Not Everything Has to Taste Good

Not every day feels good, but it still builds something.

Las Piñas • 119th Founding and 29th Cityhood Anniversary • March 27, 2026

We grow up thinking life should always feel good, but it doesn’t. Some days are light, some are heavy. Same place, same people, different outcome. That’s normal.

Not everything is meant to be exciting, and not everything is meant to be sweet. There are people who just show up and do the work, quiet, repetitive, real. It may look plain, but it builds something.

At some point, we question things. We look for more flavor, more meaning, but not everything needs to feel intense to matter.

And then there’s truth. Once we start bending it, everything becomes unclear, even if nothing around us changes.

So the difference is not the place. It’s what we choose. Life will not always taste the way we want, but it still shapes us.

Years ago, I wrote a song about this—simple, but it stayed with me.

Salts of Las Piñas
July 21, 1989

This is the place where I grew up 
Where most of the people I know 
But there are some bitter ends of life 
And you can’t always taste the spice 

In the blue sky, the birds fly 
But at times dark clouds pass by 
You’ll never see the glory of the kingdom 
If you engage in powerful lies

Las Piñas, just a taste of 
The salts of Las Piñas

In the morning, workers make piles 
Of the crystals for refection 
I used to argue about consumption 
But you can’t always taste the spice 

The Rise and Disappearance of Salt in Las Piñas

Before the 1970s, the salt industry in Las Piñas was active, with salt beds spread across coastal areas, especially near the Zapote–Bacoor side. By the late 1970s into the 1980s, it began to decline as urbanization grew, land was converted, and real estate became more profitable than salt production. By the late 1980s to early 1990s, only the last traces remained, with the industry nearly gone. From the mid-1990s onward, salt production had fully disappeared as Las Piñas shifted into a more residential and commercial area, a change that accelerated after it became a city in 1997. This decline was driven by land conversion, pollution and changing coastlines, cheaper imported salt, and the availability of more stable income from other jobs.

⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ

The music of Darem Placer

New Year’s Emotions

The New Year comes, but not everyone arrives the same way.

For those who’d rather listen.
Fragile • Darem Placer

New Year hits people differently.

Some go quiet. The kind where you just sit there, thinking, like the world is on pause even if it’s loud outside. Not sad. Not happy. Just thinking.

Some feel excited. Fresh start, they say. New calendar. New chance. Same problems maybe, but it feels different when there’s a new date on top.

Some feel tired. Relieved that the year is over. Survival mode, basically. No fireworks inside, just a deep exhale.

Some feel hopeful. No solid plan, but there’s a small spark in the chest. Like, “maybe this time, it’ll be okay.”

Some feel sad too. Because the year left things behind that didn’t make it into the next one. Memories don’t follow calendars.

And some people feel nothing special. Just a normal day. January 1 is just another morning with coffee, or sleepiness, or both.

All of it is valid. There’s no correct New Year emotion.

The year changes in a second. People don’t. That happens slowly. Minute by minute. Mood by mood.

And that’s okay. Life is Fragile.

Seven Shadows includes Fragile

Listen to Seven Shadows on Apple Music, Apple Music Classical, and YouTube Music

ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ