Medyo Malabo Yata Ang Mundo (5.9.22)

This is the third entry for Cousin’s Kanta Corner. If you’re new to this space, I implore you to check out the first entry and read about halfway through for a background on this ongoing writing project.

Howdy kakabsat.

This entry comes a few days late because words have been hard to come by lately. Much like Irisan, there floats a pesky, dark cloud that hovers overhead, ready to unleash a torrent of doom and gloom gathered from all corners of the world, all at once.

James May, the pedantic one from my favorite trio of car presenters, once said that every generation claims the world is going to the dogs, but had that been true, we would have been long there by now. By that logic, he argues, and the fact that we’re still here and not far underground beneath layers of nuclear fallout shows that we aren’t really headed to the hounds.

But sometimes, when you look around, there are periods when it genuinely feels that way.

From geopolitical wars overseas, irreversible climate change, brimming social unrest, widespread disinformation movements plastered everywhere an LCD screen is accessible, all the way to your laundry pile begging for a wash. It just gets… overwhelming.

And some days, in an attempt to cope and self-soothe, I revert to listening to familiar music my brain has had memorized for eons. No unexpected surprises, no sudden turns. Just a nostalgic track one can sit down and hum along to, while still containing enough sense to translate into sound that which one has trouble expressing.

This Week’s Song:
Halaga by Parokya ni Edgar (1999)

Watch the video, remember where you were when you first saw it, and feel old with me.

What do I like about it?

Long-time residents of the easy-listening, agreeable, OPM pop-rock domain, Parokya ni Edgar loaded this song with enough relatable lines to immediately conjure the image of that certain someone you felt should’ve been more valued and better treated.

It’s songs like these that are perfect sing-along tunes. They’re direct, simple to a degree, and easily digestible, but also possess an appealing relatability one can apply to any comparable situation, be it the agonizing experience of romantic rejection—or the dashed hope of something that could’ve been honestly beautiful and different, had things turned out differently.

What mountain memories does it conjure?

Although my thoughts initially gravitate to my first breakup, sitting teary-eyed on a Session Road sidewalk at midnight, watching my then-girlfriend walk away to spend the night with another, I find my thoughts wandering to more recent emotions instead.

Something about hearing the song today strikes a heartbreaking chord within that was non-existent a week ago. I’m sure that I’ve long moved on from the jilted relationship described above, so it must be from something else which I do not currently have the mental or emotional bandwidth to place into words and process outside of wailing the last verse out loud like a lamentation of sorts.

Who should you recommend it to?

This may be a nice track to recommend:

• Whoever you feel needs to self-sooth and grieve, while downing their fourth glass of tapey.

Which lyrics deserve a second read-through?

“Minsan, hindi ko maintindihan.
Parang ang buhay natin ay napagti-trip-an.
Medyo malabo yata ang mundo.
Binabasura ng iba ang s’yang pinapangarap ko.”

…

– Cousin

And so…

And so, the third Cousin’s Kanta Corner entry is complete. I hope the cloud overhead disperses enough by the fourth entry, but like the weather and the world, this is hard to predict and we can only hope for more rays of sunshine to come through by then.

Announcements and Matters of Cousin Interest:
– I’m working with the Minero on getting a few new IG comic strips up in the next few days after a long lay-off brought about by the many waves of life changes we encounter as we grow older.
– I’m tired.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Until the next one, kakabsat. Apir.