“wild nights are my glory”
Monday, October 31st, 2005So goes the line from Madeline L’Engle’s "A Wrinkle in Time" . An apt title I guess as how the events of last Friday fell into place was near sci-fi… almost other worldly… a strange electricity in the air faintly crackling throughthat night’s black sky… echos!
7:45pm– The first stop was at this parlor where i had a hot oil treatment and had my bangs cut. Cheap rituals that were to prepare me for the night to come. Yes laugh all you want, even old crones like me need a trip to the hairdresser.
9:00 pm– The Ziggurat: Dinner with Digital Cheese. Just the three of us supposedly. Mulligatawny soup was what I had. As usual it was a hit. Shiney & Jules had the usual humus & tabouleh & the mandatory pita. Vegetarian fare, although none of us were that. The only thing grilled at the table was Shiney’s "Puwang " script. Poor Shiney, she had to ask my opinion over beer when my voice is louder, my mind is quicker, and my tact and reservation totally vanished. It has the makings of a great short, dont get me wrong. Si Shine pa. But I knew she felt that Jules & I were ganging up on her spirit emptied out on the crumpled sheets. Well she opted to stay at home to write write write. She looked cheerfull in the pictures though… By my 2nd bottle of strong ice, Sunny & Che came along. I asked them over, as my presence was sorta expected at their meeting with our uber-talented prodigal drummerEmman. They seemed to enjoy as well… Nina was the last to arrive, in full muslim-goth regalia that would put Sarah Balabagan to shame. Third bottle came more pictures, then my make-up session– Cleopatra inspired as we were at The Ziggurat nonetheless. I prided myself at being able to gather such awesome motley in one place. And my three moonchildren at that. I never imagined such a feat would happen as effortlessly. With my sweet satellites in alignment, I seemed to glow even brighter.
12:30– Absinth: This is it! The main event. Mirex, Nina’s beau in shining armor escorted us up the back stairs so we got in for free hah! And there I was. Totally badly dressed, out of place, and loving it! "Ethereal" music blasted through the bar (although the blasting took away like 70% of its ethereal-ness) peopled with beautiful people in black either groping each other or looking fashionably bored and forlorn. Not Nina and I though. Smirnoff ice was the drink of the night and we had like three of them bottles. We crashed into the bar next door and danced our hearts out for like 2 minutes to tasteless dance/rnb before running out, our sides aching with laughter. I met a lot of interesting people. Grindboy was there would you believe, of all people. I finally get to see him in the flesh. It was fun, we neither looked like what we expected. But when we ran out of small talk and he was showing me pictures of his dog on his cam-phone (it was a cute dog), I had to excuse myself and dive back in the music… There would have been more pics had I not left my newly bought alkalines back at Ziggurat. Drat… I managed to appreciate more the music of Nina’s friends Names are for Tombstones & Skies of Ember. And these two groups, along with some members of The Late Isabel, were very much open to have their music used for free for independent films. Or they would score for free which was even better. I hope they weren’t that wasted and would remember by the time we actually make the films to use them for… I think I had red horse in between the smirnoffs… my pictures look awful. thank god for Picasa…
I also met a new possible boylet bwahahaha… but i was so smashed… all i remember from our conversation was me talking to a curtain of long dark hair as I moved my mouth to his ear so i wouldn’t have to shout out my small talk (and small talk sounds terrible aloud)… he was nice enough to type his number and save in on my fone himself as I was too drunk to do so… argh… flirting like driving is something I have no aptitude for… He did seem nice, we’ve been texting everyday since… Alas, the night had to end as the gorgeous Ember boys had to leave and continue the party somewhere else… But each had in tow a pale girl wearing dark make up and darker clothes. I was not pale and I was more dressed for a day of shopping, and I didn’t have an Ember boy to uh– tow me. So I had to bid them goodbye and hied off to good ole Bigsky.
4:30am– Big Sky Mind: The cab ride seemed forever and when the driver woke me I felt like Rip Van Winkle. I know, it’s a dangerous thing to fall asleep on the cab ride. Either the driver is a saint or I looked like a hideous thing with eyeliner. I wobbled my way up to the loft of Bigsky where Jules, Malay,their friend & MaryJane were waiting. Malay had a nice roller. But to my surprise, he was there too. Let us call him ToothbrushBoy (you will know why if you’ve seen him in his "major starrer"). Um, we do know each other, but after that night, well i guess we now know each other "differently". It must be the bangs. Aheheh. He gave me his number on the back of a SaGuijo beer stub. I was too drunk to take pictures. Too drunk to remember details. And I rambled on saying things that can incriminate me to a repected actress and an editor who worked where I used to. A san mig lightwas all that I could take at that point.
5:30am or thereabouts; Mr. Kebab. Great more Persian food. This was where I realized that I should never get into a moving vehicle before my "amats" subsides. I used all my consciousness left to prevent myself from throwing up on Jules shoulder. My head was resting on the table the whole time while they ordered their chelo’s and biryani rice. The next thing I knew, we had to go. But I was too spent to go anywhere. They ended up taking me to my fave DOP’s apartment ( which was like 5 mins away) where I crashed on their couch not leaving them much choice.
9am: McDonald’s. Recollections of the previous night slowly took form as ate my big breakfast and drank putrid fast food coffee. All those, surprising encounters. The feeling of giddiness akin to a rollercoaster ride. That night had a "glamour" that seemed to rub off on those that chose to revel in it. I felt lucky. I felt grateful.
12:nn: SM Bicutan– And the feeling hadn’t worn off yet. Even while I tried to sleep in the smelly heated bus on a snail’s pace down eds. I lugged the diapers and other groceries past two floors, across the parking lot, into the tricycle. And even as I upload the pictures and write this blog two days later.
I don’t know how long it will last though. It may not. But I think I’m getting really better in the so-called pursuit of happiness.
