I've finished playing Portal Runner the day after the last memory dump(or blogpost), and I must say that.It.was.fun. and it sucked. So yeah, it was that. I've finished it on two difficulty levels. Nothing much to say about it. It intensified the spark for my love of finishing forgotten retrogames though. So much that I'm going to buy a used PSP Go and I'm going to dump all my retro games on it.
I'm still not up for a thorough weekly review of things I've consumed so I'll just do mini-reviews and say whatever I like yeah?
I've finished a book called Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan, the same person who wrote "I Know What You Did Last Summer". It felt like I was reading something like Twilight at first but yeah 'twas pretty okay. Not phenomenal. It's slightly informative about the Witch Trials and all that Salem shit. I could definitely see it as a movie that would be forgotten and sometimes maybe resurface through Youtube trailers.
Bought a book called Alternatibo sa Alternatibong Mundo: 13 Metakuwento/Malakuwento by Edgar Calabia Samar because I liked his writing style on Walong Diwata sa Pagkahulog (Eight Muses of the Fall). It came with a free book by Carljoe Javier..so uh more books.
I'm also on the last few chapters of Super Panalo Sounds! by Lourd De Veyra as of the moment. I'm going to be done with it in an hour and five cigarettes. This shit is great, I loved reading it. It reflected some of my ideas and this is the type of gritty story telling that I'm always looking for.
for Music, I've been enjoying Sonic Youth, The Front Bottoms:a delightful find since I've been putting them off for years and then I realized they sounded like Why?, The Babies:great band I've picked up whilst watching BRGRTV's first few episodes, King Krule, and a few stray Bullet Dumas and Mac DeMarco tracks while reading.
Saw a post asking for Post-hardcore recommendations and I opened my old blog to check if for stuff I loved back then and wow, I'm kind of thinking of reviving it..but then again I remembered I've lost some of the review tidbits stored on notepads due to my old computer crashing. Anyway, I'm just gonna share them here for safekeeping.
Today I have no classes so I'm just watching episodes of Wasak and later BRGRTV episodes.
As much as possible, I've been trying to watch series on my free time, which happens to be quite rare even though I'm unproductive as fuck.
Q-What happened during the past months anyway?
A-It was magical as fuck. And not your gay twinkly magical shit. I mean Fucking Magical in a sense that I feel like I'm a fucking wizard because this shit ain't real. I'm not gonna go into details for safety purposes though.
2016 chillin', about 2 days ago
Best films I've seen this year:
for 2016 I only have one (1) Notable movie and that is: Pamilya Ordinaryo by Eduardo Roy, Jr.
Never mind the tired poverty angle, the delivery was fresh as fuck. Old and new actors all on their A-game. This was guerrilla film making at it's best form. I loved Eduardo Roy's Quickchange (2013) so this one was a sure hit.
The other films I've seen this year that will hold a place in my heart (not of 2016):
Gummo †
(Harmony Korine, 1997)
This film which I've logged on January is now part of my top four films of all time. This had everything I ever wanted. It's confusing. It's meaningless, or meaningful.. or for whatever it is: It's fun.
My favorite thing about the movie was..well everything about it. It's spontaneous. It even had Burzum and Dragonaut by Sleep in the soundtrack used in completely optimal style.
Miss Bulalacao
(Ara Chawdhury, 2015)
A gay beauty queen was abducted and impregnated by aliens. Now that he is pregnant the townspeople spread rumors that his baby produces miracles and that it is a new coming of the messiah. It's a completely new and fucked up, but subtle, story. I mean, Jesus inside the belly of a gay man.
Scorpio Nights
(Peque Gallaga, 1985)
A classic, This film is wholly pinoy and is fine enough to be shown in foreign cinemas.
Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang
Weighed But Found Wanting
(Lino Brocka, 1974)
One of the best films I've seen from my homeland. Too bad it hasn't been getting universal acclaim since it could easily hold up with the world's classics.
Cool movies I've chanced upon:
Donsol - by Adolfo Alix, Jr. I stumbled upon this movie on TV while staying at a high end condo, alone with nothing to do.. for free. Perfect since I've always wanted to run through Alix's oeuvre. It's how I expected it to be. Made with just the right amount of subtly breathtaking elements like the colors, simple/weird story and grounded acting to make it excellent.
Space Zombie Bingo!!! - by George Ormrod. I've always loved Troma's outputs and this one was just the kind of trash my palate was longing for. Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis - A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery - by Lav Diaz. This one was eight hours long and it was the first time my friends got to experience Lav's mirror of suffering since they've always just watched him through digital copies. Wonderful things happened after the movie that I would never ever forget.
The Black Magic With Buddha - 腦魔 - by Lo Lieh. An HK horror film with over the top splatter effex and a workable story that you'd want to see in a cheesy 90s horror movie.
Centipede Horror - 蜈蚣咒 - by Keith Li. I've always been terrified of Centipedes. They're my only weakness. Haha. This movie was fucked up yo. Comes with all the elements you'd like to find in a top notch HK B-movie. Highly recommended. Red Spell Spells Red - 紅鬼仔 - by Titus Ho Wing-Lam. A rare movie to find according to B-movie enthusiasts. I wasn't happy with my copy so I'm glad I found a soul willing to share a DVD-rip of it. A bizarre story with the flow akin to old school Filipino horror movies (we never made one this unique locally though) perfect for beer and pizza nights.
And these three which I saw in order, randomly picked and all turned out to be segment-type horror movies. In which they contained 3-5-2 stories respectively. All the movies had Twin Peaks on them. I mean The Willies and Chillerama had Twin Peaks characters on cameo roles and Hiwaga Sa Balete Drive's Big Bird character was eerily reminiscent of Bob and how scary he is. I also watched Wayne's World after all three films and it also had a Twin Peaks character on it. Peculiar. See you on 2017 David Lynch!
Notable series:
I've been watching Black Mirror and I think the fear of technology and society is reminiscent of what Stanley Kubrick's films were all about. Highly recommended.
You have just crossed over into... Rod Serling is a God! Hands down. I've collected all the episodes and I've just begun (again) watching from season 1. Any fan of bizarre, original stories would fall in love with this series.
I just included this since I have all the seasons. I've watched maybe 2 or 3 episodes of off the first season and I can say that this is like the Twilight Zone only years behind. Still amazing, I've just got to find a buddy to watch it all with me. Every time I try to watch this with other people it escalates and ends in a romp which is pretty cool.
MUSIC:
This year's amazing finds are Mac DeMarco and Nails.
Mac DeMarco is a guy I look up to. Just kidding. He's pretty awesome and his music I can't find anywhere else. He's kind of blended stuff I like from other music genres which are psychedelia, a retro-vibe, My Bloody Valentine-ishness, and overall weirdness.
And about Nails.. Well they just blew me away. Literally. Check this video out. They're kinda like a superbreed made out of Slayer, Carcass, Dangers, and just pure intensity.
I've also been recollecting obscure thrash classics which I've lost, I'm building a library and planning to maybe review them..if I ever get the mood to waste my time again I will. Here's a screen shot of what I've amassed for now. It's missing some records. I kind of miss my obscure diy punk/emo and post-hardcore collections which are on a hard drive lying around here somewhere.
We've been planning on restoring a house and turning it into a hideout. I'm gonna buy a box type PSX and I'm just gonna burn the games and play it there..on a CRT tv. That'd be nice.
Finished playing Brigandine: Grand Edition recently.The original was one of my favorite games for the PS1 and my mind was blown when I learned that the Grand Edition (which was the same game with animated cutscenes and reworkings) had finally gotten an excellent fan-translation!
Brigandine is like Final Fantasy Tactics, Pokemon, and maybe.. Civilization combined. It's a must have.
Link for the translation is here. 100% fully translated. Even has voice acting and subtitles for the cutscenes!
Also started playing Persona: Revelations also on the PSX. This shit has some Sun Tzu shit going on. Things are too slow though, would have been amazing to play as a child.
Also trying to finish atleast one of these trash games. I love trash games. I have 351 in total and I've only finished like 3 of them.. Ahh digital shit. Fun that nobody else enjoys.
I've played Portal Runner for about a day last week and I'm a long way into it. Hoping I could finish it by December. But time eludes me. Cause every time I try to play shit, it's like I'm thinking: such a waste but it's fun though.
That was a long ass post. So yeah, that's like a summary of shit I've ingested. Not including books, drugs, cool sites like www.attackfromplanetb.com, and food. But that's enough of a summary. This year was great in all aspects to me :)
Acquired a small sum after making a birthday video for a client. Damn I don't know what to spend it on because it's such a small sum.
I'm torn between buying more genre magazines like Rue Morgue and Diabolique, and these:
Iba't Ibang Sigaw ng Espasyo (2013)
Palagi at Magpakailanman (2014)
Asshole doesn't reply though. Haha maybe busy with whatever. But I'd like to buy my copy asap because I can't stop myself from buying cigarettes so the wad of cash is slowly turning into a..uhh.. hair.
After having a magical summer that probably won't happen again anytime soon, I've busied myself in acquiring and watching Bizarre old Hong Kong films some English translated and some not at all. I was surprised to see Filipinos in the films, I didn't know that there was a part in Filipino movie history where we worked with Hong Kong peeps in making their exploitation films.
My watch list is:
The Black Magic with Buddha 脑魔 腦魔 (1983)
Cannibal Curse 处女降 處女降 (1987) w/ Maria Isabel Lopez
Ghost House - A True Story 猛鬼屠房 (1994)
Obsessed 鬼揞眼 (1983)
Red Spell Spells Red 紅鬼仔 (1983)
The Rape After 淫種 (1986)
Centipede Horror 蜈蚣咒 (1984)
Devil Fetus 魔胎 (1983)
Black Magic 降頭 (1975)
Corpse Mania 屍妖 (1981)
Curse of Evil 邪咒(1982)
Fearful Interlude 古之色狼 (1975)
Spirit of the Raped 索命 (1976)
Blood Ritual 血裸祭 (1989)
I've already finished two (色鬼投胎 1990 and Dead Curse 猛鬼迫人 1985) so the above list is actually my backlog.
