No day but today

Today I spent my afternoon watching a couple of movies while lying on my bed (thank you to whoever invented the portable DVD player and thanks to my brother who was so kind to buy me one) with a mug of cold chocolate in hand. My first movie choice? Rent.


I know I was familiar with the musical but I didn't realize how really familiar I was with it until I watched the movie. I can sing the choruses to almost all the songs even though it's my first time seeing it and I haven't seen the live musical either. It's one of my brothers' fault, really. I've said it more than a few times already that I grew up listening to different kinds of music since my dad and my brothers just totally love music and so, I ended up being influenced by that. (Although, I am not as musical as one would expect because I'm too lazy, I admit that. Boo me.) Anyway, my brother would just listen all day and all afternoon to various musical soundtracks like Moulin Rouge and yes, Rent. I wasn't old enough yet to know what I was singing about but I was already singing to "Seasons of Love" then. And I can remember hearing "Tango Maureen" and its familiar beat and the recurring lines from "I Should Tell You" like it was yesterday. Oh, how I miss those days when my brother still lived with us and we'd randomly break out into sing-alongs like crazy people. I'm looking forward to the next time he comes home. Maybe I'll ask him to watch Rent with me and we'll sing all the songs together. :)

I don't know exactly how to end this post. I guess I'll just leave you with this favorite from the Rent soundtrack:

Go ahead, read my mind

I practically grew up listening to Lea Salonga since my eldest brother is a huge fan of hers and being that my family shares the same liking to music, I was instantly hooked. I think I was about 7. Not to mention, of course, the fact that she's a Tony and Olivier award-winning Filipino broadway musical star.

We caught Superman (another thing my family likes) on HBO yesterday night and of course, the scene that stood out to me was one of my favorite ones, the flying scene with Superman and Lois Lane. No matter how many times I've already watched it, it still captivates me everytime. I'm a sucker for love, not to mention the plain old loveteam that is Lois and Clark. Anyway, the actual main point here is the music. The theme "Can You Read My Mind" was just perfect for that scene. Watching it again last night, I remembered I know Lea has her own version of the song. I forgot from which album I heard it but thanks to Google, I re-discovered it was from her "Songs from the Screen Live with the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra". We actually have a casette tape of that buried somewhere in the pile of tapes/CDs in the house. I remember I would put that in the casette player each afternoon and I would sing to not just this song, but also other tracks on it like "Through The Eyes Of Love" and Pinoy movie classics "Ikaw" and "Tukso". Imagine a 10-ish schoolgirl singing Tukso. LOL. If I could see myself then, I would cry with laughter. It was also because of this album that I have grown fond of the song "Over The Rainbow" from the movie "The Wizard of Oz".

I am actually quite disappointed that I have yet to see Lea perform live. I wanted to see her last December at her "Your Songs" concert but things didn't go according to plan. Hopefully I will have the chance to be able to watch her numerous times in the future. It would be a bonus if I would be watching with my family including my big Lea fan brother and he would pay for it, LOL. Kidding. But I would really love that, though. If there's only one musical artist that I could idolize, it will surely be Lea Salonga on top of my list.