...and I keep on wondering, do we have a bit of a resemblance?

Who's to blame? 

Five people and still err, counting?

Shin Min Ah  (from A Love to Kill)

In my Cauldron

Why does it have to be mixed up like this? Why do I have to feel confused like this? I guess wrong potions were added in. Until when shall I continue stirring?

Farewell, Broomstick

Flying is ephemeral. Once birds and other winged insects and animals have become bereft of their aerial parts, they have nowhere to belong to but to the ground. I hope I can be a balloon that will just fly up, up and up once the gravity from the string was cut. But hey, balloons become smaller and smaller once out of helium. How I wish I can just use magic to fly forever, not having a cinch of a care of what's below and what's beyond.

The Witching Hours

At least I am normal again. At least my witching hours and days are over. I am free. I have done remedy to the curse.

How soon is now?

^_^

I had just watched Rico Blanco and his well-known and high-flying band, Rivermaya on a morning talk show in a local channel...

I just can't shake off the thought that self-buffoonery is actually the best retort to all the absurdity in the lokal and popular music scene...

When asked what are the "Most Requested Songs" that the audience ask from them when they play in different gigs, Rico's infamous answer was...

"Isabaw mo sa kanin, gutom ay lilipas din, liwanag sa dilim"
"So long loved one, wag uurong, posible!"

Bittersweet, ain't it?

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New updates for Bi's pics here

Isn't it true that familiarity breeds contempt? If so, how come I haven't reared contempt or I haven't been contemptuous towards familiar faces?

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Time is standing still. How amazing that I'm still standing! Just standing. Never walked, meandered and got lost. I wish I'd never measured time and distance. Every thought that counts, every tick tock, every turn on the road, all the maps, all the clocks.

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My father used to say that hardwork requires patience. The fruit of your labor roots from the moment you've tilled the land, waited for the downpour of rain and the ruthless glow of the sun. The many days and nights that the sky has cupped in its hands.

Time is man's greatest enemy. A relentless challenge to our mournful longing and sleepless tarry.

My father spent 33 circling years before his name was engraved in a plank of wood. Success is all about numbers. It's all about the shiny plaques.

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There have been many disillusioned nights that I want to yield to the flesh's hunger for new skin: a drop of morning dew, a weep from an onion peel. Something trivial, something fresh, something unfamiliar.

The absurd and the inadvertent.

My escape, my behind.

Ito ang protesta ko. Disbanded na daw ang Twisted Halo? Ang labo-labo dahil sa halo-halong banda na naglalabasan at naglalabanan ngayon. Tiyak maraming musikero¡¯t musikera, kantatero¡¯t kantatera ang di-maiiwasang mainggit at mawalan ng pag-asa kapag di-kinagat ng masa ang kanilang mga kanta. Huwag na tayong magpaka-hipokrito dahil ang mga banda rito¡¯t roon ay pinapakinggan at patuloy tinatantsa ang utos at panlasa ng masa. Kung magpapakalalim ka, eh mananatali ka na lang sa ilalim ng kasikatan (underground scene kumbaga). Iyan ang sa tingin kong nangyari sa nasabing banda. Isa ang Twisted Halo sa pinakamakabuluhang banding nakilala ko sa lokal na industriya ng musika. Pero bakit walang nakinig?

Nakalulungkot isiping tapos na. Pero kung tutuusin si Vin Dancel lang naman ang mawawala. Ang mga natitirang miyembro ay susubok ulit gamit ang ibang istratehiya o pormula. Kakanta ba sila para sa isang telenobela o komersyal? Babaguhin ba nila ang istilo ng pananamit? O di kaya¡¯y kukuha ng macho gwapitong kakanta? Tsk, tsk, tsk nagsisimulang uminit ang aking ulo dahil sa mga tanong na walang kakwenta-kwenta. Di bale, patok pa rin sa aking panlasa ang kanilang musika.

Tuloy ang protesta, Halo! Halo!

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Poetry again : "Tanda ng Pananong"
Album Review : "The Strokes' First Impressions of Earth"

I was watching VH1 the other day and I could not help giving the regretful head while Candlebox, Collective Soul, The Wallflowers, Gin Blossoms and The Cranberries were progressively and successively aired out. Compared to the ehem, pseudo-videoke and lyrics-laden Myx music channel, I don't have to lash out my old song hits or download from lyrics.com just to be able to sing along the catchy and infectious words to these songs.

Music in the 90's was grungy. It was as trashed as the long-haired honchos of the popular music of those times, grunge (Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley). Music was as messy as let's say, Monet's paintings. Technical-wise, the sound-engineering was not good. Technology was underdeveloped. Drums sounded like kettles, pans and tin cans. Guitars were lousy and airy. But if you do listen closely, if you just put aside the comparison of then and now, you wouldn't dare to compare technology with aesthetics.

Even if you look and delve into the local music scene, it was the Tunog Kalye days headed by the long-standing Eraserheads, Violent Playground, Grin Department, Color it Red, Yano and many legendary musicians. Hip-hop has its street and block-rooted sounds. The Sugarhill gang, Cypress Hill, The Fugees, Arrested Development, 2Pac, Public Enemy and really talented rappers Hill Music videos still had its essence. It was never about the cost, the blings, the cars, the props, the pyros nor the director. It was all about the visual representation of music. It was art itself.

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Livejournal update: "For Art's Sake"
Album review: "Ciudad's It's Like Magic"

Napanood ko ang pilot episode ng 100% Pinoy ng GMA-7 noong Miyerkules. Nakalulungkot mang isipin na pansamantala munang tinapos ang isa sa mga paborito kong dokumentaryong pangtelebisyon, ang "Pinoy Abroad", di naman binigo ng istasyon ang mga Pilipinong manonood na nag-aantabay at naghahangad ng mga palabas na ehem, may Serbisyong Totoo.

Isa sa pinakamakabuluhang bahagi ng pilot episode ay ang segment na pinamagatang, "Ang Mall at Ako". Inihatid sa mga manonood ang malawak na realidad tungkol sa mall craze na karamihan sa ating mga Pilipino ay nararanasan ngayon. Samu't-saring mall ang patuloy na umaakit sa samu't-saring tao na pasukin ang mundo ng pantasya, mundo ng ilusyon at ang binitawang pahayag na "mundo na kung saan pantay-pantay ang lahat ng tao."

Doon ako nagsimulang di-sumang ayon. Paano magkakaroon ng pantay-pantay na pagtingin at karapatan ang iba't-ibang tao sa loob ng isang magarang shopping mall? Di ba't kinakailangang bumili muna ng mamahaling tsinelas ang isang batang paslit bago papasukin sa entrance habang ang mga mayayamang de-kotse ay nakasuot ng mamahaling Havaianas at Birkenstock?

Bakit di pinapayagang gumala sa loob ang isang gusgusing pulubi na nakasuot ng sando samantalang ang mga sosyal na lalaki't-babae ay naka-fit Lacoste shirts at spaghetti straps? Bakit ultimo ang mga pang-masang fast food chains ay nagtataboy ng mga batang bibili ng kapiraso at mumurahing burger sandwich?

At ang panghuli, paano magkakaroon ng pantay-pantay na pagtingin sa mga tao sa pamamagitan ng mga malls eh kung mismo ang mga malls ay di pantay-pantay ang ating pagtingin? Ikumpara mo ang Shangri-La Plaza sa Metropolis sa Alabang.

Totoo nga, 100% Pinoy dahil tayong mga Pilipino ay 100% mga hipokrito.

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Poetry or Something Like It: "Mother and Child"

It's superheroes time to once again shine. I watched Superman last week. Nothing Super special. Well, it was Super box-office hit because people were all Super excited about the return of the Super of all superheroes.

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I got promoted this July. Wow, joy! (as if that will really and sincerely make me say these). Having all the drudgery from work and not having the chance to smile since my takeover, I am now reminded of my Philosophy classes and the word ubermench.

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Nietzche believed Christian morals were used to weaken the majority of society in order to make them more easily governed by the "ubermench". All civilisations, according to Nietzsche, arose from the barbarians, who with their will and desire for power, have preyed upon the weaker, moral and peaceful societies. A healthy society does not exist for its own sake, but exists for the sake of a higher type of person. The 'ubermench' follow the type of morality that Nietzsche refers to as the master morality. The 'ubermench' do not live by morality but rather creates morality through the strength of his will; they live 'beyond good and evil'. Nietzsche sees this morality as being built upon the traits of nobility, strength and self-development. These super beings acknowledge and express the 'will to power'. 'Expressing the will to power' means taking advantage of your natural gifts (physical strength, intelligence, beauty, etc.) to achieve your full potential, for example, achieving dominance over others. Our 'will to power' is the motivation in each of us, which steers us to control our own environment. 'Exploitation" does not belong to a corrupt or imperfect and primitive society: it belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will of life.

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I saw the trailer for Spider-man 3 in the office. I'll trail back into how I got to watch the trailer since our office ruthlessly blocked all downloading and streaming sites. Since I have an access in the Admin office, I get to hang out with the Admin people who were err, administratively using the PC through watching movie trailers. Haha.

My conclusion: Great power comes with great responsibility. =P

To dream is to relive the past and be relieved by it. Re-live the unforgettable past and create a picturesque and seamless panorama even if it may just result into a figment of our imagination. We cannot dream of something that we haven't sensed, we haven't felt. Dreaming is seeing. Just like what Gabriela Garcia Marquez lectured us in his work of genius, "Of Love and Other Demons", "Disbelief is more resistant than faith because it is sustained by the senses."

I've always wanted to correct the past. Only hypocrites articulate that they have lived life without regrets. Every single action that we make have rooted out of branched decisions, perhaps from our autonomous response to the uncertainty of to be or not to be, to do or not to do. Unless thwarted by a mishap or anything that can cause mental distress, Karen Horney (psychoanalyst) is resolute that "We are all neurotic individuals who have irrational needs."

I am burdened with the past. It is so hard to leave the luggage behind once you've come face to face with your final destination. You cannot easily dispose long hours and even sleepless days and nights, all the toil and the humor, the ardor and the bitterness. All of them will come. All of them ought to come. Dreaming of a "perfected past" is the only way to relieve or unburden ourselves.

Like they say, we float in our dreams.

What is my concrete dream?

I want to be back in the mainstream. Life is so hard to be alone. Life is so hard to be different.

Take me to the stream. Let me go with the flow. Not backwards. Not to the past.

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Poetry: Grounded

Poetry again: Sleeptalking