What's it all about?

The moment I turned forty in 2006, my outlook of the world seemed to change so drastically. The roles I play, the relationships I keep, and the decisions I make are now carried out with a perspective I had failed to entertain before. Will this choice prove detrimental to my health? Is this alliance even worth the effort? How much longer must I play the nice guy? Or as Rica likes to ponder, fat or non-fat?

I guess since I turned forty I have been keenly aware of the concept of limited time. Is this good or bad? I suppose, as my close friends and I are wont to respond, both (or as we jokingly say, baughth). And so to chronicle all these wonderful and not-so-wonderful changes happening within and about me, this blog.

In the mid-80s when I used to play in the band COLLAGE with dear friends Marlene del Rosario and Alvin Santos, our musical director Cesar Aguas introduced us to a song we were adding to our repertoire--A NIGHT IN TUNISIA. Recorded and popularized by Chaka Khan in 1981, the song is a vocalese rendition of the jazz classic by Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Its lyrics go: A long time ago in the forties, Dizzie and Bird gave us this song. They called it A Night in Tunisia, and the melody still lingers on.

How I'd like to be that song.

Here's a recent performance of the tune by Chaka Khan during the North Sea Jazz Festival staged yearly in the Netherlands.