taken at the press room of the recently concluded 19th philippine advertising congress held at the waterfront hotel in cebu city. wala lang. mig ayesa is one cool dude.Tuesday, November 29, 2005
one-on-one
taken at the press room of the recently concluded 19th philippine advertising congress held at the waterfront hotel in cebu city. wala lang. mig ayesa is one cool dude.
Monday, November 28, 2005
let the countdown begin
six days and counting.
i'll be back in hell-ey by saturday night. in time for our christmas party on sunday. yes, christmas party. on the 4th of december. 21 days before christmas day. three weeks. wow.
grabe, it's called ratsada.
anyhow, had a great lunch and coffee with a some of my "oldest" friends. 15 years and counting. hah. met up with some of my freshman college friends. had lunch at masas in greenbelt 3. then coffee at cbtl, where else. the longest lunch/coffee in the world. hehehe. guys, see you wherever soon.
lagare
some of the best days in this trip of mine were spent at home, with my family and my nieces. sigh. too bad i didn't get to spend more time with them. oh well.
left manila early on sunday morning to have lunch and dinner with my family and come back to makati around 9ish in the evening.
need to write some stuff. blog updates to resume soon.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
st. louis loves dem filipinos
that's the title of the pinoy musical i watched at the afp theater today. it's a reincarnation of the straight play i watched in up more than a decade ago when it premiered.
the musical was very good and the actors who performed were good as well. i missed franco laurel though, since it was joaquin valdes, the other guy who performed the role of fred tinawid, the show's "story-teller." isay alvarez was very effective in her role as the wife of the protagonist bulan, performed by arnold reyes.
too bad, not a lot of people were at the afp theater when i watched. (it was the penultimate show)
taken with my camera phone. the producer asked us to move to the middle row since the place was not packed.Friday, November 25, 2005
no freaking way
dunzo. that's laguna beach talk for 'the end'. and it's happening with alias which will air its last episode in may. which means there will no longer be a sixth season. dunzo.
i am saddened by the news, but as fans, what can we do?
could it be that our dear old j.j. has decided to abandon alias because he has landed this little-known movie called mission impossible 3 starring this little-known actor named tom cruise? or could it be because he has decided to concentrate on this little-known show called lost, now on its second season?
whatever the reason is, consider me pissed.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
happy thanksgiving people
'you're gonna miss your turkey this year,' my friend told me earlier.
i told her, 'there's not much to miss.'
i was half-lying. there is much to miss. not the turkey though. the sale! the freaking sale. at best buy, circuit city, fry's. and then the outlet stores at the cabazon or camarillo this weekend. gee, i am breaking tradition. sorry friends. just continue the tradition without me. and i wish you the best of luck in trying to find the best sale there is. j e-mailed me earlier and told me that our friend p is going to camp out at best buy so he can be one of the first hundred who can buy a laptop for $299. damn.
anyway, it has been a very hectic week.
arrived from cebu late sunday night. then monday, we went to tagaytay highlands for a meeting. had lunch there. salpicao. yum.
then tuesday was the meeting with department of tourism. small world, saw a college class-mate. wala lang. he works there. worked from 8 to 5 today. 8 am to 5 am the next day. i was close to clocking in 24 hours. damn.
since it's gonna be thanksgiving this thursday, the ofc in la decided to proceed with the go to press for the sf edition. too bad, manila was not advised about it. half-advised was more like it. so by the time it was 12 midnight, we were rushing like fools to meet la's deadline. got to my hotel shortly before daybreak. oh well.
i think i am coming down with a flu. i hope not. i don't wanna get sick. i hate being sick.
random thoughts on a random evening
my friends back in la will tease me as soon as they see me. they'd say i put on weight again. if that is at all possible.
oh well. why would i not. i've been eating the best food this planet has to offer. no kidding.
the past week has seen me eating with my various sets of friends and co-workers in different dining places that i definitely recommend.
this week, went to dampa in libis. first time there. the concept is the same with the original in paranaque. buy stuff (and by stuff i mean seafoods, meat, fruits, etc) at the market (located at the back of the place). bring the fresh food to the weighing station. choose which kitchen will cook your meal (at libis, there were l6 to 7 kitchens). leave the merchandise and get inside the dining hall and wait for your food.
what we had: a kilo of suahe (shrimp) deep-fried. yum, crispy! about a kilo of tanguige made into kinilaw. yum also. just like the way they do it in davao. a medium pompano became pinaputok na pompano. a kilo (mixed) of marinated pork belly. marinated in soy sauce and calamansi was yummier than the one mixed with garlic and pepper. a kilo of tuna belly became sinigang sa miso. plus a medium watermelon. had lots of left-over but the food was great. i broke into sweat when i sampled the kinilaw because it was peppered with siling labuyo.
then, with my dorm friends. went to pier one in tomas morato. i thought that pier one was just an inuman place. i didn't know they served food.
what we had: grilled pusit, grilled tadyang ng baka, sinigang na ulo ng maya maya, kilayin, gising gising and cripy pata. the guys had steamed rice, i opted for the aligue fried rice. everything was consumed fast, except for the stuff i ordered: kilayin and gising gising. their kilayin looked like tinumis, tasted a bit like kilayin but nothing compared to how my mom cooks it. the gising gising i ordered because i liked the gising gising at both sentro and recipes. who knew that pier one's gising gising is like everyplace's salt-addled chop suey. bad. i finished my aligue rice. not the kilayin and gising gising.
for dessert, we went to annabel lee. our friend e has been wanting to go there. when all of us saw each other last march, we wanted to go to annabel lee but for the love of god, we could not find the damn place. this time, we found it. in fact, we just walked from pier one to annabel lee. we had a host of different drinks and mango cheesecake and ube/pandan cheesecake. i thought. it was not cheesecake. it was almost cheesecake. it was good.
for lunch. gerry's grill on jupiter. what we had: oriental-style sashimi, mango salad, bulalo, tinomok, sinuglaw, puso ng saging. tinomok is like bicol express and laing. meatballs are wrapped in gabi leaves and then cooked like laing. sinuglaw (i think this is a dencio's word) is a mix of kinilaw na tanguigue and grilled pork belly. puso ng saging with ground meat is good. my mom's version? still way better.
met up with my "oldest" friend for dinner at megamall. went to rai rai ken. had sukiyaki and niniku garlic gyoza while m had katsudon. my sukiyaki was good. it also cost half the amount i would normally pay for a decent sukiyaki in little tokyo. not bad. the gyoza was flavorful. we were supposed to cap the night with a cup of hot chocolate at cafe xocolat but they were already closed by the time we got there. bummer. headed to seattle's best instead. had white chocolate mocha. i'm such a sucker for white chocolate mocha. it's the same stuff i ordered from annabel lee last nyt.
and i still wonder how i gain weight fast. hah!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
huling hirit cebu
okay, before i leave all my cebu experiences and keep it in a vault, here are two photos. stolen, as usual.
here's drew arellano (in orange!) at the airport in mactan. he hosted a segment of the gma7-sponsored dinner at the ad congress with love anover. i used to see him a lot on tfc when he was still with wazzup, wazzup. such a dork. he reminds me of d. hahaha. there.
and here's mateo, the filipino-italian kid. he's one of penshoppe's club pen models (saw his billboard on edsa on our way to the airport, that's why i thought he looked familiar when i saw him in cebu boarding the same flight). my friend m told me that this kid, at 15 is also a racer and also endorses pepsi and swatch. some lucky dude.
okay. now cebu is over and done with. except for this beautiful scene. taken at plantation bay.
now that's more than enough reason to plan my return to the queen city.
Monday, November 21, 2005
heard in cebu
i'm not going to tell na lang which hotel, but in one of our meals...
my boss: (to the waitress) okay, i'll get this, this, and that.
waitress: okay sir.
my boss: oh, puwede palang makahingi ng cream of mushroom (pointing to the menu)
waitress: (in all seriousness) ay sir, hindi puwede.
my boss: bakit?
waitress: sir, may bayad po.
yun lang.
(how fun. just finished a meeting. i am at the coffee bean in greenbelt blogging. thanks wi-fi.)
scene in cebu, part deux
okay, so after the stressing part of the ad congress was over and done with, we hied off to the beautiful shangri-la mactan. we were sipping our frozen cocktails when guess who arrives, without much fanfare?
constantine maroulis. american idol finalist. the ayala group (i found out later) brought him to manila to light the ayala christmas tree (why him, i have no idea) and brought him to cebu for a special anniversary concert for ayala cebu.
anyway, we talked with the communications director of shangri-la mactan and she told us that constantine's manager called them up and asked for a massage. hah. perks of a semi rock star. shang mactan just launched its ultra chic spa earlier this year. heard it's really good there. if i have the time soon, maybe i'll try it. bottomline: constantine wanted a spa. he got one.
fast forward to last night at the airport. guess who we saw there again? constantine again, but of course. gee, i am having a constantine overload. enough. we went to the mabuhay lounge and guess who was there? eddie gutierrez and anabelle rama. hah. and constantine.
si constantine, sa mactan international airport. wala lang.while waiting for our luggage, i noticed this guy who's face i have been seeing on billboards all over manila. he was in our flight din. i think his name is mateo something. italian pinoy who's only 15. he's one of the new faces of penshoppe. remember club pen?
Friday, November 18, 2005
rocking in cebu
okay, so finally i found time to write something.
actually, erase that. i have been writing a lot in the past few days that i have not squeezed in time to write something here.
anyway, i am in the queen city of the south. that's cebu, of course. the opening of the 19th philippine advertising congress yesterday was rocking! mig ayesa flew in and he sang about 3 songs. he brought the house down.
lea salonga completed the 1-2 punch. she had a duet with mig and they sang the congress' theme. it was a good show.
the sessions were quite long, and tiring. i'm not complaining even if i had to wake up at 5:30 so we could be at the registration early. whew. the organizers were kinda uhm, disorganized. not organized organized. we pre-registered but when we got there, they could not find our names.
so search they did. more searching. finally, they found our names. but no photos, even if we submitted the photos way ahead of the dealine. so we had to line up and have our pics taken. kinda high-tech. oh well.
saw some old friends, former co-workers and college buddies (and crushes). hahaha. i am so dead.
i am at the lobby of the waterfront hotel and i just finished emailing two stories to LA so it could reach them in time for the press day for the weekend edition. i did the stories this afternoon. met with j earlier. he's a friend from LA and i haven't seen him for almost two years. last time i saw him was in san francisco pa. did some catching up.
some kinda star-strucky night. drew arellano was in da house. wazzup, wazzup. hahaha. he was one of the evening's hosts at the dinner sponsored by gma. with him were love anover, jaya, allan k, some starlets...my ears are bleeding with the kapuso theme which kept on playing over and over and over again. also that theme from gma's new koreanovela called jewel in the palace. stop it. stop it. now!
they gave out almost a million pesoses in raffle prizes. i won. i wish. i have no luck at all when it comes to raffles, remember? tough luck.
okidoks, i'll continue my updating...maybe tomorrow. maybe not.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
scene in cebu
mig ayesa being interviewed in the press room by a local gma talent. after this interview, mig had a one-on-one interview. with me. and this is me grinning. wala lang.Monday, November 14, 2005
regine reigns with 'reflections'
okay, so i caught regine velasquez' show at the aliw theater with a friend last saturday.
i had the 'okay, i've heard her a lot' feeling so i was really not expecting a lot from the concert. which was a good thing. a very good thing.
while she still had all those birit moments (what's a regine show without them?), the show had its fair share of silence and subtlety, which i loved as much as (if not more) than her vocal calisthenics.
it was money well-spent. 880 pesos. row v. not bad.
she must have sung close to thirty songs, if i am not mistaken. yeah, it was that sulit. she sang mariah and whitney, kuh and sharon, sheena easton, some of her own hits, barbra streisand. heck, she even sang spice girls, fer cryin out loud!
one more thing that i really loved? hearing her sing songs live for the very first time. which means that she decided to sing not those all-too familiar songs she used to sing, but the songs she grew up to, songs that have particularly deeper meaning for her, songs performed by the artists she looked up to when she was growing up.
and here's one of regine's guests: ai ai de las alas. she practically stole the entire show from regine with her witty antics and her birits as well. here, while singing on the wings of love with regine, ai ai glides with her butterfly wings (and harness).
damn blogger. i converted both this and the constantine poster to become vertical but it always uploads like this. shoot.
constantine & MiG
constantine maroulis and mig ayesa are in town. woohoo.
saw this poster of constantine's at greenbelt 4 earlier.
mig is going to perform at the opening of the ad congress in cebu. which means that i am going to see him. woohoo! and guess who else will be performing? lea salonga. hoot!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
sorry, martha
and now, this piece of news. nbc tells martha stewart: you're fired!
or rather, we're not going to renew your show for another season. sorry.
too bad, i kinda liked watching this show. i saw around 4 episodes, no more, no less. oh well.
jack's. just jack's
had a wonderful evening with a really great friend and her probee earlier at jack's (the fort strip).
it was dinner and dessert and we just stayed there for hours. for four hours! time flies fast when you're having a really good conversation about anything and everything under the sun. by the time we got out of jack's there were already a lot of people outside. hey, it's a friday and i guess people just want to hang out and de-stress themselves.
the only thing i did not like? traffic to the fort from salcedo was terrible. it took me forever (and a hundred twenty pesoses) to reach my destination. it's just great that i plan ahead, so i was not late. hehehe.
i had my favorite salpicao dish. yum. last september, i vowed to stay off from salpicao since i had a salpicao overload then. how could i say no? it's good i followed my instinct. their version was good, garlicky without it over-powering the beef's tenderness and flavor. oh goodness.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Shangri-la
Just got back from the grand launching party of St. Francis Towers at the Shangri-la Place. St. Francis is the second condo project of the Kuok Group after the Shang Tower in Makati.
Earlier during lunch time, we attended the media party for the launch. I won something! For once. Some stuff from Crabtree & Evelyn. Oh well.
The program earlier was hosted by Angel Aquino. I wanted to talk to her and reminisce (hah!) but we had to leave early. Saw some Pinoy celebs. Hahaha. Babaw. Mother Lily Monteverde arrived with a full force of starlets and wannabes. Some notables? Iya Villania, Paolo Paraiso, Tonton Gutierrez, Katya Santos, Ian Veneracion, Bianca King, Jeffrey Hidalgo.
The model units are beautiful. I am particularly smitten with the one-bedroom designs. The studio units were awesome as well. One studio unit costs at least 3 million pesoses! Damn. A total of 1,200 units (from studio to 2-bedroom units) will be delivered in 2008.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Bruno
That’s the name of my new friend. How I got top meet him? Read on.
I worked 24 hours straight last Monday (if you think that is not possible, in my world, I tell you it is) so after clocking in about four hours of sleep after a day-long work, I dragged my ass to Shangri-la Mall to have lunch at 3 pm. On my way there, I dropped by the StarMall (formerly called Manuela) to visit their cell phone district. I badly needed a charger for my Sony Ericcson since I brought the wrong charger. How stupid. Anyhow, with my bargaining talent, I got one for a hundred bucks. How cool is that. I hope it works.
I crossed over to Shangri-la because I needed some pampering. Hah. How fitting.
I went straight to the guard to ask if there were any salons in the mall.
Me: Excuse me, may salon po ba ditto?
Guard: Ah oo, meron.
Me: Saan po?
Guard: Sa fifth level po sir.
Me: Ano pong pangalan?
Guard: Shoe Salon
I think I fainted.
Shoe Salon. At Shangri-la Mall.
So I went up the different levels of the mall to see who could give me a decent haircut. My last two trips to Manila saw me going back to David’s my trusted salon back when I was still based here. The first one was in Megamall, the last one in Glorietta. Needless to say, I was left kinda expecting for more.
So this time, I was not going to David’s.
On the fourth level, I saw hope. Closer look: Ricky Reyes. Hmmm. No. Thank You. But I had to have my haircut. Now. So I relented, went in and asked. The people were snooty. “Wala pong available. Isang oras pa po!” So much for treating customers nicely. I said Thank God, and scurried outside.
An escalator ride up introduced me to my new friend Bruno. He was so inviting I found myself getting inside. I was not waiting long when my stylist uhmm barber appeared. He whisked me to my chair.
At first, I was taken aback when he checked my hair. I don’t know but maybe it’s my shampoo here or the weather or whatever. I’ve got flakes. Nasty flakes. “Ay, may dandruff kayo sir!” he said matter-of-factly.
Slightly embarrassed, I let out a silent “Oo nga eh.”
He asked if I wanted to get it treated. I might have said yes.
After my haircut, he brought me to the lavatories at the back and washed my hair. He led me back to my chair and showed me the oil/liniment he was going to use. He brought out a brush that felt like steel brush on my scalp and started scraping my head. At first, I thought I was gonna bleed.
He massaged my head with the oil. Brought out the heating thing (you know when people want to have their hair permed?) and asked me to just relax. He massaged my left hand, my right hand, my back, all while my head was being heated by this thing. After about an hour, he led me back to the lavatories, shampooed my hair, rinsed it, put some conditioner, rinsed. My hair was in nirvana. Never has it been pampered this way.
Back to the chair. He gave me a quick head massage that felt really good. Really good. And then he did the unexpected. He started kneading/mashing/massaging my face. It felt funny, but it was not. It looked funny as well. It was gooood. If I can, I’ll try to do it on my own soon.
Some more massage here and there and I was ready to go. Hello, world.
At the counter, I asked how much I had to pay. P590. 10 dollars and change. I pay this amount at Fantastic Sam’s and I get about a fraction of what I experienced with Bruno. Hay, life. Ang saya saya. I’ll try to meet with Bruno again before I fly back to hell-ey. He’s that good. I wouldn’t mind returning for a second round.
Happy
Had dinner with some ABS friends at Gilligan’s Island near ABS. We went driving all over Morato and Timog to find out where we’d eat. There were a lot of choices and we were tempted quite a lot but we settled for some place we haven’t tried. This was Guilly’s.
My friends decided to eat light. I was the only one who was hungry so I ordered what I wanted: bottomless iced tea (here I go with all my bottomless stuff), fresh lumpiang ubod and binagoongang lechon kawali. Yes, you read it right. The lumpia was delicions but the BLK rocked my freaking world. My friends who wanted to eat light ended up eating from my plate.
Among the stuff we shared: garlic mushroom, vegetarian spaghetti (for my vegan friend) and sizzling seafood. Yum!
I am happy that I am here, that I have time to spend with my friends again. Friends, old and new. By the way, I have a new friend. Nice!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Sam Milby Overload
Yes, if there is such a thing: I am having a Sam Milby overload.
Let me tell you who Sam Milby is. He is one of the Pinoy Big Brother housemates, who unfortunately (depending on whose side you are on) got evicted last Saturday.
Jianne, my four-year old niece was somehow affected when Sam got the boot, according to my sister-in-law. She apparently remarked, “Ang cute niya no Ma?” My niece knows her boys. Hahaha. My two other nieces are also PBB viewers.
Anyway, Sam has been hogging the limelight from the moment he joined the house as a replacement for a housemate who had to leave the house to attend to her dying father. This Fil-Am looker (formerly based in Dayton, Ohio) has got it made.
[edited to add] Stayed up kinda late last night and I was able to catch Kontrobersyal on ABS. And what do you know, Boy Abunda has an interview with Sam. For the first time, they showed long video clips of him figure skating. He’s quite good, if I may say. Triple salchows, double axels, he nailed them all.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Blogging in Honolulu
That should sound sweet. Ho-no-lu-lu. But it doesn’t. Too bad. I’m here for the required “technical stop” for almost one hour. One hour!
They should just have allowed us to sleep. Or perhaps, outside the aircraft to smell the fresh air that Hawaii has to offer. But no, due to heightened security, no one was allowed to leave the plane. No one was allowed to leave our seats as well. Hah!
It has been a very stressful night.
It was agreed upon that we would meet at the airport at 6:30 pm. I was there with my friend J at 6:20. I was advised to wait, so wait I did. And wait, wait, wait.
Finally, about 7:15, I was told to have my baggage x-rayed. So I went to the X-ray are and had my baggage x-rayed. An airport employee then escorted me back to the airline counters. By now, I am no longer supposed to touch any of my checked-in baggage. I have 3. My usual 2 Samsonites and a small traveller’s bag containing chocolates (tons of Ferrero) from the office, chocolates for the Manila people from my former roomie M, P’s stuff for his dad and some other stuff.
By 7:30, my boss and his friends arrived. They went straight to the First Class/Business Class checking in. By now, I have let more than 10 people in my line to go ahead of me because I was waiting for them. My boss then motioned for me to join them in their queue.
Bottomline: I have problems with my tickets (as I figured the moment I got them). On departure and arrival, both said “OPEN”. I didn’t mind about my Manila departure being open, but my flight tonight should assure me that I am in. But it said, it was open.
It turns out that the flight is complete full. No, erase that. Over-sold. Which means that there will be a waiting list. And obviously, I was going to be in that list. The problem with waiting lists is the fact that they can kick you whenever they want to, whenever someone with a higher stature (i.e. Mabuhay Miles Elite or Mabuhay Miles Premiere Elite) wants to get in the flight.
I was not really keeping my hopes up. It didn’t help that between me and my boss, we had a total of 10 pieces of checked in luggage, 3 for me and 7 for him. In fairness, his 7 included 2 artist’s portfolio. But then again, that was five.
So we decided to just leave the chocolates behind since it would be costly for us to pay for excess baggage.
That was probably the longest stay I have had in front of an airport counter. No kidding. It was excruciatingly stressful. In the meantime, the plane has started boarding passengers. Okay, so I won’t make it. Big deal! Yeah, big deal. I’ve got almost everything planned already. Hate it when that doesn’t happen. Sure, I can be left oif from this flight but for sure, I’d be in tomorrow’s flight. How’s that for peace of mind?
“What? What do you mean I am not confirmed in tomorrow’s flight if I get bumped off tonight? What the flying f*ck?”
Expletives not actually said. I was just so frustrated.
It turns out that the problem lies on my ticket. My freaking tickets. Which arrived in my office at 3:00 pm. Less than six hours before my flight! The type of ticket that was given me was not “allowed” to be confirmed in events such as this. It’s like the bottom feeder tickets. Damn.
How pathetic was that!
Anyway, thank God for my angels. My name was called. My friend J was still there. I left him the bag of chocolates, I hope he doesn’t eat em all. Hahaha. Kidding! Thanks for staying with me.
So off to boarding.
There were only less than ten people in the line when I reached my gate. Tough luck, everyone was in the plane already. In the middle of the tube, there was this mean-looking rude guy (there’s a reason I am tagging him as the mean-looking rude guy). He had a weighing scale (uh oh) and he was asking a couple to leave more than half of their hand-carried baggage since they were over weight. I pitied the couple so I must have stared a little longer. The mean-looking rude guy then singled me out.
“Hey you!”
He was calling me. He ordered me to put my carry on luggage on top of the sacle. It recorded 26.5. By now, I was already furious, yet fearful. Furious because he let hundreds go before me (they were all still in the tube) and I know for a fact that these people did not have just 20 lbs in their hand-carried bags. Fearful because he might ask me to weigh my messenger bag.
Gathering all my wits, I told him that I had nothing there but this laptop. I showed him the laptop case. Thank God he did not see the rest of my bag’s contents. It was 18.5 when the guy at the economy queue asked me to weigh it.
So he relented. He said. “Over yung handcarry niyo sir Next time, bawasan niyo ng 6.5 pounds.” Okay, mental note.
I said, “Okay po” and he let me go. My problem was over. The couple’s problem was still there. I pity the person who would be nosy enough to stare at them on his way to the tube.
So I finally went to my seat. 34G. Aisle seat.
I attempted to put my luggage on the overhead bin when I realized that my contact lens stuff was at the back pocket of the bag. I brought the luggage down, and on its way to my chair came a loud thud.
“Aray, array, araaaaaay!” a middle-aged woman screamed. The corner of my 26.5 lb bag hit her head. I had no idea what I was gonna do. I apologized profusely. Others came to her rescue, asking her what happened. She pointed at me.
I felt as if I had raped her and the people within a few rows had dagger looks directed at me. Just my luck. I wanted to disappear!
I settled on my seat. I realize later she was seated behind me. 35H. I could feel her stares slicking my back. Stop it!
Then she asked for the flight attendant. She wanted ice. This was not good. She told the FA what happened and now her head, or at least part of her had was starting to swell. My goodness. When will this end?
Anyway, I decided to sleep but I couldn’t. I decided to watch what was being screened. It was ‘The Island’ starring Scarlet Johanson and Ewan McGregor. I’ve never seen the movie before so it was a pleasant surprise watching it. Some futuristic look gave me an idea what Los Angeles would be like in the next century. Not that I’d still be here. Oh well, I’m going nowhere.
That was the past five and a half hours in capsule.
And I am reporting live from Honolulu!
Friday, November 04, 2005
brokeback mountain
i brough my friend j last night to an advance screening of the film 'brokeback mountain' directed by the awesome ang lee.
the story is quite universal as universal is. the only difference is, this is a romantic love story between two cowboys who meet and fall in love while working together as sheep ranch hands near Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain. in middle freaking america. yeah, the red states. in 1963! damn. and the film follows this romantic tale between the two that stretches for 20 years! double damn.
it stars jake gyllenhaal and heath ledger. (i've seen jake quite a number of times, sipping coffee by fred 62 along vermont/los feliz.) he gave a very fantastic and really believable performance that i do hope he gets recognized by the critics. heath was very good as well, especially in the last few scenes. no, i am not gonna give away the details. click here for the trailer.
there are places we can't return
there are lies we have to tell
there are truths we can't deny
after the film screening at the fine arts theater in beverly hills, one of the people from variety (the sponsor of the screening) went onstage and called on ang lee. it was such a pleasure listening to this man who, with his brilliant direction of commercial and non-commercial films, has broken into mainstream hollywood. he's a role model, i think, for the thousands of asian-americans who want to make it big someday.
and my new favorite movie quote: i wish i knew how to quit you!
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
going home
yup. i am going home. again. by home, i mean manila. the philippines. [insert nostalgic memories here]
super short notice. i did not want to announce it because it might get moved to a later date (like what happened last week). anyway, to all my friendships in manila (and cebu!), i'll see you again soon. i'm leaving los angeles this friday.
i'm quite excited about this trip because i am making a side trip to cebu to attend the 19th philippine ad congress at the waterfront hotel. damn. i miss cebu. i've been there more than ten times in the past because of my previous work and i've been to every town and city, from mandaue to carcar, from bantayan island to moalboal. anyway, the trip will be short so i'll try to make the most out of it.
the past few days saw my relatives visiting me with their padalas. that is such a filipino trait. padala. pasalubong. i am all for keeping up the tradition, but then...
anyhow. belated happy halloween!
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