The past two days have been a sort of productive time for Overtone. We’ve actually worked on two originals without arguing. Last Tuesday the three of us locked ourselves in Jay’s place and arranged the songs.

Attempts at songwriting and arranging have always been a pain with Overtone. We never see eye-to-eye on things. This is how the process normally is:

1. Jay writes song.
2. Jay calls Tito and Frank to come over to help him work on it.
3. Tito and Frank listen to the song.
4. Tito and Frank give their comments and suggestions.
5. Jay rejects comments and suggestions saying he likes the song the way it is already.
6. Frustration settles in with Tito and Frank and ending up just saying “whatever”.
7. Tito and Frank go home not really having worked on a song since the song was already done and their input wasn’t needed.
   

In the last two days everything was different though. Suggestions were listened to and ideas were at the very least tried out. So last night Overtone got into a rehearsal studio and played the songs for the first time with a full setup. We even recorded a demo of the two songs for further study. I hope this is the start of something big for the band.

TITLE: THE HOOK - BLUES TRAVELER

Yesterday was an adventure. Tito picked me up early to head to Raon to look for parts for a project of his. For those of you who don’t know Raon, It’s a street in Quiapo that’s a Mecca for cheap electronics, instruments and little knick-knacks that you wouldn’t find elsewhere normally. Of course there are also a ton of knock-offs that you have to be wary about.

Tito and I drove down to the SM Manila to park. We planned to take the car there and take the LRT. You see, we had no idea how to get to Raon. Well we did ask around and all we were told was to get off at Carriedo station and take a five minute walk. I was confident enough that we’d find it.

We parked and walked to the train. I haven’t taken the LRT in such a long time. Thank God it’s now air conditioned. It didn’t really matter as apparently we would be on only for one stop. As we went down the station, I noticed that we were near the Quiapo church. I was familiar with this area as I was here a few years ago looking for pirated DVDs (which I never found because of a police raid that happened right before I got there). Looking like fish-out-of-water (which can’t be good in that area), Tito and I started walking. They’ve fixed the area up. The main road was now a walkway, complete with their versions of outdoor cafes. Natch we picked up a few snacks to munch on while on our search.

“Which way do we go?” asked Tito. All I could answer was “Left?” Call it divine intervention or the Force but we ended up right at Raon. Raon was busy. Remember what “Diagon Alley” in the Harry Potter movies looked like? It was something like that. We went from shop to shop searching for the parts of Tito’s contraption, most of the time coming to a dead end. All the while I’m looking for a cheap guitar that I might buy. We worked the street and didn’t find anything we needed till we got to the very end. There was this one shop that could build you anything electronic. The walls had shelves full of electronic parts; all were arranged neatly in little drawers (reminds you of the wand shop in Harry Potter). Just tell them what you wanted and they’d put it together. Tito talked to the people there while I wandered around outside.

In the end he just bought some ready made pocket guitar amplifier and I had nothing. We walked back to the LRT station, and did a little search of the shops there. I finally found my pirated DVDs in the back of the mall you pass to get to the train. No wonder people go there for discs. It was three for 100 bucks. How can you resist that? I did. I didn’t find anything I liked. So much for that! I leave Raon/Quiapo empty handed except for waffle dog and a soda. Jay should have been with us. It would be good for his character. Either way it was all in all a good trip. (I did find a guitar I liked though it was back at SM. It was a copy of Tito’s guitar, only at 1/8th the price. I didn’t buy it. I felt stingy.)

TITLE: STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR - U2

I've been partying a little too much these past few days. It goes without saying that when I go to Capone's, I go home with the sun already out.

I've also been drinking a lot. More that I should. Last night I took this "mystery" blue drink that Miks and Nino recommended. Goes down well, tastes good, then BAM! It kicks you in the head then you start staggering. That did me in.

I should control myself. Especially when I'm driving or looking after those I care about. Getting too buzzed leaves me worrying too much about them. Can't be good can it?

Hopefully my control will be better in the following weeks. Don't get me wrong. I totally enjoyed what I've been doing. It's just that I have to learn to have fun at a reduced level of intoxication. Might help reduce the hangovers too.

TITLE: START OF THE BREAKDOWN - TEARS FOR FEARS

This tale begins on a Saturday where Frank wakes up to an empty house. He walks out of his room and looks around and asks “Where is everyone?” He realizes that the long weekend has begun and that his mom and sister are in Laguna; his brother is in Batangas.

“I’m home alone.” He muses but his spirits aren’t dampened. “I’ll just invite people over.” So he texts his friends and plays with his Dreamcast while he waits for replies. Unfortunately the answers he gets are all non-committal. “Oh well, I’ll just tidy my room up.”

Hours pass and boredom sets in. The sun has gone down and in his orange room Frank contemplates on what to do next. He texts his friend Debbie and asks what she’s up to. She replies that she and Cris will be heading to Capone’s later that night and asks if he would like to join them. Frank at first is hesitant since he’s without a car that night and would have to commute.

Debbie on the other hand is excited to go out. She hasn’t been out in a while because she’s been down with a fever. She texts Frank that she’s even picked her outfit out already. As she describes her outfit, Frank is convinced to go.

Frank dresses up and takes a cab to Capone’s. As he gets there he notices nothing happening. He orders a beer and chats the staff up. He then remembers that Debbie and Cris are just walking to Capone’s. Although they’re coming from the pad of Cris which is just five minutes away, he doesn’t feel right that they walk alone. So he texts Debbie and asks if he can walk them over. Instead he’s asked to come up and meet them at the pad.

He’s excited. Frank has never seen Cris’ pad. As he gets up, Cris opens the door for him. He loves the place. Although the common area is still empty, you can see its potential. Her bedroom is a nice cozy place. Cris’ has always had a nice room. Frank has been to her old room and also found it as cozy. The two girls were getting ready so Frank relaxed a while.

The trio now starts moving and walks over to Capone’s. In no time they’re there. They pick out a table that has a good view of the stage, and order drinks. Frank is now just thinking to himself “This afternoon I was bored. Now I’m with two gorgeous ladies.”

Cris asks “Where’s Norby?”

“He’s at home thinking if he’ll come over or not.” Replies Frank. At that moment Cris texts him to come over.

“He’ll get ready.” Says Cris.

That night they were joined by Norby and a few other friends like Margie.

Frank got to play drums too. He was called on stage several times by the band playing. Norby played also. And as was normal for Capone’s, all the festivities ended on Sunday morning with the sun already up.

“I’m hungry!” claims Norby. So Cris, Debbie, Frank and Norby head to the car and head to Rufo’s. They eat breakfast while talking about friends and other thoughts. As they finished the two guys bring the two girls back to Cris’ place.

On the way home, Frank was thinking to himself while smiling “And all this started with me being home alone.”

TITLE: SUNDAY MORNING - MAROON 5

Last Thursday seemed like it would be your typical Yaku night. Artic was again sponsoring us so the crowd got in a little early for the open bar. I hated the first set because of the sound (Jay was too loud). The saving grace was that the audience rocked.

Cris was there to my surprise (Debbie wasn’t as she was still recovering from a fever). We hung out in between the sets and she watched our second set. Normally during the end of the set, we let people get up on stage and jam with us. This time Norby and I felt the urge to use the bathroom so we left Jay onstage. When we came back there were different people on stage. We tried to wrest control of the stage back and succeeded only after a long while.

During that time there was a request for “Body is a Wonderland” which I had Cris play cajon on. She’s good. She got the timing right and was even doing a few fills. There was a request for “Sweet Child of Mine” and Cris was still playing. Since she could hold her own I decided to get a little adventurous. I asked Norby for his guitar and played rhythm while Jay did lead. That was fun. Even after we unplugged Cris was jamming with Jay. She got to play her “recital” piece, “She Will Be Loved”. I was so proud of her.

Time to go home, or so we thought. We all hopped in to Jay’s car with a few more passengers. Cris was with us sitting in the front seat while to our surprise, Mariel rode with Norby and me in the back seat. Mariel was wasted. Cris was snickering all the time. We brought Cris back to her pad and as I was transferring to the front seat, she was asking Norby to. I think Norby was having too much (innocent) fun and decided to stay in the back.

When we left Cris’ place we got a call from Miguel and Tom. The two were drunk and wandering around the Yaku area aimlessly. Being the nice guys we are, we picked them up and took all three to Rufo’s. We sobered them up and brought them home.

I so think Mariel digs Norby (I hope Angel doesn’t read my blog). He denies it of course. Well let’s see what happens next Thursday.

TITLE: CRUISIN' - GWYNETH PALTROW & HUEY LEWIS

The Philippines just celebrated its 59th (correct me if I’m wrong) year of independence last weekend with a holiday mired in corruption charges and rumors of coups. What’s new? In this country it doesn’t matter who sits on the throne; everyone is corrupt.

Now that I’ve given my little political commentary, let’s get to the fun stuff. Because it was a holiday, it was also a long weekend. That just gave me more time to enjoy going out and doing more fun things than talking about our government.

Title: For those of you that don't notice, my posts titles are titles of songs. As a service to music lovers out there, I shall give the name of the artists that performed the mentioned song starting with this post. FREEDOM - GEORGE MICHAEL

I was hanging out with Tito, his two sisters, and his soon-to-be brother-in-law. We were at Shakey’s BF when we started talking about horror movies. I mentioned that I love horror movies and that I wanted to see House of Wax for whatever it’s worth (Paris?).

This got me thinking that horror movies these days are nothing like the old stuff. Hollywood seems to revel in the slasher/gore flicks these days that most Americans seem to like more. These films lean towards grossing the viewer out instead of actually messing with their minds.

These days it’s the Asian horror titles that I like such as Ringu (which Hollywood bastardized with their version) and The Eye (similar to the Sixth Sense but scarier). These movies present to you a possibility of the situations happening in real life; that when you leave the theater you have yourself looking over your shoulder all the time. You start to wonder about all the little noises you hear in the middle of the night. This for me makes a good horror movie. Older Hollywood horrors used to be like that.

Let me leave you with a few scary films I recommend you see, preferably alone, and in the dark.

• Ringu
• The Eye
• The Changeling
• Pet Sematary
• The Salem's Lot mini-series from 1979
  

I....can't....think....having....hard....time....
getting....thoughts....and....sentences....
together....just....one....of....those....
days....I....guess.