A handful of ‘needling’

The last couple of months have sadly been age-recognition time for me. A great champion of denial, I used to play badminton thrice a week with the people from ABS (from 8 to 11 p.m. on weekdays), try to swim on the weekends and allow my boys to jump on my back and fake-wrestle on the nights they’d sleep over. It didn’t help that their best moves would be the sneaky surprise "sucker punch in the crotch" and the "at least two of them trying to hang on my back at the same time to make me kneel to the floor in surrender." When we swim, we also have this jousting game with my 12-year-old standing on my shoulders, while the six-year old would clamber onto the shoulders of my eldest, who’s 15 (Sheesh, 15! How time flies!).

So wouldn’t you know it, this creaky edifice called my half-century body finally registered a major complaint. There were days when, no thanks to my lower back pains, it would literally take me more than five minutes in the morning just to put on my socks. I don’t know how many of you out there are beset by these kind of back problems; but if you want a truly humbling experience – one that painfully drives home just how one is reaching "lolo" mode – these back problems will do it for you. My Dad had a slipped disc; and so my immediate fear was that I had done the same to myself, and I remember only too well how there would be days he’d be in excruciating pain.

My savior came in the person of Sammy Uy. A real-estate developer and businessman by profession, Sammy studied Oriental Medicine and does acupuncture for friends, and those who are referred to him by these friends. Lucky for me, he counts my brother-in-law Buboy among his friends. On Monday and Thursday afternoons, it’s a bizarre sight entering his office, as seated all around, are people holding their left hands skywards. Why? Because their hands are encased by acupuncture needles. After my sessions with Sammy, I have over 24 needles on my left hand; a bunch at the back, and a number on my palm and in certain fingers. I have to leave them on for some three hours and take them off myself. Yes, very gingerly and oh-so carefully. Truth be told, these twice-weekly acupuncture sessions, and the 30 minutes with my back under some heat lamp, have really done wonders. I don’t feel like a spry 25-year-old, but just being able to bend and put my socks on again without agonizing to find a comfortable position is a godsend in itself.

Of course, I just couldn’t ride with the herd and sit in Sammy’s office for over three hours. Like a fool, I wanted to freak out the boys one evening – show them how my hand was doing its very best impersonation of hand puppet of Pinhead from Hellraiser. Forgot how they love to slam into me in affectionate greeting; so ended up like some contortionist, avoiding at all costs their jamming any of the needles further into my hand. That was a real scary incident, and of course, when they did see the needles, they were curious and disgusted in equal proportions, wondering how much they hurt.

I continue to see Sammy as these back problems don’t disappear overnight. I would recommend him and the treatment to anyone, as the relief I’ve experienced in making the pain and aches manageable can’t be measured. The days when I’d traverse six feet in six minutes are thankfully over.

Samba-one to watch over me

I have always been a fan of Brazilian music. When samba and bossa music hit the airwaves in the ’60s, it was Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao and Astrud Gilberto that pushed MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) to be a global phenomenon. Subsequent to that, in the ’80s and ’90s, MPB was defined by Tropicalismo, a music movement championed by the likes of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte and Nascimiento. I was a fervent fan, even if I couldn’t make heads or tails of the lyrics. The music was just that lilting and infectious, the Portuguese that seductive!

So to find that here in the Philippines, a 21-year-old chanteuse was trying to make a career out of being a bossa singer was a very pleasant surprise. It’s hard enough to make waves in a country where every other person is, by reputation, a potential recording star in hiding. Then, to choose such a niche genre would seemingly even lower your chances of being noticed and given that "break;" and yet, thanks to the full support of Ricky Ilacad of Warner Music, I now have Sitti’s Cafe Bossa CD constantly playing in my car.

The playlist of songs on the CD is impeccable. You have your expected bossa anthems, a sprinkling of contemporary songs given the samba treatment, and some revivals that truly hit the spot. Bong Pinera’s Samba Song reports for duty, and the last cut, is another great Tagalog tune. Sitti consulted with a Portuguese teacher for the pronunciation of the Brazilian refrains. Chito Servanez takes the credits for the musical arrangements and he gets high marks for his work. A curious and hard-to-believe sidebar story is that the recording for all the 18 tracks were done over one day. As Sitti recounted, they recorded each track twice from morning to evening because they were after a live feel, and she even had a gig that night!

Sitti’s live gigs allow her to improvise and even scat within the songs. It’s all part and parcel of creating a curious hybrid of jazz and MPB. She performs regularly at the Stone House, Richmonde Hotel and other select lounges. For a night of music that relaxes and enthralls, Sitti’s act fits the bill. She’s got the potential to make some kind of mark abroad. If Japan’s Lisa Ono managed to create a global buzz with her version of Brazilian music, it’s not farfetched to imagine how Sitti Navarro can one day provide that from a Philippine perspective.

In the meantime, her CD continues to get its fair share of play. And it’s encouraging to have friends hear the CD and comment right away about how good it sounds, thinking it is some foreign act and not a 21-year-old Filipina.