Bill and Melinda Gates just announced that they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage, saying that they no longer believe they could grow together as a couple. I was quite surprised because they seemed to be a couple in sync, what with their charity foundation and all that.
This somehow reminded me of a common expression that Filipinos say when a couple breaks up:
Walang forever.
It means no forever.
My Singaporean friend Guo Hao randomly found that phrase on the Internet when he searched for the word “walang” which I had taught him.
When he first said that phrase to me, I was in stitches in astonishment, spluttering: why and how and what?!? This definitely isn’t a phrase that non-Filipinos normally would say.
To top it all off, he decided to say it with this matching gesture:
Recognize that? It’s the Wakanda Forever gesture from Black Panther!
He proceeded to say and do that to every Filipino colleague he met, which got the exact same reaction each time.
Speaking of MCU, another big news today is that Marvel dropped this beautiful teaser trailer:
It’s not a trailer for one but all their upcoming movies with their release dates. Okay maybe not all of the movies had scenes, just the first three.
I was shocked to find out that they are releasing four movies this year: Black Widow (July 9), Shang-Chi (Sep 3), Eternals (Nov 5), and Spiderman: No Way Home (Dec 17).
I was also surprised to find myself getting a bit misty eyed at the lead-up to that announcement. Seeing the cinema reactions to Endgame reminded me of the same reactions I had witnessed when I saw it, too, and made me miss the cinema experience. It’s my empty chair* and one of the biggest things I’ve missed during this pandemic.
I wasn’t the only one either, this was a common sentiment in the Reddit threads. People are also most hyped about Eternals and a lot commented that they were not excited about watching Black Widow before but after this they now want to catch all the MCU movies, so someone should get the trailer guy a raise.
I am so excited to get fully vaccinated so I can watch all those four movies in the cinema this year!
*Empty chair – an episode of This American Life podcast: Things we’ve lost in the past year — since the first American coronavirus case — that we haven’t talked about so much. Gossip. The chance to make new friends. And much larger stuff.
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