Can I Take Your Smile Home With Me?

over the weekend we had a blast drinking ourselves silly. my boyfriend doesn't do alchohol, though. he says he is way past his alchohol drinking age limit and he learned from a bad lesson from yesteryears. so he just sits there while we get our faces hammered.

there are some parts of me that get giving up alchohol, some that do not. i know full well the effects of downing an ungodly amount of liquid crazy. but come on, avoiding it all together? (haha, i'm sounding like an alchohol addict - but i'm not). i know my limits.

i believe in responsible drinking. i visualize a speedometer that instead of measuring speed, it measures how inebriated i am. i call it my booze'o'meter (it's funnier in tagalog). and instead of numbers, the pointer would fall on levels of crazy (c for short). 100c (the tipsy with right kind of buzz, happy happy, dancing like a fool, giving a non-malicious kiss to beautiful strangers- but not out of control level) is my limit. i slam the brakes when i get there. when i was younger, i did some real stupid things going past that. destroying public property being a part of the list. lol.

i noticed that my 100c now is different from my 100c when i was younger. i can take more of the liquid crazy in. sometimes i even surprise myself. i can hold my alchohol better now. i guess that's one thing i appreciate about getting older.

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Disney’s ‘Maleficent’ Will Begin Filming In June
Angelina Jolie will Play Maleficent, Elle Fanning in Talks to play Aurora

Back in January of 2010 we first learned that Tim Burton and Disney were planning to make a live-action film titled Maleficent that would focus on the villain of the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. A couple of months later, we learned that Angelina Jolie‘s name was being tossed around as the possible actress to play Maleficent. Since then, news on the project has been kind of quiet … until now. Today we learn that yes, Angelina will play Maleficent in the film and that filming production is scheduled to begin in June … but Tim Burton is no longer associated with the film. We also learn that young actress Elle Fanning (younger sister of Dakota Fanning who starred in Super 8) is in negotiations to play the other lead role, that of Princess Aurora / Briar Rose.
from: http://www.tr3nt.com/

that's Sleeping Beauty we're talking about here. is this the new Hollywood trend? now it's all about reimagining the fairy tales and more often, shifting the attention to either the villain or a bit character in the story. (wasn't this done in Hook?) vampires and werewolves are so 2010.

what's next? Jafar the Magnificent (his rise to grand vizier). or Genie and the 100 Arabians (a new look on what goes on in his bedroom full of scantily clad young boys). Gaston and Beauty (how he is a self-centered prick who finally meets someone prettier than him), or how about Ursula: The Wonder Years (a detailed exposition on the tradgedies in the life of an innocent squidwoman who got sexually abused by her step dad that led to the maniacal octopus we have now).

sigh. the possibilities are endless.

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speaking of disney, don't you just love singing? i know i do.

for my Jenna's birthday bash (her "thirty-eenth") i had the idea of combining what she and group love: eclectic music and singing. i wanted it to go a little further than collating her favorites - i thought of us actually singing the songs!

so weeks prior to the bash, i gathered the gang in secret (without her, of course!) and had them pick a song they wanted, i scoured the interwebs for mp3s of the instrumentals, printed out the lyrics, booked a reservation at an actual recording studio (professional, baby!) and boom! the makings of a full fledged album.

since it's one of her favorite movies,the album is called: No Other Jenna. complete with my digital artwork as the cd cover.



of course, the pictures are covered. haha.

 the album turned out great! the sound engineer was a master of his craft. i loved the whole experience. i can only imagine what the professionals actually go through to do this. watch out world, for volume 2! lol.

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pet peeve# 245: you know that time when you go to the office pantry and pay for your food? after you pay, the cashier would give you your change by handing over your money and it passes OVER the food? i really hate it.  i can imagine an invisible germ army fly down from the money over to your food. ick.

when i see the lady about to do it, i instinctively move my food tray out of the way. and she gives me a "you're weird" kind of look. i just respond with a "well, you're gross" kind of look.

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happy hump day, everyone!

Movie Marathon 4

i have a fascination for foreign pink movies. the treatment, the settings, the social acceptance, may all be different, but the love is universal. thanks to the wonders of the internet (aka, torrents) i have a new one almost every other day. i will be putting up these movies. good or bad overall, for me they serve as a window. there's a whole wide world out there. we just need to open our eyes to the possibilities.

Author: Spleen


Another writer put his(?) finger on what had been bugging me: Steven and John really have nothing in common, apart from the fact that they're both gay; and it's not as if two people of opposite sexes both being heterosexual is enough to create a spark. (Ah, if only.) -Sure, they're both typically randy seventeen-year-olds; but we're told that THIS relationship, unlike Steven's furtive sexual encounters and John's mechanical fling with an underwear model, is special. Really? I would have liked to have SEEN the relationship - the actual, first-order relationship, not just John and Steven's second-order talk about it.

This brings me to the main reason I found "Get Real" hard to enjoy: it seems to consist entirely of painfully protracted, hesitant, fumbling, conversations in which neither side has any idea what he or she wants to talk about. When Steven first meets John - when he first meets ANYONE - it seems that all he can do is um and ah and look at the ground. -Realistic? Perhaps, but it just goes to show how little realism is worth, if it means we have to sit through one slow, awkward scene after another for 110 minutes. For this reason I wasn't so bothered by the speech at the end. That was awkward, too; but at least it showed that Steven had managed to string words together into coherent and reasonably fluent paragraphs. About time.

I'm reminded of the (few) films I've seen about the social ostracising of gays, like "The Sum of Us" and "Boys Don't Cry"; they, too, have colourless, under-defined central characters and relationships. If the central romance is heterosexual, writers feel the need to create some kind of special something to make it interesting to outsiders; if it's homosexual, that fact alone is felt to be enough. -This is less true of the romance in "Boys Don't Cry". But then, that relationship isn't really gay.

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for me, the movie has its moments. i probably would have appreciated it more if i'd seen it 10 years ago, back when i was still a teenager struggling for an identity. but seeing it now, it's more fluff than substance. nonetheless, there are still golden moments. 


i would have given it an 8 out of 10 ten years ago but factoring in the onset of age (and hopefully, wisdom) i'm giving it a 6 out of 10.  hehe

Movie Marathon 3

haven't done this for a while, i have a backlog of movies i've seen over the past few monthS. i just love watching movies from overseas. the crap we get here in the guise of  "indie films" are already getting on my nerves. when can local directors/producers move past the poverty porn type of "film making"? oh well. in the meantime, there's torrent. ha!

Beautiful Thing (1996)

Author: (colin-308)
Heart-wrenching performances, a witty and sensitive (but never sappy) script, and characters so real they could walk off the screen: these aren't usually things to be found in gay-themed movies, but Beautiful Thing has all of them and more. Where Brokeback Mountain left me devastated and believing happiness couldn't ever last (I will never watch it again), and Latter Days is a prime example of style over substance, Beautiful Thing makes me feel like love is out there and it's really worth fighting for. It has stayed with me vividly and powerfully since I first saw it, and I continue to watch parts of it often.

I don't know if Glen Berry or Scott Neal could have realized what an impact this film would have on some viewers, but I wish I could thank them for bringing such humanity, realism, and likability to the roles of Jamie and Ste. Linda Henry, too, in the brilliant role of Sandra, gives a performance worthy of an Oscar, and Sandra's boyfriend Tony (played perfectly by Ben Daniels) is hilarious and surprisingly endearing. The script is not self-conscious or saccharine; it is uplifting without being preachy, and tender without being grating. If you're gay or just a human being with empathy and understanding (and a good sense of humor -- the script is terribly clever and the film really benefits from multiple viewings), Beautiful Thing is an experience you should not miss. It's a film I will cherish forever, enhanced by the music of Mama Cass Elliot (who was truly gifted and whose death was a great loss).

Favorite scenes (though almost every scene is really a favorite): the "Make Your Own Kind of Music" chase in the woods (I may love this scene more than anything else ever), the bedroom scenes with Jamie and Ste, and the final sequence, (featuring Mama Cass's beautiful "Dream a Little Dream of Me") which I will not spoil -- I envy the first-time viewer, who is in for a huge treat. I like to think that Jamie and Ste live on forever in the final shot, the future uncertain but the present a greater joy than they had ever known, their love a small but bright glimmer of hope in an otherwise gray world.

personally, i give it a 7.6 out of 10. just took it down by .2 of point because of the hideous 90's fashion. haha. but overall, i recommend it for the hollywood ending. finally, nobody dies in the end! take that, asian gay movies!

Movie Marathon 2

Keillers Park tells the story of a man who blossomed late in life. the allure of a pretty young boy toy swept him off his senses. how much are you willing to sacrifice is the movie's tagline. in the protagonist's case, everything.

there were some good points and some really cliche-ic ones about the moviE. we've seen it all before. a 30-something repressed man on the doorstep of marriage, suddenly getting conflicting emotions about who he really is.

good points: i like how the movie featured two men who are borderline attractivE. by that i mean they are not celluloid-ready drop dead gorgeous demigods who you will never see in real life. they are accessible-attractive: these are the guys you would see in your office, or in the bar or pretty much everywhere else and would make you go: hmm...pwede.

i like movies that respect your intellecT. shots that show non-speaking parts that tell a whole gamut of emotions. this movie runs plenty of such moments.

Peter, the main character is a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth. he was at the threshold of inheriting his father's architecture firm. he was about to get married to a homely lady. their lives were mapped out in front of them. that is until one faithful encounter.

Nassim is a frivolous, flambouyant free spirit. you know those "artist" types (read: beautiful, creative, and poor). he dances to beat of his own drums. he sets Peter's gray world on fire.

cliche: peter gives up everything for Nassim. he gets disowned. he hurts the soon-to-be blushing bride and possibly scars her psychologically for life after the way he admits what he really is. his perfect life, gone in a flash all because he yearned for Nassim. he was overtaken by a primal love.

eventually Nassim becomes over the top obnoxious and out of control. and for those who dig these kind of things: there's a lengthy frontal nudity. (warning though: of the flaccid kind). soon, the once "perfect couple" existence gave way to "familiarity breeds contempt".

what is not a cliche though is how the actors reacted to the sadness that wrought their lives. there were no crying-in-the-shower scene with matching sliding downwards to a seating/fetal position. how they cried, how they said their lines, how they fucked and climaxed (5 minutes sex, tops) are all based on real life. Nassim can somehow be a celluloid metaphor for all of those exes we've had that left us after we grew "predictable" for their "tastes". burn them! burn them all! (hehe)

cliche: there is no happy ending. just see it for yourself. they just had to do it.

i'd give it a 6.5 out of 10. i'll add a .50 more for the understated yet really compelling acting from some of the support cast.

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lazy Saturday at home.

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my mom's been discharged from the hospital. i am so relieved. she's doing well with the recuperation.

Movie Marathon

thanks to the power of the internet, i've been able to make my free time worthwhilE. award winning films from the world over. first on my highly recommended list:

Einaym Pkuhot (Eyes Wide Open)

Chris Knipp best puts it into words:

What happens if you're a married man with children in an ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem and you fall in love and lust with a beautiful young man? Couples counseling? A divorce and a move to San Francisco with your lover? No. Something much more dire, as we learn from this simple, powerful first film in Hebrew by Haim Tabakman.

You get a brief period of happiness. Aaron (Zohar Shtrauss) in fact tells his rabbi that he was dead before, and now he feels alive. A beautiful 22-year-old orthodox man named Ezri, (Israeli hearthrob Ran Danker) turns up during a heavy rainstorm at Aaron's butcher shop just after he's reopened it following his father's death. Aaron probably realizes the minute he sees Ezri that he is a temptation. But he subscribes to the belief that the man who lives successfully close to temptation earns greater favor with God. He's come to see life as testing, not joy.

Without much pushing, Aaron takes in Ezri, who's from somewhere else and seems to be a Yeshiva student in search of a Yeshiva, appears (to the viewer, anyway) to have arrived to look up a former boyfriend -- does Ezri represent fresh blood in the ultra-orthodox world? -- and needs a job and a place to stay. Ezri smiles; Aaron never does. Aaron's scenes with his wife Rivvka (Tinkerbell) are dutiful, affectionate, and incredibly dull. He pushes Ezri away at first, but as Ezri becomes a part of his life, learning how to do the work of a butcher, his attraction becomes stronger. After a number of physical contacts and a trip to the country to immerse themselves together in a lake, it's Aaron who comes after Ezri, wordlessly, after they've loaded a big animal carcass into the cooler. Tabakman and the writer Merav Doster create a world in which you know exactly what people are thinking when they only stare at each other. The values and the desire to override them are equally clear.