i love the nightlife, i used to boogy!

I was first introduced to Malate when I was 18. The senior members UP Tropa ETC brought me first to Penguin then Library then Cafe Adriatico. It was called an exposure trip. Weeks later, we went to Quiapo. We arrived there at about eleven in the evening, went to a bar (sleazy is too clean a term), ate lugaw in front of the church then rode the jeep to Luneta and waited for the sunrise there.

After that, I experienced a lot of sunrises before going to bed. It was not Malate that I got exposed to but to "going outs," gimmicks, ganap, lakad, rampa, "one for the road," and basically the life that would start when the sun sets. Talk about the 80's movie.

Far from the 80's movie, Manila by Night, mine was not that rugged and gritty. After Malate, during the the last days of the artsy fartsy of Insomia, Blue, and the three old faithfulls, came Makati. Glorietta 3 had Friday's and Hard Rock Cafe. There was the occasional Euphoria and Mars. Other crowds would prefer the much quieter Greenhills (S Tower and Music Hall) during the hey days of band shows. During weeknights, there was the College of Law Malcolm Hall and CSWCD (tip: buy manong guard three bottles of red horse and you can drink there all night).

True to climbing the social ladder, came Giraffe, Studebaker, Fashion Cafe and Zu. It was the time when my weekends start Thursday and end up Sunday morning at North Park. Weeknights became Sam's Diner then later, Sanfo Cafe.

Amidst all these, I was not doing anything. Pretending to study yet not so. Having odd jobs here and there eventually becoming a professional bum. Yet lived very eventfull life from sundown to dawn. The stories of each night end just before sunrise. And so goes my life, living for every single line of those stories- segmented and episodic. It did not carry a single thread that can continue for the next day. It became true with my jobs during that time. They were jobs yet I couldn't be too sure if I am actually developing a career. I was into plays, events and internet shops.

Then I decided that I will study design. Hoping that I will actually find my place under the sun. And actually stay there. As this was happening, the bars I mentioned earlier, one by one, closed down. And new ones opened. The birth of coffee shops, from the classic figaro to the (according to a friend-) newest pick-up non-alcoholic fast-coffee place popularized by Rustans-Starbucks brought sober nights to new heights.

Now, you have Greenbelt 2 and 3, two malls that majorly sells night life (I hope Alicia Bridges can actually see it to give "I love the Nightlife" a deeper meaning). The other side of Makati is the used-to-be-military-base converted into a hub where socialites and social climbers (whew! my kind!) meet. The other conversion is the Power Plant, named after what it really was. Then you have the isolated bars in the middle of somewhere scattered. Malate become more segregated, you have Nakpil area with school-allowance-money-buying-power, the Remedios Circle are with the last breath of the artsy fartsy Malate and you have the vibrant Orosa, plagued with queers and the moneyed... well, queers.

I barely go out these days. But yeah, somehow, I like to keep myself updated.

The difference now is that I am still in design and yes, I still see the sunrise now, though not from those places but my home.