The Return of eLf ideas: Memory in Reverse (2012 to 1976)

September 30, 2012

Around 9 p.m.
While I was reading the magazine I bought at Chapters Bookstore (Classic Rock: The Cure and the Story of the Alternative 80s) and The Killers' song "The Way It Was" was playing, I glanced at Evawwen, who was lying on the cushion beside me in the living room, and realized that he had already fallen asleep. Wow, New Wave is indeed Evawwen's lullaby.

Track 3 from The Killers' latest album, released this year

Around 7 p.m.
After cooking a quick dinner of rice and spam, and eating with Jannica and Evawwen (Marina and Gabby ate about half an hour later; Inna's at her work at the hospital, doing an evening shift), I continued working on some articles while I listened for the first time to the latest, 11th album of the classic English New Wave (Synthpop) band Pet Shop Boys, Elysium (2012). Other albums waiting for their turn are The Killer's latest, Battle Born (2012) and Two Door Cinema's second, Beacon (2012).

The first single off the latest album of Pet Shop Boys, released this year

Around 5 p.m.
Arriving home from my visit to Chapters Bookstore, I couldn't stop thinking of the magazine I saw but which I couldn't buy because I got only 10 dollars in my pocket. Finally, after deliberating with myself, I took another 10 dollars from the drawer and decided to return to Chapters. I still have time; the bookstore closes at 6 p.m.; and with a vehicle, I could be there in only about 15 minutes. (By bus, it would take me more than an hour, considering the waiting and the long route.) I couldn't wait until tomorrow because I was worried that there might be no more copies of the magazine left. I have this delusion that there are thousands of New Wave fans who love The Cure other than me. Besides, this kind of situation sometimes transcends me to a particular experience I had in 1976.

Around 3 p.m.

I dropped off Inna at the hospital where she is working now, then I dropped off Marina at the house of a friend of hers. Since that Jannica was at home anyway, babysitting Gabby and Evawwen, I decided to go to Chapters Bookstore to check out books.

Here's a list of books that interested me and which I would be buying soon.

Shut Up and Give Me the Mic! (A Twisted Memoir) by Dee Snider (2012, Gallery Book)
I am yet to read the entirety of this book. When I chanced upon this at a Chapters Bookstore this afternoon, on my regular random book shopping, I couldn't let go of it; but I had only 10 dollars in my pocket (I don't usually carry with me large amount of money unless I really planned to buy something specific), so I sort of only read the preface yet ended up reading a few chapters. (I will definitely buy a copy in my next trek to Chapters.)

Knowing Snider's being different from many of his fellow Metal stars--through interviews and especially from his being one of the interviewees in Sam Dunn's film documentaries on Metal music (A Headbanger's Journey, 2005; and Metal Evolution, 2011)--I knew that this particular Rockstar autobiography would be different from the great number of similar books in the market these days.

Indeed, the book is a breather from many of the Rockstar memoirs out there these days in which the stories revolve around drugs, vices, drugs, and more drugs.

Starting from his relatively happy yet challenging childhood life, Snider's stories seem more credible than those of heroin-addicted Rockers whose ability to recall details in their past becomes questionable because of their long and abusive drug use. In Snider's words, he said that he was sober and drug-free enough to remember what really happened in his life even more than 30 years ago; unlike many formerly drug-addicted Rockers who couldn't even remember what happened 30 minutes ago during their druggie years.

I am yet to own a copy of the book and read it but I think I can claim already that it is a truly inspiring book, especially for artists like me who do not smoke nor drink or even tried drugs and who never believed, in the first place, that Rock music is always "sex, drugs, and rock n' roll."

This Will End in Tears (A Miserabilist Guide to Sad Music) by Adam Brent Houghtaling (2012, It Books)
Simply a compendium of songs in various genres whose lyrics delve on miserablism--sad songs that ironically make the passionate listener happy. The title alone was what caught my attention (It's obviously a reference to the album It'll End in Tears released in 1984 by 4AD Records under the moniker This Mortal Coil). I skimmed through the pages and I saw there Joy Division, The Smiths, Radiohead, and The Cure--and these bands should be enough for a Postpunk enthusiast like me to buy it.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (2012, Little, Brown & Co.)
I don't even know yet the plot of this book. As far as I know, this is a novel for adults. But as a completist, having all the Harry Potter books (1997 - 2007) and the supplements Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001), Quidditch through the Ages (2001), and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008), I just need to have a copy of this book in my book collection.

1976: Some 36 Years Ago!
One day in 1976 (or maybe 1977), my late maternal grandfather (Papa Titing) and Uncles Ren and Gerry with me went for our regular grocery shopping at Makati Supermarket (became Landmark Mall in the 1980s). While Papa and Uncle Ren were shopping, Uncle Gerry and I went to check out the superhero-comics aisle. A new issue of DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes caught my fancy, but I was shy to ask Uncle Gerry to tell Papa that I wanted that comics, so we went home without it.

I was able to estimate the year as either 1976 or 1977 because Grandpa and Grandma with Uncle Gerry .immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in August of 1977, so I'm sure it must be prior that date.

At home, I was thinking about that comics the whole day until I finally told my mom about it in the early evening. Knowing that the supermarket was still open at that hour, my mom with me and our driver went to the place to buy the comics. I was really excited all through out the roughly 30-minute drive back to Makati Supermarket.

Mom helped me look for that particular issue that I wanted to have. However, I couldn't find it anymore. Mom said that maybe someone else had bought it first.

Even now I could still remember how devastated I was on our way back home without that Legion of Super-Heroes comics in my hand.

But that's all right; at least when I went back to Chapters a while ago, there were still copies of the magazine that I wanted buy this afternoon, and I got myself a copy.