the yapping mutts

i have three fun-size dogs, a mom and her two daughters. they're luka, orci, and dora, respectively. the daughters are almost two come november. luka is more than five years old. i "inherited" her along with her late hubby, dino.

anyway, they've been invading my bedroom for a year now and i try best not to smell like them. i've kept the two young ones away from people and they have yet to walk along the street. orci got away once and ran. perhaps she got lost because she entered the other compound and what worried me was that there was a doberman there, male at that. so, i had to carry her back.

i had expected them to be polite to cats. however, they're not too keen on kitty cats and will bark at every sound the cats make outside the house. last night was awful. luka kept barking her lungs out. i thought there might have been a cat in the house and the dogs were just too uncomfortable with the cat sleeping on top of the shelves.

i usually let them bark as i knew they will tire out. after two hours of barking and the three of them running up and down, i gave up. i decided to hit the sack earlier hoping that they will follow. i was wrong. for another hour, they kept barking. even dora who was always docile, started to be restless as well. finally, i went down to check what the fuss was all about. by this time, luka was already barking for almost four hours, stopping for a drink or so.

i was so distraught when i saw a cat caught in between the screen and the glass panels of the window. there was no way i can free the cat by poking it as she had her body wrapped around the iron grills as well. she was growling as well. no wonder the dogs were so excited. she probably made the mistake of finding a warmer place to sleep not realizing the dogs were around. so, the cat was stuck and the dogs were yapping and it was after midnight.

i decided to lock all four of us in the bedroom to give time for the cat to regain her wits and escape. i prayed the cat wasn't hurt as i wouldn't want to wake up with a stiff figure in that awkward place. my action led to the predictable reaction of orci who kept jumping up and down the bed and attempting to scratch my face.

that's the difference between orci and dora. orci does not know her strength and would just scratch with all might and sharp nails. several times has she poked my eyes or heavily scratched my arm. she's hyper, too. dora, meanwhile, is the gentle one. she'll sleep her way around a problem if she could. she's always at my feet when i work and would be the first to be on the bed the moment i shut down the computer. she'll smell me closely but i'm confident she won't scratch me or hit me with her paw.

funny, but dora is the crazier one. she recently became playful, rather turning into a prankster. after i have cleaned the floor and placed the newspapers in their pooping area, dora will run across it the moment i leave. in less than a minute, the newspapers are in disarray and when i turn to her, she would run away. perhaps, to escape her being guilty, of course. her other trick is to poop after i have the clean newspapers neatly placed on the floor. again, she would run away after i would notice what she had done. when i'm cleaning, they're in the yard. luka does her thing outside with dora and orci watching. i hoped they'd pick up the habit but they never did. as for punishment, i have no idea what to do with dora.

back to the cat incident ---

so, when i woke up, i went down to look for the cat. i was so happy that the cat wasn't there anymore and there was no trace of blood.

right now, luka and dora are sleeping at my feet. orci is sleeping on a step of the stairs. all is quiet. the cats have abandoned my home for now.

Movie Review: No Other Woman: The mistress-wife relationship: a review

for almost a month, no other woman, has been ravaging box office results in the country. well, if we do the math, if it grossed P220M and a ticket costs P161, approximately 1.3M have watched it at the cinema. this doesn't account for the pirated copies, of course.

the strength of this movie belongs to what the two co-producers do best. viva comes in with its tight script and witty dialogue, while star cinema comes with its eye for the production. this is also a movie that has a good script and can work regardless of who the actors are but the director and the whole production team has to be intact.

let's not forget the formula. other than the witty dialogue that every filipino can relate to (allusion rich as far as the context of the Philippines is concerned), the movie had less than the usual confrontation scenes. there were only a few slapping, crying, violent, over acting scenes. everything was done with precision and subtlety. the fighting scene at the end was needed because no filipino wife-mistress drama would be complete without any physical scene. remove that scene, the movie will not lose anything because it has other things going for it. the locations were maximized showing only what was necessary of the grandeur of the resort, the homes, the stores, and the restaurants.

another plus point is that sex was not a marketing gimmick. if the love scenes were edited out, the movie will still hold but it is in these scenes that derek ramsey shows he can be a great dramatic actor. his eyes were bloodshot and close to tears when he was with kara the first time.

the story is simple. a very young couple, ram and cha, are happily married. ram, a former playboy, is a high-class furniture seller, whereas cha comes from a nouveau riche family and a housewife, of course. conflict begins when ram meets kara at a resort where his furniture will be part of the amenities. they meet in the sea where kara misses ram's bald head by a few inches.

so, the playboy in ram comes out and kara, finding out he's married, says the rule is to not fall in love with each other. things turn worse when cha discovers the affair and events logically fall into place after that. upon confirmation and confrontation, ram decides to end the affair. kara is cold and seemed not to mind it until ram brings cha to the resort.

at the resort, kara and cha engage in a cat fight and upon their return to manila, cha says no more because the whole incident is making her do who she is not (being sensual and wearing a bikini, having candles in the bedroom when all she wants to do is yoga, crochet, bake angry birds cupcakes). ram loses everything, mistress, wife, and business. one night, as he is closing his store, kara comes over and asks if they could talk. he refuses and drives his pick up as fast as he could but she has a topdown sportscar. predictably, he meets an accident that seems fatal but really, it's not.

at the hospital, kara is asked all the questions a wife should know the answer to. she says she's not his wife. she calls cha. cha is next seen at the chapel, rosary in hand, and kara talks to her. i now forget if she apologized but she did say it was all her fault and that ram should forgive her. ram wakes up and sees ... (i won't spoil it anymore) and years later, the scene shows ram with a baby ...

***************

come up with witty dialogue and put it in the trailer. BAM. viewers will watch it. i went to the cinema because i wanted to hear the actress, carmi martin, deliver that line, "itago mo na ang lucy torres, ilabas mo na si gretchen barreto. ako na ang bahala sa red stilleto," as an advice to her daughter, cha, who had just caught the ram-kara affair.

now, production wise, the scenes are well-staged down to the last detail except for the final scene. the make-up is right and appropriate. anne curtis, who plays kara, is one of those actresses who look pretty with minimal makeup and she registers well on the camera. thus, it was good to see her scenes on the beach without makeup. the same goes for cristine reyes, cha. her makeup and clothes are appropriate. since, she was dressed down, her sensuality didn't overshadow the movie.

acting wise, give these two three or four more movies of this type and they'll really do well. i disagree with critics who say that cristine's acting was overwhelmed by anne. i say she did well and at this point, i can't think of anyone who can match what she did. she fits the role well except for the part when she's crocheting. as for anne, she has had better exposure in the movies and in real life so she delivered. she's not exactly just a pretty face, she's a thinking and intelligent pretty face so that oozes out of her character as well. in one scene, prior to responding to ram's saying goodbye, her neck muscles moved. then, her tears came out of the right area of the eyes. (in most movies, tears come from the middle of the eyes. come on. real tears gather at the inner end of the eyes and fall down-like what anne curtis did)

critics have also minded carmi martin's face. they said she had botox allegedly done. nothing's wrong if that were true. her character called for it. however, i think production should have done something better for the character of her husband, played by john arcilla. years ago and a few pound less, he can match derek. his clothes, except for the party scene, were too shabby for the new moneyed. i wanted to see the real brands, not the sponsors' logo alone.





now, here are the low downs.

1. in the dinner scene when ram introduces cha to his boss, the dialogue went:
ram: i'd like you to meet my wife, sir.
boss: you are?
that was impolite. the correct response should have been: "i've hear much about you or glad to meet you."

2. ram is seen waiting at the lobby. the owner of the resort who is the father of kara, sees him.
mr. z: you've got a lot of nerve coming here. matagal ko ng alam....

why on earth is ram there after the scandal at the resort? unless, it shows how mucha loser he really was, that scene was just there so the other actor can have a moment.

the key to this scene was the dialogue:

mr.z: if you stop hating your father so much, you can become a better man.

3. alas, the viewers are never given a scene that showed that ram had reconciled with his father, played by ultimate crush, johnny revilla.

4. that baby in the final scene was dark-skinned that matched the sun-burnt skin of ram. half the audience at the cinema where i watched laughed at this scene.

i think the ending would have been if ram's father were also in that final scene. it's a good movie. the mistress-wife relationship will stay and can change if only marriage were taken seriously.

October 15 Feast day of St. Teresa de Avila

how strange that we commemorate as feast days, days of death. i grew up in a school run by the belgian icm nuns. eons later, i found myself spending four years teaching in the same institution. however, no one taught us about the patron saint and it was only in college, the patron of which happened to be the saint of teachers, that i discovered how great st. teresa was. in fact, her visions were termed as a form of ecstasy. modern times have given it a malicious connotation and heightened by the interpretation of bernini, it does seem to have such. it was even mentioned in angels and demons by dan brown. here's a link to a video i found about the ecstasy of st. teresa de avila.

do grades matter?

by day's end, numerical grades do matter until we rewire the educational system and the whole society with its obsession with numbers. what is important, really, is how you got the grade. were you honest in your quizzes, exams, reports? did you respect your teacher and your institution? what about your peers and parents? what's a passing grade when your heart knows you cheated or you refused to extend honest help to a classmate or you were cranky to your parents and little sibling because you were "studying" or you cursed your teacher every moment you could when he/she is not looking? good grades, compassion, honesty, and ability to change are the ones that matter.

of course, grades matter. good grades get you a raise in allowance, a new gadget, longer time to hang out with friends, extra licks from your dog, and strange kindness coming from peers, relatives, and parents! not to mention, that smile all over your face. : )

teacher's day 2011

since it's the official world teacher's day, allow me to take time to thank the teachers who made me get into the profession. there is actually just one from the old high school (see my FB for that photo) and quite a handful from college, most of them my professors in literature.

i just quit teaching this year. though the love is still there, i got exhausted. teaching has to be one of the most demanding and underpaid professions. never mind the pay but the emotional and the intellectual drain took its toll on me. not to mention that i had to drop a few friends and tons of events along the way. the heart gets tired, too. before the exhaustion reached my mind, i quit.

quit. period. quit. it's going to be a longer hiatus this time. my anti-social self is upfront so i am quite happy working at home and tending my garden of eight and a half pots.

since my life is full of ironies, i just did one ironic thing last month. with optimism and high expectations, i pray for positive results. it will be another ID and that's what makes me excited.