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For the past 21 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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TO MAKE the Fil Am music scene work, it needs the support of five groups: the artists, the producers, the media, the fans, and the venues. Music scenes take off when these factors bond together and pursue glory.
As of now, everything seems to be in proper place except for one - the venues.
We have great talented and hardworking artists in the scene, we have producers who invest money and effort to give these artists gigs, we are starting to get media attention through print and television, we have supporters buying tickets and CDs to support the artists but some Filipino-owned venues are still resistant to the idea of letting Fil Am artists, who play all original songs, do gigs at their clubs. These club owners still has the silly idea that artists who doesn’t play cover tunes cannot bring in money into their registers.
Last year, one venue in Jersey City took the road less traveled by and let Fil Am artists play at their new restaurant. Their deed was no less than heroic. The place was called Dampa and it was owned and managed by the De Guzman brothers , who supported Fil Am artists all the way to the end.
True, Dampa no longer exists. They decided to fold after a brief stint. But what they did last year was one of the reasons why there’s such a healthy Fil Am community of artists here in the east coast. Dampa was were artists mingled with fellow artists and developed strong friendships that remains long after the joint closed.
It was at Dampa where The Kuwagos, Bleud, Warholsoup, The Happy Analogues, The Grudge, Rubberband and the others played regularly. It was also there were they have developed new followers within the small area of the famed resto.
In fact, the first ever grand eyeball of the now huge community of Fil Am artists - www.poptimesmagazine.com, was held at Dampa. It was during the shooting of Bleud’s music video for their single, ‘Animé Girl’, when poptimers from all over came in and joined the shoot.
Last Saturday, that music video was premiered at a new Fil Am-owned venue called Wuzzup Café in Bergenfield, NJ. Perhaps, the music video for Animé Girl, contains the only remaining images of a venue that was once aptly called ‘the home of Fil Am music’.
I miss Dampa. I miss a venue that believes in the Fil Am artist, regardless of any monetary reward.
Some of the existing venues now only see the color of money. They look at Fil Am artists as jukeboxes that provide music to their dinning customers. They fail to see that it should be the other way around - people dine at their restaurants to watch these amazing artists.
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MANILA, Philippines -- Television host Kris Aquino was rushed to the Makati Medical Center on Wednesday night, after undergoing “severe contractions.”
This was confirmed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Aquino’s friends -- manager Deo Endrinal and “The Buzz” co-host Boy Abunda.
“After taping [the lunchtime game show] ‘Game KNB,’ Kris experienced stomach pains around 9 to 10 p.m. [Wednesday night].
From the studio, she went straight to the hospital. She’s now under observation,” Endinal recounted in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.
Abunda also told the Inquirer that Aquino was resting in a hospital: “This time, it’s work-related.”
Exactly a week ago, Kris was taken to the same hospital due to “false labor,” caused by the stress and tension resulting from the raging controversy involving her husband, basketball player James Yap and Hope Centeno, a beauty clinic receptionist who claimed she had a 10-month illicit affair with Yap.
After the first emergency, the doctors recommended at least three days’ rest. Upon checking out of the hospital, though, Aquino and Yap had to tape an exclusive interview with Korina Sanchez, that according to one source lasted until the wee hours of Sunday morning.
On Tuesday, she attended a press conference for a cooking product, where she unleashed a mouthful on the scandal -- berating Centeno and insinuating that she was planning to move from their conjugal home in Makati back to the home of her mother, former president Corazon Aquino, in Quezon City.
“She’s very hardworking,” Abunda told the Inquirer in a phone interview on Tuesday night. “These days, however, her mood swings are very wild. Sometimes she’s laughing. Other times, she’s crying in one corner. It must be because of the difficult pregnancy and the intrigues.”
According to Endrinal, the doctors ordered “at least one week’s rest. But this could still change, stretching from one week to one month, depending on the doctors’ findings and how she responds to medication.”
He added that “mom Cory is now watching over Kris at the hospital. James was also with her last night. If I am not mistaken, from an event for his basketball team [Purefoods Chunkee Giants], he went to the hospital.”
Endrinal said that he was not certain whether Joshua, Aquino’s son by actor Phillip Salvador, had visited the hospital. “They might not want him to be there.”
Endrinal, who is also the Business Unit Head of ABS-CBN, told the Inquirer that the network was looking for another host, “to act as temporary replacement for Kris on ‘Game KNB?’”
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TONI Gonzaga’s career is doing great. But in spite of a successful career and several actors who are vocal about their admiration for her, Toni has yet to pick a special someone. She had been linked to Piolo Pascual, Luis Manzano, and Sam Milby.
At the press con for You Got Me at the 14th Floor of the ELJ Building on ABS-CBN, Toni speaks on her lack on lovelife.
“I am concentrating on my career because I know how short a career of an artista can be. I don’t want to be distracted. I want to enjoy it one at a time. I am enjoying what it is that I have now,” says Toni.
Some stars can afford to have a lovelife and a career at the same time but for Toni, career is her top priority.
“E ganoon talaga...There are things in life that you have to prioritize. There are things na you have to set aside for a while. So, wala talagang timetable at all kung kailan ako mai-in-love. Basta kapag nakita ko na siguro ‘yung tamang tao talaga,” she explains.
Does she believe that her lack of lovelife is the reason why she’s being rumored to be a tomboy?
“Yeah, I think naa-associate sa akin ‘yun dahil nga wala akong boyfriend,” she agrees. “But like I always say, I don’t have to have a boyfriend just to prove to everybody that I’m not a tomboy or a lesbian like what they presume me to be.”
But does she get offended when labeled as such?
“Hindi, not at all. I just laugh it off. Actually, parang naku-kyutan ako...Parang, ‘Ano, tomboy raw ako?’ Wala lang...parang wala na lang talaga silang maisip!” she says with a laugh.
“As long as you’re confident with your sexuality and you’re confident with who you are, it won’t bother you at all,”
Another reason behind the intrigue is that instead of wearing panties, she wears girl boxers as underwear.
“Actually po kasi, minsan talaga, hindi ako comfortable na isuot ang panty dahil ’yung garter line niya kapag naka-jeans, bumabakat. Unlike po sa girl’s boxers, mas masarap at kumportableng isuot,” she explains.
“At saka, ang alam ko po kasing meaning ng tomboy, ‘yung boyish kumilos, pero babaing-babae pa rin siya. Katulad ko po, I’m very carefree, I’m also very comfortable with jeans. I think ‘yung lesbian, ‘yun po ’yung pumapatol naman sa babae at hindi po ako ‘yun,” Toni adds. (MNS)
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BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- Relatives of Hope Centeno in her native town in Abra have advised her to stop making controversial comments about her alleged 10-month affair with Kris Aquino’s husband James Yap.
“I asked Hope to keep her mouth shut because she’s up against big people,” said Centeno’s uncle, a local government official in Bucay town in Abra.
Centeno, the beauty clinic receptionist who revealed her affair with Yap on GMA Network’s Startalk over the weekend, traces her roots to the fifth class town in Abra.
“I told her that’s enough. She is not only dragging her family’s name into the controversy but she’s also creating trouble in other people’s lives,” Centeno’s uncle told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone on Thursday.
He said he initially did not want to meddle in the personal affair of his niece until Centeno’s parents asked him to intervene and persuade her to keep quiet.
“This is a purely private matter that should have been settled privately. I advised her not to grant interviews anymore since the media have been feasting on her story,” said Centeno’s uncle who asked the Inquirer not to reveal his identity to “end all controversies involving the family.”
“She apologized for the mess she got herself into,” he said. “I asked her not to ruin the lives of other people.”
He said: “She admitted she was wrong but insisted that when she met Yap, she thought he was not yet married. I told her that whatever it is, please stop it.”
How did Centeno react after her uncle gave his advice?
“She assured me that she will keep her mouth shut and that she will move on with her life. She promised me that her TV interview on Sunday would be her last,” the uncle told the Inquirer.
He said he was hoping his niece would listen to him and keep her word “for her sake, for the sake of her family and the people involved in the controversy.”
He said Centeno’s father was “very upset” when he saw his eldest daughter appear on Star Talk and talk about her affair.
“Why did you allow yourself to be involved with a married man when you have a lot of suitors? The man (Yap) even denied you on national TV,” he quoted Centeno’s father as saying.
Centeno’s mother, a government employee, had stopped reporting for work since the scandal broke, claiming she was embarrassed to hear her officemates and friends talking about her daughter.
The uncle told the Inquirer that before Centeno appeared on Star Talk, he had been hearing rumors about her “personal affairs.”
He did not call up Centeno to verify the rumors since “she’s in the right age and could decide for herself.”
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IN the light of the scandal that she and husband James Yap got enmeshed in lately, Kris Aquino has reportedly decided to resign from being a celebrity endorser of Belo Medical Group, where the confessed paramour of James, Hope Centeno, used to work.
The past week, the real-life drama of Kris, James and the other woman rocked the entire country and the public has closely monitored the latest episode in the life of the celebrity couple.
It is understandable if Kris will quit as Belo image model. The sad part is that she and Dr. Vicki Belo are not on speaking terms because Kris reportedly took it against the noted doctor for “hiding” James’ affair from her. Last month, Hope has been asked to resign from the Belo clinic in Morato where she was assigned to handle schedules of VIP clients, like James Yap.
Is it true that Kris’ good friend and “The Buzz” co-host Boy Abunda also left Belo Medical Group to show his sympathy for Kris?
Anyway, during the press conference last Tuesday for Kris’ new commercial Maggi Magic Sarap with Ai Ai delas Alas in Quezon City, Kris blatantly stated she refuses to talk about James after a writer asked her what particular dish she cooks for James.
Kris, to explain her curt reply which was taken in “unfriendly” at best by the press, said “the fact that I am here today shows that I am making the effort to make my life as good (normal) as possible,” to which the Maggi people gave her an applause for.
But that certainly didn’t sit well with the members of the press who expect their questions to be answered by celebrities who invite them for a press conference.
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