A Visit to Fort Santiago in Intramuros

My mom had been wanting to try La Cocina De Tita Moning for some time so when we realized that my lola had never been to Fort Santiago in Intramuros, my mom decided that the family take a trip to Old Manila so we could hit two birds with one stone. We decided to go last Feb 14, which made for a great Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year celebration. This is the first of two blog posts about this day, and it will be about our visit to Fort Santiago.

Intramuros, or The Walled City, was built by the Spaniards in the 16th century. It's one of the few places left in Manila that still showcases old Spanish architecture, great churches (Manila Cathedral and San Agustin Church), and cobblestone streets.

Fort Santiago was our main destination. This was where Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, was imprisoned before his execution on December 30, 1896.

entrance to Fort Santiago

The many brick ruins within The Fort are a reminder of the damage sustained during the Battle of Manila in February 1945.


As such, the main point of interest in this historical landmark is the Rizal Shrine, a modern museum that houses a lot of Rizal memorabilia, including copies of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo published more than a century ago.

an old copy of 'Noli Me Tangere'

an old copy of 'El Filibusterismo'

The final walk of Rizal (leading to his execution by firing squad) shows the path that our National Hero took from his cell to the location of his execution by firing squad.


We closed out our afternoon with a calesa ride.


Fort Santiago closes at 6pm, so since our dinner reservation was at 730pm, we still had time to hear mass in Manila Cathedral. This was another great experience as it was the first time that I heard mass here that wasn't a wedding.

Next post: a grand dinner in La Cocina De Tita Moning.

The month that was

It's only the second month into the year but February has been hectic. But in a really good way.

First, I spent a lot of quality time with my family. Just this weekend, we celebrated my brother's birthday. Me, my mom, two nephews, grandparents, and brother of course headed to Shang mall to have a late afternoon snack (and coffee) in Figaro. My lola wanted to watch 'Miss you like crazy' so my lolo and my brother accompanied her while the rest of us heard mass. My mom then went off to buy groceries while I took my nephews to Quantum, the arcade. We spent a lot of time in bowling game but it was in this other game - you drop a ball to a rotating disc and you win tickets based on the hole where it goes into - where my nephews were really lucky. They won more than 200 tickets in this game!

A couple of weeks before that (Valentine's day and Chinese New Year, actually), we went to Intramuros because my lola has apparently never been there before. We heard mass in Manila Cathedral - the first time I heard mass there that wasn't a wedding - before having dinner in La Cocina de Tita Moning. This was a really great day, and I figure I should dedicate a full blog post to this (maybe in a couple of days...)

I also spent a lot of quality time with my friends. Anna came home from SG for about a week and a half - she started her new job last week so we decided to have dinner with Joyce, Iona, JP and Aya (too bad Mitch was out of the country, I may have to organize another dinner get-together in the next few weeks). Just a few days before that, Joyce, Anna and I met up in Old Swiss Inn with Francis, who I haven't seen in almost a decade so it was great catching up. And a couple of days before that, Joyce, Anna, and I also met up in Powerplant to watch 'Valentine's Day'. I watched 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief' with Walter and Tim in The Block in SM North Edsa because Tim had free movie tickets in SM cinemas. And finally, Raffa and Che had an advanced birthday celebration in Eat Well in Net Quad, along with Joh, Hannah, Peegee, Randee, and Chris (Me-Ann made a special guest appearance since she had an event that same night with her big bosses).

Feb also proved to be a very musical month. Aside from a couple of trips to Music Match with my videoke-addict friends lol, our band org at work had a harana event on Feb 12 (as a pre-Valentine's day gimmick). I sang a few different songs: "Forever" by Chris Brown in the style of Boyce Avenue, "Collide" by Howie Day, "Can't fight this feeling" by REO Speedwagon in the style of the Glee Cast, "Someone to love you" by Ruff Endz, "Let's stay together" by Al Green, and "Fly me to the moon". (This was really cool because I sang all but Collide and Fly me to the moon for the first time).

And to wrap things up, there was a lot of partying and clubbing. A couple of trips to Pier One and Encore (formerly known as Embassy), plus a visit to Distillery, Tiananmen, and Hai Bar made sure I had more than my fair share of alcohol lol.

If March is anything like Feb, then I can't wait. :)

A couple of trips to the cinema

I missed a lot of movies this year already - Sherlock Homes, Legion, The Blind Side, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, The Princess and the Frog, among others. So when some of my friends invited me to watch a movie with them, I decided to go.

So my first official trip to the cinema in 2010 was to watch Valentine's Day. With a star-studded cast, I was expecting this to be something like "Love Actually". As it turns out, the film fell bit flat. I just didn't connect with almost all the characters and could have cared less how their love lives turned out.

I also saw Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief last weekend. I didn't know what it was about prior to watching it so I had no expectations. And I do have to say that the movie opened with a lot of potential. With a couple of pretty intense scenes early on, I started to look forward to what was going to happen. But a quarter of the way into the movie, it kinda turned into a teen chick flick that sorta lost direction and ended with a significant lack of oomph.

Not sure what film I'll get to see next. In any case I hope it's better than my first two of 2010.

Hope For Haiti: 'Hallelujah'

Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris perform the Leonard Cohen Classic "Hallelujah" during the 'Hope For Haiti' Telethon to raise money for Earthquake victims in Haiti.


Video uploaded in youtube by user HopeForHaiti

Haiti earthquake victims still need our help:

www.hopeforhaiti.com
www.helphaitinow.org
www.hopeforhaitinow.org

16. And counting.

The nominations for this year's Oscar awards were released early last week and once again, Meryl Streep nabs a best actress nomination for her amazing performance in Julie & Julia. Of course, the buzz generated by "The Blind Side" and the fact that Sandra Bullock is Hollywood's darling this year virtually ensures that Meryl won't win a third Oscar (second for best actress). But her record for most nominations gets even more massive, given that she held the record with her 13th nomination and has now gone three better. If she keeps at it, she may just end her career with more than 20 nominations! (And hopefully, a couple more trophies. I mean seriously, she has to win another Oscar some time soon!)

The interesting thing about the Oscars this year is that 10 films were nominated for Best Picture. Apparently, there used to be 10 best picture nominees back in the day. This means that aside from the expected nominees like 'Avatar' and the 'Hurt Locker', a few other good (if not great) films of 2009 also made the cut, including 'Up' and 'District 9'. 'Up' is only the second animated film in history to be nominated for a best picture award (the first was 'Beauty and the Beast'). It's also nominated for 'Best Animated Film' so I'd be majorly shocked if it doesn't win that award.

The Killers cancel their Asian tour

So today should have been about me watching The Killers live in MOA. Instead, I learned about this unfortunate bit of news:


I waited for this concert for about 2 months and got my tickets in early December, so I was really disappointed to find out that The Killers had to cancel their tour. To add insult to injury, I need to go the Ticketnet main office in Araneta Coliseum between 1 and 8pm to get my refund. Such a frickin' hassle.

I don't know if (or when) they plan to come to Manila again. I just hope that if and when they do come back to perform, I'll still be able to see them play.

The week that was

Fun. Busy. Interesting. That's how the last week was. Or, well, the last week and a couple of days...

I went to a Karaoke bar with friends. Twice. Should've been three times because my friend Joyce organized a get-together in Red Box last Tuesday. But I worked long hours that day and by the time I got off work, I was exhausted and begged off. I did, however, go to Music Match twice. The first time with colleagues two Friday ago and the second time with non-work friends just last night. I remember how I had a lot of throat-related problems towards the tail-end of last year so it's great that I am now once again able to sing for three to four hours straight.

I also headed down South last Saturday to attend the 1st birthday party of Annika, the daughter of my friends Hes and Migs. And I have to say, it has to be the biggest 1st birthday party I have ever attended. From the food to the decor to the booths (for stuff like photo-taking and cotton candy) to the giveaways for both kids and adults, it was really hard to top that party! I was also called on stage by the magician and I have to say that I was impressed when he managed to take my wristwatch from me during his trick. Makes you a but worried though at how good sleigh-of-hand experts can be if they wanted to pick your pocket!

I also went to the baptism of my inaanak Ethan earlier today. Ethan is the second son of my cousin Peachy. It sas a slight disaster though in that I was late by about 15 minutes and by the time I got there, the actual christening had already been done. What's even worse was that all the ninongs were late! But Peachy was very understanding though and was just happy we all made it eventually. It was nice catching up with my relatives too, a lot of whom I only get to see once or twice a year during family reunions.

Apart from this, it's been a huge amount of work. I got thrust into a pretty important project to take over someone who had to be moved to another project. And a couple of my other initiatives continue to require a lot of work. But it's all good. This week was busy but definitely one of the most productive and successful weeks I've had in a long time. Hopefully I keep getting weeks like this. :)

MJ's choreographer and dancers with our very own the Cebu inmates

The Cebu inmates have really made an impact in the world as they are joined by Michael Jackson's long-time choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid to learn performances from Michael Jackson's 'This is it'.


video made available in youtube by SonyPicturesDVD

Not shaping up the way I wanted it to

The Australian Open started last week and in what, for me, is the most unfortunate result so far, defending champion Rafael Nadal is forced to withdraw due to injury in his quarterfinal match against Andy Murray.

This is bad news (at least to us Nadal fans lol). Rafa was unable to defend his lone Grand Slam title last year and will lose a whole lot of points. It's also been a very long 8 months since he won his last title. His confidence can't be that good after losing 6 times to top 10 players in the last 2 months (prior to December, he had the best H2H record against top 10 players in 2009). And if he's injured this early in the season, it's not a good sign for how things will shape up the rest of the year.

He did put up a good fight against Murray in the first two sets before having to retire though, so there are good signs that he will do well once the ATP tour hits the clay court season. He does have a lot of points to defend between now and May so hopefully he finds his 2008 form sooner rather than later.

Random stuff

So this bit of news is almost a week old, but congratulations to Meryl Streep for winning her 7th Golden Globe award. Her portrayal of Julia Child in the film 'Julie and Julia' got her another trophy for best actress in a comedy or musical. So she now holds the record for the most Golden Globe wins AND nominations. She's also nominated in the Screen Actors Guild awards. Here's hoping she wins that and gets nominated for a 16th Oscar.

*****

Major bummer. This is the single most horrible season of Liverpool since I became a fan more than 8 years ago. No chance for them to win any title this year, and it's only January. They are currently 6th in the Barclays Premier League (although 5th place Man City and 7th place Aston Villa both have a game-in-hand) so they have to fight really hard to get a top 4 finish and secure a spot in the Champions League next season. Really hope they start doing better...

*****

American Idol 9 has started. I can remember how I used to rush home on Wed and Thu nights to make sure I caught it on Starworld. Somehow I've lost a large amount of interest in it, despite the fact that a lot of talent has come out of the last few seasons. It took a while for me to figure out why but I realized that I got turned off due to the fact that now, the judges have a habit of excessively 'pimping' their favorite contestants.

It didn't use to be like that. Or at least not to the degree that it's been done the last 2-3 seasons. It must be the Taylor Hicks effect. Coz in Season 5 and in all seasons before it, there was a lot of favorite-pimping going on but good praise was shared as well to other contestants a lot of the time, and favorites were also criticized when they didn't meet expectations. Now in S5, Taylor was the hands-down winner even if the show really wanted either Christ Daughtry of Katharine McPhee to win. As it turns out, Taylor never really broke into the mainstream and is the first Idol winner not to have sold more than a million albums. After that, the powers that be must have figured that by pimping their favorite contestants, they make sure that someone who they feel is hip and current and can sell lots of records ends up winning.

The problem with this is that now, when the favorites turn in a sub-par performance, they still get praised to the high heavens while other contestants who do incredibly well get a cursory nod. I was getting so annoyed so often that I realized I didn't really want to watch it as often anymore. If I'm home and it's on, I tune in. But it's definitely not in my list of fave shows. And with Simon leaving next season, I'll probably start tuning in even less.

Al Jarreau sings 'Take Five'

Check out this unbelievable live performance of 'Take Five' by jazz legend Al Jarreau.


video uploaded in youtube by user tomgadd

So many things to be utterly impressed with in this performance: from the injections of scatting in the opening spiel, to how the song begins, to Al Jarreau's incredible breath control, phrasing and creativity/inventiveness, to the absolute mad skills of the band.

This is such a difficult song to sing as it requires superior control and as if not satisfied with that, Al increases the degree of difficulty with his scatting. I mean, rather than take a breath during what could be instrumental bits, he scats non-stop. Most people would be out of breath after a minute of doing what he does but he sustains it for more than 6 minutes.

Also, a lot o f times he'd sings at a fairly high key then he'd drop his voice to a really low note then jump seamlessly back up to the higher register (pay attention to the parts from 3:48 to 3:53 and from 4:32 to 4:36). To do this and remain pitch-perfect as Al does is not easy by any means (try it yourself and see). In fact, Al is pitch-perfect throughout the entire song. Geez!

A spectacular performance from a true jazz legend. Doesn't really get much better than this.

Happy new year!

A week and a half into the new year and I finally get around to making my first post. :) So before we get any deeper into the new year, let me do a recap of 2009 and all the great and interesting things that happened. Some of favorite moments:

My 6th marathon for charity
With some after-the-fact donations, I ended up raising more than P80,000! Looking forward to #7 this year. :)

Christmas with family and friends
I took my family to Subic to visit Zoobic, take photos around the waterfront, go shopping in the duty free stores, and hit the pool in our resort. I also had two family reunions, two family meals, and a whole lot of get-togethers with my friends. It was exhausting and I gained weight, but you can't beat quality (and quantity) time with the people you love!

Still Oz's 5-month stint in Ponti
Our last regular gig was in Bistro 110 back in end-2006, so to play for 5 months (our longest continuous weekly gig in one place) was amazing. We also have two new band members: Vince on lead guitar and Ria on violin. We also added some great songs to our playlist. Some of my favorites from our new songs include:

• "The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice,
• "Run" by Snow Patrol,
• "Shattered" by O.A.R.,
• "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, and
  
• "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers
  

Corporate Social Responsibility at work
I continued to head our Corporate Social responsibility organization at work. In the last year, among other things, we organized (1) a habitat for humanity build, (2) a run-for-charity that involved almost 100 runners who raised P150,000 for the benefit of Haribon and Kythe, (3) relief for Typhoon Ondoy victims, and (4) an orphan event for Christmas. We also made donations to GILAS, Habitat for Humanity, Golden Acres, and Typhoon Kiko victims.

Gigging at work
I also became the head of our band org at work. Towards the end of the year, we had two really cool gigs during corporate events that were well-received by the audience. I got to perform some DMB songs for the first time and I also got to perform "Closer" by Ne-yo. Awesome!

Watching a Formula 1 Grand Prix live
You can check about my trip in this blog post.

Some really cool firsts this year:

• Joined a tree-planting activity for the first time (one of my friends celebrated her birthday with a tree-planting activity)
  
• Went to Bangkok for the first time on holiday (I had been to Bangkok before, but for work)
• Visited Koh Samui in Thailand for the first time (I also drove and crashed a scooter)
• Had my photo taken with a real live tiger in Zoobic
• Visited Chinatown, at least as an adult, and went on a food trip (I may have been there before as a kid, but I can't really remember).
  

I also got to see concerts or live shows of the following artists for the first time:

• Oasis (and just in time as they have now disbanded!)
  
• Kaiser Chiefs
• Travis
• Underworld
  
• Cynthia Alexander
• The Backstreet Boys (yeah lol, they had a concert in F1 grounds during F1 weekend)
  

So all in all, another fantastic year. I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store. :)

"Let the drummer kick" by Citizen Cope

Here's a pretty cool song I discovered while watching some clips of "So you think you can dance" (SYTYCD) on youtube (specifically, this video of all Jeanine Mason's solos; Jeanine won SYTYCD season 5). The song is called "Let the drummer kick" by Citizen Cope.



video uploaded in youtube by user arturitis

I thought the song was pretty interesting so I got some of the lyrics, searched and found it online, and began listening to it. Apparently it is part of the OST of the film "Coach Carter". The song is really cool, and this video is pretty well done too. Some pretty slick editing! So I thought it might be worth sharing.

The Killers are coming!!

A week and a half ago, my friend Yam gave me a heads up that The Killers would be pre-selling tickets to their January 31 concert in Manila. The Killers are in my to-watch-live list so I was ecstatic to find out that they were having a concert here. Naturally, I went to the online ticket reservation site to reserve tickets.

I didn't know when I could expect a reply, but last Thursday, I got an email saying my tickets were ready, but would be held only for a day (a day!). So I head to customer service in SM Megamall on Friday, and now I have my pass to see one of my favorite bands perform live! Woo-hoo!! It's still about two months away but I get excited every time I think about it LOL.

Check out the official website of The Killers for more info on their concert in Manila and in other cities in Asia and Australia.

Ugh, sick!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore. December is always the busiest time of the year. One Christmas party or get-together or event after another. And with me somehow being in the thick of things all the time, I tend to spread myself too thin. I wouldn't have it any other way though, and most of the time I just get tired and get easily get back on track with a good massage.

But somehow, I seemed to have stressed myself out a tad bit more than usual in the last month. I had a bad bout of tonsillitis about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and it kept me on antibiotics (and away from alcohol LOL) for 2 weeks. It cleared up about a week and a half ago, but then last weekend, I got up to find my throat hurting more than it did when my tonsillitis first broke.

So I head to my doctor and it turns out my tonsillitis has pretty much cleared up but now, I apparently have acute pharyngolaryngitis. The doctor told me to go on complete voice rest i.e. no talking even! I also have to stay away from caffeine, spicy and sweet food, alcohol, and even fruits and fruit juices. Which now means I have (1) barely talked the last 3 days, (2) drunk only water in the last two days, and (3) not eaten anything sweet also in the last two days.

So far, so good. My throat hurts much less today than yesterday, and it doesn't hurt to swallow anymore. Hopefully I get my voice back by Thursday. It's such a downer being unable to talk to people and have dessert and coffee. :)

The end of the world

I recently watched 2012. I heard from practically everyone else who watched it that's it's awesome. Best disaster movie ever, they said. So why is it that I left the cinema feeling shortchanged? LOL

(Spoiler alert! Stop reading if you don't want to know details of the movie)

Actually, I do have one other friend who watched it and didn't like it that much either. I wouldn't say it's a bad film though, I'd still recommend people to watch it. The effects are obviously fantastic and the action is pretty edge-of-your-seat for most of the film. And any apocalyptic disaster movie will always invoke feelings of courage and triumph.

But there are too many components in the film that I took away from my enjoyment of the film. First, there was just too much "impossibility". As with most movies, suspension of disbelief is required. But in 2012, I found myself thinking that the lead characters had way too many lives. A stretch limo maintaining top speed even as it drives over one massive crack on the road after another, a beginner pilot successfully able to navigate two planes through the most difficult of conditions, an ark filling up with water successfully able to escape certain destruction, the lead character being under water for a long time after hitting his head and still making it out alive. I dunno, it just felt too over the top for me.

Then, it was too convenient. Here you had John Cusack and Amanda Peet being a divorced couple, with Amanda in what was portrayed to be a very good relationship with her new guy, Thomas McCarthy. Even her son thinks the world of her new partner. Naturally, John being the lead character in the film has to end up with Amanda. But with Thomas being a good guy, it would be awful for Amanda and John to end up together. So obviously the film kills off Thomas's character and naturally the two lead characters pair up again in the end. Of course, everyone else who died were people who were not as important, or people who were painted as evil. How amazingly lucky that every lead character goes through the toughest of circumstances and makes it alive. Too convenient!

And finally, the choices made in the film. You had an ark filled with thousands of people who were surely safe. You had thousands of people stranded outside the ark who would surely die (their ark was damaged and couldn't be used). Then they had 15 minutes left before a massive tsunami would hit them. Of course, they call it cruel to leave all those stranded people to their certain death. So with 15 minutes left, they open the doors to save the stranded people, and with some twist, the ark doors won't close and so the tsumami floods the ark. They manage to save the ark in the end, with seconds left before total destruction, so obviously it can be argued that the decision they made was correct. But in real life, if I was in a position of authority in that ark, with 15 minutes left before the tsunami would hit, I probably wouldn't open the doors anymore. If I wanted to open the doors, I would do it 1 hour, or even half an hour, before. They knew early on that one ark was broken, they should've decided then to split the people across different arks. Oh wait, it wouldn't be as exciting in the movie if they did that.

So yeah, great effects, lots of excitement, but not my favorite disaster film. But compared to other films I've seen this year, I'd pick a lot of other ones over this.

Allison from SYTYCD Season 2

My favorite contestant from all seasons of "So you think you can dance" is Allison Holker from Season 2. She was touted as a contender for the title, but was surprisingly eliminated during Top 8 week.

And so it's not surprising that one of my favorite solos in the show is this performance she does in Top 14 week.


video uploaded in youtube by user namnambaby

This number clearly demonstrates Allison's fluidity and athleticism (especially in that incredible sequence of movements she does from 0:15 to 0:24, awesome!!) and the fact that she showcases her athleticism so effortlessly makes her talent even more impressive.

How she didn't make it further than she did is beyond me. I personally feel she was robbed of at least a finale appearance if not the overall title. She apparently performed as a dancer in both High School Musical and High School Musical 2, and she is only 21 years old so I do hope she ends up with an amazing career in dance.

Congratulations, Manny Pacquiao!!!

It's his 7th different world title on his 7th weight class. Manny Pacquiao just made history with his amazing victory over Miguel Cotto, cementing his status as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

photo from the official Manny Pacquiao website

Congratulations, Manny! You have made Filipinos all over the world very proud. :)

Something old, something new

Last Saturday, my high school friends (Iona, Joyce, and Mitch and their significant others) and I decided to celebrate Iona's birthday by having dinner in Trellis in Kalayaan. It was actually Mitch who decided on the venue, saying she was craving for sisig and lechon kawali. I honestly don't recall the last time I was there but it must've been about a decade ago. Man how time flies!!

So over dinner, Iona asked us if we have tried eating in Adarna, a restaurant also along Kalayaan. I told her that I hadn't eaten there yet but that I saw it while trying to find parking. She said the food is gourmet Filipino food and that we should try eating there someday. I suggested that maybe after dinner we could have dessert there. I recently re-discovered hot chocolate - the Pinoy/Spanish kind, and not the milk chocolate-y type - so I was in the mood for some hot chocolate. Everyone seemed keen on the idea so once we polished off the last bits of mango KBS, grilled pusit and sinigang na baboy, we headed to Adarna.

The restaurant is decorated as if it were an old Spanish-Filipino house, with different dining areas in the different rooms. We sat in what seemed like the living area, and while it wasn't air-conditioned, it has these large ceiling fans that allowed us to keep cool. We ordered a few dessert items and while most of them got kape barako, I decided to get my hot chocolate (and man, it was very very good!). Even the china they used was really quaint (and we noticed that men and women were served different cups and saucers). We hung out there for a while before calling it a night. I would certainly want to go here again and have a full meal instead of just dessert.

Cynthia Alexander

So I've been hearing about Cynthia Alexander - and how incredible an artist she is from so many of my friends - for years. But for some unexplained reason, I never got around to watching her perform or listening to her music.

And so when my friend Lala invited me to watch Cynthia's gig in Conspiracy on Halloween night, I immediately agreed. And then I realized what a shame that I discovered her music and talent only a week ago. This woman is truly an amazing artist and I instantly became a fan!

She closed her show with this song entitled "Comfort in your strangeness". (This video wasn't taken from the gig I watched but it was taken in the same venue where Cynthia performs every so often).



video uploaded in youtube by user iRaRosales

Lala tells me this is like the 'National Anthem' of Cynthia country and I can understand why. It's probably my favorite of all the songs she performed that night. But all the songs she played are incredible, and my goal now is to get all four of Cynthia's albums soon. I am also looking forward to watching her next gig, and a lot more gigs after that.

Finding my way to the cinema

It wasn't quite a New Year's resolution but this year, I made a decision to watch more movies in the cinema than I have in the past. So far, so good. I've managed to make my way to movie theaters a lot this year, and the last few weeks are no exception. Movies seen: 'Julie & Julia', 'G-Force', '(500) Days of Summer', and 'Astroboy'. I also managed to finally watch 'A very long engagement' on DVD. I got the DVD a long time ago, but as I knew it was a heavy film, I never really got around to watching it up until last long weekend. It was a bit difficult to follow as there were many characters whose faces were muddied up a lot and were hard to recognize. Plus, there were some unfamiliar names that made it more difficult to attach the name and the face. But it is a great story, with excellent acting and amazing camera work and cinematography. Definitely worth a watch.

Every other movie I watched in the cinema recently were fairly light. I absolutely loved '(500) Days of Summer'. Definitely a story about love, but not a love story, I really did how the story was told - moving back and forth across 500 days - and I also thought the script was very well written. I also really loved 'Julie & Julia'. How could I not? It featured Meryl Streep once again putting in an incredible performance. It also brought together Meryl and Amy Adams again (with their other big film together being 'Doubt'), although they actually had no scenes together in this one. Will Meryl be nominated again? Maybe not for an Oscar, but maybe for a Golden Globe.

The other two movies I watched were more for kids. I just had to watch 'Astroboy' because I was a fan of the animated series back in the day, watching it on channel 9. It was definitely entertaining, but of course there were some weird concepts in it, like on how Astroboy was created. But apart from that, it's some cool animation and good fun. 'G-Force' was also a lot of fun, and the story was surprisingly good, with a pretty cool twist in the end.

I might catch Michael Jackson's "This is it" on the weekend. My nephews have indicated they want to watch it and I've heard it's worth a watch so let's see.

F1 weekend in Singapore

So a month ago, I flew to Singapore to watch SG Formula 1 Grand Prix. It was my first time to watch a race live, and the fact that it was a road race at night made it even more interesting to watch.


The atmosphere in SG was electric, what with a lot of parties and concerts. I was hoping to catch the F1 Rocks concert in Fort Canning Park with Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas on Saturday night but it was sold out. I did, however, get to see a few other shows. Travis performed in F1 grounds on Saturday night so I watched them instead. On Sunday night, I saw the Backstreet Boys perform about 5 songs before I left. And on my first night in SG, my friend Tim took me to an Underworld party in Suntec City.

The main attraction of course was F1. Two things you can't really pick up when you watch on TV are just how fast these cars go, and exactly how loud they are! When you enter F1 grounds, there are booths that sell an F1 survival kit which includes a poncho (in case it rains) and ear plugs. I decided not to get ear plugs so I could experience the race fully, and man oh man was it deafening!! I took a video of the cars once the race started, and while the sound volume doesn't quite translate, the blurry images of the cars as they whiz by indicate the incredible speed at which these vehicles are moving.

I was of course rooting for Jenson Button and Brawn GP to do well, and while neither JB nor Rubens Barrichello had a podium finish, both of them scored points. It was the other British driver, Lewis Hamilton, who took the trophy.


Of course, despite the busy race schedule, I still managed to meet up with my friends and do some shopping. On Saturday, I had lunch with Che, Marc, Gi and Pau with their son Gabe.


On Monday, I had lunch with Sarah in Raffles City. Then I bought a 500Gb external HD, a 4Gb thumb drive, and a card reader in Funan. Then I joined Ben mid-afternoon near Far East Square as he had a very late lunch while I just had a Coke Zero before heading to Plaza Singapura to have coffee with Jed. I ended the night having dinner then coffee with Denise, Yong Han, and Sandy in Dempsey Hill. Before heading back to Manila on Tuesday, I made my way to Novena to have breakfast with Kog.

So another awesome weekend made even more fun by friends. The downside is that I am now really short on funds, what with a couple of international trips in the last few months LOL. I definitely won't be spending any money on travel in the next few months! :)

Sand Animation in Ukraine's Got Talent

My friend Kathy shared this link to me and I thought it was amazing and powerful. Check it out:


video uploaded in youtube by user anarchistica

The woman doing the sand animation, Kseniya Simonova, won Ukraine's Got Talent with this performance that moved people in to tears. According to the video information, it is meant to interpret the invasion and occupation of Ukraine from 1941 to 1945. The scenes she chose to create, the way she went from one image to the next, the music that played in the background, and her own performance skills, make this truly incredible.

I would never have thought that sand animation would make its way into any talent show, but after seeing this I am definitely not surprised she won.

The Beach Life in Koh Samui

So this blog post is almost 3 months overdue but I promised myself I'd write about my trip to Koh Samui in Thailand last August so here I am.


This was my first visit to Koh Samui, and also my first trip to the beach this year. The purpose of this vacation was to chill out and unwind. So I stayed in a pretty upscale hotel (still in credit card debt coz of it LOL) and managed to get a great room with a good view...


So it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that I spent a lot of time hanging out by the pool of my hotel (there were two pools, the main one and this lap pool which had less people and was more relaxing to hang about in)...


...or playing pool. I am, and have always been, a lousy pool player but I realized that with practice, I could actually be quite decent. After several hours on the pool table, I actually managed to make several tough shots like balls against the rail or even bank shots!

I did visit the Na Muang falls where some scenes in "The Beach" (starring Leonardo Di Caprio) were shot...


And of course a lot of time was spent on the beach during the day...


...or in bars by the beach at night.


My friends and I made an attempt to go to the Full Moon Party on Koh Phanang on August 6. The Full Moon Party is apparently a massive party with thousands of people partying on the beach from late night until early the next morning. I was hesitant to go because I didn't feel I had the energy for an entire night (and morning) of partying, but my friends convinced my go. Worth the experience, they said. As luck would have it, there were major boat issues in the marina. We waited a few hours but the "mob" waiting for boats was still massive...


So we decided to throw in the towel and just find some bar on the island that was open where we could create our own night of debauchery.Before I wrap-up my blog post about my Samui trip, I have to mention the incredible Samui airport. It's probably the coolest airport I've ever seen! It has a very island-y charm...


And it does have some cafes, restos, and shops where you can hang out in while waiting for your flight.


So all in all, another awesome holiday. I have had one more big trip after that (I'll blog about that some time soon...) but I probably won't travel anytime soon. Time for me to start saving money again!

I'm back!

Wow, no posts in my blog for a month. But I've been so busy the last few months! A lot going on at work - both in terms of real work and 'extra-curricular' stuff, a lot of dinners, gimmicks, and parties with different sets of friends, a couple of holidays, and a whole lot of work on Ondoy relief.

Things have sorta stabilized now so hopefully I can work on keeping my blog fairly up to date again. In the meantime, let me leave you first with a really touching Pantene advertisement from Thailand that has gone a bit viral. It's a bit over-dramatic but I like how a beauty product has not taken the vanity route in its advertising. Plus, it's one of the best versions of Pachelbel's Canon I've heard.


video uploaded in youtube by user s4ur4bh

"Battlefield' by Ryan Tedder

Here's the demo version of "Battlefield" that Ryan Tedder (lead vocalist of One Republic) wrote and was released by Jordin Sparks. I've been listening to this over and over again on youtube since I discovered it.


video uploaded in youtube by user brandon02012

I'm familiar with the Jordin Sparks version and thought it was just okay. Hearing this version turned me into a fan of the song though. I guess when I found it was written by Ryan Tedder, my current favorite song writer, I appreciated "Battlefield" a whole lot more.

Long weekend part 2

It's still not over, but after my fairly hectic long weekend last week, I decided to take things a bit more slowly this weekend. Yesterday, I went to Glorietta to window shop. I needed some new clothes and I also wanted to see what belated birthday gift I could get my mom. Still haven't figured out what to get LOL so it seems my present to my mom will get even more belated. The rest of the day, I spent cleaning up my pad. I just had general cleaning done, but I had whole heaps of stuff that needed to be organized, so I loaded three DVDs - Outbreak, The Matrix, and The Wedding Crashers - and watched them while I cleaned up. I also spent a bit of time in the gym. For some reason, I had some pain in my knee - maybe from too much driving? - so instead of hitting the treadmill, I just used the elliptical machine.

Today my family celebrated in advance the birthday of my nephew Ciera. Last week, when we watched 'Up', he kept saying he wanted to watch the movie "Shorts", but today he changed his mind and instead wanted to go to an arcade. My family and I first head over to Greenhills to have lunch in Racks. The plan then was for us to head to Greenbelt after, and I'd take my nephews to the arcade in Glorietta while my mom took my grandparents shopping in Greenbelt. We decided to swing by Powerplant first coz my mom wanted to show my grandparents the Cory photograph tribute there. As it turns out, we ended up just hanging out in Powerplant the entire time. My nephews were keen on playing in the arcade, but they wanted to get new toys in Kidz Station first. Afterwards, their interest was fully on the new toys so they were ready to head home.

Thankfully, the long weekend is still not over as I have another day to rest tomorrow. I'll probably spend a few minutes tonight sorting out my expenses to figure out what items I saw during my window shopping I can afford LOL and head back to Greenhills.

A whole lotta sports

The premiership season has started and it sucks that Liverpool lost their opening match against Tottenham, 1-2. Thankfully they beat Stoke City 4-0 last week. If they beat Aston Villa later, the win will put them 3rd (although both Arsenal and Man City have a game in hand).

Most surprising news so far: recently promoted Burnley has actually notched a couple of massive wins, one against Man Utd and another one against Everton! Woo-hoo!

The suckiest bit of news though is that Michael Owen - who remains one of my favorite players despite all his injuries and the fact that he is past his prime - is now playing for Man Utd. Ugh! It really sucks coz I still want Owen to do well and score goals, but not for Man U! If he dare scores a goal against Liverpool when they play Man U, I will be pissed...

*****

Rubens Barrichello finally finishes top of the podium in F1 this season by winning the European GP. Lewis Hamilton could have two wins in a row if not for McLaren messing up in his pitstop. Jenson Button, after starting the season supremely, has lost the plot in the last 4 races, although his 7th place finish gives him a couple more points as he sits atop with an 18 point lead over Barrichello, who leapfrogs the Red Bull drivers to 2nd place. With Webber finishing 9th and Vettel unable to complete the race, Brawn GP reassert their position atop the Constructors championship.

*****

Federer is now the heavy favorite to win the US Open and bag his 16th Grand Slam title. Andy Murray, who is now ranked #2, dislodging Rafa Nadal, was a frontrunner after winning the Rogers Cup. But Federer won Cincinnati, snapping a 4-match losing streak to Andy Murray in the semifinals and a 2-match losing streak to Noval Djokovic in the final. With Nadal currently in below-average form due to his recent knee problems, there doesn't seem to be anyone in Roger's way. Makes me wonder now if he will end up winning more Slams than Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, who both have 18.

Kim Clijsters has also put herself back on the tennis map by coming out of retirement to challenge the current crop of top women. In only two tournaments, she has beaten the following players: Marian Bartoli (#13), Patty Schnyder (#20), Svetlana Kuznetsova (#6), and Victoria Azarenka (#9). Her two losses have come against #1 Dinara Safina and #5 Jelena Jankovic. The question now is whether she can remain consistent, but if her first two tournaments are any indication, she looks to be on her way back into the top 10 or even top 5.

Thank God for long weekends!

Well for my few readers out there, you probably correctly guess that I am very busy when my blog remains unupdated (is that a word? lol) for a couple of weeks. But just to let you know, this blog is still alive. I've got a bit of catching up to do in this blog, so let's start talking about this long weekend.

Long weekends traditionally mean more rest but in my case I think I exhausted myself a whole lot more than I do in normal weekends. It stared out with Joyce's belated birthday lunch on Friday in Bellini's with the entire gang (or at least those of us in Manila) + families. It was my first time to eat there, and my first time to have lunch in Cubao in a long time so it was pretty cool.

Later that night I headed to my friend Marie's belated birthday party, which was a joint party with her sister. The coolest thing about this party was that they got Oven Toaster, the band that plays in Rockeoke nights in Mag:Net, to play a couple of sets in their party and they even got an official go-signal from Mag:Net to use "Rockeoke" to advertise their party. And since Marie is from a family of singers and most of her friends are incredible singers too, the party turned into an awesome music-fest. I got my 15 (or, well, 5) minutes of fame doing #41 by Dave Matthews Band. I just wonder how Marie is gonna top that in her birthday celebration next year LOL.

And from one musical birthday party to another, on Saturday night, I went over to Jason's house for his own rock party. He had a full band setup in his garage, and throughout the night, he had several sets of friends play music. Jason requested me to perform one song, and since someone before me did Mr. Brightside, I ended up singing Coldplay's Viva La Vida.

Before that party though, I was supposed to watch 'Up' with my family. My plan was to take my mom and nephews to watch it in Greenbelt 3 because they were showing 'Up' on 3D there, but when we got there in the late afternoon, the only available seats were for 9:40pm, which was a bit too late for me. So we ended just getting tickets for the next day, which was today, and it was a really good movie, as I expected. The montage they have in the first few minutes of the movie is probably one of the most heartwarming, touching and bittersweet moments I have seen in an animated film, and in traditional Pixar style, you really do end up emotionally connecting with the lead characters.

So yeah, a full weekend and I should log off soon to get some rest before the work week starts. Thankfully it's another long weekend next week!

Melissa and Ade dance to Maxwell's "This Woman's Work" in SYTYCD

(I just edited this post coz I noticed the previously embedded video had been taken down)

One of the most powerful dance numbers I have seen on "So you think you can dance?". I won't bother writing what I think about this video, I will just let you see it and hear what the judges' comments are.


video uploaded in youtube by user DGirlEmmy

I've watched this dozens of times now, and each time, it still impresses and moves me.

Surprise, surprise

I usually skip out on the UAAP basketball frenzy coz UP never really does well in it. So I only found out through a friend that UP actually beat Ateneo 68-58. I don't really know how that happened, and I have no idea whether they can replicate that win because that was their first in four matches this season and it was Ateneo's first loss. But it's still a bit of pleasantly surprising news.

*****

And who would have thought that Lewis Hamilton winning the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier today would be a surprise? After all, he is the reigning Formula One world champion. But in the first 9 races of the 2009 season, Hamilton in his McLaren hasn't been a factor, failing to nab a podium finish. That is, until today. Lewis drove a superb race to finish way ahead of 2nd placer Kimi Räikkönen and 3rd placer Mark Webber.

This F1 weekend included a lot of other surprising events. Scariest of which was Felipe Massa being struck on the helmet by a suspension spring that had fallen off of Rubens Barrichello's race car during qualifying. Now normally, being struck by a suspension spring while wearing a helmet won't be too bad, but if you get hit while you are driving at close to 300 kph, it becomes very life-threatening. The latest info is that Massa is in stable condition so that's good news.

The other surprises - Fernando Alonso losing a tire while in the lead (I can imagine just how pissed off he must be, could've been his first title this season) and Vettel being forced to retire also due to tire problems.

Clearly, Brawn GP has lost a lot of momentum, and Red Bull Racing is now narrow the gap. I think Brawn lost the plot somehow - I think they've made some poor strategic moves in the last couple of races - and RBR have remained very consistent. Jenson Button is still ahead of the pack by 18.5 points, but his lead is starting to dwindle. Hopefully Brawn can find some of the magic they had in the first 7 races this season and get JB back on the podium.

Feast Day of St. Michael Jackson

Okay well the title of my post is a bit misleading LOL but have you seen the tribute of the Cebu inmates to Michael Jackson? If I didn't know better, I'd think I was watching some religious celebration.

The original full video is apparently not available in my country so here's a shorter version of it:


video uploaded in youtube by user salaso2007

It's been a week and a half since Michael Jackson passed away but it's still making headlines all over the world. He truly is a legend. But while I immensely appreciate his talent and music, I'm in the minority in that I don't totally grieve his death. While his pedophilia was never proven, a lot of the other stuff - like MJ dangling his baby outside a window or him publicly denying that he had work done on his nose or his decision to change his skin color (why didn't he just have his "white spots" darkened instead of lightening his complexion?) - prevent me from feeling as bad about his passing on as the rest of the world. I surely do feel sorry for him though as the abuse he experienced in his childhood certainly contributed to his lack of stability His prolonged exposure in the limelight couldn't have helped him any.

Still, Michael Jackson will go down in history as one of the most influential music legends of all time. And I certainly do hope he is in a better place now.

Marathon #6. Woo-hoo!

Can't you believe it? I've done it six times now, running 42 kilometers for charity. Amazing!

Last July 5, I ran my sixth marathon for a cause, raising more than PHP 72,000 for charity patients in the Philippine General Hospital. You can read more about how my run went in my other blog:

photo courtesy of my friend Petite

I didn't have bike support for the first time this year so I don't have a lot of photos. One of my friends, Petite, was in a support station along the route and took a few photos, so here's proof of my run.

Thanks again to all my family and friends for the amazing support, encouragement, and generosity! :)

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.