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Friday, May 09, 2003
Masang Himig: A reprise
By Nikki R. Gomez
IN LATE 1978, Peter Lavina, then a college contemporary in UM, thought of rounding up his bohemian friends to set up a singing group.
I wasn't into singing, really, but since we were buddies, I was happy to join his ragtag band.
Besides, this wasn't a new group; even before Peter's maverick initiative, we'd already known each other for awhile: Popong Landero and Eugene Villarino, who, graying hair and all, now perform at Matina Town Square and other venues here and abroad; the duo Roger Barrizo and the late Boy Mendoza; and Eric Dalisay, who now performs at an upscale pub in Germany.
There were also our songbirds Malou Valdez and Susan Montecillo; Ela Evangelista, who knocked our audiences off their seats with Sampagita's "Tayo Na Para Magsaya"; Jimmy Cabrera, who once taught management courses and now co-manages a local business; Irving Lisondra, who wrote more than he sang; and Jojo Santes, who, like Peter, never sang but wrote occasional prose.
This was the zaniest lot of people I've ever known, and probably the most endearing.
Masang Himig performed six times to audiences from the UM Social Sciences Building to St. Peter's Auditorium, from Holy Cross College to the RMC gym, from the UM gym at Bolton St. to Penaplata's multipurpose gym in Samal.
I wasn't with them all throughout the "tour," but I'd happily lent out my 12-string guitar to Eric and Jimmy so as not to compromise their performance.
The group's repertoire included classics by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; America; Jim Croce; James Taylor; Loggins and Messina; Carol King; and Peter, Paul, and Mary. I tried singing Don McLean songs until missing the lines in one of the concerts nipped my showbiz career in the bud.
In 1978, my friends and I were at the ringside of a world arena that was, alternately, coming full circle and coming apart at the seams.
On one hand, the world cultural scene was inspired by the works of the conscientious poets, musicians, and intellectuals of the times: Henry David Thoreau and Robert Frost, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, J.D. Salinger and Richard Bach, among others. But on the other hand, the Cold War was at its peak and so was the nuclear arms race.
Back home, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were earning for themselves the all-time record of looting the nation blind while soldiers were shoving dissenters' heads into toilet bowls just for kicks.
These issues were, quite frankly, beyond our young minds to comprehend, let alone our raging hormones to even bother with. All of us were, in some naughty degree or another, blissfully attached to a member of the opposite sex. Time spent figuring out how to change the world was time spent away from the girl or boyfriend. At that time, the choice was easy.
Which we didn't mind, as Masang Himig. The group was essentially a band of moonstruck artists, so while Peter, Irving, and Eugene wrote songs about immortal friendships, Popong composed love ditties that tickled pink his teeny-bopper fans.
Still, despite our endless "tambayans" and fleeting love affairs, we were activists at heart.
Disturbed by the crassness of consumer products and the abuse of the environment, Popong would write a song about the future. One of its verses was written with uncanny foresight: "Sanggol ng panahon/Ingat sa bawa't hakbang/Ang bukas 'di na hawak ng mga ninuno."
Friday, I am humbled by the passage of time. After 25 years, nothing much has changed, even if great events have taken place in the world (i.e. the Berlin Wall has fallen, although superpower arrogance continues to this day), in the country (FM is history, although remnants of militarism remain), and in our own private lives (we're mothers and fathers now, although it is difficult to say if ours, and not our children's, is the wiser generation).
The group itself, albeit decimated now to a few, remains warm, loyal, and true to its common understanding of life as one that should be lived with dignity, respect for all, and love without conditions.
Paul Simon once sang "after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same."
(May 9, 2003 issue)
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