I am giving him dried mangoes for sure, but I don't know what else.

Forgot to mention that the Writers' Forum with Neil Gaiman on Monday at Music Museum is now open to the public. Go here if you're interested. Or call up British Council, because they have to mail the invites and I don't know if there's time.

So anyway, here's the loophole. It's quite obvious and nothing earth-shattering, but basically, they recently amended the rules so that if you only want one thing signed, you don't need a book pass. But if you want, say, 3 or more items signed, you need the stub. Unless! You bring along several people, not necessarily friends, and give them an item apiece to have signed in your name. Someone on a mailing list has mentioned he's bringing household help and his driver, to get something like 7 things signed. That way you don't have to buy books you may already have (especially since he's not promoting anything new; Anansi Boys comes out in September, I think) just to get more passes.

Tune in to NU 107.5 on Monday morning, around 1030 there'll be a Gaiman interview. Cool beans.

-

"I felt like Karen Carpenter and I could've been good friends, if only she wasn't a singer-superstar and if only she didn't have anorexia and if only she hadn't died."

Nice to see Neva posting again.

-

Here's the first trailer to emerge for Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown.

And some goodness for your day:

Hey, think about it: Neil Gaiman is going to be here tomorrow! Cool. Do you know what you want to have signed yet? There is a bit of a loophole in the new rules for signing that Fully Booked put out; I'll reveal it on Saturday morning if you haven't seen it yourself yet.

I am definitely going to meet him at some point thanks to the fact that I do some work for Fully Booked, so I am trying not to get too excited. The problem is it's already Thursday and there's still so much to do! Is there a burning question you would like to ask?

I am also thinking of giving him a gift. Something cool, that if possible is also Pinoy, without being bulky or too expensive. Any ideas? Help!

There is a new Mirrormask clip online, and it's beautiful and creepy at the same time.

-

Haven't been to a gig in a while, so last night's debut of The Bitter Pill was fun. But man, SaGuijo's becoming Too Hip Gotta Go! It gets too full, there's no space anywhere and it kinda pisses me off to pay 100 entrance when you can't even sit down, plus I'm not really a drinker and don't like their iced tea so the consumable is lost on me.

I'm so glad we've got The Daily Show now. Informative AND hilarious.
Essential TV viewing.

I still haven't seen War of the Worlds. Is Fantastic Four any good?

People are still getting sick. I'm fortifying myself for the weekend.

-

MAKE WITH THE CLICKY

First, two interesting articles: one by author Neal Stephenson on Star Wars, and another by Salon's Douglas Wolk on Alan Moore's Promethea, well-written even if I don't necessarily agree with some things (I do agree with most, however).

Trailers for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, with some great shots that just get me more excited to see it.

A new trailer for Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride!

An intriguing trailer for a documentary called The Aristocrats on what is considered to be the dirtiest joke ever told.

An ad that Ricky Gervais did for Live8 and a clip from his new show Extras can be seen here.

Oh, and a little something I like to call KING KONG.

Whew. Haven't blogged in a while.

I was sick about a week back; was in bed for 3 days. I don't even really know what it was; I was very weak but couldn't keep anything down and generally just felt miserable. Got a lot of reading done, at least. 4 books during one particularly long day. There must be some bug or something going around because lots of people were sick when I was and others are sick now. Hope it's nothing serious.

Getting onto Neil Gaiman's blog made my week, though. And the blogad I was quoted in is now being used to sell more... well, blogads.

-

I loved Loved LOVED Batman Begins. I love it to bits. I have seen it twice. It is fantastic.

The first Batman was a monumental event in my life. I didn't even get to see it in a theater (we couldn't watch movies, they were too expensive). I was in Boston, 9 years old, and it had just come out on Laserdisc, and it was one of the first Laserdiscs we ever got and I ever saw and that might've helped because it was clearer and sharper than a movie screen seemed to be and it just blew my little 9-year-old brain away. It melted my eyeballs and made my jaw drop. I'd read Batman comics before then but the movie turned me into a huge fan; that year I got A Death in the Family and The Killing Joke (which was probably my first exposure to who would later become my favorite writer, Alan Moore, though at the time what was most impressive was that there were naked breasts in it). I got all this ridiculous Bat-merchandise (wallet, mug, plaque) I can't even remember all of it. I even have a picture with the Batmobile, when it came to Boston for some car show. One of my prized possessions, and still my favorite Batmobile.

Anyway, Batman Begins. It rescues the character from the ass-raping of Schumacher and Goldsman. In my mind the last film was Batman Returns, but that was way back in 1992. So that's a pretty long wait. When I first heard about this film being made I tried not to get too excited. Nolan hadn't made a film I didn't like yet, but he'd never worked with a budget like this before. Screenwriter David Goyer wrote some excellent JSA stories but he also wrote the Blade trilogy (and directed the last). Besides which, DC kept fucking up its characters in movies: LXG, Catwoman, and then Constantine. So I held off reading up on it, just watching trailers and the like. Boy was that a good decision. It was good to be surprised by Linus Roache as Thomas Wayne (an unexpected, but inspired choice), Rutger Hauer, and Tom Wilkinson. The flashback structure in the first 3rd works well. Whenever it takes a slight turn towards something I might not like, it rights itself eventually by leading to a great point. It stays in continuity mostly, but its changes are understandable. Doing the beginning of Batman affords great opportunities for drama, moreso than in other parts of his "career" because you can show Bruce Wayne making mistakes, learning as he goes. He's not yet that sure of himself, that capable, that confident in his abilities. So it's right that in his first meeting with Gordon, he can't quite pull off the "disappear-without-a-trace" trick until later when he's Bats. And if you notice, everyone seems to be smarter than him; he receives some kind of lecture from pretty much everyone, but he takes the necessary lesson from each lecture, even the one from Falcone the mob boss. The cast is terrific, except for Katie Holmes who, while not bad, is out-acted by almost everyone. There's an appearance by one of the best Batvillains, Mr. Zsasz. The score is good: moody and heavy at the right moments, stirring and frantic when it needs to be. The Batmobile is inspired by the one in Dark Knight Returns (and the whole movie is heavily inspired by Frank Miller's other Bat-classic, Year One [calling the bats is lifted directly from that book]). There's some kind of secret, special delight in seeing a story you're so familiar with from countless retellings and interpretations being done right, while seeming fresh at the same time. And in a different medium, no less. Cillian Murphy was a great creepy villain. Particular kudos to Gary Oldman who made a great Jim Gordon. He's an underrated actor; I wish someone would exploit how good he'd be at comedy. I love the scene of Batman's first "appearance," which is treated as a horror scene from the POV of the criminals. Just how it should be. I also loved him beating the crap out of a would-be killer in the background while Katie Holmes is in the foreground with her taser. The closest thing to a negative for me is that when Bale does his Batman voice, it sounds like he's really trying to lower it and be intimidating, when for Michael Keaton it just seemed to come so naturally.

Basically, at the end of it I'm just so glad they got it right, you know? I didn't realize how much I'd invested in it subconsciously. I think if it was terrible I would've been really depressed, because if someone like Christopher Nolan can't do it, what hope is there? I actually cried in one part, not because of any particularly emotional scene but just because it was so good and I was loving it. it's that shot of Bats standing on the corner of some skyscraper like a gargoyle, nothing but silhouette with the camera circling the building. I was still quite nervous at that point, because I was having so much fun but absolutely dreading that it might somehow fuck up into some stupid Hollywood shit by the end. So when the credits came on I breathed a sigh of relief and my whole body relaxed and I felt elated and like a 9-year-old again, wanting to read the comics.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is fun, great at times but sometimes a bit off in others. It's in the spirit of the book, though, which is good. It also continues the tradition of Hitchhiker's being different for every medium it penetrates. There are characters and events not in the book, but I'm not complaining; Adams wrote the script himself (though didn't complete it since he died). It's almost a little too faithful to the book sometimes; wildly digressing is easier in prose than in film, because it loses flow and can get dangerously close to tedious if not carefully done. Whereas in prose, you as reader can control flow. Or at least, the speed at which you read. I must say, though, that the scene where Arthur met Trillian at the party and they bond was, for me, very romantic. It's very short but there's just this terrific authenticity/silliness to it that struck a chord with me. The fact that I love both Martin Freeman and Zooey Deschanel helps.

-

Wimbledon's begun, but I have to go to Neva's to watch because we don't have Star Sports. Nadal's out, unfortunately, losing in the 2nd round to Muller, though grass isn't really his turf so it's understandable, and he's young yet, only 19.

Did you see the video of Tom Cruise getting squirted with water? I didn't even find it funny, but you can't not watch. It takes all he's got to keep from slugging the guy. When someone tries toweling his face he shoves it away with just a little too much force and you can tell he's just about to explode if not for all the cameras and people.

-

Goddamn, I do love a simple poster with a bold graphic. This poster is worlds away from the earlier one, but still good, and just makes me want to see it more.

On to more film stuff:
A trailer for Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener, his first film since City of God. It's an adaptation of a John Le Carre novel, which comes as a surprise since he was talking about a different kind of film as a follow-up to City of God when he was here for Cinemanila.
A teaser for Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist, his first film since The Pianist.
A new trailer for Terrence Malick's The New World, his first film since The Thin Red Line.
A trailer for Curtis Hanson's In Her Shoes, his first film since 8 Mile.
A gorier trailer for George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, his first zombie film since Day of the Dead.
A teaser for Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, his first film since Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas(!).
A preview of Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, his first film since Vanilla Sky.
A trailer for Takashi Miike's Yokai, his first film since last Thursday. Just kidding.
A new trailer for Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean's Mirrormask.
A trailer for The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring Steve Carell.

At Salle a Manger on Thursday (tomorrow, basically), there will be a reading of Coraline by Neil Gaiman (of sorts). The unabridged audiobook, read by the author, will be played starting from around 7-730. It has music by The Gothic Archies. It should be fun. Bring your copy of the book so you can read along. I’ve never actually listened to an audiobook, much less in the company of other people, so it should be interesting.

Since it’s a café you can have dinner there, and the food is good. :)
Salle a Manger is at G/F Acrocity Bldg., 1116 antipolo St., Poblacion, Makati City

From Buendia, turn onto N. Garcia and drive straight on until you pass an intersection with a Jollibee on the right corner. Acrocity Bldg. is almost right after the Jollibee, on the right side.

EDIT: This was canceled unexpectedly, and will be rescheduled. :(

No Gweilos Hour tonight either. Either we’re canceled or something’s in the works, so I don’t know and won’t say until I know more.

Did you know that over 100 Japanese citizens commit suicide per day? And yet, despite that statistic, they are second in the category of country suicide rate, following Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka?

Tres cool: How to Make Your Own Totally Sweet Mario Question Blocks and Put Them Up Around Town Because It's Really Awesome. I like these little artbomb ideas, like Space Invader.

So there’s another dig at Pinoys in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and it reminded me of something I completely forgot to write about in my discussion of The Life Aquatic. Ordinarily whenever there’s a negative reference to Filipinos in the movies or TV I don’t care. I know the truth that these generalizations don’t apply to everyone and are actually misrepresentative so I don’t lose any sleep over it. But in The Life Aquatic (and here there’s a bit of a spoiler) their paths cross with Pinoy pirates when they go through unprotected waters. And for the first time in a long time, I felt bad. Because this was Wes Anderson, you know? I love the guy. The pirates had bolos and a 3-legged dog. But if you actually watch the scene closely, only one guy speaks Tagalog well, everyone else has this thick accent like they just learned it. Anyway, after seeing the film I was online digging up stuff about The Life Aquatic and found on its IMDB Trivia page this relieving bit of information: in the script the pirates are Indonesian, but they couldn’t find enough Indonesians in Italy where they shot the film. And what is there always a lot of no matter where you are? So Pinoys it is.

Still, the scene did produce this gem: Bud Cort (all grown up from Harold & Maude!) translating “major shitstorm” as “matinding bagyo ng tae,” which had me guffaw.

Yes, guffaw. When it is that sudden and unexpected, and that loud and that ridiculous-sounding, that laugh is a guffaw.

(Mr. & Mrs. Smith is better than I expected, but the ending sucks)

(And speaking of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, there's a little scandal brewing over the Teen Choice Awards nominating the film when IT HADN'T COME OUT YET, striking further blows for its credibility)

-

It's not The Onion, but...

(slight spoilers, though I doubt no one's not seen this already)

So, Episode 3. Long story short: I think it's the best of the prequels, but it's still nowhere near great. Even "good" is stretching it. I'll just say "Thank God it wasn't worse." The dialogue was still atrocious (they all speak the same, do you notice?). A coterie of good actors in the film and only Ewan performs up to par. Portman particularly looked like she had nothing to do but pout. I thought the Wookies would be the Ewoks this time around but I guess not (not entirely a bad thing). Grievous wasn't menacing at all. I was unimpressed by the saberfighting until the showdown of Anakin & Obi-Wan. I think that worst of all, the handling of Anakin's "turning" was fumbled so much. It was bad enough that Dooku was killed so casually in the beginning (which kind of undermines how much of a threat he was in Clones). But later on, the impetus for the turning is introduced as Anakin's fear of losing Padme. Lucas could've played that up a bit, related it with his mother, but the balance between that and his thirst for power (the selfish reasons, basically) weren't handled well. So that scene where he turns just came across as so flat and uninteresting (and Mace Windu, who Lucas promised a cool death, doesn't get one. Actually, couldn't he do that soft landing he did in Clones?). There's no sense of TRAGEDY. I mean, we all know what's going to happen but we should be wishing it didn't HAVE to. But here we're mostly just nonchalant. And then one of the things I was looking forward to didn't happen: they didn't explain how he got the name Darth Vader. The Sith generally have cool names: Sidious, Tyranus, Maul, etc. But during the naming it's like Palpatine's eyes were scanning the room for something to use, and he just blurts out "Uh... Darth... Vader." Ditto the naming of the Twins! It was so funny: "It's a boy." "Luke." "It's a girl." "Leia." WOW! What poignance! And her cause of death! "She's lost the will to live." That's scientific progress for you. It's a little disheartening though that Padme's character couldn't even muster enough will to live, if only FOR HER NEWBORN TWINS! Ah well. There were some things I really liked, though. That silent scene where Anakin and Padme are enjoying vistas of the city while apart, each in deep contemplation, that was the closest to subtle Lucas got, but it felt like something from a Ridley Scott movie. The fight between Palpatine and Yoda was fun. I mostly enjoyed the final duel of Anakin and Obi-Wan, particulary Ewan. His voice, on the verge of cracking, mixing anger and despair, was very effective. He was so angry and felt like he failed at the same time. And the last shot gave me a little tingle, staring into the twin sunsets.

And here's a little thing for y'all, but particularly Quark: our favorite moment from Episode 3. I thought these scenes had already expired into parody. See Team America for a better rendition.

I saw Episode 3 at Cinema 2 in Gateway, which I think may be the best new theater we've got. It's a huge theater with a huge screen. We want to watch the summer blockbusters we're looking forward to there. Unfortunately, not all theaters in Gateway are that big. I saw the next film in Cinema 5, which was also big but not as big as 2's, with a screen comparable to Greenbelt 3.

So: Sin City. Good but not great. It's a literal translation, not an adaptation. The first story, The Hard Goodbye, suffered from being rushed. They kept talking so quickly, not letting any lines sink in. And I didn't like how Mickey Rourke moved as Marv, all animated and flailing arms. It was like he was some kind of neurotic, which I never associated with Marv. They also didn't do one of my favorite scenes from the book, where Marv flings himself at the steel doors before trying the bars. I thought the acting was terribly below average for such a cast. Clive Owen was the highlight, but his accent slipped every now and then. Nice to see cameos from people like Nicky Katt & Rutger Hauer. The Big Fat Kill, the middle story, made the best transition, though Brittany Murphy was particularly bad as Shelley. That Yellow Bastard had some pacing issues too, but was mostly just marred by bad acting by Jessica Alba. Nicely shot chase sequence, though. And I didn't like the score. I loved that they got the flying/jumping cars right, but other things didn't translate so well, like the almost cartoonish strength/invulnerability of Marv. And how did Hartigan know where Nancy lived? He went straight there after getting out of prison but I thought she never gave any clues in her letters as to her identity and location?

And yes, the cuts were terribly jarring. But I figured there'd be no other chance to see this on the big screen.

I loved The Life Aquatic with Team Zissou. I was a little worried because reviews were varied, but I loved it just the same. People had said that it's the least emotional of the Wes Anderson films but for me it only seemed that way because the characters were less expressive. As in the feelings were all under the surface instead of brought up in hilarious circumstances/dialogue. But towards the end the emotions rise to the surface. The closest thing to a negative I can say about it is that it reminds you a bit of The Royal Tenenbaums, but only in that there's a patriarch and the ensemble cast revolves around him, etc. The soundtrack as ever was fantastic; I'm biased but I especially loved the use of Sigur Ros for the reveal of the Jaguar Shark. And The Zombies' "What I Feel Inside," which almost made me cry. Now I really love that song.

Team America is hilarious. They hit all those Jerry Bruckheimer notes (credits explode toward the audience) and the cinematography was pretty spiffy! It helps that they got the cinematographer of Spider-Man 2 and The Matrix Trilogy. If I have a gripe, it's that the final setpiece was a little similar to the South Park movie, but it's no biggie. I'm going to try and find that song about Michael Bay movies and download it. MATT DHAYMN!

The French Film Festival is ongoing at Greenbelts 1 & 3 until June 15. The write-ups of the films are here, but their schedule is inaccurate. Use Sureseats to find out what’s playing. I haven’t seen most of these films, but I do recognize most of the names, so I’m hoping it’s good.

No Gweilos Hour tonight, unfortunately. We are being pre-empted by the live Bamboo launch at Megamall. Which I don’t mind; it’s perfectly understandable, although I wish that when it happened it meant we get 2 hours next week. :)

-

Apparently the Sin City being shown here has a lot of cuts; basically all the nude shots have been removed, including sex scenes. But the cuts are jarring; beyond scenes being removed, lines are mangled and the pace is ruined several times. Some friends are decrying the MTRCB but I suspect this to be the work of the distributor, in order to get the rating down to an R13 from an R18.

They should’ve had a clue with the name SIN CITY, don’t you think?

-

I’ve been watching and enjoying this year’s French Open. I haven’t been following tennis in years but this tournament’s been on Sports Plus almost every time I turn to that channel (it’s after ETC) so I ended up watching and realized there’s almost no one I recognize, beyond Mary Pierce. And Sharapova, who I know by reputation. Even Kuerten’s out on an injury. But the matches have been mostly incredible, and definitely unpredictable. In the beginning it was funny, because it seemed like a tournament between Russia and Spain. There were so many players from both countries it was almost ridiculous. But now things are getting interesting towards the finals, with Davenport and Sharapova, the world’s no. 1 & 2 seeds, respectively, being defeated in the quarterfinals by people ranked way lower than them. So now it’s anyone’s game, and that can be exhilarating. The other thing is that the French Open has the rudest fans, in my opinion, of any sporting event anywhere. They scream and shout bloody murder, they’ll heckle you while the point is being fought! Which is a big no-no in other tournaments, who will stop the match until the crowd calms down. But just the other day, in this match between Nadal (Neva’s crush) and Grosjean, the crowd wouldn’t shut up for a good 15 minutes, and I was just watching and laughing. It was live so they couldn’t do anything about it, and even Frenchman Grosjean was looking embarrassed, and Spaniard Nadal’s displeasure was evident on his face, but he knew if he did anything, he’d get heckled and booed. There’s also been the occasional amusement, like when Henin-Hardenne and Petrova had a match and emerged wearing the exact same outfit (both are sponsored by Adidas). Tres embarrassing!

Wimbledon’s right after Roland Garros in the Grand Slam calendar, so I think I’ll be tuning in for that.

-

Two more additions to Great Albums of 2005: Pedicab’s Tugish Takish and Sleater-Kinney’s The Woods.

For some reason I can’t get my Tugish Takish to work in the car’s player. It’s frustrating as hell. Mich mentioned that some of her friends can’t play the VCD that comes with it. Inksurge’s design is appropriate. The cover reminded me a bit of Supergrass’s Life On Other Planets. The sleeve was a nice touch, and a nice design, but somewhere along the way (probably the manufacturing end) someone didn’t account for how tight it would be, and it was a goddamn bitch taking it off. I didn’t want to tear it, and now, well, it looks like I’ll never put it back on because I don’t want to go through that headache again. I think Quark tore his. It’s a Weezer-short album (30 mins.), which I wasn’t expecting, but beggars can’t be choosers.

A pet peeve of mine with buying local CDs, and locally manufactured CDs, is that the quality control is so low. Pedicab, for example: when I opened it up, the inlay card had lots of creases and folds along the spine. It looks like a second-hand package. And the aforementioned problems with playing the discs. Quark & Lia gave me a great Christmas gift last year, the Pearl Jam greatest hits package, but unfortunately the same thing: creased/folded inlay card, which I had already come to expect by that point, but the kicker was that there was a piece of rubber adhesive on the second disc, which I tried to remove carefully but to no avail, and so the last two tracks skip like crazy. I mean, it’s this shit that makes pirated goods more attractive. Because at this point, that’s really what you’re paying for, isn’t it? The quality. You’re paying full price and for what? A disc that looks like someone previously owned it (and wasn’t very careful with it, either)? That shit ain’t right.

-

David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, which is an adaptation of a graphic novel by John Wagner & Vince Locke.

2046 is only coming out in the US in August, but the trailer’s nice. Kinda thriller-ish, with some very nice cuts.

A new Charlie & the Chocolate Factory trailer, with more footage (only now do I realize, for example, that Charlie is played by Peter from Finding Neverland, so he and Johnny Depp must be good friends by now). Exciting.

Guy Ritchie’s latest, Revolver, which sounds and looks like his previous films, Swept Away aside.

Via Minay, Crying While Eating. Not a movie, but amusing just the same.

Matt Madden’s finished his Exercises in Style, and it’s now got a website. I used to follow them when they were on Indy, but it’s nice to see it all done now, and I await the forthcoming book. It’s a very interesting project, particularly for those who are interested in storytelling in general (taken as it is from Raymond Queneau), and comics in particular.

"IF IT'S WORTH REACTING TO, IT'S WORTH OVERREACTING TO"

Some big Alan Moore news, if you'll allow me to geek out a bit about my favorite writer. Rich Johnston returned his Lying in the Gutters column to break the news about Moore effectively dissolving his relationship with DC (basically for the second time). Their relationship has always been spotty; Moore & aritst Dave Gibbons felt slighted when DC made so much money off of Watchmen in the '80s. There was a deal that the rights would revert to the creators after the work was out of print, but neither expected DC to keep it in print for 20 years (it's still one of their best-selling graphic novels). Also, buttons sold by DC at the time were listed under "promotional items" and not "merchandise," so they wouldn't be obligated to give a cut to the creators. Moore swore never to work with DC again. When he was about to launch a new line of comics (America's Best) in the late '90s under Jim Lee's Wildstorm Comics, things almost came to a head because DC bought Wildstorm, and Lee had to fly to England to smooth things over with Moore. Moore's instinct was to call it off, but he felt obligated to continue because some artists were already hard at work on stories and had turned down other jobs to do his comics. A system was set up so that Moore would never technically work for DC, receiving his checks from somewhere else, though effectively DC distributed America's Best. Since then 2 semi-scandals occurred: an issue of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was pulped because of an authentic turn of the century ad that DC found offensive, and a short story wasn't allowed to be published because it featured L. Ron Hubbard, father of the lawsuit-happy Scientology religion. This was discredited when a story about L. Ron Hubbard was found in a DC-published anthology.

Looks like the final straw was the V For Vendetta movie. Moore always tried to separate himself from the film adaptations of his works: he didn't want to be involved, he was happy to just receive credit and the checks. But when he was sued (along with 20th Century Fox) by a screenwriter claiming the film LXG was a rip-off of his screenplay, he had to undergo a 10-hour deposition defending his own comic from the screenplay he had nothing to do with. In fact, the similar elements were ones the studio added that were NOT in the comic, such as Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray. After that, he didn't want his name to be used, or to receive money from any movies; his share would be redistributed among the artists involved. But at the V For Vendetta press conference producer Joel Silver implied that Moore endorsed the film's script, when something more like the reverse happened (see the column for details), and Moore demanded a retraction and apology from Silver and Warner Bros., who own DC. It didn't come, and Moore basically said that was it; after my contractual obligations are complete, I'm leaving and taking League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with me (he and artist Kevin O'Neill own the property in full). They took it to Top Shelf, a small publisher who have done good by Moore for the last few years, publishing new editions of his Mirror of Love and Voice of the Fire, as well as handling the publication/distribution of From Hell.

Though I'm obviously biased, this is just ridiculous. I can see DC doing this to a lesser-known writer, but pissing off Alan Moore? I mean, not only is he possibly the greatest writer the medium's had, everyone KNOWS he can hold a grudge like nobody's business. DC just kissed off a whole lot of money.

Moore, in a rare case, spoke against the V For Vendetta script (presumably because it's the cause of so much trouble): "It was imbecilic; it had plot holes you couldn't have got away with in Whizzer And Chips in the 1960s. Plot holes no one had noticed.

They don't know what British people have for breakfast; they couldn't be bothered. 'Eggy in a basket,' apparently. Now the US have 'eggs in a basket,' which is fried bread with a fried egg in a hole in the middle. I guess they thought we must eat that as well, and thought 'eggy in a basket' was a quaint and Olde Worlde version. And they decided that the British postal service is called Fedco. They'll have thought something like, 'Well, what's a British version of FedEx... how about FedCo? A friend of mine had to point out to them that the Fed, in FedEx comes from 'Federal Express.' America is a federal republic; Britain is not."

He's also said that from now on he's not going to allow any work of his to be adapted into a film if he can help it.

A title was given for his next novel, "Jerusalem," which, based on its description, will not replace the previously-mentioned "A Grimoire" (perhaps only delaying it). Where his first novel "Voice of the Fire" took place entirely in his hometown of Northampton over a span of 10,000 years, "Jerusalem" will take place in the space of 3 or 4 blocks in Northampton where Moore grew up.

He's working on a graphic novel for Avatar Press.

He also proposed to his long-time girlfriend Melinda Gebbie (artist of Lost Girls) and she accepted.

And on the Alan Moore Fan Site you have a chance to ask the magus himself a question.

THIS YEAR IN ALAN MOORE BOOKS WILL KILL ME

Promethea Vol. 4 (already out)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2: The Absolute Edition (June)
Top 10: The 49ers (July)
Tom Strong's Terrific Tales Vol. 1 (August)
V For Vendetta HC (September)
Absolute Watchmen (October)
Lost Girls (December)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Dark Dossier (sometime this year)

(not Alan Moore):
The Complete Calvin & Hobbes (October)

What can I say? He is my favorite writer. And C&H is my favorite comic strip.

DEVELOP

I've been using my LC-A less these last few months (hopefully this will be rectified). I developed a roll the other day and it's funny to see how many events are on it: the earliest pictures are New Year's Eve pictures, reunion dinner with my high school classmates, CD's exhibit at Saguijo, then there's our picnic at The Fort, Singapore visits 1 & 2, the HG shoot with Amanda Griffin/Georgina Wilson/Ronnie Lazaro, my quick jaunt in Malaysia, ending with the Camiling Story showing at UPFI.

STUFF

Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, an adaptation of English author Diana Wynne Jones's fantasy book.

A new Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit trailer, less cheeky than the first.

Continuing with the Alan Moore mayhem, here's a short trailer for the documentary on him, The Mindscape of Alan Moore (I hope they come up with a better title).

And we haven't had Milkman Dan recently, so

The biggest independent film of the year comes out today. I really do hope it's good.

Is George Lucas a slut? Inquiring minds want to know. It seems that so long as you're willing to pay truckloads of cash, Darth Vader/Anakin will endorse your product, from soda-pop beverages to candy. Have you seen the cute yellow M&M standing with a lightsaber beside the Sith Lord? Does it not occur to the corporate suits that they are tying up with a film whose main character SUCCUMBS TO EVIL AND THE TEMPTATIONS OF POWER AND RUTHLESSLY MURDERS PRETTY MUCH HIS ENTIRE BROTHERHOOD!?!? Now have some candy, kids. They're yummy.

This is now out in the US:

And because everyone's always wondered what a dog would look like dressed as Princess Leia in her slave gear (also for Lia who is leaving to watch Bloc Party!):

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE! Go to Saguijo sometime soon to catch the 4-man exhibit Kantutan Sa Ulan, featuring new work by RA Rivera, Jun Sabayton, Lyle Sacris, and Vincent Van Gogh in a surprise participation. Quite possibly the most electrifying exhibit you may see this year, flying in the face of all conventions, making you question what is art, and what is hanging on your walls; it is a treat for the funny bone, the heart, the soul, the spirit, the mind, the head, and your brain, too.

URGENT!

Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 17) Erwin Romulo's CAMILING STORY will be shown at the UP Film Institute, 5 PM, free of charge.

And for a bit of the funny, here is the best quote of the year! Well, today, at least:

"Last time I met her we were in a restaurant together - she slammed the menu down and screamed, 'I hate reading! Someone tell me what's on the menu!' I mean, I'm blonde but c'mon."

-- Pamela Anderson on Paris Hilton

Is it not the best? That story is good enough, but that last line! C'mon!

I spent half the afternoon trying to catch up on unread LJ posts. Boy was that wrong. So much pain and anguish! I thought it was just the heat. My feeling now is I want to stab out my eyes like that girl in the diner in the first Sandman book (Preludes & Nocturnes). I think people are too obsessed with love. I think it’s media manipulation and peer pressure to a large extent. I mean, love is great, but I don’t think it’s everything. And maybe the romantics will pounce on that sentence but would you tell someone who’s never known love to just end it because their life wasn’t worth living without it? Or are these just more signs of my growing older? When I was younger, did I think love was everything? (thinks, answer: no. Actually gave up on love around 16, 17.) I wish there was more art that affirmed that you could lead a perfectly happy life even while being single. That you are not nothing without someone else to make you feel better about yourself, or to acknowledge you, or to notice you.

Wait, what? Am I making any sense?

Gweilo’s Hour tonight at 9 on NU. Listen if you’re bored, some good songs planned.

Tomorrow at Gweilo’s Eastwood, some bands are playing. Perhaps you are interested in music, yes? Try The Extra Special, Citric Maple, another band whose name I forgot, and The Sabaytones are playing.

Laughter, oh, it is good.

Click.

MORE MOVIE GUNK

That's Portman sans locks as Evey. And the unknown who was going to play V (James Purefoy) has been replaced by Agent Smith/Elrond himself, Hugo Weaving. God, V's going to be an insufferable boor, isn't he? Also, Stephen Fry is playing The Voice, who he described in a recent interview as a voice of opposition to the fascist regime, which prompted Warren Ellis to write that he expects Watchmen to be a fucking musical (The Voice in the graphic novel is the government's PR machine, a consummate liar and sexual deviant).

Speaking of Watchmen, its greenlight was turned off due to recent executive shuffling at Paramount and a recently-struck deal with Marvel Comics. I think its status now is that the producers and director (Paul Greengrass, for those keeping track) now have to re-pitch the entire project to new suits, and they have several things going against them: a) it's not a Marvel property, b) there are no known characters, c) no sequel potential, d) it's a bit of a downer, and e) the budget's somewhere around $100 million. Rumors circulating around the time were John Cusack as Nite Owl, Sigourney Weaver as one of the Silk Spectres (I forget which), and Jude Law has said he wants to play Ozymandias (Law is a big Watchmen fan). But nothing may happen, which wouldn't bother me at all.

Possibly my favorite photographer, David LaChappelle has directed a film called Rize. I also want to see Kontroll. Looks interesting.

I guess Goblet of Fire and Chronicles of Narnia will be fighting it out this holiday season, and it occurred to me the other day that this summer, both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who basically invented the summer movie, both have monster summer movies coming out. Hm.

Hello!

Yes, I’ve been back from Singapore for a while now. Yes, I’ve been slightly busy. Also, Hotmail screwed with me, so I missed out on a lot of messages, and had to reactivate my account with many mailing lists. If I’ve not mentioned it already, all email to me should now be sent to my Gmail address; I’ve all but given up on Hotmail’s terribly piss-poor service. If you sent me something that needed a response and didn’t get one, you should probably re-send it. Sorry.

Lots to talk about, and hopefully I will get to them, but for now let’s just get to what you go to Mindfuel for! :)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (teaser trailer; Gambon is really great as Dumbledore)

The Chronicles of Narnia (teaser)

Batman Begins (trailer 4) --> YES.

George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (Asia Argento makes sense)

Joss Whedon’s Serenity

Jet Li in Unleashed

Save The Green Planet looks like a laugh.

A funny behind-the-scenes clip from the set of King Kong (which is done shooting! Holy shit!)

Greetings from Singapore!

Everything is damn expensive. Beer's 12 dollars! A pack of cigarettes is 10. And a dollar is roughly 33-35 pesos. Cab rides are about the same, and forget about food! Hopefully I will have lost some weight when I get back.

The shopping is good, if you're rich. But I've seen the Guero DVD, looking tempting (and not exorbitantly priced), and I looked at HMV to look for 2 CDs: the first Very Secretary album, and Alexandre Desplat's score for Birth. Only found the latter, but at $23! Madness.

That said, are there any hardcore Il Mare/My Sassy Girl fans out there? I saw the posters going for I think $14. Convert it yourself, and if you want me to get it for you, text me asap. I'm back in Manila on Saturday, fingers crossed.

I miss dried mangoes! Labo.

“Good taste is the enemy of art.” – Pablo Picasso

Mario and Erwin have kindly invited me to join them as a regular host on the Gweilo’s Hour, so, yeah, if, like me, your Friday nights are free and you’re sober enough during the hour of 9-10 PM and can reach a radio, have a listen.

I may be away for a few days, starting tomorrow.

The Ring 2 sucks. Which is sad because a) it’s Hideo Nakata, and b) there was an interesting twist that was so ripe with potential, it was the perfect excuse to have a sustained feeling of tension/dread/terror, but no, they settled with cheap shocks and the Goddamn Hollywood One-Liner. Nice Gary Cole cameo though.

I liked Closer. I really thought I wouldn’t, when I saw the trailer. But it was good. It’s very obviously adapted from a play, though, and I’m really curious if the non-linear structure is faithful (it was adapted by the playwright himself). What’s interesting to me is that there actually wasn’t that much time for character development, it just jumps right into those pivotal moments in the relationship and the betrayals/counter-betrayals. So what happens is you bring a lot to it as an audience member; your memories and experiences and knowledge of how people are petty and shallow and insecure and cheap and selfish and fuck each other over, seemingly with abandon. A reviewer described it as an emotional Rorschach test of relationships, and that’s something to think about. I loved Clive Owen, especially his showdown with Julia Roberts, when he trapped her and I actually wanted to stand up and cheer (I settled for pointing at the screen, silently hooting). Occasionally, though, it irks me when the dialogue is TOO good, TOO perfect (too witty repartee, basically), and delivered so quickly. No one talks like that in real life. It’s something plays tend to do. When I argue with someone there usually aren’t these wonderful poison-laced bon mots that fly around like confetti, I’m not trying to use my tongue as a makeshift epee. I can admire the writing, but it doesn’t feel realistic, because normal people stutter, eat their words, stumble, say stupid things they don’t mean and sometimes things that don’t even make sense after you utter them and you’re left feeling embarrassed but still trying to appear dignified in your anger. But, yeah, Closer makes you think about relationships, particularly your own, and in that, it works great.

Forgot to mention that I finished, a while back, the Hitchhiker’s Guide books of Douglas Adams, and enjoyed them. It’s occasionally brilliant writing, though inconsistent. It is definitely brilliant comedy. It’s funny to realize how big an influence he is on Neil Gaiman (who wrote a Guide to Hitchhiker’s Guide called Don’t Panic! as one of his first major works as an unknown) and pop culture in general, but in its own very British way. Like big epics, it takes turns in directions you didn’t even know existed (like suddenly jumping 5 years within the turn of a page), and by the end you are most definitely in strange unfamiliar territory. I can only assume he intended to continue the series because WHAT HAPPENED TO FENCHURCH!? And other assorted plot bits were left dangling. With his demise, it looks like these will be questions for the ages.

I had a quick fever last week, like one day, but after I had a cough that still hasn’t left, and one afternoon I was watching HBO and caught the majority of The Emperor’s Club, a film I originally dismissed as another Dead Poets Society-type film, but I was still curious to watch it because I like Kevin Kline. It’s surprisingly different, for a reason I can’t divulge for fear of spoiling it, but the real surprise is FUCKING RAHUL KHANNA, ex-MTV VJ, who is in the film as some kind of genius! I was wondering where he’d got to.

PowerBooks is on sale until the end of the month. I highly recommend David B.’s Epileptic, which is in the biographies section. I’m going through that right now and it’s definitely one of the books of the year; one of the most significant graphic novels in the wake of Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, Paul Hornschemeier’s Mother, Come Home; etc. Also The Best of American Splendor & Posy Simmond’s Gemma Bovery in Graphic Novels.

Richard Kadrey has offered his new novel, Blind Shrike, to the public absolutely free as a downloadable .PDF. His Viperwire nanotales are still up on Infinite Matrix, and his earlier novel Metrophage is also still a free download.

TRAILERS

Color Me Kubrick, starring John Malkovich

Daywatch, sequel to Nightwatch

Tony Scott’s Domino

And naturally, Breakdancing Transformers

PROCRASTINATION POST

The Onion remains, if not consistently hilarious, then consistently unafraid to poke at the most sensitive and controversial of topics. Recent headlines include "Pope's Renal System Proves Fallible," "John Paul II's Last Words: 'Pope Sled'," and "Terri Schiavo Dies of Embarrassment."

MEDIA

The new, internet-exclusive Kingdom of Heaven trailer has some great-looking shots.

Kim Ki-Duk's 3-Iron looks interesting.

Night Watch looks DAMN good.

Check out the Japanese War of the Worlds trailer. More footage. And it only occurs to me now that it looks like the entire film will be from the perspective of this one family, so that has me more interested.

Here are the trailers (1 and 2) for Michael Bay's The Island, and if you're wondering why in God's name do I have trailers for a Michael Bay film linked on my blog it's this: he's been smart of late, what with producing remakes of classic cult horror films directed by chums of his (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [with an upcoming prequel], The Amityville Horror, with The Hitcher in development), and this is a good move, something Roger Ebert (I think) wrote about: remaking bad films that had good plots (instead of remaking great films [i.e. Jonathan Demme squandering his career on The Truth About Charlie, a remake of Charade, and the recent The Manchurian Candidate]). So, a good concept, with potential for Explodo (what Bay's best at), rewritten by writers from JJ Abrams's Alias. There's potential there. And apparently, the original Island was so bad it was in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The internet-exclusive Fantastic Four trailers (1 and 2) are the best of the bunch so far, but still nothing exciting.

Goddamn, that 3rd Episode 3 trailer, I'll admit it, it got me excited again. Especially that hissing Emperor. Although, I still expect that the trailers will be better than the film. Though I do expect this will be the best instalment of the new trilogy. Here are the TV spots: 1 and 2 and 3

Meanwhile, a raise should really be given to whoever's been handling the marketing of Batman Begins, everything has been classy and just whip-smart. Here are the TV spots. Check out the first. I love that they're confident enough to have a TV spot be nothing but screeching, howling bats against a blood-red sky and the emerging logo. Hardcore!

I can't wait to see this: Sarah Silverman's concert film Jesus is Magic.

If you go here, you can hear some cool authors doing readings at last year's Library of Congress Festival, including Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, Peter Straub, Lawrence Block, and Frederik Pohl.

Take a photo, apply lots of free time and fooling around with Photoshop, this is what happens. I hurt myself laughing at some, I think.

Here's the sick and wrong photo that wouldn't load for the longest time (from a previous post).

This is really for Harvey, but others may be interested: New Scientist's 13 Things That Don't Make Sense.

And this one is for Sansan, and anyone else who wants a laugh. The comments go on forever, but there are some real gems in there if you're willing to look for 'em.

And more sick and wrong.

We had this moving homily yesterday. Bishop Escaler was recounting the times he’s met the Pope-- apparently all bishops have to report to him in person every 5 years, so in the past 26 years he’s met with him 5 times. He considers it an honor that he’s had an hour and 15 minutes of personal face time with His Holiness. He recalled him as “a simple man, garbed in white, behind a simple desk… he always stood up when you entered the room, made sure you were comfortable, offered you a seat…” before they’d get down to brass tacks. The meetings went like this: first, he’d inquire as to the bishop’s own personal health and well-being, then the bishop gives his report, and then the Pope asks pretty much the same questions: How are the Muslims in your area? How is the peace and order situation? Have any members of the clergy been threatened? Are any of you in danger?

He also recounted a lunch the bishops were invited to while the Pope was visiting here, during which he remarked, “You Filipinos, you have all these problems, but you’re always happy, always singing.” He apparently loved hearing and saying mass here because of the vigorous and lively singing.

He talked about how JP II was very fond of the youth, how he was unpopular with a lot of Catholics for some controversial moves (like the Ecumenicism), how he was instrumental in the fall of communism, how he visited this Bulgarian who had shot him twice in his prison cell and forgave him. One of the coolest stories was how, by some twist of fate, Bishop Escaler was present when JP II was installed as Pope (in the Sistine Chapel? I forget) in 1978. He happened to be in Rome, a young priest, and he was invited to attend. By some mistake, he was seated IN THE FRONT ROW, along with all the Cardinals, who were glancing askance, wondering who this young Asian priest was and why he was in the front row.

Bishop Escaler broke into tears several times during the homily. He just couldn’t help himself. It surprised all of us. I wasn’t looking at him the first time it happened, my head was turned down but then I heard his voice break and waver, and I looked up and he had paused, with this look of helplessness that was heartbreaking. You could see he was trying not to cry but there was no way. You wished you could go over to the altar and console him. It really seemed to be a very personal loss for him. Several other people in church were also dabbing at their eyes.

BEDROOM BEDLAM

I really need to clean up/organize my room some day. Hopefully soon:

This bookshelf was filled up as soon as I moved in.



So was this headboard.



The top of the headboard, filled with stuff I'm reading/have to get to soon.



Unwatched DVDs. These are just TV shows. Unwatched films are in the closet. Watched films are in a filing cabinet outside my parents' bedroom.



My dead sexy bookcase, already full. :( There's Alan Moore glowering menacingly in the corner.



I haven't actually used this desk the way it was meant to be in years.



More stuff to get through.



I'm so out of room, I've got shit piled up on the floor.

In a way, I'm almost proud that my room is full of books/magazines/CDs/DVDs. It's tricky walking through it now. I wish I had the biggest room in the house. I seem to have the most stuff. No one else really reads. :(

MUSIC/RADIO

I'm looking for more new music these days. Things seem so up in the air, like you can't tell where things are heading. And a number of albums have disappointed me. I only liked maybe 3 songs from Daft Punk's Human After All (after loving Discovery), the Chemical Brothers' Push The Button wasn't bad, but didn't do anything new either; it was a bit predictable. The Prodigy's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned I heard last year in Edinburgh and it almost put me to sleep. Moby's Hotel was a real disappointment, nothing there made much of an impression and I just ended up missing all the soul stuff. I see why everyone harps on about The Bravery but I still found myself wanting more. The new Weezer, Make Believe, also didn't set my pants on fire. M83's Before The Dawn Heals Us was a surprise, but misleading. People said Air but really they're more My Bloody Valentine. Not bad, but not what I'm looking for, I guess. Queens of the Stone Age turned in a good album, Lullabies To Paralyze. But so far the only thing I've been replaying often is Bloc Party's Silent Alarm. I am glad to announce my second great album of the year so far: Beck's Guero, which is a return to a more lively, party sound, less Midnite Vultures and more of Odelay. I think it's a good move that all his albums sound so different from the one that came before it.

Neva and I watched the Bjork performance at the Royal Opera House the other night (fucking fantastic; brought me to tears several times) and I ended up listening to Post and Vespertine again as a result. Maybe that's what I'm looking for now; at the time I heard those albums the music seemed strange and exciting and unconventional, but Bjork's voice was the anchor. And it's nice that years later those albums still play great. I should dig up Medulla again. So maybe that mix of strange and new but with something still human and-- I don't know-- organic, or natural, to it.

I really hope the new Hot Hot Heat is great. You can listen to some of the songs off of Elevator at their website. And I can't wait for the Pedicab album to be released. I don't think it surprised anyone that they got signed so quickly, but I have to admit it was a bit unexpected to hear they played at Absinth.

I was listening to Zbigniew Preisner's score for Rouge the other day and was amazed to realize that he's such a strong influence on the Final Fantasy soundtracks of Nobuo Uematsu I enjoyed in high school. A day or two later and I found myself listening to the soundtrack of Final Fantasy 6 just to make sure (was also pleasantly surprised to find I still remembered Uematsu's name right).

Joey Comeau makes an interesting observation.

Speaking of ipods, I was thinking again of finally getting one, what with the price drops. The shuffle's no good to me without an LCD display (which is why it's a shuffle, people tell me, but when you can have 16 CDs and are looking for THAT ONE SONG you're fucked). But looking up some of the competition on the web, I found that some of the Archos stuff now has video (and others are practically ipod/pdas), and storage up to 100 GB. Still expensive, though. And the recent news of Apple's battery supplier being able to triple the battery life told me that I should wait a while yet. Especially since phone companies are going to try to get into the game too. Ah, well. By the time I could afford it anyway it already would have been a couple of months. I also wonder when customizability will enter the fray.

It will also be very interesting to watch the success of Sony's PSP upon its release next week. Since it can play video and music, display photos, and of course, play games, I wonder if it's going to put more things into motion.

One of the reasons I wanted an mp3 player was to listen to longer stuff like podcasts. Most of the music I've been getting into lately I was introduced to through internet radio shows and mp3/music blogs. I listen to these while I'm working but wish I could take it with me while traveling. It would also allow for the convenience of listening to international radio, maybe some of the BBC and/or NPR stuff. Trinka sent me a link to this radio documentary, Chasing Love by Miguel Macias, and it's quite interesting (only an hour). I didn't even know there were radio documentaries. It's a 3-year-project of this graduate student (I think), where he edited interviews with lots of people about love while researching the history of romantic love and how it ties into other aspects of society like economics, psychology, culture, etc. It reminded me of Waking Life. It was an eye-opener for me (metaphorically speaking) because I didn't know you could do this sort of thing with radio. Looking around the Transom website, you'll find that there are radio zines, a beautiful, brilliant idea if there was one. Just the fact that these things exist can get me excited. I listen to the occasional radio play (the Neil Gaiman adaptations, mostly) and have the Alan Moore performance pieces, but still, it's lovely that radio (or any media, really) can still surprise you.

Here you’ll find the trailer for Palindromes, the new Todd Solondz film. It’s got a nice poster, too.

I have a new mini-mission, which is to get as many of my friends to read Alan Moore & David Lloyd’s V For Vendetta as I can before the movie comes out in November. Who knows, the movie might be great, but it could also be a flaming turd seeing as it’s the first film from a guy whose biggest credit is assisting the Wachowskis (who wrote the script!). I also disagree with the casting of anyone in the role of the main character V; he’s never shown or named in the book because the point was that he could be anybody. Also, in the film, the oppressive state of things is due to the Germans winning WW2. So beyond the shades of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, it devolves a sophisticated setup (because the crime is that the English people allowed such a fascist state to gain and keep power) into a conveniently palatable Hollywood one, wherein you have an external antagonist. And not just ANY external antagonist, but the one that virtually everyone can hate in unison: NAZIS! The only people who don’t hate them are the Nazis themselves. So that, you know, there can be ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT who the bad guys are. Whereas, in the book, just as much responsibility is placed on the passive masses.

So join my crusade! And we will all end up talking about how brilliant Moore is!

Sorta rule: be quick about it, so other people can read. :)