bongga ka 'day!

Freaking LSS. Who uses the word bongga these days, anyways? Disco fever's in town (well, in Arki at least) and it's here to stay. Yikee....

All that listening to Earth, Wind and Fire, Hotdog and VST and Co. makes me think of my Mama's and Ninang's stories of when they were teens back in the day, when people were either cats or chicks, Manila's streets were kept clean by the sweep of bell-bottoms and you have to look where you're going for fear of getting stabbed in the eye by those notorious nik-nik shirt lapels.

In high school, I saw this movie called 54. It was about this hugely famous club in New York called Studio 54, and all that went on inside it--sex, drugs and well, disco. Everyone who was anyone hung out in 54 (much like Embassy or one of those celebrity clubs today)--actors, models, athletes, musicians, artists. Famous names like Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Mick Jagger, soccer great Pele, Andy Warhol--you name it. The film, from my high school point of view, was a visual and auditory feast--one that I could only imagine through my parents stories.

Sadly, I was born during the last days of disco. Nevertheless, I still love it. For me, it isn't just a genre of music. My parent's stories give me this sense of disco as an image, a passion, a lifestyle. When I hear songs by the Bee Gees, EWF and the like, I just don't imagine funny-sounding men in funny-looking clothes singing about staying alive and whatnot--I imagine my mom and dad, my aunts and uncles all dressed to the nines, dramatic makeup and all, swaying to the beat like theres no tomorrow, faces aglow with the energy and lightness of youth.

Most kids would laugh at the idea of their strict, uptight parents, um...shaking their groove thang. But to me, it's a new way of looking at mine. Looking back at their groovy pictures, smiles on their faces, it gives their now mature and serious faces a sense of youth and humanity.

They were like us once, after all :)