Manila Turns Musical this August

News have been raining left right and center as to what to watch out for in this incredible city by means of concerts, plays, etc. August is turning out to be a pretty interesting month with THREE BANDS invading these borders that will likely rock the hunger and the purses of enthusiasts. To quote my sister, "Hindi ko na alam kung ano ang kinabukasan ko"... we are going to be hungry, social outcasts and temporarily broke before and after such magical consumption. But who cares?!!

So Skyflakes diet, let's kickeeettt!!

1. THE SMASHING PUMPKINS (yes, I am SCREAMING!!!!)

My dearest James, Billy, Jimmy and D'arcy. 

True, true, they are no longer the original quad(ro?) whom we Gen X-ers and early Gen Y-ers fell in-love with. Who can ever forget "Today" with the catchy guitar intro and the music video where James Iha wears a dress and Billy Corgan in an ice cream man's uniform? How about "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" from the supposedly melancholic double-tape/double-CD (depending on your funds then) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness? And then there was Adore, with the four going down to three, with my dear Jimmy Chamberlain having to retreat and withdraw due to drug problems daw? And then there was one, with a changing cast of characters who we no longer know?

Billy and... who? Let us fall in-love with you guys.

But who cares? This is THE Smashing Pumpkins. As much as we dream of a reunion of the original band members, in the meantime we can only be treated with the band that is now and the music that will forever wail in our hearts.

That's why Billy Corgan, please make sure to play tons of music from your pre-new Pumpkin era; this will be a surefire way to maintain and gain a fanbase. And... new Pumpkins, let's kick ass, yeah? We're still recovering from the new membership.

Hmm... New Membership. Potential band name.

The Smashing Pumpkins Oceania Global Tour - Smart Araneta Coliseum 
7 August 2012, 8PM

Ticket prices: VIP (limited standing); P4783 (Patron, Standing); P3733 (Lower Box, reserved seating); P1843 (Upper Box A, free seating); P1045 (Upper Box B, free seating); P583 (General Admission).

*At the moment the concert is not on the Smart Araneta and Ticketnet websites but there is a circulating contact number for reservations. Call Charlemagne at 09178334223 or 09228334223 for all sections. 


2. Snow Patrol

Oh my god. These guys, I am in-love with them in manner of reverse "absence makes the heart grow fonder" or more appropriately, the opposite of "out of sight, out of mind" which basically means I am in-love with them EVERY TIME I hear their songs. I don't care what my Brit friend says that they are some nobblybits-whatnot, I have been WANTING this band. Seriously, this band just makes Grey's Anatomy kinda more worth watching. Remember those scenes where someone is about to die, or someone is about to be killed, or someone wants to die? Snow Patrol is usually there, crooning, and you just want to WEEEEPP!

Furthermore, Scotty of Jam 88.3, a Scottish guy who's seen them a few times, declares that Snow Patrol is WORTH WATCHING. Just lookie:

Snow Patrol Live in Manila 2012 - Smart Araneta Coliseum
9 August 2012, 8PM

Ticket prices: P7420 (Patron A); P5830 (Patron B); P4770 (Patron C); P4770 (Lower Box VIP); P4240 (Lower Box Regular); P3180 (Upper Box A VIP); P2650 (Upper Box A Regula); P1590 (Upper Box B); P850 (General Admission)

Visit http://www.ticketnet.com.ph/.


3. Tears for Fears (with a band member from Fra Lippo Lippi)

My only Tears for Fears album. In casette tape.

Alright, so here is something for the hipper and older crowd: the 1980s equivalent of... ah, these guys remain to be incomparable. Of course, growing up in the 80s I was familiar with their songs but my Tears for Fears appreciation came in the early 1990s when I saw their music video "Break It Down Again" and, for some reason, I had the greatest hits album Tears Roll Down which became a "phase" in  sophomore year. I was in-love with "Woman in Chains" and "Sowing the Seeds of Love". But then again, who didn't grow up singing to "Shout... shout... let it all out!"?

Frankly, one of my videoke songs is a Tears for Fears tune... and it's not "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"!!! It's "Head Over Heels", actually :-)

Tears for Fears Live in Manila 2012 - Smart Araneta Coliseum
10 August 2012, 8PM


Ticket prices: P7920 (SVIP and VIP); 5810 (Patron); P4755 (Lower Box); P2640 (Upper Box A); P1585 (Upper Box B); P740 (General Admission)

 Visit http://www.ticketnet.com.ph/


4. Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience

Alright! This section may be quite off, but I love the Harry Potter books and I think I am going to watch this. Potted Potter is actually a condensed parody of the seven books and it has developed from a street performance into a full length play. From August 28 to September 2, Philippine Potter fans, theater enthusiasts and every Dhong, Tikoy and Manny have the opportunity to pick from the ten scheduled shows at the RCBC Plaza in Makati and just be taken away by the alohomoras to the expecto patronums.

Potted Potter - Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza
28 August to 2 September 2012


Ticket prices: P950 (Zone 3); P1900 (Zone 2); P2950 (Zone 1)

Visit: www.ticketworld.com.ph

5. Oh... AND The Phantom of the Opera


It'll be at the CCP starting August 25. Very important play, very big deal they're staging it here. Just go to the bloody Ticketworld website for information and how much you have to shell out just so you can shriek along with "All I Ask of You".


That's it, I'm overwhelmed.

Oh Hail the Half-and-Half

Seriously, I have no problem with ads portraying famous celebrities and "beauties" of this land as a certain-percent Filipino and the rest as something else. I mean, that's the reality. Some people may argue that Filipinos are not, say, "pure", that our bloodlines have been mixed with Chinese, Japanese, Indian and even Spanish races.

I even have to say that with my foreign-like (or pretty "foreign") last name, my family has this three-generations-old legend/joke that our ancestors were really English convicts bound for Australia that ended up in our Pacific-facing province.

Some have expressed they were offended by the ad, some even defended it. I saw a Facebook comment that it all boils down to a "mutt" discussion (haha). Heck, it's on Mashable; the issue's now raised on a web-level that Mashable readers can only understand!

When I first saw it, I thought, "Oh of course, we celebrate the obvious and that is the advantage of the half-and-half". Really. There's nothing wrong with "50% Australian and 50% Filipino" and even "30% Indian and 70% Filipino" (whoa, is this like a complicated genetic computation?), I think the problem is --- they are the MINORITY. It especially comes with a critical slap when the copy of the ad says:

“Call it biased, but the mixing and matching of different nationalities with Filipino blood is almost a sure formula for someone beautiful and world class.”


HAHA, "Call it biased.." it IS! You got that right!

I don't think that the ad is offensive at all, it is just alienating. There is that obvious preference for the "mixed" people, most especially the ones who are part Caucasians. Since college I have friends who kidded about marrying foreigners just so our kids will have the advantage here; it is just SAD and it is so true. We are not only a culture that wants to look white, we have become a culture that gives advantage to those who are not "indigenous". Why can't we just embrace and celebrate EVERYONE, including those who do not have grandparents or parents who are a lighter or darker shade of... fabulous Malay/Pacific Islander tan?!!

Yes, I remember Bayo having a 100% Pinay campaign before which I loved; I think I bought a couple of shirts because of that. Now this makes me wonder --- these mixed-race models Bayo used, where do they tend to lean towards... their Filipino side or the other side? Seriously. Answer this under oath, in the eyes of your god, whatever. I am not saying pick a side; say, are you more Australian or more Filipino or more Chinese or more Indian? Just a question. Because whether you like it or not, Jessica Sanchez is more American than Filipino or Mexican.

Seriously, who cares if you're one-eighth Spanish or whatever. So everything is all about the genes now? Gattaca? Anyone?

And while we're at it, why not revive a 100% Pinay campaign in its real mixed sense?

If you want mixed, there you go. Everybody's happy. 

Nina Simone and My Unmentionables

Since I have been in the mood to kick ass in manner of "Winterfell!", sword in hand, a shield in the other and a wolf by my side, constantly on guard for any attack, I decided to pounce on something that have been piling up for several days: the raging and almost overflowing laundry basket.

There is no joy in hand washing the unmentionables but any household chore can be addressed creatively by popping something interesting on the DVD player. Since I had my cable cut (ayayay), I have been playing Stars' Heart album and Club 8's Strangely Beautiful alternately between marathons and reruns of the likes of Y Tu Mama Tambien, Central du Brasil, Bridget Jones's Diary and Love, Actually (ah, the Brits know what to do with romance and farce). Somehow, I needed a new soundtrack last night, and my eyes managed to land on an Orocan box which contained unpacked stuff from my last stint being roomies with a Canadian boy back in oh-seven.

Oh joy! Lookie --- CDs and books which I have somehow forgotten I own: Death Cab for Cutie's Plans, Tori Amos' The Beekeeper and American Doll Posse, and albums from Toad the Wet Sprocket, Elbow and Trembling Blue Stars. There's the secondhand copy of Tropic of Cancer. Ooh, and a Nina Simone compilation I purchased in Singapore.

Nina Simone. Who can ever forget? What a kick ass woman. Now this is true jazz.

Imagine dissolving the detergent whilst singing with her cover of "Here Comes the Sun" followed by "Seems I'm Never Tired of Loving You"? How about the part where you try to rap around the lyrics of "New World Coming" as you scrub scrub scrub? And keeping yourself from lighting a match to the tune of "To Love Somebody"?

Somehow I remember this meme on Pinterest that goes something like, "Why can't John Hughes write my love story?" Listening to Nina Simone somehow makes me think, "Why can't Nina Simone play in the background as I finally meet my one true love?" Well, as life is not a movie similar to that iconic reunion between Jesse and Celine in Before Sunset whilst Nina Simone's "Just in Time" is spinning in Celine's Parisian CD player, I am just going to have to play her in my Mandaluyong-based player as I tackle not just my unmentionables but the collecting dust on my bookcase as well.

In the meantime ---

A Year From Now

Inspired by this blogger that I have been reading (on-and-off) for years: she blogged My Boyfriend is a Twat but then the Twat is apparently no longer the Boyfriend, hence, she is now Learning English Again. Now, back in the motherland, things have been apparently far from a movie ending or a butterfly sequel, but the thing is, there is change.

I have to admit that I am so envious of change.

I can't help but wonder: will I look back to the past (now) in the future and realize what big a difference time makes?

I guess the best way to address the envy --- and to answer the question --- is to start now.

Copy Paste Quotes

I have been on Twitter a lot lately which explains why I have sort of abandoned this blog. And... I have to admit in a fangirl fashion (and in a temporarily deranged state) that I did pay some attention to my other blog wherein I was scheming-schmanning (more of the latter) on how to marry Jason Segel (who is now enthralled by Ms Michelle Williams, thereby marrying him now is out of the question).

I have to admit that I am also in this state of change in manner of Oprah's "Your Best Life Ever" which has, funnily and tragically, so far resulted to the very 90s-ish Bridget Jones minus the smoking (I've had a very bad asthma attack two weeks ago), the drinking (victim of watered-down cocktails), and the "this is Bridget Jones, wanton sex goddess, naughty man between her legs" kind-of dialogue.

Then again, if it has been smoke-less, drunken-less, and lack-of-shag, how is this Bridget Jones-like, eh?

I guess the only Bridget-ish in this current existence is the part where these don't exist thereby similarities come in the form of... self-help, weight-loss management, and the search for that very much anonymous Mr. Mark Darcy.

Hahahahaha. Yes, I am so fucking sick and tired.

Anyway, speaking of Twitter, I am subscribed to the Tweets of "Great Mind Quotes" which, yes, twitters about great quotes from great persons dead and alive. Mind you that I just don't retweet any quote, I just retweet those that I find relevant. Ergo, relevance shall be copy-and-pasted!

"If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it." - John Irving
"No pressure, no diamonds." - Mary Case
"Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." - George S. Patton
"A year from now you may wish you had started today." - Karen Lamb
"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." - Peter Drucker
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
"The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action." - Madame de Stael
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." - Milton Berle
"It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark." - Howard Ruff


Inspired yet? Inspired much!

This is a Cool Blog

This should be a cool blog.

Why? Because this is going to make something out of the expected daily grind. Because this is going to paint a picture of why Picasso saw sharp shapes. Because this is going to narrate the story of Nothing which can be graphically possible, really.

So I shall begin by writing about the weather.

It's about ten shades of grey outside, sky blue fighting in one generous corner, a cluster of fluffy clouds flirting about as they oscillate between white and silver and eeny, meany, whinny black. But at the moment the skies are nice enough to let the sun have a peek at this drenched land, which could use a bit more wetness, if you know what I mean. No, I do not ask for a flood; too busy to make some ark.

Schedule-wise it is a blank slate, save for a sudden client meeting in a couple of hours. I should be preparing self for some life-changing decision which actually boils down to me asking for a pretty long absence (with or without leave) that shall commence in less than two weeks. That's just the first step, and true to the law of sequencing (such thing?) step two shall manifest, sequitur. Good luck with that.

To make matters more interesting, here is what I've had so far (in food terms):

1. Hot Milo, small cup of.
2. Skyflakes crackers, a packet of.
3. White rice, half-a-cup of.
4. Kare-kare (stewed beef, tripe and veg in peanut sauce), a cup of.
5. Cavendish banana, one dang huge piece that it reminded me of someone.
6. Water, about six glasses so far.

On a health note, I was pretty alarmed when a colleague remarked that I might have diabetes as I threw some stupid tantrum whilst at work a couple of months ago; she said that I was obviously hungry therefore I got irritated, which can explain the potential of me being a diabetic. I had to tell her, quite nicely, that: a) anyone who is overworked and hungry will tend to snap the head out of everyone, and b) I was irritated because I had to deal with idiocy the entire night. I am sorry, but tantrums flare.

But that didn't stop me from Googling "diabetes symptoms" afterwards. Symptoms-wise... well, I have been tired and fatigued, yes. No, I don't have wounds that have been having a hard time healing. I might have been infected by something but I think I've already flushed it out of my system. Besides, I was recently hospitalized and everyone's shocked that the tests showed I was pretty normal and healthy, thus everybody wondered why I was being hysterical at the sight of a needle and the moments connecting me to an IV seemed like I was some emery bag in need of some serious poking and thrusting.

Anyhow, at the moment it seems that the three shades of blue are winning outside the battle of the Manila skies, thanks to that bloody storm finally heading out of this country.

Coolness.

After the Quake

before, it was stillness
during, it was movement
after, it was history