Despite all the great food I ate during the holidays, nothing could wash away the bitter taste of failure. After all my efforts, I still have not reached my one true goal: meet ANIMAL, my dad. But instead of sulking and scratching my pink & furry head trying mighty hard to figure out where exactly I went wrong, I took some time to look back at the things that went well this year. 2008 gave me four new friends who have been my staunch supporters in my quest for Rockstardom…if only to gain my dad’s recognition.Thank you so much to my band: Billy Reyes, Jeng Tan, Meh Reyes, Jovi reyes and manix Abrera. Without these people, I would not have been able to rub elbows with bands like Sandwich and The Dawn. .I would not have been able to play at such great places like Saguijo, Route 196, ToyCon, and Mag:Net High Street. 2008 was also the year when I met more and more interesting new friends— …had my first TV appearance when Jojo A. featured me in his show; I became a Rockeoke Idol finalist. …had my comics published and distributed at the Comic Convention. It was also the year when I had my first commercial stint with this cool bakeshop: BreadTalk. The soundtrack—which we very much enjoyed doing, made it as a finalist at the Animahenasyon 2008 Festival. In 2008, our band started to make a name for itself over cyberspace. FilAM music took notice of our band’s brand of music. “Mapakali” was chosen as Musiklokal’s Video of the month People were blogging about Gorgoro, turning my pink&furry face into wallpaper and profile pictures on their friendster, multiply and facebook pages! At first, it was a bit embarrassing to see my face plastered on other people’s pages, but admittedly it was flattering. 2008 was also the year of the much-awaited, (and almost the most-frustrating-event-had-it-not-pushed-through) EHEADS reunion concert! Fans got wind of the news first from…eherm, yours truly. When rumors started flying that this event would be postponed, I wrote a song appealing to the Department of Health (almost begging them) to please please let the Eraserheads play. Luckily, they did. (Not because I begged them to, but I’d like to think the song had something to do with it.)
The concert was a huge success. And what better way to close that chapter of my life, than with a song that was deeply close to my heart. (auwwwww…I’m not one to be cheesy, but since this is a time to reminisce, allow me to indulge.)
Whew. So that’s what happened in 2008. At this point, I’m supposed to say, “I may not have failed after all!” But the bitter truth still is: I did. My dad still doesn’t know I exist.
But heck, 2009’s another new year. There’s more friends to meet. More gigs to play in. More songs to write. More spaces to conquer. More reasons to try harder so the man I know as dad would finally recognize his son.
So 2009, chew on these sweet words: Bring it on. Splendid!
-GORGORO
