Archive for November, 2006

25
Nov

blogs

By freezejas 1 Comment
Categories: light thoughts

blog hopping could be exhilarating. there are a million sites to choose from.  gossipers, philosophers, poseurs abound.  quite a lot follows grey’s anatomy like this one and a blog site that doesn’t. there are tons that link to jessica zafra’s site and i’m one of the very obscure ones amongst thousands.  when i went home last month, i’ve unearthed my clippings of her womenagarie columns from 1988 when she was into sting and daniel day-lewis. now she elucidates about her cats named after federer and safin. every major tennis event would be documented and federer is the star of the show.

    my friend  cj writes very well. now ensconced in kimmi meissner’s hometown of baltimore, my gorgeous friend weaves not only enjoyable but profound and intricate pieces and like zafra, she has this magical grasp with the english language. her subjects saunter from pop culture to her favorite bands or her travels and adventures to the epiphany in the bath tub. she was the first to point out to me in the pete sampras era that tennis and golf are clearly country club sports.  her literary possibilities are boundless.when i was dipping my hands on a bill bryson non-fiction years ago, it occurred to me that she could conjure deeper paragraphs.  so keep the words flowing, joy.   

       the poetic potentials of my friends merma and ryan leave me gasping for more of their rhyming.  if only i could avail of rye’s poems readily in the web.  poetry.com takes hours to download.  but the paragraphs still ignites with beauty in his friendster blog, bestowing insights into his zestful world.

       i haven’t found anyone who blogs about sports frequently.  not only manny pacquaio as a muse, or ponderings on manny pacquaio’s politics but sports. volleyball, gymnastics, downhill skiing?  i know, i know, i should go to a sports website.

        a person’s choices whether good or bad is a reflection of our sensibilities. christian bale may be stoic to some but he’s absolutely talented and chameleonic to me. my aesthetic sense sometimes subsist on the new yorker hand in hand with a copy of the national enquirer, the evening standard magazine on fridays and a glance at the lakers season results. i still long to watch more films and yes, more sports. or catch a favorite band in concert. but then i have a sweet hubby that reminds me in case i missed the headlines, "babe, robert altmann died the other day."  definitely, a person after my heart. my babe is not only about sports.  and so do i.

12
Nov

applause for a champion

By freezejas 0 Comments
Categories: Sports

the sight of a filipino lifting the world pool championhsip trophy is something extraordinary.  back from the dead after losing his two matches in the preliminaries, ronato alcano beat the big guns for the hundred thousand dollars cash prize  — the likes of efren reyes and the deadly taiwanese duo of wu chia ching, the defending champion and kuo po-cheng, last year’s runner-up.  the subdued pinoy from  rizal’s birthplace displayed superb abilities in cashing on banks, utilizing soft breaks and deadly combinations en route to victory and gave all his countrymen something to cheer about in this era of high prices and uncertainty.

Alcano_with_trophy although i’ve heard  of marlon manalo and i’ve seen dennis orcollo and ramil gallego brandished their prowess when this matchroom-sponsored event was still played in cardiff.  i’ve never had a glimpse of alcano.  until this week. the philippines has ceased eons ago to not only be known as a reyes-bustamante country, it’s an acclaimed fact, that it’s an enclave for a fabulous array of pool talents. albeit i’m not aware of a kanye west synergy transplanting into pool, (or is it lee van corteza?) the philippines produces gifted players through sheer grit and hustle. a keen eye and stroke of pool genius could propel a fortunate individual from the doldrums of poverty and into the pantheons nonpareil of greatness. unlike david beckham’s football, there’s no age limit. perhaps there is, let’s say 60? or 55?

perhaps as pool sometimes require eerie stillness while the match is in progress, the PICC crowd should have refrained from constant movements, or worse cellphones blaring while the players were sashaying the table.  subdued is not just our adjective. but it definitely was the word to describe one ronato alcano, world pool champion 2006 World_pool_semis_3.
(photos taken from worldpoolchampionship.com).

02
Nov

smokin ladies

By freezejas 0 Comments
Categories: Film

stumbling upon two movies the past month on dvd starring two chain-smoking leading ladies, film-viewing wavered me a bit from the very exciting world of housework which is never-ending unlike the reese witherspoon-ryan phillippe coupling.

Ps_i_love_you
one is sharon cuneta’s p.s. i love you from 1981, a teenybopper with gabby concepcion. a former smoker who only stopped recently or so i’ve read from her website, sharon cuneta.com — sharon’s second foray into the movies, p.s. i love you has the basic plot of all her earlier features, rich girl meets rich boy, conflict with parents/friends, but a happy ending as always. i’ve never seen dear heart or my only love. i’ve had glimpses of cross my heart, forgive and forget, friend in love and to love again.  yes, i’m well-versed on the megastar’s filmography but i’m not a sharonian.  sharon cuneta is just an embodiment of a fantasy. who doesn’t want to be rich girl? but she grew up even better, as rich girl adored by the masses who without her parents money became a rich girl by her own right.

back to p.s. i love you. christine (sharon) met mike (gabby) at a polo match. christine didn’t like mike at first. but who wouldn’t adore the old gabby concepcion of yore with his cute smile and dreamy eyes? the young lady of 16, eventually succumbed to the lure of mr. close up. alas, christine’s mom isabel (boots anson roa), a widow, disapproved of mike. mike was the only son of her former boyfriend, emilio, (eddie garcia — who also directed the movie), whom she dumped for christine’s father. at the start of the film, christine’s family hacienda was the collateral for a p100 million loan from emilio’s bank. the hacienda was subject for foreclosure, but isabel was rescued by their richer friends, dave and amanda played by tony carrion and barbara perez. in the end, isabel relented to her daughter’s pleas hence that picturesque ending with the horse and helicopter.

the houses used as mike’s and christine’s digs were stunningly huge and we wonder why there are so many poor people in the philippines. how come some pinoys accumulate so much wealth? sharon’s film might have been a vacuous offering on young love but it makes us (or it’s just me), examine social issues besetting dear mother land more than any other films set in the slums.

Rumorhasit_releaseposter
another film which i picked up from the check-out was that of another smoker, jen aniston’s rumor has it. i’m not sure if the former rachel has quit puffing her merits but reading from my collection of mag covers, quite unlikely. and rumor has it as a movie? a simple waste of time. the backdrop was flimsy. set in 1997, when clinton was still president, the main character believed that her family was the foundation for the graduate. shirley maclaine, the grandma, was anne bancroft’s mrs. robinson and kevin costner’s beau burroughs was the basis for benjamin braddock, dustin hoffman’s role. how can someone as beautifully packaged as sarah huttinger (aniston) be conflicted? working in the obituary section of the new york times is not exactly cleaning toilets. how can poor sarah fell for the charms of the costner character? i know mark ruffalo as a boyfriend may be a bland lawyer who cannot enunciate properly but not everybody looks like brad pitt. and brad pitt could pronounce well, go check out snatch with the irish accent or seven years in tibet where he was spouting english with his specialized brand of german.

probably, no amount of writing or directing, or casting (supporting roles for mena suvari –sister, richard jenkjns — father and kathy bates –family friend in the trailer) could have saved this film. but actors commit bad choices in their lifetime. even meryl streep sometimes hits a snag. rumor has it though had netted more in US box office than in her shoes, an earlier release where shirley maclaine first portrayed the role of grandma to two sisters. anyhow in her shoes had a more favorable review from the new york times (photos from the films’ publicity reels).