>Keka, laughter, and missing Romeo Lee.

I just watched the world premiere (wow, “world”!) of KEKA with Quark and the Wednesday group, along with a lot of other friends from college and prod, and it was loads of fun. The story kind of reminded me of True Romance, Run Lola Run and Taxi, and it was fun catching my friends’ cameos throughout the film. I also loved laughing at the wrong parts with them, but I’d like to see how the GamePlan people react when we watch the regular screening.

Anyway, kudos to the crew! I think they did a good job. And kudos to all the extras! My faves were the "beautiful Japanese waitress", the kupal Canadian in the MRT, and the director of the soap. Watch out for them!

***
While watching Keka, I realized that I laugh too loud. I also noticed that when I saw Finding Nemo with my sisters, and Charlie's Angels 2 with my officemates. Plus I predict things sometimes, so I laugh before the punch lines are delivered. I’m sure that that pisses off other viewers because they think that I’ve already seen the film, and my laugh can be pretty nasty. So there. Gotta work on my laughter.

***
I was supposed to go to the Lee Almighty exhibit last week, but I was so caught up with fixing my shoots that I completely forgot about it. Good thing Katwo took some pictures. The sculpture of Lee looks really cool. And look at the poster! Darn it! It was definitely a must-see.


Sigh, just gotta love that pile of ukay.

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Thanks to all the people who recently signed my guestbook. So sorry I never really get to reply, but I will someday. Sana. :)

Posted 2:47 AM by alia

>A Filipina's going to MOAB!!!

This post is really late, but anyhoo, congratualtions to Candice Madamba! She's the only girl in a team of five Filipinos going to Moab, Utah for the Marlboro Adventure Challenge. I'm jealous as hell, but from what former GamePlan host Paolo Abrera told me about his adventure before, they have to lug around this balde or poop so that they won't pollute the ecosystem. Haha! So Candice, I'm sure you'll do great horseback riding, white-water rafting and riding 4x4s and ATVs, but good luck with the poop pail! Hehe.

Read more in this article by June Navarro.

5 Filipinos off to Utah for ultimate adventure Posted: 0:00 AM (Manila Time) | Aug. 08, 2003 By June Navarro Inquirer News Service HAVE you ever seen a leisure guide featuring the sights and sounds of Moab? There isn't any because that strip of deserted land in Utah wasn't made for the holidays. Still, outdoor lovers salivate at the mere thought of it, especially when they think about the exploits of the Marlboro Adventure Team. The craving is about to end for five thrill-seeking Filipinos. Edison Cervantes, Jon Cruz, Candice Madamba, Charles Unchuan and Jeff Caranto have been plucked from a horde of Moab hopefuls to experience what they dubbed as the adventure of a lifetime. Horseback riding, white-water rafting, orienteering, hiking, riding 4X4s and ATVs -- these are just some of the challenges they will try to hurdle in a 10-day trip to the Moab late this year. "Once you are in Moab, you will realize you can do things you thought you could never do. You will be doing twice as much as you think you can and ten times as much as your mother thinks you can," said Bob Eckberg, marketing director of Philip Morris Philippines. "It's about pushing yourself. It's about taking a dream and making it real. After a trip with the adventure team, you come out changed," he added. The members of this year's Marlboro Adventure Team were announced in a lavish party inside the NBC Tent at The Fort. "This is really exciting. It's the best thing that has happened to me. It will allow me to explore my capabilities further," said Cervantes. But so far the best thing that has happened for the MAT was Madamba, who owns the distinction of becoming the first woman to survive the pre-trials and make it to the team. "Hindi pa nagsi-sink in ang feeling. I'm proud to be the first woman who made it," said Madamba, who works as a copyreader in a publishing firm. Cruz was also ecstatic as he groped for words to describe the feeling. "I couldn't stand on my feet (after my name was called) and I was really shaking," said Cruz. When these guys go to Moab, they would not only bring their expectations but also their identities as representatives of the country. "I'm taking my identity with me," said Carranto, a geologist. "I've never been so proud to be a Filipino and I hope I can show the other people there what a Filipino can do." After being picked from a narrow list of 25 finalists, they ought to be proud of it. Philip Morris selected the 25 from thousands of applications and were tested against the forces of nature, their competitors and themselves. "We made them go through a lot. They rode out in 4X4 vehicles, ATVs and rafts. They did the Tyrolean traverse and went rappelling. It was really a tough test for the participants," said Blue Reyna, the event manager. Apart from physical skill and endurance, Reyna said the survivors were selected partly because of their character.

***
The Keka website's up! I found the link through Ramon and I was surprised to see that GSM's Tanya Gutang worked on the graphics. Good work, TG!

And good luck to Quark! My friends and I will be watching his film tomorrow and we're all very excited for him. :)

And I love his quote in the site: "Please Watch KEKA or my career will be ruined."

Posted 3:37 PM by alia

>Remember her name: KEKA!

Quark's latest film Keka is coming out on August 20, 2003. From what I'm told, it's a bloody comedy with no sex. Gasp!

Watch it!

Bang! This is my favorite picture.

Haha! Cute.

In Meg's words, "But wait! There's more!" Hehe. Anyway, visit Chris' site for more of his pictures. :)

*I can't get over it! Every time I see Katya Santos, I think of her kiddie role in Oki Doki Dok.

***
Pictures from Dima's birthday party are finally up in Nono's photo gallery. Yey, fun-fun with GSM! :)

***
Hey, hey, hey! The Cinemanila sked is up! And I love the new developments in the site. Good-good.

Posted 4:56 PM by alia

>Disguising attachment.


Me and my phone Lumos
at my birthday inuman last year.

When I turned 23, I bought myself a second hand Nokia 6210. It was a gift to myself, a really pretty cyber silver cell phone that I happily named Lumos. Lumos was my favorite spell in Harry Potter and the 6210 was my favorite phone at the time, and buying it with my own money made me proud. I was saving my money so well that I even treated my friends to beer. My birthday was good. My phone was good. And I lost it in Diliman 2 weeks ago.

I think it fell from my pocket. I rode a trike to the bank, went back to work, jokingly felt sad that no one was texting me all day and voila, I couldn’t find my phone.

Lumos is lost. (It’s light has gone out…haha! drama.)

A lot of stress happened days before, and losing my phone felt like the final blow. I thought that I’d go nuts because I can get very attached to things and when I lose them, I take it badly. But I think I handled myself pretty well. No crying and banging my head on the wall and thinking, “Mommy’s gonna kill me. Mommy’s gonna kill me.” I was pretty calm and I called Globe to deactivate my line, and my sister and mom to notify them that I was going to be out of touch for some time, which was actually fun because they couldn’t find me for more than a week. Mwahaha! (Just kidding, Mom. :)

A good friend lent me his phone while I make my rounds looking for a cheap unit. Sometimes I think of how silly it was for me to have named Lumos and said that the crack on its screen was a symbol of our bond (Scarred people, AND phones, are beautiful. Hehe.), but I really loved that phone. Shucks. Well, this is how it is when you lose things. You search for replacements for them. Food expires, gadgets get upgraded and good things like McDo’s Strawberry Sundae get phased out; but you always find replacements.

It’s not the same with people, though. And it’s cliché to say that people come and go. Some stick around, some write you often, and some live as if you never mattered to them. But the worst is when you yourself have to live as if you don’t miss any of them.

People my age have master plans for our careers, a list of things we want to do before 30. Be successful. Make money. Work, work, work. But somewhere along the way, we forget to write things like call mom, email dad, visit friends, get a boyfriend. We forget to attend to the people in our lives, but we also realize that we just don’t have enough time to care for them the way we’d want to. And so we focus on our goals again and we tell ourselves not to look back and miss anyone. We have to do more than disguise our attachment to them, and we pray that they’ll just be proud of us in the end, and that maybe we can make it up to them afterwards.

But the people you love don’t exactly just come and go, do they? Even if you hardly see them, or don't see them at all, they never disappear. They stay inside you, each unique with no possible replacements, and you wonder if you can actually detach yourself from them, and if it’s really that easy, like detaching yourself from your cell phone.

*Picture by Alexis.

Posted 12:02 AM by alia