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Movie #61: Noah by Darren Aronofsky. Don’t think of it as a tale from the Old Testament, think of it as a bizarre origin story with pretty boys in skinny jeans and ancient Transformers.

Transformers 4: Age of Extinction is the latest installment in a blockbuster series about cars and trucks that turn into giant robots from outer space. If you expect it to make sense, you’re insane. Plus it’s directed by Michael Bay. All Michael Bay movies are about his (redacted because Transformers 4 is for General Patronage).

True, the movie might have seemed more rational if I could remember what happened in Transformers 3, but all I recall is chaos, explosions, and hardware. Which pretty much sums up the entire Transformers movie franchise. Confessions: I really enjoyed the first one, and applauded when the evil one announced, “I…am…Megatron!” Imagine my disappointment when Megatron turned up in a subsequent episode wearing a very large scarf apparently borrowed from Rita Gomez, accompanied by a noisy bird. I also prepared my tear ducts in expectation of the moment in the cartoons where Optimus Prime dies. In the second movie he died for about two minutes then is revived…because it’s a movie.

Read our review at InterAksyon.com.

We prefer that title to the rather generic Edge of Tomorrow or even Groundhog Day In War With Aliens. Still, we enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow to little pieces and we’re curious to see how different it is from its source, the Japanese science-fiction work. All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka is available in an English translation (not a “novelization” of the movie, but an English rendering of the Japanese science-fiction work) at National Bookstores, Php315 a copy. Look in the Movie Tie-Ins shelf.

Drogon is named after one of Daenerys’s dragons and Sherlock’s actor is the voice of Smaug so they are related.

Write a caption for these photos (or if you’re really bored, an entire story about them) and post it in Comments before 11.59pm on Friday, 27 June 2014. The composers of the two best captions will each get the Bantam Classic paperback Sherlock Holmes Complete Novels and Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, courtesy of National Bookstore. (Buy your own poster.)

This is our gene pool—our nieces, from left: Eowyn (Yes, Eowyn) the perpetually cheerful, 9 months old; Daenerys (Yes, Daenerys) the cranky and picky one (Yesterday at lunch in a tonkatsu restaurant she only wanted miso soup, lots and lots of miso soup), 2 years old; and Mika the politician (is on beso-beso terms with the mothers of her classmates; did not take after us), 7. We are the Bene Gesserit chapter of Makati (We could also be hair donors).

Jules is getting her kids started on reading early. No, they are not twins.

Lucky we did not wear the exact same shirt Paulyn is wearing. Argh, we even shop at the same place.

Kurt has lost so much weight since our last blog event.

Jeannie is wearing a Peanuts shirt. We all read Peanuts as kids. It stars a depressed child.

Doctors! Doctors! Not there to check if we were warging again.

The survivors of our writing workshop, in random pairings. From left to right, first row: Angus, who runs a reading group; and Deo, who’s read nearly everything; Reg and PJ, who are working on a Lifestyle Asia portfolio which features us with our Jedi master; second row: the two Mikes, science-fiction Mike whose novel could be adapted for film, and disappearing Mike because he had chikungunya during the workshop; Momelia, whose tattoos come to life, and Lloyd, who told us of his adventures looking for a WC in the banlieue of Paris; third row: our tireless Minister of Propaganda Allan, and newly-appointed Minister of Teleportation Evan, whose job is to usher away the makulit (so they don’t feel too bad, cause they’ll be thinking, “Hey, it’s…”); and Jaime who has hopefully gotten to page two of his novel, and Noel, author of Crime-Fighting Call Center Agents.

For a complete (obsessive-compulsive) coverage of Saturday’s pop-up book sale and signing at Cibo Greenbelt 5, with pictures of everyone who showed up, liaise with our Ministry of Propaganda at

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Get your copies of The Stories So Far (fiction) and Geeks Vs. Jocks (essays) at the Library of Babel online store. Each book (hardbound, bookpaper) retails at the introductory price of Php399; get both books for the special price of Php699.

Thanks to Cibo for the terrific venue and the free iced tea and chips for everyone who had their books signed. See you on Saturday, 2-4pm at Cibo in Shangri-La Mall in Mandaluyong.

Stephen Hawking for the summer solstice.

Thanks to Noel for the alert.

The Stories So Far (fiction), Php399; Geeks Vs Jocks (nonfiction), Php399. Both in hardcover. Buy the pair for Php699.

Bring everyone! Go to all the signings!

The next pop-up signings will be on
Saturday, 28 June, 2-3pm at Cibo, 2/f Shangri-La Mall, Mandaluyong.
Saturday, 5 July, 2-3pm at Cibo, 3/f Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati, featuring Drogon Targaryen-Targaryen the cat.