Translations: German / Spanish

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Dear You: There is no rewinding life, there is only the reminding of it. After having been involved in so many performances, mostly directing them, I’ve gathered more memories for one brain to try and remember…and I really don’t want to forget them.

Now, I’m no book writer so to try and write down these memories in book or biography form would be way too daunting for me. Neither am I into blogging which, as I understand blogging to be, is more of a journal of events as they happen. However, I do like the casualness of a blog and, since this could be considered a biography of sorts, I’ve decided to make this effort a Blography…casual writings of life memories as they come to mind.

Being a director, I am very much into Big Picture First, so I’ve mapped out the skeletal structure and silhouette of this project just so we know the dimensions that I intend to move in. The blog titles are there, there are intros for each group of blogs, I just gotta fill in the blogs…one week at a time.

For subject matter, I’ve decided to use what my life, thus far, has centred on: my shows, in particular, the ones I remember learning important lessons from.

From my viewpoint, the professional Live Performance industry in the Philippines, Metro Manila in particular where I am based, can be generally divided into three:

During the 70’s till the early 80’s, it was mostly legitimate theatre. On almost any given weekend, you could catch stage productions done in English, Filipino, Chinese and/or Spanish. There were also a lot of nightclub, folkhouse and lounge acts at this time.

Then, from the mid-80’s through the 90’s, pop and rock concerts dominated the live entertainment scene. These were usually held on a weekend closest to a payday. Name the size, name the artist, name the accent, we had it.

In the 2000’s, live-wise, much work could be found in corporate and social events of every conceivable size and nature. From Shampoos to Software, Energy Drinks to Buildings, Debutantes to Diamond Honourees, these were the new stars of the show.

I, most gratefully, have been active in all these phases, to the point that I have not raised a family, enriched myself with noble causes or enhanced my life with personal relationships by the score, all the time doing my best to share the exhilaration of Live Performance.

In the simplest of terms, my life is Live.

Those moments are what I do my best now to keep remembering. Thing is, memories are never linear. They pop up when they do and not always in chronological order. So every time you visit, just keep scrolling until you spot a blog that’s been written out. Each entry will be pretty much a whole story in itself, anyway, so just look upon them as anecdotes we share on a balmy summer night over char-grilled barbecue spread out on banana leaves lain atop bamboo tables under a thatched roof alongside a moonlit beach. (Actually, I prefer a mountain veranda on a cool February afternoon but this being the Philippines, I thought I’d give you a tropical handle.)
Also, to help you understand my stories more easily, here are some tips to remember:

a.    My country is the Philippines. People, language and things of the Philippines are called Filipino (formal) or Pinoy (casual). Which is curious because in the Filipino alphabet, there is no letter “F”, neither its pronunciation. Yet the name of the country is…? Go figure.
b.    The Philippines is not where East meets West. It is where East and West have already met, married and given birth to countless generations of what must be the world’s most adaptable people.
c.    We Filipinos love music. We love comedy. We love drama. We love Hollywood. We especially love combining them all.

Just to make sure you don’t get confused, I will begin some blogs with a list of terms to watch out for plus their most basic meanings. That said, we begin.