Hastang of Yesteryears

Before I became an indie musician …

… I listened to MC Hammer. I was in fourth grade and I used to borrow my father’s trousers (held by my Boy Scout belt and buckle and the ends cleverly tucked in my Mighty Kid socks) and stand in front of the mirror (with my uncle’s oversized Aviator sunglasses) and break out suddenly into a “U Can’t Touch This” routine.

… I was a Disney freak. Still am. Play me the soundtrack of “The Little Mermaid” and I’ll sing along to every word (“Da sea weed is always greener/In somebody else’s lake/You dream about going up dere/But dat is a big mistake”). But my personal favorite is still sinister Scar’s “Be Prepared” number.

… I loved Smokey Mountain. That was the time when Geneva Cruz and the gang were still kinda cool (with their campily contrived rag costumes and 50s style second voice crooning). The second batch was even better—“Paraiso” still evokes some poignant memories.

… I watched “Cedie: Ang Batang Prinsipe” nonstop. I hated the “Conde” for being such a stubborn stiff (I wanted to pluck out his gray whiskers using tweezers).

… I was the Patintero king. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can match me in terms of quickness, stamina and judgment inside the grid. I was the Einstein of patintero. Cheating notwithstanding.

… I was a certified firecracker maniac. No Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve goes by without me diabolically laughing on the streets armed with my arsenal (rebentador, watuzi, five star triangle, etc.) ready for deployment. But since I got addicted to fret board antics, the thought of losing a finger started to give me nightmares.

… I was a chauvinistic pig who thought pop music was the only genre worth listening to. I guess I was wrong. Big time. There’s so much to enjoy out there. Sometimes I feel like an idiot for being so close-minded about other types of music. I’ve learned my lesson.

… I was bored. Enough said.

guile loves his girlfriend, adores (er, adored) Michael Jackson, and wants "to be complete". When he's not playing bass for Hastang, he creates thingamajigs for icomm and writes gibberish in his not-so-secret diary.
©2008 Hastang.com | Read articles written by guile