The Little Fir Tree

Nice to see something from Jose Rizal. Yes. He drew this one. A Christmas tree for his translation of Hans Cristian Andersen's "Little Fir Tree" (Ang Puno ng Pino). I hope to know that story. It's just something nice to share. Credits to the great historian Ambeth Ocampo.

Maligayang Pasko!

Comments

Adrian's Mid-Year Melodies: 2024

Last year, before we welcomed the present year, I recalled 2023 in ten songs (and some more), which I labelled "My Tracks of the Year," after a well-known BBC Radio 2 fixture in weekday mornings. And now that we have gone fairly midway through 2024, I want to share this time the songs I've enjoyed in the past months, most of which have been soundtracking all that I've been through: the small wins, the crushing setbacks, the weight of work being alleviated by music, the roller-coaster of feelings being diagnosed by lyrics. I call this my "Mid-Year Melodies." On the Spotify / YouTube playlist there are 40 songs, but for this blog I'll highlight ten songs, with some special mentions. Let's get right into it. 1. The Lovers - Alexander O' Neal (1987) After appreciating RnB/soul artist Alexander O'Neal with his classic "Criticize" during Christmas season, in January I've loved his album Hearsay , with its cool narrative of a party w...

Adrian's Tracks of The Year 2024: The Year of Thinking and Rediscovering

In the adulting years, I realized, the Christmas and yearend season can get stressful and draining with the blended rush of remaining work, multiple parties, and numerous bouts of shopping and other errands (It's even hard to sneak in writing this piece). Nonetheless, what still gets me excited at this time is the chance to revisit the songs I discovered and enjoyed throughout the year, especially through Spotify Wrapped. More than the songs, I also like to reflect on the moments and thoughts soundtracked by these songs. This led me to a resolve to come up with a playlist of the songs that marked the year, which I call "My Tracks of the Year." From my inaugural 60 or so tracks playlist last year, I've picked 100 this time. Many of these songs are new releases this year and new discoveries, yet highlights from this year also come from tracks I once heard in the past years but now have deeper meanings to me as they chronicle my musings in the past months. It's dif...

The Rhythms of Me

As a young boy, I'll usually get to listen to RJ 100 , an adult contemporary--that's the genre of the music they're playing--radio station in the Philippines. Also, I'll listen to songs from CDs containing mostly 80s music. And as I grew up, my interest in old school music went on. As a freshman, I listened to such stations like 99.5 RT , Magic 89.9 , 96.3 Easy Rock and 105.1 Crossover for nice old school music. I listened and searched for music from bands like Men Without Hats, Fra Lippo Lippi, V.S.T and Co., Bee Gees, Naked Eyes, Eurythmics, Industry, JoBoxers, The Go Go's, Nena, Toto, Huey Lewis and The News, Hall and Oates; and artists like Rick Astley, Phil Collins, and Michael Jackson on the Internet. But most of all, my interest for old school music grew during this recent summer and as a sophomore. As I spent my sweet summer before I went on 2nd year in high school, I learned about Tears for Fears, China Crisis,Level 42,our very own bands here like The Daw...

Dispatches by Adrian Conoza

Search This Blog