~* CHOCOLATE TOOTHPASTE & A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER STUFF *~

I have been intensely curious about the Close-Up Flavalicious Choco Loco (thanks to the daily persuasive must-try-this talk of Chico & Delamar) for a coupla weeks now and finally, I got to try it yesterday. My dad who knew I was soooo curious to taste it bought me one after his trip to the grocery the other day. That was a day or two after I got excited when our maid told me that my dad bought a Close-Up Choco Loco, only to find out later that he has given it to my nephew:( I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to try it so he remembered to buy me a small tube during his next visit to the grocery :)

It's insanely yummy for a toothpaste! It tastes exactly like that Fashion21 chocolate-flavored lip gloss that I tried before. It's the best toothpaste to use when you've just eaten something with an aftertaste like onions, garlic, fish, vinegar, etc.

Hmm. Willy Wonka is in the house.

~oO0Oo~
Greg my personal hero/inspiration/you-go-girl-cheerer is coming to town! My officemate toldthe news to me this morning and on my way home this evening, I saw this huge tarpaulin banner in front of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf/Music One in Greenbelt. He'll be in Greenbelt for a stand-up comedy thing on the 15th and a book signing on the 16th (if i remember the dates right... something like that...)

So paging ABBIE: must. have. my. book. hahaha! are you buying me a new one in time for next week's book signing? ;-)


~oO0Oo~
Sh*t. Hmm. Parang I'm near na to being broke?! Badtrip. All-time low my checkbook balance. Putris.

• It's so freakin' expensive to go to the derma to have a diamond peel. Must stop being vain.
• I think I've been buying 2-3 CDs every month. Must stop my impulsive CD-buying spree. I must stop dropping by Tower Records or Music One.
• Have I been going to too many gigs? I'm not sure. Must minimize gig attendance.
  
  I WANNA BUY...
• the new sleek pocket-sized Kodak EasyShare V530 . I waaaant the *absolute pink* one. I'm selling my Kodak LS420... Buy it na, biliiiis... so I can buy this new one ;)
  

• the following CDs...

Barbie's "Singles"

Urbandub's
"Influence"

Pearl Jam's "Rearview
Mirror" and "Ten"

Nirvana's "Nirvana"

Stone Temple Pilot's "Thank
You"

~oO0Oo~

TRIVIA FOR THE WEEK: Wow, I just learned from Tin that Urbandub is Cebu-based pala? Wow. They sound so, hmm, Manila-ish. They are sooo good. I love their unique sound. They're my new fave of the moment. I hope I can watch one of their gigs soon. Hmm. I hope I get to catch them when I go to Cebu this Nov. for Ad Congress... I have been loving A New Tattoo eversince I saw the vid in MTV moooonths back... I never heard it being played on the radio. Weird. Or maybe I just don't listen to NU107 that much...




~oO0Oo~

I am sooo loving my Jagged Little Pill Acoustic CD. I sooo love "Forgiven" ("What I learned I rejected but I believe again..."). And aliw... "Your House" is still a hidden track. Hmm. Did anyone notice that Alanis changed the lyrics to "Ironic" ("it's like meeting the man of my dreams, and meeting his beautiful HUSBAND.") Oooh. There's a story there!




~oO0Oo~

LAST SONG SYNDROME! James Blunt's "You're Beautiful".

It's been on loop in my office PC's Winamp. *sigh* Feeling down and unpretty? Listen to this song and imagine that James Blunt is singing it to you (a bit pathetic, haha, I knooow... but bear with me on this one, will ya?!):

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.




~oO0Oo~

What is up with people saying "Wala lang. "?! Putek. Pa-cute ba yun?

Fiiiine. Sige na nga. *rolls eyes* Cute na nga.

~* HAPPY SATURDAY NIGHT *~

Went to Teena's place last night for her pre-birthday celebration and Red's despedida (he flew back to NY today). Once again, I had a taste of Teena's yummy sangloffs (sp?). Oh and this new Sprite Ice we had was great. Love it! It's great too for mixing with Artic Strawberry vodka;) We dunked bananas and marshmallows on Tere's choco fondue :) Lots of food on the table and funny crazy conversations made the night so happy. What with the shrilly voice of Vilma Santos singing in the background (CD courtesy of Robi!). It made Tere wish that she brought her Ramona Revilla CD. Haha. The fellas' funny recounting of their experience at the Government (this gay bar thingie somewhere in Makati. Something like Bed in Malate daw...), the homophobic stories, the f & p syndrome ("wanna puck?" or "wanna pornicate?" LMFAO when Jhett gave this spiel!). Never a dull moment indeed when I am around these bunch of friends :)

The crazy people of the night were: Jhett, Robi, Red, Reubs (left early coz he had a date, hehe) , Karl, Pau, Teena, Mika, Tere, Glenda, Sarah, June (just dropped by) and me.

the girls (pics @ the bottom): teena, mika, tere, glenda, sarah & june
top photos: red (and jhett) for sprite ice; jhett: "try nyo kantahin yung beam toothpaste jingle nang serious..."; robi doing the best gay pose he could muster


the party (doing a spoof of the "yearbook open-mouth smile" on the top photo. lol.)

~* HALE @ 19EAST *~

*FINALLY*.

Yesterday was the first real Hale gig that I've been to. The first time I watched them was in their album signing at Tower Records Glorietta which was not much of a real gig but more of an interaction with the band.

I'm tamad to make detailed kwento coz I'm still in *zombie mode*. I got home around 2:30am after the gig and then woke up at 6am to go to work. And so I've had only about 3.5 hours of sleep as of now. So forgive my lack of enthusiasm to go into details with this post.

Anyway, we *had to* watch Monkeyspank, 13 Needles and Join the Club who all performed before Hale. Aliw nevertheless. College bands kind of thing. From UP, Ateneo, UST Conservatory of Music... stuff like that. I was most aliw with the stage presence of Join the Club. I think they were friends with Roll back in UST or something coz he was chatting with them at the parking lot after the gig. Monkeyspank was a nu-metalish kind of band so the vocals were growly/scream-o. Haha. I was thinking if Abbie could bear with the noise -- coz at least, Tin, Charo and I are appreciative of rock music... but Abbie never dug any kind of music bordering on the noisy side;-) 13 Needles: I remember them doing a rock version of *gasp* Quit Playing Games with my Heart by BSB! Quite entertaining as much as hearing Blink 182 do a Britney with a rock version of Hit Me Baby (One More Time).

So anyway, there. Hale played around past 12midnight already -- after the quasi-album launch of Join the Club. lol. ;P Dang! We were tricked into that one! hehe.

Hale played around 10 songs, their originals plus a cover of Coldplay's Yellow. I was pretty much digicamming the whole time. Nagtataka na siguro si Champ why forever na lang nakataas yung digicam ko. (I was taking vids). I could see kasi na napapatingin na sya to me since yun nga, I was holding up my digicam almost all throughout their set. My arm kinda hurts. huhuhu. Okay, coñotic taglish na post ko. *lol* I don't wanna think anymore. *zombie mode*

Umm. I have three excuses why I'm not posting all the Hale pics I took:

1. I'm too much of a zombie now to collate it in Photoshop.
2. I'm selfish. Hehe. I'm not too happy with right-clicker-strangers.
   Especially those who don't ask permission/make an acknowledgement when they use the pictures I took.
3. With the frequent traffic due to Hale search engine results, it will consume a lot of the allocated daily bandwidth of the various image hosts I use. I hate seeing tiny red "x" marks where my pics used to be.
   

And can I just say... it was hard to get a pic of Omnie coz Champ was directly in front of the drum set from the angle where we sat :( I only manage to see parts of Omnie in the videos. And Sheldon was hard to photograph too coz he was standing on the dim side of the stage. I don't like using my flash coz I don't wanna ruin the lighting effects of the stage so most of my Sheldon pics were quite dark and blurry.

me and the girls (abbie, charo, tin)...


me and hale. (umm, sans omnie. hmm. didn't see him anymore after the gig...)*Need I label this and name them? hehe. Kilala na sila ng buong Pilipinas !;-)


Funnies:

A: "hehe,para silang mga model ng Pony..."
B: "Uhh. Oo nga, sponsored sila ng Pony eh!"


A: "ano ba yan! sad song na naman. wala ba silang mga happy songs?"
B: "Uhh. MELODRAMA kasi yung music nila."


*wink, wink* :P

~* NOW PLAYING: Kung Wala Ka by Hale *~

They only have two Filipino-penned tracks on their album and this song is the one I like more. I sooo love the way Champ sang this. So poignant.

KUNG WALA KA

Words by: Roll Martinez & Champ Lui-Pio

Natapos na ang lahat
Nandito pa rin ako
Hetong nakatulala
Sa mundo

Hindi mo maiisip
Hindi mo makikita
Ang mga pangarap ko
Para sa iyo

Oh…
Hindi ko maisip
Kung wala ka
Oh…
sa buhay ko

Nariyan ka pa ba
Hindi ko na matanaw
Kung merong madadaanang
Pasulong

Sundan mo ang paghimig na lulan
Na aking pinagtanto
Sundan mo ang paghimig ko

~* KIKAY AND HER PUPPIES *~

Wow. Our dear pitbull Kikay is now a mommy! I remember those days when she was a cute puppy herself... she won her very first dog show! And I remember those pictures I posted of her having her bath. :)

Yesterday morning, I took pictures of the *very pregnant* Kikay... Her tummy was sooo big and her udder (I'd like to call it her cow-boobs :P ) looked like it was about to burst with milk. Here are her adorable snapshots:

this was actually my first shot and my most favorite of all the pictures i took of her


more of Kikay's adorable sweet self (a bit of a pornstar, i guess... with all that flashing of her pink cow-boobs*lol* )


All of us in the house were looking forward to her giving birth for the past few days since she was already a bit overdue. Finally, around 12:30am Sunday, she gave birth to her first pup. Our househelp, my mom and my dad pretty much stayed up til the wee hours of the morning to witness the momentous event. I, on the other hand, slept throughout her approx. 6hrs. birthing process because it was already 1:30AM and so far, there was only one puppy born. The 12th pup was born around 6AM. This was Kikay's first pregnancy. One of the pups was born underdeveloped and Kikay uhh ate it (yes, you can faint right about now...). The other one died shortly after it was born/was dead when it was born. There were 10 pups when I woke up today but by mid-afternoon, we found one cold and dead :( . So we're down to 9 pups now. But of the nine, I fear that 2 of 'em might die eventually-- one was a miracle baby coz when Kikay chewed off its umbilical cord, the rest of its insides were umm drawn out. So now it has part of its reddish insides kinda hanging out of its belly (umm, you can faint again right about now...). We call that pup "si Bituka" because of it. Another one is this pup we call "si Tigas" (I said, I'll name it "Astig" if it manages to live, hehe) coz when we cradled it on our hands and whenever we lift it, its body was just really stiff like it was dead, but it was still very much alive though.

Okay, here are the cutesy pictures of Kikay's cuddly litter...



cute cute pitbull puppies with pink eyelids, pink ears, tiny pink noses and pink paws *awww*


more cuteness...

~* HAIL HALE! *~

*photo fr. http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/hale_music/

Yey! I just learned today that Hale won BEST NEW ARTIST in last night's MTV PILIPINAS 2005 awards :) Congratulations to CHAMP, ROLL, SHELDON & OMNIE :)

~* ON REPACKAGED ALBUMS... *~

So there's this interesting post on one of the mailing lists I'm in regarding repackaged albums (this certain band's repackaged album, in particular):

"... for an added 30 pesos, meron ka nang second cd--may music video,
ilang versions ng kanta, and a new song. sulit nga naman. however, i still
couldn't get myself to buy it. ako na nakabili na nung naunang release ng
album. i just think it's too much. it seems that they're trying to sell out the song _____, since madaming tao ang nagandahan sa song and the music video...

can you just imagine the disappointment of the people who bought (and
eagerly waited since october or earlier yata for) the original release of
the album? parang dapat pala nag-intay na lang sila for some months para yung repackaged album na lang ang nabili nila. parang ang benefit lang kasi
naming mga bumili ng naunang album is that we got a copy earlier than the rest. on second thought, benefit ba yun? or at least we were part of bringing the original album up the charts.

but i'm still interested on whatever the second cd contains. iniintay ko lang na may magsabi na super astig at sobrang ganda nung new song such that it would be worth [it].

no offense meant to the band and to all else concerned, perosana talaga this will not happen again, this repackaging thing. sana yung EP na lang ang ni-repackage with the second cd, since maraming tao at fans ang walang copy non. "

So this was my reply to that post:


ok, i noticed no one (save for one guy's post that i saw a while ago) would even touch this topic with a 10ft pole but i actually find the subject really thought-provoking :) and actually, he/she raises a valid point.

okay, let's look at this from two perspectives... *ummm, mejo mahaba to okay :)*

SIDE OF THE PRODUCER OF THE ALBUM:

I have noticed in recent years that record companies/producers have been coming out with repackaged CDs after a few months (or a year, maybe) of the original release. on a business perspective, this is actually a sales technique to generate more sales for the album. it's like extending the life/staying power of the album. it's quite similar to the obsolescence technique used by phone manufacturers -- something like nokia coming out with the 6220 and then after a few months they come out with the 6230 -- essentially the same phone except for some feature improvements/add-ons.

the producers have two target markets: 1) those who already bought the album and 2) those who haven't. For the 1st target, the producers are banking basically on customer loyalty (in this case,those who are *really* into ____'s music. coz diba if your level of liking the band is leaning on the average, you're pretty much satisfied and happy with the original version of the album that you already bought). For the 2nd one, the producers are hoping that the new stuff in the repackaged album would entice these people to finally get the album.

SIDE OF THE BUYER OF THE ALBUM:

Ok, for this one, I'll be talking based on my experiences as a CD buyer. First off, yes, I am quite peeved when I have already bought the album during the early time of its release and then after 6 mos or more, I see/hear/read abt a repackaged version. that happened to me with the keane, maroon5, switchfoot and usher album. however, for maroon5's case, since i could not find the kanye west remix of this love online, sobrang I got impatient and tamad na with downloading so I bought the repackaged album. i tried to sell my original version but ended up with giving it away as a gift to my sister. on the other hand, i find myself lucky to have held off buying some albums during its intial release because i got to buy na the repackaged ones.

i guess the most annoying thing about this, most esp. in the case of the students, is that they save up money from their allowance to buy a CD. so yun, i understand na nakakabadtrip nga naman.

as for the people who are quite OC with their CD collection like me, I really prefer repackaged ones pero if I'm not naman *really* super into the artist's music, mababadtrip ako pero OK lang in the end.

i guess the bottomline is nasa sayo naman yung final decision if you actually buy the repackaged album of artists or not. the artists do promote their repackaged albums pero it's not like they're forcing you to buy one or stripping you of say, autograph-signing privileges just because what you have is the original version. the artists are glad as it is that you bought their album. they don't naman discriminate fans and compartmentalize them into those who bought the original album, those who already have the orig album and still bought the repackaged one and those who just bought the repackaged one.

AS FOR THE EP SUGGESTION:
yeah, that seems to be a nice idea since I don't have the EP myself. But I'm thinking that if they re-release the EP w/ ________, that would probably entail a new set of negotiations with Sony in terms of distribution kaya siguro the band did not decide to do that ;)

**********************

So there. I guess it's really more of an issue with students rather than with hmm income-earning-tax-paying people like me. If I was in the person's case and I was still a student, I would have probably felt the same. Well in this particular band's case, it was no biggie to me. The repackaged album was just P280 vs. the original version at P250. I was happy when I bought the original around May and I'm happy now that I got the repackaged one this August. I mean, back in May, id na id na ako to buy the CD dba?! So why make myself suffer and hold on to the hope na the band might come out with a repackaged one thus, I should better forego buying?! It was not like I've known waaay ahead that time that they would indeed release a repackaged version. If I would have known, then of course I would have opted to wait till the re-release. What if it turns out that the band never ever releases a repacked one? Eh di I'd be this music-deprived gal without any great album to listen to dba? ;)