Making the sixties more alive!
The recent celebration of 10 years of Olay in the Philippines was obviously one of skincare beauty. But an interesting sidebar was how it was also a potent lesson of how riding gracefully into the sunset can still be done with renewed vigor and achievement — and sunset can be put on hold indefinitely.
The three variants of Olay Skincare were represented by actress Janella Salvador, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach and Charo Santos-Concio. And of special interest to me was Charo and Regenerist, the Olay Age-Defying product line. This because if anyone is qualified to write the book on how one treats 60 as just a number, that person would be Charo! Since her retirement early this year as media conglomerate ABS-CBN’s president and CEO, Charo has turned heads by making entertainment headlines in a big way.
Beauty queen, celebrated actress, TV host/producer, and even more admired corporate executive would already be a much envied career path, and one that one can rest one’s laurels on. But made of sterner stuff, Charo faced mandatory retirement and scoffed at the cliches of Senior Citizen status. Reigniting her acting bug she played the lead character in Lav Diaz’s Ang Babaeng Humayo, and the film garnered the top prize Golden Lion award at this year’s Venice International Film Festival. Venice, Cannes and Berlin are the Big 3 of the global film festivals. Humayo is a gut-wrenching drama about a woman wrongly imprisoned and now seeking retribution, where Charo gives us an acting tour de force that is both exhilarating and exhausting in a good way.
Held at the Bonifacio Hall of Shangri-La at the Fort, the Olay event was wonderfully conceptualized as a presentation of the three ambassadors being serenaded after their “reveals.” Janella had her mom, Jenine Desiderio, singing to her; while Pia had the pleasure of having Piolo Pascual croon a standard in her honor. As for Charo, the night took on a special hue when two of her granddaughters, Julia and Talia, rendered Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Making a mockery of the title lola, Charo was radiant and regal as she joined Janella and Pia at the round table tête-à-tête that ensued after the serenades.
Janella represents the Olay White Radiance line that has more to do with brightening skin tone, offsetting blemishes and facial skin problems that beset young girls; while Pia handles the Total Effects products that have to do with evening skin tone, part of everyday maintenance and keeping that healthy countenance. For Charo, the anti-aging Regenerist formulation helps reduce lines and provides protection and hard-core moisturizing. No matter what age, Olay is there to help Filipina women be their “best beautiful.”
Something in the air
There’s suspense stamped on these three novels. What is amazing to note is how differently the three authors create this suspense quotient. Hawley’s is the most accessible, stripped from today’s headline while Vyleta conjures an alternative Britain of the early 1900s. As for Hurley, it’s a deceptive meditative piece that has something sinister lurking underneath.
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (available at National Book Store) From the creator and writer of the Fargo FX TV series comes this novel that takes you into its viselike grip. Given Hawley’s provenance, it is not surprising to discover that this tale makes it a specialty of prolonging the suspense factor without overstaying its welcome. On a private jet taking a media mogul and his family, along with a hotshot lawyer and his wife, comes a young painter, Scott Burroughs, invited by the wife of the media mogul. When the plane mysteriously crashes, the only survivors are the painter, and JJ, the four-year-old son of said mogul. What makes up the body of the novel is the back stories of those who were on the plane, the tragic aftermath, and in bits and pieces, we are treated to the reveal of why the crash happened. A page-turner with depth and pathos!
Smoke by Dan Vyleta (available at National Book Store) Written like a Dicksenian tale, this fantasy-thriller is set in an alternative early 20th-century England. In this universe, committing and thinking evil thoughts result in people emitting smoke, with soot as the residue left. It becomes a political tool to keep the masses repressed, as the aristocrats and rulers are seemingly smoke-free. We meet Thomas and Charlie, best friends in a very exclusive school. Their problems with the Head Boy; and how Thomas seems destined to being a troublemaker, make for the first half of this engrossing tale. When a Christmas excursion leads them to the estate of Lady Naylor and her daughter, Livia, the plot thickens with suspenseful results. The ensuing struggle between shifting concepts of good and evil, and a finale in the sewers make for a unique read.
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (available on Amazon.com) Richly atmospheric, beautifully written, this is a tight exercise in suspense and malevolence coming out of what seems to be a very mundane sequence of events. The action basically centers around a pilgrimage taken by a band of seemingly very devout Catholics, along with their parish priest, to a desolate seaside town in Northwest England. The priest is a replacement for the one who originally would take them there year after year and had mysteriously passed away. Our narrator is the younger son of one of the families, along with his then mute brother. What transpired, why the former priest suddenly died, and how events from our childhood haunt us for the rest of our lives, all make for this tension-filled package. This one relies on making the ordinary transform to sinister.
