For the last recent weeks, British rock band The 1975 has been dropping goodies one after another as part of their promotions for the release of their third studio album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. Apart from the album launch itself, the band has recently launched 2 music videos, participated on a live lounge, and had a worldwide Twitter listening party to name a few. These activities have left fans all over the world smiling from ear to ear. I would know, because I am one of those happy fans. 😊

Here are some of the highlights of their recent activities:



Radio 1 Live Lounge Guesting
I haven't really recovered yet from the new music video and here goes another Live Lounge session with them. I always loved listening to the band when they guest on Radio 1 (I downloaded the BBC Radio App because of this very reason). It was their first time to perform It's Not Living, TOOTIME, and Sincerity is Scary live and I could just sense their excitement and nervousness at the same time. I was then listening live via the BBC app. I turned up the volume and was just squealing when they started playing their songs. They also did a cover of Ariana Grande's thank u, next.

At the strike of 12, I refreshed my Spotify app. Worth the wait. 😍

This is an online event that I failed to participate in, and I regretted it somehow. Well the fact that it happened 3AM our local time didn't help really. Yup, that's the only reason - I can't stay up that late anymore. (Ahh the limitations of getting old. I remember the times during in college wherein I can pull off an all-nighter very easily.)  The following morning, I looked up Twitter and there they are - I saw the members' tweets. Their tweets are just all over the place, I couldn't make the sequence. There, I realized the beauty of reading these tweets as the members published it. You know they were also listening to the same songs at each moment, and that's priceless. 😭Next time they do another listening party, I hope I could finally participate.

Spotify Premium Show
And their activity never stops. On December 4, they held another small-crowd show for Spotify Premium at Camden Assembly. I didn't see the show real-time, but fortunately a sweet sweet soul uploaded the full concert footage. I spent my afternoon break at the office watching the whole thing. I super loved their performance, but the crowd was very annoying. Good thing the magical acoustic performance of Be My Mistake sealed the event in a positively unforgetful way.


INLIINWY Music Video
Out of nowhere, another music video was released by the band. It's Not Living is one of my most favorite jam from the album, and seeing the visual aesthetic for the song was such a treat.


I super loved the flow of the video. It very well captures the message Matty wants to send through the song - the maniac effects of drugs. It's also a treat to see other artists' cameos in the video: No Rome and Japanese House! The Sincerity is Scary music video cross-over  was very hilarious also. Based on what I've read over the comments on Reddit, the video is also a homage to Talking Heads and Stop Making Sense concert. And through that, I discovered another artist with great music.

Acoustic Version Music Videos
And the goodies just kept coming. Over the band's Youtube Channel, three videos of acoustic versions of 102, Be My Mistake, and Paris were released. And hey, the black and white aesthetics are back!




BBC Radio 1 & Twitter Take Over
After the Live Lounge performance, Matty Healy made a number of co-hosting stints at the Radio 1 station (you can listen to it here and here). I just love these extra appearances that Matty is doing. It really helps with the PR of their band I guess. And have I mentioned that he is super active on Twitter lately? Below are some of my favorite tweets from him:



Concert Stop in My Country
This is the highlight of everything. Finally my wish came true, they are coming back to Manila for a show! I wanted to get the best (and most comfortable) seat in the house. Good thing I had my learnings from past concerts, I know just how to snatch the golden tickets. I was already on standby on the online ticketing website the day of the ticket selling. On the strike of the hour of the ticket release, I refreshed the page and immediately clicked the section I was eyeing on. There's no room for hesitation because competition is very high. The moment I paused to think, the seats I was about to click changed to a red box, meaning it was already just taken. And so I had to decide quickly. After a few minutes of clicking, I successfully purchased my tickets! I got Row A tickets! Yay! My fangirling heart is fluttering with happiness.



I well knew the moment I saw this band live for the first time that they have owned me. After 4 years, I will be seeing them again in concert for the third time. The Universe knows how I much I cherish this band. Their music is my medicine. They make me happy.

For sure I will be following them more closely than ever for the coming months. Until then, see you in September my favorite band The 1975. 💓

After going to Gyeongbokgung to do some nifty photoshoots, we walked to the direction (where Google Maps pointed us) to reach the infamous Bukchon Hanok Village. Again, this is not my first time to do this because me and my sister attempted to go there during my first trip in Seoul. I say attempted, because well we failed to reach our destination. Now that I had the chance again, I was determined to be successful this time around.


Feeling fulfilled and pleased with ourselves, we walked our way back to the main road to the subway. As we walked, I can't help but snap more shots of these gorgeous houses.


I'm so happy I got to visit this place again. Although the sceneries were a feast to the eyes, there's nothing really to do there but to snap photos. Mel and Rey told me I should still have worn the Hanbok outfit and do more photoshoots here, but meh I told them it's enough. I didn't want to walk the roads wearing the costume. 😅

More posts to come about our epic adventures in this lovely city. 'Til then, 안녕히 가세요!

Can I just say I'm just so happy the stars aligned perfectly and made me discover this awesome awesome podcast? I've mentioned on the blog that I've been rereading the Harry Potter books (latest post as of this writing is the review on book 4). I think I was already halfway on Half-Blood Prince when I stumbled upon Binge Mode  a Ringer network (what a great website!) podcast that dives deeply into discussing interesting facets of various works of fiction and pop culture (thanks to the ever rich resources of the Reddit community, specifically /r/harrypotter). They've done Game of Thrones (all 7 seasons!), Black Mirror, Star Wars, Avengers, to name a few. When I learned about them, they were already discussing the 7th HP book, so I knew I had a lot to catch up on.


As of this writing, the Binge Mode podcast is almost half-way through Deathly Hallows. I heard they are brewing to deep dive into the Lord of the Rings universe next. I don't know if I would continue listening to them by then (cause I'm not familiar with the story, and I am sure their episodes would contain spoilers). But still I'm just so happy that I discovered this podcast. I've been really enjoying my reread of the HP series, recognizing all the foreshadowing that JK wrote in the earlier books, and  listening to their podcast made my experience more wonderful by a hundredfold.

Thanks Mal and Jason for giving me such joy. Raising my wand (and flask!) for Binge Mode, the pod that lived!

Heh I know I'm two years late with this post, but better late than never! 😊

And so the story of my visit to Gyeongbok Palace begins here. It was not my first time to go here actually, although the experience this time around is a bit more interesting because I am wearing a hanbok, South Korea's traditional costume, c/o Oneday Hanbok. 💓

I think this photo above deserves to be photo-framed and be hanged in my room. 😍

Honestly, I think I was the only one enjoying at this point.😅 Thanks to my thesismates Rey and Mel for supporting my photoshoot around the palace. 😀 Of course it's also a cultural experience to them I bet. Rey also had his own photoshoot but I won't post them here cause this is my blog. Haha.

After strolling around (we could really feel the cold Autumn breeze), we walked further around and just did some more sight-seeing with the other structures around, which was really cool.

A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, The 1975's third album, just got released this midnight. At the strike of 12AM November 30, I refreshed my Spotify app to see the new white square album cover art added on the band's page. As I listened to each of the tracks (with closed eyes and my hands gently tugging my heart), I knew I needed to do another track-by-track review of the album, just like what I did for ILIWYSFYASBYSUOI. However when Track 15, entitled I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), played and the first 20 seconds kicked in, I knew I just hit something. As the song ended, I knew this deserves its own post.


When I heard the intro, I felt my heartbeat skip. I always cherish that first time of hearing a song because it's so precious. It will only happen once. That amazing moment applied for this song. It's like falling in love at first hear (😦?). Upon second listen, I looked up the lyrics on Genius, and I felt even more mesmerized. Mad respect for the band.

I admit I myself has flirted with the idea. The feelings were stronger at some of those periods, but I guess I have learned to tame the emotions brought by my own brain's illusions. "But your death it won't happen to you. It happens to your family and your friends." Since that theme has always been with me for years, I've learned to befriend and manage it. I even gave our relationship a theme song. Having that song as the central message of what I felt didn't really give a positive outlook about things. Although it felt cathartic sometimes, I knew it was not right.

Well I have to say this song has owned me the second I played it. I knew the time has come to change perspective. In this song, Matty Healy, the band's frontman, acknowledges the presence of darkness. He has always been open with his struggles with his inner demons, and has been fighting them ever since he went to rehab late last year. Through this song, it's like he is saying that he has accepted this as a fact of life, but still sees that gleam of hope in the horizon. And that, that is the kind of outlook I want to have, and this song embodies just that.  It's wonderful that it's placed as the last song of the album. This is the message that the band wants to leave to their fans.

If you can't survive; just try
The effect of this song among the fans has been massive (although it's just been hours). Reading this reddit post brought me ugly tears while appreciating the message of this song even more.

This is another wonderful craft from the band. Thank you. 


~o~


All I can say is this band has stemmed its roots deep into my life. I'll forever be grateful for the courage I had to take that leap of faith to see them on my own in a concert back in 2015 (which started my lone concert adventures). Hopefully I get to hear this song performed live. 💓

This month, two films about two great bands were shown in local cinemas. Since I am a fan of both of them, I immediately booked tickets as soon as they were available. After watching the movies, these bands earned more respect from me and my adoration for them just grew even deeper.


The movie depicted just how this band started, the legendary Queen, and how the inspirations came about that led to their creation of their popular songs, most notably Bohemian Rhapsody and Love of My Life, for me at least. The film follows their adventure from their first performance in a bar to their legendary performance on the Live Aid stage.

I became a fan ever since I got to watch their Montreal concert DVD. I even felt sad upon realization that I won't really be able to see them perform live. I have also seen the Live Aid footage on Youtube several times after as I have read that this is the ultimate Queen experience. Their 20-minute set was one of the best live performances of their hit songs Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Gaga among others. It has never failed to give me goosebumps and (that oh so familiar) concert eargasm. I just love Freddie Mercury's voice and stage presence. In the movie, they used the original audio from the Live Aid footage. It was noticeable though that the film skipped their performance of Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and the obvious reason for me is due to the technical difficulties that happened during the song (which was really a bummer as it could have been a flawless performance but yeah I guess that imperfection even made it more appealing).

I also found it amusing to see the CGI used to recreate that massive crowd of Live Aid audience in the film. If you see the actual footage, you'll realize that yup that number of people were in the audience (around 70,000 in attendance). The crowd was ecstatic during Queen's performance, everyone clapping their hands during Radio Gaga, and We Will Rock You. Freddie's signature stage moves were very lovely to watch. It was indeed amusing that the film did it's best to be loyal to the Live Aid setup - from the band's outfit to the crew on the stage, to that green scotch tape on the mic + the drinks on the piano (hey Pepsi you just got free advert for that), to the people on the crowd (saw that black U2 banner!). Aside from this being a historical milestone for the band, their performance was even more worthwhile because this monumental event is all for a great cause - Live Aid's main goal was to raise funds for famine relief in Africa, and boy did they overachieve this as thousands of people sent their donations during the live telecast of the concert.

Although it's already a given that some events on the film were altered for cinematic purposes, it showed the band's adventure as they went for their destined fame, and also to Freddie's personal life, showing us the struggles that he had to endure throughout his life - the music, friendship, love, identity, and even his own mortality.


Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams
"A HEAD FULL OF DREAMS offers an in-depth and intimate portrait of the band's spectacular rise from the backrooms of Camden pubs to selling out stadiums across the planet." - IMDb


It's official: Coldplay's Head Full of Dreams concert is my life's greatest concert regret. I knew it the instant I saw the footages from this film. My heart ached as I saw what I missed that night. 😢 I knew that seeing this film is my way of rectifying that mistake, and well somehow my Coldplay heart became happy and satisfied all the same.

With videos spanning from way back 20 years ago, this documentary film showed how the band started. Even before they thought of naming their band "Coldplay" (of which they shamelessly stated they stole from another band that didn't want it anymore), those timeless moments have been captured and collated for this film. We see how they found their drummer. We see how Chris Martin formulated their hit The Scientist during that one time he was alone in the studio while the rest of his members were in vacation. We see how they built their songs in the early stages, how one cool guitar riff bore a full pledged song. I just love this one footage of Chris Martin telling the camera to mark this date as he says this words with uttermost conviction: "Coldplay will be the biggest band in the world, you will see." And damn yes, he was a self-fulfilling prophet. Just look where they are now.

Heavy with the band members' commentaries, this movie unfolded the notable events along Coldplay's 20-year journey in the industry. It's only here that I learned that they've been through a lot. They've been abandoned by the manager and the drummer along the way, and after sometime found their way back. It's humbling to see that their current line up is the original since day one. With that, you can just feel the bond they have created which was made stronger by life's ups and downs.

"Is there a keyboard somewhere?" We hear Chris Martin ask this during one of their jamming sessions. I will always be at awe at how musicians work. They are real-life magicians crafting these wonderful melodies that speak the language of the human soul. And can we just talk about Chris' voice! Man those vocals! His voice has always been the same since the start: deep and full of soul. He sings songs so emotional that it gives you certain feelings you never knew existed inside of you before. I learned from the film that the Ghost Stories album came to be post-Gwenth-Paltrow-breakup and there I understood why the songs sounded that way. Chris was broken inside. Even their members felt this, and they were all so protective of him during this delicate time of his life. Quite the opposite of the mood of his songs in this album, he has this personality of a bubble of energy off stage, grinning and doing dorky stuff in front of the camera. The film showed some footages of the band when they were here in Manila last year for the Head Full of Dreams concert leg in the country. We see them walking around Intramuros haggling with locals for souvenir hats, and also Chris biking around MOA arena (with fans realizing who he was began screaming his name as he past by) hours before the concert began.

I was happy I didn't leave the theater right away, because there was a comprehensive post-credits scene with Mat Whitecross talking about his experience filming the members since the beginning. After seeing the film, I can't help but feel that this is some culminating process for their career. They've been in the industry for two decades and maybe they feel it's time to retire and call it a day? I don't know. I hope they won't, that they would still create music until the day they die (LOL not to be interpreted literally). Can I promise myself I'll see them if there's a chance they'd come back to the country to perform? I don't know. When I missed their concert here, I knew in my heart that that concert was not meant for me. It was not for me, and I'll just have to accept that fact. But oh well who knows. Maybe by some stir of luck, I can see them perform live, even if just for one song.

~o~

I super enjoyed watching these two films using my VIP membership at SM Cinema. If you want to have a free refill of popcorn and drinks and earn cinema points, and also have a complimentary movie pass on your birthday month, download the SM Cinema app and become a VIP member! Aside from booking your movie tickets at the ease of your fingertips, you also get those cool perks!
By they way, this is not a sponsored post. I'm just a happy customer sharing this nice news to others! For more info, visit the SM Cinema site.

It's Friday night 9PM (well at least when I started writing this), The 1975 songs blasting inside my room. Ahhh, I am in my happy place right now. It's been 2 months since I last did a life log and how the energies have been reversed.

Inserting a photo I took at Nami Island, South Korea... cause why not? 😅

Just minutes ago, I pressed the send button of an email, addressed to that therapist I talked to some time last year. As I did so, I couldn't help but tear up a bit, because that person truly saved me during that time. I was in my lowest - a lot of changes were happening, a lot of adapting and learning of things on my own. I was scared and I was alone (initially), but good thing I realized I actually have close friends to help me get through everything.

It's been a long while since I went out of town to do some unwinding and just travel and expose myself more to nature, but as you can see on my travel logs, I didn't have anything planned for this year (which was kind of a bummer, I really have to roll my luggages on 2019 New Year's Day) so I am left with reminiscing the great great times I had travelling with my friends and colleagues.


My travel to Sagada is one memorable feat, as it was my first time to bring along my sister to my colleagues' regular nature getaways (yep it was during the time when we were still best friends). Oh what changes a year (or more) can have with people: relationships broken, forbidden love blossomed, and friendships rekindled. When I look back at these photos, I couldn't help but feel that I have been a different person back then. The lady I see on these photos was unaware that certain darkness and challenges would come her way, within her family and among her friends.

I just love this picture above. Although my face is in the shadows, the scenery behind me is such breathtaking. I want to look back to this photo when I'm old and fragile, and just proudly tell myself that I did a great job because I was able to experience being in the mountains and seeing the beauty of the sunrise (my second mountain top sunrise that is!)

I don't know when and where I'll have this kind of adventure again, but I am forever grateful I was able to have these memories in me -- of the forests that I trekked, of the wonderful scenery I was able see from the peak of the mountains. I guess my ever-cracking knee will always be a reminder of the great great adventures I got to experience in life.😄