November 28th, 2006 at 12:26 pm Thanks to a chatmate who fancies up-the-butt girls, I finally cropped up a title
And it s been a while since I dropped a line here, perhaps because of work and all the other insignificant things I do in between (such as updating my Multiply site, for one). Even the Sunday afternoons that I use for updating my blog have been filled up. I wonder why that is
What made this gig extremely fun was the arrival of some unexpected visitors Erika and Macky (still very friendly despite the break-up), the avid-groupie-in-the-making pair of Judith and Elias, the surprising appearance of Deltaslim and his darling Jane (I can talk about all sorts of stuff with this girl), our favorite groupie in QC (and beyond) Mr.
Jaime and his charming wife; Ruth and her boyfriend Shawn; Ruben and Zann who followed after a gig in Pasig and a host of other party animals I normally catch at the Friday night watering hole. Drinks were on the house too. I think Henry was too happy with the article I wrote about the place, which btw you can check out in this month s issue of F B World.
It had been a long time since we last played at Ninoy s. Nobody thought we could convene 7 players at first, but voila! We had 11 uncomfortably seated players trying their luck on the felt.
I finished fourth damn! If I finished third, I would have recovered my measley P100 investment
The turnout at the venue was quite pathetic, but the overall vibe, thanks to a modest cast of Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan aficionados, compensated for the empty house. But this was a milestone in my singing career.
I never thought I d share the same stage with the Pinoy icons who have rocked the joint for years Johnoy came. Ruben and Zann followed and we all stayed and relished Renard s tales of Lolita Carbon s hot shindigs in his premature encounters with Asin at a time when he still had his crowning glory
My friend from The World Bank, Loraine Hawkins, will be leaving the Bank on Dec 1 to reunite with her husband who is based in London. The dinner was our despedida for her.
I throwed all caution to the wind and ordered a Caesar s salad and a Rib-Eye steak with mint jelly and peppercorn sauce on the side and a pasta al ajillo side dish and a glass of red. Yum yum yum .I ve missed dining with such indulgence.
The dinner was fun, albeit I felt a little out of place because of my age. But hey, we re all coming together somehow because of the same line of work we are involved in and in that kind of work there are just too many things to laugh about. Malu was such a darling to organize the surprise dinner.
I gave Loraine a CD of the Rats covers which we recorded at Dish. The sound quality was poor, but I wanted to give her something that would remind her of the Rats gigs she went to while she was working here.
Then I headed to Reg s house to play poker with Chot, Blue, Gino and Gail, Mel and CJ, Pia and Reg.
The pot? A whopping 2,200 pesos. Reg won in the heads-up with Blue.
I finished third. The highlight of the evening? I had an A-4 hand.
The flop read a King-2-3. Chot was all in. The turn was 5.
Five!!!
! The river? Another 5!
!! I was jubilant.
Awesome play!!!
Oh this gig was fuuuun!!!
The Rats was asked to open the show, so we did 6 hard core blues songs: Motorcycle Mama (N. Young), Hoochie Coochie Man (M. Waters), then Cowboy did Red House (J.
Hendrix) and Crossroads (E. Clapton version), then we ended with The Allman Brothers One Way Out and Whipping Post. The crowd was crazy and I loved it.
Check out the photos:
Butch and I went insane when we heard Snakecharmer s take on Bob Dylan s I Shall Be Released. That was mind-blowing
After the gig, Ruben, Mina, Augee, Kakoy, Surit and myself headed to 24-hour Rufo s to have breakfast. Mina was the star manghuhula.
So fun. We ended at about 6:00 in the morning. Crazy.
Mich texted me that my picture was on the sleeve of the Blueskrieg CD. Coooool!!
! He also asked me to join him at UP to jog. I was already comfortably finishing the second season of Entourage, but what the hell right?
I haven t tried jogging at UP and I figured I might as well do it na. The jogging was more like walking, but I had a great time just catching up with Mich, who s also freakishly busy with work
Yesterday, I finished writing the Snakecharmer profile. Another brain drain exercise, but I think I like what I managed to produce
This week is gearing up too fast What could be in store this weekend?
We ll see .
November 12th, 2006 at 11:53 pm Between The Bars is a song by Elliott Smith, whose eerie, somber but relatable compositions are currently overwhelming my musical indulgences. As I listen to his infectious vocal regurgitations, I am astounded yet saddened by his untimely demise.
Contrary to what most people know about the cause of his death, which was initially declared as suicide, it is still unclear to this day how he really died. (Story below courtesy of Wikipedia.)
Elliott Smith died on , in the section of at age 34, from two wounds to the during an emotional fight with .
According to her account, the two were arguing when she locked herself in the bathroom. Chiba heard him scream, and upon opening the door, saw Smith standing there with a in his chest. She pulled the knife out of him, after which he collapsed and she called .
Smith died in hospital with the time of death listed as 1:36 p.m. While originally reported as a , the official report released in late December 2003 left the question of possible open.
His songs are so intoxicating. I ve been listening to his dismal poetry all day
This week would have easily been classified as uneventful if not for this weekend s late-night shindigs. Last Friday, I checked out C.
Ver s painting exhibition I looooved her self-portrait. It kind of exhibits abnormality (haha I told her that) with strange drama, without totally veering away from its artistic surrealism (I hope I still know what I am talking about here!!
!). After 15 minutes of light schmoozing with Kath, Denise, Manoli and Camille, I headed to LV Locsin for rehearsal and the audition of our substitute drummer Benny.
I still remember the first Filipino words Tom ever spoke. Bwahahahaha. I then headed to mag:net Katipunan to catch Snakecharmer with their new singer and back-up singer pulling it together.
I helped them out with 2 songs, and downed a few beers right before catching Johnoy and Kakoy s spellbinding rendition of J. Buckley s Hallelujah. So divine.
After 2 more hours of meaningful brainstorming of songs to cover at Burger Machine, we finally called it a night.
I spent my afternoon reading One Hundred Years, and I m still not done. Chikki texted and wanted to go out, so I relented because I have been confining myself at home too much or in QC where the beer is dirt cheap.
We went to Embassy Cuisine, only because I didn t want to spend any money and I have a GC worth 1K given to me by Erik Cua for the article I wrote on Cuisine. I have nothing against ritzy chillout watering holes, promise, but I m done with all the shimmery make-up and scantily topped women to inebriate me on a Saturday night. I would much rather have a couple of drinks at Rats gigs or other blues gigs or go for broke in a game of poker at Ninoy s.
It signals maturity I guess, hehe at least for me. On our way home, Chikki and I dropped off some CDs for J K and to say hello to the boys. Honestly, that s where I would have wanted to hang out with the girls.
But Cuisine was fun, and the company was even better. It was a great catch-up gig to cap the week.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:10 am There is no better way to start a long week than by spending Sunday with kids.
I learned this last week when I was invited by my friend from Ictus, Ina Juan, to come to her birthday party at the cancer ward of V. Luna General Hospital in QC. Our orgmates from Ictus chimed in and we all helped the sick kids, most of whom I think are terminally ill, paint colorful masks.
Ina s parents and brothers were also there to help out. There was spaghetti and fried chicken for everyone, and all the kids went home with goodie bags filled with art materials and toiletries. Everyone was happy, and I told Ina I ll probably celebrate my birthday the same way she did.
For me it was the perfect party simple yet very meaningful.
That night, I rehearsed with Zann for my cousin s debut the next day where my aunt commissioned me to sing. I think we finished at about 3, talking more than practicing just like Moira days.
The songs I chose were Have A Little Faith In Me by Jewel and Time Of Your Life by Green Day, which I selected at the last minute because I thought it fit the occasion perfectly. Have A Little Faith In Me was a bit high for my range, but I insisted on doing it on the same pitch mainly because I really wanted to do that song for the longest time in the way it was performed exactly. That song carries a distinct quality that has always had a huge impact on me I guess it s the way Jewel just brings it, y know?
Woke up early and skipped gym because I had to be in UP by 830am to participate in another Social Protection forum, work-related of course. I headed straight home because I wanted to get some sleep before the party at 7, despite the work for the Singapore trip that has been piling up on my desk. Zann and I did a pretty good job with the surprise number for my cousin I think, because even though I was almost gasping for air at the bridge part, I got the overall effect I desired.
Can t explain how though. Then of course we finished a bottle of red to load up before hooking up with Ruben who s anxiously waiting at 70s watching AC on his lone ass. AC we paid 150 bucks to watch this band drill a hole in my head.
I mean COME ON, that must have been the lousiest parody of rock and roll fusion I would never have paid 150 bucks for. Funny that I came all dressed to the nines at bistro, pearl bag and all, but with a Red Horse in hand. Hehe.
Beats staying at home man, spending a night with the boys even though I could care less about the band which was begging for a death sentence. On the way home, I was uber hungry as usual so thanks to Ruben s leftover onion rings, my tummy s anguish was immediately resolved.
Boy was I a work horse on this day!
Had an eventful meeting with my boss in the morning, which is always a good way to start any day. She told me that she already submitted my recommendation to Annenberg, and will submit the one for Harvard soon. What could I ever ask for pa in a boss?
! I was busy the whole freakin day revising the country reports for the ministerial forum on families I just found out that one of the reports did not respond to one of the agreements in the first ministerial. Nerd stuff forget it.
But what really ticked me off was the artwork that I was asking for that came so late and me catching the people working on it playing games in their computer. Tangina nila, engaging in recreation while I was slaving my ass off waiting for their final lackluster output. Aaaargh
That night, I celebrated Halloween with my choir mates in our traditional yearly get-together, brought a hat (which was supposed to be a headress, but it wasn t), ate lots, played Invisibles and saw The Others.
We also planned our upcoming Christmas party, which is like the icing on the cake of every year. The theme that was agreed on? The Christmas Belen, each of us portraying one of the characters: Joseph, Mother Mary, the 3 kings, shepherds, angel and even the darn animals.
And among all of those, guess which I was auspicious enough to pick? The fuckin donkey. I raised hell, but of course had no other recourse but to concede.
Later the idea was questioned because it may be sacrilegous, so we might actually change the theme, which is very good news on my part.
The Rats struggled with CSNY s Carry On the harmony parts were just impossible to weave together. Had a great talk with Andy and Butch afterwards, mostly about politics.
Talk about spacious in the tiny cocoon that is mag:net on a Friday night. We generated a measly 11 walk-ins, but the night was still incredibly fun. Every gig night is fun.
But Butch, Johnny, Tom and Andy chiming in about their carefree days is something you don t experience very often so that was a major highlight of the evening.
Went to Conspiracy for the Rakrakan Blueskrieg event, where our friends from Snakecharmer and Firebottle performed. Blueskrieg is a 15-song compilation of original blues songs, in which unfortunately, the Rats was not able to participate.
The night was fun, and despite the early warnings to Deltaslim that there was no way I m gonna get up on stage to sing, I relented at the jam sessions. I can t say no to these guys. It s always fun just hanging out with all of them.
After the gig, we went to an obscure kebab place along Congressional where we fancied stories about weird movies and enjoyed the surprisingly sumptuous servings of chicken kebab and barbecue. Only then did I realized that there was also someone who appreciated the movie Adaptation apart from myself and it was really great knowing that, because for me that movie is a work of understated genius. The same guy also saw Happiness, which is arguably the most disturbing collection of mishaps and daily atrocities which will leave an equally disturbing effect on the viewer.
See it for yourself
David Bowie s A Reality Tour - the highlight for me was Under Pressure, which was sang with Bowie by the bassist, a gifted woman named Gail Ann Dorsey. Galing!!
!
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