White hair chronicles - My Back Pages/Knocking on Heaven's Door (The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration)

It's been so long since Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert celebration that it itself had its own 20th anniversary last week. In the video above, the greatest assembly of rock legends sing "My Back Pages" and "Knocking on Heaven's Door".

This white hair chronicler finds "My Back Pages" enigmatically ironic. Dylan wrote the song while in his 20's but he talked somehow of losing his romantic idealism. The song might have meant more to the group that sang it in the 30th anniversary as many were pushing 50's or so then. Now the pack probably is "Knocking on Heaven's Door". In fact some of the performers in the concert are now playing their great gig in the sky, Johnny Cash, George Harrison, and some members of The Band.

Whatever doubts Bob Dylan had in his ideals, I'm sure he found them back. He never really lost them, his Victoria's Secret MTV notwithstanding. It just shows he always has his mojo. Bob Dylan and company is timeless. They always "(I) Shall Be Released" and they will stay "Forever Young".

White hair chronicles XXXI - White hair is in

Early this year, more mature models starred at previews of fall fashion - chic, retro styles. Consider this line up in recent fashion shows: 45 year old and grey haired Kristen McMenamy; '90s models and now mothers – Stella Tennant and Kirsty Hume; 47-year-old Elle Macpherson. We also still see other models like 41-year-old Christy Turlington and 39-year-old Claudia Schiffer in print ads.

Now Kristen McMenamy appears on the cover of a magazine with her striking silver locks proudly on display. She stopped dying her hair six years ago and will flaunt her tresses in the August issue of Vogue. She says 'You can get older and still be rock 'n' roll. I thought all that grey hair would make a beautiful picture.'

Younger celebrities have gone grey too. Lady Gaga, Kelly Osbourne, Kate Moss, Pixie Geldof and Pink sport silver locks, aided by hair dye.

White hair chronicles XXX - The Youth Pill: Scientists at the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution

David Stipp's The Youth Pill is now a hot topic. Much more so, I guess, in the health, wellness and ageing conscious age bracket of white hair chroniclers. Stipp says “Gerontologists sense that their field is finally in a position to develop medicines that truly slow aging. This book is the story of how it all happened”.

From Gilgamesh to Ponce de Leon to modern day Belo clients, man has always been on the lookout to forestall the inevitable. Stipp's book chronicles the advances made by science in the study of ageing.

Lab tests show that giving near-starvation diets to lab animals can extend their lifespans by 40% or more. In human terms, our lifespan could reach 150 years. Stipp theorizes that low-calorie diets activate genes designed to help animals endure hard times, which boost cellular repair mechanisms. Proponents of this theory are searching for drugs that can produce these effects without years of non-stop dieting. The new science gives hope to some white hair chroniclers that these advances could indeed lead to increased longevity.

White hair chronicles XXVI - the age of hex and lotto

Pinoys have many ways to evade direct queries about their age. People pushing 30 say "nasa kalendaryo pa (it's still found in the calendar)". People older than 31 will say "nasa lotto pa (it's still in the lotto)". The age query will be followed up by "which lotto?". There are many lotto games in the gambling country that is the Philippines. The newest one, the Grand Lotto 6/55, gives many of my friends a reprieve, since they will soon be over the Super Lotto 6/49.

I used to tell people my age in hexadecimal terms. So back then when I say I'm 29, I conveniently omit to say that's in hex. Technically I didn't lie. People would tell me "maaga kang tinubuan ng puti (you had white hair early)". But I got away with it. I stopped using hex when 2A years old sounded like a ridiculous giveaway.

I can still say my age (in hex) is still in the calendar. Pretty soon I won't get away with it. But I can claim it's still in the lotto. Don't ask which. When I run out of lotto numbers, I will then say it's still in the Bingo. Ahh, but that's still a long time from now.

White hair chronicles XXIII

Today is the 3rd death anniversary of my father. He would have just turned 71 if he were still alive. When he was my age today he already had two grandchildren. In contrast, my eldest is just turned 13 last year. My father dyed his hair regularly, I do not. An elementary school classmate of my father thought I was his brother. He was profusely apologetic when I told him I am a son not a brother. It's ok with me though. I just don't know if he thought I was the elder brother.

At SM grocery stores, they have a special lane for senior citizens (60 years old and above). SM personnel routinely tell me I can use that lane. I amuses me because it's still more than a decade away before I can use that lane. What amuses me more is they offer me a seat while waiting for my groceries to be checked out. It will worry me if they start to offer me a wheelchair.

Indeed I seem to excel in looking old. Maybe it's not just the hair. Maybe that's why pickpockets think they can easily pick things off my bag. Which they did successfully the other day when they took off with my cellphone, leaving my earphone literally hanging. On Monday, I want to look and walk the way I did last Thursday so they can pick my bag's pocket again. In the spirit of Jose Rizal's throwing of his remaining slipper when he lost one in the water, I'll let them take the phone charger and extra battery and earphone. I'll have no use for them now.

I recall that my father, being a lawyer, used to have connections with the police. I remember that he can ask his connections' connections to recover items snatched or taken through stick ups. Those were the times when a Seiko 5 was really a Seiko 5 and not just some cool knock off. I wonder if such connections still exist and whether people still want to go through the trouble of recovering stolen items. After all, replacing lost items seem to be the easier route than asking the police who'll just mulct you twice over. But I want my SIM back. It has been my number for the past 8 or 9 years. Maybe I would want to ask my father to assist me in recovering my phone and maybe sneak in a punch or two on the perpetrator. Never mind my brittle fists.

Sto. Nino - remembering the innocence

Yesterday was the feast of the Sto. Niño. We often see images of the Sto. Niño dressed in different attires: as a farmer, as a cop, as a fireman, a boy scout. It usually indicates the occupation of the owner of the image. How do I dress the Sto. Niño as a civil servant pretending to know IT? Sometimes we also see a naked version called Sto. Niñong hubad which is also supposed to be a love amulet. It could be  blasphemous to think that the owner could be a macho dancer?

Yesterday's homily mentioned something about remembering the innocence. We adults have many worries, compromises, and guilt. The kids have it much simpler. They never worry at all. They always manage to have a good time. They play a lot with friends, classmates, anybody, even with strangers. They fight occasionally, at times to the point that the parents get into their fights as well, but only to patch things up as quickly as it started. The adults' quarrels caused by their kids' fights last longer, even if the kids are alright already.

I don't know exactly how and when we lost the innocence. We are a bunch of cynics now. Don Henley's song rings in my mind. Isn't it good to have that childlike innocence again?

White hair chronicles XIX

I might have the chance to live long. My great grandparents from my mother side lived into their 90s. My father's father passed away in 2008 at 94. My mother was born in Lubang Island (where Onoda hid) off Mindoro, where people routinely live into their 90s. I eat healthy. I keep my body mass index right in the middle of the range. My blood pressure is 110/70.

I saw the interesting talk by Dan Buettner at TED.com about how to live to be 100+. Together with the National Geographic, he sought out the regions of the world where people commonly live past 100 years. Their quest brought them to 4 areas called the blue zones: Sardinia, Italy; the islands of Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, California; and Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.

The people in the blue zones have common lifestyle characteristics that contribute to their living longer. Among the characteristics shared are shown in the diagram above.

Aside from what I learned about the people in the blue zones and what I know about the people in Lubang, I know what they do not have.

They do not have pollution. They live in remote rural areas where the air is ever fresh. They do not share the polluted roads with maniacal, stressed drivers. They do not have sedentary lives, ranting and venting out in blogs. And they do not spend geek long hours watching porn.

Now I'm not so sure about my chances.

White hair chronicles XVIII - Longevity calculators

Kids ask darn questions. My son Popoy asked me last night who will cut his hair when our barber dies. Our barber is a gray haired guy and to my son, he looks to be a rather old man. It seems he still cannot get over the thought that people die. When I told him that our barber is not that old and is not about to die soon, Popoy's next question was "at what age do people die?"

White hair chronicles XVII - A Grandfather?

I heard the news yesterday, oh boy! The youngest daughter of my younger brother gave birth earlier this week. That officially makes him a grandfather at 46 and my mother a lola sa tuhod at 68. That is not so shocking at all as other people became great/grandparents at an even younger age. The mild shock is that my niece is very young. She has older sisters, but the apo that would give my mother her first apo sa tuhod turned out to be her.

Still it shocks me that I am now also, technically, a grandfather. I hope the young mother and her baby are doing well. In a few years time, some tot will call me Lolo Perry. Some people have jokingly called me that before because of my white hairs. Now there will be some ring of truth in that. Wow!

White Hair Chronicles XIV - Itay, matanda ka na ba?

Itay, matanda ka na ba?

My son Popoy, 6,  asked me this last night (are you old already?) Of course, I'm not yet old, I told him. Why are you suddenly asking that, I asked him back. Wala lang, po - it's nothing, he said.

Something must be troubling him after we visited the cemetery where his Lolo Vic (my father) and his grandparents (my in-laws) were buried. We usually go visit them ahead of the throng, but typhoon Santi made us go along with the multitude that were there November 1.

When my father died two years ago, Popoy asked "why did Lolo Vic die?". The quick answer we gave him was "because he was old". Actually my father was only 68 when he suddenly died from heart attack. He was ok despite the operation that drained cerebrospinal fluid from his skull six months before and despite the difficulty in walking due to arthritis. Popoy and his lolo bonded well during the short time they knew each other. Popoy did not meet my wife's parents ever. But he knows from the pictures shown him that they got to be very old. My father was on the fat side and had his hair dyed black regularly. To Popoy, he must not have looked old at all.

So when my wife teases me about looking like a grandfather, and me being so old that cataracts affect my eyesight, plus the visit to the cemetery 'where old dead people' are buried, Popoy must have worried that his father is going to die soon.

It is kind of sweet to think that my young son is worried sick about me.

White hair chronicles XII - Cataracts in your 40s?

In my new office, there is a policy that requires a doctor's certificate for reimbursing incurred costs for your first eyeglass prescription. So I hied off to an ophthalmologist near the office for a quick refraction. I figured I don't need my regular ophthalmologist on the other side of town for the bureaucratic requirement. I last visited him 4 years ago and he said that at my age my eyesight will start to get better. And it did.

The new doctor immediately noticed my white hair and mentioned its correlation with a medical/eye condition. I did not pay attention. I just wanted the certificate for the reimbursement. So, on with the refraction. She noticed that I needed stronger lenses. She said that my eyesight should have stabilized.

She then examined my eyes. She asked if I am on steroids. No! Did you have recent surgery? No! Recent trauma? No! Are you diabetic? No! Did your parents have cataracts? Yes? At what age? In their late 60s! Have you been exposed to ultraviolet rays for a long time? No! Do you have skin pigmentation? You mean, birthmarks? No. No!.

Why these questions, I asked? She said there is cloudiness on my right eye which could indicate early onset of cataracts. Are you serious? She wrote on the doctor's certificate - myopia, astigmatism, presbyopia. I know myopia and astigmatism. Presbyopia is new to me. Wikipedia says it is "similar to grey hair and wrinkles, presbyopia is a symptom caused by the natural course of aging; the direct translation of the condition's name is "elder eye". She prescribed Quinax eyedrops 2x a day and told me to come back after a vial is consumed. Googling Quinax returned:

Therapeutic actions:

Quinax protects sulfo-groups of the crystalline lens from oxidation and promote resorption of opaque proteins of the lens. Possesses properties that tend to activate the proteolitic enzymes, that are located in the aqueous humor of the front eye section.

Indications:

Cataract of different origin starting from age related problems to traumatic disorders.

Contraindications and cautions:

If used in a long term therapy it is not recommended to stop the treatment suddenly because possible withdrawal syndrome occurrence that is manifested in vision impairment. It is also not recommended to stop the treatment suddenly before all the prescribed dosages were administered. Be sure to tell your doctor if you have ever experienced allergy to eye drops.

Adverse effects:

There are possible side-effects associated with this medicine that can affect individuals in different ways. If a side effect is stated here, that does not necessarily mean the fact that all people using azapentacene will experience it or any other.

Side effects for azapantacene are mainly local and include symptoms of allergic reactions like:

itching

burning

redness of the eye area

swelling. (http://www.pharmacy1010.com/product_page.asp?id=195)

Now that she told me about the cloudiness, I think I am now having cloudy vision from my right eye. Shucks.

I am getting a second opinion.

White Hair Chronicles X - Seems like only yesterday...

from an email.

Seems like only yesterday...
BARBIE DOLL has her 50th birthday this year.......

Tweety Bird is 60 years old!

And what about all our other ....

CHILDHOOD

SUPERHEROES?

SUPERMAN

Thor

Wonder Woman (touch of menopause here I think?)

Batman and Robin

SPIDERMAN

"Life is short, break the rules, forgive sooner, love with true love, laugh without control and always keep smiling.

Maybe life is not the party that we were expecting, but in the mean time, we're here and we can still dance....."

Growing old is not for whimps.....Jock Smith & Bette Davis

Roger, over and out?

As fans lay transfixed watching the battle for the US Open, it became apparent that there is also a changing of the guards in the tennis world. The champs are getting younger and younger. I am not completely writing Roger Federer off, but since last year, I felt that Roger's chances for a Slam win is higher if Rafael Nadal gets waylaid early. This happened in the French Open and also now in US Open when Juan del Potro gave Rafa no chance after his match with Gonzales.

But del Potro did not stop there. He went on to win it all. He is just 20 years old. Roger is just 27, still years before one's prime in other sports. They get younger all the time. Which makes me feel still older and older.

In the distaff side, 17 year old Melanie Oudin made a very good run for the crown, scoring upsets over people still under 25, before being stopped by Caroline Wozniacki, herself a teenager.

After an astounding streak of 22 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals, is it now Roger, over and out?

White Hair Chronicles VII - Stroke may be striking at a younger age

A female office mate was rushed to the hospital yesterday after exhibiting signs of a stroke. She is just a couple of years older than me. She is the second or third colleague in recent memory to suffer such disease. While we continue to pray and hope for her full recovery, her predicament and the continuous prayers we offer for our ill parents, make me realize that we are irreversibly going into that part of aging demographics.

As I am wont to do, I googled what causes strokes. I came across this news that stroke may be striking at a younger age in the United States. Research on stroke patients at a St. Louis hospital between 1999 and 2008 found that 45 percent were under 65 and 27 percent were under the age of 55. Although they say it is hard to know from this single study whether this is a trend throughout the United States, I think this could be happening as well elsewhere. My female colleague is a year short of 50. The other colleagues I know are also below 65.

Suddenly, it's not just the white hairs we should worry about.

White hair chronicles VI

My son Vito turned 13 yesterday, formally making him a teenager, and thus further making me a tatang-ager. That is double jeopardy, being a tatang and an ager, suddenly I feel doubly old. When I was 13 myself, my father was a boyish 35. He was what some would call today "papa-ble". Whatever that means, it doesn't describe me now - grandfatherish on the wrong side of 40s. In fact many think I am Vito's grandfather.

The saving grace is I don't 'feel' old at all. Sure an elbow aches, DeQuervain's syndrome acts up on my right wrist - 12 years after my left wrist was operated on for the same reason, isolated white hairs grow on places where no hair grew before, and of course, 95% of the hair is white. But I definitely feel young. I can relate to what Vito likes and he can relate to what I enjoy. It helps that retro (emo?) fashion is in. It helps that he also appreciates the music I enjoy.

But retro fashion or not, only external appearances seem old. I still have the same idealism I had in my teens. The teenage angst back then is eerily the same as Generations Jones' anxieties today. But of course! The teenagers of old comprise the Generation Jones. Furthermore we had Marcos then, we have Gloria now. Same difference really. Even if some have moved to the other side of the fence, like administration apologist Alex Magno and GMA spokesman Gary Olivar.

So, has Philippine life gone full circle?
Or, have we moved at all?

White Hair Chronicles V

"Life gives us brief moments with one another but sometimes in those brief moments we get memories that last a life time."

Last weekend I had a reunion of sorts with some people I knew from way back. Some of us have not seen each other for 35+ years, after spending together the first 1/4 of our lives. In a few years, the men in the group will turn 50. That will make us certified century eggs (do the math, 50 years * 2 eggs). On the other hand, the ladies who I last saw in their pre-pubescent youth, are now pre(post?)-matronly beauties (just joking, ladies).

So for a brief while, we tried to catch up how our lives went. Who married whom? Who's a grandma now? How are the parents? How did you grow so big? What aches? What happened to your hair?

How am I now? I am proud to say that despite that I am a few years short of fifty, I have the speed and agility of a senior citizen, the eyes of a septuagenarian, and the hair of an octogenarian. What can I say, I am ahead of my time. My wife complains of my high sex drive. She says it's all in my head, she wants it lowered to my loins (another joke).

To those who knew me as a kid and have not seen me hence, this 20 second video shows how I looked before I became a Richard Gere stand-in (joke again).

White Hair Chronicles IV

I feel my white hairs reflect my age much more when icons from my youth are completely unknown to some who are just 10-15 years younger than me. This is especially true for people whose popularity did not transcend decades. Michael Jackson, for example, is still quite known to the 30s set, but few remember Farrah. And it is with celebrities like Farrah that the make the younger set they are that far detached from my generation.

My 12-year old son, Vito, knows Michael Jackson. He's never heard of Farrah. When told that Charlie's Angels is just a remake, he chuckled 'tanda mo na talaga Itay!'. But even people already in their 30s think my generation is way ahead in years. They do not know the Nicaraguan boxer Alexis Arguello, another icon, who died the other day. He was at his peak in the late 70's to early 80's. I remember him wanting to wage battle against the movement that toppled Somoza, their version of Marcos. Yesterday another icon passed away. Susan Fernandez Magno was a leading protest singer against the Marcos regime. Most younger people are clueless on who she was.

We have a curious situation in the country today. Activism is stronger in the 40+ age group than in the younger set. Those who were in EDSA in '86 are still the ones who will troop there when called. The 20s and the 30somethings are numbed to indifference and too distracted to carry the torch. It is today's children, Vito's generation, who will keep it burning. It is our task to stoke the flame alive.

What's good to note is that the kids are up to the challenge. Thanks to retro fashion, they are more open to things from the past. And maybe the values and ideals we cling on to. Vito likes the Led Zep. A daughter of a former classmate wrote him a sweet letter on father's day. We have taught our kids well. Tunay nga, ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.

Before the end of the innocence

Remember when the days were long/ And rolled beneath a deep blue sky/ Didn't have a care in the world/ With mommy and daddy standing by/ When "happily ever after" fails/ And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales...
...Who knows how long this will last/ Now we've come so far, so fast/ But, somewhere back there in the dust
That same small town in each of us/ I need to remember this/ So baby give me just one kiss/ And let me take a long last look/ Before we say good bye...
...But this is the end/ This is the end of the innocence - Don Henley "The End of the Innocence"

I met with some of my elementary schoolmates still based in Manila for a few hours of banter over pichi-pichi, barbecue, and originally San Juan fare pancit from Aling Banang and Big Scoop ice cream. There was plenty of food to go around for the eight of us who made it to the feast. Some of us have not seen each one for over thirty years. This is catching up bigtime.

I had to give them something, a small token for finding time to meet a classmate who came all the way from the south. I knew copies of the latest scandals will be a good give-away. I was not wrong. It was well appreciated. We went online for a video chat with classmates now based overseas but we were only half-successful. Still we had a good chat with those sacrificed sleep just to stay with us.

We first knew each other when we were in the age of innocence. As I recall now, we did not even had romantic notions then. It was the age for fairy tales, the happily ever afters. After thirty-five years, not everyone has her happily ever after, but they live more happily even after. That is what matters.

Today we can talk without embarrassment about anything. And I mean anything and everything. Someone in the group said this would not be possible a few years ago. We are once again at an age when we can get away with most things. It's a big jump from our simple innocence then to the harsh cynicism today. Don Henley sang about the end of the innocence and one's need to go back, to take one last look, before we all say goodbye. I think that's the reason why we like these mini-reunions.

White Hair Chronicles II

"'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin

I am in that part of the demographics where you have reunions of your nth reunion. Actually, it is that age where you go to more funeral wakes, some 20+ years after the spate of weddings, baptisms, birthdays. This year, I've been to 3 or 4 wakes, the last one just the other night. My father died 2 years ago, after an uncle died, then last year another uncle and my grandpa also died.

Icons from childhood fall one by one. Yesterday, David Carradine, Kung-Fu's Caine, was found dead in a hotel room in Thailand. His character was a boyhood idol of mine; philosophical, inquisitive, bright, pacifist. Another boyhood favorite who recently passed away is Marilyn Chambers. She starred in Behind the Green Door, a porn movie, which by today's standards would bore one to stiff. It did that to me then, in another sense.

People, by nature, are afraid of death and dying. To conquer that fear, we turn to religion which assures us that death is not really the end but the beginning of some other life. Science says that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it merely changes form. But still, it is this life, as we know it, that we want and not some unknown afterlife. So we fight illness, we find ways to hang on to dear life.

No one can win over death. It is a natural part of life that will happen sooner or later. All of us will go, cliche-ish but true. Some have gone, some are in the pre-departure area, all must be prepared. So before we all go to that great big reunion, that great gig in the sky, we hold many reunions here on earth to banter, reminisce, recall our youth, while partaking cholesterol-laden food that will hasten our progress into the afterlife.

White Hair Chronicles I

I have more than my fair share of white hairs thus I look older than my actual age. Here are instances when people thought I am much older.

I used to accompany my son on field trips. I noticed that all other parents were in their late 20s or early 30s. These other parents always had a respectful 'po' and 'opo' when talking to me. They keep on addressing me as 'sir'. It does not help that my son is the youngest son in his batch and could actually be my grandson IF I had a child at 16, AND that child had his own by 16.

So I tried to mingle with parents who looked to be in the same age demographics as I am. There was this man who had the same gray like mine. Aha, Ok, I thought to myself, this man is around my age. Then he said, "My daughter is ill. So I had to take the boy this trip. Apo ko na yan. (He's my grandson) pointing to a boy playing with my son. "Ikaw, pang-ilang apo mo na yan?", he asked me, thinking my son is my grandson. Argh, I am now a member of the grandfathers' row? But I was only 40 then, he was 57. Either I looked 57 at 40, or he was 40-looking 57.