Month: August 2010

pretty little liars

I have some complaints.

– It has that Mean Girls flavor, except that it takes itself way too seriously.

– The Aria/Ezra sub-plot bores the hell out of me.

– There are way too many stupid characters in here.

– Suspension of disbelief. Aargh. It’s tiring. So sometimes I just shut my brain.

– The series should be darker, meaner. Why hold back? It’s a high school drama murder mystery. Go crazy. Go all the way.

It’s frustrating because it could have been more than another ol’ TV show with beautiful people. It has that potential of being cerebral. It can go Tim Burtonesque, what with that excellent opening song (“Got a secret/Can you keep it?/Swear this one you’ll save/Better lock it, in your pocket/Taking this one to the grave”). Ah, well. Why wish for more? I like the set design and the clothes and the music. It’s mostly entertaining. So maybe I’ll still watch it.

meeting jessica zafra’s optometrist, and other adventures

Friday

I read Jessica Zafra’s blog because I remember loving the Twisted series, and the lady makes me laugh. One day she blogged about her optometrist, Nella Sarabia, who has a shop inside the Shopping Center in UP Diliman. I never needed glasses before, so I didn’t even know there were optical shops inside SC (Ha!). There were comments on Zafra’s post, all of them positive, and my astigmatic right eye is killing me,  and anyway we’d be in the UP area during the weekend because Jaykie is craving for Creme Brulee at Antas-bucks, so I decided to give it a shot.

Here’s my own picture of Ms Sarabia’s shop. Note the vintage cameras.

She’s nice and smart. I like her. What I don’t like is the fact that my eye condition has worsened. From 20/20 and 20/25 last year (hence, the anti-glare glasses to protect my eyes from the evil computer screen) my eyes are now 20/50 and 20/25  (plus another 25 grade for my astigmatism). So that means I have to wear glasses all the time, not just when I’m in front of the computer.

While choosing for a suitable frame for the lenses, Ms Sarabia invited Jaykie to sit beside me. “Are you the boyfriend? Hello.” Then she asked if Jaykie is also a Journalism student.

“No. I’m taking up Math.”

“Grad school,” I said.

“Math?” said Ms Sarabia. “Math?!?” (Pause) “Very good.”

Haha!

Ms Sarabia’s frames were on 30 percent sale, as it turned out, so all in all, I only paid a thousand pesos. The downside: I can’t claim it on the same day, like in the malls where you only have to wait for an hour. But that’s okay. I should have it before this week ends. My frame is a lovely shade of purple.

It’s caterpillar (higad) season in UP. I hate! Argh.

Saturday

Up early for the GA meeting at the office, the first GA meeting that I’ve ever attended that went smoothly. Post-CBA happiness haha! Met up with Jaykie in the afternoon, and watched too much Family Guy and World Poker Tour and got drunk on cheap brandy. That night we watched Episode 2 of Through the Wormhole, called “The Riddle of Black Holes“. Excellent mind-blowing stuff. This is a good show. It’s making me seriously want to take up Physics credits (or Astronomy classes, if there are any offered locally lol).

But then – the math. Shiver.

Sunday

I’m on leave! Ha! Met up with the siblings at the mall, had lunch at Pizza Hut, coffee and sandwiches at UCC, and shopped till we dropped. (I almost did. That was some workout.)

My brother had his eyes checked at the mall. The verdict: 20/175 and 20/50. It was so bad even the ‘E’ on the eye chart was blurred, he said. Wah.

So he got glasses.

I’m wearing my anti-glare glasses here.

They all got home safe and sound. I arrived at the unit, did my laundry, had a shower, and read a book until I fell asleep.

fantasy magazine review (july)

This review would have appeared in Pinoy Pop over at POC, but it wasn’t uploaded before the deadline. So I’m posting this here.

* * *

Readers are in for a treat with these four excellent stories from the July issue of Fantasy Magazine. Helmed by Cat Rambo and Sean Wallace, Fantasy Magazine is an online weekly featuring original fiction in the field of fantasy – “[h]igh fantasy, contemporary and urban tales, surrealism, magical realism, science fantasy, and folktales”. The magazine also publishes non-fiction articles – interviews, commentary, personal essays, and reviews – about the genre.

I’ve always admired the stories published in Fantasy for their depth and language. Let’s take a look at the magazine’s tales for the month of July.

Continue reading fantasy magazine review (july)

clarkesworld issue # 46 and heroic fantasy quarterly issue 5: reviews

clarkesworld

Clarkesworld is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in October 2006. The magazine, helmed by publisher Neil Clarke and editor Sean Wallace, releases an issue every month containing at least two pieces of original fiction, as well as non-fiction and podcasts. The magazine’s contents are available online for free, but its fiction offerings can also be found in print – collected by issue in signed chapbooks (limited to a minimum of 100 copies at a price of USD14 each) and annually in the magazine’s print anthology, Realms. Both print outputs are published by Wyrm Publishing.

Here is a review of Clarkesworld’s July issue (Issue # 46).

Read more here.

heroic_fantasy_quarterly

“Prose. Poetry. Pulp,” reads the tagline of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and that is exactly what we find in this online magazine committed to publishing the best in heroic fantasy. Swordsmen, adventures, fantastic landscapes – HFQ is filled with stories of action, with a hope to “hearken back to an older age of storytelling –an age when a story well told enthralled audiences.” Adrian Simmons, David Farney, and William Ledbetter sit as editors. HFQ releases new issues on the first of July, October, January, and April.

HFQ’s Issue 5 marks the first-year anniversary of this publication.

Let the battles begin.

Read more here.

the lovely bones

I feel bad for Peter Jackson. His film was generally panned by critics after its release, but I’m sure beneath the overwrought CGI effects, the slightly annoying narration, and the errors in characterization lies a beautiful film. If only it were edited more thoroughly, or if it were written better. I read the book years ago and I don’t remember ever cringing when Susie Salmon begins yearning for a kiss from her crush in the afterlife. Really: you get brutally raped and murdered at the age of 14, and you can only think of a kiss? Really. Maybe Alice Sebold’s engaged writing just made this fervent wish believable, and human. In the film, Susie just appears stupid and shallow.

I wouldn’t say this was a bad film. I did finish it, all two hours of it, and there were scenes that I genuinely loved. I loved the cinematography. The musical score. And there’s good acting all around. The pace felt slow at first, even lazy, but I got the hang of it easily enough.(I just really hated that part where Ray and Susie talk by the lockers, and almost kiss – that was too fast, Mr. Jackson. Remember build-up? It’s a good thing. And between Susie and Ray, I didn’t feel the chemistry at all.)

The fact is: no matter how many the errors, this film will still be heartbreaking due to its subject matter.

But yes, this could have been a much, much better film.

one for pedestal magazine

I am happy and proud to share that Arlene Ang, Pedestal Magazine‘s poetry editor, sent me an e-mail saying that the magazine would like to use my poem, “Maps”, in an upcoming issue. This news made me so happy because I’m a fan of both Ms Ang and Pedestal Magazine. Watch this space. :)

(Also: I realize that I don’t have a “writerly” picture. You know, chair, or window, or desk, black and white, shadows, somber expression on the face, as though I carry the world on my shoulders. I’ll probably end up sending them a photo where I’m smiling so wide they can see all my teeth, haha.)

pinoydon, etc

Friday was Jaykie’s grown-up duties day – pick up his paycheck, deposit his savings, pick up his credit card, etc. But before all that we had lunch at Pinoydon at The Podium. It’s a Filipino-Japanese fusion place. I can’t remember the exact name of the dishes we ordered, but I know I had chicken and Jake had beef.

We also ordered some aligue (crab fat) maki. We originally wanted the tuna maki crunch with aligue, but it wasn’t available.

Really yummy. Pinoydon also has interesting desserts.

We had the Banana-Q Split.

Ice cream, whipped cream, pinipig, bananacue. Win!

On Saturday we ordered Pizza Hut’s Chili Beef Hotdog. I haven’t had this pizza before, but after having it for dinner (and today’s breakfast) it’s fast becoming my favorite. While stuffing our faces we watched 30 Rock (“They edited Will and Grace so much it’s now just called Karen.”), Better Off Ted, The Daily Show, and the first episode of this awesome new Morgan Freeman-narrated show, Through the Wormhole.

Episode 1 explores the question, “Is there a creator?” Included in the show are the mathematics of the universe explained via intersecting circles (or the E8 Lie Group) by a surfer bum mathematician (a possible step closer toward the Theory of Everything that Einstein failed to finish), an experiment that tries to prove that God “is in the brain” (activating the right temporal lobe makes a subject feel a presence – a young lady described it as “five faceless entities” who are “awesome” and made her feel safe), and a thought experiment involving a human brain and a laptop placed inside a container (you’ll get it once you see the episode). I liked the God-in-the-brain segment. Says the scientist, if the subject of the experiment felt this comforting presence outside of the experiment area, how do we think will she interpret the experience? Most saints and religious activists (like Martin Luther) felt a sensation of being hit by lightning or some similar burst of power, and read this experience as God, and changed history with their actions (Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church and founded Protestantism).

I’m pretty sure I would have understood more if I knew more about quantum mechanics and high-level math, but I found it enjoyable. And hello? It’s narrated by Morgan Freeman? Bet the guy can read my grocery list and make it sound…insightful.

Later that day we had drinks with Jaykie’s sisters and their friend Jai. That’s a good end for my week.