The new star of the south

It was only a few years ago that I was invited to attend a weekend at the then newly opened Crimson Resort in Mactan — and thanks to the wonderful welcome I got, plus the more than wonderful people running the resort, I’ve been back several times over.

Conceptualized as Filinvest’s first foray into the hotel and tourism industry, the success of the resort has spawned a corporate subsidiary, Filarchipelago, tasked to bring Filinvest into the foreground of this developing growth industry. It may have begun in Mactan, Cebu — and now the Crimson banner proudly flies in Filinvest City, Alabang, with the rise of the Crimson Hotel. To celebrate the opening of the hotel, a new signature event/party was officially launched recently, the Crimson Southern Ball.

Elegant, classy, yet spirited and playful — these adjectives could describe both the hotel and the Ball. The Gotianun family was out in full force to welcome guests to their corner of the “Alabang world,” and this included no less than Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. and Tony Award- winning actress Lea Salonga.

Lea was flown in specifically for the event, and when she performed that night, the assembled guests were all cognizant of just how special a night they were part of. The Deck Bar was also inaugurated that night. More of a dressed down party place, DJanes Mia Ayesa and Sanya Smith provided the music that had the deck jumping till the wee hours of the morning.

Months ago, I managed to spend a night with my son  Matteo at the hotel and he was really pleased with the food and service, the room amenities. And he got super excited when he was shown the plans of what now is the Deck Bar. Ever the party boy, am sure he’ll be dropping by the Deck Bar in the following weekends. They may call the Alabama football team the Crimson Tide, but here in the Philippines, we now have our own version. Who knows, in no time at all, the Crimson brand may extend beyond our shores, creating equity in the region!

The dedication, the professionalism and the pursuit of high and exacting standards that I’ve seen in Filarchipelago, all point to that becoming a reality in the near future.

Criminal activity

What can fall under crime/thriller fiction, or how it can, in David Wong’s hands, merge with such genres as fantasy sci-fi and dark comedy, makes for today’s set of novels. More traditional is the Robotham police procedural, while Flynn is back in fine form with her dissection of a marriage gone awry... in a delightfully disturbing way — crime meets psycho-drama!

This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong (available at National Book Store and Fully Booked) Equal parts comedy and equal parts horror, this is David Wong’s second outing after the avidly followed John Dies in the End (which was turned into a film that has yet to reach our shores). This time out, our intrepid band of slackers, David, John, Amy and pet dog, Molly, face a form of breeders/parasites that come as creepy, mechanized spiders that enter through one’s mouth and take over the brain and body. There’s a zombie element to this scare, and Wong stupendously uses this to talk about such themes as fear, paranoia, identity and mob mentality. As in the first novel, the super drug, “Soy Sauce,” plays a part in the proceedings; and if you enjoyed John Dies, then you’ll be exhilarated by this new one, as it is better written and more of a unified piece. Cool, scary and funny — a potent combination.

Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham (available at National Book Store) Writing in the sub-genre described as literary crime fiction, where character and psychological insight is as important as the action, this latest from Robotham brings back clinical psychiatrist Joe O’Loughlin, who is separated, suffering from Parkinson’s disease and playing tag team with the wonderful creation, laconic ex-cop Ruiz. The book kicks off when Sienna, best friend of Joe’s daughter Charlie, knocks on Joe’s door covered with blood and in dire distress. When Sienna’s father is found murdered, the 14-year-old girl becomes the prime suspect. What follows is an intriguing tale of child abuse, mind control and prostitution, racially motivated crimes, jury tampering and Joe in the middle of the twists and turns of the story. Robotham delivers the goods with this new novel.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (available at National Book Store) This novel is proof positive that Flynn is one of the more exciting young female writers mining the genre of crime thrillers and psychological drama. What could have been a cliché — seeming Barbie and Ken marriage exposed as something very rotten — gets a fresh coat of paint with Flynn’s treatment. Structured as alternating chapters of, on one hand, Nick narrating what happens from the point of Amy’s suspicious disappearance; and on the other hand, Amy’s diary entries make for some very delicious reading.  Delicious in the way Adam and Eve’s apple was delicious! And rotten to the core. Featuring a couple who are both poseurs and disturbed individuals, the unraveling of what transpired between the couple makes for a stunning read. If ever a novel brought home the aphorism that appearances can be deceiving, Gone Girl would be high up in the survey.