User:	tymeless
	Date:	Monday, October 6, 2008 - 3:51 am
	Subject:	Actors Company in Lab.

Got to catch the last show of TP Actors Company's recital yesterday.It's been a while since they last had a recital. The last time Iactually saw one was a couple of years ago. The last recital (forVoice) they had last season didn't count, as my back was turned to thembecause I was tasked to be Paolo's page-turner, hahaha.

Arrived at CCP at the same time as Tad did (which was at least a coupleof hours before the show began), as we rode the same shuttle, so we hadlunch together first. OK, cheesy comment. I actually missed qualitytime with Tad that I was pretty giddy at the simple action of puttingmy hand in his, heeheehee. Anyway, after lunch, we bummed around in theLT lobby for a while with Riki and Chrome, taking advantage of the wifiinternet.

When I left Tad in the LT dressing room with the rest of the AC to prepup (well, Anna was taking a nap and Russ was clowning around), I wentwith Shing to the Conference Room so we can find the best place to sit.Eventually we just hung around, goofing around with Max, then Betty.

Showtime. Tad and Kat's piece, Tragedy for Two, was up first. It was quite an interesting adaptation from Antigone,which I read only once for world drama class. OK, so I may be biased,but Tad's performance was pretty impressive, even though he said thateveryone's energy was lower that day compared to the night before. Ialways knew that Kat is also a brilliant actress, thanks to hertraining, but I guess Tad overshadowed her a bit sometimes. Yet heractions were pretty clear.

After the first intermission, Bong and Wenah were next in The Lover. I remember Tad recommending this piece this summer when Mimay was hunting for a play we could do (just in case Nemesis didn't push through). I've always admired Wenah and Bong as actors, sotheir recital piece didn't disappoint me at all. I first thought thatthey were doing the original English piece, but I loved that theyshifted to and from Filipino and one other native dialect (Bisaya?).Haha, I still can't get over Bong's Freudian slip, which also providedforeshadowing to his chorus role in the next play, HAHAHA.

Baby B was the third play after the second intermission. I've seen the staged reading of this play during last year's Virgin Labfest,with Anna as the title role. Tara took on the role of Baby B this time,Anna as Amy, and Riki reprised his role as Buddy. Russ played severaltypes of customers, and Chrome was the Dupang guy. Tad, Kat, Bong andWenah completed the ensemble, resembling phantoms from The Rocky Horror Show. Hmmm... maybe I just got used to the staged reading so I saw a pretty different Baby B that Tara had interpreted.

All in all, it was a pretty good show. I have to agree with Sir JoeyTing that TP needs to do shows like these to showcase what the ActorsCompany can do for Tanghalang Pilipino productions.

Congratulations to the TP Actors Company!

	User:	tymeless
	Date:	Monday, October 6, 2008 - 2:53 am
	Subject:	Randomness #N.

Just a thought. I feel as if I'm riding a bicycle down a hill, and mybrakes are out. Even though it's pretty exhilarating to be riding attop speed and feeling the wind in my face, it's pretty scary as well asthe ride gets out of control.

	User:	thuspakeciriaco
	Date:	Sunday, October 5, 2008 - 11:49 pm
	Subject:	Opting out, step one:

	User:	rossetti
	Date:	Sunday, October 5, 2008 - 9:40 pm
	Subject:	What her momma taught her
	Mood:	violent

This Picture of the Day is brought to you by TheIdiotSarah Palin and her li'l one, Piper, who has obviously learned a lot from her momma.

	User:	tymeless
	Date:	Saturday, October 4, 2008 - 3:21 pm
	Subject:	The day was supposed to be boring, haha.

I was supposed to spend this entire Saturday just bumming around in myroom, channel-surfing, online surfing, or just sleeping, hahaha.

Then early this afternoon, I got a call from Rosa, who happened to be acouple of blocks away from my house at Mocha Blends. As it turned out,Aris had dropped her off there while he goes off to Perpetual Helphospital for a general checkup. Even while she's armed with her Germanlanguage homework, I knew it could get pretty boring hanging out for atleast a couple of hours alone, so I walked over to join her for somegirl talk over coffee and carrot cake.

Hahaha, good thing I did get off my bum and go to Mocha Blends.Otherwise, Rosa would have gone crazy over there. Aris arrived a littleover a couple of hours later, starving, so the three of us headed toATC. Hehe, Aris had his fill as he hadn't had any lunch yet, and Rosacurbed a craving that she couldn't exactly describe. I, on the otherhand, finished 3 pieces of samosa that Rosa had bought earlier thatday. Yummm. Then after we had our fill, of course I couldn't resist thecall of Timezone, so I introduced Rosa to the game Drei and I gotaddicted to, hahaha.

Killed a little more time around the mall before we finally headedhome. Thanks for the afternoon, Rosa. Can't wait for next week.Belated happy birthday, Aris!

	User:	vainpire
	Date:	Saturday, October 4, 2008 - 3:02 pm
	Subject:	Review Number 2

Okayy, I know this would seem desperate but I'm making this as another plug and plea to vote for my review in 611connect.com . It's a contest where we recently joined. Tough love, analyzing HTC Touch since I had to borrow the said unit from a friend of mine. I can only be grateful since he never gave me a hard time in freely browsing his phone. Anyway, here goes:

HTC Touch review

	User:	thuspakeciriaco
	Date:	Friday, October 3, 2008 - 10:35 pm
	Subject:	Wishlist! 2008

	User:	rossetti
	Date:	Friday, October 3, 2008 - 12:15 pm
	Subject:	My cup-a-JOE!
	Mood:	ready to vote for Biden!

Is it me or did Joe Biden debate even better than Obama? Bar, c'mon, you gotta up your game here, man! Because watching Joe, I almost went, "Obama who?"

More proof that the McPalin ticket will be four more years of Bush: She pronounces "nuclear" as nook-yoo-ler. Need we say more?

	User:	tymeless
	Date:	Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 5:18 am
	Subject:	Rehearsal of POC's La Boheme.

La Boheme is the greatest love story ever sung. So I was told.

Got to watch Philippine Opera Company's rehearsal of La Boheme yesterday evening, courtesy of Lorna Lopez. She and Karla Gutierrezinvited bloggers to watch yesterday's rehearsal and in return, we getto post our reviews and reactions. Sounds like a pretty good publicitydeal, haha.

We were told that the run would begin at 8pm, but I arrived prettyearly to hang out in the lobby. Good thing for that, because I foundSundee and Santi, and they told me that the run would begin at 6pm.Immediately joined them in the house a few moments before the curtainrose to begin the first act.

Of course, it didn't really help that Sundee was sitting next to me and kept commenting and comparing each scene to a scene in Rent,harharhar. Santi was pretty much quiet, simply saying at the beginningof the show that he doesn't understand the entire Italian libretto andadmitted that he hasn't seen Rent.

Anyway, with the direction of Floy Quintos and music by the PhilippinePhilharmonic Orchestra under the baton of international conductor HelenQuach, this version takes us to modern-day Manila, instead of the usual19th-century Paris. The first act takes place in a penthouse owned by 4friends--Marcello, Rodolfo, Colline and Schaunard. Of course, if youknew the entire story of Rent,you'd know that these 4 people could also be Mark, Roger, Collins, andAngel, respectively. Anyway, I actually loved how the set was designed.It really showed the condition of the penthouse, right on up to theroof. A projector from behind the scrim projected an image of a Manilaskyline, complete with the moon and clouds moving from time to time.When another character, Benoit, comes in, Rentheads would automaticallyassume that it's Benny, and yes, he's there to collect the rent. Tocompare this to the musical, I actually liked how the four friendsfirst welcomed Benoit, letting him drink beer/wine (that Schaunard hadbrought in earlier in the act) before throwing him out without payingthe rent.

Of course, when Marcello, Colline and Schaunard go out and leaveRodolfo in the apartment, sure enough, Mimi enters the scene with acandle. Sir Floy had mentioned that this situation is very familiar toPinoys, considering we still have blackouts and he even joked thatwe're most likely the only country that still uses candles, hahaha!

On to Act 2, which seems to take place in some public marketplace. Iassumed that it was a nightspot somewhere in Malate. Harold, who was inthat scene along with the huge chorus, had said later that the scenewas along Manila Bay. Close enough, hehe. One thing that upset me inthis act is that there were too many people. The place was too crowdedand it felt like the crowd was pouring out of the stage. Given that, wecould hardly find the lead characters in the scene because there wastoo much going on. Well, what did help a little was that the entirechorus was in black in white, leaving the lead cast decked in theircolorful costumes and highlighted by follow-spots. Yet, the crowd wasreally too distracting. Maybe if they moved a little slower, it couldhelp highlight the actors.

The third act was Sir Floy's favorite act, according to him. I did,too, haha. Taking place in an abandoned carnival where prostitutes and tambays hang out, the scene/act was about love that you can't live with andcan't live without. I love the quartet of Mimi, Rodolfo, Musetta (yep,you got it--Maureen) and Marcello. One couple reconciles, while theother quarrels. As the scene progressed, I remember Bobby oncementioning that in musical theater, time is warped. Even though this isan opera, I do believe this is a pretty good example, because Rodolfoand Mimi bid each other farewell for the entire second half of the act.

We return to the penthouse for the 4th act. Again, Sundee inputs thatthis is the part where Collins manages to break into an ATM withAngel's help near the end of Rent,because Colline and Schaunard enter once again with food. Of course,that was before Rodolfo and Marcello lament over their lost loves. Asthe four friends goof around, there we go, Musetta enters with an illMimi.

This is where Sundee keeps complaining as to why Rodolfo and Mimi aresmiling, when everyone knows that the latter is dying. Harold sort-ofpaitently explains that maybe they were remembering something goodbetween them in the past, which is exactly what I was also thinking.Goes to show that you should do more research, Sundee, haha. You saidthat you've been listening to this opera since you were still in theNavy.

Anyway, this doesn't have an ideal ending as opposed to Rent,because Mimi actually dies. I do believe that the last words in thisopera was Mimi's name, cried out by Rodolfo. And after she dies, ourattention is suddenly turned to the backdrop, as all of the billboardsin the skyline had changed to photos of the actress/singer playing Mimi.

One thing I have to say, I love how opera singers can project theirvoice. All throughout the run, I overheard Santi and Lorna, on separateoccasions, say that since what we had seen was just a run, they stilldon't have their lapel microphones on. But upon hearing those voices,who needs them? I already knew that they won't be using any mics, andthey're performing in the CCP Main Theater. Huwaw. May this be a goodexample to actors who get too dependent on their microphones, hahaha. Iremember Miss Tess endlessly getting us to project inside the LittleTheater during our acting workshop.

Considering that this is only a run-through, the orchestra was stoppedseveral times by Helen Quach. Haha, so it's not perfect yet, but I haveto applaud everyone who was involved in this production, especially SirFloy. Thanks to you, Sir, for taking the time to talk to us right afterthe run.

	User:	vainpire
	Date:	Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 3:35 pm
	Subject:	Nokia 6120
	Mood:	bouncy
	Music:	Gimme Gimme Gimme (Mamma Mia - OST)

Review I made. Please, if you have any helpful comments on Nokia 6120, feel free to write in the comments part. And if you find my comment useful and sensical, I'd be grateful for another vote. Thanks!!!! =)

Enter Review Page

User:	neon_terracotta
Date:	Monday, September 29, 2008 - 2:06 am
Subject:	yahoo audibles in viet

i would have found it adorable if only u showed that part of you with me.
during the first date, u didnt answer. was it bec u had to speak in ur lang?

there are still so many questions unanswered...
will i ever see u again.

	User:	tymeless
	Date:	Sunday, September 28, 2008 - 6:30 am
	Subject:	Trio day with sushi, Mister Teo food and Antakya.

Rosa, Iam and I had had this huge craving for sushi since the beginningof the month, and even before then, so we wanted to have another sushiparty at Omakase or even try the eat-all-you-can thing at Red Kimono.Unfortunately we all had schedule conflicts, and budget was also anissue on my side. We agreed to wait until Kapeng Malamig was over so I can get paid first.

Well, that didn't happen. Due to the fiasco the show producer had done,we didn't get paid. People were still trying to work on things to putan end to this problem, and I decided not to dwell on it and take mymind off it for now. So Rosa proposed a "feel-better" sushi party at myhouse, and yesterday was the day. Rosa got sushi and spicy tuna salad(which I was really craving for) from Omakase, and Iam picked uppre-ordered kuchay pie and dumplings from Mister Teo (thank you to allthose who posted the website!).

Cooked the dumplings and kuchay pie at my house, and finally it wastime to eat! Hahaha! The food from Mister Teo came with this big jug ofsoy sauce mixed with vinegar and garlic, and we started reliving ourgrade school and high school days with the kuchay pie and dumplings.Haha, Zobel alumni, diba kailangan pang itusok ang bote ng toyo sakuchay pie to get the seasoning in? Yun na lang ang kulang namin, patiang mga white blouses na natuluan ng toyo.

Girl talk as we ate, and once we were stuffed, we retired to my room to hang out and watch a little TV. Na-okray pa namin ang Lipgloss,that local rip-off of a US TV series, because Iam was pretty curiousabout it. After one reality show on ETC, we started prepping up to goto Antakya in Festival Mall for some drinks and a comedy act.

Antakya is an open-air bar and restaurant on the ground floor ofFestival Mall, near the exit where McDonalds can be found. Got a tablenear the bandstand, and chuckled at the song selections the band hadfor their first set. Puro para sa mga walang syota, ano ba yan, hahaha.

Waited for the band's set to end because Rosa had mentioned thisstand-up comedian who performs whenever she goes there. Kim was funny,and he never runs out of funny quips for anyone who wants to singvideoke onstage. There was even this adorable little girl named Alex,and she's got a beautiful set of pipes. As it turned out, her mom's aband vocalist, so everyone requested for a song by Alex and her mom.Love that kid. I think Iam has a video of her singing.

Headed home after the first set of videoke. All in all, yesterday wasone of the best days I've had. Much-needed quality time with my 2 bestfriends was exactly what I needed. Thanks, Rosa and Iam. Love you both!=)

	User:	haringduga
	Date:	Friday, September 26, 2008 - 8:09 pm
	Subject:	Week in... week out.
	Mood:	chipper

I'm currently waiting for the paint to dry and the fumes to go away on my current project so I decided to go web searching.

Checking my e-mail, I got a bunch of spam, some forwarded emails; thankfully no chain-letters to piss me off. I did get a friend request from Jameelah though. I didn't expect that, but then again there was that little incident.

See, a few days ago, I woke-up late to find a single text message. Turns out Jameelah found this blog, and there-by the previous entry about her. Given the context of said entry, one can pretty much imagine what it was like receiving such a message.

I'll tell you, God Himself could not have made a cup of coffee strong enough to have woken me up as fast as that text did.

Anyhoo... she said she found the entry about her and she gave it a good reading. Simplified, it made her smile. Given the last time this happened my state of sanity was put to question, I'll take being able to make someone smile as a good thing.

So, one new friend who actually is a friend added. YAY! *does out-of-tune non-rhythmical dancing*

The project I'm working on at the moment is for an event this October. Level-Up Games is holding their annual LU-LIVE! 2008 and our two Guilds have a booth each. As part of one booth, I'm making a stylized rendition of one of our Settlement Maps: Solus. It's essentially a Race Track custom-built and designed for the Takara Tomy Q-Steer to run around in.

After I've completed the track, I'm gonna focus on the Booth designs and subsequent assembly. Oh, it will be hecktic >_<

Anyhoo, while checking a friend's profile I ran into these... they seemed amusing =p

	User:	tymeless
	Date:	Friday, September 26, 2008 - 12:20 pm

Over a year ago, while I was a newbie at Virgin Labfest 3 in CCP, Tad has fessed up through text during the wee hours of morningthat he loved me, and would gladly quit the play we working at togetherjust to keep things from getting awkward. The feeling wasn't mutualthen, but we've been pretty close since we became friends. I refused his offer to quit, and would handle things professionally. In other words, we barely talked during rehearsals and shows, except onthe day after he had an accident at the Little Theater during a show(he fell and hit his head and started bleeding during a staged reading)and while I was helping another ASM with their play.

When Labfest ended and Minette immediately gave me another project under TP (Pilipinas Circa 1907), Tad and I started gettingcloser. I frequently visited the male dressing room to say hello tohim, Henry, Kuya Bong and the rest of the ensemble when I arrive at thetheater, and even after I had finished setting up my laptop andprojector (which only took a few minutes). On crazy days when I firstencountered problems with the computer I had first started using, Tadtook the time to check up on me even when he still had to get into hiscostume and makeup. He knew I usually skip meals when I'm harassed, sohe would buy me dinner even without my asking and keep it in theirdressing room until I found the time to grab a bite.

Onthe day of the cast party, I invited him to have lunch with me beforecall time "just because it's the closing day." I kept refusing to go tothe cast party after the show, but still ended up going even though Istill had work the next morning. When he took my hand in his during theride to Ana's house, I didn't let go. During the party, even though weall had our own share of crazy, Tad and I mostly kept to ourselves, andI told him that we can give this a shot.


Exactly a year ago, we finally became official. The evening seemedcasual, and when I told him, he even thought I wasn't serious, hahaha.We celebrated over a banana split and a rehearsal of Insiang. Hahaha, the cast of that production were the very first people who had heard the news.

And now, one year later, we're still going strong.

To one of my bestest friends, mynumber one critic, my counselor, my confidante, my partner-in-crime, myvoice of reason, and my inspiration, I LOVE YOU! Thank you for alwaysbeing there, even when I didn't know I needed you. I will always remainyour biggest fan. =)

	User:	vainpire
	Date:	Friday, September 26, 2008 - 3:55 pm
	Subject:	Unlichix
	Mood:	silly
	Music:	Norwegian Wood (The Beatles)

	User:	tymeless
	Date:	Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 12:51 pm
	Subject:	Looking back. Proof, Doubt and Our Town.

Martha, this is all your fault, hahaha!

Martha had sent me a text message a few days ago, asking if I still had my copy of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.Unfortunately most of my scripts were packed in a huge cardboard box inour annex, and I have no idea which scripts were still there. Iremember lending a huge bag of those to Nicco at least a couple ofyears ago and he hasn't returned any of them yet. Anyway, I promisedMartha I'd hunt for it, even though my copy was the edited version,because it was the script we had used for our acting workshop.

Then I found out from her Multiply that she's looking for a whole bunch of plays, two of them was already produced by Atlantis (Proof by David Auburn and Doubt by John Patrick Shanley), and both of which I had worked at backstage.Told her that I could lend it to her, and off I went hunting for allthree plays. Proof was already in my room, so that was easy enough.

When I searched for the 2 remaining plays, I found them together. Haha, no surprise there. I was juggling work for Doubt while I was taking the acting workshop and rehearsing for the recital of Our Town. I also found a brown envelope tucked inside my Doubt script. Hahaha, inside the envelope were the 2 artworks Bea had done asopening and closing night gifts for the entire cast and crew. I had tolaugh at the closing night artwork. Aside from the usual cartoondrawings of all of us (as she had done in the opening night artwork),she had put quotes from the play that applied to each of us. Mine said,"Do I perform?" Hahaha! I remember bringing along my Our Town script to every rehearsal, and during breaks, I would ask Bea to help me with my lines.

Other favorite quotes:
"Art. Waste of time." (Sister Aloysius, for Bea)
"I've been longing for my peace of mind." (Sister James, for Chie)
"I thought you were satisfied with me." (Sister James, for Kuya Egay)
"Where's your compassion (and notebook)?" (Father Flynn, for Nic)
"He's after the boys." (Sister Aloysius, for Manman)
"He had alcohol on his breath." (Sister Aloysius, for Johnsy)
"Boys are of a different breed." (Sister Alousius, for Bobby)

Hahaha, and the list goes on. We had a preliminary list for that thatwe Bea, Chie, Mia and I keep talking about over the headset, but theones listed above were only some that made it to the cartoon.

I read the script again this afternoon, and kept wondering. Was FatherFlynn really guilty of the crime that Sister Aloysius had accused himof? Nic's performance every night kept confusing me. I heard that heand Chari were the only ones in the production who knew whether FatherFlynn was guilty or not. I couldn't tell because during some shows, Nicplayed it as if Flynn was innocent. Then during some, he played itguilty. I remember catching one of the last weekend shows that heplayed it off guilty, that he looked so desperate to convince SisterAloysius and to get Sister James on his side. Arg. Paging Chari andNic, can either of you let me know? Hahahaha!

I also read the Proof script(for the nth time) as well. When I first started re-reading it sometimelast year, I kept hearing the voices of Lea, Tita Menchu, Mike and Joelas they performed it. So I decided to read it differently each time,giving each character a different voice. It was actually fun, becauseeach line could have different interpretations and subtext.

I didn't read through Our Town, as I started getting sleepy by the time I was finished with Proof.But I remembered watching a production early this year by students ofthe PHSA, and they gave a different twist to it and calling it Our Flavored Town.They were amazing. Reading the script or watching any version of it, Ialways have tears in my eyes during that moment when Emily went back intime, trying to take everything in, and eventually losing grasp becauseeverything passed so quickly. Looking back at our own performance inthe Batute, sitting by my lonesome as Mimay delivered one particularline, my eyes had filled with tears because it applied to all of us.

Speaking of which, Mimay's off to the US again, indefinitely. I'll miss you, Mims. Mwah!

Aw, senti mode.

	User:	thuspakeciriaco
	Date:	Monday, September 22, 2008 - 1:13 pm
	Subject:	Over-booked but seriously under-friended.

By the first hour of the promo, the more sensible flights were gone (i.e., to your destination and back, for a trip of 3-5 days). I tried googling for the happy bastards who got the trips I wanted; turns out there aren't that many of them.

Some heard of the ABSOLUTELY FREE SEATS AS IN! HINDI JOKE PRAMIS, CROSS OUR HEARTS Promo just before the sale period but didn't care much

for it. They thought it's gonna be one of those ZERO PESOS ASTERISK ASTERISK flights CebPac is constantly throwing at us anyways. (I thought this too. Still, 1k+ for roundtrip Luzon tickets ain't half-bad.)

Another surprise was that no one seems to love CebPac as much as I do. (Understatement. There are a bunch of haters out there!) Which I don't understand. Cheap-ass flights, what's not to love? Sure, they barely run on time most of the time (but they're constantly working on that, I've seen actual progress!) but that's like going ukay and whining the dresses only come in one size.

Your loss. I booked 28 one-way, absolutely free flights. Twenty. Flippin. Eight. Of which only ten shall be put to actual use. I know, I know, I know; my Catholic McGuilt is way ahead of you. It's been on 'Persecute' since the 20th.

...

05-11 Nov: Dumaguete City - Siquijor. Alone.
19-20 Nov: Davao in a day, a.k.a. praktis lang.
22-27 Nov: Cebu Bohol CDO. White H₂O rafting, LEVEL II!
19-23 Nov: Davao - Cebu - Bohol
25-26 Nov: Palawan

	User:	vainpire
	Date:	Monday, September 22, 2008 - 6:44 pm
	Subject:	Oro Plata Mata
	Mood:	pleased

	User:	thuspakeciriaco
	Date:	Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 9:03 am
	Subject:	PELIKULA: The 7th Spanish Film Festival

PELIKULA, the 7th Spanish Film Festival unveils this October 1-12, with more than 20 award-winning Spanish and Latin-American films at the Greenbelt 3. Having become the most important and much awaited Spanish-language film festival over the years, the 7th edition of PELIKULA is a not-to-miss event. More surprises are lined up as collateral events such as mime theatre, exhibits, concerts, and many more.



Admission: Php 65.00