Remember the time

I first heard news of Michael Jackson’s death during my daily work commute, and my mind quickly returned to my work on the previous season of American Idol, one week of which was dedicated to his songs. One idea led to another, and it culminated in this article, which was thankfully given a go-signal and eventually first published on BuddyTV shortly after his death was officially confirmed.

The feeble connection with American Idol is, of course, the very first week of the finals of the past season. “Tonight, we’re celebrating the hits of Michael Jackson,” Ryan Seacrest said, before the Top 13 kicked off their trips to stardom singing songs from the so-called King of Pop. (That episode will be aired again this Monday from 8pm on Fox.) I’m just in my early 20s, and I’ll admit to being too young during his heyday, so watching that show was quite a revelation: “I didn’t know he sang that!” was my most prominent line, once song after song after song started to sound so familiar.

I suddenly remembered that when news of the musician’s death started filtering through. The sketchy details – of him suffering a heart attack, of being found not breathing in his home, of him being brought to a Los Angeles hospital – gave way to unconfirmed detail after unconfirmed detail after confirmed detail. And then, the tributes, in 140-character bursts, from celebrities to my friends who, for the most part, were too young to have a grasp of his hits.

Really close to home

It was a Wednesday. As always, I was in front of my work computer, wondering how the heck I finished all of my tasks early. I got a message from Carmel – who works somewhere within DLSU – announcing that classes have been suspended until 14 June.

Actually, I initially thought that the Independence Day break was extended, until I realized that the date given was a Sunday. Was the school breaking apart? It was raining hard, after all, although the possibility of a part of the school breaking apart because of the weather was less than nil. So, obviously, I asked why.

“Alam mo ba kung bakit wala?” she responded. Those words felt like it was something pretty big.

From here to the red-haired rocker

I was looking at the screen more closely than usual. I was coming off a pretty big surprise moments ago, when my predictions – which have been right for most of the past few weeks – have gone seriously off kilter. Three people remained standing, and another verdict was to be delivered.

“Adam, you are safe.”

Yeah, that was a given. It’s always been that way for most of the past few weeks, expect for the week before, when he surprisingly appeared on the bottom three. But that wasn’t the purpose of the moment. In my five years of watching American Idol – the first two seasons weren’t aired in the Philippines – I’ve never felt so nervous about what was going to happen in the next two minutes.

Four years later

Four years later, it felt like a fairy tale ending.

Call me biased, but I’ve always wanted to see a fairly large chunk of Santugon candidates win in the elections. From a storyteller’s perspective – after all, this coverage began as an attempt to tell a story more than an attempt to do public service – it would’ve been a pretty redemptive angle: the party that’s sought, for the longest time, to dominate the Student Council, has finally done it. That, and maybe because I have more friends from the yellow side, and I get to see things from their perspective without really trying.

Looking back, it’s quite ironic thinking that it happened when I’m already gone. I wasn’t there to see it, and I obviously won’t be there to judge whether it’d be any good. But for someone’s who’s immersed in the whole experience a bit too much than the usual, the questions are still inevitable.

Friday night is results night

Aimee Chua leads Santugon to an upset in this year’s General Election, with the yellows taking three out of six executive board positions and four out of six college assemly presidencies.

Although no numbers are available yet, Aimee beat her opponent, Tapat standard bearer Ron Semira. Nadia Ong is elected as academics vice president, beating Leah Villalon. Pierre Lim has won the treasurer slot, beating Mikko Hizon.

Tapat’s Kat Regalado took the activities vice presidency position against Vernon de Guzman. Chichi Tullao is elected as operations vice president, beating Gil Bautista, while Cabe Aquino won as secretary, beating Mae Ong.