There and Back Again

What a great weekend! I miss the bracing chill air of Tagaytay already. (Not that early mornings on Maginhawa street aren't laced with chill air, but it's polluted, not-so-chill air punctuated by tricycle motor-sounds). Bread, cheese, mulled wine, and great friends = Yay! Somehow even just watching cable TV is so much more fun in such a setting. Also, our little out of town stay was educational, as I did not know that it was humanly possible to consume a jar of Nutella in one sitting -- raw, without the benefit of bread or crackers, kind of like looking directly at the sun without protection, except in a hazelnut spread sense. Nor had I ever really appreciated the full effect even a televised, fully clothed Richard Gere can have on female spectators. "How old is Richard Gere, anyway?" "Nummy."

Thoroughly enjoyed the trip there and back too. Road trip music: the Jack Daniels compilation CD (best bits: The Youth, Violent Playground, Girl in Park), the Pixies tribute album ("Gigantic" makes you wanna jump around; it's Rave Pixies, so wrong and so right), Liz Phair, Fiona Apple, Sting before he went bad, and the next day, Kristin Hersh, two CDs worth of Sugarfree, Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas and "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen, hee hee. I had sung along to the "I'm a sex machine/ready to reload" line in front of Sassy's mom before I realized what I was doing. Luckily I doubt that she noticed.

And now we're all back in the city. Am listening to "Buwan" by the Itchyworms, and working on that how-to article for PULP now. I doubt very much that I can fill three spreads with it; kind of the opposite of the problem I had last month, with the Kitchie article. Given the instant nature of the assignment, it's not going to be a classic, but I'm going to shoot for something that's at least passably witty and informative. ("The first thing to remember about getting gigs for your fledgling band is the first thing that you have to remember about everything in the Philippines, from plumbing to teaching astrophysics: it's all about who you know.")

Oh, hey, congratulations on your NU judging stint, btw! :) And RE: your shameful past, nothing at all wrong with "making phone calls to radio stations to request songs" -- hey, I did that in high school too, and furthermore I would ask the NU jocks to dedicate those songs: "This is "Gravity" by Translator, going out to Maricon, from you know who." In other words, I win the uncool contest.

Except for a minor personal glitch (not to mention the mini-riot that went on outside the Trade Center, tho I only found out about it later), I enjoyed last year's NU Awards quite a bit; hope they hired director Cocoy Jimenez again, as he knows how to keep his awards shows as tight and fast-paced as possible (as I witnessed first-hand behind the scenes at Pilipinas). Last year's highlights included an acoustic set by heavy band Subculture, an energetic Urbandub number, that E-heads tribute, and Narda's In the Raw triumph. I think I still have that large-format souvenir magazine they were giving away: kind of like MTV Ink, except without the color, the cool layouts and the fun writing.

Anyway, back to work. See you at the office! :)