Movies Opening This Week (Week 13)

When I'm stumped while doing these posts, I'll just write the movies you will not want to watch. Ever.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Ever remember the 90's? Yeah, that was when the first live-action Street Fighter came out and it starred Jean Claude Van Damme and the late, legendary Raul Julia (his last project, unfortunately). I'm not sure as to whether this errr, "movie" is connected with that other piece of crap but there is one thing I am sure about: it's gonna suck.

I don't even know why Capcom approved of this. Is it because Street Fighter IV's anime cutscene of Chun-Li related to this? As excited as I am to get the game (and find a way to get it) I don't even wanna know.

Trailer can be found below. Hell, even Dragonball Evolution's was more exciting than this.

In the News 5th edition

We've got the round-up of this week's news and today's headlines as well.

Rudy "Daboy" Fernandez; 56: God bless his soul
Masa action hero Rudy Fernandez- also known as Daboy- has been battling periampullary cancer for the past two years. Now the struggle has ended as he passed away a week ago aged 56.

Days ago, you may have also heard about his public wake, and burial which were obviously jam-packed. But that was simply the respected actor's last wish- to have a last "box office hurrah".

Enrile shuns foreign investors; but GMA welcomes them
The Joint Foreign Chambers received an embarrassing tongue-lashing courtesy of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Miriam Quiambao for trying to erase the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) a week ago. June 12 was different, and that's because it was GMA who invited them so that she could praise and suck-up to them and stuff.

3G iPhone announced
Apple's WWDC didn't disappoint as it was home to the unveiling of several iPhone applications, and of course, the 3G iPhone. Globe Telecom also subsequently made a news page/announcement that vaguely stated that the Philippines will have its share of iPhone fever "later this year".

Maybe in between August and October?

Tornado kills boy scouts in central US
June 12 not only saw the release of much-awaited game Metal Gear Solid 4 in America, but also the release of a devastating tornado in central America. It destroyed the Little Sloux Scout Ranch and killed 4 teenagers from Omaha who were also boy scouts.

2 more lives were claimed in Dickinson County and Jackson County.

Greenpeace and the coal plant
Coal power plants are obviously contributing to global warming, and that's what environmental activist group Greenpeace is trying to avoid in the barangay of Ingore in Iloilo. Barangay officials are rallying back however because they claim that Greenpeace, though their protest is understandable, is trespassing in private property.

Celtics win against Lakers
'Twas the Finals yet again, and the Boston Celtics won 3-1 against the Lakers. The final score was 97-91.

"We asked for Ces, got Angelo instead"
This was the frontpage headline in today's Inquirer, and that's because yesterday saw the release of Angelo Valderama: one of the cameramen who was kidnapped along with TV news anchor Ces Drilon who was kidnapped by an unknown group of gunmen while in Mindanao. Families of the kidnapped party were relieved to see Valderama released, but they, of course, wanted the others back.

Kidnapped Marines released
The MILF released 2 kidnapped Marines from Basilan. The 2 released Marines' names are Jessie Duatin and Bernie Alcabasa which were "unharmed after a successful negotiation Thursday night," said MILF civil military affairs chief Eid Kabalu.

2 killed, 8 injured in Japan earthquake
Today saw an earthquake that happened in northern Japan which measured 7.0 in the Richter scale. The powerful earthquake claimed the lives of a fisherman in the Fukishima prefecture, and a person who was run over by a truck when the person evacuated from the house (which was in the Iwate prefecture: the epicenter).

There were 8 injured, one of them in critical condition.

Jet Lag Sucks

April 29, 2008 American time
This is gonna be the last day of that hectic American vacation and we're going back to Disneyland in Anaheim for California Adventure.

It's obviously smaller than Disneyland proper, but it has a few surprises that will make you come back. One of them is Soarin' Over California which is also the first attraction we went to and it was a favorite- or rather, my mom's favorite- because she clearly wanted to go back for a second ride on that flight simulator. Oh right, it was a flight simulator that realistically portrayed people- complete with the series of seats raised up a few feet from the floor- flying over the various cities of California, and the wind would also change according to the environment. For example, when we're floating over a beach, the air would simulate a sea breeze going on your face, or when we're soaring up to the air to avoid the surfers, we'd actually feel like it even when the seats don't go up. It's kinda like a goodly engineered 3D movie, sans the dorky glasses and more of that realism.

But anyway, we also went around the ferris wheel which was near the flagship California Screamin' roller coaster ride and the spinning chairs in an orange, and my brother and sister would ride the rotating chairs contained inside an orange while my father and mother lets an artist make a caricature of them. We didn't want to get wet this time around since we were gonna go to the airport the same day for a 1:00+ flight. We'd eat some ribs for lunch, some hotdogs and corndogs for snack time, and watch some 3D films like Muppet-Vision and the A Bug's Life inspired "It's tough to be a bug". The Bug's Life 3D movie was funny with stinging on your back and the "bugs" crawling on your butt, while the Muppet-Vision is...

When 5pm struck, we went to the entrance to wait for the shuttle home when I discovered that I left the DS in the hotdog stand. I ran, the thing wasn't there. I checked my bag again, and- false alarm- it was there. Just there. I ran back and we rode to LAX.

We were first in line (in the check-in line) and we had to wait for the line to actually open. However, when it was already open an hour later, we tried to check in our bags and showed our ticket and guess what? We missed the flight one day ago. And it wasn't long ago when I'd remember them (my dad, mom and sister) arguing over the time we were supposed to be in LAX. It wrote: April 28, 2008 1:45pm and one would say, if it was 1:45pm it should've been April 29 written on the thing, and the other would say, we'd still be home by April 30 Philippine time if we went to LAX on April 29 even though after 1:45, it would be April 30 in America. It was very confusing considering the time zones but it didn't have to be! It was very clear! But then, there was the itinerary the travel agent gave us. It was stated clear, especially in the expenses sheet, that we had to go to California Adventure on this day... This day.

We were now set for Stand-By and the person representing Cathay Pacific would say that we should wait till 10:20 so we can know whether we can ride the 11:45 flight. And wait (and eat) we did. In between, I bought a magazine because I was too lazy to read Neverwhere, and my brother got Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. Of course, since it's my avatar in YM, I'd be happy, but something more important was the fact that we were in uncertainty as to whether we could actually ride the 11:45 plane. Fortunately, we got seats located in the back, and we were one of the first to board.

The 13 hours of flight would make the time out of control again, but after that time in the plane where I met merely 2-3 hours of sleep for some reason, we got to Hong Kong airport.

May 1, 2008 Hong Kong/Philippine time
It's Labor Day! But since we missed our flight the day before, we had to wait again and be on stand-by for the flight bound to Manila. My brothers played DS and we were just there on chairs at least, because at LAX, we had to stand up for hours (from 6-10:20)!

But unlike the delayed flight we had before we went to America from Hong Kong days ago, fortune once again chose us to be able to ride the 9am flight for Manila. It was another hour and 30 minutes at the plane and minutes at the grueling baggage check. We practically flew through the other processes and went home.

But surprisingly, jet lag was worse coming here than arriving there. Still, at least I get to not exercise tomorrow because of the nausea my body experienced. It was like my feet were walking on its own at some point and I just had to sleep. And at 8pm I did. The other people in the family watched the Idol elimination where the next day I'd find out, was Brooke White (finally). Still, I wanted Jason Castro to get out first, but whatever.

May 2, 2008
Now my body has sort of settled down, with mild nausea here and there, but the pissing thing is, I also experienced the infamous Wii Disc Error accompanied with the Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii game, and I was like, after weeks of waiting, I get this?! Why'd Nintendo make a game that they probably know can't run on all Wii systems?! Why do high-rated games have to be so elusive to us in pirated shores?! And if it were pirated, why does Nintendo put bricking for that specific title?! Damn! The game we had was already original and yet it still can't be played! This is ultimate suckage, right? Especially since you have to send it to Nintendo America for that, and we bought Super Smash Bros. at the freaking airport at Los Angeles! You can call this one of the ultimate rip-offs of gaming history because it's so damn expensive (as usual) when it's original, and it's an AAA title to boot!

Old Friends

April 27, 2008 American time
After that unremarkable night- to say the least- in Travelodge (Read: Never go back there ever.), we had to wake up at 3 freaking o' clock because we were to leave for the Yosemite in Nevada Mountain at 4am. It was actually worth it because of all the natural beauty and goodness but the bad night we had at that inn reminiscent of the one in No Country For Old Men (I can sense Anton Chigurh already) gave all of us a bad mood. Not only was that not in the itinerary, the hotel we were supposed to stay in was the best thing that ever happened in the trip, and boy couldn't we have checked in in a better night.

But before checking in in that Sheraton in San Jose, we had a trip around San Francisco. We hopped in on a cruise going underneath the famous Golden Gate Bridge and went past the infamous Alcatraz State Prison. After that, we went to the gift shop in Fisherman's Wharf then went around the entire city going through the gay street of Castro and the wide streets of the Market up to the Twin Peaks where one could get a bird's eye view of the entire overpopulated city. It's the best city we've been so far though things can get a bit too uniform regarding the architecture of the houses, but I digress.

We got to see City Hall and take pictures of the sunset in Treasure Island and went to see a part of Chinatown to eat, yet again, some Chinese food. That was the second best thing of the day, delicious Chinese food in a restaurant called China House. And like in the Joy Luck Club, many denizens of San Francisco, not only Chinatown, are pretty much Chinese.

Everyone couldn't wait to get to the Sheraton to get actual rest and the wait was also worth it. However, we had a few visitors and some unexpected guests...

The first to come were my mother's aunt, uncle, their child and her African-American fiancee. I had to listen to 3 conversations at one time, but I'm not complaining. The next 2 visitors were pretty unexpected and last-minute and they were my sister's classmate and his mom. They invited us to go to this arcade and we had no choice but to go despite my desire to sleep by then. Still, the trip to the arcade was enjoyable and I won 1000 tickets the first time in a roulette thingy. But that's not something to brag about unless it's actual money. Of course, you have to go to Vegas for that. We claimed 8 cups and a stupid toy snake with the 2,456 tickets we earned and went back.

April 28, 2008
We were to have breakfast in Chinatown, or rather, a lot of dimsum. And though I expected that we were to do that first, our unintelligible bilingual tour guide said we had to climb up a steep mountain to see this majestic garden where cars pass by. The hunger made me uninterested in this, but it was actually a pretty and unique idea to put a curving garden around a steep road. Buses were prohibited to get there which is why we had to walk our freezing limbs up to series of very steep hills.

And finally, we got to that dimsum restaurant. Yeah, the dimsum was delicious especially the beef balls. I don't remember the name of that restaurant, but their tagline is "the best dimsum in Chinatown".

After that, it was bye-bye San Francisco. Awwww...

Well, it was a damned long trip back to L.A. that's bound for today, and we're finally nearing our hotel. We had to have lunch in Burger King at 2:30pm but I didn't really care.

4:08PM
It could've been merienda time, but everyone would probably still feel those trans-fats in their stomachs and the grease in their throats. The next bathroom break would probably be the restroom inside the bus, but who would want to pee while a vehicle is moving and bouncing and "kneeling"?

Still, I'm kind of psyched to be going back to that old Lincoln Plaza Hotel in the Chinese community in Monterey Park for some reason, because I miss the Sheraton already. It was the kind of hotel where you'd feel very relaxed yet you know in the back of your mind that you saved a bundle of cash. If we were to stay in the San Francisco Sheraton instead of the San Jose Sheraton, we would've probably had more or less the same luxurious rooms for a hundred twenty five more. That's because the cost of living nowadays in San Francisco is very high with buying your own small lot costing almost 48 million pesos! Tomorrow, however, we go to the newer California Disneyland called California Adventure then we go straight to the airport after that so I'll keep you posted when I reach the Hong Kong airport.

LA and Vegas

April 21, 2008 7:18AM Monday, Philippine time (April 20, 4:18PM Sunday, American time)

After almost 10 hours of delay, we finally got to board, and eventually depart, the HKIA. Well, the row we sat on still had no audio in its entertainment system, so we had to deal with the boredom by reading (I read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) then watching a foreign film with English subtitles (Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly- a great movie).

Anyway, when we finally got down to the Los Angeles Airport (LAX), we had to walk down a series of non-working walkalators and wait a line to go to the baggage claim (because we had to put fingerprints and take a picture as stated by US Aviation Law). We then had the chance to get out of the inspection stages and look for a ride to our hotel. After an hour in a car, we got to the Lincoln Plaza Hotel. It was already 2am American time by then.

Hours later, we woke up to eat a very, very light breakfast and go to our bus to go to Las Vegas.

Actually, I've just arrived in Vegas and we're gonna be waiting for 6:30pm American time so that we can tour the casinos. Unluckily, the Wi-fi here (4 Queens hotel) is not free unlike in Lincoln Plaza so this post, for most of the 3 days we're staying in Vegas, will be long and filled with the word "UPDATE". Photos will be added in 3 days.

UPDATE
The Casino Tour (April 20/21, 2008 American/Philippine time)
Ever watched the original CSI? How 'bout the crappy Nicholas Cage movie Next? Well, you'll probably notice backdrops of Las Vegas being shown, and we're going to the places found in the backdrops. We went to Treasure Island to see the show Sirens of TI but to no avail because of windy weather, we went to the Tropicana to shoot some pics, we drove through New York New York to see the replica of the Statue of Liberty, the Mafia-owned Flamingo and came in the Wynn and the Venetian (the same as the Venetian in Macau, only classier) with their multi-million real flower gardens and greenhouses and faux Victorian villages. Lastly, we went to the Belagio to look at the famous and beautiful water fountain show. We got back to the hotel at about 10:40pm American time, and watched TV then slept.

April 22, 2008 Tuesday, Philippine time (April 21, 2008 Monday, American time)
We had to wake up early and catch up with the bus for Grand Canyon, Arizona but we weren't gonna stay overnight there despite the long drive. However, we first went to see North America's largest man-made lake which has a name I forgot. This lake connects to the Colorado river (I think) which is located near the Hoover Dam which is also a sort of boundary between the state of Nevada and Arizona. We didn't stay in Hoover Dam for long, just 10 minutes so we can pee and take pictures. It is actually notable for being the shooting spot for 007: Goldeneye as well as last year's blockbuster Transformers. It may seem old because it is, but it's still enough to make a futuristic robot movie!

Anyway, after a long ride in the bus again, we got down in the desert full of Joshua trees to ride yet another kind of bus- an Indian bus. No, not the Indian living in India, but the Indians in Pocahontas. You see, the West Grand Canyon is also the home of the so-called Hualapai tribe and is powered by solar energy because of their lack of resources. But this isn't important now, is it?

There were 3 designated points in the area: Point A, the gift shop; Point B, the Eagle Point; and Point C, the I-Forgot-Point. We didn't do much in Point A, so after riding the bus to Point B, that was when amazement was evident in the big crowd. Why? It seems that Mother Nature's carving of the American eagle is just damn amazing and it took 9 million years, too. After that, we went to the Skywalk which is basically a transparent platform that enables people to see the view of the Grand Canyon below. Cameras, cellphones, backpacks, anything couldn't be brought because the staff at the Skywalk itself are the ones in charge of the pictures. It's a bit expensive, especially the 100 dollar USB disk package thingy, but what the hell, you only live once.

We did nothing in Point C as well except wait for my sister and mother to scan the jewelry being sold there. Afterwards, we ate in Point B adjacent to the dancing Indians.

"Time for the Friendship dance! Ouuwahwahkeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh!"

After eating, we went back to Point A, played DS 'till 2;00 and rode the bus back to Vegas. We got back at 5 and we instantly ate downstairs in our hotel, the Four Queens hotel, in a pizza place. The oil in that thing will just make you puke, though.

6:00 and we went out to wait for the bus to take us to Planet Hollywood so that we can watch Steve Wyzick's Real Magic. I guess watching magicians in the act live is different from that on TV, obviously, and it's great. It's definitely great for the kiddies (my little brother's still talking about it!) and it's entertainment for adults either for the mild sexual innuendo in the jokes or for the ladies wearing short, short skirts and barely concealing tops.

The show finished at 8:30 and we got back to the hotel by 9. But before that, we finally got to see the Fremont Street Experience which is basically a blatant ad for LG Electronics. But still, I gotta admit, who knew a ceiling with hidden lights could do that. It's not that much of a must-see, but if you're in Fremont Street, it's free. After that, we came in a gift shop nearby to find some jerky because my brother's godmother told us it was delicious, but we couldn't find that specific, so-called Las Vegas Jerky. It wasn't especially helpful when the Chinese tour guide simply laughed at our question though. Still, we tried some branded spicy jerky that was terrible.

We watched CSI: Miami, looked up what the time for American Idol would be the following day and watched the news. We slept afterwards.

APRIL 23, 2008 Wednesday 2:22AM, Philippine time (April 22, 2008 Tuesday 11:22AM)
I woke up at 6:30 and watched Good Morning America in ABC. After taking a shower, me, my dad and mom went out to walk and explore Fremont Street and buy breakfast in McDonald's. After eating, we went down to get in the bus and went to Tropicana Casino to pee. An hour later, we went back to the bus, and now we're riding towards LA. So yeah, we're going back to Lincoln Hotel Plaza to rest up for the big day tomorrow. But I'm getting way ahead of myself now because we're still in the bus, watching Live Free and Die Hard. So for now, I leave you... that is after I charge this thing.  

AI Results Disappoint

Ohh great, one great black singer is eliminated and Sanjaya's still in the running... and he isn't even in the Bottom 3 (or rather Bottom 2)!!! But I'm not really that surprised...

Stephanie Edwards, the one who has been described as the Beyonce-soundalike by Lulu (the 'mentor' of the female contestants during performance night wherein the theme was British invasion) has been eliminated. And for me, it's not shocking because her performances have been deteriorating (in terms of quality and richness) each week and I think America just got dumb and instead gave her no more chance to redeem herself next week.

I've researched a little bit about Sanjaya and found that many American girls think he's hot... it must be the hair-do or something... America, forget his appearance. If you want him to win, let him win in another kind of competition like, as Randy said, "Hair Idol".
<-- He looks like Diana Ross but doesn't sing like her...
<-- This is the hair-doo he usually sports.

<-- You may mistaken him for Paula from afar...

If I see his face more times than the truly promising LaKisha or Melinda, I'm gonna tear my tv to bits and pieces regardless whether it'd be my friends or mine, HD or SD, widescreen or- you get the picture!
*UPDATE (2 mins later)--> Maybe I don't need to bother breaking my TV set if he survives the cut for many weeks more 'coz he's gonna do that job for me... 'Cmon America! I know you want to see this sucker win! (I was sarcastic...)