Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 115

How do the corrupt sleep at night?

The world’s most expensive bed. “Php7.7M lang??” Very soundly, secure in the knowledge that they have way more than they need, and that their children never have to work a day in their lives—unless it is to continue the family business. Or if they can’t sleep, they can console themselves that in their antique sleigh […]

Do you have a question for Amy Tan?

Photo from bookriot.com The esteemed author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning and The Valley of Amazement will appear at the Philippine Literary Festival on Friday, 24 October, at 130pm. We’re hosting the forum with Amy Tan at the Raffles Hotel. […]

Get your handwoven textiles at the Likhang Habi market fair, 24-26 October at Glorietta

Indigenous weaving traditions that have survived the centuries (and the onslaught of cheap factory-produced synthetic textiles that will turn into trapo faster than a naive “idealist” politician) are showcased at the fourth Likhang Habi Bazaar on October 24 to 26 at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati. Our cats love abel iloko and will spend […]

The original vampire, the height of charm, and the emotional support animal con

Links we like: Lord Byron: Not just Byronic, vampiric John Polidori was the personal physician to George Gordon, Lord Byron. Byron was often horrible to him. Polidori felt his famous client was sucking the life out of him, so he wrote The Vampyre in 1819 (Dracula by Bram Stoker was published in 1897). Read The […]

Fantastic food deals and free seminars at the first KAINdustriya convention

This was the scene at the first KAINdustriya convention organized by Puregold last October 14 and 15 at the World Trade Center. Hotel and restaurant managers, caterers, operators of cafes, canteens, food stalls, karinderya and jolly jeeps found big discounts on food items and kitchen supplies. Established in 2012, Puregold’s KAINdustriya is for all food […]

The Bone Clocks now ticking in bookstores

Hardcover, Php1199 at National Bookstores David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks is finally in stores. There are limited copies, though, so if you want the hardcover, hurry. As we predicted, The Bone Clocks didn’t make the Booker longlist. The Booker Prize went to Australian author Richard Flanagan for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a […]

“Purpose of travel”

Our real answers to the “Purpose of travel” item in the visa application form 1. Amok prevention. We love living here, but this city keeps pushing and pushing and pushing us and if we do not take a break we will snap. Take this morning. Please. In sane traffic, it would take us no more […]

Confessions of a Bibliophibian

This is where the word bibliophibian comes from. We define bibliophibian as an organism that can live in the real world and in books but confuses the two. * * * * * Remember, it’s not them, it’s us. 1. We don’t love the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Like everyone else, we read One […]

The Janitor made us feel like throwing 500-peso bills at the screen.

We had already seen The Janitor at Cinemalaya but we saw it again because it has the highest concentration of hot guys in any Filipino movie we’ve seen lately. As someone put it, it’s like the Cosmo Bachelor bash in movie form. We brought our friend, Karma K. Good thing the front rows were empty […]

Monday morning shakes: Is there a looming coffee shortage?

Photo from Businessweek. We’ve read several reports about the coffee shortage caused by the drought in Brazil, the world’s largest producer of coffee. News that Brazil’s coffee production in 2015 may hit a 50-year low has already pushed coffee prices to a 3-year high. This year the price of arabica beans has risen 70 percent. […]