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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Thursday, April 29, 2004 There was another rally on the corner of Ayala and Paseo de Roxas today, this time for Brother Eddie. Apparently, Brother Eddie and Eddie Gil are two different people. So sue me for being totally clueless about our candidates (I don't even know who're running for local positions). Anyway, it was my first presidential rally ever ... albeit from an airconditioned elevated and very comfortable viewpoint. It turns out they were *selling* Bro. Eddie paraphernalia during the rally ... full color masks (reminds me of these Jason Kidd masks that were all the rage when I was trying to become an NBA fan) for only PHP5, tshirts for PHP80, bandannas for PHP25. I semi regret not scoring some souvenirs from my first rally. The crowd was very pleasant and well behaved all throughout (2pm to 5pm). * * * I'm currently trying to plan my trip to New York later this year. Probably only for two weeks. I'm thinking spend one week in New York and anywhere between 4 to 7 days in some nearby place, preferably somewhere I've never been before. The only place I can think of that I really want to go to is New Orleans (I should familiarise myself with the place before I return for Mardi Gras sometime in the future) ... but there may be some other places worth a visit? Boston? Atlantic City? Detroit? Atlanta? Miami? Suggestions? posted by wys | 7:58 PM 0 comments Tuesday, April 27, 2004 CREPES! I had two bannana-nutella-almond-vanila ice cream crepes over the weekend and they were absolutely yummy nummy. If only I could replicate it at home … I wouldn’t put it past my mother to but a crepe maker actually. To add to all the other kitchen implements (or kitchen junk if you may) that we have acquired through the years and never really used. Think: an ice shaver, a waffle maker, a rinky dinky cappuccino maker, a fondue set, sizzling plates, six different kinds of orange juicers, a self-encased onion chopper, a pasta maker … the scary thing is that most of these things disappear in our black hole of a kitchen. posted by wys | 10:57 PM 0 comments TV RAVE (TV RAMBLE actually) 24 My family has been obsessively maniacally obsessed with 24 these past few weeks. It started when we were in Plantation Bay (which was quite dull, if I haven’t said that already) and AXN kept on replaying the first two episodes of the second season over and over. Sometime last year my brothers started downloading the first season but I had neither the time nor patience to sit through 24 episodes of a TV show in succession. And Kiefer Sutherland, I believed, was still stuck in B-moviedom. Anyway I started watching … waited for the episodes 3 and 4 on AXN the following week. And I ended episode in a rush. My older brother (fool!) told me that we couldn’t possibly wait another excruciating week for episode 5 and we should just start downloading all the succeeding episodes so we could watch the rest of the season uninterrupted. I couldn’t even wait for the downlaoding to finish, and none of us could find ourselves in any Pirated DVD den to purchase a copy of the second season … but we finally managed to source a complete set of the second season. With all the episodes at my disposal, I was watching everything at a ridiculous rate of four episodes a day. And in the real world some people don’t have summer vacations and we actually have to go to work full time. So I would find myself in bed no earlier than 1.00 am for an entire week. In a nutshell, I love 24 to death because it’s highly original and innovative. I’ve seen the “real time” format in Nick of Time, and I’m sure it’s been done a few times before. But to have a whole season of a TV show revolve around the concept … it’s just breathtakingly unique. And the various story threads are so insanely fascinating I couldn’t help but get hooked. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any shittier for Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Agent Jack Bauer … they do! There are also a host of other interesting threads in the second season of 24. There’s Kate Warner who just found out that her sister is getting married to a possible terrorist. There’s the dynamic duo of Michelle and Tony back at CTU trying to keep things together while their boss George Mason is missing in action due to serious reasons of his own. There’s Jack’s daughter Kim finding herself in all sorts of trouble just because she’s her father’s daughter and she’s a part of the show. There’s President Palmer (probably the coolest television or movie president EVER) who has his whole government scheming against him while he tries to stop a nuclear bomb from exploding. Season Three is currently being shown, but I’m not inclined to start downloading because it takes too long and I’ll probably be able to get in on DVD a few months (weeks even) from now. And I wouldn’t enjoy the painful waiting time between episodes while I download. posted by wys | 10:57 PM 0 comments Monday, April 26, 2004 I was watching Alias the other night and Ricky Gervais of The Office was a guest star. I first encountered The Office when I saw my brother downloading a few episodes a few months ago. It's all the rage in the UK apparently, sort of Dilbert-ish cubicle humour for the working class. Very British as well, so not for everyone. Anyway this Gervais fellow used to be a member of the New Wave one-hit wonder duo Seona Dancing ... More to Lose anyone? 
posted by wys |
9:52 PM
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Sunday, April 25, 2004 Apparently in the United States people care about voting even less than we do. (Shame on you, by the way, if you are not registered to vote in the upcoming May Elections). I read this article in Salon about how they're trying to entice young people to register and vote. Glitzy voter-registration drives are wooing apathetic young voters with celebrities and flashy Web sites. But 18- to 24-year-olds may be too jaded and media-saturated to respond to anything except appeals from other young people -- real, live ones.Anyway I know nothing about American Politics, so my brother lent me this book. Unsure how enlightening it will be because it’s rightist? 
posted by wys |
6:41 PM
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Saturday, April 24, 2004 I totally and absolutely loved School of Rock (which I saw on the plane two months ago). Watch it watch it watch it. This was a Jack Black movie that I actually really enjoyed. I was a bit put off by his role in the uber lousy Shallow Hal. He was hilarious though in High Fidelity, and he was pretty funny in the mediocre Orange County. The mere storyline gets a good laugh when you first hear it. Jack Black poses as a professional substitute teacher (which is actually the job of his roommate, believe it or not) in order to make some extra cash. Because he was just recently dumped very unceremoniously by the garage band that he founded, he decides to turn his class of preppy private school kids into a rock band of his own. Of course we know that there are only so many audience-facing members of a band—the bassist, the guitarist, the drummer, the vocalist, the keyboardist—but they manage to find roles for everyone in class. There’s the band manager, the groupies, the roadies, and there’s the gay stylist (so young, yet so sure of what he wants to be). Watch out for the School of Rock theme song … I can’t get enough of it. “And today’s assignment kids is … KICK SOME ASS!” * * * Starsky and Hutch is another must-see for all comedy-loving moviegoers out there. Fortunately I got to see this on the big screen. Not so fortunately, I watched it in the UK in a theater full of Brits that didn’t seem to get half of the (too American?) jokes that were thrown their way. The Philippines is obsessed with everything American (Pico Iyer’s travel essay on the Philippines was entitled “Born in the USA”) so local audiences will have no trouble with the jokes in this film. Then again we’re so obsessed with slapstick, I can’t be too sure. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are shaping up to be one of the great comedic duos (Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Royal Tenenbaums) of these times and their chemistry is apparent throughout the whole film. I know that some dislike one or the other, but somehow both actors just work for this film. The film is based on this old American TV Series that I have never even heard of before. The movie version is totally kitschy, with all the big hair and outrageous fashion that goes with it. Snoop Dog as the waif-thin no-nonsense huge-afroed snitch? Vince Vaughn as the hairy-chested toothy-grinned Jewish criminal mastermind? Juliette Lewis as his brunette bimbo? Carmen Electra as a loose slutty cheerleader? Spot on. Watch it. DO IT, DO IT (you’ll get this after you see the film). School Of Rock and Starsky and Hutch open in Metro Manila theaters on 28April04. posted by wys | 11:22 AM 0 comments Sunday, April 11, 2004 Partly so it doesn't go down in the annals of forgotten food trips I have decided to write some five-second reviews on all the places I can remember eating at the past two weeks. If you don't write it down or take a photograph of it, it never happened. Red Crab (Shangri-la Mall). Yummy, expensive, may go there again if someone else picks up the bill. Twist (Eastwood City). It annoying that one can only partake of their buffet outdoors (in the scorching Manila heat? are you kidding me?). Cheap food (PHP 100 upwards per entree), ideal for long conversations and all that. East (Rustan's Department Store). Hidden away somewhere in Rustan's Makati, they have reasonably priced food here ... think 300 to 500 pesos per head, and I *may* go there again if I'm in a mood to dine between the clothing racks. Regular run of the mill Japanese fare. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They have decent food, I'm obsessed with their Caesar Salad, Americanised as it may be. Service is getting shoddy though. Lai Lai Palace (Ongpin Street). Mediocre over seasoned Chinese food. Aqua (Makati). Oldie, but goodie. Anything in Plantation Bay (Cebu). Overpriced, awful tasting food. And it's supposed to be a world-class resort. I would expect hotel-quality food at the very least. Milky Way (Pasay Road, Makati). Some people say this is a restaurant of their youth, I only heard of them when I saw a branch in Power Plant. Food is surprisingly pricey, for what you get anyway. Not really worthy of a return visit for me. Their critically acclaimed halo-halo wasn't all that either. posted by wys | 10:29 PM 0 comments My house is an embarassing mess, thanks mostly to me. I have not unpacked my suitcase since I got back from the UK two weeks ago, and my carry on luggage would still be unpacked as well had I not bothered to spill all its contents onto the floor so I could use the same bag for my Cebu trip last Holy Week. I can blame my messiness on a number of factors: my sister coming home from New York the day after me, my mum coming home from San Francisco two days after me, and my other sister squatting in my room and all over the rest of the house because her room is currently being renovated. posted by wys | 10:03 PM 0 comments Tuesday, April 06, 2004 I also can't stop listening to The Darkness' I Believe in a Thing Called Love. Yeah, I know I'm a few months late and they've completely stopped playing the song altogether on the radio. I still insist that we play it every single time in the car and I just have to sing along, off-key, erroneous lyrics and all. 
posted by wys |
12:59 AM
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I've been strangely manically obsessed with the Platinum Greatest Hits I, II and III CD set of Queen ever since I caught We Will Rock You in London. Maybe I also like listening to it now because we were manically obsessively playing the whole CD set during the last two weeks of my trip. Ah memories. 
posted by wys |
12:56 AM
0 comments
Sunday, April 04, 2004 Had an interesting dinner last night in Lai-Lai Palace (839-843 Ongpin Street, Sta Cruz Manila; 733 3130, 733 3132, 733 3137). I had gone on the Rizal Avenue Walking Tour of Carlos Celdran. It was a thoroughly interesting look at the parts of Manila I would never dare to walk alone on any normal day. I got to see all the weird things that they sell for ridiculously (suspiciously) cheap prices in the Manila area: weird sex toys, university diplomas, spells and potions, anting anting, dodgy looking food. Kudos to Carlos Celdran for continuing to organise tours such as these for foreigners crazy enough to find themselves in our insane country, and for locals who know nothing about the rich history of Old Manila. At the end of the tour, we asked Carlos for advice on good Chinese Restaurants (we decided to dine in the area because we're hardly ever there anyway) and he recommended Lai Lai Palace along Ongpin Street, which turned out to be a bit of a dud in the end of it all. These two foreigners from the tour group wanted to join us for Chinese and we gladly obliged. The guy was originally from New Zealand, the woman from Iran, and they're both based on Central London. They were in the Philippines because the woman was here on business, and the guy just tagged along. They were interesting people, the guy has had a host of interesting life experiences: two years off backpacking around the world sans guide books, giving tours in Italy, doing some photojournalism in Malaysia. At the end of the dinner, we dropped them off in Intramuros. They were looking for somewhere interesting to hang out so we recommended Sanctum. When they heard that Sanctum (and the other establishments) in the surrounding vicinity were converted jail cells, their interest was piqued. It's when I'm with foreigners that I become most self-conscious of my inadequacy in all matters Filipino. What's our national food? Uh, I don't know ... adobo? What's our national alcoholic drink? ... Lambanog? Say something in Filipino ... Uh I'll have to process that in my head first. It's strange how I know so little about my own country but I'm so rah-rah-rah about traveling and seeing the rest of the world. I'm definitely going to Cagayan de Oro this year though (making up for lost time in my country?) for some White Water Rafting. Will learn how to dive by May as well. There's also Cebu for Holy Week and the usual Boracay in May. Huzzah for 2004! posted by wys | 3:17 PM Thursday, April 01, 2004 Everyone's favorite chef Jamie Oliver has this CD with all of his favorite songs to cook by including:
In the man's own words: A good blast of these tunes, a nice bit of tukka and some good company is, without sounding like a cheesy git, the recipe for a nice time, happy days.posted by wys | 9:54 PM 0 comments |
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