So, last Sunday, October 18th, I went to SM North Edsa's The Block atrium to catch a show by a new British band called Raygun.

Well, I don't really know them much, except that a good friend of mine is totally addicted to them [esp the bassist] and begged me to come. Well, since I had nothing to do that Sunday afternoon and I'm curious to see if this band is cute good, I am happy to oblige with her request.

I arrived at SM North around 4:15pm -- the show was at 5pm and I'm not really expecting it to start on time given that no one really follows the exact time here in the Philippines.

Calallilly [sp?] started the set by singing a few songs [not a big fan of them, sorry, don't know any of their song titles] followed by Raygun.

Raygun setlist [many thanks Dez!]

1. Can't say no
2. Rocketblast
3. Waiting in Line
4. Just Because
5. Lord forgive me
6. See you later

Just bloody 6 songs? Come on! The event was only around 30-40 minutes long!
Meanwhile, enjoy some photos I shot at the event. There's probably gonna be more uploads once I have the time to upload them.

At the end of the concert, there was a meet & greet. Oh, I actually won a contest from a local music channel here in Manila and I got a free t-shirt and poster [which I got signed] from the band. I also got my photos taken with them too [but no, I'm probably not going to upload my photos with the band here].

The next day, the band went to a radio station. I was initially slated to go but since I've also got to work, I decided to choose the latter. Hey, I don't want to get fired! I need the money to pay off my bills & necessities lol. The band would have to wait.

Hopefully the band would come back. Until then, I'm off to enjoy my life! :D

Forgive my lack of updates recently. I've been ill last Friday and I've had a really packed weekend!

First off, this Saturday, I went with a good friend of mine to watch the Spring Awakening musical here in Manila, held at the RCBC theatre.

We're lucky enough to get good loge seats, and our view was excellent!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this theatre production, Spring Awakening is a play first done in 1891 by Frank Wedekind. It was initially banned for show in Germany due to controversial topics [more about that later]. It tells the tale of a group of teenagers, mainly Melchior Gabor, the "perfect" student -- always getting good grades and is a role model to his peers, Moritz - the goof, he's tagged as a failure, and is very curious about women, Wendla - an innocent girl who eventually falls for Melchior, and Ilsa - she's the "rebel" -- she is living in the streets.




I loved this musical! It is absolutely fantastic -- the music was so good [it was written by Duncan Sheik], it had me singing the lines "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah" after we have already left the theatre and was on our way to a second-hand bookstore. This soundtrack is currently on queue on my download list. The performances were great, but there were some downsides:
1. There are some scenes that got me all confused -- some characters did not have the proper closure that I expected [ie Ilsa and Melchior]; also the adult parts got me confused as well. Who's the parent of whom? If only one actor plays one female adult and one male adult, and you would only have one costume the whole play, wouldn't you get confused as well?
2. Not enough props -- there was a part where Melchior was supposed to be in a graveyard and there were tubes everywhere, but uh.. the Manila production didn't even have fake tombstones in the area.

Guess those are the downsides and ups for now.


Now, for those of you who are going to watch [in other countries, or for the next run of this play in Manila, whenever that may be], here's some things you have to prepare yourself for: *a bit of spoilers. Skip this part if you want to be totally surprised*
1.  There's some instances of masturbation that were shown in the play. It's not the explicit kind, of course, but still, don't be shocked.
2. There's some breast & butt exposure [but I heard that there was nudity in the other country's version? can anyone verify this? I am off to surf reviews from other countries after I post this]
3. Suicide is tackled
4. They talk about sex
5. Male kissing is also included [yes, the homo kind, not the bromance kind]
6. Abortion

Overall, the play is very good, its worth my time and money. It's one of those plays that made the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. Good, good, good. Actors were also awesome [Joaquin Valdez is good as Melchior, but the dude that played Moritz? Hats off to you, you were also good as well], the venue is in the Central district as well so it is very accessible!

I think the last run of the play here in Manila was last Sunday, October 18th, but hey, here's wishing to another run!

After the concert, we went off to a secondhand bookstore, and I snagged myself a copy of "The Duchess" by Amanda Foreman. Whee!

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to write a quick note because I saw that Esme posted about our current situation in the Philippines on her blog: http://chocolateandcroissants.blogspot.com/

Okay, just an update for those living outside the Philippines:
Last Saturday, our country was hit by a typhoon [a hurricane to those who live in the US]. We normally have five categories for storms:
Signal # 1-5, which ranges from the wind speed brought about by the typhoon.

Manila was tagged under Signal # 1 last Saturday.

So to residents, it wasn't much of a big deal. We experience typhoons from June till September so it wasn't really that much of a big deal. Until the rains poured in.
It started raining Friday afternoon, and it didn't stop until Sunday morning.

Apparently in a span of hours, the typhoon Ketsana dumped more rain in Manila than Hurricane Katrina & low-lying areas were immediately flooded.

What's scary was that the flood just came out of nowhere. Areas that never experienced flooding before were suddenly filled with water. Water levels rushed up quite quickly, it caught everyone by surprise.

Thankfully we're still okay. Our kitchen got flooded because the grounds outside cannot take the water in anymore, but we managed to get the water out of our house by Saturday evening. The outside of our village was knee-deep in water, and we never experienced that kind of flooding before.

Some friends got stranded, others tried their best to save what they had.

It was a good thing we had supplies of food. We lost electricity for a few hours but it was turned on again, which prompted us to charge our mobile phones and batteries for flashlights.

At the moment, there is another super typhoon that is headed to the Philippines, it will hit the Northern part of Luzon but it is expected to bring rainfall again. And to think that other areas still have floodwaters in the area.

I guess I could say that I am quite lucky. There isn't much damage to our house [except for a door that expanded with the flood water and can't be closed anymore], as compared to what my fellow Filipinos have suffered.

But like everything, we will rebuild and we are thankful that most of us are still alive.

Haven't been reading much books lately, so updates and/or reviews would be posted as soon as I can.

Thank you so much for all your overwhelming messages!

Just saw ticketworld's site and they have a preview of upcoming concerts. and tadah. I see this:


They're coming!

No details on ticket prices/venue yet. My guess is that ticket prices would be around 3k+ for the front block seats and venue might be an open field [the fort, maybe?]

I've no plans of shelling out a lot of cash this December but if any generous ones out there could give me some tickets [i only need 1 :P ] then I'd be one happy camper!

On other stuff, how was your weekend? Mine was very boring. I stayed at home, catched up with Heroes Season 1 [LOSER] and read a pages in some books I've been meaning to read for quite some time.