Zohans in the Advertising World

 

I wonder if there were any empirical data to validate my hunch.  People in advertising tend to have very long careers in that industry.  Once you’re in it, especially for at least 10 years, it’s hard to get out.  Could it be the constant laughter in the workplace?  The colorful garb?  The gaiety and gayness of it all? 

So I admire and support those who are bold enough to bolt it, and shift careers successfully.   Only a few names come to mind right now.   Writer Tippi Ocampo and art director James Reyes are accomplished fashion designers now.  Juan Sarte was a casting director before becoming a top make-up artist.  Art Director Lydia Velasco and commercial photographer Joey Ibay were in the industry for decades before breaking into the art scene -- their paintings command top dollar.  Multi-awarded creative director Tanke Tankeko now runs a successful restaurant business.

They are our post-Zionist Zohans (sorry, I could not think of a more serious film about career change; what the heck, I enjoyed You Don’t Mess With Zohan!).  Like Zohan, the anti-terrorist Israeli badass who really just wants to cut hair, these admen had other dreams.  They must have listened to an inner voice that told them to do what they loved, beyond the comfortable world of advertising.  It’s the same Steve Jobs life lesson:  Don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Stay hungry, stay foolish. 

Tankeko, for one, did right it going into the resto business.  Earlier today, I had lunch at Fifteen Twenty-One.   I’m definitely going back with more friends who like the familiar Pinoy food packaged creatively and delectably.  The menu is as interesting as the cuisine (Talong mo Kay Tulfo, Bonggang-Bonggang Binagoongan, Suabeng Suahe, Ka-Musta-Cat, Hip na Hipon) and the resto’s interiors.   Had a Ratatouille moment with the Potchero ni Tankeko  (the tender-est slow-stewed beef) and Bakang Binayabasan (beef sinigang with guava and kamias/cucumber tree fruit like how they’d prepare it in the province).   My fave was the Ka-Musta-Cat – catfish salad with mustard leaves and kamias.   Do check out 1521.  Support another of them few foolish ones.

1521:  Burgos Circle, Forbes Town Center, Fort Bonifacio Global City / +632 552 1909

Smart television

Many, many years ago, before Torrents and complete DVD sets, we would patiently wait for seven nights before the next episode of our fave TV show was on.  What would happen to the Ingalls at the prairie next ?   Would the bad, bad Olsons get the best of them?  Who would be Kermit’s celebrity guest?  How many Germans would die in the next Combat?  It was fun to wait for a week.  We would imagine, wonder about the “susunod na kabanata”.  We’d only spend a few hours in front of the TV, then spend the rest of day on other things that didn’t depend on electricity. 

Fast-forward to the 2000s.  We download and watch everything in one sitting.  We’ve gotten busier but still manage to spend more hours on the computer watching TV episodes back-to-back-to-back.   Lately, I’ve been stricken with the all-at-once-virus.  I can’t get enough of The Good Wife.

I’ve seen eight episodes of its first season in two nights.   I’m a late convert because I thought it was a melodrama about a scorned woman who’s trying to just keep in together.  Friends at the office had been raving about it; so I got a copy of the first season.  Now, I’m hooked, I’m hating this addiction.  I hate how Julianna Margulies is so good at playing a woman who’s forced to go back to lawyering to make a living while her politician-husband is in prison.  I hate how Archie Panjabi – Kalinda the investigator – keeps me guessing about her real motivations.  I hate how comedienne Christine Baranksi can do drama well.  I hate how a legal drama can be so topical, nuanced, not hysterical, not full of complicated twists and turns.  

It’s the best drama on TV right now.  A milestone in the evolution of intelligent television.  It’s made me forget the house on the prairie and delayed gratification.  

When Electronica is superior to the movie.

"I just missed your heart", says Hanna to the deer.  Joe Wright the director missed mine, too.

The first 15 minutes of Hanna are very promising.   The concept, while familiar, is clever. A 16-year-old girl is raised by his father in the Arctic to be an assassin.  Thanks to homeschooling, she can speak English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Arabic.  A walking, running, tumbling, weightlifting and rifle-carrying Encyclopedia, too.  The only other book she keeps is The Grimms' Fairytales.  One day, she allows herself to be found by the CIA people.  She's ready for the world and ready to avenge her mother's death. 


The film appears like a mish-mash of Bourne Identity, Leon: The Professional, Kill Bill, Run, Lola, Run, La Femme Nikita, even Sixteen Candles.  But hey, nothing in the world of movies is original anymore.  Besides, Saoirse Ronan's (Lovely Bones and Atonement) cold, asexual stare just draws you in.

Then the movie gets too showy and stylish, lacking the subtlety and restraint of the Bourne series.  But the movie score is superb!   The soundtrack by the electronic group Chemical Brothers is a must-buy.   The last time I was blown away by a soundtrack was more than 30 years ago, when Midnight Express came out.  Giorgio Moroder's synthesizer gave birth to electronica.

Here's a fave music video of the Chemical Brothers, done in 2002 by Michel Gondry who's now an accomplished film director himself (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).  Here, Gondry gives justice to their music.

Lacroix's Sleeping Beauty

I just saw the trailer for the new French version of Sleeping Beauty.   The main character falls asleep at 6 and goes into a series of adventures in her dreams for the next 10 years. French director, Catherine Breillart, who did a very strange retelling of the already morbid tale, Bluebeard, is back revamping and eroticizing another familiar fairytale.   I don't think I'll be able to take kids to see it.  


What would make for a very interesting animated version would be the great French fashion designer Lacroix's Sleeping Beauty.  Here are some images from the illustrated book.   A must-have!  I heard John Galliano's version of another tale is in the works.  Keep all these beautiful collectibles coming.

Amélie is 10.

10 years ago this year, the most charming movie ever played to audiences worldwide.  I have yet to meet someone who loathe Amélie.  It should be one of the few movies that was universally loved.  It remains as the highest-grossing French film in the U.S. and in other countries.

Everything about it makes me smile.  Audrey Tatou and her glowing wide eyes.  Paris at its greenest.  The accordion music.  Crème brulee.  Amélie’s comfortable loneliness.  Her neurotic and dysfunctional childhood.  Her pranks.  The unrequited love.  Her desire to be loved.  Clutter in every frame.  The breakneck pace that leaves me full, happy; wish it’d never end.

It’s been 10 years and I have yet to see a movie that conveys the feeling of falling in love as beautifully as Amélie.

R.E.M.

I'm a big fan of R.E.M. but news of the band's break-up didn't really affect me.  The band's demise happened after the follow-up to their 1992 album, "Automatic for the People".  In my book, that's the greatest album of all time (or maybe as great as Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", Prince's "Purple Rain, and The Beatles' "Rubber Soul").  I would rush to the record store every time an R.E.M. follow-up album is freshly released, and would get disappointed each time.  "Automatic" was enough to seal their place in music history.

Lead singer Michael Stipe is a known lover of film.  He even dabbled in movie-producing.  That's obvious in Stipe's music videos and compositions.  Movie references abound.  The video below is inspired by the dramatic and surreal opening of Fellini's "8 1/2".  "Departure" was written for River Phoenix after he o.d.'d.  "Monty Got A Raw Deal" was about the handsomest Hollywood actor ever, Montgomery Clift. "Man On The Moon was an homage to comedian Andy Kaufman, and inspired the movie of the same name.  Ang dami!  That's why I like love listening to their songs from the 80s and "Automatic".  They're cryptic, rich in subtext, and make for perfect soundtracks to movies -- including "ang soundtrack ng buhay mo".  You celebrate, but mostly, wail, hurt along with Michael.

Anderson and Gloria

CNN reporter Anderson Cooper has a new talk show -- Anderson. From the clip below, it seems like intelligent talk TV, none of Tyra's phoniness. I hope we'll see it on local cable soon.

In this interview with mom Gloria Vanderbilt, one of the most famous rich women from the last century, he asked her to recount the last moments before his brother's suicide. She was right there before he jumped off the balcony. "I think about it all the time...you never get over it", said Gloria.

I was also the last one to see my 5-year-old brother before he accidentally drowned in the deep end of an un-chlorinated pool without anyone seeing. The memory remains fresh 36 years after. It's not an internal rumour, like how one writer describes memory. I always dream about it, and frame-by-frame it's how it similarly plays in my head during my waking hours.

After seeing how boldly Anderson confronted his mom about Carter's death and how he fought back his tears, I've been thinking of asking my mom how she survived my kid brother's death. It appeared to me then that her healing process was quick. But I was young, impressionable enough to think that her grief ended when she tucked away my brother's clothes and toys. I am so curious but not as brave as Anderson.