XAVERIAN'S CORNER

First Fridays Unplugged: A Photo Essay
Photography by Philip Cheang, Text by Vincent Te

Posted Thursday, 7-Jul-2005 9:15 AM

On Friday, July 1, the YCLC hosted an activity designed as an alternative way to celebrate the first Friday of each month. This activity was aptly called “First Friday after 4 Unplugged”.

Instead of the usual First Friday mass celebration, First Friday Unplugged aims to give the students a time to think on the things they have done over the past month, through music and contemplation. To facilitate this, volunteers from both the faculty and the student body are invited to perform a few songs, and have a short reflection on each song.

The Media Ed. Center was set up especially for this occasion. Most of the chairs were moved aside and some pillows were put on the floor to provide space and cushioning for the attendees.

Among those invited to perform this month was Fr. Art Borja, SJ, who enlisted the help of a guitarist from the IT department to accompany him. Together, they started out the First Friday activity with “Morning Has Broken”, a simple song popularized by Cat Stevens.

Directly after them came student Austin Uy who, with the help of a fellow Xaverian on guitar, performed the song “Let Me Go” by Three Doors Down.

Next up was Khamphus, a band of High 2 Xavier students, who performed two OPM songs, “The Day You Said Goodnight” by Hale and “Ulan” by Rivermaya.

Students listened, enthralled as Marvin Ong, winner of last year’s “Campus Idol” contest sang Ryan Cayabyab’s “Iniibig Kita”, and accompanied himself on piano.

Mr. Sibulo, the new Glee Club moderator, showed his musical prowess by singing Wency Cornejo’s version of “Habang May Buhay”, accompanied by Marvin Ong, again on the piano.

Lyrics were made readily available in a PowerPoint presentation shown to the attendees, so that they could reflect on the words and meanings of the songs, as they listened to them.

Mr. Bumatayo, with Bro. Lim on guitar, performed two songs – “ Gaya ng Dati” by Gary Valenciano and “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling.

Last, but definitely not the least was student Kenrick Nocom of the Xavier Songwriter’s Guild who performed his original composition, “All I Gotta Do”.

To wrap up the activity, Mr. Cajigal gave a short closing speech, then led the attendees in saying the First Friday prayer, which can be found on the back of the official First Friday stampita.

The First Friday After 4 Unplugged is held every first Friday of the month from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Media Ed. Center.  Depending on how busy the month is, the activity may be cancelled.   In addition, the venue is subject to change, depending on availability.

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