Old Entry #7: So What if You're Both Men or Both Women?

Here I am again.  And if you're going to ask why I'm posting an old entry so soon after the last, I'm going to answer anyway so don't go gasping!  The reason is simple:  I just want to.  It's not like the preface text doesn't have any present-time content, so relax!

Well, I danced today.  I had a whole lot of sugar followed by a vehement and oh so scorching series of non-choreographed body movements.  It was a party in every sense of the word.  I was on sabbatical and I never even expected that to happen before February.  Imagine!  It was totally spontaneous and completely awesome!  It was close to perfection!  It was a dance that I could safely say I'm willing to do every single day.  To say that I loved it would be an impertinent understatement.  My gawd!

I never thought my night would recover from what seemed like an apparent hopelessly doomed ending while I was at Victory Hills celebrating the fiesta.  Had it not been for my dogs and the presence of mom's two best friends, I'd have died of boredom.  I mean, hello!  Too much political talk is too much political talk.  Enough said!

Nevertheless, it got an unexpected ending.  Thank the heavens!  Thank fate!

Here's the old entry thingy now.

This was originally posted on Sep 29, '08 2:32 PM on Multiply.com.

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Being raised in a heavily conservative Roman Catholic environment has certainly become a hindrance for homosexual couples.  Don't you think so, too?

Human as they are, members of the LGBT community are capable of genuine love that stretches miles beyond the typical perception of the general public.  They have the same basic needs that every other human being has.  And one of these is to love and be loved in return.

But why do the religious institutions have to smite these gay and lesbian couples when they're just going about their business loving each other?  They aren't harming anyone or anything!  Why does there have to be a predefined bracket for human love?  Why do they (religious institutions) feel that they are obliged to take control over what they perceive to be wrong?  Why can't they just swallow reality?  That they don't really have a say in these things!  That these things really do happen!  And that LOVE drives it as much as heterosexual couples--or possibly even more than them!

Furthermore, why do they insist that God despises these things when, in fact, they are the very institutions telling us that God loves unconditionally?  And God really does love UNCONDITIONALLY!

What an outlook!

My good friend Sr. Sandra Clemente of the Religious Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus once told me:

"When our physical bodies die, God will not ask who and what we loved.  The only question God will ask us is 'how much did you love?'--'gaano ka nagmahal?'"

What about you?  What do you think?

Every Dog Must Have His Day

This candid shot was taken by my cousin last Thursday when we took Janggo for a walk at Plaza Rizal.  I don't know why he didn't watermark his signature on it.

It's a simple shot, but I've somehow derived some sort of story behind it based on the characters.  That girl isn't supposed to be there, but it's a blessing that she is.  It's also perfectly timed that she was caught by the shutter in that sort of sitting position.

The story would have a frame like this: She's my female companion--with me on a date for the first time.  The dog is her own.  She brought it along thinking I'd be happy because I already told her that I love dogs.  Indeed, I was glad.  She initially thought it cute that I was playing with the mutt, but after a while she started feeling less-than-nice.  I chose to ignore her and I played with the dog throughout most of the date.

Well, it's kind of sad on her part, but things like that actually happen in real life.  I'm not saying I'm encouraging such insensitive demeanor.  It's just something I came up with while staring at the photo.  What about you?  What are your ideas?  What story can you make out of it?

Anyway, my cousin has such an awesome eye for beauty.  He loves his camera and I could tell that it loves him, too.  He could highlight vivid emotions from the most ordinary situations without having to make the viewers feel like they're squeezing something for a few drops of art.  He's a true artist in this field, I must say.  He's as awesome a photographer as he is an awesome person.  Moreover, Janggo likes being around him.

So, yes, my dad and Kristine have met him.  He attended that very same day's Theosophical Society study session.  He didn't sponge up at first, but he told me that it became interesting when it all settled down and became at wave with ideas that he was able to relate to.  Nice!

Afterwards came the usual dinner.  And since we didn't have much of a choice.  I mean it was already past 10:00PM when we left the session hall.  We actually ended it at 9:59, so go figure.  We settled for Andok's--the same place he and I ate at two nights prior.  He and Kristine and dad bonded.  There was food and a long clean humorous conversation.  Moments like those define family.

Anyway, I need to go watch DVDs now.  Toodles!

Old Entry #6: The Perpetual Battle Between Originals and Good Covers; Covers Against Other Covers

Well, here's that day, folks!  It's the day I'm going to post another entry to follow the 5th of my Old Entries Series.  How long has it been since the last?  Three months?  Oh, it's been too long!  I know you miss reading about my old self and I know you want to read more.  Strangely enough, so do I.  It's time traveling in a unique and realistic way.

These past few days have been  filled with poetry and what not and I'd like to break away from all that for a while.  I've had an amazing week, to say the least, and my readers probably miss young adult anger so that's just what I'm going to give.  The entry we'll be revisiting is one filled with reckless swear words written by a young man angry at YouTube.  Well, you can't get mad at YouTube--just some of its users, actually.

So, yeah!  Here goes!

This was originally posted on Sep 28, '08 1:10 AM on Multiply.com.

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Imagine:  I go surfing for good Musical theatre videos on YouTube.  I click on something entitled Don't Cry for Me Argentina by Elaine Paige.  I finish watching the video.  I think to myself, "Such amazingly powerful performance," so I scroll down to type my comment but then I get distracted by something that goes, "she's absolute nothing compared to Patti LuPone."

Another scenario.  I post a video of Lea Salonga's version of As If We Never Said Goodbye.  Two days later, I get a comment saying "Elaine Paige is way better than this piece of crap!"








Again with Dreamgirls, I listen to Jennifer Hudson's version of And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, but then some pathetic-lowlife-ne'er-do-well blurts out a big "she sucks compared to Holliday."


Finally, the stroke that pissed me off.  A video of Lea Salonga and Sharon Cuneta's duet of Sana Maulit Muli.  Some a**hole commented, "only an egotistical person like Sharon would think that she is better than Lea."

God!  Some people are just complete idiots!




One, why would Elaine win an Olivier and a SWET if she were nothing compared to Patti?  Come to think about it, LuPone was awarded the role as a worthy performer after Paige had garnered considerable acclaim for Evita.  For that matter, Patti became a legend without trying to bury other performers and demoralize people.  She's a star who got to where she is now by being exceptionally good - certainly without the help of the likes of you!

Two, not considering the fact that Elaine actually held the role of Norma Desmond in Broadway's and The West-End's Sunset Boulevard, we all know Elaine Paige is better than Lea at singing the song since she's been doing it her whole life.  However, Lea's version is not some piece of crap!  As if you commenting could do a-hundredth as good!  Who ever argued that Lea's was best?  Dumba**!

Three, Jennifer Hudson wouldn't be awarded an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe or a SAG if she sucked.  She's got talent that's why she got picked to play the part in the movie, you pinhead commenter.  Yes, Holliday owns the song.  She made a name for herself with that song.  Nobody could do it like her.  Nobody else has the same fire as her when performing the song.  But nobody ever posted in the video blurb saying "Hudson's is indubitably the best version!"

And, please, don't even start talking about Charice Pempengco!

Four, Sharon never said she was better than Lea and Lea never said anything like such either.  Yes, Lea has garnered worldwide acclaim.  She's won a Tony, Olivier, and what have you--but to utter demeaning comments comparing her to Sharon simply because they sang a song together is downright obtuse.  Why can't you just say "I like Lea/Sharon better"?  Or maybe something like "Sharon's/Lea's voice has a better appeal to my ears."  Why do you have to use trashy terms?  Are you as up-there as Leonard Bernstein?

And five, finally, what sort of authority are you to make such remarks, anyway?  Who the f**k do you think you are?  Ryan Cayabyab doesn't even say that!  And if you're a Simon Cowell fan, do a little reality check!  You're not Simon Cowell!  God!  You people really get to my nerves!

If you like an artist, then like him/her!  And if you don't, then by all means don't.  Nobody's forcing you to!  Close the friggin' tab.  You'd do your karmic vibes a little good by doing so.  Go eat a cork like it's a marshmallow, poke your right eyeball with a needle, jump off a window of the 79th floor of some skyscraper, chop your leg off with a spoon or peel off the skin on your face with pieces of a broken incandescent lightbulb!  Don't go demoralizing people just because they don't appeal to you.  Why bother?  Either way, they'll die rich not ever hearing about your names.

So bug off, losers!


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The Bite

You have bitten me,

So hard, so strong,

But it is lucid I see,

That THIS is not wrong.

I ache and I fear,

In utter agony,

For how not it is clear,

The picture I see.

We've treaded THIS lane,

So shortly and tranquil.

And here we've befallen,

On a fate so delightful.

In your thoughts you found jest,

And saw nothing but oddity.

Yet bound we are for the best,

Armed with but passion's fury.

For the eyes of the meager,

What we do is but wicked.

In two ways we beleaguer,

Laws the Fathers alleged.

We fall foul of tradition,

Known since time unknown.

But we move forward and on,

For THIS knows no ration.

I succumb to your bite,

To your potent poison.

You, too, yield to the might,

Of my heady submission.

'tis bumpy our road,

And dangers we face.

For turns shall unfold,

In THIS crazy maze.

Courage be tested,

And strength be maimed.

But as it is said,

The wild can't be tamed.

We shall see how we fare,

In our endeavor.

We face fire for we dare,

But sweetness we shall savor.

So cheers to us two,

As we drown in our space.

We shall walk to and fro,

THIS joyous craze.

You have bitten me,

And I you.

A single destiny,

We have fallen to.

I have hit ground fast,

And hard as hard be.

You have blurred the past,

Now it's just you and me.

My greatest fear is you,

As has always been.

But nothing is more true,

Than what I have seen.

Venom runs in me,

And, in you whom I have wounded.

No wrong can I see,

If with THIS it is founded.

THIS is Life!

THIS is an Offering!

THIS is Vibrant!

THIS is an Embrace.

THIS is it.

Bird

Bird...

You are one of sheer beauty.

I am swooned by your presence.

I need naught know what kind you are,

Or from whence you come.

I, myself, am like you.

I, myself, am a bird, too.

We have so much alike,

Having shared so little.

From that time we met,

'Till the eve that passed.

You are so close to me now.

You're in arm's reach.

Yet I can feel the distance.

Bird...

Why do you clip your wings,

And ask me to clip mine?

I want to fly to your side,

And be with you--just that.

You fear so much,

That you'll fall off.

I know you want to fly,

I can feel your yearning,

I can feel your desire,

I can feel you.

But you fear the branch may,

Not hold both you and I.

Why, Bird, oh why?

Brand New Friend

Yes, this is me.  He took this.

There's this guy...

[Okay, before you freak out and go all what-?-?-?-he's-gonna-talk-about-a-guy-?-?-?, do hear me out!]

So, yes, there's this guy I met online who happens to be my paternal cousin whom I've never personally met (or known of) before January 7th!  We're really good friends now.  He's cool company; what can I say?

It started off with an innocent attempt by him to know if I knew any Quirog from Dimiao.  Well, I had to tell him I knew myself.  "I'm from Dimiao," I replied.  Before I knew it, he was naming my aunts and uncles and my grandparents and, to my surprise, he was calling them all auntie and uncle as well.  It turned out that, to some close degree, we happened to be cousins so we decided to meet that evening at a coffee shop.

We talked and talked and talked about family and life and life and family.  It was like we'd known each other all our lives--and we should have.  We've been family from the very beginning, after all.  He didn't just become my cousin last Friday.  It's not like some other mountain was the tallest before Mt. Everest was discovered by the English scientists.

After coffee, we went to Martin's where we met my very good friend, Bienna, upon whose whim we were tagged along on an impromptu trip to a beach in Panglao Island.  Awesome!  It was because of that trip that I violated my own resolution of sleeping earlier in 2011.  There were 9 of us who boarded Bienna's boyfriend, BJ's van and had ourselves rocket-shuttled right to Libaong beach.  It was an awesome evening!  We all gazed at the stars while drinking ice cold soda and talking senselessly.  Like my friend, Farrah, says, "we all have the right to be shallow sometimes."

We headed home at about 4:00AM and I arrived home at half past that hour.

This is turning out to be a beautiful friendship.  Everything's clean and brotherly and I like it!  He said he'll be joining this Thursday's Theosophical Society study session.  He'll have to meet my father and Kristine.

Well, that's basically all I have to say for now.  I'm pretty sleepy for some reason.  I just came home from dinner and coffee with my father and I'm mysteriously unaffected by what I had just consumed.  This is a good thing, I guess.  He probably cast some sort of go-to-sleep-shortly-after-you-get-home spell.

Bye now.

Weeping for Sufism

Sufism is the inner esoteric dimension of Islam.  This is how peaceful Sūfī are.

Yesterday, I got a very disturbing piece of news from a fellow URI Peace Advocate.  Dave of Global Healing informed us that Sufi Shrines are being attacked in Pakistan by fundamentalist conservative Islam extremists.  He shared a video documentation by the New York Times and I literally wept through it.

What is happening to the world?  Killing has absolutely nothing to do with Islam.  It's supposed to be a peaceful religion, but why are those people doing what they're doing?  Political interests?  Dreams of global control?  World domination?  Terrorism?  Why?  Why??  Why???

I'm very emotional right now and I have the right to be.  Everyone in the world should start giving a damn.  The people who are capable of doing something should start doing something about this!  I can't bear the sight of my Sufi brothers and sisters being slaughtered simply because their beliefs are viewed as threatening to their fellow Muslims.  Take note:  fellow Muslims, of all people.  When is this going to stop?

Let us all direct our energy towards the less-fortunate parts of our world and project healing thoughts for all beings affected.  Let us all do what we can to help.

Hi URI Friends:

The following is a link to a New York Times video on how Sufism is under attack by Islamic militants because they don't believe the right way according to these Muslims.

Also today Foreign Policy magazine identified Pakistan to be the world's greatest terrorist threat, a much great threat than Iran, Afghanistan, or any other nation.

The reason for Pakistan's dubious designation is it's culture of religiously motivated violence that supports blasphemy laws.   

A Governor was just assassinated for opposing the blasphemy laws that are generally used against people of other religions.

We see however that these same people are using their thinking to justify killing other Muslims of the Sufi tradition for not practicing Islam the way they think it should be.

Without a strong enforcement of human rights a culture of religiously motivated violence will be allowed to continue to thrive.

Be Well,

Dave