MANILA, Philippines - I’ll be the first to admit it, am one of the worst when it comes to Christmas gift-giving and preparing early so as not to get caught in the proverbial “rush.” And if heredity has anything to do with the “preparedness chromosome,” my father’s penchant for going to the bazaars as early as June and sending gifts out by the start of November should have prevailed, and kept me from being a “rush monster.” But no, while I’m cursed to do the mad dash to the malls on the 24th of December, I do manage to keep abreast of what new stuff is out there, and would make great things to find under the tree; so here are some helpful tips.
Look: For the person who loves taking photos and videos of every thing that happens in their lives (and in this world of uploading on Facebook etc., who isn’t), you’ve got to get them the new Nikon Coolpix S1000dj. Marketed as the first “Shoot and Show,” it’s a compact digital camera and video recorder, plus projector, all rolled in one handy palm-size unit. With a 12-megapixel sensor and 2.7 inch LCD screen, the real kicker in this new gadget is that it projects images that can rise up to 40 inches on any plain surface. I even had the image projected on the white shirt I had on when outdoors! It’s like the coolest of toys, and given how we Filipinos love to show pictures and videos to friends, this is instant gratification! The Coolpix S70 is the digicam doing its own version of “TouchPhone.”
Smell: From the fabled Le Maison Guerlain on Champs Elysees in Paris, two new scents carry on their tradition of being the Royal perfumers. Idylle is the one for Women, and it’s like a mist of flowers — Bulgarian roses, peony, jasmine, freesia, lilac and lily of the valley — wafting as a top note, underscored by a musk/woody base note — something more ideal for the mature woman. For the men, it’s Guerlain Homme Intense, a citrus, aromatic, woody scent that utilizes Mojito and rum as its top note. The bottle design comes from the famous Pininfarina, and subtly uses anthracite to give the container its distinctive, masculine look.
Flying to Rome’s Via dei Condotti, the house of Bvlgari launched BLV ii Eau de Parfum late this year, with Laetitia Casta as its advertising face. Top notes of violet, star anise, mandarin and liquorice, blend with the heart note of iris, patchouli and vetiver. Base notes are three amber nuances — all working to give the fragrance a fresh, unusual, light-ish quality, for which they’ve coined the phrase floral-aquatic. While the Omnia Green Jade was launched early 2009, the gift set includes a silky Body Lotion and a white carrying case with the trademark Bvlgari zipper pulls. As for the young, feminine scent, it’s green mandarin and spring water, with a heart of peony, pear blossom and jasmine, with bottom notes of pistachio, blond wood and musk. Both wonderful new creations by Bvlgari!
Those lost last days
It’s a wistful look to bygone eras, loved ones and the world as we know it, as we immerse ourselves in the three novels reviewed today. While Josephine Hart can be best remembered for Damage, her latest is a depthful look into death and those left behind. With Kenneth Cameron, it’s a detective novel that’s in love with an era — turn of the century Edwardian London. And Margaret Atwood brings us a futuristic novel that’s something of a companion piece to her memorable Oryx & Crake.
The Truth About Love by Josephine Hart (available at National Bookstore): Best known for writing Damage (which had a film adaptation), Hart’s new work retains the sparse, exacting prose she is known for, but this time out, it expands to take on themes of grief, loss and remembrance. Circling around the untimely death of a young Irish boy, shifting perspectives are created via the voices of Sissy, the boy’s mother, Olivia, his sister, and Tom Middlehoff, the German neighbor, who despite years in the community, remains an “outsider.” An exposition of how that single tragedy travels far into the lives of the three individuals in different ways, is what Hart is aiming for. This includes shock treatments for the mother, the daughter eventually leaving home and a neighbor who never quite grasps how to interact with the family — his neighbors.
The Bohemian Girl by Kenneth Cameron (available at National Bookstore): The transplanted American, Denton lives in London, writes dark novels and travels frequently in the Mainland for inspiration. With Atkins, his right hand man, Denton returns to London and is confronted by a call from a young man, who upon purchasing a painting, had found a months old letter from one Mary Thomason, requesting for Denton’s assistance. This is 1901 London, and the letter from this now missing girl, sets Denton into the Edwardian demi-monde of that era. A novel of detection, a procedural, it is the ambiance and atmosphere that is painstakingly created that gives this story its punch. This is a time when fingerprinting was just an infant science, a step forward from the detection of the likes of Sherlock Holmes, but decidedly before the time of MI6 and the FBI.
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (available at National Bookstore): Like a parallel piece to her apocalyptic novel Oryx and Crake, Atwood’s new novel is a dystopian story that takes no prisoners. It may be bleak, a Lord of the Flies with adults, with a waterless flood and the pandemic aftermath wreaking havoc on the world as we know it; but one can’t deny the power of survival and resilience that courses through the veins of the various protagonists. Interesting also to note the prominence and moral strength of several of the female characters. Reading the novel may seem at first to be a chore, given how Atwood keeps flitting back and forth in future time; but looking at it as a form of stream-of-consciousness helps us be sucked into the current, and just enjoying the “ride.” The open ending would seem to hint that a third novel is in the works, one that would tie up loose ends, and unite characters from the two novels.