Okay…weird first day I had a while ago. At least during the morning it was. First were the swarm of HRIM students in front of CSB Main, all wearing white. Then the increasing swarm of frosh in the SDA lobby. Good thing I went to schoool early, let’s say 6:50am. My first class started at 8am.

Vidprod1 is the name of the my first and only class of the day. And I had quite a lot of familiar faces as classmates: Justine, Katriz, Jam, Alyssa-not-the-Matias, and classmates from past subjects. One thing I noticed later on: I’m the only guy in a class full of girls!

Vidprod1 is basically all about scriptwriting and my prof’s pretty much veteran in his field of expertise. Sir Dodos in his orientation, encourage us to watch a lot of films and television shows to help us understand how scripts work. Good thing I’m planning on watching Terminator Salvation next week XD!

Later as the day progresses, I attended a meeting with regards to CG Overdrive ’09 and everything that has to do with it. I finally got some clarifications with a lot of stuff about the event and I hope things go very well by June 15.

A half-day well enjoyed. Thank God, He is Good!

This is definitely getting a vote of 5 for reasons unknown! Hehehe kidding.

Got to watch the final episode of 90210’s freshman season and I must say, I was stoked, speechless, and amazed. This is the kind of show that viewers of the series as well as of the whole 90210 franchise wanted to see from the new spin-off. Thanks to new showrunner, Rebecca Sinclar (credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls), she was able to turn the show around and cleaned up the mess made by previous EP’s, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who took over from Rob Thomas (the series creator of 90210 and of Veronica Mars) who left because of creative differences with the other producers.

Note, skip the synopsis if you just want to read the review.

Synopsis: Picking up from the prom night episode, “Zero Tolerance”, “One Party Could Ruin Your Summer” brings us to a D.L. after-prom party initiated by Naomi at her house in the Hills. Some of her West Beverly High peers bore some hatred on good girl Annie (they thought it was her who told her principal dad about one of the students’ own after-prom party on the previous episode).

“Unconventional sex guy” Ethan became open about his feeling towards quirky bi-polar Silver despite being god friends with her beau, “Dixie” Dixon. bad booy Liam got turned off after he thought Naomi blabbed what he shared with her when Naomi’s evil sister Jen (he didn’t knew she was HER sis!) talked about it and as revenge, they had SEX (Eww, as if Jen being Ethan’s “first” was not gross enough!).

Annie during the party found the one who first thought it was her who tattled about the party, drunk and vomitting. She asked Annie if she could drive her home (which she did). Meanwhile, Adrianna went into labor and had to undergo a C-Section. Navid accopanied her to the hospital, later followed by Naomi, Kelly (Silver’s sister), Principal Harry and his wife Debbie, and surprisingly Brenda (Shanne Doherty) who appeared to Ad in two instances! Brenda wanted a child f her own that’s why she went to China, so she could adopt a baby from that country. Harry and Debbie somewhat got high after eating some brownies they didn’t know were laden with marijuana.

Naomi went home to check on the party, and when she found out that Liam had sex with a girl she was furious. She found Annie’s *something* which was at Jen’s possession earlier. She thought Annie had sex with him so she went downstairs to confront her. Liam found out he was used by Jen. Annie can’t seem to comprehend but she was pretty much got the brunt of Naomi’s misplaced anger, and so were the rest of West Bev, calling her a “Kansan Skank”. Poor Annie also got doused with a drink.

Feeling angry, bitter, and betrayed, Good Girl blew her top like a volcano and cursed Naomi and the rest of the student body. She stormed out, but not without anyone knowing she called the police and finally “tattled” about the party as revenge.

Ending? Naomi’s house was stormed by the police, Ethan kissed Silver, Silver was left with a decision, Dixon is now at odds with both Dixon and Ethan, Ad finally gave her baby up to the couple she called for her adoption, Navid was beside her the whole time, Liam was “kidnapped” by man-abductors, and Annie was droving off the road the next morning with a bottle of vodka she stole from the party. A car was following her with a sudden emphasis with the car’s plate number. The end of season one.

Review: First of is my good critique.

Jen is the most b!tchy since she arrived two episode ago. Like a banana, every episode we got to see who she really is one by one with no definite reason of her true intentions. I wonder how this would drastically affect the rest of the characters come second season. Meanwhile, I’m amazed with Annie’s sudden change of character from being a perky goody-two shoes to being a perky volcano. This is probably Shenae Grime’s best highlight with her character since the show began. The change that occured to Annie would certainly impress a lot of people who’ve long been complained for being “perky perfect”. Silver’s character evolution really impressed me this season and I’m glad her old pre-bipolar self is back. I now wonder how the inevitably short-live love traingle would progress knowing Dustin Milligan (Ethan) is leaving in Season 2 (he’ll be guest starring by then probably to finish up his storyline). The recurring series subplot, the adventure of the Wilson parents, never failed me to laugh my butt off seeing how this supercouple somehow gives viewers a brief escape from the main plot of the episode. I’m curious though how they would react with Annie’s stint at the unmonitored party next season.

And yes, Kelly and Brenda are also back together on the season finale, although not together onscreen. The dream sequence also got me fooled when they showed a room of a dying Jim Walsh, Brenda’s dad from the original BH90210 which turned out to be untrue (At least to give old viewers a break after learning of Kelly and Silver’s mom returning to her alcoholism, and Donna and David being legally separated.). And yeah, I was amazed with the kind of closure given to Brenda who seems to be very happy adopting a child despite the drama she experienced for the past few episodes. Wishful thinking she could return to the zip once again for a couple more episodes. And finally, I’m just sick of brotha Dixon being a spoiled brat to his beau. In a good way, I got to feel my pity to Silver and anger towards Dixie. They don’t call me a dedicated fanboy for nothin’!

Best highlight of the episode was the conluding scenes showing all the characters of season one. Outrating the rest of those scene is the closing shot of Annie driving off on the road. It’s something people would have wanted but never expected that it would turned out like it. A thought-provoking and speechless cliffhanger ending indeed!

Bad critique? Ethan has got have the most ridiculous character development for season one. Not only have we failed to see more of his personal life in past episode, we never got to see who Ethan really as an individual. Writers made him more of a play thing between frienemies Annie and Naomi. Worst of all, he was given the impression of being a sexually-hungry guy after it was revealed he have long cheated on Naomi way way before (and I’m calling this child abuse, Jen!). And because Dustin Milligan is no longer going to be a series regular next season, I’m hoping that ever he still get to have his storyline end properly this fall, he get to end it well. Milligan’s a loss to the show, since he is of all the members of the cast, the most charismatic actor who breathed life into Ethan.

Another letdown is the lack of a Kelly-Brenda scene on the finale. I just can’t imagine that they’ve already seen each other off-screen unless it was mentioned onscreen. However, the participation of BH90210 alums in the spin-off is expected to become more minimal since Rebecca Sinclar already stated the need to focus 90210 more on its own core characters and not rely too much on past ones.

Somehow, 90210’s future seems to be set on the right direction. Let’s hope that 90210 by then become a stand-out and eclipse the success of its mother show!

90210’s quotable quotes:

Annie: Screw you, Naomi! Screw all of you!

Liam: Give me my shirt.
Jen: I forgot how cute teenage boys can be when they’re upset.

Debbie: The problem is, we can’t drive anywhere because we’re stoned.

I’ve long been curious about the way America produce their own version of the soap opera, which in basic definition, is a drama serial aired in the afternoon and are mostly sponsored by soap and detergent companies (thus they are called “Daytime Soaps”). US soaps have done it all, even the impossible, the most exagerrating, the most overly-used, and outright ridiculous storylines one could not imagine.

ABC’s One Life to Live is no exception. As in all other soaps, it boast of an ensemble cast lead by one actor that’s pretty much carries the flame of the program. The show centers around the lives of residents living in Llanview (pronounced as “lahn-view”), particularly the Buchanans, Lords, Mannings, etc.

I don’t need to tell you exactly the premise of the soap given its durability that had it lasted 40 years and still ongoing. As in most soaps in general, it features stories that are multigenerational, most often confusing, and at times relevant to today’s issues.

Given the reputation that its sister soaps, General Hospital and All My Children, had had made to the genre’s image, one cannot separate genre as a showcase of “SEX, SEX, SEX!” (quoted from a recent episode), half-naked hunks, and power-hungry vixens in addition to the fact that many 2nd to 3rd generation characters are blood-related or turn out to be NOT related at all.

Which leads me to the present storyline of One Life to Live that’s been ongoing since November.

1)The Baby-Switch=Cousins Jessica Buchanan-Brennan and Starr Manning were both expecting babies due almost at the same time. The father of Jessica’s baby died recently (or so I think) while Starr got pregnant by her boyfriend Cole Thornhart.

Jessica has a long history of multi-polar disorder, recurring when she’s in a state of stress. She had two alter-egos, Tess and Bess. One time, when both Jessica and Starr gave birth, the former’s baby (named Chloe) died because of a genetic disease.

Much of the agony took a toll on Jess’s state of mind that one of her alters, Bess, took over and decided to switch Chloe with that of Starr’s (named Hope). And without anyone seeing her, Bess switched the two babies and took Hope as Jessica’s Chloe. Before she had who she thought of as “Hope” handed over to the nursery, she kept a lock of her not-her-daughter’s hair and stored it inside her locket.

It left Starr devastated over the death of who she thought of as Hope.

Fast-forward to March 2009, Jess’ sister is now suspecting that something’s not right with the whole Chloe/Hope story and confided with her fiancee that the babies may have been switched. Marcie, a friend of Starr who she intend to give her baby to for adoption had she lived, also suspected something wrong with the whole situation so she decided to tell Starr of her suspicions.

Fast tracked to May 2009, the truth behind the baby-switch is about to unfold. The coffin of Chloe/Hope was unearthed for autopsy while Jess’s sister finally confirmed her suspicions of the baby switch but is too afraid to tell her sister about it. This week, supercouple Starr and Cole (both are 17 years old FYI) will now find out who’s the real Hope and who’s baby was inside that coffin.

2)Todd and Marty-Todd Manning is Starr’s dad while Marty is Cole’s mom. They both shared a past together when back in 1992 Todd and several members of a fraternity raped a drunken Marty, leaving her traumatized. This whole storyline has been going on for more than 10 years and it shows no sign of slowing down despite the roles being recast by different actors (actors a replaceable in US soap world).

The latest update on this was that Marty, Todd, and two other women (Starr’s mother and Todd’s wife) were kidnap by one of Todd’s ex-fratmen who was with him when the raped happened. Ex-frat had lost his mind because of guilt and is now focused on killing Todd. So he had him tied up on the same bed that Marty was on when she was raped, while her and the two others were tangled up in chairs. This week may be the culminating event for this chapter of the post-Marty/Todd rape story.

and this now connects to OLTL’s story of the week…

3)Grandpa and Child=Rebecca, ex-frat’s sister was in town to help her brother get his revenge on Todd. Last Friday was when she found out of Chloe/Hope’s true blood relation so she kidnapped her while Jessica and current beau, Brody, were downstairs making out. She intends to use Hope as a way to torture Todd (who is unaware as of now that she’s his granddaughter). Starr and Cole found out after coming home from Prom that both of their parents were somehow kidnapped based from Starr’s traumatized brother.

4)Yo Soy Lola la Loca=Obviously this would appeal to mostly teen viewers are into the characters of Langston, Markko, and Lola. Cutting it short, before Prom Night, Lola poked several pieces of condoms that Langston’s mom gave to her which Langston intends to use for her love-making session with Markko. Lola during prom got high after buying some drug inside the school ground and went home feeling much high and la loca.

Langston’s mom and Lola’s dad eventually found out what Lola did so they rushed to call the two lovers and warned them about the condoms. Good thing that Markko bought some over-the-counter ones for them to really have some safe sex.

A very high Lola came clean when she blurted out that she was the one who killed her mom (hundreds of episodes ago I think) but turns out her aim was killing Langston’s adopted mother!

5)Gigi-Loves-Rex-That’s Why=This one’s ongoing since last March. Cole, Gigi and her son Shaun, and Bo Buchanan’s son Matthew got into a car accident, leaving Matthew paralyzed while Shaun was later diagnosed and discovered he has leukemia. One way for Shaun to be saved from the frequent exposures of radiation resulted from chemotherapy is for a blood transplant compatible to his own blood. Somehow, an evil vixen found a way to save Shaun but because she’s so interested of taking Rex away from Gigi, she blackmailed her on leaving Rex in order to give her what Gigi needs to save Shaun.

What I don’t get is that Gigi had al he chance she had to tell the father of her son about the blackmail without ever letting the vixen know Gigi was breakinger her part of the deal. They could have pretend that they’ve broken up and seems liek this is going to get long as long as the 6-month old Chloe/Hope babyswitch.

I find the stories kind of ridiculous, exagerrated and but at the same time entertaining that makes you wanting more and more. Remember though that several sets of week’s worth of episodes or less covers at least one day in the life of a Llanviewer so expect that the pacing to be slow time-wise. What could only keep yourself from dozing off would the character’s interaction with each other. Their yapping and yelling is the main staple of the soap so depending on how man good writer they have, viewer are sure not to be bored at all.

Because after all, we only have One Life to Live.

PCD performing “Jai Ho” on One Life to Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LhQRZSKT5c

I need to streamline some stuff from my bedroom so I decided to have some old books donated this ongoing book donation drive run by 99.5RT which I did last Monday May 18.

But I got more than what I bargained for. I met one of the station’s jocks, Sam Oh which I used to see on ETC’s “Rated Oh” and now QTV’s “True Confections”. How good was that?

Didn’t exactly noticed that she was still in the booth the moment I entered the station’s premises (her show ended half an hour later by the time I came in) and I was utmost speechless the moment I saw her sitting on the couch checking something on her Mac.

My jaw just dropped like…….. :O

I find her really, really nice. Not only that, she speaks Filipino like a true-blue Pinoy! Talk about being multilingual! 😀

So here, paglamyaan niyo iyung mga nakunan kong mga pics ni Sam hehehe.