Monday, January 31, 2005
sa debut ni ladie sa dish
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/31/2005 05:55:00 PM
Lolo hector came from the States and my father wanted to see him (or who knows, he probably also wants escape from his work in the hospital) so they came here in manila last Friday. They picked me up Friday night, instead of Saturday morning – (huhu, bad side – I had to cancel my original plan of going ‘gig-hopping’ with friends – from Chuck’s to Cersa to Gelo’s (bahala mga blockmates ko sana). But of course, I don’t really feel bad about it – hello, I miss being with the family and now is my chance so I won’t let this pass. I just wish I still would have those “next time” to spend with my blockmates. God, God knows how much I wanted to have UBE with them as often as I could. School stuff just always comes in the way. Too bad. And too stupid for me to live like a loser and a loner (see, they go together) since I got into college. Thanks Ateneo for putting this curse.
Going back, hehe – So on Friday night, we ate at Kenny Roger’s Katipunan. Ha! I knew it – we are all bound to gluttony this weekend. Tsk tsk, I knew – I should have not eaten the whole week. Hehe, just kidding! I just cannot imagine starving myself these days (so warning for those who have seen me in my ‘thinnest’ days BEFORE, you’ll be very surprised how much I gained weight now). Two evils – A-P-P-E-T-I-T-E and C-R-A-V-I-N-G-S. ow, make that 4 –add sweets (sub – chocolate and polvoron and donuts) and banana shake to that. The next morning, we had a hearty breakfast of longsilog and juice, (thanks to my lola luvis). Then, we had lunch at market market! Lolo raul ordered lots of seafood; papa still got me a chicken meal. God, it was literally a feast. Im not a seafood person but the voracious appetites of the people around me are infectious – that I even tried squid. Yum, squid tastes good. And not all squids are black, that when you eat them, your teeth get all black – hehe, that was my ex-belief.
And speaking of ex-es. I bumped into jon2 – an ex…. friend, high school friend. Sus. .It’s really a small world, right? I think he was trying to avoid me, us – I was with mama. Mama said he couldn’t even look at us, hehe. but anyway, while he was seated on a bench there, with his father, I came up to him and greeted him. (naku, jm palines would be so proud of me, hehe. Joke lang. Kulit kulit kase nun eh) well, it’s a blessing we didn’t talk really – ha, I wouldn’t give him a chance to notice and tell me how much I gained. Hehe. J
Back to food talk - After market market, we went to duty free to do some quick grab for chocolates. Dinner time, Saturday – lola served us steak and of course, even if I promised myself I won’t eat dinner and just have my Bavarian brew, I couldn’t resist the temptation, hay. Sunday: I promised myself I won’t eat breakfast because I know we’re having a heavy lunch with the family – again, the Mcdo pancakes with honey (not syrup) and the butter are just so tempting. We went to SM southmall after that to have my refraction at Vision Express. I needed to change my contact lenses, by the way J then we came back home lunch time and ‘dig in’ again. Wah.. my waist could have measured 30 + inches, no exaggeration. And just when I thought that that would be it for the day, lola told papa we would still have dinner at a newly opened Chinese resto in ATC. Whattt??! And at around 6 in the evening, we were at China Star – ready to commit our guilty acts again.
I ordered beef brisket and wanton noodle soup -thinking that it would be an ideal meal for those who try to be on diet. But when it came – ok, the soup is on a gigantic bowl we even joked that we could swim and get drown in it. sigh – not just that, I tasted also the chicken, the suckling pig, the pansit, the roasted calf and ate lots of peanuts – not pistachios recommended for dieters ah. and when we were on the car, I ate several mini-bars of Cadbury. If you add that up, that’s equivalent to more than a big bar, huhu. But in fairness to me – I said no to mama when she offered giving me an extra pack of Hershey’s kisses and a pack of mongo tikoy (yum yum). Applaud.. applaud.. (by the way, it’s already 2:30 am as I write this and as of now, there were only 3 bars of Cadbury left, hehe)
Snap! Back to reality – I have lots of things to do for tomorrow – I remember. And there’s a long test this Tuesday. Wahh. .back to MY monotonous world.
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/31/2005 01:29:00 AM
Most recent LSS
By the way, I just ‘discovered’ today that Nikki Gil, the girl in that latest Coke ad, is an Atenean. Kewlness. Go schoolmate! It’s weird because I never see her in school. I also found out she is a former schoolmate of my cousin Iya. Iya told me she got paid 250 thou for the ad, and she has billboards and print ads coming up. I also found out from my cousin that she was only the second choice, the first being a rock chic whose name we don’t know. It just happened that the rock star had so many demands so Coke chose Nikki instead. Well, it wasn’t a very bad choice, right?
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/30/2005 09:31:00 PM
Anyway, all I know is that I am human and I am bound to make mistakes, right? when I came home, I immediately checked the dictio to see if the word PHEASANT exists and thank God it does. Now I feel less estupida.
The next time, I’ll write farmers instead of peasants. Just to be safe. I just hope I don’t write that as P-A-R-M-E-R-S. I’ll probably commit seppuku if I do that. Hehe.
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/19/2005 03:31:00 PM
this was our new year family picture taken from the 'rooftop' of our house in sabang. ha.. im so proud of myself because i was the one who took this and see, we all fit into the frame. :) hehe, whatever, teng.
anyway, i know this is quite a late story to tell since it's been two weeks since new year. pero sige, kuwento ko pa rin. hmm,, on new year's day, we went to our beach house after attending mass. basically, we (just the four of us) just ate (a bit - hehe, my mother and i are trying to be on a diet while my brother naturally doesnt have any appetite at all); cleaned the house; (again, i bit.) no one has been living there for months so of course, you could imagine the dust. (but dont exaggerate it, ok? :0) and stared at one another. hehe. hello? we had no TV set there so we really ahd nothing to do.
but here's the important thing :
i didnt get bored.in fact, i was happy. because deep in me, i could feel what the four of us were thinking - "we are all trying to begin.."
this better work out.
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/18/2005 11:04:00 AM
I couldn’t think of another word to describe this day - January 17, 2005 (no offense to Yeye who is celebrating her 18th birthday today). The word traumatic is simply perfect to represent all the mishaps comprising the big mess we made out of our Asian History presentation– the LCD projector we didn’t have; the missing technician who was supposed to help; the reservation slip unclaimed from Ms. Coo; the running to and fro the SEC walk in that Chinese dress; the required hand-outs for the class we weren’t able to prepare; the final paper which the computer in the CTC couldn’t read so we couldn’t print it, and worst of all, the frown in Ms Coo’s face from which I could clearly read how she was annoyed by the delay we caused or probably, she was really just annoyed by US – by our irresponsibility. (such reaction I find totally reasonable)
I was so devastated – and tired, for I (and isay, too) had only a few hours of sleep– not to mention the hard work that we all did. Personally, what happened was a major disappointment for me because I remember that I even brought FIVE hardbound books to baler last Christmas vacation just for this paper and then, whamm!! – major disappointment – what a great way of making us all feel our efforts were not appreciated or rewarded, at all.
I told my mom about it – through text. that is probably how I really am. I am used to telling my parents if I fail a quiz, if I was having difficulties reciting in class, if I get a low grade in an exam because it is my way of not letting them expect too much from me. (although I fairness to them, they never pressure me into becoming an achiever, especially since I got into college. I remember my mom telling me when I was reviewing for a chem. long test – she was like “ano yan? Wag mo nang review-hin yan, hindi mo naman kailangan iyan sa course mo eh” hehe. Wow, mama, thanks.)
ok, back to the present. And when she replied, she sent me a message which said “ hayaan mo na iyon anak. Isipin mo na lang marami ngayon ang mga tsunami victims.” Hehe.. hehe.. I couldn’t help but laugh – of course, just to myself – I don’t want the people in the sunken garden to think im crazy, right? hmm, yes, there is truth to that but if we think about it, my problem and the problem of the tsunami victims are both problems but just not on the same level. But anyway, thanks to my mama, that made me smile - made me feel better somehow. ‘That’s a classic’, to quote my friend bianx.
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/17/2005 07:32:00 PM
It Makes us all Wonder
Life is a mystery. And God, who most of us Christians perceive to be in control of this life, also works in ways incomprehensible to us.
This is the central message Laurice Guillen’s Santa Santita wants to communicate as it adapts into the modern day context a story of the biblical character Mary Magdalene – in its narration of the transformation of Malen (played by Angelica Panganiban) from a young woman of naughty personality and superficial spirituality to a ‘prayer woman’ / ‘taga-dasal’ of extraordinary ability to heal and intercede for others so that their prayers be answered by God.
The first scenes - the opening frames showing art pieces depicting cherubins and saint figures; and the scenes in front of the busy Quiapo area - establish the film’s religious theme and at the same time, foreshadow the many contradictions embedded in it. That is, the Quaipo church, or any church for that matter, is perceived as a place for ‘saints’ - the house of God wherein people in faith come together to pray and worship Him. However, Quaipo is also perceived as a place for fortune-tellers, fake beggars, pickpockets and vendors who make money out of the scapulars, rosaries and other religious paraphernalia. Quaipo thus serves as an appropriate setting - a place for saints and sinners, for santas and santitas – which are divisions defined by religion, which in this case is Roman Catholicism.
The film then acquaints its audience with the main character Malen who with the way she dresses, moves; and approaches and flirts with a guy stranger, who happens to be Mike (Jericho Rosales), is immediately identified to be a liberated teenager. Her character highlights the modern touch on the film so the viewers recognize it to be a film of our times. For instance, compare her torrid kissing scene with Mike during their first date (which happened after they have met each other less than a week before) with the ‘kissing’ scene in the 1959 movie Biyaya ng Lupa wherein the newlyweds ‘shyly’ kiss each other on the cheeks.
The so-called High Definition (HD) technology, which Unitel Productions is proud to use in filming this movie, attests to our advancement nowadays when it comes to technical production in our films. Such high technology made most of the scenes appear golden and the love scene almost red hot; and made possible the unconventional camera shots and the SFX, such as in Malen’s dream sequences in the desert and her stigmata. Moreover, the film’s musical score is commendable – mostly of conga drums, if I’m not mistaken – which significantly adds up to tension and heightens up emotions in certain scenes. This is definitely an improvement from crude sound effects in our movies in the past.
However, while the film speaks of a modern day character and is also crafted using modern techniques / production technology, the film does not leave out elements of the old – with the traditional religious beliefs of other characters such as Chayong, Malen’s devout mother (Hilda Coronel), who never fails to pray the rosary and utter memorized prayers and even wipes the religious figures before leaving the house; as well as of the other people who still believe in the power of those ‘taga-dasal’ to intercede for them. In addition, the film tackles on the possibility of miracles (in our own definition, that is) which contemporary people believe to be logically impossible or merely gimmicks by those wanting to earn money or to be in the news.
Honestly, my initial overall evaluation of the film is negative, almost disagreeing with its Grade A rating. The film left me perplexed and wondering of what exactly it is trying to say. Also, I think the characters are underdeveloped that we can hardly identify where they are coming from or what are pushing them to behave such ways. Why is the priest alcoholic? Why is Mike so deceitful even of Malen who he ‘loves’? Isn’t Malen’s character somehow shallow – similar to a typical rebellious teenager disobeying her mother who expects her daughter to be as religious as she is? I noticed also how ‘discentered’ the film is – lacking focus and clear cause-and-effect logic with its events incoherent and inconsistent with one another. How could true love blossom between Malen and Mike when no particular event/s in the film testify to this plus considering the fact that Mike even lied to Malen? How could one dream of stigmata immediately change Malen? What prompted Mike to change and believe in God? Is it the death of his child? Malen? Or the prison? What’s with Malen’s smile during the last scene? (which, I think, actress Panganiban portrayed sloppily because she looked as if she’s just finding her best angle for a photo shoot rather than expressing that she is happy having been part of a transformation of Mike.)
Surprisingly, this series of question I had pushed me to a deeper reflection and afterwards an appreciation of the film. It is human nature to be asking a lot of questions, to be demanding explanations and clear-cut evidences to everything inside and around us – akin to how people pray for miracles – those that we can see – to prove that there is really a God. Then I realized that since the film portrays life and faith – whose meanings we cannot really fully exhaust / understand, it also needs not provide ‘in-your-face’ explanations to every aspect of the film, lest spoonfeeding its audience, allowing them no further reflection.
The film subtly encourages us to rethink of our faith – our personal relationship with God by making us identify with just a particular character. At one point in our lives, we are like the ‘former’ Malen who prays with the mouth and not with the heart; we are like Mike who can be dishonest and manipulative yet at a certain point feels helpless; we are like Father Tony who falls victim to vices, pleasures of the world; we are like the nun who amidst faith, feels neglected and unanswered by God; we are like the people who feel to need other people interceding for us; we are those who look for miracles and start to believe only when we have seen it. Oftentimes also, we question God every time the ‘unwanted unexpected’ come our way in the same way that the other people in the film raise their brows as they feel Malen is unworthy to receive such gift of healing.
The film possesses a certain degree of ambiguity and the key to understanding its primary message is through one’s deep reflection of oneself and one’s faith. During that process, a miracle is already being made.
We are sinners. We are saints. We are santas. We are santitas. We all yearn to witness our own miracles and we all wonder how. Santa Santita left us thinking about that.
Posted by tengcorrea at 1/16/2005 07:33:00 PM
hehe.. looking back is really fun.
last week, as i was browsing our old photo albums because i need pictures for our 'mi familia' album in spanish,i came across these really kewl pictures.
first pic - left to right - andeng, ate abi, timi, reno and of course, me..
2nd pc - timi - behind the door ; reno and moi.. (look at reno, hehe)
the f by the way, these are pictures of pictures already --i took photos of the photos using my digicam. astig kaya. there's more actually but i dont want to post everything here (hmm.. that's not a very bad idea though, hehe). no.. i dont want to make this a photo album. hehe
arent we just cute little kids? .. then..
sorry about the BIGNESS of the pics- i just couldnt resize them or im just too lazy to do it now. hehe
