Kat's Notebook » celebrities

I’m digging Kings of Leon

Katkat — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 04:13:04 +0000

I always stay away from heavy rock music. I don’t like their reputation and its loud, angry and noisy music. That’s why I never paid much attention to popular rock bands nowadays like the Muse and Kings of Leon (which are the only new generation rock bands I know right now). However when I’ve watched the HBO documentary of Kings of Leon, I am intrigued. The show, Talihina Sky The Story of Kings of Leon, offers insight about the people behind the band. I initially thought that Kings of Leon was a European band especially how they dressed up on stage – it reeked of European fashion. Anyway they came from Talihina Oklahoma, USA but was made popular in the UK before getting accepted in the US. What I liked about the band after watching the docu film was that they had a Christian background. They started as almost devout Christians and then when life happened, they strayed and rebelled with their music and the drugs, booze, and women that came along with their fame. Even though they seemed to live the stereotypical life of a rock band, they don’t forget to pray, be loving towards their parents and family, and remember their roots. There was this part where Caleb (the vocalist) revealed that when he knew the band would get a record deal, he couldn’t sleep at all because he knew he would go to hell (because of whatever will come after the record deal.)

Talihina Sky

As for the music, it reminded me of the band Hale on a bit more aggressive side, which still was easy for me to listen. Another similarity with the band Hale was the nonsensical lyrics. I had a hard time interpreting Leon’s songs. It didn’t help that Caleb (the band’s vocalist) sometimes growls the words. So I ended up just enjoying the melody. I loved the song Talihina Sky which was the movie’s ending song. I played it over and over again. Other songs I discovered that were friendly to my ears were and I found myself tapping to: Taper Jean Girl, 17, Knocked Up, Revelry, Manhattan, Radioactive, Molly Chamber, Holy Roller Novocaine, and Sex on Fire (which was the first song that I liked before I even knew of Kings of Leon). I didn’t like Use Somebody just because it’s been played too much over the radio. There were also noisy songs which I immediately deleted from my playlist but overall, I liked their songs. So yeah, I’m digging Kings of Leon.

Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano as One

Katkat — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:45:00 +0000

Who knew I would be a fan of Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano? I, who don’t listen to Filipino OPM music or watch much Filipino movies or TV shows. But for some reason I love these singers. I enjoy listening to them especially in their concert, titled “As one part 2”, which I watched last Saturday together with my aunts. They have magnificent voices and are great performers. I love it especially when they sing their own songs particularly the Filipino songs. I think I want the song “Ikaw” to be my wedding march. So why As One? For those people who didn’t know their history, these two singers are actually “rivals”. Martin was hailed as Concert King while Gary V as Mr. Pure Energy. Both of them composed beautiful songs that were played until today. In this concert, they showed their friendship and unity by singing the other one’s songs. This concert was actually part 2 already. Part 1 was launched on 2009. The difference between the two concert series was in Part 2, they invited their kids, Gabriel Valenciano and Robin Nievera to perform with them.

What do I think of the concert?

The concert was held in the open concert ground of Cache Creek Casino, which I thought didn’t give the best acoustic for their voices especially when singing ballads. They started off with an American song which I wasn’t really fond of. I didn’t like it when they sing other people’s songs instead of their own. But it soon became entertaining when Gary V livened the place up with his song “Hataw Na” and Martin Nievera tried to keep up with his partner’s electrifying dance movements. Martin ended up just making a spoof of it, which was highly entertaining.

Towards the middle of the show, they brought in their kids where Gabriel sang and danced while Robin sang and played the guitar. I liked their arrangement of the song, “Ikaw ang Lahat sa Akin.” Then Robin played solo, which ruined the concert for me. Seriously they should have taken out his part from the concert. Gabriel danced with Gary V. and I thought Gary V still danced better. Throughout the concert, Martin Nievera was very funny and making us laugh. Gary V. was more tamed and not as riotous. I liked the part where they performed some Michael Jackson’s songs and Gary V. was dancing some Michael Jackson’s moves.

My aunts who had seen their concert before said that Martin Nievera’s voice was not really good that evening. And Part 1, they said was better produced than Part 2. For me, I didn’t see these details. I fell in love with them when they sang those romantic Filipino songs that have really touching lyrics. Gary’s christian songs were also moving. Their voices were so incredibly soothing and perfect. I like Gary V’s voice better than Martin’s though, but only a slight margin. Towards the end of the concert, they had a medley of all theme songs adapted from popular Filipino TV dramas which made the crowd go wild. After 2 1/2 hours, the two singers capped the night with the concert’s theme song, “As One.”

For a newbie spectator of Martin Nievera and Gary V concert, I was highly entertained, wooed, and impressed!

What do you think of the Pacquiao vs Mosley fight?

Katkat — Sun, 08 May 2011 15:24:00 +0000

Yesterday I watched the Pacquiao bout along with my fellow kababayan in an apartment at Daly City. Of course we cheered for Pacquiao, our pambansang kamao. Nonetheless a flicker of worry still permeated the air because Mosley seemed like a formidable opponent considering his track record. This time around there was too much hype and production going on before the fighters entered the ring. There was a singer who introduced both warriors and I couldn’t help laughing at Pacquiao who was looking at Jimi Jamison’s microphone clearly wanting to take it from him and sing the song “Eye of the Tiger” himself. Round 1 was carefully watched with bated breath. Clearly both boxers were analyzing each other’s moves and there was high defense strategy going on. But after that round, Pacquiao seemed to understand his opponent and barraged Mosley with his famous hitting combinations resulting to Mosley falling down on the 3rd round. Because Mosley set up a good defense strategy, Pacquiao had to rely on determination rather than finesse to connect with his opponent’s face. But we also learned later on that Pacquiao’s leg was cramping and so he couldn’t deliver 100% performance as he usually did. At round 9 and 10, Pacquiao got so annoyed with either Mosley or his cramping leg or his recent tumble, he released a series of hard hitting combination against Mosley and we were just screaming that Paquiao TKO Mosley already. But sad to say the fight ended in an unanimous decision in favor of Pacquiao.

After the fight I was concluding the whole scenario of Pacquiao’s career. There was no one ever going to beat Pacquiao at this stage. Whoever his opponents are he just beats them to the ground looking like it’s not challenging anymore. He doesn’t need Mayweather to cement his career into boxing history. Pacquiao’s already a legend. (And I personally think he will beat Mayweather.) So I guess Pacquiao should retire because there’s no more opponent who could measure up against him. Pacquiao had proven more than enough and he had done more than enough. Well done, Manny Pacquiao!

Charice on Glee???

Katkat — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:19:07 +0000

Filipino and Charice fans, listen up! I got this latest news tidbit from Yahoo news. Charice Pempengco, the 16-yr-old singing sensation star that has been featured in Oprah Winfrey Show 3 times and Ellen Degeneres and other cool events, is going to join Glee next season. According to the article, Charice will play the role of a foreign exchange student who will rival Michelle Leah’s character Rachel for the top spot in Glee. Wouldn’t that be cool?! This news might be premature but for us Filipino fans, it’s great news!I hope Charice will have a good accent but I guess her accent won’t matter when she opens her mouth and sings a song because she’s truly talented.

I can’t wait to watch it! In the meantime, for those who don’t know Charice’s singing talent, watch her duet with Celine Dion in Madison Square Garden. It gives me goosebumps every time!

Who is Kim Yu-Na?

Katkat — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:13:45 +0000

For those of you who watch the Vancouver Winter Olympics, you are introduced to the possible gold medalist for Olympic Women Figure Skating. Kim Yu-Na is a renowned Korean figure skater and the reigning world champion. For the Koreans, she’s a big celebrity because her talent in the figure skating world brought South Korea fame. Koreans bestowed her the title, Queen Yun-Na.

Kim Yu-Na was born in 1990 in Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do and as early as 7 years old, she took on the sports of figure skating. At the young age of 12, she began winning skating competitions. She is the first Korean to win medals in figure skating.

When you delve into South Korean society, Kim Yu-Na (pronounced as Kim Yeon-A) is a national phenomenon. She is one of the most celebrated people there that she needed bodyguards to protect her from paparazzi and avid fans. She is talented and pretty and now wonder she has accumulated many endorsements and appeared in at least 15 commercials in 2009. She is currently the face of Hyundai Motor, Maeil Dairies, Samsung Electronics, Nike, Kookmin Bank, and others. And she can sing to boot; she has just began her singing career recently. She has been named as the South Korean Ambassador 2010-2012 Visit Korea Year. She has numerous fan clubs, most notably the Hyenas (go figure). Winning the Olympics will skyrocket her fame into new heights.

her famous samsung haptic phone commercial

Despite a busy schedule, she focuses much of her training basing herself at Toronto, Canada under the tutelage of coach Brian Orser. Kim is famous for her technical brilliance, high jumps, huge ice coverage, fast speed, superior artistry, lyrical style, grace and musicality, and for the great ice coverage of her jumps due to her high speed take-off. On the 2009 World Championship, she won gold and made history as the first ever woman to surpass 200 pointsunder the ISU Judging System. She has a wide lead from her competitors. She also sets world record scores for her short and free skate programs.

Watching her compete in the short program of Olympic Figure Skating, she truly delivered. All the high praises and superlatives attach to her name are well justified. Although carrying such a heavy expectation from her country, she was solid in her skating and her appealing personality shines through in each performance making her infectious as a performer. She takes an almost 5 point lead over her competitors.

This is her short program for Worlds which she performed at the Olympics which earned her a score that beat her own world record.

James Bond Medley

Stay tune for the free skate program. I bet she will nail that too. Go Yu-Na!

Winter Olympics 2010 Highlights

Katkat — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:06:47 +0000

Winter Olympics opened on Feb 14 2010. I have never watched Winter Olympic games except for ice skating but that was years ago. Surprisingly I found myself glued to the TV watching the NBC coverage of the Winter Olympics after taking a glimpse of Apolo Ohno’s qualifying speed skating round.

It’s already day 8 and I’m still rooting and cheering on for the underdogs, the winners and the big dreamers. Olympics is still the ultimate goal for many athletes.

So far the highlights are:

It started with a death.

A Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili died after losing control of his sled during a practice run. This only proves how extreme many of the sports in this game is. Olympic requires utmost mental and physical fitness to compete. But for Nodar’s case, the track was just deemed unsafe.

Age doesn’t matter.

It’s only in the Winter Olympics that I saw older age-group of athletes competing for a sport so extreme in nature. In Summer Olympics, the younger generation prevail but in this game, the veterans show how it’s done.

Kristina Grove (34) won bronze in speed skating 3000m. Ole Elinar Bjorndalen (34) won silver in 20km Individual Sprint. Figure Skating pair Shen Xue (31) and Zhao Hongbao (36) won gold. Bode Miller at age 33 is garnering medals for his sport.

There’s always the next Olympics.

A lot of the athletes here are veterans of the Olympic sports. They have joined 2 to Olympics in their lifetime and still making the cut. Can you imagine 12 years?! If an athlete is a newbie, commentators will tell them that they need to gain more experience before having the same level of competency as with the other veteran athletes.

At the age of 27, this Olympics would be Apolo Ohno’s 3rd entry. He has earned gold, silver and bronze medals for short-track skating in the Salt Lake, Torino, and Vancouver Olympics. He needs one more medal to gain 7 and be the most decorated American at the Winter Games.

Bodie Miller came back to compete for his 4th Olympic bout in Alpine Skiing. At age 33 he has earned a bronze for Downhill Alpine Skiing at Vancouver. This year is Lindsey Vonn’s (25) 3rd Olympic bid for a medal and she finally achieved it at the Women’s Downhill.

No inury will stop me.

A lot of athletes have been injured before the Olympic started. 5 months before the Olympics, J.R. Celski got into a near-fatal injury when he skidded on the short track and sliced a big cut in his thigh in the process requiring 60 stitches. He came back to qualify for the US team and won bronze in the Olympics 1500m short-track event. Japanese skater Daisuke Takahashi underwent knee surgery on 2009 and came back to Olympics and won bronze for figure skating.

Lindsey Vonn bruised her shin days before her game during practice. Thanks to a 2 day-respite from a bad weather she was able to rest her shin and win a gold in her Downhill race. Fellow athlete Anja Pearson of Sweden had an accident on her downhill race which sent her crashing after failing to land the final jump of the race. But she returned the day after sore and bruised to compete in the Super Combined Event and won bronze.

Retirement – What’s that?

Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko retired after winning gold in the 2006 Torino Olympics Men’s Figure Skating. After a 3 1/2 year hiatus, he returns to Vancouver for his third Olympic. In one interview he stated "Many people asked me in the spring, ‘Why do you need this? Practices again, the training load, stress. You have everything – money, fame, titles … you’ve won everything. Why are you returning?’ Simply, I was bored. There wasn’t enough passion, fight, inner drive or goals. Or, like my coach said, I just want to prolong my youth. I’m all of 26 years old, why not compete some more?" He did just that and won himself a silver medal.

Chinese Figure Skating pair Shen and Zhao Hongbao stepped out of competitive skating after the 2007 Worlds. However that Olympic gold still eluded them and they decided to come back for their 4th and last Olympic to try getting the gold. And they did!

It’s always about the Olympic Dream.

All the athletes compete in the Olympics to get that ultimate recognition as the best athlete. They will suffer through long and hard training, injuries, and numerous upsets and disappointments – all for the glory of getting an Olympic medal and cementing themselves in sports history.

For 18 years, figure skating pair and married couple Shen and Zhao have been competing in numerous competitions and this year was their last bid to get that elusive Olympic gold. Pushing their middle-aged bodies for more hard training and stress, enduring cafeteria meals and living in separate dormitory rooms, the dream finally came true for them when they won gold in Figure Skating pairs and giving China its first Olympic gold in that category.

Alpine Skiier Lindsey Vonn has entered her 3rd Olympics. She has won awards in different games but never an Olympic medal. Getting a bad start because of a bruised shin, Vonn skiied her heart out and finished first and won her first Olympic gold finally.

Skating coach Frank Carroll has coached figure skating champions in his lifetime but never had a student who won him an Olympic gold. At 71, his dream was realized when his pupil Evan Lysacek skated a near perfect routine and took home the gold in Men’s Figure Skating.

Shaun White proves himself the best in the Snowboarding Half-pipe when he won Olympic gold in Torino and Vancouver. He scored 4 points away from perfect 50 and sets a long lead from his competitor.

Olympics is half-way over and there’s still more amazing games to anticipate. But for now I salute the Olympic winners.

What happened to the boys of Boys Before Flowers?

Katkat — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:09:15 +0000

Boys Before Flowers has ended a long time ago – the Taiwanese, Japanese, and Korean versions. I heard Mainland China is going to do their own rendition of the series. But what has happened to the gorgeous cast of this hit TV drama. Once in a while, I’m curious on the next projects of these handsome actors. Although their roles wouldn’t be endearing as their hit show, any glimpse of that beautiful face and adorable smile still brings the heart aflutter!

Here’s the latest news what I found over the internet about this cast:

Kim Joon aka Song Woo Bin. Kim Joon, both singer and actor, is busy with his concert tour with band TMAX. He is also the face of product endorsements for Omphalos and Samsung. He is also set to appear in a show called, Mnet Scandal.

Kim Bum aka So Yi Jung. The most charming of them all. He returns to the TV screen for his drama, The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry. He also starred in a 2009 movie titled, Emergency. Aside from TV appearances, tours, he also endorses a lot of products and is a familiar face in TV commercials and media print.

Kim Hyun Joong aka Yoon Ji Hoo. Juggling different and lots of projects at the same time, no wonder this guy is always reported of going to the hospital. More of a singer than an actor, Kim Hyun Joong is the popular leader of the music band SS501. It seems that among the F4 guys, he is the most popular because he recently received the award of Asia’s Best Star. Don’t you think he looks like Lee Dong Gun? At the moment, he doesn’t have any TV/movie projects and is concentrating more on his singing and TV variety show appearances.

Lee Min Ho aka Goo Jun Pyo. For me he’s the most handsome of the F4. This guy worked as a model before so it’s no wonder with his looks and well-toned body, he endorses many products and is seen often in commercials. He also models for a clothing brand.His next TV drama project is entitled Personal Taste, where he will try the role of a homosexual.

When Boys Before Flowers ended, I was wanting to see more of F4 particularly Lee Min Ho. However they didn’t jump into a new drama immediately after the hit TV series because they were busy promoting the series all over Asia. So now that the F4 drama fever has died down (eyebrows raised), I’ll be anticipating them in their next TV series.

Golden Globe Fashion Report

Katkat — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:41:00 +0000

Who of you watched the Golden Globe Awards 2010? I didn’t. But I saw the pictures. This would be my first time to report something about fashion. It’s only because I was very disappointed with the fashion of the recent Golden Globe awards. What is the award show if not for the fashion, right? Most of the dresses were unoriginal and same-old same-old. Here are some to show you:

All the left pictures are from Golden Globe 2010, while the right pics are old red carpet events. You be the judge…

So the next question is…who wore it better?

And the legend of Pacquiao continues

Katkat — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:55:10 +0000

I was fortunate to have watched the fight of Pacquiao vs Cotto at pay-per-view from my aunt’s friends. No commercials and live showing. It was a great 12 rounds. Although TKO at the 12th, I salute Cotto for his tenacity, determination, and sportsmanship. God is good for Pacquiao won the bout!
I would commend Freddie Roach’s superb training which led Pacquiao to become one of the best fighter in the world. I am impressed by Pacquiao’s stamina, agility, and smartness. Have you noticed that he didn’t let his guard down for a minute? That even when he’s punching Cotto continuously, he would always remember to protect himself. He hasn’t let himself be trapped/cornered. Manny has shown outstanding athleticism – the scorecards plainly rule in favor of him. His punches were twice as many as Cotto’s.
I heard that Pacquiao would go down the history as the first fighter to win world titles in seven divisions. So what’s next for Manny? Politics? movies/showbiz? or another fight?
Congratulations Manny! You did the Pinoys proud again!

Where to watch Pacquiao vs Cotto fight?

Katkat — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:25:32 +0000

Today is d-day! In a few hours the bout between Pacquiao and Cotto will start. I’ve been following their media coverage in HBO 24/7. I’m impressed with the training on both sides. It’s going to be one spectacular fight. I’m rooting for my country’s champion, Manny Pacquiao. Although I think Cotto wouldn’t fall from a knockout. He seems pretty tough and very strong. I really pray that Pacquiao will win. He seems to be the hope of my country right now, which has been experiencing lots of tragedies, disasters and economic and political turmoil.
Now the next question is: where to watch the fight? I would absolutely not pay 70USD for a pay-per-view. At least back in my country, there were lots of channels covering the Pacquiao’s fight. Though it has commercials at least it’s free.
So hopefully I can find some links over the internet for some free coverage of the fight. Go Manny!