ulong gawa sa radyo

1. isa akong self-appointed beer taster. mula ngayon hanggang sa katapusan ng susunod na linggo, iinom ako ng isang klase ng beer para alamin kung anong beer ang dapat ihanda sa isang pagtitipon. ang tinutungga ko ngayon ay grolsch, yaring holland. hindi sya gaanong mapanghi.

2. pwahh!, sambit ko nung minsang uminom ako ng mainit na beck, lasang peepee. bakeet?, tanong nung kasama ko, nakainom ka na ba ng peepee? oo, sabi ko, lasang mainit na beer.

3. bukas bubuksan ang likod ko. meron kasing nakapasan na krus.

4. kanina habang papauwi ako, anlakas ng sinag ng araw kontra sa direksyon ko, tuloy di ko gaanong maaninag yung kulay ng traffic lights, nasisilaw ako. ginawa ko nilakasan ko na lang yung cd player, tumutugtog kasi yung house of cards na track sa in rainbows ng radiohead, para kung mabangga man ako sisisihin ko na lang ang radiohead. sa buhay ng tao, sa larangan ng kagaguhan, kailangan meron ka parating napapatawan ng sisi, banda man sila o hindi.

5. dapat ang title ng house of cards e the liquid song, para kasing nagtutubig yung tipa ng gitara, ika nga nung tropa kong si pitong e nagwawater-water.

6. naalala ko yung isang banner dun sa pasig nung umuwi ako nitong nakaraang december. sabi nya, paskotitap. naalala ko rin yung christmas pasayaw namin nung kabataan ko, ang pangalan e disco-langot.

7. hindi kumita yung pasayaw namin na yun. aywan ko kung bakit.

8. nakadiskubre na naman ako ng malulupit na prosa, buhat sa dalawang manunulat pa kamo, si elie wiesel tsaka si roberto bolano. binabasa ko ngayon yung the time of the uprooted ni wiesel, namnamnam, tsaka the savage detectives ni bolanos, salbahe!

9. hi daphne! natuloy ka ba sa gubat, ne?

10. hi, tone'.

11. ansarap ng lumpiang ubod sa via mare landmark. tiempo pa kamo, nung kumakain kami dun, may nabasa akong comment ni batjay dito sa blog na subukan daw yung balut special (ngaba?), kaso sabi ng waiter di daw nila carry yun, pero sa shang daw meron.

12. napansin ko sa pinas, expression ng mga tao yung "kaya", halimbawa e nasuot mo yung tsinelas ng pamangkin mo, sasabihin nya, "akin kaya yan". nota bene: hindi patanong yun.

13. dun sa sta lucia mall, may mga bulag na nagmamasahe, 180 php isang oras (kumpara sa miami na $1 a minute!) gusto ko sana pamasahe kaso baka masalat ni sir masahista yung krus sa likod ko e madampian pa sya ng sumpa.

14. yung mga pamangkin ko e ayaw sumama sa akin sa sta lu. ang jologs ko daw.

15. gusto ko sa pinas yung simba namin sa antipolo. habang nasa sasakyan nga kami nagulat ako dun sa bata dahil akala ko nagmamakaawa sya, yumpala minomonstra lang ni mokong ang simbahan at ihahanap nya kami ng parking spot. ang kapalit?, kailangan bumili kami ng katakut-takot na suman sa pwesto nila.

16. ang ganda ng boses nung kantor sa simbahan. napalaki tuloy yung bigay ko dun sa koleksyon.

17. at naparami din ang kain ko ng suman sa tindahan ni mokong.

18. ansakit ng bukol ko sa likod.

19. pigsa kaya ito.

cbsreview: There Will Be Blood

1. I first saw it in Boogie Nights. Then in Magnolia. It happened again last Saturday after seeing There Will Be Blood. People going out of the theater after the movie ended had their heads bow down low in a complete rejection of eye contact with anybody. It is a socio-cinematic phenomenon that could not be named other than PaulThomasAndersonitis. I can name two reasons for the bowing of heads. Moviegoers were either humbled by what they had just seen, or closer to Reason, they were evading the gaze of the next guy who may have been ready to ask, Pardon me sir, but can you tell me, what the fuck was that?, and they were too afraid to ask in return, Uh, how the hell would I know?

2. Truth is, There Will Be Blood is not a complicated movie, it's theme being nothing more than what we all know since we started knowing things: money is the root of all evil.

3. In TWBB, Daniel Day Lewis is Daniel Plainview, a ruthless oilman who, we are shown right at the opening sequence of the film, how he acquires much of the things he continues to possess the rest of the way: the bad leg, the back back, the bad nose, the bad craving for money. He starts as a one-man mining firm. With makeshift equipment he falls into his pit but manages to get out of the hole, out of the gorge, out of the mountains, to reach the shop of buyer of rock he mined from the quarry - doing all these while crawling on his back. The effort is a killer, daig pa ang relihiyosong naglakad ng paluhod. And so we come to realize that, after all, there is reason for this guy to learn to adore his money.

4. The conflict starts when a young guy offers to sell him a lead, or a prospect, to an oilfield. When the transaction is fulfilled, we get to know the other members of this fantastic entourage, most prominent being the brother of the seller of the prospect (both brothers are played by the same guy, Paul Dano, who gave us more than a glimpse of his oozing talent as the angtsy Nietzche-adoring kid in Little Miss Sunshine).

5. There are two scenes in the movie that will continue to haunt me into the future. One is when Paul Dano, as the preacher Eli Sunday, tries to cast out "evil" from the arthritic body of an old congregant. Not only was he believable as a fanatic, he somehow convinces us that he is, in real life, a fanatic, and that fanaticism is a scary thing.

6. The other scene is when Plainview's son, HW, falls from the makeshift rig after oil spewed from the earth like a gushing Old Faithful. While being rushed to safety by his father, the young boy screams, I cannot hear my voice, telling us the harrowing effect of oil explosion on his eardrum and very being.

7. In scenes involving the young HW, acting as deaf child, the musical score (my brother told me this was by the guitarist of Radiohead) is classical - violin and piano - and seemingly out-of-context (because the scenes are in an oilfield in the middle of the desert, and those in the scene are all sullied and filthy from dust and oil smears), and I cannot help but think if there is an allussion to Mozart in the kid. But of course the entire film, not just the score, is eccentric, including the acting of Lewis', Dano's, the young kid's, and Lewis' chief honcho's. In some of their monologues, I half-expected them to look straight to the camera, towards the audience, stick out their tongues, and blurt out, "Belat"!

8. The big Belat, however, is probably directed by Anderson to all those who will not dare see this movie for refusing their own prospects of bowing their head down low by the end of the film.

resaytal

1. may linya sa arrival sec ng naia na exclusive para sa mga ofws. gara nga ng pang-salubong sa kanila ng wow philippines - ice cream sa apa, straight from the dirty ice cream cart na bigay ng mamang naka barong tagalog pa mandin. asar, sa linya namin wala. ansungit pa nung taga-customs kaya hindi ko na nirequest, ma'am, bat ako walang sorbetes?

2. mula sa customs hanggang sa na-pickup kami ng sundo, kulang kulang dalawang oras, grabe, gusto ko na nga bumalik sa loob ng airport at sumakay na uli pabalik ng miami, sabi ko sa susundo, Namfotcha, antagal nyo, sagot nya, Easy ka lang, nakikita ka na namin, in one hour andyan na kami.

3. ninong, akina na po ang bag nyo. nagulat ako, sabay salat sa wallet ko kung andun pa. taena, sino ka? tanong ko, sabay kunot ng noo, mig, ikaw ba yan? opo ninong, sabi nya.

4. 5 taon si mig nung umalis ako. mataas lang sya ng konti sa lupa. 18 na sya pagbalik ko. bukod sa 6 footer, mas pogi pa sya sa ninong nya.

5. pagdating sa bahay ni utol mga ala una ng madaling araw, deretso ako ng banyo. kinalikot ko ang ilong ko ng q-tips. mahiya sinalpakan ng carbon paper. ang itim.

6. bago ako dumeretso ng kwarto para humilatsa na parang bangkay, sabi ko kay utol, mamya, baka pwede daing na bangus, plissss??? pagdating sa kwarto, hinarana ako nung nagkakaraoke. natuwa ako. i'm home, sabi ko sa sarili kong naaagnas.

7. kinaumagahan, after only four hours of half-tulog, lumatag sa harap ko ang following sa hapag-lafangan: daing na bangus, sinangag na sa sobrang dami ng bawang e di kayang kainin ng aswang, itlog na maalat with kamatis, manggang hinog. pagkakain at pagkadighay ko, nasabi ko na lang, pwede na po akong bagsakan ng guillotine.

8. makatanghali, hinatid kami ni utol sa megamall at mag-iiscout ako ng venue for the world-famous meet ups with friends from showbiz.net. barrio fiesta? hmm, palasak. cabalen? hmm, parang may di maganda akong nabasa dun sa meet ups ng bloggers 3 years ago. mayamaya sabi nung pamangkin ko, ninong, gusto mo sa shangri-la? well well well, sabi ko, now you're talking.

9. bumulaga sa akin yung nutcracker na pinalalabas sa shang. sa miami, di lang 10 beses kong napanood ang george balanchine pa-effect na to kaya i'm going nutty sa music ng nutcracker. pero nung nakita ko yung prima balle sa shang, sabi ko, wow! teka, ang galing naman nitong nagsasayaw na to. sabi ng pamangkin ko, ninong, si lisa macuja po yan. dang!

10. sa itaas na level ng shang, maraming magandang quaint eateries. tipong magara ang pagkain sa c-2. filipino dishes. kaso ansama ng pangalan. c-2. parang lason. tas yung mga kumakain, ambilis nilang kumain, parang mauubusan ng ulam. pass.

11. tas ayun, nakita ko yung karatula, penang hill. naalala ko yung penang restaurant sa manhattan. tingin ako sa menu nila. ansarap. solved. nag-negotiate kami nung babae.

12. gusto ko syempre filipino dishes. pero pinili ko yung malaysian para pare-pareho kaming maka-experience ng sense of discovery ng meet-ups dahil naisip ko, siguro naman di kami madalas makakakain ng malaysian food.

13. tas, ayun, nung araw ng meet-up, kasama ko si inang, si utol, antay kami sa penang hill, mayamaya dating si boss rolly, kwento-kwento, hunta-huntahan, tas sabi nya, papunta nga pala ako ng malaysia.

14. dang!

15. pero ansarap ng nosi goreng tsaka ng bagoong rice.

recital

1. on december 18th, 2007 i received from the mail a parcel containing a cd of infrequently heard songs from the 70's and an intriguing book called 'the principles of uncertainty' written and illustrated by maira kalman, sent in by my friend jet david from southern cal. the gift didn't just seem to cross the country from coast to coast but have dropped - pardon my use of eloquence - from sender's heaven to receiver's earth.

2. the evening of that date i started packing; not one pair of socks, not one pair of briefs, were ready yet to fly with me to the philippines that time. captain & tenille was playing from the cd and soon enough i remembered the 70's (please people, don't do the math.)

3. but to ell with luggage, if i may quote a guy from pampanga. instead i started reading and enjoying kalman's book whose illustrations reminded me of alex katz' abstract expressionisms, and whose text eerily resembled jay david's own funny take on the mundane things of this world: a stream-of-consciousness like narrative that is part-travelogue, part-home companion, part-entertainment, part-life & leisure, and part allusion (if indeliberate) to Keat's Ode to a Nightingale treated as a representation of surrogate reality.

4. i was seated by the window, this was the 19th. when flying i always take the window seat because earth from 20,000 feet up is always awesome, as opposed to the face, the breath, or the reading matter of the one seating next to me which at times are terribly awful. of course that day/night, the face, breath, and reading matter of the one seating next to me was awesome, that was my mom, are you crazy?, she of the sweet breath, she whose reading list are of my courtesy (bronx is burning, my christmas gift, kept her occupied that day/night and unwary of the bukol on her forehead).

5. united airlines had an interesting device up its airline sleeve: a tv screen at the back of every seat that allowed every passenger to know the flight path on real time. i looked out the window then looked at the screen: thunder bay. i read my book, slept a little, ate a little, then looked out the window and looked at the monitor: manitoba (hi angela!); i read my book, looked out the window and looked at the monitor: yukon territory; i read my book, drank vodka, ate, slept, looked out the window, then looked at the monitor: bering sea; i talked to my mom (i think i borrowed money, wehehe), went to the men's room, walked around to find some cute passengers (found a few, wehehe), read my book, slept, then looked out the window and screamed, whoa!, what the cold hell is this place, rugged mountains all covered in white, not a bacteria will survive in this place!, then i looked at the screen: siberia.

6. i looked out the window then the tv screen: sea of okhotsk, omigodstk!

7. slept, read, went to the men's room, drank vodka again, looked out the window again, then looked at the screen again: tokyo. no time at all the light flashed, seatbelt.

8. manila was only 3 hours away. titorolly, ghost, gwen, and non-toni were only 2 days away.

9. i was not going to be the same again.