consumers writing this at 4:26 a.m. nov. 7, because i didn't want to loose the thought. finally voiced this out while waiting for parokya ni edgar to take stage.

while waiting for parokya ni edgar to take stage, i told a friend, that i noticed that most of what we've been doing is consuming the things other people have slaved over to put together.

the chicago filipino-american film festival.
another successful ruckus productions concert.
the open mics.
the plays.

i've often been on the other side of things - the producer, writer, runner, food-fetcher, answering service, messenger, set-upper. i am half thankful to be just standing here watching and waiting, because i know it'll be my turn soon enough, ahahaha.

so while watching a couple other friends of ours open for parokya ni edgar - and you'd think these guys needed special connections to be chosen to open, when in fact just a couple previous weekends ago i watched ruckus productions approach aci9 and ask if they could open for parokya ni edgar this weekend. i didn't occur to me then how remarkable that situation would be. it's great exposure for them! ahahaha - i realized this will never happen to me in manila.

i might never get to hang out with the producers otherwise and see how events like these are put together. i might never hear their gripes and struggles about putting together an event like this. bands by themselves inherently are a lot more relaxed than solo musicians or even i think other types of artists, so they were only too happy to oblige to sign CDs and take pictures with fans. one of them even pulled me into a picture when i shyly left the group because i thought i was in the way, ahahaha. so nice.

and then there was chito, who said that they played more of the singles in the philippines because more people knew those songs, whereas here in the u.s., they were pleased to find out that even the songs that didn't make it as singles were appreciated and clamored for when they do play here. i'm not sure if i could approach them and ask them questions while they quietly rested in the lounge area after a gig while in manila.

which made me realize that in those two hours that parokya played, every single person in that audience was there, right here, right now. they were living the moment, with family and friends in the philippines not far from their minds, of course. but they were alive, alive for those two hours. reliving memories. creating new ones. happy for the now, instead of the very real, very alive, very relentless past.

of course, like many things magical, i could be wrong. ;-)  ¶ 11/06/2005 04:25:00 AM