Rough Groove

Film: an Introduction, 2nd Ed. – William Phillips

I have no film subjects during college and lately, I have been looking at film appreciation workshops but found none. The same is true with books until this one.

What a good find during a visit at Bestsellers, the bookstore at Robinsons Galleria. For such an informative book, Film: An Introduction, its a steal at only P299 ($7)! The quality of the paper is good for the price and this isn’t even a local reprint. Published by Bedford/St. Martin, 2002, it can be used as a student material.

Inside:

• its fully illustrated with high quality film stills with informative captions to illustrate key concepts
• it has extended resources to give the complete picture like novel excerpts from storyboards, interviews with noted filmmakers that gives one a complete introduction to the medium
• helpful definitions found at the margins of pages
• color plates, helpful glossaries and an accompanying website
• film examples from different era starting with the Lumiere Brothers to contemporary (pre 2002) titles

Well, as a movie fanatic, I do look forward to be more educated about the medium that I love.

Philippine Church Facades book launching

Finally, the much awaited book, Philippine Church Facades has been launched last 30 August at San Agustin Museum in Intramuros, Manila. What a long wait for us photographers (me and Erik Lacson) for this moment to come.

May 2006, we started this project and 15 months later, we have seen the product of our efforts. I have enjoyed doing this book as it brought me to many places and colonial churches that I’ve always wanted to visit.

This is what I call a dream project as my love for travel and religious colonial architecture has converged with my passion for photography. While the book is not perfect in all aspects, this is something that I am happy about considering that my first foray in professional photography resulted in this valuable tome on Philippine religious colonial heritage.

Photo right, Father Pedro Galende, OSA, director of San Agustin Museum and author of the book signs a patron’s copy.

Photo top, cover of the book with a stylized photo of the beautiful church facade of Pakil, Laguna.

More on the book can be found at Simbahan.

Additional charges on books ordered online

The two books that I’ve ordered at amazon.com two weeks ago have finally arrived and I just picked it up from the DHL office in Mandaue City. Since this is my first time to order from that online store, I wasn’t expecting that there are still custom charges amounting to almost 50% of the total expenses! I thought that what I paid was already inclusive of all charges but I was mistaken.

Anyway, I was looking for these two books: On Writing Well by Zinsser and The Elements of Style by Strunk and White as recommended from a travel blog that I’ve read. You see, I would like to improve my, ahem, writing.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t available in Powerbooks (only an audio book) or even at Fully Booked. I tried ebay.com which was cheaper by a few dollars but when I checked it out, the Philippines is not included in their list of countries that they accept credit cards. So, no option but to order at amazon.com.

Bestsellers Bookstore

I visited the new bookstore at Robinsons Galleria, Bestsellers which is another subsidiary of National Bookstore. Just opened last March, I got curious about this when I read about it in the Philippine Daily Inquirer last weekend. When I arrived there, I was at first impressed with its design: good and friendly colors of orange and white with bits of gray, well arranged rows of books organized by genre and well lighted. As what I always do when I visit bookstores, I checked out the Filipiniana, Computer, Photography and Graphic Design sections and guess what? I was quite disappointed. Such a few selection of books. I was expecting a more varied title but what I found were the usual books and really not comprehensive enough.

If I were to shop for books, I would still prefer the Fully Booked branch at Rockwell that has the widest selection of Photography as well as Graphic Design titles or even at Powerbooks in Greenbelt, nevermind if I haven’t seen any new titles but their selections are still plenty compared to Bestsellers.

One Planet – Lonely Planet

This book is amazing. Beautiful pictures taken from all over the world fill its pages with stunning color and shows the many things that though we are of diverse culture, there are many similarities that we share. I also love the way the photos are laid out. Take for example, on one page, an old Ethiopian reading a book while on the opposite page, a buddhist monk reading also. This and many more. This would be a good addition to one’s personal library.