Eraserheads

I was eating dinner with two friends from the office at a local fastfood (hehe... "karenderya"). TV Patrol World was on and we caught news regarding the abrupt, almost tragic end to the Eraserheads reunion concert last Saturday, August 30. Ely Buendia, vocalist, reportedly collapsed backstage as the band was preparing for their second set. No details whether Ely lost consciousness. He was rushed to a nearby hospital.

If I were in Manila at that time, I'd be in the concert. I remember there was no bigger Filipino band around 1994, 1995. There will probably those who'd disagree, but seriously, song for song, hit for hit, there is yet to be a bigger local band than the Eraserheads. Their only album that I own was "Cutterpillow" (1995). It was a cassette tape. I was a scholar in high school and what little allowance I had at the time I saved for stuffs other than cassettes that were, quite frankly, luxuries for me. But I still saved money and I bought the tape. I was happy I did. I'd play it over and over at home. And I even brought it with me to school. The jeepney ride from school to home was around 30 minutes (from home to school I'd ride the DM bus for free) depending on the number of stops it had to make along the way. I'd ask the drivers if they could play the tape. They would. More than one time, I'd be in a jeep and my fellow passengers (mostly students) would sing along or at least mouth the words to the Cutterpillow hits.

While eating and upon hearing the news.
Me: Remember how popular they were back then?
Friend 1: Hmm... don't know.
Friend 2: Believe him. It was during his time. He's that old.
Me: (Shrugs) There's nothing more popular than them. I'm glad I was old enough to enjoy their heyday.

According to Jessica Zafra, these were the fourteen songs they played before the reunion was cut short: 1. Alapaap 2. Ligaya 3. Sembreak 4. Hey Jay 5. Harana 6. Fruitcake 7. Toyang 8. Kama Supra 9. Kailan 10. Wag Kang Matakot 11. Kaliwete 12. With A Smile 13. Shake Yer Head 14. Huwag Mo Nang Itanong Sa Akin.

Love stories: For the First Time vs. WALL-E

For the First Time

The last time I went to see a Tagalog movie in a theater was to see Ploning. I was disappointed with that movie mainly because I expected so much more than what it delivered. But after watching For the First Time (FTFT) last night with two friends from the office I began to appreciate the effort that the Ploning filmmakers exerted to upgrade the level of Philippine cinema. FTFT was nothing but an excuse to bring together KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez to the big screen and with them their fans (which I don't have any idea as to how many because even in my home city of Cagayan de Oro where we have a TV set, I don't follow Philippine showbiz). The story was unbelievable. Their love story was improbable. The dialog, especially when delivered by Richard, was both unbelievable and hideous. Worse is the admission was actually 10 pesos higher than the one I paid to see WALL-E, and 20 pesos more than to see Ploning. Even worse was that the 9:25 PM screening that we attended was just a few souls away from selling out at the time we arrived to buy our tickets. What's happening with the world?

WALL-E

I went to see WALL-E on August 18 along with two friends from the office. Pixar delivered yet again in both the quality story and quality animation arenas. Could Pixar be the perfect studio that can't deliver any bad movie? Even the short film that traditionally precedes each Pixar feature was great just like the past.

Earth is so full of trash that the people had to leave the planet in a cruise spaceship Axiom while the planet was being cleaned up by the WALL-E (Waste Allocator Load Lifter - Earth Class) robots. 700 years later, Earth is still laden with garbage and there is only one WALL-E left. It leads a lonely life until a robot probe (EVE) is deployed to check the planet for any sign of life. This is co-written and directed by Andrew Stanton who made Finding Nemo (which is my favorite Pixar film). The theme song performed by Peter Gabriel is a bit strange on its own, but it fitted very well with the movie's beautiful end credit sequence.

FTFT vs. WALL-E

Ironic, but it is more believable that two robots could actually fall in love in WALL-E than for Seth and Sophia in FTFT. The love story in WALL-E was more developed and felt real. The one in FTFT was contrived and improbable. Granted the two films differed in budget (although I don't think that the budget was the reason why FTFT sucked, it's more because its script was terrible), comparing FTFT to the last Tagalog movie I saw before it, Ploning was in many ways a hundred times better than FTFT. Compared to it, FTFT looked like a made-for-TV movie and even then it would still stink.

On the seas

It's over an hour since our ship left the port of Cagayan de Oro bound for Cebu. Out of curiosity I powered up my laptop and tried to see if I could get a Weroam signal in (somewhat) the middle of the sea. There is a signal, but only a GPRS one which is the slowest (dialup) among the possible signal available on Weroam. Nice. Not great, but nice.

I feel a little sad of leaving Cagayan de Oro again. This is what I don't like in going home. I have to leave it again. And I feel sad every time. It's not a cliche. There's no place like home.

Looking forward to the planned white water rafting activity this November and the Camiguin trip this December with college friends. I hope both plans push through.

Lions and cakes

To the lady with the most playful of names,
Whose name's the most beautiful sound
Jake has ever heard.

ROQUITA.

To the woman with the most infectious of laughters,
Whose smile's the most sincere one
Jake has ever glimpsed.

EKIT.

To the señorita who eats lions for breakfast,
Whose toughness is the only thing
Jake will ever fear.

DOÑA RUTH.

To the girl who craves cakes for desserts,
Whose sweetness the most ironic anomaly
Jake has ever encountered.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Lions and Cakes

This is a birthday poem in lieu of a message I wrote for an office mate's birthday. Every time somebody celebrates a birthday, one of my office mates would collect messages and create a powerpoint presentation to be sent to the celebrant a day or so before his or her birthday.

August 7 - Happy birthday, Ekit.

That first lullaby

carefully they whispered your name
happily sung in morning hymns
immeasurable smiles on their faces
beautifully written in tears
beaming with joy and gladness
your cry vanished into peace

and on your cheek they plant a kiss
happy to know you cared

and in your dreams you blow a kiss
happy to know they're scared

that first lullaby

This is a birthday poem in lieu of a message I wrote for an office mate's birthday. Every time somebody celebrates a birthday, one of my office mates would collect messages and create a powerpoint presentation to be sent to the celebrant a day or so before his or her birthday.

August 5 - Happy birthday, Chenara.

The Mummy 3

I together with five officemates went to see The Mummy 3 last Wednesday. I half like it. I like the first two movies better. I don't find the jokes and comic scenes in this movie funny. And I thought the story lacked something to make it deserved a theatrical release. It felt like a straight-to-video story. But it was a bit fun, so I guess that's what made me half liked it. I wouldn't recommend it to those who expected something like the 2nd movie. Perhaps Rachel Weisz made the right decision not to reprise her role in this third installment.

Four movies

It's Sunday afternoon and I don't feel that well so I might as well blog about four movies that I saw in theaters, but didn't have enough time to write a full theater report for each. Ahh... not enough time, the constant excuse of a lazy blogger.

Kung Fu Panda

It seems that Pixar is the only animation studio that consistently comes up with great stories. But Kung Fu Panda has a good and funny story. It's nice to see Dreamworks come up with something good aside from the Shrek franchise (where storywise, #1 is the only one that I really liked) . And I found it really funny, though not as funny as I thought it was based on the what I've heard prior to seeing it.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The company's movie night pick for June. Visually-stunning just like (and more so than) the first one. The story is much darker this time, and I was literally on the edge of my seat during the battle scenes (and not because the seat was damaged). I was bored at some parts in the first movie, but not in this one. Didn't like the song that got played during the credits, though, not because it was bad, but more because it didn't feel right and didn't fit the movie as a whole.

Maid of Honor

If you've seen My Best Friend's Wedding, you'll most likely not like this one at all. Aside from the premise there's no other similarity between the two films. There are no laugh out loud moments and there are no dramatic-romantic moments. All six of us who went to see this movie, agreed, it was just silly.


Get Smart

I love it. I'm not familiar with the TV series that this movie was based on, but I thought it was going to be another Johnny English (which isn't that bad because I love Rowan Atkinson type of comedy). But this turned out to be something more. I mean Maxwell Smart was, well, smart unlike Johnny English. He's just not adept at field agent work that he always wanted. And Anne Hathaway was very good as Agent 99. We saw this a few days after seeing Maid of Honor, which we hated, and it sort of made up for that bad movie.

Theater Report: The Dark Knight

July 20, 2008
Ayala Center Cinema 1
8:00 PM
Attendance: 98% of capacity

Previews:

Just in time, so didn't catch any trailer.

Story:

If Batman Begins explored the origins of the caped crusader, this one explored, through dialogues, the story of The Joker. As The Joker's character is unfolded before us, the deeper story of Bruce Wayne and Batman was also exposed. And together with this exposition, and with the help of Harvey Dent's and Rachel Dawes's stories, the deeper story of Gotham City as a community is being exposed before our eyes.

Thoughts:

I'm not a fan of the Batman comics, or any other comic superheroes for that matter, though I watched the cartoon series. But in terms of comicbook superhero movies, this is without a doubt a cut above the rest. Of course, the fact that Batman has no superpowers naturally lent itself to this kind of deeper and more human exploration, but so does Iron Man and yet I have to say that this movie more than the Iron Man, just like its predecessor (Batman Begins), made the characters as human as they could possibly be without ignoring the medium from which the movie was adapted from. The high tech gadgets are still there, the tank of a bat mobile is still there, and yet if at the end of the movie you looked back at what you've just seen you'd realized that all those things were secondary to the story of Batman, of The Joker, of Harvey Dent, of James Gordon, and of Gotham City itself. Even if you're not a fan of the comic books, you'd still care for Bruce/Batman because underneath the armor of a bat suit, this guy, the Batman, is shown to be not unlike the non-costumed good guys like Harvey Dent and James Gordon, or even the villain The Joker, just another human being with weaknesses, unable to shake his past from how he behaves at the present, and not totally in control of the things that are happening around him. I believed Spider-Man 2 started this trend of making superheroes more human. And it's refreshing to see these movies raking in lots of money in the box office. It meant we can expect more superhero movies like this get made with in-depth exploration of characters.

Would I see it again? No, but only because the twists and turns in the movie wouldn't have the same effect having already seen how the story went. But if I have companion, I would go see this again in a heartbeat. Would I recommend it to my friends? Yes. It's definitely worth the ticket price that I didn't pay to see it. On a side note, I'm not proud that a girl treated me to a Batman movie, but she insisted.

One year hence

I just came from our project's first year anniversary party. It also officially marked my first year working here in Cebu. I'm happy with what I have learned and will learn in the future. I don't regret working here. But I missed home a lot. It's been four months since my last trip home and I missed my parents very much. But I can't go home because I don't want to have to plan to go home on a weekend only to fail because there are urgent things that need to get done at work. It's tiring, but I honestly love what I'm doing. Thankfully, two airlines now operate daily flights from Cebu to Cagayan de Oro. They're a bit more expensive than going by ferry, but an hour an a half's flight is certainly less stressful. Flying home also means not having to hurry on Fridays just to catch the eight o'clock voyage. There's a morning and an afternoon Saturday flight to choose from. This doesn't mean that I'll never go home by ferry again, but it's just nice to have an option to fly home Saturday instead of just the ferry ride Friday night.

Some of my DM barkadas had left my former company also. One is now working in another IT company here in Cebu. Two have flown to Dubai. And another one is joining my present company, but was assigned to another location.

I remember my last full day in my previous company. I was really really sad. I truly had a dream of retiring from that company. My parents had both worked there more than half of their lives. I was prepared to do the same. But sadly, I had to face reality. I saw no future there and was compelled to look for opportunities elsewhere.

I'm happy with where I am now. Yeah, it's tiring at times, but there have been wonderful events as well. All the team building events as well as our mini-tours and night outs with my start mates had been fun and I'm looking forward to our future trips. I have also made a lot of new wonderful, smart, energetic, fun, and caring friends. I know God has a reason for me to be here. There have been countless events in my life where I didn't understand why I was in some difficult situation only to have the answer weeks or months after they happen. My resignation from my previous job last year was in itself nothing short of a perfect timing. From what I had gathered from my previous colleagues, my former department isn't headed towards anything. Had I not resigned, it would have been another year of doing pretty much the same thing. Instead, I'm learning new stuffs everyday.

God truly has His mysterious ways. It's sometimes difficult at first, but looking back they're perfect.

Just smile

May smile finds its way back
And sadness be lifted off
Remember the happy past
Imagine them back and
Everything shall fall in place

Love continuously
Offer a smile spontaneously
Understand frequently

Measure success by love given
And not how much was returned
You have already won

Smile the biggest smile
Make the sadness shy
Imagine what went before return
Love like that rose without torn, and
Everything shall fall in place

Marie Lou May Smile
- a cheesy birthday poem I wrote for Rocky's birthday (July 8).