Tuesday, August 31, 2010

2010 Primetime Emmy Awards


Opening number for the 2010 Emmys. Host Jimmy Fallon joins the kids of Glee (Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Amber P. Riley, Cory Monteith) along with Tina Fey, Kate Gosselin, Jon Hamm, Betty White, Jane Lynch, Jorge Garcia, Nina Dobrev, and Joel McHale as they serenade the audience with Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.

Casting Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen

Saoirse Ronan, Demi Lovato, Nina Dobrev, Alexandra Daddario, Kaya Scodelario, Emma Watson

My opinion: Saoirse Ronan or Troian Bellisario (who isn't included in this list.)

Peeta Mellark

Lucas Till, Alex Pettyfer, Cam Gigandet, Ed Speleers, Hunter Parrish, William Moseley, Shia LaBeouf

My opinion: I'm undecided. There are some pretty wtf choices here though. Cam Gigandet? Seriously? I feel the work of the twilighters at play... I think Alex Pettyfer would make a much better Finnick Odair than a Peeta and while I do very much love Shia LaBeouf, he's just wrong for the part.

Gale Hawthorne

Drew Roy, Taylor Lautner, Gaspard Ulliel, Skeet Ulrich, Charles Carver

My opinion: Like with Peeta, I'm undecided with Gale. It's just so much harder to cast the 2 male protagonists. However, if they cast Sharkboy (Taylor Lautner), I might have to boycott the film. Just... no. Christ, no. Gaspard Ulliel is taking the lead at the EW polls and while he IS very attractive, I don't feel he's right for the part. That pretty face has no business being in the woods.

Haymitch Abernathy

Hugh Laurie, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp, Jack Black

My opinion: Now we're talking! This one is particularly difficult because I can definitely see any of these actors playing the alcoholic mentor. Top choices for Haymitch are Hugh Laurie and Robert Downey Jr. Jack Black puts out a mean fight though. He is my next pick.

Effie Trinket

Christine Baranski, Kristin Chenoweth, Emily Blunt, Miranda Richardson, Katy Perry

My opinion: Out of sheer principle, I should pick Christine Baranski just because she is fabulous and can pull off any role. Katy Perry is obviously on the list only because she dons the pink and green wigs that Effie herself likes, but is she in possession of some acting skills?

Other names thrown into the mix:

For Katniss:
Chloe Moretz, Emily Browning, Malese Jow

Emily Browning might make a fair Katniss. We already know she looks good with dust and grime on her thanks to the underrated A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

For Gale:
Logan Lerman, Ben Barnes

While I adore these two, I don't see them as Gale. Logan Lerman looks too young and too pretty to play the muscular and handsome Gale. He is just too delicate. Ben Barnes, while sharing Gale's black hair and olive skin, seems too refined to play Katniss's hunting partner.

SOURCE 1 SOURCE 2

Those are just my two cents. I think that the best way to go about this might be to cast unknowns, though.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Envy and Jealousy

It has always bothered me how so few people can differentiate envy and jealousy, or are even aware there is a difference since they seem to use it synonymously, though I admit that how I perceive it may not be the absolute truth. I'm open to suggestions considering the hypocritical nature of how I am peeved by the misunderstanding of others, when it might be myself in the wrong. So... correct me.

I think that while there are many other contributing factors to the difference between the 2, these are the most obvious and easily spotted ones:

Envy is the desire to possess what someone else has, it is usually accompanied by feelings of wanting to take it away from them even if it doesn't benefit the envious. An envious person usually gets angry at himself for not possessing that which he desires; he is mad at himself for not having what someone else's does, instead of getting mad at the possessor. An envious person wants to rob the other of their success.

Jealousy, on the other hand, is getting angry at another person for receiving or possessing what he thinks he rightfully deserves. It is not usually the center of the conflict he covets, but rather the position of who won it. For instance, if 2 girls like one guy, and the guy picks one of the girls eliciting jealousy from the other, the resentment is targeted at her competitor for winning, not at the guy she failed to attain.

So... what do you guys think?

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Talent


I don't think my mind has fully comprehended what just happened here... but I think I'm in love.


Not a big fan of either of these songs but... this was oddly attractive, dangit.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

RENT



The Original Broadway Cast of Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony-Award Winning Broadway Musical, Rent, joins the last Broadway Cast at the 2008 Tony awards.

Rent ended on September 7, 2008 after a nice 12 year run.

This will forever be my most-loved musical.

Original Broadway Cast:
Mark Cohen - Anthony Rapp
Roger Davis - Adam Pascal
Mimi Marquez - Daphne Rubin-Vega
Tom Collins - Jesse L. Martin
Angel Dumott Schunard - Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Maureen Johnson - Idina Menzel
Joanne Jefferson - Fredi Walker
Benjamin Coffin III - Taye Diggs

2008 Final Performance:
Mark Cohen - Adam Kantor
Roger Davis - Will Chase
Mimi Marquez - Renee Elise Goldsberry
Tom Collins - Michael McElroy
Angel Dumott Schunard - Justin Johnston
Maureen Johnson - Eden Espinosa
Joanne Jefferson - Tracie Thoms
Benjamin Coffin III - Rodney Hicks

Friday, August 20, 2010

Fall Season Premiers

Wednesday, Sept. 8
America's Next Top Model (cycle 15) (CW), 8 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 13
90210 (CW), 8 p.m.
Gossip Girl (CW), 9 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 20
How I Met Your Mother (CBS), 8 p.m.
Chuck (NBC), 8 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 21
Glee (Fox), 8 p.m.
Parenthood (NBC), 10 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 22
Modern Family (ABC), 9 p.m.
Cougar Town (ABC), 9:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 24
CSI: NY (CBS), 9 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 26
Dexter (Showtime), 9 p.m.

View full list here.

It sucks that Pretty Little Liars doesn't come back on until January, but that gives us all the more time to catch up on some other shows. True Blood and Mad Men are a weekly staple, as well as watching some old BBC series'.

POLL #5

True Blood tv series, Sookie's Love Life Preference:

Vampire Eric Northman

or

Vampire Bill Compton

or

Werewolf Alcide Herveaux

Both in the tv series and in the novels, I've always wanted Sookie to end up with Eric. There's just something about the conniving Sheriff of area 5 that I love. Still, Joe Manganiello is pretty sexy.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Friday Morning Playlist



I just finished watching the entire first season of Parenthood as per the recommendation of one of my sisters, ate Mara. The way the 2nd generation siblings respond to each other makes me think so much of how my siblings and I may possibly end up in the future and so it's brought me into such a familial mood and that influenced my morning soundtrack on this fine, fine, friday mornin'. The show's theme song is Forever Young by Bob Dylan, so of course I had to include that on the playlist. The rest of the songs are picked out from the soundtracks of movies my family and I never tire of.

The video I posted above is just something I found on youtube that caught my eye.

Today's breakfast includes:
Crackers & Mayonnaise
Pancit Canton
Hotdog
Sinigang
Juice

I know that that sounds like such a disgusting combination of food, but trust me, it isn't.

Friday Morning Playlist:

1.) Forever Young - Bob Dylan (Original version)
2.) I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits
3.) This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) - Natalie Cole
4.) Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
5.) I Say A Little Prayer - Dionne Warwick

Right now I'm thinking of either finally starting Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife, second book in his His Dark Materials trilogy, or continuing my tv show binge. To tell you the truth, I'm sort of leaning on the latter. I might try out Modern Family.

Happy eating,
Essa.

A.M. Mercado


Just wanted to wish a very happy 20th birthday to A.M. Mercado. Momma bear, you've been through so much these past couple of months and I just want to let you know how proud I am of you. You've handled everything relatively well considering the circumstance.

I'm so happy to see how far you've gone; how you've grown into such a smart and beautiful lady.

I ♥ you so much. Stay strong. You'll always have me.

Keep on keepin' on.

♥,
Ess

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Photodump: Bohemian Photoshoot

Here are some out-takes that I never got to post from a shoot Mack and I had last November for our good friend, Mochie's, portfolio.






























Man, what a difference a year (or 10 months, to be precise) makes. Mack and I were so much bigger in frame back then.

Regarding the matching white polo photos at the end, it's actually a pretty sweet anecdote. You see, before the shoot, we were helping out facilitate a father-son bonding at the Ateneo campus. We literally took off during a break, had to get fixed up for the shoot, have the shoot, dress back down to the uniforms, and return to the event. That day, Mack and I learned what it was like to be productive. It was, all in all, a very good day.

I'm thinking of having one of the photos blown up and framed so I can put it on my wall. I still have to pick which photo though.

Anyways, I decided to post these just because (1) I was bored and the streaming for Parenthood is taking forever to buffer and (2) I miss Mack. She's been so busy with their indie film that I haven't had the chance to bond with her properly in a while. This girl and I seriously have the best and craziest adventures ever. It's why I love her.

Peace & All Good Things,
Essa

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Nostalgia


Nostalgia — it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, “nostalgia” literally means “the pain from an old wound.” It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It let’s us travel the way a child travels — around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved.
-- Don Draper, Mad Men.

Source

Friday, August 13, 2010

More From The Walking Library

Here's another quotedump for all of you quote-a-holics. Yes, I do compile and jot down quotes that I favor from the books I read.

ONE DAY, David Nicholls

The trick of it, she told herself, is to be courageous and bold and make a difference. Not change the world exactly, just the bit around you. Go out there with your double-first, your passion and your new Smith Corona electric typewriter and work hard at... something. Change lives through art maybe. Write beautifully. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved if at all possible. Eat sensibly. Stuff like that.

The attraction of a life devoted to sensation, pleasure and self would probably wear thin one day, but there was still plenty of time for that yet.

You can't throw years of your life away because it makes a funny anecdote.

Welcome to the graveyard of ambition.

Failure and unhappiness is easier because you can make a joke out of it.

I know from your letters and from seeing you after your play that you feel a little bit lost right now about what to do with your life, a bit rudderless and oarless and aimless but that's okay, that's alright, because we're all meant to be like that at twenty-four. In fact, our whole generation is like that. I read an article about it, it's because we never fought in a war or watched too much television or something. Anyways, the only people with oars and rudders and aims are dreary bores and squares and careerists like Tilly-bloody-Killick or Callum O'Neill and his refurbished computers.

This letter builds to a life-changing climax. I wonder if you're ready for it yet.

Envy was just the tax you paid on success.

Don't keep fighting battles that are already lost.

They spoke very little of their mutual feelings: pretty phrases and warm attentions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends. - Thomas Hardy, Far From the Maddening Crowd

Happy in that they were not over happy.

"Live each day as if it's you last", that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just wasn't practical. Better by far to simply try and be good and courageous and bold and to make a difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you. Go out there with you passion and your electronic typewriter and work hard at... something. Change lives through art maybe. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance.

THE CARRIE DIARIES, Candace Bushnell

How far would you go to get what you wanted?

There are 2 ways of getting what you wanted in life: forcing people to give it to you, or making them want to give it to you.

You don't want to peak in high school. If you do, the rest of your life is a disaster.

I have this theory: If you forgive someone, they can't hurt you anymore.

And like a newborn child, I enter my future in darkness.

LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, Lisa Kleypas

Sometimes silence could wound someone nearly as badly as a bullet.

There is comfort in ritual, isn’t there?

1. Any food is fair game until it is actually swallowed by someone else.
2. Take a nap whenever you can.
3. Don’t bark unless it’s important.
4. Chasing one’s tail is sometimes unavoidable.

One could never put a price on each life that had been damaged or lost.

The air was charged with the promise of... something.

Bad enough to love a man who didn’t love her. But it was exponentially worse to love a man who actively disliked her.

One had the sense that no matter what she beheld of the sinful world, she would never be jaded.

I've always thought there's a fair amount of dishonesty involved in politeness.

Dreams have a way of eclipsing reality.

To err is human, to forgive, canine.

We love silent guests - it allows us to talk all the more. By all means, sit and say nothing.

There was nothing so trying as pretending you were happy when you weren't

Boldness be my friend - William Shakespeare, Cymbeline: Act 1, Scene 6

"He's a man, dear," Amelia explained kindly. "Sustained thinking is very difficult for them." "As opposed to women," Leo retorted, "who have the remarkable ability to make decisions without doing any thinking at all."

The trick was forgetting about what she had lost... and learning to go on with what she had left.

Jealousy is quite unfashionable these days. One must have the sophistication to be amused by the attentions paid to one's wife.

And before I tell you about it, I want to make it clear that there is only one reasonable side of the issue. Mine.

THE DUKE'S CAPTIVE, Adele Ashworth

A gem unpolished is just another rock.

A lot can change in a very short time.

PROMISE ME TONIGHT, Sara Lindsey

That was the problem with trying to wound someone you loved. In the end, you were only hurting yourself.

In a household full of women, men must stick together for survival.

So we shall be one, and one another's all. - John Donne, Lovers' Infiniteness

TEMPTING THE MARQUESS, Sara Lindsey

So we shall be one, and one another's all. - John Donne, Lovers' Infiniteness

A will forged of iron.

Love is every bit as destructive as war.

I have found life is much simple if one ceases to have expectations.

Leave thy vain bibble-babble. - William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night: Act IV, Scene 2

Thank you for that astute observation. Your ability to state the obvious by means of circuitous logic never ceases to amaze me.

Libri quosdam ad scientiam, quosdam ad insaniam deduxere. - Petrarch
[Books lead some to knowledge, some to madness.]

An insult in a foreign language is still an insult.

They don't call it the parson's mousetrap for nothing.

Unrequited lust.

Was home truly where the heart was, adjustable to wherever a person's loved ones might be? Could a person have more than one home in which he or she truly belonged? Or was a person meant to have just one home, but that home changed over time just as people changed over time?

Let the battle begin.

Men and women are rarely capable of lasting friendship. Someone always wants something more than the other can give.

That spectacular failure of a kiss.

Mind battled body and for today, at least, mind won out.

I would rather be a cynic and have my feet firmly planted on the ground than be a hopeless dreamer drifting among the clouds.

He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural. - William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night: Act II, Scene 3

Could she admit that desiring a fallen angel had greater appeal than worshipping one on high from afar? Was it possible for love to be at once sacred and profane?

Was he willing to abandon a lifetime of virtue for a bit of pleasure?
Absolutely.
There you had it.
How low the mighty had fallen.

Damn the treacherous hearts of women.

Journeys end in lovers meeting - William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night: Act II, Scene 3

This was why she hadn't wanted to fall in love. She's known it would end in disappointment, but oh, how it hurt to be right.

The course of true love never did run smooth. - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act I, Scene 1

A KISS AT MIDNIGHT, Eloisa James

So... rain rather than blinding sun.

Beddable would be nice; biddable was a necessity.

One never asks a lady to set her own price. If you have to ask, the answer will always be more than you can afford.

If that's love, I want nothing to do with it.

It must be your beauty. It brought out that rare moment of truth in me.

He's male. I've noticed that sometimes the brains simply get left out of the package.

He felt as if the whole world held its breath for that second.

[ENGLISH] People favor uncomfortable truths.

Never from this palace of dim night will I depart again. - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: Act V, Scene 3

One should never hope that men will rise to the occasion; they don't, as a matter of course.

THE CHAMBER, John Grisham

A bleeding heart.

Boom goes the dynamite.

The horror of death row is that you die a little each day. the waiting kills you. you live in a cage and when you wake up you mark off another day and you tell yourself that you are now one day closer to death.

Their dreams sustained them from one miserable day to the next.

The journey will be rough, but the rewards will be worth it.

The actual act of dying would not be too terrible.

The idea was Adam's brainchild.

Where do you hide when you're running from life?

Give 'em hell.

How in the world could you have become anything other than yourself? you never had a chance.

What a heartbroken bunch of people.

I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of dying.

The waiting is cruel.

The end came quickly.

How can you be lost when you don't know where you're going?

HIGH FIDELITY, Nick Hornby

What came first, the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?

People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands, of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music hascaused unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living the unhappy lives.

My genius, if I can call it that, is to combine a whole load of averageness into one companct frame.

It's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently, or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party.

Lonely people are the bitterest of them all.

WINTERGIRLS, Laurie Halse Anderson

I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the library aide who hides in Fantasy.
I am the circus freak encased in beeswax.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

I am contagious.

It's called a wake but nobody really wants the dead to rise.

Suspended animation isn't much of a life.

There you have it, folks. Enjoy! I hope you take the time and pick up some of the books I've stolen these quotes from.


Peace,
Essa.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

POLL #4

HBIC Preference:

French Import Marion Cotillard

or

British Import Emily Blunt

Honestly, I can never really pick between these ladies. I flipped a coin to see who fate would pick for me, and the coin landed on its side. Seriously. 2 of the most amazing actresses of our time, I hope that these 2 continue on to bright careers. Love them.

Bangin' the new do.

Every once in a while, and by once in a while I mean once a year or so, I get tired of my long brown hair and decide to chop off my locks to a pixie cut.

Mia Wasikowska


Natalie Portman


Being the unadventurous, cowardly lion that I am though, I have absolutely no follow through. Instead, I keep my hair relatively long (below the shoulders) and try to style my untameable mane by adding bangs that I usually clip to the side.

I can't really say why I have such an attachment to my hair, or even why I'm more comfortable wearing it long. I guess I've always felt that long hair is far easier to manage than short hair, needing only a ponytail to keep my tresses out of my face. Also, long hair is just easier to style when needed.

So earlier today, when I got a haircut with my sisters and niece, I, of course, ended up having it styled in this manner:

Reese Witherspoon


Melanie Laurent


Zooey Deschanel


What is predictable? For about half a decade now, I've had 2 looks: long, straight, one length hair OR long, straight, almost one-length hair with bangs.

Soon though, I will try to rid myself off of my cursed hair.... maybe. I've heard it's liberating.


Bangin',
Essa.

P.S. I'll add photos of my hair on a later date.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Fight Animal Cruelty

(Click photo to sign the petition)


“Tambucho Gassing entails connecting the exhaust pipe ( Tambucho ) of a motor vehicle to a small, box-like enclosure where the unfortunate animals have been crammed in darkness. Running the usually badly-tuned engine, the blackened toxic fumes slowly choke them to death. What follows is the frantic clawing of the animal, its plaintive cries for help, its desperate search for a safe corner. The animal rolls and twitches. At some point, the body no longer responds to the animal’s natural instincts but some level of consciousness lingers on. This process can take as long as fifteen minutes.”

Saturday, August 7, 2010

POLL #3

Geeky Man Preference:

John Krasinski

or

Zachary Levi

I have a soft spot for Mr. Chuck Bartowski. (;

Friday, August 6, 2010

POLL #2

French ingenue preference:

Melanie Laurent

or

Clemence Poesy


My heart is clearly torn because I adore both of them, but for the sake of keeping up the spirit of the polls, I'm leaning more towards Melanie Laurent. Shosanna Dreyfus is badass.