Holiday Ramblings

I'd like to apologize to my loyal readers for failing to come out with any entries during the holidays. I would like to blame the undersea earthquake for making it difficult to connect to Blogger, or the hectic holiday season itself, but the truth is, I had every opportunity to do so, and didn't. One of the many hidden joys of the season lies in the fact that celebrating the holidays is tiring. What would our holiday season be like without our frantic efforts to do some last minute shopping? Or our equally frenzied, desperate efforts to stretch our holiday gift giving budget as far as it can go? Or our pathetic efforts to juggle our schedule so we can meet our social obligations, at least to the people who truly matter?

In my case at least, this telling tiredness that threatened to suck the cheer out of the holiday season helped me to realize you really don't have to go through all that trouble to experience the true joys of the season: sometimes, all you have to do is waste time with some loved ones.

Happy Holidays! Waste some time on people that you love.

The Facts in the Case of the Notorious Nose

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, allow me to present the facts of the case.

First, let us consider Exhibit A: a precocious, strong-willed, spirited two year old male with a pronounced preference for discovery and adventure.

Second, let us consider Exhibit B: the broken off tip of a blue , rounded (as opposed to hexagonal) graphite pencil with extremely thick, highly pigmented lacquer.

Last, let us consider Exhibit C: the average human nose. Now, what would occur in the unfortunate event that Exhibit A decides to put Exhibit B into Exhibit C?

In the matter of "The Oddly Exhilarating Case of the Partially Clogged Left Nasal Passage Prior to Having Dinner at the Lozano Household", a newfound admiration for my son Juan's ability to get himself in and out of trouble in ten seconds or less, which was the amount of time that yours truly left the little tyke unattended while stealing some badly needed nap time before picking Mama Tina up from badminton.

Photo Credits:

The image of the human nose comes from Penn Health.

Acquired Tastes: Zach Braff's "Apocalypto"

Let's forget for the moment that Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" has grossed $28,209,532 as of today.

Or that noted critic Peter Travers of Rolling Stones magazine, among many such admiring cineastes, hails Gibson for having "made a film of blunt provocation and bruising beauty".

Or that, rather sensibly, The New Yorker's Anthony Lane observes that is important to separate our evaluation of Gibson as a filmmaker from Gibson as a human being:

“Apocalypto” is a pathological work of art. It is neither gratuitous nor casual; Gibson is not trying out an idea or testing a visual manner, and the digital cameras used throughout by the director of photography, Dean Semler, yield both a lustre and a pantherish mobility that reach to the guts of the story. That is the thing about Gibson, fool that he is in other ways: he has learned how to tell a tale, and to raise a pulse in the telling. You have to admire that basic gift, uncommon as it is in Hollywood these days, though equally you have to ask what obsessions goad it on. Contrary to what his detractors say, I don’t believe Gibson is roused by violence in itself. What lures him, in his dark remoldings of Catholic iconography, is breakage and restoration—the deeper and more foul the wounds, the more pressing the need to see them healed.

Not having seen Apocalypto, I am in no position to judge the film as a work of art or as a sociological phenomenon that reflects the artistry of reality. I have, however, seen this, and regardless of how one feels about either Mel Gibson or Zach Braff, one can't deny that in the most severely disjointed aesthetic sense, they were made for each other. Enjoy!

Photo Credits:

Poster for "Apocalytpo" comes courtesy of No hay rosa sin espina .

Picture of Zach Braff comes courtesy of Yahoo.

Yuletide Treats!

Once again, the Yuletide season has crept up on possibly the worst holiday season shopper in the Philippines, yours truly. While more responsible gift givers accomplish their holiday shopping well before even the hint of the ghost of the season rears its gaudily decorated, cheery head, I'm scrambling to even make out a list of gifts.

At the risk of ruining the delightful surprise which normally accompanies the ritual of opening gifts on Christmas eve for my friends and loved ones, my "go-to" gift is normally a book. Earlier, as I braved the pre-lunchtime shopping mob at SM Megamall, I dropped by both National Bookstore and Powerbooks, and I found out, much to my joy, that there are some fantastic bargains to be had in the midst of all the Dan Brown paperback book sets.

One such gem comes from the Dover Thrift Edition imprint, where one could get The World's Greatest Short Stories edited by James Daley for less than Php 200. The short story collection includes a sentimental favorite of mine, the wonderful short story by the Japanese master Yasunari Kawabata, "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket". I would've bought the book, which includes a creditable selection of works by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Joyce, Kafka, Updike, Pirandello, and Mann, for that story alone. Allow me to share a how this beautifully realized vignette, (a collection of observations, really, about rather ordinary things) coalesces, in the sure hands of a master craftsman, into a quietly lyrical meditation on life and love:

Even if they remembered forever that Fujio had given her the cricket and that Kiyoko had accepted it, not even in dreams would Fujio ever know that his name had been written in green on Kiyoko’s breast or that Kiyoko’s name had been inscribed in red on his waist, nor would Kiyoko ever know that Fujio’s name had been inscribed in green on her breast or that her own name had been written on Fujio’s waist.

Fujio! Even when you have become a young man, laugh with pleasure at a girl’s delight when, told that it’s a grasshopper, she is given a bell cricket; laugh with affection at a girl’s chagrin when, told that it’s a bell cricket, she is given a grasshopper.

Even if you have the wit to look by yourself in a bush away from the other children, there are not many bell crickets in the world. Probably you will find a girl like a grasshopper whom you think is a bell cricket.

And finally, to your clouded, wounded heart, even a true bell cricket will seem like a grasshopper. Should that day come, when it seems to you that the world is only full of grasshoppers, I will think it a pity that you have no way to remember tonight’s play of light, when your name was written in green by your beautiful lantern on a girl’s breast.

Another cool buy would be the Vintage imprint edition of The Elephant Vanishesby Haruki Murakami, which is available for less than Php 400. For those who would want to get into Murakami, but could not afford to before due to the prohibitive prices which normally accompany his works, this is your chance to get to know the author. Normally, I would affix a multisyllabic compound descriptive to accompany my recommendation, but words fail me. Trust me. It's good stuff.

Photo Credits:

Picture of the frontcover to the Dover Thrift Edition imprint of The World's Greatest Short Stories comes courtesy of Dover Publications

Picture of the frontcover to the Vintage Imprint Edition of The Elephant Vanishes comes courtesy of Random House Vintage

Acquired Tastes: The Onion Dispatch

I just discovered that one of my favorite sites, The Onion, has this cool feature which allows bloggers to share selected content. Anyway, by way of trying out this nifty little tool (Wait a sec! Did I just use the term "nifty"? More importantly, did I just use the term "little tool"? Somewhere, my students are snickering, and I'm not sure whether they're doing so for the right reasons...) allow me to share these dispatches from The Onion.

Rebels Immediately Regret Seizing Power In Zambia

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA—"None of the blood that filled our streets nor the carnage that choked our citied could have prepared us for these pathetic annual GDP figures," said former rebel and new head of state Uwimana Kowry.

Bill Walton Spends Entire Lakers Broadcast Gushing About His Son

LOS ANGELES—Bill Walton, the former NBA Most Valuable Player and popular current NBA broadcaster, spent the entire running time of Tuesday night's Milwaukee Bucks–Los Angeles Lakers game lavishing praise and affection on his son Luke,...

If you're interested, at all, in either politics, competitive sports and the slightly (and at times, this is a generous concession to Truth) crazy personalities that inhabit both seemingly unrelated spheres, then by all means, click! Enjoy!

Acquired Tastes: The Happiest Dead Boy in the World

So soon after Jason de Villa's entry on books that people might want to spend their holiday cheer on comes Brian Belen's entry on speedy reading for nerds on the go. Honestly, sometimes I don't know what's worse: that I spent more than half the day conducting surreptitious research on the books mentioned above, or that I never felt that I wasted any time in doing so.

All of which leads to the point of this entry, which I will get to after I raise an oddly intriguing tangential question: Nerds on the go? Are we talking about movement in hyperreality or via Segway? Honestly, with nerds, one is never quite sure...

Sorry. I just finished re-reading the Tad Williams novella, The Happiest Dead Boy in the World, (and if you're nodding at this point, you're probably also thinking that the Segway i2 looks like a really, really cool way to get around town, to which I would like to point out, it's a really cool way to get around Nerdlandia, but definitely not Metro Manila) and "nerds on the go" seems a concept as difficult to understand as "nerds on the make". But if one accepts the basic premise that even visually impaired, precociously intelligent, highly allergic individuals such as myself can find true love, then reconciling the aforementioned concepts should be no problem, as would enjoying the short story mentioned above, which can be found in Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy. Just thought I'd put my two cents worth in on books that should bring you good cheer this holiday season. Enjoy!

Photo Credits:

Picture of the Segway i2 comes courtesy of Segway.
Picture of the Segway i2 for Policemen comes courtesy of Segway.
Picture of Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy comes courtesy of Amazon.

Acquired Tastes: Gabrielle

First off, if any of my five or so loyal readers are interested in sensible commentary on books they might want to spend their hard-earned Christmas bonus on, head on over to my friend Jason de Villa's blog, where he gives his two cents worth on some of the books that have caught his interest. I've always valued Jason's opinion, from when he took a chance on a mildly intelligent and curiously entertaining fresh grad named John-D Borra (and taught him all he needed to know to realize that he'll never be as good an editor as the fantastic crew at COMSERV), to his carefully considered pronouncements regarding the integration of technological gadgetry into everyday life.

Last night, I was privileged to be present at the critic's night for Palanca-award winner Joachim Antonio's thoroughly entertaining and unrepentantly intelligent commentary on the lighter side of the fairy tale genre, Gabrielle. As much as I would want to subject my long-suffering readers with another narcissistic entry glorifying the verdant wit and insight of John-D Borra into the mysteries of theater in general, let me, in lieu of self-serving criticism, offer the following random observations regarding the production as a whole.

First, let me extend my most sincere congratulations to the (as yet) nameless people who produced the poster for Gabrielle. It captures the spirit of the play quite well.

Second, allow me to offer more constructive criticism for Lorenz Visco, the Elf, who did rather well in such a thankless role. Heed the advice of the playwright: he designed the role for you to run away with it. Do some landscaping; chew the scenery! Above all, have fun. If all else fails, discovering little nuggets of joy even in the most ordinary of circumstances make the experience all worth it.

Lastly, please watch The Princess Bride, not only to enjoy the joie de vivre that characterizes the swordplay, but to revisit the timeless good cheer that characterizes finding True Love.

Photo Credits:
Picture of The Princess Bride (Special Edition) DVD comes courtesy of Amazon.

Celebrating Little Miracles: Tagaytay!

Other than Metro Manila miraculously being spared by Typhoon Reming over the weekend, a second, even more astounding miracle came the Borra family's way: somehow, despite our hectic schedules, we were able to steal time to be with one another. Of course, I could go off on an extended rant about how simply discharging one's professional and social obligations in these modern times has made it necessary to "steal time" to be with one's loved ones, but I'll simply thank God for the wonderful gift that He sent my way and post a link to our Tagaytay Highland adventures and the resulting sleepover where we, as a family, got together and celebrated a mystery as precious, as joyful, and almost as religiously significant as the holy sacrifice of the mass: each other. Enjoy!