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It's a great time that be a music lover now in Metro Manila. So many artists are coming down to perform in this far-flung country of ours. What with the likes of Maroon 5, Ne-Yo, Colbie Caillat, Harry Connick, Jr., Incubus, Swing Out Sister, Toto, Duran Duran and most recently Sean Kingston having had shows here already and we're not even halfway through 2008. Back in the 80's and the 90's, we were actually lucky if one or two artists showed up at all.
Speaking of the 80's, three of the more popular new wave acts from the decade are putting up a back-to-back-to-back show tomorrow night at The Big Dome. A Flock Of Seagulls, When In Rome and Real Life are triple billed for Lost 80's Live, which happens to be an ongoing series of tours that's become pretty popular in the U.S. And now it's stopping over in Manila. I'm planning to check out the show, although I figure I might miss about half of it, because it starts at 8 pm and I'll be onboard at Campus FM til 10 pm. Oh well, hope it starts a bit late, he he, so I can catch a decent portion of the concert. Thanks to Jesse Gonzales for hooking me up.
Some members of the bands dropped in on Jimmy Jam's show this afternoon to promote the concert including Mike Score, lead singer of AFOS who is well remembered the unique hairstyle he sported in the 80's. Too bad, he doesn't wear his hair that way anymore. But then again, I don't think anyone around him would keep a straight face if he still did.
Hopefully, with this show, we'll have none of those jazz-reworkings and strained renditions of old favorites. I prefer them just the way I heard them back in the day, thank you.
"I'm about to strip and I'm well equipped, can you handle me the way I are?"
Just wanna share an article I came across online at inquirer.net:
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view/20080415-130593/Race-for-top-FM-radio-station-intensifies
Very interesting. Hey Pocholo, just thought you should know, we're "99.5 Campus FM". The "Campus Radio" name is owned by GMA, and 99.5 RT is owned by another company. But thanks for the mention in your article.
I'm not about to lecture as to how smoking can kill. Everybody knows that, and more importantly, every smoker knows that.
I was watching Oprah today and it was the episode featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz illustrating what smoking does to your heart and lungs with some high tech videos and preserved samples. I like the fact that he merely presented the facts without preaching from a holier-than-thou position. I'm a non-smoker, and I tend to be holier-than-thou with smokers because the smoke is offensive to me.
On that Oprah episode, a video was shown where a mother who was a smoker was being chastised by her very young daughter about her addiction. She was asking why did Mom have to smoke? Mom replies that she just couldn't stop. Kid fires back, "Why can't you just stop? That's ridiculous!" Then, Dr. Oz relates how for every 4 cigarettes one smokes, the second-hand smoke is equivalent to one stick inhaled by someone around the smoker.
That's just alarming and horrible, in no uncertain terms.
That's why I'm going to be even more holier-than-thou.
In the building where I live, there's a girl in her 20's who I often catch smoking in the elevator where it's obviously against the rules. So that makes her just f***ing obnoxious. How messed up is this moron that she can't wait til she gets outside or in her own condo beofre she lights up? But now I won't be polite to her anymore, because I will not put up with inhaling 25-freaking-percent of that stick in her fingers. And since she's already voluntarily accelerating her date with the Grim Reaper, I honestly hope she either stops or just dies soon so she'll stop bothering innocent bystanders with her bad habit.
Sure, go call me a smoker basher, whatever, I don't care. I care about my health and that of my loved ones. It doesn't make me a bad person. The smoker is the drug addict, after all.
The point is, I know quitting smoking is not easy. No bad habit is easy to kick, especially when it involves an addiction to a drug. And like it or not, nicotine is a drug. So I hope the smoker that wants to quit, gets the right help, and has the right kind of family and friends to aid him or her. Because you can't do it alone. But please try.
It's been a long time since I was in summer school, and now I'm back in it in a manner of speaking. But the weather in our studio is anything but summer-y, quite the opposite actually. Our computers used to hang all the time while playing back commercials or music because of the heat they produced, so the engineering guys here decided to turn our booth into a meat freezer to keep the pc's cool. It's just that I have to wear a jacket just to keep my fingers from falling off and my teeth from chattering. Brrr... I'm not complaining though, coz it beats sweating through boardwork, which I have experienced and is quite unpleasant. I'll go to the beach if I wanna sweat, thank you.
I'm very thankful for the warm reception that most listeners have given the new step the 99.5 frequency in Manila has taken in its long, colorful life.
Speaking of which, I'll devote some space to my own good memories in radio soon.
"So it's not hard to fall, when you float like a cannonball"
Oh, since it happens to be Campus Classic Weekend on Campus FM, let me start leaving lyrics from songs that pop into my head and give me semi-LSS, in a good way. I'll leave the title and artist out just to make you jog your memory about it.
"My anaconda don't want none, unless you got buns, hon!"
See ya Monday night!
Big Z is off campus and off for the weekend!
Something positive for a change to take my mind off of the daily crappiness that is life in Metro Manila and The Philippines. (Don't get me wrong, I love our country: it is beautiful; and I love Metro Manila: where else around here can I do the kind of radio I wanna do?; it's the freakin'-head-in-its-ass backwards government that i loathe).
Let me say how much I'm enjoying the new incarnation of both Campus Radio and DWRT-FM 99.5. Three weeks into it and we've quickly gained so much ground; we've connected and locked in with our audience so fast, it made my head spin. I'm totally stoked, amped, ecstatic, happy, you-name-it-I'm-feelin'-it! Like I've mentioned in the pinoyexchange.com thread about Campus FM, bigger and better things are on the way.
It's sheer joy to be part once again of a team that will shake Metro Manila FM radio out of the mediocre stupor that its poor listeners are stuck in. Sure, all the wannabes can continue with their sacharrine, starchy, and otherwise, sucky yacketty-yackking (or in layman's terms: "pa-cute") because it's a free country. But listeners deserve better, and that's what Campus FM will deliver.
Stay tuned.
Stick around.
P.S. Feel free to listen to us online: www.eradioportal.com. Click on the pulldown menu to get Luzon stations, then click on 99.5 Campus FM from the list. Happy listening!!!
Just today, I heard on DZMM that The Philippines' nearly 90 million population count is increasing by two percent annually. That really gave me pause for thought. I mean, think about it, 1,800,000 Filipino babies are born every year! I intentionally didn't put that figure as 1.8 million because all the zeroes make the number more staggering.
Why the hell are we making so many babies? Stupid question - because "It's fun!", they'll all say. I hear the very poor among Filipinos consider sex as a pastime since they can't afford better non-reproductive recreational activities. And they're all so brave to keep going at it without contraception because the Catholic church makes them all feel so guilty for even thinking about using condoms or taking the pill. That is just freakin' sad. Very sad.
1.8 million newborns every year. Suddenly this tiny crowded country just felt tinier.
For quite a while now, a lot of news coverage had been devoted to an impending rice shortage set to affect The Philippines, as well as some neighboring Asian countries. So a big deal is being made, naturally, about the price of rice. If you're well-to-do, that shouldn't bother you the least bit because you'd be able to easily pay extra for it. But on the other side of the coin, if you have just ordinary means, every price increase hurts. I personally didn't think too much of it quite frankly, because I hadn't actually seen any price change yet. That was until I had to pick up some rice today and saw the highly remarkable price increase. What used to average 33 to 34 Pesos is now 36 to 37 Pesos, and the better varieties have hit 40 Pesos even. "Wow!", I thought to myself. Perhaps, at least the price of instant noodles hasn't gone up, eh Mr. Ignacio Bunye? I'm sure that's funny only to me now, because the majority of Pinoys with average means must be freaking out with such a development.
I recall to this day learning in grade school that our country was importing rice, despite having a countryside more suited for agricultural development. It's really too bad this wonderful set of leaders we have chooses to not do enough for our farmers to produce even just enough rice, so we could stop importing it. But importing rice is big business, so go figure. Friends in high places, like to help friends with high-yield businesses.
With the stop-gap measures the government is said to be undertaking, predictably the rice selling industry has threatened to call a "rice-holiday" to protest the disturbance to their business undertakings. Ah, this is where i get to insert the old adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Too bad I hear the pound of cure pays more for certain unscrupulous individuals.
I hope this rice crisis doesn't worsen, for all our sakes, and for the sake of still being able to ask for "extra rice".
Inasmuch as I avoid self-indulgent rants against the government (because, c'mon, let's face it, who doesn't have an issue against it?), something I've come across has managed to irritate me no end. You may have seen the government ads shouting the virtue of shopping at Tindahan Ni Gloria, where one can purchase daily food necessities at very low prices. Sure it's great that ordinary folks with ordinary means can buy rice cheaply, but why throw instant noodles into the mix? Have these awkward imitations of decent home cooking now become part of the day-to-day staple of Juan Dela Cruz? Are Filipinos who tread the poverty line not entitiled to some real meat or even canned fish at prices they can afford? Is that how shallow and lowly the government views the majority of Pinoys?
I remember when Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, at a time when he was still allowed to speak for The President, had one of his more inspired moments of glib and said that he believed the price of instant noodles was still cheap when prices of basic goods were on the rise. Every other valiant AM radio commentator pounced on his words like tigers devouring freshly-caught prey. Well, what do you expect from the guy who said "Hello Garci" was actually "Hello Gary"? Not much if you ask me, that's why Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita acts as Presidential Bullhorn now (the official source of Bull***t?). I hope and pray that if and when we actually have a rice shortage and the government tells us we should change our food staple, Mr. Ermita won't get up to the podium to tell us that "at least we have enough instant noodles."
It's been a little over a week since 99.5 CampusFM debuted on Metro Manila radio. At this point, because I don't have a lot of time to go into details, let me begin by saying I'm very thankful to be part of it. As I mentioned in the pinoyexchange.com forum regarding the new incarnation of the 99.5 frequency, I'm very optimistic about the station's future. For the first time in a long time, it actually has a chance to rise above all the mediocrity being passed off as entertainment, which has plagued the FM band for too long a while. And it's an opportunity for a very popular radio brand to regain its former glory. More on this soon, only because it's difficult to organize my thoughts with my stomach competing for attention.
