good, better, best ... and the part I hate

The good news is that ****** ****** is out of the picture.

Even better news is that next time tobacco companies will probably think twice when they try to push the limits of the law again. It happened with the Alicia Keys concert in Indonesia, it happened with the E-heads concert in the Philippines. They are not invincible, not with their deception, not with their lobbying.

The best news is that THE CONCERT OF THE YEAR is pushing through!!!* I feel exactly the way i felt when I heard Sting was playing in Manila. And I was in high school then. All I got was a Sting fan souvenir (which btw, I kept for years) and well, images of the man shirtless and oh-so-hot under the red light. It still haunts me to this day! Remember those giddy days, R? The E-heads concert makes me feel like a fangirl again.

And the part I hate is that I have a passport but cannot use it! One night only and I'll be stuck in Saigon wishing the whole weekend that I was back in Manila, in the Fort grounds listening to the opening riffs of Alapaap...

My state of mind right now agrees wholeheartedly with "Ang daming bawal sa mundo, sinasakal nila tayo". Gusto mo mag leave, pero di naman pwede!

Can't be all that bad, my optimistic self says. Ill read about it and with my intense imagination, it will feel like I was almost there. Rakenroll!




*If you have to ask "which concert" then you:

1) must be living under a rock. and it doesn't rock.
2) must be a die hard hiphop fan and you think Akon is the bomb
3) must be boy band fan circa 90's, meaning you're still stuck on the Backstreet Boys (I know someone who is)
3) were born in 21st century and too young to know and care about the E-heads. In that case, ask your ate or kuya, or hell, your parents for some rock edu.
4) must be a foreigner who thinks that when we say Eraserheads, we mean the David Lynch movie. Can't say I blame ya!

it's NOT just about the music

Yes, I was one of those people who moved from shock to disbelief to giddiness, when I first heard of the Eraserheads reunion concert. And I had to admit i flitted from getting a booking in cebu pac to checking the website of ****** ******, the supposed sponsor. So they say you have to be a smoker to register, be more than 18 years old, and you have to submit a valid ID. This whole fiasco has a name: viral marketing, or to be really straight about it, it's ****** ******'s way of getting around the Tobacco Regulation Act which bans them from advertising effective July 1st, 2008 (including sponsoring shows among other things).

Not a smokin' idea. While i love the music of the E-heads, let's call a spear a spear: this deal with ****** ****** is a sellout. Helping a tobacco company circumvent the law, allowing them to use your music and stature as one of the legends of Pinoy rock (yes we can call them that) is not acceptable and the E-heads must put themselves above that.

If you are a real E-heads fan, you know that the band is more than just the music. At one point in time, it became bigger than them and they have evolved into the voice of the youth as they spoke so truthfully about growing up in the 90's. The themes weren't new: love, heartbreak, experimentation, awareness of the world (and rebelling against the world), but the E-heads' spin on things was charming, simple, humorous, tongue-in-cheek. And we loved it, we lapped it up like our parents lapped up anything by the Beatles. They can do better than this. In fact I think they should just tell ****** ******, to go f*** off.

***

What's your E-heads story? Everyone has one, something like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I met Ely once in 70's Bistro because he was my papa's friend. I think they were then rehearsing for Beatles Night. I don't really remember much, except that I shook his hand and his hand was just very noticeably soft. Like maybe he lathers lotion on them every night? :) Not typical for a guitar player. Pretty weird because that was such an exciting night for me and all I could remember were Ely's soft hands. I remember though that my papa had only good things to say about him, insisting "maayos si ely, di mayabang." On one of his trips to the states, my papa had asked him to look for a music gadget (i forget what) and he came back buying it for him and refusing to be reimbursed. Perhaps there is a kinship amongst musicians that the more successful ones would help others who were still struggling out there. Or maybe some people as really just nicer than others.

I'd see Ely from time to time, but not in the music scene (one time i saw him in Smart paying for his bill), but I was too shy to approach him and teel him we had met before. If I did I know he'd be gracious. I met Buddy once too and remembered that he was a very down-to-earth guy, makes you feel comfortable and he has none of the "suplado" vibe Ely can sometimes project (even without meaning to).

What's your favorite E-heads song? Let me just say I loved every song in Ultraelectromagneticpop and Circus. My all time faves are "Wag Mo Nang Itanong", "Ang Huling El Bimbo" (classic!), "Ligaya", "Alapaap", "Overdrive", and for some reason "Julie Tearjerky" also get to me. It will be priceless to hear them play again, let the curtain fall properly for this band that shaped the best times of our lives. Maybe that will finally give us closure.

So I really wish somewhere out of the blue, some company would step up and sponsor this instead.

Yes to the reunion, No to the (rumored) sponsor!