Again and Again, 2008

Again and again, however we know the landscape of love
and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,
and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others
fall: again and again the two of us walk out together
under the ancient trees, lie down again and again
among the flowers, face to face with the sky.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~


Tomorrow afternoon I am marrying you.
Nothing in this life could be sweeter.

Stop Writing Crap for Children

I spent the weekend with my 6-year old sister, and was introduced to Nickelodeon’s hit show, “The Naked Brothers Band”. In my opinion, another awful addition to so-called Kid-Friendly TV’s lineup of tween tackiness. Come to think of it, the main characters, aged 8 and 10, aren’t even tweens. The show is apparently meant to be rockumentary-mockumentary for kids. Are they kidding??? Watch a bunch of 6 year-olds lap this stuff up-- there is NO way they think for a minute that what they’re watching is satire and tongue-in-cheek pointlessness. And that continuing plotline about one of the boys being "in love" with the band's female member, Rosalina. It's cute the first 2 minutes, and then after that it's just damned annoying. A few episode summaries:

Nat must learn to cry on cue for an upcoming video and to also make Rosalina think he is deep. Alex is awesome at crying on cue and offers to help Nat for a price.

Nat does stand-up comedy to impress Rosalina, but isn't very good. He's determined to prove his sense of humor. He looks closer to home for better material.

The band, Mr. Wolff, Cooper, & Jesse take a day off and go to the beach. When Nat catches Qaasim flirting with Rosalina, he tries to do the same to get Rosalina to fall for him. Thomas and David see Nat getting more attention from girls...

When Nat and Rosalina find out they have to kiss in their new music video, they're both nervous, but for different reasons. Nat is shaky because he's never kissed a girl on the lips. Rosalina is conflicted about her feelings for Nat - after all, she's a teenager and he's only 11...

It's for kids, I know. But that's just the problem. It’s just as dumb as that local show Goin Bulilit, where they dress kids up as adults (complete with ninang hairdo for the girls and pencil moustache for the boys) and have them deliver the news in their best grown-up voices. Obviously, these writers can't figure out who they're writing for.

Grrr.

Stop Bunny-Punchings

Augh! So much work! I can't wait til this over, so I can have time for other things like, oh, say, planning my wedding! Three more things to cross out of today's work to-dos and then hmm..I can choose my flowers or something.

But first, let me tell you about a client who requested that I use Comic Sans on materials for a children's event. Why is it that this clumsy-looking font is deemed default for anything associated with children? Poor kids. What's wrong with a good serif? There are so many other options! We've got as many fonts out there as we do hair. Her reason for insisting: "So that it matches the rest of our décor." Ohhh-kaaay.

To be fair, client listened to gentle reason and agreed to use another type with the same playful intention, but with tons more dignity. Everyone's happy. I leave you with propaganda from bancomicsans.com. I declare this a classic.

Sunday with Cat

Merienda cena at my cousin's today. Luigi is one of their two cats. He jumped on my laptop, and then went to sleep at my feet. Purrr.

Hervé Morvan

This image originally posted on a delightful blog called Today's Inspiration. Visit it!

Dear Henry

I just saw you and your craaaazy wife Terry on The Amazing Race Asia tonight. I'm so glad you weren't eliminated despite your coming in last at the South Korean pit stop. That being said, however, I still hope that you will take a long, hard look at your teammate and finally make the decision to continue on your great Swan Paddleboat Journey without her. This is without prejudice to nationality, gender, or voice projection--she's just nasty! And never mind the choked-up exposition of her self-esteem issues. Hello? That woman's a piece of work. The Filipino audience sympathizes with you and hopes you bust out soon. Or at least sign up for some serious counselling. :(

Revisiting

When the child was a child,
it awoke once in a strange bed, and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful, and now only a few do, by sheer luck.
It had visualized a clear image of Paradise, and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness, and shudders today at the thought.

Peter Handke
"Song of Childhood"