campaign jingles

i love saturdays. there’s something inherently laidback and relaxing about saturdays. which is hardly surprising because i usually associate this day with sleeping late, gimiks, entertainment, or just lazing around my place…

today i was rudely awakened (in more ways than one) from this absurd fallacy. i think i was in the middle of some pleasant dream, when suddenly this horribly grating, eardrum-assaulting music blared out right under my window. i wasn’t about to go down without a fight though. with eyes determinedly shut, i slapped a pillow over my head and tried to ignore the cacophony.

it was no use. after that ghastly intro, the loudspeaker blasted into life. “mga kabaranggay, sa darating na halalan, wag po nating kalimutan–”

feeling somewhat homicidal, i bolted from my bed, slammed the window shut, pulled the curtains down and tried to sleep once more.

fat chance. after 10 minutes i had to give up. even if i could drown out the speaker’s voice, it was the music that was the real killer. the singer (female) was extolling some local politician’s virtues in an awful campaign jingle set to Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud” (and it was!). i was hoping that — by some merciful act of fate — the campaign jeep would somehow move on say after 10 minutes, but no, the recalcitrant thing just stayed there like a leech for what seemed like an eternity.

at 9:10am i gave up the fight and reluctantly turned on my radio to dilute the din. a few minutes later, the jeep went on its merry way to assault another street corner…

which brings me to an interesting point. would somebody please tell me why politicians (or their managers or whoever it is that orchestrates this mess) almost always choose the worst kind of background songs to punctuate their campaign spots or ads? ever since i was old enough to to remember such things, i have yet to hear a campaign song that i can tolerate or (however unlikely) actually like.

well, of course, i can understand it if all they’re aiming for is the song’s shock value or the fact that, if played loudly enough to wake the dead, it might actually browbeat the voter into submission — and thereby drive him/her to vote for the said candidate, if only to stop the aural torture. but i wish those old fogeys would consider the hapless listeners. please guys, there are less blood-curdling ways to torture us, voters (listeners). at least choose a better song. or better yet, please don’t drown us with your crap on saturday morning. some of us are trying to catch up on our sleep after a week’s slog.

P.S. umm… or maybe it’s about time we petition the Comelec to disqualify the candidates with the worst-sounding campaign jingle *mwahahaha*. if nothing else, this will motivate the campaign managers to aim for better quality jingles.

a preliminary note on Death Note

i'm barely halfway through Death Note, and since it's still ongoing, i'm not even sure if posting this note would do any good, but… bear with me alright?

this highly gripping series centers on a notebook (Death Note), owned by a shinigami (a death god), which confers to the holder the power to kill anyone as long as all conditions are fulfilled. it is picked up by Light Yagami, a young, exemplary overachiever who then secretly begins to wield its power on crooks and criminals. this, naturally, catches the attention of the media and police authorities. before long, people begin to call this unknown executioner "Kira".

Death Note is basically a high-stakes battle of wits between Light and L, who is essentially Light's equal (age, brains, powers of deception, tennis skills) on the other side of the fence. they match wits, setting traps (both obvious and concealed) to flush each other out — leaving the viewers hanging in breathless anticipation as the situation veers from one cliffhanger to another.

despite his formidable intellectual gifts and iron-cast nerves, there is something repulsive and creepy about Light (a classic hero/anti-hero duality). his towering ego is matched by his lack of compassion. he manipulates people without compunction and he doesn't hesitate to kill when he feels threatened. the only code (and it's a very thin line, mind you) that he has adhered to so far is his reluctance to kill innocent lives — at least those that he doesn't see as a threat.

the story gets more complicated when it becomes obvious that a second "Kira" is on the loose…

Shooter

i was resigned to go through another week of so-so film choices, until i realized that Shooter (directed by antoine fuqua) was actually being shown. so, off i went.

okay, bottomline, the movie does not disappoint. in fact, i plan to see it again next weekend.

bob lee swagger (mark wahlberg) — if this name doesn't give you a hint of this guy's stature, you're obviously not a fan of the genre — is your average dyed-in-the-wool, pumped-up alpha male. a superlative sniper, he goes about his business with a profficiency that wastes no time in small talk or second thoughts; and the guy loves his dog (which looks like a Leonberger to me).

swagger is an ex-sharpshooting marine who has been living alone in his mountain retreat after his last mission, which had killed his friend and spotter, went awry. he reluctantly agrees to help a shadowy government group, ostensibly to help protect the US president from an imminent assassination attempt. but things horribly go wrong…

action film buffs who like shoot-em-ups will enjoy this movie because lots of things explode and the action sequences are tightly woven for maximum effect. Shooter works best when it delves into technical details (who would've thought that the art of effective sniping would involve such variables as wind speed, temperature, earth's curvature, etc.). however, it stumbles when it tries to spout geopolitical gibberish to support it's rather shaky plot.

wahlberg here looks like he could nails for breakfast, and when he describes the details of his deadly craft in a flat monotone you could almost feel the zing of the bullet as it reaches for the hapless target. the support acting job ranges from competent to indifferent to plainly bad. sheesh, i didn't realize danny glover could get this bad. he's woefully miscast here.

summer is here… now, pass me that fan

no doubt about it, summer is here. it hits you like a sledgehammer the moment you step out of an airconned room or vehicle. the oppressive blast of hot air that grips you the minute you leave the door is almost enough to make you scurry back to wherever you came from. whew! no wonder the metro’s electricity consumption has gone through the roof these past weeks.

which leaves me to think that perhaps spending 10 hours or more in the office isn’t all that bad after all — just think of the huge electricity bill you’d undoubtedly rack up if you opted to stay home and turned on the fan or ACU all day long. or the amount you’d likely spend on food and other stuff if you choose to go the mall to escape the heat.

joys of summer? big deal. they’re way overrated if you ask me. we get hot days throughout the year — punctuated by typhoons every now and then, and maybe a few cold days around november until february. and during summer we get more of the same (hottter, too), so where’s the fun in that? aaarrrgh!

just thinking about it makes me feel hot even more *fans self furiously*

so have you guys made plans to invade the beach yet? recommendations, anyone?

max grows up

i can curl my tongue and front paw at the same time, see!

life is good. i get all the kibbles i want, i can redesign all the slippers i like with "trendy" chew marks (maki: except new ones), i can terrorize all the the cats in our alley (well, except for this scruffy, battle-scarred black tomcat). best of all, me and pals july and bruno can play tag all day long. and despite what you hear, i don't drool! that is so un-cool.

i bet i can lick this shiny, metallic camera right in front of me with my newly minted, no-holds-barred smile. all right, punk. he who blinks first is a LOSER.