‘hip and respectable’

Ever since I started writing for the Philippine Star, I’ve been getting a lot of letters on my once not too active email address at yahoo. They write to react to something I said in the column that resonated with them. There are some who express disagreement. Even though some of them read the article on my website, they opt to email rather than use the comment box. I suppose some people are not comfortable having others read their thoughts and reactions on my blog. Whatever you readers choose is fine with me . As Mae West liked to say, ‘Call me anything but call me often.’ ha ha.


I also noticed that since then, I’ve also stopped writing regular stuff on my blog. By that I mean writing in a more informal mode. I normally write ‘on the fly’ and just correct the grammar and spelling after and upload it immediately. But since I got the column, I’ve been more deliberate.

Well, this entry is going to change that. I just want to write without having the pressure of being deep or profound and scrutinized by readers of the Star. This is my blog and I shall do what I please. So if I sound stupid in this entry, well… this is ME right now.


Ever since I took the job of headmaster for Pinoy Dream Acadremy, the reality TV show of ABS-CBN, it seems I have assumed a different persona to a lot of people. While I am still recognized as Jim of APO, I am also called “headmaster’ now and after they ask me a question or two about Danny and Boboy, they ask me also about their favorite scholars in PDA. It seems that in many people’s eyes, I have been recreated. And even if PDA is just a TV show, I feel that having the title of ‘headmaster’ seems to have imbued me with some respectability and even ‘authority’. This is the power of media. Don’t get me wrong, I do take the job quite seriously. I am dealing with young artists of various backgrounds, temperaments and levels of talent. Together with Moy Ortiz, Maribeth BIchara and a few others, our job as their teachers and mentors is to teach them as much as we can to give the wings to fly later on. In practical terms, we want them to be better singers, dancers and people and we are aiming to recreate them to better versions of themselves that is more or less measurable every week.

It’s not an easy job for them and us. We all work hard and often we see the results. But they have a long way to go, and so do we. Personally, I enjoy seeing their stories unfold, not so much the love angles and the bickering which reality TV picks up, but the personal triumphs that they experience. Some of them never imagined that they could ever summon the talents they have inside, or the spirit to pick themselves up after disappontments and redeem themselves over and over again before the TV audience’s eyes and most importanty before their own. Crisis helps people individuate once they get over the feeling that it will break them. Or maybe it really does break them and what comes out is the beautiful essence inside.

If you haven’t seen an episode, try catching it around 9:30 PM every night. You may not get into it with just one watching so watch two or three episodes. A good story is bound to unfold.


Ugh!!
I’ve been getting many nights of bad sleep since I returned from Sydney. All of a sudden, I find everything in my old neighborhood too noisy. There are the tricycles, the noisy diesel cars that pass by, carpenters who hammer quite eartly in the morning, the dogs barking. All these wake me up too early too often. Five months in Sydney made me rediscover the beauty and healing powers of good sleep and silence which I now sorely miss.

Kami nAPO Muna, the tribute album to APO continues to rock! It’s great that since its relrease last August, it is still selling very briskly. It is still no.1 in the record bars, and the songs are still top downloads for ringtones, and yes, also enjoying heavy radio play. The craziest thing is that Danny, Boboy and I are once again receiving mail from grade school and high school students. It was quite a thrill (and a laugh) recently hearing a grade 6 student over the radio request an APO song in the original and new version. To many of these kids, they are discovering us for the first time. I’ve heard of many parents and kids buy the double album and exchange listening tastes. This is so pleasantly unexpected and wonderful. It’s good to be recognized for something we did in the past. Time was when we started, Danny, Boboy and I were looked at as ‘hip’. As we got older, we became ‘respectable’. Now, we are once again hip and respectable. Ha ha. As I always tell my own kids, you never know what life will bring!

Salamat Universe!