Saturday, June 30, 2018

Unilab "Son"

This Unilab commercial entitled "Son" is one of my favorite advertisements ever.


video uploaded in youtube by UNILAB

I love this commercial for many reasons. The narrative is tremendously moving and it paints a realistic portrait of the challenges and even the loneliness that artists face. It is very well acted, the music is touching, and the artwork featured towards the end of the video is beautiful. I also love how it shows that while a parent's love and support for their children may seem unappreciated, it does make a difference.
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Friday, June 29, 2018

National Bookstore Project Aral

Earlier this month, I swung by National Bookstore to buy a couple of supplies. As I was paying for my purchases, the cashier asked me if I wanted to make a Project Aral donation.


The donation is in the form of a care package. There are 2 options: the first kit includes two notebooks, two pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser and costs P30 while the second kit contains those same items plus a pair of slippers for P60. I decided to get the second kit since I felt that many underprivileged kids walk to school barefoot and a pair of slippers seemed like a good idea.


This project seems to be all-year round although the kits are probably only displayed in National Bookstore branches shortly before a new school year starts. You can still make a donation through the NBS website: https://www.nationalbookstore.com/project-aral-2018. I'm not sure how many donations have been made but I did see a tweet from NBS that "over 28 schools and 6,000 students in Tawi-tawi" received Project Aral kits. That's amazing.



I realized when I left that maybe I should have made a bigger donation but another opportunity presented itself shortly after that. My friend Zaza volunteered for a project that was trying to raise funds to buy books and school supplies for schools of indigenous peoples in the Philippines. I decided to make a donation through her and when she shared everything that their team was able to buy and donate to the schools and the students, I was amazed at how much they were able to raise and how many people they were able to help.

These recent donations have made me want to be more active in volunteer work again. There are still so many people in the country and in the world who need help and so many causes that need more support.
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Thursday, June 28, 2018

Movie watching in June

Incredibles 2


The Incredibles is one of my favorite animated films so when this sequel was announced, on the one hand I was excited to see what would happen but on the other hand I also had a bit of trepidation that this second outing wouldn't live up to the greatness of the first. Thankfully, it did. In fact, I find it to be a perfect sequel in that its story integrates seamlessly and effortlessly with the first. In fact, I feel that if you watch both movies one after the other, it would be like you're watching just one film. The script and the characters are all very well-written. Jack-Jack proves to be a bit of a star here but everyone has their moments, including the very cool Edna Mode. I also loved the introduction of many new heroes and the fight scenes and action sequences are very well-choreographed and executed. Considering that I watched so many good movies already this year, this might just be close to, if not at, the top of my list of favorite films I've seen in 2018.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom


I am, and will always be, a sucker for dinosaur films so I made sure to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom even if it wasn't getting very good reviews. The movie takes the moral question of the creation of life to another level with the impending destruction of Isla Nublar and the debates as to whether the dinosaurs should be saved or left to perish. Aside from that, the story is pretty simple: sell dinosaurs for indecent amounts of money and create even more monstrous, genetically-engineered ones. For the most part, I really enjoyed the movie, although I will say that the greater moral dilemma about genetic engineering that is tackled towards the end of the movie was, for me, a bit out of place (I mean, it's a very good topic for discourse, except I wasn't expecting it in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom).
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Friday, June 22, 2018

Eden Cheese: Drayber

I remembered this video because it was Father's Day last Sunday. I saw it a while back and I was moved by it for many reasons. It's a commercial for Eden Cheese entitled "Drayber" and I think it was released last year.


video uploaded in youtube by Eden Cheese PH

What I liked about this ad was how it pays homage to single mothers who also take on the role of father to their children. But beyond that, I was tremendously moved by its vivid imagery of how life is for many people who are not born into privilege. The mother has taken on many jobs, all of which require a lot of physical, mental, and emotional energy, just to make ends meet. She then comes home to her children who prepare a special meal for her: giniling that is made even more special by cubes of Eden cheese added to it. It was that scene that actually hit me. To many people, giniling is a regular meal that they can easily have on any given day. And here, this family prepares giniling as a celebration dinner. It just makes you realize that many things we take for granted are things that are very special and of great value to many others.

I'm not sure how this family came to become a single-mother family. If you look at 0:09 of the video, you will see a picture that seems to include the father so I don't know if he passed away, left them, or if his absence is due to some other reason. In any case, I found it tremendously heartwarming to see the great love this family had for each other. I stupidly ended up looking through the comments section and saw so much vitriol spewed against this ad - from homophobic remarks to anger that it wasn't a real father who was being celebrated in this video. In my opinion, those people seemed to have missed the point of what I thought was a very well-made commercial. Kudos to Eden Cheese and the advertising team for creating and releasing this commercial.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

French Open #11!

Congratulations Rafa Nadal for winning the French Open for a mind-blowing 11th time! He just keeps on adding on to the records he holds and it is just incredible to witness. Rafa just refuses to relinquish his throne as the King of Clay.




Let's break down just how phenomenal Nadal's win is:

  • Rafa is now in a tie with Margaret Court for the most titles won in a single Grand Slam tournament (Court won the Australian Open 11 times).
  • Rafa now has 17 major titles. A decade or so ago, it seemed unlikely if not impossible for a male player to get close to the singles Grand Slam count of tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Now, Federer has passed them and Rafa is just one shy of tying them. Amazing.
  • His record at the French Open is 86 wins and 2 losses. That is just unreal.
  • By defending his title, he retains the ATP #1 ranking.
  • He has now won three tournaments eleven times. No other male player has won an event 11 times and now Rafa has achieved this three times.

Given the way that he is playing now, barring any injury, I think he still has a good chance to add more Roland Garros singles titles in the future. Many people thought would not be able to stay at the top of the game for too long given how physically exhausting his playing style is but he has continued to defy the odds and show the world the importance of passion and hard work.

*****

I am also happy that Simona Halep finally shakes off the "best player never to have won" a Grand Slam title by coming from behind to beat Sloane Stephens in three sets in the final. She lost three Grand Slam finals - 2 of them at the French Open in 2014 and in 2017  and one at the Australian Open earlier this year - so I was rooting for her to win. By beating Garbine Muguruza in the semifinals, she also ensured that she would remain #1.




That said, my second favorite moment in Roland Garros (Rafa's win was obviously my favorite) was seeing Nicolas Mahut's son run on court and jump into Nicolas' arms to celebrate the doubles title that Mahut won with his partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert. It is just such a beautiful moment:




Congratulations to all the French Open winners!
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