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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Sunday, February 27, 2005 Over the long weekend I: - caught up on the sleepless week that just was - came across my old swimming teacher from when I was 7 years old; what a blast from the past - had a five year old boy ask for my cell phone number - dined in Sonya's Garden, the original Tagaytay getaway restaurant (before Antonio's and Starbucks) >> was rather disappointed; the bottomless salad, pasta, turon and dalandan juice is not really worth the Php550/head - decided I want to have a WELCOME SUMMER swimming party in April; the fact that we don't have a pool at home does make that task a little more challenging but I'll figure something out - had planned on watching Finding Neverland but postponed the screening and just ended up hanging out with friends at home - bought tickets (or rather, asked a friend to buy us tickets) to the Jars of Clay concert this Wednesday, March 2nd --- I actually don't really know any of their songs apart from "Flood" so I will either have to download (thus far proving to be difficult) or buy one or two albums before the concert - began contemplating Holy Week plans; I could go on a retreat --- Jesuit or Opus Dei, attend a recollection, do a day-trip to Bataan and eat my heart out, go to Pampanga and watch the self-flagellation, do some diving, or spend the weekend at home enjoying (!) the annual Studio 23 7th Heaven marathon posted by wys | 3:08 PM 0 comments Came across this great new campaign by BBDO (USA?) for Doritos. They actually use one of my favorite personal taglines for life --- IF NOT NOW, WHEN? I'm not a big fan of the SMS-type shorthand employed, and I'm not too sure how Doritos ties in with the whole inNw slogan, but I do like the underlying message of the whole campaign.    posted by wys | 2:55 PM 0 comments Monday, February 21, 2005 By my bedside right now are:    Who knows when I'll finish everything --- the way I read books (haphazardly, and several at the same time) I might end up forgetting about these three altogether and start reading something completely new. posted by wys | 10:15 PM 0 comments Sunday, February 20, 2005 I got to watch Closer and Garden State over the weekend (an unintended Natalie Portman-marathon). Closer was absolutely fantastic, a steadily paced talkie on relationships, infidelity and everything in between (be in the mood for this when you watch it). Garden State was a fell a little short of expectations as I had read so many good things about it; but it does have its merits and I still consider it pretty enjoyable overall --- and it has an absolutely fantastic soundtrack.  
posted by wys |
9:55 PM
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Saturday, February 19, 2005 I had my musical theater debut last night when I watched Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera by Tanghalang Ateneo. I was late for the show and I absolutely hate being late for anything because it goes against my inherent nature to plan and schedule my life. So I stumble into the theater 15 minutes late (huzzah to them for starting on time --- too few cultural performances in this city are punctual) and it takes me a while to pick up on everything happening onstage. It didn't help me any that the play was a (purposefully) visually overloaded theatrical piece pumped with (according to Gab) steroids. From what I know of Brecht though, he's into this whole "detached audience" thing, where his objective is not to make his audience feel but rather to make them think about his characters, their situations, and the actual social situation that exists outside the doors of the theater. The political and social statements made by Brecht in the play when it was first staged in 1920-something are still very much applicable today to the Philippine situation. The original piece had a generous sprinkling of “disruptive” musical sequences that were supposed to been a parody of the traditional Opera-style of singing that was all the rage. In Tanghalang Ateneo’s version of the play, karaoke-style singing was used for the musical segments—a particularly ingenious localization of the play and a mocking nod to every frustrated Filipino singer’s (myself included) belief that they can sing and people are actually willing to listen to them. And then comes the visual overload with (intentionally) awful videoke-films are projected onto either of two screens positioned on the sides of the stage, misspelled lyrics with double-meanings being highlighted karaoke-style, all while the cast is doing some elaborate cabaret-inspired dance number centerstage. So the play concludes with a very self-conscious deus ex machina, and too many unanswered questions on: the capitalization of the begging “profession,” why big businesses can do the exact same thing the thieves in the play do (that is, steal) but get away with it, the jarring lack of feeling the characters have for one another, business vs marriage, class struggles and the premium society places on status and labels. Great stuff I tell you, but a whole lot to take in on a Friday night after a very long week. Cris insists that we watched Threepenny Opera in Philam Theater when we were in high school but none of us seem to remember having seen it back then (although I do distinctively remember having gone to Philam Theater). Maybe I fell asleep. One time we were watching El Filibusterismo in the fire trap that is Music Museum and since I was seated in the balcony I actually lay down on the floor and slept! Our school uniforms were made out of pretty sturdy thick material and even if we were hoity toity girls I don't think I minded. I couldn't lay down on the seats and actually sleep because then our teachers would have seen me. Ah yes, back to my singing --- before the show and during the intermision they had real karaoke sessions for any audience members who wanted to take their shot at stardom. So I did a little bit of Hopelessly Devoted to You (from Grease) and If We Hold On Together (better known as the scene before Land Before Time). With feelings. I think I could actually feel the students in the audience feeling slightly embarassed for me, but I'm too old and far removed from that school to feel any self-consciousness.  This is a poster for a 1988 Polish (?) production of the play. posted by wys | 12:15 PM 0 comments A few years ago I heard that Isaac Mizrahi designed an alarm clock for his line at Target that could be thrown across the room --- for dorming college students. I think I have found the foolproof way to wake up early despite having just had a few hours of sleep the night before. My iPod has a nifty alarm feature (I suppose I always sort of figured out it did have an alarm, but I never bothered to read the manual or explore its innards until the other day). Of course for those without iSpeakers I have no idea what the practical usage of an iPod alarm would be (would you sleep with your cute white iHeadphones on?). The first few times this week I tried to wake up to my iPod I put the speakers right behind my bed so just like a snooze button (that wouldn't go on again 5 minutes later) I would shut it off and my regular snoozing alarm clock would go on again half an hour later just to be snoozed off by me for another hour. Tis a struggle for me to wake up every morning, no matter how early I end up sleeping. But of course this morning I am having breakfast with friends at 7am and I am not one to make friends wait. Of course friends that keep me waiting ... that's another story all together. :P So I decided to move my iPod and iBose across the room so it would entail a bit of effort for me to turn the music down. Let's see how long I can continue waking up early. 
posted by wys |
6:39 AM
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 Amazon has done it again! In their forever evolving business they have decided to introduce unlimited express shipping for a FLAT annual fee. Unlimited Express Shipping * Free Two-Day Shipping on over a million in-stock items * Overnight Shipping for only $3.99 per item—order as late as 6:30 PM ET Effortless Shopping * No minimum purchase required * No need to consolidate items to save on shipping Convenient Sharing * Share the benefits of your Amazon Prime membership with up to four family members living in the same household posted by wys | 6:32 AM 0 comments Wednesday, February 16, 2005 For around a month now I was planning a beach trip for this weekend so I had been deferring all other plans that came flying my way. But beach plans got cancelled last minute and I'm a little too lazy to make new ones --- it's just as well. I'll use the unexpected free time to clean my room, watch my million and one DVDs, swim a little, go for a run, play some badminton, try out a little yoga and do a whole lot of STUDYING. * * * Holy Week has to be the absolute worst time to travel. Rates are up a whopping 100% and it's not worth the surcharge if you can easily take a few days off outside this super peak season. It's only worth it to travel with family (not friends) around Holy Week because of all our highly conflicting lifestyles and schedules it really is the only time when everyone is free. posted by wys | 10:34 PM 0 comments On the Amazon Website they have what I think to be the only copy of the new trailer for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (they don't even have a copy of the trailer on the official website of the movie). Some strange exclusive "world premiere" thing. Unsure what either side gets from the deal ... it's not like Amazon sells movie tickets. Although of course sales for the novel on which the movie was based will likely increase with the release of the movie. Even I want to read the book now (I think we must have a copy of that somewhere in the house). posted by wys | 10:28 PM 0 comments Monday, February 14, 2005 My brother was telling me that New Line Cinema was coming up with movie versions of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, spending over USD150million on the first movie alon (if the movie flops, they'll be out of business supposedly). No cast, no crew, just a whole lot of money to spend. What kind of weirds me out is that I have never (ever) heard of this trilogy before. Or maybe I have, but never in significant enough a context for me to consciously tell myself "I should get myself those books." Press Releaseposted by wys | 8:47 PM 0 comments One of my friends from Saudi Arabia sent me an article on how Valentine's Day is banned in his country because of strict segregation laws and the general perception that it's a very Christian holiday. Saudis Mark Valentine's Day Despite Lawsposted by wys | 8:33 PM 0 comments Wednesday, February 09, 2005 A new book I've been reading a lot about in the New York Times Online Edition is "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure" by Mireille Guiliano. It's currently the number 2 selling book on Amazon (after Harry Potter Book#5) and should find itself on the New York Times bestseller list by next week. I'll probably buy it as soon as it comes out in Manila, but as always I have yet to find myself even halfway down my current reading list (although taking a look at the sidebar at all the books I've read so far this year I'm happy to note that I've been reading a lot more than I've been watching movies or television). The book supposedly doesn't really talk of diets or exercise or other mundane weight-loss topics, but more on the general attitude that French women take towards food --- food is something to be savored, even in small amounts hence she demands the best croissants because if she'll only be having one for the day it might as well be top-of-class. There are also sections on dressing well and putting more effort into one's physical appearance, which I take to have the psychological effect of "forcing" one to maybe eat less and healthier in the long run. You can read the first chapter of the book here. 
posted by wys |
10:21 PM
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AMAZING RACE 6 SPOILER BELOW! Yikes, who wanted Freddy and Kendra to win the 6th season of the Amazing Race? Not me. Personally I was rooting for all-American couple Kris and Jon who did not say one mean word to each other the entire race = it was all goodness and sweetness between those two. In surprising news, they'll be premiering the 7th season of the show three weeks from today. Meaning they released 3 seasons of the show within the span of one year. Something to do with this recent 6th season being the best so far. *WHEW* Off the top of my head I can't even remember who won the 5th season ... oh yeah Chip + Kim during the season that they went to the Philippines. There are no team profils yet in the official CBS site but among the reported team-ups are: - Rob and Amber from a recent season of Survivor, the All-Star edition (both were the top 2 finalists and Rob proposed to Amber during the season finale ... ultimately I think Amber won the million dollars but they're married or something now anyway) - the first mother-son team; she's a (grumpy?) law professor and he's a gay Hollywood writer - the oldest team ever = a married couple at ages 69 and 66 - a team with a former POW in Iraq (in a preview clip he's seen telling another contestant about how he was a prisoner of war) - a couple laid off from Enron and Worldcom ... (?) 
posted by wys |
10:05 PM
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Happy Chinese New Year! Tis the time of year for brightly colored box upon brightly colored box of tikoy. AKA "Chinese sticky cake" or that horridly delicious dish made out of glutinous flour and white sugar with zero nutritional value --- an Atkins Fan's worst nightmare. (Speaking of zero nutritional value ... Over my last dive weekend some divers obsessing over getting their hands on some LOMI --- those thick yellow noodles tossed in some indeterminable gooey sauce and barely a spatter of meat and vegetables. Now that's empty but filling carbs guaranteed to give you a big belly and not much else). Back to tikoy, I was trying to scour the web to find some information on tikoy, its origins, how the tradition started, and maybe some creative ways to cook it. All I found were some Philippines-based sites talking about the quintessential Chinese New Year staple in passing (and a bunch of sites on filmmaker Tikoy Aguiluz). How could this be? I asked this Chinese guy at work what the tradition was about (he had after all, just given me a box of the stuff) and he sort of shrugs then says the stickyness of the dish is supposed to represent the togetherness you enjoy with family and friends during the Chinese New Year. Hmmm. Good enough an explanation for me. On different ways of cooking tikoy, I've tried it the following ways: - dipped in egg and fried (traditional, but not a favorite) - fried without egg or oil on a teflon pan (love cooking it this way but it's a bit of a hassle because those little strips stick to each other like anything --- but I've found this is the best way to get it as crispy as I like it without that strange eggy taste) - wrapped in lumpia wrapper so it comes out as a "tikoy turon" of sorts; tried this for the first time today and it's pretty interesting but fatty as anything as the wrapper absorbs oil like crazy posted by wys | 6:42 PM 0 comments Tuesday, February 08, 2005 Okay haven't updated in a bit. The past one and a half weeks in blurbs: - I turned 24 without much hullaballoo (as I had planned) - Saw A Very Long Engagement in a KLite movie premiere where half the audience did not know it was a foreign film ("Ba't may subtitles?!?"). - Went diving again over the weekend and saved some fake injured divers as part of my ongoing Rescue Diver Certification course and I'm beginning to realise that I'm pretty much bored to death with diving in Anilao. Will definitely try other spots before the end of 1Q05 - The box of random books and magazines my sister shipped home last December arrived so I have Books 7-9 of the Series of Unfortunate Events and a load of magazines to read - I had dinner in Old Swiss Inn today because I'll be reviewing it for a magazine ... will be doing Hossein's Persian Kebab Place sometime this week (unsure of the exact name) and hopefully will have time to do a few more restos in time for the next issue - I found out I'll be going to Malaysia in July to do some environmental research on turtles for two weeks posted by wys | 1:36 AM 0 comments |
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