Last Friday Cherry, Donna and I went out for a night of really cheap inuman/kwentuhansession. When I got to the meeting place Cherry complimented my new haircut, so I knew it was gonna be a laid back night with my good college buddies.

We first went to Digi Cafe, a Internet cafe/bar/videoke slum/billiard hall in Makati. The place was cool, the internet shop had all flat panel monitors, the billiard halls were inviting...and aside from the general inuman area not having air conditioning and the separate videoke spot was blaring with sluring vocal, it was all good. However we felt like leaving so we left and spent a good ten minutes or so in front of Shopwise debating on where to go.

Finally we settled for Baywalk.

So we went to Taft and walked through Malate, all the way to Baywalk.
Malate was, usual for a Friday night on a Valentine's week, was packed. Even got to see Bopip Paraguya and Glen Sibal mulling around in some grillery.
I expected Baywalk to be a slow, quiet and empty spot...until we got there and realized how stupid I was. The place was jumping with lovers and performers and sidewalk bars.

After walking around finding a suitable spot for our kwntuhan and a spot that we wouldn't hear Usher's Burn polluting the night air, we sat by Lami, which according to Cherry, had great barbecues. So with my trusted iced tea and their beer we stayed there until 4am. We chose that spot because they were the only bar playing hiphop music. Cherry even politely bitched the waiter about the music changing into something boyband-ish. After that though we were treated to a buffet consisted of Chinggy, Twista, Ja-Rule and an unavoidable Usher.
We talked about adventures past, people in our past, our love life (I subliminally begged them to avoid the topic, but no soap) and what we'd do in the future.

Donna had to go home, so hopped on a cab and brought her home, after which Cherry and I headed back to Baywalk, to chat some more and hopefully catch the sunrise. We went back to Lami and said good morning to the waiter Cherry had bitched earlier. The guy had a facial expression that said, "Nan'dito na naman ang mga adik na 'to..."

So we talked and laughed our heads of, surrounded by joggers, people in their usual aerobic mood, dogs of every breed (chow-chow, dalmatian, german sheperd, a pug...) and old guys armed with fishing poles. It was then that we realized our horrible mistake, the sun rose behind the buildings, not on the shore.

So you go to Baywalk to watch teh suset, not the surise. Id..


And as for Donna's request:
Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry Donna Cherry

Here is the cover appearance of Darna...





Of course by the great Mars Ravelo and art by Nestor Redondo.

If you look carefully at the ribbon logo at the bottom of the image, it says, "Kawili-wili at Hindi Masagwa"

I found some very nice pictures...



Imago

Cambio

DEAD THOUGHTS

- Still pleasurably plump. I have to begin hating this plumpness, so I could get a lot more plump out of me so I can go back to my plumless self (circa college Freshman days, when I used to tease the B5 Twins, Nino and Raymond, about their apparent plumpness).

- I have done a rehashed, refined version of Bong, my teenage assasin...oh wait, in my storyline he just turned 18 and it just so happened that I'm no longer in a raunchy/gory/violent mood these past few months, so he's just a spy now, taking in assignments only after he's done with homework. His biggest problem would be his older sister, who wouldn't let him out the house after 9pm, problem is his classes end at 8pm...

I'm about done with three pages of the comics. It's in Taglish, but mostly in Filipino, to capture the Filipino flavor. And as for the artowrk, I want to give it an indie, raw approach by not giving too much attention to detail and allowing each and every mistake go into every page.


- I have no idea what's happening in the new Hal Jordan comic, Green Lantern: Rebirth. I feel so deprived.


- I'm looking forward to this month's leg of the Flame Monthly Crowd. I'm hoping that a few more missing faces pop into the scene. And also because my best bud Wacko is in town for a few days of vacation, after which he's gonna head back to Cebu and confront his Supervisorial duties.


- A sign of my being pathetic: Once I changed my status in my Fiendster profile from SINGLE to In A Relationship. Am I pathetic or what?


- About the new Syndrome Lyrics on the right panel, NO I HAVE NOT BEEN WATCHING THE SOAP, SPIRITS, it's just one of the most requested songs in RX.


-These past few days I have been listening only to RX 93.1...no Nu...no RT (except for that Itchyworms guesting last Sunday) and no 89.9. I have no clue why. At first I thought it was I was subliminally looking for variety. But I guess it's a no for that then.


_ I am experienceing an emotional unbalanced of some sorts. It\s weird that at one time I'm happy, then depressed, shift back to being happy, angry and sometimes I get into what I call my Surreal Phase, because when I close my eyes I see shapes and colors and random images crashing into each other. Seriously weird. And then there's always that sluggish black, inky thing that strays from left to right. Eeek. Have I gone insane? Or is my Surreal Phase trying to tell me something?

ANOTHER OLD NP PHOTO





This is an old photo of half of NP bumming around the classroom. The backdrop of the dirty blackboard actually added a nice touch to the photo's entire feel.

Oh and I looked decidedly stoned.


AND ANOTHER ONE



This, on the other hand, is a photo of NP during happier times-

when Dar and I didn't have beer bellies (or simply a run-off-the-mill potbelly for him since he doesn't drink beer)

when Jhai was still a devout NP member

when we were still being ensnared into believing that Peter was a bearable guy

when none of us had girlfriends

whan Tua still had his innocence intact

when Kenneth was still the master of the Ninja Vanish retreat

when Elad still stick-thin

and when the world seemed less complicated and liveable.

I was listening to The All-out Show on RX while washing the dishes last night.

The topic for that night: What is your problem? Text messages startiong pouring in, the majority of the listeners complained about the thesis season.

And then on the second hour of the show someone whose name sounded something like RG of Archie texted. His problem was that the girl hehas been in love with for the last four years got pregnant, and a close friend was responsible. The girls calls him up every now and then to confide and, on occasions, cry.

I almost dropped the soup bowl I was scrubbing.

Some of the lines from RG/Archie's long message (that's probably five bucks spent on a message) that really struck me were: "She was the only reason why I remained a virgin," "I waited patiently because I knew they wouldn't last," "...yes, I love her that much" and "Naging iyaking ako tuloy bigla..."

Was that me? I was so shocked because the lst line was exactly what I used on a conversation with my new confidant Brian. Somewhere under the same night sky someone is aching the same pains and crying the same tears. Sigh.

And then something seriously weird happened during the show's final hour. I wasalready in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what just happened, when the DJ cues in Taning by Imago. He says that RG/Archie had dedicated it to his girl and that she should listen to every line from the song because it was exactly what he wanted to tell her.

Dammit.

The similarities are so uncanny. I felt almost everything I felt during our phone conversations. Perhaps RG/Archie was feeling every word from the song; his sadness soaring and swaying to the vocal's every tonal change, and his chest weighs down with every bass line scale,at that same time. I find that he'snot the only one, as my view of the ceiling steadily blurrs.

Dammit. Just like what the texter said, "Naging iyaking ako tuloy bigla..."


TANING
Imago

sa'n mapupulot ang pag asa
may katuwiran ba ang sana
ngiti ko ang iyong galak
langit ko ang iyong kandungan

permiso sa isang araw na
makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag
na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may taning
tong pag ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit
sa bulag na pag ibig

san hihingi ng patawad
kung walang dahil
antangis ko ang yong luha
nais ko ang iyong kalayaan

permiso sa isang araw na
makasama ka
abiso ng pusong bulag
na humahanga

tama bang aminin na nating may
taning itong pag ibig natin
dakila man walang kasaysayang kakapit
sa bulag na pag ibig

When The Day After Tomorrow was shown in cinemas I passed up the chance to actually see it. Probably because I figured the elements the characters are up against are extremely unstoppable. What could they possibly do to even the odds? I wouldn't pay to see it but I also wouldn't say no if a copy would find its way into my home.

The film starsa bunch of look alikes. Seriously. The main characters, Jack Hall, played by Dennis Quaid (who I always thought resembled Keifer sutherland), is a scientist who is married to pediatrician Lucy (Sela Ward from the series Once & Again who looks a bit much like Chandra Romero) and is father to Sam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal (who was rumored to replace Tobey Maguire) in the last Spiderman because of their remarkable resemblance).

I'm no meteorologist and I honestly didn't completely understand what has brought on the rapid climatic shift, but quaid and cohorts'acting were almost flawless and sincere I dimly understood that the entire planet is in one gumbo-sized sh*thole. A second Ice Age is threatening to come, and what nature allowed millions of years to happen, will happen in just a matter of weeks. There are already signs around the world: India experiencing snow and the monstrous hailstorm in Tokyo.

Jack realizes this and proposes for an action in a global conference, where he meets a renowned meteorologist played by Ian Holm who looks like a cross betweed Danny de Vito and Berting Labra.

Meanwhile, Sam heads over to New York for a national "battle of the brains" type of competition, flanked by his two school buddies. Friend A looks a lot like that black alien from that long forgotten Nickelodeon series, while Friend B/love interest is a cross between Jennifer Love Hewitt and Norah Jones and the acting capacity of a five-year old girl with Down Syndrome. There they meet Sam's competitor, a younger version of Joaquin Phoenix.

But then we learn the truth, that New York is said to be the vortex of the entire tragedy; the temperature there is said to plummet to sub-sub zero any moment. Apparently, the entire Northern Hemisphere is going to be frozen solid, so a mass evacuation ensues, where the evacuees head for charred Mexico.

During this time, Jack heads for New York to rescue Sam with his two co-scientists. Scientist A is a rotting doppelganger for Treat Williams, while Scientist B looks stunningly like the vocalist from Jars of Clay.

Lucy on the other hand is in the hospital where she decides to stay to read Peter Pan to a terminally ill boy while the rest of the city evacuates. We are expected to feel her bravery and her devotion to her calling, but her acting was so damn ratty I saw brain damage instead. Either that or she was in the verge of having a seizure. I was disappointed. Clearly she doesn't translate into cinema as well as she does on TV wher she acts elegantly.

Jack finally makes it into New York in time to save Sam and a handful of survivors, including a neurotic Andy Dick look alike, a feisty girl, who I almost swore was played by Amy Davidson from Eight Simple Rules, and the old copy of Jenna Elfman as the librarian.

The entire movie felt exactly what it was, an ambitious, big-budget Roland Emmerich project. The cinematic shots, the lush environment only CGI artists could conjur up, the lame-but-forgivable jokes and the formulaic Godzilla-ish cinematography were all expected when I saw Emmerich's name in the opening credits. The only thing missing ire the ear-chattering rock soundtrack. At least Hollywood has finally fecognized the fact that rock/metal songs add texture only to chick flicks and teen slasher movies.

Formulaic as it is, the film works, as far as the technicalities are concerned. The story was ok, not brilliant and groundbraking, just ok. There already seems to be a handful of films with the same premise of love and keeping a promise in the midst of tragedy. Titanic. Armageddon. Black Hawk Down. The only thing that changes is the extremity the characters must face...aside from that all you get is eye candy.

Up next:
Comic book turned movies Elektra and Fantastic Four and the Spawn-meets-The Matrix-splashed-with-Van-Helsing flick, Constantine

She has been calling me for the last few days. Confiding in me all her painful thoughts and telling me in detail of her dilemma. She even cried several times, and I really couldn't fight the urge to cry with her. But I figured she needed an emotionally sturdy someone to talk to so I fought the tears. Good thing I wasn't obvious.

All these years of being almost selfless, I think it's ok to be a little bit selfish sometimes. I'm avoiding her calls now. Only because it hurts so bad to hear all the pain she's going through. I know it's gonna be ok, but I know she needs someone to talk to. But I just can't bear to hear more. I just want to see her and hug her, no more talk. Masyadong masakit.

Sometimes I want to tell her that I can fill that void and be a father. If only it were that easy.

Here is a picture of the surviving and enduring members of Neo Paradiso, our high school barkada. It was taken during our graduating year back in St. Francis School in Sta. Ana, Manila.

Thatr's me, fourth from the left, the guy looking down. There were two more members not included in this shot, but who gives a hoot about them?

Sometimes I would like to go back to those days (a time which Kenneth likes to refer to "when we were luggin around in blacks and whites") when our biggest concerns only included passing our subjects, our crushes and worrying about what to do after classes.

Rants and Raves...in the name of Green Lantern


As far as I could look back, I was never into the Funny Comics thing most of the childern my age were so obsessing about. My earliest memories of a comic book would be Green Lantern. My eldest brother absolutely liked Hal Jordan, and since I read what he read I soon caught on the comic book craze.

Through the course of my comic book-reading life, Hal Jordan has always been an uber cool character I could look up to, and ultimately he became my template of an ideal superhero. Not Superman with his invulnerability and god-like strength. Not Batman and his gritty obsession for everything dark. Just Hal Jordan's Green Lantern.

My brother resigned from his work and moved on to a new office. I don't know how or why but the comic books just stopped entering our home. All I saw were those drama Filipino comics my mom fancied for a while.

And then I got into high school where I was so into the X-Men, reading and knowing virtually everything there is to know about them and the spin-off titles. Until I encountered a Green Lantern comic a classmate had owned. The cover looked pretty interesting. "Hal's got a new costume?!" I gasped. I took it home only to find out that I was looking at someone named Kyle Rayner...WHAT???

I was staring at a much, much younger Green Lantern who's a graphic artist (something I've always wanted to be) and has a relationship with Donna Troy (Wonder Girl from the Teen Titans.

Cogs were turning in my pubesccent head.

Kyle's a very interesting person to begin with. He's into a field of work I've dreamed of getting into. And he's a lot more fun to read because his favorite band (I think) happens to be Nine Inch Nails, and he's got a very active imagnation.

On the other hand, I miss Hal. At the back of my mind I kept on thinking what he'd do in the same situations Kyle's in. Hal's too much of an idealist to run amok into a crime-fighting frenzy. Kyle's a bit too impulsive to let the situation get to him. Two different Lanterns, different personalities, same heroic legacy.

Shoot. I'm beginning to sound like a war movie ad.


BUT NO!

HAL may have insane, killed a bunch of Green Lanterns, became Parallax, took an arrow to the chest in Zero Hour, died saving the solar system by restarting the sun and served as the new human host for the Spectre (after it dumped Jim Corrigan, who actually went to heaven)...but he's back! Oh yeah he is! Back to kick some more major ass and he's back with a refined version of his classic costume. Admit it, his Lantern logo has become an Icon, much like Superman's S emblem.

And I am in bliss! Oh YEAH!

Here's a pic...




In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power
Green Lanter's Light.