A heroine in the book Possession by A.S. Byatt, Christabel La Motte, a (fictional) Victorian poet, advised against the keeping of journals or diaries:
If you can order your Thoughts and shape them into Art, good: if you can live in the obligations and affections of Daily Life, good. But do not get into the habit of morbid Self-examination. Nothing so unfits a woman for producing good work, or for living usefully. The Lord will take care of the second of these – opportunities will be found. The first is a matter of Will.
- p. 65
I’ve always wanted to start a journal but somehow couldn’t continue because I can’t bear to read my words if they are meant for myself alone. I’ve done a lot of morbid self-examination, though, especially in my early blogging days. It may not be Art per se, but it’s close. At least it’s what it (the process) aspires to be..
I just discovered that the singer who dubbed Natalie Wood’s singing voice in West Side Story is the same singer who dubbed Audrey Hepburn’s singing voice in My Fair Lady. A quick Wiki research will reveal that Marni Nixon is the singing voice behind many very well known Hollywood movies such as An Affair to Remember (for Deborah Kerr), Joan of Arc (for Ingrid Bergman), Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s The King & I (for Deborah Kerr), and others, in addition to the two movies mentioned earlier.
I love My Fair Lady – The story of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney (working class Londoner) flower girl who took speech lessons from one Professor Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a lady. I’m just rediscovering Audrey Hepburn (and Julie Andrews, for that matter). I found several treasures at YouTube showing the clips featuring the real singing voice of Hepburn and some other original renditions by Andrews (with rare theater production pictures) and they were all marvelous in their own individual way.
I have also recently watched the original TV production of Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews and was pleasantly surprised to realize that the recent Manila production (starring Lea Salonga) didn’t deviate much from the material. Lea’s Cinderella is just a little bit more spunky compared with Julie’s prim and proper lady but I love both versions.
I think I want to rewatch The Sound of Music next.
I’ve been going to the Globe center in a nearby mall for the past few weeks to pay for some stuff I bought online (through G-Cash). Naturally, the iPhone 3G on display will always attract my attention no matter how many times I’ve circled around it. I’ve gotten myself flyers, too, but never an application form. It just costs too much! The 8 GB model is still around Php 37K and the 16GB model is almost Php 44K. And don’t get me started with the available plans. Anyway, my phone still works and I’m still happy about it, even if I realized I’m not really into PDAs. The iPhone can wait. I can wait (until the price drops to about one fourth of that).
And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don’t know how
Because maybe
You’re gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You’re my wonderwall
Chance meeting your perfect other, your perfect opposite, your protector and endangerer. Chance embarking with this other on the greatest of journeys — a search for truths fugitive and imponderable. ~Scully (Trust No One, TXF, 9x6)
Scully is my favorite TV heroine. She may very well be the only one. I admire her intensity, her sense of rigidity that is not quite unflexible but is rooted in something more than fleeting emotions and shallow aspirations. As they say, she’s a buzzkill – she is rarely amused, but when she is, finally, sparks fly.
I can attempt to write everything that I appreciated about this character Chris Carter created and Gillian Anderson so masterfully portrayed, despite the fact that her real-life persona will probably giggle over Scully’s repressed personality, but someone else have already done that for me.
Here’s a thoughtful article published on Salon, detailing why Dana Scully, THE “smart-girl icon who was (and would still be, alas) a rare television bird: professional, independent, unsentimental,” became both the cerebral center and the heart of an otherwise formulaic science fiction narrative.
Last night at the Meralco Theater, Stages’ West Side Story had its full dress and technical rehearsal and we had the luck to get to watch it. Its almost like the real thing; almost because there were a few flubs, as to be expected, with the biggest one happening right at the dramatic finale.
I was scouting for tickets online last week when a friend mentioned that Meralco employees (which include her husband) are invited to fill the Meralco theater for the event. I literally forced her to bring me along! What, free preview, free ride, great seat (we’re a few rows from the stage; Thanks again, Carlo & Rizza)!
I might watch the actual performance again later just to see how they’ll improve on it. It took me a while to settle and enjoy the show. For the first few minutes, I entertained myself by watching (the back of) Gerard Salonga conducting FilHarmonika. Coming from watching Cinderella a few weeks earlier, I was missing the technical precision of the performers. I had to remind myself that it would be unfair to compare, being this cast made up of young, up-and-coming local theater actors. Even Christian Bautista, whose billing could rightly have been shared by Joanna Ampil (who played Maria last night) and Karylle, is new to the theater, and it showed. Maria, however, is another story. Audie Gemora, the executive producer, reportedly said that ” having Joanna adds up a certain level of polish to the entire ensemble.” I have to agree 100%. She’s a West End (London) performer, after all. I probably should save the assessments after the regular show starts playing but let me just mention that Rowena Vilar was almost perfect as Anita and Gian Magdangal as Riff was a good fit.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad night. Now, if they can only hold all the other musicals at the Meralco Theater…
I’ve been reporting the progress of Roger Federer at the U.S. Open in my other blog. I can only wish that he’ll cruise all the way to the finals so I won’t have to write an entry if he’ll fail to defend his title. He’s been the champion at Flushing Meadows for the past 4 years and is looking to prevent Nadal from having a better year (3 Slams, 1 Olympic gold) than he managed in the first 4 years of his absolute dominance.
I was watching the 2005 U.S. Open final last night and noticed the difference in Federer’s movement and shotmaking abilities then. I think the key is confidence. He lost a big chunk of that which used to give him an air of invincibility; thus, he plays tight and is prone to more errors. But that’s just an assumption. Another thing I noticed is how much older he looked after 3 years. I’m pretty sure it’s just the stress and possibly his bout with mononucleosis earlier in the year (at Wimbledon, he even had a scar on his right cheek from a boil that got infected), but he lost that freshness and boyish charm as well. Well, it’s not as if he needs treatments for acne or anything, I’m sure he’ll bounce back to his old self (no pun intended) with a few rest and with his 5th U.S. Open trophy in hand.
“The truth is out there – it will come to you as it has come to me.”
Those are FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder’s last words to the global conspirators and their pawns.
When the actor who played him, David Duchovny, showed up at the premiers (Los Angeles and London) of the latest X-Files movie, fans didn’t fail to notice how scruffy and sullen he looked:
It turned out that he was having bigger problems than looking ruffled. He reportedly issued a statement through his lawyers that he voluntarily entered a rehab center for his sex addiction, a long-rumored-about condition he repeatedly denied in the past few years.
Duchovny’s hit TV show Californication, where he plays an oversexed and self-destructive, but brilliant, writer, will premier its second season soon.
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