Viber's Coronavirus sticker is #lyf

My mum-in-law sent me a dire message that's being forwarded about how dangerous the Philippines still is when it comes to infection, and whether it's safe to go out under relaxed quarantine rules there. I was suddenly very worried about our families' welfare and urged her with the season's tag line "Stay safe". The words were highlighted and produced the effect you see in screenshot above.

She then told me to "stay safe".

Hahaha! Cute, right? Even if a little on the nose

Yup. Takes so little now to delight us.

While sending back a yes with exclamation point and tearfully laughing emoji, I felt grateful that this was still true.

When sudden death happens to someone or something central to your life, you see the world through a filter of grey-- it's automatic. There was a point in my early teens when I decided to start paying attention to the little things and milking them for all they were worth. Otherwise... what? That filter, growing more opaque as time passes.

I think it's given many people the impression that I'm annoyingly happy, or childish, or insincerely earnest. It's not an affectation, even if it looks like it. I will admit it's a survival tactic, but one that comes with true appreciation.

Mababaw ang kaligayahan is often said disparagingly, but it's a blessing. Any joy is.

Music is my memory foam

What a nightmare this crisis has been. In New Zealand, we are doing better than most, but watching the news and keeping tabs on family and friends all over the world can screw up your sense of direction. Which is funny because we were going to go nowhere for weeks to come.

Marc was excited about all the musicians performing and collaborating online, so he proposed for Slow Hello do something. I thought it would be great to perform one of our demos so we could experience producing something new together again.




It was so cool that Russ and Erwin were also game to do something. We didn't know if it was going to work, but the thrill of trying again soon overtook any fear. It was so fun. While waiting for each one to submit their take, we'd talk about old times or new plans. We didn't even know before then that we were in three different countries. After posting this one, we got a lot of love from our community of music friends back home, as well as family and old friends, which we didn't really expect. We also started talking about working on new songs together, casually but with intention. I can't believe I'm feeling interested in making music again, and I'm so thankful that this made it possible.




Shirley asked me to come perform "Glacier" with them, and having done the song for Slow Hello, I was confident about pulling it off a second time and really happy for the chance to sing with them again. It was really fun to hear the song again for the first time in a while, and I learned that there are certain facial things I do when I sing that I should try to control hahaha! I was so happy that it also got a lot of love from people, and they enjoyed having me guest.




Friends of Alternatrip was actually the second one I signed up for. Marc asked if I wanted to cover Broken Social Scene with them and gave me a few options. I picked "Almost Crimes" because in my mind I was thinking "Cause = Time", my favourite BSS song. But I love it, too, because it's the first songy-song on You Forgot It In People and rocking.

It was so exciting to practise for it and I was honestly super nervous about it, afraid I'd fuck up one of the most pivotal song moments in my life. But there must have been some kind of synergy we had because it made us all kilig when we heard RJ's final mix, awed that we were part of something so cool and emotionally meaningful for all of us.

While recording it, my neighbours must have thought I was delusional, insisting on singing painfully high throughout the song.