Flashback to 96

The crowd gathered at the gates of Araneta Coliseum, dressed in the latest fashions. Folks talking on their celfones, cars piled up in the lot and a great amount of enthusiasm in everyone's faces.

I found myself in Araneta Center clueless of what's happening around. I made my way to Starbucks to pick up a Manila to-go mug for my cousin. Feeling out of place from the crowd of middle aged people checking on their daughters about their seats and what-tos and not-tos, i asked the barista,' who's playing?' she said ' Taylor Swift, are you watching?'. I thought 'yeah right, i didn't even know who's playing tonight, and u think i'm watching.

Anyhoo, the whole vibe took me back to 96 when the toast of the music world and every teener's music hero was Alanis Morissette. There i was, 15 and circling the coliseum to find my entry point, elated that in a few hours, my hero in the flesh would be prancing on stage.

Tonight, im not in the audience, just outside looking in, wondring if Taylor Swift will live in the hearts and minds of her legion of fans 15-20 years from now like Alanis, at least for me and some people i know still does sans her irrelevance in the mainstream and tens of unappreciated musical and lyrical gems that never hit the airwaves.

Among the popheads of today, i'd say i kinda like Taylor, only for the reason that she writes her songs, she actually plays an instrument, lyrically, i hang on to nothing but i'll give credit to the fact that her lyrics aren't trashy like some of her contemporaries. Who those are, i don't really know. I've only taken notice of a few poppies in recent years--katy perry, paramore and maybe rihanna and Lady Gaga.

Now here i am, back in the underground scene, blogging cuz the music the bands are playing hardly qualify as music, rather as noise with a little rhythm. Had to sneak out after a bottle of beer and say hello to the artsy fartsy crowd at Cubao X. Ed and i found ourselves at Heima, checking out newbie spinmeisters trying their hand on mixing while we rake on the popcorn, unspiked punch, mallows and cloud 9 buffet. The music moved our feet for a little while and then we slipped out and i fled the scene sleepy. This wouldn't have been the case in 96. But im not 15 anymore and i already tire from booze and slam dancing

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

This used to be my playground

I love the song of the same title but this is not what it's about.

I have lots of places that allow me to relish my childhood, the hectare wide or so General Textiles compound that is now sprawling with high rise condominiums and shopping enclaves that is now known to everyone as Eastwood City.

Over at the GenTex Frisco compound,I know the place like the back of my hand. I can still see it so vividly in my head. I know every nook and cranny of that darn place; what fruit bearing tree stood where, the stone pavement textures and where each pathway leads to.

Here's where i and my cousin would pick guava, chico, duhat, kamias, macopa, star apple, santol and mangoes either by climbing or shaking trees, sometimes we'd use a stick with a wire hook at its tip and catch our harvest on our shirts. There goes my farmville, of almost the real kind. I have a swing dangling by the avocado tree that nanay would tear down every now and then cuz i wanna be pushed high enough to rise over the roof. When i look back at it now, it really was kinda dangerous.

On bright days, we'd be trailing back to our grandmas with our catch for the day. Most times, a catfish takes our bait of swamp snails and then we'd relish our catch by slicing the poor fish in half to watch its tail wag before the cook Eddie plunges it into boiling oil. Some days, we'd bring home a pail of snails and have it cooked in coconut milk. There are days when we couldn't make makeshift fishing rods cuz we couldn't find sticks and thin wires and somebody kept the roll of thread from our reach; this is when the tadpoles experienced the wrath of 2 silly little girls. Eventually, the tadpoles grew into little ugly jumping maniacs and i couldn't get near the swamp anymore, froggy days aren't funny. It took me until biology class to get over frog phobia.

And then there was Ali Mall which is practically an extension of the Fersal apartment compound we resided at for a few years. Here's where i and neighborhood kids run to on weekends, blazing the vinyl tiles in Skatetown even before in-line skates or 'roller blades' was made popular. Our sometimes over-the-top 'taya tayaan' game would stretch from P.Tuazon st. To the mall.

Ali Mall was also an after school destination in high school to which julie, kath, sugar and i would frequent record bars for the latest music releases. This was of course at the time records are worth owning and cassette tapes weren't yet obsolete.

Back in the day, the mall was far behind on its interiors, it had orange tiles that were popular in the late 70s to the early 80s. Today, it's paved with modern gloss white tiles that give it a squeaky clean look. The lighting has changed and like a nursery classroom, Ali Mall looks smaller than i remember. The shops i used to go to are still in their spot and have all managed to slip in renovations to get on with the advancing times. The building now connects via a skywalk from SM, cool addition, very metropolitan and about time actually.

There goes my youth,revisited. Now, i'll relish happier times with a pack of jellyace minus the Rainbow Brite packaging design.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5