Blast!

The crowds cheered. The schools grooved. And five out of 12 teams made it to the finals.

Last Sunday was UP Street's elimination leg for the Skechers Streetdance Battle. The competition, now on its 6th year, has become the biggest streetdance competition in the country since its inception in 2005 - as evidenced by its ever increasing ticket prices.

This is our team right before the compet:

Photo by: Liza Carbonel

Congratulations UP Streetdance Club for making it to the finals! Compet team - Aye, David, Toki, Renz, Jolo, Trizza, Lian, KatM, Miko, JM, Phim, Hannah, Espi, Reg, Canter and Leonard, props to you guys for represnting the org, our school and God, of course.

While we were having a blast with all the dancing, a real blast happened on the other side of town. The usually festive Salubong for barristers ended in tragedy as some got rushed to the hospital because of an explosion along the crowd-filled Taft Ave.

One of my college friends, Estella Maniquis, a current student of San Beda Law is one of the victims of the explosion.

Initial investigation points to frat wars as the cause of the explosion. At least a couple of victims had to have their legs amputated due to severe damage.

Dear culprit, I would wish that you blow up to pieces but I wouldn't. Instead I hope that you'd feel pain that the family members of the affected students are feeling.

Hunger Pains and Budget Cuts

The weekend was fun to say the least. But for the most part, I was in pain.

Friday night, due to heavy traffic towards Ortigas, nalipasan ako ng gutom. The Buffalo Wings from Charlie's at 10:30pm (a must try!) didn't help. So my stomach was hurting really bad. Then off to a party at Manor, Eastwood for Vimi's birthday. Joel's back!! Really fun night despite the badly aching stomach.


Saturday morning, woke up with bad headache. Left the house for the Skechers Kick Off Party and first round of college eliminations! Congratulations ate Mycs and LSDC Street! :) Then off to a road trip away from traffic-ridden MOA and EDSA. Roadtrip with some Club friends which took us forever. And it was traffic everywhere in the Metro na nalipasan na naman ako ng gutom. UGH. Met up with Refuge (my GCF growth group) for a birthday dinner then off to Minneli's house to visit her dad.

Sunday, church and family day. Started out okay until really late lunch came with some churchmates in MOA. We ate around 1:30pm at nalipasan na naman ako ng gutom. But the pain was extra hard to endure this time. The coffee didn't help. But sleep did! The pain subsided around11pm.

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Short story: I NEVER liked Noy. Such a false sense of hope just cause he is the son of Ninoy of Cory.

And then this happened: A proposed budget cut of 1.39 Billion pesos. B is for BULL!


I am an Iskolar ng Bayan - MATAPANG, MATALINO, WALANG TAKOT KAHIT KANINO and I AM AGAINST Noy's 1.39 billion budget cut!

Noy can shove his yellow hope somewhere else, NOT IN MAROON LAND!

thanks to greatgatusby.tumblr.com for the awesome budget cut art.

The Fanboy

I was a freshman then when I watched the first Skechers StreetDance Battle at the World Trade Center, December 2005. It was for free then until Skechers realized that they can make big bucks out of it.

That night started what was to become the biggest and most coveted streetdance competition title in the country.

I was a basic streetdance student under Prof. Jerome Dimalanta then, and I remember him telling the class that the Club's piece would make us, mga Iskoand Iska, proud.

The UP StreetDance Club of UP Diliman won that night. And I went home, a proud Isko, never knowing that those people would later become my family.

Auditioning for the UP StreetDance Club was tremendously scary. Let's leave it at that. Haha.

Soon after, I was on the same stage with the same people I was screaming for, six months back. And dancing with them just feels so surreal. I used the present tense because until now, I am in awe that I get to dance with people of such great talent. And our relationship does not end on the dance floor.

Skechers 2 and 3 happened. And in both occasions, I lost my voice.

It's one thing cheering for people representing your school. It's a different story when they're your friends.

It's been three days, and yet I'm still ecstatic.

Armed with a new team with a different swagger, you guys conquered Araneta with much gusto.

I thank God for blessing the Club with Skechers 5.

Congratulation UP StreetDance Club!

I will always be a fan. Always.

Tiresome Saturday

I haven't been blogging lately since my brain refuses to work. But today, my brain declared war against stupidity and required me to write.

Saturday, September 19, 2009
Day was pretty jam-packed. My usual Saturday would entail waking up really late. Watching an episode or two of a recently downloaded TV show. Going to GCF for volleyball and youth worship service. And eating dinner with friends. But this particular Saturday wanted me to wake up by 8-ish in the morning and battle through the ACET traffic along Katipunan. Spent most the whole morning and afternoon with the awesome people of AComm as they prepared for the upcoming Rhythm in Blue (RiB) inter-org competition sposored by the Ateneo's very own Company of Ateneo Dancers (CADS).

I left around 2:30 to go to SM Mall of Asia to watch the Skechers Streetdance Battle 5 Kick-Off Party. Good thing I was able to catch a ride with Justin F., Jared, Peter and Rapha. We were a little bit late but it's all good. We got to bond with fellow UP Streetdance Club members as we weaved through the labyrinth that is the department store. We purchased a Von? shirt for Kuya Von.

I soon left the group because the AS1 - Gary Valenciano and Martin Nievera cocnert was just around the corner - literally. I got free tickets for the concert because of Facebook. Yes, Facebook! So I met up with my siblings, Nathan, Eki and Lai. And watched one very historic concert. In my mind, it's like Justin Timberlake and Neyo in one concert.

The concert was really REALLY awesome! One of the dancers was Kuya Sherwin and I kept screaming his name, people stared at me but I didn't really care. It was kuya Sher! He's an orgmate!! Gary and Martin didn't fail to deliver the best in Philippine vocals and they were Robin and Gabb's rendition of BEP's "I Gotta Feeling". Although the concert was great, standing for 2-3 hours was not as fun.

Talk about a tiring day. :|

The Club

Dear UP StreetDance Club,

Everything started in June 22, 2006. I was number 3. Chris Brown was playing. The room was full of kids aspiring to become part of your seemingly exclusive group. You'd actually have to audition first just to become an applicant! An hour and a half later, the auditions were over and I was on my way back home.

I've always wanted become a part of your group. Ever since I saw you perform during my sister's graduation in April 2003. When I got into UP, I was a week late when I learned about the auditions. After taking Basic StreetDance, screaming during 1st Skechers Streetdance Battle and watching Street Fuzion 6, I stood in front of a panel. Clueless as to what I'll do for the freestyle part of the auditions.

June 26, 2006 I went to the gym to check the list of students who passed. There was none yet. I went home, still hoping that I got in. I was alone, eating dinner when I got the message. "Congratulations..." was the first word that I read and my phone fell into pieces.

Before I knew it, I was training with 34 other people in a room covered with blue mats. Fast forward to March 3, 2007 some of us survived the application process and our first concert as members beckoned. The feeling felt surreal. Exactly a year ago, I was part of the humongous audience watching and screaming in awe. A year later, I was a part of the family on stage.

It wasn't always a walk in the park for us. I know I was one of those kids that took a lot of patience from your end. I'm very sorry for the all the headaches I've caused. I'm sure that at one point my name was synonymous to trouble during conversations. You taught me a lot about character. Thank you for never giving up on me, even if I was just too hard to handle; for allowing me to grow.

Temperature, So Excited, Ching-a-Ling, Go Dumb and Imma Shine are songs I probably wouldn't want to hear again. But you wanted me to dance to those songs week after week.

Batch 06 - Barbie, MJgirl, Noelie, Iya, David, Toki, Joan, Sam, Malco, Jolo, Kel, etc. You guys rock!

Blue Team - Micx, Trizza, Em, Kevin, Rev, Peter, Lian, Malco, Danya, Roz, Rapha, Aylene and Nikki = AWESOME TEAM! =)

Chosen Ground 4

Chosen Ground 5: Reboot

Street Fuzion 7: Homecoming

Street Fuzion 8: Ministry of Dance

Street Fuzion 9: Crossroads

Thank you for these five concerts. It was such a privilege sharing the stage with you.

And now I make my final bow. Good bye for now.

Thank you for the most rockin', kick-ass, awesome three and a half years.

The experiences I shared with you will always be incomparable. Will never exchange them for anything.

For the mean-time, I'll again be part of the crowd in front of you. :)

Regards,

Dan