The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything

[Theater] Dirty Dancing (Marina Bay Sands)

2013-06-20T12:08:00.000+08:00

One of the major reasons that my partner and I fly to Singapore so often is to catch the various musicals that get staged there. While some of them still make their way to the Philippines, ticket prices still come out a little cheaper in Singapore (strange, I know), plus the fact that I get to spend more time with my sister. This particular play, Dirty Dancing, is not exactly a play that I'd fly for on my own. However my sister was pretty excited about watching it and so we made travel arrangements to catch it on its last week.

Most folks have at least heard about the movie Dirty Dancing, which helped cement Patrick Swayze as a icon among women everywhere. And that's a pretty high standard to follow, even for a movie that wasn't exactly the most complicated one around. Seriously, it's hard to imagine Dirty Dancing without Swayze.

So I have to admit that I was rather surprised that they had adapted this particular movie into a musical. And while this is a bit of a "rage" in theater circles to turn movies into plays in order to minimize some of the creative costs and reduce their risks, this wasn't exactly a movie prime for adaptation. And so at the very least I was certainly curious to se how they'd pull things off.

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[Transformers] Takara Transformers Generations Fall of Cybertron Skywarp (TG-18)

2013-06-19T12:08:00.000+08:00

While in Singapore, I managed to pick up the (so far) Takara-exclusive figure of Transformers Generations Fall of Cybertron Skywarp (TG-18)0. It's a ridiculously long name for the toy, I know, but if you want to be accurate, that's what you'll end up calling it. This Japan-exclusive figure is pretty much "just" a repaint of Transformers Generations Fall of Cybertron Starscream. But even repaints can be a lot of fun.

Now I'll admit that I'm quite the Skywarp fan - he has always been my favorite of all the Seekers. Beyond his typically "cool" black and purple paint sceme (so classic Decepticon), he had the ability to freaking teleport! Now that's a cool power, even given he hasn't necessarily been the sharpest tool in the shed.

So this figure was a fun find, and pretty much inevitable as soon as they released Starscream. After all, the Seekers have always been the most classic of all repaints on the Decepticon side.

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[Books] The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2013-06-18T12:08:00.000+08:00

In my grade school days, I used to spend a LOT of time at the school library. I remember that we had a borrowing limit of up to 3 books at any one time and I always made sure to maximize that limit at all times. Oh yes, I have many, many fond memories of that library.

I particularly remember a significant period when I went through a Caldecott phase. For those unfamiliar with the award, books are awarded the Caldecott medal particularly because of their art. And so I made it a point to borrow every single Caldecott book that I could get my hands on. I never got into a Newbery phase, which seems a little weird in hindsight.

So I only learned about the book The Invetion of Hugo Cabret after watching the 2011 CGI animated feature film Hugo. I enjoyed the movie a lot and this is one of the rare cases when the movie actually helped me appreciate the book even more. You see, this being a Caldecott Medal book means that the art in itself was worth celebrating beyond just the story. And now I realize that the movie did a great job of giving proper homage to the art that defined the book to begin with.

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[Movies] Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

2013-06-17T12:08:00.000+08:00

Steve Carell is probably best known for his work on the TV series, The Office. But beyond that he seems to have a penchant for these odd comedy drama pieces like Dan in Real Life. And that pretty much defines his range as an actor - thus it sort of echoes the likes of Jim Carey, but still more distinguished, in my opinion.

When I first saw the trailers for Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, it certainly seemed promising. I know it was going to be another movie that feels like a show reel pitching for Steve to become a leading man in more romantic comedies or something like that. However the overall premise of the inevitable end of the planet certainly added a certain sense of urgency to the overall narrative structure.

And there's a dog on the poster.

The movie wasn't quite what I hoped, but it wasn't overly bad either. And my specific issues with the movie are a little hard to determine off hand, but I'll try to explain over the course of this review.

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[Pink Scene] Know Your Oh Divas - Bernie

2013-06-16T12:08:00.000+08:00

One of the things that I love the most about drag queen culture is that there is no one "right" way to be a drag queen. In the same way that the LGBT community has enough color to make up any number of rainbows, so does drag culture include a wide variety of queens. You have pageant queens and comedy queens and you have those queens whose sheer physicality is beyond reproach. And the Oh Divas of O Bar Ortigas certainly demonstrate quite a wide range of those different types of queens.

I don't quite know how to classify Bernie - one moment she can be soft and feminine and the next she's an intensely fierce performer. She can strut with grace and charm and then shift into some pretty wicked dance moves. And that transition between the different aspects of Bernie is totally seamless - thus she always leaves the audience guessing as to what she's going to do on stage next.

This week's Know Your Oh Divas feature interview is the one and only Bernie!

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[Movies] Transamerica (2005)

2013-06-14T12:08:00.000+08:00

In most countries, June is often celebrated as Pride Month - a time to celebrate LGBT culture and renew the pledge to continue the fight for LGBT rights. In line with this, I'm adding focus to my Friday movie reivews for this month by trying to focus more on big box office movies that included LGBT themes.

And so we get to this week's movie - Transamerica.

"This is the voice I want to use" - a line that remains almost burned into my memory. And in many ways, it sort of helped define the central theme of this movie and a lot of the inevitable arguments around it.

And among the various groups that make up the LGBT community, the transgender / transsexual segment has always been a more misunderstood than most. And thus this movie represented a major achievement by trying to put us in the shoes of a pre-op transsexual.

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[TV] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2

2013-06-13T12:08:00.000+08:00

I'm continuing in my side adventure of re-watching the entire series run of Star Trek: The Next Generation, while at the same time exposing my partner Tobie to the series for the first time. And while he is able to watch most of the episodes, even I have to admit that there are a few of them that he can skip. Like any other TV show, there are just those episodes that are downright silly - and I mean that in a bad way.

This season season is still a great step forward for the series and that features a number of notable achievements and memorable moments. But this definitely fell in the category of one of the TNG seasons that was still rather shaky - at least in comparison to the later seasons. Of course I speak with the benefit of hindsight after having watched most of the show.

And we all best remember this second season of the show because of the temporary addition of Dr. Katherine Pulaski to the main cast. After having re-watched this season, I have to admit that I rather liked her gruff yet efficient demeanor.

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[Transformers] The Return of the Triple-Changers

2013-06-12T12:08:00.000+08:00

Triple-changers had always been an interesting effort to sort of step-up the Transformers experience dating back to the G1 era. After all, the ability for a robot to transform into a vehicle alternate mode was already cool and thus being able to transform into two different modes had to be even cooler, right? And thus triple-changers were born.

It has been a while since we've seen a truly decent triple-changer in recent years. One could argue that Generations Darkmount was a triple-changer with this third fortress mode and there were a number of movie-era figures that appeared to have triple-changer properties. Personally I think the last truly respectable triple-changer had been Transformers Animated Blitzwing, named after the G2 Decepticon of the same name. And since then things have been somewhat quiet on that front.

So with the continuing Transformers Generations line of toys, it's nice to see that Hasbro decided to invest to designing some new triple-changer robots to help kick up the 30th anniversary celebrations next year.

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[Books] The Lives of Tao

2013-06-11T12:08:00.000+08:00

I'm really enjoying my time as a member of the Angry Robot Army - the reviewer program of Angry Robot Books. It has helped me learn more about new authors that I might not have encountered on my own. Plus free books! Who can say no to free books?

Now I had a very good feeling about The Lives of Tao when I first read the synopsis. The book had an interesting enough premise to make me want to download the book. I can be shallow enough to say that the cover seemed interesting too. It has a lot of yellow! Yellow is a good color! Yellow is the safe color.

So I took the dive and signed up for the book and had it sent off to my Kindle. Admittedly it had to wait around a bit since I was still working through a number of other books first (as is the burden of any other avid read and independent blogger) but then things came together and here we are.

And after finally reading A Feast for Crows, I needed a book that might cheer me up a bit more or at least get me engaged in a happier manner. And this was the perfect book for that purpose.

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[Movies] Hitchcock (2012)

2013-06-10T12:08:00.000+08:00

For one reason or another, I have never seen an Alfred Hitchcock film completely from start to finish. I've seen a generous number of clips from his various movies and I've caught segments of it on TV but I just haven't actually sat down to really watch them. It's one of those weird truths about myself that leaves me feeling rather embarrassed as a movie enthusiast. Seriously, what's the deal with that?

And while I do promise that I'll get around to it one day, this movie came along as an alternate form of entertainment.

Prior to this, I had only heard about Hitchcock almost in passing given it had received a nomination at the Academy Awards. It was one of those movies that got tuned out as so much white noise since it was part of the host of films that I had not been able to see by the time the awards night rolled along.

I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Quite frankly, it was very well done.

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[Pink Scene] Know Your Oh Divas - Letlet

2013-06-09T12:08:00.000+08:00

One of the things that I love most about the drag shows at O Bar Ortigas is the fact that each Oh Diva has such a unique personality. You can see this in terms of how they do their make-up, how they dress, how they move on stage and based on the types of songs that they choose. These are all aspects of a greater whole - of what makes each Oh Diva so fabulously unique.

Letlet is certainly one of the more experienced drag queens at O Bar. Her performances celebrate classic artists of song, stage and screen in a manner that is uniquely hers. And while some might joke that her choice of songs to perform sometimes feels a little dated - these are often the very same people who can't help but sing along during her next number. She knows how to play to the crowd and to get everyone cheering and shouting like some master conductor of the everyone at the bar.

So let's get to know Letlet a little better in this week's Know Your Oh Divas feature interview.

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[Movies] Larry Crowne (2011)

2013-06-07T12:08:00.000+08:00

Larry Crowne is not the typical sort of movie that I'd watch on my own. So it figures that I only watched it because happened to be the movie that was playing on HBO after I had arrived home from work.

And it's not like I have anything particular against Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts - I do enjoy a number of their prior movies that have come out over the years. It's more than there was just nothing about this movie that sparked my interest. In fact, I still had no idea about the general premise of the movie by the time that I was watching it on HBO.

But there weren't any particularly compelling reality TV shows playing on the other channels, so I figured this was worth the gamble, for the most part. And this is considering all that I knew about the movie was that there were a lot of scooters on the poster.

As it was playing, I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy since Julia Roberts was involved. But over time, it felt a lot more slice of life in nature. But by the end, it had turned out to be some sort of a romantic comedy after all.

How weird.

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[TV] Monday Mornings - Season 1

2013-06-06T12:08:00.000+08:00

I got into drama shows early on - I blame the older members of my household for that. Thus as early as my elementary days, I was already hooked on shows like Chicago Hope, The Practice and Boston Public. I can't quite explain the how or why of it - they just made sense to me and it was a lot of fun to catch these shows together with my folks or my grandmother.

In hindsight it turned out that I was inadvertently following the shows created by David E. Kelley. Given the sequencing, it was only Ally McBeal that didn't quite hook me as much as the others. I guess I was just looking for rather heavier dramas without CGI dancing babies. But it's not like I was considering who was producing these shows - that's just not something that crosses the mind of anyone my age.

Fast forward to the modern day and I find out that Kelley was behind a new medical drama - Monday Mornings. So I got a little excited since it felt like he was going back to his "roots" - or perhaps more like my roots since I had started on Chicago Hope so many years ago. But it was a very short-lived series given it was cancelled after it's first and only season.

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[Transformers] Hasbro Masterpiece Rodimus

2013-06-05T12:08:00.000+08:00

The original 1986 animated Transformers movie remains one of the most memorable animated features that I've ever seen - probably because of the near trauma it represented for my childhood. Beyond it marking the death of the original G1 Optimus Prime, it also helped introduce a wide-variety of new characters to join the Transformers universe.

Hot Rod was certainly one of the more memorable characters that came out in the movie - and one that went on to lead the Autobots as Rodimus Prime. I enjoyed having his original G1 toy since it really helped me feel that I was connecting with the movie. And for a kid, that's a priceless experience indeed.

To date, I only have two other significant Masterpiece figures - Soundwave and Grimlock. But believe it or not, Rodimus here was actually my first.

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[Comics] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive

2013-06-04T12:08:00.000+08:00

The Borg are one of the most memorable and ironically beloved races in all of Star Trek fandom. Since their introduction in Star Trek: The Next Generation, we've seen the crew of the Enterprise-D engage in a number of adventures involving this race of cybernetic humanoids. And the Borg were further explored in Star Trek: Voyager given their little ship had been thrown directly into Borg space far away from Federation support.

And while these various shows are no longer on the air, races like the Borg continue to see the light of day in the various works of fiction that make up the Star Trek franchise. In this case, there are the various licensed novels set in the Star Trek universe and of course comic books that also follow their adventures. I recently got a chance to acquire a number of these comics via a well-time sale over on comiXology, and it has certainly made for interesting reading. And of course I picked up this title in particular given I am one of the any fans of the Borg given the interesting adversary they represent for the Federation at large. And this comic nicely tries to tie together a lot of different Borg "milestones" of sorts given the various TV shows and even the movie Star Trek: First Contact.

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[Movies] The Company You Keep (2012)

2013-06-03T12:08:00.000+08:00

My family has a history of being political nerds. Yes, I can firmly admit that without batting an eyelash. And so we watch some quirky movies sometimes or just read books of a certain nature that fall along politically-oriented lines.

So this movie, The Company You Keep, fell right into that category complete with the rich political intrigue of the the 1960's-70s as brought into the modern day, so to speak. After all, the ideals and beliefs formed by that period given the events of the Vietnam War helpe shaped the beliefs and principles of an entire generation.

Plus this was a movie involving Robert Redford, who in turn has a rather rich filmography under his belt whether as an actor or a director or whatever. The man still has a quiet intensity about him that gives him a unique on-screen presence that is quite impressive. And this nicely stands the test of time, even against younger actors who are more popular these days.

The tricky part is figuring out whether I truly liked this movie - admittedly I'm somewhat on the fence about things for a number of reasons.

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[Pink Scene] Know Your Oh Divas - Katkat

2013-06-02T12:08:00.000+08:00

Being a longtime O Bar patron, It's interesting to note the growth of development of the various drag queens who have graced the O Bar stage over the years. And it's only natural for people to strive to better themselves and constantly seek to improve within their chosen path in life, whether it involves writing books or in this case impersonating celebrities and entertaining hordes of fans.

Katkat has been performing at O Bar for some time now and I can definitely say that her performances just keep getting better and better. Each Oh Diva brings something different to their performances and Katkat has a diverse range that can have her all pretty and demure on one end then hilarious funny the next. And it takes a certain a degree of skill and understanding of people to be able to read an audience like that and really figure out what tickles everyone's funny bones.

So this week's Know Your Oh Diva feature involves none other than the Captivating Katkat - and I'm sure you'll find her responses quite captivating as well.

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[Movies] Con Air (1997)

2013-05-31T12:08:00.000+08:00

I had already mentioned Con Air in my review last week of National Treasure, so I figured that I might as well take some time to actually review this movie. And man, there's a lot of ground to cover here.

To be fair, it has been a number of years since I had last watched this movie. But it's just one of those flicks that sort of get burned to your memory - especially when it just so happens to be one of the movies in your family's home video collection. Needless to say, I ended up watching this movie more than once for one reason or another.

Given the years that have passed since its initial release, I was a little surprised to see that this movie was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer - and my surprise is mainly due to the fact that I was too young at the time to pay attention to these sorts of movie credits.

And I suppose it makes sense given the other movies that Bruckheimer has released and his rather interesting relationship with Nicolas Cage.

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[TV] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1

2013-05-30T12:08:00.000+08:00

So I've already managed to get Tobie to watch Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from beginning to end and so the latest Trek that I'm having him watch is Star Trek: The Next Generation. We had started this project some time back but other shows came along and it got pushed to the back burner. So now with a lot of the current seasons ending, we found some time to return to Roddenberry's universe for a little warp speed adventures.

TNG started out as quite the triumph for the Star Trek fan community. After the rather premature departure of the original Star Trek, it was nice to finally return to the future and the rather Utopian vision of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. And with the success of the movies in theaters, it was the pretty much the perfect time to have a new Star Trek on the small screen.

The first season is not without its faults, of course. Clearly the writers were struggling to define this show initially. Did they just want to be a continuation of the original series or did they want to explore new ground? This, I feel, become one of the more fundamental questions of the show in its early years - a question that is not easily answered by any one individual.

This first season may not have been the best for the show, but it certainly made the most of this second chance on life for the Star Trek franchise as a whole.

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[Infographics] The (Interactive) Multitask Test

2013-05-29T12:08:00.000+08:00

Ever since I started sharing interesting infographics, I started to receive a number of recommendations via email or social media. For one reason or another this one from Open-Site.org has been sitting in my email inbox for a while. At first I thought it was just going to be like all the others, but then I finally found some time to sit down with it and test it out. And the results were pretty cool!

So let's all waste a little time to take - take at least 10 minutes to give this little exercise a go and see what results you get. And yes, you'll get a nice little graphical representation of how you fare against certain baselines in a nice infographic format.

DIY Infographic Time!!!

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[Books] Wintersmith

2013-05-28T12:08:00.000+08:00

I had already started reading Terry Pratchett's I Shall Wear Midnight when I realized that I had somehow skipped reading Wintersmith, which chronologically comes before it. It was a pretty weird mistake to make but I have to admit that it's not exactly the first time that this has happened. And I'm sure that my fellow bibliophiles can relate to this somewhat unusual circumstance - it's bound to happen sooner or later when you have too many books in your reading queue.

But Discworld novels are able to survive on their own for the most part, so reading And I Shall Wear Midnight first didn't drive me totally insane just yet. However the book was very direct in constantly reminding me as a reader that Tiffany had a rather significant adventure involving the Wintersmith and that I'd do well to read that book to figure out what the heck happened.

And so here I am with Wintersmith safely completed and my geek mind now fully at ease. And with a fun little adventure to share as a review as well.

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[Movies] The Great Gatsby (2013)

2013-05-27T12:08:00.000+08:00

First things first - I have to admit that I've never read the book. As much as The Great Gatsby is quite the popular work of fiction, for one reason or another I haven't found the time to read it. Then again, I'm not exactly a particular fan of the US Prohibition Era. Go figure.

But this particular movie adaptation got a lot of positive press leading up to the movie and one has to concede that Baz Luhrmann has a flair for movies of a certain flavor - if anyone is to capture the Roaring Twenties, then it would have to be this man given his work on movies like Moulin Rouge.

But this is not a musical (although having Luhrmann attached to this movie can lead some to make that conclusion) it's at its core a straight drama. And in this sense we haven't seen Luhrmann really deal with something this serious - and no, I don't think Strictly Ballroom counts in this regard. He does have a flair for musical numbers and big performances. But this movie had quite an amount of story to cover - something that he does manage to do well enough.

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[Pink Scene] Know Your Oh Divas - Eva

2013-05-26T12:08:00.000+08:00

Welcome to third interview in this series of "Know Your Oh Divas" feature posts. As much as we've all enjoyed watching these fabulous drag queens perform on stage, there is so much that we don't know about them. And hopefully these blog posts will provide everyone with a bit of a glimpse into just how much more amazing they are beyond what we see at O Bar Ortigas.

Eva Papaya is one of the more experienced drag queens among the Oh Divas and quite the crowd favorite dating back to the O Bar Malate days. She always seems almost larger than life for me given her physical stature and her sheer presence on stage is just amazing. It's not something that I can easily capture with mere words - it's something best experienced in person.

So here we go with another interesting interview with the one and only Eva Papaya!

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[Technicolor Musings] Whence The White Party Manila Press Kit Came

2013-05-25T12:08:00.000+08:00

Photo from O Bar's 2012 Pride Party

So this week I received a "press kit" for the White Party Manila 2013. And I'm pretty used to receiving various press kits and press releases for various events - it's part and parcel of the blogging experience.

But when I opened up this particular email I was left feeling rather...confused? Bothered? Annoyed? Words fail me.

First, it was pretty much just a press release and not a press kit - there were no other images attached and other promotional material that the organizers expected us bloggers to use. Second, the grammar and sentence construction was just...bad. Like really, really bad.

And while Tobie has already written about this release, I figure that I need to weigh in for my own peace of mind. After all, feedback is a gift in the writing game. And I really feel generous right now.

This is going to be a long blog post. Be prepared.

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[Movies] National Treasure (2004)

2013-05-24T12:08:00.000+08:00

Given the recent brouhaha over Dan Brown's comments about Manila (ridiculous, really), it seems almost ironic that this review for National Treasure is up for today. Let's face it - the National Treasure movie franchise is right in the same vein as Dan Brown's famous novels. After all, we all desire for there to be secrets hidden in plain sight and buried treasure waiting to be found even in these modern times.

It's interesting to me how these movies are yet another product of Jerry Bruckheimer, a name I used to most associate with the CSI TV series. But that's just his small screen work - it seems when it comes to the movie sphere he's more into this big action-adventure pieces. It's not about historical accuracy or anything important like this - this is just about putting on a good show.

I still surprises me how this movie spawned sequels - then again I have to recognize that most folks don't share my opinions of Nicolas Cage. But hey, we all like different things in life.

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