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Writing Boot Camp (Baguio) dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Makati whose name I’m not telling you, what, so it’ll be so full we can’t get a table? L-R: Gary, Reina, Annalyn, me, Vicky, Von, Allan.

I’ve updated my bio to include answers to frequently-asked questions (Where can we buy your damn books, were you in a coma, etc). Also put a current photo.

Our updated Marvel Chris Rankings

Hilarious.
Intense.
Thrilling.
Delivers on threats.
Hurts our hearts.

Also: Dinklage! And Josh Brolin’s Thanos, a properly formidable opponent.

Filipinos in cast

1. Drax (Dave Bautista) caused an entire doughnut to shoot out of my nose when he said, “Why is Gamora?”
2. Ned from Midtown Science High (Jacob Batalon), who delivered the line “We’re all going to die!!!” with such joy.
3. The Banaue Rice Terraces (as wangbumaximus21 pointed out). All we need now is a post-credits scene where our surviving heroes are eating halo-halo.

Bubbles sent this photo which captures how we felt on exiting the cinema.

Taika Waititi (powers: hilarity and reimagining) and Paul Rudd (powers: adorableness, agelessness). Hindi ko alam kung kanino ako naiinggit.

Watch the video on my cats’ Instagram.

I was having drinks with Von and Jon when the talk turned to poetry. “Do you like poetry?” Von asked. I like poetry, I have so much respect for it that I don’t even try to write poetry. Then we started enumerating our favorite poets, and I’ll always be a lit major because I started considering them by period.

Jon said his favorite was Frank O’Hara, particularly Animals and Steps.

Animals
by Frank O’Hara

Have you forgotten what we were like then
when we were still first rate
and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth

it’s no use worrying about Time
but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves
and turned some sharp corners

the whole pasture looked like our meal
we didn’t need speedometers
we could manage cocktails out of ice and water

I wouldn’t want to be faster
or greener than now if you were with me O you
were the best of all my days

Here’s Jon Hamm in Mad Men reading O’Hara’s Mayakovsky. (I love the New Yorkiness of Frank O’Hara.)

Von likes Warsan Shire, whose work appears in Beyonce’s Lemonade.

If I spend a lifetime figuring out Lolo Bill Shakespeare it’ll be a life well spent.

This wondrous nonsense. (And these wonderful translations.)

These bits from ordinary life. (I’ve mentioned Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, no?)

Wislawa Szymborska, whom I am reading to prepare for Poland. (The book I borrowed from Deo, whose birthday is today.)

Lovesong by Ted Hughes is terrifying. “Their heads fell apart into sleep like the two halves/ Of a lopped melon, but love is hard to stop.”

I’m just getting started.

Do you have a favorite poem? Post the text in Comments, or a link to the video if one exists.

Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called “life”

Electric word, life
It means forever and that’s a mighty long time
But I’m here to tell you
There’s something else
The afterworld

A world of never-ending happiness
You can always see the sun, day or night

So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
You know the one, Dr. Everything’ll-Be-Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby

Cause in this life
Things are much harder than in the afterworld
In this life
You’re on your own

And if the elevator tries to bring you down
Go crazy!

Heretofore unreleased footage of Prince rehearsing Nothing Compares 2 U, a B-side which became a hit for Sinead O’Connor six years later.

Photo from Simply Cracow

I’ll be in Cracow, Warsaw and Gdansk in May to write additional essays for my travel book. Are you a Filipino living in Poland? I have questions for my never-ending world domination research. Let’s meet.

Since I like to read novels set in the places I’m visiting, these are my current assignments: an Alan Furst WWII spy novel, and a 19th century Polish novel. Plus some Andrzej Wajda and Kieslowski movies, and The Saragossa Manuscript, and I’m all set.

Have you been to Poland? Any recommendations?

Update: Meeting up with greeneggsnham, who is doing Central Europe. (“Sana masarap ang hopia sa Poland.” Haha)

P.S. Ngayon lang nila na-gets.

When we sat down to brunch someone who looked like Fernando Torres was sitting outside. We should’ve taken the photo immediately because he was replaced by not Jason Statham.

Who knows what happens in my murky subconscious, but I woke up the other day thinking: I have to form a band.

So I told my friend Aye, who had an all-girl band called Chain Gang, and she said, “Let’s!” Aye plays bass and can hum the bassline of anything. In college she was our supplier of Rolling Stone and cassette bootlegs. I have no musical ability, but I have excellent training in how not to manage a band. Also I used to hang around bands and volunteer to write their liner notes. I love liner notes, if I had my way albums would look like Criterion Collection packages. (Kids, look up “albums”.)

First I have to catch up, because I stopped listening to new music in the early 2000s. At which point my musical tastes started moving backwards in time (Tom Waits, Steely Dan, bop). Aye made me a playlist which includes An Army of Lights, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Yuck. While I’m cramming, we’re waiting for a name to come to us.

– What’s Naomi (Chain Gang’s vocalist) doing now?
– She’s a voice talent for dubbed Korean TV series.
– You mean like The Prince of Boazania?
– Yup.
– Maybe we should call ourselves The Prince of Boazania.

Or Our Feline Overlords. Or Keanu Reeves.

Obviously we have to find instrumentalists. I’m thinking open auditions in June. Prince (in denial), Wendy, Johnny Marr, Peter Buck, Annie Clark and The Edge need not audition.

I’m still thinking of ground rules, but off the top of my head:
1. We just want to play.
2. Implosion is inevitable, but we’d like to delay it as long as possible.

Your thoughts?