The Bourne Legacy

On Location: Manila, Philippines

Quoted lines are from the movie script.

What are movies for if not to have

the good guys triumph over the bad ones? - Margaret Carlson

Deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. It is the official awesome-I-can’t-even-believe-it movie that's hunkier than Matt Damon.

The Bourne Legacy. 

It stars Hurt Locker Macho Man Jeremy Renner as black ops agent Aaron Cross. Have you watched it yet? It was shot on location in Manila.

What do you think?

Aaron had me at, Sh... as he bounds out of the blue onto Bocobo street in Malate, Manila. Alongside is biochemist Marta. They're in the city to buy the blue pills needed for Aaron's intelligence enhancement.

All seems to be quiet except for the rustle of the wind, a plastic cup rattling on the parking lot. But there's a restlessness rippling across like dead leaves on a breeze. Sure enough, you haven’t even buckled your seat belt yet, and the action already starts.

Non-stop.

First, there's the Manila policemen. At their heels besides is the secret intelligence agency. It’s time to run.

Are you ready?

Are you in?

Oh, good. Me, too. I have no idea how much the challenge and hardships will be nor what lies ahead on the road, but I'm in.

Did I just say, What lies ahead on the road? I misspoke. It should have been, What's up above the city rooftops? For that's where Aaron starts running around.

Can you even?

There are mountains you are meant to climb and challenges you are meant to overcome and obstacles you are meant to conquer, but I draw the line on rooftops. 

I yell at him, Marta and I will be down here, but we're with you.

A member of the CIA team is now also in pursuit. He whispers, They can’t get far. If he didn’t viral out, he’s gonna run out of brain. And if he did, then he’s gonna be too sick to move. So we just have to find him fast, and kill him, once and for all.

This is the part where you might get discouraged, partly because of the double gonnas. You might say something like this…..

... ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH.

I know, right?

Don’t lose heart.

Now that we're all back on street level, I'm sure we got this. I know my way around the dusty tracks of the San Andres neighborhood. It is not yet noon, but already the sun is hot. Through here, I instruct Aaron and Marta in a long breath, as we run across broad dirt roads. 

We need to split, Aaron strategizes. And what does he do? He jumps from a footbridge onto the top of a bus on the Pasay-Taft Rotonda. What can I tell you? He's a fearless aerial daredevil.

Later rejoining us, I hear him inhale a stuttering breath. Thai operative Larx-03. Assassin. 

A new threat... when will it end? 

The pursuit continues along Magsaysay Boulevard. Riding a motorcycle, Aaron instructs Marta, his voice dropping, Hang on tight, follow me. Okay? Stay with me. I follow them with my eyes as they ride off inside the Marikina wet market. 

Have you ever been? There are too many people, too many peddlers. The air is hot with stench and crackling with flies and the noise is overwhelming. 

The assassin shoots Aaron, hitting him in the shoulder. Marta says in a hoarse voice, You’ve been shot! (Aside: Obvi.) Pull over! 

The motorcycle skids as it reaches the Navotas fish port. I run fast to their succor. But in true heroic fashion, just before Aaron loses consciousness, he manages to shoot the assassin and knock him off his bike.

Regardless, the latter continues to chase them through a deserted building near the docks. I'm breathlessly following on foot.

And then? It happens. As the assassin gets close to them, Marta kicks LARX-03's bike.

Way to go, girl! As his motorcycle crashes into a pillar, she shoots a triumphant look at Aaron.

All that running, all that shooting is finally over. What else is there to do? 

Ride away to freedom on a boat.

Destination: the white-sand beaches and coral reefs of El Nido in Palawan. (Disclosure: This isn't a sponsored post.)

Aaron is perusing a map and heying her as she sits at his side. (Aside: I'm thinking that this is where I need to leave, but I'm curious. I already know there's a forthcoming romantic angle, and I'd like to see it.)

She heys back at him with a polite nod and asks, Are we lost?

Are you sighing in anticipation? I can mouth the exact words of Aaron's answer, No, I was just looking at our options.

And the heart-melting response from Marta? (Wait for it...) 

Mmm. I was kind of hoping we were lost.

I'm relishing Aaron's delicious smile at her. He rolls up the map, puts it away, and they both gaze at the endless vista of a monotonously blue cloudless sky.

Isn't life just like the movies?

Where you do, or do not. There is no try.

Where you become the dreamers of dreams.

Where what you seek lies in front of you. As does what you fear.

And where adventure beckons.

It's just life and cinema. They will be over before you know it.

THE END
Until next time! For now, the balcony is closed.

The Da Vinci Code

On Location: Louvre, Paris

Quoted lines from the movie script are italicized.

There is a way out of every box, a solution to every puzzle;

It's just a matter of finding it. - Jean-luc Picard

This is the second time that I'm visiting Paris.

I'm at the Louvre.

Originally a palace, it is now one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It doesn’t shout. It simply whispers to you when you enter the room.

At first, I cannot make out any details. It is just a large, dark mass. 

Everything looks perfect.

Every piece is in place.

And then? There in the silence, as I reverently walk behind the Winged Victory, I jump as if someone had told me that the TY Beanie Boos were on sale at JoAnn's.

Seriously?

What in the world?

I spot Mona Lisa looking at me like an old friend. But it's not the mystic smile that's on her lips right now. They are pursed, and there's a horrified look in her eyes. Professor Langdon, renowned Harvard professor of religious symbology and French policewoman Sophie from the movie mystery thriller The Da Vinci Code are there as well. 

I follow their gaze. Sophie's uncle, museum curator Sauniere, has been murdered. His body is covered with symbols written in his own blood. What could be Sauniere's message?

Langdon's ardor to pursue the truth bursts out in an explosive declaration, Tonight, this will be my quest. (Aside: I'm thinking the quest is for the Holy Grail, to which I only have one response.)

What? Again? I thought Indy does that already in The Last Crusade (see two blogs earlier for a refresher). Hmmm... but he lets go. So, let's Proceed. (Spoiler alert: This one has a happily-ever-after.)

Our search begins: first at the vault of a private bank, then at the isolated Templar church in the British countryside. But look who's here? 

No one warns you. You’re just tagging along to figure out the clue from Da Vinci's The Last Supper when Teabing, a noted British Grail historian who himself covets the truth about the Grail, shows up. He's holding Sophie at gunpoint while ordering Langdon to figure out the cryptex's elusive password. 

Good for Langdon. He stays calm. He mutters in a soft voice, You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb. It speaks of Rosy flesh and seeded womb. 

I’m not exactly sure why.

I think it’s as confusing to me as it might be to you that in an unexpected defiant move, Langdon tosses the cryptex straight up toward the dome above. It collides hard with the floor.

Be still, my quickly beating heart. The Grail is gone. Everything destroyed. My shoulders slump and my throat goes dry. 

I close my eyes, but snap them open again as I catch a glimpse of Teabing forcing the cylinder apart, hoping to see history before it dissolves forever. Are you ready for this? 

It is empty except for shards of wet glass. A shocker. No dissolving papyrus. Where... is the map? 

I have the same question myself, but no one makes a sound when in a surprise motion, Langdon carefully extracts a papyrus from his pocket and unrolls it. Teabing's life dream, right in front of him.

Tell me! Teabing demands, but the police hoist and carry him out.

The quest is not over yet. The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits. We hurry across Rue de Rivoli, back in the Louvre. Why?

Because when a solution eludes you.

When you are overthinking Saunière's final clue as to where the Chalice is hidden...

All you have to do is to take a breath, go back, and look at where you started.

Guess where?

Where else but beneath the Louvre. (Aside: I told you. This has a happy ending.)

THE END

Until next time! For now, the balcony is closed.

I sense a nudge on my shoulder. Hubby is prodding me to move on toward the Sully Wing. The Vénus de Milo. It's a must-see.

Whale Rider

On Location: Whangara/Mitai Village, New Zealand

Lines quoted are from the movie script.

Dance with the waves, move with the sea.

Let the rhythm of the water set you free. - Christy Ann Martine

Tomorrow has always been my favorite day. It’s the day when I get everything done, but specially, because tomorrow ends the waiting for a leader...

... the descendant of the whale rider. 

If this all sounds familiar, you're on the right track. I'm channeling the storyline from the movie Whale Rider.

We're in the Mitai Maori village in New Zealand. 

The smells.

The feels.

They remind me of Whangara, the nearby island shaped like a whale where the movie was shot on location. I won't be surprised if I see the twelve-year-old Maori girl here.

Ah, there she is, emerging from among the Poi dancers.

Pai.

She stands and begins to recite, keeping her voice steady. In the old days, the land felt a great emptiness. It was waiting... waiting for a leader. And he came on the back of a whale, a man to lead a new people. Our ancestor, Paikea.

Her hand over her eyes, she peers upward. But now we were waiting for the boy who would be chief.

She has no articulate dialogue, just truncated thoughts. Everyone was waiting for the firstborn boy to lead us. 

Except... he dies. And Pai, one of twins, doesn't. Her Koro wishes in his heart that she'd never been born. Only males are allowed to be chief. No fair. Pai, however, is determined to claim her birthright.

Is it possible?

Will she one day roll her eyes and say, I am so sure...  And toss her hair and stomp her feet and demand a tattoo that's just like her Koro's?

Her much-anticipated, constantly-promised-over-achieving tomorrow never seems to arrive. But the tiniest little part of her keeps hoping. And tonight is when it is going to happen. 

Excited, I look out into the sea with her. The wind is whipping the rain sideways in a gathering storm. Then what should emerge behind the rolling mist but, wait for it...

The immense form of a whale. Stranded on shore.

A mass of people try to push it back to sea. It will die of dehydration, someone says with urgent concern. It can collapse under its own weight, another says in a clipped tone. But their efforts are in vain.

Despite my fear of deep waters, I just know what to do. I'm with you, Pai, I shout boldly.

Hello, Chief Whale.

Nice to meet you.

I can hear the audible gasp from the frustrated folks who are walking back home, for now they see Pai, and me in tow, mounting the whale.

What if she doesn't succeed?

What if she loses courage?

What if tomorrow never comes?

I can see Pai's snub-nosed resolve. She knows. This whale on the beach... The Taniwha. It is Paikea's whale. It came from Hawaiiki where the ancestors are.

I have to turn it around, she tells me calmly but firmly, her teeth clenched.

I look at the sea. It seems like a hundred rivers across which the spirits have sent angry winds. She wraps her arms around the whale... like trying to embrace a shadow. And I? I'm hanging on to her for dear life. We bob in the choppy waters, impossibly large and full of beauty and danger. 

Until suddenly….the waters part and Pai, astride the mammoth creature, finally coaxes it back into the ocean in a display of sheer spiritual power. With this one grand gesture, she has affirmed herself as the tribe's leader.

You make me proud, girl! 

The next morning, Pai with her father, grandparents, and uncle sit on the helm of a 60-foot waka for its maiden voyage. Pai's lips are slightly parted and the tip of her tongue protrudes, the way it does when she's concentrating.

I mouth the words, as she begins to say, My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider. 

All that waiting.

That distant dream.

Done. Done. And done.

Classic.

THE END

Until next time! For now, the balcony is closed.

Kia ora! Hello! Our Maori guide invites us to the traditionally cooked hangi meal being lifted from the ground. My mouth waters at the smell of succulent chicken and lamb baked with kumara sweet potatoes.

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

On Location: Petra, Jordan

Movies fascinate me, more so when I'm able to be on the site where they were originally shot on location. For me, it is at that moment when the line between cinematic fantasy and reality is blurred and life becomes one great adventure.

Indiana Jones is the first one on my list. Quoted lines are from the movie script.

Have you ever watched any of the Indiana Jones movies? You know, like Raiders of the Lost Ark which started it all? Or Temple of Doom and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?  Or all four released movies over and over and over again?

Oh, good.

Me, too... on all four questions.

It's The Last Crusade, the third in the series, that I want to discuss. Not because it's a personal favorite, but because we had the opportunity to visit Petra where it was filmed on location... 

... the Al Khazneh Treasury, one of the most elaborate temples in the half-built, half-carved red sandstone city in Jordan. That's where the Holy Grail is. 

Don't you already feel the thrill of the hunt? 

I see Indy and his dad, Professor Jones, beyond the silence and the shadows. Let's catch up with them. But stay close. The elaborate tombs and remnant passages are tricky. Don't even blink or you'll miss the trail. And ignore the sculptures of the mythological figures. They're creepy.
  
And watch out for the traps.

There's the Grail's inner chamber. Do you see it? Don't be alarmed by the knight who's standing guard. He's 700 years old and has only been kept alive by the power of the Grail.

He speaks. The Grail is hidden among dozens of false Grails; only the true Grail brings life, while a false one claims it. Choose wisely. 

I know it. Are you with me? I feel like we have reached the end of the road. What if Indy makes...

... the wrong choice?

The only thing I can hear is the whisper of the cold, bitter breeze as Indy rubs his hands and breathes on them. He clutches each finger in turn, trying to keep them supple, his grip strong. His face is tense with concentration. He sifts through random cups and silver urns and pewter goblets and various ornately-ornamented containers.

We're all waiting.  And crossing our fingers and all ten toes. Are you holding your breath, too?

Well, he selects... (Aside: This is just for drama. We know how it ends, right?)

... a simple wooden cup. It is dark brown and dingy with extra dings and dents and spider webs thrown in free of charge.

Thank goodness, he has chosen wisely. (Stay with me: collective sigh of relief).

The Knight warns coyly. Beware. The Grail cannot pass beyond the Great Seal, for that is the boundary, and the price, of immortality.

And look who's here? I stare, speechless. In case you don't remember, that's Dr. Elsa Schneider, Professor Jones' Austrian colleague. I'm taking the Grail, she snaps. 

As she attempts to leave with it, the temple begins to collapse. My knees almost give way, hearing the wails claw on the wall as Elsa falls to her death. 

I know, right?

Did you look away?

And the plot thickens. Compressing his lips in a moment of temptation, Indiana mutters. The Grail is mine. 

As he tries to grab it, he slips - I with him (the 'I with him' part is my own addition). My brain becomes a jumble of noise as I panic, determined to stop myself from falling into the abyss.

But Professor Jones grabs our hands, imploring us. Give me your hands!

Reaching for the Grail, Indiana whimpers, I can get it. I can almost reach it, Dad...

The Professor and I implore him in a shaky voice, Indiana. It's frightening. It feels like I'm watching the end of the world.

Then we hear the Professor's voice again, saying in a measured tone, Indiana... let it go. 

The moment seems to drag on, but Indy finally lets go.

Did you just breathe in relief?

Prof Jones thinks it's just another typical day. But I'm with Indy.

It's been Better.Than.Most.

THE END

Until next time! For now, the balcony is closed.

Yalla! Let's go! Our guide who has been waiting outside waves for us to hurry up and visit other monuments we may want to explore.

A Fashion Lookbook

An absolutely fabulous person is turning 50 today. 

No way!

If I may say so myself, you're looking pretty nifty as ever. 

Someone said that you can't turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again. So I thought, let's do that - with emphasis on how awesomely fashionable you have been all these years.

***

Sometimes, I like my outfit so much...

that I can't handle the cuteness.

Leftmost: Starting off in a white hand-crocheted summer dress and killer Pampers diapers, with a teether for a headband. 

Center: Playing dress-up with dollie in a floral-printed long gown, channeling yong (long) hair with a blue-hooded poncho, sunglasses for accessory.

Above right: Polka-dots are in fashion in this favorite dress with short puffed sleeves.

Is this not the epitome of the perfect school attire?

A red sailor dress for a punch of color, with a navy collar accented with white piping. White lace bows complete the patriotic look.  

Leftmost: For a school pic, a simple, white-collar dress accessorized with a pearl necklace.

Above right: Party time! A punk attire - red top with banded waist and just enough swing in the plaid black-and-white mini skirt to make you want to twirl. Topped with a shiny black shrug. Matching red flats, gold hoop earrings, and sunglasses. Very big, poofy hair.

Right: Bound for college in a minimalist navy, sailor suit accessorized with hexagon-shaped dangling earrings. Lovely choice.

Rightmost: In the spotlight, a non-flashy but stunning brown dress underneath, a white lab coat to top it off - a winning  look.

Leftmost: The outfit doesn't matter because the most beautiful thing you're wearing is a smile.

The good-looking chap in the red-printed Hawaiian shirt makes the ensemble picture-perfect.

Above right: Pretty in shades of blue: a low-cut, sleeveless tank is matched with light-blue denim shorts and flip flops - a summertime outfit perfect for walking a most-loved Bubba.  

New Mom, same me. because I'm already 

freakin' classy and terrific. 

Can I just say, I love these blouses! A fusion of vintage and boho. 

Right: Raspberry pink top with cap sleeves and a flowing bodice looks comfy.

Breezy outfit gains a notch, complemented by guwapito in denim overall and deeper raspberry colored tee. 

Above right: Embroidered scoop neckline is very feminine. Look completed with silver hoop earrings and the cutest, beribboned baby girl.

Don't let anyone ever dull your sparkle.

Left: Boo! It's Halloween fun in this black twill, gold-belted Cat Woman outfit.

Center: Mystery Lady in a Dia de los Muertos face mask 

Right: Fierce-looking she-warrior in brown leatherette bustier and swag-inspired tunic, head gear and sword. You look ready for some fun and games!

Think summer. 

How darling is this Hawaiian-motif white and green bikini?

The fun pattern coordinates well with the cat-eye sunglasses.

It's a crime to look this hot at 50.

I never dreamed I'd grow up to be a sexy Mama, but here I am killing it.

We are finishing with a flourish.

Does the dress matter? As Yves Saint Laurent says, what is important in an outfit is the person who is wearing it. 

And if I may add, it is what surrounds you: a warm hug, family, a doting puppy.

*** 

There you go. This is what a stupendous 50-year-old looks like.

You are 18 years with 32 years experience. 

Or to put it another way, you're only 7.1 in dog years.

Happy birthday, sweetheart!