First of Summer

Summer beckons! At least for me. As I have had previously mentioned in a couple of posts a month ago I just had concluded something that will make or break my career path, so I did not feel at all that it was summer except the heat.

Still the heat is on! Cebu City has been experiencing temperatures ranging from 30 to 35 degrees for the past six weeks already. Except on mid afternoons after lunch I am loving the temperature. Its the only time of the day that I cannot tolerate the humidity and the UV rays from my room that I take refuge in my sister's room for air conditioning. However the rest of the day it gets lovely. A fan, iced tea and a book or a TV rerun of old comedy shows keep me entertained on the dog days of summer.

So far I am feeling vibes and figments of those past childhood summers. My mom is on a cooking frenzy so rest assured almost every meal time there is something delicious on the table. Once we had homemade Spanish sardines, calamares on the weekends and occasionally have banana fritters made from scratch for snacks.

Other mini updates:

1.) I have a new favorite author and his name is Jeffrey Eugenides. In a span of nineteen years he has written three novels and edited one book of short stories. I finished "The Virgin Suicides" and it was mesmerizing and haunting. I am halfway through his latest book "The Marriage Plot" and so far I am finding the characters interesting in a non conventional way. After this I am planning on getting his second novel "Middlesex". Speaking of books I think this summer I will be able to read quite a number of books - as many or probably will exceed what I read during the Summer of 2007. Aside from Eugenides books (this will be the summer of Eugenides), what's on the list include Rolling Stone's Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, a biography of Michael Phelps (pumping up for the Olympics), a coffee table book on the Beatles, a Fitzgerald novel - I still could not decide between "This Side of Paradise" and "The Beautiful and the Damned" and I know that I am overly ambitious here - "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy.

2.) I have a feeling that 2012 will be a great year for movies. "The Avengers" kicked off summer with an entertaining kick ass visual feast. And now I am really excited for "The Amazing Spiderman" and "The Dark Knight Rises". Superhero movies will be brilliant this year! Avengers vs. Loki, check! Next up Spiderman vs. Lizard and the new trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" makes me more excited to see it!

3.)I enjoyed American Idol's 60s night episode last night. I swore last year that I won't be watching this show anymore but since the videos in youtube are so accessible that you don't need to wait for the telecast on cable anymore I find myself wasting around two hours every week watching the live performances. My favorite performance of the night was Joshua Ledet and Phillip Phillips duet on the classic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". On paper it seems to sound horrendous but when they sang it - the odd combination of their voices - Joshua's high range of soul and falsetto blended well with Phillip's southern rock tone. They brought the house down. Joshua is indeed the underdog for this year. I predict that it will be a Jessica-Phillip showdown this year with Phillip claiming the crown because his adorable face have charmed every teenage American girl to vote for him. But a Jessica-Joshua finale is also possible. Phillip could start his own folk band! I can imagine him putting up an album that will sound like Mumford and Sons + Fleet Foxes and a dash of Kings of Leon.

4.) I still have five weeks of summer left. Who knows? It might be longer than expected or shorter than anticipated. But so far I am loving it. I have a lot of things to look forward to also! I won't divulge them here some might not happen but whatever happens I am perfectly fine waiting and hoping for better things.