Theater Review: The Boy in the Bathroom by The Sandbox Collective

I got to watch The Boy in the Bathroom last night with my mom and I was so glad I tagged along. This spectacular musical by The Sandbox Collective will leave you filled with emotion and drama while, at the same time, get saved by hilarious comedic reliefs that will have you laughing out loud like I did!

The story is about a 25-year old guy named David (played by Topper Fabregas) who lives with his mom in the cold state of Michigan. He was diagnosed with OCD but has an extremely vivid imagination. He wasn’t able to finish school and has been living inside the bathroom for more than a year, refusing to come out until his college thesis is finished.

David constructed and built a home for himself inside the bathroom while being supplied with things his mom could slide underneath the bathroom door like half an inch meals, pages ripped from books and magazines, and an endless supply of toilet paper. 

For over a year, life was the same in Pam (played by Ms. Sheila Francisco) and David’s world until their less than normal life took an unexpected turn. Pam suffered a broken hip, which forced her to hire someone to clean the house. That someone was a girl named Julie (played by Caisa Borromeo) who dreams of getting a car so she could get out of Michigan to see the world.

The Boy in the Bathroom will have you get pulled by anger, love, laughter, and difficulties as the characters, played by really great actors, figure out a way to overcome their problems. At the same time, listen to the beautiful piano music played live, which adds value to the memorable songs sang throughout the musical.

Be prepared to really let your imagination take flight as you watch this unexpected and fascinating tale directed by Toff De Venecia. It will have one more run on February 21, 2015 at 5:30PM in CCP's Huseng Batute Theater. 

Food Tasting: Cravings' Sweets and Australia's Di Bella Coffee

Every morning, I start the day by having a cup of coffee. The same goes for most members of my family. We need that fresh cup of goodness to motivate us to bring ourselves out of bed. We usually drink the 3-in-1 coffee mixes though because we either don’t have much time for brewing or we’ve already ran out of ground coffee beans to brew. 

Di Bella Coffee

So it was a privilege to be able to try Di Bella Coffee during its launch at Epicurious in Shangri-La Mall the other day. When I first entered the venue, I was immediately enticed by the wide variety of desserts prepared by the Cravings Group displayed on buffet tables. The fragrance of those sweets along with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee were enough to make my stomach growl. 

But before the food and coffee pairing began, Di Bella founder Philip Di Bella shared his company’s story and his journey on finding the perfect cup of delicious coffee. Philip is a coffee entrepreneur who is passionate in his work. Known as Australia’s “Coffee King”, he inspires others by sharing his own experiences and finding ways to help coffee farmers and Australia’s coffee industry. 

Philip Di Bella

When it was time to give the food, desserts, and coffee a go, I found it hard to start because there were so many to to choose from! 

what to choose?!

Philip instructed us to drink coffee without the sugar, suggesting to drink it along with our desserts. I tried this technique and I was surprised that the blend of sugarless coffee and dessert was really good! 

with my mom and dad

It was exquisite to taste the bitterness of the coffee while the dessert maintained its sweetness at the same time. I was glad to have learned such an impressive style from an entrepreneur of coffee himself. It was a really fun experience to have tried a new combination in drinking coffee and sweets.

Movie Review: The CROODS

Take a look at the world’s first and not-so-modern family, The Croods. Join them as they embark on a prehistoric road trip of funny family-filled adventures. 

Meet Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage), the over-protective father; Ugga (Catherine Keener), the lovingly concerned wife, Thunk (Clark Duke), the not so bright brother; Sandy, the dangerously cute child, Eep (Emma Stone), the teenage rebel, and Gran (Cloris Leachman), the grumpy mother-in-law.

The story starts in prehistoric times where the family struggles in isolation and fear from the outside world not knowing what awaits them. In the meantime, they hunt for food while trying to survive being eaten by predators and mostly spend their nights in a cave that they call home.

But their lives change when their cave is destroyed by a rockslide from what was supposed to be the beginning of the End of the World. Now the family goes on a road trip to find a new home and started discovering new places as well as finding new species of animals that are on the brink of extinction. Along the way, they met a modern human called Guy (Ryan Reynolds) and his trusty pet called Belt.

Their journey led them to find a new purpose for living while continuing to believe in themselves along with struggles and hardship. They were to find out that the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of having one another is the key to surviving together as a family.

I personally liked the movie because I found it very enjoyable, funny, and a great film to begin with. It shows how family and friendship can stand even in the most hardest of times and that the hope for a new beginning is even brighter once you believe in yourself. 

I definitely recommend everyone to watch this movie because I know that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

A Day Trip to Seafood Island Harbor Point and Zoobic Safari

I was invited to go to Subic to be part of the grand opening of Blackbeard's Seafood Island at Harbor Point Square. It took us around an hour and a half to reach the place from Quezon City. 

When we reached the venue, we were greeted with loud and energetic music played on tribal drums. It really boosted the fiesta-like theme and ambience of the restaurant.

The first food items I ate were appetizers. There was this kind of like a cross breed of a salad and nachos. Well, for me, it tasted like a salad with a crunchy twist. Anyways, it was delicious! 

The waiter also served us some fried squid rings. They were a little crispy and were the best fried squid snacks I've ever tasted.

Then I was introduced to the Boodle. I found out that this is a dish presentation where a lot of items are arranged artfully on a big container. This time, it's a nice boat that Chef Chang Magdaluyo filled with various foods.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the boat was filled with a lot of popular seafood like crabs, shrimps, and fish. It was really well decorated and the presentation was awesome. I couldn't wait to try that out and when I did, I was not disappointed.

Aside from eating food items I'm already familiar with, I discovered that seaweeds taste delicious! I'd never expected them to taste like that. I thought they would be bitter. The clams have a very unique flavor too. I was really full by the time we finished eating and there were quite a lot of leftovers from our table. I think they served us way too much food than we could handle.

After that sumptuous lunch, we were also invited to drop by Zoobic Safari since it's quite near. I've already been there during a school field trip a few years ago so this was my second time to visit. 

The place was exactly the same as I remembered it although the three o'clock show has some really fascinating animals to show during the parade. I really enjoyed our time there. It was better than the first time because I got to see other areas I've never been able to visit before. 

There were a lot of people visiting Zoobic Safari despite its distance from the city. It's really something one should see when they go to Subic. Drop by there soon!

Theater Review: Camp Rock The Musical by Repertory Philippines

Camp Rock instantly became a big hit when it was released as a Disney Channel Movie in 2008 and  people still love it today. 

Starring Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers, the iconic film definitely wowed viewers with its wonderful music and great dance choreography. Now it has been made into a stage musical. Thanks to Repertory Philippines and its great cast and crew of young and talented people, Filipinos get to watch Camp Rock The Musical live at Onstage, Greenbelt 1 in Makati.

All the actors did a great job in the show because I saw how much time and commitment they gave just to bring people joy and happiness through the songs and dances. The main characters are composed of Morissette Amon (who plays Mitchie Torres), Nacho Tambunting, Markki Stroem, and Jef Flores (who play the brothers and band members of Connect 3), Hans Eckstein (as Brown Cesario) and Rem Zamora (as Axle Turner). Camp Rock The Musical is directed by Audie Gemora and co-directed by Topper Fabregas.

The show is very enjoyable to watch and will surprise people of all ages with great performances because the actors had to sing, dance, and act from one production number to the next. The story mixes scenes from both Camp Rock 1 and 2 and it's kind of cool. With a cast of 35 talented actors and singers, you wouldn’t believe how much work they have put into this big staging. 

All of the lights and audio visuals are very good. Congratulations to the people behind the scenes! The choreography was also so well put together that I felt like I wanted to dance with the actors on stage.

I am amazed at how everything fit together to make this one hell of a show. 

I'm familiar with Camp Rock and am glad they used the songs from the TV-Movie version like “It’s on”, “This is Me”, “Wouldn’t Change a Thing”, and more. Go watch before the show run ends on December 16. I'm sure you'll have as much fun as I did.

* Photos borrowed from my mom's blog's Facebook fan page

Concert Review: Forte@40 By the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines

I was invited to witness one of the most unique concerts ever. This is the first time I’ve ever heard that there will be no orchestra to create music, only pianos, and 40 at that on one stage! 

I immediately became interested to see the concert called Forte@40 by the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines (PTGP). Just the idea of that many pianos on stage, I wonder how would things would turn out. I was curious about how they’re going to synchronize the sounds to form graceful melodies.

My mom, brother, and I arrived at CCP early and I noticed that they were a lot of Filipino-Chinese audiences. The concert started on time and, indeed, there were 40 pianos up there on the big stage of the main theater. The piano players range from 40 to 80 per number. 

They started with recognizable songs from nursery books and classical music for begginners. I was surprised that they sounded like a combination of realistic orchestra and MIDI format sounds.

The second set was really good. It sounded very peaceful and became my most favorite of all the performances. The least of my favorites were the songs performed by the kids. I don’t know, I think I’m just not a fan of performing children performing. They need to practice more and improve because I honestly was not impressed. 

After the intermission, I recognized some songs like the tunes from the Harry Potter movies and the theme from Super Mario. The latter sounded weird and the combinations and blending were not that good. Plus, I also noticed a few mistakes. 

Some of the pianists played one of my favorite songs from a band called Nirvana. The good news is that I liked it. Maybe because all I saw performing were middle aged people who probably play the piano professionally.

The finale was again played by 80 pianists with two players per piano. It was a good way to end the performance despite the problems during the earlier parts. Overall, I rate the concert as average. Perhaps, it was because I was expecting a group of highly professional pianist around the Philippines and instead, it turned out like one of those school programs with 40 pianos, children, teenagers, and adults who can play piano.

Concert Review: KEANE Live in Manila

When I first heard about KEANE, I was not familiar with the band and I was surprised they're coming to the Philippines to do a concert at the Mall of Asia Arena. 

When my mom told me that she has two extra tickets to the concert, I immediately volunteered to go because I'm looking for a new band that I can listen to. I invited one my friends to go with us. 

When I searched for KEANE's songs on YouTube, Somewhere Only We Know was the first thing that popped up. I listened to it and it sounded familiar. No doubt, I have heard of it before and was glad that they'll be having a concert in Manila for the first time. They have the sound that I was looking for. So I immediately browsed other songs that made them famous. Disconnected also sounded familiar. KEANE is definitely a band that will make me a fan and I hoped they'd pull the concert off. 

I've always liked music groups that originated from England. One of them is Tears for Fears, a band I often listened to when I was in high school. British bands always have that unique sound that makes them different from other bands.

Last October 2, we headed to MOA Arena before 8PM. I was accompanied by my mom and my friend who’s also a fan of alternative and indie rock. As soon as KEANE started performing I knew that it was going to be good.

As they shared their music, it seemed all their songs sound so clear and all the lyrics are well-written. It also appeared that they never actually released a bad song. Only a few bands can pull off masterpieces in their albums. One of them is Circa Survive and it looks like KEANE has managed to do the same.

At the end of the concert, people still wanted more out of KEANE and they accommodated us. It was a really long setlist and the concert ended around 11PM. It was good; actually, way better than I expected. I am looking forward to listening to more KEANE songs. The concert was one of the best performances a band can do live on stage.

Cosplayers and More at TOYCON 2012

Toycon 2012 is the first ever convention about Anime, Games and Toys that I have attended. There were so many people there and a lot of cosplayers. The event, which was held in Megamall from June 15 to 17, started at 10AM and ended at 9PM. I went there with my friends and we saw a lot of toys for sale.

photo borrowed from toyconph.com

I approached the Playstation Booth and there were a lot of discounted PS3 items on sale. As a Playstation fan myself, I saw a lot of my favorite games there. They were also showing the trailers of upcoming games with some of the footages coming from E3 including the trailer for the Last of Us, and the upcoming Assassins Creed 3. There was also a booth about the upcoming Batman film called The Dark Knight Rises and they also showcased products and toys about the movie.

I was very happy to see that they are still producing new Gundam Models. When I was a kid, the Gundam Models were some of my favorite toys and I also watched the Anime show; the new one from 2011. I also saw a lot of The Zoids series toys which I also played with as a child.

Comics enthusiasts would be happy to know that there were also a lot of Manga available for sale at discounted prices. There were a lot of them and I didn't have much time to browse them all. But I saw a lot of my favorites there like the Vampire Hunter D which is not actually a Manga, but a Japanese novel. Then there was Death Note which I actually like although the ending is so messed up. I likewise saw one of my top favorite manga of all time -- Ghost in the Shell. For me, its concept and art design is what makes this the best manga.

Moving on to Cosplay, there were a lot of cosplayers there. So many, that they had to categorize them under Anime, Games, and Super Heroes. I recognized a lot of the cosplayers from the games category  because, as a hardcore gamer, I've played a lot of games. I saw some characters from the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear series. But my favorite was the Dragonborn from the Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim, one of the greatest games of 2011.

Up next was the Anime category and I recognized a lot of them too. The characters from the Death Note series appeared on the runway along with Alucard and the police girl from Hellsing OVA. It's a shame though that that not all of my favorite anime characters were there but still I had a great time. All of their costumes were wonderful and very detailed.

Well that's just about it. Before closing time, I asked some of the cosplayers for a picture and they seemed to be very energetic when it comes to dealing with fans. I'm sure they were already pretty tired for posing and showcasing, but still they remained cheerful when accommodating photo requests. Now that's great attitude.

I hope I can attend the next Toycon and I'm hoping that the Video game section makes a bigger comeback. Until next time!

Movie Review: Special Forces

The first time heard of the Special Forces movie, I thought it was a film based on the popular Korean FPS game here in the Philippines. It turned out that it's a movie by Stephane Rybojad, a French director who specializes in Documentary Films.

During the press con, Mr. Rybojad shared a lot of interesting stuff including witnessing a lot of battles and gruesome moments while he was in the Middle East. That made me think that he really is the guy who's perfect to direct this movie. 

From the Q and A, I thought Special Forces was going to be a very hardcore action movie but the director said emotions flow heavily in the story so I guessed the film will be combining drama and action.

Special Forces stars Diane Kruger and Djimon Honsou. Diane takes on the role of a reporter who got captured by Taliban rebels. The French goverment ordered a six-man Special Force to retrieve the captured prisoners. Unfortunately, the Taliban rebels outnumbered them and pressured them to take the long way around to get to Afghanistan. The movie was made with excellent cinematography and its outstanding characters made it more realistic and very emotional.

Overall, the movie was great. I've watched a lot of Military Action Films and French Films like District 13 which was also good movie but I think Special Forces is now the top one for me. I hope to see more French films screened here in the Philippines.   

Movie Review: Dark Shadows

The much awaited dark comedy film by Tim Burtons called “Dark Shadows” stars Johnny Depp as the vampire Barnabas Collins.

In the 1700s, the Collins family migrated from Liverpool to America and established a fishing company in a town that became known as Collinsport. Barnabas was a wealthy and powerful playboy who was once a man but was cursed to be a vampire by a witch named Angelique Bouchard because he broke her heart by falling in love with another woman called Josette. 

Driven by jealousy and hate, Angelique puts a spell on Josette and made her walk helplessly to fall off a cliff to her death. Barnabas, convinced that it was the witch’s doing, followed Josette but was not able to stop her from falling on the jagged rocks at the shore. In despair, he decided to commit suicide so that he can be reunited with her but he didn't die. 

Angelique then turned the town against Barnabas convincing them that he was a monster. With no way to escape, Barnabas was taken by the townspeople deep into the woods, locked up inside a coffin, and buried alive for eternity.

After two centuries, Barnabas was accidentally freed from his tomb in the 1970s and found himself trying to cope with a modern world. He returns to Collinwood Manor only to find that his home has fallen into ruin. There, he meets his descendants who each have their own dark secrets. 

Barnabas falls in love with his nephew's nanny who looks a lot like Josette and sets out to restore the family fortune by discovering how to defeat Angelique, the witch, who is still alive and has stolen the fishing business from the Collins family.

Watch how Barnabas and his family will defeat Angelique. The special effects are really impressive! There are also very funny scenes that will definitely make you laugh. Since this is directed by Tim Burton, expect  to see some horrific scenes too that could put you on edge thanks to Tim’s expertise.

Dark Shadows starts showing today in a theater near you! 

*Thank you Warner Bros. Philippines for the press screening invite and to Orange Magazine TV for my photo!

Movie Review: Marvel's The Avengers

The most anticipated Marvel Comic’s superhero team in its sixth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now showing in theaters near you! 

As you may recall, there have been some sneak peeks during the story line endings of movies like Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man -- all of them, including Black Widow and Hawk Eye now make up the the cast of the latest film. 

Now the six have come together in a more action-packed story in Marvel's latest installment yet called The Avengers. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, and more.

The film is worth watching because, not only does it stars big names, it seems like the best thing to happen after introducing the superheroes one by one in previous movies. 

The directors and producers planned the solo movies in such a way as to leave audiences to anticipate upcoming sequels, and we had! In my opinion, that strategy was a success.

In a nutshell, I found the movie mind-blowing.  The actors are great, the stunts are awesome, and the special effects are really, really good. Frankly, I have no complaints. 

Now I'm hoping there'd be a new sequel soon!

* Thank you Jollibee for inviting my family to the movie screening! :) To check out cool Avengers merchandise from Jollibee, please click here.