The Scary DVCD Stores

I woke up at a little past 8 today and ate some buko (coconut) pies to start the day. I don't know what happened after but at around 9:30 I took a shower because I was planning to check out the local video shops today, and the mall opens at 10:00 AM. I got lagged and left at around 11:15 because I finished the Iron Chef on Entertainment Channel. After that I checked to see what videos they were playing on MTV (I don't know... I guess I'm really just curious) and ended up being hypnotized by Hilary Duff and her lack of singing skill. That's why I left at 11:15. I just had to stare at her video with my jaw hanging open. I mean, she can't even sing really good! And she's just... horrible! What do people see in her!?!? Goddammit. I wanted to shoot her but I still finished the whole thing. How ironic. The video was somewhat mostly her performing in a concert. These poor kids waste their money to watch her perform on stage.

It was not really a scary day except for it's a little embarassing since I have to watch if I happen to be checking out a stack of steamy, rated R movies. The first store and the music store didn't really have them, but the rental store did have a whole rack of it on the back portion. Unfortunately, infront of the rack was another rack with a bunch of other spy/action movies which I had to see.

The first store, to my delight, had a bunch of war, spy, crime/gangster/mafia movies (and so did the music store...read below). I wonder how much of them I can watch in my whole lifetime. I'm a sucker for those kind of movies.

After that I started the 5 minute walk towards the village gate. I encountered a hige toad sitting still in the middle of the road and 2 dog poo who looked like frogs. After that walk was a 3 minute jeepney ride to the mall, then I'm off to drown myself in the video store. The first one I went to didn't offer rentals, it was generally just a d/vcd store. I tried to see which movies were available...I checked out everything and made mental notes (but I fogot them most of the time). I only had P400 with me so I was just able to afford a ocuple of VCDs. Well there was a sale, so all's good. I was looking if they had any Snatch on VCD (there was only a DVD version) to no avail. Then I chanced upon a Seven Years in Tibet VCD copy. I passed by the P99 rack of old movies no one wanted to buy then when I glanced down it was there... Wow. I'm lucky, I guess. And so I bought it.

Next uo I want to the rental store and looked around. The way the items were arranged was confusing but I still looked around. I flipped around in the sale racks and found Scarface for P150. I didn't buy it YET because I have other things in mind. I checked out the music store above which sold movies as well. I finally found Snatch there and so I bought it. All the Al Pacino films and other gangster films were all sold for P150 it was awesome. But I didn't have much money so they'd have to wait. They also had a whole set of Godfather :O for P350 each part. Well, I payed for my last copy of Snatch and went back to the rental store to ask for membership.

I wasn't able to rent any movies today since I need to have an ID (which I stupidly didn't bring any with me) and a latest bill or mail to verify your home address. But I did bring a 1x1 ID picture. So I just asked the guy if they had the movies I wanted to rent and gave him a bunch of titles. They seem to have most except for DONNIE DARKO. One year of search and they still don't have it. Even the other stores didn't. That was quite frustrating.

Today's supposed movie marathon (see previous post) was not followed. What I was able to watch for the past 24 hours were:
White Oleander(sp?) (an okay movie, really good acting and surprisingly made me cry during the last 10 minutes O_O )
Bad Company
Snatch
Seven Years in Tibet

Tomorrow I will be watching:
The Deer Hunter
Highway
Platoon

Hmm... should be good.

Movie Marathon

For the next few days I will be renting movies and do some catching up. I've missed a lot of good movies. I will not pass on to the other realm, to another life, without renting these movies. Since many of them are old, I can probably buy DVDs of them for cheap prices as well.

Movie Marathon Part 1:
Scarface
Snatch (It's upsetting, I haven't watched this yet)
Donnie Darko (I have finally convinced my lazy self to rent it...I hope they have it.)
The Deer Hunter
Platoon

Movie Mrathon Part 2:
Seven Years in Tibet
Pulp Fiction
Donnie Brasco
Fight Club (watching it again)

Movie Marathon Part 3:
Once Upon a Time in America
The Devil's Own
Godfather I, II, III

Movie Marathon Part 4:
The Usual Suspects (watching it again)
Highway
Road to Perdition (I missed it)
Gangs of New York (is this a good one?)

And here are yet-to-show-in-theater-movies I'm planning to see:
Most movies show late in the Philippines, except for the likes of Troy and HP
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Terminal
The Sin Eater
Harry Potter 3: PoA (seeing it this Wednesday)

So... do you have any suggestions on what else I should go to see? They aren't all the greatest movies but hey, I want to watch them.

Broken Promises Re-promised

Your cultured dirtbag, otherwise known as me, will not be having much adventures for the next few days. But of course, I'll still find time to blog every other day (if not everyday). I would just be posting less on MX and spending less time on the internet. I have listed the reasons why.

1. I will be working on The Lower Crust webzine for at least a 10 days a month. 5 days will be spent writing for my column, working on side articles and updating the whole site. Make that twice in a month since the zine is bimonthly. Voila. 10 days. I would also be doing a new layout each month and change the main image on the site (and maybe the color) for the second issue of each month. Wow. I feel so important B)

The new school year commences on the 7th of this June. Since it's senior year, we get to confidently mark out a turf that would generally be seen as the pseudo-techie, geek kids' corner (even though everybody in the school is seen as nerds by outsiders, being geeky is different I guess). We'll bring in the laptops, CD players, good music and VCDs/DVDs B) Reminds me, I need to save up for a dvd-rom. Well, during vacant periods, we would be working on the zine there.

2. Starting tomorrow, I swear to resume reviewing for the SAT this October. Read that in bold letters. If I fail to do so, violating my code of honor, then I shall retype it in another post in bold and all caps. I will start reviewing it regularly and building my vocabulary again.

3. The University of Hawai'i is requiring first quarter/semester grades of senior year so I am determined to get in the freaking Director's List (our version of a Dean's List...all the same). And no matter what evil forces I will strive to get a grade of 1.0 on my Biology once and for all! I have been deprived of it for so long... So long I tell you... *wheeze*

4. I will be practicing bass regularly once and for all. All through out the summer I only picked it up TWICE or THRICE. From what I perceive of my up coming schedule and what extra time it allows me, I will be able to practice once a week. That's not a lot but it's something compared to before. And I shall learn a new song on bass every week. I would also have to propose for the band to go back to active mode again and practice at least once a month. After October then we would be doing it once a week, if we can. We all live apart, you know. 2 of us live south (one out of that two farther south, around 2 1/2 to 3 hours from me), I live up north and the other lives in the middle (about 30 minutes away from me without traffic, which is rare, to 45 minutes...or an hour). And we might be getting a rhythm guitarist who can offer us free practice space (I love you Den, thanks. We're definitely getting you, haha :D)

By the time senior year ends we have to have something recorded and compiled into an EP! >:(

Another thing. I will be going out on wednesday with Ayisse and possibly 2 or 3 other friends. We're going to the Harry Potter exhibit, watch HP 3: PoA, and go take pictures for the Fad Meter section of The LC zine. You see, I rarely go out. I never go out. I just started going out on these so called gimmicks *shudders at word* this past summer because I got used to getting around the city alone using public transport (I don't drive, or can't drive yet) because of the internship I joined, which was in a university down south. And I live north. Blah. You see, the Philippine metro is not quite catered for kids going out because of certain bad elements from the streets. But it seems to be safe. Actually... I just got over the laziness of having to go out of the house.

Well that'd be all. I blogged out of boredom. Make sure you check out The LC webzine when we launch it. Tell all your friends, we're trying to see how successful it will be. :)

/me reviews a movie: The Day After Tomorrow

Hello, hello. I just came back from the movies. I went with my grandmother, whom I have probably watched 3/4 of the movies I've seen with, to see The Day After Tomorrow. The movie is about the polar ice caps melting and disrupting the North Atlantic current which results into a huge storm reminiscent of that which happened during the first ice age. It stars Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal.

- Overall, it's a good movie with nice effects and a few "arm-rest-grabbing" moments (even though you know perfectly well what's coming).
- The visuals, the way they recreated the storm was awesome.
- Thinking "What if this really happened/can happen" is enough to make you go wow or woah in some of the scenes (like when some of the European air force men froze upon contact with outside air).
- There were a few witty and funny lines thrown here and there.
- The acting is good and satisfying. It was pretty much up to par.

See, there's really nothing so bad about it that's worth to mention. I am not recommending it unless you are a fan of these polar ice caps melting theories, LIDAR Physics, huge storms, seeing people freeze to death or Jake Gyllenhaal. I partly enjoyed it because of the theories involved, actually.

Well that would only be it. I'm not pretty much in for a full length movie review. Watch it only if you think you're going to enjoy it. There are no hidden surprises or anything. What you hear of it or watched of it in the trailer is what you're gonna see. It's not like watching Troy, despite not being a fan of Greek myth and literature, then coming out of the theater a changed man.

If you've seen the movie Twister or The Perfect Storm and enjoyed it, then you'd enjoy this more. It's pretty much a The Core type of movie, only it's not really about saving the whole world and is focused on events over land. I promise you won't get sick of people surprisingly being able to carry out a huge Save-the-World mission with only less than 24 hour's notice.

The nth first

So... I have finally given up doing layouts and updating my site which absolutely nobody visits. And behold, there's blogger. Cultured dirtbag seems to be the favourite term for the day (it is, right Ayisse? ;))

Anyway, there. First post. Now I get to blog easily. Comment in other people's blogger accounts. And...er...that's it.

Everybody, watch out for the first ever launch of The Lower Crust webzine. We're publishing it on June 6. Make us happy and visit it regularly from the time it becomes available to the public. :D