Edmund

Evitamania

Word has it that Evita is going to be revived on Broadway. If it is true, then I’m really going to see it this time around. When it was revived in London four years ago, all I was able to do was get the T-shirts and souvenir program. When it was done in Manila in 1986, after the EDSA Revolution, I was too young to go. Although Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You were played a lot on radio from 1979 to ’80, the show wasn’t performed in the Philippines until after the Marcoses were ousted from power—there were whispers back then that Imelda didn’t like Evita.

And speaking of Imelda, Here Lies Love, a concept album by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of Mrs. Marcos, is finally coming out in April. Evita started out as a concept album before it evolved into the beloved stage musical. (I still believe that Evita: An opera based on the life story of Eva Peron 1919-1952 is the best Evita recording ever.) Will Here Lies Love be performed on stage eventually?

Shushan Purim begins at sundown today. It commemorates the day when the Jews of Shushan, the capital of Persia, finally rested after defeating their enemies. I love the feast of Purim. For me it’s a reminder that anti-Semitism—and indeed racism itself!—should be fought aggressively. For Haman is still alive, and he is as mighty, powerful and wicked as ever—and he comes in many forms and guises.

Blasts from the past

L’Osservatore Romano’s top ten rock and pop albums, and my take on each:

1. Revolver by The Beatles — I definitely agree and approve.
2. If I Could Only Remember My Name by David Crosby — David Crosby who? If I Could Only Remember My Name what?
3. The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd —I remember The Wall better.
4. Rumours by Fleetwood Mac — I can’t stand Stevie Nick’s voice.
5. The Nightfly by Donald Fagen — Never heard of Donald Fagen. Never heard of the album.
6. Thriller by Michael Jackson — Is this an attempt to get into the bandwagaon?
7. Graceland by Paul Simon — Overrated.
8. Achtung Baby by U2 — Zzzzzzzzz . . .
9. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis — Did those who made this list even know what the Gallagher brothers mean by “morning glory”?
10. Supernatural by Carlos Santana — So 1999.

If L’Osservatore Romano was hoping to “strike a more contemporary tone,” as the Daily Telegraph puts it, by coming up with this list, then I think it has failed massively. Pop/Rock music now has a very unrecognizable face, having evolved drastically over the last ten years. None of the above-mentioned CDs are that relevant anymore, especially to the 14 to 18 age group who actually download and buy music. The list would’ve been more relevant—and actually interesting—had they included The Fame by Lady GaGa . . . I’m just sayin’.

Leave the ’80s be. We are the World was recently remade. Jay-Z said it best: “I know everybody is gonna take this wrong: We Are the World, I love it, and I understand the point and think it’s great. But I think We Are the World is like [Michael Jackson’s] Thriller to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched.”

I’m just glad that Madonna wasn’t part of that travesty—and that she didn’t take part even in the original We Are the World. It was actually her song Crazy for You, the love theme from the film Vision Quest, that ended USA for Africa’s four-week reign at the top of the charts in May 1985. I remember it well! She played a local bar singer in her first-ever major motion picture appearance:

There’s also a music video for Gambler, Madonna’s second (but unreleased) contribution to the Vision Quest soundtrack. It was one of my personal anthems back in High School, because of the line “You’re just jealous ’cause you can’t be me!”:

And still on Vision Quest . . . Kuch, the hero Louden’s friend who fancies himself as a Native American, is played by Michael Schoeffling, who was “Jake Ryan” in Sixteen Candles. As I’ve said, I haven’t seen Sixteen Candles (yet), and the “Jake Ryan” I’m familiar with is the one from Hannah Montana, but I do have this nice novelty T-shirt, which I got as a freebie from a magazine subscription:

I can’t wait to wear it to an ’80s-themed party. It’d be a hit.

The day after Ash Wednesday

Revenge, an out-take from Madonna’s great 1998 Ray of Light CD:

There is no such thing as revenge.
You will not give as good as you got.
There is no such thing as an eye for an eye.
If you think you're the giver, you're not.

There is no such thing as regret.
There is no point in placing the blame.
Hate destroys the one who hates
and everyone suffers the same.

What you see
is not necessarily what you get.
Eyes are the window to the soul.
Take your judgements
and let them go.

There is only love and respect.
To thine own self be true.
When you point the finger,
there are three fingers pointing back at you.

What you see
is not necessarily what you get.
Eyes are the window to the soul.
Take your judgements
and let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.

Recognize that God is alive in everyone.
Recognize that love lives in us all.

What you see
is not necessarily what you get.
Eyes are the window to the soul.
Take your judgements
and let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.

What you see
is not necessarily what you get.
Eyes are the window to the soul.
Take your judgements
and let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.

My new BFF

Though I like its low prices, I try as much as possible not to buy music and movies from Wal-Mart. The stickers Wal-Mart use for their price tags are ultra-sticky, and obsessive-compulsive collectors like myself who want their treasures looking almost-untouched hate those stubborn sticker residue that clings forever to their unopened collectibles.

I usually use baby oil (and sometimes cooking oil) to remove the sticker residue from the cellophane wraps of CDs and from other glossy surfaces like plastic or mylar. Once the baby oil removes the residue, I then would apply rubbing alcohol over the cellophane and wipe it dry with tissue paper.

There was a gross-looking sticker residue on the cardboard sleeve of my Inglorious Basterds Blu-ray. I definitely couldn’t use oil on paper to clean it up—the slip case would be ruined. So I looked online for tips on handling these kind of things. A product called Goo Gone was always mentioned and recommended. I knew I’ve heard of it before somewhere, but I wasn’t sure if I could find one in town. After a desperate search, I didn’t find any in all the stores.

There’s some work being done at the basement, so I cleaned up some of the mess yesterday. Guess what I found under the bathroom sink:

There’s a simple but very nice lesson that I learned from this. Sometimes the thing that we want most but think we couldn’t have is just right under our very noses! So seek—and you shall find.

Anygoo, with one little drop and one slight, very delicate stroke, Goo Gone made my Inglorious Basterds look glorious:

Song of the day

Stranded by Heart has been playing inside my head. The snow squall wouldn’t let me go anywhere.

Much has already been said about the horrible devastation and the great need in Haiti, so I’m not going to say anything more. But I did see the Hope for Haiti Now telethon last Friday. I stayed up late to see this particular performance/performer:

Just Breathe

1988 was my first year without any Madonna music—a rather boring year, music-wise. Great music started to pop up toward its end, though: Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul—and Breathe, a British band, which instantly became one of my favorites. Breathe came out with only three hits and then disappeared. I think I still have the cassette tape of their album All That Jazz somewhere.

The video for How Can I Fall has got to be one of the most beautiful music videos ever. Aside from the song’s beautiful melody, the video is populated by a most good-looking cast:

Wearing hand-me-downs sharpened my creativity and fashion sense. Paupertas omnium artium repertrix! The hair and the clothes in the video for Don’t Tell Me Lies will give you an idea of how I dressed (or did with what I had) in the late ’80s—when I still had hair:

Elvis x 2

Two Elvis films, Love Me Tender and Kid Galahad, were on TV last night. I didn’t sit through them—I’ve never seen a single Elvis movie, and I’m not an Elvis fan. The only Elvis-related thing that I’ve seen in its entirety was his 1968 comeback special—it was on TV a lot in 1977, in the mornings before schooltime. His signature black leather jump suit was fascinating.

It turns out to be the King’s birthday today. That explains the back-to-back movies last night.

Pastries on my mind

I was listening to Cake’s ubiquitous 1996 CD Fashion Nugget. If I remember correctly, there was a Filipino parody of the CD’s cover art design entitled Mamon. (“Mamon” is the Tagalog word for sponge cake.) Then all of a sudden, I was craving for cakes. It dawned upon me that I didn’t get to taste any fruit cake last Christmas. Nobody gave me any fruit cake for Christmas!

This ain’t 1999

Semi-good. Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Good. Bad. Clumsy and bad.

That’s the chronological sequence of how each of the 13 tracks sound in Westlife’s new CD, Where We Are. The very few good tracks clearly indicate where Westlife is: it’s no longer 1999.