Well, I do that all the time but this one is a different kind. I woke up at 7 am this morning; I opened my TV and waited for the screening of Wimbledon Official film for 2005 in a cable sports channel. After the telecast, I fell asleep on the sofa bed outside my room and I don’t know if it’s a dream or if my super blurry, sleepy eyes are to be blamed, but there was a moment when I opened my eyes for a minute or so and I thought I was seeing black smoke (like something’s burning) coming out from the kitchen cabinet. The odd thing is, I didn’t get up to check. I think I must be dreaming. Or maybe I need to get an insurance quote for my apartment soon.

This Monday, all roads will lead to SW19, that southwest London address that houses the hallowed turf of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, for a tournament known worldwide as The Wimbledon Championships – the most important and prestigious tennis major. If you are new to this site, then I’m making my advanced proclamation that Roger Federer will get back his title, his 6th. Color me sad in three weeks if he doesn’t.

Star Sports Asia has been showing the Official Wimbledon films of the past couple of decades and I was fortunate enough to have seen most of them. I still get chills – good chills - whenever I see that Steffi Graf win over Jana Novotna in 1993 (final) or Roger Federer’s historic win over Pete Sampras in 2001 (4th round).  Watching those clips makes me realize how much I have grown to love tennis as a sport, even just as a remote spectator. Andre Agassi once said that tennis has taught him how to deal with life. I, for one, believe that statement. If only I can play the sport regularly, that would be better than taking the best diet pills out there, for sure.

I decided to log in to my Yahoo messenger one time and was happy to see that a college friend I haven’t spoken to for a long time was online. So I sent a hello message, only to be replied to with “password?” I was so baffled by the reply that I wasn’t able to say anything for a while. So my friend decided to explain that she thinks I (my account “handle”) am an impostor because apparently she chatted with me before and it was like, according to my friend, I was an entirely different person. That made me LOL because I’m sure I’m the only one using my own account on my own PC and I was never drunk nor drugged to chat without knowing what I’m saying; then it occurred to me that maybe my account was hacked, just like the other people in my friends list, whose accounts sometimes send me adverts like acai berry stuff and phenphedrine review or some useless links. We were never able to figure out what happened there and I became a little more vigilant about using my YM since then.  Some people just don’t have better things to do.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ”

-C.S. Lewis

Isn’t it a wonder how some things are “unnecessary” and yet can be so profoundly elemental?

Update: Onyxx’s  comment below is worth mentioning because it’s actually along the lines of what I was thinking of when I quoted that. It all comes down to how you look at things, in this case how you regard friendships. But then, again, maybe it is relative to the people you regard as friends. There’s no grand debate here, though. Friendlessness is not a social security disability.

The hit musical Spring Awakening will be staged in Manila starting on September. Details are not yet available as of post time.

I’ve already set a “date” with a couple of friends and have been trying to convince others to join us. I realized, however, that besides trying to convince a few non-theater-inclined people that this one deserves a viewing, I was also compelled to justify the theme of the play. More on that later.

I cannot decide if I love the upbeat score (by Duncan Shiek) or the profound lyrics (by Steven Sater) more. The music is heavily infused with alternative/folk rock variations and I just love the string and percussion work in the original cast recording. The lyrics, on the other hand, is something I am particularly fond of.
Some examples of lines from the play:

Flip on a switch and everything’s fine
No more lips, no more tongue, no more ears, no more eyes
The naked blue angel, who peers through the blinds
Disappears in the gloom of the mirror-blue night [Mirror Blue Night]

So maybe
I should be some kind of laundry line.
Hang their things on me
And I will swing ‘em dry.
You’re just wavin’ the sun
Through the afternoon
And then see
They come to set you free
Beneath the rising moon [Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind]

Let me teach you how to handle
All the sadness in your soul
Oh, we’ll work that silver magic
Then we’ll aim it at the wall”
She said: “Love may make you blind kid-
But I wouldn’t mind at all.”  [The Bitch of Living]

Now about the theme: In an interview with lyricist Steven Sater, he said that “There was grave concern it would push the mainstream audience out of their seats.” Simply put, the play is about the discovery of teenage sexuality. Conservative viewers may be offended (or, at the very least, shocked) by some scenes/songs, but I say don’t see it for the shock factor. I’m not sure about the age restrictions that will be imposed but I would guess that this is something older audiences will appreciate more just because it will bring them back to that time in their lives when rage (yes, raging hormones, too), impulsiveness, confusion, and self-loathing are rampant. Watch it for the raw emotions translated into songs. Watch it for the art, no matter how cliche that last pitch sounds.

My new ISP at home is blocking this site and I don’t know why. I’ll have to figure out a way to bypass the restriction but I’m just more than a little bit lazy right now. That’s reason enough to write this down, yes.