Alyssa balik-eskuwela

A skinny Gretchen Barretto clad in a black gown (with a fuschia colored accent around her waist) three times biggest than her size kept her promise to Startalk to guest and sing live.

As she sashayed towards the set, agad pinuna ni Lolit Solis ang aniya’y sumobra namang kapayatan ni Gretchen. Her arms were too thin, but her face, agelessly beautiful. Nagdayalog tuloy ang Startalk director na si Floy Quintos: “You can never be too thin and too rich.”

Sagot ni Greta: “ I really love you, Floy.” Show & Tell days pa kasi hosted by Boy Abunda on GMA 7 back in the early 90s when their working relationship began.

Greta sang the carrier single of Unexpected, Please Don’t Ask Me. Halfway through, video inserts of her close friends greetings her happy birthday were shown. While singing, hindi ko napigilang lumapit kay Nay Lolit who, like me, was listening with a dropped jaw.

With an ear for music (more than a nose for news and an eye for talent) myself, I know how to tell a symphony from a cacophony, a voice from a noise, a “tinig” from a “tining.”

Admittedly, pagkatapos ng spot number ’yon ni Greta, I had to approach and tell her that I was moved by her rendition. I could feel the depth of her emotion, and where that emotion was going to. Ramdam ko ang kanyang sense of longingness and belongingness, nasipat ko ang kanyang veil of outer fullness but underneath was and even pigger cloth of inner emptiness.

Call it defense mechanism. Call it Greta’s emotional fortress that she has so sturdily built to protect herself from her universal attackers.

Call her music her way of painting a picture of victory on a canvass of defeat.

* * *

It’s back-to-school this June for Startalk host Alyssa Alano (also a regular of Kamandag).

Nope, she’s not enrolling in a speech class.

Plano ni Alyssa na kumuha ng culinary arts, a somewhat expensive course, “Pero pinag-iipunan ko na po ’yon, Kuya Ron.” With no school yet in mind, gusto ni Alyssa na lalo pa raw madagdagan ang kanyang kaalaman sa pagluluto.

Myself an above average cook, tinanong ko ang hitad kung ano ba ang kanyang specialty. “Puchero po,” sey ni Alyssa.

Wow, major dish? And like two kusinera in a huddle, I shared with her kung paano ko ’yon niluluto.

Puwedeng may pork n’ beans with such sahog as saging na saba. “pero nilalagyan ko na rin po ng konting asukal,” sey ni Alyssa of her recipe. No wonder, Alyssa is doubly sweet.