nanny mcphee and the big bang

thoroughly took delight in watching nanny mcphee and the big bang --- maggie gyllenhaal and her commendable posh english accent although mrs. isabel green was anything but posh, the kids and their very mature, refrreshing acting, rhys ifans for being unrecognizable as that welsh bloke from notting hill. i like this concept of nanny mcphee transformation into beauty from all the lessons.

• Lesson #1: To stop fighting - Upper wart disappears.
• Lesson #2: To share - Lower wart disappears.
• Lesson #3: To work together - Unibrow disappears
• Lesson #4: To be brave - Hair goes from gray to brown.
• Lesson #5: To have faith - Snaggle tooth disappears.

now time to ask the nephews for their opinions.

cinema pass

this post got me into contemplation overdrive. star cinema. john lloyd cruz. cathy garcia-molina. the new generation of filipino moviegoers. can't say i relate. to be kind, i only watch judy ann santos movies since 1996.

are they?

posh in Britannia means the landed gentry. so Katie Price is not posh? despite the £40million? what about self-made rich guys like Branson, Ecclestone, et al?

the Branson kids hobnob with the young royals anyway. this dividing line between the old rich and nouveau rich shouldn't matter. but it does.

royalty is a delusion. or a term to subjugate others into nothingness. or a soft marshmallow touch in a movie such as the prince and me. the posh, the upper class, as depicted in woody allen's match point, is an old boys club pushing the central character into comfort but melancholia.

ready for the close up

my husband is not the type to watch romcoms. why not? because they're shite. his words. he wanted me to peek through baader-meinhof complex and learn all the swear words in germans. despite my initial reluctance, i decided to allot a scheduled viewing forLeap Year on Sky Plus because Amy Adams is again nominated for an Oscar (The Fighter) and Matthew Goode is Irish in this film, complete with the accent.

the plot is implausible, the chemistry between the leads are non-existent, we know that the Irish accent is fake but the saving grace were the views. they are picturesque. i can't recall why i even bothered. perhaps there's again nothing to watch? it's something different i guess. Amy Adams deserves her various close-ups. now, should i watch the Oscars tonight or have it recorded?

anything but

slebs. reality tv. the kardashians earning $65 million last year alone -- tweet links in the range of 25 grand, appearances fees, clothing lines, etc. all that stemming from a multi-arc reality family drama.

let's divert a bit, people getting into the performing arts, in front of an audience and camera -- acting, singing, acting, singing, are there to be famous. i don't believe it's for art's sake at all. it's always waiting for the big break, to be the next megastar, having the dough and if there are critical acclaims on the way and after stardom, why not? but first and foremost, there's the quest for fame. with fame comes clout, prestige and maybe an entourage. and in the phenomenon of reality tv, a discernible talent for acting, singing, miming and dancing need not be mandatory. although a little acting is handy in the contrived situations.

in hindsight, reality programs are cheaper than acting shows and a far more lucrative business model. witness the demise of music videos on mtv. how far along the mileage of its stars, it's anybody's guess, 15 minutes can be extended to an hour, or even forever.

joy's blog

hope my friend joy would write more frequently. she writes so well, blends her metaphors with admirable wit and unlike the ton, not a cliche i.e the neighbours, the joneses with the proverbial humdrum fried spring rolls and 1.5 dependents.

Daily Art Walk: Win a mixed media print!!!

from tita wan's site: buy her art. read her stories.

Daily Art Walk: Win a mixed media print!!!: "Hi there, I have been working on my website these past few days, re-designing it, making it more interesting and attractive. I have started ..."

Karga Tapas - Sugarcane Harvest in the Philippines

from michal joachimowski, a polish film maker.
beautiful. haunting. karga-tapas is a very negrense phrase.

uprising

it has been 25 years since the People Power Revolution. twenty five years since the snap elections, the rendition of Magkaisa and Handog ng Filipino sa Mundo. how did the people evolved from living in a dictatorship to being lead by a series of presidents who were confronted by their demons and did not usher a tiny residue of significant changes? i haven't been home for a couple of years, but i dare say, not much. we still hear stories of graft and corruption, red tape, of the population exploding every single minute, insurgency, unemployment, traffic, hunger and poverty. the Philippines is still third world.

i could barely remember the Marcos years. i was 11 during EDSA, fifth grade. what did i know about dictatorship? the year before that i was glued to this tome, Si Imelda, ang Filipina, it was one of our textbooks, not particularly part of curriculum. she was painted as this raving, ideal beauty who got married to a smart guy. she was so kind and almost saintly. there was the hairdo, the half-moon manicure, her singing. years after EDSA and discovering her shoe collection, i was able to skim the pages of The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos by Carmen Pedrosa and realised Si Imelda, ang Filipina was the book of lies.

no, one person, one family, for decades in power is never good. it's heartbreaking. but the succeeding presidents were not without censure. they may only have served out their terms but they were as greedy as the marcoses. we saw and still seeing the blatant accumulation of wealth, amongst those in power, living in luxury, enriching themselves through kickbacks. while the people suffer. shame. what is the way to at least, a comfortable existence? it's developing insights and cutting the chain to ignorance. my arguments during high school remain the same -- plan your family, if you can't afford to have lots of kids, don't. be disciplined and honest, embrace school with a tiny bit of passion, read, adhere to the traffic lights, use the rubbish bins. now, as someone old, i'll say, refrain from using skin whitening creams, don't engage in all sorts of gambling activities, skip the portals of gossips.

croissant

been binging on food my entire life, lately i'm just eating and eating. while it seems every female in my circle seem to subsist on salads and lentils. the emotions are affected. there's also the pervading ennui in the atmosphere, still relates to the red drifts. if only i could finish my current reads, tackle the ironing yet anew, heave a sigh, maybe i wouldn't resort to food. poor debilitated me.

haste

i'm about to dash out the door. i couldn't leave the page empty, i have some sudden surge of inspiration. i'll get the mobile and continue during travel.

train texts: the ride is quite bumpy. a lot of languages being heard here and there. what is that eastern european drawl?

after emerging from crowded lifts : just waiting, hearing bells after bells. scanning the new M&S catalogue, using the touch screen to compose this paragraph. got to google someone from the magazine. google is massive in global scale that it's actually a verb.

captioning

lack of energy, that's a syntax for history. i spent two days glued to the big bang theory marathon. there was nothing else on the telly. i'm not the audience for clash of the titans or couples retreat or whatever else is in store through sky movies. i was gushing through the doldrums.

still down.

away end

hitting the snooze button. for now.

acquire

reading from their website, radiohead is into a lot of causes. the band speaks directly to our conscience. click all their links and download their album, the kings of limbs, at radiohead.com.

hotel entrance

while waiting for our room to be available, we got to sit in the lounge area. had a walk in the pavement looking for Mcdonald's but ended up in a Filipino food shop. no, we're tourists, as i told the shopkeeper in Tagalog. the guy spoke fluent Italian. bought myself pulvoron, who would have thought i wouldn't be able to come back or i would have acquired tons of lucky me noodles.

grade1

not suffering with decubitus ulcers, at least not yet. been limited to bed rest the past couple of days. i have more questions than answers. i feel terribly weak.

handing all the financial powers to the GP is a load of crap. at the mo, they think that making a proper referral is money out of pocket and an attack to their budgets. it's not their money, health is service.

masked trophies

just saw the Baftas through the BBC iplayer last night. most of the winners were not there to receive their awards -- geoffrey rush, david fincher, natalie portman. was surprised when christian bale did not win but it was the king's speech appreciation night.

the social network is now out on DVD. i miss the days when i could just drop by the cinemas anytime. now i have to abide by the schedule, timetable or diary. DVD is it then, more joy when it's discounted.

on sunday, up north

cool comfort.

for kids

bryce likes lego. brad likes puzzles. i can't do both.
abstract tests are my waterloo.

again?

was it last week when four weddings and a funeral kept on showing back to back on my tiny bedroom screen? this film is very richard curtis, a little snapshot to the life of the english middle classes. hugh grant of course has a public school background. if one googles public school, one will notice that it has a different meaning in england. these schools as opposed to schools financed by the taxation system, are funded by private sources i. e. exorbitant tuition fees. in other words, they are private schools according to my local lexicon. they are being referred as public schools by the local populace because through the 1868 public schools act, nine leading boys schools became open to the public not only to the aristocracy and royalty. i reckon in every society there's a certain definition to hierarchy. you can either get your education in the school for the rich or for the school for others, and if you are a very smart person who went to the school for others, you can get a scholarship to the university of your choice.

in britain there's the inoculating issue of accents. the posh accent, and the middle class drawl are quite prevalent in a film such as four weddings. theatre, drama, film in the uk seem to be domain of the rich and privileged. carey mulligan, keira knightley, emily blunt, emma watson all sport the reserved pronunciation. and to digress, my husband speaks estuary english, it's not scottish and definitely not irish. i think the irish are very boyzone good looking, but he's not one. he's not posh nor the uk definition of middle class, he's english, in words and in deeds. let's learn the basics of accents, i mean there are different hiligaynon accents from bacolod to sagay, bacolod to hinoba-an.

navigating the seas of change

in the news: Mubarak relinquishes powers.

after 30 years, it's about time. politics is supposed to be about service to the people. it's not the accumulation of wealth and the subjugation of an entire nation. let's hope for a smooth transition in one of the most historical countries on earth.

i've also read about the suggestion of transferring the philippine capital from manila to other parts of the country. would this bode down well with the locals? it's a manila-centric society. but the overcrowding of a city should be addressed in earnest.

frolic in the library

for those of us who grew up before the internet, the library was right there with bookstores, museums and galleries as the place of fun and relaxation. that is if you're into books, art and all the boring stuff frowned upon by the majority. as the economic cuts bite, a fifth of london libraries are threatened with closures. for kids who like to read, share a room with siblings, live with parents, cannot afford and can only borrow books, the library is a place of worship and that writer in the standard says, succour. i relayed this news to a colleague whose kids' (one is already in oxbridge and the younger one has the same grades and could be in her way) love of books is truly inspiring, and she said that this piece of tidbit might cause her children's heart attack (her words). her brainy duo read at least one book a day usually borrowed from the local library and the likes. my colleague is one lucky mother and she's far from a tiger mom. aside from enjoying being surrounded by books, the lovely youngsters are not fascinated by brand names and quite adept in stretching their pennies. while i'm close friends with a few who would push their energies to own a hermes handbag.

a good kid who reads and excel in a chosen endeavour, that's the ultimate ambition for our children. if they grow up kind and besieged in humility, wouldn't that be nice? is it nature, nurture when it comes to child rearing?

dermis

i hate crowded places, lifts on weekdays, the tube during rush hours. but one thing positive going for London is the variety. the many different tongues and drawls, skin colors and creeds, in just about everywhere. i once saw a bloke who was a dead ringer for brad pitt delivering medications from the pharmacy. i wasn't moved if anything, i don't care too much for any aspects of brangelina. i was more intrigued with the guy who looked exactly like andy garcia while i was crossing the street. but we all know that beauty is skin deep, we simply cannot reverse the signs of ageing like wrinkles and low metabolism. just take a look at liz taylor, bridget bardot, pamela anderson, that swedish blonde bombshell from la dolce vita, ursula andres, courtney cox. so mostly the people we bump into are nothing special. even if they have the blondest locks or the heaviest make up. let's go back to ruffa gutierrez and her little prince quote during the 1993 miss world beauty pageant, "what is essential is invisible to the naked eye."

drips

you have me at hello. one degree this morning.

deep, deeper

if individuals have to tick a box, from this to that, which one is the right choice? to be good looking or to be brainy? i would choose the quality that would make me conquer my fear of calculus or those algebraic equations that stifled and crushed my self-esteem. besides i could always acquire a new mascara.

awake

after the beauty rest, comes the huge dilemma. can't wait to see the experts on wednesday. leave it at that.

my bete noire

mood pendulums. temper tantrums. frozen shoulders. icy stares. snobs and derisions. racism. lack of prepositions. prejudice. not answering texts and emails. banality. arrogance. first world entitlement. hoity-toity princesses. soap operas that don't star judy ann santos. delicate egos. gooners. swiss fed.

four degrees

it's four degrees outside as i'm right here inside a heated building, jotting down the grocery list. ah february, the only month with 28 days. my youngest brother's birthday and my eldest nephew's fall on the second month of the year. our dearest bryce is turning nine and another baby brother on the way and all i could think about are expenses relating to tuition fees, student lodgings, accommodations, allowances. my nephews are terrific. amazing products of c-beebies, nickelodeon and their hybrid environment. they live in a highly child-centred, domesticated milieu up in the northeast england.

the filipino diaspora community is always about children parties and christenings as i surmise, or flying the coup for europe or america during the big day, for the sake of travel or to avoid the claws of the chatter groups.

the chatter groups, or the gossip central, who are the people belonging to the select club? should they get an invite in all our special shindigs? should friends be ranked according to closeness and importance? table assignments tend to be awkward. oh, confound.