Friday, February 28, 2003
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
my highschool years was spent inside a convent, no i was not pregnant nor was i a troubled teen, i went to school there because it was written in the stars, it's all about keeping up with the legacy of my ancestors, you know tradition and all that crap. so anyway, in my first year of highschool, the whole grunge movement suddenly arrived to our tiny island of iloilo (it was in 1992), we embraced it with open arms, suddenly our nkotb records were replaced by pearl jam and nirvana, for the "less angry" alternative (more acoustic guitar based songs) was the way to go, suddenly we were not kids anymore, we became more aware of our surroundings not just involved with ourselves, there is a big world outside and we were stuck inside the four corners of the convent and conform to the principles of the nuns that run our school. we began to bring walkmans to school and our allowance was spent on tapes i met my close friend for almost 10 years because of our common love for East 17 and vanessa paradis (i still cringe everytime i remember this) , music was the only way for us to express what we truly feel inside, for a generation brought up by tv we were enthralled by the introduction of cable tv and would watch mtv 24/7. for some people highschool is a period in their lives that they would want to erase, for me highschool molded me into the person i am today, all my quirks, my insecurities and my hang ups without all of these my life wouldn't have been such an interesting journey.
it's very hard to choose which ones should be in the list, it should be more than 5 however, these albums below really stand out, because when i put these records on i usually have this weird feeling that i am still wearing my plaid skirt and necktie eating banacue and drinking funchum while waiting for the bell to ring. anyhoo here are the 5 albums (and songs) that accompanied me throughout my highschool years.
Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience
i first heard about the gin blossoms while i was watching mtv, adam curry was the vj for the us top 20, it was 6 in the evening on a saturday and i was home alone. "hey jealousy" was in the countdown i think it was number 12, it was 1993, i was growing my hair and had attitude problems. religion class was kicking my ass my grades were pretty bad but i didn't care, highschool's fun i said to myself. the following week when i got my allowance of 100 pesos (about $2) i immediately purchased their record a cassette tapes costs 90 pesos at that time so i had make do with 10 pesos for the whole week. a friend of mine thought that the song was titled "hey chelsea" laughed at her behind her back and didn't even have the decency to correct her, god i was such an immature snob .
Nirvana- Unplugged
learning to play the guitar was the biggest thing to hit our class, everybody lugged around their acoustic guitars and would play during recess and lunch time. instead i opted to learn the piano. nirvana's unplugged album came out around that time, everybody knew the opening chords for "come as you are" but fumbled with the rest of the songs. i learned a new word that year "horny", we had an assignment for our media class to play your favorite song and analyze its lyrics, my friend chose lithium, we started singing then the line "i'm so horny" came up, our teacher was peeved, we had no idea why, until an exchange student from canada told us what it meant, that made us shut up.
Weezer- blue album
undone the sweater song was on constant rotation. i was 13 going on 14, my grades were improving and i was suddenly hanging out with the "popular" crowd yet i still felt like an outsider, they liked boys and the boys liked them back, i on the other hand was too fat, too shy and too ugly for them, i started to smoke, my religion teacher accused me of cheating. i was sad but rivers cuomo made me laugh, weezer was different, it was okay to be different, but i didn't know it back then.
eraserheads- ultraelectromagneticpop
the eraserheads changed the perception of OPM (original pilipino music) tagalog songs were suddenly cool and so was chuck taylors. "pare ko" became an anthem for the brokenhearted, kolehiyalas started listening to their songs. we were juniors in highschool and our chemistry teacher was terrorizing us, i had to make a compost pit to pull up my grade. i was excited for summer to come because i was going to the states, i shaved my legs in preparation for the trip and did not regret the decision. got drunk for the first time had 8 shot of tequila and couple of shots of vodka. friendships were broken, new ones were formed. being 15 made me crazy.
smashing pumpkins- siamese dreams
almost everybody in my batch was born on 1979, i was born on 1980 but it didn't matter, "1979" became our song, it became our generation's song. graduation was fast approaching, our class had a lot of problems, a few of my classmates were kicked out, some got pregnant. college applications were filled out, i only took 2 entrance exams and got accepted to both,made up my mind to take up marketing because suddenly i just had to be practical, up to now i still regret that decision. i turned 16 two days before graduation and lost weight. i met a boy and fell for him hard...unrequited love sucks.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Music and Me
One of the most treasured memories I have of my childhood is sitting at our terrace at dusk on Sundays with my dad's stereo cranked all the way up, the four of us just sitting down, listening to the music sometimes talking,other times me and my brother doing our homework, but no matter what we were doing we were surrounded by melodies and words from various artists so diverse that sometimes i surprise myself and my friends about my knowledge of certain artists and songs so obscure that you only hear it on the am radio. Music was and still is a big part of my life, i think that's one legacy my father instilled in us. Songs, like certain smells, transports us back, memories can be so vivid that we remember what we were feeling, who was with us at that time, sometimes, even what we were wearing. i just wanted to make a little testimony of how music has affected my past, present and future and also relive certain events in my life through one of the most powerful medium of expression...music (plus our network is down so i can't really "work")
Childhood
Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline, Superstar, Coming to America
when i was in kindergarten my dad used to travel a lot and i would cry everytime he leaves, so he would play neil diamond records for me so that i won't get hysterical when i wake up and find that he is not there anymore. well what do you know it worked, he would also put it on early in the morning to wake me and my brother up for school, he kept doing this until i was in fourth grade when i broke our turntable by scratching a record 'till the needle broke.
Elvis Presley - Devil in Disguise, Return to Sender
we really didn't have playmates when we were growing up, our house is located in a very busy street so you can't really go out and play, so me and my brother would find ways to entertain ourselves,we would put on elvis' records and he would start to lip synch it and i would just roll on the floor laughing. i particularly liked when he did return to sender because his expression is just hilarious what made it more amusing is that fact that he was around 5-6 at that time but he would know the words to the song, it would turn a boring summer day into something fun and silly
Simon and Garfunkel- Homeward Bound, Mrs. Robinson and the Boxer
i was in sixth grade i got bit by the NKOTB mania so i was constantly playing their songs till the tape broke, however i also started listening to simon and garfunkel on the sly and fell in love with their songs i would listen to it every night before i sleep it made me want to write songs (i started doing it but stopped because i sucked at it and i also threw away all my notebooks) oh, boys were also mean in sixth grade.
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain, You Got a Friend
summer before i started highschool, i spent it outside of the city, campaigning for the elections in our province. at night me and my cousins after a long day of going around town would sit outside of our house under the mango tree, fireflies everywhere, not bothered by the mosquitoes telling ghost stories and eating junk food.
Don McLean - Rocky Mountain High, Leaving on a Jet Plane
i have a revelation to make, i took voice lessons while i was in fourth grade, however i was also very shy, so the day before my recital i quit voice lessons because i didn't like the idea of singing infront of an audience and just sang in front of the mirror in my room with a flashlight for a microphone. leaving on the jet plane was part of my repertoire.
West Side Story Soundtrack - Various Artists
this is the first movie (non-animated) that made me cry. i borrowed the tape from my best friend for the summer and i would watch it over and over again. up to this day it still makes my eyes water.
*to be continued
Saturday, February 22, 2003
CVS for the Single's Soul
i just remembered a funny thing that happened to me while i was standing in line at *CVS just minding my own business, when this tiny old woman appeared from nowhere like a little wood sprite (yes i'm feeling poetic right now) asked the woman behind the counter where she could find the condoms. can you believe that? an 80 year old woman getting a little something something, the visuals i had was too horrible to forget i tried to get rid of the mental picture that seem to be embedded in my cranium and just focus on the fact that this wrinkled being has a more exciting sex life than me a 22 year old woman who is supposed to be at the prime of her youth. i didn't expect that a routine trip to the local pharmacy would change my perception of sex and old age, i left CVS with a little flame of hope burning in my heart, i just have to wait my turn and maybe who knows one of these days i might just get lucky, although by the looks of it i might have to wait 60 years to finally get "some" but i'm a very patient person i didn't come this far just to give up, yes there is still hope ladies and gentlemen, i've seen the future and it comes in a from of an 80 year old woman limping her way towards the "hygiene aisle"... this little life realization is brought to you by CVS (i should get a commission for this plug)
*CVS Pharmacy
Thursday, February 20, 2003
i can't read my posts anymore, they just launched another firewall in the office so i won't be able to check up my blog (so far i'm the only one reading it). i just flew in from california last night and getting off the plane and feeling the brisk cold air of the east coast slap my face made me say to myself "happy days are here again" i was supposed to fly back to dc on sunday, i did not tune in to the news ( bad nikki!!) so there i was up and ready at 4:30 am, waking up my cousin to drive me to the airport only to be told that Reagan National is closed and that DC is buried in snow. i took the news lightly, since monday is still a holiday so i won't miss work, so sunday night i tuned in to the news (i learned my lesson) it didn't look good but i was still optimistic (so far so good on the new year's resolutions) there might be a sliver of hope that the airport will be open, so like a good little girl i slept early and set my alarm for 4 am. 4 am...alarm rang... took a shower... woke up cousin and drove to the airport, by now the people behind the ticket counter recognized me already and before i even went up the counter they told me that the airports are still closed and that tuesday didn't look too good either, wednesday might be a bad time and thursday was the best time to fly out, i had to make a decision immediately since all the seats for wednesday's flight was filling up fast, well i took a deep breath and decided what the heck, i'd rather take my chances on wednesday (refer to new years resolution embrace life with optimism and reckless abandon, see i'm on a roll) i don't want to miss another day of work *rolls eyes* so i got booked for another flight, leaving sacramento at 6:20 am, 20 minutes earlier than my previous flight. the flight was okay no hitches, in fact we were early, frontier airlines was pretty good we had direct tv and the food was tolerable, they served us muffins for breakfast and for lunch we had some wrap and chips. i just realized that february-march isn't really a good month for me to fly, last year i also got stuck in the airport and got delayed for 2 days, this year the big blizzard happened and i was stranded in california (not that i'm complaining, i was wearing flip flops in february!!! how could i be disappointed) for an extra 3 days, hopefully in may i would have better luck. so that was my whole "adventure" i'm now back to reality with snot and phlegm galore souvenirs from sunny california. someone might be reading this blog (you know who you are) better keep your lips sealed (a la maurice arcache my palangga!!!) i'm still waiting for the url to your blog so you better send it to me or else! break na ta!! *muwah*
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