JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

You can watch the recorded reading and talk at Mt Cloud’s Facebook page.

Every year Gabe Mercado and Lissa Romero-de Guia do a dramatic reading of Nick Joaquin’s story May Day Eve on May Day Eve (April 30) at Mt Cloud Bookshop in Baguio. As we are all indoors this year, they will do the performance online and Fifi of Mt Cloud has asked me to provide commentary. I am happy to play Waldorf and Statler of The Muppet Show, and to provide trivia (Traditionally April 30 is Walpurgisnacht, when witches supposedly walk the earth, and War Pigs by Black Sabbath was originally titled Walpurgisnacht, so there’s your Black Sabbath-Quijano de Manila connection. Also I don’t know of a film version of May Day Eve, but there is a very bad one of Joaquin’s Summer Solstice).
(more…)

Hell, detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch

Warning: Graphic and depressing.

The vice-president of the Mariah Carey Fan Club had spent the last 44 days, including most weekends, in what felt like a continuous, enervating video conference with his office, and on the day before his birthday he was consumed with thoughts of cake.

Of course time is not something their sovereign acknowledges, but he had already lost weight from Work From Home stress. Besides, his S&R membership came with a free birthday cake, and he was never one to pass up an incentive. He needed the comfort of carbohydrates, sugar, and empty calories. So after he had logged out, he got his shopping bag and started walking to the supermarket.
(more…)

In a break from Covid-related news, the Pentagon has officially released videos taken by US Navy pilots of unidentified flying objects. It’s good news if you want to believe that there’s intelligent life out there (Because whether there’s any in here is debatable), and bad news if you think extraterrestrials are going to enslave or eat the human race. Or try to become citizens of the United States—I smell an election talking point.
(more…)

You can still watch the movie and discussion online, and please donate what you can to the film workers—electricians, carpenters, PAs, utility men and others—who cannot work during quarantine.

* * *

With so many people vying for the top prize in the Ultimate Douchebag Reality Show, how can we keep track of all the aspirants? Today I was reminded that in our current reality one need not be a politician, businessman, or famous person to be a purulent hemorrhoid: within your own small circle, you, too, can be a blight on humanity!
(more…)

Finally the dreaded laundry was done. It took just over a hour, including the soaking (babad). So many dreaded tasks would not be daunting at all if we did them immediately, instead of putting them off so they grow more and more intimidating with each day.
(more…)

“Enhanced Community Quarantine” has been extended until May 15. Not a surprise—the news has been on the grapevine so long, it’s raisins now. Mmm, don’t think about raisin M&Ms.

I hadn’t been sleeping well since Tuesday—could be the extreme heat, could be anxiety leaking through my defensive wall of schedules, chores, and writing. I would say it’s normal to be anxious, but that would mean acknowledging that there is such a thing as “normal”. If there is, would I want to be it?
(more…)