Strangely Ambivalent to 2013 Oscars Best Picture Noms

Normally, in any given year, I would be passionate in supporting one, two, sometimes, three movies during the annual Oscar derby.  It was even more exciting when they expanded their nominations to ten slots in the Best Picture category - since it allowed more 'normal' movies to be nominated.  

However, I have been strangely ambivalent to the roster of Best Picture nominees this year, although undeniably most of them were box-office successes and were technically competent.  Well, I haven't seen all of them yet, but with the ones, I've seen, I haven't really been moved that much.

Well, I usually leave the films I'm least interested in to watch last, and I usually watch what I think interests me more, first.  But this year, all the ones I thought I'd be interested in, just, well, bored me.  Les Miz, Argo, Silver Linings - all disappointments.  I still have to see Lincoln, Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty.  I liked Life of Pi but it didn't stir me enough.

Oh well, I hope at least one of the five Best Picture nominees I haven't seen yet will turn out to be an emotional gem for me.  Otherwise, 2013 will go down as the year, I didn't feel passionate about any of the Oscar Best Picture noms.

The Iron Lady in HBO Tops My Favorite TV Show of the Week

 

I was able to watch The Iron Lady on DVD and I was not, at that time, too impressed with it.  However, I caught it again on HBO, while having my lunch and I was pretty hooked!  I was amazed at how Meryl Streep just loses herself into Margaret Thatcher's character!  It's amazing!  Really well-deserved Oscar win!

Anyway, here are my ten favorite TV shows for the week ending February 22, 2013 -

#1 HBO - The Iron Lady 

#2 TV5 Monde - Fais Pas Ci, Fais Pas Ca - Santa n'existe pas

#3 TV5 Monde - Fais Pas Ci, Fais Pas Ca - coat homeless

#4 Bio - My Ghost Story - Haunted Hotel

#5 Bio - My Ghost Story - Spirit Seekers

#6 CI - Medical Detectives: Funeral Services

#7 CI -Born to Kill: Aileen Wuornos

#8 Cinema One - Giddy Golly Yop

#9 CI - On the Case: Tangled Past

#10 Diva Universal - Law and Order: SVU

Yummy Cookies From Honey!!

Honey gave Dylan and Laura a box each of chocolate cookies last night which they can bring to school as baon!  I tasted one of them and it was soft and yummy and it had sprinklings of chocolate in it which made it really masarap!

Food Trip: Yummy Burger at Backyard Burgers

My friend Jenny and I have a weekly food trip where we try new restaurants around ABS and GMA and the Timog-Morato area.  Not the expensive type of restaurants, but the tinier ones that serve comfort food.  

Jen introduced me to bagnet and empanada last week and that was pretty delicious.

This week, it was my turn to choose the place and I picked this shawarma place right in front of ABS-CBN, the main building.  Sadly, the food was not so good so I better not write about it.

However, I tried the burger from Backyard Burgers, the resto beside it, and I loved the burger!! The patty was juicy and tender and it had enough veggies to make it look like a real burger!  I'm definitely going back here and maybe try the bigger burger!

Delicious Cake from Cara Mia

This is the first cake we ever had from Cara Mia and it's delicious, I love it!  You can actually eat that rose!  It's a chocolate cake with a rose on top, also made of chocolate!

The Will: The Joan Crawford Story - My Most Favorite TV Show This Week

My most favorite TV show this week was this fascinating story about the will of Joan Crawford, and how she disinherited two of her four adopted children.  It was from the TV show, The Will, a TV show in the CI channel.

Here are my ten favorite shows for the week ending February 15, 2013 -

#1 CI - The Will: Joan Crawford story

#2 ETC - 2013 Grammy Awards

#3 GMA7 - Rescue - battered women

#4 TV5Monde - Les Bleus - prostitution ring 

#5 Bio - My Ghost Story - The Hill House Has Eyes 

#6 Bio - I Survived - cult survivors recount their tales

#7 Bio - My Ghost Story - Lesson from Beyond

#8 CI - On The Case - wife burned in house

#9 CI -On the Case - wife with hip injury murdered

#10 Bio - Vanished - Amy Bradley

French Cop Show Les Bleus: My Favorite Show of the Week

I watched TV5 Monde again today and I was lucky to watch Les Bleus - that exciting French cop series which features a really hot gay cop!!  And he even had an intimate scene in this episode that I saw.  This gay cop has two lovers! Woot woot!

Here are my ten favorite shows for the week ending February 9, 2013 -

#1   TV5 Monde - Les Bleus

#2 Bio Channel - Ghostly Encounters

#3 Cinema One - Green Paradise

#4 Cinema One - Bcuz of U

#5 ETC - Beauty and the Beast

#6 Crime Investigation - Medical Detectives - Filtered Out - young girl shot for refusing sex

#7 History - Countdown to the Apocalypse

#8 Crime Investigation - Menendez Brothers

#9 Diva - The Event (1)

#10 Diva - The Event (2)

Delicious Bagnet and Empanada at Empanada Nation

Jen and I usually meet up every Tuesday night just to catch up and since Jen was sick already of eating at McDonald's beside ABS-CBN, she suggested to me the bagnet of this cozy restaurant, also in Sgt. Esguerra.  The place is called Empanada Nation and it serves pretty good bagnet and empanada.  The empanada is huge and has a lot of fillings.  I suggest you get the Double Special (70 pesos) since it contains two pieces of longganisa aside from the usual vegetables.  I just wish they had plain rice instead of garlic rice.  I wanted to taste the bagnet but since the garlic rice was already 'salty', it couldn't counter the taste of the bagnet.  Anyhow, it was still a delicious meal!

Repertory Philippines: Boeing Boeing is Fun Fun

            I love the fact that the Repertory Philippines always chooses an adult-themed play as their first offering of the year.  Last year, they had Next Fall – which was a gay-themed play – and this year, it’s Boeing Boeing – a playful piece of theater where three gorgeous stewardesses have, well, one boyfriend!  What a cad! 

Anyway, trust the Rep actors to really give full on performances!  I mean, all the three stewardesses looked really gorgeous!!  I mean, if I were straight – I would’ve really enjoyed just watching these three vixens – played by Giannina Ocampo, Carla Dunareanu and Jennifer Blair Bianco play their roles to the hilt – which they did – and as an added treat – they even wore lingerie!  Wow!! That was fun to watch!!  So if you’re a red-blooded man, better head to Onstage at Greenbelt and watch this really funny play.  Yeah, there are some men in it, but it’s really the women who steal the show – and that includes the venerable Joy Virata who plays the, well, French maid!

Book Review: Five Things I Enjoyed in Joseph Kanon's 'The Good German'

Well, the picture you see above is NOT from the book, it's the movie version of Joseph Kanon's The Good German.  I am now curious to see the movie since I have finally finished the book.  I am curious to see who plays the interesting characters in the movie, although I can gauge from this photo that George Clooney is Jake Geismar and Cate Blanchett, Lena.

Anyhow, here are the five things I liked about the book -

#1 The depiction of Berlin after the war - precise and sensual - you can almost smell and see and feel the place!  

#2 The musings about the war particularly on what ordinary Germans were doing since Lena, one of the main characters, was in fact, just an ordinary Berliner.

#3 The lesson that no one wins in a war.  Well, yes, the Allied forces won the war but in the book, Kanon writes it in a way that, well, no one wins in a war!

#4 The presence of many interesting characters - Jake Geismar, Lena, Emil Brandt, his Dad, Sikorsky, Gunther, Shaeffer, Liz, Lena's roommate....I could go on and on....

#5 Just the right amount of suspense that kept the story moving forward!

Ako Ang Simula Episode: My Favorite TV Show of the Week

I have noticed that all the public service programs of ABS this month has been showing reruns which can be good and bad.  Good, because I can catch up with some of the shows I miss - including this heartwarming episode about this polio guy who gains a friend who literally carries him on his back!  This touching episode is my most favorite TV program of the week.  Bad, because, well, since I watch XXX all the time, every show I've seen this month looked dated and something I had already seen last year.

Anyway, here are my favorite TV shows for the week ending February 1, 2013

#1 ABS-CBN - Ako Ang Simula - karga na polio

#2 Bio - Celebrity Ghost Stories - Widdicombe
 
#3 Jack TV - I Just Want My Pants Back

#4 CI - Pick Up Truck Killer - Thai

#5 Bio - Celebrity Ghost Stories - Taylor Hicks

#6 Diva - Law and Order - strict father

#7 Star Movies - Haunted Mansion - Eddie Murphy

#8 Bio - Ghostly Encounters
 
#9 Bio - My Ghost Story Asia

#10 Star Movies - Ghostbusters