The Amateur Ear

something i would never ask

2012-02-01T14:42:00.009+08:00

Do you like classical music?

I would never ask this stupid question of anyone.

It's snobbish. It is patronizing and alienates the person asked.

It does no credit to that immense body of brilliant human works lumped together and conveniently labeled as "classical."

I agree with Alban Berg when he said "music is music."

"his airman, my marine"

2012-01-31T08:33:00.005+08:00

U.S. Air Force Airman Luis Peralta and lifepartner, U.S. Marine Peter Apiag.

I really love this photo, which has been certified viral on the net. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Peralta.

wisdom from movies 1

2012-01-30T10:49:00.003+08:00

Tom: Did you ever even have a boyfriend?

Summer: Of course.

Tom: What happened, why didn’t they work out?

Summer: What always happens? Life.

—from (500) days of Summer (2009)

balkan restaurant, perea street, makati

2012-01-26T09:30:00.020+08:00

January 19. Had dinner with my friends Chesca, Joyce, and Monica at Balkan, a Yugoslavian (Yugoslav?) restaurant at Legaspi Village, Makati. Who knew there was a Yugoslavian restaurant in Manila, or that there was even Yugoslavian cuisine?

Items: ghoulash, burger patties stuffed with mozzarella and served with potatoes, chicken wrapped in bacon and served on a bed of mashed potatoes, etc. I see from the menu that the food seemed always to be served with potatoes, with cold rice as garnish, an odd thing for a Filipino like me.

Everything tasted "homemade," prompting me to think I could fix them in the kitchen myself for as long as I had potatoes in stock. But then again, Balkan does pride itself to serve "Yugoslavian Home Cooking."

Balkan's crepe, though, I will have to say, is pretty fantastic and nothing like the crepes I've had before. But don't take it from me, I am no foodie—insert burp! from the office cafeteria, here. Just to go Perea St. and taste for yourself.

Throughout the meal , I kept thinking, there's no longer any Yugoslavia. That state has disintegrated and been split into at least six entities (click here for the Wikipedia entry). At that time I wasn't really sure, and so I wanted to ask the manager, who being white and blonde I presume is from that part of the globe. But then I decided against it since it would probably be a sensitive issue for her were she actually from there, and so not a very polite thing to ask.

Thanks, Mon, for choosing the resto.

All photos are grabs from www.juice.ph and www.spot.ph.

this is me

2012-01-25T08:48:00.003+08:00

Listening to the slow movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, I'm moved to tears all the time.

Thank you, Frederic Chopin.

bourne in manila

2012-01-24T08:43:00.017+08:00

As most Pinoys know, the Bourne Legacy is shooting in the Philippines. The film stars Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton and new hotshot Jeremy Renner. Location shoots include various points in the metro (rather unflattering areas of Manila, Navotas, Makati, Pasay, etc., ugh) and touristy Palawan (what a relief). Last week they were in Leveriza, Manila, which is about two or three LRT stations away from Padre Faura where I work.

(Photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

can't live without wikipedia: the wikipedia blackout

2012-01-19T10:35:00.013+08:00

This morning I planned to write about Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" as soundtrack to the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. For research I went to my daily stand-by, wikipedia. This is what I got.

Wikipedia has blacked out its English-Language site to protest two legislative bills pending in the United States.

While the bills are apparently well meaning, Wikipedia raises concerns that the methods the bills propose to stop copyright infringement also infringe freedom of expression. Hence, the black out.

Our globalized world is really amazing.

Do these US Legislators, ensconced as they are in Capitol Hill and their first-world Ivory Towers, even realize how much their acts impact lives outside American shores?

I can no longer imagine my daily life without wikipedia. This post is in support of the blackout.

what's crudele (cruel love) in tagalog?

2012-01-18T10:28:00.014+08:00

This morning was listening to Cecilia Bartoli and Bryn Terfel singing Mozart duets and, during a recitative, Bartoli shouts "Crudele!"

I hear this word often enough in opera and so decided to check what it means.

It's italian. One internet site translates crudele as "pitiless," "merciless," "cruel." Easy enough to translate in Tagalog—masama, salbahe, walang puso, walang awa, walang kaluluwa, maitim ang budhi, halang ang bituka, don't-hate-me-coz-I'm-beautiful.

Another site says crudele is "cruel love." And so I think to myself, how love sick of the Italians to have one precise word just for the phenomenon. Because I can't think of one Tagalog word for that, I don't think we have one.

something i would never do

2012-01-11T10:14:00.001+08:00

Touch an incoming train as it slides onto the station, like a caress.

music for fireworks

2012-01-05T09:40:00.012+08:00

On New Year's eve I stayed home with a friend. We had wine, opened all the windows in my room, watched my wealthy neighbors' fireworks, gratis.

The following works played on my cd player as pyrotechnics graced the sky (and increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere—so much for global warming):

1. Fourth Movement, 9th Symphony, Beethoven
2. The Nutcracker Suite, Tchaikovsky

I think "Aquarium" from Saint-Saen's The Carnival of the Animals should also work. Hmmm. Definitely, for next year's revelry:

on the lrt 1

2012-01-04T11:05:00.002+08:00

On the LRT this morning I eavesdropped on a college student clad in an all white uniform texting on his cell phone. (I know, not good, but I couldn't help it.)

The text read: "Dude, flickering of ears, highly unresponsive..."

He got off at Central Station before I could read more. I wonder what that was all about?

"the summit: a chronicle of stones"

2011-12-29T11:11:00.021+08:00

I had the good fortune of seeing "The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones" at this year's Eiga Sai, the Japanese Film Festival.

The movie is gorgeous (too bad amazon doesn't have it in stock), the cinematography—a sweeping panorama of mountains, peaks, and breathtaking summit views—astonishing. It reminded me of why men and women risk lives and climb mountains. There's not one badly acted scene. And the movie celebrates the much vaunted Japanese virtues of patience, single-minded commitment, perseverance. Add wry voice here, though I'm not being sarcastic —envious is more like it. Released as "Mt. Tsurugidake" in some markets, it tells the true story of a group of Japanese military mountain climbers tasked to scale the treacherous Mt. Tsurugidake, measure it, and "complete a map of their nation."

They succeed. The movie presents the men's dogged persistence and sacrifice with so much elegance I nearly cried at the end. Anyway, it all happened in pre-War Japan, and so I allowed myself to enjoy the movie's take on Japanese heroism and set aside thoughts of their atrocities to Filipinos during the war. (Nota bene: I still have relatives and friends who, as children, actually lived through the Japanese occupation.)

My one argument with the movie is its score. The Japanese are famous for their love of western classical music; maybe this film's producers wanted to pay tribute to Baroque music as well—they heavily used Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Handel's Laschia Ch'io Piangga, orchestrally arranged.

I love Handel and Vivaldi, and count The Four Seasons as one of my entry drugs into the intoxicating world of classical music (ha ha, cheesy, I know). Used as running soundtrack in this film, though, they were just too much. I would have thought the soaring The Four Seasons would be perfect fit to a story about mountains and glorious heights, but, oh, did this movie prove me wrong. The effect was overwhelming. It's like what we Filipinos say about eating too much sweets: nakakatusing.

Nevertheless. I hope next year's Eiga Sai will still feature it. I am definitely going to watch it again.

2011-12-28T13:40:00.000+08:00

Homosexuality is my paradigm shift.

the perfect la ci darem la mano: terfel and bartoli

2011-12-16T17:35:00.003+08:00

My workplace has been under stress the past few weeks and there's no indication things will relent somewhat. Oh, to the contrary. I expect January to be worse.

Oh well. It's 5:30 PM, a Friday, and I've just turned in work. It's time to relax and listen to music. In my opinion, this is the best "La ci darem la mano" tandem: Brynn Terfel as Don Giovanni and Cecilia Bartoli as Zerlina. My own little heaven in three minutes.

Here's a transcript and translation by Jacob Lubliner.

Là ci darem la mano

Don Giovanni:
Là ci darem la mano,
Là mi dirai di sì.
Vedi, non è lontano;
Partiam, ben mio, da qui.

(Don Giovanni:
There we’ll be hand in hand, dear,
There you will say, “I do.”
Look, it is right at hand, dear;
Let’s go from here, me and you.)

Zerlina:
(Vorrei e non vorrei,
Mi trema un poco il cor.
Felice, è ver, sarei,
Ma può burlarmi ancor.)

(Zerlina:
I want to, but it’s not pure,
My heart is ill at ease.
I would be happy, I’m sure,
But it may all be a tease.)

Don Giovanni:
Vieni, mio bel diletto!

(Don Giovanni:
Come, sweetest love, let’s hurry!)

Zerlina:
(Mi fa pietà Masetto.)

(Zerlina:
Masetto gives me worry.)

Don Giovanni:
Io cangierò tua sorte.

(Don Giovanni
I’ll change your life forever.)

Zerlina:
Presto... non son più forte.

(Zerlina:
Soon, dear... I don’t feel clever.)

Don Giovanni:
Andiam!

(Don Giovanni:
Let’s go!)

Zerlina:
Andiam!

(Zerlina:
Let’s go!)

A due:
Andiam, andiam, mio bene.
a ristorar le pene
D’un innocente amor.

(Together:
Let’s go, my love, let’s go,
To heal the pain and woe
Of love that’s innocent.)

Translation © 2007 by Jacob Lubliner

adam and andy double shot

2011-12-05T09:41:00.005+08:00

James Asal posted two Adam and Andy comic strips today. What a happy morning.

work tales 1

2011-11-29T15:14:00.003+08:00

Was studying a decision on estafa just now and this stopped me cold:

"The Financial Audit Group (FAG), which was then headed by Mr. xxx..."

done with the mumps

2011-11-29T10:22:00.001+08:00

And I lost about five lbs., too.

I love it.

i have the mumps

2011-11-24T17:08:00.011+08:00

Or so the doctor says. She also said it could be an ear infection.

So now I'm home alone with antivirals and antibiotics trying to rest this fever away and not infect anyone. And I'm worried. The facial swelling is not painful; neither are my balls. (Orchitis. "You could become sterile," the doctor said; "It doesn't matter," I said laughing.) I worry because my left ear is hurting. And sounds come through slightly muffled. My precious left ear. My dominant ear, the one I use when I want to focus on anything. The right ear is lazy. And so I would much rather prefer mumps and the risk of sterility over an ear infection. Fertility is wasted on me, but you see, I need both ears in tip top shape for music. Not to be dramatic or offensive, but great music, not the idea of adding my progeny to this overpopulated world of ours, enriches my life.

Should I go console myself with Callas now?

my one and only love

2011-11-21T12:41:00.008+08:00

To A,

From R.

("My One and Only Love, Thom Hanrich, composer, "Pina" soundtrack)

more pina

2011-11-21T12:35:00.001+08:00

Pina Extrait 2 by toutlecine

the bar on sunday

2011-11-18T17:13:00.004+08:00

On Sunday I'm off to help proctor the 2011 Bar Exams for the third time.

Ugh. Mahirap kumita ng pera. A hard day's work for, well, approximately three cds for me, or three afternoons' visit to Starbucks for others.

philippina

2011-11-18T11:58:00.006+08:00

Pina Bausch has been a hero ever since I saw a snippet of Cafe Müller in Hable con ella. Watch, watch, watch.

Pina - UK Trailer by artificialeye

my mahler epiphanies

2011-11-17T17:47:00.023+08:00

After three rounds of Mahler's First Symphony today:

1. Ok. Mahler's volatility comes from his frequent shifts in moods within movements. For instance, in the first of the First it's brooding at one moment, giddy, jazzy, sad, heraldic, or anticipative, even pastoralish at the next. And the next and the next. All within the same movement. In my understanding of the form, most symphonies, definitely those based on the historic sonata form, tend sustain a dominant mood per movement, as usually determined by the tempo of the movement (either midtempo, slow, or fast). The first of the First does not.

2. Mahler makes good background music while working. Which is kinda how Mozart works for me. Perhaps I'm not that interested. Or maybe it's because the Mahler symphonies are not very melodic (oops, I've only listened to just one so far). I don't think the First has one specific melody or dominant theme. (Think of the famous four-notes opening of Beethoven's Fifth, which Beethoven then morphs into all the other three movements of the symphony; free listen here). Excellent, memorable melodies are very distracting. No such melody = no distraction = excellent background music for working.

Or I could be wrong, since I had only listened to the Mahler First so far. (Wikipedia of course has a completely different take on the Mahler First.) Oh well. Nine more to go.

mahler and volatility

2011-11-17T09:51:00.014+08:00

Yesterday on the train I read an article that some people who ~~play~~ make a living out of the stock market do not like listening to Mahler. ("Blowing Up" by Malcolm Gladwell; What the Dog Saw is on my train reading list.) "Mahler is not good for volatility," says options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who also teaches finance at NYU.

What's an options trader?

Anyway, so today I brought my set of all of Mahler's 10 Symphonies to listen on my office pc. (Mahler, 10 Symphonies, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik, conductor, Deutsche Grammophon. Click here for free sample listens.) Not that I'm particularly fond of Mahler or of symphonies in general. It's just I've only listened to these works once or twice. And I need a new perspective on the word "volatility."

two cabs (nov. 14 & 15)

2011-11-16T09:59:00.022+08:00

I don't know why, but for the past two nights the taxis I've taken from SM North to Commonwealth turned out to have tampered meters. The first cab's meter read P150 and we were only on the Tandang Sora fly-over; The second cab read P220 (P220! What was this, Makati to Commonwealth?), and we were only rounding the first u-turn after the fly-over. Both times I complained, and both times the drivers, both grandfatherly and courteous, how odd, promptly stopped their meters and told me to pay what I usually paid. I would have grumbled and picked a fight with threats to call the LTFRB if they hadn't been so polite about it. I just told them "baka nasingitan po kayo ng karelyebo nyo" - suggesting the driver they alternated on the cab with, not them, had rigged the damn meter - but I knew better. Katamaran, i.e., the hassle of calling the LTFRB, got the best of me and I got off the cabs quietly .

The LTRFB early this year raised both flag-down and running rates, upping my SM North-Commonwealth fare from P85 to P110. This should be good news for taxi drivers had not shrewd taxi operators also hiked their boundary fees. So times will always be hard if you're a cab driver. They have my sympathy, yes, but there's no reason to cheat. The LTRFB also said that the new meters are "tamper free." The past two nights proved that wrong.

series on spanish-derived filipino words

2011-10-06T13:19:00.005+08:00

For the past three months I've been studying Spanish at the Instituto Cervantes Manila.

It's amazing how much words we have derived from Spanish. Nakakagulat ang dami ng salita natin na halo mula sa Español. I'll try to put them in this blog as I go along.

there's a woman named labia...

2011-10-06T10:30:00.005+08:00

A soprano. Call her Labia, Maria Labia.

I wonder how she sounds?

shostakovich, stalin, an ordinary execution

2011-09-16T18:09:00.011+08:00

Shostakovich recurs in "An Ordinary Execution," a film about Joseph Stalin, the strongman's last days, and the hapless physician he held captive for his treatment. (He later gave orders for her execution.) It's a powerful film. Watching it, I realize that I may bitch about my poor commuter's life here in the Philippines, but it's infinitely better than living under a repressive regime.

Equally powerful is the use of Shostakovich's music in the film. Mozart's and Debussy's also, but more resonant, more poignant, is the slow movement of Shostakovich 's Piano Concerto No. 2 leveraged into the narrative. Of musicians, the most punished and tormented by Stalin was Shostakovich. The composer suffered social ruin and, for a time, creative death on account of Stalin's tastes: Stalin simply disliked Shostakovich's opera (MacBeth, was it?), and it was enough for the Soviet cultural establishment to virulently denounce Shostakovich. In a totalitarian state where individuals perceived antagonistic to state policies-necessarily Stalin's, personal quirks included-are expendible, the composer reasonably feared for his life.

Sounds exagerrated, even hysterical, by today's standards, but how true, how true.

I won't underline the irony of Shostakovich's music in a film about his oppressor. (Click for wikipedia's treatment of the Relationship between Dmitri Shostakovich and Joseph Stalin) I will point out, however, that of the two dead men, Shostakovich lives on through his music while Stalin has become a footnote in the world's failed experimentations with communism.

("An Ordinary Execution," in French, was shown at the ShangriLa Cinemas, September 9 to 18, 2011.)

the ccp caves in

2011-08-15T12:38:00.001+08:00

The CCP should not have caved in to immature pressure from philistines and narrow-minded fundamentalists. Period.

Sorry to say, but to those who insisted on the closure of Cruz's art work slash freedom of expression, SHAME ON YOU! You people are no different from the Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a death sentence on Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses.

August 5, 2011

2011-08-05T09:54:00.001+08:00

Barack Obama's birthday is today. He turns 50.

back again

2011-08-04T13:37:00.008+08:00

After approximately 26 months.

[What happened in the meantime: 2 law firms, 3 boyfriends, lots of the same old mistakes, but still learning, thank god for that. And growing, hopefully.]

Blog no longer to focus on music, though. (Why not create a new blog? Nah--too much trouble.) After reading Alex Ross, I realized I would never be as perceptive, as multi-dimensional in listening to music.

Item: Ross on Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra:

Strauss had a flair for beginnings. In 1896 he created what may be, after the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth, the most famous opening flourish in music: the "mountain sunrise" from Thus Spake Zarathustra, deployed to great effect in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The passage draws its cosmic power from the natural laws of sound. If you pluck a string tuned to a low C, then pluck it again while pinching it in half, the tone rises to the next C above. This is the internal of the octave. Further subdivisions yield intervals of the fifth (C to G), the fourth (G to the next higher C), and the major third (C to E). These are the lower steps of the natural harmonic series, or overtone series, which shimmers like rainbow from any vibrating string. The same intervals appear at the outset of Zarathustra, and they accumulate into a gleaming C-major chord.

--Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, p. 7

So there. Such authority on the subject matter.

Whatever I write about classical music I'm afraid would be clueless or sound pretentious. So. I'd rather not.

And so I'd rather listen . [Listening to the Andante from Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 (Death and the Maiden) as I write this, btw. Ang ganda. Period.]

blog shut down

2009-05-27T21:52:00.008+08:00

Well, sorta.

I've started a new blog, one that's just for me. So no comments page, no frills, and only I can read it - how a real journal ("diary" sounds too girlish) should be. It's exactly what I need these days: space where I can write my thoughts and daily minutiae without being self-conscious about it.

This public blog is too high maintenance. It's the idea of having readers; even if I have only a handful, I still edit and revise and plan my posts. It's tedious and time consuming. Maintaining it has stopped being fun a long time ago. The fact that I've saddled this blog with a name that's about music- well, I think it has limited me to what I could post about. There's more to me than my passion for good music.

I've given the blog a cute name: "one of 6,782,405,665." Nice name, 'no? Only, no one else can read it save for me.

Still, I'll keep the Amateur Ear going. It's still me, after all. This space-and its previous incarnations the Amateur Misanthrope, the Ambivalent Misanthrope, and the Failed Misanthrope-has given me a lot of good memories. It's a repository. I'll just write about the things I want to make public here, and save the private daily stuff for the other blog, "one of 6,782,405,665."

Oh, and I'll still use twitter; updates are available here.

But 'til the next post, the Amateur Ear says over and out.

And thanks for reading the Amateur Ear.

long gone before daylight

2009-05-10T08:47:00.005+08:00

I adore this album: The Cardigans' Long Gone Before Daylight.

Fans generally agree that it's "a much darker album than their previous works" (-wikipedia). I remember when this blog, back when it was still "The Amateur Misanthrope," even quoted from one of songs, "No Sleep":

and if I had one wish fulfilled tonight
I'd ask for the sun to never rise
if God lent his voice to me to speak
I'd say: "go to bed world!"

It encapsulated my sentiments about the world perfectly.

nuance thrives on silence

2009-04-19T20:31:00.001+08:00

On long bus trips I listen to my favorite bands. These days, Keane and Coldplay mostly. Before, the Cardigans, Garbage, and the Cranberries until I tired of them for a while. Can’t listen to classical music on the bus. Ambient noise—traffic, engine drone—kills it.

Classical music needs silence. And a very focused listener.

the "art" of glenn gould

2009-04-12T15:53:00.002+08:00

This one-disc compilation has a lofty title. And it disappoints.

Although it carries a few (just three) tracks from Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, a recording vital to the Gould legend, most of the selections are hardly representative of Gould's pianism.

For instance, the Beethoven piano concerto. It takes up too much playing time when Gould is not particularly known - or beloved - for his Beethoven playing. There are pianists who shall be forever associated with certain composers: Rubinstein with Chopin, Horowitz with Scarlatti, Rachmaninoff with Rachmaninoff. Gould is with Bach, but there is only a handful of Bach here. There are also not enough contrapuntal pieces. Bach's affinity is with the Baroque; he may have occasionally visited the romantic and classical periods, but these are periods where other piano demigods play. It is with the Baroque repertoir where Gould's divinity lay.

The choice of Bach's fifth concerto is also uninspired. Simply put, it's not the Bach concerto for which Gould is known - it's the first.

Perhaps the compilers could be forgiven had they settled on a less ambitious title with this disc. Ultimately, it is difficult to hear the art of Glenn Gould in these boring pieces. The compilers could have done better.

ross on black classical musicians.

2009-04-11T09:14:00.002+08:00

I've always wondered why, save for a number of vocalists, so few classical musicians are black. Alex Ross provides the likely answer in his superb article on Marian Anderson.

guest speaker

2009-03-31T22:36:00.000+08:00

I've been invited to be guest speaker for the graduation rites of my old elementary school this year.

I was chosen I guess because I have become lawyer, that interesting specie. I cannot imagine that school having a lot of lawyer alumni as it's a very small school. I expect there will only be a handful of graduates to address this Thursday, just forty or so students.

I don't exactly know what to say to them yet. They're only twelve. They're Grade Six turning First Year High School.

on adagios

2009-03-31T22:20:00.005+08:00

In Iris Murdoch's "The Nice and the Good," one of the characters "was always playing slow movements" on his gramophone. Murdoch gave him the most memorable line from the novel:

"Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one's ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonizing preoccupation with self." (Willy Kost, ch. 22).

It's impossible he said this with heavy metal music on the background.

I got this cd from Tower Records Quezon Avenue many years ago. The slow movements included in the compilation are interesting, but I wouldn't call them the greatest of adagios.

Personally, "the greatest" for me would includes the following:
1. the adagio from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A;
2. the adagio sostenuto from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor;
3. the andante from Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F,
4. the romance from Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor; and
5. the largo from Bach's Double Violin Concerto in D minor.

These adagios are far grander than the clichéd Albinoni's Adagio (included in this album and in every other classical "greats" album). But that's just me.

Beautiful performance of the intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, though, as well as of Elgar's Nimrod Variations and Brahm's Adagio from Violin Concerto in D. Which reminds me. I once heard the PPO perform the intermezzo from the Cavalleria Rusticana live, during Barbieri's farewell concert at the CCP. The farewell concert was of Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand, but the PPO performed this as encore as tribute to Barbieri. Very heartfelt performance, if I remember correctly.

lennox on love

2009-03-30T09:14:00.001+08:00

"Sex and love are very much bound up together, and, in most instances, they have very little to do with each other. They're used as exchange rates."- Annie Lennox, The New York Times, 14 May 1995 interview.

what's been happening

2009-03-29T09:40:00.003+08:00

1. "Nicole," a.k.a. Suzette Nicolas, has executed an affidavit stating she doubts if she really was raped by Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, who is now serving sentence after his conviction in 2006 by the Regional Trial Court of Makati for precisely that - raping Nicolas. The decision relied substantially on Nicolas' testimony.

Once more, "Nicole" has divided the nation: first with her accusation, now with her retraction.

She's revealed her name, as well as her face. Now Suzette Nicolas is in the United States.

She is an Ateneo graduate, by the way.

2. Widening of Luzon Avenue. Finally.

3. A house is being built on the empty lot in front of our house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the new neighbors don't sing karaoke.

4. Demolition of Our Lord's Grace Montesori, which is kinda near my village, is finally complete. Demolition started a few months ago. It was a fairly successful school with an impressive campus- celebrity students, successful alumni, a gymnasium, an olympic sized swimming pool, airconditioned classrooms - but I heard the owners mismanaged the school funds and so the school had to shutdown. For good. Oh well. The demolition workers say a supermarket will replace soon, either Savemore or SM Hypermart.

5. Construction of a funeral home in front of Luzon Avenue, across Puregold Supermarket, has begun.

mozart piano sonatas

2009-03-27T21:22:00.003+08:00

I'm not a fan of Mozart's piano sonatas; I just like listening to them in the background. Purists would protest: Mozart is NOT muzak. Still, I use this cd for background music during work or study. (I can't do that with his Requiem Mass and arias, though. They are too beautiful.)

I only have two recordings of a handful Mozart piano sonatas: one by Michiko Uchida, and this, by a not so well-known pianist by the name of Margarete Babinsky. The Uchida I got from Robert; this I got from Radio City years ago for just P100.00. Since Babinsky is not a celebrity pianist, her playing doesn't demand much scrutiny - unlike, say, the controversial Lang Lang, whose every note struck invites the analysis of haters and fans alike. Which can't always be a good thing for music. In any case, what remains in listening to this cd is simply Mozart: simple, unfussy, neurosis free. Maybe that's just how Mozart really is.

idil biret's chopin

2009-03-24T23:00:00.005+08:00

I consider this my gateway album. It's one of the first cds—if not the first cd-I bought when I started my classical cd collection six years ago.

When I was a kid RPN9 screened "The Summer of '42," and a Chopin waltz was part of the score. The music haunted me for years. It was the C-Sharp Minor waltz, of course, but at that time I didn't know the title, I only knew it was a work by Chopin. My quest for the work led me to this album. The C-Sharp Minor Waltz turns out to be not in the album, but in any case, it familiarized me with the music of Chopin.

I always come back to this album, at the same time wondering why despite the deeply introspective performances, the Turkish pianist Idil Biretis not hailed as one of Chopin's leading interpreters.

Nusuth. It doesn't matter. Here's Artur Rubinstein playing the breathtakingly beautiful Chopin C-Sharp Minor Waltz.

march heat

2009-03-24T20:35:00.001+08:00

The heat in Manila is terrible, and it's not yet April and May. Global warming affects everybody, but I can't help but think that people in tropical countries are perhaps the hardest hit.

bartoli's baroque singing

2009-03-23T20:35:00.005+08:00

Renee Fleming writes about recording the soundtrack of The Return of the King of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Composer Howard Shore commanded her to sing the music of the Elves "no vibrato, no connecting between tones, no dynamics."

Fleming continues:

Barely a month later, I recorded a disc of Handel arias and found to my delight that the experience of fine-tuning my ears to hear the tiniest change in vibrato and dynamics lent itself perfectly to the baroque style. A fortuitous side benefit to taking on the music of the Elves!

Hmmm. Does Baroque opera-style singing really call for subdued vocal dynamics?

I love Baroque opera. I love the da capo aria - very unfussy lyrics-wise. I have Lorraine Hunt's Handel recording and this, Bartoli's recording of 18th Century Italian art songs ($1.99 at Amoeba). Her singing here is certainly not restrained in terms of vocal dynamics: she still showcases the ornamentation and embellishments for she is known for.

I think Harold Schonberg would approve of Bartoli's take on of Baroque singing. He writes apropos of da capo aria:

In the da capo aria, the singer goes through all of the musical material and then returns to the first section. On the return the singer was expected to show off his or her bag of vocal tricks, embellishing, adorning, and ornamenting the melody. Handelian opera is largely a succession of da capo arias, with a few duets and occasional larger ensembles thrown in. (the Lives of the Great Composers, third ed., p. 62.)

I'd like to hear how Fleming sang her Baroque album. I'm curious to know what exactly she meant.

beatles as muzak?

2009-03-17T21:28:00.004+08:00

But I shouldn't be so dismissive.

After all, the arrangements of "Here, There, and Everywhere" and "And I Love Her" are beautiful. I even used the HTE track in my sister's Lutheran wedding ceremony, while the guests were waiting for the bride to walk the aisle.

Ofra Harnoy is perhaps the leading Canadian cellist today. I have two other of her albums, Volumes I and III of her complete recordings of the Vivaldi Cello Concertos - her solid contribution to Vivaldi discography and proof of her mettle as a serious classical musician. Those cds, I love and treasure. They're what made me buy this album from Amoeba last last year.

Oh well. This transcription of classic Beatles songs for cello and string quartet makes good background music while working - unfussy and undemanding to listen to. From Fanfare Recordings, arrangements by Doug Riley, original music by the Beatles.

ma's tribute to brazil

2009-03-16T21:22:00.004+08:00

Yoyo Ma has a reputation for being music's every-man, and this album confirms it. Obrigado Brazil, Ma's tribute to Brazilian music.

Brazil brought Bossa Nova, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Heitor Villalobos to world music, classical or otherwise. Remember Jobim's "The Waters of March"? Even the Polish Basia recorded a version.

My favorite tracks are Ma's two collaborations with Bossa Nova singer Rosa Passos: Chega de Saudade and O Amor Em Pas. I love O Amor Em Pas, which has universal pathos. The last line goes: "Love is the saddest thing when it goes away." So true, so true. I use it as after-sex music for the really cute guys. Enjoy the youtube upload here. (Video embedding disabled upon request.)

mendelssohn and me

2009-03-15T21:45:00.006+08:00

This recording helped me get out of the doldrums.

My sister gave it to me a few years ago. I had it on my Amazon wishlist after I heard Pianist and UP Music Professor Jiovanney Emmanuel Cruz perform the Variations Serieuses at the Abelardo Hall during my last year in law school. I fell in love with the work. And so I have this cd.

Anyway.

Mendelssohn, says Harold C. Schonberg, was a reactionary Jew. He titled his chapter on Mendelssohn "Bourgeois Genius." Schonberg assesses Felix's music:

A certain conservatism, an emotional inhibition, kept him from reaching the heights. His Music, always skillful, became more and more a series of correct, polite gestures as he grew older. For this we can blame his background. coming as he did from a distinguished, wealth, conservative Jewish banking family, he was taught from childhood to be correct, to observe good form, to avoid offense.... It could also be that the combination of wealth and Jewishness in a strongly anti-Semitic Berlin kept Mendelssohn unconsciously overcareful, hesitant to obtrude, anxious to be accepted.

In short, Mendelssohn was an Uncle Tom.

So what does that say about me as a listener? I count his Variation Serieuses as one of my all-time favorite piano works. And I really like his violin concerto.

Hmm.

Still. I'm not such a fan of his piano concerti. My favorite composers for the piano concerto remain Rachmaninoff and Saint Saens - raw, kinetic, euphoric, in-your-face composers. Mendelssohn and Mozart can be too safe and pretty for me.

balikbayan vs. ofw

2009-03-13T08:57:00.002+08:00

GMA 7 has a new show, announced with faux glee by Rhea Santos in Unang Hirit this morning. The show is about OFWs and their life-stories abroad.

Which got me thinking. If the ambulant Filipino is located in the United States, we call him a balikbayan. If he's abroad elsewhere, he's an OFW.

twitter

2009-03-11T23:08:00.003+08:00

I've added twitter to my blog. Excited about it. Blogging can be time consuming and intimidating. This way, I keep myself updated with what I do, with less frills. Not to mention less editing.

feeling hirst

2009-03-09T22:28:00.003+08:00

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of the Living.

Thought provoking ang title na’to. Artwork by Damien Hirst. A shark preserved in formaldehyde in an aquarium. Sold in 2004 for US$8Million.

Maybe art also lies in the title. Hirst’s work—and its price—provoked outrage in Britain, with people saying “I could have done that.” Sure, anyone could have pumped shark carcass full of preservative and suspended it inside an aquarium; but not everyone has the brilliance to give it its terrific title—witty, provocative, true.

Ano kayang title ang maganda para dito?

dolores waterfountain

2009-03-05T22:06:00.003+08:00

For dog or cat, short human, tall human.

Photo taken by the amateur ear at Dolores Park, San Francisco, 2007.

amazing

2009-03-03T22:16:00.002+08:00

In "Amazing" George Michael sings to his lover, the beautiful Texan Kenny Goss:

Tell me, I guess that cupid was in disguise
That day you walked in and changed my life
I think it's amazing
The way that love can set you free

This album came out in 2004 (listen here). George and Kenny are still together, and it is reported by wikipedia that in 2005 they had even considered registering their relationship as a civil partnership in the UK.

In July 2006, George was caught cruising for anonymous gay sex in a public park in London. Paparazzi caught him with "a pot-bellied, 58 year-old, jobless van driver" - a far cry from his beautiful lover.

So much for "amazing."

Which brings me to my question: Does truly love really = sexual fidelity?

“milk”

2009-03-02T21:47:00.005+08:00

(Post was written two weeks ago.)

Three Fridays ago saw Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” with the boyfriend.

My notes:

1. The Harvey Milk School.First heard about Harvey Milk, America’s first openly gay elected official, via a 1990s documentary on the Harvey Milk School, a high school for harassed gay and lesbian youth. Later showed the documentary as part of my presentation on alternative education to my CPE class at the UP College of Education circa 2000; my classmates were amused and shocked; the professor said: “Lets process this.”

2. Midway in the film Milk discusses coming out to one’s family. “My father doesn’t know,” admits a young gay man, one of Milk’s long-time supporters and staff. Milk says, “Your family has to love you for who you really are.” My boyfriend’s family doesn’t know about him. He cried during this part of the movie.

3. My anxiety now, of course, is will “Milk” win Best Picture Oscar? Unlike Brokeback Mountain, whose Oscar was stolen by the forgettable mush “Crash,” “Milk” has strong competition from "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

4. There’s no strong serious competition for Sean Penn for Best Actor.

5. I wish I had Milk’s grit. I’m usually apologetic for being gay. I can be an Uncle Tom at times. Must tiptoe around my moral and spiritual superiors, the heterosexual people. Adopt that unctuous and conciliatory tone always. It’s acculturation getting the best of my subconscious and emerging as typical homosexual self-loathing.

6. I remember Behn Cervantes on television being interviewed by comedians Ariel and Maverick. They make innuendos, and the old man rouses, becomes indignant, then grandly demands, “Are you making fun of my gayhood?!” Yeah, give it to them, Mr. Cervantes! That’s the attitude I should have. No apologies. Deal with me as a human being.

7. I have a lot of things to learn from Harvey Milk and Behn Cervantes. I wish I were as courageous as they were and are.

fin: jeffrey rosen's the supreme court:: the personalities and rivalries that defined america

2009-03-02T20:57:00.004+08:00

Finally finished last week. On the morning bus to work. My notes:

1. U.S. Supreme Court justices are often ideologically-oriented. They decide cases following their inclinations in interpreting constitutional law, whether they are "originalists," "textualists," "centralists," etc.

2. But they are not supposed to take sides on the so-called "culture war."

3. The celebrated justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose famous take on "The Business of a Law School . . . " is quoted prominently in the lobby of the UP College of Law, was a Social Darwinist who championed sterilization laws for the mentally disabled. "Establishing the constitutionality of law permitting the sterilization of imbeciles gave me pleasure." Tsk, tsk.

4. Justice William O. Douglas, who penned the majority opinion in Griswold vs. Connecticut that we were required to read in Constitutional Law as well as Family Law (item: "The foregoing cases suggest that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance..."), was married four times; at the age of sixty-seven he married his fourth wife, a twenty year old waitress. Rosen reports that the other justices received Douglas' "paean to the sanctity of marriage" in Griswold with skepticism; his law clerks received his reference to "penumbras" and "emanations" with derision.

5. Justice Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

6. Justice Scalia was often ineffective at rallying his colleagues to his opinions because of his abrasive personality.

7. And a hundred other interesting trivia and analysis.

I want to read this book again. Maybe next year.

they bit me!

2009-03-01T12:37:00.001+08:00

And cured me of my misanthropy every time.

what’s been happening

2009-02-26T22:53:00.001+08:00

1. Four Fridays ago saw “Milk” with the boyfriend.

2. Three Sundays ago finally got to meet Mr. Ado Escudero, businessman and patriarch of the Escudero family of Laguna.

3. Two Sundays ago my friend Althea, girl-with-glasses, flew to the U.S. to attend a symposium at Harvard University.

4. Last week “octomom” shocks the U.S. This week she gets offered $1M to appear in a porn film.

5. Last week boydaddy shocks the United Kingdom.

6. Last week a house chimp goes amuck in Connecticut and maims his owner’s friend.

7. This month a cousin’s nineteen year old son is undergoing chemotherapy and responding well.

meeting ado

2009-02-23T22:15:00.006+08:00

Three Sundays ago I finally got to meet Mr. Ado Escudero, a man I had always wanted to meet ever since I was a kid. San Pablo being San Pablo, there was never a lack of opportunities to meet him - my sister's wedding, for instance, or even funerals for relatives - but for some strange reason our paths never crossed then, and my meeting him never happened. So early this month I made sure that I would get my introduction. Mr. Escudero is a brilliant businessman, the patriarch of his family and a cultural force in San Pablo and elsewhere. I asked a family friend to formally introduce me. Mr. Escudero graciously received my aunt and me in his beautiful home, inspired by Balinese architecture and situated at the back of the family compound in their plantation. His home is one of the grandest I've ever visited (which includes the White House during a trip to Washington when I was eight, haha). I saw paintings from masters like Ocampo, Buenaventura, and Joya. The man is a true connoisseur. It is a meeting that I will never forget.

second week, february 2009

2009-02-20T13:11:00.002+08:00

After last week's hand wringing and paranoia, I finally got assigned two interesting cases this week: a rape case and a medical malpractice suit.

Mood: happy, if a bit sheepish.

this man gives me hope

2009-02-18T13:56:00.002+08:00

Yes, he does.

"It was only about a year ago, though it feels like half a lifetime, that Shepard Fairey created the most efficacious American political illustration since “Uncle Sam Wants You”: the Obama “Hope” poster." - Peter Schjeldahl writes in The New Yorker.

congratulations, annsley

2009-02-17T14:33:00.003+08:00

My friend Annsley is now senior associate of her law office.

I tacked the formal announcement on my cork board for the good vibe.

Way to go, Annsley!

taking stock

2009-02-15T22:26:00.007+08:00

I’m unhappy these days. Easily provoked, annoyed. No focus. I go to work and just go through the motions. No plans, no ultimate career goal. I know I’m depressed and I’m trying to figure out why. The American soprano Renee Fleming writes about having bad performance days and the painstaking lengths she goes through trying to "diagnose" - her term - why. (Item: “Am I feeling okay? Is the air-conditioning too high? Is it blowing on my face and drying out my throat? Am I pushing, and if so, why? Is a muscle tightening somewhere?”—The Inner Voice, p. 175.)

I could do that. Let’s see:

1. Is it because I haven’t worked out in weeks? No jogging either.—Wait, is this cause or symptom?

2. Is it relapsing to a very bad and depressing habit I picked up when I was younger and had very very low self-esteem? Must stop at once.

3. Is it the Spider Solitaire on the office PC? Nota bene: Must uninstall as discussed with Omar. It’s taken up too many hours of my life. Enough already.

4. Is it money? I’ve been offered another Dante Hipolito painting for a good price and I’m seriously thinking of getting it. But for the budgetary constraints. All this niggling over monthly budgets and expense schedule is taking a toll on my temper. And making me feel deprived.

5. Is it because I went to Laguna the past two week ends? It’s not just my usual issues with my family—it’s more the commute. Travel time from Quezon City to San Pablo is an exhausting three (3) hour bus ride. This doesn’t factor in the wait at the bus station. Naubos ang mga precious weekends ko dahil lang sa pag-uwi sa San Pablo. I haven't felt rested in a long time. Thus:

6. I feel tired all the time. Again, Cause or symptom?

This isn’t all of it but it’s a start. Maybe the issue is really control and discipline. Perhaps the cure is in establishing healthy routines. In any case, I’ve been wasting time and life cannot go on like this. I have to do something about it. Life is too short to waste. Must start with stopping numbers 2 and 3 at least.

clare morrall’s astonishing splashes of colour

2009-02-15T22:13:00.006+08:00

I read this book last year but I think I should record in this blog the books I finish. My notes:

1. Morrall’s first published work. Apparently she had a history of being rejected by established publishers but she kept trying anyway. For twenty years. Finally, a small publishing house with a quaint name, Tindal Street Press, took Astonishing Splashes of Colour on and then it was short listed for the Booker Prize.

2. “Propulsive and Compelling” says the New York Times Book Review on the cover. This is what made me open sample it at the SM North National Bookstore sale bin. (Nota Bene: Beware of fellow authors “reviewing” the works of their colleagues. I believe Amy Tan does this frequently. Trust only the book critics – they usually say if a work really sucks.)

3. Topics: synaesthesia, pyromania, families, losing one’s identity, insanity.

4. Remember Alanis Morisette’s song “Sympathetic Character”? This is my second novel where the narrator turns out to be a sympathetic character, the first one being William Trevor’s My House in Umbria. I was halfway through Astonishing when I realized, ay pucha, the first person’s insane.

5. Memorable scene: a violinist playing on a street corner.

He turns away from me and brings his bow down fiercely, but with absolute control. The music that comes out this time is deep and passionate. The violin almost speaks, the way the bow pulls at the strings and lingers on the low notes. A new crowd gathers almost immediately, drawn by the anguish of the sound, and I watch them for a while, wondering what they hear. Does he take them down his road, or does he open a different door for every individual?

lani

2009-02-15T18:17:00.013+08:00

This is Lani.

Lani's in her early twenties. She's a very smart woman - one of the many Filipinos who could have done very well in life had they been given enough education. She often amazed me with how her mind worked.

She left home when she was twelve to work in Manila. She remitted part of her earnings to a widowed father, a blind uncle, and six siblings. She first worked for my family around three years ago.

She's a very competent employee: diligent, hardworking, knows exactly what needs to be done, doesn't need be told what to do. More than a maid, she was my good friend. We got along very very well.

She stayed with me when I reviewed for the bar exams. Before that, she was with my family for a year, then namaalam supposedly to go home for vacation in Bicol, but really to work again in Divisoria because she got bored with housework. When she got bored with selling vegetables, she went back to us. She saw me through bar review.

When I went on vacation, Lani went back to my folks in Laguna.During the Holiday season of 2007 she asked permission to spend Christsmas with her uncle's family in Manila. There she spent time with her long-time boyfriend, and the rest, as they say, is a baby.

When I got back from my vacation it was Lani and me again here in Quezon City. It's funny how I never suspected that she was pregnant. No morning sickness, no complaints about backpains. All I remember is by February last year she was already warning me she would be going home to Bicol come April, and there was nothing I could do or say to stop her. I said, "Lani, uuwi ka sa Bicol, anong gagawin mo don, makikipila ka sa NFA rice?" Still, she left. A few months later, she texted that she was pregnant. This is another photo I took of her the day she left me. I simply thought she had gained weight.

I'm sure I'll see her again. I'm just waiting for the kid to be four or five, then I'll offer for her to work for me. By that time I should be able to afford to pay her salary on my own. She could bring her baby with her.

gaining weight

2009-02-15T16:24:00.000+08:00

No gym. No treadmill. No serious lifting of steel. No jogging around the village at night either.

Fattening food at the office. Frequent merienda. Here comes that bell again. At home there’s Keebler Chocolate Lovers cookies in the fridge. My nightly comfort food.

Last night saw a gay acquaintance at a party. He of the bulging biceps, chocolate abs, straining pectoral muscles. I passed him once or twice before he recognized me.

Uy, tumataba tayo ah, he said.

Ay leche.

tio fred at the piano

2009-02-15T16:11:00.003+08:00

My Tio Fred (Alfred to his wife, Pree-deh to his siblings, Freddie to everybody else) sight reading at the piano in his San Francisco home. The properties tab says I took this jpeg image on 19 December 2007.

13 february 2009

2009-02-13T14:53:00.004+08:00

This afternoon the partners are all in formal long gowns; they've been invited and are attending the retirement ceremonies of Justice Adolf Azcuna of the Philippine Supreme Court.

This afternoon I got word from a legal counsel that his clients have agreed to enter into a compromise agreement with our clients. The case had been in litigation for over seven (7) years. Now it's ending happily in mediation.

personal nota bene

2009-02-10T23:42:00.001+08:00

A few weeks ago I bumped into a high school classmate at the Megamall. Although we dutifully exchanged e-mail addresses - not cellphone numbers, come to think of it - and exchanged the obligatory nice-to-bump-into-you messages, I'm sure I don't want to keep in touch.

Highschool was a terrible time. I was closeted but soft and surrounded by bigots. That was fifteen years ago but still I don't want to go back there. I don't want any reminders.

nostalgia amoeba

2009-02-10T23:23:00.004+08:00

Amoeba Music at Haight and Ashbury, where I got a LOT of my classical music cds.

I wonder, will the selections at the sale racks still be as expansive and interesting a few years from now?

to a friend on making senior associate

2009-02-10T10:23:00.000+08:00

Dear A,

I'd like to tell you how happy I was to hear your good news yesterday morning. Although you did tell me about it last week, seeing the formal announcement on a card had greater impact. I'm so happy for you!

Yesterday afternoon naman, another friend told me her good news. Again, that warm feeling all over. It feels good.

Take care always and spread goodness.

- A.E.

trust

2009-02-09T08:36:00.000+08:00

Bayad po, paabot.

Man hands me a fistful of coins.

Ilan 'to?

Apat. Sa likod.

I add my fare to the bunch.

Bayad po, I hand them over to the driver. Sa likod yan, pati sa'kin, lima.

He chucks them on his dashboard without counting.

"the african is corrupt"

2009-02-06T12:41:00.007+08:00

Finally finished this book on the bus to work yesterday. Chinua Achebe's "No Longer at Ease." My notes:

1. It sat on my bookshelf for, oh hum, siguro about ten years. Can't remember what exactly had turned me off and stopped me from finishing. But when I picked it up again last week, reading it was a breeze.

2. Bribery. The novel is about young idealistic Nigerian fresh out of studies in England, Obi Okonkwo . When Obi returns to Lagos and takes up a government position- and the burdens of a new lifestyle- he ends up committing bribery.

3. Nigeria then was in transition from being a British Colony to full independence. Somewhere in the novel Mr. Green, Obi's bitter white boss , pronounces, "The African is corrupt through and through." On this hemisphere, from today's newspapers I see these endless scandals in our government - the PDEA scandal, the Pre-need scandal, the World Bank report, etc., etc., etc. and I think to myself. . .

4. The prose reminds of Antonin Checkhov's short stories. Definitely, will soon read my last Achebe book gathering dust on my bookshelf: "A Man of the People."

kyung wha chung: bruch, beethoven

2009-02-06T10:38:00.003+08:00

Whoo hoo!

One of my all time favorites, my thank-G0d-for-this cd, definitely a must for my desert island.

What else is there to say? As one youtuber put it crassly but exactly, "She rocks!" Hay, Kyung Wha, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 belongs only to you. You absolutely own it, girlfriend!

In the cover she hugs her Stradivarius close to her. There's a touching mother-and-child story to her violin: Kyung Wha's mother decided to sell their home in Korea just so she could buy the Stradivarius for her enormously talented but embattled daughter. What great trust in her daughter's talents! Now that's sacrifice! Kakaiyak. Read all about it here.

There's a youtube video of Kyung Wha playing the first movement of the Bruch, only the conductor's Andre Previn, not Klaus Tennstedt on my cd. Anyway, please watch the 8 minute clip and know exactly why it is that I love classical music. The exuberance! The intensity! The gigil!

office matters

2009-02-05T06:51:00.007+08:00

I'm not happy at the office these days. But then again, it could be me-I tend to be a negative guy, I'm addicted to unhappiness. For example, I get too much work and I get stressed out; I get less work and I feel frustrated.

To combat this counter-productive mind frame, I'm drawing a list of why this can be a "cool" office.
1. I've developed close friendships with two wonderful associates here: Omar and Grace.
2. The bosses are not screamers when they get angry. In fact, they can be very nice. And the most senior partner is a great lady.
3. The staff are nice. Except for just one who can be feeling boss at times.
4. "Highly ethical, highly moral." So far.
5. Some of the cases I get are interesting. Wait, I shouldn't kid myself. Make that, a few.
6. Hindi kami nananaga ng kliyente. I hate lawyers who do that.
7. Free lunch. Free breakfast if I want it. And frequently, free merienda.
8. Free brewed coffee all day.
9. Free green tea. If i want it.
10. What the heck, free internet.

Only. Very few of my cases are at the litigation stage and I'm raring to play in a courtroom. I've been a lawyer for nine months now and I haven't been in a courtroom much. This really SUCKS, let me tell you.

Oh well, maybe there will always be good days and bad days. On bad days I'll just read up on human rights and gay and lesbian rights to write that paper I've always wanted to write. So I'll get published again.

Last monday I took my oath as notary public of Pasig City. Commission ends on 31 Dec. 2010.

boring

2009-02-03T08:42:00.005+08:00

Rosalyn Tureck, the "High Priestess of Bach." Her Bach Partitas. Boring. What more is there to say?

Only, Amazon calls this an "Essential Recording." Andrew Bartlett writes: "This collection of Rosalyn Tureck's Bach partitas was, until now, a long-sought gem.... [S]he takes each partita at a studied pace, as if the inner pedagogue in her were monitoring its unfurling for exactness." And the price? By golly, $112.00 if it's brand new, $59.00 if it's second hand.

I got this from Robert for only P300.00.

Still, I don't listen to it often. Boring. I look forward to Glenn Gould's recording of the complete Partitas. I have snippets of it in my "Gouldberg" Variations cd and I love his take. Propulsive. Exciting.

Only. To my utmost surprise this is what Glenn had to say of Rosalyn according to wikipedia:

In a CBC radio special on Glenn Gould, the host told Tureck that Gould cited her as his "only" influence. She responded by saying she knew that she was an influence, and that it was very kind of him to say so.

Oh well, I wouldn't have thought so. I would think they have very different takes on Bach's music. He's exciting, she's boring.

way to work

2009-01-30T08:32:00.004+08:00

I've found an easier way to get to work from home. Dati I'd hop on a bus on Commonwealth, get off at Megamall, then take an FX to Tektite. The traffic is always HORRENDOUS once the bus takes the Kamuning turn and plies Cubao. Cubao traffic alone would take forty-five minutes of your life. Before that, I'd take a jeep to the Quezon Avenue MRT Station, waaaaiiiit in liiiinnnneeee to get to a train, get off at the Shaw Station, then take the FX. But I abandoned the MRT because there's too much waiting done at the Q Ave. station, too much stress shared with too many irate commuters. Anyway, both ways get me to work an hour and a half at best, two hours and thirty minutes at worst.

The hybrid's better.

Take a bus to the MRT Kamuning Station, take the train from there. Less lines, less people. There's always a skipping train.

I've cut my travel time to an hour.

art reads

2009-01-29T21:43:00.002+08:00

Two curators talk about the Philippine art scene: Vic Salta of Artistree and Bobi Valenzuela, formerly of Hiraya Gallery.

world boys

2009-01-28T13:06:00.002+08:00

Estelle and Kanye West's bouncing "American Boy" - yep, the gym is peppering my musical tastes - has spawned parodies from unlikely places around the world.

The "Egyptian Boy":

The "Cambodian Boy":

The "Chinese Boy":

The "First Asian Boy" (He's Thai but he also mentions adobo and the Philippines):

This is world youtube culture in our increasingly globalized world. (I said globalized, not Americanized.)

nathan milstein: brahms and tchaikovsky

2009-01-28T12:49:00.000+08:00

I never liked the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto that much until I listened to this recording, which I got from Amazon last last year. (At $5.00, I needed it to complete the $25.00 free shipping purchase. I coupled it with Harold Schonberg's Lives of the Great Composers.)

My first exposure to the Tchaikovsky had been to Kyung Wha Chung's recording below; it took Nathan Milstein - the more widely acknowledged and august master - to make me sit up straight and really listen to Tchaikovsky's only violin concerto. Ganda. Oh well, Kyung Wha Chung wows me with her Bruch Violin Concerto No. 5, but it is Milstein who really makes the Tchaikovsky sing and soar.

Like Tchaikovsky, Brahms composed only one violin concerto. I LOVE his two piano concertos; I have Emil Gilel's celebrated recordings with Eugen Jochum at the podium. This recording complements the two piano concerto recordings nicely. I only need the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and I'd have Brahms's whole concerto output complete. Attention: Robert.

Easily one of the most recognizable of Brahms's works is the third movement of the violin concerto: Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace. Pang-head bang ini. Unfortunately, it brought to my mind one withering put-down on Brahms. According to Schonberg, the Wagnerites - a fancy schmancy term para sa mga fans ni Richard Wagner who of course like typical fans hated their idol's rival, like the fans of Nora on Vilma - called Brahms a "Jewish Czardas player." The 3rd movement sounded to me exactly like that: czardas music. Buti na lang I love czardas music, haha.

Tamang-tama, in youtube here's Nathan Milstein playing the 3rd movement from the Brahms Violin Concerto - if you care to hear how Czardas sounds like.

the sibelius violin concerto

2009-01-25T15:24:00.003+08:00

I was listening to the Sibelius at work last week, the Sibelius violin concerto which I had met with dismissiveness the first time I listened to this album over a year ago. Melodramatic, mawkish, operatic, repetitive, I summed it in the first hearing. Although, I admit, the first few minutes of the concerto is pretty exciting. For some reason they bring to mind Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth." Something about the first moments of the concerto evokes the mystery, discovery, innocence, nostalgia of the fantasy film. Anyway. Still, I dismissed the rest of the concerto as so and so.

It's the third movement of the concerto that made me sit up straight this time. I had never listened to it with attention before. Beautiful.

bebe gandanghari

2009-01-23T14:02:00.003+08:00

My notes:

1. WTF?

2. I was in a bus on the way to work watching an old Robin Padilla movie; he's paired with Joyce Jimenez, Rustom is his dapper contrabida. Rustom, with well-scrubbed baby-faced good looks, the big biceps and big pecs, was clearly the more gorgeous brother. Then I got to the office, checked the newspaper, and saw Bibi.

3. I am SHOCKED. I've always thought identity was already stable when one hits his forties.

4. Why the pilates? why the slim figure? Why? Why? I would die to have his smooth muscular body. Kaya nga ako nagpupunta sa gym, eh.In the gay world that I know, the more masculine you are, the more hot sex you get.

5. Let's just all be thankful it's not Binibining Gandang-ari.

6. Ruffa?

bach cantatas: battle & perlman

2009-01-23T13:55:00.001+08:00

Hmm.

What can I say?

My listening to this had been preceded by Battle's reputation - she is known to be a bitch. I first read about it in Johanna Fiedler's Molto Agitato ("Battle was considered capable of driving Mother Teresa to homicide," Fiedler writes), and Renee Fleming alluded to it in her The Inner Voice. Difficult, temperamental, Battle is the type to throw a tantrum over tempos and airconditioning temperature; she's picked fights with conductors, co-singers, and staff; she was fired from the Metropolitan Opera in 1993 for "unprofessional actions."

What can I say? Maybe it was the Vienna Philharmonic's nickname for Battle - "the singing mosquito" - that ruined it for me. Nusuth, it doesn't matter. I don't think I can like Battle's voice, anyway, it kinda reminds me of Charlotte Church's, young and thin. I like my lyric sopranos with great chest tones. Further, despite the best intentions of Perlman, there's something wrong with these Bach works. They sound pare-pareho: you've heard one track, you've heard them all. So is it Bach, or is Battle?

obamalot

2009-01-22T08:51:00.000+08:00

The whole world is watching. I know I am:

bach, well-tempered clavier, book I, andas schiff

2009-01-21T21:18:00.003+08:00

Another of my "constants." (Yup, basta si J.S. Bach, palaging constant siya sa buhay ko.)

Siguro one of the most recognizable tracks in this album would be the first prelude. It's pretty much part of western and westernized popular culture, as it has always been. The so-called Bach "Ave Maria." So-called, because Bach himself never called it the "Ave Maria." Bach was not Catholic, although he did compose several Catholic masses. He also composed this magnificent prelude as a secular work. Fast forward a few centuries later and one French composer by the name of Charles Gounod criticized this first prelude for allegedly lacking "melody" and proceeded to create a melodic line for it. That melodic line later became the song "Ave Maria," for the Catholic prayer of the same name.

A few years ago, I was listening to DZFE the local classical music station (98.7 FM). DZFE is also a non-commercial radio enterprise run by Born Again Christians. They don't solicit advertisements but simply broadcast classical music and "the Gospel of Jesus Christ" free. Anyway, I remember they played the first prelude, and the deejay with some irritation adlibed that the work shouldn't be referred to as the "Ave Maria Bach."

Mtislav Rostropovich would agree with her. In a DVD I got from Quiapo (thanks, pirates!) he Rostropovich gripes over Gounod's "nerve" to criticize Bach. If the first prelude had no melody, the cellist said, it was because Bach had intended it that way.

In case you're curious to hear the prelude (sans Gounod's melody), please listen to the performance of pianist David Edward Smith.

history History HISTORY!

2009-01-20T23:39:00.010+08:00

11:40 PM Philippine Time and it's one hour and twenty minutes away from when Barack Obama will be sworn in as the most powerful man on earth.

I never thought I'd see this day before the world - and I - whimpered.

And I have work tomorrow and I can't watch. Can't stay up late until 1 AM Philippine Time when the historical inauguration, District of Columbia noon, takes place. Can't see this beautiful event live, with the whole world rejoicing together like New Year. Oh well, there's always youtube. Joy can't be simultaneous and synchronized all the time.

I'll wake up tomorrow, seven hours after the actual swearing in, and say to myself: today the world is a better place. A good man, a deserving man, an intelligent man, an inspiring man, a black man has made it.

I was an Anglo-American literature major in undergrad. We were a dying breed, only eleven or so students in my batch, what with the rest of UP's budding literati flocking to the third world, asian, and emergent literature programs. Still we Anglo-Am majors marched through Shakespeare, Donne, Johnson, the Bronte sisters, Dickens, Austen, Eliot, Byron, Wordsworth, Rosetti, all these glorious English language players.

We also plowed through Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" - said to be one of Jose Rizal's favorites. And the works of James Baldwin, Nella Larsen, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison.

And especially, Toni Morrison.

Sethe, lay it all down. Barack Obama's here.

expectant cabbie

2009-01-19T21:52:00.004+08:00

The taxi driver was expecting.

On the ride tonight from the village gate to my house (that's right, from the village gate to my house - long story, long explanation), he excitedly disclosed that tonight was the imminent arrival of his new baby.

"Iniwan ko si misis sa lying-in. Dyan lang, sa may BF (Homes near Sandiganbayan, around three to five minutes from where he picked me up). Sabi ko, bahala na. Hindi ko pwedeng bantayan eh, may boundary ito. May kasama naman siyang kamag-anak."

"Congratulations."

"Matagal pa daw." He mentioned something about millimeters - or was it centimeters? - something about the opening of the wound that indicated how fast the baby was coming. In the silence of our drive I could sense the driver's excitement, his anxiety and wonder.

"Panganay mo?"

"Hindi. Pangatlo na. Isang babae at dalawang lalake."

"Ah, so alam nyo na?"

"Oo. Ako lang ang tumama. Lahat ang hula babae. Hindi daw kasi nagbago ang hitsura ni misis. Kapag maganda daw, babae, pero kapag pumanget..." Then he went on to list old wives' tales on predicting a baby's sex. "Kapag umitim ang kili-kili . . . "

Then: "Tigil na siguro ako sa tatlo."

I liked the sound of that. I go, "Oo nga, mas maganda 'pag tatlo lang. Di katulad nung dati, paramihan, ano, hanggang walo pa!"

He nods. "Mahirap magpa-aral 'pag madami," the driver continues. "Madali ang magpalaki, ang mahirap, edukasyon. Mahal ang edukasyon."

A man with a plan, a man after my own heart. A turn to my corner, I said my congratulations again, alighted, then gave the man a nice tip.

my hipolito

2009-01-18T12:48:00.012+08:00

My Dante Hipolito painting was delivered today, 18 January 2009.

Home. Finally.

I had them mount it in the dining room, where it properly belongs.

It took the gallery over two weeks to deliver - problems with driver availability and schedule, what with all those Welbart paintings to deliver a month after his December solo-exhibit).

I've minimal bank account balance, my 13th month pay and Christmas bonus are both gone.

But still. Worth it.

My mood: very very HAPPY!

(Coincidentally, this is my 500th post.)

P.S. Elated, actually. It's been over six hours since the delivery and I still feel exultant right now. My hat off to you, Mr. Hipolito, and thank you to Mabel and Tita Carmen of Passion Arts Gallery in Megamall.

fetching jeff

2009-01-18T12:27:00.002+08:00

(Written 2 November 2008 thereabouts.)

Nov. 2. With my family fetched my brother-in-law Jeff from the airport.

His first visit to the Philippines. His first time to meet the rest of the family.

The old NAIA terminal is no longer the way I remembered it (crowded, chaotic, loud); Jeff’s flight arrived on time. Ate and I waited inside the pay area—P30.00 per head—to watch overhead monitors monitor the arrival ramp. A little less than thirty minutes after touch down, and we see Jeff’s blonde head and six-foot heft come careening jovially down the ramp.

Hey!

A walk past the security cordon, I say the standard greeting: “Jeff, Welcome to the Philippines!” and my sister and her husband are hugging and kissing as the airport security and the other Filipinos look on.

Then we walked to parking to the van where the rest of my family was waiting to finally meet a new member of the family, a new son and brother.

the etymology of sining

2009-01-17T10:50:00.009+08:00

The Filipino word for art is sining. Despite the onslaught of non-endemic languages in our lands, we’ve somehow managed to retain use of this word, if not colloquially, officially. The national artist is called Pambansang Alagad ng Sining, the art studies department of UP is called Departamento ng Araling Sining. (But we say artista for actor/actress and Kolehiyo ng Arte at Literatura for the UP College of Arts and Letters, which should know better.)

Anyway.

I’ve always wondered about the etymology of sining. When I was at my favorite art gallery in Megamall, the curator commented on one particularly lovely painting and exclaimed: “Pansining-pansinin!” She meant, of course, that the painting was “highly noticeable,” which is the literal, semantic translation. Put another way, she also meant that the painting was a conversation piece.

Could “Pansin”—to notice—be the source of “Sining,” art?

alfred brendel's impromptus

2009-01-17T07:02:00.002+08:00

This album has always been one of my favorites - one of my musical "constants," kumbaga. Alfred Brendel performs Haydn piano sonatas, Schubert impromptus, and the Schumann Fantasiestucke.

If you've seen the 1992 movie The Cutting Edge, you may remember the scene where Moira Kelly's figure skater first meets D.B. Sweeney's ice hockey player: there she was, Kate Moseley, imperious, practicing, gliding to sublime piano music on her very own ice rink. That sublime piano music was Schubert's A flat Impromptu, Opus. 90.

Robert, my addiction dealer, pooh-poohs my pick of Brendel as a favorite pianist. (He also grins at Perahia as another favorite.) Robert thinks Brendel "boring." Sigh. Perhaps. But I also take "boring" to actually mean that Brendel's not (too) individualistic (egotistic) at the keyboard. Here's one of my all-time favorite musical quotes, also from Brendel:

If I belong to a tradition it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what he should do and not the performer telling the piece what it should be like, or the composer what he ought to have composed.

Boring or not, for me Brendel's interpretation of the Schubert impromptus is nothing short of spiritual. Later on I was able to acquire Rubinstein's recording of these works - there is no comparison. Please take the time out to listen to Brendel's Schubert impromptus. You may listen to them here.

teapot, de young

2009-01-15T10:40:00.000+08:00

(Michael Lucero, Zoomorphic Teapot, 1993, glazed and unglazed earthenware, Diane and Sandy Besser.)

I like how the artist calls this work "zoomorphic."

Obviously, still in my San Francisco nostalgia mode.

non-classical albums as of January 2009

2009-01-15T10:09:00.002+08:00

female artists

1. Diana Krall: The Girl in the Other Room
2. Diana Krall: When I Look in Your Eyes
3. Diana Krall: From This Moment On
4. Diana Krall: Love Scenes
5. Madonna: Something to Remember
6. Madonna: Ray of Light7. Madonna: Music
8. Melissa Etheridge: Yes I Am
9. Melissa Etheridge: Your Little Secret
10. Melissa Etheridge: Breakdown
11. Alanis Morisette: Supposed Infatuation Junkie
12. Alanis Morisette: MTV Unplugged
13. Ella Fitzgerald: Forever Gold
14. Natalie Cole: Stardust
15. Sade: The Best of Sade
16. Sarah McLachlan: Surfacing
17. Lara Fabian: A Wonderful Life
18. Fantasia: I Believe
19. Jewel: Pieces of You
20. Sheryl Crow: The Very Best of Sheryl Crow
21. Mariah Carey: Butterfly
22. Whitney Houston: My Love is Your Love
23. Ono Lisa: Best of 1997-2001
24. Dolores O’Riordan: Are You Listening?
25. Basia: Clear Horizon: The Best of Basia

male artists

26. George Michael: Older
27. George Michael: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Best of George Michael
28. George Michael: Patience
29. Robbie Williams: Swing When You’re Winning
30. Robbie Williams: Greatest Hits
31. Robbie Williams: Intensive Care
32. Elvis Costello and the Attractions: All this Useless Beauty
33. Elvis Costello: North
34. Elvis Costello: Anne Sofie von Otter Meets Elvis Costello (Duet Album)
35. Sting: At the Movies
36. Sting: Brand New Day
37. John Mayer: Room for Squares
38. Michael Bublé: Michael Bublé

39. Rod Stewart: The Great American Songbook

40. Rod Stewart: The Great American Songbook III
41. Barry Manilow: The Songs 1975-1990
42. Russell Watson: The Voice
43. Harry Belafonte: The Very Best of Harry Belafonte
44. Moby: Hotel

Duos

45. Swing Out Sister: The Ultimate Collection
46. Everything But The Girl: The Language of Life
47. Everything But The Girl: The Best of Everything But The Girl
48. Everything But The Girl: The Platinum Collection
49. Everything But The Girl: Temperamental
50. Savage Garden: Truly Madly Completely: The Best of Savage Garden
51. PetShop Boys: Nightlife
52. Carpenters: Their Greatest Hits

Bands (Female Leads)

53. The Cardigans: Long Gone Before Daylight
54. The Cranberries: Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?
55. The Cranberries: No Need To Argue
56. The Cranberries: To The Faithful Departed
57. The Cranberries: Bury the Hatchet
58. The Cranberries: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
59. Garbage: Version 2
60. Garbage: Bleed Like Me
61. 10,000 Maniacs: Blind Man’s Zoo
62. 10,000 Maniacs: MTV Unplugged
63. The Corrs: Talk on Corners
64. Texas: White on Blonde
65. Brazilian Girls: Brazilian Girls
66. D’Sound: Smooth Escapes: The Very Best of D’Sound
67. ABBA: The Definitive Collection

Bands (Male Leads)

68. ColdPlay: Parachutes
69. ColdPlay: A Rush of Blood to the Head
70. ColdPlay: X & Y
71. Keane: Hopes and Fears
72. Keane: Under the Iron Sea
73. Eraserheads: Anthology
74. Travis: The Invisible Band
75. Travis: 12 Memories
76. Athlete: Tourist
77. REM: The Best of the I.R.S. Years (1982-1987)
78. REM: In Time, The Best of R.E.M.
79. U2: 18 Singles
80. Franz Ferdinand: You Could Have It So Much Better
81. Maroon 5: Songs About Jane
82. Earth Wind & Fire: Life in Velfarre
83. Boyzone: A Different Beat
84. Alternative Love Songs featuring ColdPlay, Blur, Radiohead, etc.
85. Headliners featuring The MightyMightyBosstones, Dishwalla, etc.
Soundtracks
86. Woman on Top
87. Waiting to Exhale
88. The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

Bossa Nova

89. Morelenbaum / Sakamoto: A Day in New York
90. Rosa Passos & Ron Carter: Entre Amigos
91. Yoyo Ma: Obrigado Brazil

the animal hospital

2009-01-15T05:04:00.002+08:00

(I might as well post these while it's still January. Pics taken 31 December 2008 at the Animal Hospital in Pasadena where I spent New Year's eve.)

(A pugilist in the kennel.)

(An examination room. There's also an operating table, but I didn't get to photograph it.)

My hosts, the veterinarian and his spouse the registered nurse, hail from Los Baños and San Pablo, Laguna, respectively. He studied veterinary medicine from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Today he has his own animal hospital, quite an impressive feat. Patients include the pooches of Lionel Richie - he treats Nicole Richie's pets! One of his daughters is also a veterinarian. She studied at UC Davis. When Filipinos make good in the States, they make good in the States.

(My host in her bebe sweater.)

buttons

2009-01-15T04:09:00.000+08:00

This is Buttons. He talks. He can do tricks. He's a parrot. What more is there to say?

(Buttons with my host.)

(With his human - I hear that's the politically correct term for "pet-owner." She's the receptionist of the animal hospital.)

henry sy sighting

2009-01-11T20:52:00.005+08:00

I was with my boyfriend at the SM Mall of Asia yesterday. I usually don't go to MOA, it's too far. Besides, it wouldn't make sense: there's SM Megamall after work in Ortigas, SM North EDSA for gym in the weekends, and SM Fairview further of Commonwealth if I'm just plain feeling crazy. But there's my boyfriend with class to teach at MOA, and so I thought it would be fun to meet him there after work.

We had our Henry Sy sighting.

Mr. Sy was going through his domain on a wheelchair, with I think just one or two bodyguards in tow. Well, they looked like guards, only sans the gratuitous display of gun or holster on the belt: I didn't see any. They quickly pushed Mr. Sy's wheelchair past one exit out to a MOA "street." Unobtrusive, yet still the people recognized him and heads were turning in the throng. "Henry Sy, Henry Sy."

A few feet away I began to clap my hands in applause.

"Bakit ka pumapalakpak?!" Boyfriend asked.

"Mr. Henry Sy," I simply said.

a rhea the philanthropist christmas

2009-01-09T17:27:00.018+08:00

My friend Rhea the Philanthropist was at it again.

For Christmas 2008 she went around giving gifts to homeless children in Ermita.

Rhea, who holds an M.A. in Education from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, currently works at the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports, where she occupies a contractual position - meaning, it's not a permanent civil service item. Meaning, no regular status, no job permanency, no entitlement to the bonuses and benefits of a regular government employee. Her last work was as a teacher at a public high school in Laguna.

But last Christmas, as is her tradition, she rounded up a few of her cousins and they braved the streets of Ermita to bring holiday cheer to its unnoticed denizens - the young children of homeless families.

Rhea knows I don't exactly approve of this. These days I'm too jaded, too cynical, too pessimistic, and too defeatist to care. I can't sing "Heal the World" anymore. She knows I think what she does is an exercise in futility, that I believe some things in this country are simply beyond help. I've chided her about it: I dismissed her philanthropic acts as "futile gestures." I told her she was being "messianic."

She also knows I'm still very very proud she does these things.

Is Kenney Catholic?

2009-01-08T12:48:00.007+08:00

Rhea and I saw Kristie Kenney, US Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines, during our traditional January 1 visit to Quiapo Church. After mass there she was, blonde and familiar, gliding along Basilica's front aisles and quietly returning people's greetings. A few pews were cordoned off where she knelt down to pray.

"Isn't Baclaran Church nearer the US Embassy?" Rhea and I wondered. Also, I wondered if she really was Catholic, her praying in Quiapo Church being inconclusive. I've prayed in a Buddhist and a Taoist Temple once - neither made me Buddhist or Taoist.

Afterwards we hied off to Binondo to have frog legs for brunch.

christmas 2007

2009-01-06T21:35:00.004+08:00

I was at Fisherman's Wharf with my Kuya Geordy. He took this picture.

The shadow with the upraised arms is me, the figure beside it is he taking the shot. I don't know who the man with the red cap is.

yoyo ma: bach cello suites 1, 5, & 6

2009-01-06T13:49:00.002+08:00

I cannot believe I had never posted about this recording before; it is one of my favorites in my collection of almost two hundred classical music cds, it is one of my "constants" - music I could always rely on to get me through depressing times.

It was also my introduction to Bach's solo cello suites. I have fallen in love with these beautiful and precious works. While later on I was able to acquire the Ralph Kirshbaum and Anner Blysma recordings of all the six cello, still, for me Ma's interpretation of the 1st, 5th, and 6th suites remain compelling, even if some critics chasten it for being too "romantic."

Here's Ma playing the Prelude from the first suite. I hope you like it as much as I do.

negative

2009-01-03T19:59:00.011+08:00

I had my bi-annual HIV test last 11 December 2008 at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City. The result is negative ("non-reactive" in medical language) again, thank God.

I get tested regularly.

It's not because I've been too much of a slut lately - or "stud," depending on how one views gay promiscuity. The bar review, work, and having a boyfriend have helped pushed me out of that unruly phase in my life, thank you very much.

And it's not that I engage in high risk sexual activity, either.

It's because we live at the time of HIV/AIDS, there's no cure yet, and the virus is insidious and very very indiscriminate. And it is OUT there.

And so. I think every sexually active person has a responsibility to himself and his loved ones to get tested, even if at least once in a while.

the hair tint

2009-01-02T17:22:00.009+08:00

I've always wanted to post these two pics.

It's of me last year in San Francisco, applying tina on the hair of a beloved aunt in her sixties who asked me to do the honors as Zora, her niece who usually tinted her hair, was busy with family and work that week.

When I was young , my father told me I would grow up to become a hairdresser, a parlorista. He made all sorts of nasty comments about how difficult "they" - the baklas - were. And he acted accordingly: no piano lessons for me, no matter that I had been begging for them since I was seven (my brother got a brand new drum set and drum lessons); a minimal allowance; no car in college (no car up to now).

I was very young and had no sexual urges yet. I didn't even know what "bakla" meant. All I knew was that I was "soft," I liked playing with girls, and that I was a detested child.

Fast forward to over two decades later. Things have not changed. My relationship with my father is still problematic with a lot of wounded feelings and bitterness on my part and open disdain and contempt on his. All I can say is, well, hindi ako ang nagsimula. He started it.

And I did become a homosexual.

But one has thing has changed.

Hey, asshole, I'm a lawyer now. I didn't grow up to become the parlorista you always expected me to be.