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A. Spitting image!
B. You need to cut down on your caffeine intake.

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Ralph Lauren has a line called Rugby.

Was the name “Preppy” already taken?

(L-R) James and Phil Younghusband. All photos by JZ.

Noong isang linggo’y nakatanggap kami ng paanyaya mula sa Collezione para sa isang pananghalian at talakayan upang ipakilala ang kanilang mga bagong “brand ambassador”, sina Santiago at Felipe Batangasawa. Ang magkapatid na Batangasawa ay mestizong Pilipino at Ingles na manlalaro ng futbol. Sila ay bahagi ng pambansang koponang tinaguriang “Azkals”.

While we’re snapping pictures of designer Rhett Eala and Collezione C2’s new endorsers, Rhett is snapping pictures of us for his blog.

Ang Collezione naman ay kompanyang Pilipino na nagtataguyod ng ‘fashionalism’—ang pagtaguyod ng nasyonalismo sa pamamagitan ng pananamit. Kilala nating lahat ang mga kasuotang nilikha ni Rhett Eala para sa Collezione C2, lalo na ang mga barong may disenyo na mapa ng Pilipinas.

Bagama’t masyadong maaga para sa amin (10.30am) ang okasyon, minabuti naming dumalo upang makapag-usyoso. Tutal ay sikat na sikat ang Azkals ngayon, at biglang nagkaroon ng malawakang interes sa futbol ang madlang Pilipino na dati’y walang kinikilalang laro kundi basketball at boksing. Kaya di nakapagtatakang walang bakanteng upuan sa Conservatory kaninang umaga.

Nakipagtalakayan ang mga Batangasawa sa emcee, pagkatapos ay nagkaroon ng open forum kung saan nagtanong ng. . .tanong ang mga alagad ng media. Sinabi ng mga Batangasawa na malaking karangalan para sa kanila ang makalaro sa koponang pang-reserba ng tanyag na Chelsea football club kung saan ang coach ay si Jose Mourinho. Noong 2010, nagtayo ang mga Batangasawa ng Younghusbands Football Academy para sa mga bata dito sa Pilipinas. Ngayong 2011, maglalakbay sila sa mga lalawigan upang tulungan ang mga paaralan sa pagtuturo ng futbol. Balak nilang palaganapin ang paglalaro ng futbol sa ating bansa.

Nice pants.

May ilang tanong tungkol sa buhay romantiko ng magkakapatid na talaga namang maraming tagahangang babae. Sinabi ni Felipe na hindi siya ang tipo ng lalaki na lalapit sa mga hindi niya kakilala at makikipagkaibigan. Karaniwan ang kanyang mga kaibigan ay nakilala sa trabaho o sa pamamagitan ng kanyang pamilya. Dinagdag naman ni Santiago na hindi niya mamasamain na ang babae ang makipagkilala sa kanya at anyayahan siyang lumabas dahil medyo mabagal siya sa mga ganitong bagay.

Nagtanong ang aming kaibigang si Myrza kay Felipe tungkol sa pakikipagkaibigan nito sa artistang si Angel Locsin. Kinailangan naming i-google ang impormasyong ito at hindi namin nasusundan ang mga balita tungkol sa artista, bagama’t palagi kaming nanonood at nanlalait ng pelikula. Kaya’t hindi namin gaanong naunawaan ang sagot ni Felipe, nguni’t sa wari nami’y mabuti naman sila.

May pumuna sa disenyo ng mga pantalong Collezione C2 na suot ng magkapatid—maliliit na pating at balyena. Sinabi ni Santiago na natutuwa sila sa disenyo dahil noong bata pa sila’y nakapanood sila ng Free Willy.

Nabanggit din nina Santiago at Felipe na sa kasalukuyan sila ay natututong magsalita ng Pilipino. Naalala namin na matagal na kaming hindi nagsusulat sa Pilipino kaya’t naisip naming gawin ito.

This photo courtesy of Collezione C2. Colors!

Ang mga bagong disenyo ng Collezione C2 ay matatagpuan ngayon sa lahat ng tindahan ng Collezione.

First let’s dispose of some long-delayed business.

The winner of LitWit Challenge 4.8: No More Food is tricycledriver. Congratulations! You can pick up your prize any day starting Friday March 4 at the Customer Service counter, National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Tel. 8974562.

Our apologies to the winners of the 127 Hours movie poster giveaway: We were supposed to mail you the posters but we don’t want to fold them. Instead of mailing you the posters we will deliver them to National Bookstore, Power Plant so you can pick them up any day starting Friday 4 March. Sorry again for the delay.

Now for the new contest.

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Jean-Luc Godard directs Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli in Contempt, adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel.

Filmmakers have been adapting literary works for the screen since the invention of movies. The results vary widely. Many critics contend that the book is better than the movie, though they concede that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather 1 and 2 are superior to the novel by Mario Puzo. Many books are deemed unfilmable, such as The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which was adapted into a 13-hour (longer if you watch the extended versions as we do every year) trilogy by Peter Jackson. The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling were all made into very lucrative movies, and then they realized there was only one book left so they made it into two movies. (We’re not sure the Twilight series qualify as literature or film.)

Spike Jonze took the task of adaptation to another dimension with his meta-fictional adaptation of Susan Orlean’s nonfiction book The Orchid Thief, aptly titled Adaptation. Much as we love The Great Gatsby, the only thing we remember of the film version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow are the outfits (and we’re kind of dreading the 3D movie by Baz Luhrman–brilliant or idiotic, it could go either way).

Recently Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro was adapted for film by Mark Romanek. (I have not read the book or seen the movie but I already know the spoiler, thanks to an idiotic literary critic who revealed it in a review. Grrrrrr.) The film opens in Metro Manila theatres tomorrow. This week eight readers will each win a copy of Never Let Me Go plus the official movie poster (below, cat not included).

Your assignment is to write an essay of 1,000 words or less comparing a work of literature with its film adaptation. As there are way too many film adaptations to choose from, we are limiting the field to 15 book-movie pairs. Pick a pair.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick vs. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott
Atonement by Ian McEwan vs. Atonement by Joe Wright
Brokeback Mountain by E. Annie Proulx vs. Brokeback Mountain by Ang Lee
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov vs. Lolita by Stanley Kubrick
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomassi di Lampedusa vs. The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) by Luchino Visconti
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby vs. High Fidelity by Stephen Frears
Contempt by Alberto Moravia vs. Contempt (Le Mepris) by Jean-Luc Godard
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith vs. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Anthony Minghella OR Purple Noon (Plein Soleil) by Rene Clement
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad vs. Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola

Clive Owen stars in Alfonso Cuaron’s heartbreakingly good film of Children of Men by P.D. James.

Dune by Frank Herbert vs. Dune by David Lynch
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean vs. Adaptation by Spike Jonze
The Little Drummer Girl by John LeCarre vs. The Little Drummer Girl by John Schlesinger
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene vs. The End of the Affair by Neil Jordan
Q&A by Vikas Swarup vs. Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle
Children of Men by P.D. James vs. Children of Men by Alfonso Cuaron

Post your entries in Comments. We will accept entries until noon on Sunday, 6 March 2011.

Kyle MacLachlan feels the Reverend Mother’s gom jabbar in David Lynch’s Dune, which is possibly even stranger than Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Thanks to our friends at 20th Century Fox for the official Never Let Me Go movie posters. Never Let Me Go opens March 2.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore. Click on their ad on the upper left hand corner to find out how to win one of the 50 iPads they’re giving away.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Jean-Luc Godard an honorary award “For passion, for confrontation, for a new kind of cinema.”

I’m guessing he said No. More likely “No, but I’ll take cash.” If he showed up at the Oscars they’d probably regret it.

Time for a dance break: the cafe scene from Bande a part (Band of Outsiders). This is where Quentin Tarantino got the name for his production company (Band Apart). And the idea for the dance scene in Pulp Fiction.

You know where else there’s a bit of dancing? The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Which I suspect was an influence on Bande a part.