Most Serious Glitch

Wanna share this article which I received from one of my email group subscriptions.  Seriously scary:

Contains MSG or Converts to MSG when Processed

MSG is an excitotoxin: an ingredient known to cause nerve damage by overexciting nerves. This is exactly how MSG enhances the taste of foods: by overexciting the taste buds on the tongue.

Note: when you see the following words on any ingredient label, it is essentially, another name for MSG

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)	Maltodextrin
Textured protein	Sodium Caseinate
Glutamic acid	Gelatin
Carrageenan (processed)	Ultra-Pasteurized
Pectin Protease	Stock
Whey protein isolate, Whey protein	Barley malt, Malt extract
Natural Pork, Beef and Chicken flavoring	Citric Acid (when processed from corn)
Protease enzyme … and anything enzyme modified	Flavors, flavoring, natural flavors and flavoring
Hydrolyzed yeast extract, Tortula yeast, Autolyzed yeast, Yeast extract	Soy protein, Soy protein concentrate, Textured Soy protein
Anything protein fortified	Dextrose
Anything fermented

When any product contains 79% free glutamic acid with the balance being made up of salt, moisture, and up to 1 per cent contaminants, the product is calledMonosodium Glutamate.
The second way of producing MSG is through breakdown of protein. A protein can be broken into its constituent amino acids by autolysis, hydrolysis, enzymolysis, and/or fermentation. 
There are over 40 food ingredients besides Monosodium Glutamate that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG). Each, according to the FDA, must be called by its common name:

Autolyzed yeast
Maltodextrin
Sodium caseinate
Soy sauce, etc.

These are the common or usual names of some ingredients that contain MSG. Unlike the ingredient called Monosodium Glutamate, they give the consumer no clue that there is MSG in the ingredient.

About every other product in my fridge and on my kitchen shelf has these ingredients!

This reminds me that in Men's Health last April, I was shocked to see an ad for Aji-no-moto, espousing that MSG was a healthy and safe flavor enhancer meant to enrich your  taste buds' experience.  Nothing personal against the folks behind the magazine, but what gives?

CAMPUS REDUX!!!

Main Entry: re·dux
Pronunciation: \(ˌ)rē-ˈdəks, ˈrē-ˌ\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin, returning, from reducere to lead back
Date: 1860
Definition: brought back —used postpositively

That's courtesy of Merriam-Webster online. I actually have never used that word before. But what other word could appropriately describe the official return of Campus on Metro Manila radio?

It's finally happening in about a week at Eastwood Central Plaza, 8 p.m. onwards!

The band list is as follows:

BAMBOO

CALLALILY

IMAGO

FUSE

PEDICAB

PARALUMAN

SANDWICH

SOUTH BORDER

SPONGECOLA

ZELLE

6 CYCLE MIND

CHICOSCI

In case you're wondering why we're not headlining it with every single band out on the scene right now, it's because we don't want the usual radio station party fare where 30 bands are rushed onstage just to play two to three songs. This time, you'll get a full 30 minute set from each act. So they get to warm up and get into the groove and totally connect with you. A win-win situation all around.

Don't make plans to be anywhere else on that night. Just go to Eastwood, totally free, totally fun all the way.

Burger Kook

Here's the situation, you're hungry and thinking of what you'd like to eat and where to get it. Pretty common everyday phenomenon.

Last Sunday, I was pondering about dinner and remembered the Burger King billboard near the Timog-Tomas Morato rotonda in Quezon City. It was advertising something called the new steakhouse burger which was supposedly made with Angus beef. I liked the ad because it had a good visual with an appropo line, "Forget your table manners", or something like that. I'd been seeing this sign for like over a month now.

So I follow my stomach and drive up to Burger King on Timog Avenue. As I walk up to the door, I notice the steakhouse burger ad by the drive thru driveway. I walk up to the counter and ask for it, and what does the attendant say? "Sorry sir, it's not available."

Crap! What the freak??!!!

I didn't bother to ask why that was because I'm sure there was a stupid explanation behind it. I just promptly lectured the girl at the counter that they should post a sign saying their new product meant to lure customers was not available. Then I loudly said to my family who were with me that we were going to MCDONALD'S, which we did where I satisfied my hunger and my being "pissed-off" with a freshly cooked, juicy and no frills quarter pounder. See? I'm a simple man with simple needs. When I want a good burger, I just wanna get one and not be told it's not available.

What the hell is up with Burger King and other restaurants who allow that situation to happen? That Timog branch must have the stupidest inventory manager on earth! When I was in business school, there was considerable attention given to the vital improtance of making sure a store had enough stock of what it sold. When a fastfood chain says something isn't available, that's some flunky manager saying he screwed up royally. And I don't give a f*** what his valid reason is. When you can't sell me what I'm ready to pay for, you failed!

Take the freaking sign down already so other people won't have to waste their time and get pissed like I did!

"Can I Put This File On Your, Um, Rack?"

One of the great exports in recent times from the United Kingdom is that tongue-in-cheek show, "The Office". But now, the BBC has come up with more proof that folks in TV land are running out of good ideas for the boob tube. Lo and behold, producers there are seriously developing "The Naked Office". Letters have been sent out to companies in England asking them to participate in the show.

The theme of the show is about revealing, pardon the pun, the views and reactions of employee participants on nudity, body image and how clothes impact their position in the office. Along the way, they'll be asked to join such fun activities as posing nude for a drawing class. I'm sure all the men will be bringing some really sharp pencils. Then towards the end, every employee will be asked to show up buck-naked for work, on a day called Naked Friday! Woo-hoo! Doesn't get any more casual than that.

If the show flies and gets to that episode, I'm sure there will be a significant rise in productivity.

A Breath Of Fresh Air

In case you were wondering where I'd been all week last week, I took some time out for rest and recreation from Campus on-air duties and Cinema One voiceovers.  It included a trek up to the nation's summer capital, Baguio City last Thursday through Sunday.  I'll fill in the details hopefully tomorrow.

But for now, I must give a ginormous shout out and thank you to Ms. Ana Agregado of Toyota Motor Philippines Marketing for being so gracious to provide me with the great ride I took up to Baguio in the form of the fantastic Innova V.  That vehicle did not hesitate one bit up the mountains and actually begged me to go faster, he he.  Thanks Ana!

The Lost 80's Live experience

I wanted to write my comments about the Lost 80's Live concert sooner, like right after, or maybe the day after, but I managed to procrastinate on it til now. I've been on vacation for about a week, and that didn't help at all in me writing anything new.  Anyhoo, the concert was held last April 19, and I did post my looking forward to watching it.

I managed to get to it around half-past 10 p.m. because of my boardwork that night.  I missed seeing When In Rome play, and caught Real Life in the middle of its set.  Turns out it was only the original lead singer of Real Life, David Sterry that was playing, backed up by two members of WIR.  I gotta admit that after more than 20 years, he still sung the old songs like "Send Me An Angel" and "Catch Me I'm Falling" quite well.  But unfortunately for him, he seemed to be another victim of the typical lazy Filipino audience.  You know what I'm talking about, I could write an entire post about it.  Most of the people watching just sat through the whole thing, with hardly any expression on their faces, except to yawn or look around the venue in boredom.  Plus, it seemed to be a family plus plus outing for some groups who brought their very young kids and household help to the show, most likely subjecting them to torture of having to listen to music they had never heard before.  Oh well, Real Life managed to get some decent applause for their familiar material.  Me?  I enjoyed this set quite a bit because I liked the energy the band was putting into it.  Later on, I was told WIR played a really odd version of their signature hit, "The Promise", which was totally unfamiliar and hard to sing along with.  For me, what's the point of that other than an artist's narcissistic self-indulgence if the fans can't sing along to their favorite song?

So now comes the supposed icing on the cake, A Flock Of Seagulls was next.  This was the band with more songs familiar to the Filipino audience.  I was excitedly waiting to hear the old faves like, "The More You Live, The More You Love", "I Ran", and "Wishing".  I knew I wasn't gonna see lead singer Mike Score with that trademark hairdo he had in the 80's, so I was only too happy to be able to hear him sing live.  And that he did.

He came out with an entirely new band, as I read that he'd had a falling out with his bandmate of a brother, and the other original members weren't tagging along anymore.  The bass player reminded me of The Cars' Ric Ocasek with a tan.  But I digress.  So Mike gets into it, starting off by singing new stuff from a forthcoming new album.  OK, so we all bear with it, hoping to hear the older stuff right after.  And they do just that, playing "The More You Live...", making us fans very happy.  Too bad Mike's vocals sounded a bit strained, but I wouldn't fault the guy because he's 50 years old already, and he's no Sting or Bono.  I just didn't like that he played one or two new songs alternately with an old one, making the AFOS set run a tad too long.  It was almost midnight and the audience was passive and bored, so I was hoping they'd just play all the familiar material in a row to get everyone going.  But no, they didn't, and the set seemed to drag on and on and on.  Plus, the bass player kept trying to egg the audience on to applaud more with his hand gestures, all to no avail.  Mike Score seemed to not want to connect with the crowd in turn by getting sarcastic with some comments that I can't remember now, but gave away his impatience with the seemingly zombie audience he was playing to.

In a nutshell, it could've been a really great show.  I actually didn't bother to finish the set because I'd had my fill of AFOS live after hearing them play "Wishing".  Maybe it was the too big venue, maybe it was the zombie crowd, maybe Mike was trying too hard to get his new music out, who knows?  It just left me wishing.

The 80's are alive and well...

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.