adventures in neverland

for four months now, i have been helping a friend in doing publicity for a boy band, a surprising turn in my unpredictable life. while i have always loved reading about the scandalous lives of celebrities (confession: the first thing i read in a newspaper is the entertainment page), i never imagined that one day, i would be involved in writing prs and doing publicity for a boy band. a boy band? i would have screamed in my past life. frankly, i was never a fan of boy bands. especially the boyzone, backstreetboys and westlife variety. i am not being snobbish, but i simply found their music sappy, their lyrics shallow, their dance moves silly. although admittedly most of them were cute in the teendom kind of way: think the boys of teevee's beverly hills ninety-two-ten (so throwback!). so when a friend called asking if i was interested in helping him spread the good news about a fledging boy band that he fondly called men of manila , i had second thoughts. i mean, i had turned d...

gone girl is my kind of story. it peeled piece after piece, layer after layer the masks surrounding a seemingly perfect marriage of a seemingly perfect couple until there is nothing left but a black hole of sadness. in fact,  this latest piece from director david fincher should be a required viewing for those who are planning to get married, and for those who equate marriage with nirvana. it's the antithesis to all those fairy tales and their "and they lived happily ever after" endings that plagued our childhood and forever damaged our perception of love, romance and marriage. in short, it's the perfect propaganda that the government should use to discourage people from getting married, and therefore help curtail population explosion and solve the problems that go along with it: overcrowding, pollution, traffic, congestion. non-sequitur, i know. sorry! the opening scene was divine: showing the back head of a blond woman as her husband wondered what was inside...

i woke up warm and perky. the sun was bursting in through the open windows. the room glowed, removing all signs of gloom that has nestled inside its four corners for the past few months.  the dreary weather has finally surrendered to the sun, and i was more than grateful. indeed, the cold, grey weather had been depressing that i felt like i aged a lot during the long winter months. my first thought was to head to the beach in idyllic sai kung or any other island away from the crowded central to enjoy a day in the sun. while taking a shower, i was already salivating over the scrumptious seafood and dim sum feast that awaits me. i decided to go to lamma island instead, a thirty minute ride by ferry. (i can't wait to stay under the revitalizing sun, feel the coarse sand under my feet). sai kung is just too far, a nearly an hour ride by bus. maybe next weekend? wearing above the knee shorts (i cut off one of my old jeans, the better way to welcum the summe...

the first thing that caught my eye upon meeting him was his youthful, wrinkle-free skin that belied his age (late fortys?) and his height (he wasn't that tall pala). it was a sizzling, sunny, sunday afternoon as though summer was upon us once more. but inside the studio where he and his family would be photographed to promote a product, it was bone cold as though we were in antartica. i was early, and so were the crew and the rest of the people behind this shoot. we all prepared for our tasks for the day. the air was heavy with anticipation. with last minute fuss. some nerve-wracking activities, noises, people moving around: the stylists and the wardrobe staff prepared the clothes that the family would be wearing, ironing them; the make up artist set up his wares in front of the huge mirror; while the photographer and his army of assistants were busy putting up lights and what have you. ah, welcome to showbiz, where a flurry of activity always precedes the arrival of a sta...

it started rather well. full of promise. the movie dementia, a horror drama, starring the superstar nora aunor. if there is one reason to watch the film, it is her. to see how much more she can give on the big screen after years of delighting the audience with her brand of art that no other thespian, dead or alive, in the local industry can surpass, or even equal. ms. aunor is simply an artist in a league of her own, second to none. it turns out that ms. aunor still has a few aces up her sleeves. in a genre that has yet to elevate itself into an art form, or even something that should be taken seriously. actually, it's an exciting mix -- ms. aunor in a horror movie. a far cry from her heavy drama outputs where she has essayed some of her best performances to date -- tatlong taong wala diyos, himala, bona, to the more recent ang kwento ni mabuti and hustisya, just to name a few. as i've mentioned earlier, dementia started really well -- shots of the lush, but quite ...

does it have to be that long? will you wait forever for the one you love? sorry, i am a bit sentimental right now...as if! i just finished watching  muli on dvd  starring two of this generation's best actors -- sid lucero (intense and brooding) and cogie domingo (sad and soulful) -- playing gay lovers. their affair spanned more than 30 years (it started in 1969 and ended when gma was already the president). i love! (the oh so sexy sid lucero) when they met, sid just came out of the seminary. he decided to come home after his mother died. home is in the picturesque and romantic baguio. he turned his back on being god's servant because he did not agree with the religion's rigid standards on homosexuality (you know, love the sinner but not the sins).  he ended up running his parent's hostel in baguio city. longing for something worthwhile to do, he joined the communist party. only to be disillusioned again when he found out that the party did...

"the way i need you         is a loneliness i cannot bear."                     --  carson mccullers, the heart is a lonely hunter since i didn't know that there will be a four-day weekend in hong kong this week, i wasn't able to plan my perfect gate away. so unlike most of my friends who are out in rome, budapest, myanmar,  greece, macau and what have you, i am staying in hong kong. tired of watching dvds and blu rays at my new flat in wanchai (where the city's famous red light district is located), i decided to go out and visit my old neighborhood at the mid-levels.  first stop: my favourite coffee shop, just right across a gallery and a five second walk to where jose rizal, yes the filipino national hero, used to live when he was in hong kong a hundred years ago. there is a marker right outside the apartment where he used to live saying that - philippine national hero j...