as the waters rose
Me, my brother Panji, and his friend Alyssa. Unbeknownst to us, Typhoon Fengsheng/Frank was claiming the lives of over 150 people as we wandered around the Mall of Asia complex. On a tip from the radio on Friday, we went out to La Fete de la Musique on Saturday, which is a free music festival sponsored by the French embassy and Alliance Francais de Manille and a long list of brand names that took a long time for the hosts to announce. We didn't check the weather reports, even though rainy season was approaching in Manila. We just took off, energized by our quest for the music scene.
"There's a typhoon in Manila," Alyssa said after consulting the weather on her phone. "It's Level Two and people are advised not to go out." And we looked up at the sky, which never stopped being gray, and we decided we could handle it. We only looked for shelter when Alyssa's white skirt began to turn see-through. We got completely soaked through, but the rain wasn't harsh out; the hardest rains came in intermittent bursts, like inconvenient but welcome adventures.
It was an amazing day and I had loads of fun, and though the idea niggled at the edge of my mind that the shantytowns probably wouldn't be able to hold up, I cast it aside, as I so often do, jumping from the Rock stage to the Soul/Pop/Hip-Hop stage to the World/Reggae/Jazz stage, pretending to be a photojournalist and being proud of the local music scene. And then I watch the news the next day, and like. Damn. Then, the weatherman showed a map of the Philippines where you can't see Luzon (large island at the top) at all for the clouds.
I had been planning to spend most of today at Shangri La watching the French Film Festival (which is also free - vive la france!), but it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained. Which isn't surprising. So I'm taking a break from pondering the finer (purely conjectured) details of Narnian history and Telmarine religion, and write about my day at La Fete de La Musique.
all sorts of great music // And I mean all sorts. There were Filipino bands doing soul, reggae, electronica, metal, pop rock, and for fuck's sake there was even a rockabilly band. Whaaaaaat??!?!?! The rockabilly band did shit like this, and also stood up the upright bass, which had a stencil of a very breasted woman on it. DAMN. GO PINOY.
"haw haw HAWWWW" // Oh, you know the sound. The nasal grunts people make when portraying the stereotypical Frenchman. Well, it was part of the official sponsor announcements of the Fete, which was played on the public speakers several times an hour. Which was HILARIOUS. But also kind of embarrassing.
"enjoy refreshing san miguel! only 50 pesos!" // Hooray for those who encourage the mall-going populace to start drinking at 3 in the afternoon. Then again, there was a 2-story-tall blow-up bottle of beer by the Soul/Pop/Hip-Hop stage, so, no surprise.
the earthworms of cavite // These guys were the cutest ever. 'Bulate' is Tagalog for 'earthworm' and Cavite is a province south of Manila. They all wore matching shirts for some metal band I don't know. Me and some other camera-happy lady took a picture of them and they posed and look at that pose! Look at the size of those smiles! Warms my heart. AREN'T YOU JUST THE MOST ADORABLE METALHEADS EVER.
questionable phrasing // Just, out of curiosity, if you were a restaurateur, would you approve this for a slogan? I mean, I can understand what they're trying to say. But would you want it attached to your restaurant?
food + drinks + bed = WIN AT LIFE // We ate dinner at Bed Scene, which is part of the Bed group of restaurants (which includes Bedroom and Bedspace), where instead of silly silly chairs, you eat and drink on a bed. And then -- you know that Boondocks episode where after people ate in Grandpa's restaurant, they passed out? -- yeah, pretty much.
What do you think this guy is doing? He was at all the stages, which makes me wonder that maybe it's multiple guys in green shirts asking various bands and performers to define love. But that's not the point. What's his point? Manila is quirkier than I thought.
SPEAKING OF QUIRKY. The best thing about the rock stage is how the scene kids come out of the woodwork. Everything was so colorful (or black) and spiky, it put one in mind of an anime convention, or possibly Harajuku. Compare:
I know we all look alike but venture a guess!: which one is the Filipino and which one the Japanese?! I can't tell!
HotTopic!Manila:
At opposite ends of the picture, the same red checkered bags!
Look at how the Jansport backpack airbrushing vendors get around.
Near the end of the night, we all agreed that we have it really good here in Manila, unaware of the irony and only vaguely aware of hundreds of people's homes and livelihoods being washed away as we spoke.