I finished Season 2 of The Wire. And I won't have Season 3 until for another couple of days. Suddenly I feel untethered and that my life has no meaning.

So I'm re-reading Kavalier and Clay. Or maybe Remains Of The Day. I really want a new, great book.

Speaking of Chabon, his first novel, The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh is now a movie with Sienna Miller in it. I really didn't enjoy the book much, and I'm looking forward to the Coen Brothers' adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen's Union instead. The Frozen Chosen... hehe.

Anyway here's the trailer for Mysteries, I'm not expecting much.

Christina Dy

I should've plugged this sooner. Or at least earlier than now, right before I leave to attend it.

If you all have time, please drop by SLAB and check out between the sky and sea, an exhibit of drawings by brilliant artist, pole-dancer, and good friend, Christina Dy.

wake up

Aww.

HT: Ramon

shoot first sightsee later

So I've been back on my feet for some days now. Spent the weekend seeing friends, having dinners, getting a drink. I don't want to ever get sick again. I'm loading up on multivitamins, getting flu shots next time, and I should be watching what I eat. The last part's the toughest.

Anyway, the past week, when I was still under doctor's orders to stay home, I was lamenting (to myself) the dearth of good reads I've been having for the past months. It used to be that I could finish any book. Nowadays, if I don't get into it by the first couple of pages, I put the book down, and almost never reopen it again. I think it's partly age. You know what you want, you don't want to waste your time.

As soon as I was able to get out, I hit the bookstore and shopped for some books. First thing I found interesting was Thomas Pynchon's Against The Day. Pynchon is one of those guys tagged as one of America's greatest modern writers. Poor guy. He's sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Roth and McCarthy, which is good company. He's also almost as reclusive as Salinger. He does however turn up in the weirdest of places (i.e. cameos in The Simpsons, and supposedly in an interview for Playboy Japan).

Against The Day was published in 2006 and, from what I gather, is a whimsical, cross-genre, multiple-charactered epic that spans the time between the late 19th century (Chicago World Fair, 1893) and the WWI. I'm only on page 20 and I'm still getting the hang of it.

It seems already dense and ironic. So for to balance things out, I bought a Mario Puzo book too. While I enjoyed The Godfather and The Sicilian, and while I at least appreciated the shock value of The Family, this last one, The Fourth K, was just plain boring. It felt like a meandering, heavy-handed, melodramatic treatise on power and the covenant between government and the people. In the beginning of the book, the richest, most powerful man in the world got to be that way by amassing a never-heard-of wealth of ten billion dollars. I read that line, gave thanks for Dr. Evil, and checked when the damn book was published (1990).

+++

I just saw In Bruges awhile ago. Awesome. Everyone should watch it.

So I've been catching up on The Wire. And now that I'm in Season 2, I go, "Hey! Amy Ryan from The Office!" (Of course, her role in The Wire came first.)

And then I just saw Episode 18 of the current The Office season, and I go, "Holy crap! It's Stringer Bell!"

Nice. Who would've thunk to get actors to cross over from these two shows.

I snuck out

With three more days of doctor-ordered bed rest, I went out to meet friends and get some Chinese food. I'm afraid of relapsing for the second time, missing out on more work, people, and real food. So it did take some rationalizing to decide to go out. This wasn't like the last time where, on day four, feeling all good, I decided to get back to work, and went shooting for four days straight. This was a quick, stress-free dinner, and then back to the house to serve the rest of my sentence.

Also, after day after day of playing online poker, going against the computer in Monopoly, The Wire (finally), and left overs, it was either I got out for a while, or I go nuts.

Anyway, here's crossing my fingers. The food was great though.

Li Wei

Mongolian photographer, Li Wei, has a series called The Earth. In it, the images are shot in different styles, calling on a many photographic influences. And I feel the themes are just as varied: memory, identity, and change. All in all, it's an excellent photographic exploration of home.

There's a lot more great stuff there, if you follow the links above. Hat tip: Asian Photography Blog.

+++

In these days of isolated convalescing, I've found out, again, that Bon Iver helps.

all day TV

I don't think I've spent this much time in front of the TV since... forever. Here's a list of what I stayed on to watch today:

1. The Pacers-Hawks game. Hawks are a good enough East team to make the playoffs again and easily handled the Pacers. But I have to say, TJ Ford is fearless.

2. The Pistons-Raptors game. Ever since Rip Hamilton was moved back to the starting spot he's always deserved, my Pistons have been winning again. That Antonio McDyess is playing like a 24-year old again is another huge factor. Good game, went into OT, with Detroit finally closing out the slumping Raptors.

3. The Benchwarmers. Rob Schneider movie, ugh, but about Little League, so cute.

4. Ghostbusters. Bill Murray, the 80s, Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man thrashing New York! Yeah!

5. Over Her Dead Body. I was bored and so was Paul Rudd making this movie, I bet.

6. Glory. Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel are in this Civil War movie. For some weird reason, my brother and I love this movie, even if it feels a bit melodramatic now. But you gotta love the speeches about equality and freedom, and the operatic soundtrack. I think we even have it on video library, in VHS format. We've seen it so many times, we can recite the lines, and I still tear up in the same scenes. Watching it now as I type this. Hold on, they're about to attack Fort Wagner.

So I'm sick again. Apparently when the doctor said bed rest for seven days, she meant it. My mistake for interpreting that as bed rest for seven days but if by day four I feel good enough to work, I'll go for it. So now I get another seven day penalty, plus I'm getting the works: blood test, throat swab, etc.

But it sounds worse than it is. This second round of whatever this is isn't as bad the one I got two weeks ago. Fever's gone after two days. My nodes don't hurt so I can eat real food. In fact I'm craving for sandwiches. The nice type: fresh bread with real meat and good, quality cheese in it. Like the ones on Scanwiches.

HT: the cute swissmiss.

quick plug

Usually March is a month of low cash flow for editorial photographers. Magazines come out with a single issue for the months of January and February, and the checks come out in Feb. No checks for March, and you got to live off your other gigs. But that's cool this year. Because making the covers of two magazines I enjoy shooting for is worth it. Please check out the March issues of Real Living and Travelife at magazines stands near you!

I got goosebumps whenever Ely would say, "We are the Eraserheads." It's like they had never broken up. It freezes the moment and the music for eternity.

Anyway, without the mass hysteria that went with the anticipation of the first but truncated Eraserheads reunion concert, this one still wasn't free of drama. Francis M, who they say was supposed to join the band for Superproxy, passed away the day before. The Eheads gave tribute by playing the first few lines of Kaleidoscope World before segueing into Huling El Bimbo.

Then Ely burned the Sticker Happy piano. On stage, with a whole bottle of lighter fluid and a lighter. So that's it. Let's take our closure from that, friends.

It's on us now, to remember the music, and the moments in our lives. We are the Eraserheads.

PS Hey look, Jazz is wearing our shirt. I could've pissed in my pants.

I often wonder about people who wander about, especially during midday. I wonder why they aren't at the office, or at school. Don't they have things to do? Before, between classes during my little film workshop, I'd wonder about all these people reading books on park benches in Union Square, or lying in the grass, getting some sun in Central Park. I figured they were all students, or actors between gigs, and they had time, between classes or auditions to literally just sit around.

Now that I'm here though, I wonder about all these people walking, standing around in the mall. Are they on errands? Are they on their way to meet other people? Are they between doing important, matters of consequence stuff, or do they just have a lot of time on their hands? I find myself wondering about this a lot because I wonder what they think about me, loitering about, between meetings, between shoots, on my way to get lunch, with my backpack and my book.

All images by Tod Papageorge, from his book, Passing Through Eden.

The Man From Manila

Francis M, 1964 to 2009.

ABC CBN
Philippine Star

getting out

I finally got to get out today. Around noon, I delivered to a friend nearby some of the t-shirts she wanted. Then I went on my way to get a Chinese lunch and a much-needed haircut. I was in light traffic, waiting in line to make a turn. I was really feeling better. When I get sick, I can get really down. And the past days of spiking fever, painful nodes, and soft food, - it was just going really bad for me.

It was good to finally get out, to be driving myself - despite what seems to be bruised bone somewhere in my left foot. I don't know how I injured it. I must've kicked something in my feverish sleep, and now I'm limping.

But, uncharacteristically, I was okay with that. Just another thing going on in the slow breakdown of my body. Another sign of the inevitability of an end. But also another reason to seize the moment. Yup, that's how I took it. No use getting down. I was just really glad to get out, to get back in my groove, see my friends, get back to work, albeit with a pill box full of antibiotics and vitamins.

Yeah, so back to being in my car, and in line to make a turn. I was feeling good, knowing there was life to enjoy and that I could tap into its infinite potential. It was such a moment, even my iPod was cooperating. It played the intro to an Ang Bandang Shirley song. I was doing my little hipster jiggling sway in the car (heavy tint helps), singing along:

Maari ba kitang masayaw
o di kaya kahit
upo lang muna tayo
habang inaantay
yung ating magiging...

Then my foot slipped the clutch, I was in gear, and I stalled the car.