the weekend (Cinemalaya and Philamlife Theater)

Haven't blogged over the busy weekend, ahehe. So here's the update that people kept waiting for in anticipation. Hahaha! As if a lot of people read my blog.

Friday, July 27th

Went to CCP to watch Still Life, one of the Cinemalaya competition entries. I keep hearing that it's pretty good, so I decided to check it out. Alone. Wahehehe. I first checked out the Sinetaktakan in Batute, where the people can get to meet the filmmakers, complete with open forums. After I while, I stepped out and tried to take advantage of the free internet at the CCP shop, hahaha. Was chatting with Hilary and Zee almost the whole time, and I even caught myself laughing out loud several times while keeping up a conversation with Zee.

When I realized that my phone's battery was running low for the nth time (serves me right for buying a cheap battery), I logged out and went upstairs to the couch at the Main Theater lobby. Found Russ and Riki there with their laptops, burning CDs and and surfing the net. Bummed around with them while my phone was charging, then joined them and Tara to the buff to eat.

Found Mimay, Ayn and Leo in the LT lobby by the time I went back upstairs, and as it turned out, they had planned to watch Still Life but ran out of tickets. They ended up watching a different film instead.

Still Life was real eye candy for me, hahaha. To quote someone in the Sinetaktakan, "May ganitong lugar pala sa Pilipinas?" I laughed and cried all throughout the film, and I didn't even care that I looked like a fool doing so alone.


Saturday, July 28th

When I woke up in the morning, I found out from Ate Evie that Tito Romy has an extra pass for the Cinemalaya, so it was offered for me to use. The catch was that I had to get it from their house by lunch because they were all leaving to run errands, but I had no idea how to get there. With vague directions from Ate Evie, I was off like a shot, hahaha. I had to use the pass before going to the Hogi Hall reunion (in honor of Ed's visit) that evening. I got lost for about 15 minutes, but I managed to find the house. Thank you, Tito Romy!

Off to CCP, uber-excited to use the pass to watch Pisay. But then while bumming around in the lobby and main entrance, I found out from Tcel that Pisay's 3:30pm screening was sold out and they won't honor passes unless there were seat vacancies. Rawr... That was the only time I can watch so I can leave CCP by evening. So Carlo, Minette and I ended up watching Ligaw Liham. Holy kamote, I kept losing track of all the dramatic pauses in the film that were pretty unecessary.

A little stopover to meet with Tin, Micah and Dyown at Jollibee before they left for Makati to meet with Zee and Hilary, then Minette, Carlo and I dropped by the TP office. By the time we left so they can watch the audience choices for feature film (Pisay) and shorts (Doble Vista) and me to head on over to Alabang, the rain was pouring! What was worse, when I was in Taft and flagged down a bus, the moment the bus braked to let me in just when I had already closed my umbrella, rainwater poured out from the roof of the bus exactly as I had stepped on, practically drenching me. Arg...

Found Ed easily a few minutes after I had arrived in ATC. We decided to wait for the rest at Food Choices, while talking up a storm. One by one, Ramon, PJ, Seph and Aris arrived. We were also waiting for Iam and Ge, but we decided to just wait for them at Gerry's, where we had decided to have dinner. Of course, the first thing to order while at a grillery like Gerry's was none other than sisig, wheee! Thanks for dinner, Ed! Hahaha, my favorite part was when he got the change from the bill. It was his first time to see a 200-peso bill that he got so surprised, hahaha!

After dinner, we went to Shopwise at Festival Mall to get drinks and junk food to nibble on before we went to Seph's house. Man, that was a lotta beer, ahehehe. I was riding with PJ back to Seph's house, with Iam and Ge following us because they didn't know how to get there. We purposely passed by Zobel and even stopped for a few moments just to have that "We're at Zobel!" moment, hahahaha!

Brought out the drinks and chips and stuff outside to Seph's backyard, where the usual table was. *sigh* It's been ages since I got to bond with these guys that I realized I missed them so much. Conversations with them can get as crazy as we talked about topics from the most mundane to the most outrageous. The bet the guys made back in senior year. The 3 remaining guys who are still included in the bet, plus the new rules. The missing guys in the group. An ex-girlfriend. Rosa as a kabarkada's girlfriend (WAHAHAHAHA!). Missing Rosa's slow pick-up of jokes. Pick-up lines (I love Seph's polar bear pick-up line!). First date nightmares. Questions like "Would you still consider enrolling your kid in Zobel?" Zobel in general. The new buildings with names.

I just love this bunch to bits. Some may have some awkwardness towards the group, but hey, things have changed since high school. I'm just glad that these guys are still here. Hopefully we'll get together again next weekend. We're taking advantage of every get together while Ed's in Manila, hehehe.


Sunday, July 29th

We called it a night (??!?) at around 3 in the morning and headed on home. But I still had to wake up early to go to mass with my dad, huwaw.

I left for Philamlife right after for day 2 of the recording of those male voices. There were lots of new guys, and some had backed out at the last minute. Oh well. Hahaha, the best adventure of the day was when Minette and I had to go everywhere nearby Philamlife Theater plus CCP and Harbour Square. We made it back to the theater just in time for lunch, hehehe. Holy kamote, I can't believe that I even slept through the guys' shouts and stuff sometime after that. I was that sleepy??

Calvin and his son Santi dropped by the venue that afternoon. Oh my oh my, Santi's grown a lot since the last time I saw him, and he's still adorable. Hahaha, he was so cute when the guys were recording, putting his fingers to his ears because they were making such loud noises.

One thing I have to say about the TP talents is... they are so spoiled, HAHAHAHA! When Minette went backstage with the TF, I noticed that these guys went outside because it was so crowded in the dressing rooms. When I found them in the audience area and told them to go back to the dressing rooms, they simply said that Minette can just bring it to them, as our stuff was still there. Hahaha, TP babies talaga.

Back to CCP for the Cinemalaya awards night, Minette and I met up with Carlo, Micah, Zee, Dyown with sister Me-anne at Harbour Square. We even spotted Tuxqs and Nar at Dencio's, having an intimate cast party for Ellas Inosentes.

Because of the event, the main theater lobby was uber-crowded. Easily found seats inside the theater and we all "kicked back, relaxed and enjoyed the movie," to quote some theater actor that had a mind that worked differently, ahehehe. Congratulations to all the winners, especially to the Marasigan family for Tukso. Hahaha, how apt that Miss Irma was one of the presentors for the Best Screenplay Award in the feature film category.

I went home early today supposedly to catch up on my sleep. OK, that's what I'll be doing next, ahehehe.