LifeTrack: Let's Do This!

"Music makes the people come together." - Madonna.

Killin' it with mah boys—the Hamilton College Buffers.

Music undeniably touches each of our souls in many different ways. Some of us love Rock, others Pop, others R & B, and others yet, Country. But with no doubt in my mind, for all of us, there is always music.

When I walk down the street, or when I clean my room, there is almost always a song in my head (or most likely on my lips). I sometimes take 30-minute showers with only about seven minutes of actual showering and the rest is devoted to my own private concert for the tiles. I even sometimes bust into song while walking through the mall or while strolling down the street. My life most definitely has an ever-present soundtrack.

I've always loved music, and I've always wanted to do a blog series featuring some of my favorite songs and why I love them.

Songs; whether it's with their lyrics, the story, the beat, or its mood; have a way of evoking an emotional response. Sometimes an event is brought to mind, sometimes a place, an emotion or a special person. I wanted to not only feature certain songs, but to also share what they mean to me, and what they make feel, when I want to hear them the most, and most of all, who they make me think of. 

As a blessing in disguise, the first time I tried to embed a video from YouTube onto my blog was unsuccessful. I guess it was due to copyright reasons, etc. which made borrowing vids and posting them on personal pages impossible.

Well, for quite a while now, many of my friends have been egging me to post videos of me singing, and since I can't post 'official' music videos of songs I love on here, I got the push to actually go and do it: I'm gonna sing the songs I'm going to feature

I love making things for the people I love. Plus singing the songs makes it that much more personal.

Another source of inspiration to really go ahead and do this came from an unlikely place:

Anne Curtis-Smith's Annebisyosa Concert

Beetling, Beets and Me waiting for the show to start.

Annebisyosa is a play on the word ambisyosa. It doesn't quite translate to ambitious... In fact it has more of a pejorative connotation. Telling someone they're ambisyosa is equatable to saying: "Dream on."

Spotlight Anne Curtis. A self-proclaimed non-singer (no kidding! But what she lacks in vocal talent is more than made up for by guts and gusto), Anne has always dreamt of staging her own concert despite being, let's face it, kinda' tone-deaf. I'll admit, I was a bit hesitant on the way to Araneta Coliseum last Saturday night. Oh gosh, how much of this girl's voice can I possibly take?! Surely not three hours... I thought to myself. But, boy was I wrong.

The production was amazing! I had so much fun watching the concert, from the over-the-top fashion and costume changes, the spectacular guests, the pyrotechnics and videos, and the HOT dancers, I was thoroughly entertained. Seriously, after the first two songs I was this close to jumping on stage and wild-ing out.

Here are a few pics from the concert:

Anne with the G Force Angels.

The dancers were seriously hot. I felt like I needed to smoke a cigarette after each pelvic-thrusting performance. Plus I loved the costumes! Male dancers stepped onto the stage in tuxedos and heels!

Part of the concert's success comes from the nods given to some of Music's top female icons. You will see hints of Cher, Katy Perry, Madonna and Kylie to name a few, in most of the production numbers and styling choices.

♫ Baby, you're a firework! ♫

♫ How do I get you ALOOOONE!? ♫

No Other Woman: No Other Concert.

Aside from Christine Reyes and the über hunky Derek Ramsey, Anne had a slew of super entertaining guests. Among them was one of my favorites:

The Unkabogable, Vice Ganda!

Seriously one of the most engaging and entertaining performers!

Another of Anne's guests was the goosebump-inducing Sarah Geronimo. Seriously, I was so in awe of her vocal chops that I couldn't take my eyes (and ears) off of her for a second to take a picture.

The Annebisyosa concert was definitely a success—tickets were sold out and Araneta was FULL!

Here was a woman who has dreamt of performing in her very own concert despite the knowledge that she couldn't really sing. Anne pulled off her concert with fun and a slight self-deprecating humor that adds to her charm as the newly-dubbed Concert Sweetheart.

In Anne's words: "Dreams do come true."

I was inspired.

*********

I love to sing and I love to perform.

When I was in college, I auditioned for the Hamilton College Buffers—an all-male a cappella group. It was pretty much real-life Glee. My four years as a Buffer were four of the best and most memorable of my life yet. I love those guys with all my heart.

During a Buffer's senior year, he is given a chance to pick his own song to perform: The Senior Solo.

Choosing a Senior Solo is a difficult matter. It is usually the song that represents you, the song that Hamilton students will remember you by.

As a boy who looks like a girl who like boys that likes girls, it is almost inevitable that people begin to speculate about your, uhmm, history. This is why I decided on the song:

Something to Talk About by Bonnie Raitt

Real-life Warblers, right?!

Imagine: A real-life Transgender on Glee... Aaaah, that'll be the day! Not gonna lie, I often fantasize about being a cast member.

*********

About a year ago, I felt a similar need to get the LifeTrack series started. There was one big problem. I am quite technologically challenged. I had no idea how to work my webcam... So I ended up downloading a program that allowed me to capture videos. This was the result of that first attempt:

After finding that it worked, I got excited and almost immediately started thinking about what the first song in the series should be. As I started preparing, another twist of fate: the program I installed was only a tester. I could only continue using it if I purchased the actual program. Blech. Lifetrack series = postponed.

*********

Fast forward to last month.

I was walking around the house and noticed my sister taking photos with her friends on her laptop. "How did you do that!?" I exclaim. "Uh... It's so easy," she replies. After a quick tutorial, I immediately hopped on my bed, and tested it out.

I was still in my sleeping clothes as I waited to see if the file saved. It worked. Then I waited excitedly to see if the video was uploaded to YouTube. It did. Here it is.

Quick Sample of Someone Like You by Adele 

So, the webcam works.

The LifeTrack series has officially begun.

And you best believe that the LifeTrack series will continue.

Stay tuned!

♥

Thanks to my friend Sam for putting the Buffers Video together. Click here for his YouTube page.
And you can click here for my YouTube page.
Also, I may have borrowed some of the Annebisyosa pics from Tim Yap's Twitter. Thanks Tim!