Month: February 2012

New on bleepthisblank!

Jaykie talks about Jeremy Lin.

…getting assigned to defend Lin pales in comparison to getting assigned to write about him, because there’s very little one can say about him that hasn’t already been said.

You know all about that, right? Odds are you’ve followed the Linsanity, the SNL skit, the missteps regarding race, et cetera. Otherwise you would have likely bolted as soon as statistics came up. So, since you’re still here, bear in mind that I won’t be writing about any of that stuff (nor will I be engaging in Lin puns, of which there are several). Rather, I’ll be taking a look at Jeremy Lin’s rise to success from a fan’s perspective.

And our regular Online Finds.

In defense of Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey received a lot of flak after her “disastrous” Saturday Night Live performance, but hell, bad publicity is still publicity. I have not heard of Lana Del Rey before news spread about what happened over at SNL, but it got me curious. I watched her SNL performances on YouTube and checked out her other live performances as well. I didn’t think the performances were as horrible as other people have described online, but when I finally got the chance to listen to her album, I saw what the critics meant. You can’t help but compare. Compared to her recorded songs, she sings at a lower register and drops notes she should be sustaining when she performs live. She also appears to be very nervous.

Read more on bleepthisblank (“Ear Candy”).

And check out: Online Finds.

better living through xeroxography 2

The Blinds issue of PANTAS, which features my poems “Notes” and “Architecture”, will be on sale at BLTX2 this Friday.

Better Living Through Xeroxography or BLTX is a small-press expo now on its second incarnation, the first one a success by indie standards: 30 small press publishers and 200 buyers on a rainy December day in 2010.

The goal of BLTX is simple. Bring together independent self-publishers from Metro Manila (hopefully from elsewhere, too), in a one-night event that will allow them to sell their wares: books, yes, but also zines and other printed materials like shirts, postcards, posters. It’s about selling, but also about meeting like-minded individuals who believe in literature and creative work that might not ever get into the mainstream of commercial bookstores and galleries, but for one night is the star of the show.

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go, but if you’re in the area, do drop by okay?

Click here for details.

Sources: curiouscouch, speaking in hushed tones

bleepthisblank

So J and I are responsible for this:

http://bleepthisblank.wordpress.com

About the Site

bleepthisblank contains reviews of anything that catches the authors’ fancies. Consider this a space for recommendations: watch this show, try this restaurant, read this book, play this game. Bleep this blank.

About the Authors

Eliza graduated from UP Diliman in 2007 and now works in Makati. She has won two Palanca Awards, and her fiction and poetry have appeared in various publications here and abroad. She loves the Oxford comma, is ambivalent toward the semicolon, and hates the ellipsis.

…

Hates it.

Jaykie is taking up a masters degree in Applied Mathematics (Major in Actuarial Science) in UP Diliman. If you are in need of an actuary, you’ll know who to contact. He enjoys gaming, be it tabletop, online, board, or card (esp. Magic). If you are in need of an actuary and a dungeon master, you’ll know who to contact. Could make for a very interesting game.

They met sometime in 2009. Together they enjoy watching films and TV series, drinking on weekends, and playing a round or two of the Game of Thrones boardgame.

Contact

bleep.blank[at]yahoo[dot]com

For our first post:

With Peter Berg confirming that a Friday Night Lights film is in the works, we think it’s high time that we revisit this series.

We just finished watching all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, which certainly deserved all the praise it got in its five-year run. It is set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, and concerns the struggles and victories of its football team, its football coach, Eric Taylor, his family, and the close-knit circle of the football players. It is heartwarming, engaging and sincere, and we’d recommend it to anyone, football fan or not.

Personally it got me interested in watching football, though don’t ask me to explain the rules to you. I’m actually planning to watch the Super Bowl for the game, and not just the halftime show.

Anyway. FNL makes for excellent television, but it’s not flawless. It has plot holes large enough for Smash Williams to charge through, and the show has the tendency of dropping character arcs and characters just like that.

If you haven’t seen the entire series, stop. SPOILERS!

Read more.

(Visit us from time to time. Okay?)

food, love, food love

Twenty-eight months with this boy. And this cheesy post is brought to you by my food photo backlog.

Diet not allowed.

Kanin Club

Be kind to yourself and have some turon a la mode from Kanin Club. It’s basically halo-halo, only wrapped and crispy. Bananas, macapuno, mongo beans, purple yam jam – yum.

Sentro 1771

Order their sago’t gulaman. It has got to be the best I’ve ever tasted. You’ll get refills, and you won’t regret it.

Burgoo

We like the fact that we can draw on the table.

Cream dory milanese, seafood jambalaya, supreme sampler.

That’s it for now.

monday the 13th

We decided to have our Valentine’s Day dinner on the 13th to avoid the crowd that would probably go love-berserk on the 14th.

So! I enjoyed the night despite the fact that it started with me walking against a strong wind with rainwater inside my shoes. I never knew how annoying it was to look for a bus through several dozen people blocking the bus placards with their umbrellas.

Almon Marina at Mall of Asia.

Hey there.

We love this soup! Bacon, corn, and potato. Perfect for the weather.

I had their Chicken Sausage Crunch. A sandwich with apple slices (and inexplicable little flags).

J had the California Roast Turkey.

We loved the food! Healthy and light and relatively inexpensive.

Swensen’s after, but I was so ice cream-deprived I forgot to take a picture and just pounced on it.

When we were at Vikings, I got fixated on their fruits and cheese plate, so we bought wine, prunes, dates and our favorite cheese. Drank while watching Friday Night Lights.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.