it’s over two hours now into the new year. our part of the world gets to experience new year before everyone else. not that it makes any difference in the grand scheme of things. it just makes me want to get on a plane and cross the international date line so i can experience another new year a day later. wouldn’t that be something? it would feel a little like time traveling.
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if there’s such a thing as a wish list, there must also be an unwish list.
don’t get me wrong, i seriously like presents, no matter how discordant the items are from my interests. i appreciate the thought and i find a childlike wonder in the sense of mystery surrounding each glittering box under the tree.
but let’s admit it. you also have a list of things you would rather not get.
in no particular order:
i’m too tired to think of a creative title, so i just stated the obvious.
my most favorite is cate blanchett, hands down.
feeling lost amidst tulle, chiffon, taffeta and organza? here’s a little guide on the silhouettes typically applied to gowns and formal dresses.
last year’s rumors are finally being realized!
if you are a music geek-cum-gamer who has made a personal career of emulating the king of pop’s singing and dancing, your self-taught skills can at long last be put to test this holiday season… when leading game developer ubisoft releases their michael jackson video game!
last night, i was nervous for lacey and jermaine. i was confident about lilly. i didn’t even think about tyler’s chances. and he was eliminated.
excuse me, i am in a state of mourning.
although i wouldn’t have been surprised if either he or jermaine was eliminated (or even *shudder* both of them in one night), seeing neither of them struck a very good first impression. i just didn’t think tyler would be gone this soon. admittedly, he didn’t do very well, but having taken the judge’s comments to heart, i think he would have put his act together. he was very good-natured accepting the criticism, didn’t bother disagreeing like most other contestants, and even said he’d go to the mall to get a more current wardrobe. he was right when he said perhaps the constructive criticism was too little, too late. if the judges had a problem with him being all 70′s and poser-y, then they shouldn’t have praised his swagger and his duds all through the audition season and hollywood week, shouldn’t have made all that positive reference to jim morrison as if that image would go through well on stage. i mean, how double-minded and inconsistent can they get? kara especially. someone should just gag her.
i also feel sorry for ashley rodriguez. she is not my favorite, but i have to admit that she has one of the best vocals. and good looking too. there were talks going around pre-live show that she just might be the next idol, seeing she’s got the whole package. but we all know the show is known for surprises and voters are not necessarily the ones who talk, so i am not going to make any bold predictions of my own.
anyway, i blame tim urban for ruining tyler’s chances. and to think he wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place. golightly should have been replaced by thaddeus johnson. no, i’m still not over it. if you go around the idol blogs, you’ll find tim urban fans saying how they voted for him over 200 times because he was so cute and had tears in his eyes and he looks like the cover of james patterson’s fang. it is so unfair to put one through based solely on looks, but that’s showbiz. if the disney crowd wants to spend their money on votes for mediocre contestants, that is their prerogative. but here’s the thing: i wouldn’t mind some bubblegum cutesy making it far (like david archuleta; i didn’t like him, but can’t blame the voters) as long as said bubblegum cutesy has the talent to back up the privilege. on that note, i wish these girls get swayed towards aaron kelly. better yet, alex lambert, if he musters up enough confidence to charm the camera.
like any other idol season, i am given to new favorites once the live show starts. while i am still rooting for jermaine, lacey and lilly for loyalty reasons, i find myself looking out for these two as well:
paige miles
The New York Times Arts Beat blog speculated on Thursday that because “Idol†producers have lavished plenty of airtime to some contestants and neglected to show others, that the singers with the least amount of time in front of the audience will fall away quickly once the viewers start voting. The blog post was titled “American Idol: Who Won’t You Be Voting For This Year?†The writer singled out Miles as the most obvious answer to the question since she has had the least amount of face time with America of the 24 finalists. from here.
as one fan commented last week, america won’t know what hit them come tuesday. paige miles clearly has the most powerful vocals. while many spoilers online for weeks put paige dechausse into the top 24 (the one with the asthma/anaphylactic shock back story), only few were able to point out that they had the wrong paige.
i believe the only airtime paige miles got was during group day. remember that “battle” between two groups who sang lady gaga’s “bad romance”? where one group (with todrick hall and siobhan magnus) accused the other (with paige and thaddeus) of copying their song choice? of all the preposterous accusations.
i love underdogs. that’s the truth.
lee dewyze
the paint sales clerk who got his big break. exceptional vocals. i thank simon for saying he performed best the other night.
ok, i just think he’s hot. at least he doesn’t suck at singing!
my hopes for the second night
jermaine should go back to his gospel/soul roots. i still think the best we’ve seen him was during his first audition in boston.
i’m not really into casey james, but i seriously loved him with the blues guitar on his first hollywood solo. he should do that again.
i want to like andrew garcia, i really do. as i had expected, the same people all over danny gokey last year are all over andrew garcia this year. like my friend maje and my husband. no, he is not pinoy, his wife is. wait, wife or girlfriend? whatever, the mother of his child. he will pull another “straight up” on us and i will seriously like him.
judges should be more consistent with their comments. i’m hating it.
excuse me while i grieve for the elimination of tyler grady again.
after he said he will go to the mall and after showing up during rehearsal in a bathrobe because he misconceived rehearsal as wardrobe time. i love this guy, i do. he was robbed. the way michael johns was robbed. the way sundance head was robbed. robbed, i tell you.
it’s tim urban’s fault. and the disney channel.
paige and lee photos from american idol.
tyler grady photo from top idol.
we call it cyclone. cyclone mike, specifically, last monday. back in the philippines, we were more accustomed to calling it typhoon. i believe some cultures call it hurricane. i read in our encyclopedia back in high school that the difference is just nominative, they’re all the same calamities. can someone verify?
whatever you choose to call it, it caused widespread power outage and we’ve been in the “dark” since monday. well, apart from the t.v. and the occasional reading lamp every night, c/o a small generator.
we can hardly even charge our cell phones, how much more for our laptops. our desktop pc’s are completely out of the question. we had to drive to town to check our emails.
this is how dependent we have become to technology. oh, our poor meaningless existence.
curse you, cyclone mike!
i will be away from blogging for a while. i will be going out of town, and i will have to devote absolute, utter and undivided attention to this:
and, of course, catch up with everybody else who would care to meet up.
so this blog will be unattended for a while. will resume regular posting as soon as i get back to base.
hope you keep posted!
watching the state of the nation address briefly today made me think more about fashion than the actual state of our nation. loren legarda went backless for the second year in a row. pia cayetano had a severely modern bob over her stylish gown. i thought jamby madrigal’s baro’t saya was rather safe and audrey zubiri’s modernized version of the same style was my favorite.
i apologize for being socially unaware and for appearing callous. this is, after all, a very superficial blog. i don’t think i have the chops to pull off a political commentary.
anyway, so i was watching the sona on tv as i packed my belongings, preparing for our impending migration. and i was just overcome by a sharp feeling of melancholy. suddenly, filled with patriotic pride, i wanted to have another opportunity to wear the philippine terno.
i’ve worn the philippine terno only once in my adult life. only during the 2001 buwan ng wika in the school where i used to teach. it was a long dress that dragged on the floor and was the most electric of electric pinks you could ever lay your eyes on; it also had a wide panuelo in stripes of the same pink which i folded into a triangle to wear around my waist. it was a filipiniana costume my tita wore to japan as a national representative in the 80′s, so what can you expect from a dress that came straight from a decade of blinding colors? nonetheless, it was one of my most memorable outfits, it was stunning in a literally dizzying kind of way.
another chance i got to wear filipiniana, though not the terno, was on a regional awards ceremony we held for the company i used to work for. our region was then well known for taking costumes and themes very seriously, so we actually went out of our way to rent dresses for the event. for the memories alone, it was worth every penny.
trying on the dresses in the staff house on the night before the event. and just being silly.
photo op before entering the function hall
white philippine terno with corset-type bodice
yellow terno with ruched bodice and the traditional barong tagalog
baro't saya with panuelo
with our travel plans now coming together, i’m beginning to feel a premature homesickness growing in the pit of my stomach, which i’m afraid will hit me like a brick when we’ve actually flown off the ground. now i want another opportunity, another event that requires me to wear filipiniana, particularly the philippine terno. is that strange?
philippine terno and baro't saya designs by casa del shai. www.casadelshai.wordpress.com
filipiniana gown by edgar san diego
gown from mquin. www.mquinred.blogspot.com.
since i missed the chance to participate in santacruzan this year, is there someone out there who would like to invite me to a buwan ng wika celebration in school next month???
one of the dresses in the fw08 couture show of chanel. looks very like the terno.
what’s a bloo? beats me, but whatever he is, i could certainly use something like him.
i’ve always been crazy about cartoon network, but i think they outdid themselves with foster’s home for imaginary friends. created and produced by craig mccracken (creator of the powerpuff girls), it premiered in august 2004 and ran its final episode in may this year.
main characters coco, frankie, mr. herriman, wilt, eduardo, bloo, madame foster and mac
in foster’s home, imaginary friends take on physical form as soon as children create them. sadly though, children outgrow imaginary friends at around seven or eight years old, leaving many of them without a home nor a child to accompany. so elderly madame foster put up a home for abandoned imaginary friends. their motto: “where good ideas are never forgotten.”
just like an orphanage, imaginary friends are up for adoption to good homes, one episode even showing the procedure and documentation involved through “adopt-a-thought saturday”.
adopt-a-thought saturday at foster's home
bloo, however, is not up for adoption, as his creator, mac, holds a special arrangement with foster’s. he visits the home every single day after school, thereby making him persist as bloo’s “child”. mr. herriman, on the other hand, who functions as an administrator for the house, is madame foster’s own imaginary friend from way back when she was a little girl.
mac and bloo in bloo's room (shared by wilt, eduardo and coco)
foster’s fills me with an amazing, though misplaced, sense of belongingness. no matter how strange or how eccentric you are, there will always be a place for you in this world. you will find here your own childhood fantasies: a stable of unicorns (but they’re bad ass thuggish here!), numerous santa clauses during the holidays, and even a prince charming on a noble steed!
filled with both slapstick and dead pan humor and sarcasm, mind-blowing art and a fabulous cast of characters, foster’s will frequently amuse you. but it will warm your heart too, with stories about friends like an “old” imaginary friend (foster’s first resident!) who has been a companion to generations of lonely children. or a weird one with numerous eyes, being a “seeing-eye” friend for a blind little boy.
would you adopt any of these friends?
winner of five (5) emmy awards, five (5) annie awards (animation awards) and nominated for several more, foster’s was named 85th best animated series by ign, calling it “very funny and endearing”. critics praise its characterization and art design, one making special mention of the character “cheese”, saying he is the “quintessence of foster’s surreal charm.”
you are limited only by the extent of your own imagination
you know who else i would like to see in foster’s home?
charles herman, john nash's "best friend" in "a beautiful mind"
wouldn’t that just be awesome?
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