Coachella 2009

(This is the first post about music in...forever!)

Since I'll be in the area when April rolls around, there's no WAY, no excuse to miss this years Coachella. The line up is ridiculous! To peep the listed artists, check out this link ---> Coachella 09. I'll try and write up some of the people I'm down to see, but the more I check out who's playing, the more I see my list exponentially growing. Here are some awesome artists that will be playing, and that I will be trying to watch come April:

April 17

Beirut, Coner Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Crystal Castles, Franz Ferdinand, Genghis Tron, Girl Talk, Leonard Cohen, Los Campesinos!, M. Ward, Morrissey, Paul McCartney, Silversun Pickups, The Aggrolites, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Black Keys, The Bug, The Hold Steady, The Presets

April 18

Atmosphere, Billy Talent, Calexico, Dr. Dog, Fleet Foxes, Glasvegas, Henry Rollins, Mastodon, Michael Franti & Spearhead, MSTRKRFT, The Killers, Turbonegro, TV on the Radio, 

April 19

Antony and the Johnsons, Fucked Up, The Gaslight Anthem, Lupe Fiasco, Lykke Li, My Bloody Valentine, Okkervil River, Paolo Nutini, Public Enemy, The Cure,  Yeah Yeah Yeah's

WOW. I pretty much just typed up everyone that was there, that's how RIDONK the line up is for the festival. I'm sure I missed out other quality acts worth seeing. How is there enough time in the day to watch everyone? I don't even have a ticket yet and I'm already tripping. 76 more days to score a ticket to one of the most solid festivals I've seen in a while!

(I'm beyond pumped! Here's hoping I get tickets to all 3 days...and that I have enough cash money to actually buy a ticket!)

Coachella oh nine home page

To Team Siargao,

I started writing up an entry, pretty much chronicling our trip, from day 1 (the trip that didn't happen) to day 7, the end of the best trip I can quite easily say I've ever had. I could've included every little inside joke and hilarious anecdote, every misstep and drunken episode - in my case, rageisode, but that would would make for a mammoth of an entry. You'd need to bring snacks (preferably peanuts!), a comfy pillow or two, and some background music just to comfortably get through it all. I would wear my keyboard thin with each joke and random encounter I would feel obligated to include in the aforementioned post, and maybe one day I'll get around to it. For now though, I just wanted to get this out, before Team Siargao just becomes another vacation memory, a hazy film we wind up in our heads, and watch it revolve, detached from the original feelings and emotions we felt at the time.

Not to be morbid, or particularly dark, but it's hard to fathom life, how impermanent it is, how finite, and how unpredictable it is. Chance, random encounters are the fuel that motivate us to live, to pursue, to persevere through the quotidian, the repetitive, the mundane. If I were being honest, I'd say I was a pretty boring person. Simple pleasures and chip thrills were my raison d'etre - downloading music, bumming at home - it was easy to make me happy. Going on a week long road trip on a whim wasn't exactly my style - I even remember Gab asking me if I still wanted to go on the road trip up the northern coast of the Philippines. I guess the uncertainty, the pussyfooting (haha pussyfooting), the 'throwing caution to the wind' side of myself shone glaringly through all the false enthusiasm I could muster. I packed my bag the night we were going to depart poorly, leaving the bag open at the foot of my bed with my mind racing. 

A week in a car with people I had never travelled with? What if we didn't get a long, or we hated each other after the first hour on the road? I didn't want to be the person who ruined the trip for everyone. As soon as I stepped in Shav's car, with all our bag tossed in the trunk in a row - the excitement overwhelmed me! Everything looked fresh, and new, and I knew that this trip would personally be life changing. The wind whipping around my arm when I stuck it out the car window felt important, each unexpected mountain and ray of sunshine was more important than anything that had happened in my life. It's easy and amazingly difficult to change one's life. Which seems like a bold, vague and ambiguous statement, but what if we all didn't go? Would I feel the same about you 3 as I do now? There are so many positive things that came out of this trip - it was living! And the living was easy, with you three. 

I had been in the Philippines for 4 months before our road trip, feeling sorry for myself, confused, not wanting to do much. This probably led to my hesitation about joining in with the road trip. It's weird for me, someone who tries to live life without any 'maybes or what ifs', but for the longest time, there was no desire to experience ANYTHING! It's like living in a husk of your former self. A lack of motivation to enjoy life truly is a terrible way to live. I stopped looking forward to the future, gazed purposelessly at my toes in the present and for all intents and purposes, closed myself in a introverted cocoon, with all of my senses dulled to the world outside. Typing feelings about myself, being truthful is rare for me, seeing as I like to keep everything bottled inside, so I hope I'm making sense.

My only point, if I can pretend to have one while just getting all this off my chest, is that this was one of the best trips I have ever been on. Not because the trip, the drive itself was beautiful - because even though the north is breathtaking, we all know I couldn't see much after the third or fourth day. Not because we all learned how to surf (which was so awesome!), because we're all no Kelly Slater's (except Gab)...you know what? Even just recounting everything, every single freaking memory I love to death! If my mind were a record player and each memory was a record, the needle would have worn down the record to dust - every single of the dusty memories all are so special to me because of all of you - the company, the people. I wanted to say all this before it was too late, before we were too far removed from the experience (and hopefully not from each other too).

Each time I look at a picture of any of us, or any picture from Jess's camera for that matter, I can't help but smile. The awesome tans and constantly played memories may lose their vibrance in time, but my love for you guys will not. Ugh Ugh Team Siargao!

Much love, peace and afro grease,

Eddie (Raging Rivs)

PS - We all HAVE to hit up Siargao now, its pretty much a given. How could we not? 

Whenever Someone Leaves The Philippines...

who doesn't immediately wish they were back home? It happens with everyone. I think we should search long and hard, through all 7,107 of the islands and choose one we can all live on together. I guess there will have to be a screening process though - to make sure everyone gets along. I want to set foot on each and every of those 7,107 islands, even if they are just bumps in the sea or vast expanses of sand and nothing more. 

Would That Really Be Cool?

A conversation I had with my mom yesterday:

Eddie: ...I'm going to need to get a wet suit if I wanna surf in California. The water is supposed to be way cold.

Ma: Yes, you're going to need to get a job too.

E: I know. I'm just scared of getting eaten by sharks haha. But I still want to get real good at surfing

M: That would be cool though...

E: What? Me getting good at surfing?

M: No, you getting eaten by a shark! It would be a first for the family

E: :|

In Memory

Posthumous recognition makes me sick. It takes a death to realize how beautiful or talented someone is? Accolades are placed upon a cold tombstone, with the recipient 6 ft under, hugging their body close for the rest of forever - its just proof that people never live their life to the fullest. Simple, cliche, but its a cliche for a good reason. Even as I type this I think of all the things I'm too scared to say or be a part of. The hypocrisy stings like sea spray to my eyes, but the pain soothes too - realization is the first step, is it not?

When I die, I only want to be remembered by a select few - I don't want intricacies of my life to be available to whoever can open up a magazine or a web page. I think it's safe to say I'm not one to make a big deal out of most things.

Its like how people look up at the night sky - we marvel at the beauty of a graveyard of stars - the lights burn brightest when its too late to appreciate their wonder. Existence, supernova, white dwarf, gone for eternity.  Lost in a black hole of insignificance and unimportance.

I don't care about being remembered too much - I'd rather fade into obscurity than blow up in infamy. Rhyme skills, WHATUP. 

For Those Of You Who Braved (And Survived) Herpes Island

Out here, we don't hear anything,

But the clicking of the rain.

Against the leaves,

And the way each other breathes (but you've got to listen)

Make this home - we've never, we never had one.

Out here, we turn out all the lights.

And sit inside, looking out.

And the bay's still,

She's wearing the night's expression.

Make this home - we've never, we never had one.

We've never, we never had one.

So let's stop calling this a vacation.

(We're just here for two nights)

Count the beats, of your heart

And no city streets, to break up cars

We can lie here...

We want no one! And no one comes!

Every song plays just for us

Make this home - we've never we never had one

So stop calling this a vacation.

- Dog Park by Minus The Bear

Sometimes

"Sometimes in life you are the hero, and sometimes you are the cuckold. Sometimes you're screaming about your worst fears , your most vicious failures. Such is life."

Worn out words

Sorry - I'm tired of using this word until the prints faded and the meaning is useless. Everything I do makes me feel regretful and sorry, when it feels like im the only one using this antiquated word. It feels like a dead language, Latin, who says sorry and means it anymore? Do I? 

Feigning interest, saying things that make me feel like a douchebag. Like im talkng myself up, aim to impress, dress my words up to suppress their meaning, holding back my words and biting my tongue, the taste of blood and unused words that speak the truth more than the dribble im blurting. 

Kwento

In the Philippines, when people want to talk to each other they say, "let's make kwento." My brother hates it, and makes fun of people, saying 'how do you MAKE kwento? Do you just cook it up (with matching hand signals, air-cheffing)?' I actually think its pretty neat. Its making a story with someone, crafting a tale and subsequently a memory with someone you want to make it with. It's including people in your experiences or juicy gossip or whatever. I think that's pretty awesome.