Big birthday bash

August is birthday time in my family. I was planning to take my family - including my grandparents - to Adarna for lunch. I had to put that plan on hold though because my grandparents decided to have dinner in their house to celebrate the birthdays of my brother, my cousin, my mom, my grandfather, and their household help who has been with the family for decades (we actually call her 'Mama Guading'). My nephew's birthday isn't until a few weeks for now but we celebrated it as well.

I know my grandparents like the Mango Tart in Conti's so I decided to pick one up on my way to dinner. As expected, there was more food than all of us could eat - pansit malabon, lumpia, chicken, kare-kare, paella, and a few other items. We had a lot of dessert too - apart from my Conti's mango tart, we had ice cream, an ice cream cake, and a birthday cake.

I'm still planning to bring my family to Adarna, but since my nephews have exams next week, we'll probably do it two weekends from now.

Nadal and Djokovic team up

Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic join forces as a doubles team and enter in the draw in the Rogers Cup in Toronto. This is the first time that the top 2 players in the world teamed up in doubles since Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe played together on the same side of the court. That was 34 years ago. (Roger Federer dropped to #3 in the world for the first time after Wimbledon. It's quite strange to talk about the top 2 players in the world and not include Federer.)

Nadal and Djokovic, however, ended up losing in their debut performance. While the result was not as good as their fans would've liked, it will be interesting to see if they decide at some point in the future to play doubles together in a Grand Slam event. That would certainly draw a huge amount of attention to doubles.

A 'Master Class' performance by Cherie Gil

Opera: the art that combines powerful musical scores and phenomenal voices to tell stories that often end in tragedy. Opera in the 20th century gave the world a star in Maria Callas, who is one of the greatest opera singers of the 1900s (and in history). As such, it was foreseeable, even inevitable, that Callas' life would imitate art, with the highs of her international acclaim and innumerable standing ovations and curtain calls and the lows of hardship she experienced in her childhood, her relationships, and even her fame.

Maria Callas is the central character in "Master Class", a Tony award-winning play written by Terrence McNally. It is Callas' life, as well as McNally's interpretation of it, that serves as the foundation of the plot. The play is set in one of the classes given by Callas at the Juilliard School in New York from October 1971 to March 1972. The audience forms the class, and it is in front of this class that Callas teaches her students, or 'victims', as she playfully calls them. This play is currently being staged at the Carlos P. Romulo auditorium in the RCBC building and is headlined by the ageless Cherie Gil and directed by Michael Williams.

I feel very lucky to have seen this play as I didn't know that it was showing, much less what it was about, until my mom asked me if I wanted to watch it with her and my brother. In fact, my mom was actually not intending to watch it either. She was initially planning see a Cecile Licad performance, but when she was unable to get tickets, she noticed the staging of "Master Class" and thought it would be a good alternative.

An exhibit about Maria Callas was set up at the entrance area of the Carlos P. Romulo auditorium.

And a great alternative it turned out to be. "Master Class" was thoroughly entertaining on so many levels. The script was loaded with repartee and hilarious one-liners. Live performances by the students of arias from operas created by Verdi, Puccini, and Bellini provided awe-inspiring moments that added color and vibrance to the play. Callas' instruction to her students - from understanding the music and the intent of the composer to how arias should be interpreted and delivered - were both lessons on artistic performance that all singers must learn and imbibe and life lessons on how we should have passion in our lives and put 100% into the things we believe in and love the most.

And of course, there was Cherie Gil. I've always known what an incredible actress she is in movies and television, but to see her perform live was another thing altogether. She was funny, sad, strong, and vulnerable as she embodied the spirit of Maria Callas. I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that 80% of the lines in the play were hers, but it was more than her exceptional memory skills that had me raving. Her extraordinary delivery and characterization made her portrayal of a larger-than-life Maria Callas believable, relatable, and ultimately irresistible. Nowhere is this more apparent than in final monologue: Cherie went through the whole gamut of emotion as she relived Callas' glory, decline, and sacrifice, and brought the entire audience along with her. Needless to say, the standing ovation she received during curtain call was very well-deserved.

It was just such a shame that "Master Class" remains unknown to many, as was evidenced by the fact that more than half the seats in the auditorium were empty. The play will run until August 15 so if you have the funds and the time, I urge you to see it while you can. Tickets are available at Ticketworld, with prices ranging from P515 to P1,545.

Panasadiyaw in Greenbelt 3

I was meeting up with my friends Martin and Jane on Friday night to have dinner, and the initial idea was for us to have dinner in the Manila Ocean Park area. The venue changed since Martin found out that there was this dance concert entitled 'Panasadiyaw' in Greenbelt 3 that he wanted to see and Jane and I thought it would be an interesting show to watch.

'Panasadiyaw' was performed in the staging area right in front of Havana and Seattle's Best, and I have to say it was a brilliant show, one that I would definitely not have minded paying to see (the show was actually free). There were two 30-minute dances that comprised the one-hour show. The first half, 'Karga Tapas', was choreographed by Dwight Rodrigazo and performed by a dance troupe from Bacolod. The dance itself was an interpretation of a rice harvest, and you could see this clearly with the movements and even the costumes. The second half, 'Panadamlong Bulan', was choreographed by Max Luna III and showcased different freelance dancers who together performed the Pangalay, the Pangasik, and the Pangiluk. The original concept of these dances is based on the Buddhist concept of male and female celestial angels, common as characters in other Southeast Asian dances.

It was breathtaking to watch these dancers perform as their incredible grace, skill, strength, and technique were at full display. You could clearly see just how difficult most of their moves were, and the fact that they had to dance for half an hour and maintain the same power and strength they had at the start all the way 'til the end utterly amazes me. Both dances were accompanied by live music, performed by what I understand to be the former members of the Pinikpikan band, and it certainly made the show more vibrant and gave it a stronger energy.

We joined the "afterparty" since Martin was friends with some of the organizers, who invited all of us to join them for some pica pica in 'Kitchen'. We hung out there for a bit before moving to People's Palace so we could have a full-on dinner and so we could all catch up a bit more. A few of Martin's friends joined us for our late dinner as well. It was certainly a wonderful night filled with arts and culture, amazing food, and great conversation with good friends.

I need new shoes

Running shoes, that is. I broke them after running in the marathon last July 4. I used that same pair in my last two marathons so the mileage on those shoes is probably around 400-500 kilometers already. I checked out the shoes in Runnr in Bonifacio High Street a few months ago and even did a running test (or whatever it's called). I was inclined to get a certain pair of shoes there but I wanted to get their input, and interestingly enough, they recommended the most expensive pair - P7,000!- and gave me a P5000+ pair as a secondary recommendation. It seemed that they were just intent on selling their top price items, so I passed on buying a new pair that time.

My friend Alvin who is also into running suggested that I visit Second Wind. I think the original store is in the UP Diliman area, but apparently there is another store in Ortigas Home Depot. I haven't been able to go to the gym recently because I have no athletic shoes, so I need pay a visit to Second Wind one of these days.

Perfect Strangers

Back in the 80s, one of my favorite TV shows was 'Perfect Strangers'. The premise is that Balki Bartokomous, played by Bronson Pinchot, moves from Mypos (a fictional country) to the US and ends up staying with his distant cousin Larry Appleton, played by Mark Linn-Baker. With a lot of cultural and even behavioral differences, Balki and Larry end up in a lot of fun and funny situations.

I enjoyed this show so much that when I discovered that Seasons 1 and 2 of this series were now available on Amazon (I know that it wasn't for years), I made sure to get a copy.


Obviously, this sit-com is about 2 decades old so some of the gags are a bit dated, but I still find it really funny and entertaining. This is due in large part to the lead characters (and of course the actors who play them) and how they are developed as the story progresses.

On top of that, Perfect Strangers one of the the best theme song of any TV show I have ever watched. Check it out:


video uploadd in youtube by Robby520

My brother's birthday

My brother Clemence celebrated his birthday today so I suggested that since my nephews get out of school at around 3:45pm, they could just head to the Ortigas area and we could all have dinner at around 6pm. I suggested that we meet up in Shangri-La Mall so that my nephews could hang out in Quantum if they go their early.

As it turns out, we all arrive there around the same time. We ended up going to Sumo Sam. My nephew CJ looked through the menu and suggested that we get "The Arena", a platter that contains served with gyoza, beef yakitori, oyster teppan, mixed tempura, chicken teriyaki, tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, yasaitame, kani sashimi, and Japanese fried rice.

picture taken from the Sumo Sam facebook page

CJ suggested "The Arena" because he wanted the kani sashimi. Since this platter is good for four, we also ordered gyoza (half of them fried and the other half steamed), seafood yakiudon, and another bowl of Japanese rice.

When our food arrived, CJ tried even the tuna sashimi - he liked the first bites and took another one then decided it wasn't to his liking - squid sashimi (or was it cuttlefish?) which he enjoyed. The interesting thing was that both CJ and my other nephew Ciera enjoyed the oyster teppan! I myself am not a big fan of oysters but the oyster teppan they served was actually quite good and well seasoned. Ciera even said that his favorite dishes were the gyoza and the oyster. This just proves that my nephews tend to prefer "adult food" to kids' food. (I mean, they'd pick fish and chops and pasta with pesto sauce over fried chicken and spaghetti on any given day!)

After dinner, we did end up going to Quantum. I tried the ball drop game and my ball luckily dropped into the 75-point hole, thus earning my 75 tickets. CJ was even luckier as his ball dropped into the Jackpot hole, earning him 100 tickets. A lot more arcade games later and we called it a night. My mom and my grandfather are celebrating their birthdays in a few days so we will be celebrating again on Sunday. Am definitely looking forward to that.

American Idol shake-up

We all know that Simon Cowell won't be sitting as a judge on the next season of American Idol. But as it turns out, Ellen DeGeneres, who made her debut appearance on the show last season, won't be coming back. Read more about it here. It seems she will be replaced by Jennifer Lopez.

But on top of that, there are rumors that Kara DioGuardi won't be coming back as a judge either. There is no confirmation on this just yet, but if it does happen, you'd have only one familiar face on the judging table and a lot of new ones. I'm not sure if this is something the viewing public will appreciate, particularly since the judges play a large part in the show and it will take some time for new people to build rapport with the audience.

Makes me wonder how this will all play out. Not that it matters. I glossed over the last season, and I don't think that I'll be tuning into the next one any more than I did in the last.

Disaster for McLaren

The Hungarian GP did no favors for McLaren as a gearbox failure caused Lewis Hamilton to retire from the race and drop to 2nd place in the Drivers Championship. Mark Webber returns to the top spot after winning his 4th race this season. With Jenson Button finishing 9th and Sebasian Vettel finishing 3rd - could've been 2nd if not for the penalty he incurred late in the race - Red Bull Racing also edge past McLaren in the Constructor's Championship.

Up next: the Belgian Grand Prix. McLaren have three weeks to sort things out. Especially now that Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa of Ferrari are starting to peak.

Save P5 and save the trees

Here's a good way to save money while making a small contribution towards environmental sustainability. If you go to Starbucks every now and then and if you have a Starbucks tumbler (I reckon most people do since it's one of the most popular and easiest gifts to give during Christmas), simply bring your tumbler the next time you visit Starbucks to buy a drink and you will get a P5 discount.

Not only will you be saving money, you will also help reduce the usage of paper cups. With one tree equal to about 2000 paper cups, using your tumbler will help reduce the number of paper cups used and thus, in a small way, reduce the number of trees that are cut down to create these cups.

I now need to check if other coffee shops like Figaro have a similar set-up. But even if they don't, I guess it's good practice to bring your own tumbler and have the coffee shop server your coffee using your tumbler.

Cover version: Beautiful Monster

Check this out. It's a really cool cover version of Ne-Yo's latest hit, Beautiful Monster performed.


video created in youtube by Anth703

A dream within a dream within a dream

That's the concept of Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster "Inception". The film is headlined by Leonardo DiCaprio who plays Dom Cobb, an "extractor" or thought-stealer. He and his team have developed a way to create shared dreams as a means to steal secrets and information from other people by penetrating their subconscious. The conflict: if it is possible to steal thoughts from other people by entering their dreams, then it would also be possible to plant an idea - an "inception", as it is called in the film - that will lead the person to make a decision that they truly believe is their own. Cobb's team are approached (maybe coerced is the more appropriate term?) by a client who wants them to perform an inception on the son of the client's main business rival.

It's a smart and edgy concept, sort of akin to 'The Matrix. There obviously is suspension of disbelief in how they actually manage to create shared dreams and enter the dream state while maintaining conscious control, but the details really sell the idea. You have a team composed of an architect, an extractor, and, well, someone to wake everyone up (I don't what that person is called LOL). There's the induction of a dream within a dream to bring the targets deeper into their subconscious and thus make it more possible to steal their secrets. Then you have the sub-conscious of the target creating "projections" that attack the thought-stealers as a means of self-preservation, and the process by which the extractors can manipulate the thoughts of the target so they actually go against their own subconscious. Other details, like totems, kicks, and time expansion in dreams add more layers to the film that make it a lot more interesting and even believable to watch.

I also appreicated how the story unfolded. I usually lose interest when too many questions are raised for a large part of a film or show without any answers being provided, but that was not the case here. The timing and delivery of both questions and answers, as well as how some answers actually led to more questions, were done in a way that ensured audiences would remain interested and eager to see more. The final series of revelations made by Cobb were both brilliant and chilling, and the suspense and integration of multiple dream levels bring the film to an explosive climax. Of course, with a lot of the story taking place in the dream state, you can be sure that the special effects would be off the hook.

I guess my only criticism of this film is the ending. I found the final scene a bit too predictable, but whenever you have revolutionary concepts in film, there is just no easy way to end it. That said, "Inception" is a must-watch. Just make sure you bring your brain with you when you go into the movie theater as this film will definitely make you think.

Ticket

P500 for making a U-turn in a supposedly no U-turn area. Sucks.

I actually didn't know you couldn't make a U-turn where I did. I was along the Ortigas side of Shaw trying to go to Makati and my initial plan was to turn left once I got to Edsa. Unfortunately, I ended up on the wrong side of the road and couldn't go under the Shaw flyover anymore, so I had to go over it. I decided I could just make a U-turn once I crossed the flyover. I didn't see any No U-turn signs so I U-turned. And a few meters after I did, traffic enforcers blocked my path and told me to move to the side of the road.

Apparently, Shaw is a National road and you are not allowed to make a U-turn when you are on it, at least on the Mandaluyong side. The traffic enforcer pointed to the solid line in the middle of the road that indicated you couldn't turn there. He actually also said you couldn't make a left turn, but I was thinking, there are buildings on the left side of the road, so how are you supposed to get there if you couldn't cross the solid line?

Anyways, since I'm probably one of the scant few people in Manila who don't really want to give traffic enforcers any money to look the other way, I just had him write me a ticket. I had to surrender my license which meant I also had to pick it up at the Mandaluyong City Hall. The ticket cost me P500 and the trip to City Hall used up about an hour and a half of my time so it was definitely more economical for me to have just passed the enforcer a P100 bill, but I don't really like encouraging that kind of behavior. So I guess I just need to make sure not to break any traffic rules in the future. (Or well, at least not when traffic enforcers are around LOL.)

Cats in Manila! :)

The fountains of CCP were on full show last weekend. Cats, the musical, made its way to Manila. It was headlined by none other than the magnificent Lea Salonga and my family got to see the matinee show on Saturday.

The show was incredible! Singing incredibly well is difficult enough as it is, and so is dancing with brilliant technique. It's often quite impressive when people can sing and dance well, but when people can dance and sing at an impossibly high level at the same time, it just blows my mind. Everyone in the cast was really amazing. I especially like how the cast sang "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" in a very muted way. According to the program, since the cats are just meeting the audience for the first time, they are still quite suspicious so singing very quietly, almost as if they were purring, is meant to convey this doubt.

And of course, the production value! The set, the lighting the make-up, and the costumes were all fantastic. It doesn't surprise me that Cats won Tony Awards for costume design and lighting design.

One really cool moment in the show was in the beginning of the second act, during the song "The Moments of Happiness" which has a portion of the song Memory in it. One of the cats actually sings this song with the lyrics translated to Filipino! Normally audiences do not applaud in the middle of song numbers but after this translated verse, we just immediately had to show our appreciation.

Another really cool thing about the show is that about halfway through the intermission, a few cats, in full character and costume, started interacting with the audience. As they were in character even while amidst the crowd, they did not pose for photos, but audience members could walk up to them and take photos. We were able to take a photo of my mom with one of the cats! :)


Of course, for all the Filipinos in the crowd, the highlight was Lea Salonga's rendition of Memory. Or rather, of Memory (Reprise). The tonal quality of Lea's voice along with her amazing technique, phenomenal power, and impeccable control ensured that her rendition of this Andrew Lloyd Webber classic brought the house down. The thunderous applause she got after her performance lasted a while and echoed through the walls of CCP.

I'm really pleased that I have now been able to watch two big musicals in CCP - Miss Saigon (years ago, also with Lea in the cast) and now Cats. My mom bought the tickets several months ago - back in December, I think? - and she managed to get them on a promotional discount so our orchestra tickets were purchased at 30% off. We got really good seats too, right smack in the middle. And it's good she bought them then because I've heard that tickets are sold out and they have in fact extended the run. I hope the success of Cats brings more world-class musicals to the Philippines.

*****

After the show, we had dinner in Sizzling Pepper Steak right next to CCP. If you ever get to visit this restaurant and you still have room for dessert, I suggest that you try the Turtle Cheesecake. It's cheescake which caramel, almonds, and cocoa powder, and it was really good!! Sizzling Pepper Steak doesn't have coffee in its menu, but we were allowed to purchase coffee from Starbucks and bring it inside.

Team building in Island Cove

What a Friday it was! Our department had a team building event in Island Cove and was a blast! I was worried it wouldn't turn out well coz I was running on very low battery to begin with - I had been sorta sick for the past few days and I ended up having only 1.5 hours of sleep! I wasn't in very good condition, and the sore throat and hoarse voice gave me little confidence that I could pull of the 5 songs I had to sing that night (6 if you count the song I would be singing back-up for). But a lot of water and fluids as well as several doses of Kamillosan during the day helped keep me positive.

The games were a lot of fun too. Some of my favorite moments:

• I successfully guessed Mt. Apo in "Pinoy Henyo"
• I got wrapped up as a mummy while others formed pyramids in our photo-shoot for the Best Egyptian pose (we won that!)
• A few teammates and I figured out - in only a couple of minutes - the sequence of "countries" that we visited as well as the corresponding flags

But my absolute favorite moment came during the logic question. We were given 5 first names, 5 last names, and 5 countries that each person likes to visit and you had to match each first name with a last name and a country based on the 5 clues given. Our big boss plus two other managers were in our team, and a lot of folks were trying to solve it. I initially left several people to solve it - this is one of those cases where too many cooks spoil the broth - but after a while I wanted to apply a different methodology to solve it so I got the question and tried solving it again. A couple of my teammates assisted me and in only a few minutes, I figured it out! I was so proud. :)

The night event while lasting more than four hours was also fun. The organizers gave the band 30 minutes to play at the start of the event and another 30 minutes at the end to kick off the party. And it turned out fantastic! This despite my bad voice LOL. Our setlist:

Set 1:

• "Wavin' flag" by K'naan (theme from the World Cup - I sang the bass back-up vocals)
• "King of Pain" by the Police (I was so pleased I pulled it off given that it's a tough song to sing and I wasn't in the best condition)
• "Hungry like the wolf" by Duran Duran
  
• "I want you to want me" by Letters to Cleo
  
• "Basket Case" by Greenday
• "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake (I performed this, although we kinda adopted the Poison version and rocked it out a bit)
• "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses

Set 2:

• "Ignition Remix" by R Kelly (I sang this, can you believe it? :))
• "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha
• "Take you there" by Sean Kingston (I performed this as well, the band practiced this for our team building last year but it didn't push through, and we couldn't play it in our Christmas party last year as well, so this performance was a year in the making :))
• "Empire State of mind" by Alicia Keys and Jay-Z
• "California Girls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg
• "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers (everyone in the crowd was singing along with me for this song)

In our final set, everyone in the audience got really into it. They were singing and dancing along with us and the energy from the crowd made us feel like rock stars. :)

I ended up going home that night actually. Due to a strange series of events, I got dumped in a room with 6 other people who I didn't know at all (and apparently our room had been turned into party central, with more people I didn't know being invited to the room), and there was just no easy way for me to find another room I could crash coz everyone was already partying. So I asked Island Cove reception for instructions on how to get back to Manila using public transportation at 1am. Net - I took a tricycle and two jeepneys to get to Baclaran where I had a midnight snack in McDonald's before taking a taxi home. The hot shower I took once I got home felt amazing! :)

"Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks

Incredible song from 1981 by the amazing Stevie Nicks (and yes, Stevie is female :)).


video uploaded in youtube by VirtualMusicGoddess

This song was re-popularized in the last decade by School of Rock (it was featured in the film when Jack Black's character plays it in a juke box while he's trying to get Joan Cusack's character drunk in a bar). Lindsay Lohan has a cover version of this song, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original.

Oh and if the guitar riff sounds familiar, it was sampled in "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child.

Joe Cole joins Liverpool

Last season's English Premier League left me bitterly disappointed with Liverpool's poor showing, and up until a couple of months ago, it wasn't certain that Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres would stay on with the club.

As it turns out, both ace stars are going to remain with Liverpool, and to fan the flames of my hopes that 2010-2011 will be a better season, the club also signs Joe Cole. Gerrard, Torres, and Cole all in the same team. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Karaoke party

Last Saturday, I organized a big karaoke party for our band org at work. I was expecting about 20 or more people to attend, so when an hour had passed and I will still the only person in a room that could fit 40 people, I was starting to get really disappointed. A few people arrived and for about a couple of hours there were 6 of us - mostly new members.

It was only until around two and a half to three hours in that more people came in - most of them being the original few members of the org and it felt a lot like a old school reunion of sorts. I was expecting to wrap up after 4 hours - we only had enough budget to pay for that much time - but with most people coming in really late, we ended up extending until around 2:30am, with everyone starting to get pretty loud and crazy after midnight.

It was a lot of fun, and I must say I was really happy that it allowed some of the new members to get to meet and bond with the older people. Thanks to everyone who attended: Jody, Ainah, Mon L., Omar, Kiko, Thea, Jef, Ja, RJ, Jong, Philip, and Gie. :)

"Gravity" by Sara Bareilles

An amazing song that is so beautifully sung.


Uploaded in youtube by user plum2poulet

Family lunch at Romulo's

Romulo's is a fairly new restaurant in the Tomas Morato area, located at the corner of Scout Tuason and Scout Dr. Lazcano. It is owned by the family of Carlos P. Romulo offers really good yet affordable Pinoy cuisine.


My family had lunch here a few Sundays ago as a belated Father's Day celebration. My grandfather was unavailable during Father's Day itself so we scheduled a trip to in Romulo's a week after.

I really like the ambience. It's really cozy and comfortable and the decor and color scheme make you feel quite at home. The service is also quite commendable, with waiters very quick to customer needs.


(Side note: My friend Anj recently told me to include food photos when I write about restaurants I visit so here's my lame attempt at a food blog LOL. Notice how most of the shots are out of focus - everyone was so hungry that I just took quick pics of the food as they arrived without constructing the shots properly. :))

Some of our favorite items were the Flying Tilapia with three sauces (sweet chili garlic, honey bagoong, and pickled ampalaya in soy vinegar),


the Ginataang Hipon sa Kamias,


and the Bagnet Pakbet.
Other menu items we ordered: Lengua, Pork Belly Humba, Bangus Belly, and Sisig Rice. We also had some dessert to cap off our wonderful meal. We ordered two items (actually we ended up ordering two of each since my nephews enjoyed them): for local Pinoy flavor, we ordered the Suman (check out the cool presentation)


And for some international flavor, we also ordered the Lava Rock (really good chocolate cake ala mode).


Most of the items we ordered were in the P200-300 range, so for the ambience, great food, and excellent service, that's really good value for money. Hopefully, I can enjoy another meal in Romulo's soon.