Songs While Moving Out

Thanks to XanderKhan! I’m discovering Rufus Wainwright and rediscovering k.d. lang. That a straight guy should remind me of two great homosexual singers is, well, slightly embarrassing on my part.


“I tried to dance Britney Spears, I guess I’m getting on in years.”


“Constant craving has always been.”

One of my most favorite performances by kd lang is her duet with the late great Roy Orbison. They did a remake of his massive hit, “Crying”:


“You wished me well, you couldn’t tell that I was crying over you.”

And her scorching solo performance in Sydney:



I am listening to these great songs as we’re packing stuff into brown boxes. Throughout the day, the movers will be bringing our boxes to our new office. This afternoon we’re having a party on the 20th floor to mark our departure.

And we move on.

P.S. – Don’t you think that…

kd lang looks like…

Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music?

Romantic Frantic, A Follow-Up

“But wait,” my young friend stopped me in my tracks. “You said that romantic love is selfish. I was thinking about that. Yes, part of it is selfish, because you’re acting on things that make you happy. But isn’t your attention also directed to the other person? And don’t you do things for him because you know that makes him happy?”

I smiled at him. Thank god my young friend uses his head. Maybe that’s why I’m fast considering him a friend more than just a casual acquaintance.

“You’re right,” I replied. “And that’s why, in the larger scheme of things, romantic love has its place under the sun. It helps teach a person to look beyond himself; instead of everything directed only at oneself, a person now starts considering the needs and wants of another. Instead of just an ‘I, me, mine’ approach to the world, a person now expands his view to encompass a ‘we’ way of thinking. At least that’s a lot better than someone just watching out for himself at the expense of everyone else.”

Then I quickly added, “But there are, of course, watch outs. Too much of something is never healthy. If one thinks only of the other at one’s own expense, that’s not healthy. If it becomes a ‘you and me against the world’ kind of relationship, that too isn’t healthy.”

My young friend asked, “So what is healthy?”

I kept silent for a moment. “A sense of perspective, I guess,” I eventually offered.

“Perspective?” my young friend sounded incredulous.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “Live and learn. Keep an open mind yet be skeptical. Know that you don’t know everything. And,” I paused, “age and experience is necessary.” I smirked at him and laughed.

“Oh great.” My young friend smirked back, and slapped me on my shoulder.

Goodbye

We’re leaving RCBC Plaza tomorrow. And we’re marking our new territory at The Fort.

Romantic Frantic

“Why, oh why does romance not last?!”

My young friend was wailing out loud to no one in particular. So when one wails to the Universe, I guess the Universe can assign me to do the explaining.

“You know,” I began, “romantic love always starts as a selfish emotion. It starts with a crush, an initial attraction, and then it graduates to an intense liking. But you don’t even know the other person very well; all you know is that you want him, not you want what’s best for him.”

His expression was one of puzzlement.

I continued, “I think that a longer-lasting love is one that puts the Other ahead of the Self. (And the ultimate act of selfless love is one wherein the Self is sacrificed for the Other or Others—hello, crucifixion!) So I think that romantic love starts out ‘doomed’ and needs to evolve into a selfless kind for it to last. It must become a love that is not afraid to let go of the other. When that happens, then I’m convinced that this is a love that will last until death do them part. Everything else has a built-in self-destruct mechanism.”

That should give him something to mull over.

Fabcast! Online Romance, Part 2

More tales from Tristan, here in the second part of our fabcast with Joaqui, John Stanley and Tristan Tan, with Jaybeecc.

Music Credits: “When Doves Cry” by Yass

Download this fabcast (12MB - right click and save)

Fabcast! Online Romance, Part 1

Here the Fabcasters along with Jaybeecc chat with our three special guests: Joaqui (http://justdrinkmilk.blogspot.com/), John Stanley (http://mymorningsafter.blogspot.com/) and Tristan Tan (http://www.tristantales.com/).

Here we talk about falling in love electronically, whether online through chat rooms, social network sites and instant messaging, or through the phone via text messages and calls. What’s interesting is that in the course of the conversation it becomes obvious how the younger generation is more at home with the Internet, having grown up with it.

Here’s the first part:

Download this fabcast (right click and save)

We recorded this impromptu Fabcast a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately I was only able to find the time to finish editing the first part last week. Part two comes next.

Music credits:
“When Love Takes Over” by David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland

Careless Face-Offs

Itapat ko kaya sina Hayden at Katrina sa mga ito?


(Thanks to XanderKhan for the heads-up on this one.)





Which version suits you best? Or do you still prefer the original by Wham!? Or does the seezzleeng haaat! Hayden/Katrina make you gigil the most?

Chinese Superstars

My theater friends created one of their silliest games: coming up with names of “new Chinese superstars.” Here are some of the names they thought of:

Justin Timber Lee
Kelly Clark So
David Coo
Be Yon Sy
Cindy Lau

But all that took a backseat last Tuesday evening when I attended the wake of my officemate’s mom. In a memorial chapel along Sucat, I saw the name of one of the dearly departed on display:

They should change the title of the sitcom to One-And-A-Half Men. LOL!

Careless Videos And Careless Quips

An offshoot of this whole Hayden Kho/Katrina Halili and company video scandal is the resurgence in airplay of Wham!’s “Careless Whisper.” Just last night while flipping through FM radio stations, I heard the song twice within the hour—and it’s not even Friday Madness. And this morning at the gym, a dance remake was playing on the PA system. Whether it’s a welcome offshoot depends on whether you love the song, you’re still in love with anything 80s, or you’re Andrew Ridgeley, in which case you’ll be thankful for the resurgence of any Wham! song, for the royalties. But aside from that song, everything else about the scandal hits all the wrong notes.

Take for instance the protest from a particular Philippine “junior” senator who took time out to make a privilege speech in the senate to berate the ex-boyfriend of Belo. “The actor-politician said the videos were disgusting and said Kho must be insane for collecting sex videos,” according to the abs-cbnnews.com post.

Hmmm. Funny how a single doctor gets berated for having sex with other single and available ladies by an actor-politician who not only had sex with other women during his marriage, but also sired children from the said women.

Okay, okay, so that’s not really the senator’s point. To be fair, it seems like the senator is condemning the doctor for videotaping the sex act without his partners’ consent, not having sex with different women per se (I guess that leaves the senator room to continue having fun outside the marital bed). “Noong nakita ko ito ay nanginig ang laman ko at hindi ko matanggap na ganoon na lang niya binababoy itong mga kababaihan. Kawawa naman. Naawa ako sa mga nabiktima niya. Kaya we should put a stop on this,” the senator said. (Oh dear senator, it’s “put a stop to this” not “put a stop on this.” Do you want to become a ultimate senator?)

And what’s with this particular senator these days? Prior to this, he also protested against Alec Baldwin’s joke on The David Letterman Show that he was looking for a Filipina mail-order bride. Well, actually Alec said he was looking for a Filipina or a Russian mail-order bride.

So how come Filipinos are up in arms over what, to me, is an obvious joke? Have we lost our sense of humor? I don’t hear the Russians complaining (then again, the USSR has disintegrated, so maybe they’re not sure who among them Alec Baldwin was referring to). Or maybe our national sense of humor dictates that we only allow fellow Filipinos to make fun of ourselves; however, if a foreigner makes fun of us, we turn all onion-skinned and oh-so-touchy.

Whenever a foreigner generalizes us as the land of mail-order brides, servants and doctors with fake diplomas, are we ashamed that they actually see our bad side? Is that the same national embarrassment that drove then-First Lady Imelda Marcos to erect temporary walls to block the sight of squatter areas in an attempt to whitewash the seedier side of Manila from visiting foreigners? Is that the same shame that drives us to allow guests to only see the clean kitchen and hide the dirty kitchen from them?

The same senator said that Baldwin’s comment was “insensitive and uncalled for” and that the actor is “arrogant” and ignorant of Philippines laws. He then threatened Alec Baldwin not to come to the Philippines, or else. “Let him try to come here in the Philippines and he’ll see mayhem,” the senator said, and even implied that he will personally beat Baldwin up. Now that’s an embarrassing, insensitive, uncalled for, and frankly quite arrogant statement, one that is unbecoming for a senator.

Oh wait—next year is the elections! Oh yes, now I understand. It’s called posturing.

An In Convenience Store-y

“Bonggang Binggo good morning welcome to 7-11!!!”

The crewmember behind the cash register fairly screamed into my ear as I placed my purchases on the countertop: 2 bananas, 2 packs of apples, and a carton of low-fat milk. Suddenly I felt a wee bit embarrassed, especially to the others in line who were also looking at what I was buying. It’s like I’m flaunting this “Gee, I’m so f**king healthy!” lifestyle while everyone else had sodas, junk food or ice cream in their hands.

The crewmember started ringing up my purchases. Then he asked me: “Sir, how about some bonbon chocolates, sir?”

And suddenly Time slowed to a crawl.

Obviously that was a spiel they’ve been trained to always ask their customers to induce further sales. And when I was there yesterday, I was also asked that same question. So obviously the man was just doing his job.

And yet, in the face of 2 fresh bananas, 2 vacuum-packed fresh apple slices, and a big carton of low-fat milk that he’s now placing inside a plastic bag, one would think that maybe, just maybe, it would occur in his mind to conclude that a person who buys 2 fresh bananas, 2 vacuum-packed fresh apple slices, and a big carton of low-fat milk might not want to eat a bar of sugar-laden, fattening and—most importantly—cheap chocolates.

Ayun eh. Cheap lang kasi.

Anyway, I took the pause in time to contemplate what I was going to say. Should I say something bitchy? Or do I just keep it quippy? Maybe I can just take his question as is, a preconditioned knee-jerk reaction to having a customer in front of him. Or yes, I could buy some bonbon chocolates. After all, they are cheap.

In the end I just shook my head and smiled to myself. He pushed the plastic bag towards me and gave me my receipt.

And Time returned to normal.

“Thank you for coming, see you again, sir!” Damn, they really yell at you.

Commercial Break Muna!

May pa-contest si Gibbs! Name those singers, and get to win Php1,000 Powerbooks gift card. Interested? Click here and join!

Life Is A Beach! (Or, Laughter Is The Best Medicine)

Went to Virgin Beach (http://virginbeachresort.com/) in Laiya, Batangas over the weekend with TA friends. Nice place! (But a misnomer, as far as we were concerned.)

I love my friends from theater because we know how to entertain ourselves best. We don’t need drugs or alcohol to get us going—just our creativity and the desire to crack a joke that will make the others laugh. Gagawin ang lahat para bumenta lang.

Exhibit A: the corruption of 1-2-3 Pass!

You all know the card game. Be the first to complete 4-of-a-kind (for example, 4 kings) by passing on to the person on your right a card you don’t need. The moment one completes a 4-of-a-kind, he or she slams his/her hand on the center of the table, and the rest have to slam their hands down too—the last one whose hand is at the topmost of the pile loses.

We started playing around 9pm onwards. We were causing quite a commotion, so the staff kindly asked us to lower the volume. Which made the game doubly funny—it’s hilarious when you’re all trying to hold your laughter down! After a while we changed the rules: instead of slamming a hand down, the first one who completes a 4-of-a-kind should raise both hands up in the air (“Now put your hands up!”) and shout—well, more like stage-whisper—the word “Diva!”, and everyone follows suit. The first few rounds ended up with all of us crumpling with laughter, not laugh-out-loud boisterous but stage-whispered guffawing, which gave everyone a strenuous abdominal workout.

Then someone had a brilliant idea of changing the choreography: instead of merely raising one’s hands, each one of us should come up with our own movement to accompany the word “Diva!” So what happened was that every time someone completed a 4-of-a-kind, there was a one-second delay, as everybody had to look first at the particular movement being made before they could copy it. Every round disintegrated into a mess of bodies writhing in uncontrollable laughter that everyone tried to mute to no avail. Good thing no one complained.

As for the resort, I’ve been told that it’s one of the cleanest and best maintained resorts in that Laiya strip. The ocean floor drops deep so near the shore, so non-swimmers can only stay very near the sand. But snorkeling is great—we rode a boat to the snorkeling site and spent minutes swimming with the fishes.

More pics!







It’s a great beach getaway if you want to spend a fun weekend with friends or family. I have no idea if there is an area in that strip that accommodates extra-curricular activities like the “Cave” in Gaylera, but I didn’t bother to find out.

Sometimes silly trumps sex.

Live Long And Prosper?

An all-male high school, 1980s. He was a year younger than me. In our school org, the older members were assigned an underclassman each to watch over—he was assigned to me.

He had the cutest of smiles, at once inviting and shy. It’s like he wanted to be liked, yet terrified of the attention. And attention was what I gave him. He’d always run up to me for advice. And I made him feel that he can do whatever he put his mind on. We started spending more time together, during org meets and going home from school. I wanted him to like me the way I liked him. He wanted someone else.

One day he confided in me something that had been bothering him for quite some time. He was worried that he and his best friend (and classmate) had slowly been drifting apart. And he told me he was sorry but he’d be spending more time with his friend than with me.

I was an emotional mess, though no one saw it. Back then, I knew better than to show the hurt and devastation of missing a fellow male. And I turned to Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. I decided that I would control my emotions instead of them controlling me. And that included falling in love.

The lesson proved difficult to learn. I kept falling for straight guys, hoping that my attention would be enough to sway their orientation and make them fall for me. And after that “chasing straights” phase, I started falling for gay guys who were either not available or—more often than not—were not interested in me at all.

But I guess I needed to go through all that. Now I know better.

Or then again, maybe not. Maybe I’m just more wary than wise. My ears are still not pointy.

Ibang Labels Na ‘Toh!

The last time I was in the bathhouse was before I met Kent. While I surprisingly(!) do not miss the place, I do miss the sometimes unexpected conversations I get from strangers. Like the following one.

* * * * *

The sex was fast and furious. He wrapped his legs around me and matched me, thrust per thrust, moan per moan. Afterwards, we lay in bed panting and sweating. He engaged in small talk. Quickly I found out he’s a flight steward on an international airline and was here for two weeks to visit his parents and relatives.

“You work out often? I like your chest,” he told me.

“Thanks,” I replied. “You’re in better shape actually. You’re more muscular and ripped, and your belly is flat! Kainggit.”

“I noticed that the more muscular the guy, the more likely he’s a bottom,” he said.

Aba! Hasty generalizations ba ang gusto mo?

“Well, here’s what I noticed,” I said. “The shorter the guy is to me, the more likely he’s a bottom.”

“Oh really?” he asked, with genuine curiosity in the tone of his voice. Apparently the fact that he was a full inch shorter than me didn’t cross his mind at all. I decided to change the topic.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” I asked.

“Ay! I’m not gay,” he clarified. And I did a back flip. In my mind.

“Really?” I tried to keep my voice from rising two pitches higher.

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation. “I just do this for fun. Sex with men is, for me, like sports.”

The writer in me couldn’t help it. I added, “And we both scored tonight!” Unfortunately that joke flew over his head. (And considering his height, that was easy.)

So then I asked, “Are you married?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Filipina?”

He hesitated then answered, “No. She’s from Hawaii.” (Which I suppose makes her, uhm, Hawaiian?! LOL.)

“I suppose she doesn’t know about this,” and I gestured to the both of us, “your favorite sport.”

“Oh no!” he shook his head. “No way.”

I paused for a moment, wondering what to ask next. But then he piped in, “So are you gay?”

“Yup,” I answered.

“Cool.” A pause, then he asked, “Do you suck?”

“Yes.”

“Cool.” Another pause, another question: “Do you kiss?”

“You mean like this?” And I frenched him for a good two minutes or so.

“Cool,” he said after gasping for breath. “I like kissing.” And he leaned over and placed his lips on mine.

Ah, so this is what a non-gay guy is like, I thought to myself as he hungrily devoured me. May the tribe of non-gay guys increase.

Beam Me Up, I’m On Board For This One

I became familiar with Star Trek the original TV series simply because of exposure from my more geeky classmates. But I was a bigger fan of Space: 1999 because that series looked way cooler—it was shot in the 70s so the production design was more modern-looking, while the Gene Roddenberry series was shot in the 60s and was in black and white. Still I consider myself a fan of the series. I watched all the Star Trek movies (even the excruciatingly dragging Star Trek: The Motion Picture) when they came out in the cinemas. I followed Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager, the two spin-off series that kept me hooked on this vision of the future. I’m not a rabid Star Trek purist, but I know enough of the mythology.

So it was a pleasant surprise to watch JJ Abrams’ reboot of the series in Star Trek: The Future Begins. The task was difficult: how to energize a series for a new set of fans who grew up on Star Wars, jaw-dropping CG images, and a heart-pounding film pacing more suitable to a summer Hollywood blockbuster than sedate ruminations on time-space singularities, while keeping its current fan base happy. Luckily JJ Abrams is more a Star Wars fan, so he had the distance needed to take an iconic sci-fi series and turn it on its head.

I promise I will try to avoid any spoilers here.

The movie happily retains the characters and the qualities that endeared them to fans, yet updates them so that they offer a new take which may (or may not) generate new interest for the fans. I especially liked how they re-imagined Uhura, the communications officer of the USS Enterprise who, in the series and the movies, has been relegated to mostly being a glorified telephone operator (she’s the precursor of call center agents in years to come). What’s more, they further upped the ante on Spock’s conflicted nature being half-human and half-Vulcan. And the tweak they added between these two characters? Haylaveth!

Having Leonard Nimoy as Spock appear in the movie is a great way to bridge the two generations of Enterprise crews. It is both a wise tip of the hat to the original cast, while at the same time offering a clever way to incorporate this current movie into the existing Star Trek universe. It’s a simple twist, done many times over in the Star Trek series as well as other sci-fi series. Yet it works wonders here. Maybe because the casting is so spot-on; it’s seeing old familiar faces but in an interesting new light.

JJ Abrams’ experience with Alias, Lost, Mission: Impossible and even Cloverfield suits him well to be able to keep this movie visually interesting and action-packed to lure a new set of audience in. I must admit I find the action set pieces a little too “summer blockbuster-y” but, hey, those are the filmmakers’ marching orders, right? And like any obedient Starfleet crew, they are just carrying out the commands. I also found Eric Bana’s villain, and the way he’s out to “destroy worlds”, a bit of a sci-fi cliché. As a villain, he doesn’t rank up there with Khan, the Borg or even Q (yeah, yeah, I know Q’s technically not a villain); you’ll forget his character the moment the movie ends.

But I guess that’s okay, because really, it’s the “new” old characters that I fell in love with all over again. And I suppose that’s really what’s more important, creating characters that moviegoers will want to watch again and again and again. And this smart reboot of an old series will hopefully lure a new batch of moviegoers—as well as old fans like me—to follow the USS Enterprise to boldly go where no one has gone before.

This is Star Trek: For The Next Generation.

On The Eve Of Her Day

At 6:45 in the evening of Friday, 08 May 2009, I eased Orlando into our garage, set the park brakes, and switched off the ignition. Seven minutes later, I entered our living room. My mom saw me from the kitchen and went over to greet me.

“O, ba’t maaga ka, ‘dong?” she sounded worried despite the smile of obvious delight on her face. “May lagnat ka ba?” she giggled at her own joke, yet placed the back of her right hand on my forehead to check if it’s hot or not.

“I’m okay, Mommy,” I replied. “Remember I didn’t go home at all last Wednesday night because of our major presentation? I just decided to go home early today. You know, to even things out.” And I smiled.

“Ah.” My mom nodded once in relief then returned to the kitchen to finish what she was cooking.

And even though I’m already 43 years old, my mom sometimes still treats me like her little boy. And I always submit willingly.

I love my mom.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

I rarely talk about my day-to-day stuff at work here in The McVe Show because, well, it ain’t that entertaining, dudes and dudettes. But yesterday I had a series of unfortunate events that made the past two days one for the McBooks.

* * * * *

Wednesday evening my team and I braced ourselves for an overnighter for a 2:30pm major presentation on Thursday to a general manager. But we also had a second major presentation at 4pm to—whoa!—an ambassador. So our team was to split up, with me presenting to the GM and our writer presenting to the ambassador.

As I was in the middle of explaining our campaign to the GM, my phone was buzzing non-stop (it was on silent mode) with text messages. Finally, our client’s secretary peeped into the conference room and looked for my account manager. “I’m sorry ma’am, but your CEO just called,” she told my AE. “It’s an emergency.”

My AE went out to take our CEO’s call. When she came back, she whispered to me: “They need you to email the copy for the 4pm presentation.”

Yikes! You see, we were presenting to the ambassador revisions on a storyboard presented earlier. The revisions were all on the visuals; copy was approved intact. But while we were revising the storyboard, no one asked me for the copy. Meanwhile I assumed that, should my artists need the copy, they could always get it from the AE assigned to the project (since he also had the approved copy). But as it had to happen, our AE got sick and didn’t go to work that day. So who was the only one who had the copy? Yours truly.

But since I was face-to-face with a GM, I had no choice but to wait for our meeting to end. Then I whipped out my SmartBro, plugged it in, and went online. It was already 3:45pm, and my writer was still in the office, waiting for my copy to be emailed so she can cut-and-paste them into the visuals. But it was taking forever for Yahoo mail to attach my Powerpoint file. Then suddenly my SmartBro popped a window, saying the connection was cut. I tried to connect again several times, but failed. “Good lord, no more load?!” I wailed out loud. My AE offered that we use her computer instead. So we had to transfer my file to her laptop so she can use her portable internet connection. It was taking longer than usual to send, but eventually it did. By then we were in my AE’s car on our way back to the office. Suddenly my phone rang; it was my writer, panicking: “The file you sent me was corrupted! I can’t open it!”

So I had my AE bring me to the ambassador’s office where I met up with my writer and, right outside the boardroom, we were able to place the copy on the revised visuals while, inside the boardroom, our account director and our CEO had been praying for the past 30 minutes that our turn to present would be delayed. When I finished fixing up our storyboard, I realized I needed an internet connection because I needed to show our clients a clip from YouTube. In desperation I tried my SmartBro again. It worked! Apparently it wasn’t a lack of load but problems with the Smart signal earlier.

Major presentations can be nerve-wracking. You need to stick to the script yet you also need to observe clients’ reactions so that you can adjust and improvise right there and then. Doing two in one day is not something I’d sign up for voluntarily. But I guess eight years in the business prepared me for such emergencies.

Both presentations ended up with approvals. Now I can just look back at those series of unfortunate events and say, Someone up there really insisted that I present for both.

When I got back to the office, my AE went up to me and asked, “Are you okay now?” I smiled at her. All throughout the afternoon people around me were in extreme panic while I just kept a generally calm exterior, sometimes even joking about the situation. I too was just as worried but I decided to focus instead on solving the problem first. That, and repeating the mantra “This too shall pass” really helps. Exhaling long, deep sighs while shaking my head also does wonders to keeping my equilibrium.

Shoot At A Shoot

While we were shooting the latest TV commercial with Angel at the National Museum, I too had my own little photo shoot while waiting in between set-ups. Photographer was Leigh.

Me in front of one of the “photographs” used in our set.

Spider McVie!

We took this shot at the staircase leading to the third floor. My art director, whose third eye is open, insisted there was a presence on top of the stairs. I didn’t feel anything though, except the hard marble staircase on my back.

Me and our producer (I’m making him a star in my Twitter!) striking a pose for Leigh’s camera.

We actually toured the whole museum during the second day of our shoot. What I remembered was the over-abundance of vases and jars. It’s as if our country’s history could be contained in earthen vessels.

Legendary

Thanks to thenomad for tweeting the site where I got the following photos.

I keep telling people I’m in my sticky-rice queen stage—which means, I’m strictly into Asians right now. But here’s one guy who can un-stick the rice from me: John Legend. (No, I didn’t watch his concert. It’s not really his songs that I’m going gaga over, you know?)

Hmmm, I wonder what’s in his shorts? Is that a pipe he’s packing? (Hey I know that’s a bulldog, but in the streets of New York, one never knows how safe one is from muggers, right?) Or is he just happy to see me?

Oh. Damn, he wasn’t that happy to see me.

The SSB/NBSB Podcast, Part 3

And after almost—Eeep!—a month, here comes the last part of the Single Since Birth / No Boyfriend Since Birth podcast with the four gay Js: Jamiedavinci of The Wandering Polar Bear (http://thewanderingpolarbear.blogspot.com/), JB of Coming Out Of Narnia (http://outednarnian.blogspot.com/), JC of Pieces of a Piscean (http://pisceantears.livejournal.com/), and yours truly, Joel McVie of The McVie Show (http://mcvie5.blogspot.com/).

How come it took this long for part three to be produced? Well, the four of us are joined here with the one and only Britney Spears! Yes, I had to wait for her to sober up as well as finding her free time during her Circus tour so that she could join us. She sang for us six of her songs: “Brave New Girl”, “Womanizer”, “Baby One More Time”, “Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” and “Stronger”.

Okay. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Listen and enjoy:

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Killer Quote

The bathroom in Bed was packed. After I relieved myself, I squeezed and staggered my way out of its narrow and crowded doorway. Just outside the bathroom entrance were two guys lip-locked to one another. Oblivious to the busy traffic around them, the two were lost in a world of their own, bound together by lips and tongues. I smiled at the sight; usually nothing excites me more than seeing two guys publicly expressing their passion in an oral manner that requires no knowledge of any language except body language.

I, along with the pushing, stumbling crowd, moved past them. There were two guys in front of me; both of them had glanced at the kissing couple as they jostled their way out. After moving a few feet out of earshot, one of the guys leaned over to his companion and said: “Ang pangit, kahit nakikipaghalikan na, pangit pa rin.”

HU-WHA-PAK!

Whoa. I doubt even Manny Paquiao can whip up a punch that cruel.

Bitchy? Or bitter? We’ll never know.

Look, See Locsin

While Manny Paquiao delivered a knockout blow, Angel Locsin here is a knockout in our latest TV commercial. Now you can get to watch what has kept me busy for the past few weeks.

Cadiz Gibbs Us An Update

Received the following SMS from Gibbs, who’s still in Sorsogon:

“You can’t believe what has happened to me so far: Pa died so suddenly, a typhoon’s raging until now, power’s gone, floods all over town including at our wake, flights cancelled, forcing Mom and kin to go by van. Now they can’t get thru because the one bridge linking Sorsogon to Legaspi is washed out, which puts the Monday interment in doubt. The absurdity of it all is making me alugh now instead of cry. Haaay.”

Yes. Even in death, life can be absurd. Just hang in there, Gibbs, and roll with the punches. You and your family will get through, come hell or—literally—high water.

And thank god for strong cell signals.

Babuyin Ba Si Pooh?

Thanks to FriedNeurons for this hilarious piece! Indeed, swine flu is so in.