Digest – 02/28/12

Considering that it’s been a while since my last update and there’s so much brewing in my head right now that I’ve been meaning to write about, I might as well do these digest-style posts so I can get finally get them out of my head. So, with that said, here we go:

• As of today, my family’s restaurant, Maru’s Food Lounge is officially a month old. My entire family back home went through some pretty rough times just for the idea of opening a food joint to come to fruition, and I’m really glad that it’s a hit with the locals and people from neighboring towns. If you’re ever in the neighborhood and looking for a place to eat, do yourself a favor and drop by.
• Speaking of which, I spent this past weekend back home in Mamburao. It definitely was one of the better weekends I’ve had in recent memory. I’m pretty sure that sampling almost everything on our menu has something to do with that.
• Massive, massive round of congratulations to my friend Mia and everyone in SipatLawin Ensemble for a successful staging of Battalia Royale. As much as I wanted to attend the last day of its run on the 23rd, I had other stuff to attend to that night. As announced during the first night, they’ll also be staging it in an abandoned school in Cubao. However, I’ve been told that the shows have been fully booked. Yes, that quickly. I don’t mind having to fight for my ticket/s, though.
• I got around to watching a raw (no subtitles) stream of the first episode of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters over the weekend. I had my apprehensions at first, especially having just recently finished Gokaiger, but I like what I’m seeing so far. To its credit, the camerawork here seems to be on the cinematic side and the fight choreography looks consistent with the spy theme the show is running on. The suit and mecha designs are growing on me, too. My only gripe so far is YellowBuster’s height inconsistency, which I’m sure could’ve been solved if they hired a shorter suit actor.

Read The Manual (Safe House Review)

Here’s how it goes: while we wait for bigger, more well-known franchises to return with their latest installments, others try taking a stab at gaining a chunk of the audience. This applies for video games, and this most definitely applies for movies, too.

This brings us to Safe House, which I can safely say, is trying to fill in the void left by the Bourne franchise (until it comes back later this year, anyway). How so? By being pretty much like a Bourne movie… well, the Paul Greengrass-directed ones mostly, anyway.

So, I Finally Got to Try Out Tekken Tag Tournament 2…

… and I really like it so far.

So, apparently we’ve had the game in certain Timezone branches since the middle of December, according to a friend of mine. I only got around to trying it today (solo playthrough using Feng and Miguel) and I gotta say that I’m impressed with what they’ve done with the tagging system. It seems they’ve kept everything from the first game and added a whole lot more on top of it.

Check Your Ceilings and Floorboards for Mark Wahlberg (A Contraband Review)

Smugglers, for better or worse, are romanticized in popular culture. Two very prominent and contemporary examples of this are Firefly‘s Mal Reynolds and of course, one of Star Wars‘ most iconic characters, Han Solo. Then again, both are examples of smugglers in the sci-fi genre. So, what about real-world smuggling? Is it as adventurous and full of the same thrilling peril that the aforementioned two face on a regular basis?

Hey everybody, it’s Ramon Revilla Sr. VS The Devil!

This is the trailer (NSFW, by the way) of a 1983 film called The Killing of Satan. I found it by way of a post on io9 on my RSS reader, but the post has since then been taken down, from the looks of things. Thankfully, through the magic of Google’s web cache, here it is.

The io9 post pretty much says everything you need to know about how outlandishly weird the trailer is, but let me add a few things. First of all, this movie has Ramon Revilla in his prime going up against Satan, played by no less than Paquito Diaz. If anything, this movie could be alternatively titled Battle of the Mustaches 1983, or something along those lines. Second, we actually made a movie about a guy fighting the devil that’s actually all sorts of violent, has nudity, and still manages to play it with a straight face? Well, sign me up!

This makes me wonder, though, if our local film archive actually manages to keep a copy of every film we’ve ever produced since motion pictures made their way here in the early 1900′s. Not just those that are considered classics, but I do mean everything. And if so, it would be cool if some of them actually get released into the public domain. I’m guessing it won’t happen with The Killing of Satan, given that Ramon Revilla’s still around would probably want a slice of the pie if it ever gets re-released. But for everything else, I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff that’s worth revisiting, even just for the sake of seeing how varied and creative our movie industry used to be.

Off To The Senate

My Journalism 102 classmates and I will be off to the Senate on the 18th to cover a day’s worth of proceedings for Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial. Now that I think about it, now’s a swell time to be journalism student, what with all the stuff going on in the country. Too bad it’s mostly of the unfortunate kind.

Think about it, we’ve had two massive natural disasters just in the span of a month a soon-to-begin impeachment trial, and charges of graft and corruption being filed left and right. Sure, they’re big stories, but sometimes I can’t help but mutter to myself “Man, we’re seriously fucked.” at the end of the day.

Sure, as journalists in training, we’re supposed to keep an air of separation from the things we report, but it sure does make me wonder what goes on in the heads of those who’ve been in the profession for far longer. Do they say the same thing to themselves, or do they keep it all in stride?

I hope I can find the answer to that soon enough.

Surprise! You’re a Panelist!

Last Monday, I attended a brief talk/lecture in lieu of my usual Social Sciences class. Little did I know that there was more in store for me than, you know, just simply having to show up. I arrived about 15-20 minutes before the event itself started. Just as I started to settle in somewhere in the back rows along with some of my classmates, my professor shows up.

“I’ve been trying to contact you over the weekend, but apparently, you didn’t submit your contact info at the start of the semester.” my prof says.

Of course, my first thought was “Am I in trouble?”

He said he selected me to be part of the reaction panel up front. It took about two to three seconds before the thought actually sank in. Of course, I was a bit skeptic (and maybe with a tinge of doofus in there because I actually doubted my professor). Then, it all sank in and I proceeded to the front and plant myself there until the program started.

The day’s lecture was about returning migrant workers, more popularly known as Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs. The talk, delivered by Andrea Soco of Ateneo de Manila University’s Social Sciences and Anthropology department, dealt with returning OFWs’ reintegration into Philippine society, the cultural implications, and the challenges they face when at home and abroad.

The lecture started off with a rather slow burn, but the pace thankfully picked up when anecdotes from respondents of Ms. Soco’s survey were shared. Suffice to say, putting a human face on what we’d normally see as numbers or statistics in the news and academia does give most regular student folk like us a better understanding of how things really are.

Anyway, the presentation lasted for about an hour and a half, by my estimate. There was a short open forum afterwards, and this is were my other classmate and I come in. Thing is, I’ve been sharing so much about my background in class lately, that I guess my prof picked me because it pretty much fit the topic at hand. I’m the son of a former OFW, after all, even before the term OFW actually became a thing.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I was nervous as hell during the open forum. Fortunately, I still managed to hold my own and react honestly and accordingly to the presentation. I also managed to provide a little more background on the state of OFWs from my past and more recent experiences. However, they might’ve deviated a bit from what was expected of me since my dad held an ofice job back when we lived in Saudi Arabia, and the lecture mostly focused on non-skilled/non-professional workers. Somehow, I did managed to swing things back to the main focus of the talk, and I’m thankful for that.

On Location-Based Services

I originally posted this on my Facebook wall, and suffice to say, it sparked a friendly little debate between me and a friend. Stuff like that can’t just be left there, so I figured I’d put it here, too.

I’ve always thought that location-based-check in services were stupid, that’s why I’ve more or less given up on Foursquare and don’t even get me started on FB Places. I’m really not one to announce to the whole world “Oh hey, I’m at this place thousands of people go to everyday.”

Don’t want stalkers? Stop making yourself so, for the lack of a better term, stalk-able.

Hell, just for shits and giggles, I’d list down a place called “Your Mom” and check into it every couple of hours.

A Palace, A Mansion, and An Epiphany

I told you I didn't have a camera with me.

Earlier today, I took part in Old Manila Walks’ Power, Palace, and a Shot of Beer walking tour of the Malacañang complex and old neighboring San Miguel complex. My cousin was supposed to accompany her visiting American friend in the first place, but due all her leave applications shot down, I was asked to step in to go in her stead. Now the thing is, up until late last night, it had completely slipped out of my mind that I was going on the tour. And so, I went there pretty unprepared. The biggest failure of all? I didn’t have a camera on me. It’s a shame, because if I did, I’d have no trouble at all filling up a memory card with photos. Well, that, and IT’S FREAKIN’ MALACAÑANG.

I Hate Playing Captain Obvious, But…

I really need to get a scanner.

Snapping photos of my drawings can only get me so far, especially now that I’m in the process of trying to fine-tune my style. I’m trying to move out of my comfort zone; using more perspective, dynamic poses, and such. My anatomy and proportions are still hit-or-miss most of the time, the way I see it. But in the end, I like how it’s slowly developing over time.

I know a lot of people will say that you should draw pretty much everyday to get an optimal amount of practice, but I have to disagree and say I’m more comfy doing in bursts every couple of days. I mean, there’s also my school (and eventually work) schedule to take into consideration. Besides, it only makes things worse when I try to force myself to produce something on a somewhat routine basis.

I guess this is why I don’t think I’ll do well in a creative industry. I don’t like having schedules and deadlines when it comes to art. My two animation-related gigs over the past couple of years? Look where those got me. Yes, I’ve been asked time and again about why I’m not taking up Fine Arts. I just keep on saying that I don’t want it to be a full-time job.

I’d rather keep this as something I do in my spare time, thank you.