Charice & David Fostering Friends

Have you met David Foster & Friends? Maybe not David Foster himself, but Friend you have met, none other than Charice. Actually now, he is the godfather of this little girl who is turning out to be the international super-entertainer all Asia has been waiting for to gate-crash the American music industry.

David Foster will be holding his first-ever Manila show, Hitman David Foster and Friends, at the Araneta Coliseum on 23 October at 8 PM (Maridol Rañoa-Bismark, 27 August, philstar.com). The friends are Natalie Cole, Peter Cetera, Ruben Studdard and the Canadian Tenors. And Charice of course. I remember reading somewhere that Charice has been trying to convince David to visit Manila and have fun with the music and the music-makers in the Philippines. Let me just say Charice has been David Fostering, if you know what I mean, other Filipino singers, like Sarah Geronimo and Regine Velazquez and Rhap Salazar. Charice is a little girl but she has a big heart.

So now David wants to meet more Filipino singers by then. “If there’s any singer out there who wants to get my attention,” he says, “this could be your big moment. I’m gonna try to pick somebody who is actually a singer” (same source as above). If you’re a singer, 23 October could be your big David Fostering moment.

David Foster has been familiar with Filipino singing talents. He says that in the 1970s when he was still with a band, they had a Filipino singer whose name was “Flip” and David Foster says of him: “He was great!” I’m not surprised. We Filipinos are very. When we are good, we are very good; when we are bad, we are very bad.

How was Charice cast in Glee? For Director Ryan Murphy, it was love at first sight

Did Charice audition for Glee or what? What really happened was that Producer and Director of Glee Ryan Murphy had seen Charice at Oprah before (Ruben Nepales, 18 August 2010, inquirer.net) - if you haven’t seen her at her show, you must live in the boondocks where there is no TV. He wanted to meet her. He tells Nepales this little story:

I saw those clips of her singing. One of the producers had heard of her, too, and met with her. I had to meet her myself. She came in - she’s so tiny and cute. I thought we were just going to be introduced. I’d heard her album. She said, ‘Do you want me to sing for you?’ I said, ‘Okay.’ She opened her laptop - she had a demo - she hit Play, and she sang. She was in my office for half an hour. When that girl opens her mouth, angels fly out.

That’s just like Charice. Like I said elsewhere, she’ll sing at the drop of a hint (see my “Where’s Charice? In Asia, in your living room,” 13 July 2010, American Chronicle). In fact, in this instance, she gave the hint and sang anyway. Thank’s for dropping by and singing for us, Charice.

I was just so taken by Charice. I loved her spirit. I loved the story of her and her mother. She was just so proud telling me that she had bought her mother a house. So it went from just being a meeting to, ‘Oh, I have to put that girl in that show somehow.’

Ryan was taken. If you’re not taken by Charice, you must be a Fiendster, as opposed to a Friendster.

Let’s continue quoting Murphy via Nepales (the interview happened before the confirmation of Charice being in Glee):

So we’re writing her a really good role. She’s going to start in the first episode of the new season. I’m really happy. That’s one of those things where somebody walks in and you’re just so touched that you say, ‘I have to write something for you.’ So that’s how it happened.

That is to say, Charice stole the heart of Ryan Murphy with just 1 song. Charice's personal joke is that she’s good for just 1 song - that’s a sly reference to the fact that she was eliminated in Round #1 Song #1 in Little Big Star (see also my “Journeys. Charice sings, Nestor Torre screams! 29 January 2010, American Chronicle). So, even Ryan Murphy is good for just 1 song. That song was? Nepales didn’t say. It doesn’t matter. It was the singer, not the song.

What’s news, Charice?

What’s news, pussycat? Let’s talk about what is news and what is not, because it has something to do with Charice this time. Well, anything about Charice interests me greatly.

There is this news item published in the papers about Charice pursuing a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Communication, and that the school is the Southern New Hampshire University based in Boston, Massachusetts. The information is correct. Good for her. But I’m disappointed. Not about the studying but about the reporting. That’s bad news about good news.

Neil Ramos of Manila Bulletin reported it 20 August 2010. Now, this item has been reported many times as news in the past, as follows (you can click on the links to check them out):

Julie reported it 18 August 2010;
NugglePurl reported it 17 August 2010;
Bechay reported it 24 July 2010 (comment by Chakyun);
Jocelyn Dimaculangan reported it 16 July 2010;
Bibi Nurshuhada Ramli of News Straits Times reported it 16 May 2010; }
Angelo G Garcia, Ina H Malipot, Ronald S Lim & Jaser A Marasigan, all also of Manila Bulletin reported it 23 March 2010 yet!
This list is by no means exhaustive.

But in fact, Katherine Evangelista of the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported it more than 5 months ago, on 06 March 2010 (“Charice Pempengco’s ‘Pyramid’,” inquirer.net).

So, what else is news?

News signifies something new, a new development, a new report, a new situation, new information, new discovery, new conclusion, new analysis, or new insight on an old story or something. Charice taking up an online course is an old story, and those reporters before Katherine had nothing new to add. They were not writing news.

What makes news is that the thing should have happened within the month at least. Like, on 16 March 2010, I myself reported that Charice is in college and is “taking up BA in Communication (online) (“Suddenly Charice. Live, Laugh, Love: PYR/\MID!” (DreamsGirl Charice). I had my own insights on the continuing Charice story, so what I wrote qualified as news; if not, it was a feature story anyway. If it happened last month, you would have to say “recently” if you are reporting it as news. If it happened last July, I wouldn’t publish it as news without insulting my readers. I wouldn’t be so unkind.

Journalists, let’s show some GMRC!

MJ moves Charice

Grammar rule and Twitter lines in and about the popular Fox TV series Glee: Julie headlines her item about our singing idol like this today: “Charice and Harry Shum Jr. compliments each other” (22 August, ofwnow.com). Julie’s short story is A-OK, her grammar is not - to be sure, there are a lot of grammatical errors out there; I just happened to bump into this one because I was surfing for Charice.

There is one little error in the headline - wrong number. It should read “Charice and Harry Shum Jr. compliment each other.” A plural subject requires a plural verb.

To avoid mistakes like that, if you’re using Word 2003, 2007 or 2010, be sure to check your Grammar & Style – it takes only a few minutes; Julie’s brief post would have taken only 10 seconds.. My advice: Don’t write in your blog box; instead, write in a Word window. What I do is write in Word 2010 and then copy and paste to Windows Live Writer, which I then command to upload the whole essay into my blogsite. It takes care of my photographs too. Thank you, Microsoft for this handy, intelligent little software for blogging.

Charice and Harry compliment each other, says Julie, saying nice things apparently about the scene they just shot; if I understand it right, they just shot a dancing sequence. “You were incredible today!” Harry says on Twitter. “I loved your MJ moves. Super fresh (Charice) is one talented girl!” MJ of course is one of the idols of Charice. When she dresses for it, she is the female MJ. She’s got the moves. She is moved by his music.

Julie says Charice tweeted back, “Thanks. I love your no-bones, super-mega-ultra moves! Definitely, you were born from a boombox! Hahahaha!” (Nobody edits Twitter, but I’m not in Twitter so I have to. I inserted the hyphens for Charice; this is Charice’s hyperbole in 9 words that simply means she loves the way he dances.)

Just Jared headlines the same story this way, “Charice Hearts Harry Shum Jr.” (buzznet.com).That is Just Jared’s compliment to Charice; JJ is using Charice’s lingo. Don’t you just love it?!

Come to think of it, it looks like Charice and Harry complement each other.

They’re having fun. That’s the point of it all, isn’t it, not necessarily looking good but feeling good, doing what comes naturally, complimenting each other, complementing their roles

The Charice we know

Glee’s female star Lea Michelle has met Charice and she’s impressed, to say the least, judging from the report (digitalspy.co.uk). Lea talks of the “teeniest, most wee person I’ve ever seen in my life. And she’s so darling, she’s so sweet. Just hearing her hum and sing backstage, she has a gorgeous voice.” That’s the Charice we all know.

So I’m not surprised that when the American actress met the Philippine actress, Lea was “all praises for the 18-year old Filipino singer” (abs-cbnNEWS.com). She said that she and Charice shot “a hilarious scene the other day.” It must have been fun in more ways than one. Charice is a natural comic, if Lea didn’t know.

Lea says that in the show itself, she and Charice will either be best friends, or big rivals or something. My own guess is that Charice will be both Lea’s (Rachel Berry’s) biggest rival and biggest friend, if you know what I mean.

We have been told Charice will play a foreign exchange student in Glee, but we haven’t heard of the name of her character. I suggest Charmaine Clarice, a long name for a short star.