First Loss

Ateneo Basketball League 2005 Season has started last Saturday, and we played our first game last Sunday at the Adidas Sports Kamp. We lost by four points. Only four points. It was one of the most heart-breaking losses I’ve ever experienced as a pseudo-baller.

This is how it happened. At overtime, our opponent Team Lavilles led by as much as five points during the last two minutes. Luckily, we managed to cut the lead down to only one point in the final thirty seconds. We then tried the man-to-man defense against them, but unfortunately, one of them became open for the basket and hit a three-point basket with only 8 seconds remaining in the ball game. We failed to answer that shot, thus the loss. Final score was 43-39.

Though it was a sorry loss for Team 4F 98, I have seen a lot of improvements from our first game last year. As we have studied the past game, we have noticed that our team has improved from a so-so team into a contender for the final four. Here are some points:

a. We managed to bring the game in a close match, with the opponent leading only up to as much as 9 points.

b. We lost by only four points. Last year, we lose games with the opponent leading by at least 15 points. This shows that we are developing intensity even to the last minute.

c. Half of the players enlisted in our team played. We had a pretty good nine-man rotation, composed of the captain Mitch Martinez, swingman Jayvee Reyes, Defense Minister Jude Santos, Twin towers Carlo Gonzalez and Bong Perez, newbie Pua (I failed to get his first name though my shorts are still with him), Clutch man RJ Militar, “big man” Ep-ep Mateo and myself.

d. I scored nine points and only fouled once. In the first game last year, I scored only a couple of points and fouled out in the third quarter.

Though we suffered a heart-breaking loss last Sunday, we realized that our team has a lot of potential, and the possibility for a final four slot is closer than expected. But of course, win or lose, we still have fun and enjoy the 17,000 buck-entrance fee.

Booyah…

Snapshots:


My lady and I
Taken during one dinner cum inuman at Pier One Tomas Morato

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Trivia trivia

Did you know: Comedy King Dolphy started out as a dance instructor in his early years before entering the movie industry.

Some Incoherent random Caricatures part 2

My favorite jester Gary Lising once joked in the dying noon-time show "Magandang Tanghali Bayan." He never fails to give me a smile, even though many people do not seem to think so... Here goes:

"An old woman, in her late 70's, taught me that there are three signs that a person is aging: first is forgetfulness... The other two, I cannot remember..."

Another one:

"I would like to thank my doctor who lost his medicine licensure because he was caught sleeping with one of his patients... He was a veterinarian..."

Tama na... sorry, corny na... hehehehe...

Good luck to us in our first-ever Ateneo Basketball League (ABL) game on Sunday, 16 January 2005 at the Adidas Sports Kamp... Anyone who wants to watch may purchase tickets from me... It's for free...

I forgot to mention that I was able to view another MMFF entry, Sigaw. This was the 4th movie I watched, after Mano Po 3, Spirit of the Glass and Panaghoy sa Suba. What can I say about the movie? Thank God for Jomari Yllana and Ella Guevarra's acting... And thank you, Angel Locsin... hehehe... We it gave some people quite a scare... As for me, I was busy eavesdropping from alleged moviehouse crashers who were seated at the back of my seat. They were apprehended by the security guards of the moviehouse... That kept me busy... The story? Okey, it was a little notch better than Spirit of the Glass... Enough said...

Panaghoy sa Suba, for me, was the reall winner in the recent filmfest.. From cinematography to screenplay to cultural relevance, This is a real masterpiece by debut director Cesar Montano...

I'm learning a little Spanish, thanks to my lady who is taking up Spanish lessons at the Foreign Service Institute, Department of Foreign Affairs. Cool eh? hehehe...

Trivia, trivia

Did you know: Singer Mithc Valdez's first screen name upon entering the world of show business was Maya Valdez. I guess she realized she was to big to be a Maya... hehehehe

Series of unfortunate Events

There is an old saying that goes: “When it rains, it pours.” Too bad it had to rain on the days near my birthday. Actually, it’s not at all that bad compared with unfortunate events of other people. However, personally I consider my birthday as one of the most sacred days of the year. Thus, having three consecutive unfortunate events before and during my birthday is already alarming for me.

Here goes my unfortunate journey towards the 23rd year of existence. On Tuesday, January 4, for reasons even science could not explain, my index toe hurt as I was riding down an FX. The day after, it was swollen as if a stampeding herd of elephants stepped on it. Thus, I went to the office in my trendy, light-weight slippers, limping. Even my lady laughed at the way I walked that day…I was a worse walker than Erap before his knee operation!

On the eve of my birthday, January 5, as I was riding the usual FX ride to my home from my lady’s house, a jeep lost his brake and hit the FX that I was riding. The impact was so hard the tail door couldn’t be opened. I had to jump over the middle seat just to get out. I was doing this while having an already hurt index toe. Tough luck, eh?

Then, comes my birthday, January 6. As I said earlier, I consider this day as one of the most sacred days of the year. However, as I was driving our car on the way to the office, the engine just stopped. I thought I ran out of gasoline, so I went to the nearest gas station to buy some gas. The gas station was three blocks away so I couldn’t consider it to be near, but I still went for it, even if my toe was still hurting and swollen. I had to limp to the gas station to get my gas to get my engine running. I walked back and forth the gas station thrice to adequately fill my tank with gasoline. After that, I started the engine, and voilah! It didn’t start. After an hour of agony, toil and trouble, I realized that the problem was far more complicated that mere gasoline insufficiency. Later on, after some butingting moments with our trusted mechanic, we found out that some wire got disconnected. Some automotive genre that requires a mechanic to explain so I will just go on with my story.

Despite these three consecutive unfortunate events on my birthday, I still feel really blessed because in the evening of my birthday, I had the most fantastic dinner with my lady. That just chased all my troubles away.

Still, Happy Birthday to me…

Trivia, trivia

Did you know: "Sandwich" lead singer and MTV VJ Marc Abaya is now busy with his new band, Kjwan. He is not related to Gen. Narciso Abaya.

Metro Manila Flim Flam?

It's new year once again... And the filmfest is about to end... Too bad I only watched two movies. Hopefully my lady and I could watch "Panaghoy sa Suba" this afternoon.

The other film I watched was "Spirit of the Glass." Many would probably ask why i watched the film. Primarily, my lady and I were planning to watch Panaghoy sa Suba. However, when we got to the cinema, Panaghoy had already started and the next start is already very late for us. Second reason was because I was really curious as to how scary can a Pinoy movie get. I just wanted to compare how it fares against other Asian horror movies. Third is because i wanted to support my ex-classmate in the Ateneo, Dingdong Dantes.

Surprisingly, the Spirit of the Glass gave my lady two shock points. One was when thje bloodied Marvin Agustin (who played Dante, the ghost) appeared in Alessandra de Rossi's closet. Another was when he appeared in Rica Peralejo's Rear view mirror. That's it.

As usual, it was a typical horror movie in the tradition of Regal Shockers and Shake, Rattle and Roll. But then, as what our Pinoy moviegoers always say to not-so-good movies, "Puwede Na."

I am very much interested in watching Panaghoy sa Suba. Panaghoy is a relatively new concept, wherein, it used pure Visayan (Cebuano) language screenplay with English subtitles. It is quite a feat for Cesar Montano to have done this project considering that Manileños have a penchant for discriminating Visayans because of their "slang" accent. This movie is a real breakthrough, with the attempt to unify the nation through appreciation of other dialects aside from Tagalog or Filipino language.

I felt bad upon knowing that Panaghoy didn't win best picture in the recently concluded awards night. The movie mustered small awards that, towards the end, made it look like it's going win the best picture trophy. Panaghoy won best Supporting Actress (Rebecca Lusterio), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Director (Cesar Montano). Unfortunately, they lost the best picture trophy from the controversial Chinese-oriented drama Mano Po 3. They just got the second best picture award. Everyone was shocked to find out the results. The judges argued that Mano Po 3 got the Best Picture award because of having the best story and the best actor and actress.

I didn't seem to get their logic. From a logical perspective, a movie is considered a good movie if the story is good, the screenplay was well written, the camera tricks were excellent and the director was excellent. Most of the time, the award-giving body awards the best director trophy to the movie they think was excellent. Because logically, a movie is excellent because the director managed to pull it off well. On the other hand, Best Actor and Actress awards are given to persons who demonstrated exemplary performance to the role, even if the story of the movie is juat a "so-so." In pedestrian terms, "dinala lang ng artista yung pelikula." It is mind-boggling to see ironies in the recent awards night.

Oh well... controversies happen everywhere, even in the highly-respected Academy Awards. So we need not expect much from the Metro Manila Film Fest...

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Trivia trivia

Did you know: "Misadventures of Ariel and Maverick" star Ariel Villasanta used to appear in the Tito, Vic and Joey sitcom "Iskul Bukol." He plays one of the tambays in the show.