tuliro

an officemate who knows of my addiction to yoga (well, by now who doesn't?) excitedly showed me a yoga article in the philippine daily inquirer that came out the other day. knowing beforehand that its appearing on a newspaper of general readership, i pretty much know what to expect--not quite lengthy, two to three pictures, the bulk of description being more of the studio that probably paid to be featured rather than focusing on the asanas (yoga poses)--just a tease, not really delivering the goods. well, turning the page i was surprised; as to the pleasantness or the unpleasantness of it, i urge you dear reader to go on, and find out for yourself. hehehe.

the article, by tristan choa is curiously titled "can yoga and competition go together?". the blabber brain in me already has a ready answer, just looking at the title, but my heart whispered, "go on, gentle... read; don't be carried away--for all you know its just a catchy title". following my gentle heart, i read--sentence upon sentence dealing with asana and all things yoga flowed ; all the while marveling at the the lean and toned physique of the model who graced the pages, first in standing bow, the next one in full upward bow pose.

the verdict? uhm. compete? to prepare for a possible inclusion of yoga to the olympics? uhm.. ah.. why?

been practicing yoga for 3 years now. its an on and off practice but it still is one, no matter how sparse it could be at times. i value my practice for the strength and flexibility benefits i get from it despite choosing not to dabble with the whole religious mumbo side; you won't see me knotted in pretzel with mala beads wrapped around my neck, chanting mantras dedicated to shiva, thats for sure (tho i have mala beads, just for the sheer joy of owning one, hehehe).

back in the days when i still attended yoga classes, i was introduced to ashtanga, the more athletic type of yoga that would have you sweating profusely by the bucket because of the internal heat generated by the pace of the practice. it was also sometimes called athletic yoga by some teachers, and fittingly so, because its meant to complement any athlete's chosen sport. put side by side the more meditative branches of yoga, you can say its the freak, man! whatever the case, practicing ashtanga alone, with just your breath to keep you company, retains yoga's meditative qualities--every breath and movement is a step toward a more relaxed state of being, if you just put your mind into it. having said that, i was aghast reading tristan's article, stating that there's an international initiative circulating to petition the International Olympic Committee to include yoga as a demonstration sport; the upcoming Philippine Yoga Asana Championship on november 24 could possibly prepare potential yoga athletes for the big event, should the committee happen to give in to the petitioners.

this isn't really meant to be an i-hate-you article. yoga die-hards could run to the event like mad cattle for all i care. i'm just registering my opinion in this, my corner of the blogosphere. as to the initial question if i was pleased with what i've read, uhm.. its good that yoga is being given a fair amount of exposure nowadays, so that's a plus point to my "pleasantly pleased" vote. but reading the article, and especially going through the mechanics of the competition (eg. that you have to finish performing certain poses for a certain number of minutes), well its a big swish to the negative side of my scale. sure, yoga teaches you to compete, but it should be with yourself, not on how long you'd be able to hold a pose compared to others. so, uhm... yup, not pleased.

camwhore

A good friend from my previous work who’s into photography recently asked me to pose nude for her. To which the camwhore in me immediately said “yes, oh yes!!!”. A few minutes later—reality sinking in—i asked her by sms if she was really serious with what she said. Without batting an eyelash (just judging from the speed with which I received her reply), she said yes, and that she’ll inform me when the time comes (worked out the venue, proper lighting set up, the works), adding that I can’t back out on her, now that I’ve said yes.

Sigh—the price you have to pay for having such delicious (!) body. Hehehe. But seriously I’m alarmed, not with the photoshoot—confident that I can easily shake her out of her delirium either by force or by charms; that I’m not Mr. Body Beautiful and therefore should be dropped from the shock (!) list immediately—but because the whole sms conversation is a big arrow pointing to something I’ve been neglecting lately : my yoga and mat workouts.

Been growing cute and cuddly again especially in the mid section. Now, a little cute and cuddly-ness is a-ok, but not with the rate i'm going. hehehe. if you knew me back in college, and high school and elementary days (hehehe) you can testify to my overflowing (pun intended) cuteness then; and i am not in anyway aching for a reunion. Note to myself : blogging is fun, but puhleease gentle… exercise naman! Hmpf!

randominatrix on the road

ever heard of barangay talaga? hehehe. its one of those barangays you'll pass by going up north ; the founding fathers of that place must have been very sure when they were coming up of a name for their barangay.

another one on names, consider amai pakpak somewhere in mindanao (i think). it used to go by another name, until the powers-that-be in that place came up with a resolution changing some letters in its name to make it more palatable to tagalog ears. clue, it used to be am*i p*kp*k, hehehe. this bit of info came from somebody who handles this sorta stuff in my place of work so if there's somebody passing by who might take offense, sue him! hehehe.

a flawless advertisement recently flaunted lorna tolentino in one of its EDSA billboards with the tagline "beauty becomes her". there's no question that lorna is beautiful; i just wish the person who cooked up the ad would have some bit of originality in his bone. anybody passing by who's a sucker for movies would immediately connect the meryl streep starrer "death becomes her" to it. would you want that to happen, especially if your promoting an aesthetics center?

sabi ni dodong

"Sa buong kasaysayan natin, wala na tayong ibang ginawa kundi ipaglaban ang karapatan natin bilang tao. Kung tutuusin, dito natin napapatunayan ang ating kakayahang manaig sa anumang balakid. Ngunit parati na lang nating itinatanong: "bakit tayo?" Bakit pa kailangang dumanak ang dugo kung napakasimple lang naman ang ating mga hinaing. Hindi malinaw ang kasagutan. Ang maaari lang nating gawin ay ihanda ang sarili, ipagpatuloy ang pakikibaka... at manalig."
--Dodong kay Ada.

mabuhay ka, carver. i dedicate this piece by dodong to anyone going through tough times. it sure makes waking up in the mornings a little lighter in the heart, and gentler in the mind. :)

ay labs et!!!

lady in the water is not your typical shyamalan movie in that you don't get those trademark "twists" that started with his debut movie "the sixth sense". its also not a die-a-minute wonder like "the hapenning", or the eeriely quiet and lacking "unbreakable" that had me screaming "wtf!" at the end of the movie for sheer frustration. its a piece of wonderful storytelling that just shines with warmth; from the brilliant acting led by dallas howard and giamatti down to the wonderful support cast that played a crucial role in delivering the unfolding story (its a group effort, really); the deft direction by shyamalan himself, who knows what he wants from the beginning and from this vision, crafts a neat little gem of a movie that's deceiving in its simplicity; worth mentioning too is the wonderful technical crew that carried out the photography, sound, and computer animation requirements of the film, making it one seamless piece of storytelling.

the movie is about Story, a water nymph, a mere child who gets lost from her group, when one time they visited the land dwellers. Story is part of the narf (they call themselves that) populace whose mere presence inspire us people to dream of big things for our race--you might call them muses / angels that make our writers write beautiful songs, poems, pieces of literature that become reading stuff of the the future US president. its quite a mouthful really, but shyamalan managed to play the high drama in simple terms, beginning with a cartoon-like telling how it was between the narfs and the land dwellers (us) in the olden times. as the movie deals with the idea of the story itself--with the power of storytelling--its quite heavy in that its packed with myths; things taken from old chinese stuff (the authenticity of the narf legend i leave for you to research or just take mr. shyamalan's word for it). whats astonishing is that shyamalan managed to treat it like a bedtime story, with all the heavy details fading into background as live action takes place--computer generated creatures replacing the ideas we initially come to contact with--as we the audience get transported in his created world of the narf. its not so much lord-of-the-rings-y, being an entire world unto itself; the narf world intermingles with our tangible world, which makes the story all the more palpable and potent.

Story (the lady this time, not the idea; i hope your not confused, hehehe), having just lost her way gets stranded with the cleveland heep (giamatti's character), an apartment administrator, but before that, was a doctor who stopped practicing his profession because he wasnt able to save his family from being killed. in the course of Story's stay with cleaveland, he gets more and more intrigued by story's character and the deeper he studies (consulting a chinese tenant familiar to the narf myth), the more "opened" he becomes to the alternate reality existing side by side ours. wanting to help Story--whose actually the next narf queen, it turns out--reunite with her kin, cleaveland manages to form a support team from among the tenants who'll stage a most ambitious attempt to stage the rituals needed for Story's successful return to her world.

the baddies are a mingling of maquettes and some computer magic which do not really rival the feats of lord of the rings but for all intents and purposes serve to propel the story in the right direction. the wolf-like characters are menacing enough to make you grasp the edge of your seats whenever their presence is intimated on the screen. the monkey-like creatures who judge the baddies in the narf world make a brief but grand appearance, all the more advancing the dreamlike quality of the movie; add to that the wonderfully eerie rain drenched night shots captured onscreen by cinematographer chris doyle.

the movie, besides dallas howard and giamatti, are peopled not with hollywood stars but with actors (bob balaban was very entertaining in his turn as the movie critic and sole tenant to be killed by the wolf-like baddies) that lend this studio-financed enterprise an independent feel to it. and oh, heroes' noah gray cabey makes a sterling performance here, too, as the reluctant symbolist in Heep's ensemble of Story's supporters. the symbolist is supposed to decode what should be done by the other tenants--the "protector" protects, the "healer" heals, etc.--in specific points in the unfolding drama in Story's return to the narf world. he takes the commonplace occurences and reads the "divine" from them.

the movie too, is like that. its filled with symbolisms that start out as commonplace and will not hit you right away when you first watch it. subsequent re-watching would make you appreciate lady in the water all the more for its many layers. what originally started as a simple bedtime story could be accessed on many levels and this is where shyamalan really succeeded as a director, nope, i must say, auteur. i love what he has done with this.

photo credits :
http://ladyinthewater.warnerbros.com/photogallery/photos.html

lasang intsik

I have long been meaning to write something about a place I have so much reverence for. So many times I’ve formulated words in my mind to describe the place but I haven’t reached so much as the last sentence of the first paragraph to really have a kickstart in the grandiose way of introducing the place. Its ironic that in these waning hours between the waking and the dreaming (I downed 2 bottles of red wine and 1 of the apple wine, with my brother-in-law and nephew—his initiation to drinking, decided by his dad tonight) that I am able to write something about Wah Sun, the ultimate Chinese restaurant ever. Hehehe.

Wah Sun stands in Florentino Torres St., in Sta. Cruz, Manila, in the outskirts of Ongpin, the Chinese settlement in the Metro that began alongside the flowering of the Spanish era in Philippine history. Wah Sun itself is not really that old, well at least not as old as its sister company, Los Ambos Mundos, which claims to be the oldest Spanish restaurant in the Philippines that my friend shattershards pointed out during one of our pig-out sessions in said place. The place collects lotsa old write ups from newspapers, and one did a feature on Ambos Mundos stating its origins. i really don’t have complaints bout the place—it serves the best paella in town, but because I am a certified Chinese resto guy, Ambos Mundos goes a notch down in my ranking of the best restaurants in the Metro to Wah Sun, the ultimate place to be for Chinese foodies like me.

One of my first and fondest memories of going to Wah Sun was with my dad, when the whole—and I mean extended family (aunts, uncles, and cousins)—still have the means, and the energy of going to excursion/ field trips to the big city. Being the provincianos that we are, it really is an event for the whole extended family to shop in SM malls and have lunch in unheard-of restos that my dad gets to decide on, being the only Manileño in the group. It is only later that I learned from him that the place was also passed on to him by my grandpa who was the first Wah Sun die hard fan in the family; well at least, to my knowledge. Now that you’re salivating profusely, and enough introduction has been said (!), consider these :

Pata tim so soft and tender that the meat slides of with ease from the bone the moment you slice a piece of it with the cutting knife. And of course there’s the sauce: delectable mushroom and cabbage brown sauce, poured generously onto the meat; White sauce to match the green peas-quail egg-shrimp mixture, the name of which I forgot (because its in Chinese), but in every bit scrumptious that you’ll forget even your own name. then there’s the lechon-asado plate, a mixture of the two basic dishes livened up with pickled green mango slices on the side. Partner up any dish by ordering their chorizo-laden special fried rice; or try having a go with their crabmeat fried rice—fast becoming a favorite on our recent visits to the place. Still have to order (makes a mental note) their special pancit canton, but if memory serves me right, it’s the ham and liver sauce again that spells the difference. Thick and yummy.

Got your mouths drooling now for a taste of Chinese cooking? I sure did. Slurp, slurp!

You can reach Wah Sun restaurant by alighting from the D. Jose Station of the LRT, or by taking any of the Quiapo plying jeepneys and alighting at the Isetann Department Store. Cover a little bit of C.M. Recto and turn right to the street facing the old Roben Cinema on your left. Enjoy!

photo credits : http://celdrantours.blogspot.com/2006/03/carlos-recommends_30.html

weekend madness