Dimash and his incredible voice!

I discovered Kazakh singer Dimash maybe about a year ago and I was blown away by fantastic, otherworldly voice. I came across this particular video just recently. His voice, his range, his control are truly spectacular. For me, he has one of the best voices in the world. Check it out.


video uploaded in youtube by Посольство Беларуси

Pixar's Coco

I missed Coco during its theatrical run but I heard and read such positive feedback about it that when it was shown on Fox Movies, I just had to watch it.  Now that I've seen it, I have to say it definitely lived up to the hype, if not exceeded it.

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(2017_film)

When publicity for Coco started coming out, I wasn't too keen on watching it because I felt it was too similar to the animated film The Book of Life that came out in 2014. Both were set in Mexico on the Day of the Dead and the lead characters in both films had guitars and were passionate about music. Given that The Book of Life was released 3 years before Coco, I felt that Pixar should've taken a different direction thematically.

However, the countless glowing reviews from just about everyone made me want to see it. Unfortunately, I missed its theatrical run in Manila. Thankfully, it was featured on Fox Movies. I now strongly agree with the general concensus because I think Coco is one of the best animated films I've seen so far.

The story is great and I love the twist that greatly changes the complexion and the urgency of the plot. Gotta say, I didn't see that one coming. Furthermore, the world of the dead in this film is beautifully created. The writing is excellent and compelling, enabling the audience to go through the same emotional journey that the characters are on. I was excited when Imelda finally started to sing again, I felt frantic when Miguel dropped Hector's picture, and I felt even more frantic and heartbroken when Miguel was trying to get his great grandmother Coco to remember her father.

The voice acting in this movie is also topnotch. While the adults were all remarkable, it was the voice actor of Miguel, Anthony Gonzalez (who was about 11 years old when he did his voice work for Coco), who was most outstanding. Considering he is so young, he delivered such an emotive, nuanced performance that helped carry the film. I'm not the only one who thinks so too, since Anthony won Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production at the Annie Awards. As if that wasn't enough, he sings really well too! And while we're on the subject, the music in Coco is great. While Remember Me won best song at the Oscars, I actually preferred Un Poco Loco and Proud Corazon (the song Miguel sings at the end) a lot more.

Coco is such a tremendously beautiful film. I think this may just make its way to my top ten animated films of all time.

Goodbye, Ludo Makati

Another sad moment for the Metro Manila board gaming community. Ludo: Boardgame Bar and Bistro in Makati is now closed. They shared this post on facebook a month ago:



My friends and I spent many fun evenings in Ludo Makati so we decided to play there one last time before it closed. While we normally play the games that are available there, this time around, we brought a couple of games with us, although we only got to play one of the games we brought: Radiers of the North Sea. Cla had been raving about this game so a lot of us were very interested to try it. In this worker placement game, you have Viking warriors and you try to gain the most points by raiding the most valuable settlements, increasing your military strength, and going up the Valkyrie track when your Vikings perish during raids. We got to play it twice that night. I won the first game and placed a close second in the next game (I lost by only 2 points). Thankfully, the game lived up to the hype and I enjoyed it. It's currently ranked 117 on BoardGameGeek so I guess many other people enjoy playing this game too.

Raiders of the North Sea

The other new game I got to play that night was Bärenpark. This is a tile-laying game where players try to build the best bear parks :). The tiles are of different shapes and sizes so the strategy involved is figuring out where on your park to place any of the tiles currently in your hand so that you get the tiles that you want that will fit and cover as much of the space left in your park. It's a cool, quick game and despite the fact that all of us had not played it before, we picked up on the gameplay quite quickly. In fact, we ended up playing it three times. I won on my third try, and it was a pretty good win because in the previous games, everyone completed their bear parks once end-game was triggered but in this last game, I was the only one able to completely fill my park. I ended up with the highest score of the night in that game - 107 - which was also the only time any of us breached 100. Cool! Cla has now gotten her own copy of this game so I am sure we will get to play this again.

Bärenpark

We started the afternoon with me teaching Kat how to play Sagrada  and we ended the night playing Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, another game I really like, I did my coffee plantation approach, which is the same thing I did the last time I played this game (also in Ludo). This must be a good approach because both times that I employed this strategy, I won. :)

It's too bad Ludo: Boardgame Bar and Bistro is now closed. I guess if I want another Ludo experience, I can gather my friends who are based in the North to play in their QC branch.

Manila Pen Staycation

After I stayed at Hotel Intercon a few years ago, I got reminded of the Peninsula Manila, or more popularly called Manila Pen, and how I used to stay there quite a bit. Not because I had lots of money to throw away LOL but because the company I worked for had a fantastic corporate rate with Manila Pen. In fact, I wasn't the only one who did this; many of my colleagues did the same. Anyway, I was looking for hotel rooms recently because I wanted to book a place for a game night I was hosting when I saw that Manila Pen had some good rates. While I didn't originally plan on booking a room here, after thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided to book a room here for a weekend staycation.

It's been such a long time since I stayed at the Manila Pen so my memory could be deceiving me but the room I booked seems to be a bit more modern than what I remember. I don't know if this is because they renovated in the last decade. In any case, the room looked really good.

My booking didn't include breakfast so I was initially toying with the idea of just paying for it but I think the buffet breakfast cost P1,600++ so I decided to just sleep in and skip breakfast altogether. :) I do remember enjoying the breakfast spread at the Manila Pen so maybe the next time I am there, I will make a booking that includes breakfast. I have to say that the lobby still remains one of the best hotel lobbies in Manila, with its very high ceiling, its spaciousness, the lighting, and the atmosphere. Every time I passed by the lobby, whether when I was checking in or out or heading out for dinner, it was full of people enjoying the hotel lobby service.

I found my weekend staycation at the Peninsula Manila to be very cozy, comfortable, and luxurious and the vibe in the hotel is still great. If I see a good deal online, maybe I might just book a room here again.