Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 85

Biri, Samar: An otherworldly landscape at the edge of the sea

All photos by Boboy Consunji. We tend to think of Samar as a typhoon-stricken place, better known for natural calamities than tourism. But there is more to Samar than storms. Fashion designer Dennis Lustico is from Bobon, Samar. Our friends James, Boboy and Ivar joined him on a recent visit to Samar. During the trip, […]

Uber is the new lechong manok

Edsa photo from InterAksyon. You know how, in the Philippines, when a small enterprise becomes successful, everyone rushes to get into that line of business? It happened with lechong manok, shawarma, pearl drinks, milk tea. All the neighbors dreamed of being hot pan de sal magnates when I was a kid. Now I think it […]

Penmanship still matters in an age of keyboards

Thanks to Noel for the link.

From The Workshop: The Rock Bottom Story

We give writing workshops at the Ayala Museum. The workshops consist of three two-hour sessions of lectures, exercises, and group discussions held over three weeks. The most recent workshop, on The Personal Essay, concluded last week. The next one, Writing Boot Camp, will start on 3 September 2015. For more information or to make a […]

Fantastic Four: They forgot the fun

Questions we asked after watching Fantastic Four 1. Why is it so dark? Not dark as in “bleak and pessimistic”, but dark as in “They couldn’t turn on the lights in the studio?” Did they forget to pay the electric bill? Everything is in murky deep blue tones. 2. Why is it so serious? It’s […]

From The Workshop: Nerves of Steal

We give writing workshops at the Ayala Museum. The workshops consist of three two-hour sessions of lectures, exercises, and group discussions held over three weeks. Our participants are mostly working people, so the sessions are held in the evenings, after office hours, with coffee and refreshments. We focus on the practical aspects of writing, like […]

From The Workshop: Chasing Ben

We give writing workshops at the Ayala Museum. The workshops consist of three two-hour sessions of lectures, exercises, and group discussions held over three weeks. Our participants are mostly working people, so the sessions are held in the evenings, after office hours, with coffee and refreshments. We focus on the practical aspects of writing, like […]

Is Ian McShane going to play The Mad King Aerys II Targaryen in Game of Thrones Season 6?

Photo of Ian McShane as Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean He would kill as The Mad King. And literally kill Ned Stark’s father, Ned Stark’s brother, entire cities… The Internet thinks he’s been cast as Randyll Tarly, father of Samwell, or Euron Greyjoy, uncle of Theon. But “limited screen time” and “key importance” sounds […]

You’re probably going to watch the new Mission Impossible this weekend, and we approve.

The secondary title is often misspelled “Rouge Nation”, which makes it sound like a conspiracy of the cosmetics industry. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote The Usual Suspects and the seriously underrated Edge of Tomorrow, Mission Impossible 5 delivers what we expect of the franchise: choreographed thrills, complicated stunts, amazing prosthetics, absurd mayhem, ridiculous fun, […]

The animals on Zoo should rise up and overthrow the series.

The series opens in Botswana, where the hard-drinking handsome American Jackson Oz (James Wolk) and his best friend Abraham Kenyatta (Nonso Anozie from Game of Thrones) are taking tourists on safari to see the lions. Conveniently, Oz’s father (Ken Olin, seen in old videos) was a brilliant zoologist who got kicked out of Harvard for […]