Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 118

Question at Midnight #3

The Librarian by Arcimboldo Which book would you live in? Suppose there were an invention, like in The Kugelmass Episode, that could project you into any work of literature as a new character. What novel would you choose to live in? The Kugelmass Episode by Woody Allen Post your answers in Comments. The winner will […]

Question at Midnight #2

An old movie theatre Who will play you in your big-budget film biopic? Physical resemblance not absolutely necessary. Gender, nationality and skin color immaterial. The actor doesn’t even have to be living. It’s a movie fantasy. Post your answers in Comments by 11.59pm. * * * * * The winner is MewMew. Congratulations. Please email […]

Norte is the official Philippine entry to the Oscars.

In this scene, Fabian (Sid Lucero) continues being a dick and lecturing everyone, including his older sister Hoda (Angelina Kanapi). Thank you. Next: the campaign to be chosen as one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. Daunting, but who knew we’d get this far? Field of Foreign-Language Oscar Contenters Begins To Come […]

Question at Midnight #1

Malacañan Palace Who should be President of the Philippines? There are 100 million Filipinos, surely you could pick one to lead us. We know which candidates we would never vote for, but which one will we support? Post your answers in Comments by 11.59pm today, Wednesday the 24th of September. The winner will be announced […]

For our 8th birthday: 8 questions, 8 days, 8 sets of prizes

For our 8th birthday, we’re picking your brains and giving away a bunch of prizes. Every day from today, 24 September, to next Wednesday, 1 October, we’re going to post a Question at Midnight that we hope you will take the time to answer. Then we’ll pick one winner according to our very arbitrary criteria […]

The Perils of Being A Writer

The original title of this piece was “Don’t Be A Writer”. The plan was to discuss the aggravations of being a professional writer—someone who makes a living off writing, as opposed to someone who does it as a hobby or a form of “creative self-expression”—and dissuade anyone who doesn’t have the discipline (or compulsion) from […]

Oliver Sacks on libraries

The Bodleian Library photo by Greg Smolonski On the whole, I disliked school, sitting in class, receiving instruction; information seemed to go in one ear and out by the other. I could not be passive—I had to be active, learn for myself, learn what I wanted, and in the way which suited me best. I […]

Reading year 2014: Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement is compulsively readable

It’s about Violet, the half-Chinese daughter of an American woman who runs a courtesan house in Shanghai. The Qing dynasty is falling, anti-foreign sentiment is rising, business is failing, and mother and daughter are fighting. Like mothers and daughters everywhere. There’s also a fat, cranky cat named Carlotta. We started reading it yesterday and now […]

We’re turning 8 on Wednesday

Not Drogon, he’s only two. JessicaRulestheUniverse.com will have its eighth birthday on Wednesday, 24 September 2014, and we’re marking the occasion by giving away a bunch of prizes. Check in on Wednesday to find out how you can get some of the loot. This is our way of thanking you, our readers, for joining our […]

A Sunday afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila

We spent a few hours at the Met Open 2014, a benefit exhibition on contemporary art. Five eminent curators selected 208 artworks focusing on abstraction, painting, seriality, pop culture, myth and symbolism. Robert Langenegger Leo Abaya Jaime De Guzman Paulo Vinluan Napoleon Abueva The five pieces shown above are among the artworks for sale. Proceeds […]