Dancing With My Baby in the Summer Rain

What a week. Heat is just dang unbearable. I hated that those frigging red ants swarmed into my small cotton bud canister. I didn’t know they were into that. Uggh. Weather’s making me wanna eat and drink more. Also, just walking outside even makes your legs sweat inside your pants, so it’s really annoying. Anyway, I got a bunch of other things to post about.

Pam’s Labyrinths

Watched Mozzie’s acoustic performance at The Room Upstairs in Makati last Friday night with Mark P. (who’s introducing me to alcohol), and Benedict (who read all his comics—about 20 of them--in one sitting). Ate some pasta, and drank a few beers with Mark. We were seated at the comfy red couch, with the matching throw pillows, a nice enough spot to watch from and read comics at.

Mozzie (pronounced mot-zee) started playing 9:30-ish. I was pleasantly surprised that Pam Pastor can sing--and rock!--and that the band’s music is something that easily appealed to me. I followed many female-led bands and solo Lilith Fair folk-rockers back in the last decade, so I’m quite familiar with the sound. The band’s musical style reminds me a bit of ‘Til Tuesday, mixed with a bit of Luscious Jackson. But Mozzie’s able to pull off a range of popular songs and still sound unique.

Their covers of songs by Texas, Moonpools and Caterpillars, Alanis Morissette, KT Tunstall, Rachael Yamagata, and Edie Brickell, among other artists, were really good. I’m just as amazed by their original songs, like “Bolgia Six” and “Starf*cker,” which are unusually profound, lyrically. Pam and her bandmates will be releasing their album independently in a few months, and I can’t wait to hear more of their originals.

So maybe, that’s about ten to twelve songs. I hope they do at least two Tagalog tracks (you can’t go wrong with ‘em!), and maybe one cover, something from their sets. Oh, while I’m suggesting stuff, here’s my request list for future gigs: Luscious Jackson’s “Space Diva,” Vienna Teng’s “Shasta,” ‘Til Tuesday’s “Coming Up Close,” A Camp's "Bluest Eyes in Texas," and Dar Williams’ “What Do You Hear in These Sounds.” I’m really curious how they’d interpret them.

After the show, Pam sat down with us and gossiped a bit. She’s just as open and funny as she was on stage, where her revealing anecdotes about petroleum jelly, hypocrites, feminism and exes show just how adept she is at communicating, and telling stories. “I’m not a lesbian, at least not on Fridays,” she amusingly declared in a spiel prior to starting a Yamagata song. Heehee.

To Pam and the band, more power! I’ll buy your CD when it’s out.

Russ Rush

Thank you to Nicole of Solar for the Shooter preview. Watched it with John last Tuesday, and while waiting to enter, we ran into old friend Russell Tomas. We know him from way back; he had us help illustrate for a project back in the ‘90s. We spent many summer days working at his old Antipolo place. He’s a fun, friendly guy who always thought forward, and it now looks like he didn’t age at all from the time we were hanging out with him. He just started a new social networking site, and shared something about doing another new internet-related endeavor.

Anyway (okay, LNA comment, right about… now), he said that he was “surprised” that Lexy, Nance & Argus was “really good,” and that he even “read it four times.” Hey, I had to insert some plugging into this entry somehow, since it's been a while. But I’m thankful for that kind, gushing review, heh. He did ask me what I was currently doing, and if I was still drawing; told him I still do, from time to time. Okay, there’s my cue to mention my art blog.

Nice fella, that Russell. Glad to know that he’s still the way we remember him.

Hills Have Eyesores

Well, the sequel’s still gross and repulsive, but it’s not as sickening as the first The Hills Have Eyes, mostly because you already know what to expect. Spoilers on!

Some soldiers-in-training get picked off one by one by a community of mutant cannibals hidden in some nuclear bomb test site. It’s pretty by-the-numbers; you just wait and guess how grisly each of the good-looking cast members buys the farm. But surprisingly, it gets damn funny by the end, when the uber-freak, who cornered three outmatched and beat-up rookie soldiers in his hideout, gets his just desserts. One character is almost strangled to death, but she retaliates by going for the monster guy’s wounded head and pulls brain matter out with her hand. My friend and I were laughing hard, partly because you can’t help but mock it (the excessive gore was just… er, too much), and also because at that point, those last few scenes were indeed visceral and cathartic.

Hero High

Some comic books I read in the past few weeks:

New Avengers # 29- It’s really hard to like the Mighty Avengers team, because they’re now grade-A jerks. But I liked this issue, especially the part where Dr. Strange’s sanctum was entered by Iron Man and his stormtroopers, and their confrontation with Iron Fist’s lawyer. Nicely done.

Avengers- The Initiative # 1- Yay, Slott! New characters, underused Avengers members, and obscure Marvel characters in one ongoing book. The hero recruitment and training isn’t as simple as the winning side of the Civil War thought. I’m kinda expecting SHIELD-trained, professional heroes to bungle up a mission and create another Stamford in one of the stories one day.

Justice League of America # 7- Nice talky issue, but I believe there’s an error in the sequence of pages. The Roy-Hal talk should’ve segued to the Ollie-Hal page (starting with the “He’ll kill you” caption), but the gatefold pages and the ones near that became quite confusing.

Buffy # 1- Season 8! I’m fine with how they ended the TV series, but since Joss Whedon wanted to continue the story officially, I’m so there. Old friends and foes return! It's also been announced that Brian Vaughan will be doing future arcs. Woohoo! If only this came out weekly…

World War 3- (The last four comics titles listed here lent by Mark P.) Hmm, it was weird that Martian Manhunter took his sweet time to recover from mental trauma. And sadly, his inner monologue-narration throughout the miniseries felt quite dull. The 52 spinoff just showed an extended view of Black Adam’s rampage, and it ended so suddenly and rather weakly.

Omega Men- I kinda like this, mostly because the characters had a fight scene in Manila, specifically the Quiapo area, if I'm not mistaken. Vril Dox briefly speaks Tagalog (but his words are bracketed, not really written in the vernacular). Too bad that's the most I can remember from it. I can’t remember the Omega Men’s names right now.

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters- This was a surprise. Didn't really know what to expect from the Palmiotti-Gray collaboration, but it’s actually smart and it reminds me a little of some Civil War subplots, which is cool. The characters were quite memorable, especially the new Ray.

Birds of Prey- The latest issue was great, as usual. Scandal versus Kendra? It’s pretty obvious that the ear-eating lez is more savage, pun intended, but the outcome is no less surprising. Gail Simone… please don’t leave.

Warriors Spree

It would have been great if I posed Thor properly. He kinda looks drunk in this pic. “Verily! Thor doth not handle several flagons of mead that well.”