Music Knowledge

Fire and Ice

by Robert Frost


Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
....

Sigh

The seniors are taking up world literature and yesterday we discussed The Pillow Book, a journal by a lady-in-waiting during the Heian dynasty in Japan.

It's a precursor for a Japanese literary form called zuihitsu or “occasional writings.”

This one's my favorite.

Things That Arouse A Fond Memory of the Past

Dried hollyhock. The objects used during the Display of the Dolls. To find a piece of deep violet grape-colored material that has been pressed between the pages of a notebook.

It is a rainy day and one is feeling bored. To pass the time, one starts looking through some old papers. And then one comes across the letters of a man one used to love.

Last year's paper fan. A night with a clear moon.

Name That Tune

Pick out your 20-25 favorite songs.

Pick out a line from each (try not to use the chorus or title of the song). List them and see if people on your friends list can guess them. Once one is guessed correctly, strike it out


1) "I wouldn't change a thing now that you're here."


2) "We both have shiny happy fits of rage."


3) "I'm thinking it's a sign, that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned."


4) "Sleight of had and twist of fate, on a bed of nails she makes me wait."


5) "She got a dark skinned friend look like Michael Jackson, got a dark skinned friend, look like Michael Jackson."


6) "And you bet I felt it."


7) "Baby you don't understand, our love lies lost but, you're still holding my hand."


8) I could drink a case of you, and still be on my feet.


9) "Darling don't you look fine."


10) "I see you frowning it's like looking down the barrel of a gun."


11) "No song that I can sing, but I can try for your heart."


12) "Minsan ay parang wala nang bukas, sa buhay natin, inuman sa magdamag, na para bang tayo's mauubusan."


13) "Come up to the spot looking extra fly. Till the day I die, Ima touch the sky"


14) "Sure I can accept that it's going nowhere, but one last time let's go there."


15) "And you turn to me like, a gull takes to the wind. I'd have jump, from my seat, I'd have danced like the queen of the eyesores, the rest of our lives would have fared well."


16) "I miss the typewriter in the basement, I miss making your room, a mess."


17) "I'm in the mood for you, or running away."


18) "That's sugarcane that tasted good, that's cinammon, that's Hollywood."


19) "I feel like this is the beginning, though I loved you for a million years."


20) "And you know it aches, and your heart it breaks, it can only take so much..."


21) "Oh May, do you wanna get married, or run away?"


22) "I know I got black eyes, but they burn, so brightly for her. Guess it's a blind kind of love."


24) "Still a little bit of your ghost, your weakness, still a little bit of your face, I haven't kissed."


25) "All we care about is talking, talking only me and you."

It's Official

I'm a Simon Pegg fan.

"Simon John Beckingham (born 14 February 1970), better known as Simon Pegg, is an award-winning English actor, comedian, writer, producer, stand-up comedian, and director. He is best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and for the British sitcom Spaced." (wikipedia.com)

Funny how I came across his two movies in such a random manner. The first one was Shaun of the Dead of course.

That was some time back in 2005, while I was surfing channel's at P.'s. It reeled us in hook, line and sinker -- it's about this blue-collar worker named Shaun who is only recently just figuring out how to make things right in his life. But at such a bad timing, because, this epiphany of his just happens to coincide with the attack of the undead. So he's this hapless chap trying to sort things out with is girlfriend or his mom, while fending off bloodthirsty zombies at the same time.

Wry, absurd British humor, heavy references to pop culture, a bit of romance, and zombies! A romantic comedy with zombies. San ka pa? P. and I were were laughing our heads off, and asking each other over and over, "What is this movie?" Needless to say, we didn't even bother turning up for work that day.


Then, just the other night, I saw Simon Pegg again, while flipping through the movie channels. This time he's a straightlaced cop from London, who is transeferred to small town Sandford, where everybody is just nuts. Hahaha.



Same kinetic camera pacing, same absurd British humor, same sidekick (Nick Frost), the same ensemble cast of idiots who say the stupidest things ("I've always wanted to be a policeman-officer."), same heavy referencing of pop culture (this time it's cop movies like Bad Boys and Point Break) and the same ridiculous plot -- a series of murders in a small town, that everybody just attributes to accidents. It's so funny how Simon Pegg's character is so ready to tear his hair off, so frustrated that he's the only sane person around. (Reminds me of Mugatu's line in Zoolander "The man has only one look, for Christ's sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!")


Hayy. Funny. Eto pa! The best news I've heard in the longest time.

Will Ferrell To Play Drunk, Naked Watson To Sacha Baron Cohen's Sherlock

If you've been longing for a re-pairing of rival NASCAR champions Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard, only this time in something a little more fog-enshrouded, well, then, hold on to your pipes: It was announced today that Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell will star in the working-titled Sherlock: Elementary Deductions For Solving Puzzling Murders Throughout Queen Victoria's London in a Deerslayer Hat—an updating of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic mysteries. From Variety.com:

Columbia Pictures has set an untitled comedy that will star Sacha Baron Cohen as master detective Sherlock Holmes and Will Ferrell as Watson, his crime-solving partner.

Etan Cohen ("Tropic Thunder") is writing the script, and Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller will produce.

Ahlavett! :-P

The Pacquiao Fight, And Then Some.

This isn't really about the fight, it's old news by now anyway, and all the highlights have probably been the topic of lunchroom discussions yesterday. The 9th round knock-out. The Kevin Garnett/Sam Cassel photo op.Manny's interview answers delivered in English which never fails to bring great joy to his fans.

It's about the Philippine National anthem which was sung minutes before the fight. Nothing special about the rendition (who's Nicole Angela anyway?) -- it was just that, two lines from the lyrics caught my attention.

"Buhay ay langit sa piling mo."


and "Ang mamatay ng dahil sa 'yo."

Wow. Blew me away like no other. I had no idea our national anthem was so, romantic. Maybe because it's in Tagalog, and you know how, when it's in Tagalog, it's just somehow more "damang-dama" and "tagus sa puso."

Aren't you just bowled over by the fact that the writers who penned the words to Lupang Hinirang were absolutely rhapsodic about our country? When today, everything about the Philippine -- the leaders, the traffic, the movies, the cops, the attitude, seems like one huge joke. Or fodder for jokes, here and abroad.

In their time, it was "buhay ay langit sa piling mo." And "ang mamatay ng dahil sa 'yo." Life is paradise in your arms. To die, because of you.

Pare namaaaan. Panalo.

Hahaha. Is it because I'm from Manila? Do people from, other parts of the Philippines -- Palawan, or Cebu or Batanes, or, sige na nga, Davao, have an inkling of what possessed Jose Palma to pen such a beautiful love song?

Jump In With Both Feet!

Gray or Blue by Jaymay

I feel so helpless now, my guitar is not around
And I'm struggling with the xylophone to make these feelings sound
And I'm remembering you singing and bringing you to life
And It's raining out the window and today it looks like night

You haven't written to me in a week I'm wondering why that is
Are you too nervous to be lovers, friendships ruined with just one kiss
I watched you very closely I saw you look away
Your eyes are either gray or blue I'm never close enough to say

But your sweatshirt says it all with the hood over your face
I can't keep staring at your mouth without wondering how it tastes
I'm with another boy; he's asleep, I'm wide awake
And he tried to win my heart, but it's taken time

I know the shape of your hands because I watch them when you talk
And I know the shape of your body 'cause I watch it when you walk
And I want to know it all but I'm giving you the lead
So go on, go on and take it, don't fake it, shake it

Don't second guess your feelings you were right from the start
And I notice she's your lover, but she's nowhere near your heart
This city is for strangers, like the sky is for the stars
But I think it's very dangerous if we do not take whats ours

And I'm winning you with words because I have no other way
I'd love to look into your face without your eyes turning away
Last night I watched you sing because a person has to try
And I walked home in the rain because a person cannot lie

How Come Nobody Told Me This?

I watched Across the Universe after everyone has raved about it but nobody ever told me about this bit -- in the middle of the film while the main characters Jude and Lucy are in this psychedelic party -- out comes a swaggering, moustached guy in blue shades, and I'm thinking, Man this guy looks so much like Bono. But the voice is wrong and the wrinkles are wrong.

And then he sings, "I am the Walrus" and, that voice, that swagger, those hand gestures and then there is no doubt in my mind.

What do you know. His first acting job.

Bono Plays Doctor in 'Across the Universe'

Posted Sep 13th 2007 2:00PM by Melissa Olund
Filed under: News, Video, Movies

The groovy dude in the picture isn't just any mustachioed hippie with a fringe jacket and a psychedelic bus. It's none other than Bono, playing the role of "Dr. Robert" in the upcoming musical 'Across the Universe' (Sept. 14).

Bono's character in the film was based on Jack Kerouac muse Neal Cassady. "We studied film of him and the way he worked, and it's almost like he wanted to be a rock star," Bono said of Cassady. "He has all these jerky moves, a lot of self-confidence, always plays to the women in the room. For my first acting role, I thought this would be interesting and a little bit special."

'Across the Universe' is director Julie Taymor's brainchild, mixing an original story set in the 1960s with a soundtrack of 33 Beatles

songs. One of these songs is 'I Am the Walrus,' which Bono performs as the merry Dr. Robert.http://www.spinner.com/2007/09/13/bono-plays-doctor-in-across-the-universe/

How Can A Train Be Lost When It's On Tracks?

I usually stop writing/blogging, when things in my life happen that are too overwhelming, too urgent and too immediate, that any attempts to put it down in writing will result in rambling.

Not that this would necessarily make more sense now. I just felt the need to begin with a disclaimer, in case this does come off as rambling.

Last weekend, I went on a retreat. Not just any retreat -- the retreat to end all retreats, haha. Days With The Lord, which I have forever been hearing about from friends like Mela and Alvin, and, back in college, Kyla.

I now kind of understand why I wasn't able to go to Days when I was in high school or college. Mostly, I wasn't ready. And I probably would taken a flippant attitude about the weekend -- would probably have shed a couple of tears, spent the next three to four days in a haze of holiness and then moved on with worldly ways.



But because it happened now, at this particular point in my life, with the upheavals (as I'd like to call them) of the past couple of years, I am in a particularly conducive state to experience God's love, in a profound manner, and also, I think I'm in a particularly better state, to respond to it.

I've always been intrigued about people like Erika (who chose to give up her posh life in Manila to teach indigenous people in Mindanao) or Bono (who, we all know has a messianic complex about saving the world's poor).

They're not like the rest of us (me), who flail around like rag dolls, bouyed by every change in our lives. They have spark and relentlessness.

I now have an inkling of what drives their passion, and conviction, what makes them purposeful, unapologetic and fearless.



It's the sureness of God's love.

I know why they are engaged and concerned. It's the sureness of the God's love, the profound feeling of God's love -- which compels them to respond to it in a huge way.

Not that I plan to become a missionary or volunteer for the Peace Corps or anything radical like that.

In my life, it's the simple things that need work on -- family, especially my troubled brother, and my role as
daughter and big sister. I've been exhausting all my energies trying to be a better writer, or teacher or friend, a better pop culture consumer (haha), that

I've been neglecting my family for what seems like forever.





Maybe I'd feel compelled to save the world in time. Right now, I feel like a character in a Wes Anderson film. Like Royal Tenenbaum or Francis Whitman -- the family member that comes back and tries, in a bumbling, stumbling fashion, to set things right.