The July radar: #TOTGA
Album: Capacities by Up Dharma Down
“Minamasdan,
Ang saya ng puso mo,
Sa piling ng iba.”
This is an excerpt from one of the album’s tracks, Luna—one of many tunes that will hit you right in the feels. Taking more than four years to write this album, you can really expect no less from the band that made waves in the music industry and put indie music in the limelight—Up Dharma Down,
UDD’s Capacities album is a treasure trove of songs that are about the one that got away going somewhere you can no longer reach. From a loved one’s departure (Indak) to trying to express that gaping feeling when they’re gone (Feelings), if you’re going through the exact same painful feeling of separation, there’s a good chance that this album will be your best friend.
It doesn’t matter if you feel comfortable dwelling in your misery alone or with your closest friends—alcohol may or may not be involved. Either way, Capacities can help you pull through, or drown you even deeper in sorrow. It sucks, but you’ll likely feel better afterwards because UDD will make your heartbreak a little less sore, because somehow, you’re not alone in this misery.
TV Series: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015)
How far would you go to be with the one that got away? Protagonist Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) leaves her high-paying job as an attorney in Manhattan to be with Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III)—a guy she dated for 2 months at summer camp when they were sixteen. But that sounds totally normal, right?
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a musical comedy-drama series that showcases human relationships in a unique and interesting way made possible by Rachel Bloom’s superb acting. A TV show about a love-crazed stalker has the risk of coming across as irritating but Bloom, as both lead and executive producer of the show, pulls it off impressively, because it turns out to be genuinely OA (but amusing).
Whether you think that Rebecca Brunch is either a hopeless romantic or borderline insane, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gives you a rough idea of how it feels to have that TOTGA (if you haven’t had one yet), and what lengths you would go to get them back.
Disclaimer: We don’t encourage this sort of crazy ex-girlfriend behavior.
Hello Stranger (2010)
Admit it, even once in your life, you wondered—or might still be wondering—about meeting someone special while you’re travelling to new places. No matter how cheesy we think it is, we can’t deny the fact that it is adventurously romantic—and this dreamlike feeling is what Hello Stranger captures. From the director of famous and ground-breaking Thai movies such as Shutter and Pee Mak, Banjong Pisanthanakun delves into a romantic-comedy story of two strangers who cross each other’s path.
It’s quite effortless—from the usual storyline to versatile actors, everything seems to be in harmony, with the significant waves of emotions encompassing it all. To say it’s entertaining and romantic is an understatement, especially when it connotes an unexpected denouement. However, Hello Strangers is able to pull off a typical romance story without romanticizing the context, and perhaps since it’s a comedy, a balance among the emotions portrayed is settled.
Book: Eleanor and Park (2013)
This one won’t spare you from the sort of heartbreak that’ll just crush you, but it will leave you hanging—as it literally takes away the good in goodbye. Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park is a young adult novel that follows a narrative of two 16-year-olds high school outcasts Eleanor and Park as they discover the sweetness of first love.
It’s the type that’ll make you smile unknowingly, giggle softly, and tear up a little bit. But what the book guarantees is the feeling of something tearing a hole in your chest. The bittersweet story of two misfits might make you see the world in a little crueler way, all while questioning the existence of such a bitterly painful concept of the one that got away.
