It is not that I have nothing good to say about Arnel Pineda. Of course I do – and this would not be missed in my two previous posts by a careful reader. It is just that it was probably not sufficiently amplified to his fans’ satisfaction. But I felt a need to write this again nonetheless, since I have been obviously misconstrued by some.
I fully agree that he is a very good singer. I personally like the way he injects emotions in his songs just as I am awed by the way he delivers the lines and hits those vocal cords-straining notes with relative ease. That he is a Filipino is only incidental, an add-on even without which my appreciation of him would remain the same. That he is now the frontman of Journey is immaterial. I won’t think more of his talent with the luck or opportunity that came his way in the same way that I would not think less of him if he were still a small time gig player in some obscure bar outside the metropolis.
And I am happy for him as well – knowing the difficult and lonely – well – journey he has taken. It is a sweet fulfillment of a life-long personal dream – something we Filipinos love to identify with, like a modern day male cinderella of sort.
But this appreciation cannot and should not go beyond this dimension. And this is where we need to step on the brakes – to stop, look and listen.
So let us stop this proud-to-be-Filipino yadda-yadda. Let us refrain from the insane future-of-Journey declarations or the more insane better-than-the-original hype. Let us resist with informed intelligence this mad rush to equate his personal journey with national pride and identity. Let us by all means avoid calling him a “true filipino artist” when we cannot even appreciate in a much lesser magnitude Amado Hernandez or Lino Brocka.
By all means, let us sympathize with the fulfillment of his personal dream but without mistaking it as a trailblazing act of a great filipino musical artist. Let us relate to his personal success as we would to the rest of our struggling kababayans in their quest for a better life.
Let us do him a big favor by putting him in his proper place – as part of the Filipino diaspora’s lonely search for its own place in the sun. A search that will ultimately lead us back to where we came from, the unmistakable origin of our – yes – journey.
13 April 2008 at 9:00 am |
Well said! Arnel is a true raw talent that has also been fine tuned to almost perfection. I personally loved Journey in the day and also Steve Perry’s solo work after Journey, as well as Journey after Steve Perry. Now I have two bands to be fanatical about. I will be going from Maine to Tampa for my birthday to see Journey with Arnel and I am just as excited as I was, and will continue to be, about seeing Journey and Steve Perry. HooRah!!!
13 April 2008 at 1:52 pm |
If this was your FIRST post about “Pineda’s Journey” you would not have gotten negative reactions. YES, a CAREFUL READER would not missed your points… and I’ve read the original post several times before posting my response. By the way, you wrote the original “Pineda’s Journey” (part 1) 6 days ago…. Then you had a follow-up just yesterday. Isn’t that a bit late? Do I have to wait for days for the 2nd part to see another angle of this story?
I’m not saying Pineda is perfect, I’m not biased about his ability, I’m not saying he can do every song in the catalog. But what irks me is the way you wrote the first part of “Pineda’s Journey,” Honestly, it wasn’t a balanced post. If you really want to express this idea, the one that is currently posted, then should’ve just included it. It’s not that “some” readers misunderstood, it’s THE WAY you wrote it. You tried to polish the 2nd part of “Pineda’s Journey,” well that might be the effect of “some” readers right?
I’m not one of those who kept saying “Go Pinoys” “Proud to be Pinoy” slogans… I just honestly, think that the message behind part 1 was really negative.
17 April 2008 at 12:53 am |
Diego,
You totally miss the reason for all of this celebration and outpouring of Pinoy pride for Arnel. Instead of appreciating the effort and loyalty of Arnel’s fans, you blatantly and
maliciously berated them for showing their love and support for Arnel. Worst of all, you were adamant in putting down Arnel’s accomplishments. The labels and insults that you so freely and continuosly hurled at Arnel is infuriating and totally uncalled for.
It boggles one’s mind as to why you decided to tack on this cultural and heritage b.s. in attacking Arnel and his fans. Arnel never once claimed to carry the torch for every Tinikling Dancers, every Gong banging Negritos, nor for every Sun worshipping Pagans. What he is, is a trailblazer for every aspiring Filipino musicians, an inspiration and proof that there is indeed a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
You talked about true Filipino identity so eloquently, interjecting your interpretations so forcefully as if you are a renowned expert on Filipiniana. What is a true Filipino identity? If you totally disregard the colonial influences, you’ll be left with Paganism. Long before the Moslems and Catholics set foot in the Philippines, there were only Pagans. That’s our true Filipino identity—> Paganism!!!!! And, this is what you want to impose on any Filipinos who would take your word as gospel? Paganism? Thank God yours is nothing but an opinion that doesn’t carry any weight at all, lest, b.s. will rule.
Contrary to your ramblings, the sole reason for the outpouring of joy by Arnel’s fans is to celebrate his success, in becoming the front man for an internationally famous band, Journey, and for his triumph over life’s adversities. That is what every fan of Arnel is proud of, not what role Arnel will be playing for Journey. So be it if he has to be a Perry copycat, it is not an easy task mind you, not too many can sing the way Perry and Arnel could. Will you be able to imitate Steve Perry note for note? No way!!! Now if you could, wouldn’t you be proud of the fact that you could sing as good, if not better than Steve Perry? That overwhelming feeling of success and accomplishent is what’s called pride, Diego. I feel the need to have to point it out to you because pride has to be a strange word for you based on you posts. Yes, unfortunately, there was no pride at all coming from you for Arnel’s accomplishments. All I saw was this apologist, bitter and antagonistic, who’s sole purpose in writing his blog is to try and convince people to devoid themselves this feeling of euphoria.
Out of the many people to choose from, Journey chose Arnel, now that’s enough of a reason to be proud, don’t you think so Diego? Oh of course, they could have chosen you, but they didn’t. As a Filipino, why not just be happy for Arnel and support him? If it is not in you to take pride and happiness in your country man’s success and good fortune, then you can still contribute to ensure his success by just shutting up when you don’t have anything sound to say.
You don’t even know this man personally, all you know is what you’ve seen on youtube and the postings about him. You are immoral in trying to bring Arnel down after he’s spent 25 years of his life working hard to be where he’s at today. You owe Arnel and his fans much apology for these rude and provoking posts.
17 April 2008 at 6:39 am |
No, No, No! You obviously got this incorrectly. We are proud of what Arnel Pineda has accomplished not because we identify with his Cinderella-like story. We are proud of him and his small achievement because we have very little to be proud of nowadays. We have clowns pretending as politicians, our votes get stolen, the only available job to us in our country is as a glorified telephone operator, 1/5th of us want to leave the country, and the only known Filipino entertainers who are making it in the international arena are our poor women who work as japayukis in Japan.
There is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s own. There is also nothing wrong with appreciating Pineda’s talent and not giving a rat’s ass about Brocka’s films because each of us have different tastes. Did it not occur to you that perhaps those who appreciate Pineda are music lovers but neither film nor literary enthusiasts? Don’t blame us music fans for the lack of appreciation for Hernandez’s literary works and Brocka’s films; you have only yourself and your fellow literary/film lovers to blame as you do not make enough noise so people would know more about your idols and their contribution to arts. I read 3 of your blogs about Pineda, perhaps you could point me to an article you wrote about Hernandez; or a critique perhaps of one of Brocka’s films? Surely you are such a big fan of these two artists that you have already written tons of articles about them?
BTW, your argument in your previous blog about Pineda sounding like Perry as the reason why he was hired by Journey was a load of rubbish and obviously as flawed as your hearing. If Journey want a Perry sound-alike, they would have hired Jeremy Hunsicker who also auditioned for the job. They hired Pineda because he is a vocal chameleon and a diversified performer that it leaves everything wide open as to where they can go (the band said it themselves; http://www.journeymusic.com/band.html). *Perhaps* the original Journey members want to shed the Perry sound that people have learned to associate with Journey; and with Pineda as their lead singer, they are free to explore that option.
Oh and in closing, i would like to say that I am (again) proud of being Pinoy! Probably because when people ask me where I am from, I can say that I am from the Philippines where Manny Pacquiao and the new lead singer of Journey are from. At least with the help of these two people, we can slowly erase the enigma of Imelda’s shoes, Abu Sayyaf & kidnappings, and prostitution that *some* foreigners have attached to our country. So yeah “GO ARNEL!!!! GO PINOYS!!!”
And yes, “GO ARNEL!! GO PINOYS!!”
17 April 2008 at 6:57 pm |
hoy, diego. see we aren’t all morons out here, mr-brocka-hernandez-intellectual hypocrite-bastard.
20 April 2008 at 9:41 am |
!
17 May 2008 at 9:24 am |
Stop all the” B.S” . Just be proud of ARNEL PINEDA. He’s not running for President. He’s simply a very good singer.