There are days that I doubted whether it was a wise decision to buy a 7-seater car when a 5-seater Raize would do.
Then there are days like today that made me think that I made a wise decision. I always knew I would be a school bus driver, since 1) our house is centrally located so it becomes the natural stop/hangout place/dumping ground for children who will be picked up later by their parents because they’re still at work; and 2) my kids are very outgoing and social and I would be the default chaperone of these kids.
At the back of my mind I knew I would be hauling more kids. I could stuff more children in the Crosswind but the Avanza is a good alternative for ferrying barkadas around.
They were chanting “Tagaytay! Tagaytay!” on the way to our house from their school. They were taking a video of it, perhaps to post on their chatgroup to make their classmates think we are indeed going to Tagaytay.
Ah they will look back on these days and think they were quite happy then.
I’d rather have them all here to be safe than have a kid-free, noise-free, and neat home.
Earlier today, I had lunch with G, my friend from my my former TV network, who was doing a documentary in the town next to us. I gave him the coffee I bought in SG (the brand that he and my sis-in-law love) while he gave me this: a new fountain pen.
He said it writes so smoothly that I would get so addicted to it.
I loved Original Pilipino Music (OPM) in the 90s, when the likes of Eraserheads and Rivermaya rose to fame. I bought tapes of Color It Red, AfterImage, Wolfgang, and their contemporaries. I watched their concerts here in our little university town when I was in high school and college.
My love for OPM returned with the new breed of artists I discovered on Spotify. The song that haunts me now is Multo by Cup of Joe. It hits the gut, especially when you experienced so much over 40 years of your existence.
Multo means ghost in Tagalog and this song is about the ghost of the past, it can be ghost of a past love, ghost of what could have been, ghost of one’s dreams, or just happy memories of the past that you couldn’t get away from but could never have anymore. Translating it into English loses the beauty of the lyrics, the feelings that this song evokes. Pure Tagalog songs are beautiful. I find it hard to write in Tagalog even though it’s my first language. I think and write in English first these days, which is sad.
Hindi na makalaya
Dinadalaw mo ‘ko bawat gabi
Wala mang nakikita
Haplos mo’y ramdam pa rin sa dilim(I could not free myself
You visit me every night
Even though I can’t see anything
I still feel your caress in the dark)
Mundo by IV of Spades made me listen again to the new generation of OPM artists. Their vibe is similar to the Manila Sound popularized by the likes of VST & Co in the 1970s and revived by now by IV of Spades and Lola Amour.
Ben & Ben is also one local band that I like.
K-pop could be popular worldwide but they’re manufactured musicians; P-pop kicks their butts. SB19 trained themselves–no agency, no manufactured music. They compose their own songs. No autotune. Twin I is obsessed with them.
I saw them perform during the New Year’s countdown in Makati in 2023-2024. They’re really good.
They’re really popular in Japan and Taiwan
There was a time I had Dionela on a loop while working and driving. He sounds like Neyo but still different, which I love.
I MISS GOING TO LIVE MUSIC VENUES, like I did when I was in my 20s. My friends and I went to Xaymaca to watch Reggae groups and to Conspiracy for indie acts like Cynthia Alexander.
Cynthia brings you to places you’ve never been to before but you have some kind of longing for it. It’s melancholy hitting you on the chest.