martes, abril 25, 2006

Rihanna's SoS (Rescue Me) video on Nikewomen.com - my latest guilty pleasure

posted by xanana ventura @ 9:39 p. m. 0 comments

new website

i just had the much-needed enthusiasm and guilt to finally, rebuild my website from the cesspool it had been. so finally, after so many nights of thinking over how my website should look like, i finally made up my mind. hehe

visit my website: danotingcungco.tk

or just click on dano angelo tingcungco online on the links page to your right.

the site's really patchy in places, but that's because it's still a work in progress. tell me what you think!

by the way, the danotingc.tk site's still up and running, but that's just a redirect page for the people who have my business card with the "danotingc.tk" in the web information slot. at any rate, please do enjoy the site! tell me what you think about the painting-with-light theme i did for the site. i'm dying to hear it. hehe

xanana

posted by xanana ventura @ 8:50 p. m. 0 comments

lunes, abril 24, 2006

random bitchings 1

On rotation:
“Hide U,” Kosheen (Resist)
“Fast and Loud,” Stéphane Pompougnac featuring Juli (Hotel Costes Vol. Quatre)
“Dream Machine,” Mark Ferina featuring Sean Hayes (Hotes Costes 8)
“Did It Again,” Kylie Minogue (Impossible Princess)
“Be My World,” Milky (runway music for the Zac Posen Winter 2006 show)
“LSF,” Kasabian
“Soul Sista,” Bilal (Love and Basketball Soundtrack)
“Love Song,” Tori Amos
“Candy Man,” Cibo Matto
“Muscle Car (Sander Kleinenberg’s Fast Pace Mix),” Mylo feat Freeform Five (Hed Kandi Twisted Disco 03.06)
“Doctor Pressure” Mylo vs. Miami Sound Machine
“Train,” Goldfrapp (Black Cherry)


I just love it when my fingers dance around my keyboard as if I was playing the piano and paying more attention to how the ivory keys feel instead of whether they gave me the right note or not. Which happens, like, 90 percent of the time I try to write. I often misspell words and often I have to prod the Backspace key many times before I could start over with remembering the poor sentence that just flew out of my head midway in the process. When people come into my room, they complain either of two things, or of two things at the same time: either music’s playing too loud, or my typing’s trying to do a loud, clicking karaoke improv of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.”

It’s crazy, and I’m thinking maybe this is the only reason I got myself into the whole writing business. Maybe I’m just giving myself a reason to tap the keyboards more often.

I’m a frustrated drummer. In a dear friend’s studio apartment I tried joining his band’s sessions by jumping at the percussionist’s gracious offer to take his place in the African drums. The song, more than half of the time, would mercilessly get butchered by my off timing and my half-hearted tap (which is caused more by my self-consciousness to the other people in the room than anything else). And most of the time, I’ll just try finishing the song doing a controlled beat that sounds so labored, calculated and mathematical that I’m often better off clapping my palms red and counting the cigarette butts I made for the entire session.

But that’s not the point. Sometimes I’m just wondering whether I should just drop this whole writing schtick altogether. Just this morning, I tried to try finishing work on a commissioned article for a national daily. It took me three hours to finish my interview with my subject. Pretty easy; I had my questions all planned out 10 minutes before she walked in. But because the article has no deadline, it took me three weeks later to get all guilty about it and finally sit down and write it.

The outline came in easily enough, but the gap between writing the outline, the transcription, note-skimming (I love transcribing taped interviews as much as I love doing military presses. Ew), and the actual writing itself (I call that the writing lump. Not exactly a lump in my case, more like a goiter) was so wide and far in between that it’s often torture alone to watch me do it, much more to experience. This has happened before, many many times before. And even if I know I can do everything in an hour if someone stuck a knife to my throat, still. It still takes a knife to my throat for me to make any form of clockwork headway.

Although I often attribute this to what sir Pete Lacaba calls his “agony writing” in one of the interviews he gave for Ateneo de Manila’s Heights literary folio in 2002, I often wonder whether I’ve taken it too far. I always had to have the right music. I always had to drink some Extra Joss/Red Bull/Lipovitan/pure concentrated caffeine. I always had to watch at least three hours of trash TV beforehand. I always had to write really late at night, when it’s quiet and everybody’s asleep or less prone to making irritating sounds and moves to disturb me. And I always had to reverse my body clock (Read: I have to sleep through the day), judging my output to how much I email my bosses at 6 a.m. before I jack myself off to sleep. I had to go these pretentious lengths – under the imaginary assurance that these will help me yank out a good story – that it just sucks. And in those times of frustration, I dance around the idea of giving up. Sometimes I do; I just default altogether.

It’s so frustrating, that sometimes I’m wondering if I’m just a poser in the midst of all this. I have to confess this: the CD review you saw below took me four hours (and dregs of minutes later to trim it to size, check for accuracies and fire it off to my bosses via email) to write. The Candid Camera article way below (it came out in Sense and Style by the way, August 2005 issue), took me 7 hours and four shots of combined Extra Joss and Red Bull. Revising my thesis proposal (which involved substantially rewriting large chunks of text) took me a day and double the Red Bull. And now this.

Years back, I’ve consulted some of my best bitches (“really really close friends” in Danospeak, hehe) about this. Some say I’m holding back, that maybe, I’m not really letting go when I write. Another holds that, maybe, the process of organized writing could hold meaning to my mind as what a saddle could mean to a wild horse. That I’m so caught up in giving my pieces cadence that I end up depriving it of any. Still, another possibility could be that maybe, I’m just born this way. I just don’t write fast enough. Deal with it. But maybe, it could be that I’m having such unreasonable expectations of how my final drafts should look and sound like that I tend to see the entire writing experience as daunting instead of exciting. Like constipation to diarrhea, I suppose.

It’s not like I suddenly slowed down. I’ve personally taken pride in myself giving every story I write much thought before anyone else sees it, sometimes to the point of risking a butchered deadline. But the chronic-ness of the whole situation makes me question the normalcy of it. Do I really have the heart for this? When I do graphics design work, either for print ads in my advertising class/gigs or layout work for a website or a publication in journalism class, it’s always a light, feel-good session. When I do art direction, when I style people, it’s always adrenaline rush. When I do staccato-structured scripts for video pieces, the whole process just slides right through me. It’s a different story with writing. Sometimes I have to yank myself, turn myself inside out, or spearhead a vendetta against myself for something good (or acceptable, at the very least) to come out of it.

In case you’re wondering, this didn’t take half a day to make, or three bottles of Red Bull. I am writing this while I took a self-declared break off writing my commissioned story. I gave myself one hour for this, and I didn’t fall behind schedule. Maybe because I won’t get scolded for having the outline of wayward pick-up sticks in this one? You betcha.

Right now, it’s really my family, my convictions and everyone I care about who’s making me push myself a little more, allow myself those little vendettas and the occasional knives to the throat. I want to create my own person, I want to give justice to everyone who believes in me like you don’t want to fail anybody who believes in you, I want to give myself direction in my life, I will have to work with what I have to do that. Not that I can’t do anything about it. I’m thinking right now, of course I’ll work on my productivity. I’ll have to feed myself on my own eventually. There’s really no excuse out of it. But maybe, I’ve been craving the feeling all this time, it’s just that I’ve been keeping it as a secret from myself for so long. Maybe the feeling’s great after all, especially the climax, everytime I write my last sentence before hitting Ctrl+S.

Until I finish this dang story, which I just now realized needs a follow-up interview to finish, I wouldn’t know even if I tried.

posted by xanana ventura @ 11:16 a. m. 0 comments

jueves, abril 13, 2006

cd reviews for april

these reviews were published in the april issue of mabuhay inflight magazine. since not all of us are taking pal flights out of town, or out of the country, for that matter (not that i'm endorsing it; it's just a gig to keep me busy), i'm posting it here.

i'm looking for other cds to review for the next issues. if you want to recommend some names, new or old, drop me a line. thanks.

i really have a lot of stuff going on in my life, like art directing gigs, new writing gigs, and of course, who can forget THE thesis. but all of these are tentative yet, no real progress on my part, so i can't really spill any beans yet. i'm still waiting for holy week to pass before i can start flexing my muscles and getting to work. so in the meantime, i'm just hitting the cardio booth in my nearby gym, and lifting weights at the same time to the beat of hed kandi on my mp3 player. (hed kandi's my new obsession right now, as well as stéphane pompougnac and café del mar. i highly recommend them to anyone craving for a summery sound without having to listen to the mass-produced cliche'd ibiza shit)


to my graduating friends: my warmest congratulations! you deserve it. let's go out and celebrate your welcome emancipation into the real world. hehe. call me.

xananana

___________________________________________________________



Sitti / Café Bossa
(Warner Music)
On its first spin, Sitti's debut disc sounds very familiar, like a song at the tip of your tongue. In Café Bossa, the economist-turned-model-turned-singer starts her mojo on in old and comfortable territory with the Astrud Gilberto classic "Girl From Ipanema." She adds bossa flourishes to D' Sound's "Tattooed On My Mind," Julia Fordham's "Invisible War," Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon," and the Lighthouse Family's "Lost In Space." Aware of the dangers of being predictable, Sitti mixes it up midway with her cheeky medley of The Carpenters' "Close To You" and Basia's "Half A Minute." But Café Bossa's true gem lies not in the covers, but in its two originals. The cozy folky sound of "Samba Song" and "Para Sa Akin" (For Me) are a welcome shout-out to OPM (Original Pilipino Music) greats Ryan Cayabyab and Apo Hiking Society. Because of its ear-friendliness, its refreshing nuances and just because the camera loves Sitti (check out her album photos), Café Bossa looks primed to take over the food chain. Hence the question: Will bossa nova be the new acoustic? Will she be a genre trailblazer like acoustic singer Paolo Santos, only prettier? We can't tell for sure. But the arrows of Café Bossa do point to that direction.

Green Day / Bullet In A Bible
(Reprise)
"Why are there no clouds in the sky?" asks Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt while waiting backstage. Answers drummer Tré Cool: "Because God wants to watch his favorite band again" Maybe it's not just God, but the planet as well. The band's first live album, Bullet In A Bible, is a testament to how Green Day has turned into the biggest punk band in the world. Recorded during the band's two-night run at England's Milton Keynes National Bowl in June 2005, this CD/DVD set essentially starts with front man Billie Joe Armstrong, Cool and Dirnt doing a reprise of tracks from their Grammy-awarded disc American Idiot, while making a show of their political activism by throwing barbed statements at war and "the redneck agenda." The second half puts the band in greatest-hits mode, with trademark songs like "Basket Case" from Dookie, "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" from Nimrod, and "Minority" from 2000's Warning. True to their roots, Billie Joe fuses punk antics to their trademark rock opera in "King for a Day," wearing a crown and cape while sampling Eric Idle's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" and Lulu's "Shout." Not everything is represented in Bullet (No "She," "Jaded," “Maria”or "Homecoming"?) Despite this, Bullet is a pretty solid album that sees the band's jagged path to massive commercial success without having to deny their punk roots. For a band that's been on for 16 years, they prove that the punk attitude was never a publicity stunt, but proof of their artistic integrity.

Maharlika Singers / The Best Of Pilipino Folk Songs
(Tech To Sound Records/Synergy Music)
First released in 1998 to mark the country's centennial, The Best of Filipino Folk Songs is a collection of local folk songs that, in a nutshell, represent this country's upbeat, laidback demeanor to music. And it is not too shabby either; the Maharlika Singers provide a flawless, snappy vocal delivery that offers references to popular music genres, while staying true to the original arrangements of the songs. A highlight is "Pandangguhan," (The Candle Dance/ Fandango) a native Tagalog song that adopts a rap-like flourish. "Sinisinta Kita" (I Love You) is a cheeky Tagalog song that boasts of staccato arrangements, snappy vocal delivery and smart lyrics. Of course, any folk song collection won't be complete without the staples: the Ilocano "Atin Cu Pung Singsing" (I have a ring), "Ti Ayat Ti Maysa Nga Ubing" (For the Love of a Child) and "Manang Biday" (Old Sister Biday), the Waray "Dandansoy," and the Tausug "Sarung Banggi" (One Night). The drum programming and synthesizers distract in places to the entire experience. But talent is talent and the Maharlika Singers deliver successfully.

Various Artists / Favorite Philippine Folk Songs
(Alpha)
Filipino folk songs sound good when they're done right. In the case of Favorite Philippine Folk Songs, they sound majestic. The 16-track affair mostly features a re-mastering of the Filipino folk staples with a twist - artist credits belong to Filipino greats like Nora Aunor, Lirio Vital and Freddie Aguilar. The album sleeve, curiously, does not advertise; perhaps not to distract the viewer from the entire cultural experience. But even if you don't try, you can feel Nora Aunor assuming a playfully cheeky personality when she sings "Paruparong Bukid" (Butterfly) and "Leron, Leron, Sinta" (Leron, Leron, my love) or Freddie Aguilar's wailing guitar in "Ang Dalagang Pilipina" (Filipina girl). The album's instrumentation also helps to the experience, making the songs sound classic, but timeless. It's not just a sonic cultural trip. It's a trip down memory lane. If all works well, this can replace your lounge music too.

posted by xanana ventura @ 4:24 p. m. 1 comments