Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 79

Inside the library of presidential candidate Mar Roxas

On Monday we published our Basic Questions for Presidential Candidates, and on Wednesday we got invited to merienda with Mar Roxas at Bahay na Puti, the Araneta compound in Cubao. The occasion was a meet-and-greet with bloggers which naturally turned into a Q&A. We got to ask many of our questions and Carlos Celdran, Cecile […]

It’s aliiive! Mmm, stinky cheese. Mmm, mold.

Some mold attacks milk and spoils it. Other mold helps make cheese, like Camembert, because it protects the cheese from contamination. Credit: Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times The cheese they buy is alive with fungi; indeed, many cheeses require a particular species of mold to properly ripen. To produce Roquefort blue cheese, for […]

NASA discovers water on Mars, then The Martian opens in cinemas

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, as Mr. Spock declared, but not where Matt Damon is concerned. Matt Damon must be saved at all cost, because one of the few things that unite the human race at this time is our fondness for Matt Damon. He’s good-looking, but not so […]

Basic Questions for the Presidential Candidates

1. Traffic is the most visceral issue in Metro Manila. Number coding and changing the agency in charge of managing the traffic have not worked and are not going to work. The MRT and LRT should’ve made a big difference, but they are so badly, ineptly run that they aggravate the problem. Even if the […]

The C-word (Craft) at the Handmade exhibit, CCP

Unwearables by Steph Palallos Made by Hand By Leo Abaya Craft is the “C” word that used to be shunned when sleekness and conceptualism in art and design were at their most persuasive and pervasive. That was a time when discourse and theorizing was at the forefront and the skill that was most worthy of […]

Drowning and screaming: The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

Before her Neapolitan Quartet made her an international literary star, Elena Ferrante published The Days of Abandonment. Ferrante has never bee photographed or interviewed and goes by a pseudonym, but on the basis of this novel we believe she is a woman. The Days of Abandonment, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein, is the […]

What TV shows do CEOs watch? Deutschland 83, Narcos and others

Based on these recommendations, I looked up Deutschland 83, a German mini-series by Anna and Joerg Winger that aired on the Sundance channel. I started watching the first episode late at night, which was a terrible mistake because it makes a compelling argument for abandoning sleep. Deutschland 83 invites comparison with The Americans: both shows […]

9 years, 9 stories: Travel, music, and world domination

Travel From 2013: Turkey Travel Diary, featuring some of the handsomest cats we’ve ever seen Music From 2008: Sad, Sadder, Saddest, in which we wound up at a “Lost 80s” concert. Either all the ticket-holders had already gone inside, or they were all late, because there were no queues of any sort. Ernie went up […]

9 years, 9 stories: Game of Thrones in Tagalog

From 2013: A Translation of Ice and Fire You win or you die from A Game of Thrones, translated by japz20 Takipsilim nang magtagpo sila ng reyna, habang nagsisimula pa lamang mamula ang kalangitan. Mag-isa lamang ito, alinsunod sa hiling nya. Ngayon lang nya nakitang payak ang bihis ng reyna, botang balat at simpleng luntiang […]

9 years, 9 stories: 100 Books, 2015 edition

Fjærland, Norway – the Norwegian booktown (bokbyen) The Once and Future King, T.H. White The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton Anecdotes of Destiny, Isak Dinesen The Stories of John Cheever The Ashenden Stories by W. Somerset Maugham Dune, Frank Herbert The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien The Collected Stories of Grace Paley The Great […]