Had an email from Sitemeter today about this blog and for the first time in a long while, I actually clicked on it to read what it had to tell me.
It said, zero zero zero. Zero activity, zero visits, zero pageviews. Wawa naman this site. Neglected, forgotten, unloved.
And so, I hereby resolve (with fist on heart area) to stop being lazy and just write something here as often as possible. Promise! This journal is more for me than for anyone anyway, a way for me to remember what went down during some of my days on earth. (Naks!) Seriously, I had fun reading my old posts just now! Some entries made me smile, some made me remember other related stories. Thus the resolve to strive on and just keep this going. Wish me luck, yeah?
RETROLICIOUS 2011
Last August, I was flipping through the day's newspaper when I read that 80's artists Human League, Belinda Carlisle and Bananarama were to be in town for a concert in Oct. Yours truly got excited and immediately emailed friends in SG to ask who is going? Alas, no one was interested.
Undeterred, I emailed Hannah and Carlo in Manila the link to concert details and half-jokingly asked if they would come to SG for it. I told them coming over will commemorate a similar concert gimmick we three had back in our uni days when we commuted from Diliman to PICC to watch a Battle of the Bands concert that featured our then band-of-the-moment Identity Crisis (remember them? I loved their song My Sanctuary).
Anyway, imagine my surprise and happiness when both Hannah and Carlo said yes to travelling to SG for the concert!!! I thought, wow, what amazing and rich friends I have!! hahaha. That day, I bought 4 tickets agad: for us 3 plus Carlo's wife.
The week of Hannah's travel to SG for the Oct 8 concert, I was asking her if she had heard from Carlo at all re their travel plans. Hannah said she will ask him about it.
A bit later, Hannah messages on YM: J, they aren't coming! He thought the concert was in Manila!
NGEK!
A few days later, Hannah arrived na bearing super yummy Argellanas from Pasteleria Mallorca on my behest. (hehe) We were ready to party despite Carlo's booboo but what to do with the 2 extra tickets?
Carlo by then had said 'mea culpa, will pay for my mistake' and asked me to give said tickets to his friend here instead. The friend initially said he was using them tickets but pulled out 1 hr before the concert start. ACK!! Can this sitch get any more frazzling??
Good thing other friends saved my party of 4 from dwindling down to a party of 2 (plus 2 sayang tickets). A call to Kath and Anna 45 mins to concert time yielded 2 more party people. Thank God for kaladkarin friends, right?! :) Yippee! Time now to get this party started indeed!!
The concert, dubbed Retrolicious 2011, was a blast!! Held at Fort Canning Park, the crowd sang along loudly to 80s anthems Human, Dont You Want Me, Together in Electric Dreams with Human League; I Get Weak, Heaven Is a Place on Earth, Leave a Light On, Mad About You with Belinda Carlisle; and whooped to Venus, Love in the First Degree, I Want You Back, Robert De Niro's Waiting, Cruel Summer, Love Truth and Honesty with Bananarama. Sing Along Fest!!
The crowd was an amazing audience. Everybody was standing, packed together closely in super humid weather and yet they were in the zone: dancing, singing, clapping, reminiscing for sure (like I was) about that time long ago when the songs ruled the airwaves.
It was so great too to watch many groups of women dressed in 80s get-up (mostly ang mohs). Think Madonna during her Like A Virgin days: rags as headband over messy hair; tank top for a first layer and over that, a loose shirt belted at the lower waist; short skirt over leggings; some wearing rolled-down leg warmers; fingerless lace gloves (where can one buy those?? I want!!); lots and lots of plastic necklaces; big hoops for earrings. Seeing them, nostalgia washed over me.
I had a really good time that night, felt thankful and glad too -- for the high school memories and the songs that evoke them, and for the good friends from my youth, Hannah and Kat, who were still dancing gleefully to the tunes of our time beside me.
(Si Anna, panahon ng Beatles ang era non. JOKE! Sige na, Backstreet Boys na nga.)
