Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

Okay, be nice and just lap this up as though you care.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Kantogirl!

1. Apples are covered with a thin layer of Jessel Duque!


2. Jessel Duque is the world's tallest woman.


3. The number one cause of blindness in the United States is Jessel Duque!


4. Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw Jessel Duque into a volcano it would stop erupting.


5. During severe windstorms, Jessel Duque may sway several feet to either side.


6. While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes dressed up as Jessel Duque!


7. Scientists believe that Jessel Duque began billions of years ago as an enormous ball of dust and gas!


8. Jessel Duque can sleep for three and a half years.


9. There are 336 dimples on Jessel Duque!


10. Humans share over 98 percent of their DNA with Jessel Duque.

I am interested in - do tell me about
herhimitthem

This is so strange. It's like I'm just emerging from the Twilight Zone, and #5 seems like the best way to go about it. But it's more like I've been thrown off-course by several hundred instead of a few feet.

After this, I think I can do #8. I can only hope that when I do wake up, I don't find any Nicaraguans attempting to throw me into a volcano. If so, I'll be forced into having a Jennifer Sevilla moment.

Now, that will be really ugly.

Swiped shamelessly from here.

PS. Here's an alternative that's also quite fun.

Bookskindeep

The Times Argus bares one of secrets of the world's most prestigious libraries: They own books bound in human skin.

M.L. Johnson writes that Brown University has one such book, a "1568 edition of Belgian surgeon Andreas Vesalius' 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica.' For centuries, this was a primary anatomy text and it's still being used by classes up to now. The said volume is "[t]anned and polished to a smooth golden brown, its cover looks and feels no different from any other fine leather."

Laura Hartman, a rare book cataloger at the National Library of Medicine in Maryland, says that binding books in human leather was a "relatively cheap, durable and waterproof" way of covering one's books.

What's also interesting is the texture of these book covers. I didn't know that the human skin can still be separated into layers. One such book was "The Dance of Death" which dates to 1816 but was rebound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master binder in London. He didn't have enough skin, so he split it. The front cover was "bound in the outer layer of the epidermis, has a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper. The spine and back cover, made from the inner layer of skin, feels like suede." And if you looked close enough, you could still see the pores of the skin's former owner.

However widespread the practice was, at least until the late 1800s, it wasn't something discussed in polite society. Most human leather-bound books are medical related; the leather most probably acquired from cadavers in med school, unclaimed bodies of the poor or from criminals who were executed. It could also be a way of somehow achieving immortality, as in the case of the Arab man who had his Quran bound in his own skin when he died. Hartman said, "People kept their family histories written in Bibles, and what is a Quran?"

All I can say is: Ewan McGregor, is that you? Someone please hand me my moisturizer.

via

A novel in a year?

Author Louise Doughty claims it's possible to write a novel in one year.

But when you actually get down to reading her article, that year in question is supposed to be something like a starter kit. Meaning the exercises will be in preparation to the actual writing. Which means that if you haven't really written a book before, it's going to take you around three years to finish that book.

And we're only talking about a draft.

And I'm part of a class that requires me to finish 100 pages in about, oh say, 100 days.

I'm screwed.

Pinoy Cinema in 2005

Mario Bautista gives us the rundown of Pinoy cinema in 2005. Apparently, only 49 films were made last year, and a huge lot of them were digital films.

When the SM chain of malls banned R-18 movies in 2004--which somehow coincided with that D’Bodies incident, but anyway—I sort of expected bold movies to go to an all time low. But 2005 proved me wrong as El Niño Films and Cesar SB. Abella, director of Tag-ulan Noon Ang Bukid Ay Basa, Malikot Ang Agos ng Tubig, and Kikay: Kaakit-akit, kaaya-aya, kikiligin ka, among other things, did brisk business as they churned out low-budget sex movies and comedies almost every month. It didn’t matter that they have no media mileage or big-name stars. And the ones with the longest credits for 2005 included starlets Raja Montero and Kat de Santos (of Teteng Baliw fame) and comedians like Bonnel Balingit and Palito. Who would have thought that they’d be even busier than the A-listers?

Of the 49 Pinoy films made in 2005, I only saw a baker’s dozen: Let the Love Begin, Bikini Open, La Visa Loca, Ang Lagusan/The Tunnel (which I thought was either sci-fi or horror, and I was horribly wrong), Pinoy/Blonde, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Lasponggols, Sitak, Ang Anak ni Brocka, Ilusyon, Mulawin: The Movie, Blue Moon.

It’s actually more if I include So Happy Together, but I guess they counted it with 2004’s offerings. No bold movies for me. And I’m not even happy with all of the movies I actually watched. My top three include Maximo Oliveros, Bikini Open and Blue Moon. So there. Hopefully, 2006 will be better. And everyone’s predicting that digital movies will even be bigger this year. But we will see.

Words

I fell in love the moment I saw her in her grandfather’s kitchen, her dark curls cresting over her Portuguese shoulders. ‘Would you like to drink coffee?’ she smiled.

‘I’m really not that thirsty.’

‘What? What you say?’ Her English wasn’t too good. Now I’m seventy-three and she’s just turned seventy. ‘Would you like to drink coffee?’ she asked me today, smiling.

‘I’m really not that thirsty.’

‘What? What you say?’ Neither of us has the gift for language acquisition. After fifty years of marriage we have never really spoken, but we love each other more than words can say.

The story above is taken from this book:



Anthropology and 100 Other Stories (Canongate Books, 2005) by Dan Rhodes. It's one of my favorites of the books I read in 2005. According to the website, it was the author's first published book. "It was written between October 1997 and November 1998, mainly while he was working on Cherry Gardens Farm, near Groombridge in Kent/Sussex border country. Rhodes would devise and draft the stories while tying in rows of raspberries or picking plums, often in the driving rain. The book consists of 101 very short pieces about the ins and outs of the modern romance."

Though it never was a bestseller, the book had enough cult following to have a reprint. I rediscovered the book by sheer serendipity while I was waiting for a friend in Powerbooks. The stories were really very short--just 100 words each, and in every tale was this Everyguy's woe about a girl who either cheated on him, left him, or died on him, usually in a very absurd manner. "Words" was the last story in the collection, and it somehow reminds me of one of the subplots of this movie. It wasn't as funny ha-ha or as absurd as the other stories in the collection, but I think it's terribly romantic.

Go pyro!

I went to the last night of the World Pyro Olympics at the Esplanade behind the SM Mall of Asia. I've never seen so much humanity in my life. And all in one go, too. (Well, maybe except Edsa Dos and the Philippine Centennial Fireworks display at the Luneta.)

More people showed up tonight than the opening last December 26, when we only made it as far as Blue Wave and then the fireworks all started and we ended up watching at the parking lot behind Gerry's Grill. Note: It's not adviseable to go to this event with girls wearing high heels. You must be ready to walk for miles. And don't bring a car. It's useless in that sort of traffic.

Tonight, I went with my brothers, met up with Tamadita and her sister. We sat on the rocks outside the sea wall. My youngest brother said, "Sure we have a good view. I just hope there won't be a tsunami." (Nyar. I swear he's just so morbid.)

I didn't get to meet up with Bluekessa and her friend, and one of my brothers got lost in the crowd. We searched for him all over the place and it was just impossible to find each other even if we made panawagan already.

When it was time to go home, it felt like a scene from Night of the Living Dead. You know, darkness, huge empty lots, a gigantic mall, and lotsa people all heading towards the exits.

Australia won by virtue of hormones, I think. I was lucky enough to have seen their show last Monday. My favorite part was when they let go lotsa little fireworks and everyone went, "Sperm!" :)

So that was Christmas

The gatecrashers
Originally uploaded by xkg.

Our last shoot of the year coincided with the network party. We were doing a three-episode marathon. (The third in the series was a last minute addition. As in. You have to ask Clarissa how that went.)

We started at 7am, finished by 9pm. By that time, the registration was already closed. So we all headed to the ever trusty McDo and feasted on fries.

Boy Bawang

If you do a Google image search on Boy Bawang, this one is among the top search results:



But I was really looking for this:



Who would have thought that Boy Bawang actually has a website? Yey, Boy Bawang! Click here.

Scarlett Johansson, I hear you

Ms. Johanson, who is currently Woody Allen's favorite actress, shares her shopping philosophy in this article by Lynn Hirschberg from the New York Times:

"Sometimes you realize that the best presents are the ones you buy for yourself...[I]f you're working hard at any job, you have to treat yourself. Nobody's really taking care of you, so it's a good idea to buy yourself a piece of jewelry or a cashmere blanket. It's like, I earned this. If you wait around for someone to give you wonderful socks, you may miss out. Shopping is a great way to pat yourself on the back when no one else will."

Ah yes. Now, if only I actually get me some time to shop. Throw in a massage, a footspa and a really good night's sleep and I'll be a very happy kitty. Nyar.

Brokeback's back online

The New Yorker has reprinted Annie Proulx's short story that's now a movie by Ang Lee. Bookslut interviews Proulx and she actually likes the movie version, although Jake Gyllenhaal thinks differently of what the cowboys actually are. He has disclaimed that that Brokeback is not just a 'gay love story', that what Jack and Ennis go through is a very strong feeling. "The idea ultimately is, if you have love, no matter what that love is, whatever the boundaries, you have to hold on to it." Okay.

A couple of months back, the rumor mill had it that Brokeback Mountain was going to be the closing film for Cinemanila. I guess that didn't push through as the film opens this December in the States. But I'm so looking forward for when the movie actually opens here.

Two film review choices. Here's something from the New Yorker and the other by Choire Sicha.