Ailene, Traveling

I can trace my relationship with sweet milk tea to many beginnings.

It’s one of my newest morning rituals: to start the day with a cup of milk tea.

There’s just something comforting about such a simple habit. It’s not mind-blowing like surfing, or knee-buckling like holding a newborn baby. But maybe the reason why we don’t have so many extraordinary habits is because, well, then it’d be ordinary.

What am I saying?

Right. How to make sweet milk tea. You could probably buy one of those powdered things from a grocery. People keep telling me about Lipton’s instant milk tea. I hate it. No milk or tea flavor in there whatsoever.

So I started making my milk tea from scratch. I let a bag of tea (it has to be black tea, preferably from Indonesia) steep in a cup of steaming hot water. I always make sure that I pour the water over the tea because this seems to be an important facet of tea-steeping. (At least, according to a brochure I read in Starbucks.) I leave it steeping 5 or 7 minutes. Or more. Usually it’s more because I’d be checking my mail, or picking out my clothes, or having breakfast. Then I put in a couple of teaspoons of honey, and a generous dollop of low-fat, high-calcium milk, stir it all in, and that’s it. I’m all set for sweet milk tea lovin’.

ORIGIN #1: Marlboro Mornings
My godmother, her tea, and crisp spring mornings in south New Jersey. She always had a cup on hand when we sat down in the kitchen to catch up, gossip, or to plan out my day in the City. I remember her cup steaming on the kitchen table when she ran off to chase the rabbit from her lawn. I remember her stumbling into a dark kitchen, methodically putting together a cup, eyes still bleary with fatigue from work. However, I’m still miffed that all she had at her house was Lipton.

ORIGIN #2: The search for sweetness
I come from a long line of diabetic Ilonggos. I think it’s the mascovado in the air, or our insane habit habit of putting the unrefined, red sugar on top of sticky rice and making a meal out of that, but if there’s anybody who should know what “sweet” is, it’d be our family. Unfortunately, mascovado does not suit tea. White sugar should only be used for fried things (i.e. donuts), and brown sugar is only good for coffee. That left me trying honey for my tea. It’s perfect, by the way.

ORIGIN #3: Southern comfort
“Sweet tea. You only get sweet tea here in the south.” That’s what my cousin told me while we were having tea somewhere I can’t remember anymore. But the sentence stuck. It just made so much sense. Those chic nor’easterners would never have thought doing it sweet & who cares what people in the West Coast do? (This is how people in the Tri State Area think.) So now when I think “southern food,” I think of gumbo, chicken and dumplings, anything etouffe, Lucien’s salad (it had avocados in it), onions the size of my face, and sweet tea.

ORIGIN #4: Roti and coffee buns after midnight
For a while back then, my friends and I would head to Kopiroti after late night gimmicks for some coffee bun and milk tea. I remember milk tea now in conjunction with laughter, good conversation, some bad jokes, and long drives.

ORIGIN #5: Maffie
My other godmother taught me how to make flowers out of clay, started my love affair with the Indigo Girls, and gave me a huge poster of Heavy Metal (the movie), which she helped animate, I think. She’s a teacher, an animator, an awesome artist, and one of the most beautiful women in this planet. She also lives in Indonesia, where I get my stash of tea, thanks to her. I don’t understand what the boxes say, it’s all in Bahasa. But the one she gives me are called “Sariwangi,” and it is the most perfect tea in the entire universe. Second only to the tea my grandmother brought back from Sri Lanka, which cost $20 for 25 bags.

I’m easy like this.

All my kids have to do is ask for a song, and I’ll sing it. Even if they get me with the smoke machine right smack in the middle of it.

Been indulging my love for all things electronica/dance lately.

My playlists are bursting at the seams with songs whose titles I can’t remember because they’re not meant to be remembered anyway. You know it’s an electronica/dance track when the title refers to:

a.) movement
b.) mood
c.) a place (usually a city)
d.) has numbers in it
e.) instantly followed by (feat. ____________)
f.) is remixed or has been mash-up’d by (feat. ____________)

I’m not entirely sure what electronica really is, though. Or what the difference is between dance and house, or the major difference between plain house music and “deep house.” I don’t intend to confuse myself with all the labels and genres though. I think that most of the stuff can be lumped under electronica/dance. I think. If you’re particular, then you sort it out.

Anyway.

Here’s what I’ve been tripping on: Kaskade (he’s turning into my staple ‘in transit’ music), Paul Van Dyk, Passion Pit, my much-loved Brazilian Girls (they take me back to downtown Manhattan, every time, and Cornerstore makes me yearn for the bodega on 96th the way I never yearned for it when I was there), Justice, Phoenix (let’s put about a thousand hearts right here), dug up my old Saian Supa Crew albums, and have started snooping around Manolet Dario & Toti Dalmacion’s Blip.fm’s playlists. (I’d give links but I’m selfish like that.)

There’s just something about that kind of music that makes the recent gloomy/bipolar weather as the perfect environmental setting for it. This choice of music, however, grates on my rocker sister’s ears, and I know my mom thinks it’s weird that my musical inclinations change so fast (i.e. on a daily basis). My dad and my brother, thankfully, share the house music love (my dad fancies himself a raver while my bro is the only one who can actually dance in the family).

I find the beats as good company when I’m writing or making marketing plans or when I’m trying to zone out the Starer (as in he’s still staring at me) sitting across from me in the train. And oh, there’s just something about that kind of music that’s perfect for public transportation infinitude.

Anyway, I’m not completely selfish. Here’s one of my favorite tracks from Kaskade’s Strobelight Seduction:

You can hear the thunder rumbling over head.

If you step out from this airconditioned room, you’ll automatically feel your skin crackling from all the static electricity. And then there’s the heat. It’s like stepping into a sauna. The humidity makes the atmosphere so heavy, it feels like the sky is falling right on top of you.

And then you hear a woman singing, and she sings of Jeremy and teardrops.

And it’s an infinite moment.

We got asked by the Philips Bandwidth team why we do Light It Up at Conspiracy. And the simplest answer, really, is that we want to give Christian musicians and artists that place where they can share their love for music and God in one go. And maybe we also want to get rid of all the misconceptions that Christian music cannot be good music, and that it comes in choir gowns and cardboard stage productions.

Over the past couple of months we’ve had recording artists that you love listening to on the radio strip down their music and their hearts to be as real as they can possibly be on the Light It Up stage.

If you’re a real audiophile, then you would probably appreciate the courage and humility that comes with agreeing to perform in an out-of-the-way garden cafe in the middle of Quezon City for no other reason than to play some music.

There’s also something that’s happening at Light It Up that we never anticipated: how most of the artists that visit us use the LIU stage to test-drive their songs for the first time. I’ve seen Acel Van Ommen scribble down lyrics, hastily, on a table napkin as she worked out a song in her head. Same goes for Aia De Leon, who I saw practicing chords outside before she went on stage, and then made us all adore her when she started singing about how she’d make a great wife. Yeng Constantino reduced us all to tears as she cried out her love for God.

“And more.” <- Those words always seem to be less than what’s really happening every night at Light It Up.

Anyway, here’s the latest new song that got test-driven in Light It Up. Julianne wasn’t supposed to play, but since she dropped by, she gamely went up on stage and talked to us about her latest song.

Next Light It Up will be on July 23, 2009 at Conspiracy Garden Cafe, Visayas Avenue, Quezon City.

I can’t get enough of this country’s musicality.

We’ve got music dripping and running down over buildings, washing the streets clean, and dunking us, head-first, into a wild mixture of notes and rhythms and beats.

For the first half of 2009, the following artists/bands have had me going nuts, sometimes slack-jawed, often dreamy-eyed, mostly dancing (well, dancing as a term might be wishful thinking; let’s just say that I endeavored to move my body in time with the rest of the song), and definitely raring for more music.

Here we go:

TAKEN BY CARS
I’ve heard about this band for a while now, but the sad truth is that I really only got to hear them play live a couple of months ago at a Sonic Boom gig in Route 196. What the hell was I thinking? I should’ve followed this band more closely! I should’ve watched more of their gigs! I can’t believe I became a fan this late! But as it is, I am so proud that they’ve been picked as one of the bands from the Philippines this year at Singapore’s Bay Beats (the other one is The Ambassadors, I think). Philips also picked them out as the distinct sound when they launched their GoGears a month ago. Taken By Cars’ music is “heart-stopping hot.” I’m not exaggerating. Just ask the hundreds of other people who can’t help but move/scream/yell when they’re on stage.

TECHY ROMANTICS
I will be forever grateful to Paul Pajo for recommending the Techy Romantics to me. It’s been a long time since an electronica group has managed to get me dancing. I love them. Seriously. It was instant love right from the moment I heard them live. How could I not love them? They’re not drearily depressing or atmospheric or weird or crazy (which is what most electronica groups are like). The Techy Romantics are just right. Sure, some of their songs could use some cleaning up, and they could change up some samples and introduce some new rhythms and be a little more unpredictable – but then they’d be too good. Right now, I love them the way I love Fruit Loops: a little loopy, very sweet, and definitely keeps you reaching in for more. I heard that an album is coming out in October; Can’t wait.

JULIANNE
Who wouldn’t love this woman’s style? She’s brought the soul back into the scene, and ushered in a much-needed refreshing ambiance to our tired indie world. It also helps that she’s amazingly beautiful, smart, sweet, and an insanely great guitarist in her own right. I heard that she got Singapore almost kneeling and worshiping her when she went there. I wouldn’t wonder. She’s got this incredibly rhythmic style to her that nobody else has here in the Philippines. I cannot wait to hear how her music develops.

GASULINA
Heard this band for the first time last Saturday at the Fete de la Musique, and I love them. The crowd loved them, too. They were one of the few bands that actually got the crowd’s attention and had us all yelling “more.” And believe me, I want more of Gasulina. I’m not at all surprised that they came from Cagayan de Oro; the last time I was in CDO (two years ago), I heard some dudes playing some Joe Satriani and Steve Vai in the night market at Divisoria that sounded like it a recording. So here’s a bottoms-up salute to Gasulina; a band that’s sure to make a difference wherever they go.

US-2 EVIL-0
I have a love-hate relationship going on with this group. On one hand, the musicians are awesome by themselves. On the other hand, Quark Henares annoys the hell out of me. Don’t get me wrong, I respect Quark’s contribution to film and the arts – that just doesn’t mean that he can get up on a mic and make out like he’s funny-ha-ha-oh-that’s-such-a-cute-band. I know, I know, US-2 Evil-0 is supposed to be funny and I’m not supposed to take them this seriously. I can’t help it if Quark’s antics on stage rub off wrong on me, can I? So take out Quark and leave Mich, because that woman is adorably cute by herself. And I know I’m going to regret putting this here, but I find Nix Puno weirdly attractive. WEIRD! (Incidentally, also the best word to describe why I still listen to US-2 Evil-0.)

JOHNOY DANAO
So the fact that he is hot stuff and his voice even hotter doesn’t mean that I’m biased. Not at all. It may sway opinion slightly over to his end, but then again, I’d have to be made of stone not to want to listen to this man. His voice is sexy-hot, and he chooses exactly the right kind of songs that play up the sexy-hot part. (Very devious of him.) I don’t suggest watching him if you’ve just broken up with your boyfriend (which is what my friend did, and she ended up brooding for a month), or if you’re looking for love (because then Johnoy will start looking mighty fine to you). Actually, I don’t suggest you watch him at all, because Johnoy is my comfort music for rainy nights and long days, and I don’t want anyone else making goo-goo eyes at him when I’m trying to pretend that his music’s all mine.

I guess what excites me about all the artists that I just mentioned is the fact that they’re all at some figurative brink of their musicality, and their music seems to be in a constant state of good flux, and they all seem to be ushering in a new sound of OPM.

I don’t know about you guys, but I just can’t wait.

It’s that particular day when your brain cells move backward twice as fast for every time you need them to start moving forward. It’s the day when everything you need to work properly doesn’t. When people give you a box of rubber bands when you asked for printer ink to print the ultra-important design that will change all modern perceptions of Art.

It’s that one day when all of Murphy’s Laws happen to you. All of them, in just one day.

It’s that day when you feel like sleep is invading each part of your body on a cellular level and trying to get up and do something is like moving through treacle, so why bother?

It’s a day outside of time when nothing moves and nothing works and everybody around you is sucked into the same non-movement.

Basically we should consider black hole days as a sort of quantum quicksand. The best way to get sucked into quicksand is to wriggle your way out of it. The same principle applies with black hole days. So our first advice to you would be: STOP FIGHTING IT. A black hole day generally lasts only for 15 hours or so. Just go with the flow, and find something else to do. Or sleep. Or go on Facebook.

Just don’t try and fight it. What you want to do is slither your way out of black hole days, much the same way that Bear Grylls slithered his way out of quicksand.

Now I know all of you have your own versions of what a black hole day is, and I’d be happy to hear about it. The world needs to know more about these black hole days. Maybe with plenty of research and study we can finally get around to never having one.

There’s nothing like writing on a rainy night.

The blank page seems all the more profound because of the counterpoint of the falling rain, and if there’s some breeze, then you have the stuff of legends right at your fingertips.

You are poet, lover, artist, and eloquence is your middle name. Men want to kiss your lips and women swoon at your feet.

On rainy nights, anything is possible.

Lately, I’ve been singing a lot of (relatively) old praise and worship songs. For many reasons that I don’t want to get into, the songs have taken on a new set of meanings for me. Now, when I sing them, I am not only able to offer up my painful and confusing situations to the one God who can do something about them, but I also can’t help but be thankful that He has brought me so far removed from the girl who used to sing those songs many years ago.

There’s a song that goes, “there is none like You/no one else can touch my heart like You do/I could search for all eternity long/And find there is none like You.” Oh, I know, I KNOW, exactly how lost I am when I try to look for my strength, my song, my purpose in something else aside from God.

There’s a part in “None But Jesus,” when the singer reminds herself that “in the chaos/in confusion/I know You’re sovereign still” that makes me feel like she is singing a line straight from my soul.

And something in my heart burns when I sing a verse from the Desert Song that goes, “this is my prayer in the fire/in weakness or trial or pain/There is a faith proved of more worth than gold/So refine me, Lord, through the flames.”

You see, the comfort I need won’t be found in so many caffeinated conversations or bottled escapes. Instead of my old habits of venting or ranting to my friends, I find myself singing out my frustration, and crying out my despair. And somewhere along the way, I found that I have traded it all in for an incomprehensible, unexpected peace that guards my heart.

And suddenly, despite and in spite of everything, I have joy.

It makes no sense, I know.

1. Just in case you don’t know, Philips will be launching a new set of really adorable players tonight at High Street. So if you live in the area, is game for a wet walk around the Fort, come. Couple of my favorite bands will be playing, i.e. Techy Romantics and Taken By Cars.
2. I cannot believe you haven’t heard of Taken By Cars. Really awesome band. Reactions to them have been pretty extreme. On one hand, you have those who think that they’re just rehashing a lot of post-punk, sneaker . On the other hand, they’re really awesome live. Just a different kind of smashing charisma and potent tunes; Definitely a heavy, good trip.
3. And you haven’t heard of the Techy Romantics. Well, it’s really hard to get into that kind of music, especially if you’re not the Euro/House/Trip Hop kind of person. So I won’t bother to explain myself. But if you are one of that ilk (the type who collects so much house music collections that half of your hard drive has been invaded by Ministry of Sound) then listening to them is like listening to Bonnie Bailey or Stephanie James up close. (Thanks, Paul, really, for telling me about them.)
4. Ran 3K yesterday, some speed work, before I run a 5K at the Mizuno Infinity Run on sunday. The truth is I haven’t really been able to run the past month at all. (Thank you, Work, for intruding on my racing habit.) So I’m kind of nervous about the 5K tomorrow since I’m not really in any shape to run a race of any kind. Just as long as it doesn’t take me an hour to finish, I’ll be a very happy girl.
5. But my run last night was awesome. It was pouring (as we all know) and it felt glorious. The air was cool, the rain was pouring down nonstop, my clothes were soaked (mental note to self: check on rubber shoes; they must not be soggy for tomorrow’s race), and good thing I’d managed to dig up some really old Apple ear phones which I didn’t mind getting wet (honestly, I doubt if rain will make those things worse) and I was able to enjoy a Podrunner mix that was thumping along steadily under the sound of the downpour.
6. French Film Festival week started yesterday, ladies and gentleman. Lot of opinions about the regular screening times, but you can find one of those opinions here. Some day, somebody has to sit down and just write out a decent screening schedule for a future film festival so that cinephiles can plan their days and nights around it.
7. Heard rumors about a Fete De La Musique on the 20th. As far as Deus and I are concerned, the Fete is dead to us.
8. Coming up: What I think about Sparky, my latest fling.