JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

For schedules and details, visit the TPAM 2018 site.

I was in Japan for three days to meet with our team for the World Domination Project, and to inspect the venues for our shows on February 16 and 17. For weeks I had been wracking my brains, unable to complete the script to my satisfaction, but when I landed in Japan everything clicked into place.

The official title for the presentation, courtesy of our director Raya Martin, is Exporting Positive Disposition Since 1417: A Theory of World Domination. Max-Philip Aschenbrenner is our dramaturg, Yoshiro Hatori our producer, and Giancarlo Abrahan and I are writing and performing. (Along with Pepe Diokno that’s three 30-something filmmakers I am working with, and they’re fantastic. So now when people disparage millennials, I feel compelled to defend them.)

This is the lobby of the Kanagawa Arts Theatre, the venue for our project.

This being Japan, my worry was that they would make the set too beautiful. We’re not going for “ugly”, just “not beautiful”.

After all, we are dealing with a culture in which, at the end of the meal, the waitress presents you with toothpicks wrapped in a tiny, perfect origami shirt.

I had to google the appliances in my hotel room because I had no idea what they were for. There was an air purifier—lovely, but maybe not for me because if I return to Manila with lungs too clean, I might get toxic shock when I inhale Edsa, a trouser press, a shoeshine machine, and a face steamer. Because skin gets dry in wintertime, so you need a face steamer. And since they think of everything, the amenities include a little hair band to keep your hair out of your face, and an assortment of skin and hair products. The mirror de-fogs itself! Truly an advanced civilization.

P.S. Could anyone tell me where I can buy a large (one foot or more) plastic (as in unbreakable) statue of the Santo Nino?

Update: Carlos has pointed us to the place in Quiapo that sells plastic Santo Ninos and beauty queen supplies. (It’s on Evangelista Street, to the left side when facing the church.) Thanks for all the tips!