TOPAZ HORIZON

I dunno where I was when 5-year-old twins Jeremy and Justin Garcia trended but thanks to OK!'s associate fashion editor, Kabbie Rodriguez, who told me about the Heya Wii twins, I am now hooked!



I don't know which is which but the kid on the right is obviously the dancer while his brother is the singer. Here's the other proof: Covering Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never," little boy at left really likes to sing but boy to the right dances from the heart!



They're so funny! They can really dance! And they have an understanding of improv. This vid of Bruno Mars's "The Lazy Song" is hilarious:



The best part! They're Pinoys!!!



I think Justin's the singer then!

How I wish now that I had twins! It's only hard at the start! But look at how adorable they are, and I wish Vito had someone like that in his life. Well, he'll just have to grow up and find him some friends!

UPDATED: Oh, now I know where I was when Jeremy and Justin went viral--I was in Bali where there was no Internet! They came out on Huffington Post on July 23 (click!), then on the UK's The Sun on July 26 (click!), Perez Hilton and NYmag.com wrote about them on July 31 (click! click!), and they've been everywhere since!

I love this!

Took me back to 2001. I was 24 years old, living in a one-bedroom unit along Shaw Blvd. Vince and I watched Moulin Rouge! at Megamall, the last full show. We walked out of the mall at half past midnight, the streets were deserted and a big bright full moon was high up in the sky, making the streets and buildings glow. We walked hand-in-hand down ADB Ave, then Vince twirled me about on San Miguel Ave, while we sang, "How wonderful life is now you're in the world!"

Life is wonderful indeed.

Enjoy!



Those Japanese are beyond crazy! I laughed until my tummy hurt and there were tears in my eyes. I have got to visit Japan soon!!! But I hope I don't get to be a prank victim!

Looks like a lot of you saw my guest stint at Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho. I didn't (we watched Fringe instead!) but blog reader Mav Duran sent me a link and so I was able to watch it. Thanks, Mav!

Don't blink or you'll miss it!



On Twitter (follow me!), some of my followers who watched the show teased me about my voice. Yes, it's really soft and high-pitched. I screech when I'm excited, too. It's okay, I don't get offended about it. I even coined a term for my voice--boses pekpek. In polite company, it's boses ipis.

I used to try to modulate but I dunno, I just never can do it. As a writer, I never dreamed I'd be in a position that I'd have to actually express my thoughts verbally so public speaking was never a skill I developed.

I do wonder, though, since my Twitter followers said, "I didn't imagine you to sound like that" and "Your voice is unexpected," I wonder how exactly did you think I'd sound? Just curious!

I am obsessed with Adele's "Someone Like You." You have to watch her as she sings, as she agonizes over each word in this haunting song of loss, regret and longing.


I really cry whenever I listen to this song, even though I have—gladly—no experience of a lost love. I married my great love and I love him deeper with each passing day.

At Nikki's wedding last year

I guess I cry because I am mourning for Adele (she wrote this song for a former lover) and all those who don't have what I am so grateful to have--a love that is true and deep and lasting and strong and a source of comfort and joy. I truly wish that everyone find that one true love and be wise enough to recognize it and choose it above all else. Love isn't easy but it's always worth it.

Have a happy weekend filled with love!

I'm so glad kids today have Lady Gaga's empowering anthem to sing and believe in. We all need to know that we're beautiful just the way we are. Oops, that's a different song!

Vince: "Hey, did you cough up a hair ball?"

Me: "Waaaaaah! I'm sorry my hair's all over the place!"

Every morning, I wake up to this. More fall off in the shower!

And when I say it's all over the place, I mean, it's EVERYWHERE. It's embarrassing. My hair line's receding and I have little bald spots by my temples and the crown. This postpartum hair loss is alarming. I know I already talked about this a few posts ago but there is no happy resolution anytime soon. Even my beloved hairstylist Louis Phillip Kee told me while we were lined up at the Zara sale, "Women really do lose their hair from 12 to 16 months after giving birth." Great. That's just great!

Meanwhile, P&G Beauty sent me this little package:

News of my hair disaster must have reached them! And I quickly picked up this bottle:

That bright golden sticker just yelled at me, "98% less hair fall within 14 days!" Aha! I knew it. I knew it. That mystery shampoo I was talking about in my previous post on the same unfortunate topic is indeed Pantene Pro-V Hair Fall Control. Well, I know I didn't put my guess in the post but the blindfolded woman looked exactly like Claudine Barretto and that just gave it away.


So I just wanted to tell you that if you're also suffering from hair fall, maybe you'd like to give Pantene a try. Who knows? You just might win a trip for two to Boracay!!!

First, you have to try out the shampoo. Second, you have to take a photo of your transformed hair (yep, the Pantene promise is transformed hair in 2 weeks!). Third, like their Facebook page (it's here!). Fourth, upload that fabulous photo of yours so that other girls can see how gorgeous your hair is (that photo to the left was my glossy hair when I was pregnant. Sigh.). And last, cross your fingers and hope you win a trip for two to the absolutely amazing Discovery Shores Boracay!

Contest mechanics here: I Commit to Change.

*The Pantene promise of less hair fall is for those who lose hair due to breakage. If you are suffering from hair fall due to stress and hormones (like I am!), we’ll just have to wait it out. 

I don't believe it! I wasn't part of the hordes of women who watched HBO's Sex and The City but it was such a huge pop culture hit that I knew Sarah Jessica Parker, or rather, Carrie Bradshaw may have worn a different fabulous brand every week on the show but she used just one and only one computer on every episode: a Mac!


But for the upcoming movie sequel, Carrie will be typing out her thoughts on a--gasp!--HP Notebook.


Well, I'll be honest with ya--it's pretty much discombobulating. It's like watching Transformers and seeing Bumblebee is now a GM, not a VW! Weird. Hewlett-Packard's marketing department did its darndest to partner with the franchise (and successfully so) but I dunno. It's just not right!

The Mac is the computer designed for creative people--that's why we all have Macs at the editorial department (mine is a mighty impressive iMac). Macs are used by musicians, photographers, copywriters, art directors, fashion designers, writers. I really can't explain why (I'll let the Third World Nerd do that) but Macs just seem to be designed in such a way that creative people intuitively know what to do with it. I knew from the moment I switched one on that a Mac and I had something beautiful going on. It's like love!  

So writer and design-crazy Carrie Bradshaw and the Mac were just the perfect partnership. They made sense. But Carrie and HP? Hmmm. This I gotta see.

Of course, I'm not putting PCs down at all. I am, after all, typing this blog post on an HP Mini. I got a Mini because it was cheap. And I wanted to keep my computer-related stuff at home simple--surfing, blogging, photo storage, emailing, eBaying. I didn't want to take work home--which is what the Third World Nerd does, hence his MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone. He has nothing against PCs, too, since he also used one for gaming and downloading. I chose a PC for home because I wanted my online doings at home to be simple, no fancy stuff. After all, that's the HP promise: The computer is personal again! But when it comes to doing creative things (from simple to heavy duty!), there's only one baby for that job: a Mac.

Read more about this shocking new partnership from Popeater and The Guardian UK.

UPDATE: It's not what we think! Spot.ph has the story here.

Forget about Christmas! I suddenly can't wait for this year to end! January 10 never felt so far away! Chuck is baaaaaaack!!!



Sigh. I'm so excited! Chuck and Sarah's budding love affair (and sexual chemistry!) is like a nice heated blanket on a bitterly cold day. Makes me feel all warm and toasty from head to toe. And is it just me or is Chuck getting cuter and Sarah's getting hotter? Is that even possible??? Love Chuck! The countdown has begun! 

The Manila String Machine.



My brother, a cellist, is part of this quartet, and they were the ones who played at my wedding. They also played at Issa Litton's wedding. And they will perform soon at my friend Mariel's wedding.

I noticed as I was blog-hopping that there are so many bride-to-be's out there, all furiously/dreamily/feverishly planning their wedding. Well, might I make a suggestion? If you're the type of bride and groom who care about the details, then a string quartet definitely makes your wedding more elegant and more beautiful.

My wedding was just lovely--intimate, quiet and glamorous. Well, my parents would have preferred a large and noisy event (I'm from a large and ridiculously noisy family) but for Vince and me, the only sound we wanted to hear that day was that of well wishes and laughter and the music of strings.

My uncle, Papa's brother, did decide to stir things up and campaign for a senator (to my horror, the uncle even showed up in jeans and a campaign shirt)... and that is a story for another day!

Aside from that annoying snafu, my wedding was elegant. And while I have my friends and sisters-in-law to thank for that, I also know that the beautiful music my brother and his friends played was the thread that held it all together. Never underestimate the power of music. In this case, on perhaps the happiest day of your life, the Manila String Machine will be the perfect accompaniment to start your journey to happily ever after!

The times, they are a-changin'. Used to be we looked to newspapers and television for what's happening in the world. Now, we turn to our blogs, mobile phones, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other live chat software. It's back to the old ways of spreading the news--word of mouth. Citizen journalism is very democratic. And fast. It has its problems, too, like some of the news can't be confirmed to be true. But, for now, I'm going to think of it as a blessing.

For me, it started with Michael Jackson's death. For others, with Obama's rise to the US presidency. And for the rest of the Filipinos affected by Typhoon Ondoy, this new way of spreading the news was so true during the height and the aftermath of the storm.

And then there's the uplifting messages we get that we no longer seem to get from TV and newspapers. These are inspiring stories of people we'd never have heard of because there are so many of them out there but there's only so much space on paper and airtime on TV. With YouTube and blogs and the worldwide web, we get to learn about wonderful people like Logan.

This gets me every time. Every time. Especially now when I've lost a mother, I'm losing my beloved pet wabbit, and I see suffering everywhere. God understands. He will always understand. God bless you, people.

TV commercials these days are just crap. They're mostly inane and stupid and just assume the viewer is just as stupid and inane. Remember when it was actually a joy to sit for the commercial breaks? These days, I use those breaks to surf other channels, go to the loo, check the ref for food, or write Colonix reviews in my new beauty blog.

There are a few good ones that I do enjoy. Like this one from Close Up:


And this one from Sony Bravia three years ago:


And the "First Time, First Love" commercial of Coke! So '80s! (Yes, I was born in the '70s so I have a pretty good memory of this ad):


The '80s were the golden age for Coke ads but my favorite was the Pepsi commercial starring Fred Savage where he was writing a love letter to a girl and he was inspired by the drink, prompting the girl to realize, "I feel like... a Pepsi." So sad I can't find it on YouTube!

But the ad I truly truly love is this vintage Apple TVC that my husband tells me brings back memories of another age.


We feel every word because Vince and I have always been the misfits, the rebels and troublemakers that people never really understood. I know my parents always worried about me, afraid I'd end up dead because I always stirred up trouble but, hey, I turned out okay! The funny thing is, as media people, Vince and I are both in positions where we can actually mold the minds of our readers. It's crazy that we are where we are. We have dangerous thoughts and someone is actually paying us to spread them!

By the way, I found this vid through the utterly wonderful poet Susannah-Cole. She inspires me with her words and her images, and we are both "secret keepers of hope," believers in moving the world forward one blog post at a time.

This weekend, Vince and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary and the 10th anniversary of our first kiss!

We had a very simple day, which started with me cooking a big brunch. Then... I won't go into specifics! Later on, we went to Power Plant for a haircut (yes, a haircut!) because Vince's last haircut was in December and his long hair was really annoying him. Pardon the pics--we took them with the iPhone because I didn't want to lug around my huge camera.

Then we had dinner at Myron's. Oh, but that was a lovely dinner that left us dizzy. I had a crisp salad and a glass of Chardonnay; Vince had a juicy steak and a Shiraz. We also had two orders of these huge baked oysters that were each as big as my hand. I had 7, Vince had 5! We were so full and round, Vince joked that we could just roll ourselves home!
We were supposed to watch Fast & Furious (we are fans of The Fast & The Furious because hot cars and hot stars are a deadly combination) and watch Ferrari parts fly but I think the movie was all Mitsubishi, Nissan and Mazda and no one gave good reviews so we decided to drop by the bookstore instead. I know I never mention books in this blog because I try to keep this blog light and silly but Vince and I adore books and we do believe we've spent a small fortune on Fully Booked.

Then home we went for rich Batangas coffee and Selecta strawberry ice cream. We parked ourselves in front of the TV for a marathon of Pushing Daisies and Chuck and a truly bad movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, which we delighted in demolishing. And that was our anniversary!

Anyway, this whole weekend, I've been singing "A Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin. It was the song I was singing when Vince and I started going out in 1999, and what I hummed as I prepared for our wedding in 2007. You know, even after 10 years, I still feel like I'm in a whole new world. With the one I love by my side, it is indeed still a thrilling chase, a wondrous place for Vince and me.

When I said I looked to the '80s for hair inspiration, well, Beyonce went a few notches higher and created a whole video inspired by the '60s.

Here she says that her uber popular "Put a Ring on It" vid was inspired by choreographer Gwen Fosse (oops, posted a wrong vid! Here's the real one!):


And here's the incomparable Mrs. Fosse and her backup dancers shakin' their booty:


Wowza! Whoever said white folks can't dance clearly do not know the Lady Fosse! Here's Beyonce and her backup dancers paying homage:


Can you believe the lithe muscles on Beyonce and her girls? They must've been taking some HGH to get that strong! And those moves aren't easy, mind you. I can imagine the endless practice sessions and training. Anyway, here's the Philippines' very own Dancing Queen, Lucy Torres-Gomez!


I will give Lucy a big A for effort. I tried dancing it and looked pathetic so I won't even dare say anything against the lovely Lucy... But please feel free to comment!

OMG, Britney at the height of her career and her sexiness. "Toxic" is one of my favorite Britney Spears songs and when I found this on YouTube today, well, I just had to dance and sing along!

Note: If you're very conservative, then please skip to the next post.



Didn't that make your jaw drop? I hope pants didn't drop, though! I'm trying to learn the dance moves and Vince just laughed away. I guess I need a sparkly nude costume then!

OMG. I saw this video in The BagHag and I just laughed my head off silly. Because I know exactly how this poor woman feels!


On our honeymoon in London last year, Vince and I decided to go to the National Gallery after checking out of our hotel at noon. Our flight was at 6 PM. Surely, 2 hours in a museum can't hurt. Oh, boy, did it hurt! First of all, 2 hours are not enough in a museum as breathtaking as the National Gallery. So of course, we lingered. Still, Heathrow was just a 30-minute train ride away. Unfortunately, the tube had so many problems on that particular day and we were stuck underground between stations for quite a while. So basically it took us some frikkin' 2 hours and 50 minutes to get from Kings Cross to Heathrow.

We ran and ran and ran with our luggage and shopping. We got to the gate 5 minutes after it closed. I begged, "Please let us through. It's just 5 minutes. Please. We want to go home." I did not cry. In fact, I was so upset I was whispering because I felt if I raised my voice just a bit, it would escalate to screaming fury (like the woman in the video).


Of course Cathay Pacific refused, politely but firmly. We stayed at the check-in counter for the rest of the evening, waiting to be chance passengers but all flights to Manila were fully booked. There was another girl who also missed her flight, and she was sobbing so much I wanted to hug her. Anyway, we then decided to fly to Hong Kong, stay there for a night then try to get a flight from there to Manila. No luck.

I tell you, dear readers, getting left behind by your plane is one of the worst things that can happen to you! Vince and I spent the night at Heathrow hoping airports offered free hotel rooms for unfortunate people like us (tip: stay at the arrivals section--it's warm there and the convenience shops are open all night). Good thing we had the Sony PSP to keep us sane. We watched episodes of Lost (and we commiserated with the characters!), listened to music, played games and read comic books all on the PSP. I also finished reading The Kite Runner, which made me sadder.

We were finally able to book a flight first thing in the morning and as we were having lunch, Vince tried to cheer me up: "As soon as we get home, we'll eat tinolang manok and sinigang and adobo with fried garlic rice..." He trailed off because by then I had started bawling. I wailed, "I want to go home! I want to go home!"

Haha, we joke about it now but I swear upon the Gucci bag I just won that I will forever check in early! No more missed flights ever!


*to my non-Filipino readers, tinolang manok is chicken stewed with chili leaves, sayote/green papaya and ginger; sinigang is a sour soup of pork/fish/prawn and vegetables; adobo is pork/chicken simmered to fall-apart tenderness in garlic, vinegar and soy sauce. Oh my, I got hungry...

If you're vegetarian or from PETA, skip this post. You've been warned!

Food master (chef, author, TV host) Anthony Bourdain finally visited the Philippines and the show was on last week (and it took me this long to post about it because my new Nine West shoes and new Gucci bag totally distracted me!). Vince and I love his show "No Reservations" because we loooove food and any show that tackles food is a good show! Anthony's is different from most because, unlike most people, he has a very open mind on food and he tells it like it is, so if he says it's good, you betcha it's good. And if it's bad, I'll take his word for it, too. Other hosts are such huge fans of their own food (usually bland) that they can't appreciate the cuisines of other cultures.

So when he came over and said that our lechon, or roasted pig, is the best in the entire world, well, I assure you that a lot of pigs will get roasted as Pinoys all over celebrate the fact that Anthony Bourdain just proclaimed our lechon as the "Best. Pig. Ever!"
I just want to say that, while "No Reservations" is a food show, he tackled one mighty question: Who is the Filipino? It really bothered Anthony that if our food's so good, why isn't it on the culinary map? Why aren't we promoting it and pushing it because, to him, the few dishes he ate were some of the best-tasting stuff he's ever had. Hell, yeah! Pinoy food forever! In fact, our food is so good, Filipinos are fast becoming a nation that desperately needs the best diet pill ever! Tee hee.

Anyway, this is a very serious question that applies to all aspects. I've had the opportunity to meet many foreigners. When the hosts of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" visited, they were surprised to see how fashionable Filipinas are, which begs the question: Why aren't Filipinos on the fashion map? Some American and European friends of mine who've been to many beaches and diving sites all over the world visit the Philippines and get so flabbergasted at how beautiful our shorelines are, which begs the question: Why aren't our beaches--the very best in the world!--in the travel books? And so on and so forth.




Watch the show as Anthony and the Pinoys he interviews grapple with this question. This is the comment I left on Anthony's blog:

"Our identity has always been debated on. Everyone says we have none because--like you said--we are too nice and struggle to please and be integrated. But underneath that, there is a Filipino identity, very subtle, but we recognize it in each other as soon as we step out of the country. Like you said, Filipinos are nice. And everywhere in the world, if you meet a friendly, smiling, eager-to-please, kind, happy, funny, all-suffering person, I bet my life you just met a Filipino.
"And I want to add that the Filipino identity is wrapped around food! Why do you think your show has so many Filipino fans, it makes you nervous? =D As long as it's about food, Filipinos will devour it!"

If you're Pinoy, stand up and be proud! And let's have some lechon while we're at it!

*photos from Anthony Bourdain's online journal

You are the reason that I breathe
You are the reason that I still believe
You are my destiny
Jai Ho!

No there is nothing that can stop us
Nothing can ever come between us
So come and dance with me
Jai Ho!

I love this song! Now if I can only learn the dance steps...

"Jai Ho" by The Pussycat Dolls, Oscar-winning song from Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire

I got tagged on email but I'd rather do it here on my blog.

Here are the rules for the Book Tag:
1. Grab the nearest book to you (not the most intellectual or your favorite. From where you're sitting, get the nearest one!).
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Post the text of the first two-five sentences.
4. Tag five people to do the same.

And here's what I do:
1. The book is The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams. It's Vince's hardbound book that contains five novels and one short story. He loves it. I'm opening it for the first time now...

2. ... to page 56, which says,

3. "The real Universe arched sickeningly away beneath them. Various pretend ones flitted silently by, like mountain goats. Primal light exploded, splattering space-time with gobbets of Jell-O. Time blossomed, matter shrank away. The highest prime number coalesced quietly in a corner and hid itself away for ever."

4. Hmm. That was interesting and strange. I guess this book's on my To-Read list! I'm tagging the five people on my blogroll who've most recently updated their blogs:

This is for Mama who passed away exactly a month ago. I miss you dearly.



I don't believe in dwelling on things that I should've done, shouldn't have done because at that time, that was my truth and I needed to live that truth. I lived the way I lived and I did what I had to do to be happy, to grow up, to find me. Still, when the silence becomes deafening I can't help but feel sorry I put you aside so that I can be me.

I know I'm right where I belong
But sometimes when I'm not that strong
I wish I, wish I'd done a little bit more
Now shoulda woulda coulda means I'm out of time
Shoulda woulda coulda can't change your mind
And I wonder, I wonder what I'm gonna do
"Shoulda woulda coulda" are the last words of a fool.