Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 96

Drogon is 3! This week he is The Oracle.

Drogon Happy Birthday, Drogon Targaryen-Targaryen Hiddleston Cumberbatch! The vet says he was about a year and a half when he joined our household and we picked a birthday for him. It’s also the birthday of Koosi, who would’ve been 16 today. Koosi Whenever our feline masters celebrate their birthday they deign to read your future. […]

Game of Thrones: Here be dragons, refreshers and spoilers

Readers used to own Game of Thrones, or as we fastidiously put it, A Song of Ice and Fire. Having read the books we had an advantage over mere viewers of the HBO series, who were unprepared for the beheading of Eddard Stark, the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, and other traumas in Westeros. Part […]

To tip or not to tip

Waiters, Alfred Eisenstaedt Tipping is confusing, and paradoxical. We tip some people who provide services but not others who work just as hard for just as little pay. It is insulting to leave any tip in Tokyo but offensive not to leave a large one in New York. It is assumed that the purpose of […]

Stuff we found at the bookstore this week

A pencil sharpener in the shape of a tennis racquet… that also projects pictures of a Disney princess. Is that Cinderella? For 25 bucks! A metal pencil case with a smaller metal pencil case in it. 100 bucks. A set of Sharpies in 5 neon colors for defiling personalizing stuff, Php299. Single colors, 38 bucks. […]

John Oliver talks to Edward Snowden

On surveillance, security, and the freedom to send out dick-pics.

Our secret city is gone

We’ve always stayed in Metro Manila during the lenten holidays. While everyone makes a mad dash to the provinces, enduring traffic, congestion and the infernal heat only to run into the exact same people they encounter daily in the city they have just escaped, we enjoy Manila. Emptied of its frantic inhabitants, this place is […]

See you at the Far East Film Festival 17 in Udine

FEFF, now on its 17th year, is the largest showcase of Asian pop cinema in Europe. Film festivals tend to be hectic and impersonal—endless jockeying for tickets and interviews, watching ponderous movies until you end up in a waking coma—but FEFF is fun. The focus is on popular entertainment, the spectators are unabashed movie fans, […]

These books are made for walking

The other day at the mall we spotted a pair of black Doc Martens with little designs on them of wings and such. Of course we coveted them. They were not cheap. Then it occurred to us that we have a couple of black Docs that are nearly 20 years old and still perfectly serviceable, […]

Quotable movies: Mahinhin Vs. Mahinhin

Noel is having a Danny Zialcita retrospective. The video copies are of poor quality, but the dialogue is crisp enough to make one endure the faded or browning visuals. If you like quotable movies, the Zialcita oeuvre provides enough zingers to keep you reciting for days. His movies are really screwball comedies disguised as melodramas. […]

Three days till the Outlander fanfiction deadline

Mat wants to give you these books.