Almost everyday, right after I wake up, while I do some stretching and five-minute reflections, I am always greeted by the larger-than-life billboard of Marian River right in front the condominium where I am staying beside Boni Avenue.
I am not a fan of Marian River,a and I have not watched a single movie that starred her, so I am not in a position to judge her acting prowess. Basing, however, on some of her television soaps, I am wont to believe that nothing much can be expected of her as far as acting is concerned.
The billboard outside, on the other hand, is a different story. The woman outside is not the woman I once watched doing a failed attempt on giving a convincing role of a woman scorned, a mermaid wanting acceptance, or a woman victimized by fate. In fact, the reason her pictured endeared her to me is that unobtrusive presence in spite of the fact that her face is painted on a 20 meters by 10 meters tarpaulin blocking the already non-existent horizon bounded by the Ortigas skyline. Her pretentious smile is devoid of any trace of intention to please anyone.
The picture of Marian Rivera outside exists for its own sake. The billboard ad itself is even dumb, uninteresting, and not intellectually challenging. But these concerns are not at all important for the medium of the message becomes the subject.
Marian Rivera successfully transforms the drab and grey outline of the view outside my window and adds color to what is otherwise a boring panorama of abandoned warehouses, high-rise condominium, and early-morning smog. Something that the real-life actress of the same name failed to convince that she can be a believable Marimar, Dyesebel, or a woman taken from somebody else’s ribcage.
Today’s rain failed to dampen the glow of her stares at me.
Going against the current 
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