My Favorite Robert Redford Movie

May 25-31 Edition 

Temple of Gold 

Bienvenido Santos 

Robert Redford

One of my all time favorite novels is Temple of Gold by William Goldman. I identified with the adolescent angst of the narrator, Raymond, a.k.a. Euripides, and his best friend Zack. I read it when I was 17 and living in Santa Rosa, Laguna. I remember reading Goldman's other books Brothers and Magic when I was 16 and living in Morong, Rizal. I'm now in Cebu, starting to learn screenwriting. Goldman also wrote the screenplay of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," the Oscar-winning theme, is Huggybear's Favorite Song From BJ Thomas 

Bienvenido Santos, one of my favorite Filipino writers, wrote two of my favorite short stories. I was still a kid when I first read his story "A Scent of Apples" from the Philippine Prose and Poetry series. It belonged to my dad who died when I was too young too remember. "When I was in Kalamazoo..." I included the hero of another of his story, "Courage," about a stoic teacher suffering from a deadly disease, in "My Most Unforgettable Literary Characters." That was one of my earliest articles, published in 2005 in Philippine Panorama. The title is inspired by the Reader's Digest section My Most Unforgettable Character. The other stars in my article include Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the little traveling boy from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I'm a great fan of Robert Redford. I have a poem, "The Vampire Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Redford." It appeared in Philippine Graphic in 2005, chosen for publication by the late great literary editor Adrian Cristobal. It's a nod to Robert and a tribute to Bienvenido Santos, the title inspired by one of his novels, The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor

Robert Redford is the star of two of my favorite movies of all time. The first is Havana. Directed by Sydney Pollack, it shows the best performances of Lena Olin, Alan Arkin, Tomas Milan and the late Raul Julia. I feel a deep empathy with his character Jack Weil, a traveler and a risk-taking non-conformist who has mastered the art of letting go. I streamed the full movie here on 2Rivers in 2010 but the original uploader had some copyright issues

My favorite scene in Havana is when Jack explains the scar on his arm, which he rubs for good luck. There's a diamond sewn inside. "The idea is, no matter what happens, no what matter what they do to you, you still have that one chance. You still have that diamond."

The other is Sneakers, directed by Phil Alden Robinsons who also did Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. I'm out of my head in admiration for the screenplay and the perfect chemistry of the cast: Sidney Poitier, Mary McDonell, Dan Akroyd, David Strathairn, Ben Kingsley, James Earl Jones and the late River Phoenix. I can watch it over and over again

Jonathan Aquino's Journal

May 23, 2013 
10:14 p.m., Thursday 
Lahug City, Cebu 

My story on David Ogilvy is part of the latest (May) issue of the Cebu-based City Career Guide magazine. On the cover is model Navigail Bleinagel, and my photo and profile are also featured. This is the first time I'm going to frame an article of mine because I love the layout. My Ogilvy story also appeared last month in Philippine Panorama. It was originally published in 2009 in The Philippine Star. I just finished writing stories on Bienvenido Santos and Robert Redford though I'm supposed to be finishing my latest screenplay 

I'm facing some personal issues at the moment. As a way of marking a life event without going inelegantly too public, I tweeted on Facebook the other day: "I won't complain. But I pray for the strength to overcome it. This too shall pass. I will survive."

Earlier, I posted some lines from "Never Surrender" as a reflection of how I feel about what I'm going through. Naturally, there's a link to Huggybear's Favorite Song From Corey Hart

An hour or so ago, I finished writing my revised profile for 2Rivers which I'll post this coming Saturday. Here it is:

I'm Jonathan Aquino, a.k.a. Huggybear. I'm a freelance writer from the Philippines. My poetry, fiction and wide-ranging articles have appeared in major publications. My Saturday night blog 2Rivers is a celebration of music, movies, literature and self-expression. I learned writing from Winston Churchill and Charles Lindbergh, and editing from DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader's Digest. My favorite novel is Shibumi by Trevanian. The books that changed my life are Carlos Castañeda's Journey To Ixtlan, Wayne Dyer's Your Erroneous Zones, Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Tony Robbins' Unlimited Power, Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, Shirley MacLaine's Out On A Limb and Dancing In The Light, Jose Silva's Silva Mind Control Method For Getting Help From Your Other Side and Jane Roberts' The Further Education of Oversoul Seven. I'm a traveler and a seeker on a quest for deeper spiritual knowledge. I love tuna and watermelon. I also love dogs and horses but I don't eat them. I believe in freedom and simplicity. My life philosophy is summed up in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance: "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius..."