Tag: Zsarlene B. Chua

LAZADA Philippines is confident of sustaining growth in the country, which has been aided in part by the declining cost of internet access and mobile devices.

IN CELEBRATION of World Poetry Day, the 80-year-old Kamuning Bakery and Café in Quezon City is offering coffee in exchange for original poetry in any language or dialect on March 21.

ATUL KHATRI was the CEO of his family-run IT business (Kaytek Computer Services Private Limited) but at the age of 43, boredom and a midlife crisis got to him and he started doing stand-up comedy — initially just to tick it off his bucket list, but he found that he had a real knack for comedy, Then, after 25 years in the company, he chucked it all in favor of making people laugh. Before he knew it, he had gone around the world, performing more than 400 shows.

THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) Delegation to the Philippines has brought the EU Earth Observation Copernicus Programme to the country in hopes that the data will help the Philippines address environmental monitoring requirements in various industries and sectors.

A 20-FOOT inflatable sculpture of a girl hugging a goat and a four-foot tall perfume bottle are some of the artworks to be displayed at this Sunday’s Art in the Park fair at the Jaime Velasquez Park in Salcedo Village, Makati.

THE Sinag Maynila International Film Festival is back for its fifth year, promising to present “diverse and compelling” film starting April 4 in select cinemas. This year’s festival will have five full-length feature films, 10 short films, and five documentaries.

THE country’s queen of Jazz, Annie Brazil (born Justiniana Bulawin), died of pneumonia at the age of 85 on the afternoon of March 5 in Quezon City, her children — singers Richard James B. Merk and singer Rachel Anne Wolfe, and Raffy Wolfe — confirmed in separate Facebook posts on the day of her passing.

HONG KONG-BASED technology company Lenovo has opened its first Legion concept store in the country in an attempt to strengthen the company’s local gaming segment.

FOR its fifth year, the biennial Manila Improv Festival will feature 58 improv acts from all over the world, performing from March 27 to March 31 at the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) Theater Center in Quezon City.

LET’S face it, Whiskey Cavalier isn’t the most imposing code name for a special agent, in fact, the moment this writer heard the name I thought, “that’s an awfully romantically cheesy name for an FBI special agent” and then after I watched the pilot, I realized that his code name fits him to an absolute T and it’s hilarious.

IN EARLY February, one of the country’s most prominent film directors — Erik Matti — bemoaned the state of Philippine cinema, saying that despite the “industry being the busiest [it has been] in the past three years” only a handful of movies have achieved box office success. He called his lengthy Facebook post on Feb. 7 a “plea for help” for the government to intervene to save the industry.

“[WE’VE ANSWERED] their prayers,” a McDonald’s Philippines executive told reporters, referring to the addition of four new limited edition items inspired by popular menu items in Japan to its Philippine menu starting today, Feb. 27.

THE National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) ends this year’s National Arts Month by awarding 55 artists in various fields at its annual Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors), to be held today at the Diamond Hotel in Malate, Manila.

AFTER AN absence spanning more than 20 years, the Hilton brand has returned to the Philippines, with its hotel at Resorts World Manila offering its signature “upper upscale” service for its patrons.

AN ANIMATED adaptation of Sonny Liew’s 2015 Singaporean graphic novel about a fictional comic book artist living in postwar Singapore, won in the first Animation Du Monde workshop in Asia which allows the adaptation to be brought to the Annecy International Animation Film Market (MIFA) to pitch the concept to international co-producers and investors.

MAKATI’S grand dame, The Peninsula Manila, has gained a five-star rating from Forbes Travel Guide thus making the Hong Kong-based Peninsula brand the first hotel company in the world to garner five stars across all its properties.

AFTER a successful first season last year, Magsasaka TV, the weekly TV show about “embracing agribusiness and tourism through the immense possibilities and power of farming,” is back for a second season every Sunday on a new network.

THE seventh installment of Conrad Manila’s “Of Art and Wine” series, aptly called Art Harvest, is the hotel’s biggest exhibit to date, with artist Ross Capili curating 64 works of art by 32 contemporary Filipino artists. The show runs until March 9 at the hotel’s Gallery C.

IN celebration of National Arts Month, the BPI Foundation is showcasing works from 14 of the 17 National Artists for Visual Arts until May 19 in its Images of Nation exhibit at the third floor galleries of the Ayala Museum in Makati City.

THE Tourism Authority of Thailand is expecting that more visitors from the Philippines will be visiting the Land of Smiles in 2019 after a good showing in 2018, with an executive from the tourism authority said that they will be promoting secondary cities this year in order for tourists to discover more of Thailand.

THE Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) kicks off the centenary of Philippine Cinema by awarding 86 filmmakers, films, and artists in the third installment of its Film Ambassadors’ Night held last Sunday in the Samsung Hall of SM Aura in Taguig City.

TECH GIANT Google has partnered with PLDT, Inc. and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. for the establishment of “open, free and high quality Internet access” in 50 locations around the country.

ENTERTAINMENT industry stalwart, patron of the arts, actress, singer and promoter of the kundiman, Armida Siguion-Reyna took her final bow on the afternoon of Jan. 11, passing away at the age of 88 at the Makati Medical Center after a battle with cancer, according to her sister, Irma Potenciano.

THE Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) has unveiled plans to create an online box office tracking system in order to “take the guesswork out of box office grosses,” according to the council’s chief executive.

ROBINSONS Land Corp. (RLC) ended 2018 by opening its 51^st mall -- the 80,000 square meter Robinsons Place Valencia in Valencia City, Bukidnon, a second-class city with a population of more than 20,000 people.

SMART Communications Inc. has finally ventured into the realm of web series as it introduces Find Her, a seven-part miniseries about the role of technology in romance, which drops its first episodes on Feb. 9 on Smart’s YouTube channel.

AFTER merely a year of operations, “glorified turo-turo” restaurant concept Bench Café, is set to open more locations within the year after its second branch opened in Greenbelt 3, Makati City this month and the success it garnered at the flagship branch in Bonifacio Global City (BGC)in Taguig.

THE 15-year-old snack bar brand, New York Fries & Dips (NYFD), is looking to appeal to a wider range of customers this year as the brand, now under a new management, aims to open 100 branches nationwide, according to a company executive.

FILIPINOS love Original Pilipino Music (OPM) and they also love love — that was one of the observations made by Spotify regional executives which led them to launch their newest campaign, Spotify Jams: OPM Love Songs, where popular singers and bands cover classic Filipino hits from yesteryears.

CELEBRATE the year of the Earth Pig with a meal meant to bring forth wealth, health, and prosperity at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria’s Xin Tian Di today.

THIS YEAR is all about “tycoons, thespians and a tot,” as Stargate Media Corp.’s PeopleAsia names 17 People of the Year awardees, a roster which includes Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz and Presidential adviser on entrepreneurship, Jose Maria “Joey” Concepcion III.

THE Philippine unit of Japanese electronics company Panasonic Corp. expects a slowdown in growth this year, amid concerns over the government’s proposal to rationalize fiscal incentives as part of the tax reform program.

ORIGINAL PILIPINO MUSIC (OPM) is set to hit 10 billion streams globally, according to a statement by music streaming service, Spotify.

FOR ONE night, Resorts World Manila is bringing two of the most prominent names in the Philippine rock scene as it presents Ely Buendia and the Itchyworms: Greatest Hits on Feb. 9 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater.

FILIPINO jazz musician and producer Bob Aves passed away on the night of Jan. 14 in Bacolod City. He was 64 years old.

RAZORBACK drummer, Brian C. Velasco, died of suicide Wednesday morning in Manila. He was 41.

WHILE MANY viewers may have already moved on to Netflix’s comedy series Sex Education as their next binge, Lifetime’s YOU is reminding viewers why they loved the crime/psychological thriller which the streaming service premiered on December 2018. The show sheds light on how much people share on their social media accounts and how they interact with it.

THE 44^th Metro Manila Film Festival drew to a successful close on Jan. 7, with the festival’s chairman announcing that they had not only surpassed last year’s gross but also recorded the highest ever take in the film festival’s history.

SOME OF the best singers in the Philippines will pay tribute to newly minted National Artist for Music Raymundo “Ryan” Cayabyab on Jan. 18 at the Globe Auditorium of the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

THE OUTLOOK for tourist arrivals in 2019 is more positive now that the industry has put the Boracay closure behind it and as airlines add connections to the Philippines, industry officials said.

IT IS a universally acknowledged truth that when January rolls in, gym membership spikes with many people trying to fulfill their “new year, new me” resolutions or to simply burn away all those holiday calories.

A FEW days before 2018 ended, global internet streaming service Netflix and the people behind sci-fi series Black Mirror decided to release their most ambitious project yet — an interactive film called Bandersnatch, which immediately, it caught viewers’ fancy. It presents an intriguing, yet familiar, proposition, especially for those who grew up reading Choose Your Own Adventure books published by Bantam Books from 1979.

AT THE tail end of 2018, Korean skincare cult favorite Dear, Klairs, officially launched in the Philippines with the presence of its brick-and-mortar shelves in select Watsons and BeautyBar stores in the country.

FILIPINOS love love stories, So it comes as no surprise that this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival had three romantic entries: Mary, Marry Me by Paul Soriano, One Great Love by Eric Quizon, and the focus of this review, The Girl in the Orange Dress by Jay Abello.

THIS year, Jose Marie “Vice Ganda” Viceral’s entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) might have avoided the overly obvious product placements of his previous outings, but the people behind the film still made sure their film, Fantastica, would suck in all that blockbuster moolah by stuffing in as many big stars and cameos as they could in the almost two hour-long film.