Monday, November 10, 2008

Loving Twilight amid the Hoopla, Teenage Emo and all



By now almost everyone may have read and known about Twilight from your girlfriends, sisters, wives, teenage daughters, high school-ish office colleagues, etc; you know, the one helluva vampire – mortal smashing love story of Edward and Bella which has created a lot of stir it has gone so mainstream that even kids know about it.

Twilight, how ever it is regarded in the literary world became so famed and celebrated to merit nice and not so nice reviews. The not so nice ones were more interesting as they border on being agonizingly amusing. These are just a few I’ve come across (some have been edited and restated to emphasize the intended pun):

Twilight is what happens if a Harlequin Romance was mashed with the Flowers in the Attic series - the flowery prose, the countless, breathless descriptions of Edward’s teeth; Meyer seemingly pours out adjectives like a bartender who forgot to put the regulator on the vodka bottle.

 The incessant Edward-swooning, increasing exponentially with every page/series, is so hateful. How many times can we read about how Edward literally makes Bella swoon?

 The bar on guys or boyfriends is set higher than expected. It’s bad enough that girls expect their guys to be romantics, now they’re expected NOT to sleep, play the piano well, compose lullabies for them, buy them a luxury car (WHUT??) and profess undying (LITERALLY!) love for them.

 When you get past the overwrought prose, Edward is nothing more than a moody teenage boy (OK, an almost hundred year old teenage boy, that is) with a chip on his shoulder and a good set of fangs, and Bella is nothing more than an angst-driven girl with a soul searing crush on a boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

 Twilight is, when you break it down, an emo song told in prose. Can’t you hear it? “The Tale of Bella and Edward,” an acoustic number sung by a guy in thick glasses and an ironic t-shirt. It would make the charts, yes, but would remain devoid of substance and heart.


Sans substance? Maybe.

But splendid in spite of? Certainly!

The author, Stephenie Meyer, in fairness to her, really made vampires look godly, beautiful and interesting. I mean, who doesn’t want to look dazzling, be superfast and superstrong, hear people's thoughts, live yet not sleep, or age or even breathe. And this Edward Cullen, when exposed to the sun, does not burn - he glitters! Also, here’s the punch - the Cullen coven aren’t conventional vampires as they have renounced human blood on moral grounds. Now, how awesome can vampires get?

But really, for grownups like us, Twilight is just the kind of stuff that makes young adult fiction interesting to read. It’s funny to realize how adolescents intertwine melodrama and realism, get so angst-consumed, and never get past gasping and swooning. Revisiting teenage emo can make one cringe in retrospect but hey, everyone gets through “that” stage, remember?

For the women literati out there, whether you can only devour books by Pulitzer Prize winning authors such as Jhumpa Lahiri or Frank Mc Court or belong to the downrightly hedonistic set who raves on chick lit by Plum Sykes or Sophie Kinsella, Twilight is something women of all ages can appreciate and enjoy. It’s worth curling up to on a balmy evening, iced coffee in hand as it can evoke a variety of emotions – thrilled when you read about the edgy curiousness of adolescent first loves and pensive the next as you get to the morose feel of Edward and Bella’s forbidden affection for each other.

And guys, if you happen to read Twilight out of plain curiosity or earn the love of a woman, realize that the bar has been set and it has been set very high you will wish you weren’t mortal at all. Just hope that the girl you are wooing isn’t a Twilight fan, this way you can remain to be a regular dude, that is, have warm skin and a natural blush on your cheeks and importantly, maintain a diet of normal food (and not wild animals!). But seriously, Twilight aside, your woman should be able to love you just the way you are even if you don’t have the ability to dazzle people – in your own little way, just dazzle her at least.

For Twilight fans, as the movie premiere draws near, it’s exciting to see words written in pages move and ogle at the characters in the flesh, err, almost.

So what else did I gain out of this liking for Twilight? A fondness for Muse (check out Time is Running Out, Butterflies and Hurricanes and their version of Can’t take my Eyes Off You), good and highly sensible set of friends and a Twilight tee.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

have scrubs, will write

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects."

The quote above by sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein was one I bumped into as I reviewed my friend’s facebook profile. Heinlein’s stimulating aphorism evoking human beings possessing some seemingly dichotomous competencies as writing sonnets and balancing accounts or changing diapers and butchering hogs seem to coincide with this contemporary penchant for the multi-skilled and multi – talented individuals. Today, humans acquire more capabilities and pursue a variety of interests than ever as the more hats an individual wears, the more noteworthy he/she becomes. Gerard Butler, for instance - a lawyer and a hunk of an actor has singing abilities which wasn't bad at all; or Khaled Hosseini - that bestselling author, incidentally, is a medical doctor by profession. The rise of the super men and women will certainly persist. Can we then embrace and mystify multi-tasking rather than quell it?

Dr. Hosseini must have remarked “have scrubs, will write” and write he did with his scrubs on.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

A rendezvouz with exotic Badian Island

Scouting for a beach venue for a company activity, we hied off to Badian Island Resort over the weekend. After a smooth 2-hour drive from the city, we were eager to experience that patch of paradise reputed for its dive site and spa retreat. The splendid island hideaway made it to the list of 10 Best Diving Resorts worldwide in 2006. Our fleeting encounter was captivating enough; the mystic island took our breaths away that day.

Welcoming us on the pier, the genuine smile of the Badian staff spoke of a promise to provide guests with a delightful escape from the rash city life. And indeed as sun shone madly, the sand gently glistened as we walked barefoot passing through beach huts carefully lined on the shore. While we trekked silently on the way up the breezy suites and cabanas, local flowers abound provided splashes of color complementing the rich green foliage amid the lazy blue sky. The sea seemed to beacon perpetually from the hill making the panorama even more eye-catching. I fell in love with the serene tropical atmosphere. Only the occasional rustle of leaves roused my pensive mood.

Our Badian visit was heightened by the gentility of its hosts Hartwig Scholz and Maria Catral. Maria who I learned is an Ilocana, is an epitome of a remarkable Filipina – her subdued elegance is truly admirable.

Badian, I am looking forward to the day you will claim me again...

A quiet, rustic paradise



A jacuzzi and tub fit for the weary soul



A postcard view of the outdoors from the room

Saturday, February 23, 2008

The night I Stubled Upon

I just discovered a new way to explore sites of my interest thru Stumble Upon – it was so great that I enjoyed wandering the World Wide Web and bumping into sites I like. In a way, it will help me uphold this blog’s purpose to log my wanderings in the web, among others... The images for instance awakened my artist wannabe persona, the library resources were oh so exciting ( I hope I will adapt a patience to read e-books this time), and the snippets of tech materials made me felt big (at least from a tech newbie's perspective) . In my web adventures, Stumble Upon will surely make a good company.

These are some great sites I’m glad I stumbled upon:

Bibliomania

Photoshop Tips and Tricks

Artwork of Katerine Dinger




Kenneth Parker Photographs

Friday, February 15, 2008

Miles's Valentine

We were love struck this month as one of my friends tied the knot with her prince who came all the way from Nottingham, England. Theirs is a wonderful love story worth retelling - Miles or Milagros as we fondly call her, then qualified for an MBA program at Nottingham University around five years ago when, despite the grueling two years of graduate studies, somehow managed to meet a fine man, Calvin, at local pub, during one of her after class night outs with grad school classmates. Fast forward 2008 - their wedding took place at a chapel in Mactan Cebu one breezy February afternoon. Everyone was in high spirits as the sun displayed its majestic splendor and despite the presence of a tad annoying wedding coordinator, the church ceremony went well. The reception set on a beach theme in Plantation Bay was splendid; the usual Filipino wedding ritual was punctuated by some unwitting remarks of the wedding coordinator cum host cum singer entertainer, whew! Good thing I was seated beside the priest celebrant, Fr. Donal O’ Hanlon of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban who chatted about his wonderful adventures from Ipil to London – it managed to keep my attention away from the wedding coordinator (stop laughing Kin! :)). But the stars of the night, Calvin and Miles who exchanged adoring looks all throughout, felt exultant to be wed at last!


Monday, February 11, 2008

Meeting Kin

After more than ten long years I finally met Kin – my nerd of a high school classmate who is best remembered as a science adoring, technology manic whiz kid. Seeing him show up at another classmate’s wedding looking almost exactly as he did years back brought an amused smile as memories from high school played like slideshow in my face. A scene depicting me and my other classmates laboring badly in our Physics and Algebra assignments while Kin, bored in his seat, was all set and ready with his computation and seamless solutions to those dreaded subjects, was just among the funny memories remembered. I learned that he indeed made use of his brains by becoming, according to him, a perennial student – earning two undergraduate degrees and currently on his way to obtaining an MS in Computer Science while authoring two tech textbooks on the side. And his interests never waned after all these years – science, astronomy or technology or a sensible mix of all these (see photo of a galacticship orbiting the earth below grabbed from his blog); and as he blogs about them, I cannot help but feel delighted seeing Kin and his old usual self. Now, even as he makes this world his ant farm, it is still Kin all this time.