After Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended I took to watching the spin-off series Angel. It wasn’t Buffy but it wasn’t bad. My favorite character was The Host, a demon named Lorne who could diagnose your emotional state by making you do karaoke. Andy Hallett, the actor who played Lorne, died of congestive heart disease last Sunday.
The Fast and The Furious: Fermented Diesel
My last movies flopped
So back in the muscle car.
Please, I need a hit.
The world’s largest showcase of popular Asian cinema is not in Asia but in Italy, in the city of Udine in Friuli Venezia Giulia. The 11th edition of the Far East Film Festival will be held from April 24 to May 2. For more information on the festival, visit the FEFF website.
Time to check in on our agents of world domination. If you’re a Filipino living outside the Philippines, we want to hear from you.
1. Where do you live? (What town or city in which country?)
2. When did you move there?
3. Why did you move there?
4. What do you do there? (Not an existential question. Are you a student? What university? Are you employed or engaged in business? What sort of business?)
5. Are there a lot of Pinoys in your area? Any idea how many Pinoys live in that town or city?
6. Do you hang out mostly with Pinoys or with the natives?
7. Are you there for good or are you coming back to the Philippines?
8. Are there any good Filipino restaurants where you live?
9. Do you get to see Filipino movies and/or television shows? How?
10. When the people there learn that you’re from here, what do they usually ask you?
Please post your answers in Comments. If you don’t want your answers to be published, just say so.
We’d like to know where our outposts are and what our agents are doing.
The Burghers of Calais, Rodin Museum, 2006.
We bemoan the general lack of interest in books in this country—my book publisher weeps at the statistics—but we forget that the Revolution that ended 300 years of Spanish rule was triggered by a pair of novels. Yes, books. The first is a scathing social satire, the second a revenge drama reminiscent of The Count of Monte Cristo (and according to Benedict Anderson, influenced by the scandalous avant-garde novel A rebours (Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans). The colonial authorities knew this, so they shot Jose Rizal for writing Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
In France, critics of President Nicolas Sarkozy have weaponized The Princess of Cleves, the 17th century novel written by Madame de La Fayette (probably with a committee). Sarkozy brought it on himself. Two years ago, he criticized the ‘sadist or idiot’ who included questions about The Princess of Cleves in a civil service exam. (The novel is required reading in French schools.) Sarkozy was trying to sound populist/anti-elitist/cute; it got him a few laughs. (Allo, we know about playing to the masses. We elected Erap Estrada.)
Last year Sarkozy mocked the novel again, adding that he had ‘suffered’ through it as a schoolboy. Most schoolchildren past and present may have felt the same way, but the French are dead serious about their culture. Suddenly The Princess of Cleves has become a symbol of political resistance. There’s a new film adaptation. University teachers and students on strike have organized marathon readings of the novel. The book sold out at the Paris book fair. There are ‘I’m reading The Princess of Cleves’ buttons.
You have to hand it to the French: who else says Frak You by reading a 17th century novel?
During the Lenten holidays let’s remember that our national hero was a fiercely anticlerical writer. Perhaps it’s time to take another crack at the Noli and Fili.
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette at Project Gutenberg.
‘Did you friend her?’
‘They friended each other.’
‘I think I’ll un-friend him.’
From the BBC: The more friends you have, the more you earn, says a study. But modern life can allow little time to maintain meaningful relationships, so what’s the optimum number of friends? It’s widely accepted that friendships are invaluable to the soul but few of us were aware that they could also boost the bank account.
The article doesn’t link to the study or even mention who did it. One of the experts quoted in the piece says there’s a limit to the number of close friends you can have: between 6 and 12. Let me see, there’s hmm hmm hmm, yes, that’s about right.
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