My Historic First Live PBA Game

In the movie Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, Billy crystal narrated how he saw his first Yankee game. He shared how he had goosebumps as he entered the tunnel leading out to the stands and seeing the glorious green expanse of the baseball field...finally getting to see his idols Mantle, Berra, and Ford.
I reminds me of a similar feeling when my dad brought me to my first professional sports game. It was November 23, 1980. The PBA ALL FILIPINO CONFERENCE was on at the Araneta coliseum. The lights are not as bright as it is now. They only focused on the court such that you could not see the crowd much. A player I can't recall was warming up by shooting hoops. but that was enough for me. As soon as I entered the door into upper box B, I knew I was in Mecca. I had goosebumps all over. The thought of seeing my heroes in the flesh had finally come.
I was as excited to watch the first game: U-Tex versus San Miguel because it featured my idol Bogs Adornado, who in my opinion is the greatest scorer of all time. San Miguel was a decent team. I can only recall a handful of players from that team: Rudy Lalota, Torrente, Yoyong Martirez and Biboy Ravanes. A guy behind us must have been a big fan (or maybe a relative) of Ravanes because he kept shouting "ala biboy" whenever he had the ball.
Adornado was scoring like mad the whole game. Before that, he held the league scoring record of 54 points in a game. When the night was over , he would finish with 64. A new record and what would be his career best.
Unbelievable. It was my first time to see a game and my idol played the game of his career.
...and oh. The next game wasn't bad at all. It was Crispa and Toyota. 'nuff said.

Favorite Podcast: Tropical Banter

One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is Tropical Banter with Tirso Ripoll and Basti Artadi.
If the name sounds familiar to you then you know your Pinoy rock music. These guys are rock legends and it's awesome that they have a regular podcast.
What makes this podcast great is it's spontaneous: no scripts. The conversation is so natural that it's as if you were sitting at a bar and these two are right beside you. You can even hear them mixing their drinks as they talk, which in my opinion, makes it good radio.
My favorite segments are the "drink of the day" and the "dibidi" review. Look, these guys did not become famous for their bartending skills or for analysing movies...but i'd rather hear what real people drink and what people really watch.
In between, they play and review music and this is what I really like. In the podcast I listened to recently, they play and reviewed Neil Young. They include interesting tidbits about the artist which are not only amusing but also very informative. And yes, they do play a lot Razorback and Wolfgang from time to time.
It's great when they also talk about how the record labels have screwed over artists all this time. As Tirso would say,"we gotta stick it to the MAN".
I am sure some people may not like the "ranting" way that the guys discuss with each other (including expletives that would get fined heavily in the radio world...but perfectly okay with podcasting), but it does make it more authentic and entertaining for me.
Anyway, this is now one of a handful of podcasts that I listen to regularly. I hope they will stick around for a while.
ROCK. ON.

Rugby World Cup 2011

And the rugby world cup has kicked off! Even the bananas are in on the action. For the next two weeks, all the rugby mad nations will converge in New Zealand. I hope the Philippines can qualify soon. Our chances are actually better here than in football...much fewer countries participate in international rugby.

In the meantime, I will be cheering for the Wallabies!

Melbourne CBD: of Trams and Hook Turns

I just felt like posting another picture of the Melbourne CBD. I must have taken a dozen photos of the trams there. This is something that really distinguishes the city over Sydney (which has only buses, aside from trains and ferries. It was also interesting to see a"calesa" with two manong drivers.

The trams are really attractive to look at especially the older ones. But there's one big negative in my book: We couldn't take them because they weren't pram friendly. This is one department where Sydney's buses are better.

I think it's great that Melbourne's transport system is unique from that of Sydney. It adds some variety for visitor to see the sights.

Oh and one thing more...on the picture to the left, notice the white arrow on the road? That;s for hook turns. Cars turning right on an intersection have to be on the leftmost lane. They go halfway across the intersection and then turn following this arrow. That really looks weird and it will probably take me many days before I get used to it.

Bike Share in Melbourne

I found the Bike Share in Melbourne to be one of the coolest things about the city. It's hard not to notice them because they're only 10 minutes away from each other. The design of the racks is also attractive so I'd like to give credit to Melbourne for hiring such great graphic designers (The Melbourne logo, not the one shown here, is comparable to the iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" logo).
I did see a few people using the bike which means these Bike Share stops are not just for display...they're actually useful!
...one question though: do you have to bring your own helmets, or they're not required?

The Staples to Naples Rally

I had a friend who joined this rally in 2006. The annual event required you to drive in a cheap (around 100-200 pounds) car, drive it from England through to France, Switzerland, and end in Naples, Italy.

He and his mates went in an '93 Audi (for 150 pounds!?!). There were 5 of them in the car and I just can't imagine how hard it is to sit in a packed car while driving 1,000 kilometers a day for four days.

He said someone came in a BMW that was covered in astroturf. Another group came ala Ghostbusters. I guess the coolest entry was a van that doubled as a pub...complete with beer dispensers. It's not hard to guess which one was the most popular.

Some guys threw eggs at the other cars...but only at those who were part of the rally. They all had a good time but some went too far and eventually got arrested.

If you're living in that part of the world, you might want to put this on your list!

What is Aussie Football?

I find it hard to join in on the conversation when people are talking about stuff I know nothing about. A favorite topic of conversation in the office kitchen is football. I always thought I could hold my own in sports talk, but this one? Nah...I don't think I can wing my way through Australian football.
So to at least bring myself to an "acceptable" level of Aussie football knowledge, I made the effort to learn as much as I can about it by watching on TV and reading the sports pages.

To begin with, there are actually THREE football codes being played in Australia.

Rugby League is very popular in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD). The dominant professional league is the NRL or National Rugby League. I can only hope to try and explain it in American Football (NFL) terms: It's like a game of running backs (to many Australians, by the way, comparing Rugby league to American football can probably get you in trouble). Forward passes are illegal. Almost all the players have the body of Jerome Bettis(the Bus!). Everyone plays both ways (including kicking!). The game is free flowing and does not have the play stoppages that you have in the NFL between downs.

Another code is Rugby Union. I guess this is the original Rugby code as it is played in more countries around the world. If you saw the movie Invictus (with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman), the game they played there is Rugby Union. The leagues related to this code that I hear most often in Australia is Super 14 where (and I might be wrong here)teams from South Africa and New Zealand are participating. There are also a lot of organized games between countries such as the Bledisloe Cup (exclusively between Australia and New Zealand). There's another one between Australia and England but the name of this series escapes me at the moment.

What's the major difference between League and Union? In Union, the ball is always "live". Even after a player with the ball is tackled, the opposing team can grab and take possession of the ball. So you will notice that the player seems to be tucking the ball in while passing it on to his mate. A Kiwi friend told me that a Rugby Union game can end in a zero-all tie and teams will still be happy because they played well. I really dig how the players put the ball back in play after it goes out of bounds. Players pick up their teammates (like ballet dancers) to help them grab the throw-in.

The third is Aussie Rules football...if I were to explain it to an American, I would say it's a game of wide receivers and punt kickers. A lot of jumping and drop-kicking the ball. It seems like the scoring is just dependent on kicking goals. It is popular in the states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. To give you an idea, if you were to read a paper in Melbourne, you would be lucky to find a small article about the NRL...in contrast to 8 pages of AFL news!

It's interesting to note that there's only one NRL team in Melbourne (the Storm) and it's one of the best teams in the NRL.
On the other hand, Sydney has one AFL team: the Swans. In a newspaper article that I read last year, the Swans are the most popular team in Sydney...beating NRL teams such as the Parramatta Eels and the Sydney Bulldogs. It helps to have the whole city behind you.

There you go. That's a short overview of the different football codes from the point of view of a newbie.

The Apple iPad Keyboard

This is the first post that I am writing from an iPad. Early this week, we finally took the plunge and got ourselves an iPad keyboard from Apple. I'm a classic impulsive buyer but I did my best research with this one: I took the time to read two reviews and watch three video-reviews on youtube of three different brands(I was in a hurry!).

In the end, I did what most "sophisticated buyers" do: I played it safe and went for the one Apple sells. I didn't have to pay more it as it was in the same price range as the others.

There's a couple of reasons not to like this keyboard: You can only use it with the iPad in portrait mode. It's heavy. Looks weird. Takes up too much space in my bag. Wait a minute...that's more than a couple!

Despite all that, it's still an Apple. The least I can expect is it will work right and it really does look cool. The keyboard really looks like that of a Macbook so this might be the closest that I'll ever get to the real McCoy.

Whatever, it's good to finally blog without starting up the PC.

EURO ROCK: The TV Program that "Showed" Us New Wave

EURO ROCK. Do you guys remember this? In the early eighties (1984?), my cousins and I would be stuck on the television every Saturday afternoon for thirty minutes to get our weekly fix of new wave. The thing was, new wave was not popular enough for the TV stations to pickup so no new wave videos for pinoy teens.

The show didn't confine itself to new wave...it is probaby more accurate to show that it was showing alternative brit music (or anything "not" pop). But I associate it more with new wave because this is were I first saw new wave acts.
I have no recollection of their names, but the hosts were two brits. The lead guy was easy to remember because of his wavy brown hair and a moustache that can give John Oates a run for his money. The other bloke was a tall blond guy who resembles the actor Paul Bettany. I wonder what those two guys were doing back in Manila then? Were they married to Pinays? Did they own clubs? Or were they just two bored British Expats who wanted to do something different on weekends (they could be engineers for all in know!).

Anyway, thank god for those two brits: I would otherwise have never seen music videos from the Cure, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Clash, the Sex Pistols (the last two are not new wave but I really liked them), etc… And to think that they showed only two videos a week! But those two videos meant a lot to me.

Wherever you two pommies are: cheers!

(*Can anyone post their shows on Youtube! That would really be cool)

A Great Accessory for Dads: the Ergo carrier

Thousand of young Australian couples have put off having babies. When we went to parenting class, the typical age profile for first time parents was more like between 30 to 40 years old. There must be a thousand reasons but I can tell you about one: young dads just don't want to give up videogames. How can you play God of War or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare when you got both hands tied up carrying baby?

Well that's why they created baby carriers! In my case, we have an Ergo baby carrier that allows me to play NBA 2K11 even though baby needs to be carried. Great for multi tasking 'ey? :)

(thanks for @ajayjorge for this wonderful tip)

The Price of Bananas...Has Gone Bananas!

As you can see from the price tag, bananas are more precious than gold these days. This price seems more apt for the year 2050!
Not that we didn't see it coming: we did foresee a fruit shortage after Queensland was devastated with massive flooding half a year ago. But I didn't expect the price of bananas to go this high (it was $2.98 per kilo before the great flood).

Which is a shame because I really love this fruit. Because of its cost, I have not eaten bananas for months. We've only taken one piece at a time so our baby can have it during her meals (and she loves them!).

I just hope the Queensland farmers can get back their productions soon. They were having a record performance before disaster struck. It's time the farmers get rewarded for sticking it out in a difficult industry...Until then, less banana smoothies for Aussies!

Movie: Inside Job

I used to read the Wall Street Journal which was handed out for free in business school school. This was ten years back. The world was just beginning to recover from the Asian Financial Crisis and the mood was upbeat.

From this newspaper I first began to read of financial jargon like "hedge funds" and names like "Alan Greenspan", "Warren Buffet", "Berkshire Hathaway", "George Soros", "Merril Lynch", "Andersen Consulting", "Exxon-Mobil", "AOL" and "Enron".

Alan Greenspan was the center of attraction in those days. The whole US financial system seemed to ride on his official announcements. The stock market paused before he would make one...and then react immediately after. Don't ask me what he said in those announcements because I read them over and over again and I could not understand a word! 

Fast forward to 2011. The GFC (Global Financial Crisis) happened in September 2008. Major financial houses became bankrupt(including giants previously thought to be unsinkable) and people had no money to pay for their mortgages. What happened? Well I don't think I'm the best person to explain it.

But I did find a movie that gave me a rundown of all that happened from the late 90's to 2008. I heard about INSIDE JOB during the 2011 Academy Awards. I saw the producers accept the award (by the way, one of them is a Filipina) and they said that not one person has gone to jail for the GFC. 

I saw the movie a few weeks ago and I would like to recommend it to you. You can download it off Amazon. I won't attempt to make a review of the movie except to say that the presentation was crisp and not once did I get bored (which is rare for a movie about banking and finance). The movie will show you the role players in this whole mess. I was surprised as some of them were people expected to protect the interests of the public.

Go see the movie and tell me what you think.

Aussie speak: Maccas

In every corner of the world, McDonalds has been given a unique nickname. I only know three though: Mickey-D's in the US. Macdo in the Philippines. And Maccas in Australia. Aussies just like to shorten just about everything. 'Supa Centa' (super center) and Whacka (Whacker) are two of my favorites because they're brand names. Supa Centa is a store while Whacka is a gadget in car washes where you clean your mats by whacking them on it.

Living in the City: Garbage Collection

While walking to work, I saw this garbage truck in action. What's interesting about this particular truck is there's only one guy doing the work: the driver.

Once a week, homeowners are required to wheel out their bins in front of their property for collection. The "wheelie" bins are all issued by the council and have colored lids.

Red- regular household waste

Yellow - recyclable waste (cartons, bottles, paper)

Green - Garden waste (cut grass, leaves, branches, etc...)

The garbage truck comes out once a week to collect the bins. The reason why the council issues the bins is because they are compatible with the trucks hydraulic "arm". No garbage men to help lift the bins onto the trucks.

There must be a million reasons (particularly $'s) for investing in expensive gear to save on manpower costs. Garbage collection personnel are exposed to waste which they handle and are at a higher risk of getting sick. This probably translates to higher insurance costs for these workers. Another reason I could think of is that there may not be too many people available for this occupation (even if wages are higher than average).

Is this service possible for a place like Taytay? The investment cost is likely way above the means of our town. Such a move will also bring several garbage collectors out of work. But then, if we want these men to continue handling garbage, we should provide them with the right working clothes for the conditions they are exposed to. They shouldn't be wearing plain shirts, shorts and slippers ( I wonder how many injuries or health related incidents occur to these men on the job). And if the town were to issue bins to people, how long will it take before they get lost, stolen or worse, sold?

Classic PBA Game : U-Tex and Toyota (1980 First Conference)

I was crazy about the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) when I was growing up. The first game that I really paid attention to turned out to be one of the greatest PBA games ever...That was Game 5 of the 1980 First Conference featuring U-tex and Toyota.

Playing for U-Tex were Bogs Adornado, Lim Eng Beng, Fritz Gaston (a rookie that year from Ateneo), Jimmy Noblezada, and Dave Regullano. There were others whose names I cannot recall at the moment. Their reinforcements (or "imports") were the 6'8" Aaron James and Glenn McDonald. The coach was Tommy Manotoc who, at that time, was also one of the nation's best golfers.

Toyota had Jaworski, Fernandez, Arnaiz, Florencio, Segura, Abe King, Arnie Tuadles, Elmer Legaspi (a crowd favorite), Elmer Bulaong (a bigger crowd favorite), and Rino Salazar. They also had two imports but I can only remember Andy Fields. Their coach was Fort Acuna who was a former teammate of Jawo at Meralco.

This was one of the few championship series, in the early year of the PBA, which was not a Crispa-Toyota affair. Bogs Adornado had just moved from Crispa (where he had won two MVP awards) and was just beginning a comeback after missing almost two years with a serious injury.

The game will be remembered for its final 16 seconds. Toyota was up by four. Although U-Tex was inbounding the ball, it seemed like Toyota had already clinched the series. In fact, I remember the Toyota crowd celebrating already. A streamer had already been unfurled in the gallery section saying "Congratulations to the Toyota Tamaraws! 1980 First Conference Champions". I remember Jaworski waving to the crowd during that final timeout while putting his arm over his wife's shoulder.

U-tex scored a quick two on a layup from Aaron James. Toyota inbounded the ball and took it to the frontcourt. I think the ball was in Tuadles' hands when two U-tex players ganged up on him. He made a bad pass to the other side of the court, and U-tex was able to steal the ball. U-tex was able to tie the game on two free throws and they went into Overtime where U-tex took control and held on to win its first championship. It was a great game and it was amazing to see a crowd go crazy for 48 minutes.

What I found remarkable about that game is how the local players led the scoring. Both Adornado and Lim Eng Beng scored more than 30 points in that game. That would change a few years later when when it became normal for imports to score more than half of the team's points.

I wish the PBA will find a way to show us these classic games. I would subscribe to such a service. Maybe they can sell the games over I-tunes. That would really be cool. For the moment, PBA legends like Ricardo Brown, are posting these games on Youtube for us to remember.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

Elvis Costello is one artist that I will keep watching each time he visits my city. I saw him for the first time two years ago when he performed at the Enmore Theatre. He went solo that time but I was so happy to have finally seen my hero live.



He sang all my favorite songs like "Olivers Army", "Alison", "Veronica" and "What's So Funny Bout (Peace, Love and Understanding)" as well as songs I've never really heard until then.

Tomorrow, he will be performing live at the State Theatre. This time, a band will back him up. My wife will be joining me. Hopefully, she will get to like his music too.