Pounding The Keyboard

     So,   these past few weeks, 16 hours of the 24 hours of each of my day is spent in front of TV watching Netflix, the remaining 8 hours is spent on choosing what to watch. Okay, that’s an exaggeration,   only 14 hours of my 24 hours every day is probably spent on watching Netflix. I can’t help myself, the TV is big screen and UHD. I’ve been watching and rewatching some series (I finally got the chance to watch Breaking Bad ) and movies. I wanted to write and gush about Breaking Bad but then, yesterday, I was able to watch a brand new Netflix original movie, their first animated one entitled Klau s;   and together with my nine year old niece and four year old nephew, who were watching with me, we were blown away by the movie. Yes, sometimes my adult brain functions like that of a ten year old’s.      But then, Klaus is probably one of the best animated Christmas movies you’ll ever watch.        Klaus is about Jesper, a lazy, selfish, spoiled brat who, to teach him a

     Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami.      This is one of the books we bought at the last Manila International Book Fair.   The title fascinated me. It is a   Japanese book that was translated in English. It was the first time I heard of Mr. Murakami. It is a collection of (7) short stories and Wikipedia describes the stories as about (lonely) men who have lost women in their lives, usually to other men or death. (Incidentally, Ernest Hemingway had a collection of stories with the same title, which was published in 1927.)   I only started reading it yesterday and I have finished just one story, the first one, entitled “Drive My Car,” which narrates the story of Kafuku, an introverted stage actor in his fifties, who befriended Takatsuki, also a stage actor. Takatsuki was the former secret lover of Kafuku’s recently dead wife. The reason Kafuku befriended him was to take revenge and destroy him. Takatsuki was unaware that Kafuku had knowledge of his affair with Kafuku

     I was rewatching the movie Life Of Pi yesterday on cable TV when I remembered that I gave its book version as a gift eons ago. I heard that my prospective recipient loved books so the first gift I thought of giving was a book.   When I saw a copy of Life of Pi , I had no idea what it was about, but I remembered that its movie version was about to be shown in cinemas, so I figured it would be a nice book to give. Watching the movie and then reading the book to see if the film was faithful to the book, some people I know love doing that. So I   picked up the book,   paid for it, went out of the bookstore and after a few days, gave it away.      I didn’t buy myself a copy of Life Of Pi so I still haven’t read the book but I have watched the movie thrice. And it’s quite brilliant and mesmerizing, the effects are good and there’s some fantastic imagery. In the movie, an Indian (and a very religious) young man named Pi and his family (parents and a brother) and their anim

“But I didn't touch her. She was my dream; and if you touch a dream it vanishes, like a soap bubble.”                                         Looking For The Girl, Smoke And Mirrors      It was the 40th edition of Manila International Book Fair at   MOA and he was inside the National Bookstore, browsing through a pile of Neil Gaiman books.       “Neil Gaiman books are nice,” the lady beside him said in a pretty and happy-sounding voice while he held Smoke And Mirrors in his hand. The blurb said it contained short fictions and illusions.   He glanced at her and saw that she was pretty: long black wavy hair, fair skin, playful eyes, Duchess nose and Goldilocks lips; he was certain she would brighten up any room she entered. She wore eyeglasses   and he always had his bias towards bespectacled ladies.       He nodded. “I often give them as gifts,” he told her.       Her eyes widened a bit. “I often receive them as gifts," she said, her mouth shaping beautiful

     Today, September 11, 2019, is the start of the 40 th edition of Manila International Book Fair at the SMX Convention Center at Mall Of Asia Complex at Pasay City. It will end on Sunday, 15 th of September. Books and the cerebral joys they bring will be available from 10 AM to 8 PM.      I’m planning to go, as usual, I just don’t know if it will push through, lol. The first time I went to MIBF, I think was in 2011, the second was in 2012, then in 2013 and the last time I was there was in 2014, I think. I tried to enter the venue last 2017 but failed, the queue outside was longer than the Great Wall Of China and was barely moving. One or two of the few personalities whose Facebook account I visit once in a while will be at the event this year selling books. Personalities who share my political beliefs, who are intellectual, witty and have fantastic sense of humor, who incidentally are also writers. I love reading their political, oftentimes witty, opinions.  I’m a bit