Glorietta Sounds

Bukas Palad performed at the Glorietta 4 Park as part of Glorietta's Sounds of Christmas. The show started at around 6:00 PM. They sang the following songs:
I Will Sing Forever, Pamaskong Anyaya, Pasko ng Paglaya, Gabriel's Message, Emanuel, Angels We Have Heard on High, The Hands That First Held Mary's Child, Noong Paskong Una, Paglamig ng Hangin, Bituin, Himig ng Hangin, Pasko Na!, Gloria, A Christmas Praise, Humayo't Ihayag. Their singing was okay, but I guess Christmas songs/ carols are not really their forte. They were well-applauded in their last song (which is a praise one), and I think that is where they truly shined as a group.

Bukas Palad has over 21 years of composing, recording and performing original Filipino religious music. They have come up with 13 albums under the Jesuit Music Ministry of the Ateneo de Manila University, and well over a hundred original liturgical and inspirational songs. Aside from performing, they also conduct liturgical music workshops and outreach activities.


Glorietta Sounds upcoming shows:
Dec. 1 - Philippine Youth Symphomnic Band with Bituin Escalante
Dec. 8 - Philippine Madrigal Singers with Robert Sena and Isay Alvarez
Dec. 15 - Philippine Madrigal Singers with The Company
Dec. 22 - Philippine Madrigal Singers with Kyla

Defenders

This book collects Marvel Defenders 1-5. It stars Dr. Strange against Dormammu and his sister Umar. Strange calls on Sub-mariner and Hulk for help, and Silver Surfer appears as comic relief. The art is superb. The story and dialogue are okay, but are a far cry from the depth and breadth of the original Defenders series. Considering that it is in hard cover, I don't think it would be a great buy.

rndm thots..

PBB Celeb Edition 2 has become downright dissapointing. Tasks are too outrageous at times, and Big Brother does not differentiate them from 'sacrifices'. The housemates themselves are too stupidly irritating, most especially Baron Geisler. Mariel has also proven to be a let-down because of her bratty and loud attitude. In an effort to make the series interesting, I think the writers/ management already crossed the line in several instances already (with the latest leading to Macoy and Ethel's voluntary exit). Having a psychologist on-board, I really wonder why Big brother does not know how to intervene and/or resolve conflicts within the house. The only reason I still get to watch is because it's in a timeslot between shows that I like watching...

With DLSU bowing out of the V-League finals race, I am suddenly not that driven to watch anymore. I do enjoy the games, but it's as if it is not as exciting for me anymore. It maybe because I really got hooked into volleyball because of the DLSU-M WVT. Nevertheless, the impending finals match-up between SSC-R and UST (which will be a rematch of last season's finals) promises to be well-fought...

There seems to be a lot of Manga comic books that are showing up on shelves of bookstores lately, as compared to previous years. There's probably a demand for them because the relatively younger generation are hooked into them. Most are action-type stories, but there are also a lot others of Mature and Teen ratings type that deal with stories of humorous erotic/sensual nature (which schoolkids should not have access to)...

luncheon meat

Jollibee has a new food item called Luncheon Treat! It is a rice meal with two slices of pure beef luncheon meat topped with sweet/sour sauce. The luncheon meat is quite soft and tasty but not very filling. The sauce complements the rice meal well though. It is a very palatably welcome addition to the variety of meal choices at Jollibee.

...Which reminded me of SPAM. In a recent issue of Reader's Digest Asia, there was an article regarding the ubiquitous SPAM and how it has become a part of the Asian diet. The article also briefly mentions the first ever fast food outlet devoted to it in the Philippines, SPAM JAM, which unfortunately is already closed for quite a while already. That outlet used to feature different sandwich and meal options that utilized SPAM as the main ingredient.

...celebrity sighting: Miriam Quiambao at CBTL in Greenbelt... morena and very pretty.

xmas3s '07

Christmas is just around the corner and malls are already full-blast in selling the season with trees, decors and goodies displayed all over! The photo above was taken at SM Ayala.

Hopefully I can go around and take pics again like I did last year...

Extremis

The Invincible Iron Man issues #1-6 is compiled in this TPB. Written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Adi Agranov, it relaunches Iron Man/Tony Stark into today's developing technological world/Marvel universe. Drawing inspiration from Iron Man's origins, the armored avenger is reinvented by being infused with Extremis (a super-soldier serum that rewires Stark's body) into a faster and stronger hero. The art looks cinematic/CGI-like and is superb.

TriNoma

I was able to go to TriNoma at last. I had to meet someone in the QC area and while waiting I decided to pass by that mall...

TriNoma (together with Landmark) is conveniently located at the North Ave. station of the MRT and is quite huge. The mall area layout is confusing though, and one can't easily find/locate a particular store. The gardens and fountains are great and are a must-see.
Luckily, there was a concert at the activity area when I was there. Entitled
"Songs, Strings and Holiday Things", it featured the U.P.Jazz Ensemble and Kuh Ledesma. The U.P. Jazz Ensemble played wonderful renditions of Winter Wonderland, Let It Snow, All I Want For Christmas, and a medley of Christmas hits. They then backed-up Kuh Ledesma for two songs and then Khu and her band took over.
Khu sang several songs the most applauded of which were her rap rendition of Dahil Sa 'Yo, and her hit song Dito Ba. Being a born-again Christian, Khu tried to inspire the audience with her testimony. As an added treat, Khu's daughter Isabella also sang two upbeat songs.
There was a performance of the Las Pinas Boys Choir in the garden and also fireworks later in the evening but I was not able to watch those anymore. All in all, it was a pretty eventful start/kick-off to the Christmas season in TriNoma!

superheroes

The new Justice League of America starts with this graphic novel entitled The Tornado's Path. It compiles comic issues #1-6 and is written by best-selling author Brad Meltzer. After the chaos of Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, and after the groundbreaking 52 series, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman slowly rebuild the greatest superhero group in comic history (set in the background of Red Tornado's death and subsequent return). Spectacular art (by Ed Benes) and dialogue/story marks this as a collector's item.




I have always been partial to DC. One of the reasons is that the DC universe is more exciting and the stories are well-written. I was quite disappointed with Marvel's (Mark Millar's) Civil War saga because of it's lousy ending. This was written around the same time as DC's Infinite Crisis and I was initially very intrigued because of the unique plotline and great artwork (by Steve McNiven). I was not satisfied of Marvel's resolution of the conflict though. This TPB could not stand alone and is too highly dependent on the subplots developed in Marvel's different individual hero series' for cohesiveness.