Category Archives: music

RIP, Whitney Houston

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I remember receiving, probably around 2004, when forwarded emails in the office are still the fad, an email with a PowerPoint about Whitney and how ungrateful she had been with all the blessings she had received because of how she succumbed to drugs. I remembered being shocked and being angry to whoever was the originator of the email for spreading lies about Whitney. One search on the Internet though and the truth was confirmed.

It has been a tough battle for her and her family. Especially since on the latter years, the world hadn’t been nice to her, using her story as a cautionary tale, demanding more out of her and her voice when it was evident she lost it already.

Now Whitney can have a respite from her struggles. May you rest in peace Whitney.

As for me, my heart grieves on what you’ve been through and how now, we lost your golden voice for good. But that same golden voice would always be ringing in my ears the way I heard it when I was six and was practicing “The Greatest Love of All” for our Kindergarten graduation, the way I heard it when I practiced “Where do broken hearts go” and “I wanna dance with somebody” back in my Center for Pop days.

Rest in peace Whitney. And with this is the prayer that the world will remember you more during your glory days and not the days of your fall from the limelight. You put up a brave fight. And I hope the world will also remember that. And thank you Whitney, for the songs. You are missed.

songs from the heart

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It was so hard for me to sing “Make Me Whole” before. I’d sing a few lines and my voice would crack, tears would then well up on my eyes as I think of Hubs. That was how dear the song was for me, for us. Thankfully, I was able to sing the song during our wedding, without messing things up.

I hope soon I can sing this too, just as beautifully, without cracks showing up in my voice as tears well up.

first Christmas

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I’ve read that it takes 30 days of continuously doing something for it to become a habit. And thanks to Jerico’s post-a-day-counting-blessings-idea, I think I have sort of made blogging daily a habit, even during very busy days (although really there’s the mobile blogging that really made things easier. Otherwise, it would have been really tough). To those who have had read my posts, a lot of my count-thy-blessings posts have a lot to do with my husband. But really, who can blame me? 🙂

This evening though, I couldn’t help but cry from happiness and thankfulness, and at an auditorium at that. We attended the yearly mixed Japanese/English (with Spanish and Korean and Filipino languages for the prayers of the faithful) mass held at the auditorium of a Japanese Catholic school in Yamate. Come Communion, those who weren’t baptized yet were of course not allowed to receive the Holy Communion. They are however encouraged to queue and bow their heads to accept the blessings from the priest. Atsushi queued after me. But I wasn’t at all prepared as to the emotions that washed over me when I saw him solemnly bow his head as the priest put his hand over Atsushi’s head and prayed for him. Even now, I feel emotional. Thankful that I married a man who was not only admirable for a lot of reasons, some of which were mentioned from previous blogs. Thankful because he also respects my faith and my religion. His arms around me as we sang the last few carols before the mass ended, it was to my memory one of the happiest Christmas I’ve ever had. This ain’t technically our first christmas together but as husband and wife after the Church wedding and in our new home at that, it was our first. And I must say, it was a great one.

I was craving for hot chocolate but most of the coffee shops we passed by after church were already closed. And then we passed by Union. Bought champagne and some cheese and nuts/seeds to go with it instead. This then composed our Noche Buena. Funny because it wasn’t until today when the need has arisen that we remembered the purchase we made from Celetná Crystal in Prague back in September – delicate lavender champagne flutes.

Earlier, before going to mass, we passed by a show entitled “The Holy Gospel Night Show”. This made me smile. Because it’s another proof that Christmas in Japan is not just about commerce.

Having had started the night with good music, it’s just fitting I think to cap the night with good music as well. Atsushi’s Christmas cover of Kagemaru. 🙂

A Happy Christmas. 🙂

Shake Duo

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Hubs requested that we drop by Book Express for his book shopping fix on our way home from office. It was a good thing this duo was doing a performance in the open space in front of JR Sakuragicho Station. They were pretty good! Hence I had a good time as I waited for hubs. I noticed though that most of us who were watching were women.

(sorry for the shaky cover on the first minute. I dropped my PET bottle and had to retrieve it haha 🙂 )

They were giving away flyers for their upcoming concerts; their first album is selling at ¥2500 yen.

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In fairness the vocalist’s voice was good and blending with the backup was good as well. Beatbox man was pretty good too! No wonder many were hanging around to watch them instead of the usual handful of watchers for other singers on other days.

Hope to hear more from you guys.

Experiencing mass in Vienna’s St. Augustine Church

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Everything in Vienna is just beautiful and good. Beautiful place. Beautiful people (inside and out – will tell stories about it later). Good food. Really good smell. Beautiful music – even the clanging of the bells of neighboring churches (St Stephen’s Cathedral, St. Augustine Church, St. Michael Church) is like music, they were all in symphony. And every Sunday mass can be like a concert; which it really is in St. Augustine Church’s 11am Sunday mass.

We wanted to experience mass with the Vienna Boys’ Choir singing the hymns. But we need two months advance booking for it and the ticket is at ~€30 which i find weird, paying a fee to attend mass. We already had our reservation at Vienna State Opera House hence we were having second thoughts on buying another ticket for the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Thankfully though, good ol’ Rick Steves mentioned in his book that the St. Augustine Church holds concert masses, for free! Since we’ve limited time, we can only attend one mass. And albeit I wanted to hear how good the Vienna Boys’ Choir really is, we opted for the free concert mass in St. Augustine instead teehee. And indeed we weren’t disappointed. It was good time again for Atsushi to catch up with his jetlag though haha.

Located on Josefsplatz, next to the Hofburg Palace, the church is a simpler gothic version compared to Stephansdom. It’s still majestic though what with chandeliers hanging from it’s Gothic ceiling.

Will add pictures in this post later. For now, here are snippets of the concert mass. Pardon for the bad angles though. It’s not really forbidden to record the whole mass but then this is still a Holy Mass with all the proper rituals hence it was a bit embarrassing to record overtly. I had to do it covertly, hence the bad angles :p.