First Love

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Finding success in Vancouver after two decades of trying different occupations, risk analyst Nick (Aga Muhlach) decides to liquidate all of his shares at his company so he can leave them to Simon (Edward Barber). Optimist Ali (Bea Alonzo) works at a bookstore where she also sells her own postcards. She wants to be a nature photographer, but her ailment makes her wary of thinking about long-term goals. Even so, she is still hopeful that she will eventually find a compatible heart donor one day. Fate brings them together, leading them to meet and get to know one another better. But in a love story where the risk of losing one another is at an all-time high, would it be wise to bet and invest?

Lungs (9 Works Theatrical)

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Man (Jake Cuenca) and Woman (Sab Jose) reflect on whether it would be responsible for them to procreate and introduce another human being to the world. She cites publications as well as her PhD papers on how adding another baby to the planet’s booming population would eventually contribute to the world’s dwindling resources. He is puzzled and seems regretful to have asked. As the two exchange points of view regarding interweaving themes such as parenthood, childbirth, as well as timely issues such as climate change, the couple discover things about one another that they won’t necessarily like. Will their similarities triumph for them to end up as proud parents of their own child or will their differences overcome everything they have shared so far and lead to a bad breakup?

Venom

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Bioengineering giant Life Foundation has found extraterrestrial lifeforms called symbiotes and takes them back to Earth. As their spacecraft crash lands in a forest in Borneo, one of the aliens breaks loose and hops from host to host until it makes its way all the way to San Francisco. Investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is assigned to interview the corporation’s CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Using his lawyer girlfriend Anne Weying’s (Michelle Williams) access to classified information, he grills the executive and gets fired in the process. She also breaks up with him after getting dismissed from her own job. Caught in a downward spiral, he seeks revenge by breaking into the lab, but gets infected by one of the symbiotes who goes by the name of Venom.

A Star Is Born (2018)

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Long giving up on her aspirations as a singer/songwriter, Ally (Lady Gaga) works as a waitress in the morning and sidelines as the intermission act in a drag bar after shift. Drunk and high after a big concert, country superstar Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) finds himself in the same venue, watching Ally perform her own rendition of La Vie en Rose. He spots not only a potential love interest, but also a promising talent that can make it big if given the chance. The two spend the night bar hopping and grocery shopping. When he asks her to sing one of her original compositions at his concert, what follows is a whirlwind romance leading to a rapid ascent to superstardom. As one career skyrockets, the other nosedives. Will fame eventually cause their romance’s downfall?

Exes Baggage

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Pia (Angelica Panganiban) and Nix (Carlo Aquino) meet at a club. She is drunk and pushy. He is shy and socially awkward. After a few more drinks they start openly lambasting one another’s Facebook account. He takes her home so she won’t have to drive and ends up having breakfast at her place. Courtship follows until the two of them finally become a couple. And they lived happily ever after. NOT. To him, she is a rebound romance. To her, he is another chance at love. As they get to know each other and find out secret hang-ups with exes and the like, they realize that they don’t know one another that well after all. Once the honeymoon stage is over, they decide to break up. Two years later, they meet again. Will sparks fly once more or will they finally get the closure that both of them need.

[WASHINGTON] Budget and Itinerary

SATURDAY: 29 September 2018

Asiana (Manila - Seattle - Manila) - 696.00

City Hostel Seattle (2 Nights) - 95.00
McDonalds (Vanilla Cone) - 2.19
Chihuly Garden & Glass (Admission) - 27.30
Mercato Stellina (Carbonara + Coke + Wine) - 42.93

USD863.42

[NEW YORK] Budget and Itinerary (4)

MONDAY: 1 October 2018

Alaska Airlines (Seattle - New York) - 146.20

Blue Moon Hotel (5 Nights) - 336.98

MTA Card (Reload) - 45.00
Perfect Crime (Broadway) - 39.50
Dunkin Donuts (Croissant + Nesquik) - 6.16
Hershey's Chocolate World (Chocolates) - 46.82

USD620.70

[MANHATTAN] Broadway Barrage Season 3

Perfect Crime is the longest-running show on Broadway, predating The Phantom of the Opera by a few months. The lead actress has been playing the same role for more than three decades now, missing just four performances for personal reasons and holding the Guinness World record for most performances as a character in a play. With tickets selling at just $32 on Todaytix, it is considered as a bargain too. And so, I decided to finally watch it. We’re already on Season 3 of Broadway Barrage. We better do this now.

Once on This Island (Broadway)

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Once on an island in the Antilles there lived four deities: Asaka (Alex Newell), mother of the Earth; Papa Ge (Tamyra Gray), the demon of death; Agwe (T. Oliver Reid), the god of water; and Erzulie (Darlesia Cearcy), the goddess of love. When a terrible storm hits the Caribbean, a little girl is saved from drowning, the sole survivor orphaned by a tragedy and taken in by a caring couple. She grows up as Ti Moune (Courtnee Carter), a peasant girl who gets infatuated with Daniel Beauxhomme (Tyler Hardwicke), a grand homme descended from the colonist French. As their love for each other blossoms, the possibility of them actually ending up together flounders, for the two social classes will never ever mix. Or is it a social norm that the gods can conspire to change?

The Lifespan of a Fact (Broadway)

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When John D’Agata (Bobby Cannavale) turns in an essay reflecting on the suicide culture in Las Vegas, the Editor (Cherry Jones) of the publication realizes that she is reading what will be her legacy piece before she retires. Not only does the article grasp the emotional depth of the story, but it also captures the zeitgeist. Anxious to publish it in lieu of their backup Congressional Spouses feature, she sets the last steps in the process in motion and assigns the task of fact-checking the story to Jim Fingal (Daniel Radcliffe), a fresh Harvard graduate eager to impress. When the fact-checker goes over-the-top, the writer becomes protective of his work and a clash of ideology ensues, a dispute that the Editor herself must now referee. Along the way they will find out that there is more to journalism than just balancing form and substance.