JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Jessica and Budjette (He’s baaack! again!) shoot the breeze with writer-editor-filmmaker Pepe Diokno, winner of the Lion of the Future award for Best First Film (Engkuwentro) at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, and then nag him to cough up his second movie. With cameos by the back of George Clooney’s head, the whole Jeff Goldblum, and that guy who plays Ice-T’s partner in Law and Order. Plus: How to nearly get killed at a screening of E.T.

Episode 5: Talking Movies with Pepe Diokno is available here. Listen, download, subscribe via iTunes.

Thanks to Juan, Renmin, Manny, and JT’s Manukan!

Podcast quiz:
1. Why did certain people cry while watching Deep Impact?
2. Where will Pepe shoot his next movie?
3. What movie did genius director Celso Ad Castillo call “his Citizen Kane”?
4. How did Pepe get a seat on the flight home despite being late?
5. What is Pepe’s theory on the decline of Filipino movie production from the 1990s to 2009?
6. Which Hollywood star does Budjette do a killer impression of?
7. Which Oscar winner did Pepe shake hands with?
8. What happened to Pepe in the year and a half after he won two trophies in Venice?

Correct answers qualify for the raffle for this

Thanks to National Bookstore!

By the way, we mentioned that we’ve gone to film festivals as the director’s entire entourage, and in the nanosecond before we said “entourage” it occurred to us that we pronounce it in a French-y manner which sounds a bit pretentious so we experimented with a different pronunciation (ehn-tourazh) which just sounds weird. So back to ahn-tourazh.

The winner of our Apology for Gurgliness contest is jaime!

The question was: What would our guest Mike do if a victorious tennis player tossed his/her sweaty towel at him?

jaime’s answer: “If it’s Sharapova, he would wring the towel and put it in a vial. Then he would wear it on his neck.”

He added that if it were another player he would have the towel laundered and have it framed, but we’ll accept that answer. Congratulations! Your prize will be delivered to National Bookstore in Rockwell on Monday.

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Marat Safin is now in the Russian Parliament. Someday he will be president. Good or bad for humanity? We say great.

It’s the Tennis episode with guest, filmmaker, director of commercials, tennis trivia-head Mike Alcazaren. We cover the year in slams, tennis tantrums, future Russian president Marat Safin, the ideal length of tennis shorts, and why there are no tennis movies. Then we launch our campaign to get Filipino tennis great Felicisimo “The Mighty Mite” Ampon into the Tennis Hall of Fame. Ampunin si Ampon!

The weekly podcast is available for streaming or download here. You can also subscribe to it on iTunes.

Thanks to JT’s Manukan for treating us to dinner!

Massive apologies for the sound quality—we were so busy yakking, we didn’t monitor the recording or check the playback. Just think of it as the Spongebob Squarepants episode, recorded in a pineapple under the sea.

Thanks to Ricky and Manny for tweaking the sound file, and to our podcast site manager Ren for uploading the episodes every week.

By way of an apology for the gurgliness, here’s a giveaway.

You can win these Ancient Aliens seasons 1-3 DVDs by answering this question:

What would our guest Mike do if a victorious tennis player tossed his/her sweaty towel at him?

Post your answer in Comments. All correct answers qualify for the raffle.

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Chocolate santol tart at Chez Karine, photo by Rickyv.

The Jessica Rules the Universe podcast, episode 3, is now available. You can listen to it, download it, or subscribe to it on iTunes.

We sat down for a good, longish yak with Mike from the Walk and Eat blog. You’re right: 15 minutes is too short; a half-hour is better for starting, building, ending a conversation. As we were discussing food, the venue was a quiet corner of Brida’s cafe at Power Plant. (It was the middle of a working day so Budjette was slaving at the office. Do not worry, Budjette fans, he’ll be baaaack.)

What is more fun: having a fantastic meal at a great restaurant then reminiscing about it for the next 3 months while your friends roll their eyeballs, or enduring a terrible dinner in an overpriced dump then complaining about it on your blog where everyone can chime in with their horror stories? It’s called rest au rant you know. Get the podcast now.

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The winner of last week’s book raffle is comment #13, Oliver Twist. Congratulations! Your books have been delivered to the Customer Service desk at National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati (tel 897 4562).

Thanks to National Bookstore for the books.

by Renmin Baratheon, podmaster

1. Copy this feed URL: http://jessicarulestheuniverse.podbean.com/feed
2. Go to iTunes and click ADVANCED from the menu and select SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST.

3. Paste the feed URL into the dialog box and click OK.

4. The podcast will appear on your list. Episodes will be downloaded automatically.

5. For iPhone/iPod, first subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, then sync iTunes podcasts to iPod/iPhone like you do for music. Same procedure for the iPad.

Click on the podcast icon then select show all.

When you click the podcast icon you’ll have ‘Get’ and ‘Get all’ buttons.

Let us know if you have any other issues (although we can only address those related to the podcast).

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How to record a podcast on the go
1. Find a young relative who has Rock Band and make off with the USB microphone.
2. Plug it into a laptop with Garage Band.
3. Get someone to yak with.
4. Find a quiet spot.
5. Talk.

Here.

The weekly podcast is available for download or streaming. You can also subscribe to it on iTunes.

We decided to give the whole stack of comics to one reader. julius, they’re all yours, congratulations. Your books have been delivered to the Customer Service counter at National Bookstore, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Just give them your full name.

This week we’re giving away a stack of novels.

The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis, Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith, Atomised (also known as The Elementary Particles) by Michel Houellebecq and Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. We got them all at National Bookstore, where the Cut-Price Sale has been extended until 2 September.

To join the raffle, go to Comments and nominate guests for future podcasts. We should probably inform you that we’re sick of hearing from movie/TV stars, politicians and celebrities—they already pollute own the airwaves—and would prefer to speak to real people with interesting opinions. Like you and your friends. Have you ever told yourself, “Why is that moron on the air? I make so much more sense than he does.” This is your chance to be heard by people who get you. We’ll throw in coffee and snacks.

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Thank you for pointing out the error in the streaming feed; no need to froth at the mouth, it’s been fixed. We’ll also post a “How to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes” instructional.

Keep your guest lists coming. You do know that we’ll probably jettison the suggestions and invite whoever we want, right? And we’re a little disappointed at how…practical you are. Doesn’t anyone want to hear Jeffrey Eugenides?

Future guests (We haven’t asked them yet haha):
Walk and Eat on food
Jaemark Tordesilla of Fire Quinito on sports
Pepe Diokno on cinema
Teddy Boy Locsin on rice
Random writers at the Palanca Awards night (We will lurk by the open bar)
A bunch of gay guys review the Bench show
Roby Alampay on journalism
Michael Salientes on fashion
Dr Joven Cuanang on maintaining your brain
Leo Abaya on art
Michael Purugganan on genes

Podcast logo by Rickyv.

We recorded the first episode with Budjette last Friday. We’re so used to the 3-hour format, we were shocked to find that the introductions alone lasted 15 minutes haha.