On the Beatles.

I like the Beatles. I can't say that I'm obsessed with them because unlike my more musically-appreciative friends, I don't have the entire Beatles catalogue memorized. I know a few songs, like the popular ones (Hey Jude, Girl, Here There and Everywhere, and then a few others (such as Good Day Sunshine and I Should Have Known Better) that i just discovered around the past two years thanks to my friend Arthur (who writes the blog ihategameswithballs.blogspot.com) and, to You (to whom the best songs were offered)..


But I do like the Beatles, particularly because of a little event that occurred in my life when I was eight that featured the song "Til There was You". I wrote about it around two years ago in a piece I call "Paul and the Musical Insects" because I suck at making titles.

He was a nice and handsome drunk, with his normally fair skin already tinged red after a few glasses of San Miguel, but it was my eight year old self who was tipsy with delight in this situation.

And why wouldn't I be, having such a charming rogue serenade me with a decent though unaccompanied warbling of The Beatles' 'Til There Was You?'

As far as I was concerned, the goodly solid nine years we had between us was hardly relevant. Perhaps if I even believed in the concept of marital bliss (that involved myself), which I already didn't at that age, he would have been the Mister to my Missus and maybe somewhere in the back of my second-grade mind I may have entertained that fantasy.

I wasn't drinking then (because this didn't happen in Europe where children could have their meat with a little wine, and even then it wasn't vino that they had) but my beer goggles showed me that my very, very first Adored had been lost until I was found and that when I was, his heart leapt while roses bloomed and music played all around.

What he sang was an almost silly, simply rhymed Beatles song. What I heard was that our distant ages could not keep us apart, not at all, for if love was true it transcended anything or anyone that willed its demise.

I was all of eight, falling in love for the first time ever that night.

When the morning came a few hours later I was still all of eight years, give or take a few months, weeks and days and I had completely forgotten the heart and soul I offered the night before as I played hide-and-seek with my friends.

True story, by the way. I didn't see him around much after that but but he did move into my cousin's house across the street when I was in high school. Of course, as luck would have it, I learned this a few months after he'd left. Haha.


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Anyway, back to the Beatles. Actually, I don't have much to say on them, much of their myth and history escape me. I just like their songs.


I do like George Harrison, however, as he always seemed to be serious. I'm drawn to serious people, I guess.  Besides, as I found out through wikipedia, Mr. Harrison did pen some of my favorite Beatles songs like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, Here Comes the Sun and he sang the lead in I'd Be Happy Just to Dance with You.


Aside from that, I also just learned his connection to Eric Clapton's song Layla, where apparently the song was written by Clapton for George's wife at the time, Pattie Boyd. Dirty trick, innit? Though I guess she must have been the sort of woman men write songs for.


Anyway, to abruptly end this pointless rambling, I offer you a song from the Concert for George (now available on DVD). I don't think it's a Beatles song per se, but it's a sweet tune played by Joe Brown on the ukulele for George Harrison.

Travels, 3 (Japan)

After taking a break from this series on traveling vicariously by talking about musicals and Glee, it's now time to close the series with a little insight on  how The Land of the Rising Sun, Japan, is on my itinerary.

I suppose it started with IBC-13's airing of Japan Video Topics back in the late 1980s until the early 1990s. The show covered a plethora of well, topics ranging from advances in technology, religious or cultural feasts, traditional sweets, or artisan crafts from small towns.

I remember one of my favorite episodes being about those wax food models that Japanese restaurants use to show diners (foreigners, especially) what they're selling. I

n fact, this episode was what sparked my interest in the whole exercise of making fake food and that's just one reason I want to go to Japan : to learn from the experts. (For those who don't know, they're still showing Japan Video Topics  although I can't rightly say if it's still on IBC-13 or on that religious channel that sometimes has Euromaxx and Arts21 on rotation.)

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Meanwhile, the mid-1990s, I discovered the (accidentally) funny and very engaging Tokyo travelogue, Oh, Tokyo which starred a number of Japan-based Filipinas who went around Tokyo and the neighboring areas visiting tourist destinations.

They were all pretty good hosts although many people who saw the series on WINS (that would be Channel 54 on Skycable back in the day. Right before that channel which had Sister Wendy's show) would agree that the breakout star was Ellen Nishiumi who had a preternatural gift for converting yen to pesos in practically zero seconds, a cheerful disposition, and an honest face. (For instance, when giving her opinion on a traditional fish soup, she went "Aaaa, kakaiba siya" while her face displayed an "ew" look.)

Ellen's job was ridiculously fun, in my opinion. She and her co-hosts went to amusement parks, shopping districts, and restaurants. They basically visited any place that would interest tourists. It was pretty cool too, that she was able to bring in her camera crew into the amusement attractions so you didn't have to rely on mere reportage. You actually saw the ladies shriek in delight, or fear depending on where they were. (One of them, whose name I don't particularly know, went on a dinosaur-themed ride and you could tell she was freaking out. Awesome.)

Ellen on Oh! Tokyo

I wanted to steal their jobs, that's for sure. :)

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Of course there's also Sofia Coppola's 2003 film, Lost in Translation, which starred Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray (known for comedies but turns in a spectacular dramatic performance here as Bob Harris). A fascinating film that inspects the (temporary) lives of two strangers brought together by loneliness set against the backdrop of modern-day Tokyo.

The film looks beautiful, making good use of the location to show how small and alone the two characters are. The shots of Bob and Charlotte wondering about and wandering around Tokyo, and those in the dimly-lit hotel rooms are alluring and heartbreaking. (The soundtrack is amazing, too, featuring Phoenix, The Pretenders, and Jesus and Mary Chain.)

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And then there are the Haruki Murakami books. I actually don't know why the Murakami books I like (Norwegian Wood, Dance Dance Dance, Wild Sheep Chase, and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle) would make me want to go to Japan. In most cases, the lead characters I identify most with are the lonely, jazz-loving (or western music-loving) men who live somewhat unstructured lives (working as either writers or artists) that they can leave easily to chase a dream or nightmare. They could be from any country, I suppose, especially since Murakami doesn't really provide names for most of his lead characters and I can't tell if they really ARE Japanese, but since they're living in Japan, that should be enough.

And it is, I guess.

Besides, I want to see Murakami in person.

Ah, and before I end, the last book that makes me want to go to Japan is Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. A young-adult title I bought on a whim when I was in highschool and I've loved it ever since, for its lovely descriptions of Japan's changing seasons which are also used literary device to explain parts of Yuki's (the lead character's) life.

If Japan was indeed as gently sad and beautiful as Mori's book says it is, then I don't know why I'm still writing this and not sitting on a JAL flight at this very moment.

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On the whole I'd rather be on the road right now.