Year: 2011

weekend movies

I should make my weekends more productive (especially writing-wise) but hey, movies!

Hello Stranger

Two Thai nationals meet during a trip in South Korea. One is a big fan of Korean teledramas, while the other does not see the appeal of watching cliched plots and crying as if “someone back home just died”. An unfortunate event involving alcohol and a missed tourist bus ride brings them together, and they are forced to tour Seoul while refusing to know each other’s names. Funny and touching. Mocks and embraces Korean culture. Just a bit too long for my romantic attention span.

Horrible Bosses

I enjoyed this film, okay, simply because I love all the actors involved in the project, but I don’t think it’s dark comedy. It’s not dark enough. It’s just silly. Nothing is  of great consequence. They even ended with a blooper reel.

Next

A small-time magician has the power to look into the future – but only two minutes ahead. My siblings really liked this, and I heard it’s based on a Philip K. Dick short story, but I watched it waiting for the awesomeness to begin but I was just bored.

Pulse (remake)

I saw the Japanese version years ago, and I don’t remember it being this simple and straightforward. I remember the Japanese version giving me a headache. A good one. Dread from disorientation. The remake’s entertaining enough, but it doesn’t stay with you.

Friends with Benefits

Surprisingly delightful with lots of bright moments, but still copied the rom-com tropes it was trying to subvert.

flood update

Merchandise is everywhere and the house is a bit of a mess (it smells really good, considering), but boy am I glad to be home.

This is the master bedroom. We have a storeroom downstairs, and the products that were salvaged from the flood were moved here for the meantime.

First floor. At its highest, the flood reached the fifth step. Notice the ruined table and the ruined door.


Our cat and two dogs were alive but our pet chicken unfortunately drowned. :(

If I were my parents, I’d had saved the chicken first, had some eggs along with the cans of sardines. Or fried chicken, when it came to that.

I’m kidding! I’ll miss that chicken.

friday madness

But a happy kind of madness!

Via snail mail:

Thank you thank you thank you Rose and Shweta! (I think I owe you a poem.)

Via e-mail:

Eliza,

We would like to publish your story, “Fairy Tales”, in Daily Science Fiction.  We’ll email a contract to you shortly for your approval. A sample email, including any edits to your story that may be necessary, will come later.  The edits will be sent with enough time for your feedback, so we may resolve any issues and present the best possible story to our audience.

– Jonathan & Michele, Daily Science Fiction

PS If for any reason, you no longer wish to publish this story with us (e.g, forgotten prior publication, actually authored by a Unicorn, etc.), now would be a very good time to let us know!

No unicorns were involved in the making of this story!

On top of all the happy news, I’ll finally be able to go home to Bulacan and see my parents. Wish me a safe trip. (Some roads are still flooded, I’m told.)

Happy Friday, everyone!

metro serye launch

I’ve been keeping this a secret for a while now. Remember: October 28, 6 pm, Sputnik Comics, Cubao. Hope you can attend with your friends and family. (Actually, I hope I’ll be able to attend. It’s a Friday night, and there’s work. I’ll do my best.)

Please spread the word!

twenty-four

We were in Tagaytay on our first year together. To celebrate our second year (exact date is tomorrow, a Monday) we just stayed in the metro and enjoyed a buffet lunch at Beurre Blanc.

(Photo credit: tipidobo)

Price is P650 per head, exclusive of service charge. We got a 10 percent discount because we got seated before 12 noon. (You’ll get a 5 percent discount if you use a credit card instead of paying in cash.)

They have a small selection, but we enjoyed the dishes a lot. Our favorites: beef shortribs, salmon carpaccio, baked oyster, top blade fillet, tomato mozzarella salad, ravioli, and banoffee (really really good). And I loved their sauces: barbecue, mushroom gravy, pepper cognac!

Another great lunch with this silly boy:

I want more of this banoffee!

This lunch was made possible by a couple of kind people living oceans away. Thank you. :)

*

A kiss for more happy years.

alternative alamat toc revealed

Exciting news from Paolo Chikiamco of Rocket Kapre!

It gives me great pleasure to finally be able to announce the table of contents of our first commercial anthology “Alternative Alamat: Stories Inspired by Philippine Mythology”. It’s been a long road, but I’ve enjoyed every step of the way. The book will be digital-only for now, and will be published in cooperation with Flipside Digital before the end of the year. I’ll be releasing more information about the anthology in the coming weeks.

“Ana’s Little Pawnshop on Makiling St.” by Eliza Victoria

“Harinuo’s Love Song” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

“The Last Full Show” by Budjette Tan

“The Alipin’s Tale” by Raymond G. Falgui

“Keeper of My Sky” by Timothy James Dimacali

“Conquering Makiling” by Mo Francisco

“The Sorceress Queen” by Raissa Rivera Falgui

“Beneath The Acacia” by Celestine Trinidad

“Offerings to Aman Sinaya” by Andrei Tupaz

“Balat, Buwan, Ngalan” by David Hontiveros

“A Door Opens:  The Beginning of the Fall of the Ispancialo-in-Hinirang” by Dean Alfar

Appendix A: A Few Notable Philippine Deities

Appendix B: Interview with Professor Herminia Meñez Coben

Appendix C: Interview with Professor Fernando N. Zialcita

Appendix D: On Researching Philippine Mythology

Cover and interior artwork by Mervin Malonzo

Stay tuned.

preacher

Jesse Custer, a preacher from a small town in Texas, is possessed by a powerful supernatural being named “Genesis”. The force of the possession hits his church like a nuclear bomb, and the members of his congregation are reduced to bones. Jesse, however, leaves the site unscathed, and with the new ability to command anyone with only his words. Witnesses call this the “Word of God”.

Jesse later learns that Genesis is the offspring of an angel and a demon, a creation of Heaven and Hell, and on its birth God left His throne and quit. Genesis is a being of pure power, perhaps even as powerful as God Himself, and Jesse wants to know what it wants, what it knows, and why God seems frightened of it.

This series is a perverted, hyperviolent mindfuck, and I loved it. There’s a point when I got tired of Jesse’s hard-on for Texas and his long speeches about the great American nation, and I was bored by the Salvation story arc, but I read every page. I love how Ennis and Co. just went for it. No fear, no holding back. With such big concepts and such a complicated set-up, I was worried the series would end on a disappointing note, but you know what? It ended the way it should have ended. It ended right.

I think its brilliant.