Thorned Rose

9th Cinemalaya 2013

Friday, August 09, 2013

Cinemalaya season went by so fast! The 9th Cinemalaya is bigger than ever adding ATC to it's list of Cinemas where you can view some of Cinemalaya entries along with Trinoma and Greenbelt Cinemas. As for me and Gilbert (my best friend and Cinemalaya buddy), CCP is and I think will always be our cinema of choice. Watching Cinemalaya has been our sort of thing that we do and highly anticipate every year.

This year's theme is "Cinesthesia" --Synergy of the Senses. Synergy it was! Every film has a different theme/story. That's what I love about Indie films, they are so unpredictable. There aren't much of what they call poverty porn. I noticed that each film does not only tell a story but they have their own advocacy centered on various issues such as child abuse, foreign affairs, apathetic society etc. I'll write about the movies I've watched on a different post but for now here are some of the pics I have. :)

My Cinemalaya tickets which we got in advance. Yes, we have to buy tix in advance now. Since Cinemalaya got bigger, most of the films get sold out if you buy within the day of its showing. Here's a tip: Know the movie scheds in advance, plot selected movies in an organized manner to fit your schedule so you can buy tickets in advance.

The mandatory pic with Cinemalaya poster in the background.

New Breed and Director's showcase posters, movie still pictures and some memorabilias.

I really like David F's beheaded set up here. Kind of freaky. :)

I always love Gilbert's Paparazzi shots. teehee. Here's his shot of Ms. Eugene Domingo after we watched here entry Instant Mommy.

Met the writer, Mr. Ricky Lee again. He's always so gracious, such a charming man.

With Direk Joey Reyes. He directed last year's entry Mumunting Lihim which starred Judy Ann Santos and Iza Calzado. Found out he didn't join this year because he's part of the screening committee.

My two besties Camille and Gilbert. They look so cute! Haha!

Inside Nicanor Abelardo theater before David F was shown.

Hanging out in Starbucks after. We were joined by our friend Rey. :)

Always have a feeling like Christmas has come early everytime I see the Cinemalaya sign in front of the CCP.

Syempre, se-selfie shot din ako. Haha! Nah. This one was "almost" stolen. Anyway, I promise to write a review about some of the movies we were able to watch on my next posts.

Ciao for now!

films

Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club

Monday, July 15, 2013

"We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to ask us to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms, in the most convenient of definitions." -Brian, The Breakfast Club

I've been curious about The Breakfast Club since I heard about it in (ta-dah!) Pitch Perfect with Jesse gushing about how it is one of the best musically scored movies of all time. (Queue music: "Don't you forget about me...")

I didn't expect much from it though. The plot's really a cliche of what a typical high school is. We have five kids from different cliques spending one Saturday of detention. The setting just revolved with all five inside the library and the whole movie is all about the 8-hours they spent inside and where they weren't allowed to eat, sleep or even study. So there's Claire (the princess), Andy (the Sporty), Brian (the Brain), Allison (the Basketcase/the emo kid) and Bender (the criminal/the rebel).

You'll find that the first few minutes of the film involved a lot of fighting between Bender, Claire and Andy. Out of shared boredom, they bonded over smoking pot that Bender sneaked in the library. With shared stories about why they're in detention and their troubled family life, the story ended with all of them being friends.

Predictable as the story is, I think many can relate to the story. Not fitting in, academic and peer pressure and not knowing what it is that you really want for yourself.

I can't even place myself on what clique I belong to when I think about high school. I'm not the prom princess or one of the "It" girls, I am not a rebel or emo and certainly don't make an effort or show concern about keeping straight A's. I'm so normal it's weird. I am just me. Simple, regular and average.

A scene that got me was when Brian asked what’ll happen on Monday when they get back to their own friends and groups to which Claire answered in all honesty, “No.” They weren’t going to be friends come Monday. They have to get back to their crowd and will eventually ignore each other.

See? That’s why Don’t you forget about me makes real sense. Especially the line: “When you walk on by will you call my name?” It’s because of that scene. It’s because of Monday—Monday they may never be friends anymore. On Monday, they may say hi to each other but call the other names after the other passes by because they’re afraid of what their “friends” might think.

Movies nowadays have OST’s na sobrang layo sa theme ng movie. Now I understand why Jesse said this movie has one of the best musical scores of all time.

Anyway, that scene made me think about my high school days. I don’t know, this was American High School and an American movie. Where I come from, I became friends with different kinds of people. I wanted variety. Feeling ko nabo-bobo ako if I hang out with just one group. I think you can learn so many things by interacting with different kinds of people.

Gasgas na pero “Don’t judge the book by its cover.” Everything and everyone change after high school. Yung mga akala mong walang future, they’re doing good for themselves now. I may not be close to some of them but I’m happy for the good changes in their lives. Some of us are accountants, still studying (for Masters, Law, Medicine or whatever), teachers, engineers, cooks or architects. Many of in our batch are even moms and dads to their darling kids now and high school sounds like ages ago.

I enjoyed my high school life. My best and closest friends are from the same high school as well.

So it saddens me when I hear the news about bullying, suicide and all that with kids these days. I hope they find it in their young mind and hearts that you are not defined by how you look like, the group you belong to, grades and most certainly not by number of ex’s you had. Over the years, you’ll learn that you do not know it all and that there’s still so much to learn.

In the end what I’m really thankful about high school are the friends I’d kept over the years. Knowing I have people who were there and will be there when I needed them to be.

Anyway I give it a 3.5 over 5. The director, waited for a good timing to present the vulnerable side of the characters. It was written by the late John Hughes who also wrote another film that's close to my "kiddie" heart--Home Alone and Home Alone 2 -Lost in New York. He's good in making the audience fall in love with the characters.

Would I recommend The Breakfast Club? Surely! Go watch it and reminisce about your own high school days. J

mountain climbing

Sky High Dreams

Monday, January 28, 2013

places and spaces

711 RUN 800 Fun Run

Sunday, January 27, 2013

On January 20, 2013, I checked one thing off my bucket list. I ran in a Fun Run. Haha! I wouldn't call it a "marathon" because one of the first things I learned as a beginner was that a marathon is a 42 km run, which would make 21 km a half-marathon and my humble 5 km... nothing! LOL.

I started jogging last November because I got worried about not sweating too much, it's not normal anymore! When temperature gets too high, my body just gets too hot. I still don't break a sweat but if you hold my hand, you'll wonder if I have a fever or something. And then I'll end up nose bleeding. So yeah. I figured I have to help my body too. There's no gym near our house with a decent instructor (at least, not that I know of) and I don't enjoy pulling some weights anymore. So what I did was buy a decent--and cheap enough running shoes and googled some running/jogging tips for beginners. I am still not comfortable with the term "running" because if ever Zombies invades the world and try to eat everyone's brains, my "running" pace will get what's left of my brain eaten. But what the heck! Okay, running.

I didn't enjoy running at first but I really pushed myself to run as much as I can to make it a habit because I know I just have to. I am not even running regularly yet when my good friend, Alison texted me one day asking if I want to join Run 711 so I was really hesitant to say yes. I mean, joining a decent running event has been a dream of mine but I didn't plan for it to be this soon. But my dear ole' friend texted me the registration details and we were registered in a matter of minutes. When I got the email confirming our registration I thought: What the hell was I thinking?!

Initially, I was really thinking of flaking and just paying Alison the registration fee. Yes, I was that scared. I was scared of passing out in the middle of the run! Aside from that, I wanted to do a 3k first just to test the waters---and Ali registered me to a 5k.

Moi after the run

My friend, Ali after the run (my gosh he's so payat! teehee)

Come race day I was half excited and still nervous of passing out mid-race but I looked at my fellow runners. You can just inhale the energy coming from everyone!

Then the race started and I was starting to get disappointed with myself. The first few minutes I felt road suddenly became wider and all I could think of was how the other runners are passing by me while I was so ready to WALK the rest of the race! Haha.

On the 2nd kilometer I noticed other runners slowing down and that's when I reminded myself that I have my own pace and that the reason I joined the run was to prove to myself that I can--not to Ali (who is by the way the fastest runner I know), not to my brother who's skeptical of me running and certainly not to my fellow runners but to myself. :)

From there I found myself picking up pace and actually running the rest of it overtaking other runners as well. Upon making a u-turn on the 5km turn over, the run felt easier. I may sound dramatic but the last few kilometers, I was just smiling and staring at the beautiful, cloudy blue sky. I was literally thanking God of the gift of good health, that I can run and most especially that I am about to finish my first 5km run.

The last half mile Paramore's "That's What You Get (When you let your heart win)" played on my mp3. That was the exact moment I saw the finish line. Oh what a joy! I was just so happy to prove to myself that I can. When the part of the song went, "..Why do we like to hurt so much?" I was shaking my head and asked myself: "Yeah, why?" and smiled. Maybe really am a masochist. Maybe because the pain makes me feel alive. And as I crossed the finish line, man did I really feel alive! Now I know what runner's high is. :)

So here I am surfing the web for the next fun run. Maybe I'll end up doing a 10 km soon. Besides, I learned running's mutually beneficial since you'll be able to help a charity a Fun Run's supporting and you get to be healthy by running. Plus those freebies don't hurt at all. So I thank my dear friend Ali for not giving me a chance to back out (because I could have!) and for all the pep talks--kahit minsan parang bola lang. :)

And you dear reader, when you stop reading I dare you to do something you never thought you can do. It may not be running but I dare you, challenge yourself. Live!