2011 03/02-03/08
Northern California's largest Filipino American newspaper in circulation since 1990, the Manila Mail is the Bay Area's most read Fil-Am weekly publication distributed free in major cities of Northern California. Community is a B Section page that contains the weekly column of Bradford Adkins 'SCENES in the city'. The column features include: the issues and events, the individuals and organizations moving the community.
15-year old Fil-Am Thia Megia of Mountain House, CA is the youngest of the 'American Idol' Top 24 finalists.
Showtime's Steve Byrne performed at the 4th Annual 'Laugh for Lives' Comedy Show Benefit last Friday night at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Photo by Richard Lao.
South San Francisco Restaurateur, Jun Andres, center (with this Columnist & Frank Sytyar, right) will open another branch of Boracay Garden & Grill in the City of Hercules in the the coming months. Watch out for it!
Catch the Latitude Band (featuring Frank Sityar & Angel Georecha Ventura, 3rd & 4th left back row, respectively) performing at the Fresh Pizza, on Friday, March 25, 2011and at the Pinoy Elvis in Santa Clara on April 16, 2011.
Funnyman Joey Guila, right, had a very successful comedy show at the Palace of Fine Arts last Friday night, photographed here after the show with the reigning Miss Philippines Earth USA (West Coast) Melissa Sokukawa of Union City.
Balitang America's Gel Santos-Relos and Henni Espinosa graced the launching of TFC Lounge at the Season's Marketplace at Landess Ave in Milpitas, CA last Saturday.
The very successful TFC Lounge launch last Saturday was the collaborative product of (L-R) Ricky Resurreccion, Chinky De Jesus, Jun Del Rosario from ABS-CBN TFC and Dinna Bayangos and Girly Ramos of Seasons MarketPlace. Photo by Nerissa Fernandez
Pleasanton's Paul Henry Salazar (2nd right) is currently in Manila pursuing a career in entertainment, shown here at the Sun Cellular TV commercial shoot with his co-stars. He is being represented by Jonas Antonio Gaffud (who also handles Miss Universe 4th runner up Venus Raj, Akihiro Sato, Daniel Matsunaga, Marian Rivera's latest leading man in 'Amaya' - Mikael Daez, among others) of Mercator Artist & Model Management Company based in Makati City.
Milpitas Mayor Joe Estevez (joined by his wife Susan, Philippine Embassy's Rene De Los Santos, TFC's Jun Del Rosario, Gel Santos-Relos, Chinky De Jesus, Charito Benipayo, etc) cut the ceremonial ribbon formally launching the TFC Lounge at the Season's Marketplace in Milipitas, CA last Saturday. TFC Lounge is a new concept in interactive client communication collaborated by ABS-CBN TFC and Season's Marketplace. Expect more of this lounge to sprout across other TFC territories & regions.Photo by Gary De Guzman
Thia Megia is our newest Fil-American Idol
(15-year old from Mountain House, CA is now in the Top 24 of Fox’s Americal Idol)
TO-BE-SEEN IN THE CITY
Resident Judge Jennifer Lopez called her ‘amazing,’ ‘a phenom,’ and ‘the proof that lowering the age limit of American Idol auditions is a wise move’. She was speaking of 15-year old Thia Megia of Mountain House, CA who can’t wait for the San Francisco auditions that she flew to Milwaukee right after hearing of the newest season search.
The American Idol producers, during the Top 24 (12 Females & 12 Males) announcement gave the cliffhanger last spot female Top 12 announcement to our girl, Thia, beating another veteran candidate, Jessica Cunningham, who auditioned 7 times and reached the Top 40 spot 7 times in the past. To add insult to injury, it was the other candidate’s birthday during the announcement. It was even shown on national TV how pissed she was, after our Thia was chosen.
It will be remembered that Jasmine Trias, Camille Velasco & Ramiele Malubay first the paved way for musically-inclined Fil-Am teenagers to join the number one talent search on TV – American Idol on Fox. This season, at least 2 Fil-Ams made it to Top 24, subject to confirmation from Clint Jun Gamboa’s camp (he hasn’t formally announced yet that he is a Filipino). Also, Clint earned a villain image after kicking-out a very young contestant during their group Hollywood round.
Aside from Thia, the other Top 12 girls are Naima Adedap, Julie Zorilla, Karen Rodriguez, Lauren Turner, Kendra Chantelle, Ashton Jones, Rachel Zevita, Haley Reinhart, Lauren Alaina Suddeth, Pia Toscano & Ta-Tynisa Wilson.
In addition to Clint, the other male Top 12 finalists are Brett Lowenstern, Jovany Barreto, Jacob Lusk, Paul McDonald, Robbie Rosen, Stefano Langone, Jordan Dorsey, Tim Halprin, James Durbin, Casey Abrams & Scotty McCreery.
The last Top 12 Fil-Am finalist was Ramiele Malubay during American Idol Season 7, when David Cook won. Ramiele only reached Top 9.
Jasmine Trias was the highest-ranking Fil-Am American Idol when she cried herself all the way to Top 3 during Season 3, when Fantasia Barrino was the champ.
Another Fil-Am Camille Velasco also made it to Top 9 during Season 3.
Fox’s American Idol is hosted effectively, as always, by Ryan Seacrest. This season’s set of judges are Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez.
On Tuesday, the Top 12 guys will perform. On Wednesday, the Top 12 girls will compete. On Thursday, we will know the results and who got eliminated.
This early, let’s sharpen our dialing fingers and get ready to vote for Thia Megia – the next American Idol!
SEEN IN THE CITY
TFC Lounge in Milpitas, CA Launched Saturday
ABS-CBN TFC successfully launched their first-ever TFC Lounge at the Season’s Marketplace in Milpitas, CA last Saturday, with no less than the amiable Milipitas Mayor and his lovely wife Susan attending the event with TFC bigwigs Chinky De Jesus, Jun Del Rosario, Nerissa Fernandez, Gel Santos-Relos, Henni Espinosa, Philippine Consulate’s Rene De Los Santos and a barrage of Bay Area media heavyweights.
The TFC Lounge concept aims to foster interactive contact and communication between the media conglomerate and its clients. The TFC Lounge features a homey setting (picture yourself seated in your sala in front of a huge HD TV) highlighting their latest top rating shows, product announcements, souvenir items and a lot more.
It is actually a good meeting place in the area close to Goldilocks, Chowking, Coffee Adventure (Hi, to Dingdong Pena!) Seafood City Grocery Store and a lot more.
Congratulations & more power to ABS-CBN TFC for this pioneering effort!
PERSONAL NOTES
Belated happy birthday to Manila Mail’s VP for Community Events Joey Panlilio.
Belated happy birthday also to noted CommunityPhilanthropist Ramon Bunag.
Catch the Latitude Band performing at the Fresh Pizza, on Friday, March 25, 2011 and at the Pinoy Elvis in Santa Clara on April 16, 2011.
Congratulations to Charice for winning ‘Best Newcomer Award,’ beating Justin Bieber, Ke$sha & Bruno Mars at the prestigious J-Wave Tokio Hot 100 Award last February 24 in Japan.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I had a dream. I dreamed that I met one of the funniest, nicest, and most good-looking men. And that man was in love with me. In my dream, this man can make me laugh about serious things. He can make me cry... and just by looking at me or by just touching me, he makes me completely melt just like marshmallows on fire.” – opening wedding vow lines of former Miss Earth, Brazillian Priscilla Meirelles, when she married actor John Estrada at the Thunderbird Poro Point Resort in San Fernando La Union last Saturday. The wedding event was a success – despite best man-no-more Willie Revillame’s backing-out and Sharon Cuneta’s no-show (because, apparently,Hayden Kho was present – they had a rift on Twitter).
This article also appears online at www.FilipinoVillage.com and http://sites.google.com/site/adkinsmmcevents/Home/ with readership in 113 countries now (& still counting!) according to the latest Google Analytics report.
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