Criss Angel: Exposed by Fox 13

A good illusion is one that suspends our minds from disbelief, despite knowing that it is ultimately fake. Criss Angel's "stunt" never elicited such a response, he failed to suspend our disbelief and bordered on the absurd. A common analysis of the Spy Glass Tower Implosion is that the Video Feeds of Angel desperately racing against the powder keg clock was not live. Fox 13, provides some compelling evidence to support this observation. They also captured some rather interesting footage with their Fox 13 helicopter. If you don't want spoilers do not click on this link, to Fox 13.

Criss Angel Exposed.

Ras Tafari Filipinos; WTF???

Meet Budoy, Pinoy Big Brother reject and a self confessed Rastafari. I think it's fitting that when I googled the keywords "Pinoy Rastafari" Budoy's face pops up. Budoy is a local celebrity in Cebu and according to my aunt Margie some sort of comic genius. I saw him quite a lot of him sitting in the starbucks near Ayala, that stupid towel on his head and sipping on some soul devouring Corporate Coffee. Starbucks Ayala has the only decent bathroom in the Cebu Metropolitan Area, and that would be the only reason why I would be hanging out at Starbucks.



Anyways apparently Budoy is a Rastafari, and a local purveyor of "reggae" music. I know people say that the Philippines is 20 years behind America, but for God's sake Bob Marley died in 1981, but don't tell the Cebuano Rastafaris that, they might go into mourning for their favorite star. I'm not joking, some of these people think I shot the Sherif is a contemporary number one hit. You leave the Philippines for a few years, and the next time you come back you see Pinoys wearing Ethiopian colors and sporting dreadlocks. I wonder what in the world Bob Marley would think about a bunch of midgets in dreadlocks worshiping Haile Selassie I.

So I guess the question is how did a Black Liberation theology begin to influence the underground movement of an Asian Nation nearly 30 years after one of it's most famous proponent dies? I don't have a clue either.

Well Criss Angel Didn't Die Today:

I feel sort of cheated; I made my way down to Clearwater Beach and counted down the minutes as the Spy Glass Hotel came crashing down. There was element of danger, I mean the building was about to explode yet I had nagging suspicion than the stunt wasn't going to pulled off the way Criss Angel advertised it would be. First he was supposed to pick the "Police Handcuffs" that held him to the balcony, then he was to lock pick the balcony door. Once inside the room he was to make a wild dash to another locked door, once in the hallway he was to lockpick another door leading the staircase where he would run upstairs to the roof, where it was sealed by double locks. Once on the roof he was to rendezvous with a waiting helicopter holding out a rope ladder like the old Batman and Robin T.V show.

I suspected that Criss would try to throw the audience into a loop, by not making the rendezvous on time and letting the building implode with him struggling frantically against the locks, then once dramatic tension build up and a suitable time had elapsed, that magically coincided with his Live show ending, he would pop out shaken but otherwise unharmed. Of course I was right, Criss breezed through the first cuffs, then "seemed" to struggle with the balcony door and had to destroy the windows to gain entrance into the room. Then you seem progressing though live cameras placed within the building as he made his escape against time. You see him reaching the roof locks, and struggling to get them open as the Helicopter flies to safety. As the clock runs down to zero, the camera goes static and the building implodes.

Criss's family runs to the wreckage, (not the first responders) standing by and on the very first try they and the camera man see Criss emerging from the destruction with one of his Mindfreak screams!! Wow, that really got my adrenaline pumping!! NOT!!! I mean do respect the guy for some of the interesting tricks he pulls off, I mean those take skills, some of the illusions that he does is very entertaining but this stunt was really lame.

First I don't think the Cameras were Live, the footage of him escaping was probably taped earlier. That balcony door was suspicious also, why did he op to break the window instead of picking the door? This is probably when he made his real escape from the building. The window he "shattered" probably led to an escape route where he could move unseen.

Oh well my hats off to him anyways, it still takes some balls to try to pull a stunt like that, since it was a real demolition.

Criss Angel: In Clearwater, Fl Today

Criss Angel is here, in Clearwater, Florida to perform one of his escape acts, which I hear is "life-threatening". I don't know about that, riding my bicycle through Coachman Park or anywhere in downtown is probably more dangerous than Criss Angel's stunt. If one of our muggers don't get you, one of our elderly drivers surely will. Dark clouds have hovered over Clearwater Beach all day, drenching the pristine sands and dilapidated downtown streets with a steady torrent of cold misty rain. I've been debating with myself whether or not I want to ride my bike across the bridge and to the beach to watch Criss Angel implode with the building.

In case most people aren't familiar with Clearwater, Florida, we are located forty minutes West of Tampa. Several decades ago, some guy named L. Ron Hubbard decided to make Clearwater, Florida the headquarters of his nascent religion. That's right we are the World Spiritual Headquarters for the Church of Scientology, and rumor has it that Zeno's actual spaceship is buried inside one of our many sinkholes. According to some estimates 25,000 out of Clearwater's 108,000 residents are Scientologists. If you walk around downtown Clearwater you get to see thousands of blue shirt wearing cultists walking around in whatever errand little cultists run for their sector commanders.

So it's not surprising that this is the only City stupid enough to grant Criss Angel the privilege of pretending he's inside an exploding building. Still, I'll probably be there tonight, one of an estimated 10,000 voyeurs wondering if the budding emo magician will be crushed to a pulp.

SBC Packers World Wide

I don't think most Americans are aware of how funny Filipino Accents can really be; it's quite different from Chinese or Vietnamese accents to English. This is a funny video from a comic who pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies of Filipino speech.

Cherryblossoms

Lately I've been thinking about renewing my subscription to CherryBlossoms; it's this site where old men can meet young, mostly Filipina women from the Philippines. I'm not an old man; but it is a good place to visit if you're in the market for that sort of thing. Cherryblossoms is not for everyone though; you can meet someone, fall in love, get accused of cheating on her, get into fun arguments about which girl you're secretly sending instant messages to and finally you break up and have her say I hate your guts newbie, all without ever laying eyes on her in person. If you view these kind of online relationships as ultimately pointless, then it's probably better you spend your $24.00 a month on more important things like gas and beer.

I really don't know, why I even bothered to engage in such fickle self deception in the first place.

Ask the Chinese Guy:

Fridays; are supposed to be days of joy, where we can look forward to having an Ice Cold In Bev beverage and parking our rears on a lawn chair for the upcoming weekend. Well not if you're in the Mortgage Industry, now every Friday I log on to my peoplesoft account and cross my fingers hoping I'm still actually employed! If you get an error when you enter in your I.D and Password, be afraid, be very very afraid. All the life from this industry has been sucked out and I wouldn't be surprised if our own office space is put into foreclosure. I was spared the hangman's noose this Friday, but I wasn't spared the Corporate Manager Birthday Party were we clap our hands and try to sound sincere when we sing Happy Birthday. I don't wish anybody ill will or anything, but I mean I'm so unmotivated to celebrate anything anymore.

The cake was delicious and since there are so few of us left; I actually got a big slice of the German Chocolate Cake, slathered with the thickest swath of rich brown chocolate I have ever seen. So we're eating this cake, chatting on about something, I dunno I wasn't really paying attention. Then for some reason the table conversation turned to China, and about how many kids the Chinese are allowed to have, some said two, some said as many as you want, others piped in about what they do with the girls because apparently nobody wants to give birth to girls in China. That's when everybody turns to look at me! Like I'm some expert on freaking China or something, "I'm like I don't fucking know!" well that's what I wanted to say, unfortunately I am knowledgeable in general. Like people ask me to pronounce Asian names all the time, because I'm Filipino! Don't they know, Filipinos are like freaking Mexicans, might as well ask Pedro Sanchez over at the laundry mat to pronounce the name Xiang Li Wang for you. But again, I'm cursed with just knowing useless bits of information and I am aware of China's One Child Policy; including how much of it just mythology but at the same time true.

I just know shit, ok, it actually doesn't have anything to do with me being Asian.... grrr... Well that's my rant for today and have a good weekend.

De La Hoya vs Pacman; Say it ain't so.

Normally, if someone said Manny Pacquiao would be fighting a man who likes to wear wigs to go along with his fish net stalkings and high heel shoes, I'd say Pacman would have a really good shot at clobbering the guy to kingdom come. However; when that man is Boxing Legend Oscar De La Hoya..... all bets are off.

At glance this fight is a total mismatch, De La Hoya has been campaigning at Junior Middle Weight for a very long time, whereas Pacman just reached the Lightweight plateau, and it's difficult for me to see him fighting in a higher weight class. De La Hoya hovers somewhere close to 5'11 while Pacquiao is only 5'6". Pacquiao's conundrum is a tough one, there is only one other marquee name that matches the recognition of his in the Boxing World and is relatively close to his size and that's Ricky Hatton. Unfortunately for fight fans the Hitman is fighting an inconsequential fight with the Magicman.

Pacquiao seems doomed to face no names such as Edwin Valero, or Humberto Soto, good fighters but with little followings, at this stage in his mercurial career the Pacman really deserves only the best fighters. So in comes Oscar De La Hoya, he's been looking for some fireworks to end his tele friendly career, and a fight with Pacquiao would certainly be that.

I think, Pacman is severely disadvantaged here, while he has the punching power to hurt De La Hoya the real question is can he take a Junior Middle Weight's punches? I really can't imagine him taking Oscar's huge Left Hooks without getting knocked out. Oscar still has a killer instinct, just as Ricardo Mallorga. Still the purse he would for such a mega fight is incredibly enticing, some in his camp have asked for as much as 20 million dollars! An unbelievable sum for a fighter in the lower weight classes.

Flickr belated spring cleaning

Flickr is one of the best photo hosting sites in the internet, unfortunately due to some shortsightedness on my part I've cluttered mine with same rather useless digital photographs. You do a brief search on Flickr and you can find some breathtaking photography. Feeling a little embarrassed at the clutter of junk; I decided to do away with most of the pictures stored on my site and kept the ones that I thought were halfway decent. Like this one, taken with a crappy ole digital camera, though I thought the picture came out nice. From now on, I'm going to try to keep my Flickr from turning into a bad old scrap photo album that you tossed somewhere into your closet.

Dark Knight: Heath Ledger's requiem mass.

Since the early release, the media and critics have been buzzing and raving about The Dark Knight. Undeniably, Heath Ledger's death and his portrayal of the Joker, much more grim than Jack Nicholson's Joker, has lead droves of movie watchers to the box office. I was worried if this was going to be marketed as the role that "killed Heath Ledger", at least that seems to be the suggestion though I don't think it came from Warner Brothers. The first day release numbers where $66.4 million dollars, easily surpassing the snore inducing Spider Man 3. This is a little surprising considering that movies cost more than nine dollars now, I don't know what the rationale is, rising cost of fuel? global warming? I really enjoy this particular Batman series, it's so much more gritty and darker, more realistic than the Tim Burton hatchet jobs of the past. They were all bad movies, despite the star power behind those movies, such as Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Danny De Vito, George Clooney, Uma Thurman, The Governator, etc.

Pirate Pinoy

I spent yet another Friday night at Regina's Filipino Restaurant., I keep hoping to run into the pinay of my dream wailing away at the restaurant karaoke microphone, yet sadly this has not come to past. I opted not to drink tonight, having drunk myself to a stupor the last couple of days, instead I ordered bottled water before digging into the menu. I ordered pork kabobs, calamari, and my favorite at Regina's, Hot Spicy Sisig. I don't know if Fil-Am sisig is the same as RP sisig, I can't visualize the restaurants here actually cooking the face of a pig, yet there's that distinctive tangy taste to the meat to suggest that it might just be made from the face. Some of the usual Friday Nighters weren't there, like the women who danced in front of the mirror so they could look at themselves gyrating while their old sexpat husbands snored blissfully on their stools. This guy, I can only refer to as the "Pinoy Pirate" was there again. First time I saw him, I thought Pirate! He has a skull bandana on, striped sleeveless shirt, hoop ear rings, and a bushy black beard. I mean how could you not notice that you're dressed exactly like an extra on the Black Pearl. If it weren't for the prison style tattoos on his bare arms, I'd run over them and tell him that "You're not a Pirate!!!" and maybe nail him with a dodge ball.

Flying Cathay

I've always had a fascination with Cathay Pacific; I realize it's just an airline but there is a subtle grace that stands her apart from many of the clumsy airliners that take to the sky like chickens imitating the long flight of a crane. I laugh at myself sometimes because I watched this program called The Persuaders where a Marketing Firm tried to entice people to fly Song Airlines. The marketing campaign was supposed to convince the audience that flying Song Airlines was a way of life, rather than just a mode of transportation. I don't know if I was a victim of a shrewd marketing strategist from Cathay or the airlines is really just that good.

The food is more robust, and full of flavor especially on board those agonizing cross pacific flights that leave a traveler drained. A bevy of statuesque beauties cater to your needs during the half day journey, a ready smile on their faces even as the strain of the flight begins to wear them down. I really can't imagine traveling back to Asia, on another carrier, I've tried Philippine Airlines but I never feel that same amount of ease.

Tennis in Fading Light

Well it wasn't exactly Wimbledon 2008, but I love this picture. The afternoon sun fades to dusk mirroring the gloom of this year's SW19 tournament finals, and the expression on the subject's face as she "attempts", keyword being attempt, to strike the ball with a forehand, is priceless. Every single subject always shows a different visage as the racket makes contact with the ball, I seem to have a childish grin on my face, other's a look of serenity or ferocious concentration, she looks she's swatting a giant bug that she doesn't want to look at to closely.

Whenever I want to buy an item, that I probably don't need, I always have something stupid in mind that I want to do with it above anything else. When I was thinking about purchasing a Canon DSLR, I thought about taking pictures while playing tennis, don't ask me why, I guess I was always fascinated by those photos of pro tennis players, their enormous racket speeds stopped in time by a well taken photo.

Fighting Deportation

A long time friend of mine sits forlornly inside a cell at some Miami detention center, awaiting the verdict of the Board of Immigration Appeals, though deep within his heart he no longer has hope. The expensive lawyer that was supposed to provide counsel in front of the Board has decided to drop his case after the Judge denied his asylum request. The U.S Government often decides to attempt the deportation of non-citizens, especially if they were involved in a crime. In the case of legal aliens, I think sometimes this is a waste of time and money. If it can be determined that the person in question is not a danger to society, and has already paid the piper by serving his time in jail and going through the counseling and probation process why file for deportation? I strongly suspect that at the time when my friend accepted a plead proposal by the prosecutors, he was not really aware that he could possibly be deported though I've mentioned this possibility to him in private over a couple of beers.

What bothers me is that my friend has spent his entire life in the United States and knows nothing about the Philippines, and doesn't even know the language. He has no family there, and will be pretty much at the mercy of a foreign country. He will be leaving behind his fiancee and two younger siblings who basically have to fend for themselves because of their absent parents. When the Feds decided to pick him up, the guy was working two jobs trying to make right, attempting to set right everything that had gone awry.

The U.S Government does not provide Legal Counsel for the poor who are tried for deportation, and many bungle their cases by representing themselves in front of the Board of Immigration Appeals. It is estimated that 34% of cases are granted asylum when there is a counsel present to plead your case.

Catastrophe in Burma

My eyes have been glued to the news lately, both internet and television. The scope of the disaster is starting to become more and more apparent as the days go by. I thought they were mad when they estimated that 100,000 people might have perished in Yangon, yet with the discovery of all the deceased and the thousands more missing it the reality is starting to sink in. They say that a wall of water 25 feet in height washed ashore along with the devastating 120 Miles per hour winds, obliterating everything in it's path. I remembered hurricane Andrew when I was younger, and the destruction it caused to South Florida, imagine a hurricane more powerful than Andrew striking poor unprepared people living in shanties. This disaster is almost as great as the Tsunami, in terms of lives lost, but concentrated in one heavily populated province of Myanmar.

Entire villages have been shredded, and entire families lost. The survivors are living with little food and fetid water, barely better than mud.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/cyclone-nargis.html

A new low for Juan Manual Marquez

Barely two weeks after his close DEFEAT at the hands of Pinoy pugilists Manny Pacquiao, Marquez recently flew to Manila to appear at ringside on the Invasion Card promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. Though Marquez was received with enthusiasm and friendship from the filipinos and even Pacquiao himself, Marquez proceeded to insists that he won the fight and pressed for a rematch on National Television. This little bit of gamesmanship was nothing but a cheap shot by Marquez and Golden Boy Promotions, there is already a clamor amongst fight fans for a rematch, and all Marquez accomplished was make himself out to be a whiner and an extremely sore loser. It's like Oscar De la Hoya showing up at dancing with the stars and demanding that Floyd Mayweather rematch him, or Ricky Hatton showing up at Wrestlemania to do the same. Marquez, have some class, Marco and Erik would have never acted like this.

The Guns of General Santos

The 13th Round was heralded by the rabid chants of thousands of Filipino and Mexican fans as the two wary protagonists met in the center of the ring. Juan Manuel Marquez gracefully held stance, like the bull fighter from A Sun Also Rises, while Manny Pacquiao played the bull to Marquez's matador. This fight is brilliant because of the stark contrast in styles, unless you're a boxing purest it would be difficult for you to enjoy some of Marquez's other bouts due to his counter punching nature. However, when he gets in the Ring with Manny Pacquiao, he meets a fighter who is unafraid of Marquez's snapping counters, who believes that his power will blast through Marquez's defenses.

It's a pleasure to watch both men succeed in their particular styles, Marquez often had Pacquiao baffled and hesitant, yet Marquez would hit the canvas hard, clutch at the ropes desperately and buckle several times from the force of Pacman's blows. At the end of the night, after 24 hellish rounds, only a mere point separated these two great super featherweights. Clearly Marquez won most of those rounds, but the picture of him picking himself off of the floor time and time again eventually decided this rivalry.

Gone Fishing

Had a great weekend, Jimmy, Pao and I went to a Hmong Youth Group Picnic at Fort De Soto Park. We showed up kind of late; either because we were deathly afraid of meeting a fiery and violent death at the hands of Jimmy's rotor warping brakes, or because of the weekend traffic. Luckily there was still some food left, and we had two or three pieces of Hmong chicken, just like Brenda Song would cook. After that we took our fishing poles and went over to the pier and promptly hooked a few pelicans and some species of aquatic birds, we also caught a mussel and a strange looking crab. With our bait shrimp quickly vanishing and the sun beginning to dip in the horizon, little 4,'9" Pao managed to muscle in a blue runner. After making our lone catch, we called it a day and downed the few beers we had left before going home.

Canon S3 IS

I couldn't abide simply buying a mere point and click camera; so the first ever Digital Camera that I gave in and purchased, was the Canon S3 IS. Not a bad offering from Canon, though I think the mega pixels aren't enough to handle the 12X Optical Zoom of this sweet little camera. This is a picture of my niece playing with some bubbles =).

Life of the Spirit

Sparked by an odd request from an online buddy, I recently put pen to paper writing a short essay about my personal philosophy. This is not as easy as it sounds, for we don't often dwell on what lenses we see the world through, more difficult still is crafting the right words to describe these thoughts. As I speak today, I feel it more as a yearning, a calling, a gentle whisper upon my ears, a place where I would someday like to be. The Philosophy that calls to me, is that of living a life of the spirit, an existence dedicated to learning, devoted to compassion, and of deep spiritual growth. In a way, I've always known I was like though it was never as clear to me then as it is now. Always I've thought, why does evil exist, who or what is God, and what is my place in the world? When I could not find the answers, I railed against the fleetingness of life, it's almost purposeless rhythm.

The void it left in my soul almost dragged me under, until I realized that the only thing that can really fill this restlessness is spirituality, gained through living a life of the spirit. This is not me yet, it may not ever be me, our material world shackles me with its' trappings of wealth, it's temporary allure beckoning to my eyes. Yet I know where I should be, though I know not what bends in the river my journey will take.