The Man Also Said

Life is like riding a bicycle. 

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

Albert Einstein

point-blank shot #2

You are only as healthy as you feel.

Travis Bickle

The Man Said

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.”

Albert Einstein

Treat Yourself This Xmas for 1000+ TNL Points

FOR MATURE READING ONLY

The Happy Beast

ME & MY TRIBE

"The bourgeoisie loves so-called "positive" types and novels with happy endings since they lull one into thinking that it is fine to simultaneously acquire capital and maintain one's innocence, to be a beast and still be happy."
---Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

2010 in a nutshell

Yes, another year ends.
And I'm happy to say that I don't have any WORST READ this year, because at least I know how to choose a book that wont let me down.
Including e-books and free copies, let me summarize the results of my reading this year as already shown in my Fireproof (a madman's notebook on his book reading pains and pleasures) as pictured above:

BEST READS
1 Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
2 The Prestige by Christopher Priest
3 Neuromancer by William Gibson

WORST READS
------
No worst read for this year! Now, is this something good, or bad?

BEST BOOK COVERS
1 The Food Wars by Walden Bello
2 Teen Angst? Naaah... by Ned Vizzini
3 Food Rules by Michael Pollan

AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
Stieg Larsson
I cant wait to finally finish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and continue reading the rest of the Millenium Trilogy! If there could only be more time...

QUICKIES
1 Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman and P.Craig Russell
2 Food Rules by Michael Pollan
I finished reading them all at National Book Store branches in Manila.

BOOK HERO of the YEAR
Belbo from Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum

BOOK HEROINE of the YEAR
1 Anne Frank
2 Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

QUOTE of the YEAR
"In other words, free trade for the rest of the world and protectionism for the United States."
---Walden Bello (The Food Wars)
Watch out for my review of this book next month...

Happy New Year Everyone! I love you all, book addicts! \m/
See you when you don't see me next year...=P

Holy #@%! It's Migraine Boy!

Greg Fiering's "Migraine Boy"  \m/

Death of a Radio Station

THANK YOU FOR 23 YEARS 
OF ORIGINAL MUSIC!

Just woke up listening to NU 107 this morning and it seems like the word-of-mouth is true regarding the impending signing off of this ultra kewl radio station for good.

The Upswing tandem of DJs Trish and Jay couldn't hide the sadness as Macoy Fundales and his crew from Kenyo made a surprising visit and shared fond memories of their early years as budding artists and musicians with the help of this country's pioneering rock-n-roll station. Macoy topped the nostalgia trip with live, acoustic performance of a popular song Heaven Knows by his former band Orange and Lemons.

If the rumored final day of airing is true this coming Saturday, the loyal followers of this station will definitely raise a glass or two until midnight to pay tribute to what this station meant to their lives as artists or dilettantes, and as professionals or underground musicians.

Even for just a loyal listener, this station and its noteworthy segments will be missed for sure. I'll miss listening to Rock Ed Radio discussions with Gang and Lourd, the All Pinoy Countdown and Stairway to Seven, Francis Brew's In the Raw, and of course the best of them all---Remote Control Weekend. I've been listening to this station since college days and admittedly it has defined my adolescent life when it comes to musical preferences and idols. It gave me a great and therapeutic respite from Boy Bands, Spice Girls, and Britney Spears. It showed me who really are the true voices of music like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, RATM, Eheads, Teeth, Wolfgang, 311, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Incubus, 3rd Eye Blind, Filter, Silverchair, The Offspring, Bush, Radiohead, Oasis, Deftones, Yano, Nine Inch Nails, Francis M, RHCP, et al -- and they became a major influence in a diverse way at the time when downloading an mp3 song was illegal. Of course, I'll never forget falling for the music of kick ass chicks like Shirley Manson, Courtney Love, Gwen Stefani, Tracy Chapman, Harriet Wheeler(The Sundays), Melody(Sugar Hiccups), Bic Runga, Cynthia Alexander, Aya De Leon(Imago), Beth Gibbons(Portishead), Acel Bisa, Sampaguita, and Lolita Carbon. I can still remember ages ago taking the path of Roces St from my dorm to AS Building for my Social Science II class. I couldn't stop humming a classic song from Yano as I picture the serene face of a female classmate.

This morning at the end of the show Macoy asked on what will happen to the new rock artists releasing their works next year if a pioneer rock station like NU will leave the industry for good. For this, there is no definite answer--yet. But remember, Pinoy Rock survived the Marcos years of silenced and pacified airwaves during Martial Law. And now that we have TV and Internet and other radio stations(no matter how lame and tame their music is), Pinoy Rock will surely live on as we bid farewell to this station that we always loved and loved us back.

Sometimes, there is also good news in letting go...


The agony of giving it up... Wasak ang Wakas brad!

Revenge of a Rock 'n Roll God

"Music is not Art."

                         - Kurt Cobain, 1967-1994

Most of the people who witnessed a groundbreaking era in the world of music still could not understand why the most enigmatic person in the history of Punk said that line. Even at this age of YouTube, most of the younger hordes (and anonymous commentators) still couldn't see it. During those years of Grunge invasion in the mainstream, kids never bothered to take it seriously and just continued to rally behind Mr. Moustache and his kick-ass band called Nirvana. And sixteen years after his death, I was only able to decipher and understand what Kurt really meant after reading the less-known anthology (published in 1998) compiled by Rock 'n Roll journalists John Rocco, Everett True, and company.

We saw in the '80s how the political machinery, corporate materialism, and greed (specifically in the music industry) became the primary hate targets for adolescents who thought that there would always be a choice better than Ronald Reagan, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna. Those were the times when kids decided to look for a genuine root in music (the Beatnik Generation) while at the same time used the current technology to deliver the message. And that message was very angry and very playful. This is actually the birth of the Post-Modern Punk. Not surprisingly, their rivals and brothers in the Metal scene also felt the same way and before realizing it, both parties began to rebel against the current establishment and the recurring social issues by doing it "underground." The major base of operation was in Seattle. That movement is frontlined by The Melvins, Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and of course not counting as the least, Nirvana.

Nirvana as a band made only 4 studio albums, but they released two more posthumous "live" compilations-- Unplugged in New York and From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah. Additionally, the band also released tens of singles, EPs, collaborations, raw editions, including the numerous bootleg and stolen studio recordings. But of all their work, the most definitive album was Nevermind followed by Bleach. The album Nevermind allowed them to break into the wall of mainstream Rock 'n Roll awakening and disturbing the sleeping status quo that previously refused to listen.

But just like any tragic story, everything that has a beginning also has its end. After Kurt took Rohypnol and overdosed himself, picked his brand new Remington MII shotgun, loaded it and shot himself pointblank, his critics still "criticized" the death of a heroin junkie, while his followers mourned the loss of a genuine hero.

But before that why did Kurt said that music is not art?

As a kid Kurt loved playing the guitar. He loved listening to the Beatles, Leadbelly, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and later on Black Flag and The Raincoats, among others. Music for him is an opportunity to express his thoughts, his opinions. Playing the music is an act of freedom. But this was during his younger days.

After forming Nirvana and gatecrashing into the mainstream by selling millions of copies of their albums and earning numerous awards, the world became different. Nobody can ignore him anymore even if he went low profile. His words are easily misunderstood and his privacy, destroyed into pieces as his relationship with Courtney became a massive spectacle like a circus show. They were virtually cannibalized by the worldwide media and the press. The magazine interviews spawned controversies because of the lack of context. Of all the things he hated, this lack of context is what Kurt hated most. The lack of context resulted to lack of understanding, and then lack of respect.

This lack of respect by the media for Kurt, Chris, and Dave became a direct proof of the inevitability that Nirvana has turned into a mere commodity and no longer artists. In the words of Mari Earl (Kurt's aunt);

"Music was for Kurt an escape, a way to express what was inside himself. It was an understanding friend, predictable and comforting.When he became famous, music was no longer an escape for him, it was a nightmare of scheduled 'creativity' and harried performances. It was almost as if he became a caricature of himself and the whole grunge movement. Kurt's success only reinforced my suspicions of how the music business operates. By that, I mean the artist becomes a commodity, a can of beans, if you will, merely a saleable product. Can anything drain the human spirit more?"

After his death, the world saw that they can never own Nirvana nor Kurt Cobain. Kurt only belonged to himself, his wife and daughter. It may sound selfish but he needed an escape act and the courage to quit from the claws of opulence. He wanted to show that Nirvana's fate will never become a commodity, that there can only be one Nirvana in this world, and Kurt Cobain can never be replaced.

That was Mr Moustache's final revenge.

hardcore encore:

"If you introduce yourself they say, 'I know who you are.' And if you don't they think you're arrogant."

                                       -- Chris Novoselic

"It's a load of shit on Kurt's mind that he doesn't deserve..."

                                       -- Dave Grohl

"There's a photo-one photo-of Kurt that I really fucking hate. You must've seen it. Taken by an English photographer Martyn Goodacre, it just shows Kurt up close, staring moodily into the camera, black eyeliner on, hair all scrawny-lighting perfect, make-up mussed up perfect, the whole tormented "rock star" schtick perfect. I can't fucking recognize him. It looks nothing like the Kurt Cobain I knew, presents such a one-dimensional, distorted picture of him...and it seems to've been everywhere since his death. Posters, T-shirts, calendars, tribute books. Everywhere. Each time I see it, I catch myself looking at it thinking, "Is this the only way people remember Nirvana as the backing band for a tormented moody fuck-up of an artist? Is this the only way people recognize Kurt Cobain---as the Axl Rose who never made it?

I have nothing against Martyn Goodacre.

It's the lack of context I can't handle."

                                        -- Everett True

Genre: Anthology, Music, Rock 'n Roll, Punk, Grunge Culture

Rating: 4 "JagStangs" out of 5 (my original rating is 4.5, but I took 0.5 for the rough editing)

Barriotic Punk ni Mes De Guzman

DISCLAIMER: This book was written in Tagalog - for the Filipino reader. Hence, I will write the review in Tagalog also...mereklamo? hehe

Noong unang panahon, mabibilang mo sa iisang kamay ang mga nagsusulat ng mga kwentong hango sa totoong buhay na madaling basahin. Nagsisimula pa lang sa pagsibol ang internet sa Pilipinas at karamihan sa mga nagsusulat ay nakaimbak pa ang mga kuwento nila sa lumang kuwaderno ay meron nang nakapag-ipon ng kanyang mga akda na kinilala at isinapuso ng kanyang mga kauri (ka-baryo) at mga kapanahunan. 

Wala pa nung MYX, wala pa nung MTV, wala pa nung internet, wala pang IPod o mp3, wala pa nung cable, wala pang celfone, wala pa ring CD o DVD, meron lang Betamax - kanta ni Raymund Marasigan ng Sandwich. Sa henerasyon ng Betamax (1980's - Bagets paare!) ay ang panahon kung saan hinugot ni Mes De Guzman ang kanyang mga akda -mga maikling kuwento na paksa ay madalas sa probinsya o sa makalumang mukha ng siyudad o lungsod. Wala pa si Jessica Zafra noon. Wala din si Bob Ong. Mas lalong wala pa din ang mga nagsulputang Bob Ong Clones ngayon. Pero may Mes De Guzman na. Ayos!

Kakatwang eksena ang pinakasentro ng kanyang mga akda. Maliban dito, meron ding paksa na maaksyon, may kirot sa puso, at kapilyuhan, na lahat ay nagsasalamin sa tunay na lipunang Pinoy. Ang kuwento niya ay madaling maintindihan ng mga nabigo sa pag-ibig, mga nagsusumikap mag-aral at makapagtapos, mga tambay sa kanto, mga mahilig sa Lechon, mga pangkista, mga aktibista, mga retiradong sundalo na naghahanap ng mapagkakakitaan, mga pulitiko, mga bilanggo, mga habulin ng tsiks, mga sikat na action star sa syobis; lahat na kasama ang masang Pinoy.

Mahirap makalimutan ang mga kuwentong alam mong pamilyar ka. Na sa konting linya pa lang, nakikita mo na ang mga eksena, at hindi mo na mapigilan ang pagtawa. Malungkot nga lang isipin, may mga bagay na hanggang alaala na lang. Hindi ko makakalimutan si Bettu, Jong da Gret Pank at ang barkadahan ng kumpas-pitik. Hindi ko din malilimutan ang kagimbal-gimbal at nakakapanindig-balahibong pangyayari sa may litsunan. Maaalala ko pa rin ang kabayanihan ni Angkel Anghel. At higit sa lahat ang idol kong si Vargas na ipinaglihi sa kidlat (at hindi sa kulog) dahil wala nang makakapigil pa sa pag-guhit nya ng kanyang dakilang tadhana.

Malamang, kung may pagkakataon man ang henerasyon ngayon na mag-aksaya ng oras at basahin ang libro nya, baka hindi magustuhan ng lubos ang kanyang mga isinulat. Wala pang gumigiling na Justin Bieber at bumabayong Lady Gaga noon dahil panahon pa kasi iyon ng Betamax, kung kailan malinis pa ang mga ilog at sariwa pa ang hangin at libre ang pagsakay sa kalabaw.


My rating: Limang (5) kalabaw sa lima!
Genre: Modern Fiction