Jess Tells Tales: What was that song about? Teachers lie about things.

Hi again!

I know, aren't you surprised to be having another post soon after the last?

Maybe it's the cold temperatures that encourage my fingers to type incessantly or recant tales in order to keep my brain from freezing.

In this installment I have a short anecdote from my choir days. I had a good time in choir when we were singing, but not so much when dealing with the cliques and politics of favortism etc. There were definitely a lot of people who thought they were 'Divas, all that an a bag of chips, yes folks,' but yeah...

I love languages; so it was always fun to sing in Spanish, Japanese, Kisawahili and of course a lot of songs in Latin. I always loved singing Vivaldi, Brahms, John Rutter, well you get the idea. We had to sing  'O Fortuna,' from the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, for one of our yearly shows.

Here is a video from youtube; if you don't immediately recognize the name of this piece. It gets used in so many things, adverts, movie trailers. You name it, they've probably used it for whatever or whichever purpose.

O Fortuna

Carmina Burana Wheel

Okay, so now that you've said 'Oh yeahhhhh, I know that one!,' we'll continue with the story now.

It's a very dramatic and ominous sounding piece; so you can imagine how many epic and horror movies have employed this piece of music. During one of our rehearsals, one of my classmates asked what the piece was about and my choir director proceeded to say 'It's about this woman named Fortuna, who is being condemned to death by stoning.' I heard her say that and was thinking to myself 'Uhhhh, no it's not.'

I never studied Latin, but I've studied plenty of Romance languages to understand the Latin lyrics.

Here are the lyrics courtesy of  the Wikipedia article:

Original Latin:

O Fortuna

velut luna

statu variabilis,

semper crescis

aut decrescis;

vita detestabilis

nunc obdurat

et tunc curat

ludo mentis aciem,

egestatem,

potestatem

dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis

et inanis,

rota tu volubilis,

status malus,

vana salus

semper dissolubilis,

obumbrata

et velata

michi quoque niteris;

nunc per ludum

dorsum nudum

fero tui sceleris.

Sors salutis

et virtutis

michi nunc contraria,

est affectus

et defectus

semper in angaria.

Hac in hora

sine mora

corde pulsum tangite;

quod per sortem

sternit fortem,

mecum omnes plangite!

This is a beautiful blue moon!

Now the English translation:

O Fortune,

like the moon

you are changeable,

ever waxing

and waning;

hateful life

first oppresses

and then soothes

as the sharp mind takes it;

poverty

and power

it melts them like ice.

Fate – monstrous

and empty,

you whirling wheel,

you are malevolent,

well-being is vain

and always fades to nothing,

shadowed

and veiled

you plague me too;

now through the game

I bring my bare back

to your villainy.

Fate is against me

in health

and virtue,

driven on

and weighted down,

always enslaved.

So at this hour

without delay

pluck the vibrating strings;

since Fate

strikes down the strong man,

everyone weep with me!

Yeah, my choir director was pretty far off from the subject, although there is a slim chance that they were just trying to shut up the students to speed along the rehearsal, but you can decide the truth for yourselves.

Short and sweet one, for today. I hope that you enjoyed it!

Love and Well Being,

Jessica

Jess Learn Something!: More Cool Pasalubong from the Philippines

Oh, it's the first post of the new year. I hope that you new year is treating you well so far.  I've been busy being a Jessicle, but there are more posts in the queue as usual. Today it'll be more 'show and tell,' and the next post will probably be a recipe or another tale.

This blog doesn't have a set schedule, but I think that I would like to try and post at least 2 times a week.

I'm thinking of making the 'essay,' type posts shorter; so that I can post more, but who knows. I'm going to experiment and we'll see what I end up making.

So, here are some more photos of cool Pasalubong from the Philippines.

This is a bag from the 'Cream of the Scrap,' line from the store Artwork. A really cool chain of stores that is based out of the Philippines and features local artists/contributors. This bag is made out of the scraps and fabric samples that are leftover; so each one is unique. 

This is the other side of the 'Cream of the scrap,' bag. I like the crazy strawberry suit man.

I don't usually wear hats, but I really liked these type of hats. The designs were really cool as well. My favorite is the one with faces.

The hats are reversible. This is what the design is on the interior.

Canvas/Jute bags, this one features the Salakot.

Kiss kiss!

I love the graphic print and text of this one.

2 types of batik bags

Another view of the batik bags

These are fairly common and I think these two are from the Baguio region.

Cebu's Tay Seng Bakery's special hopia.

Did you see the price of this wonderful snack?

Tay Seng, Sesame cake- Ingredients: Sesame, Flour, Sugar, Glucose, Mongo (mung bean) and vegetable oil.

I was so happy to find this unique treat that is a Cebu specialty. It's also one of the few types of Hopia that I could actually eat. 

Artisan Chocolate Bars from Manila based Theo Philo- Dark Chocolate with Calamansi, Dark Chocolate with Green Mango and Sea Salt and Dark Chocolate with Siling Labuyo (Labuyo Chile). 

While I was in Manila I saw a piece about Ralfe Gourmet and their Tablea/chocolate empire based out of Cebu; so I had to pick up some of their Tablea. This one is the quick cooking version. the tablets are like thin wafers of chocolate.

This is chocolate tablea from Argao, Cebu by the Tablea chain. They have a wide selection of chocolate from all the different regions of the Philippines. 

Chocolate Tablea from Argao, Cebu.

I will have to put a review of the different types of chocolate and I'm sure that'll be soon enough; since I'm a Jessicle right now and could stand to drink a few cups of good and true Philippine Cacao.

All of these things hold different memories of my visit and of course help me to keep my well wishing thoughts for the Philippines and all of my family and friends over there. Recover, rebuild and thrive! I love you all <3


I will possibly come back and elaborate on a few of the items, but for now; I'm going to make some tea and try to thaw myself out!


Love and good health to you all,

Jessica