Bitter Pills, Breathing Spaces

If money weren't an issue, my other vice -- aside from buying and reading books -- would probably be travelling. I like exploring new cultures, seeing sights, meeting new people and buying tons of pasalubong. I feel blessed that my profession afforded me occasional business trips both locally and internationally, although the latter is not as often. My last out-of-the-country business trip was nearly six years ago in Bangalore, India. 

I was seriously debating whether I should post this here or on my review blog. For now, all I want to do is to rave about it... And rave about it, I shall.

Ok Go came into my consciousness nearly six years ago after they released this slick and jaw-dropping video for a track off their Oh No album entitled Here It Goes Again. I mean, how can one not be in awe of it...



This year, Ok Go, outdid themselves again with their music video for Needing/Getting, the fourth track from their latest studio album, Of The Blue Color Of The Sky. Check out the video to see the band's unique brand of awesomeness, with nearly 3.5 million views under its belt:


I am so glad the guys haven't lost their craziness. And the song is not bad either. :)

Chachic Fernandez once said... well, tweeted...


I think every book blogger friend that I know gets a thrill when authors respond to their tweets and/or book reviews. I mean, who doesn't? As I just started on my other blog, I wonder how would the people of whose works I review would feel. Then again, I hardly care. I still practice some measure of restraint though because I don't want to deal with this kind of drama. Seriously.

Of all the authors that I follow on Twitter, perhaps the most fan responsive is Michelle Zink (@MichelleZink). I've had a couple of occasions wherein I would tweet her about my reading progress for the Prophecy of the Sisters series and she replies as much as she can.  Since then, she is on my "must-read, must-buy" list and I'm so excited to grab a copy of A Temptation of Angels this March. I'm quite sure, like the Prophecy of the Sisters, I would have a hard time putting it down.  She is honestly that good.

As to the authors I've met in person -- like Lauren Kate, Samantha Sotto and Alexander Yates -- I haven't encountered a single one who's not fan responsive as well as level-headed when dealing with not-so-pleasant reviews about their books. The latter is not an easy feat if you consider the drama I just linked a few sentences ago. For that, I salute them.

Most recently, I have witnessed how YA authors are generally responsive and enthusiastic with each other and their fans.  Last January 23, 2012 (22 in the US), the ALA Youth Media Awards -- Libba Bray calls it as "the Oscars for books" -- was held in Dallas, Texas. Tweets and re-tweets of congratulations and thank-yous from one YA author to another and to their fans were so fun to see on my feed; it felt like you're part of their conversation even if you're on the other side of the world. It also shows how closely knit and mutually supportive they are. The winners' list is quite impressive and I saw a couple of authors that I'm following won awards, which prompted me to congratulate them without any expectations. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:

(click to see image in full)

Why, you're welcome, Ms. Morgenstern! It's an honor to hear from you. Cheers!

2012 is starting out nicely.  Here's wishing more fun encounters with authors here and overseas.

It's been a while since I made a post about a song I liked.  The last one was about Madonna's Take A Bow.   While I do have plans to feature music that I rave about on my still-in-production review blog, I couldn't resist writing a post about this one.  The song is so compellingly beautiful that you find yourself wishing you're the one for whom it is being dedicated to. Well, at least, I knew I did.

Turning Page by Sleeping At Last is included in the original motion picture soundtrack of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.  While it wasn't launched with the same fanfare as It Will Rain by Bruno Mars or A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, the song became memorable because of a particular scene in the movie (which I'm not telling for spoiler reasons).  It was short when I heard it for the first time (typical for a song used in a scene) but it was perhaps one of the most notable tracks among the movies I watched last year.  The song catches you with its arrangement: the piano sounds achingly wonderful and the lyrics reads like an ode to true love.

About a month ago, Sleeping At Last shared a live performance of the song. Like fine wine, it just got better.  Here's a video of the live performance and the full lyrics below.  Hope you enjoy it. Happy weekend!

• Attending the 1st Filipino Reader Conference;
• Buying more books, of course, to add to my growing pile;
• Meeting and having my books signed by two authors, namely Samantha Sotto and Alexander Yates, and listen to their experiences in a panel discussion sponsored by National Bookstore & Random House entitled "Life of a Novelist"; and
• Sharing those experiences with good friends and fellow bibliophiles.

Only 3 nights to go before the 1st Filipino Reader Conference!  I'm pretty excited.  I'm all set and looking forward to meeting fellow Pinoy readers, especially those whom I've gotten to know through the Filipino Friday memes.  Speaking of which, I still have to post my answer to the final installment wherein it asks about expectations during the event...


What do you hope will happen in the Filipino ReaderCon? What are you expecting from the event?

If I were to base it from the program, I'm definitely going to learn a lot from the event.  I don't expect it to be perfect or anything given that this is going to be the first venture but I do hope it's not going to be the last.  I look forward to meeting fellow bibliophiles and get/share book recommendations.  I've been reading for as long and as much as I could so learning from the experiences of fellow Pinoy readers would be such a trip.

One of my resolutions this year was to continue managing my book purchase list. I was successful in 2010, thus I figured it would be a walk in the park when 2011 started. Boy, I was wrong. I guess the lure of new books especially those that I've been curious to read and own was stronger than sticking to a list. To date, I already bought around 10 books and a good number of them are movie tie-ins.




From the picture above, my recent movie tie-in purchases were Jane Eyre, Red Riding Hood and Water For Elephants. I don't know why I like movie tie-ins -- sometimes it's a matter of how the cover looks better than the original one; others would be the extras included like the pull-out posters from the Twilight saga series or the timeline from the Chronicles of Narnia, which are often not part of the original releases. I know that on a marketing standpoint, movie tie-ins would help increase interest in the book, i.e. Water For Elephants. Sometimes, they're sold cheaper than the original editions. At one point, I wondered if Scholastic or Bloomsbury ever thought of releasing movie tie-in editions of the Harry Potter series. I would have bought them without any hesitation.

I don't think that my love affair would movie tie-in books would stop as I enjoy watching book-to-film adaptations. I'm even considering buying such editions of He's Just Not That Into You, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Devil Wears Prada (since I lost my original one) or Eat, Pray, Love. I'm just controlling the temptation to start picking up a copy given the sheer number of unread books -- 60++ so far -- that I have. The fact that I still see them on the shelves of my favorite bookstores along with other movie tie-in books is comforting. I don't feel the need to buy them immediately. However, not all movie tie-in books draw my attention, and there's a couple of them that I wouldn't even dare touch with a ten-foot pole.




I don't need to explain why. Most of my friends would know. =P

And so the spoofed nursery rhyme speaks of a tale of five Austen soul sisters who were all Macfadyen-ed by the end of a 27-hour journey.


In my get-togethers with this circle of friends, the talk about having movie/TV series marathons was mentioned several times. And in one of those talks, Pride & Prejudice became one of the choices given its number of adaptations: from Laurence Olivier's version to this modern-day take.

When 2011 started, I thought that why not pursue a marathon and schedule it during one long holiday weekend. Given enough planning despite the surprising and odd holiday declaration, it happened and this became our line-up:

I came into this marathon knowing that I'm going to be absolutely sleep-deprived but throughly excited at the prospect of watching different adaptations with friends. As you may see from this twitter hashtag, we had tons of fun and fangirl squeals.

Among the three adaptations we watched, for me, the Colin Firth version stayed true to the book. It benefitted from the liberty of being presented as a 6-part mini-series thus every possible detail was covered and some new bits *coughthelakescenecough* were added. The most romantic was the Matthew Macfadyen version, hands-on, if only for the squeals we made for this particular scene in the movie, especially at the 3:45 mark:


That doesn't mean that the Laurence Olivier version didn't have any merits in my book, despite its WTF moment towards the end that sent the most hardcore Austen fans in the den screaming. I loved the campiness of its script! It was not short of wit but it managed to be funny and definitely quote-worthy. This is perhaps my favorite line from this version:


Towards the end of the marathon -- wherein we were re-watching P&P 2005 with commentary -- I mused of the fact that there were five of us in the den, much like there were five Bennet sisters. So I posed the thought as to who's who. I ended up being Jane Bennet since age became the main parameter. The longer I contemplate about the characteristics of each Bennet sister, I think it matched to a good extent as Jane was the one I could relate to the most.


Now that the Pride & Prejudice marathon was over, everyone in the den was excited for the prospect of a next one. There isn't a date yet but a line-up has been determined:

And we're attempting a feat greater than the previous one: the extended cuts of the movies perhaps even with commentary. So, let the journey to Middle Earth begin! ;)

Last night, I went into a frenzy searching for a good movie that will ease my stress at work. In the middle of my hunt, I came across one of my old Madonna CDs, Something To Remember. It was one of my favorite compilations since it featured most of my favorite ballads. I stopped hunting, took out my old CD player, got my good pair of headphones and let the ol' gadget shuffle the tracks. Out came "Take A Bow" and a slow smile crept on my face.

The song reminded me of a lot of things, bitter and sweet. I remembered singing this to a college friend the night before she got married. I remembered hearing this on the radio while lending a shoulder to another friend who discovered that her boyfriend didn't love her anymore. If anything, the song reminds me about realization; that all things -- good and bad -- come to an end.

Nothing is meant to last forever... even something mundane like stress or something precious like free will. When the curtains fall, you have nothing left to do but say goodbye. As soon as the song ended, I did.

I am part of a indie band named Northsound Radio and I am proud to say that we are going to launch our first album, which is entitled Driving Cars & Cutting Hair.

Doesn't the album cover look cool? I'm really proud of it because I designed it. However, that's just about the only thing you'll see about my band. Nothing about what I said above is real. There's a part of me wishing that I were part of a band but all I can manage is creating that fake album cover.

I saw this fake album cover game over Facebook and decided to follow the rules. The friend, from whom I learned the game, shared that it was originally from Multiply. Regardless of its origin, I had fun with it. I even ended up creating an account with one of the sites below. The rules are a bit tedious but believe me, you will be amazed with the results. The picture above is a testament to the game's awesomeness. Ready to take a shot at it? Here are the rules:

1. Go to Wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.
5. Post it with this text in the "caption" and tag the friends you want to join in.

I won't be tagging friends in this page but if you find game interesting enough, I dare you to do it and share your results with me. Post your blog links in the comments after you've made one of your own. I'm excited to see your own fake album covers. Cheers! :D

Most of my friends know that I'm a huge audiophile. I like music. For me, it's poetry in motion. Sometimes, I let certain songs express the way I feel. Most of those that I like have strong, solid lyrics. I don't have any bias when it comes to genres but I there are some that I would have a love/hate relationship with. One of them is country music.

I'm a little picky when it comes to country music songs. There's a handful of them in my playlist like Jesus Take The Wheel by Carrie Underwood and What Hurts The Most by Rascal Flatts. But I always admired country song lyrics: they're often personal and grounded. And Taylor Swift's latest single is no exception.


A good number of Taylor Swift's songs are autobiographical in nature, which she admitted once in an interview. The lyrics often chastised the men with whom she had really bad relationships with. However, Back To December is different. The song is a heartfelt apology; I could feel her regret, her longing all throughout. While I have yet to decide if this was really meant for the other Taylor, I am adding it to my playlist. Of all songs she has released, this will probably be my all-time favorite.

I came home today with an assignment: finish a 100-page book and note the lessons gained from reading it. The book was no stranger to me. I discovered it many years ago and I'm happy to say that I'm still able to live its principles, although a bit rough around the edges -- well, at least, for the last four years or so.


I always referred to Fish as the more down-to-earth version of The 7 Habits. However, the assignment has refreshed my memory about one poem entitled "Faith" by David Whyte. It is featured on page 44 of the said book. Hope you will indulge me as I share this and maybe you will find yourself loving it like I do.

Last Friday afternoon, I got a text message from a very good friend, telling me that I won a pair of advance screening tickets to Land of the Lost! Thank goodness my shift would end early enough for me to do something else before the movie starts. Well, that is, if my work doesn't get too trigger happy with overtime. Even so, I'm confident I'll be there with enough time to spare. Glad to take along another friend with me. While I'm not exactly a Will Ferrell fan, the movie seems interesting enough. It'll be the first time I see Anna Friel on screen post-Pushing Daisies and A Midsummer Night's Dream. One dose of laughter, here I come.

Since I haven't created a new blog in days, I figured I should crank up the ol' embed feature again and share a good number of videos that were uploaded today on the MySpace Trailer Park and MTV.