Pounding The Keyboard

“Ponyo loves Sosuke!” Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea is a 2008 Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki (world-famous for his magnificent animations like Spirited Away , My Neighbour Totoro and Princess Mononoke ) and is certainly one of the sweetest animated films you’ll ever see. Ponyo is a fish who yearns to be human while Sosuke is a five year old boy who rescued her when she tried to swim ashore and got caught inside a jar. Ponyo licks the blood off Sosuke’s little wound and it helps her turn into a little girl. Unfortunately, her sorcerer father tracks her down and brings her back to the sea. The scene where Ponyo is reunited with Sosuke is priceless. She jumps off a big fish, stares at him with wide, excited eyes, unmindful of everything around her including a raging storm, while he is stupefied, she runs to him, leaps towards him and embraces him tightly. You’ll thank whoever invented cinema for that scene. There are no villains in this...

Many months ago, I was having an animated conversation with a friend when our topic shifted to Carlo J. Caparas (who at that time was a recent recipient of an award; I forgot what award). Let’s call my friend Totoy Buto (he’s quite thin) and this is how our historic conversation went: Totoy: Na-meet mo ba si Carlo J no’ng nagsusulat ka pa sa komiks, pre? Me: Hindi, hindi na yata siya nagsusulat no’n. Busy na siya sa movies. Totoy: Pansin ko lang, parang panay ang tanggap niya ng award ngayon. Me: A, oo, mula nang maupo si GMA, parang naging award magnet na siya. Totoy: May ibig kang sabihin? Me: Wala. Totoy: Tingin mo ba, deserving siya sa mga awards niya? Me: Hindi ko alam, hindi ko alam kung ano mga criteria do’n. Totoy: Parang malakas siya ke GMA, ‘no? Me: Mukha. Totoy: Papasok siguro sa pulitika ‘yan, solid nga naman ang magiging credentials mo kung marami kang awards. Me: Puwede. Totoy: Sabagay, mga minor awards lang naman ‘yon. Magiging kasindak-sindak siguro kung manana...

Totoy Bato is one of my favorite Carlo J Caparas comics characters. I only managed to read few parts of the novels ( it was hard to find a copy until now) but I watched its movie versions which starred FPJ. I remember watching it as a kid in a seedy moviehouse (which showed two old films at a price of one) near our house where intermittent shouts of Balut! and Yosi! interrupted your pleasurable viewing experience. Yes, balut and cigarette vendors were allowed inside that movie house. My mother wanted to kill me when she learned that I entered that moviehouse. “’Buti’t ‘di kayo nabiktima ng gumagalang mga bakla ro’n!” she scolded me. When I heard that Robin Padilla was going to play Totoy Bato in TV, I vowed that I’d be watching it. I have always been a fan of boxing and anything related to it. And i have always liked Robin as an actor. But something disappointing happened on my way to watching its first few episodes, the other persons in our house preferred watching DVDs at ...

"What will you get if you crossbreed a bulldog and shih tzu?" "A bullshiht!" The movie Marley & Me reminded me of my former pet dogs namely Egan, Floyd, Bono and Relic. It is a film about a young couple and their pet dog, an oddly stubborn and troublesome but lovable Labrador retriever named Marley, who is called the world’s worst dog. Marley doesn’t just play or destroy things but eats them. Sofa, carpets, jewelries, tables, bed sheets, computer printer, answering machine, name it and he will eat it. My first dog, Egan, was already old when I got him. After a few years of being with me, he started showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. There were times then when I’d talk to him and he’d only stare at me blankly like trying to remember who I was. Sometimes he wouldn’t bark all day and would just read the newspaper which always led me to think that he’d probably temporarily forgotten that he’s a dog. One day, he didn’t wake up anymore. Floyd came next....

I was hibernating under a huge rock in a mountain when I was jolted by the news that the king of pop, Michael Jackson, succumbed to cardiac arrest. The whole world is now mourning. I am really not a huge fan but everytime he'd be on TV, when he was still alive, I'd stop whatever I was doing and watch him. He, with his soft voice, shy demeanor and wild and crazy antics, was always amusing in his interviews. And he was mesmerizing whenever he performed. You can't help but be vastly entertained by him. He was a first class entertainer--methinks he was the best dancer in the world-- and a genuine music icon, not unlike Elvis Presley and John Lennon. His album, Thriller, continues to be the best-selling album of all time. And I still think that his moonwalk , alongside television and cell phone, is one of the greatest inventions of all time.

Damien Rice is a very good singer/songwriter. Why? Because almost all his songs will unfailingly depress you and push you to the brink of utter helplessness. Don’t listen to any of his songs while you’re drunk and heartbroken because it will break your heart more. You will be very lonely that the idea of you hanging from a ceiling with a rope tightly wound around your neck will start to look titillating. This song, Rootless Tree , is one of my favorite Damien Rice songs. You can sing it in a videoke bar and you can dedicate it to an ex-wife who left you for a lesbian, or to an ex-girlfriend who dumped you to marry a rich seventy eight year old man who’s starting to show signs of Alzheimer’s disease, to that girl who chose a married drug addict over you, to Hayden Kho for being in that videos instead of you, to the politicians who continue to screw the nation, to your neighbor who spreads rumors that you eat dog food with ketchup, to Globe and Smart for stealing your prepaid cell ph...

I was rearranging the books in my shelf when I stumbled upon this Lan Medina illustration sandwiched between two books ( 1,000 Street Foods You Must Eat Before You Die and How To Treat Women With Respect (While Secretly Videotaping Them) by former MD Hayden Kho). It turned out to be an ad for a komiks novel I was supposed to write for Super Fantasy Komiks. The main character, Kastigo, a mysteriously dark, ultra-violent but funny superhero, was a creation by Ronald Estacio (then editor of Super Fantasy) but the villains, we discussed and brainstomed. Lan Medina was picked to illustrate it. Mr. Estacio had grand plans for Kastigo, it would have its own komiks entitled Kastigo (it would be 30+ pages long) and a small website would be devoted to it. I’ve already started writing the script when an uprising erupted inside the publishing house. Incidentally, the owners of the company were of Spanish-descent while the writers and the illustrators were true-blooded katipuneros, er, Pino...