New Moon Movie (2009)

The 2nd part of the Twilight Saga, entitled, New Moon is set for release this coming November 30, 2009 according to sources. Officially it is entitled: The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I am sure a lot are so excited about this 2nd part of the saga. This is where Jacob Black gets the main role in Bella's life played by Taylor Lautner, who I believed added 26 lbs of muscle for the role of Jacob Black.

I would just like to share the movie poster that I came across http://www.imdb.com/ when I was surfing for upcoming movies for 2009. Enjoy!!!


Here is the first official trailer of New Moon first shown in MTV Movie Awards, Enjoy!!!

Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange & Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

I finished reading Tithe by Holly Black this weekend and I said to myself: "This isn't the book that I should be reading!" I got a little bored and I feel the story is a little shallow for me. I realized also Valiant, which happens to be book 2 isn't quite the book 2 of Tithe. I think the sequel for Tithe is Ironside which is the 3rd book. I got discouraged and I decided to keep the books for my future reads if ever.

I searched for my stack of "books to read" and I decided to read Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr instead. Wicked Lovely is about faeries as well. So far, I am half-way already as I continuosly read and make my mind wander in a fantasy during the contemporary times, to my surprise I am enjoying it as much as I enjoy reading the Mortal Instruments Trilogy. I know this is not a bad idea of choosing Wicked Lovely in exchange for the books written by Holly Black.

To give you guys a brief plot summary of the novels written by Melissa Marr, I took the summary from http://www.wikipedia.org/

WICKED LOVELY (2007)

Wicked Lovely is the first novel in a series about a world where faeries and mortals intermingle. The story introduces Aislinn, a teen who can see the faeries around her, but who has been taught all her life to pretend not to see them. When Keenan, the faery Summer King, enters her life, he poses a threat to Aislinn's family, friends, and future.

INK EXCHANGE (2008)

The prologue begins by retelling a scene from Wicked Lovely where Leslie walks into a tattoo shop with Irial, King of the Dark Court, narrated from Irial's point of view. The first chapter then shows Leslie preparing for a normal day of school, and it is revealed that she is being neglected by her alcoholic father and that her brother, Ren, is a drug addict. When Leslie reaches school, Aislinn, the protagonist from Wicked Lovely, is shown to have adjusted well to her new life, and Leslie is suspicious of the changes.

Later, Leslie walks into a tattoo parlor and chooses eyes surrounded by wings—the symbol of Irial. Not knowing the significance of the tattoo and its connection to Irial, she feels an odd compulsion to get the tattoo. Rabbit, the owner of the parlor, tells Leslie to come back later, as the ink takes some time to prepare.

The book then cuts to Irial, and it is revealed that the Dark Court needs to feed off dark emotions such as anger, hate, and pain from both Fey and mortals to stay strong and that Irial's solution is to have an ink exchange with a mortal (Leslie) where the Dark Court's blood and tears are used as the ink for the tattoo. This joins them together and allows Irial to use Leslie as a conduit to absorb more emotion and thus be able to feed his court.

When Leslie starts to get her tattoo, Irial is curious about Leslie and approaches her, but Aislinn tries to keep them apart. Simultaneously, Niall is also developing an infatuation with Leslie, even though Aislinn has forbidden Niall to interact too much with Leslie as Aislinn wants Leslie to be kept out of the world of the fey.

It is also revealed that Niall had history with Irial, that he is a "Gancanagh", a faerie with a drug in his skin that mortals become addicted to, and that Irial wanted Niall to rule after him but Niall refused after seeing the horror that happened in the Dark Court bruig (the place where the Dark Court feed off humans, usually killing them or driving them insane in the process), causing Irial to order Gabriel (the leader of the Hounds, Gabriel is the name of the position, not an actual name, e.g. "Gabriel's Hounds") to give Niall the scar on his face. After this, Niall swore fealty to the summer court to escape the things he had done with Irial.

When Leslie's tattoo is complete, Irial takes her away while Niall leaves the Summer Court when he found out that Keenan has been using him and his connection with Irial and Leslie to find out more about the Dark Court. Niall and Leslie meet up and Niall tells Leslie that he has a way of breaking the bond between Irial and her, should she ever want to. When Leslie learns that Irial is killing other mortals to keep her alive, she takes Niall up on his offer. He uses sunlight and frost taken from the Winter and Summer Queens to burn and freeze the link and the tattoo off Leslie.

In the end, both Irial and Niall leave Leslie alone so she can pursue a normal, human life. Irial then hands over his throne to Niall, saying that he is the only Faerie he has found in all these centuries worthy to lead the Dark fey after him, and then Irial swears fealty to Niall. The book ends with Irial walking away thinking he has made a good choice.

FRAGILE ETERNITY (2009)

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone—but that was before Aislinn.

She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her—but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.

In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos."

The Sniper (Edison Chen - 陳冠希)

Edison Koon-Hei Chen (陳冠希) is a Hong Kong-based Canadian Chinese film actor, rapper, Cantopop singer, model, record producer, fashion designer, and a pop icon. Chen is also the founder of CLOT Inc., and the CEO of Clot Media Division Limited. His native language is English, and he speaks a little Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese, which allows him to be a part of multiple entertainment industries around the world. - From Wikipedia

Edison Chen is one of my idols in Hong Kong's entertainment industry, not only is he good and artistic he is very innovative in his ideas when it comes to singing, acting and in fashion as well. However, there was a sex scandal that rocked his career and made an announcement to take an indefinite leave from the entertainment industry in Hong Kong. It saddened a lot of people, guys that consider Edison an idol and a role model and girls that goes crazy in-love over him.

As mom and I were surfing the web, particularly in http://www.yesasia.com/, to my surprise, he has a new DVD coming out this coming May 27, 2009. This new DVD is entitled "The Sniper". He is one of the main cast in this movie. I am hoping this is comeback. I can't wait to get hold of a copy of the new DVD.

Tithe, Valiant & Ironside by Holly Black

I just finished reading Book 3 of the Mortal Instruments: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare this afternoon and it is soooooooo goooood!! The way the book was written, the plot and the characters are all very addicting. I'm sorry Twilight Saga fans, that is nothing compared to this series.

Anyways, I just want to share to you what my next reads are; it is a 3-part series as well written by Holly Black entitled TITHE, VALIANT & IRONSIDE. It is a modern faerie tale story. I know we all got tired of the usual vampire stuff, I do! So this time its about faeries and the Seelie Court.

TITHE

Sixteen-year-old Kaye Fierch is not human, but she doesn't know it. Sure, she knows she's interacted with faeries since she was little--but she never imagined she was one of them, her blond Asian human appearance only a magically crafted cover-up for her true, green-skinned pixie self. First-time author Holly Black explores Kaye's self-discovery and dual worlds in her riveting, suspenseful novel Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. The book has its faults: it slips into shock-value mode; the descriptions are often overwritten (sunset on the water looks like the sun slit his wrists in a bathtub); the language is overly, unnecessarily explicit; and the writing often unpolished. Still, the story's pull is undeniable, and readers under its spell will be hard-pressed to put the book down.

The novel begins in a bar in Philly, where Kaye's alcoholic rock-singer mother's boyfriend tries to kill her. For their own safety, mother and daughter quickly move back to grandma's on the New Jersey shore where Kaye grew up. This ugly turn of events was all rigged by the Faerie world, as it turns out, a world Black describes in deliciously vivid, if rather overblown, detail. Kaye, a drinking, smoking, foul-mouthed high school dropout in the land of mortals, soon finds herself embroiled--as a human sacrifice, no less--in a battle between Faerieland's Seelie and more malevolent Unseelie courts. The beautiful, mysterious knight Roiben, torn between worlds himself, falls in love with Kaye--the brave, clever changeling--against his better judgment. Throughout the electrifying journey to the horrific underworld of this modern faerie fantasy, teen readers will relate to a hard-luck tough girl who feels alienated, discovers her best qualities in the worst of circumstances, and finally finds a place between worlds where she can feel at home. (Ages 13 and older) --Karin Snelson

VALIANT

Grade 9 Up–The author of Tithe(S & S, 2002) returns to her dark, dangerous, and amazing world of Faerie. When 17-year-old Valerie catches her boyfriend and her mother fooling around, she runs away to New York City. There she falls in with a small group of teens who live in the subway tunnels. But there is something more to their stories than that of normal street kids. When Valerie begins to notice odd things about the deliveries they make, and when she meets Ravus, a troll, she understands that there is an entire world that she has never known existed–the world of Faerie. Valerie and her friends begin to steal from Ravus's deliveries, using the Never that he provides to the faeries as a drug. But those who receive the deliveries are being found dead. Is Ravus the poisoner or could it be another of the fantastic creatures they have met? This dark fantasy includes drug use and strong language, but beneath its darkness readers find well-rendered characters, a gripping plot, and pure magic.–Tasha Saecker, Caestecker Public Library, Green Lake, WI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

IRONSIDE

In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing -- her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth -- that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.

***All write-ups and book cover pictures came from http://www.amazon.com/

Star Trek (2009)

I was never a fan of the Star Trek series and I never actually know anything about this sci-fi series. I always compare it to Star Wars, which happens to be one of my favorites, and I always say Star Trek is incomparable to Star Wars. Until recently, when Aileen and I watched the movie in Promenade, Greenhills.

At first, I was kinda hesitant to watch the movie since I am really clueless what Star Trek is and it gives me this feeling that I will not fully understand the movie. I tried reading the write-ups on the internet about the movie and I stumbled upon a statement stating: "If you've never been a fan, you will be when you watch this movie!" This gives me a sudden gush of excitement. The whole day I was thinking of watching the movie and I did. From the time it started until I saw the credits, I never realized the movie is about 2 hrs and 15 mins long. It was that exciting. The entertainment value as well as the cinematic effects were amazing as well. It felt I was part of the crew of the USS Enterprise wherein I got lost in the world of Star Trek. I am not exaggerating. This for me, so far, is the greatest movie I've seen since 2008. A true two-thumbs up, a must-watch, a spectacular movie indeed. Head to your nearest favorite theaters and experience it for yourselves. WOW!!!!

Star Trek stars: Christopher Pine (James T. Kirk - Human), Zachary Quinto (Spock -Vulcan), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu - Human), Eric Bana (Nero - Romulan)

Official Website: http://www.startrekmovie.com

East meets West - Will Pan " 潘玮柏" w/ Akon

We are having dinner and our TV was on Channel [V]. It is showing Taiwan's Top 10. To my surprise, Will (潘玮柏), one of Taiwan's DJ turned singer was No.2 on the chart. Since his first album, I was a fan already. All of his songs are of hip-hop and r&b genre. His new album, entitled 007, carrier single BE WITH YOU is featuring AKON, it is really surprising. Akon, as we all know is very famous already at what he does and now he is collaborating with Will. WOW!!! This is really exciting. I listened to the song, and it. It won't climb to # 2 in the charts if it isn't good right? For a detailed write-up of Will's new album, please visit this website: http://www.yesasia.com/global/007-preorder-version/1019858136-0-0-0-en/info.html

Here is the video: (Will Pan feat. Akon - Be With You)


This is the cover album of Will's new album:

Mortal Instruments Series : Cassandra Clare

I remembered I wrote an article practically for the Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare last April 05, 2009, a month ago from now (http://jonas321.blogspot.com/2009/04/mortal-instruments-series-my-next-read.html) My article includes a brief introduction and synopsis of the three book part series of the Mortal Instruments specifically, City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. It is an urban teen fantasy, the genre that I am currently hooked. Currently, I am on the last few chapters of City of Ashes, book 2 of the said series. I must say I am giving this a two-thumbs up. If I am going to compare this to the Twilight Saga which created a huge impact all over the world, I must say, if you like the saga, then you will surely like this trilogy better. In my own opinion, The Mortal Instruments series is 100 times, if not more, better than the Twilight Saga of Stephenie Meyer. This series has depth, has literary style and the story line is distinct. I can't wait to put my hands on the 3rd book, City of Glass. This is a must-read, a true page-turner.


The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare is available in Fully Booked branches. If you aren't lucky enough to find yourself a copy, go to the customer service and make a reservation. Believe me, that is what I did. It saves a lot of hassle and trouble. This is one book that each fantasy readers should not miss. I recommend this HIGHLY! =)
Sneak peak on my next reads:

A modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black (this is one is kinda eerie....)
1.) Tithe
2.) Valiant
3.) Ironside

An urban fantasy of Faeries by Melissa Marr (this one has romance...)
1.) Wicked Lovely
2.) Ink Exchange
3.) Fragile Eternity

U! Hapy Events presents: Concert for Life for Kids of Shepherd of the Hills Children's Foundation

U! Happy Events presents Concert for Life for Kids of Shepherd of the Hills Children’s Foundation.

Concert for Life will be held on May 16th, 7:00 pm, in the Artists Ballroom of the Heritage Hotel. The venue can welcome 1,000 people! This evening of great entertainment for a cause will serve to inform our guests of the mission and vision of our organizations.

The concert will include special performances by the Kids as well as Acel van Ommen, Kitchie Nadal, Barbie Almalbis and Nyoy Volante.

There will be special participation of Back Street Kids-Christ Commission Fellowship Hand Mime Ministry, Philippine Idol finalist Drae Ybanez, Ericka & Krissy Villongco, Emman Camcam, Magician JB dela Cruz and Johnny John Santos & My Orchestra. Other special guests include Christine Bersola-Babao, Jacq Oda and Jourdan Sebastian. We are waiting for more artists! :)

Founded in 1978, Shepherd of the Hills has been committed to caring for the orphaned and abandoned children of the Philippines for over 30 years.

SOTH’s three year fundraising campaign will begin to generate funds for a building project to provide our children with an arts, music, and sports facility. Funds will also be allocated toward ongoing programs in home life, academics, music, skills training, and community outreach.

We invite U! to be part of this FREE Concert! :) Invite your friends- everyone U! know. Please contact us at 09188884278 or 7034849 if U! are interested to attend or be part of the organizing committee. Please respond. Thank U! :)