Melancholia

With my better half, I watched the highlight film of this year’s Dekada Cinemanila, Melancholia, the nine-hour magnum opus of revolutionary filmmaker Lav Diaz.  This is the film that won Grand Prize in the Orizzonti Section during the 65th Venice Film Fest.  A rare cinematic experience we must say, the film per se and the [...]

Dekada Cinemanila Fever

Catched two Cinemanila films one after the other yesterday: Not Quite Hollywood (Australia) and The Band’s Visit (Israel).

Not Quite Hollywood, a documentary by Mark Hartley, gives you an unstoppable and invigorating dose of Aussie flicks of Ozploitations from the 60s and beyond.  Sex and nudity, violence, graphic grossness, explosions, weird death-defying stunts, car chases, horror and gore characterize [...]

The New Orleans Experience

Yesterday wasn’t so good a day since I was stricken by the flu.  Good thing my dinner experience at The Fort changed all that.  We were invited to New Orleans Restaurant for a drug symposium.  To our delight, we were served a very sumptuous meal–from the appetizing salad with meat strips, to the main course [...]

Team FC-Makati Rules!

The gang was complete when we had our first-ever teambuilding activity.  Venue was LazerXtreme at Market! Market!, the latest laser tag craze in town.  The group was divided into 3 teams of 6 players each.  Red team emerged as the winner.  Our team (blue team) unfortunately finished last.  We were catching our breaths (beads of sweat [...]

With words he can govern Americans

Been following the heated debates (up to the third and final one) between presidentiables Obama and McCain.  They are polarized on a lot of issues but apparently, Obama is more eloquent and drives home his point better than McCain.  Some say Obama’s eloquence is his winning edge.  Command with words had never been so important…

Random Thoughts

Sembreak is fast approaching but still has one difficult final exam paper on Health Economics to submit.  In a few days, we will have our first FC-Makati staff teambuilding activity at Laser Extreme Market, Market.  The excitement for this is already building up.  Can’t wait to spend the short break these coming weeks before the new sem starts, and planning [...]

Body of Lies

Watched Body of Lies last weekend.  The convoluted plot revolves around CIA agent DiCaprio as he finds himself in many countries, notably Jordan where he pursues an Osama bin Laden-like terrorist behind the spates of bombings in key cities, getting orders from his boss played by Russell Crowe.  The “jihad” of Moslems is explained for [...]

Must be the age…

Played basketball after many years without playing any sport.  My endurance was still OK; though I had difficulty maintaining my balance while dribbling the ball and had cramps when I made an awkward lay-up underneath the basket.  Lack of conditioning or advancing age?  After playing basketball, nothing really feels like being wet with sweat and [...]