The Bad Man Punted Baxter!

Fellow PCRV from Guatemala:  Panamanians tell me I don't speak Spanish.
Me:  Yeah, they tell me that, too.  But as they tell me that, I'm thinking, "I'm not speaking Spanish?  You're not speaking Spanish either.  I don't know what you're speaking."
Fellow PCRV:  We're all pretty much speaking garbage Spanish. 

1)  Conversin' with the Locals -- trying to get into the flow of Panamanian Spanish:

Talking about law schools

Talking about religion

Know your numbers

2)  They Do Eat Bush Meat -- wild iguanas are protected, but I found out that there's a demand for them.  Professionals like lawyers, politicians, the local Chinese population are just some of the people who buy wild iguanas in order to eat them.  Iguanas that aren't wild or "domesticated" meanwhile are ok to eat and a Panamanian told me they're quite delicious.

3)  Queso! -- In Cameroon, people don't smile in photos.  In Panama, its half and half:

4)  Environmental Dilemmas -- a) A fellow PCRV gave me some cheese, but it was the cheese where each slice was individually wrapped, b)  after an environmental meeting, the host gave us all lunch in polystyrene containers.   Sometimes, its hard not to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

5)  Old Movies I'm Appreciating Right Now --   Malcolm X, Anchorman, Gattaca,  Galaxy Quest. 

Perro Salchicha

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." -- Almost Famous

1)  The Town Fair -- my town is currently having a 5 day fair, called La Feria de San Sebastian.  Its your typical fair with rides:

music:

educational demonstrations (here's a guy talking about the awesomeness of yucca, aka cassava):

and of course, a dog show:

Perro salchicha

My counterpart organization also had their own stand/booth at the fair:

I created a Three R's pamphlet as well as a pamphlet
holder (thanks, internet). My pamphlet literally stands out from the rest.

Requisite photo of me with a counterpart

My counterpart organization's booth

2)  Uncle Chan's Redemption?  -- Is Ken Jeong's documentary about the walk-on Notre Dame kicker, Reggie Ho, enough to make up for his "Uncle Chan-ish" role in The Hangover films? 

3)  Incertidumbres -- I've been to the capital 3 times recently because of my shoulder injury and there was a lot of uncertainty about what treatment I would need.  But the results are finally in and I'll just need some physical therapy.  No surgery needed.  On the bright side, being in the capital allowed me to drink root beer and buy some habanero peppers, the seeds of which I just planted at post. 

4)  Landfill or Incinerator -- the recent NY Times article about incinerators and the problems associated with it made me want to comment a little bit about the topic.  Whether you're in the "developing" world or in the "first world", the problem of garbage essentially boils down to this:  people can reduce the amount of garbage they produce.  Many people just choose not to.

Just take a look at Zero Waste Home and (as the NYT article points out) cities like San Francisco and Portland.  If more people did what they were doing, we wouldn't be debating whether or not landfills or incinerators are the better choice. 

Garbage collection at post

5)  "And hey, I met you.  You are not cool." -- I just saw Almost Famous for the first time even though the film came out in 2000.  Can't believe I've never watched it before b/c its pretty awesome.  And not just because Jimmy Fallon, Marc Maron and Mitch Hedberg were in it.  Not to mention the guy who cut off Jamie Lannister's hand. 

Caption What?

1)  This!

Or not.

2)  Quote of the Day -- "The Turtle franchise was ridiculous way before Michael Bay got his hands on it.." 

3)  Recommended News Articles By Me -- So ... Google IS evil? and a soccer player gets a 50 year ban for bad behavior.  That's right -- not games, years. 

4)  5 Day Weekend -- I'm usually busy with work, but I have 3 days off because of a national holiday celebrating Panama's independence from Colombia:

5)  Spare Time Activities -- Not really sure what to do with my free time so I decided to think up things I could do in case I have another prolonged weekend:  relearn the guitar, learn meditation, take up a sport (softball?), get my TEFL certificate online, start a small garden in the backyard, research careers in the Philippines.

Cinq Choses Dont Je Pense

Because I couldn't think of 10. 

1)  COS Conference -- we laughed, we cried, we played trivia, we got extensions, we got denied extensions, we drank, we got together one last time, we called people out, we danced.  Our last hurrah together since most of us will be leaving Cameroon in November.  Bittersweet. 

2)  Song About Math -- My new favorite song is Wizboyy's One Plus One, not only because the singer's name sounds funny, but because I also learned that one plus one is apparently one.  Also, the song has the following lyrics:

Is a dream of every man
to get a finest girl like you,
we go be like Rice and Stew

And:

You are the personality,
The sugar in my tea,
My testimony…
See, the probability is equal to unity of our matrimony..
This love is raised to the power of infinity.

You should really hear it:




3)  Star Trek Into Darkness -- just recently saw the latest trek movie and it seemed more like an extended SNL skit than an actual film.  But I've gotta say I'm biased since I prefer the original cast.  You just can't replace the original Khan or Kirk or McCoy, etc. 

4)  Things I Didn't Know Before -- According to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Pinoys originally came from South China thousands of years ago.  The same book also says that the people of Madagascar originated from Asia.

5)  Green Corps -- I think Peace Corps should look into becoming more green.  For instance, how about replacing the current PC vehicles with hybrid vehicles?  Or have the staff take public transportation?  How about "Bike to Work" day?  Hey, I'm just throwing it out there.

Dix Choses Dont Je Pense

I don't feel no pain
I don't have no time
to listen to conflicting points of view
Its a crazy world to live alone
-- Sublime

In honor of RPCV Cooper's blog, Cooper in Cambodia (and also because I don't really have a specific topic to blog about), I'm listing "ten things I think" (or have done) of late, a potpourri of thoughts and actions, if you will:

1)  The Undiscovered Country  -- I've been listening to a lot of Sublime and Mitch Hedberg lately.  The lead singer of Sublime and Hedberg, of course, have been dead for several years now.  Gone before their time.  Due to drugs, I believe.  One can only wonder how much more they could have contributed to music and comedy.

2)  Movies -- I watched Django Unchained but after recently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and Peter Mathiessen's Shadow Country, the film was a bit of a disappointment.  

3)  Asians in the Media -- Is Ken Jeong an Uncle Tom for playing the ridiculous Asian gangster in The Hangover films?  Is he basically "dancing for the white man" at the expense of Asians?  Are people laughing  at Jeong because he reinforces the stereotype that Asians are goofy, nerdy, etc.?  Has Jeong set Asian-Americans back 100 years?

4)  "Western" Food -- I recently came back from the West region of Cameroon, but when someone from my town asked me if I tried the local food, I realized that I mostly just ate  shawarma and a few hamburgers during the trip.

5)  Funny PCVs -- I don't know too many people who can make me laugh, but I gotta say that I've met some pretty hilarious volunteers -- Emily, Ryan, another Ryan, Rob, Sarah, Ben, to name a few. 

6)  Latest Derangement --  some kid called me "sensei" and then bowed, like I was some sort of martial arts teacher.  I had to restrain myself because I was ready to go off and have a violent reaction.  Then again, if I had that reaction, that would just reinforce their idea that I know martial arts. 

7)  ¿Donde vas?

I almost said "tambien" instead of "aussi" while talking to someone.  That could mean that my Spanish is slowly coming back, which is good.

8)   Things Cameroonians never say:  "Oh, I'm sorry.  Did I cut in front of you?  A thousand apologies.  Go on ahead."

9)  Cameroonian French -- I like how Cameroonians add "un peu" to a lot of sentences, e.g. "Tu vois un peu", "Tu comprends un peu", "Ca marche un peu", "Descends un peu."

10)  The Weather -- The upside of being in a humid climate:  no matter how cold it gets, a cold shower (or bucket bath or river bath) isn't really cold. 

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

Six Pack Movies and a Meme

I saw two movies recently: End of the Spear and 300. What do they have in common? Angry guys with six-packs. :-D My roommate rented End of the Spear on DVD. It's about a group of Christian missionaries who are killed by the Waodani, an Ecuadorian tribe, during the 1950s. The main characters are Mincayani, one of the tribesmen, and Steve Saint, one of the sons of the murdered missionaries. Undeterred by the murders, the missionaries' wives and family still try to reach out to the Waodani by living with them. Overall, it was an interesting story.

The next night, I saw the movie 300. I was reluctant to go b/c the movie looked like just another mindless, violent film, but I was with a friend and his friends and I didn't want to be a wet blanket so I went. Ok, let's see, the film had:

1) violence that seemed gratuitous even for a battle film
2) ridiculous elements that look like they're straight out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel and not a history book (e.g. a giant rhinoceros, a Goliath-like creature, a half-goat/half-human, a human with crab-like limbs, fighters called the immortals with skull-like masks, a group of deformed mystics, and a hunchbacked Spartan)
3) occassional wannabe-freedom-speech moments that comes off as Braveheart-Lite
4) historical exaggerations, e.g. a characterization of Persian leader Xerxes that is downright silly

Aside from those things, the movie is great. hehe. Oh, I could go on, but I'll just say: skip this film and watch the History Channel or PBS if you want to know about Spartan history. Also, if you're into ancient war films (not necessarily Spartan-related), check out the classic Braveheart instead.

In meme related news, Carey created this meme in which I was included. Her rules are as follows:

1. Choose five blogs randomly from your blogroll.
2. For each blog, choose at least one entry (you could add more) which is your favorite post by this blogger.
3. Include a link to this post and explain why you like it.
4. The chosen five bloggers are considered tagged and they will also have to do the same in their blogs.

So far, Carey has posted this meme three times, each with 5 different bloggers. I was included in part 3. Cool. ;-)

Ok, like Alternati, I didn't really choose randomly. hehe. As I've said before, there's lots of great bloggers out there but I did have to choose only 5 of my favorite posts from the bloggers on my blogroll. That's not easy because each of them is unique and great in their own way. Note: I was a politician in a past life. :-D Anyway, here's some of my fave posts from the bloggers on my blogroll:

1) Toe's Let Me Drink My Diet Coke:
The first blog post that made me LOL.

2) Vern's The Pursuit:
It shows her persistence when it looked like she wouldn't get into the college of her choice. Her "won't take no for an answer" attitude is kinda inspiring. :-D

3) Alternati's 13 X-tinct Games:
I also played these video games as a kid and despite the cheesiness of the graphics, they do bring back memories. Just looking at the picture of the video game Kung-Fu Master makes me grin. If you've played that game, you know that the game is the epitome of "cheese" with it's damsel in distress plot. Still, I liked it. ;-)

4) Bill Billig's Let's Have Fun and Paulo Avelino Raps:
If there's one guy out there who speaks for my Igorot heritage, it's Bill. He articulates what I have a hard time putting into words. I chose two posts from his blog: his post about Paulo Avelino, a half-Igorot guy in some Pinoy game show and a second post about the controversy involving Barrio Fiesta restaurant. Ok, so Bill mentioned me in the 2nd post which is another reason why I like the post. hehe. Anyway, discussions on Bill's blog are always lively, fun and intelligent. Bring your thinking cap when visiting this blog.

5) Niceheart's Ten Things I Would Never Do:
I just feel bad for Arlene, who is mentioned in number 9. hehe

As far as tagging goes, like Alternati, I'm also waiving that requirement for the mentioned bloggers. ;-)

Technorati tags: meme, 300, End of the Spear

Hollywood Show Biz

I previously posted some thoughts on Pinoy show biz, so I figure it's time to post something about American or Hollywood show biz. First up: African-American male characters in Hollywood. I was talking to some friends about Grey's Anatomy and the topic of Sandra Oh came up. Her character in the show is apparently dating an African-American in the show. I don't watch this show b/c it looks like a soap opera and as far as medical dramas go, I prefer ER, although that show has occassional soap drama, also. Anyway, I was telling my friends that I rarely see an African-American male character dating a white female character in TV or film. The show Scrubs comes to mind, where the black guy in that show (Donald Faison as Chris Turk) is dating a Latina woman (Judy Reyes as Carla Espinosa). If I remember correctly, I believe Ming Na's character in ER was also dating an African-American character. I then said that perhaps Hollywood has an easier time portraying an African-American male character date non-white female character, like in the shows I mentioned. Does Hollywood think viewers will be uncomfortable if a black guy dated a white woman?

My friends and I then discussed how Asian guys in Hollywood movies rarely get the girl in movies. Seeing an Asian female hooking up with a white, black or Latino guy in these movies -- no problem. Seeing an Asian guy hooking up with a white, black or Latina gal in these movies -- you've got a better chance getting struck by lightning. In The Replacements, for example, poor Chow Yun Fat barely got a kiss on the cheek from Mira Sorvino even though he was the star of the movie. My friends tell me Jet Li didn't have much luck with Aaliyah either in Romeo Must Die. Two leading men, both tough guy roles -- neither could get the girl. So why is it that the Asian male rarely gets the girl in Hollywood movies? Check out Media Action Network for Asian Americans for more on stereotypes or Wikipedia for some theories. Also, check out Angry Asian Man (yup, another angry website).


Post-script correction: The title of Chow Yun Fat's movie is The Replacement Killers, not The Replacements, which I think is a band. ;)