Avenue Q, Manila

We saw this last Saturday night, June 21st. It was pretty good. Most of the cast held their own although the main characters I felt weren't that consistent in their voices. But considering that these particular folks were in charge of two characters each, they can get tired over the run of the musical, so... The human characters were not as engaging as the puppet characters. And the rendition of the closeted-homosexual puppet was a bit "forced". In some early Broadway previews of this musical, I thought I saw the people portraying the puppets to be dressed mainly in black and had pale make-up. In the Manila production, they were wearing gray tops and were really acting out what the puppet was supposed to be doing but are limited in doing. So it appeared that the puppets were extensions and props. On the other hand (pun?), if the production kept to the original design, the puppets may have stood out more, but more of what's behind the words and between the lines may get lost. Filipinos are more visual, I think. One example was in the song "The more you ruv someone." Christmas Eve's line "like two brothers who go on a date" was not met with any reaction at all. Anyway, it was a nice enough experience although hearing the original cast recording previously, I would have preferred seeing that cast's production. Plus one comment regarding the theater (Carlos P. Romulo) over at RCBC Tower in Makati: there's something wrong with the spacing of the seats. Two relatively large guys in front of you and 50% of the view gets blocked already - and I'm a relatively tall person myself. And there was a mouse running about I saw during intermission. This cast is off to Singapore so good luck to you guys! Good job! Oh and I was surprised to find out Aiza Seguerra was in the cast playing the building administrator ("Super") Gary Coleman. She did her part well except for her hand gestures which were, um, mostly down-then-pointing-out-towards-the-audience. Over and over. Was she trying to act like a puppet too? :)

Spiral vs. Seven Corners

The dinner was just exquisite! Tons of food to choose from! Food from all around the world! Great setting, great service, and the drinks are free. Well, you pay a hefty sum though. But it's oh so worth it, specially if you're celebrating an anniversary or monthsary or a graduation or a proposal even. This place is highly recommended! Better start saving up for next year's super special date. And you can lay off breakfast and lunch on that day and just binge during dinner. Which isn't very nice to see when you're with someone whom you're not married to (yet). Best behavior first. But seriously, I don't think you'll be able to not control yourself when everyone else around you is properly eating their dinners, and it's not like they'll run out of food. Just note they supposedly close the kitchen up at midnight.

SPIRAL @ SOFITEL PHILIPPINE PLAZA in Manila
Type of cuisine : International
Opening hours : 06:00 - 00:00

Air conditioning
Non smoking area

Head Chef, Mr Christian WERDENBERG

There's not as much food during lunch as during dinner they said. There were at that time a lot of decorations near the 'kitchens' or 'corner' which there are seven, of course where they serve different cuisine until you reach the 7th corner where the desserts are - homemade ice cream that you can opt to have mixed 'japanese style'. I'll just have it in scoops, thank you. There being a minimal selection, this restaurant looked like a spruced up cafeteria minus the trays. And the cost is almost as expensive as in other 5-star hotels/restaurants. Hmm... Oh, there was a band playing though. They were pretty ok.SEVEN CORNERS Restaurant
Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel - 3rd Level , Ortigas, Pasig City
Serves: Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner
Type of cuisine : International

Hands-down and get-eating winner: Spiral.

YouTuberos

Sunday afternoon, it's too hot and as you wait for rain, you go online and just browse for interesting content. And there's YouTube of course so you head out to it and you watch video after video and then you come to a couple of amusing finds... First up, a good looking dancer, composer, and singer - erenz88.Here's his cover of Chris Brown's With You. I think I'm going out to buy Chris Brown's album.
Here he's dancing.
And now singing his own composition (lyrics), Higher. Promising.

And spinning off from the famous HappySlip, is Christine's cousin's (Minnie) "boyfriend", Kevin or KevJumba.
Here, he dance-battles against Fred G., another wacky character trying to win Minnie's heart.
And he has his own site too.

So go forth and check these lads out...

Long and short of it

Jan. 09, 2004

Some people are fixated with lengths, from longer
hair to longer legs to longer penises. Some people
think that longer is better, just like with the
ability to prolong copulation. The longer you
sustain one orgasm or have multiple orgasms over
just one period of lenghty, sweaty, intercourse,
would merit you a badge, a medal, or a trophy. But
as in any physical stimulation, pain or pleasure
is ephemeral. And wouldn't NOT prolonging the sex
act give you and your partner extra time to do
other things that could also produce various forms
of pleasurable feelings?

I don't know if there would be more men than women
who would think that a lengthier sex act is better.
I think only women can fake their orgasms so I
suppose women won't mind having just one a night in
maybe 15 minutes? Men, on the other hand, seem to
relish the idea of being able to make things longer.
For one, almost every man thinks that a longer dick
means a happier chick (or partner, to be politically
correct about it), well, except of course for those
who move to justify that endowment is useless
without proper style. So men then only think this
way just to feel superior? And yet during the sex
act, humans are at one of their most vulnerable.

The best tools do not necessarily make the best
products. And even then, somewhere else, there
could be one that is better. Long times spent on a
task does not mean a high-quality result. It is
more probable that the doer ends up more tired. So
just get whatever you have to do done in the least
amount of time, yet putting as much of yourself
into it, then you'll never fall short of doing
the best that you can for more things.

Faith, fate, fetes

Aug. 19, 2003

I believe that we all have to believe in something to
continue to survive. God and the mysteries of all of
the religions have continued to successfully evade
definition and explanation because, then, they wouldn't
remain mysterious, would they? Their very existence
depends on the mystery. They cannot afford to be
disproven. We also cannot afford that these things
we hold on to be disproven. And there are truths that
we certainly cannot handle. Like: Does our having
free will limit God's omniscience? And does fate
define the boundaries of our free will? Which came
first -- the egg or the chicken?

When we are born, our parents imagine the best for us.
When we learn how to imagine ourselves, we imagine
even better. We see ourselves as we could be further
down the road of life. We see ourselves to have
achieved goals we have set. That vision of our future
pushes us to continue to live. And if we were to look
at our life as just one long road with a beginning and
an end, on that last step is where religion, and, more
generally, faith earns its significance. If we did
not believe in anything- in what happens after we die,
in God, in karma, in lasting love, in memories, in
family and friends, what will hold us back from doing
just about anything that enters our minds now? The
world may be in an even worse situation than it
already is.

Only death and change are absolute, they say. May I
add making choices. We have to take sides, whether it
is regarding religion or consuming meat products. Our
choices define our experiences. Our experiences
define our lives. And we are part of other people's
experiences which define them. That's why we're here.
We are alive and we have choices to make. Let's live
responsibly and make responsible choices too because
we don't live alone.

Religion is part of our lives. It tries to fill a
void that will remain a void until we die and learn,
if at all, of other truths, that by then won't matter
anyway. But being human, we tend to justify our
actions and inactions now, and speculate on
repercussions. This happens most when we are treading
on uncertain ground, when we do not understand. And
then we also try to make others believe what we
believe to make us appear stronger in that belief.
But truth is as unique to each individual as there are
as many souls or as many as those who believe there
are souls. We get to choose what we believe in. So
choose. And believe.

I believe I know the chicken came first.

Different adventures

First off, an adventure with a septagenarian (sc). The film as a whole sure looked the part of an 80's franchise. Maybe the film stock they used was 20 years old too? Indiana now discovers he has a son- that Shia guy from Transformers- and saves everyone's asses from a weird Russian lady who has this alien fetish.A couple scenes were reminiscent of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets but hey, this is Indiana Jones and the other one's with Ghost Rider. The movie was fun enough to get my rating of 3 out of 5 stars but only justified why I was not a fan of the series. Good but not great. Makes you go 'oh' but not 'ooh'.
Now onto what I've read could be Dreamworks Animation's best Animated feature. And it was actually very good. Fast paced story, storytelling, amusing enough. Oddly, some scenes that weren't really funny (to me), kids were screeching at. It lacked, well, a little more umph. I particularly liked the turtle especially when he's cooly scolding {Shi-fu}. I didn't like how the turtle vanished into peach blossoms as he died. Or dissipated.
The dragon scroll on another note kindof kills a lot of philosophies, in business or otherwise, that hinges on there being a special or secret ingredient or maybe x factor to one's becoming an "ultimate" of some sort. There is no secret- that's what the blank scroll means. Although you could see your reflection on the scroll, meaning the non-secret is actually just you.
Or it's inside you. So just believe in yourself. So it really doesn't stick. Cute furry characters. Would probably need a sequel to flesh out the ferocious five... Was it fiercesome (sc)?
I was rooting for the Tigress. The villain as a cub was pretty cute too. And when I saw from the credits that Lucy Liu voiced the serpent, I rooted for her too. 3.5 stars out of 5.
And then I still had some time to kill so I saw this independent movie where two from my previous productions were also part of.
Weird enough story to be interesting. But this wasn't a comedy was it? So... Ok, so lighting was uneven, sometimes dark, sometimes obviously put up. Makeup of supports were better than the leads. Well, I'd rather the more natural look. Abrupt music was abruptly played throughout, I thought. And (in a british intonation) what the hell was up with casting that thin, call-center-twang-speaking chick? Oh and some of the laughing and crying were theatrical. So, hmm, since I have to give out some stars... I'll give it 2 just because the story was weird enough to be interesting and/or original enough. But please, as far as twists go, the lead couldn't even look lesbian.

Sanctuario @ Metrowalk

Nice. Nice ambiance. Nice food. All in all nice. Nice place to bring your special someone. Red is nice.Tabla setting.
You could bring your friends too.
Different pasta dishes... Carbonara...
I think this is Bulalo pasta... interesting, huh?
And here's some seafood pasta...
And you got to have meat too... Some chops...
Spicy chicken wings...
And then desserts. The desserts I didn't like so much. It was too fancy and not too tasty to be as nice as everything else in Sanctuario.
Sanctuario at Metrowalk, along the sex toys shop. :)

And then there were four...

Heroes have to leave at one time or another and in their place springs new heroes... Good luck and learn the most you can from every experience.

Pet peeves

I don't like driving behind smoke-belchers. Why are there any still? Some people must not be doing their jobs... I think they're hidden somewhere where they can just pounce on color-coding violators. Back to the smoke-belchers... I especially dislike getting Stella (my car) fogged because it sticks to her body and seeing as I don't have her washed more than once a week, children playing along our streets find it rather amusing to scribble their names and other messages on Stella.
Another peeve is entering a full parking lot that has several vertical levels that when there are no signs of anyone driving out, you'd have to look for another lot to park at and you've just used up gas the parking lot doesn't pay for and for some lots, they still charge you their minimum rate.

And then there's seeing these posters...
I'm not surprised why people throw stuff at it or overwrite the text with nasty messages. My question is "Why?" Why do these politicians have to plaster their names and images on every project they green-light? Was it their personal money? I'm guessing they will get to add on to their personal stash. I see waiting sheds with the whole name of the politician on top like there was a bus named the same going to stop there and pick up passengers. Do not vote for these people!

Ooh, have you seen the tv ads of Loren Lagarda and Manny Villar? Isn't it too early? Ok, ok, you want to help the "masang Pilipino," and become President. But seeing your faces and reading your names constantly is, in my opinion, disgusting.
All in the family: this Arlene girl who wants to follow in the footsteps of final-councilor-termer-brother is working pretty early to get her name out there and be known. They have contracts in place they wouldn't want other people getting? They want to keep the meager councilor salary in the family? Geez, anyone who gets to be President or a law-maker should first raise the salaries of government employees so they won't consider illegal means to get wealthy.

I still would want to be President or someone with enough power to change things for the better. But I don't think I'll do any good dead. And I fear the people in power now can easily kill off or "silence" anyone who radically don't follow the lead. Sigh. Hang in there, beloved country. Soon, things will be better.