Music Comes Alive with MCA Music!

When you mix music + talent with pleasure; you can never go wrong. Last Friday was one of the best days for Philippine music as MCA artists celebrate through a spectacle dubbed "Music Comes Alive" at the Eastwood City Plaza in Quezon City.

Hosted by the not so naughty trio of Tony, Slick and Sam YG aka The boys of Boys Night Out it was destined to be one entertaining evening for everyone. It was a grand showcase of MCA Music's hottest local and foreign acts and we weren't disappointed with their lineup. I even had the chance to interview them before the show and that was real sweet! Honestly I didn't know some of the artists beforehand so this was the perfect thing to do to get to know them and their music.

The Lamars

Only one of the Lamars brothers was there but it was a delight to talk to him that evening. The duo composed of Micah and Dave Lamar is gunning for a Pop Rock Genre and they have been in the industry for three years. They have notable covers which they did on TV and youtube. Born from an Italian-German Mom and a Filipino Dad they didn't have lackluster on the looks department. Talent wise it was so nice to see and hear em perform on stage to tunes from R&B artists which he (Micah) did sing with justice bar none. He told us that they almost had the same voice and they play a lot with throwing out lines since they are a duet (second and first voice arrangements) which proved quite effective on their books. If they had a chance they would want to do a collaboration with Yeng Constantino/Nick Jonas since they've got quite a lot of similarities as far as genres are concerned. Their prod label is the same with Yeng Constantino and Sam Milby. They have an album out called "The Lamars : Kung Pwede Lang" available at all record bars nationwide! You should get it!

Need a sample? Here you go! (One of my favorites when I got to listen to them!)

You can subscribe to them on Youtube here! CLICK THIS


Lica

Discovered on a TV show by THE Phil Collins in Switzerland, this young 14 yo Filipina singer would delight you with hiphop and RnB songs in this side of the world. She's Lica and she's here for the promotional tour of her album "All I Want To Be" under MCA Music and it looks very promising. It was released February this year. Her family hails from Davao (Mom) and Manila (Dad) so you guys better be ready to represent and get her album! Her fans are of different age brackets and I'm not surprised why she even got on stage with the likes of Ms. Lea Salonga, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams and Lara Fabian. She's fluent in French too so in time you'll hear some great songs in that language from her soon!

Here she is in a nice video with crooner Richard Poon! Amazing!

1:43

No I'm not part of the 1:43 but they are a nice bunch of good looking guys. As you may have thought, these guys have been singing their hearts out since December when they released their single Merry Christmas Na, of course they had a lot of airplay and screaming girls at their doorstep... to tell you honestly I wouldn't be surprised. They told me though that they even have haters but they thank them a lot for the media mileage they got from that too. Turning the bad things into positive is pretty neat. They have doing mall shows, going to schools and campuses that they said is their main market. A fact that made them realize that is when they checked out record bars near universities their albums always run out of stock in those locations. They are coming out with more albums soon but in the meantime enjoy TIME FOR LOVE that they just recently launched last April 27; it's out in your favorite record bars now! I listened to them sing before the program and they are quite good; a force to reckon with. They have different musical backgrounds and they admit every day is a learning thing. They don't have that much airplay on public radio but thankful that their connections through social media made them who they are today. If all boybands in the Philippines were this good looking there wouldn't be a single war we have to worry about. If given the chance to pose for Cosmo, they didn't say no! So YES Girls, please take it easy hehe!

Mang Inasal is also supporting local artists and they said they were so lucky to be part of that!

Here you go!

Krissy and Ericka

Charming, cute, sassy, feminine yet VERY powerful voices when seen live, that's Krissy and Ericka. I thought I haven't heard these guys sing before but when I went home and watched their video I remember it being played quite a lot in MYX; and in a nutshell I really like them. It was a treat to have been able to see them in the flesh and not faint (because I was so bad about remembering faces) but that was all good, nobody would catch me if I did that anyway LOL! They've got millions of views on Youtube alone and actually that's where they got discovered. These talented ladies deserve all of these and I'm kinda a short witness to that. They are still young (that's 17 and 18 to you) and got a pretty good future ahead of them. They grew up with teen songs but eventually they want to have more of an acoustic-pop genre. Trivia: One of them has a boyfriend and the other is NBSB. Suitors are around, in and out of showbiz but they make it a point to concentrate on creating music. They adore a lot of songs but Adelle for them is the bomb. They foresee themselves with separate careers soon but for now they are enjoying the ride. They are having the time of their life!

Here's the video I was talking about! Pretty neat!






Tricia Garcia

One of the best memories I had about the 90's (no pun intended to myself about the age!) was actually watching one of those teeny bopper shows in ABS CBN. Tabing Ilog was one of the staple shows in the afternoon and you kinda relate in one or two characters. Now that song is being sung now by Tricia Garcia. She was so nice and talented. She can play the Piano, Guitar and even compose songs! With tracks like Tubig, Walang Salita, Sana Naman and Mamahalin Kita on her latest album... people will surely find their way through her songs. You may find this cliche but when we specifically tried to ask her about her genre she didn't tell us any. She said her brand of music is Honest and Soulful. I believe her in that. Just take a short break from your usual thing and listen... watch this video...

Honest and soulful indeed. For those who want to get a copy of her latest album it's already out on stores. Check her out now!

International Artists Represented Through Fashion

He's a friend and a great fashion designer Lonix Abanil. He's one of the few designers we invited to represent MCA's International Artists through a fashion show in this event. With the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, Jessie J, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and other great artists, one can find inspiration on their music and transform them into great creations. A dose of fashion never hurt anyone in these kind of events, it made it even worthwhile as music from these great artists came to life thorough their dresses and gowns. Sorry I didn't get to meet the other designers, they were very busy at the back stage. Here's a peek at some of them!

Peg: Jennifer Lopez

Peg: Jessie J

Peg: Rihanna

Peg: Lady Gaga

If that wasn't enough they brought Lady Gagita to bring the house down!

See what Music from MCA can do for you?! Congratulations to all their local artists, we have something to look forward to in the Philippine Music Industry! Congratulations MCA!

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MCA Music (Universal Music Philippines)

All about Choices

Sometimes we need to consider a lot of things before putting up a web site. The technology site that I have put up years ago will be going through another phase this year and I'm so excited about it. We already have a domain name in mind and we have created a lot of articles out of the events we went to these past few months. From servers, browsers, networking technologies and corporate news it has turned out very informative to say the least. Though it has accomplished a lot these past few months I have yet to find a web site hosting service that would be able to handle the traffic and bandwidth I require; and it has taken me a long time to get one that would satisfy my needs. I am trying to convene my friends from the IT industry on line to ask them about places I could go to for this and they have come up with a lot of companies. I need to research a lot about this obviously.

Have you ever experienced trouble choosing a name for your site? What particular things did you take in consideration before you went ahead and purchased your domain? If you were in a dilemma over the domain name would you go ahead and choose the obvious ones out of the dictionary or would you prefer a unique one so you can set it into a brand? When choosing a web hosting service provider, do you bother to look at the price points or do you trust them via the reviews they get from consumers?! I may need to look for independent ones that have impeccable customer service because the last thing I would want to have is a company that I wouldn't be able to call if problems arise. I have seen horror stories and I wouldn't want that to happen to my site. If you have invested a lot and made these articles available on the Internet they should at least stay on line all the time!

How about you?! What would you choose?

New on AXN: THE VOICE!

This has been one of the best talent shows that happened to US Television; for once there hasn't been anything like it that concentrated particularly on a blind audition... literally not seeing the contestant and just depending on the talent would take away judgement behaviors on looks alone. Things that might suade someone to vote because they just look good even if they sound mediocre would be out of the question. Professionals that don't have existing contracts yet with any record company were asked to audition and join this competition bringing them into teams representing six great artists of this time... this would be one heck of a talent show unparalleled anywhere else in the world... this is THE VOICE!

It has now reached Philippine shores through the one and only cable network that brings world class shows for Asia... AXN. Imagine 4 swiveling chairs containing the best in the industry with names like Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green (of famed single Forget You!), R&B diva Christina Aguilera and legendary country singer Blake Shelton. Be there as they decide 8 hopeful individuals to join their team in the finals. The big twist is they can actually be the ones to pit with each other if they find one or more contestants to be at par with their standards. When two or more chairs turn around for the contestant, the contestant has the right to choose who among the judges would play mentor... and I've seen a couple of them fight for that right. However if no chairs turn, it would mean a resounding GOODBYE for that contestant... something both parties wouldn't want to happen; but it did happen a lot during the preliminaries unfortunately.

Adam Noah Levine, one of my idols from Maroon 5 is one of the judges in THE VOICE. Watch as he clashes with opinions from other world renowned singers! Will his team win on this show?! Find out soon on AXN!

How do they win in the Finals?! That's where it gets sweeter. Teams will be pit against each other as each mentor shows their protege's to the world with what they will perform. The contestant who gets a lot of ITunes download/purchase would win the competition and the US$ 100,000 record deal FTW! They will however lose 2 of their members if they win for that particular week.

Christina Aguilera, one of four judges who will make a mark on THE VOICE, a new singing competition to be shown on Asia's best channel AXN!

Hosting the show is TRL's old (not in age) Carson Daly. Here's a clip from the Associated Press on his initial views about the show.

AXN will air a special two-hour hour show of The Voice this August 21st at 8PM and every Sunday hereafter. That's also 8PM in SG, MY, HK and 7pm JKT Indonesia. Watch out for that!

By the way! There are also big programs coming out in August for AXN, AXN Beyond, and ANIMAX. They're not holding back either because you'll see Teen Wolf, one of my favorite anime's Busuo Renkin, the stylist goddess Rachel Zoe's project and Top Chef. Why else would you want to watch elsewhere when they've got all of em here!

They even went all out on their Philippine Launch party over at AIM in Makati. I love how they made everyone be judges and experience the show on our own. We also had our version of the contest and the prizes were no joke! The watch was REALLY expensive LOL! Although I would have wished I won that one... really I do! =)

This was the part where they were explaining to us the ratings in US television's granularity. It got a lot of views on it's first season.

New shows and the current great shows will be retained next month. AXN is truly going to be exciting!

They made us experience how to be judges in this show. We became instant judges!

We did the blind judging too! Imagine how everyone voted for the contestants! They counted people who stood up for their choices! One lucky person won a very classy watch!

Thank you SO MUCH to AXN for that one! They even flew straight from Singapore just to be here on this momentous event!

Need I say more?! Watch shows on AXN okay?!


Capisce?!


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Meeting Yeng Constantino

I watched Pinoy Dream Academy a few years ago and in some whiz of nature I wanted to actually join that competition. I'm a song writer/lyricist but I haven't gone out of my way and put music to some of my creations because I'm handicapped in picking up instruments even though I know what it'll sound in my head. This is why I'm so envious of Yeng Constantino. Aside from her off the wall understanding of her craft, she's one badass songwriter and singer. It was indeed an honor to have met her in person last week. I've asked a couple of questions too and she never hesitated to tell me point blank about what she's done so far; years after her win in PDA. Some small disappointments or challenges never stopped her from fulfilling her dreams. So from the success of her first concert, here she is again in "RakenRol Jamming" slated August 5, Friday at 8PM. This is her second major concert and I'm so excited that I'm going!

She was so nice. I never felt any aura of divaness (if there is such a word) from her. She was very willing to talk intimately while she sat with us at lunch. Now I know why she is well loved by her minions; she's genuinely nice and candid. I see the difference between her and some other stars, she loved her craft and she wants to pay homage to what she believes is true to her music. She says she owes to her fans and believes that the right formula is staying to her roots and genre, a fact that put her in a Pop Rock Princess title when she started!

I loved how she showed us her newest baby! From Star Records comes "YENG VERSIONS LIVE". It's a compilation of 70's, 80's and 90's music. All of these were done on her terms so Yengsters and everyone should expect the best recordings of her performances then and now. I'm so excited for her, she was so proud to see this new album that afternoon. I'm sure when they see the concert at the ALIW theater she'll give them one heck of a dosage of what Yeng Constantino really is. They gave her lee way to do her version of Florante, Eheads, Blue Jeans, Apo, and Yano's music. Just imagine those classic hits brought to life again from the one and only Pop Rock Princess of the Philippines!

Here's an excerpt of the interview!

To Ms. Yeng Constantino, thank you so much for the chance to interview you. You are a very genuine person and I'm sure you'll go a long way in the music industry! Continue doing what you do best because that's how everyone loved you in the first place... Everybody is eagerly awaiting your concert in ALIW Theater this August 5. Ngayon pa lang CONGRATULATIONS! :)

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Yeng Constantino

The Proposal

It was a big secret and I was into it. I didn't really know what would happen that day; but since he's my cousin I went ahead and said yes for all the wrong (of course not!) and right reasons. I was happy for him and true enough we went ahead with the plan. The plan was for him to settle down but this wasn't an ordinary way to do it! He's got their engagement rings set, wedding rings and the whole brouhaha organized in just a couple of days. I was so glad to be a part of it!

I went up this huge building over the metro's business district and waited an hour or two. It was a radio station and the DJ was a friend of my cousin. They talked about this already so I didn't really have to brief them. When they arrived everyone became nervous. I didn't know how to shoot them secretly or even look at them straight in the eye. Since I was there already I just went with the flow. The DJ started a topic about traffic and higher toll fees during the show while we sat on the side and listened. They asked a question or two from callers and proceeded to ask my cousin. They pretended to ask around again and did it to the pretty young lady in this story. She didn't even want to move to the microphone and begged off to be aired on national radio. When she did they asked more questions. My cousin almost fainted from nervousness but went ahead and popped the question. Out came the gorgeous ring and she was really surprised! People became teary eyed in the station. I started shooting and even tried to manage to get a video recording. The moments were precious and I didn't want to lose any detail. It was heartwarming and something out of the ordinary. She gave a resounding YES to him. We smiled, he got relieved and cried (of course he won't admit that!). It was nice to see them so in love with each other. It was one of the nicest things I've ever seen in my life. I'm happy for my cousin and his fiancée. Really happy!


They just asked everyone to save the date on January and I'm sure this will be so much fun! I'm very happy his fiancée will soon be part of our family. I hope for the best on their wedding day!

Congratulations!

Shopping, Transferring Funds Online Made Easy Through the eMoney XChange Service

Online transactions are very risky and I know how Filipinos tend to shy away from purchasing things online; but in this day and age there are SO MANY BANKS/SERVICES OUT THERE that you can't decide where to go to and how. This is what network giant Globe (G-Xchange, Inc. thru GCASH Services) and banking powerhouse Unionbank of the Philippines (EON, E-Wallet, ePayCard, Savings and Checking Accounts) are gunning to simplify. Watch how they do this now with better choices and naxinizw Internet related secured connectivity.

Purchasing through online retail stores like Amazon, Ebay or Multiply these card and GCASH services are but of a normal sight. Some prefer GCASH or the EON Card/Visa services or Paypal debit transactions in order to pay for products they want to buy. This is a huge market indeed and in order to make things better for all consumers G-Xchange and Union Bank of the Philippines joined forces to bring you a partnership that would benefit all of us... it's called eMoney XCHANGE.

Let me tell you why online shoppers and bloggers prefer UNIONBANK's EON Card first over the other banks. First of all, there are only a few reputable paying services in the United States/Philippines and if you are getting financial transactions over the Internet the preferred medium is Paypal. Before you can get your Paypal Account registered it asks for a bank number. This particular number isn't normally given nor well known by banks. This information is readily available though on the Internet for UNIONBANK of the Philippines and they only charge a very minimal amount every time you transfer funds. The EON card is the best in the market for this function. Probably 80% of social media users like me use their EON Card because they only charge 50 pesos for it plus no maintaining balance to worry about. The 250 peso fee per annum is so cheap. Did you know that the other banks would charge you a whopping 250 - to a few thousand of pesos per transaction just for that function alone to work? That's a holdup in my dictionary. This card also connected to Bancnet/Megalink/Expressnet so you get the easiest ways to pay for your bills and local purchases (if you want to use it as a debit card). Do you now see my point why why I chose to get an EON Card?

Globe on the other hand through it's subsidiary G-Xchange Incorporated's GCASH has been making Filipino lives easier these past few years. Remittances (from OFW's and your relatives) and purchases in the local market has been done on this medium and preferred by more establishments - websites nationwide. I use it to even purchase products for photography on merchant place Multiply and haven't got any hitches at all. If there's a partner establishment outside the Philippines I'm sure it will be easy to get your money to the Philippines with GCASH facilities less the humongous bank fees associated with that. With this synnergy Globe is excited to partner up with Union Bank of the Philippines and make things better for you and me. You can now transfer funds from the EON Card and your Globe Handyphone!

How?! That's Easy!

To transfer Money from your Globe GCASH wallet to your preferred Union Bank of the Philippines Account just text G2U space and send it to 2318. This will only charge you 7.50 pesos per transaction. If you want to transfer funds from your Union Bank Account to your Globe GCASH Wallet Text U2G space and send it to 2318 also. Same charges apply. To inquire for your balance in the Union Bank account just text BAL to 2318 and they will charge you only 2.50 pesos for that! Isn't that a steal?!

If you haven't activated your GCASH services on your Globe Handyphone here's how!

Go to the Globe Postpaid and Prepaid Icon (Settings>Phone>Sim Applications if you are using an IPHONE). In the GCASH menu select Register and follow the instructions indicated. You can now easily put funds on your GCASH Wallet through available 18,000++ stores nationwide.

How do I enroll to the Service?!

Call Union Bank of the Philippines at their customer hotline number 841-86-00 and register your account and Globe Mobile number. You shall receive a text message containing instructions on how to activate it. Please visit their website for more information!

With the addition of these services to their current portfolio, Globe and Union Bank of the Philippines would service more small to medium enterprise/small depositors and make their lives easier with this cooperation. In the end they only want to take care of their customers, I'm one of them; and hopefully you would soon be too!

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or call 2882 for FREE from your Globe or TM mobile phone for more information.



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Kapish?!