JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

We like the bit about Coster-Waldau and Dinklage dancing down the steps and the crew being too exhausted to appreciate it.

This goes out to the Grey Worm fans club.

Of course we should not reject gifts from lovers, but the only way to ensure that you get the really good stuff is to buy them for yourself.

1. Wear World Domination.

The World Domination shirt declares that you have little patience for dithering. It is especially good for hanging out with friends. Available in three colors and sizes, only at The Library of Babel. Payments are accepted via bank deposit, credit card, and PayPal. Freight charges apply. Deliveries in Metro Manila take 3 working days, elsewhere in the Philippines and overseas in 5.

2. There must be chocolate.

Serious chocolate. Artisanal chocolate made by generations of cioccolato-makers in Padua, where Galileo taught. Have you noticed that with really good chocolate, each bite is so intense that you only need a few pieces? Seems almost disrespectful to eat everything at once.

The Villa del Conte menu should be set to music:

Praline balls in dark chocolate with hazelnut cream and cereals
Praline sticks in dark chocolate with orange cream filling
Dark chocolate domes with cocoa cream and salted toffee chips
Fig fillet truffles covered in extra-dark chocolate
Marron glace truffles covered in dark chocolate and cocoa powder…


Villa Del Conte has stores at Greenbelt 5, Shangri-la Mall, Resorts World, Alabang Town Center, and Robinson’s Magnolia. For bulk orders of Villa del Conte chocolates, contact 893-2575 or 621-6101.

3. Glow from the inside.

Borage oil, the main ingredient of Blooming-G capsules, contains omega-6, essential in the development of skin cells. It helps protect skin cells from damage and maintain adequate moisture levels.

For more information on Blooming-G and Omega-6, go to http://bauchlab.com.

4. Read a fake book that offers real pleasures. S, a collaboration of filmmaker J.J. Abrams and writer Doug Durst, is a fiction about fiction.

The cardboard case contains what looks like an old hardcover library book that’s been borrowed many times. It’s called Ship of Theseus, purportedly the final novel by one V.M. Straka, translated and annotated by an F.X. Caldeira. According to the preface by Caldeira, nobody knows who Straka really was, and there is a raging debate in the academe over who really wrote his books.

Tucked among the pages are old letters, photos, telegrams, postcards, notes—a reminder that before you lend your books to anyone, you should inspect the pages for any damning evidence you may have stashed in them.

In the margins are scribbled notes from Jenny, a college senior, and Eric, a graduate student. Jenny and Eric have not met; they communicate by writing notes in the margins of the Straka, which they borrow and return to the library.

Which obviously has the laziest librarians in the world, because they don’t notice how the book has been defaced.

That’s how you know this is a work of fiction: the margins are large enough to leave notes on, the notes are neatly arranged, and the correspondence can be understood by any random borrower.

A clever idea, and a good-looking book.

S by J.J. Abrams and Doug Durst, Php1399 at National Bookstores.

5. Get yourself a ten-inch bird for Valentine’s.

Everyone hopes for everlasting love; the Philippine Eagle just hopes to avoid extinction. The Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) is a giant forest raptor endemic to the Philippines and one of the world’s rarest and most critically-endangered species.

The de luxe Philippine Eagle stuffed toy is packed in a cloth pouch and comes with a specially printed information tag. Proceeds will go to the Philippine Eagle Foundation, dedicated to saving the endangered Philippine Eagle and its rainforest habitat.

Buy the Philippine Eagle stuffed toy at library-of-babel.com. Payments are accepted via bank deposit, credit card, and PayPal. Freight charges apply. Deliveries in Metro Manila take 3 working days, elsewhere in the Philippines and overseas in 5.

6. Bring your best friend to see Jazz in Love at UP Cine Adarna.

Jazz in Love, the acclaimed documentary by Baby Ruth Villarama, is the story of Jazz, a young man from Davao whose German boyfriend has just proposed marriage. Obviously they can’t marry in the Philippines, so he must fly to Germany for the wedding. But Jazz speaks no German, and must temporarily relocate to Manila for language lessons. Meanwhile, his parents in Davao have absolutely no idea of their son’s plans.

7. Why not adopt a stray cat or dog? This one adopted us.

CARA (Compassion and Responsibility for Animals) and PAWS (Philippine Animal Welfare Society) match homeless cats and dogs with humans who have large reserves of love for their fellow earthlings. Contact CARA or PAWS today. If you’re not ready to commit to a non-human housemate, consider making a donation.

Movie #11: Frances Ha. Love it! Funny, moving, we have to see it again. Movie #12: Twelve Years A Slave. We’re disturbed that the ugliness that is slavery is presented with such formal beauty.

Spike Jonze’s Her may be the most romantic movie ever made because it dispenses with the trappings of movie romance: the attractive man, the adorable woman, their gregarious friends, long walks and beautiful sunsets, the trauma that nearly rips them apart, the joyous reunion. Those are just the extras, the ambience. Her serves up the real thing: the union of minds irrespective of time, space, and even corporeal existence.

This is what love is. The tragedy is that one of them doesn’t have a body, and the irony is that she’s played by Scarlett Johansson. (It’s kind of like Steve Martin’s The Man With Two Brains, played beyond the laughs.)

Joaquin Phoenix is handsome when he cares to be, but as Theodore Twombly he is the classic socially-inept nerd, in those high-waisted pants that the brilliant production designer has inflicted on the male cast members. Theodore is a sensitive soul who writes beautiful personal letters for other people: he’s seeking emotional connection in a world where everyone is connected but no one really cares. Much like our world with its illusion of connection, promoted by social media and the internet. And then Theodore gets a new computer operating system—an artificial intelligence that evolves at an exponential rate. Her name is Samantha, and it says something about our times that when Theodore and Samantha fall in love, it’s not that surprising.

Deceptively simple and genuinely odd, Her gets to the truth of love: that the beloved is the person you want to be in your head at all times (Being an OS gives her a distinct advantage), that complete honesty is not always helpful, that people have obligations to themselves that cannot be set aside for relationships.

We’ve always admired the work of Spike Jonze, but wondered if he would manage without his usual collaborator, Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation). Where the Wild Things Are didn’t work for us—writer Dave Eggers provided whimsy instead of the authentic eccentricity that is the mark of Jonze’s films. As the writer and director of Her, and creator of its unique universe, Spike Jonze reveals emotional depths his previous works had only hinted at. His medium is Phoenix, one of the most amazing actors in the history of cinema. This can’t be the same actor who played Freddie Quell in The Master—that guy was more wild animal than human. Apparently Joaquin Phoenix can do anything, and as Theodore Twombly he breaks your heart by being thoroughly human. Will someone please look after Joaquin Phoenix, because if anything were to happen to him we could not take it.

P.S. Beautifulhandwrittenletters.com has just given us a business idea.

The Stories So Far by Jessica Zafra. Cover design: Jay Lozada. Book design: Ige Ramos.

In a coffee shop in Makati, three strangers cross paths on what may be the last day of the world.

In an apartment in Paris, unfriendly dinner guests wait for a frozen leg of lamb to cook.

Jude, allegedly the smartest kid in the room, discovers that a high IQ is no guarantee of survival.

An actress with the face of an angel and the talent of a brown paper bag considers her rapidly dwindling options.

Sociopaths, spies, aspiring golddiggers, heiresses on the run and advertising executives wrongly hunted for murder find themselves on the same train.

The neighbors keep missing each other in an apartment building that messes with the space-time continuum.

A porn star turned religious fundamentalist preaches on the bus while a tarot card reader battles possession by a demonic dwarf.

These are some of the people who populate The Stories So Far, only the second collection of short stories by Jessica Zafra. You don’t have to let them in your house, but you can meet them right here.

ETA: March-April 2014
For bulk orders (10 copies or more), email saffron.safin@gmail.com

Geeks Vs Jocks by Jessica Zafra. Cover design and photography: Ricky Villabona. Book design: Ige Ramos.

Jessica Zafra has never played sports in her life. She should be barred from any playing field, for the safety of players and spectators, and especially her own. It is not that she hates sports, but she believes it should be left to those who are actually skilled at it. Of course she is painfully aware that sport is essential in Geek History, being a primary means by which we learn that what does not kill us makes us stronger.

However, Jessica has always enjoyed writing about sports—partly because we must know our enemy, and partly because it’s fun. Geeks Vs Jocks is a collection of her writing on tennis, rugby union, football, boxing, and other games including politics and history. Among other issues she writes about Roger Federer as platonic ideal, the dread of watching the All Blacks almost lose the Rugby World Cup, what happens when you put rugby players in tiny underwear on giant billboards on the highway, and Game of Thrones as a playbook for Philippine politics.

ETA: March-April 2014
For bulk orders (10 copies or more), email saffron.safin@gmail.com

I know this sounds silly, and I know that I might sound ridiculous. Like this is the scene in the movie where the guy is trying to get hold of the long-lost son, you know, but this is that scene. This is that scene. And I think they have those scenes in the movies because they’re true. Because they really happen. And you gotta believe me, this is really happening.

via Biblioklept.

Flowers, chocolate and fabulous presents from admirers are all very well, but there’s no substitute for getting something that is distinctly You.

This Valentine’s Day, get yourself and your like-minded friends the World Domination T-shirts. The limited edition World Domination T-shirts are available in three colors and various sizes at The Library of Babel online store, library-of-babel.com. Each shirt costs only Php269, plus freight charges.

Romance is thrilling, but World Domination is your destiny. Visit The Library of Babel now.