If Not Now, When?

Last night, I was lucky enough to watch Incubus (for the third time!) at the Araneta Coliseum with my good friends M and P. I'm still recovering from the thrill of seeing them again.

Quick thoughts:

1. I love watching rock concerts, because the people who go there are true fans. Last night was especially poignant - everyone was singing along to almost all of the songs! It felt like Rockeoke night (complete with drunken crazed fans).

2. I love Kylie and all, but Incubus proved that with great music, you don't need any flashy gimmicks to entertain. All you need is pure great music.

3. Bands constantly evolve, but I've noticed that great bands retain a certain quality, a je ne sais quoi that will always identify and set them apart. Incubus may have mellowed down recently, but the sound is still undeniably them. Oh, and lest anyone doubt their ability to rock, they can still dish out mad tunes like Sick Sad Little World and make everyone in the venue jump up and down and rock out like silly teenagers. Hell yeah.

4. Oh and yeah, I love Brandon Boyd. Love love LOVE him. That is all.

Crumb of Light

Yesterday my good friend J shared with me this poem from http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2011/07/monday-poems.html. It's a wonderful piece about the tenacity of hope.

Crumb of Light ~ Jim Culleny

Black holes are not completely black.
One physicist says they leak light
so even in deepest space
where nothing breathes
where you couldn’t be more alone
where stillness is not peace but ice
where distance between entities
makes the idea of neighborhood absurd
where utter is deepest and space is most profound
where moons can’t kiss and the closest thing to embrace
is to orbit which is not an encircling of arms
but a constant falling away,
where the inertia of origin commands
that all things separate, expand,
proceed apart day after day

—even from the black eye of a black hole
a crumb of light is tossed
and the chance of seeing you again
is not forever lost

Aphrodite

It's been a week since I watched Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite concert, and the Kylie fever that ensued after has only now subsided. To say that it was amazing is an understatement. To quote Q, it's like Varekai, with Kylie.

What she had: amazing (hot) dancers, trapeze artists, videos of (hot) models, a giant golden horse, a chariot, and back up dancers with such outrageous costumes that it looked as if Lady Gaga could be one of them. And of course, Kylie's fierce costumes. (Q informed me that the costumes were designed by Dolce and Gabbana. Fierce.)

And of course, there was Kylie, resplendent and glowing and beautiful and absolutely talented. To critics who maintain that she can't sing, you probably haven't heard her live. Her voice was surprisingly steady and strong, and she can belt it out with the rest of them. While some may have been disappointed that she only danced a couple of times (as far as I can remember, only twice), it should be noted that she's (a) not exactly as young as Beyonce, and (b) she's a cancer survivor. That she was able to perform for 2 straight hours, interrupted only by costume changes, is a feat in itself.

Aphrodite was a audio-visual extravaganza. Yes, ticket prices were a bit steep, but as T put it, lugi pa si Kylie samin.