JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

The one thing we were never taught in elementary school was how to be a skeptic. We were trained to believe, obey and never question authority. In effect school was an extension of church (they are run by religious orders after all); those who dared suggest that the teacher was missing something were condemned as walang modo (uncouth), suwail (willful) and worst of all, pilosopo. Yes, to be “philosophical” — to ask how the teachers arrived at their knowledge and why we should accept it as true — was bad, the equivalent of heresy.

It was not until I moved to a public high school — Philippine Science — that I realized it is not only right to question long-held “truths,” it is the responsibility of every intelligent person. What is your evidence? How do you know? If we didn’t ask questions we would still be deluding ourselves that the sun and planets revolve around the earth.

Now that no one is going to make us stand in a corner or write “I will believe what my teacher says” on the blackboard 500 times, let us review some “truths” we were trained to accept for the simple reason that teachers, priests, parents and other authority figures said so.

Read 25 “truths” we put through the wringer in Emotional Weather Report in the Philippine Star 25th anniversary issue.

Additional thanks to the filmmaker for vouching for us when the ticket person said we weren’t on the list. Even if she didn’t believe him either and he had to repeat it thrice hahaha. Seriously, I’ve never been to a Cinemalaya screening where I wasn’t treated like a gatecrasher—even in the company of the director. Yay, material.

How could I not love Quark Henares’s movie Rakenrol? It feels like episodes from my own life strung together with jokes I laughed at, characters I knew, and music I love. I’m not even sure it’s a movie. Full review to follow.

By the way, why does Rakenrol feel like a valediction? Does Quark intend to grow up? No! What other Filipino director will make movies that remind me of my life? (The social realist mode doesn’t quite capture it.) Did you see Keka? The comedy about the female serial killer? When I saw it for the first time I thought, “Is this movie about me?” Then the character quoted me (“Sabi ni Jessica wala daw serial killer sa Pilipinas”), thus confirming my suspicion and denying it at the same time.
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Thank you for posting your thoughts on one of the great phenomenological topics of our time: Which hopia is the best?

From your knowledgeable comments on hopia (including etymology, thank you) it emerges that there are several schools of thought on “the good biscuit”. One holds that “The flaky crust that crumbles upon contact with one’s mouth is integral to the essence of hopia” and also prevents “umay” (a highly evocative Tagalog word that we struggle to render in English as “cloying”). Another advocates hybridization: in lieu of the flaky crust, “a thin, lightly-sweetened layer of glutinous rice”. Still another espouses newer, non-mongo flavors such as ube and pandan.
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Lucian Freud, Reflection with two children (Self-portrait)

Lucian Freud, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest, most influential and yet most controversial British painters of his era, has died at his London home.

Lucian Freud’s perverse depictions of magnificent muck

Lucian Freud, Girl with kitten

The Blood Meridian Readers’ Support Group meeting was held yesterday afternoon at the Shangri-La Mall in Mandaluyong. Our original plan was to have it late at night in some dive with grilled meat and Jack Daniels, but since it was 2pm we had coffee and cupcakes. To match the reading matter the cupcakes were blood-red and the coffee very black. In attendance were Balqis, Momelia, Lestat, Brewhuh23, Niko and myself.

We talked about the historical context of Blood Meridian—the Wild West, American expansionism, the genocide of the native Americans, and why the natives were called “Indians” (because Christopher Columbus insisted violently that they had reached India). We noted that a few decades later the Americans would arrive in Asia and the Filipinos would be brutally subjugated in a war we don’t learn about in school. It sounds organized and “deep” when we put it that way, but it was more like a two-hour chismis session. (It was supposed to be an episode of Jessica rules TV but the participants did not want video recordings. “Huwag, haggard ako,” said Momelia.)
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Consolata and I were talking about meanness. “I was much meaner when I was younger,” said Consolata.

“You mean before Frodo threw the Ring into the fire??” I asked.

How do you know Sauron is a bitch? Because he looks like a flaming vagina.

Consolata mentioned the time that he (Yes he is a he) had an assistant who was a college graduate but had no idea what percentages were. “One-fourth is what percent?” he asked, and the assistant wrote “14%”. “I want you to go to each of your teachers in elementary school, high school and college and apologize,” Consolata declared. “Tell them you wasted their time.”

But Consolata’s meanness—more crankiness really—was provoked. We recalled The Meanest Person We’ve Ever Heard Of. This man noticed that in his garden a bird had built a nest in a tree. The bird had laid three eggs in the nest and was incubating them. One day when the bird flew off in search of food, the man took the three eggs and hard-boiled them. Not to eat, which might have made sense. No, he put the hard-boiled eggs back in the nest. To see if the bird would continue incubating them.
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