The 8th Note

by Barbara C. Gonzalez

June 6, 2009

Sometimes when I think of him, I remember what an adorable baby he was, conceived on Beef Wellington washed down with champagne. He was born small, only five pounds, five ounces, little enough to fit on one of those large oval porcelain dishes my grandmother used for Sunday lunch. One afternoon when he was eight months old, I was carrying him around the house. He held the top button of my dress and made a noise that sounded like “kng kng.” He did it again the next day and the next. He would touch the button and say “kng kng,” until I got it. He meant “button.”

On another day, I was carrying him as I walked around turning on lights. I turned on a lamp. He said “ight.” I turned on the ceiling light, he pointed and said “ight.” He was only eight months old when he began to talk and I marveled at his ability to speak so early. Boys are supposed to speak later than girls but obviously not my baby boy.

I adored all my babies and took good care of all of them. I guess I make the ideal mother of babies. I love carrying them, burping them, bathing them, putting them to sleep in their little cribs. Most of my children I took care of by myself until they were around six months before I invited a yaya in to help. But when they began to run around, their yayas ran after them.

My children and I got along famously until they were about five and learned to answer back. But I loved them still even through the craggy road of their puberty when I turned into a witch in their eyes. Now I think they only remember the witch. Nobody remembers the adoring mother of their baby days. Who would? My mother used to tell me stories of my father adoring me so much he took care of me by himself, gave me a bath, put me to sleep until I was six months old. Do I remember that? No.

Now, my children are all grown. The girls are all over 40 and the cute little baby boy I’ve been describing so far is in his late 30s. They all have families of their own and they all live far away from each other and from me.

“Do you know where Panay Avenue is?” I asked my driver, who is more of a stranger to Quezon City than I am. We set off looking for this address: Unit 201 Jajaj Building, 109 South Triangle, Quezon City. We took the long way, made a few wrong turns but finally we came upon Crossings Department Store and I remember him telling someone that he was in the building behind it. There I saw his car parked. Then I knew we had found The 8th Note, my son Gino’s new venture.

Gino is a musician by inclination and training. His high school grades were like a mountain range, up then down, up again, down again, until he discovered music. Then they leveled out. After high school, he went to the United States to study at a keyboard institute. He graduated from there after four years. I believe he took up Sound Engineering or something like that. I don’t remember because by then he lived with his father who took care of educating him. Anyway, he turned into a musician and after he graduated did a lot of arranging and composing for many local talents including Regine Velasquez and finally playing with Pido at Conway’s in Makati for many years but he was always in search of a business to put up. Now at last, my Gino has set up a rehearsal studio in Panay Avenue and I promised to visit it and write about it to help him get started.

It is on the second floor. It has a lovely dance studio, which you can divide in two for rehearsals of dance routines for TV shows or whatever. Cotillion rehearsals? Or you can hold yoga, ballet, ballroom dancing or martial arts classes there, too. The floor is beautiful. It also has two band rehearsal rooms, one bigger than the other, and a room in between for all the recording controls. It reminds me of the studios I used to go to when I was just starting my career in advertising and we had to go to tape and mix ad sound tracks. You can rent any of the rooms to rehearse in. It is located near ABS-CBN and GMA, so if they run out of rehearsal space, they can just call and reserve. Parking is no problem. They can park on the street or in the parking basement next door.

If you want more information, call my son Gino Cruz at 416-6665. He will have more information. I am just a dotty mother writing about her only son’s latest project, a good-looking brand new rehearsal place. I promised him I would introduce it to society. It’s called The 8th Note. It makes me high like the Beef Wellington washed down with champagne did once. Now, 30 odd years later, my little baby boy has grown into the 8th Note. That’s fantastic, isn’t it?