TAMPO

This is what Tampo looks like. Tampo is a "feature" that comes standard with most Filipina wives, from what I hear, and I have read much about it on the internet, but have, up until now, never seen it. Tampo can range from the husband simply getting the silent treatment for a while, to full blown, foot stomping, object throwing tantrums. I should note, right here, that this is probably not a Filipina only thing. I've seen Sally, who's Korean, go down this path as well, not to mention I have witnessed Jerry throw some tantrums that would make a 3 year old envious. Still, as far as what I have read, it was all about the experience of Western foreigners married to girls here. As for the picture, which is the end result of this story, I shall now attempt to recount, at least from what I can tell, how it all came to be.
It all began with a game of American Idol on the Nintendo Wii. This, by the way, is one of the coolest games I have ever seen. As you may know, karaoke is all the rage in Asia, and it is super huge here. People here absolutely love to sing, no matter what their actual skill level. My friend's wife is no exception. She loves to sing, and her skill level... Well, I'll let you know what Simon had to say about it.


Now Simon is the most brutal of the three judges on American Idol, the other two being Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson (but not Michael's brother). He pulls no punches and tells it like it is. I don't know how the game can rate all aspects of one's singing based on a USB microphone, but it seems to register not only accuracy and timing, but tone as well. Tone being the major issue here. The judges are voiced by the real stars from the television show and they must have recorded an amazing amount of comments for every song, because you never hear repeated comments. In this case, my friend's wife's singing was met with comments from Simon such as, "That was a horrendous, pathetic version of a song any 3 year old should be able to sing." Another favorite was, "I am never listening to that song again." The absolute worst was, "I really really hate you right now." Even Randy Jackson, usually the most lenient of judges, said,"This is just not for you. You should give up."

The girls seemed to take all this in stride at the time and laughed about it, but I am guessing it really hurt her feelings. The things is, these are all comments people wanted to say to her, but no one had the heart to. Once I was chatting with Jerry and she heard the singing and said she felt sorry for me. Even the neighbors have complained about her singing in the past. Not the noise mind you, just her singing. Letting the game tell her seemed like a dream come true. The next day, though, I guess the result of the harsh judging came out.

One mention of American Idol and she went off. There was throwing of items, and breaking things, and she even dumped out the garbage in the kitchen. Just like I often read about Tampo, through, it eventually ends and it was like it never happened. The house got cleaned and everything went back to normal. The plus, though, is there is a lot less singing.