White Blank Page

It is the fear of a writer with deadlines; the fear of facing it over and over because it always brings you back to the start. Sometimes you are excited to see it, as if the answers will flash the right words any minute, with every blink of the cursor. But most of the time, it stares back for hours.

I call it the curse of the white blank page.

It is believed that when you stare at the white blank page for a long time hallucination can come and bite you. Today it is a monstrous spiky green thing that will poke my eyes anytime if I don’t stop staring. He’s telling me to paint this city dirty. * evil laugh*

Just as any other white things, we can’t wait to get this untainted thing dirty. With this one, it has to be the right words, with style and creativity. If words alone are powerful enough, how much more the right ones? Maybe that is why they are hard to find. Words can make or break you, depending on how it is aimed. The worst is that it stays with you even in your loneliness.

Writers have a big responsibility because words are their weapon of choice. They can make you laugh, cry, fall in love, scare you, and make you believe. They can bring you anywhere without leaving anything behind. They offer escape. A world that makes dragons alive and wishes comes true, where your imagination ends is the limitation.

Writing and reading is like breathing, once we learn we can never unlearn. Reading is a pleasure that we can experience in this lifetime, how much more writing? Being able to express yourself in a treatment of your choice, to share the things you like, hate and all the things in between. A gift given to many but not practiced by everyone.

Ugh, now what to write? Here I am staring at my white blank page, thinking of something interesting and waiting for the right words to come. Uhm…maybe something funny? About deaths and goodbyes? What about monsters and dinosaurs and cactus? Ugh, I hate deadlines. *fade out*

Conquering the Enemy

The leader of every nation has a big task on knowing what to prioritize and decide with conviction how they would approach problems in the society. People see things in different ways, good or bad, each has a different belief. Our views may not be the same, but our enemies are.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu: (Last verse from chapter 3)

故曰：知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.

If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.

If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Since we are getting prepared to give our hopes to our new elected president, Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III, still we need to see what we can do, and not what he would do. Promises are made to be broken, not always, but often.

The Philippines, unfortunately being one of the third world countries, still is rich in resources. Actually, we are one of the richest countries before, because our country is a tropical country. People tend to blame our past leaders why we are poor today, but the past is finished, we should look forward to our future. It’s sad to see other countries to be back on their feet after being down, but we can’t. (Ex. China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia) And all their success is because of their leaders. Always remember, no leader is perfect, there is always imperfections.

Great leaders are made, not born, this is a fact. In the quote of Master Sun Tzu in his book, The Art of War, conquering the enemy applies not only to war, but to all things in life. Each individual’s way of life is different because we are the only leaders for our lives.

Knowing what we want to achieve in our life is often the question to initiate change. As individuals, understanding what we are against should lead us to the solution. It maybe business, spiritual beliefs, family, love, war and many other trials in life, but there is a solution.

I swear I’m in it for the music: A fangirl confession part 1 of 3478347829

I love listening to Japanese and Korean pop songs. That statement (should I happen to declare it out loud, not that I make it a point of randomly blurting out my music preferences in public) is almost always met with the expected reaction of “Haaaaa, bakit?” from people. My older sister, particularly, thinks I’m cuckoo for actually liking those songs that, as she puts it, “you don’t even understand what the lyrics actually mean.”

Which is why I’m glad for the sudden influx of Korean boy bands infiltrating the Philippines: while I don’t really listen to U-Kiss or BEAST (I’m more of a J-pop fan than a K-pop one), their presence in our country makes it easier for me to explain now one of the rather shallow reasons why I listen to Asian pop that isn’t Filipino:

Korean boy band U-KISS

Korean boy band BEAST/B2ST/however their band name is spelled

They’re incredibly good-looking.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate when I say incredibly. (Especially when referring to that member of U-Kiss with his hair in braids. Apparently he’s only fifteen.) Maybe they do look like lesbians as Mo Twister claims in his Twitter. Maybe I just have a penchant for feminine-looking men. Maybe I should have chosen another picture of BEAST to put up here. Maybe it’s a matter of personal taste and opinion. Heck, maybe it’s all of the above. But for me, they look good as a group, and that’s a huge factor thats got me hooked on their music. And I know I speak not only for myself, but for the millions of fangirls out there. (Yes, there are more of us. Muhaha. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.)

Oh, I know, I might hear some wisecrack comment about not seeing them when I actually listen to their music anyway. But allow me to rephrase. When I say they’re good-looking, I don’t only mean that they look good; the catch is, they also surprisingly sound good and dance good, to boot. Again, maybe I exaggerate; maybe it’s a matter of preference. But in a music scene where the Philippine definition of ‘boy band’ is either a collection of dancers (i.e The Maneouvers) or a group of men pretending to be boys while singing in deep voices and doing the occasional hip thrust which is supposed to look sexy but the sexiness is lost on me (yes, I am referring to the Masculados-- or Masculados Dos, whatever they’re apparently called now) for the Japanese and Korean boy bands to actually manage to combine everything into a package is a plus. (I know, we have XLR8 now--but that’s for another article. )

So yes, one of my reasons for listening to Japanese and Korean pop so much is because I find them attractive. I did say it was shallow, didn’t I? But remember, I also said it’s just one of the reasons. What are the others? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out.


[ images used taken from Google.com and are not owned by Carbonatedpinoy. ]

The Set List: ROCK N' ROGUE - A Different Concert Experience

Rock N’ Rogue is a concert series held in Encore (formerly known as Embassy) and is produced by JB Music, Encore and J2nes in cooperation with Rogue Magazine and Channel [V]. According to Jerico Fernando, VP-Sales and Marketing of JB Music store chain and co-founder of J2nes, Rock N’ Rogue aims to promote the local music industry into new heights and provide the bands with the best audio equipment.

Having attended the first two concerts myself, I could really say that the concert experience in Encore is incomparable. You can’t go wrong with sound equipment when the concert you’re attending to is produced by one of the biggest retailer and distributor of musical instruments and audio equipment in the country.

You just have to be there to believe it.

“I just want to give people a nice time, like watching rock bands in a big club with superb sound system,” says Fernando. “Many clubs around town fail to offer a really good musical experience because they lower their costs, including the sound system”.



Rock N’ Rogue had its successful launch last April 29 featuring Urbandub, with the band also celebrating its 10th year in the music industry. The Encore Main Room was jam-packed with Dubistas in perfect attendance. Gabby Alipe (Urbandub vocalist) even confessed that it was their longest set ever, with the band performing almost 20 songs from their five album releases. The band also did not expect the number of people that actually showed up for the event.



Two months after the launch, Bamboo took the Encore stage to give their fans a “musical beating” through their wide array of hit singles and also a few well-known Rivermaya songs. Nathan Azarcon (Bamboo bassist) even jokingly thanked Rico Blanco for writing the songs that they played that night. The second installment of the concert series was another success, and I am glad to have been part of it, in a way, by taking photographs and occasionally singing along to the songs I was familiar with.



Still in the lineup to perform this year are The Dawn, Wolfgang and Razorback.

Interested? See you at Encore!

Click here for more Rock N' Rogue Photos!

WANG WANG

"Kayo ba ay minsan ring nalimutan ng pamahalaang inyong iniluklok sa puwesto?

Ako rin. Kayo ba ay nagtiis na sa trapiko para lamang masingitan ng isang

naghahari-hariang de-wangwang sa kalsada? Ako rin. Kayo ba ay sawang-sawa na

sa pamahalaang sa halip na magsilbi sa taumbayan ay kailangan pa nila itong

pagpasensiyahan at tiisin? Ako rin."

-P.Noy's Inaugural Speech

I’ve read a couple of reactions from people on social networking sites saying that the strict ban of the wang-wang (car siren) is not really a big deal. Well I beg to disagree. I’d like to believe that the strict implementation of the wang-wang ban is the start of a better Philippines. It’s a step towards the end of corruption in the country.

Why do people put those annoyingly-noisy-things on their cars anyway? Those sirens were originally attached to ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. Then they were attached to the cars of VIPs. These so-called VIPs attend many important meetings that are usually time-sensitive. They use the siren to avoid being held up by trapik (fact: there’s always heavy traffic in urban areas in the Philippines.. haha..). I think that people attach those sirens because 1) they don’t want to be stuck in traffic and 2) they just want to appear like VIPs. In a way, I think this is being corrupt. These sirens make people escape the heavy traffic that a lot of other Filipinos experience everyday. Doesn’t that sound like cheating?

I don’t really approve on the use of sirens by politicians either. I don't think they should escape the congested city streets. They shouldn’t think that they should be exempted from the harsh reality that is called ‘heavy traffic.’ They were elected by the citizens therefore they must serve them. They should be humble enough to be willing to experience what the people who voted for them experience.

I hope that the wang-wang ban is indeed a start towards an improved Pilipinas.

Pinoy Pop Culture Icon: Yakult

When someone mentions the word “Yakult”, the first things that come to my mind are the following (in no particular order):

1) Family Kuarta o Kahon, that 90’s game show on Channel 9 hosted by Pepe Pimentel, who had Willie Revillame’s charisma but only a fraction of the hubris, and his (Pepe’s) Roleta ng Kapalaran;

2) Lactobacilli-Shirota strain, a type of microorganism created by a dude named Shirota, the active ingredient in all Yakult drinks, personified by little yellowish Smurf-like creatures whooping the bejesus out of “bad bacteria”;

3) Yakult ladies, those diligent vendors who I would have mistaken for Metro Aides if not for their icebox-full of Yakult products, which they sell near big establishments, particularly Nayong Pilipino and Manila Zoo; and

4) Gabe Mercado.

I don’t even know if it’s milk or yogurt or something entirely not dairy, but the fact that many people still drink – and enjoy – Yakult is a testament to its impact on the Filipino psyche. It advertises itself as a drink to improve the flow of digestion, but Pinoys have digested Yakult some other way: as baon for school or the office, as pasalubong, as a way to appease brats on the way to the church, or just a simple, everyday alternative to sodas, juices, and energy drinks.

The name Yakult is not just a brand anymore; it has come to embody the drink itself. Some copycats tried to get a piece of Yakult’s success by having more striking advertising machineries and other pautot (remember that blue genie-like moron, anyone?), but still Yakult held on. Maybe Yakult was more popular before than now, but its effects are definitely felt even today, not just in our stomachs, but in our cultural consciousness as well.

Everybody now: O-kay ka ba tiyan?

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Kssssss... The sound of a freshly opened bottle of pop! Welcome to Carbonated Pinoy! Philippine Pop Culture for the technologically inclined. A place we can share our mind-thoughts with everybody and everyone! No boundaries, no limitations, no censors. Here at CP that's what we’re all about! Exploring all the hot topics of today, heated discussions about current affairs and keeping up to date on events! Pinoy’s point of views for Pinoys!