overkill

since i am nursing the worst jetlag i've had in ages, i've been staying at home for the past few days. and when i'm at home, ninety percent of the time, the tv is on; and so is the computer. anyhow, the point of this rant is this:

today was laundry day so i psyched myself that i'd be doing nothing but laundry today (and that includes the folding, my most disliked part of doing the laundry). anyhow, the 'overkill' in the title of this post refers to my very own pacquiao overload. and abs-cbn's overkill in hyping up his win over erik morales.

you see, i was en route to thailand with M and R when the big fight happened. by the time we turned our cell phones on the moment we landed in bangkok, the text messages came rusking in: pacquiao beats morales in the tenth round! yehey.

we never got to feel the 'pacquiao fever' in the philippines, and also in los angeles. i arrived the day pacman left for manila.

since then, i've been hearing and watching about his 'heroics' day in and day out on tfc. today was no different. i woke up and asap '06 was on, so i watched. they devoted an entire show for manny pacquiao. wow. i'm impressed. while in manila, i got bombarded with pacquiao's song being played incessantly, whether on radio (love radio, kailangan bang i-memorize yan? wait, have all taxi drivers banded together and decided that love radio is their official radio station? just wondering because 99% of the taxi cabs i've been in have been tuned in to love radio. except for the last cab ride i had which was playing wrock. nice.) or on tv.

you know it, you've heard of it. it goes 'para sa iyo ang laban na ito...' and ends with a melancholic promise to his homeland, yeah para sa iyo bayan ko. sure. i was half-expecting and half-praying that they won't be asking pacquiao to sing it today since it was a tribute for him and all he had to do was sit down with his wife and pretend that they are enjoying all the attention. but hey, it was a show for him, so naturally, they had to ask him to sing. nature seemed to have agreed with me, it rained (it was an open air event) and someone with an umbrella had to accompany pacquiao onstage. meanwhile, my ears started to bleed.

the masochist that i was, i stayed on. hey, i had no choice, i was doing my laundry.

as if the entire asap '06 was not enough, they had also had him in the buzz, a showbiz-oriented show. what was a boxer doing in a showbiz talk show beats me, but hey, he had an album and he had to promote. and the freaking hosts had to ask him to sing a few bars from his song. initially, pacquiao begged off, saying that his head hurt, or he had sore throat. just a few nudges and a little convincing and there he was, singing 'para sa iyo ang laban na ito...'. my ears continued to bleed.

to compound my woes, their discussion went into ipods and how many songs the guy has in his. he said 'mahigit wan tawsan na' and it included, among others, songs of sharon cuneta, pilita corrales, imelda papin (this was when kris aquino could not help but suppress her laugh. hey, it was caught oncam), victor wood, everly brothers, righteous brothers... boy abunda suggested that pacquiao should complete the list by adding nora aunor songs and he began to sing 'pearly shells...' passed on the mic to pacquiao so he can continue, (and he did) 'in the ocean...' (he said, i mean he sang, off-key). i think i just turned deaf.

as if asap '06 and the buzz were not enough, there was a 'hataw pacquiao: party ng bayan' special in the evening. just how many times can pacquiao thank the filipino nation, and abs-cbn, and all his kapamilya? now if this is not overkill, then i do not know what is! this is where i drew the line. enough is enough is enough. i can no longer tolerate this. i turned the tv off and proceeded to have dinner in peace. after watching the first few parts of the show. hah. at least i gave them the chance.

the show was hosted by donita rose, bayani agbayani and edu manzano. first up was this girl say alonzo, one of the housemates of pinoy big brother, abs-cbn's new star-making slash star-search discovery machine. she sang this song that she has been singing since she was in the house. and then she said she was not the only housemate in the house. and i said uh-oh. she introduced 4 housemates, including the grand winner and they went onstage. nag-isip pa ako kung ano ang gagawin nila. maybe something different than usual. chance, chance. then the strains of the 'pinoy ako' song played and they started dancing. now, this is where i really drew the line. i've had too much of pinoy big brother. too much of pinoy ako, the song. too much of pinoy ako, the dance. too much of manny pacquiao. too much of tfc?

i turned the tv off. again.

i went upstairs to my room, and turned the tv on. time for desperate housewives.