Balloon

Balloon

Bye-Bye

Bye-Bye

Majorette

Majorette

For Cheryl

For Cheryl

Louelle

Louelle

Music Lesson #16.5

First of all I'd like to weigh in on the Bryan Gorrel controversy, because I'd like my blog to come out on Google anytime someone searches "Bryan Gorrel controversy."

I found out a little about this matter from watching Korina Sanchez interview that socialite guy on TV. And also because I myself am also an "A-lister socialite" as we socialites like to call ourselves. I hear this Australian guy Gorrel's been raking up a lot of muck about my fellow socialites, calling them cokeheads and whatnot. I wonder if the people he'd been referring to are getting a huge kick out of being called cokeheads like the model Kate Moss or the cokehead Mr. Coke Head.

I've been around (I mean around many socialite parties in Culiat, Brgy. Tatalon, and Krus na Ligas), had my share of the wild socialite scene wearing the fashion clothes, and I'd never seen a gram, ounce, or speck of coke in my life. I hear it tastes like candy canes and beautiful angels.

The closest encounter I've ever had with anyone who'd tried coke was at a cafe in Malate that used to be frequented by artists and filmmakers in the mid 90s. I was at a table with a bunch of old dudes and they were talking about coke, what it must feel like to snort it and so forth (...candy canes and beautiful angels...).

Anyway, this one guy says "I've tried coke. Yeah, of course I have. Loved that shit." Turns out a long time ago he was at the men's room of one of the cafes in Padre Faura when he saw a small baggie with white powder under the urinal. He picked it up, figured it must be coke, and snorted the powder. Other than the profuse nosebleed that followed, he swears by the quality of bathroom floor coke-looking coke. "Loved that coke," he exclaimed. "I'd do it again if I ever find anything powdery and white near a public urinal!"

Anyway, again, I was thinking a lot about the Gucci Gang controversy and all while lining up at the MRT station wiping my sweat with a face towel, thinking about the specks of coke also lining up in front of the socialite noses of my fellow socialites. I imagined a giant credit card parting the masses in the Ayala station into neat little lines.

I do not know who's telling the truth, who's lying. I don't know where's Wally. I don't know anything about the Gucci Gang, except the fact that they are named after nice bags and shoes and therefore are apparently not a public threat. But in my own evaluation of the many blog titles I have glanced and not read through completely, I have come to the conclusion that I hope they all get the AIDS.

On with our regular programming.

Music Lesson #16

Anyone here heard of Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith?

I was checking out DVDs at Makati Cinema Square on my lunchbreak when I found an anniversary edition DVD of a movie called "Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural" by Richard Blackburn. The film stars Cheryl Smith (dubbed "Rainbeaux" because she'd been a regular at a club in the US called the Rainbow Room), a 70s B-Movie star who (I later learned) starred in cult classics such as "The Pom Pom Girls", "Revenge of the Cheerleaders", and "Video Vixens".

The plot of Lemora, which I copied from Wikipedia, is as follows:

"During the Prohibition era 13-year old Lila Lee (Smith), seeking to visit her injured father, a gangster, before he dies. She runs away from the Reverend, who has raised her and in whose church she has become well-known as a singer. She ends up taking a bus to the strange town of Astaroth, where people have the "Astaroth Look."

En route Lila is menaced in a swamp by a band of mindless vampires who haunt the woods and town. She is rescued by Lemora (Lesley Gilb), the vampires' unofficial queen, who takes a fancy to the girl. It seems she is the one who called the girl to her, though whether to protect her or to corrupt her remains to be seen. Lila is taken to a very old house, where Lemora gives her a bath and tries to soothe her. Exploring, Lila discovers the truth — Lemora is a vampire, one who feeds upon children and who is holding her father captive.

Lila escapes and embarks are a night-time journey through the town of Astaroth, learning in the process that there are two types of vampires here. One are like Lemora herself, relatively human in behavior in appearance. The other are mutated, perhaps de-volved, far more animalistic in behavior and monstrous in form. And the two groups are at war.

Meanwhile, the Reverend is seeking to find Lila, and manages to retrace her steps.

After a climactic battle, leaving most of the vampires in the town dead, Lila is hiding when Lemora finds her. When the Reverend shows up not long after, he finds Lila willing, even eager to kiss him. He resists at first. Then, he gives in. That is when she drives her fangs into his throat."

The movie is pretty ridiculous but since its release it's been one of the most influential cult horror movies ever. If you are a goth and/or a goth lesbian, that is (I am neither). But something struck me about Cheryl Smith, how beautiful and pure she looked in that movie, like Alice in Wonderland in a goth nightmare. Sometimes I just sit around and think of her.

Anyway, Cheryl Smith had struggled for a long time with drug abuse and died of hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver in 2002 at 42.

The lyrics to Rainbow may appear depressing but the song's actually uptempo and fun. My influence for this song was The Smiths' "Paint A Vulgar Picture" also about a fan fiercely fighting to protect, in his own mind, the integrity of the work of his dead pop idol. The last three stanzas of the Smiths' song are as follows:

"So, in my bedroom in those 'ugly new houses'

I danced my legs down to the knees

But me and my 'true love'

Will never meet again

...At the record company meeting

On their hands - at last ! - a dead star!

But they can never taint you in my eyes

No, they can never touch you now

No, they cannot hurt you, my darling

They cannot touch you now

But me and my 'true love'

Will never meet again"

Certainly, the Mozzer's lyrics are way superior to mine. But here's my song for Cheryl Smith:

Rainbow

How beautiful you have become in death

Now everyone will know to what extent

You pushed out of your skin

To send your soul flying

Chorus:

Oh rockets and bombs they explode all around me

Fire in the sky like aurora borealis

Eternal though fleeting you were to a young boy

Now all grown and older than you'll ever be

I have all your movies tucked well inside

My hard drive, my wasteland of popular culture

I'd watch you and ponder your offscreen persona

Picture you sleeping with Hollywood vultures
(Chorus)

Lemora the witch and a truckload of extras

Turned into vampires reach out to get you

Suspicious bus drivers peer at the rearview

I wish I were there all this time to protect you
(Chorus)

Oceans of space, place, and time divide

You and me are so differently made

This tribute I sing in a strange foreign language

That speaks to a dead girl long gone from her grave
(Chorus)

I'll never taste of those drugs and ill-pleasures

That held you and kissed you and in the end killed you

But Rainbow you know just the same that I loved you

Sincerely and dearly your number one fan

Sincerely your number one

Sincerely your number one

Sincerely your number one fan.

That's it. Sorry if you can't get the references you'll have to see the film. And no I have not recorded it yet so you won't know how the song sounds like until either a) Los Chupacabras starts playing live again or b) my cover band Angel Radio takes a stab at it (which we probably will but then we won't be ALL COVERS NO COVER anymore). I really ought to get that last bit trademarked.