Inspiration for Writing

A few days ago I got a random text message from a friend of mine, it was one hell of a busy week for everyone and then this question just got me. "What inspires you to write?" - I said to myself "yeah, that's a good question, time for some self assessment". So I sent her a reply with my reasons and after that I started to think when did I first start anyway?

I sat for awhile to remember the first song I've written out of my Love for music (I was in a punk-rock band before during my high school days.) was called "To be with you" and I wrote it during my band's out of town party in a beach in Zambales. 

This is the latest I've written. Just last week in a mall.

But before I wrote songs, I've written quite a lot of poetry although I wasn't inspired by poets. Musically I was inspired by Michael Jackson, Coldplay, Rico Blanco (in Rivermaya) and local band Join The Club. My music world revolved around them, especially with Michael Jackson's incredible music. I remember the first song and my most Loved song of his was when I heard it in the end credits of "Free Willy" and it was called "Will you be there" and that just makes me levitate when hearing the song and not one day today will I sleep without hearing that song.

My biggest musical inspirations in my life. Michael Jackson, on the top right is Coldplay and Rico Blanco at the bottom.

I had a lonely youth experience, not that I didn't have friends or I didn't have a good time, there were lots and lots of good times with my friends and drinking here and there when we were 16 (only in the Philippines!). But I always felt that I didn't belong to this nightlife thing or this party thing, it was fun but it didn't make me fully happy and contented, I prefer to be in a quieter place with a few and sometimes I prefer to be alone. I didn't feel I belonged in a certain group of people, I had good and bad friends, friends who were there for the good times and friends who'll stay by your side during the bad times.

In high school when I was lonely I'd write at the back of my notebook with poems and lines from songs I could relate to. 

Today in college whenever I feel stressed and lonely, I usually go out in my own solo photo walk, I always have with me my camera of course, a face towel, a small notebook and a pen where I would write in songs. My favorite place to hang-out in Manila would be the Rizal Park because it's where all sorts of people are, there are tourists, local tourists, passers-by, bystanders street people. I love to watch people do what they do without disturbing them, just watch them around while I listen to music.

Lovely couple by the bay.

My Inspiration for writing? It would be the people I see, usually I write about Love because for me it is both the greatest and most dangerous thing in the world, I've seen people get well and get worst with Love. If I wanted to write something but I haven't experienced yet (like having a relationship), I listen to my friends' stories and when I'm in my photo walk, I sit under a shade (usually under a tree) and start writing with the things I see.

A lonely and depressed man in the streets of Intramuros.

So far I've written myself 12 songs and although all of it is about Love, it tells differently from another. I've written a song called "MANILA SKY" while I was in Manila bay and saw two people being introduced to one another and then I watched them for awhile while I wrote the song and when I write the music automatically comes in like setting the mood of the song.

The inspiration for me comes from something we don't have that others have, it is our longing to have whatever it is that makes us happy, for me when I see a sweet couple I can't help but smile because I'm happy for them that they have their own world and they are Loving each other and they are happy. 

I Love sunsets and the breeze of the cold air.

What everyone wants around the world is to be happy and contented, and for me, LOVE is the answer, people forgot what True Love is, it is not buying the diamond ring or the cars and houses, the expensive dates, those are expressions of Love but True Love is being contented and happy with the person without even doing anything. And if you find that person who needs nothing but only you? NEVER EVER LET THAT PERSON GO. 

What's my inspiration? LOVE. BECAUSE IT LIVES FOREVER.

here's the song "Manila Sky" - written in 2010

Stranded in Manila.

June 23, 2011 - I woke up early morning with only 3 hours of sleep because the electricity went out the night before and although the weather was windy, it wasn't enough to keep my room bearable. As I thought any other Thursday would start, I woke up at 8 a.m. and prepared for my 1 p.m. class. I usually go out of the house at 11 to reach Manila just in time for my class.

When I got to Manila, it was raining normally with the wet season doing its duties pouring down the lovely city. I went in my class and that's when the rain started pouring pretty hard, our class was in the basement but we can hear the drops from there.

After class (1-4PM was the only time I have class) I stayed at the school press office where I work as a writer. It's where we eat our lunch, sleep, rest and have fun with my other co-workers.

This was taken in 2010 just to show you when rain starts pouring in Manila, expect pocket floods.

By 6 p.m. the school issued a suspension of all classes and advised students to go home, but as they tried to indirectly force students out of the campus (indirectly meant locking the classrooms and telling everyone to go to the lobby.) the rain just slammed the city as hard as it could. It caused minor panic for those who were not used to staying at school late at night and of course the freshmen students who's in for a rare experience.

Now when rain hits hard in Manila, every street is like this. Photo taken by me in 2010.

I thought the rain was going to stop at around 9 p.m. so I just relaxed in the student press office along with my friends and watched the Thailand classic horror film "Shutter". After a while my dad called me and said not to pass by E. Rodriguez anymore because the river had just overflowed and the streets were flooded, he advised me to take a higher route, much longer but safer, I said yes and he put down the phone and I continued watching.

I thought only a few were still in school but when the Student Council President invited us to dinner down the school canteen I saw the reality of what was going on outside the school. I saw people's pants were wet up to the knees and said they couldn't get out cause of the flood. There were at least 80 students stranded and the school served them free dinner (Well at last, we can get something free from the school) Rice and Sardines for everyone.

8:30p.m. - Our school paper in which I am part of has a twitter account so that we can get news feeds from government and media bodies. There was a twitter account for MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) which was a Government agency that is responsible for the road's cleanliness and overall public drainage and road safety of Metro Manila.

From the twitter account we were slapped by reality really hard this time. The longer route that I was planning to take was flooded 21 inches, I couldn't believe it because it was higher grounds but it was flooded and the rain just continued on and on as I read the MMDA's tweets one by one, streets were flooded there was massive traffic jams, people were stranded and the only way to go were the Transit lines which you can use IF you can reach it.

So I told my Mom that I would most probably stay in school for the night. It was safe in our school and they were very  understanding. Our office is not any ordinary office, it is small and could only hold up to 6 people, our air-conditioning system are exhaust fans that suck air from the Student Council office. We budged in the tiny office space we have, updating traffic tweets while some watch movies and some busy playing video games and as for me, I was multi-tasking. I was watching at one minute and then look at the gamers and then at the tweets and then regularly asking my friends if they were alright.

You can see me having a few laughs with my friends.

I didn't feel scared or anything, I was comfortable, just not with what I've been wearing for almost a day already, the thick uniforms get itchy when worn a little bit longer than expected. There was an ambiance of comfort with one another with my classmates and friends, we were all stranded and would stay for the night for sure.

This is it, that's the office and 9 of us had to sleep there.

As the rain stopped from time to time, the cold rush of wind gushes in the corridors and gives that spooky feeling, we kept laughing, screaming from the horror movies we were watching and all sorts of other movies, at around 4 a.m. we actually decided to sleep for a few hours to recharge ourselves, some slept at the floor like me, some at the bench and someone actually slept on top of the table! So it was 9 of us sleeping in a small room.

When we woke up roughly around 7 a.m. we realized that we were the only ones in the school (well of course there were the guards and the people serving food for the stranded people) but we were the last ones in the building, they served us a much better meal for breakfast, Hotdogs, Eggs and Fried rice! They had a lot of time to prepare it that's why it was good. After eating we prepared to go home and said thanks to whoever and bid goodbyes and I was proud and somewhat happy to experience being stranded in school.

Sorry I had to blur some of the background but that's us and the guard at the rightmost in his sandals :)

*Last 3 photos were taken by Justin Jovellanos.

The Newsroom Experience

There comes a time in our lives when the excitement of seeing new things once in a while is such a delightful thing to do. That time came when I started in college, everything was new! I can remember when I was a freshman and everyday I would ride the transit going to Manila and the city's beauty was just right in front of me in a rush.

Now in my final year as a college student, things get old if you've been seeing the same city for almost 4 years, but not for me because Manila has so much history in it. Old establishments and facades are such an eye-candy for me especially in the walled city of Intramuros and in it is the Manila Bulletin.

Manila Bulletin or formally known as the Bulletin, Bulletin Today and Manila Daily Bulletin, is the second oldest newspaper in the Philippines only almost two years behind "The Manila Times". Manila Bulletin's current Editor-In-Chief is Mr. Crispulo Icban Jr. 

Lucky for me, as a Journalism student of the oldest college in the country, our professors are practitioners and benefits of having professors like these are free tours and first person experiences being passed on to me not just theoretical teaching but hands-on.

Last week we toured the Bulletin's newsroom in the afternoon, first was our professor's office where one can see some of the most advanced technologies in the world, including mobile phones that are not yet released in the country.

The "Bladeless" Electric Fan, using jet technology.

As of today this hasn't been released to the Philippine market, the Panasonic vid cam that you can create 3D FULL HD videos. AWESOME.

Moving on we went to the main newsroom of the broadsheet to see what goes around the backstage of the newspaper the citizens would see the next day. 

Once you entered the door, a different atmosphere grabs you and usually during the morning and early afternoon (based from my OJT experience and what I saw in the newsroom) the people around are easy going and laid back, just plain gathering news, people are smiling and there is infinite food at their tables.

When the print newsroom rush hour starts (most likely 3:30pm onwards) everybody is on their work descriptions, the phone rings endlessly and runners are going from one room to another. The printers are shaking and editors are wired with their articles and their reporters' stories.

One side of the big newsroom, I had to use my mobile phone camera because I was shy to take photos.

One person keeping the room organized and who makes sure that the work is synchronized is the Managing Editor, dubbed as the "Most Powerful" person in the newsroom. The Man-Ed does everything from updating and seeing the dummies up to the printing of copies, the most powerful person is also the busiest and most stressed person  in the newsroom.

We had to leave the newsroom before people start running over us because the newsroom was starting to fill up with pressure, I could just feel it. So we went out to Manila Bulletin's canteen and it has this reputation of having one of the best selling Ramen noodles in Intramuros so I tried it and voila! It did live up to its reputation.

Manila Bulletin canteen's Seafood Ramen. Tasty!

So all of us left the Manila Bulletin a lot heavier. A heavy brain and of course a heavy stomach.