The Songbird Replies, Grammys, Kris RealiTV and Other Mind Blabbers I

I was beyond ecstatic when Songbird Regine Velasquez finally joined Twitter on December 5, 2011. I just couldn’t believe it! I’m an avid Reginian at heart and it’s such a great pleasure to read tweets of your super idol in your timeline, words which she herself typed, thought about, and posted. So imagine my euphoria when she replied to my tweets last Sunday and Monday. They were a series of replies that I really felt like we were having a conversation. Haha! Ok, of course those were simple tweets of thank yous blah blah but hey Regine Velasquez, the Songbird of Asia tweeted me back and for a huge fan like me, it felt like winning the lottery!

The Grammys!

I am such a big big music lover, when I was a kid I remember waiting for the Grammys every year with so much anticipation. I intently watch every performances of the night and of course wait for who wins what. But over the years, it just bored me all of a sudden and found myself just reading news about the awards show. A great reason for this has to do with the fact that most of time they highlight country music so much and I don’t like country music. If there’s a genre of music that I really don’t like it’ll be Country music and Hard Metal Rock. But this year, I made it a point to seat through the Grammy’s 2 ½ hours airing to wait for Adele! I love her and I love her music. Adele’s voice is majestic and she looks so regal and sophisticated. Who needs a Heidi Klum body if you have a voice like Adele’s??! I am so happy for her awards sweep that night, 

she so deserves all of it. I wonder what’s going on in Gaga’s mind the entire time hahaha!

Still on the Grammys, after seeing Chris Brown’s performance, I find myself crushing on him again and totally forgetting the entire Rihanna assault fiasco 2 years ago. My goodness with the way he moves and dance on stage all I can say is damn he’s so HOT!

Adam Levine’s performance made the Grammys worth it of everything. I love him and just by looking at him makes every wasted minute worth it! His sex appeal is excruciatingly inexplicable! And yes, I envy Anne V to the bones!!!


Finally, yes, I know it was last minute but I don’t like Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You”.

Grammy Fashion: I’m not really someone who gives a big deal about red carpets and other fashion chuchus I just say it as it is if I like the ensemble or I think it’s horrible. Gwyneth Paltrow for me is the night’s best dressed! I also love Rihanna’s gown! 

RIP Whitney †

I’m not a big Witney Houston fan but my Mom is, so I practically grew up to her music. My Mom watched The Bodyguard like a hundred times in the cinema and its soundtrack was my sister and I’s lullaby every night when I was in 1^st or 2^nd grade. Like what an article I have read the evening of her passing, I too was shocked but not surprised on the news of her death. One of my BFFs perfectly said it, “sayang! Whitney’s another great talent wasted with vices.”

This week, Kris Aquino’s daily morning talk show presented a reality TV treatment for her birthday special entitled Kris RealiTV. I love the idea! If there’s one celebrity who’s so fit to have a reality show here in the Philippines ala “Keeping up with the Kardashians” it has to be Kris. The way she has built the success of her entire career with transparency, I really hope the reality episode rated well, enough for the Kapamilya network to give at least a weekly reality show of her life.

With his appearance in Kris RealiTV, I remembered how crushable James Yap is. He’s really one of my forever crushes.

I’ve been watching One Tree Hill’s Season 7 and I just have to say that there’s no single episode that my heart didn’t melt with my boy love, ROBERT BUCKLEY! Don’t argue with me because I think he’s perfect!

I just finished watching the season’s 18^th episode and I just have to say that it is by far the best episode of this series ever!!! In all aspects!  It literally had me crying an ocean of tears. I swear I was crying the entire time.  Now my eyes are all puffy! The BEST!!!

I heard the news that it’s now confirmed, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep will star opposite each other on the film adaptation of August: Osage County. My goodness! I’m sure this will be an acting-fest one!

Wow! This is the first of my “Mind Blabbers” entry and I’m “liking” this formula so expect a lot of these in my blog from now on! One of my super close friends tweeted a year ago that she felt blogging is really not for her, she’s really just fit for micro blogging as in the case of Twitter. Honestly, I’ve been feeling the same way these past few months. I don’t know why all of a sudden writing full length blogs felt so tedious and pressuring so from now on, my blogs will feature “anything goes blabbers” haha!

till my next blabber…

xOxO

21 Things I’m looking forward to do now that I’m 21

It has been a year and almost two months since my last blog post. Those 13 months (July07-August08) of my life can be best described as a total roller coaster experience. Those subscribed to my fantxt knows this. I have been up and down. I have fallen in and out of love. I have triumphed and failed. A lot has changed in my life since July of last year and I believe as time pass by, I have also evolved and matured in so many ways.

I celebrated my 21^st Birthday last Friday. Now that I’m 21, I can say that there are a lot that I want to accomplish in this lifetime. There are so many things I wanna do, I wanna change, and above all, I wanna prioritize. So as I turn another year older, I want to share with everyone THE 21 THINGS I AM HOPING TO ACCOMPLISH NOW THAT I’M 21.

1 I’m going to maintain my current physique. I would say that 2007 was my fattest year to date. I don’t know if I was just stressed out that time and I resorted in eating to cope up or I just simply want to eat. When I started writing my thesis early this year, I started losing weight also. By the time I finished my thesis, I went from 147 lbs. to my current weight now which is 130 lbs. Though it is not easy, I will continue on my diet to maintain this. It’s not easy to lose weight especially if you love to eat but if you look in the mirror and see the change, it’s all worth it!

2 I’ll indulge myself to reading. I’ve been very busy with my studies during the past 13 months that I have deprived myself of leisure reading. Last July when we moved to a new house, I’ve realized how many books I have horded already so now that I still don’t have work and I have the time to read, I’ll read them one by one. Some of the titles that I’m going to read in the coming months are: Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello, The Devil and Miss Prym, Like The Flowing River, The Zahir; The Death of an Ordinary Man (Glen Duncan); Orosa-Nakpil Malate (Louie Mar Gangcuangco); James Patterson’s Mary Mary, Honeymoon, The 5^th Horseman; Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City; and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “Love in the Time of Cholera”.

3 I will now read the entire Harry Potter series before watching all the movies.

I will also read the latest craze among book readers, Stephanie Mayer’s Twilight saga. My best friend Reese said it’s a true guilty pleasure and so I’m really excited to finally meet Edward Cullen.

4 I will pay tribute to Dr. Jose Rizal by reading his two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. I have Leon Ma. Guerrero’s english translated version; I have always dreamed of reading the two novels that played a big role for the independence we have today.

5 I will watch the entire first season of Gossip Girl over a weekend DVD marathon. They say it’s sexy and totally irresistible. I can’t wait!

6 I’ll catch up with my DVD addictions, Grey’sAnatmoy (season 4), Desperate Housewives (season 4), Brothers and Sisters (season 2), Ugly Betty (I’ll watch the first season na, promise!), Prison Break (I have the complete first season already), and One Tree Hill (I have the complete first three seasons).

7 I’ll try to change my sleeping habits. My insomnia has gone from bad to worst. I now sleep at 5am or worst, 9am. I do believe that I already need medical help regarding this so now that I’m already graduating, I will seek professional help at the Medical City’s Sleeping Disorder Institute.

8 I will try my very best to drink 2 liters or more of water everyday. I love salty foods, if I can, I’ll munch on potato chips every minute but I can’t. Lately I have been having problems with my kidneys which will be taken care of next week also at Medical City.

9 I’ll try to be more giving. I am a believer of the saying to whom much is given, much is expected in return. I look around me and there are just so many people in need of help especially financially and materially. I’ll try helping to the best that I can. If I can, I’ll join a charity. Oprah’s Big Give really inspired me.

10 I”ll continue collecting jeans! I love love love maong jeans. Whenever I’m down, stressed out or I just want to feel better, I buy jeans. I don’t know how many I have at this point in time; I just know that it’s close to a hundred.

11 I’m going to write and write and write more. I’ve recently watched an Oprah episode wherein her doctor friend and show’s house doctor, Dr. Oz was guest and he said that making writing a daily habit can make your life 5 years longer since it releases stress and tension. More so, it produces healthy cells in our brain.

12 I’m going to learn how to cook. My mom loves to cook and she has been forever nagging me and my sister that it’s very important that we know how to cook. Indeed, I have realized that living in this globalized world is still not a reason for you to just leave a sumptuous meal to fast food chains or restaurants. They say that cooking is a very fulfilling hobby and so I want to try it. I know that it takes time to learn how to cook but for a person like me who helps his mom in the kitchen every Christmas eve, I’m sure it won’t be hard. This likeness to learn how to cook was awakened when my friend Jammy told me that after graduation she’s going to Singapore to study culinary. I was really inspired. And also, I realized, isn’t it a plus point for you to your future partner if you know how to cook?

13 I will try to regularly watch the live telecast of The View airing weekdays at 11pm on Sky Cable’s Velvet. I super love Barbara Walters. (I am watching it right now while doing this)

14 I’m going to catch up with my favorite talk shows on TV that I’ve been missing these past few months since I was very busy doing my thesis, moving to a new house, and finishing my internship. From Boy and Kris to The Oprah Winfrey Show to Ellen, I’ll be a talk show freak now!

15 I will watch Regine Velasquez and Lani Misalucha’s back-to-back concert at the Araneta Coliseum on February 2009 entitled, The Main Event: The Duel of the Divas.

16 I will never tire to learn and discover things. I believe that it is the pursuit of knowledge that makes every human being truly noble and the absence of this passion to learn is the signal of death.

17 I will look for a nice and decent job that pays good enough to provide for my needs and wants. Of course it has to be something I love doing.

18 I will tell the people I love how much I love them as often as I can. I want the people I value the most to feel how much I appreciate and value them. Love should be expressed as often as we can for it might be too late for you if you let a chance slip away.

19 GOODBYE ONLINE GUYS! I won’t entertain any guy who’ll message me in the World Wide Web anymore wanting to know me better and the usual getting-to-know-each-other chow chow. I’ve been there; I’ve done that and look at me now. I’m still alone. What have I got? Heartaches and yes, lessons but let it stop there. I’m done with this. Let’s just face it, internet is not the best place to find a man to have and to hold. Though it’s one of the ways, it’s just not for me. I mean this. And for the record, I DON’T HAVE AN ACCOUNT IN ANY OF THE GAY SITES IN THE WEB.

20 I will be open to falling in love, to men (not from the internet), to new lessons I’m going to learn from future relationships I’m going to enter. I will not be afraid to be hurt for it is through pain that we learn. I will welcome love in every possible way. Only now, I will TRY to be more rational about love. I will TRY my best to not always put my heart above my head.

21 I’ll be more positive towards life. I will be grateful for every day of my life. I will embrace every experience and cherish every encounter. I will apply lessons I’ve learned in the past. I will not be afraid to take risks. I will live life to the fullest. I will live my life without regrets. Life is short and I want to make the most out of it.

Paano Kita Iibigin

5/5

Fans of songbird Regine Velasquez and heartthrob Piolo Pascual had been waiting for this movie for two years now. And as an avid Regine Velasquez fan, my anticipation for this movie was unexplainable. That’s why days before its first day of theatrical showing, I promised myself that I’m going to watch it on its first day, rain or shine!

May 30, after my first class, I rushed to Glorietta 4 to catch the first screening at 12:50 pm. I was not expecting that crowd thinking that it was the first screening and people might be at work since it’s Wednesday, 12:50 pm. But I was wrong because at the time I bought my ticket and made my way inside the movie house, there were a lot of people occupying the seats already and by the time the movie started, the first three rows from the screen were the only one’s not occupied. There were even some that chose to just stand up to be able to get a better view.

After watching the movie, I dare say YOU’LL MISS HALF OF YOUR LIFE IF YOU WON’T WATCH THIS MOVIE!!! And I mean that!

I’ll give you FIVE reasons why you should go and see this movie:

1. It is very rare that we find a local movie that has depth and so much SUBSTANCE in it. This movie if I may say so is oozing with substance. And it’s very, very different in such a way that it gave a typical Filipino romance flick a different perspective. It’s not your ordinary kilig-kilig, pa-cute Tagalog romance, it’s so good! Everything in the movie is FRESH!!! I didn’t notice any cliché at all. The movie in general is very realistic. The acting of everyone in the film was perfect. A totally different Piolo and Regine are in this movie.

2. I have to commend the writers for a well-written story. I love the fact that they did not relied on fantasy and just offered a love story that has so much out of this world element. John Paul Abellera, the script writer, made a job well done in this movie. There was never a “trying-hard” line. Every dialogue was perfect. I really noticed that they made it a point that every dialogue in the script fits the characters, the scenes, the emotion of that particular act and the over all tone of the movie. One thing I also admire about the script was that they did not use cliché, over-acting lines. Especially when the main characters were professing their love for each other, the words they used were carefully chosen and were not baduy!

3. I have seen all of Regine Velasquez’s movie and indeed, I can say that this movie is her best to date. This movie brought out the actress in her. Here, she proved that she’s not only the best singer in Asia, she also established that she’s one of the excellent actresses we have here in the Philippines. Regine Velasquez deserves a Best Actress trophy for this movie. Not only was she admirable in this film but also stunning and exceptional. Regine Velasquez was really great in this movie. Two thumbs up, Songbird!

4. What can I say about Piolo Pascual??? He’s fantastic in this movie. He doesn’t need to speak just by his facial expressions you’ll know what his character’s emotion is. I particularly love the scene where he’s inside the mini airplane and was just crying. I BOW DOWN TO YOU PIOLO!!! You’re the man! And of course, he’s so yummy!!! Gosh!!! I’m so speechless. I’m drooling the entire time I was inside the movie house.

5. This masterpiece was directed by Direk Joyce Bernal and she deserves a standing ovation for this film. It’s like she never runs out of bright ideas for a romance movie. She’s one of the best directors we have and I really love her. There was never a dragginf scene in this movie. Every shot was just perfect and rightfully done. One thing I love about Direk Joyce is that she knows what she wants and if it’s a romance movie by her, expect it, it’s DAMN SO FABULOUS! I admire how she directs love scenes. Very, very good!!! For this particular movie, the love scene and kissing scenes were sensual and very passionate but still it appeared extremely wholesome.

For a person like me who has watched a hundred romance movies, I say this is one of the best I have ever seen. This co-production between Star Cinema and Viva Films is amazing! It’s all worth it and I highly recommend it.

“Paano Kita Iibigin” is a great movie. It offers a great deal of romance and the right amount of drama and humor. Go and WATCH IT!!!

P.S. Eugene Domingo rocks!!!

Two Decades of a Songbird

“Twenty”, Regine Velasquez’s concerts celebrating 20 years in showbusiness, which will be mounted at the Araneta Coliseum on October 13 and 14 of this year, is a celebration of her “love affairs” with those that have come and gone throughout her 20 years in the business.

This mammoth concert series is produced by Aria Productions, headed by Cacai Velasquez-Mitra, Regine’s sister, who has pulled out all the stops in making this Regine’s biggest production to date.

The set alone, designed by Mitoy Sta. Ana, is conceptualized to be breathtaking at the very least. Picture having a Roman Coliseum built inside the Araneta Coliseum. The concept itself speaks of the grandiose visual delight the event would offer. In addition, center stage holds a grand staircase that leads to the upper box gallery, surrounded by a 55-60 piece orchestra, where Regine’s dramatic reveal would commence.

The repertoire is also being prepared very carefully to showcase her career highlights these past 20 years. Regine’s “love affair” with her photographer of many years, Jun de Leon, will be celebrated with a showcase of his pictures that have made her “Shine”. There will also be a medley of duets which she had with Jo Mari Chan, Martin Nievera, Gary Valenciano, Ogie Alcacid , Janno Gibbs, Paul Anka and Jackie Cheung with a modern twist. To highlight her “love affair” with the movies she has done, she will be singing a medley of her hit movie themes supported by video of the said movies. Fans and followers of Regine can reminisce with her as she sings all time favorites like: “On the Wings of Love”, “What Kind of Fool”, “Dadalhin” and “Greatest Love of all”. A special portion of the show will feature her winning songs: “In Your eyes” (Bagong Kampeon), “Never Walk Alone” and “And I Am Telling you” (Asia Pacific).

Musical director for the evening will be Raul Mitra and Prof. Arturo Molina will conduct the 55-60 piece Manila Symphony Orchestra II. In keeping with her “love affair” theme, Regine has also invited four musical directors who have collaborated with her in the past to conduct the orchestra for some special pieces. These are: Gerard Salonga, Mon Faustino, Mark Lopez, and Louie Ocampo. There will be other surprise numbers with an array of very special guests that audiences would not want to miss out on.

Regine decided to ask Ronnie Henares to co-direct this project with her. “Who better to collaborate with than the man who steered my career for the first 13 years; besides my family, he knows me better than anyone else. Also, as I’ve said several times in the past, even as a newcomer then, “Boss” (as I used to call him), would always listen to my ideas and facilitate their inclusion in projects we undertook. I look forward to working with him again.”

This gargantuan project would not be possible without the help of friends and supporters like: GMA Kapuso, Promil Pre-school, Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, The Seafood Club Restaurants, Belo Medical Group, and our radio sponsors: 91.5 Energy Fm, 93.9 iFM, 105.1 Crossover, 95.5 DWDM, 96.3 Wrock, 94.7 Mellow Touch, 99.5 RT, 102.7 StarFm, & 101.9 WRR.

“Twenty” promises to be a production that will have it’s audiences mesmerized from beginning to end.

this article was originally posted by Aria Productions (artist management for Regine Velasquez)in Reginemultimedia.com

Queer Me! :)

Today, I woke up early than my usual wake up time. I woke up 10:20 am. ten minutes before SIS started. The live episode is a tribute to Regine. She is celebrating her 20th year in the show biz industry this year. It feels great to be able to eat a fine and ‘normal’ breakfast (I did so while watching.). It is very unusual of me to eat breakfast because my normal day starts at 2 or even worst 3 pm. So I usually eat breakfast and lunch together in one meal.

I barely had 5 hours of sleep so I still feel a little dizzy right now. The caffeine from the coffee I drunk awhile ago is slowly vanishing and I can already feel the lack of sleep I had last night.

After SIS, I took a bath and started downloading songs to update my mp3 and also to prepare it for the start of classes on Monday. Some of the songs I downloaded were:

Hero – Enrique Eglesias
Anyone Can See – Irene Cara
Ain’t Nothing Gonna Me Away From You - Teri De Serio
If All We Gonna Do Is Dance – Hott City
Buttercup – Torch (I already have the 70s version of this song but I don’t really like the soulful version of the Temptations. I have always opted for the 80s version but I can’t find it. It was through the newspaper clipping that one of my best friends (Reese) gave me. The newspaper article was about Chiz Escudero and he happens to be a fan of the 80s music; which is why the song was mentioned in the article.)

I am trying my best to rest my voice while it’s still term break because for sure on Monday, I’ll talk to death again. I have longed been convinced that I was born to talk. I love talking that’s why my throat is always swollen; this also the reason why I am allergic to chocolate because seriously, my throat is very sensitive. I am under medications right now because of my throat problem. I was given some steroids and I hope it’ll be ok sometime soon.