Blowing the blues away

If the footloose Grim Reaper had a favorite song to send him pirouetting on a carpet of petals nipped in the bud, it could be Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World."

It's supposed to be an ode to the bliss of being alive, its lyrics utterly incandescent to our ears. We could have hummed along like we were swelling up until we could burp the rainbow into rising above us. But, alas, its evocation of paradise never fails to impress me as something fitting for a funeral procession.

It could be the cocktail of rust and champagne in Armstrong's voice, as if he were tasting the ache of bearing witness to all things sweet and light, so sharp it could whittle his heart to its breaking point.

Happiness, after all, happens like refrains in a dirge. Pretty much like background accompaniment only to our front acts and its regular repertoire of these little deaths: our anxieties, our disappointments, the jiggle of our jaundiced eyeballs to the sonic boom of our sighs.

In this season that confronts us with a compulsion to be merry--the topic of my recent column at the op-ed page of Sun.Star Cebu--it is unavoidable for the vultures of worries to spread its wings over our heads. In the face of crisis--global, local, and personal--the pursuit of happiness does loom no less than an obstacle course up the paths of Sisyphus.

What does it take to be cheerful? It's the crux of the cinematic genius of Mike Leigh in his latest film, Happy-Go-Lucky, whose chuckle-prone protagonist comes in sunlit contrast to the stripped-to-the-bone depiction of lives exiled into their inner darkness in Naked (so fully embodied by David Thewlis in a bruising performance worthy of the Best Actor prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival).

Worth scrutinizing, indeed, how Leigh mines the dynamics of joy without drilling and driving headlong down the borders of escapism. So far, as in most of Leigh's works, those who have seen it are up on their toes in applause. (Click here to read the chorus of rave reviews.)

No less phenomenal is Sally Hawkins whose portrayal has been rewarded with a Best Actress trophy at this year's Berlin Film Festival. She's been coasting along with a wave of wow as critics' circles from New York, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and Boston cast ripples all the way to the forthcoming Golden Globe and the Oscar awards.

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy," exclaims Marcel Proust, "they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." Here's a bouquet, too, for Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins. See the trailer below:

Hail, Himala!

And the winner is....

Hurray, Filipino film enthusiasts have a reason to rejoice with this breaking news from the Philippine Daily Inquirer-- CNN: ‘Himala’ best Asian film in history.

Here's the full report: "A spellbinding victory for Philippine cinema.

Visitors to the Cable News Network entertainment website voted Ishmael Bernal’s Himala, which starred Nora Aunor as a simple provincial girl turned faith healer, as the best movie of all time in the Asia-Pacific region, outclassing such greats as Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Others in the top 10 that vied for the honor, in which “Himala” was the only Filipino film, included Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s “Mou Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs)” from Hong Kong, Chan-wook Park’s “Old Boy” from South Korea, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)” from Japan, Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” from India, Peter Weir’s “Gallipoli” from Australia, Wong Kar Wai’s “Chung Hing Sam Lam (Chungking Express)” from China, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s “Gabbeh” from Iran.

According to the CNN website, critics, industry insiders, Asian film stars, and CNN viewers chose the movies that landed in the shortlist of ten films. The online poll that ran in October determined the winner.

The Filipino classic, which was written by Ricky Lee and originally released in 1982 for the Metro Manila Film Festival, was announced the top vote-getter in the popular vote and named the winner of the CNN-APSA Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time on Tuesday at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Hundreds of film industry luminaries from around the world attended the event."

Take another look at the trailer of one of Philippine cinema's pride:

Worthy of his words

W hat do prize-winning writers Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon, Jane Smiley, Rick Moody, etc. have in common? An ode to Obama, that’s what they might as well have written.

Writers welcome a literary U.S. president-elect, affirms an Associated Press article. “A peer, a thinker, a man of words--his own words,” thus they agree about the author of two best-selling books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

About the forthcoming White House ruler, the AP story also reveals that Obama used to write poetry in his college days and even caught the attention of critic Harold Bloom who thought Obama had the spark of a Langston Hughes.

“I was astonished by his ability to write, to think, to reflect, to learn and turn a good phrase. I was very impressed,” lauds Morrison, Nobel laureate for literature and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, about Obama’s Dreams from My Father. “This was not a normal political biography.”

Chabon and Smiley, also Pulitzer awardees both, agree. Chabon confesses he admires Obama because of “his writing, the quality of his prose.” Such is the source of his charisma, attests Smiley who appraises an Obama speech as “more convincing in a politician than the usual thing of speaking the words of a raft of hack speechwriters.”

So much has been said about how the Obama candidacy took the upper hand by tapping the tools of modern communication for whiz-bang organization and cohesion of campaign strategy. But without the instinctive undercurrent of character, something that Obama oozes enough for such abstractions as hope and redemption to hold water, his message would have left his listeners high but dry. The sheer force of sincerity beyond the electric gift of gab. That’s what drive his messages home, finally. That’s what surges through his unprecedented and almost improbable rise to power.

Small wonder he looms over the podium with an aplomb above the usual political lip service, as when he dares to be self-deprecating during a dinner talk, tongue-in-cheek candor matched only with a burp-worthy wit: "I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."

At last here comes a talking head who can literally steer clear from the bumbling and rambling woes, the foot-in-the-mouth affliction, of a George Bush.

Regarding possibilities despite the daunting tasks ahead, it’s easy to see why an Obama speech is enough for writer Rick Moody to be teary-eyed.

“I think the larger issue is cultural,” he explains. “There's a trickle down from the top in the way art exists inside and outside of the culture as a whole. Here in the USA, you could feel in the Bush years how little regard there was for it. People who disliked art, literature, dance, fine arts, they had a lot of cover for this antipathy.”With a president who seem to carry the torch for writers, that rag-and-boneshop-of-the-heart tribe, Moody thinks, “There's reason to believe that we are in for a much better period.” You bet, so far so good.

Attuned to the swathe of sweetness and light in the wake of Obama's election, here's a new stomp-the-feet-at-the-rooftop song and video just launched by Will.I.Am (the genius reponsible for the stirring "Yes, We Can" MTV, which proved popular among YouTube viewers, and cued in Oprah Winfrey to believe the rap song is partly responsible for this watershed moment in world history.) Sway, all together now, and sing: It's a new day!

When America rocks

Whoa! The rest is history, yes, as we witness this meteoric phenomenon: the presidency of Barack Obama.

Never mind that I'm merely a kibitzer with no partisan flag to wave over what might as well be a stardusted chapter of an American fairy tale. Yes, I'm not a voter. That, however, did not stop me from getting myself stuck on the telecast since the start of the counting of the ballots up to Obama's rousing but sobering victory speech.

“Even as we celebrate tonight we know that the challenges tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime: two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,” Obama told a sea of supporters in Chicago’s Grant Park. "This victory alone is not the change we seek—it is only the chance to make that change."

Ah, to bank on the belief that the American electorate would rise to the occasion. Though I don't have their privilege of getting my voice heard and counted, let me seize this opportunity to give them their due of a standing ovation. Whoa, I say again. For proving true, at least, what an essay on transcendence by an Associated Press writer affirms.

En route to the inaugural, optimism does a moonwalk along with my mood to the tune of James Brown and the pop-eyed creature in this following video:

Jazz and Pinoy pizzazz

Talk about breathtaking talent, and Mon David is an example for the immodest use of exclamation points when describing his performances.

Blown away. That's how I was the first time I witnessed him perform live with another Pinoy jazz royalty Richard Merck in Cebu several years ago. It was just a small bar, but that night paved my fandom for his fantastic vocal chops. When I went to pee at the bar's rest room, imagine his discomfort as I chanced upon him there and immediately grabbed for his handshake even if he had yet to wash his hand after he took a leak. :)

Man, I could have peed in my pants in euphoria over his feat in 2006 when he brought honor to the Philippines and made history--beating 106 vocalists from 27 countries to win the grand prize at the 1st London International Jazz Competition (LIJC).

Knowing how manic I am for his music, my wife made whoopee for me when she unwrapped his album, Life & Times for my birthday two years ago.

Amen, or so I echo Jim Paredes's hossanah for this album: "Life and Times is an album that says a lot about this man whose gift of music is wonderfully extravagant. If talent for music was like water that could be taken from a well, then it’s quite a deep and endless one that this album partakes of. The music is sweet, pure, refreshing, nourishing, and more than satisfies many musical tastes and wants. Mon abundantly serves his listeners a cocktail of many musical genres—ballads, sambas, traditional folk songs with a playful modern twist, and inspirational ones. And he does all this as composer, singer and instrumentalist, producer/visionary.

While the album is a triumph, alas, it is also an endangered one. It is triumphant since in today’s landscape of musical blandness brought about by extreme commercialism, the integrity, freshness and vibrancy of Life and Times easily towers above the musical flatlands of this new millennium. Endangered because no such albums are created now—albums with heart, albums which refuse to be shackled by the tyrants which most music artists these days kneel and bow to, such as sales reports, radio trends, and other ‘business ‘ considerations. To put it as simply as I can, it’s an album made by one who breathes, lives and loves music in all aspects and wishes to express it in the way it moves him."

For someone like me who wears regional pride and Cebuano heritage on my sleeve, it's also inspiring to know that Mon David takes it as his crusade to champion and preserve his rich, albeit endangered Kapampangan language through his art.

That said, and since Christmas is near, here's another cue for my wife or whoever wants to play Santa for old fogey me. Mon's My One and Only Love album would be a blast of a gift, yes.

Here's a video of Mon David peforming at the 3rd Annual Fil-Am Jazz Festival to remind us that jazz runs in our blood:



A footnote to tap my toes along: Another musical conquest has just proven that the Pinoy flair for a class act in the world of jazz is no fluke. Raised in Chicago, Jon Irabagon recently became the first Filipino to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, dubbed as the most prestigious of its kind. Irabagon won a $20,000 scholarship and a record contract with Concord Music Group, one of the leading jazz labels in the US.

Bitaw, bay, di gyod paiwit ang Pinoy!

Here comes history, Mr. Obama!

Now that the air is acrid with the stench from Bush's pisspot at the White House that leaks all the way to Wall Street, being here in America may be wrong timing for any migrant dreamer out to raise the stakes for better opportunities.

But it's also a thrill of a time to be in the midst of history in the making, hovering in the wings of change. (This, in a nutshell, is what my opinion column says in today's issue of Sun.Star Cebu.)

Economic uncertainty, notwithstanding, it's great to witness America bracing to redeem itself from its excesses and the ignorance of its arrogance and prove what greatness it is capable of.

With hope and in honor of the next President of the United States of America, I echo what will resound a few days from now: "Yes, We Can!"

Here's a music video from the Black Eyed Peas and a host of celebrities supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama.