Death wish?

NO! I do not want to die... but just in case, here's a few things that I want done when I do kick the bucket. Anyway it's Holloween so... oh, and it's also Nelson's birthday, so Happy Birthday Nelson!!!

First off, the moment I die, I know they send bodies to a morgue and then they embalm them at a funeral parlor - I do not want to be embalmed!!! I want my body to be immediately cremated, and then put in a cute little urn - blue marble? - for the wake. I don't want people to see me lying inside a wooden box. Walang poise eh, I think it's a lot more tasteful for people to mourn you when your ashes are already in an urn, and your portrait is right beside it - smirking at mourners for their being still alive.

Next, my entire family has plans of being put in the repository at St. Peter in Commonwealth after they're cremated. I do not want to be put there!!! I want my ashes to be scattered off in the sea a la Callas - the Pacific Ocean, or at least somewhere where the water is actually blue! Wak naman sa Pasig River or sa Manila Bay no!!!

Should someone want to keep a little bit of me, go ahead - pero konti lang ha! Put a handful of my ashes and just keep the urn I'll be put in, sayang naman! Keep the urn at home, or somewhere, parang decor! Hihihi! Or better, put it near an altar at home (and worship me for the rest of your lives! /gg).

I want the engraving on my urn to read:

Mikee Nuñez-Inton

August 4 - ???

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

(and at the back of the urn)

Mischief managed!

As for my earthly possessions, KEEP MY OPERA CDS AND MY HARRY POTTER MEMORABILIA!!! Anyone who wishes to sell them or dispose of them (by giving them away), I shall haunt for the rest of their miserable lives!!!

I know it sounds sort of morbid, but I believe in being prepared for my own death. I also wrote this here because my mom won't heart anything about my ashes being scattered off into the sea, and a wake with me in an urn - so when I die, somebody please print this out and show it to her!!! If my wishes are not met, I shall haunt my own wake!!! Lam nyo naman nakakatakot ang aking golden voice, kaya beware!!! *wink wink

In other news... I've been going to Greenhills a lot lately. I've started with a new derma near GH, she's my mom's former classmate, and she gave us a lot of discounts!!! I also got to browse (finally) Fully Booked. WAAAAAAAAA!!! The third level has sorta-rare opera cds!!! I was with my mom the first time, and she disapproves of me spending all my HARD-EARNED money on CDs, so I was only able to buy 1 - Turandot (hence, the Tale of Turandot post). So I went back there yesterday because I had this immense desire to make waldas my money...

I went to GH and said (to my mom) that I would be meeting Randy and Nelson for coffee and maybe a movie (because it's Nelson's b-day!). Anyway, I got there and I went insane. I saw a 2-CD collection of La Tebaldi, and I bought that. It's a collection of arias and scenes recorded by Renata Tebaldi, Callas' rival. I read the write-up for the collection, and it's completely biased against Callas - it made Tebaldi seem like the innocent victim of Callas' raging Diva-hood. The songs are great though! It's almost like the 2-CD collection I bought of Callas, Voice of the Century. Now I can really compare the two Divas!

Again, let me say that La Mamma Morta is my absolute favorite aria - Tebaldi sang it, and now I hate it. She missed a couple of lines, and throughout the aria, she was either screaming or whispering. Sayang ang drama ng aria!

Anyway, I looked around for more CDs. I found Aida, it's another of my all-time favorite operas; mom bought me Callas' 1951 (?) Mexico City performance of that opera where, at the grand finale of Act II, she belted out a resounding E-flat (about the highest note a soprano could produce without killing herself). The note towered over the entire orchestra, chorus, and Callas' co-singers (which included the immensely big-voiced tenor Mario del Monaco, the stiff Guiseppe Taddei, and the rich-voiced Mexican mezzo making her debut as Amneris Oralia Dominguez). It is in this opera that you also find the Graduation March - also known as the Triumphal March! It's the one usually played as the graduates march across the stage to receive their diplomas - the march with all the trumpets. Unfortunately, when someone stole my CD player, they stole the first CD of that record along with it. STUPID WHORE/NEIGHBOR!!!! PUÑETANG MGA HAMPASLUPA!!! *summons Gods of hell and channels hellish rage to the neighbor's windows...

*calming down now...

The Aida CD that I'd just bought has Placido Domingo and Katia Ricciarelli - the same leads for the Turandot CD that I bought last week; plus Leo Nucci (baritone; I have him in La Traviata), Ruggero Raimondi (I think he's in my Lucia di Lammermoor?), Elena Obraztsova (no match for Dominguez' Amneris). May I just note, there is no E-Flat in this record, although I believe Ricciarelli could have done it. I am disappointed... But I love Aida, so... ^_^

I also bought Puccini's Madama Butterfly! It's amazing!!! I LOVE PUCCINI NA!!! I have like three of his operas (Tosca, Turandot, and Butterfly) and I love all of them! All of them center on a stereotypical Diva. Tosca is a singer who is also the jealous lover of Cavaradossi - this jealousy leads to their downfall (literally, as Tosca leaps off Castel Sant'Angelo's highest tower). Turandot is the man-hater who is actually just afraid to fall in love for fear of being "weak" (aka. hurt and spurned!). And finally, Butterfly, also known as Cio-Cio-San (read: Cho-Cho-San), is the quintessential I-will-give-my-life-for-my-son-and-my-husband heroine.

Of course, everyone should know the Butterfly story now. 15-year old Geisha bought and impregnated by an American soldier, left by the neanderthal, she still remains faithful to him. American comes back, now newly married, and they (the American couple) want to raise the kid in the States away from Butterfly. So Butterfly consents, but only after killing herself for her son... Miss Saigon, need I say more?

This CD has the incomparable Mirella Freni as Butterfly. Her voice is perfect for the 15-year old Butterfly role - soft, smooth, tiny, and insignificant. But in the last act, she looses control as she stabs herself and dies for her son... *iyak... Jose Carreras is also here, this is the last opera he recorded just before her had leukemia. His voice is as tenorish and as macho and full-blooded as it comes, and it perfectly matches Freni's soft spinto soprano. Another important element in this CD is Teresa Berganza, the great mezzo-soprano in the role of Suzuki, Butterfly's friend and maid-servant.

So that's how I spent my Holloween - thinking of things to do when I die, and killing myself softly because I'd just spent an absurd amount of money on CDs that I can't play because my other CD player is busted... ^_^