Sqeeky and Pouncer appropriate the chair of their human, Ren. Apparently they are Naruto fans. Photo by Manny.
Saffy and Koosi secure the work table. When they get bored they sit on the keyboard.
Mat is too polite to sit on the table. Unless he smells Palm liver spread.
The further musings of Henri the existentialist cat
Brilliant fake 80s song and music video from Music & Lyrics starring Hugh Grant as a pop singer based on Andrew Ridgeley, a.k.a. the guy in Wham who wasn’t George Michael. We still remember the review of his solo album: “Sounds like the work of an evil back-up singer who erased the lead vocals!” According to his wikipedia page he married someone from Bananarama.
Foreign pop artists/songs that were big hits in the Philippines but not necessarily in other countries
– More to Lose by Seona Dancing. Yes, that is Ricky Gervais in his New Wave incarnation.
– Mike Francis
– Clair Marlo
– Way Back Into Love, the song “composed” by Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in Music and Lyrics, was a hit in some Asian countries including the Philippines.
– Dennis Lambert had some success as a songwriter in the US, but nothing like the fame he had in the Philippines.
– Who’d we miss? (That’s not a song title, that’s a question.)
This appeared in the 26th anniversary issue of the Philippine Star.
1. A huge international bestseller. First I need to write a book that will sell so many copies, I can devote all my time to writing books. I read somewhere that the author of Fifty Shades of Grey earns over a million dollars every week in royalties. A million dollars a week: there’s business model.
All I knew of Fifty Shades is that it started out as Twilight
fanfiction and it has plenty of graphic sex scenes—you can listen to overheated excerpts read by comedians on youtube. Obviously I have to figure out the secret to writing a hysterical bestseller so I put on big dark glasses and a raincoat and went to the bookstore for a copy. This is the perfect disguise for buying a copy of Fifty Shades: the classic pervert.
Quickly I skimmed through the book and was shocked to discover that there are no immortal bloodsuckers in it. However there are riding crops and handcuffs, plus plastic cable ties, masking tape, rope and other materials obtained from hardware stores which will not be used for household repairs.
So that’s what readers want: love stories with naughty bits, technical term Erotic Romance. Mills and Boon with S&M. Liberally sprinkled with literary gems like:
Stop! Stop now! my subconscious is metaphorically screaming at me…
(Note: You forgot to include the metaphor.)
“I didn’t know what you liked, so I ordered a selection from the breakfast menu.” He gives me a crooked, apologetic smile.
“That’s very profligate of you,” I murmur…
(Ooh, vocabulary.)
“Don’t worry,” he breathes, his eyes on mine. “You expand, too.”
(This should cause a stampede to the bookstore.)
“Don’t you have a gag reflex?” he asks, astonished.
(Beef up security at the bookstore.)
We can write this. Bring me a case of vodka and a gallon of chocolate fondue!
(more…)
Errol Morris published a quiz in the New York Times that was supposed to test whether one was a pessimist or an optimist. But it wasn’t really about pessimism or optimism, it was about the effect of fonts on credulity. Apparently certain fonts are more believable than others.
We all know that we are influenced in many, many ways — many of which we remain blissfully unaware of. Could fonts be one of them? Could the mere selection of a font influence us to believe one thing rather than another? Could fonts work some unseen magic? Or malefaction?
Read Hear, All Ye People; Hearken, O Earth (Part 1) in the NYT.
Reminds us of the first issue of Flip. Response to the content was largely positive, but readers LOATHED Times New Roman with a passion.
A rumor (more like a collective wish) from the 90s resurfaces in the 10s.
Time warp? Alien abduction-related amnesia? Liver-eating serial rumor awakens from two decades of hibernation?
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! says our 1994 self.
David Bezmogis’s elegant, self-assured first novel The Free World follows the Russian-Jewish Krasnansky family out of the Soviet Union and into the West, and presumably, freedom. There are many plucky immigrant novels about brave souls escaping to the new world and making it against all odds…this isn’t one of those. That might yet happen, but in 1978 the family is stuck in Rome, waiting for their papers with thousands of other Russian Jews, half-dreading the future and wondering whether they were right to leave the old country. And they do what families do when they’re stuck together and facing uncertainty: they bicker.
The family patriarch Samuil, who had been a fairly important man in Latvia, is particularly bitter about their situation. He takes to visiting the club for emigres, where he meets a fellow army veteran.
—Are you a chess player? the man asked.
—I wouldn’t call myself one, Samuil lowered his newspaper and said.
—Do you follow the game at all?
—No more than anyone else.
—But you’re aware of the championships in the Philippines?
—Naturally.
…
—Ah yes, chess, Roidman said. Which is where we started. Now I am back to what I wanted to tell you originally about the curious incident at the chess match. The game was played to another draw, you see, but Korchnoi lodged a formal protest because, during the match, Karpov’s supporters brought Karpov a cup of blueberry yogurt. Korchnoi claims that this could have been a signal agreed upon by Karpov’s team. A secret tactic. They bring a cup of blueberry yogurt and it means: accept the draw. Or they bring strawberry and it means: knight to rook four. It’s wonderful. There’s no limit to human intrigue, is there?
We remember that during the world chess championship held in Baguio, Viktor Korchnoi accused a member of Anatoly Karpov’s entourage of hypnotizing him.
The Free World by David Bezmozgis is available at National Bookstores, Php695.
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