Discovering "A Fine Frenzy"

I haven't been able to sate my music addiction for quite a while, even if my battered iPod (which I must replace before it completely falls apart) has been my constant sanity-saving companion through this journey so far. But my need for new work-out music (yes, I have gotten off my lazy bum and started exercising again - more on that later) and a reason to procrastinate from studying (can you blame me? I've been studying for something or other for more than half my life) led me to this delightful new sound to add to my ecclectic playlist.

Knowing my fondness for indie/singer-songwriter artists, Jean - travel companion and fellow music addict - first introduced me to A Fine Frenzy while I was marooned in Amanpulo and told me their single "Almost Lover" would be perfect for my beach soundtrack. The song was injected with just the right amount of angst and wistfulness to accompany a solitary sunset with no one but the sea for company - and I loved it.

On the basis of that one song, I've managed to hunt down the rest of the tracks off their album, "One Cell in the Sea," and with the exception of a couple which I chucked out, I have loved most of them. Lead singer, Alison Sudol, has a haunting voice that just grabs at you, and the artful arrangements of piano and guitar provide a great foil for it.

But one of the things I like most about her music is the honest and heartfelt storytelling that comes in every song. I'm a sucker for "I can so relate to that!" lyrics - which means that, on occasion, my playlist does descend into pure sentimental pap. I'm a sap - so sue me!

My current favorite track from this really great album is "Whisper." Aside from the catchy melody and great guitar, it kind of tells the story of my present life in less than five minutes. Other gems for me are "Near to You," and "Ashes and Wine."

I never claimed to be an expert in music, just someone who loves it - so maybe you should take my review with a grain of salt. But if you have time to spare and are looking for a new artist to add to your personal soundtrack, you really should give the music of "A Fine Frenzy" a try.

Whisper

Running the race
Like a mouse in a cage
Getting nowhere but I'm trying
Forging ahead
But I'm stuck in the bed
That I made so I'm lying

But if you keep real close
Yeah, you stay real close
I will reach you

I'm down to a whisper
In a daydream on a hill
Shut down to a whisper
Can you hear me still

Eager to please,
Trying to be what they need
But I'm so very tired
I've stopped trying to find
Any peace in my mind
Because it tangles the wires

But if you keep real close
Yeah, you stay real close
I will reach you

I'm down to a whisper
In a daydream on a hill
Shut down to a whisper
Can you hear me
Can you hear me still

The sound tires on my lips
To fade away into forgetting

I'm down to a whisper
In a daydream on a hill
Shut down to a whisper
Can you hear me
Can you hear me

I'm down to a whisper
In a daydream on a hill
Shut down to a whisper
Can you hear me
Can you hear me still

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The Great Beefcake Festival (a.k.a. Why Women should give "300" a Chance)

I happened to unearth my DVD copy of 300 last night, and, because I had nothing better to do, I decided to watch this hard-core guy movie again for the third time (or is it the fourth?).

Hard to believe, as I was the lone voice of dissent when two of my best girl friends picked this to be our detox movie of the week when it first came out last year. From the reviews I'd heard, I knew that with its requisite blood, gore, and body count - it was eons away from my usual fare of neuroses-inducing romantic comedies or intelligent thrillers. I was completely befuddled by my friends' vehemence to see it, but so outvoted, I let them usher me into the theater like a lamb to slaughter.

And actually found myself glad that I did. But not just for the reasons you might think.

300 is a film adaptation of a graphic novel of the same title by Frank Miller starring Gerard Butler as the warrior-king Leonidas. It is based loosely on the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartan soldiers held off the might of a much larger Persian army coming to conquer the Greek nations. The outcome of this lopsided battle is a foregone conclusion, but the Spartan warriors' valor in this battle takes the fight out of the Persians, who eventually give up their plans of conquest.

Fearing this would be another incarnation of Gladiator, I was pleasantly surprised to find the movie had a completely different feel. The surreal rendering, done to stay as true as possible to the imagery of the graphic novel, made the violent battle scenes less gory and more palatable. There wasn't much room for three dimensional character development but the movie never made that promise from the start.

Besides, who really needed character development when there is so much eye candy to go around?

And the man-candy is definitely one good reason for why any living, breathing female should watch this film. Which, I discovered during our post-movie powwow, was my movie buddies' ulterior motive to begin with. (But they insist to this day that the story was still the primary draw - yeah, right.)

It was a veritable feast for the eyes. The actors playing Spartan warriors were one and all flaunting six-packs and well-defined chests and legs - because for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, all their fighting uniform consists of is a helmet, a cape, sandals and shin guards, and a leather codpiece. Great way for medical students to study the anatomy of the musculoskeletal system, I must say. Hurray for minimalism!

Don't get me wrong, being a fairly intelligent person, I didn't miss the point - you know, the one about courage against overwhelming odds, never surrendering, and so on. In fact, I even enjoyed the storytelling. The beefcake parade was a nice bonus, that's all I'm saying.

I don't know if there is a guy in existence who hasn't seen this uber macho flick, but for them, it's the blood and gore and super battle scences that make it worth the cost of the DVD.

But for the women out there who scratched this movie off their list when it first came out, I highly recommend taking it for a spin. Because, as my friend V bluntly puts it, "Sa dami ng mainit pandesal, kulang na lang ang palaman." ("With all the hot buns available, all one needs is the butter.")

Okay, enough said. :)

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Aussie via Armchair

Research is the best way to prepare for any endeavor, and my pending trip to sun-drenched Australia is no exception.

Despite the fact that none of my plans is set in stone at this point (I have yet to get my visa), I've invested in some travel guides about the world's biggest island and its people. Sure, the internet is a treasure trove of free information, but books will always be my first love. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for my meager savings), very few books about Australia seem to be available in the Philippine market today.

"The fact is, of course, we pay shamefully scant attention to our dear cousins Down Under - though not entirely without reason, I suppose. Australia is, after all, mostly empty and a long way away."

So says author Bill Bryson, in his engrossing travelogue "Down Under," which I managed to read from cover to cover in a little over two days.

I bought got this book on the recommendation of another fellow doc who is also planning to give life in Oz a go. After weeks on the hunt - and several Fully Booked branches later - I finally found a copy at Gateway Mall last Friday.

It was a good thing I didn't hit any of Bryson's laugh-out-loud adventures while I was still on the train home. And, believe me, there were a good number of hilarious moments - mostly involving the author and his horrified encounters with the exotic Aussie wildlife.

In "Down Under," Bryson writes about his visits to some unusual and fascinating places around Australia. This is no Lonely Planet travel guide. It has no accompanying photographs of the tourist hot spots, no detailed how-to-get-there travel tips. Nonetheless, Bryson's prose is in itself fun, engaging, and informative. His narrative smoothly shuttles back and forth between history and present-day, from stories of early explorations to his own attempts at navigating the vastness that is Australia.

Bryson is wry, straightforward, and funny as he recounts his experiences and observations moving from one end of the continent to another. He writes with an outsider's candid irreverence about the people he meets along the way and appropriate terror at the myriad natural hazards that Australians seem to deal with matter-of-factly on a daily basis. But underneath it all is the appreciation and awe he has for this continent he has all but fallen in love with.

This man is no tourist - he is an honest-to-God traveler. And while all his rambling about the dangerous creatures that abound in Aussie has me a bit unnerved, to say the least (for example - did you know that ALL of the 10 most poisonous snake species in the world are indigenous to Australia?), his enthusiasm for the place has stirred in me the beginnings of excitement. There is just so much to see and do.

If you are planning on traveling to Australia any time in the near future - or you're a frustrated wanderlust with just enough of a budget to travel that far by book this summer - grab your copy of "Down Under" ASAP.

But wait... I think I already got the last copy.

(On a completely off-tangent note, just a thought... I wonder what he would have to say about the Philippines.)

****

Other travel books by Bill Bryson (for fellow armchair explorers):
A Walk in the Woods - US
Bill Bryson's African Diary - Kenya
Neither Here nor There - Europe
Notes from a Small Island - UK



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Of Men and Monsters

After six weeks of making studying my life, I can finally take a guilt-free break from it and catch up on my TV life.

I'm not a big television fan, but there are some shows that I reach my remote control for. Of the three CSI shows, I follow CSI:NY. I also enjoy Fox TV's Bones and the missing persons drama, Without a Trace. The Closer, a crime drama about a kick-ass woman police chief, is also a huge favorite of mine. Of course, crowd-favorite Heroes is on my list, as well as the paranormal hunk-fest Supernatural.

Unfortunately, the WGA Writer's Strike has made all of my favorite shows come to a dead halt mid-season - which means I don't have much in TV land to catch up on.

My solution? Find a new series to get hooked on. After shopping around and listening to the buzz, I decided on Showtime's sleeper TV hit, Dexter.

Dexter Morgan has a day job as a forensic blood-spatter specialist working for the Miami Police Department. Clean-cut, soft-spoken, and on the surface a really nice guy who seems to have everything going for him and dreams of having a "normal life." But he hides a secret that none of the people around him can even begin to imagine.

Dexter Morgan is a serial killer.

This piece of disturbia further draws the viewer in by throwing in another interesting plot twist -Dexter is a serial killer who stalks and kills other serial killers.

The show is intelligently written and stories are dispassionately narrated by Dexter himself as events unfold. Just like the rest of us watching him, the genuinely sociopathic Dexter grapples with understanding what he is and who he is - not quite human, but not quite the monster that others of his ilk seem to be. Dexter's conflict is at the heart of this show, his struggle to keep his mask of normalcy on while the restless energy of his compulsion churns beneath the surface.

Watching Dexter is like passing a terrible car accident on the highway - it's a horrible sight but you can't make yourself look away.

Dexter is hero and anti-hero rolled into one, and his existence challenges you into examining nuances of what is right and wrong. You know it's wrong to like him because of what he is - a murderous sociopath - but you find that you can't help yourself because he gives you glimpses of the humanity that lurks beneath the monster. You know it's wrong to root for him and hope he eludes capture - but when you examine him along side his choice of victim, you almost hope he can keep on doing what he's doing.

If you like watching shows where you know who the real good guys and who the real bad guys are, this show is probably not the show for you. There are no blacks and whites here. But if you're ready for a disturbing ride and a good piece of storytelling - grab your copy and meet Dexter Morgan today.
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Lost... Unfound: a Blog Review

Call me morbid, but murder mysteries in particular have always had a peculiar lure for me. Perhaps it's the challenge of a good puzzle waiting to be solved, or maybe it's the underlying compulsion to grasp a murderer's motives - whether to protect ourselves from becoming victims or becoming these very people we fear. Or perhaps it is a little of both.

Apparently, this is a fascination shared by millions the world over, if the huge success of TV crime dramas like the CSI franchise or the multi-million mystery publication business is anything to go by.

Fans of the immensely popular crime and suspense genre will probably find the blog Can You Identify Me? Do You Know Me?, a site I found through Entrecard, an interesting and compelling read.

In this blog, the reader crosses the line separating the gripping world of crime fiction, whether in the form of books or television, into the gruesome yet an even more fascinating reality.



This site brings into focus those who are lost - murder victims found without any identification, people who are alive but who have forgotten who they are - and are still waiting to be found. The blog's author serves the victims who deserve to come home and find rest, as well as the loved-ones they left behind who cannot mourn their loss because they have no closure.

Each blog post describes an unidentified victim in detail - when and where she was found, what she was wearing, what was with her when she was found. But instead of describing these facts dispassionately, the author taps into our sense of outrage and pity by writing each entry from the point of view of the victims themselves.

The effect of using a first-person narrative is both powerful and eerie, as the reader hears voices from the grave begging for anyone to at least give them back their identity even if they cannot give them back their lives.

There are also composite drawings or pictures of the victims themselves, as well as objects that could possibly help those who knew them identify them. Posts end with contact information of the agencies in charge of each case and where to find these unidentified victims.

The posts I've browsed so far are about people who were found in the continental United States. I know most of my few readers are from the Philippines or around Asia, but I'm sure some of you know more high-profile bloggers who could possibly give this particular blog the attention it deserves. Check out the site - then pass the word.

These people deserve to be found. After all they have suffered, they deserve to come home.


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