[caption: James Blake, of the United States returns a shot to Roger Federer, of Switzerland, at the US Open tennis tournament in New York, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)]
roger federer continues his dominance over the other players at the u.s. open, defeating number 5 james blake. i wanted to be in the minority and cheer for blake to win (not that federer didn't deserve it) because he's also good and federer has been winning like crazy this year that he needs to share his blessings. besides, rafael nadal didn't even make it past the quarter finals. it's not gonna be fun roger.
anyhow.
so that's goodbye blake. and goodbye janey also on bb7. mike boogie wins round 2 of the 3-part hoh and gets a car for that win. he battled erika during round 3 and won, so he had the power to evict one house guest and bring the other one to the final 2. he knows he's not gonna win over janelle so he evicts her and keeps his ho-mance with erika.
now, the 7 members of the jury will vote. at this point, i don't really care anymore. bring survivor and amazing race on!
Friday, September 08, 2006
oh blake!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
manhattan/brooklyn vs. los angeles?
saw this in one of the LA sites that i frequent and i found it really funny. nice colors, no? apologies to my friends and relatives who have decided to call new york home. i can't help it.
goodbye will kirby
big brother 7 (all stars!) has been my summer's guilty pleasure and i must give credit where it is due. janelle rocks!
in what is considered as a 'shocking move', janelle decided to send dr. will home after she won the power of veto. hay. long story. bottomline: janelle and will and erika and mike boogie are in the final four. mike boogie and will belong to this alliance they call 'chill town' (and this was born five years ago, during big brother 2, which was won by dr. will, who is the only big brother winner in this season's all-stars).
mike is 'showmancing' (root word - showmance - show + romance) erika and it felt like erika fell for mike boogie hook, line and sinker. will is 'flirtmancing' (you get the drift) janelle and it felt that janelle was putting this relationship ahead of her alliances in the house. it was because of this that howie and marcellas (both close to janelle) and danielle (erika's best friend) got evicted and choll town sailed on to the final four.
left photo: that's will sandwiched by erika and janelle while right photo shows chicken george and the two ladies.janelle evicting dr. will is classic reality tv and mike was well, surprised (and it's too lame a word to use) and shocked and pissed and it's good television. hah! i liked dr. will and his evil, manipulative ways in season 2 and i was almost expecting him to win this but thank god for janelle for clipping his wings this early (or this late).
finale is next week, september 12. the jury (the evicted houseguests, like survivor) gets to decide who is going to win the half mil. there's a 3-part competition ongoing among the final 3. part 1's winner will meet part 2's winner in part 3. the winner of part 3 will then decide which co-competitor s/he is going to bring to the final 2. enter the jury of 7 who will decide the winner of big brother all stars. whew.
two days later is the premiere of survivor. and amazing race. hah. my reality tv fixation continues.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
2 cents worth
the long weekend allowed me to bloghop like crazy. i was able to read a lot of good blogs and a few that weren't quite there.
something led me to the site of mlq3 (i wish i had a 'cool' initial like that. very trademark-able), and to the uninformed, he is manolo quezon.
funny how just a few days ago (while watching tfc), i came across a teaser for a show on the anc (the abs-cbn news channel) and it was about manolo quezon and his show called 'the explainer' and i'm like, 'what? the explainer?' didn't they have anything better? like 'the manolo quezon show' or 'manolo explains' or 'manolo reports'. that's probably the best their creatives can come up with, 'the explainer'. i can't watch the show even if i wanted to because i only have tfc on cable. i don't have the satellite dish and i am not a directv subscriber.
anyhow, reading through his posts and following a lot of links, i came across one controversial topic, the one where he wrote about his objections to the isagani cruz column 'don we now our gay apparel'. he called it 'the grand inquisitor.'
Retired Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz says that his vigorous and vicious condemnation of gays, lesbians and transgendered people is not supposed to incite hatred and intolerance—or to be precise, that he is not invoking a blanket condemnation of all gay people. He only objects to some, not all.it's a great read, so if you have time, digest the entire article. and in the spirit of fairness, the link to the article by the former supreme court justice.
He would have me, and everyone else like me be a slave, a fugitive, a hypocrite and, most of all, a coward. And I find that disgusting. I find it neither reasonable nor acceptable. I do not even find it understandable. Cruz does not understand us, does not want to, would be unwilling to. Yet he says he hates only some, not all, of us, and expects “some of us” to embrace and thank him?For what? That he reserves his scorn only for hairdressers and fashion designers? That he respects me, the writer, but heaps abuse on someone else because that someone uses slang I don’t use, speaks louder than I do, wears what I don’t wear—and those superficial differences are the things that guarantee me (and those who behave otherwise) Cruz’s respect?
I will not embrace him, not for that, much less shake his hand or offer him the opportunity for civilized disagreement. For he is blind to the civilization to which I belong, and to the fundamental identity I share with those he despises. Whether we have a little learning or not, whether we speak in the same manner or not, regardless of what we wear and what mannerisms we choose to exhibit, we are the same, for in the fundamental things—those we choose to love, to have relationships with and with whom we aspire to share a life marked by a measure of domestic bliss and emotional contentment—there is no difference. To permit Cruz to make such distinctions is to grant him and all those like him an intolerable—because it is fundamentally unjust—power to define myself and those like me.
where's my 2 cents' worth? mr. cruz should not have written that piece in the first place because it revealed how ignorant he is about the issue and he shouldn't have stirred the hornet's nest because while some people may have respected his opinions before (him being a former supreme court (supreme court!) justice), in one fell swoop, he lost readers (this one included) and corollary to that, respect, the one thing that he took away from all the homosexual people he maligned in that article.
Monday, September 04, 2006
philippine idol
thank you youtube for philippine idol. the long weekend has been quite long and it made me realize that (a) i can sleep from 3 am to 1 pm the next day (b) talk with a friend on the phone while in the middle of sleep and forget about it (c) there are a lot of things to be seen (gasp!) on youtube (d) no matter how i try to clean my room, well, i can't seem to finish.
anyhow, i was surprised to see this guy on philippine idol. his name is gian carlo magdangal and he is in the top 24. i saw him last year in the musical 'footloose' in manila (the one with jay-r and iya villania) and i was quite amazed with his musical talent. for his first official performance at the semi-finals of philippine idol, he sang, what else, footloose.
hope he makes it to the top 10!
farewell andre
(moratorium on my previous statement that i am moving to multiply since i can do cross-posting from here. for now, i won't, but i am keeping multiply as my photo/video site. we'll see...)
today marks the day when tennis great andre agassi bade goodbye to the sport he embraced 21 years ago. it was a bit emotional and andre couldn't help but shed a few tears after his last game. some guy named becker took the responsibility of beating andre in 4 sets, thereby effectively ending his career. andre has made it clear earlier that this is going to be his last year.
i wasn't really a big fan, just a fan who admired the way he played the game. actually, i was more of a pete sampras fan and i followed their rivalry from the moment i realized i enjoyed watching tennis games (and this was probably around 1994, after my graduation from college). hah. darn, i feel old. the players i idolized in this sport have all retired. well.
speaking of the us open, andy roddick's doing well and today he moved to the fourth round. had andre won his match against becker, he would have faced roddick in this round and it would have been a great match. oh well.
some friends picked me up today and we went to the outlets in ontario to do some (window) shopping. went also to the victoria gardens, a mall similar to the grove and paseo colorado in pasadena.
happy labor day!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
thank you blogger, i'm moving
for more updates about me and the people around me, please visit my new home at multiply.
i'll keep some of my files here so i'd still have reason to come back.
ciao!
(and how auspicious is it that this is my 400th post? hah!)
Thursday, August 31, 2006
survivor gets racy racist?
survivor, the grand old dame of reality television is getting a bit racy in its newest incarnation, its 13th season, which was shot on cook islands somewhere in the south pacific.
seg-re-ga-tion. that's how it's going to work with this "social experiment," as its host jeff probst calls it. 20 "castaways" will be divided into four groups. before, they went men vs. women, another time, i think they went young vs. old.
now, it's african-american vs. hispanic vs. white/caucasian vs asian. interesting, to say the least but how is this going to eventually play out? there are two pinoys in the asian team (woo!hoo!) and they are the first filipinos ever to be cast in this wildly famous show (at one point, it beat 'friends' in the ratings and nbc (producer of friends) had no back-ups whatsoever).
brad virata (from los angeles) and jenny guzon-bae (from chicago) will be joined by two south koreans and a vietnamese guy. i hope this team beats 'em all.
some say it's racy and call it as the latest stunt to be pulled by survivor producers. others say it's a bit racist. what do i think? methinks it's both and weeks before its premiere, people are already talking about it. which means that if they wanted this as a publicity ploy, they sure are succeeding since people have been talking about it. my only problem is that how is this show's eventual result going to affect the way people are going to look at the racial divide in america today.
can't wait.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
the smashing '80s
it's been awhile since i last visited the wily filipino's site (and my other fave blogs) because (as i mentioned earlier) i have been quite busy the past few days weeks months.
so it took me some time reading through the voluminous posts that i have missed and i found a goldmine somewhere. it's this. it's a compendium of "1,500 of your favorite '80s videos"! yay! if the wily pinoy spent an hour gleefully watching his favorites, i spent about two travelling back to the glorious 80s watching gazebo, a-ha, air supply (sue me!), abba (sue me once more!), go west, foreigner and others. caution: it's addictive.
black dahlia
it's supposed to be the biggest, unsolved crime ever in los angeles.
and now, it's a movie. hilary swank, scarlett johannson and josh hartnett. i'm quite intrigued myself. now, i'm watching 48 hours mysteries on cbs and it's discussing about this real-life mystery that happened in 1947. dr. hodel's story is disturbing. now, i really need to go and watch this film when it opens.
pda. i think i am getting quite addicted with this tfc reality show. and it's only on its second day. whew. i just don't like the producers trying to skew the story by putting in romantic liaisons between the "scholars". icky. leave that stuff to the wannabe-actors. but right now, who can say? these 20 (first it was 16, then they raised it to 20. why? beats me.) are probably just as star-struck (oops, no pun intended) just like the rest of its viewers and that they would, eventually, venture into showbusiness. oh well.
i just like the concept. it's like american idol meets big brother. and they are kept inside that house for four freaking months! wow. i still don't know how they are going to eliminate contestants but with 20 of them inside the house, i think they need to start weeding out the non-talents. it's really going to take time. i don't know if i'll still be invested by then. we'll see.
for now, it's still rosita bareng and geoff taylor for me. hehehe. i don't even remember the names of the others, those who actually made an impression: the girl from cagayan de oro, the rocker girl from cebu, the guy from pampanga, the guy who composed 'tuesday', the girl from pangasinan, the fil-jap guy who doesn't understand nor speak english and tagalog, the cali girl, the aussie guy and girl. the rest? just send them home.
big brother all-stars. hah! janelle wins power of veto. erika nominates danielle and danielle loses it. hah! i'm still biased for janelle, i dunno why. and dr. will. i hope they'd be the final two. then erika, george and mike boogie. that's my pecking order, assuming that danielle gets booted out thursday. we'll see.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
to new york and back
i think my record for not updating this blog is a little less than two weeks.
i'm quite surprised to find out that i have beaten that record. shamefully, i must admit that it's now a little more than two weeks (two weeks and a day, to be exact) since i last updated this little place of mine in the blogosphere. for this, i apologize to my very few readers. hahaha. no explanations needed.
so i will be doing a very, very long post (and that is if i sustain the patience to write it) so hang on.
the weekend of august 12 and 13 - spent my saturday at the U.S.-Philippines Expo held in fairplex, pomona, about an hour drive from los angeles. the crowd-drawers from manila were judy ann santos (yay!) and ryan agoncillo and from san francisco, nora aunor (double yay!). saw some old friends and caught up with a few.
sunday - r, a friend of mine who lives and works near cerritos, decided to check the box-office of the edwards cinemas in cerritos to check if there are still tickets for this pinoy film called sukob. (back story: this movie started airing in los angeles august 11, and my friend j, picked me up at the office to meet with r so we could watch it on that day.
unfortunately (surprise, surprise!) it was already sold-out.) since it was quite early in the afternoon, there were still tix for the 730 screening so he bought tickets and called us. off we went again to cerritos and by the time we arrived, all evening screenings have been sold out as well.
my take on sukob: it is a finely-crafted movie by chito rono, and it succeeded in jolting the audience quite a number of times. i personally prefer this one than feng shui (which rono also directed, and starred kris aquino) because it was tighter and loved it that kris aquino died. hah! just kidding krissy. i just don't like the way how i was 'spoiled' because i also happen to watch (sometimes) kris on tfc (pilipinas, game ka na ba?) and in one of the episodes, she asked one of the five contestants if they have seen the movie and only one responded in the positive. so kris then asked her, "na sad ka ba nung namatay ako?" and the girl replied (bravo!) with a "no!" and madea 180 (boo!) when she added "heroic naman kasi!" so much for spoiling the film's biggest surprise.
worked on monday and tuesday. flew to new york on wednesday. highlights: having frrrrozen hot chocolate at serendipity 3 (yes, the cafe featured in that john cusack movie with the same title. we shared the 'outrageous banana split' which had a price tag of $20! and of course, the frrrozen hot chocolate $8.5 per), lady boss treating me and j (our birthdays are days apart) for a lovely dinner at the tavern on the green inside central park, discovering through LB's friend two great finds at the village: dragonfly and pasticceria bruno along bleecker. yum for both! had some cupcakes at cupcake cafe [capsule review: the cupcake part was a tad too dry but the butter cream on top was yummy. if they mixed the cupcake from magnolia bakery (the one made famous by sex and the city) with their butter cream topping, than that would perhaps be the best cupcake in new york]. oh dear. i just realized that the highlights of this trip area always food, food, food. hahaha. no wonder some folks have been telling me to slow it down. i'll try. life's too short anyways.
what else?
last friday night, the gang and i had a wonderful dinner (oh no! food again! has this become a foodie's blog?) at red corner asia in hollywood where we had, among others, a volcano chicken (a flaming chicken on a stick, like baliwag or the lechon manok back home) and my new favorite crispy duck in panang curry sauce. oh well. had coffee afterwards at cbtl and that's where i started having this feeling that i was going down with a bad case of colds.
i bought some meds and took some of them but unfortunately, i think the cold has been in my system long enough that i could no longer kill it even with a thousand milligrams of sudafed. that's why i was stuck in the house since saturday just watching tv and sleeping and cleaning my room and watching tv. finally, i've seen pirates of the caribbean (yes, now i can watch the part 2!) and bagets. hahaha. i don't know what took over me but i had to look for the bagets vcd that i bought last january in manila. popped it in the dvd player and enjoyed the movie and its fabulous soundtrack. i can't believe it has been 20 or so years since that movie was shown. 1984. i was still a toddler then... hahaha. may kokontra?
and yes, this new tfc show called pinoy dream academy. i have my bets. i am going for the ilocano! i think his name is geoff taylor from cagayan valley. yes, cagayan valley represent! hehehe. the girl from cali looks cute but so are other fil-am girls you see around town. let's see if he has talent. i'm quite surprised that the guy from canada made it. maybe the producers saw something in him that i missed.
the dh/ofw from dubai? wow, pang-ratings. do they honestly believe they can make a popstar out of her? seriously? seriously! she is good and she sings well but the producers themselves have said it quite a number of times: total package. if only to check if they really want to make her into a popstar, i'd do my share to campaign for her, so she'd end up winning the whole title and the million pesos and the house and the contracts and that they did not include her in the top 16 for ratings' purposes. go rosita bareng!
tonight's the emmy's. i hope grey's anatomy wins. and 24. and oh yeah, i caught the kick-ass premiere of prison break and all i can say is this: wentworth miller rules!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
still lucky
despite the numerous mishaps that happened during my recent trip to london, i still feel god damn lucky because i got back to the u.s. a day before the scotland yard foiled what was dubbed as yet another terrorist attack.
the scenario: ten planes going to different cities in the united states, taking off from london's heathrow airport. among the passengers are suicide bombers who would detonate the liquid bombs in mid-air, as each plane travels across the atlantic ocean. just the mere thought of it possibly happening gives me the creeps. much more when that thought actually includes me in one of those planes. goosebumps.
i don't mind not carrying anything inside the plane (just travel documents and probably a book, all inside a transparent plastic bag). i don't mind not carrying a bottle of water or any of my favorite drinks. i don't mind travelling with my glasses on, with my contacts and cleaner safely stowed in my checked-in luggage. i don't even mind not bringing my ipod inside (this is a stretch!) just as long as i have peace of mind in that trip.
so during the past two weeks, i was an escapist non-pareil. survived the emergency landing of my flight from lax to heathrow. woke up at 4:30 in the morning to a fire alarm in the hotel that eventually led more than a thousand hotel guests on the streets of london wearing nothing but their PJs/boxers/nighties/comfy sleepwear. (i didn't realize i could actually put all my impt stuff inside my black messenger bag in less than one minute. when we realized that the hotel was being evacuated because of this fire alarm, we had to leave our room immediately and bring only the basics -- passport, wallet, camera, cell phone, glasses -- in that order, for me.)
on my last day, dear charl decided to meet me up anywhere along high kensington street so we could have high tea somewhere near the kensington palace and gardens. a block away from the location, we noticed a phalanx of people being driven out of the area. not knowing what was happening, we walked right ahead. turns out the police has been exasperatedly telling people to vacate the area? why? a bomb was reported to have been left inside the israeli embassy. there i was, in the middle of central london, on my last day in the freaking city, being yelled at by british police to "leave the bloody area immediately because a bomb might go off!"
but hey, i survived. and everything has been charged, not only to my credit cards, but also to experience.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
when terror strikes?
i didn't realize the intensity/gravity of my flight's emergency landing in new york's jfk a couple of weeks ago until i heard the passengers clap their hearts out when we landed safe (a bit hard though). it was in the london papers when i arrived. i did some research and found this --
| American Air Flight Has Engine Fail; Lands In New York Wednesday July 26th, 2006 / 13h50 |
 |
| NEW YORK (AP)--A commercial plane carrying more than 250 people experienced engine failure Wednesday, and pilots landed it safely at a nearby airport, officials said. The Boeing 777 plane landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport less than a half hour after one of its two engines failed, said American Airlines spokesman Billy Sanez. Officials were investigating what caused the problem on Flight 134. "The plane landed after the captain declared an emergency," Sanez said. "It's not a common incident, but the pilots are trained to deal with these situations." The aircraft, en route from Los Angeles International Airport to London's Heathrow Airport, was carrying 239 passengers and 14 crew members, Sanez said. All passengers would be put on another plane, he said. The flight left Los Angeles at 8:35 p.m. PDT and landed in New York about six hours later. A message left for a local Federal Aviation Administration official was not immediately returned early Wednesday. |
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
back from london
it's almost funny how two weeks went away just like that.
i'm back in LA, back at work too. arrived yesterday afternoon and i was picked up by j, who had told our friends that i was arriving and that my birthday (albeit belatedly) dinner was scheduled last night. in less than an hour, it was planned.
anyhow. i'm dreading the arrival of my credit card bills since a good part of my expenses were swiped. uh-oh.
i really had a good time catching up with a and r and we had a blast going to all the touristy places in london such as the trafalgar square, picadilly circus, leicester square, tower bridge, westminster abbey and all those stuff but also the not-too-touristy bit such as the cemetery tour we made. yup, we visited karl marx's abode at the highgate high cemetery someweher in the outskirts of london. we were joined by about ten other people. nice.
yup. fresh flowers for karl marx. not from us though.
tourists doing touristy stuff: hamming it up at the tower bridge.
Monday, July 31, 2006
three days in edinburgh
it may have been a blessing in disguise that my original plan to go to paris to meet up with T did not prosper. god had other plans.
i was in edinburgh since friday. we took the GNER train ride from london to aberdeen and got off in edinburgh. by we, i mean, r and myself. i stayed at the premier travel inn (£77 per night!!!) while r and her aunt-in-law stayed at the holiday inn.
i love edinburgh. it's very beautiful, very quaint and very rich in history. won't bore you with details but whatever bitterness i have against the french has been transformed into love, to all the scottish people we met in all of scotland.
one of the highlights of this sidetrip to this very pretty country was a quick trip to the now-famous rosslyn chapel where r and i spent a good part of our sunday before our trip back to london. too bad, we only spent three days in ediburgh. we could have spent more. the festivals are ongoing but the best ones will be happening in the next few days.
i can't wait to go back...
Thursday, July 27, 2006
blogging in the uk
it's thursday and it seems like i have lost a few days already. wow.
arrived safely in london late last night (very late!). i was in a (supposed to be) direct flight from loas angeles to london but unfortunately, our flight was diverted to new york city because of engine troubles.
i was in deep slumber when i heard the captain announce that we were already landing. i even made a comment to myself, 'that was fast!'. well, apparently not. something went wrong with the engines, they did not specify. it's good they didn't, or i would have panicked like crazy.
we landed at the jfk airport around 6 am, and our flight was re-arranged to leave at 9:00 am. that's three hours of my time wasted. so instead of arriving at the london heathrow airport at 2:40 pm, we arrived 7 hours late!
i took the heathrow express to paddington, and followed my friend's advice, to take the train to west ham, transfer to another line and alight at canning town. since it was already late (i cleared immigration around 10 something) some of the train lines weren't running anymore. boo-hoo. i ended up getting off at east aldgate. that's where i spent a lot of moolah calling my friend through their coin-eating parasites here (public phones). hate t-mobile for not activating my roaming service. hate their public phone system here for swallowing my pounds without even letting me make a freaking call. and who knew that public phones do not give change? hah. sigh.
bottomline, i took a cab from east aldgate to my friend's place on barking road. it took me around 15 minutes and 15 pounds. nice. the cabbie was kind, he was very chatty. i didn't mind chatting up with him. he kinda looked like beckham. hee.
staayed way up late chatting with charl and her p. slept around 3ish and woke up around 9 am. the masochist that i was, went to the waterloo international station (yes, the eurostar) to ask if they can do anything about my train ticket from london to paris and back.
since the french consulate was so efficient, my schengen visa would be released in the states on the 31st, while i have booked my train tickets for today, july 28! i still cannot get over this, even if i have been trying my darn best, just to be happy and excited with london, and probably edinburgh, glasgow, and belfast.
bottomline: they cannot refund my fare (almost £200), priceline refuses to refund the more than $300 i paid for my hotel accommodations in paris, and the french consulate had the gall toc harge me $44 for visa fees for that freaking visa i'll never have the chance to use in the first place. le sigh. charge to experience.
i've been going around london since this morning. i've been to the house of parliament, big ben, westminster abbey, buckingham palace and now i am inside an internet cafe in south kensington. nice. internet access is £1 for half an hour. gee. more updates soon.
Monday, July 24, 2006
london-bound
i am off to london in less than 24 hours to meet up with some friends i haven't seen in awhile.
it all started with a small, a really small plan between my friends r and e. r is based in manila and works for an international foundation. she'll be in london for a conference during the last week of july. e is our friend who is now based in switzerland. they decided to meet up.
a, our friend who is based in hong kong found out about this planned meeting and wondered why it was not made public. he wanted to join. he won't be busy during this time since he would be in dubai, then greece with his family. then he's flying to iran for work, then he'll fly to london.
then they realized that they would all be in london during the first week of august. they remembered me. they asked if i wanted to celebrate my birthday with them in london. actually, they need not ask. i was about to ask them if they could squeeze in one more hefty body.
that, in a nutshell, is the reason why i am going to london. hee. i am so excited.
japan was robbed!
only 3 asians made it to the final 20 semi-finalists at the miss universe competition last night. only 1 made it to the top 10, miss japan. philippine flag-waving fanatics at the auditorium channeled all their energy and focused it on miss japan. she made it far, up to the top 5. in fact, she was as close to the crown as miriam quiambao was in 1999. like miriam, many think that her answer during the q and a did it for her.
in the end, [uerto rico won. bitchy fans behind us said, "ano ba yan, kamukha ni michael jackson'! my friend j was more diplomatic, "kamukha niya si janet jackson..."
oh well. now it's over and done with. i had fun covering the events and getting to know miss philippines lia andrea ramos a bit more personal. it's just too bad she didn't even make it to the top 20.
we stayed for a few minutes after the show at the shrine and we witnessed some stuff. like miss guatemala posing for photos with fans at the car park (with a ginormous truck as a background. nice!) and miss venezuela sobbing like crazy along jefferson blvd., with her luggage and two other people in tow. my friend j called her name, 'jicxtad!' and she waved back. and started crying again.
personal favorites didn't make it. philippines (of course), sri lanka, indonesia & australia. boo-hoo. i don't like the winner. i think other latin american beauties deserve the crown more. japan deserved the crown more. ask the crowd.
Friday, July 21, 2006
miss universe fever
it has been more than a week since my last post.
i hate starting my posts with 'it has been x days since my last post' but i cannot do anything about it. it has, indeed, been more than a week since my last post.
so i had zankou overload two weeks ago. what happened after that?
wednesday night last week - had dinner at picanha in burbank with two of my friends, r and j. had fun, although we didn't get to eat a lot because i had to be at the universal citywalk to meet up with the mother of lia andrea ramos, miss philippines 2006. this year's miss universe is being held here in los angeles, at the shrine auditorium to be exact.
so i met up with lian's mom in front of hard rock and i took that opportunity to interview her for a story i was going to write for the paper. i saw miss philippines in person for the first time today and i think she's pretty. saw most of the candidates up close. miss ghana even hugged me. maybe she thought i am a long lost relative? hah! me and my dark mocha skin.
thursday night - miss universe welcome party at the wilshire grand. what do you know, i get a couple of exclusive invites passed on to me by my publisher. not one who says no to a great party, i said yes, yes, yes. little did i know that this was going to be a memorably wonderful night.
it was an exclusive gathering. we had laminated name tags with our table numbers printed at the bottom part. i was seated at table 21. before entering the grand ballroom, i had the chance to mingle with the candidates and talk to them. i was like, is this really happening? it seemed to good to be true. then i had the chance to strike up a conversation with miss philippines and i asked her if i can do an ambush interview. she said yes. and i had my exclusive. woohoo! had photos taken with her and some of the other candidates. i was ready to go home. but we still had dinner.
upon entering the ballroom, i prayed hard that i'd be near the table of miss philippines so i could go and talk with her some more and get to know her better. as i approached table 21, i saw her. miss philippines, table 21. she recognized me and waved. four pretty ladies (one of them a really bitchy ass) were there -- misses peru, paraguay, philippines and poland. i sat beside miss poland.
i had a grand time.
saturday morning - mikimoto event at the south coast plaza in costa mesa. met more filipinos supporters of miss philippines. yay! the support is really snowballing. i hope this support translates into warm bodies during the presentation night and actual pageant night, i kept telling myself.
monday morning - an exclusive one-on-one with lian at the wilshire grand. at an unholy 7:00 am. my goodness. she told me she was nervous. i told her it didn't show. she smiled and said, she was trying to be calm and collected. deep inside, i was hoping and praying that this girl -- not only because she's filipino -- be blessed to take the crown home. she deserves it. she's not only beautiful in the outside but i could sense the sincerity in the way she communicated with me over the past meetings we've had.
tuesday night - presentation night at the shrine auditorium - also known as the night when hundreds of pinoy pageant enthusiasts trooped to the shrine to show their support to miss philippines. the crowd was very noisy - mexico had noisy fans, usa of course, thailand had noisy followers but the pinoys didn't just sit there, they made noise as well. flags of various sizes were being waved from the different corners of the auditorium; banners proclaiming support to the filipina candidate were also unfurled. i could see lian's confidence boosted from all these show of love, affection and support coming not only from her family and friends, but also from kababayans.
thursday afternoon - rehearsals at the shrine. wow. i've spent quite a lot of time following this year's miss universe proceedings. everything will culminate with the coronation night this sunday.
thursday night - pops fernandez and martin nievera presscon for their wilshire ebell concert tomorrow (friday). event happened at the edwards cinemas in alhambra. i'm quite surprised why they scheduled the presscon on a thursday when the concert was going to be held the next day. what's the use? i can't find the logic. as in.
and then, this is how my weekend looks like --
friday night - drive to las vegas with friends to attend c and d's wedding on saturday
saturday - c and d's wedding at bali hai in mandalay resort.
sunday - drive back to los angeles, miss universe pageant night at 6 pm (pst).
monday - fil-am night at the dodger stadium
tuesday night - start of my leave.
yep. i am up for a leave. i'll be celebrating my birthday somewhere, and in line with that, i requested for a two-week leave (actually, it's just 9 work days). needless to say, i am quite excited with this trip. in fact, i've been dreaming about this trip for years! more details about this trip in my next update.
Monday, July 10, 2006
zankou-ism*
*extreme fixation for zankou chicken
last friday, my friend j and i were on the fence as to where to eat. then suddenly, i remembered that i have not eaten at zankou for the longest time. so i recommended zankou chicken, or ono hawaiian barbecue. we settled at zankou.
zankou is the home of the best rotisserie-chicken this side of town. add their garlic sauce and it's some chicken to die for. yum. the big guys that we are, we decided to split a whole chicken (which came with two pita bread and the requisite garlic sauce) and bought a side of rice. yumyum. and i was satiated.
early saturday morning, i got a call from another friend j, who was driving from san francisco to los angeles. we were attending a wedding at 2:00 pm, so we had to eat lunch first. 'i'm craving for some chicken,' he said. i said to myself, 'oh no!' then he asked, 'can we eat at zankou? we don't have it in san francisco and i miss their chicken.' the good friend that i was, i said, 'sure, why not?'
why not indeed. up to this day, i can still feel/smell the garlic sauce. back to back in zankou (different branches though). i've filled my craving, so it would probably take me months for another zankou run.
