Hoot hoot!

What do you know, Hooters just opened in the Philippines at SM Mall of Asia.

But I've been hearing reports the girls over there are blah. I searched for some pics from the net and while they're not the best looking girls in the Philippines, they're definitely not unattractive. Quite frankly, they look very Pinay, and just rightly so. I mean, this is Hooters Philippines after all. Some people just have a one-sided idea of what a "beautiful girl" should look like (read: chinitas, mestizas, the works). Apparently it's the time of peninsulares and insulares and indios once again. Gimme a freaking break.


See? Not bad at all.

Filed under night out | |

El mundo es un panuelo

Long time, huh?

Filed under chavacano, night out, thailand, zamboanga | |

Oldies but goodies

In Thailand there are only three channels I can watch on the tube- HBO, Star Movies and AXN. I hate it that the cable service offers Star Movies and Star Sports, but not Star World. I almost never get to watch TV series anymore. I would watch AXN on very few occasions because the shows that I like in that channel are in the morning block, like CSI and House. Man, I miss weekends at home in Makati with my former housemates. Also, most of evening shows I am familiar with in AXN are dubbed in Thai. Sometimes, it's not even dubbing, there'll just be a Thai voice-over commenting on the show.

And so my stack of DVDs are really piling. My latest is a Jack Nicholson-starrer that my former Philosophy professor in AdZU Fr. DJ had once recommended to our class. Well actually he didn't tell the entire class about it, we were just over at Ronald's house after graduation and people started talking about the best movie they've seen. Fr. DJ, who was the "guest of honor", said One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a must-see.

And it was. The movie was hilarious as it was sad, and I especially liked the evil nurse and her grim expression. "Your hand is staining my window," she tells Jack in one scene, and instantly the bitchy nurse becomes my favorite character.

Watch it. This was the movie that gained Jack (we are on first name basis) his Oscar nod in 1975. This movie was made almost a decade before I was born. I almost didn't recognize Danny DeVito, he still had his hair back then.

***

Last Saturday was my first night out in a bar with fellow Filipinos here in Bangkok. It was fun, especially since the bar (Yes, Indeed!) was celebrating its anniversary. They gave out some fancy trumpets and party poppers, and everybody made absolute noise. And we had a very nice spot in the bar too, right in front of the platform where two dancers in skimpy clothing strutted ala- Coyote Ugly.

Two of the singers of the house band were Filipinos, by the way, and boy did they rock. This girl Janice can take on And I Am Telling You without effort.

I noticed however that most of the songs in the program were quite old. Like Scorpions old, but it was what satisfied the Thai crowd. I guess they pretty much still like old stuff here. I mean I can still hear songs by boy bands in the late nineties being played on the radio when Im in a cab. (Once though I heard a song by Christian Bautista being played, I wanted to tell the cabbie "He's freaking Filipino!")

But one thing's for sure, Thais really know how to have fun.

Filed under movies, night out, thailand, tv | |

Ode to Marsha

So I tried speed dating for the first time last week.

The biggest factor why I was present in that activity was the fact that it's sponsored by ETC (Entertainment Central) channel, meaning:

1. There's going to be free chow.
2. I could meet Sam Oh, this beautiful and smart chinky-eyed host from the channel.

Of course, I also looked forward to having a good time with any possible matches so I signed up and got myself a haircut.

That night there was a magician and a (lame) ventriloquist in the house but the fun started when it was time to do the speed dates. The first girl I sat down with was okay so I "checked" her. (You're supposed to check someone's name on a match card and give corresponding scores, 10 as your highest match. If the girl checked me as well, the host would be giving us each other's phone numbers/ email-add's.) Anyway, the girl works in a call center and says she doesn't have her "weekends" on Saturdays and Sundays because apparently in call centers, you have no say when you get your two days off. That's tough.

The second girl was into art and graphics design. Her questions were all restricted to those on the reference cards that they had distributed earlier, questions like "Do you have a pet?" and "What was the last movie you watched?" Then graphics girl asked me what I wanted written on my tombstone when I die. I said, "He lived his life to the fullest and enjoyed every minute of it." (You gotta make a good impression on first dates.) Then without warning the girl ranted off things about death, how she'd like to be cremated and all. She was scary. The girl clearly had issues and had better sit down with a psychologist.

Then there was a cute girl that I saw sitting by herself earlier before the rounds. She said she was into games and gadgets. A techie. I checked her. I think.

There were a lot of girls that I met, but I wasn't prepared for... this one girl. Let's call her Marsha. She tells me she's from Baguio but her work requires that she spend some days in Manila every week. I forgot what it was that she did exactly. She disclosed that the person sitting beside her was her PA. "PA?" I asked. "Personal assistant. You know," she clarifies. She was into some weird fashion too, so I joked around and told her "So, uh, I assume you're into fashion and stuff?"

"Oh may gaaad, how did you know?" came her reply, and she gave a Kris Aquino performance discussing her life non-stop... things I didn't really listen to, until she ended her paragraph with, "well, you know, it's dyahe to be always working... tapos lagi pa kaming nag-aaway ng boyfriend ko..."

Wait a minute. Two things: 1. You have a boyfriend? 2. What the hell are you doing here if you had a boyfriend?

She clarified that her boyfriend was abroad so she's allowed to play. I didn't really know how to respond to that so I took my time to absorb what she said and just kept smiling at her.

"Oh may gaaad, don't look at me like thaaaat..." she went all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry! What do you mean?" I thought that I had offended her with my stare. I was about to apologize when she added, "Na-me-melt ako sa smile mo kasi."

Hehehe, Marsha was flirting with me.

I shrugged it off and simply let her continue with her soliloquy. But she stopped in the middle of her stories and said, "Ang cute ng lips mo." Then she batted her eyelashes.

Suddenly our five minutes was up. I got up and thanked her. There's a girl you don't meet everyday! :)

The next girl on the table was her alleged PA. She kept hiding behind her match card and was too shy to ask me any question. I tried to lighten her up and joked around so she could be more comfortable, but to no avail. So we spent our remaining minutes in silence looking at the people around us. Sam is really cute.

So basically what happened was I had fun! Honestly! Especially because of the surreal Marsha, who provided me nice entertainment that night.

Marsha, if you're reading this, please know that the world needs more people like you, but you must probably stop sniffing all that glue too. It's bad for your health.

Monggolink:

Sam's blog here.

Filed under date, holiday, night out | |

Love is evoL

Jessica Zafra posted this on her blog:

Love = evoL

Failed to make dinner reservations? “Forgot” to ask someone out? Dateless? Having a spat with your significant other? Stressed from work? Bored out of your wits? Well screw that. Join Geek Chorus and Lomomanila at Mag:net Katipunan on Feb the 14th, 8ish. Bob Guerrero and Gabe Mercado of DaPulis will perform an acoustic set featuring songs from their albums and sad bastard covers of other people’s songs. The Silly Peoples Improv Theater (SPIT) will read a selection of bad breakup letters. They need more bad breakup letters! Everyone’s been a dumper or a dumpee: now you can profit (well, not in cash) from your misery! Email your bad breakup letters (real or imaginary) to yarr@geekchorus.org or gabe@geekchorus.org. Letters stay anonymous and you may opt to replace names of real people with fake names like Marcelline, Sondra or Randy.

So guess where I was headed on Valentine's Day.

Ruth, my new partner in crime, went with me to this weird normal gathering of weird normal people on VD. When we arrived, they had us register our names and wear stickers color-coded as follows: blue for single, red for in a relationship, and white for it's complicated. They were big on the Friendster thing, apparently.

The place was small, hence crowded. There were a couple of mad art pieces everywhere, I didn't really understand the concept, I think sometimes people just pour paint over some darn canvas and call it art. And there were a lot of people that I can only assume to be coños ... not really my kind of people. But the event itself was actually unique and interesting. The funny part was when Gabe Mercado and his band sang a couple of songs like "Ipagpatawad mo" and other funny renditions of other people's songs. A hoot! I was expecting Gabe, however, to stop in the middle of a song and let his tummy out, and then ask the audience, Okay ka ba tyan?

The part when they started reading break up letters was also fun. I especially loved that one letter ridden with bad ass grammar. If you were on the receiving end of that madapaka letter, you would have a blast reading it. Tears of joy, man, tears of joy.

They also announced an events group called Geek Chorus that night. It's a unique group in that it caters to us people who shudder at the mention of clubs like "Embassy" (Yaaaak, Gabe says). They have interesting activities lined up for 2007, like a Paper Airplane Flying Contest, Take Your Grad Photo Again, and etc. Should be fun.

All in all it was an interesting experience on a Valentine's Day.


*Pictures not taken by me.

Filed under holiday, night out | |

Pinoy seriously joking

Friday night saw my good friend Ruth and I head out to SM Megamall to watch standup comic Rex Naverrete’s Seriously Joking show.

When I found out that this guy was in town and doing a stand up comedy show for the benefit of the Almost Aborted Babies foundation (kidding!), I didn't hesitate to buy a ticket. It's great that Ruth also liked Rex so we decided to get front row seats to the show. Front row, man. For someone who digs Mad TV and Saturday Night Live, I just had to.

So there we were, sitting with this guy Mike Unzon, a budding Filipino-American comic who opened for Rex. Mike was okay, I liked his jokes about how nobody really leaves a message on an answering machine in this country. It is so true, nobody does! We have an answering machine at home and the "messages" our callers leave us are mostly just the sound of annoying busy tones or them hanging up the madapaka phone, muttering to themselves "Ano daw?"

Rex is the only Filipino comic that I know of, really. I first learned about him through this freaking hilarious skit called Maritess vs. The Superfriends that made its rounds in office chain emails. This Maritess character is a Filipina maid who works for the Superfriends, and she hails from — well what do you know, my hometown Zamboanga. Heehee. This cartoon skit has gained a world-wide audience, even among non-Filipinos. Watch it!



Rex's material is usually about the weird and neurotic Filipino culture, but he tells them tastefully and he's amazingly never offensive. He is a man on a mission, the dash in the term "Fil-Am." Ruth and I were laughing all throughout the show our jaws practically hurt. He told stories about growing up with his Irish bestfriend Brian O'Brien who wanted to learn more about the Filipino culture so Rex gave him all sorts of Filipino dishes like the lengua (pig's tongue), which is tasteful because it will "taste you back," and the amazing candy called polvoron which sucks the moisture out of anything. This thing should help keep floods at bay!

But the part that I loved most was his story about when he was a little boy visiting the Philippines for the first time (he was born in San Francisco). He was excited to finally see the country, only to find out his relatives whom he was going to stay with lived in a province away from modern civilzation where myths about the duende (bad little Papa Smurfs), kapre (a half-man, half-horse giant living in the trees and smoking weeners) and mananaggal (a winged bad-haired lady with no lower torso, haunting the rooftops and sucking the babies off the pregnant women's bellies) abound. It was hoot! And I was impressed that he could do a woman's voice, like Maritess in the skit above!

If you're into standup comedy, you should catch him. He'll be at the San Francisco Punchline on Nov. 21st to 25th, and he's touring Australia on December 8th to 10th.


Monggolink:

More about Rex Navarrete here. Youtube videos here, here, and here.

Filed under night out | |