Strange Adventures and Winging It

Me eating at the Noodles of the World, Atlantic City at the Borgata

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at the Belasco Theater: Starring Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sherie Rene Scott and Laura Benanti.

Okay. The twenty inches of snow that's just been dumped in South Jersey, New York, and all over the Northeast is just plain ridiculous. I miss living in the Northeast, but enough is enough. Snow's something that makes me happy that I've moved to sunny Florida even though I miss NYC and all of its cultural trappings.

I was supposed to go to New York on the day after Christmas from South Jersey. It's been fun over there--visiting an aunt and an uncle on my mother's side. Two cousins too. One visiting from the Philippines. Anyway, plans were dashed. I think just like the rest of the world's, who were also in the same predicament as I was in.

Two friends, Gina and Walter from Brooklyn were supposed to take me back with them. They were in the neighboring town of Mount Holly, twenty minutes away from Blenheim, the town I was staying at. They too got stranded in the snow.

So...what happened?

I watched most of The Wire, Season 2 and got to know the stevedores. Poor Frank, Nick and Ziggy Sobatka. Human trafficking also played a huge part. It's all about the death of American manual labor in Baltimore. I have two episodes to go....

My aunt in Blenheim saw that I had a hankering for Chinese food. She suggested a 2AM run to Atlantic City at the Noodles of the World Restaurant. My cousin Kristina came along for the ride. Yummy General Tso's Chicken. Dumplings. Pad Thai. So delish. I exploded internally. Also coffee, carrot cake, and croissants afterwards. Three in the morning I tell you!

Kristina and I saw Auntie on the slot machines. Wow. Had no clue she was into gambling. Gambling! Holy toledo! And She actually won some cash. No kidding.

The next day, Gina and Walter finally rescued me from snowy Jersey. Not that I wanted to escape my family, but I needed to get to NYC. Pronto. Auntie decided to take us to a jumbo, super buffet. Popular with us Asians. So yummy. We all pigged out. Including Kristina, Walter and Gina.

An hour before arriving to New York, I scored tickets to see the Lincoln Center Production of Pedro Almodovar's film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sherie Rene Scott and Laura Benanti starred. Weak first forty-five minutes until Laura Benanti's zany and loony character shows up. Using her knowledge of Sondheimisms, she delivers a hilarious song about being needy on the phone. Did I mention her boyfriend was a terrorist? The rest of the show? So-so. Middling songs. Talent wasted and underused at times. Dead earnestness for Sherie Rene Scott's not a good thing. She was screaming to be cut loose. Patti LuPone gets a torch song, but it was pedestrian at best. Brian Stokes Mitchell was the weakest link of the leads. He just gets to use that hot baritone of his and literally sing, nothing but bla bla blahhhh....

Tapas after. Gina and Walter and I ran into an old friend and his boyfriend. Had delicious cheese and Malbec. Lots of chicken liver and toasted baguettes. Then night night in Brooklyn.

Strange enough, I accomplished all this just by taking it easy and not planning everything. Isn't that nice?

I did not love To Kill A Mockingbird.

I know that I'll probably offend devout readers of this book, but as a reader, I found its language quite dated and on the cliched side of coming of-age tales set in the American South. I prefer Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding or The Heart is a Lonely Hunter when reading about the racial tensions and the coming-of age tales of young girls in the American South. Mick Kelley is a more appropriate and sensitive character than Scout Finch in my opinion. However, as a book for teenagers, To Kill a Mockingbird is indeed rich in symbolism, imagery, and relevant themes such as coming of age, growing up, and discovering what, in the words of Atticus Finch states, "What courage is." For me and my own pleasure reading, this book is pretty preachy and borderline melodramatic, but for teens discovering literature in our huge canon, it's quite a pleasure. As a fifteen year old, I'd definitely love this novel if it were my first exposure to Southern American coming-of age fiction.

Filipino Christmas Parties

These parties, my friend, are certainly over the top!

I am visiting two of my cousins on my mother's side right now in the South Jersey area, known to have a very large Filipino population. Next to Jersey City, and basically the whole state of California, I am surrounded by Pinoys everywhere.

My Cousins Diane and Kristina grew up in the South Jersey area. I once lived in South Jersey myself as a kid, in a neighboring town off Route 42 called Williamstown. My grandparents on my father's side had a beautiful lake house out there. Once upon a time, when both my families got along, we would use the Williamstown Lake House as a home base. Filipino barbecues, parties, bridal showers, and even weddings took place there. Alas, how time flies by, and how we all grow up.

Anyway, on the 24th, I arrived from FL to Atlantic City. My Aunt Linda picked me up from the airport, and off to Blackwood, NJ we went. Cousin Kristina is years younger than me, but really mature. She's here right now in NJ. She's visiting from the Philippines right now where she's studying nursing. One of the rare creatures who go back to the motherland for college and who were born here in the States. But the rationale's simple and pragmatic: Going back to school to the Philippines is way cheaper than it is here.

My Cousin Diane, Kristina's older sister, just recently graduated from her B.A in Psychology from Rutgers picked us up to visit her boyfriends' family for Christmas dinner and party. It went down simply as this: We saw pork leccion, lumpia (eggrolls freshly wrapped and not fried), "lollipop" fried chicken (simply chicken wings with the tops fried) and pansit (noodles) and what do we all do? We grab the food and eat as much as we can. Like pigs. Except I don't eat pork...

Eating, more eating, and spending time with family. I didn't get to see my mom's side of the family much when I was a tot. Now I'm totally making up for lost time with these delicious dinners. And lots of laughter. Exactly as my mother would've wanted. I hope.

Poetry-"Love Song For a Stranger"

Love song for a stranger—

Or A Very Bad Piece.

For all the strangers, and your interesting encounters…

The possibilities are endless

Humming, humming, ummmm, in a subway, bus, oh what the hell...?

I glance, looking

Not shy at all, I know.

I’d like for you to see, smile

I’m curious to know

All the usual things…

What do you do?

Where do you live?

Ok. Enough. Maybe that’s a bit too...

(Well, you know)

I’d like to ask you.

If you’re with someone. Into anything.

Get it? You see it in my eyes.

I’d like to see if its in yours too

I’d like to look. Closer.

Oh why not?

Maybe it'll open up some sort of well--

Okay. I see. Now look up. Up. At me.

There…..



Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight

I decided to post this link of Raul Midon and Pat Metheny covering James Taylor's immortal ballad of loneliness and unrequited love...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEThLd-hH2Y

This link says it all. How I'm feeling tonight. Yes. I can't help it.

Go away endeavor-
Go on and do as you please-

Undecided
And your heart's been divided...

You've been turning my world upside down....

How can this be?

Chop Shop 2007

How can I begin to describe this wonderful and unsentimental film directed by Ramin Bahrani?

Let's begin with its two central characters: Alejandro and Isamar. Two Latino teens living in the slums of Jamaica, New York. Just simply trying to make it. Cooking food. Selling DVDs. Stealing auto parts for the run-by the mill chop-shops (for auto parts) around Jamaica Avenue. The same Jamaica Avenue that frightened me in the middle of the night when I was trying to hail a cab to take me back to Floral Park, Queens. It's a part of Queens or New York City for the matter that no one ever gets to see on film. Chop Shop really works--because of its gritty straightforwardness; of an acceptance and a bond between a brother and sister who through all odds, try to stay sane and love one another when times are desperate. There's no judgment. There are no words to describe their relationship, and that's what makes it such a devastating piece of art and social commentary, towards those who are often left behind. But try to look sometime.

Movie List

Okay. I like bragging and making lists. Heh-heh. List ranks in order all the films I've seen this year (ALL: New, Old, Good ones, Bad ones, Classics, etc) from January 2010-till now. This will be revised till January 1, 2011. Which have you seen?

In bold: Recommended.

Avatar
It's Complicated
Fast and Furious (Yes, I watched it with my Dad)
Nine
Crazy Heart
Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs
Duplicity
Spinning into Butter (Quite possibly, the worst film ever, with Sarah Jessica Parker)
Jules and Jim
Hausu
Suddenly, Last Summer
The Hurt Locker
The Lovely Bones
Raising Arizona
Departures
Dear Zachary
Fish Tank
The Last Station
Goodbye, Solo
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Star Trek
Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days
The Blind Side
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
The Ghost Writer
Shoot the Piano Player
The Class
The Sweet Hereafter
Mean Streets
An Angel at my Table
The Heiress
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Alice in Wonderland
Darling
Everybody's Fine
Eraserhead
Shutter Island
The Girlfriend Experience
Date Night
Hud
Wild At Heart
Sin Nombre
Letter From An Unknown Woman
Clash of the Titans-2010
Being There
Taking Woodstock
Bright Star
The Night of the Hunter
Touch of Evil
Old Boy
Breathless
Wonder Boys
The Lovers on the Bridge
Love, Liza
Choke
The Story of Adele H
Brick
The 400 Blows
Hail Mary
Autumn Sonata
Two For the Road
Sweetie
The Night of the Iguana
The Kids are All Right
Cyrus
Paris, Texas
Toy Story III
Last Night
Inception
Life During Wartime
Sullivan's Travels
Winter's Bone
Citizen Kane
Wild Grass
The Road
Gomorrah
Fanny & Alexander
Nights of Cabiria
Moonstruck
Two Lane Black Top
A Prophet
Clean Shaven
Black Swan
127 Hours
Disney's Tangled
Chop Shop
The Hustler
True Grit-2010
Little Fockers

Chronic Book Buying Disease

I think there should be a group for chronic book buyers. Don't laugh, but every time I'm at a bookstore (used or new books), garage sale, library (corner for used books for a dollar anyone?) and even doctors' offices, I peer around and look for books to add in my collection of an ever-growing mountain that barely gets read.

For example, I collected titles such as The Lazarus Project, a second hardback copy of Toni Morrison's Paradise, a second softback copy of Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies; a copy of Bolano's The Savage Detectives (yes, someone actually gave this up! And I picked it up like the giddy fool that I am...and I have no idea of when I'm ever going to read the damn thing) and am darn proud of this. But then the question is: When am I actually going to read the things?

Teaching has kept me busy, as well as grading the kids' papers, and reading material that they're going to be studying for the third and fourth quarter coming up soon. When can I ever find the time for all of this?

I also wonder what possesses people to give up good books like Madame Toni's Paradise? I'm betting you it was probably some housewife who couldn't get past its gorgeous but difficult prose; or couldn't deal with its violence, its non-linear structure. But one thing's for sure--its loss was definitely my gain!

The Wire.

I think I'm in love with the HBO series The Wire. It's truthful, nuanced, doesn't have cliched musical themes. It's just an honest show about how it's really like at home: desperate, sad, violent, and ambiguous. It's the first series I've been fascinated and hooked by in a very long time. It's like reading a big juicy novel, with operatic storylines; of good and evil and how they become blurred eventually.

I decided one day a couple of months that I would watch a television series. Something realistic, something complex, something without any camp and without any type of cliches. I had first read about The Wire through a preface of a novel I read earlier this year called Hard Rain Falling, a crime novel about misfit youths in Oregon and in Washington State by Don Carpenter. The preface was written by George Pellecanos.

I was intrigued of the notion of how good and evil are blurred ever so carefully and willfully in our society. People cannot be defined as either black or white. Ever.

I went to my local library and borrowed all of Season 1. Man, was I hooked. Detective McNulty, a sad sack of a father, but an honest and fallible cop; D'Angelo Barksdale. Warren. Kima. They're all a part of my cultural psyche now. A librarian told me that she wished the series would've survived longer. And Season 1's just gotten me begging for more.