Every now and then, I go to record stores and buy a couple of albums from musicians I've never heard of before.. Partly to broaden my musical taste, and partly to "see what I've been missing".. I'd check the cover, then the back, then the price tag, then I'd but it if I felt like it..

The first time I tried this was with SOS JFK by The Children's Hour.. This was also the day I found out I wasn't that into folk.. Or at least their kind of folk..

Then I tried my luck with Rachel Loshak's Mint, with which I only liked two songs (and not by a lot).. I know.. Two in a row.. Bummer, right?

Having almost struck out, I nearly gave up.. Suddenly the cover-back-price-tag-buy-based-on-gut-feel strategy wasn't looking so good.. It was like throwing a bunch of noodles at a wall to see which noodle sticks, only not nearly as fun.. Or the blind eating Skittles.. I didn't know what I was getting.. Why bother spending P500 on something I'm not sure of? I could have used the same money to buy half a graphic novel..

Then came this album.. I looked at the band's name, then the album title.. Then I bought the album as soon as I got the joke.. And I am SO glad I did..

The Album: Pop Has Freed Us is the fourth full-length album by indie band, Papas Fritas.. released in 2003 under Minty Fresh Records, the album is a compilation of the band's greatest hits.. it contains eight of their most popular songs and nine previously unreleased songs..

The Good: the album is a great intro to a great band.. the eight "greatest hits" draw the new listeners in and show them what to expect, while the other nine songs show us just how fun, and just how far, Papas Fritas can go (spoiler alert: it's WAAAAAAAAAY out there).. tracks like Holiday, Say Goodbye, Questions, and the indie-pop delight, Way You Walk, are sure to make instant fans out of casual listeners..

The Bad: while the album certainly is fun and would make a perfect addition to anyone's personal soundtrack to his or her life, Pop Has Freed Us is not for everyone.. the whole world may love Way You Walk, but anyone who isn't "in on the joke" might have a hard time getting into the other songs in the album..

The Verdict: 8/10 --> from now on, I think I'll stick to whole numbers and steer clear of the decimals.. even I don't know what I mean by adding a couple more numbers after a point..

*pick up your very own copy at Music One.. not sure if all branches have it, but I got mine at the one in Greenbelt 3..

The movie club is back.. After a three-week hiatus--which we spent (in chronological order) helping out in one of the Typhoon Ondoy relief centers, hanging out outside Nonoy's window ('coz there were only 3 of us who could make it), and chilling out at Gino P's place in Tagaytay--we decided to reset the order of the movie club "sponsors" since a.) Prime's coming back and b.) lots of new things happening with Indioboy Productions, a "new order" seemed pretty apt..

I was up first.. Originally, it was supposed to be Nonoy's turn, but he didn't have a copy of the movie he wanted to screen at the time.. And 'coz he knew I already had a movie in mind.. Plus, I was still at home when he texted..

Exotica (1994)

Director: Atom Egoyan

Cast: Mia Kirshner, Elias Koteas, Bruce Greenwood, Don McKellar, Arsinée Khanjian

Sponsor: Me

Synopsis: "Exotica presents a disparate group of characters whose lives are interconnected through the Exotica nightclub. Christina (Kirshner) is an exotic dancer at Exotica, owned by Zoe (Khanjian). Eric (Koteas) is the club's DJ, and Christina's former boyfriend. Francis (Greenwood) is a customer who comes in nightly and always has Christina give him a private dance, which seems to inspire Eric's jealousy...Thomas (McKellar) is a latent-gay pet store owner whose books of account Francis is auditing pursuant to a suspicion of Thomas running an illegal import business." (Wikipedia)

I saw this film back in the 90s on cable (with cuts, of course).. It was the first time I saw Mia Kirshner since her episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark.. After watching her powerful performance in this film, she became one of my favorite actresses..

I downloaded this film earlier this year since I haven't seen it in such a long time, and as soon as I saw the first two-way mirror scene again, I knew that this was my next Indioboy Movie Club movie.. Although I wasn't quite sure how the guys would react to the film 'coz it's real heavy and "artsy"--a killer combination that usually means the movie might be well-remembered within the group, but not necessarily enjoyed.. It was a safe choice though for Movie Club, but not really as an opener after a three-week hiatus..

The Indioboy roster was complete that night.. Pretty much.. Prime was still in Korea at the time.. But Chyna Lo, one of the LFC kids, tagged along with Ayo and Dom--making her the second girl to join us for Movie Club night after Marie Jamora.. They were all eager to get the Movie Club back to its original momentum.. Y'know, before the storm and everything..

There were two "recurring themes" running through the Indioboy commentary--which is gonna be a thing, by the way--during the screening.. The first one, which was initiated by Harold, was that Don McKellar, and later on Elias Koteas, was the thief guy from Blindness.. He was right the first time, although he was more insistent that it was Koteas.. Don McKellar played the Thief in Blindness, and he wrote the screenplay for it as well.. I thought that was a nice, albeit purely coincidental, throwback to the first film we screened for the Indioboy Movie Club..

The second one, also initiated by Harold, was that they couldn't believe that Mia Kirshner did the topless scenes before she was of legal age.. She was.. I did the math.. Every time one of her breasts would flash, Harold and Gino P would call out "Sixteen?!"

Oh yeah, Ayo fell asleep towards the end.. But that was because of all the work he's been doing for the past few weeks..

All in all, the screening went better than I had expected.. The guys (and Chyna) seemed to enjoy the film very much despite its slow pace and dismal mood.. Can't wait for the next Movie Club screening night..