Maligayang Pasko!

Skunkeye’s holidays were low-key and pleasant. My folks are back in the area so I didn't go nowhere out of town. From all accounts I’m glad I wasn’t stranded at an airport or stuck in a snowstorm (although the monsoon hit me as I was leaving work Thursday and I was soaked to the bone!)

I always forget what a ghost town the city becomes on Christmas weekend. Yesterday when I got back to the hood I went for a stroll and the only people who were out and about seemed to be me and the crazies (not entirely mutually exclusive, mind you). One of the few people I ran into offered to sell me a "button blade"…
which would all be quite depressing except that the holidays were very nice and I was actually eager to escape the family for a bit ("Ummm, the wedding is
long over can we stop talking about how wonderful it was okay…??").

They are all at The Beach House for the week and I wish I could be there (if anything to catch up on my reading - received quite a few good books this year including the latest from Paul Theroux and the new Isamu Noguchi biography), but I have to work and can't take time off at the moment. Christ, its cold right now!

I’m so spoiled - received from my parents a handsome and huge antique Korean chest and a beautiful signed Anita Magsaysay Ho (for those of you not in the know she's been declared a Philippines National Living Treasure and her work has sold for record prices at the auctions, in addition to being the mother of a very dear friend). My uncle gave me a cool hand-painted "coiffure" sign to add to my collection.

The family also had a nice visit with my grandmother at The Home. She was in very good spirits and enjoyed the company and the gifts. In addition to a ton of books (complete David Sedaris, Patricia Highsmith bio), I gave her a book stand so she can read hard-bound materials again.

I quite enjoyed A Very Long Engagement. Its not for everyone, especially those English Patient/Amelie-phobes but really the film is so epic and far-ranging in scale and genre - there's something for everyone. Very beautiful use of CGI. I also saw Spanglish- what the
hell was that!!!! I've always liked Tea Leoni and was curious to see how Paz Vega worked out in her first American feature so I paid my $6.75 matinee despite terrible reviews. The acting was good although I do feel Vega, for all her charms and Natalie Wood-like beauty, was miscast as the domestic pure of soul. I mean… Sex & Lucia?… and they gave her a spray-on tan so she'd look more ethnic- god, that movie was just off-putting in every imaginable way! I'm not going to bother looking up the writing credits but Spanglish was such a mish-mash - sometimes it was seemed to be trying to be Imitation of Life, at other points it was rehashing sitcom formulas or a coming-of-age melodrama or biting social commentary, and ultimately the audience loses sympathy with any of the characters - they all are just that awful! Some weird kaka going on with James L. Brooks!

My spirits are very low about the terrible situation in South and Southeast Asia right now in the aftermath of the calamity. I've experienced massive earthquakes and volcanoes while living in that region but nothing compares to this and it is a terrible reminder of how volatile and unpredictably destuctive the elements are on the Pacific Rim. I can't even bring myself to watch the footage on television. Devastating. We have several stringers in Aceh – a region that is way messed up to begin with - that we can't reach and I pray none of my friends were vacationing in Phuket for the Christmas holidays (which is a popular activity). My heart goes out to those many tens of thousands who are lost and the millions who are suffering right now.

Ay, I’m just going to kick back and enjoy some Pasko music, the best holiday tunes ever, make you cry and feel joy at the same time!

Here is the image that I wanted to head this entry with – a true classic - but my brokedown jeepney of a laptop ain’t cooperating… sayang.

Also, please congratulate my pare Torn & Frayed on a first year of excellent work (oops, I thought it was his one-year anniversary - actually its his birthday...ed.)and make sure, dibah, you take the moment to vote for his site in this years’ Asia Blog Awards!

Comments

[Jeff]

Happy holidays! (I'm reminded of a record entitled "Tipong Pasko" that my parents used to play at Christmas when I was a kid. Time to find that thing again.)

[Roberto]

Maligayang pasko, pare! I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend M's despedida (walang time, unfortnately.) I heard from M. and read on your website that the party was an all night RIOT! Galing!