Category Archives: plays

mini-housewarming + faburrito + potted potter + i might need to sell a kidney to get to thailand

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What a weekend! First weekend we spent in the new place where we didn’t have to clean.  (Only because we had to clean on a weekday.)

Friday to early-morning Saturday, met up with my high school girlfriends to have dinner at Greenbelt 5′s Mesa. Really good food, so good we neglected to take pictures. I highly recommend the Crispy Boneless Tilapia with four sauces, and the Crispy Leche Flan. Don’t you already feel the oil boiling in your veins just by reading that?

Continuing the neglect to take photos, I invited them over to see the new place, and got suckered into a summer trip to Vietnam and Thailand. This will require an enormous amount of not spending. So help me.

A lotion straight from Fiji! Thanks Ghia! She had to wash dishes to get me this. Kidding! Or not.

Potted Potter

Saturday, I dragged J to have lunch at Faburrito at The Columns. Now I was able to take pictures.

Potted Potter

Potted Potter

Potted Potter

They serve affordable and guilt-free food. We got burrito with steak (for J.) and chicken (for me), corn soup, and mint tea. I found the mint in the mint tea overpowering, but loved the flavor of everything else.

Potted Potter

Potted Potter

We missed the first run of Potted Potter and were grateful that they came back.

Potted Potter

Potted Potter

Potted Potter in Manila, a parody that squeezes all seven books into 70 minutes, was performed by Jesse Briton and Gary Trainor. (It was originally a five-minute street show created by Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner in 2005  to entertain the fans lining up for the the 6th book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.) And it was hilarious! Loved the Quidditch Match. It brightened up our Saturday. :)

The venue was small, so the view from our Balcony seats weren’t so bad.

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Potted Potter

On Sunday, I just stayed home (J went off to a game at his friends’) and watched Gattaca. So good even Andrew Niccol can’t top himself. It’s ideas and emotional impact does not compare to his own S1mone and In Time. I was personally drawn to Jude Law’s character. The need for perfection has its own pressures.

gattaca

Also: now reading Never Let Me Go. Sci-fi overload, and I love it.

zsa zsa zaturnnah: vack with a vengeance

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Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino, Cultural Center of the Philippines. Starring Eula Valdez, Pinky Amador, Gabe Mercado, and Tuxqs Rutaquio.

I planned but was never able to catch this musical during its previous runs, so I was certainly happy to hear the news that it was going to be staged till March.

Front-row seats, bitches.

Look how close we were to the stage:

[taken during intermission; no copyright infringement intended]

Some comments:

- The sound system was wonky. It was hard to hear the lyrics of the solos,  and we were already on the front row. The chorus was fine, as well as the music, so I was wondering: was the music too loud, or were the soloists just not singing loudly enough? Sound during the spoken bits were okay too, though. Hm. It’s a shame, really. Perhaps they should just stage the musical in RCBC Plaza. I saw Avenue Q there last year, and I was able to hear every spoken/sung word onstage.

- The church scene is one of my favorite scenes from the comic book. I felt the crowd onstage wasn’t big enough in order to successfuly translate that scene.

- There were punch lines that got drowned by laughter incited by previous punch lines (usually ad-libbed by Gabe).

- The line,” Te, nagdamit ka pa“, didn’t make sense to me because Pinky Amador’s costume wasn’t sexy enough! There should be LESS! WAY LESS! (Lol, I think that’s just my personal taste showing.)

- Wilma Doesnt (who played Dina B.) looked lost, like she didn’t rehearse her movements. I caught her looking at her companions for leads several times.

Ang daming reklamo! :D But whatever, you should see this play. It will brighten your mood. There were moments when I couldn’t stop laughing.

- I enjoyed the performances. Gabe Mercado was high-larious, Pinky Amador and Tuxqs Rutaquio and “Aling Britney” were spot-on, and Eula Valdez – ganda mo teh! Ikaw na.

- I didn’t know Eula Valdez could sing. That was wonderful.

- I thought the Dodong-Ada confrontation scene was going to be cheesy, but it turned out cute.

- I love the audience. Someone said, “Girl, wag nang choosy!” during that scene hahaha!

The actors sat at a table to sign autographs after, but there was a crowd, so I just took pictures (with my cell phone).

“Flagganahng lumilipad na parang Frisbee!“

stories galore

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It’s true: gorgeous stories can save us from the atrocious heat. (I went home to Bulacan this weekend, and several rice fields had turned brown. Depressing. I’ve never seen anything like it in the twenty or so years I’ve lived in the province. At home I had one glass of halu-halo after another. Bless my parents.)

Up in the Air

Saw the film weeks ago. (Late review is late.) Watched it knowing absolutely nothing about the story. And what pay-off.

Julie & Julia

Great food, but Meryl Streep’s performance is exceptionally delicious. Amy Adams does loss and despair quite well. Oh those sad eyes.

According to the film, Julia Child (Streep’s character) didn’t even know how to boil an egg when she got married. So I can study this stuff? So I have hope? :D

Princess and the Frog

I watched this one with my siblings. How lovely (and clever) to set the story in New Orleans! Great music, and hello 2D glad to have you back. Lookin’ good. :)

Avenue Q

Exactly what I needed to start the week! Princeton (Felix Rivera) wonders what he can do “with a B.A. in English” and ends up renting a place on Avenue Q as he tries to figure out what to do with his life. Sesame Street on meth, y’all. (Seriously: puppet sex = day is made.) Frenchie Dy (Christmas Eve) at times finds it hard to maintain the Japanese accent, but I still enjoyed the performances. “Special” is one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack (I heard the songs first before seeing the musical – seeing it is waaaay better), and thank you Rachel Alejandro (Kate Monster/ Lucy T. Slut) for nailing it. Bravo! :D

Also starring Aiza Seguerra, Joel Trinidad, Calvin Millado, and Thea Tadiar. Showing at the Carlos Romulo Auditorium inside the RCBC Plaza.

Here’s a few photos with Felix Rivera and Lucy T. Slut’s boobies. :)

Later, dinner at Thai restaurant Oody’s and Cold Rock ice cream at Greenbelt. I loved Oody’s food. Flavorful, and inexpensive. I’d eat there again.