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Rating: ★★★★★ Category: Movies Genre: Drama When the play was staged locally, I really meant to watch it. Especially when I heard that Sister Aloysius was gonna be played by no other than Cherie Gil. But much as I wanted to, work got in the way and I regretted not seeing it. Then something better came along. Meryl Streep. Streep stars as Sister Aloysius, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn, Amy Adams as Sister James and Viola Davis as Mrs. Muller. Playwright John Patrick Shanley directed the movie version of his award-winning play. Having Streep and Hoffman in a film is a casting coup in itself and you know you are in for a treat. The confrontation scene was intense that you wish these people can do it on stage instead of on film. Superb acting from everyone and Viola Davis was a revelation! Streep is truly a brilliant thespian. Her transformation from a fun mom (Mamma Mia!) to a stern nun is a total turnabout. Her breakdown scene towards the end of the movie was ve...

The gala started at 6.15pm.  We were somewhat tired and jittery.  But we're still up and ready to finish with a bang.  Our anxiety was high... we hope that the technical errors during the matinee wouldn't happen again.  Of course, we can't prevent the human errors from committing them but we hoped that it will be minimized. The audience for the evening performance was definitely larger than the matinee.  Miraculously, every number proceeded smoothly, with the Iho number getting laughs from the audience (thanks to the playful acting of Dexter and me, it somehow redeemed Grace's mistakes--she forgot some lines!).  All throughout, our stage monitor was out.  We were all singing out loud.  I guessed that helped a lot since we were really throwing our voice off the stage.  Joy commented that we sounded good but it would have been better if we had a very good sound system.  Oh well... We got a short rest when Pastor Arnold c...

Weeks before, I touched base with Cousin Lyn, a colleague and a GCF-er.  I've known her for ages and was quite surprised when I bumped into her one Sunday afternoon in GCF Ortigas.  Anyway, I told her that the Tagalog Worship Team is going to stage Ang Testigo in UP Baguio auditorium on May 16.  She said she'd be in Baguio that weekend so she'll be able to watch it. Flash forward to the 16th, I called up Cuz Lyn and told her that we're all at UP Baguio doing a run through. She said that she'd rather watch the evening performance.  I jokingly told her that it would sure be better if she'd watch Ang Testigo in the evening since the matinee might prove to be just a run through for the evening performance. Nag-dilang-anghel ako! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

May 16, Saturday. At 6am, our bus parked at the front of Summer Place Hotel. That's where GCF Baguio is holding its mninistry office.  Initially, we thought that we will have breakfast at 7am then the itinerary for the day will fall into place.  But we were early.  So our breakfast was all ready around 6:30am.  By 7:30am we were all ready to be distributed to our host families.  Waldy and Noreen, Kuya Jun, JM and I were assigned to Pastor Darwin, whose lives near Good Shepherd Convent (yes, the famous strawberry and ube jams!).   When we reached Pastor Darwin's house, I took a bath and got ready for the run through at UP Baguio auditorium.  But before doing that, we all went to the Good Shepherd Convent and brought us some goodies! A little over 9am, we began the soundcheck and vocalization.  We finished a little after 12 noon and went to GCF Baguio for our lunch.  After 1pm, we went back to the audi...

May 15, Friday. I arrived at GCF Ortigas before 9pm which was the appointed time of departure for Baguio.  Those who will join us on the chartered bus were already there.  They were inside the church while I waited outside since the air is much cooler outside.  But 9pm wasn't the time we left... It was 11pm.  Our driver, Jorge, was caught in traffic going to Ortigas and he also came from another driving job.  Anyway, we were all trying to get some sleep all throughout the 6 hour travel time (including three or four stopovers).  Jorge, the driver, was a very good driver.  We were able to get to Baguio without any incident.  Driving was smooth.  But the stopovers were getting in my nerves.  Maybe I was just anxious about the day's performance? Anyway, Tess Cobankiat (our Mary in this presentation) made the best out of the situation by documenting everything in her digital camera (as evidenced by the above stolen shot of me sleeping, ...

This was forwarded to me by my college friend who's made a career out of teaching... (how I miss teaching!) Anyway, this is a very good read and I salute the teachers who really make a difference (keyword here is: really ). -oOo- The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a Politician, decided to explain the problem with education.  He argued, 'What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?' He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.' To emphasize his point he said to another guest; 'You're a teacher, Bonnie.  Be honest.  What do you make?' Bonnie, who had a reputation for her work ethic, honesty and frankness replied, 'You want to know what I make ? (She paused for a second, then began...) 'Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.  'I make a C...

Rating: ★★★★ Category: Books Genre: Other Author: Anne Rice Brilliant! Although this continuation of the Christ, The Lord series is not as thick as the first book, Rice's hypnotic narrative once again brought me to the Roman times. The most powerful scene for me was when Jesus realized his purpose much to the dismay of His disciples. The narrative was so engaging that I wish there were more pages to this book. Here we see how Jesus as a man controlled His feelings for the one He loves. And you experience His pain because He knows He can never be with her. And the things He did to protect the woman is an act of heroism and self sacrifice that only He can do. And through this all, we see how Rice weaved her tale wonderfully. Now, if only Rice would work fast enough to give us the third (and final?) volume in the series.