The Lion King in Manila!

I am very happy that I finally got to watch The Lion King with my family. I bought our tickets several months ago and I had been looking forward to seeing this show since then. While I did get to see it in London back in 2001, it's always a different experience seeing a major musical in the Philippines and with your family.

Once the news came out about a year ago that The Lion King would be shown here, I decided to start saving money. I wanted to get the expensive orchestra seats, specifically orchestra aisle seats, because I knew that some "animals" would be parading down the aisles during the opening Circle of Life and I wanted us to be up close to them when they passed by. My research told me that the elephant would pass by the left aisle (left when you are facing the stage) so I made sure to get seats there. I gotta say, I was really excited when the elephant passed by. :)

The great thing about being seated at the aisle is that a few more performers do pass by. Another highlight for me was during the opening number of the second act right after the intermission, several performers walk down the aisles and stand in different parts of the venue. One of them stood right next to us and while we could hear the entire ensemble sing in harmony, we could also hear her voice quite clearly and it was beautiful.

I really wanted my family to see The Lion King because it is such an incredible production. The opening Circle of Life just so powerful and jaw-dropping, it is almost worth the price of admission. The animal costumes are so beautifully and intelligently designed and the performers move the same way that the animals do. The cheeatah, the giraffes, the gazelles, the elephant, Zazu, and all the animals were all just so incredible. Add to that the incredible voices and the brilliant stage design and colors and you have a life-affirming opening number. Words can't really do justice to its brilliance so it's better to see it in action. This video of Circle of Life is from the Life Helpmann Awards. Check it out.


video uploaded by Thais Persico

Other highlights from a production value standpoint include the stampede sequence and the scene where Mufasa's spirit talks to Simba. Musically, while I do love the songs from the movie, the songs that were added to the musical that weren't in the film give the live show even more soul - Shadowland, Endless Night, and He Lives in You. (I want to get the CD of the musical because I really do love these additional songs.)

What made The Lion King in Manila even more special to me is that we got a South African cast. Given how the musical is set in Africa, having a cast that is mostly from that continent just made the story and the performances even more meaningful and gave the show even more soul.

Speaking of the cast, I thought they were all fantastic. Ntsepa Pitjeng as Rafiki, Calvyn Grandling as the adult Simba, Noxolo Dlamini as the adult Nala, Antony Lawrence as Scar, Jamie McGregor as Timon, Pierre Van Heerden as Pumbaa, and Andrew Jewson as Zazu along with the rest of the cast were all superb. The revelation to me were the Filipino kids in the cast, Julien Joshua M. Dolor Jr. as the young Simba and Uma Naomi Martin as the young Nala, both of whome were amazing. I also love how the cast injected some Filipino words and even Filipino cultural items into the dialogue, specifically Timon's.

I have now see all but one of the musicals that had an impact on me twice: Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and Wicked, and now this. (I have even seen Chicago twice as well.) The only one I haven't seen twice is Miss Saigon. I am hoping it gets shown here again. If not, maybe I will get a chance to see it again somewhere in the world.

The Lion King has extended its Manila run until May 27. Tickets are going by very quickly. If you want to see it while it is still showing, go get your tickets now.

Four Movies in April

I got to see a handful of movies at the cinema this month.

Avengers: Infinity War

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Infinity_War

Obviously, this is one of the movies I was most looking forward to seeing this year, especially after the build-up over the last 10 years. This film has gotten some great reviews and multitudes of people who have seen it have been greatly affected. People have said that most audiences are left speechless at the end of the film. I've seen Infinity War criticized by some for having too many characters and being too overcrowded but I actually thought the screen time for each character and their interactions were done very well. Despite this, I was very strangely and surprisingly underwhelmed. Was it because I was expecting too much? I don't know. In any case, while I say I was underwhelmed, I will of course still recommend this movie.

Spoiler alert: please stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled!!! The opening scene was so powerful. In fact, I love that Thor had such a key role and that he was god-like here (Thor has always been one of my favorite superheroes, even pre-Marvel movies). I got really pissed off at Starlord and I feel like it was his fault Thanos ended up getting all the infinity stones. I personally didn't like the Thanos backstory. I somehow didn't find his love of Gamora all that believable - he tortured her after all - so when he cries for her, it just felt really out of character and out of place. I also didn't quite like the Hulk-saying-no scenes. I thought it was a bit corny. I really loved the Black Order or the Children of Thanos (I didn't know that is what they were called; I only found out later on). Speaking of the Black Order, I was surprised by the death of Ebony Maw. He was so powerful going up against Thor and Doctor Strange and yet he couldn't save himself when he was suddenly pulled into outer space. In summary, practically everyone I know who has seen it was "shookt" but strangely enough I wasn't. I guess for me, I knew that Thanos destroys practically the entire universe in the Infinity Gauntlet comic book series so it should've gone without saying that there would be a ton of casualties in this film, including many with whom we have grown attached over the years.

Pacific Rim Uprising

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_Uprising

This film has been panned by audiences and critics alike, with sub-50% scores on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and audiences. Even my nephew who watched it with me said that he felt it was missing something. Strangely enough, I actually really enjoyed it. (So I found Infinity War underwhelming and Pacific Rim Uprising entertaining; there is clearly something wrong with me LOL.) I will agree though that this sequel is not as good as the first one and I felt the build-up here took a little longer than I would have wanted, unlike in the first film which almost immediately opens with a Jaeger-Kaiju combat sequence. I did enjoy the tension and the sort-of-bromantic relationship of the two lead characters played by John Boyega and Scott Eastwood. I also enjoyed the visuals here a bit better. I guess that is because in the first one, all the battles were done in the dark (either at night or underwater). In this second one, the battles are done in daylight so you can see the robots and the monsters better. I guess the reason why I enjoyed this film is that I didn't really care too much for story, I just wanted to see Jaegers battle Kaijus (which I did).

A Quiet Place

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Quiet_Place_(film)

I initially thought that this was a horror film but a friend told me that it was more like a sci-fi thriller. To be honest, I wasn't all that interested to see it but I kept on seeing amazing reviews; of the four films I watched this month, this one has the highest critics score on Rotten Tomatoes at 95%. I will say though that this film requires a great amount of suspension of disbelief since the premise is quite bizarre and it is quite easy to poke holes at the story and the concept. I have a friend who found it all too incredulous but I myself found it easy to accept the premise. I gotta say, Emily Blunt put in such a strikingly brilliant performance. If she doesn't get nominated for Best Actress next year for this, I will be greatly disappointed. I am also pleasantly surprised that John Krasinski (who happens to be Emily Blunt's husband not just in the movie but also in real life) is a very capable director.

Mazinger Z: Infinity

photo from http://mazinger.wikia.com/wiki/Mazinger_Z:_Infinity

I was a fan of the Mazinger Z cartoon series back when I was a kid so when I saw that this was showing, I had to watch it. Interestingly enough, most other viewers at the cinema seemed to be my age or older. :) I didn't know what this film was going to be about but, similar to my basic expectation in Pacific Rim Uprising, I was just expecting to enjoy robot battles. I thought it was cool that the film featured both Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger as well as the characters of both series like Koji Kabuto, Sayaka Yumi, Tetsuya Tsurugi Dr. Hell, Baron Ashura, and Count Brocken among others. Despite all that, I can't say I enjoyed it. I guess the problem for me was that instead of robot battles, the film went all metaphysical as it talked about the destruction and creation of parts of the multiverse. It kind of reminded me of the popular Japanese sci-fi animation film Akira. I guess I am not such a fan of metaphysical discussions. I can't quite say I would recommend this movie but if you are a Mazinger Z fan and you don't mind paying money for a  movie ticket, I guess you can go and see this and somewhat enjoy the nostalgia amidst the strange storyline.

Nadal wins Monte Carlo #11

Wow, Rafael Nadal just continues to defy logic. The King of Clay is not showing signs that he is ready to relinquish his throne as he wins his 11th Monte Carlo Masters title. No other male player has won an event 11 times in the Open Era. The amazing thing about this win is that Rafa was at great risk of dropping back down to #2 in the world if he didn't win the event, and his title allows him to stay on top one more week. Nadal has now ranked #1 for a total of 171 weeks, moving him past John McEnroe into solo 6th place in terms of total number of weeks at #1.

History = Made 🔥

(Again 😂)@RafaelNadal lifts the @ROLEXMCMASTERS 🏆 for a record-breaking 11th time after defeating Nishikori 6-3, 6-2 💪 pic.twitter.com/wCoUBRigWS

— ATP World Tour (@ATPWorldTour) April 22, 2018

Not only did he win the tournament, he did so in utterly dominant fashion. He didn't lose a set and in fact, he didn't even lose more than 5 games against any opponent. That includes Dominic Thiem against whom Nadal had his one loss on clay last year. Here's a print screen I took of the scores by which Rafa won all his matches. This is simply staggering.

As if the record 11th championship isn't enough, this is also his 31st ATP Masters 1000 title, moving him past Novak Djokovic and making him the current solo record-holder for most ATP Masters 1000 titles. Amazing.

With his historic win in Monte-Carlo, @RafaelNadal now holds the record for #ATPMasters1000 titles 🙌

How's that for a little #MondayMotivation? 😉 pic.twitter.com/JHupN6cWjh

— ATP World Tour (@ATPWorldTour) April 23, 2018

Nadal has a lot of points to defend over the next few months, which means he may lose the #1 ranking by the time we get to the French Open. Still, I am already running out of superlatives to describe Rafa's incredible achievements. I am not expecting too much but I will continue to hope that Rafa can still add to his records in the next couple of months.

Slade House

Slade House is the first book that I started and finished reading this year. I actually finished another book, City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte, last February but I started reading that last year. I can't recall the last time I finished reading two books in the same year so I'm really happy that I am able to read a bit more.

I actually became interested in this novel when I picked it up from a shelf in Fully Booked and read through blurbs published at the back of the book maybe a couple of years ago. What caught my attention was what Anthony Doerr said: "A Dracula for the new millennium, a 'Hansel and Gretel' for grownups, a reminder of how much fun fiction can be" That piqued my curiosity but since I felt that I didn't have time to read books back then, I didn't get it yet. A few months later, I was still really thinking about it so I decided I should go out and get it. Unfortunately, on my next trip to Fully Booked, I realized I didn't write down the title. I tried searching online for a book that was like a Hansel and Gretel for adults since that was what I could remember from the blurb. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a correct hit online. Luckily, after racking my brain as hard as I could, I somehow suddenly remembered that there was 'Slade' in the title, then I immediately remembered Slade House. I was absolutely impressed at myself for remembering. :) After that, I decided to get it.

Slade House is the first non-classic fiction book I read that didn't exactly have a happy ending, for lack of a better term. I don't really want to spoil the story further so I will just leave it at that. As my friend Lala told me, the book must be good if it affected me that much. And it really is good. Different chapters were written from different points of view and always in the first person, and that made the storytelling a lot more engaging and the horror more real. You could really feel the emotions, confusion, hope, and fear of the character from whose perspective the story was written. The author, David Mitchell, also wrote Cloud Atlas which was made into a film back in 2012.

I gotta say that I am really happy that I am getting to read a lot more now. Part of it is just the comfort and relaxation provided by sitting at a cafe enjoying coffee while reading a book. Part of it is enjoying the slow and deliberate way a story unravels when reading and how I find myself turning the pages more quickly as I get closer to the end. Part of it is also the way reading stimulates the brain. And I guess part of it is knowing that I have a lot more time for myself now if I am able to read. I got four books from my friends last Christmas and I have one more that purchased for myself a few years ago. I'm hoping I get to read at least a couple of them before the year ends.

Graduation Dinner at Ooma

Congratulations to my nephew on his graduation! I was a bit late for the ceremony since it was scheduled on a work day but I still arrived early enough in the program so the only thing I missed was the entrance of the graduating students. Apart from this incredible milestone in my nephew's life, the ceremony was made even more special by two things. First, my mom was asked to give a talk to the students. Normally, this is a role reserved for parents but in this case, they had a grandparent give the speech. The second thing was that during the second song number of the graduates, my nephew actually played guitar. Cool!

My nephew said he wanted us to have our dinner celebration in a Japanese restaurant so I thought it would be cool to bring my family to Ooma. We ordered a whole lot of dishes on the menu. My favorite was probably the Tuna Tataki (P198). The tuna was fresh and the whole dish was packed with amazing flavor. I ended up ordering two of these.

Tuna Tataki

The Hanger Steak (P498) is a sous-vide hanging tenderloin with sauteed mushrooms, white truffle oil doesn't seem like your traditional Japanese dish. I guess this is kind of like a fusion version of Kobe beef. It looks very appetizing and thankfully, it tasted just as good as it looked.

Hanger Steak

The Buta Kakuni (P370) or slow roasted pork belly was really tender. The coconut gave the dish a sweetness that worked well with the pork.

Buta Kakuni

My photo of the Tempura Soft Shell Crab Maki (P295) is unfortunately horribly unfocused but we did enjoy eating it.

Tempura Soft Shell Crab Maki

Of course, we can't go to a Japanese restaurant without ordering the requisite Ebi Tempura (P390). While it still comes with the usual tempura sauce, it is also served with a couple of other dipping sauces that were quite interesting to try.

Ebi Tempura

There were a lot of other dishes we ordered that I was unable to take photos of, such as the California Taco-Maki and the Tori Kara-age. The sad thing that night was that they didn't have salmon in stock so we couldn't order any salmon dishes such as the salmon tataki. Still, Ooma does serve really good food and I'm glad I was able to take my family here.

Ooma
http://momentgroup.ph/ooma-our-establishments/

Ooma Megamall
SM Megamall Mega Fashion Hall, EDSA cor Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong, 1550 Metro Manila
Phone: (02) 656 4591

Ooma BGC
Bonifacio High Street Central, 7th Ave, Taguig, Metro Manila
Phone: (02) 621 4052

Ooma Rockwell
1209 28 Plaza Dr, Rockwell, Makati, 1209 Metro Manila
0917 631 6769

Hello and Goodbye

One of the highlights of April so far has been a double reunion with one the first teams I was part of in my previous company. We were called DDC and a lot of the people in that team left many years before I did and I hadn't seen them in ages. That all changed this month. It started out with a smaller reunion, with some of the people I am still regularly in touch with. Seven of us - Elbert, Joseph, Bains, Acky, Gerry, Adrian, and myself - had dinner at Venice Grand Canal mall. I posted a picture of our get-together on social media and many of our other ex-teammates commented, including Reg who is based in Sweden but is in Manila right now and our ex-boss Jon. Both of them suggested we have another reunion the following week with the more complete group so that's what we did. This time, there were 12 of us, including Jon, Reg, Orange, Acky, Bains, Elbert, Joseph, Julius, Kate, Jeff, and Peejay. It was such a great reunion, especially since I hadn't seen many of them in such a long time. In fact, the last time I think I saw Peejay and Jeff was right before they left the team. Dinner was in Ponte Rialto and it started at 7:30pm and if not for the fact that the restaurant closes at 11pm, we would have still stayed. Almost 4 hours of catching up and it was still not enough. Another of our friends, Armi, might be coming home from the US so we may organize something when she gets here.

Sharon also revisited the Philippines but most of her time here was spent in the islands. There was only one night that she was free to meet up in Manila and thankfully, I was available that night. She was staying with Mitch so we decided to meet for dinner in Ortigas. We ended up choosing Lartizan in Ayala the 30th. I had only eaten pastries there before so it was my first time having a savory meal here and it was really good.

I also got to enjoy brunch with Kathy and John shortly before they moved to Netherlands. I used to see Kathy a lot until they moved to Alabang. Last year, they decided to move back to Makati due to many reasons, including to prepare for their planned emigration to Holland and I did get to see her a few times since then. Unfortunately, I had a prior engagement on the afternoon of their despedida but thankfully, Kathy scheduled her party for the entire day, starting at 9am. I arrived in the morning and I stayed there for a couple of hours before saying farewell. Hopefully I get to visit her and John and the rest of the family in Europe.

Sans Rival in Dumaguete

Being the sweet tooth that I am, I made sure I visited the famous Sans Rival Cakes & Pastries in Dumaguete. In fact, I actually visited this place on five of the six days I was there, including right before I flew back to Manila LOL.

There are at least two Sans Rivals that I saw, although two of them are next to each other. The main one is Sans Rival Bistro which is right along Rizal Boulevard at the corner of San Jose street (and on the side of the Bistro along San Jose Street is a smaller Sans Rival take-out shop). There is also another one inside Robinsons Place Dumaguete. I was able to visit both.

As I visited this place quite a few times, I was actually able to try many desserts. One of them was the Date and Walnut Dacquoise (P94/slice, P650/whole cake). It was a unique dessert that I hadn't seen anywhere before so I made sure to try it. Unfortunately for me, I think the slice I got was a really old one since the meringue was already tough and very chewy and the dates were really hard. When I shared this with some other people who had tried this dessert, they said that it was supposed to be really good and it was their favorite. I guess that means I have to try it again if I have a chance.

Date & Walnut Dacquoise

The Choco Cream Banana Cake (P79/slice, P420/whole cake) is ideal for people who enjoy bananas in their dessert and who love chocolate.

Choco Cream Banana Cake

I also tried the Mango Mousse Torte (P73/slice, P480/whole cake). It was good but it'd probably not something I would get again since there are other mango-based desserts that I absolutely love such as the Mango Torte of Dulcelin. There are also other desserts in Sans Rival that I enjoyed more so I would probably go with those instead.

Mango Mousse Torte

The silly thing is that I didn't take pictures of my two favorite desserts that I tried here: Cookie Monster and the Frozen Brazo. Cookie Monster is a really good chocolate cake while their Frozen Brazo is actually prepared with vanilla ice cream. If I get to revisit this place, I would probably order these two again.

Of course, this place is known for its sans rival and silvanas. However, since we do have House of Silvanas in Manila which serves these two same items, I decided to try other items that are not served here. (The owner of House of Silvanas is the granddaughter of the owner of Sans Rival; read more here).

*****

Update: apparently, Sans Rival has now opened in Manila. A facebook post went viral, sharing that Sans Rival from Dumaguete opened a branch in Glorietta 4 near Food Choices underneath the escalator leading to the cinema. That is actually the same spot occupied by House of Silvanas. My guess is that House of Silvanas will be rebranding to carry the name of its mother company since that same facebook post was edited to say that two more branches of Sans Rival are opening in Manila: one in Shangri-La Mall and another one in Robinsons Magnolia. These are the exact same malls where House of Silvanas has shops. I guess Sans Rival is the more well-known brand so it makes sense to leverage its popularity.