the end

I may have picked up "Broken World" from something I read in college, maybe something that wasn't even mandatory reading and something that didn't give me the A++'s I desperately, desperately wanted to get (Hahahahaha!). Pretty much like everything I learned in college, I do not remember what the phrase meant but at that time it appealed so much to me, and, when I started this blog, it seemed to be a fitting and convenient title for a collection of entries that has no organization whatsoever and is haphazardly written.

Ok, I'm done with this blog.

it's a matter of extreme importance

This morning I made it a point to wake up extra early to see whether Federer managed to clinch his 13th Grand Slam title. He did, and how happy did it make me. Of course, I'd be happier if it was Nadal he beat but maybe in future encounters he can try his luck. Congratulations, Roger! The year has been less than stellar for you but it didn't diminish my love for you. Please don't stop at 13, ok? ;)

Noah can build his ark but he will never disembark

I can’t think of any other artist today who can make music like Aimee Mann. Everyone in my tiny circle (basically composed of one person) would attest to how much I love her and her work, and the fact that not a lot of people around me brings her up really puzzles me and, at the same time, keeps me wreathed in smiles. For me, she crafts the most memorable songs, lyrics- and melody-wise, and she possesses the perfect imperfect voice that no one can imitate. And if someone asks me now to rank her 7 albums according to their significance to my life, I will say it’s a tie between Whatever, I’m With Stupid, Lost in Space, Bachelor No. 2, The Forgotten Arm, One More Drifter in the Snow and @#%&*! Smilers for the top spot.

Speaking of @#%&*! Smilers, the title rationale from my idol’s official website: “The title Smilers gets its name from a phrase Mann has long used to humorously lampoon the unrelentingly happy, shiny, smiley-faced pop culture that surrounds us all today. ‘I read an article that said that across all cultures, the single thing that people respond to most is a smiling cartoon face," says Mann. 'A friend of mine and I used to laugh at how there's always somebody in an office or on the street who smiles all the time and is the first one to say, 'hey, smile!' I get that all the time from people who say 'why can't you be more smiley?’ So we jokingly nicknamed them @#%&! Smilers. You can provide your own curse word there. I think everybody knows someone like that.’" By the way, the HMV branch I went to labels the album as “Smiles” under “Aimee Mann”.



31 Today
Aimee Mann

31 today
What a thing to say
Drinking Guinness in the afternoon
Taking shelter in the black cocoon

I thought my life would be different somehow
I thought my life would be better by now
But it's not and
I don't know where to turn

Called some guy I knew
Had a drink or two
And we fumbled as the day grew dark
I pretended that I felt a spark

Easter comes and goes
Maybe Jesus knows
So you roll on with the best you can
Getting loaded, watching CNN

pure craftsmanship

With nothing interesting to do on a lazy Saturday morning, I went to the museum to catch Komaneko the Curious Cat, one of the features in Cinematheque’s Animation Nation programme this year. Komaneko is a series of stop-motion animated sketches about a cat aspiring to become a stop-motion animator. She drafts storyboards, creates her cast of stuffed animals, illustrates backdrops and painstakingly captures every frame of her movie using her 8mm camera. When not busy filmmaking, she goes out with her dolls for picnic, eating donuts and drinking coffee.

After seeing all the sketches, there’s nothing else to say but “Kawaii desu!” Really, leave it to the Japanese to come up with a visual feast such as this. The detailed sets and accoutrements, the lovable characters, even the musical accompaniment, showcase nothing less than exquisite craftsmanship. I’m so glad most of the Komaneko episodes are on YouTube so I can view them in awe again and again and again and again.

Komaneko the Curious Cat is directed by Tsuneo Goda, the same guy who created Domo-kun, NHK’s strangely adorable station identity mascot.

radio, live transmission...

This afternoon I went to a screening of Anton Corbijn’s black-and-white Ian Curtis biopic Control at The Substation. I loved the movie so much that I’m thinking about watching it again tomorrow.

Conditions inside the theater seemed to turn a lot of people off but I honestly thought the place had the right ambience to complement the movie. The screening room was packed, the wooden seats were tiny, and there was no sufficient legroom for the cute Caucasians. The place was stuffy as the air-conditioning system broke down during the earlier show. Less than 30 minutes into the movie I could already smell the sweaty guys surrounding me, which actually made me miss slam-dancing in the middle of a mosh pit (something I was glad to experience during my high school years without my folks’ permission).

Excellent, excellent performance by a very intense Sam Riley (the song numbers and epileptic fits really sent chills down my spine) and the immensely talented Samantha Morton, as expected, does not disappoint as Debbie Curtis. I was grinning like the Cheshire cat during their flirtation scenes with Bryan Ferry singing “Here’s looking at you kid…” in the background. And then, of course, the “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Atmosphere” montages just broke my heart.

Sigh. Does anybody else out there love the band?

(I’m generally against Joy Division covers and I’m indifferent towards The Killers but apparently Corbijn said in an interview that he used their version of “Shadowplay” for the closing credits because he wanted to end the film on a positive note. Then I thought to myself, "After the countless seizures, the tumultuous relationships and the tragic suicide?" :-))

hey, what's come down over me?

I can't stop thinking about Moscow Olympics ever since my ex-colleague Lolo Reggie mentioned them last weekend after we gorged on gigantic pizzas as celebration for the end of the hell season at work. All he needed to say were the key concepts "Filipino band", "parang 80s" and "Swedish record label" and I was intrigued. I wasted no time googling them and wound up in the band's MySpace site. After listening to 2 tracks I became a fan. ;)

Now, while waiting for the band's album release, let me share with you what I think is one of the best duets in the history of music (it's right up there with Billie Holiday and Satchmo's "My Sweet Hunk O' Trash"), from one of my favorite albums of all time. Even though I have been listening to them for years I still wish I had known about them earlier (mas winner kung in grade school).

grand moff tarkin

This is Grand Moff Tarkin, the evil cat who is always prowling around the block next to mine. I usually see him/her when I'm walking home at night, or during lazy weekend afternoons when I go to the convenience store to buy junk food. He/she can be so sweet and cuddly and playful, but only when he/she knows I'm carrying food (especially if it's Meiji Milk Chocolate or those fat fries from MOS Burger). And each time he/she acts indifferent towards me--like he/she did a while ago--or he/she plays with other guys in the neighborhood, I become so upset that I pray to the gods that he/she be caught by the local cat-culling maniacs.

Chingky desu! Who am I kidding anyway? I know I can't stay mad at him/her.

sometimes I feel like I'm in the Milky Way

I was on my way to Cathay Cineleisure to meet with someone and catch the 9:30pm screening of The Orphanage when I bumped into one of my high school friend’s ex-girlfriends. I had just crossed the street when I noticed a pretty girl with short hair walking towards me. Since I wasn’t wearing my shoddy pair of glasses I sort of stood there frozen, squinting my eyes, trying to figure out who this girl was and why was she calling my name.

“I know you!” I said, “But somehow I don’t recall your name. It’s really embarrassing. Wait, don’t reveal your name just yet.” I taxed my memory for a good number of seconds while mumbling random associations. The longer it took me to remember her name, the more awkward it felt—she was just there grinning while I stuttered like an ass. It was really frustrating because I did recognize her, I knew I hung out with her in more than one occasion and I remembered liking her a lot.

“Yes! Now I know! You’re the one who lives in Las Piñas! (Pause) You used to live in Las Piñas, right?”

“No, I’m not from Las Piñas.”

“Oh.” Then I remembered that it was Wacks, my high school friend and her ex-boyfriend, who lived in Las Piñas. Eventually I got her name. Specifically, milliseconds after she mentioned it.

“This is amazing! I just learned from Wacks that you’re working here. He said he’ll try to look for your number so I can contact you.”

“If you want, we can exchange numbers now. Do you want to exchange numbers now?” I couldn’t get over the fact that I missed her name.

After I gave her an overview of what I have been doing for the past 1¼ years in this country, she told me she’d just moved here recently. She’s now living with her two sisters in a flat near Mount Elizabeth Hospital and has been trying to secure a job here, preferably in the Human Resources field. Due to time constraints, however, we weren’t able to talk about those personal milestones (?) we have established since we last saw each other a decade ago.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “We’ve got plenty of time.”