Ramblings Intérieurs

Philippine Daily Inquirer

100. Philippine Daily Inquirer

Finally, I reached the 100th mark for my list of reasons to be happy and thankful that I am living in this lifetime. Since this is a record, it is only appropriate that the 100th reason would cross all boundaries. And what more could this be but our newspaper for more than 15 years (if I'm not mistaken).

This broadsheet has been a very big help not only to me but to my family as well. The information that this newspaper has giving us for the last 15 years or so has been very, very useful to us. It does not only give us the latest news (very, very credible I must say) but tips on practically every aspect of life - personal, financial, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It's an all-in-one paper.

I can give short examples about those as I grew along with PDI.

Personal: I grew up reading the advices of Robbie, Rissa, and Raya Mananquil (now all models and professionals) when they were still teens in the 2BU! section of Inquirer. The advices of Tita Dulce also made perfect sense as I heed her advices and gave her advices to my friends who turn to me for advices (shhh...that's a secret).

Financial: The Business Section of PDI has more that just business news. It has featured and is still writing stories about the inspiring and success stories of the best entrepreneur the country has produced. Of course, on those stories it is clear that the success stories of these CEO's, COO's and taipans were not walk in the park. They encountered a lot of challenges, difficulties, and pains but they continue and succeeded. How? Read the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Mental: The Opinion Section of the Inquirer is another gem. This is where I read the best writers that the country has produced. Conrado de Quiros, Michael Tan, the late Adrian Cristobal are just one of the few many writers that I read in PDI that got me hooked on reading the most widely-read broadsheet in the country.

Emotional: A lot of stories in PDI had made me emotional. The stories of the youth in "Young Blood" and their counterpart, the uhmmm, sixty-something in "High Blood." Not to mention the real stories that appears in it's front page. The not so-good-things about our country and how we and I are not able to do something about it. But what makes this truly special is that because the stories always end up with hope. Hope that we should not abandon despite everything.

Physical:
Of course the Sports Section of the Inquirer is a class of it's own. Almost always on time (sometimes PBA results yesterday would not be included in the next day's issue). But in general, I could rely on PDI regrading results of sports tournament I watch. NBA, US Open, Super Bowl, you name it they got it. They also have the best sportswriter in town, Al S. Mendoza and Recah Trinidad (who came back after a fling with retirement). The Tuesday Section of PDI about Lifestyle and Leisure also gave me tips on how to live a healthy and happy life with articles about the latest exercises and how to have a happy disposition in life through the articles of Cory Quririno.

Spiritual: This is the best part.

PDI has Fr. Jerry Orbos in it's Opinion Section every Sunday. Fr. Orbos column is my must-read column of Inquirer every Sunday with his jokes and anecdotes about life and his practical tips in life on how to live life as a Christian.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer also has what it calls "radical optimism" every Sunday. This means that every Sunday, it's front page only features good news. Yes, only good news. If you read a bad news or headline, you will see the good news inside it. I have another good news. It's not limited to Sundays anymore, as you can see in my previous blog entries.

Now, how's that for news?

Hillsong United Live in Manila 2008

85. Hillsong United Live in Manila 2008

They came. They saw. They conquered.

And they rocked. For Jesus.

The concert tickets says the show would start at 8 P.M. and we arrived in Cubao about fifteen minutes before 7 PM. I knew we were "late" because I know that there would be a lot of people and since we have the "General Admission" tickets, I wanted to go in early and be at the middle part. I was right. There were a lot people outside Araneta, mostly youth. But since we were already hungry, we ate first in Gateway and we entered the Big Dome at 7:30 P.M. and the middle part of the General Admission and Upper Box were already full. So we were at the farthest part of General Admission and at the back. But it didn't matter. As I told my officemate Haze, it doesn't matter where we are. What matters is that we came to the concert to be inspired, to experience, and feel the presence of God.

I must admit that I am really not that familiar yet with the songs of Hillsong United. I am still on the process of re-discovering Jesus. Praise and worship is one way for me of re-discovering Him. That is why I wanted to watch this concert even if it means withdrawing some money my savings account. Even if I have work the next day. Even if I am at the farthest part of Araneta Coliseum.

It was worth the sacrifices.

Surprisingly, there was no front act in the concert (No Filipino Christian rock band?). The show barely started but the crowd were already screaming their lungs out (and that includes me).

Joel Houston opened the show by reading a verse from the Bible which I can't remember because I can barely understand what he was saying. I had to listen attentively whenever the members of the band talks to the crowd. This was maybe because we were at the back or because of the huge crowd.

The band started the concert with the song "Time Has Come."

They proceeded into what would be an identical series of songs from the "With Hearts as One" album. It was the first time I heard the songs but my feet was stomping to the beat and enjoying the songs as they were being sung. I found myself praying and in worship on the middle part of the show when they were singing the slower songs, "Hosanna" and "All I Need Is You."

They sang songs mostly from their new album, "With Hearts as One" and almost all the songs were fast and of course, rocking.

For encore, they sang "One Way" and "Solution."

The crowd was of different mix. I saw kids, teenagers, yuppies, parents in where we were seated. They came from all classes. Even of different races. I saw some Chinese-Filipinos and a few Americans. Donita Rose and Rica Peralejo cried and worshipped in the front row with their Christian friends. It really didn't matter who you are, where you came from, or what class you belong. What mattered is that they came to praise and worship God. The focus was on Jesus.

Earlier that day, I had a conversation through text with a friend and I was having a problem with that friend (I can't blog about it for personal reasons) and the chorus of the song "All I Need Is You" brought home God's message to me. "All I need is you, Lord. Is You, Lord."

The complete set list (not sure of this is correct):

Time Has Come
Take It all
What the world will never take
My Future Decided
All I Need is You (my LSS)
Hosanna
Shout Unto God
The Stand
Break Free
Look To You
Salvation is Here
More than life
None But Jesus
From the Inside out
Came to my rescue
Savior King
Tell The world

Encore:

One Way (this song is what most, if not all, the crowd wanted to hear)
Solution

For pictures, visit my Multiply site: http://rolly07.multiply.com/photos/album/23/Hillsong_United_Live_in_Manila_2008

It was an overwhelming experience for me. The crowd. The band. The songs. There was even one part of the show that I shed a tear. There's only one word to describe the Hillsong United concert in Manila.

Amazing.

"Final 12" Concert at the Araneta Coliseum

I was a little excited to watch the Reunion Concert of the Top 12 Philippine Idol Season 1 finalists that my mom, my brother Dennis, and I arrived in Cubao an hour earlier. So we decided to eat first before entering The Big Dome. Fifteen minutes before 8 PM, we decided to go in and there were few people. I was not surprised though. The concert lacked promotions and partly I think that the Araneta venue was a little bit too ambitious. But I'm not complaining.

It was my first time to watch a concert. When I say concert, I mean real concert, as in I paid for the tickets, a major concert, and not just a concert in a school or a gig. Although I have been to some rock concerts but I didn't pay for the tickets (I have some connections before..haha!). Since it's my first time to watch a concert and the closest that I would probably be inside Araneta, I wanted it to be special. I wanted to watch with my whole family. I bought 5 tickets but my Pop didn't want to go and would rather tend our store. So I gave two tickets to my friend, Antonio, and he brought his girlfriend with him. My youngest brother, Jaro, however, was a different story. We were supposed to meet him in Cubao but did not arrived because he had a drinking spree with his college classmates because it was their last day together in school although they would still see each other next sem. Hmmm...kids today.

The show started way too late and there were already some clapping and howling by the audience. Finally after more than an hour, the Top 12 finally came and sang a song that I don't know. But that's okay, so I positioned myself to get a better view. I can't fully remember the songs and the order that it came because the Top 12 Finalist's sang a lot of songs and medleys.  But below are the highlights for me.

1. Itaktak Mo. After the opening number, the Big Three (Mau Marcelo, Jan Nieto, and Gian Magdangal) performed "Crazy In Love", "Umagang Kay Ganda", and "Himala" respectively, Jan and Gian joked with each other and they did their own nasty rendition of the infamous song "Itaktak Mo" and I found it funny and amusing at the same time, which is unusual for me. 

2. The Dream Girls number. Of course, this would be on the concert's repertoire. The question was who will sing what. They chose Apple Chiu, Armarie Cruz, and of course Mau Marcelo. They opened with the song "One Night Only". Apple Chiu then sang "Listen". She was a revelation to me. Her performance was awesome and I think she was the one who impressed me most from the Top 6 Girls at the concert with her songs. Arms Cruz next sang "I Am Changing" and as usual it was good. And of course, last but not the least, the first Philippine Idol, Mau Marcelo sang "And I Am Telling You". I haven't watched "Dream Girls" yet and I don't have any plans to do so because of tight budget so I really can't compare the performance by Mau and Jennifer Hudson in the movie. I feel though that Mau's version would be way below Jennifer's in the movie but as usual, Mau did well.

3. Aussies Unite. With apologies to patty, the tag line came from her on her blog http://woodycakes.livejournal.com/246829.html#cutid1 (you can also see some blow-by-blow accounts here). The two Fil-Australian, Stef Lazaro and Ken Dingle had their own performance. Stef sang "Total Eclipse of The Heart" and Ken his signature song in Philippine Idol "Get Here". They both did good and had my mom clapping in appreciation.

4. The Love Team portion. There were a lot of love songs sung here and by "I-don't-remember-who" anymore. Here is the breakdown as far as I can remember: Drae Ybañez and Arms sang "I Finally Found Someone", Reymond Sajor sang "When I Fall In Love", Miguel Mendoza and Apple Chiu sang "I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You", Jan Nieto and Jeli Mateo sang "Cruising" (this is probably the low part of the segment), Arms and Reymund sang "Come What May". The songs "The Promise", "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", and "The Prayer" were sung. I'm a sucker for love songs (in spite of my rocker nature) so I definitely enjoyed this part of the concert.

5. SexyBack. The two performers of PI Season 1, Gian Magdangal and of course my fave, Pow Chavez, did their own song and dance number of JT's "SexyBack". Surprisingly, I enjoyed this part too. Surprising because I am no-fan of Justin Timberlake and I usually like Pow when she sings her love songs Kundiman-style (which I found missing in the concert).

6. Songs by the Concert King Martin Nievera. This was also a showstopper. Drae sang "You Are My Song", Jan sang "Say That You Love Me", and of course, Reymond sang "Be My Lady". I was also surprised that Gian was not included here because he didn't get to sing any ballad song in the concert.

7. Mau sings "On My Own". I included it in my list of highlights not because I was impressed. I'm not saying Mau did not good. Mau beautifully sang it as usual but I didn't feel anything unlike in the Finals Night last December. Maybe because I have had too much of the song already. Anyways, I included this portion here in my list because Mau made a very important announcement after her song. "Tuloy na tuloy po ang Philippine Idol Season 2", proclaimed Mau. To all the detractors of PI - Go ahead and do your thing but do it constructively. As for me, I will just watch and enjoy the next season of PI unfold. I just hope they would do much better this time.

8. The Finale. The Top 6 Boys sang "Heal The World" while the girls sang "Reach" by Gloria Estefan. I first heard the song "Reach" in "Shall We Dance" sang by Pow, Stef, Jeli, Arms, and Apple to promote their concert and I was dumbfounded. I didn't know that a beautiful song like this exists. I was again astounded when they again sang it and this time with Mau Marcelo.

9. The Encore. It was quite funny because as the Top 12 were saying their "thank-yous", a lot of people were already heading for the exit. I know there was still more because they haven't sang "Kaleidoscope World" yet and I know for a fact that concerts always have an encore. There were some people shouting "More, More..." as I read in some blogs but I didn't heard it and Mau jokingly asked "Wala bang magmo-more diyan?" and went on "Kahit walang magsabi, meron kami." They sang "Hawak Kamay" by Yeng Constantino, which was so good that for me it was the real highlight of the show. I can't remember who said it but one of them mentioned that "Kapamilya ka man o Kapuso, pare-pareho tayong Pilipino" or words to that effect. I was never a fan of Pinoy Dream Academy and will always choose Philippine Idol over PDA anytime but PDA produced a great talent in the person of Yeng Constantino and I have to salute ABS-CBN for that. Lastly, they sang their carrier single in their album, "Kaleidoscope World", and this was the part that I went near the stage to have pictures taken although I won't be posting the pictures because it's really not good. No thanks to my new phone! This was also my favorite part of the show despite of the not-so-good clarity of the pictures by my cellphone.

As a whole, I really enjoyed the concert and the tickets were well worth it. I can't wait to watch it again on TV. It will be televised on Easter Sunday in ABC 5, 10:00 PM, after "Shall We Dance". I might see myself on TV. Haha.