everything you want

my not so good acoustic cover of vertical horizon's everything you want... just horsing around in the studio with colleague eugene barona after a hefty discussion on #$%(*& office issues.

the Common Denominator

Yesterday, I met the "marketing team" to assess what we've accomplished over the last 8 month since our inception. I gave everyone a chance to impart their impressions (or frustrations) for the things that we've done or have not done.

The common denominator of course was the word "frustration", "frustrated" and "duh" over what we are, what we could not accomplish and what we might likely to achieve the coming year.
Prior to the meeting, I asked the assistant manager to print out all the minute of the meetings over the last 8 months to quantify accomplishments and measure results. Bottom line? There weren't much to brag about...

A new member of the team, one who has only been with us for the last three months was fixated with asking questions on budgetary issues and he seems puzzled that everyone else is all smiles (in a cynical kind of way) over his concerns. I asked for the meeting to end and right after, the more senior managers had to explain to him the nature of the beast.

It is frustrating, I know. Most specially when you'd have to douse fire that is now important for us... but for now there seems to be little we can do to right what we know is wrong. Taking the pragmatic stance right now is an insult for me but I'd have to bear with it considering that I would probably have to save my strength for bigger battles to come.

AMAZING XMAS PARTY!!

xmas party jamming with our impromptu band made up of employees of Amazing Philippine Theatre from rank and file to the VP. It was a rather good team-building activity not to mention fun...

I think that what others don't realize is that being part of a band is a good therapy for people who are not team players.

casie villarosa - guitars
alvin estudillo - guitars
eugene barona - bass
gil montano - drums

featuring jimmy lachica on vocals doing a version of anak (freddie aguilar cover)



featuring taboy on vocals doing the teeth's laklak



featuring justine choi on vocals doing an ulan cover

Miro

My four-year old is a bundle of disaster... I call him Baby Payne, after the video game character Max Payne. But in all honesty, he is our bundle of joy despite the chaos that he brings to the house, outside the house and sometimes in my office. My eldest enjoys her brother a lot... yesterday, as Miro went on to bug her while she was watching television, she kept shouting "Daddy, please make him stop!" and I replied to her by saying that she requested for a brother when she was younger so she's stuck with him...

My eldest plays the piano and the guitar so I am pretty comfortable with her... Miro? We'll he seems to enjoy any percussion instrument or anything that he could bang around...

Miro Jams!

frustration golf!

It is really frustrating... I kept wonderng in the past why PGA players needed psychiatric assistance every now and then... now I know.

One of my favorite youtube videos was Robin William's stand up act on golf and that really blew me away... because everything he said was right. I've spent many nights and a lot of man hours playing "virtual golf" and I must say that my handicap has dramatically improved... in screen golf that is and I was excited to try out my new-found skills on the fairway. Hell no, not just in Intramuros.... I wanted a big far-flung fairway with 500++ yards on a par 5. So it happened, East Ridge in Angono, Rizal! My play was the usual terrible, my score?... worse than my last field game.

Robin Williams on Golf



But hell yeah! it was fun and it was eye opening. I was so frustrated that I will soon hit Intramuros once a week starting January to get the feel of the field right... and maybe, I'll get some psychiatric assistance as well...

an AD experiment

The new company membership card simply isn't moving. That's because no one is pushing hard enough for it... I'm getting tired of all the meetings that ultimately becomes fruitless because implementation simply becomes a burden for the few who will actually implement it.

Often times, I would much rather do things in impulse and get it done with or without the approval of the Boss... anyway, I will be the one to answer for it. So on a whim, I experimented with chroma key from my trusty Adobe Premiere tackling the subject of the membership card and posted the video in youtube.

I asked on of the assistant managers to do the talking based on the short script I wrote and the product is this...

HAPPY 7th SHOW ANNIVERSARY!

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it.

GEORGE SANTAYANA, The Life of Reason

What I like the most about being part of this organization is the fact that the institutional knowledge and history is something that I have been a part of since its inception. As of now, I am the last of the pioneers that remains in position aside from the other employees who started with us seven years ago.

December 8, 2001 was the first ever presentation of the Amazing Show intended to showcase to our families and loved ones the outcome of our valiant attempt at making a theatrical variety show.

I remember that we were all ordered to bring our families that day so that we can launch it in front of them rather than the intended market so that we may be proud of what we have accomplished and I guess that boost our morale as well.

I did not bring my family that day since I have always been a pessimist and believed in Murphy’s Law… that whatever will go wrong, will definitely go wrong… and as Technical Director, I knew that we would be up to a challenge running the show for the first time.

My decision not to bring my family was correct… for one thing, they would have had to go through watching a show with so many mistakes, faults and errors that had me cringing at the control room. The then director of course was very impressive in calling in the cues, the performers valiant and the show staff amazingly confused. As if on cue, the black curtain, which is our main blocking device tore in the middle of the 5th sequence and the rest of the show propped on without the benefit of a curtain that was supposed to hide our set changes.

By the end of the show, everyone else had a party at the lobby of the Manila Film Center with their families while the rest of the technical team stayed on stage to repair a curtain 13 meters by 10 meters. Their families could not be cared for at the lobby… but such is work, ain’t it?

Two days later, we presented the show to the media, the public and the networks and that was the official launching of the Amazing Show.

Today is the 10th of December… so to the Amazing Show, Happy Anniversary!