When we met Bela Padilla during the press launch for the Yahoo! OMG Awards, we knew we had to guest her. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, and has a sharp wit about her to boot! So when she got to the station, she was rarin’ to go, and hit the ground running.
Of course we had to have our epic pic. I have no idea why i tried to fit my face into the kettle bell handle, but I guess I’m odd that way. I look like a shmooshed duck. As always, everybody else looks normal.
Then of course came our epic rap-off. We skipped a week and missed one rap-off, mostly due to my “Lindsay Lohan”-ish episode, so we promised to make up for it this week. Hopefully we didn’t disappoint. At least we got it in one take! Again, our endless thanks to @JRhyan for always recording our celebrity guests on video every single time, even though he hadn’t had a stitch of sleep. Duper kaduper thanks Jaime!!!
Bela actually sounds good enough to be on radio. She’s got this really nice “cool chick” timbre to her voice, and she’s got a really adorable laugh that sounds interminable cute on air. Talk about a complete package! Thanks again, Bela!!!
It’s been a busy and hectic week, so although it’s a bit late, here’s my post on the Yassi Pressman guesting with the Kikay Barkada! The girl is cray-cray. She fits in so well with the kikayness and the bitchiness that is the norm in the morning. She may be 17, but she can make sabayan with us whatever it was we were talking about. And she got the zingers as well. Since she’s a great dancer, we thought we should skip the rap-off, and go for a dance-off instead. Here was the hot mess that was the first ever Morning Rush dance battle!
I swear, she’s a ball of energy! As you can see, I went low batt towards the end of the routine! This half-British kid was a handgul, and that’s just the way we like it in the morning! Cray-cray!
As I promised, here’s the more comprehensive account of our Yahoo! OMG Awards experience. When we found out about our nomination, we were so excited and so stoked at the idea of winning this award. It would be special because it’s not so much about the show, but about the supporters of the show and how they can propel any show or celebrity to win in their respective categories. So obviously, we really wanted to win.
(Photo courtesy of @DelamarArias)
On the day of the awards, we really went all-out, like we never really prepared for an event before. We’re all self-confessed fashion victims, so we were thrilled to be styled for the first time by @katerro who gamely rescued us from the fashion police prison. So if ever we seem a little more well put together than usual, it’s all thank to Kat Erro for guiding us to the straight and narrow path, fashion-wise. We’d also like to thank as well Fred Penales and Miguel of Hairshaft for updating our ‘do as always, ever so supportive of our awards-night-look rescue mission.
When we finally got into the SM Arena, we were welcomed by a wall of sound, one area thundering with shrieks of delight: the RUSHERS. We really had goosebumps seeing them there, cheering us on, even having cut-outs of letters forming their battle cry for us (thanks Butterbaby!). We knew they were joining us, but we were simply choked up to see that kind of energy and love coming from them. Here’s a video of them in action:
When the nominees were being flashed one by one on the big screen, my heart was pounding like a jackhammer by then. By the time the winner was about to be flashed, I had a split-second gut feel that we had lost. So when they flashed our show’s photo, the Rushers went wild! I swear, nothing can describe the sheer electric joy we felt at that very moment. It’s a blur to me now, but I remember it feeling SOOO good.
(Photo courtesy of Mark Cerbo of nextjam.blogspot.com)
We went backstage for the interviews with the winners, and by then we had tweeted the great news and we were getting a flood of congratulatory tweets from everyone. We also had our share of celebrity sitings. One went like this: I was sitting down when I felt a kalabit on my shoulder and a meek voice asking, “Excuse me, can I have my book signed?” I said sure and looked up, and it was Shamsey Supsu! Can you imagine how my jaw dropped? She said she listens to the show and so we begged her to have our picture taken with her as well. She was the nicest girl ever! What an unassuming, down-to-earth celebrity. I understand why people love her so much. I hope we can guest her on the show one of these days! She’s definitely on my wishlist.
Backstage, we saw a familiar face – Xian Lim! We said hi, and we could tell from his initial expression that he didn’t recognize us (maybe because we actually looked decent that night). But the moment the recognition clicked, he gave us the biggest smile and even took a picture with us. Such a nice guy.
Of course we took the opportunity to snap a photo with his love team, the beautiful Kim Chiu. Kim was telling us: “Grabe, sobrang fan niyo yan.” Xian was so cool he even took a picture of Gino with Kim. Such feel-good celebs!
We also ran into Gino’s friend Bela Padilla. We definitely squeezed out a promise from her to guest on the show, so I’m hoping she’ll spill some secrets of Gino on air! I can’t wait to have her guest too!
We had so much fun that night, also communing with our co-radio jocks who were there as well. Of course the ever gracious Nicole Hyala and Christsuper, whom we always bump into. There’s just a mutual admiration thing going on there, lots of respect for what each team does on radio. And major props to Boys Night Out, who gamely approached us to congratulate us on the win. Slick Rick even tweeted his congratulations to us. Such a class act, that’s why if ever we were going up against anyone in the industry, it would be quite an honor to be up against them. It was fierce competition, without ever becoming ugly or negative. It just has to be said, congrats as well on a good fight, Boys!
Okay, so we get to the blind item. ALL the celebs we encountered were SUPER nice…except one. She was on her way to her seat when we approached, so maybe she was tired or not in the mood, but when Delle asked if we could have a photo with her, she rolled her eyes and made a face as if she were annoyed. To be fair, she said nothing, but the face spoke volumes. At first I thought I read wrong, but as we were walking away, we all asked each other, “Is it just me, or was she a total *****?” Apparently when we saw her reaction, we all wanted to just say, “Look, if the idea is so offensive to you, then we’re sorry for the intrusion and never mind the picture.” We just assumed that since the whole OMG Awards was about the fans, that most celebs would be okay to approach. Honestly, I’ve met tons of celebs, local and foreign, and not everyone was friendly. I understand that sometimes celebs get tired and are not in the mood, but this is the first time I felt so small interacting with a celeb. She made us feel 2 inches small. In her defense, I’m sure tons of her friends and fans would swear that she’s actually a nice person, but what we saw that night was NOT nice. But then that’s OUR version, we could be absolutely wrong about her. We ourselves are often accused of being suplado/suplada, but it’s only because we’re actually shy. So we’ll think nalang that maybe she’s shy as well and awkward in social situations like us.
UPDATE: Someone told her about the incident and she said she doesn’t remember rolling her eyes at us and so didn’t mean anything by it. She said sorry and no offense meant. And the look was probably because her falsies were bothering her. So I guess that’s that.
But to end on a positive note, everyone else was good vibes that night, the other celebs, the people behind the OMG Awards, and most especially the RUSHERS!!! Even until we left the arena, we met up with them and had a great time taking pictures and chatting (and the occasional teasing about our plus ones). We ended up grabbing a bite to eat to celebrate the victory, and we all slept with the BIGGEST smiles on our faces.
Again, thank you to the OMG Awards, thank you to Monster Radio RX 93.1, and most especially thank you to everyone who voted for us, online and via text, we owe this victory to you guys! Congratulations to us!!!
It was quite a treat having Rocco Nacino over to join the fun on The Morning Rush, because he was very much game to join whatever kulitan we had in store for him! Of course he had his fan sign for the Rushers:
And, every single time we have a guest in the booth, we cannot NOT have an Epic Pic, this one with Rocco gamely showing us his “abs”!
And of course, our now notorious Epic Rap-Off! This was a first, because Rocco joined the Rap-Off, the first guest of ours to actually join in the rapping!
We even had to do a take 2, but it’s all good, it all turned out funny in the end. I didn’t get to enjoy our little Magic Mike moment there, since I didn’t want to flub my part, so watching this was actually the first time I saw what actually happened. Special thanks to @JRhyan for documenting Rocco’s guesting, for posting it on YouTube, and for giving Rocco a copy of our book as a souvenir! Wow, he gets to think of the stuff that we should be on top of. Again, thanks Jaime! I do hope he comes back for seconds, and expect more guestings like Rocco’s in the future! Tell us who you want to have on the show, and if we can wrangle it, we will! Or better yet, if you have contacts to the celebs you want on the show, maybe you can help us out.
The other guy who made delle’s ovary explode TWICE, Matt Bomer, who happens to be in a relationship with Neil Patrick Harris’s former publicist, Simon Halls. They have three sons vis surrogacy, including twins. He has a supporting role in the latest man-flesh extravaganza, “Magic Mike”
And also starred as Darren Criss’s brother in Glee.
When we got word that were invited to the press conference of Joe Jonas (thanks to Bench, especially Lawrence Cua), we were excited to see Joe Jonas on his first ever visit to the Philippines. He’s here to be the latest endorser for Bench, following Michael Trevino and David Archuleta.
After a really HUGE diet-destroying lunch buffet, the host Raymond Gutierrez called out Joe Jonas and he immediately broke straight into a couple of his solo tunes, to the shrieks of the meet and greet fans who were screaming their hearts out. After the songs, Raymond sat down with Joe and had a short interview about his visit to our shores.
After that, the floor was opened to the members of the press for the Q&A, and soon after, it was time for the meet and greet. There was a long queue with all the fans waiting for their turn to have a photo with the singer. It was cool seeing him in the flesh, and he seems to enjoying his Philippine visit so far!
I wanted to crack a joke and tell him: “I love your fruit shakes in Boracay!” But thankfully better judgment prevailed and the lame attempt at humor remained unlaunched.
Despite the hullabaloo with the protests and stuff, of course the Kikay Barkada trooped to the spankin’ brand new Mall Of Asia Arena. It was huge! I just felt special, being part of history as yesterday’s Lady Gaga: The Born This Way Ball concert was the first ever show performed there. We de-virginized the arena.
When we got to the mosh pit (thanks to Smart Social Media, especially Abbie Real and Ana Morada! #SmartLadyGaga) we were greeted by a huge something covered by a silky blue curtain. By the time it started and the curtain fell, we in the audience ooh-ed and aah-ed…
What was revealed behind the curtain was some sort of medieval castle. The first third of the show was mostly pomp and spectacle. Lots of costumes and effects, a veritable assault on the senses! After the grand entrance on a faux horse, Gaga and her entourage were birthed from a giant vajayjay-ish balloon.
From the start she got the audience in a frenzy. The first time she was here we watched her concert and it was bare, spare, with maybe four dancers. This time around they’ve got a castle that opens up to reveal multiple sets, a whole horde of dancers, blink-and-you-miss-it costume changes, the works!
The music was familiar, but the images and scenes were all surreal and dreamlike, sometimes nightmare-ish, but always provocative.
Not to mention this creepy hologram of Gaga that played her nemesis in the drama of some sort of alien battle between this hologram and Gaga’s forces.
The first big moment was when she sang Bad Romance. Everyone was doing the claw dance, and got everyone jumping up and down.
She was wise to space the songs from the first album, knowing that they’re the crowd pleasers, and interspersed them between the lesser known newer songs from the Born This Way album.
Just like the first concert, she was indefatigable, singing live and belting out songs as if her life depended on it. That’s what I like about her, strip off the drama and weirdness, there’s a true singer underneath.
I don’t know if it’s a shtick, but she always comes off as a vulnerable superstar. She’d say stuff like if she suddenly starts crying, it’s only because she’s been traveling for so long and it was taking its toll.
Then after a show of emotion, she turns things around and comes out as a motorcycle.
She was literally part of the motorcycle, and somehow she can maneuver from there. It looked so freaky but amazing at the same time.
It was at this point that she had her emotional moment. She addressed the protests and she simply brushed it off and championed her fight to represent the disenfranchised, in the memory of the many kids who took their lives because they were bullied because they were gay or for some other thing.
She said all that’s important to her is for people to accept each other no matter who they are, what they are. I don’t know if it’s scripted or planned, but it works for me. I saw people actually wiping away tears during that part of the show.
Of course after that, in true Gaga fashion, she starts spreading her legs just to mix things up.
Not to mention being turned into ground meat in a giant meat grinder, to protest how women are treated like meat.
Your head would spin with the number of costume and set changes. The show seemed to have three acts. The spectacular first act, the tender and emotional second act, and the frenetic final act, where the songs and dances reach fever pitch. She went through all her hits (with the exception of Lovegame and Eh Eh).
For her encore, she sang Edge Of Glory and Marry The Night. You’d be left panting after the show being taken for quite a ride. I thoroughly enjoyed it, much more than the first time she was here. As for the controversy, I’d choose love and acceptance over intolerance and judgment any day.
This short interview with Taylor Kitsch launched a thousand and one opinions, from disgust at the Philippine customs, to odium for the John Carter star, but before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, it’s actually Letterman who got it wrong. The movie “Savages” was filmed in Indonesia, not the Philippines. Besides, if Taylor said they were ALL smoking at the customs area, that can’t be us, you can’t smoke in the customs area. Wala lang.
We were thrilled to have Mr. Cash Cab himself in the RX booth, Oli Pettigrew! He’s got this dry wit that’s quite a perfect fit on the show. If you needle him enough, he’s more than willing to oblige with all the antics and anecdotes he has up his sleeve. I’m not sure if our weird little bubble was quite what he expected in an FM radio show. Our little shop of horrors was hopefully not too bizarre for his liking.
I first met Oli last December when I attended Sony’s Uphoria in Singapore. I saw him during the press conference for Train and Mike Posner, and I sheepishly ask for a photo with him. I was quite the fanboy since I always found his quirky hosting humor a refreshing new twist to the usual TV hosts in the region. He also hosted the little singing contest before the concert and he was hilarious talking to the contestants.
Little known factoid, he was actually married in our very own quaint little paradise, Boracay five years ago. And during this trip, they returned to Boracay for Marc Nelson’s birthday celebration, and he surprised his wife with a renewal of vows. Awww…I know, right? He was also game to do an Epic Pic with us, and we were quite in a rush to post it, since it was already 9:30-ish, so we couldn’t really think of a theme. So we decided, just choose any random object, and pose with it. Gino chose the strawberries, I chose the donut, and Delle chose the…uhm…fire extinguisher (WTF?). And Oli, chose to stuff our little dragon into his mouth. Of course it meant nothing, but we teased everyone into guessing what the Epic Pic meant.
It was really a hoot having him on the show. He’s the perfect co-host; if you pass the ball to him, he’ll run with it until he makes a touchdown. That whole “erecting a tent” bit had us in stitches. I really hope he does a show in the Philippines. His hour on the show elicited manic responses on our Twitter account! He’s got the ready fan base, they just need their steady Oli fix. So hopefully we could have him on the show again in the future for more craziness on the air! Maybe he can have a show on RX, and it could be called: “Jack En Poy, Oli Oli Hoy”. Or maybe not.
