After so many years, Danny, Boboy, and I have come back on the silver screen. Not since Blue Jeans, or Kakabakaba Ka Ba? or Kung Mangarap ka’t Magising have we appeared in movies with roles more than mere extras. Lasponggols is one of many finalists in the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival 2005 that was made by Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez, an independent film maker. He is a very tall guy whose love and enthusiasm for movies is undying. He is a big APO fan and that’s why he asked us to be in this film he wrote annd directed. The film was shot on a shoestring budget in a rustic barrio in the middle of Tarlac.

Actually, I have never felt comfortable doing movies or TV except when singing or hosting. Acting is an alien craft to me, or perhaps I just haven’t given it that much of a chance. For this film, I am an architect who is fed up with city life and opts to live in the barrio. The shooting was fun and very interesting, but I honestly don’t know how everything turned out. We did not do too many takes and everything we did, I felt was quite understated since we did not get any directorial feedback to sort of calibrate our portrayals. I am assuming, it was OK . Sana. But then this is me talking. I was rather intrigued when I received via email Sigfreid’s invitation to his film’s screening which he called ‘the worst film of the year’! I am not sure if he was joking although come to think of it, that’s Sigfreid–self-disparaging at times in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, or at least Boboy says. If I sound defensive, maybe I am. Ha ha! But who knows? I have not seen a single frame of the movie so I may be surprised! Boboy, the only one of us who has watched it said he was pleasantly surprised although he felt it was a tad too long.

Rapunzel Hernandez, Danny’s daughter in LASPONGGOLS

I believe there’s a screening this Friday, July 22 at the UP Film Institute sponsored by UP praxis. Do catch it.

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Lydia checks in Tuesday for her hysterectomy. I’m glad I got to talk this morning to the surgeon who operated on me last week. He took off the dressing on my neck and said I was healing pretty well. More than talk about my own condition, I asked all the nagging questions I had about recovering from a hysterectomy. While it is a major operation, Lydia can probably be driving in about two weeks although technically, full healing is about 5-months. That gives us both assurances that physical suffering will not be too prolonged.

I will be sleeping the hospital tomorrow and the next few days and so will not be checking this blog often–maybe from time to time if at all until she’s nice and settled back home here in our room. Once again, I ask for good healing thoughts, prayers and wishes from all of you.

Although I am still physically weak and lose my breath easily, I am glad to be caring for Lydia who shows no hesitation in doing so for us, her loved ones, when we are sick.

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I’ve added a new link among my Jim’s links on the right of the page. It leads you to Filphoto. It has two albums of pics from my old files. I thought I’d share them with everyone. Enjoy!

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Lastly, I thought I’d share an interesting question I asked my class to ponder on last week. These days, we are discussing the Filipino’s capacity to switch from English to Tagalog anytime, even in mid-sentence. It’s as if we have access to two worlds. It’s amazing when you sit in our class and listen to the discussion unravel and realize the implications of this.

Anyway, the big question is,..are you ready? Here it is: why do we talk to dogs and other pets in English? Hmmm.. This should keep you stumped and hanging till my next entry.

Till I write again which I hope will be soon.