13 - The Phantom of the Opera

A 2004 Musical Blockbuster Film by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Film showings on class hours. Doesn't it get you relaxed? The fact that the whole class is just going to sit down there with the lights off and watch the movie. Typically for me, I was just thinking about sleeping on the class period, but this one movie caught my attention. It's a musical film called The Phantom of the Opera at The Royal Albert Hall. Now I know what you're thinking. "Opera is boring, some people say you'd die in boredom". But this movie will change the way you think about operas. I myself found this movie very passionate, and has a great polish to top it all off.

I won't spoil you from the film of course. I will just tell you a situation that is really similar to the movie's plot. So it's like in real life problems, arranged marriage. Being forced into something you don't want by the greater good, or so they say. Imagine being that woman and how limited are your choices in life. Exactly, you can't find an easy way out of it. But this similar situation in the movie is not all about bad luck and unhappiness. There was a big twist in the end that made everything so confusing, but so logical. I promise you that it will change the way you think of the characters. So, you may want to watch the movie yourself. :)

 Now to the musical theme of this movie.

Opera is expressing the story through live musicals. Attending an opera makes you feel the music with the story. So it fills your atmosphere to help you get deep in the story. But this movie made it so realistic that it connects the story the real atmosphere in the theater. You would really feel like there is a ghost inside the place. So this live act made you really feel more of the atmosphere in it. It's like they're making you feel like you're in the movie yourself. Now how about that? It's like you're in a 4 Dimensional film. Except that the fact is, you really are. How cool is that?

This film really is worth the time. This will really change your thoughts about theater arts. And this film will make you feel the athmosphere deeply. So why not ask if your friends have a copy, or buy the movie yourself.

12-Merlinda Bobis

Merlinda Bobis

The multi-talented writer, performer, and academic

My grandfather once told me. "If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write."

Merlinda Bobis. The author of Banana Heart Summer.

Merlinda's Early Life

Born in Legaspi City, in the Philippines province of Albay. As a child her main interest was painting, but at age ten she began writing poetry because ‘painting with words’ was cheaper. Poetry makes a person mature and more intelligent. Merlinda Bobis attended Bicol University High School then completed her Bachelor of Arts Summa Cum Laude at Aquinas University in Legaspi City, a post-graduate degree Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Santo Tomas, and aslo a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, and now lives in Australia.

Merlinda's Career

Written in different genres in both Filipino and English, her work coordinates components of the customary society of the Philippines with cutting edge settler experience. Likewise she is also a dancer and visual artist, Bobis presently instructs at Wollongong University for more than twenty years now. Her play Rita's Lullaby was the winner of the 1998 Awgie for Best Radio Play and the international Prix Italia of that same year. In 2000 White Turtle won the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Collection of Australian Short Stories and the 2000 Philippine National Book Award. Most as of late, in 2006, she has won the Gintong Aklat Award (Golden Book Award, Philippines) for her most recent novel Banana Heart Summer, from the Book Development Association of the Philippines. And now She continues to dream new stories in Canberra.

I can say that Merlinda can be part of the Filipinos that we should be proud of. She have so many achievements in her life that truly showed how artistic she is a person. And as a female, I bet it is hard for her to be part of something big, but you can see that she succeeded in most of her attempts in pursuing her dreams. I also salute her for reaching this far in her career knowing the fact that she comes from a province here in the Philippines (Bicol). 






As a Filipino, there are so many people that we should be proud of. The "Filipino Heroes" that is usually taught in our school is nit the only Filipinos that bought success and glory to our country. But also these Filipino artist that worked hard in becoming a Filipino Pride.