I Love My Red Sweater

Perfect for Fall, Winter, or even April showers, this Bossini cable knit zip up cardigan withstands the unpredictable weather of fashion. Leave the ribbed collar in its naturally upturned position, with zipper a tad below the sternum, and you'll reap the benefits of this 80s fashion invention sans a retroactive look.
Feel the hug of this snug cardigan, and the value of venetian red.

Have you checked the most predominant color palate in your closet as of late? I've learned mine to be a safe collection ranging from business black and blues to earth tones for work or play. They've been my "go to", and for years have enhanced my dance-scaped shoulder and chest, while usually tapering my ever fluctuating waistline to mask (or celebrate) my vertically challenged frame. Quite frankly red has been the avoided color for my tan complexion, until my sister Alice gifted this suprising conversation piece this Christmas past.

I love my sister for many reasons and one of them is her ability to prescribe clothing with the proper texture, shape, weight, and timelessness.  This medium sized sweater from her last Holiday Hong Kong shopping spree may have been blindly selected. Perhaps she held it up to measure against her son's wider frame. However it was done, she thought of her little brother who feels all the warmer now with a red sweater on a chilly Spring day.

Filipino Movie Night ~ a review of "Zombading" aka "Gay Zombies"

Sometimes it's necessary to spend a mindless Sunday afternoon catching up on movies.  I was ready for that with a couple of friends as we caught up on a contemporary Filipino flick entitled "Zombading", but it was anything but mindless. The title is an English-Filipino amalgam of the words "zombie" and "bading" (pronounced bah-ding) which is a Filipino "slang" translation for "gay". These are my thoughts on the Filipino indie otherwise known as "Gay Zombies". 
Set in the provincial town of Lucban, in the Quezon region of the Philippines, the story opens with a precocious little boy who habitually taunts gays by pointing and yelling "Bakla! Bakla! Bakla!" (the non-slang Filipino translation for "gay"). The Filipino language rivals English in its descriptiveness and synonymical flexibility wherein one thing can be described in so many ways. However, the word "bakla" unfortunately weighs heavier on the derogatory side and has no positive counterpart. It rolls off the tongue with the ease of sucking on a lemon before downing one's tequila shot. Much like the young boy of our story named Remington, many easily use the word "bakla" to categorize, ostracize, and demonize gays in the Philippines. But I digress.
While at a cemetery, young Remington pokes fun at a grieving mannish "widow", and the wrong one at that.  What turns out to be a mourning gay witch Pops Ricafuerte (excellently played by Roderick Paulate) curses the young boy into a life of homosexuality at the strike of his twenty first birthday. The film places us fifteen years later when Remington (now played by Martin Escudero) experiences the perfectly realistic conflict of a budding relationship with his girlfriend Hannah (played by Lauren Young) being strangely derailed by inexplicable urges towards his childhood best friend Jigs (played by Kerbie Zamora). 
When his symptomatically increasing feminine mannerisms alarmingly jog his memory to the first utterance of this curse, he is aided by both girlfriend and best friend to seek out this witch from the past in the hopes of a reversal. After a hyperbolic catfight akin to Filipino dramas, the widowed witch extends her kindness and helps the sexually confused boy. Of course the answer only comes from a seance complete with campy dance club beats and an apparition of spirits in the form of mythological half buffalo,  half gogo dancing boys clad in speedos. The spirits advise that his only escape from the curse is finding a replacement by the eve of his twenty-first birthday ~ a sacrificial virgin if you will ~ but more appropriately a heterosexual male who was a virgin to gay experiences. 
Seeking out potential replacements by asking a group of heterosexual male friends which of them haven't had gay experiences may be far fetched. Yet this prompts a comically poignant silence and an isolated one out of ten who raises his hand. Nevertheless, many a manly man in their circle of friends own up to their masculine preference for the same sex. In his rapidly changing state, Remington questions whether this was a indeed a curse or a twist of fate that he needed to accept, while Hannah fights for the man she loves by lobbying to find the "cure". (Taking a second here to say hooray to a well posed conflict despite the incredulous story line!)
While Hannah selflessly encourages Remington’s  happiness, no matter what his choice may be, they were still without a sacrifice. Their obstacle is cleverly wedged by a sci-fi subplot of murders terrorizing their small town. A serial killer on the loose was targeting hairdressers and frying them with a GayDar. This was not only the murder weapon which emits colorful rays that toasts its victims, but also a bedazzled hair dryer scientifically created to identify homosexuality within animals for the propagation of rural farming. This golden gay gun clearly fell into the hands of the murderer who we later learn to be the town’s highly masculine advocate for family values (insert your favorite anti-gay politician here).  With Remington’s witching hour rapidly approaching, the horror of murdered victims-now-zombies were rising from the ground and running amok, preying on townspeople  including (surprise) the male lover of said serial killer. In an unguarded grieving moment, the self-hater himself falls prey to the low budget stun gun which points to his direction in a Ouija board fashion, and fires the gay ray of death. Whew!
Having eradicated the source of anti-gay sentiments and battled some seriously grotesque gay zombies, Remington’s transformation into full femininity was nearly complete as evidenced by the similarly eclipsed moon. Though slightly predictable, the winning and most unusual deux-ex-machina/resolution comes with a most loving sacrifice from this young man’s father Ed (played by the uber masculine John Regala). And by “winning” I mean the writer’s positive political statement made thru the character of Ed in his final moments as a straight man to save his son: “I want you to be happy. You’re just on your way, whereas I’ve been and back. And it doesn’t mean I can’t be your father even if I am gay.” What normally would’ve been a cue of heart tugging music in typical Filipino dramas was a whirlwind of enveloping neon lights dissolving the scene to the morning after when a news team questioning bystanders.
Perhaps I gleaned way more than what was intended to be a lighthearted comedy with a touch of the widely known Filipino horror genre.  But I’ve noticed that just like the brilliant “My Househusband: Ikaw Na” (also from 2011), "Zombading" turns stereotypes on their heads, re-examines them thru poignant role reversals and leaves its audience excited for the possibilities of a more tolerant and open minded generation. This is proven by the final scene as we discover another young boy who points at a man-lady. This time, however, he admiringly utters "Oh how beautiful" and the visibly enchanted creature smiles demurely with a diabolical glint in her eyes as she sashays with her umbrella in the rain.