After almost 5 years of waiting, Arthur Golden's classic book about geishas is finally made into a film. And yes, I'm one of those who's eagerly waiting for this book to be made into a movie. Yup, this is a "girly" novel...but I actually enjoyed reading...especially about how Sayuri was devirginized in a ritual called mizuage. Hehehe.
Now, there's a lot of classic books immortalized into movies and I've read quite a few them. Sometimes though, the film does not capture much what is being relayed in the novel. And that's pretty disappointing. Although I enjoyed the movie, there are a few disappointing things in the movie...
For one, why do chinese dominate the roster? Alanganin tuloy yung portrayal ng Jap moves ng mga geisha...pati nga ung mukha ng mga Jap, ibang-iba sa mga Chinks di ba? Compare mo nga sa Japanese AVI idols collection mo...ang layo kaya ng pagmumukha nila.
Here, let me show you:
O ayan, pinagtabi ko na ung original concept geisha ni Arthur Golden at obra maestra ni Rob Marshall. Just stare at the two pictures for 5 seconds, pansin mo na kaagad ang kaibahan. Need I say more? hehehe.
If you ask me, I'd say that you have to read the book first before you ever watch the movie. You'd miss a lot of interesting details sa story...usually when Golden explains this or that...most especially about how Sayuri got devirginized. Bwehehehe.
Anyway, below is a tag from www.youtube.com. I'm sure you'll love the spoof.
Finally, I can enjoy songs from my youth breathed to life anew with the latest of what OPM rock has to offer. These are songs that has accompanied me in my youth and has been so much part of me that every song the e-heads sang invokes a spirit of youthful delirium.
Yes, I just bought JAM 88.3's ultraelectromagnetic jam...a revival of eraserheads' greatest gathered by the latest OPM rock sensations and spicing it up with their own influence. So sad wasn't able to mingle with kids in UP during its release. It would have been a helluvan experience for me...syempre pa headbang headbang at pa sira ng mukha para mukhang metal. Tapos, suot ng t-shirt na itim tulad ng mga palaboy na black squad na tumatambay sa kalye kung alas diyes na ng gabi. Tapos, maintain ung agitated-look-na-hindi para magmukhang nakatira kay shabs-shabs o kaya nakatoma.
Hehehe. Memories.
Nakakatuwa ngang i-look back ang high school memories with e-heads. I remember ayoko nung 1st album nila...hindi ko kasi naiintindihan ung medyo upbeat na music nila. Ung 1st year pa kasi ako, metallica, guns n' roses at bon jovi na ung pinapakinggan ko. Eh ibang-iba ung kanta ng e-heads sa 1st album nila...tapos, parang jologs pa. But after a while, nakakatuwa palang kantahin at ang dali-dali pa ng chords. During that time kasi, neophyte pa lang ako sa paggigitara at sakit sa kamay ang chord na F. Sa e-heads, ung chords ng sikat na kanta nila naglalaro lang sa variations ng G, A, D.
Aba, after a while, memorize ko na lahat ng lyrics at chords...at natutunan ko na rin ung F...tapos, sumunod na ung B, Bb, at ung ibang chords na tinotorture ang pointing finger. Gumaling na ako sa gitara dahil sa eraserheads!
And i finally find myself waiting for CIRCUS. Tapos, sumunod na rin ugn CUTTERPILLOW at ung FRUITCAKE album...
Tapos nung pumasok ako sa seminaryo, un na rin ang time na lumabas ung JULIE TEARJERKY album nila...tapos, bigla ba namang nagdisband ang mga gago. Sayang, sila pa naman sana ung nag bulldoze sa OPM landscape during that era.
Imagine...Filipino athletes bagged 63 gold, 44 silver, and 50 bronze medals! That's a total of 157 medals and a 1st placer at that!
I could only imagine the problems of those in PSC now trying to figure out where to source millions of pesos as financial rewards to our heroes. With our draining coffers, I say, let the politicians cough up millions for our athletes! (pera naman natin un eh...hehehe) Let us reward them not just with the germs from handshakes but also something to fatten their pockets. They have toiled and sacrificed a lot for that gold.
Talking about gold, this reminds me of that Thaksin guy...the sore loser from Thailand who spoke
bitterly about us cheating. Thaksin spoke: "If the SEA Games continue to be like this, then it will become less popular because they have put a priority for medals over athletic spirit." Damn, that's a loaded statement. He ought to apologize and not delegate it to some old secretary general who's willing to take the shit for him.
(It's a good thing though na hindi elections ung tinutukoy niya, else we're guilty as charged. hehehe.)
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On a lighter side, Micah Alciso got me, my two brothers and our office PRO access to all venues. Eh libre naman ah!? True, but not just ordinary access...ring-side access! Below is the proof:
Now I have a good view for my girlfriend's canon camera. ;-)
If you happen to be in Dipolog, or just passing by the city, always make sure that you visit one of the Rizalianas most revered site...Dapitan...Jose Rizal's place of exile.
The place, the beach and the view is completely the opposite of what is found at the back--Dakak, the tourist magnet of Zamboanga and owned by the infamous Ex-congressman-now-convicted-rapist, Jalosjos. But contrary to what we hear about the sensationalized Jalosjosian controversy, Rizal's place in Dapitan is a haven for historical buffs wanting to be in a place of significance in order simply to connect with our ascendants.
Rizal's compound is a replica of his home more than a century ago. Geometrical nipa huts decorate the place. And mind you, each nipa hut has its own form, size and function. For example:
This is an octagonal nipa hut where Rizal receive his patients. The space below is where his patients wait. He also has 2 small square houses at the foot of the hill where patients are being housed or admitted for treatment.
This big square house is the students dormitory. This is where the students sleep and the room below is the workshop. The covered space is where Rizal hold classes. Rizal also has a hexagonal house where his English wife, Josephine Bracken, and his mom are housed.
This is the famous rock where Rizal allegedly deflowered Josephine Bracken. This is also where Rizal stays to think and be alone.
Inside the Rizal museum, old pictures of Rizal are being displayed including a framed collection of Rizal's girlfriends...I think there were 16 of them including those from Europe. Bumilib nga ako sa lahing Pinoy when I was marveling at the pictures eh. hehehe. I couldn't imagine how a geek is able to captivate all those pretty girls. But on the contrary, Rizal was not just a geek, he was a poet and an artist at heart! So that probably might explain everything. :-D El ultimo Don Juan de Marco!
I heard of a rumor from conspirators that Rizal is the real father of Hitler. Hitler's not German, right? He's Austrian. And according to these conspirators, Rizal stayed for a couple of months in Austria and had a few aristocratic girls...that was, as they claimed, the time when Hitler would have been conceived...coincidental talaga. What's surprising is that if you draw Hitler's signature mustache in Rizal's picture, he'd look like Hitler. Both of them, by the way, are short and have big heads, brilliant and multi-talented.
Oh well, nothing perks human interest than human tragedy and conspiracies. hehehe.
Today marks the 1st week of my tenure in my new office. Yes. Finally, I have transferred to a better office after three (3) years of being hooked (and I mean literally) with an office which lauds slavery. hehehe.
I have a new table, a new laptop (siyempre hindi sa akin), new officemates (ka-age ko), new environment. Siyempre, kasama na rin ung new "avenues for better opportunities." It really is fulfilling to note that I didn't apply for this job but actually was "invited" to be part of their team. Naks! Sorry for blowing my horn...but, this just hit my ego big time. bwehehehe.
So, here's a pic of my new table...wag na muna ung sa office kasi bawal ata i-post sa internet without the permission of my boss...of course, due to "security reasons."
I don't know if it's worth comparing to the first pic I posted sa blog na ito. Medyo magulo un eh...dito kasi sa bagong opisina, "paperless" daw.
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Last week, I met my replacement...newly grad guy from a university in Makati. Funny how that guy reminds me of myself three years ago...young, driven, and thin. Hehehe. I'm hoping though that my time here in my new office would give me the time to study for my MA comprehensive exams, and, hopefully, finish my thesis. Medyo hindi kasi ako slave dito eh. ;-)
I just arrived from a 3-day trip from Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental. And NO...that was not a vacation which I badly wanted for the past few weeks...it's still the usual WORK.
My boss and I had a meeting in one of the La Salle schools in Mindanao: Immaculate Conception College-La Salle...now managed by the De La Salle Brothers after the Columban sisters realized that their charism is not education (and they promptly asked the DLS Brothers to take over). But what was interesting in my visit was that...after so many years of not being keen on seeing a dreaded Algebra teacher, we accidentally met in the hallway near the President's office. I had second thoughts at first since it has been like eleven years since I last saw her...and she was very slim then. Now, she has two (2) kids in tow. Anyway, I met my 2nd year Algebra teacher, Ms. Oringot, now Mrs. Suana. You probably now have an idea why she was a teacher not one student would forget. :-) And not because of her name, but because she was one of the good teachers we had...in fact, she's ICC-La Salle's Dean of Arts and Sciences now.
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The reunion with my algebra teacher made my mind soar from Ozamiz to the opposite end of mindanao island--Mangagoy, my hometown. Of course, Ms. Oringot often asked about how Mangagoy is; what new developments the city has; whose son/daughter died of leukemia (our town has an abnormal case of leukemia, by the way...my bestfriend was a victim); and, where in the world are some of her good Math students (I'm not one of them, sad to say). And as the typical Mangagoyay would do, I introduced Tinuy-an to her.
TINUY-AN is a four-tiered water falls whose 2nd tier is, I think, six floors high. The water does not cascade but falls from top to bottom thus creating a veil of mist reaching even the farthest end of the site. Water's cool too kasi galing sa virgin forest sa bundok...sarap ng tubig especially ngayon na 38 degrees celsius. Dami taong ayaw maniwala na may waterfalls pa pala sa 'Pinas na mas malaki pa sa Ma. Cristina Falls. Tinuy-an is not even found in our textbooks...Ma. Cristina Falls lang at Pagsanjan...eh mas maganda pa ata Tinuy-an sa Pagsanjan eh. Proof? Here are the pics:
This was taken from the nearest nipa kiosk. Ganda ng vantage point...wag masyadong malapit ha baka masira ang digicam mo. :-) Look at the rainforest sa taas...virgin pa yan. Tapos, cascading pa yan papunta sa last tier. BTW, may 2 pang tier sa taas. I think tapos na ata ung steep stairs na ginawa sa right side ng falls para makapunta sa taas.
This pic is taken from the 1st tier near the parking area. The 2nd tier's the biggest...kita from this point ang 2 other tiers after the biggest one. Medyo lumiit ung 1st tier kasi malayo from where my bro stands. Height ata sa 1st tier is around 12 feet...this is where we jump kasi kaya. Wala atang nag-attempt mag-jump sa 2nd tier...but balita namin may tangang estudyante atang nahulog...pero buhay naman...nag-nose bleed nga lang.
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Joey has posted some of his 7650 pics of Tinuy-an in his weblog...ginawa ata niyang banner...ganda kasi ng Tinuy-an. :-)
I had my 2nd facial cleansing session yesterday...and it was an experience.
I purposedly didn't insert an adjective before the word "experience" precisely because I really don't know how to explain what kind of experience it was. "Happy" would not be an apt word for, at times, it was painful...nor is it "horrible" because my face felt clean afterwards...and, most of all, it was not "expensive" because it was free! (courtesy of my high school classmate...Ivy Pagaduan and her assistant-boyfriend Ronito Calunsod) It was just one of those experiences which transcends the adjectival boundaries but leaves a mark of timelessnes worth writing in my blog.
Anyway, enough of the philosophizing...But, I never imagined how dirty my face was until I saw the yellowish matter diluted in a creamy white substance, which oozed out from my facial pores as it was sucked clean by the machine Ivy used. And it was the first time I learned that blackheads aren't actually black as I though it would be...ung tip lang niya ang black tapos ung body niya medyo yellowish na translucent. But the most painful part was when she poked out the yellowish matter in my pimple near the neck area (pic below) and used this stainless apparatus with a circular hole at the tip to force out the pimple pus. The rest of the show was uneventful (in other words, not painful): Ivy vacuumed my face and subjected it to her lazer...speaking of lazer, lapit na showing ng Episode III. Hehehe.
Here are the pics (pardon the resolution, used a cameraphone kasi):
A whitish cream was applied on my face...probably to clean and loosen the pore clogs.
With her handy electric scrubber, Ivy started removing my face blemishes.
Pimples being poked, white and black heads removed...no need to describe it, my face says it all.
Malapit nang matapos ang buwan ng Abril at once pa lang ako nakalabas ng Maynila for vacation. Oo, halos every week nasa ibang lugar ako to visit schools or give workshops...pero iba un eh...work kasi ung out-of-town trips lately. Actually, I just got back from a one-day stay in Roxas City. Bad trip nga kasi I spent the whole day in La Salle Affiliate College (soon to be College of St. John). I got to enjoy Roxas only during lunch and dinner where we went to the famous Baybay (or, seaside in Bisaya). Baybay, by the way, is a kilometer-long of beach restaurants and carenderias offering the most delectable seafoods Capiz can offer.
Baybay sunset (pic taken from T630, pardon the pixelated resolution)
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One of the hosts asked me: "Dili ba bawal sa imo alimango, pasayan, kinilaw na pasayan?"
Me: (a big) "YES!"
Host: "Sir, makaon ka ba sang talaba?"
Me: (another big) "YES"
Host: "Eh sir, basi ma-allergy ka mo?"
Me: "Allergic kung kulang"
Hehehe.
Anyway, they got me all the sinful food they can offer. By the way, sinful food, according to Atty. Mark, is anything edible na iiyak at iiyak ka sa sarap. I think that's the best description for the lunch I had in Baybay. Speaking of sinful food, I was introduced to the most cholesterolic way in dressing up your kan-on or rice: pour yellowish chicken fat (this, I think, is fat from chicken inasal), sprinkle it with unprocessed salt, top it with vinegar-soaked talaba, and scoop it with your seawater-washed fingers...Uric acid galore! And so I had to buy purinase after the gluttonic session.
Here's a pic of the talaba I gorged...medyo matagal na kasi akong kumain ng talaba. I acquired the taste years ago during my freshman years in Bacolod.
Had three straight Board of Trustees meetings a while ago...and it was boring...so boring that at the end of the last meeting, I felt lethargic and numb. But as always, there was another booboo from the new school head:
Chair: May we now hear the operations report from Mrs. X?
School Head: Thank you....(very detailed report)
Chair: Excuse me, Mrs. X...that's too detailed. Can you please go straight to the highlights?
School Head: Yes ma'am...(halatang kinabahan at biglang kinuha ang kanyang shoulder bag)
School Head: Ma'am, here's your highlighter...Stabilo po yan.
And all of us ended up laughing. :-D
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Dressed in white sotana, a group of seminarians where congregating near the chapel door. They were waiting for the final bell before Vespers (evening prayer). A cute girl suddenly arrived...at halatang conscious kasi nga late na...curfew na at hindi na sana dapat bumisita. The shy cute girl approached my classmate:
Girl: Excuse me, nandyan po ba si John Fowl
(supposed to be "John Paul" but the cute girl pronounced it wrongly kasi nga conscious)
Classmate: Ah! Si John Fowl! Nasa tyfing room, nag-tyfe ng kanyang reflecshun fayfer!
Finally, habemus papam...we have a pope. A pope who is expected to lead 1.1 billion-strong Catholics all over the world. I didn't get to see the actual announcement in the central balcony of the Vatican nor have I seen the mysterious white smoke bellowed in that bronze chimney atop the Sistine chapel. I was outside our room reuniting with the Balara boys and drinking to our hearts desire...supposedly celebrating for the conclave, according to Chuck. It was only when a neighbor shouted "Naa na ta'y Pope! Si Ratzinger!" when we realized that we have to stop drinking...tapos na conclave eh. hehehe.
I have heard a few stories about Cardinal Ratzinger while he was in charge of the Congregation of Church Doctrine (or something like that). My theology professor once said that he silenced a lot of liberation theologians who tried to connect elements of Communism with the traditional scriptures. He is, in other words, very conservative. But I'd like to believe that the reason he is that conservative was that he was just doing his job in disciplining the faithful. I hope that as Pope Benedict XVI, he will be able to unite all the peoples of the world and be a real Father to all.
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BTW, thanks to www.abs-cbnnews.com for the pic. :-)
