Long Weekend Snippets

The song playing right now in my iTunes is Macarena.

I met with several TA alumni to discuss the workshop we’ll be conducting next weekend, a confidence-building workshop for high school scholars. After our meeting we had dinner in Shakey’s. It was fun connecting with that group again. I saw these “kids” grow up from insecure, idealistic, innocent college freshmen to experienced, confident, eager young adults wanting to make their mark in the world. Time and age will slow them down, but for now they’re all fired up. We need their energy, their enthusiasm. They are the ones who keep me young and optimistic. Now that I’m turning 40 next year I should see them more often.

Segueing from Macarena to Angeleyes by ABBA gave me a surreal rush.

I just bought new books. Oops, I mean only one new book, blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Interesting premise—how snap judgments can actually be more effective that deliberate, cautious thinking. I have some initial reservations about what he calls “the power of thinking without thinking” but I’ll wait until I finish the whole book. The other three books aren’t exactly new: books 4, 5 and 6 of Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events. We used to have all 11 books (so far), but one day those three books mysteriously disappeared. We’ve been looking for them for the longest time to no avail. So when I saw the three on sale in The Podium I grabbed them immediately.

After ABBA was Madonna’s Ray Of Light. This is getting so gay.

I also bought new DVDs this weekend. The one I’ve been waiting for was Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. Loved the soundtrack, loved the humor, loved the special effects. It’s a Warner Bros. cartoon come to life. I also bought the special edition of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It’s not an exceptional movie, but I remember watching it four times when it first came out in the theaters. Back then Kevin Costner looked more heroic than hard-headed, Christian Slater was a talented rising star, and Morgan Freeman could spout still words of wisdom and wield a sword in the same scene. But I watched that film mainly for Alan Rickman. He played the Sheriff of Nottingham so deliriously over-the-top he stole the movie right from under the Prince of Thieves’ nose. He looked like he was the only one in the cast having so much fun. The reason why I bought the DVD was because it had 12 additional minutes of deleted scenes, mostly with Alan Rickman. You see, when the movie was first edited Kevin Costner complained that Alan Rickman upstaged him, so he had those scenes chopped off from the theatrical version. Unfortunately the movie didn’t age very well. Even the additional Rickman scenes didn’t fly—they were best left on the cutting room floor. The original release was already sprawling and uneven, and the additional 12 minutes made the pace all the more plodding in certain points.

But Rickman’s performance is still the best reason to watch the movie. It was his performance that made me want to play a villain. Villains have all the fun scenes and fun lines. I wanted to be a Disney villain. Ursula, move over! Jafar, get off that throne! Mwha-mwha-mwhahahahahahaha! (insert thunder SFX here)

Wow, from Ray Of Light to Emotional Rescue by the Rolling Stones.

Last night J. and I went to Alabang to have dinner with Phillip and to cheer him up because his beloved dog died. I don’t know if we succeeded in cheering him up—I think someone else j-j-j-j-j-just beat us to it—but at least he was happy after last night. And we had a good albeit late dinner.

Now it’s U2’s Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. Time for me to have lunch.