Happy Birthday Rene Requiestas!
Rene Requiestas is without a doubt one of my favorite Pinoy comedians. He had impeccable comedic timing. This little ditty is from Elvis and James 2.
If he did not succumb to tuberculosis in 1993, he would have been 51 on this very day. I wish him well, wherever he is.
The La Corona Coffee House
Picture Courtesy of Paolo De Ramos
This is an interior shot of the La Corona Coffee Shop near Burgos Public Market in Bacolod. As you can see, it's a tad dark. It's more or less always this dark during the day. Their coffee isn't bad. In fact, it's pretty good, though I've had better elsewhere. They tend to be a bit poor when it comes to consistency.
The best thing about this place is the native delicacies that are occasionally being sold here. The ibus is pretty good and I'm not sure if I've had better ibus anywhere else. You really can't tell what kind of sweets will be available when you get here, which is kind of a bummer.
There are vendors that occasionally come inside in order to sell all sorts of native sweets and pastries, some of which, I'm not too familiar with. They come from outside of the city and they occasionally consign some of their stuff here. I once bought kamote turon from an old lady who passed by and it was absolutely fantastic. That was over a year ago. I've been back dozens of times since but she's never come back.
I used to hang out here with some of the people I know back in college. In my last year of college, I was here almost every other day. Now I'm there every other week. The place has its share of regulars, not a few of them are among the people "in the know" in Bacolod, if you catch my drift. Frankly, they terrify me.
I'd recommend that anyone visiting Bacolod visit this place for at least fifteen minutes for a cup of coffee (a fair to middling dark Excelsa), a smoke (if you're into that kind of thing), and in order to get a sense of what Negros Occidental's famous sweets were actually like before they got all commercialized. Make sure to visit soon, as their selection seems to be becoming narrower every month.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... DON'T DRINK THE WATER. Be prepared to encounter nosy street kids and an old guy who just won't quit asking you if he could shine your shoes.*
*he does a VERY poor job of it but dammit, I like his attitude.
On "Good Old Fashioned Loverboy"
This is the best Queen song never to make it big. I firmly believe that there is no other better song in their catalog. I freakin' love this song. It's hard to explain. It's solid evidence of the magic that is "Queen". The song is sexy, innocent, and ambiguous all at the same time. This is early Freddie Mercury at his most charismatic. I swear Freddie can actually make me SWOON with this song. This song can cheer me up instantly, even when I'm in a foul mood.
This is one of the few songs I consider to be absolutely perfect. Everything just falls into place. The drums, piano, bass, guitar, and vocals all meld together so well. AND the lyrics. they're innocent, playful, sexy, earnest, ambiguously gay, AND smart all at once. Truth be told , I rather prefer this song to Bohemian Rhapsody. There's no hint of bombast or pretension whatsoever. I couldn't care less that the bassline rips off Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
