Music | Everything But The Girl - The Only Living Boy in New York

Before they became the group now known for their trip-hop electronica grooves, Everything But The Girl had a previous life as one of those hip English acts that emerged during the 1980's. The duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt mostly dabbled in soft, mellow pop with a unique sound of their own, thanks to Tracey's distinctive vocals.

In 1993, they released Home Movies: The Best of Everything But The Girl, a compilation disc containing their biggest hits, and included one new track, a remake of Paul Simon's The Only Living Boy in New York. EBTG's version was awesome, and for me, surpassed the original. It was also notable in the sense that Ben sings the lead vocals here, and not Tracey.



The song also has a music video which I really liked a lot because of its unusual concept. It features both of them gesturing to the song--they're not actually singing, but appear to be singing, except that their lips aren't moving at all, which can be both pretty funny and weird to look at. It also features people doing this bizarre, silent twanging motion on guitars, but it's actually kinda cool when you see a lot of them do it slowly at the same time.

Magnitude 6.0

It had to happen eventually, with the recent earthquakes in Haiti last January and the much stronger one that occurred in Chile just last month, the moment I've always dreaded happened earlier this afternoon. Just around 1:30pm, I started to feel a very slow rocking motion that became stronger, and I thought that I was having some kind of vertigo attack. Turned out, it was an actual earthquake, which registered as a magnitude 6.0 quake by the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program.

When you experience an earthquake, there's always that feeling that it should stop anytime soon, but this one seemed to go on forever, and with me high up on the 21st floor of a building that seemed to be built with cheapo construction materials, that shaking was downright scary--for one brief instance you get this feeling of shock and panic, then you start to contemplate on what action to do. As the quake subsided, some of my officemates left and started to go down, but I and a few others opted to stay behind. I calmly sent my sister a text message; she works in Makati, and they felt it too, so this wasn't limited to the Ortigas area.

As the day returned to normal and most of my officemates went back to work, I could only sigh in relief, and checked the Net for whatever reports were available. The quake was centered in the Mindoro area, but so far, no damages have been reported, and there haven't been any tsunami alerts. I guess we should count our blessings; this quake was stronger than the last one I experienced in November of 2007, but what the hell, I don't want to experience another one anytime soon.

Gizmos | Pokewalker

It's been several days now since I started playing Pokemon SoulSilver, which was just released in North America, and more than enough time to post my impressions on the unique device that's bundled with the game--the Pokewalker.

The Pokewalker is basically a pedometer or step counter with an LCD display, and is the spiritual successor of the Pocket Pikachu, a similar pedometer that was released in 1999. Unlike the Pocket Pikachu, the Pokewalker isn't a virtual pet simulator at all; it's more of a Pokemon digital transporter, where you upload any of your Pokemon from HeartGold or SoulSilver and take it with you anywhere.

The Pokemon inside the Pokewalker can "stroll" through different courses that are downloaded into the Pokewalker, and gain Watts for a certain amount of steps. Watts are spent to battle other random Pokemon found in the courses, giving you the chance to capture that Pokemon.

Your Pokemon can also find random items, and once you return your Pokemon back to the game, every item and Pokemon you've captured will be downloaded into the game along with it, and your Pokemon gains a level as well.


Both the Pokewalker and Pocket Pikachu use infrared signals to exchange data, and both can also exchange data with duplicate devices. However, a Pokewalker used with a copy of HeartGold or SoulSilver will become exclusive to that copy, and can't be used in other copies of the games.

I have several Pocket Pikachus, and while the Pokewalker wins with its excellent Pokeball design, the Pocket Pikachu wins the display category hands down, since its LCD display is in color, while the Pokewalker's display is monochrome. The Pokewalker also uses a quiet sensor chip that detects motion, unlike the typical pedometer mechanical system used by the Pocket Pikachu that rattles every time you shake it.

For what it's worth, the Pokewalker is an excellent device that enhances the Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver experience; having it included in the games at no cost is an awesome bonus for Pokemon gamers, who get the additional benefit of becoming healthier by subconsciously promoting walking in order to use it, LOL.

Film | Alice in Wonderland

The first time I heard that Tim Burton was going to do his take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, images of a goth Alice and other creatures wearing heavy eye make-up entered my mind. But when the first promo pics were released, I thought they were pretty good, capturing the essence of Carroll's characters and at the same time infused with Burton's own brand of weirdness.

However, it turns out the movie is a sequel of sorts, taking place after the events in the books, with a much older Alice who thinks that her first visit to Underland (which she called "Wonderland" as a child) was nothing more than a vaguely-remembered dream--what a bummer.

Burton makes the most of it, however, by keeping things fast-paced as he introduces the bizarre characters who populate Underland, including two of his favorite actors who frequently appear in his films: his wife Helena Bonham-Carter, and his best friend Johnny Depp. Bonham-Carter almost steals the film as the Red Queen, with her CGI-aided humongous head, while Depp adds another to his stable of quirky characters in his established career.

Other standouts in the cast include Anne Hathaway as the benevolent and seemingly delicate White Queen, Alan Rickman voicing the Caterpillar in his typical snotty monotone, and speaking of snotty, there's my favorite, the Cheshire Cat, voiced by Stephen Fry in his best performance yet as a floating, swirling CGI character, LOL. Mia Wasikowska makes an excellent and lovely Alice, and she strongly reminded me of a younger, purer Gwyneth Paltrow.

Alice in Wonderland is a visually stunning movie, rich in layers of textures, with Burton's trademark curls seen here and there. I thought the 3D effects weren't really that necessary, but having them enhances the movie and makes it better. The final battle reminded me of a videogame battle, which made me enjoy it all the more, heh. Purists will probably hate this movie, while younger kids will be bewildered by all this strangeness, but having read and enjoyed both of Lewis Carroll's books when I was younger made me appreciate Burton's version of the story.

Heatwave

A news report that came out several days ago mentioned that the highest recorded temperature in Metro Manila was about 35.5 degrees last Wednesday. When I read this, I just shrugged--35 degrees? That's obviously wrong, because it feels like it's freaking 40 degrees here every single day.

The heat is unbearably scorching, like you can feel your skin getting singed, even in the shade. The humidity's even worse--it's like you're getting slowly roasted in an oven during afternoons if you're unfortunate enough to be indoors without air conditioning.

Summer came here early; usually it could be really felt around April, but according to scientists, the country is currently under the grip of the dreaded El Niño climate pattern, so it started getting hotter in late February. In fact, we're experiencing severe drought in some parts of the region, and the dams are slowly drying up.

Since some dams are used for hydroelectric power generation, one grave consequence of the lower water levels is lessened power supply. The nation is undergoing a power crisis right now, with major areas in Visayas & Mindanao having frequent brownouts that last for more than 8 hours.

Which just sucks, really. And in true typical fashion, the government's oh-so-brilliant solution is to whine and point the blame at everyone from Mother Nature to God for everything. That's right, blame everything else except your own ineptitude, stupidity, and inefficiency at managing resources...way to go, idiots.