I watched the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone this morning!

My friend Chrisna and I were among the first people in town to be treated to the film’s “premiere” here in town. The theatre gates opened at 10:45 AM but we already had our tickets by 10:30. Heh. Segurista.

The movie has a really beautiful soundtrack. It is the first good thing I would say when someone asks me.

And who could ever forget the breathtakingly realistic and dizzying-fast Quidditch match of Gryffindor and Slytherin? It puts to shame even the most heated FIFA World Cup encounter!

The giant-sized chess battle sequence was simply spectacular. It was, without a doubt, my favorite scene in the entire movie. Ron definitely stole the thunder from Harry with his heroics.

As I said to a bunch of friends whom I talked with right after watching, there was something about the first Harry Potter movie that leaves you wanting more. In our language, that would be nabitin. Left hanging, so to speak. A lot of people agreed with me, especially those who have read all four books.

I am still waiting for the soundtrack to arrive here in our local stores.

Finally, here is a picture of the aforementioned chess battle sequence, featuring Ron. This is from the movie’s exclusive Vanity Fair shoot.

For the past 24 hours or so, I have been rediscovering the sheer power of the music from the anime soundtracks of Virtua Fighter.

I ended up cajoling a bunch of online and RL friends to download some of the mp3s, especially the OP songs Wild Vision and the really awesome Ai Ga Tarinaize (Love is Not Enough). Mitsuyoshi Takenobu could really give a song life, making you want to dance right along.

I am currently listening to Kyouhansha (Accomplice), the second VF anime ending theme. Both this song and Kuchibiru no Shinwa (Lips’ Mythology), the first ED song, were sung by Vivian Hsu. Really good stuff, but I like the second ED more. It is much faster and, as usual, nicely danceable.

And who could forget what today is?

The opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in most of the countries in the West!

The movie will be shown here in Iloilo on November 21st, so the wait is not that long anymore. They have already posted at SM City that the first screening date is on the aforementioned date, so they had better made good on that promise or ELSE!

Just got home from two straight classes this morning. On my way home, I bought my daily fix of Quickly Chocolate Milk Tea. I now like it with a scoop or two of chocolate pudding, which is so sinfully yummy and slippery. *raises eyebrow*

At SM Delgado, where I buy my Quickly drinks, I passed by the record bar and saw a tape of Gregorian: Masters of Chant on one of the outermost display shelves.

Something came over me and I just HAD to buy it. I had listened to the music long before from my uncle’s own copy and over the radio a few time, but now I felt like having my very own tape.

So it is impulse buying at its purest state.

One word: Monks. XD

I was randomly surfing for nice mp3 downloads today, perhaps overcompensating for leisure time or what-have-you before class starts again tomorrow, and I happened to come across Irresistible by Jessica Simpson. Teenyboppers attack! *cackles*

I remember trying to download the song many months or so ago after hearing it first over the radio. The mp3′s server was having PMS that time and it kept kicking me and crashing my browser.

I kinda liked the song’s rhythm and it was danceable, something to perk you up in the morning and rouse you from boredom or some such. Also makes one type faster in finishing reports so as to spend more time doing “cooler” online stuff.

Anywho, I managed to download all of the song this time and it currently is on heavy play on my WinAmp (with Dark Mousy as the skin – only appropriate).

Excerpt from IRRESISTIBLE
by Jessica Simpson

He’s irresistible
Up close and personal
Now inescapable
I can hardly breathe

More than just physical
Deeper than spiritual
His ways are powerful
Irresistible to me

One word: WOW.

Who is this guy?

I am such a dorky ditz.

Power in the whole of Iloilo City went out very early Thursday morning because of the really big momma of a storm they – very, very aptly – called Bagyo Nanang.

According to the news, it struck at Signal 1 and 2 over most areas of the country. Though this alone may not sound that destructive, the heavy rains that came along were the ones that caused numerous flash floods, resulting in people being evacuated from their homes because the water got very high.

Many electric posts were struck down by the combined force of the rain and the winds, so Iloilo City suffered a major blackout during the daylight hours of Thursday, 8 November 2001.

However, our residence area just had the brilliant luck of having a power cable snapping off the electric post during the most inopportune times, so we were subjected to said blackout until Friday afternoon. We had to wait for Panay Electric Company’s (PECO) troubleshooter team to fix the broken line. Man, I had a jolly good time trying to get through PECO’s line to file the broken power line report.

The power is back now and pretty much functioning the way it is supposed to, but I am still pretty worried about people all over the country – particularly in our city – whose houses, appliances and furniture were rendered useless by the flash floods. To think of my family in that situation…*shudder*

After the enrollment booths and tables closed for the day, a bunch of people and I decided to hit SM City. We decided to pay the silver screens and the deliciously-cool theater air-conditioning units a long-overdue visit.

Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon, is the first of the two movies that I watched earlier tonight. The movie was fun and Elle Woods, Witherspoon’s character, is endearing.

You can see Elle “grow up” in the movie, learning from her mistakes and becoming a person who tries not to impress others but to prove her worth to her own self. She might have entered Harvard for what seemed to be the wrong reasons, but her journey to self-discovery was worth way more than any prestigious university in the world could ever hope to offer.

Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson), her “real” leading-man, the mysterious-older-man-law-firm-associate, is very, very delish, strikingly handsome and smart and looking very much like Kevin of the Backstreet Boys! XD

Below is a review of the movie from Amazon.com:

The fabulous Elle Woods, a West Coast sorority queen, follows her escaping boyfriend to Harvard Law School, where she shows up wearing leather and carrying a Chihuahua in her arms.

The first-time director Robert Luketic displays a talent for candied artifice and gentle parody: the scenes in the sorority house are so stylized they could be out of an old M.G.M. musical, complete with pink-on-pink decor and squealing girls who are both silly and likable.

The second movie I watched was The One, starring Jet Li.

There is NOT only one Jet, but many. As in multiple Jet Lis running all over the place.

There are various scenes throughout the movie where we can see Jet fighting himself – literally. After all, he plays men with different personalities throughout the multiverse.

The two central characters are both played by Jet, of course. The “good” boy is Gabe, who uses the circular Bagua Zhang fighting technique. Yulaw, the “bad” one, employs the more direct “straight-line” Hsing Yi style.

The love interest of these men in their respective worlds are likewise portrayed by the same actress, Carla Gugino. She is Yulaw’s deadly, vixenish accomplice-mistress, who staged a rather daring prison escape for her lover. Carla also played Gabe’s down-to-earth and loving wife.

Here is the film’s skinny from Amazon.com:

There is not one universe, but there are many, which is a multiverse. Supposing you are just one person, there are many other versions of you in the other universes, there are ways to travel, but only a police agency, MVA, can travel only for police procedures.

Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) is a former MVA agent, who killed another version of himself in self-defense. It made the other versions of him stronger. When Yulaw found out about this, he became power-hungry, killing the 122 other versions for two years.

After killing Lawless (also played by Jet) and getting captured by his former partner Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and a new MVA agent Funsch (Jason Statham), Yulaw managed to escape the prison and is trying to kill his last target, Gabe Law (also played by Jet) who is a police officer. He is also at Yulaw’s strength. Roedecker and Funsch now have to arrest Yulaw before he can kill Gabe.

There is a possibility that the universe could die or make Yulaw invincible. After encountering Yulaw for the first time, Gabe thought that it was his split personality, but it wasn’t. Will Gabe be able to confront Yulaw before or after Yulaw ruins his life?

Tonight there was an exhibition 9-ball game between the Billiards World Women’s Champion for 2001 Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee and the Philippines’ famed pride on the cue, Efren “Bata” Reyes, also known as “The Magician.” It was aired at 9:30 PM on IBC-13, live from Casino Filipino. It was a Race to 13 encounter.

The Magician went home with ten thousand dollars (US $10,000) as the prize money for this 13-4 victory over The Black Widow. Shortly before Bata cued in his 9th ball at the end pocket to cap the match, the Black Widow threw on the pool table a white handkerchief, a symbol of surrender. And while Bata was receiving his huge ceremonial check, she walked up to him and made a show of strangling The Magician.

I wish I was in Manila so I could have watched the game live. The Black Widow is such an awesome player, and Bata, of course, never fails to deliver a good show in his games.