Ay Tariray

  How do you solve a quandary like Tom Cruise? I’m serious. To be honest – I actually have little to no thoughts about the guy as a celebrity outside of the usual comment about jumping on couches, and Scientology stuff, and even that is minimal and forgettable. This man is an actor who has lived within the very core of my cinematic foundation.   When I was little, I interchanged him with Brad Pitt because at the time, they were the two biggest male actors in the goddamn universe. And then they did Interview with a Vampire together and looking back; what I vaguely remember is Kirsten Dunst, and not much else. (Oh, and the lighting, many candles, plenty shadow – much early 90s goth romance, too much mascara? I think Antonio Banderas is there for a second – I cant be bothered to find out). Like, he is a mega star.   So big that he’s a black hole in my cinematic psyche. I keep having this thought in the back of my brain that I don’t actually realise how much of a...

  You know how you sometimes open Netflix, or any other streaming service of your choice, and just stare at the landing page for 20 minutes straight not exactly knowing what to watch? Its even weirder when the “recommended for you” list pops up and the movies and shows it recommends are so up your alley and are definitely shows you really actually want to watch. And then you don’t. Instead, you reload Archer and watch it again, right from the beginning, for the 5 th time in the past month. And I don’t even care that the show hasn’t aged all that well (I mean, what has?).   I still love it. Science attributes it to a combination of procrastination, sensory overload and a big fat heaping of nostalgia.   I can certainly agree with that.   Aside from the nostalgia comfort blanket that repeat watches offers, you also end up absorbing more details and features on repeat watches which, if anyone knows me and my particular aesthetics; is my absolute visual jam. ...

Despite the pandemic shutdowns, the ample opportunities to hunker down and watch the backlog of shows and movies that you'd put on your to do list since you got a shared account on Netflix from your friend, I have not watched anything new at all. In fact, I watched old stuff, like Community, and... uh... Community.  Oh, and re-runs of Unnhhhhh on YouTube. Fun fact, I've never, ever, ever watched a single episode of RuPaul's Drag Race.... ever. Anyway.  I watched Guy Ritchie's take on the Arthurian Legend which I otherwise like to call: Dark Souls: The Arthurian Version (but with 75% more geezers!). Ritchie does gritty action really well, his visuals are cool, and, when it happens, the scripting of dialogue is fun to watch play out. Having said that, his work is already cliche and tropey after so many movies (except for U.N.C.L.E, but i'll get to that another time), where some Mad Lad with fast talking skills and a small posse of faithful, but competent...

So – 2016 is happening huh? Holy shit do you know what that means?! We are going to have a third Captain America movie.   And a third Star Trek movie. And we just had the latest instalment of Star Wars as a glorious X-mas gift. And what a gift... What a time to be alive. But we've also lost a bevy of awesome people - seriously, was there a statute of limitations that we didn't know about with regards to the coolest music and film icons ever? Nonetheless, I can only feel grateful even as I’m slightly panicking that I have somehow gotten through 16 years of the new millennium and still have no idea what the hell I’m doing.   And there’s so much to do!! So much to see!! So many places to go! I want to continue travelling of course and have recently capped my travels of 2015 with a three week stay back home in the Philippines – the beautiful, beautiful homeland. Except for the times when it isn’t. But you know what – I missed my family, I missed the weird ...