creepy

It sounded as if a page was torn out of a Final Destination screenplay.

Johanna Ganthaler along with her husband Kurt, narrowly escaped tragedy when the couple vacationing in Brazil missed the Air France flight 447 en route to Paris. The flight was reported to have disappeared off the radars as it plunged into the Atlantic ocean, leaving no survivors.

But death seemed to have been inevitable for Johanna. She died in a car accident in Austria a week later when the couple's car slammed into the path of a truck. Kurt was badly injured. Click on this for a report of the accident.

Let's just pray that Kurt makes it out alive.

my summer playlist (Idol edition)

i am a big fan of: lists, American Idol, and iTunes. So I thought of combining what I love into a cohesive blog entry.

Music defines my summer. There is a sense of nostalgia the way a song hits my nerves. Every time I hear a particular song, I always think of summer. Last year, 'Bleeding love' served as the backdrop for last year's series of demos, return demos and history 100 video reports. They go hand in hand - music and memories.

This year, as the remaining traces of summer are slowly being swept away by typhoons (LITERALLY, since you know, it is the start of the wet season after all), I feel self-entitled to immortalize my summer with the songs that went with it - specifically, the songs from AI season 8 ( I told you I felt self-entitled. haha)

5. Danny Gokey's "What Hurts The Most"
Come on, the minute he stepped into the audition room, you felt the need for him to be heard. He may have not won viewers with his fondness for cookie cutter love songs which aren't really contemporary, but he sings CLASSIC love songs which, as the name suggests, stand the test of time. His voice tugs at the heartstrings like no other voice can!

4. Allison Iraheta's "I Can't Make You Love Me"
Allison actually isn't the generic rocker I thought she would be. She surprised me with this mature rendition of a country classic. Her voice was gruff yet controlled, smooth and simply on-point. Oh, and she's only 16 years old.


3. Kris Allen's "Heartless"
Although I wanted Allison to be in the final three, without her exit, the world would have never seen Kris Allen sing the song that would potentially catapult him to the finals. I actually didn't care for this song while he was performing it, but after giving it another spin, I got what America was all about. It's more than youtube-worthy (you know the one where people post their version of famous songs with the hope of getting Ellened or Oprahed), it kicked Kanye's ass.

2. Kris Allen's "Falling Slowly"
I didn't get why collectively, Kris wasn't praised for this version of the song. The way he sang it was honest and pure, that it just put the spotlight on him and no one else. It wasn't as strong as the other contenders, but it held its own and ultimately proved that Kris was on his way to the top.


1. Matt Giraud's "So Small"
NO, ADAM LAMBERT ISN'T ON MY LIST. A soft spot at the top of my list is reserved for Matt's number on a Carrie Underwood. He sang it beautifully that I almost felt he was getting teary-eyed at the end. The way Matt, stripped of Carrie's range and falseto, made it more uplifting than the original version is simply mind-boggling. It prefectly blended country and soul together in a powerfull rendition that might as well make it to your list of wedding songs, or something like that.

ingenious!

in my last post, I mused on about how I craved for california maki, and how I hoped my mom would take us out to ATOA and make us (notice how I use 'us' to mask how I don't want to be branded as a pig. wait, now I blew my cover) happy.

Well, we didn't go out since apparently my mom is dead tired and all she wants right now is a massage. BUT she did surprise me with....



California maki and sushi from our friends at Rustan's Fresh!!! OK, so it's the first time to see something like maki ready to eat from the store, so this is something big for this ignorant Zamboangueno. The dish actually came with it's own sauce in an easy-squeeze plastic bottle (ingenious!), and a minute dollop of wasabe which I don't really care for, AND the little green thing which is traditionally set as a garnish.


easy squeezy lemon peezy. ingenuity at its best

wait, are my posts becoming too one-dimensional and monotonous? who cares, as long as I got my maki and ate it too.

a near perfect day

let today be remembered as the day i finally tasted another resto's version of california maki.

...and let's not forget, i got to spend quality time with Jad, MJ, Riez and Jam. Five friends, one near perfect day.

So we ate lunch at Eureka, which is apparently more of an "annex" of the Palmeras' main restaurant than an established Japanese resto. The reason I said that is because almost everyone who goes there orders a bilao, lechon kawali etc., fare unusual for a Japanese restaurant.


I actually have no idea what the yellow stuff on top is.


will the tastier ebi tempura please stand up?

I concluded that most of the people who go there are actually after the ambiance of an intimate dining experience, rather than real Japanese food. I have no idea if I'm still being impartial, but Eureka's and ATOA's tonakatsu, ebi tempura, and california maki taste almost the same... down to the sauce! So, if you're after a more elaborate fare of Japanese, you might as well try ATOA.


sinful. lechon kawali served as it is: salty and fatty

(BUT I have to concede that Palmeras is actually in my top 2 of the places that serve the best bilaos in the city. If you feel all Hannah Montana, you might as well have "the best of both worlds")

Afterwards, we went and played cards at Jad's house. There were consequences,*hic*,of course.
I actually feel that I'm getting better at beating the pros. MJ made apple pie (shit! I don't have a picture of it! argghhhhh..) which was tart and tasty and pretty darn good. I won't go in to the details of what happened afterwards, since it only involved us (minus MJ) going to the grocery and Jad getting locked out of his own home because he forgot the key inside. He had to go to the neighbor and jump over their wall so he could let me in since I also left my camera inside. But of course, I'm not going to elaborate on that.

as of this writing, I'm actually craving for california maki. Oh well, mom's arriving from Manila tomorrow and maybe we could go out. *fingers crossed*