My Asinine Thoughts

I had the chance to see Lifehouse up close last Friday when I went to 94.7, unfortunately the only proof I have of seeing them is a blurry shot of two girls and the top of Jason Wade’s head which is really no proof at all. Shyet.

When I entered the station, there were four tiny girls sitting there who looked like they were still in high school (one still had her uniform on!). I sat down beside them and hung my 29-year-old head in shame. Things didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped and I almost backed out when I found out that the people who were supposed to join me couldn’t make it. But I was already there so I figured what the hell, andyan na eh. I held on to my camera and waited. A couple of minutes later a burly guy (who was incredibly rude) told us to sit in one row because the band was on its way out. I turned on my camera and then saw several Pinoys surrounding the band, herding them as if they were surrounded by a throng of insane, screaming fans instead of 4 quiet ,teeny girls and bewildered me. There was this feeling-bouncer guy who kept shielding the band members away from us… anong akala nya? Threat kami? Did he think we’ll assault the band with our cameras or worse… with kisses? O to the A! When Jason Wade walked in front of me, we only had Mr. Feeling-Bouncer between us, unfortunately Mr. Feeling-Bouncer was tall and wide and Jason was kinda short. The only opening I had was ruined when two of the girls stepped into my line of vision just as I took my shot (ergo the blurry pic mentioned above).

Later when all of us were waiting for the elevator, one of the girls was checking her camera and moaned, “Manong! Ikaw tuloy yung nakunan ko!” Well, I wanted to say “Miss! Ikaw naman yung nakunan ko!” but I kept my mouth shut, we were all disappointed anyway. When I got down to the basement where my car was parked, naabutan ko pa yung band na pasakay ng van, but I was too pissed off to even do anything so I went straight to my car and just thought of what I wanted to have for lunch.

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Lifehouse Concert at the Araneta Coliseum

#1: Mr. Humongous Bighead.

Pinoys are relatively short, even the men so imagine my disappointment when a tall, white man sat in front me. WTF? Of all the people that could be sitting in front of me, why does it have to be a white man with a big head?

#2: I was waiting for the opening act, but there wasn’t any. I was under the delusion that it would be Matt Nathanson because he’s the front act for Lifehouse’s current tour in the US. Asa pa, and I was so looking forward to telling Jeff (and making him feel bad) that I saw Matt perform live. The best laid plans nga naman o…

#3: The band members tried to rock and jump around, but most of the audience remained immobile. Filipinos are screamers, not jumpers. To be fair, we’re excellent screamers - loud and creative.

#4: Special request ang Take Me Away and Blind.

After the band performed “Blind,” Jason said that they haven’t played it in years but they found out that the Pinoys loved the song, as well as the next song they will perform which was “Take Me Away.” Buti na lang pala nalaman nila ng maaga.

#5: Maganda ang boses ni Jason, powerful and distinctive, kaboses nya yung sa CD… hmm that sounded kinda estooopid.

#6: Masaya naman ang concert, I was with Rosey and she took lots of clear pictures yeehee!

I just saw an episode of Men in Trees and during the last few minutes of the show I heard a beautiful song playing in the background. I immediately googled the song and it took me a while to find it, but find it I did! The song was “Love When I Can” by Nat Jay.

She’s a Canadian Indie Folk/Pop singer who doesn’t have a record out yet so her song is only available on iTunes or CD Baby. Since I only have $0.09 left in my iTunes account and I can’t get hold of an iTunes card in this part of the world I thought I’d try CD Baby and maybe it would actually let me pay for a song I like. Unlike some online music retailers hmph! I found out that CD Baby is a site where independent musicians can sell their music and CD Baby only takes a 9% cut for mp3s and $4 for cds which leaves more moolah for the musicians, which is as it should be.

So there it was on CD Baby, “Love When I Can” by Nat Jay for only $1.00. I’ve never bought anything less than $4.00 using my credit card before and I didn’t even think it was possible to use my credit card for a $1.00 charge, so I was a little hesitant about making this purchase. I researched CD Baby for a while to make sure that it’s a trustworthy site, I also researched credit card policies about minimum purchases and nothing I read raised alarm bells. After more than an hour of indecision, I finally took the plunge and bought the song. Less than a minute later I got an email from CD Baby confirming my purchase and when I went back to my CD Baby account, there was the song I bought, ready for me to download. Yehey!

It would be interesting to see my credit card statement next month, that’s for sure!

I’m totally loving this movie and its soundtrack right now. It was shown last year but I didn’t really pay attention to it until I started listening to Rufus Wainwright again a few weeks ago. Rufus covered the Beatles’ Across the Universe for the movie I Am Sam a few years ago and in my humble opinion, it’s the best cover of that song of all I’ve heard!

Anyway, Across the Universe was on my mind and I suddenly became interested in the movie. So I watched it, and then the next day I watched it again! If you make me watch it now, I’ll still watch it which could only mean that I loved the movie. It’s like a tamer version of Moulin Rouge backed with all the heart and magic only a Beatles song could delilver.

The movie musical is set in New York during the turbulent 1960’s when America was at war with Vietnam. A young man from Liverpool called Jude (Jim Sturgess) came to America to look for his father who doesn’t know he exists. Along the way he meets Max (Joe Anderson), a rebellious Princeton student and his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) whose boyfriend just left to join the war. When Max decides to drop out of school, he invites Jude to go live with him in New York where they meet Sadie (Dana Fuchs) a talented singer, Jojo (Martin Luther McCoy) the new guitarist in Sadie’s band who is recovering from the death of his younger brother and Prudence (T.V. Carpio) a troubled young girl who is trying to find her place in the world. Some big name artists made cameo roles in the movie as well such as Salma Hayek, Joe Cocker, Eddie Izzard and Bono as Dr. Robert.

There are a lot of wonderful scenes in the movie but I think the one that really impressed me was when Max went to the Army for his recruitment tests singing “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)“. Man oh man, perfect choreography and execution there.

Soundtrack:
Martin Luther McCoy has got the most wonderful voice! His rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was stellar. I also liked Jim Sturgess’s version of “Girl” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face“, Joe Cocker’s “Come Together“, Evan Rachel Wood’s “If I Fell“, Dana Fuch’s “Helter Skelter” and Bono’s “I Am the Walrus.”

Hay, there just isn’t enough time to listen to all the albums and songs I want to listen to. Can someone please lend me another ear?

Ditsi and Arnel’s friends Rina and Alvi got married in Baguio last Sunday and they showed a video during the reception of their friends (collectively known as “The Mod Clan”) lip synching to Michael Bublé’s Everything. Galing! (watch out for the guy in green, he’s hilarious!)

I’m really enjoying listening to Paus even if it’s in Swedish. My lack of understanding in lyrics has never been a deterrent in my appreciation of music. Of course when it comes to songs with words you can’t understand, the melody has to hook you in first. Sometimes I get lucky and find translations of songs I like, other times I try to be crafty and make my own translations with the help of an online dictionary.

I did the latter with the Paus album and I hope I got most of it right because there’s a particular song in the album I’m totally in love with right now (Chock). You know how you like a song and there are bits in it that sort of reverberates inside your head? I like how other people’s artistic expressions affect my equilibrium (especially when it takes a bit of time to recover from). While movies have an easier time of doing this to me, listening to music can also have a destabilizing effect, it just takes more involvement.

So ever since Paus, I’ve been looking into other Scandinavian bands, preferably with songs sung in their native tongue. Robyn and the Hives are from Sweden, but they sing in English. So I’ve been doing some research online for the past few days, looking into different musicians from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. I’ve even extended my search into other countries in Europe which led me to Serge Gainsbourg whom I’ve read about in a magazine somewhere sometime ago. Magazines are dead useful, I’ll justify in a future post.

I’ve been listening to Serge’s best of album (in French) as well as a compilation album of his songs sung in English by popular musicians of today such as Franz Ferdinand, Portishead, and Michael Stipe. Nina Persson and Carla Bruni aka Mrs. Nicolas Sarkozy also sing in the album, so it’s a pretty cool and interesting mix of artists. I need to listen to it some more before I can form a definite opinion, but for certain, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s “Je t’aime… moi non plus” or “I love you… me either” is shaping up to be one of my favorites (both versions). The English version by Cat Power and Karen Elson doesn’t sound as racy but the French version? Oooh lala! Find out why! But I suppose that to fully appreciate Serge Gainsbourg’s songs, I’d have to learn French because he’s reputed to be a master lyricist.

note: I’ll post some of the songs I mentioned as soon as I transfer to WordPress, which hopefully will happen soon.

I’ve always loved Cinderella stories, and there’s no better one these days than the one of Arnel Pineda’s. I must have been living under a rock the past few months because I only read about his story from the latest issue of GQ magazine. What’s so cool is Arnel’s rags-to-riches story is so in keeping with the times, being discovered on youtube and all.

I can’t even remember more than two Journey songs, to be perfectly honest. But I’m willing to buy their latest CD called “Revelation” because I’m from the Philippines, and I’m damned proud!

Why Paus Muna?

I’ve spent a frustrating hour and a half looking for online stores selling old cds from European bands… in English.

I’ve only found two and I’m not sure if they’re trustworthy.

I need a few minutes to start doing some research and whether it’s worth the risk. Too bad I don’t know anyone from Europe who could get the cd that I want for me.

Best thing would be for me to GO to Europe MYSELF. Haaaay.

I’m taking a break but I don’t have kitkat, dagnit!

What or Who is Paus?

Paus is Swedish for Pause.

More importantly, Paus is the name of the band Peter Svensson formed with Joakim Berg back in 1998.

Peter Svensson is the guitarist from The Cardigans.

And no, they’re not a one hit wonder. Lovefool is by no means the best single they’ve ever released. Not by a long shot.

I’m a big big fan of The Cardigans.

I’m an even bigger fan of Peter because he is a vacker, begåvad musiker**.

Plus we share the same birthday! Ooooh like that means anything right? Martina Navratilova, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Lee Harvey Oswald were also born on October 18. I’m pretty sure I’m not gay, sporty, a cheesy actor or an assassin. At least not yet.

Anyway, I’ve known about Peter’s projects outside of The Cardigans for years now but I’ve always been contented with what cd I could easily get from the record stores here in Asia. Then for some reason, I started thinking about his solo work today and decided to buy the Paus album… not knowing it was going to be a bitch to find online.

I’d have to content myself with this for now.

*meh! = hwatever
**handsome/beautiful = vacker, talented = begåvad, musician = musiker

Before Penelope Cruz became famous, I’ve always thought that the way you pronounce Penelope was Pen-eh-lop. That’s the pinoy in me I guess. I also thought Hermione was Her-me-on at first haha! I’m sure there are more names I couldn’t pronounce but those two come to mind the most.

We went to the movies a couple of days ago because atsi and Jamie wanted to watch Semi-Pro. I just couldn’t see myself shelling out several dollars to watch a Will Ferrell slapstick comedy (even if it was atsi doing the paying), I just couldn’t. So my mom and I watched Penelope instead. I didn’t know much about what the movie was about but I knew James McAvoy was in it. People who know me well know enough to know that I will endure really bad movies if there’s a handsome guy I liked in it. That’s why actors should be handsome, because there are a lot of people like me in the world.

I read a review the next day stating that “the movie overdosed on whimsy.” Yeah, it wasn’t a good movie but James looked so handsome. My mother agreed. It could have worked if only it was edited better and there was less overacting by almost everyone. The director didn’t do that good of a job in my opinion, too bad, too bad. James looked so handsome.

What left an impression on me besides James after the movie was the music… and how James looked so handsome even when he was disheveled. There were a couple of songs that really moved me, and they were the instrumental version of Hoppipolla by Wenzel Templeton and Robert Pegg aka Sigur Rós (pronounced as See-veroush) and Waking Life by Schuyler Fisk (pronounced as Skyler)… these names! Hay naku!

Sigur Rós is a wonderful band from Iceland. I first heard about them when the Vanilla Sky soundtrack came out. They make beautiful, eerily sentimental, ethereal, melodic music such as I’ve never heard of before. Definitely worth a listen. Schuyler Fisk on the other hand was unknown to me. Turns out she’s the daughter of Sissy Spacek and is a part-time actor and musician. She has a beautiful voice and she sang a beautiful song. I tried to buy the two songs on iTunes but it wouldn’t allow me to buy just Schuyler’s song, I had to buy the whole album! But no regrets. My $9.99 was well spent because it’s such a great soundtrack. Give In by The Secret 6, Queen of the Surface Streets by DeVotchKa, The Kiss by Joby Talbot and Your Disguise by James Greenspun are also favorites. Practically the whole album is a favorite. Buy the soundtrack!

A Fine Frenzy’s first album, One Cell in the Sea, is my favorite album at the moment.

She reminds me a lot of Imogen Heap of Frou Frou fame, not that she sounds anything like Imogen, I just find their voices unique and their music, distinctive.

One of the songs in the album is “Almost Lover” and I think I’d make that my “Valentine Song for the Bigo” this year.

For those feeling the love though, here’s a more cheerful song from one of the best movies last year.

I started early on Wednesday. I dressed in my most comfortable shirt, wore an old pair of jeans and my dirty but trusty Levi’s sneakers. I took the train to Manila from Monumento to run my errands, it was scorching outside. I went to PWU, St. Scholastica’s, Robinson’s Place, SM Manila and back to PWU again in 6 hours. Yes, 6 hours.

When I got to ditsi’s office at around 5pm I was completely exhausted but Cresta and I were still trying to make plans for the night. The drive back from Globe to Makati was crazy. The traffic was unusually heavy for a Wednesday night and then we realized that the Beyoncé concert may have something to do with it. I was really looking forward to a long, cold shower to wash the day away from my hair and memory but alas! It wasn’t meant to be.

One by one our friends sent us messages that they couldn’t make it for one reason or another, so it was down to Cresta and me… and then my mobile beeped. It was Allen. He just got free tickets to Beyoncé’s concert. Before you can say Pikachu ten times, I was already on my way haha! I looked sapsap but it didn’t matter, it was Beyoncé!

When we got to the Fort the parking became an issue and we had to park a long way off. We could already hear Beyoncé singing… “baby boy, you stay on my mind…”and I tried my best to walk fast on the talahib, eeeeyuch!

After a few minutes Allen got our tickets from his friends, 94.7 DJ Chloe and Mac who stepped outside to get some food because apparently, McDonald’s has already ran out of food inside. There were ALOT of people and I had a difficult time seeing the screen but I enjoyed the concert. Beyoncé’s voice was just amazing. After all her head banging, twirling, swirling, and jumping around she can still sing effortlessly! You can’t hear her panting at all!

The dancers were also great, the choreography from what I could see was top-notch! It was too bad that we missed the first 40 minutes of the show, but shit, the ticket was free and the rest of the concert was great, I’m not complaining