Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Choices



Life is all about making choices.

When I was still in grade school, I used to read a book that would have you decide what course the hero would take. Naturally, the book contained a couple of possible endings depending on the choices that you make---you can either end up triumphant or a failure. Since it's a book I had the chance to go through all the possibilities.

In real life, however, we only get one decision for every situation. The hard thing about making a choice is accepting the outcome---this is specially true if the decision made was not to our liking. The thing is, a bad decision should not be followed by the worst decision of deciding on just to sulk at "what should have been".

There should never be a place for REGRET in life! It's counter productive and it pollutes the mind! The important thing in life is to have the ability to pick yourself up every time you fall and find the courage to move on. Failure should be viewed as an opportunity to do better. I'm sure you have heard of the saying "try and try until you succeed". In like manner that we should go about living life!

A Song












Lost in the ghettoes of my soul
Is a song,
Cherished,
Yet not sung,
Hidden in the cavernous
convolution of my being...
In the mouth of a mute,
Shouting, struggling to be free,
But,
Fate had sealed the door,
And there it dwells,
Forever,
In the dungeon...
...of my soul...

What is there to Classical Music?



When I took up Music Appreciation during my college years, I had no regard whatsoever to classical music. During those times I was heavily into the music of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet to even take notice of the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonio Vivaldi or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Before, it was like, "Classical? YUCK!"---I mean, what is there to listening to violins and pianoes---even an orchestra for that matter! However, after listening to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" did I come to realize the different experience of immersing yourself to the imagery of such pieces. It was like seeing without actually seeing, get my drift?

Anyway, most often than not people would regard classical music as an elitist art form and with this respect we cannot blame them, for classical music did thrive during the middle ages duing the time of kings and kingdoms. However, classical musicians like Mozart and Beethoven did not compose their works just for the enjoyment of the elite. Actually, people then had only two choices in terms of musical inclinations---church music or secular music---unlike today where there are so many musical styles that each classification is divided into other categories. Rock for instance has "heavy metal", "R and B", and "slow rock" just to mention a few. So now you know why there are so many award categories during the Grammy's!
During the 1700's these classical composers were the primary concert artists comparable to the following of Michael Jackson. People would flock to places where they played. Even the burial of Beethoven would rival that of John Lennon's! The thing is, the elitistic stigma of classical music prevailed together with its "deteriorating" following. But more than this, maybe the fact that calssical music is a purely instumental piece that people find it hard to understand unlike other musical forms which contains words to express the emotion they wants to convey. You look at the lyrics and you know what the song is all about. Nowadays, with the influx of music videos it's not just a matter of being heard---it's GRAPHIC as well! Hmmm...talk about spoon feeding!

Classical music is a purely listening peice where you see not with the eyes and understand without words---it's closing your eyes...let your imagination drift and allow the musical current take you places! Try listening to Vivaldi's "Spring" (from his symphony Four Seasons) and see yourself promenading in a park with the folowers in full blossom or be lulled to sleep by the goddess Venus as you listen to Brahm's "Lullaby". Now, if you're the action guy, Rossinni's "William Tell Overture"(remember the theme song of "The Lone Ranger"?) and Richard Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" would be a perfect piece to listen to!

The thing is, all you need to possess is an active imagination and afterwhich let yourself be engulfed into musical ecstasy! To hell with social class! But then, in order for you to break this barrier you need to take the first step and TRY listening to it.

Tune in to 98.7 DzFE FM and enjoy the classics on radio!

Monday, September 17, 2007

To Kill a Mockingbird












A mockingbird sits
perched on a song,
Throating the mellifluous
voices of cherubs,
Cleaning our miseries---
With the innocense of their opus...
His glolden brown hair
Glistening,
In the early morning sun,
Rousing us with music
Of yet another
glorious day...
But,
The hunter in men
Harkens for blood
Anesthesing all morals
Chained to the lust
that so palgued him...
And so,
The men go about the hunt
Seeking his prey with hawk eyes
Mind a blank
Except for the thrill
of the kill...
In the meantime,
The mockingbird is unperturbed
Unmindful of the looming specter
of danger,
Singing his repertoire
In blissful naivite...
Then ran
The echoing boom of death
And the predator whistling away
Satisfied with the blood
that so stained the earth,
While the mockingbird lies still...
(inspired by the book by Harper Lee)

Picking Fights



"The good general knows when to fight and when not to fight."---Sun Tzu, The Art of War

When faced with adversity fighting is not always the right course of action. Blind action almost always ends up a disaster. When a war is needed to be waged a thorough assessment of one army's chances of winning need to be the primary consideration. Why bother fighting if there is no chance of winning? However, let us not mistake sheer number as a source of strenght. Superior fire power can only be an advantage if you can see your enemy. Case in point: the American invasion of Iraq. Why is it that after many months since the American led coalition forces moved in to "liberate" Iraq have they yet to secure the country? The so-called superpowers are virtually impotent in dealing with the war versus terror because they have no idea where they are. In the movie "300" it was three hundred soldiers versus a hoard of invaders. Just as it was with Emilio Jacinto's last stand in Tirad Pass. Clearly, strategy would play a vital role in each battle that needs to be won.

A co-worker told me that you should never to complain about the food in a restaurant or any food establishment for that matter. If your complaint is legitimate provide the feedback and leave. If you're complaining in the pretense of "the customer is always right", never demand for a replacement unless you can witness the actual preparation of the product---who knows what you'll get in return. Believe me, it may seem you've won with the power play but once you've known the "extra special ingredient" in your soup...well, you get my drift!

If you have an asshole of a boss, you need to evaluate your options---you can resign and wish him good riddance. But you need to think this through very carefully specially if your boss is a ver well connected asshole! If you're tied to a contract you can just suck it up and be the best you can. For all it's worth, the wheel of fate will turn and you may find this assholeof a boss in a situation where you can just smack him in the head! What goes around comes around, right?
Good thing I have a good boss! Nighty!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Men and Household Chores


I don't know what the BIG DEAL is when people know that I do laundry and ironing chores for the family. Men should be domesticated too,right? I remember my father telling me his childhood stories when he used to do the laundry and ironing in his family---mind you, there was no washing machine yet that time! Heck, would even do the "palengke" chores! Buti nga daw at hindi sya naging "bading"! But then,my father did it to help out in the family chores(as should be the case with children!)---tell you WHY I'm doing it---because comparing laundry and plantsa it's a lot easier than taking care of the children! You see, I have 5 kids(and another one on the way) and they can be a real handful! I do have 2 teens who can already take care of the little ones...but I guess teens will be teens and can take a while to respond to the calling of initiative. Anyhow, a little parental prodding will get them into action! So i guess I took upon myself to carry this responsibility as my personal tribute to my wife who gave me 5 beautiful children and sacrifised a lot taking care of them! Just don't given me clothing with pleats to iron!!!

My First Blog Ever!


Well, well, well...look who's taking this Friendster thing seriously! I got this idea from a long lost friend of mine who I recently got re-acquianted with! Just read her blogs and I thought why not?! God knows how much I like to write and be heard---I guess this is my chance! I just hope I don't bore those who'd get the chance to read them!
I do believe that I will be able to impact other people by sharing with them my life experiences. Originally I have wanted to write a book out of it. I did start writing this book which I titled "Me, Myself and a Whole Lot of Crap!" I guess I was already on page 10 when my hard disk crashed and lost all my files! Yeah right, it was a real BUMMER! Then quite recently, I was awoken in the middle of the night by a drunk co-worker I was sharing a room with during our Department seminar in Tagaytay, that I got an epiphany to start another book-to-be which I titled "Gridiron Living".
Football(NFL) fan that I am I thought the title was a no brainer---until I realized that the NFL is not that popular here in the Philippines! Now I guess this book is going to be a wait and see thing! Or maybe...I can just compile my blogs here and make a book out of it! Hmmm...I guess sleep is alreay clouding my mind!
Gotta hit the sack folks! Over and out!