Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 385

The unquestionable marvel of David Mitchell

The 2010 Booker longlist was announced earlier this week. To no one's surprise, David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is in the running. The "not quite a masterpiece but unquestionably a marvel" review may be stingy, but I choose to regard it as an expression of fear. It means that amazing as [...:]

Attention: Moleskine fetishists

The new My Pilipinas Moleskine has the Philippine map in gold. My Pilipinas Moleskines are available at Collezione C2 shops and National Bookstore branches. Have you been to the Moleskine store-in-store at National Bookstore in Greenbelt 1? Commence hyperventilating.

Wednesday lunch with Chef Jessie

One day some of Manila's most demanding diners turned up at Le Souffle at Rockwell for their favorite dishes only to find that Le Souffle was gone. In truth it had been gone for some time, but many of its regulars hadn't noticed. In its place was Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, which looks like Le [...:]

Roger Federer and the mystery of genius

I hope you got your print edition of the Philippine Star yesterday, because it should become a collector's item. On the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the paper, our Lifestyle editor Millet M. Mananquil (MMM, like James Bond's boss times 3) asked 24 columnists to write about 24 icons in business, politics, and the [...:]

Our books, our shelves

While looking at my photos of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London I realized that I had fixated on the bookshelves. This is the bookcase of Samuel Pepys (pronounced "Peeps"), circa 1695. Pepys kept a now-famous diary of his life in London during a particularly turbulent time. You can read the daily entries here, [...:]

Cat on a leash: HAH!

Salon notes that there are nearly 2,000 videos on YouTube of people attempting to and sometimes succeeding in training their cats to walk on a leash. I say HAH! I have tried this. I have always wanted to walk my cats so they can get some exercise, but mostly so I can show off my [...:]

Who Is Salt? The winners!

Here are the winners of our Who Is Salt? Channeling Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt contest. We rustled up two more caps so we picked five winners. Monique Sam Abby Resty S And Rogue. All the cats have the Jolie/Salt look, but Rogue is the right color. Congratulations! Please post your Philippine mailing address in [...:]

What are you reading?

After the breathtaking sweep and sheer abundance of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell I wanted something down to earth. Down to earth, short, set in a more recognizable era. Hence The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis. The Rachel Papers is narrated by a 19-year-old shit named Charles Highway. Charles is [...:]

Who is Salt? The deadline-beaters

Rogue, submitted by human Deepa. "My cat has the slanty-eyed fuck-me stare, the sultry pout AND the lustrous black hair. Rogue is Salt!" Marc Romyjos. Looks more pensive than vicious. Has to work on the motivation. Tip: Before snapping the photo, think: "Napapaligiran ako ng mga bobo." There's your motivation. Click! Kristel. If that's a [...:]

Tales of deception, infidelity, and general awfulness propagated with technology

In the Victoria & Albert Museum: a bed once renowned for its size, whose name and location I I forgot to take note of. Yesterday my column in the Philippine Star (Three texts and you're on) was about the heightened role of technology, particularly text messaging and social networking sites, in romantic relationships. Here's a [...:]