Your Daily Dose of Useful Stuff

One Direction is by far the hottest boy band of this decade and it is a phenomenon that I neither have the energy or time to spend on being that their music is not my genre of preference and the young handsome guys are not suitable to my generation.  I am more of the Motown craze, not that I have not taken a slight liking to their music.  Pop is as pop goes and truth is, I am not a pop music lover, but then, one can't help but overhear their music playing from the radio.  Well, One Direction is hot again lately because one member is emotionally unprepared to handle fame. It turned out that success and fame is not what Zayn Malik is after for he just announced his retirement from the boy band. What his real reason is, we can only speculate.  He cited he wants to live normally.  He wants to experience what a normal 22-year old experiences and does.  In truth, he can't stand being mobbed by rabid fans it seems.  Well, he seems to be in the wrong b...

This year's first casualty from local showbiz is Liezl Sumilang Martinez, who comes from local showbiz royalty.  She succumbed to lung cancer on Saturday, March 14, 2015.  Prior to lung cancer, Liezl was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2008, after two years of treatment, among them stem cell treatment, she recovered and was able to serve in the MTRCB (Movie and Television Review Classification Board).  Unfortunately, in 2012, cancer cells were discovered in her left lungs which ultimately caused her demise.  

                    The fight that has made everyone, except me probably, excited about will finally happen on May 2 and for sure it will be the first of firsts, especially if Manny Pacquiao will knock Floyd "big-mouth" Mayweather out.  As we all probably know, both boxers have stunning records and have fought against the greatest fighters in the boxing arena.   Manny Pacquiao is  called "the Pambansang Kamao" or "the National Fist" (We Filipinos have a knack for catchy labels) for being the only boxer that fought in 7 different divisions and emerging victorious.  Although Manny suffered some defeats, which for me are quiet negligible, these do not erase the fact that he crossed different divisions and holds the championship belts in these divisions.  It's a clear sign of courage and determination.    Manny Pacquiao just needs somebody challenging enough plus, he is also an entertainer who wants peo...

Very few people can pull off the trick that he does which is make up transformation.  The guy is a genius in make up application that he can transform almost identically his face into any personality that he so likes.   Paulo Ballesteros started making his face his canvass and showcasing this talent while performing in Eat Bulaga, during its weekend shows, when the 'dabarkads' would present production numbers.    Eat Bulaga is currently the longest running variety show in the Philippines where Paulo Ballesteros is a mainstay and one of the reasons why the show has maintained its high-ratings.   Paulo does not only put on make up to resemble popular celebrities, he also copies their fashion and style.  He really immerses himself into the personality of the celebrity.  

She probably is not the typical beauty pageant contestant with her short-cropped hair, but boy she can carry herself regally.  Tall and shapely, Kaci hails from that nation where the music "reggae" originated.    A real dark horse, Ms. Jamaica was not even in most of the predicted top finalists, but her classy appearance, in the tradition of Hollywood beauties Audrey Hepburn and  Halle Berry,  wowed and impressed the judges.  Her modeling background did play a big role in her disposition.  Camera lenses just love her, they can't get enough of her.  

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the Philippines' bet for this year's Ms. Universe pageant, MJ Lastimosa, was, holy cow,  this girl is a dead ringer of Shamcey Supsup and like Shamcey Supsup, she has more than fifty percent chances of bagging that crown, which for the past three decades had numerously slipped from the fingers of  each Philippine candidate.   I guess, we've all sympathized with our contestants who came back home without the  major "bacon" for the past three decades, and we all felt sorry and sometimes "bitter" when Philippine contestants didn't get the crown even if majority of them did win runner-up awards. Winning runner-up is not the same as getting the major crown.  But then it's better than coming home empty-handed.  So what's MJ Lastimosa's edge over former candidates we sent to this most prestigious beauty pageant?  Frankly, while others think and believe our former contestants, the likes of ...

The entire Catholic community in the Philippines is again in a state of euphoria because Pope Francis arrived in the Philippines today for a five-day pastoral visit.  Pope Francis will be in the Philippines until January 19.  Pope Francis is the third Pope to visit the Philippine Islands.  The first was Pope Paul VI in 1970, Pope John Paul II, who came to the Philippines twice in 1981 and 1995, during the World Youth Day and Pope Francis, the current Pope. Pope Francis is known as the Pope of 'firsts' because Pope Francis's leadership is non-traditional, going beyond and against the normally practiced traditions/dogmas.  He is also the first non-European Pope, being that he is from Argentina, but he is of Italian ancestry.  He also is the first Pope to use the name Francis, from St. Francis of Assisi.    Because of security concerns, there are many guidelines that the police and other government leaders have imposed in order to prevent any ...