Courtesy of @divinemlee divinemlee.com. Photo taken by Victor Basa

Our SIMPLE GIRL Zia is the BIRTHDAY GIRL. Her birthday month will forever be a memorable time for Zia as she releases her debut album, shoots her first music video, and celebrates her birthday with a Teatrino concert and an ASAP rockin' birthday. Phew! Talk about leaving your teens with a bang!

And yes, her new album is #4 OPM (#7 overall) in the Astrovision/Astroplus Top-Selling albums list from September 19-25, 2011.

Who's that girl, you ask?

She is...

TWIN GIRL. Let's start from the very beginning, the cutest place to start. No she doesn't have a twin but when she was younger, our mama Zsa Zsa Padilla would dress her and our other sister Nicole in similar clothes which made onlookers think they were twins.

Here's a magazine photo of my sisters Nicole and Zia. Aren't they the cutest? I hope they don't kill me for putting this photo here.

BOOKWORM GIRL. Zia loves to travel with a set of her favorite books ever since she was young. Mama likes to call them "comfort books" because

Top row: Thou Reyes, Ikey Canoy
2nd row: Arthur Acuña, Debra Teng, Juwanda Hassim, Christian Bautista, Erwin Shah Ismail, Karylle, Oon Shu An, Stephen Rahman-Hughes, Nadiah M. Din,  Rosemary Vandenbroucke, Juan Jackson
3rd row: Carla Dunareanu, Gayle Nerva

REWIND.

More than a year ago, I went to a very hush-hush audition for a new TV musical.  I didn't actually know much about the project except that they were shooting a pilot (formerly known as a pitch tape) in Manila to present the project to networks, sponsors, etc.

FAST FORWARD - PLAY.

Almost a year later, I got a call saying that the project was pushing through and much to my surprise, it was going to be a regional TV series (read: to be shown in 16 countries) to be shot in Singapore.  Capital W-O-W! The creator and director of the show, CheeK, together with The Group Entertainment's Wendy Ko, Jojo Yu, Ria Lacson and Studio 23's Vince Rodriguez and Mark Salamat met with me in the ABS-CBN building. They didn't really have to say much

The Digestive Sisters at 2nd's

OMG! The food is fabulous! When we heard about the bacon chicharon, we knew that this would be an adventure that would require a certain amount of exercise afterwards.

Watch out for the Digestive Sisters' next blogs because we are going international.  We will share our new food adventures from Australia, London and Amsterdam. Yahoo!

Karylle and Christian Bautista (NPPA Images)

The movie is showing right now in cinemas all over the Philippines.  It will premiere in Indonesia on September 27.

Christian or Ian plays a teacher.  In real life, it's his brother Joshua who is actually an English teacher in their hometown Cavite.  We know a lot about Christian the singer, the actor and the dancer (that's right-watch out for his smooth moves in the Kitchen Musical on AXN & Studio 23 this October) but I thought it would be fun to get to know what he was like back in school.

Grade School: Cavite School of St. Mark & International Christian Academy (Grade 5 onwards)

Did you ever wonder what Ian was like in Grade School. You'll never believe that he was such a naughty boy!

"When I was in grade school, I had a friend named Martin and we went out to the field to set some traps for our fellow classmates. So, we dug a

Arch1pelago (Contributed photo)I have a very long rant about the state of the music industry in the Philippines but I'm not gonna share it with you...today.

Today, I'm choosing to be proactive. There's an idea that's been bugging me for a long time now and it will hopefully give us a broader look at what Filipino musicians are up to nowadays.

From a roadtrip, let's go on a little sound trip...

The Mechanics:

Step #1
I will TAG 2 Filipino artists whose songs are on my PLAYLIST.

Step #2
I will feature those artists and add the map to their basic Web Profile (website, Twitter, Facebook fanpage, iTunes, you know the drill)

Step #3
The featured artists in turn will TAG 2 Filipino artists whose songs are in their respective PLAYLISTS.

Repeat Step 2 then 3 again and again and again...

It will look a little something like this:

Step X:  I will also ask other people to start their own "branches" to add to the fun.  You can also join later on, I'll update you on how to do so.

THE MUSIC PROJECT: Tag you're hit!

Let's play:

Karylle trying the Sakae Candle in Sakae Sushi in Singapore.Restaurant: Sakae Sushi, Singapore

http://www.sakaesushi.com.sg/

Hi guys! Greetings from Singapore! I'm starting a new food blog series since I can't always blog with my "Digestive Sister" Nicole, who is graduating very soon (Yahoo! Congrats Nicole!).  But watch out for our new webisodes as she is on vacation at the moment.  I'm hoping to see her here for our first international food blog =)

I'd like to introduce you to the "Mad About Food" series named after my character Maddie from the TV series "The Kitchen Musical."   Please watch out for it in Manila on Studio 23. It will also be aired on AXN Asia.

Love,

K

P.S. Just want to say thank you for supporting my album "Roadtrip." I hope that you can continue to vote for the OMG music video on MYX.  I'm so happy because it's still on the MYX charts.

Text this to 2366:

MYX REQUEST OMG

After my New York trip where I celebrated Philippine Independence Day with the gorgeous Pinoys there, I had a short lay-over in Japan on my way back to

With @jerichorosales at Times Square in New York in a Joey Samson.

Jetlag. OFW. TFC.

Comprendes? No?

OK, let me try to speak in sentence form this time.

1.  Jetlag:  I still have jetlag because I just came from an amazing Philippine Independence Day celebration in New York last week.

2.    Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW): Independence Day this year is my first Sunday day off in years. I am now an "OFW" in Singapore where we are rehearsing for the TV series "The Kitchen Musical." I don't feel homesick because there are 4 other Filipinos in the cast- Christian Bautista, Ikey Canoy, Thou Reyes and Art Acuna not to mention an estimated 150,000 Filipinos in Singapore. Every time I see someone do the traditional "double eyebrows raise" salutation, I know that I've found a friend from back home.

3.    The Filipino Channel (TFC): I've spent the entire morning glued to TFC watching the "Showtime" monthly finals which made me smile and laugh a lot. I am not ashamed to say that I am saving money, so, I was super

Karylle with mom Zsa Zsa (Photo from Karylle)

To give you an idea of what this blog entry is about, I'll start off by sharing that my mom asked for Manny Pacquiao boxing match tickets.  I was surprised at the request since Mother's day was always more of a lunch or dinner activity in my head but then I remembered that my mom has always been a fan of one of country's biggest heroes.

As the world evolves, so do the people that inhabit it and in turn even the stereotypes that some believe to be absolute truth.  Let me just share how my mom proves some statements wrong.

"It's all downhill after 40"

In the 80s, mama ruled the music scene with her songs like Hiram, Point of No Return, Mambobola, and Ikaw Lamang. The hits came with the cobra hairdo, denim mini skirts and fuchsia pink outfits that have made a comeback in the fashion scene more than twice in the last decade.  It earned her the adjective "fabulous" and aptly enough, Dr.