Goodbye MMV!

2005 was, among other things, the World Year of Physics, the Chinese Year of the Rooster and the Catholic Year of the Eucharist.

I kind of thought it was the Hollywood Year of Anorexia, until I figured maybe I was just watching too much ET.

For me and my buddies, 2005 was our year because we belong, after all, to The Class of 2005. This means that most of us turned legal this year, and we all capped off high school and entered university this year.

What's in store for 2006?

Well, for starters, it's the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, the Rembrandt Year, the Mozart Year, the Tesla Year and the International Asperger's Year.

A lot of magazines, websites and TV shows will present their own take on the Year That Was, but none of those will be able to capture MMV the way you will remember it.

CHEERS!

Merry Christmas!

Friday Flashback: 1969

This day in lava history.

First of all, I would like to apologize. I have been restricting Friday Flashback to 1970's history, when the very icon/symbol of this meme is the lava lamp, the popularity of which dates back to the late 1960's (it did capture the psychedelic movement of the time); therefore, I will now extend the coverage of Friday Flashback to as early as 1965, the year the lava lamp was introduced in a Hamburg trade fair. So, today in lava history....

The British House of Commons votes 343-185 to abolish the death penalty.

Kettle Corn

Kettle corn is a fairly easy snack to make, except for this one step in the procedure. The only ingredient you wouldn't normally find in your kitchen cupboard is the popcorn kernels, which can be bought in any grocery or convenience store.

Ingredients:
popcorn kernels
sugar
salt
corn oil

Procedure:
Take one cup of the kernels and place it in ample-sized pot...a kettle if you will...Take the corn oil (though I hear corn oil and canola oil have a lot of toxins...) and pour enough to cover all the kernels with a thin layer of oil. Place the pot under medium heat. HERE'S THE TRICKY BIT: When the kernels start to get "excited" and are just about to pop, cover the bed of kernels with around half a cup of sugar or more. Putting the sugar in too early would cause the sugar to scorch while putting them in too late would result in grainy sugar bits. When you've popped enough, take the pot away from the fire right away and sprinkle the popcorn with salt.

REMINDERS: I myself have not yet perfected the recipe. Firstly, I get scared that them kernels might start popping while I'm placing the sugar in, so I tend to add the sugar too early. Also, I had this habit of trying to pop most of the kernels, so I end up with burned results. Remember that you are NOT supposed to pop all the kernels. Err on the safe side, and pop only a little. You'll only a have little, but a perfect serving of kettle corn. For the when-to-put-the-suger-in dilemma, well, it's a leap of faith, I guess.

Masala Chai

For the past month, I have been addicted to a beverage called chai. We were treated to Starbucks by my grandmother, and while drinking, I picked up those brochures they have at the condiments counter or whatever you call it. There was this brochure on tea, which made me happy. I read it and came across chai. I immediately craved for it. The following day, at Seattle's Best (I guess we were commercial coffee shop hopping), I decided to order their chai. I loved it. A few days later, I went to watch a movie with Ina at the Promenade, and I decided to try Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's chai. I loved it as well, but seeing how my pocket will not be able afford regular servings of chai from these commercial coffee shop chains (Seattle's was like 80 pesos and Coffee Bean's was 99 pesos), I decided to research on chai recipes.

Chai is actually an Indian word for "tea," so saying "chai tea" is like saying "pizza pie." Anyway, chai or masala chai is basically tea prepared Indian style. It's composed of black tea, milk, sugar and spices. I have been concoting the following recipe for a month now. I'm not claiming that this is an authentic chai recipe (I hear the real one requires only two spices at most), but I've become quite the addict.

Ingredients
black tea leaves (I prefer Oolong though...well, I don't really have much of a choice since Cherry's only sells oolong, jasmine and green tea leaves)
Spices: star anise, cloves, a chunk of dried ginger, cinnamon, whole black pepper
To taste: milk and sugar

I boil the tea leaves with the spices, and I add the milk and sugar later on, when I'm about to drink it. Some recipes say that you should add the sugar and the milk, and then boil it again. I didn't give any proportions to the ingredients since it really depends on how many cups you're making and how strong you want it to taste. I decide on the right amount by "feeling" it.

Remember: tea LEAVES, not tea BAGS

Teaser

The 4th Annual Oscar Predicter Contest is not affiliated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Oscar Statuette (c)AMPAS. The word "Predicter" is purposely misspelled.

An Ode to An Era

"You'll never want to leave this place."

That particular TCM slogan is a perfect introduction to this next entry. Yes, my friends. Turner Classic Movies in back. For those who don't know what TCM is, TCM was the channel formerly known as TNT which aired classic, Hollywood movies. It was indubitably my favorite channel. Actually, it wasn't even a channel. Every 9pm, this jester-ish cartoon character would "switch off" Cartoon Network and consequently "turn on" Turner Classic Movies. The clown did it every 9pm, much to my delight and to other people's disdain.

Anyway, the clown disappeared eventually, taking with him my beloved channel, but now it's back (sans the clown...kinda miss that little fella now that I think about it...). The following essay of sorts was something I wrote right after my wonderful discovery. I was very emotional when I wrote this piece, so don't laugh:

OMG! TCM is back! OMG! Turner Classic Movies has returned after five long years of seemingly futile anticipation. A lot of things have happened since the last time TCM broadcasted on Philippine TV. Five years ago, I was nearing the end of my elementary days, and TCM disappeared from the cable programming, leaving me brokenhearted and alone. Now, I'm a college freshman. I have changed physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, and my interests have broadened in scope, but TCM is back in the form of a test broadcast which heart-warmingly brings back memories and reminds me of the very reason of my being as a student right now. The classic film fan is now a film student; after five long years, I have come full circle.

For a few hours everyday, beginning at 9pm, I was transported miles and decades away, into a realm of imagination and fantasy, where the opening credits were longer than end credits and movie theatres were not located in shopping malls. Nothing ever really filled the void left by that channel. It's just fitting that the first thing I see on TCM after so long a time is the last part of the 3-part documentary on the fabled MGM film company which I religiously watched back in 1999. Things have changed. I have changed, but I never did forget Gene, Charlton and Judy. I never did leave Kansas, Burbank and Casablanca. It just so happened that I met new people and traveled to other places, but the spirit with which I lived at that Golden time in life, I took with me wherever I went.

That's why every time a man tap dances in a sailor suit, or whenever someone suddenly bursts into song, or every time the MGM lion roars, I once again experience that familiar, old feeling. That's why people like me never really felt like we belonged to our generation because people like me see realism in studio sets, experience worlds for 100 minutes or so, and view the whole spectrum of the rainbow in flicks of black-and-white.

No one may understand this, but TCM was the channel that whet my appetite for the Tinseltown of days gone by. It's quite safe to say that this channel was the direct reason for me taking Film & AV Comm. Yes, with this in mind, one sees the tremendous life-changing impact that this channel has had on my life, my planned career and the passion that I have for this art. Seeing this test broadcast now after half a decade moves me to tears. This was the world that I lived in for a few hours each day--a world a lot of people have never thought existed. It feels good to back. After all, "there's no place like home…"

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TCM is airing on Destiny Cable, Channel 86.