Cheers To All (On The Eve Of…)!

Hope to spread more cheer in the coming year! With love, from McVie to you.

Sign Off

How does one “put off” the lights?

Does one just postpone turning the lights on “when not in use”? Or do you repel it with lame jokes like, “You know, you really brighten my day!” or “Knock, knock! Who’s there? Light. Light who? ‘Light… is not at all that bad my friend, ooh-hoo. Ef you beleb in yourself…’”? Or do you make things awkward between the two of you by insulting it with, “Yuck, you’re such a turn off!”?

I Like, You Like?

If Caroline Kennedy has, you know, a verbal tick of, you know, saying “you know” a lot, then I have, like, a verbal tick, like, of saying “like” and the like: “parang”, “for example” and “kunwari”. I guess I’m not as bad as the potential New York senator, but, like, I notice it a lot when I edit our Fabcasts. And because I’m the producer and editor, I have control over whether I’d like you guys to, like, hear all those “likes” and the like—which I really don’t like, so that’s why you don’t hear much of them.

It’s interesting that I unconsciously chose a simile as a verbal tick to stall while I think of what to say next. Why a simile and not a metaphor? Y theory is that I prefer rephrasing things instead of using symbolisms whose meanings may get lost in translation.

It’s like, you know. Yeah.

What Have I Done To Deserve This?

“I could leave you, say goodbye
Or I could love you, if I try
And I could
And left to my own devices, I probably would.”

In my younger years I would have, regardless if I were left to my own devices or not. Most likely, I’ll even device a way. But years of disappointment and unreturned affections have made me wary.

“I don’t wanna feel this pain no more (wanna lose touch)
I just wanna go and lock the door.
I don’t wanna think,
I don’t wanna feel nothing.
I wanna be numb.”

And for most of the time I find a way to forget. Before my means of escape has always been books, music and especially the movies. I learned early on the joys of watching movies alone in the theaters.

“Meanwhile your life is still directed as a drama,
With realism on the sparsest of sets.
Every performance tends to reach the same conclusion:
No happy endings, but a message to depress.”

Pretty soon I also found out the other joys—and thrills—that come with watching movies alone. Sex soon was added to my list of escapes. But despite all those distractions, sometimes someone comes in and reminds me.

“When loneliness induces fear,
like waves against a ramshackle pier,
When thunder and rain
scar the windowpane—
once again,
I want you near.
As long as I hear your
footsteps in the dark,
that’s all I need.

Footsteps in the dark,
Only love will break your heart.
Footsteps, footsteps.”

Now I’m a lot older. Weekdays are easy—often I distract myself with work. Weekends the bathhouse beckons. And my family is the best distraction and love affair I have at this moment.

But sometimes I slip in some Pet Shop Boys in my playlist, and I’m reminded again.

“It seems to me there’s something serious beginning,
A new approach found to the meaning of life.
Deny that happiness is open as an option
And disappointment disappears over night.

Say that love is an impossible dream—
Face the facts, that’s what it’s always been.
Relax, what you see is what you’ve seen,
What you get, is a new philosophy:

Miserablism—is is and isn’t isn’t.

But if is wasn’t, and isn't were—
You can’t be sure, but you might find ecstasy.
Oh no!”

* * * * *

(Pop quiz, hotshot: Can you name the titles of all the PSB songs used in this episode?)

Talking Bisaya

Someone—I forget who—told me the following (corny) joke a long time ago. He was singing a bastardization of the Bananarama song, Robert DeNiro Is Waiting: “Robert DeNiro is waiting, talking Bisaya (talking Bisaya!)”. It’s supposed to be “Italian”, not “Bisaya”. Anyway, I remembered that joke because of the following incidents.

* * * * *

In Manila and Cebu there are lots of call centers. In our little town of Bilar, Bohol, there is this:

At first my brother and I were wondering what “Cal” meant, until we checked closer. This Center is actually a site that commemorates the coming together of the Baquial and the Cal families. Inside we found a family tree that clearly shows that one member of the Cal family was named Marife, so while it’s possible that most people would call her “Mari Cal”, it’s not too farfetched to assume that she would be more popularly known as “Fe Cal”. Now that’s a shitty name.

* * * * *

At Sunday mass the choir was singing Lift Up Your Hands, the song popularized by Basil Valdez.

“Life is not at all that bad my friend, mmmmm…”

I turned to my sister and said, “It’s been a while since I last heard this song.”

“Ef you beleb in yourself…”

My sister’s eyes widened and I held back a chuckle. I turned to my younger brother and he too was smiling. However, the choir seemed to have recovered from that momentary hiccup, because the song continued without undue incident.

That is, until they got to the chorus.

With full abandon and much feeling, the choir raised their voices as they hit the chorus: “And He said, ‘Cast your bordens upon Me…”

We looked at each other again. “Bordens”? Snicker, snicker, snicker. I turned to my siblings and said, “Watch out for the next mention of ‘burden’ in the chorus!”

And the choir plowed right on through: “For the yoke I will give you is easy, and my burden is light…”

Huh? Whadda—?!

We waited until they repeated the chorus, and true enough they repeated the same mistake (“bordens”) on the first mention but pronounced it correctly (“burden”) on the second mention. The only difference is that the first one is plural while the second one is singular, but I seriously doubt that putting a letter “s” at the end of the word would alter significantly the pronunciation of the letter “u”.

So here’s my theory: the first time the word “burden” is mentioned, the word before that is “your”, while on the second mention of “burden”, the word before that is “my”. Methinks that the “—our” sound of “your” affects the way they pronounce the “u” sound of “burden”. In effect, there is a carry-over of the “—our” sound to the succeeding word.

And that is the choir’s borden.

Images Of A Bohol Christmas

I would have added more photos but the Smart signal here is not 3G, so uploading is a test of patience, perseverance and profound waiting.

A Greeting On Christmas Eve

Lotsa love, from McVie to you. =)