Signs of the Times

Twenty years ago, people were flashing and waving this sign (left photo), overjoyed and victorious. Today, people might as well flash this one (right photo, and partially censored LOL), disenchanted and disgusted, especially for what happened yesterday. And they're flashing it at the politicans, if only in their imagination. Sigh. We're so screwed up.

Idol Fixation: Semifinals, Week One

The American Idol Season 5 semifinal round finally started this week, and after watching the semifinalists perform for the past two days, I have to say the girls impressed me more.

First: Paris Bennett (The personality, the showmanship, the voice—WOW.)
Second: Katharine McPhee (Her face is as beautiful as her voice.)
Third: Lisa Tucker (Such startling maturity for a sixteen-year-old.)
Honorable Mention: Mandisa
Who Should Be Booted Out: Stevie Scott and Heather Cox

First: Chris Daughtry (Powerful presence, powerful vocals—very compelling.)
Second: Elliott Yamin (Simon’s right: he does have the best male voice.)
Third: Ace Young (His charismatic presence is just unbelievable.)
Honorable Mentions: Taylor Hicks; Sway Penala
Who Should Be Booted Out: Bobby Bennett and David Radford

And about Bobby Bennett: he’d be perfect as a Las Vegas lounge act.

UPDATE:

Wow. Though I expected Stevie and Bobby to be booted out (and they were), I can't say the same for Becky O'Donahue and Patrick Hall. But it's just as well: I can't imagine both of them landing slots in the Final Twelve. I had to admire how all of them graciously handled their elimination, though.

Theatrical Treat on Thursday

If you are inclined and have the time, please watch this:

Sining Tanghalan, the student theater group of Saint Scholastica’s College Manila, will present four ten-minute plays under the title “Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!: Isang Antolohiyang KomediSining” on Thursday, February 23 at Saint Cecilia's Hall.

The featured plays are: Eyeball by Alfonso I. Dacanay, Over a Cup of Coffee by Vincent A. de Jesus, Balang-araw by Chris Martinez, and Nang Dahil Lang sa Init by Rody Vera.

The show will start at 6 p.m., with tickets priced at P100 each.

This being a college production, lowered expectations are advised. Ü

UPDATE (February 24):

Having promised Sining Tanghalan when I visited Saint Scholastica’s last Tuesday, I watched their show last night. Only half of the theater’s seats were filled. There were the expected embellishments, of course, but not distracting enough to ruin the integrity of the plays (or my play, at least). It amazes me how they managed to stretch four 10-minute plays that should only last for 40-45 minutes to almost TWO hours. The audience seemed very appreciative of the show, and for me that’s always the bottomline, especially in college productions.

Word Wide Wave

Hey, the Banzai Cat, the Peanut Gallery Owner, and the Sun Eater all have one, so I think I should have my own. I am the Wordsmith, after all. Ü


Autodiscovery? I don't remember using that word here. Maybe I should check...

A Post-Valentine's Day Post

Much as I like romantic comedies, there’s something about romantic dramas that engages me more. In listing the films below, romantic films that I like best, their similarities surprised me. They have lead characters who are at least in their 30s, and at least one of them is already married. Not only that, all the affairs in these movies never lasted. Hmm…

The Bridges of Madison County (1995): Clint Eastwood’s crisp and unadorned direction and Meryl Streep’s performance makes this weepie wonderful to watch. The scene where Francesca, sitting in her unsuspecting husband’s truck, keeps holding on to the door latch, ready to pull it to open and run for her lover’s truck in front, is a heartbreaker.

Brief Encounter (1946): The great filmmaker David Lean first received serious attention with this film, chronicling the secret love affair between two people (Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson) who are married to others. I love how they conducted their affair with discretion and subtlety, especially in their final scene together. Very restrained, and very British.

The End of the Affair (1999): This film adaptation of the Graham Greene novel may not be perfect (Michael Nyman’s music is far too melodramatic), but the best thing about it is Julianne Moore’s luminous performance as the doomed Sarah Miles. If nothing else, she truly deserved her Oscar nomination for holding the movie together and keeping it centered.

Summertime (1955): Before he directed The Bridge on the River Kwai, David Lean first directed this fine film, about a lonely American (Katharine Hepburn) on vacation in Venice who falls for an unhappily married shopkeeper (Rossano Brazzi). Besides Hepburn’s performance, the movie’s cinematography is also a highlight. Venice looked so good in this movie.

Talk about how love hurts. Or in Sarah Miles’s case, how love kills. Or, as Christian tells Satine in Moulin Rouge: “Love is a many-splendored thing, love is up where we belong, all you need is love.”

Second Time in Second Place

Just in case you haven’t heard, the 2nd (2005) Philippine Graphic-Nick Joaquin Literary Awards has publicly announced and profiled its short-story winners in the issue dated today:

First Prize: Virgilio Harry C. Tejero, for Pigeonhole
Second Prize: Lakambini A. Sitoy, for The Sisterhood
Third Prize: Rogelio B. Cruz, for My Family During the War

Cruz actually shares third-place honors with Sharmaine Galve, but the magazine didn’t mention the title of her winning story. She wasn’t also present when the prizes were given out late last December. The magazine’s literary editor Adrian T. Cristobal and frequent columnist Alfred A. Yuson, together with last year’s winner Rosario Cruz Lucero, judged the entries.

No doubt about it, 2005 has been very good to Bing Sitoy, even if her latest win landed her once more in second place. Good for her. Check out the issue dated today to read more about the winners.

Capote and the Cowboy

One of the more interesting debates currently taking place in several Oscar-oriented forums is who’s more deserving to win Best Actor come March 5: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote or Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain. Right now, Hoffman seems to be the one to beat, judging from the numerous pre-Oscar awards he had won, from both critics and industry insiders. But a large number of those participating in these forums, many of them Brokeback fans, contend that Ledger deserves to win, simply because it’s much harder to breathe life into a fictional character than impersonating a factual one, especially someone as colorful as Capote.

That reasoning intrigues me for two reasons. First, for its timing. The Academy Awards has had a history of nominating actors playing real-life characters. Last year alone, Jamie Foxx and Cate Blanchett won for portraying showbiz icons Ray Charles and Katharine Hepburn, respectively. Two years ago, it was Charlize Theron for her performance as a real-life serial killer. And the year before that, Nicole Kidman for playing Virginia Woolf. And the list goes on and on and on. This year is no different: writers (Hoffman and co-star Catherine Keener, who plays To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee) and singers (Walk the Line's Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, as country-music icons Johnny Cash and June Carter) are represented, as well as comparatively lesser-known but no less real-life people (David Straithairn, Charlize The­ron, Paul Giamatti). You didn’t see the unusual passion marking the Hoffman vs. Ledger acting debate in previous Oscar races.

Second, for it allows me, a non-actor, to discourse on acting. As a dramatist, I have great respect for actors; they bring the characters the playwright creates to life. I always define true, honest acting as embodying a character’s outer and inner selves. It becomes great if that embodiment is indelible and thorough. On the other hand, impersonation is surface pretense. Between playing a factual character and a fictional one, the challenges of portraying a real-life person are grea­ter. It’s even more so if the person being portrayed is well-known. Playing a real-life person has more trapdoors—reducing the character to a caricature, or reducing the performance into an impersonation, and so on—the actor could easily fall into if he/she is not careful. But if he/she successfully avoids them and completely embodies the character, then that makes for a performance worth awarding, because the risks in taking on such a role are much higher.

But in the end, it all comes down to this: Is the performance effective? Do you believe the actor to be the person he or she is playing? That’s always the main consideration, whether or not the actor is playing a real-life character. But at the Oscars, that’s not always the case. After all, AMPAS is made up of chosen industry insiders, more inclined to watch a movie subjectively than objectively.

As to who is going to win Best Actor, I can’t say for now. I haven’t watched Capote yet, but all I can say about Ledger in Brokeback Mountain is this: he’s Ennis Del Mar.

Woe-Woe-Weep

I’m sure people know about today’s early-morning stampede at the ULTRA by now. A stampede that claimed a staggering number of lives (61 as of this writing, many of them female). And just because they want to get into the stadium and have a chance to win the prizes promised by an inane show—and its inane host—as part of its first anniversary celebration. Nothing celebratory about it now.

I live nearby, and I tell you, the number of people that had lined up to the stadium was unbelievable. And many of them had lined up since Wednesday or Thursday! It just goes to show how desperate they want to get in, how desperate the lives they’re living. I bet the Lopezes and ABS-CBN’s legal department are feeling desperate now, trying to find ways on how to handle this debacle.

I can imagine the blame game about to start soon, if it hadn’t already. ABS-CBN, for not anticipating the dangers a crowd that size can bring. Barangay Oranbo, where ULTRA is located, for the same reason. No question, there’s gross failure of security. Someone has to be held accountable.

Terrible, just terrible.