Goodbye, Woman of Substance… 

I had been collecting MC since the day of its arrival in the Philippines.  It was fashionable, stylish, age-appropriate and most importantly, brave enough to tackle social issues that not a lot of fashion magazines are willing to take on. I had outgrown Cosmo then, as I just could not stand having to read about sex all the time (unless it’s in Fanfiction.net or something that Jude Devereaux, Ai Yazawa etc. wrote). Plus, I’m not into the “how do I get boys to like me” craze that the younger generation seemed to be steeped in, so MC, to me, was a breath of fresh air.  It was about the Power Woman, who is chic, savvy and Amazonic enough to conquer a world dominated by men.

When Jomel (Alviar) first mentioned about MC’s state, I was aghast. “What happened to Woman of Substance? What happened to Woman of Substance???”  Apparently, there weren’t enough women in the Philippines that adhered to my motto of “form follows function”. Still, I was happy that I learned a lot from the articles.  They explored different cultures, some I have never even known about. Like that write-up about an African village whose inhabitants are only women and children, or the Russian schools for women who are out to catch husbands, or that South American town where parents would pray for gay sons.  MC also discussed the RH Bill and how this affects our women. Rawr.

I also had my share of prizes from participating in their contests. Hehe.

All in all, MC had a good run, I think. I just wasn’t able to send my last email for their March issue (it was bouncing) so I posted it on their Facebook and I’ll repost it here:

“Finally! I’ve waited so long for marie claire to feature Karylle, a true beauty and woman of substance. I’ve actually seen her in person and even without make-up, she radiates such glow that can only come from a person who has been blessed and enjoys sharing it. Very few people have her intelligence, talent, poise and grace. I’m only too happy to see her on the cover…during my birth month, too!”

I got this bundle as a prize for one of those things I wrote and submitted to a magazine. So yeah, it’s a freebie. The irony of it was that I was writing about the health benefits of organic products. One look at the set’s ingredients listing is enough to tell you that it’s far from being organic.

It took me a while to actually give it a try because:

1. I invest a lot of money on self-tanners. Why would I want to reverse that by using whitening products? Isn’t it a bit silly to use these things when I’d be covering myself with bronzers before I go out of the house anyway?
2. Pond’s has never been good to my skin. As a teenager, their facial wash caused me to break out. In my twenties, their Pond’s Cold Cream make-up remover — compounded by the fact that I’m allergic to most make-up — irreversibly ruined the texture of my face.

Anyway, I suddenly found myself on a tight budget one day, just when I had consumed the last drop of my moisturizer. So I thought that maybe I could use this. Thought that maybe it could get rid of my moles or dark spots. Thought that maybe, this being the 21st century, Pond’s had stopped coming up with disastrous formulas.

I should’ve followed my instincts. They’re usually more sensible than my brain.

The steps:

1. Anti-Spot Intensive Whitening Serum
2. Light Infusing Under-Eye Cream
3. Visible Lightening Daily Lotion (daytime) / Re-brightening Night Treatment (night)

I felt stinging upon application. Followed by itchiness. And an entire day’s worth of scratching. Next, my eyes felt so dry I could hardly open them. As in, it actually hurt to open them! I thought that maybe I had turned into a 50-year-old overnight. Note: My mom is 55 and there are days, especially when she lets her nice, naturally wavy hair down, when she looks 28. She took pity on me and gave me a jar of her unused Clarins day cream as she has stopped using moisturizers altogether. That partially healed me.

The freebie set actually came with a 2-way foundation but the color is “Ivory White”. I can imagine looking like a glow-in-the-dark floating head if I were to use that. I mean, heck, the rest of my body has been tanned!

Just when you think Stephanie Meyer may just grow on you, she ups and does this. I can’t even begin to enumerate why her last Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, pisses me off, but I’ll try anyway.

1. Thought I was reading the bad parts of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series all over again. Just as I expected from this author, there was more talk — and very preachy at that — than action. You can actually skip a good number of the pages and you’ll still get the whole story.
2. If you’re going to introduce characters with awesome powers, please make use of them. You know like…show blood and gore. It simply makes no sense to want to talk all the time when you have these action-inducing elements in your story. Can’t write action? Get someone who does and let him fill it in!
3. *Spoiler Alert!* If you thought reading through pages of Edward’s description was torturous when Bella was human, wait till you read about him through the highly sensitive eyes of a new vampire.
4. What the hell happened to Jacob??? He’s probably the only reason I kept reading the series but this? It’s just too much! I wish Stephanie Meyer just killed him; that’s more preferable to the kind of life she subjected him to. *muffled sobs*
5. Breaking Dawn, like nearly all of the books in the Twilight series, is one big back story. If you need me to spell it out for you, it means that everything is all about character backgrounds. That’s it.

Thank goodness for Fanfiction.net and the upcoming Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. The former would probably rescue what’s left of my sanity (Twilight is, in fact, a glorified fanfic anyway), while the latter makes me look forward to how a vampire love story should unfold.

Knowing that Lea Salonga performs Dayo’s theme song, I couldn’t get to the theater fast enough. This animated feature hits two birds with one stone. First is that I’ve been a fan of Lea Salonga long before I could speak (I was born listening to her sing I Am But A Small Voice). Second, I support any attempt made by our local animators — even when the odds are stacked against them.

Especially when the odds are stacked against them.

To test if this flick has hit its target market, though, I had to bring my 7-year-old little brother, Tim. The technical flaws seem to be lost on him. An OC multimedia arts/animation student or professor would’ve been highly critical of the tacky choice of typefaces (Comic Sans Serif???) or the the heavy usage of filters (bevel, texture, drop shadow combo) in the signages. To a child, however, it’s all about how you tell the story. Of course, I would have preferred brighter, crisper colors and more contrast, but that’s just me. Besides, I liked the backdrops. They seemed to be inspired by so many old school video games yet the animators managed to localize these elements pretty well. Surprisingly well-detailed. Lovely.

Though the animated 2D and 3D elements aren’t as well-developed as, say, the ones we saw in Urduja, the story more than made up for it. Dayo revolves around a young boy, Bubuy, who gets bullied all the time. One day, the bullies made him do something — I’m not spoiling what it is — that angers the supernatural beings resting in a nearby forest. Bent on vengeance, they take Bubuy’s grandparents into their world, Elementalia. Anna, a vegetarian manananggal (Filipino mythical humanoid beast, whose upper body separates itself from its lower body during hunts), volunteers to help him get his grandparents back. They then go into the underworld and enlist the aid of Lolo Nano, a wise troll, and Narsi, a vainglorious tikbalang (another Filipino mythical beast that resembles a horse). They meet other endearing characters along the way, most notable of which are the Cebuano-speaking kapre (Filipino mythical beasts that live in trees and smoke huge tobaccos).

My mom and I quickly noted that Bubuy was full of love and respect not only for his grandparents, but to everyone in general. For setting a good example, Dayo gets plus points. No mangling of our historical references here. No icky love angles that are not suitable for kids. No unnecessary breaking into irritating songs, though the soundtrack was amazingly pleasant (thanks to the talented genius, Gerard Salonga). They even leave a moral lesson at the end: Bubuy realizes that the antagonists’ actions are a result of his irresponsible behavior, for which he makes amends. I find the use of our mythical creatures very creative, yet not overly ambitious. They came up with good and bad engkantos, simplified the RPG experience and stuck to the linear storyline. It is a tale for kids, after all. And though I felt that Dayo was taking a bit too long, my mom and I were surprised to find little Tim glued to his seat, laughing at all the characters’ antics. Tim is a very restless boy, not even those fancy 3D movies could get him to sit still after 45 minutes of exposure. That he behaved all throughout the viewing is by no means an easy feat — well worth the P150.

Additional Tidbit: I’ve been to the Dayo website and it seems to be a nice mix of multimedia goodness. They have a lot of useful information, downloads, games (although I can’t get past the fact that they’re peppered with Comic Sans Serif), and other “interactivities” that kids might find entertaining.

I understand why Twilight book fans will not like this movie.

Two factors clash. First, while I have read up to Book 3, I am not exactly a fan of Stephanie Meyer’s writing. Half the time, I would cringe at the extreme dose of sappiness and the first installment’s earthworm-like pace nearly drove me into a coma. It was Jacob Black of the second book (and the movie trailer that actually showed antagonists) that got me interested enough to keep reading. But the series surprisingly became a bestseller so Meyer must have done something commercially right.

Second, director Catherine Hardwicke’s approach is very indie. In short: artistically inclined. You will see this in the camera angles, cinematography, colors, lighting, the additional puns (that were not in the original manuscript but were highly appreciated). I was thoroughly pleased with the baseball scene and the fact that Ms. Hardwicke decided to put the antagonists into play early on. They frustratingly appear super late in the hardcover — the very last few pages, to be exact — and the director decided to do the smart thing.

My movie buddy Nicco could summarize the entire film in this sentence: “Everything about the movie was great — the acting, the music, the shots…everything, except the story.” I’ve got to give Ms. Hardwicke two rounds of applause because she managed to make something that’s oozing with cheese into something that looks kind of respectable. But maybe even Leonardo (da Vinci) can only do so much given the material an artist had to work with.

The problem is when you have to chop off 50% of the mush. The mush is what made Twilight a bestseller. If the approach had been more commercial, maybe the fans would not be disappointed with it. If the content wasn’t so much as a rehash of other vampire stories, then maybe those who are really into the arts would be happy with it. So…what are you going to do? Who are you going to please?

In a nutshell, though, I think the movie was visually — and aurally — beautiful. Very old school, even. Kind of reminds me of Ice Castles and Somewhere in Time. I just wish such artistry could’ve been done on a more deserving story.