Quick Trip to Iloilo

In an earlier episode of The Fandesals Podcast (currently on Google, Apple and Spotify and also on YouTube), we discussed the topic of places we've traveled to around the Philippines. I decided to recycle an old post from an earlier version of my blog related to this. The episode on Spotify is embedded at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Iloilo for work. My niece and nephew are part Ilonggo, so it was nice to see the province where their grandfather came from. They were able to take the trip over a few years ago and I have been curious about what the place was like.

Swipe Right for Michael Vartan

In an earlier episode of The Fandesals Podcast (currently on Google, Apple and Spotify and also on YouTube), we discussed the topic of online dating. It's something that I tried but never took seriously, but I did have an amusing anecdote related to it. Here I recycle an old post from an earlier version of my blog about this story. Enjoy!

The first time I noticed Michael Vartan was in the movie Never Been Kissed with Drew Barrymore. I became a fan and started looking for Michael Vartan movies to add to my collection. I had a huge crush on the guy. I was crazy about him!

When Alias came out, I became a fan of Sydney and Michael. I watched every single episode and waited until the two characters ended up together. This was before the term “ship” was even popular. I was so happy when Michael Vartan and Jennifer Garner started dating and I was very disappointed when they broke up because I always thought they were perfect for each other.

Eventually, Michael got married and for some reason, he was not so visible in the entertainment scene. He had movies and TV shows, but I don’t think they ever had significant airtime or cinema showings around here. In short, I forgot about him for a while. After a few years news came out that Michael Vartan and his wife had split up (uh, yay?). Just two years later, he is back and visible on TV on the new hit show The Arrangement, where he plays a very creepy leader of a group that is NOT based on Scientology (wink, wink).

My Sharon Cuneta Story

On the first episode of The Fandesals Podcast (available on Google, Apple and Spotify and also on YouTube), we discussed our beginnings as fan girls, where I shared my earliest experience as a Sharon Cuneta fan. Allow me to repost a post from an older version of my blog on my Sharon Cuneta story:

Back when I was a little girl I used to be a big fan of Sharon Cuneta. I was a big fan of the days when she was paired up with people like Rowell Santiago and Gabby Concepcion. I was so young then, probably in prep or first grade. I was hooked to all things Sharon growing up: Sharon Cuneta movies were a must. Sharon Cuneta's songs, especially theme songs from her films, were the ones I knew by heart (yes, even the Jack and Jill theme song, which I used to sing with my younger sister).

My father once told me that the reason my sister was named Sharon was that I had insisted on having her named after Sharon Cuneta when she was born. In a weird twist of fate, Sharon Cuneta ended up being my sister’s godmother for her confirmation (but that’s another story altogether).

My Francis Magalona Playlist

In one of the earlier episodes of The Fandesals Podcast (currently on Google, Apple and Spotify and also on YouTube), we talked about the songs we loved that were OPM (Original Pilipino Music). That episode made me look back at this old blog post I did in an earlier version of my blog that you might all be interested in (edited and updated).  Enjoy!

I was going through some of my digital photos and found one of the late Francis Magalona during one of his shows here in Cavite. It was the first and only time I had seen him perform live even if I had been a fan for years. It’s just so sad that he passed away so early from cancer because there would have been so much more that he could offer as a pioneer in the Philippine rap industry. I can't write about him without first sharing a video for those who aren't familiar with him so here's one of him performing 3 Stars and a Sun with Parokya in Edgar back in the 90s:

Back when I was younger I was a fan of his as an actor so when he came out with his first album, Yo!, I just had to ask my parents to buy me a copy. It was probably the first rap album in the Philippines because I don’t remember anyone doing it before he did. He came out with a lot of hits, a lot of them nationalistic in theme (but never boring). My sisters and I are fans and we were all together to see him during that one show that I have a photo of. 

Since I promised to post more than one playlist this month in memory of my music-loving father’s birthday, I decided to post a list of songs from Francis M that I love the most.