My Space

There’s something to be said about having a place of your own. It’s your own personal physical space, your domain. There, you are the master of your keep.

When I was still living with my folks and siblings in Marikina, my bedroom was my sanctuary. My mom used to call it Joel’s sanctum sanctorum, and everybody knew well enough not to enter there without permission.

When I first moved out and rented a room in Makati, I was sharing a two-bedroom condo with a female friend. We had separate bedrooms (both had their respective bathrooms), and we were only three in the house (she had her maid who took care of her two pugs). So we pretty much kept mostly to ourselves, except during breakfast and Saturday lunches.

Then I moved to a studio-type unit still within Makati’s CBD. My stay there was pretty great; it was fully furnished, and within walking distance from Greenbelt. However, such a great deal came with a caveat—I had it only for almost half a year, and when the lease ends the owner was going to claim it for his use.

I next rented a room in this old four-bedroom house in Iba Street, Quezon City. It was a huge house, so our landlord rented out three of the rooms. It was okay at the start; Migs was also a housemate of mine. But soon after he moved out, and the other rooms were soon rented out to others. When I left, there were 5 more people in the house. Even though it was a huge house, we had to share in the common bathroom. It didn’t help that one of them was a female; when she left a pair of her panties and bra hanging on the shower curtain rod, I muttered to myself, “That’s it, time to move.”

So now I’m in a fairly new one-bedroom condo unit in Mandaluyong. I’m nearer to Makati now, and when our office moves to Shaw next year, I’ll be one MRT station away from the office. It’s barely furnished, but at least it has a queen-size bed, aircon, refrigerator and water heater for the shower. Because of the holiday season, I haven’t had time to fix things and buy stuff, so my belongings are just piled willy-nilly everywhere. In the next few months the bulk of my spending will go to furnishing the place up. I will need to be prudent about it; I am merely renting, after all.

Still, I had one of my most relaxing sleeps ever on the first night that I slept alone in my new space. I finally have my sanctuary again.

Marry And Bright?

Some people have asked me to push for gay marriage here in The McVie Show. Yes, I agree with you that there should be no more discrimination of marriage; why should marriage be only for heterosexuals? As far as gay marriage is concerned, I don’t have a problem with the “gay” part.

However, I don’t believe in marriage, not unless there’s divorce.

I’m fine with the idea of two consenting adults agreeing to be united, and the state acknowledging their union and awarding them with certain privileges and benefits. But to lock in two adults with no way out is, I believe, a concept that has lost its relevance to me because it is not grounded on reality. Yes, there will be couples who can make it ‘til Death do them part. But not all marriages will succeed and survive.

In fact, I’d rather just live in together. If you last, then congrats; if you don’t, well, at least untangling need not be messy and drawn-out.

Walang Iwanan, Help CDO & Iligan

Donate to the Philippine Red Cross at: www.redcross.org.ph/donatenow

Knocked Out

Thursday evening we had our office Christmas party, and for the third year in a row I was one of the hosts for the event. We had boxer Brian Viloria, reigning WBO Flyweight champion, and his wife as special guests. We got him to pick out the grand raffle winner. He even stayed on and danced the night away with us—and boy, the man can dance. Brian is such a down-to-earth guy. And compared to that other boxing champ who is also a politician, Brian’s much easier to deal with and comes with an entourage of only one, his better half.

On Friday afternoon he and his wife drop by our office for a courtesy call. While he and his wife were talking to our bosses, I tweeted the following: “Brian Viloria in da hawz! He and his wife brought Krispy Kreme for the whole dept. He even personally offered me a doughnut. Ang cute niya.”

And then few minutes later, he tweeted back: “It’s nothing really. Merry Xmas and Happy New Years to you and (our office).”

And then I received a notification via email that he had started following me on Twitter.

And then I died.

Adele Is Not A Party-Pooper

“Why is there no music? There should be music! Where’s the DJ? Where’s my music? Where’s my music?!”

That was my officemate in charge of our company party, in her I’m-in-charge-and-panicking mode. It was the start of the party, and the early guests were plenty. They were our clients and business partners, and we made sure the food was plentiful, the alcohol flowing, the raffle prizes numerous and the entertainment continuous. But the hired DJ who’s supposed to play music during dinner was still stuck in horrendous holiday traffic. How do we put our best foot forward when we already tripped at the start?

She was looking at me for answers. I was at the control booth; we were going to use my laptop to play our AVPs later, so my Macbook was already hooked up to the system. I pulled up my iTunes and said, “I’ll play something.”

Suddenly, my fantasy of being a DJ became a reality. Okay, okay, so I wasn’t using professional equipment and the music transitions weren’t seamless. But for the first time, I was playing music for a major party. Eeeee! Hahaha!

Siyempre fineel-na-feel ko ang pagka-DJ, noh!

I started with the safe choices, the current hot dance hits: “We Found Love” by Rihanna, “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5, “Sexy And I Know It” by LMFAO, “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga. I wasn’t too worried about my musical choices anyway; after all, the guests were either busy eating or schmoozing with one another. I guess because of that, I decided to push it a bit.

First, I decided to play David Guetta’s “Titanium.” Sure, it’s not a pop hit, and I’m sure most of the guests weren’t familiar with it. But David Guetta is David Guetta, and his music practically screams, “Party!”

Then I went with the kinda-safe-but-not-really choice; I played one mash-up after another. First was a Britney-Rihanna-JLo combo, “S&M Against The Floor.” Then a LMFAO-Ke$ha-Britney Spears-Lady Gaga-Katy Perry mega-mash-up, “Party Rock Anthem.” I was playing a third mash-up of Madonna-Lady Gaga-Pitbull, “You Know You Want Love Celebration,” when the idea hit me.

What if I play Adele at a party?

I mean, who would have thought that the woman responsible for an increase in emo levels worldwide would have a place at a party? Sure, I have heard of dance remixes of her songs, but I didn’t have any of those in my iTunes. I only had her album, “21.”

Still, why not? There’s “Rumor Has It” after all.

To prepare for Adele, I first played Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” and Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away” first. And then I took a deep breath and clicked PLAY.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thu-thu-thump! Thump! Thump!
Oooh! Oooh!
She…
She ain’t real…!

Hey, it works! Go Adele!

Too bad I couldn’t run onstage and copy the steps of the Troubletones from Glee, but that would be too much.

The Pride Fabcast, Parts 1 & 2

Part One:

Here the Fabcasters and the peanut gallery tackle the question of Gay Pride. Are we proud of being gay? What is it that we are proud of? We asked each and every one to say his piece. And it’s very interesting to hear twelve different points of view, twelve different takes on gay pride. From still staying in the closet to being out in the open, from the creative field to the corporate world, twelve different voices speak out their learning and their truths.

This Fabcast was recorded on the same night as the “Prude Fabcast,” thus there was no more roll-call. For the record, the Fabcasters are: Corporate Closet (aka CC), Gibbs, McVie, Migs and Tony. And the members of the peanut gallery for this recording are: Dan, Dean, Inye, Joms, Londonboy, Luis and Paul (aka Iamtofuboy).

PART 1:

Download part 1 (right click and save)

Music credits:
“Get Up Stand Up” by Bob Marley & The Wailers
“Born This Way (DrewG & Brian Cua Dirty Pop Mix)” by Lady Gaga
“Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers

Part Two:

Let me tell you an interesting side story regarding this particular recording.

Before we began recording for that evening, Migs realized that he had forgotten to charge the rechargeable batteries of his digital recorder. So while he was charging them, he asked CC for an extra pair of disposable AAA batteries; those were what we used to record the “Departures” and “Prude” Fabcasts. Unfortunately the disposable batteries were from CC’s TV remote; he warned us that the batteries were kinda old and may not last until the end of the recording. (If you can recall, in part one there was a pause and then you’d hear me—which was then echoed by Migs—ask out loud, “Teh? Na-re-record ba?” That was us checking to see if CC’s batteries had died in the middle of recording.)

We continued to record, segueing seamlessly into the “Prude” fabcast. When we finished with that, we decided to proceed and record the “Pride” Fabcast. At this point Migs took out the disposable batteries and replaced them with the partially charged disposable batteries of his. He figured that, given the number of minutes they were charged, the batteries could last for at least one more recording session.

Cut to near the end of the recording: Migs, as a joke, asked AJ out loud, “AJ, are you proud of being gay?” And I, along with several others, immediately chanted the by-now classic lines of Roderick Paulate from the movie, Zombadings: “Charoterang isprikitik, umappear ka vahkler. Magpa-feel, magpasense, ditey sa baler. Witiz shokoley ang udangchi ditey. Sa fezlaboom mo marz na super kalerkey!”

I remember laughing out loud afterwards and continuing the discussion when suddenly Migs stopped us and announced that he saw the battery indicator light of his recorder blink out. “Naubos na ang battery!” he exclaimed. And when we checked at which part the disposable batteries died, it was right after he asked AJ his question. We managed to record “Charoterang isprikitik, umapp—” and then silence. We had to borrow another pair of disposable batteries from CC to finish the recording.

I guess for this recording, the Fabcasters were all present.

PART 2:

Download part 2 (right click and save)

Music credits:
“Queer” by Garbage
“Thanksgiving” by George Winston
“Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” by Diana Ross
“Redemption Song” by Bob Marley & The Wailers

A Fairly Smooth Ride With A Few Bumps

“The Road”
Directed by Yam Laranas
GMA Films

Beautiful cinematography, masterful evoking of mood and clever storytelling structure by Yam Laranas. But why do some characters act like they’re following a script and not their inner motivations? Thus certain illogical moments break the spell and remind viewers that they are just watching a movie. Carmina Villaroel is a hoot, and child actor Renz Valerio is so adorable. I was too distracted by his crooked smile and pinch-worthy cheeks to be scared during his portion of the film. And what’s this?! Jaclyn Jose, underused?! The horror!