Now comes a feisty Sarah Geronimo

The next few years should be most interesting times for Pop Star Princess, Sarah Geronimo. This girl is phenomenal. By virtue of this phenomenon, there are things you cannot explain and therefore you cannot chart or predict. She’s like a shooting star — lovely, magical but you don’t know when you’re going to see her at her most incandescent. News about her relationship with boys and family make good entertainment headlines. Some people pay their way to headlines. This girl runs away but ends up in the headlines.

Talks about John Lloyd Cruz allegedly making love promises, Rayver Cruz allegedly denying her made it to The Buzz, Startalk, SNN for many weeks. “These are experiences that we respect and we leave where they should be,” John Lloyd blurted out in one of my conversations with him when I asked about Sarah. “Did you and Sarah have a romantic relationship?” I asked Rayver in a Buzz exclusive. Straight to my face, he declared, “No.”

In a recent interview, Princess Sarah was quoted to have said that newbies in the business should be extra careful so as not to be duped. “At mahirap ma-deny.” What was the single most important lesson you learned from Judy Ann Santos (her co-star in Viva’s Hating Kapatid)? “Naging palaban ako.” Sarah quipped.

Still uncomfortable with interviews, you have to read between her lines. You have to observe her nuances. Then you can formulate your opinions about public Sarah. You will not get straight answers from her, neither will you get roaring, thunderous declarations from her. She’d rather sing and act which she both does brilliantly.

But in your heart you know that a part of the public Sarah is a young woman coping with life, love, pain and even fame.

The past few weeks we heard her say lines she could not have said a year ago. The girl is growing up. And she is emerging to be a fighter. People around her must be sensitive to these nuances.

She’s still quiet and shy. She’s still the girl you loved when mid-song, she dropped the shawl of the fab Rajo Laurel gown she wore in The Search For A Star grand finals years back. And she’s a big star now. And a big star with big powers. She maybe slowly discovering this.

And certainly a big star is not pushed around and neither is she denied by a boy.

I’m fidgety about the emerging feisty Sarah Geronimo.

The First International Guitar Festival

The UST Conservatory of Music in cooperation with the Foundation For The Musical Filipino will present the First International Guitar Festival from Aug. 23 to 27. It is part of UST Conservatory of Music’s artistic contribution to the forthcoming Quadricentennial celebration of the UST. Guitara 2010 will cover a week of concert, master classes, and lectures for those devoted to the country’s most popular instrument. Concerts from Aug. 24 to 27 will be staged at the Philamlife Auditorium UN Avenue Manila, 8 p.m. while all other activities from Aug. 23 to 27 will be held at the Conservatory of Music.

The performance and master classes will feature internationally renowned guitarists as well as the country’s top performers and teachers. The Philamlife concert schedule will include Agustin Castilla Avila (Spain) and Angelito Agcaoili on Aug. 24, Ruey Yen (Taiwan) and Joseph Mirandilla on Aug. 25, Meng-Feng Su Taiwan and Manuel Cabrera on Aug. 26, UST Guitar Quartet and the Festival Guitar Orchestra on Aug. 27. Festival director and UST Guitar Department coordinator Ruben Reyes will join the lecturers and panelists.

Tickets to the concerts and daytime lectures/master classes are available at the UST Music office (with tel. Nos. 731-4022 and 406-1611 loc. 8246) and at the Philamlife lobby before each evening’s performance. Discounts for senior citizens and students are available.