On board the Red Ball Express

The road from Bukidnon to Davao is the last stretch for cargo trucks en route from other parts of Mindanao to the trade port at Sasa, and as told to us by manong ”Gerry” a driver of 12 years, it is the most arduous.  The road is full of abrupt curves and rocky parts that ought to be driven on with caution, especially in the dark.  Many deaths have occurred along this path and in Gerry’s career he can name a few of his colleagues.  He laments as he points out an area with an abandoned truck at the side of the road, “Katong usa ka biyernes dara namatay tong kauban nako.” (Just last friday, one of my colleagues died right there).  There was a black stain on the street that looked like mud, which Gerry morbidly insisted was blood.

That night, we had mixed feelings about getting home.  It rained hard all afternoon and the biting mountain wind felt too daunting.  It was a carefree decision to wait for it to subside for a few more hours since we were at a coffeeshop by a gas station.  Our party played poker until we lost track of time then came sun down.  After conferring with locals, we found out that the rural transits would only stop terminal to terminal.  And so our only chance to get home was if we got on a non-airconditioned bus, a chartered van, a friend willing to pick us up and finally a hitch.   Our first option was a non-airconditioned bus, but every time one passed by it swept by too fast.  We were stranded even after the coffeeshop and the gas station had to close for the day.  To while away the idle time, we drank wine, some coke and ate packed dinner.  Back in Davao, the night would have been as young as us.  But in the midst of the provincial highlands, we were the only ones awake.

When Jerry spotted us and decided to halt, Karla was apprehensive to climb up the truck and I suppose, some of it rubbed off on me until I said to myself, “There’s five of us”.  I have never hitchhiked before in my life but I’ve always wanted to.  All the reservations I might have to that possibility was due to the obvious fact that it’s not safe to do alone. 

Hitchhiking is a game of chance and has the same risks of being exposed to a potentially dangerous stranger.  This option should only be open when your party is desperate to go home. Yes, traveling is naturally more exciting when it’s spontaneous and less expensive, in fact, Gerry refused to take our money.  But I don’t think it’s wise to travel by intentionally hitchhiking all the way.  Besides, it is virtually impossible to get to hitch on a truck whose driver doesn’t want to run the risk of being caught by monitors, as it is grounds for suspension.  A traveler’s wanton ways could cost someone’s job.

As it turns out, hithhiking was as fascinating as I had thought it to be.  I was quickly enthused by the driver who had stories to tell about other hitchhikers and of the road.  The idea that I was on a twelve-wheeler truck carrying pineapples from Mao, Lanao due for shipment to Japan was infinitely more intriguing than taking the bus from point A to point B.  I imagined what it would be like to regularly hitchhike, and my conclusion was that the journey had an indirect sideshow, like it was its own mobile entertainment.  The stories that could be told between the hikers and drivers amounted to more travel experience that Confucius would probably be proud of.

May the universe gift your soul with more good vibrations, “Gerry”.

And so was I.

You can’t blame me for loving the month of July. This month has been packed with so many things I hardly have time to go online and type one of ‘em posts for the birthday of this brainchild.  Anyway, brief history:  Southisms used to be and was supposed to be (exclusively) a music blog.  The rise of the niche blogging hype had called this space for that purpose initially.  However, the writer has transformed over time from the booze-guzzling musicionado to the tube-whirring, film-powered “student” of life, the universe and everything.  So now this must be a blog about the universe and everything, as far as my media brain cell is concerned.  But can’t help drifting back to music-related events since it’s still pretty much part of my nature.

Say for instance, I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about the upcoming Muzika del Sur Music Awards 2008 for August.  Unfortunately I had an ear infection so I wasn’t able to cover their preliminary events. 

I’ve heard the nominations have closed and that’s where the fun usually starts.

In my experience working for the Research Team before, the awards features a range of categories namely: Best Music Video, Rock, Ragga, Metal, Pop, Hip-Hop, and The Mindanawon Award.  Each band in the final roster goes through a nomination process and goes through an extensive review by a panel of jurors.  Last year, we incorporated an SMS system which allowed fans to vote for their favorite artists to be awarded the People’s Choice.  Unfortunately, the process was inevitably problematic and faced a slight amount of controversy when misinformation about the texting information was proliferated.  Thankfully, the bands were such sports about it.

This year’s music awards event had also its own set of problems this year such as the controversy surrounding an Idol Grill (Davao) gig.  My friend Shieka, who was part of the production of the said event had this to rant on the Friendster bulletins:

IMAGINE IF THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU:

** YOU HAVE THIS EVENT THAT YOU PREPARED FOR ALMOST A MONTH PROMOTING AND DOING ALL THE STUFF JUST TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

YOU INVITED LOCAL ARTISTS FROM CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY ( GASULINA) AND TAGUM CITY(KEYK) TO PERFORM JUST TO PRESENT UNITY AMONG MINDANAO ARTISTS, NOT TO MENTION SOME LOCAL DAVAO BANDS WHO ALSO EAGERLY PARTICIPATED JUST TO SHOW SUPPORT ON THE VISION OF MUZIKA DEL SUR.

** MOST OF THE LOCAL ARTIST ORGANIZATONS FLOCKED DURING THE EVENT JUST TO SHOW SUPPORT ON THE DRIVE OF PROMOTING THE MUSIC SCENE OF MINDANAO.

**FRIENDS,FAMILIES,TRI-MEDIA WENT TO WITNESS THE FIRST PRE-EVENT ACTIVITY OF THE UPCOMING MUSIC AWARDS 2008. THEN HERE COMES OUR HERO!

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PROGRAM OUR IDOL COMMAND AND HIS JUSTICE LEAGUE DECIDED TO PULL OUT OUR EVENT BACK DROP STREAMER BECAUSE HIS IDOL LOGO WILL NOT BE SEEN (A. BY THE CAMERA, B. BY THE PEOPLE, C. BY HIS EMPLOYEES, D. BY HIS DRINKING BUDDIES, OR E. ALL OF THE ABOVE). AND WHEN WE ASKED HIS HIGHNESS TO JUST RECONSIDER OUR EVENT BECAUSE SOMEHOW WE PAID HIM TO HAVE OUR EVENT IN HIS KINGDOM… WHOOOOSHHHHHH!!!! OUR IDOL WITH ALL HIS MIGHT POINTED HIS MAGIC WAND TO HIS “CLOWNS” AND ORDERED ONCE AGAIN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN …ONCE AGAIN WITH(DRUM ROLL PLEASE..) ” I COMMAND YOU TO STOP YOUR EVENT! BY THE POWER OF MY MAGIC WAND MAGSITIGIL KAYOO MGA MAHADERA!! KEVERRR KUNG SINO PA YANG MGA MEDIA AT SPONSORS AT BISITA AT BANDANG NANDIYAN, WIZH KO EL! MAGDUSA KAYO MGA BRUHA! ” SO WITH ALL THE SHAME AND DEGRADATION WE PACK OUR THINGS,OUR PRIDE,OURSELVES, AND OUR HATRED HOME.

WE SOUGHT OUR REFUGE AT THE DURIAN BAR (THANKS PAOLO).

Being a musician and part of the media myself, that is NOT an ethical way to treat people from the media and music industry.  The fact that the event organizers have already paid for the place secures their discretion to manage the setting and materials to be used for the event.  Moreover, once the place is paid for, the event organizer and the outlet comes into an agreement that cannot be revoked under any circumstance.  The adage the show must go on is a practical truth because it’s too expensive to flush out the production when it is happening and it insults the professional integrity of all people involved in the production just because one person had a little problem.

Moreover Idol Grill never apologized to the production team and the bands for this horrible treatment.  Publicly or otherwise.

Anyways, I hate how there should always be politics in these events. Why can’t people be fun-loving and just listen to some friggin music?

Photo courtesy of http://morofilm.blogspot.com

My friend Jun Macarambon, who co-wrote “A step for my dream” had their film officially selected in this year’s Cinemalaya, inevitably the most prestigious film festival in the Philippines. I haven’t seen the film myself, but the fact that it made it to the festival should keep everyone’s heads up. It was directed by Monalayn Labado, also a Mindanawon. Hopefully, their producer Teng Mangansakan II, also a documentary filmmaker from Mindanao, would allow to screen the said film for this upcoming Mindanao Film Festival for everyone to see. Lately, the influx of critical Mindanao filmmakers shaking the national and international scene have grown since, perhaps, Lav Diaz. Other films to watchout for that are made by a Mindanao filmmaker include Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s film (director of Huling Balyan ng Buhi) “Imburnal”, which was recently shot in some parts of Bankerohan and Dumalag. It is an entry for this year’s Cinema One Originals. Also, an advocacy film was recently made entitled, “Hunghong sa yuta” which has already run on local cinemas. Noticeably, most of our fresh breed of filmmakers have done stories on Mindanao, treating these stories with a fair sense of what Mindanao truly feels like.

In an interview, Mangansakan mentioned a trend in the past of outsiders making stories about us with an unnerving sort of unfamiliarity, even dettachment. I once watched a 1980 Eddie Romero epic (three and half hours long) film entitled, “Aguila” starring Fernando Poe Jr., Christopher de Leon, Eddie Garcia among other star studs, and the film had vague images of Mindanao as the backdrop of where Fernando Poe eventually disappeared to. It portrays Mindanao as somewhat the ideal place to get lost in, a place ridden with rebels. Although, the rather unbalanced portrayal of Mindanao is for the overall cinematic effect or part of how it was written but that’s precisely how it’s just not enough for non-Mindanawons to describe what Mindanao is like. Even National Media makes me cringe at all the news they run about the region. Whereas that is my advocacy, all strifes of artistic forms or self-determining movements in Mindanao have been hampered by the fact that there isn’t ENOUGH support from the locale, or at least not too many are aware that it needs support. I hope you will show yours.

March 13-16, 2008
KONSYERTOS ‘08 @ Madrazo Compound (Durian Bar)
Night time (Depends on you)

March 15, 2008
Mix-a-tune Gig @ Juan Luna St. (Next to Better Components)
8:00 PM

That’s all for now. I think I’ll be showing up for the Mix-a-tune gig as well as the March 16 gig, since it’s like a yearly thing for me. Wow, I remember a couple of years ago I was just behind the scenes and now (since I pretend to have a life) I haven’t been to a single gig since this year began. Hmm… I must admit that I’ve had a very dramatic change in lifestyle…

In other news, Muzika del Sur has already made a courtesy call to all Mindanao Bands about the sophomore year of Muzika del Sur Music Awards. If you’re up for grabs, just contact the Alchemy of Vision and Light Office through 225-FILM.

Killerbee has an entirely different concept about it. You can’t just play anything. You have to be consistent, and you gotta love your listeners back by making sure that the hits are what you play. And no doubt, aside from the music and the staple charisma of each and every DJ, you have hoards and I mean HOARDS of listeners all over the metro. Jocks on board have visitors every week, some even bring food or what. It’s a really active station. The radio station is very pop.

Watchers of this space, at least some of you know that I’m a big geek when it comes to music. If I could spill bile on a disgustingly overrated pop song, I’d bring truck loads of it. But I agree, hands down with my new Program Director at Kbee when he makes this point about we’ve got to stick to our format no matter what – no matter how DJs would prefer to hear a particular kind of music for a particular period of time. Variety is key. Outside of being a DJ, it’s alright to listen to my own music…in my room, in my own time. Radio runs on the advertisements in between the music played. At least that’s how Contemporary Hit Radio business is. I’m not exactly working for an indie radio. Admittedly, that could be my dream job. Except that, you know, CHR always pays better haha. And you get more freebies too.

So far, it’s been almost a month since riding the sails of the Bee. I’m sick of some of the songs, and you know, it shouldn’t be a reason for me to stop playing them as long as people still like it. The best I can do is turn down the volume of my monitor. I just can’t get that, “A bay bay” thing in my head. Come to think of it, a lot of the pop songs now have this echo thing going on to them. If you’re familiar with Rihanna’s “Shut up and drive” there’s this part there where the record belts, shut up and drive, drive, drive, drive…. That’s so annoying! What about that other song Umbrella? Under my um-buh-reh-lah ela, ela, ey, ey, ey… I get the point okay! It’s an Uhmbreeehhhllluhhhh. You’re going to confuse the five-year-old how to say the word! And this last example’s precious. That song by Enrique Iglesias? Infamously dubbed the ping-pong song… The chorus has this line that goes, Do you know what it feels like loving someone…blah blah blahdidadi blah blah…(In Echoes: Do you know, do you know, do you know, do you know?) I know, okay? It’s really rubbing it in Enrique. It’s like you’re about to say a trivia or something. Who knows, you know? Do you know? Goodness. When does this end?

But enough of these rants. I love being a jock. I love the free food. (Even if I can’t eat meat anymore, aha!) I love just talking on that mic. Which reminds me, being a jock is like you’re doing karaoke. The more you stay with the mic the more you want to hog it. Hmm…

Anyway, I’m only doing this regularly on weekends. That’s Saturday 2-6 PM and then Sunday 6-10 in the ungodly AM. Hope you guys tune in anyway and listen to me talk crap about things, haha! Yeah, whatever. Why am I hyper today?

The Mindanao Blog Summit
Oh and yes, Blogie, I will join the Mindanao Bloggers Summit, come hell or high. Of course, ahem, special thanks to our sponsors who made it all possible!

1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit Sponsors:

• Councilor Peter Laviña
• Join the DigitalFilipino.com Club!
• BisayaBloggers.com
• Davao’s Food Huntress
• NoKiAHOST.COM P5/day webhosting
• Web Design Philippines
• Orange County Real Estate
• Web Developer Philippines

See y’all!

Anyway.

It’s been an interesting month, thus far. And I can say the same thing about the previous month. I went to Cagayan to check out the music scene there and quite frankly, I was impressed. My heart bled over the fact that the Cagayan music scene seems more enthusiastic and more, shall I say, formidable compared to Davao’s. Not that I’m dissing our locals, no no. My point is, I wish the scene here would grow in terms of musical taste, and maybe even music support.


Just a week ago, I had a talk with several Davao local bands and one of the guys from the undergrounders told me that the music scene in Davao literally DIED for a year or two and now, it’s been trying to come back – no, crawling back. I mean, if you’ve visited my website over the year, I did plug several events alluding to such a “music scene”. But I did make it to a time when the scene was actually crazier, more visible and more immense – at least as far as the undergrounders are concerned. But for the rest whose heads are above the surface and only listen to bands who play when they play and who happen to be at the place where one is having their evening beers and sisigs, I guess there really isn’t much scene there to see since most of the local bands I talk about in this blog play for a specific crowd (I quaintly call the undergrounders). I’ve been observing this notable disparity for some time now: I know artists who are afraid to be labeled as a “mainstream” band when they step out of the so-called underground. Seriously, what is this obssession between distinguishing a band between mainstream and underground? There really shouldn’t be any difference. If you play music, you just play music. I mean, audiences are supposed to vary seeing as how tastes vary too. So if you have an audience with a predictable taste in music and they start listening to you – it’s really not a bad thing. Some underground bands are afraid to share their music to audiences outside the underground because the undeground might perceive it as the band trying to get into the mainstream. That’s peer pressure in your face. And I don’t get why bands should even care what “peers” should think. Unless of course they’re playing the music for them and not for themselves or to have fun with it. I don’t know, just a food for thought. That’s just me ranting.

I hate to see underground bands just stay underground. They happen to be the most original and most creative type of bands. Is it too much a stretch to share the music to “everyone else”?

***

The Muzika del Sur Music Awards 2007 is going to be held on August 19, 2007. See you guys there!

***

Meme time! Thanks Andrew for tagging. Sorry took a while to comply, but at least it’s here now, yeah!

Three Things That Scare Me

1. Crawling things
2. My mom raising hell
3. My girlfriend raising hell, hahaha. Peace, hun!

Three People Who Make Me Laugh

1. My brother
2. Mark Limbaga
3. Benedic!

Three Things I Love

1. Schneider – my laptop
2. *toot*
3. My Thai pants!

Three Things I Hate

1. Whistles
2. Whistles being blown! God.
3. Whistles being blown repetitively!

Three Things I Don’t Understand

1. Marriage
2. Russian
3. Married people

Three Things On My Desk

1. Laptop
2. Chicken – my Phone
3. My Italian hand sanitizer, hah.

Three Things I Am Doing Right Now

1. Typing THIS.
2. Furrowing my brows.
3. Slouching.

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1. Live in New York
2. Get famous and filthy rich, hahahaha!
3. Bungee jump

Three Things I Can Do

1. I can play several musical instruments.
2. Walk from Katipunan (Quezon City) to Welcome (Nearing Espana)
3. Not leave an answer for number 3.

Three Things I Can’t Do

1. Kiss my elbow
2. Quit smoking. Fuck.
3. Sleep. (At least right now. 6:20 AM July 21. Huhuhu…)

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To

1. Me
2. The Knife
3. Your stomach

Three Things You Should Never Listen To

1. Me, ranting
2. Bad music
3. George Bush

Three Things I Would Like To Learn

1. Speak several European languages (aside from English)
2. Cook without burning half the kitchen
3. Sleep early.

Three Favorite Foods

1. Anything with mushrooms
2. CHEESE
3. Fudgy, chocolatey stuff

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid

1. Hiraya Manawari
2. Wheel of Fortune
3. Power Rangers (Damn.)

OKAY. That’s it. I’m going to sleep now. Good night!

Tags: Muzika+del+Sur, Music+Awards, Smashing+Pumpkins, underground+bands

I guess at this point, you might be asking why?

Call me weird but I have a strange philosophy about music which suggests that the music you listen to is directly proportional to your temperament. Of course, this formula suggests that altering your choice of music can likewise alter your mood. See, before I’ve decided to admit myself to Rock Rehab, I have been listening to immensely poppy tunes and loads of sleepy songs. It’s time for me to get off my ass and kick out procrastination because I’ve got tons of work to do! (Which reminds me, the company I work for AVL Film and TV Productions, is planning to launch a Mindanao-based Music awards – more details later.) Anyway, more to the point that rock is exactly the kind of music I need right now, especially, happy-sounding-rock, I’ve noticed I’ve turned soft lately and I blame it all on the music I’ve been feeding myself for the past few months. It’s time to bring back some of my sarcasm and regain my steel guts. Because yeah, some people can be tough even if they listen to softer tunes, but nothing gears up your mood that way better than some orgasmic Hendrix solo. And yes, rock is orgasmic. Nothing gets me at a better mood than music that’s as good as sex; topped only by sex itself.

So I’m going to snub artists like Feist, Explosions in the sky, Jose Gonzales, Emily Haines and Deerhunter for the meantime. I absolutely love shoegazer like music but I’m not really in the mood for that. So if you are, you might as well check out those artists and let’s be each other’s contrast and tell me about it!

Rock rehab begins. Woo!

***

We’ve already reserved the website for our upcoming Music Awards, hopefully I can plug it on this site as soon as the launching is in order. Meanwhile, watch out for it some time in the middle of August. Nominations will begin by next week. Support your favorite Mindanao-based band! Be part of Muzika del Sur Music Awards 2007. More details later on this week. Adios!

Tags: Deerhunter, Deftones, Emily+Haines, Explosions+in+the+sky, Feist, Frank+Zappa, Jimi+Hendrix, Jose+Gonzales, Mindanao+Music, Music+Awards, Steely+Dan, The+Decemberists, The+Metric, The+New+Pornographers, Radiohead, Wolfmother