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Two books down. Next assignment: The Wings Of The Dove. Henry James has never been easy reading for me, but the film should serve as a primer for the heavy material. Of course it’s about money. Henry James is always about money.

Iain Softley’s adaptation of The Wings Of The Dove is one of my favorite movies set in Venice. The others are Don’t Look Now and Summertime, even if Rossano Brazzi’s acting is pure prosciutto. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of another movie set in Venice, Senso by Luchino Visconti?

By the way, my snapshot of Caffe Florian appears in the Schmap Guide to Venice.

Venice must be the easiest place in the world to shoot. You can point and shoot at random, and it’ll turn out like a Canaletto.

Here’s my review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by David Fincher, adapted for the screen by Eric Roth, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett:

It’s Forrest Gump.

Filtered through The English Patient.

Here’s the story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that the movie is supposedly based on, but really only borrows its premise from.

On the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the arrows of time, and the decreasing entropy of Benjamin Button’s body.

I am reminded of The Count’s first consultation with his gym trainer.

Trainer: So. What’s your goal? Would you like your body to look like Brad Pitt’s in Troy?
The Count: Omigod, no.
Trainer: Okay, what about Brad Pitt’s body in Legends of the Fall?
The Count: No please, I don’t want to gain mass.
Trainer: Uhh, Brad Pitt in Fight Club?
The Count: No. How shall I put this…
Trainer: Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise?
The Count: I know! Angeline Jolie in Tomb Raider.

Tuwing napapadpad sa Lunsod ng Quezon, na tila ibang probinsiya dahil sa trapik galing sa Makati, kami ay naghahapunan sa Bagoong Club sa Scout Lazcano malapit sa Tomas Morato. Ang restawran na ito ay naghahain ng mga paboritong putaheng Pilipino tulad ng kare-kare, binagoongan, sinigang, sinampalukang manok, laing, at iba-ibang uri ng bagoong. Sabi nga ng kanilang menu, ang ulam ay Puro Kababuyan: crispy pata, crispy lechon paksiw, lechon kawali, menudong bagnet, atbp. Masarap ang pagkain sa Bagoong Club kaya’t kinakalimutan na muna namin ang kolesterol at carbs (mahirap hindian ang kanin kung may kare-kare), bagama’t binabalaan ko ang aking mga kasama na huwag matulog agad at baka sila ay bangungutin.

Noong Huwebes ay nag-hapunan kami nina Lee, Dorski, Angela, at Julius. Palibhasa’y katatapos lang ni Anj ng photography workshop, kinunan niya ng ritrato ang lahat ng pagkain sa mesa. Naroon ang aming mga paborito: bulalo sa monggo

laing, at kare-kare.

(Sabi ko na, hindi kaaya-aya ang itsura ng putaheng Pinoy sa ritrato. Iisa lamang ang kulay.)
Mahilig si Anj sa sisig, kaya’t sinubukan namin ang lechon sisig sa menu. Hindi natuwa si Lee pagdating nito. Lalong hindi siya natuwa pagkatapos niya itong matikman. Hindi ito sisig; dapat ito’y pinangalanang sizzling lechon paksiw.

Sa kakahanap ng sisig, umorder pa ang aking mga kaibigan ng Bagoong Club sisig. Hindi rin ito sisig, nguni’t sizzling bopis. Mabuti na lamang at di kami naubusan ng calamansi torte at pastillas de leche cheesecake, kaya’t di kami nag-alboroto.

Siempre masarap ang pagkain kasi maraming tsismis.

Ngayon ko lang napansin sa ritrato na nagkunwari pa kaming uminom ng Coke Zero. Nakakatawa.

We’re getting a regular stream of questions for our redoubtable economist, Adams Myth. Keep posting your questions in Comments.

Photo: Maybe you should rethink this house. The Arpel residence in Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle.

Question: My fiance and I have decided to buy a house. We are still in the process of completing the down payment. Is it a good idea to buy a house now?

Adams Myth: If a generic new house from a developer, take your time. There is plenty of supply and the deals can only get better. If an old house with singular characteristics that particularly suit your personality, then go for it. Think scarcity value.

Q. Is it a good time to buy a condo? If it isn’t yet, what are the signs I should look out for?

A.M. Same principle as in the reply to the question about houses. There are too many condos coming into the market this year and next, at a time when demand is slowing. Take your time.

Q. If we stop buying new cars, will the dealers be forced to peddle them to us at ridiculously low prices just to make a sale? For instance, when gas prices reached almost 4 dollars a gallon in the US, everybody stopped using gas-guzzling SUVs, the demand for gas dropped, Arab oil producers got scared and re-flooded the market with oil, and now we’re back to 35 to 36 per liter here. I wish the geniuses at Honda, Toyota and Mitsubishi would take this cue. If they do, I just might be lucky enough to insert a brand new Mitsu Evo X in my garage, beside my aging Corolla.

A.M. You could be right. Toyota is not only reporting its first loss in history, but is halting production in all factories for eleven days. Too much inventory.

Adams Myth’s next post will appear on Monday. Today you’re asking him about houses and cars. Next you’ll be asking him to vet your wedding plans/prospective spouses. Our unflinching economist will not refuse a challenge.

Still on the MMFF. Not the current edition, the good ones.

Mike De Leon’s Kisapmata was the Best Picture winner at the 1981 Metro Manila Film Festival. Watching it right after an earlier MMFF winner, Celso Ad Castillo’s Burlesk Queen, is an instructive experience. Burlesk Queen is big, bold, and messy; Kisapmata is small, timorous, and tightly-controlled. This is not a criticism of De Leon’s movie but a description of its form—you can almost feel the walls closing in. At times it becomes hard to breathe.

The viewer’s first impression is that Kisapmata is a horror movie. The theme music is reminiscent of Bernard Hermann’s score for Psycho, and the house where much of the story transpires is shot like a classic movie haunted house. All it lacks is a dog baying at the moon.

Things that crawl in the night, in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.

Photo: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (better known as the pickled shark) by Damien Hirst. Price in 2008: 6.5 million pounds, with free refurbishing (the shark rots).

Q. Our yayas are coming home. Their amos can’t pay them anymore. The most potent troops of the Philippines, dispersed all over the globe, have been trimmed down. My question: Will the global financial crisis adversely affect your world domination agenda?

Adams Myth: The yayas, nurses, bellboys, mechanics, English teachers and TNTs won’t be sent home. The construction workers and seamen will. Musicians in cruise ships will be packing in. Musicians at hotels won’t. The rule of thumb is, the more cyclical (i.e. boom-bust) the industry is, the more prone to layoffs. But at the end of the day, whatever slowdown we may see in out-migration this year will be temporary. Our competitive advantage still lies in making babies and sending them off to work in countries whose leaders know how to create jobs.

Q. Mr. Myth, are you an economist of the Keynesian school or of the Austrian school? Do you think Keynesian economics is finished?

AM: Austrian school. But will tolerate Keynesian remedies in extreme cases like today’s. Markets, by and large, work. The record of government managers is much less impressive.

Q. Is it good to save money during a financial crisis? Or is it better to spend more?

AM: If you haven’t got any, you’d better save. If you’ve got plenty, then crisis spawns opportunity…

Got a question for our economist? Post it in Comments.