Ibyang
Ibyang

Entertainment

SATC2 With My Girls

Two years after the first SATC movie and the girls are back! Fun, fashion and friendship all in one movie. If you want to be entertained, you will be entertained. If you want substance, please lower your expectations. This movie has a thin plot with a long running time of 2.5 hours.

There’s not much storyline but if you are a married woman, some scenes might be relatable to you. I remember an unmarried friend of mine from the Philippines tweeted me a week ago with “You really have to watch it, Ibyang. This movie is more for married people.” And she was right. SATC 2 touched on issues about married life, parenthood, menopause blues, being a woman of today and knowing when to have a break.

The hits. I have enjoyed some heartwarming and funny moments in the film. My friends and I oohh’d and ahhh’d when we saw some of their outfits and accessories. The kind of friendship they have is still the same inspiring kind of relationship any woman would be lucky to have.

Their trip to Abu Dhabi was a miss for me. First of all, their shoot really took place in Morocco. The make-believe Abu Dhabi hotel they stayed at was an insult to the real luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi. 

So was it worth our time? Yes. As followers of the tv series, it’s still nice to see their stories unfold for the second time around. My girlfriends and I have watched the series and the first movie and it’s so easy to get the jokes of the SATC girls because we’ve known them for a decade already. No matter how lame some scenes may be, we found them funny because we understand where each character’s humour or eccentricities are coming from.



Two years ago, we watched SATC together so we made a pact to watch SATC2 when it comes out of the cinemas. And that’s what we did last Saturday. Me and my girls Rache, Hilda, Ara and Yyoni met up on Saturday and saw SATC2. We had so much fun inside the cinema.
We met up at McDonald’s for a quick lunch (parang college lang kami uli!!!). It was the nearest fastfood to the cinema and we were due to watch the movie in less than 30 minutes.

 
After the movie, we had a bit of catch up, shopped for some hair accessories and had hot chocolate at Max Brenner. A perfect day with my girls.

Organizing an all-girls day-out is not as easy. So we are very grateful for our husbands who make it easy for us to have our “me” times. The five of us are very lucky to have husbands who would gladly drive for us, wait for us and take care of the kids for us.

My Husband, other than tag along with me to the mall, babysat Jiona (Yyoni’s daughter) for awhile. 

  
Somehow, the friendship of the SATC2 girls reminds me so much of my friendship with my girls. Like them, our friendship goes way beyond being just friends. We treat each other as sisters….as family. Their presence in my life are food to my soul.

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Musical: CATS (Sydney, May 2010)

Everytime I think about “Cats” The Musical, I’d automatically hear the song in my head:

Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

– from the song “Memory” as sung by the character Grizabella (the glamour cat) –
Inspired by the poems from “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by T.S. Elliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber created the melody of “Cats” in late 1977. Together with director Trevor Nunn, choreographer Gillian Lynne and designer John Napier, they first opened in London in 1981. It holds the record of one of the longest running musicals in West End history.



 
{click for larger image}


The plot is very simple and yet at first it was hard to figure out what was really happening. If you’re looking for substance in the story, there really isn’t much.


It is about a tribe of cats called “Jellicle Cats” when once a year they get together for a Jellicle Ball. During the Jellicle Ball, their leader, Old Deuteronomy, would make a Jellicle Choice and decide which cat will be reborn into a new Jellicle life.


Other than the thin plot, it was all about each cat telling the story of their lives as told thru their songs and dances.

It was a brilliant and creative production, not like any production I’ve ever seen. This musical is a feast for those who like dance A LOT. Each sequence is like one big production number. The cast were great! I loved how feline their movements were and how graceful they were when they walk and dance.

A little word of caution though, some “dance numbers” took more than it should be that it was dragging already. My Husband and I almost dozed off at one point.

The songs were a bit of a disappointment. *sigh* Yes, I had to *sigh* because it was a musical in the first place but only two or three songs were really good enough for me. Although I had to commend Delia Hannah (Grizabella) for her rendition of “Memory”. For me, she delivered well.



Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and it was entertaining enough. I still believe it was worth seeing it even once to know what kind of production it is. It may have it’s not-so-good parts but I believe it is a great production. Seeing the cats in their colorful hair, make-up and costumes (I wonder how long it takes them to put on and get rid off) were a delight to the eyes. Set and light design are two things that won’t disappoint too.

We had a triple couple date when we watched last Saturday (29 May 2010) and we had a great time. Chris brought our camera and it was fortunate that we got great seats up front so we were able to take really good shots of the cast.



Cats The Musical in Sydney till 13 June 2010 at the Lyric Theatre, Star City.


All photos by Chris & Ibyang Sanchez, copyright 2010.
Canon 7D, 17-85mm IS USM Lens.

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Book: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Instead of writing how good a read this is, let me tell you my journey towards finding this book and how the story of Elizabeth Gilbert made an impact in my life.
Eat, pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
 

How I found this book. I found this at a time when I felt a little tired of reading fiction books. It was also at that time when I thought, “Since I can’t travel to all the places I want to go to, I will just read about it in books!” I had a phase when I kept buying Lonely Planet guidebooks in order “to travel” but I got tired of it the way I got tired of reading fiction. So I browsed thru some more at Borders and found autobiographies in their Travel section. I was in book haven when I saw tons of travel autobiographies–the answer to what I was looking for. The book “Eat Pray Love” caught my eye because it was about pleasures, spirituality and love. At the time I was craving to read about people’s travels, I also craved for some womanly wisdom on life as I was at a period of transitions (I just got married) and so I bought it because the book is not only about travel in the literal sense of the word but most importantly it was about a woman’s travel to finding her life and being happy again.

How it changed me. Before I read this book: I’m aware of things that give me pleasure, I know how to have fun; I have a strong faith–still growing in terms of my faith but nevertheless, my spirituality is intact; I’m able to manage problems, frustrations and difficulties; I have a stable support of friends and family; I’m content with my career; I’m inlove and have just gotten married to the love of my life; and most of all, given that I enjoy a busy life and I’m always surrounded by people I love, I welcome moments of solitude when I can just sit still and reflect. However, I felt there was a missing link to my everyday living. I’m inspired and blessed but I needed to make all the elements in my life work to the best of me. When I read this book, I found the answer: BALANCE.

Let me share the perfect quote from the book about Balance:

 “To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it’s like you have 4 legs instead of 2. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God.”

That’s why every time I’m faced with challenges or I’m having difficulty on the many tasks I juggle, I stop, breathe, clear my head and find the answer/s thru my heart instead. Nowadays, that’s how I figure out what’s REALLY IMPORTANT in that very moment I’m in. With balance, I’m able to find my centre easily when I’m getting out of focus, and able to maintain my equilibrium in my day-to-day living.

I’m very very very excited to see the movie. As in! I can’t wait for it to be shown and see the book come to life. It will be shown on 14 October 2010 here in Australia. For your respective country’s release dates, please check it out here.

If you have read “Eat Pray Love” and want to know what happened in the lives of Elizabeth Gilbert and Felipe (the man she met in Bali), read about their journey to embracing marriage (again) in “Committed“.

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Life Lessons From The Movie “Julie & Julia”

7 February 2010 4 Comments Category: Entertainment, Tips

“Julie & Julia”, a movie based on a blog by Julie Powell who found bliss and inspiration thru Julia Child’s life and cooking.  This is a true story of two women who heed the calling of cooking and writing which in the process lead them to their successful careers.

I’m personally inspired by the life that Julia Child led.  She’s one charmed woman who was graceful, wise, laughed a lot inspite of setbacks, had an unwavering perserverance and loved her supportive husband dearly. 
Julie on the other hand, although I’m not as enamored by her character, is a woman who changed her destiny by following her husband’s advice to start a blog in order  to document her cooking adventures based on Julia Child’s recipes.  Who would have thought that would lead her to publishing a book and a movie!?!
Two beautiful women, lots of life lessons to learn from their charmed lives:

It makes a difference when you have a supportive husband.  Both Julia and Julie’s husbands were pivotal in the success of their endeavors.  Their husbands were generous with time, support and ideas and were very good at listening to their wives’ rants and raves.  I believe that in marriage, you and your partner should know when to step back on the sidelines once in a while just so one can achieve his/her personal goals.  

It also makes a difference when you have a husband who asks “What is it that you really like to do?”  In any relationship, it’s nice to have someone ask you what you want, what you need and what you love. 

In life and cooking, never ever give up.  We all know a lot about not giving up when it comes to life in general so I won’t go there anymore.  But let me emphasize on the cooking part.   What I notice most about women who says “I can’t cook” is that some of them (take note: some of them, not all) tried cooking but failed so they never tried again.  Some women come to me and say “I’m not good at cooking” and I always say, “So what if you’re not good with cooking?  Just cook, later on it will get better.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, it only has to be edible.”

No one is too old to learn.  I never believed in late bloomers.  What I believe is that we are entitled to learn and bloom at our own pace and liking.  Forget numbers.  Forget age.  If you find yourself wanting to learn how to draw at age 40, go and just do that.  Julia Child started attending cooking lessons at aged 37–amazing, yeah?

Find balance in managing family life and attaining personal goals.  Actually, for me, there should always be balance in everything–which is something I always try to attain in my everyday life.  But for the purpose of learning a lesson from this movie, let’s focus on what Julie Powell forgot to maintain during the time when she had a fight with her husband over her being a self-absorbed bitch just because she had a deadline on her blog–and that is balance.  Balance is hard to attain AND maintain but it is a vital value in keeping up with a woman’s role as she manages a home and achieve her personal goals as well.  It is that value that will keep you grounded and wise when you face setbacks in your goals.  It is that value that will make you say, “Hang on a second, this is not worth losing my husband/family for.” 

Remember to have a sense of humour, laugh a lot.  So what if thing are not falling into place right now?  Don’t get too disappointed too long because tomorrow (or maybe even in a short while), the sun will peek thru your window again.  When something goes wrong, just laugh it off.  No one is spared from challenges anyway.  What makes a difference is how we react and deal with situations.

 
“Julie and Julia”, an uplifting and inspiring story.  And to end this post, let me leave you with this sweet words of Paul Child to Julia:  “You are the butter to my bread, you are the breath to my life.”
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Movie: Avatar

22 December 2009 7 Comments Category: Entertainment

“Avatar” is my best movie for the year 2009. A two-and-a-half-hour epic by James Cameron, a long movie yes, but with his storytelling prowess and the visuals and special effects a masterpiece, you wouldn’t notice the time at all.



* A story of a man given a new life and mission: to save a civilization. The lead character Jake Sully is brought to another planet called Pandora which is inhabited by a primitive race called the Na’vi. He was tasked to learn their ways and convince them to relocate so that humans can take over. However, the tables turned when Jake falls inlove with Neytiri (daughter of the Na’vi clan leaders) and the life of the Na’vis. He had to make a choice between two races he is part of.

* The most visually entertaining movie I’ve ever seen. The special effects will astonish you as James Cameron uses them to weave a beautiful story as effortlessly as possible.


* Entertaining and awesome but I believe there are also lessons to learn from the movie. I was very taken with the scene where the whole community of Na’vi people came together and joined their hands to save the life of Grace (the scientist played by Sigourney Weaver)–that was a powerful scene. I am one person who believes in the power of the universe, that each one of us has an energy that contributes to the beauty (or destruction) of the world and for me, that scene depicts all of that.


If you haven’t seen the film, I suggest you do. It’s worth it.

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