quarantine week 2
Manila, 28 March—We’re almost fourteen days into this enhanced community quarantine. How have you been, friends? The weekdays bleed into each other, and C has brought to my attention that I have been asking her what day it is every single day LOL. The limited movement has confused me greatly, it seems.
Anyway. I finally got our quarantine pass early this week courtesy of our building administration, so I’ve been able to go out on supply runs and catch much needed sun. The neighborhood 7-11 stocks up on Manam Kare-Kare and Sisig, bless. We need all the bright spots this situation could muster.
Speaking of bright spots: This week’s work assignments include Every Day Heroes—ordinary people pitching in however they could amid the COVID-19 emergency. We’ve found banana vendors, janitor-frontliners, teachers, tower riggers, bakeries—and we’re still looking. I’ve talked to freelance physical therapists, storytellers, photographers, artist-doctors—and honestly, this assignment has led me to precious pockets of light. One can be so lucky.
Personal updates
Anyway, here’s what we’ve been up to this week:
📚 Approaching the end of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree and oh my god. It is SO GOOD I don’t want to finish it! Ugh. The world-building here is so fantastic and the characters jump out of the page. I mean, does it have complex female characters? Yes. Does it have nail-biting fight x adventure scenes? Yes. Does it have queens and dragons? Yes. Is it gay? YES. Does it have a slow burn love story in the middle of its 800+ pages? OH HELL YES. I love every bit of it I don’t want it to end, ugh.
🍿 Finished the series Unbelievable on Netflix, which is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative piece published by ProPublica in 2015, An Unbelievable Story of Rape. Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) delivers a devastating performance as victim Marie Adler, while Toni Collette and Merritt Wever are the detectives tracking a serial rapist victimizing women in separate districts. It's an eight-part miniseries, and it may contain triggering content, especially as the first episode features Adler recounting her assault over and over to male detectives who ultimately did not believe her. We watched the episodes straight, unable to wait for the detectives to meet their comeuppance. Also: More women teaming up as detectives please! Most procedurals are helmed by detectives who are men and their crew—I’d pay to watch more shows with women detectives teaming up and being sassy together while being incredibly empathetic toward victims they are helping.
📊 Fantastic dataviz from The New York Times: How the Virus Got Out
🕹️ Playing in rotation: Mobile Legends and Two Point Hospital (played Theme Hospital on PlayStation as a kid, so this was a nice discovery!)
✍🏽 Passing this along: Award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl’s remarks to 2020 Whiting Awards winners features her Reasons to Keep Writing in this time.
Stay safe always,
K.