Turning a year older – and wiser?

I turn a year wiser today, hopefully. Age suddenly becomes an issue. It must be my vain, insecure, gay hormones acting up. When somebody asks now old I am – I talk about mileage not the number of years. I talk about the poetry of Maya Angelou and Pablo Neruda. I make my age a piece of poetry – in riddle from whose answer depends on the need of the moment.

It’s actually fun. When someone says I look like I’m about to turn 30, I turn pale and allow the lie to creep into my groins. I hold my breath for a few seconds and smile like a beauty queen who paid for her crown. When an impertinent wag blurts an age – one year more than my real age straight to my face – I review in my mind the 48 Laws of Power. How do you destroy an enemy? And I start the battle by turning invisible, leaving the wag talking to a shadow until he looks so stupid that he goes nowhere but retreat to the hinterland of shame and ignominy.

But what the heck! Everyone turns 32! (Ha! Ha! Ha!)

Today, I’m grateful. I’m grateful that you are reading this piece and perhaps smiling and feeling helpless that you can’t slap me for being a congenital mathematical liar!

Thank you to all for your kindness. All my life, like Blanche Dubois, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. And the kindness of God. I promise to continue opening my heart to the gifts of the universe.

Lani has gone far

A long shot from a few years ago, when if you would have told Lani Misalucha that she would be performing to an uproarious SRO crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, or better yet, at the Main Theater of the prestigious Cultural Center of the Philippines with a 40-piece Philharmonic Orchestra and the world renowned Madrigal singers, she would simply scoff at you as if you were a hopeless mental case.

Not so now. In recent days, Lani has been focusing all her energies on the demands of her career which has gone from hot to white-hot following her spectacularly successful major concert at the Araneta Coliseum only weeks ago. Now, she is all set to make her debut at the Cultural Center of the Philippines – in the Main Theater – no less, taking centerstage on Oct. 30 and 31 for Lani Misalucha: A Nightingale Sings at the CCP, a concert produced by the CCP together with Garibaldi International that will have the singer backed by a 40-piece Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Salonga. She will be joined by the Philippine Madrigal Singers, flutist Antonio Maigue and tenor Ramon Aycomo and pop diva Kuh Ledesma.

Going from the Araneta Coliseum to the legendary CCP Main Theater – where the world’s best in the performing arts have taken their bow – is nothing to sniff at, especially if you consider that Lani first registered in the public consciousness only three years ago.

"I was perfectly happy with what I was doing before all this," she says without false modesty, referring to the years she spent singing commercial jingles and providing the "guiding voice" in the karaoke recordings of the hit songs of Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, among others. "The money was enough to augment my family income, and I never fantasized about aiming for a prominent place in show business and going as far as I have."

There are few disbelievers that Lani will go much further still, what with that exquisite voice that she can take to the deep valleys of musical arrangement before soaring to its high peaks in a fashion that has never failed to leave her audience thrilled beyond expectations.

No doubt, they will be once more when his nightingale takes flight from the stage of the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Lani Misalucha: A Nightingale Sings at the CCP is a production of Primeline, Inc with Leo Rialp as stage director and Noel Ferrer and Ida Henares as scripwriters. Tickets (priced at P5,000, P2,500, P2,000, P1,500, P1,000 and P500) are available at Ticketworld, Primeline, Inc., Robinson’s Department Store, Music Museum, Tower Records, National Bookstore and at the CCP Box Office. You can also call Manolet Garcia at 0917-2417907 or 0919 6543586 for ticket delivery.

Ai-Ai’s turn

Meanwhile, the country’s undisputed Queen of Comedy concerts, Ai-Ai de las Alas is back in the major concert arena with an upcoming concert billed as Out of This World Na Me, Araneta Na Kasi!! happening on Dec. 1, 8 p.m., at the Big Dome.

After lording it over at the Folk Arts Theater with her three sell-out concerts – Respect Me in 1998, Seduct Me in 1999 and Abuse Me in 2000 – the irrepressible Ai-Ai this year dares to conquer the Big Dome.

With the Araneta Coliseum’s estimated 18,000 seating capacity, Ai-Ai takes on the challenge of duplicating her Folk Arts feats. "Siempre, nakakababa kasi mas malaki na nga ang Araneta pero ang masasabi ko lang eh kung gusto niyong mataw at makalimutan kahit sandali ang mga problema ninyo, manood kayo ng concert ko at siguradong hahagalpak kayo sa kakatawa," says Ai-Ai.

Lending support to Ai-Ai are (in alphabetical order) Pops Fernandez, Patricia Javier, Jaya, Manouvres, Monserrat Male Choir, Side A, The Hunks and the Whiplash Dancers, with Floy Quintos as writer and director for the show and Beth Martin as musical director.

Tickets, period at P1,575, P1,260, P840, P630, P315 and P158 (all tickets are inclusive of a 5 percent service charge) will soon be available at all SM Ticketnet outlets, Backroom, Inc. (435, 1108, 435 1120), JLF Organization (634 7773 or 76) and at the Araneta Ticketnet (911 5555).

Out of this World Na Me, Araneta Na Kasi!! is a production of JLF Organization, Backroom, Inc. and JV JBRS Entertainment Inc. The concert is for the benefit of the Golden Acres Home for the Aged and Infirm. Presentors are 123-700 Bayan Kollect Sa America at Canada and the Manila Bulletin. Special tanks to ABS-CBN, The New Kamameshi House, Arielle Agasang, Raymund Isaac, Tapa King, Tokyo Tokyo, Douglas Nierras Powerdance Studio, Aqua Soft Purified Drinking Water, Thai-In-A-Box and Pizza Hut. Official concert stations are 93.9 KCFM, Angel Radyo 1026, 105.1 Crossover, Monster Radio RX 93.1, Campus Radio 97.1 DWLS-FM, 101.1 Yes-FM and 90.7 Love Radio.