LITTLE RITA FAYE-not so little anymore

	Little Rita Faye - I Fell Out Of A Christmas Tree .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

MORE CHRISTMAS MEMORIES FROM ASINGAN

When I was still barely out of my short pants in the late '40s, some Xmas music were the harbringers of the upcoming holidays. I listened to this small tube radio. It ran on several D sized cells which costed a lot because electricity was still many light years away from Asingan.

One of them is the above I FELL OUT OF A CHRISTMAS TREE..by ( Little ) Rita Faye. Other titles were: Twinkle Toe, Dance Mr. Snow man Dance by the Crewcuts, PASKO AY SUMAPIT version by Ruben Tagalog ( I do not think this version exists today ) and the usual ones like MERRY CHRISTMAS POLKA. YOUR ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS and those perky Christmas Carols by my favorite group THE FOUR ACES. O Holy Night, Silent Night, The Christmas Song, etc.

the misa de gallo

During the time of Fr. Jose Estrada, when Dec. 16 rolled around he woke up the sleeping Asingan populace at 3:00 am with his strong PA system rigged up the top of the church. The bell tower was just a low building then. The new tower was built by Fr. Joe Ferrer who arrived in Asingan much later.

But man o man, while sleeping on December when the weather gets cold is so heavenly, here came the Diana band playing the unforgettable Diana music. I still remember the tune which will be with me even if I have already forgotten my name..

The DIANA music was played by a 4 piece group consisted of Messrs. Badua, Guillermo, Malalang, and Sison...Each one, except Mr. Sison who was the bass drummer, played a wind instrument. Each one played the Sax, the Bones ( trombone ) the stick ( oboe ). When Xmas time is over, or even if it is not, they also played for funerals until the age of the modern funeral entourage arrived.

the christmas church music of old

I remember listening to the choir trained by Mr. Juan ( Bong ) Salinda, one time Principal of the Rizal Junior College. Their singing sounded best when heard from the choir loft of the old church. The big earthquake of 1990 toppled it down and it was never reconstructed anymore. I envied then those singers and organists before and I wished I would be able to join them. Their singing sounded like a heavenly choir which would really lift your spirits up to heaven. I joined the choir years later but not with the RJC group anymore who have already graduated and left Asingan.

The finale song then was always one Ilocano ditty entitled RAMBAKAN TAY APADAPADA ( Let us rejoice altogether ) and it is another of the local folk yuletide songs which I will never ever forget.

Christmas Present is in Toronto, Canada but my heart will always dwell with Christmas past which all took place in Asingan several years ago.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO!!!!

LOOK A LIKES

These two photos, among the many that I saw and picked up from FB belong to two ladies who are not sisters, let alone relatives..But somehow, their resemblance is uncanny..The top one is a contestant during the Miss Bikini Contest in Asingan last April 2010..

The second one is a Filipina from Pampanga who has just immigrated to Alaska.

In the scheme of nature ( a very complex science which we will never understand completely ), there are incidents which some call "freak of nature.." One of these are physical resemblances.

Facial resemblances were used in many stories, novels, movies. To mention a few, we have PRINCE AND THE PAUPER by Mark Twain, PRISONER OF ZENDA, THE WRONG MAN, HOUSE OF NUMBERS, and many others.

In PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, two boys with same facial features exchanged places. They just wanted to experience fun for a day, the prince will live as a pauper and vice versa. Then after 24 hours, they would switch back to their real places. However, some complications took place and the switch did not happen immediately thus the adventure was prolonged until one of them was almost beheaded.

The plot is similar to THE PRISONER OF ZENDA. A man who would be King was imprisomed then to be murdered so the nearest kin could get the throne. But the good guys found a look alike on time and he became a replacement during the coronation. In the WRONG MAN, Henry Fonda was nabbed by the police because his face resembled a wanted person in the Police picture files. This movie is excellent because it was directed by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. In HOUSE OF NUMBERS, there are two Jack Palances. One was a prisoner in Sing Sing and his look alike brother plotted a scheme to let him out of the the prison which they called THE HOUSE OF NUMBERS. Well, the plot was successful but again something happened which I can not tell here. Too long and complicated. Anyway, sometimes you can catch these films commercial free in TCM.

Happy movie watching everyone and Happy Thanksgiving day! Nice day to watch movies!

VDC