December update

Amon Tobin show in Tokyo

December began with a bang, as I went into Tokyo with Ranie Bowers and Akihiro Tanaka to meet up with Araya Solomon and some of his Tokyo pals to attend the Amon Tobin show at Unit Nightclub in the Shibuya area of Tokyo. Seemingly, everyone had a dancin’ good time.

It was too bad that Amon’s manager Ryhna Thompson and her husband Vid Cousins couldn’t be there to hang with us, but we were fortunate enough to be on the show’s guest list. Ryhna has very close connections to both Araya and I – in fact, Araya wouldn’t be part of our family if it weren’t for Ryhna.

My family grew up with Ryhna’s, as her mother and my parents come from the same town in the Philippines. My brother Doods also went out with her way back in their university years. Araya was living in the same dorm as Ryhna at McGill University in Montreal and they subsequently became roommates. Years later, Araya was our sister’s roommate in Toronto.

My Own Private Kansai

It’s been very interesting getting in touch with friends and former KGIC-Toronto students in the Osaka and Kyoto area, as I am planning a six-day jaunt to the area during the Christmas break. Stay tuned to this blog for updates and photos of those adventures.

Quotables

I’m a big fan of quotes – irreverent, irrelevant, outdated or otherwise – from popular culture. Here are a few of my favourites I tripped upon this week, via the internet.

• "If you really want to disappoint your parents, and don't have the heart to be gay, go into the arts." – Kurt Vonnegut
• "Keira Knightley's in the movie but they dress her up like a boy because no one can be prettier than Orlando Bloom." – Stephen Colbert’s assessment as to why Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a movie that is destroying America.
• "No, Rose, I'm upset because they haven't rerun The Facts of Life Goes to Australia." – Dorothy from The Golden Girls
• “Mac Davis! Not to be mean, but he's no Paul Newman. Heck, he's not even Laraine Newman.” – Writer Chris Nashawaty, explaining one of the (many) reasons why The Sting II, is #13 on Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made list.