Ukulele Underground Philippines - Bahay Kubo

It's that time of the year again- all day all night jamming on campus! Yes, it's Magdamagang Pukpukan, and yes, we did a 24 hour marathon because it's our 24th anniversary: 7am Friday until 7am Saturday, and I was present for 19 of the 24 hours!

Crazy right? I've been saying that since our 22nd anniversary but as you can see, crazy doesn't mean impossible. And though I've been consistently against (albeit passively) this incredibly stressful and tiring event, I admit, I've enjoyed it immensely, especially this year! Well maybe because I took a backseat and didn't involve myself much in the organization of this year's MP. Ah, the joys of being an audience member.

I totally fangirled all afternoon during the lecture series (I even have the fangirl photos to prove it!) Joey Ayala was incredibly fun to listen to as always. Eudenice Palaruan made me want to join a choir again, but only under his direction! Heber Bartolome and his band are much too awesome (note to self: learn guitar, attend his songwriting workshops) and last but most definitely not least, and probably the highlight of my day: OMG. JESS SANTIAGO REMEMBERS ME! 

These one sentence summaries do not properly reflect all the feels I had that afternoon; I will have to devote an entirely different journal entry for this or else I'll just go on and on and that part was just 6 of the 24 hours!

The evening was allotted for our guest performers:

The Concert Chorus (and Prof. Jai Aracama's powerful solo!)
Katribu Kolektib
UP Filipiniana,
Margaret of Polecats Manila,
PUP Banda Kawayan,
UP Dance Sport Society, (total win on gender-bender partners! absolutely loved it!)
Fire Flow Artist Resty Yalung,
Kaya Green Band,
SulatKamay,
The UP Repertory Company,
Ciudad Tribu,
Malate Literary Folio,
Ukulele Underground Philippines,
Bunga Arts Link  (documentation purposes, pagbigyan mo na. HAHA)

One of my favorite performances of the night was Ukulele Underground Philippines (UUP)'s interesting version of Bahay Kubo. Without looking at the video description, can you guess the mash-up tune? ;D

Carly Rose Sonenclar - Brokenhearted

Upon hearing "Feeling Good" on my playlist, I suddenly remembered little miss Carly Rose's auditon for X-Factor USA. I only saw that performance on Youtube, and I can still remember how absolutely floored I was with what I heard the second she opened her mouth. I start to wonder, hmm, whatever happened to her? Late in game, I know.

One Google search later, I found out she went pretty far in the competition; dude 1st runner-up! A bajillion Youtube searches later led me from one performance to another and she's always so consistently good! Damn, if only I could have her sense of musicality at that age, and her tooone!

This here particular performance of hers is a easy favorite for me. (it even tops her audition piece! which I so loved.) I have massive respect for singers who write their own songs, but next to that are the singers who can interpret any song into their own. It takes more than just having a new arrangement; we all know that doesn't always work.

Take this one for example. 'Brokenhearted' is a song by Karmin, whose original arrangement is incredibly upbeat and fun. I do enjoy Karmin and all, but even when I first heard it, I was a bit confused with the song. A happy song about a heartache? Bipolar much?

Then I heard THIS. Now this sounds like a broken heart!

In a daze, going crazy, I can barely think 
You're replaying in my brain, find it hard to sleep, 
Waiting for my phone to blow

Bummer the whole song wasn't aired, because I totally prefer this slow version over the original. I did find another youtuber, Michala Todd, covering the entire song in the same style: alternate here! :)

Neil Sedaka - Laughter in The Rain

It's been quite a rainy weekend for me; I thought that leaving Metro Manila for a while I could somehow escape the rain, but apparently the raincloud was bigger than I imagined. It's a full blown storm! I know it's typhoon season and all, but there was just one last week, albeit a quick one, so I didn't really expect another one to come so soon.

Despite the less-than-idyllic weather, I still enjoyed my time in Laguna with my siblings. I sort of regret not doing it more often in the past when both of them we're still in LB. I have yet to explore Calamba! Better late than never I guess.

Sunday morning commenced with a bike ride around the Los Baños campus, which is quite a feat since I have not properly biked in ages! (no, Netherlands didn't count. That was a pathetic attempt.) This only intensifies my desire to buy my own bike soon. *ah priorities, priorities...*

At around lunch, we start to head out back to Manila, and just when we reached Jolibee, BOOM. The clouds just gave up, and that was the last time I saw dry land. The trip itself back wasn't so bad, I passed the time telling my sister all sorts of stories I had about my recent escapade, and amazing she didn't turn deaf because of it.

The journey back to my apartment though, well that's an entirely different story. Let's just say I had quite an adventure, but something I would probably not be stupid enough to try again, er.. under the same circumstances. You have to understand that I reeeeeally don't like gloomy rainy weather. I could change my mind about it if I were in the rural provinces, but definitely not in the city. I'm probably one of those who suffer S.A.D.

*This is getting longer than expected!* Long story short, on the jeepney ride back to Philcoa, a familiar tune starts to play on the radio. I couldn't put my finger on the song, but when it got to the chorus, I was so singing along. It was a jazzy female cover of Laughter In The Rain, which definitely put a smile on my face. I'd usually hear melancholic songs associated with the rain, so this was a nice happy change and good vibe to all the gloom Maring brought in.

And it's about time I featured Neil Sedaka on this blog!   

Oo, how I love the rainy days
And the happy way I feel inside

Excellent RnB cover!

If I could steal one final glance, one final step, one final dance with him
I’d play a song that would never, ever end
‘Cause I’d love, love, love to dance with my father again.

JImmy Fallon, Robin Thicke, The Roots - Blurred Lines

The first time I encountered this song was with this fun cover on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. I really liked how the song goes, as it's quite fun and catchy. I proceeded to listen to the studio version on Soundcloud and it's been endlessly on repeat.

After further googling, I saw that the song is stirring up quite a controversy. I didn't really understand why until I saw the music video. I admit, I was taken aback when I first saw the uncensored video for this song. Naked women and fully clothed men: I was ready to call out bullshit, sexism and female objectification.

But as the video progressed, I got over the nakedness of these girls and I realized, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would go. They were simply walking around, and well randomly dancing and having a bit of fun. There was no humping, and hardly any touching, nor any overtly sexual dancing or gestures. They weren't even fawning over the guys like they were gods. Sometimes it even seemed like the guys didn't exist to them. The brunette was being pretty goofy actually.

Sure there were things in the MV that I objected to, though I honestly think it wasn't as horrid as people have put it out to be, yet neither did I think highly of it. But was it the most sexist and degrading thing i've ever seen? No. I felt offended by a lot worst. (Bubble Butt is horrible.) I actually had more issues with the censored version. To compensate for the not being nude anymore, the girls were seemingly trying harder to be sexy.

What I do note about this whole thing was that they definitely wanted to be talked about. I don't for one minute believe that they didn't expect so much backlash and angry comments or reviews about the naked girls. They knew they'd elicit such a reaction. So for them to argue back that they trying to 'empower' women with a music video like that is laughable. Yeah right. They should have been naked along with the girls too. But I doubt the guys would have looked half appealing. Yeah, just go hide yourselves in your suits. 

But the point is, do the music the exact same way, and it probably wouldn't have stirred up so much attention. It was the people's reaction to nakedness. It shouldn't matter whether these girls are naked or fully clothed. Being barenaked shouldn't be something degrading.

Though for others, it wasn't necessarily the music they took offense with, but the content of the song itself. To me this was a just silly song, even to the singers/writers because it's obvious that even with the lyrics they were far from serious. I never gave it much thought until it was pointed out to me that the line in the chorus sounds like what most rapists would argue back to a victim. "I know you want it." and the "blurred lines" of consent to sex. Mix those lyrics to the very visual nature of the music video, then I understood how this could strike a sensitive chord to some.

Obviously this is the unpopular opinion, and I quite understand why not many people will agree with me and that's alright. I'd never make someone else listen to this if they don't want to, nor will I try to convince anyone else that they're just being too sensitive about the song. As for me, I just genuinely like it for the fun beat, and it's a fact I can't deny. 

You wanna hug me
Hey, hey, hey
What rhymes with hug me?
Hey, hey, hey