::. TOO OH OH EIGHT! .::

2008 -- OH WHAT A YEAR INDEED! I never really expected this much to come out of this year coz, although I didn't really believe in horoscopes and stuff, this was supposed to be a bad, bad year for the Horses. Thus, I did not really hold my breath for anything spectacular to happen.

But hey, I think by far, 2008 has been the year wherein I got to travel a lot: I was lucky enough to travel outside the country around the time I just turned 30. We had a conference at Bintan Lagoon Resort in Indonesia (April) so I grabbed the opportunity to go on vacation at Singapore (April/May). Singapore was such a safe non-scary place so I was brave enough to go around the city mostly by myself after my officemates have long gone home to Manila. I was thrilled at the thought of being in another country by myself and it was such a great adventure to me. I loved Singapore! The cabs and food were damn expensive but I splurged on Charles & Keith shoes anyway. I went to Vigan (May) and Boracay (Aug) with my dear high school friends and I've been with my family in Morong, Bataan (June), Laiya, Batangas (June) and Bohol (Nov/Dec).

But the most defining title of 2008 would of course be (hands down, duh!) the year God blessed me with a boyfriend. Not MU chenezes like the Canossa school syndrome ones. My boyfriend CJ. Really. Thirty friggin years, and technically, my first boyfriend! It's about time, God! And so I happily let go of the NBSB title :-) I met him while I was vacationing with friends in Vigan last May -- a trip that was supposed to be in Feb but was postponed to May. WhoWouldveThunk! Blessing in disguise indeedy...

The most controversial personal happening of the year was probably the Twinklekaka Scandal. The pathetic Multiply gal who plagiarized my blog post about my Camiguin vacation last 2007. I hope she has learned how to blog her own thoughts by now :p

I noticed that I have ceased to blog much in my Blogspot this year. I have been too lazy to hypertype vacations and various musings in detail. I've lost that blogging feeling, I guess. Or maybe it's coz I'm not such a big drama queen anymore than I was in the previous years. And maybe I'm too busy with real world stuff that I don't have the energy and enough focus to weave kickass words. Hmm. I am actually deliberating if I'll just concentrate on my Multiply and let my Blogspot die a natural death. I have pretty much settled into posting photos in my Multiply lately anyway. Plus, Abbie has introduced me to Twitter this year so whenever I itched to share something, I just chirped away 140 characters that encapsulated my very thought at that very moment. I love Twitter! It keeps me in touch with what's going on with my friends, even the most mundane things they do get some tweet press! I have long abandoned MySpace and I seldom log into my Friendster. My virtual world basically revolves around Twitter and Multiply. And yes, I gave in to Facebook. It's still a bit too cluttered for my taste but I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I'm still bugged about the deluge of Facebook app requests though (stop sending me Lil Green Patch whathaveyous!!! hahaha!). I so wanna iggy everything!

The pop icons that would probably best represent 2008 are David Cook and Edward Cullen -- or Jacob Black, fine, for the Team Jacobs out there! The PPG was so obsessed about American Idol season 7, such that we lived and breathed Cookie all the time we spent in Vigan! And I scavenged the net for everything Cookie I could ever find like his pre-Idol band recordings. And yey to Forces gals too, they influenced me to jump into the Twilight bandwagon. I have discovered the awesomeness of listening to an audiobook in my iPod and have in fact listened, not read, the first 3 books of the Twilight saga. To date, I have just started with an hour of Breaking Dawn.

I just realized that I haven't bought any audio CD this year. Yet, I have 3,799 songs according to my iTunes that could last me 10.7 days. Yey to free music :p I have shifted back to more R&B and a bit of alternative rock this year, thanks to CJ who's so into R&B, hiphop and those non-mainstream R&B jewels that Wave 89.1 plays.

Alright. I guess that pretty much sums up my 2008! I don't wanna dwell on the shake ups that happened on the latter part of my year (oh hey, I caught Dengue early this December and it was my first time ever to be confined in a hospital! Bummer.) but I hope and pray that those won't happen again. I am praying for a rosier and happier 2009. May we be blessed with wonderful love, good health, prosperity, peace, understanding, trust, acceptance and open-heartedness this coming year and thereon... With God on my side and with hard work, I'm sure things will fall into place... the divine place it should be ;-) Thank you 2008 for the lessons, realizations, the significant other, steady friendships, better relationships, improved character, stronger faith... I am happy and I have found what I have been looking for ;-)

::. WANTED Kicks Ass! .::

I'm not much into testosteroney action flicks and top of mind, I think the only favorite man-flick that's on my list is Fight Club.

My sister and I watched WANTED last night. We missed like 10minutes of the movie's beginning so we decided to stay on and check out what we've missed. The movie's so good though that we decided to finish it the second time around.

Angelina Jolie kicks major ass and I *heart* James McAvoy. I hope he does more action flicks... he reminds me of Ed Norton... you know, the man-boy appeal, kiddie looking and doesn't look like a big action star at all. This is only the 2nd movie of James McAvoy that I've seen. The first one being Narnia wherein I mistook him for Shia LaBeouf whom I also have a crush on eversince I first watched him in Transformers. I think I'm gonna hunt now for a copy of Atonement to see James McAvoy's award-winning performance...

Anyway, the movie is pretty bloody and violent. I cringed both the first and the second time when I heard the sickening thud of Wesley Gibson's body as he hit the concrete train tunnel. His comic lines makes him adorable in this movie. My favorite kick-ass scene is when Wesley Gibson shoots this dude from his limo's sun roof. Super astig action scenes... love love this movie. Don't watch it on pirated DVD, watch it on the big screen for maximum impact =)

And coz I like spotting nice songs in movie soundtracks, here's one that I loved from the movie:
http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/music/item/531/Because_WANTED_kicked_so_much_ass...

::. DAVID COOK IS THE AMERICAN IDOL! .::

DAVID COOK WINS AMERICAN IDOL! WOOHOO!


gang sign for the cookies!

I was so ecstatic when I heard the news via text messages and phone calls! My bet, the rocker hottie David Cook is THE American Idol of Season 7! I just watched the re-run of the finale over at Star World and I swear I cried as I felt Cookie's emotional man-sob (don't you just want to hug him when he cries like that? awwww...) as his name was announced as THE winner of the season. He cried in all his guyliner glory. He soooo deserves it as he is a true artist who never compromised his individuality with his song choices and such. And since I have heard his pre-Idol album Analog Heart already, I could definitely say that he's got an awesome talent.

don't you just wanna hug cookie? awww...

i would have rooted for Archuleta if he wasn't facing off against Cook...

Little David's a good kid -- if only his father Jeff didn't get such bad press...

After Simon Cowell's declaration of a knockout last night, I was prepared for the worst -- David Archuleta winning and all. Not that I don't want Archu to win per se... the charming kid's got awesome power ballad talent and his brilliant voice also makes him deserving of the spot. If it were a Syesha-Archuleta finale, I would have rooted for Archuleta. But hey, the Cookie's got my heart (and the rest of the poopoo gang's hearts as well! *gang sign*). He had me at "Hello" ;-) I have played his versions of Hello, Billie Jean, Always Be My Baby, Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, etc. so many times that the people in the office must be so tired of hearing my iTunes on Idol Cookie mode these past few weeks :p

I'm so glad that Cook did not "suffer" the same fate of Chris Daughtry in AI. But hey, isn't it a bit weird that in the mini-montage in the Boxing match episode featured Daughtry instead of Taylor Hicks?! Just goes to prove that indeed Daughtry has enjoyed more success than his fellow Idolmates McPhee and Hicks.

Anyway, about tonights finale... I loved the Brian Adams number, Jason Castro's Hallelujah (whoa, for a while there I was scared he would miss the same final note he messed up the last time!), Mike Myers and Jimmy Kimmel segments... and the ZZ Top-Cook number if only to see Cookie do that leg dance thing again. The OneRepublic-Archuleta number of "Apologize" would have been nice if only OneRepublic didn't crack on his vocals. I say, Little David sang Apologize better than the original artist! :p

the best AI season I've ever watched! :-)

My season faves are: Cook, Castro and Archuleta.

I'll sleep happily tonight. All that "DAVID COOK FTMFW!" has finally materialized! =) Congratulations Team Cookies!

photos grabbed from yahoo news.

::. DON'T WANNA MISS THIS COOKIE! .::

As rickey.org states: OMG — Are they testing out the waters for a CORONATION SONG? *gasp*

As I heard the first few notes of the violin, I got goosebumps... in the same vein as his live performance of "Always be my Baby", the violin accompaniment totally added an extra dose of awesomeness (Barney HIMYM talking!) to David Cook's performance of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". I actually liked this better than his "Dare You to Move" number (which I felt was a bit bitin). I do hope iTunes would have the full version of both Aerosmith and Switchfoot covers (is that too much to ask?!). His "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" performance proves that he can still do mellow numbers as good as his rock-out performances.

So okay, 'gotta admit that David Archuleta -- even if he seemed to be out of breath while trying to do the R&B dance while singing -- was cute when he did Chris Brown's "With You". At least he tried to sing something more pop than his usual power ballads...

Simon says: David Cook wins the night!
I say: DAVID COOK is THE American Idol of Season 7!!!

DAVID COOK FTMFW!!!

::. DAVID COOK ROCKS! .::

Okay, so that awesome 'Always be my Baby' number that David Cook did in the recent Mariah Carey week in American Idol totally blew me away. I was half-sleeping as I was watching the re-run around 11:30PM last Wed and I literally rose from my lazy sleepy mode to a full-attention indian sit close to my TV. Mind-blowingly f'n awesome rocked-out version of one of my favorite Mariah hits! I loooove it! So now I officially have a crush on the word nerd. He actually looks better now after that haircut/makeover that took away my attention from his huge forehead. He does look arrogant sometimes but hey, he's got talent! His AI performances Hello and Billie Jean are on my iPod. And now I have both the studio and AI live version of Always be my baby.

I do hope he wins!!! David C. vs. David A.! I hope he doesn't become like Chris Daughtry who got eliminated in AI two seasons ago(?).

::. THE CARNAGE .::

Well Kanye West says that "now that don't kill me can only make me stronger." Sure. Let me save that mental thought for inspiration.

Goodbye to you...
I received the bad news on March 6. Feb 7, 2009. Wow. Save the date everyone.

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to

Carnage. Total carnage. My heart bled into a million pieces. I was devastated. Massive heart attack. I thought I was gonna shit in my pants and vomit at the same time. I suddenly had an upset stomach, cold hands and a burning feeling on my neck amidst my palpitating heart. Now I'm currently having emotional stress-induced asthma symptoms.

What hurts the most...
It was a horrible feeling to have every memory rush back in my mind at lightning speed. And even in random unguarded moments, a snippet of memory cruelly sneaks into my thoughts. That's torture. I wish I could have something like that lacunar amnesia thing in the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

What hurts the most
Was being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been

Much has been said...
Why did it have to be harder than it had to be?

It wasn't supposed to end with us just walking away

Can't describe the way it felt
When you left said you goodbyes
It just seems crazy for me to think
That i found love the same time
But we all know how it all wraps up in the end

You know that terrible feeling when it suddenly dawns on you that you have been abandoned and you have been waiting for three months for nothing? I can't see why I put my hopes up and led myself to believe that he will be different that time when I knew full well that he will always be who he was.

Light years away...
It's almost like you had it planned
It's like you smiled and shook my hand and said
"Hey, I'm about to screw you over, big time"

It's how you wanted it to be
It's like you played a joke on me
And I lost a friend
In the end

We've never been lovers now we're not even friends. Such a shame. He would have been a nice friend to keep.

You won't see me crying...
This will always be a tainted song. There will never be a time that I will not remember when I hear this song.

Duets suck.

Tell me it's not over now, will you?
So I won't be hangin' around
And you won't see me crying

Sorry...
I just poured my heart out
there's bits of it on the floor
And I take what's left of it and rinse it under cold water
And call him up for more

Crumbs. I felt like I was eating crumbs he throws my way whenever he felt like it. Oh what a lovely feeling, isn't it?


Tomorrow...
I dont know how I'll feel tomorrow
I dont know what to say tomorrow
Tomorrow is a different day
And I know I'm not ready
Maybe tomorrow

Crazy love...
Tonight I'm gonna break away
Just you wait and see
I've never been imprisoned by
A faded memory

Must. Stop. Being. Stupid. I know that.

No ordinary morning...
If there was nothing that I could say
Turned your back and you just walked away
Leaves me numb inside I think of you
Together is all I knew

We moved too fast but I had no sign
I would try to turn the hands of time
Then look to you for the reason why
The love we had passed me by

In the darkness that surrounds me now
there is no peace of mind
Your careless words undo me,
leave the thought of us behind

::. AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 7 MUSINGS .::

DAVID ARCHULETA - this adorable kid is my #1 bet for this season. He does sound too nasal at times but nevertheless, he definitely has the talent & charisma to make it to the final 3. He seems very humble and he's totally adorable when he chuckles over compliments thrown at him. Sooo cute. As Paula said, you just want to squish him and dangle him from your rear view mirror (or something to that effect.)


DANNY NORIEGA - he (she?) is a good performer... not a super good singer but I love watching him (her?) He is as entertaining as Christian Siriano of Project Runway... I like his snappy/sassy exchanges with Simon. Double snaps! Saw his early teenage photos shown during his profile? He makes a pretty girl. I envy his nicely shaped eyebrows! So chic!


JASON CASTRO - quite a cool dude with dreadlocks :) His guitar playing makes him an interesting performer. I actually liked his modern rendition of the Beegees song.




DAVID COOK - Ahh, the rockin' self-proclaimed word nerd. Geek is the new chic. I like his rocker voice. He pulls off the rocker appeal better as compared to (now eliminated) Robbie Carrico.




LUKE MENARD - Orlando Bloom, is that you? He is good looking but I smell a hint of gay. Especially after I saw him dance at the background while someone else was performing on stage. Got a Kenny Loggins voice but his theatrical performance sometimes doesn't do it for me.

DAVID HERNANDEZ - Ahh, if there were nude photos of Antonella Barba last season... well this season's hot gossip is that he is gay and he used to work in a gay night club. He can sing well but I don't exactly like his performances so far.

JASON YEAGER - He's been eliminated and it's okay with me. I am quite annoyed at how he sings and smiles at the same time. I can't stand it. He can sing but his constant smiling while singing really peeves me.

MICHAEL JOHNS - Nothing really memorable. I think he's kinda good looking. I don't remember any of his performances at all.

CHIKEZIE EZE - I actually liked him during his audition. He's got the soul/r&b voice going. I love saying his name chikezie eze... easy breezy.

I am not as enthusiastic in watching the girls' performances though so I have no female favorites really. Well RAMIELE MALUBAY is a Filipina, so GOOO PINOY!!! She reminds me of Lilo (Disney's Lilo & Stitch). Her first performance of You Don't Have to Say You Love me is such a trademark Pinoy videoke number.

I don't really care much as to which of the girls leave but please, I just wish AMANDA OVERMYER gets eliminated next week. I just simply can't stand watching her. Literally. I switch channels. It's probably the big Cruella De Vil - Simba hybrid hair that puts me off. And probably because she also reminds me of Dilana of RockStar Supernova. It's like she's in the wrong reality show. Oh well.

::. DEMAND FOR JOSIAH LEMING IN MANILA .::

There's a "Demand It" button over at Josiah Leming's MySpace... yeehaa!

::. REALITY TV DISAPPOINTMENTS .::

Okay, first thing that sucks is that Marc & Rovilson finished the Amazing Race at a painful 3rd place after winning 1st place on various legs of the race. Loved watching these buff guys for the crazy humor (Rovilson) and hot looks (Marc). And I love their statement shirts ("Real men ask for directions", "Rovilson's stunt double"...) 'Just bummed that it came down to national flag knowledge which Adrian of the Singapore team happened to be such an ace on. All the while I saw the Sony HD commercial on TV, I had this hunch that Adrian & Collin won coz they're the only ones who appeared in a Sony TVC as tandems. (Rovilson appeared in a Sony TVC with one of the Amazing Race girls, forgot her name...)



Another big upset is Josiah Leming being booted out after the Hollywood week of American Idol. Who could resist this innocent-looking blue eyed crybaby of AI? Sooo adorably cute. Really sucks that he did not make it to the top 24 coz he screwed up that Stand By Me audition after dismissing the AI band. Anyway, after much surfing, I stumbled upon Josiah Leming's myspace page. Quite talented kid. Nice songs posted on his page. Also saw some homemade videos of his piano performances on youtube. I wish he gets a record deal and/or comes back to AI next season.... Such a waste and such a shame if he doesn't get anywhere but his car (which he calls home).

::. HAVE A HAPPY EMO WEEK .::

For the ones in the same boat as I am... emo for the drama queens! I loooove this Typecast song...

BOSTON DRAMAStandard pick-up lines that seems to wreck your bones
Can this be a sequel of my dying hope?
Chasing down a never ending make-believe
But you're a perfect match of consistency

Will you come back in a heartbeat?
Don't be confused of what a great thing we could be
We'll take a walk on the same street
Can you tell me how Boston is like without me?

You're image is stamp beneath the insides of my heart
Now you're gone I don't know where to start
The evidence is showing like a stable apprehension
But you're the only one who's apt for this affection

::. I WISH I COULD SAY... .::

He was my night time, thought I was his star
Guess I was wrong, but see I'm strong
Won't take long for me to move on

Please don't worry 'bout me, I'm fine
ONLY GONNA PLAY THE FOOL ONE TIME
Trust me when I say that I'll be okay
Go on, man

The mistake I made is clear
That's the reason you're not here
Not a single salty tear
Not a feeling in my chest
Baby I'm feeling no stress
I'M TOO FLY TO BE DEPRESSED

* adopted fr Ne-yo's Go On Girl

~* GETTING SUCKED INTO THE iPOD LIFESTYLE *~

I don't even consider it a craze or trend. It's a lifestyle for the earphones-fixated generation of today.

A year ago, I didn't even think I needed nor wanted an iPod. Then last February, I got myself a pink Nano. I was probably among the late majority (or was I one of the laggards already? When did the iPod become THE aspirational digital media player anyway?!).

I just checked my inbox and saw this Apple e-blast.

Hmm. I don't really care about the portability of video since I'm more of a music addict than a videophile. But hey, the cyan iPod nano looks cute. And the red one looks really chic. So do I let myself get sucked into this money-making scheme just because of the nice colors? I'm too lazy to Google for reviews and besides, it's just been launched so not a lot of in-depth reviews as of now, I bet.

Anyway, was that Nelly Furtado on the ad?

Anyone generous enough to buy me one? ;-)

********** ADDENDUM ************

*GASP* I just saw that there's a lavender iPod Shuffle! Such cuteness! If I had money to burn I'd buy it just because it was lavender. But then again, I don't have the moolah. *sigh*

~* RANDOM RULES *~

Ok, I got this blog post idea from sillypipedreams who also referred to this site wherein "The A.V. Club asks its favorite rockers, writers, comics, or whatevers to set their MP3 players to shuffle and comment on the first few tracks that come up—no cheating or skipping embarrassing tracks allowed."

It's a cool way to take a peek into someone's music collection. So shall I say, "tell me what's on your player and I'll tell you who you are?" ;-)

Here's mine...

THIS WAY (JEWEL)

Oh wow, I didn't even know it was there! It's not really a memorable nor a fave song from Jewel so umm, I'd rather listen to Hands, Foolish Games or You Were Meant For Me the next time I'm in a Jewel-y mood.

IN DA CLUB [REMIX] (50 CENT feat. 702)

I sooo love this trippy happy remix of In Da Club. The cheerful bouncy melody and feminine touch of 702 makes it better than the original version.

LOVE ME STILL (CHAKA KHAN)

I think this started my obsession with TV show soundtracks. This nice dramatic song is from the 90s tv drama Party of 5 (remember Matthew Fox a.k.a Jack from Lost? I think he was Charlie in Party of 5.) Luckily, I was a practicum trainee in Studio 23 back in college. Party of Five was being aired by Studio 23 back then and at the end of our practicum, our boss gave us a Party of Five soundtrack CD as a token. See, I was really lucky back then...

BLIND (LIFEHOUSE)

I totally dig Lifehouse's sappy love songs and this is one of them. I love it so much that I actually have three versions of it on my PC. One album version and two different live/acoustic versions. I am a sucker for hot band guys with gravelly singing voice. Jason Wade, will you marry me?

GONE [N'SYNC COVER] (JOHN MAYER)

Now this one's really funny! John Mayer takes a jab on the boyband craze. The mp3 starts off with John Mayer doing some funny adlib and then proceeding with a storytelling interspersed with Gone verses. Really cute of John to do that. I love his humor. I've seen this concert DVD of his and his commentaries were really goofy-funny :-)

LET ME HOLD YOU (BOW WOW feat. OMARION)

Nice collab between Bow Wow and Omario but uhh, since I'm not a big fan, I don't know who's singing what in the track. But I love the melody of this one. I am having visuals of Bow Wow/Omarion doing that let-me-hold-you part in the video...

IT DON'T MATTER TO THE SUN (ROSIE THOMAS)

Not a big playlist mainstay but it's a pretty decent song. It's from one of the Grey's Anatomy episodes. Umm, I can't remember which one though.

INSENSITIVE [ACOUSTIC] (JANN ARDEN)

Haven't you noticed that I keep acoustic versions of songs? I'm a sucker for acoustic versions and this is one of those songs which sound nicer in its acoustic version. Did this come from a Julia Roberts movie? I forget. Or maybe I'm just too sleepy to recall. Anyway, this is the classic "I'm pining away here, can't you see that I'm in love with you, you jerk?!?" kind of song.

EWAN [APO HIKING SOCIETY COVER] (IMAGO)

Hey don't get me wrong, I really think Aia is a wonderful vocalist and I like most of Imago's songs (esp. Taning and Akap. But I could never ever like Taralets...) but I am really annoyed with the way she sings "mahal kita, mahal kita hindi to bohhhl-lahh" part. The really arte way she says "bola" is driving me nuts! Which brings me to the thought that I should probably delete this annoying song on my PC...

BREATHE ME (SIA)

This has got to be one of the most amazing song discoveries I've had in my channel surfing history! I LOVE THIS SONG! I don't really watch Six Feet Under on HBO but I just happened to channel surf my way there one night and apparently, the finale of the series was airing. This girl was driving along the highway while vignettes in between were showing how each cast member dies over the years. This was the background music during that long final scene. I didn't know the title nor the artist of the song back then so I searched for "Six Feet Under final episode soundtrack" on Multiply. And voila! Thank you my dear Multiply!

I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR (ARCTIC MONKEYS)

I've been hearing the buzz on Arctic Monkeys so I got curious about their music... and so I downloaded this coz it was the most prevalent track over at Sharezaa back then. Nothing spectacular but it sounds cool when I want some energetic music going on.

OBLIVION (30 SECONDS TO MARS)

I think this is from their first album? The self-titled one. Not a memorable 30STM song for me but rockin' enough anyway.

Ok I'm really sleepy na so I'll stop. Nitey-nite!

~* WHILE I WAS iTUNING... *~

I have been sooo remiss with my blogging duties... So here goes one big update!


I GOT MYSELF AN iPOD NANO. Yeah so basically this is the reason why I've been neglecting my blog. I was supposed to buy a Sony Ericsson Walkman fone W850i but got turned off when I examined an actual unit in the store so I ended up buying a pink iPod Nano instead. I have been OC'ing over putting album artworks and fixing the ID3 tags on my 2,999 mp3s worth 11.5GB. And I am still not freaking done. I haven't even organized the genre tags. Arghhh. And about a hundred mp3s still don't have their respective album artwork. OCness does give you carpal tunnel syndrome. Ouch.


I LOVE THE HOLIDAY! Saw this movie with Abbie & Charo last V-day. I love this movie! Jude Law and those dreamy eyes *sigh* I didn't feel any chemistry between Cameron Diaz (Amanda) and Jude Law (Graham) but I liked the pairing of Jack Black (Miles) and Kate Winslet (Iris). It's refreshing to see Kate act goofy and to see Jack as a romantic male lead. The lines in this movie are such quotable quotes, I love it... especially the lines of Kate's character. Here are some of my favorites:

Amanda: You know Graham, I just broke up with someone and considering you just showed up and you're insanely good-looking and probably won't remember me anyway... I'm thinking we should have sex... If you want.
Graham: Is that a trick question?

******
Iris: You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!

******
Iris: I like corny. I'm looking for corny in my life.

******

Iris: ... And then, there's another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. Its called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert. Most love stories are about people who fall in love with each other. But what about the rest of us? What about our stories, those of us who fall in love alone? We are the victims of the one sided affair. We are the cursed of the loved ones. We are the unloved ones, the walking wounded. The handicapped without the advantage of a great parking space! Yes, you are looking at one such individual. And I have willingly loved that man for over three miserable years! The absolute worst years of my life! The worst Christmas', the worst Birthday's, New Years Eve's brought in by tears and valium. These years that I have been in love have been the darkest days of my life. All because I've been cursed by being in love with a man who does not and will not love me back. Oh god, just the sight of him! Heart pounding! Throat thickening! Absolutely can't swallow! All the usual symptoms.

******

Iris: It doesn't matter how many new haircuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends... you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. and how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he'll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you'll go somewhere new. and you'll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little peices of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade.

******
Hannah: My god, I've just noticed how pathetic you are.
Iris: Really? I'm *sooo* aware of it.

******


WE HAD A YUMMY FAMILY LUNCH AT KAMAYAN SA PALAISDAAN. My Tito Boyet from the States was in town for a short visit so we treated him and my Lola Pura out for lunch at Bay, Los Baños (Laguna) last Saturday. I love the ambiance of the place... the type where you can have a very relaxed lunch and just enjoy the "countryside" appeal of the place. {more pictures on my Multiply}






WE WATCHED AN URBANDUB & DICTA LICENSE GIG. Another Sonic Boom event was held in San Mig, ATC last Saturday so Tin and I grabbed this chance to see Urbandub and Dicta License perform live. Typecast, The Ambassadors and Airport Drama also played. Hilera wasn't able to come coz they were still in Fairview. Got a little bitin on the Urbandub set coz they didn't do an encore :( Gabby looked pretty tired already. But they did a kick-ass set anyway so it's all good. Pochoy (Dicta License) looked *hot* as usual. He is just *so* cute in white shirt (ooh, a new version of the Faspitch shirt in white!). Dicta License played last so the crowd pretty much thinned out when it was time for them to play. Good for me though coz I managed to stay right beside the stage on Boogie's side. Really -- this band is so damn good looking (pogi rock alert!)... every single band member is cute in their own way. But that's not to underestimate the intensity of their songs. Pochoy sings with so much passion about socially-relevant themes that is meant to wake up the youth of today. Now THAT's extra pogi points ;-)

~* 30 SECONDS TO JARED LETO *~

Jared Leto: From My So-called Life to rockin' 30 Seconds To Mars

So I just found out that Jared Leto was actually the vocalist of 30 Seconds to Mars when I chanced upon an E! celebrity feature on Cameron Diaz early this January (he used to date Cameron). I was surprised to know that coz I've been digging 30STM since last year! And frankly, my only vivid memory of Jared Leto was from the Claire Danes TV series "My So Called Life" which I used to watch back in my highschool days. I don't even remember seeing him in Panic Room nor in Fight Club (must be too much Brad Pitt eyeballing)!

Anyway, I first got into 30 Seconds to Mars' music last year when I saw them as one of the nominees in the MTV Video Music Awards -- mentioned pretty much in the same breath as Panic! At The Disco whom I also love. And so, I can't believe how a Hollywood actor can actually rock! NOT a lame attempt at all! The band has enough street cred since their single "The Kill" rose up the charts. He can actually sing... I saw this one interview in youtube and he was fooling around & singing in a Sinatra kind of way-- so unlike the screamo vocals on A Beautiful Lie [album]. You know how screamo-alt-rock their music is? I was listening to their album in my Winamp at the office the other day and my boss actually asked me to tone down my music. Heh. Probably way too much of Jared's screamo-emo :p Favorite tracks from the album (aside from The Kill which was my first love): A Modern Myth [loved the violin tracks here!], Attack, From Yesterday, Hunter [a cool Bjork cover!], The Fantasy... Well actually the entire album rocks :-)

The band's drummer, by the way, happens to be Jared's brother Shannon. Their guitarist Tomo actually started out as a fan and then later auditioned as a replacement. (No interesting footnote about the bassist. Heh.)

the 35-year old eyeliner-wearing hottie as he appears in 'the kill' vid

I've been youtube'ing and I've seen funny interviews of the band and live performances. I love their acoustic performances... most of the performances were just with Tomo & Jared onstage and in those stripped down arrangements, it's amazing how Jared's voice is actually nice in a soothing, breathy, semi-gravelly kind of way. There are some Daily Download videos on youtube which had Jared & Tomo accompanied by this string section which resulted in a gorgeous version of The Kill. In the funny interviews, Jared's facial expression [when he amps up his humor] reminds me of Jim Carrey. And one interviewer actually introduced him as "singer/actor/hottie." And hottie indeed he is. He's got those pretty intense eyes and killer lashes, virtually perfect teeth and those lips that curl at the corners.

Been surfing up some bad press about him though... this thing about his fight with Elijah Wood and this blogger/press writer... his dating habits... etc. And do you remember that infamous pic of him kissing Scarlett Johansson wherein he was actually checking his phone WHILE kissing her?! But anyway, strictly talent-&-looks-dept. only, I would chalk him up beside Brandon Boyd of Incubus ;-)

~* NEW YEAR, NEW YOU, LET'S MULTIPLY *~

It's a brand spankin' new year so I was inspired to change my template and finally displace some of my houndstooth pattern fixation ;-)

Last week, I just saw this certain postcard from PostSecret which totally got my attention. It read "Everyday I am asked to be a magician in a world where magic doesn't exist." And then somebody emailed a reaction about the postcard and Frank posted it too. I love the inspiring/empowering words of the person who reacted: "You aren't the magician, you are the magic." Wow. Very concise but it had such a big impact on me. And that's how my new template theme was born.

~*+=+=+=+=+=+=+*~

I believe Abbie has beat me to it (she texted me about it yesterday) but I'm also gonna rave about Multiply. At first I was just using it for the photo albums but when I was told that I can search for music there, I was in love. I am a big mp3 junkie and I have started with winMX back in 2001 and then switched to Kazaa, shifted to Bearshare and lately, I have been using Sharezaa. But now, I think I'm gonna stick with Multiply for my mp3 needs. I swear, you can find almost anything there! From really old 90s Pinoy rock.... to band covers of pop songs... to the Lacoste (touch of pink) perfume commercial soundtrack. There are just a handful of elusive tracks that I have not yet found so far like Nadege's version of Heart's "These Dreams", Agot Isidro's "How Can I Be Sure", The Party's "Where is My Romeo", Tribal Fish songs, "Black to Gray" by I'm-not-sure-who but it's OPM -- Skychurch or something and Saga's "Berto." I'm also eager to upload and share some obscure and lesser-popular songs so watch out ;-) I've already uploaded two playlists as of now so feel free to download! :-)

~* GAEL AND THE DAWN *~

I've been inside the Mall of Asia (geez, can they make it any more labyrinthine than it already is?!) twice in a span of 1 week just to watch movies. First was last Nov. 3 wherein Charo, Jako & I caught the one-time only screening of a new Gael Garcia Bernal film "The Science of Sleep" during the opening of Cinemanila '06. It was directed by the same guy who did "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" -- Michael Gondry. I never really make an extraordinary effort to watch foreign language films except when it's a Gael Garcia Bernal movie. I'd endure reading the subtitles if it means seeing Gael on screen.


'Loved the movie :) It's refreshing to see Gael in a non-dramatic/heavy role AND speaking some French instead of the usual Spanish. He's on the funny side this time. His deadpan delivery of punchlines and his boyish charms (as always) were very endearing. The story has the same hyper-realism that Eternal Sunshine had so it was a very visual movie. Charo & I were laughing almost the entire time... the Disasterology-themed calendar, the one-second time machine and his other wacky inventions, his Parallel Synchronized Randomness theory and witty dialogues...

Then last Nov. 8, Tin, Charo, Abbie & I watched the Cinemalaya '06 Best Picture "Tulad ng Dati". Thanks Direk Mike Sandejas for the tickets :) It was an advanced screening/album launch of The Dawn but we didn't stay for the album launch anymore coz we had to wake up early for work the next day. I've always been curious to see the movie (being a music junkie and all). The story is loosely-based on The Dawn's journey as a band from the 80s til present. The guys were ok in terms of acting... a bit unnatural on some parts but hey, they're musicians, not actors;-) Well Jett had some theater experience so that helped. It was my first time to see Ping Medina in a movie (he seems to be in a lot of indie movies and music videos lately). With the right make-up and hairdo, Ping Medina really looked like Teddy Diaz.

It was a pretty cool movie with good rock music, surprising cameos (Stonefree was there! No wonder we spotted Miro inside the theater... Karl Roy, Imago, Raimund Marasigan...), funny scenes (Francis Brew when JB said "no sudden movements" at the rooftop... Buddy Zabala and Raimund facing each other and somebody said "Uy Eraserheads! Asan si Ely?")... and the rockin' face-off between the fictional Ratbunitata band and The Dawn -- pretty wicked guitar-playing by Kiko!

What I liked was this central thought about things "lost" that Teddy points out to Jett during his ghostly appearances in the movie. The idea was: If you lose something, you look for it; if you can't find it, replace it; if you can't replace it, try to forget about it; if you can't forget it, then accept that it's lost. Very apt when I relate to it personally (like hmm, love lost?)

Two good movies indeed! :)

~* LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! *~

So why was I experiencing total madness a few weeks ago?
Why did I miss catching the 2-DAY FINALE of ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA? [ yeah, I'm still sulking about this :( ]
This is the answer.

I was so swamped with work that entailed me to go to the office early and come home at 9ish pm. We had a Super 16mm Cinematography Workshop from Sept. 12 to 15. Director of Photography Joe d' Alessandro from Rochester, New York conducted the workshop for us. Among his familiar works are I Know What You Did Last Summer, One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek. We had nine Filipino workshop participants. Instead of doing a hassle-free staging of scenes with different lighting, the participants actually experienced lighting and shooting a real music video. Through the help of Director Mike Sandejas (of the Cinemalaya Best Picture "Tulad ng Dati" fame), we had a deal of shooting the new music video of The Dawn on 16mm Kodak motion picture film.

In my 5 years of doing marketing events and such, this, by far, is the most gruelling and stressful event I have ever planned & implemented. After experiencing actual production work, I don't think I would ever have the stamina to be in that kind of career. It's sooo stressful that I would have probably looked 40 when I was just 28 years old. And I would probably get asthma attacks every now and then due to the sweat-inducing stress of it all. Oh and how we have experienced Murphy's Law almost every single day! I hate Murphy. hah! :p

Overall -- despite all that back/armpit/chest sweat -- it was such a cool experience for me. Imagine meeting The Dawn (that great 80's icon who's now celebrating their 20th year and coming out with a new album; that band who starred in Tulad ng Dati; Enveloped Ideas, Iisang Bangka Tayo, Salamat, Love Will Set Us Free... if that doesn't ring a bell, then you're one musically-deprived Filipino!) as part of my job! I've only seen them perform live twice: first time on one of the Warner Bar tours and the other time with Mig Ayesa at Capones. Spending two full days with the band was quite interesting since I got to witness sneak previews of their on and off-cam behavior.

The Dawn is comprised of Jett Pangan on vocals, Francis Reyes on guitars (he happens to be one of my fave bloggers at livejournal! he's also known as Francis Brew on NU107), JB Leonor on drums and Buddy Zabala on bass (he's probably best known as the bassist of the great 90s band Eraserheads).

It was one helluva ride doing that 2-day music vid shoot and it was also neat to get a coupla photography tips from Francis who also takes cool digital photos. I was actually tempted to bring my ultraelectromagneticpop and Anthology CD to have Buddy sign it but uhh, I chickened out, haha. I wasn't sure if it would be a great idea now that it's already year 2006 & he's playing for a new band and knowing that the e-heads disbanded in a not-so-amicable way.

Anyway, I'm too lazy to write a detailed day-to-day narrative of the workshop. Here are the photos...

straight from the storyboards...






from the storyboard to motion picture film...






*this photo was also shot by francis reyes





*the brown one is vic's, the black one is mine and the blue one is bianx's

Day 4 was Post-production. The participants spent the day inside the telecine suite viewing the film scans of the music video shoot. Since it was the last day of the workshop, we had our graduation dinner at People's Palace (Greenbelt) which serves really delicious Thai dishes. And of course, a foreign guest can't leave the Philippines without a mini-jeepney! We gifted Joe with Filipino souvenirs from Balikbayan Handicrafts.

On the 16th of Sept., we spent our entire Saturday at UP Diliman. Since Joe was in town, we also scheduled a "Stop By, Shoot Film" for the UP film students. The film majors were given the opportunity to have hands-on shooting experience using the Bolex camera and 16mm Kodak motion picture films under the guidance of Joe. It was another sweaty day under the sun with occasional winds blowing amidst the Lagoon trees. By the time we finished around 6pm, it was already raining cats and dogs. Such an erratic flu-inducing Manila weather.

After those extremely tiring days of work, I went on a well-deserved vacation leave last Monday to have some relaxing shiatsu massage from Laxare Nail & Day Spa at Alabang.

*the sweaty outdoor look :p