Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Pisay the Movie

I almost got lost on my way to watch Pisay. My friend Julz Oliveros (not related to Maximo) sent me an SMS saying the showing will be at Cinema 4 of The Block, and that The Block would be "in" SM North EDSA. I had, in my head, planned to just park in the open parking in front of SM North even though it was drizzling a bit. It was the only parking area I could remember...

When I turned right from North Ave, I was dumbfounded! There's a whole new building where the parking lot used to be! Anyhow, I drove (slowly) around the other cars who seem to be as lost as I was, and finally found the Parking Entrance to the SM Annex.

On to the movie then! Pisay is a heartwarming tale of a group of high school students, coming from different backgrounds, but all brilliant, all studying at the Philippine Science High School. What I liked most about the movie was its effective nostalgia. It may be that the movie was set in the 80's (when I was but a wee little baby), but it's theme's captured the essence of being in Pisay. But it's greatest asset may also well be it's worst flaw: It may tend to alienate non-Pisay people. I felt the audience deserved a tad bit more development of the characters. It becomes difficult to sympathize with characters you hardly know.

I loved that the kids acted very naturally, although there were some awkward moments, some dead air, it was forgivable. Dr. Casas was very effective (reminding all of us or a certain Pisay professor we will all sorely miss). The other adult actors, however, (I'm not sure if this was intentional) spoke in a "theater" voice, like a sing-song, Batibot style. I found it unnatural, even highlighted by the fact that the child actors were very natural with theirs ("Egis erp!")

The storyline was flawless. I found it strummed a different chord at every chapter. The freshman year told of a budding relationship ripped apart by a teacher, the sophomore year told of a small town boy kicked-out of Pisay for failing Geometry (and moving on to become #1 in the school he moved to!), the third year featured a girl who had move to The Netherlands because she and her parents were wanted by the government, and finally, the senior year which featured a morally ambiguous research project, a theater loving science school senior, and a terminally ill genius.

I was flooded with memories while I was watching the movie. I was especially moved by the first scene where they found out he got in Pisay. I remember we hadn't received a letter from PSHS yet so my dad decided to go visit Pisay himself to check if I had passed. When he got home, he calmly whispered to me that I had passed, and that was when I started going crazy. Haha! Good times.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Photographic Memory

07/12 - This bird won't budge. It just won't.

Then after a few minutes, it pooped then flew away. It must've been too shy to do its business while i was there. Haha!



07/21 - The UP Concert Chorus bulletin board. Haha! Memories.
I visited them last Saturday. They were rehearsing some choreography for their upcoming UPBeat Concert. I remember those times when I was the one leading choreography rehearsals, tough but fun.

I will be watching on August 11 with my gf and also former UPCC, Liz, and also with a few more UPCC Alumni.

07/25 - (One of) Bryan's send off party(-ies). This one at the Ponte Fino Hotel with the MF Finance Dept. Bryan (who is also one of my housemates and badminton buddies) is the guy I'm pointing at. He's off to the land of the merlion to earn loads of Sing dollars and maybe learn a thing or two about GSAP. See you in December Don Bryan!

o7/26 - They say there's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I still have to check, but this looks promising!

:D

Thursday, July 26, 2007

2 Partial Fantasy Book Reviews

I've begun reading 2 books.

One is WICKED. The story of the life of Oz' Wicked Witch of the West. The musical play was highly entertaining, that's why I bought the book. Surprisingly though, the book was of a different interest point completely. It humanized the characters of Oz, interestingly so, that you would forgive the slight inconsistencies with the original Wizard of Oz story. Elphaba, the wicked witch, was a nerdy, eccentric, sometimes bitchy, sometimes crazy protagonist. Her friendship with Glinda, and the other students, came very naturally, well, as naturally as it could have been for a green-skinned girl. The story is about politics and racism, animal rights and human rights. It was actually a very serious fantasy novel. I'm only up to around the middle of the book, and Elphaba hasn't actually displayed any super powers just yet (i'm actually beginning to think she won't be showing any), but I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Next is the new Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows. The first few chapters blew me away. Very cool. I won't give anything away, (and those of you reading this, don't tell me anything!!!) but I assure you, it's a great book, so far for me, at least. :D

On a side note: I'm on duty this weekend. x-p
Visit me in Batangas.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Grand Canyon


I have a Grand Canyon National Park mug on my desk. I got it from my UPCC Tour in 2003. We were in Arizona at the time, and our hosts took us on a road trip to see the Grand Canyon. We had a concert that finished late the night before, but we had to wake up early because the trip would take a couple of hours. I remember my roommate and I even had to sleep over another host's house. I barely slept that night with my adrenaline from the concert still going and my anticipation running high.

Our jaws dropped when we got there...The Grand Canyon.

I remember it well, the overwhemling enormity of it. Trees looked like specks of dust from where we stood at the edge of a cliff. A 2-lane road at the bottom of the canyon looked like a piece of pink string.

I remember the air was warm, but not scalding. I remember seeing whole cloud shadows on the walls of the canyon. I remember just staring, not believing my eyes.

I took a lot of photos of course. In hindsight, it was a bad idea to wear my then new orange shorts with that red long-sleeved Gap shirt. :x I looked like a Halloween pumpkin with a red stem. Haha! The photos were great but they were not able to capture the overwhelming size of the place. Pictures have borders. Damn.

Remembering the Grand Canyon. A nice getaway from the hustle ang bustle of daily life. I miss traveling.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Pisay

This year is the 8th year anniversary of my graduation from Pisay. I still remember my 5th year anniversary in 2004. I was really excited to go back and see how things have changed since I left. But not a lot of my batchmates shared this sentiment. A lot of them said they didn't want to go because they had nothing to show for the 5 years since they graduated. I was, at the time, still in school, not nearly finished with my Mechanical Engineering in UP, but I wanted to go. So I went.

I have only a few memories of Pisay, and I wanted to go back and try to see what else I could dig up from my subconscious. I suppose high school went by too fast for me...

I arrived in Pisay a small unknown kid from a small unknown private school in Pasig. The year was 1995 and I was the first and only kid from my elementary school to pass the entrance exams. High school was a challenge for me, especially the first year. I had to deal with commuting to Quezon City everyday (from just walking to school), the lessons (Algebra! waahh!) which everybody seemed to already know about except me, my not so popular status with my classmates, and of course dealing with the pressure to excel... "You're the cream of the cream of the crop!"

But it wasn't bad the whole time. I did make a lot of really good friends, some of which I have until today. And I did get to put in my resume that I graduated from Pisay. Haha!

I'm thinking of going to this year's Alumni Homecoming. I know that not a lot of my batchmates will be there, it not being our 5th or 10th year and all, but I still just want to visit anyway. What the heck.

Aureaus Solito, award winning Director of "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros" and Pisay alumnus, made a movie about Pisay during the Martial Law era. It will be part of the Cinemalaya Festival. Here's the trailer:



Am I excited to watch it? Hell yeah. Hope I can, if not in CCP, then on DVD or something. Haha. Seeing the school uniforms in the trailer was enough to convince me that I needed to see this movie. :p

Monday, November 21, 2005

Davao in Snapshots




Reblogged from my old Xanga site

Off to Davao!

 



In November of 2005, Liz and I went to Davao for the very first time, to visit my friend Cheska and get some rest and relaxation. We spent 4 days there, did all the tourist-y stuff, went to the beach, had some Blugre Durian coffee, and went home with a sack full of suha!

Wednesday, November 10, 1982

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