… which has been my phrase of the day, but not in a mood to reveal context.

Found out that in order to see Speed Racer, I’d need to extend my visit by a day, which I’m not in the mood to do. Will have to see it when it hits theaters, which is just ten days away (not sure if day and date in HK though). I might spend part of tomorrow going to see U2 3D, which is playing on an Imax screen here, just a matter of if I feel like dealing with getting from Makati to Mall of Asia and back again, no inconsiderable feat when thinking about Manila traffic.

Lunch today was a return to the Serendra Mall at Fort Bonifacio, back to a restaurant called Abe (ah-bey), dedicated to a famous Filipino writer and featuring some classic Filipino dishes, including my current fave, crispy tadyang. Apparently there was some local female celeb eating there when we were there. I only got to see her from the rear (enticing) and as she left, the entire restaurant staff ran outside to have their picture taken with her.

Real estate tip: I’m told that a lot of Americans bought condos at Serendra when it first went on sale. And that now that the recession is taking hold of the US, many of those Americans are seeking to sell off their condos – and are taking losses of 30% or greater on the deal. It’s almost tempting.

And tonight, snagged passes to a special opening day screening for Iron Man – I guess friends of the distributor, radio contest winners, etc. Best I can say for the movie is that the weirdness comes from Jon Favreau directing Robert Downey Jr as if it was a CGI remake of Swingers. Downey is the one thing that lifts the movie from your basic comic book feature film. And it’s quite weird to see Jeff Bridges with a shaved head and big gray beard. A large portion of the film takes place in Afganistan, so it’s telling that at one point you can see the poster for Rambo: First Blood. And, as expected, the end theme music is Black Sabbath’s Iron Man. Well, good to see it on a huge screen in a THX certified theater.

If you do go see the film (and I suppose that many will), do sit through the extremely long end credits, because there is a two minute sequence after the credits to set up the next film in the franchise.

It’s definitely summer – trailers screened before the film included Speed Racer, Indiana Jones 4, Mamma Mia, Incredible Hulk, Kung Fu Panda, Narnia 2, that Angelina Jolie hit-woman thing and some nonsense about a huge crocodile nomming a bunch of unlucky people in boats.

(Gotta say Kung Fu Panda didn’t look half bad. Voices by Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane. There’s an Imax version coming of this. But did they really have to use the Kill Bill music (at least in the trailer))?

Hongkie Town
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