Music induced nostalgia

Currently listening to "FIJI".


I miss the beach, the island breeze, the laid back-wear slippers-shades-one layer of clothing feel. It's like a love affair where the consequences consist of tans, genuine smiles and desire to find the closet available pair of coconut trees to hang your hammock.

Bakitwhy.com

As some of you may know, I'm not exclusive to my own blog but I do write entries in several other *blogs. Recently I wrote an entry regarding Barkada Inc's documentation of Bakitwhy's Mixer in San Francisco.

For the uninitiated, Bakitwhy(.com) is an organization that promotes, cultivates and but certainly not limited to, discovering talented Filipino Americans while promoting the Filipino American lifestyle. As I mentioned, it's not limited to just Filipino Americans, it extends to Filipinos in general.

Our film team, Barkada Inc., was fortunately enough to attend the Mixer and we had a great time. If you're interested in viewing the vlog, it's available on Youtube & Vimeo. In any event, we were excited to find out that Bakitwhy has decided to post our video and give us a quick shout out on their website! I, for one, am stoked. Here's a screenshot of their front page with our video hosted.

If you're a Filipino please take the time to visit their site. Actually, even if you're non-Filipinos but find interest in learning more about the culture, then by all means, visit them at: HTTP://WWW.BAKITWHY.COM

*http://www.barkadainc.com/blog
*http://babnikmovie.com/blog

Cheers with Peers

Due to the nature of my career path, I'm always mixed with an assortment of people. They say networking is one of the most important aspects of an actor's job but to what degree? How aggressive should the networking be? I'd like to think that you should only push far enough that you're not putting yourself in a position where you're not presenting the most truthful representation of yourself.


October moving into November has been an exciting ride for me. Not only have I been a slew of new people but I've also reinforced some of the recent friendships I came across during the last 48hr Film Festival in San Jose. Not even a year ago Cinequest was in town and I remember whispering to myself that one day I'll be fortunate enough to work with a director whose work was presented in the festival.

Boom, enter Alejandro Adams. A wonderful man, a terrific director and one whose work I do enjoy. You may remember a previous entry I made in regards to his current film, Babnik. I look forward to working with him again soon.

Last weekend in a very interesting turn of events, I was, again fortunate enough to work with a crew I've looked forward to meeting. The folks at EyeQ Films offered me the chance to work with them on a few videos for the Dorito's contest! You'll see the results of our hard work soon. While I could go into detail about what who's and what's, I'll save that for another entry when our vids are actually online. In the meantime, here's a short they entered into the last 48hr Film Festival: The Animals

I guess what I'm trying to say is, when you're building bridges...make sure you build it good and strong.

"Benchies" [short film]

A short film I put together after Alana and I visited the CAS: California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. We had a great time! Just as we were leaving, Alana decides to change her roll of film allowing me a small window of time to film. Enjoy.


Benchies from Tasi Alabastro on Vimeo.

My San Francisco reTreat Itinerary

I find that when I have a lot of information to write about it's easier to just write a list of the main things I'd like to talk about. Go figure. So here's my list!

My San Francisco reTreat pt. I

1. BART Hustle
2. Noah's Bagels
3. Homeless Man
4. Ginny + Hans Thacher Clark - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Thacher_Clarke)
5.Trolley Yard
6. Pier Personalities

My San Francisco reTreat pt. II

7. Mood Thai Restaurant
8. Coit Tower
9. Washington Park(?)
10. China Town Walk Through
11. Homeless Man
12. The Wrap Up

Now...do I actually feel like writing about it? The answer, not currently! So stay tuned. Yep, I know, I'm such a tease. *winks*

Ideas

It's probably safe to assume that every one of you have had ideas come to you in the least opportune time. It sucks, right? Especially when there's no paper to write that on or no one is answering your phone calls. Anyway, I haven't been in a very creative mood lately but the other day as I was brushing my teeth this superb idea flaunted into my brain.

It lingered long enough that it tricked me into thinking I would remember the exact details. Then it turned around and stabbed me in the back! All I know now is that I had a great idea when I was brushing my teeth. BLARGH! Anyway, there hasn't been a lot going on in my life. San Jose couldn't be more boring. Well, maybe it could, when the power goes out. Which it did the other week. Two hours it was out, I sat with one candle lit and listened. I mean, REALLY listened. My ears picked up all sorts of rickety outdoorsy sounds.

I couldn't complain actually, it was quite soothing.

The Foreigner opened at San Jose Repertory Theatre and I had the pleasure of experiencing it last saturday. I have NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING bad to say about it...or anything critical. The show was amazing. I highly recommend it if you're in the Bay Area. The actors were superb and had memorable performances. The Tech was fantastic and exuded experience and creativity. I'm likely to see it again. Furthermore, prior to the show I had a terrific conversation with Ken Ruta, a local Bay Area actor who is full of epic stories. I look forward to meeting him again in the future.

Finally, I've managed to get my hands on Adobe Premiere Pro and I have to say, it's quite addicted to work on. It's affecting me the way Photoshop does sometimes, i.e. sleepless nights, nagging ideas, and hunger to improve. The only disappointment I'm feeling is the fact that I haven't auditioned for Live Theatre in such a long time (a couple months at least) because of this awful double edge schedule I'm maintaining with my brother.

Alas, I'll have more chances in the future. In the meantime, I have film, adobe, work and ideas that escape me to keep me looking forward to the next day.

Callbacks are hot!

Hearing someone say "We'd like you at the Callbacks" is probably one of the hottest things an actor (or performer) can hear, well...second to "You're hired, rehearsals start at..." I went to an audition the other day for Northside Theatre Company's "Picasso at Lapin Agile". The play is about the evening Albert Einstein meets Pablo Picasso in a bar in France. There's a wonderful array of characters and the one I ended up reading for was for Charles Dabernow Schmendimen, an idiot inventor, who provides additional comic relief to an already laugh out loud show.

At any rate, I attended the Callbacks today ran into one other person (that I was aware of) that read for the role. At the end, I wasn't feeling too great about my chances. It felt like I could've done more while on stage--but in practice I always allow myself five to ten minutes to really dwell on it before moving on. Onward, as I've mentioned in the past. Onward.

I had plenty of fun with it though, the fact that two cast mates AND the director of my current show, Pandemonium, were present really made for a comfortable atmosphere. The three of us, sans-director, ended up dining at Pasta Pomodoro. The latter being useless information. Aside from this exciting event, I've been spending my days squeezing some creative juices into Photoshop and listening to some old school Mariah Carey. YES....Mariah Carey. What? She was great! Well--whatever, I'm going to post a video of hers and you're going to like it! So there, neener neener neener.

Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker ft. Jay-Z

Quick question...

What do Ninjas, Google, and James Lipton have in common? They all made me laugh last week. My ribs hurt and my eyes watered. I absolutely have to share these Youtube gems...







That is all. I just thought I'd share.