playing with a live band

i love playing with other musicians... i love being in a band... i love singing with a band... that's why every chance i get, i jam to a live band. these days, i usually hang out with black pipe. since they are the official backing band for our singing contest, we get to see each other a lot... specially since the rehearsal studio is my office. so every now and then, i tag along their gigs and jam on stage with them... it keeps me young i guess and i reminisce a lot about having played on stage a long time ago... club dredd, mayrics...

so here are some videos of the present and some videos from the past...

PUSH
casie villarosa with black pipe
live at yakitori japanese restaurant
matchbox 20 cover


NUMBER TWO
casie villarosa with black pipe
live at yakitori japanese restaurant
joe jackson cover


REDEMPTION SONG
the marginals
live at mayrics folk house (1994)
bob marley cover


STUPID MARRIAGE
the marginals
live at club dredd (1994)
the specials cover

nandito lang ako...

words and music by casie villarosa
sunset records limited



this song was the carrier single of an album of the same title finished in 2005, like my other songs, this is unreleased. the entire album was recorded straight to disk via cakewalk and the others in sony vegas. this entire album i plan to give to a band called BLACK PIPE. check out their blogsite at blackpipeband.blogspot.com to see their practice version of the same song.

coming soon...

so after months and months of waiting for the insurance company to finally issue a check for me to be able to replace my hyundai sonata which was totally wrecked last december... it's coming soon... or so i hope!

what if i did not have "music"?

If I didn't?

then I'd have freaked out more often than I already do...

sad to say, everyday, i feel overburdended by what has been happening to my life mostly on the professional side... which is about 90% of the entire thing i have.

so it's a good thing that i do have music as a part of my life. it keeps me balanced most of the time. it gives me a diversion not to think too much about the stress i go through everyday... and as well as not to think about those people where the stress originates from...

otherwise, i'd take up another hobby.

fast car (tracy chapman cover)


chasing the sun (the calling cover)

a series of unfortunate events...

For the past month and a half, I have been doing nothing to at least guarantee the longevity of my life... drinking my guts out each and every night trying to comprehend my incomprehensible life… Things cannot possibly turn worse… but then again why wouldn’t it?

Project after project… for the last seven years of my stay in this company, I have felt over and over like a moron who commits to the same mistakes over and over again. Hey, it’s not me… it’s them… and since I allowed it, it’s us…

So, what exactly should I make of this?

My options now are seemingly less complicated as they were a year ago. There are certain things that I have learned to accept in time… but it doesn’t mean that I have to comply since the ultimate option will still be mine.

Damn… I’m speaking in tongue again.

Clarity…

Last year’s Boracay disaster… the strong peso, weak dollar scenario which wreaked havoc over our finances, new Korean managers who did not seem to have gone through the process and the effect they had on rank and file plus the bickering between older managers and new ones to name a few. Last year we had to close a business because the managers cannot manage properly so it was wiser to shut them down than to allow them to continue making problems for us.

The latest of course is my present rant-driven activity, the Amazing Philippine Singing Star.

The Amazing Philippine Singing Star is a big disaster which we will have to fix because they messed up the pilot episode big time when we allowed the wrong people to make the decisions. And because of this, the pressure is on to ensure the sustainability of the show for at least the year to come.

I feel appalled by the fact that it was top management’s mistakes and I sense no feeling of remorse from them and that they still have a say and a chance of redemption… something that I think they don’t deserve.

I still believe that I am a good politician when dealing with a lot of people, especially those chosen by my Boss to be shoved up my ass to work with. But this particular activity has driven me farther up my temper alley… with an interpreter and a staff who doesn’t know shit about what she’s saying and a tone that is less deserving of any respectable reply, a dick who thinks that he is sooo good having worked in a good company in the past and who showed so little respect perhaps because of his interpretation of Kibun, and lastly that Korean “Over-all Grand Director” who knew jack shit about directing or anything else for that matter.

Ultimately, I always get my way… but it gets too tiring after a while with the efforts that I would have to put into it. There isn’t anyone I’ve met that I wasn’t able to befriend and turn into a personal ally… but the stress level attached to it is too tasking for an old man like me. Besides, by the time a Korean manager becomes my friend, he/she may be on the way out of the company. I’ve seen them come, I’ve seen them go.

Fact is I have always said that every mistake means money and resources. So every time they make mistakes, it would cost us money. Worst part is, some of their mistakes have cost us good people, our number one asset… and for this, all of us will have to suffer the consequences…

We began this year with a big bang for the branch managers when they were asked to submit proposals for cost-cutting measures… it was submitted and I had to review them. Damn, I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the branch managers, they’d end up as bad guys once again in the eyes of their employees… but then again, we do really have to cut cost. But then again… why did we lose that much in the first place? … Like I said… a series of unfortunate events… or more likely… a series of unfortunate decisions.

Last year, two of my staff made a mistake… I paid for it! That’s called management responsibility. I’d like to see more of that in this company. And for all the right decisions and the responsibility and skills that I have exhibited, I am part of those who will pay the price of poor management.

Inside my office, I have six lamp shades… two halogen bulb mood lights, my six favorite guitars, a keyboard, a beat box, books, a nice sofa, a long sofa from my old office where the caretaker of this building died in his sleep twelve years ago… my recent pc-based set-up is capable of both video editing and music recording and other post production facility for work…. I like my office… I like the way it allows me to work in an environment that is conducive for artistic outputs… because that it the soul of this business. Yes it is more expensive to maintain my office because it is big… the bulbs are more expensive than the regular office light they use but like I said… it provides the mood.

And the most I like about my office is that it represents our company… it represents how big we want to become… much like “power dressing”, my office shouts power… dream… vision.. It represents Amazing.

Next month, I shall say goodbye to this office… and I shall say goodbye to all the work that has always been passed on to me by those whose salaries and benefits are bigger than mine. Let them earn their keep as I have earned mine…

we are at it again...

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! So we finally staged the first ever Search for the Amazing Philippine Singing Star after a month long preparation consisting of back pains, labor pains, migraines, head explosions, temper testing days and a lot more...

So could we finally sleep? I don't think so. I think that we have just opened a pandora's box once again. But then again... yes, i could finally return to my blogspot.

Here are but some of the things I learned from this "wonderful" experience.

1. If a senior tells you that there is no problem with money... check the spelling and clarify. He could be talking about Manny, our production assistant or our former driver.

2. If a Korean tells you that there is no problem... there probably is. If there really wasn't any problem... they'll find a way to make one for you. or in this case, they made a lot for us.

3. Koreans don't know how to read. -- because I have submitted the proposal for this contest as early as October of last year and I dare say damn them all for making my life miserable by changing concepts in the middle of executing plans and operations.

4. Koreans are full of hot air = gas = fart. If they brag about the kind of best digital set-up they can bring in, they probably can't deliver. All promise... no delivery.

5. That there is a fancy title called "Over All Grand Director" or OAGD. Damn that's a new one... might as well be G-O-D. whose main function is to waste people's time, brag, and later fail at everything. Good thing my countrymen are smart and agile... saved the day.

6. That I will never work with them ever again.

I'm so sorry for stating "koreans", I am not speaking of them as a race, it just so happened that those that we have worked with were koreans and I'm sure that they did not represent their race the way they should.

The next Korean who will be part of this company will be the unluckiest of the lot. Simply because I vowed to myself that I shall never be polite to a Korean with a lower position than mine and that I will immediately warn and threaten him or her with physical pain if I feel the slightest sense of disrespect towards their pusajangnim. I am fed up and I am not cute anymore.

Happy Birthday, Bayani!!!

Bayani Agbayani's Birthday Celebration was a welcome relief from this week's stress-loaded routine. With a singing contest being organized by our office and all the other side problems from regular work and assignments, attending a birthday party was not exactly part of my agenda. But since the invitation from Bayani came way advance of the event, I could not refuse. Besides, he's a good person to be with. A real guy. So, I did enjoy myself for the night. More jamming days to come my friend.

Nyoy Bolante on drums, Jeffrey Tam and Bayani Agbayani on vocals, Casie Villarosa and Brod Pit (Isko Salvador) on guitars, Gary Lim on percussion and shouting vocals doing an REM song "the one i love".



Nyoy Bolante and Casie Villarosa on guitars, Jeffrey Tam on percussion and Bayani Agbayani on vocals, Gary Lim on shouting vocals doing a classic Eagles song "Hotel California"