The Smashing Pumpkins coming for concert Aug. 7

Music Management International (MMI) is bringing iconic Grammy award-winning alternative band The Smashing Pumpkins for a concert at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum on Aug. 7.

This was confirmed to Funfare by Charlemagne Lim whose Little Asia chain of fusion restaurants is presenting the show.

A little background: The Smashing Pumpkins was formed in Chicago in 1988, with original members Billy Corgan (lead vocals, lead guitar), James Iha (rhythm guitar), D’arcy Wretzky (bass guitar) and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums). Since then, the band has had many membership variations with Corgan being the main constant. The current band members are: 22-year-old Mike Byrne on drums; Nicole Fiorentino on bass who also plays for Veruca Salt; and Korean-American Jeff Schroeder on rhythm guitar. They are the same members behind the soon-to-be-released album titled Oceania, which has a different vibe from previous albums where Corgan played most of the instruments himself.

Oceania has the familiar Pumpkins feel that ’90s music fans have come to love. It’s still as epic and emotional, as a Pumpkins record should be, but with a modern twist. Corgan states that Oceania is the strongest band offering since 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the double album dubbed by Time as “the group’s most ambitious and accomplished work yet” which includes Grammy award-winning song Bullet with Butterfly Wings, as well as Tonight, Tonight; 1979; and others. Oceania is unlike any album Corgan has made, largely in part to the significant contributions of his new band members.

According to Charlemagne, The Pumpkins plans to perform songs from Oceania at their shows worldwide, utilizing video mapping to create stunning visuals that go well with the music as well as the classics that they are most known for.

“The Smashing Pumpkins Live will be a musical experience unlike any other,” guaranteed Charlemagne, adding that Allmusic.com said that the band has been “responsible for some of the ’90s’ most striking and memorable video clips.” They are one of the few bands that truly treated music videos as an art form. In 1996, the band took home seven MTV Video Music Awards for Tonight, Tonight and 1979.

Added Charlemagne, “The Smashing Pumpkins is a band that any real music fan must see live — to hear the progressive music, to behold the visuals they’ve come to be known for, to be transported into a different world and to immerse all your senses into Pumpkin land. Rock fans, ready for the sound in Planet Pumpkin?”

(Note: For tickets to The Smashing Pumpkins Live in Manila on Aug. 7 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum, call TicketNet at 911-5555 or visit www.ticketnet.com.ph. Ticket prices are: Patron P4,555 [standing], Lower Box P3,555 [reserved seating], Upper Box A P1,755 [free seating], Upper Box B P995 [free seating] and General Admission P555 [free seating]. By the way, Smashing Pumpkins ticket holders can avail of the 20 percent discount promo at Little Asia branches by simply presenting their tickets. Promo is good until Aug. 31.) 

Illac Diaz flanked by Consul General Mario Lopez de Leon and Mrs. Eleanor de Leon

Illac Diaz’s Liter of Light project

The Philippine-American Friendship Committee, Inc. (PAFCOM) headed by Eduardo Pena, and MyShelter Foundation held the premiere of A Liter of Light, a film directed by Joy Aquino, last May 31, at the Philippine Consulate in New York.

According to a report by Funfare’s New York-based “beauty expert” Felix Manuel, Illac Diaz, executive director of MyShelter Foundation, was at the event. He has been presenting the Liter of Light project in various locations in the US East Coast.

Said Felix, “Started as an endeavor that utilized resources that littered the community to immediately improve the quality of life in an impoverished community in the Philippines, Liter of Light has now evolved into a global campaign.”

Consul General Mario Lopez de Leon praised Diaz who recently received his Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Established in 2001, MyShelter Foundation is behind Pier One, an affordable, clean and safe house for seamen coming from the provinces looking for work or waiting for their next assignment.

“Because of his efforts,” Felix noted, “Illac received (in 2004) an Everyday Hero Special Award from the Reader’s Digest Asia and an Entrepreneur Award from the First Johnny Walker Social Award. He was also a runner-up in New York’s Next Big Idea International Design Competition and the first recognized for Social Entrepreneurship by the TOYM in 2005. In 2006, while at MIT in Boston, Illac was named one of the Ten Outstanding Persons of the World by Jaycees International.”

Felix said that Erwin Culanag, Convenor of Filipino-American Associations of Westchester County, representing Hon. Bill Ryan, Westchester County Legislator and Hon. Tom Roach, White Plains City Mayor, presented a plaque that declared June 3 as “Liter of Light Day” in Westchester and White Plains, New York.

Director Ace Cruz (right) with cinematographer Bruce Heinsius and actress-singer Anged Millana on the set of Sketch

Ace Cruz’s new project

Ace Cruz is directing new actress-singer Anged Millana in his new project titled Sketch, with Alvin Anson as associate producer and member of the cast and Ed Millana of Millawave Production as executive producer.

Said Ace, “The film is a morally-based drama about forgiveness, dealing with a righteous husband from the province whose wife deserts him for a more luxurious life.”

Working with Ace is American cinematographer Bruce Heinsius. It’s their fourth collaboration.

“Bruce and I are training new crew members in the Hollywood-style of filmmaking,” said Ace.

Sketch is done in English for both the local and international markets, to be promoted the way Memoirs of a Geisha was.

When he wraps Sketch, Ace will start his next project with Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)