Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 62

Captain America: Civl War and our turbulent election season

Captain America: Civil War is set in a time very much like ours, when friends and family are torn apart by opposing views, when everyone thinks she’s doing what’s best for her country and everyone is prepared to fight for his beliefs. These are scary times. We are fearful because are uncertain. We are fed […]

Fiction-Writing Workshop, Wednesday, 11 May 2016, 2-5pm in Makati. Book your places now.

Fiction-Writing Workshop Wednesday, 11 May 2016 2-5 pm at WSI Corporate Center, Metropolitan Avenue, Makati Only 12 participants will be accepted, so book your places now. For inquiries, fees, etc, email saffron.safin@gmail.com.

Electric Word Life: The rapture of Prince

I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray. I’ve been trying to write about Prince since the terrible news broke early Friday morning, Manila time. It seemed important to get the word out before all the commentators had picked the bones clean, shaken their heads over his weirdness, and made […]

Captain America: Civil War is not just a terrific superhero movie, but a terrific movie.

When Steve Rogers, bruised and bloody from fighting with a fully-armoured Tony Stark, puts up his fists and says, “I can do this all day,” it takes us back to the first Captain America movie and the frail little guy he used to be, and it reminds us that what makes Cap a hero isn’t […]

Read this hair-raising excerpt from Marcos Martial Law Never Again

The Boy Who Fell From The Sky Introduction to Marcos Martial Law Never Again by Raissa Robles On the morning of May 31, 1977, residents of Antipolo — a mountainous municipality just east of Manila — saw a military helicopter circling low over a deserted area. Minutes later something fell out of the helicopter onto […]

11.22.63: James Franco goes back in time to save JFK

From Chris Marker’s sublime short film La Jetée to James Cameron’s Terminator, from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure to Back to the Future, time travelers have been finding that you can’t just go back to the past to correct the present. You end up with a whole new set of problems. The latest to grapple […]

Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan tetralogy has arrived at last

At National Bookstore, Php669 up. I was blind, she a falcon by Joanna Biggs Are Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels even books? I began to doubt it when I talked about them with other people – mostly women. We returned to life too quickly as we spoke: who was your Lila, the childhood friend who […]

Prince is dead. We hate everything.

* * * * * FUCK DEATH. LET’S DANCE. Here are our favorite Prince songs. Send your lists. Jessica Zafra Anna Stesia If I was your girlfriend Sexy MF/Pope When Doves Cry Pop Life Ricky Villabona Raspberry Beret I Would Die 4U Cream When Doves Cry Strange Relationship plus I Feel For You (Chaka Khan) […]

Idris Elba saves Paris, with some help from activists and Robb Stark

Reasons to watch Bastille Day 1. Idris Elba 2. Idris Elba 3. Idris Elba. Make him Bond already. 4. Efficient action geography and choreography, thrilling sequences. The director is James Watkins. 5. Richard Madden (Robb Stark, Cinderella’s Prince Charming) is a graceful pickpocket, but looks like a munchkin next to Elba. 6. The interaction between […]

Duterte is your walking, talking id.

You wish you could point to the criminal scum and order them to be shot. Someone cuts ahead of you in traffic? Bang! You wish you could make rape jokes. They’re just words, right? Why don’t these wimps get how funny it is to say you want to violate a woman? Your mother, your wife, […]