Destination Unknown

Just a while back, I received an invitation. This Sunday is
going to be the engagement of my friend, Princess. She’s the one who owned me
in a scrabble match more than half a year ago (yes, I’m still bitter, but
that’s not anyone’s problem. Bleh to my tough luck.)

Anyway, I congratulate her, not for defeating me in scrabble
-she was lucky, that’s all- but for finally confirming the settling down to her
love. The world works in such a complicated ways that finding the
“serendipitous meeting with THAT special someone” is in itself one of life’s
most arduous, albeit most rewarding, challenges.

Now before you start squirming, thereby closing this window
while cursing in a cantankerous frenzy, I must tell you THIS ISN’T AN ENTRY
ABOUT ROMANCE! No, sirs.

While I do appreciate being invited and will definitely go
to this lady’s engagement, more so because she has always been a good friend,
one thing I’m not looking forward to is the wedding dinner, which I see myself
attending 3 months later.

Yes, that’s one of my crotchets – or more accurately,
peeves. I hate going to wedding dinners. Others are crazy for it, and will bask
at every opportunity to go to such formal occasions, but I find myself, at many
times, preferring to sit the night out. What’s funnier is that I very often get
invited, so everything there is about wedding dinners of Filipino or Chinese
(or the combination) culture I’ve already seen and, frankly, grown nauseous of.

Why? What is it exactly about wedding dinners that annoy me?
Allow me to state a few points:

1. The food. They’re awful! This probably doesn’t apply to
everyone, but Seafood restaurants rarely serve the best foods, especially for
vegetarians – myself being one. The dishes tend to always taste the same, even
if they may appear in all stripes. All of them tastes as though it’s been
washed with seawaters, and the result is hardly palatable at all. There are plenty of times when I find myself NOT LOOKING
FORWARD to the next serving. That’s not exactly the kind of goal a restaurant
should be aiming for.

2. The choices of music. I can buy that “The Wedding March”
and “Pachelbel’s Canon” must be played; what I don’t buy is why the other
selections should be EXTREMELY LIMITED. Why does it always have to be the same
old, elevator-quality instrumentals of some “Timeless Ballads” playing in the
background? Why does it always have to be Celine Dion, Air Supply, Barry
Manilow, or Nat King Cole? Granted, love songs are the most appropriate for this
occasion, but there are a plethora of love songs to choose from, that they even
surpass the population of a third world country (yes, EVEN THIS ONE)! What about those equally romantic songs by Irvin Berlin, Cole Porter, or
George Gershwin? Or how about choosing one that’s not overexposed?

3. Karaoke. See the previous point. Now, imagine them being
bastardized by horrible voices and overly effusive delivery.

4. Schmaltzy speeches. C’mon! They have more syrups than a
serving of pancakes! I can’t stand it when the newlyweds’ “friends” give out
their “wishes them luck” speeches. Some of them are horribly insincere that, I
can’t help but wonder whether or not underneath the charade lies jealousy.
Maybe these people are secretly wishing to vicariously be one among the wedded.

5. The throw-the-bouquet and wear-the-garter game. This is
seriously just an excuse for matchmaking; and while may find it fantastic and
breathtaking, in this country, people are too shy that there’s far too many
stalling time used for calling out participants for this particular activity. Not
to mention that it’s during this event that some awful dance music, such as
“Macarena”, “Who Lets the Dogs Out” or “Sha-la-la”, gets played. I once
actually heard a collective groan when a groom announced that this game is
about to start. No joke!

The whole point is this. Wedding is great and all, and for
some it’s an once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless you plan to divorce and
remarry). Why hamper all the pleasure for the guests and parties involved by
exuding a tawdry and kitschy atmosphere? With just a little event-planning,
things can turn from so-so, to FANTASTIC. Does it really take that much of an
effort not to make it anticlimactic?

To this day, I’ve never seen a wedding dinner that shows
hints of elegances. Bleh to the whole culture.

Normally, it’s easy to predict the rating of a review by
reading the first few paragraphs. The author would start positive reviews by
praising as much as would fit in an intended word count. Substitute that with
criticisms, and you’d have the negative ones.

This is a Charles Mingus album’s review, and because the he
is far from being a conventional, straight-ahead jazz artist (he’s actually a
bassist, composer and a leader) it would be a huge disservice to him and to all
readers if I write in a standard-template-trodden angle. Before going further,
I need to emphasize that this is a positive review, because instead of starting
with praises, I’m going to state a number of reasons why you should approach
this album, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, with extreme caution.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (TBSaSL) is
avant-garde jazz. Avant-garde jazz, a very close relative to free jazz, is
considered one of the freest forms of jazz, or any music genres. Avant-garde
performers eschewed jazz’s conventions, probably in an attempt to analogize
jazz to democracy. They believed that rules about chords and harmonies only
restrict the real capability of an instrument, and that all instruments can
improvise all at once. As a result, free jazz and avant-garde jazz sound more
like a mess of squawks than being actually a song. Some may find it compelling,
but for anyone used to listening to structured music, avant-garde isn’t a
region you’d want to be in.

In TBSaSL, it had so much improvising from brass
instruments of all registers (low, medium and high) you’d likely be getting
headache after you’ve gone through all the tracks of this album, if you even
dared to withstand the ordeal for that long. It’s definitely not the kind of
jazz music you’d hear on Starbucks; I bet it would send those obnoxious
Starbucks patrons elsewhere to resume their obnoxiousness.

Bear also in mind that this is a Charles Mingus album. The
iconoclastic artist is well-[dis]reputed for being irascible, bullying and
unpredictable. How about we retell the story of how he, in the middle of a gig
with Charlie Parker and Bud Powell, literally told both of them to piss off.
Heck, I’m not even his biggest admirer. Frequently frustrated and often
furious, he’s simply not the kind of guy that you would hire as a babysitter.
In fact, Mingus is so disturbed that he consulted a psychologist, who
incidentally wrote the liner notes for TBSaSL, an album that expresses
his tortured psyche. Bear that in mind. This is an examination of a disturbed
man. You’d be hearing a lot of dissonances and mourning that reflects Mingus.
Now aren’t you glad it’s my psyche you’re entering?

TBSaSL is unlike any other jazz albums you’d hear.
The composer, Mingus himself, intended that this oeuvre become a seven-part
ballet suite (which is separated into four tracks). But once again, do not
mistake “ballet” as to mean the music is for dancing. If anything, it only
meant that the performances are increasingly complex.

In fact, my experience with this album wasn’t pleasant. When
I had gotten it, I was actually overwhelmed by the amount of instruments
playing altogether. They seemed to go different ways, as though living in
different dimensions. In my first listen, I tried to focus on the melody; and
much to my dismay, there nearly isn’t any. I ended up feeling wasted after I
went through the whole album.

I shelved the album for a few days before returning to it.
Why? I hated it. I hated myself for believing that this album WILL be
something. I’ve not heard of any music that so successfully screamed, “I’m not
meant for background”, and completely alienated those who also intended to give
it an in-depth look. But it dawned to me, that maybe by in-depth look, there
are different approaches.

So I decided to give it another shot, and intentionally
lowered the volume so as not to be overwhelmed. I was all prepared for the
worst, for it hadn’t exactly been a good day for me as well. Then, much to my
surprise, I find myself enjoying the album quite a lot, in spite of myself. The
album made sense to me in my second listen.

The music was RICH, in terms of content. At times it
smattered of Duke Ellington (Mood Indigo) and George Gershwin (Summertime), and
even some Latin and classical music; but otherwise, it’s authentically Charles
Mingus. The compositions were inimitable. Where it succeeds most was not in
establishing a melodies and harmonies, but in moods and themes.

The four-part performances were explosions of raw emotional
power, emphasized greatly by alternation in tempo and intensity, expressed in
ripples that characterized tumultuous times. Listening to them was like a
release, a freedom, of all those anger that’s curtailed from society’s
conservative restrains. The music put me in a belligerent mood, and finishing
it was like bathing in a fountain that washes away all those fury. Every listen
bears a new awakening, because the songs, subliminally, told a story that at
the end of all despairs, there is hope. The liner notes, written by Charles’
psychologist, also provided for an interesting analysis of all the tracks.

For those who examine music in the superficial level, I’m
afraid to say that it’s impossible to find value in all those semi-repetitive,
anarchical wailings and blaring. As I said in the beginning of the review, this
album isn’t for everyone, and I wouldn’t even coax you to listen to it. There
are jazz albums that are made for people who views jazz as lounge music, and as
a background for coffee shops.

But for anyone who wants to try the kind of music whose
complexities have reached the summit, TBSaSL is a good cliff to scale.
There’s nothing quite like it, and only a few other musicians can claim to show
the same amount of ingenuity and brilliance. Score: 5 out of 5.

It’s been a while since I last updated. I have a few upcoming reviews to be posted soon, but how about we break the monotony by having another one of these, you know, surveys?

1. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
- It’s been a while, but the last one that I’ve finished is this book called Jazz, written by Richard Carlin.

2. WHAT TIME IS IT?
- 8:52 AM

3. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE MAT?
- My mouse?

4. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?
- Scrabble, definitely.

5. YOUR FAVOURITE MAGAZINE?
- Time Magazine

6. BABIES?
- In what sense?

7. FAVOURITE SONG
- There’s too many. When it’s from one of those really great jazz albums, [nearly] ALL of the songs become my favorite. But at the moment, the one that really stands out are: "In A Sentimental Mood" by Duke Ellington, "Global Warming" by Sonny Rollins, "Songs for my Father" by Horace Silver, "Lamento" by Antonio Carlos Jobim, "Doralice" by Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz, "Acknowledgment" and "Resolution" by John Coltrane, "All of You" by Miles Davis. There are few others, but I thought we were supposed to veer away from the music discussion?

8. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
- Being on that nadir where you find yourself screaming "I want a better life".

9. FIRST THING YOU THINK OF IN THE MORNING?
- Praying is a given, but aside from that, I think of what to expect for the day.

10. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE?
- I don’t even count!

11. FUTURE CHILD’S NAME?
- Clementine. Doralice. Yeah, probably.

12. FAVOURITE COLOUR?
- Green, black, white

13. WHAT/WHO IS MOST IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE?
- God, family, friends, music

14. FAVOURITE FOOD?
- Depends, but I’m really itching to eat a pasta at the moment.

15. IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
- If I could play better, I would’ve definitely pursued a career in piano. If I could play some instruments, it would be guitar, bass, saxophone, trumpet, drum… what the heck, all of them!

16. DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST?
- Average

17. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
- No

18. STORMS
- The snow is falling, the wind is blowing, but I can weather the STORM! What do I care how much icicles fall, I’ve got my love to keep me warm!

It’s a song, in case you didn’t know.

19. WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
- I don’t have one. Haha

20. THE ONE PERSON FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK WITH?
- My late grandparents

21. FAVOURITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK?
- I’m not into it

22. WHAT’S IN THE BOOT OF YOUR CAR?
- Dunno

23. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
- Yes I do

24. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
- Writer

25. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
- People who have a lot of better things to do.

26. EVER BEEN IN LOVE?
- Ever answered a survey that didn’t ask this question? :rolleyes:

27. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?
- currently, no.

28. FAVOURITE MOVIE?
- Please read my profile.

29. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?
- Additionally, I type without even looking at the keyboard [/bragging]

30. WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED?
- well, go see for yourself. There’s nothing under it.

31. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE NUMBER?
- 10

32. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SPORT TO WATCH?
- definitely basketball!

33. SAY AT LEAST ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
- Katrina? Cute!

34. IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
- That’s a tough one. Probably near the riverbank of Zhuangzhi, Taiwan, where I’m not exposed to the acrid air of cosmopolitan Taiwan.

35. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
- None in particular.

36. BEACH, MOUNTAINS or CITY?
- A little bit of all.

37. TECHNOLOGY or ART?
- ART!

38. COMEDY or HORROR?
- I prefer comedy, thank you.

39. FAVOURITE PHYSICAL FEATURE OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
- This question again? Yeah sure, eyes and lips. Is anybody actually going to believe in that?

40. FAVOURITE TIME OF DAY?
- Around 7 PM

41. THE LAST CD YOU BOUGHT?
- Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown.

42. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO BE MASSAGED?
- back

43. WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU. STRONG MIND or STRONG BODY?
- How about strong heart? Well, nevermind, it sounds jarring.

44. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
- mostly 7 AM

45. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE KITCHEN ITEM?
- Refrigerator

46. WHAT MAKES YOU REALLY ANGRY?
- Posers, people with double-standards, racists, corporate dishonesty, obnoxious elites or pseudo-elites

47. WHAT DO YOU PREFER, A SPORTS CAR or
4wd?
- 4wd

48. DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE AFTERLIFE?
- Yes I do

49. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SEASON?
- Autumn

50. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
- The power to fly =) <- AGREED!

51. IF YOU HAVE A TATTOO, WHAT IS IT?
- well, Chinese characters are so cliche, and dragon is so kitsch. I dunno. I never really thought about it.

52. CAN YOU JUGGLE?
- No

53. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE DAY?
- Friday and Holiday

54. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI or
HAMBURGER?
- Both, but it has to be vegetarian

55. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE CARTOON?
- Tom and Jerry. Hahaha!

56. FAVOURITE MEAL?
- Just one without porridge. I hate porridges.

57. IF YOU COULD TAKE A VACATION ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
- New York, again. But aside from that, I would also want to go to Paris, London and Tokyo.

There’s a commonplace phrase
Filipinos use to describe a certain situation. It’s called "sumunod sa uso",
which denotes a jumping on the bandwagon to what is trendy.

After its launch, Sitti’s
Cafe Bossa gained massive popularity, and with it comes the reviving of a genre
that’s been left to obscurity for more than 30 years. Suddenly, Bossa Nova is
everywhere, and no less than 3 other local artists have made records
purportedly to capitalize on the craze. I’m sure I’m still missing some.

An example is Agot
Isidro’s The Island. Now I admit that I do not know much about this artist,
except for the fact that she’s hardly a fresh face to the records industry.
Mostly singing pop-oriented tunes, The Island is Agot’s most recent album,
and it’s her first to go en route to Bossa Nova.

When I first received a copy
of this album – from a friend of mine who want to hear of my opinion – I didn’t
know what to expect; but I rolled my eyes when I had looked at the
cover. I know sensuality is good and all, but there’s a fine line separating
the ones that are artful and subtle, and to those that are blatant and gaudy.
It’s easy to tell which of the two more accurately describes The Island when
you are presented with a picture of Agot holding one of her straps as if to
remove her almost-diaphanous clothes. And how about we assuage the sexy fancy
more by entitling the carrier single as I Wish That I Was Making Love To You?

But enough of that. I
still tried to focus on giving this album a serious, and attentive listen,
despite the cover’s suggestive urging to the contrary.

Right from the outset, we’re presented with the carrier single, the aforementioned I Wish
That I Was Making Love To You. It started out pretty nicely. The instruments, the vocals, the
arrangements and the tunes blend together for a song that’s perfectly likable
and nearly just as unoffensive. Well, except for the lyrics which without a
doubt would make conservative schoolmarms jump off their seats.

Suppose if you were to
listen to that song on a booth, chances are you’d end up purchasing The
Island. Factor that with a very affordable price, and you’ve got yourself a
pretty decent find. Or at least, that’s what you’d believe it would’ve been,
because I now would like to give you a number of caveat emptors.

The real problem with this
album is that, after the first few tracks, everything else declines in quality
too fast. The songs showed freshness and novelty, until it reaches the 5th
track. Corcovado, one of [the overexposed] Jobim standards, once again gets
covered. The problem is that it doesn’t set itself apart from all the myriads
of other Corcovados, and this problem would prevail for the rest of the album
(That Waters of March sounded like a replica of Tom and Elis’s). If I wanted to
hear a version of that song that’s not quite different to the rest, why should
I go out of my way to hear Agot sing it when I already have Astrud Gilberto’s?

Agot Isidro’s voice is
wonderful. Really. A number of people I’ve asked opinions from said that Agot
is considered one of the more understated pop princesses, and it’s easy to see
[hear?] why. She can do a lot of transitions and vibratos, and her voice is a
combination of girlie-sweetness and mature-sensuality. However, a good voice isn’t
mutually exclusive to creativity. This is one attribute where Agot suffers the
most: she doesn’t have much to set herself apart from all the other, better-known contemporaries, whether it’s Pop or Bossa Nova.

Another problem is the
arrangements. The pioneers of Bossa Novas have mostly kept the music spare. In The Island, however, there are far too many things going on that it’s
hard to focus on Agot herself. The guiltiest offender is her 7th
track So Many Stars, where she is backed up by an a capella. The purist in
me is already nitpicking on how un-Bossa-Nova-like it is, but the bigger issue, one salient even to the casual listeners, is that the backup vocals
work in disparity with Agot herself. In her other tracks, the instruments served more of gimmickry than necessity [probably by this modus operandi: "just create a constant percussion. It sounds Bossa Nova that way"] , and there would be
instances where the "backup" instrumentations smothered her voice. There’s a huge difference
between trying to make a song sound Bossa Nova, and making a great song,
regardless of the genre. And while we’re on that, nobody’s forcing Agot to abandon her pop roots where she performs a lot better.

Honestly, I had a really
hard time getting through all the tracks of this album - which is why it took
so long for me to write this review. This will sound like I’m bragging, but
atypical to people of the MTV generation, I do have quite a long attention
span. I can watch a 3-hour, all-dialogue movie. I can sit through a whole day of
lectures. I can listen to classical musics all day. Yet, The Island lulled me
to sleep without fail. The fact is that when I’m enjoying music, I would pay
attention to its nuances and its meaning. The Island lacked so much of those. It may have a lot of instrumentations,
the lyrics may be sexy, but on a musical standpoint, it just comes off as a
me-too effort without much in the way of originality and substance. Instead, it’s a repetitive exercise of the standard Bossa Nova template, and by the time
I was done, I was lightheaded and weary of everything Bossa Nova that I
couldn’t appreciate any song of that genre for days.

Too bad. What could’ve been
a potentially good album ended up serving just a purpose of being placed on the
background. I know there will be more Bossa Nova albums to come, but I hope the
artists would be more creative. Original contents wouldn’t hurt either. After
all, overfamiliarity breeds contempt, and unless overfamiliarity is eschewed,
Bossa Nova would suffer the same fate that had caused it to become obscure. Score: 2.5 out of 5

YOUR TOP FIVE (That stupid bulletin board where this originated got some lame-ass grammar. "You’re top 5ive"? Geez!)

5 daily essentials

*iPod
*Notepad
*Pen
*Wallet
*Phone

5 favorite songs (as of the moment)

*Resolution - John Coltrane
*Don’t You Pay Them No Mind - Nina Simone
*In A Sentimental Moood - Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
*Songs for my father - Horace Silver
*All of You - Miles Davis (original composition by Cole Porter)

5 favorite TV shows

* None
*
*
*
*

5 Favorite Icons (I changed fashion to favorite, mainly because I do not go by any "fashion icons")

* Duke Elington, the Sophisticated Jazzmen (composer and pianist)
* John Coltrane, the Angry Saxophonist
* Bill Evans, the Impressionistic Pianist
* Nina Simone, High Priestess of Soul
* Miles Davis, the Birth of the Cool (trumpetist and flugelhornist)

5 Collections

* Hah! My Jazz CD’s! Teal, shiny and original (mostly anyway)!
* Few figurines or mini-busts of anime characters (I’m a dork, so…)
* PS2 games and DVD movies (Again, I’m a geek. )
* Tons of scrap notebook where I put my ideas in
* electronic mails from my friends (Yes, I keep them :P)

(Let me add one more)

* comics and graphic novels

5 words to decribe you

* Fanciful
* Peripatetic
* Whimsical
* Flippant
* Inquisitive

5 things you can’t live without

* MUSIC! ESPECIALLY JAZZ!
* iPod (again, it’s music-related!)
* Food
* Fun
* Certain people

5 things you want to try

* Playing saxophone
* World Tour
* Sky diving
* cHaTtInG lIkE tHiS wHiLe tYpInG lIgHtNiNg QuIcK (well, just kidding. I don’t like typing like that at all)
* Watch a concert at blue note or village vanguard

5 people you want to meet

* Sitti Navarro (would be swell, probably)
* Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Horace Silver, etc. You know, those great Jazz musician who still ives
* Neil Gaiman. Yeah, I know he’s hyped up in epic proportions, but still…
* Alam Moore. I’ll touch his beard. Hahahahaha!
* I don’t know anymore.

5 Rant/Raves

* It’s my way or no way, and that’s a cold hard fact.
* "If knowledge can cause problems, it is not through ignorance that we solve it" -Isaac Asimov
* She’s HOT!
* The elevator is full of douchebags and douchebaggeries.
* Don’t you have anything better to do?