Author: elizavictoria

– Saw UP Samaskom’s L.I.V.E AIDS for the first time. The thing with watching a first show (we watched the matinee on Saturday) is you can be sure there will be mistakes. This shouldn’t be the case, but it happens. It’s the first show of a run, people are giddy/nervous/crazy, and the audience is basically a guinea pig. The second show will be tweaked and perhaps will end up better, with no dying microphones, people who forget their cues, etc.

purple stage

 

There were errors. Yeah. The pre-show felt like it was done on the fly, although I did laugh at the Mara/Clara gag: “Anong gagawin ko, Clara?” “E di mag-aral ka, bitch!” In the show itself, some jokes fell flat, and the ending feels rushed, but I still found myself laughing at certain segments (Shalami is HILARIOUS). But it could have been better. It should have been better, damn, it’s Live Aids. They decided to put up a musical, but the music isn’t extraordinary, and the story arc (based on the Wizard of Oz) actually restricted the comedy. We don’t need a story, Samaskom, we just want to laugh.Give me one skit after another, and I’ll be a happy clam.

I heard last year’s show was better, so now I’m having second thoughts. Should I watch again next year?

– Jaykie and I tried Wicked Kitchen. I’ll recommend everything we had: buffalo tenders, chunky cheese sticks, chicken kebab, fish and chips, drunken seafood platter, and this big-ass cookie (Gluttony, cookie with ice cream – to share). They have good food.

– We weren’t able to exercise this weekend because we weren’t feeling well, but next week! I need a month to burn this m*therf*ckin cookie!

faithful place

One winter night in 1985, nineteen-year-old Francis Mackey waits for his girl, Rosie Daly, on top of a hill in Faithful Place. All his life he’s lived in Dublin, crammed with his siblings, his drunk da, and his nagging ma, and he wants out. Frank pictures Rosie hurrying to him with her suitcase of clothes and their ferry tickets to London, where they plan to get married and start anew.

Rosie doesn’t show. Believing he has been dumped, Frank turns on his heel and skips town on his own. For more than 20 years he (as well as the rest of the town) believes Rosie has reached London, living a new life.

Twenty-two years later, someone finds Rosie’s suitcase, and Frank is forced to go home.

I’ve read both In the Woods and The Likeness (where Frank first makes an appearance), and I must say Tana French has the incredible ability to inhabit a character. One moment she’s narrating a story as a young man in the Murder squad, then as  a young woman in Undercover, then as a middle-aged detective about to trip on a secret, and you believe her completely. It’s an immersive read. She has good ear for dialogue (I’ve never been to Ireland, and I can’t do an Irish accent, but while reading this I just know I’m in Ireland and I’m listening to Irish characters), and she makes sure that even the most minor of characters are three-dimensional. I’m glad to see Ms French is still as good as ever, and I cannot wait for her next book.

 

The Mighty Reading List!

Feast for Crows

The Kobayashi Maru of Love

Showbiz Lengua

PGS Horror issue

Floating Dragon

El Bimbo Variations

The Tesseract

Faithful Place

Moxyland

Zoo City

The Dispossessed

Our Story Begins

Glass Soup

Here on Earth

The Pull of the Moon

Little Bee

philippine speculative fiction 6 cover revealed

Editors Kate Osias and Nikki Alfar sent an e-mail apologizing for the delay, but the book should be out soon. I think the cover is amazing. Stay tuned.

health and wellness fair at the office

Findings:

1. Bone Scan by Calciumade – 0.4 bone density, still normal

2. Body Age Testing by Sustagen Premium – Body age is 24.4 years, almost the same as my actual age (I’ll be 25 in seven months); weight should be 116 to 143 pounds, I’m just a pound overweight! That came as a surprise, but of course I’d like to lower my weight by more than just a pound.

3. Massage by Salonpas and White Flower – Three-minute back massage, loved it.

Glad to hear I’m relatively healthy.

I smell like White Flower right now.

good, good, good. good.

1. Book 2 of 3 from The Book Depository has arrived!

I need to read faster.

2. Got my investment papers (ooh so serious, so grown-up) from the bank, and finally figured out that particular bank’s online banking system. Dyusko, enrolling took me ages.

3. We’ll be watching Live AIDS for the first time this week!

4. Weighed myself a while ago.



Weight Chart

That’s a loss of almost six pounds since February! I still have nearly twenty pounds to lose (ugh) but I’ll take it!

I don’t run anymore. What I do now is I go to the (small) (free) gym at the condo at least twice a week and use the stationary bike and do seated rows and lift weights. I eat rice when I feel like it, but no more than once a day. Badminton on Fridays. Saturdays, since Jaykie’s classes are over, we plan to either run or play Frisbee.

I feel better about myself. I mean, I still try to watch what I eat, but at least now I can eat pizza without freaking out.

movies during the weekend

Green Hornet

I never was interested in the Green Hornet. The show or the persona. I saw re-runs when I was a child and I thought it was horribly boring. Even after I learned that Kato was Bruce Lee. Or, especially after I learned that Kato was Bruce Lee. Who is this Green Hornet guy anyway, and how come he gets all the press?

And how come he's in the foreground?

I have to admit though that I only get to see tail-end scenes (Kato driving, the Green Hornet going on and on and on about something or other) of the show. I only put up with Green Hornet because Batman & Robin came after. I used to have this major crush on Robin. Anyway, I thought, if I’m going to sit on my ass watching a masked vigilante fight criminals I’ll just watch Batman. At least he doesn’t make Robin drive.

When I first heard that Seth Rogen is going to be the Green Hornet I…didn’t get it. Seth Rogen? How could this possibly work? At the moment I was thinking the producers were going to do it dark and moody, like what Nolan did with the Batman franchise, but lo! they just wanted a summer flick. In that case, it works. (It just went a little crazy with the car chases.) I appreciated the fact that they didn’t turn Cameron Diaz’s character into a bimbo. Not enough Christoph Waltz though. I’d like to hear more from a villain who’s going through a mid-life crisis.

Basically, the reboot serves as a vehicle for Kato, poor Kato, to say what the TV series couldn’t say: that the Green Hornet is a bit of a jerk, and Kato doesn’t get enough credit. Good for you, Kato.

127 Hours

Do you know this show? “I Survived”, every Sunday morning on the Bio channel? Jaykie and I used to watch that every week, and I’ve just had it up to here with people getting stuck someplace and  drinking their own urine and chopping off their own limbs. That doesn’t make it any less horrifying, or their survival any less awe-inspiring (frankly, if I were in their position, I wouldn’t have lasted half a day, I’d probably just lose my mind and wear pigtails and fight zombie Nazis with a sword – wait that’s another movie); it’s just that, why would I want to sit for two hours in the cinema waiting for a man to cut off his own arm?

I don’t even like James Franco’s character. I know this is based on a true story, and I don’t know the guy  personally, but to quote one of the girls, “He’s batshit”.

And he does go batshit, waking up one morning hungry and dehydrated and sorry, make-believing that he is the host, guest and caller in a live television show. That is the strongest scene in this film. It made him real for me, it made him human; that’s what made the film worth my time.

Inside Job

This documentary, which studies the financial crash of 2008, won at the Academy Awards. Watch it. It presents what happened in a clear, understandable manner. Watch the financial assholes squirm (or lash out in anger – “This is not a deposition, sir!”) during the interviews.