Category Archives: MYSELF

SITTING IN THE AIRPORT BAR, TRYING TO LOOK LIKE A SUPERSTAR

Posted on by
2

one way sunday – kanta ng isang musikero while on tour… sa isang banda, parang ako: biyahero at engineer na musikerong patago. in short, OFW na mahilig sa karaoke!

palagi ko itong pinatutugtog sa CD player ko. ewan ko kung bakit pero, para sa akin ang haunting na lyrics at musika nina mark-almond ay bagay na bagay sa tulad kong OFW na malayo sa pilpinas. actually wala namang connection ang musika nila sa pagiging OFW ko pero naantig ang puso ko tuwing papatugtugin ko ang CD nila. ang dating sa akin ay bitter-sweet na mga ala-ala.

Continue reading →

1979

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t let me drift too far,
Keep me where you are
Where I will always be renewed.
And that which you’ve given me today
Is worth more than I could pay
And no matter what they say
I believe in you.

i believe in you, from the great Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming album. what made this lp great? wala lang – si bob dylan lang naman at si mark knopfler ang gumawa ng album. naalala ko pa nung unang lumabas ito… 14 years old pa lang ako. binili ko ang cassete na ito sa halagang 18 pesos sa isang record bar sa santiago, isabela. ang daddy ko kasi ay na-assign sa isang radio station sa norte at lumipat kami doon ng isang taon.

ang taon ay 1979, to be exact.

1979…mother theresa wins the nobel peace prize, margaret thatcher becomes new prime minister, john wayne dies, apocalypse now is shown on movie theaters, stephen king comes out with The Dead Zone and the world population reaches 4.3 billion people.

“1979”…di lang ito kanta ng SMASHING PUMPKINS (sample lyrics for epeks…”And we don’t know Just where our bones will rest, To dust I guess, Forgotten and absorbed, into the earth below”).

1979 was a great year of music.

1979 was the year dire straits released their 2nd album – Communiqué – “They wanna get a statement for Jesus sake, It’s like talking to the wall, He’s incommunicado no comment to make, He’s saying nothing at all…”

1979 was the year The Atlanta Rhythm Section released their “underdog” lp, ang paborito ng bayan ay ang kantang “do it or die”: “don’t let your troubles make you cry, don’t waste a moment wondering why, when everything goes wrong, you have to on and do it or die…”

1979 was the year Supertramp came out with their best lp called “Breakfast in America”… and of course the best song was…what else: “The Logical Song”

When I was young,
it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees,
well they’d be singing so happily,
joyfully, playfully watching me.

But then they send me away
to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world
where I could be so dependable,
clinical, intellectual, cynical…

this was my song – my Logical Song… 1979 was the end of the innocence…

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn’t have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standin’ by
But “happily ever after” fails
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers dwell on small details
Since daddy had to fly

1979 was the year my daddy had to fly… ang galing ano? 14 years old pa lang ay full of music na, kaya lang nga eh walang daddy.

BLUEJAY

Posted on by
Reply

handle ko ay “bluejay” – medyo baduy, then freddie coco suggested i change it to “jd transit”. hehehe… i was in rj around 1987 when it was still in the j&t bldg at santa mesa. around that time, i was still studying engineering at mapua (4th year).

after school (around 8:30 pm), i’d board a bus in front of the manila city hall and reach j&t around 9:30. i still had 30 minutes to get my cassetes (wala pang cd nung araw) and chat with “the red rooster” who had the 8-10 om slot (sadly, the red rooster died a couple of years ago – a pity, we was a great guy…) i got on board at 10:00 pm and finished at 2:00 AM. afterwards, i had to commute home in a jeep with the rest of the graveyard shift people – drunks, drug addicts, snatchers and hospitality girls.

it was great to work at the tower, especially in the late evenings. you’d see manila by night from up there and it was really beautiful. the city lights and the great music more than paid for my meager “allowance”. wala kasi akong suweldo eh… hehehe.

doubleA was the station manager, dante was the chief announcer, there was freddie coco, bob magoo, monster radio’s the gaucho (i forgot his name, damn – hehehe).

i spent a semester at rj – they fired me afterwards, hehehe… actually, they changed their format again and they fired everybody except dante.

in that short stint, i lost around 30 pounds becuase of the late nights every night except sunday. not to mention, the school work in the afternoon and evening. my grades started getting bad and it was time to make a career move. i chose engineering and left radio to my dad and brother.

IT’S NEARLY A YEAR…

Posted on by
Reply

what’s been going on in my life recently? nothing much really. i still work as an engineer here in singapore. it’s been more that 10 months since my wife and i left good old pilipinas.

…meanwhile there’s this case i got to handle regarding the alarm handling of an australian customer and it can’t wait. problem is i don’t know anything about what they’re talking about and it pisses me off. time to hit the books and start reading…

“ON WRITING”

Posted on by
4

i got a copy of stephen king’s “on writing” at the airport on my way home to manila. it’s in my bag and keeping me company on my bus ride to and from work. very interesting – makes me want to go ahead and write my own story about the couple in new york he mentions in his exercise.

in my version though, it happens in the slum area of bagong barrio, kalookan. the husband abuses the wife and has incest with his daughter. one night in a fit of rage, the husband accidentally hits his wife in the face and head. she goes crazy. he goes to jail. the daughter grows up in the streets of monumento – sniffing glue and selling her body to the bus drivers who ply the UE Kalookan – Baclaran route. they do it at night in a makeshift banig, right below the statue of andres bonifacio.

Continue reading →

MERRY CHRISTMAS?

Posted on by
Reply

this is my first christmas out of the country. my first christmas in singapore.

there’s not that much christmas cheer really. tumatanda na ako, di ko na na-enjoy ang pasko. parang parehong araw lang ito, katulad ng mga nag-daan ng mga araw – kisap-matang nawala. wow, ang gandang salita “kisap-mata”: “blink of an eye”… para bagang isang pa-profound effect to impress gentle reader. hehehe… amazing!

“it’s amazing whoop, with the blink of an eye, suddenly it’s alright”. sabi nga ni aerosmith. ang bilis talaga ng panahon. sana next year na, para pwede nang umuwi at mag-baskasyon.

merry christmas na lang, whatever it still means.

BARBER’S CUT

Posted on by
2

kwentong barbero? i had a haircut recently. very interesting. the best barbers here in singapore are malay. why? ewan. why are the best barbers in the philippines, kapangpangan? ewan din. if you visit the good barber shops in manila – there’s a very good chance that most of them are kapangkapang. its just that way, i guess. how do you spell necktie in kapampangan? hen-hee-si-kitty-hi-hee! hehehe… coffee? si-ho-hef-hef-hee-hee! hehehe! hay nahkuh! takshapoka… where was i? oh, okay…

the malay barber asked me: “are you pare?”

“huh?”

“are you pare? are you filipino?”

“ahh! yes, i am pare.”

Continue reading →

OFW

Posted on by
Reply

i am an OFW, an overseas filipino worker. now, i am part of that “babalik ka rin crowd” you see around christmas time, arriving at the NAIA in droves from all over, gold chain around their necks, in jeans and maong jacket, ray-ban shades, goatee, and baseball cap, pababa pa lang ang eroplano kinukuha na ang hand carry luggage at nag papalakpakan na’t handang halikan ang lupa pagka landing!