"I took my daughters to your concert in Charlotte, NC last night and was very dissappointed in the show. The ticket said "ALL AGES". F & L and your band was very foul mouthed and anti-morals. Who do you think finances the sale of CDs and Tickets, Hello - Parents... Charlotte is not the demoralized city that liberal San Fransico and other cities across the North and West are. I am going to contact the local and national news media, and the arenas that you are touring in the future and do my best to be a thorn in your side. I had looked forward to this concert with my girls for months. I didnt spend over $200.00 for tickets, gas, food, and unforturnately shirts that I purchased for them before the concerts, for you to give your own personal political testimony, cursing anyone who disagreed. This was a concert, not some liberal homosexual rally. I predict that you have lost a lot of financial support in the last 24 hours. I am not the only parent with morals that had children at this concert. That what is so upsetting - your band's biggest audience is CHILDREN 10 and up. Your responsibility was to sing your songs. The music wasnt that bad, but when you opened your mouth to talk, you blew it. Here's to your band being just another "Spice Girls" looking back and remembering the good times and 15 minutes of fame, because you underated who pays your bills. By the way, my children will not be a part of your sick idea of family."

That was a letter written by a concerned mother to the record label of the Fall-Out Boy. If you're curious as what the band's response is, check out the May third entry of their online journal.

What exactly did they do to provoke this response? Uhmm... nothing really. Well granted with the bad words, the Fall-Out Boy was totally at fault, but a liberal homosexual rally? anti-moral? So here is what the band's frontman, Pete Wentz said right after they performed in Charlotte, North Carolina:

"The only thing I said in Charlotte was, 'You can leave this show and say, "I think this guy is an arrogant jerk," or think "This band is better than this one," because these are your opinions. The only thing we consider unacceptable is for you to engage in sexist, racist or homophobic behaviour. If you do, we don't want you as a fan. Return our merch and leave.'"

Well, I don't think the FOB lost their financial backing within 24 hours after Mother Bigot sent her letter. If anything, the foursome's career couldn't be hotter than they are at the moment with two million copies of their latest album sold and another couple millions of the second single from the album. As for comparing them with the Spice Girls, I don't think it's an insult when you're a mainstream pop musician. Let's talk numbers: 55 million records sold, biggest-selling debut single ever, and highest entry on the Billboard chart by a British band, beating the previous record held by the Beatles.

By now you might think that I'm a Fall-Out Boy fan. I'm not though, I only like their last single, "Dance, dance," and even then I still think their live performance is horrible (Exhibit A: MTV 2005 VMA). But I still think it's a pretty interesting story. What's more interesting is that I got this off the BBC instead of an American news outlet.

Yea, just got back from the dentist again for yet another filling. This time though, I couldn't get enough of the anesthesia, LOL. It's going to be 72F today and that means pollen galore in the atmosphere. I woke up sneezing and sniffling, and that was exactly how I was when I sat on the chair at the dentist. Before she gave me those numbing shots, she warned me "you might feel that your upper lip and nose are bigger and your nose dry." I was like, "hmmm... that would be nice thank you." And it was! Within minutes after the clear liquid was administered — I have to say though that it felt like she jabbed that syringe up to my nose from my gum — my sinuses suddenly became clear and I could breath normally. Definitely need to find a way to procure Septocaine for emergencies, ^_^

Though now, I'm crashing down hard as the anesthetic effect subsides. The throbbing pain caused by trauma to my gum starts to manifest and I'm in dire need of some antihistamine.

It's one o'clock in the morning and I just got back from DC. Devmann, Hadi, and I went to Republic Gardens on U Street to watch the fight between Ricardo Mayorga and Oscar de la Hoya. This is the first time I went to see a boxing match at a bar. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first time I actually saw a full-length boxing match. Dev is so into boxing at the moment, naturally he nagged on everybody to go with him to see this game, i mean match, fight, whatever.

Round one... de la Hoya managed to throw in enough punch to knock Mayorga off his feet. Round two... seems like both were taking a break. Round three... Mayorga started to get anxious and pretty much threw random punches at all directions. Round four... it was getting more and more obvious that de la Hoya belong in a different league. Round five... de la Hoya cornered Mayorga and kept punching at him while Mayorga was just too out of it to block any of them. The referee separated them and recentered the fighters. De la Hoya immediately started to throw jabs and uppercuts at Mayorga while the titleholder tried to evade the punches to no avail. Mayorga was cornered once again, and this time he was virtually at the mercy of the Golden Boy who was relentless in throwing one straight jab after another. The referee stopped the fight and declared de la Hoya as the winner. The crowd at both MGM Grand and Republic Gardens cheered.

Yap, the whole thing ended in five rounds, which means nineteen minutes! That also means Dev and I spent way more time walking around the neighborhood waiting for the bar to open. LOL. Well, I wasn't dissapointed though, that was one good match. I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed it so much.

Juan Valdez Café, a coffeeshop chain from Colombia entered the US market this year, opening outlets in Seattle, New York, and DC. How did the District managed to be considered as one of the US' java hotspots, no one would ever knew.

I went to the Chinatown outlet last week when my soon-to-be brother-in-law came to town. It's still too early to tell if they would be able to compete with Starbucks across and the Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee that's gaining ground here in DC. It's a good thing that Juan Valdez offers something different, while Starbucks' design is more like library-meets-European cafe and Caribou's is winter-cabin-cosiness, Juan Valdez' is very modern and minimalist. It could very well be a cafe in a contemporary arts museum. Me? I adore minimalism, steel, bright colors and clean lines, so the interior is totally working for me. That Colombian farmer logo is quite chic as well, a bit kitschy but still in the realms of modernism.

Now let's talk about what matters: the beverages. I like Starbucks because they're espresso drinks are good, real good. If they were served in ceramic cups, they'd be just as good as any Parisian cafe's. But what they lack is variety. Yeah, they've been trying to come up with new flavors and endless list of frappuccinos but to be honest all their novelty drinks kinda suck. Almost always they'd be too sweet. That's why I opt for Caribou for non-espresso beverages such as Arctic Mochas and Turtle this and that. Sadly, Caribou's espresso drinks are a bit bland. They kinda taste like those made by the no-name coffee stalls at most American airports. They're passable but definitely not worth $3.75. I had a Cappuccino and Otto had a frozen drink made from coffee, milk, and fruits. Yap, fruits. I cringed when they explained what was in it. Otto settled on the mango one and he ended up not liking it. I tried it and I think that was the best new coffee drink I've ever tried. Definitely better than that overrated green tea frapp at Starbucks. My Cappuccino was good, not superb but way better than passable. It's still a tad less strong that Starbucks but I'll settle for JV because the location was just better :) Well, I sure hope Juan can eat up a bit of Starbucks' market share because we definitely have too much green mermaid signs here in downtown DC.

I read about this beverage a few weeks ago but I never seemed to see it at the stores so I kinda forgot about it. That is until yesterday when I saw it at the CVS near my office as I was looking for some antihistamine. The latter task ended up in a disaster because I finally chose Benadryl and it totally wiped me out. I was so close to just sprawl on the floor and take a nap. Naturally I did what every caffeine junkie in the world would, get some caff! I was already on my second cup of coffee and with my distorted sense of logic, I decided to get something equally stimulating yet not coffee. So what did I get? Yes, Coke blak of course. It has tons of sugar, carbonation to tickle my throat silly, caffeine, and coffee which means even more caffeine! It's like the ultimate anti-sedative!

So far so good... but let's talk about the taste. Hmm... the taste of both coffee and coke are there, but a marriage doesn't always work no matter how good both parties are. Especially if there's a third party called caramel. Coke blak pretty much tastes like regular coke, with more caramel and a hint of coffee acidity. It was OK (interesting, in fact) in the first few sips but by the time I got to 3/4 bottle point it started to make me sick. It's a good thing it comes in smaller bottles than regular coke because I sure won't be able to gulp 500ml of that thing.

The verdict? A good option if you need something to jolt you up but better prepare a glass of water to neutralize your palate, which you will want to do when you finish a bottle of coca noir.

The writer most famous internationally for his Buru Quartet, a tetralogy chronicling the rise of Indonesian nationalism against Dutch colonialism, died last night at the age of 81. The perennial Noble prize nominee had been hospitalized since Thursday for heart problems.

It is such an irony that someone that should be invaluable as a cultural asset to a young country never got the government recognition he deserves. Even to this day some of his works are still blacklisted in Indonesia while internationally he has received multiple awards such as the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from France and the PEN Freedom to Write award. The Buru Quartet has been translated into more than 40 languages in 40 countries. These foreign-earned royalties are his main income in that the past few years.

Probably the only reason he never got the Noble prize is because he hadn't released anything in the past decade plus the unfavorable opinion of the Noble Prize Committee towards the Indonesian government.