New Look...Same "Great" Taste

Old habits die hard don't they?

I've given it a couple of days to cool myself over this matter but I can't help going back here and putting another what you might call "hate" blog.

I'm not exactly the best in explanation, but I'm gonna do this with raw emotion so please excuse the lack of direction.

So Tipping Point, a band from California, came to play at Souled Out's second TRANSFORMED event, which by the way was an absolutely wonderful experience. Tipping Point was also going to hold a music clinic the next day, which would be last Thursday, the day before they left. The music clinic was also very fun and I think everyone got a kick out of it.

After some dinnertime at Tita Yolly's, we decided to take Tipping Point on a night out around Seattle. Reesa, one of the TP band members, agreed that we should stay out all night after a suggestion from our youth leader Brian.

We took them to places like the Space Needle, Terry Park (I think that's what it's called, the place where you can get the postcard picture of the Seattle skyline), and the Fremont Troll. Finally we went to Dick's because any tour of Seattle would never be complete without Dick's.

Now here is where the plot thickens. We conceded on staying out all night and exploring Seattle, yet family boy Errol decides to rain on our parade. He tells everybody we're going home. Why is that? It's because him, Jason and Alula (all family) were supposed to help the Tipping Point band members pack up for the trip home the next day. It's also because they need to rest. We left for home at about 2:15 AM, nowhere near our goal of an all nighter.

Right here I can already see two issues with this:

1) According to Brian, the TP band members caried a total of 4 bags. Yes, 4 bags shared between 8 members, 5 of them women I might add. I don't know about you, but it only takes me 10 minutes to fill only one bag full of stuff. If it was me packing that would mean it would take roughly less than an hour to pack stuff in 4 bags. And by God, I sure as hell don't have assistance. Chances are TP probably filled the bags and packed them in the car by themselves anyway. What makes other people think they need the help?

2) They neeed to rest? Tipping Point conceded to staying out in Seattle all night. That means we were all gonna hang out from sundown to sunup. If anything those guys must've already known how long it would take to get ready to go and they were also willing to face the consequences of staying awake all night when they had a 13 hour drive back to Cali ahead of them. The last time I checked, Tipping Point was our guest, and as hosts, we're supposed to do our best to make our guests feel comfortable.

This whole situation left many of Souled Out confused and frustrated. For example, prior to Errol's "curtain call", Brian was talking with some of the TP members about his business plans in the future, Reesa was saying that they would like to hear more that night. Right when she said that, it was time to leave. Believe me I know how pissed Brian was coming home because I was in the car with him.

After Errol told everyone to go home, Patrick said "See ya" to TP in a manner that sounded as if we would meet up at the next location, which was supposed to be the beach. But it wasn't until he got in the car with us that that would be the last time we would see TP. He then spent the car ride home complaining about how he said "See ya" to them without giving them hugs or anything.

I myself was really fristrated for a number of reasons. For one, when we had left Dick's, I didn't get a chance to formally say goodbye to Randy and Della, the keyboardist and one of the singers, respectively. This is because they were supposed to be meeting up with more people in Seattle before joining us. Randy was probably my most favorite member of the group because of his work on the keyboard and his easygoing manner. Another reason I'm still heated over this is because it seemed that TP was about as confused as we were. Like I said, when a guest is with you, you do your best to make them feel comfortable and do what they would like to do. This is why I have argued with many of my recent trips, like my first ever trip to SF and even my most recent trip to the Philippines mostly because my mom and I never go a chance to really explore for ourselves and do what we chose to do, especially durig the SF trip. But here, it seems like the fam was doing the opposite. It was as if they had kept an itinerary of what they wanted to do. Like when, I talked to Reesa about going to the beach after Dick's she was cool with it, but when I blindly suggested it to the leaders they ignored me, which is basically the biggest "Fuck you" you can ever give to me. Another thing is that I just didn't feel that I talked about all I wanted to talk about with TP. It seemed all me and everyone else talked about with them was music, but I wanted to ask them about other things, like what do they normally do back home, what's their favorite place to shop, hell, their most favorite ice cream!

At this point you're asking me, "What's the point of your title?"

Well I named this blog "New Look...Same 'Great' Taste" because Souled Out has been undergoing a major overhaul. Thanks to our new talents Brian and Frankie, we've been doing things we could never dream of doing, inviting Tipping Point to our church is an example. And the results have been nothing short of phenomenal. Since control has been shifted, Souled Out's attendance has tripled its amount when I first left FACC. Both TRANSFORMED events have been particularly successful, each one of them topping itself in attendance. For example, our last TRANSFORMED event had about 150 people in attendance. That's even more then the highest attendance FACC ever had in the past 5 years it has been in the Shoreline building. (I think before we started dividing our church in 2001, back when we were in the Masonic building, we had more than what he have now.)

That's the new look. The same "great" taste is look who's still part of the leadership group. Errol, Jason and, most recently Alula. See the thing here? Yeah, ALL FAMILY MEMBERS. What does that mean? We're still taking a step back from what we could potentially be because of these people who for every single period where we had lacked a legitimate leader. For example, the period between the Rachel Regime and the Frankie Regime. This was the lowest point in the history of Souled Out and the reason for all my volleys thrown at FACC and Souled Out. It lacked progress. It lacked value. And most importantly, it lacked freedom.

Which brings me back to the Tipping Point situation. I believe that Tipping Point was told one thing, but the family kept the real plans to themselves. They did things according to their schedule, not ours and certainly not Tipping Point's. Hell even Brian was kept out of the loop. He, myself, and most of the youth were told the Dick's stop was just a food break before exploring the rest of Seattle. Brian is a leader, and could potentially be THE leader of Souled Out when Frankie leaves later this month, and you have the class to not keep him in the loop? That's like Congress declaring war on North Korea without the President knowing. Trust me, if decisions continue to be made this way in Souled Out, just like the US going to war with North Korea, shit WILL hit the fan.

Souled Out: New Look...Same "Great" Taste

Kuya Billy