CONCERT ticket prices are going through the roof and not just for the super wealthy who pay thousands of dollars to see the best acts from the front row. Fans of all types are paying more to see their favorite musicians.

FOR ITS third year, Coca-Cola Philippines’ Coke Studio focuses on singing about this generations’ “feels” as it starts airing this Saturday on ABS-CBN,

JULIE (Honor Swinton Byrne), heroine of Joanna Hogg’s latest film The Souvenir, is a fresh-faced youth whose every emotion registers as loudly as a fork dragged across rice paper; the film, on the other hand, is like obsidian glass, dark in tone and emotionally opaque — run a fingernail across its polished gleam and you leave not a mark.

9 films to see on the week of September 13 — September 19, 2019

THE PHILIPPINE Opera Company opens its 20^th anniversary with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1994 Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning musical, Passion, at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza in Makati City on Sept. 15 to 29.

EXCESS was the name of the game when the accredited caterers of the SMX Convention Centers showed off their capabilities in the eighth year of Culinaire.

MOST PEOPLE head to Kobe, Japan just to sample the famous Wagyu beef, but there’s so much more to the capital city of Hyogo Prefecture.

YOU LOVE TRAVELING. You don’t go to just one destination at a time. You are adventurous that way: exploring (or maybe, even doing business) in different cities in different parts of the world at any given time. But then, switching currencies can be such a hassle. Once you get home to the Philippines, you get “bill shock” over the additional charges you had incurred due to multiple conversions from one currency to another.

OKTOBERFEST beer festival which is celebrated in Munich usually from mid-September until the first Sunday of October was first held in 1810 when Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, eventually Ludwig I, created the festival to celebrate his marriage to Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Ludwig I’s reign may not have lasted long — he abdicated in 1848 amid numerous scandals including overspending, repressive policies, and his many affairs with women including the infamous dancer Lola Montez — but at least Oktoberfest endured and we can continue partying.

ENJOY authentic German cuisine alongside free-flowing German beer and music from a Viennese band at Okada Manila in Parañaque City as they celebrate their “true Bavarian” Octoberfest from September 23-28.

WHITE WINE consumption in the Philippines is still way behind red wine, and this ratio is “guestimated” at a lopsided 25:75 in favor of the reds. We are, however, not alone in this phenomenon as several of our Asian neighbors, including South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and China are also red-wine consumption dominant. Despite our tropical weather and high average temperature, Filipinos still like reds over the more refreshing whites. On the other hand, Australia (to name one country) is still 60% white wine consumption, against only 40% red.

BEING in your 30s means finding a partner, settling down, and having children. Or so they say. The expectations for people this age what Company: A Musical Comedy — the first of three Stephen Sondheim musicals to be staged in Metro Manila this year — revolves around.