Frannywanny

"Ey Fran, do you want to watch Saltimbanco ?" I squealed in delight upon reading this message sent by my high school friend V. Of course I DO! After watching Varekai a year ago, Paul and I instantly became fans of Cirque du Soleil ! In fact, we were planning to catch the show in Macau only to find out that it has ceased operation a few months ago. Imagine how excited we were to hear that another Cirque du Soleil show has arrived in Manila and we got complimentary tickets to watch their Gala Performance! Yahoo! ♥ ♥ ♥ Saltimbanco is one of the longest running shows of Cirque du Soleil . While Varekai was more dramatic and imaginary, expect Saltimbanco to be more fun and colorful. As written in the programme: (The show) explores the urban, cosmopolitan experience, from the hustle and bustle of streets to the towering heights of skyscrapers. The show began with a comedy act that got me laughing and from that moment on I knew I'll definitely have a great time! T...

I grew up in a very musically-inclined family. Aside from our shared love for food, cooking and eating, my relatives are also music lovers and its either one can sing, can play an instrument, or can at least appreciate good music. A proof of this was during our wedding reception where not only one, not two but FIVE family members performed and there were actually still more who wanted to do a song number or two. It can truly be a concert when you put my entire family together. Given that, my sister and I grew up watching musicals and listening to music that my parents would play on their cassette player. Imagine, the first movie that I watched was Sound of Music and I think I watched this over and over again until our Betamax tape gave up on me. My parents are fans of The Carpenters, Beegees, The Platters and ABBA so it's no surprise that my sister and I are very familiar with their songs... some we even memorize by heart. This is one reason why I was so excited when Mommy ...

I can still remember the first time I went to watch a circus act, I was very young then ... too young that I remembered buying a coloring book as a souvenir. Together with my parents and my little sister Pan, we trooped all the way to Araneta Coliseum excited to watch our first local circus show. The place was packed and I remember that we were lucky to get good seats. Good enough for us to see the performers up close. I was enthralled by the flexibility of those doing the trapeze and I held my breath and squeezed my Papa's hand as we watch from one heart-stopping act to the other. It had been more than a decade since but that amazing experience stayed with me forever. Fast forward to the present and I found myself on the way to Quirino Grandstand with Paul last Saturday night as we were both excited to watch Cirque du Soleil's Varekai . It has been a long time since we've watched a circus act and we honestly had no idea what to expect. The only thing we both know is th...

It has been a while since Paul and I went to watch a stage play. The last was the 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee which happened more than a year ago. Oh I can't wait to go and watch another stage play again in order for us to enrich ourselves culturally and musically! Valentine's Day is just around the corner and one good way to spend this red-letter day is by watching one of the multi-awarded theater productions that's coming back to Manila this February! Presenting RENT -- a musical production that is based on Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme . The story revolves around a group of impoverished young artists and musicians living in New York's Lower East Side while dealing with their personal issues and for three of them, as they battle HIV/AIDS. While I have not watched the play myself, but I am familiar with one famous song that I truly love -- Seasons of Love Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments s...