closing september

off the high street

a chair is still a chair

even when there's no one sitting there.

and a house is not a home.

the chairs look forlorn prior to handover. am not really running out of topics to share. i've been tapping my energy to watch reruns of Life Unexpected, a far better show than 90210 or One Tree Hill which are straight melodramas. Charice Pempengco on Glee is good, although I don't stream. I only saw the highlights and read the recaps. Pempengco's success should divert the Filipinos affection towards the fair skinned mestizas who merely looks good rather than having pure genuine talent. But then perhaps not, image is everything in show business.

brunch or telly

should i choose a fab brunch with my cool friends or an afternoon of ryder cup moments during the weekend? golf takes nine hours to complete, but this is matchplay, much more enthralling than regular golf. decisions, decisions.

speaking of enthralling, been drawn to the fashion pages the last few days. maybe it's the nippy air but i see really cool stuff in the Milan fashion week.

bare page

in an evening where there's practically nothing on tv, getting chilled subconsciously, watching friends reruns seem the prudent choice.

really, ed trumped david? what were the chances?

S to Z

S -- is for snow, and summer. the weather irks, and provokes discussion into its myriad aspects.

T -- for Tottenham Hotspur.

U -- for Life Unexpected, a witty show about a formerly fostered kid.

V -- is for vignette, or vinegar.

W -- is for winter. what's summer without winter?

Wizard of Oz, West Side Story

Y -- for Yards, i miss going to a seamstress.

Z -- is for Zed. and Led Zeppelin.

charlotte, emily polemics

having read both jane eyre and wuthering heights, i mulled over the terminologies reflected in the ongoing debate between the sisters in this article. preferring jane eyre myself, and being juxtaposed to a librarian is definitely not too shabby. aside from attaching articulate lyrics to haunting melodies, the excitement in a rock star's routine is much too melodramatic for my liking. while a librarian is being surrounded by books, lots and lots of books, in a hubbub of cool serenity.

actually, i find wuthering heights too dark and gloomy, and the fact that it was adapted into film (hihintayin kita sa langit) starring richard gomez and dawn zulueta, directed by carlitos siguion-reyna does not bode well in my affections. not that i don't like richard or dawn, i just wasn't drawn to that interpretation. while the film devotion, very fictional in any shape, way or form, may have urged me to like charlotte better than emily, only a little bit. jane eyre stands on its own by way of plot and flammable paragraphs. the mad woman in the attic may be a product of imagination but the miseries and tragedies of boarding schools is an authentic account of appalling conditions in those days, before the coinage and mass production of antibiotics.

others prefer emily, i've got to find the time to read her poetry. at the moment, i'm reading all things charlotte. later, anne.

F to R

F -- is for films, in whatever genre, even if it's fluff or veritable chick flicks. ok, i watch mostly chick flicks. there might not be great insights in the scenes in Notting Hill. but they illuminate my existence, and they star actors i can tolerate. because it's an exorbitant£11 on weekends, when i actually bother to go to the cinema.

Friends, the tv series.

G -- is for grandparents. no offence to my Lola Nellie. but my Lola Dels and Lola Cel made for impact in my life.

H -- is for humdrum. the daily routine is no reality show, never contrived, lots of lulls.

I -- is for Ikea, fabulous innovations.

J -- is for June, my birthday month.

K -- is for Krypton, the planet, geeks discussing comic book tidbits are amazing to watch, so very The Big Bang Theory.

L -- for Lady Gaga. i particularly like that video with Beyonce.

the Los Angeles Lakers.

M -- is for Muse. enjoyed the concert (above).

N -- is for Nirvana. good music.

O -- for onomatopoeia.

P -- for palindromes. and poetry.
and pearl jam.

Q -- is for quotations, from facebook friends.

R -- reviews. i like reading reviews on a Friday.

from keyboard to touchscreen

the blogger app on my phone couldn't post for two days, testing my patience to its limits, pushing me to exasperations. until now, i still couldn't figure out the publication errors, but it ultimately allowed posting. my netbook meanwhile is very slow. i tried cleaning the caches but nothing, i'm back in the dark ages. but then there was a time not too long ago when the internet was only available in cafes, which didn't serve coffee, or at the Singapore library. that was the diversion, escaping from the place of residence to check my emails and bask in the magical world of yahoo. now, it's in our fingertips, all too generous for the little comforts, making us sit back and relax as long as there's cellular reception.

alphabet (a-e)

A -- a is for apple, or atis, i miss atis, although it's such a chore to eat.

B -- b is for books. i love to read fiction, or any kind of literature, even in a hurry.

C -- c is for clutter. overwhelmingly everywhere and difficult to contain.

D -- d is for dance, which i don't do often.

E -- e is for exercise. i don't exercise often either.

cookie insight

quote from my fortune cookie:

Forget past mistakes.
Forget failures.
Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it.

Daily Art Walk: Painted Page

from my very talented aunt's page, as usual.

Daily Art Walk: Painted Page: "This is a page in my visual journal. I was actually just playing! I dabbed some black acrylic paint and used an old EASI phone card to spr..."

substitute

jen aniston, enjoying the perks of typecasting, looks incredibly hot. by her sparkling skin tone, it's apparent that she's one of those ladies pampered by fine dining, spa treatments and grand vacations and has a beautiful abode to boot, all paid for by the hollywood machine. unlike several others she had done in the past, her previous film the bounty hunter was a departure in a sense that she was actually sharing screen time with her co-star, not playing second fiddle or leading lady to the male lead. in the switch, aniston as kassie, is back to second lead, as the star of jason bateman's narration while bateman as wally dominates the frames. but as with the commuter review i've read, this baster is no turkey. i don't even find the first part dragging. my only complaint with the screenplay is that, why don't we see the resulting offspring sebastian in diapers? why didn't the characters age after seven years? convenience, or the movie is really about a child and his relationship with his real birth father and their scenes together are smart and entertaining.

monitors

like a melancholic refrain, both these posts were written almost consecutively. i didn't notice them clustered together until the dates above this title. i'm that tired, yes. plus all the confounding and terrifying drama behind the scenes. i don't know how i'm still calm.

i read an article on grief recently, about a 30-something guy who lost his father and needed therapy. my brothers and i were able to cope well after the deaths of our parents. we didn't need counselling. i had to arrange, together with my significant others three funerals in three months, including that of my baby daughter who died in utero. but we got to move on from the past trials and plan ahead for the future, build an armour to answer back the bitches that simply annoy the hell out of a lot of people.

flickering cellphones

twinkle, twinkle tiny mobiles (at muse concert at wembley stadium -- 2010).

horizontal

It's a struggle to remain in a vertical position when one is utterly exhausted. Is it only me who gets listless and weary after an excruciating week? Or we can overcome pain and tiredness by eating fruits and vegetables and regular exercise? Or despite a diet consisting mainly of salads, too much work and reckoning tires the spirit? It could be time management issues but mainly even if our backs are murdered, a simple smile from the higher-ups is almost non-existent.

recess

The weather's been great. (Forget that I got drenched yesterday). The last weekend was fabulous for walking. Seen The Switch at my usual shopping center. Should have known better than to buy drinks from the cinema's concession stands, huge mark up. But the movie made up for the excess pennies. It was entertaining. I'm biased definitely.

strolling

A pile of clutter in the middle of the room is called art.

When does art becomes art or just merely a tawdry collection of rubbish in the eye of the beholder?

Galleries and museums revisit history, display the resplendent relics of a culture and encourage the mind to widen its sphere.

To clear the subconscious of clutter, that's the beauty.

all the spectacle and more

probably despite conjuring my best efforts i would never be able to give justice to what i witness on friday night. i just read this review over and over and agree, yes, the muse concert at wembley stadium was spectacular. we don't have a venue as huge as wembley in bacolod. so consider me manool (i'm lost in translation). the mister and i got in just the right time to catch lily allen and then some kind souls wanted to swap seats for their group to be aligned together and we agree. i like aisle seats. i didn't have to stand for most of the concerts. i have the utmost discomfort at the pit, mousy me.

it was a comprehensive display of good music and fantastic fireworks. my eyes were terribly hurt during the performance ( my eyes are getting older). but it was worth it. the array of 24 songs was enchanting, hypnotizing. life's been richer in the process.

too tired

how do we combat fatigue? using our body and mind to earn our keep, we engage in manual labour, or carry notes around not letting our hands get dirty.

waking up in the wee hours of the morning is already debilitating but we got to work to eat.


i utilise
my strength,
think deep.
hopefully,
write.

tiny fonts

how did we ever live before facebook and twitter? i don't have the time for twitter, or read jonathan franzen's freedom, or magazine materials that are handed over free by merely commuting around the UK.

or write.

perhaps later.

ahh, mmm

Gloria Diaz' comments on the Visayans command of the English language trigger a sensitive point in our crab and colonial mentality. I agree that speaking English is very useful not only in English speaking countries but probably in non-English speaking countries as well. Although how would I know, I've never really lived anywhere where English is not a dominant force and that includes Bacolod. However its proficiency should not be a benchmark of intelligence.

Our inner cultural nuances create confusion as well. Based on my observations, those from Luzon, I'm not only referring to those who are born and bred in Manila and other Tagalog speaking provinces but also other non-Tagalog speaking parts of Northern Philippines, tend to embrace Tagalog with more vigorous passion. When all else fails, it's the fallback language not English. Actually jousting with languages has nothing to do with regional idiosyncrasies, but on how we evolve in our communicative tendencies as we grow older. That is where Diaz was wrong. Thinking in English has nothing to do with winning beauty pageants, although it helps.

Charlene Gonzales in 1994 Miss Universe was articulate but still made me gasp in befuddlement. "Superwoman"? "High tide, Low tide"? Ruffa Gutierrez should have been crowned in the 1993 Miss World by quoting from The Little Prince. But the judges looked the other way. Miriam Quiambao was tearing the competition apart during the 1999 Miss Universe but stumbled and mumbled during the last question.

I couldn't find a flaw in Venus Raj answer, the judges were probably expecting her to dig a little bit deeper and come up with something witty like Gloria Diaz and her man on the moon classic.

stylus scribbles

Although we live in a deterministic universe, each individual has free will.
- dr. sheldon cooper-

the expendables.
the switch.
certified copy.

got to make proper request for a cozy sked. could hardly manoeuvre with the present lay- out.

to frown, or what?

met truly magnetic personalities yesterday -- smile a lot, speak very softly, incapable of disdain, or all could be a facade? what's real in this world? knowing people for years do not make us experts. knowing them for a little bit, does not yield the intended results either. it's by gut or instinct. to be likable, one has to be, i don't know, pleasant.

lost in the cliche

Welcome to September, to Autumn, to the start of Christmas list and shopping.

Summer's gone. Darn.