A Summer In Heat

A Summer In Heat

NOW WHERE was I? All too suddenly, summer is at its tail end and I feel like I missed out on the days that I should have been looking forward to it.So far, I haven't gotten enough sun and sea which I usually do at this time of year.

      You see, I sort of got sidelined for a while. I recall the last days of March and the whole of April went blindingly fast bringing with it a series of work and some distractions and interruptions.

Flashback

     A major interruption was spending about three days in the hospital – Medical City – caring for a sick child. Eating one bar of Magnum too many and daughter Ghiselle’s tonsils became inflamed, got infected and gave her not just high fever and a painful sore throat but sore muscles and chest pain.

      The chest pain scared me because I know for a fact that tonsils or throat infections are somewhat connected to the problems of the heart.

      But thank God, the daughter finally gets back into shape. Unfortunately, a day after coming back from the hospital and appreciating the warmth of my home sweet home – it was freezing cold at the hospital! – I begin to go feverish, experience shortness of breath, feel aching muscles and really go under the weather.

      The fever goes away but I wasn't totally well. Not wanting to spoil the family’s Holy Week vacation in Pangasinan and make my daughter worry for me this time, I join and successfully do the Visita Iglesia and spend one day at the beach, frolicking with the waves and marveling at the beautiful sunset after. That night, I get a relapse and I would miss the rest of the fun as I sleep it off in the resort’s cottage amidst the sound of waves and my family’s laughter.

      Coming home on Easter Monday, I felt worse than the first time. There wasn’t anything I can do but stay in bed. I never knew what ‘life interrupted’ meant until I felt too weak to even go to the bathroom, which merely meant going down the stairs.

      But I managed with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in my iBooks keeping me company. Despite the uncomfortable and achy feeling, the book was an effective diversion. So effective that I was completely absorbed and couldn't get enough of this thriller of a novel that I continued reading the other two in the three-book series by Stieg Larsson -- The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – long before I got better. 

 

  

        

      And this turned out to be a distraction because I would spend days turning the pages and lapping up the exciting saga slash unofficial love story of controversial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Lizbeth Salander, a world-class computer hacker with a photographic memory. This made it hard for me to start tackling the backlog in my writing, including updating this blog.

      Fast forward to today and summer is definitely like a dog in heat. While the rains have come – mostly afternoons – summer weather prevails.

      And if I may add,it’s not just the weather that is shooting up but people’s temper as well.

Drama & Violence

     As I write this, two separate but somewhat scandalous fights have unfolded involving some of the country’s more colorful personalities.

      One happened at the airport – it is now dubbed Thrilla in NAIA –between dauntless columnist and broadcaster Mon Tulfo and celebrity couple Claudine Baretto and Raymart Santiago. A YouTube video has gone viral and it is alarming to see Raymart pulling Mon’s hair to keep him in place as Claudine beats up the old man. Well, Mon is more than 60 years old. Makes me wonder now kanino kaya siya magsusumbong … (for the unknowing, Mon hosts that hard-hitting program entitled Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo.)

      The other took place in a bar in Makati where a bunch of men – alleged friends of TV actress Andi Eigenmann -- ganged up on Albie Casino, another TV personality and believed to be the father of Andi’s love child. Breaking news has it that the estranged couple bumped into each other in Fiamma Bar.

      Andi reveals in an interview that she felt offended when Albie looked at her in a bad way, making her pour wine over him later. All hell breaks loose afterwards and Albie ends up not just wet but black and blue.

     Now, the country is so divided. Typical of a Filipino life, everyone simply has a comment or an opinion, giving rise to a series of possible circumstances on who/what started or triggered it.  Even so-called witnesses have different versions. 

      Some say it is blatant physical attack on Mon and Albie. Others say, both deserve it. Lawsuits have been filed, multi-media can’t have enough of them and follow-up stories and live interviews continue.

      And because it is more fun in the Philippines, even unfortunate circumstances like these become fodder for potshots and spoof from all forms of media.

      Here’s my favorite shared by my high school friend Willie Narvacan in Facebook; he credits the photo to Anne Hime. I specially like it because believe in happy endings ...

 

Moon & Madness

                              

     These bugbugan blues happened on a weekend when an oversized full moon shone on the horizon. I’m not sure now if this has something to do with these hot fights but the relation between moon and madness comes to mind.

      Surely, the guys who beat up Albie were raving mad as can be made out from the impact of a shoe or some kind of footwear on his face.I’m not taking sides but I can’t get over seeing Claudine horse-riding Mon and throwing him one punch after another, much like the action of a scorned witch.

      Now don’t scientists attribute madness to the moon's fullness? And don’t psychiatrists declare anger as a temporary madness? 

      What about the word lunatic, which means an insane person? It comes from the Latin word lutanicus, meaning moonstruck.

      But then, how could such a perfect full moon trigger or spark off madness?

     

      Anyway, the Super Moon brightened my part of the sky over that weekend and it was pacifying just watching it glow from above. I took some pictures of it but I was not successful and so I’m borrowing some photographers’ shots to record this beautiful phenomenon. 

 

THE SPLENDOR of the Super Moon on May 6^th

is witnessed by a runner along a trail

at Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona.

[Photograph by STAFF/Reuters]

 

         

IN WARSAW, POLAND,

the Super Moon shines bright beside

the Palace of Culture & Science.

[Photography by Rafael Guz/EPA}

 

Hot Romance

     While we’re at it, this leads me to the act of falling in love or what the cynics call as another form of madness. They say so because this is an overwhelming feeling you just can’t control – you love who you love no matter what.

      Be that as it may, it is my wish that true love or even a quick romance would develop for my young girlfriends who are not in a relationship and/or indulged in anything complicated at the moment.

      Kuya Kim was reporting on ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol that before the month of May ends the rainy season will begin. I hope it’s not too late for them. I feel that summer is a great time to fall in love or to simply get swept over one’s feet. 

      Borrowing the words from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – obviously, I still have a hangover over those books – I hope they get the chance to realize “love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.” 

      And if I may do some kibitzing, President Noynoy’s lovelife is definitely not hot. His rumored girlfriend, radio announcer Grace Lee, is not cool, definitely not First Lady material.

      How come he doesn’t encounter women the likes of noted broadcasters Korina Sanchez and Bernadette Sembrano anymore?

Tele-Trial Moments

     Don’t worry, I’m not about to go there.  Admittedly, I have become bored with The Impeachment Trial. It has gone on and on and I think I’ve heard enough.

      Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was right when she once called one session of the trial a travesty, and in another, a parody. Both words actually mean the same.

      Besides, my interest has switched to those fiction lawyers on cable TV, specifically in The Firm (Sundays, 9:55pm, AXN) and Suits (Sundays, 8pm, JACK TV); and in the cop series Blue Bloods (Saturdays, 10:55 pm, AXN).

      The first two shows offer genuine legal drama and the lawyers – counsel Mitch McDeere, played by Josh Lucas, in The Firm; and legal partners Harvey Specter and Jessica Pearson, played by Gabriel Macht and Gina Torres, respectively; and Harvey’s assistant, a college dropout but as brilliant, Mike Ross, played by Patrick J. Adams, in Suits – are good-looking, impeccably dressed and they do not use so many words to get their message across. (In Blue Bloods, I like the character of Assistant District Attorney Erin Regan, played by Bridget Moynahan.) 

 

FICTION LAWYERS on TV are

are impeccably dressed

and definitely good-looking:

 (Uppermost) Suits topbillers Gabriel

Macht and Patrick J. Adams;

and (above)Gina Torres; (below)

Bridget Moynahan

of Blue Bloods and (lowermost)

Josh Lucas of The Firm.

 [Photos from www.tvfanatic.com,

www.ign.com, and www.tvguide.com]

     Of course, everything is scripted and executed for the sake of art but it is refreshing to see their effortless demeanor in and out of court. No grandstanding, no highfalutin’ words, no overacting.

      In one episode of The Firm, counsel Mitch McDeere gets tips from a PR lady before he appears on TV for an interview. She was telling him that lawyers use too many words and they seem to like the sound of their voice. He advised him against this, adding “90 per cent of communication is body language.”

      Josh Lucas, in an interview published in Philippine Inquirer, was quoted as saying that his role in The Firm did not really make him more knowledgeable in terms of legal matters. He says, “if anything, it’s made me more skeptical of the law in some ways because this show is written mostly by lawyers and they write a lot about the twists and turns of how the law can be manipulated and that’s a really scary thing to see.”

      Well, this is life imitating art …

Those –Ing Words

     Remember Noynoying? Well, this is history but if you missed this lousy piece of news, you can check out Wikipedia or the following poster by the youth group Anakbayan  -- 

 

      Anyway, there’s another “–ing” word that is more appealing, courtesy of American football player, Tim Tebow, one of Forbes Magazine’s Top 10 Most Influential Athletes of 2012, at No.2.

      It is aptly called Tebowing or Tim’s act of going down on one knee then resting his elbow on the knee and take a moment to pray, which he does every start of a game. He caught the attention of more people when, after his team won a crucial game last year, he did his praying stance while everybody else were jumping and rejoicing.  

 

TIM TEBOW doing his

signature praying stance.

(Photograph from www.bleacherreport.com/

Harry How/Getty Images)

 

       But doesn’t Manny Pacquiao, who is also on the list of Forbes Magazine at No. 4, go down not on one but both knees in his corner right after every fight to pray and thank his God? How come nobody coined a word for that … Pacquiaoing or Pacmanning?

 

MANNY PACQUIAO goes

down on his knees in his corner

after every fight. How come

there’s no "–ing" word

attributed to his name?

(Photo from www.mannypacquiao.com)

        Another familiar personality in the said list is NBA star Jeremy Lin at No. 10. He also doesn’t have any “–ing” words to his name but fans have coined better ones like Linsanity and Lincredible.

The New Man

    But Manny has the best words associated with him, aside from his impressive boxing titles. He has been ranked the best pound-for-pound boxer, named Fighter of the Decade, and called a world-class citizen.

      And he seems to be working on earning more accolades in the fields of politics and show business.

      His latest, being a Bible ambassador and, using his words, a new man, beats them all.

      The first time I heard him over TV Patrol reciting some verses from the Bible matter-of-factly, my jaw actually dropped.

      For the longest time, he has been denying or evading issues about his naughty side – read: womanizing and gambling –then as if overnight, he admits them all by saying he has changed and is no longer into these activities.  

      Well, let’s see where all this religiosity and Bible preaching will bring him? I’m not saying it’s not for real. I just can’t place the change in image because we already know that he is a devout Catholic. Maybe he just brought his spirituality to the next level.

      Meanwhile, he has made known his plans to run for governor of the Saranggani province in 2013. Is he aiming at Malacanang at another future time as well?