In a nutshell, the surprise birthday party that my brother and I (with the help of a lot of accomplices) planned so meticulously went well, except for some kinks. An over-eager cousin being one of them.
I arrived a day before my mom’s birthday so I had to stay somewhere and make my homecoming on the actual day. My brother picked me up. We were 15 minutes away from our home when my brother’s cell phone beeped. Then he cracked. He said that the surprise has been ruined. I was beginning to get pissed.
His phone rang, He responded it. After a few sentences were exchanged, he began to laugh. I didn’t find it amusing. It turns out that my cousin from California called up to greet my mom, and asked if I had already arrived. Ugh.
So, my arrival in front of our driveway was not as dramatic as I had envisioned. The entire plan was preempted. My arrival was, pure and simple, anti-climactic.
My mom cried when I got off the car. I greeted her a Happy Birthday and hugged her real hard. The other car arrived, and out came the balloons (my niece was mocking her father, my brother, asking if we were having a children’s party), the lechon and some other pre-ordered food. My mom couldn’t believe her eyes. She thought I was the only surprise. She didn’t know that a grand party was about to unfold.
One by one, the visitors started arriving. My mom’s only living sibling, her elder sister, arrived from Tarlac in a van filled with all but 3 of her grand-children. It was my first time meeting some of them.
My mom’s cousins and her friends also arrived as well. Quoted from mi madre: “This is the happiest birthday ever!” I’m happy.
And oh yeah, the aunt. One of my aunts cornered and asked me, no, make that ordered me to get married soon. “Hijo, you’re not getting any younger. You should get married soon. Soon!” she commanded. I looked at her and couldn’t help but manage a very dry smile. Like, what-do-you-care smile. Or a what-are-you-on smile.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Of Spoiled Surprises, an Over-Eager Cousin and a Solicitous Aunt
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
happy camper
...because 'heroes' is back, and it rocked!
who knew? linderman's one of them, and so is gramps. i just don't know what her special talent is. i feel sad that isaac mendez is sorta dead. i'm excited about what's going to happen next week. you versus me, the old hiro versus the future hiro. damn. peter petrelli's not dead and he's not gonna die ever. good for him and claire! (during the last museum of tv and radio event that i attended, the cast said that they get worried when they get their scripts because they do not know as to when they are going to die. the same sentiments said by the cast of 24 a few days later.)
one more reason i'm happy?
i'm off to manila. again. for the third time in the past six months. yay!
i'm surprising my mom. it's her birthday on the 28th and i conspired with my brother. we're making a big surprise birthday party for her and i can't wait. i'm leaving tomorrow.
and there's a third reason why i am happy. but this one's not just happy but a mix of happy/excited/challenged. the whole story in a month.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
spinning, and not the exercise kind
and it's also not the washing machine kind. it's my schedule and my world.
i'm in las vegas right now to cover an event. whew. went around the red rock hotel/casino/resort and i have to say i'm quite impressed with the way the hotel was done - from the ornate ceiling to the well-planned floor. its interiors are tastefully designed and it really looked pretty.
the hotel has 2 starbucks cafes, lots of restaurants, a bowling alley (with 72 lanes!), a cineplex with 16 cinemas, an arcade and lots and lots of well, space. nice!
but that's not where we're staying. boo-hoo. we're at the trusted marriott courtyard because the trip was last-minute and most of the strip hotels are booked because of some conventions and if ever there are available rooms, the prices are quite prohibitive. like almost $500-prohibitive. not good.
i love marriott courtyards because their beds are great; they have free internet access in the rooms and parking is free. hahaha. i hate hotels that charge $9.99 to $14.99 per day for internet access. that's just not cool.
by the way, had dinner at the casino's (red rock) buffet resto and had a really good dinner. i had some rib-eye steak and so much gelato i could still taste the espresso flavor i had. and they had a bulalo-type oxtail soup. and lots of no sugar added desserts.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
scenes from manhattan
Trees without leaves. Taken @ West New York, overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
r2d2: live at Times Square -this is what happens when the usps celebrates 30 years of star wars.
it's all about the subway. this station on 42nd street had 9 lines passing through it. 9!Sunday, April 15, 2007
i heart jfk
jfk the airport, that is. it's like i was deprived of wi-fi access for the past few days that i was like a kid in disneyland when we arrived at the jfk airport yesterday to check in for our evening flight.
becaause of a storm that was going east, our flight was delayed by about an hour but the pilot was good that he probably oversped up there, if it was all possible.
so i'm back in la-la-land. the weather last night was a bit cold and today's a wee bit too windy. i slept until around noon. i really need this rest to recharge, for tomorrow's the start of yet another hectic work-week.
i'm going to make some important steps in the near future and my mind's still quite muddled. i'll write about it as soon as i get more details. in the meantime, i need to do some catching up.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
one. singular sensation.
that's currently my lss (last song syndrome po) because i just finished watching 'a chorus line' on broadway because i was able to score a ticket from tkts. i originally wanted to catch monty python's spamalot but it was already sold out by the time i reached the box-office. so i settled for 'a chorus line'.
now this one is totally different from the previous musicals i've seen. while others dazzled me with their costumes and complex stage designs, 'a chorus line' gave me a closer look into what happens during a broadway audition. it was smorgasbord casting and not one character could come forward to claim that s/he owned the show.
except for diana.
diana morales. she's a puerto rican character whose passion in life is dancing and she's auditioning to become a part of a chorus line. with no costumes or stage engineering to catch the audience's attention, the characters have no one but themselves to depend on to.
this character diana performed two of what could be the most famous songs to ever come out of this production - nothing and what i did for love, and she did so by not over-singing the songs and the audience clearly felt that she was singing from the heart. (lea salonga performed 'nothing' during her ccp concert last month in manila and it was fun to see her change the lyrics as she changed 'diana morales' to 'lea salonga'. anyhow.)
it's still a cold 30s here in manhattan and i think it's going to rain (with some flurry) tomorrow. so much for cold weather. i am so looking forward to basking in california sunshine.
spring awakening
i was in search for a musical to watch on broadway and i had no idea about the new ones that recently opened. tops on my list of course, is the return of les miz and a chorus line, two classics, then there's my drowsy chaperone, there's the pirate queen (by alain boublil and michael schonberg, the guys behind les miz and miss saigon) and then there's spring awakening.
at the eugene o'neill theater on 47th streeti normally buy my tickets at tkts, the discount place for tickets to broadway shows, both musicals and plays. anyhow, not a lot of shows were listed on monday or maybe i was just a bit late in lining up. for this day, i was torn between watching rent again (to check out frenchie) or catch a new one (whatever). spring awakening caught my attention so i strolled to where it was playing just to see what it was all about.
the first poster i saw proclaimed, "Music by Duncan Sheik". I was in. I ran back to tkts to buy my ticket. Luckily, there were a couple more.
just like my previous trips, i stayed on outside to catch the cast sign autographs. i didn't have them sign my playbill but i took a couple of photos.
if you ever watch 24 (yes, the series on fox), this guy (named miles on the show) was one of the baddies (not the terrorist type baddies though). Tuesday, April 03, 2007
i love new york
new york city never fails to amaze, inspire and fascinate me. that's why i had no second thoughts when my boss told me that we're off to the big apple for a couple of weeks. yay!
not to preempt any official announcements, we are expanding our operations to cover new york city! finally! i'm quite excited to be doing the preliminary work here, in the same way that we prepared and worked hard when we opend our san francisco office in 2002 and manila in 2005. it's really challenging and mind-boggling at the same time.
lovely, lovely view. taken @ 9:45 eastern time.had early dinner at krystal's, a filipino turo-turo in queens. it was around 5ish in the afternoon and we were just supposed to have snacks but we were surprised to see a lot of people (full house, almost) already eating dinner. what the heck. we had sinampalukang manok (yumyum. no restaurant in LA cooks sinampalukan like this), grilled galunggong, grilled eggplant, daing na bangus. uh-oh. foooood!
Monday, April 02, 2007
random rambling
just finished watching a 2-hour episode of the amazing race: all-stars. i am totally, totally onboard this season and i have never missed an episode. charla and mirna's winning streak was cut abruptly because they had a bad, bad day. to think that they were ahead by almost a day over the other teams because they took the risk of flying from maputo to johannesburg then a connecting flight (risky, since the flights were full and they were just on stand-by) to tanzania.
then when they were in tanzania, some mysterious "weather disturbance" did not allow them to travel to the island of zanzibar, allowing oswald and danny to catch-up. anyhow. i don't have clear favorites out of the remaining teams, but joyce and uchenna are top on my list because they play well, they don't shout at each other that much and they have much respect for the other teams.
the same cannot be said of charla and mirna, although they make for really good television. just tonight, i had laugh-out-loud moments just watching them. and the beauty queens? oh, don't get me started on them. i find them kinda superficial. but they also make for good tv because of their "beauty queen moments."
the two gay teams, well, i'm quite ambivalent. the guidos are way too dramatic and danny and oswald, well, they're kinda likeable. which leaves me with the last remaining team on the race: danielle and eric. i'm not invested. i don't care if they get eliminated but i won't be happy if they win.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
april fools
wow. i can't believe it. the first quarter of 2007 is over.
anyhow, got back from my trip to arizona and nevada friday night. then yesterday, i had to cover the los angeles premiere of paraiso, the gawad kalinga movie.
that's maricel soriano chatting with butch jimenezthe movie's quite good. it's a trilogy and each of the stories focused on people who have been directly or indirectly helped by the organization. the first one had a tacky title, umiyak man ang langit, but it was the bext among the 3. it's just, it was kinda heavy and a bit depressing. well, any movie that focused on the leyte landslides in 2003 would be deemed heavy. this one starred maricel.
the second one was light, and it starred michael v and carmi martin. it focused on a boy who eats rocks/stones. they later explained that this is a psychological disorder among neglected children. it had its funny moments.
the third one starred cesar montano as a new york-based fil-am who donated to gk in honor of her wife's memory. i don't know what it is since i can't seem to pinpoint it but there's something about this one that didn't work for me. probably because they were establishing the fact that the couple (cesar and his caucasian wife) were already married for 25 years and yet they cast an actress who looked like she's just in her late-20s or early 30s. and they didn't even exert an effort to make her look older through make up. it was just unbelievable and quite a stretch. other than that, the story-line was quite thin and not-at-all compelling.
this film will be shown in manila mid-June, when the elction ban would have been lifted. cesar montano is running for senator and that for that reason alone, the producers have decided to show the film in the philippines after the elections.
marathon
no, not the racing kind. it's my tv/movie marathon slash addiction.
i recently discovered more sites (aside from youtube) that show tv shows and various movies. this means that over the past 2 weekends, i've watched a number of movies already. let me count: last week - my first romance (haha!) and kasal, kasali, kasalo. this weekend - anak, the classic and 300. yes, 300! i'm quite surprised myself. it's still showing at the neighborhood cinema near my place and since i've been hearing only good word about it, i was planning to see the film this weekend. but then, veoh came along.
i loved the movie. gerald butler is good but rodrigo santoro as king xerxes rocked! he looked like a gay dennis rodman, and that's a good thing. haha! the effects were magnificent, the fight scenes were awesome, the costume, well, who's complaining? lol.
more capsule reviews: i liked the classic. it's a korean film and i heard about it when i was in my "my sassy girl" phase because of their deft use of johan pachelbel's "canon in d" which i love so dearly. this one i watched through crunchy roll, which specializes in asian cinema. thanks r, for sharing the site with me. the only caveat, unless you earn points, you can only watch using their 2 x 3 screen. this was totally fine by me since i have been searching for this movie everywhere (it's not on veoh) and even in local video stores. maybe i should have extered more effort and went to k-town. but then, i don't think they'd be releasing sub-titled movies in k-town. but maybe they did, for the english-speaking koreans. well.
kasal, kasali, kasalo is one wonderful movie i'd recommend to all my filipino friends here. it was the topgrosser in last year's metro manila film festival and starred real-life couple ryan agoncillo & judy ann santos. the story was very realistic and the dialogue very crisp & fresh. kudos to joey reyes for coming up with a heart-warming and poignant look at newly-married life. judy ann's character is a barangay kagawad from cabanatuan city and a batotay magnate and she is played with a lot of flair by veteran actress gina pareno. (batotay is the famous cabanatuan beef longganisa. i prefer the really garlicky versions and everytime i am home, my mom cooks it for breakfast). ryan's mom is played by gloria diaz and she's also quite good in this film as a rich woman who lives in the u.s.
heard there's going to be a sequel and they're going to call it sakal, sakali, saklolo. it's gonna be hard to top the first one so they better make sure that the story-line and the dialogue and oh yes, the characters are all in sync.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
from AZ to NV
Almost six hours, with a few more minutes spent during stops. That’s how much time we spent driving from Phoenix, AZ to Las Vegas, NV.
On our way, we dropped by the Hoover Dam, 30 miles outside Las Vegas. I was here more than 5 years ago so I wasn’t that excited. Okay, I’m lying. I was excited. I’ve always been fascinated by this marvelous engineering feat.
Checked in at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino as soon as we arrived in Las Vegas. It was a long and tiring trip but it was all worth it.
Friday, March 30, 2007
awed by 'O'
Had a bit of free time last night and I went to a couple of casinos to check on their offerings. First up was Caesar’s Palace to see if they still have tickets for Celine Dion. Newspaper announcements have trumpeted that this is her third and last year on the strip.
Wow. Three years have passed and I have not seen the show yet. So I went to the box-office and c hecked if they had single tickets available. Turns out Celine’s on vacation and will be back by April 12. They had Elton John’s “Red Piano” show but will be available only Friday and Saturday. Boo-hoo.
I trekked back to the Bellagio and I saw this stand-by line for tickets to the 730 pm show. It was a long line and obviously, I was the last. The line was moving slowly and I was losing my patience and my hope. One young-ish looking guy approached me and asked if I was looking for single tickets.
“Yes,” I replied and he fished out a ticket from his pocket. “I can’t watch the show so I am selling my ticket, face value,” he responded.
I asked how much. He told me it was on the third row, almost center. “$165, face value,” he said.
Thought for a while and I told him that I’ll take my chance on the line to see if there are cheaper seats. “$130,” he offered. I didn’t budge. I fished out my hundred dollar from my pocket and said, “This is my budget, sorry.”
He left and few minutes later, he returned. “Okay, one hundred bucks,” he said.
Then it hit me. What if this guy was a con man. What if the ticket’s fake? I’ll have no way of finding out and no way as well to hunt him down. He sensed my hesitation. “Hey bro, this is real. I won’t screw you,” he said. Not the exact words I wanted to hear. I was sold.
I rushed to the theater and I was ushered to my seat. This was going to be a freaking good show. I’m on the third row!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
off to arizona!
two words: road trip!
it has been awhile since i ventured into a road trip. last time was a couple of years ago, when my friends and i went to the grand canyon. this new year's las vegas trip or even long drives to san francisco do not count. driving from california to another state (except nevada!) is a road trip.
i don't care if this is an official trip. i don't care of i am going to this trip with a couple of co-workers. i. don't. care. all i know is that i am due for a nice road trip and i am so looking forward to this one.
we're leaving in less than 5 hours and i haven't even packed yet. surprise, surprise. j & s had a little tea time at urth cafe in beverly hills and before we all knew it, it was already around 9. when i got home, i had to watch my recorded prison break and 24. i had to turn my computer on and update this blog. hahaha. skewed priorities.
so we're off to phoenix & scottsdale in arizona. we'll probably make a quick trip to tucson, then pass by tempe, mesa, gilbert and chandler (nice names for their cities, huh?). then by thursday, we're driving from arizona to las vegas. i've been to arizona before but this is the first time to drive from az to nv. excited. babaw ko.
Monday, March 26, 2007
america's love affair with the underdogs
who knew that at the end of the journey to crown the lead stars of 'grease, the musical,' we would see not just one, but two underdogs winning the votes?
max crumm was the unlikely danny zuko because of his looks. he was up against austin in the final 2 and as billy bush, the host, himself said, it was a battle between tom cruise and ben stiller. right there and then, i thought, max crumm's the new danny. i mean, tom cruise? did they think austin was going to be happy with the comparison?
laura osnes is also an unlikely sandy because, well, she's not blonde. hah! i don't have anything against her. she's cute and she sings well.
the show premiered in january and because of my trip to manila, i lost track of it until today when i got hooked again and watched the marathon on bravo before the 8 pm live finale sunday night. i have no idea if they got the idea (the reality show part) from bbc's "how do you solve a problem like maria?," a uk-based show looking for the lady who's going to play maria on the west end's "sound of music". caught a couple of episodes back in august when i was in london and i was instantly hooked. scoured the torrents for a few more but i am missing the final 3 or 4 episodes.
anyhow, this is what happens when producers make a reality show ("you're the one that i want" aired on nbc) out of their audition process. i honestly thought that austin had it in the bag since he has been doing musicalls all his life and he seemed to be the perfect danny. i just hope that max and laura be able to sell tickets. good luck.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
durian shake, anyone?
i've never had durian shake in my life so when the chance presented itself yesterday, i took it.
over late lunch at pho 57 in the outskirts of chinatown, i noticed the "durien shake" in the menu. i was hooked. i had to have it. i've had durian ice cream, durian pastillas, durian anything during my endless trips to davao eons ago and i've somehow fallen in like with the fruit (probably one of the very few).
r ordered guyabano shake and w had jackfruit shake. wow. the funny thing is w, an irish guy doesn't even know what a jackfruit is. or a guyabano. he's heard of durian, i think. we told him the 3 fruits are somehow related. like cousins. and jackfruit is the fragrant one while durian is the stinky one.
those are the only 3 fruit shakes available at the restaurant. i think i'm coming back for more.
lunch was good. had the traditional pork chop (done vietnamese style), baked egg, shredded pork and sunny side up on top. really good.
spring cleaning
For no apparent reason, I decided to redesign.
I let go of my previous template, and chose this new one.
Spring arrived earlier this week, yet the weather tells me it's still winter. There lies the irony. According to some published reports, this has been the warmest winter on record! I don't know about that.
The year's first quarter is about to end. Next thing we know, it'd already be 2008! But before that, the May elections. I'm a bit dismayed at the quality of people running for senator. As they would say on Grey's Anatomy, "Seriously? Seriously!" A lengthier post on this one in a couple of days...
Saturday, March 24, 2007
pinkberry addiction
my name is momar and i'm a pinkberry addict.
hahaha. i discovered pinkberry earlier this year but i didn't find time to blog about it. back then, it was just a once a week thingie, nothing regular. my fixation to the thing evolved into addiction slowly until i found myself literally craving for it. now, i need to have my pinkberry fix twice or thrice a week.
what's pinkberry you say? it's fro-yo, frozen yogurt. it's really, really good. the company is originally from seoul, i think, and this year, the company invaded the us of a, specifically california and new york. right now, they have around 8 in the u.s. and i'm quite lucky to have one near where i live. woohoo.
one of my favorite combination of toppings: cookies & cream and strawberry
photography is prohibited, i don't know why, but i managed to take some photos. this one's by the counter.
my other favorite: strawberry and blueberry. pinkberry offers just two flavors: original and green tea flavor and about 16 toppings, 8 fruits (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, pineapple, banana, mango, kiwi and one more) and 8 non-fruits (including cookies & cream, cap n crunch, pebbles, white chocolate, coconut something, carobs and one more).
the interior of pinkberry. nice and funky chairs, well-designed space.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
starvation for sanjaya
apparently, some people have decided to starve themselves while sanjaya is still in ai. wow. that's uhm weird crazy wow.
So until the day that Sanjya is no longer American Idol, I will be going on a hunger strike. This means I will refuse to eat anything until American Idol voters wise up, and stop voting Sanjya through each week.well, that and an endless exchange in some blogs about him. like this one. and this one. and yeah, this one, too.
sanjaya sails through
as i predicted (hahaha!), sanjaya malakar sailed through to the top 10 of this season. and on his path to american idol glory lay one more dream, shattered to bits. goodbye stephanie, i hardly knew ye.
my bottom 3: sanjaya, phil and stephanie
ai's bottom 2: chris and stephanie
at least i got the stephanie part. boohoo. chris looked scared though. what happened to his fanbase? they didn't like his mellow performance? but simon said it was probably his best so far.
p & r picked me up for dinner, so i missed the live show. i just finished watching it and i just feel bad that they don't even allow the booted contestant to sing his/her swan song. and they also do not ask for the judges' reaction anymore. why? probably because as early as top 24, the line "this is a singing competition" has been overused that the producers have probably decided to retire the line.
and sanjaya? unless you put on a decent performance in the coming weeks, you will always be in my bottom 3.
