Urian nominations

Baby Angelo grabbed a couple of nominations for the 2009 Urian Awards (the only local award-giving body that matters, IMHO), which was two more than I actually expected, so, yay.

Archie Alemania is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as M.D., and my buddy Cristina Honrado is nominated for Production Design. Cristina is already an Urian winner for her work in Lav Diaz’ Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino. I’m especially happy that Archie’s work was noticed for such a small role. He played against type and was wonderful to work with.

That said I’m a little disappointed that Jojit Lorenzo, Katherine Luna (though she’s nominated for another movie) and Ces Quesada weren’t recognized for their performances. They were so low-key and grounded and played their ensemble roles well.

Once again indie films dominated the awards. Mainstream, take a hint.

Full list of nominees here. I hope Francis X Pasion’s Jay wins the whole thing, for the record.

Things fall down.

And people look up.

And when it rains, it pours.

–

Get up Joe.

“Answer the question, Claire.”

John Hughes

1950-2009

To the king of American teen movies, may you rest in peace.

My top John Hughes films:

1. The Breakfast Club

When I first saw this in the eighties (I was a pre-teen) I thought, wow this movie is DEEP. Hughes wrote this in two days and shot in sequence, and the actors ad-libbed many of the scenes; which is why the movie feels so real. Sure, this is America and not third-world Manila, but we all could relate.

There are so many good scenes in the movie but the ending left a long, lingering impression.

2. She’s Having a Baby

This one’s not a teen movie but this scene below killed me when I first saw it.

3. Sixteen Candles

Molly Ringwald. Anthony Michael Hall. And of course, Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong.

Again lots of good scenes, like Molly’s grandparents feeling her up, but this scene between Molly and Anthony was sincere, touching and damn funny.

4. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Just way too much fun.

Carlo vs. the World

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.” -John F. Kennedy

Yesterday on the treadmill I watched Carlo Caparas make a fool of himself on ANC as he defended himself regarding that scandalous, entirely undeserved National Artist Award. He, with shades and all, was flanked on either side by writer Butch Dalisay and critic Alexis Tioseco. Of the ten minutes I saw, Caparas’ defense was solely based on him being masa and the people against him being elitist academics.

*groan*

Butch Dalisay with calm diplomacy informed him in so many words, you’re just not good enough, I don’t give a flying fuck if you can draw; and Alexis gave him a spanking by telling him that the movies of previous National Artists for Film (Brocka, Bernal, etc) were hardly what you would call elitist and academic. It was so pathetic I couldn’t even watch anymore. Still, I couldn’t help but feel for the guy. He’s clearly not the villain. And why should he return the Award? It’s a 1M a year grant and a monthly stipend.

Learned that the Funeral mourning the death of the National Artist Award (I love this community– such a flair for the dramatic) was dispersed due to the rains and people had trouble getting rides, and so the entire thing fizzled out on its way to the NCCA. Yes, there’s nothing scarier than a bunch of wet artists clad in black pumping their fists in the air.

Random Friday Thoughts

-Woke up the right time (8 am) but slept in just cause it was so cold out. Sleeping in with the rain is one of the best feelings in the world, I half expected my Mom to come in and announce school was cancelled for the day.

-Light day at work for me, but not for everyone else, so I went to the gym over lunch, skipping the prawns Cristina brought to the office today, but not without snatching one on my way out for a lunch workout.

-Had Korean for lunch and a business meeting afterwards. Exciting stuff. Waited on Tracy, Monster and Mario to finish work though I was starving already by the time they were done (9 or so PM).

-Vastly prefer Twitter now over anything else. Today I got my first celebrity reply, from Armi Millare of UpDharmaDown, now I’m really a huge fan and when she replied, I got really kilig. But you know I just acted cool, didn’t use smileys or exclamation points, just periods and short sentences, no gushing. Reminded me of the time I first met Michael V, I also acted cool, chatted about the weather, the movie we were about to make; I was all pithy and interesting, but I was in truth SHITTING MY PANTS.

-Dinner was with the chums at Lorenzo’s Way in Greenbelt; crispy pata, gising-gising and bamboo rice. The crispy pata wasn’t that crispy, but the meat was tender and wonderful. I quit meat for 14 years before becoming a “flexitarian” last year, which probably explains why afterwards  I felt a little nauseous.

-Drinks afterwards at Corinne’s where we watched the latest episode of Top Chef Masters, though my interest in this season is cut in half by the absence of Padma Lakshmi, replaced instead by this Asian lady with a big head whose job it is to state the obvious in a peppy, TV hosty voice.

Goodbye Madame President

Corazon Aquino

1933-2009

Farewell. Here’s hoping that this time, we won’t soon forget.

Illustration by Anita Kunz for Time Magazine.