As 2013 rolls in

No, I've not abandoned Window Views. The year 2012 immersed me in eternal urgencies and priorities, both personal and professional. Writing for this blog took the brunt and got an unfortunate back seat.

There were tons of unprecedented joys and unwanted sorrows in the past eight months. A lot of them were musical in nature. The highlight was experiencing Barbra Streisand, an artist I have been following for the past 33 years, in concert at the Big Apple. It will remain an indelible experience. The downturn was losing Narcisse Sabour, a friend I'd sung and play music with, to the Big C. These moments reminded me of the potent nature of music in shaping relationships with one another.

It's great to write again. I hope you remain with me here in Window Views. And I hope you continue loving one another. It's what has kept us afloat through all the joys and sorrows of the passing year

Mad to be a nomad

Rustomjee Elanza, where I finally ended up

LUDWIG VAN Beethoven moved house at least 60 times in the 34 years that he lived in Vienna. That means he’d had a new home roughly twice a year. I have just relocated to a new house, and it’s my thirteenth time in 12 years. Not in the same league as the great composer, but we’re in fraternity: we’re professional nomads!

TRAVEL TALES : They don't serve their kind in Chennai

Royal Cuisine Restaurant at the Raj Palace Hotel, Chennai

THE MOST memorable travel moments are those defined by your dining experiences. Knowing what and where locals eat saves cost and gives a direct account of cultural habits. Which is why I was puzzled why the Royal Cuisine restaurant at Raj Palace, where I stayed during my brief visit to Chennai this week, did not include South Indian fare in their menu. I was in Chennai, center of the Tamil world, and I had to have idli and sambar!

Dare to bare and wear their ware

No money, no clothes
Image source: Desigual Blog

FOR CASH-STRAPPED Spaniards, Desigual’s end-of-season sales give them the chance to shed their fashion inhibitions . . . by shedding their clothes.  Yesterday, the flamboyant clothing brand from Spain opened their summer sale in Madrid with the nakedly daring “Come In Undressed and Go Out Dressed” campaign, where 100 people strip down to their undergarments to avail of free shopping.  Undressing may be a ploy to ensure that those shoppers really have no money on them.  Or have the most perfectly imperfect bodies to fit into those broken-sized end-of-season markdowns.

Romina and Arman mark five years!

Arman, Romina, and Naysan Imani
Image source: Shamelessly stolen by Paul from Arman's Facebook profile

IN THE flurry of my birthday on 16 June, I missed the fact that two of the most beautiful couples I have ever met celebrated their fifth year of togetherness on the same day. In 2007, my friends Romina and Arman Imani decided to live their lives in perpetual unity. It's been five years since I wrote excitedly on this blog about their getting engaged, and five years since I gushed over their getting wed.

Championing women’s heart disease

GUESS WHAT kills women more than any other illness around the world?  It’s not cancer; it’s heart disease.  How ironic that a woman sustains the lives of others by using her heart . . . and then faces death with a disease that plagues her own heart!

Turning 47

THE DOORBELL rang at eight this morning, surprising me with a home delivery of flowers and surprising me even more about its source: the management team of Globus Stores! I've received flowers on my office desk, but never brought personally to me at home—and that, too, from my professional leadership team. It sweetens the thought of being valued well, and the value of being thought well. It's a memorable gesture on a memorable day.

When I turned 46 last year, I reflected at how quickly I reached that age.  I wrote:

Now I understand why the first 30 or 35 years of your life seem to be the longest and slowest--you spend all that time building up a cache of dreams, hopes, triumphs, regrets, fears, and tears. 

Today, as I turn 47 and being remembered by my leaders at work, I look back to those first 30 or 35 years of my life, to remember another leader, one who forged my dreams and hopes in the most masterful way. He was my father, Catalino Ancheta, who passed away ten years ago.  His greatest legacy is my family's spiritual foundation: the Bahá'í Faith, which he introduced to my mother and to each of my five brothers and five sisters.  It's a gift that forever changed my understanding of how life must be lived, for oneself and for others.  It's a present that remains unmatched and irreplaceable, the greatest I've ever had and will probably ever have.

Turning 47, I honor my father . . . and all our fathers!

Related Stories: Turning 41 | Turning 42 | Turning 43 | Turning 45 | Turning 46

One year in Mumbai, this time

IT’S BEEN a year since I joined Globus Stores and moved back to Mumbai.  In fact, moving to India’s biggest city was one of the main reasons I accepted the new role in Globus.  This city was my welcome mat to Indian in 2005, the place of my happiest memories of adapting into a new, chaotic world and building lasting friendships.  When I moved to the sedate Kolkata in 2007, I didn’t realize how much I would miss Mumbai’s sense of self and camaraderie.

Globus returns to Kanpur

Globus Kanpur Store Launch
Link reference: Paul Ancheta on Vimeo.

GLOBUS STORES, India's premier fashion specialty store, opened its 36th branch last Friday at Z Square Mall in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.  This also marks the return of Globus to this north Indian city, having closed its first (and highly successful) store there a few years ago.  See how the new store looks like in the video below.

EPITAPH : Donna Summer (1948-2012)

Donna Summer with Barbra Streisand, 1979
Image source: Werner Matrisch

WAY BEFORE Madonna, there was Donna. Hers was the music that made my generation proud to have lived and danced the disco years. It was a total shock to have learned about her sudden passing, as I didn't even know she was ill.

Farewell, Miss Donna Summer (1948-2012). Heaven Knows that there'll never be a Last Dance where you are.

FOCAL POINT : Pilita Corrales, “Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak”

WHILE CLEANING my music collection last weekend, I realized I had a copy of the romantic Philippine pop song "Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak" (Because of a Flower) written by Leopoldo Silos and sung by Pilita Corrales. The song is the love theme from the award-winning 1967 movie of the same name. I saw the movie as a high-schooler back in the late 1970s when it was rerun on the screens, and I vividly remember the movie's mini-skirts, heavy eye make-up, and pastel-colored cinematography. And, of course, the bittersweet love theme.

As for Miss Corrales, she's a source of Filipino pride. The beautiful chanteuse is regarded as the most iconic song stylist in the Philippines. At her age (she's in her seventies), she still dresses up in figure-hugging gowns and bends courageously backwards when reaching high notes—a trademark Pilita posture. Although her style is closer to old-fashioned saloon than contemporary pop radio, her enunciation, vocal affectations, and charming stage presence endear her to Filipinos of all generations.

Here is Ms Corrales and her well-sung interpretation of "Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak". The lyrics on this version are different from what is usually heard; I'm not sure if these were the original ones written for the film. Another Philippine music legend, the composer Ryan Cayabyab, orchestrated the breathtaking arrangement.

Scream dearly

EDVARD MUNCH's iconic composition The Scream sold for a record $119,922,500 at Wednesday's auction at Sotheby's. Actually, it was one of the four Screams that Munch had created between 1893 and 1910. This record-shattering Scream was a pastel that Munch composed in 1895, but it still screams of the familiar agonized figure against a fiery red sky—the same figure that has been eternally copied in modern pop culture, not the least of which are those murderous Scream slasher movies.

While ordinary mortals scream when paying a hefty price, last Wednesday's mystery buyer paid a hefty price to scream!

Globus comes to Pune, third time around

Visual merchandising at Globus, Koregaon Park Plaza, Pune, India
Image source: Paul Ancheta

GLOBUS STORES opened its third store in Pune, India last 3 March 2012, at the newly opened Koregaon Park Plaza shopping center. It's one of the most beautifully designed malls in India, and I'm glad to have opened a Globus store in it. If I may say so, our store is just as beautifully designed by the very capable in-house projects team. We have introduced innovations in product mix and product presentation, as you can see from the images above.

The new Pune branch is the 35th in the Globus network of fashion specialty stores.

Ten confusing pop song titles

THE CHINESE restaurant played American pop ballads non-stop tonight. While trying to eat masala-drenched mushroom rolls, I wished that Leon Lai's "爱你/不爱你" was playing instead of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". And that's because I'd rather not pay attention to lyrics I don't understand, than try to understand lyrics I'm forced to pay attention to. Like "My Heart Will Go On". Think about it: what on earth does that line really mean?

As 2012 rolls in

AFTER A year filled with political indecision and social dissatisfaction, 2012 promises changes in communications that can improve the way we live our own personal lives. For me, the past year has been one of personal change and adaptations. I acquired a new flat in Manila, changed jobs and brought my career back to fashion retail, relocated to Mumbai after four years in Kolkata, revisited the Bahá'í World Centre for the first time since I left it seven years ago, and lost some of the most beloved members of the Bahá'í Faith around the world. Some of the adjustments were not always fun, but they were required, and they helped me grow better each time.

I really look forward to 2012's innovations, and I wish every one of you a better beginning for the year!

Homecoming

I JUST landed in Israel, my home when I served at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa in 2000-2004.  I’m not familiar with the new Ben Gurion International Airport at Tel Aviv; it’s been modernized beyond my recognition. But I’m familiar with the sense of being here.  In fact, the sense of being in this moment, right here, right now, is hitting me mightily today. It’s like the scent of earth after the rain: sweet, memorable, lingering.  It feels like I never left the land at all.

Airtel, off the air

AFTER MY recent agitations with Airtel remained unheeded, I decided to write one of their CEOs with hopes for a resolution. A quick look-up at LinkedIn made this task easy. Here’s what I wrote him (I deliberately struck off references to the individual):

FOCAL POINT : Lincoln Mayorga, “The Walk to Chatham Corners”

RASPUTIN MUSIC is one of the many delights that I discovered in San Francisco early this month. This five-storey, almost rundown store carries rare CDs, LPs, and DVDs at unbelievable prices--a source of joy for those still cringing at the extinction of the traditional record shop. I saw and immediately purchased a four-dollar, second-hand CD of West of Oz, Lincoln Mayorga's 1981 collaboration with Amanda McBroom (she wrote the Bette Midler classic "The Rose"). It's extremely rare to find a Mayorga or McBroom CD these days, so this one's a treasure.

Here's the full track of "The Walk to Chatham Corners", the album's highlight. It shows Mr. Mayorga's classical and jazz background in its usual sparkling quality.

TRAVEL TALES : High school reunion in San Francisco

WHEN PHILIP Belarmino messaged me on Labor Day (5 September) about changing the evening’s dinner venue, I realized the adeptness of my high school batch mates in organizing such gatherings in the Bay Area. Bong (now Bhoc) Chavez and Mel Favila had advised Philip about the closure of Intramuros restaurant in San Francisco that night, so the venue shifted to Kuya’s in San Bruno.

The hills are alive in San Francisco

THE MOST delightful surprise about San Francisco is how such a compact city (49 square miles) of hills and waterfronts can accommodate endless diversities in seamless manner.  For example, on the last day of my weeklong stay, I dined in a quaint neighborhood called Little Italy, at the open-air Pinocchio on Columbus Avenue.  Later, as I walked past cafés and gift shops with lovely little windows, I turned abruptly right on the corner and realized that I had just entered Chinatown.

Airtel fails

AFTER A mortifying experience last week with one of India’s largest mobile telephone companies, I have decided that Airtel is no longer capable of commitment and transformation.

The most loyal customers demand—and deserve—a higher desire: commitment, which Airtel has shown me is unable to provide.

When I requested for international mobile roaming (IR) service on the eve of my departure for the United States last 31 August, Airtel’s 121 hotline advised me that it was impossible to do so as my new SIM card was barely three months old. (I had to acquire a new card when I returned to Mumbai in June.) It was inconceivable to travel without connectivity, so I pleaded for the roaming service on two counts: that the card was shy of one week to meet the qualifying grade, and that I had been a loyal user of their various products—from landline to data card—for the past five years. After 45 minutes of pleading and heated debate, the 121 agent finally gave me an option: pay an advance fee of Rs5,000 (USD100) for the roaming service. I managed to find an Airtel Relationship Centre on the way to the airport that night and proceeded with the payment. I also requested my former relationship manager in Kolkata, the ever-effective Suvojit Seal, to help facilitate the activation process.

Drums rolling for a rolling stone

WE'VE ALL heard about Mick Jagger's enormous ego, so it's fascinating to read the following story by Keith Richards about Mr. Jagger's brush with Charlie Watts, legendary Rolling Stones drummer, in October 1984.

I had taken Mick out for a drink in Amsterdam, so at 5 in the morning, he came back to my room. He's drunk by now, Mick drunk is a sight to behold. Charlie was fast asleep. Is that my drummer? Why don't you get your arse down here? Charlie got dressed in a Savile Row suit, tie, shoes, shaved, came down, grabbed him and went boom! Don't ever call me "your drummer" again. You're my fucking singer.

You can beat your own drum, but never beat the drummer lest he beats the drum out of you!

FOCAL POINT : Barbra Streisand, “So Many Stars”

FROM BARBRA Streisand's upcoming What Matters Most : Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan & Marilyn Bergman CD comes the stunningly gorgeous "So Many Stars". The bossa nova classic was originally covered in 1968 by Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66; I remember it from its resurgent popularity on Manila's jazz fusion radio stations during the late seventies and early eighties.

You'll never know

IF YOU think those black veils are frightening, watch out for this:

Related story: Veiled shots

Like father, like son

FOR KENNETH Bray and his son Chris, coming full circle means attending NASA's final Space Shuttle launch together to "bookend" the first launch they watched 30 years ago. The incident also gave them an opportunity to replicate a picture taken of them in 1981; see both pictures above. Mr. Bray talks more about it on Universe Today. It's an awesome achievement.

How global data is stored

THE WHOLE wide world's electronic data is not floating on a digital cloud. According to a well-designed infographic from Mozy, the majority of data centers are clumped in individual cities in the United States, and on physical drives. That's quite alarming and disconcerting, especially in an era rife with terrorism and technological sabotage!

Globus comes to Kolkata

GLOBUS STORES, India's premier fashion specialty store, opened its 31st branch last week at Axis Mall in Kolkata. It's also the brand's debut in eastern India, and the first I've opened for Globus since joining the group in June.

People who meet Barbra . . .

. . . ARE THE luckiest people in the whole wide world. Here's one heartwarming story of a New Yorker who got to meet and greet THE Barbra Streisand in person. He also answered HER questions, hummed HER song to her, and posed next to her for a photograph which he will probably insure for ten million dollars. Oh, he also made Miss Streisand laugh at his jokes. I would've frozen speechless in the presence of such a legend.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR Michael Bay shows us how to practice waste management.

FOCAL POINT : Barbra Streisand, “That Face”

BARBRA STREISAND has released two tracks from her upcoming album What Matters Most : Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The songs, "The Windmills of Your Mind" and "That Face", are available for download when placing a pre-order for the CD on Miss Streisand's website.

I've been listening to both tracks for days now, but it's "That Face" that's been playing on loop. It's brassy, bumpy, and happy. The song was originally recorded by Fred Astaire, and Miss Streisand sings it with elegant sophistication that evokes a dancing Astaire. She sounds very mature on this track, her voice deepened with age (she's now 69!) and burnished with the glow that comes with nearly 50 years of singing brightly. The usual sighs, trills, and bellows that dramatize the best performances of her younger years are still here. They're fun to hear.

On "That Face", Miss Streisand reminds us that she's an actress who sings, a rare treasure gifted with impeccable delivery and unmatchable voice.