Julia Barretto on her 18th Birthday: Just Julia

These are the times when you feel you're blessed, that no matter where your fate takes you, you just need to become humble and say "Thank you!".

Debuts in the Philippines mark the coming of an age, where a teen grabs life from the end of its trail and declare she's now a lady. She went the long way from fixing her realtionships, to working hard and now, she's celebrating it with friends, family, the people she loves no matter what consangnuity.

Also, she said her goal this year is to keep the people in her life in good terms and she hopes her birthday could spark talks with her Titas, her Mom and Dad. She also divulges that her first dance would be Dennis Padilla and her last would be teen hearthrob Iñigo Pascual.

Just Julia will happen this March 10, 2015 and will be shown on public TV this March 28th in the evening. We hope Julia gets her personal wish and perhaps make the stars align for her. 

(Photo credits: Julia Barreto's Instagram account)

Lee Min Ho's Gangnam Blues

Watched the premier of Gangnam Blues this evening and I'm literally writing this right after we went out of the theater. It's premier was shown in a special theater called Sine Asia that will only be seen in select SM Cinemas.  

They tagalized the whole film and it was quite long at approximately 2 and a 1/2 hours long of how the Gangnam district came about. Although characters and situations were fictitious, I think there's a huge connection between this film and how Gangnam is being perceived by the South Koreans today. Anyway, Lee Min Ho was absolutely brilliant. His co star too. I won't suggest this be seen by teens and think this should have had at least an R rating. There are body parts seen, like you know.

Anyway, this Sine Asia project of SM and Viva International would really be a good venue to see more Asian films from Thailand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This premiere was a huge success and of course, I think the fans loved it a lot. It's PG 16 right now and if your parents come with you, you should watch it. Do not watch this without adult supervision. 

The other films lined up though especially the one by Chow Yun Fat was really funny, I'd watch that too. As for watching Gangnam Blues, it's totally worth it. A bit tragic though. I don't wanna spoil anything so I'm a little careful now.

Thank me later!

For more information about their events:

SM Mall of Asia

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Philippine History Seen in SININGSAYSAY

This day is just beginning but my blogger friends and I gladly got schooled in history. An art exhibit entitled "SININGSAYSAY" (Philippine Historical Art) has been put up at the 5th Floor of Gateway Mall in Quezon City so people and groups would be able to connect art with history and how they would be able to show their work with the greater public.

Some facts we learned today:

- We have petroglyphs in the caves of Angono. Before writing, we did have ways to communicate already. 

- The oldest image in the Philippines is Sto. Niño de Cebu.

- Manila if said in most history books is just the walled city, not the whole thing we know today. 

There's a lot more but of course you have to be there to see and experience it!

We spoke to one of the artists named Pablo Baen Santos, he says "I wanted to show historical facts, important issues but not too much to make it aesthetically pleasing. This is to draw attention, memory recall and reference. You can't be tied down to details. I'm more mandated to create a beautiful artwork first before history though. I'm an eyewitness since I wrote for Taliba ng Bayan which is an underground newspaper, but had limited copies because they used mimmiographs back then. We had to move constantly if there's surveilance being felt and distribute the stencil so it wouldn't be hampered. It took me 2-3 years to make this. The UPAA and Aranetas commissioned us and we talked about what we had to do and it was easy to do but I had other paintings to do at that time, so it took that long."

Now I am from Quezon City don't get me wrong, but just like most of you I haven't seen this wing of Gateway Mall yet. The way there is almost as wonderful as this exhibit too because there's an artificial roof garden and topiary which would be pretty cool for kids and lovers who would want to have a quiet place all for themselves. Although announcing this might make that place more populated, I think people wouldn't be going there too much. The time to enjoy the place is now. 

Aside from that, the phenomenal artwork displayed currently at the Gateway's 5th floor tells us about the generations of history the Philippines has. If you've got visitors from other countries, you can tell them about the Philippines even in a short amount of time. I must also say you should see the Randy T. Solon work which I personally like, and the one by Jonahmar Salvosa who did the Galleon Trade in different textures, plus the one done by Bencab in the same place. These pieces are currently in Gateway only for a short amount of time and will be transferred once UPAA has establishe their own home in UP grounds for the artworks. 

Please visit SININGSAYSAY at the Gateway Tower's 5th Floor (Gateway Gallery). You can use the entrance at the Gateway Mall and the one at the Gateway Tower, just ask the concierge so you can visit them from 11AM to 7PM everyday. 

For more information about their establishment:

Araneta Center

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http://www.aranetacenter.net/

BUM Black Summer: Miguel Tanfelix and Bianca Umali

I don't want to put these two teens on the spot but hey, they do look good together. I've been able to interview them a couple of times now and these guys are so sweet on and off cam. Although Bianca already said that they know they have to prioritize their work first, I feel there's already something brewing with these two and I'm happy to say that it shows on these behind the scene shots from the BUM Black Summer shoot.

Everyone was like gushing during the shoot because these two had chemistry right from the first shot was taken by Ash, BUM's photographer for this one. 

I even did catch them doing small things like these while they weren't being shot, so just imagine how Team Biguel must have felt when they saw this no?!

During this shot, Bianca hit Miguel's abs a couple of times while Miguel stiffens it up. He tried hehe!

I'm so happy that Bianca and Miguel is part of the BUM family. These two humble stars from GMA also got the chance to work with the teens from the other stations and I did tell Bianca how nice she was especially on photos. I bet she can even pass as a supermodel in print because her look is very editorial, what more if she had training no?!

Bianca Umali









It's consequently Bianca's birthday today too. I'll greet her in a bit but before anything else, here's one of the things she wore that afternoon for the shoot.

We sat down with Bianca to ask about her current projects and what she liked about this BUM Black Summer collection and she says "Right now ongoing is Once Upon a Kiss which is every weekday after More Than Words, and also Ismol Family every Sunday after Vampire ang Daddy Ko, then also Sunday All Stars. (I complemented her here because she looks different on print, like a supermodel that does editorials, yes she's fierce and bad@ass) Uhmm.. Thank you, thank you so much. I'm still studying on how to work more on photos because I'm really new to this, hearing your complement means I'm doing a good job. We do monitor our show, we watch it while we're shooting. We're back in the province and when we shoot we're ahead. 

Well we're best friends, we're very comfortable, we're like siblings, what our friendship does is that we both discover things together. It helps us both that you work with someone you're comfortable with.We don't have to adjust and know other actors so it's easier. There's spark I guess, there are thoughts, but I'm not saying that it should happen. (Then I asked "Do you know he likes you?") I like him too actually, what makes me like him more is that my family likes him too. We don't want to make them disappointed with the trust they've given us, our families are good and we both want to see what the future holds. Our priorities remain our work and studies, I think that's what is important. I'm still in second year, but I'm planning to take acceleration courses, I'm so happy I passed. I'm planning to take communication arts, film, photography and fine arts and I love the industry. I enjoy the life because this is what my Mom and Dad dreamed for me. I also know that it will help me a lot because I support myself. Whenever we have shoots for BUM and clothes,  I don't have a hard time choosing because it's me. Physically, emotionally, when I think about what my mood is, BUM fits me perfectly. I'm very okay with colors, I'm okay with classic ones. Actually, when I don't have clothes I go to black, when in doubt, I go to black. When there's a trend, we'll make it black, I'm totally okay with that!"

She's pretty, and intelligent, I don't think Miguel would mind having someone like her. In fact I think he really likes her.

Which brings us our second subject.