About : tv stands furniture galore
Title : tv stands furniture galore
tv stands furniture galore
dado banatao: phildev is alittle bit of an anomaly, i would say, simply because wetook on the challenge of trying to help the country,the philippines, develop itself economically. while there have beenso many foundations started to help thecountry, a lot of them are humanitarian innature, or charitable. and that's ok. i mean, there is instantaneoushelp to the needy.
but we can tellyou, when we started to do the research forphildev we, right or wrong, concluded that thereis not enough wealth to affect the economy ofthe country by doing that. so crazy people fromsilicon valley, we said, let's do something differentand see what happens. so the route of the theses,or the strategic reason for phildev is that-- andagain, this is further research. talked to a coupleof nobel laureates.
had dinner with them myself. and these areeconomists that studied the evolution of developedcountries after world war ii. if you look atjapan and germany, they were devastatedafter world war ii. how come immediatelyafter 20 years, japan became the numbertwo economy in the world after the us? there was something there.
and so they studied that. and so we adopted theresults of their study. and the one conclusion isthat a developing country must have a globaleconomy if you want to be a developed country. why is that? because in a developingcountry, the economy size is really, really small. the global economy, the sizeof the economy of the world,
is infinity bigger. and if you think about it,it's kind of intuitive, that if all you do iswork within your economy, only the rich get richer. because they're the ones thathave the ability to invest. the poor stay there. that's one conclusion. now how do you actuallytap the global economy? it's easier said than done.
they also foundout that technology is the key reason how onecan tap the global economy, through technology-basedproducts and services. emily nishi: thankyou so much, dado. [applause] emily nishi: very inspiring. i loved how you talkedabout technology, and wanted to just extend ahuge welcome to you, lea-- lea salonga: thank you.
emily nishi: --for being inthe heart of silicon valley. lea salonga: i can'tbelieve i'm here. this is awesome. this is awesome for us. yeah. emily nishi: so thefirst question, actually, is i think everyone in this roomhas grown up knowing about you, hearing about you, over the lastseveral years or decades, even, since you started yourcareer when you were seven.
so you must have been working atthis for 10 years now at least. lea salonga: well, ok. let's just leave it at that. emily nishi: so this connectionthat we have with you. we'd love to hear, what's yourconnection with technology? how do you use google? do you google yourself? do you-- lea salonga: oh, god, no.
no. i kind of stay awayfrom googling myself. but then, there's so muchinteresting content on youtube, that you just can'thelp but need to go in. and also, so manyvideos from the tv show that i just finished,"the voice of the philippines," a lot of thecontent from that tv show is nowavailable on youtube. so for people that have notbeen able to see the show,
if you're not subscribersto tfc-- i mean, how many people would notbe subscribers to tfc? i mean, if you'refilipino, chances are you have tfcin your house, just to have a connection to home. but i mean, a lot of thevideos, a lot of the performance videos, at the veryleast, as well as my very opinionatedcomments on performances, are available for anyonein the world to access.
and that's beengreat, because i've been able to thenuse it as reference for-- because the uploads are soquick, to be able to look at it and see what strategies toadopt for the following week, and to see how the other teamsand the other competitors are performing, and seeingwhat we can do, and seeing, ok, that performancewas not so great. we need to improveit for the next time. and so, i use it a lot forresearch and information.
and a lot of thematerial that i've been learning over thelast couple of weeks, victor put everythingon an excel spreadsheet. and here's the youtube link, sothat you can learn that song. and i'm like, all right. ok. there you go. oh, ok. there we go.
and so, youtubehas actually been helpful in thatregard for me as well. and i love playingvideo games also. emily nishi: i heard thatyou're a bit of a geek. lea salonga: i'ma bit of-- yeah. emily nishi: tellus more about that. lea salonga: yes. i have to put makeup on to hidethe dark circles under my eyes. i've spent many alate night playing
a lot of console video games. and i mean, it's things like"bioshock," "bioshock 2." it's the "assassincreed" series. and my favorite's "assassincreed 2," only because of the most charmingprotagonist ever, who is ezio auditore, ifanybody knows who that is. and if you don't, shame on you. because i think it's one of thebest video game series ever. and my husband and i bothare huge on video games.
and i think there arecertain games where i advance into the gamefurther than he does. and basically, it's likea, honey, no spoilers. don't tell me what happened. it's like watching"breaking bad." it's kind of to at that level. i haven't caught on yetto the phenomenon that is "breaking bad," and he doesnot let me hear the end of it. so i promised to catch upon the plane ride home.
so, i'll probably be donewith the first season by the time i hit manila. so at least he and iwill have something to talk about when he picksme up from the airport. so he's sad that it's over. so there's that. both of us have gadgets galore. and it's kind of funny. from the time that wemet, we've almost always
had identical devices. i mean, when we first met, itwas the exact same nokia phone, but in different colors. it's like, aw. it was meant to be. there was that. and then he adopted theiphone before i did. and i held onto a nokia. but it was a littlebit more advanced.
and he's like, why aren'tyou hopping onto the iphone? i'm like, i'm goingto wait until i can send to unlimitednumbers of people by texts. and there's still limitsto that technology. so, i need to hold off untilit can do what i want it to do. and when it did, and i'm like,all right, i can sign on now. and so, since then, we'vehad identical phones. and yeah. but we always get itin different colors.
and i always put a case on mine. just because you need toprotect your investments. and he's vain about his iphone,so there's no case on it. there's no protective layer,because it's so beautiful. i don't want a shield. i'm like, you're going toregret that at some point. and he's dropped it somany times at the gym, at the office, at home. and then, i think there wasone time before we finally
replaced his 4s s with a 5. we were at the cemeteryvisiting his mother. he had his iphone in his pocket. opened the cardoor, stepped out, and it fell onto the pavement,and cracked the glass, and broke his heartalong with it. and of course in myhead, being a wife, anybody here who's a wife, youknow that voice in your head. i told you.
don't want to listen to me. ok, so you deal with that. so yeah. he was like, yeah, i'm going tohave to get the next one now. i was like, uh, duh, you think? just all these little thingsthat go on in my head. but yeah, so w werealways surrounded by it. and we have aseven-year-old daughter who's very tablet-savvy,and smartphone-savvy.
she has an ipad. an ipad mini. she knows what to do with it. i don't have toteach her anything. and it's cool thattechnology has advanced to the point of being sointuitive that you can give a two-year-old thatbit of technology, and then they'll be ableto navigate even better than the grownupscan, sometimes.
but we have to censor thegames, obviously, and the apps that she is able to use. like, can i buy-- no,you cannot have that one. can i wa-- no, youcannot watch that movie. and of course, the parentalrestrictions are activated. but yeah, we are intechnology i think on a pretty high-endconsumer level. i mean, we're notdumb-dumbs when it comes to thestuff that we have,
and the stuff that we use. and we employ a lot of it. and i employ alot of it at work. obviously, i listen to musicand study music with my phone. and with the tablet,being able to xoom music, and being able togo through lyrics, and being able touse that for work. and i no longer getcds to study music. there's a televisionprogram called
asap in the philippines,which is incredibly popular. it's a sundayafternoon variety show. and whenever i need toappear as a guest performer, their music department willjust send the mp3s for me to listen to. and the technology then is alsoemployed by the music director. they have their ownsoftware that they use, which i know nothing about,which my brother also gets to use, wherethey cut the songs,
and change pitches, changekeys, attach things together, so that at least we havesome sort of schematic going into a rehearsal. and we have an idea of whatto do in order to save time. so it's also beenincredibly helpful with of productivityside of that. catherine buan: yeah. do you think technology hasmade a big difference in-- well, i hear that you use it for alot of inputs, and research,
and rehearsal, and sort ofthe incoming information and availability. but you are such a warmperson with a lot of emotion, and that's such abig deal in the arts. do you think thattechnology has also gotten to a pointwhere you can actually share more of that nuance? lea salonga: well, ithink that it is possible. and with what victor hascreated with "broadway live,"
for example, which is able toprovide that kind of content. and the thing aboutthe arts and what i do, which mostly is like, liveperforming and performing on stage, and it's usually avery interactive medium, where it's people who are maybe justa few feet in front of you and, there's thatkind of energy, to be able to be savvyenough to try and capture that kind of aperformance-- first, you need to be in a roomfull of people in order
to fully representthe experience. and i mean, forthe performer, it's important that it's a room wherethere are however many people. for example, we did aconcert at the allen room at lincoln center. and we filled it with friendsand members of the theatre community. and i did the concert asif i was just performing for the people in the room.
however, i also had tobe conscious of the fact that this was goingto be recorded and eventuallydigitally streamed, which would then bring thisexperience into someone's laptop, intosomebody's living room. and i mean now,with the way you're able to stream stuff from yourlaptops, or from your phones, onto a television set,and then the experience is right there inyour living room.
so then, i have to beconscious of, lea, you have to look at thisparticular spot, because the camera iscapturing you from this angle. and if you look alittle too high, then you look a little weird. so there's also that. and he had to be a nazi aboutthat, which i appreciated. and then, i'll hearthese big sighs from the back of theroom going, ah, yes.
and so, there's that. so the technology,actually, in the room was extremely present,with however many cameras, with a whole big cameraset up, and with dollies, and with cameraman, anda recording console. and me having to figure outwhich microphones to use, and having to test thatto create one, the best sound for me coming througha speaker as possible, and also for capturingit for preservation.
so i think thetechnology enables people to experience what'sgoing on in a concert hall from their own home. but there also hasto be-- for me, it's really helpful whenthere are people in the room to make it a very interactiveexperience, and a very immediate audience-performerexperience. that kind of interactionis very, very unique, and if the roomwas empty, i don't
think we would have beenable to make that happen. not long ago, i saw the itunesmusic festival performance of lady gaga. and i mean, it was wonderful. it was incredible. and i felt like i was there. but there needed to be alsothis full audience that was interacting with her,and applauding, and laughing, and crying, andbeing in the room.
there's something about that. i mean, it's great whenwe're able to capture it, and able to stream it, andmake the content available. but at the sametime, for what i do, i need an audience in a room. catherine buan: so itenhances the [inaudible]. lea salonga: it does. catherine buan:[inaudible] substitute. lea salonga: right.
it's not a substitute. i mean, there's nothing likebeing in a broadway theater and watching say, a showlike "the book of mormon" and seeing all ofthese things happening in the same room as you. and my husband andi recently went. obviously, we did nottake our daughter. that is not a showto take children to. absolutely not.
and it was a show that hewould have wanted to see. and we had not reallylistened to the cast recording at the time. so a lot about what washappening on the stage for us was new. and there is so much profanity. if any of you have listenedto the cast recording of "book of mormon," it's a bitof a shock initially. but then after you get overit, it's really, really funny,
and it's genius. and if you're a fanof "south park," this is right up your alley. it was just incredible. i mean, there is no replacingthat experience, obviously. but there is something to besaid about making it available. emily nishi: that's amazing,which shines through in what you're talkingabout, and what you've applied as you've learnedhow the industry has changed.
it's just thedepth of experience you've had as a performer. one thing that ithink all of us are familiar with that extensiveresume that you have. i mean, i think many of usremember you from the disney movies, from theplays you've done on broadway, inlondon, and elsewhere, and just the sheer amountof accomplishments. i tried to printyour wikipedia page
so that i could read about you-- lea salonga: donot even read that. emily nishi: and it keptprinting and printing. it was multiple pages. lea salonga: i need tofigure something out. so, i'm sure there'ssomebody in this room that will be able to help me. no, no, no. because i called wikipediaout on a tweet this morning.
and i was very angry. and i said, wikipedia, you suck. because there were so manyinaccuracies on my page. and the funny thing is, i triedto correct the wikipedia entry. but the thing is-- and iread a "new yorker" article about somebody else that triedto do this, and was unable to. so i put a blurb, whichwas all of two lines, lea salonga will be editingthis entry in the next few days because of the egregiouserrors contained
made by well-meaning peoplewho feel that they know her career better than she does. thank you. and i dated it. and i think there were somereally cool people that took a screenshot ofit before somebody went in again and edited it out. so my question is this. how does a person like myselfedit their own wikipedia entry?
because it seems to be muchmore difficult than negotiating rush hour traffic on the405 in la, and probably 10 times more frustrating. so maybe if somebodyfrom wikipedia would be able togive me an answer. tweet me at@msleasalonga on twitter. you can find me,and it really is me. and i do get combative and amvery opinionated with people. and the tone that i takemakes people say, oh, yeah,
that really definitely is her. i'm not the nicestperson in social media. i can be a little ornery, and ican be a little bit obnoxious. but it's definitely me. and it's me jet-lagged. that's not nice. it's not me being nice. i'm not always diplomatic. i'm extremely opinionated.
which regular viewers of "thevoice" would have noticed. yeah, but i've never madeanybody cry on "the voice." emily nishi: not yet. lea salonga: no. i'm not simon cowell. first of all, i'm prettier. but yeah. yeah, so technologyhas also been able to help me stayin touch with fans.
it's no longer sixdegrees or however many degrees of separation. there's no more separation. if somebody decidesto say something, i have all thefreedom in the world to either ignore or engage. ricky martin gave mea piece of advice. do not, do not, do not engage. and he's actually tolda story about having
to be physically restrainedfrom his computer by a friend when, i think,one comment was just the straw that brokethe camel's back. and he was just like, why you? and somebody said,no, do not, do not. incredibly handsome celebritieslike that have a bad day. emily nishi: i think[inaudible] some celebrities. do you have anygood stories for us? you've worked in multiplehollywood circles
and broadway circles, et cetera. won multiple tony awards. you've rubbed elbows with a lotof these interesting people. any good storiesor favorite actors? lea salonga: oh, ok. i have a storyabout hugh jackman. and this is before his successas wolverine on "x-men." very few people-- when heblew up like crazy on film as wolverine on "x-men."
when i saw the trailers,i'm like, wait a minute. i know this guy. and i knew him because afew years before the "x-men" movie came out, there was aconcert in london called "hey, mr. producer," whichis available on dvd. shameless plug. insert here. and i was invited tobe part of the concert to perform selectionsfrom "miss saigon,"
as well as selectionsfrom "les mis," and to be part of thisbig sondheim section. and i was only toohonored to do it. one of the girls, oneof my girlfriends, who had done "misssaigon" with me, she said, ok, forthe second act, for the rodgers andhammerstein section, you have to make sure thatyou are sitting in the house. and i said, why?
she said, just trust me. just do it. so i sit in costumes. still in whatevercostumer i was wearing. so i'm sitting a few seatsaway from another actor. and from out ofnowhere, a capella, you hear this voicejust singing, [singing] "there's a bright goldenhaze on the meadow." i'm like, who's that?
who is that? and it was the kind of a voicethat just made you sit up. and what's going on? and you felt this anticipation. and then, here comesthis very tall, over 6 foot man, dressed up. he was about to open twoweeks later in "oklahoma." and so he came out, this tall,beautiful, rugged australian man, and just singing withthis big smile on his face,
standing straight and tall,and extremely confident. and i'm like, oh my god. and i heard sighs from theother ladies in the audience at the time going, mm-hmm. just looking at him. and he just continued to sing,just note perfect, and smiling, and gorgeous. and i'm like, oh my god. it's a musical theater man.
and these kind ofmen were so rare. it's rare, because-- ok, i'llhave to be completely frank. musical theater is oftenconsidered as gay man's heaven. and i have had my shareof gay leading men. and some are able to playstraight better than others. but when i seesomeone like that, and you're doing a musicaltheater, you have no idea. it's like we get kindof boy crazy at times, because it's like,they're so rare.
it's like being a member of"national geographic," sighting a very rare animalout in the wilderness. it is of that magnitude. it's just magical whenyou finally spot one. and you have to get yourbinoculars out, and take lots and lots of pictures,and take copious notes. but he just stoodthere and just sang. and i could not takemy eyes off of him, because he wasbeautiful, and magnetic,
and incredibly charming. and i think the "oklahoma"film starring him is available. it's on youtube. and you can find it on youtube. and you'll understandwhen you see this. and it was a charm that couldtranscend-- once you looked at his face, your heartjust fell into your stomach, and you were just instantlyfilled with adoration. and it's not even a carnaldesire, when you look at him.
it's not even about that. maybe a little bit about it. but it's just moreof this masculinity. and i mean, yeah, of coursehe would be cast as wolverine. and i just wonderif on that set, he ever broke out into musicaltheatre songs with any other member of the cast. and i mean, he was verypopular in australia as a quite well-knownmusical theater leading man,
and his success. then, moved to the westend and onto hollywood. and he's also wonhis own tony award playing another aussiein "the boy from oz." and i'm just sohappy that he's just garnered so much incrediblesuccess on film and on stage, and that he's notforgotten his roots. and i think heactually received-- i don't know ifit was management
advice, orrepresentative advice. you shouldn't beprancing on stage, singing and doingmusical theater. and i'm glad that hedidn't follow that advice, because his kind ofmagic, there's something about him live in a theater,just a few feet away from him. i saw the films. i saw the "x-men" films, andi've seen the youtube clips. but there's nothing like beinga few feet in front of him.
[sighs] there's nothing like that. i mean, he's pretty darnspecial live and up close. catherine buan: lea,speaking of celebrity icons, having a personlike you, here-- i mean your warmth is tremendous. and i think oftentimes, whenpeople come to see a celebrity icon interviewed oneon one, it's to see, who's the realperson underneath.
and i have to say,in a moment, we feel like we allknow you already. but i still have to ask, whatdo we not know about lea? lea salonga: oh. and victor's been oneof my best friends. i mean, he was the gayof honor at my wedding. and my wedding was amassive production, and he directed that. so i mean, what dopeople not know?
i mean, i don't know. i mean, my life ispretty much out there. and what you see ispretty much what you get. and i pride myself on that. i mean, my family is that way. my brother is that way. my mother, oh, gosh, yeah. she's very transparent. which is great.
i mean, if she has anydisdain for someone, the eyebrow goes up, and youknow where you stand with her. and it's great. i mean, if you're ina good place with her, then she is incredibly warm,and incredibly hospitable, and generous. but when she startsto shut down, then it's like,good luck to you. i will be in the nextroom if you need me.
but yeah, incrediblyemotional woman. and i think both my brotherand i, we got some of that from her. but obviously, weare only half her. and the other halfis as our father, who was very good at keepingthings close to the chest, and at not alwaysletting other people into what's going on here. he's actually amechanical engineer.
so i'm the daughterof an engineer. lea salonga: that's somethingnot a lot of people know. he went to the usmerchant marine academy in long island in new york. i think it's like, maritimesomething something. it's a commercial maritime. that's kind of whathis concentration was. and so, he did a lot ofthat in the philippines. and other funnything is that he said
that, when he wasstill at the academy-- his story is about himat the academy-- he used to take the train fromschool to the city and watch broadway shows. and he remembers having seen"south pacific" on broadway. so it's kind of funny then, thathis daughter many, many, many, many years later, would endup on the great white way herself, not just once, but twoor three times, or four times. which i think makeshim very proud.
i would think. i would hope. so i think my lovefor technology must have come from that. so it have been a geneticpredisposition and curiosity for that kind of stuff. emily nishi: speakingof curiosity, we'd like to invite the audienceto ask lea questions directly. anything you like.
it's not off limits. audience: hi, lea. my name's [inaudible], and i'mfrom the yfpa organization. lea salonga: hey. audience: thanks for being here. my question is, isaw on youtube when you were auditioningfor "miss saigon." and i think it waslike, a documentary. can you tell us aboutthat experience?
because that was probablymore than 20 years ago or so? lea salonga: oh, my gosh. that audition wasfilmed in 1988. audience: yes. yes. that was a very,very long time ago. i was a freshman in college. and i was actually in pre-med. so i would have taken a wholecompletely different path
into the sciences. so the audition, that is onlya few minutes that actually represented a three dayaudition process for me. i mean, the firstday wasn't filmed. the first day was when allprofessional singers and actors were called andinvited to audition. second day was open call. so i was on thefirst day, because i had been a professionalsinger in the philippines for,
at the time, 10 years. so i went in to sing. and i strategicallypicked a song from "les mis," having a feelingthat it might be possible that the music fromthis new musical would be in a verysimilar style. and they kind were not. but i mean, at least it gave thepeople auditioning me a hurdle, that it was something that theywere already familiar with.
and then i sang apop song to give them a bit of a range asto what i could do. so the stuff that was capturedon film was my call back. and i had no idea if i was goingto be called back after that. so i then brought thelibretto of "les mis" with me and asked them to autograph it. because i didn't think iwould ever see them again. so i figured hey,you know, what do i have to lose at this point?
the experience wasvery interesting. i never had a three-dayaudition process before. it was something thatwas very new to me, and very interesting,and very nerve-wracking. and i mean, to actuallyfeel my knees literally knocking against each otherwhile trying to keep yourself together and singing a songis extremely difficult. and at the age of 17,it's-- i don't know how many 17-year-olds couldgo through it.
but there were quitea few teenagers that were able to get over that. and there were a fewof us, not even 20, that headed over to londonto actually start rehearsals for that, show whichwas pretty cool. audience: i guess they justsort of stole my question. i was going to ask about workingwith boublil and schonberg, and what thatexperience was like. lea salonga: well,the cool thing
about having worked withboublil and schonberg-- i mean, first of all,they're kind of legendary in that they createdthis incredible musical that still had a life, andwas just recently turned into a film, which againstarred hugh jackman, going back to him. working with thesetwo, it's actually like having yourfathers at first. because you'retrying to make sure
that you sing their music right,and that you make them happy. many, many years later workingwith them on other things after having added to myresume, and after having added to my body of work,they sort of became equals. and my mouth got alittle more sassy. and alain remarked,i don't remember you being like thiswhen you were 18. yeah, we all growup sooner or later. but they are incredibly lovely,lovely men to work with.
incredibly collaborative. and claude michelfor me, i will always have a soft spot in my heartfor him, and not only because of his musical gift, but alsofor his love for my country, for the philippines. i mean, he set up sunand moon foundation, which is an orphanage. and he adopted hiselder daughter-- he has two daughters--his older daughter, margo,
from the philippines. and he comes back atleast once or twice a year to look in on theorphanage, and to make sure that everything isstill running smoothly. and i don't know of anyoneof that kind of stature to have that kind ofconsistent commitment to a cause like that, and toalways be able to make time. and he's brought hiswife charlotte over to look in on it.
or if he's unableto make a trip, then she does on his behalf. and he's just a wonderful,wonderful, wonderful man, period, as well as anincredible musician, to get to workalongside on projects. and it is an ongoingrelationship. audience: i appreciate all thetime you spend with your fans. and like, the stuffyou do on social media is really exciting for us.
i had a littleself-deprecating story. i went and heard you four yearsago in louisville, kentucky, i guess, at a concert. and you were doing that thingwhere you invited audience members up to sing"aladdin" with you. and it was exciting, so iwas all psyched to do it. so i jumped up there, andthen i got stage fright, and had to stop. and it was sort of a bummer.
some other guy ranup to the stage. but then after that, it becamethis real terrifying thing, because i thought, wow, i'malways hesitating in my life, and not making things happen. i couldn't sleep for two days. it was so ridiculous. and then all myfriends and i, we started callingthese moments where you hesitate leasalonga moments.
it became a conceptin our discourse. catherine buan: there'sactually a name now for this. audience: so, thanksfor that, i guess. it was really exciting year. lea salonga: that's adubious honor to have. audience: i had a lotof adventures that year, sort of trying to make the most. lea salonga: aw. thanks for sharing that story.
that's awesome. audience: hi. my name is jeannie. nice to meet you, lea. i'm in the field ofclinical psychology, so we're in verydifferent fields. but as a clinician, one thingthat's important is self-care. and so it's a global superstar,how do you practice self-care? well, the video games actuallydo help, strangely enough.
it's one way to kind of ventmy anger and frustration without actually taking itout on an actual human being. so, there's that. i mean, just taking a wrench andhitting a zombie in the face, it feels really good to do. and so, i find thatvery therapeutic. just conversationswith my friends. and i always makesure to have dinner with a close clutch of friends.
victor is one ofthem, and we have a close clutch of girlfriendsand other friends in new york city. i'm there so frequently,so there's always going to be like, a group outingof some sort, where we eat, and we talk. and a lot of the time,it's not about theatre. we talk about relationships. we talk about children.
and then we talk about the stuffthat has absolutely nothing to do with the outside world. we talk about what goeson in our own lives. and sometimes intalking things out, you're able to then, when youhear yourself say something, then everybody has input. or if somebody else ishaving a relationship issue, me being blunt,will not even filter the thoughts thatpop into my mind.
and they reach mymouth before my brain can tell me to stop talking. and sometimes, it'sappreciated, and sometimes it's, i wish i didn't hear that. i mean, there's that. so it's extremely therapeuticto kind of get back in touch with the peoplethat know me best, and with people that know meunfiltered, and uncensored, and real.
i spend a lot oftime with my family. i spend a lot of time with mydaughter, and with my husband. and i guess partof the self-care is returning to a veryreal life of school pickups, andparent-teacher conferences, and heading to the grocery,and in doing the stuff to take care of your house. and sometimes, iguess, in taking care of other human beings, youkind of take care of yourself
also. because then you haveanother responsibility that has absolutely nothingto do with the work. and sometimes, workingas a performer, and when you have manypairs of eyes looking at you and trained on you, i mean,there is always a danger that you turn into thisnarcissistic, self-centered monster. so when the energy then goesfrom you to something else,
then it kind ofbalances things out. christine songco lau: ok. so we have some questionsthat we gathered online before this eventto make sure we had enough representation forpeople that couldn't make it here. and one of thequestions we had online was from minnie [inaudible]one of the googlers here. she says, you were a freshmanat ateneo during my senior year.
and the biggestnews at the time was that you got the leadrole in "miss saigon. if you had not become asuccessful international performer, what would havebeen your second career choice? lea salonga: ireally don't know. it's not something ireally think about now. i try not to think aboutwhat could've been, because what is isreally pretty darn cool. so, i don't know.
i mean, i don't know thati would have continued my studies inmedicine, because i didn't have a headfor chemistry. and just thinking about havingto go through organic chemistry really terrified me. so i'm kind of gladthat things worked out the way that they did. i don't know. i probably would havecontinued on in the arts path,
but still kind ofkeeping a toehold on the sciences a littlebit, because there were certain thingsthat did interest me. but then again, ireally don't know. one more question fromonline, and then we'll go back to in the room. another question we hadonline from google moderator is from yao ching. do you sing in the shower?
and if so, what song? lea salonga: i actuallysing in the shower when i need to study material. when there's a songthat's really wordy, or a song that'sreally difficult, or something thati just need to go over and over and over again,then i do it in the shower. and the acoustics in thereare actually not bad. i can hear my voice reallyclearly and be able to focus.
so yes, i do, but not inthe way that people do. audience: i wanted to ask,how do you juggle being a mom, and then like the globalsuperstar that you are? you kind of mentioned some stuffabout picking up from school. it's just a curiosity ofmine, because i'm a mom too. lea salonga: really wellthought-out scheduling, i think. and also, shared responsibility. i mean, my husband doesthe morning drop-offs,
because i cannot do them. because i'm a night owl. and i hate getting up at7 o'clock in the morning to do a drop-off. i'm doing pick-up. you are doing drop-off. and he's a morningperson anyway, so it's notinconvenient for him. i think it's just keeping yourpriorities straight, and making
sure that i spend most of mytime at home with my family. and when i do traveloutside of the country, the time away is limited, orthe time away from my family is limited, especially now thatmy daughter's getting older. and i'm finding that sheneeds me more and more now, the older she gets, thanwhen she was much younger. it's kind of interestinghow that's happened. i do spend a lot of timeaway from the philippines when she's on summer break.
because that is wheni'm able to travel. that's when i can perform. and then, she comes with me. and then we try to findinteresting stuff for her to do. museums. i mean, we took her tothe natural history museum in new york city when i wasthere for a nice, long stay. and so, she got to actuallysee dinosaur fossils.
and she's reallyinterested in dinosaurs, and she wants to bea paleontologist when she grows up. and a fashion designer,among other things. yeah, so i think it's justa matter of figuring out what the priorities are, andthen scheduling accordingly. which was what made "the voice"the perfect thing, because i was able to be home and do whati loved to do at the same time. and because of thereach of tfc and where
abs-cbn has placedtheir networking, i was still seen by an audienceworldwide, or at the very least, in filipinohomes worldwide, which was pretty cool. audience: thank you. we watched "the voice"too, and you were amazing. lea salonga: thanks. and we won. my name's rex.
i'm with yfpa. it's funny. when i got the email invite forthis, as i scrolled through it, the first words that caughtmy eye were princess jasmine. and growing up, "aladdin" was mysister and i's favorite movie. and i was just wondering. so much of disney's cultureis very magical, sort of like mysterious. and you got to work on arguablyone of the greatest disney
movies of all time. i was just wonderingif you could just shed some light on yourexperience with disney, and how that was. lea salonga: it's actuallypretty magical for us too, for the people that work. it's like being inthe emerald city, and being behind the curtainwhere the wizard was. but it's also magicalbehind the scenes.
i mean, getting to work withpeople like alan menken and tim rice-- and these are musicaltheater legends as well. alan menken having done"little shop of horrors," and and now he's representedon broadway in "newsies," and also having done"beauty and the beast" and "the little mermaid." and tim rice, who wrotethe lyrics for "evita." so that's part of his resume. and so when i got to meet him,and i was just this huge fan.
the behind the scenes stuff. i mean, being cast as a voiceactor in a disney movie, it's refreshing, because youractual appearance as a human being has absolutely nobearing on whether or not you get the job. you literally can show up inyour pajamas, sing a song, and go home, and it's all great. but the cool thing aboutrecording "a whole new world," and even "reflection"in "mulan,"
is that you do it in a roomwith 75 other musicians, and all of you playing inconcert with one another. and for me, that is just anincredibly magical experience, just singing with anorchestra of that size. and the caliber of musiciansthat are in the room, it's just mind-blowing for me. and so as a singer, asa musician, and getting to experiencesomething like that, and then later onwatching it on screen,
there's still thewhole, "how do they do that" feeling when you'rewatching a magician onstage. disney is magical, period,for the people that work behind the scenes as well. "a whole new world"was recorded a few days before my 21st birthday. so that was 20 or so years ago. and like, it stillblows my mind that i got to be part ofsomething that wonderful.
audience: that's awesome. christine velasquez withfilipino networking association of silicon valley. first off, it's sucha treat and a pleasure to be in your presence. i'm sure everyone could agree. i've heard you sing. i've heard your namethroughout the years. and to share in this energytoday is just such a treat.
and being here andseeing the realness around the way you carryyourself, how grounded you are, and how down to earthyou are is something that is so appreciated. and i wanted toacknowledge that. so my question wasbrought up earlier about kind of more of the,how do you balance all this, being on the world stage,and work-life balance, particularly forprofessionals and those
who are starting theircareers and such? but you answered that in avery nice, thoughtful way. so i thought that maybesharing more about your passion and following yourpassion, obviously. what you've doneand accomplished is the epitome offollowing your passion and being successfulon so many levels. and if you can share a littlebit of insight on that, and how that has reallyhelped you get you
to where you are today? lea salonga: ok. i think every person'spassion path is different. but i guess it's really, tryto go as hard as you can, i guess, when you'rein your 20's, when you have the energy to do it. and my mother alwaysgave this advice. just focus on yourcareer when you're young and getting into that.
because when it comes timefor you to have your family, it will happen whenit's supposed to happen. but when you're in your 20's,try to focus on your work, and establishing yourplace in the world, and figuring all that out. so i think a lot of stuffhappened when i was younger. and then as i gotolder, then i started to think aboutfamily and children. and so the work would go, kindof taper it down a little bit.
but then things wouldthen kind of do this. and so, when i felt my careerwould be on an upswing, i felt the need to alsostill take advantage of it, but then it also wouldinvolve travel and time away. so i mean, there is stillsome degree of sacrifice that needs to be made. and also, i chosemy spouse well, in the sense that hissupport for what i do and for me as ahuman being is just
something i thank godfor every single day. because i mean, hesays things like this. he's like, honey, imean, i would never ever stop you from doingwhat you do, because you are in a unique positionto inspire people. and so, why would i evertake you away from that, and take that away from you? so i mean, i willalways be behind you, and i will always support you.
but in the samebreath also, it's like, we need you hereat home too though. so i guess it's justbalancing how much time away, and also figuringout with my family and with my representatives justwhat to accept, where to travel to, where it's ok, andtrying to schedule things where the whole familycan come with me. and it's just thatkind of thinking that always has to bebeing used up in my mind.
emily nishi: so we'regoing to wrap it up. thank you so much, lea. i wanted to ask if you hadany parting words, as we start to close, related toactually being filipino, and some of the workyou're doing with phildev. we'd love to hearany advice for us as we try to engage with ourcommunity and inspire others ourselves. lea salonga: well, first of all,to everybody here at google,
thank you for theinvitation to come. i mean, as a nerd andas a bit of a geek, you have no idea how happyi am to be here right now. you just don't. there's that. and for me to be able to sharea little bit of myself with you. and since it's going tostream on youtube, hi. it is wonderful to alignoneself with an organization, like phildev.
and because i'm onewho believes more in the "teach a manto fish" approach to life than "give a man a fish. and i learned thisfirsthand, because i put my younger brotherthrough music school. the return ofinvestment is going to be incredibly high forthe rest of his natural life, for as long as it keepson creating music, for as long as he makesthis world a better place.
one, he's an incrediblygifted musician. and the whole family feltrecognizing this gift, we have to investin his education. and it is that kind of approachthat i guess that phildev is employing thati feel resonates. and being able to help raisefunds for the organization, and being one to bring awarenessto the filipino community about this organization, it'sincredibly rewarding for me. so i mean, thanks tophildev for the invitation
to be part of filipinoamerican history month, and to help kick itoff this weekend. so, it's pretty awesome.