Viva Atlantis "TARZAN": The Jungle Comes to Life!

June 22, 2013

"Tarzan" is, for me and my kids, one of the less memorable Disney animated features.  So when there was announcement that there will be a stage musical version this year, my kids were not really interested to go for some reason. Unlike the other Disney films, I only know one song by heart from the original movie, which was the Phil Collins hit song, "You'll Be in My Heart."  As luck may have it, I won a chance to watch tonight with my daughter so we grabbed it.  Now, I am so glad that we got to watch this show!  It was so, so much better than what I imagined it to be.

The story is already familiar with us.  A couple survives a shipwreck with their baby, but were eventually killed by a leopard.  Their baby was adopted by an ape Kala, whose own baby had been killed by the same leopard.  Kala calls this human baby Tarzan, but it was difficult for Kala's husband Kerchak to accept him.  Years later, Tarzan now an adult, kills the leopard, and reconciles with Kerchak.  At that time, a father-daughter team of naturalists from England, the Porters, venture into Tarzan's jungle.  Tarzan and Jane meet and fall in love with each other, overcoming the communication gap.  Tarzan now has to choose whether he is ape or human.

The stage was awash with green color signifying the jungle setting.  The best feature of the stage was the dramatic lighting design, which really brought out the emotion is several scenes.  The best example of this exemplary lighting was during the song, "I  Need to Know" when the child Tarzan contemplates his real nature.  In the song "Waiting for this Moment" by Jane Porter, the set of strange plants and creatures was bursting in luminescent color as black lights bathed the stage.  To add another dimension to the stage, they make liberal use of harnesses to make actors "fly".  From the first time we see the harness subtly with the first leopard attack to the grand curtain call of Tarzan and Jane, I think this show had the most elaborate harness work I have seen on a local stage production.  The use of the Igorot "bahag" as the loin cloths for Tarzan and the apes was a remarkable costume decision.

The songs are written by Phil Collins, with a book by David Henry Hwang, based on the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The song "You'll Be in My Heart" remains to be the best song in the show.  In the first act, it was sung by Kala to the infant Tarzan, as it was in the film.  In the second act, this song was reprised by the adult Tarzan singing it back to Kala.  This song has beautiful lyrical content, and really catchy hook, which makes it memorable.   Unfortunately the other Collins' songs, while pleasant enough, had nothing much really that sticks to mind.  I felt that the best new song written for the show is the beautiful "For the First Time," a love duet between Jane and Tarzan.

Atlantis can really make those innovative casting decisions which make their productions very attractive to the public.  This time it was hiring Broadway actor Dan Domenech to be Tarzan.  Dan has the height, body build and moves to stand-out from the rest and be a credible Tarzan.  From the moment he made that visually-impressive swinging entrance up to his final signature Tarzan yell, Dan dominated the stage.  His singing was quite good too, best in his duets with Jane ("For the First Time") and Kala ("You'll Be in My Heart" Reprise).  He had that right combination of naivete, curiosity, strength and dignity that the role requires.

Rachelle Ann Go again impressed me with her delightful portrayal of plucky naturalist Jane Porter.  Of course, the role does not require as much character development as her award-winning stage debut as Ariel in "The Little Mermaid", but Rachel Ann has the deportment and accent of her role down pat.  Her mere presence on stage made even the plainest of scenes cute and amusing.  Her singing was absolutely transcendent on songs like "Strangers Like Me" and "For the First Time".

Ima Castro is a very talented singer with mad soaring vocals, but can seem miscast in many of her stage appearances, notably in the title role of "Aida" or as Saragghina in "Nine".  However in this show, she played Tarzan's devoted ape mother Kala to perfection.  Her quiet moments with Tarzan, and her husband Kerchak were very moving.  Her spotlight song is of course "You'll Be in My Heart" and she gives this familiar song her own surreally special vocal touch.

Calvin Millado is another very talented singer/actor that has some problem fitting well into the various roles given him in the past, such as the German magnate Hertz in "Rock of Ages" or as sexy UPS guy Kyle in "Legally Blonde" (see what I mean?).  But this time, I think Calvin has just portrayed his best role ever as Kerchak, the alpha ape tribe leader and Tarzan's reluctant adoptive father.  His solo featured song "No Other Way" was so masterfully and authoritatively sung with his deep baritone.

It is good to see some showbiz veterans back on stage in this show.  It is too bad that Eugene Villaluz was onstage very few times as Prof. Porter, Jane's eccentric scientist father.  He was so good!   He actually matches the delightfulness level of Rachelle Ann's.  He only has one featured song number, "Like No Man I've Ever Seen" and his much-missed singing voice is still very much there.  

Ex-Smokey Mountain member Jeffrey Hidalgo is also back as Tarzan's ape friend Terk.  He also has one featured number, the upbeat song the opens the second act, "Trashin' the Camp," where he sang, danced and sung with so much energy.   I hope to see them in more stage productions in the future.  

I have to commend also the talented kid Carlos Dala, who gave it his all as young Tarzan.  His singing in his dramatic solo "I Need to Know" is strong and effective.  (His alternate in this role is Warren Saga.)  Young Terk is played tonight by JM Urquico, who matched the energy of Dala. (His alternate in this role is his twin brother JC.)  I don't think I have seen Arnel Carrion (who played the greedy brutish villain Clayton) before, but he had very strong stage presence in this show.

Overall, director Chari Arespacochaga has delivered another colorful and entertaining Disney show, infused with beautiful stage images and moments.  The material may seem too familiar, or the songs too unfamiliar, but the immense talents of the hardworking actors make this jungle tale come to sparkling life.  Kids and adults alike will enjoy this show.  (They should have staged this back in May during the summer break so more kids could watch!)  In any case, kudos to the entire cast and crew for the enjoyable show!

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The Viva Atlantis Theatricals production of "Tarzan" runs at the Meralco Theater for one more weekend, up to June 29, 2013.  For tickets, call 687-5853, local 661, or Ticketworld.

My Personal Candy Crush Saga

June 12, 2013

I completed Level 350 of Candy Crush Saga last week.  And since then, I have not played anymore.  Now, who is calling me an addict?  Haha!   I have looked back at this game, and why it was so hard to resist.

Who are these characters anyway?  Never cared to know their names...

Sometime in March this year, my kids downloaded this new game on the iPad called Candy Crush, that was supposed to be very popular.  It looked like "Bejeweled," but with yellow, red, purple, blue and green candy pieces, with that hypnotic music playing (which I dislike, so I always play on silent mode).  When I checked it out and tried the game myself, it turns out it was not really that new anymore.  Because this game was connected to Facebook, I was very surprised to see a LOT of my FB friends already right in the thick of their Candy Crush adventures. Seeing your own progress vis a vis your friends gives this game an additional challenge.

If you do not want to part with any money, which includes me, you need to connect with FB to progress as starting from level 30, there are points where you need to obtain tickets from your FB friends in order to board a train or a plane to get to the next levels.  

I reached Level 350 without having to spend a single cent on lives, on special powers, or what.  Nor did I have to turn back the clock of my tablet (as many true CC addicts do) to fool the app to giving me a fresh set of five lives.  I just play with lives that CC provide for free and the lives that my friends send to me.  

The first few levels were pretty easy.  Just form those trios, fours and fives in a row, and get points.  At first, it was just clearing the jellies.  Later on, these jellies got thicker and thicker, they needed to be hit so four to five times before they get cleared.  We get to have other challenges, like bringing down the ingredients, namely cherries and acorns.  Make sure they are in a column with an arrow at the bottom, and do not trap them in shoulders.  

Striped candy is formed when you align four in a row.  It can have horizontal or vertical stripes depending on how the direction of the last candy to complete the four.  The direction of the stripes determine the direction of the sweeping power of this candy.  If you complete a letter L or T with same color candy, this forms a Wrapped candy.  When these explode, they clear a nine square area around it.  combine five candies in a row and it forms those multi-colored chocolate balls, which we in the family, called "Buchi" (because they looked like one).  When you switch a Buchi with a regular candy, all the candy of that color on the board are cleared.

These special candies can also be switched with each other.  A Stripe-Stripe combo sweeps in cross directions.  A Stripe-Wrapped combo sweeps three layers in an up and down cross.  A wrapped to wrapped combo, now that is spectacular, as it produces a 9x9 square big explosion.  A Buchi-Wrapped combo makes all the candy of that color into wrapped and explodes accordingly.  A Buchi-Stripe combo is very useful since all candy of that color become stripes, then sweeps in many directions.  Of course, a Buchi-Buchi combination is the most special because it can clear out ALL the candy of all colors on the board.

In the much higher levels, there is another special candy shaped like fish.  When you clear such, it releases three fish that  eat isolated jelly squares.  If you are lucky, these would be the jellies you left at the corners.

The notorious Level 65.

It would be easier to fulfill these tasks if there were no pesky obstacles, but what game does not have them? 

A relatively easy obstacle are those black coils.  They can be switched with anything, and seems innocent at first.  You can see this and feel their effect in higher levels when entire columns of black coils block the sweeping powers of striped candies.

When you go beyond level 50, you will meet and HATE chocolate!  These things multiply so quickly and stay that way unless you can clear candy beside them.  Later you will see that if you clear all the chocolate, they are cleared for good.  Well, that is until those higher levels when there would be chocolate churning machines.

Even more irritating than the chocolate are those bombs!  These bombs indicate numbers on them, sometimes as high as 20, but many times as low as 3.  This number counts down every move you make, and you should clear the bomb with a same color combo before it reaches zero.  Or else, the bomb explodes, and the game ends right there and then.  Like chocolate, there would also be bomb churning machines in certain levels.  You would waste many moves just trying to clear the bombs, and not fulfilling your orders; not to mention you can still have plenty of lives left at that point.

There are many levels which you can clear in a single try.  Yes, even beyond 200 or 300.  Mostly though, you waste a life or two to figure out what this level is trying to make you do.  But then again there are those terror levels which stymies even the most serious of addicts.  It is true what they say, this game is purely out of luck, luck of what the next candies it will give you.  Yet, the sense of achievement after passing each level, especially the hard ones, is so indescribably satisfying.  Many times, you cannot help but elatedly shout "Sugar Crush!" when you see that phrase flash on the screen after a particularly challenging level.

My personal nemesis Level 147

The level where I spent the most time was that darned Level 147.  I spent a whopping 3 weeks before I conquered that monster which was supposed to be a simple "clear the jelly" type, but the combos that would make you destroy the thick multi-layer jellies at the bottom just would not materialize.  I also had a hard time at Level 165, 167, and 305, spending about a week each in those levels before passing.  There are surely others, but these are the stumpers I remember the most.  

I sometimes feel that the game knows when you are already frustrated and planning to quit.  Because just when you least expect it, you will get your elusive Sugar Crush, and you continue!  Especially if you see a friend gaining on you or passing your level!

The first level most people have difficulty with is Level 65.  I do not really remember that it was memorably bad for me, but a LOT of my friends have been stuck there for so long, such that this was the level where Candy Crush drove them crazy enough to quit.  I have helped a couple of FB friends out in completing this challenging level.

And then, there is the super easy Level 252, where you simply need to get 30,000 in 30 seconds.  However, they give us a lot of "+5" candies which give you a 5 second extension in time. I got a whopping 1.2 MILLION points.  My son was more patient than me, played the level again for me, and got an even more whopping 3.1 MILLION points!

OK, so now I am at Level 351 and have not been playing anymore for five days today.  There are only two FB friends ahead of me, and they are doctors, one dermatologist and one pediatrician.  You draw your own conclusion from that.  Another doctor is trapped back at 350 after two weeks, but maybe he has passed it by now, I haven't checked.  Let's just see. I am not closing my book completely on this saga.  Who knows, when I see many friends gaining on me at Level 350, I may again have interest to continue the game.  But for now, I have decided to simply stop.

Recapping "Game of Thrones" Season 3 (Part 4, Episodes 9-10)

June 11, 2013

My recap of Season 1 was posted HERE.

My recaps for Season 2 Episodes 1-3 were posted HERE; Episodes 4-6 posted HERE; and Episodes 7-10 posted HERE.

My recaps for Season 3 Episodes 1-3 were posted HERE; Episodes 4-6 posted HERE; 
Episodes 7-8 posted HERE.

Episode 9: "The Rains of Castamere"

The title refers to a song which describes the power dominance of the Lannister family. You do not see a single Lannister in this episode, yet it may mean that their hand is behind the what could be the most unthinkable scenes in GoT history (matched only by the final scene of S01E09, and you all know what a big shocker that was).

Danaerys finally sacks her first city. Jon Snow shows his true Crow colors. Bran Stark shows off his mind control powers over man and dire wolf. However important these may be, everything else that happened in this episode is secondary only to that shock of a heart-breaking, spirit-rending ending. 

What was supposed to have been a happy union between Edmure Tully (a picture of dread turned relief) and the unexpectedly pretty and nubile Roslin Frey, turned out to be the worst bloodbath ever seen on this show as the band played "The Rains of Castamere", involving the most unexpected characters. I am in deep shock and speechless for several minutes after watching this. I am still out of breath as I write this summary now as this whole sequence simply knocked the wind out of me.

Episode 10: "Mhysa"

This is the season 3 finale. The whole season peaked last week at the shocking Red Wedding. The purpose of this rather quiet thoughtful season finale episode is to show us the aftermath of last week's major event, and to set up the stories (cliffhangers of sorts) to be picked up in the next season. 

Arya sees Robb's head replaced by the head of his Direwolf. This drives her to commit her first killing in the name of revenge.

Theon Greyjoy's twisted tormentor turned out to be Ramsay Snow, the bastard son of Roose Bolton, the very same guy who drove the knife into Robb's chest in the name of the Lannisters. 

Ramsay sent Theon's "favorite toy" to Balon Greyjoy as a threat. His sister Yara defies her father and sets sail to save her brother.

King Joffrey dared to accuse his grandfather Tywin Lannister that he was a coward. Tywin tersely sends Joffrey back to his room. Tyrion tells Tywin that he intends to name Roose Bolton the Warden of the North, until a son of Tyrion and Sansa comes of age.

Shae was offered a monetary gift from Varys to leave Tyrion, as she is a "complication," but she rejects it.  We learn in this scene that Varys thinks that Tyrion is the only hope to save the Seven Kingdoms from Joffrey's tyranny.

Samwell and Gilly met Bran and his group at the Nightfort. Sam shares with them the dragonglass blades that can kill the White Walkers, but they later part ways. Bran and company wanted to continue going North of the Wall. Samwell wanted to get to Castle Black.  It was by Sam's testimony that the Night Guard sends out ravens all over to warn against the coming Army of the Undead.

Jon Snow gets one last sendoff of arrows from Ygritte. (She actually looked good in this scene.)  But he still manages to reach Castle Black alive to reunite with his fellow Crows.

Talking about homecomings, Jamie Lannister also makes it to Kings Landing, appearing before Cersei in a wordless scene that is full with meaning.

Despite the fact that Ser Davos helped Gendry escape, Melisandre surprisingly supports him when he explained to Stannis why he deserved to live, given the warnings about the coming clash with the White Walkers.

And finally, we come to the scene that gave this episode its name. "Mhysa" is the name Danaerys was called by the people she rescued from the city of Yunkai, and it means "mother." She was carried in adoration by her new people, as her three dragons fly around above them.


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And so that is it. This Season 3 seemed to come and gone so fast. I liked this Season 3 better than Season 2, though Season 1 is still unbeatable in my opinion because of its shocking novelty at that time. The subsequent season have been following the set pattern where Episode 9 holds the surprising climax. We have another long year of waiting ahead of us. Spring of 2014 cannot come too soon.

"INFERNO" by Dan Brown: Relating Dante to Overpopulation

May 27, 2013

Ever since Dan Brown hit big time in 2003 with his controversial book "The Da Vinci Code", all his subsequent books have become publishing events.  That novel, set in Paris, was not only a big best-seller in book stores (up to $250M in sales income), but also a box office hit with its movie version (despite poor reviews).  His controversial interpretation of Mary Magdalene as the Holy Grail of the Last Supper had the Catholic Church up in arms, further raising the book's popularity and notoriety.  The central character Robert Langdon was a Harvard professor of Symbology, hence the story involved very interesting discourses on symbols in history, art, architecture, and literature intertwined with a complicated crime mystery story.

Brown's first book with Langdon "Angels and Demons," released in year 2000, was set in Rome and Vatican City, dealing with the Illuminati.  Its sales skyrocketed after the success of DVC, and it also got a movie version as well.  Brown's other previous books without Langdon, "Digital Fortress" (1998) and "The Deception Point" (2001) also made it to best-seller lists.  After DVC, Brown's next novel was released in 2009 called "The Lost Symbol," (MY REVIEW) which had Langdon running all over Washington, DC monuments hounded by a deranged Freemason.  On May 14, 2013, Dan Brown released his latest work, called "Inferno."

"Inferno" has Robert Langdon following the clues left by a mysterious man in a modified painting of Sandro Botticelli's "La Mappa dell'Inferno", which in turn was a tribute to an earlier, more celebrated piece of literature, Dante's "Inferno."  This time, his adventures have him travelling to several European cities, from Florence and Venice in Italy, to Istanbul in Turkey.  Like all his other Langdon books, there were so many trivial details about this work of art and this complex literary classic, as well as many of the major museums, cathedrals and mosques found in these cities.  Like his other books, there was an attractive young lady going along his adventures with Langdon, in this book it was former child prodigy, now Doctor Sienna Brooke.

I have been to all three of these main cities where this story had been set, but unlike Paris, Rome and Washington in the previous books, my memory of the three cities in "Inferno" is already quite vague.  There were places mentioned like Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace in Florence which I do not recall at all.  Fortunately, the Baptistry and Palazzo Vecchio though were more familiar.  In Venice, he described St. Mark's Basilica and The Doge's Palace, which are of course familiar.  I wished I could recall seeing the Bridge of Sighs and the Horses of St. Mark's, but I can't.  In Istanbul, of course I remember the Hagia Sophia, as well as the Blue Mosque, but not the Cistern.

If I had just remembered more details about these cities, reading this book would have been more exciting. I remember how I enjoyed reading "Angels & Demons" so much because I recalled Rome very vividly.  Reading about these places now certainly made me want to revisit these grand cities and see these landmarks in a different light.  Another thing, I have not read Dante's "Inferno" yet, so many times, it was hard to follow the discussions about that epic as well, and I just had to accept Brown's interpretation as true.  It would have been better if you are already familiar with Dante yourself so you can pit your ideas with Brown's.

Of course, the most familiar city mentioned in this book is Manila. The Chairman of the Metro Manila Authority apparently wrote a letter to Dan Brown to complain why Manila was called "the gates of hell" in the book.  I was really looking forward to reading this part of the book, imagining how Langdon would be going around the churches and museums of Manila too.  But alas, that is not to be.  In fact the mention of Manila was only in one singular chapter, 79.  It could have been any other third world city, honestly.  The city was unfortunately chosen to be the venue of a ugly, traumatic, life-changing event for a major character in the book, and it is NOT Langdon.  Brown cited Manila supposedly to be the most densely populated city in the world that is why it was chosen for this part of the story.  I have difficulty believing this "fact" since there are cities in India or South America which would certainly as dense (if not denser) in population than Manila also living in the described squalor.

Without spoiling the plot, it would suffice to say that the main topic of the novel involves the very serious topic of human overpopulation.  How Brown related  Dante's "Inferno" to the World Health Organization, that you simply have to read for yourself. As in his other novels, there were parts where Brown was obviously stretching the book by adding so much detailed research summaries on several topics, unrelated as they may be, as well as sprinkling the text with confusing red herrings.   In this book, certain passages are mentioned more than once.  The beginning of a chilling video was described multiple times as it gets seen by different people.  That one got really irritatingly repetitive.  The description of a certain romantic interlude was repeated verbatim in two different chapters with different contexts.  But I thought that one was a humorous "gotcha" moment while reading.

Overall, this novel is easy to read and understand, despite the seemingly complicated web of interlocking stories.  Everything in this novel practically happened in a single day only.  The action sequences described are so unbelievable unless middle-aged professor Langdon and young doctor Brooke were super-ninjas who can outrun bullets and evade police blockades.  Well, I have to admit that the narrow escapes here were at least more realistic than the fantastic way Langdon survived a parachute-less fall out of a helicopter in flight in "Angels & Demons".  (That scene was so impossible it was not even shown in the film version of A&D.)

There were so many sudden bright ideas and coincidences which conveniently make Langdon progress so fast in his investigation, despite the most nebulous of clues.  Of course that both Langdon and Sienna have eidetic memories made things a lot easier for them. There were also many unabashedly sentimental scenes, written so cheesily it felt embarrassing to read.  The scene in Manila was one of them.  After the climax, the falling action parts I wish they had been written better. Those last few chapters seemed to have been written in a rush just to wrap things up neatly, without a clear idea on how to end things more satisfactorily.

But for me, being the history, travel and culture buff  that I am, it was those historical, art and literature mini-discourses which I find most fascinating in Dan Brown's Langdon books, with the story just secondary.  I enjoyed reading "Inferno" as it was fast-paced and interesting, hard to put down despite the occasional cheesy interludes.  While "Angels & Demons" still remains to be my favorite Langdon book, this one is as good as the rest of the series, better than "The Lost Symbol".  I will still be looking forward to Dan Brown's next book and Langdon's next adventure.  Maybe an Asian adventure next time?

Recapping "Game of Thrones" Season 3 (Part 3, Episodes 7-8)

May 23, 2013

My recaps for Season 3 Episodes 1-3 were posted HERE.

My recaps for Season 3 Episodes 4-6 were posted HERE.

Episode 7 "The Bear and the Maiden Fair"

This episode gives time to practically ALL the major characters. In this episode with many important scenes, there are three main highlights:

Tywin Lannister gets the scene of the week when he effectively puts "King" Joffrey into his proper place. Joffrey complains about having to walk to the Tower of the Hand to get briefing. Tywin climbs up to the throne, towers over the boy king and casually declares he could have Joffrey carried over if he likes.

Danaerys wants the city of Yunkai to give up all their slaves, despite their gifts of gold and ships. Her dragons did not appreciate it when the Yunkai rep complained and even threatened their mother.

The title of this episode refers to the "affectionate" relationship between Jamie Lannister and Lady Brienne. There is this bear fight you simply have got to see to believe!

In other events, good news comes to Robb Stark from wife Talisa, but is there also good news for Winterfell? Sansa and Margaery talk about being married to Tyrion, as Tyrion fails to convince Shae of his real love. Theon woke up to a fantasy threesome, only to get jolted to reality by an "alteration". Ygritte confirms she wants to live with Jon Snow, even as a jealous wildling Orell tries to disuade her. The Scarlet Witch reveals to Gendry who his real father is. Arya impulsively gets mad at the Brotherhood for letting Gendry go and runs away, only to get captured by the Hound.

Episode 8 "Second Sons"

The highlight of this episode is the very awkward wedding of the imp Tyrion Lannister and 14-year old Sansa Stark. Of course, that ever-smirking King Joffrey could not help his sadistic self in getting in the way of the proceedings. Tyrion threatens his nephew with a "wooden d**k" and gets away with it. Meanwhile, his sister Cersei practically declares war on the Tyrells, threatening Margaery and rebuffing Loras.

Any scene with Danaerys is a highlight of any episode, especially when we see ALL of her (a spectacle we had not seen since S01E01). She encounters a bunch of mercenaries called the Second Sons, led by a leering misogynistic Mero, and his sidekicks Prendhal and Daario. Daario gets picked to assassinate Danaerys, but we see that this young Michael Bolton-lookalike has other heads he plans to chop.

Stannis releases his old friend Davos from the dungeon. I guess he realizes he needs sounder advice. The Scarlet Witch uses ALL of her feminine wiles to seduce Gendry to get his "King's Blood" using leeches as syringes. Stannis dedicates the leeches to Robb Stark, Balon Greyjoy and Joffrey Baratheon as he throws these leeches in the fire.

In the first scene, Arya almost gets to kill the Hound, but did not. He reveals that he is going to bring her back to her family during her Uncle Edmure's wedding to one of the Frey girls. For money of course. 

In the final scene, Samwell Tully and Gilly try to build a fire in an abandoned cabin and name her son. Outside, a murder of crows caws like crazy, announcing the arrival of a White Walker. Samwell somehow gets the courage to kill the frozen zombie with his blade as it approached Gilly and the baby.  Then all the crows fly up and chase Sam and Gilly running away.

AEROSMITH's Global Warming Tour Manila: My Recap and Videos!

May 9, 2013

AEROSMITH has been a favorite band of mine since the 80s up to the 90s.  I first heard of them when "Walk This Way" was sampled by RUN DMC and featured the band in a duet recording.  In the 80s, there was "Love in an Elevator" and "Janie's Got a Gun" which brought the band back into the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10.   After the ballad "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" went all the way to Number 1,  the band unfortunately took a very long hiatus from success in the singles charts

Last year, Steven Tyler kept Aerosmith in the news because of his involvement as a judge in American Idol. This development further fanned rumors that Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry was looking for a new lead singer.  Lucky these tensions subsided and the band launched its Global Warming Tour last year.  This band really took a long time in coming to Philippine shores. I was very excited to see the announcements of this concert early this year. I bought the tickets as early as March in order to get a better view without necessarily having to shell out too much.

The concert began with 90s Pinoy alt-band Rivermaya.  They sang a lot of their classic songs like "Elesi," "241" and of course "Kisapmata" (VIDEO).  It was good to hear these local hits sung live and the crowd was all worked up already.  Unfortunately there was a wait of more than 30 minutes before the lights dimmed down for the main show.  Even at this point, the big standing room around the stage was not completely filled.  Anyhow, once the introductory video started to play ending with the legendary name on the screen, the audience just kept on screaming and shouting it did not matter what the garbled voice-over was saying.

One of the songs I was most expecting for was the very first song being sung -- "Love in an Elevator"!  I still could not believe I was hearing that inimitable rock vocals of Steven Tyler LIVE!  They then sang "Jaded" (VIDEO) which was their last Top 10 hit in year 2000.   After that, came the song many people in the audience wanted to hear, the rock love ballad "Cryin'".  The loud screams and singing along proved that.



The next song was another big favorite of mine:  "Janie's Got a Gun."  At this point, the concert is complete already as both songs I was most waiting for had already been sung.  I must say that Steven's vocals in "Janie" and the whole production of this song were awesome!  He followed that up with another powerful performance dedicated to an organization that advocates ocean welfare, "Livin' on the Edge"  (VIDEO). After this, Tyler introduced his drummer Joey Kramer who treated us to some drum pyrotechnics with, and even without his drumsticks!



At the end of this drum intermission, Steven came out and joined Joey with some drum moves of his own.  Then he sang "Rag Doll."  Between these hits, I assume he was singing some rocking cuts from their latest album which I do not recognize.  The next song was again another favorite of us love song crazy Pinoy fans, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."  The vocal fireworks at the end of that ballad were truly awesome to hear live!

Talking about Tyler's awesome vocals, the next song which was sung stripped down and raw was probably the biggest showcase of its range: "What It Takes".  It is incredible how he can still reach those high crazy wailing notes at his age now, and doing this vocal acrobatics concert after concert all of these years.



As the concert wound up, Tyler sung hit after hit their version of the Beatles' "Come Together", then "Dude Looks Like a Lady" (VIDEO), and finally "Walk this Way"!  I know keep using the word crazy, but crazy is the best way to describe the way Steven was wailing and scampering and posturing and writhing (with his colorfully scarfed mic stand) along to these hit songs.



When Tyler said a half-hearted goodbye and left the stage after "Walk", we knew that the show was not over yet.  A white grand piano was brought out on stage, eliciting excited whoots from the crowd.  After a few minutes, Steven then came out again, sat down to tinkle the keys and launched into "Dream On."  That was a beautiful nostalgic performance of this revered 1973 rock classic (their first Top 10 when reissued in 1976).  Yes, all his signature crazy screaming at the end were all still there.  Amazing!



The final song of the night was "Sweet Emotion", a 1975 hit which I was not really too familiar with.  The light show that accompanied this song was dazzling and blinding, a real potential seizure-inducer.  Haha!  The song ended with an explosion of smoke columns and a huge shower of silvery confetti that enveloped the whole stage.  After introducing his band to the audience in his colorful way, Steven strutted off the stage in his own special way.  THE rock show of the whole year was truly over already. No "Angel," "The Other Side," "Amazing" or "Crazy", but still we went home very happy indeed.

Recapping "Game of Thrones" Season 3 (Part 2, Episodes 4-6)

May 7, 2013

My recaps for Season 3 Episodes 1-3 were posted HERE.

Episode 4 "And Now His Watch Has Ended"

Jamie Lannister is expectedly in deep depression after his shocking loss in the ending of the last episode. But ironically Brienne was there to encourage him to get on.

The eunuch Lord Varys was in three important scenes this episode. One with Tyrion where they talk about a sorcerer, and he shows Tyrion what he kept inside an old chest. He learns from Ros about Littlefinger's interest in Sansa Stark. And finally, he visits Lady Olenna and have a witty conversation leading to a solution to subvert Littlefinger's grand plans.

Margaery Tyrell shows us how she has King Joffrey wrapped around her finger. In another scene, she tell us what her plans for Sansa are. This girl is a very interesting character to watch. 

Cersei Lannister on the other hand tried to convince her father Tywin that she is the most loyal of all his children. But Tywin, as he did with Tyrion, tells her "I don't distrust you because you are a woman. I distrust you because you are not as smart as you think you are." Ouch. Kudos to Tywin for knowing his kids so well.

Theon Greyjoy's unexpected savior in the last episode turns out to have a bigger surprise for him in this episode. 

The daughter-raping, grandson-killing Craster finally gets what he deserves as pandemonium breaks in his house. Samwell does something right for a change and takes his girlfriend who just gave birth and her son out of there. 

Saving the best for last, Danaerys gave us the biggest and best scene of all. She elegantly gets her revenge on the cruel Krasnys and gets her own loyal army, all while keeping all her children intact with her. This promises more exciting episodes ahead indeed.


Episode 5 "Kissed by Fire"

This is an episode where Game of Thrones brings back the sex factor Season One was also known for, with both female and male nudity here. Ygritte seduces Jon Snow out of his furs, and his vow of celibacy. Yet Jon suprisingly has skills that impress the more experienced girl. Jamie Lannister talks to Brienne about his family while soaking nude in a hot tub. But is septic shock getting the better of him? While Margaery is busy making her brother Loras attractive to Sansa, Loras is in bed with a squire named Oliver.

Elsewhere, Arya Stark discovers that the Brotherhood can not only fight with fiery swords (not too well though), they also have magical resurrection skills. Rickard Karstark kills the Lannister boy hostages, and King Robb has to deliver his judgement in cold steel. Danaerys meets the leader of The Unsullied, and he decides not to change his name Grey Worm. We meet Stannis Baratheon's strange real wife and plucky daughter with the scaly face and his dead sons preserved in bottles. Olenna agrees to foot half of the bill of the royal wedding. (This Diana Rigg can really steal any scene she is in!) Petyr Baelish Littlefinger is being as sneaky as he always had been.

But again, the best scene was left for last with another Lannister family table discussion. Tywin announces his plans not only for Tyrion, but also for Cersei too. Very interesting situation at the end where we might wind up with three, instead of one wedding. With kids like them, I somehow worry about Tywin though.



Episode 6 "The Climb"

Despite the big title, this episode did not really reach higher heights from the explosive episode 5. This was another episode where new tensions were built up in preparation for bigger events to follow. Also, any episode without Danaerys tends to underwhelm, doesn't it?

Two memorable scenes. First involving Tywin Lannister and Lady Olenna Tyrell discussing wedding plans and family secrets which apparently common knowledge. Second involves Tyrion confronting Cersei if Joffrey ordered to have him killed during the last battle. Seeing Brienne in a pink gown or hearing Shae answer "I'm sure he does" when Sansa tells her Loras likes green and gold brocade were just as memorable too. Haha!

In other events, it is interesting to see what Melisandre plans to do with Gendry or what her ominous reading of Anya's future in her eyes means. How bad can the daughters of Walder Frey look like that the hapless Edmure Tully seems so repulsed by the idea of marrying one of them? What really did Tyrion tell Sansa that was not shown to us? Whose leaving ship was that Sansa was crying after? 

The episode title "The Climb" was literally shown with the Wildlings with Jon Snow and Ygritte climbing a monumental wall of snow and ice, to return Jon to the world he once knew. Yet, symbolically, it also refers to the scene where Petyr tells Varys that Chaos is a ladder that many climb and fail. This was a dramatically shot scene with swelling music, but I am not completely sure what climbing chaos meant.