Livin High and Takin it Easy » music video

Someone Like You

angkulet — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:19:14 +0000

I will always say that Adele is MY artist. Some artists I like, I like because someone introduced it to me, like Jeff Buckley, Maria Mena to name a couple – artists that I came to appreciate and love because I hung out too much at Nick’s place; BUT Adele, is mine.

It was the music video of Chasing Pavements that caught my attention, that made me look for her album in record stores. It was that beautiful voice that on the first words, always made me think of Macy Gray (an absolute favorite of mine), that in turn evoked memories of my days in college and El Nido, which in turn evoked memories associated with Joss Stone. It always was a cascade of memories, deep-seated and quite uncontrollable.

Asked why I had liked that video, its simple but unique. The stop motion part is something I had looked forward to every time.

More than the video, I had loved the song and the lyrics. It had provided the perfect soundtrack to my nomadic life of the years past.

Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste even if I knew my place
Should I leave it there?
Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
I build myself up and fly around in circles
Wait then as my heart drops and my back begins to tingle
Finally could this be it?

And then came her cover of Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love, on which I wrote a short blog entry here back in 2009.

Adele’s 21 album found me in a plane to Chicago, really. I remember sitting on that plane for I think, a 14-hour trip from Shanghai, and watching advertisements on my screen for the release of her second album two days away while I listened to music and sipped glass after glass of milk, which was just about the only thing I could “eat” those days.

And how ironic it is that the entire album was the entire journey, from the very beginning to the very end. Let’s just make it clear, Adele is MY artist.

You know how the time flies
Only yesterday was the time of our lives
We were born and raised in a summer haze
Bound by the surprise of our glory days….

Nothing compares, no worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes, they’re memories made
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Bl@h’s Ipis

angkulet — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:23:45 +0000

This is so far, my favorite Bl@h song, and really, I.do.not.know.why. This song just makes me happy. Maybe it’s all those days I spent chasing after cockroaches in that cockroach-ridden apartment my brother and I shared with an old lady and her grand daughter in Kalayaan Avenue, Quezon City back when I was a freshman in college. All those days I spent chasing after cockroaches not because I wanted to kill them all, but because I needed them, alive and kicking mind you, for my Biology 11 laboratory class. The irony of them cockroaches scampering and flying about when I have no need for them and their being all absent when I needed to catch a bottleful for my cockroach dissection activities. So funny. Loved those days.

I have no hate whatsoever for cockroaches. In fact, I find them intelligent and funny. Yes, the cockroaches will inherit the world after doomsday. It had been foretold, or so I was told.

Kapag ako’y naghuhugas ng pinggan
Ayokong may ipis
Kapag ako’y nagluluto sa kalan
Ayokong may ipis
Gusto ko ay laging malinis
Ang aking paligid
Ayokong may ipis,
Ayokong may nang-iinis
Na-na-na-Nangangamoy
Oh…ang baho ng amoy,
Ganyang ang ipis
Nakakagigil gusto kung patayin
Ang makulit na ipis
Tsinelas ko’y matitikman
Kapag di ka tumigil
Istorbong ipis
Mukha’y di manipis
Pinupuno mo ako ng hinagpis
Ayokong may ipis (3x)

Bl@h was a Bicolano band that rose to fame in the 90s and I was busy hopping and skipping around in those days so as to notice what was playing in the airwaves and had no recollection whatsoever of this music. But I first heard of the band during Wharf Galley’s move from Elias Angeles St. to Avenue Square, and the band’s name kept coming up during random conversations.

It was not until I finally met Wawoo Brendia, who turned out to be the husband of one of my batchmates and friend from high school and had just come home from working abroad, and he brought up the plan of, finally, getting the band together for a reunion concert.

Photo credit: Wally Ocampo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/siwallyni/

Back then, reuniting the band had seemed nearly impossible as the band’s original vocalist, Hammilan Favoreal, has long moved to Manila. Hammilan was to Bl@h as Ely was to Eraserheads. It’s just not the same if it’s not him.

Photo credit: Wally Ocampo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/siwallyni/

Wawoo had given me a copy of the album and I had listened to it every so often. I ended up loving that song, Ipis. It just makes me smile every time I hear it.

So, when the live concert happened, it was truly an amazing experience for me. That band has taken my heart away, as well as this silly, silly song.

I love being silly. I miss being silly. These days I only get to be silly with Lia. Lia and me, we are silly, crazy girls.

I have videos of the gig, videos I don’t know when I’ll be able to post since I will be here in Bicol until the end of the month, where I only have access to the internet through my phone.

Photo credit: Wally Ocampo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/siwallyni/

It was a wonderful gig. Beautiful music. Thank you Bl@h for bringing back the music to your old fans and thank you for making new fans out of people like me. Til next time, whenever that will be.

Links:
Wally Ocampo made a blog on his site about the event. And he has beautiful pictures of it too. Thanks Wally.

Make You Feel My Love

angkulet — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:15:08 +0000

2009 Grammy award-winner Brit singer Adele sings

Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love.

When the rain is blowing in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I could offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows and the stars appear

And there is no one there to dry your tears

I could hold you for a million years

To make you feel my love

I know you haven’t made your mind up yet

But I would never do you wrong

I’ve known it from the moment that we met

No doubt in my mind where you belong

I’d go hungry I’d go black and blue

I’d go crawling down the avenue

No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do

To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on the rolling sea

And on the highway of regret

Though winds of change are throwing wild and free

You ain’t seen nothing like me yet

I could make you happy

Make your dreams come true

Nothing that I wouldn’t do

Go to the ends of the Earth for you

To make you feel my love

Her vocal in the music video is performed entirely live.

***

So I finally have Adele’s album and it is now playing non-stop on my player. I love Adele. Even back when no one else was listening to her songs and the people on the counters at music stores said to me, “Who?!” every time I asked if they had her album. Interestingly, she was preceded by Amy Winehouse on that Grammy Award. I love, love, love Amy Winehouse. Though Ryan used to say to me, “Amy who?!?” Oh well..

Chasing Pavements

angkulet — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:39:49 +0000

I’ve made up my mind,
Don’t need to think it over,
If I’m wrong I am right,
Don’t need to look no further,
This ain’t lust,
I know this is love but,

If I tell the world,
I’ll never say enough,
Cause it was not said to you,
And that’s exactly what I need to do,
If I’m in love with you,

Should I give up,
Or should I just keep chasing pavements?
Even if it leads nowhere,
Or would it be a waste?
Even If I knew my place should I leave it there?
Should I give up,
Or should I just keep chasing pavements?
Even if it leads nowhere

I’d build myself up,
And fly around in circles,
Waiting as my heart drops,
And my back begins to tingle
Finally could this be it

***

Been liking this song for some time now, maybe a year, and I kept looking for it at Powerbooks in Bonifacio High Street but they just didn’t have it.