I was listening to The All-out Show on RX while washing the dishes last night.

The topic for that night: What is your problem? Text messages startiong pouring in, the majority of the listeners complained about the thesis season.

And then on the second hour of the show someone whose name sounded something like RG of Archie texted. His problem was that the girl hehas been in love with for the last four years got pregnant, and a close friend was responsible. The girls calls him up every now and then to confide and, on occasions, cry.

I almost dropped the soup bowl I was scrubbing.

Some of the lines from RG/Archie's long message (that's probably five bucks spent on a message) that really struck me were: "She was the only reason why I remained a virgin," "I waited patiently because I knew they wouldn't last," "...yes, I love her that much" and "Naging iyaking ako tuloy bigla..."

Was that me? I was so shocked because the lst line was exactly what I used on a conversation with my new confidant Brian. Somewhere under the same night sky someone is aching the same pains and crying the same tears. Sigh.

And then something seriously weird happened during the show's final hour. I wasalready in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what just happened, when the DJ cues in Taning by Imago. He says that RG/Archie had dedicated it to his girl and that she should listen to every line from the song because it was exactly what he wanted to tell her.

Dammit.

The similarities are so uncanny. I felt almost everything I felt during our phone conversations. Perhaps RG/Archie was feeling every word from the song; his sadness soaring and swaying to the vocal's every tonal change, and his chest weighs down with every bass line scale,at that same time. I find that he'snot the only one, as my view of the ceiling steadily blurrs.

Dammit. Just like what the texter said, "Naging iyaking ako tuloy bigla..."


TANING
Imago

sa'n mapupulot ang pag asa
may katuwiran ba ang sana
ngiti ko ang iyong galak
langit ko ang iyong kandungan

permiso sa isang araw na
makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag
na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may taning
tong pag ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit
sa bulag na pag ibig

san hihingi ng patawad
kung walang dahil
antangis ko ang yong luha
nais ko ang iyong kalayaan

permiso sa isang araw na
makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag
na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may
taning itong pag ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit
sa bulag na pag ibig

When The Day After Tomorrow was shown in cinemas I passed up the chance to actually see it. Probably because I figured the elements the characters are up against are extremely unstoppable. What could they possibly do to even the odds? I wouldn't pay to see it but I also wouldn't say no if a copy would find its way into my home.

The film starsa bunch of look alikes. Seriously. The main characters, Jack Hall, played by Dennis Quaid (who I always thought resembled Keifer sutherland), is a scientist who is married to pediatrician Lucy (Sela Ward from the series Once & Again who looks a bit much like Chandra Romero) and is father to Sam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal (who was rumored to replace Tobey Maguire) in the last Spiderman because of their remarkable resemblance).

I'm no meteorologist and I honestly didn't completely understand what has brought on the rapid climatic shift, but quaid and cohorts'acting were almost flawless and sincere I dimly understood that the entire planet is in one gumbo-sized sh*thole. A second Ice Age is threatening to come, and what nature allowed millions of years to happen, will happen in just a matter of weeks. There are already signs around the world: India experiencing snow and the monstrous hailstorm in Tokyo.

Jack realizes this and proposes for an action in a global conference, where he meets a renowned meteorologist played by Ian Holm who looks like a cross betweed Danny de Vito and Berting Labra.

Meanwhile, Sam heads over to New York for a national "battle of the brains" type of competition, flanked by his two school buddies. Friend A looks a lot like that black alien from that long forgotten Nickelodeon series, while Friend B/love interest is a cross between Jennifer Love Hewitt and Norah Jones and the acting capacity of a five-year old girl with Down Syndrome. There they meet Sam's competitor, a younger version of Joaquin Phoenix.

But then we learn the truth, that New York is said to be the vortex of the entire tragedy; the temperature there is said to plummet to sub-sub zero any moment. Apparently, the entire Northern Hemisphere is going to be frozen solid, so a mass evacuation ensues, where the evacuees head for charred Mexico.

During this time, Jack heads for New York to rescue Sam with his two co-scientists. Scientist A is a rotting doppelganger for Treat Williams, while Scientist B looks stunningly like the vocalist from Jars of Clay.

Lucy on the other hand is in the hospital where she decides to stay to read Peter Pan to a terminally ill boy while the rest of the city evacuates. We are expected to feel her bravery and her devotion to her calling, but her acting was so damn ratty I saw brain damage instead. Either that or she was in the verge of having a seizure. I was disappointed. Clearly she doesn't translate into cinema as well as she does on TV wher she acts elegantly.

Jack finally makes it into New York in time to save Sam and a handful of survivors, including a neurotic Andy Dick look alike, a feisty girl, who I almost swore was played by Amy Davidson from Eight Simple Rules, and the old copy of Jenna Elfman as the librarian.

The entire movie felt exactly what it was, an ambitious, big-budget Roland Emmerich project. The cinematic shots, the lush environment only CGI artists could conjur up, the lame-but-forgivable jokes and the formulaic Godzilla-ish cinematography were all expected when I saw Emmerich's name in the opening credits. The only thing missing ire the ear-chattering rock soundtrack. At least Hollywood has finally fecognized the fact that rock/metal songs add texture only to chick flicks and teen slasher movies.

Formulaic as it is, the film works, as far as the technicalities are concerned. The story was ok, not brilliant and groundbraking, just ok. There already seems to be a handful of films with the same premise of love and keeping a promise in the midst of tragedy. Titanic. Armageddon. Black Hawk Down. The only thing that changes is the extremity the characters must face...aside from that all you get is eye candy.

Up next:
Comic book turned movies Elektra and Fantastic Four and the Spawn-meets-The Matrix-splashed-with-Van-Helsing flick, Constantine

She has been calling me for the last few days. Confiding in me all her painful thoughts and telling me in detail of her dilemma. She even cried several times, and I really couldn't fight the urge to cry with her. But I figured she needed an emotionally sturdy someone to talk to so I fought the tears. Good thing I wasn't obvious.

All these years of being almost selfless, I think it's ok to be a little bit selfish sometimes. I'm avoiding her calls now. Only because it hurts so bad to hear all the pain she's going through. I know it's gonna be ok, but I know she needs someone to talk to. But I just can't bear to hear more. I just want to see her and hug her, no more talk. Masyadong masakit.

Sometimes I want to tell her that I can fill that void and be a father. If only it were that easy.

Here is a picture of the surviving and enduring members of Neo Paradiso, our high school barkada. It was taken during our graduating year back in St. Francis School in Sta. Ana, Manila.

Thatr's me, fourth from the left, the guy looking down. There were two more members not included in this shot, but who gives a hoot about them?

Sometimes I would like to go back to those days (a time which Kenneth likes to refer to "when we were luggin around in blacks and whites") when our biggest concerns only included passing our subjects, our crushes and worrying about what to do after classes.