::. I'VE FALLEN FOR EDWARD CULLEN .::

Hmm. So I have been remiss with blogging for more than a month... What better way to make a comeback than blog about Edward Cullen? :p

So I admit: I was so blah and indifferent at first when Abbie, Charo, Tin and Mitzi have been talking and raving about the Twilight saga these past few months. It never really piqued my interest until I started "researching" quotes from the books for my little online business. I admit, after reading one quote after the other, I have fallen in love with Edward Cullen.

But I didn't buy nor asked around to borrow the Twilight book. I was too lazy to read and I just tend to fall asleep while doing so. Having heard that there was an audiobook available, I decided to try it out. It was quite a pain in the butt to download all the freakin' rar files, unzip them, consolidate the numerous mp3s and convert it to an iPod audiobook format. (Thanks to Mitzi for the conversion tips!) But after all that tedious process, it was heaven to listen to an audiobook. It was my first audiobook experience and I loved it :-) It was so convenient! I listened to my iPod while I was falling in line at the terminal, while travelling to & from the office and even before dozing off to sleep... although I refrained as much as possible to listen to the audiobook when I know I'm already sleepy coz it was kinda hard to trace where I left off one time that I fell asleep and left my iPod playing :p

I have just finished the Twilight audiobook this afternoon and I absolutely loved it! I am way too excited now to start listening to New Moon but as of this writing, I still have 32 minutes to go until I finish the entire download. Argh.

I read somewhere online that in New Moon, one will fall in love with Jacob Black. Hmmm. I'm not sure how one can like Jacob more than Edward... Can't wait to find out why there are Team Jacob girls out there!




I'm also anticipating the release of the Twilight movie come November. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!! Although Edward Cullen could have been played by a more handsome actor but hey, I found that Cedric guy cute when I saw him in Harry Potter. Oh well. Anyway, the first time I saw the trailer on youtube, I think I gushed & sighed at Edward's "You are my life now" line. I loooove that line. I am a sucker for poetic mushy romantic quotes and Stephanie Meyer is sooo good in churning out *triple sigh* lines for her Edward Cullen character.

I'm very curious about Midnight Sun though. I would have wanted to "read" it after Twilight rather than proceed with New Moon... Too bad Meyer isn't done with it yet :-(

::. WANTED Kicks Ass! .::

I'm not much into testosteroney action flicks and top of mind, I think the only favorite man-flick that's on my list is Fight Club.

My sister and I watched WANTED last night. We missed like 10minutes of the movie's beginning so we decided to stay on and check out what we've missed. The movie's so good though that we decided to finish it the second time around.

Angelina Jolie kicks major ass and I *heart* James McAvoy. I hope he does more action flicks... he reminds me of Ed Norton... you know, the man-boy appeal, kiddie looking and doesn't look like a big action star at all. This is only the 2nd movie of James McAvoy that I've seen. The first one being Narnia wherein I mistook him for Shia LaBeouf whom I also have a crush on eversince I first watched him in Transformers. I think I'm gonna hunt now for a copy of Atonement to see James McAvoy's award-winning performance...

Anyway, the movie is pretty bloody and violent. I cringed both the first and the second time when I heard the sickening thud of Wesley Gibson's body as he hit the concrete train tunnel. His comic lines makes him adorable in this movie. My favorite kick-ass scene is when Wesley Gibson shoots this dude from his limo's sun roof. Super astig action scenes... love love this movie. Don't watch it on pirated DVD, watch it on the big screen for maximum impact =)

And coz I like spotting nice songs in movie soundtracks, here's one that I loved from the movie:
http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/music/item/531/Because_WANTED_kicked_so_much_ass...

~* GETTING SUCKED INTO THE iPOD LIFESTYLE *~

I don't even consider it a craze or trend. It's a lifestyle for the earphones-fixated generation of today.

A year ago, I didn't even think I needed nor wanted an iPod. Then last February, I got myself a pink Nano. I was probably among the late majority (or was I one of the laggards already? When did the iPod become THE aspirational digital media player anyway?!).

I just checked my inbox and saw this Apple e-blast.

Hmm. I don't really care about the portability of video since I'm more of a music addict than a videophile. But hey, the cyan iPod nano looks cute. And the red one looks really chic. So do I let myself get sucked into this money-making scheme just because of the nice colors? I'm too lazy to Google for reviews and besides, it's just been launched so not a lot of in-depth reviews as of now, I bet.

Anyway, was that Nelly Furtado on the ad?

Anyone generous enough to buy me one? ;-)

********** ADDENDUM ************

*GASP* I just saw that there's a lavender iPod Shuffle! Such cuteness! If I had money to burn I'd buy it just because it was lavender. But then again, I don't have the moolah. *sigh*

~* BOURNE HOTNESS *~

I have a confession. I haven't watched ANY of the Bourne series until last Monday. I'm not the kind who'd go out of her way to watch guy flicks so I never really had the burning desire to catch Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum when it was released in the theaters. It's just as much as saying that I have never seen any of the Ocean series (Ocean's 11 to 13) coz guy flicks don't really interest me. Having a national holiday to enjoy last Monday, I decided to spend it doing a Bourne DVDthon. With all the raves over Bourne Ultimatum, I got really curious and decided to see what the hype was all about. I hate to watch sequels without watching the first one so I viewed all three movies in order. The moment I was finished with Bourne Identity, I was hooked. And really, playing the Jason Bourne character has made Matt Damon officially hot in my book! I never really categorized him as "hot" previous to watching Bourne mainly because I still get the gay vibe with him and his best friend Ben Affleck :p

I loved the testosteroney awesome car chase and fight scenes! And that fast-paced suspense scene in Ultimatum when he was dishing out quick instructions via celfone to the newspaper writer at the Waterloo Station! Jason Bourne as a character is such a turn on coz he's actually a number-memorizing geek/highly-adept map reader/amazing crazy driver/kick-ass fighter. Verrrry manly!

Actually, I've never been a big fan of Matt Damon. The last time Matt Damon's acting amazed me was waaaay back in The Talented Mr. Ripley. I haven't seen Good Will Hunting though. But, really, watching the Bourne series changed my opinion of him as an actor. So okay, I like Matt Damon now. And I'll be sure to watch out for the next Bourne movie...

~* DRIVING 101 and OTHER TV-MOVIE THOUGHTS *~

After a bit of a nagging from my mom, I enrolled in A1 Driving School for a 5-hr A/T course. No, I don't have a new car and neither is my dad buying one for me -- it's just so I can drive in case of any kind of emergency.

The first step was to get myself a student permit. I took a VL from work to do just that. Getting the student permit in Las Piñas LTO was so dragging. I was there 1pm and was only called for ID photo and signature at 3pm. As with all other government-issued docs/IDs, my student permit photo totally sucks. I just hope I'd have a better pic when I get my non-prof driver's license. I paid A1 more than double the price of the actual student permit just so they'd have the burden of waiting for the permit til probably 5pm. I will most likely pay another obscenely overpriced fee for getting my non-prof license hassle-free.

Had my first 2 hours of driving lesson yesterday. It was fairly easy to get the car moving from point A to point B but at no more than 20mph speed, haha. Probably the funniest thing that happened was that my car stopped on top of a road hump. As per my driving instructor's evaluation, I still need improvement on left & right turning, turning to the correct lane at an intersection and observing safe distances. My problem is that I can't estimate whether I'd hit the curb or a car when I turn. I'm scared that I might have miscalculated my turn. I can't see my car's front bumper so I'm having some trouble approximating space. Argh. Oh and my neck hurts from all that craning. I should probably sit on a pillow to give me some height when sitting hehe.

My next 3 hours of driving lesson will be next week. I am already dreading the parking, backing and maneuvering that I will do.

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

Ok, so the past month of May brought big Hollywood movies our way. Spiderman 3 was great but too testosteroney for me with all those action sequences. I love Snow Patrol's Signal Fire in the Spidey soundtrack. Shrek the Third was okay but I loved Shrek 2 more. Puss in Boots lost its charm. One comment though: why the hell did they use Damien Rice's 9 Crimes in one of the scenes? I felt that was sooo off! Damien Rice's music is too heavy and depressing for an animated flick. It's better apt for a Grey's Anatomy soundtrack. Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End was a spectacular visual feast as always. I just got confused though with some of the subplots. And their piratey accents didn't help me catch up with the story either. I was a bit "lost" with the story so I Wiki'd it. Found out from Wikipedia that there's still a scene after the end credit. Darn. We left as soon as the credits rolled so I missed the post-credit scene just as I missed the one in Pirates 2 :(

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

For the TV show season enders, I saw from E!News that Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) died in LOST. And Burke (Isaiah Washington) left Christina (Sandra Oh) at the altar on Grey's Anatomy. It's sooo frustrating that AXN will only begin LOST's Season 3 starting this Thursday. And Studio 23 has been advertising LOST Season 3 as "coming soon" since 2 months ago. Isn't that sooo NOT "soon" at all?! Well at least Studio 23 is now airing season 3 of Grey's Anatomy. No word from Star World though if GA 3 is coming soon.

Nowadays, I've been loving How I Met Your Mother and Heroes. HIMYM has been showing on ETC for quite a while now and I'm catching up on the first few episodes since it has just started to air in Star World. I *crush* Ted. His character is such a romantic :-) And I love Barney's lines! Neil Patrick Harris (post-gay announcement) proves to be a good comedian after all. Heroes has been airing on RPN9 but I missed the first half of Season 1 so I'm catching up via the Crime/Suspense channel which just started airing the pilot episode last week. My fave hero is Hiro (Masi Oka) coz he has such comic scenes and I *crush* Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia). Oh and did you see James Kyson Lee (Ando, Hiro's Japanese friend) judge the 2007 Miss Universe alongside Dave Navarro last week? Cool!

I know there's a gazillion copies of pirated DVDs of the latest season of these tv shows but I don't want to buy one coz I'm running out of DVD storage space!

~* WHILE I WAS iTUNING... *~

I have been sooo remiss with my blogging duties... So here goes one big update!


I GOT MYSELF AN iPOD NANO. Yeah so basically this is the reason why I've been neglecting my blog. I was supposed to buy a Sony Ericsson Walkman fone W850i but got turned off when I examined an actual unit in the store so I ended up buying a pink iPod Nano instead. I have been OC'ing over putting album artworks and fixing the ID3 tags on my 2,999 mp3s worth 11.5GB. And I am still not freaking done. I haven't even organized the genre tags. Arghhh. And about a hundred mp3s still don't have their respective album artwork. OCness does give you carpal tunnel syndrome. Ouch.


I LOVE THE HOLIDAY! Saw this movie with Abbie & Charo last V-day. I love this movie! Jude Law and those dreamy eyes *sigh* I didn't feel any chemistry between Cameron Diaz (Amanda) and Jude Law (Graham) but I liked the pairing of Jack Black (Miles) and Kate Winslet (Iris). It's refreshing to see Kate act goofy and to see Jack as a romantic male lead. The lines in this movie are such quotable quotes, I love it... especially the lines of Kate's character. Here are some of my favorites:

Amanda: You know Graham, I just broke up with someone and considering you just showed up and you're insanely good-looking and probably won't remember me anyway... I'm thinking we should have sex... If you want.
Graham: Is that a trick question?

******
Iris: You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!

******
Iris: I like corny. I'm looking for corny in my life.

******

Iris: ... And then, there's another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. Its called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert. Most love stories are about people who fall in love with each other. But what about the rest of us? What about our stories, those of us who fall in love alone? We are the victims of the one sided affair. We are the cursed of the loved ones. We are the unloved ones, the walking wounded. The handicapped without the advantage of a great parking space! Yes, you are looking at one such individual. And I have willingly loved that man for over three miserable years! The absolute worst years of my life! The worst Christmas', the worst Birthday's, New Years Eve's brought in by tears and valium. These years that I have been in love have been the darkest days of my life. All because I've been cursed by being in love with a man who does not and will not love me back. Oh god, just the sight of him! Heart pounding! Throat thickening! Absolutely can't swallow! All the usual symptoms.

******

Iris: It doesn't matter how many new haircuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends... you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. and how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he'll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you'll go somewhere new. and you'll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little peices of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade.

******
Hannah: My god, I've just noticed how pathetic you are.
Iris: Really? I'm *sooo* aware of it.

******


WE HAD A YUMMY FAMILY LUNCH AT KAMAYAN SA PALAISDAAN. My Tito Boyet from the States was in town for a short visit so we treated him and my Lola Pura out for lunch at Bay, Los Baños (Laguna) last Saturday. I love the ambiance of the place... the type where you can have a very relaxed lunch and just enjoy the "countryside" appeal of the place. {more pictures on my Multiply}






WE WATCHED AN URBANDUB & DICTA LICENSE GIG. Another Sonic Boom event was held in San Mig, ATC last Saturday so Tin and I grabbed this chance to see Urbandub and Dicta License perform live. Typecast, The Ambassadors and Airport Drama also played. Hilera wasn't able to come coz they were still in Fairview. Got a little bitin on the Urbandub set coz they didn't do an encore :( Gabby looked pretty tired already. But they did a kick-ass set anyway so it's all good. Pochoy (Dicta License) looked *hot* as usual. He is just *so* cute in white shirt (ooh, a new version of the Faspitch shirt in white!). Dicta License played last so the crowd pretty much thinned out when it was time for them to play. Good for me though coz I managed to stay right beside the stage on Boogie's side. Really -- this band is so damn good looking (pogi rock alert!)... every single band member is cute in their own way. But that's not to underestimate the intensity of their songs. Pochoy sings with so much passion about socially-relevant themes that is meant to wake up the youth of today. Now THAT's extra pogi points ;-)

~* GAEL AND THE DAWN *~

I've been inside the Mall of Asia (geez, can they make it any more labyrinthine than it already is?!) twice in a span of 1 week just to watch movies. First was last Nov. 3 wherein Charo, Jako & I caught the one-time only screening of a new Gael Garcia Bernal film "The Science of Sleep" during the opening of Cinemanila '06. It was directed by the same guy who did "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" -- Michael Gondry. I never really make an extraordinary effort to watch foreign language films except when it's a Gael Garcia Bernal movie. I'd endure reading the subtitles if it means seeing Gael on screen.


'Loved the movie :) It's refreshing to see Gael in a non-dramatic/heavy role AND speaking some French instead of the usual Spanish. He's on the funny side this time. His deadpan delivery of punchlines and his boyish charms (as always) were very endearing. The story has the same hyper-realism that Eternal Sunshine had so it was a very visual movie. Charo & I were laughing almost the entire time... the Disasterology-themed calendar, the one-second time machine and his other wacky inventions, his Parallel Synchronized Randomness theory and witty dialogues...

Then last Nov. 8, Tin, Charo, Abbie & I watched the Cinemalaya '06 Best Picture "Tulad ng Dati". Thanks Direk Mike Sandejas for the tickets :) It was an advanced screening/album launch of The Dawn but we didn't stay for the album launch anymore coz we had to wake up early for work the next day. I've always been curious to see the movie (being a music junkie and all). The story is loosely-based on The Dawn's journey as a band from the 80s til present. The guys were ok in terms of acting... a bit unnatural on some parts but hey, they're musicians, not actors;-) Well Jett had some theater experience so that helped. It was my first time to see Ping Medina in a movie (he seems to be in a lot of indie movies and music videos lately). With the right make-up and hairdo, Ping Medina really looked like Teddy Diaz.

It was a pretty cool movie with good rock music, surprising cameos (Stonefree was there! No wonder we spotted Miro inside the theater... Karl Roy, Imago, Raimund Marasigan...), funny scenes (Francis Brew when JB said "no sudden movements" at the rooftop... Buddy Zabala and Raimund facing each other and somebody said "Uy Eraserheads! Asan si Ely?")... and the rockin' face-off between the fictional Ratbunitata band and The Dawn -- pretty wicked guitar-playing by Kiko!

What I liked was this central thought about things "lost" that Teddy points out to Jett during his ghostly appearances in the movie. The idea was: If you lose something, you look for it; if you can't find it, replace it; if you can't replace it, try to forget about it; if you can't forget it, then accept that it's lost. Very apt when I relate to it personally (like hmm, love lost?)

Two good movies indeed! :)

~* THE BREAK-UP: IT'S TOO LATE BABY... *~

'Just watched a bad copy of The Break-Up on DVD. Anyway, it was marketed as a romantic comedy but dear me, I cried during the last few scenes... like when Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) went home crying after Gary (Vince Vaughn) stood her up in the Old 97's concert... when Gary's bartender friend was making "sermon" to him... when Gary made dinner for Brooke then Brooke arrives home with that cute guy from Charmed (Paige's police guy/husband in the TV series) and the closing scene wherein they bumped into each other on the streets.

image from www.movieweb.com

As usual, I am a sucker for mushy script.

This was what Gary's bartender friend tells him after the scene wherein Brooke cries coz he stood her up in the concert:

"Everybody thinks that you're their friend. But the fact of the matter is,
there's not one person that I know that you trust enough to let close to you so
that they could hurt you. And her problem is that you, you really like her. I
mean she is the one girl you really liked and no matter what she did or how hard
she tried, you were never gonna let your guard down. That poor girl never stood
a chance. "

And of course, the big "I'm sorry" speech of Gary when he tried to surprise Brooke by preparing dinner for her:

GARY: Brooke, this whole thing has been really tough on me and I've tried to act
like it hasn't been that tough on me... But the first Sunday after me and you
broke up, it all kinda really hit me and I think it partially hit me coz Sunday
was sort of always the day that we would do stuff together. But I didn't have
any idea you still cared so much and you know, when I saw you crying the other
night, that was honestly the worst moment of my life...

... Look, I know that I've caused you a lot of pain. And the funny thing is all I really wanna do is make you happy. I just want to make you smile. I've had a lot of time to
think about some of the things that went on. And I know that I don't always do
the right thing or always say the right thing but I'm willing to try to do things differently. I'd be happy to go to the dance class... I would, honestly. I would like to go do that. Or go travel. I would even be willing to go to the ballet but I would much rather do the dance class or take a trip somewhere... but I realize that's not the point. I realized that the point isn't that at all because it's not really about doing things that you love to do always but it is about doing things with the person that you love. And... I love you.

{Brooke is lost for words}

GARY: Give me a second here... I missed you so much. I promise you Brooke, I will do whatever it is that I have to do to never hurt you again. I love you. I'm sorry... That's it. That's all I want to say so you can go ahead now with anything you're feeling to say.

BROOKE: I don't know what to say...

GARY: Say whatever you feel inside...

BROOKE: I don't feel the same way... I don't... I just... I don't know. Oh god... I just... I think, I don't know or I don't think I have anything left... to give. I'm sorry.

GARY: I was hoping for... It doesn't matter.

*Sigh*

*sniff, sniff*

It's too late baby now, It's too late... though we really did try to make it...

~* IL MARE *~

"We're tormented because love goes on, not because it goes away." ~ Il Mare

Okay, I don't really watch Korean movies but this one I really sought out coz I heard it's the movie which "The Lake House" {Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves} was based on. The Lake House will be opening in theaters this week so it was ideal that I see "Il Mare" first before seeing the Hollywood flick. I love the cinematography of Il Mare. The shots of the beach house against the purple/deep blue/orange dusk sky is just breathtaking. I liked the movie. I hope the Hollywood remake will be just as nice...

~* MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING *~

I've read Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code a long time ago. In some instances, my memory muddles the details from the two books that I am confused whether the detail came from A&D or TDVC. I wish I've re-read The Da Vinci Code in time for the movie... but anyway, I tried very hard to recall the pertinent details so I could compare it to the movie. It's fun to check whether they have faithfully adopted the book or not. Well, apparently not. The "big reveal" at the ending sucks. Where the heck did the "Sophie-has-a-brother-living-with-grandma" detail go?!?

As expected, with all the hype and MTRCB's super late screening of the movie (if I'm not mistaken, they only screened the movie last Tues. to determine its rating), it was hard to get movie tickets for it. As I overheard from someone at Starbucks, he described Powerplant as "parang Mordor [ang pila] dun!". Yeah, people got way too excited to see the movie... what with all the controversy and debate all over the place. Trust that people will go out of their way to do/see something when an authority explicitly prohibits or violently objects doing so. It's fun to break the rules. And it's like morbid curiosity over a road accident. The usi's (usiseros) can't help but slow down and look.

Anyway, I think the Pinoys are overreacting. I-ban ba daw sa Manila?!? What the?!? What's the big deal? So why didn't they ban the Dan Brown book in the bookstores in the first place? Why are they just zeroing in on the movie? I don't recall them spending this much thought and energy over the book when it was sold here in the Philippines years ago! Anyway, I thought of an answer to my own question: I guess it's coz the wide reach/accessibility of the movie was deemed far more threatening than the thick book sitting on the shelves of Powerbooks. The common tao/masa crowd is more likely to watch The Da Vinci Code than read it. Heck, some of them may not even know how to read in the first place! And probably, they are not the fancy page-flipping type who goes to Powerbooks.

I think all the hullabaloo of the anti-Da Vinci Code camp just did Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures more good than bad. And the SM theater group probably feel "sayang" that they couldn't cash in on the insane popularity of the movie coz it was rated R-18 by the MTRCB.

Anyway, going back to my movie experience... First of all, by noontime, we only managed to get tickets to the 10:20pm screening last Fri. And we only managed to get seats at the 2nd row of Promenade. Very 'dizzy up the girl' kind of arrangement. We had premium seats to Tom Hank's bad hair day and receding hairline. Great.

Anyway, having read the book, I couldn't help but compare...

{Am I still obliged to say "WARNING: MOVIE SPOILERS" when I'm almost sure that half of you who's reading this movie review now have already read the Dan Brown novel?}

1. In the book, a photo of Sauniere's corpse was faxed to Langdon. I remember somebody calling him up and waking him up in the middle of the night. To catch his attention, they faxed the symbol-laden dead body of the museum curator to him. In the movie, they showed the photo to Langdon right in the middle of his book signing. That's right, police guys -- Never mind the book fans who might see the shocking gory photo of a crime scene!
2. Hey, didn't Robert and Sophie actually go to a library? I remember descriptions of the old librarian and the search strings in the library's computer/search engine. In the movie, they were suddenly WAP-enabled inside the bus. 'Lang ya... shortcut! Blehhh!
3. I vaguely recall that there were so much clues that unfolded in the book. In the movie, it was just,"voila!" The next thing you know, they're already in Isaac Newton's grave.
4. There were two cryptexes (is that the proper plural form?) in the book. There was a cryptex within the cryptex.
5. And I vividly remember that Langdon was able to figure out the answer to the cryptex coz he looked out the window and saw the apple trees nearby (or remembered seeing the apple trees outside... something to that effect). There was not a single open window in the movie scene, just those tinted cathedral windows.
6. Isn't Teabing supposed to be pudgy? I was thinking of a Danny De Vito body type when I was reading the book. But anyway, Ian McKellen rocks. Surprisingly, I did not see visions of Gandalf in his scenes. He's really good then!
7. Paul Bettany as Silas worked. I even cringed at the self-flagellation scene... very reminiscent of the cringe-worthy scenes in The Passion of Christ.
8. Bishop Aringarosa... hmm, I kept imagining and half-expecting octopus tentacles coming out of his bishop robes! He's still Doc Ock to me.
9. Tom Hanks' bad hair day and shining forehead was pretty much entertaining but when I was reading the book, I was imagining Robert Redford or perhaps Harrison Ford as Robert Langdon. As one site mentioned, Ralph Fiennes would have been a more appropriate Langdon... and I agree.
10. The police's discovery of the tracking devices/gadgets/thingiemajigs aboveTeabing's garage or shack (or was it a barn?) was not in the movie.
11. I don't recall the book saying that Sauniere was NOT Sophie's grandpa.
12. And arggghhh, why did the movie omit the book detail about Sophie's brother who turned out to be the guy in the Rosslyn Chapel living with her grandma?!? Why, why, why?
13. And why the heck were there lots of people in the Rosslyn Chapel? With the manner they emerged one by one in the chapel, I couldn't help but feel like it was a scene from Village of the Damned. Kulang na lang white-haired and red-eyed silang lahat!
14. Didn't the book end with a bit of a romantic angle between Robertand Sophie? Was it in Da Vinci or Angels & Demons wherein the "leading lady" was in Robert Langdon's hotel room?
15. At least they put in the Rolex detail when the bank manager helped Robert & Sophie escape. I like that little scene!
16. As Tin pointed out, in the book, the bank code that Sophie & Robert decided to use was the scrambled one. The movie used the unscrambled one.
17. At least there was a brief shot of the memorable Mickey Mouse watch of Langdon. I almost thought they were not gonna show it in the movie.
18. Was there ever a DIRECT connection shown between Bezu Fache and Bishop Aringarosa in the book? I can hardly recall... I just remember Langdon noticing the button pin on Fache's coat that implied he was an Opus Dei... Anyway, I like Jean Reno. It's a shame he's only got a few scenes in the movie.
19. What is up with Audrey Tautou pulling a Jesus-walks-on-the-water act? I don't recall Sophie was trying to be THAT corny in the book.
20. At least I liked the dramatic last scene in the Louvre pyramid. ("Beneath the stars she rests...")
21. I recall there was so much more Da Vinci paintings, artwork, church architectures, symbolisms and stuff described and explained in detail in the book. I suppose the movie just couldn't afford to dwell into all of that. Or else it would have been an 8-hour movie. And two and a half hours is ass-numbing enough.
    

So did you like The Da Vince Code movie or not?
To those who've read the book, what else did the movie miss?

~* BEFORE SUNRISE *~

I was bumming around watching movies yesterday (Monster-in-Law, A Very Long Engagement and Before Sunrise) and decided to see Before Sunrise again. I think that was the 3rd time I've seen it. I just love the conversations. And of course, Ethan Hawke. It's a shame that Ethan Hawke is not really "big" nowadays as much as he was before in the 90s. And I have thought differently of him after he left Uma Thurman (what was he thinking?!?).

Anyway, the movie is basically one great interesting conversation about love and life. Here are some of my favorites:

Celine: You know, I've been wondering lately. Do you know anyone who's in a happy relationship?

Jesse: Uh, yeah, sure. Y'know, I know happy couples. But I think they lie to each other.

Celine: Hmf. Yeah. People can lead their life as I lie. My grandmother, she was married to this man, and I always thought she had a very simple, uncomplicated love life. But she just confessed to me that she spent her whole life dreaming about another man she was always in love with. She just accepted her fate. It's so sad. And in the same time, I love the idea that she had all those emotions and feelings I never thought she would have had.

Jesse: I guarantee you, it was better that way. If she'd ever got to know him, y'know, I'm sure he would have disappointed her eventually.

Celine: How do you know? You don't know them.

Jesse: Yeah, I know, I know. It's just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. Y'know. that's not based on any kind of reality.

~oO0Oo~

Celine: If there's any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but... who cares, really? The answer must be in the attempt.

~oO0Oo~

Jesse: You know what's the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? Is when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they're thinking of you. You know, you'd like to think you're both in all this pain but they're just like 'Hey, I'm glad you're gone!'.

My fave scenes:

1. THE LISTENING BOOTH - ahh, the exchange of looks and the uhh slightly uncomfortable silence.

There's a wind that blows in from the north,
And it says that loving takes its course.
Come here. Come here.
No I'm not impossible to touch,
I have never wanted you so much.
Come here. Come here.
Have I never lay down by your side?
Baby, let's forget about this pride.
Come here. Come here.
Well, I'm in no hurry.
You don't have to run away this time.
I know that you're jimmied,
but it's gonna be all right this time.
[song fades]


2. THE PHONE - Celine pretends to call her best friend and talks about Jesse. She asks Jesse to call his friend too. Ethan, Ethan, Ethan. *sigh*

Celine: Well... he convinced me. Well, actually I was [smiles] I was ready to get off the train with him after talking to him a short while. He was so sweet, I couldn't help it. [softly] We were in the lounge car, and he began to talk about him, as a little boy, seeing his great-grandmother's ghost. I think that's when I fell for him. Just the idea of this little boy with all those beautiful dreams. [emphatically] He trapped me.

Jesse: MmHmm [emphatically].

Celine: And he's so cute! He has beautiful blue eyes, [he closes his eyes] nice big lips, [back-pouts his mouth], greasy hair, [she laughs] I love it. He's kind of tall, and a little clumsy. [softly] I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away. [smiling] He kind of kisses like an adolescent, its so cute.

Jesse: What?

Celine: Yeah, we kissed. It was so adorable. As the night went on, I began to like him more and more. But I'm afraid he's scared of me. Y'know, I told him the story about the woman that kills her ex-boyfriend, and stuff. He must be scared to death. [Jesse begins to shake his head, slowly] He must be thinking I'm this manipulative, mean woman. I just hope he doesn't feel that way about me, because you know me, I'm the most harmless person. The only person I could really hurt is myself.

Jesse: I don't think he's scared of you. I think he's crazy about you.


3. THE PICTURE - Jesse steps back and takes Celine's picture by giving her this intense stare. Aww.

Jesse: [looking at her. He stops her dancing] Oh, wow.

Celine: What?

Jesse: Uh.... I'm gonna take your picture. [puts her at arms length, and stares] So I never forget you or, uh, or all this.

Celine: Okay. Me too.

[She stops and stares at him too. He leans over and they kiss. Eventually, they stop, and walk away holding hands.]

~* MUST LOVE JOHN CUSACK *~

'Watched Must Love Dogs with Abbie and Charo last night @ ATC.

Funny, I was already on my way to Alabang from Makati when Abbie texted and asked if I really wanted to watch a movie or if we can just go coffee'ing... I replied: "I really wanna watch the movie!!!". Notice the three exclamation points. Haha. Abbie texted back,"okay, okay, okay!". I really wanted to watch the movie for I didn't have the patience to wait for it on DVD. I have been missing John Cusack's romantic comedies for the longest time (I think the last one was Serendipity?) so I *really* wanted to catch this movie. I am a sucker for John Cusack's signature roles of being a nervous/slightly neurotic/overly-analytical/intense/idealistic/quirky albeit irresistably charming (despite the wide forehead, i know. haha) hopeless romantic. In this movie, Diane Lane plays a similar role as her character in Under The Tuscan Sun. So umm, I can sorta relate with Diane's character. haha. Singletons have a right to be snappish. No one should dare argue this. Not even the chicken breast dude in the grocery ;P

The dogs in this movie("Mother Theresa" which was played by two similar-looking dogs and that dog that Cusack brought with him in the park... the one that "played dead" sooo well.) were sooo adorable that I sometimes wish I could have a *really clean* pet dog which I can lounge with inside our house. But geez, what we have is an adorable pregnant pitbull right now :P

So heyyy, John Cusack IS getting old na:( After years of looking as eternally youthful as he was in Say Anything, his age is really starting to get the best of him. He has ummm... turned quite noticeably chubby and his eyebags and wrinkles are showing on some badly-lit angles. But nevertheless, that signature way he sideglances and his cute small mouth still works like a charm;)

I kept noticing how nice and unique Diane Lane's necklaces were: that one with a gold/bronze chain and a 3-charm pendant [a star and two more abstract-shaped charms], the one with various tiny precious stones running the whole length of the necklace and that last one she wore... it was some sort of a reddish shade of tiny stones and a silver pendant.

My fave scene was the whole crazy mad hunt for the condom. Haha. That was insanely funny!

Anyway, as for the memorable quote, Cusack's character said something about the heart expanding... enabling it to have a bigger capacity to love after it gets BADLY broken. Something like that... I tried to search for the verbatim quote but since it's still a relatively new release, there's still nothing listed in the "quotes" section of the movie in IMDb :(

~* DEATH BY DVD MUSH *~

Yeah. I've been watching "kill me now, why don't you" mushfests on DVD. I dunno. Around this time of the year, along with December and February, I feel extremely DQ-ish. I guess that's how it is when you know you're turning another year older soon and you still find yourself in the same love-lorn sh*thole (save for the year 2003... the ONLY happiest birthday for me, by far...). It is pseudo-death by DVDs. I started with Sixteen Candles and My Best Friend's Wedding... plus, a surprise mush-- The Village -- last week. And tonight I cried a bucket of tears watching The Notebook the second time around. (awww, I think I like Ryan Gosling now...). Over the next coupla days/weeks, I am queuing the following movies (all of which I have already seen before but want to watch again out of sheer emo-suicide):

• Before Sunrise
• Before Sunset
• Pretty In Pink
• Grosse Pointe Blank
• Closer
• Mi Vida Sin Mi
• Reality Bites
• Untamed Heart
• and probably the Aidan-Carrie/Berger-Carrie episodes of SATC

Crying is good, they say.

This too shall pass.

~oO0Oo~

"He's got you on a pedestal and me in his arms." ~ Kimmy to Julianne


George Downes: Michael's chasing Kimmy?
Julianne Potter: Yes!
George Downes: You're chasing Michael?
Julianne Potter: YES!
George Downes: Who's chasing you... nobody, get it?

~ MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING

~oO0Oo~
"Sometimes we don't do what we want to do because we're afraid that other people will know that we want to do them." ~ Ivy Walker to Lucius Hunt

~ THE VILLAGE



~oO0Oo~

Noah: It's not about following your heart and it's not about keeping your promises. It's about security.
Allie: What's that supposed to mean?
Noah: [yelling] Money. He’s got a lot of money!
Allie: You smug bastard. I hate you for saying that.
Noah: You're bored Allie. You're bored and you know it. You wouldn't be here if you weren't.

Allie: You arrogant son of a bitch.
Noah: Would you just stay with me?
Allie: Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we're already fightin' !
Noah: Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.

Allie: So what?
Noah: So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, everyday. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out.
Allie: What easy way? There is no easy way, no matter what I do, somebody gets hurt.
Noah: Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants? Stop thinking about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do YOU want? What do you WANT?
Allie: It's not that simple.
Noah: What... do... you... want? Whaddaya want?
Allie: I have to go now.

~ THE NOTEBOOK

~* IN (DIS)HONOR OF THE BLAH DAY *~

Can I skip this friggin' month altogether? *gaaah*

Didn't I mention before that the soundtrack of Wicker Park rocks? Check out the sound bites at amazon.com. A wicked version of Against All Odds by Postal Service is one of my pleasant discoveries in the soundtrack. The trance/techno/hypnotic treatment of the song kicks ass.

~ o0O0o ~

Sometimes, the last thing you want comes in first. Sometimes, the first thing you want never comes. I know that waiting is all you can do sometimes. ~ Strange & Beautiful (I Put a Spell on You) by Aqualung, Wicker Park OST

~* CLOSER *~

I just saw Closer on DVD and I totally loved it! Natalie Portman deserves that Golden Globe. I'm surprised to find out that Clive Owen also won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Larry in Closer. Anyway, aside from the fact that Jude Law has the dreamiest blue eyes I've ever seen, I totally loved the dialogues. And of course, what could go wrong with a Julia Roberts movie?! So many quotable quotes... And you know I'm a sucker for quotes :P

Third reason why I love this movie: Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter (which is my ultimate favorite track from his album "O") is the movie's "main theme" if I may say so. Plus, the intro of Cold Water were used in a lot of scenes.

And so it is just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
most of the time
And so it is the shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky
I can't take my eyes off you...
I can't take my mind off you...

~ the blower's daughter

Here's a little background to set up the conversations in your head in case you haven't seen the movie yet.

Now here are my favorite lines from the movie:

Anna: Men are crap
Daniel: But all the same...
Anna: They're still crap.

*******

When Jude Law's character breaks up with Natalie Portman's character:

Daniel: This will hurt...
Alice: You're a piece of sh*t!
Daniel: Deception is brutal. I'm not pretending otherwise.
Alice: How? How does it work? How do you do this to someone?
Daniel: I fell in love with her, Alice...
Alice: Oh as if you had no choice?!?!... There's a moment... There's always a moment--I can do this. I can give in to this or I can resist it. I don't know when your moment was but I bet you knew there was one.


Alice: Can I still see you?
Daniel: If I see you, I'll never leave you.
Alice: Do you still fancy me?
Daniel: Of course.
Alice: You're lying.... (starts crying)... Will you hold me?... I amuse you but I bore you!
Daniel: No... no...
Alice: You did love me?
Daniel: I'll always love you. I hate hurting you.
Alice: Why are you?
Daniel: Coz I'm selfish.


Alice: You'll miss me... No one will ever love you as much as I do. WHY ISN'T LOVE ENOUGH?

*******

When Julia Roberts' character breaks up with Clive Owen's character, Clive angrily fires off questions to Julia:

Anna: Why are you doing this?
Larry: Coz I wanna know!
Anna: Why is the sex so important to you?
Larry: Because I'm a f***ing caveman!
Anna: Yes, I came! We do everything that people who have sex do!
Larry: You like his c*ck?
Anna: I love it!
Larry: You like him c*mming in your face?
Anna: Yes!
Larry: What's it taste like?
Anna: It tastes like you but sweeter!
Larry: That's the spirit! Thank you. Thank you for honesty. Now f*** off and die. You f***ed up slag.

*******

Alice to Larry: I am not your revenge f***.

******

Daniel: Why didn't you lie to me?
Anna: Coz we said we'd always tell each other the truth.
Daniel: What's so great about the truth?! TRY LYING FOR A CHANGE! IT'S THE CURRENCY OF THE WORLD!

******

Daniel: You think that love is so simple. You think that the heart is a diagram.
Larry: Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist wrapped in blood.

******

Larry to Daniel (talking about Alice): She loves you beyond comprehension.

******

Daniel: When I get back, please tell me the truth.
Alice: Why?
Daniel: Because I'm addicted to it... BECAUSE WITHOUT IT, WE'RE ANIMALS.

******

Daniel: Coz I'm an idiot.
Alice: Yes. I would have loved you forever...
Daniel: Don't do this, Alice. Talk to me...
Alice: I am talking. F*** off.
Daniel: I love you.
Alice: When?... Show me! WHERE IS THIS LOVE? I CAN'T SEE IT. I CAN'T TOUCH IT. I CAN'T FEEL IT. I CAN HEAR IT. I CAN HEAR SOME WORDS BUT I CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITH YOUR EASY WORDS. Whatever you say, it's too late. It's done. Now please go.

Bravo. The credit goes to Patrick Marber for the brilliant lines. Watch it! Watch it!

~* THE WAY WE WERE *~

I popped in the "The Way We Were" DVD this afternoon. I was so curious about why this movie was a classic coz Carrie Bradshaw and the rest of the SATC girls made a reference to it in one episode (I think in Season 3... when Big got married to Natasha). "Your girl is lovely, Hubbell." Gaaah. That scene made my heart ache like hell. And then the theme song's poignant notes float in the air. Gaaah. Kill me now, why don't you.

Another super tear-jearking scene was that part when Katy called up Hubbell, begging for him to come over coz she can't sleep, that she needed someone to talk to about those things, about someone they both knew, she said he was her best friend and it was so dumb how she was calling him up... I totally related to that scene. Like, isn't it sad that when you have so much pain in your heart, the only person you want to talk to who can stop your crying is exactly the same person who made you cry? Gaaah. *sob*sob*

And ooh, I just realized that Robert Redford is indeed once a hottie. It's a shame he's old and wrinkled like a sharpe now. He did look sorta Brad Pitt-ish... blonde hair, blue eyes, charming smile. He reminded me of Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black.

And oh, I love that Katy-crossing-the-street scene. "What are you celebrating?" Katie asks Hubbell who was drinking beer. "Getting you to cross the street," Hubbell replies.

And the break-up scene:

Hubbell: Look, Katy, I--
Katy: Oh God, please don't start a sentence with "look" -- it's always bad news.

****

Katy: Wouldn't it be lovely if we were old? We'd have survived all this. And everything would be easy and uncomplicated, the way it was when we were young.
Hubbell: Katy, it was never uncomplicated.
Katy: But it was lovely. Wasn't it?
Hubbell: Yes. It was lovely.

I love the film. It's so mushy, it really made me cry. Such heart-wrenching mush.

Memories light the corner of my mind.
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were.

Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind,
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were.

Can it be that it was all so simple then,
Or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again,
Tell me, would we? Could we?

Memories may be beautiful and yet,
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.
So it's the laughter
We will remember,
Whenever we remember
The way we were.

The way we were.

~ The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand


Gaaah. The Drama Queen is in tha houz.

I miss him. I miss him terribly that it's killing me. Do I ever cross his mind? Does he even think of how we kinda started around this same month last year? I do. I do remember... Every bit... Of the way WE were.

And in THAT moment I was happy. Happy. I Wish You Were Here. Ahh. The Incubus theme song. He made me euphoric and insanely happy. And at a certain point, I was so convinced that he was the one. The one who made all my suffering to finally make sense. And the moment he dragged the name of God in one of those conversations, I thought, Oh dear God, thank you for sending him to me. "In God's time, you'll fall in love for the right reasons, to the right person. When that time comes, that love will be worth the wait, the tears and the pain. Then you'll forget you ever cried."


There's something about
The look in your eyes
Something I noticed when
The light was just right
It reminded me twice
That I was alive
And it reminded me that
You're so worth the fight...

~ Echo, Incubus



But who would've known huh? Who would have known it would end up this way. When I was resting my head on his shoulders at the backseat of the car on the way home from the theater, how was I supposed to know it would end up this way?

Tried so hard...So hard to say goodbye. ~ She Will Be Loved, Maroon5

Some wounds are so deep there can be no immediate relief, no consolation; there may even be an ocean of grief extending in every direction and apparently endless. In some way, all suffering is in God. Thus, our pain is God's pain and that means in due time it will become life-giving and healing in the very measure of its intensity.

So when, God? When is my time? I am so tired of the hits and misses. So tired, God. So tired.

Why did he leave? I will never ever really know why unless I shake the daylights out of him. I thought I really understood back then, but then, not anymore. It would be nice if he could tell me what the f@#% really happened back there. But I resolved not to ever communicate with him. So there. But I fear I might break that resolution in a few days. I am so tempted to text him and ask what's up ... but what I would've wanted to say was I miss him terribly that it was killing me.



Maybe you'll soon
Forget about all
Or maybe you'll miss it like I do...

... I don't wanna write
I don't wanna call
I would not know what to say
It should be you
That's how I want it to be
Tell me you feel the same way

Oh yesterday
I was feeling safe
All I do today
is trying to be brave...

~ Tatooed on My Mind, D'Sound