"Dude, you can't be a statue. Even if you're all down and out, that's the least job you should ever get into" said my sister when I showed my ultimate restless mode during mass yesterday.
I can't be still. Something always gets in the way of repose: random thoughts, brow-raising recollections, posture problems (I keep on shifting weights on both legs) and er, my imaginary insects.
Don't you admire sentinels of historical places for their ability and patience to stand still even for hours and hours mindless of their busy and mobile environment? Why do they have to be still when they want to protect the place? It would be more appropriate to show activity and alertness at the very least.
Why am I even bothered about stillness? I mean, yeah sure, in this century of clicks and tricks, you can't be stationary. Even if you don't want to move, you will be moved. There is no such thing as a slow down road sign. There is no room for idle and still adjectives in our vocabulary. There is only movement, change, flux. Otherwise, death. And that is why we keep forgetting that once in awhile it is important to be still. You need to be still to have a closer look at Things. You need to be still to have a closer look at yourself.
- Mood:
sleepy - Music:Pupil: Talon
- Mood:
discontent - Music:Eraserheads: Tamagotchi Baby
The Fire Set
My sister and I have started to take the zip lessons. We are excited to play with fire. Ha! Just a teensy comment, they should really break the classes into the modules as per level. It’s really frustrating to see everyone twirling when you can’t even master a simple routine. Eight more weeks? Ugh, I have to gain more kerosene, I mean patience.
Instrumental
Booze is tasteless without music. Same thing, music without talk seems empty, seems instrumental. I mean seriously how many people go to an unadorned if not a hyped gig bringing some piece of commentary about what is being played if less than who is playing? Ugh, few. The wick of provocative conversations remains unlit. Yeah, sure a lot of people would insinuate that you don’t really have to talk when you are in a bar with pounding sound system that knocks the hell out of your eardrums but at least tads of ‘ear notes’ would do (whisper, oops, I mean more of yelling at someone’s ear while the music is in volume or cramming wise words during song intervals). In that way, the music being played blooms in maturity and we are ready to pluck its meaning.
Talkative Bunny
Ugh, there he goes. I’ve never met someone who would actually perk the mood up the way he did. You would find him annoying if you would not give him a chance to prove his point for being energized. But he is indeed an interesting character. I’ve never talked that much in my entire life. I have finally gained access to that particular pole of my personality.
Incendiary
That’s the word that I have learned from Almost Famous. Loquy (pronounced as low-key, taken from the word soliloquy) played at guijo last Saturday. I was invited by a friend who is, you know friends with the band (ugh. here I go again reviving my groupie antics). I am not really a fan per se. All I’ve heard from them was their released radio friendly song that had hit the airwaves one or two years ago. Yeah, that song inspired by Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. I’m not even sure of the title. I haven’t watched/heard them play live as well (of course, technically Kevin, Louie and that drummer of Wolfgang <forgot his name> are not inexperienced crowd pleasers). After hearing them play three to four originals, I have agreed with what my friend has said that their songs could be categorized as “mountain music”. Their lyrics encapsulate the nature in us. Just a digression: I was expecting a low key/subdued performance when my friend advised me it’s going to be quite heavy so it seems kind of strange because the line-up includes Kalayo (the new Pinikpikan) who are world music performers. Indeed the night was severely gratifying when Loquy played great classics from Led Zeppelin, DMB, Peppers and Jeff Buckley. He brought his Razorback trademark side of him. It’s funny he even made a side remark that he feels as if they are just playing/jamming at home. Moments such as these make you want not to go home, make you wanting for more and more.
Sunday Too Soon
When the clock strikes twelve I know it’s there: the dreaded day of the week. I feel like Cinderella with a heart in rush— as if my coach will actually turn into one big squash and everything else goes back to being imaginary.
- Mood:
crushed - Music:Jeff Buckley: Last Goodbye
- Mood:
drunk - Music:Postal Service: District Sleeps Alone Tonight
- Mood:
cold - Music:Weezer: The Good Life
- Mood:
melancholy - Music:Death Cab for Cutie: Your New Twin Sized Bed
Anino
Watching Ronnie Lazaro, I was reminded of those kids whose smiling faces I’ve captured, or as Raymond Red has put it, I’ve stolen. Maybe I could find time to return everything. Maybe I could still find them.
Un Secret
I am in love with Cecile de France.
Pre-Serbis
I didn’t realize too soon that genuine people of the arts could talk, giggle and even hum along to a boyband tune. All of a sudden, I feel like a stranger in this room.
Kinatay
Hear ye, hear ye! Thus the king has announced: CCP or UP on July.
“I want Filipinos to watch it in its entirety the way they showed it in
Post-Serbis
Coco Martin and even Ping Medina aren’t really sell-outs. Though they are visible in that show in a local channel with its confetti of praises due to high ratings, their acting prowess seemed to have hibernated in the mainstream compared to their respective roles in Serbis and Maximo Oliveros. Was it done in deliberation to preserve the holy indie waters?
Sleepwalk
Why did my feet have to walk in the same pace? Why did they bring me to this same place? Why this same heart race?
- Mood:
geeky - Music:Blackstrap: Repulsion
The act of leaving is far more depressing than staying. It requires motility. It requires space. It requires change. It must dispel habits. It needs renewal of deeds to make one self adaptable to the new setting. It is a new kind of beginning, perhaps ending. It is a whole new loneliness. But staying, being left behind requires less toil. It is too a miserable spot. But period requires no other space. The idea of settling gives a slender slice of solace.
- Mood:
crappy - Music:The Appleseed Cast: Marigold and Patchwork
1. It is in wordpress.
2. The url has three words. No space, no dash, no number, no underscore.
3. The first word is the first word in my favorite Postal Service song (that has three words as well).
4. The second word is an adjective and my current mood these days.
5. The third word is a person who uses a tent.
6. The blog title is the same with one of my album titles in Friendster photos.
7. All entries are branches of happy thoughts.
- Music:Cynthia Alexander: Motorbykle
- Mood:
distressed - Music:Sugar Hiccup: Five Years
- Mood:
okay - Music:Cat Power: The Greatest
- Mood:
annoyed - Music:The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Boohoo. Who gives a damn? If I would only take a walk in the park in our village, I could see boys playing basketball and training for the summer league. Forget about the 3:00 cut-off. Most people are basking in the sun and undulating along the waves and shores of Boracay and other summer hideaways. Mother skipped the stations of the cross this year due to popping veins. And about silence, cable companies have brought the ultimate evil. And I am writing this as a guilty party.
Just today, I get to be a couch potato again during the first-installment of my teaching vacation. I really had no choice. There is this forever nuisance of the alignment of schedules between friends and other significant creatures— hospital duty, Ilocos and Tokyo trip, holiday work, and the others are practically just, err, lazy. My last resort is kinship that still left an x mark. My sister went to Caramoan yesterday. She has continued to brag about her wakeboard experience that led to this emergence of regret. I should not have chickened out when I was there months ago. So it’s just me, the tube and a basket of mangoes. Short digression: father came home last weekend with truckloads of mangoes that he harvested from our home in the province. In the span of two days, I have eaten a total of twelve, all the ripe ones. I am beginning to feel the surfacing heat rash. The unused talc is now on stand-by.
Anyhow, aside from my intermittent reading hours, I inevitably spent the day on the television that had none of the interesting— monotonous news about the preparations for holy week (I learned about the BLOWBAG though), earthquake in Italy, the homecoming of the top bar passer (whose hugging-her-mother-scene brought me into quick tears), and the commercialized crucifixion of the masochists. The latter was slightly alarming after hearing that they have been doing the same routine for eleven years. All of them are impoverished. Shouldn’t those filthy-rich personalities that we regularly see on TV due to action-packed scenes of corruption and other wrongdoings be the ones to be nailed on the cross? At least, they could afford the best medication for the pending wounds on their palms and feet. They should consider it, you know, for elections' sake. We all know people vote for dramatic heroes and saviors. Apart from the tedious news, I just watched a couple of random music videos. Man, I have to admit MTV sucks. Gone are the days when I was glued to the channel because of great documentaries and live bootleg performances of true artists. There were many ‘talk shows’ then because these people talk about the artists and their work. Now, there are a lot of people who talk because they are in a reality show. Please kill the wild boys, Paris Hilton and the sweet sixteens. The local channels are more torturous: dubbed second-rate series from the land of noodles, soaps that exploit great talents such as Irma Adlawan and Joel Torre, or the spin of teenster-romance that stimulates vomiting (well, I have to save John Lloyd Cruz). Cartoon channels are no fun without the antics of my sister. Learning the lives of celebrities would make me more miserable.
With this roster for viewing, maybe my mother is right, I need to go back to basics. I should yield to a week-long sacrifice of stillness through a sequence of fervent prayers. I am now looking for my rosary beads.
Ah, there’s a consolation, Nobuta Wo Produce would be aired in a local channel soon. Happy! Yamapi!
- Mood:
awake - Music:Belle and Sebastian: If She Wants Me
- Mood:
nostalgic - Music:Aimee Mann: Driving Sideways
Going back, since it's the Lenten season, you expect people to, you know, repent. But since Ash Wednesday (which marks day one of lent), I have never ever seen anyone, at the very least, relent if not repent. I am no Pontius Pilate. I admit, I, too, am having difficulties seizing the good side of thy self. I have the tendency to be a spiritual schizophrenic. But this day brought salvation to that thought. I've met a true redeemer. Since it's a Saturday, you expect less people to be on the road at six o'clock in the morning. Everyone at home is still in deep slumber when I left. And so I rode this jeepney with just me and a man probably in his early thirties as passengers. I paid my fare with a fifty peso-bill. Probably the driver used up all his coins in a drinking session last night or at the gas station earlier that he has none left for change. Usually, drivers would cause a traffic disturbance when they would drive side-by-side with a fellow jeepney driver, have a small chat only to ask a favor to break the bill into smaller denominations. But this one hastily gave my money back, leaving me with no choice but to ransack my already chaotic bag for more coins. Then there goes my hero, the middle-aged dude, who took his wallet and paid for my fare. Wow. Amazing. I couldn't do anything but to give a thousand thank-yous. Yeah, for sure, people wouldn't be in much awe considering it's only seven pesos. But still for me, it was a small act of kindness that you couldn't buy in this world.
I was reminded of a similar story from a friend years ago. She rode an FX taxi on her way to school. Unfortunately, she left her wallet at home and it was too late to get off the vehicle. Initially, there was no one who was willing to help her. But my friend, with trained theatrical skills, pleaded the gentlest-looking passenger. She said she would give three apples in exchange of the thirty peso fare. Luckily, the lady assented. I realized just now, I also brought an apple in my bag. I wish I had given it to him. Who knows, his redeeming act and that bite-size fruit could change the entire story of Genesis.
- Mood:
bored - Music:Sinead O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2 U
The weather’s fickle. A student from my remedial class watched CNN the other night and reported to me that there would be sporadic rainfall within the summer season. I recently bought a piece of my favorite umbrella from the Japanese store. This time the blue one. I still have never thought of bringing it to school. Maybe some things are just meant for display satisfaction.
+++
My mother’s overtly paranoid about my schedule. Before leaving the house, she always asks me what time I would be coming home. I never should have told her about my Wednesdays. As if shift of religion is the answer to all of my problems.
+++
I like going to department stores on a weekday this summer. I am blissful to see kids shopping with their parents. As if weekends have never existed. I am just reminded of my own childhood summer: bargain of kiddie bathing suits, basking in the land of never-ending ice cream and beholding Barbie dolls and sorts.
+++
Friends have finally come out of their work-lair. I’ve been haphazardly signing up for summer plans. I should really check the calendar. I do not want to wrestle in this heat with hot-headed people.
+++
If I could only hush the Facebook-conundrum. This is such a pity. I obviously must overcome this monotony.
- Mood:
nostalgic - Music:Weezer: This is Such A Pity
- Mood:
silly - Music:Death Cab For Cutie: Your New Twin Sized Bed
Yesterday, apart from spending all of my afternoon resisting heat (the war that I could not wage), I have found my temporary fortress in books. Together with another book-lover, we've scoured towering and vainglorious shelves and stands. And there it was, perchance, seated on the center of a strategical slab. The book of the instant. The avail of a second. My hand grabbed the thing in haste and there's no way, really, there's no way my neurons could compete with this reflexive circumstance.
I've read excerpts from the review. Read paragraph one and two. Browsed the pages. Smelled the fresh and viscous print of each. Marveled at the increasing numbers waiting for intimate perusal. But after my companion's few more rounds, I carefully put back the book and left the place without any paper bag.
Hurrah.
I have let go. This is the proximal distance. But when I think about how many books are still on queue at home, I pick my pocket for regret. It wouldn't hurt for another diminutive space to add. Those lonely reserves. Those armor and ardor. I've been used to the life plan of ants. Waiting for the imminent plague. Ready for the onslaught of the unknown. For sooner or later, all pseudo and makeshift sanctuaries would crumble. And I would survive with nothing but words and letters.
- Mood:
hungry - Music:Cold War Kids: Hang Me Up To Dry
After the Earth-hour-global-warming-drama, we're back in full-freon-conditioning.
It sucks all the more for there's no one to talk to. You go online, there no one. You try to dial some numbers, no answer. It could have helped if their lines were busy or there's some loose internet connection.
I am usually quiet. But I just need someone to talk to. Right now. This very moment. This critical juncture.
Where are these People and Things that have made this inexplicable and indispensable noise in the world?
In this freaking feverish 35 degrees heat of search, they are still, they are, there is still none.
- Mood:
frustrated - Music:Kimya Dawson: Tire Swing
One of my closest friends has been tortured by my idiosyncratic "it-is-a-sign" retorts that she eventually confessed of immensely becoming sick of it.
Quarter life crisis. Maybe. But come to think of it, I am supposed to be more analytical and careful about People and Things. After all, wisdom comes with age. Or is it I need signs because I have kept on forgetting?
- Mood:
sleepy - Music:Circa Survive: Act Appalled
