Rainy, Loud, and Not So Late

I was in dire need of something loud for months that when I heared that there’s this upcoming concert of local bands in tribute to the Apo Hiking Society, I took it as an opportune time. I was able to check a preview of that when Zack, a very good friend, texted me to watch ASAP on TV. The sala in the dorm was on its fullest during that portion. Due to sheer indolence or indecisiveness, I finally bought the ticket only on the day of the concert. Suffice it to say, we just make do of whatever obscure seats left available. I invited Zack to watch and I’m grateful he was interested to check out the concert too.

It was raining when we headed to the venue and Zack was soaking wet because of the rain. We’re supposed to buy a shirt but later decided that a strong aircon and a little projection will do the trick. Lots of people were already on the venue when we arrived but we waited for several minutes for the admission. I was there primarily for Chito, hehehe. Really good bands and my favorite ones were lined up for the night like Spongecola, Sandwich, Sugarfree, Parokya, etc. The Dawn was part of the tribute album and I was kinda disappointed that they did not play. As a perennial disease of local concerts, the show started late. After two geological ages, the show started. Parokya played first. What a good way to start the night. I could not believe that Chito and I were on the same roof I don’t know but the song Pumapatak connotes an entirely different meaning when Chito sung it, hehehe. Spongecola’s version of Nakapagtataka was so Spongecola-ish with Yael’s trademark voice and angst. He was somewhat out of breath after the song but it was a good performance. Sugarfree is one of the crowds’ favorite. They did a different twist of Batang-Bata that it sounds like it was truly their own composition. It sounds so good. Ebe is really one of the prolific musicians we have now. Of course, Orange and Lemons easily captured the hearts of the crowd with their Yakap sa Dilim. Haay. They have this way of making the song sounds like your hugging a very soft pillow in a rainy day. The musical arrangement was so soft to the ears. I was mesmerized by Drip’s version of Kabilugan ng Buwan. The voice and the beat were sexy and enchanting. I am a Barbie fan and I like the song When I Met You a lot but there was something wrong with the microphone when she sung. The vocals on some parts were hardly audible. Sandwich’s version of O ang Babae was okay. Awit ng Barkada of Itchyworms was also good. The showmanship added the flavor. Shamrock’s Paano was also good, it’s just that there was something wrong with the audio system that vibrated an annoying echo on the guitar. They should have checked it earlier. Blue Jeans of Rockstedy was okay. Imago did a different twist of Ewan, maganda. Of course, Kamikazee never fails to bring the house down. Hands down when it comes to showmanship. Doo Bidoo was great way to end the show. I am very partial to loud music. There were still lots of other bands played but could not remember well the line up. Zack’s favorite performer for the night was Sugarfree. We’re talking if Urbandub was considered to be a part of the album because they were visible in some interviews. But so was Martin Nievara. We dropped the topic. Apo made a very short appearance. After Kamikazee, people were still expecting for some bands to play but it was announced by myx VJ’s that the show was over. Zack was so into Heart Evangelista so I restrained my mouth from making comments. We headed home at around 10:30, which was early on my usual standard. But due to warning of eviction from the dorm, I abide by the rules.

A great show, a great company, on a rainy Friday night.

Grazie!

Gratitude is the language of the heart. Thank you Melai and Ron for helping me out in my Math Eco assignment. I'm specially touched for Melai's effort. She is not completely well yet she went extra mile for me. Madamo guid nga salamat.

Some moments of clarity

*I've been avoiding math all my life but it keeps on following me. I'm cursed. Is it because i am secretly in love with it? I have three chapters to read and i tried reading some pages last night but it was futile. Mindset, mindset.

*I'm supposed to graduate next sem but i still have another semester to go through. Want to finish this quick and clean so I could set a clear direction about my going home and staying there for good.

*Was everything worth it? Do I really have to learn my lesson the hard way? Was the road i took really a part of the obstacle challenge or could i have avoided it if i had been a little bit clever? Soliluqys.

*I owe my two friends a long letter. I used to write long letters before but somehow indolence keeps in the way.

*I've been listening to Dashboard Confessional's Dusk and Summer album. The album still sound sad and jaded. I think Dashboard Confessional is cursed for perpetual heartache.

*Life is a choice but somehow the choice is partially destined.

*I have much tolerance for persons with IQ problem but i can't stand conceit out of little knowledge.

Healthy in Paranoid Times

I'll be having my mid-year three-day vacation in a few weeks time and I have so much things to do but so little time. I miss home. I miss the serenity of the farm. I miss the mango tree in our sideyard. I miss the starry night on a clear summer sky. I miss deciphering clouds. I miss the MellonCollie and the Infinite Sadness record. I miss the feeling of being invincible that only youth can offer. Time is such a relative concept.

Few days ago, I had a coffee with a very good friend. We were just having this trivial conversation about relationships when out of nowhere, I cried. So it was like three times that I cried in public when I'm with him that I rushed to the comfort room to finish my pathetic stunt discretely. Looking back, it was not really pathetic. I feel like it was just one of those moments when my hormones are low that made my tear gland reacted so spontaneously. Oh well. It's good to be alive.
I saw this line from the site of Our Lady Peace, one of the good bands of my youth, "Healthy in Paranoid Times." How fitting.

Breathing Octavio

One of the poets that always leave me breathless is Octavio Paz. Paz is a Mexican poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. He is also an essayist. His poetic corpus is nourished by the belief that poetry constitutes "the secret religion of the modern age." Got here three of my favorite poems that could suffice for one meal.

No More Cliches

Beautiful face
That like a daisy opens its petals to the sun
So do you
Open your face to me as I turn the page.

Enchanting smile
Any man would be under your spell,
Oh, beauty of a magazine.

How many poems have been written to you?
How many Dantes have written to you, Beatrice?
To your obsessive illusion
To you manufacture fantasy.

But today I won't make one more Cliché
And write this poem to you.
No, no more clichés.

This poem is dedicated to those women
Whose beauty is in their charm,
In their intelligence,
In their character,
Not on their fabricated looks.

This poem is to you women,
That like a Shahrazade wake up
Everyday with a new story to tell,
A story that sings for change
That hopes for battles:
Battles for the love of the united flesh
Battles for passions aroused by a new day
Battle for the neglected rights
Or just battles to survive one more night.

Yes, to you women in a world of pain
To you, bright star in this ever-spending universe
To you, fighter of a thousand-and-one fights
To you, friend of my heart.

From now on, my head won't look down to a magazine
Rather, it will contemplate the night
And its bright stars,
And so, no more clichés.



Between Going and Staying

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can't be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.

The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.

I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.

Stuck and Cursed

Time and again, traffic is one of the curses of the so-called civilization. Santolan to 20th Ave. would only take 15 min. on a clear road but on a chaotic 9 am road, it took me an hour. Added to the curse was manong driver's radio station that is the pinnacle of "ka-jologan". "Manong, pwede po palipat sa 107.5, NU?" He tried changing station for a while but his radio's frequency was seemingly stuck in ___#$. "Okay na lang po." I finally surrendered. I got an hour experience at Hades. So that was the start of my so-called thursday morning.

A Chronicle of IT Training Foretold (Just random thoughts, really)

In a few days time, the training will be over. I never thought i could survive the 130-day training given my so-chaotic schedule, but I did (thanks to coffee). It feels like finishing a very good book, you just feel so amazed that it's over. I remember the first day when i really thought the seminar would only last for a week and i had a shock of my life when i heard that it would last for three months or so, hah! I had some apprehensions at first because I imagined my classmates to be computer geeks who eat computer programs for lunch, and I hardly passed Wordstar back in College. But I learned later that i am not the one who is IT-challenged in the group. I felt relieved. My learnings are so many that i wish i could have much time practicing it. Everything is a matter of habit.

My classmates are weird mixture of humanity. Given the differences in language and culture, it was a very interesting group. I am just lucky, in a sense, that I could speak several dialects. They could not backbite me so easily, if its enough consolation, hehehe. We really blend so well, not only because of the weekly alcohol binge or downloading galore, or for the petty gambling (that leaves some broke for a week) but on the common passion to learn and to explore.

As the training about to end, I remember the feeling a day after a very big concert, I feel dazed. It's nice and sad at the same time. But everything has its ending. And this ending prompts us to a new beginning. The training, the friends i made, the learnings i gained(sometimes overloaded), all these experiences whether mundane or sublime, are all part of a cycle. And I can't wait for the next encounter.