Happy New Year POKER & PHANTOM
I had a great new year. It started out really lazy -- getting up and watching a Law and Order SVU marathon at home. I was going to prepare something for the family party like I've done for the past three years (lasagna, lemon bars, etc.). But this year I decided to be lazy (I'm broke and have no kitchen now, after all), and let my aunts and my mom take care of the food. That's how they like it anyway. Late afternoon I went to my Tita Bebet's house and watched a couple more episodes of SVU. I didn't feel like having much wine because Mix and I went to a comedy club the night before and I didn't get drunk, but I did get up mid-sleep feeling dehydrated and needing a coupld of glasses of water. Must be getting old.
Anyway, last night I didn't miss getting myself happy-new-year tipsy at all bnecause I discovered a delicious new vice: POKER. I played poker with my cousins and cousins-in-law until five o-clock in the morning!!! We started early, took a five-minute break for the New-Year's countdown, and outlasted my aunts and mom playing mah jong in the next table. We didn't play for much money -- we did pool poker: everyone put in five bucks at the beginning of each game, we all start with about $700 in chips and the game lasts till only one person has any chips left; he gets the whole pot (minus five dollars which goes to the runner up, so he at least doesn't lose money). We were about 8, so one game would take about three hours to finish. I only joined the last two games, so I put in $10, but I won the second so I went home with $35!!!! Yey!!!
I want to find poker-mates. I want to get really good at the game so I can play with my dad and my brother-in-law. We should have a week-long family vacation / poker fest. Sooo much more fun than going to a bar or the mall.
**
That was last night (New Year's Eve). Today, my mom and I went to see The Phantom of the Opera (the movie). It wasn't bad -- the music was of course the same and the girl who played Christine was absolutely enchanting. I thought Madame Giry was cool too, and Raoul was as handsome as he needed to be. Unfortunately, I really wish they had gotten someone with a better voice to play the phantom, and I wish they had made him uglier. I mean, you just have to see how grotesque he looks and hear his passion/love/lust/desperation for Christine. You're supposed to be afraid of him but still want to succumb to him. Isn't that what Phantom is about????? That's definitely what I got from it before, and I think that's what Jiki got from it to, because we were both in love with the phantom when we were younger. But I guess for some people Phantom is really a Christine-and-Raoul vs. crazy genius psycho kind of love story. That would explain why some people LOVE the part of the play where they sing "All I Ask of You". Me? I was much more moved by the phantom's song right after ("I gave you my music . .. "). By that part I'd be bawling. Sometimes just listening to the soundtrack. But dammit, it has to be sung just right. I'm not a music genius, but the phantom in the movie didn't move me enough -- though he did redeem himself in the end, with "Point of No Return", where he finally made me feel . . . well, desire.
I was obsessed with Phantom for a long long time when I was younger -- I knew the score from beginning to end. I haven't listened to the complete sountrack since high school, but when I watched it today, I still knew all thre words.
When I'd come to L.A. from Manila for the summer, I'd get a set allowance for my vacation -- with that I was supposed to buy pasalubong plus all my clothes and shoes for the schoolyear (I hardly shopped in Manila, just maybe a shirt here and there). But I didn't tihnk twice about blowing about $60 for the first time in L.A. with Jiki, and about $95 to see it for a second time in Salt Lake City the following year. Even then, I had my priorities --- fun stuff + no-more-than-basic wardrobe :)
I remember when Jiki and I watched it, we were about fourteen and we waited for an autograph from the guy who played the Phantom (he was Davis Gaines, when we watched). He was actualy really cute in person, and we were gushing about that night to Pia and Sharon. But when the pictures were developed, he was really un-photogenic. We were kinda embarrassed we said he was cute -- must have been the magic from the music of the night. Oh well.
More phantom memories: singing to the soundtrack in Pia's garden, Jiki did the part when Christine takes of the phantom's mask, and when I did the angry phantom ("Damn you! You little lying Delilah . .. ") she was so freaked out she screamed and dove into the pool. Listening to the original rock-version of the theme song really loud, thinking I'm singing to myself but later having Jiki and Pia laugh at me because I was singing Christine AND the phantom completely off-key -- aloud, after all. Taking voice lessons for a year because I wanted to create stuff that beautiful with my voice, dammmit. Finally giving up, resigned to the fact that I'm tone-deaf. Picking out Leroux's book at the bookstore, and discovering for the first time the importance of choosing a translation you like. Finishing the book alone in my bedroom with tears in my eyes and having to put it down and applaud. (Really, I was clapping alone in my room like a crazy woman). Doing a video about its making with my just-as-nerdy high school friends for one of our music classes.
I'm sure there's more, I'm getting really nostalgic now.
Hey, Pia, let me know if it ever goes through Chicago -- I'll come over and watch it with you.
Anyway, last night I didn't miss getting myself happy-new-year tipsy at all bnecause I discovered a delicious new vice: POKER. I played poker with my cousins and cousins-in-law until five o-clock in the morning!!! We started early, took a five-minute break for the New-Year's countdown, and outlasted my aunts and mom playing mah jong in the next table. We didn't play for much money -- we did pool poker: everyone put in five bucks at the beginning of each game, we all start with about $700 in chips and the game lasts till only one person has any chips left; he gets the whole pot (minus five dollars which goes to the runner up, so he at least doesn't lose money). We were about 8, so one game would take about three hours to finish. I only joined the last two games, so I put in $10, but I won the second so I went home with $35!!!! Yey!!!
I want to find poker-mates. I want to get really good at the game so I can play with my dad and my brother-in-law. We should have a week-long family vacation / poker fest. Sooo much more fun than going to a bar or the mall.
**
That was last night (New Year's Eve). Today, my mom and I went to see The Phantom of the Opera (the movie). It wasn't bad -- the music was of course the same and the girl who played Christine was absolutely enchanting. I thought Madame Giry was cool too, and Raoul was as handsome as he needed to be. Unfortunately, I really wish they had gotten someone with a better voice to play the phantom, and I wish they had made him uglier. I mean, you just have to see how grotesque he looks and hear his passion/love/lust/desperation for Christine. You're supposed to be afraid of him but still want to succumb to him. Isn't that what Phantom is about????? That's definitely what I got from it before, and I think that's what Jiki got from it to, because we were both in love with the phantom when we were younger. But I guess for some people Phantom is really a Christine-and-Raoul vs. crazy genius psycho kind of love story. That would explain why some people LOVE the part of the play where they sing "All I Ask of You". Me? I was much more moved by the phantom's song right after ("I gave you my music . .. "). By that part I'd be bawling. Sometimes just listening to the soundtrack. But dammit, it has to be sung just right. I'm not a music genius, but the phantom in the movie didn't move me enough -- though he did redeem himself in the end, with "Point of No Return", where he finally made me feel . . . well, desire.
I was obsessed with Phantom for a long long time when I was younger -- I knew the score from beginning to end. I haven't listened to the complete sountrack since high school, but when I watched it today, I still knew all thre words.
When I'd come to L.A. from Manila for the summer, I'd get a set allowance for my vacation -- with that I was supposed to buy pasalubong plus all my clothes and shoes for the schoolyear (I hardly shopped in Manila, just maybe a shirt here and there). But I didn't tihnk twice about blowing about $60 for the first time in L.A. with Jiki, and about $95 to see it for a second time in Salt Lake City the following year. Even then, I had my priorities --- fun stuff + no-more-than-basic wardrobe :)
I remember when Jiki and I watched it, we were about fourteen and we waited for an autograph from the guy who played the Phantom (he was Davis Gaines, when we watched). He was actualy really cute in person, and we were gushing about that night to Pia and Sharon. But when the pictures were developed, he was really un-photogenic. We were kinda embarrassed we said he was cute -- must have been the magic from the music of the night. Oh well.
More phantom memories: singing to the soundtrack in Pia's garden, Jiki did the part when Christine takes of the phantom's mask, and when I did the angry phantom ("Damn you! You little lying Delilah . .. ") she was so freaked out she screamed and dove into the pool. Listening to the original rock-version of the theme song really loud, thinking I'm singing to myself but later having Jiki and Pia laugh at me because I was singing Christine AND the phantom completely off-key -- aloud, after all. Taking voice lessons for a year because I wanted to create stuff that beautiful with my voice, dammmit. Finally giving up, resigned to the fact that I'm tone-deaf. Picking out Leroux's book at the bookstore, and discovering for the first time the importance of choosing a translation you like. Finishing the book alone in my bedroom with tears in my eyes and having to put it down and applaud. (Really, I was clapping alone in my room like a crazy woman). Doing a video about its making with my just-as-nerdy high school friends for one of our music classes.
I'm sure there's more, I'm getting really nostalgic now.
Hey, Pia, let me know if it ever goes through Chicago -- I'll come over and watch it with you.