a tale of two daniels

almost a week ago, i was able to devour revealing interviews on two celebrities going by the name of daniel. the older one, whose profiled appeared on the ny times mag and whose mesmerizing portrayals never fail to leave me in awe. while the younger other reminds me of my age, as he's young enough to be my offspring. both english with posh accents, daniel day- lewis and daniel radcliffe, from their celluloid characters to their real lives, are simply treasured by their fans.

i may not be as fascinated with the lush greens of oscar wilde's birthplace the way daniel day-lewis has embraced its serene features, but i have always been a fan of his acting chops. for the other daniel, mr. radcliffe, his charm lies in his hobbies in between productions. in direct contrast to princess diana's sons, the teenager does not like hibernating in the club circuits, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the generic young, rich and the restless undertakings.

the first and the only time i saw left foot was eons ago. i was still in school and in my late teens or i just hit twenty, i'm still hazy in the age aspect. despite the bravura day-lewis performance (probably the best ever in movie history), i fell asleep midway through the flick. i was just tired from school. after more than 15 years, i haven't found the time to finish the movie. but i know i would someday. from the age of innocence to gangs of new york, his name conjures its own brand of magic. i scoured all the web, stayed up all night during the oscars, waiting for him to win an academy award for gangs, but it wasn't meant to be. i was branded a gossip by a ginger spice look-alike boss by the mere fact i printed out his acceptance speech from the SAG Awards and gushing on its contents before handover. a method actor, it's a pity that day-lewis is not as prolific as the tabloid fodders. but a hardbound cineaste with taste can always pinpoint genuine talent. how i wish he would give the stage one more go and forget about seeing ghosts of his father.

harry potter is a universal brand that has made the youthful daniel radcliffe financially secured for life. In the ES interview, radcliffe reveals his affinity to poetry and as i indicated above, his reluctance to laze in the nightclub spotlight as he hates the music and the paparazzi. he's almost a demigod and he's a homebody? as the likes of harry's chelsy may find him boring, the film world's most famous wizard is maybe within the grasps of bespectacled bookworms.

jabbers and stuff

my husband says my paragraphs are too winded. whatever the crap he means. nah, what he's driving at, is that i beat around the bush. the words are long. the sentences are convoluted. but to quote my dearest one, "i don't care." i get cranky. my bakya side surfaces frequently in these pages and my paragraphs are replete with personal pronouns. but as some colleagues love to potter around their garden, or cook with a passion and view me as a kitchen cipher (i can concoct dishes, mind you), i get to express myself in writing. one of my saving graces from all the audacity i'm flooded with far away from the homeland.

bumping into one of the ladies in dark blue at work, she revealed she doesn't waste her pennies on paid publications, i. e. magazines, tabloids, broadsheets, the likes. after tearing the new yorker to smithereens and brandishing IQ scores, she catapulted herself to a level so high i could never ever reach. she's one interesting person actually. seeing through the haughtiness, she speaks with sense and there's a hidden kindness not apparent from the fairweathers.

speaking of magazines, i used to collect a weekly mag in my early teens, in addition to one national broadsheet. i've restructured over the years but my stash are still tons compared to my contemporaries. like my mom, i always look for things to read when in someone else's living room. my compilation poses a problem when i hurl myself to a new abode due to the weight. but it's fascinating to travel back in time, only through the print possessions and the clippings, which i also file in boxes and envelopes.

carrie's entryway, or a mere bookshelf for mags alone would be joyous. but i don't have the latitude at this junction, our books are still on the floor. not to mention, i'd rather have a wooden structure for all the CD's i've stepped on accidentally. the repositories i've assembled would do for the mags for now.

the web is taking over the functions of tv at this point. people are uploading shows, and all i do is download. if i don't like a scene i just forward it or forward the whole show altogether and watch only the scenes i like. same with recorded television, and the dvd's with the selected scenes features. as i would be awaiting dvd's from home, hopefully philpost would not turn into a real ligaw liham.

day job

i moan about work a lot, a lot, a lot. the scarcity of much needed support in a quite intense environment gets to my nerves.

last year, i was shaking my head, co-workers were simply swathed with their own press release. anybody with a little reading, i reckon, can sense the drift of high K and dangling phosphates and creatinines. a little bit of plumbing skills doesn't automatically transform a mere mortal into a supreme entity. i don't like the noise nor a quite caustic hauteur. but i don't get to bump into those B's now. that's by chance and by choice.

through the wonders of rotation, i've shifted back to the more chaotic, more stressful workplace. i've hurt my hand the other day and my wedding ring, my most cherished possession needs to be taken to the jewelers. the pain is the most excruciating i've felt and i've had two induced labors.

every job has issues. but it's always pleasant to be nice and more heartwarming to be friendly.

lurker

slacking my way around web forums the fast few days have certainly added some contour into my web time. it's invigorating to solely read rather than write and communicate as it's awkward during the introductory phase. i got so disappointed with one thread. there was the central topic but the sub-topic was highly-conflicting and made me think about choices in this world.

in between being stimulated by the conversations amongst drifters (to me at least), i've chanced upon a couple of lav diaz interviews. it would be a treat to watch his films but it's not standard cinema. i'm not sure if dvd's are available for any of his works. batang west side is five hours long while his other features have ten hours viewing time. i kind of agree with some of his statements, but it's a fact that majority of the filipinos or the masses, straightforwardly avoid deeper, more profound films, those visualizing the ills of society, most of the time. one of the highest grossing films of all time in the philippines is ang tanging ina, with ai ai, a supposed to-be spoof of the tearjerker, ang tanging yaman, which depicts a story of a filipino family's dynamics. i cannot render judgments on things i haven't seen. and tanging ina, and sukob for that matter, the movie that overtook the former from its lofty perch, are not my preferred films.

radiohead and faust

to be able to comprehend radiohead's In Rainbows properly, i had to familiarise myself with the great polymath goethe and his two-part closet drama epic faust -- faust's concern with the true essence of life, leading to his deal with mephistopheles (the devil). perhaps that's in itself the essence of attending a private school education, like the members of this talented band radiohead, the abingdon school in oxfordshire is no pushover. radiohead as young men were able to grasp the classics and tap into that knowledge for their music. unless i win the lottery, entry to a prep school for my offsprings in england would be too farfetched to even contemplate.

back to In Rainbows, it's a mesmerizing compilation, replete with languid acoustic ballads, with thom yorke's vocals filling the air with heartbreaking longings. the kind of music you want to listen when all the pent-up emotions are getting battered by defeat. all the tracks are good. there is certainly no weakness in this set. the album's tone is not all about sunshine and singin in the rain stuff, no glimpse of a happy ending. but it's a deluxe listening companion. the titles are not your usual's blunt's with weird fishes/arpeggi, so hypnotic through its soothing rhythm guitar while faust arp with its recoiling beats and imaginative lyrics is simply vintage radiohead.

according to the new york times, the next step with this latest project from the oxford boys would be an online package of two cd's, two vinyl records with a booklet for 40 big quid and In Rainbows as a single cd release in january. standard counter price, i presume. i have to include that in my gift list, acquiring the set would soften blow of missing a date with ewan mcgregor as iago in othello's run at the donmar.