The Dolls clear-ly dominate
Come June 11 (Thursday), the Pussycat Dolls once again invade our shores, turning the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds into a perfect showcase for their very special brand of Pop entertainment. Brought to us by Clear shampoo and MTV Philippines, the PCD act is a perfect melange of Las Vegas showgirl/Crazy Horse meets Pop music, and it has spelled millions in record sales and concert ticket revenues. The men adore the titillation and overt sexual tone of the act, while every young girl or woman can appreciate and aspire to be a song and dance maven — thus guaranteeing a good audience that crosses gender and age. Sure, they may not be the best of singers individually, but the packaging and marketing of the group has effectively glossed over that fact, and the arrangements and slick production more than compensate for this. Friends of mine who watched their Manila stop a couple of years ago eagerly anticipate their return, and that’s more than I can say for some acts, where having seen them “live” once, makes a second or third opportunity something that one feels lukewarm about or will outright “pass.” It’s the energy and pace of the show that people talk about, how they’ve made dance and said energy, essential components of the show’s attraction.
With songs like Doncha’, Buttons, Stickwitu, When I Grow Up and I Hate the Part, this is one concert where song after song will be avidly followed and the lyrics mouthed by the countless faithful and fans. Their latest is a sly tribute to the wonder film of the last year, Slumdog Millionaire. Off the soundtrack of said film, the Dolls have created their own version of Jai Ho. Even my nine-year-old, Luca, loved this song from the film, and so is it any wonder that the Dolls’ version has climbed up the charts. And yes, I will forgive them for pronouncing Jai as Jay with a long vowel “A” sound. And I won’t suggest that this can be a snide new nickname for Jennifer Lopez.
There’s a special Early Bird offer that coupled with a Clear shampoo purchase component that makes the tickets really competitive. The arrangement with the venue is similar to the Eraserheads concert (with over 100,000 in attendance for that one), there will be no seats, as this will also help keep the price of tickets down. Sure that’s a minor discomfort, but given the nature of the Cats playlist, the moment the music gets going, you better check your pulse and vital signs if you still want to stay seated. As can be expected, with her half-Filipino lineage and the fact that she’s been in the tabloids, thanks to her “relationship” with current Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, Nicole Scherzinger will be the focus of the media frenzy. It’s Clear-ly a coup for MTV and the sponsors that they’re bringing the Dolls back to Manila.
A cold war-rior, a hollyweird P.I. and a pre-pubescent female Sherlock
The three novels today consist of a sophomore effort by one of the Young Guns that made his mark last year — Tom Rob Smith, and the debut novels of Daniel Depp and 70-year-old Alan Bradley, names that avid fiction readers would do well to remember. From totalitarian Russia in the mid-1950s, present-day Hollywood, and back to the genteel world of rural England in the 1950s; these novels shine in putting together atmosphere and sense of time and location, with interesting plotlines and memorable characters.
The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith (available at National Bookstore): Fresh off last year’s mystery hit Child 44, Tom Rob Smith’s hero, ex-KGB agent Leo Demidov, is back for this second installment. Wife Raisa, the sober realist who constantly pulls the “government” wool out of his eyes, is also part of this mid-1950’s Russian story. The title refers to the speech Kruschchev gave in 1956, where he denounced Stalin and made most of the repression done in Stalin’s name crimes against the purity of Communism. As such, most of the work that Leo had accomplished in the early 1950’s become crimes against humanity and revenge is on the minds of several of the people he had denounced and had sent to the gulags. Having adopted Zoya and Elena after having caused the death of their parents, the need to be accepted by the children is also a theme of this fast-paced race against Time to save the people he loves.
Loser’s Town by Daniel Depp (available at National Bookstore): Hard-boiled detection is on the mind of first time author Daniel Depp. Think Get Shorty and Pulp Fiction as pegs for this debut of ex-stuntman, now Private Investigator David Spandau. Holly-weird is his beat, and given author’s Depp’s intimate knowledge of this city’s landscape, it isn’t long before the laconic Spandau is our excellent tour guide to the seamier LA underbelly. Rising star Bobby Dye is being blackmailed by nightclub owner/drug dealer Richie Stella, who wants to be a Hollywood producer, via the worse of scripts. There’s snappy dialogue and an impressive cast of fully realized supporting characters. I loved how Depp takes potshots at the over-ripe egos of the stars we often read about, and how he works on details like the size of one’s trailer to show just how producers pander to this woeful world of egos and street reps. A real fun read!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (available at National Bookstore): This critically acclaimed debut of 70-year-old author Alan Bradley answers the question of just how effective a septuagenarian can be in stepping into the shoes of an 11-year-old girl, who’s eccentric in her own way and uses her power of deduction to solve a local murder. An aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, Flavia de Luce, has to be one of the most brilliant heroines of recent Fiction. While precocious beyond her years in some aspects of her analytical mind, it’s nice to note that Bradley manages to keep his heroine firmly rooted emotionally in her 11-year-old psyche. The time is the 1950s, and we’re thrust into the English countryside, and Flavia’s family members are already worth the price of admission to this world that Bradley conjures. I can’t wait for the second installment, and this is one I readily recommend.
