From here to the red-haired rocker

I was looking at the screen more closely than usual. I was coming off a pretty big surprise moments ago, when my predictions – which have been right for most of the past few weeks – have gone seriously off kilter. Three people remained standing, and another verdict was to be delivered.

“Adam, you are safe.”

Yeah, that was a given. It’s always been that way for most of the past few weeks, expect for the week before, when he surprisingly appeared on the bottom three. But that wasn’t the purpose of the moment. In my five years of watching American Idol – the first two seasons weren’t aired in the Philippines – I’ve never felt so nervous about what was going to happen in the next two minutes.

Good morning, coup attempt

Or is it a coup attempt?

It’s probably the worst time to stage such an event, with everybody in school or at work. I got out of the library and some were already asking others whether school would be suspended. I am writing this, however, from an Internet café near campus.

Being caught off-guard, is probably the worst feeling. This morning, however, I was told that the government is in a high alert in anticipation of something like this – and it did happen. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, along with Brigadier General Danilo Lim and other soldiers in the Magdalo trial, walked out of the courts and went to the Manila Peninsula. Six hours later – just as I write – the standoff is over.

And the parents speak up

As part of PrintedShale’s first issue, and to coincide with tonight’s Starstruck Final Judgment night, Shale is publishing Kaymee Santos’ article on the parents of one of this season’s so-called “Survivor Six”, Kris Bernal. This was originally written in the middle of the competition.

Kris Bernal, seventeen years of age, is just like any other person who dreams to be a star. She, like all the other people who want to pursue their dreams lined up and auditioned for the new batch of Starstruck, the artista search contest in GMA-7. But unlike the thousands of people who were denied and were not given the chance to fight for their dream, Kris luckily got in and up until now, still continues to fight her way to reach her long-time dream. From eighty preliminary contestants, cut down to 30, and again reduced to the Final Fourteen, now there are only eight of them left.

Does she have what it takes to be the next “Ultimate Survivor”? There’s only one way to find out. Let’s get to know her with the help of the two people closest to her heart, the ones who have been with her ever since she was born, the ones who have been with her through thick and thin, happy or sad, the reason why she is here. These people are none other than her dad, Mr. Edgar and mom, Mrs. Annalyn Bernal.