Pop Fiction
Whenever I watch
Pulp Fiction, which I was doing instead of work earlier at the office, I end up craving for burgers and milkshakes. I'm not really fond of hamburgers, and I only usually eat burgers at Jollibee and Burger King. Fortunately for me, Jollibee also serves yummy milkshakes, and I won't have to pay 5 dollars for them.
Which reminds me of an idea I had earlier during the scene at Jack Rabbit Slim's, the Americana restaurant where Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace dined. I was thinking about how it would be cool to have a similar Pinoy restaurant, but this one celebrating Pinoy popular culture from the '80s instead.
And then I had to repress a loud chuckle when I realized that if you dined at that restaurant, there's a fairly good chance that the waiter who introduces himself as Chuckie Dreyfuss to serve you is *actually* Chuckie Dreyfuss himself.
You are experiencing a car accident
When first heard about I, Robot, I immediately dismissed it as yet another sci-fi summer blockbuster movie with wisecrackin' will as our hero and I wasn't too keen on watching it. The title didn't help pique my interest either, I thought the title was "I-Robot" and not "I, Robot" and made it sound too much like an Apple product (though I must say, the robots did look strangely like an i-Mac, I can even imagine them coming in different colors...)
However I started hearing a lot of good feedback about it and decided to check it out and see if I was wrong about the movie. I wasn't, it truly was of a sci-fi summer blockbuster with wisecrackin' will as our hero. What surprised me was that I enjoyed it, which meant that 1. It really was a good movie or 2. I am a slave to the Hollywood moviemaking machine. Either way, I liked it... it wasn't dumbed down to an insulting level and it didn't take itself too seriously like A.I (which required some patience but I still liked, even with its "alien
ex machina" ending). In fact, despite the not so subtle foreshadowing and the waaay too many slow-mo, flying through the air while shooting accurately action scenes present to remind you that you are indeed watching a summer movie, it thought it was pretty smart. Heck, I found myself intrigued during the scene where someone was asking why robots, being the glorified toasters that they are, huddled together when stored in the dark or seeked out light on their own...too bad that issue was never tackled again.
As for humor, it's Will Smith, he gets all the wisecracks needed in a Will Smith movie, but personally, the funniest moment was when a robot jumps onto will's Audi (oh and there's a lot of product placement too... if you're sharp, you'll see a box from pizza hut) smashes the windshield, grabs the hero and explains "you are experiencing a car accident".. haha! I think I was the only person who laughed out loud...hehe..
Since I’m on the subject of movies (and have nothing better to do) here are some of the movies I'm looking forward to...
1. Constantine - I think its based yet on another DC comic book character, John Constantine (played by Keanu Reeves), a sort of supernatural detective. He's made a few guest appearances in the sandman series and I've always wanted to read the comic book.. but alas, like LXG it seems I’ll see the movie first. I just hope Keanu doesn't "whoa" his way through the movie.
2. The Village - Another M. Knight Shyamalan movie, so you
know there's a twist in the end, you just have to see if you can guess it before the end. But still, this guy knows how to build the suspense, to let your own imagination do the scaring, so this movie should be fun.
3.Alien vs. Predator - Hah! Even after being horrified by Freddy vs. Jason (horrified meaning I found the movie to be horrible, it was a movie so bad I found it funny) I'm definitely going to watch this, to satisfy the geek in me. Besides, little green men are for sissies. If it isn’t 8 feet tall, has acid for blood, and a mouth inside a mouth, why bother?
How to blog
It just came to my attention yesterday that a bunch of people who joined the blog have all this time been eager to post, and yet they couldn't because they couldn't figure out how to do it.
A couple of them actually talked to me about this yesterday, saying they saw the blog and saw where you could leave comments, but they couldn't find where they could post an entry.
Well, it is a little bit tricky, so here's what you guys need to do:
1. Go to
www.blogger.com.
2. Log-in with the username and password you entered when you created your account (that is, when you received the email inviting you to join this blog).
3. After logging in, you should be taken to a page called the 'Blogger Dashboard'. Here you should be able to view a list of blogs that you are a part of, and one of them should be 'The Pisay 98 Blog'.
4. Click on the 'New Post' icon (the green cross) to write your post.
5. You should be taken to a form that looks similar to an email compose dialog. On the upper right hand portion of the text box, you should see a couple of tabs: 'Edit HTML' and 'Compose'. You could get away with using the 'Edit HTML' options with most simple messages, but if you want to go fancy in your blog and use
different colors or even
different fonts, you could click on the 'Compose' tab to use a WYSIWYG editor.
6. Once you're done writing, preview your post by clicking on the 'Preview' button in the upper right corner of the box. You could get out of the preview mode and continue editing your post by clicking on the 'Hide Preview' button.
7. If you're done writing, it's time to publish your post by clicking on the orange button that says 'Publish Your Post'. You could also save your post as draft and continue writing and publishing it later.
That's it. O, blog na kayo!
all that you love will be carried away.
today i took time off from my hectic schedule to attend the christening of aissa's baby boy chase. you can tell that little guy is gonna be somebody because the Lord of Darkness himself decides to show up.
i was referring to the guy on the right, with the pecs. jinko, not me you lamers.
anyway, i was struck by how few of us actually decided to come. the four girls, jonas, jaemark, jinko, me. what is even more disturbing is the primary reason for not being able to come - work.
look guys: here we are, all of us about 20-25 years old, most are now working their butts off, some deciding to stay in school. in five years - heck, in a couple of years we'd be ready to start our own nest. and with a family comes more work and less time off for ourselves. the next few years will be spent juggling the pressures of work, kids, the wife, husband, other woman, other man, etc. and then we wake up, it's homecoming night, and think,
"shit, i haven't seen my friends in a long time. ano na nga ba itsura ng mga yun?" if we can't be there for our friends now when the rat race is still manageable, can we be there for them when the race becomes really tough?
are my priorities really that far off the mark? sure, i gotta work to get money. sure, i have to be well off so that my kids won't end up eating pancit canton or fried rice / ketchup for the rest of their lives. i understand that, at least. but we are still young, dammit, opportunity knocks a hell of a lot of times(we just don't listen well enough), and our friends won't be there forever. in the great cycle of life, a day of absence at (insert company here) is a small speck of dust compared to the time you spend in the presence of those you hold dear.
in the words of stephen king:
all that you love will be carried away.
would you stay and watch them go, or will you do something about it?
Hari ng Kagubatan
There was a great, little moment in
Nuts Entertainment last night that I was glad I caught. The opening involved the great Joey de Leon dusting off his
bahag for a little sketch starring Starzan, the Pinoy King of the Jungle (Pekto played Chitae). I loved every little bit of it, even if Janno Gibbs overacted the whole time (as usual), and Joey de Leon had a large gut and sagging boobs.
(It did help a lot that the lovely Ms. Angel Locsin played Jane in the sketch. She's hot enough as it is, but in a Jane costume? Wow. It's a wonder the set, which had a lot of paper decorations, didn't just catch fire right then and there.)
Of course, the Starzan trilogy and the other great Joey de Leon-Rene Requiestas movies (
Elvis and James,
Long Ranger and Tonton) were some of the fondest memories from my childhood (and it was a happy one, too). One of my most favorite Pinoy comedy moments came in a
Starzan sequel (I think it was
The Jungle Triangle, pronounced Jang-goll Tri-ang-goll).
The witch doctor, played by Vangie Labalan, was doing her witch chant to the beat of the jungle drums. Then out of nowhere, Starzan taps her gently and asks, "
Bisaya ka man, 'day?"
And she answers, "
Hindi, tagalog ako."
I know, it's just so mundane and stupid. I don't even know anyone else who finds this funny. Maybe it's because I actually grew up in an
Ilonggo household, or maybe because Vangie Labalan always has this funny
Bisaya accent. Or maybe I'm just plain weird. After all, my favorite part of
Long Ranger and Tonton was the ending where they revealed that the surname of Tonton (Rene Requiestas) was *actually* "Gutierrez".
(Haha, speaking of stupid things to find funny, I could not possibly be the only person in the country who finds Yoyong Martirez's angry man schtick funny, right? "
Galit ka?" "
Hinde, nagpapaliwanag lang, 'dong." Man, I'm weird.)
But let's get back to Starzan. I can't believe it took Joey de Leon this long, almost 15 years, to bring back the Starzan. I mean, people
love the Starzan characters so much that last year, Rene Requiestas' life story drew monster ratings. How many do you think tuned in because they fondly remember the classic line "
Chitae, ganda lalake!" (and the more classic echo "
Ulul, sinungaling, panget! Panget! Panget!") one more time?
Besides. Joey de Leon's bread-and-butter acts for the past few years, Tiyo Pot, the "Truth-or-Charing" guy from
Eat... Bulaga, and the Balakubak anchor from
Nuts, are basically just re-hashings of his old Barbie character (he just made them bitchier and more candid, because Barbie was supposed to be classy). For my money, those acts have been the funniest things you could watch on Pinoy TV this past couple of years.
Wait, I think I have to qualify that statement. Those acts have been the funniest things you could watch on TV this past couple of years that did not involve Madame Auring and her houseboy-slash-underage-fiancee.
Seriously, c'mon, could anything possibly top one of those Startalk banner stories asking,
MAY ASIM PA BA SI MADAME AURING?
Man, those things make my weekend. Then again, I'm weird that way.
It's hard naming a post...
My first post in more than a year... I just remembered that I've had a blog acct for quite some time now. Time to put my rusty writing skills (not that there was much skill to begin with) back into use...
Now for my random, non-sensical, utterly useless thought for the day
( disclaimer: "thought for the day" does not really mean I'll post one everyday (yay!), it just sounds better that way)
I can't believe it, it's barely 9 pm and already my eyelids feel heavier than a... heavy... thingamajig (yep.. rusty, rusty, rusty). All thanks to my wonderful new 6-6 work day. Ahh.. the joys of leaving the comfort of your bed at 4 am, of never seeing the light of day, it's absolutely incredible (yes, i'm being sarcastic)
It's my first day of workin a 12- hour shift and already I'm complaining, I imagine I'll be quite the annoying little whiner after a month of this horrible working schedule... I try thinking of the money I'll be getting from all this overtime, but with the sched like this, I doubt I'll ever be able to use it (and for those opportunistic readers, giving freebies is not an option for me to be able to use the money). I wonder if it's really worth it... it's not like I have a family to support.. and with this sched, I doubt I'll even be able to start a family...
...hmm, I think I originally planned on all this having a point, but my brain is startin to shut down, I'd better stop now else my mom might find me slumped over the keyboard with a pool of drool forming on the table...
...and with that delightful image, i'll say.. good night!
the things we do (and do not regret until its too late and it bites you up the ass)
Remember the time when we (at one time or the other), as students, used to call our teachers and profs weird names and imitate their funniest/most nauseating gestures and accents... well (see the title)...
It has finally come to bite me. Goodness.
Imagine seeing one of your students imitating your (admittedly) weird mannerism.
I thought I've actually prepared myself for this. I thought I was prepared for the fact that one of my students, will, sooner or later, imitate me the way I imitated my funniest/weirdest professor/teacher. Now, I believe being prepared is one thing, seeing it happen infront of you is another.
Is life truly a cycle you can't break?
Draw your own conclusions
buy this dream
what can you get for 300 bucks? probably not much. what if i told you that if you pledge to give your dough you could send someone, (
cute to pare! ), to barcelona to fulfill her dreams. but wait! you get more! you could request
pia for a good deed. i'll spare you the details and let
pia do the convincing. i myself am pldeging my bread. and if you can't spare her the money, could you pass the word. thanks kiddies!
XVII
I'm not really very big on poetry; I always thought poems mean so much more to the writer than they ever do for the reader, and T.S. Elliot's stuff always goes over my head.
There are a couple of poets who are exceptions, of course, and probably the biggest is the great Chilean poet
Pablo Neruda. I have this thing when I encounter work by really talented people where I just say to myself, "Man, I wish I had thought of that." Neruda makes me do that all the time, and he's really the only poet who does that. His most famous collection is called
Veinte Poemas De Amor Y Una Cancion Desesperada.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. I think it's a great, simple title. I wish I had thought of that.
Yesterday marked his 100th birth anniversary, and I thought I'd share one of my favorite poems of his here.
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
If the poem seems familiar, it's because it was featured in the film
Patch Adams, and is probably one of his two most famous poems along with the beautiful
Tonight I Can Write.
I find that the magic in Neruda's writing is very similar to the magic that you could find in the works of
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, another Latin-born Nobel Laureate for Literature. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that both authors write in their native Spanish and their works are then translated into English.
Curiously, I find the same magic in the work of our recently departed National Artist
Nick Joaquin. Of course, Joaquin was famous for writing in "Joaquinesque" English; that is, he wrote using the English language as if he were speaking in Filipino.
When I was in grade school, I was lucky enough to be invited to a literature workshop at the CCP. When it was time for us to write poems, the kid beside me raised a question we all had been meaning to ask, "What language should we write our work in?" The guy answered, "The language of your dreams."
It all seemed silly to me at the time (I was 11), but I think I've got it all figured out now. I think Neruda, Marquez, and Joaquin were never really better at writing words than we all are, but I think they're better at dreaming up dreams.
Taking a page out of the Bookish Bimbo
You're Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
One of the best known people in your community, you have become something of a phenomenon. People have sung about you, danced in your honor, created all manner of art in your name. And yet your story is one of failure and despair, with a few brief exceptions. A hopeless romantic, you'll never stop hoping that more good will come from your failings than is ever possible. Beware detectives and prison guards bearing vendettas.
Take the
Book Quiz at the
Blue Pyramid.
Hmm I'd been meaning to re-read this book for the longest time.
memories: another theme of sorts
Ok, so Jae and I were chatting yesterday... we've talked about how we should put a sort of weekly theme to this blog in order for people to post. Something that will interest most of the pisay 98 blogging population.
And so, i've been thinking of what would be a good topic to talk about? Incidentally, i'm feeling quite nostalgic today because of
this song i heard. And my brain is just flooding with high school memories, i just cannot choose!
I could still clearly remember my first days in pisay. My very first time in pisay was during the second screening. Remember how we were assigned to testing rooms alphabetically? Me, being one of people on the end of the list, took my exam in the canteen. Har! Har! Har! Testing date was April 8, 1994.
Enrollment: May 29, 1994. I remember meeting Lorenzo everywhere i go; in the clinic, in the registrar, etc. Of course, we did not really "meet". I don't know him then. "Namukhaan" lang namin ang isa't-isa. So officially, the first person that i met and became my friend was Faye Guerzon.
June 5, 1994, Sunday. I checked in the dorm and met my roommates, first was Monet and later on, Ria and Elena arrived. I still remember I keep calling Elena as "Elaine". Hehehe! We did not "bond" much that night, we went to bed early. Ria set her antique alarm clock (yes, very antique. the one that really goes, "ring ring ring") and put it on her bed side. The alarm clock went off at 4 am and we were all awakened, except Ria. And to think the clock was sitting just beside her ear.
So that was just the start of the year. And the start of the next four years. It's hard to believe that 10 years have passed already. Sigh,
I really miss high school.
Oh, so back to the topic.
What do you think would be a good "theme of the week"?
How Can I..
I was preparing to write a lot of stuff down, when, suddenly, I just wasn't in the mood any more.
How's that for recovering from a slump?
