Friday night out

When I was with my friends Me-ann, Joh, and Raffa a few weeks ago in Eastwood, we decided that we wanted to try out the Platinum theater in Eastwood. This is the cinema where the tickets cost more than P300 but you get unlimited pop corn and soda. Of course, if we were paying that much for movie tickets, we figured that it should be for a pretty big movie. And the biggest one we could think of was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Now since we knew Che would be in town in end June and Transformers 2 was showing in Manila beginning June 24, we thought it would be cool if we all met up for dinner in Eastwood and watched Transformers 2 in the Platinum cinema.

As luck would have it, the Platinum cinema was sold out by lunch time. And when we checked sureseats, only front-row seats were available. Ack! Not the best seats for a movie with a lot of very quick movement on screen.

We ended up watching in Shangri-la mall (tickets there cost P200! Man, I still remember when movie ticket prices were a tenth of that...) and having dinner in Sumo Sam. Anna Mae was also with us this time, and I realized that the last few times I had gone out for dinner with this particular set of friends, it has been in Sumo Sam (or its sister resto, John and Yoko). Che then treated us to some frozen yogurt in White Hat and it was pretty good.

So, the movie. The fortunate thing for us is that we all heard bad reviews about Revenge of the Fallen from both movie-goers and critics so our expectations were all very low heading into the theater. And true enough, Transformers 2 wasn't that good. Lame story (that quite frankly didn't make all that much sense LOL), bad script, a few cheesy and even downright stupid scenes, and some duh moments meant this sequel didn't really live up to the hype. But because we all knew it was going to be bad, we ended up pretty much embracing all the negative aspects of the movie and enjoying the action and special effects. I guess as long you know what to expect from the movie, it's still worth a watch. :)

Tennis time again

So the first half of Wimbledon is over, and talk about your ironies - the first year that Centre Court in Wimbledon has a retractable roof, there hasn't been a rain delay LOL.

The sad part is that Rafael Nadal has pulled out of Wimbledon due to a knee injury. With Roger Federer high in confidence and in very good form right now, it is highly likely that he will win his 6th Wimbledon and 15th Grand Slam title overall, breaking Sampras' men's record of 14 Grand Slam titles.

I would like Andy Murray to win though, and he's been in pretty good form so far. It would be awesome if he does win as he Brits haven't had a home court winner since Virginia Wade in 1977 (and in fact, the last men's winner was Fred Perry, who won the last of his 3 Wimbledon titles in 1936!). And on the women's side, I would like Venus Williams to win her 6th Wimbledon title.

Speaking of the women, it's interesting that both Maria Sharapova and Michelle Larcher de Brito both lost on the same day. These two women have to be the loudest shriekers on the women's tour. As much as I respect Sharapova for her immense power, fight, and never-say-die attitude, I just can't root for someone who shrieks so loud it makes me want to switch the channel when she plays. I thought she was the loudest until I heard Larcher de Brito, who seems to have taken grunting to a whole new level as her grunts seem to last until her opponent hits the ball.

If you don't believe me, check this video out. Warning: not for sensitive ears!


video uploaded in youtube by user SharapovaPower

Now just imagine if these two played against each other....

Getting read for my 6th marathon for a cause

So I found out about 3 weeks ago that the Milo Marathon was going to happen on July 5. Normally it is held in end July or early August so when I called the Race office, I was fully expecting to have about 2 months to train. As it turns out, I had only 1 month left!

I decided to start training but was still mulling over the idea of running on July 5 or doing another marathon later in the year. I knew there is a marathon in Singapore in December so I was thinking of doing that, but then I realized that it would be near-impossible to get people to pledge during December because it's Christmas. I was also told that there is a Pasig River marathon in November, but apparently the route is right along the Pasig River. Considering that it's hard enough to run/jog/walk 42 kilometers, doing it next to a river that doesn't exactly have the best smell in the world will be an even more herculean task.

So I gave myself a bit of an "ultimatum", if I could get to 18 kilometers after two weeks of training, then I'd do the July 5 run. And as it turns out, I managed to get to 18 kilometers by June 15 after training for 13 days. So I committed to running the marathon and now I'm officially registered:


This is definitely the worst training I have ever done for a marathon but hopefully, the motivation of raising money for PGH will help me complete my 6th marathon.

You can read more about my marathon for a cause here.

Taylor Swift meets Coldplay

I am "stealing" this from my friend Mark who put this video up in his blog. Musician Jon Schmidt created this arrangement of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and he thought it would sound good with Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" so he put them together. Check it out:


video uploaded in youtube by user carlosian2

It's a great piece, and it is beautifully played. I've heard "Love Story" on the radio many times but never thought of it as a beautiful song until I heard this arrangement from Jon Schmidt. And of course, the fact that it gets transitioned beautifully to Viva La Vida makes the whole piece even better.

The really ace thing about this performance? The cellist is actually playing cello and bass drum while singing! You can see it at around the 4:19 mark. Amazing! :)

To read more about Jon Schmidt, check out his website: http://www.jonschmidt.com/

Not a good May

After a very valiant effort, Liverpool fall short - four points short, to be exact - of the English Premiership League title. They managed to win practically all of their last few matches apart from the one draw against Arsenal, but Man U unfortunately did not falter either and held tight the rest of the way. Too bad. I just hope that Liverpool can mount another solid campaign next year, and hopefully take the league trophy.

And to add to my disappointment, on the very last day of May, Rafa Nadal was shockingly ousted in the 4th round of the French Open by Robin Soderling. This is a guy who had never beaten Nadal and even lost to Rafa 6-1, 6-0 a few weeks before in Rome. But he played a tremendously powerful and precise game that stopped Rafa in his tracks. This was Nadal's first ever loss in Roland Garros, and his first even loss of a best-of-five match played on clay. Too bad. I was really hoping Rafa would hoist the 7th Grand slam trophy of his career.

*****

While we are talking tennis, I was immensely pleased to see Steffi Graf present the trophy to the women's champion, who turned out to be Svetlana Kuznetsova. A month ago, she was in Wimbledon. Then last week, she was in Roland Garros. This is the most I've seen her back in tennis circles since she retired a decade ago and it's pretty cool. Even more cool was that Svetlana mentioned in her acceptance speech that she met Steffi the first time before the match and she thought it was great that Steffi wished her luck and was presenting the trophy to her.

And while Nadal is still nursing a knee injury that kept prevented him from defending his title in Stella Artois title (which is now the Aegon), my second favorite Andy Murray has continued to do well, winning the title in Queens. It's his 4th title of the year, and hopefully his success on grass gives him confidence to do well in Wimbledon.

Summer

Talk about time flying by so fast. May's about to end. This means that school is once again about to start, which also means a lot more traffic on the roads once again.

To get ready for the new school year, my mom and I took my two nephews shopping for school supplies last Sunday. We went to National Bookstore in Shang Mall. It's been years since I was in grade school (can you tell? LOL) and I had completely forgotten that there are so many different types of notebooks - writing, composition, spiral, math, and music! My nephews weren't really too keen on shopping for school supplies - they wanted to get toys instead, big surprise there - but once we started they actually got quite into it. It was cool too coz for the first time, they were choosing their own stuff.

Of course, the start of the school year heralds the end of summer. Which sucks coz I haven't been to the beach yet! LOL I do have plans though. My high school friend Suzanne is planning a trip to the beach on the June 12 long weekend with some other high school friends. I am hoping that it doesn't rain then. Although to be honest, it's not like it hasn't been raining. I'm pretty sure more than a few summer holidays got screwed up in the last couple of months due to the very uncooperative weather. So at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Lots of fun to be had anyways, even if it does rain.

One other cool thing about this season is that the major movie companies start churning out most of the year's major blockbusters during this time. Over the last five days, I've seen three movies - Star Trek, Angels and Demons, and Terminator Salvation and I enjoyed all of them (Terminator not as much as Star Trek and Angels and Demons, both of which I really loved).

The next big movie I'm waiting to see is Transformers 2. I had dinner last night with Me-ann, Joh, and Raffa in Eastwood and while we were there, we said we should try the premier cinema there - not really sure what it's called, but it's the one where you get refillable pop-corn and drinks and sit in a Lazyboy, I think. Of course, we all agreed that we had to really like the movie coz it costs about P300+, and it turns out we are all looking forward to seeing Transformers 2. It will be shown in Manila on June 24, during which time Che will be in town, so there will be more of us to enjoy the movie.

Teardrop by Massive Attack + Newton Faulkner's cover

Here's a song I really love. It's Teardrop by Massive Attack that came out about a decade ago already. It's such a cool, chill song.


video uploaded in youtube by user pavelmurdoc

I was doing a search of this song on youtube just to check out it's very intriguing video and I noticed several other cover versions of this song. I was interested in how the cover version would sound so I checked some of them out. Of the ones I listened to, the standout was this version by Newton Faulkner.


video uploaded in youtube by user gietube

I have to say, especially considering that Newton is doing his cover with just a guitar, it's pretty awesome!

A Centre Court Celebration in Wimbledon

So I didn't get to go to London to watch Steffi Graf play with Andre Agassi and against Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters. But I did get the next best thing - they showed the entire thing on Starsports last night!

It was a really interesting set of matches to watch. It was clear that all the players were worried to some degree at how they would be playing - obviously none of them wanted to embarrass themselves. But as it turned out, all of them lived up to the hype and delivered the goods. Kim was very consistent and her groundstrokes still carried immense weight - heck, she managed to outrally Andre a few times! Tim's volleys remain some of the best I have ever seen. Andre's hand to eye coordination was still phenomenal and he still had amazing precision in his shot placement.

And Steffi. Well, where do I begin? LOL First off, of all four players on court, she still seemed to have the perfect athletic body. You take one look at her and you wouldn't think she retired from tennis ten years ago. Her fitness level would still put most pro women tennis players to shame.

And so would her movement! In her heyday, she was known for her footwork, speed, and balance, and watching her chase balls all over the court and run around her backhand like in the old days. I seriously thought Kim would blow her off the court, especially with her powerful backhand, but Steffi managed to keep rallies going with her very precise and well-angled slice backhands. Her serve still had lots of weight on it too. She did score a few service winners and manage to set up points with it.

Of course, any discussion about Steffi will not be complete without mention of her forehand. It doesn't have as much weight as it used to - after all, she is 10 years older and hasn't played that level of tennis in years - but she still matched Kim's forehand and even got the better of her on several occasions. There weren't any match statistics, but I'm sure Steffi got a decent number of forehand winners in the match.

She eventually lost the match, 6-4, but when you consider that Kim is 25 and planning to mount a comeback and that a lot of tennis fans are expecting her to still do great things and win a few titles, 6-4 is definitely not a bad scoreline!

Watching Steffi play definitely made me wish I got to watch the Centre Court Celebration live. But even more than that, it made me wish she was still playing. She did have a smile on her face for virtually the entire match against Kim so it was clear that she enjoyed herself immensely. Hopefully that will give both her and Andre the idea to play more exhibition matches in the future. Which would definitely be a treat for tennis fans all over the world. Hopefully, I can get to see the next one (if there will be any...)

Self-boxing

My friend Onin sent me this youtube link and it got me laughing. Check it out!


video uploaded in youtube by user sylar1717

Since it was a clean hit, the question is, who gets the point? ;)

What a great start to the F1 season!

So there's a possibility now that the F1 drivers' championship gets passed on from one Brit to another. Last year's world champion, Lewis Hamilton, ended up ahead of everyone else, albeit barely, by winning five of the seventeen races of the season. Now, five races into the season, Jenson has won four races and placed third in the other one.

If he keeps up this pace, he is on track to become F1 world champion. Heck, if he keeps this up, he could end up with a season in the league of Michael Schumacher, who holds the record for the most race wins in a year (13 out of 17, unreal!).

*****

And since I'm talking F1, I have to mention my friend David. He's the one who turned me into a football fan when he took me to watch the England-Albania World Cup qualifier match in a sports pub in London back in 2001. I have now been keeping a close eye on F1 and have been watching a lot of races ever since I took David to watch the Singapore GP last September in Handlebar. So apparently, whenever I watch a sporting event with David in a sport bar, I end up becoming a fan of that sport LOL. Fun times!

A P1000 discount on my shoe purchase in Adidas

So I was in some kind of shopping mode last weekend, mainly coz I needed some new slacks for work. At some point in my shopping spree, I thought of looking for new white sneakers coz the ones I currently use are no longer as white and have started looking at bit shoddy. I swing by an Adidas store and try on these Adidas Porsche Design shoes and I decided I wanted to get them. The shoes I got kinda look like this photo except the stripes on mine are black:

When I tell the salesman that I was gonna purchase the shoes, he asks me if I was going for the trade in (apparently he was looking at the Aldo shoe box I had with me - yes, I got some new dress shoes as well) and I didn't immediately get it. As I head to the counter to make the payment, I see this sign that talks about this promo in all Adidas stores in Manila (or maybe the Philippines?) where you can trade in an old pair of sports shoes of any brand and that are in decent condition, and you get a discount. You get P500 if the shoes you are buying cost PHP1,500 to 2,999 and P1000 if they cost P3000 or more. The shoes you donate will go to the Pamulaan Center for Indigenous People's Education (read more about this foundation here).

Now I had a pair of old Nike cross trainers that I hadn't used in a while and which I now only use for Habitat for Humanity builds coz I don't mind if they get dirty. I figured I could trade those shoes in. I get P1000 off on my new shoe purchase and I get to help out the Pamulaan Center. So I ask the salesman if he can hold those shoes for me and I would just return with my old pair. He said he would.

So I managed to get rid of my old pair of trainers, get a new pair at a big discount, and hopefully help someone out in the process. A pretty nifty deal if you ask me! The promo lasts only until May 17 so if you've been thinking of getting new sports shoes, you might want to consider getting them in Adidas.

Sports in 4, 3, 2, 1...

Manchester United have only FOUR matches left this Barclays Premiere League season. And with three-point lead atop the league table (plus a game in hand), the odds of Liverpool taking the league championship this season are almost non-existent. Which is a shame since Liverpool started the season incredibly well, and are in such good form over the last couple of months (they just beat Newcastle 3-0, increasing the possibility of Newcastle being relegated. Sorry Newcastle fans..). For Liverpool to score the most unlikely upset, they need to win all four of their remaining games and Man Utd have to either lose two of their remaining matches or draw three. I will still hang on to that incredibly think glimmer of hope though. Come on, Liverpool!

*****

I turned into a bit of a fair-weather fan of F1 when I watched the Singapore GP last September in a sports bar with my friend David. Since then, I've kept an eye on F1, watching a couple of Grand Prixs along the way. And this season, I've gotten on the bandwagon in support of Jenson Button, who was won THREE of the first four races. To be fair, though, since I am a fairly new fan, I haven't really gotten behind anyone yet, although since most people I know are pro-Ferrari, my tendency is to root for the underdog. So Jenson it is, at least this season LOL. I am hoping though that he ends up atop the Drivers' Championship at the end of the season. Good luck, Jenson!

*****

TWO rounds is all the irresistible Manny Pacquiao needed to knock out Ricky Hatton in the highly anticipated Battle of East and West. That rout - no, utter demolition - has to be up there as one of the most lopsided of major sporting activities. As proud as I am of Manny, I kinda wish he was the greatest in another sport aside from boxing as I always feel sorry for the loser. Not only does he lose, he gets beaten up in the process. In any case, Pacquiao has truly lived up to his billing as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world and has made his country very, very proud. Go Manny!

*****

Rafael Nadal has now truly cemented himself as the world's number ONE tennis player. With five titles this year (with the Rome title coming just as I write this blog), the most of any player, he's distanced himself from Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray, who now all have a shot at the number 2 ranking in the next few months. Murray started the year off better than anyone else in terms of win-loss record, but Nadal has now pushed ahead of the pack due to the clay court season, winning his 30th match over Djokovic in the Rome final. Djokovic seems to have gained his the form that took him to the #3 ranking though, getting to the finals of the last two clay court tournaments he's played. He may just be Nadal's biggest threat in Roland Garros, but Rafa has to remain the odds-on favorite to take his fifth French Open title this year. Vamos, Rafa!

Movie watching

So over the last few weeks, I've been able to get some time to catch a few films at the cinema. I figured that there are lots of movie theaters right next to both where I work and where I live. So in theory, I shouldn't be missing as many movies as I do.

So here's a quick recap of the films I've gotten to see recently:

Dragonball Evolution. I've been told by so many people that it wasn't a good movie and that it was getting such bad reviews so my expectations were quite low. So I ended up being one of the scant few people in the world who thought it was okay LOL. I'm guessing though that if you are a fan of the cartoon series, you won't be pleased with how movie didn't stay true to the storyline.

Monsters vs. Aliens. In true computer generated animation fashion, this was really fun to watch. Lots of really hilarious moments. The storyline is really basic, to make sure that the kids who watch it understand what's going on. But the humor is adult and it makes this movie perfect for the whole family.

Slumdog Millionaire. After its massive success in the recently concluded Hollywood awards season, I was really looking forward to see this film. I have to say I was quite let down. I didn't seem to connect with the lead character, at least not for the entire duration of the movie. Maybe it's also because I live in a third world country where I've seen, to some degree, the stuff that was depicted in the movie. So probably the impact it had on audiences from developed countries was lost on me.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Definitely worth watching, although I must've had such high expectations of the film that I ended up being slightly disappointed. I think it's the whole regeneration thing. The utter immortality of the regenerating characters in the TV Series Heroes has gotten me slightly put off by this ability, and in this X-Men Origins, Wolverine's regenerative abilities remind me a lot of the same power in Heroes. I do have to say though that in my opinion, Liev Schreiber gives the best performance in the film. He is utterly chilling and ominous as Sabretooth. Oh, and there's a final scene in the movie, similar to The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, but in all honesty, it's a useless scene and I felt cheated for having stayed all the way til the end of the credits for that one sh*tty clip LOL.

Still a few films I want to see, like "The Fast and the Furious 4". Hopefully I can get to see it before it disappears from theaters here.

A very successful run for charity

What a great way to start a weekend! Our Corporate Social Responsibility team at work and yesterday just held the "Run Forest Run, Kythe 3k lang" run-for-charity event in McKinley Hill. It was the first time we held this kind of run-for-charity event on the site-wide level (there have been two previous runs for charity but these were done on the department and sub-department level) and I'm very pleased to say that it was a brilliant success!

The organizers got there pretty early. I arrived at the site at 430am and the other organizers Wen, Zaza, Tiano, and Alvin were all there and had already helped in pitching 6 of the 7 tents. The other organizers Elaine and Carmela, as well as the rest of the volunteers (marshals, water station personnel, finish line checkers, etc) started coming in after, and by 6:30am practically all 91 runners were there, getting ready to run either 3, 5, or 10 kilometers. Since I was one of the organizers (and was also hosting the activity), I had to "organize" and as such, couldn't join the race.

We had two beneficiaries for this run-for-charity: Haribon and Kythe. Haribon is an environmental organization dedicated to the conservation of Philippine biodiversity. They are currently working on the Road to 2020, which aims to restore one million hectares of rainforest using native tree species by the year 2020. Kythe is an organization that aims to provide quality of life for pediatric patients by uplifting their spirits and strengthening hope in these patients and their families.

The funds for these two beneficiaries were raised through pledges that the volunteer runners would get from their friends and family for their run (exactly the same as how I do my annual marathon for a cause). With 91 runners, I'm crossing my fingers that we raised more than P150,000 for these two beneficiaries. We will only find out this coming week how much money was raised, so hopefully we meet our targets.

In any case, it was a great team effort. And with all the experience and information we gained through this exercise, I'm pretty sure our next run-for-charity will be an even bigger success. I can't wait! :)

An amazing week in Singapore

I just got back from Singapore for a few days of rest and relaxation with my many friends there.

Actually, there really wasn't a lot of rest and relaxation, but there certainly was a boatload of fun! From the few nights of bar hopping and solid drinking (such an expensive hobby in SG!!) to my return to The Mind Cafe to the movie-watching (I managed to see "Shinjuku Incident" and "Gran Torino" while I was there) to meeting up with my friends there (and meeting a few new ones while I was at it), my days in Singapore were pretty jam-packed as they always are.

I actually got to perform an impromptu, stripped performance of The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" in Timbre as well. The artist performing there, Michaela Therese, was a friend of my buddy Tim and he requested that I sing it while Michaela backed me up on keyboards. It turned pretty well.

The highlight of my trip though were the concerts that I saw while I was there. I got to watch Oasis on Sunday night in the Indoor Stadium and The Kaiser Chiefs in Fort Canning Park on Tuesday. I knew a few Oasis songs but I knew only one Kaiser Chiefs song so I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it. But strangely enough, as great as the Oasis gig was, I enjoyed the Kaiser Chiefs concert a whole lot more.

The Kaiser Chiefs' songs are so catchy that you can enjoy them even if you are hearing them for the first time. It certainly happened to me. And a lot of their songs have very easy-to-pick-up choruses with repeating lines that I actually managed to sing along with them, especially in "Na Na Na Na Naa" and "Oh My God" (Oh my God I can't believe it, I've never been this far away from home). And the lead vocalist Ricky Wilson just had such an incredible presence on stage and an infectious energy that he had the entire crowd rocking out with him from the beginning. I was so into the concert that I have become an instant fan, and I'm now planning to get all their three albums.

So anyways, here's probably my current favorite song of theirs, Na Na Na Na Naa from the album Employment.


video uploaded in youtube by user sarcasmmister

I couldn't really find a better video of them performing this song (everything else I could find was taken from a shaky hand LOL) but you really do need to see them live to realize just how good they are. In fact, if they somehow end up anywhere near flying distance, I would be very willing to head over to see them perform again. I guess they didn't win a 2006 Brit Award for Best Live Act for nothing.

Definitely not the result I was after

This is so not good. Liverpool just lost to Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal. What's worse, they lost in Anfield. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they just had to lose with a scoreline of 3-1. Sh*t.

The only way they can get through to the semis now is to beat Chelsea away and by a better score than 3-1. It's a two-goal difference but if Liverpool win 2-0, they tie on aggregate but Chelsea move through due to the away goals rule.

It doesn't help that the English Premiership season is at its tail-end now and Liverpool are still barely behind Man Utd coz Liverpool can't really afford to have their attention divided at this point.

If I had a say in the matter, I would honestly let go of the Champions League. After all, if they manage to come from behind to beat Chelsea, they will most likely run up against Barcelona who just thumped Bayern Munich 4-0. Note that Bayern are a team that won their previous round with an aggregate score of 12-1 so this loss indicates just how good Barca are playing at the moment.

Strangely enough, I am now hoping that Man Utd can beat Villareal, get through to the semis., and have a rough time the rest of the way. The longer they remain in the Champions League, the better the chances that they drop points in the premiership and allow Liverpool to overtake them.

Oh well, just a couple of months before the season ends. I just really hope that Liverpool can somehow take the English Premiership...

The Sound of Music in the Antwerp Central Station

Check this video out (thanks for the link, Mark! :)). It is so cheesy and so cool at the same time LOL.


Video uploaded in youtube by user saihttam1988.

Apparently, there is this reality TV show in Belgium about musicals, and they did this performance in the Antwerp Central Station to promote it.

It must've been really interesting for the people who were there at the time. Heck, if I was there, I would probably have missed my train on purpose to watch the whole show LOL.

"Run" by Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol's "Run" was released back in 2004 but this beautiful song didn't enter my consciousness until this week. Maybe it's because this is one of those songs that you need to digest or listen to a couple of times before realizing just how great it is. So I encourage you to take another listen if you don't think you like it at first.


video uploaded in youtube by user topgearhannah2k6

I "discovered" the song on Monday, when I was chatting with Sep. We were talking about a couple of songs that our band is trying to learn - Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" and Collective Soul's "Run". He suggested that we take our cue in learning these songs from live versions that Snow Patrol and Collective Soul do. Which made sense so I decided to look up the vids on youtube. While typing in "Snow Patrol" in youtube, the text predicter suggested 'Snow Patrol Run'. Interesting coincidence, I thought, and I decided to check out the video. At first I thought it was okay but not wow. And as I read the comments, I realized Leona Lewis had a version. So I checked it out. It was good, but I realized I preferred the emotion in the original version. So I listened to it again, but this time I checked the lyrics out as well.

And suddenly, it home. For me, the perfect song is one where the melody, the lyric, the instrumentation, the flow and build up of the song, and the vocal interpretation and delivery all work together to deliver the same message. And that is exactly what you get in this song. It has now been elevated to one of my favorite songs of all time and I haven't stopped listening to it since I discovered it. I've even checked out some live versions that they've done. And of all I've seen on youtube, this one is my favorite. Mainly because of how intensely the crowd sing back the final chorus to the band (happens at around the 5:05 mark)


video uploaded in youtube by user rhyniemx

And the greatest thing about this is, I apparently have this song in my ipod!! It was in one of those compilation albums I got more than a year ago which had about 5 or 6 songs that I knew and kept listening to. Can't believe this gem was in that same CD all this time!!

"Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear"

Brilliant.

Great weekend of sports!

I can't believe how things turned out in the English Premiership over the weekend. As of Friday, Liverpool were 4 points behind league leaders Manchester United. Chelsea had the same number of points but boasted a better goal difference which put them at second place.

Then things started to get interesting. On Saturday, Fulham pulled the shock of the weekend with a 2-0 win over Man U. Tottenham followed suit and beat Chelsea 1-0. Then Liverpool took full advantage of the opportunity and blasted 5 goals against Aston Villa. The rout was made even sweeter by the hat trick that Stevie Gerrard scored. Go Stevie!

This means that Liverpool are now only 1 point behind Man U and have leapfrogged Chelsea into second place. What's even better is that Liverpool now have the best goal difference in the league. This means that if they end up at the top of the league on equal points with Man U and/or Chelsea, they will take home the championship.

It's still Man U's to lose though, especially since they have a game in hand. But the dynamic has definitely changed somewhat, and Liverpool still have a shot.

*****

On the other side of the world, Rafa Nadal routed Andy Murray in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells to win his second title of the season, and his 13th Masters 1000 Event. With Murray defeating Roger Federer for the 4th straight time in the semifinals, Nadal's victory means he increases his lead at the top of the rankings, making it tougher for everyone else to catch him.

I hope that Nadal can continue his good form through to the clay court season and win his 5th French Open title. If that happens, who knows what other results can follow this year.

Bad, bad traffic day

I hate being stuck in traffic. But when you live in Manila, it's one of the things you learn to deal with. You come to know where in the city, and at which times during the day, the traffic is bad and how long it will take to get from one place to another during these bad traffic moments. I still get pissed off when stuck in traffic every now and then, but I can kinda let it roll off my back for the most part.

The sucky thing really is when you are not expecting any traffic at all and it hits you squarely in the face. And that's exactly what happened to me yesterday.

I was heading to Manila for band practice at 3pm. I left my place at 2:15pm, fully expecting to be at the studio in time for band practice. But at 245pm, I realized that I had been stuck at the same stretch of road for about 15 minutes already and had barely moved. I thought it was just something going on at the stoplight and text my bandmates that I will be late. But as I cross the stoplight, I realize the traffic is still horribly bad. At the worst point of the jam, it actually took me about half an hour to move 500 meters!! I honestly don't recall the last time I was stuck in a traffic jam that bad.

I decide to get off the road I'm on and take a different route. It turns out the traffic on that road is just as bad. I was now half an hour late for band practice and nowhere near the studio yet. If I had run from my place to the studio, I would probably have gotten there already!!

As it turns out, there was some anti-drug rally in Roxas Boulevard and it caused the traffic horror in Manila that day. It took me almost 3 hours (2:45) to get to the studio. We spent three hours practicing before heading home (during which time the traffic had lifted but there were still a couple of bad spots). But at least we got to practice a few songs - including three new ones that we plan to do in our next gig.

I was supposed to head to dinner afterwards. Kathy was throwing a surprise birthday party for John. While driving home, I was still fully planning to head there. However, I had to head home first. Thing is, when I got home, it hit me that I was totally exhausted and couldn't muster the energy anymore to head out. I gave Kathy and John a call to apologize and they were very nice about it. I do hope I get to meet up with them some time this week for dinner since I missed the party.

Missed chance...

Last March 12, I logged in to ticketmaster.co.uk (at 10am UK time) to try and get myself a ticket to the Graf-Agassi-Henman-Clijsters exhibition in Wimbledon on May 17. I had trouble launching the page - the first few minutes I was trying to access it, I kept seeing a message saying that the event didn't exist. I knew it must've been a glitch so I kept on trying.

After several minutes, the page finally appeared. I reckon there must have been some delay in making tickets available. So I try to get a ticket and I manage to snag a really good one at that, it was in the section right next to the court. I was thinking whether I should book it when I noticed that it would cost me an extra £18.50 for ticket delivery since I wasn't based in the UK. The additional cost threw me off for a minute, and since I preferred a seat at the back of the court rather than the side (that way, I wouldn't have to keep turning my head left and right during points), I decided to let the ticket go. In any case, I figured that since I was able to get a courtside seat quickly enough, then it should be easy enough to get another one if I wanted to.

Moments after I let it go, I realize that the extra £18.50 wasn't too bad (it's a full tank of gas and a good lunch) so I try getting another ticket.

And as I tried getting another ticket, I realized that all my assumptions were way off base.

I spent the next half hour trying to get another ticket but couldn't. When I finally get one, it was at the worst possible section - the topmost corner. It didn't seem worth it for me to pay almost PHP5,000 for a bad seat where the players would look like ants to me. So I decided not to get the ticket, and essentially drop my plans of heading to London in May. Which means I missed my chance of watching Steffi Graf play live on Wimbledon. Sucks!!

Moral of the story: don't be greedy and want a better seat than you already have (especially when the one you have is a pretty damn good one!). And when you are talking about once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, don't scrimp. You can always earn back the money but you won't get back the missed chance. Oh well...

Brilliant performance!!

Liverpool followed up their awesome midweek display against Real Madrid with a very inspired 4-1 win over Manchester United. Four goals scored against two of the best clubs in Europe (heck, in the world!) and all done in five days. Unbelievable.

I watched that match last Saturday and I have to admit that after Man U went up 1-0 about 20 minutes into the match, I switched the channel LOL. I know, I know, if you are a fan, then you should stand by your team win or lose. But I guess I was really worried that Man U would win after that. After all, they were playing at Old Trafford and Man U are pretty good front runners. So when I switched channels again at half time, I found out that Liverpool has somehow scored two goals before the end of the first half to take the lead. Apparently, Torres tied it up and Gerrard put Liverpool ahead. Once again, the dynamic duo rescue the club!

Two more amazing goal - one a free kick from Aurelio and another a very late goal from Dossena - sealed the deal for Liverpool and narrowed the gap that Man U have atop the league table to four points. Granted, Man U have a game in hand and can widen the gap to seven points. And with not too many games left in the season, Man U are still heavy favorites to win the league. But the important thing now is that Liverpool have done their part. After Man U's opening goal, Liverpool could very well have been 10 points behind instead of just four.

It's too bad that Liverpool have delivered the goods against the top squads in Europe this season - They beat Real Madrid twice, Chelsea twice, and Manchester United twice - and yet seemed to lose points to lesser teams (like Middlesbrough, against whom Pool lost 0-2 recently!). If only they could have maintained their level throughout the season, they'd still be atop the league right now. Ah well. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed...

Let's go, Liverpool!

I never thought I would see the day. Liverpool made history by blasting four goals against the legendary Real Madrid and handing the Galácticos their worst defeat in the Champions League.

I had high hopes for Liverpool to make it through to quarterfinals after they took a 1-0 advantage in the first leg of their clash with Real Madrid. But a 4-0 win was definitely not something I expected. So it was an incredibly pleasant surprise when I checked the news out this morning. What makes it even better is Torres and Gerrard both scored goals (Gerrard actually scored two) and when the dynamic duo of Liverpool are in scoring form, it's a good sign for the entire team.

I hope that they can take their Champions League success back home to England. They have a massive clash against Manchester United on Saturday, and a win will reduce the lead that Man U currently have as they sit comfortably at the top of the league table. I am still hoping Liverpool can go on a massive winning streak in England and take the Premiership title this season. Not the best odds of that happening but I will be keeping my fingers crossed...

Alicia Keys: "No One" (Stripped version)

Here's an awesome, stripped version of no One as performed by Alicia Keys.


video uploaded in youtube by user gleicarol

I got a link to this video from one of the forums I visit and I thought it was awesome. I think Alicia's voice, as great as it is, sounds quite strained in the album version of "No One". Her voice in this live performance, however, is clearer and more effortless. Much better than the recording IMHO.

But what makes this number stand out for me are the amazing back-up singers. At 3:23, they do these incredible descending scales that sounds so smooth and flawless that you think it's pretty easy to do. Then I tried singing it myself and I realized it was NOT as straightforward as I initially thought! Those back up singers are truly awesome!

Speed typing

My friend M sent me a link to this website, to which she claims she is addicted now. I took a look and it's indeed a fun site. You are supposed to type the words that appear and you are then scored on how many words and characters you can type in a minute.

I'm not sure what the average typing speed is but I thought I did pretty well. Haven't scored below 60 (one word per second) in all my tries so far. Here's my current best result:

84 words

Typing Test

Not bad. I know someone whose best score is 89 and I know someone else whose best score is 75. So I guess all in all I'm not bad (I used to think I was a lot slower than I apparently am). I'm not quite addicted to it yet but I do find it quite fun to try out every now and then.

Elliott Yamin's new single: "Fight for love"

Two years after he released his self-titled debut album, Elliott Yamin releases his new single, "Fight for Love". Woo-hoo!!!

The single was released in the US around Valentine's Day (I think it premiered on AOL on Feb 13). I've heard that it wasn't supposed to be released yet but the song somehow leaked. But in the end it kinda made sense coz it's a romantic song and a coming-out party on the Valentine's day is quite appropriate. You can listen to the full song in the Croshal Entertainment Group website.

"Fight for Love" is a really catchy song and the first time I heard it, I ended up listening to it over and over again (still do, actually LOL). Not only is the song very radio-friendly but it showcases Elliott's smooth vocals and soulful vibe. He seems to have increased his range as well as he hits a couple of really high notes that he didn't hit in his first album.

His new album is supposed to be released in the US on May 5th. The single hasn't been released in the Philippines yet, and no date has been set on international album release either. But considering his past success here, I hope it won't be long. Who knows, maybe he decides to make another trip to Manila soon to promote his new album.

Hopefully, the new album does just as well as the first one, if not better. Would be great if Elliott becomes a platinum recording artist.

My last shot at a long-standing dream?

I checked out the tennis page on CNN Sports Illustrated the other day as I do often. And I was stunned by the piece of news at the top of the page:

"Agassi, Graf to rally first under Wimbledon roof"

My eyes widened and I immediately clicked on the click to read more about the article. Apparently, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi will play an exhibition - dubbed "A Centre Court Celebration" - along with Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters in Wimbledon on May 17. Holy crap!

The event is being staged in order to test the playing conditions in Wimbledon Centre Court with the new roof and air management system. Wimbledon starts in end-June and I guess the organizers of this most celebrated of tennis tournaments want to gauge how things will be in Centre Court once the roof in place. That way, there won't be any surprises, and any problems with the playing conditions can be identified weeks before the tournament starts.

I have actually watched Steffi Graf play live once - an exhibition match against Kimiko Date in Tokyo, which was part of Graf's farewell tour in late 1999-early 2000. But I have always wanted to see her play in a Grand Slam event. Obviously, I didn't have the cash at the time Steffi was playing so I never got a chance to watch her compete. And this exhibition isn't exactly a Grand Slam event, but it will be played in the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon. Considering that Steffi is retired and no longer plays competitive tennis, this really is the next best thing.

What's more, she will be playing with her husband Andre Agassi as well as Henman and Kim Clijsters. I have actually supported and rooted for all these players at some point in my tennis fandom so it'll be great to get to see all of them share the same court (Wimbledon Centre Court!!) and play with/against each other.

Tickets will be sold at 10am UK time on March 12, and I will hope that I am lucky enough to get a ticket. If I do, I will figure out some way to fly to London. My pockets aren't exactly bursting at the seams with money and there is a global financial crisis right now so frivolous spending should be kept at a minimum, but this has been a dream of mine for such a long time now and another opportunity like this may never come again so it'll definitely be worth it.

Falling Slowly (from the movie "Once")

Here's a very beautiful song called "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.


video uploaded in youtube by user FoxSearchlight

This song never really got into the mainstream but it's claim to fame is that it won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2007, beating out music from "Enchanted" and "August Rush". It never gained popularity here because the song is not really mainstream and the film "Once" wasn't shown here. I first learned about the film when my friend Michele suggested to me that I watch it, saying that I would most likely enjoy the music in it. My friend Chari got it for me as a birthday gift last year and I've listened to it (especially this song) a lot of times already. I also got the DVD of the film, although I have yet to watch it.

Miscellany

Liverpool just drew against Man City last night, which now means that Manchester United are seven points ahead of them and sitting pretty at the top of the league table. I don't want to throw the towel in just yet, but I don't want to be bitterly disappointed either so I'm going to hope for the best but expect the worst. Well, not really the worst. The worst would be if Liverpool to drop from 2nd place. I would be gutted if that happens.

*****

After five trips to the Oscars, Kate Winslet finally nabs the best actress trophy. I was hoping that Meryl Streep would pull an upset but I do have to say that I am still quite happy for Kate as she does deserve to have at least one Oscar - I mean, this was her sixth nomination! I especially love the bit in her acceptance speech where she says "I think we all can't believe we're in a category with Meryl Streep at all." I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Hollywood will realize that Meryl will return to the winner's circle at least one more time.

I was really happy too that Sean Penn for the best actor trophy. I had a feeling that if there would be any upset, it would be in this category. Mickey Rourke had been winning every other award, and I felt that Sean Penn deserved some recognition for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. I do feet for Mickey Rourke though because I'm not sure how many other chances he will get to be nominated (this was Penn's fifth nomination and second Oscar).

And may I say that the opening act from Hugh Jackman was incredible! I thought for a second he wasn't going to be given a standing ovation but there was just some delay. :) That performance is worthy of some award too (maybe an Emmy or a Golden Globe? LOL)

*****

Okay this bit of news is a week old but Rafa Nadal managed to increase his lead over Roger Federer by reaching the finals of the ATP tournament in Rotterdam. It could have been an even bigger lead had he won, but he ended up succumbing to a knee injury and losing in three sets to a very in-form Andy Murray. Unfortunately he loses a bit of his lead over Federer because he had to withdraw from Dubai due to his injured knee. Roger withdrew from the same event due to a back problem, but since he lost in the first round last year, he doesn't have any points to defend.

I do hope Nadal gets enough rest and strengthens his knee soon. The clay court season is coming up and he has a whole horde of points to defend. It would be absolutely great if Rafa can win the French Open this year. If he does, it will be his fifth in a row. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that...

My third Habitat for Humanity build

I first volunteered for Habitat for Humanity almost a year ago. I joined the corporate social responsibility club we have at work a little more than a year ago, and on March 23 last year, we had our first trip to a Habitat for Humanity site, where volunteers moved hollow blocks and cement mixtures from one place to another, allowing skilled workers to focus on the actual house building rather than on the smaller stuff.

Since then, I've gotten really involved in this corporate social responsibility (CSR) club, so much so that I've been elevated to initiative head. I have three other co-heads (great people with whom I really love working) and it's amazing that our CSR initiative now has the full support of our country management. we now have projects and programs meant to contribute in the areas of environmental sustainibility, economic development and philanthropy, and educational achievement.

Last Saturday was our first company-wide activity for the year: another build for Habitat for Humanity. We had over 60 volunteers participate and it was great. There was a lot more work to be done this time around. we were broken into four groups. although two of the groups ended up merging. The first group painted the steel components of the roof. The second group poured the cement mix into the walls, and the third group, which I was in, did all the heavy lifting - hollow blocks, sand, and cement mix.

Of all my three trips to a Habitat build, this was probably the one where I had the most fun. Mainly coz we had more volunteers than in the past. But also because we were involved in the latter stages of house building so you could more easily see progress. my group moved enough cement mix to allow the builders to complete three floors in three different houses. It was amazing to see really, and I think as the day wore on we actually got faster and faster with respect to moving the cement mix. It was also great seeing how much higher the walls had gotten due to the great work of the volunteers pouring the cement mix into the hollow block walls. There were so many roof components that were fully painted by the end of the day.

This was also the first time that we all had name tags (I guess we have learned from past experience as well). And seeing the name of the person standing next to you made it so much easier to make new friends.

Of course, considering the fact that I haven't had any exercise in a long time, I feel like I've been beaten up today. My back (upper and lower), biceps, shoulders, and even legs feel extremely sore, almost like I was beaten up LOL. unfortunately, I wasn't able to hit the spa today to get a massage, so I plan to get one tomorrow instead. Nevertheless, all the pain is worth it. Not only did we get to help build houses, I also got to meet a lot of new people.

Of Movies and Music

Over the weekend I realized that I had bought several DVDs that I haven't watched yet so I figured I should start watching some of them. Didn't really have enough time to watch everything though. I did get to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". It was okay (good enough to watch but it wasn't 'wow'). Definitely darker than some of the previous ones. I was expecting thought that a specific lead character was going to die in it. And when this character didn't die, I thought that they maybe "sanitized" the film version so that people don't start hurling things at the wide screen. So I texted my friend who I know is a huge HP fan and she told me that this character dies in the next film.

I also got to watch "Borat" and it definitely lived up to all the expectations of hilarity. It bordered on political incorrectness (or maybe it even crossed the line) but in a way that made you feel how utterly insane it is to be bigoted i.e. you were more laughing at the stupidity of the jokes and the person making them rather than at the target of the jokes. There were definitely several very memorable moments in the film - I was driving earlier today and remembered one of the scenes and I started chuckling in the car. It really is such a crazy movie, and definitely worth seeing. Just make sure you are ready for some crudeness and lewdness and slapstick beyond compare.

I also recently got the order I placed in Amazon. I had it delivered to my friend John who lives in the US and when my other friend Me-ann went to the US for a business trip, she was able to get my amazon delivery from John and bring it to Manila. Part of the package included Damien Rice's "O", Bell X1's "Music in Mouth", The Editors "An End has a Start", Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below", and Sennheiser CX-300-B Earbuds. I managed to load all those CDs to my ipod before I went to Bangkok last weekend but I haven't really been able to digest the entire albums. Mostly I listened to the songs I already knew from these albums. Today however I got to listen to the Bell X1 album in its entirety and boy am I glad I picked up that album. It's amazing! Every song is at the very least good. And all the songs tie up nicely together, giving the album a very strong identity. It's not available in the Philippines, so if you are interested, you can get it from Amazon.

I've gone halfway through the album of The Editors and it's pretty solid as well. It's always great when you have friends who recommend great music to you (and it's even greater that a lot of the songs in these albums are on youtube so I can sample it before I decide to get the album). In any case, I'm really pleased with my recent CD purchases. And my noise reduction earphones are pretty cool too!

Bangkok Dangerous

No, I don't mean the movie (I was told that the film, which starred Nicolas Cage, was not very good). I mean the actuall city where I spent a long weekend last week.

I've been to Bangkok twice before, but on both occasions I never really got to go around. The first time was for work. I was there for four days but it was mostly long days that were capped off with team dinners. The only place I got to visit was MBK (the mall) to do some shopping. The second time I got to visit Bangkok was by chance. I was flying from London (was on holiday there) to Vietnam (straight to a project kick-off) on September 11 2001, the day of the terrorist attack on the US. As I landed in Bangkok to catch my connecting flight to Vietnam, I was told by the ground crew that my boss had called them to tell me that I needed to stay in Bangkok until our company travel ban was lifted. It was lifted early the next day, but that meant I spent one night in Bangkok. Again, not enough time to see anything.

That definitely was not the case last weekend. I met up with my friend Tim, who has been to Bangkok and Thailand so many times already that he was the perfect tour guide. Our time was spent going around the city with Tim showing me the many interesting sites and bringing me to some really good restaurants to have some great food. I had never been in a tuktuk before so we made sure that I get to ride in one.

We also met up with some friends of Tim and even made a few new friends. Some of these new friends we made took us to an extremely cool night spot. Apparently, it was the house of the owners of MBK - they decided to convert part of their house to a hang-out place. The weather was beautiful, which was really good because this hang out place was outdoors. We spent a few hours here just chilling, drinking wine and rum coke and having shisha (strangely enough, it was my first time to try it, despite it being available in so many places in Manila). After that, Tim and I headed to a club to have a few more drinks...

Probably the most interesting photo I took during the trip was right before we hit the club. Talk about your king of the road (and check out the tail light - literally...)

It was really more like a chill weekend than a dangerous one LOL. Bangkok is definitely a very interesting city. I wouldn't mind paying it another visit, although if I had to go to Thailand again, I'd opt for a trip to the islands like Koh Lanta or Koh Samui.

Barely scraping through

I was in a club last Saturday while Liverpool were playing Portsmouth. They very barely got through. Once again, Torres saved the day with his late goal in added time. But I have to say that Portsmouth lost that game more than Liverpool won it.

I have to say I'm glad that they got through that match. They were in danger of losing. Portsmouth were up a goal twice. And with them losing recently to Everton in the FA Cup (man, that was painful), I was really scared that Liverpool were on their way down. So this win was really good for them. Hopefully it will jump-start a revival. They are still 5 points adrift of league leaders Man Utd so they need to be in their best possible form the rest of the season.

Sesame Street Classic: Flower

If you watched Sesame Street a lot a few decades ago, then you might find this youtube video just as nostalgic as I did. It is a simple yet powerful video of a flower, with Antonio Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto in D Major, 2nd Movement playing in the background:

video uploaded in youtube by user mstatz

I found this video a couple of years ago when I was still based in Sweden. During that time, I spent a lot of time searching for interesting videos on youtube and at some point found myself searching for Sesame Street videos.

I find it very interesting what kind of emotions I feel while watching this clip. Obviously it brings back so many memories of when I was a kid. I find the simplicity of this clip to be very powerful. Showing us the different parts of a flower in great detail makes you realize how easy it is for us to overlook the many tiny fragments of beauty that can be found in things that we take for granted because they are always there. And the music! Leave it to Vivaldi to create a masterful stroke of beauty with this incredibly emotive piece.

It's unfortunate that there is no DVD currently available of all these old Sesame Street clips coz I would certainly get one. I'm pretty sure that thousands of other people also would.

A great sporting day

Not only did Rafa Nadal win the Australian Open but Liverpool also snap their 4-game winless streak by beating Chelsea 2-0 in Anfield. It was Torres' two goals both scored in the dying minutes of the match that gave Liverpool the win. They are still two behind Man Utd (who also have a game in hand so they could go 5 clear) but at least they didn't fall back even further behind.

Nadal wins Grand Slam title #6!

Rafa Nadal wins the 2009 Australian Open, beating Roger Federer in 5 sets 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. Woo-hoo!! :)

photo courtesy of the Australian Open website.

Some interesting figures:

• Rafa now leads Roger in their head to head, 13-6
• Rafa also leads Roger in their Grand Slam final head to head, 5-2
• Rafa has won the five matches they played against each other
  
• This is the first time Nadal has reached the final of a Grand Slam event played on hard court
• Nadal's career five-set record now stands at 12-3. Clearly, he's not a guy you'd want to get into a fifth set against.

The level of play was not as high as in their Wimbledon 08 clash but it was just as tense for the most part. Federer was not at his best, which was good for Nadal because he seemed a step slower and marginally weary, most likely due to his 5 hour 14 minute semifinal match against Fernando Verdasco. A lot of people, including myself, thought that Nadal would not be in good enough physical shape after that. A colleague even commented last Friday, as the Nadal-Verdasco match got into the 5th set, that Federer would kill whichever of the two he ends up meeting. How wrong she was!

Nadal now has 6 Grand Slam titles. And he's only 22. When Federer was 22, he had 1 Grand slam title (Wimbledon 2003). And with Federer amassing a multitude of records already, it's interesting that with this win, Rafa actually achieved something Roger has not - win a Grand Slam event on three different surfaces (grass, hardcourt, and clay).

Of course, the question is how many years Rafa can play at this level. His style of play is so physically demanding that it won't be easy for him to have the longevity that other tennis legends have. But I guess it doesn't really matter. With 6 Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces and a #1 ranking, he is assured of a place as one of the best tennis players in history. He may not be the greatest ever. But he certainly is the best right now.

Congratulations, Rafa! :)

Keeping my fingers crossed

So I've just recently been told that my band Still Oz may start gigging again. After 8 months of not gigging, I'm hoping that this pans out.

So while I wait for news on whether we land another series of gigs, here's a video of us performing U2's "With or without you" from our gig last May:

Joaquin's first birthday party

I attended Joaquin's first birthday party earlier today. Actually, I didn't just attend it, I hosted it. I didn't have my clown costume and make-up or my magic tricks with me though. ;) Joaquin is the son of my friend Myra, whose wedding I also hosted (so I'm guessing she thinks I'm a pretty good emcee LOL).

There was a lot of good food and we had a few party games - one for the kids, one for the babies (2 and under), one for the adults, and one for the yayas. But the main event was a Gymboree program - Myra and her husband Jun got Gymboree to set up a play area and to organize a 1 hour program for the kids. It was a really good program that allowed the kids to be fully engaged and even had their dads and moms participate.

Towards the end of the party, we showed a really cool AVP of Joaquin's photos. You have to really admire Myra and Jun for documenting Joaquin's first year in photos. We closed the program with the cake/candle blowing and with everyone singing "Happy birthday".

So from wedding singer and emcee to children's party emcee. Makes me wonder what's next LOL.

Streep Snags A SAG!!!

I did not expect it to happen. And apparently, neither did Meryl Streep. But the Screen Actors Guild honored Meryl with a Screen Actors Guild award for best performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her brilliant performance in "Doubt".

Meryl has a history of being nominated but not winning. The only awards she has won in recent years have been Golden Globes and it hasn't been for her work in dramatic roles but for her comedic or musical performances. In fact, her last and only Oscar for best actress in a lead role was in 1982 for "Sophie's Choice". That is almost three decades ago.

Kate Winslet's double victory in the recently concluded Golden Globe's cemented her as a frontrunner for the best actress trophy at the Oscars. And with the Oscar awards nominating her for only one award instead of two as she has been in both the Golden Globes and the SAG awards, one can't help but think that the Academy is priming her for a win by preventing its voters from being distracted with two nominations. It is her role in "The Reader", for which she won as best supporting actress in both the SAG awards and Golden Globes, that nabbed her a best actress nomination in the Oscars, and not her role in "Revolutionary Road" which seems to have been snubbed.

Winslet's too good an actress to not have an Oscar so I won't feel that bad if Kate wins. After all, she has been nominated 6 times now and has never won. But I would be really happy if Streep, who has now been nominated a record 15 times, can finally break her Oscar jinx and win her second best actress Oscar (and third overall).

I did read recently that Katharine Hepburn won 3 of her 4 best actress Oscars in her 60s and Streep turns 60 in a few months' time. So if she can't win this year, maybe the Academy will reward her again real soon.

Three down, four to go

Rafa Nadal has breezed through his first three matches in the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the calendar year. So far, he's been in incredible form, losing an average of only two games in each set that he plays. If he keeps playing at this level, he has a very good shot at winning the AO. Hopefully his form doesn't run out.

*****

What the hell is wrong with Roger Federer?? He's supposed to be an ambassador of tennis and yet he starts a completely unprovoked word-war with world #4 Andy Murray.

It all started when Fed was asked what he thought about British odds-makers putting Andy Murray, currently #4 in the world. as equal favorite to win the title. Fed apparently didn't take to well to that, scoffed at the idea, and said that with no Grand Slams to his belt currently, he could not be considered a favorite. (Read more here.) Funnily, it wasn't Murray who declared himself the favorite. And funnier still, British odds-makers aren't the only ones who think Murray has as good a chance as anyone else for winning. Fred Stolle, the Australian Tennis great who now does commentary work, has said that he believes Murray is a favorite. This is obviously based on his recent form. Andy has beaten Nadal the last time they played, Federer the last three times they played, and Novak Djokovic the last two times they played. That's not even counting the exhibition during which Murray beat both Roger and Rafa back to back. Clearly, Andy Murray has the best record against the Big 3 right now.

As a response to these remarks from Federer, Murray saying "Well, I mean, I don't have a problem whether I'm a favorite or not. You know, I guess Roger would prefer to be favorite himself. That's absolutely fine."

And now Roger has made more comments, saying that he would take on Andy Murray in a best-of-five match any day (Read more on Roger's challenge here).

And to make matters worse, Novak Djokovic has joined in the fray, remarking that he should be more of a favorite than Andy based on rankings (Novak's remarks here.) I guess the current #3 in the world, who choked in this two opportunities early this year to take the #2 ranking away from Fed, doesn't like being left out of the spotlight in discussions of title favorite either.

I just don't understand why Federer, who is supposed to be such an even-keel polite and upstanding ambassador of the sport, would start a word war with the new kid on the block. He doesn't have anything to prove, so he should care less as to who some people think is the favorite to win a tournament. I guess maybe he's so used to being worshiped and feared by everyone in tennis that when someone declared that they don't fear playing against him, he considers it disrespectful. Apparently, Murray is also at a loss to understand why Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were put out by his status as Australian Open favourite (read more about this here).

Am just glad that Rafa has remained more logical than his contemporaries and defended Andy Murray and his "AO favorite" status, saying "When you win Cincinnati, when you win Madrid, when you win Doha playing against Federer, playing against Roddick, you are ready to win a grand slam". (Read Rafa's defense of Murray here.) Well said.

Losing ground

With two draws in their last two premiership matches, including one very painful one to Everton in Anfield!!! - Liverpool have now dropped to second in the premiership. Man U is now top of the league. Historically, they have always done extremely well after Christmas and Liverpool haven't so I am a bit worried but I am hoping Liverpool can regain their composure and finish do really well the rest of the season.

They have a chance to redeem themselves against Everton next week during their 4th round clash in the FA Cup this Sunday. I'm really hoping for some good news. Good luck Liverpool!

A fun-filled and meaningful holiday season

So it’s been a couple of weeks since the Christmas season concluded, and as is the case with most people, things get really hectic during this period. The same is true for me, what with all the parties and get-togethers and stuff. But the fact that the government declared a whole host of public holidays meant that I got to spend a lot of time with my family during this time. I also got to spend a very meaningful day in a home for the aged.

My friend Ginger invited me to this Christmas party she was organizing for ANAWIM, a home for the aged in Rizal. She knew I was into socio-civic activities because we talked before about Bukas Sarili and she made a donation to PGH during one of my previous marathons for a cause so she thought I might be interested to join. I had nothing planned that day so I decided I would go. Ginger hired some Dance Instructors to dance with the folks there. It was quite unfortunate that some of them had bad hips or bad knees and could no longer dance but everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. We also had volunteers do some impromptu singing (yes, I was one of them). Food was served to everyone and once the program was over, we spent some time talking to the folks while Ginger and her relatives worked on printing the photos they took during the event (they brought a photo printer with them! I was impressed!) – that way we could leave actual (and not digital) photos with them to remind them of the wonderful day we had. It was awesome!

A couple of days later, I took my family to Tagaytay. We spent a night in Taal Vista – it was my first time to stay there and it was a really nice hotel with a great view of Taal Lake and Taal Volcano. We had lunch in Josephine’s before checking in to the hotel and immediately upon checking in, my nephews ask me to take them to the pool. I told them it was really cold but they insisted. They seemed to enjoy being in the really cold water but once they got out 20 minutes later, they were shivering like crazy. We turned in quite early that night and got up early the next day so that we could go to Taal Volcano. My grandparents just stayed at the Yacht Club to wait for us as we made our way to the volcano. We all went on horseback (and what was very interesting was that my nephew CJ had a 12 year old kid as his guide – can you imagine to pre-teen kids riding a horse all by themselves?) on our way up to the crater.

I had never seen in before and it was beautiful! Definitely worth a trip.

The boat ride back was actually a lot of fun as well because the lake was very choppy and we got splashed quite a bit LOL. We make a quick stop in Good Shepherd to buy ube and strawberry jam and stuff before making our way back to Manila.

And to wrap up the Christmas season, we celebrated CJ’s birthday with lunch in Mom and Tina’s before spending the rest of the afternoon in Ark Avilon Zoo and Fun Ranch in Tiendesitas. My brother had taken my nephews there before but I had never been. The great thing about this zoo is that it is interactive – kids can feed several of the animals there like rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, and fish. They also have some animals like Orang utans, snakes, and cockatoos that you can have a photo op with.

It was late afternoon when we got to Fun Ranch so my nephews just got on a couple of rides – the boats and the bump cars before we head home. We did make one quick stop in Eastwood to get CJ the Bakugan that he dropped into the drain a week before.

I was knackered by the time the holiday season was over actually – in fact, I must have averaged less sleep during those two weeks than I do during work days LOL. But I’m not complaining. It was definitely a great Christmas season.

"Star Wars" - An A Capella Tribute to John Williams

My friend Pia sent me a link to this video and it blew me away. Check it out. I think you will be equally impressed:


video uploaded in youtube by user 9JohnJace13

The video was created and performed by Corey Vidal. Not only is the video impressive in how the harmonies were created but Corey actually sings really well (and has a very wide range!). Another interesting thing about this video is that the tribute to Star Wars here are the lyrics and storyline of the song. He doesn't sing to the tune of the Star Wars theme at any time. Instead, he sings to the tune of movie themes which John Williams also composed (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Indiana Jones, E.T., and Jaws).

It was nominated for a CBS people's choice award for favorite youtube video (it didn't win though) and if you watch it, I think you will agree that it deserved the nomination.

Wrapping up the wedding season

So, wedding season for 2008-2009 is almost over (okay, that comment makes me sound like Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn from the Wedding Crashers LOL). I’ve been to three more weddings in the last month. I have one more wedding to attend (well, more like a wedding reception since Tricia and CJ have wed civilly already and they are just preparing a reception so they can celebrate as a couple with all their friends) but here's a quick recap of the ones that I attended in the last few weeks.

My friend Stelz got married to her husband Norman in San Agustin Church last December, a couple of days before Christmas. She had asked me and a couple of my ex-colleagues Mark and Rose to play some songs during the wedding ceremony (Mark played the guitar and Rose played the keyboards and did backing vocals as well). We performed “I offer my life” during the offertory, “Lead me, Lord” during communion, and four songs during the pictorial session: Kenny Lattimore’s “For you”, Martin Nievera’s “Never Say Goodbye”, Gary Valenciano’s version of “How did you know” and Edwin McCain’s “I’ll be”. I was also supposed to sing Gary V’s version of “I will be here” and Rose was supposed to sing “You” by the Carpenters but there wasn’t enough time. Here’s a video of me singing “I’ll Be”:



The reception was also held in Intramuros, just a block away from the church, and it was great because I got to see and catch up with a lot of other ex-colleagues, a lot of whom I haven’t seen in a long time.

And since good things come in threes, I headed back to San Agustin church a week and a half later to attend Maileen and Nick’s wedding. The church ceremony was at 2pm and there was a mini-reception in Barbara’s afterwards to keep people entertained before heading to the dinner reception in – get this – the Metropolitan Museum. It was the first time that I attended a wedding set in a museum and I thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea. My friends and I got there at 5pm and spent our time walking through the museum and being in awe of the amazing art there. But of course it wasn’t just the venue that made it memorable. The speeches were great, the wine was really good (and free-flowing!), and I got to catch up once again with old friends, including Maileen whom I haven’t really seen a lot of recently. It was cool that I got to dance with her as well during the reception because we used to be dancing partners in college during our Indakan days.

Finally, I attended the wedding of Kuki and MJ a couple of days ago in Fernbrook. It was my first star-studded wedding (Kuki and MJ have a lot of very good friends in showbiz). I won’t go into detail on who was there since Kuki and MJ might not appreciate the name dropping haha. But suffice it to say that my duet partner Shasha and I were not pleased by the fact that we had to sing almost immediately after a couple of very seasoned performers who both sang really well LOL. We sang “All I ask of you” from the Phantom of the Opera. In any case, we seemed to have pulled it off decently well and not embarrass ourselves in the presence of all those showbiz people haha. But at the end of the day, MJ and Kuki were happy with our song and that is really the most important thing.

This also means that I have now sung in 26 different weddings and wedding anniversaries. For a non-professional wedding singer, I’d say that’s a whole lot. I am now seriously considering talking to some wedding coordinators to see if they are in need of an extra wedding singer LOL. After all, with the current global financial crisis, I could do with the extra pocket money.

Game night

I think part of the idea for Game Night came from the fact that when Suzanne and Nenen came to Manila a month and a half ago, they distributed their Christmas gifts to us and most of us got Cranium games. When we had our Christmas party, we started talking about meeting up again in early January to have a game night, where we get to play the different games we got. That concept finally came to fruition yesterday when Pia, Che, Tim, and I paid a visit to Raffa and Joh's house.

We kicked the night off with "breakfast for dinner" - Joh and Raffa prepared a breakfast menu that consisted of pan de sal with kesong puti, bacon, daing na bangus, spam, chicken longganisa, and fried rice, and egg (I think I'm missing something). We had orange juice along with our dinner. And for dessert, we had chocolate chip pancakes and coffee. Not sure whose vision it was (Joh? Pia?) but in any case, it was an awesome dinner and we all ended up getting pretty stuffed.

Now that we had sufficient energy reserves to last us the entire night, we headed on to play the different games we had. We started off with a three-round American Idol game on Wii. Che and Tim had never played it before and Che really wanted to try it. It was a lot of fun and the judges comments provided a lot of entertainment, and in the end, Raffa took the title.

We moved on to Che's game - Whoonu. The objective of the game is to pick a card that you think describes the other players the most. I won't get into all the details of the game since I don't want to make this blog post too long LOL. Raffa won this game again, but I do have to say that my cards never seemed to be any good. (I know, excuses, excuses...)

We then moved on to Tim's game - Hoopla. I won't even attempt to explain how this game works as it is a lot more complex than Whoonu LOL but the objective here is that all players, as a team, have to make the other players guess the content of their cards using a variety of different techniques. You play against the time, and when you try to guess 32 cards in 15 minutes, it can get pretty intense. We actually lost the first time we played (we had 2 cards remaining when time ran out) but the next round we played we won.

Pia brought with her a "Princess Bride" game, which is kind of a strategic game. The goal is to get to the castle by using tactic cards to overcome your path cards. Joh, Tim, and I all ended up one move away from victory and it was essentially Pia's call on who would win - it would either be me or Joh as she had one block card which she could use on any other player. The winner of this game is, well, undefined, since Pia blocked Joh allowing me to win but Pia apparently got confused and didn't realize I was going to win as well (she thought I would just end up blocking Tim instead of stepping forward to the castle LOL). Doesn't really matter who the winner was though so I guess we can call it a Joh victory. :)

Our next game was mine - Humdinger. Probably the simplest game, you need to make your teammates guess the song written down on your card by humming it. We didn't know a lot of the songs, but it was pretty fun.

We closed out the night with Wii fit games, which ranged from skiing and snowboarding to football headers (I bust my gut laughing in this game!) to catching fish on an chunk of glacier. The most tiresome of all the games we tried though was the hula hoop game. I was actually sweating after my second attempt at it. If you play a few rounds of this game each day, I'm pretty sure you'd get a good cardio workout each time.

It was a really fun night for all of us. I'm guessing there will be a part 2 sometime soon.

Holding steady at the top

Halfway through the season and Liverpool still remain at the top of the English Premier League. This is great news! Apparently, the last time Liverpool were top of the league after Christmas (which was 1987), they went on to win the league. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the same thing happens this year. It won't be easy though. There's finally a bit of breathing room now between Liverpool and Chelsea - 3 points, if you can call that breathing room, but they used to be up by just a point. Man Utd are 7 points adrift in 3rd place, but they have two games in hand. If they win both those matches, they end up just one point. In any case, it should be a very interesting season.

And while we're on the subject of sports, Rafa Nadal just bludgeoned his way past Fabrice Santoro 6-0, 6-1 to get to the Round of 16 in the Exxonmobil Open in Doha, his first tournament of the year. This is an excellent start to the year for Nadal, and hopefully he can keep this kind of form the rest of the tournament and open 2009 with a title.

I also recently caught the 2008 New York marathon on cable and I was very pleased to see that Paula Radcliffe won her 3rd New York Marathon. I find it quite unfortunate that she is the world record holder in the women's marathon with a time of 2:15:25 (that is less than half the amount of time it took me to run my fastest marathon ever LOL) and yet hasn't won an Olympic gold. It would be great though if she finally breaks through and wins top honors in London 2012.