MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jesus is the reason for the Season.

IT'S WAR! AAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEE!

Noche Buena is just a few days from now and the ham war has began:

MAJESTIC? ADELINA'S? EXCELENTE?

KLAATU BARADA NIKTO!

Is nothing sacred anymore? How many remakes by Hollywood can actually stand up to the originals and proudly say that they were just as amazing and as brilliant? Very few. I am not fond of remakes. Methinks this is scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel, so I had second thoughts about watching the 2008 version of a 1950s classic (and Golden Globe winner for Best Film), The Day The Earth Stood Still.

In fact, I only discovered that Keanu Reeves was playing the role of Klaatu when I was lining up to buy a ticket. Suddenly, the bad taste left in the mouth by the disaster called Johnny Mnemonic (ugh, too university days!) came back like some ghost of bad movies past.

On the hindsight, the new version is visually appealing - effects and all. Honestly, I think dying by having a billion shards of metal insects fly through you is just too weird (that's it? Nothing - apocalyptical?). I like the idea of having orbs collecting several species of Earth life. There is none of this in the original, of course. What the original lacked in effects however, it made up with its brilliance.

I loved how the original Klaatu immersed himself in the human experience - renting a room and actually spending time with a family, befriending a boy, watching movies and eating ice cream. All throughout the new film, bits and pieces of the original kept creeping in every scene I got too distracted. I am really sorry I watched the new version. I shouldn't have in the same way that I skipped Wicker Park because deep in my heart I know it will never hold up against the lovely L'Appartement (1966). I mean, with Monica Belluci and all, how can the original go wrong? Right, I am biased. I lurve Belluci.

Anyhow, if you have the chance to find a copy of the 1951 version, please watch it. Let me know what you think.

ATENEO DE MANILA TURNS 149

In celebration of the University’s second Sesquicentennial theme, Deepening Spirituality, the Ateneo community is warmly invited to TAKE AND RECEIVE: THE FIRST FESTIVAL OF ATENEO MUSIC

Sunday, 7 December 2008, 6:30PM
Church of the Gesù

FEATURING:

Ateneo Boys Choir (Daisy Marasigan, Conductor)
Ateneo Chamber Singers (Jonathan Velasco, Conductor)
Ateneo College Glee Club (Ma. Lourdes Hermo, Conductor)
Ateneo High School Glee Club (Jose Emmanuel Aquino, Conductor)
Dulaang Sibol (Dr. Onofre Pagsanghan, Managing Director)
Jesuit Music Ministry (Fr. JBoy Gonzales, SJ, Director): Blue Symphony, Bukas
Palad, Himig Heswita & Musica Chiesa

AND

the premiere "Take and Receive” medley arrangement of RYAN CAYABYAB

**
Take and Receive: The First Festival of Ateneo Music
Ateneo choirs to stage free thanksgiving concert for the community

On Sunday, 7 December 2008, 6:30PM, Ateneo’s singing groups will treat the community to an evening of sacred, liturgical, and inspirational music through the concert, Take and Receive: The First Festival of Ateneo Music, at the Church of the Gesù, Ateneo Loyola Heights campus.

The concert gathers Ateneo’s home grown and award-winning groups, the Ateneo Boys Choir, Ateneo High School Glee Club, Dulaang Sibol, Ateneo College Glee Club, and Ateneo Chamber Singers. They will perform with the Jesuit Music Ministry artists, Blue Symphony, Bukas Palad, Himig Heswita and Musica Chiesa.

Distinguished Filipino musician and composer Ryan Cayabyab’s medley arrangement of the different “Take and Receive” compositions by the Filipino Jesuits will be one of the highlights of the concert.

Fans and supporters of these Ateneo singing groups can expect to be regaled by the songs that have made these groups both distinct and popular,resonating Ateneo’s fine musical legacy and the unique spirituality that inspires its music.

Dulaang Sibol is the Ateneo High School theater club founded and directed by Onofre Pagsanghan. Bukas Palad, meanwhile, was co-founded by Fr. Manoling Francisco,SJ 20 years ago. The Ateneo College Glee Club, the oldest university chorale in the country and winner in the 2006 Miltenberg (Germany) Choral Competition and Ateneo Chamber Singers, winner in the 2006 Tolosa (Spain) Choral Contest,will showcase their world-class talent in polyphony and classical music.

Another highlight of the concert is a tribute by the Jesuit Music Ministry artists to Fr. Eddie Hontiveros, SJ, or “Fr. Honti,” the acknowledged Father of Philippine Liturgical Music, who passed away in January 2008. The Mass hymns that Fr. Honti composed in the 1970s, after the Second Vatican Council called for inculturation of the liturgy, continue to be sung in every parish to this day, an enduring testament to the intimacy of his music with the heart of the Filipino and the message of Jesus Christ.

Take and Receive: The First Festival of Ateneo Music marks the Ateneo’s 149th anniversary, the year of “Deepening Spirituality,” the second theme of a three-year
countdown to Ateneo’s 150th anniversary, or sesquicentennial. Ateneo de Manila
University will celebrate its sesquicentennial on December 10, 2009 with the theme “Building the Nation."

--
Mimi D. Agbay
Project Coordinator - Ateneo Sesquicentennial
Phone No.: +632 426.6001 loc. 4083
Mobile No.: +63 917.8933379
http://150.ateneo.edu/

CURRENTLY READING

I have just most recently discovered Günter Grass. The Tin Drum is his first book, printed in 1959. Only last week, I found a flaky copy in a book fair in UP Diliman - for only P100! A 1963 edition. Be still, my beating heart.