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June 28:
One week's worth of blogging.

A week's worth of blogging, coming right up --

Larry Alcala, 75 and Doreen Fernandez, 67, R.I.P. These bastions in the Philippine Arts and Lit community touched our lives, unknowingly.

As a child, I would always look forward to Sunday's Panorama for Larry Alcala's much-emulated Slice of Life cartoons, so when I enrolled at the U.P. College of Fine Arts and saw his scribbles on the alumni canvas, I remember feeling so much awe that I was going to the same school he went to. Young Arnold, on the other hand, went as far as dragging his family to see Mr. Alcala's exhibit, and even signed his guestbook with a sketch of the monster from Krull.

Larry Alcala did the cartoons for UP-CFA's Visual Communication Department's corporate identity.

Thank you for the inspiration, sir.

Doreen Fernandez was only 'a writing gourmet' to me until a two years ago when we met her at the National Book Awards the first time Arn won. A few months ago, this regal woman entered Twist of Minggoy's and sat beside our booth. I nudged Arn and whispered, "Look, it's Doreen Fernandez. Let's say hello and thank her for voting for you twice". By that time she was already surrounded by too-eager-to-please waiters and, well, we felt intimidated and decided not to talk to her. Sigh.

***
It's been a pretty hectic week, folks, but nothing could ever be too hectic for Arn and me to miss Minority Report. It's keep- you- on- the- edge- of- your- seats -exciting and is definitely worth your 2 hours. (As a bonus, the theatres show trailers of Matrix and Chamber of Secrets at every screening of MR. What more can a fangirl ask for?). I haven't read the Philip K. Dick story it was based on so I don't know how much of it Spielberg tweaked, but the treatment was so fresh, it didn't even feel like a Spielberg movie*.

*Not to put Spielberg down because I really do love his work.

By the way, some scenes, like the criss-crossing 90 degree-drop highways, actually reminded me of my own Arn's Trip to Tagaytay'. Plugging, haha.

***
Shiloah and I finally met up and de-stressed over pasta and spinach artichoke dip. First time meetings usually scare me but ours was easy and comfy and it felt like we've known each other all along. (: (And yes, Shil, you're a really nice person, and I have a pretty good idea which blog it is you're referring to.)

***
Finally, never eat at Komoro Soba in Megamall. Two words: food poisoning.

After (barely) eating a bento box meal for dinner, I felt a strong headache coming on. Arn didn't want me to drive home alone in that condition so we went to his house (which is nearer Megamall than my family's house) to ask his brother Jing to follow us in their family car so Arn would have a ride home afterwards. By the time we got there, the throbbing had spread throughout my entire cranium and my tummy was already in excruciating pain. His loving parents massaged my head and back, and made me drink medicine before we made the long drive home to our place*, where my mom was worriedly waiting for us. Obviously I'm ok now but the sight of food of any kind still nauseates me.

*Our homes aren't really that far apart, it just seemed looong because of the frequent, um, throw-up stopovers. Blecch.

***
Yes Macy, I meant Luis Katigbak in my previous entry. (Luis if you're reading this, thanks for the story you sent us! It's now with Arn. (: ).

Hello there, Halina! Thanks for reading this and I hope you're enjoying yourself at BBDO.