May 15
Man, so I saw Panic! At the Disco on Channel V today, I Write Sins Not Tragedies. And yesterday it was The Dresden Dolls on MTV, though I don't know what exactly that was for because I was only flipping channels and all I caught was the final note on the piano and whack of drums. Different colored flowers, black-and-white striped stockings, a bare chest.
And a few months ago it was OK Go on chV and I was thinking damn Cecilia will be pissed if she sees this. I remember we were talking about our MSN names and she had OK Go on hers that time, she told me to check out You're So Damn Hot and that she would have died to have sex with the members and we complained about Hot Hot Heat being played at Cineleisure.
This is interesting, seeing a whole new music era begin. Eventually all the shit played on MTV will be all gone and all the great once-obscure musicians will take over.
Sheesh blame Jon McGregor for the sudden overflow of useless details. I'm reading If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, I never got to finish it the first time round because I got my hands on Chuck Palahniuk's Diary. Whatever I'm reading, the writing style usually seeps into my own. Which I suppose makes sense, it has been said that "writers are readers moved to emulation."
I'm not exactly sure what keeps me going in reading If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, the whole book is about a Single day (half of the book is from before dawn until around eight in the morning) and it is so full of details, like how the contents of a can of beer hit the grass, and how the grass bent and how the liquid slowly creeped along the soil.
It's quite confusing at first because it is written over several points of views and everything is eventually centered to a single event - which is the climax of the story, but is also used as an introduction. Naturally, anal as I am, I'm writing things down so I can keep track of the different characters. That's another thing - so far I've only come across theree or four names when there are over ten characters and at one point I thought I finally connected one of the names to a character, OH SO THAT'S ALISON, DUH!
Then I realized there was another girl who looks similar to her, so.
I guess those very details keep me reading. And all these lives I am shown first-hand, old and young couples, adolescent clubgoers, a man who lost his wife to a fire... that's just a little part of it.
It's a good book, but isn't for the impatient who think climaxes come (hahahaha oh my god 'climaxes come') in the middle of the story. That's so primary-school-composition-writing.
May 16
Today my father and I were, for the second time, mistaken to be siblings, how insane is that? We were at this bible study thing, and the teacher goes Oh where's your brother? I say I don't have a brother, that's my father! He says OH really! Wow.
Doesn't ANYONE notice my father's salt and pepper hair?!
May 17
Out of nothing to do, I dug up my father's Frank Sinatra CDs.
In 1956 he sings I've got you under my skinnn, I've got you deep in the heart of me.
Every word trailing after the other, his voice wrapping around every word, lingering there and leaving at the very last moment to go to the next.
In 1993 he sings I have got you, under my skin. I've got you, deep, in the heart of me.
There are more pauses now, his voice a little more coarse, he speaks poetically and animatedly now more than singing, but listening closely is the ticket to recognizing the old jazzy crooning flair that remains and thus shows that the style really is his own.
The thing I love about duets is how two different styles can clash. In that same 1993 recording (from the album Frank Sinatra: Duets), Bono jumps in, seductively into the mic So deep in my heart, that you're really a part of me; that unique way he can make sounding like he's on a high sound so right and brilliant. Don't you know, Blue Eyes, you never can win, use your mentality, wake up to reality he sings, as if we were flirting with a lady in a theatre where he tried to be as loud as he quietly could.
Then there's the alteration and improvisation to the lyrics that are adorable, in another duet Tony Bennett says Start spreading the news, you're leaving today; and goes Tell em, Frank! in between notes right before Mr. Sinatra continues the song. Later on Frank sings And I'm gonna make a brand new start of it, right there in old New York he exlaims; and Tony squeezes in a You Better Believe It, Folks!
May 18
Casual piano recital today
I did well in my pieces,
Did well in screwing them up.
At first it was alright, I knew that I knew my pieces and wasn't nervous at all - until I made this one slip because when I reached out for a far low note, it was the wrong one, because I had gotten used to my own piano and the piano that was used had abrnormally smaller keys. Then I panicked, and everything seemed so extremely foreign that I started playing mechanically and my hands started shaking a little. Obviously, even more mistakes. Not just little slips either, I had to stop for 2 seconds, think okay okay skip that part and go to the next phrase.
And I was the oldest too, besides my sister the rest were like eleven and thirteen and nine and six, geez they all did better than me. Demoralizing, quite. I would take having to speak in front of a million people any day. Maybe I'll just stay appreciating music and not getting into it, i.e putting fingers on piano in front of an audience ever again.
May 19
Technically it's the 20th now since it's half past one in the morning, but anyway.
When I got off the phone with Rachel and Si Jing I was annoyed, there is always so much to say but chances are unfortunately also always slim. No, worse than that, anorexic. It was really nice to hear Si Jing's voice again (though we were kind of shouting from speaker phone to speaker phone, hahaha) and how she always says "hur hur hur" not only in typing but in real person and it was never eaiser to smile.
My grandmother let me reply a message from overseas, I can't believe I never thought about asking to use her cellphone before, she never ever runs out of cellphone load (pre-paid thing). So, Sam's second message which came in about fifteen minutes ago gave me major culture shock because it didn't have any trace of surprise that I had messaged from somewhere far away, and that was nice because it felt Normal.
And for the sake of normality, I started thumbing out a reply, starting with Haha speaking of which, p!atd was on TV the other day, how odd? the message was five pages long, Yesterday i Beyond screwed up my piano thing eurgh i've developed a phobia towards piano mistakes now! again there is always so much to say that message would have cost 75pesos, after I said So how was your friday? I stared for a while, observing my fast-growing feeling of emptiness, and hit Clear Text, Mick Jagger would've wailed old habits die hard.
May 20
One of the things I am greatly baffled about is the supposed greatness of Karaoke. I mean well going to a Karaoke bar with the peanuts on a coffee table and comfy couches, those are okay, but here in the Philippines, karaoke singing is almost like a real profession, how fucking daft is that? People spend thousands on a karaoke machine, it's this stupid microphone with built-in memory and then it grades your singing. It's not like the quality of the background 'music' is so hot either, it's the same synthesizer drums and cymbals and weakly-developed background singer voices. In short, Gross.
While my parents shopped for a new electric fan, I headed to Netopia internet café, I was given an hour but I only planned to stay for half to return testimonials and put up a layout, Power Books was calling for me, haha.
But as it turns out my live conversation skills Haven't crumbled away and disappeared, I ended up staying much longer than I expected and thanks to JUDE I left Netopia 71 pesos poorer - they should really change the 1 peso per minute rate, it's bloody ridiculous - and with pictures of a magnifying glass and a teddy bear (and mysterious Girl in backgrond hiding). That reminds me I have to ask my grandmother what ich liebe dich means.
OH, AND.
! says:
^__^ V
LOOK AT THAT, THE LITTLE FUCKER, IT'S DOING THE PEACE SIGN!
Forgive me, I must spread my marvel, and that was one of the most hilarious things I've seen in months.
Clearly I've been away from MSN too long.
May 21
Intially I only wanted the top portion on this layout, but I got carried away in threw in a bunch of other stuff on the sides. I thought I could put this up today, in celebration of our extra computer being installed, = MSN At Home, but it wouldn't work for some reason. I hope it's not because of the slow dial-up connection...
I finished
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. Climax = very unexpected. Worth reading, definitely.
May 22
Testing my dad on the 50 states (he works at HSBC, his area handles US clients, and he has a test on it tonight) :
Trenton?
New Jersey, NJ!
Albany?
New York, NY!
Annapolis?
A FRUIT!
GET IT? ANN-APOL-IS? AN-APPLE-IS? OH MY GOD I WAS LAUGHING FOR AGES.
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Updated Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 09:11 p.m..
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