All Posts By

Jay E. Tria

Review: go-en The Japanese Ramen Shoppe

Posted on March 23, 2014

If you have not noticed (shame on you), ramen is now a thing in the Philippines. A very big thing, given all the ramen shops sprouting like mushrooms and all the top 10 Best Ramen lists websites and food bloggers seem so keen to announce. I like these lists though. They make Google searching “best ramen QC” so much easier. Thus, my Saturdate discovery of go-en Ramen.

The full name reads go-en The Japanese Ramen Shoppe, a quirky Japanese food find in the heart of Quezon City’s South Triangle. Their Facebook page details how their menu masters learned the art of ramen from genuine Japanese ramen ninjas. And really, there is only one way to prove this.

Makeup and Skincare

Review: Virgin Coconut Oil

Posted on March 23, 2014

Virgin Coconut Oil or VCO is one of the most underrated, best kept beauty secrets, at least in this country. Case in point: it is damn hard trying to restock on this amazing find, and I live in the tropics where coconut trees can easily line the streets. This to me translates to small, irrelevant local demand for VCO. Thus leading producers to ship the white crystalline goodness elsewhere in the world where people are willing to pay. (This economics lecture leads to somewhere relevant, I promise)

Music Dance and Lyrics

LSSing: Raging Fire

Posted on March 8, 2014

I’ve been keeping up with American Idol‘s new season and although I love the judging panel (Harry Conick Jr, sir, you are awesome), I’m still waiting to root for the contestants. ANY contestant. I just want to feel something and not just tune out and continue reading passages of the Hobbit while they belt out their three-minute renditions. Something’s just missing with these kids and I can’t figure out what. Then Phillip Phillips returns to the stage and I get it.

Call it charisma, wide-eyed sincerity, stage presence (i.e. beautiful blue eyes), a signature weird leg movement, or real understanding of the song. Season 11’s Idol shows the contestants how it’s done. And hopefully they take it from there.

Before the flame goes out tonight
Yeah, we’ll live until we die

So c’mon c’mon c’mon
Won’t you turn my soul into a raging fire?

Something like that.

Video credits to owner.

Music Dance and Lyrics

LSSing: Let’s Stay Together

Posted on March 8, 2014

Just when I semi-decided I’m not that interested in the new season of the Voice, this video slides into my news feed. I forgot how Adam can croon. The man strips this popular, over-remade and over-remixed song to its basics. Raw, sweet, and just damn sexy. Let’s.

Let’s Stay Together, version by Maroon 5. Video credits to owner.

Maj Guanzon Theater Review

Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Posted on February 2, 2014

I almost flew to Singapore to catch this show at the Marina Bay Sands. A friend of mine actually did, and she so kindly took home a souvenir eco-tote for me. I’ve stared at it longingly ever since. So obviously, the moment I saw that green smirking face plastered on the newspaper, I pledged my attendance, ticket cost and theater companion be damned.

Wicked was a good follow through to the desperate, intense romantic tragedy that is the Phantom of the Opera, the Broadway musical that lay claim on Philippine shores and ate my heart whole last year. Wicked the musical (full title: Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz) runs on the music and lyrics of Stephen Schwartz, and is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which in turn is a parallel novel of the L. Frank Baum‘s 1900 classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I say “based” because the musical is a ray of light in the way the novel never tried to be. Though under the laughs, witty jokes and impeccable dialogue run the dark shadows of Maguire’s political and social commentary. It was a good marriage, giving the musical the solid backbone its plot required. Continue Reading

Life and Lemons

2013 – The Blogging Year That Was

Posted on December 31, 2013

Perfectly punctual as usual, herein is my blog’s 2013 annual report as meticulously prepared by WordPress.com stats helper monkeys. I would like to meet them one day, but for now I would just like them to know that I am quite pleased with their services. This is my 3rd annual report which I suppose is testament to 3 years of written blabbering. If you chanced upon this blog by mistake, my improved stats would like to thank you for that error.

Happy new year, monkeys and humans! 🙂

Excerpt!!

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Boom.

Click here to see the complete report.