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10Jan/1014

Magazines

Because my friends and other people I know cannot stand my haircut anymore, I decided to visit a salon near our place and have my new haircut. The place is fine. There's a home-y feeling, the people are friendly and its services are way way cheaper compared to mainstream salons.

Before

After

I used to patronize Bench's Fix Salon services but it turned out to be not good. It's just a hype! You don't get the service that you deserve even if it's costly than most other salons. I find it difficult to patronize a salon where people are just too tired to give you a good service or even a friendly smile. If not for the magazines, i'd rather have my hair be cut by my mom. Not serious.

This salon that I visited serves fast. As if it's a food. And you will not be bored because of the television set. But even if they're fast, I still have to wait for my mom because girls loves to overdo it. You know how girls manages to overdo everything (from cooking up to dressing up). I tried not to be bored. Magazines rescued me from the boring trip.

After reading two magazines, I realized that i'm not reading magazines recently. I used to read magazines. I used to buy magazines. I used to borrow magazines. I forgot why I chose not to read magazines anymore. Maybe it's because of the lack of time or it's costly.

Not interested in Wine and Martha though

So, this year, I think I should start reading magazines again. The articles are entertaining and sometimes, helpful too. You just have to pick the right magazine for you. Match it with your interests, hobbies or even with your frustrations. Find a magazine that you can relate to and can be helpful in the things that you do.

I've been reading Bluprint last year. It's an architecture and interior design resource by a Philippine media company. It's refreshing to see well-designed houses and sometimes inspiring too. But sometimes the thin line between inspiring and intimidating suddenly cease to exist. It's available for just one hundred and fifty bucks.

Bluprint Spread

Can you recommend a good magazine for me? I'll be checking the magazine stand and start reading again. Online magazines are welcome.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tagged as: bad, Bench, bluprint, choose, Fix, haircut, magazines, manila, picking, reaction, review, right, Salon, tips 14 Comments

26Dec/0914

Of Ang Panday and MMFF

I usually watch one entry film for the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) every year with my elementary friends. We know that the entry films are a bit crappy and most of the films are just there for the money. But we still watch every year because it serves as our annual gathering. We usually watch movies whenever we go out and when it's December, you have no choice but to watch an MMFF film. Mind you, we go out slash meet only once a year.

35th Metro Manila Film Festival

Ang Panday/ The Blacksmith

This year though, my two brothers asked me to join them spend their money and watch Bong Revilla's Ang Panday. It is a remake of Fernando Poe Jr.'s film if I'm not mistaken. And the story is written by the controversial Carlo J. Caparas (CC). My mother and my sister decided to join us too. It became a family thing.

We went to Robinson's Manila Movie house and waited for the show. Cinema 4, the one in Pedro Gil wing is a piece of trash. Very dirty. Sleeping operator. The volume is being adjusted for like twenty times. It's a bit distracting and irritating. And there were no ushers! Robinson's is usually not this bad when it comes to entertainment.

Plot

The movie was very plain. Do I really have to mention that the plot is VERY predictable? There were no hidden messages or anything. VERY plain. Dapat paglabas ko ng sinehan, pag-iisipan ko ang mga pangyayari, mag-iisip ako, may intellectual exercise. There should be a discourse worthy or a conversational piece for a movie to be considered as a movie. What? But there aren't any. Lucky for them that I was trying to fit social/ economic/ political/ historical stuff in the movie but I failed. No hope.

Characters

The characterization too is very plain and shallow. Characters failed to leave an impression to the viewers. There is a failure in the part of the writers and that of the directors too to develop the characters, to humanize them and give them life. Introducing characters is not a matter of who, what, when, or where. It's a matter of why. They also failed to connect to the viewers. There were few attempts to connect but all these failed. I could have been a better story writer. Maybe it's not the movie team's fault, maybe it's CC's fault.

Emelita (Rhian Ramos) and Marcos (Geoff Eigenmann) could have done something major. They should have played as a REAL side-kick for the

Panday/Flavio (Bong Revilla). Could have been exciting because of their semi-Assassin and semi-Archer role. They could have participated in the development of the story and contributed to the excitement in the fighting scenes. Rhian Ramos and Geoff Eigenmann were both sexy though.

Lizardo (Phillip Salvador) disappointed me. I thought he would be a Joker a la Heath Ledger type of evil antagonist. It did not work like that, he looks mentally-ill rather than evil. Role should have been given to someone better.

Effects-slash-Animation

I don't really know the difference between the two so i'll treat them as one and the same. Their special effects is thing that they are most proud of, right? I even heard a remark from a GMA 7 executive commending the movie's special effects. Pang-Hollywood daw, pang-international. What? It's quite crappy, though closer to average than trash. Multiplication effects and landscaping animation failed. The only notable animation there is the flying creature, i think it's a dragon. Yes, his/her name is Bagwis. It's quite real in my eyes, very Eragon and War of the Dragons.

The Festival

I wish MMFF could be changed into a festival of excellence, filipinism and creativity. Not a festival for money, profits and revenues. A festival that would be concerned not with profits but with the content and form of the entry films. Exceptional and highly-relevant films should be encouraged as against to another Ang Panday type of movies. No wonder that the industry is dying.

0.5 out of 5 stars relative to all the movies i watched.

3 out of 5 relative to all the entry films in the festival.

P.S. I can't find a decent source of pictures and profiles of the casts. So, yes, Wikipedia. :P

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tagged as: 2009, Ang, Bong, Boo!, Caparas, Carlo, Eigenmann, Emelita, Festival, Film, Flavio, Geoff, Lizardo, manila, Marcos, Metro, Movie, Panday, Phillip, Ramos, review, Revilla, Rhian, Salvador 14 Comments

9Apr/090

Branded Nation: The Marketing of MegaChurch, College Inc., and Museumworld

Category:	Books
Genre:	Reference
Author:	James Twitchell

This is a deviation from my interest. Haha. :D Surprisingly, the author is not Michael Crichton. It's James Twitchell. James Twitchell's style in writing is very interesting. It is not technical nor very non-technical. Haha. It allows the reader to be excited and to maintain their interest on the topic but at the same time to acquire deep knowledge and good understanding of the topic. James is witty, funny but also dense.

The book is about the marketing of the Churches, Education and Museum as a commodity and the way, us, the consumers accepts it. Twitchell's insightful explanations of the marketing strategies of the three domain are very interesting and very real since his insights are not far from what is really happening.

If you are an outsider in Marketing, this book is a real blast. But those who are in the field would find it boring since it states the obvious.

Read this and you will not look at Churches, Universities and Museums the same way again. Though this 300-page book can be easily reduced to a 30-page book, it is still interesting to read.

--------

4 out of 5. :D

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tagged as: branded, churhces, college, inc., james, marketing, megachurch, musuemworld, Nation, of, review, the, twitchell No Comments

15Mar/090

Fidel and Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto | MY | TWO | CENTS |

Title: Fidel and Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism and Liberal Theology

Category: Social Studies

Rate: 5 out of 5 :D

Fidel Castro, the great Cuban leader is interviewed by Frei Betto, a brazillian priest and libreation theologist, on an informal setting with far-ranging topics that will interest Catholics and non-Catholics alike. :D The conversation includes a history of Fidel Castro's life, his early education, his belief about religion and his refutations about socialism as an anti-religion ideology.

One may read this book and fall in love with Fidel Castro, or one may read this and go hunt Castro's head. A must-read boooook for all! :D Yey!

I'm currently reading a Castro book. Its title is "No One Can Stop the Course of History."

Chillax!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tagged as: Betto, book, Brazillian, Castro, Coversatiosn, Cuban, Fidel, Frei, Leader, Libeariton, Marxism, Priest, religion, review, Thelogy, With No Comments

9Feb/092

A Case of Need |MY|TWO|CENTS|

a-case-of-need-michael-crichton-925054290s A medical thriller that will surely encompass the boundaries of science and art, the boundaries of Law and Medicine.

"Dr. Art Lee is jailed for performing an illegal abortion resulting in the death of a prominent physician's daughter. Dr. John Berry, Art's friend, knows Art is innocent and sets out to prove it. He encounters resistance and apathy from most people, but he tenaciously searches for the real abortionist to clear his friend's name."

Crichton wrote A Case of Need in 1968, under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson. It combines the wit of John Grisham and Michael Palmer into one great book that somehow succeed to include moral fables and so, moral conclusions.

Art Lee tells us why he decided to conduct abortions, despite the knowledge that he was committing a criminal offence. A woman asked him for an abortion; when he refused, ‘she said she knew of a man in the North End who would do it for two hundred dollars. He had been a medical orderly in the Marines, or something.’ The prospect bothered Art all night:

‘I had a vision of her going to a smelly back room somewhere and meeting a leering little guy who would letch her and maybe even manage to kill her. I thought about my own wife and our year-old baby, and how happy it could all be. I thought about the amateur abortions I’d seen as an intern, when the girls came in bleeding and foaming at three in the morning. And let’s face it, I thought about the seats I’d had in college. Once with Betty, we sat around for six weeks waiting for her period. I knew perfectly well that anybody can get pregnant by accident. It’s not hard, and it shouldn’t be a crime …

‘By morning I had decided that the law was unfair. I had decided that a doctor could play God in a lot of crappy ways, but this was a good way. I had seen a patient in trouble and I had refused to help her when it was within my power. That was what bothered me – I had denied her treatment. It was just as bad as denying penicillin to a sick man, just as cruel and just as foolish.’

But Crichton was not only motivated by the humane pragmatics of legal versus illegal abortion. In one of the seven appendices to this short thriller, Crichton concisely summarises six main arguments for abortion, and their counter-arguments.

With unusual addition of geekish footnotes, A Case of Need will surely find its way in your heart, in your heart, and sometimes because of medical science jargons, in your brain.

4 out of 5. :)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tagged as: a, case, crichton, michael, of, of need, review 2 Comments

28Jan/090

Timeline | MY | TWO | CENTS |

Category:	Books
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author:	Michael Crichton

Quantum Physics.

No way. "Timeline" is not for the boring professors of physics, It's really a 14th-century action thriller that takes you on a roller coaster ride through medieval France. If you ain't a history buff, this particular book will add some sense to you. :) But if you are, then this book is certainly a good read to test your trivias.

Wait. The writer is Crichton? Yes. To prove that it is indeed one of Crichton's work, quantum physics was included and played a major role on the story (especially the ending).

The action scenes are excellent and authentic (read: do not read this while taking inside a public vehicle!). Crichton made a real research and did a good job finding truths about France and quantum physics as well.

It's a book that drives you full throttle to the very end, makes you think, and remember something along the way. (Sooth?) I'd say that, as books goes these days (read: twilight), this book is a real read indeed.

5 out of 5 :)

Popularity: 1% [?]