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when it comes to my addiction for books, i would have to say that the past few months have been spectacular. i never thought i could measure achievement in pages...
ever since we were kids, and especially when i started buying books on my own with saved-up allowance money, my sister always teased me about my collection. she often said i'd probably have a library someday.
when i started working, it couldn't be helped that i get some slack for my book-buying habits. better nga naman kung pagkain na lang, di ba? though i did argue to death that i always got those books on sale...
sooo, i am very happy to say that i am now on my way to curbing my impractical bibliophile tendencies. what i could have bought, i've borrowed. yes, i still can't help but browse through sale bins when they're oh-so-surreptitiously available (it's a conspiracy, i tell you), but, But, BUT i have learned to be so much more discerning before spending even P20 on a bargain book. when i was a kid, a visit to a 2nd-hand bookstore would never be complete without a P100-yield, roughly 4-10 books then; and i also once spent a whopping P7,000 at a book fair.
Now, I can pass by a discount display, check out a few titles, read at least five separate pages, and if i didn't like it, i wouldn't buy it. i know this is probably regular for most of you, but i dunno, it makes me feel like such a winner. it's like i have literary taste or something... ;-)
killing the shopping bug was easy, and refraining from buying CDs was tougher (despite the practicality of el torrente and the mp3), but this... it's like going full circle. books were my very first love and i'm learning how to make this relationship work without hurting any one of us, ensuring that we'll be part of each other's lives for much, much longer :)
Now this is a comeback. After all the trouble with booze, drugs and (was there?) a drunk driving charge, former heir to the serious-actor-slash-matinee-idol throne Robert Downey Jr. shows he still has what it takes to wow audiences. This may even be his blockbuster-est movie yet. What could've been a hokey let's-turn-over-a-new-leaf story was more believable from across Downey's eyes (the same ones that made you cry in Chaplin).
the other nuts: Jeff Bridges - Whoa!!! I didn't think he could be that menacing, in a very human way, too. Made it more disturbing. Gwyneth Paltrow - Never liked her much but she was woefully underused here. Maybe they have plans for the second.
and my super squeal moment: yes, nick fury and s.h.i.e.l.d.!!! i clapped my hands like a giddy kid shrieking "whoo! nick fury and s.h.i.e.l.d.!" while remembering how fun it was to geek out over comic books with my brother when we were younger.
that's all, you guys have already said everything else :D
...for getting me hooked on Neil Gaiman. As a wet-behind-the-ears froshie (redundant ba yon?) in 1996, i learned that literature could surpass "great" and truly, truly expand one's world when wanggo dropped a copy of Brief Lives on my lap and told me to read it. and i did in one night. there's no way to describe that first encounter but it was like eating chocolate for the first time, or waking up from The Matrix.
during the rest of my college years, i kept borrowing more and more (thanks, kaoko cow!). then wanggo loaned me neverwhere. until now, i thank the god/s/goddess/es for the world that these two showed me. i became, like the rest of the world's current reading population, a card-carrying Gaiman geek.
fast-forward to The Year That Was Was (2005), Neil came to the country. and months before, 99% of the people in my circle were all abuzz. i chastised a friend of mine for wanting to get to the first event by 7am, and i wound up being there at 6:30am, 7th in line. the line went on for days and Neil came in like a rockstar--all tall, a little fuzzy, and British. what ensued was a "wall of sound" that Neil fondly recalled in his blog.
in those three days, i was able to get four books signed-A Game of You, Neverwhere, Coraline, Smoke and Mirrors, and a hug from my literary idol. and though he probably signed it a million times, i felt that his "Zane, Mind the Gap --n.g." on my battered and slightly embarrassing copy of Neverwhere was special. i did mind the gap that year (but that's another story).
imagine my excitement upon learning that the office was helping Fully Booked organize a special NG book-signing and talk for the ad congress delegates. my boss, donna, dropped by to ask for volunteers from the creatives, but it was like we were all waiting for a sign. then she said we can have our books signed and five hands promptly shot up in the air. by saturday, my The Wake, Mr. Punch, Smoke and Mirrors (i gave the last one to a friend), Good Omens, and Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire (with an N.G. foreword) were signed.
he read the first chapter of the book he's currently writing entitled (so far) The Graveyard. it sounded very interesting. one of the fans asked if he would ever write more erotica in the future, and neil said it always embarrasses him to write that kind of literature. it takes him two years to finish one story, because there are points where he'd be really embarrassed and he has to stop until the embarrasment goes away, and that's when he'll start writing it again. he also joked that unlike children's lit, which he loves writing because it can be enjoyed by one's kids and families for a long time, erotica is something he hopes doesn't get published until his whole family is gone. he's so damn amusing.
he also said "fantasy is a marvelous tool for making things in real life solid" (or something like that.) AND helped someone make the coolest proposal EVER (my boss told us about this in advance. i was surprised to see that the girl was someone i knew). neil is wonderment.
i finally got that infamous "Burn this book --n.g." =)
Day2, Philippine Fashion Week, Rockwell Tent - I found myself backstage ogling half-naked male models (some female models, too), interviewing designers, and pulling both designer and model for speedy photo shots for some articles...times like these...aaah, life!
this one male model was particularly devilish, with a weird little buntot-like braid that stuck out from his nape. i was happy enough to enjoy the view, but as soon as he passed by me and rushed to change into his next outfit with a terse "pu****ina ang sakit!" (having worn a hard native hat), i knew he was straight. new nameless lust object i can attach any fictional character to. whee! (i only know three people---all girls---who will not think that pathetic).
************** 300 count up to 1,200. hankering for the 1,500th before my next crimson wave.
************** in other news, learned that the dude who plays norin radd aka silver surfer in the fantastic four movie sequel is none other than doug jones, same graceful actor who played Abe in the first Hellboy movie (yes, it deserves a capital letter).
and speaking of Hellboy...where the hell is movie numbah two??? mr. pan's labyrinth, let's do this!
************** the back of my eyes have been feeling a little hot since thursday, my throat is itchy, and my nose feels like the sahara... dear universe, before i get sick, please make me finish at least the major deliverables at woik...
there's something about 300 that immediately grabs you, right from the first frame. i think it's that the movie really suspends disbelief, making it easy for the audience to just get lost in what they're watching. i've always believed that this is what the best movies are supposed to do.
sure, gerard butler bellows his way through most of the movie. sure, 300 men can't be that strong against tens of thousands. sure, there are T&A shots galore (enough for both sexes). sure, goatmen that play musical instruments may raise an eyebrow or two. but you sort of think that these things are what makes an enduring myth, and myths are just supposed to be beautiful, not realistic.
truthfully, plot is not the strongest point of the movie. it is just a simple retelling of a story. but precisely because it is simple, there's so much room for the audience to get their spirits involved. i really did clap when it ended.
most of us know the story of sparta's "300", but it's great to see someone paint it so tenderly it is erotic. mr. zack snyder and mr. frank miller, i am speechless.
it is, undoubtedly, one of the most visually stunning films ever. there's so much muscle in the saturation of selected colors. it's really how stories like these have always looked like inside your head--a little otherworldly. in the awe-inspiring battle scenes, blood flowed like wine at a wedding, and it all looked glorious.
of course, casting is key, and they found the perfect spartan king in gerard butler. the former phantom of the opera is all roar and gritty authority as leonidas, yet butler also manages to imbue him with humanity. with butler, it's easy to understand how leonidas can be egotistical enough to take only 300 men to a great battle to protect his people's pride, yet listen to the advice of a woman. that woman is played be lena headey. as leonidas' queen gorgo, headey is strong and sensual, a woman who exudes the quiet power of someone who is sure in her convictions. with headey, it's easy to see why the king treats his queen an equal. every one else does his part, such as david wenham as dilios the narrator.
i came out of the theater thinking this is one of the sexiest movies i have ever seen. it's not just because of the sex (or the suggestion of such), nor the rippled male bodies on full display. it's mostly the assurance of the characters we're rooting for, an ancient assurance that is so completely realized it only needs physical conduits and no big hoopla or such (so unlike the misplaced confidence of those running this election season).
needless to say, i will be watching this again, and again. do. not. miss. 300. even if all your cool, anti-establishment friends say its overrated. trust your guts and not what other people say or don't say, like true manly men =)
