Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina ).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?' In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem ( Dr. Spock 's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.' Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing yet? Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit.
If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully, Ben Stein
Friday, December 31, 2010
Take Time To Read This As The Year Ends
Thursday, December 30, 2010
As 2010 Comes To A Close...
It's been an equally wild and steady ride this 2010 for me.
I got engaged in January and basically have been going around wedding expos, and planning all year round. It's also been a year of belt tightening (a bit) to make sure we have enough money to pay for it! But for my tummy, it's been hard tightening that belt! hehe
Music-wise, I think I kinda disappointed myself hoping to release one album this year but failed to. I REALLY feel bad about it. I'm just lookin toward 2011 to make that happen.
Gigs, well, God has given me really nice paying ones to be able to cover for wedding expenses. I didn't have a lot of gigs but I had really good ones, which helped financially and helped promote me as well. (Anybody remember the more than 6 months Boni High Street billboard I had?) hehe
Promotions, I've been doing the usual but I guess the newest was the youtube channel. It's a work in progress building up a library of tutorials but I'm getting there.
It's been ups and downs but mostly ups. The downs really were just the things I hoped to do but didn't. I guess 2011 will be a rockin' year coz I'd have to release a ton of stuff by then.
Watch out for a release from my bands Lovecore and The Silverfilter. A dance album from my silverfilter project, and remix album, and one more by the end of 2011. Let's do this!! :)
Work-wise, same slew of TV/Radio ads, sound library for Germany (yehey!), and others. Looking forward to next year since I'm planning to step up and be a man and actually put up my multimedia company. Let's see how this goes :)
It's interesting how people think about making changes "next year" when it is really just a day away when it's Dec 31.
Happy New Year everyone! Thanks a lot for your support and love for me and my music. You all have been a blessing!
God is the enabler of all things in your life this coming year so give thanks and take His spirit in and receive His grace as your saviour! It's the best new year's resolution you can do! It's the easiest too!
Cy
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas!
It's a real gift having people support the music that I do but the greatest feeling for me is to be able to be an instrument of letting people know God's love for you.
This Christmas, remember the reason of it all... Why we give gifts. Because we were given the greatest gift, which is the Son and the chance to be one with the Lord in his Grace and mercies. Remember that He died so that we may live an abundant and blessed life not exactly free from worries but free to go through worries in our lives with a smile on our faces, knowing we'll emerge victorious in the end!
God bless!
Cy
Thursday, December 16, 2010
12 Days of Christmas Free Tune Downloads...
I was planning to do a 12 day thing approaching Christmas day but due to my busy sched preparing for the wedding and all, I realized there's only 9 days left... man, 9 days!?
So before it becomes 8, I've started it and for 12 days, I'll be releasing 12 links for everyone for a free tune... Now since it's the time for giving, of course there are a few "surprises" here. Let's just say you're not just getting 12 tracks hehehe
To make it a little more exciting, I'm posting the links only on my twitter feed and my facebook page so if you're not following me yet on those, it's gonna be worth it :)
Enjoy and happy holidays to everyone!
God bless!
Cy
Monday, December 13, 2010
Confessions of a Soon To Be Married Man PT1
I've told some of my friends about it and I wanna share this with you...You really don't know what wedding preparation is until you're the one doing it.
I can say I've had my fair share of being part of someone's wedding other than just being an attendee like being a best man, organizing stag parties, helping the bride and groom with various stuff, staying with a couple the night before to help them out and all. But never did I imagine, that preparation can be this stressing. Yes, I said stressing.
In the months we've been preparing, I have been to the hospital seeing a doctor MORE than once. I also had to get a membership card to a health care center just to get discounts on lab tests. Why? It's no surprise... Doctor said, it's stress in preparations. That's how it is. All the palpitations I've been having and those times I thought I was about to have a heart attack (seriously) was I guess all because of this stress.
That ends part 1. Na-stress ako typing it haha
Cy
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Client Woes
Client Woes...we have to deal with them but sometimes, it's really funny (and most at times irritating) when they have a problem with your work and you later find out they didn't bother checking your work in its entirety and how it was supposed to be listened to in the environment it was written for...
Case in point: Laptop speakers
I've heard fellow arrangers have client woes regarding laptop speakers as well as sound engineers who just shake their head with this. How?
We write an arrangement or score then submit it. Sound Engineers spend time mixing the music perfectly so that the frequency spectrum is covered nicely without mud and such. We then later receive comments saying it's not full sounding, they're missing the low end, did I even bother putting a bassline, and others. Thing is they didn't bother listening to it with AT LEAST a decent pair of headphones. They just relied on listening to..tada! Their laptop speakers.
I'd understand if it were about mid to high frequencies that are still heard on laptop speakers but to comment on low frequencies, basslines, not full sounding, they don't feel the weight of the tune is something not even funny anymore.
I mean, studio owners spend thousands to get a decent pair of monitors to accurately hear their tunes and get the more expensive ones as the sizes get bigger to accommodate the low end perfectly and then the end user negates all of it haha For the more technical, of course we try to get nice speakers to make our mixes sound great for whatever listening environment may it be on tv, radio, a club, the car, etc. But it doesn't mean that we can get sub bass frequencies on laptop speakers.
On the other hand though, using your laptop speakers as an alternative reference speaker for your mixes can prove useful especially if you're trying to mix for release on TV. but please... just don't expect to hear any lows from your tune on them. You can just check the overall balance of your mix. You know better.
Cy
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Missed my Adidas gig with Beatbox Philippines?
Realizing the benefit of uploading live videos, I got this gig coz some organizers saw some of my videos LOL 
And with that, this is the VERY short stint I did for the Adidas gig. just check out the vid description for more details. Enjoy!
It was I think the launch of their summer collection (?). They got me for that short stint of representing their Star Wars line that's why they asked me to play a remixed version of the Imperial March Theme along with beatboxers. It was the main opening of the show so they had a club of star wars fanatics with costumes march in as we played. It was also more on the Adidas Original line so it was more of the old school Adidas models than the current line so it's more of the imported apparel. They had like a football area, a "street" area with bmx bikers, and different areas in the venue representing a certain "look" for the brand. I played on stage that's why you'd see the adidas logo behind me and since they were after the vintage look, you'll see there was a VW van on stage. The even started waaay late than it was planned so you'll notice that when I got to my live set, it got cut 2-3 minutes into it. I was expecting to play 30-1hr! haha (short set same pay LOL) Interestingly, they had me use the Sennheiser HD25 1 II Adidas version for this that's why I got to try one of those. the adidas version was kinda expensive. It convinced me to get the original one coz I liked how it sounded I just hated the fact that they didn't let me have the Adidas version to take home!
Cy
Monday, December 6, 2010
To Anyone Who Missed My Gig with a String Quartet
Bonifacio Global City had me to represent the art of music for their Summer events a few months ago. Did a month long show collaborating with various types of musicians. This was the first night. This was with a string quartet. I was asked to remix/rearrange into electronic tunes, "famous" songs then play it alongside a string quartet. The string quartet had to arrange against my remix, which was sweet! This one's for anyone interested to listen to how it turned out and how my remixes sounded - Fever
- Light My Fire
- Can't Take My Eyes Off You
- Unforgettable
- Macho Gwapito (Filipino tune)
- All you Need Is Love
- Diamonds are Forever
- Close To You
Enjoy!
Cy
