Yep, if you’ve been around this block long enough you know that Southisms.com was born on a July.

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?