Waking The Dead

I met Yvette during the fun days of hanging out on the set a TV series of which she was a writer. Except that Yvette reminded me that I met her more than 10 years ago because we had the same Math/Chinese tutor.

Yesterday, Yvette, one half of the literary powerhouse that is Luis and Yvette, launched her book, Waking The Dead. It's an anthology of weird, heartfelt and powerful stories. I went to Powerbooks to attend the launch, got in early, got a copy, and had her sign it. I sat down and was four paragraphs into the first story about Quiapo, elementals and the Black Nazarene before the program started. I was hooked. I wanted to stand up, get out, go home, find a nice spot to finish the book. I also wanted to write my own stories, be a conjurer of all the arcana my mind could muster.

In her acknowledgments, Yvette thanked Neil Gaiman for the inspiration. Yvette is my Gaiman.

Read Inquirer review here.

Have had a bad run at the movies lately. Last one I really liked was Adventureland. Though I was banking on Ryan Reynolds, The Proposal truly sucked. I'm really surprised that a lot of people liked it though. Which is why I guess there is an us and there is a them.

GI Joe also sucked. I mean it wasn't boring, but it could have been better in many ways. As a kid, I used to collect GI Joes. I used to buy them from Nova Fontana in Shoppesville for, I think, 70 bucks a figurine. I collected the vehicles and bases too. I thank my parents for indulging me and rue the day I decided to open my Joes and Cobras up and mix body parts. Youth is wasted on the young.

Also, after going through a bunch of interesting books, I am stuck at a very mediocre one.

That's all!

I realized that I can blog in spurts.

Finished two easy books since the mind-numbing Cryptonomicon. First, I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was all right. I mean it was well-crafted and smart, and I liked the whole Oriental fighting techniques bit. But you know, how far can a pastiche go?

Then I finished reading Black Hawk Down. I didn't realize that reading historical accounts of war, campaigns, and soldiering was an age thing (think dads and their shelves full of WWII books), but I'm willing to accept it. It's a genre that I enjoy. I liked Band of Brothers and Generation Kill. So so far, I'm in the 20th and latter era, modern warfare. But I have a Civil War book and a Battle of Thermopylae book pending. We'll see how that turns out.

When you think about it, Lord Of The Rings was a war book too, except that it was, well, fantastic.

Finally finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It took me two months. I read a third of it and I brought it the US, reading some on the plane. I got back, barely making it through half. Now, three weeks later, I'm done.

It's dense, filled with history, and all these meandering technical treatises on phreaking, Fruit Loops and physiological reactions to love. Half the the time, I barely understood what was going on. Towards the very end, in the last 50 pages or so of this 1000-page novel, it all comes together. It seems like a very abrupt way to end it all but it's all good. In fact, I love this book.

It's about a bunch of characters, in different timelines, who get involved in codebreaking, building a data haven in some Asian technology utopia, and looking for tons of gold (more precisely, the fabled Yamashita treasue, so the book scores for painting our country in hilarious light). While they're at it, they wage an intelligence and misinformation war, build the computer, find out about family, and fall in love. How awesome is that? It's like Vonnegut meets Clancy.

Inevitably, it's a book by a geek, about geeks, for geeks. But I suspect that anyone who wants to know more and experience more will enjoy it. After all, as Stephenson would say, we are all geeks now.

Lately, I've had nothing to say, other than post stuff about movies, music and photography. No new epiphanies or realizations. No poignant experiences or life defining acts. It's because Twitter has taken over my life.

Or maybe it's because things have been all right. Meaning, I've been very happy to live my life the past couple of weeks, and I really can't be bothered to write about it. But I will try.

I know it sounds pathetic to say this, but maybe Star Trek started it off by just being awesome.

Then work got going, checks started coming in, and, professionally, I'm satisfied. At least approaching the first half of this year. I'm also happy to be finally on a very promising book, after many false starts. All those books I mentioned here, I swear to you, I haven't been able to finish more than half of them. But this one now, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, is dense and fascinating. I like the challenge of reading it, and I like it when staying on it pays off.

I've been catching some good music live too. I saw Sleepwalk Circus and Encounters With A Yeti just this past week alone.

Also the NBA Playoffs have been the most fun and exciting in recent years. I like it more than last year, even with Boston and Lakers were in the Finals. This year, and at this point it's the conference finals leading up to the Finals, it's full of exciting match ups and awesome games. Even as everyone assumed that it would be a Cleveland-LA showdown at the end, peaking teams like Orlando and Denver (Chauncey!) are giving them a serious run for their money. I just saw a well-made documentary about the opposite yet same demigods that are Kobe and LeBron, and their stories are truly inspiring. Or at least Nike tells me so.

But it really is a good series, and when people ask me who I'm rooting for, I say, without an ounce of bullshit, that I just enjoy watching these guys compete. Basketball, with the glory of winning and the obliteration by defeat, is a purifying experience. The drama is true. If I had to live my life, earning a (lucrative) living, just being one of those talking heads on ESPN, who cover game after game, I'd be very content. It doesn't get any better than that.

Also, I will be taking a three-week vacation in a couple of weeks. I don't deserve it. In fact the whole expense of it, compounded by the fact that I'd be missing out on work for such a long time, was making me sick. Then Star Trek came along and made me love life a little.

I'll be visiting New York again, after, wow, five years. And I think I will take immense pleasure revisiting old bookshops and favorite museums. I will check if my favorite deli is still on the corner of Park Ave and 17thE, get a sandwich and flavored water, and eat it at Union Square like I used to. I will go back to Central Park and finally find "IMAGINE" on the ground. This time around, I will be hanging with great friends, and it should be funner. Then I'm off to San Francisco to attend an uncle's wedding.

I just saw Bottle Shock, and while it's an okay movie, it made me want to go to Napa Valley again. But this time, I want to go off the wine tasting route and just head off to the real vineyards and take more pictures. Then back home to Manila for my brother's birthday.

The next six weeks of my life have been planned. And while that somewhat terrifies me, at the rate I'm going, I'll probably be all right.

fanboy

Unlike most fans who got to watch the series, I learned my Trek via the novels. This guy in my high school, Ericson Chua, pushed Star Trek (and Tom Clancy) on me. And pretty soon, I was hooked. I was into Classic and The Next Gen, and bought and devoured every novel I could get from National Bookstore Greenhills. A lot of the books weren't great, but there are gems in there. And regardless of style or technique, a kid couldn't ask for more than space myths about friendship, life and destiny.

And then I found out everything I knew wasn't canon. The books weren't kosher. I was out of sync with the TV series and the movies. So in 1995, I got myself the Star Trek Chronology by Michael and Denise Okuda. It summarized all episodes from Classic to TNG Season 5, provided graphic timelines, included the alternates, explained stardates and all that awesome shit. It was all indexed and cross-referenced. It was a great way get on track and figure everything out.

Anyway, watching this new Star Trek got me missing my old books. They sit on my top shelf gathering dust. But I'm thankful I kept them all, and with this awesome reboot, everything seems so fresh and great again. It's a good feeling, and I know it sounds incredibly funny, but I feel a certain amount of hope and joy.

PS: I haven't heard from Ericson in awhile. I hear he went on to work for Canon Japan, either designing or writing code for the CCD that's inside my professional digital camera. That or NASA. I forget.

I've been busy lately.

Finishing off Season 4 of The Wire. I love this show. Every time they kill off one of the main guys, I get torn up inside. After seeing Generation Kill, I see a common theme among these David Simmons/Ed Burns-produced shows: It doesn't matter if you're a player on the street, the police, or an infantry man. You'll always be a good guy. It's the bosses who are mostly fucked up.

Anyway, I like this show about a city I've never been to.

I've also been busy finishing my second reading of Chabon's Kavalier and Clay. It's even brillianter this second time around. But I always get a little bit impatient reading the last hundred pages and I rush it. I guess that means that, around a year from now, I'll re-read it again.

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Anyway, hat tip to to the blog, Slightly Lucid, for directing me to photographer, Estan Cabigas. His series, Non Places, with it's color and negative space, is pretty good.

I like watching How I Met Your Mother, not only because of the funny gags, smart narrative, the interesting pop culture referencing. I also like it because they're bunch of friends in their twenty-thirties. Like me and my friends. They deal with stuff those weird, transition years throw at you: fulfilling work, significant others or the lack of both. Like me and my friends.

Anyway, in the last episode, Murtaugh, Ted has a list of things to be done now that he's thirty: the "I'm too old for this sh... stuff" list. One item that had me especially chuckling was, "I'm too old to put off going to the doctor." Because I'm like that now. I didn't use to be that way. I didn't even medicate beyond Vitamin C. But I can't afford that now.

Which is why when I got sick some weeks back, all I wanted were those awfully powerful antibiotics. And ever since I got a bad stiff neck some months ago, I've been meaning to see a chiropractor (which got pushed back because of that weeks-long infection). I finally got to see the chiropractor twice since and every visit is like a near-death experience. Every time my spine or my neck was being re-adjusted, I kept thinking how easy it would be for the doctor (?) to slip and break something. Thus ending my, so far, fun life. I've survived, obviously, and I've been recommended to take some maintenance treatment. But I don't think I'm going back unless I've got another injury or something.

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Someone who knew I was a fan of Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo recommended that I check out Stephen Fry's The Stars' Tennis Balls, a sort of modern retelling of the tale. I found the book at Fully Booked Rockwell last night, and I can't wait to get going.

EDIT: I also woke up today, to a nice, rainy Saturday morning. Had a great tapsilog breakfast, and a potential Easter Finals matchup on TV, Cleveland versus Orlando. Except that the Cavs tanked and got soundly beaten by the Magic. By around 30 points. A day after they lost to the NBA's worst-performing team, the Wizards. WTF indeed. Anyway, another potential playoff mathup, in the West this time, is showing now. I'm hoping this LA-Houston game turns out to be more interesting.

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.

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).

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

Arnold's book signing

About Martial Law Babies, I once wrote:

While in HK, I brought my copy of Arnold Arre’s Martial Law Babies with me to read. Actually, I started on it the night before my trip, and couldn’t put it down until I was almost midway through. I forced myself to get some sleep, woke up, stuffed it into my suitcase, and got on my flight. First night in HK, trying to get all the food digested before I slept, I finished the graphic novel in one sitting. While doing so, there were times when I laughed out loud, and there were times when I wanted to cry.

Arnold is having a book signing on February 28, 3-6PM at Powerbooks Trinoma. Bring your favorite Arnold Arre graphic novel, meet the guy, get it signed!

Martin Parr's Everybody Dance Now

The polarizing, irreverent, brilliant Martin Parr, has a new book out.

“Photography is perhaps the most democratic form of human expression second only to dance,” remarks Parr in his accompanying essay and Everybody Dance Now, which exudes laughter, drunkenness, music and movement, is a testament to the universal nature of those expressions. Photography critic Andy Grundberg, who also contributed to the edition, adds: “What these photographs really seem to be about is twofold: first, the delights of photography in extremis, hyperactive and usually hyper-colored, and second, the irrepressible good-naturedness of humanity.”

Check it out at Pentagram.

HT to A Photo Editor for this one.

Wat Tyler

Let me geek out a bit here, again. I really enjoyed history in school. We had a really good Soc Sci teacher who made the subject less about dates and names, and more about how events changed a people and vice versa. It was good stuff, and despite my dismal high school performance, my Soc Sci grades (and English) made a strong argument for the possibility of me turning out all right eventually.

I've been looking for more non-textbooky history book lately, almost to the point of emailing my high school Soc Sci teacher (which I just did). But in the meantime, I judged it by its cover, and bought a book entitled I Wish I'd Been There -Book 2, European History (edited by Byron Hollinshead and Theodore K. Rabb).

It's got essays by noted historians on significant moments in the history of Europe. Events covered are, for example, the day Alexander the Great died, when Hannibal crossed the Alps, when Handel is fired, and the making of Newton's Principia. Highfaluting but heady stuff.

I got it because I expected to find some easy-to-read but detailed accounts of these interesting days, but I now realize why the book was titled that way. From what I've read so far, there is hardly a surviving, first hand account of these events. Little is written and most is surmised. Hence, all these history buffs wanting to be there.

But the book's still interesting. It sort of gives you atmosphere, the mood of the time surrounding these events. Like in high school, it's interesting to find out how people where thinking then, and how things have changed or haven't.

Anyway, there's an account in the book of a medieval English uprising in 1381, called The Peasant Revolt. The rebels, consisting of peasants, laborers, some clerics and retired, veteran soldiers, had a leader called Wat Tyler. They charged up to London en masse, crossed the Thames, and forced the fourteen-year old king, Richard II, to meet with them.

These were hardly unsophisticated rebels. They were organized and smart. They knew how to wage war from all those years of being forced into soldiering. And being serfs, they knew all about unfair taxes and labor practices.

The rebels banded together because wanted the abolition of serfdom, to be free from obligatory labor and the right to move from their respective manors. Very MLK, it was all about equality.

Anyway. So finally, on June 15, Wat Tyler met Richard II at Smithfield. Tyler came on horseback, to signify his equality with all these snooty knights and nobles. He got off, knelt before the king, got up and shook the king's hand. Then Tyler addressed the Richard II as brother. Had Richard II fist-bumped Tyler back, I would conclude that Richard II, was in fact, a brother.

To make the long story short, Richard rebuffed the rebels. Tyler lost all his affability and asked for water which he drank and spat out before the king. He also asked for a jug of ale, drank it, and got on his horse. Finally some kingsmen got pissed, Tyler and his boys got pissed, and a melee ensued. Wat Tyler was surrounded, felled, and beheaded before his men.

I'm surprised this isn't a Mel Gibson movie yet.

book ends

So, the last time I checked in on about books, I was re-reading Dumas. Yeah, that's not happening anymore. In my re-reading of The Three Musketeers, I now remember that I love Dumas because of The Count of Monte Cristo, and that love was reaffirmed by Georges. Musketeers was fun, but over the holidays I've added more books to my already towering pile of pending books. I had to move on quickly.

And I moved on to Alan Moore's Voice Of The Fire, which starts off with a story of a prehistoric man. It's the prehistoric man's narration so it's written with a limited vocabulary and syntax. It's a bit daunting but it's genius when you realize that the evolution of language affects the evolution of a consciousness that affects the evolution of language that affects... Anyway, this chapter is hard to read, and it's a hard way to start the book (whose chapters you can read out of sequence, I think), but I'll make my way.

But that's become increasingly difficult to because a friend came home from the US and got me this:

With a mouthful of a title, The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac is a Freedarko.com-produced book. Borne out of a blog, you'd think that it's just an example of new media trying to sell more via old media. But maybe the blog was already brilliant to begin with because it's actually a funny, articulate, well-designed book on the significance of particular NBA players in... everything. I think. I'm still trying to figure out if it's about the myth of players, their impact on culture, and others things, significant or otherwise. But if for nothing else, it really looks great. Check out some of the pages I ripped from Amazon:

The book I really asked for, and got (score!), was Annie Leibovitz at Work. I'll be honest, based on that cover, I was hoping for lighting diagrams and some technical how-tos. How amateur fanboy of me, I know. But it's all behind-the-scenes narratives, and anecdotes about some of her famous pictures. A lot of which I already know about from her older monographs. But it's a nice, gorgeous book to add to the collection. I haven't gone in beyond the first chapter so I'll have to wait to see if I there are newer stuff in it.

One of my favorite books from last year was Michael Chabon's Gentlemen Of The Road. Not only because it's written in serial format ala Dumas, or that Chabon lists Dumas as a major influence, but because it's a fun, swashbuckling adventure with a lot of heart (ala Dumas). Anyway, I liked it so much that I got a copy for my eldest godson. He's turning 9, and let's see how his mother explains war, swindling, gender-bending, and the other exploits of a giant African Jew and his bosom buddy, a Frankish Jew, in the Middle-Ages.

The Frankish Jew, I hear, is an homage to a character named Elric of Melnibone, created by Michael Moorcock (to whom Gentlemen is dedicated). I obsessed about Elric and was about to give up finding the books here. I even downloaded the ebooks already. But I dropped by National to spend the GCs I got for Christmas and look what I found:

They had two covers available. One was a minimalist white cover with a nice Tolkien-esque illustration. And there was this gaudy one. I picked the gaudy one because the Foreword was written by no other than Alan Moore.

looks

A good friend of mine finally launched her chocolate business, Risa Chocolates. They’re so good, I said that, next time, she should get me to shoot her products because I’d be happy to be work for food. It wouldn't be the first time.

So many of my friends are striking out on their own this year. They’re leaving their office jobs to set up their own businesses and work for themselves. Bad economy or not, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do and I’m all for that.

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Tomorrow, I’m leaving for what I think is the last working trip of the year. I was given the choice between shooting Iloilo and Bohol, and I picked Iloilo because I haven’t been. Only to realize that I have been, for an overnight quickie shoot. So now I get to stay a bit longer.

I was looking at the itinerary this afternoon, and it looks like a relatively easy trip. And I thought to myself, great, I can catch up with my reading.

That scared me. I’m turning into an old man who thinks trips are for catching up on reading and not for, well, travelling. So, while I still am bringing my copy of The Three Musketeers, I’m saving it for the downtime.

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There’s a reason why I’m re-reading one of my favorite Dumas novels (after Monte Cristo and Georges). It’s because I’ve read Musketeers and Man In The Iron Mask without realizing that they are the ends of a trilogy. I completely missed out on the middle book, Twenty Years After. Not only that, apparently Iron Mask is only a volume in a traditionally three-volume piece of work. So, damnit, I’ve got ground to cover.

PS William Eggleston is color blind. Crazy man.

going, going, gone

I am brain dead. But before I got to being that way, I had a great, if not busy, last week.

Last week, I screened my short for friends and family and the turnout was really good. Also, I think they liked it. No one walked out or was particularly obnoxious. People were interested, commenting, asking questions on the technicals, plot points and the ending. I suppose the worse thing for any work is to be ignored so thanks from the bottom of my heart. I’ve also been asked about a sequel. Not that I’ve ever heard of a sequel for a short film. But you know, with the way it ended, it’s not such an out-of-this-world idea… Still I don’t know. There’s a part of me that wants to move on to other stories and there’s another part that’s just easy to tempt.

Anyway, after the midweek screening, there was this legendary, ”industry” party hosted by one of the top post-prod houses last Friday. That was crazy. It was like 1999 all over again. And the thing with this industry where it’s okay to come to work in a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers is that nobody really gets violent. Sure there’s backstabbing, pirating and lowballing, but hey, we still like to party and go home in one piece. No nightclub shootings or parking lot scuffles for the creative types.

Also, a high school buddy got hitched last night. They had a Chinese Lauriat at the reception. Scallops, steamed fish, prawn salad, peking duck ang mango sago! High fives! But the MSG got to me, and I was knocked out pretty quick.

I woke up to today, where I had a postponed pre-prod meeting, a short, relatively easy shoot, and where I’ll have the rescheduled pre-prod meeting after dinner. I’m in a coffee shop right now, drinking just water, because the house is an Internet-less black hole. And the madness that is the rush hour, Yultide season, low-priced gas traffic just makes it plain nuts to go back and forth.

I’m sitting here, my day not quite done, and I’m taking stock of my week ahead.

There’s my full day video shoot tomorrow, which will be capped by a possibly late night, long-haul shoot for an advertising buddy. I’m actually going to try to get that late night shoot moved. Only because, Wednesday, I have to be in the airport by 7AM for a three-day Iloilo travel feature. That’s actually something I’ve been looking forward to (and I still do) but the thought that I’ll be flying in on a Friday night, get through Friday-night traffic during the Christmas season, to get to either a rehearsal for this concert I’m producing videos for, a high school reunion, or that late-night shoot I want to cancel is just killing me in already. Who said foresight was going to save you?

So there, just sitting here, sipping water, thinking how sad it is to start liking the microwaved, hot food of a coffee chain, trying not to remember the comfort of my bed, or the joy of re-reading The Three Musketeers, while waiting for a pre-prod meeting to get going two hours from now, I am brain dead.