Allison returns to "So you think you can dance"

Season 7 of 'So you think can dance' will be an All-star season, with 12 past contestants rejoining the cast. I'm especially looking forward to the fact the all-stars include Allison Holker from Season 2, who is one of my favorite contestants from the show. Here's the season 7 preview:


uploaded in youtube by user FoxBroadcasting

The new format will feature 10 new contestants performing with 12 SYTYCD all-stars. Instead of the previous process where contestants were paired with each other and each pair picks a dance style to perform out of a hat, the 10 new contestants will pick one of the 12 all stars to perform with. I don't know if it'll be shown in one of the cable channels here, but AXN is currently airing Season 5 (it aired Seasons 6 and 4 previousl) so maybe after that, they will show the All-star season. I'm really looking forward to it.

My new health regimen

Around November to December of last year, I kept getting sick. I'd have tonsillitis one week and be on antibiotics, then once the tonsillitis cleared, I'd have pharo-laryngitis which required a completely different set of meds. I'd be heading to the clinic every week and at one point, my blood pressure was pretty low. My CBC results indicated I was anemic so my doctor advised me to start taking vitamins that are high in iron content. I went to the drugstore to compare different multivitamins and I decided to start taking Centrum.

However, Centrum doesn't have very high Vitamin C content. I figured that if I was getting sick all the time, I needed more Vitamin C. And antioxidants. So while in the supermarket, I stumble upon Berri, a brand of juice that has a lot of vitamins. One of the variants, breakfast juice with antioxidants, had 150% of the required daily allowance of Vitamin C, while another variant, breakfast juice with fibre, had 200% of the Vitamin C RDA. So while it wasn't all that cheap, I figured that drinking one glass of Berri a day along with Centrum would help me get healthier.

I can't really say I'm all that healthy now, but so far this year I haven't gotten sick for prolonged periods of time yet (knock on wood...) I'm guessing that my new health regimen has something to do with it. I'd sometimes drink Harvey Fresh apple juice (apple juice is known to be high in antioxidants and has good vitamin C content too) or Del Monte Fit 'N Right (which has 100% RDA of Vitamin C and L-Carnatine which is supposed to help burn fat LOL) instead just so I don't get tired of drinking the same juice all the time. All these drinks and the vitamins impact my budget for sure but if it helps me stay healthy, it's definitely worth it.

A tribute to Simon Cowell

I never thought it would happen, but some of my favorite idol contestants were on the same stage to pay tribute to Simon Cowell, who was making his final appearance on American Idol as a judge. Check it out:


video uploaded in youtube by user AmericanBestTalent

I loved seeing Fantasia, Bo Bice, Elliott Yamin, and Melinda Doolittle on the same stage at the same time. It's just too bad that they had to sing a sucky song LOL. (I do wish, though, that Tamyra Gray, Anwar Robinson, Camile Velasco, and Mandisa were also there.)

American Idol will definitely not be the same without Simon Cowell.

Allergy

Is it the heat? The stress? Or my new fabric conditioner? I can't really tell. But about a couple of weeks ago, I started to getting rashes every evening. Sometimes I'd have the rash on my legs, other times on my arms, and other times I'd have it on my back.

I wasn't sure if it's because of the intense Manila heat. However, it has been intensely hot the last several weeks already and my allergies only started appearing a couple of weeks ago. So it can't just be the heat.

Could it be my new fabric conditioner? I had to buy a new brand recently coz I haven't been able to find my previous brand in months which leads me to think it's been discontinued. But if it is the fabric conditioner, why does the rash only come out at night? I mean, the clothes I wear to sleep are washed using the same fabric conditioner so I should have an allergy when I wake up as well.

Stress maybe? But I've had several patches of tough work this year and I've never had the allergy up until the last two weeks.

So if it isn't any of these things, then what could it be? Well, my conclusion is that maybe it's the combination of everything. In any case, after getting an allergy again one night, after about a week and a half of this, I decided to take a Clariting which helped my rash subside.

The strange thing? After that one Claritin, I no longer get an allergy each night. I'm not a doctor so I have no idea how to explain all this. But I am happy that I'm not getting rashes night anymore. :)

"Untold" by Pete Francis

Here's a really good song from Pete Francis called "Untold".


video uploaded in youtube by user jramster1144

I watched an episode of One Tree Hill recently (I haven't really been watching this series much anymore) and in that eppy, a lot of cool and interesting songs were featured. It made me remember the great songs I discovered by watching this show. 'Untold' was featured back in Season 1 and I've been a fan of this song since then.

Jollibee on Glee (with spoilers)

So I'm watching the latest episode of 'Glee' on ETC and I see this scene were Artie gets off his wheelchair (a 'daydream' sequence, apparently) to perform the 80's hit "Safety Dance". Which kinda shocked me since I always thought that Artie used a wheelchair in real life. As I continue to watch, I quickly realized the surprises weren't over. "Jollibee" makes a cameo!

You can easily make out the big Jollibee sign at the top right of the screen just behind Artie and the rest of the crowd. It comes up a few times. Apparently the scene was shot in Eagle Rock mall in Los Angeles.

Was the product placement intentional or not? Some folks have opined that the "Safety dance" scene is reminiscent of the Jollibee flash mob promotional stunt done in SM Mall of Asia last year. Whatever the case may be, it really was a pleasant surprise to see the biggest local fast food chain on one of the biggest US television shows this year. :)

Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 has been such a major box office hit so far and it's still raking in millions as I write this but it took me two and half weeks to find my way to the cinema to catch it. I watched it on Sunday night with my mom and one of my nephews. I have to say, though, that apart from the action sequences - the one in Monaco and the one at the end - it was a bit of a let-down. I actually thought it was kinda boring. Considering that the action sequences really kicked ass and were so entertaining to watch, it was a pity that there weren't enough of them.

Record-breaking victory

What an incredible win! Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer with a score of 6-4, 7-6 in the Madrid Masters final. Why was that win very significant?

• It is Nadal's record 18th Masters 1000 title. Andre Agassi held that record previously with his 17. Roger Federer is only two titles behind with 16 so Roger could still take that record, but he is about 5 years older than Nadal.
• Rafa's win also moves him back up to #2 in the rankings, which is just in time for the French Open. He is now assured of being seeded second which will hopefully bring Rafa a better draw.
• He has now also won all three Masters titles on clay in the same year, the first time anyone has achieved this feat.
• Rafa's head-to-head against Roger Federer now stands at 14-7.
• He has a perfect 15-0 record on clay this year.

I don't want to think Rafa is a shoo-in for his 5th French Open title given that last year, Rafa was the red-hot favorite leading up to Roland Garros before losing to Robin Soderling in the fourth rounbd. Howver, his results on clay this year should definitely give him back a lot of the confidence he lost last year. Hopefully Slam #7 for Rafa is just around the corner.

An evening in Burgos Circle

Of all my sections in high school, it was my third year class that seemed to bond and get along with each other the best. Because of that, we had more than our fair share of get-togethers and parties, even when we weren't classmates anymore. We probably met up last as a section in our first few years in university. So it was pretty cool that we - or well some of us at least - got together again on Friday night.

We were planning to have dinner in Henry's (by Good Earth) in Burgos Circle, but apparently there was a private party there that night so we moved to Mile Hi Diner. Nine of us made it - myself, Jan, Mico, Lawrence, Flo, Tricia, Elaine, Jackie, and Mitch - which is about a third of our section size. Not bad considering it's been nearly two decades since we sat in the same classroom for an entire school year. Needless to say, walking down memory lane played a great part in our evening conversation. We stayed in Mile Hi up until they started playing Barry Manilow songs - which we took to be a hint that we needed to go rather than a reflection of our age lol - and had drinks or dessert and coffee in Rastro (their creme brulee was really good but their cocktails are so-so), where we stayed until it closed.

Apart from Mitch, Elaine, and Jan (who I keep running into in different gimmick places in Manila lol), I rarely get to see everyone else who was there that night so it really was awesome getting to catch up. I also think it's really cool that I've been meeting up with a lot of different sets of friends in recent weeks. I do have a few more friends coming to Manila in the coming weeks, so my social calendar in May is starting to look pretty good. :)

The Trilogy!

I got it! I finally got it! The Star Wars Trilogy on DVD!

And by Trilogy, I mean the original trilogy - 'Star Wars' (A New Hope), 'The Empire Strikes Back', and 'Return of the Jedi'. I knew Ray was coming to Manila in April so I ordered this DVD box set from Amazon a couple of months back and had them delivered to him so he could bring them to the Philippines (instead of me paying for the expensive international shipping costs).

I'm sure a lot of people who are used to the impressive visual effects of recent years will find these original versions clunky and uninspired, but these films used special effects that were ahead of their time. These are probably the films I have watched the most - maybe Return of the Jedi more than any other film - so now that I have the DVDs, I'll surely end up watching them a ton more.

(And despite the fact that people generally regard 'Return of the Jedi' to be the worst of the trilogy, it's still my favorite. :))

Halalan 2010

I feel bad. And ashamed. I wasn't able to vote. My name was deactivated in the Comelec list. Apparently I didn't vote in the last two elections. I know for sure I voted in National elections in 2004 and I missed the National elections in 2007 because I was in Sweden. So I thought it was just one election I missed. But I forgot about the Barangay elections in October 07. So two consecutive elections missed means my name was no longer in the list of voters in my precinct. Sucks big time! But well, it was my fault for not figuring things out better.

Anyways, it's good to see that for the most part, the first national computerized election in the history of the Philippines is going well. There was some violence that led to death (I still dream of the day when there is no more election-related violence) and a lot of cases where the machines didn't work. The lines were also incredibly long - people waited for hours before getting to vote - but it's great to see that the election turnout was still a pretty good 75%.

The great thing about the elections being computerized is the fact that the tallying of the votes is miles better than it was before. It hasn't even been 12 hours since the precincts were closed and about 70% of all votes have already been counted (unofficially though, but it means the official count shouldn't take anywhere nearly as long as it used to).

Hopefully, I sort out my registration status between now and the next election. Gotta make sure that my voice - however small - is heard.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

This Sunday was probably the first mother's day in recent years that my family didn't go out. This was driven mainly by the fact that my grandparents went to the province for the elections. So my mom and I ended up just going to church and then eating out after. We had dinner in Il Padrino Coffee and it was pretty cool because they offered a 20% discount on food items because of Mother's Day.

There was a small massage place next to Il Padrino so my mom decided to pamper herself and get a massage 1 1/2 hour treatment (for only P500! And it was traditional Pinoy 'hilot' so it really relieved the tension and tiredness in her muscles.) So while she was getting her massage, I ran some errands like buying food for Monday (so we wouldn't have to cook) and getting the dry-cleaning. I returned to Il Padrino to have coffee and tiramisu while waiting for my mom's massage to be done. Nice quiet calm day. Not a lot of these in recent weeks so I'm thankful. :)

*****

I caught the awarding ceremony of the Spanish GP when I got home, and it's nice to see that Jenson Button managed a 5th place finish and still stays atop the Drivers Championship. Hope he gets another good result - maybe a win? - in Monaco next week.

More catching up

This time, it's over Mexican food. Che arrived in Manila about a week ago to attend a wedding so we ended up having dinner tonight in Agave in Bonifacio High Street. Che had never eaten there before so she wanted to try it, and the menu is pretty reasonably priced so I was definitely okay with it. I woke up really late today which threw my schedule off, and this meant I was about 40 minutes late for dinner. When I arrived, everyone else was there: Che, Hannah, Raffa, Joh, Steph, and Me-ann who had to leave shortly after I arrived because she just got in from a business trip abroad and had to head home ASAP.

When I got there, Hannah had just eaten half of her burrito and didn't want to polish off the rest of it so she gave the remaining half to me. I was planning to order either a burrito or an enchilada, but since I had half a burrito already, I decided to order the pork carnitas. Thankfully my free half-burrito was good because the pork carnitas was not such a good choice. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't the P240 I paid for it. I should've just ordered an enchilada lol.

Didn't really matter because it was the company that I was after. And as is always the case when I hang out with these guys, it was a lot of fun talking about anything and everything, and catching up on stuff. Raffa and Joh had to leave after about an hour and a half, so the rest of us decided to have coffee in Coffee Bean to cap the evening and catch up a bit more.

Most of us will be hanging out again in a couple of weeks because Me-ann is organizing a McDonald's birthday party for her nephew. Should be fun.

Catching up over Korean Barbecue

Ray flew back to Manila for the elections, but his schedule in Manila was so hectic that it was tough to find time to meet up. So when Marga organized dinner in Ye Dang Korean Restaurant in the Metrowalk area on Wednesday night, I definitely made myself available.

It was really good catching up with Ray and with everyone else there who I rarely get to see. Someone even commented that despite most of us being in Manila, we only manage to get together whenever Ray is in town, which was funny but (sadly) true. The World Cup is coming up in a few weeks though so there have been talks about getting together to watch some of the good matches together. (Not totally sure though if I'm up to it as the matches will be played at around 230am local time!)

To make the evening complete, the food in Ye Dang was also really good. The food was actually prepared Korean Barbecue style, which means it was being cooked in our tables by our waiters. I asked Marga how she learned about this place and she said that since Ray wanted to eat in a new place, she asked her uncle and he recommended Ye Dang. The owner is Korean so the food is definitely authentic.

A fun night complemented by good food. I have to say that a positive bonus to the elections on Monday is that a few of my friends who are now living outside the Philippines are coming home. I am supposed to meet up with a couple of other people in the long weekend who are here to vote as well so I am certainly looking forward to that.

Rome title #5!

Congratulations to Rafa Nadal for winning his 5th Rome Masters title in the last 6 years. This was a record-equalling win as he now has 17 Masters titles tying him with Andre Agassi who won 17 Masters Titles in his career.

It was a bit scary for a moment as Rafa was under pressure in the semifinals against Ernests Gulbis, who eliminated Roger Federer in the second round. Thankfully Rafa scraped through that match. In the final, he was tested in the first set by compatriot David Ferrer and kept things even after 8 games. But the two rain delays worked in Rafa's favor, who dropped only 3 games after the first rain delay to win the match 7-5, 6-2 and with it, his fifth Rome Masters title.

So after 11 months with no trophy, Rafa finds his footing once again on his favorite surface and wins two major clay-court events, racking up a 10-match winning streak. There is one more major event on clay before the French Open - Madrid - but it is still not sure whether Rafa will play in that tournament or not. I personally prefer it if Rafa skips Madrid to ensure he is fully fit for the French Open, but I will trust that he and his team make the right decision with respect to his match play.

Elliott Yamin back on Idol Gives Back

It's great to see Elliott Yamin back on American Idol. And once again, he makes a special appearance on Idol Gives Back, returning to Angola. This time, he goes there with Kara DioGuardi. Check out the video here.


uploaded in youtube by user dacrowe

I missed this when it was shown on TV so it's only now that I got to see it. The background music being played is Elliott's song called "Doorway" which is available as a bonus track when you purchase his full album "Fight for love" on Itunes.

Belated Happy Earth Day!

This is coming in late but a belated Happy Earth Day to everyone!

I would've posted this earlier but the week of Earth Day was one of the busiest I've had this year so far. Our corporate social responsibility organization at work had been planning and organizing a charity run for months, and one of our two beneficiaries is the environmental NGO Haribon (the other is Kythe, an NGO that helps pediatric patients). These two NGOs were our beneficiaries in last year's charity run and we decided to keep them as beneficiaries this year. Since we knew already that the run would be in support of Haribon, we scheduled the event on April 24, around the same time as Earth Day (April 22), making it our official Earth Day event this year.

I also thought it would be a good idea to get Haribon to give an environmental talk as part of the Earth Day celebration. We invited employees who were interested to learn more about what Haribon does and what we can do to help the environment. To make sure that all interested parties could attend these talks, I organized one session in each of our three office sites. The talks turned out to be really good. One of the most interesting things I learned is that people who drive, jet-set, and use a lot of electrical appliances and equipment like air conditioners and computers need to plant nineteen (19) trees a year to compensate for the carbon footprint they leave behind. (So it seems I still have a lot of catching up to do!)

Interestingly enough, I've been learning a lot more about how to care for the environment better in the last few weeks. Our Earth Hour campaign back in March led me to do some research on ec0-friendly products since we wanted to give special prizes out to a couple of Earth Hour participants. We ended up buying stuff from Echo Store. If you check out their website, you will see that their products are environment friendly, sustain marginalized, indigenous and creative communities, support poverty alleviation programs, are created with fair labor practices, are animal-friendly, and express Filipino design excellence. They have a store in Serendra and a smaller one in Podium.

The environmental sustainability focus area of our CSR org is now working on doing research on proper waste disposal. Hopefully we can identify partners that correctly dispose of different types of waste - i.e. food waste, cans, plastic bottles, paper, and electronic waste - and work with them. Not sure if our research will amount to anything but if I do learn something useful, I'll post it here.

"Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap

This song is called "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. This particular video includes the lyrics so you can appreciate the poetry while enjoying the music.


uploaded in youtube by user LaterDayzz

If it sounds familiar, it's because the bridge (or well I think it's the bridge lol) was used prominently in Jason Derulo's monster hit 'Whatcha Say'. I actually discovered 'Hide and Seek' while listening to 'Whatcha Say' on youtube and I've been a huge, huge fan of it ever since.

I can't be totally sure what the song mean as these kinds of lyrics can always be interpretated in a variety of ways. But a lot of people tend to agree that it's about a relationship that has ended - maybe even a marriage ending in divorce - due to someone cheating. Whether or not this is correct, the song is definitely very well written and the use of the vocoder to add multiple harmonies using Imogen's own voice makes this piece very unique.

A lot of fans of this song hate the fact that 'Whatcha Say' sampled it and ruined it for them or that a lot of people sometimes think that 'Hide and Seek' sampled 'Whatcha Say' (instead of the other way around). I can understand the displeasure of these fans but on the plus side, if not for Derulo, I most likely would not have discovered 'Hide and Seek' and would've been deprived of appreciating this incredibly beautiful song.

The drought is over!

Finally! After 11 months of quarterfinal, semifinal and final appearances without a title, Rafa Nadal finds his feet on - what else? - clay and wins the Monte Carlo Masters for the 6th time in a row. So not only does Rafa finally win a tournament, but he tied or broke a couple of records along the way. He is now tied for the record of most Monte Carlo titlesand holds the record for most Monte Carlo titles in a row. On top of that, he now holds the ATP record for winning a tournament the most years in a row in the Open Era. That he lost only 14 games en route to the title - and I think this is also a tournament record in terms of least games lost - gives me hope that he is now back to his winning ways. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he reclaims the French Open a few weeks from now.

To add to the good news, Jenson Button wins his second F1 race this season. It's only the fourth race so far so his two wins now put him ahead in the drivers championships.

Now I just hope Liverpool manage to beat West Ham at home. If that happens, it'll be another perfect sporting weekend. :)

ETA: So Liverpool did beat West Ham 3-0. Awesome.

Bills, bills, bills

So I met up with my friends Mitch, Joyce, and Iona and among the many things we discussed while catching up was the fact that Mitch's electric bill apparently increased by about 50-60% from the previous month. Iona said that apparently, this isn't an isolated case as everyone has had to deal with having to pay 50-150% more than they did in the previous month for electricity.

When I got home, my bill was waiting for me. And just as we had discussed, I now had to pay about 150% more than I did in March. Not good news. I don't know if this now means electricity will continue to cost this much, or whether things will go back to normal some time soon. In the meantime, I guess I just have to start saving more. Cheaper food and less gimmicks, here I come! LOL

Birthday celebration

Happy birthday to my lola! Normally, Nanay as we call her celebrates her birthday in their house, but this year, it was decided that we would celebrate by having dinner in Tita Ace's house. And boy was did we have a massive dinner. Tito Sandro bought lumpia ubod while Tita Ace prepared grilled chicken, fried fillet dory, and lengua. My grandparents and Tita Tuds brought lumpia and a cake, while I brought bread pudding from La Cocina De Tita Moning (I had to pick it up from the resto in San Rafael the day before, but I was immensely pleased that I managed to find my way there without getting lost after driving there only one before). It's too bad that Tito Lito, Troy and Tracy weren't there to complete the extended family, but it was a really good celebration. Needless to say, I switched to 'baboy' mode yet again and stuffed myself.

Which reminds me, I really need to get back to the gym soon as I am now heavier than I have ever been in the past. I was able to go to the gym fairly regularly in early March but I have gotten so busy the last few weeks that I am unable to find time for the gym. I have been working to get my schedule cleared out next week though, so hopefully by then I can start getting fit again (and getting ready for my 7th marathon which will most likely be in March).

High school reunion

I met up with Ed, one of my really close friends back in high school, last Thursday night. It was his first time back in Manila since 2004 and Thursday night was apparently the only day he could meet up with us since the rest of the time would be spent with his family or on out-of-town trips. So Joyce and Suzanne made an event of it and organized a batch reunion so Ed could get to see as many of our high school batchmates in one night.

It didn't start out all that well actually, and I almost didn't make it. Dinner was supposed to start at 7pm. But I had so much work to do last week and with Friday being a holiday, I ended up working until around 815pm. Suzanne's email, which I read very briefly earlier in the week, indicated that dinner would be in Abe so I rush to Serendra hoping traffic wouldn't be too bad. Thankfully it wasn't so at 8:45pm, I text Joyce to say that I had just parked in The Fort and would be walking over to Abe. Joyce then calls me and tells me that I was in the wrong place and that dinner was actually in Abe Trinoma. Whaaaat?? I was so busy this week that I didn't pay enough attention to the details of Suzanne's email and it slipped my mind that there was more than one Abe in Metro Manila!!

I was so tired and stressed out at that point and was ready pass on dinner (I figured I could try to meet up with Ed some other time before he flew back to Canada) but Ed talked to me on the phone and convinced me to still follow. I arrive in Trinoma shortly past 10pm. A few folks left shortly after I arrived - after all, it had been almost 3 1/2 hours since dinner started - and so about 9 or 10 of us were left behind. It was kinda good though, because the smaller crowd meant that I could catch up with Ed and everyone else there a bit more.

We stayed in Abe until midnight which was about an hour past closing time I think so I told Joyce to leave a big tip. We then stayed outside for about 15 more minutes until Ed's brother arrived to pick him up. It kinda sucked that I was late and ended up in the wrong venue but I was really glad that I still joined them coz it allowed me to take a really fun trip down memory lane and catch up with really good friends.

Legion of Extraodinary Dancers

I saw the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers perform last night on season 6 of "So you think you can dance" and was so impressed by them that I just had to dig up the video on youtube. Everything about this number is sensational. Check it out!!


uploaded in youtube by user RickeyTVX

Wow. Just, wow.

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. :)