My Bucket List... at last!

After much hemming and hawing, i finally got ten items for my Bucket List:

Number 1. Build a school.
Number 2. Travel to Europe.
Number 3. Learn photography.
Number 4. Learn to play the piano.
Number 5. Find and get in touch with my first best friend in Grade I: Tomas, suddenly i remembered his name as i'm updating this post!
Number 6. Own a rest house with a river or brook nearby.
Number 7. Be cast for a full-length role in a film.
Number 8. Find a copy/picture of my painting that won in a UNICEF-sponsored art contest in 1967.  (We were informed they used it as an artwork for a greeting card.)
Number 9. Finish an oil-painting.
Number 10. Laugh and play in the rain again...for a last time.

So, what's in your own Bucket List?

Busyness=Happyness

The last quarter of 2010 is proving to be a very busy time for me.  I have nothing but gratitude for the blessings coming my way this last stretch of the year.

A series of conflict management workshops for the Bureau of Immigrations find me in Clark, Pampanga once a week until January 2011.  It's my first time to visit and teach at the Immigrations Academy in the former US Airbase and couldn't get enough of the refreshing sight of greenery and open space.

At John Robert Powers, International (JRP),  rehearsals have begun for the 2011 Showcase: Real Fame Unleashed. Once more, as the production manager for the bi-annual talent showcase, I am thrilled by the frenzy of activities steeped in creative juices from a team of top artistic directors.

The JRP Showcase features talents from the school in performance segments that include: acting, singing, dancing, hosting, TVC acting, fashion pictorial and runway.  Reputable talent agents and managers are also invited to watch the fresh talents and, hopefully, take them in as their wards in the hope of unleashing their full potentials as the next big STAR!

But I always tell our talents, breaking in to the glamorous worlds of acting and modeling needs honing one's skills, a love for the craft and a passion to be on top of his/her game! Once again, I ask: Gusto mo bang sumikat?

Ideals

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands.  But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.  ~Carl Schurz, address, Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1859

Lead Your Life

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. ~G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893

Amusing

I was poring over some pictures and found some amusing ones i thought would be nice to share here... take note, my role was as a sixty-year old priest but the production staff decided i did not need any make up to make me look the part. That left me thinking: maybe i do look like a sixty-year old priest in real life!

On Being

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself. ~Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"

Midnight DJ : Sa Ngalan ng Ama

Despite the heavy rains last Thursday, August 26,taping of the Midnight DJ episode went on smoothly as the efficient staff and crew went about their duties to ensure that every take was a success. In between takes, the actors passed their time with friendly card games and funny banters. It was just like, pardon the cliche, one big happy family. In one corner were young actors' parents huddled while exchanging notes on their experiences with other productions and networks, while on the far end of the make shift (but airconed) dressing room were a couple of actors immersed on the laptop.

So what was I doing there? Well, Direk Lore decided to make true his promise to provide me with more roles (para naman may pambili ako ng ulam) in the weekly mystery tv show over at TV5. And boy, was I in good company! Other guests in the 11th episode of the show's 8th season were my idol, Bembol Rocco, Kalila Aguilos, fellow Actors Workshopper Ces Aldaba and young actor Renz Valerio.

Most of my scenes (five, yes i counted them) were with child actor Renz Valerio who, in my opinion, is another dramatic actor in the making. I play the role of Father Barbatos, the kind old priest who ran an orphanage. But this is not the first time i played man of the cloth, i was also a priest in a stage play we did at the old St. Therese Auditorium, "Isang Libong Piso," directed by the late tv director Raffy Oyales. In the musical play "Eugenie", director Chingay Lagdameo cast me as the Archbishop of Paris, Affre. Thus, Father Barbatos was not really to alien to me. And yes, you may blink and not miss me.

Midnight DJ stars Oyo Boy Sotto, Desiree del Valle, Meg Imperial, Joaqui Tupas, Julia Chua and John Medina. Aired over TV5, Firdays, 8:00PM

Sa Ngalan ng Ama (In the Name of the Father)

Director: Lore Reyes

Assistant Director: Jo Macasa

Episode Writer: Jessel Duque

Head Writer: Randy Villanueva

SYNOPSIS

Samboy visits the old site of the orphanage where he grew up, now an abandoned house up for sale. This visit reminds Samboy of a strange event that happened to him when he was just a boy. It involves a forbidden room where angry spirits seem to be trapped. When grown-up Samboy finds this room again, he awakens the spirits. When a disfigured man appears, things turn even stranger because Samboy starts suspecting that this man is his long-lost father, Samuel.



CHARACTERS

SAMBOY

BODJIE

QT

ANDREA

SWIT

ARTHUR

GUEST CHARACTERS

MANONG: Late 40s or Early 50s. A hideously disfigured man. He seems to be a burn victim. Mysterious and secretive.

SIONING: Late 20s. The ghost of a burned woman. Angry and vengeful.

EMPOY: 10. The ghost of a burned boy. Sad.

YOUNG SAMBOY: 12. Samboy as a boy.

YOUNG LANDO: 12. Samboy’s friend. See Episode 10, “Kampon ng Jejemon”.

FATHER BARBATOS: 60s. A kind old priest who ran the orphanage when Samboy was still there.

FATHER INOCENCIO: 30s. The current head of the orphanage.

ORPHANAGE STAFF

ORPHANS

POLICE