Monday, January 31, 2011

Misa Campo: FHM Phillipines' February Cover Girl

Misa Campo is a Dutch/Filipina model from Canada.  She became renowned when her pictures started proliferating in the internet after winning the Miss Rocawear in 2006.  Kudos to FHM Philippines for bringing her here!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Vampire Diaries Season 1 and 2

I initially tried to watch the first few episodes of Vampire Diaries before but it seemed to close to the plot of the Twilight books that I found it too much of a copycat trying to ride with the fad of the times.  However, I have gotten a lot of positive feedback that the series in fact did an original take to it and is actually worth watching. 

I'm doing a marathon of it right now.  Hope it really is worth the download and the watch time.

My initial opinion...Nina Dobrev is a pretty little thing!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

UFC Fight Girls: Arianny Celeste and Brittany Palmer

The guy who says that he likes watching UFC merely for the fights is a LIAR!  Here are other two reasons why...


Friday, January 21, 2011

The New Catwoman

There's a buzz out that Anne Hathaway will be playing Catwoman in the latest Batman movie "Dark Knight Rises" which is eyed to be released in 2012.  Since there are no pictures yet of her costume, I'm indulging my fantasy and expect Ms. Hathaway to look something like this:

The New Spider-man: Andrew Garfield

I honestly like him better than Toby.  No offense to Toby loyalists but based on Peter Parker's comics rendition, Andrew Garfield is a closer physical match. 




GQ February 2011 Cover: Minka Kelly

For a man's fashion magazine, GQ have had a lot of women covers lately.  Jennifer Aniston holds the destinction of being the first woman to grace the cover of the magazine since its conception in 1931.  That was in 2005.  Many have followed suit like Jessica Alba, Megan Fox, Christina Aguillera, and Rihanna.  I guess, this trend is to emulate the success of other men's magazine like FHM and MAXIM with their more testosterone elevating covers.

For their February 2011 cover, here's Minka Kelly!  HOT!




Megan Fox Pimping for Armani

What a better way to pimp your clothing line that to have a FOXY lady do it for you!

The Tourist: A Must Watch!

I'm a big Angelina Jolie fan.  She is not just a good actress but her beauty can really light up the big screen in her lonesome.  

In "The Tourist", she plays Elise, a woman caught in a quagmire of deception between the MI6 and the elusive Alexander Pearce (who also happens to be Elise's former lover).  Add on a gangster named Reginald Shaw whose hunting Mr. Pearce for stealing 2 billion dollars.  And then there's Frank Tupelo (played by Johnny Depp), an American math teacher who is on an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart.

As instructed by Alexander, Elise selects Frank as the unwitting bait to misdirect the MI6 from apprehending him.  And there the adventure begins.  With news that Alexander have had extensive facial surgery, MI6 don't have any clue as to what he looks like---even Elise.  Who is Mr. Pearce?  Watch it and find out.  One thing I can ensure you is that mindless of my infatuation with Ms. Jolie, this film is worth spending money on. 

For me, there's no getting enough of Ms. Jolie!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Paw Diaz: Tanduay Calendar Girl 2011

Just when I thought there was only one Tanduay calendar girl for the year here's another one---PAW DIAZ! Yeah men!

Lingerie Football League

I'll dump the NFL for this league in a wink!

Marissa Miller: Shape Magazine

I know all you "batmans" out there doesn't care much about the articles in this magazine so I'm skipping to the meat of it all!  I'm including her exercise tips so you'll get a little more out of this than the usual testosterone fix.  Enjoy!

Superbowl XLV: Forecast

One thing that adds to the spice of the NFL is that come playoff time all games are do or die.  Unlike other sporting events, there's no best of 3 or 5 or 7---it's lose and go home!  In this sense, statistics does not really matter in forecasting who will meet in the Superbowl.  The team who gets the better breaks win!

By default, the defending champion is expected to repeat, but then, there's only a handful of Superbowl streaks in NFL history.  So I guess this would be wishful thinking.  Look where the New Orleans Saints are right now?

We are now down to the NFC and AFC championship.  Pittsburg Steelers vs. New York Jets.  Chicago Bears vs. Greenbay Packers. 

The Jets won in 22-17 during their regular season match up with the Steelers.  While the Packers and the Bears split their two game meeting in tightly contested battles. My fearless forecast is:  Pittsburg Steelers vs. Greenbay Packers.  Why?  Because it's a fearless forecast; meaning, I don't give a rat's ass what anyone else has to say!  Nahhh, just pulling your leg there!  Of course, I want to be entertained come Superbowl day and the Steelers and the Packers would be a better match up.  Other than that, I'm a Packers fan so that one's a given.  However, I do have this palpitating urge to cheer for the Jets just to give credit to Rex Ryan's effort in bringing his team this far.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Life Lessons from the Gridiron

With the upsets happening in the ongoing NFL playoffs I'm once again reminded how much the game of football resembles how we go about our lives. Simply unpredictable.

The Seattle Seahawks came into the playoffs with a losing record. The New Orlean Saints is the highly regarded defending champions. If you're a betting man you'd wager the Saints to clobber the Seahawks. Many did and then the Seahawks upset the Saints 41-36.

Ben Obomanu and Matt Hasselbeck celebrating
a touchdown.

Drew Brees trying to rally a comback for the Saints.
Better luck next year Drew!

Then came the two spectacular wins by the New York Jets versus two NFL bigshots---the Indianapolis Colts and the league leading New England Patriots.

Well, thanks to the quarterbacking skills of Peyton Manning, the Colts were able to salvage a playoffs entry despite the injuries to their key passing and running players. Needless to say, they were favored to beat the Jets whose quarterback, Mark Sanchez, was having difficulty getting touchdowns.

Peyton Manning orchestrating what was to be the drive to set up...


...the winning score by Adam Vinatieri...

...but Antonio Cromartie and the Jets had other plans.

The Colts were down 14-13 late in the 4th quarter and then Manning marched his team to the Jets' 35 yard line to set up a 50 yard field goal attempt by Adam Vinatieri---vintage Peyton. And who's going to doubt Vinatieri's balls of steal during crunch time? DUH?! He has won two Superbowls with that trusty foot of his to prove it! So with 53 seconds left, the Jets found themselves down by two points.

For the faint hearted, there isn't much you can do in such short a time with a quarterback passing only 54%. Although the Jets ranked third in the league in terms of kick off returns with an average of 26 yards per attempt, the guy who caught the ball, Antonio Cromartie, only had one attempt during the regular season and only gained negative yardage. Real bummer of a situation, right? Well, as I've mentioned earlier, anything can happen in football! To cut the long story short, Cromartie returns the ball 47 yards down field and then Sanchez goes 100% passing to the Colts' 14 yard line to set up the winning field goal!

Lucky? Yeah, right! Tell that to the New England Patriots who came to the playoffs with a league leading 14-3 record!

When this two teams last met in week 13 of the regular season, Jets' coach Rex Ryan had a lot to say against the Patriots to heat up the rivalry. "All talk, no substance," said New England QB Tom Brady as the Patriots demolished the Jets 45-3. Unfortunately for the Patriots, the Jets were all substance during their playoff game with Sanchez accounting for 3 TDs (with a 64% pass completion) and the defense harrassing Brady all through out the game and getting 5 sacks. Final score: 28-21 in favor of the Jets!

Mark Sanchez came alive with 3 touchdown passes.

One of the 5 sacks on Tom Brady.  This one by defensive
end Shaun Ellis.

In retrospect, life bounces like a football. Unlike a round ball, which goes in one direction when thrown, the spheroidal shape of a football makes it bounce everywhere---which is very much like LIFE. No matter how much you plan your life, there is always something that comes up to challenge your serene disposition. It's like lining up in offense, the quarterback calls a play with specific routes and blocking assignment.  The play is designed to provide maximum protection of the quarterback from 11 large, ferocious defensive players determined to take him down.  Now prior to the game, the opposing team has been scouted based on past games both defensively and offensively. Offensive play calling is based on this pre-game assessment.  As an additional fallback, quarterbacks have this talent of reading defense and can call out audibles to change the play based on his reads; but they are not mind readers---so there will be situations when the read is wrong and he ends up sacked or intercepted.

The Defensive and Offensive Formation

Our lives are defined by how well we read the various obstacles that come our way. Believe me, we have our own version of the 11-man obstacle in our lives albeit in varying degrees of aggression. There will definitely times when we will falter and end up with our faces in the mud. We are fallible beings after all. The next test is---can we stand up from the quagmire and journey on until we get the touchdown of our lives?

Life, like football, is a game of inches. In every facet of our lives we aim to get an inch closer with the notion that in the end of it all adding all those inches will bring us to what we are aiming for.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

"Walang Natira" by Gloc 9


Gloc 9, who is Aristotle Pollisco in real life, has gone a long way since that day in 1997 when he first met The Master Rapper, Francis Magalona. He was just a fan then who was given the chance to show off his rap talent in Eat Bulaga. Francis was impressed and that was the start of a long standing relationship. Gloc 9 became the Master Rapper’s protégé, that is, until cancer cut short The Master’s life in 2009.

Francis left a legacy of songs that now sits in the hearts of every Filipino. When he passed on, Gloc 9 became the obvious choice to fill the void.

Gloc 9 did not disappoint.

Numerous awards and four albums later, the legacy of Francis lives on with tracks that continue to speak to the Filipino psyche such as “Liwanag”, “Lando”, “Upuan” and “Martilyo”. Continuing on this trend, Gloc 9 offers us a new set of songs with his fifth album “Talumpati” and its carrier single “Walang Natira”.

“A blacksmith of words and letters, a true Filipino poet.”
---Francis Magalona’s description of Gloc 9

-------------------------------------------------------

“Subukan mong isipin kung gaano kabigat
Ang buhat ng maleta halos hindi mona maangat
Ihahabilin ang anak para ‘to sa kanila
Lalayo upang magalaga ng anak ng iba…”

Filipinos are industrious by nature. Unfortunately, for the longest time, many have given up on the lack of opportunity here in our own country and found themselves looking for greener pastures in the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong. Earlier OFWs were predominantly from the lower brackets of our society who worked as housekeeps and yayas; however, as the financial horizon dims, even professionals like doctors and teachers have opted to seek employment outside of the Philippines. Brain drain they called it.

“yung bayang sinilangan ang pangalan ay Pinas
Ngunit bakit parang puno na ang prutas ay pitas…”

Manpower became the country’s number one export and the dollar remittances of the OFWs became the second largest contributor to the government coffers (BIR tax collection being the first). Good for the country, right? But at what cost?

“Ang phinga’y iipunin para magamit pag-uwi
Dahil doon sa atin mahirap makakuha ng buri
Mapahiran ng chocolate ang matamis na ngiti
Ng anak na halos di nakilala ang ama
O ina na wala sa tuwing kaarawan nila…”

Such is the inspiration behind Gloc 9’s carrier single “Walang Natira”. It is an elegy to the plight of our overseas workers as they sacrifice being with their families to slave for the country who would pay more. But more than just a tribute to our OFWs, the song is also meant to clamor for our country’s leaders to live up to their mandate as public servants; to lift our country from the ruins of corruption and economic depression and give our workforce a better chance for a brighter future here in our beloved country.

Album Launch:  January 23, 2011
Photos and Music Video c/o J. PACENA

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The First OCC Bike

Re-visit the very first theme bike that the Orange County Choppers aired on TV---The Jet Bike. 
The bike was in honor of the US military forces in Afganistan.

Built in time for the unveil at the Sturgis Bike Show way back in 2001, this project gave the audience their first glimpse of the dedication and creativity of the OCC crew.  A trait that has carried them through 10 years of success.