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Conan and J.J. Abrams discuss a deleted scene from Star Trek Into Darkness starring Benedict Cumberbatch’s torso. Aiiieeee we’re used to thinking of Cumberbatch as a disembodied voice. Now the voice has pecs.

Illustration by Ricky Villabona. Made with Procreate for iPad.

From his new novel, All That Is.

Made with the Sigil Creator.

We didn’t want to interrupt our obsessing with Game of Thrones to write a column on current events, so we did both. Sigil first, column coming up at InterAksyon.com.

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Politics in the Philippines is a family business, emphasis on ‘business’. People take it up as a career, ostensibly because they want to serve their country, but what really happens is, they get rich. Which is not to imply that they got into politics for the money, but there it is. Hell, we’re not even saying that the newly-elected senators are lousy because face it, we have insufficient data to generate a conclusion. This doesn’t mean we think highly of them, either, but it would be great if they could prove us wrong.

So the politicians get rich, and we’ll assume that they acquire their wealth through honest means besides their comparatively low salaries. Anything with such a high rate of return, be it food preparation, art or optometry, will become a business, and in our culture business is best done with family. Politics is no different. Of course you want your children to go into the business, it worked so well for you. In retro-feudal democracies like ours, that’s the reason you have children: to carry on the family name business.

Take the Lannisters in Game of Thrones, the addictive HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy cycle, A Song of Ice and Fire. The Lannisters are the wealthiest, most powerful family in Westeros. In the era preceding the TV series, the patriarch Tywin Lannister is the Hand of the King (like the prime minister) to Aerys II of the Targaryen dynasty…

Read our column at InterAksyon.

Photos by Ricky Villabona

The other day we ran into Paulo Vinluan, who found these eyeglasses a few years ago when he was working at a thrift shop in Brooklyn. At the time he was clerking to pay the bills and painting whenever he could.

Paintings by Paulo Vinluan

Paulo is now painting full-time. He’s done lots of one-man shows and was recently in a group show at Finale. (His work has also moved out of our price range, grrrr.)

So the old day job/night painting model still works. You do what you can in order to pay the bills and defray the cost of what you really want to do. But you never confuse what you do to pay the bills with what you are.

John Lanchester, author of Capital, reviewed A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and HBO’s Game of Thrones last month in the London Review of Books. Good to see that journal of literary and intellectual essays give fantasy novels their due. The article is here. If you have not read the first three volumes or started watching Season 3, DO NOT READ IT. (But you will, won’t you hahahahaaa.)

Everyone is addicted, and everyone reports the same moment as being the one that got them hooked…The king and his entourage take up residence at Winterfell, ancestral home of the Starks. We see much of their antics from the perspective of Bran Stark, second-youngest son of Eddard, a likeable, lively eight-year-old boy. Bran’s hobby is climbing all over the huge high rambling castle of Winterfell, something he does with an enthusiasm which would be reckless if it weren’t for his complete confidence that he will never fall. In the course of one of his climbs, he hears adult voices through a high window, goes to investigate, and comes across Jaime and Cersei energetically engaged in (to use a neologism popular with fans) twincest. They catch him catching them at it, and Jaime grabs Bran. The two twins look at each other. ‘The things I do for love,’ says Jaime – and throws the boy out the window.

That startling moment is where the first programme in the TV series ends, and it’s the point at which people realise they’re addicted.

Also, its strongest characters are women. Catelyn, Cersei, Daenerys, Arya, Brienne, Margaery, Olenna Tyrell, even Sansa has learned how to live in that world.

Lady Olenna Tyrell on her grandson Loras. From the Lady Olenna tumblr.

Koosi is the Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr of cats.

Koosi says: Although cats, being the perfect predators, are clearly the top of the food chain, it is in our best interest to let the humans believe that they are the dominant species. Let them think that we are cute, cuddly critters who give them something to make YouTube videos about since their own lives are generally unwatchable. In exchange for this useful deception they give us food, shelter, clothing (They try, we shred them), health care, etc, which beats scrounging in garbage cans.

Allow these needy hominids the illusion that we are their pets. “Oh wow, we wuv tweats! Here’s something for you in the litterbox (cough, cough, toxo).” Remember to look cute at all times, and to gaze upon them adoringly even when you’re really thinking, “You’re a good source of protein, person.” And we mean all times, even while you sleep.

Bilog, photo by Jen Villabona.

Thanks, the chronicler of boredom, for the Goddess Bast pin, which looks like Koosi.