PAGCOR Hyatt Manila presents Jed Madela

He may not be a total performer like Gary V or a crowd pleaser and charmer like Martin Nievera... his voice, however, is at par with the two legends. This guy, with his vocal power and range, can sing any song and make it his own. Thanks Lovi (again!) for the VIP seats.

Photo-op after the concert:


Instant fan


Ate Lhen, Anna, Tobbie, Jed, Lovi, Kuya Jonathan, Me

To my dearest ate

Despite all the trials and problems we faced the past few months, you were able to realize your dream wedding. Congratulations!!!

Thank you! Thank you!

Thanks for the greetings...

Thanks for the gifts...

Thanks for having good friends...

Thanks for another year of wisdom...

Birthday Eve with (a and The) Company

I spent the eve of my 23rd (ahem!) birthday at PAGCOR Hyatt Manila. No, I didn't play t the casino for I'm not lucky when it comes to gambling. It’s only last week that I lost 100 MOP in “Casino Wars” at Venetian Macau, and although it’s only 700 pesos, I still feel bad for losing.

Every tuesday nights the Hyatt Hotel and Casino is hosting concerts featuring artists like Sitti, Rachel Alejandro, Francine Prieto (Oh yes!), etc. For this week it's The Company, one of the famous vocal groups which started in the early 90's. The group popularized the song "Everlasting Love." We were seated at the front row and we were singing along with them as they performed medleys from famous bands such as the Carpenters, Beatles, and Everly Brother. They sang James Taylor's "Smiling Face," Burt Bacharach Medley, Elvis' Crazy Little Called Love, Take a chance on me by ABBA, and other songs for the oldies. Since the audience is mostly casino goers who are in their 30's-50's, they have to fit their repertoire to the target market. Surprisingly, I know all of the songs that they performed. My favorite is their rendition of "Girl from Ipanema" originally sung by Astrud Gilberto. I had the chance to talk to them before and after the concert, and they are very nice and humble. I would like to thank them for greeting me and I'll surely watch them again one of these days.



Thanks to my good friend Tobbie for inviting me, to Lovi for giving us VIP seats, and PMart for assisting us. After the concert, Lovi treated us with Hungarian Sausage sandwich and ordered a chocolate cake for me. The staff at the casino are polite and friendly. The pretty waitress who served the cake greeted me and apologized for not being able to find a candle. We asked her to dance, and without any hesitations, she did a sort of stripper dance. Me, Tobbie, Lovi and PMart laughed and talked for the rest of the evening.

I'm on birthday leave but I don't have any plans yet for today. I still have to attend class though tonight. I'm already expecting the "pa-cheeseburger ka naman" line from my classmates. 

Balikbayan Boxes

Two years after she migrated to the "Windy City" in Illinois, my mom took a month long off from work to come home for my sister's upcoming wedding. After watching a Star of Hope concert, I went home and found my mom unpacking her things. I gave her a big hug and kiss. She handed me a plastic bag saying "eto para sa inyo." It was an Aiptek Digital Camcorder. I can definitely use this to capture scandals memorable moments and events.

One by one, she pulled out the contents of her luggages and 2 balikbayan boxes. When we were kids, we are more excited to see the contents of the balikbayan boxes than seeing our Dad who only comes home once a year. But as I got older and having experienced what it takes to fill up those boxes, I'm not as excited. While I was changing to my sleeping clothes, I can't help but laugh hearing my mom saying things like:

"Etong stuff toy para sa inaanak ko kay [name]... kawawa naman yung bata iniwan ng nanay nya at sumama sa ibang lalake.."

"Etong pants para kay auntie [name].... tawag ng tawag saken. Alam mo naman yun gusto may tatak...

""Etong blouse kay Sister [name]... kasya siguro ito sa kanya..."

"Wala pa pala ako pasalubong kay [name]... pwede na siguro itong mga sabon..."

I think she mentioned all the names of our relatives and her churchmates. "Madami nga ako naiwan na pasalubong anak kasi excess baggage na ako. Papadala ko na lang sa susunod" she added. She got a phone call from one of her "sisters" in church. I heard her saying "Akala naman nila pinupulot ko pera sa America..." and I laughed once more. That was my (and thousands of OFWs in USA) line to her few years ago. Now she knows how it feels to work abroad.

If we are to decide, we'd rather have her stay here or with my sister but going to America was her life long dream. She was even a victim of fly-by-night recruitment agency back in the 70's. I don't know for how long she's going to stay in US but we're just glad she's here to spend the holidays with us.

Is it charm, is it poise? No, it's Hairspray!

I had a chance to see Atlantis Production's "Hairspray" at the Star Theatre (which I thought was the same as Aliw Theatre) in CCP Complex with three of my friends. We were seated 2nd to the last row and at the left most side of the theater (no budget to upgrade). Here are some of my comments:

1. The sound system is bad because we can barely understand their dialogues and the lyrics of the songs. Maybe because we're almost seated at the last row? That's what you get from getting the cheapest ticket =p
2. Can't help but compare Madel Ching, who played Tracy Turnblad, to Nikki Blonsky who played the same part in Hairspray Movie. But I got to give props to Madel for pulling off those butt shaking moves. In movies, you can have several takes while in the stage, you only have one.
3. I can't think of any actors who can perform Edna Turnblad as effective as Michael De Mesa. He's really really good. =)
4. I adore Menchu Launchengco (Velma). I've seen her in couple of plays like The Sound of Music. She's a veteran stage actress with vocal powers.
5. Dulce's (Motormouth) voice alone can wow the audience. She doesn't even need to act.
6. Nyoy Volante (Seaweed) is obviously a Michael Jackson fan. His moonwalk is as smooth as his voice.
7. Tim Espinosa (Larkin) is hmmmmm.. is somewhat ok too. As my friend commented, either he has a lisp disorder or he has a defective microphone.
8. My favorite scene is the "Welcome to the 60's" where Tracy is showing her mom Edna how things have changed since she haven't out of their house for so many years. It is the part where the three "chuwariwap" ('Dynamites' in the movie) girls in orange dress came out. They really moved and sounded like "black" singers, their voices are powerful. One of them even look like Laarni, the current Pinoy Dream Academy winner.
9. Costumes are very colorful and nice backdrops.

There were some minor distractions for us while watching the play. There was this girl (bigger than Tracy but not as young) seated in front of us who is part of the production staff (we saw her badge). She kept on singing and wiggling her butt and arms thus drawing our attention (and other people) to her instead of the play. She should have been casted in the play because we were all laughing at her. Overall, we had a blast watching the play.

Paskong Walang Hanggan by MADZ

I've been a fan of The Philippine Madrigal Singers (MADZ) from the first time I heard them live at PhilAm Life Theatre back in college. PhilAm have this yearly free Christmas concert featuring famous choirs from La Salle chorale, UST, Ateneo etc. for the benefit of the street children. I've known about the concert because of my classmate Haya whose dorm is few steps away from PhilAm.

Thanks to my friend tobbie, I've been constantly informed and been watching some of their major performances for several years now. This year alone, I think I've attended 5 of their performances including last night's Christmas concert at CCP's Abelardo Hall. In all of their concerts, they never failed to make me laugh and give me goose bumps… and last night was no exception. Their rendition of "12 Days of Christmas" was hilarious while their arrangement of "A Christmas Song" was very pleasing. There were 2 songs in foreign language performed by sopranos Liaa and Rina which is really impressive. They ended the evening with “Paskong Walang Hanggan” which send me chills all over.

I hope to hear more from them in 2009. After all, they are the best choir in the world. =)

PASKONG WALANG HANGGAN

Lyrics from: http://npf007.multiply.com/

Tinanong mo sakin kung ano ang gusto ko
Upang mapaligaya ang aking pasko
Bakit mo pa kaya sabihin sa akin yan
Para namang kasi hindi mo pa alam

Ang aking araw-araw ay iyo nang iniba
Mula pa noong ikaw ay aking nakilala
Pinasayaw ang ikot ng aking munting mundo
Binigyan ng dahilan ang bawat oras at minuto

Ang bawat kong pangarap iyong pinalitan
Binigyan ako ng lakas, tiyaga at tapang
Na harapin ang bawat tanong at pag-aalinlangan
Dahil alam kong ikaw ay katabi ko lamang

At sa tuwing pagsikat at paglubog ng araw
Nagsisimula at nagwawakas sa salitang ikaw
Kaya’t huwag mo nang itanong kung ano pa sa akin ay kulang
Dahil bawat araw kasama ka ay Paskong walang hanggan

Berkadoods in Macau

I already exceeded my quota in one of my to-do list for this year, which is to travel to 2 new countries. I've been to Thailand (Bangkok), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and Singapore. Thanks (again and again) to CEB's zero fare (+ 3,708 Tax), I was able to add Macau, China in the list. Although I've been to Shanghai 2 years ago, Macau is entirely different in terms of structures, culture and people. With me are my travel buddies JP, Tags, Jo, Ria, Gen and Irene.

Thanks to all the pinoys we met during our trip, from the time we took the bus from airport to hotel, in Senado Square, San Ma Lo, Macau Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, Venetian, Grand Emperor, Lisboa, in all street corners, and in all the bus rides we took. Pinoys are everywhere, and are very eager to talk to you, show you around, and give you directions and tips. Thanks to them, we were able to find our way around in Macau, getting lost only once. As the casino capital of Asia, life in Macau for them is indeed a gamble. I wish them luck and hope they will still have jobs despite the global recession. They're very talented and hardworking people, and I hope their respective employers will consider that despite the "prioritizing the locals" policy in Macau.

I didn't bring a cam with me but Jo let me used her Powershot S series digital camera while she used her uber cool dslr Canon EOS 50D . I seriously want a dslr for Christmas. We will be exchanging photos next week so I don't have any pix to post as of the moment... pix below are from JP.