La Vida Rosa

Not that I'm in the market or anything, but I'm just totally moved by the playlist (Morricone, Armstrong, and the like) that's currently playing in my PC that I ended up humming and even sort of singing out loud parts of the lyrics here at my cubicle. Good Lord, what will the suits here think of me, slacking off and having a bit of fun just coz it's the holiday season. Haha, right.

"Yep, I hear yah, boss. Sure, let's check out some CDs at Music One at Greenbelt. Just a sec, okay?"

When my own special day comes, I would like my guy to sing to me La Vie En Rose, the song immortalized by the iconic French songstress Edith Piaf. Of course, there's no other way to do it than in front of all our guests-to-be. He's gotta sing the whole thing in the original French, too. Never mind if he doesn't get the pronunciation right or whatever. I mean, we're not French anyway, no biggie. Haha.

Not up to the task? Fine. He can sing it in, what else--*drumroll*--Tausug. Yeah, baby! The good ole mother tongue. Really, I can't think of anything cooler. Of course, he can do the translation himself. I haven't found anything on the Internet, so that means he'd be the first ever to do something like that.

On second thought.. Hmmm... Now I'm totally going nuts with the French wedding song idea. I'm thinking maybe I should do it. It would be a total first. Sort of like that intellectual entrepeneurship thing that Tom Friedman goes on and on about. Not to mention, it would be something with which to validate my Tausug-ness for all the cyberworld to behold.

All righty then, I'm doing it. I'm writing it in stone as one of my plans for the new year. I can't wait to get started. So what if I'm total crap at my own people's language? I still have, what, a few years to practice and write the draft and do it well enough so my people won't hurl invectives at me from the sides of the aisle and disown me for ruining the language or the song. Piaf would flip and turn in her grave. Besides, mediocrity, if not the total annihilation of a cultural aesthetic, would be such an un-French thing to do. It totally gives me the heebie jeebies. But I'm psyched!

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LA VIE EN ROSE (French Lyrics)

Des yeux qui font baisser les miens,
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche—
Voilà le portrait sans retouche
De l’homme auquel j’appartiens.

Quand il me prend dans ses bras,
Il me parle tout bas,
Je vois la vie en rose.
Il me dit des mots d’amour,
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ça me fait quelque chose.
Il est entré dans mon cœur,
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause.
C’est lui pour moi,
Moi pour lui dans la vie,
Il me l’a dit, l’a juré pour la vie.
Et dès que je l’aperçois,
Alors je sens en moi
Mon cœur qui bat.

Des nuits d’amour à plus finir,
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place,
Les ennuis, les chagrins s’effacent,
Heureux, heureux à en mourir.

Quand il me prend dans ses bras,
Il me parle tout bas,
Je vois la vie en rose.
Il me dit des mots d’amour,
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ça me fait quelque chose.
Il est entré dans mon cœur,
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause.
C’est lui pour moi,
Moi pour lui dans la vie,
Il me l’a dit, l’a juré pour la vie.
Et dès que je l’aperçois,
Alors je sens en moi
Mon cœur qui bat.


LA VIE EN ROSE (English Translation)

Eyes that gaze into mine,
A smile that is lost on his lips—
That is the unretouched portrait
Of the man to whom I belong.

When he takes me in his arms
And speaks softly to me,
I see life in rosy hues.
He tells me words of love,
Words of every day,
And in them I become something.
He has entered my heart,
A part of happiness
Whereof I understand the reason.
It’s he for me and I for him, throughout life,
He has told me, he has sworn to me, for life.
And from the things that I sense,
Now I can feel within me
My heart that beats.

In endless nights of love,
A great delight that comes about,
The pains and bothers are banished,
Happy, happy to die of love.

When he takes me in his arms
And speaks softly to me,
I see life in rosy hues.
He tells me words of love,
Words of every day,
And in them I become something.
He has entered my heart,
A part of happiness
Whereof I understand the reason.
It’s he for me and I for him, throughout life,
He has told me, he has sworn to me, for life.
And from the things that I sense,
Now I can feel within me
My heart that beats.

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English translation done by Thomas Keyes, a writer/author who has studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Obviously, the piece sounds a bit weird in certain parts, but the author has a caveat or short explanation for the the choice of words. I just can't find the link coz it was quite some time ago when I downloaded this. Anyway, for questions or concerns, the author can be reached at udikeyes@yahoo.com.


To listen to Piaf's original rendition of the song, copy-paste the following link onto your browser:

http://www.angelfire.com/ca5/magic1/Lavierose.wma

Here's my favorite take of the song, done by no less than the incomparable Louis Armstrong. I super, super love it. Hope you do, too. Enjoy!

Googolplex Schmoogolplex

I zipped myself all the way into the sleeping bag of myself, not because I was hurt, and not because I had broken something, but because they were cracking up. Even though I knew I shouldn't, I gave myself a bruise.

- Oskar Schell (from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

Happy Holidays to everyone who's celebrating!

A Little Show For Y’all

(merrily brought to you by the X Brood, sans Baby Toy)

Ode To The Best

Slippery, mush-ridden slopes ahead. Be forewarned.

In my 24 years of being, I have experienced being hated upon sight. Not because I bear such fine features--the type that can turn the normally docile into the picture of eyebrow-raising cattiness (yeah, I wish)--but because I look a certain way. Sometimes, I get to correct these misconceptions, to a certain extent. But I suspect more often than not, they go unchecked. Because they can sometimes be quite inane, to the point of ludicrity (if there is such a word), I don't really care much. But the experience has taught me that sometimes, all you are to people are a preconceived notion that fits into the mold that reinforces how they think the world goes round. Now who am I to disturb the peace and shake up their perfect little world? I'm just a bystander, a stranger passing by in the annals of existence. Who in this world isn't?

But sometimes, you have the good fortune of being pleasantly surprised. You find out that your role in the overblown musical that is life doesn't have to be limited to being a lamp post. It's one of the never-ending mysteries of life, much like witnessing the birth of a baby or winning the lotto (none of which I've experienced firsthand). Because despite being who I am and what I am (which is sometimes a living, breathing lamp post) and everything in between, I'm still somebody to someone. And I should know, that ain't no easy feat.

To my best friend in the whole world, thanks for being who you are. For being there for me even when I wasn’t all that I was supposed to be. For not hating me when you had reason to. Thank you for loving me, for knowing and accepting the real me, even when you didn't understand me. You didn't have to, but you did. And good luck to you, you still do. Through you I’ve come to know and feel the meaning of love, goodness, forgiveness. Through you I’ve come to know true friendship. You truly are the best person I know. Peksman.

You don’t know how much I want to be there for you on your special, sunshiny day. But all I can do is FedEx super duper grande venti hugs and kisses. Olive juice and best wishes, habibi! I'll be missing you even more, it's so not funny.

On Scroogism

Kainis. The folks behind Avenue Q are doing a restaging this month after an uber-successful run of the Tony-winning musical just last September. I missed out on the hoopla then coz I was too wiped out to lift my arse off the swivel chair here at the office and make the short trek to RCBC Plaza where the play was being shown.

But now, well, 'tis the season for merry-making, like they say. And if the rave reviews of the production are any indication, Avenue Q is bound to leave you in stitches over its mischievous rendition of certain themes in kiddie pop culture (read: Sesame Street).


Grrr. Now they pull this when I've just about run out of juice to fuel extraneous spending for the remainder of the holidays. A little heads up a few weeks ago would have been nice. Gift-giving and fattening holiday dinners aside, the bonus has already been chalked up for some credit alleviation, making it a little hard these days to part with even 500 clams. Gaah. Cruddy heart-searing dilemmas, why oh why?

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Duh. I totally have to do some serious soul-searching this season. Incurring the error of regret now comes just second to keeping hope afloat (meaning, still being able to play Muay Thai on weekends and then gorge at masa sushi joints). I can now say no to a possibly good movie, as long as I don't see its trailer rocking out on cable or anything. Of course, I'm still watching Will Smith's I Am Legend with Lejan next week, coz it can't be helped. Gotta have my last big-screen hurrah for the year.

In times of consumeristic indecision, the burning question of the day remains: To Scrooge, or not to Scrooge. While it's incredibly tempting to jump headfirst into the Kool Aid of holiday cheer and play my own Santa Claus, I think I should really take my own advice and stick with the following yearend resolutions, if only to stave off further damages:

1 - Must stay away from Starbs unless absolutely necessary (i.e., the case of pending OB with client or Town Hall meetings)

2 - Must not partake of any meal that costs more than 200 bucks during weekends and 170 during weekdays.

3 - Must keep consumption of desserts to a maximum of 150 bucks per week. (Really gotta bite the bullet here.)

4 - Must stay away from Powerbooks/Fully Booked/National Bookstore. (Okay, except to avail of that single 10% discount c/o dear company.)

5 - Must stay away from record bars. (Doggone eSnips, why'd you have to go and pull a Napster?)

6 - Must stay away from Nike stores. (Except maybe to get one last dri-fit shirt...)

7 - Must get up much, much earlier and go home earlier and keep away from cabs.

8 - Must get OT-related expenses reimbursed.

9 - Must stop watching the Living Asia Channel.


I guess outside of this, I'm good. Oh well. When the spirit of the holidays wears off, I think everyone finds that you just can't screw Scrooge. So here's hoping personal tightwadism does work out and I don't end up in welfare, hallucinating about ghosts of Christmas past and what-could-have-beens and whatnot.

Muay Thai Update: The 2007 SEAG In Conclusion

Well, it was a good fight. So we didn't get a gold in Muay Thai in the recently concluded 24th Southeast Asian Games. But out of the 11 events that were covered in the tourney (all individual/combat categories), we bagged a medal in 10. With 5 silvers and 5 bronzes, we're salutatorians in the numbers game. Not bad. Especially since the championship went to the country that invented the sport. Not bad at all.

Congratulations, Team Philippines!

Muay Thai Update: The Contender Asia and the 24th SEA Games

Hot diggity dang! Yezzuuhh! It's coming. I just saw the uber-short teaser on AXN last weekend. Man, I thought the top dogs at the station were never gonna air the show here in the Philippines. Woohoo! I dunno what I was sulking around the past few weeks for, just coz I couldn't find any schedule for the show listed in the Philly site. But silly ole me, of course they're gonna be showing it here. That's chamillions of mucho dinero worth of product ad endorsements down the drain smelling like poop if they leave us out of the loop. (Yeah, rhyme intended.)

Dang it, it's gonna be nothing short of awesome!

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Speaking of awesome, the RP Muay Thai Team won't be showing them good ole Thais (or any other nationality for that matter) any lovin' when they duke it out in the ring in the upcoming SEA Games on December 6-15 in Bangkok. We are so bringin' it!