THE NEW BATTLE FOR MUSICAL SUPREMACY: EARL KLUGH vs. LEE RITENOUR
(Subtext: StronGest Points of My Chair-Better Other)
By: Iris P. Concepcion
You know how it is when you breeze through a certain groove of the mind that totally develops into a state of being: at rest, it hums like a free bird who can afford to laugh merrily at the anger and hurt and depression of those who had been slugged out on primetime, humiliated professionally perhaps out of their shelf: solid as their triumvirate of $85 camel-hopping sojourns and still, continually mad. I do not know where that immense professional sulking came from.
I advise for myself, something that you can likewise copy: listen to the mix tapes of the usual suspects.
An old Lee Ritenour vinyl mixed with rap does not sound commercial but it does bring back old memories of hopping grasshoppers and lizards on ceilings: that rare scratching of stereo needle on an LP (long playing) record that is a pretty sight for an otherwise highly-tech and mechanical engineering procedure. It operates by itself. It gets aloft like a robot, in exact numbering, and lands on the record like a ballet dancer's tutu romancing the dancing floor.
And that rare shshhshhshhhhsrrrrssst sound goes with the opening notes. The art of cleaning up the vinyl in that powder-puff like, round thing, removing dust from the rotating table. It is like a Japanese-looking brusko having rabbit-teeth looking for clothes.
I am astonished: Handsome Daddy has a deep, I mean DEEP playlist. Lou Rawls to Mabuhay Singers. Extensive. I mean, massive.
Thus: I ponder. This total wonder as written below. By people who can't dig Lou Rawls.
I like this outburst of shriek, this fortitude to whack. They all make noise about genitals (they'd be upping the level of discussion to armpits, elbows, and again, the boring genitals---they must be so obsessed with getting laid they could not stop yacking about it) and how they are mutilated and scraped and all that gore. My man just says: Oh, look at the clock.
It points perpetually at 8:00.
That is an intelligent man's treatise on productivity. It is magnificent; a psychology find for the superb and the understated. It ceases to be a threat since we are just barfing all around to make the very obvious statement.
Let us put it this way: there is a wish list coming from a woman who had paid his dues to widen the roads. She had delivered half of the list in a hilarious manner. And it was fun looking at that, done.
About the creative subtext, the guy actually hates me for my needless, unmoving stature. Exasperation, howl and it is funny looking at that, totally. He does not blow his top and I am wondering how it works for him.
He just placed our wrecked chair in the middle of the road: with kids performing gymnastics on it. I never did understand how brilliant he is with handling his stature. I am extremely shamed that I had ascribed nerdiness to a clearly reinvigorating, adventurous, smart, brave soul of the world. He goes to Bangkok and does not visit its brothels. He just stays in his hotel looking like a sad sack as his siblings scout the flea markets.
Really? Look at that impish grin.
What have I done to bump into such a terribly pious and wild man of the universe, I can only surmise.
Developing a weird crush on someone you have loved in reverse, fart and all, is horror. At 40? Ostentatious, rough, evil and tacky.
Damn if this is still logical and sane. Get your Earl Klugh record and play it till Christmas.
Goryong!!!!!!
From the President this time:
Be thankful to God for your blessings and put others' welfare before yours.
These were part of the Christmas message of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III posted on the Official Gazette on Wednesday.
In his message, taped earlier on Monday at the Rizal Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañang Palace, Aquino urged Filipinos to share the Christmas spirit not only this Yuletide season but the whole year round.
"Hindi kaya’t mas bibilis pa ang ating pag-unlad kung ang kapakanan ng ating kapwa ang uunahin bago ang sarili? Sama-sama nating abutin ang ating mithiin, kung saan ang nagmamalasakit at minalasakitan ay parehong nagagalak ngayon o pagkalipas man ng Pasko," he said.
(Will we not fare better if we put the welfare of others before ours? Let us sacrifice for others and bring joy both to ourselves and our neighbors.)
Aquino said he is happy that the hard work of Filipinos, along with their unity and "bayanihan" spirit amid hardships, is bearing fruit.
"Malaki na ang ipinagbago ng ating kalagayan mula sa ating dinatnan (We have come a long way from the problems we went through)," he said.
He urged Filipinos to be thankful to God for giving His only Son to save mankind.
"Pasasalamat sa Poong Maykapal na inialay sa atin ang sarili Niyang anak upang iligtas tayo sa ating mga kasalanan," he said.
(We must be thankful to God who gave us His only Son that we may be saved from our sins.)
Full text of the President's Christmas message
Isang masagana at maligayang pasko po sa inyong lahat.
Madalas nating naririnig na iba talaga ang Paskong Pinoy. Nasa loob man o labas ng ating bansa, damang-dama natin ang ngiti at saya tuwing nagtitipon at nagdiriwang ang buong pamilya.
Lubos akong nagagalak sa ating pagsisikap na itaguyod ang kultura at mga kaugaliang bumubuo sa ating pagka-Pilipino: pagkakaisa, pagbabayanihan, at pag-asa sa harap ng anumang pagsubok.
Lagi po sana nating isapuso sa kabila ng ating pagdiriwang ang tunay na diwa ng Pasko:
Pasasalamat sa Poong Maykapal na inialay sa atin ang sarili Niyang anak upang iligtas tayo sa ating mga kasalanan.
Nawa’y maipamalas din natin ang ganitong pagmamalasakit at pagmamahal sa ating kapwa.
Malaki na ang ipinagbago ng ating kalagayan mula sa ating dinatnan.
Hindi kaya’t mas bibilis pa ang ating pag-unlad kung ang kapakanan ng ating kapwa ang uunahin bago ang sarili?
Sama-sama nating abutin ang ating mithiin, kung saan ang nagmamalasakit at minalasakitan ay parehong nagagalak ngayon o pagkalipas man ng Pasko.
Nawa’y maging masaya at makabuluhan ang inyong mga Pasko sa piling ng inyong mga mahal sa buhay.
Muli, maligayang Pasko po sa inyong lahat.