“Welcome to The Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance (2006)

10th anniversary of The Black Parade

By writing this post, I celebrate in advance the 10th anniversary of the release of My Chemical Romance’s third album The Black Parade. The band will be releasing a reissue to mark the occasion. Titled The Black Parade/Living With Ghosts, the compilation album includes 11 demos and live tracks and will hit record stores on September 23, just one month before the 10th year anniversary of the album’s release October 23, 2006).

The Black Parade happens to be the band’s most recognizable record and it was hailed as one of the best albums of 2006 by Rolling Stone, Spin, Wizard, IGN, and Entertainment Weekly. Indeed, it is one of the most important records of 2006 and of the first decade of the 21st century.

It's hard to believe 10 years have passed since the release of My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade. It's hard to believe rock music has become almost non-existent. It's unbelievable that thugs and whores have taken over music.

2006: A most memorable year

The Black Parade is one of the albums that impacted music in 2006, a year that definitely belonged to My Chemical Romance. If memory serves right, it was one of the best years for emo and alternative rock.

I was a college student then when The Black Parade was released. The lead single “Welcome to the Black Parade” was soon played by the urban city station that used to give equal playing time to rock, pop, and hip-hop. In the station’s weekly top 30, the song reached #2. "Welcome to the Black Parade" was my defining track of 2006. Next year, it would be "Famous Last Words", another track off The Black Parade.

2006 was the year when I was overdosed with infatuation. It was a year of unrequited love, a year lost to an obsession. On the domestic side, family and money problems mounted at home and the family almost broke apart. Yes, 2006 was a year of worry and anxiety, a time of pain, a period of depression and devastation.

But it was not a year ‘wasted’. It was a year well spent and well lived in the other departs of my school life, my young adult life.

Memory of a former classmate

Imagine how one song helped me remember two persons from my past: A former object of my infatuation and a former classmate.

While writing this post, I began to remember one classmate, who helped me get through the hard times of the half of 2006. He offered no financial help but companionship, advice, and other forms of non-financial support. He gave me reading materials that only collected dust at his home. He gave me lemonsito (Philippine lime) so I can make juice to cure my coughs. Back then, I was a mobile phone-less lad, so he let me use his without charging me.

Too bad my classmate left before Christmas. He had to return to his girlfriend (his future wife) so he can start building his family with her. One time she sent him a picture of hers, and he showed it to me. She’s a pretty woman of Filipino-Chinese stock. I don’t know why my classmate fell for a woman who’s a bit older than him. But God bless him and his family wherever they are now.

To my classmate, thank you very much!

10 years later

In 2007, Kanye West and 50 Cent competed against each other in the battle of the best-selling hip-hop album. In 2008, the global recession occurred. In 2009, the King of Pop Michael Jackson passed away and Wonder Girls sparked the Korean Wave with their hit “Nobody”. In 2010, Kobe Bryant won his second NBA Championship without former teammate Shaquille O’Neal.

In 2011, Lady Gaga released her controversial single “Judas”. In 2012, the London Olympics took place and Barack Obama won a second term as U.S. president. In 2013, the Backstreet Boys returned as a five-piece band and typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) wreaked havoc in the Philippines.



In 2014, Germany won the World Cup, defeating Argentina in the process. In 2015, idol Rena Matsui of SKE48 and Nogizaka46 graduated and AlDub became an Internet sensation and social media darling. In 2016, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie called it quits after 11 years, thus ending ‘Brangelina’.

As of this writing, the video for “Welcome to the Black Parade” on the band’s official YouTube clocked 57,054,244 views after being uploaded in September 28, 2006. In contrast, Kanye West got 59,015,375 views for Bound 2, one of the worst music videos I have ever seen.

"If I Let You Go" by Westlife (1999)

Westlife: lasting memories

I may have heard the song "Fool Again" by Westlife way back in 2000, during the summer afternoons, everytime I boiled hot water for next morning's milk. I thought the title of the song was "Born Again".

Late that year, everyone at (high) school was singing "My Love", another song of theirs. I didn't care much about popular music then. I was heavy into trading cards and toys: I collected Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, and Pokemon cards from my classmates, and also bought a set of tiny Digimon toys from my history teacher.

After the Yuletide break, a classmate brought his Christmas purchase, the first album of the record-breaking Irish vocal group. I would buy that cassette months later, after I bought a bootlegged copy of British group A1's third album "Learn To Fly".

At the school's Valentine's Day program, some bloke from the sophomores performed a solo rendition of "If I Let You Go". I don't know what hit me or took hold of me, but the song instantly became my last song syndrom (LSS). It would eventually land in my top 100 favorite songs.

Image from mahkarani.blogspot.com

Westlife's 2nd UK chart-topper off the first album was my ultimate LSS in the first quarter of 2001. In what was one of my favorite summers, their rendition of the Billy Joel classic "Uptown Girl" took over as LSS.

14 years has passed, but "If I Let You Go" remains my most favorite Westlife song, my most favorite pop song. It was the catalyst for my great interest in music, one that fueled my attraction to Britney Spears, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, AKB48, and Nogizaka46.

Like every other song that I like, "If I Let You Go" brings back certain memories. While writing this post, I suddenly remember my former crush (a sophomore) and another schoolmate (a classmate's boyfriend) who always played the song (on his guitar) at my request. May God bless them wherever they are now.

And how could I forget when four other classmates and I sang the song ala-Westlife during the convocation program, when my class hosted the event? Days later we would sing "Flying Without Wings" at another school program.

Too bad I can never turn back time to relive those memories. At least, I can enjoy those moments in my memory, with the song playing in the background.

"Senpuuki" by Nogizaka46 (2013)

For the music video, please click here.
For the English lyrics to the song, please click here.

About Nogizaka46

To date, this is the only "new" song featured here in this blog. So why am I writing about this song? What do I remember about the past that I am relating to this Japanese pop (Jpop) song?

But first, some introduction:

• Nogizaka46 was created as an "official rival" group to the world's biggest female group AKB48, which also has the same founder.
• Nogizaka46 debuted in 2012, the same year AKB48's "queen" "graduated", in other words, departed from the group.
• "Senpuuki" is Japanese for electric fan. The word sounds cute, right?

The keyword for this post is electric fan.

Member Saito Asuka "speaking" to an electric fan. She is the center of the "Senpuuki" music video

The past involving an electric fan or two

The ceiling fan was the kind of fan that I grew up with, as far as I can remember of my childhood. Every time I went to sleep or took a nap, I would stare at it, watched it turn its blades around. I used to have a fear that it would come off the ceiling and fall on me, either wounding me or killing me.

Ceiling fan

The time came when my family decided to own our own house. We moved to the province and stayed for a while at a house owned by one of my mother's relatives. My father thought about buying the house and its lot because he liked the idea of living closer to the beach.

The house had no ceiling fans, so a relative lent to us her standing fan. A standing fan? It was the first time I ever saw such type of fan. As someone who was accustomed to ceiling fans, I found the invention strange. I can't remember if we returned it to our relative after we bought our own electric fans and moved to a permanent home.

So at our permanent home, we moved on with life. We went to school, our parents took up some farming and fishing, and two years later, my mother went to the capital for work. Her employers sought her out, persuaded her to work for them again. She was allowed vacation. At times, she brought new electric fans home.

Standing electric fans

Electric costs: the suffering

Like every other family, we struggled with rising electric costs and broken electric fans. My father managed to fix them, so we would not have to pay a repairman or buy new ones. But we were powerless against rising electric costs.

I don't know but I seemed to be the most affected about electric costs than anyone in my family. The situation (or perhaps fear or worry) got hold of me, pushing me to make sacrifices. I was forced to forgo the electric fan. It wasn't easy at first for me to live life, sleep, or do things under the sweltering heat. I urged or appealed to my siblings to forgo the electric fan too, but they weren't ready to make such a sacrifice. My insistence led to quarrels.

Desk fan

I felt that my sacrifices would be for naught. We did see some decrease in the electric bill but my sacrifice weren't worth it, especially that my family did not support me much. But the best thing was that it helped me endure the heat, get along with the warm weather. I am now used to hot nights.

I am now used to life without electric fans. Family and friends would ask if I use one at my place. They even tell me to buy a portable fan, the types sold at stores that sell China-made goods. But why buy when I have a hand fan (the one given away by politicians during elections)?

Oh yeah, the portable fan. A classmate once donated a portable fan to my class as our classroom was the only one without an electric fan. Speaking of donations too, the parents of one schoolmate donated a big electric to their sons' class and even got a recognition for it at the closing and recognition program 13 years ago.

Think about everyday household items that bring back the memories.

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