Entertainment

December 1, 2008

No Doubt regrouping for tour and album (0 Comments)

NEW YORK (Billboard) – No Doubt will return to the road in 2009 while it finishes its first studio album in seven years.

The Los Angeles pop group made the announcement via an instant message transcript posted on its official Web site (http://www.nodoubt.com), but did not provide specific details.

“I have cabin fever. Maybe we should play some shows or something,” guitarist Tom Dumont wrote. Vocalist Gwen Stefani answered, “I think we should go out now. I don’t think we should wait. Pack up the babies and get a bunch of nannies. So fun! Would be so inspiring to get out there and play all those songs again.”

The group then discusses how continuing to write new music on the road would be inspiring, and vows to alert management to its plans.

No Doubt has been in the studio on and off throughout 2008. But Stefani’s participation has been limited of late, having given birth to her second son in late August.

The group hasn’t played live since mid-2004, and its last studio album was 2001’s “Rock Steady.” Since then, Stefani has released two critically acclaimed solo albums, while the other group members have pursued solo and session work as well as producing. Most recently, they appear on Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland’s newly released second solo album, “‘Happy’ in Galoshes.” — Y! News

November 25, 2008

November 8 to 14 (1 Comment)

So much fun shit has happened to me lately.

Watch out for an extreme long post.

First off, BARRAKZ NIGHT WITH PHOEBE, JAN, AND POW… With extras on the side.

(Just kidding, Phoebe.

*huggles*) It was last Nov. 9. Jan and I were supposed to have a casual beer drinking session, but Phoebe wanted to dance. We really didn’t feel like dancing. I would prefer to wear a skirt if ever, but I couldn’t and didn’t want to.

Eventually we agreed to the dancing plan, but still ended up just drinking and smoking.

I had bottles and bottles of beer @_@ and a tequila shot in-between.

Rest are in here (for contacts only)

We were all having fun especially during the LIVE SHOW until drama started when Phoebe suddenly walked out with Wads following her. That was very surprising.

Before we left the bar, Phoebe had more tequila. More drama ensued when we got to Phoebe’s place. Jan and I only camwhored and talked to Paul (one of Phoebe’s friends) over the phone.

Man, I couldn’t forget I posted plurks full of gibberish. Not only that, I also sent sms to friends. *facepalms*

We had band practice the following day. I asked Reyton to meet up with me and Jan after more smoking session at Phoebe’s.

The band discussed about covers and originals, then we practiced a bunch of songs. Carol’s really doing great.

When they left, I started with my solo beer session thus I slept in late. As usual.

I had a hard time getting up on that Monday. I tried to keep myself awake to write more stuff. Luckily, the boss was too busy in the afternoon to take notice of what we were doing. Tuesday morning, she left for LA, which was the start of our bumming session. We went to Rockwell for lunch and window-shopping. I ended up buying Veronika Decides to Die from Fully Booked.

(You know, a part of me agrees with Veronika’s reasons of wanting to die — should discuss that in another blog post.) An hour after we went back to the office, Phoebe asked me to accompany her to RCBC/DLSU to get some documents. She picked me up 30 minutes before logout >_&gt then had a last-minute change of plans because the documents can actually be downloaded from the net.

We hanged out in Seattle’s Best Coffee GB3 for some iced coffee and camwhored. She dropped me off at home then I headed to Shangri-La to meet up with officemates. Too bad I missed dinner with them. -_-;;

The following day (Thursday for those who are now lost *lol*), I got my pay for playing PSP and sleeping at work.

We headed to Rockwell again after work hours since Arni, an officemate, wanted to buy the Meyer books. I, on the other hand, checked Power Mac Center for the Skullcandy GI Rasta headphone. How fortunate of my wallet that the headphone wasn’t available. >_>;;; I only ended up buying Red Ribbon’s ube cake for my ‘rents.

Oh, I saw Neri, who’s got a nice ‘do, in Fully Booked.

Friday was civilian day because of the Employees Get-together Party after work, so I went in my already baggy pants and loose tee.

That was fucking annoying. ARGH! Anyway, before the party started, we bought beers at 7-11. I had Red Horse for the kicks.

The party was very, very amusing that we kept shouting and singing without any care. We loved the oldies music (80s theme!), so we had a real good time singing along to the songs like MORE TODAY THAN YESTERDAY, AWITIN MO, GOLD (*toot*), and a lot more.

There was even a fireworks display.

Saturday was my rest day. I spent most of my afternoon in bed reading Brida and napping. Too much went on during the week and the alcohol consumption ate my energy. D: Isn’t it weird that Saturday was my rest day from gimmicks?

November 22, 2008

Something About Us (0 Comments)

I might not be the right one
It might not be the right time
But there’s something about us I’ve got to do
Some kind of secret I will share with you

November 8, 2008

October 29 at Mapua (0 Comments)

What a stressful day! I mean, night.

I spent the morning trying to resist the urge of telling my bandmates what my surprise is. I slept in the office, played some DDR4, tried to do some work, and contacted the bandmates about our meet-up.

I was supposed to leave the office, but Carol contacted me regarding Mac. So I OT-ed for a bit while officemates waited for me. (Yeah, they ♥ me that much. LOLz~) We tried to persuade Mac into still performing with us. But he got mad while ONLY me and Carol were just having fun. It’s the effect of Roland + the gig excitement.

He took it differently. So there. I didn’t want any hard feelings, but that had to happen. Also, we’re the one already asking him to join yet he goes berserk.

That’s just too bad. I will miss his singing. *gets thrown at with rocks*

Anyway, it felt like ages since the band was _complete_. You’ll find out why later.

Reyton arrived minutes after I got home. I only changed into my pants, rested a bit, and got ready. We got stuck for a bit in LRT due to Maru’s cymbal stand. D: We couldn’t get the legs folded. I turned into some kind of incredible hulk in front of the damn guard and was able to fold it.

Fortunately, we were able to squeeze in the train with the lot of people. D: We arrived around 7:30PM in Manila Uni and met up with Carol + Peli. :3 Then we rushed to the school because we knew that the event will end at 9PM. Yet the party hasn’t started when we arrived there. Maru said it was due to the tardiness of everyone. *shakes head* That doesn’t include us, btw. XD; Also, the rest of the band were surprised when they saw EJ’s name under the guest list.

They thought it was a different person, then I said, “That _is_ EJ.” I was LOL-ing the whole time. XDDD;

The party started, bands played — some noisy and some acoustic — then it was our turn.

We played Spiderwebs and DJs (No Doubt version). We were supposed to play only, but audience wanted more and also Maru. So we played Underneath It All.

DJs

Underneath It All

I really liked the fact that the audience enjoyed our performance. One said that their entrance fee of PhP200 only became worth it because of us.

The band to perform after us was afraid to go onstage because they found us “professionals.” *rofl* We didn’t practice those songs, but I’m glad we were able to pull it off even with a bajillion mistakes.

October 13, 2008

Mash It Up! gig + busy, busy week (1 Comment)

I have so much to blog about, but I won’t talk about them in just one post (this might up 100 pages long or even longer).

We had a practice before we headed to Bela Bar. We practiced 3 songs; songs that we weren’t sure if we’ll add to our playlist. We had to just in case.

We left later than we wanted to. Hil, the gig organizer, was asked me our whereabouts because we were asked to be there early for opening act.

Rain poured when we were halfway. That, the traffic, and our indecisiveness caused major delays. We arrived between 10-10:30PM — tired, sleepy, and I was in a bad mood because of a small fight w/ bf.

In the MRT

Anyway, Hil, the gig organizer, told us we can start setting up and doing sound checks. Commuting on a rainy night is tough, so we said that we wanna rest first. Also, we’d rather play right away instead of the pasikat moment. LOLz~ Then Hil offered us free Red Horse that mostly just went to waste. You’ll know later on.

Another band did the opening which is good news for us so we can prepare properly. I wrote down our line-up and tuned my guitar. The first band didn’t play long. We did our set-up duties that took us a while because the equipment weren’t that good. The guitar amp was wonky. Setting the volume at 1 already sets the amp at full blast.

I’m emo-ing with my guitar XD;

First song = disastrous! The bass amp Rayton used kept going off for more than half of the song. The audience was still nice to applaud us. The fucked up equipment killed our mood, but we continued. The guitar amp went wonky as well, similarly to Rayton’s bass amp. The sound will cut off at every strum I make. Specially on the solo part, I played like some wannabe n00b guitarist.

How embarrassing! It was also cold in the bar that my hands were freezing. That our first time to play for Bisikleta Productions and our performance sucked. I hope we get invited again, but not with the Oi! bands plox.

I have nothing against them. I just don’t like their pushing and pushing in a small dance floor that they accidentally hit our table. My beer went to waste because of their so-called dancing.

They were amusing though. I guess that kind of made up for the wasted beer. >_>

Contras at Bela Bar

I hardly remember the sequence of events that night. I think it was after one of Contras’ songs that the bar owner went to the dancefloor. He told the audience that the dancefloor isn’t that big, so they should go easy on the _dancing_. He even had a gun tucked in his pants. D: Those in the dancefloor didn’t move a bit when they saw a gun. I expected them to behave, but nuuuuu~ They knocked our table a lot of times. One big man accidentally pushed the bar owner as well. The very pissed bar owner took out his gun and pointed it to the big man. Most of the customers went out while we still sat there. Aside from “guns blazing,” a “clash of knives” also happened. *rofl* I was actually clueless. I also wanted to join in their riot because no one replaced my beer.

We got home around 3AM and very much amused by the events. XD; Hil apologized to me the following day, but not for the beer. Yeah, I still have an “anger hang-over” from that.

Whew, that’s one blog topic done.

Climate change papers kept me from blogging. I had to do a quick research about climate change, Makati’s adaptation and mitigation process on it, and contributions for the Mayor’s speech for the World Bank CC program. I had to work on a Saturday night with no extra pay. Only free dinner from boss. I remember there were about 10 speeches made from different people and offices. The final speech was like a combined force. D: I asked help form the WB Manila folks to check it. I’m afraid it’s full of fail, but boss said that we got a good response from the Mayor’s presentation. I wonder if he presented the WB-edited speech.

September 19, 2008

DVD writer + K. Wasabi video and pic spam (Comments Off)

I notice there’s always something bad bound to happen at least once a week. After Allie’s death early this month, my DVD writer shattered a CD into a lot of pieces rendering it useless.

Of course it’s not as bad as Allie’s death. I only had no budget for it being that it happened so suddenly. I was planning on buying a memory card for the PSP even.

I inserted an OLD mp3 CD inside the DVD writer. I eventually got busy Plurking, so I have no idea how many minutes passed. Then I heard a bang that I thought was my battery charger since I was charging the digicam’s battery that night. I checked my plugged gadgets, the lights, and even the kitchen. I didn’t see anything wrong. Wanting to forget about it, I carried on to looking for mp3s to upload for the band. I opened my DVD writer and there I saw where the bang came from. The writer over-spun the CD. I read that it happens when there are cracks in the middle of the CD, too dirty, or it isn’t meant for fast DVD-roms.

I opened the DVD writer in hopes it will work fine as long as CD pieces were removed. I couldn’t remove all of them. The writer wouldn’t close anymore even, so it was goodbye. I got a new one the second day after the incident happened. I had to buy right away because you all know I download like mad.

I now use a Samsung again. My old DVD writer was only with me for less than 2 years. WTF!?

I finally got copies of the videos and pictures of our Aug. 29 gig at One Luv. All thanks to Peli for being our cameraman.

The pictures are yet to be organized while the videos are already up in my Multiply and K. Wasabi’s Facebook page. Embedding them here too for those too lazy to check my Multiply nor their Facebook accounts. Even though it pains me to do so considering I’m conscious about my site’s xhtml validity. XD;

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