Maleficent

Promotional photo of Maleficent. (c) 2014 Disney.

1. Maybe it's just me, but I thought Maleficent didn't have much "conversation". She had plenty of dialogue, of course, after all she's the titular character of the movie. But it seemed to me she said some bleeps here and some bleeps there. This is a shame because Angelina shines through when given enough dialog.
2. As short as the run time was at 1 hour and 40 minutes, the story felt too long starting out with exposition from Maleficent as a child and well into after the proverbial true love's kiss. They crammed too much into 100 minutes. To me it felt like a slideshow where the presenter was in a hurry showing each slide with not so much an explanation but "and this happened". Click. And this happened. Click. And this happened. Click. And this happened.
3. If they wanted to stick to 100 minutes, they and us the moviegoers would have been better served if they just drop Aurora/Sleeping Beauty from the movie and concentrated on Maleficent's formative years ending at the giving of the gift. And then if they really wanted to, another 100 minutes for the Sleeping Beauty story line in the sequel.
4. Look at Wicked: only brief appearance of the Wizard and I don't even remember seeing Dorothy. Would have served them well if they saw Wicked and imitated it.
5. Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning were great. 
6. The one who played Stefan, though, didn't have much chemistry with Maleficent. Probably it was a result of cramming too much in 100 minutes that his character wasn't fully developed. 
7. Several times in the movie (especially in the Moors) I thought it sounded a lot like the 2003 live action adaptation of Peter Pan. Then in the end credits I read, Music by James Newton Howard. I like JNH's take on fairy music in both Maleficent and Peter Pan.
8. I saw it in 3D. Do yourself a favor, skip the 3D and see the Moors in full color instead.

Seven years ago

Old Note

Cleaning up and throwing away unnecessary stuff from my room in preparation for that big move. I found this notebook with mostly empty pages, except for the following 3 entries dated October 21, 2007. That's almost seven years ago.

10-21-2007 SUN. Along the road to Happiness you will find a stone called Pain. It's small, but it seems to block the whole path. Go on, pick it up. Throw it away. Wash your hands, dry your wounds. Don't look back. Keep walking.

10-21-2007 SUN. "True happiness comes only when the center of the universe is not yourself." I don't know who said this, but I'm not the center of the universe and yet true happiness is hard to come by. Or maybe I'm just not getting it. Happiness could be as simple as the absence of sadness. The aftermath of pain.

[The third entry, which is also the last one, is apt right now because summer here in the Philippines is at its peak. And it's been a while that summer has been this hot.]

10-21-2007 SUN. SUMMER BREEZE. "Nothing is more powerful than our childhood memories," William Goldman wrote in the introduction to his novel, "The Princess Bride".

When I was nine, the back of the back of our lot was an empty lot. There was a lone mansanitas tree and a lone sereguelas tree. And two guava trees. The rest of the one hectare lot is filled with different grasses, some short, some tall. It is bordered by coconut trees to the east, a group of bahay-kubo to the south, more coconut trees to the north, and of course to the west is the subdivision where I lived, a plethora of houses differently dressed seated in uniformly-shaped lots. Our house belongs to the group at the east edge of the subdivision, or the village as we called it. I needed take only a few steps and I was transported to a world different from what I knew. It's a world where time stood still (sort of) and silence over-sang the noise. I'd go there, sometimes alone and sometimes with my friends, to be in a place where we were the masters, where it took only our minds to conjure a world worth living for.

The guava tree that looked just like any other guava tree transformed into a fortress as I rested on its branch eight feet from the ground. In that fortress I made time stood still. The summer breeze took its time to blow away my worries.

Libera was in Cebu

I attended the Libera concert in Cebu last October 28, 2011 exactly two years after I attended my very first Libera concert in the exact same venue. Surreal. They've improved a lot since their last visit. I simply loved how they setup the stage this time around. There was no screen in the middle of the stage, but there were two large screens at both sides that showed some closeups and panning shots of the choristers during the performance. At the back of the choristers were a string quartet, recorder and keyboard, and percussions. The last time they were here they only had Fiona Pears playing the violin at the side. Also, this time around, I can name majority of the group (all of those that went here in 2009 and some new faces), which made the experience even better.

My favorite song in the concert, if I could only pick one, will have to be "Eternal Light" with a perfect solo by Stefan Leadbeater. He is older now at the concert compared to the one in the Peace CD used in the video below and his voice is even better than the one in the CD. And the soaring harmonies is so uplifting. I thought this is what chorale music should be. To brighten up your day. Stefan is clearly at the peak of his treble career so hopefully Mr. Prizeman will be able to compose some more songs for him and Libera for future CDs.



My second favorite will have to be their special Libera arrangement of a popular Pinoy Christmas song, "Himig ng Pasko". The solo was done by Ralph Skan. Ralph has a different kind of voice that suits this song quite well. Mr. Prizeman, their musical director, knows the voices that his group have very well and assigns them the perfect part of the song for each. I could only imagine what it would have been like if he was our musical director back in high school when I was a member of our school choir. With that kind of training, I probably would have a singing career by now. :)



These two, Stefan and Ralph, were new touring members of Libera (not all of them tour) when they first came here two years and now they practically carry the group. I already have a copy of their Christmas album and looking forward to own a cd that contains their version of "Himig ng Pasko" in the future.

Surreal

Today was surreal. Something happened that up until now I thought could only happen in movies. I'm tempted to describe it tragic, but then again I don't really know the reason why it happened. Hopefully everything turns out okay to all parties. Surreal.

Libera to launch Christmas album in the Philippines

The London based boy's choir, Libera, is set to launch their newest CD (Libera: The Christmas Album) with two concerts in the Philippines later this month.

MANILA
Concert: October 25, 2011. 8:00 pm. PICC Plenary Hall
Autograph Signing: October 23, 2011. 4:00 pm. The Block, SM North EDSA

CEBU
Concert: October 28, 2011. 8:00 pm. Waterfront Cebu Pacific Grand Ballroom
Autograph Signing: October 27, 2011. 5:00 pm. The Northwing, SM Cebu

For ticket information, head on over to the following sites:
TicketWorld
Arts Council of Cebu
Libera Official Website

Meanwhile, Libera: The Christmas Album is already available nationwide in the Philippines since September 30, 2011. Buy the album now and be among the first to hear the songs live this October in the Philippines. You can preview the album tracks below.



Advance Merry Christmas to all!

Away from work

It was nice to spend one full week without thinking about work. While I may have done a lot more walking for the past seven days than the whole of last month combined, I still enjoyed it. It was refreshing not to think about work in a place where the weather is often just right (not too hot and not too cold, for me at least). Not once did I think about opening work email. How I wish I have enough money to stay there for a month or two.

On this day in 2009

Noticed this in FB on the right hand side today.

On This Day in 2009:

Yesterday, I turned down a 1-year assignment in another Asian country, which would have commenced on October 1. I'm just too happy to be back home last week to entertain the idea of an even longer term foreign assignment in such short notice. But I did think it through and decided that Cebu is best for me at this time. Today I've learned that the replacement will be another Cebu resource, so I guess all is well. :) [posted September 11, 2009 at 11:05pm]

Change really is the only constant in this world as I no longer feel the same way after two years.

The hardest thing

There I was wearing the very dress shirt and pants that I wore on my first day of work in Cebu, watching my colleagues, my friends, perform their group presentations, thinking, they are what I will miss the most when I leave.

Easter weekend

For the first time, I spent the Easter Weekend far from home. It was both tiring and restful at the same time. But I was so feverish starting on our first night and all through out the second day that I thought I'm going to call in sick today. But I got better on the third day. However, I still had to miss work because I was greeted with a broken water pipe at my apartment when I reached home last night. Don't exactly know when the pipes cracked, but when I woke up this morning it seemed like the hole grew twice its size than when I finally decided that I don't have the necessarry tools to fix it myself and that I'd better sleep and report the damage to my landlord the next day, which is today.

Another vacation leave down the drain, just when I was saving them all up for another out of country trip this September and of course the usual vacation on Christmas week. But I didn't really have a choice. I'll worry about my remaining VLs when the time comes.

Holy week 2011

This would be the first time that I will spend the Holy Week away from home. Holy Week, like Christmas, is usually that time of the year when people working away from home come home. At least for me. But I know for certain this is true to most people I know. I expect majority of the people in the office will be on vacation starting Monday.

Part of me is sad that I'm not spending a restful week at home that I usually do every Holy Week since I started working away from home. But part of me is also happy to break from routine once in a while.