If it happens in Pinamungajan–or Timbuktu, or Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland–it happens everywhere.

The task force should be handled not by policemen or NBI agents but by musicians, particularly lyricists. You call the police or the NBI when it’s about drugs, or alcohol, or guns, or Joavan Fernandez. But when it’s about videoke violence, call the songwriter. Unless our law enforcement institutions include “Lyrics as Cause of Violence” in their training, drug raids and checkpoints will never solve videoke killings.

This is Google Research I’m talking about, the most reliable source of information for very serious researchers, like college freshmen and humor columnists. My comprehensive Google research told me video killings are intimately linked to the lyrics of the song that caused the fight. Take “My Way” for example.

A dozen articles dissecting the lyrics of “My Way” crop up when you google “videoke killings.” If you think I’m making this up, here’s an excerpt: “The number of killings connected to singing of the song (My Way) may simply reflect its popularity in a violent environment…The song’s ‘triumphalist’ theme might also be a factor.”

“The lyrics of ‘My Way’ increase the violence,” the study continues. “The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody…It covers up your failures. That’s why it leads to fights.” The typical Filipino irritates.

It makes sense. Remember the last time you went videoke-ing with your friends, and there’s this guy in the next table singing “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” with all the braggadocio he could muster and you were so damn annoyed by it? Of course you don’t blame the lyrics. “I know just how to whisper/ And I know just how to cry/ I know just where to find the answers/ And I know just how to lie” is down pat annoying but only because you hate Air Supply to begin with.

You want to blow Hitchcock and Russell and their legion of fans to smithereens, not that drunk in the next table. And we’re not talking about the Bee Gees yet.

Now, imagine that same guy screaming, “For what is a man? What has he got? If not himself–Then he has naught…The record shows I took the blows. And did it my way.” Man, that guy’s annoying!

In fairness to Sinatra, he didn’t write “My Way.” It was Paul Anka, who re-wrote it from the original French, which he described as “a bad record, but there was something in it.” That “something” is murdering videoke singers all over the country. Creepy.

The Pinamungajan incident offers an additional twist to the videoke rage phenomenon. The song is not “My Way,” thank God, but Fred Berame’s Cebuano classic “Samtang May Kinabuhi.” In the context of the videoke rage in the country, the song sounds equally creepy.

No, we won’t dissect Berame’s lyrics right now. We’re running out of space. Besides, I hear somebody singing “My Way” at the videoke bar outside, and I have a mission to fulfill. Give me that gun now.

By Insoy Niñal
Sun.Star Cebu, July 20, 2010

Matahum Nga Cebu

ian zafra wrote in his blog my favorite sins:

“Insoy is now co-host with DJ Ram in Smash FM.

Andoy Calope is doing well with his acoustic poetry.

Tsinelas Association Inc. offering informal education on creative works not completely offered in the academe through charity based workshop series.

Creative Cebu and DTI had just finished its roadmapping exercise. The music sector is recognized as one of the most active and gaining better visibility.

Sonic Boom’s making occasional comebacks to Cebu.

Jude Gitamondoc is nurturing his song blogging community.

Rescue A Hero is giving out original music freebies. Undercover Grasshoppers is now doing the same.

Cattski launched their 3rd album in March this year. The Line Divides will be launching their first this month, next week.

To appreciate what’s going on in the local music circuit, the general rule here is to agree that we are all moving constantly. As to where we still have to find out. The ‘how’ factor is up to you… and us. Keep things in a learning curve and it’s going to be fine. There’ll be more to come.

The Cebu music scene is as healthy as it ever was.”

I think it’s time to go pop now. Sorry band mates. You have Jude Gitamondoc to blame.

(more pop fotos here )

CEBU’s art scene is probably one of the most alive in the country today, with local musicians, painters, filmmakers, photographers, poets, writers and other artists churning out works like their lives (not livelihood) depended on it.

They are not difficult to find. Check out places like Kukuk’s Nest, Turtle’s Nest, Handuraw, The Outpost and other similar holes and they are there, guzzling beer, discussing Kant, rehashing jokes, plotting revolutions, or simply staring at empty space.

They are many, if you consider how Cebu is just a small community. And their number is growing, with more and more artists from neighboring provinces in the Visayas coming here in search of soul mates and a place to call home.

They may not be a tight, first-name-basis community but they are a sharing group, with disciples of one form of art sharing tables with those of another form of art. They know their works complement each other, so they pass art around, like glass in a tagay session. They have a word for it: collaboration.

In many occasions, the sharing comes in the form of seminars and workshops: veterans guiding neophytes, or wannabes inspiring has-beens (it doesn’t matter) – both ensuring that the art scene lives at least a generation longer.

They may not know it, but the generosity local artists are showing to each other is what keeps Cebu’s art scene going.  (By Jimi Stuart Salvador)

PHOTO BY ARCHIE UY, NU107 Cebu relaunching, july 2009

More fotos at archie’s place

Pero kanus-a man gyud ang NU Cebu magsugod? after the launching hangtud karon manila ra gihapon ang nagtingog.

Bitaw, mahal ra ang P3,500, especially for students. So we’ve decided to make it P2,500. Mahal ra gihapon? No. it’s two days, meals, snacks, accommodation, workshop kit, and it’s RUEL ANTIPUESTO! Date is July 18 and 19. Venue is Don Bosco Retreat House in Talisay. For reservation and more info, text 09228243800, 09267325355, or email insoymada@gmail.com, or leave a note here.

We’ll be posting more details this week. Thanks.

(thanks archie uy for the photos)

… is that you get featured every once in a while.