Of Mondegreens and Dogs Turned Reindeer

Olive, the Other Reindeer

by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Siebold

1997

It's this time of the year when Booksale gets their Christmas-themed children's books out, having previously displayed the Halloween books as early as September. 

Normally, kids' books that have anything to do with Christmas make me cringe; especially when Santa Claus is rendered life-like, rosy cheeks, and beard, and all.  (The Coca-Cola Santa is okay though.)  As a kid I was spared from the lie about Santa, so I didn't really care about him, not that it would have mattered since our house had no chimneys anyway.  I grew up knowing Santa only from the cartoons, and that's good enough for me.

Also, I went to a Catholic grade school, which bombarded us with Bible stories, including the Jesus' birth, on a regular basis.  I knew them by heart, I think.  So all those children's books about the Nativity and the Three Wise Men and Jesus on a manger, yawn.

* * *

Then a nice non-sappy book such as Olive, the Other Reindeer comes along.  Still Christmassy in spirit, but this time the story revolves around a dog Olive.  Who mishears the lyrics of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and thinks the line "...All of the other reindeer..." is really "...Olive, the other reindeer..."  Which promptly sends her on a journey to the North Pole to report to Santa Claus.  Yes, it's a Christmas book about how a harmless mondegreen could put ideas to anyone's head, dogs included.

In Olive, the Other Reindeer, the story-telling is brisk, the events hilarious, and the ending is well-wrapped-up (Everyone went outside to play reindeer games).  There's even a moral or two for the reader. 

Of course, this won't be a kid's book without the pictures, and this is where J. Otto Siebold's charming PC-made illustrations come in: jelly-bean colored, glossy,  elaborate, and cartoonish, which remind me of art class when we'd cut out shapes from construction paper and paste them together, but this time it's seamless and better.  Which is like saying every page is eye-candy.  Perfect for reading to a kid.  Or a grownup.

And because Santa in Olive, the Other Reindeer, isn't too jolly-looking that I start craving for ennui, I like it.

* * *

Incidentally, there was an animated short by Matt Groening based on the book, with Drew Barreymore as Olive.

So A-mazed

Once in a while McDonald’s comes out with a really ingenious not-just-based-on-some-movie toy for its Happy Meal.  This one here is a Feed the Monkey Maze.  In the tradition of the classic steel ball inside a maze, you maneuver said ball without falling into the holes.  You’d think it’s such an easy feat considering there are only four holes, but wait till you get your hands on it.

And unlike our old-school petty mazes inside our plastic rulers, this time there are sound effects (for as long as the built-in battery holds out I guess).

When you successfully get that ball down the monkey’s mouth, you’ll hear a sound, like a monkey’s truncated belch, perhaps.  Other times, but very rare, it’s longer and more cheery, a la pinball machine triumph.  I’ve always thought it was just factory defect, the arbitrariness of that metallic jingle until I read the instructions: 7 consecutive drops down the monkey’s mouth and the special sound plays.

For sheer digital fun though, there’s Labyrinth Lite available in the Android Apps Market, which has you tilting your phone this way and that.  The steel ball’s behavior is so realistic you’d think it was the real thing.  Only downer is that just ten levels are free in the trial version, which feels awful short.  If you think you’re really, really hooked, you can buy the full version which has over 1,000 levels and which also, in the tradition of Battle City (of the Famicom-era), lets you invent your own obstacle courses for your steel ball.

Also see Perplexus.

Who would have thought such a simple concept of a steel ball inside a maze could still be improved on?

Now that Steve Jobs Has Passed Away...

...we will forever be indebted to the many ingenious ways he had changed technology and brought it to a more personal level for all of us in the world.  


Here's a Simpsons episode parodying Apple entitled MyPod and Broomsticks.  First aired on November 2008, it's not exactly a tribute of sorts, more like a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the consumptive nature of iPod buyers and the tens of billions Apple/Mapple must be making out of all of us.  I think it's still an episode Steve Jobs would  have approved of.






And later when Lisa accrues way too much bill for her song downloads, she travels to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine to meet Steve Jobs himself in his signature black semi-turtleneck sweater.  Yes, just to underline Apple's tradition of secrecy prior to unveiling its latest innovation, Mapple's headquarters is located deep in the ocean, and can be accessed by plugging into its USB slot. 

In all of these, thank you, Mr. Steve Jobs.

Woolly Pointlessly Meets Garfield

--Hi!  I'm a woolly mammoth.  Er, I've always wanted to ask you this: how come you only talk using thought bubbles?

--Oh that.  Part of me and Jon's excellent repartee.  The human yaks, I simply ooze a sarcastic thought.

--Are you oozing one now?  Cause I can't hear you?


  

Now that they've closed the pirated DVD shops in Quiapo

It's September, so if Mayor Lim's ultimatum last July to the DVD vendors in Quaipo is to be believed and taken seriously, no more selling of pirated DVDs should be taking place there anymore.


The last time I was in the area was March, my sister was taking the LET exams, and while I was waiting for her to be done I had taken to browsing the thousands of DVD titles they had there.  Watching those guys in each stalll sit in front of their TVs with various movies being played on their DVDs, I felt envious because they watch way more movies in a day than I was able to sit through during my so-called film school years.


They have new special metal cases for the DVDs, slim and sleek, and again, metallic, unlike the usual cardboard packagings and the sordid black plastic cases.  These days, I have no more illusions about foreign arthouse films that everyone seems to be rummaging for.  This time I'm digging the oldies.  No, not from the 50's, but something I saw when I was a kid, i.e. Back to the Future.  The three volume set sells for PhP 180, which is reasonable, but for some reason, I didn't fold, I didn't put my wallet out, I just went back to pick my sister up, and told myself there's always another time.  Quiapo will always be there.

Though that's not the case anymore, what with Mayor Lim finally hardening on the movie pirates once and for all.  Because Manila's image is once again tarnished, reputed to be among the top places in the country where rampant selling of pirated goods (from fake designer bags to fake Kindles) takes place.  So it looks like I won't be able to get myself a copy of Back to the Future once and for all.  Too bad because Edge still hasn't seen it, nor my sister.  And because I would have wanted to see it again because I was too young to remember, and the Channel 2 doesn't air the movie anymore like it used to.


The "future" in the film is set in 2015, about three more years to go.  When I come to think of it, watching that film when I was a kid, all I remember is McFly's self-lacing shoes, his hovering skateboard, and Dr. Brown's battered automobile of a time machine, and of course, even then as a kid, a vague awareness of the implications of interfering with the meeting of one's future parents, and the paradox it presents.  I don't remember much, but what I get is this: now is already the future, it's upon me all of a sudden, and I'm glad I already know who I want to spend the rest of my life with.


Yes, this blog post ends in a cheesy note :)

* * *

P.S.  Will go to Quaipo tomorrow and see if there's any piracy still going on.  Fingers crossed.


P.P.S.  And oh, Marty McFly's Air Mags with the power laces, well after much petitioning from fans, Nike has those now, reverse-engineered to resemble the original pair worn by Michael J. Fox as exactly as possible, though not the power lace. The proceeds for the auction of the 1,500 pairs (at nikemag.ebay.com) will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Alternative Use of Play-Doh

From The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror XVII


At 13:25, Marge has an alternative use for Play-Doh, though with annoying Fran Drescher nasal voice results.  Though, of course, don't just scoot over to 13:25, this is the Simpsons, watch the whole damn thing. :)

Oh The Iron of It All

Tired of those plastic action figures and their comic book/anime origins?  



Try this one for a change: all the way from Baguio, a badass hunter of indeterminate superhero league or whatsoever affiliation.  Possibly he has a tribe, because in the store there are groups of them, but each of them could be operating solo.


This little hunter here is made of ironwood.  If you'll notice, he's got the string of the bow all taut with minimal effort, the string even magically stretching without him touching it yet.  


Anyway, this sculptural error can be forgiven as Edge was able to get Mr. Hunter for just a little over 500 Pesos.  In Baguio, they sell the black wooden sculptures (which cost less because the wood is lighter), and the expensive brown ones made of ironwood.  We saw a pair that costs PhP 3,500--but Edge is not really a fan of men with giant schlongs and giant-breasted women.      


If you know how to haggle, you can really drive the price down, which is what we did to get this guy who otherwise would have probably cost PhP 800 to 900 elsewhere.  


Incidentally, the salesladies will tell you it's expensive because ironwood, being ironwood, is hard to carve.  As it turns out, ironwood is an umbrella term for woods all over the world that are, well... hard.  In the Philippines, kamagong and mangkono are considered ironwood, the latter being the hardest variety in the country.  


At Mines View Park (where we didn't find Mr. Hunter) I found a nice pair of arnis sticks made of kamagong, their weight very, very nice on my hands.  Just PhP 200.  But since I'm no longer in college and it's too late to take P.E. classes in arnis, and since I don't know, too, where I'm going to use them, I simply said Pass.

Self-Reference It Some More

Until yesterday, I thought you could only get The Simpsons on cable, which we don't have, or through pirated but crystal-clear DVDs, whose mecca in Quiapo Manila Mayor Lim recently had closed--for how long, we're not sure.


Anyway, that was a pretty stupid assumption, give up just because RPN 9 stopped airing the episodes.  Hello, we have Internet for the past three years, and practically everything is on offer there: baby chairs, comic books, mineral make-up, keychains, cookies, even ancient episodes of The Twilight Zone.  So how much more our beloved Simpsons?  So I go typing watch Simpsons online, and what do you know, not one, not two, but a dozen sites stream Simpsons episodes, some of them even up-to-date, although come to think of it: The Ned-liest Catch (the finale of Season 22, where Edna Krabapple and Ned Flanders hook up) was aired last May.  Still, better late than never.


After gorging on Simpsons reruns yesterday, I stumble on this: a very dark, gritty, opening sequence that unapologetically self-references the production process of the animation series.  Suddenly, the sequence panning the not-so-bucolic, anything-goes town of Springfield veers into a scene from inside the Simpsons TV set, revealing a sweatshop somewhere in Asia where animation stills are painstakingly drawn under dire conditions, and where other outrageous procedures for manufacturing various Simpsons merchandise: Bart dolls, DVD sets, etc.  

Retro Toy: the BigTrak

Yes, there was a time when toy cars were clunky and carried dozens of buttons to function (just plain unsightly--not to mention awkward when installed on a real-life car), but hey, the Bigtrak was programmable, and it paved the way for future RC toys cars and vehicles.

Chapter 12, In Which They Go to the CCP Museum. Sort Of

--Why, it's not so blasphemous as I thought it would be!



--And I'm afraid it's not nearly as artful either, Colonel.


--Stop, you're right.  I wonder why all the media fuss then.  It's just sensory overload, if you ask me.  


--I'm reminded of Andres Serrano's Piss Christ photograph.  Now, that's good!

--Guys, I hate to break it to you, but we still haven't left the house.  This is not the musuem.  We're looking at an actual bedroom altar.

Un-Paintballing at the Ruins of Diplomat Hotel in Baguio

1. Just got back from a three-day vacation from Baguio.  Me and Edge have turned five.  Whoopee!


2. For the first time visited Diplomat Hotel, thanks to a signboard near the Lourdes Grotto (which was our original itenerary).


3.  The signboard said "This way to Prayer Mountain", and because we were in the mood to pray (seriously), we trekked a whole kilometer to this so-called prayer mountain.


4. Turns out we wouldn't be in a particularly prayerful mood since there is just a hotel, or ruins of it.

5. The lady at Ibay's Silver Shop back at the Grotto did warn us that there is just this old hotel called Diplomat Hotel at Prayer Mountain, this closed-down hotel now a haunted house, which according to her, is always featured in reality TV shows during Halloween.


6.  Just when we thought it'd be a scary place, we find that there are well-taken care of flowers all around the area, and teenagers in full battlegear cosplay making poses in front of their super duper DSLR camera.


7.  For our part, me and Edge have no imaging device whatsoever.  I purposely left my point-and-shoot camera at home, I accidentally left my cellphone with just a VGA camera at home, while Edge's own cellphone is only good for texting, as an alarm clock, and a flashlight.


8.  We didn't need the flashlight because it was broad daylight.


9.  In a span of one hour, more people (living, hopefully not deceased) appeared at the rooftop of Diplomat Hotel where me and Edge have cozied up in a corner.  They all proceed to take pictures of the beautiful 360 degrees scenery of Baguio.


10. You can tell Diplomat Hotel was grand: it had two big fountains, bathtubs and fireplaces in some of the rooms, traces of parquet flooring, and a grand driveway.  But now, it's all stripped off walls, wet floors, and general decay.  


11. Three days later, back home, I Google this Diplomat Hotel and what happened to it.  The name Tony Agpaoa surfaces, a psychic physician who supervised the hotel and then died of a heart attack in 1987.  That's when the hotel started to fall into disuse.


12.  Agpaoa rings a bell.  I ask Mami if this Agpaoa is the same guy to whom she had brought Ditse, her sister, when she was sick.  I remember her telling me how they went to a posh hotel in Baguio in those days, seeking psychic-medical help there.  I remember her exclaiming over the minibar and how their friend told them they can have anything, courtesy of the hotel management.


13. Sure enough, it is the same Agpaoa. 


14.  I tell her about how Diplomat Hotel looks like now.  I even show her pictures though she can't remember if it's the same hotel.  Anyway, a lot has changed, too hard for the mind to comprehend in a single glance.


15.  Apparently, enterprising people also use the hotel grounds as their battle area for paintball combats.  There were no paintballers that day.  I don't remember seeing paint splatters either, but that's probably because the paint is water-based.


16.  Edge tells me the teenagers with the DSLR could come up with better angles.  Also, that the hotel grounds would be good for a pre-nuptial shoot.  


17.  We leave the hotel grounds before it gets darker and foggier, and because we still haven't had lunch.

* * * 

Mr. DeMartino: And why are we going to engage in simulated combat? Daria?


Daria: Because no high school education is complete until you've chased your fellow students around the woods with toy guns?




-from Daria the Hunter, Episode #202, year televised 1998

Dance, Dance, Dance with OK Go's New Interactive Music Video

Maybe it's unintentional, maybe it's deliberate, but US band OK Go is best remembered for their quirky music videos (the treadmill dancefest, the rube goldberg machine, the pingpong match) more than the songs themselves.  As if the songs get drowned in the visual style of the videos they happen to be in.  Which is weird because there are a lot of great videos out there, both texturally and textually rich, say Madonna's Bedtime Story, or Chemical Brothers' Let Forever Be, and we all know how the songs go. 


Here, however, at last, is a song by OK Go that's not forgettable: All is Not Lost.  Finally, I can sing along and I don't think I'll forget the chorus any time soon.


All is Not Lost is still quirky and geeky as only OK Go can go, and the guys are back to doing what they do best: dancing.  Not on treadmills again, but on the glass floor this time, with the Pilobolus dance group, wearing light teal green unitards, slinking ever so smoothly in incredibly choreographed and synchronized movements. 


Then, because the video plays best in Google Chrome, the window splits all of a sudden, and the next thing you know you're watching multiple windows, with people seemingly falling like leaves, etc, and then spelling out ALL IS NOT LOST, plus the message you typed in earlier.  I did tell you the music video is interactive, right?  Guys proposing to their girlfriends can use this interactive messaging feature to the fullest.


OK Go is dedicating All is Not Lost to the people of Japan who have been recently ravaged by the tsunamis last March.


Just head on to www.allisnotlo.st, type your message, wait for the page to load, and dance along.

Resurrecting the Smurfs

How do you introduce a bunch of peaceable, blue-skinned, white capped, and three-apples-high folks living in idyllic conditions and whose voabulary seem to revolve around the all-encompassing harmless word "smurf"--how do  you introduce the Smurfs to kids of today reared in Plants Vs. Zombies, Angry Birds, and God of War? 

You make a comeback film shot in 3D, and hope ticket sales are brisk and reception is good because we don't want the little guys rubbing off the wrong way on kids seeing the Smurfs for the first time ever in their life. 

If the movie fails (despite Neil Patrick Harris's best efforts, and Katy Perry's involvement, and Hank Azaria's overcharged antics), there's always McDonald's to further immortalize the Smurfs with Smurf action figures in every Happy Meal. 

When I was a kid, I used to have a Smurf action figure (though action figure may be the wrong word as it didn't have movable arms and legs).  Anyway, I don't know where that is now.  Also, I've forgotten what the Smurfs TV show was like.  I remember they lived in a forest, and that they were all blue, and pretty much that's it.  The same way that the only thing I remember about the Carebears is their powers emanating from the image on their tummy.  Oh well.

Thusly I Will Have This Captain America Shield Ricochet with a Purpose

Amidst all the predictable Captain America movie tie-in products and gimmicks happening right now (you know, Captain America action figures, Captain America bucket meals, T-shirts, etc), here is one that's completely different and quirky and fun, from our much-beloved hotdog brand: Purefoods Tender Juicy.


For a PhP 170 pack of Tender Juicy you get a toy freebie.  Don't get the one with the blah pencils though; get the other freebie, the one with the red and blue plastic pieces you snap on a la railway tracks and two plastic discs with holes in them. 


It's called a spirograph.

Your ballpen tip, preferably colored, goes in any hole on either disc. Then you carefully run the disc along the inside of the railway tracks, like cogs and wheels, faithfully following the entire circumference of the racks.  And in the process produce beautiful geometric circles and blooms.  If you're patient you'll get perfect patterns each time.  If, however, you"ve got tremor of the hands, or have bad eye and hand coordination, or just plain careless, you get sloppy drawings of course such as this and this.

So the Spirograph discs by Tender Juicy still have Captain America's mighty shield going for them, at least in terms of the sticker on them, plus the red and blue color.  Anyway, a shield able to create artworks is better, I think, than the real shield of Captain America which just ricochets and boomerangs off walls and enemies' foreheads.


Okay, the freebie isn't an original toy anymore, which is why I'm filing this post under Classic Toys.  The spirograph has been around since the 60's, invented by one Denys Fisher, who, not surprisingly is an engineer.  Really, beneath all the smooth seemingly mindless fun of creating wonderful geometric patterns is an actual mathematical curve.

Originally, Fisher intended the contraption to be a tool for draftsmen (move over boring compass), but he thought it best to market it as a toy.  And sure enough, it won Toy of the Year and was the best selling toy in 1967.
 At the grounds of Quiapo church they sell spirographs too, for 20 bucks.  No hotdogs included, but for 20 bucks you have about 5 or 6 or even 7 discs of different sizes, so there's a wider variety of geometric blooms possible.

Hand Puppets for Your Sanity

We've seen Mel Gibson loony before (in Conspiracy Theory) and he was wonderful, if not all the more charming.  Why do we have a weakness for unstable people?  Is it the urge to fix them up?  Is it the fact that said loony people are too busy being loony to notice our own flaws that's why we take them in, confident we will be undetected?   

Anyway. 

Here's the trailer to the Jodie Foster-directed comedy-drama The Beaver shown in theaters last May 2011.  Here Mel Gibson (playing Walter Black) is once again out of sorts and depressed--no conspiracy involved though.  Just his wife kicking him out, and his toy company steadily falling  in shambles.  Then he stumbles upon a beaver hand puppet in a dumpster, puts it on, and starts talking to himself and later to everyone else through the gruffy-voiced puppet and in the process gets himself back on track.

Nothing like a good beaver hand puppet to refresh your mind and purge your demons.

Thankfully, Walter does not to start a ventriloquist act with his new beaver toy, for that would be creepy.  But he gets the beaver puppet talking all the same, his own mouth visibly forming the words with no attempt to throw his voice whatsoever.  So the "sane" people are faced with a dilemma: do they insist it's Walter they're talking to, or do they play along?  I say we play along.

Anyway.

The Beaver will have a limited release again starting August 10 at Ayala Cinemas (Glorietta, Trinoma, Greenbelt).

Because Babies MUST Play With Your iPhone

There are some things that just don't mix well: babies and your precious iPhone, for one. 




Well NOT anymore.  Because Fisher-Price® believes in starting them young, they came out with the ingenious Baby iCan Play Case.  It's a baby-proof case that fits snugly on your iPhone, protecting it from drools, accidental drops, and scratches. 




The Baby iCan Play Case also features a baby-friendly ergonomic rubber grip on either side (with colorful rattles thrown in), and a home button shield so baby doesn't inadvertently send emails and conduct business conferences behind your back.




For baby-friendly, educational apps your toddler can have endless fun with, head on to the Fisher-Price® website to download free Laugh & Learn apps for your iPhone.




The Baby iCan Play Case sells for $14.99.  But at least your techie baby is happy, and you have peace of mind.

Fisher Price Cashes In On Pixar's Cars 2

I could never get Cars, and now Cars 2.  You've got anthropomorphic talking cars.  Fine.  The cars need to move up in the world, i.e. move from Rust-Eze to Team Dinoco.  Okay.  The cars join a race, as you would expect from a movie about cars, for what good would their wheels be if not to move them about?  Some cars will lose, only one car wins.  Fine. 

In Pixar's sequel Cars 2, that race has become global, World Grand Prix, but with some espionage throw in as extra, because the race plot is getting old and Lightning McQueen, Mater, McMissile, and the rest of the gang need some new thing to do.  It's in 3D, by the way, so the vavavrooming has definitely been upped.

Maybe I just don't like automobiles in general.

 

Mater, $115 at Fisher Price



Here's something the kids will love though, no questions asked: the cast of Cars and Cars 2 rendered by Fisher Price in a rideable, drivable toy car.  Wee! 

Lightning McQueen, $115 at Fisher Price

 The Power Wheel automobiles come with a 6 volt rechargable battery and drives a maximum speed of 2 mph.  Very, very safe.  Good too, because you're sure you're not unintentionally raising  would be careless speed-addict roadsters with penchant for crashing into walls or driving off a cliff.
  

The Cars take a stroll in France, also by Fisher Price



Nano, Nano, Nano, Nano

What commercial had that theme song?  Na-no, nano, nano, nano...  It can't be NanoBlocks because I don't think those tiny guys existed back then.

Oh well...  Here are Pentax digicams with NanoBlock skin. 

I've seen Lego bricks used as USB flash disks, even wedding rings.  But I think I like the tiny sleek NanoBlocks for my digicams, thank you very much.

Skinny Steve Rogers and Skinny Love [free song inside]

Four months after I posted Captain America Inspires Skinny People Everywhere in this blog, I've been getting lots of hits from keywords people type in their quest for answers. Keywords such as "captain america skinny" (the most popular), or "captain america thin" or "captain america 2011 skinny" or something more detailed such as "chris evans in captain america small body."





Who are these people? Who are these people who have seen the movie, and then two hours later, came out, intrigued by the incredible transformation of puny Steve Rogers to hunky Captain America with his mighty shield that they lovingly type later on their keyboards "capitao america skinny" [sic]?





Skinny folks too, I guess. Because I don't see why gym-fit guys would want to search for that kind of thing, unless of course they're just gloating, Ha! I'm muscled, I've always been this way, there is no Before version!


Then again, I might be wrong. I'm just assuming that it's the thin folks who would be most intrigued, for the same reason that skinny me took to writing that entry last March. I was awed, I can't help it, so shoot me. I have tried a high-protein diet, yoga, and when that failed, sleeping my ass off the whole day so I don't burn off whatever calories I still have in store. So when a serum with the amazing properties of beefing up the scrawniest of peeps with 100% success presents itself, then who are we to decline?



I'm not really asking for superhero body proportions. That's just not me. All I'm asking is a little meat, is that too bad?



In the meantime, I'll go grab something to eat. And then maybe actually watch the movie tomorrow or the day after just to see how the SFX people turned Chris Evans into stick-figure Steve Rogers.




Oh, here's Skinny Love by Bon Iver ("good winter" in French), live at the Late Show with David Letterman. (The first time I've seen a performance--(excluding the Japanese taiko drum performances)--with three people going at it on three drums.)



P.S. Speaking of drums, they say "thin as a drum." That's good then, otherwise you got no beat.

Playing Indie

fresh from Wired.com:

7 Fantastical Indie RPGs Worth Playing

Make Love Not Horcruxes

You didn't tell me watching movies in 3D is oh-so-spectacular.  Why didn't you?  Why?  It was so lovely--I wanted to grab hold of something every time a flurry of leaves fell, or say Voldermort's disintegrating face rose up in pieces, and even the Dementors' floaty black dress.  And to think 3D has been around since th 1950s.

Sitting there inside the theater, with the unbendable 3D shades that I had to wear on top of my own eyeglasses, I wished all my loved ones would be able to try it out, assuming I can weather the impossibly high collective cost of the whole cinema-going venture.  Guys, let's all watch in 3D and blow some PhP 3,000 all in one sitting.  But anyway.

For the longest time, I've held off trying it out for fear I'd burst a nerve in my eye, considering Avatar is more than two hours long.  After Avatar, which I only saw at a pirated DVD (ha!), there just weren't good 3D-worthy movies left that I wouldn't mind spending P450 on. 

And then Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came.  It didn't occur to me and Edge to watch the first one in 3D, although come to think of it, we should have had.  Anyway, it's probably all for the best that the first ever 3D film I'd see is the last Harry Potter movie.  And now I feel sad because there won't be any more Harry Potter films after this, and I haven't even read a single book!  Which is why Edge kept explaining things to me as the film went on.

Maybe I will start reading the HP series now, if only for that scene where Professor Minerva McGonagall stands up for Harry and fights Snape.  It turns out, Snape was good after all and on their side, but how could have Professor McGonagall known?  (Click the picture to see McGonagall and Snape at it, courtesy of alienhead.tumblr.com)

Anyway, it was a touching moment for me I actually blinked away a tear or two.  Maybe because I've always been a sucker for grandmother figures (i.e. Ursula in One Hundred Years of Solitude.)  And oh, I loved it when she giggled like a schoolgirl, because she's always wanted to use that spell on the stone sentinels of Hogwarts Castle.

BTW, that Neville Longbottom guy has really grown up, and the sexier for it.  Here's a link to a webpage dedicated particularly to Matthew Lewis' amazing metamorphosis.

http://www.scarlet-clarity.net/2010/12/uber-hawt-menz-monday-36-matthew-lewis.html

* * *

After the film, in which I was teary-eyed, both from sadness and from eye strain, me and Edge went to National Bookstore because I need a pen.  Buying a pen is always a headache for me.  I realize the only writing tools in which my penmanship looks good is Pilot's Hitechpoint V5 signpen (PhP 54) and a properly sharpened and slightly used pencil.  I always use the lack of a good pen as an excuse why I don't write on my journal as often as I did in college, when I would mindlessly buy one Pilot signpen after another.

Ballpoint pens don't give my handwriting justice, although now that I don't have much choice as I'm much too stingy nowadays to give in to a uber-expensive signpen, the ballpen will do.

You can tell a lot about a person from what they mindlessly/mindfully write on those scratch pads where you testdrive your prospective ballpens.

This is one side of the paper--busy and tangled--an outpouring of people's minds.  There's nowhere to write so I use the other side.  And this is what I find: Make Love Not Horcruxes.

So that's how you spell it.

Lots and Lots of Action Figures

One of my favorite lines from The X-Files is when Scully exclaims in the 3-parter episodes Anasazi: "Lots and lots of files."

Anyway.  

Here are lots and lots of action figures at a store in the 999 Mall in Divisoria.  I forgot what aisle number this is in, but it's in the ground floor.  Action figures sell anywhere from PhP 150 to 500.  And they're nicely detailed too.

Crazy Nuts

Before Barbie.

Demure and all

Oh look,

Filipiniana dolls

outfitted in their national costumes!

True, they don't have Barbie's full range of motion and Barbie's plastic smooth skin--these vintage dolls have fabric for their skin, bordering on pink instead of the true Pinoy's tan--and they're planted besides on wooden stands so that they don't keel over, unlike free-to-roam-anywhere Barbie--but what the heck.  

These guys are dusty and oooold, and don't believe in bling blings and Crocs.

Sacrilege, Anyone?

Found this while searching for images of Kobe Abe's book The Box Man: an action figure of God Almighty, complete with Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle and hallowed cloak of invulnerability. (Let's see the very best superheroes of Marvel and DC beat that.)  As far as sacrilege goes, this definitely beats that Piss Christ artwork.

Incidentally, the site I landed had an (out of the) boxed theme featuring artsy photos and artworks of people posing inside and coming out of boxes.  (Think of Madonna's video Human Nature--though curiously enough, that video of Madonna's was not included.)  Anyway, this godly action figure was.

* * *

Speaking of religion and things f*cked up, I can't wait to hear what those luxury vehicle-requesting bishops have to say for themselves.

Superheroes with Patriotism

In Action Comics Issue 900, Superman renounce his U.S. citizenship at no less than the United Nations office. 

Maybe America's ideals were too misguided for his taste already?  Maybe he got fed up with the U.S. being the country with the largest carbon footprint in the world?  Actually, Superman just wants to go global, rather than sticking it out for just a select few?  Whatever his reasons, and however the public embraces this new citizen of the world, here are Wired.com's

 

Patriot Acts: 10 Cool, Crazy Superhero Nationalists

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/07/patriot-superheroes/

Build City | Stores with Toys

Build City, at Level 4 of Shangri-La Plaza Mall, is all about building and construction kits.  

So besides the classic and perfunctory LEGO blocks, Build City carries toys by PLAYMOBIL (those miniature plastic figures you can detach from head to foot), SCHLEICH (realistically-painted animal plastic figures), imported from Germany.  At Build City, they've color-coded the price for the SCHLEICH figures: PhP 149 is the cheapest and the prices understandably go up as the models become more bigger and intricate.  

At that rate, a simple menagerie of barn animals will cost you thousands.  But then, some people apparently dig that.  Schleich also makes the Smurf figures, which is good now that those 80's blue-skinned folks are back with a movie of their own.

There's also HERPA (miniature toy vehicles), D-TORSO (those 3D cardboard jigsaw models, you turn into a horse or a whale or even a human skeleton), and many more.  

There's even a free play area for kids, with loads of Lego blocks lying there, just waiting for tiny hands to snap them into place.  

Build City is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/buildcity

Comic Con. Baguio. July 16, 2011.

Gerry Alanguilan,of Wasted fame.

WHAT:

COMIC CON

WHEN: JULY 16, 2011
WHERE: BAGUIO CITY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, BAGUIO



If we're lucky, veteran comic artist and inker Gerry Alanguilan (in photo above) will grace the Comic Con event on July 16 which will be held at the Baguio City National High School. 

Laguna-born Mr. Alanguilan is the man responsible for such nifty works as Wasted, ELMER, Johnny Balbona, and Humanis Rex!  As well as for inking several issues of X-Men, Wolverine, Fantastic Four, Superman, Wetworks, etc.  Alanguilan's short horror comics entitled "Sim" also appears in the graphic collection Underpass. 

Along with Whilce Portacio (co-creator of  Bishop in the Marvel universe), Gerry Alanguilan is one of the few Pinoys who have carved a name for themselves in the comic book industry.

This is the first time the Comic Con is convening in the city of Pines. 

It's only a one day event but the activities are packed.  Expect the usual comic book sales, plus workshops, live model sketching and comic strip drawings, and even an create-your-own-original-character contest.  Even better, meet and greet with your favorite illustrators. 

Damn Gravity | Optical Illusion

This won 1st place in the 7th Annual Best Illusion Contest last year.  

Check out the other winners and finalists here:  

Best Optical Illusions of 2010


P.S. I like the soundtrack to this one.