Have You Forgotten?

by Red House Painters

i can't let you be
'cause your beauty won't allow me
wrapped in white sheets
like an angel from a bedtime story
shut out what they say
'cause your friends are fucked up anyway
and when they come around
somehow they feel up and you feel down

when we were kids
we hated things our parents did
we listened low
to casey kasem's radio show
that's when friends were nice
and to think of them just makes you feel nice
the smell of grass in spring
in october leaves covered everything
have you forgotten how to love yourself?

i still can't believe all the good things that you did for me
backyard summer pools
and christmas trees were bright and full
and the sentiment
of coloured mirrored ornaments
and the open drapes
looked out on frozen farmhouse landscapes
have you forgotten how to love yourself?

I swear to God, the Japanese have something for everything.

Mercy.

I cannot WAIT for this! I found an interview with Tarantino and just reading him describe it made my mouth water: they used three different kinds of blood. The main fight sequence ending Volume I took 8 weeks to shoot, whereas the entirety of Pulp Fiction took 10 weeks. There's 8 minutes of anime in Volume 1 alone (showing the origin of a character; there's some in Volume 2, too) done by the people who did Ghost in the Shell and Blood: The Last Vampire. The soundtrack is almost entirely composed of music from other films. It's basically his ultimate fanboy geek dream, an homage to all the genre flicks that made his youth worthwhile. Even something like The Bride (Uma Thurman's character) arriving in Tokyo, he wanted a specific look like he'd seen in Godzilla films, so they used the model set of the most recent Godzilla flick.

But Vol. 2's in February?! What the--? I think it's an interesting idea, having a film split into two parts. Not a trilogy. But part of me chafes at the fact that I'll basically be paying twice to see one film. Combined it's 3 hours, and hey, we all sat through Titanic, didn't we? Why not this, then?

--

"My wife asked me why I draw myself so fat. I told her it's because fat is funny. My daughter asked why I draw Mommy so skinny; I explained it's because Daddy's no fool."
-- Kyle Baker

A TV distributor from Italy emailed me asking about Lino Brocka films, because they’re planning on airing a retrospective of his work. Which makes me glad to know there’s still interest in his work, from other countries, so long after his death. But it also reminds me that there hasn’t been much to speak of since he died, has there?

--

This is some great news: Fantagraphics are going to publish the entire run of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, in nice handsome editions (hopefully something like their Krazy & Ignatz collections, which are beautiful but affordable). They’re aiming at two volumes a year, each volume containing two years’ worth of strips, so it’ll take 12 ½ years for the entire 50-year lifespan of Peanuts to be collected (Jesus, I’ll be 35). Some of my fondest strips are from the early period, when the children looked much different and Snoopy actually looked like a dog. This is probably because of that book my mom gave me in high school, her own Peanuts book from when she was a kid, which was published in the mid-60s. It’s still on my shelf.

The 25 volumes will be designed by Seth, who’s a die-hard Schulz fan, and who made one of the most moving tribute strips I saw upon Schulz’s death: he drew all the popular settings of Peanuts, sans people: the pitcher’s mound, Lucy’s psychiatry booth, Snoopy’s doghouse, and a lone football on the grass… almost brought a tear to mine eye.

And in other not-so-terribly-good news, it seems a sequel to Before Sunrise has just finished shooting. It takes place 9 years after their night in Venice. I like the movie a lot, but don’t feel it would be better served by a sequel. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, I don’t know.

--

Passed by Libris the other day with Neva and got a great stash of books: Projections 5 & 8, Ethan Coen's book of poetry (The Drunken Driver Has The Right Of Way), Supertoys Last All Summer Long & Other Stories of the Future by Brian Aldiss, and scripts to Boogie Nights and Requiem for a Dream. All for 1100. It should be closer to 6000. Also, we were delighted to discover that they've begun to publish books as well. They're the ones behind 7 x 10, where 7 noted writers choose 10 influential poems. Neva got it and it looks great. Ernan recommended it too, and I'll be going through Neva's copy when she's done.

Scattershot sentences that don't necessarily have any context or connection to one another:

I caught the premiere of First Time last Saturday. Under the circumstances Lyle had to work under, I think he did the best he could. They did their damnedest to hide the lack of acting from most of the cast, so much so that it's almost unnoticeable (almost). The cinematography is gorgeous; I especially love Neil's work in Erwin's episode. And there's this great scene where Joel Torre takes off his clothes in the middle of Quezon Ave, where you have no doubt that you're watching an ACTOR, and not an artista, and it feels good that there are still people like him working in this industry.

As for my episode: most of what's there comes from my script, though most of the dialogue has been changed. There's a whole other character, who was added a day before filming began, who had no lines since she didn't exist, so lines were chopped up and given to her so she'd have something to say. But a whole lot's been cut out, or wasn't shot at all, and it was most of the bonding scenes, too. Not bondage, you filthy bastard. Bonding. As in all the scenes where I tried to flesh out characters. But this is not Lyle's fault; I know where the fault lies and it unfortunately can't be helped because without the perpetrators there wouldn't be a film to begin with. There are two massive changes to the ending (which, thus, isn't mine): one I object to, the other I'm ambivalent about. I really enjoyed the montage where Diane beats the shit out of Christian. :)

Lyle's one of the nicest guys you'll find working in film. I sure as hell don't hold anything against him; he kept me informed all the way, and with the amount of shit he had to go through, it's amazing he was able to maintain his sanity to the end (though he himself might contest this). For some reason, he really values the input of his writers (a rarity among directors, especially those working here), which was something I appreciated (as did Erwin and Lyndon) and will never forget. It was an honor and a pleasure working with him, and I would do so again in a heartbeat.

"Sana sa susunod, wholesome na yung script mo para mapanood namin."
-- Neva's friend Dang, said with a smile, just a few hours ago.

--

It just struck me what Friendster is: a giant hyperlinked slumbook. And I'm glad to say I finally hit my Friendster threshold. Which means that for a while, I admit, it was like a new toy and I played with it for hours on end, checking all the features and whatnot... remember when blogging was new, and you'd post every day, and check every chance you were online whether or not someone had left a comment, but now you could really give two shits and let it wait? Sorta like that. Though secretly I wish the charges would come in so I could just drop it altogether.

--

Read this. It's a little disturbing, in a good way...

--

There are some books at CCHQ that I keep looking at whenever I'm there, and When I'm Old & Other Stories by Gabrielle Bell was one of them. Finally I was able to get it last Saturday (and Neva got the handsome The Iron Wagon by Jason), and that night I check some websites for comics news and I discover... wait a minute...

She's cute!

--

Charles Bronson died about a week or two ago. Then, just the other day, Johnny Cash, and surprisingly, John Ritter. Ritter was only 54, which is younger than both my parents, and can be a little frightening fact if dwelled on for too long. He couldn't really escape the shadow of Three's Company, could he? Last thing I saw him in was Felicity, where he played Ben's dad. He was damn good, too.

--

Last week's bout with Badminton made me realize: I really, really miss Ping-pong. And I shall try to get my friends to bowl.

--

Had my first post-grad anxiety nightmare! People have been telling me about this dream for ages, but I had my first one last night. I was the only one in class who didn't study for an exam (under Mrs. Rodriguez, no less... I was horrible in her class because my Tagalog vocabulary is severely limited to conversational, though I was always interested, really I was...) and was really going to pieces. Plus, the exam was in a room that felt like it was underground, with bad lighting, and, of all things, Alia was my proctor! But not any kind of proctor, she sat beside me and talked to me as I was taking the test! Just striking up a conversation, or watching a TV that was for some reason beside her. And I just wanted her to give me the answers because I was sweating bullets. Then I woke up.

--

Cine Europa and the Australian Film Festival are coming up. If any of you want to waste an afternoon, let me know.

"This is Major Tom to Ground Control..."

Ahh, Friendster … didn't you used to be called Six Degrees (which is still up, but I haven't looked at it in such a long time that I recall neither my username nor my password)?

A few people asked me to join it back when it started up in April, and I resisted, but it's almost impossible to say no to Ate Cyn, so I relented and joined, but remained inactive. Then recently other people started bugging me about it, and it was people from high school, even grade school. Some friends who are now in the US. So, alright, I admit it, I'm now a friendster. Though, just for getting me back in touch with those high school/grade school friends, it's served its purpose, as far as I'm concerned.

I only found out more about it yesterday while talking with some friends. Sexy Man Mark "Lotsa" Lavin mentioned that it's supposed to be a dating service, but I don't think anyone I know is really using it as such. And that while it's all the rage on the West Coast, the East Coast hates the damn thing. Neva mentioned that too, and I'd read an article that Mischa linked, which sheds a little more light on it, and the bugs inherent in the site (it says Friendster beta on the homepage for a reason), and also discussed the impending arrival of charges (what, you thought it would stay free forever?).

It's a shame, though; I was thinking it'd be good karma to have Jesus Christ as a friend.

--

Was in Ateneo yesterday. Visited Ed Ibarra, my high school classmate and ex-Narda guitarist, now a guidance counselor. Saw Trinka, who came from Quark's shoot for Rivermaya. Found out Quark had a talk on screenwriting that afternoon, and I wanted to embarrass him slightly by showing up, but got waylaid at CCHQ since I hadn't been there in a long time, and Mikey and SM Mark Lavin showed up. Then we ended up killing time at The Old Spaghetti House, where Fullhouse used to be. Nice ambience, cool music, food was pretty good, too. Methinks I will be eating there often when I'm in the area.

Actually played badminton with some friends last night. I haven't played since high school. Woke up sore and aching, but surprisingly much less than I expected.

--

The Onion's great this week. This had me in stitches, and I'm sure Chris, at least, should get a kick out of this.

Added Gay to the links box. :)

And just as a reminder, Neva's poems can be found here. :) Though Poacher-Killed Deer is on poetry.com itself, where she not only got published in one of their print volumes, but was asked to be a judge last year. :)

And also because of her, I am enjoying the HELL out of David Bowie's Changes.

--

And no, I haven't forgotten what day it is. For the world, or a certain now-defunct group. Still, the vitriol in last year's post holds up, if not the current facts. If you only knew what Bush's administration has gotten away with since 9/11, you'd weep. And that's only for what has been discovered. Whatever they're keeping from us, it's much, much worse.

Maybe no one remembers, but I wrote about Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman here, back in June.

Anyway, Ultrazine, the website that kind of kick-started the whole project that became the book, have apparently taken my post and used it on their website, translated into Italian, no less. It's on a page compiling comments on the book, and I'm on a list that includes Dave Gibbons (illustrator of Watchmen, the Martha Washington series, and the forthcoming The Originals), Stephen Parkhouse (illustrator of The Bojefferies Saga), John Coulthart (who works with Moore on his performance pieces and designs the CDs), Rich Johnston, George Khoury (whose The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore I am set to devour next) and Scott Morse (writer/illustrator of Soulwind, The Barefoot Serpent, Volcanic Revolver, etc.).

Which puts a great big smile on my face. Check out their website, it's pretty cool. I got a lot of stuff from them, and am glad that in some half-assed way they have been able to use something of mine.

What a great fucking cover. I’ve not seen this film, nor heard anything about it, I only know that Jeline has it and tried to lend it to me before but somethings happened and it never came to pass. Maybe sometime…

I have stumbled across the website of Nick Bertozzi. I don’t recall reading any of his works, but I like how he uses color.

Here are some other people who are inspiring visually (though that doesn’t mean they can’t inspire in other ways). Some do comics, illustration, writing, or a combination of all. I’ve probably mentioned them independently through the months.

Paul Pope
Brian Wood
Bill Sienkiewicz
Rian Hughes
Tomer Hanuka
James Jean
Carlos Segura
Arnold Arre
Cynthia Bauzon

There are also some purty pictures at Phil Noto’s site (he draws women especially well, and is also interesting with color), Kaare Andrews’s, and Ashley Wood’s.

There’s a lot of others, of course: Dave McKean doesn’t really have an official site, nor does Chip Kidd, and there are a lot more indie kids who I’ll get to eventually.

--

Go here to see what all the kids are wearing these days. And the Lost in Translation trailer is up.

And here is the bad PS: Lyndon and I (maybe Quark, but I'm not sure) were mentioned in an Abante article about how the creative team of Captain Barbell has changed. But it seems to sound like we were replaced because our work sucked.

And during the First Time presscon, when Lyle mentioned the 3 writers (Lyndon, myself, and Erwin Romulo), some "reporters" assumed that Lyle had brought on Erwin to "fix" our script (we independently wrote an episode each).

So I'm wondering if we already have a reputation for bad scriptwriting, when not a single one of the films we've worked on has even come out yet.

Ah, showbiz... FUCK YOU UP YOUR STUPID ASS.

Confession Time!

Big Thing WAS Captain Barbell. Lyndon Santos and I had been tasked to write the new Captain Barbell film for Viva. Which was, honestly, a sort-of exciting proposition for me, not simply because of the comics/superhero angle (actually, superheroes as a genre doesn’t particularly excite me any longer) but because I actually DO have fond memories of the ’86 Herbert Bautista-Edu Manzano flick (I was six at the time, what can I say).

On the day I found out about it, there was already a meeting that evening, where we hashed out a plot in a little under 2 hours, mostly dictated by Ogie Alcasid, who at the time was the only star attached to the project (he was to play Tenteng, though none of us could remember the name, so we got it wrong and his character was named Enteng). I wasn’t exactly excited about this plot, which, while not bad per se, was a little traditional and obvious, so I drafted a different plot with some themes I thought would be relevant to Mars’s original work on the character. Thankfully the powers-that-be liked it, and we went to work with more research (under a ridiculous deadline). We went through some articles about the old comics material, Mars himself, etc. This research was used in a thesis by friends of mine, so I was glad it was close at hand. We were also given photocopies of old Barbell comics, written by Ravelo with other artists.

We wrote the first draft in something like 3 days. All at Quark’s house, using a pretty detailed outline we had come up with a week or two previous. Quark, at the time, had been attached to the project, even when it was announced as an entry to December’s Film Festival.

Anyway, I liked what we came up with. It needed some more tweaking, but I felt it was good, and could be good, and I was glad Quark was the director because we were worried about it falling into the hands of someone who wouldn’t get the comedy. There were nods to Mars everywhere, from locations to character names. Thematically, I thought we had the spirit of some of his original stories, but contemporized and, I suppose, re-imagined. We even had the continuities merged, where, out of fondness and respect, this film acknolwedged the events that transpired in CB’86. We even had a cameo appearance by Herbert.

And here our troubles began.

Quark was under pressure with Keka. He had a playdate/deadline that he had to stick to, which he met, but meant he was being rode hard. He was working almost everyday for several weeks, and it’s a miracle he didn’t get sick. Still, after this, he was understandably wanting a break and passed on Barbell.

Another reason is that they were taking so long on casting, and the “deadline” was looming. If this was a Film Fest entry, it needed to come out in December. And this has more effects, understandably, than your typical film. It was getting late, and the schedule looked like it was going to be ridiculous again, which none of us wanted (least of all Quark).

So. The project was given to Mac Alejandre to direct. And I guess he didn’t like our script, because he gave it to a friend of his to rewrite. Us writers weren’t told, I had to find out by talking to the producer and asking her about it on the set of another film. The new script has 3 super-powered villains (Daga-Man, Freezy, and some Pyro-like guy; this reminds me of that cartoon show with Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar). We had one John Constantine-like bad guy (the character that Epi said he enjoyed).

Anyway, it’s September, and they still haven’t started shooting. The cast changed almost every other week. Ogie as T/Enteng was solid, but Barbell went through (at first) Richard Gomez, then Ogie himself (which we all preferred, actually; Dolphy did it like this), then Marc Nelson, then Borgie Manotoc, then, out of the blue, Bong Revilla, and just the other day I found out that it’s now, get this, Edu Manzano. Again. The love interest was Nina, then Issa Calsado, then Jolina Magdangal, and now I think it’s Regine Velasquez.

So don’t draw any conclusions from me. Captain Barbell may be Redford White by the time it comes out.

They’re competing with Gagamboy from Regal, and Fantastic Man (Lastikman 2, basically) from Octo.

The possible happy ending is that, if they’re starting from a new script, Quark and us can still use our draft for Barbell 2, should they decide to make one. But I’m not holding my breath or anything.

I actually do hope that Barbell makes money, if only so we could do ours. At this point, though, I’m sort of glad that I’m not involved with the project any longer because it looks like their schedule will be murder, and good luck to them.

A happy PS is that I downloaded some issues of Alan Moore’s Miracleman the other day, and discovered that his treatment of the character’s transformation to and fro his alter ego was similar to how we treated it in our Barbell script: by focusing on the reactions of other people. Miracleman is a seminal series he wrote in the early ‘80s, that I hadn’t read until now.

And yes, the transformer above has nothing to do with Barbell whatsoever. Ain't it cool, though? :)

Sorry, but I must blog about this.

I was watching a few scenes from the VHS of Amateur Quark and Lia gave me yesterday, and really missed the film. Then I decided to look up Hartley online to see what he's been up to (his last film was No Such Thing), and what do I come across but a notice that Amateur is finally coming to DVD in November! Woo-hoo! Unfortunately, the only feature included in the announcement is a 15-minute documentary (I really hope there's a commentary). Henry Fool will follow in December.

Also, yesterday afternoon I was discussing Promethea on a mailing list. That evening Quark & Lia gave me Promethea Book 2.

Links, links...

--

I also love this trailer. Nice to see Maria de Medeiros again, who seemed to have dropped from the face of the earth.

--

from Steven Grant’s August 27 edition of his column Permanent Damage:

“So far there's only one genuine crime that can actually be traced to the Hand Puppet (George W. Bush)'s Administration - ultra-rightwing commentator Bob Novak himself verified that his information that the wife of a diplomat critical of the White House was a CIA agent came from inside the Administration, and revealing that is a Federal crime - but this, if not actually a crime, comes close, and I expect we'll see lots of civil suits if not criminal prosecutions over it once the seriousness of the situation sinks in: it has come out that, for reasons of ‘national security,’ the White House ‘convinced’ the Environmental Protection Agency to bury the information that the air in New York City following the destruction of the World Trade Center was simply not safe to breathe. Instead, at the behest of the White House, they gave it a clean bill of health, even though much of the air in Southern Manhattan and surrounding areas was suffused with a fine dust of glass, concrete, steel, asbestos, carcinogens and other dangerous pollutants. (It's okay to walk on concrete and use glass in windows and Coke bottles; sucking particles of either into your lungs can lead to hemorrhaging, cancer and other ailments.) In other words, it was deemed more politically expedient to ‘put a good face’ on the situation to the rest of the world (not to mention to prevent the prolonged shutdown of the Stock Market) than to protect the health of tens of thousands of Greater New Yorkers.”

Hm. This post turned out longer than I expected.

Man, I must be the easiest person to buy gifts for.

This blog may have something to do with that. But mostly everyone just knows I love comics, and so pretty much everyone gave me comics. Not that I'm complaining. :)

Chris gave me Last Chapter and Worse, a Far Side book. Incidentally, I had given this as a gift myself back in high school.

Just tonight, Ate Cyn and Arnold gave me Graphic Classics: Jack London. Which is great, because I'm not familiar with London's work, so it'll be something new for me.

Don't the cover look spiffy? It should. Arnold drew it.

Also just tonight, Quark and Lia gave me Promethea Book 2, and a VHS tape of Amateur, one of my favorite films which I haven't seen in years and is still criminally not on DVD.

However, Neva went completely overboard. She'd gotten me Dave McKean's Cages about a month ago, but still surprised me on the birthday itself with Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse. Whattagal.

And I treated myself to The Comics Journal Library Vol. 2: Frank Miller, which I'm reading now. :)

Though the cover is actually red, this is the only image I could find online.

Had a GREAT evening tonight with the couples. We had dinner at Cafea, just playing catch up. I looked at Arnold's designs for the new Captain Barbell and got some news about that project. We also ran into Carlo. After that we caught Spy Kids 3D, which is my first full-length 3D movie experience. They fucking charged us 10 bucks for each pair of 3D glasses, and the red lens wasn't too good on mine. The experience was sort of a letdown for me. We never once, you know, moved our heads to evade something or anything like that. In fact, I wonder if I'd enjoy it more without the 3D effect. But still, it was fun having to put it on and off at certain parts of the film. The film itself was nothing special, but nothing horrible, either. It's more of a kids' flick than the first. I didn't see the second so can't compare, though now I want to see it. Antonio Banderas seems to be funniest in Robert Rodriguez films. While the graphics are great, the movement is clunky and awkward. Stallone can't act for shit, though I liked his hippie, and really enjoyed George Clooney's impression of him. If you do decide to watch it, wait til after the credits for a cute surprise. As usual, Rodriguez did damn near everything on this film: writer, director, editor, producer, visual effects supervisor, composer, songwriter, and re-recording something. The guy's a one-man studio.

After that we used our free games at Timezone, where we all took turns playing air hockey. Lia displayed her skills, trouncing Quark twice, and I got to murder dozens of virtual enemies with some shoot-em-ups.

And Mars is out right now! Wooh!

Dogville is fantastic. There are people who've called it anti-cinema, but I don't agree. I think that there are some rules that cinema should adhere to, otherwise a work could become a different medium, but most of the time, I'm entertained and delighted that people like Lars Von Trier are still pushing up against the boundaries of what people would imagine and categorize as a film.

To explain, the entirety of Dogville takes place in a warehouse, with no real sets, just a couple of props and labels on the ground that say "Elm St." or "Chuck & Vera" or "Gooseberry Bushes" or "Dog." The actors walk around pretending to walk in and out of doors, etc. I guess the idea is in the absence of props and sets, you really concentrate solely on the characters: their emotions, expressions, reactions. That's the main conceit. The story isn't much of a departure as far as the more popular Von Trier films go (which is mostly a woman suffering every indignity until the breaking point, i.e. madness or death). However, there's a great twist at the end that makes it worthwhile, and almost vindicates the suffering he put his previous characters through.

There are things he does with the experiment that are possible only because it's film, which validates the experiment in my mind. Most importantly, point of view and editing. He can compose shots we won't see if it were theater (top shots, for example), juxtaposing, framing, using negative space, etc. He can go back and forth between separate conversations much smoother, or use jump-cuts.

Even though this is the first part of his USA trilogy, the story would probably fit in with his previous Golden Heart trilogy, as Von Trier himself has admitted. But it's probably that twist at the end that really differentiates it.

Anyway, it's good, it's worth it, watch it, enjoy it. Leaving the theater, you could really feel that everyone was talking about it, and it felt great. Kudos to Cinemanila for getting me in a real film mood again. Even when I'm home I'm watching more. And am just excited for the possibilities, and am glad to be reminded that possibilities exist, and can be exploited with grace and aplomb.

Check out the website of Dogville, too. It's quite good. The trailer, for example, shows nothing from the film, but excerpts from a behind-the-scenes documentary called Dogville Confessions (which I now really want to see), where cast and crew could vent their frustrations or anything else in "confession booths" that were on set during production.

--

Another film I'm looking forward to.

--

Ate Cyn redesigned the website of her fiancee. It's not just a great redesign, there's some new material I haven't seen before, too (her fiancee is Arnold Arre, by the way). The watercolor works, in particular, are amazing.

Also check out her website for Sandwich, which is terrific. Nice to see they've got wallpapers. And banners, if you want 'em.

Holy fucking shit, I’m 23.

23 sounds scary as a number denoting age. It’s not old, but it sounds frighteningly adult. I was just getting comfortable with 22. And this year’s birthday, it really snuck up on me. It was earlier tonight, having dinner with Neva, that I realized, “Oh shit. I forgot it’s my birthday tomorrow.” I honestly was distracted by other things: some stuff I’m reading, Cinemanila, projects…

I re-read my post from the last birthday and noticed some things: both Cinemanila and the Bookfair were on the periphery, and Gamitan had just come out. This year, Keka’s out.

There’s no way that Neva could throw another surprise party after two in a row, so I expect it to be quiet today. Especially since I plan to watch Dogville.

I was born on a Sunday, too.

--

Haven’t updated in a while. The Keka premiere was last Monday, and it was a blast. It’s incredibly satisfying seeing the film on the big screen, especially since I’d already seen it a few times during editing and dubbing. JA’s work is stunning, and even the days that Ody and Lyle shot meshed well, I thought. Despite Quark’s horror stories with the MTRCB, I thought it came out great. I laughed at the right moments, and Katya’s so much better than anyone expected or gave her credit for. Lia’s opening credit sequence was genuinely moving; I keep forgetting to tell her this, but what I love most about it is that it goes back and forth between certain shots/scenes. A typical, lazy version would just go shot, shot, shot with no returns… but hers considers movement, and best of all, returns back to previous shots, sometimes with different permutations, like going through a photo album where the pictures are jumbled out of order. Which is how memory works. Probably the best compliment I can give her in that regard is that it really makes you believe in them as a couple. The funniest scene for me is the morgue. Rey Solo’s performance was a hoot. The funnest scene has to be the musical number. Especially when the frat boys leap from behind their posts. The score is amazing. I told the Diegos at the after-party that I particularly loved the music in the scene in the graveyard near the end, and Diego said that it was really just Keka’s theme, but acoustic. See, I’m a fucking moron when it comes to simple shit like this. It should be easy but it flies over my head. But it can still move me.

Maybe the best thing I can say to Quark about Keka is that even with all my expectations (and I never doubted he could make a great film to begin with), it still exceeded them. So I’m really happy for him, and am proud to say I know the guy. There’s an excruciatingly few number of people who have to deal with his particular dilemma: having achieved my dream project at the tender age of 22… what next?

If you haven’t seen Keka yet, do so. Soon. And if you like it, tell everyone you know to go see it. Even if you didn’t like it, tell everyone to see it so you can compare notes and see if they agree with you.

--

My other highlight of the year is meeting Fernando Mereilles, the director of City of God. It was a complete accident. Alexis and I were sitting at Popeye’s when I saw Tikoy Aguiluz, Festival Director of Cinemanila, walk by real fast in a hurry with a Caucasian guy. Just on the off-chance, I ask Alexis, “Is that Mereilles?” and he looks and says, “Yes!” so we get up and run after them. Surprising myself, I wasn’t a flustered buffoon. I shook his hand and simply said Thanks for making a great film, speaking as a film buff. And that I was glad to hear that a 2 ½ hour serious film was such a hit in his native country, especially among the youth. He was gracious and said thanks, and I got a picture taken with him, while Alexis distracted Tikoy. So that was a real treat. How many times do you get to meet someone who did something that inspired you? And tell them personally that you’re grateful?

Get this: the next day, he was watching a film with us. We saw him while in line for Lav Diaz’s Hubad sa Ilalim ng Buwan, and invited him to watch, and lo and behold, he did. He had to leave early, though, to introduce City of God in the other theater, but still! :) That evening he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Awards Night. Gracious as ever, when he accepted the award he was talking about Brazilian films, which I found refreshing. Instead of taking the credit and letting it be about him, which everyone was prepared and perfectly willing to do (since he deserved it), he still wanted to act as an ambassador for Brazilian cinema. I was with JA as he got Mereilles’s autograph. I never got his autograph; I had wanted to interview him personally but he left two days early. Oh well. He’ll be back soon enough: part of his next film will be shot here.

Today I met Prabda Yoon, who is a nice, amiable chap. He's 30 but has published 10 books, and his recent script was directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang, a film called Last Life in the Universe, which was shot by Christopher Doyle, one of my idols. Check out the trailer on the website, it's pretty interesting. Alexis interviewed him for Indiefilipino.com and I sat in.

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Everyone seems to be getting hit by the Blaster worm. I had to download the patch and removal tool for Neva. Know why I haven’t been hit? I’m still on Windows 98! Dear Lord, I’m too obsolete to even be bothered with…

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Cecile leaves today for Connecticut, so adieu and a safe trip to her. :)

Apologies to Clar. :)

Greetings also to Carlo, whose birthday was yesterday. :)

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Holy fucking shit. 23.

Where the hell did the time go?

Oh Yes.

Just a quick post to let you all know that the website for Keka is now up. A lot of the pictures used on the site are mine. :) Not that you’d know it from the site credits, though… (oho, bitter daw). And here is the Victorian Sex Cry Generator. Good fun for a few minutes. My favorite is “Please sir, I beg you! Ease back your attack so that I may compose myself to compass the admission of that stupendous head of your machine!”

If you haven’t seen Finding Nemo yet, you must. The PowerBooks sale is pretty good, too, if you can find something you like. Instead of the standard 20% discount, this year the standard discount went up to 30%. I recommend Samuel Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (which is in the 50% off section), the graphic novels, and the usual suspects: Neal Stephenson, Philip K. Dick, Jeff Noon, Chuck Palahniuk, Haruki Murakami, Douglas Coupland, Michael Chabon, Truman Capote, etc.

Got a reply for my second Help Request from Blogger: they can't find a more recent copy of my template, so I went and did all the changes myself (again). I restored the links box to the best of my memory (even added a couple of people), but it may not be complete, so if you were linked before and aren't now, comment and I'll rectify the problem (please also tell me if there are any broken links, or if I'm using an old URL of yours).

Hope to watch some films at Cinemanila today.

Hurrah! MINDFUEL is one year old.

I honestly wasn't sure if it would make it this long. It seemed possible at all times that I'd just lose interest, or neglect it long enough that it wouldn't be worth reviving. But I'm glad it's still here. I'm glad I can look at old entries and see what I was doing, thinking, angry about, ensorcelled by. So I think that in some shape or form, I'll be keeping MINDFUEL for some time yet. Thanks to all faithful readers, commenters, linkers, and people who've signed my Guestbook.

No reply yet for the second help request from Blogger, so we'll see when I just lose patience and restore the template myself (painstakingly).

Finally got to drop by the set of First Time again yesterday. My first visit to my episode. Saw people speaking my dialogue (well, some of it; the script's changed a lot). "Actors" who I know will at least be getting PAID. Robert Quebral is the cinematographer of my episode, and it looks great. Saw some of the changes done to my script, and I figure only about 40% will remain. Reasons for the changes vary: weather wasn't always cooperative so schedule was a problem, so is the budget, and let's be generous by saying some of the "actors" have difficulty memorizing and delivering lines... even if they are sometimes one-liners (heard a horrible story about an actress who couldn't even knock on a door convincingly). Oh well. I've distanced myself from the story enough that it doesn't matter to me anymore (and I understand the necessity of the changes given the circumstances). And this way I will genuinely be surprised myself when I finally see the movie.

The guy playing the main male character was talking to me, and I don't think he knew I was the writer, because he kept telling me that "I'm not actually supposed to be in this film e, I'm supposed to be doing wholesome roles only."

Also dropped by Marie's shoot for her student video. Ody Flores (who did some work on Keka as well when regular DP JA Tadena couldn't make it) is shooting the project and his work looks amazing. Jaime Fabregas remembered me from when we acted together in Marc Abaya's short about two years ago. And I met Epi Quizon, who said he liked the script for Big Thing and his character, which also made me happy.

Unfortunately, developments on Big Thing are going south. There's a new director attached, who I'm not familiar with, and I guess he didn't like our script because he's having it revised by someone else. And I had to find this out myself, no one "officially" told me. So I guess Lyndon and I may be out of the loop now. I just want to get paid at this point.

For a day or two MINDFUEL was dead. The template disappeared, as I mentioned, and when I published a new post, the entire blog disappeared as well. I fired off a help request and hoped for the best, dismayed by the notice that mentions they're concerned, but must prioritize paying members. Understandable. Got the reply today, and the blog's back up, but as anyone can see, it's an old version of my template, before the great links box reshuffling. So I fired off another help request. I hope they can help me out.

Keka's in dubbing! The editing's all but done. Then I guess sound mixing, and grading. And then that's it. Time to watch. I hope we can do some cool Keka articles for Indiefilipino.com.

Will finally get to visit First Time again in a few hours. :)

Finally got to see, and eat at, Kusineo. Thus I also finally got to see Meg since she got back, and was introduced to Nicole, who is a quivering kinetic dollop of cute. I think all restaurants should have their own Nicole. I also wish she'd update her blog more.

Tomorrow this blog turns one. How time flies...