Got a little tired from studying so I'm writing again. First off, I was not the least bit surprised upon seeing that Garci is back in the headlines once again after a brief hiatus (which I am sure he totally enjoyed). Not only is he hogging the newspapers, he's also the star of the 6 PM news, which I have recently begun to regard as the best telenovela ever, given the seemingly exciting turn of events. What's lacking is a dash of amnesia and telenovelas on primetime would definitely lose their luster.
Speaking of exciting turn of events enough to flip my eyelids backwards, Garci's wife Grace (who I have to give credit for living up to every letter of her name...it's not easy being the better half of THE most-wanted man in the country today) denies that Garci placed a single finger or toe outside the country. Yeah, I roll my eyeballs in disgust. Probably the talk of him doing his own hyperextended version of Jules Verne's classic could have been stretched to some point but him not leaving the country? I know the Philippines has 7,107 islands (and, as we all have memorized by now, even more during low tide), making it perhaps one of the best places in the world to play hide-and-seek next to Antarctica. The Singaporean government has acknowledged that GMA's phone pal had indeed entered its territory and between Lee Kwan Yu's progeny and Garci's better half, the choice as to who I should believe is rather obvious. Besides, if Garci had never left the country, somehow, someone would have gotten to him earlier than now. I have firm faith in our chismax network and noses which could sniff better than the K9s which have become a staple sight in malls. Besides, Garci would not be particularly difficult to single out when in the crowd...except when he's with politicians because by then, they would all reek of the same stench - the people's tears.
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GMA was in Busan, South Korea last week for the APEC. She met with Bush, who is also in the same politically tense situation as her in his home country. She also met Korea's president and prepared to discuss several key issues with him regarding governance, especially since Korea is regarded to one of the world's model nations in terms of development and stability.
I was with my dad and we blurted out the same thing: "Be serious about dealing with corruption and start cleaning up your act!" I am curious though as to what the South Korean leader said to her.
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My two nieces gave me an interesting "gift" before I left last weekend. Handwritten in pencil on a piece of paper torn off a nine-year old's notebook were the lyrics to Sugarfree's "Makita Kang Muli." Seems like they both wanted me to learn the song since they would spontaneously launch into a duet, crooning the now-familiar "Ohhhhhh..." opening just about anywhere. As I am writing this now, I am singing the extremely addictive "Ohhhhhh" in my head.
Speaking of addictive, I also find myself singing "Pamparampampam" from Kitchie Nadal's version of "Love Ko 'To" minus the fries.
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In other music news, Wang Lee Hom, my bane if post-teen obsession with a musical genius were a serious sin, is putting the finishing touches on his new album, which I heard was going to consist of mostly English songs, thus putting a temporary halt on my struggle with Pinyin lyrics. I read that he collaborated with Korea's pop icon Bi (Rain) which would seriously cause some serious stir in the music scene. Personally, I have gone by unaffected by Bi's charms. The guy is a fantastic dancer but I have more proclivity towards watching him rather than listening to him. He's smooth on the dancefloor but has yet to convince me of his singing prowess. Lee Hom, on the other hand, is first and foremost a musician despite all the slashes added to his name, and a rather multifarious one at that. It would be rather interesting to see how his work with Bi would take fruit.
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There's something I don't understand about people in airplanes. Whenever I take a flight, I always make sure that I request for a window seat. I am not exactly claustrophobic but I am not a fan of heights. When the airplane does its usual drops in any part of the flight, I tighten my tummy and look out the window because it gives me comfort to know what's going on outside. But if the plane runs out of window seats, that is absolutely fine with me.
What really gets the little furnace in my head roaring is when I walk into the plane, look for my seat and find that someone (and that someone is always older than me by at least fifteen years) is already seated conveniently in my seat. This happened on my flight home. I found a guy in his 40s already squeezed into the window seat I had requested so I asked him politely to give me my seat. He half-stood up, hesitated and then sat down which totally left me flabbergasted...and my temple throbbing. He asked if he could stay there and naturally, though floored, I could not say "no." Call me selfish or what but that was just unfair. If he were a senior citizen and looked a quarter of Dumbledore's age, I would have relented without a whine but he looked pretty healthy enough...and his appetite during the flight was a manifestation of it too. In the first place, I would never ever ask someone for a window seat even if I desperately wanted it because it was my fault I did not check in early in the first place. And second, I would never squeeze myself into a seat other than what is printed on my boarding pass! Just because he got in first does not give him the right to pick a window seat of his choice, slither into it and refuse to leave when the designated owner has arrived. In my opinion, he refused to leave because it was convenient for him...which, in turn, was inconvenient for me. It's a simple matter of good manners, respect for others and proper discipline. You don't take what's not yours. It's like when I was in Korea and I remember one of our companions asked our tour guide "Do you have squatters here in Korea?" The tour guide looked puzzled and asked what squatters were. When he was given an explanation, his response still rings in my head vividly: "Why would anyone want to do that?"
And just so you know, I ended up sitting in the middle, almost smothered by two guys. And did I mention I was completely robbed of armrests?
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Watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last week and left the theater beaming. HP4 made up for all the shortcomings of its predecessors, especially the first two movies. The direction was "bloody" brilliant as well as the cinematic shots. As promised, the movie was a lot darker. Despite the minor deviations from the book, I was all too glad the script preserved JK Rowling's (sometimes acerbic) sense of humor. I was just a little miffed that they did not even show how Krum, Fleur and Cedric hurdled the first task. I also found myself counting how many lines the other champions had, aside from the incantations. Fleur had four but the other two were just repititions of what she had said in the earlier scenes.Cedric had the most lines (naturally!) while Krum only had two (sniff, sniff)...in fact, the last line was rather negligible because he was whispering it to Hermione's ear. On second thought, as described in the book, Krum was the exact opposite of vociferous which added to his good bad boy appeal. Did I mention his eyes?
The theater was packed with high school students, majority of which were from my sister's old high school. It was like being in a screamfest. First time Malfoy came up onscreen, the theater was barraged by an onslaught of girlish screams I could swear I saw fissures issue from the wall all around us like a network of messy cables. It was like being in grade school and watching Casper all over again (those Devon Sawa days) only this time, the screaming was more sporadic in nature (Cedric was a runner-up). My favorite characters in the film were Krum, Ron with his unparalleled squealing and the Weasley twins who, in my opinion, romp away with being the best scene stealers ever.
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Movies in my "To Watch" list:
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Sayuri
3. Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros
4. Welcome to Dongmakgol
