tymeless

Got this from a recently added LJ friend.

List the last 10 things you saw at the theatre in order:
Huwaw, let's see now...

1. Dead Stars 1925 / Sepang Loca (UP Playwrights Theater, UP Diliman)
2. Doc Resureccion: Gagamutin ang Bayan (Virgin Labfest 5, CCP)
3. Asawa/Kabit (Virgin Labfest 5, CCP)
4. Kitchen Medea (Virgin Labfest 5, CCP)
5. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Atlantis Productions, RCBC)
6. Breakups and Breakdowns (Virgin Labfest 5 reading, CCP)
7. Songs For A New World (9 Works Theatrical, Onstage)
8. Oktubre, Nung Tayo'y Nagmamahalan Pa (TP Rehearsal and Performance Techniques Workshop recital, CCP)
9. Bent To Heat You Up and Cool You Down (Dulaang Sipat Lawin, CSB)
10. The Children's Hour (PHSA Theater Arts students, CCP)

Who was the best performer in number one?
Opaline Rae Santos as Sepang Loca. Hahaha, fine, if you want something that doesn't seem biased (and it's not, really), it will have to be Ana Abad Santos in Dead Stars.

Why did you go to see number two?
Because the Tuxqs-Lallie director-playwright tandem comes up with really good shows for Virgin Labfest, and because Tad was playing one of the 2 leads.

Can you remember a line/lyric from number three that you liked?
Man, I loved the witty lines in Asawa/Kabit, but I can't seem to recall any.

What would you give number four out of ten?
I'd give it a 7.

Was there someone hot in number five?
Hot? Uhm, Felix Rivera? Hahahahaha! Well, I just had to mention him. Half the people i know are crushing on him.

What was number six about?
The highs and lows of relationships, and it was rumored to be loosely based on Joel's experiences, hahaha.

Who was your favourite actor in number seven?
Oh man, I can't pick just one. They were all my favorites in this production!

What was your favourite bit in number eight?
Hmmm... Favorite bit... I have to say the last scenes with Rayna, RJ and Russell.

Would you see number nine again?
Sure! I hope they're gonna tour it again.

What was the worst thing about number ten?
I can't really say anything bad about this production. Heck, for high school kids, they sure pulled off a good show. OK, fine, I'll have to say that the guy who played the lone male didn't really do justice to his character.

Which was best?
Oh please, don't make me choose. OK, I have to say Doc Resureccion. And I'm happy to announce that it won Ms. Lallie a Palanca award. I just found out last Sunday. Congrats again, Ms Lallie!

Which was worst?
The worst? None, really. But the first time I watched Asawa/Kabit, it was super bitin because it skipped pages of lines. Labfest Fragments ba ito? Hahaha.

Did any make you cry?
Hmmm... None.

Did any make you laugh?
Naman, mababaw ang kaligayahan ko eh. But it's a tie between Spelling Bee and Asawa/Kabit.

Which roles would you like to play in any of them?
Any of the 2 girls in Breakups and Breakdowns (if I only had the voice, hahaha), Mrs. Claus in Songs for a New World, and Rayna's character in her scene in Oktubre.

Which one did you have best seats for?
Hmmm... I liked where I was sitting during the Labfest shows, at the top of the bleachers where you could get a good view of everything (plus you have a backrest). And seating wasn't a problem for Spelling Bee, as there were only a handful of us sitting there watching, hahaha.

tymeless

I haven't done a real blog in quite a while, so while our supposed make-up class doesn't seem to be happening right now, I might as well use the spare time here in the computer lab.

As usual, because I don't blog often, I still have my trusty notebook with me for random thoughts on the go, so this entry will be another potpourri of randomness.

Last week, while I was online on Facebook, Nicco messaged me out of the blue during the wee hours of morning, saying that he saw the video of Our Town (our Beginning Acting workshop recital) again. He said that when he saw that video, it reminded him of how things were for him before--optimistic and passionate in the craft. After a little chat, I also wished that there were some things, thoughts and emotions in our life that we could also bring back as easy as sense memory.

For some funny reason, my chat with Nicco that night reminded me of that last episode of 'Kada Kwento. Hahaha, malamang, because he's part of the series. Anyway, I had told him that I liked the "Session" episode because it talked of having new friends while keeping your oldest and closest friends.

Quoting the voice-over of the lead character: Kahit gaano ka pa kilala ng mga pinakamatalik mong kaibigan, minsan may mga darating pa na ibang tao na magpapakita sa iyo na ang bago tungkol sa sarili mo. Maaaring sila ang magpapakita sa iyo kung saan ka magaling, at kung gaano ka kagaling. Pero sila din ang magsasabi sa iyo na may mga bagay ka pa na pwede mong ayusin. Dahil hindi pa sila nakakahon sa mga inaakala mong limitasyon mo. Dahil sa totoo lang, yan ang rason kung bakit tayo nakikipagkaibigan. At kahit matatalik mong kaibigan ang mga nakakakilala kung sino ka ngayon, minsan ang bago mong kaibigan ang magpapakita sa iyo kung anong kaya mong maging.

Something like that.

Tama nga naman. You always learn a lot of different stuff from the opinions of both old and new friends.

I still have a bunch more to blog about but the thoughts suddenly flew out the window because of a long talk I had with MA here in the lab just now, hahaha. I'll blog again later tonight.

tymeless

My computer was slowing down more and more lately that I had to wait a really long time just for it to boot or to just even open a single application. So I knew I had to take out a lot of my junk, reformat the hard drive and re-install Windows and every program that I've been using. It took quite a while to review all the files I had and transfer all that I needed to an external source. I had managed to fit my stuff into a flash drive, and decided that I didn't really need the rest, as I had only saved them "for future references" and all that crap. Hahaha, for those who know me well, I'm a very sentimental and clingy person who saves even the tiniest bit of stuff. So anyway, after a deep breath, I rebooted my computer to prep it up for reformatting. Hahaha, goodbye old stuff. Clean slate again.

It felt so refreshing not just to have a computer working properly, but also the fact that I had let go of so many junk that I shouldn't have kept all this time. I had folders full of photos and documents that I had saved "just because" but shouldn't, and I now felt relieved to finally be rid of them. It felt great to let go of old stuff. Past is past, kumbaga, hehe.

Speaking of letting go, it kind of irks me that some people can't seem to let go of certain issues. I had already stopped after that one big burst, didn't I? Tapos na pagkatapos nun. Yung ibang tao lang ang bumabalik dun. Lumalabas lang ulit pag uungkatin mo eh. So I'd end up breathing in and out again one time, but then over na ulit. Back to life ulit. Alam naman ng mga tao kung gaano ako kabait maski may umaway sakin. Isang deep breath lang, then tapos na. Bakit nga ba ako ang pinipiling pagtripan kung marami rin namang iba diyan ang mga nang-aaway? Bakit ako ang piniling idamay sa issue ng iba? Dahil ba sa alam ng tao na hindi ko talaga sasaktan ang mga umaaway sakin at sa mga kaibigan ko? Because I seem weak? Dahil masyado raw akong mabait? Ang sa akin lang, ang silence ko is my peace offering. I don't want to spend my entire lifetime building and keeping grudges. Yun na yun. Tapos na. I love all my friends, and because of this effort of letting this out, alam niyo na I still want to be friends. Nakakapagod magtampo at pwede ba, sana mapagod na ang mga plastic sa mga ugali nila.

Hay.

Anyway.

I went back to another old blog entry again, going back as far as seven years ago, hahaha. During an OJT for a professional production in the Meralco theater (August of 2002), I had been tasked to man one of the headsets in the middle of the show's month-long run. During the beginning of the run, I was basically just handling some manual labor, pulling rope cords (and getting rope burn during every show), holding, pulling and shoving huge set pieces, and doing little odd jobs for the cast, SM and DSM. When a script of the play that included a running list of tasks had been handed to me to study, I was excited and scared at the same time. I had no idea how to cue the other crew members and actors, and my voice was quiet and timid over the headset. But thankfully the DSM was nice enough to talk me through it during my first show. After a couple more shows, I managed to cue and speak over the headset with (a little bit of) confidence, and for one show, I even managed to do the headset tasks alongside my old work because the DSM and tech director had been out sick, hahaha. It was my first time to do really fast-paced work backstage, and I knew it was something I could do professionally. I loved it.

I was chatting with Rain during the wee hours this morning. It's been ages since we last had a real conversation, so it was really great catching up on each other's news online. We even looked back at our thesis (and restaging) antics. After updating him on our other friends, we suddenly slipped into "true confessions" mode, hahahaha. To quote the both of us, "OH MY GAD." Yun na lang, hehe. Rain, I missed you! We really have to hang out and talk sometime.

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One of my favorite places to talk with friends is any coffee shop with the right ambiance, with Stabucks being the most popular and most accessible. I'd rather sit and talk over coffee with a friend or two, rather than go around a mall or go out partying or whatever.

Drei and Nikki are two of my friends who love to text when they want to hang out and talk, "just because." Drei would sometimes text because he'd want to talk about whatever's bugging him, or sometimes when he's inspired to write a screenplay or whatever. Nikki, on the other hand, would text me to hang out, catch up on each other's news and unwind after days of busy flights. Today was a rare moment that they had messaged me on the very same day. So we decided to all meet up this afternoon.

After dropping by CCP to say hi to Tad before his classes, I met up with Drei at Starbucks Harbour Square. The last time he texted that he wanted to meet up, he said he was inspired to write this story, so he talked it out this afternoon. Interesting concept, really, but there were parts that seemed to belong from different science fiction films that I had cited, hahaha.

As Nikki was still on her flight back to Manila, our conversation lasted for hours, from really shallow topics to serious stuff and true confessions episodes to over-analyzing some weird situations, ahehe. It was so amusing how the conversation shifted from our opinions of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, to the animated movie and TV series. Yes, shallow. As we talked about more childhood TV programs, we ended up over-analyzing those old Japanese kids' shows.

Something like...
"Sa Voltes V, bakit kailangan pa isigaw ni Steve ang mga weapon commands? Ah, siguro kasi para ma-cue yung iba para kung anong gawin. Parang SM pala ang trabaho ni Steve kung ganun, hahaha! ... Eh di si Mark ang may pinakamaraming trabaho kasi siya yung arms?"

The funniest part was when we started to over-analyze how the mechanism of every robot worked. "Kaya nga pambata yan eh, para hindi na kailangan tanungin kung paano."

Tama ba namang problemahin namin ang mga kababawan na yan? Hahaha.

I loved the crazy true confessions episode we had (can't really say whose story it was, hehe), but we ended up looking back at all those possible situations where all that had began. Remembered the crazy overnight birthday bashes we had with friends as well, and sort of felt sentimental when we reminisced the good times when everything was so carefree and 1401 wasn't just a random number and was considered home.

Drei and I had met up at around noon, and we had talked the hours away. Nikki had arrived when the sun was about to set, hahaha. Umuwi pa kasi ng Cavite after arriving from her flight. Because she took so long, we had accumulated 3 trays of orders while we waited for her, hahaha. A little more talk until Drei had to leave, then Nikki and I decided to change venues for a light dinner and more serious girl talk. Interesting decision making concerning necessity and passion (?). It still made me think more about it though, considering my given circumstances. But talking to Nikki sure helped a lot. Thanks, Nix.

After that talk with Nix, I had an email exchange late this evening concerning what I'm planning to do. I'm really grateful for the support in the email response. Now, what I'm concerned about is how to get to that point.

Truly an afternoon and evening well-spent with two close friends. Thanks, guys! Can't wait for next week!

tymeless

I first met Shan in Tito Audie's class in Trumpets Playshop Alabang 7 years ago. Because that class was too big (it was an intermediate class) with students ranging from pre-teens (who already knew the basics) to adults, everyone broke into different cliques according to their age. The kids hung out with their friends in the same age group, some other new kids had their own group, and the adults also sort of fell into their own group. Shan and I were with the adults, even if she was one of the youngest there. During that summer, we realized that we lived in the same village, so eventually we went home from the workshop together. Well, usually it was me hitching a ride with her when her mom and sister picked her up from ATC.

We reunited the next summer for Playshop's advanced musical theater class under Jennie. When we started carpooling with Jun, that was when I realized how close her house was from mine. We got closer during those car rides home, and over after-class dinners.

We did get closer during those summers, but of course, eventually people will drift apart. After a couple of months of trying to get together with our other Playshop friends, we got busier with our own lives beyond Playshop. Of course, there were the random meet-ups at Starbucks, ATC or even Lawyn's house, but they suddenly came to a halt.

It's pretty ironic that since 2003, Shan and I haven't seen each other even though we only live about 5 blocks away from each other (and yes, I tried to count it). Through a common friend (thank you, Nina/Maruja), we managed to contact each other again through the wonders of Facebook. While we were chatting a few days ago, Shan and I decided to get together this afternoon, after years of not seeing each other.

Hahaha, it was her birthday the day before, so she invited me to pig-out at her house instead of hanging out at the coffee shop beside her house (which was the original plan). When I arrived at her house, she and her sister immediately offered almost all the food left over from Shan's birthday celebration. Yep, it really was a pig-out afternoon. Pizza, cake, leche flan and a gab session that lasted the entire afternoon until evening. And a teeny bit of my own true confessions episodes came out, wahahaha. What a shock, hehe.

All in all, it was a pretty fun afternoon and evening, talking the hours away. Reminisced the good ol' Playshop days, the crazy teacher rants, and tried to recall the names of our former classmates that we never really got close to. Gossiped about certain issues (ahaha) and laughed off some other rumored that could possibly ring true. Even though it was just the two of us sitting there in the dining room, it was still a blast. It made us wonder why we didn't get together sooner considering we're the ones who live so close to each other. Oh well. I sure hope we could get together with the rest of our crowd again.

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When Nikki, Drei and I got together at Starbucks last week, we made plans for a Tagaytay road trip this week. But Nikki had to bail out at the last minute because of work concerns, but Drei managed to get Carla to tag along.

This past Tuesday was the day. Drei was supposed to pick me up at around 10 in the morning, but called early in the morning to say that he wants to leave earlier, because he realized that his car was included in the day's color coding. I was still doing my morning chores, so he decided to pick Carla up first. While I was waiting for them to pick me up next, they ended up doing the first random thing of the day, which was visiting their former alma mater, Southville International School, hahaha.

All three of us were kind of low on money (even Drei after he paid for a full tank of gas) so we brought a bit of baon for the trip. Carla raided her kitchen while I raided our store. My mom even added a huge handful of mint candies while I was already walking to Drei's car. No sooner than we had closed all the car doors, all 3 of us started shouting "ROADTRIIIP!"

And we were off. We were along Alabang-Zapote road when Drei help up his camera phone and Carla and I instinctively smiled and posed for a photo. Drei's reply was, "It's a video, dammit!" AHAHAHA! Super funny.

So we started recording the most random things we could think of...
- searching for this store with a funny name along the road that we saw once before... a store named "Petcock."
- road trip "fails" such as instant traffic.
- Carla saying "under the underpass."
- shouting "ROADTRIP!" over and over again.
- Southside reunites! Complete with flashing the Southside "S" sign (fail for Drei, haha).
- "Chota" (Toyota) and "Hunda."
- Drei saying that Acacia avenue was Madrigal avenue.
- the "secure security".
- Drei opening his window and saying hello to everyone, making a random guy who was passing by wave at him in reply. He did this twice.
- palms in the Philip-PINES
- the "purple hill."
- the crazy traffic that we might meet on the way back home.

After a little over 15 minutes of recording, we stopped the video, wondering if we could upload a video on Facebook that's over 15 minutes long, hahaha. (The limit on Facebook is 20 minutes, I think.) But that didn't stop us from all the randomness. Carla still kept snapping photos along the way to document our way to Tagaytay. Group photos. Snapshots of the road. New properties. "The wall that looks like a building." Ahehehe.

Then we decided to settle in People's Park in the Sky. All the way up. After parking the car at the bottom of the place and taking our snacks with us, we decided to walk all the way up instead of paying fare to ride a jeep even though it was drizzling. At least we have Drei's huge umbrella with us. "Penitensya." Hahaha. Well, not really. It wasn't really a long trek up to People's Park anyway. And we got a good look of the gorgeous view below while we were walking. Photo ops galore when we reached the top, then we checked out the tiangge place before climbing another set of steps. Awesome view from that spot, even though we were sort of hanging out at the top of a cliff, haha. After a little more photo ops, we decided to sit down at the little ampitheater near the tiangge place to have a snack, as they were charging P100 just for those little gazebos.

Still not content with the chips, crackers and water we had, we set off back down again to head for Mushroomburger for lunch. Haha, another short video was created on the trek back down, complete with quips like "just check the photos" and "this is the talking part of this post."

Hooray for Mushroomburger! Perfect for cheap thrills, yet still very filling. Even though each burger was only P35, Carla and I paid for Drei's burger, as he already paid for the full tank of gas, anyway, haha. We were all smiles as we ate and savored every bite of those darn Mushroomburgers. Yuuuummmm... It's only been 2 days, and I miss those burgers again already.

Time to head back home, and Drei took a different route which he claimed was a shortcut. It took us several minutes to realize that the long stretch of road wasn't a shortcut. "Hindi na ito road eh, lupa na lang!" We were lost, hahaha! We had to turn back and find the way back to Manila. A few minutes during the trip back though, it was raining really hard, then it stopped almost as quickly as it came. Parang panaginip lang yung ulan, haha.

By the time we reached Alabang, it was still pretty early, so we headed to ATC to chill. Basically we just hung out at Starbucks first, then just walked around before we headed back to the car to pig out on the 2 bags of popcorn we brought that we haven't consumed yet before heading home. Yes, we're all that broke, haha.

Goes to show that you don't have to spend much in Tagaytay, as long as your car already has a full tank of gas, hahaha. It was an awesome random day with my Southside friends, and we sure hope we get the rest to join us again next time.

Photos (grabbed from Drei) can be found here.