CinderelLEA

A video montage of Broadway Asia Entertainment's Cinderella starring Lea Salonga currently running until August 24th at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila.








Tickets: www.ticketworld.com.ph
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Brain Magic?

Keith Barry, the celebrated Irish Magician, Illusionist, and Mentalist or whatever name you want to call him is one hell of a showman in his own funny way. In fact, he calls himself as The Druid Master! How's that for a moniker huh?

In the videos below, Keith Barry performs some of his trademark tricks on Hollywood celebrities, Elijah Wood, Rachel Hunter and that Fil- Am pussycat Nicole Scherzinger.

So, is he for real?

That’s for you to find out.

1,000 Hands

Impressed? Check out the next video




Can't get enough?

Read The Pride of Bodhisattva and be amazed further.

The Renaissance Man

When we talk about Leonardo da Vinci, the first thing that comes to our mind is the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, two of his most famous works. Add the iconic Vitruvian Man and you can’t help but marvel at his genius.



He was a painter, scientist, engineer, mathematician, writer, inventor, sculptor and painter among many others. He was the embodiment of what a Renaissance Man should be yet we know very little about the man and whatever things that we know on record about him is in reality based mostly on unsupported facts.

Even his face or what he really look like is the subject of debates among scientists and historians alike for centuries now. Even the few portraits/ self- portraits that were attributed to him are challenged by so- called experts and self- styled Leonardophiles.

Recently, an artist who specializes in faces by the name of Siegfred Woldhek came out of what he believes as the true image of the great Leonardo da Vinci after using what he termed as a sophisticated image- analysis technique.

And watching the video, I couldn’t agree more regarding his hypothesis as we can now safely say that he finally settled the age- old question with regards to the man without a face.

Ursula Martinez, Striptease Olé!

A couple of months ago I came across this video entitled Hanky Panky by Anglo- Spanish artist, Ursula Martinez while surfing the web. I did not give much thought of it until today when I got a copy of the video in my mailbox this morning sent by a friend who in turn got it from another friend.

And last time I checked, ABS- CBNNews have now jumped into the bandwagon.

Give it to the Filipinos; whenever there are gossips, scandals and what have you in the world, we are always right there on top with the rest.

You see, I have watched Naked News before and I found it funny in a way and can’t understand the fuzz it generated when it first started several years ago--the hype as well as brouhaha coming from some sectors.

Anyway, the novelty of doing a striptease while reading the news on TV is gone and with only a few exception, people still prefer watching the traditional way of delivering the news on TV (that is with clothes on) rather than watching attractive anchors stripping down to their birthday suit while awkwardly reading news of bombings in some far away country. And so the Naked News did not take off quite as expected by its proponents.

Who is Ursula Martinez and what is this Hanky Panky thing that I‘m talking about?

She's not only an award- winning artist/performer but an author as well who is not afraid to show off her 40- year old body as part of her show and thereby created in the process "a new theatrical genre" according to some of her admirers.

Some people will find the show offensive while others will laud it for its creativity. Some will despise her onstage exhibitionism while others will just laugh at her antics and at the same time marvel at her well- toned body.

But stripping onstage in the name of art is nothing new, remember that the avante- garde revue Oh Calcutta which started Off Broadway and then eventually found its way to the Great White Way years later had a very successful run and at one time, became the longest running play in Broadway history.


Some people will ask where is the boundary between art and nudity, of being tasteful and obscene or the difference between downright trash and a gem?

Surely, a lot of people will have different answers and opinions. It will be a never- ending debate between people with different views, beliefs and convictions.

But to me, it all boils down to the individual and the distinction of what we see as beautiful and ugly will always come from the eyes of the beholder.

Here’s what I got from Ursula Martinez’ website---

She sets fire to her tits, interrogates her parents, re-defines class, blurs fiction with reality, cures homosexuals, gives birth to penises, tells autobiographical stories, deconstructs performance and sings South London suburban flamenco - from high brow to low brow, from spectacle to confessional, from live art to light entertainment, Ursula Martinez produces solo and collaborative performance for theatre, site-specific, installation, cabaret, night club, film, television…… birthdays, weddings and Bar mitzvahs!



And here’s a brief synopsis of the Hanky -Panky “Striptease” from her website--


Hanky Panky is a five minute choreographed magic strip-tease. The act uses a simple disappearing handkerchief conjuring trick at its core.

Martinez enters stage fully clothed. She performs the trick and the hanky disappears. It reappears from her jacket pocket. The jacket is removed. The hanky disappears again and reappears from her skirt. The skirt is removed. During the course of the act, Martinez continues to make the handkerchief disappear and re-appear from her various items of clothing, which she then removes.

Finally Martinez is completely naked. Once again she performs the trick and the handkerchief disappears. With a grand finale flourish, Martinez retrieves the handkerchief from a truly magical place?

So, Watch the Video at your own risk!

Piercing

This novel by Ryu Murakami which explores the dark side of the human mind takes us to the edge of what a person is capable of doing to exercise his demons.

In the book, Kawashima Masayuki, a yuppie in urban Japan is struggling to fight for the longest time the urge to stab his young daughter by an ice pick. Wrestling with his inner self,, he finally decide to embark on a journey to fight the demons that’s been tormenting him due to a previous experience wherein as a teenager he stabbed a stripper who turns out to be---Oops, no spoiler here. He-he.

“Only voices and images from external world could neutralize those from the inside”

--He finally devises an obscene plan to kill a prostitute to liberate him and protect his wife Yoko and daughter Rie from his demonic obsession.

But Chiaki, a prostitute he hired who specialize in S & M plays while holed up in a hotel room to carry out his plans turn out to be a disturbed soul herself.

Together they went deep into the realms of their psyches as they relive their past experiences and try to find answers to their questions in the process.

Murakami’s cold- blooded story- telling wherein sometimes is a bit overboard owing to his very fertile imagination will be a shock to the feint- hearted but to the initiated in this genre, there’s really nothing new to offer that we haven’t read nor seen in the past.

The Corduroy Killer

I was probably 9 years old and was rummaging into some old magazines back home in the Philippines when I happened to chance upon an article entitled The Corduroy Killer.

It was an article about a prodigious American Grandmaster who wears and favors Corduroy pants while making his mark as a teenage sensation in the Chess World and dishing out his wood pushing brilliance against much older opponents. The said article influenced me during that time to play chess.

Both my father and grandfather were avid chess players and they taught me the rudiments of the game at an early age. My dad even built a chess set cum table out of Mahogany, which was a very good choice because the hardwood has two shades of color (black and brown)that is perfect to make those unique, beautiful and distinct chess pieces.

I was a pretty good chess player when I was young but my Dad is much, much better. In fact, I never won a single game against him. Sad to say, my interest waned but the love for the game is still there although I must admit that I have not played a single game in years. But still, I follow the game whenever I can and I am quite familiar with the current crop of wood pushers where Super GMs are getting younger and younger each year.

That chess prodigy was the genius- turned recluse Bobby Fischer who visited the Philippines in the 70s and lived for sometime in Baguio City in his later years unbeknownst to many Filipinos and the world. He later sired a daughter to a Filipina wherein his long- time friend and confidante GM Eugene Torre confirmed in several interviews with some local papers.

Yes, Bobby Fisher is dead.

The best chess player the world had ever seen died yesterday in Reykjavik, Iceland, the place where he registered his greatest triumph at the height of the Cold War when he outwitted and defeated Russian GM and World Champion Boris Spassky in a proxy battle between the United States and the Soviet Union.

From being a World Champion, he spiraled deep into oblivion when he refused to defend the title against Anatoly Karpov. He became erratic and reclusive and eventually disappeared from the public over the years but his contribution to the world of chess can never be quantified and forgotten.

A lot of champions have come and gone but Bobby Fischer’s brilliance and charisma will never be equaled. His shadow and influence among the world’s chess players and lovers will remain forever.



In Memoriam: Robert James "Bobby" Fischer
March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008)


Here's the link to
Bobby Fisher's 60 Memorable Games