GIST

Anton Juan leaves the secret garden to the imagination

November 23, 2015March 3, 2017 Razel Estrella

An elaborate piece of work can either test or arrest one’s attention. Such is the case with Repertory Philippines’ adaptation of Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden, a

Stuck in a room with wasted kids: A response to ‘This is Our Youth’

November 20, 2015March 29, 2017 Razel Estrella

There’s nothing funny about drugs, robbery, and running away. At least not if you had engaged in all these and are now looking at your transgressions from a comfortable distance.

Notes on the ‘kalyeserye’ phenomenon

November 1, 2015January 17, 2017 GIST

By KATHY MORAN It may have been just one of many hashtags in the months-long saga of the AlDub fairy tale, but “Tamang Panahon” last Oct. 24 was exactly that

AlDub continues: Traditional courtship & other Pinoy values in the time of Twitter

October 11, 2015January 17, 2017 GIST

By KATHY MORAN By 12:01 a.m. of Oct 4, the total number of tweets for #ALDUBmeetsTVJ had reached 11.726 million, the third highest tweet record for the Aldub Nation. That’s

The girl you can’t scare

October 11, 2015January 19, 2017 Razel Estrella

Because she’ll scare you first. At nine years old, she frightened her third grade class with her first-ever ghost story. And when she held a job in Makati, she was

R.L. Stine on writing, theme parks and his very own ventriloquist dummy

October 10, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

Spoken like the accomplished author that he is, without a shred of sarcasm, R.L. Stine, King of goosebumps, really believes that the key to being able to write a book is

More than meets the eye: 15 things we discovered about Colton Haynes

September 22, 2015January 29, 2017 Razel Estrella

The first thing we can confirm is, yes, Arrow and Teen Wolf star Colton Haynes is one good-looking fella. We were about three meters away from him during his AsiaPOP

Why Paul Bettany is worthy of ruling Asgard and Hollywood

September 21, 2015January 29, 2017 GIST

By COCO MACEREN Paul Bettany has been screwed over by Hollywood big guns numerous times. “If I had a dollar for every time someone told me my career was over,

Nathalie Emmanuel on being ‘in cahoots’ with Daenerys, playing Missandei, and Season 6!

September 21, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

Game of Thrones’ Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Missandei, Daenerys’ strong, loyal and smoking hot bestie, was in Manila for the three days of Asia Pop Comic Con 2015. It was

Maroon 5 is a band, and don’t you forget it

September 18, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

I remember when Maroon 5 released Harder to Breathe in 2002, the first single off “Songs About Jane.” Burning CDs was a thing. Pop-punk rock or an amalgamation of sorts

Carly Rae Jepsen’s unfettered E•MO•TION live in Manila

September 16, 2015January 29, 2017 GIST

By MARTIN YAMBAO No frills, no big production value, “Carly Rae Jepsen Live in Manila” was a show to remember. Last Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, Carly Rae Jepsen

The uncanny ways of Whilce Portacio

September 13, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

It comes as a surprise when the man behind one of the most iconic characters to ever come to life within the pages of comicbooks turns out to be someone

Kapow! An exclusive chat with comicbook young gun Stephen Segovia

September 13, 2015January 29, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

It takes a certain kind of person to become a comicbook artist. Yes, one would need to have a certain level of proficiency in drawing and storytelling, obviously, but also,

Fresh off the toy box: Myke Dela Paz talks custom toys

September 13, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

You can’t separate boys from their toys, as that oft-repeated adage goes. Some scout through the aisles and shelves of the best toy stores in the world just to find

Artist Simone Legno doesn’t draw it like it is

September 13, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

It’s been a year since I last interviewed Tokidoki founder Simone Legno, when he was promoting his collaboration with fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld. One of the highlights of his exciting

Jeremy Shada, voice of Finn on ‘Adventure Time,’ is all grown up

September 13, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

Adventure Time is one of those animated shows that perfectly grown men and women like to watch. Sure, it’s a little zany and ridiculous, but it’s got a sense of

Hodor rules the rave of thrones

September 13, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

To a good number of Game of Thrones fans, there is but one true king — and he speaks one word, which many have speculated could be a name, a

Short + sweet + oh so worth it: Watch 10-minute plays that bite

September 7, 2015March 3, 2017 Razel Estrella

Nothing sparks creativity so much than constraint. Take the Japanese haiku, where in 17 syllables and only three lines, an evocative picture is painted. Or the epitaph (pardon the gloomy

Matthew Quick sees the silverlining

September 6, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

“I wasn’t always a writer,” Matthew Quick, 41, tells me not even five minutes into our conversation at the Writer’s Bar at Raffles Makati — a pretty bold, if conflicting, statement from

Here be dragons: An Imagine Dragons concert review

September 6, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

The first Imagine Dragons song I ever listened to was It’s Time — but they weren’t the ones performing it. I first heard the incredibly peppy song on the now-defunct TV

Where fiction ends and reality begins: Marivi Soliven on her debut novel, ‘The Mango Bride’

September 6, 2015January 20, 2017 Razel Estrella

Literary figures have an air of mystique about them, perhaps brought by the many worlds and lives they’ve lived — besides their own — through the stories they’ve read and

Imagine Dragons on beards, brotherhood and life on the road

August 28, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

Before yesterday’s arena show, Imagine Dragons woke up refreshed and effectively indoctrinated on Filipino culture by way of the previous night’s karaoke session and a nice dinner of our famed

On honeymoon with Ariana Grande

August 24, 2015January 29, 2017 GIST

Text by COCO MACEREN / Photos by MIKE REBUYAS Donning her signature body suit with matching kitten ears and knee-high sparkly black boots, and clutching an equally eye-catching bedazzled mic, Ariana Grande came out

Walk The Moon said ‘shut up and dance’ — so we did

August 24, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

Text by COCO MACEREN / Photos by MIKE REBUYAS It was an electrifying night — from the lights to the multi-colored paint on the faces of the fans in the crowd and

Walk the Moon’s ’80s nostalgia and ‘joyful, dance-y rock ‘n’ roll’

August 19, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

Walk the Moon named their second full-length album “Talking is Hard,” as if to take it upon themselves to say the things we couldn’t say. Shut Up and Dance, an

Imagine Dragons: A rock band grows up

August 8, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

Photos by MIKE REBUYAS   A few weeks ahead of the Manila leg of their massive, 85-show “Smoke + Mirrors” world tour at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, the

GALLERY: BigBang live in Manila

August 8, 2015January 29, 2017 mikerebuyas

Photos by MIKE REBUYAS Korean supergroup BigBang’s concert at the 20,000-seater SM Mall of Asia Arena – their second concert in the country after 2012’s Galaxy Alive Tour – managed

Touch, feel, stand: My initiation into Fandomland through a sweaty moshpit

July 27, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

It was August 2011 and I was caught between Jared Leto heaven and body-slamming-strangers hell. At Fort Canning Park in Singapore, there’s no such thing as assigned seating. You arrive

‘Bituing Walang Ningning the Musical’ is a feel-good throwback to the ‘80s

July 17, 2015January 20, 2017 Razel Estrella

A musical adaptation of Bituing Walang Ningning (originally a Nerissa Cabral serialized comics strip made into a movie in 1985 and a TV series in 2006) is somehow inevitable. It

Why your tita loves the Backstreet Boys

May 3, 2015January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

A colleague showed her teenage daughter a Backstreet Boys music video and her daughter “LOLed.” Or more like, “ROFLed” herself to tears. The song was “I Want It That Way,”

Catching up with Kitchie Nadal

November 11, 2014January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

When I first heard Kitchie Nadal sing, I thought she sounded like nobody else. It was our senior year in high school and we had a band, practicing for our

Amy Tan on writing, whipping Stephen King, and being cool on Instagram

November 11, 2014January 17, 2017 Chonx Tibajia

Author of the modern classic, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan was recently in Manila for the Philippine Literary Festival organized by National Book Store and Raffles Makati. We got