JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Made with the Sigil Creator.

We didn’t want to interrupt our obsessing with Game of Thrones to write a column on current events, so we did both. Sigil first, column coming up at InterAksyon.com.

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Politics in the Philippines is a family business, emphasis on ‘business’. People take it up as a career, ostensibly because they want to serve their country, but what really happens is, they get rich. Which is not to imply that they got into politics for the money, but there it is. Hell, we’re not even saying that the newly-elected senators are lousy because face it, we have insufficient data to generate a conclusion. This doesn’t mean we think highly of them, either, but it would be great if they could prove us wrong.

So the politicians get rich, and we’ll assume that they acquire their wealth through honest means besides their comparatively low salaries. Anything with such a high rate of return, be it food preparation, art or optometry, will become a business, and in our culture business is best done with family. Politics is no different. Of course you want your children to go into the business, it worked so well for you. In retro-feudal democracies like ours, that’s the reason you have children: to carry on the family name business.

Take the Lannisters in Game of Thrones, the addictive HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy cycle, A Song of Ice and Fire. The Lannisters are the wealthiest, most powerful family in Westeros. In the era preceding the TV series, the patriarch Tywin Lannister is the Hand of the King (like the prime minister) to Aerys II of the Targaryen dynasty…

Read our column at InterAksyon.

John Lanchester, author of Capital, reviewed A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and HBO’s Game of Thrones last month in the London Review of Books. Good to see that journal of literary and intellectual essays give fantasy novels their due. The article is here. If you have not read the first three volumes or started watching Season 3, DO NOT READ IT. (But you will, won’t you hahahahaaa.)

Everyone is addicted, and everyone reports the same moment as being the one that got them hooked…The king and his entourage take up residence at Winterfell, ancestral home of the Starks. We see much of their antics from the perspective of Bran Stark, second-youngest son of Eddard, a likeable, lively eight-year-old boy. Bran’s hobby is climbing all over the huge high rambling castle of Winterfell, something he does with an enthusiasm which would be reckless if it weren’t for his complete confidence that he will never fall. In the course of one of his climbs, he hears adult voices through a high window, goes to investigate, and comes across Jaime and Cersei energetically engaged in (to use a neologism popular with fans) twincest. They catch him catching them at it, and Jaime grabs Bran. The two twins look at each other. ‘The things I do for love,’ says Jaime – and throws the boy out the window.

That startling moment is where the first programme in the TV series ends, and it’s the point at which people realise they’re addicted.

Also, its strongest characters are women. Catelyn, Cersei, Daenerys, Arya, Brienne, Margaery, Olenna Tyrell, even Sansa has learned how to live in that world.

Lady Olenna Tyrell on her grandson Loras. From the Lady Olenna tumblr.

Not Jon Snow and Ygritte (or you), not Robb and Talisa Stark (or you), not Gendry Baratheon and Arya Stark (or you), not Sam and Gilly or Edmure Tully (The one good thing about having fish as your sigil: very cool scales armor) and the Frey girl, and not, alas, Tyrion Lannister and us.

It’s Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister! Holy crap, a grown-up relationship based on acceptance, mutual respect and equality. Who knew. And who cares if it’s not the traditional romantic stuff, it’s intense.

from the Brienne tumblr

The books hint at it, the series develops it, and good actors and cheese-free writing make it work.

Aaargh they’re setting up the Red Wedding.

With brief surprise appearances on SNL!

Jaime

and Tyrion.

While we wish the Starks would crush the Lannisters, we do love these two. We don’t even hate Cersei and Tywin. Style matters.

Here’s Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Did anyone see New Amsterdam?) on Conan, discussing an incident in the men’s room with George Clooney.

Haha he called Clooney “short”.

We’ll close with Peter Dinklage’s 2012 commencement speech at his college, Bennington.

Our sister is watching Aerosmith tonight so we wanted to post that Saturday Night Live commercial parody from the 90s in which Adam Sandler is performing Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits 1990-94 and they all sound exactly the same. We couldn’t find it, but it is mentioned in the SNL archive—the episode was hosted by Jeff Daniels and the musical guest was Luscious Jackson. If anyone finds the video, could you send us the link?

Until we find that bit, here’s that scene from The Sweetest Thing in which Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate sing an Aerosmith song to help Selma Blair get unstuck.

The comedian has toured Italy with his one-man show TuttoDante (Everything about Dante), in which he recites the Divine Comedy and explains it for the general audience using current events and his personal history.

Watch it here. We don’t speak Italian, but what a wonderful idea.

The Lovers’ Whirlwind by William Blake, an illustration for Canto V of the Inferno. It’s bizarre and gorgeous. Blake: one of history’s sublime weirdos.

Michael V. could tour the Philippines reciting Noli me tangere! Bitoy, call us.