusion that i write better... things with a pen and paper instead of a keyboard. maybe it's the concept of writing longhand, just scribbling away in a piece of paper, crossing out a passage here and just plain letting the pen work on autopilot that inspires me.



or maybe i was inspired by edge and his book. oh, here i go again - let me stop myself before i start with that.



when i came back last june, i wrote test essays and other written assignments differently than i did before, which carried on to all those yearbook write-ups i wrote (and because of that style i won praise from my classmates during the retreat) until the advent of the bittersweet undertaking that was the lcle.



since we weren't required to give much actual thought in answering all those damn worksheets, my skills deteriorated as the second term passed by, until i realized that i can't write anymore like how i wanted to write before, when i was making them write-ups.



so, let me pick up a pen and let me find a good-looking piece of paper, and i'm about to set forth on confessing a little madness in my life.

hey, what's your name, baby, maybe we can see things the same

have you ever woken up in the morning, turned on your radio, iPod, or what have you, and the first song you heard would not only instill energy into your sleepy soul but set the mood for the rest of the day?

seems like i just took the opening lines of boston's more than a feeling, but you know, such cliches are sometimes true.

it's funny how it works, right? you hear something like queen's it's a beautiful day or the who's won't get fooled again and suddenly the rest of the world is on an upper.

music, and what it does to the human mind - now there's something that should be given more study, so that our psychologists aren't just set for life with the notion that only classical music (by Bach, to be specific) can relax the brain and any other kind of music (i.e. rock, and just about any kind of music that plays to one's emotions) just upsets it and even dumbs you down. sometimes, such studies are clouded by personal preferences.

may you wake up more to the music of your soul.

music much maligned

picture this.

you're sleeping soundly late into the morning, dreaming about the girl you like, just plain dozing off. it's quiet in your room, with only the aircon softly buzzing, but that does nothing to wake you up. you're halfway through your dream when suddenly, in your sleeping state, you hear the first few notes of a somewhat decent-produced song blaring from a megaphone, piercing the silence and bringing you to a state of being half-asleep. it's not the ice cream man, you think, while half-asleep, the song isn't simple. you then hear a familiar name thrown in amongst lyrics that heap loads of praise at someone you couldn't care less about.

you finally figure it out: this is a campaign jingle. you wake up, frustrated that the song rudely awakened you and you can't get back to sleep because, well, you're up.

honestly, philippines, is this what the so-called elections for your so-called government have come to? as if the tv ads, radio commercials, and endless flyers weren't enough, politicians are now tapping into the resource of music and turning songs that aren't already novelty into one more for the masa.

it was tolerable before. i mean, only the bigwigs used jingles, but emphasis was placed on advertisements. now, everyone and their mother who's running for office now has their very own jingle, either original or bastardized, and they're not afraid to send a truck to go around town and play the song as if anyone actually wants to listen. the really bad part about this phenomenon is that everyone, even those who are running for positions that no one really knew existed or gave a rat's ass about are apparently important enough to warrant their very own jingle.

it's as if this strategy was brought about by the concept of whoever has the most catchy tune gets the most votes. honestly, if that was true, then the state of the philippines is something to feel sorry about. but that's not the case. i know the filipino is smarter than that. LSS is not, should not, and will not be a means of winning elections.

don't even get me started on my personal tastes. one such politician butchered crazy little thing called love and i don't think what he's running for is that important.

i'm still waiting for the day when flash and flamboyance finally takes a back seat to true credibility in philippine politics. showmanship belongs to the arts, not the science of running a country. right now, the flash dominates the whole show, leaving substance as a lot to be imagined. this is why i refuse to participate in the elections until our generation takes over. at least, for the time being, that holds some sort of promise.

and for the record, the only politician who is worthy enough for the right to having a campaign jingle is president ramon magsaysay.

shifting gears

in his book, edge recounts the story of how he, still as a young amateur working independent shows, watched a live taping of a talk show that had bret hart as the guest. edge asked bret, "how do you get better?" bret shared a good piece of advice that edge adheres to and would like to share with the next generation, one piece of advice that i'm currently taking good heed of:

"get experience."

and by making the jump from school orchestra to the local city band, that's one hell of a vault of experience right there. i'm grateful that the melvin is joining me in this endeavor.

we don't move in any particular direction

call me unusual, but i hold the belief that college education is overrated. now, before you roast me on a spit, let me say something in stark contrast: i can't wait for the college experience. i just think that what we learn inside a classroom, from listening to a professor is quite overrated. it's because of this that i'm still not a big fan of the concept of going to college. (i'm just going for the experience and for my pride.)

someone, i don't remember who, has told me before that we won't use a good part of what we learn inside a college classroom.

look at the choices for courses right now. most of them are just silly (to me) hodgepodges of titles of professions that don't interest me whatsoever. maybe it's just my preference, but i'm really not a big fan of economics, business, polsci, or accounting, so therefore i laugh (secretly, yet not condescendingly) at people who consider such choices. (sorry, guys. i'm a big fan of science, though.) sure, they make the world go round, but i'd rather leave that to other people who are willing. i have no time for such trivialities.

my NCAE results tell me that my occupational field of interest is artistic; at least they finally got one thing right. (though my entrepeneurial skill is a good 98. o diba.) so, yeah, you guys can have all the accounting or business management your hearts desire.

wise men say, "only fools rush in"

x-posted from my lj.

So, as the "corollary", as my brother leiron put it, to my best friend's post, I'll post my Top 10 Songs the Pope Has To Hear [Immediately].

However, my list almost doesn't look anything like his, and is more concentrated on a smaller number of artists.

And so, it begins:

10. Chicago - Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?
From the album The Chicago Transit Authority

"Does anybody really know what time it is? / Does anybody really care? / If so I can't imagine why / We've all got time enough to cry"

This song is here to let the Pope know that rock songs are not just emotional, but also socially conscious. So, does anybody really know what time it is?

9. Audioslave - Show Me How To Live
From the album Audioslave

"Nail in my hand / From my creator / You gave me life / Now show me how to live"

A song sung by a lost soul. What is life when you don't know how to live it? So you turn and ask how to live.

8. Roger Taylor/Queen - Heaven for Everyone
From the album Shove It/Made In Heaven

"This could be heaven for everyone / This world could be fed, this world could be fun / This could be heaven for everyone / This world could be free, this world could be one"

Like another Queen song goes, "peace on earth, and an end to war." World peace, everyone. Oh, how Satanic the message!

7. Eagles - Learn To Be Still
From the album Hell Freezes Over

"We are like sheep without a shepherd / We don't know how to be alone / So we wander 'round this desert / And wind up following the wrong gods home"

We, as a people, are never satisfied with what we have, admit it or not. This is why we constantly complain, constantly wish for something more, in turn, constantly forsaking what we already have. Dear Pope, could you get that from any "Satanic" rock band?

6. The Who - A Man in a Purple Dress
From the album Endless Wire

"How dare you be the one to assess / Me in this godforsaken mess / You, a man in a purple dress / A man in a purple dress"

Okay, maybe not the best song to play for the Pope, but it's one of the most humbling. The song questions why people have to be of cloth just to be called men of God. More like, why do we have to listen to the Pope when he says all rock is bad?

5. Queen - Jesus
From the album Queen

"Then came a man before His feet he fell / Unclean said the leper and rang his bell / Felt the palm of a hand touch his head / Go now go now you're a new man instead / All going down to see the Lord Jesus"

This one I'm sure His Holiness will like. It's a pretty straightforward song, made up of parts of the Gospel. I can imagine it now: "But the lead singer's gay!"

4. The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
From the album Magical Mystery Tour

"All you need is love, love / love is all you need."

Now if the Beatles were "demonic", all instances of the word "love" would be replaced with "war".

3. Eagles - The Last Resort
From the album Hotel California

"Some rich men came and raped the land, / Nobody caught 'em / Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus, / people bought 'em"

The demonic band is telling us that we're raping the Earth. However, a true demonic band would encourage us, not warn us.

2. The Who - Two Thousand Years
From the album Endless Wire

"Two thousand years / Have I waited / To ask if I have loved you /To know if I have served you / To find if I've obeyed you / To know if I've betrayed you"

A song somewhat from Judas's point of view. It's a kind of song that makes theologians think: did Judas really betray Jesus or was it all part of Jesus's intricate plan to save all humanity by dying for us? He also has to wait another two thousand years for people to actually think about that explanation, since, you know, medieval thinking is quite narrow-minded.

1. Queen - Somebody to Love
From the album A Day at the Races

"I get down on my knees and start to pray / Till the tears run down from my eyes / Lord, somebody, somebody / Please can anybody find me, somebody to love?"

I wonder what got the Pope thinking that all of rock is evil. Sure, you hear one anti-Christ song and you apparently hear them all singing the same song. But this is not the case, friends! Of all the band's catalogue I have never heard a song that sang about the devil. No, in fact, Somebody to Love is actually a prayer in itself.

If anyone has anything to add, feel free.

losing my edge

one summer night, after watching RV (jojoooo...) we went into a nearby borders (for the uninitiated, that's a chain of bookstores in the US). funny thing is that while borders is indeed a bookstore, they sell music cds as well. however, that's not my point.

so i went to the store's second floor and quickly found the books about wrestlers. (it's annoying how our bookstores don't have a lot of books in that genre.) browsing through the autobiographies of HHH, shawn michaels, eddie guerrero (which i vow to purchase when i return to the US), and ric flair, i thought i would never find what i was looking for, until...

i found it, sitting there in the shelf, lost in other books, what seemed to be the last copy of "adam copeland on edge", edge's autobiography! it was in paperback (i always wanted it hardbound) but what the hell, who cares!

once i found the book i could not drop it. i immediately went out and bought it. i was enthralled with it, and quickly found that the book's reviews were indeed true - it was fresh and down-to-earth, complimented by edge's writing style that is witty and untainted by technology (he wrote the whole thing in longhand, on paper). it was full of euphemisms and similes that just plain amused the hell out of me. trust me, it's a good read and i'd be willing to lend it to anyone who's interested.

the book would become my bible for the rest of the summer, eventually becoming the inspiration for my own writing style, before it was blunted by hundreds of essays on quizzes and long tests. (i used the "candid" writing style on every test that had an essay part back then... and then LCLE happened.)

and now, i want to incorporate that style again. summer is the time. i've got to practice and keep reading new material from edge, thanks to his blog which i've just discovered tonight. it's now.

'til then, friends.

turmowil

i know i turn 18 next year, but let me just say: when i do, i'm not gonna register myself as a voter.

i know political apathy is a bad thing, but i'm a pretty laid-back kinda guy and politics just stresses me out, especially with the political atmosphere here in the philippines - full of liars, thieves, and cheaters. let me tell you that the only liar, thief and cheater i adore is named eddie guerrero.

i will probably be like this until our generation takes over. i mean, until the system doesn't change, until the old folks remain on top, there will be little, if any, good change in this country. sadly, for one good person in government there are a hell of a lot more people taking money that is supposedly for the country.

haay, politics. there are better things to worry about in life.

radio ga ga

Thank you for your comments about DWLS and we commend your loyalty and patronage of its former format. The decision to change our programming was based on research studies and was driven by the objective of reaching a bigger audience. As a matter of fact, DWLS has lost a significant amount of revenue from advertisers who were supportive of the previous format. GMA Network is absorbing that revenue loss only because it is in exchange for providing more listeners with programming that research shows they prefer. We respect and thank you for your strong disagreement with our decision but we hope that it will somehow be tempered by your knowing that DWLS now provides listening fun to more listeners. And we certainly hope and wish for you to continue enjoying radio no matter what station you listen to.

All the best.

Mike Enriquez
GMA Network, Inc.
Senior Vice-President For Radio

of course, the need to reach bigger audiences is due to the need for more revenue. it's always been that way, hasn't it?

why can't they be the rock in a raging river and stand against the flow? must they really conform with the rest of the horrible stations? what makes them think that they will attract new audiences when such audiences have already a lot of crap to choose from? their [former] loyal fanbase would account for a lot more than "new audiences".

the move to remove what was their only strength against abs-cbn was a move of stupid greed. it didn't do anything but raise even more negative sentiments towards gma. i mean, it's already considered the b-channel of the country with what used to be the a-radio station.

quoting freddie mercury, "all we hear is radio ga ga, radio blah blah."

we really need a classic rock station, folks. 96.3, 97.9, nor 107.1 (is it that? i'm not sure) isn't going to cut it. we need the pillars of rock.

at its very worst

i never thought my once-beloved campus radio could go lower than it already is.

before its format change, it used to play 70% crap and 30% good stuff. hell, before that it used to play 70% good stuff and 30% crap, and it always redeemed itself with retro jam every sunday.

now, look! it has conformed with the other horrible-as-hell radio stations. where abs-cbn was weak with its godforsaken 101.9, gma was once strong with its halfway decent top 40-format radio station. conforming to the "masa" genre does not do anything good for gma's output quality, which abs-cbn already rules over TV with.

so please, SIGN THIS PETITION! help bring back the glory that was once campus radio. we don't need another sorry excuse for a radio station.

on the other hand, why don't we have a classic rock station?

why in the hell did i jump?

it's been almost a year, but up to now, i still don't know why in the hell i jumped. maybe i was young and stupid. maybe i was desperate. maybe there was an actual, genuine spark.

whatever it was, i'm still not sure, and i still kick myself for it.

if i can't have it all, just a taste will do

one of my candy-coated weaknesses, along with my steadfast loyalty to any of my friends and my natural amiability, is my utmost desire to make the most out of every day. i believe that while you're unconscious (i.e. sleeping), you're missing out on a lot. i agree with what gliza said about sleeping early being unproductive, and that is the reason why staying up late became a habit of mine (started around my grade school graduation when i discovered chatting). since then, i feel a tinge of regret whenever i take a nap and wake up to find that three or more hours have passed (however, lately i find that a good thing due to my lack of sleep).

this is why i feel bad whenever i'm left out of something i could've been in. this is why i was so torn up between going to father and son or the lsyc retreat when both were still scheduled for the same weekend (though i cannot go to camp anymore since the schedule cannot permit us). this is why i felt bad when i heard leiron's adventures at the hotel while i was sleeping.

when you look at it closely, this kind of thing is annoyingly shallow. there is usually no point worrying about spilled milk; it just shows that i tend to think a lot about what could've been, only denying or even patronizing my own inaction - which is, in itself, not good.

maybe i just don't get my fair share of "memz lolz"? but i get a lot already, don't i? what the hell is wrong with me? maybe i'm just trying to run away from all the bad of the world by making up for it with the good.

however, that can only happen in a perfect world. you and i know that this world is far from perfect.

why falling in love is so goddamn hard

after days of deserved incessant prodding from suji, i finally wrote another article for the damned cl magazine, about romantic love. for some reason, i went about writing the article in the writing style i had when i came back from the states (which i was praised for in the retreat and which i seemed to have lost over time). just thought i'd share it with you.

The Trouble With Love Is…

It’s already February, and the scenario is unsurprisingly common in the month of love; a guy or girl “falls” head over heels “in love” with someone who is hopefully of the opposite sex, goes to great lengths to win that person over, and depending on Cupid’s mood, either gets the ending he/she wants or ends up dumbfounded in the middle of the street. Now, assuming that said person got the “bad ending”, he or she will easily dismiss it and forget his or her object of affection the next day, as if he or she did not go through anything at all.

This is where the most important question of a hormonal adolescent comes up into the equation: where does one draw the line between infatuation and true love?

It’s all too common to see teenagers declaring their “love” for another, and rather rare to see people acknowledging infatuation itself. Most get so wrapped up in their own emotions and passion that it automatically registers as love love in their psyches, but will find out soon enough that it isn’t the case, usually after when that infatuation fades away quickly as it came.

So where does one draw the line? Is it when one’s emotions for someone transcend the barrier of stomach butterfly-inducing looks? Is it when one is willing to look past faults that would usually make another person turn his head the other way? Whatever it is, most young people don’t know what it is – but they should know, and while they don’t, they will continually make a fool of themselves saying that they are “deeply in love” with someone when they are a few cards short of love’s full deck.

So what should one do?

The solution to that is actually a really simple one: stop, think, and take small steps. In a normal situation, no one is forcing anyone to have a relationship or anything – it’s all in the head. Once one starts thinking and reevaluating his or her true intent, he or she might find that his or her feelings of “deep romantic love” may actually lack the conviction it needs.

Now, if anyone who’s “madly in love” would actually take the time and do this, we’d have lesser love problems in the world

opm blues part 2

i was listening to 101.9 this afternoon (like i had any choice in the matter), and thus, i got to listen to today's latest, for the lack of a better word, crap. yes, friends, when i say "crap" in this entry, i talk about the rest of the genre that is original pilipino music. (why "rest of the genre"? there are some really good bands amidst the anarchy... hence, "diamonds in the rough").

it was then that i noticed a particular annoying common denominator, which happens to be what is dragging down the genre right now.

have you noticed that 95% of all opm songs talk about nothing but love, in all its common and obvious forms? declaration of love, loss of love, wanton breakups, they're all the same, singing about love this and love that.

it's what makes 6cyclemind and cueshe horribly redundant and stale, and what makes bamboo, rivermaya, and sandwich unique. rivermaya, despite oft-repeating the equally annoying theme of patriotism (which bamboo also does likewise, but to a certain extent), knows when to sing about something else, a skill bamboo and sandwich masterfully wield at the same time.

at a minor tangent, 6cyclemind is horribly repetitive with similar themes, both lyrically and musically. i already know what to expect from their lead singer whose voice is horribly stale as well.

the thing that makes radioactive sago project special is that they don't immediately hand over the meaning of their songs in a silver spoon; the challenge for you is to find out what the hell exactly are they going on about. however, when cueshe announces that they have a new single or album, you know immediately that it will be full of whining.

the industry cannot progress if you'll all be going on about the same thing - it will make the whole pool stale. take some advice; sing about something else, sing about trivial things, sing about the state of society, sing about a psychological disorder, sing about a bad habit, sing with random lyrics inserted into jam sessions, i don't care what you sing about - as long as it's not love.

afflicted

i just made a startling discovery about myself today.

i realized, while half-asleep, that i snore really loudly.

i mean, sure, my best friend told me that i snored during her LSYC retreat, but i thought that was just the quiet, restrained sort of snoring. however, i was half-asleep this afternoon when i heard my thunderous snoring!

if anything, i am ashamed of it. i abhorred justin's snoring because it barely helped me to sleep in the car, and now i'm afflicted with it. my prior knowledge (eeew LCLE term) of loud snoring tells me that fat people and sick people are stricken with loud snoring, and to look on the bright side, at least i'm getting fatter. :))

anyway, my eagles addiction has turned into a queen addiction. like i said, my musical tastes change like the ebbing of the tides.

hello, young lovers, wherever you are

any high school student will tell you that prom season rolls along with valentine season. it's naturally the season of love and couples [who haven't been around for the rest of the school year] are springing up.

like i said in my post titled "somebody to love", this category excludes me (and negs). this year, both my brothers have relationships! (that's a first, and i'm quite proud of that.) as for me, the raison this year is that i deliberately choose not to shackle myself to a commitment, rather than the fact that there is no one to commit to. (to give myself a bit of an ego-boost, if i wanted a commitment now, i would already be in one.)

of course, this is my present mindset until if ever fate decides to play her wild card and make me fall madly in love with someone.

which i really doubt, but there's always that risk. =))

death in eight letters

you can build up all the facades you want to build in your life, but you are a dead man if you let the things that attack your inner self get to you. like, for example, paranoia.

it gets the best of us, that nagging fear in the back of your mind, twisting your everyday routine and spinning a web of worry. my particular kind of paranoia is the kind that makes me think whether someone is mad at me or not.

a simple fleeting gesture, or the lack thereof, can be misconstrued by someone as a gesture of ill will, and it's the mark of either an insecure mind or an unstable relationship. what someone says or doesn't say, does or doesn't do can be misconstrued.

and damn, it's driving me crazy. i spend needless minutes and hours worrying about something that shouldn't be worried about; something that's just all in my twisted head. what kind of a man does that make me? knowing that, who can truly define me, and what is my true description? does that unravel my confident eminence front?

i really need to get a grip on life sometimes... i always vow to throw away the needless baggage, but end up keeping them.

war in peace

i'm talking to bea right now and she's talking about wanting peace on earth. i was going to make a joke about being miss universe, but she said something so i had to reply to that. anyway, so after she said that peace on earth line, i got to thinking: "do i want peace on earth?"

of course i do.

but the problem is that, yeah, it's supposed to begin with you, but i can't even start peace! i don't know if i'm subliminally or deliberately making war, but the fact of the matter is i'm not a harbinger of peace myself, even if i wanted to be. i mean, look. i'm in a feud right now with one of my classmates, while his cronies are grinding their teeth at me, but not joining in the feud.

so, yes, i want peace on earth... but i can't seem to achieve it. it seems that i get into some beef sooner or later. it's actually funny that as my senior year ends, the fights start to spring up. no worries; i'm ready.