Brandon “The Truth” Vera (born in Norfolk, Virginia) is a Filipino-American mixed martial arts fighter, currently fighting in the Ultimate Fighting Championship as a light-heavyweight contender. He currently resides in San Diego, California with his wife Kerry (kickboxer), who was featured on the second season of Oxygen’s Fight Girls.

Vera is the son of a Filipino father, Ernesto, and an Italian-American mother, Amelia. He grew up in a family with seven boys and three girls. He comes from a wrestling background and says he gets his fighting blood more from his Filipino father’s side than his Italian mother, has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep things lively. Brandon speaks Filipino very well and although he was born and raised in the US, he keeps close tabs on his Filipino roots. He often shares his tattoo on his back (inked in the ancient Filipino writing system called Alibata/Baybayin) with the media and his fans. Clockwise, it reads mundo (earth), hangin (wind), apoy (fire), and tubig (water). Those four are the elements of Mother Nature. Brandon claimed that he went surfing one day and sought to conquer the waves. The waves brought him down and gave Brandon a profound respect for Mother Nature.

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Punahou senior Christel Simms, swimming for the Philippines, finished 47th out of 90 in the 50-meter freestyle heats today in the National Aquatics Center at the Beijing Olympics.

Simms finished in 26.64 seconds. The cutoff time for the top 16 advancing to the semifinals was 25.07. Cate Campbell of Australia led the heat qualifiers in 24.20.

USA’s Dara Torres qualified with the third best time in 24.58.

Simms, who completed her Olympics, also missed qualifying for the semifinals in the 100 freestyle earlier this week.

BEIJING — Christel Simms, a Punahou School senior swimming for the Philippines, had a personal best in the women’s 100-meter freestyle yesterday, but did not advance to the semifinals.

Simms, just the seventh woman from the Philippines to swim in the Olympics, finished fourth in her heat in 56.67 seconds. Her previous best was 57.17.

Simms will swim in the 50-meter freestyle qualifying heats tomorrow.

Source: Honolulu Advertiser

In 2002, Mark Habana and Harry Ramos co-wrote and performed two poems, Dedication: to pay tribute to the talented and inspiring writers at the Asian American Writers Workshop (Re)Collections events, and Two Warriors. After the show, people started calling them the Two Warriors. The name stuck!

Two Warriors is a New-York based poetry duo that found life by bringing together stories of love, peace, family, tribute and tradition in their writing. In an effort to break down barriers and provide a sense of home for everyone through their performances, Two Warriors aims to involve the crowd, interact with the audience, interpret stories, infuse emotion, and inspire hearts and minds.

http://www.myspace.com/two_warriors

Check this live performance by Mic3, First Verse and Lady Des, as they performed there hit song, Balikbayan at the 16 Annual Filipino Fiesta - Honolulu, Hawaii.

http://www.myspace.com/808mic3

What a great collaborative performance by First Verse, a local island contemporary band in O’ahu and Online superstar Mic3 as they perform Just Friends by Musiq Soulchild at the 16th Annual Filipino Fiesta in Honolulu, Hawaii. Also a big shout out goes to Des for backup vocals.

http://www.myspace.com/firstverse

It was a great pleasure to meet Bernard Ellorin and the rest of the members of the University of Manoa Kulintang Ensemble at the 15th Annual Leeward Community College International Education Festival on march 15, 2008. Here is a few photos of the performance. Enjoy!!!

Christine Gambito of Happy Slip shares her first time experience to the Philippines. Christine was invited to the Philippines by the Department of Tourism to be their ambassador. This is the first of 6 videos that serve as her journal of her trip.

What a great performance by the members of the University of Manoa Kulintang Ensemble at the 15th Annual Leeward Community College International Education Festival. They offer music and dances of the indigenous people of the southern Philippines. Performers: Mayco Santaella, Melanie, Bernard Ellorin, Desiree A. Seguritan, and David Langfelder. Take a glimpse at this wonderful performance.

Congratulations to Ramiele Malubay for making the top 24 on American Idol 7.

Former WBC light flyweight champion Brian Viloria, now fighting as a flyweight, scored a big win as his comeback continued with a unanimous points decision over Cesar “Gallito” Lopez on the undercard of the “Revenge or Repeat” fight card featuring Kelly Pavlik and Jermain Taylor.

Although it may be considered somewhat of a comedown for a former world champion to fight an eight rounder, the card was so loaded with great world title fights that there was no room for Viloria. But, the fighter who traces his roots to Ilocos Sur but is nicknamed “The Hawaiin Punch” took the fight and put on an impressive performance.

All three judges had Viloria winning handily with two judges scoring it for the former champion 78-73 and the third judge 77-74.

Viloria dropped Lopez in the fifth round with a solid right but couldn’t finish the job against the durable Lopez who hasn’t been knocked out in his career with a record of 20-6-4 with 4 knockouts.

Viloria who defeated Jose Garcia Bernal last January 24 after losing a majority decision to Edgar Sosa in a battle for the vacant WBC title on April 14,2007 is reportedly eyeing a title shot at Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire but that will have to wait since Donaire is scheduled to defend his title against Australia’s Hussein Hussein in Dubai on April 18.

Lopez who is from El Paso, Texas lost a unanimous decision to Isidro Garcia in an IBA title fight on April 17, 2007 and earlier dropped a unanimous decision to Glenn Donaire , older brother of Nonito Donaire in an NABA and vacant WBO NABO flyweight title bout on May 5, 2006.

Source: PhilBoxing.com
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Photos by: JAE C. HONG | Associated Press

I saw this video on youtube eight months ago and just came across it recently again. This clip discusses about discrimination within the Filipino community. We are all filipino with different lifestyles. Why not we all support and learn from each other. Watch this clip from speak out and let us know what you think about this clip. Send us a comment.

We spotted Christine Viernes, Aka: Teen, at the next movement event at the Nextdoor club in her hometown, Honolulu, Hawaii. She was showcasing her latest fashion line, and I thought that her designs were very inspiring.

Q&A with Christine Viernes

Brown Nation: Where are your origins in the Philippines?
Teen: Mayantoc, Tarlac…don’t know what purok that is?

Brown Nation: What did your parents want you to be when you grow up?
Teen: A Nurse…typical right…or at least in the medical field.

Brown Nation: How long have you been designing?
Teen: 3 years

Brown Nation: How did you start in the fashion industry?
Teen: I have always been creative and got into fashion when I was studying at Heald College. Then my fashion sense began to kick in. When I could not find a job in the medical field, I worked for the state at Farington High School and realized that this wasn’t working for me and quit. Then I ended up at Honolulu Community College studying fashion design and loved it.

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Arnel Pineda (singer-songwriter) is the newest member and lead singer of the popular American rock band Journey . Journey had discovered Arnel via cover videos of Journey songs posted on YouTube. Pineda has enjoyed a successful musical career in Asia for the last 25 years. His singing style has been influenced by Steve Perry (Journey), John Farnham (Little River Band), Freddie Mercury (Queen), Sting (The Police), Survivor, Heart, The Beatles, Van Halen, Aerosmith, U2, Warrant, Deep Purple, and other bands from that genre.

Click here to see how it all started 

KILUS is a group of women helped to clean up the Ugong Barangay in the Philippines by taking used juice packets and sewing them together to make fashionable accessories. These brilliant individuals created a healthier way of living, employment for 500 people, and income from exports of goods. KILUS is an inspiration for many people throughout the Philippines. Check out the BN store to see there creative creations.

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