I have some thoughts that I haven’t had elaborated in my earlier post entitled “Frogs” and I can’t seem to get still without scratching this itch, these questions left in my mind. In that previous post, I have pondered on how frogs and other water-loving creatures survived when rains does not fall for a lengthy period of time; this upon observing that frogs actually deposit themselves in shady areas like spongy crevices underneath fairly size stones and behind leafy plants located in areas where the sun could not penetrate that much.

I see them frogs laying still and unmoving even if I make some hushing noise, apparently determined to hibernate as they read the climate so well—no rains, therefore we stand still. Amazing tenacity they have for to stand still is to perish where to us humans, we need to move to survive, we could not stand still or else we fail to survive. But frogs could stand still and still survive. In this manner, they could be a better specie—than we humans.

Now I kept thinking that the frogs I see on our backyard while the rains haven’t come are exactly of no use to me that despite the fact that they aren’t what we could consider as pest—like locusts ravaging the ricefields or mosquitoes rummaging on our blood—I had thought of getting rid of them completely, hauling them one by one from the shady places they hide themselves and throw them out of the fence.

Yet I felt that I could be completely unfair to them since they aren’t really a pest in the purest sense except that I do not like them leaping and creeping around the pathways when I am navigating the areas in the backyard. Their dark and slimy skin seems to be an odd sight to me.

I had pondered if in fact frogs are really of use to us human beings. They couldn’t be foodstuff except for some specie plying cleaner locations like ricefields and natural ponds. They can’t also be pets for only stranger individuals had kept frogs as pets; like the ones I saw on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!

Although I know for a fact that they eat or lick mosquitoes in through their all-too-lengthy tongues and one can say they could help control or regulate widespread mosquito infestations in our environment. But why do we need them when we can just hie off to the nearby grocery store and buy Baygon insect spray or we can just light up a mosquito repellent that we can buy in the sari-sari store across the street. Maybe in the ancient days when the Germans hadn’t yet invented Baygon, that could have been the time that we needed lots of frogs in our surroundings.

But now, I wonder why they are here, croaking at rainy nights and serenading songs that we ain’t really pond of.

In our elementary days, we are given basic scientific lessons on the web of life. I remember that so well including those charts that exhibits different food groups that we need to consume in order to live a healthy and well-rounded lives; you know those rhythmic annotations that says “ang itlog ay pampabilog ng mukha”, “and gulay ay pampakinis ng kutis”, such and such thing.

And in the web of life, we are taught that every creature is of importance to nature and to earth’s existence, that trees could help strengthen the soil and thus prevent erosion, snakes could help minimize rat infestations in the fields, plants spew much-needed oxygen into the air, birds and butterflies can spread seeds for them to grow in a more widespread manner, anteaters help plow the ground in order that seeds could easily grow, fishes give food and nutrients to mankind, and mankind….and mankind….oh by the way, I forgot how mankind could be beneficial to nature; I hope someone could remind me.

And so that’s how the web of life goes; and intermingling process of creatures that could be helpful to each other and to nature in general; that could be conceptualized also in that lesson we are taught as “food chains”—frogs eating mosquitoes, snakes eating frogs, eagles eating snakes, man eating eagles…such and such thing. I wonder how eagles really taste. Must have been just like chicken.

Now let’s go back to frogs—despite that they could help minimize mosquito infestations, we all know by now that Baygon could be better regulators. Have frogs lost their importance in this world? Are they the vestiges of an old and obsolete web of life, that now we have a new form or web?

Snglguy had once stated that frogs are good barometers of our environment. But what if man could one day invent highly-advanced equipment that could monitor our environment with razor-sharp accuracy, like missile guided Tomahawks that George Bush have? Then, frogs would simply lose every bit of reason to be croaking ugly night songs when the rain comes. Maybe modernity have started to creep into the web of life as we know it, that machines and equipments is starting to dictate another form of system in this world we call Earth that just like in the movies we see, machines could one day rule the world.

It is a scary thought sometimes. But it is just a thought.

Arcade Fire—seems to me like the safest name for a band, especially for a new-wave rock group. It is so gothic sounding even while gothic music is not anymore in vogue these days.

And yet Arcade Fire is making waves in the music scene like a comet on a clear evening sky; that despite of it being merely an upstart band, it had already garnered for itself a Grammy award nomination. That’s an achievement that is hard to follow for any new indie rock band. This ethereal group was formed in the middle of 2003 in Montreal, Quebec and had a debut album titled Funeral which went to become a sleeper hit and was in fact considered an internet phenomenon after getting sold sizably online, following an excellent 9.7 critic rating from Pitchfork.

The first time I had encountered the music of Arcade Fire, I had felt intense familiarity with it as if I had already known them for so long. But the truth is, Arcade Fire is just a new band even though they are playing like refined veterans—with unparalleled intensity and attitude, and a steady no-care-what-the-critics-say rocker gait.

Their music is quite familiar in a sense that it can easily be taken in without any hint of protest from the listening side. Yet the melodies in their songs are so innovative that they are completely original. I do not know exactly if such circumstance could be possible or such combination be reasonably realistic but that’s just how I feel about them. Perhaps, this is the main reason why I had adored Arcade Fire in an instant, where aside from The Fray’s hit singles (How To Save A Life, Over My Head), it is their latest album Neon Bible that is so heavy on my rotation, especially on afternoons in the backyard, sipping smoldering coffee and reading a fresh book or tuning in to the early evening news.

I could well remember the days when the Psychedelic Furs were riding up so high, that listening to Arcade Fire has that same experience I have gotten then; as Richard Butler filled my college years with his heavenly groans singing Pretty In Pink and Ghost In You. This may just altogether be a sign that there is still hope for new wave resurrection, even if many thought that new wave is completely dead. This may also be a hint that the rock music scene could still afford to do some backward steps, to the days when music was an entirely effective form of social expression (of angst and rebellion sometimes); in order to forward whole opinions and forceful digressions; as music then was such a significant means to important aims or objectives.

Arcade Fire’s lyrics are strong and unrelenting; clearly uncompromising and that’s why listening to them for the first time is akin to meeting a long lost friend after a very long and ardous journey from afar, traveling back to the days when bands like U2 and The Smiths was still as outspoken as a dead poet or to that momentous year when a seemingly roguish upstart band from Seattle named Pearl Jam released the very strong and heavy Ten album—a musical work that was filled with stark realism that it resembles what Fyodor Dostoyevsky would have made if he was a modern rock superstar.

In Windowsill, “Don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more Don’t wanna fight in a holy war Don’t want the salesmen knocking at my door I don’t wanna live in America no more…Don’t wanna sit in the windowsill no more…; that’s how strong their opinions can become and so ultimately frank and honest.

And in Crown of Love, the band’s lead-singer and songwriter Win Butler sings, “They say it fades if you let it, love was made to forget it. I carved your name across my eyelids, you pray for rain i pray for blindness. if you still want me, please forgive me, the crown of love is not upon me…” . The emotions gets so high towards the end of this song that in the background, one can hear a cruel violin, feint but insisting, to pursue a lost emotion.

This band has such powerful music, and so affecting lyrics.

Musically, Arcade Fire blows the listener away with crisp instrumentality; combining ethereal digital sounds with the tender sounds of classical instruments like the violin and cello. Half the time—in their livelier pieces—an upbeat bass sound reverberates like a war chant and puts liveliness into the air only the likes of Bruce Springsteen and the Rollingstones could provide previously.

And I could not help but be reminded of the excellent Australian band Midnight Oil , the group that had the historic Diesel And Dust album released in 1989. Win Butler vocals sounds so much like Pete Garrett of Midnight Oil and that’s a good thing since the Aussie band’s distinctive vocal have been often imitated by many bands in the 90’s but clearly never equaled. Perhaps Win Butler is Garrett’s worthy heir apparent.

Arcade Fire should by all sense be the next big thing in the rock music scene. This Canadian band is riding high on the crest of its initial success—both critically and financially—and they only have their superb brand of music to thank for. They have been to the David Letterman show, they have been interviewed by BBC, and they have already appeared on Time Magazine’s front cover. Success is printed all over them in bold capital letters.

Listen to samples of Arcade Fire’s music on Last FM.

Listen now to the single “Crown of Love” from their 1994 Funeral album:

Definitely it’s Europe’s answer to America’s Superbowl. This morning’s UEFA Champion’s League Final between England’s Liverpool and Italy side AC Milan is highly anticipated that with almost the whole world watching—from Bangkok to Buenos Aires—it could just become even bigger than the Superbowl and nearly the Olympics.

I was bookmarking this match in my mind for more than a week now but forgot entirely about it, my thought being filled with myriads of everyday concerns. Luckily for me, I tuned in to BBC this afternoon and got informed of the match in the best timing ever, as 40,000 Liverpool fans was seen trooping to Greece’s capital city Athens in bright red get-ups (the Liverpool color) and it was reported that a major problem was looming where all of those English fans can’t possibly enter the stadium where the game is to be played (probably tickets must have been sold out earlier in the week).

This situation had apparently caused massive ticket scalping where prices have allegedly gone up to as high as 3000 US Dollar per entrance. Now that’s superfluous. 150,000 Pesos for a ticket is certainly unheard of in this part of town. That just tells us how important this sporting event had become since its inception 52 years ago.

So I’ll be up until dawn tonight, errr, I mean this morning (it’s about 12:30 am as of this writing) and hope that the couple of mugs of coffee I had drink a while ago could effectively stave off sleepiness as far as possible.

If you’re wondering what team I am supporting, I must say that I must be rooting for Liverpool since I have been more inclined to watch England’s Premier League on cable television in recent days than the highly irregular Serie A of Italy or Primera Liga of Spain (irregular means sports channel carry them in a certain year but not every year).

Liverpool’s Stephen Gerrard is one of Europe’s hottest players nowadays and with Peter Crouch on the striking front, the men in red could just do a repeat of their 2005’s victorious campaign of Europe’s most coveted title, beating the same AC Milan after being down 3-0 at halftime. Although this time the law on averages could just catch up with Liverpool since they have already won this title a couple of years ago and so maybe now, it’s payback time for AC Milan. You know in sports, they always say that you can’t win all the time for the law on averages would soon catch up on you, and you can’t always have a good shooting night, for the averages would always be there to correct the statistics. Unless of course you are Michael Jordan; to whom the law on averages seems to be inapplicable—especially during his superlative playing days for Chicago in the mid-90’s.

Gerrard and Crouch were main anchors in the English national team that got haplessly booted out by the surprising Portugal team in the quarterfinals of last year’s World Cup event; that this upcoming UEFA Champion’s Cup match feels like a dream World Cup encounter between England and Italy (the current Cup holder) since Gennaro Gattuso, the elemental factor in last year’s successful World Cup run for Italy, is also on the AC Milan side.

If I imagine perhaps a World Cup finals between Italy and England, which is a dream match-up for me, then this must be how it would feel like—Liverpool versus AC Milan.

I rarely blog about music nowadays even though I am a very avid music lover. But one day about a month ago, I was browsing BillBoard’s Top 100 to find new music that I may add up to my listening menu. I had been revolving mostly around regular faves like U2’s unforgettable Rattle and Hum double album, Bob Dylan’s old masterpieces, Bruce Springsteen “best of” album (listening to The River over and over again), and about a couple of nights ago, I thought of putting on Billy Holiday on the DVD player slash VCD player slash CD player slash karaoke system ( most entertainment electronic device nowadays are such) after renoticing an old CD of hers I kept from view inside a dusty rectangular box where I usually store cassetes and cd’s not within my regular listening list.

And high on the list of the charts is a band named The Fray which I thought has a very cool and nifty name for a musical group and wondered why nobody thought of that before. I immediately listened to the sample audio clip of it’s hit “How To Live A Life” and was easily endeared by it although not in a big way, like I did for example upon hearing for the first time U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name” or Gun’s N Roses’ “Welcome To The Jungle” —songs that had somehow became landmarks of my early adulthood.

But….but I have downloaded a full copy of The Fray’s “How To Live A Life”, including some of the band’s other songs and played them over and over again on lazy afternoons and that beginning part of that song (How To Save A Life) that goes “Step one you say we need to talk…” keeps ringing over and over again in my head, even until the moment of sleep, that I find myself humming its melodies often. It must be that I liked the song so thoroughly that’s why I kept thinking about it and I suddenly realize that It has been for a long time now that I had last became so excited about a song or a band. The last time perhaps was when I first got to hear about Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Scar Tissue” and that was really a very long, long time ago—like 5 years ago.

“How To Save A Life” is such a good modern rock song—so good in fact that I kept humming it while I am driving along spalted downtown streets. This is one exciting band that knows its music and knows what radio-friendly means while being lyrically relevant. Rarely you see this in a band nowadays. They can be huge like Gin Blossoms when they were at the top of their years. Mystical like Stone Roses with very original melodies. Or possibly become legendary like REM for their meaningful messages.

The song ask a question and we wonder what answer does it demand. How does one really save a life? Within its lyrics is deep emotions. The songs laments on how to “…lose a friend last night” and then on “…how to save a life”; it’s a song about longing and lost, that despite it’s ear-candy melodies, it is a lonely song that spoke of lament and endearment—of discovery and then of separation. It’s one of the featured song in the hit medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” that it is so apt to a show that presents characters in scenes where lives are either lost or saved, destroyed or rebuilt, found or lost.

Listen to “How To SAve A Life” here.

See full lyrics here.

It’s both startling and astonishing how the weather behaves strangely nowadays. In the initial days of March, when summer was supposed to be ushered in gradually, the rains came pouring in, like an unexpected visitor whom one does not know exactly how to receive—had it came for a bountiful afternoon chatter over bristling cups of coffee or had just got to stop by due to a vital intent?

And now while May slowly loses its days to another month, the rains are hard to come by and the temperature rises even when night falls so deep into midnight, when it is supposed to be cool and breezy outside, and of course in the living room.

Strange weather, really.

So the ground are so dry nowadays that some afternoons ago I decided to weed out the backyard with unwanted growths, having no troubles whatsoever with muddy soil that get stuck in the slippers I wear. I had once popped the idea of landscaping the whole area with Bermuda grasses to my wife—about a week ago— but even I had scoffed when she mentioned to me that it would cost nearly ten thousand bucks to have it done by gardeners from the plant store across the highway. What do you actually call these establishments that sells plants and flowers in pots. I actually have no idea as of this moment.

So for now, the bermudas or carabao grasses would have to wait and I’ve got to contend myself of laboring towards manually eliminating the weeds for now (which can actually grow towards knee level when left unattended for so long) and my oh my, it was so painstaking an activity that my muscles ache all night long after that, and when I woke up the next morning, I could barely walk.

When I was scything the weeds, I had discovered that frogs were ensconced tightly in some nooks and corners of the waterless ground. I noticed this sight immediately for it was certainly a bit of an aberration to see frogs while water is so absent in an area. Frogs means water or rain. And rain means tadpoles and croaking reverberations in the night.

I then wonder how these amphibians can keep up with the arid surroundings even when I know that usually they soak themselves in cool water almost all the time. To be sure, it must have meant that frogs have developed adaptation schemes to combat queer weather situation and atypical habitats. Now perhaps there comes the answer to the momentary query of where do frogs goes when the rains haven’t come for a long, long time. They hide themselves in darkened nooks and crevices in the ground, behind and under mossy stones and shady plants, over misty soil where sunrays could not dry up thoroughly.

This reminds me of an episode of one of my favorite television show when I was a kid, Life On Earth. One unforgettable discussion there was this very strange looking fresh-water fish who can survive for months and months to come even when the ground become so dry that the soil is caked all throughout, like in a span of desert that is so cruel to any shrubbery.

I remember how the host Mr. David Attenborough—he with the effervently musky voice–had dug about a couple of feet into the dry ground and grabbed a morsel of mud formation which he then dropped into a huge basin full of water. And then lo and behold, the pack of solidified mud started to move and slowly a funny looking fish swam away like it was just another day in the river.

It was so amazing how a water creature could survive for so long without water, breathing dry air and being stuck in cakes of mud like a frozen caveman; in order to wait for the rain to finally come and when the water rises again, the strange fish wiggles away into the world where it usually thrive on, and start another cycle in its life span.

Could you imagine a fish surviving out of the water for far too long, like half a year at a time? I couldn’t. But I remember that there was one fish that could actually do that. Therefore presenting an exception to that famous euphemism of being a “fish out of a water”, like I am so miserable now that I am like a fish out of the water.

Amazing survivability this fish has. And also those frogs in our backyard.

Hans of Blogsquare—the sharp guy who invented this theme—stated that at one time, it had been downloaded 60 times a day. Now that’s pretty superflous and yet that’s true. Quite amazing feat for a wordpress theme that is not much talked about, unlike some other more popular ones.

Considering how neat (as a blogger friend had once described it) and so fluid it is, it would not be so surprising that this MyJournal-Ethereal theme is briskly downloaded.

See this screenshot:

Fluidity is the most apt term for it. And simplicity too. And it might simply be the one of the best, if not the best white minimalist theme available on the open source market. See the DEMO site here.

For Blogsome users—DOWNLOAD the files here.

For pure Wordpress codes, visit this site.