Every now and then, I go to record stores and buy a couple of albums from musicians I've never heard of before.. Partly to broaden my musical taste, and partly to "see what I've been missing".. I'd check the cover, then the back, then the price tag, then I'd but it if I felt like it..

The first time I tried this was with SOS JFK by The Children's Hour.. This was also the day I found out I wasn't that into folk.. Or at least their kind of folk..

Then I tried my luck with Rachel Loshak's Mint, with which I only liked two songs (and not by a lot).. I know.. Two in a row.. Bummer, right?

Having almost struck out, I nearly gave up.. Suddenly the cover-back-price-tag-buy-based-on-gut-feel strategy wasn't looking so good.. It was like throwing a bunch of noodles at a wall to see which noodle sticks, only not nearly as fun.. Or the blind eating Skittles.. I didn't know what I was getting.. Why bother spending P500 on something I'm not sure of? I could have used the same money to buy half a graphic novel..

Then came this album.. I looked at the band's name, then the album title.. Then I bought the album as soon as I got the joke.. And I am SO glad I did..

The Album: Pop Has Freed Us is the fourth full-length album by indie band, Papas Fritas.. released in 2003 under Minty Fresh Records, the album is a compilation of the band's greatest hits.. it contains eight of their most popular songs and nine previously unreleased songs..

The Good: the album is a great intro to a great band.. the eight "greatest hits" draw the new listeners in and show them what to expect, while the other nine songs show us just how fun, and just how far, Papas Fritas can go (spoiler alert: it's WAAAAAAAAAY out there).. tracks like Holiday, Say Goodbye, Questions, and the indie-pop delight, Way You Walk, are sure to make instant fans out of casual listeners..

The Bad: while the album certainly is fun and would make a perfect addition to anyone's personal soundtrack to his or her life, Pop Has Freed Us is not for everyone.. the whole world may love Way You Walk, but anyone who isn't "in on the joke" might have a hard time getting into the other songs in the album..

The Verdict: 8/10 --> from now on, I think I'll stick to whole numbers and steer clear of the decimals.. even I don't know what I mean by adding a couple more numbers after a point..

*pick up your very own copy at Music One.. not sure if all branches have it, but I got mine at the one in Greenbelt 3..

Currently listening to: "TV Movies" - Papas Fritas

The movie club is back.. After a three-week hiatus--which we spent (in chronological order) helping out in one of the Typhoon Ondoy relief centers, hanging out outside Nonoy's window ('coz there were only 3 of us who could make it), and chilling out at Gino P's place in Tagaytay--we decided to reset the order of the movie club "sponsors" since a.) Prime's coming back and b.) lots of new things happening with Indioboy Productions, a "new order" seemed pretty apt..

I was up first.. Originally, it was supposed to be Nonoy's turn, but he didn't have a copy of the movie he wanted to screen at the time.. And 'coz he knew I already had a movie in mind.. Plus, I was still at home when he texted..

Exotica (1994)

Director: Atom Egoyan

Cast: Mia Kirshner, Elias Koteas, Bruce Greenwood, Don McKellar, Arsinée Khanjian

Sponsor: Me

Synopsis: "Exotica presents a disparate group of characters whose lives are interconnected through the Exotica nightclub. Christina (Kirshner) is an exotic dancer at Exotica, owned by Zoe (Khanjian). Eric (Koteas) is the club's DJ, and Christina's former boyfriend. Francis (Greenwood) is a customer who comes in nightly and always has Christina give him a private dance, which seems to inspire Eric's jealousy...Thomas (McKellar) is a latent-gay pet store owner whose books of account Francis is auditing pursuant to a suspicion of Thomas running an illegal import business." (Wikipedia)

I saw this film back in the 90s on cable (with cuts, of course).. It was the first time I saw Mia Kirshner since her episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark.. After watching her powerful performance in this film, she became one of my favorite actresses..

I downloaded this film earlier this year since I haven't seen it in such a long time, and as soon as I saw the first two-way mirror scene again, I knew that this was my next Indioboy Movie Club movie.. Although I wasn't quite sure how the guys would react to the film 'coz it's real heavy and "artsy"--a killer combination that usually means the movie might be well-remembered within the group, but not necessarily enjoyed.. It was a safe choice though for Movie Club, but not really as an opener after a three-week hiatus..

The Indioboy roster was complete that night.. Pretty much.. Prime was still in Korea at the time.. But Chyna Lo, one of the LFC kids, tagged along with Ayo and Dom--making her the second girl to join us for Movie Club night after Marie Jamora.. They were all eager to get the Movie Club back to its original momentum.. Y'know, before the storm and everything..

There were two "recurring themes" running through the Indioboy commentary--which is gonna be a thing, by the way--during the screening.. The first one, which was initiated by Harold, was that Don McKellar, and later on Elias Koteas, was the thief guy from Blindness.. He was right the first time, although he was more insistent that it was Koteas.. Don McKellar played the Thief in Blindness, and he wrote the screenplay for it as well.. I thought that was a nice, albeit purely coincidental, throwback to the first film we screened for the Indioboy Movie Club..

The second one, also initiated by Harold, was that they couldn't believe that Mia Kirshner did the topless scenes before she was of legal age.. She was.. I did the math.. Every time one of her breasts would flash, Harold and Gino P would call out "Sixteen?!"

Oh yeah, Ayo fell asleep towards the end.. But that was because of all the work he's been doing for the past few weeks..

All in all, the screening went better than I had expected.. The guys (and Chyna) seemed to enjoy the film very much despite its slow pace and dismal mood.. Can't wait for the next Movie Club screening night..

WYD (Why You Do What You Do) is a 3-5 minute show that aims to inspire and motivate YOU to do what YOU want to do. The show does this by featuring artists, entrepreneurs and organizations that have transformed an idea into reality out of their passion for a certain craft. WYD believes in the intersection of YOUR passion and social responsibility. New episodes are posted every Saturday. Check out the WYD Blog here.

The show is produced by Indioboy Productions.. Each of us gets a chance to direct our own episode.. We do it by rotation.. Like the Movie Club! The episode I directed premiered yesterday (October 10).. It turned out great.. Watch it right now:

WYD Ep 3 - Julo de Guzman, Commune Manila from WYD1 on Vimeo.

Amazing, yeah?

By the way, don't forget to check out the WYD blog.. Oh yeah, and add WYDshow on Facebook.. Episode 4 will be posted next Saturday.. Watch out for that.. Thanks guys!

Okay.. A bit of background first.. My friends from college and I have made a little production company called Indioboy Productions.. Since graduating college, we have made AVPs for companies like L'Oreal Philippines and music videos for local acts such as Soapdish, Itchyworms and Silent Sanctuary.. It was during "the great Indioboy music video shoot influx," a string of consecutive music video shoots over the course of several months wherein we would only see each other during preproduction and on the shooting day itself, when we decided to establish the Indioboy Movie Club.. Every Tuesday, we would all meet up in one of our houses and watch a movie that only one of us has seen before.. Not only is this so we could all watch a new movie every week and enrich our film vocabulary, but also so that we could see each other on a weekly basis.. We started out as friends before we became business partners, after all..

As of today, each of the members of Indioboy has screened a film, except for Prime, who's in Korea, and Dino, who's always busy.. Here are each of the films we've screened in chronological order..

 

1. Blindness (2008)

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover

Recommended by: Gino Jose

Synopsis: "A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant 'white blindness.' Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created 'society of the blind' quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hording the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is however one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble." (IMDb)

This was a great opener for Indioboy Movie Club.. It was a Hollywood film, but it kinda wasn't.. It's a movie that came-and-went.. It caused quite a buzz when it first came out because of the negative depiction of the blind, but after that it just disappeared.. Which is a shame 'coz upon viewing it with the guys on movie night, I realized how amazing this movie really was..

During viewing night, it was Ayo and I who were the most vocal.. We loved how it wasn't really about blindness as a condition, but about how society reacts when life hits the reset button and they all have to start living life in a completely different way..

I had seen The Constant Gardener a couple of years back, and I knew that they had to have the same director or cinematographer without even looking at the back of the DVD or the credits (although after I did, I found out they both had the same director AND cinematographer) because there was so much individuality within each shot that it was like a fingerprint of both Mereilles and Charlone.. Case in point, that scene in The Constant Gardener where Ralph Fiennes goes back to Africa after--SPOILER ALERT--his wife dies.. Watching that scene, which I saw in a classroom with a white screen and a video projector, my exact thought was, "Holy shit.. I'm going blind.."

2. In Bruges (2008)

Director: Martin McDonagh

Cast: Collin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy

Recommended by: Gino Parma

Synopsis: "Bruges, the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travellers from all over the world. But for hit men Ray and Ken, it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks. Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray's often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city. But the longer they stay waiting for Harry's call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloë, who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray's vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences." (IMDb)

The writing is ace.. The acting is brilliant.. It's one of those films that you've heard about and everyone says it's good so you save watching it for later 'coz you're afraid it might not live up the high expectations you've set for it.. Or maybe it's just me, whatever..

I love how it subtly feeds you information needed to further the plot through the dialogue that as the film slowly unfolds, you find yourself going back to that clever bit of dialogue you heard about 20 minutes ago and go, "Oh yeah.." Sadly, the only Academy Award Nomination for this film was for the Screenplay--aptly so--but it lost out to Milk (another film I heard that was worth watching but didn't 'coz of that expectation thing)..

Another thing I love about this film is how testosterone-charged the script is and how each character is an individual, but nothing is taken away from the female characters.. it's not like a Quentin Tarantino script where women are either hyper-masculinized or "the girl you fuck.." *cough*Death Proof*cough*

3. Being There (1979)

Director: Hal Ashby

Cast: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden

Recommended by: Dom Dycaico

Synopsis: "A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of a woman, Eve, and her husband, Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider." (IMDb)

None of us really knew what to expect when Dom decided to screen this film.. Our attention was held steadily tepid for the first few minutes of the film.. Right up to the point where Peter Sellers steps out of the old man's house.. It was at that point specifically that the film picked up and started going in a completely different direction than what we had expected..

It's a great story about how innocence shines through in a world such as ours, which is filled with preconceived notions and double-speak.. Not even Shirley MacLaine's sexual advances could shake this man's purity--for want of a better term..

The final scene caught us all by surprise.. Without giving too much of the ending away, here's the gist of everything I said after watching: "Is the guy Jesus? ... Fine, yeah, I get that life is a state of mind, but is the guy effin' Jesus???"

4. Oldboy (2003)

Director: Park Chan-wook

Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong

Recommended by: Gali Te

Synopsis: "An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, he soon finds out that not only his kidnapper has still plans for him, but that those plans will serve as the even worse finale to 15 years of imprisonment." (IMDb)

This film is a fuckin' roller-coaster ride!!! From start to finish, it bombards you with imagery so amazing, so breathtaking, that just as you've only barely recovered from the last sequence, the next one comes at you like a bullet train..

Oldboy isn't that difficult to process--hypnosis, ticking clock, a little incest--but it all sinks in real slowly.. Several minutes after the film ended (we were watching the blaxploitation classic, Cleopatra Jones, at that time), and we were still reeling from the continuous one-shot corridor fight scene, which is not unlike a side-scrolling beat-'em-up..

Oh yeah, best thing about this film: Will Smith is NOT in it.. Better savor the beauty while it lasts, the Hollywood remake starring the Wild Wild Fresh Prince is due out late next year..

5. Jam Films (2002)

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura ("The Messenger: Requiem for the Dead"), Tetsuo Shinohara ("Kendama"), George Iida ("Cold Sleep"), Mochizuki Rokuro ("Pandora - Hong Kong Leg"), Tsutsumi Yukihiko ("Hijiki"), Isao Yukisada ("Justice"), Shunji Iwai ("Arita")

Recommended by: Ayo Supangco

Synopses: Jam Films is a compilation of shorts produced by Sega/Amuse.. "'The Messenger' is a mysterious woman who appears to a mobster hiding underground to tell him about his ultimate fate. A bag with a 'Kendama' ball and string toy gets mixed up with a bag of onions, and leads a couple to ponder their relationship. Fujio awakes from 'Cold Sleep' to find he has crashed on an unfamiliar planet with some crazy people and an attractive new Eve. Mayuko, has an itch she keeps secret before she is introduced to a mysterious yet strangely satisfying cure ('Pandora - Hong Kong Leg'). A man finds himself surrounded by the police and holds some women hostage as they eat 'Hijiki' (edible seaweed) and advise him about what to do. In a class studying the Potsdam Declaration, some high school students find their minds elsewhere. Tojo is keeping a tally of the snapping of the tight shorts worn by the girls jumping hurdles outside the window according to color. Will he find ultimate 'Justice.' Ever since she can remember, 'Arita' has appeared somewhere on every drawing or other piece of paper she touches, starting with the first crude drawings of her childhood. But what is it, and is it alive?" (IMDb)

Watching a bunch of shorts consecutively can be very tiring.. What with the constant yo-yo-ing of rising and falling action, and all.. So if I were in charge of arranging this compilation, I'd think twice about including Arita; let alone placing it at the end..

It's a tie between Kendama and Hijiki if I were to pick a favorite among the shorts.. I love how Hijiki keeps up the intense tone of the story without straying from the simplicity of...what's on the table, so to speak.. Kendama is just plain adorable..

As for everyone else's favorite among the shorts, Justice seems to be the unanimous choice.. It certainly is the most well-written among the shorts.. It goes from the five-stroke Chinese character that my Chinese teacher used to write on the board to tally up the scores whenever we'd have contests in the classroom, to the Japanese word for "justice" (which incidentally uses that same five-stroke character), to several stereotypes that are just painfully too Japanese--such as the knickers that schoolgirls wear during PE, the pervert whose nose bleeds when he's horny to signify an extreme erection, and the bigoted Caucasian who doesn't understand the country and its culture but is begrudgingly present--stuff that most people who aren't familiar with the culture would definitely not get.. Ironically, I've been looking at the reviews for this film online, and not a lot of Americans got the point of this particular short.. Go figure..

6. American Pop (1981)

Director: Ralph Bakshi

Cast: Jeffrey Lippa, Ron Holland, Richard Singer, Ron Thompson

Recommended by: Me

Synopsis: "'American Pop' is the animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American music from the pre-jazz age through soul, '50s rock, drug-laden psychadelia, and punk, finally ending with the onset of new wave in the early 1980s." (IMDb)

I've been trying to get Gino J to watch this for the longest time.. I knew he'd love this film 'coz it's about music and it's about fathers (hence the title, American POP...gets?), two subjects that really affect him especially when it comes to film.. But then I figured, with the new weekly movie night now in effect, why not wait a couple more weeks then screen it.. That way, everyone can see it, not just Gino..

Everyone who was there (Prime was still in Korea, and Harold was busy with either work or school) loved it.. Dom and Ayo loved the fact that it was rotoscoped from start to finish.. Gino J really started digging it during Tony's story, especially the performance of Somebody to Love.. Gino Parma was astounded by the acting.. He said it was the best acting he's ever seen in an animated movie, and he's probably right.. Dino loved the soundtrack, of course.. And Gali, I could tell, was soaking up the movie as a whole.. Out of everyone that night, he was probably the only one who was as touched by the movie as I was..

7. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

Director: Charles Reisner

Cast: Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire, Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron

Recommended by: Harold Soon

Synopsis: "In the riverside town of River Junction, Captain William Canfield has an old steamship and disputes the passengers with the powerful banker John James King, who has a brandy new passenger vessel. William is informed that his unknown son William Canfield Jr. will arrive by train from Boston to visit him. When Willie arrives, William trains him to work with him in his ship. However, Willie meets his friend Kitty King, the daughter of James King, and they date each other, against the will of their fathers. When a hurricane reaches River Junction, Willie rescues his father and his future father-in-law from the river." (IMDb)

Seeing as this was a silent film, this was probably the rowdiest screening we've ever had.. It was also the shortest we've ever had.. We all enjoyed Buster Keaton's antics.. I, personally, like him a whole lot better than Charlie Chaplin..

This film had Keaton's infamous building facade stunt.. We've all seen parodies and references to it what with pop culture, and all.. After we saw the actual stunt though, we spent a good amount of time talking about it.. I didn't know the Buster was really depressed at the time the stunt was shot.. It'd have been terrible if he had gone over the edge just as the facade was falling..

This one's a classic.. One of Buster Keaton's best (and last if I'm not mistaken).. I'm glad I watched it with friends..

Currently listening to: "Nightmares By The Sea" - Jeff Buckley

I'm trying something new with my blog.. bear with me.. I just recently decided that I don't have a big enough ego to keep writing about myself.. that, I think I'll leave to microblogging.. hello, Twitter page..

also, I've been meaning to get back to writing reviews, which I used to do a lot back in high school.. look at me, writing with a purpose once again..

anyway, here goes..

Guilt By Association, Vol. 1

The Album: released on September 4, 2007 by Engine Room Recordings, Guilt By Association is a compilation of well-known pop songs covered by various independent musicians..

The Good: covering pop songs is not that uncommon a thing here in the Philippines--putting things lightly...marvel at my skill for understatement--but our local covers, more often than not, end up being inferior carbon copies of their repective original versions.. those belong in their own noontime-variety-show turf and should stay there...that's right, Velasquez, I'm talking to you!

this here compilation, however, contains covers that couldn't sound more different from their original counterparts.. like Casey Shea's slow and sensitive cover of "Chop Suey" by System of a Down.. or Devendra Banhart's playful bossa nova rendition of "Don't Look Back In Anger" by Oasis..

other covers add new depth to the originals.. such as Shania Twain's "From This Moment On" covered by Mark Mulcahy (who was in Polaris, the band that did the unforgettable opening credits song of The Adventures of Pete & Pete...fun fact), which sounds more like a somber requiem to a past love than a namby-pamby vow to start life anew.. Luna (whose bassist, Britta Phillips, was the singing voice of Jem from the 80s cartoon of the same name...fun fact) adds an undertone of desperation and attachment that's all too unhealthy to Paula Abdul's ultimatum, "Straight Up"..

my favorite track of the album, however, is the a cappella/spoken word cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" by Petra Haden.. among the songs featured in the compilation, this one is probably the most covered prior to the album's release.. not that it's a bad thing...although the fact that it was definitely was a factor in my predisposition to hate it.. but this rendition was clearly the most peculiar and most creative of all the other "Don't Stop Believing" covers.. I love the nod to Wilson Phillips at the end, too..

The Bad: unfortunately, the album's strength is also its weakness.. in the artists' efforts to distance the covers from their original counterparts, most of the covers end up sorta sounding alike.. spoiler alert: they're all basically slower, lazy, folksy versions of the originals.. that being said, I thought this was a compilation album.. where's the variety? it's like these guys were shopping and got stuck in the folk section..

some tracks, such as Goat's cover of "Sugar, We're Goin Down," The Mooney Suzuki's cover of Cher's "Just Like Jesse James," and Will Oldham's cover of "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)," zip right by without leaving so much as a footprint.. and I'd steer clear of the High School Musical cover by Porter Block.. you'll find yourself actually liking the original version..

then there's Mike Watt's cover of Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' For You," which makes for an awkward closing track to the compilation as he adds absolutely nothing to the song..

The Verdict: 6/10

*the album is not in circulation in the country at the moment, but you can order or download a copy at Amazon.com.. or better yet, get it off iTunes to get a bonus track: Porter Block's cover of "Careless Whisper" by Wham!

 

Guilt By Association, Vol. 2

The Album: once again from Engine Room Recordings comes a new compilation of guilty pleasure pop songs covered by various independent artists.. Guilt By Association, Vol. 2 was released on November 18, 2008..

The Good: this album is certainly lighter and a lot more fun than the first one, and it succeeds in everything its predecessor failed in.. it's not just folk music this time, the covers are more cleverly crafted, and it emphasizes on why these guilty pleasures are so pleasurable in the first place..

right from the very first track, the album hooks you with My Brightest Diamond's "shoegaze-cabaret" cover of "Tainted Love".. and it keeps on bombarding the listener with cover after cover without stopping over at the filler corner.. check out The Bloodsugars actually making a Laura Branigan song sound cool and matt pond PA making a My Chemical Romance song actually bearable (apologies to the fans)..

the brightest star in this stellar lineup of tracks is Lowry's cover of Toto's "Africa".. there is absolutely no one in the world who will not like this version.. it's bouncy, it's trippy, it's got layer upon layers of sounds that amalgamate into this beautifully chaotic, fun, five-minute ride..

The Bad: the one bad thing about this compilation is the flexibility of the term "guilty pleasure".. one person's so-called "guilty pleasure" may very well be another person's choice noise.. I haven't even heard of N-Trance's "Set You Free" until Frightened Rabbit did a cover of it here..

The Verdict: 8.75/10

*this album is currently unavailable in the country as well, but you can purchase or download a copy on Amazon.com.. or on iTunes where you can also get a bonus track not included in the actual album: "The Lady in Red" by Chris de Burgh as covered by The Bloodsugars..