Thursday, February 09, 2006

12:10 AM | Some Things

1.

To all Dumaguete workshop fellows over the years: Mom Edith was in the hospital recently because she had mild dengue. Your prayers for her quick recovery would certainly be nice. And I really hope you can visit this summer. That should cheer her up: all her children at her feet.

2.

Dominique Cimafranca has an interesting take on the Wowowee tragedy and the existence of a caste system in the Philippines.

3.

Bennett Miller's Capote was a strange, perhaps even nauseating, experience. I like it, but it left me with dread -- the same kind you get when you've drank too much coffee on an empty stomach. More than a snapshot of the famous literary lion in the middle of researching and writing In Cold Blood (Salon has a good article about its writing), it is also an indictment of writers -- how we can be vampires of real lives, to make our own fiction or non-fiction. Sometimes I feel that way, and sometimes it shames me. Just sometimes.

4.

What do you know? Let's take a look at my list. Bennett Miller's Capote. (Liked it.) Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. (Loved it.) George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck. (Admired it.) And Paul Haggis's Crash. (Hated it.) This leaves me Steven Spielberg's Munich as the only still-to-see in my Oscar best picture list. How's your score card?

5.

In Salon, philosopher Daniel Dennett argues that America is drowning in religion -- and that faith needs to be analyzed with the tools of science: "I'm proposing we break the spell that creates an invisible moat around religion, the one that says, 'Science stay away. Don't try to study religion.' But if we don't understand religion, we're going to miss our chance to improve the world in the 21st century. Just about every major problem we have interacts with religion: the environment, injustice, discrimination, terrible economic imbalances and potential genocide. In our own country, the religious attitudes of people are clearly interfering with the political discussion. So if we fail to understand why religions have the effects they do on people, we will screw up our efforts to solve these problems." True.

6.

Ari is back! Pupu-platter has a post on the history of gold in the Philippines.

7.

Manuel L. Quezon III considers the Imeldific connection to the Ultra tragedy.

8.

With the film adaptation of Dan Brown's (highly stupid) The Da Vinci Code fast coming our way, the Opus Dei is in virtual panic. Can you say image problems?

9.

I should just stop procrastinating, stop blogging, and go back to finishing my story for the Fully Booked contest.

Labels: film, philippine literature, religion

[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich

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