And yes, my prediction was right! Toffer Rei one of the rockers in the group ended his journey tonight. Daryl and Ram joined him in the bottom three. Are you satisfied with the results?

I’m fine with tonight’s result but it would be better if Warren or Ram got booted tonight. Toffer Rei was just okay throughout the competition. I’m sorry. I can’t come up with a more substantial post because I wasn’t paying attention to the show. I just waited for Raymond to announce the results.

So now, we’re left with seven finalists - Penelope, Jay Ann Bautista, Gretchen Espina, Warren Antig, Daryl Celis, Ram Chaves and Kid Camaya, . What’s the theme for next week? I hope that Penelope will choose the perfect song that would really showcase her talent.

I’m a fan of your show especially the first season. In fact, I bought different Pinoy Dream Academy memorabilia like jackets, notebooks, pin buttons and even stickers. I would sometimes drop by the PDA Concert Hall just to hear the scholar’s performance live. I was very satisfied in how you handled the show last season. But come the second season, I can’t help but feel disappointed especially with PDA II’s Primetime episodes. I believe that your show’s tagline is, “Ang Drama sa Likod ng Pangarap”. I know that a lot of Pinoy Dream Academy fans would agree with me that the recent primetime episodes of Pinoy Dream Academy focused on too much drama. “Scene-stealer scholars” would cover almost the whole airtime of PDA. I believe that it should be the mix of both – the training with a larger percentage of the show’s airtime and the little excess should go to the drama. Lately, I’ve been intentionally missing the Pinoy Dream Academy’s primetime episode because of greater disappointment on how you are handling the editing of the primetime episodes.

Please do something about the editing of your primetime episodes. LESS DRAMA MORE TRAINING! Bring back the fitness class! I’m so fed up with some crazy thingamajig you’ve been showing in your primetime episodes. Stop exploiting the scholars’ lives and start showing on how you are training these scholars to perform better on stage. I do believe that Teacher Monet isn’t helping the scholars to deal with their own problems. In fact, he got the worst temper! Why not put a guidance counselor inside the academy to replace Teacher Monet? And please bring back the vocal coaches – The CompanY!

I hope I made myself clear.

Brinknotes.ORG

I believe that the voters of Pinoy Idol are now awake from a horrible nightmare and chose to vote out Sue Ellen Cubing from the competition. Last week’s results show was a relief for me. If you’ve read my posts about Pinoy Idol, I have been consistent with my statement that I really don’t appreciate Sue Ellen’s talent.

What can I say about the “Regine Velasquez Week”? It was boring. In fact, I didn’t pay much attention to the show.

I wasn’t even impressed with Penelope’s performance. The song choices were bad, if not worse. They all sounded like singing inside a KTV bar except for Warren Antig who sang Urong Sulong. What to I mean by KTV Bar? The singing was too ordinary and of course, the audio quality is bad. Maybe, I could have appreciated their performance if I watched it live instead of watching it in TV. I’m still hoping that tonight’s show would be better.

By the way, I saw the Pinoy Idol Mall Show at SM The Block but wasn’t able to catch the real show because I have a class. If I’m not mistaken, the Top 8 was there.

This week, ONE ROCKER SHOULD GO HOME!

Miss Venezuela, Dayana Mendoza was crowned as Miss Universe 2008 at the end of the show. This year’s Miss Universe Crown is valued at $120,000. But I still believe that the Mikimoto Crown looks best and it looks good on Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori. If for any reason that Miss Venezuela cannot perform her duties as the Miss Universe 2008 her runner-up, Miss Colombia, Taliana Vargas will take her place. Miss Dominican Republic, Marianne Cruz Gonzalez was announced as the 2nd runner up. On the other hand, Miss Russia, Vera Krasova was declared as the 3rd runner up then Miss Mexico, Elisa Najera as the 4th runner up.

Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori being interviewed by hosts Jerry Springer and Mel B.

Special Awards were also given to lucky candidates – Best in National Costume and Miss Congeniality Award. An Internet poll was opened on NBC.com to know who will take home the Best in National Costume Award. In the end, Miss Thailand, Gavintra Photijak took home the Best in National Costume Award. Majority of the candidates from all over the world voted Miss El Salvador, Rebeca Moreno as Miss Congeniality.

(Left) Miss Thailand - Best in National Costume (Right) Miss El Salvador - Miss Congeniality

For two consecutive years, Miss USA tripped again during the evening gown competition. Is this their strategy to get to the next round? Unfortunately, she didn’t get a high score during the evening gown competition.

Miss USA, Crystle Stewart in her evening gown.

Unfortunately, Miss Philippines, Jennifer Barrientos didn’t perform well during the competition. She wasn’t able to take home of the prizes. She wasn’t even a part of the Top 15. I think Binibining Pilipinas should choose more credible and competent judges next time.

Announcement of Miss Universe 2008

For this year’s Miss Universe a new crown was unveiled. The crown is known to cost at around $120 thousand dollars (USD), it is made of 18K white and yellow gold. It is comprised of over 1,000 precious stones; including 555 white diamonds (30 carats), 375 cognac diamonds (14 carats), 10 smoky quartz crystals (20 carats) and 19 morganite gemstones (60 carats). The colors of the jewels chosen for the crown have great significance: The yellow luster of the gold represents the prosperous thriving economy in Vietnam. White, light pink and cognac are the main hues in the crown which represent inspiration and feeling. Each piece was designed to represent an important attribute of the pageant. The curves of inlaid precious stones represent the strong development and potential of each country. The image of the crane (Lac Bird) symbolizes Vietnamese spirit and culture. The image of the heart represents unified breath, rhythm and vision, which are powerful internal forces that stress faith, hope and unity. The crown will only be awarded as part of the contest this year, with the original Mikimoto design being awarded again next year. (Wikipedia.org)

Will our Jennifer Barrientos be Miss Universe 2008? Watch for the live telecast of Miss Universe 2008 on ABS-CBN at 9:30AM.

MISS UNIVERSE 2008 LIVE STREAM

You can also hear your Idols on the following radio stations throughout the country:

Barangay LS 97.1 Ayos! – Manila
99.5 RT – Cebu
103.5 Wow – Davao
93.5 Campus Radio – Dagupan
93.5 Campus Radio – Iloilo
107.1 Campus Radio – Bacolod
92.7 Campus Radio – Baguio
100.7 Campus Radio – Cagayan De Oro
102.3 Campus Radio – General Santos
90.1 Wow – Iligan
92.9 RU – Kalibo
96.3 Campus Radio – Legazpi
91.1 Campus Radio – Lucena
101.5 Campus Radio – Naga
97.5 Campus Radio – Palawan
89.3 Campus Radio – Tuguegarao

Gala performance nights are shown every Saturday after Pinoy Records while results shows are shown every Sunday after Kap’s Amazing Stories.

Last night, one of the strongest contenders of Pinoy Idol was sent home – Robby Navarro. Daryl and Sue joined him in the bottom three. It’s just sad that he was the one to be sent home. Although he’s just fine for me, I still firmly believe that Robby is better than Daryl and Sue. As I’ve said on my previous Pinoy Idol post, I don’t appreciate Sue’s talent at all. In fact, I’ve been praying to the high heavens that at least Sue or one of the rockers, with great emphasis on Ram would be eliminated last night. Unfortunately, that was the case last night and a lot of fans are disappointed.

Viewers of the show think that Robby Navarro got negative publicity on the recent Pinoy Idol Extra episode wherein the hopefuls were put into a “test”. Hence, he got the lowest number of votes this week. I guess the footages were shown on Pinoy Idol Extra to be able to generate some buzz for Pinoy Idol. Unfortunately, I didn’t generate some buzz. Instead, it caused the ouster of one of the best and strongest contenders of Pinoy Idol.

I think we can’t do anything about this because this is how the contest goes. You get the highest number of votes; you’re going to the next round. If not, sorry but say goodbye to your Idol journey now. We can’t force the viewers to vote for the best. Each of us has our own Idols whom we support. If one contestant has a good number of supporters who can vote him/her a million times, even if he/she has a mediocre performance, that performance will still continue to the next round. People, this is the Idol format for us. I guess this is one of the things I’ve learned from the first Philippine franchise of the Idol series. Reymond Sajor got eliminated in the early stages of the Final 12 despite performing well consistently, if not the best. Some of his co-finalists have the resources to generate thousands of votes while he, on the other side benefits only from the support of his family, friends and fans.

I know how hard is it to accept that your Idol is now out of the competition. I’ve been there before. But at least let’s look at the bright side; Penelope and Kid are still in the competition.

Moving on, the high heavens must have heard my plea for better Pinoy Idol themes. Next week, the remaining nine Pinoy Idol hopefuls will be working with the Asia’s Songbird, Regine Velasquez. I believe that this week would be very tough especially for the girls. Actually, it would be very hard for them to avoid but render a “karaoke” performance. I wish each one of them good luck.

The nine remaining Pinoy Idol finalists are Penelope, Jayann Bautista, Gretchen Espina, Sue Ellen, Ram Chaves, Kid Camaya, Daryl Celis, Warren Antig, and Toffer Rei. Performance nights are every Saturday after Pinoy Records while results are delivered Sunday nights after Kap’s Amazing Stories.

… because pictures (or videos ) paint a thousand words

The PONDS Taste of Beauty Event in a Nutshell

Poyt’s Singing Career

That’s it for me, PONDS!

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