- January
- Lightyear (2022) [Disney+]
- The Iron Lady (2011)
- The Master (2012)
- The Menu (2022) [HBO Max]
- February
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- March
- Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023)
- John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
- April
- Tetris (2023) [Apple TV+]
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
- Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) [Netflix]
- May
- Ghosted (2023) [Apple TV+]
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 (2023)
- The Little Mermaid (2023)
- Fast X (2023)
- June
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
- July
- Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
- Oppenheimer (2023)
- August
- The Drop (2014)
- September
- The Flash (2023) [Max]
- October
- The Meg (2018) [Max]
- Meg 2: The Trench (2023) [Max]
- Moonfall (2022) [Max]
- Underwater (2020)
- November
- Whiplash (2014)
- The Marvels (2023)
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
- December
- Elemental (2023) [Disney+]
- Blue Beetle (2023) [Max]
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) [Disney+]
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
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They say music means so much more when you’re in it. It being the way you’re feeling or how you’re processing your emotions during or after personal/traumatic events like a break up. Silly love songs you casually, carelessly listened to on the radio now hits you right in the feels. I felt the same way after my break up.
Waking up to the news of my father’s death was different. I cried to my sister after trying to console her when she cried. For 3 days I was a wreck, but I didn’t cry. Overwhelmingly sad and random tears here and there. On the flight back to the Philippines, I thought I would feel it more when I see him in the casket for the viewing.
Went to the viewing and placed his picture in a frame on top of the casket. I could feel my face about to cry, but I was just numb. I was all cried out. Welcomed family, relatives, and friends for the final viewing the next day. Didn’t cry during the funeral. I thought my siblings were gonna cry, but none of them did as well. Maybe they were following my lead. I know my relatives were expecting us to cry.
It’s almost been 10 years since he passed away. The way we consume and listen to music has changed drastically. Apple changed music with iTunes. At the time I was still making CD mixes. I tried and forced myself to make one a few months after the funeral, but I just didn’t have it in me. Now, music streaming is the default method for listening music. No reason to burn CDs. Weirdly enough, there’s a resurgence of vinyl records and, to some extent, cassette tapes. Kids now don’t even know what burning a CD means. I haven’t updated my music collection for years.
New music has come and gone and touched my heart, but there’s this strange feeling of indifference and foreboding. Maybe my heart has closed off. It wasn’t until very recently that I started to feel it again.
Sometimes a song affects me deeply. No longer was I relegating music in the background to deaden and overwhelm my thoughts (just vibing). I’m listening again. Went through my music collection and revisited old albums and mixes. I’m remember what I went through and felt when those songs were listened to. It’s like a time machine. I hope this never goes away again.
I’m done.
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My mom recorded audio of me and my sister as babies in a cassette tape. I was on one side and my sister was on the other after she was born.
I first heard the recordings when I was probably five or six years old. I’ve listened to it countless times that I still remember bits and pieces of the dialogue with my mom, dad and my aunt.
“The time is 8:20PM. Inside the room [is TJ], Mama Bea (TJ’s mama), with tita Chary, Tito Peter, yours truly, yaya Puring, yaya Jean just went out.” This was my dad on recording.
I remember my mom’s voice and my aunt (tita) doing baby talk to me.
The other side of the tape opens with a recording of me singing along to Bryan Adam’s’ Heaven song. The rest of it is my sister’s baby talk.
Unfortunately, these recordings have been lost in time. I can only recall bits and pieces from memory. The physical cassette tape was either sold, traded, or loaned to a pawn shop or some dude who agreed to give my father money in exchange for a case full of cassette tapes. This was early 1997 when we lost it along with our TV and some belongings in the house.
Drugs and addiction will make you do crazy things. There’s no way to trace its whereabouts. The only person who knows was my dad and he already passed away.
I sometimes daydream about the cassette tape finding its way back to me, be it at some auction or some archived recordings published online from the Philippines. I also think about maybe launching a self-investigation and publishing wanted ads to every pawn shop or TV station in the Philippines, in the hopes that someone remembers accepting a case full of cassette tapes, or comes forward with at least some information about it.
I’m just longing for a bygone era when life was easy going. Maybe the past is meant to stay there. Just like the cassette tape.
I’m done.
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WARNING: There will be spoilers about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
(more…) -
In the first month of the year 2023, Netflix launched their home workout videos (in partnership with Nike Training Club). There are several workouts tailored for beginner and seasoned exercise aficionados.
I normally don’t workout a lot. I run and jog when I’m in a rut and want to clear my thoughts. I lost a healthy amount of weight in 2019 after eating right (not eating as much junk food), counting calories, and picking up exercise again (along playing Pump It Up rhythm dance game). I wanted to continue the trend and get healthy again. I promised myself that 2020 was gonna be my year. Then life changed with COVID.
Naturally breathing air is (was then) a health hazard due to this virus… more so than ever. I couldn’t dance my troubles and the calories away on Pump It Up anymore without social distancing and touching dirty surfaces with my hands. Without the vaccines, walking outside or doing any rigorous activity was done with caution. I picked up some dumbbells to work out my arms at home and I’ve managed to gain most of my initial arm strength (especially on my bum shoulder). I still need to do cardio, though. I don’t do it enough and work-life balance has become paramount to almost every person currently in the workforce in the world…
… I digress.
I’ve wanted to change my go-to workout for years and have been putting it off for so long. I figured I’d try the beginner offering on Netflix (Kickstart Fitness with The Basics). The first episode is 10-Minute Bodyweight Burn: Lower-Body Basics. I’ve done several over the years so why not. I mean, how bad could it be? Well…
… I was quickly humbled. Even though I run and jog, these lower body exercises (different forms of squatting and working out your quads) kicked my ass. These are not the same legs I used to have in high school. Made me realize (though I’ve known and just not paying in mind or it) how I’ve neglected several muscle groups.
Despite that, I’m still gonna continue. The exercises don’t need expensive exercises equipment, ‘cept for some dumbbells and maybe kettlebells (maybe the more advanced workouts do, but I haven’t checked). I just need to get used to working out my lower body and extremities along.
TL;DR – Don’t skip leg day.
I’m done.