CAFASinger Concert 2016

Bulletin 1

Hi CAFAs!  It’s me again and here’s the latest re our concert project!

I’d like to advise you that the project core group has been working on firming up the preconditions for officially launching the CAFA’s concert project. Since the initial meeting last March between Menchu Pascual of the FA Board and the CAFA core group, the next steps for furthering the show project are currently in the works.

Dinky composed the letter notice for delivery to concerned UP institutions (who will be involved in the project). Pearl is conducting liason activities with the officials of these institutions and working with Fe on sponsorship prospects. Oni and Dero are concentrating on assembling the appropriate music for the show.

Last Monday, Dero, Dinky and Oni met to specifically discuss the production requirement of the show itself. As of today, the CAFASingers who have definitely expressed their participation on Feb 2016 in the concert are: Alice, Bess, Dero, Dinky, Alex, and Oni.  Rody at one time has expressed that he is okay with the project (For some reason, he has been incommunicado recently. Rody, are you still in Phl?) We are waiting to hear positively from Tong, Romy, Ely, Sarah, Rudy, Hector and Sammy.

The reasons why our full group is ideal to have in the show are:
 1) Per Dero, the image of the CAFASingers is that it is a large group. (It is more a choir than a quintet or a large band);
2) the precision pop harmonics resulting from many voices (the altos, the tenors and especially the basses) produce that depth of sound and melodiosity unique to CAFASingers; and
3) the CAFASingers is a brotherhood of old souls whose members are most strong, confident and happy when complete and performing together.

For this concert, it is understood that rehearsals for our old songs will be necessary. Time is passing and it is now only ten months to February. We in the core group are confident that the musical digital distance-learning kit to be prepared for the singers will be effective. Dero will be working with the musical arranger in keeping the voices as close to the original as possible. Have faith!

Before closing this Bulletin, we would like to thank Eileen,Nore, Emy and Bili for announcing their support to the concert early on. Guys, we'd also like to hear from our Email group (Lina, Ben, Mina, Dina, Gail, Alma, Cecille, etc).  Save the date in February 2016! In the next Bulletin I hope to advise everyone on the rationale of the project for the proponents, the sponsors, the market and mostly the CAFAs.

By the way, do send in your suggestions on the 60s songs we should be taking on for the show.   In addition to our full song standards, we are thinking of a medley for a Bosa set, a folk set and a pop set.

Til next time.

Onimayo

CAFASinger Concert 2016

Hello CAFAs!  Just this month, a group of Manila CAFAs met up to look at the possibility of a major CAFASingers concert project. This CAFA group (Pearl, Nore, Dero, Dinky and Oni) has become the core team spearheading the project.  The project is an idea for the UP and the UPAA board to support.  It would be a fund raising effort for the College of Fine Arts and also for the College of Architecture.  As we know, the current buildings of these two colleges remain in an unfinished state.

Pearl (Kapunan) Ortega introduced the core group today to her friend Menchu (UP Fine Arts alum and the wife of the current UP President Fred Pascual).  It seems that Menchu and hubby Fred are music lovers who would support a fund raising concert idea.  This is not the first time for such a concert though.  Some years back, the NeoCAFA’s concert at Mandarin Hotel (initiated by Nore and which was well attended despite the steep ticket price) was also for the benefit of the college of Fine Arts.

The initial site for the concert was deemed to be in one of UP Diliman campus' auditoriums.  This was advantageous from the point of view of financial planning (there is a subsidized venue). From out of the meeting with Menchu however, there is a building with a modern auditorium in the Fort that is currently under construction which could be use for the purpose. The building is going to be a graduate school campus of UP Diliman.  The lower 3 floors of the building is already constructed (the auditorium is in the second floor) and whereby the project will be completed in January 2016.

On the matter of the stage show, the CAFASingers shall sing CAFA standard songs in a version that would be as close to the CAFASinger 60s-70s sound as much as possible.  The original song version is good for audience recall (specially the baby boomer audience).  More so, the old harmonies are ingrained in the CAFASingers' memories and which will make it easier for them to rehearse.

Initially, the hurdles to overcome for the CAFAs are: 

1) the availability of the overseas CAFASingers for the set dates; and

2) the process of distant rehearsals for the US-based singers. The tentative concert date is February 2016 when Manila weather is cool.

We hope that most of the US CAFAs can make a “late Christmas season” visit to the Philippines then. For ‘re-learning’ our original CAFA music, we are applying technology.  The prospective musical director has an MP3 system for following song notes. (Dero is Show Consultant who will focus on the music issue).  Once the harmony notes are ‘clean’ again for the singers, then it is just a matter of embellishing the songs with musical expression, style harmonics and perhaps a little choreography (Emi will be Show Consultant for Stage). The latter concerns can be addressed if the CAFASingers can be in Manila for rehearsals at least one week before the concert dates.

Specially if the prospects continue to improve, we will send out more bulletins about this project in the future.  What is good to know is that our Manila CAFASingers, CAFA Alumni (mainly the group of Fe, Emy, Alice, Cynthia, Tina, etc.) and specially the UPFA college (through Menchu) are positive and supportive with the project. The core group is now writing up the project details for presentation to UP and the UPAA.  

We understand that some of the US CAFASingers may have their 2016 vacation plans conjured already.  However, this concert when it happens, is still about a year away. We are hoping that maybe, adjustments can still be made by those who are mulling other plans.  CAFAs, your early comments and suggestions (hopefully a commitment and not regrets) will be appreciated.  The more complete our voices and faces, the better!

Best regards,

Onimayo

Fe's Place

Just before Tong and Rita were slated to return to America, a CAFA despedida party was held at Fe Bareiro's house.  The party scheduling was quite a feat since some CAFA's had committed to out-of-town missions ( Oni was to go to Samar, and Dinky had to go to Silay). It was not completely timely for all since Nore had to already leave already for Singapore).

The party was held in Fe's grand house (art masterpieces hanging on many walls of the house, several sitting places for visitors, a grand piano, and a swimming pool and party area in the large yard.  This is not to talk about the many karaoke systems in the den.  The karaoke machines had not been used in a while that Fe and her maids had forgotten how the system run! But that didn't stop the singing as the CAFAs headed for the music den after dinner.

But that's getting ahead of the story.  Dinner was held at poolside where the CAFAs had their usual witty, if not snide oral interchanges.  Kawawa na naman ang absent.  The food was great and this time, there's only one pancit dish (brought by Cecille).  In the middle of the dinner, Bobby (Fe's hubby) arrived home from work and joined the group.  Rody brought along his friend Rupert, a balikbayan (see photo above with Cecille . .that's a Zalameda on the far wall).  The CAFAs who came to the party were:  Tong and Rita, Dinki and Milu, Oni and Bili, Vic and Pearl,  Cecil, Emi, Alex, Rodi and Dero.

As mentioned in my Email earlier, the group purposely discussed the next grand CAFA reunion.  Top of the list is a Philippine Reunion sometime in January or February next year. For this reunion, the possibilities are:  a special CAFA musicale show, city tours (malls, heritage, etc.), local tours (Boracay, Cebu, Palawan, etc.) and just plain hanging out with eccentric CAFA guys.  Dero, Oni and Dinki are all for the CAFA musical show.  An interesting option would be an Asian Cruise (Japan-Korea-China?).  Ideas on the reuinion are most welcome.  Let's throw the idea around in the Email and build it up.  If this will be early next year, we need to come to terms by June at the latest.  Hala Bira!

Psst.  Sorry for the minimal pictures.  Those who took some are requested to send it to Oni so that he can make a slide show of these and append it to this Blog.

Despedida for Bess ATBP

Bess Despedida
Da Bess Silva came to town for a visit and she just gave the CAFAs a one day window to set up a reunion for her.  She was in touched with Rita . . who called Oni . . who in turn advised the CAFA group about the despedida.  And thus, another party!  Those who came were:  Tong and Rita, Pearl and Vic, Oni and Bili, Dinky and Milu, Nore, Rodi, Emi and Fe.  They brought the menu fare for the night which due to the rush organization resulted in 4 types of pancit!

From the start of the party early on at 5PM, it was one continuous banter and merry making. i.e. Food and wine flowing freely.  Kodakan.  Singing of CAFASingers trademark songs. Group discussions.  special discussions (see photo of Emi and Alex for example ).   More Kodakan.  Piano playing (I was agaped - Fe is a pianist who can really read notes!).  Naughty songs (Gusto kong maging . . lastiko!).   Bess providing her alto for the melody line of the Tennessee Babe song.  Tong singing Sound of Silence anew. Republicans versus Democrats issues.  PNoy things. The next CAFA grand reunion (cruise?).  Lots more.

Those who gave notice that they will not come to the despedida were: Hector, Dero and Sam (for Sandy). Although they had valid reasons for not making it, the unforgiving CAFA group feels 'let down'. Hence, these guys initially took the brunt of the sniping and backbiting.   And then Bess' family (daughters and apo) came.  Heading the group was Bess' chill 90 year old Aunt who came in shorts!  (the group came from somewhere and were fetching Bess to go home)

It was close to midnight when the group finally called it a day. Everyone had an enjoyable time that led to more reunions being scheduled.  On February 16 a despedida-karaoke of sorts will be hosted by Fe for Tong and Rita (leaving for their US home shortly after that).  Be sure to bring your M1s for this one.

UP Fund Raising Art Exhibit
Last February 2, Oni and Nor attended an art exhibit at UP Diliman.  Pearl and Vic Ortega were also there at the exhibit.  The exhibitors were 2 senior artists and 2 younger artist with vastly different styles. The raised funds will go towards upgrading the UP Fine Arts building facilities.   It was good to rub elbows with national artists BenCab and Araceli Dans.  After the ribbon cutting, Vic and Oni headed for the tables in the far yard. There the waiters freely served cocktail food and drinks. Good art.  Interesting personalities.  UP colleagues.  Free food.  What more can one ask for?





See slide show for more photos.

The Big Seven

The CAFAs came out in force to see Oni off at the start of the new decade in his life. The Balikbayans were  Tong and Rits, Rodi and Nore.  Old reliables present were Emi, Pearl, Baby, Alex, Hector, Dero, and the trio of Dinky-Milou-Teena.  Extension CAFA members Francis, Titus and Botchi were there too.  The other guests were Oni's family and classmate friends from high school and grad school.

Attending to the many guests, Oni was not able to listen much to the CAFA talk.  But from their guffaws, Oni surmise that they were making interesting (uncharitable?) commentaries about  CAFA absentees.  It's a good thing that the small musical program started right after dinner, otherwise the sniping might have continued unabated.

Oni had planned for a small musical program for the guests.  It was the kind of program where selected talents from among the guests were the performers themselves.  Alex Salva (Neo pianist) was there to make the "unplugged" performance happen.  Oni's grad school classmate Noni Dolera had the Diomedes Maturan sound when he dished out "Ako Ay  Nandito" (Oni's original composition).  Tachi Billano from Oni's Christ the King Music Ministry had everyone agape with her classy rendition (theater musical quality) of two other original songs.

The program actually started with a blast when Da Dero took over the 'stage' for the opening number.  He surprised everyone with a medley of his past jingles which he sang with gusto.  Ultimately he called the CAFASingers in to provide the singing for an M1 medley of CAFASinger standard songs.  Mind you, this was all unrehearsed.  Da Dero seemed to enjoy and had to be "dragged" away from the stage by Titus since their Rockin' 60s group had sets to do at Chef & Brewer.  They were already 20 minutes late for that!

After the rehearsed songs by Noni and Tachi, it was "open mic" time and Alex Salva had his hands full accompanying next singers who were remiss in the accuracy of their lyrics and tempo.  It was good to see that most of the audience stayed on to listen even to unrehearsed music.

The CAFAs talked about old times again.  (Hindi na nagsawa).  As Baby said, she is a masochist by remaining a loyal CAFASinger fan despite the fact that she is made to listen to only 4 standard songs every time the CAFASingers performed.  Tong was not spared by Baby who teasingly called him "Mr. Sound of Silence". Tong was defensive and said that he knew other songs but that this song is for a duet.  He apologized for his duet partner Ely who he said unfortunately knew only that song.

The CAFAs also contrived another inane game again that night.  It was called "matira ang matibay".  This means that nobody makes a move to leave the party!  Seated around one of the big tables the CAFAs continued their merry making ways drinking coffee and picking on cakes.  By 1:30AM Oni observed that the caterers were beginning to surround the table.  They were waiting for the CAFAs to vacate their table so that they can take it and leave.  It was only then that the party ended.

Oh, well.  That's one birthday bash Oni will never forget.















See slide show for more photos.

Late Thanksgiving / Early Christmas Party

The CAFAs had another get together recently. Tong and Rita are in town and that wasn't going to get by the sentimental CAFAs without a party. The activity was held in Oni's house in Greenmeadows.  The pot luck set up saw an overflowing of fine meriendacena food and drinks. 

Those who came for the occasion are: Fe and Bobby Bareiro, Pearl and Vic Ortega, and Rita and Tong (of course lang). And then the singles were NeoCafas Dero, Alex, Dinky and Oni. (Milu is in Silay and Bili is in NY). Emi said she would come but she got stuck in her own family party. 

The merienda talk ranged from politics to geriatric diseases to life lessons. Surprisingly, there was not much CAFA bashing concerning those who were not in the party - there were so much other better things to discuss (or bash). Alex exposed to the group a stage play project that Oni is working on. That was fodder for "whazzup" questions which put Oni in the hot seat to face the critical CAFAs. Oni tried to 'obfuscate' the situation by explaining the nuances of the project through 'inchoate' means. It wasn't enough smokescreen to elude the bashing. (Emi, your support would have come in handy, heh heh). 

Dero was the sage who gave good advise. He said that at this stage, we should really make it a point to document any good ideas we have and share these with the world. Oni agrees. Because of Senior moments, Oni forgets at times details of the play script and music that he himself created . For instance, Tong's suggested a change in the story timeline (from 3 years to 5 years) which added to Oni's confusion since the suggestion does make sense. Am I making sense?

IMPROMPTU CAFA REUNION

Kincaid's, Jack London Square, Oakland, California

Sept. 13, 2014 

It had to take Bess to make the impromptu reunion to happen! 

She came to San Francisco with Eddie (who had some business to attend to), thinking that the CAFA mini-reunion was on Sept. 13. She didn't know that it had been moved to Sept. 20 because Ben's son was celebrating his birthday of the 13th and the father and son had planned to spend the day together. Since Bess and Eddie had to be back in LA by Sunday, the only time we could all get together was late afternoon of Sept. 13. 

So, there we were -- Bess and Eddie, Ben and Tess, Mynna and Dynn, Alice, Milou, Teena and I -- at Kincaid's, a classy resto beside what looked like a yatch club at the Jack London Square in Oakland, having dinner and enjoying each other's company! Bess and Eddie drove 5 hours from LA Friday night, Mynna and Dynn drove from Sacramento 2 hours and picked up Ben and Tess along the way, Alice took the BART from Union City, while Milou, Teena and I came from our son-in-law's parents' place in Vallejo which was about 40 minutes away. 

Typically CAFA, it didn't take much to convince everyone to change whatever plans each one had already made, and come to the impromptu reunion! It had to be done in Oakland because traffic into San Francisco on a Saturday evening is just as bad as traffic on EDSA on a Friday night . . . even without the flooded streets! Ben chose the resto, Kincaid's, which had a wide choice of seafood dishes. We had calamare for starters. Clam chowder and shrimp bisque were the soups of choice. For the entree, some ordered steak, some had crab. Everything we ordered had fancy names! And, of course, we had good California white wine to go with the meal, although Dynn found it too sweet (but drank it anyway)! 

But it wasn't so much the food, but rather the company that we enjoyed. It was great to spend time with Dynn, Ben and Tess, Bess and Eddie and Alice whom we had not seen since Pala Mesa in 2012. Mynna we saw when she came to Manila and joined the trip to Silay and Iloilo in 2013. But like always, it seemed like we had not seen each other for a very long time! We, of course, talked about the people who were not present! Somehow, the topic of conversation kept on going back to who were grandparents already, or how many grandchildren does each of us have. Dynn surprised us that her eldest grandchild is already first year college. And Alice was even more surprising when she announced she'll be a great-grandmother in January! 

Before we all parted ways, Alice asked where and when the next grand reunion will be. No one could give an answer but someone (I think it was Bess) who asked "Isn't it going to be in Manila?" Bess also said she'll be going to Cagayan de Oro in January for her grandmother's 90th birthday. Mynna also mentioned she'll be in Manila in February. There will be a period in early February when both Bess and Mynna will be there. In true CAFA spirit, that sounds like a good reason for another reunion! 

By the way, Alice, Bess, Ben and Mynna took a lot of photos and hopefully will post these for everyone to see. Alice and Bess sent me some of the photos they took last night on my disposable celfone. I tried to text them to acknowledge receiving it but I can't figure out how to turn off the "predictive text" on the phone! I know Americans are good at many things, but I don't understand why they have predictive text!

Cheers!

Dinky


See slide show for more photos.