2Rivers Presents NARINIG MO NA BA ANG L8EST

October 27 to November 2

ANU, the ruler of Nibiru, sent delegations of Anunnaki to earth, led by his sons EN.KI and EN.LIL, millennia ago. Nibiru, the seventh planet in our solar system coming from outside, needed gold to shield its vanishing atmosphere. EN.KI ruled the AB.ZU, in Africa; EN.LIL ruled the seven Cities of the Gods in E.DIN, off the Persian Gulf, where the highly advanced Sumerian civilization would later appear. But the Anunnaki on the AB.ZU, complaining of hard labor, staged a mutiny, as described in the Akkadian text Atra Hasis. The solution was to create an Adamu, or earthling, in their image, to serve them. 

Nibiru orbits the sun every 3,600 years; that is one year for Anunnakis, and later generations of humans would regard them as deities because they seem to be immortal. 

EN.KI's sign is the entwined copper serpents, symbol of healing and genetic engineering, with its double helix DNA motif. The copper serpent was also Moses' weapon against the pharaoh's magicians. 

EN.KI's son, Ningishzidda, is called by the Egyptians as Thoth, and the Greeks call him Hermes. 

Meanwhile, EN.LIL's son is Marduk, the central figure in the Babylonian epic The Seven Tablets of Creation, more popularly known by its opening words: Enuma elish. 

The term "Anunnaki" is Sumerian, which also means DIN.GIR ("The Righteous Ones of the Rocketships"). In Akkadian, they are Elohim ("The Lofty Ones"). The Bible translates it as Nefilim, which literally means "Those Who From Earth To Heaven Came." The Bible, in Numbers 13:33, says that the Nefilims are the "Sons of Anak" (the Hebrew for Anunnaki). 

Just before the Deluge, 432,000 years after they first landed on earth, the trending topic was the intermarriage between Nefilims and humans. Some of the alleged children are Enoch, Noah and Gilgamesh. 

I got all these superbly-detailed stories from Divine Encounters: A Guide To Visions, Angels and Other Emissaries by Zecharia Sitchin, author of the groundbreaking The Earth Chronicles

Psychic attacks can come from elementals, spirits of the dead, witchcraft, energy vampires, demonic entities and black magic rituals. To protect yourself, cover your solar plexus chakra. Some deep breathing exercises can strengthen the aura, so can a healthy lifestyle, "emotional cleansing" and "spiritual empowerment" through prayer. 

These are some stuff I got from the Sept. 2, 2012 episode of the Sunday late night paranormal radio show Kasindak-Sindak on 92.3 NewFM. 

Russian scientists are developing physical immortality with the use of robot avatars where people's brains and consciousness can be transferred. Speaking of immortality, here's my text message: A black metal band, Deicide, whose lead singer wears an inverted crucifix, sing songs like When Satan Rules His World and Death To Jesus. 

There are also stories on Vlad The Impaler, a kapre that brought both good and bad luck to a family in Marinduque, Elvis Costello's 1996 song I Want You and the mysterious creature caught last year from the Baltic Sea

For centuries, a race of powerful humans called The Brotherhood has peacefully co-existed with ordinary humans. But there are those who abused their mastery of genetic engineering, wreaking the "bad things" like plagues. The last one to cross the line is Edgar (Leo Gregory), who is attacking people like a vampire, spreading a virus that threatens to contaminate the city. He's being hunted by a lady police officer, Lily (Saffron Burrows) and someone he really should hide from: Silus (Dougray Scott), his half-brother who's even more powerful than he is. 

Humans can be so paranoid, says one character, I forgot who. I also forgot who replied to that, but I remember the line: "Maybe they have a good reason to be!" 

Silus and Lily team up to save the human race, and she realizes she's the bait 

Glenn Standring’s The Perfect Creature

A man walks down the street bearing a placard: "Will work for blood!" 

There is a dentist clinic with signs of smiling pearly-white teeth with fangs. 

This is a strange town, says Becca, as she and her sheriff father drive into Sporks, Washington. 

Becca is the new girl in school, and she parks into a slot which says "So Misundestood Student With A Crappy Truck." 

One student, Derrick, welcomes her. Anything you need, he tells her, I can get it: anything from "cheat sheets" to "human organs." 

A group of attractive pale-white students enter the cafeteria: the Sullens. 

Becca is attracted to Edward, a gorgeous "hottie," who was putting some make-up. 

The teacher asks Becca to sit beside Edward, whom she's "destined to have a fatalistic relationship which will spawn four books and movie franchise!" 

Class starts. The professor tells them to turn to page 63 of their text book: The Vampire Diaries. 

Becca tells Edward: "I don't like cold and wet things!" He replied: "You don't like Slurpee?"

A man in his boathouse gets surrounded by vampires, which includes an African-American man with dreadlocks and a Caucasian woman. I know who you are, he says. "You're The Black-Eyed Peas!"

Trailer of Vampire Sucks, Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

October 20-26

Sex-only relationship: no hassles, no complications. What's the point of loving? Ces (Angel Locsin) reasons. Love only limits you - and in the end, inevitably, it will make you cry. I love the breakfast scene where Mackie (John Lloyd Cruz) cooks bacon after a wild night while Ces bonds with his housemates. How do you describe that gesture, when you sort of say, "Duh!" or "What kind of an idea is that?" but in a friendly way? You should come here every day so Macky will do the cooking, the landlady says, and Ces gives that cute expression. 

My favorite dialogue is when Mackie told her: I can't change your past or take away your fear of being hurt again - only you can do that; all I can do is to love you, and wait, and hope. The scene with Ces waking up as Mackie sings Binibini on the guitar is nice

But my favorite scene is when Mackie's housemates (Edgar Allan Guzman, Boom Labrusca and) entered his room and began singing Ikaw Ang Aking Mahal. He was amused, then shocked, when Ces suddenly appeared and joined in. She was crying, because she, finally, allowed herself to love again - and, once more, find true happiness

Trailer of Cathy Garcia Molina's Unofficially Yours

October, 3, 2012, Wednesday, 7:16 p.m. I'm watching The Pickers on History Channel, about two guys who buy stuff to sell. In this episode, they bought, among others, a vintage 1939 Harley Davidson from a collector who looks like a retired rock star. I got to watch History a couple of times during the early evening in the last few weeks, mostly Pawn Stars and Kings of Restoration. What I really want to see are America's Book of Secrets and Ancient Aliens but they're in timeslots when I can't. I also want to see the new shows they'll premiere this October though I doubt I can: Ninja: Shadow Warriors and Hawking, a documentary on the inspiring life of the scientific genius Stephen Hawking. I saw one episode of Stan Lee's Super Humans, featuring a guy who rode his customized bike past the speed limit of 70 miles an hour: that guy is so cool. Then there's the teaser on my idol Johnny Depp on Bio. That guy is one of the reasons why I am like me, who is like him. Does that make sense?

Johnny Depp on Bio

(Part 3 cannot be embedded)

I have deep admiration for people who age gracefully, and I love the company of older people. I will always remember the Sept. 19, 2012 (Wednesday lunch time) episode of Bravo Filipino, a baby-boomer radio show that, like my blog 2Rivers, celebrates music and the rich cultural heritage of the Philippines. It's on 98.7 DZFE, The Master's Touch, hosted by Bert Robledo. One of the guest was maestro Robert Ryker, in town as the guest master conductor for a concert that features Stravinsky, Debussy and other musical masterpieces. Bert asked him his age, jokingly, expecting Robert to change the topic. But Robert Ryker says he doesn't mind revealing his age. Coming from a culture that virtually worships youth, I admire him for that.

"Music," I also remember him saying, "somehow does its own thing." That's sort of hard to explain, but music lovers instinctively know it to be true. 

His advice to musicians that I've taken to heart: "Have fun!" 

Bravo, Maestro!

Top-caliber genetic scientists Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) achieve a scientific breakthrough when they successfully mix the DNA of different species to come up with a new life form. Fred and Ginger is a pair of worm-like creatures the size of Persian cats. When they were presented to the scientific community and the press, Ginger transforms into a male and they kill each other, their blood drenching the audience. Clive and Sarah's research is shut down. 

But covertly, they did the unthinkable, crossing the boundary where no man dared before. 

The result was a birdlike creature, whom they secretly raised like a daughter, gradually assuming human form as she grows at an accelerated rate. They call her Dren. Then Dren seduces Clive, and that's when he realizes that Sarah had used her own DNA. They are forced to kill Dren when she transforms into a vampire-like creature and tries to sting them with her poisoned tail. Clive and Sarah had just buried Dren when their boss at the laboratory arrived at their secret farm house. He has find out what they had done because Clive's brother betrayed them and spilled the beans, soon to spill his blood. Their boss demands to see the creature. 

He’s about to get what he came for because, at the moment, Dren is getting back from the dead. 

Trailer of Splice, directed by Vincenzo Natali

October 13-19

I first heard of Marilou Diaz Abaya when I read a now out-of-print collection of the movie reviews of the film scholar and critic Isagani Cruz in the mid-90s. That book really taught me to appreciate movies, especially Filipino movies, so much so that I would tend to applaud the director more rather than the actors. Isagani was very vocal about his admiration for Marilou, pointing out the significance of even camera angles; In Brutal, for example, Amy Austria plays a battered woman, and there's a scene where she is sitting at the edge of the screen, that shot showing her feelings of being cornered, of being trapped in a situation that is suffocating and ultimately fatal to her spirit. It's sad when I first heard just last Oct. 12 that Marilou, one of the greatest Filipino filmmakers of our time, has died. By way of paying tribute, here's the link to watch, in full, her cinematic masterpiece, Rizal

Watch Rizal

The (sadly) now-defunct radio station NU 107 had a tagline: "Once a rocker, always a rocker!" I love music and appreciate all kinds of genre but I also dont believe in labels. Then again, like in Rock of Ages, "I love rock and roll!" I super-duper enjoyed the bus DVD during a trip from Manila to Calamba via Skyway on Sept. 15, 2012. It was a collection of live performances, really awesome. First was The Eagles with the accoustic version of Hotel California: "On a dark desert highway...!"

(I like Desperado: "It may be raining, but there's a rainbow above you...")

See Huggybear's Favorite Eagles Songs

Then Scorpion with Wind of Change: "Take me, to the magic of the moment...!"

Then Guns 'n' Roses, Slash with his formidable double lead guitar and Axl Rose running all over the stage, "Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door...!"

Next was Bon Jovi with Always: "I'll be there, forever and a day...!"

(I like the theme from Young Guns 2, Blaze of Glory: "I lived life to the fullest, let this boy die like a man...!"

See Huggybear's Favorite Bon Jovi Songs

Next was Queen. Freddie Mercury, fully alive and half naked, on the piano, singing the incredible classic Bohemian Rhapsody. During the Italian opera acapella part, they played a recording, with deft kleigh light magic hiding the stage, but they came for a rousing finale

(My favorite Queen song is A Kind of Magic, theme from one of my favorite movies of all time: the original Highlander with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery).

See Huggybear's Favorite Queen Songs 

Watch Highlander

Next was Dire Straits with Money For Nothing featuring Sting: "That's the way you do it: you play the guitar on the MTV...!

(My favorite Dire Straits song is Walk of Life; I remember singing that while swimming in a forgotten beach when I was fifteen and I almost drowned.

See Huggybear's Favorite Dire Straits Songs 

Next was guitar god Eric Clapton with the theme from Phenomenon starring John Travolta, Change The World, featuring Babyface: "I will be the sunlight in your universe...!"

(I also like Tears in Heaven, which I first heard in Santa Rosa, Laguna in 1992, where they have the best dinuguan in the galaxy)

See Huggybear's Favorite Eric Clapton Songs 

The DVD then began skipping and pixelizing, obviously pirated. There's supposed to be Phil Collins, Mr. Big and Bryan Adams.

See Huggybear's Favorite Songs From 

Phil Collins and Bryan Adams 

It was about the time we're passing the airport. A plane flew overhead, hopefully an aerodynamic harbinger of good things to come

When I think of Glee, I always think of the mohawk-hair guy, Puck, singing Sweet Caroline, in an episode I've seen way back. I saw only one full episode, a rerun from Season 3, on local channel Studio 23, Sept 1, 2012. Puck gets in a fight with a bully who insults him deep through the bone because he has nothing to show for himself and probably won't even graduate. Tina falls into a fountain, and when she gets up, she has become Rachel, whom she idolizes. She sings Because You Love Me: "For all those times you stood for me..." and she finally achieves her dream of a standing ovation. She and Rachel goes to a famous singing coach played by Whoopi Goldberg, and they sing What A Feeling. "Take your passion! And make it happen...!"

I know the cast's faces though not their names, and they all switch roles in Tina's dream. The gay guy becomes her boyfriend. In a waking scene, he refuses to wear drag for the national finals. "Just because I'm gay," he says, it doesn't mean I want to wear women's clothes!" So Puck puts on a dress. The female teacher tells him: "You're the ugliest woman I've seen!" But one of the female cast says, "I'm strangely turned on!"

I like the Shannon character best, and I love the song she and Puck sing, Mean: "Why do you have to be so mean..." Shannon wants to leave her husband (or boyfriend?). At first, she says, "What's the world worth if we don't give second chances?" But she finally had it. She doesn't hate him, she says. "The worst part is that I love you!" she tells him. "But what does that say about me?"

Logan and his brother Viktor are immortals. They can never die nor grow old because they possess the mutant genes for accelerated healing. Shoot them down and watch them get up and get you. They fought side by side during the Civil War, then through two world wars and then in Vietnam. Stryker, a government scientist with his own secret agenda, recruited them to join his group of powerful mutants. Logan walked away in disgust at their bloodlust. In search of peace, he found love. He and Kay were happy living in the mountains of Canada; he as a lumberjack, and she as a pre-school teacher. Then one day, Stryker appeared, an intrusive ghost from the past. Viktor has been killing their former teammates, he warned. Logan's past destroyed the fragile peace of his new-found life. Then one day, he found Kay's body, with no signs of life. Logan vowed revenge.

"No law, no code of conduct," he told Stryker. "Just point me in the right direction and get the hell out of my way!"

Huggybear's Favorite Bryan Adams Songs

Summer of '69

Straight From The Heart

Heaven

Everything I Do (I'll Do It For You)

[Theme from Robinhood: Prince of Thieves]

Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman 

[Theme from Don Juan De Marco]

I Finally Found Someone (with Barbra Streisand)

[Theme from The Mirror Has Two Faces]

All For One (with Sting and Rod Stewart)

[Theme from The Three Musketeers]

(Photo courtesy of LyricsGather.com)

Huggybear's Favorite Eric Clapton Songs

Change The World [Theme From Phenomenon] 

Tears In Heaven 

I Shot The Sheriff

(Photo courtesy of  LyricsMusic.name)  

Huggybear's Favorite Dire Straits Songs

Walk of Life 

Money For Nothing 

(Photo courtesy of noiset.com)  

Huggybear's Favorite Queen Songs

A Kind of Magic [Theme from Highlander]

Watch the full Highlander movie

Bohemian Rhapsody 

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

(Photo courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org)  

2Rivers Presents "Highlander"

(Photo courtesy of Korsgaardscommentary.blogspot.com)  

Huggybear's Favorite Bon Jovi Songs

Blaze of Glory  [Theme from Young Guns 2] 

Bad Medicine 

Livin' On A Prayer 

(Photo courtesy of wmgk.com)  

Huggybear's Favorite Eagles Songs

Desperado 

The Best of My Love 

The Long Run 

Love Will Keep Us Alive 

New Kid In Town 

Tequila Sunrise 

Hotel California 

(Photo courtesy of PDXRetro.com)

Huggybear's Favorite Binky Lampano Songs

Hallelujah I Love Her So

Kwentong Looban

October 6-12

The music of rock icon Binky Lampano brings back my gypsy teen years, and therefore, part of my life's soundtrack. I instantly liked Hallelujah I Just Loved Her So when I first heard it in the 90s. "Let me tell you 'bout the girl I know...!" Then there's Buhay Looban, a vivid, typical morning inside a slum area, complete with housewives gossiping and a guy borrowing a tabloid so he'll have something to "trip on" inside the john. I first heard them in LA105, the (sadly) now-defunct radio station that actively promoted "alternative" music, like songs from Joey Ayala and Grace Nono, which weren't given enough airplay in mainstream stations. So I was really happy when I saw Binky, in tux and sneakers, rock the stage during the 25th anniversarry of the TV Patrol evening news, telecast live on Aug. 6, 2012 on ABS-CBN. It's electrifying to see Binky Lampano with Basti Astadi of Wolfgang and rock god Pepe Smith of Juan De La Cruz, with a live band and a full orchestra conducted by living legend "Maestro" Ryan Cayabyab, in an unforgettable live performance, a head-banging celebration of original Filipino rock music!

See Huggybear's Favorite Binky Lampano Songs

I always enjoy watching Goin’ Bulilit. Tough luck I don't get to watch it often, though, because it would add a lot more laughter to my already happy life. It's a gag show with talented child actors doing the skits. I caught some scenes from the Aug. 19, 2012 episode. Here are some that I remember. A boy complains that people call him ugly, and his mother consoled him: "Don't you know that beauty is inside? So you better stay inside!" A guy goes to store with the sign "E-load Available Here," asks the girl in a store if she has prepaid load, and when she said yes, he said: "Can I borrow your phone to text?" A short documentary promotes the Anti-Epal Bill, which would ban politicians from plastering their names and faces everywhere (which 2Rivers supports), then it turns out to be a "friendly reminder" informercial from a mayor! A broadcast journalist reports on the conditions inside a relief shelter, and all the refugees swoop down on him because he was so noisy. "This is Abner Mechado!" he signs off, spoofing Abner Mercado of the investigative show Krusada. "And this is my Kursunada!"

I heard for the first time the newly-released All In Your Name, exclusively aired in the Philippines by RJ 100 FM, on Sept. 5, 2012. The song is written and performed by Barry Gibb of The Beegees and the late King of Pop Michael Jackson. I like it very much; a great song, really positive and inspirational. Goes something like: "But what is my life worth, if I don't believe that there's someone to watch me follow my dreams, take my chances, like those who dared..."

Michael Enslin (John Cusack) is a paranormal investigator who doesn't believe in ghosts. Besides, he says, there's no God who protects us from them, anyway. He checks-in at the notoriously haunted Room 1408 of a hotel in New York, a city of painful memories because that's where his daughter died. But the hotel manager, Owen (Samuel Jackson) emphatically warns him not to. More than fifty people have died there, and everyone else couldn't stay for even an hour. It's not a phantom, he says, it's "a fucking evil room!" I saw this on DVD, alone in the dark, headsets pounding. I couldn't stand it. Had to turn on the light. It's probably the scariest film I ever saw. Just when his mind is about to snap from extreme fright, Enslin realizes it's all a bad dream. "Do people die in nightmares?" he said rhetorically into his voice recorder. Life goes on. One day in sunny California, he sees the hotel staff at the Hermosa beach post office. They began destroying the place. Then suddenly, Michael is back in Room 1408. It isn't a dream.