I caught myself staring outside the bus, at the tall buildings lining the highway from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, and I thought the idea of being in a strange country, or strange city or town or whatever territory that is not what you’re used to — it felt like coming inside someone’s house, uninvited, and you watch the people who live there with so much curiosity, and perhaps romanticization.
You watch them and their home detachedly, like it is the nicest thing ever — do you know how Americans (or Touristy White People In General) would go to a poor country (Manila) and say, look at them, so happy in the midst of poverty?
With all the new experiences I’ve been having lately (hashtag YOLO), I thought that it would be too selfish not to share some of things I’ve been doing or even make sure that I remember everything I’ve been doing. (For one, I celebrated my birthday weekend at Wabi-Sabi, where my S.O. organized a promo to celebrate my birthday – that’s definitely a memory I don’t want to forget, as it’s a first.)
So as a birthday promise to myself, I will be writing more about the interesting things I’m doing, apart from the habitual documentation of stuff I’ve learned in my professional life. Perhaps in the future, I’ll be focusing more on my adventures, but who knows? (Expect a report on my upcoming Myanmar trip!) Frankly, when I started this blog, I really didn’t have a concrete plan except to make it a journal of my career learnings, plus a place where I can showcase my curated information online. Now that I’ve decided to finally retire my old blog AhoySoyBoy (goodbye, juvenilia?), I guess the logical step would be to make this blog as the sole repository of all the things I do, am doing, have learned, and still continuously trying to figure out.
Let me start off with something I’m particularly excited about: Filipino theater company Red Turnip Theater is producing Closer the play here in Manila! It features an all-star ensemble, with Angel Aquino (fresh from her Cinefilipino Best Supporting Actress win), Marc Abaya, Cris Villonco, and Bart Guingona playing the roles of Anna, Dan, Alice, and Larry.
I loved the film when I first saw it. Admittedly, I found the dialogue too raw and perhaps too honest. Despite that, I fell for how Patrick Marber (the scriptwriter) created such brutally honest characters who made very blunt observations on human nature (“Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist, wrapped in blood! Go fuck yourself!”) – sometimes too blunt and just at the tipping point of histrionics, except there was so much conviction in how the characters were played that you were certain that it could’ve have happened to anyone – including you.
For the record, I have high expectations of the play (Angel Aquino – enough said.) I’ll be seeing it this Saturday evening, October 5, so in case you’re also there, let’s enjoy the play together.
The play runs from October 4 to October 27 at Whitespace, Pasong Tamo, Makati. Get your tickets through Ticketworld. Like Red Turnip Theater on Facebook here.
