Brothers Gabriel Fá and Fábio Moon have received numerous praises for this ten-part masterpiece. I don’t have to be forced to add my own. The series dissects the life story of aspiring novelist and obituary writer Brás de Oliva Domingos, each chapter looking into an important day in different years of his life. He is 34, he is 11, he is 21, he is 76. Every chapter (except, quite fittingly, the last one; in my opinion, the series could have done away with the ninth issue and still be cohesive, but that’s a personal opinion) ends the same way. I was stunned by the first issue, and confused by the second, but by the third chapter I understood what the creators were doing and was impressed by their genius.
How else can the writers make us treasure a chronicled life, if not by dangling the constant specter of death? Suddenly, with this knowledge, our senses become knife-sharp, and we notice Brás’s shallowness and stupidities and mistakes, his irrelevant fears and useless obsessions.
We, like Brás, who do not know how or when our chapters will end, wake up each morning and believe we will live forever.
I love this weekend. Busy and fun and eventful and full of food.
Thursday night/Friday. Watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones and became very worried the series (if you haven’t read the book, do not highlight – spoiler!)would end up not killing Ned until Season 2 (if at all) just because he’s Sean fucking Bean. It is starting to look that way and – Bleh. I hope I am wrong.
Jaykie made a glass of iced milk with honey. Yum! Here’s the recipe from the Game of Thrones-inspired The Inn at the Crossroads.
Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons honey, more to taste
pinch of saffron and/or cinnamon (optional)
Pour milk into a saucepan and warm on low heat. Do not scald the milk! When steam begins to rise from the surface of the milk, add the honey to the pot and stir until combined. Place sweetened milk in fridge to cool off.
In a glass, place either cubes or small chunks of ice (crushed ice will dissolve too quickly). Pour the sweetened milk over the ice, sprinkle with spices, and serve.
We woke up early the next day for Jaykie’s enlistment at UP. I waited with him, reading Zoo City, thinking I’d be able to finish the book before he could pay. But he was done before lunch. Lunch at ROC. I wanted to drop by the UP Press Bookstore at Balay Kalinaw, and found out that it was no longer at Balay Kalinaw. Effort na pumunta sa UP Press so tambay lang nang onti, then off to Makati to try Bonchon.
Bonchon at Ayala Triangle Gardens.
We were there at around 4 p.m. I think? And were already hungry enough to eat rice again haha! (We did a lot of walking.)
I’ve heard/read horror stories about this particular Bonchon branch, but since it was merienda time, there were fewer people, service was fast, and the servers were polite.
chops with rice and iced tea, plus a side of kimchi coleslaw
It was good! Chicken was crispy and spicy-sweet, and the warm meal went very well with the cold kimchi coleslaw.
I treated Jaykie to gelato from Caramia. Try the pistachio.
pistachio and new york cheesecake
We went back home, finished the book, and watched the second season of Damages.
Saturday
We left late afternoon, had dinner, then explored the bookstores for books! I got three.
Elmer (NBS, P250), Ang Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan (Bibliarch, P150), Pacific Rims (NBS, P399)
Jaykie got a Steven Erikson book. (Pictured below.)
Not so much a bookswap as a how’s-Kat-doing-these-days meeting, haha! Which of course led to other quality kwento. First loves, coming out of the closet (not applicable to me, maniwala kayo!), mediums, ghost stories, the afterlife. And oh, books. Of course.
With bookswap newbie, Ice! (Who apparently speed-read a Lionel Shriver book while the girls and I were talking – kaloka!)
Another little girl wanders into the Book Nook ™!
We stayed till 1 a.m. Till next time, girls!
*
I just arranged my books this morning. I have serious book space issues now, it’s not even funny.
In Lauren Beukes’s alternate world, a person gets paired with an animal (mashavi) after he or she commits murder, and is also endowed with a corresponding magical ability. While the animals, or familiars, represent a person’s soul in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, in the brilliantly imagined Zoo City, the animals (according to one theory) are the external manifestations of a person’s guilt or sin – a bright scarlet letter that breathes and feeds and lives. Imagine being an “animalled” in this world. You will find it hard to look for a job or a decent place to live. You cannot deny your crime. One look at you, and people will know that you have blood on your hands.
Zinzi December has a Sloth. Her magical ability is finding lost things. Her crime is killing her brother. She runs a 419 scam. You know those scams involving Nigerian princes? She writes those letters. One day, she is offered a considerable sum to find a missing person.
The novel has so many unique ideas but doesn’t turn the story into a massive info dump. That’s the beauty of it. It paints the world of Zoo City one stroke at a time, and talks about important things like war and poverty and faith without preaching. And its a damn good mystery, too. A genuine page-turner.
Elmer
Another page-turner, with a premise that I would have laughed at if it were developed by a less talented mind.
One day, in the late 70s, all of the chickens of the world Awaken. The chickens in jampacked coops, the chickens on their way to slaughter – all of them wake up and become conscious, become aware of who they are and what the humans have done to them. Some of them fight back. Some, like Elmer, are rescued by a sympathetic human and goes into hiding. The story is told through Elmer’s diary, handed over to his son Jake after his death.
You know what Elmer reminded me of? Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
The novel relates the plight of a widowed field mouse, Mrs. Frisby, who seeks the aid of a group of former laboratory rats in rescuing her home from destruction by a farmer’s plow, and of the history of the rats’ escape from the laboratory and development of a literate and technological society.
Oh my God. Wished I still had a copy. Loved that novel to bits.
And loved this comic, too. There are flaws (here’s Adam David’s excellent review; beware – spoilers) but as an inquiry into civil rights and what it means to be human, its power cannot be denied. Gerry Alanguilan’s chicken story is worthy of praise.
Jake and I were celebrating our sixth month together (half-year, w00t) on the 17th, so of course we went to the Summer Komikon.
Of course.
The Komikon is primarily a celebration of Pinoy komiks. Also, some stalls sell jewelry:
This year’s was held at the Bahay ng Alumni in UP. Entrance fee is P50. There’ll be another one in November. :)
While walking around, I said at one point, “Ooh, cosplayers.” And Jake laughed and said, “First time you saw one up close?”
As a matter of fact, yes. LOL.
I don’t think this is Pinoy komiks though:
Anyway, I only had enough money to buy a copy of Manix Abrera’s 12 (Jake and I were going to have dinner later). The lady at the Visprint stall said I should come back in a little bit and have Manix sign my copy. So I did:
12 is a collection of twelve wordless stories in comic book form. Since all you have are images, this is a book you can read in one sitting, and the kind you can share to a wider audience. The collection, like most short story collections, does not stick to a single genre, mood, or emotion (funny, sad, existential, horrifying, just plain weird); this makes the stories unpredictable. One of the stories here won the grand prize (but was disqualified for getting published before the results were announced) in the recently concluded 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, sponsored by Neil Gaiman. It’s one of the most heartbreaking stories I’ve ever read, and there aren’t even any words. Brilliant.
/end review
There’s also a comic cover re-creation contest. Remember these?
Dinner at Jack’s Loft in T. Morato. We really just wanted to try their famous iced tea.
I like it! And I love their dessert selection. They call this I Declair. Killer.
If you haven’t read Hellblazer before, and you don’t have the time and resources to read the entire series, this is the best volume you can get.
From the DC website:
RARE CUTS is a treat for longtime readers and newcomers alike, assembling six issues of JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER that have never before been collected. Created by some of the most popular and critically acclaimed writers and artists in comics, the issues featured include: #11, which relates the horrifying events of Newcastle, 1978, that ended with an innocent girl’s soul condemned to Hell and Constantine confined to an asylum; #25-26, in which new weapons testing goes awry and looses terrible psychic impulses upon a dying northern town; #35, which tells a tale of Constantine’s roughand – tumble childhood and the beginnings of his unique skills; #56, an object lesson in the perils of narcissism and doing deals with demons; and #84, which reveals the origin of Constantine’s friendship with his best mate Chas.
I’m confused though: DC also said that Rare Cuts was created to “help celebrate the release of the Warner Bros. Pictures film Constantine”. Er, is this to show the ignorant moviegoers that Keanu Reeve’s Constantine looks nothing like the original Constantine? Or that Chas isn’t supposed to be young? Or that the film’s story, in comparison with the comic series, just feels…wrong?
I’ll have to admit though: I watched the film when it came out, and without having read the comics first. And I liked it. Yeah. Heh.
Anyway, this volume also contains an updated Hellblazer timeline. Neat.
* * *
And just like that, I have run out of comics to read. Back to the House of Leaves then.
Minister Norman McCay is present during Wesley Dodd’s (Sandman) final moments. Dodd has been having nightmares, which he believes are visions of what is yet to come. For McCay, however, the world cannot experience anything worse than this – ten years before, the Joker has opened fire on the Daily Planet offices, killing Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane. Superman has exiled himself. With Superman and his peers gone, the world is overrun by metahumans, who battle openly on the streets.
During one such fight, the entire state of Kansas is irradiated. Superman returns after the tragedy, but will the younger and amoral metahumans, who believe the S on his chest means “senile”, listen to him? And what if they don’t?
McCay now has Dodd’s visions. Everything looks bleak.
* * *
Great comic. And the art is just amazing.
Just one thing, though:
WHAT?
Transliterally this means: “The Siva head is here! He will kill head!” Perhaps “Siva” is a typo. If Siva is meant to be “sira”, this means: “The crazy man is here! He will kill head!”
That doesn’t make sense.
It should have read: Nandito na ang sira-ulo. Papatayin niya tayo. “The crazy man is here. He will kill us all.”
Finally! I’ve read the first two volumes, and I don’t know who’d be kind enough to lend me Black Dossier and Century (the third volume), but isn’t this so much fun? Adventures and witty writing and I envy Alan Moore you know. What an exciting story to write. Cross-over fan fiction. I see Mina Harker (Murray here) from Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde (well mostly Hyde) from you-know-where, Captain Nemo and the Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and ooh the tripods from War of the Worlds – bet I know what H-142 is, wink wink. I’m not too familiar with the other characters (sorry Quatermain), so it’s possible I just missed some hilarious in-joke. Still, great read.
So maybe I should watch the movie just to annoy myself, meeheehee.
Eliza Victoria 
