2019

Netnet Camomot

THE first “Blade Runner” was released in 1982. All I remember of it was, it was dark. Hardly any sun in its scenes. It’s a futuristic movie set in the year 2019, which would be 37 years later if you were watching it in 1982.

In 1982, I didn’t even know Ninoy Aquino. But on Aug. 21, 1983, when he was assassinated, I began to learn who he was.

In 1982, I waded through floods along the University Belt.

In 1982, I watched movies at Recto in Manila where standingoom-only was the norm, after which I’d drop by National Book Store’s Recto branch, and then have a McChicken sandwich, fries, and soda at McDo Morayta.

1982 is so long ago, my body weight was not even 120 pounds then. I was thin, with long straight dark brown hair, long red nails, I wore makeup and heels to school, and that look continued on to the corporate world, with a few changes—the hair morphed to curly long brown hair.

And then, I went into a business that didn’t require the corporate look, so, my face went bare, the hairstyle became short like a man’s, the nails also went short, flats replaced the heels, and the dresses morphed to jeans and leggings. I realized that was the most comfy look ever—with a bare face and wash-and-wear hair, I could get dressed in less than 30 minutes.

Change is the most constant even in our physical appearance. Try reviewing your photos since 1982, or since the day you were born if you were born after 1982. It wasn’t merely the fashion style of a particular year that influenced your preference. You always had a choice, anyway, with comfort as your main goal.

I went through flowery tops that could have attracted bees. Humongous tops like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Large cloth ribbons on blouses care of a once popular fashion designer in Cagayan de Oro which made a cousin in Manila exclaim, Ribbon gyud?!

Nowadays, I prefer navy and black. Reducing choices to a few possibilities has made my life simpler. I’ve expanded those limited choices to my diet which has been reduced to fish, veggies, and water, with chicken as a treat unless my favorite switches to McDo’s Filet-0-Fish.

But there we were, munching on flavored French fries last Friday while watching “Blade Runner 2049.” Midway through this huge carton of fries, I began to think of its effect on my mile-wide hips, and threw the whole carton away.

Yes, the second “Blade Runner” is set in 2049, which will be 32 years from now. But it has been showing since last Friday at a theater near you. The film’s most important date, however, is 6.10.21, which could confuse the skeptical and cynical—June 10, 2021? Oct. 6, 2021?

Try reading expiration dates for drugs. No, not shabu—I don’t think illegal drugs have expiration dates. Legal drugs, the ones with prescription. Those teeny weeny figures are usually written at the bottom of a pad of tablets or capsules, or written somewhere on the bottle that contains the medicine, and you need a magnifying glass to ensure you have the right date. 2018 may look like 2016 and vice versa. It’s now 2017, you’re reading the expiration date as 2018, but what if it’s 2016? Que horror!

Anyway, with all the changes life has gone through since the first “Blade Runner,” you’re expecting the second one to have some changes, too. After all, it has been 35 years since 1982 when the first one was released. But it’s still dark, with no sunshine.

Screenplays are so fond of a dark future. Tsk tsk. But then, no one predicted the Marawi siege to happen this year.

2019—the year set for the first “Blade Runner”—will be two years from now, and I’m looking forward to a shiny weather, the green trees outside my window in the room with a view to remain green, and I’ll listen to Mayor Oscar Moreno’s “What a Wonderful World” instead of “Blade Runner’s” soundtrack which seems to imitate metal rubbing against metal.

2019 will be the next elections in Pinas, and some hopefuls are already prepping for that by filing cases against Moreno who will of course continue to sing, “I see trees of green, red roses too/I see them bloom for me and you/And I think to myself what a wonderful world.” The power of positive thinking.

But for this year, I’d rather listen to Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979”: “Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time/On a live wire right up off the street/You and I should meet/Junebug skipping like a stone/With the headlights pointed at the dawn/We were sure we’d never see an end to it all/And I don’t even care to shake these zipper blues/And we don’t know/Just where our bones will rest/To dust I guess/Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below.”