Jessie Ware & her Devotion

Jessie Ware is a girl in love. She is so in love that she latches on to a lover so tight that she won’t care about the hurt that is hurled at her. She loves too much even to the point where she loses all confidence and admits “I know I’m the weak one.” No wonder her debut is aptly titled Devotion.

The lack of confidence though is not obvious up until a few listens. “Still Love Me” perfectly captures Ware’s self-awareness and lack of confidence. In it, she repeats the line “If I make myself understood/ Will you treat me like you know you should?” At first listen, it sounds like a line from a power pop anthem, but the verses reveal it all. The lines “Why’d you want me?/ Why’d you stay so close?/ You’re still not leaving?/ Was I enough?”  are key to understanding the over-all psyche of the record. She is unconfident and wonders why someone might look at her with interest. The song becomes a statement on confusion and self-deprecation, radically different from, say, the standard story of falling in love instantly then popping bottles all night long.

Unknowingly, Ware flips the script of a normal pop song on her listeners. She juxtaposes pop music which is characteristically cocky and in-your-face with subtlety, self-awareness, and shyness. Here, Ware created an album that is seductive, hurt, hopeful and above all, loving. The lyrics and production makes the record sound like Sade foraying into dance music while listening to The xx. That intricacy adds more to the magic.

The title track which opens the album is an eerie plea for love where Ware asks “Can we find a way to bring you back again?” It’s dark and broken and Ware seems like she is singing three meters from the mic. Her whispered coos are set against dark tinklings and an atmospheric reverb. Given the production that calls upon stormy clouds, Ware seems to already know how her lover will respond to her question.

Around an unrelenting beat, Jessie Ware is at her danciest on “If You’re Never Gonna Move.” The line “feel free to touch me” will be an invitation for a rude boy in a Rihanna record, but Ware does something wonderful with it. Hearing her sing it, while someone creepily chants “carving my initials on your forehead” on the background, turns the line into a call of desperation.

The poppiest moment in the album is “Sweet Talk.” Although the title exudes sexiness and all the lovey-dovey things couples do, but once the verses sink in, it is clear that Ware is a victim of love. "Don't keep me with the kisses, there's never any there when I need," pleads Ware to her emotionally abusive partner.   Amidst the pop sensibilities of the song, with the lines “but you give me the sweet talk/ And it works for me/ You give me a reason/ So I never go,” Ware sounds helpless. 

Wildest Moments is a hands-in-the-air, stadium ready power ballad. Amidst cavernous drums that normally, others would exploit by sending their voices out to space, Ware does otherwise. She does not go for bombast to be impressive, rather she delivers it delicately and packing it with power and emotion, that is all too moving.

Most of the album is an exercise in control and Ware’s voice is constrained but there are clues to what that voice is capable of. She veers and hides away in the pristine production, but, the moments where she lets loose are few yet stunning. Soul ballad “Taking In Water” is one of those moments. Much like the ocean, her voice reaches tsunami-high and yet preserves the vulnerability. On the verses, her voice is brimming up until the chorus, where her voice explodes along with the synths around her.

“Running” is the album highlight which won’t feel out of place in a Sade or Prince record. It’s soulful. It’s funky. It’s velvety smooth. It is another moment where Ware let’s go of control and proves that voice is effective, regardless of how low or loud she uses it. In the middle eight where she belts out "I want to know is it mutual?/ Am I ready to run?/ Am I ready to fall?/ I think I'm ready just to lose it all" amidst a guitar run is the sexiest moment of the album.  

 

Album closer “Something Inside” finds Ware shying away and in search of hiding. “Offer me something inside/ A place to go, a place to hide,” she asks. Her vocals, set upon a smooth and atmospheric production, turns into gossamer and completely disappears into the stratosphere.

Somehow, the thematics does not bring the album down. After all, Adele gained universality with her Someone Like You. Being weak makes her all the more likable and believable. With that voice, she could sing Rebecca Black’s “Friday” and it will sound like Whitney’s “I Have Nothing” and you will be fooled into thinking partying is so much more. The way she delivers her lyrics with such vulnerability makes it all the more personal. She successfully turns the universal into something specific. Unrequited love is never a new inspiration for a song but in Ware’s capable hands, the listener tends to feel his own experiences. Unlike Adele, who through her songs, makes strangers feel her anguish, anger and love, Ware makes her stories the listener’s story.

Perhaps, the shyness comes from the experience of starting out as a back-up singer. But that soulful voice paired with the impeccable production is lethal. Ultimately, she’ll soon be following her predecessors such as Adele, Amy Winehouse and Florence Welch. Stunning voices mixed with artistic ease. Ware, initially, may not have dreamt of becoming a pop star, but with such credentials, that is highly unlikely.

Her brand of soul, easy RnB, and subtle dance may very well be a sign of the impending shift in the pop landscape. In a few months, we may have a new superstar.

Colorful Food for the Colorful Life

Healthy U started with a man’s passion to make good of life.    

Emmanuel O. Bayot also known as EBJ is one of the vegetarians in the Philippines who chose to change his diet, change his lifestyle and live a healthy life by eating only vegetables and fruits while refraining from eating any kind of meat.

EBJ and His Veggie Restaurant

EBJ, owner of the three year old Filipino style veggie restaurant chose to make eating healthy more convenient for his family and workers by starting Healthy U. He also wanted to promote his advocacy on helping other individuals in the community find an alternative healthy diet.

His menu includes Tofu with Kangkong, Tofu Cheese Lumpia, BBQ made of soybean and meat magic, and many others. They also have malunggay soup, which is always available in their restaurant daily. Prices of their dishes range from 15- 28 pesos per serving.

He also makes malunggay bread and cookies. He even has packs of “Blissful Cookies” being sold at Gold’s Gym and The Yoga Hub (in Banilad Town Center) for 25 pesos per piece.

“Our cookies are really super high in fiber, super tasty and super nutritious,” EBJ said.

He added that the “Blissful Cookies” are made of rolled oats, mascubado sugar, peanuts, peanut butter and chocolate.

EBJ also assures that their delicious yet nutritious dishes are all free from MSGs, any additives or seasoning.

Asked about how he handles oppositions from meat-lovers, he simply answered, “What you eat is what you become. If you eat pigs then you’re going to be a pig. You’ll be sleepy, and have all the animal instincts, like fear.” The more you eat meat, the more you have those animalist instincts, he added.

For those who would visit their small restaurant and look for meat instead, he just convinces them to try their foodsince they have more nutritional value and are natural sources of protein.

 “Daghang namatay sa baboy, but wala pay namatay sa gulay (Many people die from eating pork, but no one has died from eating vegetables.),” he said before admitting it is his convincing technique.

Healthy U can be found near South Western University in Urgello, Cebu City.

EBJ

Hesitant to mention his age, he has been an advocate of vegetarianism for a very long time already ---ever since he was in “high school,” he said. Right now, he’s already 44 years of being such and counting.

He eats no chicken, no pork, no beef, not even crabs. He starts his day by eating citrus fruits, bananas, raw vegetables as salads and boiled soup (all vegetables). He’s also into nutritious juice like calamansi and carrots combined. During mealtime, he eats bread, brown or red rice with malunggay, sprouted beans or tofu. He’s basically into alkaline foods—foods that cleanse the body.

With the belief that the natural source of energy is nature—soil, water and air, he has been eating crops from the soil only, which are fruits and vegetables. He also drinks lots of water daily as much as 1.5 L of water before breakfast and a total of 3 L per day, if he can. He also does breathing exercises and meditation daily like yoga twice per day, if possible.

Some of the vegetables he likes the most are tofu, tokwa, spinach (in which he said, he has his own way of cooking it), sprouted beans, coconut meat and malunggay. He’s also into making juices from lemon grass, pandan, tamarind, malunggay and kamias. He’s also into yoghurt, which is also a good source of protein.

He has his own small garden where he plants his vegetables. However, he also admitted that he often buys his vegetables and fruits at the market. He just cleans those vegetables very well by the use of salt and soda combined or sometimes, by the use of vinegar—so as to get rid of the pesticides and other chemicals attached to those crops from the market.

He said being a vegetarian is like saying “you don’t eat anything with a face.”

As an Advocate

As a vegetarian, EBJ’s world doesn’t just circle around his veggie restaurant and his healthy living. He also makes signages now and does lectures and demos in some universities. Before, he was a columnist of The Freeman and a broadcaster in some radio stations. Reminiscing his past days he said, “Writing is really beautiful”.

Currently he is planning to install fairs and exhibits in Cebu and promote it in social media.

EBJ encourages in “eating something colorful like plants and fruits to have a colorful life, as well.”

Zumba for a Cause

              iCanServe Foundation will hold a dance fitness party for a cause this October 12, 2013 at the Bonifacio High Street in Manila. It will start from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. This event is in line with the celebration of International Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

              “Pink is not just a color. It symbolizes hope and support – a second chance for women who are fighting the battle against breast cancer,” said Libet Virata, chairman of the iCanServe board of trustees.

iCanServe Foundation, Inc. is a Manila-based non-profit organization founded in 1999 by four breast cancer survivors. It provides hope and help to women at risk for or living with breast cancer. Its mission is to promote early breast cancer detection.

“I would love to participate in this kind of activity since I will not only have personal gain but also because I will be able to help other people,” said Thea Dacillo, UP Cebu student.

This event is open for everyone. Registration will be in a donation form and will start from 400 pesos. The event will be for the benefit of iCanServe Foundation Inc.

By Hazel Pacturan

Mechanics of Jobs

By Sherwin Garbinez Jr.

             

The central idea here is telling the story of an innovator, however, Jobs falls flat on fulfilling its promise. It is all too mechanical.

On the driver seat is Joshua Michael Stern and portraying the icon is Ashton Kutcher. The film recreated the moments that lead to how the world knew of Steve Jobs, but it failed to delve on what was behind those moments, how much of the Steve Jobs we know was part of those pivotal moments.

The film opens with the 2001 introduction of the iPOD and it tries a little too hard to set the stage. Then, the narrative goes back to the Reed College years and then to his time at Atari, where his boss deems him impossible to work with. Then we see the creation of Apple Computers in his parents’ garage with Steve “Woz” Wozniak (Josh Gad). Investor Mike Markkula (Dermot Mulroney) steps in to financially support them. A revolution starts.

Ashton Kutcher is far from the Dude, Where’s My Car days and proves to be capable to play the man behind the wire-rimmed glasses.He is a good actor but the performance is stalled with what he is given to work with. The person he portrayed was as bleak as an office.

The Matt Whiteleyscript portrayed an iPhone or iPod not the person who made all those things possible. Jobs became a tasteless two hour lecture on the great inventor. There are no traces of a human being crafting these things, the man who experienced challenges, who became inspired, who had fears and aspirations. It aimed to chronicle the ups and downs of a great man but it is all bones. Nothing to bite into.

The movie ends with a glimpse of the recording of Think Different. Stick to the original if you want to be inspired.

UP Cebu faculty and staff shape up with weekly fitness exercise

By Monna Senara

At least 20 faculty and staff members of the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu participated in the Zumba activity during their first fitness day of the school year held last July 2.

Fitness day in UP Cebu is held every Tuesday at 4pm to 5pm. This was organized by the Health and Wellness (HW) Committee of UP Cebu.

Photo from http://yorktown.lohudblogs.com

Physical Education professors Ma. Alena Macasil and Marlon Timbang led the participants in performing Zumba, an aerobic dance set to South American Beats, during the first two weeks.

“To help improve their health and minimize their problems we came up with an activity, Zumba which will also lessen stress,” said Macasil, chairperson of the HW Committee.

The fitness day is supposedly a weekly activity but due to busy schedules and events, such as the Intramurals and the coming final exams, the exercises have not resumed since Intramurals began.

Aside from Zumba, other activities such as jogging, walking, and playing sports like volleyball and basketball were also held in the succeeding weeks.