not just another "Bee" movie

I first heard about “The Secret Life of Bees” in one of One Tree Hill’s fansites. It got some free publicity there because of Hilarie Burton, who plays Peyton in the series and who also happens to be a part of the movie’s cast. I also read some good reviews but never got to watch it until a while ago. It’s such a warm, honey-sweet with a tinge of sting - which is relatable because it’s about family and it’s about life. Set in the 1960s, during the Civil Rights movement in South Carolina, Lily Owens , 14, (Dakota Fanning) lived all her life with guilt from accidentally shooting her mother (played by Hilarie) when she was 4 years old and living with resentment because of her abusive father’s brainwashing that her mother didn’t love her. But she never believed it. An unfortunate event gave her the opportunity to run away from home, in the company of their housekeeper, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), off to a place where she believes will lead her to the truth. And here is where the Boatwright sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo) comes to the picture. Living with them will teach Lily lessons that go beyond bee-keeping. And here is where I’ll stop because I might be tempted to divulge spoilers.

I love the movie soundtrack - light, intimate and pensieve, and tried to scour the world wide web for possible sources, but I found out that they actually didn’t release a compilation CD of the songs used in the movie. What they have is the original scoring of Mark Isham. I guess I just have to find the songs one by one. Haha.

It’s home-y feel and all those profound quotes about life and love make me want to read the book. Oh yes, I want to read it. There goes another one to my “Book List”.  And oh yes again, I actually have that list. I’m not really a heavy book reader, but there are particular titles I would love to keep me company during lazy afternoons or cold, rainy evenings. Weee.

vomiting through cyberspace

There’s a traffic jam inside my head now, and at the same time a steady flow of ideas and thoughts yet to be materialized. Somehow I need to release even bits of them or else all these cars and trucks of thoughts would just end up hitting and bumping at each other. I’ll try to be as coherent and as comprehensible as possible. Haha.

For this month I plan to bide my time with more of my usual day chores and some “self-teaching activities”, and hopefully because of this, LESS FANGIRLING HOURS. I’m keeping my fingers crossed with that one - so tight hopefully I could still type properly. Haha. Yes, I still love David Archuleta, but I realized that there are a lot of things beyond tuning to his twits 24/7, watching adorable videos of him and voting for him in all these universe-wide polls. I want to channel my fangirl love and devotion on things that could help me grow as an individual (oh man, so cheesy). 

Channel my fangirl love and devotion on things like reading. Yesterday I finished (finally! With a deep exhale of relief) PAULO COELHO’s collection of stories, “Like the Flowing River”. I borrowed it from my friend Kim last May and decided I will read it in a much slower than I usually do, since it’s a collection of stories, therefore gave me more space to digest them. There’s a lot to love about this book, as other Paulo Coelho works. Perhaps I should dedicate a separate blog entry for it. It came to me at the right time and I really appreciate Paulo’s amazing stories and hard-hitting and remarkable wisdom. I would buy myself a personal copy - after all, a good book is always a good investment.

Because of “Like the Flowing River”, and all these multitude of his references of interesting writers, poets and philosophers, he, although indirect, reminded me (and a great deal at that) of the value of reading, and not just reading, but reading a lot. And oh, not just reading a lot, but comprehending a lot as well. I know we can’t know everything in this vast universe, but maybe we can try.

Channel my fangirl love and devotion on things like music. And SARA BAREILLES. It’s only recently that I’ve downloaded her full album. Before I only had “Love Song”, “One Sweet Love” (which is my favorite) and “Bottle It Up” in my player. Oh yes, David Archuleta had a lot to do with this (isn’t he such a good influence on me? Ayihee) because he is a big fan of hers. I was reminded of this a few days ago when I was checking his Twitter (excuse my plugging, follow His Highness, the King of Twitter, and that’s official! It’s DavidArchie.) and saw Sara Bareilles’ tiny-winny pic on the rows of people Archie follows, then I remembered too, that I am also a fan. So there goes “Little Voice” (the title of Sara’s outstanding album) as an addition to my growing music library in iTunes.

Pre-iTunes days I lived with casette tapes and not-so-gigantic (but equally loud) stereo then the component was invented thanks to the unwavering human desire to outshine himself where I played non-stop albums of my fandoms. Back then I had the fascination for memorizing and studying lyrics and finding lines where I can mostly relate to and considering it as my favorite. Haha. The era of obtaining intellectual propery for-we-swear-it’s-personal-consumption-so-please-don’t-sue-us-we-respect-these-artists more popularly known as piracy came and since I’m playing music through the computer so I got a bit lazy obtaining lyrics from these music sites. 

So much for laying down a chronicle of my musical habits, I resurrected my fascination for studying lyrics. A lot of artists are lined up - Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, Leigh Nash, Marit Larsen, Kate Voegele, etc. The first one, a while ago, was Sara. Oh man, song after song I am just blown all the more away with the way she writes her lyrics and how the emotions of the words are conveyed so fittingly with catchy, unique melodies. And she doesn’t just write about love songs, it’s a variety of things, like dreams, solitude, music. And she writes with conviction, wit, and sometimes humor and sarcasm, so that gives her more credibility. I’ve found another favorite songwriter. *rock* And perhaps, I should also dedicated a separate blog entry for her!

My recent Facebook status is attributed to her:

Oh well it may not be a beautiful poetry, but hopefully a song that sticks out, sticks around and sticks through.

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Woohoo, the last time I blogged this long was when I blogged about Archie and my fangirl love for him. )

research gaps and parents’ love letter

If you have alarm clocks - whether from your cellphone or your classic alarm clocks, or gazillion door knocks coupled with “Gumising ka na, tanghali na!” (hopefully loving) screams as your wake-uppers for the brand new day, today I had hammering plywoods and screeching roofs dragging me out of Dream Land (too bad there were many celebrities in my dream last night! Bitin tuloy, hehe). So as I am typing this, I can feel the struggle of my eyelids. Haha.

But my mind is awake. While I was fixing my bed I thought about this:

We people are like theses. We have respective research gaps to fill - that is, a personal legend to fulfill.

Oh my, don’t I miss school? Haha.

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I wanna share this essay I read from my friend Myx’s Tumblr. It’s a very touching, moving piece. Awakened my sleepy eyelids and released a steady flow of salty liquid called tears. 

SULAT NI NANAY AT TATAY

Sa aming pagtanda, unawain at pagpasensyahan mo sana kami, anak. Kung makatapon kami ng sabaw sa hapag kainan o kaya ay makabasag ng pinggan, ‘wag mo naman sana kaming kagagalitan.  Dala lang yun ng kalabuan ng mata at ng namamanhid naming mga daliri. Pinagalitan ka man sa mga baso’t pinggang iyong nabasag noong bata ka pa, Iyon ay dahil ayaw naming masugatan ka.

At kapag dumating na ang takdang panahon ng aming pagharap sa Dakilang Lumikha, ibubulong at hihilingin ko sa Kanya na pagpalain ka dahil naging mapagmahal at maalaga kang anak sa iyong ama’t ina.

Everyday I do my best to be a good and loving daughter to my parents. I admit I’m not a perfect lover and daughter to them, but I love them at my very best.

"the secret" is no secret

What’s “The Secret”?

That can actually pertain about the book that contains it, or what is contained in the book. I heard about it back in college and was immediately curious. I’m drawn to these certain kinds of books not really for its’ “self-help” element but because of the wisdom and inspiration I can actually get from them. Honestly I am a bit put off by the hardcore self-help ones. Depending on the treatment, of course.

I wanted to buy one for myself (”The Secret” book) but then it’s too expensive for me. Haha. There was an e-book I found somewhere (peace out to the author and crusaders against piracy), so I was able to browse a few pages. I’m not really a big fan of reading a big bulk of soft copy material, so I wasn’t able to finish it. But good thing I was able to reach the part wherein Rhonda Byrne revealed what “The Secret” is, the “Law of Attraction”, that is. Yahoo, good for me, no? )

A few years later, which is now, 2009, and just a while ago I was able to watch the movie version of the book. Point blank, there’s nothing really much new about what it presents. Even one of the speakers attested to that. I’ve heard about being grateful for your blessings so that they would be continously outpouring - in the mouths of priests, of parents, of teachers; the concept of visualization was presented earlier by Og Mandino in “The Choice” - which can actually be related with the concept of Imagination; the helping hand of the universe that which will conspire to grant your heart’s desires is very much present in Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”; and Peter Pan’s “Think Happy Thoughts”. So basically it’s an organized kind of hodgepodge of all these well-accepted and respected truths and facts about life and living, assembled in such a way that is even related to Quantum Physics!

Was I inspired by it? Maybe I can say yes because it reinforced in me these truths and value systems that I live by to which I owe my disposition. I have an issue with its concept though. There’s too much emphasis on “thoughts” and its power. Yes it’s important that we empower our thoughts and think optimistically about life because it does make a good difference, but we shouldn’t have too much dependence on it as if it has some kind of telekenetic power. We really have to work our way so that we can realize and achieve whatever we thought of. Not that this wasn’t mentioned, it actually was, but not much.

You may want to try watching if you want to indulge in some self-help or philosophical exercise or curiousity-feeding. Other people may be bashing it because of its approach, but there are just two ways at the end of the it: either you believe it or you don’t. Either it gets to you or it doesn’t. Either you live by it or you don’t. Understand it first before you judge.

hey july

We also got to use the newly renovated comfort room at the Main Building. New floors, tiles, sink and faucet, and there’s a liquid soap dispenser. Sweet. Why didn’t these upgrades come when we were still studying there? Oh well. Haha. I’m just glad that change is good so far for our school.