Unsatisfying Resolutions

I saw two movies over the weekend: Atonement and No Country for Old Men. These two films have both been critically acclaimed and both have been nominated for Oscars. Both are adaptations from novels. The endings to both movies, however, were unsatisfying.

**Warning: Spoiler Alert**

No Country for Old Men is a graphic (i.e. bloody) film that begins when a man named Llewelyn comes upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. With dead bodies everywhere, he eventually finds a satchel full of cash and decides to keep it for himself. He eventually gets caught up between the parties who want the cash -- drug dealers, drug buyers, hit men and bounty hunters. It's not going to end well for Llewelyn.

Since this film has been heavily praised, I must be missing something because although it is well made, I didn't find anything redeeming about the film. For one thing, I had a hard time trying to sympathize with any of the characters (except for maybe Llewelyn's wife, who suffers the consequences of her husband's actions). For instance, the hitman named Churghi is on Llewelyn's trail and he kills anybody who gets in his way. He rationalizes his killings with philosophical reasoning. Of course, since he's a psychopath, none of it makes any sense. The sheriff, meanwhile, seem to be a defeated man -- he seems to accept the fact that he can't make a difference in society as suggested by his Uncle Ellis. Then there's Llewelyn, who refuses to give up the cash even though he has put his family at great risk.

As a side note, it's interesting to think that advocates of the legalization of drugs might say these characters wouldn't have to go through all this trouble if drugs were legal. They would say that with legalization, there wouldn't be any drug lords. But then again, this movie (and other films involving the drug trade like Traffic, Blow, American Gangster and Scarface) would never have been made, right? ;)

The second film I saw was Atonement. In this movie are three main characters -- Briony, Cecilia (Briony's sister) and Robbie (Cecilia's love-interest). The complication begins when Briony accuses Robbie of raping Lola, their cousin. Robbie ends up spending 3 years in jail and is given a choice to stay in prison or enlisting in the British military. He joins the military and is sent of to war in France during WWII. Both Robbie and Cecilia eventually die as a result of the war: he from injuries in France while she indirectly from the bombings of London.

Briony goes on to have a succesful career as a novelist. In her later years, she is being interviewed and she finally admits that she realized later that it was not Robbie who raped Lola. Since she ruined their lives, she decides that she must make an atonement. How? By writing a semi-autobiographical novel where she gives the characters of Robbie and Cecilia a happy ending (i.e. Robbie and Cecilia end up together), of course. Now the question for me is: is that really an atonement? Writing a novel and giving the characters a happy ending? I figure that if you've ruined two people's lives, the least you should do is fess up to the authorities earlier in life, not when you're already ready to retire and suffering from a degenerative brain disease. Or at least, fess up to the families of Cecilia and Robbie so Robbie can at least have his name cleared. Then again, I guess the movie would sound weird if they called it Not An Atonement. ;)

Disclaimer: I realize I'm going against the tide by not heaping praise on these two films, but my review is just an opinion. If you disagree with me, feel free to do so, but don't go 300 on me like some commenters. ;)

Technorati tags: Atonement, No Country For Old Men

Goodbye and Hello

Like Lazarus, I'm also trimming my blogroll by removing some blogs. I have to say goodbye to some of these blogs for one reason or another. Some of my reasons are reflected by Lazarus' reasons. Gotta make the blogroll leaner. hmmm.... maybe I should just make my blog like Ferdz's blog.... meaning no blogroll. That would make my blogroll really lean. hehe.

Anyway, although I'm saying goodbye to some of those bloggers on my blogroll by removing them (**sniff .... wipes tear from eye**hehe), I'm saying hello to other bloggers on my blogroll by meeting them... in real life ... as in EBs. :D The opportunity to meet some of my fellow bloggers happened last month during my trip to the Philippines. The first one I met was Verna, one of the coolest bloggers in the blogosphere. Here's a photo of my EB with her at Greenbelt in Makati:
I look like I just ate bad clams or something. hehe. Anyway, Verna is just as cool and friendly in person as she is on her blog. It wasn't hard to figure out why she's one of the more popular bloggers out there.

In Baguio, I then met bloggers Bill and Jean. Here's the three of us at a cafe on Session Road in Baguio:

Bill prefers to remain anonymous, hence the cropped photo, but that's really him wearing the red jacket. Jean joked that all three of us should've held our EB at Barrio Fiesta Restaurant. hehe.

The last blogger I met was my Manang Chyt. Actually, we've met before since she's family and we sometimes see each other at gatherings, but we never really communicated with each other until we started blogging. Funny, eh? :D She gave me a few CDs of the Pinoy band, Asin. Thanks, Manang! :) She told me that I should have Pinoy music other than Freddie Aguilar. In my defense, I do have some Binhi songs. ;)

So there you have it -- four cool bloggers I met last month. Meeting my fellow bloggers was definitely cool. I really enjoyed it. Who'd have thought that if it weren't for blogging, we'd all just be going about our lives not even aware of each other's existence?

Technorati tags: blogging

Belated Potter Post

I finished reading book 7 in the Harry Potter series so I can finally read all those Harry Potter posts, (e.g. from Toe and niceheart). And I agree with Vern's comment in Toe's post: ka-korny nga yung last chapter (i.e. the epilogue). hehe. Anyway, what can I say? Galing talaga mag-sulat si Madame Rowling. I'm not really much of a fiction book reader. As I've previously posted, I only listened to books 1-4 of HP and only started reading the HP books when book 5 came out. Like niceheart, I'm also a slow reader. I'm just not one to sit for hours on end just reading. Thus, it'll take me a while to finish a book. I haven't even finished reading Return of the King (book 3 in the Lord of the Rings series)... and I started reading that book a few years ago. haha.

Anyway, I was wondering what it is about the HP books that has made them so captivating for readers worldwide. I have a few theories. One reason: I think it's because people can identify with the characters. I mean who among us can't sympathize with Snape, a guy with a dark past and who ****WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD***** as it turns out is a guy trying to redeem himself... as Potter finally finds out in the end. I was always rooting for Snape and I'm glad that he turned out to be a good guy. I thought it was a nice touch that Harry Potter finally paid tribute to Snape, a guy he previously detested by giving his son the middle name of Severus. Potter must really owe the guy big time though. I mean naming your kid Severus? hehe. Well, at least it's only a middle name. Oh, wait, the first name he gave the kid was Albus. Albus Severus. Poor kid. Good thing the kid's only a fictional character. ;)

Another reason why I think the book has captivated so many readers is because the characters are funny. They don't take themselves too seriously all the time and they can easily crack a joke or two even during dire situations. For example, how about Hermione making fun of Ron because Ron was complaining about how he lost some fingernails while she and Harry were fighting for their lives in Godric's Hollow?

Hermione: "Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our suffering into perspective, doesn't it?"

How about Ron literally using the word "effing" on page 307?

Ron: "Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them -- nowhere effing near, in other words!"

They're so proper, aren't they? They don't even say the whole curse word. haha. I couldn't remember exactly where Ron said "effing" so I typed in "Where does Ron say effing in deathly hallows" in a search engine. hehe. Now, Mrs. Weasley calling Bellatrix a ..... well, that's a different story. hehe. Well, that's my bellatrix... I mean belated Harry Potter post. :D

On a completely unrelated note, here's a song to go out on for the weekend. It's called "San Antonio Rose" as performed by Les Paul and Chet Atkins. :DHave a nice weekend, people! ;)

Technorati tags: Harry Potter

Ilocano Lesson via Meme

I am half-Kankanay, an ethno-linguistic group that has roots in Sagada, Bontoc and Mountain Province. However, my Kankanay language skills are very poor. So to get in touch with my Kankanay side, I am trying to learn the language. Nevermind that I can't even speak "proper" Tagalog. Some may say I should master one language first before working on another. But I think there's nothing wrong with being mediocre in both languages. hehehe. ;) Anyway, since Kankanay is related to Ilocano as shown in the following chart from the book Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar by Carl Rubino, I figure that I will try to learn a little Ilocano:

I figure that learning Ilocano will help me in eventually learning Kankanay. Thus, I will answer a "middle-names meme" from Major Tom by using Ilocano words.

The rules:

1. State your middle name. If it’s too long or not sounding so good, then think about the name you wish you had as a middle name. And use that, of course.

2. For each letter of the middle name stated in Rule #1, write a specific trait or characteristic of your person and elaborate reasonably.

3. If you had five letters in such name, tag the same number of bloggers. Like if that name has seven letters, then seven other bloggers. If such name has one letter, then tag that one single blogger. Now wait, I don’t think that middle names—or any name for that matter—could probably have one single letter on it. But who knows, some names might just be like that, like Mr.X, or Mr.Y. We got a lot of names like that back in my accounting subjects in college, Mr. M owes this much, Mrs. Q earns this much, and so on and so forth.

4. There is no Rule #4 so might as well go on.

Instead of using English words, I will use Ilocano words for the initials to describe myself. Another thing though is that I don't really like my middle name. Fortunately, the rules say I can choose a middle name if I don't like my given middle name. Thus, I choose "Danger" since "danger" is my middle name. haha. That joke is from the movie Austin Powers, of course. hehehe. So here's the Ilocano words that describe a little bit about myself from the initials of my chosen middle name:

Dayaw - with the root word "dayaw" meaning honor or glory, the word "manangdaydayaw" means respectful. I try to be respectful of other people even if we don't agree on certain things. That should be a given, no? ;)

Álus - used, second hand. I rarely shop for clothes, but when I do, I usually buy them at thrift or second-hand stores.

Nadalimpako - wavy or curly hair. As I stated in a prior post, I once had wavy hair. I still do. Just not as many. ;)

Gadang - with the root word "gádang" meaning either wading, short pants or shallow, the word "magadang" means shallow, water not reaching the waist. Although I can swim, I don't like swimming in the ocean if its deep. In fact, I've never swam in deep ocean water. I prefer swimming in the ocean if it's shallow.

Étika - This is actually borrowed from the Spanish word for ethics. Most of the words in my Ilocano dictionary that start with 'e' are derived from Spanish words. Anyway, I choose this word because although I have my inner struggles like everyone else, I still try to lead an ethical life.

Raém - polite. Another given. Example from the book: Raementayo kuma ti pammatida a kas met ti panagraemda ti pammatitayo. Translation: We should respect their beliefs as they respect ours.

Now how to use the other 5 Ilocano words in an actual Ilocano sentence is another story. hehe. So there you have it. An attempt to learn Ilocano via a meme. I just need to do this meme several hundred more times with different Ilocano words and I should be a fluent Ilocano speaker in no time. hehe. Now, according to the rules, I now have to tag 6 bloggers, the same number of letters in the middle name. Thus, I'm tagging the first 6 commenters of this post who have yet to be tagged by this meme. If you don't have a blog, then just reply to this post with your middle-name meme. ;)

Technorati tags: meme, Ilocano

Ear Health and a Concert

Updated 8/31/07

My first exposure to extremely loud music was during a Tears for Fears concert. They had massive speakers and I had ringing in my ears right after the concert and maybe the next day. I later learned that the ringing was symptomatic of tinnitus. I learned more about tinnitus and hearing loss through organizations such as H.E.A.R., which featured ads in a guitar magazine I frequently read:

There's also this article, which explains how hearing loss will likely be more prevalent today than before due to the use of in-ear earphones, loud concerts, etc. As expected, many musicians have suffered some form of hearing loss or tinnitus due to repeated exposure to excessive noise. These musicians include Pete Townshend, Sting, Jeff Beck, Ted Nugent and Mick Fleetwood. This Rolling Stone article lists some ways to prevent hearing loss (e.g. turn down the volume, give your ears a rest after exposure to loud noise).

Speaking of hearing music, I just came back from the Freddie Aguilar concert. It was great to finally hear Aguilar perform live. He sang the classics, of course ("Magdalena", "Ipaglalaban Ko", "Mindanao", "Bulag, Pipi at Bingi", "Anak", "Bayan Ko", "Pinoy", "Kumusta Ka", "Estudyante Blues"). It was pretty cool when he let the crowd sing along to some of his songs. And to hear him sing "Ang Bayan Ko", well, what can I say? Simply amazing.

Aguilar wasn't the only one to perform that night though. Comedian Ella V. and actress/singer Ara Mina performed for about an hour and forty-five minutes as the opening acts. As far as opening acts go, I think Aguilar should've had an up-and-coming Pinoy rock or folk band open up for him. I'm not saying Mina and Ella V. were bad. Mina was ok, I suppose. But I think she knew that the audience wasn't there to see her so she did her best to win them over by going into the audience while she sang a few songs. Gotta give her credit for that. Ella V..... well, what can I say? She basically did raunchy humor. If that's your cup of tea, then you might enjoy her comedy. But I also gotta give her credit for going up there to entertain the audience. Comedy is tough. As the saying goes: dying is easy, comedy is hard.

In addition to the above performers, Aguilar's two sons also performed -- his guitar playing son played two songs while his other son rapped two.... uhhh ... raps(?). His guitar playing son is a pretty good guitar player, but he did a bit too much showboating and posing a la 1980s hair band. Overall, the concert was great, but it would've been nice if Aguilar sang more songs. He only sang for a little over an hour.... a bit bitin, if you ask me. My one suggestion is that there be less of the other performers and more of Aguilar. That's who people paid to see, not the others.

Updated: Below are two (albeit not that great) photos I took during the concert:

Ara Mina goes into the audience and gets swarmed by folks with cameras:
Aguilar performing:
8/31/07

Technorati tags: tinnitus, Freddie Aguilar