December 4th, 2006 at 1:40 am Borat.
Me and You and Everyone We Know..
Entourage 1,2 and 3 .
Roughly 22 hours spent this week in front of the boob tube catching up on all the bestselling plots on film that I have missed. Quite insane for a supposedly workaholic kind of person that I am.
But there I was, a delighted recluse gorging on sumptuous spaghetti and iced tea while spending half of the long weekend in our new couch. Easily the simplest joy in life.
But this week was far from uneventful.
Last Tuesday, I received word that a 6-month long writing project that I thought had been junked will be pushing through after all. It starts January but meetings will begin this month, and should satisfy my insatiable thirst for new clothes. I also received an auspicious blessing to pursue another writing project which aims to inspire the youth but also personifies Pandorra s box in our social context.
That should be exciting and worthwhile. After that intimate dinner in UP, I headed to Gateway to hook up with the boys to watch Borat the SOB who left me in stitches the whole night. This movie was totally hilarious!
We couldn t stop dissecting it over beers at neighboring Oyster Boy. The next day, I met up with my PDF counterpart at Rockwell after hitting the weights at the Fort and then headed to practice at 9:30. Thursday, I had to dress up a bit for my drinking shindig with my Shang officemates, which was preceded by a meeting with my boss and our friends from the World Bank regarding some serious social development issues, and a simple gathering at the office for my boss, who would be celebrating her birthday the next day.
I slept at 4am because I was compelled to watch another movie! Friday, I had an awesome workout thanks to Teng, saw some episodes of Entourage and then got ready for my Handlebar gig. That event was monumental man it was a reunion of the original Rats, with Dave A and J Lupito jamming on stage.
It was actually fun being in the audience for the most part, hanging out with my surprise guests from Shang and my UP college friends. Splendid!!
! Then I headed north to 70s to drink some more with the boys and there were still Pinoy rock celebs there from the Jerks and Color It Red. As normally practiced, we capped the night with a 430 breakfast in a nearby pares station.
The next day, I just decided to slack off and make the couch my home for the next 12 hours to give my skin a break. Mind you, I still managed to squeeze in 2 speeches in my Saturday to-do given my lackadaisical demeanor. I m still a responsible bugger I guess
November 28th, 2006 at 12:26 pm Thanks to a chatmate who fancies up-the-butt girls, I finally cropped up a title
And it s been a while since I dropped a line here, perhaps because of work and all the other insignificant things I do in between (such as updating my Multiply site, for one).
Even the Sunday afternoons that I use for updating my blog have been filled up. I wonder why that is
What made this gig extremely fun was the arrival of some unexpected visitors Erika and Macky (still very friendly despite the break-up), the avid-groupie-in-the-making pair of Judith and Elias, the surprising appearance of Deltaslim and his darling Jane (I can talk about all sorts of stuff with this girl), our favorite groupie in QC (and beyond) Mr. Jaime and his charming wife; Ruth and her boyfriend Shawn; Ruben and Zann who followed after a gig in Pasig and a host of other party animals I normally catch at the Friday night watering hole.
Drinks were on the house too. I think Henry was too happy with the article I wrote about the place, which btw you can check out in this month s issue of F B World.
It had been a long time since we last played at Ninoy s.
Nobody thought we could convene 7 players at first, but voila! We had 11 uncomfortably seated players trying their luck on the felt. I finished fourth damn!
If I finished third, I would have recovered my measley P100 investment
The turnout at the venue was quite pathetic, but the overall vibe, thanks to a modest cast of Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan aficionados, compensated for the empty house. But this was a milestone in my singing career. I never thought I d share the same stage with the Pinoy icons who have rocked the joint for years Johnoy came.
Ruben and Zann followed and we all stayed and relished Renard s tales of Lolita Carbon s hot shindigs in his premature encounters with Asin at a time when he still had his crowning glory
My friend from The World Bank, Loraine Hawkins, will be leaving the Bank on Dec 1 to reunite with her husband who is based in London. The dinner was our despedida for her. I throwed all caution to the wind and ordered a Caesar s salad and a Rib-Eye steak with mint jelly and peppercorn sauce on the side and a pasta al ajillo side dish and a glass of red.
Yum yum yum .I ve missed dining with such indulgence. The dinner was fun, albeit I felt a little out of place because of my age.
But hey, we re all coming together somehow because of the same line of work we are involved in and in that kind of work there are just too many things to laugh about. Malu was such a darling to organize the surprise dinner. I gave Loraine a CD of the Rats covers which we recorded at Dish.
The sound quality was poor, but I wanted to give her something that would remind her of the Rats gigs she went to while she was working here.
Then I headed to Reg s house to play poker with Chot, Blue, Gino and Gail, Mel and CJ, Pia and Reg. The pot?
A whopping 2,200 pesos. Reg won in the heads-up with Blue. I finished third.
The highlight of the evening? I had an A-4 hand. The flop read a King-2-3.
Chot was all in. The turn was 5. Five!
!!!
The river? Another 5!!
! I was jubilant. Awesome play!
!!
Oh this gig was fuuuun!
!! The Rats was asked to open the show, so we did 6 hard core blues songs: Motorcycle Mama (N.
Young), Hoochie Coochie Man (M. Waters), then Cowboy did Red House (J. Hendrix) and Crossroads (E.
Clapton version), then we ended with The Allman Brothers One Way Out and Whipping Post. The crowd was crazy and I loved it. Check out the photos:
Butch and I went insane when we heard Snakecharmer s take on Bob Dylan s I Shall Be Released.
That was mind-blowing
After the gig, Ruben, Mina, Augee, Kakoy, Surit and myself headed to 24-hour Rufo s to have breakfast. Mina was the star manghuhula. So fun.
We ended at about 6:00 in the morning. Crazy.
Mich texted me that my picture was on the sleeve of the Blueskrieg CD.
Coooool!!!
He also asked me to join him at UP to jog. I was already comfortably finishing the second season of Entourage, but what the hell right? I haven t tried jogging at UP and I figured I might as well do it na.
The jogging was more like walking, but I had a great time just catching up with Mich, who s also freakishly busy with work
Yesterday, I finished writing the Snakecharmer profile. Another brain drain exercise, but I think I like what I managed to produce
This week is gearing up too fast What could be in store this weekend? We ll see .
August 7th, 2006 at 12:51 am But when it does happen, it only keeps the competitive fire in me burning. Last Friday, as soon as I got my salary, I texted the boys that poker night is ON!!
! I couldn t wait because I had a busy week: audition on Monday til 12am, research assistant work in the morning and Ms. Dinky s lecture from 4pm-8pm Tuesday, dinner and karaoke with DSWD folks Wednesday from 19:30-23:30 then lecture again from 12am - 4am (whew!
), BURN music magazine launch on Thursday at Embassy til about 12:30am, then read a policy paper for my talk at Ateneo the whole Friday afternoon. Thankfully, work at the office wasn t too demanding that I actually managed to juggle a lot of these ad hoc stuff with critical gym time (which will NOT be compromised )
Friday, Poker Night at Ninoy s
As always, poker night was fun. Again, I was the lone woman ganging up on 7 feisty meisters.
Hahaha they ll hate me for this. They always hate losing to a girl. Anyway, in the first hand, I got a suited A-3 and got a straight on the turn.
Heng was pushing the bets because of his trio, and of course I did too with my 5-card hand of luck, and I won. He seriously beat himself too hard for that. Unfortunately, my luck ended somewhere in the middle of that game where I placed third, and lost relentlessly in the succeeding games.
I lost 250 bucks easy on that night but still no sweat, thinking that I would probably have spent more if I went out in some swanky bar without a date to foot the bill hehehe.
Saturday, Blooze Night at Gweilo s Eastwood
The next night was the 3rd benefit show for Egay at Gweilo s, where I was privy to an artistic convergence of a surreal kind. I m talking about Salindiwa and Huka, two of the most inventive and musically provocative local bands we are fortunate to have around today.
I have always been a fan of Salindiwa since my first encounter with them at 6 Underground, where I saw them with Snakecharmer. Their presence sort of evoked an image of the grotesque atmosphere that Pink Floyd indulged in during their early years, fusing neon lights and sonic innuendos in an England church. But the band s sound is far from Floydian.
I don t want to get into details of what their band is really all about, because I am not being paid to do a review here, but I must say that Salindiwa nestled comfortably in my subconscious since that gig thanks to Mike, their front man. That guy stirs laughter from the crowd like no singer I know. And I ve always had a soft spot for comics I mean really funny guys who generate hilarity with little effort.
So there, thanks Mike for being that ridiculously fun fella who made me an instant fan. And of course, Salindiwa s guitarist Kakoi Legaspi is the reason why I will always look forward to this band s performances. Not only because he s a friend now, but because this man is the raw deal, and I ve known this since the day I caught myself unprepared to witness his intense bondage with his guitar during a Mr.
Crayon blues fest at the Fete, 2005. It was almost unconscionable how he wringed my tummy for a while during that first encounter. Man, and he plays a mean harp too.
I ve been his fan since Fete, and I m grateful that he happens to be a real human being too, as I would learn in my more recent encounters with him, Zann and the other blues freaks. That guy is immensely talented, and when he performs, he can literally make your mouth go dry. (And Zann if you re reading this, ikaw naman ang aking genius of many things.
HAYOP!)
As for Huka, same thing. Saw these guys Fete 2005, and I ve been a fan since.
Sadly, I wasn t able to catch any of their gigs since that fateful event until I saw them again last night. Mr. Alex was the ultimate blues blender he has it all as Andy has said spirit, energy and artistry he s one of the few artists who can actually translate a message through versatility.
Last night, I think his message to me was This is how the blues can get to you, and I was blown away. Sayang lang because they sort of played late into the night, so we couldn t extract a couple more extra songs from them. I sincerely hope I can watch them again soon
Sunday, reading a book and getting hooked to the boobie tube
To cap my weekend, I retreated once again to my favorite leisure cocoon at Starbucks in Commonwealth (It s near my house and parking s free.
) I am now reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez s Nobel Peace Prize-winning novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I find so captivating that I am willing to spend serious amounts of money on coffee to finish it. I didn t, but I m at the part where Arcadio was crushed in a firing squad. I love how this book was written, I love the detail, the plot, the emotions that get boiled over incest, passion, lust, wrath, treachery, hate I can t remember having read something so beautiful in a long time.
I mean, I ve been engrossed in the literature of politics for policy ideas (My Life, Bill Clinton and Friedman s The World Is Flat) and get-rich guide books, comic reliefs from David Sedaris and musician s biographies. One Hundred Years of Solitude is slowly filling the gap in my right brain. It is a creative venture I so needed and an experience that will likely change how I think.
At this point of the journey, it is inpiring me to use my imagination to liberate me from my inhibitions. I think soon enough, I will be free
This might seem anti-climactic, but I just have to say that I loved the Mandatory Minimums re-run of The West Wing. It s about mistakes on the job, critical issues, crises and how each and every time we face our battles, we must remember to give ourselves a break.
The West Wing is my source of reality, the only show that I can relate with about my job now and where I see myself being at in the future. Like One Hundred Years, it fuels my imagination.
Today s poster-girl for leadership is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman President of Liberia, and the first woman ever to be President in the entire continent of Africa.
I saw her on Oprah. President Sirleaf gave me another reason why my present challenges as a public servant are worth taking and why I should devote my life s work in helping my country. If being a leader is the way to eradicate suffering among women and children, then that will be my mission.
Indeed, to whom much is given, much is expected. That saying is speaking pretty loudly to me.
May 31st, 2006 at 11:56 pm Beauty and the Geek is my new favorite show.
It s very entertaining, and the social imbalance that it represents is actually an awakening. I must say, I m pretty blessed. I m a nerd but at the same time, I m a social butterfly.
It s an awakening because I have this bad tendency to look down on people who have the normal, human tendency to be stupid. I m conceited in that way, but at least I don t embarrass people despite their shortcomings. I just keep every negative opinion I have to myself.
Who wants to be put in a bad spot right? =)
I had lunch today at the residence of the Ambassador of Sweden, together with the other His/Her Excellencies who share the same mission: to support the implementation of the recently passed Juvenile Justice Welfare Act. I m used to being surrounded by powerful people, but this time it was more laid back.
I just wish that the Ambassador of Australia and the country rep of CIDA (Canada) will not forget my face when I start going to interviews for development fellowships in their countries. The salmon was awesome and the rhubarb pie, a Swedish delicacy, was pretty good, although it brought back memories of the rhubarb plant in Childcraft being described as having poisonous stalks (while the leaves are edible).
I enjoyed late-afternoon gym today, mainly because I got to read again.
I usually do the stationary bike for an hour, while reading Bill Clinton and listening to my iPod. I missed multi-tasking, and I love it when I am productive in everything I do. So I guess the stationary bike well, that s being a geek and a beauty (gym s for weight loss reasons too) at the same time.
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