Deepression

I've spent the last couple of days feeling really out of it. Think of any word that's synonymous to sad, that's me. I feel like somebody close to me died and I've been moping around like Charlie Brown. Sometimes I think I AM Charlie Brown. I mean, we already have the same name and we're bummed out most of the time. The only difference between us is he's bald and I don't have a dog.

Why not just keep myself busy? I've been watching a bunch of TV programs despite planning not to. Good thing a lot of comedies are coming out this fall: How I Met Your Mother, Weeds, Modern Family etc. These should lighten up my mood while I'm at home until I pass out.

I've also finished a bunch of Louis C.K. specials which got me a bit more depressed about where my body is headed. I mean, if I keep eating a bunch of junk, my body will look exactly like his. Seriously. I need to stop. At least for the time being. So far, I've denied my body of ice cream, chocolate, and an extra serving of rice. So, the diet has been going well since the week started. I guess that's something to be happy about. Or not. Maybe food will make me happy. I mean, the diet is one of the two things that changed this week. Maybe I should just stop. I really want that piece of chocolate from the ref.

Anyway, there's this girl. End of story. That's all you need to know about that... is that she's a girl.

Girls confuse me all the time. One minute, they're all over you. Next thing, they're ignoring your IMs. Such puzzles, these creatures.

One good thing I got from all this melancholy, is I've had name ideas for my solo project thing (and I totally have a private gig on Saturday btw). Here's three of them:

• Bummer Man
• A- (as in, A Negative, the blood type)
• Mope Head

I need people to suggest me a few more. Something catchy and will make you think of depression the instant you hear it.

And now, it's raining outside. Perfect.

Plan: Read Books

Last friday, my friend Erwin made a comment about my lack of enthusiasm/enjoyment for reading comics and books, he said I watch too much TV.

Now, this is true. I do watch a lot of TV. In fact,  75% of the time I spend on the computer is either watching some TV series or downloading it. What can I say, while I like books, watching movies and television is so much easier and less time consuming specially for a person who's as busy as I am.

Which brings me to my plan: cut back on the TV and spend more time on books. I just downloaded episode 1 of the new Survivor season, but I'm no longer watching it because of this plan. I also already stopped watching Rubicon (but still downloading it just in case), House, Chuck and a bunch of other dramas. Comedy, I can't stop watching them, sorry.

Anyway, here's a list of books I'm planning to read or re-read or finish:

• Bill Simmon's Book of Basketball (to finish)
• J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye (re-read)
• Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower (re-read)
• Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (to read)
• J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey (to read)
• Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club (to read)
• Chuck Palahniuk's Rant (to read)

Of course, and as always in my case, planning is just one thing. Execution is a whole 'nother playing field.

Of Independence

As most of you probably don't know, I just moved back to Cainta from Cubao due to crappy circumstance. I shall provide the details 'cause I'm tired of talking about it.

Rojo, my roommate who asked me to move in to the extra room in his apartment, has been living in the apartment for 3 years. He and his friends rented that apartment under his friend's name. His friend moves out 3 years ago leaving Rojo handling everything in the apartment (e.g. bills, maintenance). In the 3 years that Rojo has been living there, the sh*tty landlord and him would get in to different kinds of squabbles. Water, electricity, and noise are 3 of the most disputed topics they have. Rojo never misses a payment for the apartment though.

A few weeks ago, our toilet developed a really bad plumbing problem (read: we had to defecate somewhere else). So, naturally, Rojo would ask assistance from the sh*tty landlord, like any normal tenant would do. However, the sh*tty landlord denies assistance and tells Rojo to f*ck off. Livid, Rojo gets into a word war with the sh*tty land lord. Let's just say mild-mannered adults within 10 feet would feel uncomfortable hearing their phone conversations. Two weeks later, we receive a notarized letter from the sh*tty landlord's attorney, his brother-in-law (no pun intended), basically saying we're trespassing his property because Rojo isn't the original tenant.

So here I am, back in Cainta, convincing myself that this is a good thing. Because I'm no longer paying rent and whatever, I'll be saving a lot more money for a Singapore migration or maybe get myself a vehicle of some sort (I'm leaning towards a Honda Jazz, or VW. Something a hipster would drive. A bike perhaps). I'll have the opportunity to hang out with my old friends as well. Also, a lot of hometown girls I've been noticing on Facebook (I had to).

I do miss, however, the sense of independence I've longed for during my teens. The thought of independence really turns me on and I could probably ramble about it for a solid hour or so. I'll try my best to enumerate the best things about living off your parents:

1. Living off your parents. Listen, I love my parents. I really do. But I can't handle 24 hours of them anymore. The constant bickering, the awkward cuddling, it's a f*cking mess (at least for me). The biggest difference between 26-year old Charles and 16-year old Charles is 26-year old Charles can finally afford to live without them. Yes, I would've moved out when I was 15 or 16 if I could.
2. DIY. It stands for do-it-yourself which means no more home cooked meals (unless you can cook yourself), and free laundry. No more made-bed after getting home from wherever and no more room cleaning itself. I had to eat in carinderias (I can't cook), and have my laundry done for an average of Php180 for the last 2 years. My bedsheets are changed whenever I get rashes from how dirty it is, and you can plant potatoes and other underground-vegetables in my room. I don't clean my room. I never clean my room. But still, I had the option to do it myself anytime I thought about it. When my electric fan broke, I had to buy another one cause daddy is no longer around to fix it.
3. Be hungry all the time. Probably my favorite part of living alone. You're experiencing what it was like when the rock stars of today felt when they were starting out. For you to win some, you have to lose some. You lose weight as well.
4. No rules. Probably your favorite part of living alone. You are your own boss and nobody else (unless you have a possesive significant other). Un-curfewed nights. Hang out with your friends whenever. Bring friends over. Watch television all the time. Walk around naked in the house (come on, let's be honest here). Eat Chinese food five days straight. Have different girls over (okay, totally made that up). But you get the point.

Those are what I can think of on the top of my head right now. I'm pretty sure there are other perks. Something that you totally dreamed about. I miss it already.

P.S. I just ordered -- yes, ordered -- my little brother to get me a soda and he did. Maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all.

Eraserheads Part I

Well my friends already blogged about how to get the Heads Set and what it's like so I won't bother writing about that. They're better bloggers than me anyway.

What I'm going to write about are my personal experiences when it comes to the greatest local band ever.

1995 - Overdrive
It started when I was in the 6th grade. My then best friend (I really don't know what happened to us) bought the Cutterpillow album and invited me to listen in his house. All I can remember now is that I literally rolled on the floor laughing during the Overdrive's epilogue. After that, I told my mother what I wanted for my birthday. Do you remember how it feels like to get something you really want? Do you remember not getting disappointed at all? That's how I felt when she handed me the cassette tape. I listened the crap out of that cassette every morning. If last.fm existed in the mid-90s, the bar beside the Eraserheads would look like the Empire State building if you put it in Makati.

1998 - Saturn Return
Three years later, in high school, when we thought we were the coolest people on earth, my best buds went on a trip to Antipolo by ourselves and brought along the whole Eheads discography up to that point (Aloha Milky Way was the latest release that time). So there we were, beside a 4 ft swimming pool, sucking at pool, drinking lemonade, blasting all 50+ Eraserheads songs. If the internet existed back then, I'd be tagging my blogpost "THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST".

2000 - Southsuperhighway
Natin99 had just come out and it was the balls. At least that's what I thought. My dad, upon hearing Southsuperhighway, went bananas and father-preached about what good music is. He says the dude ain't singing (he's shouting), and is disgracing the art of singing. To be perfectly fair, that song wasn't really supposed to attract a normal person's ears. A lot of noise and a lot of things going on in the song, so I can't blame him really. I think he pulled the living-under-his-roof card so I had to stop listening for a while.

2001 - Maskara
I saw it on MYX and I remember telling myself "wtf is this crap?" I also remember blaming Raimund for forming Sandwich and thanking him at the same time cause Butterfly Carnival was an absolute beast in my ears and apparently in the charts.

After that, for some reason, they just faded in my world. Like an hourglass, the sand just kept trickling down until I flip the whole thing...

Part II sometime next week.

Forever Alone

I've been pondering about my relationship life ever since Chui tweeted this meme with the #foreveralone hash tag. Don't get me wrong, it's as funny as any meme out there, but whenever a joke hits you dead in the chest, you're bound to lament over your current status, former romances, and past decisions. Also, seeing your contemporaries be happy as f*ck won't help either.

Are you doing the right things? Am I good enough? Will I ever good enough? You're not annoying, are you? What went wrong? What happened? She wasn't so bad. Did you handle that right? Did you ever handle anything right? These are some questions that come to mind, shattering your self-esteem in the process.

However, it's still nice to look at things on the brighter side. (hello, chance-to-use-bullets)

• I do enjoy watching TV/Movies by myself. I save myself from being bombarded with silly questions whose answers stares you in the face.
• I can write more songs and do other projects/hobbies.
• More internet time.
• More time with the family.
• I save more money to buy stuff.
• No birthday/anniversary gift idea pressure.
• No worrying about your significant other's whereabouts and vice versa.
• You can go out with absolutely anybody you're interested in.

Anyway, I've searched my Facebook photos, and found two pictures for your photo-shopping pleasure. Enjoy.

Download a full Radiohead concert from Prague

contagiousstereo:

Radiohead decided that giving away free music wasn’t enough. So they decided to give away a free dvd online. The dvd is of a show they did in Prague, and the footage is shot by the people in attendance. So it’s kinda like that Daft Punk music video. Neat. The site is running very very slow though. So be warned. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of downloading it, all the songs are on youtube.

so i was having a conversation with this co-worker of mine about radiohead. he claims they became “weird” after ok computer. i was all “are you f*cken serious? they got better! and you call them your favorite band? asshole.” ok, so i made up the last two sentences and may have exaggerated certain adverbs/adjectives, but still. he even told me that their last album release was this year and that they had an album before pablo honey.

number 1, i’d believe him that there was a demo before pablo honey, but i’d never call it an album.

number 2, i didn’t believe for one second that they released something this year. i’d have known about it for sure. but i wasn’t sure, so i had to come home to check the internet. wikipedia says no. and we all know if it doesn’t say it in wikipedia, it’s not true.

so, f*ck you co-worker. i knew right from the start you were full of crap.

anyway, here's the link for downloading the dvd.