Cross My Heart

The holidays are just brutal with the cold weather and all the eating, and procrastinating is indeed the biggest enemy. But I'm trying to get a groove... Pick of the Week: Who You Love by John Mayer feat Katy Perry (released 12.03.13) Might Interest You Pick(s): Let Her Go by Passenger (released 08.28.12) Defeatist by Cameras (released 11.26.13) Retro Pick(s): Tempted by Squeeze (released 1981) My Sharona by The Knack (released 1979) Stay by Lisa Loeb (released 1994 in the Reality Bites movie soundtrack) Not really a big fan of John Mayer but I know for a fact that he is a great songwriter. This duet Who You Love (with his lady Katy Perry) simply depicts two people in love and it's about damn time a music power couple releases one. It's the classic Mayer voice but with a mellow Perry twist. Great pop pick and I am sure this is gonna be a chart buster. When I first heard Let Her Go by Passenger, I was like "Why am I just listening to this track right no...

I'm no different. I use social media as an avenue to be heard, minuscule my audience or not, and so is the rest of the world. I have read so many posts about the Haiyan tragedy, so many articles, seen so many clips with everyone's take, point of view and what have you. Every praise, every criticism, every opinion. Someone reposting something he/she has read and trying to influence another reader to believe in it. I wonder what really is the agenda behind all of these?? As I said on my previous post, I hope the help is genuine and not in any way political. But interesting enough the political influence that I was hoping would not cloud the initiative to help the victims had gone, well, viral... This is not about who is right or wrong, who needs to shut the hell up or not, nor influence what a person needs to do. This is about helping and the urgency for that aide. There will always be someone who will not care, who would continue with life as it should be, someone who would ta...

Sadness and hope at the same time. Sadness, as I read stories about the tragedy that is Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda that hit my hometown, the Philippines. Hope, that such calamity will strengthen the pride and bring out the true meaning of unity within Filipinos and the world as a whole. I heard the news last week and was worried, almost feeling that I needed to heed the warning despite being oceans away from where the monster storm would wreck havoc. But what can I do, this is what Mother Nature has intended. The typhoon will happen and the path has been mapped. I can only pray that the meteorologists were wrong with their forecast but I couldn't bet on it. Come Thursday night (Friday morning in the Philippines) I wonder what's going on. I relied mostly on social media to status me of how things are in those affected areas and there was not a lot of factual news. Just a lot of speculations at that time as communications, as anticipated, has been limited. Though I know that my fam...

Pick of the Week: Rough Water by Travie McCoy feat Jason Mraz (released 09.09.13) Might Interest You Pick(s): -- gotta few here... Future Days by Pearl Jam (released 10.15.13) Dark Horse by Katy Perry feat Juicy J (released 10.22.13) When You Were Young [Calvin Harris Remix] by The Killers (not yet released) Retro Pick: Burning Flame by Vitamin Z (released 1985) The witty Travie McCoy (who always seems to know whom to collaborate with for a hit -- Billionaire?? Bruno Mars??) now has Jason Mraz by his side for a catchy pop song called Rough Water. I don't think it's Billboard #1 material (coz a month after it's release would've been enough to know that) but it's still a jam song I would love to hear on my iPod (yes iPod, it still lives!) Besides, the line "I'll be the Leonardo DiCaprio to your Kate Winslet" just did it for me LOL! After watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night and once again seeing Eddie Vedder busting the chords, ...

If you don't know what ASMR stands for, then check my last post :-) Pick of the Week: Rap God by Eminem (released 10.15.13) Might Interest You Pick(s):  Broken Over You by Vertical Horizon (released 10.08.13)  Cheating by John Newman (released 10.15.13)  Retro Pick:  Reasons by Earth, Wind and Fire (released 1975) My goodness where has Eminem been??? Rap God is freakishly awesome and I may say puts Eminem back atop the hip-hop heavens. One thing I like about the dude is that he always reinvents himself after a long hiatus. Seems like Eminem is set for a great year if the album is as good as the single. I have no doubt this would hit the charts faster than you saying "Guess who's back?" Marshall Mathers STILL rules!!! Next, Vertical Horizon's Broken Over You from their album Echoes From The Underground. Even with the totally revamped squad (except for frontman Matt Scannel), this brings to us the VH sound that we were accustomed to, in f...

I couldn't come up with a better title to the post but eventually it would evolve. So for now ASMR would suffice (please don't shake your head). So I'm doing my first music review (sorta right) for this year and I got some interesting ones to share. This should be a trend from hereon since my passion for music is extremely strong and my appreciation is wide. You probably know already since most of my posts would have a mention or two of artists or certain hits. So I hope I can keep this up... This week's pick is Temple by Kings of Leon from their 6th album entitled Mechanical Bull which was released just last month. Although a lot of KOL fans might disagree, I think this album is a lot better than the previous blockbuster Only By The Night (which included great hits like Sex On Fire and Use Somebody). Temple may not be the carrier single for the month-old Mechanical Bull but it certainly provides that alternative-ish sound with the KOL signature on it. The album is a ...

Aah October!!! The only month of the year were you can catch an MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA game all in one day (okay, it maybe pre-season NBA but still you get to see Derrick Rose finally play). This is the month of Halloween where people get creative and actually gets the opportunity to be who they are (at least dress like it) without looking like an idiot and not getting arrested for it (well, you can still look like an idiot but nobody really cares). And every now and then you would already hear a Christmas tune on the radio from jocks who are trying to escape playing overly-requested songs. There is too much going on in October. For most companies, this is the month to push last quarter sales in and get their products shipped before the Holidays. Openings for temp jobs rise significantly high at this time because of the need to fill out the “scarers” for Halloween theme parks as well as the staff for Best Buy’s Black Friday extravaganza. Recruitment for Santa’s little el...

For a moment I thought I saw Claire Danes come out of a Rover. Thank goodness it wasn’t. I would’ve given her the bird. I hate that bitch (sorry Homeland fans). It was for comments she made some time ago which I couldn’t quite get over still (not that it was anything remotely personal but it’s her fault for taking my bitterness away from Tommy Hilfiger). Must not let it ruin the evening though. It’s Friday and it’s the Sunset strip. The Bentleys, the girls on Jimmy Choos, the crowded clubs. Can’t get any more Hollywood than that. It’s been years since the road led me to this side of the town and it was nice to start the weekend outside of Orange County. I wasn’t sure how the evening would turn out. It was one of those not-entirely-certain-what-to-expect kinda nights and my friend and I just wanted to get away. Our destination was Hollywood, Chateau Marmont to be exact. Already the place sounded great and immediately I felt a gush of adrenaline as I remember a good frien...

I look like a dork, a really ethnic looking skinny dork. And the years I’ve invested trying to get away from that persona was taken away from me in just an insta.. an Instagram photo! I’m not sure what to make of it though. On one side, it brings a smile to my face seeing a photograph of me during the time when the only camera pose I did was the down-syndrome. On another, really?? Do I have to be reminded how Napoleon Dynamitesque I was back then and introduce the young me to the world I know now? Please don’t torture them. You see I don’t want to be the photo Scrooge who tells the proud photo-posting-happy friend that it’s not cool when he’s the only one who looks awesome in the picture. I get it that you want your social media friends to know that you were skinny at one point and that you were part of the Varsity Team back in high school. But for those of us who did not have really moisturized skin back then and were proud of our MC Hammer get up, could you bla...

The boys are in the pit once again. Hennessy is chilled, barbeque on the grill and the artist of choice to serenade us that night is Lana Del Rey. It’s another birthday celebration and somebody’s going home drunk and perhaps hung-over the day after. Not much have changed since the last drinking spree except that the threshold for alcohol consumption is a little tamed and most noticeably the smell of cigarettes is finally gone. No, my buddies have not quit smoking. I don’t see that happening anymore at this stage in their lives. Now, they just vape. In case you have been out of the scene and still Game Of Thrones-struck, the more hip-sounding “vape” has been a steady and growing fad aimed to substitute tobacco smoking. Vaping is derived from its tool called Personal Vaporizer (PV), which utilizes a heating element that vaporizes a liquid solution. There are some solutions that merely releases flavored vapor while some, those who could not totally ...