Friday, June 29, 2007
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Friday, June 29, 2007
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The clock read two minutes before 12 a.m. The night was unusually cold and I was in my bed lying on my back, contemplating on whether to take sedatives or just let the stillness of the hour lull me to sleep. Then I heard rattle near the door. And then suddenly, out of the dark nothingness, a misty, indefinite figure appeared. In the blink of an eye the figure became clear: a white-skinned lady in a white gown with flaming red eyes. She was looking at me. I was too aghast to budge, and too horror-struck to say anthing. She was coming towards me. Towards me...
And then I said “hi!” to her. The white lady smiled so sweetly. What a wonderful ghost story. LOL.
Honestly, I don’t believe in ghost or any paranormal activity. My reason is simple: I have not seen one. And even if I see one, what makes me think it is ghost? There is no science nor logic upon which ghost can be critically analyzed or validated. To date, there is no credible scientific evidence that any location is inhabited by spirits of the dead. There are no accepted premises to from which we can draw conclusion. All we hear, all I hear, are tales, footnotes.
Ordinary physical explanation can account for ghost sightings. Take for example, air pressure changes in a home can cause doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night can account for weird images. A psychological phenomenon called Pareidolia can cause people to believe they have seen ghost. For example, take a look up the clouds or in the moon. If you can see human faces or figures in it, chances are you have a case of pareidoliac. I remember one night in the province when I saw what first came into my mind as a "white lady." It scared the crap out of me. Fortunately, I didn't run (or could not run because I was scared) and was able to realize, through looking carefully at the thing, that it was just a white bedsheet hanging on a cable. So I can say I was slightly pareidoliac that time.
Our peripheral vision can also see "ghost." Peripheral vision is very sensitive and can easily mislead, especially late at night, when the brain is exhausted and more likely to misinterpret sights and sounds. It is very possible that when one believes that a place is really hunted, he or she may interpret "weird" events as confirmation of a haunting. And what about sounds? Frequencies lower than 20 hertz are normally inaudible and can cause humans to feel a "presence" in the room, or unexplained feelings of anxiety or dread. Personally, I have felt this a zillion times.
A fine example of "ghost" hahaha!
Interestingly, nobody sees "naked ghost," considering their supposed spiritual nature. I don't remember any movie or book mentioning a naked ghost. If I will see a ghost for the very first time, I would like to see one naked. Not a guy, you fool. I want a proof that there exists a paranormal world. But until that happens, I will remain a non-believer of ghost.
Oh, yeah! Casper is naked!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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I had a dream... and it’s not a Martin Luther King-type of dream which one discusses about when overwhelmed with idealism. The dream I’m talking about here is the dream Sigmund Freud would try to examine. Yes, dream, as in the experience of sensations which happens when you are asleep. It happened last June 24, right before I woke up. Like most of our dreams, it bordered on bizarreness, and I was just lucky to recall it (I forget most of what I dream the moment I open my eyes). In my dream, we were in a war-torn town that resembles the city of Stalingrad in Russia during World War II. I couldn’t recall if we were soldiers or rebels in the dream, but the only thing I am sure of is that we were fighting one man whose body appeared to be made of Kevlar vest, impenetrable and hardened. Here’s the funny thing: the man we were fighting against was Eddie Garcia!!
The city was something like this...
Of all the six billion people in the world! When I got up, I was thinking: what in the nutty world was Eddie Garcia doing in my nutty dream? I’m quite sure I haven’t been watching Asian Treasures lately. Although I think my dream is a bit parallel to the Asian Treasures, because I did see a scene in the show where Robin Padilla and the rest of the gang were battling it out with Eddie Garcia’s demonic minions. And when they were up against Eddie Garcia, they were nearly defeated. In my dream, we riddled Garcia with bullets from our Steyr-Aug rifle. But he just seemed to take them all, without dodging any of them. He was coming towards us and we were retreating. And then the scene suddenly shifted to a part where I was asking this fellow combatant how to use a hand grenade. Out of the blue, the scene shifted again and then I was on my own, facing Eddie Garcia. I shot him like hell with my rifle and, like a warfreak, threw the hand grenade right at him. Then there was an explosion. I thought he was pulverized but out of the smoke he appeared unscathed. I threw one grenade after another. And he was just coming towards me, unhurt, laughing his ass off. The weird thing was that he was unarmed and was not striking back or anything. He just laughed and laughed his ass off. And then I was roused by the alarm clock. It was 5:30 AM.
Did this dream mean anything? Or was it just a bunch of random thoughts that blew up inside my nutty brain? I have had dreams since I was a kid, and they’re all weird, morbid, sometimes blissful, sometimes indecent (hehe). Can they be interpreted? What do you think was really at the back of my mind?
Thursday, June 21, 2007
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
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Only few people know that I can play some songs on a piano, or more specifically, on a keyboard. But it’s not something I am really proud of. My way of playing is not systematic, so you can figure how pianist would normally laugh at the idea. My style is called “playing by ear.” The truth is, anybody can learn to play piano by ear while skipping those written musical shits (I mean sheets) using only chords. It’s not like you can play a Mozart or Chopin with this style, but hell, who in the nutty planet would like to be confined in playing just those classicals anyway? Actually, playing-by-ear style is no secret and people normally do this with a guitar. When one wants to learn playing guitar, s/he would be asked to learn chords in the beginning, right? The same goes for playing piano by ear. You will just learn chords, not notes.
 
Take a look above, the left image shows us how to play G chord; the right image shows us how to play C chord.***
So what’s this fuzz all about? It started when Karen and I happened to discuss music yesterday night. I told her I could play keyboard a little. And then I remembered that I hadn’t been playing for a while, so when I got home I tried playing some songs I knew on a keyboard. And my god, how they all sucked! I hadn’t touched my P1,999 keyboard in ages, so you could imagine how I really messed up with the songs. I had to memorize them again one by one. Do you know what songs I play? Okay, I really don’t want to put a question mark on my self-proclaimed rock music lover image, but just for fun I will tell in here what songs I play on a keyboard... or more precisely, the songs I CAN ONLY play on a keyboard through play-by-ear style.
Here we go...
1) A Long and Lasting Love — by Crystal Gayle
2) Something In The Way You Look at Me — by Christian Bautista
3) Everyday I Love You — by BoyZone
4) Making Love Out of Nothing At All — Air Supply
5) Boulevard — by Whoever-shit-he-is (I don’t care to know)
Aarrggh! (love songs! Aww!). Frankly speaking, it took me a lot of time to memorize the way each song is played. I play all those songs on the list because their chords are not that difficult to figure out. The last one, the Boulevard crap, is a song I was just forced to memorize, because my Nanay wanted me to play it (with her singing it). But don’t think I am way too soft playing some mushy songs on a keyboard. I can play rin naman Let It Be by the Beatles, Skyline Pigeon by Elton John, My Immortal by Evanescence and Imagine by John Lennon. So it’s not that really bad, is it? And that is only playing keyboard by ear!
One would do it in any way possible — all for the love of music.
*** Images taken from shanemcdonalds.org <-- try to visit the site if you want to learn piano/keyboard the easy way.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
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The more I read award-winning short stories, the more I get the feeling of a loser. It has dawned on me that I will not win a Palanca Award this year, or even in the next years. I'm not pessimistic, just realistic. I can categorically say that my works are so amateurish and full of bullshits. I now accept the fact that I still need a lot of time to hone my fiction writing skills. Perhaps, not having been trained to write stories could be an excuse (since I took up Journalism). But what about Rosario de Guzman-Lingat? What about the likes of Luis Gatmaitan and Liwayway Arceo? They are some of the finest writers who didn’t have literary trainings of any sort, and yet excel as prolific writers all the same. Just last week when I was in FullyBooked in Gateway Mall, I read an anthology of short stories of Lingat, and the realization hit me big time. How could this woman write a superb short story? How could I not?
Actually, I submitted two entries to Palanca this year (short story and short story for children, both in Filipino). I had a lot of nerve — or audacity — to submit entries, and even thought confidently, much to my chagrin, that I would win an award. In my dreams. I got that shabby inspiration from Edgardo M. Reyes when he said in his book that he won a Palanca on his first try. It had been only a year since he began to write when his piece “Di Maabot Ng Kawalang Malay” won a Palanca (third prize, 1961). Also, there have been 30 people already winning a Palanca on their first tries. With a kapalmuks, I might as well join them and get one for myself. Beginner’s luck, you know. Maybe Don Carlos Palanca won’t mind giving this idiot a thumbs up.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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It's official. It's now bye-bye to dry, sunny days. After all these sunburns and heat strokes we endured in the last barbecue days, we can now look forward to a relatively cool, wet, cloudy days. I have already taken a small dose of what the rainy season could unleash for the next months. Last night, I went to Megamall to meet Kuchi. I got caught in the rain on my way and my bought-from-the-sidewalk umbrella looked completely useless at the time. Afterward, I got stranded in Cubao on my way home. There were like hundreds of passengers like me (could be thousand) waiting for PUVs in every corner, and there were not enough PUVs to accommodate them. Curiously, when I managed to get on a jeep, I noticed the passengers inside we're all male. I thought of women stranded in Cubao. I felt uneasiness.
In the next couple of days we're all gonna be worrying about floods and brownouts. Not to mention the difficulty of drying clothes. Anyway, it seems we just need to put up with this weather for two to three months and capitalize on whatever good things this season could throw us (water, new fashion look, cool weather, etc). Appetite adjustment seems unavoidable, too.
Friday, May 18, 2007
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Friday, May 18, 2007
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Have you noticed the frequency of cover versions or remakes of old songs nowadays? People are turning an old rock song into a ballad, an iconic soul into a pop, a defiant punk into a jazz and many more. Even the familiar "noisy" songs have been turned into a bossa nova. Yes, it's sprouting like mushrooms.
I'd like to make it clear that I'm not against people who do cover songs. The history of music is marked with many artists, foreign and local alike, covering songs after songs. The last time I know it was periodical, and only established artists were given the privilege to do so. But now it's becoming a trend and it's quite alarming. Can't our musicians strike some new chords?
I get a chill up my spine when I hear "Your Love" version of Eric Santos. I think he should stick to singing ballad songs in ballad ways, and avoid rock song as much as possible. And there is this Radio Active Sago Project who made a pigpen out of the song "Alcohol" of the EraserHeads (too bad I like RASP's before). Kichie Nadal, Rico J. Puno and Barbie Almabis did the same thing. I'm not surprised why Eli Buendia nurses a grudge against the anthology/tribute.
There are some bands, thank heaven, who did some nice covers. I like Bamboo's rendition of "Tatsulok," a song originally played by the activist-folk-rock group Buklod in the 80s. I also like the cover by 6CycleMind of the song "Upside Down" by 2 Minds Crack and the version of Shamrock of the song "Hold On" by NeoColours.
I don't know until when this trend of covering songs is going to stop. The local industry will do us a huge favor if they put an end to it and make some original music instead. There have been lots of ripped offs and watered down versions of old songs lately. They are actually spawning a new breed of shallow music-lovers who are under the impression that some over-avant garde genre they called "jazz-rock-bossa-pop-soul-in-one fusion is going to revive the ailing local music industry. It's not.
If our artists can't really make a good, original material, they should just keep their guitars in the corner and stop touching other people's song, much more make a piggery out of it. Their covers just reflect the jokes the scene has become.
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
OPM,
Pinoy Rock
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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VforCE (1 Million Volunteers for Clean Elections), a nationwide movement of volunteer individuals and organizations, is in need of a MILLION volunteers (or more) to cover about 300,000 precincts and 1,600 canvassing points in the country. The volunteers will work on the following fronts:
1) Voter Education and Involvement
2) Pollwatching
3) Operation Quick Count
4) Canvassing Watch
If you still believe that what is at stake in the May 2007 elections is the credibility of our insitutions and the viability of our hard-earned democracy, join this movement.
We can still claim our place in our country's democratic life, by ensuring that the May 2007 elections are honest and credible, and that candidates who have the people's interests at heart get a fair shot at winning.
Text: 0922-8600-SLB
Call: 10149 (toll-free on PLDT phone)
Monday, May 7, 2007
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Monday, May 07, 2007
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 Just right on time, I was recently asked to write about the big difference a person can make in doing small things for the environment. Like other people, I'm beginning to become a believer of the future environmental scenario which Al Gore and Leonardo Di Caprio have been so vocal about to address in public. Global Warming is really a serious issue. Doing small things like recycling stuffs, using bikes and avoiding the use of hazardous chemicals (like hairspray) can spawn a big difference (just imagine a million people doing that). Besides, you don't need to be a person of political power or wealth to do that. Think of this — huge icebergs in the Arctic Ocean are melting! This is an obvious sign that Earth is really warming. It's like we are being toasted alive in a big oven.
And that's the reason why I hardly slept yesterday. The temperature must have been swinging up and down, between 34 and 36 degree Celsius. I turned on the electric fan all day long to chill myself (we don't have air-conditioner yet). I took a bath thrice yesterday. The heat was just unbearable. I forced myself to watch TV later on to chill out because I was pissed and the temperature was completely getting on my nerves. Luckily, a TV show entitled "Isang Tanong, Isang Sagot - Senatoriable Forums" was being aired, somehow appeasing the freaking demons inside of me. It sounded like a formal exchange of platforms among candidates at first, but it was far from that. It was more like a comedy. I got a good laugh when has-been singer Victor Wood barely answered the questions hurled at him. I'm not surprised now why he lost the mayoralty race in Antipolo City last election. Also in the show was actor Richard Gomez who looked stupidly nervous in the face of an unscripted show; Cesar Montano was no different. On the other hand, Koko Pimentel didn't appear like the 1990 bar topnocher while answering questions. The big blast however came from Senator Tessie "Dancing Queen" Aquino-Oreta who was asked by reporter Howie Severino about who she believes is the better president between GMA and Erap. She gave an open-ended answer, as expected from a cunning, traditional politician.
I didn't know how I drifted off but I think I hit the sack around 3am. I looked like a zombie when I woke up in the morning. My eyelids were too heavy and I wanted to collapse back to bed. I wanted to take a vacation leave! I'm hoping that climate will cool down a bit later this evening. I just want to have a sound, log-like sleep.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
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Thursday, February 22, 2007
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The following text messages have been circulating in virtually every cellphones since last year. Some of these are old, but they really make my day. I had told everybody they were ironies in my initial post, which was obviously wrong:
"You are never too old to learn something stupid."
"Smile... tomorrow will be worse!"
"Never miss a good chance to shut up."
"Don't run, you'll just die tired."
"Don't steal, that's the government's job."
"The number of people watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your action."
"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"Never take life seriously: nobody gets out alive anyway."
"Always remember, you are unique. Just like everyone else." :-))
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
laughable
Friday, February 16, 2007
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Friday, February 16, 2007
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Hello Earth! I'm back.
Just to give you some updates, I have been pretty preoccupied with a lot of things these days, things to which I unexpectedly shifted my attention. Aside from work and love life, I just could not go back to blogging right away, even if my nutty brain was brimming with ideas. Anyhow, I don’t feel like writing another piece about Philippine politics and all the darn things surrounding it, since I know you're not eager to dwell on it anyway. So let us spare this blog of political mayhem for a day or two. With all these circus coming to town, people can crack a good joke out of them anytime just the same.
There was something about the word "beautiful' that caught my attention recently. It is given that we all agree about the unreliability of any method in measuring beauty — since it's floating over the term subjectivity. This reminds me of Cleopatra, the ancient queen of Egypt. Cleopatra who was an Hellenistic co-ruler of Egypt with her father Ptolemy XII Auletes...blah, blah, blah (click the link if you get the itch to recall major things about her). People always have this impression that Cleopatra was a beautiful, head-turner, royal lady who made some perverts out of Roman generals. At one point, I even imagined she had a ravishing Jennifer Lopez-butt, a rare Thalia’s waist, a fine 35B boobs and a barbie-like face. Those might be considered exaggerated description, but quoting Shakespeare who wrote about Cleopatra “beggar’d all description” and some historians who said the mighty Julius Caezar was possessed by her, who would have thought she’s not that beautiful? Or worse, ugly?
Recently, though, I chanced upon an article about Cleopatra’s controversial beauty. A coin dating back 32 BCE and put on display in Britain illustrated her with a pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose. In short, she was no beauty queen. It looks like she’s just another overrated woman whose coquettishness was turned into a symbol of beauty. Apparently, she was not.
Shakespeare would have made wept had he found it out.
Or would have he? Perhaps his lines about Cleopatra had double-meaning? Come to think of it, Shakespeare never mentioned the word “beautiful” when he described her. He might have been sarcastic or something. Or maybe the lines are satiric, his style of making a spoof of Cleopatra? According to an archaeologist, Roman writers tell us that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic and that she had a seductive voice, but, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty. How's that?
But then again, perhaps our modern world has a warped definition of beauty. Maybe our definition of beauty was completely different from that of the past. Perhaps a bulging eyes, a sharp nose and a pointed chin are what it takes to be a beauty queen in Cleopatra’s time? Or maybe the definition of beauty at that time was not the about physical appearance, but about characters and personalities? I don't know.
But what I do know is that if those (characters and personalities) were the features that make one an apple of people’s eyes in our modern world, difference between love and lust, between obsession and fatal attraction, would be spelled correctly. And nobody would have dared describing Zoraida as ugly.
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
cleopatra
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