korean taste

when i first tried kimchi, i was less than impressed. i immediately filed kimchi under the not-for-me category of food, a short list mainly composed of vegetables such as eggplant, okra, and ampalaya. that was roughly five years ago. fast forward to 2010, i moved to a neighborhood with woorijib and korean marts in it. and i just fell in love with korean food. of course, woorijib remained my only access to korean food. oh and that one other korean restaurant in adriatico, korean palace. and unfortunately, eating in korean restos don't come cheap. at woorijib for example, the cheapest meal (soup with rice) cuts you back by P250. my favorite, the kilig-inducing mukunji dakdoritang, costs at least P600 (medium). also, eating in a korean resto is not something done alone. the food are in large servings, and the side dishes are just meant to be shared. in short, i couldn't eat korean food as often as i wanted to.

until a couple of weeks ago when i decided to teach a visiting korean again. for some reason, we always talked about food. she shared with me very easy-to-cook korean recipes. actually, all of them involved putting in kimchi. kimchi tuna, kimchi pasta, kimchi soup, kimchi chicken soup, and others. as we talked about these simple recipes, i became increasingly convinced i should try them out. so on my last trip to the supermarket, i bought a small container of kimchi and some cans of tuna. and it is as good as my student said *elation*. finally, instant food with actual health benefits! antioxidants! a few days ago, i bought kimchi at the korean supermarket and discovered SM's kimchi sucks. the roommate and i are hooked, so today we bought more.

yuck

as i may have mentioned before, finding new bands to like and follow is tough. i must be at that age where i already have a solid set of bands to adore for life, particularly those from the 90s, and a few from the 70s and 80s for good measure. plus, listening to new music is a hit-and-miss endeavor with more misses than hits. then i chance upon yuck's operation, a fastastic 90s-sounding tune with a hint of sonic youth (their wiki says they are likened to sy and dinosaur jr). the track stutter also betrays a strong sy influence. right now, though, i can't stop listening to shook down.

notes on my intramuros tour

on one of this year's hottest days, i was roaming the streets of intramuros, gawking at its magnificent old buildings. it was a hastily planned trip, made on a very tight budget. for some reason, i only had about 200 to spare. so, i decided to dress very practically - sleeveless top, capri pants, and my new pair of nike trainers - since the afternoon would be spent commuting and walking. (incidentally, a pair of local tourists commented on my shoes, but did so in english. i wonder what nationality they thought i was.)

the cheapest way to get to intramuros
1. take a jeep to quiapo church. however, given the considerable distance between philcoa and quiapo, i decided to take an FX instead. (P30).
2. in front of quiapo church, take a "pier" jeep. i got off near the pasig river ferry's plaza mexico station.

from there, the walking begins. i took (inferior) photos here and there, in true local tourist fashion, all the while wishing for a better camera. i reached the manila cathedral, where a group of tour guides in bright green and yellow plaid polos (?) tried to convince me to hire them. one of them persevered to talk to me, and i asked him a couple of questions.

tour guide package
1. for P300, the manong would take you to the 25 hot spots around the 64-hectare walled city on his calesa. the ride takes about 30-40 minutes, plus free brochure. the brochure could not be acquired for free, he said, though i doubted that. after our talk, i headed to the Palacio del Gobernador, where a DOT office was housed, to ask for a brochure. however, the guard stopped me, saying people wearing sleeveless tops are not allowed inside.
2. carlos celdran's walking tour costs about P1,500, but could only be taken by large groups. according to manong, celdran's 2-3-hour tour is engaging and fun, "matutuwa ka talaga sa mga kwento niya." there, there, manong.

i declined his offer, of course, saying i didn't have the money to spare. i began walking around.

what i didn't expect to see inside intramuros
1. ukay-ukay shop. there's one near the statue of philip II of spain.
2. abandoned houses.
3. informal settlers. at least i think they were. they lived in clusters of small houses, similar to those along cambridge street, cubao.

what i should have expected to see inside intramuros
1. guards dressed as guardia sibil (like those guys from TV series bayani)
2. good-looking letran jocks. there was a game that day; i saw tv 5's van parked behind the school's gym.

since it was a weekday afternoon, there were no crowds. in fact, i had the garden all to myself. upon realizing that, i decided to abruptly end my stroll, suddenly paranoid. better safe than sorry. i didn't see everything listed in intramuros' wiki, of course, but i did enjoy my visit. at the end of my tour, i decided that, in the absence of a knowledgeable tour guide, the best companion would have to be google. i should really buy myself a nicer phone.

the black keys: rubber factory

after hearing a lot about this band through my blip network, i decided to get a copy of their albums. this one is the highest-rated by pitchfork, so i'm listening to this first. it has been hard for me to identify truly likeable new bands (those formed after 2000); it seems investing in the black keys won't be a bad idea. i like their garage-blues music. also, since their song "when the lights go out" was soundtrack to black snake moan, i will forever associate them to samuel l. jackson, hee. my favorite songs would have to be "all hands against his own" and "the lengths," though.

definitely, maybe

this could have been called how i met your mother, the movie. except, of course, ted is nowhere as handsome as ryan reynold's will hayes. but the storytelling and theme of definitely, maybe are similar to those of himym.

after the opening credits, the film begins with sex education. will hayes' daughter (abigail breslin), now spouting the words "penis" and "vagina," starts asking about how her parents fell in love, and why they are now divorcing. present will hayes recalls his past loves, to answer his daughter's questions.

the characters are charming, and will hayes is really really lovable, thanks to the smart script (smart compared to blah romcoms, like say, the bounty hunter). the women in hayes' life, emily (30 rock's avery, elizabeth banks), summer (rachel weisz), and april (isla fisher, wife of borat ngrr) are equally endearing, and hayes' daughter says this herself. i like that abigail breslin's character is mature, all supportive of her father's happiness. without giving away spoilers, will hayes marries the girl's mom, although he really was more in love with another. however, at the end of the movie, he succeeds in getting together with the one he should have married in the first place. with his daughter's blessing.

and i was like, awww. this is one of the truly likeable romcoms out there. watch it!

lucky lady keira knightley

what follows is a somewhat bitter post about keira knightley. the bitterness stems from pure envy. she has starred opposite hollywood's hottest men, the same men i love:

with james mcavoy in atonement. pic from here.
with clive owen in king arthur. pic from here.

with johnny depp! *tears* pic from here.

and now, with colin farrell in london boulevard. pic from here.

if she works with edward norton, i'll literally die of envy.

of OSTs

i listened to dazed and confused's ost before i watched it. it's a collection of badass 70s tunes:

1. Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer

2. Slow Ride - Foghat

3. School's Out - Alice Cooper

4. Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas

5. Tush - ZZ Top

6. Love Hurts - Nazareth

7. Stranglehold - Ted Nugent

8. Cherry Bomb - The Runaways

9. Fox On The Run - Sweet

10. Low Rider - War

11. Tuesday's Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd

12. Highway Star - Deep Purple

13. Rock And Roll All Night - Kiss

14. Paranoid - Black Sabbath

as i listened to the songs, i sort of imagined the scenes they'd be played. i was kind of right in some: love hurts was played in a scene about a high school dance; slow ride was a car scene (although a lot of the scenes in the movie happened with the characters just riding in cars), so was highway star; school's out was the music in the scene where kids were streaming out of classrooms and the school at the end of the school year. the movie was okay.

it had the simplest plot. young mila jovovich barely spoke. she only really needed to be there and lend the movie her pretty presence, hee.

photo from here.

also worth watching was a younger douchey matthew mcconaughey. and, ben affleck.

photo from here.

touted as a pretty accurate depiction of high school life in the 70s, i couldn't really relate much to the characters (this blogger did, though). the movie is interesting and engaging enough, but listening to its ost was more pleasurable. the ost sold so well, they even released a sequel: even more dazed and confused.

**

megamind, on the other hand, was fun. adding to the fun was its fantastic soundtrack. given its list of tracks, i kind of thought the movie was made for an older audience. or maybe it was an attempt to educate younger people about good music.