CULTURE CLUB

Two weeks ago, it was a massive dose of art. Two Cinemalaya films and the CAREDIVAS play. Is it obvious that I don't read the papers much? I've never heard of it till Ronald of F&H invited us. Rumor is, the shows sold out--scheduled times bought out by sponsors--so if you want to get a ticket, you go through the company that bought the show. Well, at least ours were house tickets care of F&H, so thank you Ronald, Alan and Mikko! =)

Have to say though that Care Divas was amazing. Won't be writing about it if it didn't move me. I recommend it to anyone who wants a good dose of musical, comedy and drama, baklerz way. Haha. You know how some say I'm more bading than most, well I guess I am because I understood all the innuendos and hidden jokes, not even sure if most got it because it was heavy with gay lingo and humor, but I felt right at home. Heeeeh.

Heres the set, our seats were right smack in the center.



Watched it with AC and Epoy.

Nino and Vince.

AC super loved it that he wanted to have a photo with the cast.

Underneath all that maquillage is make-up artist Ricci Chan. I didn't even know that he did theater, but apparently he did Rent. I was blown away by his performance. If ever you are planning to watch, make sure that he is in the billing.

Photo op, wahehehehe. The guy beside me, Vincent De Jesus wrote the script and the songs of the whole play. He's soooo galing!

Lest you think that the night was over, nooooooooooo. It was Paolo's despedida. From QC to Makati all in one night.

Pao! Take New York by storm!
A bit of history, one of the major reasons why I'm writing for Star is because of Pao. I moved to Supreme only for him to leave for Young Star. Waah. Thanks ha.

Mich!

It was suppose to be game night, but nobody wanted to play except Karen and I. The two most competitive girls that night. Haha, Hi Karen! We eventually wrangled a good team to pit against each other. First up: Cranium.

With Raymond Angas!

Breather.

And dancing involved.


Second game of the night: Taboo. I swear this is a writers game. It was the Young Star staff versus us in Publication. Love! If you haven't played it, you have your team mates guess the word on the topmost part of the card without saying any of the 5 taboo words in the lower part. For someone who likes putting pen to paper, there are a dozen alternative ways of saying one word--and with everyone in the teams either in the broadsheet or the glossy, everyone was in their fight zone. Haha. We won though! Hahaha

And baket may sardinas? Going away present daw: caviar. Kalurks.





Good luck Pao! I'm sure you'll do great. Didn't I always say so?

FETE DELA MUSIQUE

It all started with a very bad Mexican dinner. But then that will have to wait till another post. Writing a long discourse about that. At least, that dinner was saved by good conversation amongst friends AND the grace that is alcohol.

Heres Pao dressing for his drink. I dont think I know anyone else who does that.

Obviously, beer makes us happy.
L-R: Mich, Karen, Pao, Rayms.

Bumped into other friends, B,

Mike, George and Erwan

Sporting too cool frames.

Signature Anna Canlas pose.

Grass is for music festival.









Double trouble! We have the same earrings!



3:00am

Marita breathing fire, and Issy back from NY!

The End.

THIS CALLS FOR A CELEBRATION

Pao got in his choice of University. Pao, all your worries were for naught. Didn't I tell you that you would? Now his only problem is choosing between NYU or Columbia. Kainis. Laki ng problema no? Even going as far as doing the pros and cons: "Columbia churns out journalists, while NYU produces authors.." More in his blog post "Where I got in and what I’d gotten myself into" , just in case you're facing the same dilemma. So to honor the occasion, we took our kids out to dinner. Pao brought his anak Raymond, and I brought mine, Anna.

Of course it was good food. I picked Mangetsu because they have the best Shrimp Gratin--and all of them haven't eaten there yet. It was recommended by Mother P, mentioned it to the boyf that we should go, and he surprised me by taking me out to dinner there on our very next date. So ever since, its been a place of good memories and super yumburger food.

We started with the Uni Omelette and Japanese Fried Chicken with three kinds of salt. Both 5 stars. (May ganon?)

Grilled meat will always be grilled meat. So okay lang. Haha.

This one though takes the cake. You know I soooooper as in sooooooper love Cheese!! So I died when I tasted this. Its a shrimp and mushroom risotto under all that layer of butter melted goodness. We ordered one but ended ordering another kse matakaw kme. Hahaha. (Riiiiice. I miss it, I've been on a no rice diet for a week now. Sigh)

And then for dessert, order the Ice cream tempura. I swear and sarap nya, hot/cold, creamy/crunchy at the same time. The boyf and I actually craved this last night and drove all the way from our dinner at The Collective to order a bowl. Happiness.

The usual suspects: L-R, Pao, Anna, Hannah and Rayms. Sorry for the awful blurriness, my camera died on me after taking this shot. Oh wellz.


Mangetsu
Mile Long (Beside Sanggo!), Makati

DISASTER FRIDAY

Everything that could go wrong went wrong with me today. Previous night, drank two glasses of Prune Juice, a Yakult and a teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper in vinegar. Suffice to say, I was up all night.... Erm... Blogging. So. Tucked in at 430 am and of course overslept. Had a 1230 lunch again with Paolo L. in Eat Well and I had to go reschedule that to 1.

So again, I hate being late so tarantini nanaman. Third day of my color project, (its posted na below, yay!) and i have the wrong bag. Though in fairness, it works naman. Didn't have time to chuck all my things in another tote so kebs, yan na! Went down to the garage only to see that my car had a flat! Argh. Of all the days!!!!! So off to a wobbly start going to the gas station. When I get there to have my soft tires of 10 filled to a 30, i realized i left my phone at home. *$@%#* Breathe. Breathe. There's a reason for this i kept telling myself.

Paolo got in 10 minutes after I got to the resto saying profuse apologies (although he technically wasn't, I just got there first), apparently, we both have the same number one pet peeve: people being late. Haha. And weirdly enough, as the meal of Hot and Sour soup, Sweet and Sour Pork and Eggplant with Minced Fish progressed, we discovered too many similarities that bordered on the freaky. Not going into details, but that was one fun and weird experience. Katakot actually but amazing at the same time. And you're an empath! That really caught me offguard!

Can't wait for the next one Pao, hopefully there's mushrooms involved.

After lunch, on the way to the office, took a wrong turn and ended up in Buendia instead of Edsa. can this day get any worse? Bang-head-on-wall moment. But then, for JAPAN, it did. Got in my desk to the news of the 8.9 quake. Wow. Goosebumps level with a slow sink in the stomach. I started to think tuloy that the reason why I was so out-of-sync was because obviously there was some great disturbance in the force. You know, an imbalance of balance. Made me think of this show that I once watched about random event generators and how its suppose to measure global consciousness. Don't know how that links back to me being so scattered but can I help it if its somehow rooted in some conspiracy theory in my head. Geek out lang.

But really, seeing the devastation live on TV, made my complaints for the day sound so insignificant. Catastrophe in a grand scale always puts things into perspective. You realize whats important and what's not. Took time out to whisper a short prayer and then I called Cebu and talked to my Dad.

The Philippines are still praying for you Japan.

Relatively quiet afternoon after that, checked a few pages and chit-chatted with Mother P and Kissa.. Mostly about the quake and it's repercussions--how at least Japan has the back up systems in place to handle a disaster of this magnitude. But still, even with all the preparations, it's nothing compared to reality--that nature in its wildest can't be controlled and bended to mans will.

As for the rest of my day, took photos. Summer is officially here, Pauline came in with a burst of sunshine and a bright orange blooming foliage of a skirt.

It's all about the details: ruffled bib, braided collar, gray pearl buttons.

Friday also meant that it was dinner time with good friends. For a change of scenery, the usual GB was traded for BHS. Walked by The Gap and saw that our collabo was up. Took photos even with the guard giving me the evil eye. Bakit? Bawal?

Dinner was at Mamou's. Friends from L.A. were here so it was the usual crew, AC, Epoy, boyf plus Gillie and Jay.
Gillie sported the Rodarte shirt exclusive to Fashion Night Out. So jearlous.

AC in some maximalist armor.

And Epoy in his G-shock with his hands dancing to "Like a G-Six" hahaha.

For the food, if you guys haven't eaten at Mamous, the specialty are the steaks. But this Truffle Cream Pasta holds its own also and IS TDF! I swear, it makes you feel all warm and gooey inside, parang Love. Yiiiiii. =) Yumburgers as inches!! I haven't tried anything else thats topped it so far. Ganon sya ka sarap. Well try it out for yourself and let me know.

And heres the steak, marbled with enough fat to have Mano die of beef happiness.

And as if all that food wasn't evil enough, it comes with this Spinach Cream side and Steak Rice. Drool.


Prepare P1800-P2000/person for the steak and pasta: Twin size steak to share and the Truffle Cream split into half. But as for me, I always get the pasta for solo. Heeeh. Bondatch lang.

MAMOUS, Serendra