I’m on leave of absence from work starting today until next week. We have an insane schedule ahead of us because of Rain’s PH visit and I think this demands full attention. The last thing I want now is more stress from work to add to my current stress from fangirling, so an LOA is in order. It’s a good thing that Rain decided to fly straight to Cebu instead of going to Manila; he’s supposed to arrive in the Philippines today as told by a local entertainment site’s Twitter account, which turned out to be false because he flew in to Cebu yesterday morning. Per my sources, this was not the original plan. If the original plan pushed through, you wouldn’t be reading this entry now because I’ll probably be at the airport waiting for his arrival, or has started with the stalking process.

Speaking of which… hey fellow Pinoy fans, I know this is finally our opportunity to be like the other fans from other countries and post our own personal fan accounts, but please bear in mind: RAIN’S PRIVACY SHOULD BE OUR NO. 1 PRIORITY. Please learn not to be too intrusive, and learn to filter those that need to be posted on the internet for the whole world to know. Although the publication of his exact whereabouts mainly should be blamed on his own staff who posted the pic of his location on Twitter (really, Dong Joon-ssi… it’s quite easy to use Google to know where that pic was taken from ), but to post stuff like, “he did this and that at this exact hour” is waayyy too intrusive. Don’t tell me stuff like, “but the Japan/China/etc etc fans did that, too!” Just because everyone does it, should you do it, too, even if it’s wrong? Just so you know, most of those fans also filter the stuff they post on the internet. Remember, his hotel is his temporary home. He’s supposed to enjoy his private time there. Sightings in public places is ok, I suppose, but hotel stuff? Na-ah.

Anyway… since Rain is several islands away from me and I have no plans of flying all the way there just to stalk (my wallet’s pretty dried up at this stage and the concert hasn’t even happened yet), I decided to use this unexpected free time to catch up on sleep. I think I slept a grand total of 8 hours in the past 2 weeks or so. When I woke up this noon, it’s busy, busy, busy time once again, replying to queries, planning and monitoring the activities, etc.

And you know what makes this crazier? On top of Fugitive filming and the Intensity concert, Polyeast Records has announced that they’re releasing Back To The Basic Asian Edition in the Philippines in time for the concert. We had a meeting with the record execs last night along with MBLAQ-PH and Infinity-PH and it was very productive. I think J Tune and Mnet made the right decision to entrust BTTB and MBLAQ’s Y to them. They’re very enthusiastic about the project and they’re very open to the fan clubs’ suggestions on how to market the CDs here. Please watch out for announcements on CloudPH’s website, Twitter and Facebook pages as regards the album release. Right now, we’re focusing more on the concert because of certain deadlines, but once we get things settled we will start mass promotions for BTTB. I assure you, it’s going to be really exciting for the Philippine fans and our overseas guests, too.

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I’d like to share a little story from last night. We were having dinner and Rizza received a phone call from an unknown number. She’s been receiving a lot of that lately so it’s not so surprising. The caller is a Filipino and she was inquiring about how she can avail of the CPH T-shirt. It wasn’t until after a few minutes when she revealed that she’s not in the Philippines; she is in London. And then she asked about our friend Dahly. She said that if Dahly does not win the contest, she is going to send money for Dahly’s concert ticket so that Dahly could watch. Rizza told her that there is no need for that because we entered Dahly to the contest only for the Meet and Greet. Dahly already has a concert ticket (and a moshpit one, at that). But I find it so endearing how Dahly’s story has touched so many people, even those who are not in our country. It’s really a very inspiring story and I really hope that even if she doesn’t win the M&G slot, it will send a positive message to all fans (not just of Rain’s) that fangirling may be just a hobby or a passion for most of us, but for some like Dahly, it’s something a lot more than that. For them, it’s a way to cope up with life’s struggles.

This is like asking for the moon and the stars, but I also hope that even if Dahly doesn’t win the contest, I hope that her story would reach Rain. (Then again, I once said that Rain going to the Philippines for a concert is only possible once pigs could fly. Last time I checked, pigs still don’t have wings.)

Finally, after 289357500305 years, J Tune has made an announcement regarding the Philippines concert.

Click on the image to be redirected to rain-jihoon.com

So I guess it’s high time to move on and start really working on this? Ten days of virtually no sleep. Good luck to us.

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Edited to add:

I mentioned here about a couple of years ago that we have a fellow Cloud who has cerebral palsy. She suffered from depression due to her condition but she was able to recover from it when she saw Rain and learned more about his work and his life. Her biggest dream is to meet Rain in Manila. Please help us help her realize that dream and give her a special birthday treat (her birthday is on September 12) by “liking” her entry at the Meet and Greet contest at Facebook.

Thank you!

Hey, you know that thing I’ve been wondering about regarding the fact that everyone in Pinoy Kpopdom seemed to know about Rain’s Manila concert except Cloud Philippines? I only had two theories: One, there is no concert. Two, there must be some other Rain fan club out there who outsmarted us and got the exclusive info.

Since there is a concert (Rain’s dancer confirmed it. Whadya know, J Tune’s spokespersons are Rain’s cameraman and Rain’s dancer?), it can only be theory number two.

Apparently, it IS theory number two. Except… it’s not even a Rain fan club.

You know what? Cloud Philippines is not asking for exclusivity. What we’re asking for is at least a heads up. When your own favorite artists come to the Philippines, we never mess up with you. We let you have your moment. THIS is supposed to be our moment. The least you can do is INFORM US what’s really happening before you do something major such as announcing that you have Meet and Greet passes. We’re supposed to be one ‘community’ here. What happened?

Common courtesy lang sana. Yun lang naman eh. Put yourselves in our shoes: if, say, Big Bang or JaeChunSu (or Changmin and Yunho) comes over and for some weird reason I am in close contact with the organizers, so I decided to let Cloud Philippines organize something for them without at least informing BB-PH or Cass-PH. If you’re a BBPH or Cass core, wouldn’t you feel insulted? Or let’s make this more realistic: if U-KISS comes over. Everyone knows that Xander’s father promised me something once they come back. I’m sure, if I get exclusive access beyond the Death Zone and I’m not even a fan, every single KissMe will be glaring at me in envy. It’s as simple as that. That’s not difficult to understand, right?

Same goes to the sponsors. I’m sorry, but I still cannot fathom how even road managers of Kpop artists have found Cloud Philippines and you didn’t.

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Update on the J Tune confirmation of Rain’s Manila concert as of today, August 25, 2010:

Rain and J Tune did not say anything about the concert at the Macau presscon yesterday. In fact, Rain even said they’d be breezing through the filming here as fast as possible and get outta here as quickly as possible because of what happened last Monday. Can’t blame them, but… a bit of an exaggerated reaction, if you ask me.

One of Rain’s dancers Tweeted that Rain is indeed having a show in Manila, but it’s not a solo concert. There will be Filipino singers as guests, and Rain’s part is only 50 minutes.

Ok. So after Dong Joon, Sungtak is the new J Tune spokesperson.

I’ve been trying to bite my tongue these past few days because I don’t want anything I say to make things more complicated. But I things are getting more and more confusing as the days go by, and unfortunately, some are not helping the situation at all. So let me make a few clarifications in the hopes that people would see how complicated things really are, and them getting into the fray will just make things worse.

First off: I was supposed to announce this a week ago but I was asked not to, and then all this concert stuff happened that I thought it’s not right to infuse some drama when a more urgent issue has to be addressed. But a lot of people have asked so I better make this official so as to save me some time explaining things again and again.

On 15 August 2010, I tendered my resignation as administrator and club manager of Cloud Philippines. I did this for two reasons:

1. My current situation at work doesn’t allow me to devote time to managing a fan club. I can’t even update my blog as often as I used to. What more Cloud PH?

2. The current community of Rain fans in my country has changed. Nowadays, fans only want to see/hear what they want to see/hear. Or maybe it has always been that way, I just never noticed it until Facebook and Twitter happened. Or I never cared because CPH never cared about what I say on this blog? Anyway, the way I run this blog seems to have gotten in the way of my being a leader of a fan club. A lot of fans, specifically the newbies and the oldies who never used the internet prior to Facebook, can’t seem to separate Agent P, the bitchy, no-nonsense blogger behind Agent P’s Headquarters, and Paulette, the admin of Cloud Philippines. Instead of taking their issues with me, they took the issue with the entire club. Which is totally unfair to all the members who had to suffer just because of their association with me.

What a fan club needs is a diplomatic leader, not a bitchy one. Hence, to keep Cloud Philippines alive, I decided to resign. I am still a core member acting on an advisory capacity, but as much as possible, I am now inhibiting myself from getting involved with any domestic activities that CPH will have. Unfortunately, that next domestic activity happens to be Rain’s PH concert. How can I not get involved with that?

Which brings me to that controversial topic: Rain’s concert in the Philippines.

I know all of us are confused, and some are even formulating all sorts of theories in their heads - which is not surprising, given Rain’s history with overseas concerts - so I would like to make some clarifications regarding this entire issue. Of course, these are the only ones I am allowed to say in public. There is a much deeper issue behind this and it’s getting more and more complicated as the days pass. I think the only thing that will clarify this issue once and for all is the official word from Rain and J Tune. Which, as of this writing, is still non-existent.

1. The most common questions that we get from everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - are: “Is this real? Is it confirmed? Is Rain really coming to the Philippines for a concert?”

Is it real? - Given that Ticketworld is selling the tickets now, I guess it’s real.
Is it confirmed? - By the promoter? Yes. By the sponsors and web partners? Yes. By J Tune? - No.
Is Rain really coming to the Philippines for a concert? - At this point? Nobody knows.

To tell you the truth, we have been contacting J Tune ever since Ticketworld posted that ‘teaser’ of Rain’s concert. We have used all possible means of contacting them: via Twitter, email, phone calls. Some fans who are trailing Rain at Fugitive’s filming site even offered to ask his staff for us. They all said the same thing: there is no concert in the Philippines. But what good will that do if the local promoter still insists that there is one, and our own sources even gave details and swore that there really was a contract signed and the concert will definitely happen?

Dear J Tune, the fans are not your spokespersons. If there really is no concert, then how difficult is it to issue an official statement saying, “Rain will not be having a concert in the Philippines”? You could have done that the very moment we alerted you about the first Ticketworld ad. It’s been what… two weeks since that happened? What is taking you so long to take action???

With this inaction coming from the Korea side, it’s the PH fans who are suffering. Specifically, Rain’s local fan club, who had to take all the bullets coming from local and international fans because as a fan club, it is our duty to promote him in our country.

You know what’s making this more complicated? Last year, J Tune even called a local fan club a fraud for announcing the concert and taking orders for VIP tickets for the Macau Six To Five concert, which turned out to be 100% real. I know it’s real because I went to that concert. You really can’t blame Cloud Philippines for changing course and promoting the concert even without the official announcement from J Tune. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t do anything to clarify it first before taking action. We did. So much. It’s the other side that’s not helping.

2. Common misconception among overseas fans: it’s a scam.

Dear overseas Clouds: I know we have been burned before, especially with what happened to the World Tour. So I would like to tell you something about the people behind Rain’s concert in the Philippines.

The promoter, All Youth Channels, Inc. is a very established company that is part of a huge conglomerate which includes the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines. They hold the rights to MTV Philippines before it went off the air. They are not newbies when it comes to concert production. In fact, they have staged some of the biggest concerts in the Philippines, including those of Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Josh Groban, Alicia Keys, Rihanna/Chris Brown, Pussycat Dolls, Katy Perry, etc. Their latest project was the Timbaland/Jojo/Justin Timberlake concert last June which was a huge success. Rain’s concert is sponsored by big companies like Smart Communications, TV5 (a TV network) and YouTube Philippines. The official ticketing agent is Ticketworld, which is a legitimate ticketing agency that’s been in this business for years.

Tell me, do you honestly think these big and established companies will risk their name and reputation just to scam a few fans? I do think that the promoter did deal with someone, and they do have a signed contract in their hands. The question is, to whom did they deal with?

I can’t wait for this issue to be resolved soon and we will hopefully find answers as to why and how this happened. To be honest, I would much rather see this concert to NOT happen. Not on September 11, 2010, anyway. Like what I’ve said on this blog before, I want to see Rain in a concert here in my country, but not this way.

Source: Ticketworld site. You may check this site for info on how to buy your tickets (if you’re willing to risk it).

I just want to make it absolutely clear that this blog nor Cloud Philippines is NOT confirming nor making an announcement that this concert is absolutely, 101% confirmed. So please J Tune, don’t call us frauds or anything. If we get the confirmation that we need, we’ll let everyone know. Well, CloudPH will, not me.

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Edited, August 23, 2010; 1:35am

I realize that some people may have chanced upon this post while Googling about the concert, and might have gotten some misconceptions with what I posted here. In fact, someone already reacted wrongly at the Comments section.

To all those who just found this page via a search engine: if you don’t know the whole story why I said “buy at your own risk”, please just bite your tongue. I have already lost the little patience I have explaining things to people who just react without knowing the full story. Thank you.