culture shock

i have been exposed to enough culture the past two nights to last me till christmas. i'm almost a pearl!

last friday, after a harrowing 2 1/2++++++ hour trip, we made it to my sister's performance at the san agustin church. she was to sing the exultate jubilate by mozart with the philippine philharmonic orchestra. this was the reason i came down in the first place.

thanks to the *&$*^@&^%@^* traffic, however, we only caught the tail end of the third movement. damn. my parents were disappointed. not only because we practically missed her singing but because of the fact that there was no video coverage. ugh.

but what we watched was stunning, just the same. and i wouldn't have missed those last 5 minutes for the world.

then last night ate kay and i watched jazz in time. a crossover presentation featuring courtney pine and his band (british i think) and local jazz artists.

the front act which featured the locals lasted for 2 hours, a veritable concert in itself. and i have this to say. bituin escalante left me breathless, cookie chua rocks (as usual) and jay cayuca plays sexy. the rest of the artists were good too, and i can safely declare that filipino artists can hold their own. and i was proud.

courtney pine came on after a 15 minute break. we listened to 3 songs and left. he was good, that much we ascertained. but listening to saxophones for over 2 hours is not my idea of a great time.

pondering in bed (or on the sleeping bag on the rug over the mat on the floor which passes for a bed), i thought about the two nights and realized that i will probably never be as cultured as my sister when it comes to music (she did graduate from the college of music, after all) , but my ears know what they like and that is just fine.

my untutored ears will perhaps never know the difference between mozart and bach (and all those dead composers for that matter) but it doesn't matter because hearing a good orchestra play more than makes up for my ignorance. and i will never really get the distinctions between an alto sax and a soprano sax down pat but i found out i don't really like listening to it too much, so that's okay. too much of a good thing.

so i will never be all that cultured. but hey, nobody can say i'm a barbarian.