I Blog, Therefore I Am.

Check out the video in my Instagram.

Thanks for being my everyday miracle! Continue to be a blessing to others.
You will surely be missed. :)



Music: Someday Its Gonna Makes Sense - MLTR

Eclipse, what?!

Here's the first official movie trailer of the last book of one of the greatest fictional series of all time, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. The new trailer possibly came out as a gentle reminder to the book-loving-movie-going folks that there's more to life than teenage vampires and Bella Swan.




The Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows trailer is very gripping, action-packed and mysterious. The book was adapted into two movies which will be shown on November 2010 and July 2011 respectively. I can't wait! How about you?

Haven't read HP Book 7 yet?
Go to Amazon.com now & order!

It's American Idol season once again!

One of my favorite shows on TV will have a Top 36 and a wild card round this year instead of the usual Top 24 semis. Joe's Place Blog and MJ's Big Blog, a couple of Idol authorities, already posted a spoiler of a presumably leaked list of those who got in through Vote For The Worst. We will be seeing if they are right at the live performances and semi-finals on the 3rd week of February after a week or two of Hollywood Week broadcast.

I already have a bet if the list is correct. I am very fascinated by the great voice and bubbly personality of 16 year old Stevie Wright. She auditioned in Glendale, Arizona and sang "At Last" by Etta James. All judges were impressed and Kara and Paula even said that she's exceptional.

Check out her audition video:

Stevie at last
Uploaded by mjsbigblogvideos

Can't wait to see her again! Hope she will reach the Top 12!

Here's the full list of the Top 36:

Adam Lambert, Alexander Wagner-Trugman, Alexis Grace, Allison Iraheta, Ann Marie Boskovich, Anoop Desai, Arianna Ayesha Afsar, Brent Keith, Casey Carlson, Danny Gokey, Jackie Tohn, Jasmine Murray, Jeanie Vailes, Jessica Langseth, Joanna Pacitti, Jorge Nunez, Junoy Joyner, Kai Kalama, Kendall Beard, Kristen McNamara, Kris Allen, Lil Rounds, Matt Breitzke, Matt Giraud, Megan Courkrey, Michael Sarver, Mishavonna Henson, Nate McGee, Nick Western Mitchell (aka Normound Gentle), Ricky Braddy, Scott MacIntyre, Stephen Fowler, Stevie Wright, Taylor Vaifanua, Tatiana Del Toro, Von Smith

Notable ones from the list are Casey Carlson, dubbed as one of the prettiest AI contestant ever with a bikini calendar to boot; washed-out recording artist Joanna Pacitti; and Steve MacIntyre, the almost-blind singer from Arizona.

I also like Adam Lambert of California. He's a a theatrical singer from Hollywood and he is kinda cute. I just don't know what is his preference. Click this link for his audition video and tell me what you think.

Greetings Potter Fans!

The first official trailer of the Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince movie was shown and released just last week. Unlike the past films which was primarily centered on Harry, this sixth installment will also focus on the young Voldemort known as Tom Riddle. The film is expected to be as dark and as sinister as it was in the book. I can't wait!

Here's the trailer:



Photos:


The young Tom Riddle will be played by Hero Fiennes-Tippin,
nephew of Ralph Fiennes who plays Voldemort








Watch out for the death of Dumbledore!

Some Spoilers (skip this if you don't want to know what's in the movie!):
This is the movie where Harry will get together with Ginny, and Ron with Lavender Brown. Hermione will stay single but will be pissed at the latter. Harry will be Captain of Quidditch and Ron will also be a team member. This is also where Dumbledore dies.

Showing on November 21, 2008 July 2009

My friend Jang told me one of the best news EVER! She found a thread at GirlTalk and a radio interview of David where HE said that he's going to the Philippines for a concert in January!

This will apparently be his first major booking after American Idol! No exact details yet but I am hoping against hope that this is a sure deal!

Listen to his interview and announcement at Toronto's Chum FM:



The full interview may be found at the Chum FM site where you'll also hear details about his album that will be coming out in November. The news of the Philippine concert first broke at the All Pinoy thread at David-Cook.org. Thanks, guys! :)

I. AM. DEFINITELY. WATCHING. THIS!
January 27, 2009 - Save the date for David Cook's Manila Concert!

[Thanks to Katheee001 for the YouTube video!]

Cinemalaya is the country's biggest independent film festival. I was able to watch several indie films in the past but not in the actual festival itself. This year's run is from July 11 to 20 and it has the biggest entries so far. The screenings will all be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and I hope that I'll get to watch a couple of the films.

Here's the schedule of the special events:

Opening Night - Opening Ceremonies, World Premiere of "Adela" by Aldolf Alix, Jr. - July 11, Friday, 6:00 PM - CCP Main Theater

Awards Night - July 20, Sunday, 7:00 PM - CCP Main Theater

You may check the complete list of the screening schedule at the website of Philippine Star's Supreme. Previews and trailers may also be viewed at the Cinemalaya You Tube page.

I want to watch My Fake American Accent and 100. Here are the previews:


My Fake American Accent

My Fake American Accent is a slice-of-life workplace comedy following the lives of technical support call center agents in the span of six months. Speaking with a fake American accent is a prerequisite for the job. This ensemble comedy is an inside look into the maddening, sleep-deprived, caffeine-fuelled lives of those who ply their trade in the call center industry.



100

100 is about a stern, uptight and exacting woman with a terminal illness who tries to accomplish a list of 100 things to do before she dies. Her tasks vary from the simple to the complicated, from the practical to the mundane, from the ordinary to the extraordinary. In the process, she accepts the truth that even if death is something personal, dying never is.

So, what do you want to watch?

It may be "Bye Bye Brooke" but this week's American Idol was centered on Paula Abdul's major booboo last Tuesday night! Yeah, we know that she's a little dim at times and is a rumored alcoholic with her Coke glass containing scotch, but I never expected that she will be this careless. People are now accusing American Idol to be rigged and scripted because of her flub.



The Story
The Top 5 American Idols were asked to sing twice at the Neil Diamond week last Tuesday. The new set-up was the judges' critique will come collectively after the second song instead of their usual after each song.

So the Idols all sang their songs with Jason as the first singer and Syesha at the Pimp Spot. After Syesha's "Hello Again" (which I think was good), Ryan Seacrest called everyone on stage and asked the judges to quickly say what they think of the first round of performance. Randy said his piece first which were all quick one-liners. When it was Paula's time, she immediately complained that it was not easy since they now have to write their comments which they never had before. She started reading her notes on Jason Castro's first song, "Forever in Blue Jeans", saying that it's not good blah, blah THEN SHE STARTED COMMENTING ON HIS SECOND SONG WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN PERFORMED YET. All the people were shocked and you can see Simon rolling his eyes! So what happened? Is the show scripted all this time? Ryan, Simon and Randy had to pitch in and cover for her mistake with excuses! Terrible, terrible mistake! Her alibi? She was reading David Cook's critique and mistook it for Jason's 2nd song!

Watch it all here.

I was so surprised when I learned that Carly Smithson was one of the bottom three in the Top 11 Beatles Night at American Idol last night. She sang "Blackbird" soooo beautifully and I cannot believe that she was one of the Idols who got the lowest votes (America, there's still Chikizee & his harmonica! What are you thinking?).

Good thing she was not the one who was booted out. That honor was reserved for Amanda Overmyer...who's "back in the USSR" (finally!).

Here's the Beatles' Blackbird rendition of Carly. What do you think? What an injustice for her after this beautiful performance! She's such an amazing singer and you've gotta love that accent! Go, Carly!

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Of course I want Ramiele Malubay to win this season's American Idol but I think that this will be the order for the Top 10: David A., Brooke, Carly, Michael, David C., Ramiele, Jason, Chikizee, Syesha and Kristy.

I was in Tagaytay City since Tuesday morning for our yearly National Conference. Though we had Wifi, airborne access kiosks, SMART BRO, 3G and all possible connections you can think of, I wasn't able to do my blog-hopping and on-line routine in the last 4 days due to the jam packed schedule (and some more).

So what did I miss? Apparently there were three issues last week that rocked the Filipino blogging community. First was about DJ Montano and the "Gucci Gang". A blog was published by an Australian named Brian Gorrell who claimed that he was the ex-boyfriend of DJ Montano. The blog's purpose is to demand payment to the thousands of dollars that DJ "borrowed" from his alleged ex-lover. Brian's tell-all tale was so juicy and was a certified "scandelilah" that made people scrambling for their refresh buttons all of last week. It documented not only the moolah issue but also the excessive use of coke and bad behavior of Manila's creme dela creme. It's truly Gossip Girl Manila version. The comment box of the posts were also blockbuster hits as everyone gawked at the dirty laundry being aired left and right for all people to see.

I don't know who DJ Montano is but the other members of the "Gucci Gang" are popular A-listers that you often see in society pages. According to the posts, the people involved tried to put down the blog by hacking the account and sending demand letters from the lawyers to Brian. It stopped for a while but Brian returned with a vengeance with more evidence and dirt. Too bad the juicier comment sections were disabled and posts were deleted (but thanks to Google's cache some of them are still available online). Whether it's true or not, members of the 'gang' like Celine Lopez, Tim Yap, Wendy Puyat, Tina Tinio and Jackie Cohen Antonio are surely not getting enough sleep these days. Be the judge and read it all here.

Reactions:

Delfin "DJ" Montano
Brewing pinoy high society scandal
It's over
Brian blogspot: the plot thickens - Inquirer.net

~*oOo*~

The next one is about Malu Fernandez. Yes, she's back. Being greatly ridiculed last year in the blogging community seemed was not enough for Malu. She wrote another controversial article the other day this time targeted to bloggers. If you remember, she rose to notoriety when she dissed in her People Asia article last year the OFWs who were with her in a flight to Greece. It outraged a lot of people and the bloggers were the front runners in making sure that she will take back all the nasty things she said. The Malu Fernandez brouhaha was indeed one of the most talked-about issues last year. Click this link to reminisce.

The article that Malu wrote last March 10 was called "The Problem With Blogging...". She wrote there offensive statements which caused her another batch of negative popularity in the cyberspace. Here's one of her paragraphs that is downright annoying:

"So let me continue, first of all I believe in the freedom of speech. By all means say what you need to say. Unfortunately for most of the bloggers without advertising you get paid nothing. If in fact you do get paid then hooray for you. But blogging, aside from Perez Hilton and the other big time bloggers (you know who you are) is for me a slacker job or a medium and pastime for lonely people to connect. Unless you’re in bloody Siberia or in a Gulag prison, try stepping outside your comfort zone and turn off the laptop or pc, you just might find some real live people to talk to instead of typing away in cyber space."

I pity you, Malu. You are again looking for trouble. I wonder why Manila Standard is still allowing you to post and write garbage like these that you call "articles". You've put your foot in your mouth again. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Reactions:

Malu Fernandez and Blogging As A Slacker Job
Si Malu Fernandez at ang mga napakong pangako ni Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Malu Fernandez thinks blogging is a slacker job

~*oOo*~

The last one is lighter than the two issues which involves the now famous newly-crowned Binibining Pilipinas World, Janina San Miguel, and her interview in the pageant last weekend. "I'm only 17 years old" is now a popular quip even in our NATCON last week. Here's the video (with subtitles):

Yup, she won and will be representing the Philippines in the Ms. World pageant this year. Whaaaat?

Credits to lechacal of Daily Motion for the video.

Okay...I am definitely a convert.

I noticed David Archuleta in the auditions but I was not exactly one of his gazillion fans. BUT his Tuesday's performance of John Lennon's "Imagine" was one of the best I've seen. He's definitely a force to reckoned with.

I am a 70's fan but I got bored with the song selections of the Top 10 Male in AI last night. I only like David's song and Danny Noriega's version of "Superstar" by the Carpenters. I was also a bit disappointed by Michael Johns' performance but happy with David Hernandez's.

Here's a recap of David's version of Lennon's "Imagine":

My bet remains on David Archuleta, David Hernandez, Michael Johns, Danny Noriega (his surname is so Filipino like Malubay's but it's not the reason why I love him), Ramiele Malubay and Carly Smithson.

Another Pinay is part of this season's American Idol!

Ramiele Malubay of Miramar, Florida wants to be the first Filipina American Idol. Her performance of "You Don't Have To Say I Love You" (by Dusty Springfield) in the first week of AI7 Top 24 is definitely one of the best performances of the night...and even Simon agreed!

Here's a video clip:

I also love the performances of Alaina Whitaker, Kady Malloy, Michael Johns and David Hernandez. They are my early favorites!

Make us proud, Ramiele! :)

Yeah, it NOW has a song! A song about addiction! Haha!
Got this from Riz (who by the way gave a great lecture at SEMCON '07)

Facebook is fast becoming one of the greatest Internet social networking inventions. The apps are just to die for!



Poke me, hug me, give me a a Nickname, nominate me for a Superlative, send me a lei, invite me to Oktoberfest, share to me your music and iTunes playlist, chuck a book at me, rate your favorite movies, give me a spell, gift me with bakery goodies, invite me to Happy Hour, send me booze, write on my wall, donate to my causes, read my interview, compare me to your other friends, answer my questions...ADD ME! ---- http://profile.to/abbie/

Barely a week before the much-awaited Season Four premiere of Grey's Anatomy, ABC featured this new music video dedicated for it (just like The Fray's How To Save A Life last year). This time it's Mat Kearney's Breathe In, Breathe Out. It's nice, upbeat and very Grey's Anatomy. It's also featured as one of the tracks at Grey's Anatomy Soundtrack, Volume 3 which was released a few days ago. Mat is no stranger to Grey's since it already featured four of his songs on several past episodes. One of them is my favorite, Where We Gonna Go From Here.

Here's the the MTV with some snippets from last season and next week's premiere. Credits to Grey's Anatomy Insider, as usual.



BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT
Mat Kearney
Grey's Antomy Soundtrack, Volume 3

Breathe in, breathe out
Tell me all of your doubts
Everybody bleeds this way, just the same
Breathe in, breathe out
Move on and break down
If everyone goes away, I will stay
We push and pull
And I fall down sometimes
And I’m not letting go
You hold the other line
Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Hold on, hold tight
If I’m out of your sight
And everything keeps moving on, moving on
Hold on, hold tight
Make it through another night
In every day there comes a song with the dawn
We push and pull
And I fall down sometimes
And I’m not letting go
You hold the other line
Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out

Look left, look right
To the moon and the night
Everything under the stars is in your arms

Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Here's also the primer on Grey's Season Four premiere episode:

A Change is Gonna Come
Thursday, Sep 27 at 9/8c

Having just returned from her honeymoon with Meredith, Cristina searches for Burke, but he's nowhere to be found. Meredith, Cristina, Izzie and Alex spend their first day as residents with their own groups of interns - among the interns are George, repeating his intern year after failing his exams, and Lexie Grey, Meredith's half-sister whom she has never met. Now that Derek's relationship with Meredith has reached an emotional impasse, he looks to his fellow doctors for friendship; Bailey wrestles with her place within the hospital now that her former interns report to new Chief Resident Callie; and Richard resumes his position as Chief of Surgery.

Fall's Premiere Week starts on Monday, September 23. Private Practice, Grey's spin-off with Addison leaving for LA and signing up at her friend's Oceanside Wellness Center, will start on Wednesday but I am already downloading its never-before-aired Pilot episode which I learned from Mindy's site.

Can't wait, can't wait! :)

The fourth season of Grey's Anatomy will premiere on September 27 at ABC. Here's the first promotional video which I got from Mindy and at the Grey's Anatomy Insider site.



I am such a HUGE fan and I cannot wait for Season 4. There's a couple of 'quite real' exciting spoilers that I read from Mindy's site that are absolute bombshells! (think Alex-Callie hooking up!) This will be a different season since main characters Burke (Isaiah Washington) and Addison (Kate Walsh) will not be on it. Burke, as everyone knows, was fired from the program and Addison will lead a new GA spin-off show called Private Practice. Spin-offs usually don't take-off as much as its mother show but let us see what it can offer. It will premiere on September 26.

Here are some things to look forward to:

1. Lexie Grey - to be played by actress Chyler Leigh; she's Meredith's half-sister who was introduced in the penultimate episode last season as 'the girl from the bar' who turned out to be one of Seattle Grace's new interns. Chyler is definitely prettier than Ellen Pompeo!

2. The New Residents - our five favorite Interns are now Residents! Cristina's "don't try sucking up, I hate you already" in the video clip above was Bailey's line to them in the Pilot Episode when they first started at SGH.

3. O'Mizzie / Gizzie - this is one ship that should be put out ASAP! Tsk, tsk, tsk! Very very low, Shonda!

4. Mer-Der - I heard they are breaking up (again!). More dark and twisty Meredith's drama (again!).

Aside from the premiere, GA fans are also excited for the 10 Emmy nominations that the cast and crew of Grey's was able to rake. I really really hope that they will win it this time. Seriously.

When I say "I am into something"...I mean "I am really INTO something in a crazy-passionate way". It used to be Sweet Valley High Senior Year books, Eraserheads, The Internet and blogging, cellphones & gadgets, Sidney Sheldon and her novels, my work (yeah, better believe it), US Ivy League colleges, spa & massages, DVD marathons, the one who broke my heart the baddest, MBA applications, Havaianas, and Japanese food.

Guess who's keeping me crazy-happy and passionate lately? None other than Derek-Meredith-Cristina-Burke-Izzie-The Nazi-George-Alex! Life has never been the same since Grey's Anatomy. :) I am so in love!

The vid below is one of the reasons why NOT living in The US is a total letdown! Someone better TiVo and send 'em to me! All Thursdays! :)




Smile Thursdays. Feel Thursdays. Love Thursdays.
Where TV Goes To Feel Better. )

The video is Grey's Anatomy's promo plug for Season 3's premiere on the 21st of September. The scenes and snippets used were taken from last season's explosive finale which was aired last May. The background song is The Fray's "How To Save A Life" which I also like - "I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life" - simply right.

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through

Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life


P.S.
"Seriously?" is the most abused word in the series. The characters say them at least 20x each episode. Seriously???