The Evanescence Encounter

I will wander 'till the end of time, torn away from you....

This is my favorite line from a song called My Heart is Broken by Evanescence - the band who totally captured my heart since I first heard them ten years ago. Evanescence for me is truly a beautiful name fit for their dark and haunting music. Their music is quite different from what I grew up listening to which had been mostly 70's and 80's music. It was only during my late gradeschool days that I started listening to other genre which made me interested with Trance, House and Boybands. Came my highschool year, a friend introduced me to Nirvana and Metallica and not long after that, I started listening to Dream Theater, Nightwish, Linkin Park, Apocalyptica and Within Temptation. Goodbye boybands and teeny voices, hello rock and roll and heavy riffs!

I remember one day as I was listening to the radio, I heard a song that really caught my attention. The singer had a very beautiful voice, dark and powerful and the song sounded so poignant and sad to the point of almost being anguished. I fell completely in love with it and so I went searching for the title of the song as well as for the artist. Typing a few words in google I immediately found out - My Immortal by Evanescence. I only have one word in mind - beautiful! After that day they became my most favorite artist and I've always dream of hearing Amy Lee, singing live. 

When their third album was released I fell for it. It was way better than the Open Door album and albeit heavier than the first one, the deep and haunting melodies I've come to love are still definitely present. When they announced their plans for a world tour I was wishing that Philippines would be included.

Feb. 19, 2012, was a wish came true for me. I'm grateful for Ovations Productions for arranging the concert and I'm mostly thankful for Evanescence for coming over. On top of that, Bush opened for them and I've been a long time fan of Gavin Rossdale. I watched the concert with two friends of mine, though my guy friend and I were a little disappointed with the crowd. Our spot at the lower box gave us a good view of the whole arena and save for some people at the very front and some group at the upper box, the crowd was rather dead. Maybe they just want to take videos all night or maybe they're just not that much into gothic music. Though, whatever was the case, none of these stopped us from enjoying ourselves or from singing and cheering for Evanescence. 

My heart fluttered when I heard Amy singing the intro of My Heart is Broken, I was wishing that this would be included in their set. When they sang Bring Me To Life, the crowd went crazy, (finally). Everyone was singing, waving their hand and even dancing. It was like the peak of the night but sadly it was also almost the end of their show. My heart sank when Amy said goodbye as they have not sang My Immortal yet and it feels like the concert ended too soon. After some cheering from the crowd they came back to the stage and Amy sat by the piano. She started playing the intro from My Immortal and I stood there rooted and speechless. Dave Eggar, who was also onstage that time started playing his cello and halfway through the song, I was already close to tears. Hearing this song live accompanied by the cello made it beyond beautiful. Even my girl-friend who is not a big fan of the band had been speechless and amazed.

People from behind us must have thought that my friend and I are drunk or into something, but we're just there, savoring the moment, having fun and if we're ever high, we're only high on that night's music. Evanescence performance made us absolutely ecstatic and Bush had been awesome as well, with Gavin even going up to the upper box area to jam with the crowd.   

I tweeted that it had been the happiest moment in my 24 years on earth. Yes, it does sound silly, even exaggerated, but I had been truly happy that night. The music I had been loving for all these years had been played right in front of me. I considered it as one of those rare life moments, one of those "hell yeah!" experiences that I will never forget. I'm no longer dreaming about her voice and their songs. I've finally heard them for the first time and hopefully it will not be the last time. 

Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale

Amy Lee singing by the piano

me and my rock buddy!

Mane Affair

I'm not exactly too vain about my hair. In fact I don't have a shiny and flowing hair, but I like dyeing it and I also like to have a flattering haircut, so a good salon and a hair expert is always a must for me.

For quite some time now I've been moving from one salon to another. Services were mostly okay and the prices had been usually reasonable but somehow I'm just not contented. Then I discovered Mary Pauline in Ortigas. I saw the salon for the first time while walking around St. Francis Square looking for phone accessories. I was skeptical with their Sr. Stylist as he is a straight guy (first time for me to encountered such) but I decided to give it a try anyway.

Well the result had been awesome! I love the hair cut, it was shorter than my usual cut and looked fuller and bouncier. For the hair color, he did some mixing to come up with a golden brown-blonde shade and I really loved the way it complimented my skin tone. I felt gorgeous as I was heading out of the salon. I knew at that moment that I finally found the right salon and the right stylist for me. From then on and for three years I've been a loyal customer of Mary Pauline, though they decided to close their branch at St. Francis and moved to another location.

My stylist moved to another salon but I didn't like the new one at all. The services are pricey but they aren't that good. What's more frustrating is that the salon boasts that they're specializing in hair color treatments and yet they have a rather limited variety of colors and if you prefer using L'oreal products like me you have to notify them at least two weeks prior to your appointment so they could order for your preferred shade. On my second appointment with them I had to wait for a month for their L'oreal products to arrive but the shades were either too reddish or too blonde. I ended up trying Ash Brown as it was the only color that I find to be ok. I wasn't at all happy with the result, though. I spent 4,550 for haircut, hair treatment and hair color (with my stylist waving his haircut fee) and I didn't feel any satisfaction. After a week of being frustrated with my hair I vented out on my stylist and he informed me that he's resigning because he's been losing his loyal clients since he moved to that salon. He was immediately hired in another salon with a good reputation but unfortunately the area is a bit inaccessible for me.

Five months later, I woke up every morning, looking at the mirror and thinking to myself that my hair needs a fix already. One boring day, I decided to surf the net and looked up any reviews on various salon. I came upon the website of Cash Cash Pinoy and saw a promo tied-up with Creations Salon. They're offering a hair make-over package at 55% off. Needless to say, I got excited when I saw this. I'm familiar with Creations Salon but I haven't seen any full on reviews regarding them. I spent around 20 minutes looking them up at google, going through their website and reading any material I could find about them. What I found gave me a pretty good impression towards them and halfway before the end of the deal I already purchased a  voucher.

Two weeks after that, I head off to the salon to try them out. It's located at the 3rd floor of Greenbelt 5 and it took me some time to find them as it was at the very corner. The place was really crowded, which for me is somehow a good sign. They were very prompt in attending to me even though I'm just presenting a voucher and not exactly a regular client. The guy who assisted me and dyed my hair was really polite. They also offer their clients a drink, (a choice between iced tea or cold water). It was also delightful to know that they have a wide array of colors from L'oreal and Schwarzkopf! I told the stylist that I just want to have a trim and I still ended up getting a stylish haircut which is really good. The only thing I didn't like about it, is that it was a little shorter than what I had in mind, and I'm already trying to grow my hair longer now but since it doesn't look too bad I'm still happy with it. While the stylist was blow-drying my hair I noticed that I'm the only customer left at the salon but I didn't feel like she was hurrying at all. She really took the time in volumizing it which is not at all easy since I have a very fine hair. The outcome was great! 

I still love my former stylist because he's pretty good and had been my stylist for 3 years now so I'd still go to him to get my haircut. Although, after my experience at Creations Salon, I'd say that they provide a very good alternative for me especially when my schedule gets pretty hectic and I can't afford to travel for 2 hours just to get a haircut.


*The photo I have here was taken two weeks after I had my hair make over, though the color is a bit darker in the picture and its curly because I styled it for an event I attended that day.