What every wine geek needs to know, right now

November 20, 2015 | 12:02 am

By Elin Mccoy

LISTEN UP: Do you know what these phrases mean: “Pet-nat,” “concrete eggs,” “en rama,” “koshu,” or “red blotch”? You’re not up to speed with the latest trends if you don’t.

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Family plot

November 20, 2015 | 12:02 am

Movie Review

The Visit

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

By Noel Vera

The Visit is easily M. Night Shyamalan’s best recent feature (Anyone out there willing to speak up for The Last Airbender? Which I prefer over James Cameron’s latest, but that’s more a measure of how much I dislike Cameron’s work than of how much I like Shyamalan’s). A question still hangs over the movie though: is it any good?

Actually and surprisingly: yes. Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are sent by their mother Paula (Kathryn Hahn) to her estranged parents for a week-long stay; Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) meet the kids at the train station and express undisguised delight — Paula hasn’t talked to her parents ever since she eloped with her high school teacher, 15 years ago (they’ve separated since). Becca sees this as a hopeful sign, the start to a long gradual process to bring the family together. Along the way Becca plans to make a documentary about their experiences (she’s an aspiring 15-year-old filmmaker already mouthing pretentious terms like “visual tension”), allowing her mom a little quality vacation time with her new boyfriend, the latest in a string of unhappy relationships.

That’s the setup; the execution couldn’t be simpler: Shyamalan avoids any mention of aliens or apocalyptic forces, ghosts or supernatural creatures. This is strictly a domestic drama, about two kids gingerly exploring the unknown emotional ground between them and their long-unseen grandparents, and there’s apparently a lot of ground to explore, perhaps even explain: Nana and Pop Pop have a number of eccentric rules (curfew is at an unbelievable 9:30 p.m., the old woodshed out back is off-limits and so is the basement down below), they’re fond of spoiling their grandkids with homemade treats (scrumptious-looking cookies stuffed with toasted walnuts, among others), and display odd if not bizarre behavior at night (wall-scratching, naked wanderings, the occasional projectile vomiting).

It’s creepy fun, with older members of the audience no doubt enjoying the proxy vengeance inflicted by their onscreen equivalents on the grandchildren — payback for all the years of rap, low-waist pants, the occasionally cruel contemptuous gesture. Younger viewers might appreciate confirmation of their worst fears: that old age leads to degeneration and dementia, maybe even worse things.

The filmmaker whose equipment is used to record the unfolding story — this is a “found footage” picture after all, though better shot and lit than is common for the genre — is 15, so the movie ultimately finds itself sympathetic to her point of view. Which isn’t as judgmental as you might imagine — Becca finds her Nana and Pop Pop strange and even frightening, but this only adds an edge to her hopes that they are when all is said and done decent folk, open to reconciliation, possible to love.

That I suspect is what makes a good or at least memorable Shyamalan movie — not deployment of a particularly ingenious plot twist, but stoutness and strength of the emotional thread running through the narrative: the love of a single mother for her strange son (and vice versa); the love of a son for his strange father (and vice versa); the grief of a husband for his dead wife; the (in this picture) desire of a grandchild for a reconciled family.

(Spoilers ahead. — Ed.)

Which may be why (skip the rest of this paragraph if you want to see the movie!) when the surprise twist is actually revealed the picture loses me. So Nana and Pop Pop aren’t who they seem to be — so what? They’ve come to know the grandkids, who have come to know them; more to the point we’ve come to know them, however little, however briefly, and to assume we’d so easily toss our sympathies out the window is presumptuous of Shyamalan, or at least wasteful. Crazy people or mentally disturbed folk despite popular misunderstanding don’t do things without a reason — they often do have a reason, a good compelling coherent one at least to their point of view (the trick is to find out just what that view is, exactly). Up to this point Shyamalan has managed to tread a thin line between viewing the old pair with reluctantly growing affection and with persistent unease; when matters clarify it’s suddenly kill or be killed — there’s little to no ambiguity between adults and kids at this point, and you miss the knotty, emotional texture.

The movie recovers somewhat at the very end, when Shyamalan picks up the thread of family feeling he briefly dropped. Not as good as his very best (the eerily demented Unbreakable) but better than some of his better known work (the overrated Sixth Sense, the ridiculous Signs). Yes I think this is a return for the director, a brief resuscitation of the moribund found-footage form, and — arguably, arguably — the best American horror pic to come out recently. Which isn’t saying a lot, but — hey — is saying something.

MTRCB Rating: R-13

La Boheme: the youthful opera

November 20, 2015 | 12:02 am

By Jasmine Agnes T. Cruz

Opera
La Boheme

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An epic ride with the horses of Narnia

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

By Jasmine Agnes T. Cruz

Theater
The Horse and His Boy

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Mental health of Filipinos needs more attention

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

MEDICINE CABINET

REINER W. GLOOR

ON Oct. 10, the World Health Organization (WHO) offices in Geneva led the global commemoration of World Mental Health Day, with the theme, “dignity in mental health.”

The 2015 commemoration was aimed at raising awareness of what still needs to be done to ensure that people with mental health conditions can continue to live with dignity. Now, more than ever, there is a need to further push this advocacy of enabling people with mental conditions to live with dignity through human rights-aligned policies and legislation, training of health professionals, availability of and respect for informed consent to treatment, inclusion in decision-making processes, and public information campaigns. The WHO is leading the global community in this campaign.

It has been observed by the WHO that thousands of people with mental health conditions around the world are deprived of their human rights. They are also discriminated against, stigmatized, and marginalized.

These people are also subjected to emotional and physical abuse in the mental health facilities they live in and communities they belong to. Poor care, due to lack of qualified health professionals and dilapidated facilities, leads to further violations.

The WHO’s message of “dignity in mental health” should resonate among Filipinos.

In the Philippines, people with mental conditions are not given proper medical attention and not adequately served by the national government’s mental health programs and services. This is not to blame anyone but to state the stark reality.

It is in highly urbanized settings where the national government’s mental health programs and services are available, putting those in rural areas in a more disadvantaged position.

Filipinos suffering from mental health issues and challenges have long been neglected, rarely championed passionately and intelligently in national discourse.

But this is a very important issue. A simple scan of mental health related news stories in the past would reveal common and frequently occurring events such as youths committing suicide or expressing a desire to. It is a tragedy that so many young people have ever even considered ending their lives. These cases should alarm national health government officials.

Among the many high profile cases of youth suicides was that of a young and bright television talent. Then there was the student in a state university who committed suicide due to an inability to pay tuition. Another student, accused of plagiarism, chose to end his life. One can just imagine those cases not reported by media, or deliberately hidden by family members for fear of societal backlash. The litany of suicide cases may be much longer.

The urgent question that should be asked is how can legislation and access be improved so that Filipinos, young and old, be extended proper and sufficient medical attention to help them deal with their mental conditions?

The WHO’s 2014 study “Health for the World’s Adolescents,” acknowledged that “depression is the predominant cause of illness and disability for both boys and girls aged 10 to 19 years old.” It also worth noting that, “suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents.”

Depression is so common that the WHO estimated more than 350 million people across the world, of all ages and from all communities, are battling with it.

A sufferer, former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill colorfully described depression as “a black dog-like phenomenon constantly weighing down on the mind.”

One of the most authoritative reports on the state of mental health system in the Philippines was released by the WHO in 2007, called “The assessment of the mental health system in the Philippines using the World Health Organization – Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems.”

The WHO report said the Philippines has the National Mental Health Policy (Administrative Order No. 8, series of 2001) signed by then Secretary of Health Manuel M. Dayrit. Currently, there is no singular mental health legislation, and the laws that govern the provision of mental health services are contained in various parts of promulgated laws such as the Penal Code, the Magna Carta for Disabled Person, the Family Code, and the Dangerous Drug Act, among others, the WHO said.

The country spends about 5% of the total health budget on mental health and substantial portions of it are spent on the operation and maintenance of mental hospitals, the report said.

While the new health/social insurance scheme covers mental disorders, this coverage is limited to acute inpatient care.

According to the National Statistics Office, “mental illness has been found to be the third most common form of disability in the Philippines in 2000 after visual and hearing impairments, with a prevalence rate of 88 cases per 100,000 population.”

The Department of Health in a report said that the region with the highest prevalence rate of mental illness is Southern Tagalog at 132.9 cases per 100,000 population, followed by National Capital Region at 130.8 per 100,000 and Central Luzon at 88.2 per 100,000.

It is our hope that the most current version of House Bill 5347 (filed by Camarines Sur 3^rd District Representative Leni Robredo, along with Representatives Barry Gutierrez, Walden Bello, Kaka Bag-ao, Romero Kimbo, Karlo Nograles, and Emmy de Jesus) and Senate Bill 2910 (filed by Senator Pia Cayetano), will be passed very soon. These proposed laws are based on various international human rights standards and aim to protect those suffering from mental health problems from torture, cruelty, discrimination, and degradation. These also aim to provide adequate information, treatment, aftercare, and rehabilitation.

The mental health of all Filipinos should be a priority of this administration and the next.

Log on to www.phap.org.ph and

www.phapcares.org.ph. E-mail the author at reiner.gloor@gmail.com.

VISIT: the Hotel de Oriente Convention Centre at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

THE REPLICA of the Philippines’ first luxury hotel, the Hotel de Oriente Convention Centre, opened its doors for public tours this month at the heritage resort by the sea, Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar.

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Stop playing Candy Crush. Here are four better commute killers

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

By Drew Beebe

HEY, watch this short video on your phone, OK?

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Wang Fam

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

A HORROR-COMEDY from Viva Films, Wang Fam follows a family of aswang as they attempt to transition into a living a more normal, less monstrous life. Directed by Wenn V. Deramas, it stars Pokwang, Benjie Paras, and Wendell Ramos.

MTRCB Rating: PG

It’s the end of the word as we know it

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

By Jessica Zafra

EVERY YEAR the Oxford Dictionaries declare a Word of the Year, and this year it’s . Not “face with tears of joy,” which is the official name of that emoji, or “emoji,” the digital icon used to express emotion in text messages, but the pictograph of a weeping smiley face. is said to be “the word that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.” It won over competitors that included “sharing economy,” “refugee,” and my favorite, “lumbersexual” — one who cultivates the look and manner of dress of the rugged outdoorsy woodsy profession — and presumably other emojis (, you’re so 2005). We don’t know if “pabebe” was on the long list.

That’s right, the Word of the Year isn’t even a word.

For years we in publishing have dreaded the demise of the printed word, and now it’s official. Our devolution from “writers and editors” to “content-providers” is complete. Now that the worst has happened, it’s not so bad. It’s actually made our lives easier. No longer do we have to agonize over the exact turn of phrase to describe someone’s emotional state. Those style dictators Strunk & White have always told us to omit needless words. You can’t get more concise than .

Just as the Paleo Diet preaches a return to the eating habits of hunter-gatherers before evil, evil agriculture, emojis encourage us to revert to the modes of expression of cave painters. Although the bison of Altamira probably didn’t get emotional.

How many generations of students might have been spared the reams of tortuous prose with which Dostoevsky captured his protagonist’s guilt, or the miles of insomnia-curing paragraphs with which Proust described how he went to bed early. Granted, their lives would’ve been drearier and less worth living, but they would’ve had more time for other things, like staring at the wall until it was time for dinner, or drinking themselves to death. Consider the opening sentence of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

But I’m wasting time, as word people always do. We’re in the thick of the Digital Age where the ability to express a thought the millisecond it occurs to you trumps depth, complexity and the boring stuff. On the bright side, and its brethren give me more time to produce the retro, irrelevant longform writing that gives me reason to live. I declare dibs on the word “obso-lit.”

Yazz ads zing with stars

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

Ads & Ends — Nanette Franco-Diyco

AFTER A TEXT that I received over the weekend suggesting that I download “a fascinatingly cute ad campaign that [my friend] stumbled upon on YouTube”, I viewed the Yazz pre-paid card’s advertising campaign — all four in the series — and was admittedly fully entertained.

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Going batty: secrets behind upside-down flight landings revealed

November 20, 2015 | 12:01 am

WASHINGTON — It is an aerial maneuver far beyond the capabilities of even the most sophisticated modern aircraft: landing upside down on a ceiling. But it is routine business for bats, and now scientists have learned precisely how they do it.

Researchers using high-speed cameras to observe bats in a special flight enclosure said on Monday these flying mammals exploit the extra mass of their wings, which are heavy for their body size compared to those of birds and insects, in order to perform the upside-down landing.

They land that way in order to roost, as bats do, upside down on cave ceilings or under tree limbs.

Brown University scientists observed two species: Seba’s short-tailed bat and the lesser dog-faced fruit bat. They tracked their motions using three synchronized high-speed video cameras taking images at 1,000 frames per second, and studied weight distribution in the bats’ body and wings.

They found that by flapping both wings while folding one of them just a bit toward their body, a bat can shift its center of mass to perform a midair flip in order to alight on a ceiling.

“Flying animals all maneuver constantly as they negotiate a three-dimensional environment,” Brown biology and engineering professor Sharon Swartz said. “Bats employ this specific maneuver every time they land, because for a bat, landing requires reorienting from head forward, back up, belly down, to head down, toes up.”

When approaching their touchdown spot, bats are not flying very quickly, making it difficult to muster the type of aerodynamic forces generated by pushing against the air that could help position them for an upside-down landing. But their heavy wings enable them instead to generate inertial forces to reorient themselves in midair.

“This is similar to the way in which divers twist and turn during a high dive,” said Kenny Breuer, a Brown professor of engineering, ecology and evolutionary biology.

Ms. Swartz said bats are generally under-appreciated as skilled aviators because they are primarily nocturnal. “People have many opportunities to observe birds and insects flying, but the bat world is hidden in the night. The more we observe flight behavior in bats, the more we are impressed,” Ms. Swartz said.

The research was published in the journal PLOS Biology. — Reuters

Ukay-ukay from all over APEC: Philippine imports of worn clothes in 2014

November 19, 2015 | 10:23 am