crash and a few things (unproudly) filipino

oscar's best picture

crash just won the oscar for best picture. very well deserved i believe. saw it last week on dvd during my self-inflicted neighborhood days and i thought it was a great film. a very moving tale on interracial/cultural interactions.

"Challenging and thought-provoking, the movie takes a provocative, unflinching look at the complexities of racial tolerance in contemporary America. Diving headlong into the diverse melting pot of post-9/11 Los Angeles, the urban drama tracks the volatile intersections of a multi-ethnic cast of characters’ struggles to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another’s lives."

---

a filipino friend organized a party last night at an iranian acquaintance's loft in brooklyn. great place. the most space ive ever seen in an apartment here in new york actually. felt quite empty though coz party was set for 730 and most people got in 11PM, organizer included. yup that's right, 11PM. and yup that's right, blame it on filipino time.

i was there early enough with 2 other filipino guests. and though i ended up table tennis champ for the night, i was deeply embarrassed by the other filipinos' tardiness. it's just f-in annoying especially that the iranian host even cleaned up the place and prepared dinner. f-in insensitive. and seemed like it didnt even matter that they had everyone waiting.

---

sunday brunch @ dragonfly

had a nice sunday brunch today with a group of filipino friends. was good food and good company but somehow i couldnt just wolf down those egg yolks and fish fat from my traditional dasilog. something about fried rice as well didnt seem right so i got brown rice instead.

though the unhealthiness of pinoy food became weirdly clear, the greatest uncomfortability however actually came from the comfort level in the group. everyone was filipino. most everyone shared the same university back home. everyone was related in some form or another. it was all nice and good being in familiar territory, but somehow something felt missing. it was pinoy clickishness at work, i felt. somehow the constant need to be in herds of people you already know. the need to be with similar people speaking the same language, sharing the same humour. in a city as diverse as new york where the opportunity to be with and learn from different people is perhaps one of the highest in the world, it just felt lacking speaking the same old language, discussing the same old things, laughing at the same old jokes.

---

tourist for the afternoon with elvira

spent the afternoon with elvira the dutchie, doing a spontaneous walking tour that started in the lower east side, through chinatown, little italy, brooklyn bridge and eventually ending up down in ground zero and back up. it was an interesting afternoon. good to see some sights again and see bits of americanized italian and chinese culture (although im not sure how penetrable chinese culture really is).

it was great knowing further yet another good dutchie and learning more about one of the most open-minded, easy-going, and globally-adept cultures in the world. in the uncomfortability of listening to unfamiliar stories and adjusting to unfamiliar norms, a feeling quite comfortable—a sense of learning and growing in knowledge and experience. a journey to the world of Difference and finding comfort in that difference.

---

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something." —Crash

watch the film if you get a chance. even better, watch it with someone who thinks different. as always, dont be late. and easy on that salt & butter on your popcorn.