Culture Through Music

Even though I spent half my life in this country and there's a lot that's familiar to me, there's a lot that has changed. One thing is modern Filipino music. I think it's gotten better. And at the moment, I'm soaking up the culture through music...and I'm lovin' it.


"Hale" won Best New Artist at the MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards.

I just got a few cds from some of the top local acts over here and many of them sing in both the national language AND English. One of them is a Reggae band called "Brownman Revival." The others, like Hale and Cueshe (pronouced "cue-shay")---whose name comes from a fried banana on a stick---are more radio-friendly rock. You can actually hear Hale's stuff on their Web site. Check out "Kung Wala Ka," and "The Day You Said Goodnight" which should be accessible once you get past the flash intro. Just skip around the album tracks. If you listen for it, you'll hear some influences from Coldplay, Oasis and some other Brit bands in their stuff.

Filipinos love to sing. In the malls, you can go to the arcade and play video games OR put your tokens into a Video Karaoke machine and display your vocal chops for the crowd that gathers (and there is always a crowd, even if you're bad!).

Filipinos love to sing at church, too. I was a guest worship leader at this one youth event and now they've basically asked me to play every Friday night. They have a lot of vocalists, but no lead guitarist. So that's where I've stepped in. And my amp's never been turned up this loud at a Baptist church in the States! But more importantly, the kids are honest and passionate in their worship. God's really been blessing. Filipinos do love to rock. And Filipino brothers and sisters love to rock for Christ. So the worship is very much "up" over here. There's a huge Hillsong influence in the fellowships doing modern worship stuff. So, yeah. Lots of Class-A type overdrive and Vox chime coming from my section of the stage.

Things are getting little more stable for us. I feel like I'm adjusting better. Part of that has to do with having a stable church and getting involved with a youth ministry again. I'm developing a worship devo series for the band and I'll be giving the first in the series tonight.

Thoughts on Driving

Yesterday, I drove to church for a later service which started at 4PM. I left the house at 3 and we were right on time. It's not really that far away, but when you're only going about 25 miles an hour it can take a while.

Here are a few thoughts on driving in the Philippines:

This one is a "missionary" question: Is it right to run a red light (i.e. break the law) if the cultural norm of a given area is to do so?

Intercultural Studies types might say, "Sure. If the culture of a given area is to disregard a given traffic law, one is justified in disregarding that law as well." Hmmm...

More philosophical types might say, "No. It is not justifiable to break the law simply because others are doing it as well."

The more practical answer is this: "If you stop in the middle of a busy street, you are being a traffic hazard."

So what to do? My dad says the police do pull over traffic light violators and it is still considered against the law to run a red light. Right now, I make it a practice to stop at red lights AND turn on my emergency lights (if others are disregarding the red light), so that people know I am stopped. This way, I alert other motorists so I am not a hazard on the road AND I obey the law.

Hopefully, I'll remember not to turn my hazards on at every stoplight when I return to the US! :-)

More to come...