Victoria Court: the stuff tourism brochures aren’t made of …

I ‘partially’ work in the hotel industry. More recently, a couple asked me for help in booking the biggest jacuzzi in Manila. I presume it couldn’t be in the formal hotels which have these conventional bathtubs. And so I looked elsewhere. Here is what greeted me in the Victoria Court website : the Oval Office theme room.

VC Oval Office

Right! All I can think about was Bill Clinton and Monica Lunoksky D

I wonder what Hillary has to say of VC’s version of the Oval Office bedroom.

VC Oval Office2

I’ve been browsing through the Victoria Court gallery and thought the designs aren’t really that bad:

The Austin Powers room looks happy P

Austin Powers room

Although I can settle for something as sedate as the Aman Room:

Aman Room

My search for the biggest jacuzzi is still on!

Victoria Court is of course now marketing itself as a place for parties and families, although it’s still stuck with the ‘motel moniker.’

I am kinda reminded of that giant shopping mall in Paranaque turned into the ultimate pleasure boudoir and KTV bar: Air Force One.

These are the stuff you don’t see being bandied about in the tourism brochures. All I can say is: Manila is really amazing! P

Pintados Kasadyaan Festival is giving way to the new Tacloban City festival


TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte – In a board meeting Tuesday night of the officers and members of the Board of the Pintados Foundation Incorporated, the consensus is for the Pintados Festival to give way to the new festival, the Pasangyaw Festival as announced by the Tacloban City government. This means that the public will not see the Pintados Festival this coming fiesta of Tacloban.

The Pintados Board pointed out that the Pintados Festival was created in 1986, among others, to enliven the Feast of Señor Sto. Niño with or without hermano mayor, after a lull was experienced in the City Fiesta socio civic activities because of the non appearance of the then Hermano Mayor who had to scape the country because of the EDSA Revolution.

For twenty-one years, irregardless of who the Hermano Mayor is, the Pintados Foundation continued to stage the Pintados Festival which has already become a byword locally and internationally when the City of Tacloban is mentioned.

Now that the City of Tacloban under the leadership of Mayor Alfred Romualdez has decided to come up with a new festival, the Pintados Foundation deem it proper to give way to the new Pasangyaw Festival which will be participated in reportedly by various festivals coming from the various cities of the country who were personally invited by the Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez and his wife, City Councilor Cristina Romualdez.

The Board Officers, however, is willing to continue managing the annual Ms. Pintados Beauty Search, if there is sufficient fund.

The Pintados Foundation will also continue its community project which is the Street Children Program. It was learned that a handful of children are now enrolled in elementary and High School after the Foundation provided the street kids with the payment of school fees, supplies, uniforms and other needs including the regular feeding program. In fact, one child who was a beneficiary of the program of the Foundation started in the elementary level and is now enrolled in college.

Aside from the Festival, the Search for Miss Pintados and the Street Children project, the Foundation has also been sponsoring and intends to continue to sponsor the School Band Competition, Cheer Dance, Rayhak Banda and many others.

The meeting was presided over by the Chairman of the Board Agustin Uykim, and attended by President Eugene Tan, founding President Roque Tiu, Past Chairman Butch Veloso, Past President Wilson Uy, Treasurer Junie Andrade, past Treasurer Henry Gosyco, and board secretary Evelina Acevedo.

According to the Foundation Officers, the Pintados Festival survived all the obstacles in its 21 years of continued and sustained staging of the Annual event during the vespers of the Fiesta of Tacloban. It has received acceptance and recognition in fact the City Government of Tacloban through its Legislative Body which passed and approved a Resolution declaring Pintados Festival as the Tacloban City Festival every June 29.

Samar News

WARNING!!! If you are reading this from another blog, it is possible that this has been copied without my permission. BYAHILO: Ito ang Trip Ko!

Pintados Kasadyaan Festival is giving way to the new Tacloban City festival

Carlos Santana Rocked My World Yesterday Night!

“I don’t come to this planet just to visit - we’re here to make a difference. We are the change we want in the world.”

Yan ang unang mga salita ang narinig ko sa mga bibig ni Carlos Santana kagabi sa konsyerto nya Casino Rama sa Orilla, Ontario. Nag name drop pa sya ng mga pangalang Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King at iba pa na hindi ko mga kilala.

Ang husay ng video na unang ipinalabas bago sumultada ang 10 - man band ng matatawag kong tunay na rakista. Mga biktima ng karahasan sa iba’t ibang panig ng mundo habang may nagsasalitang isang bading na indyano.

Unang internasyunal na konsyerto itong napanood ko at tunay na hindi ako nagsisi, sa halip feeling kong magkaroon ng koleksyon ng mga Long Playing Album ni Santana mula noon hanggang ngayon.

Mahusay ang bass guitarist. Habang nag sosolo performance sya lipad namang ng lipad si (hehehe nakalimutan ko kung sino siya lol! - balik ako balik pramis!) sa video. Medyo nakaka antok yung solo performance ng drummer pero humataw ng bandang huli.

Sa kabuuan wala akong masabi kundi “awesome” sa wika ng mga kanadyano. Lalo na noong sinabi ni Santana na mayroon daw ang Australia at South Africa na wala ang Amerika at ito yung tinatawag na HIGH MORAL LEADERSHIP.

Patungkol ito sa paghingi ng paumanhin ng Australia sa hindi nila magandang pagtrato noon sa mga “aboriginal people”

Sa bandang huli ang sabi niya “no more war or violence. Are you listening Bush? Compassion!”

Nagmistulang HATE AMERICA CAMPAIGN (tama ba ang termino ko? pakipalitan na lang kung mali) yung kanyang Live Your Light Tour.  O mas tamang HATE BUSH CAMPAIGN?

Taas kamay ko sa taong ito, sa tingin ko mukhang nakatapak ang dalawang paa sa lupa, mukha ngang pwede mong imbitahang makainuman sa kanto e..sama pa nya yung banda nya kamo.

Kung “awesome” ang konsyerto syempre mas “awesome” ang nagdala sa akin sa konsyerto. Isang bagsak mula sa akin para sa mga amo ko sa libreng ticket. Biro mo yun naka HUMMER pa ko. Sana may kasunod.

(Ang larawan ay ninenok ko sa Toronto Sun Dot Com)

Sunshine Plata, Coffee Painter

USTedyante
USTedyante

If you think you’re a coffee addict, then what can you possibly think of 28-year-old Sunshine Plata?

She uses instant coffee to create a masterpiece, and the above painting is her first with the style. She approaches art with a relatively unique medium, and this has proven that innovation, as well as taking chances, is the key to success.

It all started one fateful day when she saw a 19th century artifact with a signature done in coffee by the artist. And to think that it survived all these years was an exceptional thing on its own. Then, an idea. It was perfect, and it was ingenious.

Why not use coffee to paint?

El Hada Encantada
El Hada Encantada

Who needs expensive painting materials when you can probably afford a watercolor brush and a sachet of 3-in-1 (much preferably black though, heh) stacked away somewhere in your cupboard?

I know I don’t.

If you can create something so big out of something so small and cheap, why not take the chance and allow your creative juices to flow freely, instead of making your meager budget a hindrance to your dreams?

Sunshine’s artworks are incredible and impressive in their details. I’m immediately taken in by their aesthetic value and success. Who wouldn’t? Even Ripley’s Believe It or Not thinks hers is a noteworthy talent and method, and is impressed enough to buy 2 paintings for $2,500. One of her works has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show.

My favorite of her works?

Fairy of Sorrows
Fairy of Sorrows

The Fairy of Sorrows. In fact, it has inspired me enough to plan to write a short story in the near future, although, of course, it would be a fanfiction by nature. ) And oddly enough, it’s the one featured on The Martha Stewart Show.

When asked what her message is to inspiring artists, Sunshine has this to say (or write, ’cause, well, we’ve never met personally…yet :)):

Message to artists/non artists, to pinoys, to everyone: If your intentions are good and noble, u should never let whatever circumstance u have in life to hinder u from expressing ur creative self in whatever form. If people without limbs can use their feet or their mouth to paint how much more ourselves who are not put in that kid of a dilemma? all we need is that passion, perseverance and that spark of creativity flowing in our veins in order to be another creator of beauty and pure honesty.

Theres a book entitled “dream and ur dreams will fall short” and i can see the truth in that now! i dreamed but not this gigantic and all the things i am getting now are bizarrely beyond my wildest dreams! i encourage everyone to pray, only God can help u attain the utterly unexpected! filipinos are known to be pious and i say ur not born a filipino for nothing, there is absolutely a purpose! remember bamboo’s song ‘pinoy ako”: “sabi nila may anting anting ako pero di nila alam na diyos ang dahilan ko”

Maraming pang magagaling na pinoy talents na undiscovered at naniniwala akong kayang-kaya pa nila higitan yung mga natamo ko! kailangan lang sila mabigyan ng pagkakataon, suportahan at paniwalaan! Hiling ko po sa mga kapwa ko pinoy: ‘ipagdasal niyo po ako kailangan ko yun araw-araw, salamat po”

YUN TINAMO KO PONG KARANGALAN AY HANDOG KO SA BAWAT ISANG MAMAMAYANG PILIPINO, MATAPANG KA, KAYA MO….PARA SAYO TOH! )

And I think to myself, if I truly was a coffee addict, I would have thought of something to do with coffee other than drink it.

To you, Sunshine Plata, I send all the good luck and thanks. For your cunning, your creativity, and your love for the art AND the Filipinos. Keep on painting. I know our kababayans support you all the way. )

(Wonder if, despite my apparent disdain for Nestle products, we can invite her for a talk session in Bloggers’ Kapihan? He he.)