Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Yehey!!! ayan po, due to insisting public demand nakapagpost na po ako! super pressure nga e! hehehe! joke lang po! thanks to selena for the invitation!
i have so many things i want to share especially what happened to me ngaung 2005!
i made a list para mas malinaw!!!

- i got kicked out from Tether pagpasok pa lang ng taon! ewan ko ba?! Gago kc ako e!dba Dens!?, but the good thing is Ok na ulit kami ngaun! im glad kc naayos na nila ung internal problem ulit nila!stick together na kayo ulit mga Bakla ha! hehehe!

- nakipag break sa akin si Stella!!! wuhuhuhu! but its ok! kasi may Deanna naman pumalit e at mas loving and understanding kesa sa dati ko! Asus!

- Stella!!! nasan ka na? are you still alive? or pretending that you're Alive? Wake up my dear!

- umalis ako sa isa pang band ko, ung Philippine VAHOlators! nakakairita na kasi e! lagi akong tinatanong kung mga kasing tanda ko daw ung mga kaband mates ko dun! EXCUSE ME noh bata pa po ako!!!

- Allan hooked me up sa Superminty, isa lang ang masasabi ko! SWABE! my dreams of perfoming at UP fair and 70's Bistro finally came true! Dahil sa bandang ito! at ang pinaka malupit dito ay kabanda ko si PAPA CHArLES na i found out na super lakas palang kumain!!! hehehe!!!

- And finally, CANDYAUDIOLINE abducted me!!!hehehe! my utopian dream finally came true! the truth is kapag tinatanong sa akin ng mga friends ko kung ano yung name na bagong banda ko, ill say Candyaudioline!, then it followed by saying, "alam mo ba pangarap kong banda yung"!(kilos na parang nakikipag tsismisan!) SIPSIP NOH! Nyahahaha!

- super dami ng GIGS! Sarap!

- laging umaga na umuuwi kahit na nakakapagod, super enjoy naman!..ngaun napatunayan ko na, na ang pagkain sa madaling araw ay ang pinaka mabisang paraan ng pagpapataba! Nyahahahaha!dba Dens?!

- i gained weight... yes Ayn, tumaba na po ako sa lagay na'to!!! sabi mo kasi payat ako e!hehehe!

- sana din po kapag may band photo na ilalagay ulit dito s blog e nakikita na po ako. HUHUHU!!!

- SALAMAT PO NG MARAMI SA PAGTITIWALA SA KAKAYAHAN KO!

- I LOVE THIS BAND!!!

*nga pala, last BUZZNIGHT was the BEST BUZZNIGHT i ever experienced!but the sad part is di nakapunta yung girlfriend ko! wahahaha!!!
* thanks to Allan and Selena!

Monday, May 30, 2005

it went well... did it?

the rains didn't stop this month's buzz night from happenning last saturday. inspite of angus' "no show" and guilty feeling for not being able to attend to sir dave marshall (he's in search some local "indiepop" releases), i can say that last saturday's buzz night was quite a pleasant one indeed. it started a bit late "blame it on the rain"...

i was planning to make candyaudioline do two sets just to kick things off. it's a good thing that children of eden (they've changed their name to something like... i forgot) asked me if they could go first. i agreed without hesitation. musically they are good and most of the tunes they played were quite interesting save for the singer's delivery of the songs. if they really want to be a part of buzz night, i suggest that they listen to some "real indie/alternative" girl fronted bands and take note of how most of the vocalists do their singing. there are lots to choose from. "belly", "breeders" or "veruca salt" is a good way to start. or they could even try "velocity girl", "heavenly" and "liz phair". better yet, try female brit bands "elastica", "sleeper" or "echobelly". by the way, they also did a pixies cover "gigantic".

sunsetdrive followed. they're a four peice unit once more. i noticed they sound much heavier than before. great performance from these guys save from some amp related problems that ekong encountered.

we/candyaudioline followed next. i can say we did quite well. we decided to do a covers thing just to erase the fuck up we did during that 4AD thing. every song was executed to near perfection but what made me so proud that night was when we played "all smiles/can't sleep" that WAS vintage candyaudioline stuff - punked-out-gorgeously-melodic-girl/boy harmonies that rocks "IF IT WANTS TO".

populardays came next and with the help from tether's beejay who decided to play bass for the "posterboys" at the last minute, dazzled us with their brand of "englishness". more british (and hair) than oranges and lemons. they are even more wild swans than the wild swans themselves. want proof? listen to the song "watch out for me" a song about wanting while waiting... "ah prei to gaud teeooo woouch yew awt" (i pray to god to watch you out)... aaahh haaa aaah aaa

tether followed shortly after. as usual, another great set from them. the future of buzz night now. they are close to being everything... they can make you want to dance, they rock! at times shoegazey. all in all, the are wickedly CUTE!

i went out during poopoovox's set to attend to dave marshall but by that time, he was about to leave. that's when people started to go out of mayrics. friends of papa erik were selling us loads of cds. during that moment i saw charles and dennis fooling around to the point wherein charles lifted dennis and they did this chopper dance. it was such a funny sight to see. after that i decided to watch poopoovox. musically, they are great. they've improved a lot since the first time i let them play in my other production "in beTWEEn days". the only problem with them is the way the singer sings... MACHOCORE!!! hope to see more favorable changes from these guys soon...

the whole thing ended at around 1:35am. very early for a buzz night gig. as usual we proceeded to mr. kabab for our usual bonding session with new found friend ian (dennis' alledged boyfriend) while charles and dennis continued their "asaran" which is actually on it's 4th day already... we all decided to call it a day at around 4:15am...

_____________________

quotes from people who matters...

paano mo ba malalaman kung busog ka na? 'pag ang tiyan mo ay sing tigas ng iyong nuo, cgurado, busog ka na... dennis (tether / candyaudioline)

aah basta!!! mukha kang bulate!!!... chrales (populardays / superminty / soft pillow kisses)

Sunday, May 29, 2005

May's Buzz Night

Hi. Buzz Night went really well last night. There were only about 6 bands to play and the show went smoothly. We decided to play our 4AD covers last night just to have fun with them a little more, so we only played 3 (actually, 4) originals. However, 2 of them were "can't sleep" and "all smiles" so it was pretty refreshing to do some old stuff :)


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there are more pics here. was able to catch all of the bands... though i'm not really good at camera angles, so they all pretty much look the same hehehe.

i'm kind of sleepy, so i hope the others can talk about buzz night more.

Friday, May 27, 2005

about failure and playing for the crowd...

the origin of failure...

text conversation between me and candyaudiodennis' bandmate Ian.

Ian: chong musta? meron ka bang "failure"
Allan: dati meron pero wala na eh.
Ian: anung nangyari?
Allan: sinwap ko yata... d ko na matandaan...
Ian: anu ba tunog nila?
Allan: para silang mas mabigat na "fretblanket".
Ian: sori ha, d ko pa nadidinig yung "fretblanket" eh...
Allan: okey, cge, parang ganito yun, isipin mo m,as mabigat na first album ng "ned's atomic dustbin" na mas macho ang boses...
Ian: ah... okey! ganun pala ang "failure"

as for the "playing for the crown thing", sa akin nalang yun... playing the covers was not a part of playing for the crowd issue because it was a requirement to which i agreed upon acceptance of the invitation to play for the said event... my idea at first was to do an indierock set pero di nangyari yun. pumayag nalang ako sa idea na dapat yung mga songs eh babagay sa occassion save for the "my bloody valentine" cover which i planned to introduce to the crowd as ("parang ganito talaga kami") kung di lang tayo (ako in particular) naging sobrang uncomfortable at conscious dahil na rin sa pagka-sintunado ng guitar ko at nipis ng tunog na naririnig ko.

yun lang yun...

Buzznight Tomorrow

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last wednesday

yeah... i thought "failure" was an extreme word to use for the gig. for one thing, di naman tayo uber nagkalat kasi matino pa naman yung lumabas at di naman tayo napahiya (in a technical sense). whatever the crowd thought (which i think was ok, since some people did approach us and say we had a great set), they were receptive in any case, and I think we weren't really playing for the crowd, but were just satisfied that they weren't heckling us and were just giving us a fair listen, and this kept us going. that's not bad at all.

i had been expecting a better gig because our practices were almost perfect and i was super confident about us doing a fantastic job... up until 2 hours before the show, when i started to want to throw up. maybe the combination of fatigue and nerves (because of the new place) got to me. basta, other than that, i thought we'd do great. but things happened and we didn't do as well as expected--- still, i thought it was a success. we did learn 3 new songs (in a really short time!) and we got to break them in last time. there's nowhere to go from here but up.

That 4AD Thing

Medio 'di ko na-gets yung "playing for the crowd" part, considering na "most-telling" pa 'yon so I should know. Exactly how were we playing for others?

Is it because we played 4AD stuff and the gig is a 4AD Tribute (of sorts)? Hindi siguro 'yon kasi we've known that already since you accepted the invitation to play there. Plus, we've been wanting to do more covers for the longest time and the gig was more of an excuse for us to really work on them.

Maybe it was more of the amps playing for the crowd since they didn't want to cooperate with us when we wanted to turn up the volume. Err.. or something. Basta malabo yung statement na we weren't playing for ourselves.

And candyaudioline "tarpaulin"??? Ha??? Protective material? Labo, Allan.

I do agree that our set didn't turn out like what we were aiming for. Aside from the bad sound system and equipment (guitar amp nga ata yung ginagamit ko that night eh), there were some mishaps and technical glitches here and there. However, I do not agree in practicing for a toned down set when we were slated for a full-band set-up. The organizers know very well that we play shoegaze and we needed volume to achieve whatever kind of sound we needed for our songs (including the covers). We shouldn't be the ones figuring this one out.

Anyhow, my only comfort is the fact that there were some people who thought that we did great. The problem is, I don't know if it's because: (a) they don't really have an idea on what songs we were covering; (b) they were just too drunk to notice the glitches; (c) they were just being polite; or (d) they were being sincere.

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Assuring myself that everything was going on just fine.

Basta... for sure, better set na this coming BUZZNITE. Speaking of which, I repost...

BUZZNITE
May 28, 2005; Mayric's

we're in for another night of great music at mayrics. slated to perform are the "confused shogazers" candyaudioline, the "new wave-ish dreampopstars" populardays, "EMOtionally charged post punk band" sunsetdrive and the "danceable indie-guitar-rockers" tether. also in the line-up are "balik buzz night band" children of eden and "geek rock darlings" angus...entrance is only PhP100.00 and this gets you 1 free beer...

To TETHER: Kelangan niyo ng saklay??? 'di niyo na kailangan pang tumingin sa malayo ;)

Angus... just remembered. I had Angus beef (rib-eyed) last night for dinner... muy delicioso!

Buzz Night This Saturday May 28 @ Mayrics... Candyaudioline, Populardays, Tether, Sunsetdrive...

Hello everyone,it's buzz night this saturday and we're in for another night of great music at mayrics. slated to perform are the "confused shogazers" candyaudioline, the "new wave-ish dreampopstars" populardays, "EMOtionally charged post punk band" sunsetdrive and the "dancable indie-guitar-rockers" tether. also in the line-up are "balik buzz night band" children of eden and "geek rock darlings" angus...entrance is only PhP100.00 and this gets you 1 free beer...

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Failure...

me and my bandmates agree that we didn't do well last night during our set at Saguijo... there are three factors that i blame for our failure to execute the songs properly. first one is our heavy reliance on volume. saguijo is not the type of place wherein you could abuse your thirst for volume. that really caught us off guard... we had to keep our levels down and in the process, taking away the punch in our attack leaving us at a loss. altough the people there received us warmly. we ourself can't deny the fact that the practice session that we had all came to waste... if only we had practiced the songs in an almost toned down manner... another factor is that my guitar kept going out of tune... i should have been the one who could've dictated the pace and manner of our execution but instead focused all my attenion to my out of tune guitar. the third and most telling of the factors is that we "played for the crowd". we somewhat forgot that we were suppose to play for ourselves. oh well, tapos na yun... bawi nalang sa buzz night. at least i'm happy for my bandmates because inspite of our mediocre performance, i can see that they were all having a good time exccept for me and selena. it was a realisation for dennis, an awakenning for kiel, for ayn it was like in the early days wherein we go to a gig and there are lots of familiar faces and close friends to chat with. me and selena did enjoy too but fatigue caught up with her while me on the other hand felt cheated by circumstances that i am supposedly a master of...

enough of that... it was nice seeing old faces again. thanks to roel for being a good sport. also to gizelle and viks for the "pangungulit", to dott for inviting us and to chris for the 4ad-ish candyaudioline tarpoline. also, thanks to the crowd inside the venue and those outside for the support and applause. to papa eric: yung treebound story ha!!!

i really miss that type of atmosphere during buzz nights. hope that someday, if not by me, buzz nights will again realise what it has accomplished a few years back and become a much better vehicle / venue for truly challenging musical artist...

my hats-off to "an Elysium"...

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

looking forward...

the last practice that we had was quite an enjoyable one... i was a bit surprised at the fast and easy pace of the entire proceedings. the songs became so easy that the thrill of playing them tonight seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. i'm speaking for myself, don't know about my bandmates but all of a sudden, i don't have anything to look foward to... maybe i'm just disturbed by the fact that i won't be able to go to the gig at an earlier time because of a work related thing that i have to particpate in before going to the gig. another reason is that two of the covers have been played by another band of mine 4 years ago ("time thief" and "wave of mutilation") i wish we had more time to prepare for the gig so that we could add more covers. i really like to do a cover of Lush's "superblast", Spoonfed Hybrid's "heaven's knot" and "chlorine dream" by Spirea X. all of a sudden, i'm openning myself to adding cover songs in our sets... hopefully it's just a phase that i'm going thru... i really prefer my own stuff over other band's songs how every great they are.

i hope everything goes well tonight, if not, there's still buzz night. maybe by that time my bandmates will be more confident in executing the cover songs.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Time Thief

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Re: our gig tomorrow night.

Monday, May 23, 2005

hard at work

the band has been very hard at work learning new songs. we practiced for a rough total of 10 hours this weekend alone, and we may clock in a few more tomorrow night. but the amazing thing is that, in just that time, our bandmates have been able to master (well, not exactly, but very very close) 3 very difficult songs. i was really impressed with them when i left practice this morning at around 1am. they kept practicing though.

we've been working very hard and i really feel it will all pay off at tomorrow's gig. we're ready.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

star wars and buzz night...

hello everyone!

one week to go before buzz night and i still haven't got a line-up to show for this month's installment... as usual expect the regulars like candyaudioline, tether, populardays and sunsetdrive to play next week... other bands i have in mind are einstein chakras and another band who's name escapes me at the moment... i was also planning to include in soft pillow kisses in the line-up but as of now, i still have no vocalist available although i have a session bassist on standby... let's just see if soft pillow kisses will make it this month...

last night candyaudioline less kiel watched the "star wars" movie. i'm not sure about my bandmates but i actually like it. there were so many breath taking action scenes that my moment of sleepiness suddenly escaped me... i enjoyed the scene wherein obi wan was riding this lizard like creature. it's movements reminded me of my short-lived pet scorpion named "dennis" that selena made me throw away somewhere in the "longness" (kahabaan) of araneta ave... this movie also made me and my bandmate dennis realise / believe that vader and freddie from friday the 13th are one and the same... also it stengthened my theory that master jedi yoda and that creepy character from tales from the crypt are one. although my other study shows that yoda did sidelined as chucky (the scary doll not the fried chicken mascot) during luke skywalker's weening period.

after the movie, we took selena home while the rest of us (me, ayn and dennis) made tambay in one of QC's hottest night spot... (hulaan nyo) cge na nga, sasabihin ko na. we made tambay sa my aberdeen court. this place was so full of cheapness, cheap beer, cheap softdrinks, cheap siomais that actually taste good, cheap girls (pick-up spot for pick-up girls) and even the ambiance was so cheap... there we talked about a lot of things like how god was created by man after many images, we talked about blue collar people like carpenters and painters, we talked about withdrawals and premature ejaculations and that a few drops of semmen could spell the difference between the spelling america and africa. we talked about the harshness of life and that saints are but saints and that the halo around their head is the sum of what actually is inside their heads. ( the last sentence was what was going through my mind while ayn was talking about rome). we also learned a lot about dennis. they also learned a few about me although i forgot to tell them that i am "batman"...

speaking of batman, we saw the preview of the F4 (as in fantastic 4) movie and for that, i just can't wait for it to come out... oh well, that's about it... i will leave you a quote from one dream i had recently, it ain't original so here it goes...

"with great power comes a higher electric bill"... who am i? "may we FORCE it in you"

Friday, May 20, 2005

Upcoming gig at Saguijo

Candyaudioline will be playing at 4AD Night this May 25th at Saguijo Bar on Guijo St., Makati City. We and other local bands will be covering songs from bands under the 4AD label (pixies, pale saints, the breeders, belly, etc.).

We were supposed to practice last night but Allan called it off so he and Dennis could figure out how to play the songs we were going to do. It's also a chance for us to augment our cover list, which is now composed of just MBV's "Nothing Much To Lose". We're planning to try studying 4 songs and then doing what we've learned by Wednesday on 4AD Night. Hehe.

Let's Go Disco!

Congratulations on your maiden post, Dennis! Ezekiel nalang. What is it with drummers not being able to post an entry? Kahit one-liner lang. :)

The gig at Cavite was a blast. Had fun going on the road with everyone. You guys should have danced. Teehee. Subsequent gigs were okay too. Though I wish Allan could be more "strategic" in scheduling us. You know. ;)

Allan and I bonded 'til sunrise, after the last gig, at his house. Been wanting to eat at Marlett's after years of not eating there. Sana next time cumpleto na.

Signing out.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Welcome Dennis!!!

ayos ka talaga... ikaw talaga ang hari ng kainan. biruin mo, unang post mo pa lang tip agad sa pagkain...

to everyone, si dennis nga pala ang bago naming gitarista malupit yan mag-gitara wala nga lang sa itstura... kilala yan sa maraming aliases eg. mulamon, boy abunda, wally, snuffalapagus, mini-me and christian (to mayshelle)... maliit lang yan mga 5'5" pero apetite yan pang 7'5"... d bale dennis, lamang naman sa iyo si charles ng isang itlog eh kaya sya pa rin and pinaka matakaw sa tropa.

marami daw ang nagmamahal dyan kay dennis pero alam ko isa lang ang nagmamay-ari sa puso niya. ito ay wala nang iba kundi and rice. ito lang ang nakakapagdala ng "close-up smile" sa mukha ni dennis. to quote him, "allan, aanuhin ko ang dalawang order ng liempo from andok's kung wala rin lang kanin"... tama nga naman sya... ang disiplina na ipinamamalas ni dennis patungkol sa pagkain ay maihahalintulad sas disiplinang iniuukol ng mga samurai, shogun at mga ninja sa kanikanilang field of martial arts.

yan si dennis... bow...

pagkain na naman!

ang tindi mo naman, dennis, tungkol sa pagkain pa talaga yung una mong post dito haha!

pero oks lang yan. welcome to the blog! :D i'm so glad you'll be able to post here from now on. for the first time in the blog's history, kumpleto yung members ng banda na member sa blog. let's hope kiel will start posting soon...

yay!

Praktis lng..

ehehe..mukhang masya to thanx kay Selena anu bng sasabihin ko ahhmmm..masarap pa lng gawing torta ang pancit canton wla n kc makaen pra maiba naman di ko alam kung gagana tong post ko na ito kc sbi ni Selena mag post daw ako d2 testing lng tignan ko kung gagana nga ahhmm..cge n testing lng to..nkakatuwa cguro kung makikita ko n to pag nag online ako cge n nga uwi nko merienda naman ako

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Stormy Weather

"it is time... it is time... for stormy weather" so goes and old Pixies song...

june is fast approaching and rains accompanied by really scary electrical storms have been happenning during the past few days... i really hate electrical storms. it takes out the man in me (Nyaaeeh!!!) like the one we had last night. good thing that my tired sleepy self prevailed over my fear... in short, tinulugan ko nalang...

candyaudioline might be in for some stormy weather with ayn deciding to accept a MULTI-THOUSAND PESO deal at a _____ located somewhere in hush outskirts of Fairview... "3 months lang naman yun eh" according to her... same as the number of months duration of our rainy season... Ayos talaga itong si ayn, di lang goth, environmental pa... mahilig yan sa mga puno eh lalu na pag bushy (hoy ayn! huwag ka muna mag-react, alalahain mo, nag-bonding tayo nung isang araw over liempo and half of "catch me if you can")... as usual wala akong pwedeng gawin kundi maghanap nanaman ng sessionistang bassist na pwede nyang awayin (hehehe). d ko naman kayang mag-counter sa offer ng ____ kasi d naman ako ganun kayaman... Ayn, bigyan mo nalang kami ng 15% ng 15th at end of the month pay mo para masaya... buti pa mga kabanda ko, pera lumalapit samantalang ako taga-tapon lang ng pera. hay buhay ng naman... cge ayn tanggapin mo na yan... sayang din naman kasi aside from it being "a real job" you'll be earning decent sums of money. d tulad sa candy "my silverchair" at "an empty you" lang ang kaligayahan mo. try ko nalang kumuha ng mga weekend gigs para maka-play ka pa rin pero baka ako naman ang wala...

on the lighter side of things, may cellphone na yung bago naming gitarista (dennis a.k.a. mulams) kaya yung mga girls dyan... iwasan nyo sya... yung bago naming drummer na si kiel eh mahina pala kumain pag busog... si ayn naman may bagong _______, si selena takot sa scorpion (naitapon ko tuloy yung newly acquired as in "pulot" na scorpion named dennis somewhere sa kahabaan ng araneta ave kagabi) ako naman ay may nabiling shorts sa bambang kahapon 50 pesos lang... baka si charles / joel muna ang mga session as bassist whenever ayn's unavailable...

"perfection is so hard to achieve once you get to be perfect" --- allan montero

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

So where were we?

Anyway, at around 5:30 or 6 pm, Allan finally finished all his chores and we got in Ayn’s van and sped off to coastal road. We passed Binondo, which sucked because there was a traffic jam and I was so hungry and the guys needed to pee. Fortunately, Beejay was with us and he kept making wisecracks that entertained us on the ride. A particularly funny conversation revolved around circumcision. Allan saw a signboard saying the prices for different “cuts” and he called our attention to it. And I said, “Ano ba yung german cut? Is there really a difference?” And so, Beejay attempted to explain to us females the differences between various circumcision styles. We laughed so hard because his descriptions were pretty graphic, and I can only remember words he used like “pukpok” and “namumulaklak” and “extra” and me learning what “bolitas” were. Ayn said it wasn’t enough for them to explain, she wanted the three guys in the back to compare and contrast! Laugh fest!

(Incidentally, they refused to add visual aids, despite heavy pressure.)

Finally, we reached the area near the bay where the SM mall was and we drove though a Jollibee for some eats. Aw man. That torpedo was good. I could think again! Good thing we ate, too, because it took us an hour more to find Cavite City! We got lost once we hit Cavite and we were in Kawit, feeling frustrated. I said, “Nasaan na ba tayo?” when we suddenly passed this really old-looking house. “Is that—Is that?---“

“Oo! Yung bahay ni Aguinaldo!” Ayn squealed. Both of us squealed.

“Wow! Wooowww… diyan nangyari yung independence chuvahhh…”

“Oo nga… Allan, Allan! Stopover tayo!”

“Heh.”

Finally, after asking for directions, we arrived at Padi’s Point. They actually set up a concert-style stage in their garden that also ate up part of the street, so it was more than your usual band gig event. Evidently, Cavite loved its Kamikazee. When we were shown up to the loft, we were really impressed with the Zen-like décor, complete with low tables and cushions on the floor. It really made us relax after our uncomfortable trip. We all kind of lay down on the floor in various places around the room. I tried to get some shut-eye while waiting for our food. And when it came, I was suddenly very awake… they had ordered a special inihaw smorgasbord, which afterwards, left us with overly full bellies and the urge to puke. Bleeaaghhgh.

We were also kind of nervous before our set. I don’t know why. Anyway, we tried to relax some more while some local bands played. The band who played before us had a girl vocalist, so I felt better, and they were kind of ok… if they had twee-ish keyboards, they’re songs would be pretty decent.

So it was our turn. Well, I’m always at a loss when I get to this part because sets are sets are sets most of the time, and I run out of things to say about them these days. This one was definitely better than Rajah Sulayman in terms of performance. Everyone did well. We played about 6 songs, but they were all safe, so it was fair. I mean, I know I was nervous, but the whole thing seemed kind of given already just because our safe songs are pretty straightforward and relatively many people will like them anyway, just because they’re heavy. I mean, would the same number of people like “You” or “Pretend We’re Smart” or “Can’t Sleep” right away? So, sometimes for me, it can become rote, somewhat… and maybe that’s the reason I can’t write extensively about our actual sets when I post about gigs we’ve had recently. Once, after reading one of my recent entries, Allan said, “Eh hindi ka naman nagsulat tungkol sa tugtog mismo,” and I said, “Ewan ko… wala akong maisip eh. Kayo na lang.” Tapos ngayon (as in this moment) ko lang naisip na baka ito pala yung rason. But Saturday night was ok. We did well and it was fun to play out of town again. The crowd was receptive and the people at Padi’s Point were very solicitous.

The ride home was quiet because people were tired and sleepy. Or were we quiet? I couldn’t really tell because I put my mp3 player on and i can’t really remember if we were talking or not. Anyway, they dropped me off at home and I think the guys got off at Cubao and Allan at Teacher’s Village because he had to meet Moonstar for their weekend Vigan trip.

+++

About last night

We had a semi-impromptu gig at Mayric’s last night fronting for Moonstar and Kamikazee. Ayn graciously picked me up early and we listened to some semi-feminist discussion on the radio in the van (I say “semi” because, although I’ve no doubt that the resource person was sincere and a pioneer of Philippine feminism, her historical facts were sketchy and not very enlightening about the Filipina’s plight {nothing we hadn’t spouted ourselves as female pseudo-intellectual college students before}… I was looking for more meat in the discussion and more credibility, plus the interviewer sounded a bit ditzy).

Anyway, we were at Mayric’s early so I decided to order food because I was hungry again!! Hmm, hungry all the time, sleepy all the time, dizzy spells… tsk, tsk, tsk! So I waited and waited and fidgeted and my breaded porkchop was nowhere to be seen. I started to annoy my seatmates (Ayn, Roel and B) with my whining and grumbling about my food. Then when I asked for it, they told me that they had given it to Backbeat Lorenz and he had eaten it! Agh! I was going nuts. As I’ve said before, I can’t think when I’m hungry. So I ordered it again and when it finally came thirty minutes later, I was the happiest formerly-very-disgruntled kid in town.

It took a while before our set because there were a lot of front acts aside from us. Finally, we took the stage with “Better View”, “we’ve Been There”, “Felt So Fine” and “Something Wrong.” It wasn’t a perfect set, but I had a good time, just because Mayric’s seems a lot like home these days. I’m glad we played “Something Wrong”, even if (to me) it sounded a bit off--- dunno if it was me or dennis’ off-kilter guitar effects. But it was a risk and it was good. I hope we can review more of the old stuff so we introduce more variety in our sets. One of things I’ve always loved about this band is its versatility in sound, though we’ve probably not had the opportunity to showcase that in this past year due to different circumstances.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Padi's, Cavite City

Aba, oo nga ano? Ang tanga ko. Dun nga pala sa Cavite yung venue for the declaration of our independence. How could I have missed thatlast entry when I said Cavite didn't have any famous landmarks?

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ayn picked me up pretty early and we arrived at Allan's by 4:30pm. Joey was actually there... he was watching this weird Japanese film called "Gozu" while Allan took a bath. A few minutes later, Dennis, then Kiel, arrived and we were all set to go--- except that Allan had to wait for some business calls. So we ended up watching even more of that weird movie.

Oops. Uwian na. Tapusin ko na lang next time.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Cavite Historical Landmarks

I believe Cavite was one of the top sites where Spaniards performed executions. The First Philippine Republic was born there too. Aside from the Aguinaldo and Bonifacio houses/shrines, there are several battle sites related to the 1896 Bloody Revolution. If I'm not mistaken, the three priests (GomBurZa) were also executed in Cavite by means of garrote. Hmmm... what else? If you liked Casa de Manila (across the San Agustin Church) in Intramuros, the House of Tirona would be interesting. I'm not sure if the cathedrals/churches there are interesting enough.

I bet it would be worth it if we can all leave Manila at an earlier time so we can spend more time to go sight-seeing and educate ourselves with some history. I mean, traveling to Cavite just to play for a gig won't make this trip any different from our usual gigs here in Manila, so we might as well visit the historical landmarks. Am I right, or am I right?

Allan, the van's stereo is working. But you would have to wrestle with me to get to the disc player. Bwahahahaha!

out of town

yeah, i'm really excited about tomorrow, too. it's the first gig out of town we've had since subic (backbeat thing, april 2003). isn't there anything to do in cavite city? can't we go earlier? :)

haha. for all i know, things may be boring when we get there. i mean, we don't have much money and, as far as i can tell, cavite city doesn't have any famous landmarks, so we can't do any history lesson-ish things ;) when can we have a subic gig again, i wonder?

uy dennis, balita ko naka-walong rice kayo kagabi kina allan! 8 cups of rice??? where do you put it all??

Thursday, May 12, 2005

"why baby why..."

for those who know, the title i used for my entry is actually a title of an aiseler set song... but that song has nothing to do with what i am writing... or maybe it does...

seems that the sun has been shining for candyaudioline these past couple of weeks... a number of really great gigs topped by the last one just this past monday at mayrics. we are really looking forward to this saturday's gig at padi's cavite city... i'm really looking forward to sharing with the people there our music... it's a "ROck Country" according the branch manager so we'll show them another aspect of rock music that they've yet to hear... if we fail, there are countless of excuses to our advantage... one such is that "they are not yet ready for this kind of music", also we can say that "we're too loud for them"... yet another is "they don't like us because we lack SHOWMANSHIP"... the one i'm looking forward to is this "that band ain't rock, they lack HAIR"... oh well what's important is we get to play outside manila (it's been a long time since candyaudioline played an out of town gig), actually, it's the first time for this line-up. syempre bonding din yan... and what's great about out-of-town gig is the "byahe" part... it's a 2 hour trip... sana gumana yung stereo ng van ni ayn... also i'm looking forward to the food that will be served hehehe...

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by the way, selena has been sick for the past few days, hopefully its nothing serious. i'm really worried about her... and i miss her so much...


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guilty feelings have been bugging me since candyaudioline successfully undergone another transformation. i think that it has affected the line-up of another band although the members involved assured me that i've nothing to worry about and that what has been hapenning to them recently was "a long time coming". hopefully, things get straighten up soon for them...

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Belated Happy Birthday (May 11) Ralph...

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Huff and Puff for Nothing


Ayn to Selena: "If this doesn't work, at least I can tell myself that I tried and I can sleep soundly at night." Turns out there was nothing to work on, in the first place. Ha ha.

Great gig last night, guys ;)

great mayric's set

i wish allan could post about this one.

just came home from our gig and it was a blast. we did really well and i think people enjoyed it, too. i know i have to wake up in 4 hours but i think i deserve to gloat hehe. besides, i have to upload pics.
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roel was with us. i'm glad we're still friends. we talked and goofed around.
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anyway, guys, please talk about the gig.

oh yeah, i'd like to welcome kiel to the blog! hi! post ka na! dennis will be joining us soon :)

Monday, May 09, 2005

A New-er Template

Ha ha.

Selena's "Simple II" was too bland for me... so I opted to change the template again into this. I was thinking of downloading a template outside of blogger so this site won't be limited to the ones offered here. But I still need to figure out how to work that. I did mention before that I don't know shit about computers, right?

Now, if only Selena could bring back the tagboard and recent customizations.

City Jam and Rajah Sulayman Park

Last Friday, Allan planned a practice for us. We met Ayn at Jollibee Kamias and then proceeded to Sam’s. It was there that Allan told us that we’d be playing at City Jam that same night! Well, we already had our safe songs lined up, so it wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Allan asked me to play the guitar first because he was feeling lazy, and I asked the others what we should practice first. Ayn said we should try “broken to pieces” and we did. Dennis and Kiel knew enough to get by. Allan said we should continue practicing it and he started tweaking the guitar and drum lines. When we got our polished version down pat, he took the guitar and suggested we do our “today” cover again. It was really fun to go back to that song and try to remember what we used to do on it. We didn’t realize that it was already 11 pm and so we had to cut the fun short and rush to City Jam. It was great to jam again and try to improve the songs. We hope we can do this more often, especially since Ayn is having some good-but-challenging changes in her life that will enable us to be more active.

I was really nervous about the City Jam gig because I doubted it would be able to withstand our volume. I remember from the times we used to hang out there that it was a really small place and so was the stage. Some friends were there, which was a pleasant surprise, but I kept worrying about our set. Finally, we played. I had to stand in front because we all couldn’t fit on the stage. It was a good set.

Afterwards, we enjoyed the rest of the night, watching Popo’s band Gish and meeting new people.

+++

The next day we had a 3-song set at Rajah Sulayman Park. We picked up Allan at his house before going to the Park for the gig, which turned out to be a free concert sponsored by SK. They treated us well, giving us food and a small, but appreciated, honorarium and even printed out certificates of appreciation for the bands. Mostly, the other bands were fellow unknowns who played different genres. Call time was 8 o’clock, which we thought was early because we thought we were supposed to play by 11, but the program went by rapidly and before we knew it, the organizers were panicking because none of the bands were complete yet. They were threatening to cut latecomers completely out of the program. So we were worried because Dennis hadn’t arrived yet—apparently, he had been given the wrong directions and had to walk all the way from CCP. Poor guy. Next time, we have to remember to let him hitch with us!

We were the 4th or 5th band to play. It was a very good sound system and Allan had asked the sound guy to record our set and Tether’s. I got off to a shaky start with “Better View”, I think because I suddenly realized how big the crowd was and so I sang the wrong words to the first stanza, then I realized I was wrong and my voice went too high on “don’t you appreciate the way that I have given myself to you,” and I was so horrified, but I looked back at Allan who gave me this dirty/amused look and so I couldn’t help laughing into the microphone, hehehe. But after that, the rest of the set went really well. Allan listened to the tape last night and he said we sounded good except that he and I were flat and sharp, respectively, on “An Empty You.” But I don’t think anyone else noticed it.

Joel also played bass for a band called Misua, and they played My Vitriol covers (I wouldn’t know, though, this is just what Dennis told me). I thought their set was really good, but the crowd thinned out by that time. Poopoo Vox also played and I must say that they’ve improved again… maybe they really weren’t themselves the last time I heard them. They were good, but I would like them better if the vocals were a bit more relaxed.

Kiel also sessioned for the Philippine Violators and they reminded me of Einstein Chakras. Wish those guys can play this coming Buzz Night, which is on the 28th. Tether also played. They had a really good set, too, and I love how they made that last song kind of dance-y.

Lastly, Kiel’s other band, Sick Pig, played and they drew the crowds back with their hardcore stuff. He played well during their songs and Ayn even didn’t know it was Kiel while she was watching them. Ayos talaga tong si Kiel… shoegaze na, punk pa, hardcore pa! he must have been really exhausted afterwards.

Charles had arrived earlier in the night so we wanted to have a band meal at Mister Kebab, but Tether had some internal problems that needed to be discussed, so it was only Allan, me, Charles and Ayn. We chanced on some ox brain.

+++

Upcoming Gigs:

Tonight – Mayric’s
May 14 – Padi’s Point, Cavite City
May 28 – Buzz Night, Mayric’s

new template again

hi. candyaudioline has been pretty active this past weekend, and i'll be sharing more of that later.

tonight, we might play at mayric's. so if you'll be in the area, please drop by.

also, i've changed the template again because that last one was pretty buggy. this will do for now.

Friday, May 06, 2005

TO JOEL OF TETHER

I can only post so much at the tagboard so I'm posting here--where I should really be posting.

So again... I post stuff here at candyaudioline's blog precisely because THIS IS MY BAND'S BLOG. And that means that I can post anything I want here as long as it is related to my own band and my own affairs. I do have a choice as to wherever I would want to vent out my frustration/s that is/are related to me and my band.

Since you admitted your own fault, I'm accepting your apology but you can't dictate on me. Far as I know, I've not misplaced anything.

About thanking you-- we have thanked you enough. And in more ways than one.

I didn't talk to you about it at Allan's get-together because I was pre-occupied with other things that I'd rather be minding about, at the time. In case you didn't notice it, I think my bandmate was clear about that on her post (re: fiesta).

Nope, I was not frustrated about you filling in for me and lending me your bass. As a matter of fact, I DISTINCTLY remember thanking you every gig and my bandmates have thanked you as well. What else do you want? Would you like us to give in to your every beck and call?

I was frustrated over the fact that somebody wanted to assume my position without me even knowing about it.

If you are grammatically challenged, that is no longer my problem. I only mind about things the way I understood them. It's up to you to explain your side.

But frankly, you have to do better than that.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

practice sa makati?

monday night, allan texted that we were to practice at 6 underground in makati, probably because sam's and alberto's would be full or maybe because jerome was manning the place and he wanted to try it out. the problem was that we were all in different parts of the city and would have to coordinate with each other and meet up without getting lost. good luck.

i was in boni at the time, so i said i'd meet them all in makati... maybe even make it easier for them and go to greenbelt (which is near legazpi village, final destination). sure, they said, we'll pick you up there. ayn was meeting everyone else in mayric's before that.

so i walked. greenbelt looks very pretty on non-gimik nights. finally, i found a starbucks at greenbelt 1 paseo and settled in for what i thought would be a half-hour wait.

1 hour later, they were still at mayric's, i was sleepy and the batteries of my mp3 player had run out. great. should have brought work with me. they texted that they were in makati, but they didn't know where to go next. i gave them directions and thought i'd wait in the street for them so i could just hop in the van and we'd all speed off to practice. we were very late.

20 minutes later (after making a few wrong turns) allan and the gang picked me up before a maniacal DOM expat could and we promptly got lost in the "jungles" of legazpi village. the fact that ayn was about to pee in her pants didn't help to calm us down, and i think allan was going nuts with all our hollering and more wrong turns.

through some miracle (and an illegal left on a one-way street), we finally found the street and saw jerome trudging in the dark, waiting for us. so we screeched to a halt behind him and ayn and i jumped out.

"hindi pa dito. dun pa," he said, motioning to what seemed very far away. "park niyo dun."

"hindi na kaya! kelangan ng cr!" so we girls ran as fast as we could behind him, while the guys laughed and followed us with the van.

when everything was ready, we all realized that we didn't have a bass guitar. also, ayn had told her driver to go home already.

the solution was to go to sam's and hope for an open studio.

on the way, charles and allan had a taxi war.

we practiced at sam's.

then they ate at marlett's.

Monday, May 02, 2005

i'm awake too early

this is weird. me actually posting at home on a monday morning. it's weird because i usually want to avoid the computer when i'm away from work... there's lots of things i'd rather do than stare at a computer screen for another hour. but i guess the 3-day weekend has given me enough space to bear this little posting. i figured that, since i'm up early to transcribe an interview and i have to use the pc anyway, i might as well do a little posting.

allan and i had a couple of discussions about music the other night on our way to malate. (by the way, we have a gig there on the 7th, somewhere near aristocrat, but i don't know exactly where yet). i was telling him about this scene i watched in a TV show set in the 60's where the guy was lambasting the girl's pop favorites ("hey la, hey la my boyfriend's back" stuff) against his supposedly more intelligent bob dylan ("jingle jangle morning" stuff). and I remembered someone's comment a few months back in buzz night about our (collectively) music being intelligent pop. there's a conflict of interests right there... most of our music is influenced by the pop sensibilities of the lambasted favorites. then again, many fave artists have adopted dylan-esque drunken mumbling for their songs, too. anyway, allan and i were discussing that scene. he a basically said that the intelligence lies in how people realize the relationships between all these genres and how they've evolved as reactions to the previous ones. i agree... and i think what makes people stupid is the desire to close themselves off to another human being and his preferences just because they think they're in the right. hehe ang labo ng connection ko.

hindi basta... gets ko. history is important. hehe. sabi pala ni allan sakin... hindi na siya masyadong naeexcite pag nagdidiscuss kami ng music kasi mission accomplished na siya sakin on influencing me. hinihintay na lang niyang magnext level ako by researching artists on my own and discovering them for myself. hmm... i've always been so lazy when it comes to that. kaya nga stuck ako sa mainstream for the longest time. parang di ako makaexpend ng effort na i-deepen yung musical tastes ko, aside from maybe looking for more access to the stuff i already like (such as going on launchcast for indie faves and downloading lyrics). as he said, mababaw pa nga ako. well, maybe in time...

shet. tinatamad na akong magtranscribe. i don't want to think about video decoder chips this morning :(

Sunday, May 01, 2005

hay nakoh ;P

O sige, aaminin ko na. Hindi ko na pinursigeng basahin yung link. So hindi ko alam kung ano exactly yung pinost galing sa blog natin. Tinatamad na ako. At pagod nako sa away sobra. Ano, babasahin ko na naman yung ibat-ibang taong hindi ko kilala na insultohin ako at ang mga kaibigan ko, ni hindi man nila pa ako nakakausap? Nge no. Been there, done that. I don't need to agitate myself anymore than I have to. I have bigger problems. Anyway, the issue is that the guy got pissed because of us. Fine.

Kung tungkol to sa huling post namin ni Ayn, ikeclear ko lang na 100% nun ay inside joke ng banda at ng mga kaibigan namin. Wala dun ay pambabastos sa kahalagahan ng May 1 o sa mga pinapaglaban ng Wuds. Kung nabastos man yung nagsulat... sori na lang siya, dahil walang kinalaman dun talaga yung nasulat namin nung huling post. It so happened na May 1 ngayon at fiesta kina Allan... and that's all that we were writing about. Too bad.

Now, if it's about the way I reacted to the audience one time we had a gig with the Wuds, oks lang. Wala naman akong paki. E sa di niyo kami nagustuhan. Ako, di ko naman type yung lahat ng banda na tumutugtog na napapanood ko pero di ko naman sila hineheckle. So ok nako dun... masaya na ako sa sarili ko. Kung di niyo kami gusto... sus... para namang napakalaking bagay nun. O baka kayo yung nasa Mayric's na tinapunan ko ng pinagsinghan kong tissue paper nung isang gig...? ;P

"Elephantiasis band"? Natawa ako dun at naawa ako kasi napaka banong hirit. Parang... nge. Sige. Sa mataba kami. Sa kamukha ko si Cris Villongco at si Matet (that only affirms what 10,000 people before this guy have said to me). Sa di ako magaling kumanta at di ako rinig. Alam ko na yun, no. Matagal na. Sa ganun magsulat ng kanta si Allan. Sa ganun kalakas namin gustong magpatunog. Sa yun ang trip namin. Nge. As if magbabago kami dahil lang sa pinost mo sa ibang forum tungkol samin. Marami na kaming nakaaway no. Ultimong sariling kabanda namin inaway kami... ewan ko, siguro ganun kami kasamang tao... feeling ko di naman. Disente pa naman kami, so far. Di mo naman kami kilala talaga, so di ka rin makakahusga, whatever politics you uphold. Di mo ako kilala, tsong.

On that note... hehe, wala na. Nagulat lang ako na may nagbabasa pa pala nito outside of our clannish, incestuous Buzz Night group. Tsaka, oo nga... nakakatawa na nagresearch pa talaga tong taong to ng mga masasamang sinabi natin. Mas masaya kasi siya sigurong nagiinternet na lang at maghanap ng mga away na ganyan kesa maglakad sa kalye. Pero ewan... di ko rin naman siya kilala eh! HAH!

Know your Enemy

"first up was that “elephantiasis” band who had eardrum-tearing amps, thus the semi-chris-villonco-semi-matet vox’s voice was out of my hearing capacity, they sucked. Waha! I didn’t understand any of her blabbings. See, I can’t even remember their band’s name. filthy."

There's more from where that came from?

Gee... isn't the forum supposed to be for Wuds only? Yet he managed to diss a band that most probably didn't even give an effin crap about his presence that night? Yeah, his opinion (no matter how out of place) is always welcome and yes not all bands can please everyone but I can't help but find it funny how he claims that the band's name wasn't worth remembering AND YET he took all the time and effort to read the band's blog and one of their member's blog and then copy-paste them at a forum that was not even supposed to be about them. AMAZING!

(I e-mailed the same thing to him)

fiestaahhh! : a dialogue

Selena: We went to Allan's house today because there was a fiesta in his Barangay. Haha! That sounds so crappily conyo. Fuck.

Ayn: Yeah we went to his "barangay." As in. Is there a POBRE written on my forehead?

S: Uhhh... medyo di ko na gets yun hehehe :P Pero yun. Ayn picked me up along the red light district of Quezon City (but it was 2pm in the afternoon, so i guess you could say it was an afternoon delight!YEAH!) and we tried to go along down Quezon Ave to Tondo, but the rallying crowds were blocking the road at Rotonda. (Fuck, that just sounded even more conyo).

A: I arrived at the meeting place thirty minutes earlier than what Selena and I originally planned. So I decided to pass by a wine and liquor shop and got myself a bottle of Heineken (wala kasing san mig don). Funny because I asked for a beer at first and the woman replied, "sorry wine and liquor lang meron kami." Then I found a Heineken in their ref which obviously is beer--to my misfortune, an expensive one at that.... So Selena arrived later at Timog Food Plaza and we're happy... We like getting it on during daytime.

S: Ayn, nagbacktrack tayo. Nung last na line ko, nasa Rotonda na tayo nun tapos bumalik tayong Timog Food Plaza bigla. Hehe. Pero sige. We got to Allan's ok and on time because Ayn's driver, Phoebus, is such a bad ass on the road. So we were really really hungry (and Ayn was really really thirsty, even after the beer), but Allan was half asleep, watching Superchunk videos on DVD and he looked like he was too tired to serve us. So we just sat there and sort of politely waited. But believe me, it took a long time before any of us had the gall to ask for spaghetti...

A: I only wanted beer.

S: Yeah, and she was disappointed for about three hours! No... maybe that's inaccurate... cuz Ayn looked pretty content when we started eating hehehe. But I was ecstatic! Food food food! Yahoo. Anyway, we all started watching Trainspotting before that and we were kind of enjoying even before the food was served. But once the food came food we food had food much food more food fun food. :D

A: Drugs! Drugs! Drugs! Allan is the man, I'm telling yah!

S: *Cluck, cluck, cluck* Ayyyn... you're being inaccurate. you know that Allan is a teetotaler. He just looks like he may have drugs at his personal town fiesta celebration...

A: If attending a fiesta means eating spaghetti and chicken curry inside the living room the whole afternoon--then yeah! we were having a fiesta!

S: I'm sure that's more than most filipinos can get (naks! token social commentary hehe). Anyway, Charles arrived and he finished off a whole... eto na naman, conyotic... bandehado (for lack of a translation!) of spaghetti! Where does he put it all? Later, Ayn started working on her volunteer law work on the computer while we all watched band DVDs. Dennis arrived and ate a surprisingly small amount of food. Joel and William and his girlfriend also arrived and everything was kind of a blur for me after that because the heat was terrible and I was concentrating on watching Sleepy Hollow and waiting for that part where the young Ichabod Crane's mother jumps out of the Iron Maiden (which I never looked at in the 5+ times I'd watched the movie. But I digress)...

A: Anyway.. so Charles looked really hot this afternoon.. I wish he brought me to the bathroom with him. But I digress.

S: OH MY GOD! What a revelation. Well, i think he looked cute, but more of in a puppy dog way because his hair kind of flopped around his face like long floppy ears and he had this "Ahwuhwuh nuhmuhhhnnn!" look on his face. Grabe! Hindi mo pala nakita kanina Ayn...

A: Anong di ko nakita?

S:Yung paalis na tayo... naghihilamos si Charles... Oops. Have to be conyo hehe. Charles was washing his face in the bathroom. You know how kikay he is. Sabi ni Allan, "CHarles!!! Ang tagal mo! Aalis na tayo!" Tapos sumilip si Charles out of the bathroom, tapos... tapos...

A: Was that supposed to make me feel horny?

S: I don't know... Knowing your kicks, it may have! Hehe... anyway, yung itsura niya nung sumilip siya... KAKAIBA! As in naka hairnet siya tapos puro sabon yung mukha niya! Para siyang babae!!!

A: I think I just lost my appetite there... You know, you're the only woman I'd ever want.

S: Naks, Ayn. I'm flattened ;)

A: Yeah, like that man who committed suicide--the one we were talking about just a few hours ago. SPLAT!

S: But we digress.

A: Yeah we digress.

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TATU de mayo uno