Monthly Archives: August 2002

musings

ok now let’s take a look at the world news. seventy-nine people drowned and two-hundred others were injured when a place crashed just off the coast of rescuers could only hear the desperate screams of the victims as the plane burst into flames… that’s from truth about cats and dogs with dr. abby.

now here’s steve kmetko for news at the local front. it has been confirmed that jacklyn jose will not be appearing in benjamin padero’s film. sources have said she found it too violent and that she doesnt see herself in the role. however, she has recommended another colleague of hers, who in turn is right for the role. susan , the actress who plays the poor mother of mara in the former hit soap opera, mara clara, has agreed to play the role of mother to anton, SALAMIN’s quasi-protagonist. although she has expressed interest, the filmmaker however will only meet her on the actual shooting date.

in other news, benjamin padero has also issued a statement that his webpage is now featuring new photographs of his nephew, lucas maximus, born to his sister tina and her husband clapton. lucas maximus was born july 13 and will be turning 3 months in two weeks time. you may check out his pictures at our website, http://www.geocities.com/paderewski and click on mi familia.

now, we take a look at the weather. today, the sun is brightly shining, moving around it are the planets. it is a medium-sized star and presently, because of the sun, the day is very hot. good time to do your month-long overdue laundry. thus, some people out there, of which i have confirmed with, are in fact doing just that. professional student and wannabe film maker benjamin diaz padero is currently rinsing his whites and blacks afterwhich he’ll do his denims and khakis, then his underwear. he confessed he had no choice but to do his laundry today on the account that despite his numerous pairs of underwear he is actually running out of clean ones. he says that he might have to do his browns, blues, reds and greens in another session since it might not be possible to finish everything today, he’s got a party to go to later, he says. for the record, benjamin uses pride laundry soap, which will keep his clothes smelling fresh even in rainy conditions. currently the sky has darkened and the prevailing clouds spell another storm coming. it is too early to tell and our lines with the pag-asa has just been cut off. we are now relying on lick-finger-stick-up-to-the-air method of checking wind traffic and speed. an ocular inspection of the stratosphere coincide with the wind report and indeed, it might actually rain today. if my knees start to get painful, youll definitely be seeing some cats and dogs. if you dont want to get wet and multiply, dont risk going out to quezon circle today.

and that’s the news for you at this hour. stay tuned for more news on studio 23 primetime. im benjamin padero.

Standard
filmmaking, food trip, musings

it’s very late now, it’s almost morning (that makes it very early also) and im still up and about. i was just working on the revisions in the screenplay of the short film my group and i are doing. it’s been a pretty exciting weekend. i remember when i was just whining to my friend ces about pen medina not being able to text back. by friday last week, i received a text from my professor that ricky davao has called him to say that yes, he’d like to work in our film! i was alone in the jeepney that afternoon and so i let out a huge hurrah (more of a wooh!). unfortunately chaka kaayu akong fone na gigamit wala koy text out capabilities (i could only receive text). so i couldnt share the news, and not until i got to the college of mass communications where i met old classmate berns that i could relieve myself of this news. we believe it’s a great opportunity to be working with a real actor, and it’s such a blessing that we actually got him (or he got us). God is good. a few hours later i was texting my friends gem ron macb ces and faisal, and my family tatay, mamati, ta an, toots, ta tems. it’s just fun, and i was so excited about it that i almost got into a fever! talk about pure excitement! anyhow im fine now, and quite adjusted. im actually tense that im still dealing with jaclyn jose’s manager. she has yet to read the script and make a decision. i will be contacting the manager again later at noon. i hope and pray she says yes too. that would be really really incredible.

last saturday ta tems, toots, ej and i met up in megamall to dine with tito momie who is about to leave for indonesia later in the morning (this 4am thing is confusing, it’s already the next day but im still last night mode, you get me?). we ate at saisaki, a japanese restaurant and our first time to deal with quasi-authentic japanese cuisine. my first run down the eat-all-you-can banquet was pretty safe, i took breaded meat and some fried rice. later i tried the raw fish and wasabe, sushi, maki, etc. it was pretty good and deceiving as well. i never though fish could get that heavy! after dinner we walked (thank God) out of megamall and had coffee at seattle’s best. after a really heavy dinner, it’s such a nice feeling to cap everything off with coffee (although im not a coffee drinker). then it’s walking time again to tito momie’s hotel where we checked out his new laptop (ibm thinkpad). had some pics taken and then it was homeward bound for us. God bless, tito moms on your trip! and yes, ill do your laundry. give me two days, three perhaps to do everything. ciao! =)

ps. got news pics of lucas maximus but i will be posting them as soon as i can afford the time. peace! in the meantime check out the old pics again, click mi familia!

Standard
musings

gigi (joni gale, toots’ friend) just called to tell toots she’s about to go on as phone operator for real tonight. since toots isnt here yet i stood in to assure her of her capabilities. kaya mo yan, kid! anyway, through the conversation she asked me what i was doing and that’s when i realized i wasnt myself tonight. i was defrosting the ref, preparing dinner, updating my website and singing out “once on this island” and charlie brown.” talk about multi-tasking, that’s not the real me. the real me cant read the newspaper while chitchating with tootsie. the real me cant watch tv while reading sophie’s world. the real me cant listen to kathy and jm at the same time. the moon must be out tonight. “…you are why we tell the story/ why we tell the story/ so i hope that you will tell this tale tomorrow/ it will help your heart remember and relive/ it will help you feel the anger and the sorrow/ and forgive…./”

Standard
filmmaking, movies, musings

it’s 3:49 in the morning and i couldnt sleep. i was in bed since 12 and ive been turning and twisting all night. i eventually decided to come downstairs and surf. i think i had too much Coke tonight, although that never happened before (not being able to sleep, i mean). then again, it’s been a long time since i had that much coke. and i mean, the softdrink kind!

perhaps ive just been too preoccupied with the developments of our class film project. suddenly we’re contacting real film actors and the whole shenanigan just got complex and challenging. not that we’re backing down, but we really dont have much experience for this. if we actually got ricky davao and jaclyn jose it would be a really great learning opportunity for us. it’s scary in a way, and exciting on the other hand. we still have other things to plan out though, one would be logistics. the other and most important of them all deciding factors, the finances. im losing sleep over all these details and we actually have to start doing studies for the film! we’re shooting stills here at home later in the afternoon so i might have to get back in bed in a few more minutes. at least we’re mighty serious about this film project. all im asking from you are prayers. =) and if you spare alms (we’re talking thousands here), that would be much appreciated. =)

my org in fine arts, cinema as art movement (or CAM) recently screened darren aronofsky’s “requiem for a dream.” ive seen the film before, i was able to find a pirated copy in philcoa sold for only PhP40. i was watching it off a computer monitor and, though it lessened the possible effect the film would have on me, i nevertheless enjoyed it. it was a painful movie about 4 people on a downward spiral to self-destruction (how else would you explain the downward spiralling effect anyway?). the imagery was indeed haunting and very, very interesting. what i didnt realize until now was that viewing it on the computer hindered what could have possibly been such a heart-wrenching experience.

yesterday afternoon as i watched the film again on a huge tv, in a dark auditorium, and playing off a DVD player i was transported to brooklyn and into the very lives of those 4 people. i could have died in that screening, i wanted to cry. this powerful film was just so painful to watch (i cant find any other word to describe it). i suffered, looking at them succumb to horrible ends and terminating what could have been a beautiful life. they had dreams and they lost it. the score, led by a string quartet, kept beating and torturing us viewers as it played endlessly to the deaths of their dreams. requiem for a dream. aagghhhh! jared leto and the luminescent jennifer connelly played lovers who wanted the perfect american life. ellen burstyn, if i am correct, was nominated in the oscars for this performance as a supporting actress. she’s jared leto’s lonely mother whose wish to be on television was really all about being remembered and loved. damon wayans is the fourth player in this quartet of doom. painful and hauntingly beautiful, this is one film you should not miss.

“harry, will you come home today?” – marian, “requiem for a dream”

Standard
filmmaking, musings

ive just finished a lot of my assignments for the week thus i can afford to write a little something for this page. it’s such a guilt trip to be doing so much extra-curricular work to write for other stuff when what youre supposed to really do is not yet done. im not making sense. ill start over.

finally i found time to update you on some news about me. i just finished my cancer awareness project for editorial design and it’s such a relief. ive been struggling with that assignment, my work was eternally not good enough thus my professor just kept disapproving it. i wanted to understand what he wanted to see from my work and everytime i thought i got it, there was always another thing. we just didnt meet on the same level and it frustrated me. eventually of course we met and agreed on something and i got a pretty good grade for it. though the grade is important to me, the work and effort i put on my work is worth much more. sometimes i dont pass assignments on time, and risking getting the deduction for it, just because im not happy with my work. im happier with a really nice plate and a low grade than an ok plate with an ok grade. and of course at times i just dont make anything good. =)

im also getting pretty busy with preparations for this film project we have to do for our electronic media class. my group mates mike, jojo, marco and b3 and i are still working out a lot of kinks in pre-prod. i made a script and did the story treatment out of jojo’s concept and i think it’s coming out pretty well. one problem though, it’s hard to whip up dialogue. especially since it has to be in filipino! i never thought it could be that hard. anyway, we’re still trying to get pen medina to play the tatay role for this film. i actually texted him yesterday but up to now, he hasnt replied back. bad sign? im just hoping he ran out of credit. we will still have to consult with my professor but if in two day’s time we dont find him, i go to next actor on the list: gammy viray. him i know may be well in reach and might actually work with us. his wife is ama quiambao and is my first choice for playing nanay in the film. at least this way, we get them both in a film, and i guess that’s cool. are we being too ambitious in this project? i do think that you reach for the stars but keep your feet planted on the ground. if i dont get all these great actors then perhaps i can move on to lesser players. unfortunately i still dont have a plan B. what happens if i dont get them good actors? i dont want to think about it.

in the meantime let me share some poems i did years back. the math poem i did while sitting out a calculus exam (probably) that i flunked (expectedly). you see, since i couldnt find a way to answer them problems, i was thinking what i waste of space it is if i pass in an almost empty blue book. solution? write. i wrote a lot of poems and short essays in math exams. unfortunately these are all i kept. so here it is, the math poem (click on the link down below)! the other poem is one i did while trying out the typewriter i brought here from home. wanting to feel more of a writer, i lugged around that heavy piece of machinery on the boat and through the journey to katipunan. years later since i never really got to use it, it started to rust and i was actually saddened by that. anyhu i wrote some interesting pieces with it and here’s one of them. i hope i could put in the other stuff i wrote with that. actually that period of my life was when i was most angsty. this poem, staring into you, is the non-angsty thing i did when i was ‘angsty.’ i guess im using the term too much but just for kicks, here’s another coming your way: angsty! read on!
math exam poem
staring into you

ps. got news from my professor. just now i was text-conferencing with him (cesar hernando, production designer in batang west side) and he suggested that if we cant get pen medina perhaps we could try ricky davao. i was pretty excited with the idea of working with the actor. then if ever we get ricky davao, ama quiambao is definitely too “mature” for him as a wife so we have to get somebody of ricky’s age. sabi ni sir hernando baka si jacklyn jose nalang daw. he’ll try to get in contact with their managers tomorrow. i was kinda worried anton might be too young for them. the only solution was to make anton younger than he really is, perhaps make him a highschool student. besides he looks pretty young for his age, 20, and he is not that tall besides. i guess he’d be a perfect troubled highschooler! this would really be a good experience for all of us. so i guess it’s back to work, gotta make the script much better than it is today. the prospects of making this film is getting scarier and challenging everyday! the good Lord help us all. =)

Standard
movies, musings

later i will be going back to greenbelt to watch the winner in cinemanila’s film festival. anyway, just wanted to say i bought myself a vcd copy of “shakespeare in love,” one of the best films ive seen ever and loved. gwyneth paltrow won her oscar in this movie and so did the scriptwriters, i think. most memorable is dame judi dench who won best supporting despite the fact that she was in the film for only about 8 minutes daw. anyway, really great film and im happy to have money to buy and add it to my collection. next up is american beauty! hehehehe ill update you later on the day’s events after news central tonight on studio 23! joke lang.

Standard
movies, musings

it was raining really hard today. the millennium storm (that’s the name of the storm) woke me up at 10.30 with splashes of water through my window. it started to flood in edsa, and so many other parts in luzon, and even in national bookstore katipunan (as usual). evidently classes were called off so tootsie and i stayed home and bored ourselves to death. i was actually relieved since i still havent finished my editorial assignment on the cancer awareness for kids. although i was finished a little after lunchtime and my classes were supposed to have started at 2.30, i wasnt rushed thus i worked better. i did a lot of emailing today also. then again, ive been doing a lot of emailing the past few days. my classmates in highschool and i have gotten connected by email and we’ve been reminiscing on past comedic episodes. it’s so nice to hear from some of them, and i do hope i hear more from the rest! paging aileen! paging janjan, fabe! paging sonvie, jill, erika, madlos!

when cuzin toots and i went to greenbelt, we caught up on watching “hollywood hong kong” and “what time is it there.” the first film was from hong kong (obviously) and was really really bad and boring. perhaps it was the familiarity of the place that rendered it ordinary and not even the raw, so-they-say animalistic visuals could make it any better. there were funny instances but i guess i just had to force myself to laugh, the pains we took to get to greenbelt was not funny! we were caught in traffic in cubao, we got lost in makati and the people who worked in greenbelt didnt understand the difference between greenbelt 1 and greenbelt 3. we practically missed 10 minutes to the film! anyhow, thank God for taiwan, they sent a much better fare than their asian contemporary.

the other film we saw, “what time is it there” was a far far cry from the so-pinoy-movieness of hollywood hongkong. the film told the story of a boy whose father just died and developed a ‘hobby’ of setting clocks in taiwan to paris time after meeting a beautiful girl who left for france. the film was shot with really really long takes and there werent even much of a score. in fact, i dont remember hearing any musical scoring except at the closing credits. the prod design was simple and sparse, colors were distinct and interesting. the long takes was really nice, it cradled the film in a way that elevated it to almost surrealism, yet the dynamics were really as it would be in reality, however you would take reality to be. the film’s twist at the end was interesting, something i didnt expect (although i read it off the poster before going in the theater). im babbling right now, i know. maybe im just hungry, i dont think any of the things i said made sense. ill go make myself a tuna sandwich.

this isnt making sense. and tuna sandwich tastes soooo good!

Standard
movies, musings

cuzin tutay and i will be taking the road less travelled to greenbelt today. i got hold of tickets for cinemanila, the international film festival here in, where else? manila. showing at 2pm is hollywood hongkong and it is said to be really good. so is the one showing after that at 5, what time is it there from taiwan. im prepping myself for a whole day thing and im sure we’ll have a good time. tita tems just saw Amelie yesternight also at the greenbelt and she had a great time. i guess that’s one more fan for the french film. it’s still on, if you wanna go watch. it’s been on for 6 weeks now.

i was doing research earlier on my project due in tuesday. we’re supposed to do a brochure or a poster or whatever material that raises awareness for kids regarding cancer. my first idea was to make a poster ad, giving cancer a human face. after consulting with my professor i realized that perhaps i should consider the coverage of my research and my output. poster can be so short-termed, and i dont even have a so-called major sponsor or a big NGO program backing up this poster. i guess i needed to hook up on an actual cancer awareness program to give my project more oomph, more reason for being. so ill probably adopt the kythe foundation’s program, following their goals and actual education program. i was focusing on the seminars and educational tours they take to schools around manila. i decided to do a sort of newsletter or fun magazine for kids that talk about cancer, causes and prevention, coupled with some games, fun art, and spiritual insights. im still thinking of contacting kythe for more information on their actual programs. yes, im still thinking… (tik tik tik boom). i also still

have to consult with my professor regarding this. ill go see him tomorrow. =)

Standard
musings

hi everyall, medyo hello ako ngayon. ive been extremely busy doing nothing to actually do anything. my sleep cycle has been really bad, im freaking out. im sleepy in the morning and i cant sleep in the afternoon because that will really put off a lot of sleep time in the evening. then i want to do some computer work in the evening but then i have to sleep. it’s 2.29am and im supposed to be sleeping or if not, doing my school work. ok ok ill go right to it now… bye!

hello ketket, thanks for dropping by! hi also to ace, my cuz from cagayan who recently dropped by to see what i was up to. anyhu, i suppose the picture at the side is too obvious to not be noticed. it’s audrey tattou from amelie, a quaint, little giant film from france that has caught the world on fire. she’s said to be able to change your life. and in a way she has. the film’s really interesting, i hope my people in mindanao will get a chance to see it. actually i bought a pirated copy of the vcd in cagayan in the summer so i dont see why you cant get to see it.

i know i know, piracy is bad but we’re in a third world country. you cant help but buy (on occasion) those items! at least, i cant help it especially since i cant afford the original. it’s funny, now it’s a crime to buy pirated cds (video, audio, software or otherwise) but i bet your pwet computers in the government still use software installed from pirated cds. bill gates was shocked when he got here, that’s why he just donated a bunch of original Windows software for the government to use! really now, how can you really afford to buy say, an original adobe photoshop program at PhP20,000?!!! do the math, nobody can afford it! mabuhay ang piracy (or not)!

Standard