Malditang Librarian

Photo Credit: Panay News There are many new museums and art galleries popping up here and there in Iloilo City. It’s amazing to live in a time when more and more people are getting into culture and arts here. I have written about Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art a.k.a ILOMOCA in this blog, a private museum owned by Megaworld. There are also interesting places dedicated to art such as Book Latté  (featured several times here) and MAMUSA Art Bistro. Years ago, there were news that the old Prison of Iloilo in La Paz (built in 1911) will be renovated for a National Museum: Western Visayas Regional Museum. I was young when the building was used as an actual prison, but due to overpopulation of prisoners, they had to be transferred to a bigger place. The Old Prison was left abandoned for awhile, until it was fixed to make way for the Museum. The Museum officially opened last December 15, 2018. As of now, only one out of five galleries are open, the permanent exhibit ...

My planner is mostly full of important occasions and movie release dates. I have been wanting to watch Aquaman since DC's Wonderwoman was a hit and I liked that movie. As of this writing, Aquaman has surpassed $1 billion in the box office. But I put off watching it because an author I admired didn't recommend it. So there's a lesson here - just because the author I idolized didn't like it, doesn't mean I will also not. When I watched it I found that I didn't really share the same perspective of the said author. And just because I liked it, doesn't mean you will feel the same way. Each of us has our own preferences, likes and dislikes when it comes to movies, stories, and books. I'll admit I don't really know anything about Aquaman prior to watching this movie, but I'll watch or read anything sea-related. The story starts with the love story of his parents when Atlanna, queen of Atlantis, gets stranded near a lighthouse's shore. Tom, the li...

Aurora is directed by Yam Laranas, produced by Viva Films and Aliud Entertainment, starring Anne Curtis. My rating: 3/5 Every last week of December, movie theaters all over the country only plays Filipino movies, movie entries for the Metro Manila Film Festival. And also every year, there's the debate between "art and the market" when it comes to the movie selections. For sure, every year there is a Vic Sotto film, Vice Ganda film, or the 100th installment of Shake, Rattle, n Roll (I think there's none for this year), and there's the trend of more people flocking to these (usually comedy) movies with the big stars than the movies with more serious themes. For some, most MMFF movies may be a joke. There's really nothing wrong with these movies, a lot of people seem to enjoy them based on the box-office stats. I don't really go out of my way to watch MMFF movies unless there's something that looks really interesting. I want to see something new, a...

I'm not much of a movie fan but it's my love for stories that drive me to the movies. This list is actually too pop-culture and mainstream. I also reviewed a lot of movies in this blog (check out the ' movies ' tag), and if I have reviewed them I've included the links below: Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse I'm a regular follower of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I'm not a big Spiderman fan. This animated story about Spidermans (six!) from different dimensions is funny, heart-warming, and with unique animation that reminds me of an animated comic book. Miles Morales as the main character really carried the story well. Out of the six main characters, my favorite has got to be the Noir version of Spiderman. Black Panther An excellent superhero film featuring an all-black cast. It's mythological, modern, yet also shows the problems we still struggle with in the real world. I love how the women are portrayed. Michael B. Jordan as the villain Erik ...

Here are 10 of the best books I read last year, in no particular order. For books that are part of a series, I consider them as one in this list. These are books I read, not books published in 2018. 8 are fiction, while 2 are non-fiction. I posted book reviews of some books on this list but not all, if there are they are linked in the titles. By the way, I also made a handy Book Review Index page where I listed (with links) all the books I reviewed in this blog by author and title. Matilda   by Roald Dahl One of my literary heroes in Matilda. I just read the book this year and I regret reading it too late! Matilda is a bookish and very smart girl in an uncaring place. Her parents and everyone else seems to ignore her existence. When a tyrannical principal tortures the young students in Matilda's school, she decides to do something. I love the relationship between Matilda and her teacher Miss Honey, and the book also has a positive portrayal of a librarian. Wintersong and S...

Me in Ling Shan Temple, Yilan, Taiwan This year was full of surprises. A lot of things and changes happened. Here are my highlights for the year: - Joining the Humanistic Academy of Life and Arts (HALA) , a free study program to learn about Buddhism and Buddhist living. We stayed for two months in Manila at Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay Temple, then for another month in Taiwan where we stayed in Yilan, Kaohsiung, and Taipei. In Kaohsiung, we joined the Fo Guang Buddhist Monastic Retreat  (FGBMR) 2018 along with other students from all over the world. For FGBMR, we studied Buddhism, had a 7-day meditation retreat in full silence, and toured around the southern area of Taiwan. I just didn't get to study another belief, but I also learned a lot from being with people from different countries and cultures. I wrote about my HALA experience in this blog entry: Learning Buddhist Living, the HALA experience . - It was also my first time traveling alone to another country to join my f...

Book cover images from Scholastic News Room The Hunger Games was a popular series of young-adult books and its movie adaptations. I just read these novels now and just watched the four movies, and I find that it's as relevant now as it was when it first came out. Most of us are probably familiar with the story of Katniss Everdeen and The Hunger Games. In a post-apocalyptic world, Panem, a state which was once known as North America, stages an annual Hunger Games  where 24 tributes from its 12 Districts fight to the death. This is Panem's way of controlling the districts and preventing another uprising. The 12 Districts work to the bone to support the lavish lifestyle of the Capitol. The Hunger Games in the story is part beauty pageant, reality show, gladiator game, and the Minotaur's Labyrinth. Katniss Everdeen, a poor girl from District 12, volunteers herself as tribute when the tribute lottery picks up her sister's name, Primrose. Her father is dead from a min...