le baiser by french neoclassic artist auguste toulmouche.

happy new decade, everyone!

ok, ok, there is avatar, 12 years after james cameron brought us titanic in 1997, another year when it was personal to me. not because there was one particular film then that i wanted to win, but because i wanted titanic in particular to lose. there, i said it. the only oscar winner in history whose screenplay wasn’t even nominated. meaning, the story sucked. there, i said it. it won solely on its technical merits.

this is just my humble opinion. here’s my problem with movies whose only advantages are technical in nature: they don’t age gracefully. i watched titanic again a few weeks ago and i didn’t find the sinking scenes as impressive as i once did. that’s because filmmaking evolves, they advance rapidly. in a few years, many of the groundbreaking techniques now will be rendered obsolete and replaced by other groundbreaking techniques. so if you watch a technically charged movie with a flat story, say, ten years from now, all you get is a boring film with tired old effects. as opposed to movies whose clear advantages are their screenplay and the actors’ performances: they become classic. you can watch casablanca then, now and in the future, it would strike you the same way it did audiences over fifty years ago. not to say movies with a lot of sfx have no potential to become classic. look at star wars. puppetronics have since been replaced by cgi and the original jabba looks somewhat amateurish by today’s standards, but its story and character development make it timeless. i’d say the same for the lord of the rings. or maybe i’m just a geek.

this time, there is a lot of talk about avatar pulling another titanic on us. a very visually engaging show with lackluster story running for best picture but nowhere in sight for best screenplay nor its actors for best performance. admittedly, the movie was stunningly beautiful… on the surface. i did like it and even recommend it to my friends (as opposed to: i discouraged my friends from watching titanic. and they hate me for it). i am quick to emphasize that the sfx will blow their socks off, but the story is meh. it’s like ferngully in another habitable planet (or was that a moon?). or reverse dances with wolves as many critics put it. i do consider it one of the best films of 2009, simply because the whole spectacle was riveting. but i couldn’t stand the idea that it might win over

inglourious basterds.

it will break me in half. sfx, no matter how magnificent, should never precede a good story. titanic has done it before to l.a. confidential. please don’t let mr. cameron do it again. i have tremendous respect for him and his craft, he is indeed a visionary director, but we just can’t let sappy stories with full-on effects get in the way of our good judgment. i like james cameron for terminator and arnold schwarzenegger, but that feels like a very distant past now.

although, for the life of me, i don’t know how a “historical fantasy” can take the plum, especially one that strikes extra-sensitive chords. especially one that takes liberties with its free rein on historical facts surcharged with moral and ethical considerations, it’s almost sacrilege. it doesn’t help that it was written and directed by quentin tarantino, of course. i think it’s about time he gets the award. he ought to win one eventually, right? what better chance to do it than for this film.

here’s another extra-juicy bite to the unfurling awards red carpet: best picture forerunner the hurt locker, touted as the most powerful movie about the war in iraq, is directed by kathryn bigelow, only the third female ever to be nominated for best director. experts surmise she might just become the first female to win a major award for that category (she has bagged the earlier awards to support that claim). she happens to be james cameron’s ex-wife. ooooohh… wouldn’t it be too succulent to have an ex-wife pull the rug from under the ex-husband’s feet? i am also rooting for you, ms. bigelow! because i love uncanny plot twists!

the second-largest awards ceremony, the golden globes, announced their picks last december 15. as we all know, this is a reliable preamble to the oscars, although there have been occasions when one and the other disagreed on best picture (like sense and sensibility won the gg, then braveheart won the oscar in 1995, yet another year when the awards was personal to me).

here are the nominees for golden globe 2010:

best picture – drama:
avatar
the hurt locker
inglourious basterds
precious
up in the air

best picture – comedy or musical:
(500) days of summer
the hangover
it’s complicated
julie and julia
nine

best director:
james cameron – avatar
kathryn bigelow – the hurt locker
quentin tarantino – inglourious basterds
clint eastwood – invictus
jason reitman – up in the air

best screenplay:
it’s complicated
the hurt locker
inglourious basterds
up in the air
district 9

best actor – drama:
jeff bridges – crazy heart
george clooney – up in the air
colin firth – a single man
morgan freeman – invictus
tobey maguire – brothers

best actress – drama:
emily blunt – the young victoria
sandra bullock – the blind side
helen mirren – the last station
carey mulligan – an education
gabourey sidibe – precious

best actor – comedy or musical:
matt damon – the informant!
daniel day-lewis – nine
robert downey, jr. – sherlock holmes
joseph gordon-levitt – (500) days of summer
michael stuhlbarg – a serious man

best actress – comedy or musical:
sandra bullock – the proposal
marion cotillard – nine
julia roberts – duplicity
meryl streep – it’s complicated
meryl streep – julie and julia

best supporting actor:
matt damon – invictus
woody harrelson – the messenger
christopher plummer – the last station
stanley tucci – the lovely bones
christoph waltz – inglourious basterds

best supporting actress:
penelope cruz – nine
vera farmiga – up in the air
anna kendrick – up in the air
mo’nique – precious
julianne moore – a single man

some (insignificant) comments:

a deep and resounding yesssss for christoph waltz! he has won all supporting actor trophies so far, he should get the major ones too. he is nominated for both the screen actors guild and the golden globe, he’d likely be nominated for the oscar. he is downright fantastic, he is terrifying and hilarious in parts as an ss. who would have thought someone could pull off a role like that? thank you, mr. tarantino for picking up a little-known talent from austria and giving him a big break!

i’m somewhat tired of seeing merryl streep every year among the nominees. she’s a fantastic actress, no doubt, but it seems as if they just put her in because they can’t find anyone else to fill the slot. and i don’t want her to tie katharine hepburn’s long standing record for most oscar acting awards… that’s just me.

check out, mo’nique in the highly acclaimed precious! that darn funny girl can give a darn good drama performance too!

seriously, sandra bullock? was the year really that slack for actresses in comedy? i love sandra bullock, i think she’s funny and relevant in the film industry, but her performance in the proposal isn’t so good it could warrant a nomination.

come to think of it… looks like a weak year for comedy altogether. nine gets a nod despite all the bad press and the mainstream frivolity the hangover is there with it. don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about the hangover, i just thought this category was for films along the caliber of four weddings and a funeral and moulin rouge.

hey look, tobey maguire’s up for best actor. i won’t say anything for nor against it, but didn’t jeremy renner for the hurt locker give a more critically acclaimed and more talked-about performance? shouldn’t his name be up there instead?

here’s hoping too that inglourious basterds win for best ensemble cast in sag!

i can almost taste it!!!! and we have clearer tv and new surround sound too, how perfectly exciting!

this is the year to watch… i mean, i say that every year, but this.is.the.year. very crucial developments have made their way into the drama that is idol. not least, of course, the departure of my favorite pop female artist, paula abdul, who has been with the show since day 1 and has been peppered with controversy after controversy from suspicions of alcohol in her coca-cola tumbler to an alleged raunchy scandal involving one of the semi-finalists. and who better to take that place than the irrepressible and confessed idol fanatic, ellen degeneres (story here)? really, you would never in your life want to miss a whole season of ellen and simon together in a panel.

and this just might be your last chance to witness ellen and simon banter… reports announce that 2010 is his final season with american idol (click here for story). he will be concentrating on bringing x-factor into the states after that. seriously, folks. this.is.your.last.and.only.chance.

paula's gone from idol and after next season most likely simon would be gone too

i can harldy contain myself! in two weeks, american idol will kick-off with a two-night season premiere. and the much-anticipated auditions, as always, will surely make your wednesday and thurdsday nights (in our time zone, that is) the most important primetimes of your week!

scheduled dates for airing of audition episodes (dates in the u.s.):

january 12 – boston

february 17 – live show semi-finalists announcement

guest judges include victoria beckham, mary j. blige, kristin chenoweth, neil patrick harris, joe jonas, avril lavigne, katy perry and shania twain.

kristin chenoweth, best known for her roles in pushing daisies and broadway's wicked will provide her opinions during next season's a.i. auditions.

something to look forward to: the hilarious nph will guest judge.

do not miss this opportunity! if you were just a casual fan or was never interested in a.i. at all before, you owe it to yourself to at least watch the auditions next season. believe me. you want to.

continuation to this.

my favorite shoes in 2009:

cut-away boots…

jil sander ss 09

georgina goodman fw 09

exaggerated platforms…

gianmarco lorenzi fw 09

guillaume hinfray fw 09

decorative heels…

viktor and rolf ss 09

christian dior fw 09

feathers, scales or a simulation thereof…

pierre hardy fw 09

mai lamore fw 09

pedro garcia fw 09

mai lamore fw 09

vouelle fw 09

fringe…

gianmarco lorenzi fw 09

and my most favorite pair of 2009:

gianmarco lorenzi. fabulous!

christmas has never tarnished its childlike charm to me. and i always go into the season with the same feeling of wonder and excitement as when i was just waist-high and struggling to read the gift cards. now that i have been participating in the actual buying of gifts (and have been doing so for over ten years), it is even double the merriment that i am able to both open my gifts and watch people open the gifts i wrapped.

some females choose to post their wishlist online probably hoping some of them will materialize (meaning some friends and family will read the entry and buy the stuff) like a bridal registry. i have done it myself before here, and none of the things happened to cross my hands (well, i did get a pair of stella lunas after i wrote the entry, but they’re a different pair. so that doesn’t count). of course, i may have been shooting over my head there even with just three hundred thousand pesos (php300,000.00), but i could have at least bought robyn more books for her leap pad.

today, i am still hankering for a trip to japan and rimowa luggages to travel there with, but i’ll take my return ticket to the philippines and my cheap ass generic brand luggage if it means i can visit home and eat danggit again. nevertheless, i came into the christmas season with a mental wishlist much simpler, more tailor-fit to my current situation and more accessible than my imagination would warrant. but they by all means give the same sense of satisfaction, coupled with the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with being able to take part in another season of exchanging gifts. cheesy? you bet.

i chose not to post any sort of wishlist, despite my fascination with assembling lists. however, i will post some of the stuff i received. because these are some of the things that make up my wishlist and i’m happy-dappy like a little kid.

my favorite scent, 2008′s most awarded fragrance, daisy by marc jacobs. moderately old in designer fragrance years, but still my favorite. too bad i missed the limited edition edp (which strangely cost the same as the edt) by about three days from the when the last bottle was sold, but i’m very happy with it no less. i know fragrance is such a cliche gift, but i don’t think i will ever get tired of receiving them.

a woven raffia roxy fedora with shell, grosgrain ribbon and chain embellishments and…

…a black pinstripe quiksilver “mob” fedora with embroidered crest and same-fabric sash. i started to regain my thing for hats when we had to wait in the sydney airport for nearly seven hours en route to nadi last september. my husband bought me a white-and-black hat that looks like eva longoria‘s and then i remembered how i once really liked hats but the philippines just isn’t a country that exactly embraces the accessory whole-heartedly (unless you are a musician or an artist. which i neither am). now i’m back to liking and collecting them.

coincidentally, i wrote “toothbrush” in our grocery list, and look what i found under the tree! we’ve always meant to buy the oral b electronic toothbrush but thought it too expensive to clean teeth with, so i’m happy someone gave me and my husband a pair of these things.

books from two of my favorite humorists. when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris and mere anarchy by woody allen. i believe all the hype. yes, they are all that.

ok, i don’t have the least liking for robert greene’s machiavellian laws on leadership and how many of my previous managers so full of themselves live by his books like religious fanatics, but i admit that i read them all the time. yeah, i do, so kill me for being cliche yet again. the very same way i read so many other political philosophies i heavily disagreed with but intensely admired for the thinking behind them (like hitler’s, for instance). collaborating with 50 cent, greene comes up with another set of leadership principles in the 50th law for me to read with intense pleasure then disagree with during discussions. because i’m silly like i just enjoy insecure guys defend their peer-pressured beliefs like they are defending themselves against murder.

the advanced 32-stitch electronic singer sewing machine! with a users guide that reads more like a computer textbook than a home ec training manual. while trying to prioritize things and making ends meet, my husband and i started talking about getting one and we’ve been playing around with figures like how much we have to pay every week or how much we should negotiate for a second-hand one (especially since all of a sudden one day i found that we have to pay every week for a new tv and stereo system on top of basic needs and utilities from a single-income household with an applying immigrant who hates cooking… me, in other words). then lo! i get a sewing machine as a christmas present from the folks! doesn’t the world just work in mysterious ways?

reviews on some of the items later.

hope everybody had a wonderful christmas!

ironic for the first christmas post of this blog, here is last christmas by 19-year-old dutch artist emerald de leeuw.

a very merry christmas everybody!

before the holidays completely overwhelm me with laziness and before the year finally comes to a close, i would like to take a brief look back at the year that was incredible shoes.

the prevailing shoe trends of 2009:

designs at the back or the heels themselves
platforms to dizzying heights: either artistically rendered or hidden altogether
fringes or feathers
scales (or a simulation thereof)
cut-away or mesh inset boots
thigh high boots
decorative ankle straps
victorian button- or lace-up

and certainly nothing even close to plain!

louis vuitton ss 09

lanvin ss 09

diego dolcini fw 09

nicholas kirkwood ss 09

devi kroell ss 09

cesare paciotti fw 09

christian louboutin fw 09

heather williams fw 09

stella mccartney fw 09

camilla skovgaard fw 09

fendi fw 09

manolo blahnik ss 09

alexandra neel fw 09

omelle fw 09

proenza schouler fw 09

versace ss 09

alejandro ingelmo fw 09

gaspard yurkievich fw 09

charlotte olympia fw 09

tanja s. london fw 09

alexander wang ss 09

michael lewis fw 09

rock & republic ss 09

baldinini fw 09

ruthie davis fw 09

we call it cyclone. cyclone mike, specifically, last monday. back in the philippines, we were more accustomed to calling it typhoon. i believe some cultures call it hurricane. i read in our encyclopedia back in high school that the difference is just nominative, they’re all the same calamities. can someone verify?

whatever you choose to call it, it caused widespread power outage and we’ve been in the “dark” since monday. well, apart from the t.v. and the occasional reading lamp every night, c/o a small generator.

we can hardly even charge our cell phones, how much more for our laptops. our desktop pc’s are completely out of the question. we had to drive to town to check our emails.

this is how dependent we have become to technology. oh, our poor meaningless existence.

curse you, cyclone mike!

if you look around this blog, you will find that it’s no secret how i adore barbie dolls. a few months ago, i discovered a team of creative minds who don’t just adore these dolls, they downright labor over them and established miss unibarse, the annual doll pageant meant to simulate a grand slam pageant in a literally smaller scale. but as we have learned from a past interview (posted here), there is certainly nothing small about this somehow wild and wonderful idea.

for one, f&g photography and global queen beauty management, the brains and talents behind this event, have clearly spared no expense and devoted no little effort in preparing their “dollegates”. looking at the results, you can tell immediately that these are not your average children-at-heart playing with dolls. these are professionals and artists who have taken painstaking care and precision in conceptualizing and preparing each candidate. and two, they involve a panel of judges with industry credibility so serious, this might as well get sponsorship from a few forbes 500 companies (or at least mattel, i honestly think).

previous judges include (from r-l) miss universe '05 natalie glebova, miss earth '07 jessica trisko, and miss international '07 priscila perales.

according to a reliable source, this year the panel includes two celeb judges who, for discretionary reasons, must remain unnamed. it should be enough to note that these two are affiliated with that very famous and often very controversial benefactor of the miss universe organization, mr. d.t. (namesake of a hot-tempered duck in a popular animation syndicate).

moving on to this year’s festivities…

organizers and judges have just concluded the special events of national costume, press presentation (for miss photogenic), swimsuit, evening gown and online voting (for the “people’s choice” award). here are some of my favorite moments:

candidates arrive at the host country.

luncheon with reigning miss unibarse 2008, miss dominican republic.

press presentation to determine the most photogenic candidate.

parade of nations.

backstage at the evening gown competition.

here are my favorite national costumes:

and evening gowns:

thanks to us, obsessive online voters of the philippines, our “dollegate” has fast-tracked her way into the top 25! (we are the same obsessive online voters responsible for ms. philippines winning miss photogenic every year in the real grand slam pageants)

from 80 candidates, now we’re down to the top 25. check them out and the rest of the fast-track winners:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh21O0I4S3E&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b]

visit the miss unibarse website to learn more about the pageant and to keep track of your favorite candidates!

continuation to this.

placecard holders: miniature-ized well-loved trimmings

white snowflakes look great with iridescent table confetti. gold wire christmas pines are classic.

small poinsettia and christmas balls add whimsy and would make great conversation pieces.

from bridal people.

centerpiece: gather the tree trimmings and put the lights on

one of the easiest things to do is make centerpieces during the christmas season, with the abundance of decorating items. you can gather balls into a bowl or candles on a plate and voila!

from superweddings.

the wedding cake: ribbons, poinsettia and edible winter

adorn your cake with a silver or gold ribbon; instead of the usual roses, how about fondant poinsettia instead?

check this out, sprays of snowflakes as if they burst off the cake!

from wedding flowers and reception ideas and perfect wedding day.

wedding favors: christmas decorations

decorations like this snowflake candle holder and this crystal tree trimming make the best favors. your guests can put them up in their homes and be reminded of you every christmas season!

you can even put the favors in gift boxes! how about a personalized christmas ball?

from bridal people, cool party favors and stylehive.

the reception area: lots of lights and all things that glitter

like i said, i love holiday weddings because you get the opportunity to go crazy with the lights!

from wedding53.

set the atmosphere with a string quartet that plays christmas carols.

set up a space like this where you and your guests can pose for photos. this one sure beats the hell out of a printed tarp background.

from venus ensembles.