Echoing Back

Originally posted on my Multiply Blog last February 19, 2007

I did. Kasi on weekend nights I am at the office writing for our weekend newscast. I officially started last night. So how did it went?

Txt Msg: May flash ka?

Rply: Yup. Pero kung tinawagan ka to pinchit for me at nasa office ka na, ok lang. Ikaw na muna. Dadaan lang ako kasi di ko sure kung ngayon ako start.

Txt Msg: Hindi. Gusto ko kasi magfair. Yayain sana kita.

Rply: Oo nga pala. Sana may pinapunta silang iba para magsulat. Text kita later.

That was Julie. Unfortunately, start na pala talaga ako. So for that night and the rest of my weekends wala na talaga akong gimik sa gabi.

Txt Msg: Uy, daan pa rin tayo. Kahit sandali lang.

Rply: Sige. Gusto ko ring magfair. Pero pagkatapos ng Flash. Text kita pag umeere na kami.

So ano nangyari? Hehehe. May instant gimik ako on the first night when supposedly start na ang mga weekend nights ko na wala akong social life. Ayos!

We arrived at UP between 12am and 1am. Naabutan pa namin ang Sugarfree, Itchy Worms and some other bands which I don’t know. Was glad to find many people of our age still coming back to UP for the annual fair.

Somethings never change ika nga… like guards and policemen chasing half-naked orcs. May mga henna tattoo booths pa rin, mga nagtitinda ng mojo sandals, tibak shirts, fishballs, shawarma at pizza.

Pero may mga bago rin… like crab nuggets na unexplainably masarap kahit di ko malasahan ang crab.

Pagdating sa shirts mukhang hindi nakuntento sa mga self-centered shirts ang mga isko at iska (UP ako. Eh ikaw?). Kanina may mga nakakatawang print designs ako na nakita - "ARENEO" at "YA SHALLE".

Sama di ba? I can already imagine sarcastic comments from the other side of katips - "That’s how you spell it? Duh!" Naimagine ko na rin ang sagot ng mga pasaway - "No. Just that… that’s how some of you pronounce it." (Peace blue and green friends!)

Another shirt line (PAKSHIRT) from a different booth offers customized shirt prints. Pero may mga ready-made na rin which reads "PAKSHIRT kayong lahat." and "PAKSHIRT ka rin."

Meron din silang shirts na nagbabandera ng famous Sam Milby line na "i NEVER… said… that I love you!" (TV drama "Maging Sino Ka Man"). His other male chauvanist famous line "It was just a kiss. It meant nothing" has yet to grace PAKSHIRT’s designs.

Pati mga tibak, going mainstream na din. The concert was sponsored by Kabataan Partylist, a progressive youth group backed by UP’s alliance of left-leaning student groups. Actually, hindi na bago ang sponsoring ng concerts. Yung bago is that the group actually used the concert to campaign for the elections, complete with video walls displaying the group’s MTV-ish commercial. Yup, yup. Videowalls which usually displays close-up shots of bands playing were instead displaying talking heads of different young people saying "maki-alam" etc. Two of these talking heads were Angel Locsin and Dennis Trillo. Ayaw niyo maniwala? I-youtube niyo.

(Nothing against this by the way. Buti na nga yun, they are trying to make changes in the society through our democratic institutions. Nakakatawa tuloy yung mga praning sa gobyerno na panay ang pagdiscredit sa mga left-leaning partylist groups na gustong "makapenetrate" sa Congress. Pakawala raw ng NPA. So what? Yun nga yung essence ng democracy - to be open to different ideologies. Nanghihikayat sila ng pagbabalik-loob tapos pag naki-join sa ligal na political exercises yung mga tao eh ayaw nila. Eh kung ayaw pala nila, eh ano pang kaibahan nila sa kinakalaban nilang komunismo? Bakit gusto nilang sila lang ang may control sa gobyerno?)

Anyway, enough about the concert and politics. Let’s talk about food kasi UP Fair is not UP Fair without food tripping. Aside from "making tusok-tusok" some crab nuggets bumili rin kami ng chocolates.

Kasi for 18 pesos, we were able to buy 18 pieces of cloud 9 plus a free picture taken with cloud 9 logos as a backdrop. Hahaha. Here’s Julie holding her cloud 9 and me… well, mouthful. Kinain ko na lahat yung 18 na cloud 9. hahahaha

We also tried Tagaytay’s Mushroom Burger for P40. Hehehe. First try namin.

By the end of the concert around 3:30 or 4am, marami na rin kaming napag-usapan like never-ending discussion about our respective careers and that other much-talked about topic. Tapos more discussion on that topic while walking from Sunken Garden to Philcoa via University Avenue.

Sarap talaga maglakad sa Acad Oval. Sana next time, jogging naman.

So who said wala na akong weekend NIGHTS? I did.

Totoo pa rin naman eh. Nang magstart kami kanina it was past 12 midnight na. So technically Sunday MORNING na kami nagfair.

So cheers… to more weekend morning gimiks!