The Bear Bitch’s Project

Exactly how much do I love Duran Duran? Let me break it up for you.

There are Duran Duran fans, and there are Duran Duran fans. I am of the latter breed.

I’ve loved Duran Duran for as long as I can remember. My elder sisters would tell me stories about how, when I was a baby, they would pop in a BetaMax tape of Duran Duran videos and I would sit in my car-seat, silent and absolutely mesmerized until the tape ended when I would proceed to bawl my eyes out until they rewound the tape and played it again. I must’ve been less than a year old when they started doing that and I’m pretty much the same until now. Once I play one of my Duran Duran DVDs, don’t waste your breath or your saliva trying to talk to me.

The first and, as of the moment, only time they performed in Manila I was 6 years old. I wanted nothing more in the whole wide world than to go. I got a green plastic mug, covered the top with cardboard, cut a hole in it, and wrote "Help send Kristine to see Duran Duran" on it. I scrimped and saved and put every coin I found into that cup and on Sundays, when we would all go too my Grandmother’s house, I’d walk around with my mug, like a little street beggar, asking my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grand parents to contribute to my concert fund. I don’t remember if I was able to come up with the money all by myself or if one of my parents paid the balance but on February 14th, 1989, I dressed up in my "coolest" outfit and my 2 sisters took me to see Duran Duran. I remember it pretty clearly considering I was just 6. I remember that the security wasn’t sure whether I should be admitted into the venue or not since I was so young but I put on the most pittiful face I could manage and threatened to cry so they let me in. I remember balancing on the narrow back-rest of the seat while holding on to the shoulders of my sisters for balance. I remember that John was wearing an open vest with no shirt underneath and that he was extremely skinny so I asked my sisters if I could throw my Marie Biscuits on stage for him, not realizing that we were a good 30++ rows from the stage. It was definitely the highlight of the first 10 years of my life.

Exactly 20 years later on April 10, 2008, Duran Duran will be performing at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila again. Within a few minutes of finding out, I decided to fly home just for the concert. Now that I’m a money-earner, I pulled out all the stops. No more little green mugs for me, thanks. I pestered my sister incessantly, texting and e-mailing into the wee hours of the night until she was able to get us "spit’s distance seats"; I want to be close enough to see the food stuck in between their teeth if they forget to brush. Yeah, that close! I paid about $220 for the concert tickets and another $1,050 for air fare.

But the story doens’t end there.

About a week after I purchased the non-refundable plane tickets to Manila, I find out that Duran Duran will be performing a mere BART ride away at Concord on May 2.

Yes, any sane person would be incredibly pissed off at the thought of having spent a good $1,270 to fly half-way around the world for a concert she could have watched practically in her own back yard.

Not this Duranie. The very first thought that popped into my mind when I read the announcement that Duran Duran confirmed a concert at Concord was: "Sweet! I get to watch them twice in 2 different continents in less than a month’s time. How lucky am I???" Then I proceeded to whoop and dance around the living room. All my siblings and friends were totally confused; they expected me to punch my pillow, scream, or at the very least whine a little bit, not walk around for the next 2 days with a goofy grin on my face.

The tickets went on sale today and I spent another $216 on seats. They aren’t as close to the stage as the Araneta ones, but close enough to satisfy me. I am SO psyched, I can’t even begin to put my excitement into words.

Duran Duran, how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways:

$1,050 - round trip air fare to fly to Manila

$220 - spit’s distance seats at the Manila concert

$216 - seats at the Concord concert

$150 - for Duran Duran t-shirts ordered all the way from London to wear at the concerts.

So, does anyone still doubt my undying love for Simon, John, Nick, Roger (and yeah, Andy too)?

The Lifehouse concert at The Warfield was just amazing. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t perform "Sick Cycle Carousel" but they did do "Hanging Like A Moment" and some of their other older songs from their first album, which is my favorite.
Its been quite a while since I’ve been to an honest to goodness rock concert (I don’t think Dave Matthews Band at the Shoreline counts) and I’d forgotten how much fun they are. I love the energy, the nearly deafening music that feels like its coming from inside your head, and the thrill of seeing a musician you really like perform live. It was a little weird that people were sitting down; all the other rock concerts I’ve been to had people standing up and dancing, so that kind of threw me off a bit but other than that, it was awesome!

Opening acts are usually either not very good or trying too hard or, in the case of HoneyHoney, the first band to perform, both, but the second opening act was a pleasant surprise. When the band started playing Norina and I barely paid attention to them but then we noticed that not only were the songs slightly familiar, nearly the whole crowd was singing along. We started listening and realized that they are in fact really really good. In those few minutes, I became a fan. After the show we went to buy their CD, realized that its a solo artist and not a band, and even got to meet him. He’s a singer-songwriter named Matt Nathanson and he’s from San Francisco. I listened to the CD all day the next day and liked it so much that I actually bought his other albums over the weekend.
So the Lifehouse concert turned out a lot better than I expected. Not only was it a great show, I also discovered an awesome artist whose music I really really like and I got to meet him too.
Totally awesome!!!

I turned 26 yesterday.
I prefer not to call it a “birthday” because birthdays, to me, sound festive. When you hear “birthday” you immediately think of balloons, cake, parties, and all the hullabaloo. My 26th was anything but; it was pretty much a regular old Sunday and I did the same things I’ve been doing nearly every Sunday of the past 2 years. I went to mass, I went to the grocery, I washed the dishes, I did the laundry, I watched a Harry Potter marathon on tv … Nothing special. Only a handful of my family members greeted me and even my brother, whom I live with, completely forgot. But you know what? I didn’t mind it at all; in fact, I was hoping he wouldn’t remember so that he wouldn’t make a big fuss. Two years ago I had a pretty decent birthday. I had balloons in my cubicle when I got to work, we had cake in the afternoon, for dinner, my Dad took us out to a Sushi bar, and I even scored a couple of presents and even at that, I was disappointed. (Last Year’s Blog) I had an awesome birthday the year before and that one really fell short. I fully expected to feel the same way this year because of last year’s amazing New York trip but surprisingly, I didn’t. I honestly didn’t care that yesterday was just like any other day.
I wonder though, if this indifference is due to the fact that I’m officially in my "late twenties" (i.e. old), and therefore no longer care about the fuss made over the day of birth or simply because i have so much exciting things to look forward to in the future that it hardly matters that this day is mundane. I’m inclined to think its the latter. I’m going to a Lifehouse concert on Wednesday, I’m flying to Manila in April just for the Duran Duran concert (have I mentioned how much I love, love, love them?), I’m spending 10 days in Singapore and Bangkok with Lia and Tatin, and in September I’ll be going to Russia and Scandinavia. Even though I’ve never been to Russia and I’ve already been to Copenhagen and Malmӧ, I’m still so, so, so excited to go back to Scandinavia. So, will all those exciting things to look forward to, who cares if March 2nd was a bore?