I wasn't always interested in P-Pop. I once thought Filipino idol groups were simply imitating K-Pop. Then BINI's *Karera* found me during my physician licensure examination review, and ALAMAT introduced me to a different side of contemporary Filipino music. From childhood cassette tapes to listening on my commutes in Edmonton, here's a personal guide to discovering P-Pop, including the artists and songs I think deserve a closer listen.
My first Edmonton “spring” began with me shivering at 9°C. It snowed the next day. After one winter of frozen nostrils, missed buses, slippery sidewalks, useless gloves and a few surprisingly good bargains, here is what I would actually buy, skip and budget for before an Edmonton winter.
I watched Forgotten Island expecting Filipino jokes, folklore, and maybe a little nostalgia. I did not expect a DreamWorks movie about friendship and memory to make me admit how much I miss home.
Immigrant life does not always arrive through dramatic moments. Sometimes it arrives through an Uber ride, a Tim Hortons order, a grocery trip to T&T, or the quiet act of checking if your wife is still beside you before sleeping.
There was a season when P-Pop filled almost every space in my day. Then life arrived with new worries, new responsibilities, and the quiet realization that survival sometimes asks us to pause the music we love.
I stopped writing without meaning to. Life moved fast, silence felt safer, and survival took over. This is not an apology post or a comeback announcement—just a quiet catch-up from someone still here, still trying.
A quiet reflection on perseverance, presence, and the soft art of waiting.
Sometimes, survival isn’t about moving forward—it’s about staying still long enough to notice that the lights are still on.
In orbit above a dying Earth, one man conducts humanity’s final performance—a live concert streamed across a collapsing planet. A story about memory, music, and the last thing we choose to hear.
What happens when the very book that once gave you hope starts to make you angry? In this honest reflection, I share how I wrestled with difficult verses, religious guilt, and spiritual pain—and found a new way to read the Bible with honesty, context, and grace.
A personal reflection on Gl4ddyy, the Bisaya rap-pop soloist whose impassioned verses and relentless drive helped me rediscover what P-Pop—and regional Filipino music—can sound like.
This eBook wasn’t just written to celebrate passing the board exam — it was written for the moments I nearly didn’t.
When You Think You Can’t is now available for free on Ko-fi, Kindle, Kobo, and more. If you’re in the middle of something hard, I hope this finds you.
Simon scrolls past the viral post. But when the time matches something he once felt, a quiet dread returns. He doesn’t believe in fate—but he can’t ignore the timing.
