along with the million other people in the mid-90s, i also fell in love with rivermaya's 214. i had a huge crush on bamboo, which meant that i had the tape sleeve with his picture enlarged, photocopied the image what must've been around ten times and taped his face all over my dorm room wall. i listened to the song over and over again until part of me wished the dorm manager assigned me to room 214, instead of 117. i got into pseudo-intellectual discussions on whether 214 meant february 14 or "am i real" (the first three words of the song).
i was hooked. i was addicted. i was in love.

and i was absolutely faithful to bamboo. for me, rivermaya, without its weird, bald lead singer was not rivermaya. forget the fact that more than enough people have said that rico blanco was the creative genius behind the band. no bamboo, no rivermaya.

except that creative genius rico blanco, alleged boyfriend of kc conception (but that's another story altogether but i just had to squeeze that in), came up with balisong. the lyrics were beautiful, the melody was beautiful, and when i heard him sing "never in my life have i felt more sure, so come on up to me and close the door, nobody's made me feel this way before, you're everythin' i wanted and more," i felt that he and i were in the same lovelorn but quite happy state.

so rico, you may be stick thin, you may not exactly make me swoon, not even with amazing songwriting skills, but if you rock the world of the mega's daughter, then i'd be willing to be a fan. for now.