on films, books, food, restaurants, favorite haunts in Metro Manila (and now, Philadelphia)...
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| rants and raves on films, books, food, restaurants, favorite haunts in Metro Manila (and now, Philadelphia)... |
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Friday, October 31, 2003 I’m currently putting together a CD or 2 of songs from Alias. They have a list of all their songs on their website. Lots of stuff without labels/indie releases so it’ll be pretty hard to come across on Kazaa. Alison Krauss + Union – I’m Gone Chantal Kreviazuk – Green Apples Duncan Sheik – Out of Order Enya – How Can I Keep From Singing Fleetwood Mac – Songbird Hives – Hate to Say I Told You So Ivy – Edge of the Ocean Jeff Buckley – Lover, You Should’ve Come Over John Meyer – No Such Thing Kate Bush – This Woman’s Work Mint Royale – From Rusholme With Love Miranda Lee Richards – The Beginner Natalie Merchant – My Skin Norah Jones – Feeling the Same Way Norah Jones – Shoot the Moon Paul Oakenfold – Ready Steady Go Ryan Adams – La Cienega Just Smiled Sarah MacLachlan – Angel Smash Mouth – Diggin Your Scene Supreme Beings of Leisure – Under the Gun The Chemical Brothers – Music: Response The Cranberries – Never Grow Old The Smashing Pumpkins – Landslide Vertical Horizon – You’re a God And this is just music from the first season (although they have a tendency to re-use some of the songs from season to season). I probably won’t put everything on my Alias compilation, I’ll have to listen to everything again to see if the collection makes sense. But all of these songs I currently have in my PC (and I only started downloading last night, some songs I’ve had for some time now though). posted by wys | 6:49 PM 0 comments Thursday, October 30, 2003 On the different food sections of our local dailies: 1. Manila Times - My brother thinks they're honest because they write bad stuff about restaurants. His observation may have some basis. Still, it's the Times and just looking at their layout and printing quality somewhat depresses me. Still, semi-decent finds may manifest themselves from time to time. 2. Philippine Star - Well, it's the Philippine Star. Can't really think of anything exceptional that has ever come out of this paper. If they do feature interesting restaurants, they've already been outscooped by the other papers. 3. Business World - Great section, a little on the short side spanning usually a total of two full pages. Lots of articles on wine news, suprisingly. And lots of news on what's going on in the hoity toity world of international cuisine. They also have a pretty good listing of what's happening in local restaurants (but everyone has those). 4. Today - I think they have the best food section. Great combination of foreign and local articles. They've been doing this run of the only semi-decent awardees to the Doreen Fernandez Food Writing Awards winners. Good to know there are people who care enough about food writing to try and revive it though. 5. Philippine Daily Inquirer - Very timely articles. Generally decent food reviews (although they only do positive ones, not necessarily a bad thing). Boring articles on cooking. I hope to high heavens they've cancelled that totally inane column on that crazy woman that writes about herself in the third person and the conversations she has with this utterly dry character Saint Sandok. posted by wys | 11:14 PM Ate in L'Opera the other day. For a fancy restaurant (with linens and all) it's pretty reasonably priced. Service isn't too great though ... it's decent but not as good as the first class interiors would suggest otherwise. Eat there before they tear it down to make way for Greenbelt Residences. posted by wys | 11:08 PM 0 comments TV Shows we manically obsessively download in my household: 1. Alias - This is my absolute favorite show of the moment. Can't think of a show I've loved as much as this. Maybe X-files in the early years. And Felicity in the middle years (it was a little too bizarre for me in the beginning, and became just plain ridiculous in the series ender). 2. Friends - Not a must see for me, but it does manage to make me laugh out loud every episode. 3. Smallville - This is actually a pretty lousy show when I really think about it. Can't seem to stop watching it though. posted by wys | 11:06 PM 0 comments Saturday, October 25, 2003 I'm pretty excited for this tour. Since we're a big group, I won't feel so scared about going to places I wouldn't normally visit, with my handy dandy digital camera. SPECIAL TOUR: DEAD CITY posted by wys | 4:20 PM 0 comments Ah the mall. Stay away from it long enough and you’ll actually begin to miss it. Make a random visit, end up buying stuff you don’t need (or want). Bring home a handful of shopping bags that will stay unpacked in your room for months (literally). Shopping sickness? Maybe. With Christmas around the corner I don’t know how I’m going to survive. In my mind, I think I’m cheap. Let me loose in the mall and I can’t help myself. Although does buying 10 out of the hundred things I was originally planning to buy count as thrift? Something debatable. Keep me away from bazaars this Christmas! posted by wys | 12:04 PM 0 comments Friday, October 24, 2003 Like I mentioned, I brought my sleek blue Handspring Visor Edge back to life. Scratched up screen and all. I’ve been going a little crazy figuring out AvantGo. Did you know that you could get full articles downloaded in your PDA for free? Of course you knew that, I think everyone but me did. In any case I’m subscribed to: Reuters, CNN International, NY Times, NY Times Arts, Metacritic, Rolling Stone, Variety. More content than I know what to do with really. posted by wys | 9:43 PM 0 comments Monday, October 20, 2003 We almost missed our flight to Bacolod on Saturday morning. For starters I woke up at around 3.30am for our 5.15am flight! I hadn’t even finished packing. We get near the airport area and there’s major traffic rerouting for Dubya’s arrival. So all people going to both the domestic and international airports had to pass through these narrow side streets in order to be inspected by a SINGLE taray military guy. Sheesh. I felt sorry for people who would be trying to fly out in the middle of the day. And we run to the airport, the latest I’ve ever been for a flight. Mau and Cris were early (because someone who knew about the traffic situation failed to warn us earlier), and Mau was trying to create a diversion of some sort to keep the ticket counter open. We check in, pay airport tax and run to the gate. When our boarding passes were issued the flight was already boarding. Poor Gab missed the flight, of course he who lives the nearest to wherever will inevitably get there last. Semi-interesting, tiring trip. Tons of pictures, soon to be uploaded to my phlog. * * * I’m realizing that many people like to SAY they enjoy traveling (because they think it’s sosy, pa-intellectual, pa-sophisticated or what not). But of course when opportunities actually present themselves, not many take them. Sheesh. posted by wys | 8:42 PM 0 comments Wednesday, October 15, 2003 I’m on my last CFA text book! Futures, Options and Swaps—something I’ve actually been looking forward to reading. Done with Economics, Fixed Income Securities, Quantitative Methods for Financial Analysis, blah blah. Now the exciting part. And I truly am excited to read about derivative-whatevers and all. * * * Wow Bacolod already this weekend. I’m actually feeling a little lazy. So soon. Good thing I have my brand new handy dandy digital camera to take a lot of photos. * * * Must plan another lunch with my friends. Otherwise we’d never see each other. * * * I went to a friend’s house for dinner last weekend and she was playing some compilation of all these songs that became popular when we were in high school. Ah the good old days. Anyway I liked it so much I’ve decided I want to make my own “Best of High School” volume. I’m thinking Weezer, Sugar Ray, Marcy Playground, Fatboy Slim, Semisonic, Fastball, Veruca Salt, Moby, Our Lady Peace, Everclear, Green Day, Sarah McLachlan, Smashing Pumpkins. Anyway I’m still deciding what to include. * * * For a while it looked like October 31 would be a non-working holiday. But then they took it back and said only public/government offices will be work free. Tra-la-la, I had no plans anyway. And to go out of town during that weekend would be insane. Good time to catch up on my studying, errands, movies, books … posted by wys | 7:50 PM Sunday, October 05, 2003 FOOD FIND Cappuccinos and Café Lattes with Soy Milk Seattle’s Best Coffee I love UFOs creamy and slightly sweetened Soy Milk. Now in Seattle’s Best Coffee you have the option to use soy milk instead of regular full cream/non-fat/whatever milk for an extra PHP10. The taste isn’t for everyone, but I love soy milk to begin with so I wasn’t freaked out to have frothy sweet milk in my cappuccino. Think espresso with a little bit of taho mixed in. FOOD FIND Cheese/Pepperoni/Combo Pizza S&R Price Smart My brother thinks the pizza in S&R is overrated and only seems to be yummy when he thinks about it, but a big disappointment when he’s actually eating it. In any case, I love their oversized pizza slices with real tomatoes in the tomato sauce and real cheese (no substitutes. A little pricey at PHP100, but better than Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s. Now that I think about it, S&R pizza kind of reminds me of Dominos. FOOD FIND Chocolate Cake S&R Price Smart For only PHP279 you get a full sized yummier-than-most chocolate cake. Great bargain, moist, just enough chocolate-goodness, gooey icing, pretty decent presentation. They have a lot of other baked goodies in S&R like PHP25 oversized muffins, butter cakes, different kinds of bread, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon sticks. posted by wys | 11:08 PM 0 comments Thursday, October 02, 2003 One Minute Reviews (Review-lets? Review-itos?) B-Movie with Famous People RANT View From the Top (2003) Why Gwyneth Paltrow would go and make a movie as blasse as this “reach for your flight attendant dream” formulaic piece is beyond me. Nothing in it is funny. At all. And Mike Myers’ cross-eyed flight attendant trainor is a dreadfully tiresome bore. Romantic lead wasn’t even a generic but pleasantly handsome guy, but rather some strangely plain-looking almost unattractive fellow dug up from who-knows-where. Nothing going for this movie, I’d rather watch made-for-TV Tori Spelling fare (“Mother May I Sleep With Danger,” “Co-Ed Call Girl”). At least I’d get a lot of good, albeit unintentional, laughs. Overpriced Café Food RANT Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (G/F Greenbelt 4, Makati) I take back what I previously said about the food in this place being good. Bad choice to have lunch here in a lame attempt at a budget lunch. Spent PHP600+ for two people -- for a pasta dish (creamy fusili with mushrooms and chicken), salad (good old Caesar’s), sandwich (roasted chicken in focaccia), iced tea and a house ice blended creamy fatty drink. Could have spent the same amount of money in Café Bola and at least *felt* like I got a better deal. And their house blended drink isn’t too good, interesting twist with ground up coffee beans, but the ice wasn’t well blended enough for me and lent a strange crunchy icey texture to the whole drink. Enjoyable Movie with Annoying Actress RAVE Down With Love (2003) It seems to be in vogue to dislike Renee Zellwegger. Because she’s too bubbly? Because she gained weight for Bridget Jones’ Diary and managed to lose it all overnight? Because she managed to move from annoying Empire Records ditz to Hollywood heavyweight? Because she gets to costar with cuties like Ewan McGregor and Hugh Grant? In any case I don’t find myself strongly positioned in the Anti-Renee Camp, and I did manage to enjoy the film even with her in it. I love the texture of the film, the ultra-saturated Technicolor of every shot, the outrageous costumes of yesteryear. Great chemistry between Renee and Ewan, lots of corny but apt double entendres, excellent supporting cast. Storyline got a little convoluted and tedious towards the end, but the movie was generally good fun. And the two leads did a nice little song number in the end. Mediocre-But-I-Like-it-Anyway Café RAVE San Francisco Coffee (Libis, Quezon City) Nothing really great about this café, but always find myself suggesting return visits. Maybe I like the fact that they always have current editions of the International Herald Tribune (just so I can pretend to be smart enough to read it). And there’s always a lot of parking, especially now that Hotshots is closed. And it’s a clean well-lit place. Other less desirable coffee options along Libis are Starbucks (too run down), Seattle’s Best (too far from the parking area, very few seats), Gloria Jean’s Coffee (not too enjoyable previous experience in another branch), and McCafe (it’s McCafe!). Great Filipino Fiction RAVE Smaller and Smaller Circles by FH Batacan This book was a bargain, for just a little over PHP100. A little on the thin/short side though. Interesting and original plot—children are being murdered left and right by a serial killer (interesting and original for Philippine literature). It’s up to a duo of Jesuit Priest-slash-CSI-types to save the day. Take note this book was written before the explosion in CSI’s world wide popularity, so no one can accuse it of riding on the CSI trend. I highly recommend this book, but I’m not sure where it can be found aside from the UP bookstore. Creepy Children’s Book RAVE Coraline by Neil Gaiman Storyline is actually pretty creepy. For a children’s book. Actually a little too creepy. Don’t think I’ll make my younger siblings read this. Consistent with most of Neil Gaimain’s other writing, quick, enjoyable read. Not his best, not a must have, but still worth the money. posted by wys | 11:43 PM 0 comments Flew to Cebu last Sunday night and was surprised to be greeted by an eerily empty airport. Well I’ve never actually seen it being used to full capacity, but to see it just waiting for my last flight out to leave just so it could shut down and go to sleep was just plain sad. Café Nescafe was closed (I actually like their coffee), Delifrance had a few reject pastries left on display, and St. Cinnamon had overpriced sandwiches, rice meals and pasta dishes. I ended up getting an overpriced hamburger to tide me over until I could get some real food (which ended up being another hamburger at the hotel). In the airport newsstand I saw a copy of CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. How weird is that? They had a pretty nice edition, one with all the books compiled into a semi-portable volume. I bought the exact same edition in Price Club last year. Who would actually walk into an airport newsstand and decide to buy a copy of the Chronicles of Narnia on the spot? People buy books by Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Danielle Steele, etc. Not stuff by CS Lewis. posted by wys | 11:08 PM 0 comments |
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