Nestled on the ground floor, on the side of One McKinley Place at the Fort, is the new salon of Louis Philip Kee. For many discriminating personages, both women and men, Louis has been the “key” (yes, pun intended) to one’s hair care and grooming for several years now. Attached to various salons over the years, Louis finally opened the doors to a salon that proudly carries his name; and has also been earmarked as one of the high-end salons in Manila that L’Oreal’s premium hair care line, Kerastase, has fully endorsed and supports.
I first met Louie in the 1990s, when he was a guest stylist at the James Cooper Salon in Makati. Back then, dabbling in show business, as a katana-wielding, versed-in-martial arts villain, was part of Louie’s resume. He’s traded in the katana for hair scissors and blow dryers, and his gift for gab, has come in handy as he talks about this dream-fulfilled salon. With private rooms on the side, and more than comfortable, wide, plush individual sofa seats and foot rests, the salon is all about privacy, comfort and service. While he loathes to drop the names of his regular clients, I know that people such as Tessie Sy-Coson, her sister Betty Sy, Virgie Ramos. Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio, Khristine Gabriel and Maureen Santiago, all count Louie as their hair “guru.” Similarly, from Cebu, Annie Aboitiz, Amanda Luym-Aboitiz and Margot Osmeña all find time to fly in and make regular visits. From show busines, there’s Francine Prieto, Krista Ranillo, Pia Pilapil, Dang Cecilio, and the cousin of Louie’s business partner, Yamani Ongpauco — Heart Evangelista. Among his male clients, we can count Tony Tan Caktiong and Russell Sobrepeña. With a team of highly trained professionals, Louie feels that the new salon is the highlight of his foray into the industry.
Kerastase enthusiastically joins Louie in this endeavor, as the Salon is equipped with the hair analysis machine that allows one to “prescribe” the ideal Kerastase hair products and treatment. The Salon also offers RF treatments for body and skin toning, hair extensions, eyelash extensions, waxing, and specialized spa treatments. Truly, when it comes to concerns about one’s crowning “mane,” Louie holds the “key.”
Putting action into words
If the cliché has us putting words into action, the novels this week turn that cliché around, giving us fast paced plotlines, and in the case of Beat the Reaper and The Steel Remains, streamlined action sequences that leap off the pages. Beat the Reaper is a medico-thriller from a new writer, while The Steel Remains is a sword and sorcery epic from an established master of the fantasy and sci-fi field. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a sprawling story that deals with the rarefied worlds of corporations and publishing, and the fine art of manipulation.
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell (available at National Bookstore and Fully Booked): Meet Peter Brown, an intern at Manhattan Hospital. On his way to work one morning, someone tries to mug him and we watch as with deft aplomb, he disarms the mugger with exacting efficiency. When doing his rounds, Peter stumbles across one Nicholas Labrutto, a Mafia underling, who cowers in fear, insisting that Peter is Pietro Brwna, a Mafia hitman known as Bearclaw, who had testified against the Mob and gone under the Federal Witness Protection Program. Welcome to the debut novel of Josh Bazell, a doctor by profession and soon to be celebrated medical crime writer. The alternate chapters of life in the hospital and the story of how Pietro got enmeshed with the Mob and became the famed hitman and eventually testified against his Boss make for a gripping thriller that satisfies on all counts. Think Richard Price in a hospital setting.
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan (available at Fully Booked): After writing great noir-novels set in the future, Richard Morgan returns with a foray into the sword and sorcery fantasy genre. Set in some bleak future when small kingdoms are established, and relations with beings who aren’t quite human are the accepted norm, The Steel Remains brings us three main characters who had banded together in some war, and are now living the Life post war-hero, and finding difficulty fitting into Society. There’s Ringil, who happens to be gay as well, there’s Archeth, a female seer (also gay), and there’s Egar, a tribal chieftain who’s modeled after Attilla the Hun. This is fantasy with a strong visceral twist, replete with very adult themes and notions. If you enjoyed Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings world, but felt the characters lacked humanity and gritty emotional realism, this is the book for you.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Available at National Bookstore and Fully Booked): Larsson passed away shortly after delivering the manuscripts for his trilogy of novels; and if this first installment is any gauge, we’ve lost a great writer. A journalist by profession, Larsson had hoped to take on themes of the modern corporate world, the publishing world, and how corruption, manipulation and deceit are bywords in these worlds. This he achieves with a compelling murder mystery story and a unique cast of main characters. Henrik Vanger is an eighty something industrialist, with a family that “eats bones for breakfast.” He contracts financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist to look into the still unexplained disappearance of his niece Harriet some 25 years ago. And there’s Lisbeth Salander, a security specialist who becomes enmeshed in the whole drama. The characters are fully realized, and the story unravels with fast-paced, yet detailed, precision! Can’t wait for the second novel!