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Yes, I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for the third time last night (Saturday, December 5, 2009)!  And with me was my best friend Ruel whom I was with the first time I watched the musical (the second time, I was with my officemate and her friends).  And what's the difference the third time around?  Well, I became part of the musical!  Yep, you read that right!  I was invited to be one of the guest spellers, along with another audience participant and two celebrities--Ana Capri and Toffee Calma (just in case you are wondering why they were there, Atlantis Productions was staging an adult version of The Bee that night).   So how did it all happen?  Ruel and I bought our tickets early... around 6pm.  And Hoagy (one of the production staff) ran after us when we were just about to go and have dinner.  She asked me if I'd be interested to be part of that night's program.  I told her that I have been thinking about it ...

Rating: ★★★ Category: Books Genre: Other Author: Jeff Kinney Finally, I was able to sit down and read book IV of this series. And, as usual, I was half-smiling, half-laughing while burning through the pages. It was fun to see familiar characters again and learn what's the latest caper from our resident wimp. This time, we see see Greg Heffley trying to foil his mother's attempt for family bonding during summer time. We also see how Greg's friendship with Rowley Jefferson becoming strained further. I wonder how Greg will save this friendship... The book tries to emphasize the importance of bonding with family and, for me, it works. We see the contrast between the Jeffersons and the Heffleys when it comes to spending quality time with the family. While I see the Jeffersons kind of bonding may be somewhat stiff, mechanical and soooo proper, it only underscores what is lacking with the Heffleys as a family. It seemed quite sad that Greg has a very different ...

If Bogart was human, he’d be 56 years old by now.   That’s eight dog years.   He was a cute little pup when Mama bought him.   Who wo uld have thought he’d grow to such a big, big dog.   His growing up years were really typical of dogs: tee thing that wrought havoc on our shoes, slippers and furniture, dog poop here, there and everywhere… but he’s such an adorable pup.   And when he’s good, he’s rewarded with a big bone which excites him so mu ch that he’d get mad if I’d pry it off his mouth.   A crossbreed between a Doberman and a pitbull, we always had the idea that he’d be a terrifying dog.   But he grew up to be a friendly dog!   He’s so people-oriented and so frie ndly!   If he sees that the visitors we have are our friends, he too becomes friendly with them.   We occasional ly put him on his leash if we’re not sure how he’d react to our visitors, tho ugh. Bogart was a playful dog.   And when he got so big, ...

September 25, Friday. It rained the whole day.   I was thinking that there’d be flooding in our streets tomorrow and I might just cancel the meeting with Ruel.   I was online the whole night from 9pm onwards, checking on my Facebook account, my Multiply account, my emails, etc. I only realized that it was 2am already when the subdivision guard hollered that the creek has already overflowed. September 26, Saturday. I got the car keys and transferred the car to higher ground, at the back of DMC Building , CVS Homes 1. I called up Ruel and told him that our meeting was cancelled since it’s already flooded in our area.   It was still raining.   And I’m starting to feel something bad about it, a sense of foreboding that the flood might go higher than we expect. I was still online and posting on my Facebook account.   But I had to turn the computer off since the flood water was beginning to rise.   I disconnected all peripherals and put ...

My first introduction to RENT was through its original Broadway cast recording.  And, like everyone else who has heard it, I fell in love with  Seasons of Love . Most of the songs aren't as singable (what do you expect from rock?).  They weren't even lyrical (as it was intended, I suppose).  But these songs served its purpose of moving the story forward and letting us know the characters, their dreams, their heartaches and their tragedy.  I wasn't able to catch the local staging of RENT.  I dunno if I would have enjoyed it.  Although the staging of Atlantis Productions earned rave reviews and had a stellar cast, I wasn't in the mood then to have my senses battered by the loud music.  (Rock definitely suits the material, though.  The play is riddled with angst and rock and angst go together, in my opinion.) And because I collect dvds of musicals, when RENT's double disc edition, came out, I bought it as p...

Last night while I was arranging the comicbooks on my shelf, a picture fell out of one of the envelopes under the shelf.  It was a picture of mama.  Was she reminding me that she's turning 61 today?  2002 was the last time we celebrated Mama's birthday.  It was just a simple celebration as far as I can recall.  We didn't go out.  Mama was not that strong anymore.  I think I ordered Max's for the occasion.  I also think that my brother called from the U.S. to greet Mama.    Walang paltos every year, I have a greeting card for mama.  Even if I have some food which I bought to celebrate the occasion, there's always a greeting card for mama.  When I was younger, papa would always take mama out to dinner to celebrate her birthday.  But there were many times that mama was left to her own devices (like me and my brother) since papa was busy with work (papa even forgot her birthday...

Joey de Leon is a writer.  And yes, Joey's wit has been his edge over other comedians who don't write their own materials.  True, there were times that he landed in hot water with the MTRCB because of his colorful double entendres and there are others who don't dig his brand of humor, but his wit has always been one of his strongest points. August 9, 2009, in his column in Philippine Star, is another example of how creative a writer Joey de Leon is.  With rhyme and reason, he was able to come up with this poem that directly points out what is wrong with Willie Revillame.  Read on: The funeral cortege of former Pres. Cory Aquino: my tears came naturally Wala na sa piling ng mga Pilipino, Tinig ng awiting Mga Kababayan Ko, At lumisan na rin noong isang Sabado, Inang nagpalipad sa awiting Bayan Ko. Ako’y sumasaludo, paalam Pangulo, May isa ‘kong lihim, kay tagal itinago, Sa lahat nang inabot kong mga namuno, Tanging ikaw lang sa luha ko’y nagpatulo. Marami ...

I knew it's gonna be sooner or later when this will happen.  Especially now that I am also on Facebook. I got this little friend request from a familiar name way back my elementary days.  It was from Lilith (well, she has a long name and we're used to calling her by her nick).  So I accepted the request.  Soon after, there was another request.  It was from Mark.  Then another... it was from Christina... then Jennifer... who's next? Hehehe.  It really was a pleasant surprise to hear from my classmates way back my elementary days.  Totally, a blast from the past.  Who would've thought hearing from them after all these years?  As of this writing, my classmates in Manila Christian Day School are slowly building up my contacts in Facebook.  Some of them were already thinking of a reunion (told them we're still not that many.  Besides, a lot of them are out of the country).  If ever this reunion pushes through, I would gladl...

Yes, you read it right . Yagit . This was drawn on September 12, 1984.  Hehehe  Brings back memories, huh?  Not that I am a fan of this afternoon soap way back in the 80s.  But the 80s wouldn’t be 80s without this Looney Tunes of a soap. Aired after Lunch Date (if my memory serves me right), the soap starred Connie Angeles, Ernie Garcia, Janet Giron (who portrays Eliza--she’s the one on the left), Jocelyn Cruz as Jocelyn (beside Eliza in the drawing), Tomtom (the dark and fat boy--where’s he now?) and Zeny Zabala as Aling Claudia.  The soap was a huge hit that Viva Films made a movie version of it.  (Trivia: Magnolia Sabas sang the soap’s theme song superbly.) I can’t recall the plot of the soap except the fact that I had fun watching these yagits . Guilty pleasure!! It seems that every day of every week, there’s a big chase scene where Aling Claudia (Zeny Zabala’s campy acting is tops!!!!) pays off three to four goons to kill Eliza, Jocelyn and Tom...

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  It is one of my all-time favorite movies (along with the Superman series).  The first time I saw this was way back 1983.  I remember that it was shown on January 4.  And I remember watching it on the first day along with my brother and my father.  I was really wowed by the movie!  To the point of buying an E.T. rubber toy.  There were two variants, one with the glowing finger and the other wa s just plain old E.T. pointing to nowhere.  I remember seeing an E.T. drawing in one of the comicstrips in Bulletin Today (now, it’s called Manila Bulletin ).  I can’t recall if it was done by Roxlee or Monlee, but it inspired me to draw E.T.    I also remember reading an article or a review… or maybe, someone mentioned it, that E.T. is just like Christ.  Although E.T. was not sent to save mankind (he was accidentally left on Earth by his flying saucer), he died, came back to life and "ascended to ...

nos·tal·gi·a, n. -  a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past. - American Heritage Dictionary I don’t know what bit me but I found myself rummaging through my old things a couple of weeks ago. What I really wanted to do was gather all my old pocketbooks (horror and mystery, mostly) and donate them to St. Joseph’s College’s library (my alma mater).  I never really got around to the donating part.  But I was able to put all the pocketbooks in four big plastic bags and set them all aside.  You see, what happened was, I got sidetracked by a lot of old stuff I found stacked, filed, stowed in the cabinets, drawer, bookshelf, even inside the pocketbooks. Old pictures, old greetings cards. Old letters. Old address books/phonebooks. A scrapbook. There were clipped articles of things that interested me then. I can’t believe that I kept some of my notebooks from high school. I even have a binder covered by cut-outs of superheroes from comicbo...