Carlos’ life story is very ‘cinematic’

Curtain-raisers:

• Congratulations to Ladine Roxas who won the Grand Prix in Voice of Asia 2001 held Aug. 6 in Kazakhstan. Ladine will bring home US$10,000 and a big golden trophy. In the same contest, Vehnee Saturno won the Best Composer award for his song Where There Is Love. Vehnee won US$1,000 and a trophy.

* * *

Those who watched The Buzz last Sunday were taken aback when the ever-smiling and ever-jolly Carlos Agassi, "The Amir (Prince) of Rap," broke down and revealed something shocking about his childhood, a hitherto carefully-guarded family secret that left televiewers (this one included) asking, "Did it really happen?"

I’m referring to Carlos’ revelation that he and his mother literally escaped from the clutches of his late father who died fighting in the Gulf War. Yes, the father is dead, all right, and not, as many televiewers (again, this one included misunderstood it because of the editing on the pre-taped interview) were led to believe, still somewhere "alive."

" So when Tito Boy (Abunda) asked me what I had to say to my father if he were alive," Carlos told Funfare during a brief phone chat yesterday, "I could barely talk because I was choked with emotion. Tito Boy was saying, ‘If he were somewhere…,’ or words to that effect, and people thought my father is, indeed, still living somewhere."

Did you read that best-selling book entitled But Not Without My Daughter (which inspired the movie version topbilled by Sally Field as the distraught mother)? It’s virtually the story of Carlos and his Filipina mother who were held virtual prisoners in Middle East by Carlos’ father and they had to escape when the father wasn’t looking. In the best-seller, the American mother and her daughter were duped into going to the Middle East by the mother’s Arab husband who held them captives there. The mother was allowed to leave the country but she refused to unless her daughter would go with her.

"That’s why I couldn’t hold back my tears when I appeared on The Buzz," said Carlos who was but doesn’t look like a battered child. "People have been asking me why I didn’t have ‘angst’; they thought that just because I’m a happy-jolly person, I have had a happy childhood. After The Buzz, people should know by now that behind my big, big smile is a sad, sad story which has been nagging me, crying to be told. I’m sorry if I choked on national television but it was the first time I was telling my childhood experience in public."

That "angst" helps Carlos flesh out his character in the ABS-CBN soap Sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan but it’s definitely not enough. Anytime now, the rapper-turning-actor is taking voice lessons (not for singing but for delivering lines with more passion, more heart and soul) and acting workshops.

"My mom (Name withheld upon Carlos’ request to protect her privacy. – RFL) has married again, also to another Arab, and our (his and brother Michael who’s a member of the Star Circle Batch 9) stepfather has been like a real father to us," said Carlos.

In praise of senior singers

Here’s an interesting letter from STAR contributor Jonathan Chua (a professor at Ateneo):

It was a pleasure to read a letter by one of your readers about Kuh Ledesma’s tribute to Barbra Streisand printed about a month ago in your column. She wrote that she was expecting to be bored at the concert but that she found herself enjoying it in the end.

I’m glad that there are still young people whom Barbra’s music touches. Barbra has been unjustly demonized in a culture that increasingly valorizes youth, physical beauty, irreverence, and adolescent iconoclasm (e.g., South Park), and that conversely disavows sentiment and tradition. It is a culture that prefers its women scantily dressed, if at all, and all too quickly confers the title "diva" to every electronically-enhanced, one-octave, silicon-implanted bombshell. Admittedly, Barbra’s self-importance and tackiness are legitimate targets of corrective parody, but that should not overshadow her immense talent and her accomplishments in the industry.

Before today’s "divas" were even born, before the academe was interested in the "politics of popular culture," Barbra was already fighting for the (ethnic woman) artist’s right to define her own material – and she did not resort to sleaze and sex. When one realizes that her career was established amid the hegemony of rock and roll, one has to admire its longevity. True, she occasionally conceded to the demands of popular taste. But she always returned to the music that she believed in: the music of America’s "Golden Age" (e.g., George Gershwin, Harlod Arlen, Richard Rodgers, etc.) – this, despite criticism during the nascent years of women’s lib, and long before Madonna preached her doctrine of "Express Yourself."

Katrina’s son ready for showbiz?

If the ABS-CBN Talent Center or the GMA 7 Artist Center needs more goodlooking talents, Funfare is recommending 17-year-old JR (Juan Rodrigo) Enrile. That is, if either company can convince JR’s mom, Katrina Enrile, to let her son join showbiz.

As of now, according to Ayo Gunting who’s charting the boy’s career, JR is more interested in music, he being the lead singer of his own band called 13 Needles which is also made up of JR’s friends from Ateneo where he spent a few years of his education before he moved to Brent.

JR has showbiz in his genes, with both his lolas being steeped in the performing arts – his mom’s mother Cristina Enrile (who did plays with Fr. James Reuter) and his Lola Armida (sister of JR’s maternal lolo, Sen. Johnny Ponce-Enrile).

Ayo observes that JR has a close bond with his mom who has been lenient and fair with him but not to the point of spoiling him. JR is a homebody who’d rather pass the time listening to music with his girlfriend, also named Katrina, who has been his source of inspiration.

Said Ayo, "You can find JR usually wearing garments he buys at Quicksilver – you know, the surfing kind of look. He can be a model. He wears Bulgari cologne and is partial to Kenneth Cole shoes."

Let’s see which of the two networks – ABS-CBN or GMA? – will get JR first.