Something before we start.

I made the mistake of drinking brewed coffee. Yes,I mean those beans that you put in the coffee maker and leave your eyes bloodshot. I was too lazy to mix powdered in my cup so I just turned on the coffee maker.

Now I can’t sleep. I’m the Evil Frankenjc, the lurker of internet at dawn. Bwahaha.

Anyway. Alright, people. Let’s get down to business. I know some of you have been waiting for this. Let’s go.

First treat: Tadhana by Moonstar88

Yes! Anggalinggalinggaling ng magic powers ko! Who would have thought? This one got me bopping till forever. This is a very welcome change for the guys who churned out Torete, although I still love Accel for that. Speaking of, Cris (or is it JP?) coined me in on this: Accel may just be forming a new band. Last we heard, she’s leaving Moonstar for marriage. Now, she’s gonna be back in the scene.

Hmm. Parang Katwo Librando and her new band Duster. We still don’t have much info, but there, Narda has disbanded, and she’s in a new band.

Anyway, here’s the mp3. Pagkarinig nyo, sisigaw rin kayo ng “dito tayo sa dileeem!” Swear. Parang Pedicab lang. :p

Moonstar88 - Tadhana  [ Download mp3 here ]

 
Second: Stolen (Acoustic) by Dashboard Confessional

This is per the request of Marlo. This is by far the most emotional of the ones I have downloaded. May isang acoustic, sobrang pangit. Grr.

Anyway. I think you’d like to hear this, Jayps.

Dashboard Confessional - Stolen (acoustic version) [ Download mp3 here ]

Third: Of the original and the emo.

I found these while looking for Dashboard’s acoustic version of Stolen. Aparently this is for an MTV live session. Too bad I didn’t hear the REM version first. Dashboard’s version is nice with the emo touch, but REM’s is definitely better.

Dashboard Confessional - Nightswimming MTV Live Sessions [ Download mp3 here ]
REM - Nightswimming [ Download mp3 here ] 

Fourth : For JP

O. Ayan na. I’m still wondering why you’re looking for this. Di ba matagal na ito?

Green Day - Working Class Hero [ Download mp3 here ]
Travis - Closer [ Download mp3 here ]

Fifth (and the second best after Moonstar88’s Tadhana): Contagious.

Yes. I’m not an Avril fan, but this is defintely good: “When you’re around I don’t know what to do / I do not think that I can wait / To go over and to talk to you / I do not know what I should say / And I walk out in silence / That’s when I start to realize / It’s so contagious / I cannot get it out of my mind / It’s so outrageous / You make me feel so high“

Contagious by Avril Lavigne [ Download mp3 here ]

After Limewire, feeling ko sophisticated na ang mga LSS ko. Check this one:

The Fear You Won’t Fall
Joshua Radin [Download mp3 here]
(The Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack - ending theme of Episode 22:The Name of the Game, Season 2)

Digging a hole and the walls are caving in
Behind me air’s getting thin but I’m trying
I’m breathing in
Come find me
It hasn’t felt like this before
It hasn’t felt like home before you
And I know it’s easy to say but it’s harder to feel
This way
And I miss you more than I should
Than I thought I could
Can’t get my mind off of you
I know you’re scared that I’ll soon be over it
That’s part of it all
Part of the beauty of falling in love with you is the fear you won’t fall
It hasn’t felt like this before
It hasn’t felt like home before you
And I know it’s easy to say but it’s harder to feel
This way
And I miss you more than I should than I thought I could
Can’t get my mind off of you
And I hate the phone
But I wish you’d call
Thought being alone
Was better than… was better than…
And I know it’s easy to say but it’s harder to feel this way
And I miss you more than I should
Than I thought I could
Can’t get my mind off of you
Can’t get my mind off of you
And I know it’s easy to say but it’s harder to feel
This way
And I miss you more than I should
Than I thought I could
Can’t get my mind off of you

We walk without a sound across a barren landscape, your eyes are twisted down to a dew entrailed ground. We watch the stars as they slowly fade away and in the clearing sky, I see the cold stone face of morning setting in on me.
It’s a strange world
It’s a very strange world that leaves me holding on to nothing when there’s nothing left to lose. Your touch is cold and damp, the devil’s in your eyes.
I wonder why I always let you lead me on this way ’cause you see only what you want to see, you feel only what you want to and I am on the outside of your strange world.
It’s a strange world
It’s a very strange world that leaves me holding on to nothing when there’s nothing left to lose. We’re walking hand in hand, we’ll walk this way forever.
Our eyes have risen to the water’s edge watching with the tides, the stars have fallen to another day and the sun warms our path to find the reasons leave us far behind in our strange world.
It’s a strange world
It’s a very strange world that leaves me holding on to nothing when there’s nothing left to lose.

-S.M.

I really should start psyching myself that I no longer go by blackmoon.8m.com and I am now known as a paid domain by the name of evilwearspink.com. It’s still giving me a bad mix-up.

Anyway. Pleasant surprise this afternoon after buying a magazine in Alabang Town Center. Though the unwelcome faces of Nina and Christian Bautista added to the hesitation, there was something welcome I found in the racks: a P50 back issue of BURN Magazine, first release dated May 2006. Obviously the mag’s new, and I have already seen the hype around the internet. I didn’t bother picking up one before though because I haven’t paid attention to the news/magazine stands after the last issue of MTV Ink went out.

So imagine my surprise–and the best one so far this week–when I found the name Kristine Fonacier on one of the articles. Sweet. At least she’s back on the magazines. I flip on the pages a little bit more and guess what I find: she’s the editor-in-chief. Whoa! This is going to kick some other magazines’ butts.

 For all of you who didn’t know me before college, Kristine Fonacier, or Kf for you, is no, not an obsession nor my stalkee (hehe), but one of the people I have long looked up to in the only field of media I so dreamed of exploring: the softer side of journalism, aka magazine writing. We interviewed her for a group project back in my sophomore year along with my best friend Mark, and I’ll tell you that we were smitten by this genius of a lady. Up till today, I still am.

Let’s go through the essentials. An alumna from Ateneo with a degree from Communications majoring in Journalism, she has been around for some time with the Fookien Times Publishing (a Philippine Star affiliate, handled by VP Grace Glory Go), handling the Music Editor post of one of the leading music magazines in the Philippines, PULP Magazine under EIC Vernon Go, and in the early 2001,spearheaded the pop side of the music industry and going beside a huge entertainment icon, MTV Philippines, by releasing the printed version, MTV Ink. It was a powerhouse cast with writers coming from PULP and Philippine Star, like Igan D’Bayan of Philippine Star’s Audiosyncrasy; Palanca award winner and book writer Luis Katigbak (known for the book, Happy Endings under UP Press, which hatefully ran out of printing just when I learned of this great book); Clarissa “Conch” Concio who holds the Managing Editor post and doubles as a guitarist for the band  Olympic Smoker; graphic artist Guadakomeda of Team Manila; Bernie Sim, former Art Editor of The LaSallian, DLSU-Manila’s student publication and now one-half of Electrolychee along with Marcus Nada, both also contributors of Ang Ink or Illustrador ng Kabataan, an organization devoted to illustrating for children’s books–all of them and so much more. They dominated the field by coming up with the craziest stories and in-your-face commentaries versus fanatics, plus a different attack on articles. They also started the long newspaper-height format in magazines, a fad which is being adapted by some magazines today.

What made Kf famous is something a lot has tried to pull off but failed miserably: a cynicism better than anybody’s, wit challenging the worst artists and much more the better ones, and that she was brave to explore things that hasn’t been done by most, all the while smiling and enjoying the ride. She has established herself by fearlessly pioneering movements, leaving a significant trail in the arts.

In 2005, I was informed by Bernie (while conveniently in a cr in an on going electronica event in 2005’s Fete De La Musique, Ortigas) that Kf would be leaving the EIC post and go on a hiatus to focus on her then involvement with Masters in Creative Writing under University of the Philippines. I was shocked, of course; and although it was easy to accept that it would be for her betterment, after all Kf was into literature as well, but it was hard to imagine Ink without her. Soon after her leave, Ink lasted only a few issues, then finally sold its last issue in late 2005.

It was hard to catch Kf after that. although she has contributed to a lot of publications (summit media publishings like Mega, Pen and Ink and other online magazines), the only staple magazine which kept on coming out with her name was Pulp, but with the magazine experiencing being tagged as a glossy living for advertisements, it was hard to buy the mag without a prejudice.
So imagine my delight when, albeit like I said it was rather discomforting to be seen buying a mag with Nina and Christian Bautista’s faces pasted on the front, I was able to purchase the magyesterday, and now I have not not gotten enough of it yet. It comes with a cd supposedly hosted by Zach Lucero (and this I have to view immediately after I come home this weekend), and though its cover’s a glossy, the pages are reminiscent of MTV Ink: a little rough, but amazing blend on the colors. Sad part of course, is that it gets you with its familiarity faster than you can say “MTV Ink”: The wit is the same, the writers on board have half of the other Ink graduates, and layout is Ink crammed into a regular-sized (is it A3 or A4?) Mag. But hey, as long as Kristine Fonacier and her humor is back. I’m alright again.

So check it on your nearest news stands. Burn Magazine, a monthly publication, est P120 per printing. They would have an official launch over at Mall of Asia’s Music Hall, on September 28th, 6pm. Lots of Bands, with freebies to boot. Let’s celebrate another creation of geniuses and wish it more years to come.
 

Thailand’s PM ousted in military coup

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060919/ap_on_re_as/thailand

I wonder what’s up on the government of Thailand. I don’t have much news about it now, since my dad used to be updated with stuff like that then.

But I remember how we went to Thailand circa 1995 (or was it 1996?) and how people are crazy over their king. Apparently he was tagged as a very sincere person and has brought so much strength to Thailand over his reign. They were in fact scared of the heir–his eldest son–whose reputation is far from the father’s genuine kindness.

I remember how my mum told me her experience about this chambermaid who always came to pick up the laundry and clean up the room. She would always come in 8am promptly, and would clean everything without much question. But my mum noticed how the maid would always make a face whenever she would give a tip. She thought maybe it was because she was giving tips too low. Finally, sometime on the week before we left, she gave her again her usual tip, but this time, she’s not showing an angry face anymore. Then my mum noticed that what she gave, for the first time, was a crisp bill. It was then that she came to a conclusion that they loved their king so much that they didn’t like even their money crumpled because of the king’s beloved face printed on paper.

Imagine that. If such loyalty can be aroused, it must mean that the king must be compassionate enough to win their hearts.

++++++++

David Michael William Moffatt was already gay when he was a kid. I knew that. But he was cute. so our lives moved on.

A few years of prepubescence later, I was so right. Although shocked. Because he’s gay, alright, but still oh so yummy.

Dang it.

I’m sorry, my dear brother, but he looks like you. Yes, he’s the cute guy in…is that floral? shirt in the middle, sandwiched by the two abhorring druggists and a ghastly looking guy, extreme left. They all look like they needed proper food, proper clothing, and proper bath.

In short, dugyot.

In all fairness to Dave, he braved the world despite his status then; which, if you’re going to think about it, isn’t too glamorous especially if you’re being chased around by prepubescent girls and prepubescent gay kids. If they can’t make a song popular, might as well make yourself popular for being true. Oh well.

Anyhow, as for the other brothers, the two as we all know has an album which turned out to be Thailand based, that being it was never released in the US and Canada. The eldest is braving a solo album which promises of a distinctly Scott Moffatt tune. Yech. It’s the comeback of the chipmunk with facial hair.

So anyhow, I’m happy for him. As much as I’m happy for Lance Bass who might be the first gay on the moon, and Stephen Gately, who doesn’t exist anymore, and even that Westlife guy whom I don’t even know what his name is. I’m happy for all of you. Now at least donate some of your genes to make the world look a little more physically acceptable. Thanks.