Tara, Kantahan Tayo!

Pupil: Dulo ng Dila

2007-04-17T09:57:00.000+08:00

Pupil: "Dulo ng Dila"

At meron lang naisip
nang merong mailagay
para lamang may laman
para lang merong kulay

Ano’ng kailangan mong marining?
makasaysayan? pandaigdig?
ano’ng sinabi ng iyong dibdib?
parang ganyan, ganyan, ganyan…

Sisindihan ko muna
nang aking maalala
makita ko na muna ang
mensahe na kilala

Hindi na baleng ‘di marinig
hindi na baleng ‘di mabatid
basta’t nasabi ng aking dibdib
mensahe na walang laman

This track is taken from Pupil's debut success, "Beautiful Machines". To cut things shortly, this track is all about better things left unsaid. Actions speak louder than words. Picture says a thousand words. Chaos in silence. All those arbitary and abstract essence that could not be written or spoken.

But it is not as simple as that. The first stanza mocks the futility of thinking.

At meron lang naisip
nang merong mailagay
para lamang may laman
para lang merong kulay

Before speaking, one must think. We cannot just spurt out words from our mouth just because we felt it. Our brains process each word that we are going to utter. And most of the time, we resort to too much thinking that we end up not making any sense at all. Just for the sake of having something to say, that's why we think, and then we speak. The last line of this stanza divulges "flowering of words". We tend to become verbose, just for the creative side of elevating ourselves when in comes to language.

Dulo ng Dila (tip of the tongue) is a Filipino idiom that reminds us how often we forget knowledge. But this forgetting is not always a negative thing. This forgetting is the only way how we can be true to ourselves by showing and not speaking, by feeling and not thinking.

In Case Of Fire

2006-04-10T16:56:00.000+08:00

Sandwich: In Case of Fire

If the water fails to rise up to the flames to pose a challenge
We'll be running from the fire, shout "Have mercy!"
If the runner wins a rally, despite his limp from his past journeys
She'll be hidin' with the winner, say "You love me!"

I'd go down with you if
you'd go down with me
All the way and all the way you know

Break the glass in case of fire
Was the last thing that she told me
And with that she went to seek out a new hobby
Push the button in case of panic, a manual rule on this fantastic
Everlasting, change of setting
Manic Static

I'd go down with you if
you'd go down with me
All the way and all the way you know
And I can see the reasons
Despite all the treasons
I'll be waiting all the way for you...

All the way for you...

This is the most emotional song in the record. I think I've put it straight in my Sandwich review that Five on the Floor is aimed for summer release. Songs are mostly party-ish and dance-persuading. Well aside from 2-3 songs, including this amazing track. I've heard that Mong Alcaraz wrote this "eMONG-tional" song. If that is true, job well done!

This song speaks of an on-the-rocks relationship. The persona narrates how nonchalant his beloved is when it comes to their relationship. So there is always this stand-by for emergency. He knows that sooner or later he will need to "break the glass" in case there would be fire, or anything hazardous would happen. He knows and foresees all this but still, he, with his unconditional love, is just there, waiting, waiting and waiting even if it will all be in vain.

I know there are shortcomings in this song since the lyrics sound too direct and plain but I still admire the imagery used. I like the first line, "If the water fails to rise up to the flames to pose a challenge " that would encapsulate the vanity of loving someone who seems to be apathetic about the relationship.

What else could I say? Cheers for Mong!

Cynthia Alexander: U & I

2006-03-22T19:31:00.000+08:00

Cynthia Alexander: U & I

on the island of my senses
U have lost your shape
the shadow of leaves fallen
a bed of limbs in stalemate
a crash of muted waves
in diminishing dimension

but last night in black & white
a dream of lovers' eyes
a song on an old phonograph
a moving photograph of
U & I

sometimes in the dusk
when the sky bleeds certain shades
the color in between us
is the sky that binds us
never-ending you
begin on & on & on
I only know
U are for real

but last night in black & white
a dream of lovers' eyes
a song on an old phonograph
a moving photograph of
U & I

This song was nominated for "Song of the Year" last 2001 Katha Music Awards. The first time I heard this song, I kept insinuating the thought, "why only nominated?" This is one of the best Cynthia Alexander songs I've heard in my Cynthia Alexander-listening life.

One word that came into my mind as I continually and ceaselessly listen to this enthralling piece: nostalgia. It's about an open-ended love affair. Thought the first stanza talks about the lover "losing shape", witnessing "stale love" and "losing senses", the chorus part counterfeits all lost love and paves way for the aforementioned open-ended love affair-- a love that is always there despite intangibility, a love that recurs and recalls despite the call of limitations. As the line reiterates, "a moving photograph of you and I."

Just like how we recall past events and how we treasure great memories, the song leaves to us perhaps, a glint of sweet nostalgia about our respective beloved.

One more thing that I admire in this song is how this open-ended affair is addressed. There is still that faint intimacy and nearness that the persona meanderingly assumes. I admire the audacity and at the same time the meekness that he/she concludes.

The Purple Chickens: "Ars Terror"

2006-02-23T17:49:00.000+08:00

The Purple Chickens: "Ars Terror"

You were asleep;
But somehow you count sheep.
The fences collapse.
Oh my, such terror.

You were awake;
With no cake to bake.
The frostings collapse.
Oh my such terror.
My such horror.

Lately, baby
There’s been a plague in my room.
I’ve been shivering.

The one who walks fast
Is the one who’s dreaming,
Submarining.

As poetic as it can be. Poetry in rock, rock in poetry. "There's been a plague in my room" is another terryfing dose of solitary dictum. What can possibly bring plague to a person inside his/her room? Just by isolating the imagery of a room, one can already postulate that this is about despondency. I think I've already talked much about this song in my previous blog entries in my main blog. Well, those were the days when I had a plague in my room.

I would just want to highlight the last stanza. "The one who walks fast/is the one who's dreaming/submarining. Why the image of expeditious walk being compared to the one sinking into chimera and hallucination? Are people fuels of speed or speed is the fuel of people's lives? And if it is, what's the speed for? What are we up for? Where is our destination?

The song illustrates the art of terror. We all live in terror. We terrify our own lives. We are terrified by our own lives. Our life is terrifying. Whichever or whoever, terror is ubiquitous. We are all in our own rooms, shivering...