G A B R I E L A
N
E T W O R K U
S AA Philippine-US Women's Solidarity Mass Organization, est. 1989
13 April 2006
Posted by Liza Maza at 6:56PM
Batasan
6 Blog
MAMAS LOVE TO ROCK
Last weekend my two sons Niko, 21 and Anton, 15 came to visit. Huddled together in the dark of night, we started to talk about the what ifs of our situation. We talked about the possibility of my arrest and detention and about their future when it happens. We managed to put off discussing this for forty-one days until that Saturday, April 8. After some time, Niko sensing these depressing thoughts and wanting to calm our souls suggested that we talk about the topic that the three of us love – music.They talked about Steve Vai and how good a musician he is. “Malupit sa gitara, astig” is how Niko describes him. He said he knows good music when he hears one, be it classical or rock. That music is mathematics. It has to be precise and a good musician must have the precision and technique that can only come out from study, practice and a large dose of discipline. He further said that maybe his ear for good music was developed early when inside my womb he could hear the classical music I used to play on my tape recorder.
That night while Niko and Anton were fast asleep, I listened to Steve Vai’s Beethoven’s 5th. He is good, divine. Crossing close to two hundred years, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is as beautiful as ever. Steve Vai’s rock music rocked me to sleep. Half awake and maybe half asleep, I thought about mathematics, music and mass movement. How in these three fields “precision and technique that can only come out from study, practice and a large dose of discipline” as how Niko puts it, is very important.
I wondered too if mamas always loved to rock. Have they not been doing so since the beginning of humankind? Before Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Pepe Smith, Sampagita, Mike Hanopol and Asin’s folksy rock? There is a truism in the feminist saying written on a poster that hangs on the wall at GABRIELA’s office. It says: The hand that rocks the cradle should also rock the boat.
Yes, Mamas do love to rock.
HANDS OFF LIZA MAZA
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