Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 101

Things seen in traffic

Midgets. Always a great source of entertainment because everyone in the Philippines is 6’4″.

Kung hey faaat choy

Saffy and her stuffed toy sheep, with a box of the world’s greatest hopia. Delicately flaky crust, finely ground mung bean paste. Hopia that you have to get from Xiamen, since they invented it.

Vikings: The domestic lives of ancient marauders

Photo from the History Channel Vikings is a production of the History Channel, so we’re inclined to think that this series about the rise of the legendary chief Ragnar Lothbrok is concerned with historical accuracy and authenticity. On the other hand its creator and showrunner is Michael Hirst, whose previous projects The Tudors and The […]

The second Euro-Pinoy Jazz Festival is happening this weekend

This goes out to the 5 people who read our Whiplash review. There’s a lot going on this month, including several plays we must watch (Dangerous Liaisons, Jean Genet’s Prisoner of Love, and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in Filipino). We asked Rody Vera why everything has to be crammed in the same four weekends, straining […]

“The artist is above all else a sick person, in any case an unstable one.”

“Are these real concerns? Is this work convincing?” Behind all the other questions one asks oneself about a novel, these are perhaps the most determining—and the most slippery. Probably we should accept that in many cases a straight yes-or-no answer just won’t be possible. There will be shades of gray. Still, the matter of whether […]

Cumberbatches decline to whore out wedding; media reduced to reporting fan reactions.

Ha ha ha! Try journalism. Martin Freeman was said to have been best man, aww. So they’d already rehearsed it, just switched roles.

50 Shades of Bored? Watch Secretary instead.

Gyllenhaal! Spader! From a short story by Mary Gaitskill.

In which we look forward to a book entitled Single, Carefree, Mellow

A long time ago we read Nothing But You, a collection of love stories from the New Yorker. The anthology includes some emotionally-charged work by V.S. Pritchett, William Trevor, Mavis Gallant and other masters of the story. Our favorites are the Laurie Colwin story A Country Wedding, which became part of the Frank and Billy […]

This is the new pillory: One stupid tweet can ruin your life

Remember: Not every thought that crosses your head is for public consumption. Photo illustration by Andrew B. Myers. Prop stylist: Sonia Rentsch. As she made the long journey from New York to South Africa, to visit family during the holidays in 2013, Justine Sacco, 30 years old and the senior director of corporate communications at […]

Put that on a greeting card

Photo from the National Geographic From Closer by Patrick Marber Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist, wrapped in blood! Go fuck yourself!