huwaaaaat? my iPod has run out of space for my music? damn it. damn it! i should have bought the 60gb. shoulda. oh well, i need to clean my hard drive and remove all unwanted songs. i can't believe i've reached my quota. remember my birthday dinner last year? yes, the one at taste, along melrose?
yes, that one. the one where we saw ryan phillippe having dinner with a lady who didn't look like reese. hehehe. called it then, almost 15 months ago.
now the news that hollywood's golden couple, ryan and reese, have separated.
sigh. theyw ere together for seven years. could it be the 7-year-itch? or 5 and a half year itch? (if everything started last year). and mr. phillippe, who was that lady you were having a lovely dinner with on august 2nd last year at lucques?
oh well. relationships. someone out there help me restore my belief!
Exhibit Featuring Present-Day Filipinos Set to Premiere
'I Am Today's Filipino' Closes LA Fil-Am Centennial Celebration
'I Am Today’s Filipino,' a first of its kind photo/video exhibit that celebrates and documents the numerous stories of one hundred, present-day Filipino-Americans from various walks of life, is set to make its much-anticipated premiere on October 28 and 29 at the Farmani Gallery in Beverly Hills.
The exhibit marks the culminating event in the year-long calendar of the LA/Southern California Filipino American Centennial Commemoration Committee.
"The exhibit depicts the current make up and structure of today’s Filipino-American," artist Celina Taganas-Duffy said in a press conference Wednesday.
'I Am Today’s Filipino' came into fruition with the partnership of Taganas-Duffy and fellow artist Ray Carbullido, who shot and edited the video.
This photo/video exhibit recognizes and preserves the stories of individuals from all walks of life with diverse occupations, age groups. Educational backgrounds, and geographical areas within Southern California - home to over a million residents of Filipino descent – who remain connected through a shared heritage and a common set of values and traditions.
"This exhibit would show to us and our friends what Filipinos have achieved through the years and because of exhibits such as this, we make sure that our heritage is well-known in this part of the country," Acting Head of Post Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon said.
'I Am Today’s Filipino' would provide an intimate glimpse into the individual lives and experiences that reflect the collective story of the modern Filipino community in Southern California.
The exhibit likewise preserves a moment in the current history of Filipinos in the United States and encourages a greater awareness of the many contributions that Filipinos have made and continue to make to American life.
"Our selection of 100 people is not a who's who in the community. We covered a wide range of people and I realized that this was a true testament of six degrees of separation," Ray Carbullido, producer and director of the video exhibit.
"This is such an inspiring project that I hope would inspire the people who are going to see it," the Honolulu-based Carbullido said.
For her part, Taganas-Duffy said that they wanted to create a "cultural archive" that would "portray Filipinos positively" and "inspire the Filipino youth." She also thanked the Filipinos "who paved the way for all of us to be here today."
A special VIP reception takes place next Saturday, October 28 from 6 to 9 pm at the Farmani Galley, one of the leading galleries of contemporary photography in Los Angeles.
The artists plan on a traveling exhibit of the works through January 2007.
Some of the subjects photographed for the exhibit attended the press conference at the Philippine Consulate. Among them Cecilia Ramos, Burlington School Administrator and President of Interim Board of the Historic Filipinotown Neighborhood Council; world renowned saxophonist Michael Paulo; Commissioner for the Commission on Disability Theresa de Vera; Johnny Chua, President of the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce in San Gabriel Valley and Alexander Bautista, senior lead officer of the LAPD.
"I am so proud to be a part of this project. They worked very hard for this. I was not able to resist them, that’s why I'm here," said Ramos.
Saxophonist Michael Paulo, described as one of the most versatile and cosmopolitan saxophonists in pop, soul and contemporary jazz and erstwhile member of the pop/rock band Kalapana, drove for more than three hours to attend the press launch.
"I immediately said yes to them, not knowing what it was about. I was compelled. I drove from Temecula to Celina's studio because time was already running out and I was one of the last subjects to be photographed," he shared.
'I Am Today's Filipino' is the culminating event of the Los Angeles/Southern California Filipino American Centennial Planning Committee, working in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American Program. The project is supported by ABS-CBN/The Filipino Channel, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo bank and Southern California Edison. (AJ)
i got home a bit late tonight and caught portions of wowowee, yes, that tfc show! hehehe.
anyhow, their pera o bayong (pepe pimentel's kuwarta o kahon reincarnated) has an elimination round where they ask questions, ranging from the difficult to very easy (and tricky!). today, the question was about how chicago got its nicname as 'the windy city'.
the choices were - mahangin na politicians, papalit-palit na weather and matatas na skyscrapers. i told myself, what a no-brainer. although they used 'papalit-palit na weather,' i knew for a fact that the answer had something to do with the weather.
then they announced the answer. mahahangin na politiko!
i opened my laptop and went to the ask.com site and i asked the same question. the answer stunned me.
now, upon further scrutiny, i read in the same site that the story of the "Chicagoan's rabid boosterism and shameless boasting" is simply not true.
edited to add -- thanks wowowee, i also found out tonight that george h. w. bush's favorite snack is pork rinds or chicharon.
the past week has been so toxic for me that i need a freaking break!
ever since my last post, yes, on friday the 13th, i have been working, working, working. i had an event saturday night - the filipino american library gala at the biltmore. lots of stars, lots of stuff to do. photos to follow.
sunday was the opening of the all-asia food expo at the los angeles convention center. check. in the evening was the asians for miracle marrow matches or a3m fund-raiser, featuring lani misalucha and the society of seven in a concert.
san miguel beer! sarap ng smb! hehehe.
large chunks (?) of mexican chicharrones. spell c-h-o-l-e-s-t-e-r-o-l
tuba, anyone? kaso galing sa thailand.as a blue-blooded foodie, i am always on the look-out for updates of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) haunts.
among them was (operative word, was) krispy kreme, which was (again, was) a heavy favorite of mine some years back. it is opening its first branch at the fort (hah! in your face competion with gonuts donuts) next month, and a second one at the megamall by december.
i can't say anything about the timing other than 'it sucks' mainly because here in california (specially in LA), krispy kreme stores are closing. and they are closing fast and sales remain to be in a downward spiral. oh how the mighty has fallen.
wow. even san miguel corporation has joined the call center craze.
introducing: inumorning, also known as inuman sa morning. it's for the call center peeps who get off work around 6ish, and before going home to sleep, they down bottles of san mig light. smc probably saw the potential, so they're introducing this concept.
the funny thing is that even hard-core rock bands are included in the concept, playing for the inumorning crowd at 7:00 am! 7 in the freaking morning. imagine listening to imago or hale or sponge cola jamming it up at 7 am! all i can say is, wow!
mabuhay ang mga call center sa pilipinas!
my youngest niece just turned five a couple of weeks ago and i am such a bad uncle, i forgot about her birthday. sigh. the birthdays of her two older sisters are forever etched in my mind because it's my birth month as well. my mom & dad celebrate their birthdays on the 28th of april & march. my brother's on november 8th and my sis-in-law december 5. for the life of me, i forgot jianne's birthday on september 23.
for the past few weeks, my niece has been very sickly. she's been having fever and flu that seem to come and go. in the province, they do 'something' in order to undo this malaise, or to be more certain, stop it altogether. they perform a 'ritual' of sort where close friends and relatives gather around and take turns in making an egg stand. before doing that, he or she, who hopes to make the egg stand, announces the name he or she wants for the one being prayed over, in this case, my niece jianne.
a number of people participated in this gathering and all of them attempted to make the egg stand. not one succeeded, until after about six rounds later. ironically, it was my brother who was able to make the egg stand. he started with the letter 'a' during the first round, and they were on their sixth attempt at looking for a name for my niece when the freaking egg decided to stand. call it miracle, call it stupid, call it whatever you want. the freaking egg 'stood'. after my brother announced a name. floserfida. i almost died laughing when my mom told me the story a couple of minutes ago. my niece is doomed. floserfida. what the f*ck was my brother on? floserfida.
he could have said fe. or faye. or flerida. or flor. or flordeluna. but floserfida? seriously, i asked my mom. was my brother drinking? was he drunk? and why did the egg stand at floserfida? ahhhhh. i can't explain.
when the egg stands, the one prayed over should assume that name immediately. this means that the spirit (if i get the explanation right) agrees to the name and they will no longer 'play' with the kid, and will make all the sickness stop. like clockwork, my niece stopped having fever and flu and she went back to her healthy status. (apparently, she (or someone from the household) well, how do i explain this -- 'bothered' the spirits and in order to appease them, an offering must be made (prayers/padasal) followed by the 'ritual.'
so for now, it's goodbye jianne and hello floserfida. (my brother's second daughter, the middle child, was named joana liana from the names of my brother's father and my sister-in-law's father. when she was younger, she was sickly as well, and they did the same ritual. the egg 'stood' after a cousin of ours announed the name 'emma'. for years, we would call her emma but when she reached high school, it was decided that she'd revert to joana. just a little history).
my precocious little niece sure didn't want the name floserfida but i guess they were able to explain it to her that this was just temporary. one day, my mom said, my niece came to her and and my dad and asked if they are ever going to 'return' her name back to jianne. that night, she had high fever. she has never asked again since.
i have long wanted to write about this new show on abc called 'brothers and sisters.'
the sheer star value of this show made it on my must-see list as the networks unveiled their programs this fall. stars from my favorite shows such as ally mcbeal (calista flockhart), alias (balthazar getty, ron rifkin & patricia wettig), six feet under (rachel griffiths), reunion (dave annable) plus sally field (sally field!) made for some smorgasbord casting and i was initially intrigued as to how the writers or the producers would treat each character, and which of the characters would shine.
i've watched all of the first three episodes and suffice it to say, i am on board. i hope abc picks it up for a full season, unlike what happened to reunion last year. i like how the story is family-centric, focusing on the conflicts the characters have to go through, and how the stories get inter-twined somewhere. i was a big fan of calista in ally mcbeal (a friend of mine and myself even trooped to beverly hills six or so years ago to catch a play that starred calista and paul rudd and some other guy). i like her character in this new show, although the writers haven't fully threshed it out yet. she's like meredith grey, in the love department, as she is, well was now, torn between two lovers. hah!
the guy from pepper dennis (rebecca romijn's show on wb) who played the smug newscaster plays the same role (smug newscaster, different person) in this show and he and calista have some chemistry going, almost similar to that of calista and gil bellows' character years ago on mcbeal. hah. parallelisms.
so what is brothers & sisters? bottomline: it's a show about, well, brothers and sisters. calista and rachel & dave and balthazar are brothers and sisters. well, there's five of them, including the gay brother. sally field plays the role of the mom, and tom skerritt was the dad, who died on the first episode. that's when everything unravelled. dad has a mistress (patricia, the doctor/shrink on alias). dad also left a once-burgeoning family business in debt. mom has a brother, uncle sal (ron rifkin), who knew about dad's mistress, but didn't tell mom. calista and bf/fiancee were based in new york, before calista accepted the job offer from a network in LA (and dad died) so she moved to sunny cali. rachel is married, with two kids and co-runs the family business with balthazar. when dad died, he made (in his will) rachel president, and it hurt balthazar. dave is the youngest brother, he went to iraq and is into recreational drugs. he doesn't know where he's going, he has a rebellious streak, but is very close to kitty (calista). the gay brother is a lawyer. enough said.
can't wait for the next episode.
a couple or so years ago, there was an email that circulated through e-mail, clogging every e-mail-savvy Filipino's mailbox.
it was a hate e-mail directed at Filipinos, written supposedly by a certain art bell.
tonight, inside my boss' car after an event at palos verdes estates, the radio was tuned in to kfi talk radio. and someone was broadcasting live from manila, philippines. he was reading an e-mail written by a guy from the uk (also circulated widely before) and he was giving his comments about it. then after about two gaps, he re-introduced himself. art bell.
apparently, he is now based in manila where he was hosting his radio show live. he had a lot of callers calling in, congratulating him on his impending fatherhood. then, someone asked him about his life there in manila, and he mentioned that it was fine. he then proceeded to talk about that nasty e-mail that was allegedly written (and sent) from one of the libraries of uc san diego.
back then, they had no way to find out who uses their computers, and someone, art bell says, must have logged in, wrote the hurtful e-mail and signed it art bell. for what reason, bell says he doesn't know. he adds that it could not have been because his wife (back then) was half-filipina.
he didn't come off as the angry and bitter e-mail sender that the e-mail purported him to be. in fact, this guy loves the philippines. heck, he's even living there now. he has a filipina wife (who likes balut, apparently) and theya re expecting a baby soon.
now, i don't know if this was a rebroadcast because someone (a caller from canada) actually greeted him a happy thanksgiving. okay, just checked. canada's thanksgiving is the second monday of october. so there.
and, according to the oc register's 07 may 2006 issue:KFI/640 AM's Art Bell has married Airyn Ruiz, a Philippines national, and relocated to Manila, where he will continue to do his syndicated show. His wife Ramona died in January.
so there. stop sending that nasty e-mail, if and when it gets a new lease on life. just delete it. it was not written by art bell. someone who has a deep-seated anger against filipinos wrote that mail, and it's a pity he decided to use an innocent guy's name to malign and defame our race.
and this just in, from the site of john rook. it says:
There is hope that the millions who listen to talk show host Art Bell will spread the word that the on going hoax attributed to him and still circulating the internet reaches those who have threatened to kill him and his wife Airyn, a Filipino.
A malicious letter entitled “Filipinos Make Me Puke” has generated several death threats that are especially worrisome now that Art makes his home in the Philippines. With his name signed as the author, authorities have traced the letter to a typewriter at a San Diego college. Art of course had nothing to do with the letter and finds its contents disgusting.
Art explains that he is keeping a very low profile in his Manila condo but is very concerned since assassination of Journalist is not uncommon in the Philippines.
and this is art bell, with wife airyn.
Kababayan LA is the only daily Filipino-American show in town. It's hosted by a good friend, Jannelle So, and every Tuesdays and Fridays, we have a designated segment where we discuss the latest Fil-Am or homeland news and other stuff. I do still mumble my way sometimes, tao lang po.
this is the los angeles region, according to a mash-up of google maps and a coffee app devised by a canadian company. damn! what a chain, huh? i don't loathe starbucks, i just don't like it as much as i like coffee bean, or urth, or seattle's best, or peet's or some other neighborhood coffee houses. i can drink starbucks coffee, i just hate the fact that they're so everywhere. caught this from curbed:la. hah! caffffeeeeeeine!
yay! our bureau chief in las vegas told me about elita loresca as he showed me his latest issue of FHM. in it was a pinay newscaster from florida. i took note of it, called the powers that be, and asked her if i could interview her for the paper. she obliged.
presenting, america's hottest newscaster, according to FHM!
on sunday, i finally had some free time to go around town so i hopped on the trolley and proceeded to waikiki beach. from there, i walked along kalakaua to check out the stores, including the international market place.
then, in one of the souvenir stores, i found this --
i had to look twice to see if at the bottom of the barrel man is the word 'baguio' and check if i was instantly teleported back to the city of pines. i was not. i was still in the middle of oahu.
which brings me to the realization: is the barrel man from baguio not an original pinoy creation? or is this barrel man from hawaii originally from baguio? hmmm. sino ang may alam?
hectic. that's what my schedule has been in the past few days.
so yesterday, i left hawaii around 2 pm, arrived in LA around 11. late dinner around 1 am. downloaded some photos and wrote some stories around 3 am. slept around 4. woke up around 7 because by 8 am, we were off to san diego.
then a couple of my friends picked me up later for coffee at cbtl. i needed that.
goldilocks in san diego will be opening its resto this friday and it will be offering 'Pick-A-Pika' a dimsum-type concept where they will be offering pinoy specialties such as adobo, binagoongan, bicol express, caldereta, among others. hope they'd offer that in LA, too.
traffic was so bad going back that we opted to have dinner in buena park. yay. mami king. i haven't eaten at mami king for years now (they closed the one in LA) and the one closest to where i live now would be the one in the san fernando valley (!) and carson (!!). ang layo. their lomi is really, really good. and their siopao too. i didn't realize how much i really loved lomi until i had a bowl-ful again earlier. hay.
hawaii is indeed, spam nation.
across from my hotel is a mickey d's and one morning, i visited mickey and had breakfast there. what do you know. i had spam and eggs and rice, and the portuguese sausage (which tasted a lot like our longganisa) and i had the option to get an order of fresh, sweet pineapple. yum. only in hawaii.
mcdonald's breakfast. ang daming rice!and it was not that bad.
hehehe. actually, pupu is the hawaiian term for finger foods, pica pica in the local parlance and if you're somewhere up there, you probably call it hors d'oeuvres. hehehe.
i'm finally done with all my work obligations here in hawaii and i have exactly 20 hours (including sleep) before my flight back to the mainland. i'm at the international shopping center market place in waikiki doing some window shopping. believe it or not, i haven't even gone swimming. not that it matters. lol.
i'll probably stroll by the beach later tonight. para hindi na masyadong mainit. mahirap na. i didn't bring sunblock. (as if i could get any darker.) oh well. regular blogging to resume tomorrow!
