Hybrid Hibernation: Angelino's First Home Alone Holiday

I will be flying to Seattle and leaving Angelino for a week or two. Separation anxiety is setting in. But I’ve prepared Gino for his first “home alone” holiday.

He got his third and last car wash for the year this morning.

While still relishing the gifts I gave him for Thanksgiving - clear floor mats and a cargo net - he’s delighted anew with Christmas gifts I’m going to leave him with.

One is a rear bumper protector which will help avoid any blemish on his back particularly when loading stuff.

And then, a most fitting gift, which fits him perfectly I should say, is a sturdy car cover to protect him from winter elements in SoCal.

I’m particularly amused by the antenna pocket which spikes up like a shark's fin.

When I get back next year, I’ll be giving him his New Year's gift which caps the holiday presents he’s thus far received - leather seats!

See you next year, buddy.
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Photos in this post are author's property.

Angelino's First Scratch

"Nooooooooo!"

What kind of fate could one suffer so as to ululate the proverbial, most simple and single-syllabled cry of denial with utmost urgency?

When my friends got word of my new role as a proud daddy of a hybrid baby, they have warned me that it will come - a dent, a scratch, a chip, a crack - and with myriad factors to cause it.

Another car door swung open in wanton abandon. Something sharp in someone's accessory brushing against the pristine coat. An ill-conceived prank tantamount to property damage.

In preparation, I have conditioned myself that, indeed, come it inevitably will. And so it did today!

"Nooooooooo!"

I was parking Gino (a nickname I use when I baby him) head first and did not see the pavement was too high for his front. A loud creak and screech sent signals to my brain and down my spine that my baby is hurt. And it's his first!

"Nooooooooo!"

I immediately reversed, ran to Gino's front and assessed the damage. The black hard plastic underneath took the beating. "Gino, nasugatan ka!" I said in shock and remorse. Darn pavement! :)



Oh, well. The consolation is that at least it was I who caused it. I'd go ballistic if it was someone else. I'm sure it will heal with an appropriate cleaner and conditioner.

Oh, man!
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Photos in this post are author's property.

Angelino's First Guest

From the moment I was ensconced on Angelino's driver seat, I have always wondered who will have the honor of being the first person to take the passenger seat.

That question was answered today. My friend from work, Gladys, and I went to the Music Center to catch the final show of "Spring Awakening" in L.A.

Though I wanted Angelino to be fully accessorized before meeting anyone up close, today was an exception since "Spring Awakening" is a must-go-to thing and carpooling with a hybrid makes more environmental sense. Also, there are only a handful of people in my immediate circle that are into the arts scene.

Too bad I didn't bring my camera so no picture of Gladys & Angelino. I'll get them together some time for a photo shoot and add a late entry image.

Angelino's First Bath

Just less than a week and G (that's how I call him) is grimy and dirty already! That's what he and I have to contend with with open parking.

If you have a hybrid car and you want to wash it yourself, a self-serve car wash makes perfect environmental sense.

Rinse water and accompanying contaminants (oil, grease, gasoline, car shampoo) that run into ordinary drain systems end up in open water, untreated.

In self-serve car wash shops, these are recycled and sent to the sewage system for treatment before going to the environment.

I had a 3-minute crash course in self-serve car wash on the Internet. Hands-on training was on site.

The shop had three sections: vacuum, washing, drying. I needn't use the first as G is still spick and span in the inside.

The wash system is user-friendly operated by quarters. There's a coin change booth or you can bring your own.

One nozzle sprays out water, soap, and wax at different intervals depending on where the user puts the dial. A foaming brush is on hand for scrubbing the car. Both are on a boom and will swivel with you as you go around your car.

It cost me about $6 for a sparkling clean. I spent the most time drying G out. And you have to bring your own towels. It's also up to you to bring your own glass cleaner, tire protectant and trim conditioner.

After his first bath, I also let G have his first taste of the freeway. We cruised up I-5 and down I-10. I was a bit anxious but he enjoyed it. Traffic was not bad considering it's a holiday weekend.

Flambouyant

Driving eastward along Wilshire Boulevard earlier tonight, this flashy neon green sign lording over the Downtown skyline caught my attention.

I couldn't help but burst into laughter. Despite moving traffic (it was slow enough), I had to grab my camera and take a shot.

Here's a little trivia:

• What comedy film has the principal character with this name?
• What is the principal character's surname?
• Who's the actor?
  
• Which Oscar-winning actor played his soon-to-be father-in-law?
  
• What is the sequel's title?

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Photo in this post is author's property.

Introducing Angelino: The Path to my First Car, Part 8

Everyone,

I'd like you to meet
my very first car in my entire life.

A brand new 2009
Package 2 Toyota Prius
in sparkling
Silver Pine Mica.




And I call him...


Angelino!
Why "Angelino"?
Why, he's an Angeleno! LOL!
He's gonna grow up right here in the heart of Downtown L.A.

Pardon the redundant photos for I feel like a big daddy with a new baby.

When I took possession of him,
I had a brief moment of denial.

I stood still and took a good look
at the beautiful feat of engineering that seemed to smile right back at me.


I have a car.


I have a car?


Oh, my goodness,
I have a car!
My very first car
in my life.
And not just any car.
It's a Preeeyuuus!

We had a good start getting to know each other, and I can say he and I are relationship material.

I can't wait to read all the booklets that came with him to help me get to know him better.

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Photos in this post are author's property.

We Fly!

My friends and I went indoor skydiving at iFly Hollywood in Universal Studios CityWalk to celebrate my birthday this month.

It's both exciting and scary just watching it from outside the clear vertical tunnel, so how much more if you're the one being levitated by mere wind.

But our flight instructor Javi took care of our reservations and allayed our fears with a little pre-flight education.

The following videos are edited versions. With the help of my MacBook's iMovie, I put text on the first round, and sound effects on the second.

It was so much fun I want to do it again next year, or maybe sooner. And perhaps after several indoor stunts, I'm crazy enough to do outdoor!

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Photos & videos in this post are author's property.

How To "Do" Opera

If you’re an opera virgin like I am - or was - here are a few tips to get yourself...in the mood.

Choose an opera you can relate to.

You have to start with something accessible so that your first opera experience will be good.

Perhaps a story resonates with you, or you are familiar with the works of certain opera artists like Luciano Pavarotti or Mozart, or you have read novels that have been turned to opera such as “Little Women”.

If you’re a movie buff and have liked “M Butterfly”, “Moulin Rouge” or “Dead Man Walking”, you may want to watch its opera equivalents which are “Madama Butterfly”, “La Traviata” and “Dead Man Walking”.

You can also choose an opera based on the genre of films you like as opera operates on classic narratives. There is fantasy, romantic comedies, and of course drama.

Finally, choose a lighthearted opera with a simple storyline. Leave the complex, sprawling epics for much later.

Be familiar with the piece.

Read about it. Peruse the synopsis, even the libretto. These are accessible through the Internet. Get a program of the event which includes an outline of the plot.

Attend a pre-show lecture if there is one. This will give you interesting insights about the opera which may prove valuable to your viewing experience.

You may also want to listen to a recording of the opera while reading the libretto. This way your eyes, ears and mind become familiar with the upcoming live experience. You can buy opera recordings in stores or borrow a CD from your local library.

And don’t worry about foreign language libretti. There is usually English supertitles throughout the performance.

Open your vocabulary to the world of opera.

Here are several terms to begin with:

• Aria - a piece of music or song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment which expresses the innermost thoughts and feelings of an operatic character.
• Baritone - most common male voice, lower in range than the tenor and more darkly-hued.
• Bass Baritone - male voices with a range between that of the baritone and the bass.
• Bass - the lowest and 'darkest' of the male voices.
• Bravo - the Italian word for expressing appreciation to a male performer.
• Brava - the Italian word for expressing appreciation to a female performer.
• Bravi - the Italian word for expressing appreciation to a group of performers.
• Contralto - the lowest of the female voice-types.
• Libretto - the complete text of an opera.
• Mezzo Soprano - the mezzo is the lower-ranged female voice type.
• Opera - an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (opera) which combines text (libretto) and musical score.
• Soprano - the highest of the female voice types, the soprano has always had a place of prominence in the hierarchy of vocal types.
• Tenor - the highest of the male voices.

Dress comfortably but appropriately.

These days you can go to an opera in smart casual chic, but dressing for glamour is part of the fun; So, if you have the stuff, go strut it.

Bring a pair of binoculars.

If you are seated way up high in the balcony, a pair of binoculars will help visualize facial expressions and important set pieces which are crucial in opera appreciation.

There you have it. Opera appreciation from a first-timer to opera virgins out there.

It believe it is an acquired taste so let’s be patient. The more we expose ourselves to opera, the clearer its relevance or irrelevance to our lives will be.

So do yourself a favor and explore opera. If you end up not liking it, at least you'll cease wondering what it’s like.

But if we discover we like it, it just might allow us to see the world through a whole different prism.

So...see you at the opera!

Once There Was An Opera Virgin

I know very little about opera and have never experienced one. Its elitist and snobbish air, specially that most libretti are in a foreign language, has kept me distant.

I feared if my first time is not pleasurable, it will leave a bad impression and I might shun opera forever.

But deep inside I know there is potential for opera appreciation as I enjoy listening to classical music and film scores, and watching stage dramas and musicals.

And then "The Fly The Opera" buzzed about the Los Angeles arts scene.


Constantly wanting but always stalling to have my first taste of opera, I felt “The Fly” is an appropriate start. It is culturally accessible to me since the libretto is in English, and I'm a huge fan of the gorgeously grotesque 1986 movie.



I couldn’t wait to see how the classic lines from the movie will be delivered: “Something went wrong.” “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” and “Help me! Please! Help me!”



I have seen snippets of operas through movies like “Godfather III” and “Pretty Woman” so I basically have an idea how an opera operates: The narrative is told through music and songs.

But unlike musicals, the songs are sung in a highly melodious (operatic) and at times sort of recitative way, instead of like a mainstream piece with varying tunes that most of us are accustomed to.

A triad of performers usually constitute the principal characters of an opera. They are the vessels of emotions with conflicting motivations that use acting and singing simultaneously to carry the opera from the first act to the grand finale.

Ultimately, it is the story that drives an opera. Plot lines with high drama, specially those with tragedy, work well as these provide strong emotional conduits for artistic expression.

“The Fly” has a compelling story about love and loss, dream and downfall, growth and decay. It has the workings of a great opera. How these conflicting themes come into play make the story truly palpable and genuinely terrifying.

"The Fly The Opera" is the fresh stimulus to my rebirth as a creature of culture. If the telepods transformed Seth Brundle into something beyond his imagination, this piece of theater art is starting to metamorphose me into something beyond mine - an opera fan.



My enthusiasm for opera is at its pupal stage. It will still go through a tedious process to metamorphose into the larval stage, before it reaches maturity and transforms me into a full-blown opera aficionado, if at all it will.

But suffice it to say that "The Fly The Opera" devirginized me to this wonderful form of performance art. It couldn't have been more apt what with full frontal nudity by main male actor Daniel Okulitch whose very able body and proud phallus are beautiful to hold - - I mean, behold!

Abuzz About The Fly

The Los Angeles performing arts scene has been abuzz lately about the new and groundbreaking production of L.A. Opera.

Remember the cult classic sci-fi/horror film "The Fly"? That movie starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis back in 1986 has metamorphosed to thrive on stage - not as musical, not as play, but as opera!

Quite a courageous cross-pollination of pop culture and old world art.

There are many milestones in:


Its staging at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Downtown L.A. is the opera’s U.S. Premiere.

Legendary tenor Placido Domingo conducts.

Multi-awarded playwright David Henry Hwang provide the libretto.

And three artists who worked on the 1986 movie make their debut on stage: Filmmaker David Cronenberg directs, film musician Howard Shore scores, and Stephan L. Dupuis, who worked on creature special effects in the 1986 and 1989 movies resurrects his work for the stage.



The opera version is quite faithful to the 1986 film, except that its setting is in the 1950s.

Interestingly, “The Fly” is actually a short story written by George Langelaan in 1957 (published in Playboy magazine) and was later transformed into the very first film adaptation in 1958.



Mature viewing is recommended as the opera showcases violence, gore, and sexual themes, which were expressed tastefully.

The libretto, though, I found to be quite wordy, as if events and instances had to be verbally expressed in profusion. It seems the opera could not delineate itself from the genetic makeup of the film.

Some wry humor were perhaps unintended and some unnecessary, thus somehow trivializing the gravity of the story.

Howard Shore, best remembered for his award-winning score for “The Lord of the Rings“ trilogy, provides the right mood and period with his music, although his work here left me as I left the theater.

Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch (Seth Brundle) has a powerful onstage presence. He is able to display his able body as he side-carts and somersaults to showcase Seth's newfound ability. Most impressive is how he is able to deliver his lines under heavy prosthetics and in gravity-defying positions that mimic that of a fly.

But Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose (Veronica Quaife) is the star of the show. Her presence on stage is electrifying. Several of her arias received well-deserved applauses.

The element of fantasy is used onstage as subjects are teleported from one pod to another in seamless reality. It was most exciting when Seth teleports himself between pods.

That scene where Okulitch steps into the transmitting telepod in the nude is compelling as it signals the beginning of Seth’s last moments as human. The next scene which finds him emerging from the receiving telepod is provocative, with backlights providing a powerful silhouette of the rebirth that has come

“The Fly” is the very first opera I have ever seen in my life and I was quite impressed. And with the main male actor disrobing for art’s sake, it was quite a treat.

A Wickedly Good Time

Adapted for the stage from Gregory Maguire's novel, "Wicked: A New Musical" tells the untold story of the witches of Oz: How one came to be known good and the other wicked.

The story illuminates the beginnings of Glinda the good and Elphaba the wicked and it does so in memorable musical numbers.

It also provides interesting insight into how the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow, as well as the slippers, came to be. If you've seen the landmark 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," you know what I'm talking about.

The musical humanizes the phosphorescently-green wicked witch by giving her a soul to care for what she knows is important, and a voice to stand up for what she believes in.

It also presents the light-complexioned good witch in a not so flattering glow: obsessed with do-gooder popularity and oozing with pious self-assurance.

It is this gray area of being totally good and totally wicked that will perhaps most resonate with audiences as all of us have goodness and wickedness within us.

Stephen Schwartz is a gifted lyricist and composer and the range of songs in "Wicked" are proof of his versatility.

Worth mentioning are the incredible "Defying Gravity", the upbeat ensemble ditty "What Is This Feeling?", the melancholic "I'm Not That Girl", and the wickedly passionate "As Long As You're Mine".

The cast provides solid vocal performances and onstage presence with Erin Mackey as Glinda and Teal Wicks as Elphaba.

"Defying Gravity" is undoubtedly an audience favorite. It's mine, too. Aside from its high-flying vocal and staging requirements, it mimics our own struggles against social norms, gender biases, cultural constraints and personal foibles.

I did not enjoy the musical as I hoped I would, though. The culprit, I believe, is that I have been listening to the CD and following the libretto ever since the musical started lifting audiences to flights of musical fancy last year.

Rationale for doing so is it will let me thoroughly follow the story. You know how words sung can get lost in expression by the performer and comprehension by the spectator with all the things happening onstage.

But then, preconceived images of scenes have been ingrained in my mind for so long that events taking place onstage felt incongruous. Perhaps reading the novel instead would've left my imagination less tainted.

Still, I recommend watching the musical. It's neither groundbreaking nor run-of-the-mill, but it's worth a wickedly good while.

"Wicked: A New Musical" is playing at the Pantages Theater in Downtown L.A. until January 2009.