What is your past life? How did you die? by whisperinghope
Name
Age
Way	Murdered by a good friend.
Past Life	Cat.
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Tama ba naman ito???

A couple of weeks ago, me and some of my officemates (Jinx, Mimi and Raf) went to Megamall with the intention of seeing a film. Initially we had (or so I was informed) that we were going to see GOTHIKA, only to find out that it's poster was lodged under the "Coming Soon" banner.

Great.

So we looked for another film which seemd to be "worth seeing."

The Matrix: Revolutions....we've seen that already.

The Grudge...we've seen it already and Mimi swore NEVER to watch it again.
Liberated...the girls didn't want to watch something as "slutty" as that.
Cabin Fever...I've seen it already and I warned them (and I am warning you) against watching it. Too gory for other people, and a little too pointless, the story is.


Which leaves us with one choice: Mystic River.

Great cast!
Lawrence Fishburne. Sean Penn. Kevin Bacon. Tim Robbins. Laura Linney.

I'm not going make a movie review this time.
But here's what I'd like to say: Tim Robbin's face will forever haunt my dreams.

My life is rated R.
What is your life rated?

Personality Disorder Test Results Paranoid |||||||||||| 42% Schizoid |||||| 30% Schizotypal |||||||||||||||| 66% Antisocial |||||||||||| 50% Borderline |||||||||||||||| 70% Histrionic |||||||||||||||| 66% Narcissistic |||||||||| 38% Avoidant |||||||||||||||||||| 86% Dependent |||||||||||||| 54% Obsessive-Compulsive |||||||||||||| 54%

Take Free Personality Disorder Test

What Famous Leader Are You?

it increases my WHAT???

Conscious self	Overall self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||| 46% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||||||| 66% Type 3 Ambition |||||||||| 38% Type 4 Sensitivity |||||||||| 37% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||||| 50% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||||||| 64% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||||||| 38% Type 8 Hostility |||||| 30% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||| 42% Your Conscious-Surface type is 2w1 Your Unconscious-Overall type is 3w4

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

This was influences by a song by the Pin-up Girls titled "Broken."

CONCEPT HUMAN
Brain Salad

Could this be our destiny in this our great regime
With all we’ve built to look onto yet nothing as it seems
We strive each day goal onto goal as heartless soulless beings
A new religion for the mass silencing our dreams

And what have we done
And where have we gone
The concept human

Could this be the grand design how things were meant to be
Is really living such a crime that we would trade it all for machinery

And what have we done
And where have we gone
The concept human

And what have we become
And where shall we run
The concept human

So fill my eyes dreadful tears as I realize what we’ve become
We go on living like machines in this so-called age of man

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Are you Addicted to the Internet? 53% Average@Internet-User.com (41% - 60%) You seem to have a healthy balance in your life when it comes to the internet and life away from the computer. You know enough to do what you want online without looking like an idiot (most of the time). You even have your own Yahoo club or online journal! But you enjoy seeing your friends and going out to enjoy life away from your computer. The Are you Addicted to the Internet? Quiz at Quiz Me!

Last Wednesday, Indio and I went to the World Trade Center in Roxas Blvd to meet up with Carol and Elad to attend the NU 107 Rock Awards. This is my first time to attend the annual event - which happens to be in its 10th year - so I have no idea as to what would be happening.

So there we were, walking around the cluttered hall, surrounded by people garbed in assorted levels of weirdness, as opposed to my plane black Admit One shirt and Indio and his white shirt. Then in my peripheral vision I saw Gabby, of the Cebu-based band Urban Dub. It was going to be my first time to watch Urban Dub live (I have work, you know, and their gigs have never been on during my days off), so I HAD to drag Indio over to their direction. Next thing I knew I was in front of a booth selling copies of their latest album Influence and Gabby and the rest of the band had disappeared.

So I bought a copy of Influence, and up until now I know I didn't make a mistake.

Going back to the Rock Awards.

Best New Artist - SUGARFREE

BUENA MANO! First award off the event and it went ot my favorite signed band! And when the band went onstage to accept the award, one funny and noticeable thing was that Ebe, the vox, and I were wearing the same shirt. HAHAHAHA!


Producer of the Year - BARBIE'S CRADLE/ANGEE ROZUL


Best Album Packaging - PARNASO NG PAYASO - Pan


Best Rock Video - DAISY - 7 foot jr.


Drummer of the Year - ALAN of Kamikazee


Bassist of the Year - ROMMEL DELA CRUZ - Barbie's Cradle


Guitarist of the Year - IRA CRUZ - Kapatid


Vocalist of the Year - KEVIN ROY - Razorback


2003 Raw Award - NARDA


2003 Hall of Fame - ERASERHEADS

It was here when I got all sentimental. The video for "Ang Huling El Bimbo" was playing in the background and a sentimental spiel went on. Now, the Eraserheads REALLY deserved this award. They have always been the sound of my youth; I was in Grade School when "Pare Ko" raided my ears and woke up the alternative music lover in me, "Julie Tearjerky" was the influence behind the cover of one of my Filipino projects during High School (I was the only one who did this) and during College the band sort of disappeared and lead me to think that they were cooking up their next album. And then Ely left. Marcus followed. I couldn't believe what was happening. Next thing I knew, the Eraserheads were no more.

They were the first and only band to be MTV Asia's HotSeat. And now they're gone; echoed perhaps by millions of sentimentals, the bands they have influenced and of course the acts that the ex-members are part of. The Mongols. Sandwich. Twisted Halo. Squid9. And of course, Cambio came out of the surviving members.


Listener's Choice Award - KAMIKAZEE


Album of the Year- SA WAKAS - Sugarfree


Song of the year - SOUL SEARCHING - Urbandub

I LOVE THIS SONG!


Artist/Band of the Year - Parokya ni Edgar

You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be
poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and
creativity, and usually are highly intelligent.
Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet
also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.


What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
brought to you by Quizilla

I love historical parallelism
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by 'Ford.'

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker...
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

You are Form 9, Vampire: The Undying.

"And The Vampire was all that remained on
the blood drowned creation. She attempted to
regrow life from the dead. But as she was
about to give the breath of life, she was
consumed in the flame of The Phoenix and the
cycle began again."

Some examples of the Vampire Form are Hades (Greek)
and Isis (Egyptian).
The Vampire is associated with the concept of
death, the number 9, and the element of fire.
Her sign is the eclipsed moon.

As a member of Form 9, you are a very realistic
individual. You may be a little idealistic,
but you are very grounded and down to earth.
You realize that not everything lasts, but you
savor every minute of the good times. While
you may sometimes find yourself lonely, you
have strong ties with people that will never be
broken. Vampires are the best friends to have
because they are sensible.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Water or Coke?

This is really an eye opener.... Water or Coke? We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written down like this before. The intention of this e-mail is not to boycott Coke or any other carbonated drinks, but for all of us to take a closer look on how important water is for our health.

WATER
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of COKE:
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke
for sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.

9. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in
osteoporosis.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of coke or a glass of water?

I just saw The Matrix: Revolutions.

I won't review the film but...

- I waited for Monica Bellucci for what felt like forever, but only saw her for 1 minute! And she only had one line...I was too devastated to remember what.
BAAAAAKIIIIT!

HOLY COW!!!

Taste Test

the Pin-up Girls EP
This is the internationally released EP of the local band the Pin-up Girls.
Shame on you people who think that new wave-inspired alt-pop should be condemned, just because they don't feature blaring guitar riffs!
Shame on you!


After the long wait, I can actually go to Tower Records and grab a copy...Yeehaw!!!

CATTSKI EP
by greyweed


One of the pivotal moments of this era in Pinoy rock is when Korn became less and less of an influence for the younger musicians. This is not saying that Korn is a terrible group to look up to, but it just so happened that most of the bands that followed their footsteps have either ended up sounding exactly like them or have disbanded.

It is in the middle of this that the band Cattski began making music in their native Cebu. Gifted with a brilliant sense of melody and grooves, the band was formed with Cattski Espina on vocals, Anne Muntuerto on rhythm guitars and back-up vocals, Jam Quijano on lead guitars, Brian Sacro on bass and Junnell Codilla on drums. Exactly why they named their band after the vocalist is yet to be revealed. What we, however, should focus on is their music.

The band lists down Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Plumb and No Doubt as immediate influences. Thankfully, they refuse to be enticed and adopt the flashy guitar solos and bass slapping luridness other modern musicians seem to contribute to today's scene. Instead, the essential Cattski sound is well grounded; a fusion of rock and pop, with the necessary taste of folk to boot. And the variation is refreshing and a welcome introduction to Cebu’s current music movement. A proof of this would be Cattski’s gig with Admit One Productions at Freedom Bar, QC last August where the attendees kept on screaming for more even after the encore.

The self-titled disc is a tangy cocktail of sounds, opening with “Questions,” a terrific song that has a nice basic tune that gives a slightly melancholic quality, making it a pretty good opening to the EP. Pure confusion seem to wail over the folk-tinged vocals, while the guitars give off a sense of inscrutability, undoubtedly making the song fit in with the soundtrack to perhaps the television teen mystery flick Roswell or even the cult-worshipped X-Files.

The second track, "Secrets," then follows with its opening riffs admittedly sounding dangerously close to Incubus’ "Drive". Despite this, it's still a solid offering that puts focus on Espina's skills as a lyricist which is splendidly translated with her own vocals and set atop by a good intrumentation. "Sleeping With The Enemy" is arguably one of the best songs in the EP, carrying sensible pop panache with a catchy tune. It opens with a phone being dialed and an impressive drum-bass interplay sets in. You’ll find yourself nodding to the song or scrambling for the inlay for the lyrics to sing along. But then the last few chords fades as the disturbing ending shoves in with just the phone's busy tone and the mono-induced vocals.

The familiar “High and Low” then caves you in a with a sensation of rapture with the light guitar playing, soothing vocal work in a backdrop of a seemingly pained rhythm section. “Stereotype,” on the other hand carries a catchy beat and a impressive groove and is decidedly the heaviest in the EP, with its soaring bass and solid guitar work. “Drunk” features Anne’s excellent keyboard accompaniment, adding a nice and light feel to it which, true to its title, will make you feel light-headed. It’s a dark, feel-good ditty that sounds melodiously happy but reveals a certain pang of annoyance lying somewhere between the cracks upon close inspection. “High and Low (raw)” is a little sedated compared to the original version, and if not for the lyrics, it would have felt like an entirely different song. Also notable is “Secrets (live)” just right before the EP comes to a close.

The band’s music may not be as tight as most of today's studio produced, radio-ready tracks but that certain “looseness” works well for them. In fact it seems to be an integral part of Cattski’s core vibe, giving their sound a hollow but textured channel for the basic human emotion to funnel through. And they even let themselves experiment and deviate from their roots, allowing a lot of leg room for a healthy dose of eclecticism.

While the vocalist Cattski’s voice slays in a somewhat despondent nature, Anne’s more unperturbed back-up work manages to catch up and even offers to balance out the dejection. Jam, on the other hand, flexes out a variety of angst-ridden yet reposed riffs that screamed of talent, while he manages to stay in the background, grinding Anne’s own rhythmic epicenter. If Cattski is the emo-bomb, Brian is the elegy-master; looking detached, unconcerned and stoic, with his eyes closed as his head nods and waves along with the flow of his exemplary bass playing. Junnell lays in the beats like a pile driver would affect a canvas arena. Yet he is almost always silent, as his drumsticks would ostensibly take over his arms; the result is a set of heavy beats that churn the bass fluidly but fits squarely in the shoebox.

Even as early as now, Cattski’s talent as a lyricist blinks along words that are simple but refreshing in this day and age of heavy metaphors (pretensious, even) and overt lack of both substance and style. The apparent trend in the EP revolves around laying in a basic metaphor and having a field day around it as it expresses and tell tales while still keeping a toe in reality. A collection of prose weaved by a true wordsmith no less. And the music simply plows in that path inducing a chi of tranquility even as they skulk with perplexity in a milieu of mixed sentiments.

As far as new bands go, this one definitely has what it takes to succeed in terms of conquering the creative side of their musicianship. Even the ones prominently striking the local music scene are noticing them; “Like most Cebu-based bands that I've seen, magaling silang tumugtog, magpatunog ng mga instrumento, magtimpla, at maglaro ng dynamics onstage.” so says a vocalist of one of the leading indie acts in Manila. And not to mention, CEO of Washington-based indie label Know-It-All Records (who have recently taken both the Pin-up Girls and Chain Gang under its wing) has recently expressed interest to do a remix of "Questions."

And since Cattski is a true-blue Cebuano band, there is this inescapable comparison to other Cebu-based groups. Truth is, comparisons are utterly trivial since none of these bands sound anything like Cattski. To sum it all up, Cattski is a Cebuano band playing with an exploitative sound that simmers with an introspective calling to the foreign vibe while still is decidedly local.

And that gives them a definitive quality that may very well help redefine this Korn-forsaken era.

During my training with the company I now work for, we had an activity called a Team Building that had a dangerous resemblance to the reality show Amazing Race. It is “dangerous” by my standards because on the day it was held, the sky was generous enough to provide with us puddles that speckled the entire Ortigas area. And did I mention “Ortigas?” That means the Pasig-Mandaluyong area and that also means that puddles were huge and were lodged on the sidewalks. Good grief!
And thankfully, after running around from place to place -from the Discovery Center to Seattle’s Best (Megamall) to Caltex to Whistle Stop (Shang-ri la) and to other places God knows where I can’t remember- our team won. And so we were given our prize: one SM movies pass each.
Holy crap. I almost had an asthma attack, spent for a cab and literally got drenched and all we get is a movie pass?
Oh well, I just let that pass. It was fun anyway, I tried to fool myself.

Two weeks ago, specifically Thursday last week, I went to Megamall to buy two book, Ermita by F. Sionil Jose and A B N K K B S N P L A ko by Bob Ong, as rewards to myself for sticking up to my work and for raising my standards for what level of pain is still bearable. Because not only have I grown in my endurance to pain, I’ve also become a little bit of a masochist. So there.





Underworld
Kate Beckinsale
Scott Speedman


As I was about to go home, I remembered that I still had that damn movie pass in my bag and it has been a while since I last saw a film. The last films I saw were The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Finding Nemo, and it felt like it were such a long time ago. So when I got to the cinema area, I didn’t want to watch Sharon and Aga in another one of their “feel good” movies, so I looked to the left and saw Underworld, and to the right I saw American Wedding. So it was Kate Beckinsale vs Jason Biggs.
Kate, of course.

Underworld delves into the dark mythos revolving around the centuries-old battle between Vampires and Werwolves. The film is set in the present and supposedly in America; but the buildings and the cobblestone streets, and the apparent absence of trash-filled alleys made the atmosphere decidedly French than American.
In this reality, the werewolves (called Lykan) are the morlocks scrounging around underground. On the other hand, the vampires are of nobility, lounging in a manor drinking blood from wine glasses like champagne; finding slaughter un-dignifying. Not Selene (Kate Beckinsale). Having hunted and killed Liken for the years to avenge the death of her family’s massacre in their hands, she prowls the city armed with nothing but a pair of magnums and her instincts.
While stalking one night, she notices a group of Lykan following a human, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman). She follows for a closer look only to find out that she has to save the human from the werewolves. But before she succeeds in doing so, he is bitten by Lucian, a werewolf believed to be long dead. She brings Michael to her mansion while she tries to find out what the Lykan wanted with a human. Kraven, the vampire coven’s officer in charge, disapproves of this.
As we would later find out, according to history books, Kraven killed the werewolf ruler Lucian during the Great War; a war waged during the time when Lykans served as daytime servants for the Coven. Marriages across species were severely prohibited because of a prophecy, and Lucian crossed the line by marrying the coven ruler’s daughter Sophia. Viktor, the ruler, had his own daughter executed and Lucian tortured.
And that’s what started the war.
The prophecy (that twins of the Corvinus blood line would be born - half-Lykan, half-Vampire but more powerful than both – would end the war and once again unite the two species) is discovered by Selene, but finds herself smitten by Michael.
As it turns out, Lucian is alive and is seeking for the prophecy to come true by binding a working alliance with Viktor. WHAT A SCAM!
This film features all the blood, gore and violence of Saving Private Ryan, Tomb Raider and The General’s Daughter combined, but with all the sincerest morbid details to last you a lifetime. And I simply loved it.
Unfortunately, it seriously references the Matrix for the costumes; yep all that tight leather, and the black trench coats and dark glasses that licks you all over with both gothic and punk rock fashion statements. And not to mention all the gun-slinging you’ll ever need.
But with all the juicy details the story has to offer –from the historical reference to the very sudden injection of the love angle-, it feels like an overextended mini-series episode. One more bad comment, the werewolves looked more like bad impressions of the Tikbalang in Avalon Comics’ STONE.
But still, this is pure eye-candy! Imagine all the gory scenes, the heart-stopping action, a healthy dose of twists and turns in the story, and Kate Beckinsale! Oh JOY!







The Rundown
The Rock
Sean William Scott
Rosario Dawson
Christopher Walken


I have always been a bad decision-maker, and this bothered me to no end. Just this Wednesday, I went to Megamall to watch another film, which I find is one of my brain’s way of relaxing and allowing all the creative juices to flow out (not necessarily to be used). So once again I find myself standing in the middle of two movie theaters. In front of me was Freaky Friday (something I had been planning to watch since I saw the trailer when I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), and behind me was The Rundown (I’ve read of great reviews about it).
Jamie Lee Curtis vs The Rock. Here we go again…
And just like that I bought a ticket for The Rundown.

The Rundown features Beck (The Rock, and I wouldn’t bother finding out his real name, sorry) as an aspiring restaurateur, something I find so bloody unlikely, who friggin’ hate guns. But he is tied to a not very nice disposition as he explained, “I grew up in a rough neighborhood, and one thing led to another, then I just found myself in the wrong room with the wrong type of people.” And one of those wrong people is Walker, the Don-of-the-Mafia type of big man who gives Beck assignments usually given to a paid hitman, only Beck wouldn’t kill. As a last job before Walker gives Beck his freedom, he has to fly to the Amazon and look for Travis (Sean William Scott), Walker’s son, and bring him back.
Beck endures a biplane ride with a noisy Irish pilot to get to Brazil. He walks up to a fortress, home to Hatcher (Christopher Walken), pays $10,000 to search the forests to find Travis and bring him home.
He walks into a bar where he meets Rosario Dawson who has a very ingenious life; bartender by day, rebel by night. He picks up Travis in that bar, not willingly, mind you. But Hatcher has a change in plan because apparently Travis stumbles upon the map to get the Gato (the Devil’s Cat, a legendary gold statue).
A chase follows though the forest.
This film cracked me up, between Beck’s “options A&B routine” and Travis’ “lighting & thunder” stunts, there seems to be no end to the laugh, but not enough to get me hyperventilating.

DROOOL!

This is an image of GreyDwight, my pet from NeoPets.
Now, why did I get one?

I have just recently wrapped up my second day on the floor after four weeks of training.

And I'm SO FRIGGIN' TOXIC!!!

I saw The EYE, a supposedly scary film that instead only made me wanna puke! It was supposed to be scarier than Ring, but I ended up staring up at the screen with no response whatsoever. Until that traffic jam scene, where almost everyone were reduced to charcoal.
And that scene which spooked the hell out of most of the people I know (the elevator scene), left me with a raised eyebrow.

Now that can't be right. Perhaps the stress brought about these past few days' turn of events simply left my emotions all mixed up.
Yeah, that's gotta be it.

Pia, Paula, Bea, Aliah and Darren during happier times
(after which they were no longer allowed to watch Meteor Garder-- NYAHAHAHAHA!)

A while ago I went to Mandaluyong to pay Elad a visit. Don Bosco was planning a concert around November and was gathering information on the bands. Elad was approached by one of the organizers for help and so he turned to me because, thanks to the mailing lists that I have joined, I have the bands' contacts.
On the way home I got stranded in Starmall, thanks to the steady rainfall. In my annoyance and extreme boredom, I watched The League of Extraodinary Gentlemen. A few days ago I saw Finding Nemo, so I have two Nemo movies.



Finding Nemo

I had been waiting to see this cute fish tale ever since I saw its trailer. Pixar and Walt Disney, once again, delivered a colorful and enjoyable film that aimed for the whole family, in the tradition of Toy Story and A Bug's Life. The bida here is a clownfish camed Marlon, who at the beginning of the film loses, to a barracuda, his wife and most of their eggs; all except one which he named Nemo.
Fast Forward.
It is time for Nemo to go to school but Marlon finds that he worries too much for his son. Nemo, on the other hand, grows up with a deformity: a smaller right fin. He is, nevertheless, inquisitive and brave like most young boys in the Disney universe. Marlon is understandably overprotective, driving Nemo to touch the bottom of a boat (which the children called "butt") and things go haywire from there as he is captured by a dentist on his scuba diving holiday.
Marlon finds that he deprives Nemo of the independence that children should learn at an early age. Nemo, on the other hand, comes to understand his father's actions were all for his concern and learns to value parental love and self-confidence.
My favorite character here is Dory, a Blue Tang voiced by the funny Ellen Degeneres. She is sarcastic, honest and almost too giddy for her own good.


RATING: I give it a 4 out of 5.





The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

This is a splendid movie! It was originally a graphic novel by Alan Moore, (an equally extraordinary figure in comics). The concept is quite simple, a team of mostly European characters from stories and urban legends.

The Heroes
There's a character named Quartermainn, an aging legendary adventurer played by Sean Connery.

The Invisible Man here is not exactly the one in the books (he died according to the stories), he is an expert thief who stole the original formula from the mad scientist who created it.

Mina Harker, a scientist, who together with her husband, have tried to kill the monster Count Dracula. But in the end, she herself got bitten, but being a vampire in this film, she doesn't decay under the sun.

Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, the famed scientist who used himself as a lab rat is a part of the story as well. But here, he doesn't have the same predicament as the incredible Hulk when it comes to keeping the monster inside. There are bursts of pychotic conversations with the beast, but Mr. Hyda is not savage.

Capt. Nemo. Because I didn't read the book, I had no idea that he was Indian. Imagine my surprise when I saw his long beard and turban! Made me say 5-6 under my breath. Capt. Nemo fights with great agility and utmost expertise in the sword. Oh and he is the only person in the year 1899 who has a convertible. Spiffy!

Tom Sawyeris the only American member of the league. All grown up (and even tries to seduce Mina every now and then) and working for the American Secret Service, Sawyer is sent to Europe to acquire information on the "impending" world war, instead he finds himself joining the League. I find it very disturbing that Shane West plays the role. Someone who became Many Moore's leading man joins in the action? Well, I learned to give actors credit and to STOP judging. Who knows, maybe Mandy Moore could play a Russian spy in an action-packed film someday, malay mo...



The Baddies
The Phantom. He wears a mask just as the Phantom of the Opera but I seriously doubt that they are the same. He is not really scarred, by there is are twists to his character.

The stoic Dorian Greyis only one of the character I am less familiar with, though I have read of his immortality. His magic is based on an old picture of himself; every year the picture ages instead of him. But he killed in the end by Mina, who also happens to be an old flame.

RATING: I give it a perfect 5!!!

I just found a link to, Keka, a new film Directed by Quark Henares (after Maui Taylor's Gamitan, the guy's directing a Katya Santos starer?).

A kickass site for X-Men: Evolution fans.

Here's the link for The Animatrix site.

Just this morning I updated and changed the look of this blog.

I FINALLY saw THE ANIMATRIX and it's cool, in most senses of the term. Most of it involves blood and gore, specially the first two short films. The Wachowksi brother have drawn together a splendid series of short films that dwell around the Matrix mythos. And the Japanese animation was a clever touch not only because the brothers pay homage to their influence, but because the Japanes animation themes have always had that Matrix-y atmosphere and feel - way before the Matrix.



The Second Renaissance

This tells the timeless tale that happened prior to the Matrix films. From the time when artificial intelligence became a rampant and widely acceptable aspect of human life, up to the machine's ravaging vengeance upon the very species that created them.

A disturbing scene kept haunting me: when the first AI robot murdered a man by grabbing him by the cheekbones and literally ripping apart his face.


The Second Renaissance II

This is the conclusion to the origin of the Matrix. Starting off where the first one left off, The Second Renaissance II shows the triumph of the machines and how humanity's sheer anger and the evil that dwells inside his soul became the instruments to his own demise.
It is here where we learn that the dark and brooding atmosphere the film is mostly enveloped in is, in fact, man's own fault. In hopes of finally destroying the machines by cuttinf off their energy source; they launched an airstrike that permanently covered the sky with gas and completely cut off the earth's sunlight. But the machines were smarter. They had been studying man's bocied and used them like a battery.

If the first one had a disturbing scene, this one has a whol egamut of it all throughout the film. Obviously, war scenes have never been quite appealing to the eyes and this short testifies to that by engulfing it with images of blood, gore and death. But I'm still calling it eye candy, not only because they are all too realistic but because, in the deepest sense, the short brings forth a sort of enlightenment about the greed, wrath and evil in the human soul that may come out in a Bruce Banner fashion.



Program

Classic anime is the basic thought behind this. Set in the ancient Japan, this story is a good one, as it even explains all the flying and jumping in the old Japanese films that defied both gravity and physics. I find that this one is almost a remake of Neo and Morpheus' fight scene from the first film. Only it features a female character with the biggest hair I had seen - more than Storm's and Tina Turner's - and a dark Japanese-styled warrior, reminiscent of the old Imperial soldiers, called Duo.

As it turns out, it's all a simulation.



Kid's Story

This is a little more amusing. This features a high school kid named Popper, who realizes that the Matrix exists and is eventually pulled out of it by Neo. The amusing part is that Popper is a minor character (emphasis on "minor") from Matrix: Reloaded, he's that kid who severly idolizes neo and even follows him around during the scenes in Zion.
This tells his story.
Th graphics are highly detailed, making me wonder how long it took for this to finish. The movements are all too realistic that I am asuming that the scenes were traced, frame by frame, from actual footages.

The kid dies, only to ressurect in the real world - outside the Matrix.



Beyond

A cute story. Set in present-day Japan (assumingly Tokyo), it revolves around a haunted house, which apparenly was a bug in the Matrix. Weird things happen there: things float, blink in and out of existence among others. For the first half we follow around a teenaged girl, with red and blue-colored hair and a star under her left eye, in search on her cat, Yuuki. She soon meets a group of kids and they tell her that her cat may be in the "old haunted house."
She soon descovers the wonders of the haunted house, but a truck suddenly arrives, carrying a whole platoon of programs disguised as some sort of disposal unit. They have come to cerrect that bug.



Matriculated

Matriculated heavily reminds me of that old MTV Animated series, Aeon Flux, from the long-limbed, extremely thin characters, down to the very detailed imagery. The tale is an experiment: what if the humans have succeeded in pulling a machine into their own folds? Would this make for a great alliance, or it it simpy impossible? A group of people who are located in the surface trap a machine and using a simulation they influence it to be a part of them. the machine falls in love with one of them. Unfortunately, other machines arrive (including two sentinels) cutting their experiment short. A massacre is imminent.
They are located on the surfec, this fact simply contradicts the concept of Zion being the last human sanctuary located underground. But then, perhaps I have the timelines all mixed up; maybe this story took place a couple of years after the machines' complete take-over.



Detective Story

The only short with an actual major character from the Matrix films. This one plays around the 50's detective movies, complete with the dark detective office to the trench coat-hat detective, but obviously is in a couple more in the future. The detective here is bestowed the assignment of searching for the hacker simply called Trinity. As it turns out, the detective is used as a bait by the Agents to trap Trinity, while Trinity herself is thinking of recruiting the detective.
As it turns out, Trinity finds the detective unfit for recruiting and he is left alone with a gun pointed at the Agents, lighting a cigarette and mumbling to himself, "A case to end all cases."




World Record

It is safe to say that World Record is the least appealing of the shorts. It is done in the style that became popular in the early 90s, with the creeping shadows and exaggerated muscles.
The story begins with a narrator saying that some exceptionally intuitive and sensetive people recognize the existence of the Matrix without enlightment. This clearly explaines the situation Neo and the other characters from the other short films have gone through: the same biting sense of not being alone and the chilling belief that reality is not what it really is.
An olympic-winning athlete is the character, running the race. As this is shown, it is revealed that the machines have sensed something with this chap as they carefully watch him.

World Record explains the story behind people who experience stroke as those who momentarily are disconnected to the Matrix.



Final Flight of the Osiris

This, by far, is the most complicatedly animated and better looking of the bunch. Done in the tradition of the Final Fantasy film, in a highly detailed CGI animation, this is the one you'd probably see in the advertisements. A raven-haired woman falling while doing a couple of impressive gymnastic positions, and then landing on her feet.
Final Flight of the Osiris, is the most relevant and faithful to the Matrix movies, as it is mentioned as the missing ship at the beginning of Reloaded. It tells what has indeed happened to it.

After the carps have died (as did the goldfish, two shark-like things and even a pre-pubescent koi), we finally confined ourselves to the possibility that we were stuck with our two annoyingly loud, and overactive askals for the rest of our lives. James, our half askal, half labrador retriever who never grew taller than the askals in the street (was it something we fed him?), is now fully-grown but haven't exactly accepted his maturity has refused to take baths. And he is very violent whenever we attempt to even spray him with water. Pluto (blame my Dad for the lame nomen), is still a growing dog, and like James is completely immature.

I grew up with my family owning one dog after another.

There was XB, the only dog we owned who had a breed, a black Scottish terrier, was my favorite because it was excessively loyal. He was named after my sisters' favorite radio station that time. I was in grade school when one of my brother's girlfriends had gaven him as a gift, and everytime my sister or brother would leave for school he'd run after them. One morning, when my elder sister was leaving for work, she left the gate open and, having seen the opportunity, XB raced out of the yard -falling victim to a passing car. I had just awoken by that time and having seen my dog sprawled on the street (with the obligatory bystanders waiting for me to succumb to tears). I merely walked out and dragged XB's body into the yard, went to the bathroom to wash up and retreated to our room and cried my eyes out.

Then there was also Cookie, the only dog we owned from Mandaluyong that got to Angono. I even travelled with her at the back of the moving truck. She even had puppies, but being a dog lacking maternal skills - or even common sense - her puppies died one after the other because she refused to feed them, and the rest died because she slept on them. Her death followed, though the cause was still unclear; my Dad told me he just found her dead in her doghouse. We burried her beside her puppies.

Then we had three dogs from our new neighbors. All were named after our favorite rockstars, James after James Hettfield, Zach after Zach dela Rocha and Jet after Jet Pangan.

Dad thought we had too many dogs, to which I replied, "In a subdivision like this, you can never have too many dogs..." So he gave away our pure-black Jet to an old man I'd never trust. Dad told us the old guy owned a large compound in the next subdivision and he needed the dogs for security. We didn't believe it and even protested, but Dad had authority. We watched my Jet being dragged away onto the back of a pick-up truck, trying not to think of what meal he'd be cooked into. This made me decide to someday join PAWS.

Zach on the other hand, died because of my brother-in-law. Zach had been sick for two days, nothing really serious, he had gone through that same sickness before. We just gave Zach his usual medicine and had him rest, not knowing that he arose that night and slept under my brother-in-law's car. The following morning, Kuya unwittingly ran over my steadily recuperating Zach.

James is still alive.

Pluto is a recent addition into the canine members of the household. He was given by yet another neighbor, and remains as a hyperactive teen-aged dog.

For a week now, we own a grey, black, brown and white kitten wittily named Crookshanks by my niece Pia after Hermione's cat. Well, it's not really an extraordinary thing for most people, but in a house, of which 20% of the inhibitants have asthma, this is definitely a big no-no.

Crookshanks appeared one weekend afternoon under the empty fish tank outside the house. Dad, the bastion of the Oliveros Asthma pulled him (we have no idea how to determine gender in cats, so we're assuming Crookshanks is male for the meantime) out and we officially have a pet kitten. Mom was adamant, wanted to throw the cat out the fence, but Dad really wanted the cat, so did I and my nieces and nephew. The next morning, because Crookshanks kept on going into the house, Mom threw him by the creek. I was shocked at my own mother's own brutality and hatred for anything that could cough up furballs. The kids were grim. And we were almost ecstatic when the cat came back the the next day -AHAHA! He knows his home and even recognized me, he ran to me when he saw me.

I have always envied my friends ELAD and CHERRY because their longingness to own cats are quenched by the fact that Elad had a whole family of feline wonders and Cherry had her cats.

Now I have Crookshanks.

I found my way to this test to find out what kind of warrior I am. Turns out, I'm a little too volatile to fit in just one category, so the result gave me two classifications:

My sphere is Knight (Know Loyalty and Respect), and my class is Defender (Peaceful, yet Potent). I am a Retainer. To be a Retainer is to be the ultimate Knight. When the kings of old were threatened, or faced with any obstacle of special note, it was the Retainer they called upon to act in the liege's name. To be an excellent Retainer is to bring great honor to yourself and those you work for, while instilling happiness and security in the people around you.

My sphere is Knight (Know Loyalty and Respect), and my class is Champion (Self-Righteous and Confident). I am an Avatar. A rare breed. A person sure enough of their self-righteousness that they can take it upon themselves to act as an avatar -- an extension -- of that which they believe in. Though you might act as a delegate of someone or something else, there is no question that your faith and strength are powerful enough to instill in millions of people the deepest respect for you.

Yesterday I attended the second leg of Kontrabanda in the Don Bosco - Mandaluyong Gym. It was almost sweltering hot and by my third hour there, I badly wanted another bath. That's the problem when you attend a free gig; everyone has easy access and so the venue becomes terribly crowded.

The first band, the high school, Don Bosco-based band Braincloud, was a fair opening for the show. I understand that they are somewhat new, but having won the recent battle of the bands competition that school sorta assured them the front act slot for the gig. They play decent punk music and then a smattering of other sub-genres.

Moonstar 88 came up next and the whole gym began singing with each song Acel and her cohorts play. From "Sulat" to "Torete" and even others that I'm not really familiar with, everyone sang like anthems, sans the right hand to the chest.

Bamboo, the group, played rocking music with Bamboo, the person, at the helm, doing each song with his voice swinging from the agression of "Sunog" and the emotive melody of "Awit ng Kabataan." I was realy suprised that Bamboo is composed of Kapatid members; there's Bamboo's former Rivermaya bandmate Nathan Azarcon, Mylene Dizon's boytoy Ira, although I'm pretty unsure about the drummer because I couldn't him from behind the drum set.

Then Chico Sci walked up stage with the crowd screaming like hell at the sight of them. And we suddenly found ourselves singing along "Amen," "Takatak" and "Break Glass." And then something absurd happened when the band was playing "Paris" - their most successful song, having won Song of the Year from NU107, and staying in that station's chart for more than a year. The guitarist gave the vocalist his guitar and grabbed the mike. The bassist then went midstage and began dancing a shy version of breakdance with his bass guitar dangling off his shoulder.
With this, folks, I laughed my head off. Weird reaction to a weird scene, fits!


I am SO grateful that there are a lot of die-hard Chico Sci fans from Antipolo, because since the show ended 10:45, I was afraid I'd be waiting inside a half-filled jeepney for hours. By the time I got to JRU and crossed the street to the jeepney terminal, the jeepney was lacking only one passenger. OH JOY!




Chewist...You, biatch! That was the reason why I didn't even tell you in the first place, aside from the fact that you wouldn't have the slightest clue as to who the F they are.

Apol...love ur blog! "Mini Pillow" ahahahaha Sorry, that's not the Jessica Zafra site, it used to be, though. That was her domain, guess she forgot to pay for it and somebody bought it, o well, I'll remove the link.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what I was hoping I'd get on my birthday...okay, ONE of the many things I wanted for my birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't get it.
It was because of two things:
1) Nobody knew I wanted to get it and
2) up until now, it's still not available in the country, althought it is a Filipino band, it's actually an EP intended for the US market.
But at least I have their full-length debut, local release...

Last year I got into a part-timne job as a tour guide. We handled the kids everytime there was a field trip within Rizal (our area), giving orientations about the different iteneraries planned for the day. Tiring ang monotonous most of the time. I left during the last quarter of 2002, got employment over at a call center, like most of my friends from The Flame (Cherry, Teza, etc). I have since been busted.
So now, in the middle of unemployment and my bummness (quite undistinguishable, folks!).
Four months ago, the tour company (the Rizal branch, anyway), called me up to ask me if I wanted to be an Account Executive, they saw my performance and how I have great PR skills (kasi madali kong nauuto ang mga bata, pati na rin mga teachers at mga parents, hehehe) so they figured I'd be great as an AE. I was happy...for a while.
For one, the term Account Executive is a very nice word, it has a very distinguished sound to it. But then, when I inquired further, they said that the opening for AE was for the Cavite/Bulacan area.
So I said NO.

A couple of months more, just three weeks ago, they called me up again. Apparently, the new tour season is about to begin and most of their tour guides have decided to leave the company, I declined. But agreed to train the new recruites.
So everyday I wake up earlier than usual (yep, earlier than 1:00 pm) to face the new people.
But as I was giving them some pointers and telling a few stories about my experiences in touring, I realized that I really had fun.

So I decided to be a tour guide again (I'm not really up to doing the Accn't Executive bit).

Whenever I hear that commercial from McDonald's -the one with empty nest syndrome for a theme- a lot of things go into my head.

• I start wondering.
  
  
  
  1. That commercial is taking up so long air time, how much exactly did that cost?
     
  2. How much is Noel Cabangon getting for the usage of his song?
     Especially because it used up the entire chorus.
     
  3. How many on-cam people did it take to complete the commercial?
     The storyline spans from during the 50s, until the kids have grown up leaving the nest, and each era a different set of people play the part of family.
     
  4. How come ine end scene, where the family has this family reunion over at, of all place, McDonald's, only two of the children came?
     
  
  
  
• I get annoyed.
  
  "Kanlungan," the song used, has always been one of my most favrite songs, causing me to shed a few discreet tears, because of different things...
  
  
  
  1. It's the theme song during my stint at the Flame, during the time most of my colleagues were graduating one by one, leaving us, the younger staffers, behind.
     
  2. Somebody sang this to me the day I got basted back in high school. And it sorta became a very deep song for me because
     
  3. The words to the song, themselves, are so beautifully played on with wit and every word captures the essence of the interplay of both chance and time in our lives.
     
  
  The bottomline is, I can SO relate to the song. And the beauty of the entire thing WAS that because Noel Cabangon is a folk musician, rarely going the pop direction, very few people know that song. I would be the only person who knew it within a three-kilometer pole. And hearing it being abused on TV, especially since McDonald's has sponsored a lot of programs.
  And that is advertisement for you, play on your emotions with the sole purpose of catching your attention, with hopes of you identifying the song with that product/establishment that everytime you feel like reminiscing, your subconsciousness would be telling you about purchasing a Big Mac next time you pass by a branch, or even get you kid/s a Happy Meal, hopinh that it would tighten the gap between you and your children.
  SIGH!
  
  
  
• I get VERY sentimental.
  The empty nest syndrome, for me is a very scary subject, I am the youngest in a brood of six, and with my parent being senior citizens, I just can't help but to pity them.
  Now I understand a fraction of human life: have a family, raise your children well, and wait until they start growing up and leave the house, leaving you alone with your significant other and tons of "what ifs," "if onlys" and���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

As I was told, the AdmitOne Anime Rocks! was shown a couple of hours ago with Txtube. And I was insanely mad at myself for missing the event. It took place last July 5 at 9:00, the day before my birthday. I had planned to go there with a couple of friends, but failed because I was flat broke. It would have been a pretty nice prospect, having to celebrate the first hours of being 21 in Freedom Bar watching my favorite bands perform.

Truth is, all the bands that performed that night were my favorites, with the exception of Pan. Their first and only single so far, "Dumpsite," left me choking with sheer confusion. Upbeat and very catchy at first, but thanks to Nu107's abuse of the song -playing it more often than you should hear in an afternoon- the ditty became more and more of an annoyance with every listen.

So Yano is dead. Dong Aban is back with a Yano clone, back to haunt my afternoons with tales of lost slippers, canonized horses and of people bumming around, complaining about it and doing nothing for a change in their disposition. I have looked up to Dong Aban as a writer, having profoundly weaved human life into rhyme and rhythm, which is what I can also say for Ebe Dancel, but unlike grandmaster Ebe, Dong seems to tinker around the same spot where he left off before his hiatus from the world; thus forgeting the wonderful concept of letting go and moving on.

But then again, who am I to judge him; who indeed? For all we know Pan's debut album, Parnaso ng Payaso, could be a collection of different tales and topics. I could only wonder, the pain inflicted by not having gotten a copy for myself. So until I finally decide to but an album, or when they release a new single (whichever comes first), I will have to forcefully keep an open mind to Pan.

Having watched the GMA-edited AdmitOne made me want to tortur myself for not being there. The whole program, which featured the regulars Fatal Posporos, Dicta License, Sugar Free and Twisted Halo, with guests Chico Sci, Pan, Sandwich and Cambio, only showed two songs from each band.
And it ate me that I felt totally nothing as gawked at the performances, and I know why: because I didn't hear the bass attempting to shatter my eardrums, the guitars screeching and wailing like banshees, the drums calling on the frustrated drummer in me and the vocals that make me envious. I didn't feel the music vibrating on the floor, on the table, on the chair...there's nothing like watching them live.

And the fact that I haven't seen Twisted Halo and Dicta License perform since the last AdmitOne I attended, which was SO long ago, that I prefer not telling it for fear of getting depressed. But I did catch Twisted's last two songs last Fete de la Musique, one songs that I am not familiar with, but no doubt would be in the upcoming album, and their grand finale, Cut To Commercial with Mong (Chico Sci) joining them. Again, I would like to stress that IT IS INDIO EYE and the two-stage setup's fault why I missed the first half of the Halo set. But I would also say that Indio wowed me with their music. So there.




By the way, I have set up two sites:

Under construction site 1
Under construction site 2

To those who can read this, can you please visit them and give me your honest opinions (be nice now...) or suggestions.

Thanks

I got this from email, just thought I'd put it here....

MAHIRAP LAHAT
Sa UP, mahirap ang Math.
Sa Ateneo, mahirap ang English.
Sa La Salle, mahirap ang parking.
Sa Assumption, mahirap ang walang pera.
Sa UST, mahirap umuwi kapag baha.
Sa St. Scho, mahirap sumakay sa LRT
Sa San Beda, mahirap maging lalaki.


WHERE TO GO TO COLLEGE?
If you have a lot of brains and a little money, go to UP.
If you have some brains and some money, go to Ateneo.
If you have no brains and lots of money, go go La Salle.
If you have no money, go to PUP.


CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
A few days before Christmas, the Monsignor thought it would be a good idea if he solicited the support of a number of schools to get together to create a Nativity Scene in time for the Christmas Mass. The day before Christmas, the Monsignor discovered that the Nativity Scene was still incomplete so he made a few inquiries on why this was so.
Ateneo reported it could come up with only two and not three wise men. La Salle reported it could not come up with even a single wise man. Maryknoll reported that it could not come up with even a single virgin. San Beda reported that it could only come up with three wise gays. UP reported that they killed the three wise men.

QUESTION AND ANSWER
Q: What should an Atenean do when a La Sallite hurls a grenade at him?
A: The Atenean should pick up the grenade, pull the firing pin and hurl it back at the La Sallite.
Q: How do La Sallites count to ten?
A: One, two, three, another, another, and another.

PASIKATAN NG GRADWEYTS
UP: A number of past Philippine presidents graduated from UP. Presidents Roxas, Quirino, Laurel, Garcia and Marcos, to name just a few!
ATENEO: Hah! That's nothing, a number of Ateneo graduates became national heroes like Jose Rizal, Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, Gen. Antonio Luna, Evelio Javier and many others.
UP: That just goes to show you, UP graduates become presidents and lead countries while Atenean end up getting shot!
LA SALLE: Wala 'yan. Talo kayo sa mga gradweyts namin!
UP & ATENEO: Bakit sino ba ang mga graduates ninyo?
LA SALLE: Aba! Marami kaming sikat na gradweyts; si Gary Valenciano, Dingdong Avanzado, Ogie Alcasid, Monsour del Rosario . .

HOW TO IDENTIFY A LA SALLITE
A La Sallite walks into a store in Mega Mall and says: "Miss, I'd like a green parrot, please."
The salesgirl looks at him and=A0 asks: "Sir, are you a La Sallite, by any chance?"
The La Sallite replies: "O... bakit mo naman natanong 'yan? If I ordered BLUE cheese, would you ask me if I were from Ateneo? I don't think so. If I bought a MAROON shirt, would you ask me if I were from UP? I think not. So why then, when I want to buy a GREEN parrot, do you ask me if I'm from La Salle?"
"Sir, kasi naman..." replied the salesgirl, "this is a flower shop,eh."

A TYPICAL CONVERSATION
Two La Sallites meet on the street and carry on a typical La Sallite conversation:
La Sallite #1: If you can tell me how many chickens I have in this bag, I will give you BOTH of them.
La Sallite #2: Uh, two?
La Sallite #1: Daya mo! You peeked!

BARKADA SA HUNTING
Tatlong magkaka-barkada: a La Sallite, a UP student, and an Atenean went ona hunting trip. The first night, the guy from UP comes back to the cabin with a big deer. The others ask him how he did it, and he coolly replies: "I saw the tracks, I followed the tracks, and bang! I got the deer! " The next night, the guy from Ateneo comes back also with a big deer. I saw the tracks, I followed the tracks, and bang! I got the deer!" was the Atenean's story. Therefore, the La Sallite decides to try it himself. However, the next night, as he drags himself back to the cabin, his two companions find him bruised and bloody all over. "What happened?" they ask. "Wel l," replies the La Sallite, "I saw the tracks, I followed the tracks, and bang! A train hit me."

A MURDER MYSTERY
(To be solved solely on the basis of pure logic)
Who committed the murder?
Suspects: The Humble Atenean, The Bright La Sallite, The Well-Mannered Bedan, The Innocent Maryknoller, The Unaffected Assumptionista, The UP Graduate
The UP Graduate
Logic: No such thing as a Humble Atenean or a Bright La Sallite or a Well-Mannered Bedan or an Innocent Maryknoller or an Unaffected Assumptionista.

HOW DO YOU KNOW ONE WHEN YOU SEE ONE?
In a grand ballroom party conducted by the Philippine Society of Colleges and Universities, the Chairman of the Board got curious to know what particular schools attended the big celebration. Therefore, he checked out the house where it was all happening. Guess whom he found and where he found them?
UP Diliman - everybody was lined up to the attic to have a fraternity ritual
UP Los Banos - they were in the garden mowing the lawn
UP Manila - they were into "drugs"
Ateneo - they were inside the TV room with a microphone chanting the "BLUE EAGLE" spelling
La Salle - they were eavesdropping
San Beda - some were beside the Ateneans while others were in the bedroom with some Paulinians.
St. Paul - they thought they were with the Ateneans
La Consolacion - they wanted to be the Paulinians
Holy Spirit - they want the Paulinians
Miriam - they were beside the room of the Ateneans . . .like always
Assumption - they were inside the bathroom three hours already since arriving
St. Scholastica - they were next in line for the bathroom
CEU - some were doing the dishes while others were busy with the laundry
St. Louis - they were in front of the air conditioner
UE - they don't know what's an air conditioner
UST - they were everywhere
FEU - they were nowhere
MLQU - sob! They were not invited
San Sebastian - How the hell did they pass by security?
Letran - the Security
Mapua - they were fixing the leak in the roof
TIP - they were the ones who created the leak
NU - they were outside the house selling cigarettes
JRC - they were the ones buying
Adamson - went to Luneta instead
Sta. Isabel - they were Adamson's dates
CRC - what the hell is this party for?
PSBA - what the hell is CRC?
NCBA - what the hell is PSBA?
AMA - they were parading with Jolina posters

SUICIDAL SANDWICH
There were three friends: an Atenean, a La Sallite, and a UP student (so you know this story is fictional). Anyway, everyday, they met for lunch and ate their sandwiches.
UP: Putek! Peanut butter sandwich na naman? Sawang-sawa na ako dito ah. Pag bukas, peanut butter sandwich na naman ang baon ko, magpapatiwakal na ako.
Ateneo: Darn! Roast beef sandwich again. I am sick of this already. If I get another roast beef sandwich again tomorrow, I am gonna shoot myself.
La Salle: Oh my gosh, grabe! Ham sandwich is my baon again. I am so sawa with this sandwich na, ha? If my baon tomorrow is ham sandwich again, I am gonna drive my CRV over the cliff.
The next morning, they again met for lunch, and, alas, they had the same sandwiches again. The UP student went back to his dorm, pulled out a belt, and choked himself to death. The Atenean went home, got a gun, and shot himself in the head. The La Sallite drove his CRV off a cliff. During their funeral, their mothers were interviewed:
UP: Kung sinabi niya lang sa akin na ayaw niya na nang peanut butter sandwich, eh di sana hindi na yun yung pinabaon ko sa kanya.
Ateneo: If he had told me that he did not want roast beef anymore, I would not have given him roast beef.
La Salle: Hindi ko maintindihan kung bakit siya nagpakamatay, eh siya naman yung gumagawa ng sarili niyang sandwich.

I just came from UST to attend a Nu107 gig called Kontrabanda.
And the event simply rocked...oh wait, that's a cliche...
Anyway, on the way there it rained hard. It was when I was in Cainta, about to get to Junction. So there I was, stuck inside a non-airconditioned bus, and the traffic wasn't really moving, given to the fact that our bus was huge and a lot of smaller vehicles kept on cutting at us. I hate it when it's humid. So since it was raining, the air became thick with water vapors (aha! Science!) and I sat in that bus, feeling very sticky that I badly wanted a bath, even if I just took a bath just 40 minutes earlier.
One look at my phone told me that it was already 3:52. I was supposed to meet Carol by the UST Hospital at 6:00 sharp!
And I have no idea how it all happened, but by the time I got to UST it was 5:30...so it just took me an hour and 38 minutes to travel from Antipolo to UST! And that included the terrible traffic situation I had to endure.

SO on with the gig...

IMAGO

We got in the UST Sports Complex (after being thouroughly searched for deadly weapon and after the gaurd had splashed through my ass as he did) in time to catch IMAGO starting their set with "Untitled," a very nice Filipino song that is to be included in the second album but deeply a reminiscent of the first album. Then what followed dragged me to the mud pits! They were all LOUD. Not Chico Sci loud, but Rage Against the Machine loud, which totally rocked if the idea that it's Aia up there singing wouldn't disturb you. But still, Imago has always been existing to carry a very deep sense of musical ecclecticism, so I wasn't surprised that tribal, Celtic and New Age found their way into their sound; what really surprised me was that they went for the ROAR approach.

Honestly, I have no idea in hell what Aia has been doing these past few months. She's become more slender (or tastefully slim, depending on mindset) and more girly. Gone are the days where you'd see her brightly smiling, garbed in an endearing shirt-jeans-and-sneakers getup. Now, we get the sexier Aia, smiling with a hint of seduction reflecting in her eyes, in a sleeveless shirt and mini skirt, sometimes with a beanie cap (that is now the trend among actresses and gay stand up comics) and (oh no!) high-heeled sandals.
Personally, I have no objections with her own taste, but I want the old Aia back...

DEAD THOUGHT:
Perhaps Aia is now working for a Call Center. She has changed her appearance, something that some call centers' supervisors encourage their operators in doing, and she now has a very American-sounding accent. I could be wrong, though, this is a DEAD THOUGHT.

SUGAR FREE

Total satisfaction! It was in this performance that I really saw how Sugar Free has become popular. Everyone was singing themselves hoarse to Mariposa, Telepono and Insomya. And then the band even sang a new song for their upcoming follow-up (which I suspect would be sometime next year since they have just launched their debut last Feb), the song is called Tao, and I couldn't like it more. Ebe seemed to have HUGE lungs, just as Aia. He could belt out high notes I could only dream of doing, though not as high as Brix Ferraris' or Luke Mijares', but I'd prefer Ebe's smooth unfalcettos than Brix/Luke's ear-numbing pitch. Jal doesn't lack in that department, singing as back-up, his voice simply complements Ebe's though not as richly as the Dicta License/Imago vocal blending.
And with Gela, Carol and I went to the covered court after their performance to hang out with them. I could have said that they were so nice, but I guess they didn't even have the opportunity to show that they were, because sa soon as their asses have barely touched their seats they were bombarded by fans with things to autograph.
Things you do for your fans.

I feel a litle guilty saying this but Genie, Ebe's girl, has definitely caught my attention! Her charm is in her innocent manners. Her eyes had nothing but cheery reflections and her lips seem to always smile. Her boyish bob, which if worn by other women would make them look lesbianic, instead pushed her to femininity.
I like looking at Genie, But of course, that's all I can do. I have too much decency to do anything other than that.
Sigh.

this is my response to an post in one of the mailing lists I joined (Twisted Halo) to a person who thought that the moderator had dissed F4. But the mod firmly answered that he did not, that he only pointed out that much is to be spent if ever the group came here, which should be used to support our local musicians instead...


I'm not anti-F4, not liking them doesn't necessarily mean that I'm against them. But with the blitzkrieg-ish rise in the number of boybands, and hirap na makahanap ng distinction, nakakamanhid nang makakita ng isang bagay na ginawa na nung una. And to be objective, it applies to all genres, pop man o rock.

At saka, agree ako with Kuya Vin, laking pera nun! Just think of the countless struggling bands and artists here, kahit hindi na yung mga nasa pop, na ni walang suporta sa sarili nilang bansa. At napakasakit nu'n, for an artist who has been trying his ass off to be heard, para lang masapawan ng isang artist from another country na ni hindi alam na nakakabenta sila ng albums nila sa isang non-Chinese speaking country.

Hindi ba't katulad ito ang nangyari sa Sugar Free? Nasapawan in terms of priority ng ibang artists (tulad nila Martin at Regine) sa sarili nilang label (according sa Press Kit that came with their album). Kaya lumipat sila. Larger scale ang nangyayari ngayon with F4.

Ang Kulay, hindi ganun kasikat dito sa Pinas, pero nasa OST sila ng isang foreign movie (Virtual Sexuality yata yun). Ang Pin-up Girls, Sonnet LVIII at Chain Gang, signed sa foreign labels.

Although it may seem that indie has marked the new era in a musical revolution of sorts, it may not be so. Why would so many talented musicians go indie? Perhaps there's not really a niche in the market for their type of music. Perhaps their songs are a little too heavy for our culture to handle. Perhaps the labels view them as unmarketable. But the bottomline has always been lack of support.

Just look at the "in" thing in pop nowadays, accoustic and the rivalry betweed Nina and Kyla. And now look at how F4 has been dominating the airwaves (oh, crap! Even RX plays them, but then again, the stations are still corporate/business ventures/investments). I shudder to think what else is to come now that another boyband is in the boob tube.

All these are brought by ABS-CBN's power of suggestion. Have a new show, say it's the "in" thing, have it mentioned in their other programs, have it supported by ALL their media partners (MYX, 101.9, etc) and what do we get? A newly acquired phenomenon scrounged mainly by ABS-CBN worshippers, and easily caught on by trendsetters. Oh and of course, how could we forget the social climbers out there? They who believe that they have to like something just because the general public likes it too.

I saw the same thing happen during college; everyone likes Greyhoundz, you must like Greyhoundz...diss anything un-moshpit-able, even the legendary E-heads and Color It Red (thank goodness insisted loving my own). And then a funny thing happened: Slapshock came and eventually so did Cheese and Chico Sci(ence), so the craze was "diss Greyhoundz, Cheese/Chico Sci is better!"

With all that's been said, I am insisting that I DO NOT HATE F4. I'm just sharing my opinion, just as you did.

LUiS

Another great Sugar Free song! It's a little upbeat, making you think that it's an feel-good song.

But it's not.

It's about loving someone who won't love you back, but still insisting on loving that person anyway. And even assuring that you will always love that person... The line "O kay tagal na kitang minahal" comes in, but assures you that in the end "O kay tagal din kitang mamahalin!" Oh the pain!
AHA! My song!


BURNOUT
Sugar Free

O wag kang tumingin ng ganyan sa akin
Wag mo akong kulitin, wag mo akong tanungin
Dahil katulad mo ako rin ay nagbago
Di na tayo tulad ng dati, kay bilis ng sandali

O kay tagal din kitang minahal

Kung iisipin mo di naman dati ganito
Teka muna lang, kelan tayo nailing?
Kung iisipin mo, di naman dati ganito
Kay bilis kasi ng buhay, pati tayo natangay

O kay tagal din kita minahal

Tinatawag kita sinusuyo kita
Di mo man marinig, di mo man madama

O kay tagal din kitang mamahalin

This is one of my favorite Sugar Free songs...it's about the longingness to return home (duh...)
Anyone reading this, please vote this band (pati na rin Imago) sa 2003 MTV Pilipinas....
...PLEASE vote for Altercation (http://www.altercation.musicrakan.net) sa Webby Awards, it's nominated for ZINES, MUSIC...





LOS BA?OS
Sugar Free

Take me back to my home
To a place where I belong
Times have changed, and so I have
Now I long to go back home
Because I’ve seen a million faces
I’ve been lost in many places
I’ve laughed and I’ve cried
I’ve lived and I’ve died

But it’s always you I run home to
Take me back, take me home away from here back to where
I am free

When I’m tired of the noise I go back to the age of toys
Where my grass is green
And my thoughts were once clean

But it’s always you I run home to
Take me back, take me home away from here back to where
I am free

Kalayaan sa ating lahat

This one i got from email.....

Sex based on first letter of your first name


...hmmmmm...




* L-

You are very romantic, idealistic, and somehow you believe that to love means to suffer. You wind up serving your mate or attracting people who have unusual troubles. You see yourself as your lover's saviour. You are sincere(check!), passionate(check!), dreamy(check!), and lustful(WHOA!). You can't help falling in love. You fantasize and get turned on by movies and magazines(u...). You do not tell others of this secret life, nor of your sexual fantasies.

I got this from the Kabalarians website from A's blog...TY, dudette!

Luis

Important:
This analysis describes a few qualities of the first name of Luis . There are many additional factors (legal name, nicknames, family surname, combined names, previous names, and business signature) that contribute to your entire personality - and your entire life.

The name of Luis has given you an appreciation for many beautiful and refined aspects of life--music and art, literature, drama--and the outdoors, where you find much peace and relaxation, but it creates a far too sensitive nature. You sense and feel much that you do not understand, and sometimes you are alarmed at your thoughts and wonder about their origin. You rarely experience the tranquility that comes with stability of thinking or emotional control. At times, you are very inspired, desiring to be with people and to entertain others as the "life of the party," while at other times you are aloof and choose to remove yourself entirely from association. You crave understanding and affection but your intensity of desire and your self-consciousness prevent you from finding the happiness you desire. You have suffered many disappointments and misunderstandings because of your inability to express your inner thoughts. You could experience sensitivity in the heart, lungs, or bronchial organs, causing tuberculosis, asthma, or depletion of your energies.

A
Ey, dude (or is it dudette?)! How'd you find my blog?

And to answer your question....I find it hard to just pick up the receiver and dial her number. It may seem pretty stupid but, it's true. Because I know I'll just torture myself again, my masochistic side is thoughroughly enjoying it, though.
Hearing her voice over the line reminds me when she call����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

For the past few days, Teresa's face has been plastered on my eyes, giving the effect that I am wearing contact lenses with her transparent face. And I want it to stop. Although I must admit that I have some hunger to torture myself by even calling her.

And believe me, I do.

This started just when I thought that I have forgotten everything I felt for her...turns out I was fooling myself. And dumb ole me just played along as long as I could, and eventually got distracted. Oh, those months of distraction were sweet, warm and calm. I only wished that I could dwell in them again. But it is not so.

In my efforts to achieve employment, I passed a resume to another call center, this time from the Ortigas area, a sensible decision, I thought. But then as I was crossing the street I saw her. You wouldn't believe how pathetic the smile was in my face, but in the back of my mind I really wanted to run to the other side. To her side. But when the crowd had cleared I saw another familiar face beside her, clutching her hand. Something in me just drooped when I saw her with my bestfriend.

I've always wanted to be a DJ since high school. Imagine just talking on-air answering calls and meeting all these musicians.
I wanted to become just like Tom Alvarez from RX.
And then I heard their ad, that they were looking for two members of their on-air staff. So I passed a resume and even went to their booth to record demo for their archives.
I have no experience in broadcasting, but I have received enough parise from friends even strangers that I have a pleasant voice. I have pride in my accent.

I NEED YOUR PRAYERS.PLEASE PRAY FOR ME.

Since not everyone does this, aside from the fact that I have not seen any films lately (yes, I am culturally deprived), I have decided to review music videos instead. And while I'm at it, I'll also put in some random thoughts about the songs and the artists themselves.

Metallica - St. Anger

Filmed entiresly in jail, the concept was having a gig in the middle of recess with cut scenes of inmates engaged in a riot. The feel may not be new, but at least it's not criminally derivative; and the intro - of the warden instructing the band - was a clever touch.

On thing that annoys me about the band, of which I am savagely envious of, is their fashion sense. Of course, it's no longer the 80s, and the odds of them being mistaken for a hair band are remote, if not impossible, only Kirk Hammet and Rob Trujillo insist on carrying the log hair bit. And then there are also the present-day rocker gear - James' bonnet and shirt, for instance - that gives the band the rockstar essence without them even trying.

Though, I enjoy the music, every time I would be reminded that it's Metallica sure as hell beats the crap out of me. It certainly isn't what I'd expect from them, and that isn't always a good thing. Had it been from the newer, younger bands such as 12 Stones, Papa Roach, System of a Down or even Disturbed, I wouldn't be so obscenely shocked, and alarming.

I have no idea in hell what Metallica was thinking when they wrote St. Anger, but I'm also sure it's Rob's presence and influence that's to be blamed. Or maybe Jason should share the blame, for leaving.

Maybe Rob's arrival may have opened a few doors in terms of their music, since I would love to see them grow and progress, but at the price of losing their signature Metallica sound? Their soul?

Maybe I'm just not used to the abrupt change.


Jewel - Intuition

A blond girl danced across the street, wearing skimpy clothes that bordered more on the kinkiness than sexiness, I thought it was Anna Kournekova. A tennis player, who never really made it to the majors with an album? Well, she did become a model for sports bra, and with a tag line for the ad, which says something like "Because only the ball should bounce…" it may not seem so far off. And besides the horrendous music seemed to confim it.

A few more scenes and I gawked and gaped in disbelief - it's JEWEL!

To be fair, the video was witty enough, showing several pieces of parodied advertisements. This video may be an outcry in her efforts to finally sell out, but to prance around in her undies in true Britney/Cristina fashion?

A change in her sound would have been welcome, but she chose a rather unlikable direction to grow into, somewhere her fans would hate to see her go. And her falsetto-win-an-identity-crisis type of voice didn't really settle in with the changes and most importantly, the very annoying chorus (…you intuiiiiiitiooooon…!). She not only deviated from her folksy-poetic roots but having lost her soulfulness is utterly unforgivable. I only hope it's only for this one song.

Her newly acquired allergy to cloth is very disturbing.

Michelle Branch - Are you Happy Now

The intro was half bad, a terrible tune apparently from a phonogragh and a blurry, grainy close-up shot of her face.

But the opening chords were nice, warm and simple and a welcome start with an equally simple scene - Michelle sitting alone in a bench - which complements the entire gloomy concept for the video.

From her first tracks to this one, we can see that she has indeed developed as a musician. I have always liked her subtle sense of wit and thankfully it's still present in her songwriting. And as for her vocals, even that has slightly changed; because she now sound like…ta-dah…ALANIS MORISSETTE! Yes folks, I couldn't quite believe it myself when I heard her fire up her vocal chords in the chorus.

However, since she same way - not edging towards the dark side - and since this song is particularly too angst-ridden, she may have had difficulty expressing it. And so the entire song it showered with lines like "And you don't care about me…" and But I don't care…, making the song a little dry, sounding more like a whining girl who needed to be bitch-slapped than a bitch hoping to slap a girl as she whined.

I do hope she works this out because I can see a lot of potentials from her. Here's hoping she won't go the M2M way.

Beyoncé Knowles - Crazy In Love

I could watch this video all day - just let me press the MUTE button after the fourth repeat.

Beyoncé is one hot, black chick. But unlike other hot, black chicks out there, she has some sophistication up her sleeves, no matter how slutty her wardrobe is. There are some mouth-watering dance sequences, and boy is her body flexible. And she has the butt that could give Jlo a run for her money.

The music itself is noteworthy, with a healthy interplay of retro sensibilities and a lot of damn catchy beats (that went well with that damn bouncy body).

'Nuff said! YUM!

Deftones - Minerva

This band absolutely rocks! I've been listening to them since high school, pretty good taste doncha think???

Minerva is the first single off their newest, self-titled album. As tradition, the proverbial Deftones videos are laced with the beauty of the simplicity of gloom (remember the warehouse video for Be Quiet and Drive and the shark-infested tranquility of My Own Summer). With this video, they chose a desert, or what apparently looked like one, as a background for the band.

One thing I noticed about vocalist Chino Moreno is that he seems to grow ever so corpulent with each video. He started slender in Be Quiet…, gained some mass in Street Carp, seemed to have ingested a boulder in Back to School (where he barely moves, because of his bulk, I suspect) and in Minerva, he's just pure flab packed in a jacket (as if I, myself, am not…LOL). It is in this video that I noticed that he, with the goatee, thick eyebrows and very evident Chicano roots, completely resembles Dicta License's Kelley Mangahas, minus the reversed cap, the usual white shirt and black shorts.

The song is simply great. The crunchy guitars crash in with the raunchy bass, the drumbeats threaten to mutilate the entire sound, while the vocal work (God bless you all…) smoothens out the carcass. And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes it sound as much as soothing as it is torturous.

New mantra: MUST-GET-ALBUM! NOW!