Across the Universe

this movie reminded me sooo of rent- a cast of friends with one couple in the forefront, amidst social turmoil- this time being international due to the vietnam war. the only thing that worked in this movie were the Beatles songs on remix- modernized and put to cinematic vision. Again, some songs worked, and the others didn’t. My favorite was probably Prudence’s song, the love songs, and "I Want You."

I also really appreciated "Strawberry Fields" for its brilliant symbolism. Strawberries nailed onto a white canvas, heart-like: vulnerable, passionate, and bleeding onto the earth. Like lives at war.

Overall, what didn’t work was the poor story line, the mediocre development and trippy scenes that were mere fillers.  Makes an exceptional soundtrack though!

La Vie en Rose (La Mome)

you’ll know I like a movie when i Google it afterwards like a stalker. and yes, this movie made me stalk 1- Edith Piaf and 2- Marion Cotillard.

the only known facts i previously had of edith piaf were those that were taught at my highschool french class- and of course the well known song "La Vie En Rose" which is one of my favorite jazz standard songs (although not her version).   So the movie filled me in on so much of the sadness of her life, her popularity. i question if she really believed her life to be "une vie en rose" despite the heartaches.

biography aside, the acting was superb. marion Cotillard definitely deserved the best actress Oscar. she was compelling- being able to act a range of not only age, but maturity as piaf gains social popularity.  I’m such a big fan for biography movies, and this one did it right- without trying too hard to present the drama and over-exaggerating the facts, although yes, there were moments of fantastical imagery.

i highly recommend this movie, esp. for piaf fans, jazz fans, french fans, and good movie fans.

Monday, my dad had surgery early morning for a mild procedure.  he’s recovering now, which will hopefully take about a week but he’s still feeling a lot of discomfort from the aftereffects.  i just spoke with him, and he canceled on an upcoming weekend trip. just please pray for him, for those who are reading this update.  thank you guys!

A couple of years ago my dad retired from teaching and decided to switch to farming. He found this piece of land in the outskirts of Cagayan de Oro City. After years of hearing about what the land was like, I finally got to see what he was talking about when we visited them last year. He is currently raising Cows, Pigs and Chickens. One of the cool things that he is doing is that he is re-using the waste of these animals as fertilizers of the crops that he is using which can be considered as the most basic principle in sustainable agriculture farming. His main crop right now are corn (the image on the top-left of this blog is an actual image from the farm) and eggplants. That one time we were there, his farm hands were sorting out roughly 100 pounds worth for eggplants from that days harvest alone. He does have other crops, right now he is experimenting on red rice, strawberries, pineapples, bananas and coffee.

I’ve been trying to help him out by researching on what seem to be the best way to be able to attain Sustainable Agriculture Farming. One of the pretty good resources out there can be found at http://www.hobbyfarms.com/. They mostly discuss items that deal with hobby based farming and has really helped me in looking at farming in a simpler and more scaled down perspective. Their articles on Crops & Gardening and Equipment & Tools are very good. There is one article that does stand out and is on my top list in discussing with my Dad, bee keeping. But that would be another blog for another time.

I just helped buy my dad a mini-truck that he can use to deliver the crops in and out of the city. I guess our next project would be a hand-held tractor that can double up as a diesel generator and a solar pump that can bring fresh water to the farm house.