GRATIS ET AMORE:

Sta Clara for not making it rain maski hindi kami nag alay ng itlog, Nanding Josef, Chris Millado and Nestor Jardin --the top guys of CCP for being around as our "reminders of reason" while allowing beer to be served on the premises (history!), Terno Recordings for saying yes so fast we had a full kick-ass concert line up within twenty minutes of texting the plan, Stephen Lu for the band set up and the patience, Rico Santiago's Eventsec for the impeccable security, Imatech for lending us the industrial strength projector, Raffy and Rommel Juan's Binalot for feeding the bouncers, McDonald's for the 100 burgers, Michelle and Levi's, Jomar Climaco and San Miguel Pale Pilsen, Jack Madrid, Twinky Lagdameo, TJ and Maite of MTV Philippines, The Volunteer Fire Fighters of Binondo for the stand by ambulance, GreenPeace, James of Branded Shirts, Raymond Reyes for the food, Harbour View Restaurant for feeding the bouncers again, the parents of the musicians for giving birth to them, Karl Roy for taking his shirt off, Bing Basit for giving me the wrong number of Karl, Imago for forgiving our error in introducing them as 6CycleMind, Shu Uemura's Patrick, Tina Tinio, Agoo Bengzon, Pauline Juan for bugging me about drinking more water, The Dawn for saying yes even without a drummer, Zach for on-the-spot drumming for them, Jason of Pedicab and PULP's Brutal Grace for being there, Giniling Festival for being graceful about me cutting them on the third song, the audience who screamed for more but went along with the flow of the concert, Norris and Epi of Makatha for growing up with me and turning out better than I predicted, Pam Pastor of the Inquirer for publishing an article on the concert days before, Rem Zamora for preparing a CD of Leyte photos to be projected, M4 for being there to cover the event with their keen photography, UpdharmaDown for singing "OO," Giniling Festival for singing "Angelina Jolie," Radioactive Sago for not singing "Baboy," (may PNP dun--yikes), K2ia's Carlo Sanchez for preparing the visuals, Anne Matoto of MTV for sending her crew, Caloi Santos and Marc Abaya, Sandie Javier of CCP who stayed in the donation booth all night hoping and waiting for donations, Ariel of CCP who stayed til the morning, the ushers and security of CCP, Isabelle, Emy and Celeste for taking care of the bands and the band list, Mailah for printing the main stage tarp in warp speed, ANDY ANDY ANDY of NU107 who hosted til she literally dropped of migraine and for making Jaime and I look less silly, KC Montero for showing up at all, the managers and the roadies who went along with the bands, to Ely Buendia for indulging my jaw drop oh-was-that-you-moment, Yanni Yuson for once sitting beside me in a net cafe til 5am, Prof Mahar Lagmay for lending us his report on disaster management of the recent landslide, Reg for the hug, Jaime for making me crash on his couch the next day til I was lucid enough to drive home, the Rock Ed volunteers who kept everything in order, Joey Climaco, Mike of Manila Tonight, PJ Lapira, CarloSan, Bobet, Ambhika, Rene San Andres, Aggie and Beng Nonog, Nards for the photos, Ronnie Lazaro for having a floating time, Tado for wearing the Rock Ed shirt, Leni of Dakila, the kids who stayed on til the morning, CP, Ani, Jaime, Meah, Orvin for being the backbone of everything that night, Leslie Umaly for saving my life countless times, Noah and my sister Manang Jops for showing up, my Mom for texting all her octogenarian friends who will never set foot in a rock concert but donated anyway even if they thought Rock Ed was a Geological Society, Noel Cabangon for being Noel Cabangon, Paolo Santos for being Paolo Santos and Lourd de Veyra for being Lourd de Veyra (Rock Ed volunteers number 1,2, and 3) and of course, to all those who came and watched the concert. The list is longer, I'm certain.

The bands who were so willing to play but weren't able to play. Kayo naman sa next event. Kuiang na kulang pa ito.

For those we forgot to mention, know that our gratitude far exceeds my capacity to remember names.

Because we all pitched in, tonight we were a nation. Toti Dalmacion of Terno Recordings put it best -- That night we were all citizens of a real Groove Nation.

-Gang

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