Nueve de Enero

One of my weaknesses in midlife is how often I underestimate my physical strength. I had a full week last week, meaning, I was always out of the house and shuttling by cab, jeep, train and trike to different parts of the metropolis for appointments and work-related duties. I even committed to attending a lecture on Parkinson's disease and dementia yesterday, a Sunday, until I woke up with a heaviness in my eyes (the whites had turned reddish) and a scratchy throat (another cold that has to be nipped in the bud).

Well, that took care of busyness. I just decided to finish reading some chapters of a literary biography, watch television ("The Tourist" on HBO) and overhear a comment from a family member that when Johnny Depp ages, he will look like Gary Oldman, which isn't a bad thing, and ask how my pet Butones in Baguio is doing. According to my daughter Kimi, Butones finally got her bangs clipped. There was outrage in the Pasig household; the elders believe that a baby's hair isn't shorn till she turns one year old.

But here's why Kimi had to trim the bangs. They were getting in the way--we wouldn't want the babe ending up with eyes as reddish as her lola's.

So here's the "after" look. Kimi says her child now looks like a little Shaolin master. Any which way, she remains a cutie.

Meanwhile, I am reminded to upload these pictures and compose a blog because of this auspicious date and the numbers of this month are about to turn into double digits tomorrow (bad writing discipline if I can't compose at least two blog entries within a fortnight).

The ninth of January is not just the feast of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo, it is also the birthday of old pal Manny Chaves who, in the past, would remind me that he shares a birthday with Joan Baez and Simone de Beauvoir. He has reason to boast because he reads widely, has impeccable taste in music and knows what looks good, making him a topnotch art director.

And because he has such high standards, this makes him masungit, a cranky old man. But it hasn't stopped his friends from gathering to celebrate the day which is what we'll do later this afternoon. By which time I hope my eyes are well-rested and my throat soothed.Even old gals also wanna have more fun in the Philippines.

This photo was taken nearly 10 years ago at the old location of Green Papaya on Maginhawa st., Quezon City. Manny is somewhere in the picture with his heretic Looney Tune friends who dressed up a mannequin and turned it into the Black Nazarene.

Red Queen versus White Queen (Or Why I Hesitate When a Movie is Billed as 3D)

In the first place, I feel the additional weight of the newfangled eyewear when I put them on. I’ve worn eyeglasses since I was 10 and only take them off when I shower or when I sleep. I need them to see clearly, and thank goodness for lightweight, narrow-framed glasses for being in vogue. Imagine if Jackie O glasses (without the dark tint) were still around, and you have to put on the 3D thing.

But Johnny Depp—I’d walk a mile for him. I’ve admired the characters he has portrayed since he became a recognizable name, characters on the dark end of the psychological spectrum, always edgy, the push-the-envelope-further type of actor. From “Edward Scissorhands” to “Benny and Joon” to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy—you feel you’re paying to watch him have a romp and a jolly good time.

As the green-eyed (literally, not as in envy) Mad Hatter in this year’s 3D spectacular “Alice in Wonderland,” we now understand why he’s filmmaker Tim Burton’s all-time muse, not his partner Helena Bonham Carter who was equally effective as the red-headed, swell-headed Red Queen. His face, even under tons of make-up, vacillates between tenderness and righteous anger. His being mad is both guise and reality, a way of subverting the authoritarian order of the conjugal dictatorship of the Red Queen and her paramour, the one-eyed Knave of Hearts .

You know who’s out of place in this wonderland, no matter how accommodating the place is for all the underworld weirdos? Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. Even my eldest daughter Kimi says so:“Nanay, pinagpilitan niya lang sarili dyan sa movie. She wasn’t in the short list in the cast.” This is the daughter who has followed Hathaway from “Princess Diaries” to “Brokeback Mountain” to “The Devil Wears Prada.” Now , if it had been Amy Adams who was wonderful in “Enchanted.” Hathaway’s thick, bushy eyebrows were distracting to say the least.

I don’t mind wearing those 3D goggles again just to be able to witness the fight scene between Jabberwocky and the sword-wielding Alice played by Mia Wasikowska who looks like a young, pale Gwyneth Paltrow.

Oh frabjous Thursday.

Photo shows a pair of xpand Active 3D Glasses provided by Shangri-la Plaza.