my father passed away august 23 last year from complications due to prostate cancer and we recently marked his first death anniversary. he was diagnosed stage 4 around 2008 or 2007. there have been photos posted online (mostly in facebook, which im reposting here) but some i didnt or wouldnt have posted until now. some intimate moments with the family. all were taken with a phone camera.
sharing a cup of brewed coffee with carlo before stepping into the theater at trinoma to watch OTJ (ON THE JOB). it has become a ritual for us mainly because somewhere between 20mins to 40 minutes into the movie i always doze off. and it’s not because the movie was bad but because im old like that.
ive slept through tons of the greatest movies of this generation. ok, all movies. prometheus, pacific rim, man of steel, snow white and the huntsman, the avengers, superman returns, avatar, harry potter 7.1 and 7.2, the dark knight rises, jerrold tarog’s aswang, alvin yapan’s debosyon and even erik matti’s the arrival.
it’s not the film, it’s me.
hence the coffee. i love you guys. i love you papa p. i love you pelikula.
watch OTJ. out now in cinemas. i think i read on twitter direk erik matti said the screening copy at trinoma is film, not dcp. cant wait! 😉
just finished two shoot projects scheduled one day after the other. thank God i had no scheduled meetings right after so i slept in. also had time to workout at the neighborhood gym (gold’s gym is in my neighborhood).
lunched at st.alps with crusted fried chicken with a lemon aioli decorated on it. the chicken was alright but i liked the rye bread better. washed this down with iced oolong tea (no sugar). carlo had the wild mushroom with cheddar cheese sandwich and we had the chicken tom yam split in two.
it’s the start of a great day. but tomorrow will be the best. day. ever.
channeling hannah espia’s awesome best picture at the cinemalaya this year, “transit”
on the flight back to manila after enjoying a 4 day trip to cagayan de oro to celebrate my dad’s first death anniversary. purchased the cebu pacific promo fare ticket months ago with no assurance i would be able to use it. because of a film project and a vacay outside the philippines with the family early this year, i decided to work my ass off after may of 2013. God is indeed on my side as circumstances leaned towards my benefit this month and allowed me to actually fly off to mindanao. my return flight ticket was purchased a few months after, also on promo fare but this time with philippine airlines. it’s been a long while since ive flown with PAL, maybe in the late 90s. infernez to cebu pacific and despite its notorious record of delayed and overbooked flights, ive really had no problem flying with them to and from cdo. and the price of tickets is almost akin to what id spend for food and taxi fare combined as if i were in manila, hence i never think twice of flying every now and then.
my mom with a grand-nephew and the simple buffet spread we are about to partake amen. mind you, that fish fillet is not cream dory (ugh), it’s malasugi (yellowfin tuna)!
the lechon was amazing! everybody raves for cebu lechon but im sure lechons in cagayan de oro are just under the radar but equal, if not, superior in taste to their visayas counterpart. i was going through old picture albums at home and family events are never complete celebrations without a lechon; full, unchopped roasted pork with its crispy skin intact, salted ribs and sumptuous belly floss dripping with oil and fat, beautifully seasoned with lemon grass, peppercorns, laurel leaves and salt, awesome steaming meat that you pick and tear down with your fingers and eat with your hands. the tradition has not changed since we were kids. hence, i always look forward to the lechon whenever i fly back home, this time breaking off from a self-imposed diet of no rice, low sodium, low sugar, fat free meals. i couldnt resist the rice so i cheated with 4 tablespoons haha. kung sa bisaya pa, para dili damguhon.
blowing the candles off my birthday lechon last year 2012
my adult life has been relatively carefree, food-wise, until my metabolism slowed down at 30 and i would easily build up the weight and the extra poundage packs in around the waist. i took the habit of avoiding softdrinks at age 25, then commercial juices and iced teas at age 30. my relationship with rice is an on-off thing, most of the time shifting from white to brown rice, then to black rice then nothing. we also ate pork less, even gave up bagnet, chicharon, and eating at grill queen. i do feel healthier but this last weekend i gave in to tradition and feasted on the main course of party buffets in most pinoy homes. i also gave in to coke, finishing 3 bottles of sakto, and my 4 subo of rice (ate with my hands, diba?)
that’s my childhood tradition right here. this is how you eat lechon, circa june 2013.  serve it whole then watch it zombiefied. this one is stuffed with prawns. once the ribs are ripped out, we see these gorgeous ocean suckers peeking out of the cave within.  im allergic to shrimps so i popped some claritins and im free.
planning my next rendezvous with a lechon. december? october? if God knows, God knows 😉 to order this amazing lechon in cagayan de oro, contact coycoy’s lechon at 0917-721-9499, look for au 😉 inquire about having your lechons stuffed with whole chickens or shrimps. you could also ask about dinuguan or papaitan prepared with the innards and blood of your piggie. or just ask for it fresh and make you own isaw. ooh.
had a bit of time for myself. while waiting for carlo have his hair cut, i journey to handiman in trinoma for an rca cord, new deadbolts for the screen door (because pogiboy has yet again destroyed the dead bolts three weeks ago), a new powercord extension and some screws. i eventually decided to buy screw drivers because it’s hard to drive screws in hard to reach areas using a swiss army knife. opted to buy the cheap ones coz i know i lose them fairly easily and there’s no consoling me if i buy then lose the expensive stanley ones. my dad would have rolled his eyes on that decision.
when they announced ABOVE THE CLOUDS was to resume shooting in july i knew i had to go back working in tv commercials right away. and just like that, blessings came in and we were doing shoots one after the other in the last few weeks. thank you Lord for the blessings. i actually missed working in tvcs and ive been enjoying the stress again haha
currently helping out with the stage design for another play for this year’s virgin labfest to be held at the CCP. the play is directed by melvin lee. unfortunately, like last year i wont be able to see the play because im flying to mindanao next week to do location oculars for a new film project shooting in september. i cant divulge details as the project is still confidential but im excited to work for this one with a cool director and reuniting with old friends from the captive group of companies 😉 also, the fact we’re shooting in mindanao means ill be right at home speaking with the natives. yey!
also in the works is another jerrold tarog movie i prayed would happen and now it’s happening. im excited not only because carlo and i get to work with jerrold again but the genre is a pretty challenging one and if we have to work on something of this magnitude, we would rather do it with jerrold. preprod for this will be months before we start shooting early next year so im excited and thankful for the long prep time.
last month my mother underwent a cataract removal surgery on her left eye (or was it the right?) pretty standard stuff but you should have seen how excited my mom was after she recovered from the surgery. apparently she’s been practically blind with the cataract and now that she can see so much clearer, she’s been enjoying tv more and facebooking a lot and stuff. she no longer trips coz she can see where she’s going. it’s such a blessing and with all the work projects im currently getting, i can pay for her next set of surgery with her defective tear ducts and the cataract removal of her other eye. ayha na ang boots na gusto nako paliton, unahon ang mata ni madeer!
it’s nearly 5pm and ive finished my coffee. carlo will be here any minute so that’s it for now. cheers and have a happy weekend!
i love browsing through houzz.com and see what’s up in contemporary interiors. im currently on the look out for inspiration pegs for a house i dream to build in the boondocks. the universe always advises me to plan ahead. not in connection to my dream house but inspiring just the same, here are awesome hotels recently featured in the website. wearstler! starck! gehry! get your mind blown away!
people lambast a movie with an adapted screenplay when it fails at capturing the essence of the original book from which it was based on. some are successful, especially if the screenplay is written by the same author of the book. what happens when the same author not only writes the screenplay but also directs the movie and does a damn good job at it? we get this.
i watched this movie this afternoon and i had to take a break just so i could process my emotions. perhaps the last time i felt this way was when i watched AMERICAN BEAUTY way back in 1999. incidentally, the novel from which this film was based on was published that same year. Â PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is about misfits and wallflowers towards the end of an era in their lives dealing with issues of love, loss, sexuality and relationships. apart from chbosky’s genius, the biggest draw here are the strong performances of the three leads, logan lerman, emma watson, and ezra miller. i especially love lerman’s performance here, it’s rare to see someone so young with that gamut of emotions.
this story was just so beautifully written it hurts. there were moments though where i had to scream, “hipster,” but the movie goes on and these characters just became real to me. love the music too, reminds me of that era when i was in college and we fell in love with everything textured and vintage, except that this movie is set a decade before this. Â mixed tapes, typewriters, floral printed blouses and boots, the smiths, rocky horror picture show, slr cameras, and everything made hazy by the mist machine. it’s so gorgeous and heartbreaking and life affirming that i could only express myself by quoting ricky fitts from american beauty:
Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.
and the only way to celebrate this is to listen to david bowie’s “heroes,” get on somebody’s truck, zip through the mandaluyong tunnel and scream, “im the king of the world.”
Right now we are alive and in this moment I swear we are infinite.
this is a horror film. no ghosts, no psychopaths. no people wielding knives or chainsaws. no white ladies, no flying creatures in the night. this is a movie where mother nature wreaks havok and thousands die. this is a horror film. now watch this and thank God we live to see another day. naomi watts is fantastic. tom holland, who played her son, lucas, is A. MA.ZING. and i dont know how they shot this, it’s crazy. and amazing.
although the event struck in southeast asia and affected more locals than tourists, this movie centers on this particular english family vacationing khao lak, thailand and not the thousands of people who lost houses, livestock, and family members. the real family that this movie was based on were actually spanish and the wife chose naomi watts to play her in the movie. a documentary about the tsunami in thailand (you can find this in youtube) showed the wave’s approach not as fast nor as crazy as it was in the film but maybe because it’s a movie. but it happened. and either way, you cant turn your head and not look.
i havent finished posting photos and blogging about our cambodia trip in february actually.  the summer’s almost done!  haha i have a few more and then im done 😉
the day tour for cambodia temple tours continued to the bigger angkor thom area in siem reap. there were really a lot more temples but we got there around lunchtime and that means we’re down to half the day to explore. we asked the tuktuk driver to just bring us to the bigger temples including ta phrom, bayon and angkor thom itself.
found myself a niche 😉
my mom at the temples with all the tree roots eating at it
photobombed!
this is soo awesome! audrey plaza the lead actually reminded me of a friend, Ica Fernandez haha SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is a small indie movie from the makers of little miss sunshine and is about a journalist and his interns investigating a newspaper ad posted by a guy who claimed to have gone back in time.
the whole thing feels like it used to be graphic novel by daniel clowes or something, the characters are fun and the actors are actually really good. the movie is deceptively simple but funny and lots of heart, there were scenes where i just laughed out loud (LOL would be appropriate pero i like to spell it out). rotten tomatoes actually gave this a 91% rating! the song on the sitar was really nice as well. there might be small details i would have preferred, changed or smoothened out for the ending but still, this movie rocks.
benjamin padero 