2009 09/23-09/29

MANILA MAIL COMMUNITY

California Great America Theme Park in Santa Clara, CA has never seen such a record turn-out, their biggest in 15 years - during TFC's 15th Year Anniversary offering, the 2nd 'One Kapamilya Go'. Again, congratulations to our friends at TFC, most especially Ms. Nerissa Fernandez, for such an organized and successful event!

There was no shortage of colorfully-dressed dancers as Kanto Boy, Billy Crawford, opens the show proper last Sunday at the Great America Theme Park's Redwood Ampitheater.

Concert Producer, Ms. Jackie Regala, right, representing SEAFOOD CITY (yes, your popular Asian neighboring grocery store), one of the major sponsors last Sunday at the TFC's 'One Kapamilya Go' congratulates Sing-Galing Contest Ultimate Winner, Mr. Jaspher Acostabella of Sacramento, CA. To serve the growing East Bay pinoys, Seafood City is opening another branch in Concord, CA in October, 2009 (yes, next month already!).

Feeling Like A Winner. First Runner-Up to the 2nd Pinoy Dream Academy, Bugoy Drilon, gets mobbed after his Great America Redwood Amphitheater performance. I personally witnessed this (and have the photos to prove it) - he cried several times backstage, still not believing how much is he very well appreciated by US-basedPinoys, despite his humble beginnings and all.

State Senator Leland Yee (3rd from left) gamely poses with TFC's Ms. Nerissa Fernandez (leftmost), Manila Mail's VP for Community Events, Joey Panlilio (2nd left) and International Beauty Impressario, Ferdie Syquia Villar (2nd right).

Bea Alonzo (her latest movie with Sam Milby and Derek Ramsay, 'And I Love You So' generated the longest theater lines at the Great America Theater screenings), waiting for her close-up backstage, is shown here with Magic Wand's Dante Hizon (they are bringing the 'Kanto Boys' soon here in the Bay Area) of San Jose, CA.

‘Direk Lauren’ Finds The Next Sam Milby!

Reliable reports have it that Santa Clara ’s California Great America Theme Park ’s predominantly Fil-American crowd that gathered last Sunday, September 20^th, 2009 from the time it opened at 9:00 a.m. until sundown, when TFC’s 15^th Anniversary ‘OneKapamilya Go’ concluded, was the biggest in their 15-year history ever!

Early in the morning, I saw a sizeable crowd of people who got the biggest surprise of their weekend to find that tickets to the event are all sold-out. According to a TFC insider, tickets are still available as of Wednesday but got all sold-out by Thursday afternoon. Even hundreds of auditionees from other states like ( Arizona , Minnesota , New Jersey , etc.) to the Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA) and Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) Main and Teen editions were turned away due to over capacity.

Vendor booths ( Seafood City , Goldilocks, Pera Mo Pera Ko, SMART Prepaid Phone Cards, Ramar Foods, etc) were super-busy with their own gimmicks – giveaways, raffle drawings, etc.

The 3 scheduled screenings to the Sam Milby-Bea Alonzo-Derek Ramsay movie, ‘And I Love You So’ were also filled-to-capacity. Really, it can be said that everyone’s thirst for everything-Filipino that day was only matched by the scorching heat of the sun.

The show proper started promptly at 5:00 p.m with the playing of the US and Philippine National Anthems. Then, Billy Crawford set the tone of the evening with his lively versions of Black Eyed Peas’s ‘I Gotta Feeling’ and ‘Boom Boom Pow’ numbers backed up by a sizeable crowd of dancers clad in colorful Philippine native costumes (a very refreshing improvisation indeed). Bugoy and Laarni Lozada gave rousing individual performances and highly-applauded duets. The Kanto Boys (John Lloyd Cruz, Luis Manzano, Vhong Navarro and Billy Crawford) and Charice performed to the delight of the audiences.

But the biggest revelation of the day is yet to come. Running the whole day, meanwhile, on the left side of the Redwood Amphitheater is the PDA and PBB auditions. Dreams were given renewed hopes, but the vast majority’s were bruised and shattered, as I met the news of eliminated candidates, some of whom I know personally. At the end of the night, talks are circulating that the candidate turn out was considered very impressive. As a matter of fact, it has reached this column, that Director Laurenti Dyogi was very much impressed with the high quality and diversity of the candidates, much better than the previous year’s. Despite the very hectic day, punctuated only by his infrequent trips for bathroom breaks, Direk Lauren, as he was fondly called by people working around him, was smiling widely when I said ‘Hi’ to him about 7:00 p.m. Not surprisingly, I learned later that he was very happy that he finally found the likely next Sam Milby, the biggest Superstar product of PBB. Due to confidentiality issues imposed by Endemol, the franchise-grantee of the show, everyone involved in the show are tight-lipped and won’t disclose any other information. I also was precluded from both taking anymore photos of the remaining candidates and publishing them.

So, let’s all wait and see. Tune in to TFC for the exciting results.

SEEN IN THE CITY

Bugoy Gets Emotional At Great America

Minutes before he performed, I was at the backstage with Bugoy Drilon, 1^stRunner-Up to the 2^nd Pinoy Dream Academy reality-based talent show by ABS-CBN. He can’t help shaking as express his chills – understandable since it’s his first Bay Area exposure. When he went onstage, he can’t believe the thousands of people right in front of him, admiring and singing with him at the Great America Theme Park last Sunday. And more, the audiences know his popular song, ‘Paano Na Kaya’ by heart. Immediately after his number, he was overcome by emotions as he become teary-eyed chatting to Manila-based power agent Arnold Vegafria and comedienne, Candy Pangilinan.

Also, during the finale number with all the cast and other performers, Bugoy descended the stage to the adulation of the masses - hugging, kissing and taking pictures with him. And they showered him with gifts – as in tens of shopping bag gifts! I bet more tears flowed backstage and at the hotel after that.

Bugoy is another case of being ‘you don’t have to be a winner to be a winner’!

TO-BE-SEEN IN THE CITY

Charice Is Now A Certified ‘One Kapamilya Go’ Lucky Charm

Following her stint at last year’s ‘One Kapamilya Go’ in Ontario , CA , Charice again wowed the crowds at the Great America’s Redwood Amphitheater, singing ‘Dahil Tayo’y Pilipino’. She is now a certified One Kapamilya Go lucky charm.

Incidentally, FREE tickets to the Charice with ‘David And Friends’ HP Pavilion, Friday, November 6^th, 2009 8:00 p.m. concert are still available and will be raffled-off by Manila Mail to a couple of individuals who will email their information (see below) to info@emanilamail.com:

Name:

Address:

Phone Number:

Email:

Promo Code: Bradford

Deadline for submission of entries is September 30, 2009.

PERSONAL NOTES

Daly City Councilman David J. Canepa wants to express his sincerest gratitude to the PG&E Filipino Employees Association (FEA) who provided Jefferson High School with a check, last September 19, 2009, to help Filipino High School students with preparing for college, by helping them to support school activities such as tours of College Campuses, School-sponsored test preparation for students, and dissemination of financial aid information to students and parents. Thanks, fellow Filipinos at PG&E!

Quote of the Week – “I'm sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.", Kanye West, grabbing the microphone and the moment, to 17-year old Best Female Video winner ‘Taylor Swift at the 2009 Video Music Awards. Beyonce later in the night, won the Best Video Award and called the still-in-shock-in-embarassment teener to finish her acceptance speech.

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