Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 22

All Souls’ Day 2018. My cat Saffy says goodbye.

If it were possible for death to be polite and considerate, such was my 18 and 1/2 year old cat Saffy’s death. On Halloween I noticed that she was refusing her food. Saffy had always had a strong appetite, but she sniffed at her food and left it untouched.The following morning when she still wasn’t […]

Moleskine, I’m breaking up with you.

Moleskine, we’re through. I have been a loyal Moleskine user since 2006, and I have enough Moleskines to pad the walls of my apartment. I have written entire books in Moleskines. The high price of your notebooks I can endure, though it seems more and more ridiculous given the prices of other notebooks of comparable […]

Twisted Travels Central Europe is available at Fully Booked and Shopee starting today. Thank you for coming to our book launch!

Twisted Travels: Rambles in Central Europe, my first new book in five years, is finally out! (All the other Twisted books are out of print, making this the only Twisted book!) In photo (L-R): Deo, Allan, and Evan, who hosted the short program and took tons of photos. More photos on the Bibliophibians Instagram, @bibliophibians. […]

Leo Abaya’s Demograpi, Atbp is his strongest, most politically-engaged exhibit yet

Demograpi Leo Abaya takes the big data about the world we live in and translates them into human terms, extracting the truth from the cold, hard facts. Demograpi, Atbp is brilliant. Detail from Demograpi Another detail from Demograpi Missing Slider. Spot the fuck-you. Mga Nakabusal Na Saksi (Silenced Witnesses). How are witnesses silenced? By ripping […]

My new book, Twisted Travels Central Europe, is out on Saturday, October 27. Come to the launch at Fully Booked!

Twisted Travels: Rambles in Central Europe will be launched on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2-5 p.m. at Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street, BGC. Twisted Travels will be available at Fully Booked, Shopee.ph, Lazada.com.ph, National Bookstore, and Powerbooks. We arrived in Prague in the early afternoon and were fetched by our tour guide Zoran, who announced […]

The Twisted25 Project: Love is an ashtray in the pits of hell.

Every week we post a quote from the Twisted series, which turns 25 next year. Thanks to www.wesellit.ph for powering the Twisted25 project! This goes out to every normal-seeming person who, in the grip of passion, turns into a completely different creature. Basically I turn into The Hulk. Question: Which one is the real you?

On our podcast Episode 2: Two nerds pass judgement on Bradley Cooper’s remake of A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga

Noel went to see Bradley Cooper’s new movie A Star Is Born with high expectations because he has to defend the legacy of Barbra Streisand. I went to see it with low expectations because I am suspicious of movies that get rave reviews. What did we think? This was supposed to be the third episode, […]

Free screenings of Bergman and Almodovar films at UP Film Center on Monday and Tuesday (Oct15-16)

Persona, one of the most influential films of all time, is widely regarded as Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece. It contains some of the most memorable images in cinema, notably the shot of a child touching a woman’s face projected onto a screen, and the shot of two women looking into a mirror then folding into each […]

Our podcast is back! Episode 1: The truth about stray cats and dogs. How can we help homeless animals? Our guest is the head of PAWS.

Our podcast is baaaack! My guests and I talk about books, movies, travel, and in this episode, cats. We love cats. I live with three former street cats. This city is full of stray cats who depend on the kindness of people. When Serendra mall complex in BGC announced that they would fine their shop […]

The humanist at his most human: PETA’s terrific Buhay Ni Galileo

PETA’s Ang Buhay Ni Galileo (The Life of Galileo) by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Alan Glinoga Directed by Rody Vera Galileo the great astronomer and physicist redefined earth’s (and thus humanity’s) place in the cosmos (not central as the Church decreed). He barely escaped torture and execution at the hands of the Inquisition, to live […]