Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 24

Naomi Osaka wins the US Open and I’m thinking of watching tennis again.

Being a tennis fan, even a tennis fan who does not play (I don’t like sweating, which is probably the only thing I have in common with Roger Federer) is a grueling hobby. You get jet lag without leaving your house (12 hours’ time difference during the US Open, 6 during Wimbledon), and the emotional […]

Let’s talk about Signal Rock, a movie about the men left behind by the women who must support their families

Of course we had to see Signal Rock. It is the latest collaboration of director Chito Roño and writer Rody Vera, the same team that brought us Badil, a film that should be required viewing on every election year. Signal Rock is about a remote island community where nearly all the women have left to […]

The Bibliophibians Reading Group selection for September is Ian McEwan’s First Love, Last Rites

L-R: Jonathan, Kurt, Deo, Osang, Roni, our host Dawn, Edrie, Joel, Lord, Lee, Allan, Bubbles, Evan, Jessica. We had so much fun at our Reading Group Discussion at Tin-Aw Art Gallery last Saturday, we’re going to do it again. Those of us who had read not just Dune but also the sequels by Frank Herbert […]

Let’s translate the Litany Against Fear from Dune into Tagalog (See you at Tin-Aw on Saturday!)

Moebius’s character designs for a movie of Dune that was never made. Sardaukar, Fenring, etc. Two days till our Reading Group Discussion of Frank Herbert’s Dune at Tin-Aw. This is the BG Litany Against Fear. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my […]

More movies about ridiculously rich people

Everyone’s going to watch Crazy Rich Asians during the long weekend. Hooray Asian representation in Hollywood! Also: It is a truth universally acknowledged that we want to see movies about rich people. Because they own everything and we all work for them, and because everyone wants to be them, i.e. rich. People want to know […]

We are torn and frayed but love remains.

A poem about love by Samuel Beckett, because what is more absurd than love?

Samuel Beckett by Edmund Valtman I knew only the plays, and in school we had studied Waiting for Godot forwards and backwards, but I had not read the poems until now. Beckett with Murphy and Watt

George R.R. Martin pays tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

“The American Tolkien” pays tribute to the books that shaped his own writing. (And the “RR”) “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say” – Italo Calvino

George R.R. Martin pays tribute to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

“The American Tolkien” pays tribute to the books that shaped his own writing. (And the “RR”) “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say” – Italo Calvino

Someone heeded Saffy the Oracle’s advice and the wedding is in September. Send Saffy questions!!

Dear Saffy, It has been six years since I took to heart your advice when you were oracle about going on a “charm offensive.” I realized I was holding on to nothing (no shared experiences, no true connections) with the person I was referring to when I consulted you. So instead, I used this charm […]