signs & symbols

The latest release of Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two fulfills my considerable fan girl dreams. The film lays bare what it takes for a precautious and vulnerable young heir uprooted from his privileged water logged life to become a mythic figure in the harsh desert environment of Frank Herbert's famed Dune. 

As Paul Atreides brings his enemies to their knees, shattering years of strangle hold - we cheer him on. The film adds more to the Bene Gesserit story through the women closest to Paul and provides even more insight into the sisterhood’s deep history and its goals. 

behind the scenes & creative process - images capture the making of the movie

I so reverently wished I could have a Bene Gesserit cult of my own! The Bene Gesserit knack for survival and scheming is most brilliantly personified in Lady Jessica - just as swiftly absorbed into the Fremen fold who view her abilities as yet another sign of Paul’s godhead. 

Pinoy Dreams : a perfumed nightmare

In the wake of Duterte's bloody extra judicial killings [or EJKs] our Pinoy media is flooded with the Belo-Kho wedding of the decade.

They've even created a hashtag to mark the grand occasion. #aKHOandmyBELOved

Fairy tale or fantasy? Dream come true or trumped up circus?

Diverse as the two are there are too many similarities to them.

Both draw and fascinate the masses - polarizing the pros against the cons.

Both are over the top spectacles - in varying stages of questionable taste.

We have to beg the obvious - just because they can be done does not make either right.

In the wake of Kian's recent death both are tragic at the least and heinous at the worst.

Life in the Philippines has devolved into this sad circus of demented entertainment between the haves and the have nots.

national holidays

June 14 was Flag Day in the US.

Betsy Ross Painting - Betsy Ross 1777 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

June 12 was Independence Day in the Philippines

The Making of the Philippine Flag by Fernando Amorsolo

I wonder what was going on in these women's minds and hearts as they sewed together what would be the symbol of their nation?

Lost and augmented as their histories have been embellished and now recorded for posterity, we are left to wonder how our current times and leaders will be memorialized and written into our history.

May they live up to all the potential and possibility we hold in our hearts.

who we remember & what we devote ourselves to

Neil Gaiman is an admired author and a prolific writer that has grown better through the years and aged gracefully in wisdom even in the constant glare of his incessant celebrity.

There's just so much to Neil that we admire!