Sunday, April 28, 2013

Fallout Boy: Saving Rock & Roll Album Launch; Record Store Day


Proud Young Bloods showing the free poster that came with the album purchase.

It was another fun and amazing album launch at Odyssey Megamall and this time it was for Fall Out Boy's new album -Save Rock and Roll. After a four year hiatus Fall Out Boy is back with their latest album and the fans are just loving it. 

Fall Out Boy has always been one of my favorite bands, I have always loved their (God) long tongue-in-cheek titles, infectious melodies and their no apologies and no holds bard lyrics. They were a huge part of my college life, with memories of making out to my then boyfriend now husband to 'Dance, Dance' and even using the song title 'Sophomore Slump or Come Back of the Year' as the title of my editor's piece for our school's literary compilation. 

With their hiatus I was left without any new songs from musical geniuses and like other fans was left to live on their old music but now that they are back with a new album they will undoubtedly not only 'Save Rock and Roll' but fans who have been waiting patiently to hear new music from them. 

Members of Fall Out Boy Philippines selling T-shirts at the event. 

The album launch last April 27, 2013 also coincided with Record Store Day which is a global effort from record stores to thank fans by having great sales and in store performances. For this particular album launch, fans got a free poster and a baller for every purchase of Fall Out Boy's album. (See promotional posters below). 






Sunday, April 21, 2013

Earth Day Music Jam 2103


Getting the message across: Members of the PYEN - Pilipinas Youth Environment Network read more about them here
When I was in High School we would always celebrate 'Ecology Week' which is basically a whole week were different schools participate in different competitions that aim to promote Ecological awareness among the students and the most anticipated event was the 'Eco Song Fest' where each school performs an original song about the environment or Mother earth. Most of the time it is a chorale group or even the glee club (just to give you a better picture) who performs. It then all boils down to a battle of nightingale like singing and show stopping choreography-think UAAP cheerdance meets Glee and ecological themes instead of school spirit. 

This particular High School memory comes alive as a decade later as I am watching another musical tribute to Mother Earth -Earth Day Jam 2013. As the name itself suggests it is a gathering for Mother Earth through music, featuring different local artists and musicians. This year's event was held in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. 

One of the first things I saw was a group of students in white with green bands and holding signs up that said 'Be an Eco Filipino' Paul took a photo of the group (see photo above) and I asked some questions. 

PYEN or the Pilipinas Youth Environment Network is a network which is recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Southeast Asia You Environment Network. They serve as a bridge for environmental youth organizations and individuals for environmental projects of the DENR (Department of Environment and National Resources) and other government agencies. The group was present during Earth Day Jam to recruit and invite more members- I'm sure that they were able to meet that goal and had fun doing it. ;) 

If you are interested to be a part of their group you can check out their Facebook page here

A smile in the crowd 
 Aside from the amazing local talent lined up there were different video montages that were played throughout the night. These videos had different environmental messages in them and i think that it's really important just so the audience does not forget the reason and objective of the event. 

Mr. Tarsier - representing the event

Check out the cute and amazing logo for this years' Earth Day Jam - A cute and cool tarsier wearing a pair of sun glasses and holding onto a microphone - very apt for the event if you ask me. 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Pcheng Photography Give away! SIGNED Gracenote and Circa prints!


Eyes on the prize! We are giving away these SIGNED Gracenote and Circa Prints! 

Okay. So this is PCheng Photography's FIRST EVER give away and as we are firm believers of supporting OPM music we are giving away SIGNED Gracenote and Circa prints! 

It's easy! Just make sure to do the following: 

1. 'Like' Pcheng Photography facebook page. 
2. 'Follow' @pchengphtgraphy on twitter.
3. 'Follow' @pcheng311 on instagram. 

If you want to win the Eunice or Jazz solo prints just send us a tweet: I want #Eunice #PchengGiveAway or I want #Jazz #PchengGiveAway. 

We will send a DM to the lucky winners and mail the prints to them. Contest ends on April 22, 2013. 

Terms and Conditions:
This competition is not affiliated what so ever with Gracenote or Circa or their respective management. Prints were printed at our own expense and were signed by the bands during Paramore Night IV

Good luck! ^_^ 


Paramore Album Buyout!

Free arm band (baller) per album purchase. 
I'd like to thank my hand models Netly and Chai <3 


There was a time when walking into a record store to pick up an album seemed impractical. First there was the problem with piracy- being able to grab a copy of a CD at a cheaper price seemed to be more appealing, so many stalls of pirated CDs/DVDs came sprouting at every corner. Then a new kind of pirate came along and that is the digital pirate - downloads soon became too easily available over the internet. Imagine not even having to leave the house to get a copy of a new song or a new album. 


The music industry though damaged through piracy was able to bounce back through digital downloads and iTunes, now fans can download the songs and albums that they want (legally). While the future of the industry seemed pretty set on these digital downloads - nothing beats walking into your favorite record store to grab a copy of your favorite band's new album 



- Hayley Williams of Paramore said as much, though I can't remember her exact words and I was surprised because I actually experienced first hand what she meant by that. 


Last April 13, 2013, Saturday- Odyssey had an Album Launch/Album buyout for Paramore's new and can I say much awaited self titled album. There were promises of live performances and lovely (oh so lovely!) prizes (Yeah! I'm still looking at you Marshall headphones!) You can check out their official promotional poster here

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Project 365: Week 8

March 14, 2013 - Tribute to childhood
Week 8 of Project 365 has been a challenge for me, since I couldn't keep on bringing my camera with me, and I think that I'm pretty predictable and repetitive of the shots that I've been doing.  So, as the project's objective is to improve and learn more about photography,  I plan to change it up.  And I thought how I'd make this 'change'?  

So I stared blank into the oblivion in thought and got to the conclusion to shoot with my iPhone.  I have already done it a few times so what the heck!

Here on the photo on the left is LEGO brick from one of my surviving toys from my bachelor days.  Like I said, I was repeating what I already done, which is shooting macro, with a reverse ringed kit lens on a Canon 500d, remotely triggered a flash positioned at around 11 o clock.



Again I'm still not taking down notes on strobe settings and not laying out the EXIF data since I'm writing from the office again.  Sorry.

March 15, 2013 - Old reliable
On the photo above, it's a pair of Nike Dunk that I have-for years now.  I'm happy to say that this pair has never seen any shoe repair man-yet, but it's still alive and pretty much kicking.  As you can see, flash is setup for this shot to highlight the shoe's right side edge to get that texture off of the rubber.  Shot with my ever so reliable 500d, with a kit lens.  Post processed in Lightroom 4 to get red tint into the mix.


March 16, 2013 - RDOT organizers
Ica was invited to attend Rest Day OT Jam Sessions 2.  It's a musical gig where in people who work in Business Processing Outsource do their thing.  Ica had a friend who performed on the said event but unfortunately we missed her band play, because I had to report to work.

Shot with the Canon 500d, with a 50mm f/1.8.  Nothing fancy pretty straight forward.  In post processing I bumped up the contrast and saturated the image a little bit.  I kind of liked B-Side bar in Makati, it has a nice vibe to it and it had lots of graffiti.  To bad I didn't shoot a panoramic photo of the place. All in all I had a blast shooting the gig.

Movie Musings: Naruto the Movie Road to Ninja


As a Naruto fan I will admit that every time a new Naruto movie would be shown in Japan I would feel a pang of jealousy. I would get jealous because I would not be able to watch the movie in the big screen and would even have to make do with watching downloads from the internet with bad subtitles.  

So when the 9th Naruto Movie: Road to Ninja was about to be shown in Japanese theaters last July 8, 2012, I was seething green with envy with all the promotional material I saw posted all over the internet. 

Naruto everywhere! Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja promotional material on buildings in a busy Japanese city. How many can you see in this photo? 
Posters in a Train Station in Japan. 
Whatever jealousy I have been feeling at the occurrence of every new anime movie it is slowly changing as Movie Punch is taking anime in the Philippines to new heights- which is the comfort of watching it in the movie house. As you are reading this, Anime movies is making ripples and a lot of noise in local cinema.While anime movies being shown in local cinema is nothing new since YuYu Hakusho and Dragon Ball were also screened here more than a decade ago- I know because I was in Grade 5 when YuYu Hakusho was shown and it was Tagalog dubbed. (Gasp! I know, I know it's practically considered taboo now,  especially for the modern Otaku). These past weeks have seen a new change and it is a big and good change; it's definitely a good time to be an Otaku. 


A trip to the Convenience Store is made even more better with Naruto meals and Naruto cup noodles- all promotional material for the movie. 

Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja was (finally!) screened in local cinemas last April 9, 2013, we were lucky enough to be invited to the special advanced screening last April 8, 2013 - you can read about that in this blog post and check out more photos also. We may be a long way from all the cool promotional but I'm happy that we are getting some where and that anime movies have a place in local cinema. 

With Cosplayers Jin Joson and Marien Jose during the special advanced screening at the Director's Club at SM Mall of Asia. 

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Paramore night IV


'Strike while the iron is hot' is very apt for this occasion as the love for Paramore continues to overflow and with a new album and a brand new sound at that, there is no other thing to do than celebrate than with yet again another Paramore Night- this one succeeding the last, thus aptly called Paramore Night 4. 

Since we had a hard time parking the last Paramore Night (we had to make a U-Turn-twice!) we really left early and Paul was even praying before leaving 'sana makakuha kami ng parking...sana makakuha kami ng parking...' 


Best parking spot ever! :D

And our early departure really paid off since we were able to get the sweetest parking possible and we were early! We got at Route 196 before 9:30 and also before the first band-which is great since we missed most of the bands during Paramore Night 3


Abstract HDR. Boards all over-Check out the skateboards on the wall (and the surfboard!)


We're used to seeing different time zones but this is just one- PINOY TIME!

Paul is actually a big fan of the interior design of Route 196 which is along Katipunan, there a lot of references to skateboards, aside from the many that are lined up on the walls, there is also the ingenious door knobs made of trucks (skateboard wheels) Paul's admiration is no surprise since he used to skate and still keeps his skateboard under our bed. So Paul went along and took some interior shots of Route 196 before the bands started to perform. 


One thing that I really like about Paramore Night is that it is a venue for amateur bands to perform and just experience the joy of performing live in front of a great audience. Paul just loves the crowd because they are energetic, intense fun, supportive (if you forget the lyrics they will help you out!) and the crowd is very 'makulit'. 


There is something magical about amateur bands sharing the stage with professional bands that they admire. It's like being an ordinary student on summer vacation or being any other girl or guy but then getting the chance to be a 'rock star' even for just 20-30 minutes and get to cover Paramore at that! 



First Band of the night - Senyora 
First band of the night was Senyora - you can visit and like their Facebook page by clicking on this link. Senyora has been performing in other bands and events as well. You can check out videos of their covers in their Facebook page as well. 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Naruto The Movie: Road to Ninja Premiere


Movie Posters are up!
Paul and I were really excited to be invited to a special advanced screening of Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja by it's movie distributor, Movie Punch. It's actually the first invite that we got as a blogging entity and it gives that feeling that everything that you've worked hard for is finally paying off. ^_^ 

The special advanced screening was held in the Director's Club at SM Mall of Asia. It's a really cozy and exclusive venue with only 30 La-Z- boys! 

I've personally never seen a movie while reclining comfortably on a La-Z-Boy, so there I was all curled up and all comfy while watching the movie!  
In order not to spoil the movie for those of you who are planning to catch in theaters and I'm telling you that you should! I will have a separate blog post about my Movie Musings (movie review) and this would mostly focus on the special advanced screening. 
   
First time, and it was awesome!
The special advanced screening was also attended by other bloggers and well renowned cosplayer Jin Joson and Marien Jose were present and cosplayed as Minato Namikaze and Tsunade Senju from Naruto. 


Tsunade, Sir Sam, and Minato. Jin Joson as Minato Namikaze and Marien Jose as Tsunade Senju 

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Project 365: Week 7

When the 2nd week of March came rolling in, I had to look for a way to keep on shooting and make use of my spare time wisely.  So my friends at Mediahub were hoping to borrow my camera to shoot a corporate SDE for a prominent company here in the Philippines. I thought of tagging along to help them out-extra camera equipment, extra man power and all that jazz.  So that means that my rest days are booked for video shooting.

Before the Mediahub team picked me up to travel to the province of Pampanga. I opted to go out and shoot a panoramic view of the sunset. I was lucky to borrow my brother-in-law's tripod as well.

March 7, 2013 - Earlier Today 
Shot with a Canon 500d, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.2 IS, mounted on a tripod.  I think this shot is tilted a little, since it seems that the horizon may look like it's slanting.  But if you look closely the fore ground would give you a straight line so I'd stick with this composition.  I'll try another one probably, it's only the 3rd month of the year right? 

March 8, 2013 - A helping Hand

We were already in Pampanga to shoot an onsite video for a famous company here in the Philippines.  Shooting video has been a challenge for me since I'm not used to holding out my camera away from my face and not looking at the view finder instead I'm forced to look at the LCD to add to that I had to work on the focus constantly.  Now, I know that video recording is tough.  I'd probably need to practice and get the hang of things.

I shot this one with my iPhone 4S, since I couldn't afford to miss a single thing.  The camera which is off the frame has Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG APO from my friend and it was recording a scene from the event.  

I always edit my shots on the phone through Snapseed, since it is a free app and it is pretty versatile and very easy to use.


Monday, April 1, 2013

Feature: Kolsenter Komiks

Finding Humor in Work: Euguene Madayag creator of Kolsenter Komiks 

This actually has been a long overdue post but since I've gotten back to doing freelance writing work during the weekends, I've been really busy. Sorry Eugene!:p

During our coverage of RDOT Jam we met with Eugene, who is the creative mind behind Kolsenter Komiks, according to their Facebook Page, Kolsenter Komiks 'is a series of self published comic strips created by Eugenio "Toto" Madayag. It chronicles his life and times as a call center agent in the Philippine BPO Industry.' 

There are lot of things that people say about working in a Call Center. There are those who mock us who work in the industry and think that the work that we do is 'no brainer', they think that we don't have any goals and no direction or a career as we hop from one center to the other. They may say what they want or think what they like about our industry but I for one know not to bite that feeds me-literally but I can definitely have a laugh about some of the everyday scenarios.



Early sketches. Could be your team mate right? 


I saw some of Eugene's comic strips online and I immediately wanted to interview him and have a feature in the blog, so we met up during the RDOT Jam Session and had a little chat about his brainchild.  

Can you tell us how Kolsenter Komiks started? 

"Back in 2007 I was in training when I started drawing on Paint, I just looked for funny situations or even weird situations  that happen to you in a call. In 2010 I thought about bringing the comics to a wider audience - to show other people what happens in a call center, especially to those people who don't know what it's like working in a Call Center.   

Actual finished comic strips.