Imagine a world without music. Imagine watching Lord of the Rings 3, aka Return of the King: The Journey Ends, without the chest-thumping syncopation heating up the mind-blowing battle scenes, or those soaring strains enhancing the triumph of good, and the haunting refrains limning lovely Liv’s incandescent, stolen beauty as Arwen… Imagine the Godfather series without the now-familiar theme by Coppola pere, or Star Wars 4, 5, 6, 1 and 2 urged along with nothing but sound effects.
No, films can’t do without music for an emotional manipulator, even if it can get rather obtrusive on occasion. Sometimes, too, a movie employs a known classical piece, and ruins our pure appreciation of the music by having to associate it henceforth with visual imagery. An example would be Peter Weir’s Gallipoli, the viewing of which colored my husbanding of solace whenever I listen to the Albinoni Adagio, which was appropriated as the film’s disconsolate theme. Now I can’t listen to it without imaging ANZAC forces trudging toward death during World War I.
Whatever. Music rules. Especially classical music. (Heh-heh; forgive me, am in my 50s.) So I hope you can join this long-haired freakie in a noble crusade.
98.7 dzFE ("The Master’s Touch") on FM radio needs help. Caroline of the Plaridel e-group posted a call for regular listeners to make their numbers known by phone.
Program supervisor Tiffany Joy Liong writes: "We are encouraging everyone who listens to 98.7 dzFE to register their presence as listeners by texting or calling… If you prefer to call, dial 892-6235 on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and look for Ellen. Let her know you are calling for ‘Touch Base’… If you prefer to text, key in DZFE <space> TOUCH <space>, your full name and profession, and send to 2299…. We will be running the campaign through December, and possibly into January. The numbers that we come up with will be crucial in determining the fate of the station..."
Oh, no. Another crisis seems to have gripped my favorite radio station. Weeks back I noted with alarm that it started signing off at 1p.m., and resuming broadcast at 6p.m. That meant five hours of absent music to soothe frayed nerves through metropolitan traffic. Or no classical music to accompany my keypunching at home.
For decades now I’ve been a 98.7 FM listener, and have appreciated its intelligent programming no end, so much so that I forgive it its religious commercials. And I’ve always wondered why the station has to ever come under duress at all. If there’s any institution that deserves government support, or generous corporate funding, it ought to be 98.7 dzFE. It has to be saved. Better yet, some angels should turn it into a 24-hour bounty. Heaven knows our country’s in such cahoots with lords of darkness that we need angel sounds to calm us down for much of the day, if not for all time.
Still on music, CDs certainly make for easy, lightweight Xmas gifts, especially for friends abroad. As November closed, I made sure to ship out a good number of copies of Pinikpikan’s latest CD album, "Kaamulan," to siblings and old buddies from Australia to America.
I’m sure the throbbing "Flip Tribal Funk" parade will be immensely appreciated. Nothing like Pinoy ethnic influences, rendered via ensemble percussion, to warm up winter nights, or in our friend Down Under’s case, cool up his summer beach outings.
As the literature asserts in the CD booklet, "So now we have another coming together, another gathering, another festive fusion of ethnic FLIP and evanescent FUNK. No flip-flop here, no flim-flam, but a Third (World) force of rhythmic synergy to sway and swoon to – a third CD album to entice everyone into trance dance. Comfort music it is for a community in communion…"
Released by Tao Music, Pinikpikan’s "Kaamulan" should be available at all self-respecting music stores. Or text Menchie at 0917-5470507 or Su at 0919-7525139.
"So where’s Buendia stealing from now?" That was the surprisingly catty reaction from a rather musically precocious nephew when I mentioned that I had just received The Mongols’ CD album titled "Buddha’s Pest."
Haven’t listened to it yet, I said, but why do you say that? I gathered that Ely Buendia, who had reportedly outgrown the famous Eraserheads, was known to be immensely talented as a songwriter, but that some purists decry his being too derivative. In fairness, this nephew allowed, Buendia manifests influences from great good sources. Yah? Like what? I asked. The Beatles, for one. Yah, well, everyone tries to copy The Beatles at some point or other.
The young boy nodded. A mean guitarist himself, he admitted that he may have sounded exactly that, mean. I was just being facetious, Tito; delete that remark. Ely Buendia is a good Pinoy songwriter; he has a way with lyrics.
Nice to hear that, I said. And as I proceeded to start the CD and pore over the program notes, the kid explained knowingly that Buendia was now Jesus "Dizzy" Ventura with The Mongols, together with Yan Yuzon (hey, I think he was a poetry student of mine last sem), Jerome Velasco, and Boga "Man" Jugo.
"Garage, garage," my nephew mumbled as he slunk off with what I thought was an all-knowing smirk, more than a half-smile. Indeed, I could see where The Beatles charge came from, as I noted what seemed like repetitive motifs. What was sparingly melodic with ye olde Liverpudlian sound seemed to segue too to Velvet Underground.
After initially appreciating the iambic-trimeter-driven listlessness of Bulakbol, I wondered if the Gen Gap had gotten the better of me, for I soon had the sense that most of the songs seemed to sound the same, with languid delivery of textual lines followed by strong guitar riffs. The same beat, the same melodic downturns, upturns. But this album wasn’t a suite; besides, suites had to have distinctive departures every section or so.
Keeping an open mind and ear, I noted the distinctive enjambments employed by Buendia/Ventura in the cut Irish Spring: "She’s lying down… on a/ White satin bed… in a/ Tight flower dress… with a/…" Vocal hesitation moves, let’s call the tactic, delaying and stretching each line’s close, then effecting the run-on trick.
Okay, I appreciate the lyrics alright, inclusive of the audacity (well, tame stuff I suppose, now that our 13-year-old girl’s turned into an Eminem fanatic) of lines like "I’m gonna f**k you like/ there’s no tomorrow" (from Heroine), or "I’m not constrained by your constraints / That trap you in your f**king game" from It’s Over. Hmm. Remind me to buttress an argument with fellow MTRCB previewers by pointing out, if rhetorically: "So how come even our homegrown music gets away with four-letter words, in albums and album notes both, when in a movie for TV we can hardly keep such?"
In any case, this album is by Criminal Records, and should be available at all record bars, else get in touch with Diane S. GOD at 0918-923-4309 to order a copy.
A third CD I gotta plug, and y’all should acquire copies of, for senti’s sake, for camp appreciation, for fun and happiness. We are, after all, a nation of karaoke and videoke geniuses. So what better champion there is to represent us all, trans-generationally at that, than the doughty doyenne Armida Siguion Reyna with her "breakthrough" album "Pop Lola" released by Viva Records?
If we’re thrilled to have Gilda Cordero Fernando as our pop lola for literature, theater and fashion, we should be equally happy to have Queen Armida-lah-lah-lah as a counterpart for song.
Here she essays, with trademark tremolo that suggests tongue-in-cheek treatment, the following classics in bilingual fashionista fashion: Sway; Hanggang; Kahit Konti (a fresh take on a Gary Granada classic); Yesterday I Heard the Rain; Can’t Take My Eyes Off You; Ngayon Pa Lang Tagumpay Ka Na (in a memorable duet with apo Cris Villonco); Sinaktan Mo Ang Puso Ko by Michael V (this one’s a scream, the most amusing of the lot, with the brilliant lyrics ‘Sinaktan mo ang puso ko, kinaskas mo ng sipilyo/ Tinaktakan ng Ajinomoto, ipinakain sa aso/ Sinaktan mo ang puso ko, ngayon ako’y naghihingalo/ Mauubusan na ‘ko ng dugo…’); Night and Day; For All We Know; Kahit Na; Smile; and Tagubilin at Habilin (recited rather urgently by Armida, written by José F. Lacaba like Desiderata with a punch, and backgrounded with piano music composed and performed by Ryan Cayabyab).
Conceived by Monique Villonco, the album that may be said to have strung up Armida – in the sense that she agreed to go along with the fun idea ("I just want to be happy," she said to her musical arrangers) – makes for a fine Xmas present across all generations and socio-cultural classes, from videoke patrons to MTV aficionados.
Speaking of which, here are a few select recommendations for gift books for the season:
The Nymph of MTV, a poetry collection, his first, by Angelo Suarez (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House). Quite a combo: The oldest printing press in the region and our youngest published poet (at 19). With blurbs from Cirilo F. Bautista: "Watch out for Angelo Suarez. He knows the moves." and Dr. Gémino H. Abad: "New remarkable Pinoy poetry from English! Poetry of gonads and eyes,’ and of Now’s hum and drum, like ‘potty politics.’ You can’t let go of this treasure-trove: what sardonic humor like shebang of crap, what erotic tenderness and affection ‘of earthy coinage,’ from ‘Benches Missing’ to ‘Moms Baking Cats,’ from ‘Premonition’ to ‘Reclamation,’ from ‘Contact Sutra’ and the dog Shiva to the ‘Woman Who Reminds Me of India.’ Ah, our English can’t help itself, we must help it grow with us."
Checkmeta: The Cesar Ruiz Aquino Reader, published by Midland Press of Davao City. Stories, poems, critical essays and excerpts from a novelistic memoir-in-progress by "the legendary chess and word assassin of the South." If you can’t wait for the Manila launch by mid-January, e-mail sands_coral@hotmail.com or idiosgeniot@yahoo.com for advance orders.
Dalitext, edited by Virgilio S. Almario (National Artist for Literature), Romulo P. Baquiran Jr. and Victor Emmanuel Carmelo Nadera, published by the NCCA. With gestural paintings on paper by Egai Fernandez, book design by Fidel Rillo. And an informative Intro titled "Sa Muling Pagkabuhay ng Dalit" by Almario: "…(T)ungkulin ng muling-pagbuhay sa dalit ang papapalaya sa anyong ito mula sa kinabilangguang paksang panimbahan tungo sa pagpapahayag ng orihinal at makabuluhang saloobin ng mga Filipino."
The small, handcrafted book, bound by twine going through twin holes, features the winning entries in the Dalitext contest conducted last August, with nationalism as the theme.
Sent as SMS or "text" via cell phones were quatrains in Filipino with eight syllables per line and a single rhyming scheme.
Two first prizes per week, plus eight entries given honorable mention, make for a total of 40 winning poems in the Tagalog dalit form. Each one faces a gestural painting in full color by Egai Fernandez. And for this collection of 40 visual squares alone, Zen-like and restful, the book turns into a collector’s item. I can even imagine a visual arts fan detaching a few of Fernandez’s abstract renditions to have them framed (even with the two stringing holes) for hanging on a wall. Actually, all 40 paintings would make a marvelous series on any wall, except that the neighborhood framer would get wealthy in the process.
The catch is that only 200 copies were funded for printing by the NCCA. I hear that the precious produce may have run out this early. In which case a reprint is definitely in order.
Tahanan: A House Reborn by Reynaldo G. Alejandro and Vicente Roman S. Santos, edited by Llita T. Logarta and Renan S. Prado, impeccably designed by Orland S. Punzalan, published by Duende Publishing. This coffee-table book pays glorious homage to the 1917 Santos-Andres house in Navotas that was moved piece by piece, in a triumphant modern version of the bayanihan spirit, to Antipolo where it was remounted. The two-year effort is recorded faithfully in this unique book, which, like the effort to relocate a prized, vintage residence, is obviously a labor of love. Slipped inside, for instance, is a folded, poster-sized sheet showing both the Roman Santos Family Tree and the Juliana Andres Family Tree
As the flap blurb promises, "Faithful reconstruction and unobtrusive renovation meet in a labor of Filipino heritage conservation." The book also includes family memorabilia covering over 150 years that were unearthed during the transfer, a history of Navotas as hometown, anecdotes highlighting a family’s oral tradition, and the patriarch’s autobiographical entries.
Then, too, a section features an era’s culinary secrets, as revealed by a fresh generation in recipe form. The bringhe or Luzon-style rice I must try to duplicate. The mantecado or carabao milk ice cream I must get someone to serve me, very soon. Then there are the pastel de pollo, suam na bayabas or sautéed guavas, and pininyahang kilawing atay or pork liver with pineapple, among sumptuous-looking others.
The styles of Navotas and Malabon houses are compared, with various photographic studies of facades. From Comedor to Cocina to Cuartos, each feature of the house is lovingly and profusely detailed.
Such is the value of clan memoirs, that it’s become a welcome effort for conscientious Gen-Xers to pay homage to family trees and treasures. E-mail duende@qinet.net for a copy of this authentic collectible.
Also launched recently along with this book were a pair of charming booklets, courtesy of the same co-authors and editorial team: Parol: Christmas Star Lantern and Pabalat: Pastillas Wrappers. Both are pretty and entirely informative.
What a wealth of treasures we can lay claim to, from season to season.