Christmas in Manila

Cha Cha and the Filipinos

How do you get an entire Filipino party on the dance floor?

Play Love City - ...If there's life, I would like to be there...I take a bus or a train to love city. It's the only place I feel at home - and you are guaranteed a cha-cha dance exhibition unlike anything you've ever seen before. Left, right, shuffle, left, right - there isn't a ballroom dance more endearing to Filipinos. We also have an affinity for Brazilian music especially songs written and sung by the godfather of modern

My Favorite TV Shows

Back in the 70's, channel surfing wasn't associated with watching TV. You knew which days and times your shows were on. Simple as that. My Tito Oking Tapia and I were big fans of the 70's police and detective shows. His favorites were Streets of San Francisco starring Karl Malden as detective Mike Stone and the young Michael Douglas as Inspector Steve

Cousins Who Filled The Void

Since I didn't live with my siblings, my cousins and close family friends filled that void. It was the primary essence of my childhood I cherish the most. We played outside a lot - Marco Polo in the pool, playing games like patintero, taguan and freeze. We rode our bikes and even went horseback riding in the city with cousin Dennis' horse, Randy Roo. Boys played

If Michael Pedicin, Jr. Only Knew

Sometimes I get very stubborn when I want something. It's just one of those silly things about me. Such is the case with my collection of jazz songs on my itunes.  It was about ten years ago when I embarked on this mission to transfer all my CD's into itunes. I reached about 6,000 songs when I decided that all the songs that I couldn't live without were already on

Just Say You Love Me

Just like Never Existed Before by Minnie Riperton, Patti Austin's Say You Love Me is one of those classic 70's jazz vocals. End of a Rainbow is Patti Austin's debut album released in 1977. While the album didn't reach the top of the jazz charts, this one

The Best Love Song of 1979

The year 1979, in my very humble opinion, delivered the best collection of female jazz love vocals of all time. Angela Bofill, Patti Austin, Hillary Smith and Minnie Riperton led the pack with smash hits after smash hits in Manila. Okay, I have to admit that it was the year of many crushes and my very first girlfriend. Perhaps, that could be the reason, but I

The Swing Song That Started It All

How can one forget the song that started it all in 1979 - Souvenirs by Voyage. I just completed my freshman year of high school and by the time Souvenirs hit the radio waves that summer, my social life was in full swing. Soirees have become a weekend staple during the second half of the school year. Get together's at Nolet Soliven, Milet Landicho and Frances

Rainy Sundays in Manila

Back in the 70's, switching songs wasn't as easy as a click of a mouse like we do today. If you were listening to a tape, fast forwarding and rewinding took a long time. And if you were not "skilled" in the use of the tape player, especially in the car, you ended up listening to the whirl of the fast forwarding tape and the constant clicking of the fast forward, stop and

When OPM Became Cool

When the song Manila came out in the mid 70's, it revolutionized the way Filipinos viewed local music. Our colonial mentality favored Western songs as more superior and Filipino songs were considered low class and not worthy of our attention. Tagalog songs were for the maids, drivers and the promdi's (Tagalog slang for "from the provice"). At least in

Feel So Good

I still remember the day when I met Chuck Mangione. I was in college at the University of Iowa working as a server at Swans restaurant at the Holiday Inn. He was virtually unknown to my co-workers so I had no problem convincing my manager to assign me to deliver his room service order.

I was so nervous from the anticipation of meeting Chuck Mangione in person - it was probably the equivalent of meeting Paul McCartney or John Lennon for most Americans. I pictured walking in the room and witnessing Mr.

Love + Basketball

Basketball became an obsession for me during my grade school years. There were other sports, but basketball reigned supreme.  At home in Loyola Heights, I would place the small plastic garbage containers on top of the corner desk in my room and shoot baskets with a hard plastic ball pretending I was a pro or an Ateneo basketball player. The constant ball bouncing off the wood floor, the thump from my Francis Arnaiz jump shots and the sound of the hard plastic ball

Do you remember your first slow dance?

Ahh...Bridges by Flora Purim. My first slow dance.

The Maryknoll grade school batch '78 hosted a year end party at Trixie Castro's house on Katipunan road right across the Maryknoll campus that summer. I don't recall whether it was an exclusive Ateneo-Maryknoll soiree or if the boys from "the other school" in Greenhills were invited. Regardless, it was a soiree I really looked forward to attending.

In grade 6, my good friend, Edmund Zialcita and I planned a soiree with Assumption grade school which didn't turn out as we had planned. While girls showed up, I believe we just ended up watching Star Wars despite the plans for an all

The First Love Song

It really irritates me when Whitney Houston is credited for this song which was originally recorded by George Benson nine years prior. Don't get me wrong, Whitney sang this song beautifully. But in defense of jazz artists, this was GB's song. The Greatest Love of All was released in 1977 as the main title song for movie, The Greatest, documenting the life of boxing