Sexy Corner

New Year - New Ear

2008-01-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

There is no better way to spend New Year's Eve than watching The Mars Volta after ingesting a good amount of brownies that makes everything in your peripheral view more joyful and the food taste better, surrounded by people wearing their personal avatar. It is, after all, a costume party and I was the Ringleader. I met a Banana hand in hand with a purple Forest Nymph, an uglier version of Dr. Gonzo, a fake Santa Claus, a whole gang of Waldo's, and a drunk guy wearing a green and white striped polo shirt and a plastic viking helmet several sizes smaller than his wobbly skull. As the invisible clock struck midnight, multi-colored balloons fell down from the ceiling while I kissed a Cleopatra dressed up for a night of partying with Rita Hayworth. What a way to end a year. In the BART train, on the way back home, the whole car I was in was filled with the scent of vomit and the voices of two guys arguing which one was the better joker, "Here's Johnny" Nicholson or "Broke Back" Ledger? A good sign for the year that's coming.

Feelin' it

2007-12-02T01:51:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was an owl who lived on a tree in the middle of a jungle called America. It looks just like any other owl you might have seen, with its big eyes and pursed beak, but, deep inside, this particular owl is different. Not different like it is special and possessing a deep and complex personality, no no. Not like that. See, while the rest of the owls in the jungle are sleeping, this owl, whom we'll call Tobias, lies awake. Beer on its left wing, cigarette on the other, Tobias sang folk songs handed to him by his ancestors. It's bellowing voice, reminiscent of Ziggy Stardust, peaked out of the gaps between the leaves of the tree it was laying on. But even though anyone can tell that Tobias's voice is sugar-coated with false confidence, it made every creature within 20 mile radius retreat in humility. What a shame. This late-night singing did not go unnoticed. Some were listening. And they fell in love. But Tobias wasn't concerned with that. Tobias wanted to sleep, that's it.

Where Art Thou?

2007-11-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

Few days ago, I went to Redwood City (few minutes away from where I live) and watched a movie that was loosely based on the life and music of Bob Dylan. It's called "I'm Not There" directed by Todd Haynes whose experimental touch perfectly "almost" captured the vibe that I get from Dylan. I have always tried to imagine how a biopic about him would be. Haynes did a great job squeezing out the essence of his audio and visual inspirations which he then molded into what turned out to be a nostalgic film. Nostalgia not in the sense of longing for the time that passed but of culling of certain celebrated parts of history which he found on books, past documentaries, lyrics, interviews and even album covers. Six actors played a "Dylan", each one playing an aspect of his multitude-self. Only one of the actors played him really close to detail, except the actor is Cate Blanchett. There was also a funny segment in the movie that involved the Beatles. I enjoyed the movie. I love the Basement Tapes segment. It was beautifully shot and rhythmically blocked, stream of curious characters flowing in and out of the movie frame like fleeting figments of our most baroque of dreams. The interpretations of the songs were surprisingly impressive too. I'm glad I watched it.

Next movie I wanna watch is "No Country For Old Men." The trailer looks good and I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers too. They always deliver and I'm sure this movie won't be an exception.

Can't You See The Sky Is Not The Limit No More?

2007-11-27T20:54:00.000-08:00

I still remember the moment I first touched a guitar. It was laying on a bed in a room of a house that was filled with love, dreams and a strong sense of family. I still recall the feeling of the cold strings against my fingertips while I plucked them one by one from the thickest string to the thinnest, creating an arpeggio of unmelodious notes that would be perfect as a partial musical score for a scary B-movie. For dramatic purposes, saying that that was the moment I embarked on the obsession of learning the lovely instrument would suit my story perfectly but that was not the case. I was only 6 or 7 years old that time and music, though I enjoy listening to it a lot, was not my priority on that age. In fact, after making my little sister, Colleen, listen to my "scary" tune, I moved on and forgot about the instrument altogether. Potato Chips and beef stew rocked my world when I was 7, not the clunky combination of metal and wood, that happens to produce scary notes, laying on my older brother's bed.

Time passed and several changes in my family's dynamics. Me and my brothers and sisters then moved to different places and different houses, sometimes we're together and sometimes separate. But a big chunk of it was spent at my grandparents' place. At one point, my older brother moved out and left something: Scary Tune Machine. Now, my readers, it is once again very tempting to continue this story with a scene involving yours truly experiencing some kind of epiphany to play guitar when I saw it but there is a twist. The cold flesh-shearing metal strings are not to be found. Money has to be saved. Every week, I had money to buy a single string. Six weeks later, with the help of my older sister tuning the fine thing, it was complete. Still, there was no majestic intention behind my pursuit of learning the guitar. I just wanted to play songs that I like, to listen to them without pressing any "Play" button. The instrument does not look clunky in my experienced eyes anymore. On my point of view, it has turned into a sublime machine with its arcs and curves made up of science and earth. It possesses a character that, once under your skin, you are dying to figure out. I'm slowly getting there but its elusiveness is nothing short of impressive. Time to sleep.

It's been a long time

2007-10-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

One of the hobbies that I've picked up recently is card magic. I got the magic "bug" around late August and I have been obsessing over it like crazy. I'm very much attracted to card sleights. When I was starting to really get into magic, I picked up a couple of books from the library. One of them is called "The Magician and the Cardsharp." It's about two individuals obsessed with perfecting their sleights. One of them was the great Dai Vernon. He was the magician. He was born in late 1800's and died in 1997. Imagine that. He actually outlived so much of his contemporaries like Chung Ling Soo, Thurston, Kellar, Hermann, Houdini, etc... Growing up, he tried to meet as much magicians as he could with hopes of learning their secret moves. He also learned magic from a book called "Expert At The Card Table" by S.W. Erdnase. The book is pretty much a study of cardsharps (card cheaters on gambling tables). Throughout his travels, he stumbled upon a jailed Mexican gambler who told him of a man who could deal from the center of the deck. Not second deal and not bottom deal. CENTER DEAL. It was thought to be just a myth. Some people claimed that they know how to execute such a deal but no one had proof to back it up. This is where our second character comes in. His name was William "Bill" Kennedy. Bill grew up in a town where one of the biggest source of income was gambling. Gambling as a cheat that is. He was working for a man named Midnight Underwood when he perfected his center deal. The whole book pretty much talked about each characters lives and how they end up meeting each other.

"The Magician and the Cardsharp" is a really good book. Very romantic depiction of the pursuit of the muse which, in this case, is magic.

After a month and a half of intense practicing, I sometimes imagine myself doing these big stage magic shows. Cut a woman in half. Put her back together. Levitate her. Teleport myself to the audience. Stuff like that. I'll have my girlfriend as my assistant. That'll be fun.

Ta-Da!

2007-09-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

"It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime
What better place than here? What better time than now?"

(After gazillion minutes of staring blankly at the computer screen)

What do you do with a blog? What do you write? Do you choose a theme for the whole thing or do you just freestyle and write whatever you feel you should write? I guess there is not really a correct way of doing this.

I go to a lot of music events/shows. I watch several old and new films. I listen to music every single day. Sometimes, I get stuck listening to the same thing over and over again. There are times when I can't listen to anything I've heard before. That's what I'm gonna write about. I'll post reviews of shows that I go to. Same thing with music that I listen to and movies that I've seen. I am also getting into the groove of going to different places that I haven't been to so I'll write about that also. A celebration of the ups and downs of the remaining thousands of days left... that's what this is going to be about.