Oca

Let's see what happens if I try my hand in predicting Oscar awards ... but with some leeway (the use of an 'OR' *lol*).

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain or Capote
Will be rooting for: Crash. or Munich.


Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman or Joaquin Phoenix
Will be rooting for: Hoffman (one crazy mofo. he'll be deliciously evil in MI:3)


Best Actress: Felicity Huffman or Reese Witherspoon
Will be rooting for: Witherspoon
note: if she wins, will she divorce Ryan Philippe thereafter? Seems like the trend for Hollywood women who find personal success (latest exhibit: Swank, Hillary). nyhahahahahahaha!


do i spy Ryan with an evil eye? yes i do!

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney or Paul Giamatti
Will be rooting for: William Hurt


Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz or Frances McDormand
Will be rooting for: Weisz (soon-to-be Mummy!!!)


Best Animated Feature: Howl's Moving Castle or Wallace & Gromit
Will be rooting for: Howl. or Wallace & Gromit. nyahahahaha.


Best Director: Ang Lee or Steven Spielberg
Will be rooting for: Paul Haggis


Best Documentary Feature: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room or March of the Penguins
Will be rooting for: Tiyo Paengs!.


Best Visual FX: King Kong or The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Will be rooting for: War of the Worlds.


Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain or Capote
Will be rooting for: A History of Violence.


Best Original Screenplay: Good Night, and Good Luck or Syriana
Will be rooting for: Crash.

-
waitaminoot. i pretty much covered everything. bwahahaha. Jon Stewart, we have a date on March 5. hope you do good so you can host more Oscar nights in the years to come.

too dirty

With just a slight rearrangement in order of letters and a morphing of one, the word PATRIOT can be changed into TRAITOR.

24 is the bomb.

better late than later

sorry, guys, i was down in the lone star state, helping some computer-challenged people get through the day and avoiding being gunned down during political squabbles that kind of resemble high noon at the OK corral.

let me thank my friends who bothered to get me something last Christmas ... (yes, i know, i didn't get you anything at all ... except for somebody who's probably drooling over the Anne Hathaway DVD right now)

speaking of whom (my friend, not Anne), i got the hardcover sequel to Star Wars:Revenge of the Sith (wait, wouldn't the sequel be A New Hope?) by James Luceno, who, I understand, wrote a few of the missing books on the New Jedi Order series of Star Wars novels that I used to follow.

Should be a blast. Too heavy to carry in the subway though. Don't worry, I'll get through it.


I also got this anthology from Pinoy writers, which is a quantum leap (at least in publishing quality and maturity and depth) from Superkat, Zuma, Darna and Planet Op Di Eyps. I actually managed to read this before I left (I knew I wouldn't have time to do so while on business). My instant favorite is the Pampanga 2004 story by Vincent Simbulan and Ariel Atienza.


I understand that my Torero pal went through great pains (ok, maybe not so great), along with other kind souls, to get this book autographed by the editors, and in the process, managed to hide my identity behind a female colleague. Hey, Mr. Dean Alfar ... it's me! My name isn't Ceres. Hope I can meet you someday. Thanks for the Hancock. You are now part of the list of clickies on the sidebar.

(uh, who are the 2 other signatories on the inside cover?)


At first, I thought it was a greatest hits collection (that probably came out years ago, wouldn't it) ... turns out its a nod to the neo-Gods of Pinoy rock by their contemporaries, ancestors, and fans in between. Paolo Santos????

I guess I can still download the originals from Limewire or some other (yeah, they'll lose about a dollar of royalties from that blatant act of thievery. Shame on me). This will go direct to my iPod. Easier to lug in the subway.


Okay, I hope this will be helpful as its intent.

Life is always a combo of the planned and the unplanned. How we get through it, smiling through and getting to the destination, is the important thing. But little mementos like these are most appreciated - especially from people who are not your family, but are close enough.

(let me also thank my agent, hairdresser, cotourier ...)


Thanks, y'all (ok i still haven't dropped the Texas twang). Will return the favor in one way or another.

the beginning of the end!

wahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.


so, Larry Brown, did you have anything to do with this?

own drum

The Picto-Personality Test You are a person who likes to have fun all the time. When alone, you appreciate being able to do nothing if you want to, and setting your own pace for things. You are adventurous, always up to do the most extreme things. You have a certain recklessness that makes people very attracted to you. In the future you will be happy and live richly.

Take this Test at QuizGalaxy.com

*****-panakakanakana

if this environment and circumstance can already encourage mental instability, can we also say the same for (some of) their countrymen who work in IT? *lol*

work load

"see? you can do it! you were pissing in your pants for nothing!"

"are you kidding me?? i pissed in my pants twice!"


(a snippet recounted all over the bank. i can still hear the drum roll and high hat.)

mamba mamba magsaysay

black mamba strikes for 81. is Wilt's 100 gonna be next?

photo from ESPN.com

geez ketchup pls luis daddy first

am i glad i went to school in a 3rd world country!


http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/20/literacy.college.students.ap/index.html

*lol*

punchless

Antonio Davis was never even supposed to be a Knick. After engineering a trade to Chicago from Raptor wasteland, he ended up as trade fodder to the Knicks. Back then, he wanted to stay in Chicago, and it was widely assumed that the Knicks would cut him and the Bulls can sign him back for less money.

Fast forward to today: Davis has been suspended 5 games for going into the stands to confront someone who allegedly heckled his wife Kendra. Davis is a good guy, even currently serving as president of the NBA Players Association, and isn't even remotely in Ron Artest territory. But after the infamous brawl in Detroit between players and fans, the NBA was quick to put the hammer down, despite the fact that Davis didn't even throw a punch.

At least the law is still working. The alleged heckler meanwhile, is contemplating a lawsuit (he's quite connected) against Davis, his wife, the NBA, and the United Center (this is America!!!). But shouldn't there also be a law against excessive heckling? There should be Instant Replay in the stands. Who cares if it looks like Big Brother? It took the Detroit cops weeks to even arrest the real instigators of the brawl, and what did they do? Just banned them from the stadium. Somewhere, sometime soon, somebody else is gonna do the same thing.

1st and 10 ... Conference Championships

Carolina at Seattle ... as much I like the Seahawks, there's something about the Panthers ...

Pittsburgh at Denver ... Go Steelers!


Am picking the road warriors this week. Hope we get games as thrilling as last week's Steelers-Colts dustup.



so far i am 5-3 in playoff picks.

taas-kilay

What makes office colleagues feel so superior to others?


Just because your side of the bread is the one that's buttered, currently, doesn't mean you can just say what you feel about your co-workers, especially when they're not around, mates. Who knows what you say about me when I'm not around?

Juuuuust asking.

doubting thomas

So Isiah Thomas calls out my fave sports columnist for making incisive remarks about the state of the New York Knicks. The ensuing transcript of the interview on ESPN Radio clearly show a very defensive Thomas (well, isn't that his forte?), who doesn't even try to refute Simmons' claims (better call them 'facts').


vs.


bwahahahahaha ... mahiya ka, Isiah. Your team is 13-23 with no hope for the future. Please just go away.

1440

Jack Bauer has to save America and the world again ... and that means I'm held hostage - again! - for the next few months! &^$%%@^@^@*#*&!!

Palmer dead? Michelle dead? Nooooooooooooo.

shanked

Colts fail again! Bwahahahahaha! What a game! Colts should move up the misery index.

Vanderjagdt will be out of the league next season. And take his place in the halls of hated personalities by the (Colts) fans.

brothers and arms

Back in high school, some of my favorite parts of my World History classes were those touching on the creation of Israel, post-World War II. Specifically, and this may be understandable for an adolescent male, the parts that dealt with how Israel's leaders kept a young country together in its first 25 years. Considering the age-old enmity between them and the Arabs, and now being geographically situated in their midst, it wouldn't be long to for conflict to erupt. Yeah, ok, I was a fan of the Israeli military exploits and achievements (hey, don't blame me if the books were slanted in favor of one - reality is a better judge, and who won in all those wars, anyway?).

For all the numerical superiority of the Arabs, the landlocked Israelis have bested them time and again (in 5 major wars), well at least in open conflict. For other wars of attrition and back-and-forth vengeance, I still give a slight edge to them, despite the high body count and publicity of suicide bombing perpetrated by the Arabs/Palestines. This is actually detrimental to the Palestine cause, as the world condemns such acts, while if the Israeli Mossad takes out a high-ranking officer via a spectacular car bomb or discreet hit, no one really raises a fuss. I am impressed with the Israeli military tenet of hitting back harder and causing more damage after they're hit by their enemies.

This mantra is in full display in Steven Spielberg's current Oscar contender Munich, which centers around the then-covert Israeli response to the massacre of their athletes in the 1972 Olympics in Germany (based on George Jonas' book Vengeance, with some artistic license thrown in). Though the killings were exacerbated by the incompetence of the German police, the event shocked the world and Israel still let the games continue. Privately, the victims' families reached an accord with the German government years later. And not surprisingly, the major planners of the massacre were not left unpunished - Mossad agents tracked them down all over Europe and managed to exact revenge on them, even if it took years.

As always with Spielberg, he gives his films a heart - the centerpiece of which is Avner (rising star Eric Bana), a child of a Mossad hero, Golda Meir's favorite bodyguard, and soon-to-be family man. Avner loves his country as much as the next guy, and he demonstrates this with lots of blind faith to kill their enemies on just their say-so. But over time, he begins to question their goals and accomplishments, and if ever they made a difference. He finds that his own personal goal of having the peace of a home - whether its country or family - is similar to the dreams of the other side. He slips into paranoia as his teammates fall by the wayside, and this fear even becomes more palpable when he holds his wife and child in his arms.

Pundits are taking to calling Spielberg as being in a "serious mode" nowadays, but with good reason - he has crafted a gem of movie that doesn't judge. You know where his loyalties lie, but he keeps an open mind whether the Israeli response did accomplish anything, save replacing a vicious terrorist with a more vicious one. He coaxes a powerful performance from Bana, and notable supporting roles are provided by Geoffrey Rush, Ciaran Hinds, and Daniel Craig (feeling James Bond-ish, as he should). The last time he directed something that left me in pins and needles was probably Jurassic Park in '93 (raptors in kitchen). Or maybe the final climactic battle in Saving Private Ryan.

The idea of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs is not far-fetched, but both sides and the rest of the world haven't done a good job of making it a reality. In Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, I liked his wishful thinking: having the neutral Swiss Guards (protectors of the Vatican) to keep the peace in a divided Jerusalem. Maybe I won't even see this in my lifetime. I hope my children will.

The world has changed a lot since 1947, and since 1972. We have managed to stabilize our world to a relative state of peace that's worth keeping. But walking past the World Trade Center area - whose reconstruction aptly mirrors this spirit - it is a reminder that this peace is almost always a fragile one.

1st and 10 ... Divisional Playoffs

Split my choices last week ... who woulda thunk Carson Palmer would go down on the first few minutes? And the Bucs? I was watching the SBXXXVII DVD last night; they should've too, if only to remember how it felt like to win again.

Washington at Seattle ... now or never, caffeinated ones

New England at Denver ... will this be Tom Brady's first ever playoff loss?

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis ... Go Steelers!

Carolina at Chicago ... despite great defense, Bears are not playoff-tested like Panthers

dvd on tap

More timekillers. But pretty interesting.

-
The Great Raid
dir. John Dahl

Of course, the main reason for renting this flick was to check out my kababayan, Cesar Montano make it in a fairly decent Hollywood project. Based on a couple of books detailing a little-known WWII rescue mission of POWs, The Great Raid showed up on my radar about 2 or 3 years ago when they announced Montano's inclusion in the film adaptation and the subsequently-hyped shooting scenes in Australia. Looking up John Dahl, I find out he has Rounders and Joyride to his credits. I have The Last Seduction waiting in the wings, and now I might check out Red Rock West.

Boasting of some name-droppables like Benjamin Bratt (Ms Congeniality, previously a Julia Roberts' boy toy), James Franco (the whiny-brat-known-as-the-Green-Goblin's-son, and soon a tough Navy man in the upcoming Annapolis) and Joseph-I-Am-A-Fiennes-Hear-Me-Roar (Shakespeare In Love), ..Raid is a nice, tidy little film that tries to honor the subject and still provide enough rip-roaring action scenes to keep the MTV/ADD generation interested (wait, they probably don't even know when was World War II). Since this was a WWII film, it does make sense to add more Filipino talent into the mix which I heartily applaud (Rez Cortez gets killed in 2 minutes, Ryan Eigenmann plays a profiteer, and I honestly did not see the purportedly-gay Paolo Montalban).

Towards the end of the war, 500 POWs were held in a Jap camp in Cabanatuan. Among them is a Major Gibson (Fiennes), whose secret love for a nurse, Margaret (Gladiator's Connie Nielsen), is the only thing keeping him alive. The Japanese military had gotten orders to terminate all prisoners then, given that it was only a matter of time before MacArthur returned and kicked all their asses. Luckily, a US Army Rangers battalion led by Lt. Col. Mucci (Bratt) and rising star Capt. Prince (Franco) took it upon themselves to stage a rescue mission before the prisoners get herded into pits and burned alive.

With the prisoners merely counting hours (especially Major Gibson who was battling malaria) , Margaret does her part by smuggling medicines to the camp via the Filipino resistance. This is of course, a dicey proposition as the Japs used any means necessary (like the traitorous makapili) to flush out the underground. Margaret even witnesses the massacre of her cohorts, including one Mina (Natalie Jackson Mendoza), whose spoken Tagalog is like by one raised in the US, but whose English has a distinct Filipino accent. That got me confused.


"Pay-bili nga pow ng iysang epol, may-nang."

Of course, the one who doesn't need to mask or accentuate his language skills is the wild card in the rescue mission - Capt Juan Pajota (Montano), who makes his appearance 48 minutes into the film ('it's about time', I remember yelling). He's still the character I remember in the times I've seen him - confident bordering on brash, yet exuding calm with a lot of heart. He does have a lot of speaking lines (cool!), and his English is exactly how a native-but-educated-enough Pinoy should be speaking it. Pajota probably worked with Americans (the book does seem to bear this out) so it probably wasn't out of character to have him one-up Bratt with "It was the bamboo telegraph that told me that you and your men were on your way here today ... sir." Astig!


Pajotang-ina! Si Kuya Cesar!! Woooohoooo!!!

If we have heroes, we should also have a villain - done here by Motoki Kobayashi as the fiendish Major Nagai, a kempetai commander who's in charge of the terminations. The rescue attempt itself - about the last 20 minutes of the film - proceeds at a snappy and breakneck pace (no slow-mos here) and looks realistic enough. Nagai, as most screen badguys do, gets his comeuppance in the end. Incredibly, there were only 2 casualties among the rescuers, and only one prisoner died, but after the rescue. You can guess who.


According to rumors, Fiennes actually contracted malaria to do his scenes

Saving Private Ryan, this isn't. But this is a lot more engrossing than The Thin Red Line.

In other news, this movie allowed Fiennes and Mendoza to become lovebirds in real life. O di ba!

NBA Shot of The Whenever

What's this? A 3-game winning streak?

Oh, by the way? You're still 10-21.

-
photo from ESPN.COM

1st and 10 ... Wild Card Weekend

Washington at Tampa Bay ... time for Bucs to shine again

Jacksonville at New England ... never bet against Pats and Tom Brady during playoffs

Carolina at New York Giants ... rooting for Jints but Cats have more experience here

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati ... hard to choose between the two, but I like the spunky Bengals


Good luck, Herm Edwards. Just ignore the NYC media and the rabid Jets fans.

(final tally of reg season prognostications: 152-104. a friggin' 60% success rate. hooo-haaa!)

Remember When, vol. 4

Continuing our memory exercise via song therapy (read: '80s playlist on iPod shuffle mode). Rules are simple: listen to a random song, remember where/when i first heard it, and/or thoughts associated with the song. Or lack thereof. Especially if memory fails to serve.

-
She Blinded Me With Science (1982)
Thomas Dolby
Only geeks can get away with this (see Devo). I thought it was a really cool song title. Danceable as hell. Another New Wave party mix staple.


Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) (1986)
Glass Tiger
Hey, its my favorite song from ... Outfield? Foreigner? Oh, right ... its Glass Tiger. Darn, its hard to tell these bands apart.


So Far Away (1985)
Dire Straits
Back then, I thought, 'Is that The Boss' new song?' Oh, its Dire Straits. Perfect smoky lounge music and the occasional Battle of the Bands number.


Hold Me (1985)
Menudo
Okay, stop screaming. The first modern boyband of FM radio. Cheesy as hell. Girl classmates in high school were loony. Loony, I say. Until they grew up, and they found out the Menudo boylets were being molested by their gay managers. Sounds familiar eh? Has someone read Ricky Martin's secret diary yet?


Sowing The Seeds Of Love (1989)
Tears For Fears
And just when we thought the world was round. Tears For Fears finally grew up and stopped crying, and crafted a introspective and insightful pop record that wouldn't be out of place in Woodstock and the hippie '60s. This song came out of left field and became a hit. The Smith/Orzabal collaboration had better legs than the Michael/Ridgeley one.


Songbird (1986)
Kenny G
Instantly became a classic for the Pinoy listening public and made Mr. Gorelick the most reviled man in jazz. He doesn't care, he's rich, biatch!


Slow Hand (1985)
Pointer Sisters
Now this is the Pointer Sisters I remember. They don't sound like Ru Paul now.


Century's End (1988)
Donald Fagen
I had the soundtrack for "Bright Lights, Big City" (which I never saw) for some reason (maybe for New Order), and there were some good tracks (which made the rounds) including this little-known one from one half of Steely Dan (or maybe it was Fagen reworking their original 1982 version). I just vaguely remember him just walking aimlessly around in the video.


We Built This City (1985)
Starship
The song that co-vocalist Grace Slick reputedly asked the group "what the f- is the song all about?", and perhaps deservedly, got reviled as the worst record in pop music history (by both Blender and VH1). Too late; they already took your dollars, and ironically, you all sang along then.


A Groovy Kind of Love (1988)
Phil Collins
Anybody saw the Buster movie? How was Collins' performance? Was it good as this song's staying power (at least for romantics)?


Every Little Step (1988)
Bobby Brown
It was 1988. Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer were still a year or two away. Bobby Brown was da bomb, slapping us silly with new jack swing. Sold millions of records. And then he married Whitney Houston. The End.


Be My Number Two (1984)
Joe Jackson
Being such an ignorant music listener, I was wondering who the heck is Joe Jackson? Sorry, the internet was still a dream back in the mid-80s. And a high school kid can only buy so much music tapes. Then I was hit by the sheer musical brilliance of this Jackson. Even if I'm so removed from his generation. Also a staple of any local showband worth its salt (or at least those who can play piano).


Once Bitten Twice Shy (1989)
Great White
With the glut of glam rock bands at the time who all sort of looked alike, I only paid interest to Great White after that horrific nightclub fire in 2003, where the pyrotechnics during their gig went wacko. Yes, they were still playing in 2003.


Nite And Day (1988)
Al B Sure!
Very vague recollection. Probably because Bobby Brown was getting all the headlines. Now I can catch up *lol*.


Jacob's Ladder (1986)
Huey Lewis & The News
A minor hit compared to Hip To Be Square and Stuck With You off the Fore! album. At least they beat the New Kids to the "Step by step..." chorus. *lol*


Under Pressure (1981)
Queen with David Bowie
Perhaps armed with the one of the most recognizable bass lines ever, this song demonstrates Queen's versatility and their ear for addictive hooks. Having Bowie aboard didn't hurt either. Then less than a decade later, somebody signed Vanilla Ice to a record deal. Now the first thing you associate with the bass line is ... yep, word to your mother.


Hold The Line (1978)
Toto
What th-? Another 70s tune strays into the playlist? Is it because the-band-whose-name-means-fart-if-you-spell-it-backwards was that technically proficient and ahead of their time too, that they sound so '80s in their debut album?


Oh, look. Its my stop. Bye.

don't mess with texas

Vince Young, National Champion. Future NFL star.

Remember When, vol. 3

Continuing our memory exercise via song therapy. Rules are simple: listen to a random song, remember where/when i first heard it, and/or thoughts associated with the song. Or lack thereof. Especially if memory fails to serve.

-
Let The Music Play (1983)
Shannon
I confused this singer with Del Shannon, dead rocker. I remember this being played a lot during parties and in discos (where else should it be played? funerals?).


Owner of A Lonely Heart (1984)
Yes
Along with "Jump", "Another One Bites The Dust", "Rock You Like A Hurricane" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", this song joins a short list of anthemic rock songs that you, er ... I would like to mimic performing onstage. Wasn't too long before its familiar guitar riff gets adapted into rap/hiphop (Kyper's "Tic tac Toe", 1990).


Say You Will (1987)
Foreigner
Foreigner sounded tired by 1987, which is as well, because they couldn't compete with the onrushing glam metal train (Bon Jovi, GnR, Poison, Metallica) that would be a wreck within 4 years (hello, Kurt Cobain).


This Time I Know Its For Real (1987)
Donna Summer
Minor hit/last gasp for disco diva.


Tarzan Boy (1986)
Baltimora
Ah ... where do we start? 2nd year high school. Dance contest by class. We sophomore punks got punk'd. We were far too ahead of our time, dancing to Tarzan Boy, and losing out to the seniors. I knew we got more cheers than them. I still remember the dance steps (nyhahahahah!). Fast forward two years later, and we kicked everyone's asses with Only In My Dreams. I guess seniors get preferential treatment. Take that!!

Meanwhile, Baltimora (Jimmy McShane) reportedly died of AIDs in the 90s.


Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1988)
The Robert Cray Band
I see them being reviewed in magazines then, along with the Jeff Healey Band and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but again, never was much of a blues man. I do remember the blind Healey performing in the maligned/celebrated Roadhouse, and Vaughan's death in a chopper crash in 1990. As for Robert Cray, I'd listen to him from time to time, just to for a change of pace and mood.


We Don't Need Another Hero (1985)
Tina Turner
Ah, those days when Mel Gibson was still Mel Gibson, budding Australian superstar. Though I liked MadMax 2 more than the first or this Thunderdome. Did Tina Turner actually perform this in the movie? She didn't? A pity. Nyhahahahaaa!


Don't Stop The Dance (1985)
Bryan Ferry
After being transplanted to the big city to attend college, my musical horizons widened a bit more. I barely heard of Roxy Music before, much less Mr. Ferry. So I was already retro then (or just plain late). Let's start the fiesta. My personal fave is actually their remake of "Jealous Guy."


Keep On Movin' (1989)
Soul II Soul
Barely registered a blip on my radar, but indicative of the light funk soul trend I've come to like.


Addicted To Love (1985)
Robert Palmer
And I thought at that time this was a Grace Jones track. Nyahahahaha.


Have You Seen Her? (1989/90)
MC Hammer
There's too much blurred lines between '89 and '90. Anyway, what I remember is: Opisina, Galing Opisina. Willie Nep fever. woohoooo!


My One Temptation (1989)
Mica Paris
I remember reading about her in one magazine that she was in the long list of Prince's proteges (or at least endorsees). But I never got to hear any of her work ten. Not bad.


Obsession (1985)
Animotion
A poor man's Human League - they're apes (you know, aping). Minor disco filler, and pretty much fell off the face of the earth after.


Spanish Eddie (1985)
Laura Branigan
Her name itself evokes brashness, like we have to listen to her or else. The song reminds me of a corny joke i read in my music bible in those days (Jingle Magazine):
Q. When did Laura Branigan lose her virginity?
A. The night Spanish Eddie cast it in ...


Ooookay. Outta here.

psy-onara

whoa!

according to websites, Fil-Chin-Jap-French actress Mei Melancon is joining the X3 cast as Psylocke (ok, that shoots down my Jen Garner wish). Now I have to rewatch Rush Hour 2 to check who she was ...

here's a photoshoot.

2006

wishing for new blessings for all o' ya!