Today, I tried to purchase three CDs - Mandisa’s new Christmas Joy EP and two autographed CDs, Matthew West’s 2005 opus Happy and Avalon’s upcoming Another Time, Another Place: Timeless Christian Classics - off MusiChristian.com, one of my favorite online retailers for Christian CDs. The collective total, when one factors in the shipping costs, is somewhere near US$30, a price I was more than willing to pay for two autographed CDs and Mandisa’s new album.

After I filled out the shipping address information, to my consternation, a pop-up box told me that EMI will not allow the shipping of its items to a non-US address. It told me to remove the EMI CDs from my shopping cart. So I reviewed my shopping cart and found out all three CDs are distributed by Chordant/EMI. In other words, I could not buy any of the Christian CDs I wanted!

Far be it from me to rant against corporate America, but this isn’t fair. I can’t imagine American CCM piracy escalating to such a level that merits such harsh penalties on non-American Christian music lovers. Even if it has, why punish the majority for the sins of a few?

I have purchased several EMI-distributed CDs in the past, including both my autographed copies of Avalon’s Stand and The Creed (my only non-autographed Avalon CD since Michael Passon’s departure is Faith), Mandisa’s True Beauty, and Britt Nicole’s Say It. Most of these were purchased off MusiChristian.com.

I imagine I could buy off Amazon.com, but I prefer to support Christian online retailers (especially since MusiChristian.com gives me a premium with its autographed collections), plus, as in the case of Mandisa’s Christmas Joy EP, the price differential between Amazon.com and MusiChristian.com is a whopping US$3 in favor of the latter. Why pay an extra US$3 to Amazon when I can get the best price at MusiChristian.com and support a Christian retailer?

The last thing I want to do is slam corporate Christian America, but it is plain wrong to alienate someone based outside of the United States who is willing to pay full price for your CD and not download it for free off the Internet. Yes, there will be those who will cheat you, but there are those who will not. It’s not right to leave foreign fans out in the cold, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not.

Update: I received an email from MusiChristian.com. The email said:

Unfortunately for us, EMI Distribution does not allow us to ship their products outside of the USA. Any items that state “Distributed by: Chordant (EMI)” under its Product Details section we cannot ship outside the USA. However, we can ship all other items outside of the US.

Please let us know if we can further assist you in any way.
Thank you for your support and have a great day!

No, you cannot assist me further because apparently, everything I want is distributed by EMI Chordant. Something to Say is now available for purchase - with Matthew’s autograph! - and I can’t order it! GAH!

• Jose Rizal, where we suit Nathan up in a barong tagalog and draw a moustache on his upper lip with eyeliner pencil. Accessories include an inkjar with matching feather, some rolled paper, and a lamp for him, to channel Rizal circa Ultimo Adios.
• Ganns, where we dress Nathan up in a long-sleeved polo and the sweater vest that matches mine. For this outfit, his accessories include his blue laptop, Pepsi Max, and a working mp3 player.

At the time we talked, I felt we didn’t have much choice. Most local malls offer and you’re stuck with the usual fare of fairy princesses, pirates, and assorted animals, most made with subpar craftsmanship and inferior (read: itchy) material. But now, wait! I did my research, and there is a local manufacturer who makes Halloween costumes for Filipino kids (and their parents)!

This Philippine Halloween costume maker is called Bumblebee & Company, and they make unique top-quality Halloween costumes in the Philippines that don’t break the bank. Apparently, they also do birthday parties and stuff. I contacted them regarding making me a Shrek vest. I’m gonna look like this, but not as cute. LOL

According to this feature, singer-superstar Mariah Carey’s new signature fragrance, M, has some unusual aroma bases, including Moroccan incense, a flower called the Living Tahitian Tiare, and - get this - toasted marshmallows.

“[The toasted marshmallows are] blended in there,” she says. “It’s not like you’re gonna walk around smelling like marshmallows.”

I’m not exactly sure how the Elizabeth Arden-backed M will fare on the market, but I’ve seen the Australian website, read about the fragrance, and looked at the bottle. I am, to the say the least, intrigued. Having recently purchased for my wife Lacoste’s Inspiration (a simple, light, powdery fragrance that makes for everyday use) and Aigner’s Too Feminine Spring (a seductively Oriental, slightly sweet fragrance versatile enough for daytime and nighttime use), I’ve provided her with two signature fragrances that will last for at least a year, if not two, but I’m wondering if adding M to the mix may just work.

M can be as sensual as it wishes to be, but they had me at marshmallows.

My favorite Contemporary Christian songwriter Matthew West is ready to launch Something to Say, his third studio album, and with it, he’s released the first single, You Are Everything, which you can stream on his official website.

YOU ARE EVERYTHING IS SPECTACULAR! It’s got #1 written all over it! Call your local stations and request You Are Everything by Matthew West, you will not regret it. A power ballad in the same vein of Casting Crowns’ Who Am I, MercyMe’s I Can Only Imagine, and West’s own Only Grace, You Are Everything is an amazing lead-off single, and I have no doubt in my mind that this single will propel West back to #1, where he rightfully belongs.

As if my excitement over You Are Everything weren’t enough, Matthew posts on his blog that he’s written a song for the official soundtrack of The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, the new VeggieTales feature film from Big Idea. The name of the song is The Right Thing, and guess who’s singing it?

MANDISA!

Matthew wrote Only the World for Mandisa (as well as a couple of other tracks on her amazing debut album, True Beauty), and his relationship with the American Idol finalist has apparently gotten to the point that they collaborate so flawlessly together. Now, she’ll be singing The Right Thing, a song written by Matthew West, on the VeggieTales soundtrack!

Matthew West, Mandisa, and VeggieTales, together?! Oi vey, I’ve died and gone to heaven!

By now, most of the Philippines is abuzz with news of the Glorietta explosion. Around eight people were killed and over 70 injured in one of the worst mall explosions in recent memory. I join those Filipinos calling for calm until more information is gathered from the scene of the crime. (If it is a bomb, then I believe I can call it a crime.)

I, for one, am still in a state of shock, owing primarily to how closely I’d come to that blast. I parked my car at around 8:30AM. Normally, I move my car a few minutes before five hours later, which would be around 1:30PM. If I’d pushed through with my scheduled route for the day, I would’ve taken my lunch break at 12:30PM and gone to SM Makati’s Bayad Center to pay for our Meralco bill. I would’ve walked from my office behind AIM, taken 20 minutes to brisk-walk to SM Makati around 12:50PM, paid on the fourth floor (across AstroVision), then made my way back. Give or take ten minutes to wait in line, that means 30 minutes would’ve passed by, which would place me at 1:20PM in the area of the Landmark, ten minutes away from my car, and directly in the location where the bomb exploded.

DEAR GOD.

So why didn’t I go? I forgot my Mom had scheduled lunch with me. Shortly before noon, Mom called to remind me about our meeting, so I met up with her at Max’s and had lunch.

I think God just used my Mom to save my life.

Philippine photographer Owee Salva was tapped by me for my headshots and set cards for my Philippine theater auditions tomorrow and casting call runs over the course of the next few weeks. Owee came highly recommended by Adjeng and Djong,  who said I couldn’t go wrong with her.

Aside from the suit shot avatar you see on the right sidebar and the shot in this post, this Philippine photographer took a great variety of shots that emphasize my pluses (smooth fair skin) and deemphasize my flaws (a belly that just won’t quit). We shot at a friend’s house, and from the very second we arrived, Owee started setting up and planning out angles and shadowing and other things whose terminologies were designed to be forgotten by photography idiots like me.

Owee was tremendously professional yet disarmingly charming! We took what I imagine to be more than 200 shots over the course of three hours, and much of the material could be used. I would book her again in a heartbeat, and if you’re looking for a Philippine photographer for portraits, weddings, parties, and whatnot, I wholehbeartedly recommend Owee Salva. You can reach her at her official website, www.OweeSalva.com, or text her at 0917-840-2184.

To see Owee’s work, go to my Multiply photo page.

If you’re the type of person - Christian or otherwise - who is looking to stop looking at pornography on the Internet, I may have stumbled into software that can help you quit. (via Pastor Dennis)

www.XXXchurch.com, an online resource that helps people who want to overcome their sexual addictions, links to a free download called X3Watch. Simply, it’s a software that records the websites you visit and sends a list of the more, um, adult-oriented websites to an accountability partner (it can be your wife or husband, a friend from church, whoever).

The philosophy behind X3Watch Accountability Software is simple: open and honest communication between friends (or spouses) regarding vital issues is terribly important, and if pornography is something that both people feel is something that should be avoided, X3Watch can assist by facilitating the accountability of one person to the other. It may be utilize the ’shame factor’ a bit much, but I personally don’t see a problem with it., because nothing is more important to me than making my wife happy.

I downloaded X3Watch and plunked Cathy’s name into the email address field without hesitation. On occasion, I’ve failed to avoid websites of the seedier nature, but now that I know there’s a watchdog of some sort on my computer that will tell Cathy I’ve been, um, weak, I’m a little more encouraged and a lot more vigilant of my actions online. I’ve repented of this addiction, but it still takes action to ensure it doesn’t happen again. I owe it to myself, to my wife, to my kids, and to my God to be a good example, and X3Watch helps me take one step closer to getting there.

Read more about X3Watch.