Broadway

I miss Broadway. I miss Showtunes. (Since it's impossible to add every single song from each musical, I'll just place my favorites. And I really did listen to all of this in one sitting. Word.)

1.) Don't Rain On My Parade - Funny Girl
2.) Big Ass Rock - The Full Monty
3.) Adelaide's Lament - Guys and Dolls
4.) It's The Hard Knock Life - Annie
5.) Springtime For Hitler - The Producers
6.) You Can't Stop The Beat - Hairspray
7.) Red and Black - Les Miserables
8.) On My Own - Les Miserables
9.) The Acid Queen - Tommy
10.) Pinball Wizard - Tommy

11.) Anything You Can Do - Annie Get Your Gun
12.) You Can't Get A Man With A Gun - Annie Get Your Gun
13.) Diva's Lament (Whatever Happened To My Part?) - Spamalot
14.) His Name Is Lancelot - Spamalot
15.) Cell Block Tango - Chicago
16.) All That Jazz - Chicago
17.) Mr. Cellophane - Chicago
18.) Don't Tell Mama - Cabaret
19.) Cabaret - Cabaret
20.) Maybe This Time - Cabaret

21.) Anonymous Sex - Tales From The Bad Years
22.) Twenty Sometimes - Tales From The Bad Years
23.) Not A Love Story - Tales From The Bad Years
24.) I Feel Pretty - West Side Story
25.) America - West Side Story
26.) Tonight (Ensemble) - West Side Story
27.) I Am The One - Next To Normal
28.) I'm Alive - Next To Normal
29.) Super Boy and the Invisible Girl - Next To Normal
30.) For Good - Wicked

31.) Defying Gravity - Wicked
32.) As Long As You're Mine - Wicked
33.) Popular - Wicked
34.) No One Mourns The Wicked (Reprise) - Wicked
35.) American Idiot - American Idiot
36.) Boulevard Of Broken Dreams - American Idiot
37.) Whatsername - American Idiot
38.) Holiday - American Idiot
39.) 21 Guns - American Idiot
40.) My Junk - Spring Awakening

41.) And Then There Were None - Spring Awakening
42.) The Dark I Know Well - Spring Awakening
43.) Touch Me - Spring Awakening
44.) Bitch Of Living - Spring Awakening
45.) Totally Fucked - Spring Awakening
46.) Thank You For The Music - Mamma Mia!
47.) Mamma Mia! - Mamma Mia!
48.) Honey, Honey - Mamma Mia!
49.) I Have A Dream - Mamma Mia!
50.) Dancing Queen - Mamma Mia!

51.) Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) - Mamma Mia!
52.) Lay All Your Love On Me - Mamma Mia!
53.) Our Last Summer - Mamma Mia!
54.) Happy New Year A - RENT
55.) Seasons Of Love - RENT
56.) La Vie Boheme A - RENT
57.) Rent - RENT
58.) You'll See - RENT
59.) Tango Maureen - RENT
60.) I'll Cover You - RENT

61.) Will I? - RENT
62.) Life Support - RENT
63.) Out Tonight - RENT
64.) Take Me Or Leave Me - RENT
65.) Another Day - RENT


Photo Source.

Test

Diagnosis:

"Thoughtful to the extreme, you are often obsessed with perfection and the rules governing your own personal interests. Your world is black and white. You love to work within a logical system, such as language, computer programming, or mathematics. Manipulating a system that can be completely understood is a distinct pleasure to you, because of your confidence in the underlying veracity of your belief system. Because of your appreciation for logic and order, those who speak or think in a sloppy manner are apt to generate more than their share of wrath. Although very amiable, you are not drawn to friendships out of a sense of personal need. You are just as happy by yourself with a good book or puzzle. Because you are so involved with thought, you will on occasion have difficulty dealing with the day-to-day problems of a normal life. Taking out the trash, doing the dishes, these are often left until the last possible moment, if at all."

Test yourself.

Huh.

Sex. Power. Murder. Amen.

Current obsession.

The Underdog

"Here's the thing that makes life so interesting.

The theory of evolution claims that only the strong shall survive. Maybe so, maybe so.

But, the theory of competition says just because they're the strong doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked. With every long shot come from behind the underdog will tell you this: the other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds may be stacked against you, fair enough. But what the odds don't know is this is not a math test. This is a completely different kind of test--one where PASSION has a funny way of trumping logic.

So before you step up in the starting line, and the clock starts ticking, just remember out here, the RESULTS DON'T ALWAYS ADD UP!

No matter what the stats may say, and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on, ALL BETS ARE OFF!

Don't be surprised if somebody decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle - and then suddenly, as the old saying goes... WE GOT OURSELVES A GAME!"

Another inspiration commercial here and here.

Smokescreens

What is it about smoking that rubs at people? A friend once told me that smoking suits a particular person. Sometimes, you look at a girl and she's all dark hair and alabaster skin, alluring and intriguing. You see her standing alone, minding her own business, cigarette in hand as she slowly blows smoke off her slightly parted lips and it enhances the drama of the moment. You're hooked. You think femme fatale. You think Greta Garbo. A flight of scenarios enter your head and you're immediately transported to a different place, different time.

She's sitting alone in a coffee shop, wait -- no, a pub -- cigarette in between two nimble fingers, nails lacquered red, staring blindly out of the window with her face resting on her palm, brooding, thinking, giving off a sigh of such affectation that pulls you to her, but wait, that would ruin the image, wouldn't it? "Who is this woman? What are her thoughts? What does she do? How does she feel? What happened to her?"

You shake your head and the image disappears. The illusion stands. She's appealing. And then you spot a girl, trashy in the entire I'm-not-really-trashy-but-I-like-how-it-looks sort of way. She's taking a drag off a stick hanging in between her red-smeared lips, a dazed expression in her eyes, her clothes branded but ratty looking in manner of street style. Urban chic.

You imagine her partying it up at 3 am in some ratty apartment, chugging a bottle of tequila as she lies down in a tub, abusing different substances with people just as messed up as she is. Youth and excess in all its glory. Just another person defeated by life.

You shy away from the thought. It's sad and scary and she seems like a train-wreck waiting to happen. It's not as sexy as the previous vision. You shudder. Spotting a sweet demeanored, girl next door type smoking is, on the other hand, perplexing. Something is off and the cigarette looks lost in her hand. It's boggling in the fact that your brain can't quite process it.

She's got a good life, doesn't she? Carefree laugh lines etched in the corners of her eyes and mouth, the cigarette looks out of place. She's got a healthy relationship with her family, her boyfriend adores her, she's a good seed -- why is she smoking?

There's a taboo carried by smoking that isn't as obvious in a vice like drinking. Smokers give off a "I'm not satisfied with life" vibe that screams "DANGER!". Why is that? I personally don't get it. Maybe because I'm a smoker myself, but shouldn't the opposite hold true? Shouldn't I be in on why smokers should be justified? I'm happy. I'm perfectly content. I'm a smoker. So... what?

Truth is, smoking is not so different from drinking. When I forced myself to pick between the two, I gave up insobriety and picked smoking. To me, it was no choice at all. I never saw the appeal of getting pissed drunk and lowering your inhibitions. When the drinks pour in, the rest of your sound judgment comes off. You make decisions you normally wouldn't make. You do things you'd never have thought to do. You're in a vulnerable state.

The double standard is that you can find a girl, any sort of girl, drinking and it would be a perfectly normal, understandable thing. She's just unwinding. You see a smoker, you think there's something wrong. There isn't. Smokers, we're all one and the same. We smoke because we want to. That doesn't make us bad or naughty or dissatisfied, it just makes us smokers. Try to wrap your tiny little brain on that concept.

And if, by the time you finish reading this, you still preach to me about the "error of my ways", I blow smoke to your face.

I'm a good girl. I don't drink. I don't have a boyfriend. I don't do drugs. I read. I watch films. I don't party it up and meet sketchy strangers in bars and clubs, looking to get laid or to tease. I don't sleaze up my outfits. I do my job and I do it well. I don't have any complains about life or love or other such factors that are a problem to me and only me. I don't have drama in my life. I don't curse or cuss or use profanities. I have no one to hate on. Can you say the same?

Love,
Essa.

How To Succeed In Business

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying...


Dead. Daniel Radcliffe is a Broadway badass and flawless man. Love him.

Thought Catalog

This is why Thought Catalog is bomb.

"I Miss The Boys"
By RYAN O'CONNELL
Mar. 25, 2011

I miss the boys I met in the sandbox or on the monkey bars. I miss the boys who would punch someone in the face and inevitably cry afterwards. It’s because their genitalia didn’t outweigh their emotions yet. Their tear ducts hadn’t been frozen, hadn’t been exchanged for a larger penis.

I miss the boys who thought masculinity meant the color blue. I miss the boys who wanted to touch a phallic gun instead of a pair of supple breasts. They would take their little boy bodies and go adventuring into trees, into ravines, into the pages of a comic book. They would speak in small voices and still wrap their arm around their best guy friend. They loved for the sake of loving, didn’t know the rules yet, didn’t know that wasn’t proper male behavior.

I don’t miss the boys who grew older and dumber. With every inch they gained, a spec of maturity was lost. This was when boys became boys, punched other boys in the face and no longer cried afterwards. They began the process of selling their emotions to the Dick Devil. “Just one more inch and I promise not to feel anything anymore.” I miss the few boys who would still surprise you, who would show moments of kindness underneath their machismo.

[...]


"On Fight Club, Dogs, and Love"
BySEAN LI
Mar. 25, 2011

Sometimes, a man can fall in love. It happens. It’s a wonderful thing, sometimes. But something about love in this day and age fills people with more anxiety than hope. We have to watch out for ourselves, earn enough money, be attractive enough, be socially adjusted, be interesting, and have the courage to date. And fail. And to try again. All this must be done in the face of statistics pointing to the fact that more and more marriages and families are failing than ever before.

[...]

Both awesome articles released on the same day. Brilliant.

One Man Disney Movie

I think I love this guy.

MOVIE IN REVIEW: Red Riding Hood

Not even the combined beauty and talent of Amanda Seyfried, Max Irons, and Gary Oldman could save Catherine Hardwicke's recent adaptation of Red Riding Hood.

Perhaps it is because of my irascible temper already piqued by Hardwicke's unforgivable Twilight film that I find it difficult to find any saving grace in this re-telling of a classic beloved by many. To be fair to Hardwicke though, Stephenie Meyer's novels didn't really provide too good a material for her to work with anyways. But what then is her excuse for Red Riding Hood?

Much to the chagrin of fairy tale and folklore fans the world over, Hardwicke's take on the movie has become less of a fantastic world and more on the world of hormonal and randy teenagers everywhere. While the original tale stands as an allegory to sexual awakenings and how it affects young ones, and there are certain allusions to that in every cover, Hardwicke crosses the boundaries and removes all form of subtlety in the film.

Ethereal beauty Amanda Seyfriend stars as Valerie, the young woman in the center of this tale. She finds herself torn between her first love, the bad boy Peter, and the man she is to wed, all around good guy Henry. Despite the range of acting in Seyfried, proven by her impressive resume, Hardwicke must have a thing for monotonous and bland women. She must have mistaken boring for resilience. All darling Amanda does is open her already remarkably humongous doe eyes and release a quick exhale of breath. Well, it is one up from Kristen Stewart's blank faces. Nevertheless, apart from looking gorgeous and "tying" the film together, she really doesn't do much. That is, if you don't count her frolicking in the hay with Peter or leading Henry on as much.

The supporting cast, including her two leading men, as well as the always fabulous Gary Oldman, don't really do anything as well. Shiloh Fernandez's Peter and Max Irons's Henry have roughly one line each repeated all throughout the movie. Gary Oldman's Father Solomon randomly bursts into screams and sermons worthy of a homeless New Yorker screaming "The end is nigh" present in every Armageddon-centered film, while all the rest fade into the background.

Presented as a whodunit, Hardwicke employs tricks in every cliched mystery handbook. The camera suddenly zooms in on Seyfried's face, as if to sneak up on her as she gives one of her numerous "gasps!", the lighting, the location, hell, even the vacantly shocked expressions of everyone in the film.

While I can see why people compare this to Twilight, because there are certain elements that surround both films, I think the blame at this point rests solely on Madame Director's shoulders. The story is very different, and I think had it been presented differently, this could have gone amazingly well. However, they didn't and the end result was one of the most droll films to have ever graced cinema. Save your money. Please.

Michael Fassbender

Talent and Faces

It is a rare actress out of many whose career may span a lifetime. You look at the fresh faces of today and while they're entertaining for now, you know that in the not too distant future, they become irrelevant and forgotten as a new crop of artists take their place in the eyes of the audience, as well as the paparazzi.

It is not that they are without good looks, for indeed many of them are so attractive it hurts to look at them. It is not that they are without talent for why would they be relatively famous otherwise? It is simply because they lack that certain je nais se quoi that, let's face it, eludes most in the profession anyway. Maybe it's based on career choices, or maybe it's just plain dumb luck. Who knows? The point is, it is a one in a million chance to have a career like Meryl Streep's play out in their future.

Look at Dianna Agron. She's a very pretty girl, her career is at its best, yet you know, somehow, that she's not likely to be present at the Oscars in a few years time. You've got Selena "cute-as-a-button" Gomez but already she's fading to the background. Miley Cyrus is already spiraling downwards as she tries everything in her power to stay in the limelight. Emma Roberts, whose career path as of now is yet to be known, but is at the moment, dangerously close to falling into the damsel-in-distress pool of young ingénues that won't make it past her 25th year, once her youthful looks begin to fade and it gets harder to buy her as a high school student. Kristen Stewart, for all her fame right now, can only ride on the tailcoats of the incredibly famous (and don't ask me why) Twilight series for so long before people start to notice her knack for playing precisely the same character in every film. Don't get me wrong, these girls are well-known the world over, but somehow, they just don't cut it.

So when an actress whose career shows potential to span a lifetime comes up, you immediately jump on ship and see where smarts, an interesting face, and undeniable talent takes them.

Saoirse Ronan
I first saw this young lady as the precocious little sister to Keira Knightley's character in Atonement. After which, she followed it by playing Susie Salmon, a rape and murder victim, in The Lovely Bones. Her quiet performance in both is so striking that it is impossible to remember whether you're watching a film scene or reality. So commanding is her presence that the minute she's on the screen, your eyes immediately seek to single her out. Saoirse's next film Hanna is due out this year.

Mia Wasikowska
I confess, I haven't heard anything about this ex-ballerina until I found out she was cast as the new Alice in Tim Burton's re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. After watching the film, I was entranced by Mia's innate grace and yet command in performance that I began to follow her career shortly after. Her next big film was the award-winning The Kids Are Alright, where she played Joni, daughter to the characters of Julianne Moore and Annette Benning. And her biggest role to date, out in selected theaters as of the moment, is taking on Jane Eyre. I've yet to see the film myself, but from what I hear (or read, rather), Mr. Fukanaga's version of the Bronte sister classic is the best one to date, and it is all thanks to Wasikowska's performance.

I, for one, am excited to watch the projects in which these two will star in in the future. Things are looking good for these two and should they keep whatever it is they're doing up, they will most likely be actresses here to stay.

Wednesday

Totally feeling like an aimless, oarless, apathetic twenty-something right now. No matter, I'll just turn on some music and climb back to bed.

1.) Ode To LRC - Band of Horses
2.) No One's Gonna Love You - Band of Horses
3.) Animal - Neon Trees
4.) Little Lion Man - Mumford and Sons
5.) Mushaboom - Feist
6.) Little Red - Cathey Davey
7.) Young Folks - Peter Bjorn and John

EDIT:
P.S.

Holy crap who is this guy?! (Said guy is referring to the guy who made these mixes). I don't think my mind has fully comprehended what just happened there but I think I'm in love. Stumbled upon his mixes in 8tracks thanks to... stumble upon. This particular mix is a favorite but you should go and listen to his other mixes as well. They're pretty wild. You won't regret it, and you will, in fact, thank me for introducing you to this smarmy bastard. Dude has got skills and he knows it.

Femme Noir

Watch in Youtube
Watch in Vimeo

Flashback

Yesterday, Kuya Jap found an old cd we took home with us when he, ate Jill and I just got back from the US of A. It got me feeling a little nostalgic for the year 2001 and I read up on the events that transpired during then.

Pop music still carried over from the 90's, Teen flicks paved by the likes of John Hughes from the 80's and Clueless from the 90's were still being churned by Hollywood, The impeachment of Philippine president Joseph Estrada, UN War Crimes, Beijing wins bid to host 2008 Summer Olympics, the recession, 9/ 11, people were still reeling from the 1999 Columbine massacre, Internet was still a luxury and not a necessity (no wifi yet, and people were still paying for prepaid internet) -- 2001 was definitely an eventful year.

The music that bespoke the generation was a mixture of pop teen stars wading in to r & b territory. The grunge of the 90's was pushed over by the bubblegum music of the youth. No one was proud to be a teenanger anymore. The angst was suffocating and the youth couldn't wait to grow up.

To bring back some reminders of the year 2001, here's the list of songs we took home with us.

1.) Case Of The Ex - Mya
2.) No More - 3LW
3.) Say My Name - Charlie's Angels
4.) He Loves You Not - Dream
5.) Doesn't Really Matter - Janet Jackson
6.) Don't Think I'm Not - Kandi
7.) Most Girls - P!nk
8.) Unleash The Dragon - Sisqo
9.) Incomplete - Sisqo
10.) Never Had A Dream Come True - SCLUB7
11.) I Say A Little Prayer For You - My Bestfriend's Wedding OST
12.) Christmas Shoes - New Song

How cool were we?! Hahaha.

If ya'll feel like reading up on some of the events that happened back then, here are the links to the websites I read:
Photo Source.
Read 1
Read 2

I hope you all look back to this year with fond memories. Where were you last 2001?

Nostalgic,
Essa

Antsy

Kinda feeling a little bit ansty and anxious and restless today, and yes, all at once, so I'm trying to release all of this pent-up energy through music. Enjoy.

1.) Kids - MGMT
2.) Horchata - Vampire Weekend
3.) Lisztomania - Phoenix
4.) 1901 - Phoenix
5.) Too Young - Phoenix
6.) Rome - Phoenix
7.) Backstreet Lovers - The Crookes
8.) Heartbeat - Scouting For Girls
9.) One Week Of Danger - The Virgins

Rock out with your socks out,
Essa.

The Genius Of The Crowd

By CHARLES BUKOWSKI

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art.

Archie 2.0

Archie and the gang are back! And this generation corrupted the crap out of them. Here's a look at what life at Riverdale would have been like had Archie been created in recent years, instead of during the 40's.