concerts [with update notes]

[Update note: This post jumps from one topic to the next like a series of multicolored life saver candies linked together by a very fine thread (music).]

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Today’s Sunday mass was presided by a guest priest who was in town on the way to his post as a military chaplain. The impetus for this blogpost is the priests’s homily…not about his guided reflection of the gospel, but that he talked about Paul McCartney. How at over 80 years old, Paul McCartney is still on tour and fills massive arenas. Talk about aging gracefully and being a living legend. I’ve talked about him and the Beatles a couple of times on this almost 2-decade blog. I was a Beatlemaniac when I was younger, because of a TV channel that played Beatles music videos without commercials the summer before I entered 5th grade. I asked for a guitar that year and bought those song hits magazines with chord charts at the back. I wrote a letter to Paul McCartney when he was knighted in 1997 and asked my parents to mail it to him when we were in Los Angeles for a family reunion. I thought that mailing it from North America will likely reach Sir Paul as opposed to mailing it from Manila. Not sure if it went through, because I didn’t get a response. I rented laser discs of all the Beatles films and the movie ‘Give My Regards to Broadstreet’. It was a phase. Unfortunately, I outgrew my Beatles fixation as it slowly dissipated when I entered high school. But I was still into music and explored a variety of genres including classical—attributable to my piano lessons and annual recitals. I was in an all-girl alternative rock band in high school where I played a loaned electric guitar and sang back up vocals. We covered the Cranberries, Gin Blossoms, 10,000 maniacs… My husband was also in a rock band in his all-boys high school where he played bass. That loaned electric guitar I mentioned earlier? It was his older brother’s (now my brother in-law). We all met at a youth group when we were teenagers. What a segue, eh? And what a time to be a teenager in the eary 90s when it was hip to be in a band.

Interestingly, despite this whole 90s band fixation, I wasn’t a concert-goer. I suppose it was because I wasn’t aware of schedules—that and I didn’t want to ask my parents for money to get tickets. They won’t let me out late at night anyway, so why even attempt to ask? Hehe. 

When I started working, I had the fortunate opportunity to meet colleagues (from two different periods of my career) who were professional musicians. Our day jobs were far from music, but having coworkers who had musical alter egos is a gift. Music is this amazing feature that’s inherently human. The recognition of music and the ability to create it makes us distinct from other fellow large-brained animals. Anyway, I had the pleasure of seeing these former coworkers perform live during the times we were connected to our respective places of employment. Then this new interest in concerts came about. John Mayer in 2019, Tom Misch in 2022, and 5 Seconds of Summer/5SOS this year (because my daughter found out that 5SOS was going to be in town early this year and I thought it would be a good core memory for her to be allowed to attend with yours truly and her father…apparently, other parents had the same idea). 

I should see Paul McCartney perform live. Fingers crossed that he tours here. I’ll likely see John Mayer and Tom Misch again, that’s for sure. I don’t know all the lyrics to their music verbatim, but rest assured I’d be bobbing my head, awkwardly dancing, waving my phone flashlight, jumping up and down, or singing along to some songs. I’d likely buy merch. 

As I write this post while watching Dave Grohl perform Everlong on YouTube (video), I’m amazed by how the algorithms are designed to hook you for the next couple of minutes…or hours after that initial video. Like my Spotify and the smart shuffle feature. Great way to discover music and artists. How about I end this post with Allen Stone’s Consider me (video), that I’m watching after Dave Grohl…it just dawned on me that the girl in the video is the actress who played Cinderella in Once Upon a Time (still binge watching…season 4 now). 

Feeling great after writing this post. :) Thanks for indulging me. Sincerely, Anna from the 6ix who writes code to do applied numbers stuff. Whoah, rolling the dice, aren’t we? [Update note 2: this last paragraph doesn’t have a purposeful connection with the rest of the words above…clearly meant to pique an imaginary audience’s imaginary interest.]