Divasoria

(photo c/o Magic Liwanag)

I lived to tell the tale of the very first Wanderland Music and Arts Festival. And what did I think about it? It was not bad at all!

We initially thought it was going to be “Lameway”. Look at the stuff you cannot bring in? SERIOUSLY?!?!?! Being a veteran of the music fest/concert scene for the past uhmm..20 years or so…these rules are like the lamest I’ve seen. like..EVER.

(both photos c/o Kevin Ching)
It was my first time to go to the Circuit and I was pleasantly surprised. The Circuit is the new Ayala development that used to be the old Sta. Ana Race track. The parking looked safe although we felt the guard that welcomed us and asked if we had tickets was a scalper. LOL.

And we had VIP tickets and when we tried to get into the designated parking, the guard again stopped us even if we saw a few empty spaces. Supposedly they were for a VIP – e what do you call these tickets we were holding then? DUH. Anyway, we found a decent spot which was a little farther but we don’t mind. Having survived Coachella(I know right, I’m comparing this with Coachella. You will hear this a lot), the parking here was waaay better.

AND remember the rules? Once we entered the VIP area inside the actual Circuit grounds, they didn’t even check our bags. We could’ve brought in…stuff. HA!

We got to Wanderland at 7ish. Yah, we skipped the whole afternoon because we are no longer in college and we have better things to do like take a nap or workout or do errands. HA! And I honestly didn’t know the other bands. Sorry, can’t waste my time on my precious weekend hanging out during the day time and listening to songs I didn’t really care for. And surprisingly enough, most people my age who went to Wanderland thought of the exact same thing. See the sensibility we develop as we age?

That said, I loved the vibe of the place!!! As expected it was like Coachella-lite. The set-up was pretty good, better than laneway and surprisingly, a lot cleaner! People came around with garbage bags to pick up the trash all through out the day/night. There were also some sponsor booths like keds, rayban, the gap and some bouncy-velcro play thingies.

What I found most amusing were the kids – I think they all crammed for their outfits. Everybody looked like they browsed the Coachella lookbook profusely and then shopped at Cotton On/Forever 21/Topshop/Topman before this weekend. Not dissing the brands as I was wearing a Cotton On top, too..but man, tweens/teens today had a lot of balls compared to my time and there was a prerequisite look:

girls – flower headband, crochet tops/crop tops/bikini tops and short shorts
boys – striped/aztec print tank top and shorts

Oh kids of today! As they say, youth is wasted on the young. Remember the days we had that much energy? Kids, don’t waste it! Once you hit 25, it’s all down hill from there. You barely have enough energy to read emails.

So we happily found a spot where we just sat around and enjoyed the music and the people watching. We also checked out the food scene as we were hungry. We first got a Jamba Juice each because we all needed some sort of boost – immunity, energy and whatever. Seldom do we go out and be up all night. We needed it.

In the VIP section, they were giving away loads of things including some lime-green vodka drink by the Havaianas booth and cups of Captain Morgan and cola. IMHO, both tasted like shit but since it was for free…it was ok. My issue was they were giving the drinks to the minors and some of them were passed out! and alone! I was going on full-on tita mode just to tell those teens that you do not leave a drunk passed out friend alone in the middle of a crowd. That’s just not done! Listen to your Tita Grace!!!

Around 10ish, I started getting peckish and we seriously needed real food. So off we went to the Taters booth(I love taters’ white cheddar popcorn) and Kevin went to get us hotdogs. and they were AWESOME!!! The sausage itself is obviously not some overly red tender juicy variety and it has left me craving for it. I did some googling and it’s from Schmidt’s Gourmet Hotdogs. NOM!

I also heard via twitter that the very cool senator-elect Sonny Angara was in Wanderland and due to public demand, I had my eye out to get a photo with him. And mission accomplished.

I had met the Senator-elect and his wife previously and I follow him on twitter. I find him very nice and his platform convincing enough for me to vote for him and also slightly encourage my friends to pick him as well. So I was thrilled that he got into the top 6! Here is our photo with his wife. Great couple and I feel like there’s a bright future now for the Philippines with all these young and fresh and progressive leaders coming around. I kept on teasing him that he was the hipster senator and he was laughing about it.

I also caught up with my friend KATE! We have a running joke since we both went to Coachella a few years ago and didn’t even see each other. The signal in Indio during the 3-day fest is notoriously bad. So we were both thrilled to see each other here at Wanderland. We needed a photo for posterity’s sake. hehe. Cannot wait for her long-delayed debut album!

But wait, this was all about the music, right?

(photo c/o Jacque De Borja)

Well, honestly? I was not a fan of the headliners although I LOVE local favorite Up Dharma Down, they’re always great to see live. I also caught Nada Surf, Neon Trees and Temper Trap – and among the three, I thought Neon Trees were the best. SO much energy and everybody was just dancing.

Overall, I thought Wanderland 2013 was a good start. Kudos to the producers and promoters, great job on the set-up and the organization of the whole event. We all said that there should be more events like that -laid back, really chill and just fun. My friend Vera and I wished we had something like this when we were kids. We have high hopes for the future of this event and we cannot wait for Wanderland 2014.

So Daft Punk and Phoenix next year? One can dream, right?

Fellow music fans were thrilled to find out about the new Annual Music and Arts Festival in the country called “Wanderland”. Touted to be MNL’s version of Coachella or Glastonbury, this event aims to bring in some of the scene’s most adored musical acts from here and abroad.

For its premiere staging, Karpos Multimedia brings in Temper Trap, Nada Surf, Neon Trees, Avalanche City, Colour Coding, Tully on Tully and my favorite local acts Up Dharma Down, Taken by Cars, to name a few, to perform throughout the day this Saturday, May 18th at the new lifestyle venue Circuit(click the link for the map!).

Tickets start at PhP4800 for the VIP section and due to insistent public demand, Gold section tickets are now sold at PhP3000 (exclusive of ticket service charge). For those who have purchased tickets prior to the price change, Gold tickets will automatically be converted to VIP section tickets.

Aside from seeing the hottest indie rock and indie pop bands, and artists up close, all VIP ticket holders will now have the chance to meet and mingle with some of the festival’s featured bands and performers. Tickets available at Ticketworld, Ticketnet and SM Ticket outlets. Gates open at 11AM.

So bring your hipster on tomorrow and see you there!

On a whim last night, I decided to come up with a mix tape of 90s dance/electronics songs I loved. I was listening to that dance/techno station at the end of the radio dial(107.9, i think) and heard a song sampling Armand Van Helden’s “U Don’t Know Me” and I got majorly excited. In the danger of sounding terribly old but that song was one of THE club anthems of 1999. And boy, do I miss 90s/early 00s clubbing!

So I’ve been listening to a whole lot of dance music from my clubbing years. Yes, kids, Lola Grace used to go to dance clubs and raves back in the day! Webster Hall, Limelight, NYC’s Twilo, etc. Heck, Manila kids, do you remember the Consortiums? Ah yes, those were the days. Anyway, here’s my mix tape:

A little cliche, but who cares? Anybody who spent their young adulthood in the 90s/early 00s will agree that they cannot not dance when a Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers song is playing. I was going to add “better off alone” or something as cheesy as that song but it just didn’t sound right – I could not finish listening to that Alice Deejay club anthem in its entirety at this day and age. I guess it didn’t hold up as well as these songs.

Here’s a link to the mix tape. Enjoy! Music is a gift!

I almost peed in my pants when I first saw tweets regarding Bloc Party’s concert here in Manila! See, I haven’t been my usual music-lover self. Maybe it comes with age or something, I now prioritize rest/sleep and health over gigs or concerts. The last concert I saw was..hold your breath…NKOTBSB. LOL! That said, 2013 has been a good start with music-related activities especially with Stars(which BTW was an awesome concert!) and now..Bloc Party!

I was lucky enough to have been invited by Warner Music Philippines to be part of a conference call with Bloc Party’s drummer Matt Tong. The band was in the thick of touring in Dublin supporting their current album “Four”. This current release comes after quite a hiatus and is very much anticipated.

During the call, Matt and the motley crew of music press and bloggers talked about touring, BP’s writing and recording process, among other things and here’s a short excerpt:

Question:How did the long hiatus between “Intimacy” and “Four” influence your band/music?

Matt: It’s been very good for the band because we matured during those couple of years because we learned to value being in the band and playing together. Although the break, didn’t influence the way “Four” ended up sounding although that said, it turned out to be more of a “band-centric” record as opposed to “Intimacy” which was very much more studio and programming involved.

Q:What would be your writing and recording process for “Four”?

M: We probably spent a month writing songs. And then when we felt like we were ready to rehearse and record, we spent two weeks just playing the songs over and over again with our producer Alex Newport. This is where we discuss and debated over how each song should sound and Alex really made us think through what we really wanted from the whole album.

He would really sit us down and made us decide if certain parts were necessary or not. And that part of the process, pre-production was something we haven’t done before so by the time we were in the studio, we knew our roles which were pretty well defined on each song and it became very easy to get going once we started recording.

Q:Many people call your new album as your most honest record with “zero manipulation”, so how does it feel like being back to home base with just the four of you writing songs?

M: I think it was really liberating, we didn’t have a huge array of equipment to hide behind. There was also nothing to prevent us from asking questions and it made it easy for us to communicate what we were thinking.

Q:How do you prepare to record and to perform live especially with the amount of actual physical activity you do specifically in songs from “Silent Alarm” and “Intimacy”

M: While you’re on tour, it’s hard to be picky with what you eat but I try to eat a lot of Japanese food, a lot of fish. I try to stay away from carbohydrates particularly potatoes because they make you feel lethargic. In terms of exercise, I don’t particularly do a lot but I try to swim whenever I can. When I’m home, I try to practice the whole set list just to keep me sharp and maintain a level of performance. I don’t drink a lot either especially now I’m in my 30s but half an hour before the show, I drink a strong cup of coffee and do some stretches.

Q: If you had to make a mix tape to someone who doesn’t know anything about Bloc Party, what three songs would you put in first and why?

M: I think I’d put the first one as “Pioneers” from our first record since “Silent Arm”, whether we like it or not, is still considered as our defining album in our canon of recordings and it is still the one that people most refer to whenever I meet them. “Pioneers” sums up all the ideas in one song, and it represents that record and it represents us as a band.

I’d probably also include two extreme ends of our canon of songs- I’d put “Mercury” in there which is a song I’m most proud of. It used a lot of programming and is one of our less “indie rock” sounding songs. I still think it sounds interesting and it’s kind of a weird song. I’d also include a song from “Four” which represents our live performance like “Coliseum” and it also shows a more aggressive side of the band.

*****

Bloc Party will head on over to our shores this March 22nd 8PM at the World Trade Center. Tickets are available at Ticketnet’s hotline 02-911-5555 or online.

i am an NKOTB fanatic. there. i said it!

right before i got into nirvana, pearl jam and sonic youth, i was into the new kids on the block. if you were born between the years of 1976-1981 and went to an all-girls’ school, you were bound to have had an NKOTB phase. anybody who says otherwise is a COMPLETE LIAR. it was inescapable for my generation of girls.

the topic of discussion would always involve who was the cutest new kid and who was your favorite. most girls were either for jordan or joey, the more adventurous ones would take donnie or jonathan. the one who chose danny didn’t exactly have any other choice

i’ve always been the joey mcintyre girl- he was the youngest in the group and had the prettiest big blue eyes and cutest curly brown hair. totally adorable! interestingly, most of my crushes from that period were a filipino-mestizo derivative of joey mcintyre. LOL.

one of the biggest reasons why i liked NKOTB is that their style was pretty street – they wore leather jackets and ripped jeans. and they were “tough” (yes, hence hangin’ tough!). i probably spent a good fraction of my allowance on buying BOP and tigerbeat covers of NKOTB. any mention of NKOTB on those magazines, i needed to have it.

this whole thing happened between the ages of 11-12. NKOTB came to the philippines for a concert in 1992. by that time, i was 13 and i felt i was too cool for NKOTB. plus my chaperone, my older brother, hated NKOTB and thought all of them were gay(note: in fairness, isa lang ang bading. si jonathan knight ).

so when i heard that NKOTB was coming with BSB, i knew i had to watch the concert. and i was glad to find out that a lot of my friends wanted to go as well. i was going with keri.

this is embarrassing but keri and i would sing NKOTB songs in the car in anticipation!

we even planned our outfits

and made posters. i personally had all this bottled up NKOTB fandom that was raring to get out of me since i was 12.

and last night was THE night. and thanks to our beloved benefactor for our tickets. <3

honestly, i didn’t care much about BSB. i was there for NKOTB. and the 20+++year wait did not disappoint! they still looked SO GOOD.

dancing to the right stuff! (yes, i know the steps, ok?)

jordan knight looked REALLY HOT.

joey was cute and still hit his notes <3

but the revelation for me is DONNIE WAHLBERG.

photo courtesy of cuisinera‘s instagram.

photo courtesy of cesmnl‘s instagram

photo courtesy of pam pastor‘s instagram

and lest not forget that DONNIE WAHLBERG HUGGED ME!

that’s me on the left!!! photo courtesy of ryangillego‘s instagram

here’s donnie going towards me!

that’s donnie about to hug me(i know, bad photo! but i was going nuts. SORRY)

and here’s me screaming like an idiot after donnie hugged me. yes, i know it’s a bad photo. pero kebs!

i know, why don’t i talk about the performance? it was AMAZING!!! they sang all my favorite songs. it was such an awesome night filled with warm and fuzzy feelings!! it made every girl i knew feel like they were back to being 12 or 13 probably one of the most memorable concerts of my life! i wanted to give everybody a hug!

NKOTB singing step by step. <3 <3 <3

NKOTB FOR LIFE! HANG TOUGH!

unless indicated, photos courtesy of keri zamora.

(edit)

my friends and i have been obsessively googling nkotb stuff the past few days and sharon sent us this promotional video for the nkotb cruise. and wow. it’s so nakakaloka! like insane! i want to go to one if they have one next year!! AHHH!

woke up yesterday with the news that my favorite beastie boy, adam yauch aka MCA, passed away at age 47 and it made me real sad. to a certain degree, i’m more affected by this than when michael jackson died.

beastie boys and their music were something i learned to love when i was in high school. i distinctly remember my friend jon, one of my pop culture soulmates in high school(RIP jon), tried to do skateboarding tricks(operative word:TRY) while hanging out in pisay’s front lobby and listening to the beasties’ ill communication.

if you guys knew jon and knew how the pisay front lobby looked like in the 90s, you have an idea of how ridiculous this activity was. i practically peed in my school girl uniform whenever this happened.i also associate beastie and sabotage with lino cayetano? i know weird. did he sing sabotage while hanging out in UP D? who knows. and i remember beastie boys blowing the fuse of araneta when they were here with foo fighters and sonic youth for MTV’s alternative nation tour. all those moments distinctly defined beastie boys and their spirit for me – loud, young, cool, quirky, crazy, adventurous and fun.

with MCA’s death, the news slaps you back to reality and to our mortality. he died of cancer at 47. the antithesis of what beastie boys was for most of us. f*ck cancer.

ely buendia sums it up in a little tweet of his yesterday -

the only positive thing i can think of after hearing of MCA’s passing is that jon palala and MCA can now party up there.

RIP MCA. no sleep til brooklyn. peace out.

i remember back in january when the first tweets about death cab for cutie coming to manila came out, i just couldn’t believe it.

seriously? death cab? manila? you’ve got to be kidding me.

i guess the news just didn’t sink in until a week ago and i still did not have a ticket. i was thisclose to not seeing them but glad i didn’t miss it.

this is what i call “death cab for pila”. yes, guys, this was the line for the VIP ticketholders. yes, seriously. the line reached from the NBC tent main entrance to almost serendra. it was nuts.

we totally missed the opening act. the VIP area was pretty full and i was pleasantly surprised with the audience. they all seemed like genuine fans and there was such a good vibe and buzz all over the place.

the music playing while waiting for death cab was pretty awesome, too – great mix of ebtg, oasis…and sting. i felt it was very adult contemporary. makes you wonder what kind of demographic they were trying to appeal to..me?(30-something, music-savvy, upwardly-mobile yupster? HA!)

once the opening riffs of a lack of color slowly filled the nbc tent, we knew we were in for a wonderful ride. the setlist was a balanced mix of old and new songs, including “company calls” from “we have the facts and we’re voting yes”. such a treat!

the crowd went a little overboard with the energy though, not entirely a bad thing but my eardrums took quite a beating from all the scream-singing and some poor acoustics. my ears were ringing a good 12 hours, post concert. either it was the acoustics or it’s a sign from God that i might be too old for rock concerts(note to self:buy earplugs).

despite a a bad case of tinnitus, the death cab for cutie concert was a dream! i think i’m still pinching myself until today. did that concert really happen? in my country?

and yes, it did.

hopefully, more acts like death cab come over. death cab today, arcade fire tomorrow? radiohead can’t be too far behind. and yah, there’s morrissey too in may. things are looking up, manila!

i’ve been complaining about the fact that bush is going to open for schlocky naughties rock band evanescence. i don’t even know what kind of music evanescence plays. some sort of emo rock or whatever. i just know their songs are part of the twilight OSTs. (kids, seriously?!??!)

i was asked before if i were a kid today, what would i be into? maybe a little hipstery-angsty. i don’t know. anyway, i digress. bush was part of my youth! at some point, they were one of the biggest bands in the world!

and gavin rossdale..is the hottest guy. like EVER.

evidence #1: gavin rossdale in manila, circa 1997.

(photo taken by juan caguicla)

evidence #2: gavin rossdale with son kingston, december 2011

STILL HOT.

and since i was ranting the whole day on twitter and never really thought he’d mind a little mindless chatter but guess what, he tweeted back.

yep, my 16-year-old self would be mighty proud. this needs to be framed. or something.(i think posting about it on twitter, facebook and my blog is the modern equivalent of framing something )

i spent a little under 48 hours in singapore over the weekend to go to the laneway music festival. initially, i wasn’t really interested in joining another music-centric holiday unless an artist/band made it compelling enough. and when i heard feist was joining this travelling show – I WAS IN.

singapore heat and 14 hours under the sun? You had to dress for comfort. i can’t imagine how people can go all out in that setting.

my initial reaction as soon as i entered fort canning was “THIS IS IT?”. i was probably expecting the expanse that was the california desert similar to Coachella. there were two stages right next to each other so there will be a more efficient transition for the acts – as one performs, the other sets up. smart.

we positioned ourselves strategically under a huge tree with these interesting things hanging on it. the tree provided shade from the southeast asian sun which was scorching that day.

not surprising, there were a battalion of pinoys who travelled to laneway including at least 20 people i know. laneway felt like i was back home hanging out in saguijo or cubao x. so many friends and familiar faces! btw, concert buddies were essential to save your perfect spots so you can take turns to get food, drinks or go to the bathroom.

the crowd was mostly southeast asians but there were a good number of expats and even backpackers who i’ve befriended while waiting in line for drinks (more on that part later). like i told my friend L, asians are mostly more pleasant and less rude than north americans so there weren’t any super annoying confrontations. none of that stampede/crazy moshpit i had to endure before MGMT’s coachella set a few years ago.

loads of people watching and bad tattoos all around. like this one. what was this girl thinking?!?!?!??

aside from the expensive drinks(S$4 for water??!??! S$8 for beer?!?!?) and bad food, the most excruciating part of the laneway experience were the LINES! one hour to get food and one hour to get drinks. such a pain! you had to schedule food/drink buying duties during the acts you’re not exactly hot about. the worst part of the food/drink lines were the very slow concession people.

and don’t get me started on why they didn’t give out the caps for the bottled water.

and for a singapore event, the place was filthy. i could not find trash bins and people just left their rubbish everywhere. you end up sitting on used paper cups and plates. ugh.

but despite all of that, i still had super fun! it was all about the company and of course, the music.

feist was AMAZING!!! my other favorite acts were chairlift, the drums, toro y moi, twin shadow and M83. but feist. sooo good. LOVE!

i sometimes feel like i’m getting too old for these things, but the music and the vibe are just too hard to resist. til the next one!

I was about to write a blog entry on Madonna’s half-time performance and then I realized, what is there more to say that I haven’t said before?

Here’s a piece I wrote for the paper on celebrating Madonna and her influence on girls of my generation.

Celebrating Madonna

When I told my mother I was going to celebrate my 30th birthday in New York City to watch Madonna in concert, all she could do was shake her head and say, “Madonna ruined your life and stole your money.”

I remember the very first time I saw the video of Lucky Star, I was so intrigued by Madonna that I took note of all her videos and dance moves from then on.

I also recall my Tito Eli taking my brother and I to a matinee screening of Desperately Seeking Susan in Manhattan. I was completely blown away, not from the movie’s plot but by Madonna. I was young and impressionable. And I was hooked.

Like most girls of my generation, I was mesmerized by Madonna’s unconventional style: the fingerless gloves, the navel-baring shirts, the armful of bracelets, the forbidden cross—and awed by her unabashed defiance of gender roles. She dressed like a tramp and owned it.

Never have I seen a woman who was powerful, sassy and perverse all at the same time. Madonna made me think that even as a five-year-old I could be any kind of woman I wanted to be.

Unlike her contemporary Michael Jackson whose image was of vulnerability, Madonna’s was of pure control. At 19, she walked away from a prestigious dance scholarship at the University of Michigan and hopped on a plane to New York City. Legend has it, she got in a cab, told the driver to bring her to “where the action is” and was taken to Times Square.

Madonna taunted the world by dancing and singing her way, to proclaiming “You can do anything and be anything. You go, girl!” She predated the notion of girl power and girls gone wild.

Does anyone remember that scene in Desperately Seeking Susan where she washed herself in the restroom at Port Authority and dried her hair and armpits with the wall dryer?

That was badass. She was badass. And part of us, even if we don’t admit to it, wanted to be just like her.

Fans and non-fans alike will agree on one thing, Madonna’s talent is not her singing; it is her ability reinvent herself all these years. I have my personal favorites. I loved her Vogue and Ray of Light phases, and I also have my least favored ones. I felt isolated when she moved to England, put on an accent and wrote children’s books.

Was this Madonna’s way of proving you can have it all—the accent, the husband, the children, the plastic surgery? Her life during that time wasn’t exactly the Madonna I fell in love with when I was five. It was difficult to defend her pretentiousness and audacity to strangers, which I successfully did so (I like to think) even through the “Sex book” phase. Even the Malawian baby-saving Madonna was a turn-off.

The seemingly selfless Madonna hardly inspired feminist fire in me.

Not badass at all.

But on one crisp autumn evening in New York City, watching Madonna live on stage and hearing the roar of the faithful brought me back into the fold again — just like the first time I saw her 25 years ago.

She has been called a bitch, slut, dominatrix, tease, cougar, maneater — almost every degrading insult thrown at a woman. But rather than being swallowed by these harsh words, she simply plays the part with much gusto. The more Madonna evolves and the more she defies age, the more she invokes a feeling of protectiveness and unequivocal loyalty.

As other divas folded, flopped and fizzled, there really is nobody else like Madonna out there. There was Britney, there was Christina and yes, there is Lady Gaga. But if anybody saw that SNL You Tube clip of Madonna vs. Lady Gaga, we all knew who won that catfight.

At 51, Madonna is determined to be a sharp businesswoman with an unsettling yearning to provoke and stay on top.

And contrary to what my mom thinks, Madonna put that spunk in me and I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.

original article posted here.