Atonement [2007] - This is a story that traverse through decades of time. Starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy, Atonement is a movie about how a single crime committed changes the course of several lives. At first, the movie may bore the viewers since it relies heavily on dialog but as the story progresses it becomes more complicated and it got me very much interested in it. At certain times the movie is more like a stage play because of the way it presents the key events. Atonement is supposedly to be shown in the Philippines in the coming year.






Once [2006] - A guy, a girl and a relationship that started with a broken vacuum cleaner. Once is a modern day musical. No, it's nothing like those extravagant Chicago or Moulin Rouge. The premise of the movie is really simple: guy meets girl, they know more about each other and date but the movie closely reflects real life and Once presents a different happy ending. The music in Once is so raw and so beautifully made that I instantly fell in love with one of the songs ,"Falling Slowly". Once, I think, won't be able to reach the Philippine cinemas or even our local video shops. So where else do you think I got a copy of the movie? teehee.




The Band's Visit [2007] A film from Israel wherein tells a story about an Egyptian Police Orchestra being lost in the Israeli Lands. What's unique about this movie is the contrast between the characters, environment and culture. The first thing that you'll notice is the sky blue uniforms of the band against the barren desert lands of Israel and how the band presents a subtle humor on being lost in a foreign country. As I've said this is a clash of cultures, a cry of loneliness from the middle of nowhere and the innate hospitality of people. This not a 'wow' movie or anything but it makes you realize the different aspects of human nature.

Is the music scene going to fast or is it just me piling up the age? I never knew that Dashboard Confessional (One of the greatest acoustic emo artists) recently released a new album! Shade of Poison Trees marks the return of Dashboard Confessional to it's acoustic roots. It kinda reminds me of Swiss Army Romance. I've downloaded the album just to get a sample and to check if it's good but I happen to came upon another album by Dashboard entitled The Wiretapes Volume 1 which is cover of other songs. He covered Regina Spektor's Better and for me it was a better version. haha! I'm going to look for this in the record bars.

That's me with the big 'J' on the shirt. Beside me is my brother wearing a red shirt with a huge 'A' on it (Kinda reminds me of Alvin from the Chipmunks). My Dad with the 'Pa' shirt and of course my mom in the 'Ma' shirt.

This is how I would like to represent my family in the Cyberworld.

One of my most anticipated activities during the Christmas season is gift wrapping. Most people dread this activity since it takes a bit of skill and a lot of time especially when you have a lot of items to wrap.

Although it may seem tedious, I begin to feel the holiday season when I wrap the items while imagining the reactions my family would give me upon opening their presents. Aside from that, I listen to Christmas songs while wrapping up gifts so I really feel the Holidays.

And because my mother noticed that I would wrap presents without hesitation, she made me in-charge of wrapping her presents too.

The bears would be for my cousins, all girls. I didn't bother giving them different items so to avoid them fighting over a specific gift. Haha.

Just a few more gifts to wrap and I'm done!

Christmas is just around the corner. Time again for shopping, gifts, thirteenth month pay, bonuses, fruit baskets and the like. It's the time where people will accumulate more monetary value or multiply the stuff that they already own. The time when huge banners screaming SALE! are plastered at every legal advertisement. It's when TV shows feature never ending segments on shopping hot spots, gift ideas and lavish decorations.

Maybe I made a mistake. Christmas is not around the corner. It's been crippled and trampled upon by the changing ideologies of the world. What I see is more like a 'Material Extravaganza'.

Maybe we need to stop and ask ourselves:

Christmas, What is it about?

2Girls1Cup. Do you know those very words and what they really mean? If you have no idea what '2 Girls 1 Cup' mean then you are one of the very fortunate person who were spared of the explicitly disgusting piece of human exhibition as to date.

In a nutshell, *'2 Girls 1 Cup' is a girl-to-girl action (translate: porn. 2 Girls) video which involves revolting images of defecation in a cup (thus the 1 cup) and ingestion of feces (Ingestion, eating, 'kinain' sa tagalog). As I've said before, this is a very horrible piece of video that is still circulating in the internet. I firmly suggest anyone not to seek out this video. Wikipedia has a descriptive article about the hellish 2 Girls 1 Cup internet phenom.

But that is not the point of this blogpost. While researching about the vile '2Girls1Cup', I found out that it was featured on VH1's Best Week Ever which is a show analysing current pop culture. On the other hand, VH1's Best Week Ever also featured another video clip putting the spotlight on a prison in the Philippines:

Whoa! Synchronization, Creativity, Flexibility and a little bit of Drama. Move over UP, UST and other Universities' Cheering squad. Can you beat that?

*I myself haven't seen the 2Girls1Cup video. Just reading the description on the video is giving me the creeps and makes me sick.