On Lionel Davidson’s “Kolymsky Heights” (1994).

June 10, 2010
By Benito Vergara

Exceptional offbeat minimalist thriller, with an unlikely hero — a “Native Canadian” linguistic anthropologist! (Actually, I think the proper term is “First Nations”.) The book didn’t quite suit my purposes at the time — I was about to board a plane, so I wanted a relatively mindless airport novel — but...
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On Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island” (2003).

June 9, 2010
By Benito Vergara

VERY MILD SPOILERS CONTAINED INSIDE (you’ll have read the same in the book’s blurbs, anyway): I love a good page-turner every now and then, and this novel — locked-room mystery, ghost story, haunted-house flick, cop thriller, in various amounts — definitely didn’t disappoint. (Especially when you’re on a plane.) But the...
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Where’s The Other Pinay?

April 6, 2010
By Benito Vergara
Where’s The Other Pinay?

Dear Mr. David Byrne, You mean to tell me the one single Pinay singer who actually has a lead vocal on your project didn’t get to be on your cool poster? I mean, she sings lead vocals and all! Sincerely, The Wily Filipino p.s. Thanks, though, for the big spike in visits on my...
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Music Video Quiz #1.

March 25, 2010
By Benito Vergara
Music Video Quiz #1.

Back in the day — four years ago, a lifetime in Internet terms — when I was more active on Last.fm and had way too much time on my hands, I would change my avatar to a screencap from a music video and have people guess its source. (Back then YouTube wasn’t that popular...
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The Runners-Up!

January 15, 2010
By Benito Vergara

But wait, there’s more! Of course there were runners-up — twenty, as a matter of fact — that, depending on the time of day or the way the sun streams through a window, could have made this top 15 (+1). And now to put my obsessive-compulsiveness to rest. My Favorite Songs of 2009: 1....
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My 15 (+1) Favorite Songs of 2009: 1. Mos Def, “Quiet Dog” (2009).

January 13, 2010
By Benito Vergara
My 15 (+1) Favorite Songs of 2009: 1. Mos Def, “Quiet Dog” (2009).

1. Mos Def, “Quiet Dog” - From the 2009 album The Ecstatic (Lala link). - Official website. Mos Def’s latest album, The Ecstatic – with a cover featuring a cropped still from Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, one of the greatest American movies of the last four decades – has been described as his...
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