Rise and shine

Netnet Camomot

ORLANDO Bloom is blooming in his naked photos, which were taken while he was paddle boarding with girlfriend Katy Perry, thus, giving new meaning to the latter’s song, “Rise.”

In case you need a clearer version of the now pixelated photos, think of a man’s body part which can, hmmm, rise.

I’m not sure, though, if “Rise” is the official song for the 2016 Olympics but Perry did dedicate her song to the athletes, inspiring her fans to wish she would perform it at the opening ceremonies.

This must be the first Olympics’ opening ceremonies that I missed since I became addicted to the live coverage of such ceremonies. Well, change is coming even in that department of addicts.

Aside from the absence of a TV set in my room, the only times I did watch TV lately was when “It’s Showtime” had Reymar Mejares as one of the contestants of its “Tawag ng Tanghalan.” Mejares used to sing with his band at Limketkai Center’s Rosario Strip when it revived its nightlife there at the parking lot in-between Patriots and Pizza Republic.

LKK management decided to stop the nightlife weeks ago but it will be revived again this weekend. And Kim Daguman said it will be open “rain or shine” since they’ll be putting up tents.

By the way, Kim sells the yummiest sweet and salty fried peanuts.

There is no law yet on a nationwide curfew for drinking and morning-the-nights. The new administration probably thinks shabu is more dangerous than alcohol, so, focus on shabu first.

Pinoys will always learn to adjust with laws anyway. Davao does have a nightlife despite the many laws being implemented there. It’s not the end of the world, eh? It can even be the beginning of a new world, with people drinking the moment they rise and shine, and once the curfew is hovering overhead, they can go home and continue drinking. Convert that home into a bar—replace the chandelier with a disco ball, unless you wanna dance to Sia’s “Chandelier”; learn how to mix drinks, unless you’re a beer loyalist, or all you need is tequila, just add salt and lemon; and invite friends who wanna have fun.

I’m now the type that tells friends to stop drinking already. Haha. And this has been my role way before President Rody Duterte decided to run for president.

While they’re drinking the night away, my eyebrows start to rise: O my gas, when will these peeps realize they’re destroying their liver?

My, uh, age has somehow set a limit on my drinking “spree” to a maximum of three bottles of San Mig Light. When Duterte won and the possibility of a nationwide curfew on drinking started to materialize as a dream come true for non-drinkers, my only thought was, Oh, Cali tastes like pineapple juice. I do have some friends who would drink Cali instead of beer. There are people who simply don’t drink and that’s OK. One friend prefers coffee. He’d be drinking coffee the whole night while everyone around him is getting drunk. Of course, he automatically becomes the designated driver, with his eyes wide open, thanks to all that caffeine flowing in his veins.

But I’m careful with coffee, too, after having a panic attack while inside a mobile train in a New York subway after midnight. Yeah, talk of panic. That was definitely panic.

You reach an age when you have so much to tell, and you now have to filter whatever you can tell. After reading my column months ago, a friend texted me something like, Net, you’re revealing too much here. And I replied, I only write about things I’m ready to reveal.

There are people who do tend to misinterpret the things I write here, especially the blind items, thinking and believing I’m referring to them. Hmmm. Carly Simon has the perfect song for that: “You’re so vain/You probably think this song is about you/You’re so vain/I’ll bet you think this song is about you/Don’t you?/Don’t you?”

Or they’d call up other people and tell them, Hey, this column is about you!

You and your s**t may be unique but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one with that s**t.

But then, what makes them conclude anyway that the topic in this column is them? They better not think that way unless the topic is a happy one, you know, nice, beautiful, kind, and all the other rise-and-shine adjectives in the world. Because if the topic is dark, and they’re now suspecting it’s them, then, what does that say about them? They’re merely confirming their dark side. Duh!

Be like Orlando Bloom—transparent, and no matter how many blind items he’ll encounter in the future, with that thing hanging out there to the tune of “Rise,” you get this feeling he won’t care anymore. Keber.

“I won’t just survive/Oh, you will see me thrive/Can’t write my story/I’m beyond the archetype.

“I won’t just conform/No matter how you shake my core/’Cause my roots they run deep, oh.

“Oh, ye of so little faith/Don’t doubt it, don’t doubt it/Victory is in my veins/I know it, I know it/And I will not negotiate/I’ll fight it, I’ll fight it/I will transform.

“When, when the fire’s at my feet again/And the vultures all start circling/They’re whispering, ‘You’re out of time’/But still I rise.”