The Night I Felt Like A Criminal
Paalala: Sa ilalim ng ating Saligang Batas, ikaw ay may karapatang magbigay o hindi magbigay ng ano mang salaysay, manatiling tahimik/magsawalang kibo kaugnay ng pagsisiyasat na ito, ikaw ay may karapatang sumangguni na naaayon sa sarili mong piling abogado upang ikaw ay gabayan sa lahat ng sasabihin mo dahilan sa ang lahat ng ito ay maaaring maging panig o laban sa iyo sa alin mang hukuman dito sa Pilipinas.
After fully reading and understanding that statement, I wrote down my own claim at the Police Station, with hands freezing cold and knuckles trembling, and half my conscience telling me that I was at fault.
What took me to the station was an event that I'd never forget for my entire life. It was last night at around 8pm, on my family's way home from Pangasinan. I was driving our van, which is obviously too big for me, when the first shock of my driving life happened. A blue Toyota Corola drove past my front into the U-turn slot, hitting me (or I hitting them) on the side bumper. Thank God it was nothing serious. Nobody was killed nor bloody. Both parties just went home with damaged vehicles.
However, it was the damage to myself that was serious. I felt like a criminal, most especially when two menacing figures came down from the other car. A lawyer in his 60's and the driver - his son in his late 20's, both looked like they were ready to sue me for the wreckage.
Luckily, I was allowed to remain inside the van to recover from the trauma. My dad did all the talking and debating. He defended me despite our petty fight a few seconds before the accident occured. The annoying this was, despite the negligible damages, we still went through a tedious process before finally being allowed to go home. Police took pictures of the scene and pictures of the van with me inside, as if we were to be reported on tv. And at the police station, I was asked to answer a list of never-ending questions and to sign a document certifying that I was willing to "continue the fight". What the heck, I thought. Why opt for a battle when it could be settled peacefully? Where's the spirit of Christmas and New Year there?
In the end, we all gave up. My mom used her ad misericordiam skills in talking the lawyer into a friendly agreement. He must have pitied my crying sister so he agreed to let it all pass.
In the end, the lawyer and my dad turned out to be from the same province. And his son, just like me, has never been into a dilemma before.
In the end, I realized that my dad was teaching me a lesson. He was teaching me not to become the weakling that I am. He was teaching me to overcome my very emotional attitude with confidence and strength of spirit. Specifically, he was teaching me to push back my tears into their glands because they weren't needed at that moment. He was teaching me not to feel like a criminal despite all the police intervention that was going on. He was teaching me that it's all right to commit mistakes, as long as you use all these to help you become a better person.
But most of all, he was teaching me that to teach my future children, I need not nag or scold them or punish them for their errors. Words teach little, but examples teach the most.
Album Reviews
For the record, my dad and I bought three original music cds in a single trip to Odyssey Makati. We spent what could have been a month's worth of baon even with the apparent fiscal crisis. But it's Christmas anyway, so it keeps my guilt feeling away. Here are the cds and my personal review of each in a rundown:
Seal Best 1991-2004
As the album title suggests, this is a compilation of Seal's greatest hits within the thirteen years of his musical life. I am actually not a fan of his. I never cared about his music, and I only knew one Seal song: Kiss From A Rose. But because my dad plays the tracks nonstop, I'm beginning to reconsider.
Seal is indeed The Voice. He has an impressive and powerful voice which magnifies the emotions embedded in his songs. Like most black singers I know, he sends his hits to the top even without the publicity/advertisement. Because he has The Voice that could do wonders, he makes it to the top even just through the people's word of mouth.
The album Seal Best 1991-2004 is a two-disc package of R&B hits, with the second disc all in acoustic format. So far, I've enjoyed Kiss From A Rose (original and acoustic versions), Killer, and Walk On By. His other songs are indeed new to me, but they have the same soulful substance anyway. Not bad for your 500 pesos.
Kitchie Nadal
Kitchie's self-titled album is almost in everybody's Christmas wishlist. Why wouldn't it? Her album's a great bargain for any Pinoy Pop Rock fan like me. She has fourteen songs in it - mostly hit makers. Her songs Breathe, Same Ground, Huwag na Huwag Mong Sasabihin, and Run are my personal favorites. Her album cover too, is so cool! I was thinking I could pattern my next blog template from her album layout.
One thing about her album: it highlights her honest talent. She wrote 80% of the songs in her pile, she plays the guitar, she sings effortlessly (i couldn't pick up where she gets her voice), and she did the lay-outing and designing of her album cover! All that plus her really beautiful face! Oooh...I really love Kitchie! No wonder she's gone this far within a few years in the industry.
More on the vocal aspect...she sounded a lot like a foreign artist. Much like Natalie Imbruglia, Jewel, and the Cranberries' female vocalist. Her accent was crisp and so her words came clear. And in all her songs, she knew how to stir the listener's sleeping emotions. Bravissimo...really.
Lea Salonga The Christmas Album
However for the first time, a Lea Salonga album disappointed me. Not because of her voice (that will never happen)...but because of the tracks in it. The Christmas Album does not contain the all the songs in her concert repertoire. In fact, it was just a republished version of her 2000 Christmas Album. Because I was such in a hurry the night we bought it, I was not able to check the cover in full detail.
The album, it turns out, is a 12-track collection of purely Christmas songs - Pasko Na, Sinta Ko, Sana Ngayong Pasko, Even Santa Fell in Love, The Christmas Song, etc. (except for one: The Gift, which she did in duet with Michael K. Lee). It does not include the duets she with Ogie Alcasid, Christian Bautista, Erik Santos, and her husband Robert Chien at her concert. Now I wonder if I'd still listen to the cd as much as I do now, once the Christmas season is over.
But I'm still guilt-free as of now. It's a Lea album anyway. Her The Gift version is already stand alone track, and I wouldn't exchange it for another version ever. It is the perfect antidote for Piolo Pascual's earlier version. Lea just seems to bring back the song's meaning that Piolo took away.And yeah...her version of Twelve Days of Christmas with The Company and MPO is truly a Christmas treat.
