2010 03/31-04/06

MANILA MAIL COMMUNITY

Philippine Airlines Cares For The Environment as they sponsor round-trip tickets of the reigning Miss Philippines Earth USA (West Coast) 2010, Melissa Sokukawa, 19, a Half-Japanese Filipina 5;8" stunner from Union City, CA, shown here being wished well by PAL Country Manager, Joanne Sarmiento, left. The beauty queen left for Manila last Sunday, March 28th to compete in Manila for a chance to represent the country in the international pageant to be held in Vietnam in November.

A Soldier Story. San Jose's Michael Christian Kuizon Young, 6, left and his 9-year old brother Gabriel Christian Kuizon Young's soldier father (German, Robert F. Young of the US Air Force) died just 3 years ago. Whenever they watch Gerald Anderson (back) who plays a soldier in 'Tayong Dalawa', they both can't help but cry and remember their dad and their happy times with him. So whenever Gerald has a show in town, they always make it a point to watch him in person, just like the recently concluded San Jose leg of 'The Heartthrobs & Friends' US Concert Tour, where they also asked Kim Chiu to finish the autograph on their soldier monkey toys. This is according to their San Jose-based almost-a-family, Marife Ronquillo (good friend of their mom, Jenille K Young).

The Heartthrob Sponsor. Mr. Henry Sy, right, back, owner of Profood International Corp (with offices in Cebu and Union City) is one of the very satisfied sponsors of Piolo Pascual's (seated, right) 'The Heartthrobs & Friends' US Concert Tour San Jose leg.

The Heartthrob & his Friend. John Lloyd Cruz befriends Kim Santos Macaraig, 19, daughter of Power Broker, Thez Santos of South San Francisco at the SJSU backstage last Saturday night.

The Lady Luck. Some girls have all the luck as Fremont's Lucky Line Producer, Nanette Labrador keeps getting it right, for her shows keep on making money, sandwiched here by Bea Alonzo, left and Kim Chiu before their 'The Heartthrobs & Friends' show started last Saturday night in San Jose, CA.

The 'Heartthrob' Producer. All's well that ends well, as months before last Saturday night's show, Producer Archie Mendiorro (2nd left) was nervous of slower ticket sales only to be quickly relieved upon seeing the almost 5,000 people that showed up to watch 'The Heartthrobs & Friends' (L-R, John Lloyd Cruz, Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, their new friend, Richard Lao of Manila Mail and Sam Milby).

Post 'Lupang Hinirang' Brouhaha. Journeys' Lead Singer, Arnel Pineda (shown here during his Dallas Pacquiao-Clottey fight appearance wherein he was criticized and threatened with a lawsuit by some sectors for allegedly maligning the sanctity of the Philippine National Anthem by changing its tempo, among others), will perform with The Zoo Band on July 03, 2010, either in Reno or the Bay Area in a yet-to-be-named venue, announced by Lighthouse Entertainment's Archie Mendiorro.

'My Papa Piolo' is what Tracy-based Concert Producer, Ms. Filipinas Achocoso seems to exclaim as she stopped The Ultimate Heartthrob,Piolo Pascual in the middle of his performance, in the middle of stage, in the middle of close to other 5,000 screaming fans, so she can get a souvenir shot with him.

‘The Heartthrobs & Friends’ Rocks San Jose

(The Gang is Back, Bigger and Better with Kim Chiu & Gerald)

SEEN IN THE CITY

Almost 5,000 screaming fans filled the San Jose State University’s The Events Center last Saturday night, March 27^th, coming from all over the United States to witness ‘The Heartthrobs’ (originally composed of Piolo Pascual, Sam Milby, Bea Alonzo with Pokwang, later joined the succeeding shows by John Lloyd Cruz) biggest concert crowd to-date (according to one of them, Sam Milby as per performs his opening number), this time with the rock-solid love team of the hit ABS-CBN ‘Tayong Dalawa’ – Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson.

Pokwang opened the show proper with a high-spirited ‘Bad Romance’ number, complete with a ‘Cleopatra meets Lady Gaga’ outfit and backup male dancers. She then followed up with a performance number never been seen on San Jose stage before – her ‘Luha’ song number where she used an anatomically-correct young male audience to be her ‘human microphone stand’, with strict instructions to follow her every move, her every hip bending and her every rolling on the floor. Imagine this scene – beamed across two giant screens on the opposite side of the stage – Pokwang grabs her ‘microphone’ positioned midway across the guy’s body and then they roll together on stage for several minutes. The audiences were satisfactorily entertained right at that point of the evening.

Then came Balladeer Richard Poon who sang ‘Portrait of My Love’ and ‘Wowowee medley of songs’. The venue burst in deafening cheers when ‘Tayong Dalawa’ loveteam, Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson came out on stage singing Taylor Swift’s ‘You Belong With Me’ followed by the theme song of their hit movie ‘Paano Na Kaya’.

Pokwang then introduced Sam Milby who sang ‘Crazy Thing Called Love’ with much gusto, dancing, bouncing perkily on stage, visibly amazed by the very enthusiastic large crowd. He then sang ‘And I Love You So’ which segwayed Bea Alonzo’s entrance who sang the duet ‘I’m Yours’ with him. She sang a solo number – ‘The Song’.

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Bea signaled John Lloyd Cruz’s entrance with her singing ‘Miss You Like Crazy’ followed by John’s ‘You’ll Be Safe Here’ and ‘I’ll Never Go’ solo numbers.

The predominantly female crowd reserved their loudest screams when The Ultimate Heartthrob, Piolo Pascaul came out singing ‘Babe’ (the theme song of Sam Milby’s forthcoming movie, “Babe I Love You”. At this point of the night, I came to a realization, that in the years of watching his shows, that one of the main factors that he got the most fans is because of the fact that he doesn’t belong to anyone and he is theirs solely for their undivided adulation. He doesn’t have a permanent love partner, he is not married and never got permanently committed. He then shared the “Haven’t Met You Yet” song number with Sam Milby and Richard Poon.

All of them gathered and performed a medley of VST & Company’s ‘80’s disco hit songs.

To sum it all up, it was a highly entertaining show and everybody went home happy and inspired to go find their own heartthrob, their own friends.

Congratulations to Mr. Archie Mendiorro and his Lighthouse Entertainment team, which includes Line Producer, Ms. Nanette Labrador and Berce Productions’ Ms. Lerma and Cesar Cailles for another successful show.

The gang retired to the hotel rooms early for their 6:00 a.m. flight to San Diego , their next show the following day. Other cities lined up for ‘The Heartthrobs & Friends’ are the following:

San Diego, CA

March 28, 2010, 5:00 PM at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Avenue, San Diego, CA 92010. For tickets please call Toll Free: 888-874-1719 or visit www.usasiamediacenter.com

New York, NY

March 31, 2010, 7:00 PM at Manhattan Center , 311 W. 34th Street , New York , NY . Ticket prices $68, $88, $148 (SOLD OUT) and VIP $168. A new section has been opened with $108 tickets and they still have a few $168 (VIP); Please call 201.886.1705 / 201.290.9245/ 917-513-5266 / 917-428-9078 / 989-492-1965 / 914-255-2137.

Los Angeles, CA

Saturday, April 3, 2010 at the Heritage Forum located at 201 East Broadway, Anaheim , CA 92805-3904 Phone (714) 776-7776www.heritageforum.net. For tickets call 562-787-9030 or 562-964-3434

Dallas, TX

Sunday, April 4 at the Will Rogers Memorial Center , Fort Worth , TXlocated at City of 3401 West Lancaster Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76107-3045(817) 392-7469 www.fortworthgov.org

TO-BE-SEEN IN THE CITY

Geneva Cruz & Rachel Alejandro Performs at Cache Creek

Catch the best of Geneva Cruz (reportedly separated from husband KC Montero recently) and Rachel Alejandro on April 17 at 8:00 p.m. at Cache Creek Casino Resort’s Club 88. Joe Alvarez guests.

Lighthouse Entertainment Signs Arnel Pineda and The Zoo Band

Reeling off from the success of their ‘The Heartthrobs & Friends’ show in San Jose, Archie Mendiorro of Lighthouse Entertainment shared us their latest undertaking – Journey’s lead singer, Filipino, Arnel Pineda will be having a concert with The Zoo Band on July 03, 2010. The venue is yet to be announced. Save the date – July 03 for it’s a long weekend.

PERSONAL NOTES

Belated Happy Birthday to the South City Business Woman Maria Ingco (March 20), President and CEO of Chanze, Inc. (a residential care home facility).

Belated Happy Birthday to the Ms. Aileen Fabros (March 24) of South San Francisco who is strong advocate for Health Care Patients’ rights.

Advanced Happy Birthday to Ichiban Library’s Ben Ramos (April 3^rd) who will hold a semi-formal gathering at their lounge/restaurant located 2236 Westborough Dr., South San Francisco on April 3^rd at 1:00 p.m.

Advanced Happy Birthday to Dr. William Christopher Soule (April 20) of Santa Clara , a practicing Radiologist for Valley Radiology, Inc.

Advanced Happy Birthday to Mr. Lyndon Canon (April 21) of San Mateo , President & CEO of Insight ARF, Inc.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The pay-per-view performance of Pacquiao-Clottey significantly exceeded our expectations," by Mark Taffet, Senior Vice President for HBO PPV. “Manny Pacquiao's 12-round decision victory against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium generated 700,000 HBO pay-per-view buys and $35.3 million in revenue, the network announced just last Tuesday. "It is a testament to the popularity of Pacquiao and the vitality of the sport.”

Pacquiao's 12 pay-per-view fights have generated 6.25 million buys and $320 million in pay-per-view revenue, according to figures quoted by USA Today’s Bob Velin.

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