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Not just an excellent match between Nadal and Djokovic, but a great display of cojones from both players. Best match of the season so far. Rafa beat Djokovic 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, but he had to throw everything he had at Djoker to win that last game. Djoker cut out the nonsense and played ballsy tennis. What does he do when facing match point? Drop shot. Ostensibly they were battling for the number 2 ranking, but the match was really about who succeeds The Fed when the time comes. Rafa’s been waiting in the wings for three years, that’s too long. Now here comes a guy whose backhand seems to manage Rafa’s forehand of death. Suddenly the clay season is actually exciting.

I skipped the tennis news for a few days, so when I read that Justine Henin had retired, I thought it was from a match. Turns out she’s retired from professional tennis. She said she didn’t feel like it anymore, and now she’s going to get a life. First woman to quit at number one. Maria Sharapova takes over the top spot on the women’s tour, and she has true grit and power, but not Henin’s arsenal of shots. We’re going to miss that beautiful backhand. And the gravitas. While everyone around her was trying to break into modelling or fashion design or acting, she was there for the tennis.

James Martin on Justine Henin’s retirement: “The WTA tour loves to promote its eye-candy but the real eye-candy for tennis aficionados has always been Henin’s smooth and stylish game. On a tour dominated by monotonous power tennis, Henin showed there was still a place for volleys rather than swing volleys, and slice backhands rather than two-handed drives. Amelie Mauresmo has a similarly beautiful, if less effectively powerful, game, but she is fading quickly and may not be too far from retirement herself. Martina Hingis, a cagey counter-puncher—gone. Ivanovic hits a clean ball that appeals to purists, yet she’s still in the mold of the “Big Babe Tennis” popularized by Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles. Women’s tennis may have a surplus of pretty faces, but it’s just lost one of the prettiest games ever.“

James Reyes fashion show. May 20 & 22, 4pm, Shangri-La Makati., originally uploaded by 160507.

I’d been hearing a lot about the Gossip Girl novels, so I tried reading one. Yikes, this is what young girls are reading now, and to think we were thrilled every time Nancy Drew held hands with Ned Nickerson. And Nancy was 18, the legal age. The first Gossip Girl novel was so cruel, I read another one. Now I think it’s brilliant, the way the much-maligned American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis was brilliant. No, I haven’t seen the TV series, and I’m told it is to the Cecily von Ziegesar books as Wal Mart is to Takashimaya. True, 95% of movie/TV adaptations are to their literary sources as Wal Mart is to Takashimaya, and I know some GG-TV addicts.

No Country For Young Women in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.

I haven’t seen Speed Racer yet–the trailer alone looks like it might induce seizures in the audience–but it’s on my calendar, along with Harold and Kumar, and Robin and Ai-Ai. A friend of mine has seen Speed Racer, and his review goes like this: “Beautiful colors! Best colors of any recent movie!” When I asked about plot, direction, etc, he said, “This ensaladang talong is excellent!” You know that long-standing rumor that one of the Wachowski Brothers is now a woman?
By the way, I saw Deception and Ploning. Deception is inept and leaden. I’m guessing the producers are friends with the stars or their management, because how else could tenth-rate Hitchcock draw MacGregor and Jackman (Charlotte Rampling appears)? It’s supposed to be set in Manhattan, and every other movie seems to be set in Manhattan, but this one doesn’t even look like Manhattan. Don’t these people watch the many Law and Orders?

Ploning has some structural/expository problems–I call it Babel-ness–and my eyeballs started rolling every time I heard an aphorism uttered in the course of cracking cashews–but it’s far more interesting than the tripe the studios have been serving up this year. Ploning feels authentic. It valiantly sticks to the laid-back, contemplative pace of its location and true subject, Cuyo in Palawan, and it takes a genuine interest in the lives of its many characters–they’re people, not plot devices. I like the way the director Dante Nico Garcia cast non-actors in major roles, alongside stars like Judy Ann Santos and Mylene Dizon. Ploning is a movie about love, not the hackneyed romantic stuff, but the real, recognizable kind–among friends, family, and members of a community. Watch it, if it’s still on.

Now Showing, originally uploaded by 160507.

Un film de Raya Martin
Jeudi 22 mai
14h00
Théâtre Croisette (50 La Croisette, Cannes)

The film is nearly five hours long, so wear padded trousers. And if you hear the other viewers say “Raya Mahrtaahnh,” tell them, “It’s Mar-TEEN.”

Who is singing the role of Imelda Marcos in the album of David Byrne’s musical Here Lies Love?

Cyndi Lauper.

Brilliant choice. Cause girls just wanna have fun, and couture, and jewelry, and buildings…

The account in David Byrne’s journal: “Cyndi Lauper came in to the studio last week to sing 1½ songs for the Here Lies Love album. She was about an hour and a half late to the session, so I fully expected to be in for some prime diva behavior. But, as I’d run overtime on the earlier brass sessions, it all worked out great, and Cyndi gave an amazingly fine-tuned performance. Not only is she a wonderful singer from a technical point of view, but she can tailor her attitude and performance to suit the character and the character’s emotional state.

“This is exactly the skill set I need for this project. After giving Cyndi the back-story on a particular song and establishing the context of the lyrics, I would give directions like, “Yes, she’s a little angry, but also heartbroken and confused.” Cyndi would then incorporate these complex emotions into her performance with seeming ease. She’d ask, for example, “You want more anger in this verse?” And sure enough, she’d dial a little more in. Very impressive.”

Thanks to the LUA for the link.

Incidences of the word “Filipino” in recent American literature:

In Patricia Marx’s novel Him Her Him Again The End of Him, the romantic interest’s name is Eugene Obello and the unnamed heroine’s friend says “obello” is a Filipino word for machete. I don’t know which Filipino dialect or language is referred to. Marx’s novel is hilarious until the halfway point, when it begins to resemble a Daily Show segment that’s gone on too long. Yes, smart women do stupid things for love, we got it in the first ten pages. Marx was a former writer on the Harvard Lampoon and Saturday Night Live–if she’d written for The Simpsons she’d have the same career track as Conan O’Brien.

In Tobias Wolff’s story Benefit Of The Doubt, the protagonist takes the bus in Rome and notes that most of the passengers are Filipino. Benefit Of The Doubt is one of the new stories in Our Story Begins, my favorite story collection of the year even if half its contents appeared in his earlier books.

In The Mayor’s Tongue by Nathaniel Rich, the Dominican character Alvaro has an affair with a Filipino nurse named Betty. Just started reading the book. Someone else is obsessed with Jan Morris’s book about Trieste!

Big Bird, Ernie, Grungella, and Big Bird’s Non-Imaginary Friend had dessert and coffee at a newish restaurant. Big Bird tried the apple pie. His friends awaited his opinion.

“Hmm,” he said portentously. “Um. . .urhm. . .the crust is good.”

“That’s it?” Ernie asked. “Good crust?”

Big Bird pushed the uneaten slice around his plate. “And look, the china is beautiful. Such detail.”

“This is a new school of criticism,” Grungella declared. “We only say positive things–”

“And you read between the lines!” Ernie said. “Note the decor: subtle baroque.”

“I didn’t even think that was possible,” Grungella said. “This restaurant brings oxymorons to life!”

“What about the food?” BB’s NIF pointed out.

“For maximum enjoyment,” Ernie replied, “Be sure to sit under a chandelier!”

“More chandeliers per square meter than other restaurants in this mall!” Grungella added.

They had started a new movement.

Cats, originally uploaded by 160507.

Behavior that is unattractive in humans but endearing in felines:

Koosi ignores me when I play with her, but when I’m not paying attention she walks over and bites my toes. She likes to hide behind curtains and under furniture, and launch stealth attacks on the other cats. She turns up her nose at most kinds of food, fresh fish included, and says “Eww” by pawing the floor next to the bowl.  She will only eat if I’m not watching. Lately she’s taken to being called O Mighty Goddess Bast.

Saffy will look up when I call her name, look me up and down, and not come near me. However when I call Koosi and Mat, she comes running. She does not like it when I pay attention to the other cats, and expresses it by trying to bite me. Sometimes she will attack a book I am reading. Her favorite spot for naps is the keyboard of my Mac–while I’m working on it. She likes to chew on wool and on certain types of plastic such as Fully Booked bags. We have lots of bookstore bags “embossed” with her fangs.

Mat will eat from his own bowl at breakfast, but the rest of the day he sneaks snacks from Koosi’s and Saffy’s bowls. He acts like he’s afraid of heights, but sometimes when I get home he’s on top of a shelf, invading Koosi’s territory. When we go out he refuses to walk on his own, preferring to be carried at all times. He ignores cat toys, but is fascinated with pens. He is too hoity-toity to bury his own poop in the litter box; instead he starts clawing at the side of the toilet bowl as if he were trying to flush.

When I bring them new toys, they ignore the toys and play with the wrappers or boxes.

James Reyes, originally uploaded by 160507.

This is James Reyes’s mood board for his Fashion Watch Quartet collection, showing May 20 and 22, 4pm teatime at the Shangri-la Makati.

“The collection was inspired by music and images from the early 80’s. It was the time when music dictated fashion and MTV was our fashion magazine. It was the time when we dressed up like our favorite singers and Manila became seasonless (winter wear in the middle of summer). This was also the time when Japanese designers ruled the fashion world and clothes were brooding, conceptual and emotive. This was the time my interest in fashion and style was solidified.

“This collection is a visual journal of who I am as a designer. Since this is my first solo show, I’m treating it as sort of a re-introduction of my design sensibilities. It will show my design influences and the direction my fashion is going. What will be evident in my collection is my graphic design background. After years of working in an ad agency, graphic design never left my system. I will be showing black, white and gray pieces which for me, covers an entire spectrum of color. Working with these colors give me a sense of freedom to create new shapes and surface tensions. My interest in architecture will be seen in the streamlined shapes and forms I used in the patterns but still respecting the human form. Music is a big influence in all my collections. This time, New Wave music of the early 80’s gave me visions of a concrete metropolis filled with people rushing about in cold weather, the wind blowing their coats and scarves about, a huge rush hour crowd in black layers, steel structures of modern buildings, twinkling windows of skyscrapers instead of stars, fog, smog and urban decay.

“If this collection had a title, I’d probably call it Metropolis.”