An Interview with the author of “Balik-Tanaw: The Filipino Movie Stars of Yesteryears”

On May 22, the inimitable book of Philippine Cinema's stars was successfully launched at the Trader’s Hotel, Roxas Boulevard - an afternoon of nostalgia, reliving the glorious days of Philippine cinema  Many of the artists whose lives were vividly remembered in the pages of "Balik-Tanaw: The Filipino Movie Stars of Yesteryears" were in attendance...

“Balik-Tanaw: The Filipino Movie Stars of Yesteryears”

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Author Romy Protacio signing copies of his new book

Look Who I Met in Paris...

Following up on my "vintage" celebrity photos series are, not one, but two celebrity photos taken in the year 2004, during my last tour with the UPCC. 

 Reyjr at the Louvre in Paris, France

The last stop of the tour then was Paris, France - and the last concert on November 13, 2004 was at the American Church of Paris, Quai d’Orsa. With a standing ovation - it was a great ending to our 3-week tour of Germany, Italy and Paris. It was made a bit more special because we met 2 celebrities there - and Nope, the Mona Lisa in the Louvre was not one of them! :p

Look Who I Met in Paris...

NBA player BJ Armstrong meet & greet at Velocity Bar

Last week, thanks to Marriott Hotel Manila, I got the rare opportunity to meet one of NBA's legends, former Chicago Bulls basketball player, Benjamin Roy Armstrong Jr., or B.J. Armstrong, also referred to as "B.J., The Kid."

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The event was held in Marriott's Velocity Bar, the Philippines' first and only 5-star sports and entertainment bar.  The meet and greet was relaxed and casual, with people taking turns asking for autographs and taking photos with the basketball star. It lasted about half and hour and was adjourned with B.J. Armstrong giving an autographed basketball as a gift to Marriott Hotel.

Kyla, the Philippines' R&B Princess

Last November, I posted my first celebrity photo on Reyjr.com featuring Pop Princess, Sarah Geronimo. Now, moving over to the rival network, here is the lady "dubbed as the country's "R&B Princess" and "Soul Princess" in a "vintage" photo with me (haha - circa 2005) - Melanie Hernandez Calumpad, or the singer more commonly known as...

"Kyla"

Singing with Sarah Geronimo (plus tips on how to use a microphone)

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I'm not much of a celeb crazy dude, so despite having been around numerous celebrities during my UPCC days, especially during awards nights, I have only a few photos, and most of them are at least 5 years old. Haha!

When Sarah Geronimo was still a kid

Here's my first celebrity photo for you: with current toast of the town, Popstar Princess Sarah Geronimo.
June 2004, taken after the mini concert we did with the Record Breaker singer, with Mark Bautista and Erik Santos, then newly crowned singing champs of singing contests on different networks, plus a special guest number by then macho singer Vina Morales, at SM North EDSA - long before The Block was built. Lol.

Sarah would be around 16 or 17 years old at this time. I was 22. Hehehe. Here's the photo...

The RCS for Typhoon Ondoy victims in GK Village

For all Filipinos who have opened their homes and wallets to help our kababayans pick up and start again after the devastation of Ondoy, THANK YOU. Let the rebuilding continue.

For the benefit of Typhoon Ondoy victims in the Gawad Kalinga Village in Sitio Pajo, Brgy. Baesa in Quezon City, ALL85 presents Maestro Ryan Cayabyab, together with the Ryan Cayabyab Singers (RCS) in "ALL85 GOES GK!", Nationbuilders 25 years after.

The concert, originally scheduled on Oct 3, was moved to Oct 17 because of the devastation of back to back typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. The show must go on - and it does on Saturday, October 17, 8pm at the Music Museum, Greenhills...

My (lousy) Pussycat Dolls in Manila Concert Experience

On June 11, Liz, Bing and I went to the Mall of Asia concert grounds to see us some dolls: some Pussycat Dolls.

We had scored some discounted tickets c/o Clear shampoo, went on leaves from work, rocked sexy outfits (the ladies only hehe) and made our way, (the first time for me) to the Mall of Asia. We didn't have a hard time finding it at all, it's kind of hard to miss with that huge globe. Anyway, if you need directions, just leave a comment, I give OC directions. Haha.

Anyway, we arrived at around 5 in the afternoon, already a bit late from the 3pm we originally planned. Luckily, a lot of people also had the same idea as most of them arrived at 7pm!

Not to say that there weren't a lot of people already. There were several lines already beside the entrances, one for VIP, 1 for Gold, 2 lines for Silver and one major line for Bronze. I was actually beginning to get pissed because the lines were so disorganized and the guards and the bouncers were doing nothing to organize the lot. When we were about to enter, there was this one guard who was making us separate into a line for males and a line for females. I'm like, we'll we've lined up "mixed" and nobody was organizing so don't start organizing just when we're about to enter the gates! :p Good thing Liz was there to stop me from going ballistic on the poor dude.

Anyhow, I also didn't have time to do my litany because they were letting us in already, it was just before 6pm then. We got in, picked a good spot, then I went to get us some snacks, there was Itallianis, Fish & Co. and other stalls offering finger-snacks.

I forgot to mention that this concert was the first ever concert that I watched. Unfortunately, it kind of traumatized me enough to not want to watch another concert in the near future... here's why...

We got a good place to stand, right at the barricade for "Silver", a bit on the right side, but there were no chairs, so we were standing there the whole time, being squished by people from all sides.

QYORK and the Philippine All Stars were the front act (we thought it would be Lady Gaga). They were fine, except for that one guy singing the melody, or some sort of melody which I couldn't really understand. They were a bit boring. :p The Philippine Allstars, I was already a fan of, so I enjoyed their bit even though I couldn't really see any dance moves from that far away. It was then that I realized that I wasn't going to enjoy the concert at all. We were not the farthest from the stage, but we were far enough. The PCD would be just as big as grasshoppers (not ants hehe), and we won't be able to see their sexy dance moves. Damn it. :p

At around 9PM, the Pussycat Dolls went onstage (mind you, we've already been standing for over 3 hours by then!) and they were awesome. There was one missing Doll, red-haired Jessica was in the US because of a dancing injury, but the rest of them were there in high adrenaline and giving a great show.

They sang all their hits: Don't Cha, When I Grow Up, Stick Wit You, Buttons, Beep, and loads more. I was trying my best to enjoy the concert ('coz we did pay for it right?), I tried to move with the music but couldn't because I was being squished by everyone from all sides. I was behind Liz, and we were just swaying a little bit to what the space allowed us to sway.

But the worst part of it really for me was this girl who was right behind me, singing to every song... OUT OF TUNE. I mean, c'mon, it's great that you know all their songs, and it's okay to sing because it's fun, but SHOUTING in my ear is not fun for me at all. And this went on for the WHOLE duration of the concert. She did not miss one note, not one.

On the other end, the BEST part of the show for me was the part when part-Filipino, part-German, part-Hawaiian, American Nicole Scherzinger, lead Pussycat Doll, said in a sort of teary-eyed, i-feel-a-lump-in-my-throat way, "I'm really proud to be... to be... ... Filipina.." which of course elicited cheers from the throng. It was so dramatic it was kind of hard to watch. Haha! Nevertheless, we are proud of you Nicole! We really are!

Just makes you wonder though, does she also say that when she's in Germany? heh heh heh...

After all of that was over, we were so tired we didn't even stay to watch the fireworks display. We went straight to the hotdog stand, then to the toilet, then to the car and to bed. lol.

Might be a while before I go to watch another open air concert.





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Poor Britney

Last Saturday, a Britney Spears fan went up to the stage of her Circus tour concert in Connecticut, apparently wanting to dance with her and maybe get a little bit of spotlight. Well, he did. Kyle King, the 20-year-old man, was arrested, but was released after posting a $250 bail.

Here's the video of the incident, the man comes in at 2:19 and freaks the hell out of Britney Spears...



She was obviously lip synching because the microphones didn't catch any of her "Oh, my God!" screams. She was also stunned that for a few moments she stopped dancing altogether.

Being myself a performer in the past, I can somewhat imagine how much she freaked out. While you're up on stage, you're adrenaline is pumping, you're concentrating on doing so many things at once: singing, dancing, making sure you go to the right places on the stage, you don't trip on the stairs, your face portrays what you're singing, listening to the music, and everything else. And then seeing this stranger there right in front of you in shadows, that must've been really surprising. Add to that the fact that she is a huge celebrity, so her initial reaction was probably that the guy was going to harm her.

That to me was not funny at all.

Francis M's final blog entry

I found out on Friday after work when I opened my Facebook account. I was quite surprised because I didn't know he was diagnosed with Leukemia, and now he's died already.

I do remember the first time he broke into the music scene with "Mga Kababayan Ko". I was in elementary school and I had memorized this rap song. Haha.

Here's a link to Francis M's final blog entry: a Free Mind

It's on Multiply, you can add to the 3000+ messages there.

If You Seek Amy

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! This is freakin' hilarious!
Apologies to all the "serious" bloggers out there who are reading this, but it was just so funny I had to blog about it.

This was only the second time that I heard this new Britney Spears song, and I only listened (deliberately) again because I was curious about an article on Google News about some Parent groups saying "If You Seek Amy" is too dirty for radio and should be banned. I'm like, "What? Why?" So I listened again...

The chorus goes:
Love me hate me
Say what you want about me
But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to
If You Seek Amy

Got it yet? :p Think dirty thoughts and listen...
Here's a youtube vid of it (audio only): If You Seek Amy


Talk about making a controversial song for a controversial celebrity. lol.

Brad Pitt 2009 Oscar Best Actor nominee??

(See the complete list of nominees at the end of this post.)

Of all the Best Picture nominees for the 81st Academy Awards, I've so far only seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's easy to see why it received 13 nominations, but when I saw that one of them was for Best Actor... wha wha what??




Taraji P. Henson's nomination for her turn as Benjamin's momma was well deserved. She was as convincing as an old woman as she was a young lady. And everytime she was in a scene with Brad Pitt, you just had to keep watching her. And Benjamin, despite being so curious looking, seemed to blend into the background.

The Best makeup nom is a shoo-in as well. The way they made everyone go from young to old (or vice versa) seemed amazingly well researched.

I would even say that Cate Blanchett deserved an Oscar nod if only for her ballet dancing. (Wow, she looked really young.) Does she really know how to do ballet?

But Brad Pitt, whose "best" scene in the whole movie was when he said "Absolutely!", absolutely doesn't deserve this nomination. He was stoic and boring for most of the movie, it actually reminded me of his deathly role in Meet Joe Black (which I once heard some say: Meet Blow Jack, hehe.) Unfortunately, he's not playing Death in this one...

Shoo-in winners will probably be Kate Winslet and Mickey Rourke, already Golden Globe awardees. Oh, and I'm hoping Kung Fu Panda wins as Best Animated Feature. It rocked! :D

The 81st Academy Awards will be on February 22 on ABC. That's Feb 23 for the Philippines. I don't know yet on what channel they are showing it. :p

Here's the full list of nominees for the 2009 Oscar Awards:


BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Gus Van Sant, Milk

BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River, Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
Milk, Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth
Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan
The Reader, David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory — Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

BEST ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306

BEST EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

BEST MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
''Down to Earth,'' WALL-E
''Jai Ho,'' Slumdog Millionaire
''O Saya,'' Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

List from EW
Photos from Allmoviephoto

News Bits Tidbits

One of the benefits of having Broadband at home is I get read the news before I go to bed. I'm not quite in the mood to talk about ZTE and GMA and ERAP and Clinton-Obama right now, so I'll just mention some newsbits that caught my eye in the past couple of weeks...

• I'm sure you heard about Britney Spear's tragic excuse for a performance at the recent MTV VMA's. I honestly was looking forward to it, I suppose a lot of us are really suckers for Happy Endings, but then watching here walk around the stage (almost) dancing was just blah and blah. She could have done better to say the least. Haha. But check again. Her song "Gimme More" is #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Hot Digital Songs.
  




• And that Chris Crocker guy who was on YouTube crying over the whole Britney thing, and how almost every newspaper in the world featured her (horrible) comeback. I saw an article saying how amazing it was that you can have a nervous breakdown and the whole world can watch it. Haha. Seriously, I think people obsessed with celebrities are really creepy...



• And did you hear about Christian Bautista's Lupang Hinirang blooper?

"...Lupa ng araw ng luwalhati't pagsinta, ang mamatay ng dahil sa'yo!"

Dumbass. 'Nuff said. Haha!

• How about that racial slur against Philippine Medical Schools on Desperate Housewives? Where Teri Hatcher's character says "Before we go on, I think I wanna see his diplomas to check that they're not from some medical school in the Philippines!" (or something like that). I mean c'mon. That was really irresponsible of the writers. It's a reputation issue. Doctors who received their degree in a Philippine medical school is just as competent as any other doctor from any medical school in the United States. That comment was uncalled for.