Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The long weekend is over but I hope you had a great Easter celebration. I certainly did.

First, my mom and I took my nephews to Shang Mall to attend their Easter event. The plan was for us to leave at around 1030-11am so we could have lunch in the mall but I got up late so we ended up getting there a few minutes past 1 pm (the event was from 1 to 4pm, although registration was from 1 to 2pm). The good thing was that there all participants had free hotdogs, pork choplets, fries, popcorn, ice cream and cotton candy. So at least my nephews got to eat when we got there. There were a few games at 2pm then the magic show of Lou Hilario started after the games. At 3pm, we left the magic show to go around the mall for the Easter Treasure Hunt, which was really like Trick-or-treating since we were given a map to the shops where we could get goodies. We made our way back to the venue by around 3:40 to get the giveaways before heading to the cinema area where we had 4pm tickets for Clash of the Titans.

The cool thing about the Shang Mall is that they have new digital cinemas which means that there were a couple of 3D cinemas (Clash of the Titans and How to train your dragon were both on 3D) whereas most other places have only one 3D theater. While our tickets cost P320, it came with free popcorn and softdrinks so the tickets here were actually cheaper than in other cinemas. The movie itself was good (although i think it would be just as good to watch it on 2D - I didn't think being on 3D added much value to the film-viewing experience), and it made sense for us to watch it since my nephews have recently gotten into mythology.

After watching the movie, we headed over to Quantum so my nephews could play some arcade games. We spent most of the time on the bowling game which earned us a lot more tickets. We combined our newly-earned tickets with the 400 or so we already had from before, which left us with 626 tickets. My nephews used up about 520 of them to get prizes so we still have 106 left that we can use next time.

We then heard Easter mass and then headed home where we had dinner - I bought yang chow fried rice and lemon chicken from Flavors of China and sisig from Sisig Hooray on the way home.

It was around 10pm when things finally settled down, and since my nephews and I went swimming on Black Saturday, I was utterly exhausted by the end of the long weekend. But I wouldn't have it any other way, it was definitely worth it

Frost/Nixon

I just recently watched the Oscar-nominated film 'Frost/Nixon' and I must say, if you have a chance to see it, go see it!

I got a DVD of Frost/Nixon either last Christmas or on my last birthday since I put it in my wish list and one of my friends - I believe it was Anna - gave it to me. I hadn't gotten around to watching it in the last few months because whenever I watch smart, intellectual and critically-acclaimed films, I need to be in a specific frame of mind to enjoy it. If I haven't properly psyched myself to watch these kinds of films, I may end up not fully appreciating them which I don't want to happen.

So I finally watched my 'Frost/Nixon' DVD and it was incredible! We all know how the film would turn out in the end but the way the plot unfolded and the pace at which it did, amidst all the conflicts and difficulties faced by the characters and how Frost and Nixon ended up getting into a stunning duel, kept me totally engaged from start to the very powerful climax. There is no question that Frank Langella got into character as his portrayal of Nixon was immensely brilliant and definitely deserved an Oscar nomination (if not a win) for best actor (just too bad he was up against Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke) but the rest of the cast, led by Michael Sheen as David Frost, were all stellar as well.

'Frost/Nixon' exceeded my expectations, and given that it had so many positive reviews from critics and regular viewers alike, my expectations were already high to begin with. It's certainly one of the best films I have seen and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Good news for a change

It's been a while since I my favorite athletes and sports teams all had positive results in the same weekend.


First, Jenson Button finds his way back to the top of the Formula 1 podium with a great win in the Australian Grand Prix. He had the 4th fastest qualifying time, dropped to 7th after the first corner, then was bumped a notch down to 8th after his teammate Lewis Hamilton passed him early in the race. But Jenson made a judgment call to change his tires early, which turned out to be the single most crucial decision made in the race. This tire change turned out to be the right move since he ended up driving faster than anyone else at that point and he moved up the ranks quickly to 2nd. The brake problem that caused Sebastian Vettel - who had been leading the pack halfway through the race - to drop out led JB to take over and he never looked back.


(I feel really bad for Vettel though. This was the 2nd time that he had pole position and was ahead for most of the race but lost out due to issues with his car.)

Second, Liverpool win! This season, my favorite football team have been struggling horribly, and are now in great danger of being out of the top 4 and thus lose a slot in next season's Champions League. But they kept their very slim hopes of a top 4 finish alive by beating Sunderland 3-0 last Sunday. Their fate is out of their hands are Tottenham have a good lead over them as well as a game in hand, and Man City have two games in hand. But given that Liverpool wins this season haven't come as frequently as they have in the past, a 3-0 victory is very welcome.

Finally, Rafa Nadal makes it past his opening match in Key Biscayne. While this was an opening match which Rafa should easily win, it was against David Nalbandian, an ex-top 5 player who has won 2 out of the 3 matches he's played against Rafa and has won 8 times against the mighty Federer. When David won the first set of their match 7-6, I thought Nadal was in deep trouble. As it turns out, Rafa managed to lose only 4 games the rest of the match for a good win, allowing him to even his head-to-head against the Argentine and move through to the round of 16. (And now that he's beaten his countryman David Ferrer, he is through to the quarterfinals where he will be playing against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga).

Here's hoping Easter weekend will be filled with good news as well. Who knows, it could bring Nadal have another title, JB another trophy in Malaysia, and Liverpool another win. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

Justin Timberlake is Da Bomb!

Wow. What a concert! I joined about 80,000 other people last Saturday night in the SM Mall of Asia grounds to watch the Shock Value II concert of Timbaland featuring JoJo and Justin Timberlake. And needless to say, I was not disappointed. That this was a benefit concert meant to raise funds to help victims of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng just made this whole event all the better.


It didn't start out all that well. The show, which was slated to begin at 8pm, kicked off at 9:45pm, almost 2 hours late. Most of the emcees were next to useless - only Sarah Meier seemed to have read her cue cards before getting on the stage and didn't read from them as she spoke. The band only started their sound check past 9pm. And the front acts - Q-York and the Philippine All-Stars - might have gotten better reception from the audience if people hadn't been standing for hours and weren't tired from waiting. Thank God it wasn't too hot and it didn't rain.

Check out the massive crowd!

But when the show started, it was awesome! Timbaland stepped on stage and performed some of his hits like "The Way I are", "Oh Timbland", and "I'll never be the same" and matched it with a great visual/light show:


After an hour of rocking his beats and getting the crowd going, he introduced JoJo who joined him on stage to perform their song "Lose control". JoJo then sang her biggest hit to date, "Too little, too late".


As it turns out, those were the only two songs that JoJo would perform. The DJ then started playing some songs to keep the momentum going, including "Ayo Technology" (I thought they would perform this live). When Timbaland returned on stage, he started to tease the crowd which, by that time, couldn't wait for Justin Timberlake to appear. Timbaland started singing bits of "Apologize", one of my all-time favorite songs, and as he does, Justin, who was still somewhere backstage, started singing along with him, causing the noise level from the crowd to go up several notches (I just really wish JT and Timbaland performed this song fully!). When Timbaland started his light show again, the face of JT came up and this drew even more mad cheers.


So when JT finally took the stage, the crowd went berserk. He initially shared the stage with Timbaland, performing a lot of the upbeat songs from his FutureSex/LoveSounds album like "Love Stoned", "What goes around, comes around", and "My love".


One of the coolest moments of the concert was when Timbaland beatboxed while JT sang a re-arranged version of his hit "Cry me a river". I found this performance on youtube (uploaded by user urfoolingmyleeg), check it out:

uploaded in youtube by user urfoolingmyleeg

He also accompanied himself on keyboard and performed a couple of tracks to slow things down.


Of course it didn't stay that way as he closed the show on a high note by performing more of his massive hits with Timbaland. And just as the show was about to end, JT came out to say "I've retired this song but f*ck it, I love you all so much" or something to that effect and then performed "SexyBack". As the Ticketworld website promised, Justin did perform at least 8 songs (I think he must've done 10?). Frankly, just his half of the show was worth the price of the ticket!

There was a lot of talk in late 2008/early-2009 that Justin Timberlake would have a concert in Manila in 2009 but it never happened, so it's great that he came here as a guest in Timbaland's concert. To be quite frank though, and I'm sure even Timbaland knows this, the real drawing power of this show was Justin. I'm sure most - if not all - of the 80,000 people were there to see JT perform live. And he certainly delivered.

Here's hoping that Justin Timberlake stages a full concert here in Manila as the main artist (and not just as a guest). Now THAT would be truly awesome!

Lights off, Earth On

Let's join the rest of the world and turn off our lights during Earth Hour 2010 at 8:30pm on Saturday, March 27.


For a little bit of inspiration, check out this official Earth Hour video (Manila is featured at 2:30 :))


video uploaded in youtube by user earthhour2009

Errands

I've been working a whole lot recently so when one of my projects was completed last Friday, I decided to take a few days off and just spend some time away from the office. I had a lot of errands to work on so I figured I would sort some of them out during this time.

One of the things that had been pending for a while was getting my SSS ID. I went to the SSS Main office in East Avenue a few months back to get the form, but I didn't have enough time then to fall in line so I made my way back there yesterday at around 11am. When I arrived, I was given number 1281. As it turns out, they were just serving numbers 921 to 925. So about 260 to go LOL!

The good thing was that SSS had a lot of several service counters and the evaluation process didn't take more than a few minutes on average. So they would normally call the next 5 numbers every few minutes. SSS doesn't have a lunch break - there are relievers who take over - so by around 1230 my number got called.

When I got there, I was told that my SSS ID is apparently flagged as temporary because I didn't submit my birth certificate before. What's even crazier is that their system indicates that my SSS ID had already been released. I really don't remember getting my ID LOL so either it was released before and I didn't get it or I lost it. So my next steps now are to submit my birth certificate in the Makati office then return to the Main office to submit an affidavit of loss or an affidavit of non-receipt, then re-submit my SSS ID form. What a mess! LOL

Strangely enough, I wasn't upset or pissed off about the whole thing. Maybe being on leave and not running after deadlines made me a whole lot calmer than I normally am. In any case, I headed to Pasig to look for the L.G. Collins office to get a new remote control for our TV - the one we have now still works but really needs to be replaced. When I called them, they said the remote would cost P888 but when I got there, I just had to pay P532. Not sure how that happened but I ended up having an extra P356 that I had already parted with mentally.

With this "extra cash", I drove to Diao Eng Chay - or DEC as I call it - in Wilson to buy a half-dozen chicken pies. My friend Michele introduced me to their chicken pie back in high school and until now I still crave for it every now and then (I've eaten two of the six since, and I'm sure I'll eat one more today LOL). I decided to get some siomai and hakaw as well. The hakaw was so-so but the siomai was great!

I was also planning to have my microwave fixed - it had been broken for a really long time as well - but as it turns out, Whirlpool does house visits so the repairman came to my place last Saturday morning to fix it. It finally works!

So while I didn't head out of town during my leave, it's been very productive so far. My life surely feels in a bit more order than it did a few days ago. :)

Agassi vs. Sampras 2010

For at least a few minutes, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It's the type of drama you expect to see on some reality TV show or talk show that thrived on conflict and intrigue.

Except it was happening on a tennis court. Even more surprising is the fact that Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, two of the greatest players to ever hit a tennis ball, were involved. Check this out:


Uploaded in youtube by user shakendagrass

This doubles match was part of the Hit for Haiti event. A lot of money was raised when part 1 was held during the Australian Open. All players were given microphones so that they could provide real-time commentary on their own match and engage in friendly banter. This seemed to really hit the mark the first time around that they decided to do it again for part 2.

Unfortunately, Andre and Pete got into a who-can-say-or-do-something-more-below-the-belt pissing contest that the entire crowd (and now, the entire world) witnessed. Not good.

The bad blood must've started when Agassi came out with his book and accused Sampras of being dull and lacking inspiration. And of being a poor tipper. So Andre saying "You always have to get serious, huh Pete?'' during this exhibition match seemed to push Pete's buttons one too many times, leading Pete to mock Andre by imitating his pigeon-toed walk. Andre then made a comeback by once again saying Pete was a poor tipper. The atmosphere got so negative that Roger ended up saying "This rivalry is intense, man. I mean, Rafa, start. Do something" to try and diffuse the tension a bit.

You could argue that champions locked in an intense rivalry for the better part of their careers would always have a competitive streak against each other even after they both have retired. But there is really no excuse to behave like spoiled brats who couldn't care less about airing their dirty laundry in public. That these two players, who are supposedly class acts and who have traditionally shown a high degree of respect towards one another, would conduct themselves so poorly during a charity event just makes this even more cringe-worthy.

The good news is that despite this intensely awkward moment, the event managed to raise 1 million dollars for the benefit of earthquake victims in Haiti.

Congrats, Manny!

Manny Pacquiao retains his Welterweight crown by beating Joshua Clottey in their fight in Arlington, Texas billed as The Event.

Photo from Telegraph.co.uk

While Pacquiao didn't win by KO or TKO, but his win was just as dominant. He threw more than 3 times as many punches (1231 to Clottey's 399) and he landed 246 of those (as compared to Clottey's 108). He won the fight in a unanimous decision with a scorecard of 120-108, 119-109, and 119-109.

Congratulations, Manny!!!

Five years

Happy 5th anniversary to my blog! :)

Can't believe I've been blogging for five years. I have now posted 391 times, which means I average about one blog post every 5 days. I read through my older entries recently and it's a lot of fun to recall the different things I experienced and the thoughts and opinions I had in the last 5 years. Hopefully I can maintain this for another five. :)

A fantasic family dinner in La Cocina de Tita Moning

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 second of two blog posts about this day and it will be about our dinner in La Cocina de Tita Moning.

La Cocina de Tita Moning offers its guests a wonderful and unique fine dining experience with its combination of rich history, great food, and excellent service. It is located in the Legarda Ancestral Home in the San Miguel District of Old Manila. The house was built in 1937 and this is where Dr. Alejandro Legarda (son of Filomena Roces Legarda) lived with his wife Ramona Hernandez Legarda and their four children.


Ramona Hernandez Legarda, or Tita Moning as she was fondly called, was known for hosting lavish parties and treating her guests to gastronomic delights that she cooked up in her own kitchen. Shortly after she passed away in 1999, her family decided to open the doors of their home to the public by converting it into a restaurant and serving family recipes that Tita Moning used to cook for her family and guests.

Our experience that night began in the patio where we relaxed under the moonlight sipping on sangria and iced tea.


Once we had polished off our drinks, we were escorted by our tour guide Edel to the main entrance of the Legarda Ancestral Home where our dinner would be served. She talked about the history of mansion and how it was called home by members of the Legarda clan since 1937. The Legardas had a lot of interests and hobbies, and the memorabilia they collected have been put on display in the different rooms of what is now a personal family museum.

Among the rooms we toured before dinner were the Antique Camera Room (Alejandro Legarda was a member of the Camera Club of the Philippines and his camera equipment are on display here)


and the Antique Radio room (Dr. Legarda was also a member of the Philippine Amateur Radio Association, and this room showcases his old radio equipment).


We toured all the different rooms and you can read more about them here.

We finally made our way to the dining room where dinner was served on heirloom china, glassware, and silverware that Tita Moning actually used in the past.


La Cocina serves Spanish-Filipino cuisine, and you must choose a menu twenty four hours before arriving. What gave this place an even more unique, homely feel was that the main courses were brought to us by servers on serving trays. We could get as much as we wanted, and once we cleaned out our plates, the servers returned with the trays in case we wanted seconds (or thirds).

I can't recall our menu in detail - I think we had lengua, a pork dish, and a fish dish, fresh ubod, and paella - but the food was superb! We had queso de bola cheesecake and bread pudding for dessert, and while I'm a big fan of cheesecake, the bread pudding was the big winner. It's definitely a must-try!


Our dining experience is made even more memorable by the fact that the La Cocina Staff is made up of people who have been serving the family for years. One of our servers, Tining, is the La Cocina assistant and she joined the household in 1971 - almost 40 years ago! You can read more about the La Cocina staff here.

Before we left, we had our photo taken in the living room that is decorated with several paintings from very important Filipino painters such as Juan Luna and Felix Ressureccion Hidalgo.


It was interesting to note that we had four generations in our family that night - my grandparents, my mom, me and brother, and my nephews - so it was a perfect match to our venue that has been in existence for more than 70 years.

This dinner was definitely an incredible experience, and celebrating it with my family made it even more special. While the menu costs a minimum of P1500++, it's definitely worth trying at least once (or once in a while, if your wallet can handle it). La Cocina de Tita Moning takes fine dining to a whole new level by providing guests with an extraordinary experience that you can't get in any other restaurant.

As lunch and dinner in La Cocina are strictly by reservation, you can check out their website FAQ for more details.

La Cocina de Tita Moning
Address: #315 San Rafael Street, San Miguel District, Manila
Telephone Number: (+632) 7342146 / (+632) 7342141
Facsimile Number: (+632) 7342141
Mobile Number:
- from Overseas : +639175383490 (look for Suzette Montinola)
- from Manila: 09186551040
Email address: talktous@lacocinadetitamoning.com

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.