Nolan Bernardino | Bubble / 2013

pop

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nolan Bernardino (director) Bubble / 2013 [4.20 minutes] [music video]

 

US singer and actor Benjamin Brian Castro, known to his YouTube audiences as Sebastian Castro, is best known for his music video Bubble, which made him an overnight internet celebrity with a following mostly in Southeast Asia and particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia.

     At age 17, Castro’s Jehovah’s Witnesses believing parents disowned him for being gay, forcing him to seek out his own way of financing his education Savannah College of Art and Design. On February 14, 2013, Bubble appeared on YouTube, garnering over 3 million views, according to Wikipedia. The video itself served as an international “coming out,” since before the video he had not publicly spoken about his sexuality.

      Castro officially came out on a Philippine podcast, Beki Nights shortly after the release of Bubble, declaring “I know there are lots of people out there that are scared to be themselves.”

    In 2014, he and former ABS-CBN reporter Ryan Chua announced their relationship over social media during a trip Castro made to London where his companion was involved in a Masters program at the City University of London. The couple separated in 2017.

     Bubble begins, as its lyrics, proclaim in the locker room, but alternates throughout with a kind circus-like state on which Castro and dancers also perform.

     The lyrics of the song pretty much define the images, which consist mostly of Castro and other young men dancing in black shorts and at one point showering.

"There's a fine, fine line, in the horny mind

I crossed mine, in the locker room, mmmhhmm

 

Next thing I knew, something just grew

In the line of view of: "You'll never ever guess WHO!"

 

The very best friend I always knew

(Is starin')

At the jockstrap with the bursting bulge

(I'm not wearin')

And maybe that's why, he's walking over, whispering those words

(I can't get Over)"

Chorus:

 

"I like your bubble, even the stubble

Happy trailing down the crack of those two muscles

Tighter the better, and yours has never

Felt the pain, that gives...

(Me so, so, so, so!)

(Me so, so, so, so!)

(Me so, so, so, so...)

...Much pleasure!

 

Pop that pop (POP!), stick your stick into it

Can you bu-bble pop (POP!), grab both cheeks and do it

This is it boy, Christian Grey my boy toy

Pop that Pop (POP), this is how we do it

See pop shows near Los Angeles

Get tickets as low as $14"

………….

 

[a whole chorus of “pops’ follow.]

"(Deep Breath)

What did you do, up my choo-choo

I can't even walk straight as I used to"

 

     His new friend, however, declares he didn’t do much, “just a touch, innocent enough,” and declares that the two of them are still straight.

 

     Castro answers:

 

"Mhmmm m-okay, l'll let it go. I'm still a bro

It didn't mean anything, so who has to know?

 

I am straight; Straight!

I just pulled a muscle lifting weights

It's straight. Man am I straight!

As always I got a hot date"

 

    Castro visits the doctor:

 

"Doc! Its hurts so bad I can't even sit down

I don't want to tell you how it all went down

How do I know you won't tell anyone around

We both know it's a small ass town"

"Breathe boy no need to be cynical

All you need now is my physical

Drop the undies and show me the pencil/pop-sicle

Everything here on out is confidential"

"I like your bubble, even the stubble

Happy trailing down the crack of those two muscles

Tighter the better, and yours has never

Felt the pain, that gives...

(Me so, so, so, so!)

(Me so, so, so, so!)

(Me so, so, so, so...)

...Much pleasure!"

 

     The boy protests, the doctor basically ignoring him:

 

"-No please don't

-Hell if I won't

-Why are you kneeling?

-To give you Uh-Oh feelings

-Why do you and everyone I know want my Santa Claus?

-Because…"

     The obviously is another chorus of “I like your bubble,” end in the words, now slurred out as in sexual ecstasy itself: “Soooooo much pleasure.”

     I have to say this music video is truly sexy.

 

Los Angeles, May 19, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2024).