Magic ingredients

after this weekend, i am convinced that all you really need to transform a sisyphean (look it up here), potentially tedious task into a fun and happy experience are the following:

• a large group of nutty friends (7 or more)
• a vast repository of lyrics from broadway musicals (the entire sound of music works best)
• a smaller repository of lyrics from some cheesy band you all loved when you were younger (this weekend it was wilson phillips)
  
• massive quantities of fast food and/or sugar
  
• a big, schoolbus-type car
• a sudden, insane craving ("hmmm. parang gusto ko ng hot fudge sundae") that can infect and possess at least ten other people
• the element of carefree risk

acs sang in three concerts in the span of two days -- bayan umawit, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of vatican II. it sounded like it was going to be a dud, like all the other concerts we've sung in as chuwariwaps (aka backup singers). but no. sobrang fun. the crowd at the saturday matinee and evening shows were so game.

and my goodness. may bayot (most recently seen as mama euralie in once on this island) performed with us and she was utterly fabulous. we kept missing our entrances because we were just hanging on to her every note. the woman can make even farting sound divine. thus leo and i just had to have our picture taken with her before she rushed off to another performance (at 10pm!). she was so cute, dashing out of her dressing room with her wheelie suitcase -- "dali, dali, at lalagari pa ako!" haha. starstruck.


major props as well to the up filipiniana dance troupe, the most infuriatingly fit group of college students i have ever seen. watching them rehearsing and goofing around backstage made me wonder what recreational dancers (i.e. those who don't plan to do it for a living) do when they graduate. it would be such a tragedy for these talented performers to go into corporate slavery.

i also found myself wondering why i allow myself to be so heavy and clumsy and have so much flab around the middle, and mentally clubbing myself for not being able to do splits and high kicks. maybe life would be more fun if i could.

on a side note, i got to experiment with what i've been learning in my solo voice lessons, since a full band, rockstar soloists and iffy miking requires you to be as loud as you possibly can. it was fun, and it must have sounded ok, because the priest standing in front of me in the finale hugged me afterward and said:

"what is your day job, sister?"

i told him i was jobless and to pray for me to find work.

his reply: "what? why are you jobless? you should be a diva!" awww. i wanted to tell him to pray for that, too, but his own well-wishers dragged him away before i had the chance. anyway i hope he remembers to pray for me even just once. you never know how much clout a priest has upstairs.

the sweet little old nun beside him added, "you not only sound beautiful, but you look beautiful too!" (while patting my hand as you would expect a sweet little old nun to do).

hmmmm. it must have been the blue christian dior eyeshadow. that or the strappy three-inch heels ;-)