Edmund

Baduy

I’m gonna scream if I hear Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ one more time. Though I had my earphones on, I heard it blaring again from that accursed gym stereo. It’s 2010 already, for goodness’ sake!

The title of this post is a Pilipino slang, and it aptly describes the dang song—go find out what it means.

Evitamania

Word has it that Evita is going to be revived on Broadway. If it is true, then I’m really going to see it this time around. When it was revived in London four years ago, all I was able to do was get the T-shirts and souvenir program. When it was done in Manila in 1986, after the EDSA Revolution, I was too young to go. Although Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You were played a lot on radio from 1979 to ’80, the show wasn’t performed in the Philippines until after the Marcoses were ousted from power—there were whispers back then that Imelda didn’t like Evita.

And speaking of Imelda, Here Lies Love, a concept album by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of Mrs. Marcos, is finally coming out in April. Evita started out as a concept album before it evolved into the beloved stage musical. (I still believe that Evita: An opera based on the life story of Eva Peron 1919-1952 is the best Evita recording ever.) Will Here Lies Love be performed on stage eventually?

Shushan Purim begins at sundown today. It commemorates the day when the Jews of Shushan, the capital of Persia, finally rested after defeating their enemies. I love the feast of Purim. For me it’s a reminder that anti-Semitism—and indeed racism itself!—should be fought aggressively. For Haman is still alive, and he is as mighty, powerful and wicked as ever—and he comes in many forms and guises.

¡Viva la Revolución!

#496. Che. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. United States and France, 2008. 1:78:1. Color/Black and White. 261 minutes. Spanish.

I’ll watch this next week—if and when I have the time, and if and when I’m back to my proper revolutionary/rebellious self. I’m too busy and quite melodramatic these days.

I’m going to find this hard to watch. First, I’m not a huge fan of Che Guevara and what he stood for. Second, I read/heard that this film portrays Che in a more realistic light. I’ve been so used to seeing the idealized and mythologized Che—as portrayed by better-looking actors such as Gael García Bernal (who played Che twice) and David Essex and Mandy Patinkin (from the original London and Broadway versions of Evita respectively). A smart-ass Theology classmate of mine once remarked that Benicio Del Toro (who plays Che in this film) looks like Philippine Senator Aquilino Pimentel. The remark never left my head.

10! Federico Fellini’s 8½ is now also on Criterion Blu-ray (#140). This was where they based that recent box-office disaster 9. The musical remake was a bad idea—some things are best left not “updated.” Anyhoo, 8½ is one of my least-favorite Fellinis. I hope it’s just my player (again)—my disc doesn’t have sound.

When will La strada and Amarcord be ever released in hi-def?

Cake

I had the strangest craving for cake yesterday. Luckily, it turned out to be J____’s birthday, so there was actually cake! Her neighbor made her a really nice cake. Too busy eating, I forgot to ask her what it’s called. It was chocolate with cream cheese and coconut sprinkles. It was the best cake I’ve tasted in ages, so I had to ask for another slice to take home. The last great-tasting cake I had was at Red Ribbon in Manila, Valentine’s Day 1999.

Deadma revisited

Deadma was a popular Filipino catchphrase in the ’90s. I think—like most colloquialisms that are coined every month or so in Manila—it has already been “accepted” as an actual word in the ever-expanding Filipino vocabulary. I believe it’s Jessica Zafra who first wrote a “study” on the word deadma, defining, conjugating and giving examples of its usages in the now-classic essay entitled Deadma 101:

Dedma is the attenuated form of the English words “dead malice.” “Dead malice,” in turn, is the literal translation of the Tagalog expression, patay malisya. It is conjugated thus: dedma, dinedma, dededmahin.

If I’m correct, the essay can be found in the first anthology of Zafra’s newspaper column, Twisted. The article is now gone from the Internet, so I’m not really sure if the following definitions are from it:

1. To completely ignore/feign ignorance of the existence/presence of someone/something.
2. To snub, reject, or toss in the trash.
3. To pretend deafness or blindness in order to escape a sticky situation.

I’d like to focus on Definition #1, because I believe it’s the most cruel and inhumane form of deadma. Sadly, I know a lot of people who have mastered the art of that particular shape of deadma—and these are people who do not even speak Pilipino! There’s another Pilipino word for the cause of them inflicting deadma (Definition #1) on others: inggit—envy.

Torture(d)

Movies shown at the bus during the very, very long trip: Snow Buddies (shown twice!—the puppies were really cute, though); Imagine That (I kept reminding myself as I saw the atrocity: “What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger”); and According to Greta (with Hilary Duff). I kinda liked the last one—but “kinda” should be emphasized. I’ve always thought that Hilary Duff is a spitting image of Ai-Ai de las Alas.

Pastries on my mind

I was listening to Cake’s ubiquitous 1996 CD Fashion Nugget. If I remember correctly, there was a Filipino parody of the CD’s cover art design entitled Mamon. (“Mamon” is the Tagalog word for sponge cake.) Then all of a sudden, I was craving for cakes. It dawned upon me that I didn’t get to taste any fruit cake last Christmas. Nobody gave me any fruit cake for Christmas!

Marimar unplugged

CD of the moment: Thalía’s Primera fila. I think Primera fila would have to be the Mexican counterpart of MTV’s Unplugged series. The CD is Thalía’s first-ever live album. I’m still getting used to all the new songs, so the medley of her old hits would have to be the stand-out track for the meantime. But the ballads are amazing, especially Cuando te beso.

I believe it’s every fan’s wish to see Thalía in a telenovela again—it’s been ten years already since Rosalinda! I was like “WTF?!” when Marimar was remade in the Philippines. The nerve! Marimar is no one but Thalía. No one can duplicate or replace her beauty and charm.

A Christmas tale

#492. A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël). Directed by Arnaud Desplechin. France, 2008. 2:35:1. Color. 152 minutes. French.

It’s almost Christmas, and a mother (played by the ever-beautiful Catherine Deneuve) needs a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative. The film has all the elements of high drama: a Christmastime setting, a sick mother, cancer. But these elements were not properly used and thus the opportunity for high drama was lost. But then again it’s just me—I kept reminding myself that this is a 2008 French film, not a René Clément tearjerker from the ’50s. It’s not a Mexican telenovela or a Filipino teleserye. So it really doesn’t have to be about the ailing mother. Or about Christmas and its “meaning.” The film seems to be more concerned about the unexplained and never-ending rift between the mother’s son and daughter. In any case, this is not a film one should watch along with It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve.

Uncle Ebenezer speaks. I hate Christmas and (generally) Christmas-themed movies. Seeing A Christmas Tale for the very first time reminded me of one or two of the 100,000 reasons why people like me do not like Christmas. Bad things often happen during this particular season, and we must cope with our personal tribulations and tragedies—by ourselves—in the midst of a “happy” holiday where everyone is “expected” to be happy. Also, it becomes sadder when Jesus—whom people use as the pointless excuse to make their drunken and gluttonous revelries valid—is not present in our lives (if we profess ourselves as Christians, that is). Oftentimes too, our Christmas-related celebrations bring out the worst in every one of us—note the things that took place and the things that were said in the film during Christmas Eve. Urgh . . .

Pandesal (from the Spanish pan de sal, salt bread) is the Filipino bread, eaten during breakfast and (sometimes during) merienda. I miss it so much. I used to have it with thick slices of Kraft Cheddar Cheese (the one from the Philippines, of course). The other day, while grocery shopping, I came across a bag of rolls. They looked like pandesal to me. I had them for breakfast today, but they actually looked and tasted like monay (another Filipino bread). Since there’s no Kraft Cheddar Cheese here, goat cheese became the replacement—I couldn’t find kesong puti or cottage cheese. I didn’t enjoy the rolls and the cheese at all. There’s simply no substitute for pandesal.

Nes gadol ha ya sham! I almost forgot—Chanukah, or the Festival of Dedication, begins tonight!