This is a movie made up of voices, and one voice rises above all the others. In director Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” it is the extraordinary voice of 11-year-old Oskar Schell (newcomer Thomas Horn), who is basically talking nonstop for about 75 percent of the movie. But it is when Oskar starts to pause, allowing knowing silence and other voices to rush in to fill the gaps, that “Loud” gains its real footing.
Two huge stages. Fourteen bands. An 8,000 strong, overly enthusiastic crowd. A whopping 12 hours of nonstop music mayhem. This was what took place at Singapore’s Fort Canning Park last Feb. 12 during the last leg of the annual Laneway Music Festival, the Australian/Southeast Asian version of a mini Coachella.
It was to be the last full day in Florence for my mother and me. We were set to fly back to Manila the next morning. In a bizarre act which could only be attributed to jet lag, we had paid to tour Sienna at the very same time that we were supposed to be leaving. It was our hotel manager who alerted us to the problem. Strangely, we were quite aware of our departure date; yet we still made the booking. Somewhere in our brains, a synapse was obviously not working.
I visited the Holy Land for the first time in 1974, after I finished my studies in Germany and Rome. Thirty-seven years later, in January 2012, the Administrative Council of the International Organization of Benedictine Women decided to have its semi-annual meeting in Jerusalem.
Lucy Hale may play a pretty little liar on TV, but during her one-on-one with Super, some minutes before she walked the runway for the Bench OJ Americana fashion show last Feb. 11, she was nothing but honest, candid and sincere.
When news about Lucy Hale being chosen as the next endorser for Bench broke out not too long ago, Pinoy fans of the addicting show “Pretty Little Liars” (where Lucy plays Aria Montgomery) were ecstatic and excited. So when she finally set foot in the country last Feb. 9, fans went crazy, hoping to get a glimpse of the Hollywood star.
Lucy Hale isn’t the only Hollywood star that Bench has enlisted to be the new face of the brand. Joining international Bench endorsers (that include singer Bruno Mars and Michael Trevino of “The Vampire Diaries”) is “American Idol” season 7 runner-up David Archuleta, who—as everyone knows—has been in the Philippines for some time now; he arrived last Jan. 13 to shoot a mini-serye for TV5 called “Nandito Ako.” In the primetime series, he plays Josh, a Fil-Am international singer who returns to the Philippines to find out what happened to his mother, who supposedly died in a fire.
Deborah Lippmann, manicurist to the stars, is actually a star herself. She’s an accomplished jazz singer with two albums.
Lulu Tan-Gan has been known to go against the grain.
It’s only the second month of the year and Milan men’s wear or Pitti Uomo is showing what the “new gentleman ” will be wearing for Winter 2013. After decades of jeans and sneakers, the world-class and street-smart sartorial offerings are edging sportswear from its premium priority to the backwoods of casual Friday and weekend wear.
The latest in global fashion, beauty, and culture through a contemporary Filipino perspective.
