ramblings, random musings, fascinations, rants, raves and revelations

That's the question the movie One More Chance tries to answer and the question that made us [I, Jc, Brooke and Ron] somehow teary. The good thing is that the film presents a situation that answers the question with more correctness than goofs.


After a very tiring night at work, the four of us braved the sunlight and waited for Megamall to open. Brooke needed an eye checkup and Ron needed to buy some stuffs while we [I and Jc] decided to just be the spice to complete the menu.


The couple central to the story is Popoy [John Lloyd Cruz] and Basha [Bea Alonzo] . Their story is given enough background-- they were college sweethearts who, after five years, get engaged. The conflict of the movie arises when Basha gets fed up with Popoy's controlling ways and opts to have more space and personal growth by breaking up with Popoy. Popoy, on the other hand, is devastated as his plans are quashed and deals with the break-up unwisely. The story moves forward and gets better at that point.


What I like about the movie is the good exposition of how people these days deal with break-ups and how the people/environment that surrounds them [friends, family, work, etc.] is affected by the personal turmoil. What I don't like is the very weak supporting cast-- it was virtually a hodge-podge of vets and newbies that really do not make their marks in the movie. Also, I found the last third of the movie a bit too contrived to let the loose ends tie together sloppily.


One More Chance has catchy and cool lines that will make you think and ponder. I had hesitations at first because I'm not really a fan of Tagalog movies. Peer pressure prompted me to bury my ass and watch it [not that bad though]. It is a movie where we - who have been in loved would appreciate and people would enjoy it for its honesty, good balance of tear-jerking moments and a solid performance by John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo.

And as always, here are some pictures to "One More Chance" the day.

What's with Peri Peri Chicken?

That was the question on my mind as I walked into the restaurant. I initially suspected it was just chicken inasal with a gimmick, since peri-peri sounded like an Ilonggo word. Or maybe inihaw na manok that was trying to be more wordly, hence the interiors that somehow reminded me of Brazil Brazil.

Jc was the one who introduced us [Ron and I] to Peri Peri. We were on our way to do the bongang bongang shopping [as Ron puts it] at Greenhills when we felt the sudden urge to eat. We've been oh so busy and tired for the past few days as we prepare for our Christmas Party. And so while waiting for Brooke, we experienced our first Peri Peri.

Obviously, I'm not very cultured.

After perusing the menu and not finding anything to explain what a peri-peri chicken was [except for the phrase "spit-fire grilled chicken", which didn't help much since I had no idea what a spit-fire was], I decided to let my stomach do the thinking.

The menu centers on the chicken, which comes in Lemon Garlic, Peri Mild, and Peri Hot flavors. There's an array of side dishes to complement your chicken [tortilla chips, java garlic rice, tortillas, corn kernels, macaroni & cheese, potato salad, and coleslaw], other chicken dishes like chicken wraps and chicken strips, and some other ulams for those who don't like poultry. Prices are reasonable, ranging from Php100-300.

I'm starving from all that mental effort by this time, so I decide to load up on the carbs and order the the lemon garlic chicken, the potato salad, and the pasta. Service is quick and friendly; the meal comes in no time at all, and with it... peri-peri heaven. The chicken is perfectly moist and juicy, and comes with a special dipping sauce which seems to be made out of oil, but who cares? It's tasty! If you want to up the heat factor, douse your chicken with the bottles of Peri Mild and Peri Hot sauce on the table.

Thirty minutes later I am leaning back on my chair, rubbing my stomach. I still had no idea what a peri-peri chicken was -- it's not chicken inasal, nor is it inihaw na manok, but it definitely was peri-peri good.

The Peri-peri experience then prompted me to suggest it to some friends.

*After doing my homework, I discovered that peri-peri is actually the name used for the African Bird's Eye chili in Portuguese and some African languages. It is often used in Portuguese cuisine to prepare sauces and marinades for roasted and grilled dishes... and so, peri-peri chicken!

Yesterday, I was reintroduced to my first love. Yes, back in kindergarten and first grade, the love of my life was Superman, the hero in the movie played by the late Christopher Reeves. [Imagine my distress, when he died]

I just watched Smallville 7… we had a somehow sunny, windy, Manila's Christmas Season weather where the only viable option was to curl up on the couch at home and watch movies and TV. And this one really struck me. There’s something to the innate goodness of Clark that I’ve missed seeing in movies and books. As of late, we like heroes who are hardboiled, cynical, damaged and “dark”. While I know as well as anyone the draw of a good antihero [all the book characters that I’ve been in love with are dark, damaged, cynical and good despite their preferences], I’m wondering if this isn’t a bad thing for us as people, that we don’t believe in good and heroic heroes anymore.

This really stood out to me in light of watching, for much of the rest of the day, the show Big Brother–more specifically, the UBER live feed that they’re playing nightly this time. Don’t get me wrong– I still like the reality show, but it strikes me that this is a microcosm of life as most of us in “the new age” [for lack of a better term] live our lives. We shut off all contact with the outside world, become intimately involved in the [ultimately meaningless] maneuvering for power within our self-limited circles, and insist on living life as though we’re playing a zero-sum game.

In some ways it’s probably more comfortable to live like this. After all, when your world has prescribed boundaries, you don’t have to worry about anything outside those boundaries, and you have a lot more control over what happens in a little goldfish bowl than you do over the whole ocean. But at the same time, when you deny the existence of life outside of the fishbowl, you render essentially meaningless ideas like “the greater good” or even alleviating suffering among people who don’t live in your bowl. Because admitting the existence of the downtrodden in the world outside would shatter the confines of a tidy game and its self-imposed rules, we often choose to disregard things we honestly shouldn’t. Thus arguing about the war becomes the matter of how much attrition of those who staged another hotel mutiny is acceptable– and really more about which political movements in the country you agree with– instead of a matter of thinking about the best interests of the people in that part of the world that, for better or worse, we have assumed some responsibility for.

Besides, when we limit ourselves to only a self-referential idea of values, all based off the “game” of life that we invented for ourselves, it becomes increasingly easy over time to talk ourselves into, at times, a complete reversal of the values that we purportedly live by. The “right to choose” becomes the “right to die” becomes “the duty to die” once one becomes a burden on the younger, prettier and stronger…

Superman, as he was originally conceived, stood for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” [which I think meant the idealistic American way that may or may not have ever really existed, where we championed good over evil and attempted to ensure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–in that order–to all people in the world]. How many people do you know who believe in Truth, Justice, and living life according to a broader set of values like that? Not many, I’m guessing. I think if more of us opened our lives and understanding to the greater world, and to the need for greater values, we’d find many more people who were willing to act on those values. In that sense, we’d have a nation full of Supermen…

The person I'm going out has a tendency to laugh at my unorthodox thinking methods, my way of bitching, not to mention that, so they say, I tell them stories of my younger days, growing up with my Baste friends, the songs that my classmates used to sing during school programs... - they laugh a lot at me, most of the time with me, which I think is nice.

My life is really colorful. I came from a group of friends who never gets tired of reminiscing our elementary and high school days. Every aspect of my life has a certain "caption" to explain. When it comes to the word "Ironic" need I explain what song comes to mind? Of course, it is the tune that officially beckoned Alanis Morissette into stardom in 1995. I have liked her ever since her first album! In 1995 I was a 2nd year high school version of myself and the acoustic abilities, the unusual vocal nuances, moderate feminism and alternative looks of Alanis Morissette together with slightly controversial lyrics made me a big fan. Tonight that song, the word ironic, are on my mind. So I would like to leave you with a video from my youth and a song that right now expresses my disappointments whilst cheering me up.