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 :)
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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.
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. :)
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.
