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Dale Talde is not the only Filipino currently competing in the a reality cooking show. Louross Edralin gave a shout out to all the Filipinos at the of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen. He didn’t strike me  as Filipino during the first few episodes. Actually, I couldn’t really make out whether he was a guy or a girl. I only found out when he was assigned to the men’s team. Five cheftestants have already been eliminated and Edralin is still in the running for the grand  prize of  being the executive chef in Gordon Ramsay’s new Los Angeles restaurant. Continue Reading »

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I’m a big fan of reality TV and this year, the show that has kept me entertained the most has been BravoTV’s Top Chef. The show is currently on its fourth season and the initial crop of 16 cheftestants have been reduced to nine. The current season was filmed in Chicago and the who’s who of the culinary world has appeared on the show to judge – Anthony Bourdain, Ming Tsai to name a few. Top Chef is not available on local TV so depend on torrents to keep up with the series. Since I love to cook myself, it’s great to see the contestants whip out greatly plated dishes despite an unrealistic time frame. I know it sucks that we can’t really taste the food as we’re watching the show and we have to rely on the judges’ comments, but seeing good food and the drama behind the preparation still strikes me as something interesting – even more interesting than seeing who gets the ax next. Continue Reading »

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I-witness is probably the best show on Philippine television. Their documentaries have kept legions of loyal fans into the first few hours of the next day just to see a new take on things.

That’s the reason why news regarding the First I-witness Docu Seminar has been greeted with much anticipation and enthusiasm from fans and amateur documentary junkies alike.

This is the announcement as it appears on Howie Severino‘s blog:

1st I-WITNESS DOCU SEMINAR!
(scheduled for April 5 in Quezon City)

To apply, submit your resume
and a 300-600 word essay in
English or Filipino
about your
favorite I-Witness episode
by email to
iwit.docufest@gmail.com

or snail mail to –

I-Witness, GMA Network Center
Diliman, Quezon City

or drop your resume and essay off at the
I-Witness DVD signing event on March 2 at
Powerbooks Trinoma Mall North EDSA Quezon City.

A total of 80 participants will be chosen for this free seminar.

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Just mere hours after I left my post at the Philippine General Hospital Pediatric Emergency Room, I found myself walking to the National Commission For Culture And The Arts in Intramuros. I signed up for a taping of the NBN 4 show Youth Voice. I’ve been to Youth Voice before but nothing would have prepared me for last Saturday. Instead of shooting at the studio, we were asked to go on location. I’m not really that familiar with Intramuros so it did take a while before I found the NCCA.

It was around the time of the EDSA Revolution anniversary so the organizers were keen on focusing it on that particular part  of history and whether or not the lives of Pinoys were uplifted because of it. UP Manila was set to duke it out with UP Diliman, but as always the case with this show, we’re not really keen on knowing who’s better in debating – its more  of a talk show set in a debate format. No formal winners are named, but the great thing about is they give considerable honorarium for showing up on the set (Hurray!).

But something was different that Saturday. There was an actual audience! A group of about 200 high school students from Araullo High School showed up to watch the show as part of a field trip. These kids weren’t around during the first EDSA  revolution so this puts extra pressure on us to give them the information that would likely mold their perceptions of what that momentous occasion really was. That’s also ironic considering that I wasn’t even a year old during that time.

After the taping, the kids literaly mobbed us. For a moment there, I think I had an inkling of what a celebrity feels while being swarmed by fans. LOL. It definitely caught the six debaters off guard. Debaters are not used to this level of attention. It is only now through shows like Youth Voice and Square Off that debaters are given the chance to appear on TV for their fifteen minutes of fame. The high school students asked us to sign autographs, pose for pictures and even requested for our e-mail addresses (for Friendster purposes)! It was a complete half hour of total chaos of being tugged and shared like a hot commodity.

And of course, I loved every second of it.

They didn’t even need to pay me.

Youth Voice airs this Saturday, March 1, at NBN (Channel 4 – formerly PTV 4) from 7 pm to 8 pm.

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I know this is getting old, but I’m going to be on TV tomorrow – this time for ABS-CBN News Channel’s SQUARE OFF DEBATE CHAMPIONSHIP: THE A.U.D.C. UP Manila will be squaring off with top seed Ateneo de Manila University for the right to an all-expense paid trip to the Asians Universities Debating Championship to be held this May at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

First year  med students Lee Yarcia and Carol Tan will be joining me as the official representatives of UP Manila. Please watch Square Off at ANC (Channel 27 on Sky) from 8 PM to 9  PM. There will be a vote for the texter’s choice award so please vote for me. Hehe.

Wish us luck.

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It’s really hard to not pass judgment on this particular clip.

From the looks of it, the footage seems to have been taken while the people responsible for Wowowee were rehearsing parts of the show. Of course, there’s nothing unusual with people making sure that everything goes smoothly, but you got to admit, if the so-called rehearsal exposes the various ways wherein people can be cheated out of a win, this sort of clip could definitely cause irreparable damage to a show and host’s credibility.

Youtube Link

The most dubious part of the clip shows that the contents of the circular boxes could be changed whimsically. If the content of the box could literally changed from ZERO to 0.5 in plain view of everyone. From the looks of it, it seems like that was the desired effect of the entire exercise. Now what could really warrant that type of rehearsal?

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