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Afterwords

2008-09-07T22:01:00.000+08:00

"And from where is this self-entitlement coming from?" I told a student after he questioned the grades I gave him with an unwarranted outburst. He recites, he says. A lot, making sure that I remember how much he has raised his hand.

"If I gave a point for every time you raised your hand, then you wouldn't need a teacher. Did you even consider if your answers were substantial? If I were to give a grade each and every time you recite, you might even fail more. Do you notice how I have to rephrase the question each time you answer? Do you ever count the number of times I have tried to shake off a more concrete response from your abstractions, most of which you can't even explain? And how many times were you absent? Late? How many quizzes did you miss. You missed 4, we already had 7. And honestly, while you were gone, we had more productive lessons: there were more intelligent questions, and you're classmates aren't distracted by your impish antics, nor by your unthought-of responses that aren't dumb nor dumb enough to be funny. And if you continue complaining about your grade, you will prove my point yourself."

The next hour, I discussed four poems with hardly any interruption.

Subnotebooks Compared: Asus EEE PC, Acer Aspire One, HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and MSI Wind

2008-09-01T14:58:00.005+08:00

I don't know why they're called subnotebooks other than the fact that they're smaller and lighter than your usual notebooks. They tested four very popular subnotebooks, assessing their size, weight, start-up time, battery life, keyboard size, and the verdict...

Will anyone out there come out with a review testing the performance of these subnotebooks? And by performance, I don't just mean keyboard sizes. How fast would it take for a 5mb pdf file open in both computers? Would they freeze in sleep mode? What kinds of programs do they pack in? Do they have photo support, music programs, etc. And how do they compare with what the competitor has to offer?

Art Obsessions: Neo Rauch

2008-08-25T14:44:00.003+08:00

Neo Rauch's paintings speak to me. The uniformed men, the echoes of wartime guilt, the seemingly simple pictures torn off a textbook from my childhood that championed the colonial, and then the pinch of the surreal.

Die Flamme, 2007

Acker, 2002

Einbruch, 1999

Paranoia, 2007

What to Do If Your Cellphone Gets Wet

2008-08-25T14:30:00.002+08:00

Of all the gizmos I have owned, it's only my old Casio Z55 digicam that has suffered getting wet. I was in Bangkok, trying to find something to do on a boring Sunday. I was avoiding the malls and wanted to see life beyond commerce when all of a sudden the rain poured. And that was the last of my first digital camera.

If only I knew this then:

I didn't know rice was a natural desiccant. Then again, I never did understood the principle behind desiccants, only that they came in shoeboxes. I wonder if the same principle applies to massive things like a widescreen TV or a fridge.

HP 2133 Mini-Note PC vs. Asus EEE PC

2008-06-16T14:58:00.004+08:00

Which is better, the Asus EEE PC or the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC? I don't know but we found these videos really helpful:

1. In terms of size:

2. In terms of start-up time on Windows:

3. In terms of start-up time on Windows and Linux:

4. The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC up close:

5. The Asus EEE PC up close:

Madonna: Hard Candy

2008-06-03T08:57:00.007+08:00

Madonna goes back to her roots and I love it! Hard Candy is as sweet as pop was in the 80's, only it's updated with a lot of electronic riffs, hip hop and much more bittersweet melancholy. She has dropped the likes of Mirwais and William Orbit for this project, and opting to work with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams instead who may have given Madonna her umpteenth second wind as the album scores big with a lot of critics. The album is very personal, but it evades the "Shanti Ashtangi" magic of her much beloved Ray of Light, released more than a decade ago.

At 49, Madonna has spent the past decade incorporating trip-hop, Eurodisco and electronica in her music. They're all absent in this album this time, giving way to an unpretentious and poignant dance party. As Cary Ganz of Rolling Stone points out, Madonna's Hard Candy "is an act of submission." The rhetoric of "Hard Candy" is much more contemporary: the collection explores her midlife crisis on her own artistic journey, lambasting record producers indirectly by making use of--ironically--the musical syntax of artists whom record producers may be in love with at the moment.

XNJB Allows Creative Zen on Mac

2008-05-11T14:39:00.006+08:00

After a difficult few months of balancing finances, taking care of a sick parent, and taking more odd jobs left and right just to afford a semblance of a life, I rewarded myself yesterday with an impulse purchase of Creative's Zen MP3 player. Ever since my iPod conked out on me a few months ago, I have been in search of alternatives because I really find it inhuman to spend all that money on an iPod considering the demand should make the technology far cheaper these days. There's this seething feeling inside me that is beginning to hate Apple products for the simple reason that they have become what Microsoft and Windows was a decade ago.

So I spent money on someone else, someone hungrier to churn out better products. And I am very very very happy for focusing attention on Creative's Zen Player. It has everything I need in a digital music player including a built-in microphone to allow you to make voice recordings and offers expandability through an SD card slot. Originally, I wanted to get the 16 gb version but the incompatibility with Mac scared me so I opted to get the baseline 4gb model instead, thinking that I can just use SD cards with the device.

While I can use the player as a glorified SD card reader that allowed me to transfer music files from the Mac to the SD card inside, a little google-ing later presented a beautiful solution that permitted me to connect my Creative Zen player with a Mac. XNJB is a program that allows you transfer and manage files on your Creative Zen player using a Mac computer. It's great and works well. While it may not beat the convenience of a program like iTunes, it is a welcome
reprieve for me. Now I am able to maximize the Zen's built-in storage and still have my SD card slot freed up for other things.

Aside from the price, the Creative Zen player also offers a powerful package that can give Apple a run for its money. It can basically do everything Apple iPods can do: playing music, movies and displaying photos on different formats. It is iTunes compatible (that is iTunes on Windows). I also like the sound quality on this player. I used the same earphones from my old iPod and the sound is better on the Creative Zen, with a fuller bass that doesn't pound the ears as much plus a more precise volume control adjustment.

HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

2008-05-08T21:01:00.005+08:00

Just when I thought I wanted an Asus EEE PC, Hewlett-Packard came out with the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. The full specs for the baseline model are as follows:

Operating system	SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 FreeDOS
Processors available	VIA C7-M ULV processor (1.0 GHz, 128 KB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB)

Memory	512 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Memory slots	1 SODIMM slot

Hard drive

4 GB Flash Module

Display size	8.9-inch diagonal WXGA
Graphics	VIA Chrome 9
Integrated camera	Optional VGA camera

Ports	Standard: 2 USB 2.0 1 microphone in 1 headphone/line-out 1 external VGA monitor 1 RJ-45 1 AC power
Slots	1 Express Card/54 1 secure digital
Audio	ADI1984HD High Definition CODEC; 24-bit DAC; Integrated stereo speakers; Stereo headphone/line out; Stereo microphone in

Network interface	Integrated Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet PCI Controller (10/100/1000 NIC)
Wireless	Integrated Broadcom 4311AG WiFi Adapter

Weight	2.8 lb (1.27 kg)
Dimensions (w x d x h)	10.04 x 6.5 x 1.05 in (255 x 165 x 27 mm)

Battery	3-cell (28 WHr) high capacity Lithium-Ion
Power supply	External 65-watt Smart AC adapter, 6-foot (1.8-meter) power cord included. Total length including external AC adapter is 12 feet (3.66 meter). HP Fast Charge Technology.

Security management

Configuration Control Hardware; Memory Change Alert; Ownership Tag; Setup Password; Power-On Password; Kensington Lock Slot

Warranty - year(s)

HP Services includes a one-year standard parts and labor warranty, pick-up or carry-in, and toll-free 7 x 24 hardware technical phone support (depending on model). On-site service and warranty upgrades are also available.

I personally don't mind going Linux as many people have convinced me of the possibilities plus the fact that it provides a more democratic alternative to Windows and Mac, the latter of course has been more capitalist than ever. But since my PowerBook still has a few more years ahead of it, I am holding out until they release a small notebook that packs in more power. However, the possibility of carrying something like this HP 2133 Mini-Note PC or the Asus EEE PC that is far more lighter and less conspicuous on my back the whole day and in and out of different places is really tempting.

It also doesn't hurt that the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC is far handsomer than the Asus EEE PC.

Other Lives

2008-04-04T00:05:00.003+08:00

Did I ever have a social life? If I did, I miss it: being around people who liked being around you; the camaraderie and brotherhood, the solidarity that allowed you to forget even for a short period of time that I am of this world.

There are other things to miss: my personal space and my personal life. Writing in that space and time, reading a book I really wanted to read, commanding time in this universe as though I were my own god.

Virginia Woolf, my favorite writer, writes: "Only the writer with independent means can have independent views."

And I wonder if I have truly independent means to be my own self as everything I am seems to be connected to some wayward institution I really don't care much for.

I also miss friends. Especially the ones I've lost and the ones I've left behind. It kills me to think that I can't be with a lot of them but we all have other lives now. Other lives that may amount to nothing in this magnanimous universe.

I look back to the last few years and I am amazed at how far I've gone and how far I have gone despite being in the same place throughout. I miss myself a lot, and I feel I will never be whole.

Winners-Losers: The Heat is On (The State of Philippine Affairs According to Conventional Wisdom)

2008-04-02T01:37:00.002+08:00

(Found this in my inbox. Hilarious. I will kneel to whoever wrote this).

WINNERS – LOSERS : THE HEAT IS ON.

From the Greedy Group to the Gucci Gang. From Jamby to Janina. From Ramielle Malubay to Rovilson & Marc. Conventional Wisdom is at it again. To rant. To rave.

The Season of Lent is a good time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly events we have been experiencing for the past months. Conventional Wisdom (CW), a firm believer in the saying what will not kill you will only make you stronger, is back and fortunately, has not succumbed to aneurysm caused by the scandals heaped upon by the likes of Gretchen, Kris, Ruffa last year. Unfortunately, only to be replaced by even bigger scandals these past months. Read on, and find out the latest score card.

The Gucci Gang vs. Conned-Aussie-Gay-Guy-With-HIV-Seeking-Revenge- Through-His-Blog (CAGGWHIVSRTHB). Losers. Probably the biggest and hottest scandal du-jour after the ZTE. Gloria Arroyo should be sending thank you notes or better yet, cash (via Western Union) to Brian (the CAGGWHIVSRTHB) for taking the heat out of the Senate ZTE investigation. Giving us, the masses, what can only be described as a nuclear melt-down to gawk at.

Spanning two continents, the blog features a cast of thousand beautiful people (ok, not all beautiful. As the acronym T.I.M. Y.A.P. rightfully spells : T. Inang Mukha Yan, Ang Pangit) involve in drugs, sex in all its permutations, and con artists posing as society boys and girls. The blog tackled a whole range of delicious topics ranging from suspense (a murder cover up inside an exclusive condo), action (police raid of someone's room in the middle of the night in picturesque Boracay) comedy (the clam chowders, or married rich men who actually like other men, but pamper their trophy wives to death), horror and science fiction (all the fat, ugly, and balding high society people who think they are svelte, gorgeous and, with full hair), sex (someone asking for head inside a running elevator), and documentary (a dissection of someone's personal hygiene). This is Discover Channel at its Best. Brian's blog makes Gossip Girl, Devil Wears Prada, and The Nanny Diaries look like The Sound of Music. Next to Celine Lopez, Kris Aquino is a nun. The blog is vile, dirty, bitchy, and oozing with venom. CW likes it. We may not wear Gucci. We may not be able to set foot in your clubs. We go to StarMall instead of Greenbelt 5. We ride on that can of sardines masquerading as MRT, and we buy our lunch from the Jolli-jeep. But we do honest work for an honest pay. And we live real, meaningful lives. Thank you very much.

The Greedy Group vs. Whistle-Blower-Probinsyanong-Instik-Who-Suddenly- Found-Instant-Fame-And-Is-Now-Acting-Like-A-Politician (WHPIWSFIFAINALAP). Losers. While the Gucci Gang Scandal has a cast of a thousand beautiful people, the Greedy Group Scandal features a cast of a thousand ugly people. The investigation tackled a whole range of yummy topics ranging from melo-drama (must the star witness always cry and look perplexed and constipated?), sex (a witness who can not testify for fear of being outed by at least two senators who themselves should be outed), comedy (hambur-jer, bukol, tong-pats. A surprise witness who caused the senators to be surprised), action (a man kidnaped at the airport, brought to Laguna, and before one can say Sister Act III, was rescued by nuns), and a whole lot of mystery (money by the billion dollars, and who the hell is F.G.?).

Jun Lozada (J.Lo) and Joey De Venecia . Winner – Loser. Winner for preventing that dirty ZTE deal to push through and, exposing the shenanigans of the very dirty Abalos. Losers because as the feisty Miriam would say "this is just a fight for kickbacks". Pare-pareho lang kayo. If anything, Joey is a winner for being instrumental in the removal of Yoda (his over staying father) as speaker of the house, and as the head of his political party. To this, thank you Joey. On a lighter side, CW's officemate is wondering if the real father of Joey de Venecia is Mayor Sanchez of Caluan, Laguna. Not because they both committed heinous crimes, but they both sport heinous hair-dos. As for J.Lo. CW thinks he is telling the truth. Well, most of of the time anyway. But please, Clarissa Ocampo he is not. CW finds J.Lo too glib, too showbiz, and too politician for comfort. The act is fast becoming stale, J.Lo. As the Melanie Marquez would say : You can cry once, you can cry twice, you can even cry thrice…but you can never cry four. CW does not want to think the fate awaiting this man once his usefulness has dried-up.

Benjamin Abalos. Loser. CW can not think of an adjective to describe this creature. Except, Ang Tigas ng Mukha Mo! You are about to kick the bucket Mr. Abalos, so think of the legacy you are leaving behind your grandchildren. All carrying the Abalos name. Please, have some decency.
PGMA. Winner. Evil. Bitch. Ingrate. Medusa. Galema. And these are just some of the flattering adjectives heaped on this Teflon president. Stick and stones may hurt her bones, but last time we checked (March 16, 2008 4:30 pm), she is still the President of the country. Happily hopscotching on the grounds of Malacanang via her Unity Walks with the governors, mayors, students, barangay tanods, security guards, nightclub bouncers, and the transvestites of Makati Avenue. To this, Gloria can only say : "Isaksak mo sa baga mo Joe De V., at mamatay ka sa inggit Erap."

Print Ads Supporting PGMA. Losers. Funny that those expensive full-page ads supporting GMA mushroomed only AFTER the crucial inter-faith rally. These seguristas waited to see the full effect (which is nil, by the way) of the much ballyhooed rally before showing their support. And the ads are getting weirder and weirder by the day. From an obscure mayor of a forgotten town in Abra to the tricycle driver's association of Malolos, Bulacan. Please! Trees gave up their lives to have those precious papers printed.

The Inquirer. Loser. A Tabloid pretending to be a Broadsheet. No offense meant to tabloids, of course. At least, tabloids are cheaper, and they have Dear Xerex. While the Inquirer has sensationalism, bias-ness, yellow journalism, and Dolly Ann Carvajal. Enough said.

The Philippine Star. Loser. For having all those pseudo-writers in its stable. Especially those "lifestyle, entertainment, and fashion writers (read: The Gucci Gang and Butch Francisco)" whose only qualification is their connection to the publisher.

The Manila Bulletin. Winner - Loser. CW calls this the autistic newspaper. May sariling mundo. While most local newspapers would have the same headline (ex. ZTE scandal or Inter-faith rally), the Manila Bulletin's headline is about the arrival of some African head of state. They say Ignorance is Bliss, but this is overdoing it. CW wouldn't be surprised if there would be a tsunami today at the Manila Bay, and Bulletin's headline tomorrow would be about the 100th anniversary celebration of GSIS.

Jamby Madrigal. Loser. Is there a cure for verbal diarrhea? This woman has the rare ability to consistently embarrass not only herself but the institution she represents. The senate seat that rightfully belongs to Judy Ann Santos is now being occupied by this Miriam-wannabe. And what a mess she is doing. While Sen. Santiago is as volatile, at least Miriam has the brains, the articulateness, and the legs for the people to forgive, smile, and look the other way. But there is hope for Jamby. Once in a rare while, she can mouth relevant statements too. To Sen. Pia Cayetano, she admonished: " instead of doing marathon, cycling, triathlon, synchronized swimming, sepak-takraw,and tumbang-preso….. e mag-trabaho ka sa senado." Or something to that effect. Winner!

Stock Market. Loser. From a high of 3,800 points last year to 2,800 points last week. CW has been losing sleep over the fate of the meager investments it made culled from CW's pathetic Christmas Bonus last year, puny Annual Merit Increase last January and Vacation Leave commutation in February. Please, dear patron saint of stock markets, make the Philippine stock performance bullish again. That investment is meant for an out of the country vacation this September. At the rate the stock market is going, CW's dream vacation will not happen in Bhutan, but in Hinulugang Tak-tak, Antipolo.

Manny Pacquiao. Winner. Whatever his detractors say, whatever clouds of doubt hovering about his latest win, the fact remains that this pugilist has brought so much honor and cheer for the country. Filipinos desperately need something to be happy and rally about even for one day. For whatever shortcomings he may have as a person, Manny is indeed a modern day hero. As the Melanie Marquez would say to her detractors, "bago kayo mamintas, mag bigay muna kayo karangalan sa bansa."

Janina San Miguel. Winner. Yes. CW thinks this woman is a winner. She has the support of her Pamily. And she did land in the Taf ten. Ever! She didn't lose her cool. She has the humility to apologise. She won Best in Gown and Swimsuit. And went on to win the Bb. Pilipinas-World crown. Yes, CW was cringing and writhing in pain during her Q&A. It was as excruciating as having a root canal without anasthesia. But come on guys, we have fielded supposedly intelligent, law-taking, cum-laude, model-model, piano-playing types in international pageants and they all landed as "thank you girls" nevertheless. CW has a strong feeling that Janina will pull out a surprise and redeem herself. Ever! I thank you.

Gretchen Barreto. Loser. Like the ghosts in the movie Poltergeist, She's baacccckkk! CW is seriously considering to install this …this…. woman in it's Hall of Fame for causing nationwide nausea with her antics. The national mistress is desperately crying out for help. Someone call Dra. Holmes. Call Dra. Vicky. Call Dr. Quack-quack. To be quoted as saying "Even I AM fascinated by Gretchen Barreto" is the height of delusion of grandeur. Someone call Security. CW suggests that for her next album, Gretchen should include two appropriate Tagalog songs to reflect the current state of her life : "Sino ang Tunay na Baliw?" back to back with "Ikaw".

Nadia Montenegro. Loser. For calling Gretchen "baboy". Huuwaaattt?

The Gutierez women. Losers. From Ruffa's ka-cheapan to make a mountain out of a molehill "snob" by Lani Mercado (she left my pretty pouty lips on air), to her smug unsolicited advice to Bb. Pilipinas World's Taf Ten, Janina San Miguel. Ruffa honey, you had your time as a beauty queen many, many, many years ago. And you did not exactly win the Ms. World title, did you? And oh, your pretty pouty lips? One word : Collagen. So shut up. Of course, like daughter-like mother. The recent challenge of Anabelle to Lolit na "mag-suntukan na lang tayo"is another classic fish-wife statement from Anabelle. If this suntukan pushes through, this will be a boxing match to end all boxing matches. Rama vs. Solis : The Unfinished (show) Business. Susunod!! Ekslusibbbooo! Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you the Gutierez women - beautiful, outspoken, and cheap. From Anabelle, to Ruffa, to Raymund.

Angel Locsin and her manager. Losers. She once lorded it over at GMA-7 as the station's crown jewel. Was offered the role of Marimar, rejected it for a higher offer by ABS-CBN. Looks like this mercenary is losing the gamble she made. Wrong career move dear. ABS-CBN has already many talents to compete against. It's a virtual chopseuy of reigning and soon-to-be queens ranging from Anne Curtis to Bea Alonzo. From Kris Aquino to Claudine Barreto. From Toni Gonzaga to KC Concepcion. And of course, from Piolo Pascual to Sam Milby.

Ruffa Mae Quinto vs. Jessa Zaragosa. Losers. These two starlets should be completely ignored fighting over Ding-Dong. And it is not even Dantes.

Ramielle Malubay. Winner. Conventional Wisdom may be bias here but Ramielle should already be declared a winner. She may not be the best singer in the lot, and most likely will not win the AI title. But top ten is good enough. Ramielle is a winner for being proud of her heritage. She made it clear on day 1 that she IS Filipino. Unlike that Hawaiian girl who only re-packaged herself as Filipino when she attempted to launch a career in The Philippines. She failed.

Arnel Pineda. Charice Pempengco. Happy Slip. Cebu Dancing Inmates. And yes, even Renaldo Lapuz. Winners. Modern day techonology is indeed a great leveller. Take any ordinary video cam. Combine with Youtube. Add pure Filipino talent. Sprinkle with determination and luck. Boil, simmer and serve. Voila, international careers. These Filipinos are showing the world why this country is the music capital of Asia. It's in our blood, it's in our psyche. We can not live without music. Hard core prisoners : they dance. A senator's reaction when an envelope is not opened : She danced. Walking down the aisle (see Jessica Rodriguez): She sung. People Power : we sing and dance. The international press got it wrong. Those were not bloodless revolutions - those were Grand Fiestas.

Marc and Rovilson. Winners. You did us proud. Funny, fair, competent and clean players. Not to mention, attractive. You represented the country very well in that Race. CW pretended to clear its throat so as not to choke when Marc and Rovilson proudly carried the Philippine flag to the finish line despite the third placement. Amazing grace, indeed.

Manila Concert Scene. Winner-Loser. From Beyonce to Maroon 5. From Harry Connick to Ne-Yo and Mandy Moore. Real world–class concerts that show the world how safe and rockin Manila is. How competent our organizers are, and how cosmopolitan the Manila audience can be. But please…enough with the likes of Matt Monroe Jr… Cascades Jr….ABBA Jr…Lettermen Jr. Come on! Conventional Wisdom would rather watch the Golden Divas in Concert (Carmen Soriano, Carmen Patena, and Pilita Corales) than see those American geriatrics.

Sam-Piolo vs. Lolit. Losers. Old issue but relevant still. Lolit for embroiling herself into yet another controversy. Unbelievable that she is still at this game despite her age. Lolit, you are dangerously taunting the gods once again. Give it a rest granny. Go buy yourself a rocking chair and do cross-stich instead. Sam and Piolo are losers for actually going to court to deny they are gays. WTF?! Who do they think they are? Tom Cruise? Who ever advised these boys to go to court should be penalized by staring at the face of Boy Abunda for life. The official alibi of Sam is that he can not be at the Sofitel canoodling with Piolo because he was at some Robinson's Galleria beauty salon having his hair colored. Go figure.

David and Jessica Buenavacz. Losers. This social climbing couple had it coming. To be exposed as using other people's money to buy luxury goods (ex. BMW for her when she lost in a singing contest) is the height of bad taste at ka-cheapan. Last time we heard, this power couple ran in haste to escape the wrath of the business partners they conned. And in law, flight is indication of guilt. CW has an axe to grind against Jessica and David. CW is still undergoing counselling after that traumatic experience watching Jessica sing in her wedding dress while walking down the aisle (escorted by Mark Jimenez) to be given away to that Neanderthal man. Surreal scene. It was like witnessing a road accident. You know you shouldn't stare, but you just can't help it.

Filipino indie Movies. Winners. Shoestring budget plus a good story line plus nameless talented actors equals international recognition. This only proves that you don't have to be a big movie company to gain recognition in the international arena. Conventional Wisdom's only complain is that 99% of Filipino indie movies can be reduced to three themes: Poverty, Prostitution, and Homosexuality. While CW recognizes that these are realities in our society, please try other themes beyond the formula. CW doesn't want to vacation in France and be asked by an ignorant local if CW is a poor gay prostitute. This would be a problem because the only French word CW knows is "oui!".

There is a theory that all scandals last 15 days maximum. CW takes refuge in that study. If this is true, then at least we know that we have to brace ourselves for 18 more scandals for the rest of the year. We can then stock-up on Dolfenal, Alaxan, Biogesic, Bonamin, and Diatabs.

As we enter what is touted by PAGASA to be the hottest summer in decades, expect migraines, rising blood pressure, dehydration to happen. As we only have our resilience and humor to count on, we can only mutter this silent prayer: Good Heaven, please spare us from the relentless onslaught of the monsters haunting us in politics, showbiz, high-society, newspaper, the internet, and beauty contests. Let us go on with our our quiet lives. In the name of everything good and decent, make all the losers mentioned above change or disappear forever……ok maybe all except for Annabelle Rama and the juicy Gucci Gang exposes. Amen.

Please forward this email until it reaches DJ Montano, Mayor Sanchez,
Jessica Rodriguez, PSE, and yes, Matt Monroe Jr.

Transitions

2008-03-31T16:01:00.004+08:00

-1-

I downloaded the OpenOffice.org applications as part of my transitioning from Mac to Linux. I first touched the computer on an MS Dos environment before moving to Apple, then to Windows then to Mac OS. It will be my fifth platform, and as with all other transitions, the weight of having to learn new things and allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of something you may never conquer is both exciting and daunting to me.

-2-

And the weather knows no transitions. I carried a jacket with me two weeks ago and talked to friends about the strangeness of March. March signaled the beginning of summer and this year, it came way too late. Some trees were still shedding leaves as though it was still November and the breeze filled your nose with a frigid burn. The Sunday after my birthday, I suddenly hailed a cab en route to lunch with friends 5 minutes away from where I was. Suddenly it has gone hot and humid, and I wonder where all the cold has gone.

-3-

I still have not moved houses yet. But I am getting there. Moving houses has been outright stressful and harrowing for me. There are those financial costs that make me feel that no matter how hard I work, I can never be good enough to deserve the little creature comforts I want. I spoke to the building contractor this afternoon and was pissed by how much she is trying to make everything more expensive than it should be. I know my prices, I've been doing my rounds of home depot window shopping, and if I get fed up with her, I will have it done by someone else. (If you know of any contractors within the metro, please email me).

It's also harrowing to have to put your life in boxes and move it from one place to the next. I am coming to terms with the fact that I cannot take everything with me, and that I have to purge. That's the difficult part. Letting go of the old so I could make room for the new. I was perfectly fine with the life I had and am leaving behind, I don't know why I have to muddle things up by moving and imagining life anew and--at least the private aspect of it--on my own.

-4-

I have been at odds with gout the past 9 days. That's the longest so far. In some symbolic way, I felt it has grounded me home. And at home, I am different from who I once was to my family before.

Strangely, that's how I feel around friends.

Stranger still, that's how I feel around my self.

The Blog Awards Challenge

2008-03-31T12:03:00.006+08:00

I am posting this just in case anyone is interested as I am. The challenge is simple: "The Blog Awards Challenge is a blog competition combining literary skills, interactivity and peer polling. The Blog Awards Challenge is bi-weekly theme-based writing event for everyone in the blogosphere. A challenge is posted in the site every two weeks. Bloggers who wish to compete will write about the theme and post the entry in their respective blogs. A panel of regular and revolving set of guest judges will select the ten best entries out of the submissions. The ten finalists will be posted in the Blog Awards Challenge website and is open for polling by readers. The winner of the poll will automatically become The Readers Choice Award and the points will contribute in the overall tally for judging to determine the Challenge Winner."

So you write a blog based on a predetermined theme every two weeks or so and if what you write is liked, you get to be a finalist vying for the chance to be the champion. I don't know if there's a prize but I'm up for the challenge. My blogs aren't commercially palatable and I don't know if I have serious readers out there. I have consciously avoided telling my friends and family about this blog of mine and hope for serious readership instead, the likes who will stick because they like to, not because they have to.

Anyway, I hope the challenge themes would be as lame as I am. I hate to admit it, my crass engagement with popular culture has been the least inspired. So here's one way to hone it again through this challenge.

Bring it on.

Atonement

2008-03-16T15:34:00.003+08:00

Director Joe Wright and writer Christopher Hampton adapts this wonderful film from the novel by Ian McEwan. I have been tempted on more than one occasion to grab a DVD of Atonement. I'm glad that the busy schedule and work load allowed me to resist that urge because this film was a joy to watch on the big screen.

Masking as a sweeping romantic epic set immediately before World War 2, Atonement is a brilliant cinematic meditation on guilt. Possibly the best one I have seen after Au Revoir Les Enfantes, this film scores big with captivating cinematography punctuated by wonderful musical score that makes use of typewriter keys. It's a nice touch, considering the film plays with the possibility of having written a biographical piece as reparation for something very grave. The love story between Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley) takes the backseat as the former's 13-year old sister Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) witnesses the blossoming romance between the two. Jealous of her sister's clandestine affair with someone from a decidedly lower class and clueless about everything in general, Briony points out Robbie falsely as the man behind a recent sexual assault she has witnessed.

This haunts Briony for the rest of her life. Her atonement is writing the novel, imagining the lives of Robbie and her sister, making assumptions about war's horrors, imagining passion and love to transcend in the lives she ruined. Whether what is narrated is real or not, the seething feeling of guilt pulls through. To pull this off, the film has given much weight to the performances of its wonderful cast, who all manage to lend credibility and believability to their respective parts no matter how big or small.

Sleuth

2008-03-10T14:34:00.003+08:00

Sleuth is an interesting experiment on character development and set design. I don't know how different it is from the original Anthony Shaffer stage play or from the first 1972 film adaptation where "Laurence Olivier tore Michael Caine to pieces in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s vicious screen version".

In this new adaptation, Caine comes back playing Olivier's role as the rich and bitter crime writer, Andrew Wyke while Jude Law plays Caine's original character, Milo, the handsome young lad who will be Wyke's adversary. Wyke and Milo are the only two characters you will see through the entire film as 99% of the events depicted will take place inside Wyke's house. It's hard to empathize with any of the two, and the whole movie can be a taxing ordeal if you are in no mood to dissect egos as big as the ones portrayed and protracted here.

It's a fairly simple plot: Milo visits Wyke's mansion to talk the latter into divorcing his wife who now has affairs with the former so that he can marry her. Unwilling to budge and taking his chances on Milo's lower social class, Wyke points out that a woman like his wife has a voracious appetite for wealth which Milo can never give. Milo is just an affable hair dresser and offers an absurd proposition. What follows is a wily series of verbal and mental twists, as each tries to outwit each other to exact humiliation, revenge and to uphold each other's egos culminating in an unexpected but rather wickedly developed twist in the end.

While I am in no mood to talk about characterization and how the two acted (because they kinda sucked at it--engaging but not brilliant), let me just say that the best character in this film is Wyke's house. The perfect signifier of modern architecture and design, the house is a technological marvel accentuated by the best modern manipulations of glass, steel and concrete. It was meant to be more of a display house rather than something to live in. It is also the best reminder of the invisible wife as the two move constantly inside this cold interior, unknown to us if they are conditioned by their own musings and imagination or if they are being gazed at and manipulated by the woman in-absentia. In any case, the house worked well, and added a multitude of dimensions in trying to gauge the depth and sincerity of the characters it tries to trap inside.

What doesn't work for me is director Kenneth Branagh's film rhetoric. It is confused and thoughtless. He overplays the sleuthing by making use of security footages taken from weird angles, but it's a bit inconsistent and a little all over the place. It's too tedious and a bit inorganic., making it even more difficult to make any emotional connection with either of the two actors on screen despite watching them intimately.

Bulgarian Idol: A Contestant Sings Mariah Carey's "Ken Lee"

2008-03-07T14:54:00.003+08:00

Over at Bulgarian Idol, a contestant sings Mariah's "Ken Lee". This is great, promise:

Jumper

2008-03-07T14:14:00.003+08:00

Saw this movie some time back and I still can't go over the fact that this movie sucks. You would think that something sensible can come out of someone like Doug Liman who directed the Bourne trilogy and a material that played on the possibility of having the power to bend space and time, traveling anywhere at the blink of an eye. Given the material and what appears to be a hefty budget for potentially the coolest visual effects since The Matrix, this movie sucked big time. All I could really think of was to obtain the superpowers they displayed in the film in order to be transported instantaneously from where I was into somewhere else, including hell, just to get away from the atrocity that is Jumper.

Trying to find something redeeming in the movie was a taxing process so let me rant about the bad stuff. The film moves from one scenic location to the next. From the Amazon to Rome, from a remote desert to the streets of Tokyo and yet the cinematography is far from breathtaking. The plot is poorly constructed too, and the motivations weak. After Hayden's character is hunted down by so-called Paladins out to exterminate the world off Jumpers, he revisits his father and high school crush. The father is killed and the girl is mesmerized with Christensen's character and they go to Rome for a romantic spree despite not having seen each other for years and never had clarified what was going on between them since then. Everything goes awry in Rome and you wonder why Hayden's character loves the Ann Arbor's character so much.

At the core of all these is Hayden Christensen who is blessed with killer looks but can't act any better than a log. It was a mistake to have pinned hopes on him doing something good--or passable--since the bloke can't deliver even if he is assisted by some of the best visual effects from the Star Wars prequels and now Jumper. All he has to do is react to what is going on, and yet he manages to make looking bored so difficult to do. Even Samuel Jackson sucked. His cool persona has been used way too much before, and there really is no point anymore to his attempts at brooding.

While I can't think of any veritable way to end this review, let me show you this review I found on YouTube who will sum everything I failed to discuss here:

Oscars 2008: Nicole Kidman

2008-02-25T09:50:00.000+08:00

Now, how's that for bling?

Oscar 2008: Katherine Heigl

2008-02-25T09:40:00.001+08:00

The best red on the red. Heidi had a grander dress, but the hair and the accessories on this one is great.

Oscar 2008: Penelope Cruz

2008-02-25T09:37:00.000+08:00

Penelope Cruz can do no wrong.

Oscar 2008: Jennifer Hudson

2008-02-25T08:56:00.001+08:00

Ayayayay!!! Her boobs look like an interplanetary space craft.

Oscar 2008: Miley Cyrus

2008-02-25T08:48:00.002+08:00

This was a nice way to look old without losing out the youthful charm: simple clean and crisp lines.

Oscars 2008: Heidi Klum

2008-02-25T07:33:00.002+08:00

We're watching the Oscars, and I am loving Heidi Klum's dress and hair. What's with the bag? Guess it was made to match the earrings.

Martha Buys Emeril

2008-02-21T06:47:00.000+08:00

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. is bringing in a new celebrity: popular TV chef Emeril Lagasse.

The New York-based media and merchandising company founded by domesticity maven Martha Stewart announced Tuesday that it bought the rights to the Emeril Lagasse franchise of cookbooks, television shows and kitchen products for $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock at closing. The final price could rise to up to $70 million if certain benchmarks are achieved.

Martha Stewart did not acquire Emeril's Homebase, which includes Lagasse's 11 restaurants and corporate office.

Lagasse remains the host of the Food Network's Essence of Emeril, but the food network channel ceased production of Emeril Live late last year, though it continues to air new episodes in 2008.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Food Network said, "We are happy to see that these two great brands will be combining forces and wish both of them the best. All of Emeril's shows will remain on the network, and we also look forward to working with him on future projects."

Martha Stewart Living said the deal will "contribute immediately to our performance," adding $8 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The acquired assets generated $14 million in revenue in 2007.

Martha Stewart Living expects the deal to close in the second quarter.

(From Time)

Endo

2008-02-17T20:17:00.007+08:00

What do you do to a perfectly written and tender-hearted film that can pierce through real and unlegitimized issues without even trying?

You let Cinemalaya ruin it.

I loved the film, don't get me wrong, but somehow I feel the whole experience of watching an independent film is ruined by the practice of product placements and an over-eager ending demanded by the powers that be to explain what happened to audiences whom they think are as dumb as they are. Why do Cinemalaya films have an aura of commercial cinema? Akala ko ba indie?

Despite feeling concessions being made throughout the film and the director being asked to compromise a lot of creative decisions for the sake of profit, this is a beautiful film that deserves to be watched.

At the core of is a finely crafted film that knew its material well. Endo--an abbreviation for "end of contract'--is a film that delves into the problem of permanence in a workforce whose lives are dominated by temporary contracts. Lives are lived six months at a time, people are transposed into environments that can never be owned, and relationships never grow beyond what corporate penny-pinching practices steal from their menial laborers.

When all is said and done, it is still a love story.

Jason Abalos plays Leo, a young man who has run the gauntlet of menial jobs. He has the tough task of supporting his family, while trying to come to terms with his personal relationships that seem to end along with his work contracts. He finally falls in love with Tanya, played by Ina Feleo, another transient worker whose plan for permanence involves securing a high-paying job in a boat. For fear of divulging more than I should, let me just say that complications arise, and Leo and Tanya are forced to rethink whether they want their relationship to end up as another terminal contract.

The cast--from the lead characters down to the support--does an excellent job. They are outshined by Ina Feleo, who is as refreshing as she is talented. It is refreshing to see someone that pretty outshine her physical attributes by knowing her character well and essaying it without the melodramatic antics.

And kudos to director Jade Castro for holding everything together.

Philippine Airlines "Shining Through" 1987

2008-02-16T17:02:00.002+08:00

Orientalism at its finest. I miss those days when you were taught that your country was this beautiful.

Coke Classic Philippine TV Ad 1979 with Tito, Vic & Joey

2008-02-16T16:58:00.000+08:00

True to the tradition of the noontime variety show music! I love it!

White Castle Whisky 1978 Commercial

2008-02-16T16:56:00.001+08:00

Does anyone know who this White Castle girl is? The one I remember is Carmi Martin in the 80's.

San Miguel Beer's 1989 "Sabay Tayo" Commercial

2008-02-16T16:50:00.001+08:00

Nice.

Alice Dixson's "I Can Feel It" Palmolive Commercial

2008-02-16T16:44:00.001+08:00

"I can feel it!"In just seven days.

Adrian and Collin Wins Amazing Race Asia 2

2008-02-14T20:05:00.005+08:00

Adrian and Collin wins the Amazing Race Asia's 2nd Season. They managed to outsmart Marc and Rovilson and Pamela and Vanessa.

Prior to this, Marc and Rovilson were poised to win, outsmarting and outrunning everyone, and never slipping under second place the entire time. They have managed to grab a total of USD20,000 from Standard Chartered, free gas for a whole year from Caltex, 4 Sony Handycams and a tour to South Africa for arriving first on the pit stop a record eight times in eleven legs. The rest of the time they arrived in second. They deserve it, considering they worked well together, did well in Math, had the brawns to run and outmuscle everyone, and managed to keep a smile all throughout without having to mangle anyone's hair in the process.

While Adrian and Collin may have not won as many prizes, they captured the grand prize, a whopping US$100,000.00, a tenth of what the winners in the original Amazing race get.

The finale was an adrenalin rush, and kudos to the Amazing Race Asia's editing team for putting out a spectacular nail-biting end capped by spectacular views of South Africa.

Jumper on American Idol

2008-02-14T19:43:00.005+08:00

Jumper sports a preview on American Idol, lifting a scene from the film to allow Ryan Seacrest to "snuggle up" with Hayden Christensen. Funny? Not really.

I can't help but bite into the homo-eroticism of Ryan Seacrest, especially after that bit when he invites Hayden Christensen to his house to "watch his hosting of the Emmys." Hmmm, while it may make for interesting porn, it won't do good to Idol's image.

It's a wonder how big the show has become. Not only do they sell advertisements, songs and musical artists, they also can sell a film that doesn't need that much selling, unless it's really bad. I have yet to see Jumper myself, but I'm doing that hopefully this weekend to treat myself after a long and tiring week at work.

Fergie in A Spelling Bee

2008-02-14T14:54:00.003+08:00

The Fergilicious spells! To bad she didn't spell delicious.

2008 Grammy Award Winners and Nominees

2008-02-12T08:02:00.000+08:00

Record Of The Year
Rehab, Amy Winehouse
Irreplaceable, Beyoncé
The Pretender, Foo Fighters
Umbrella, Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z
What Goes Around…Comes Around, Justin Timberlake

Album Of The Year
River: The Joni Letters, Herbie Hancock
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Foo Fighters
These Days, Vince Gill
Graduation, Kanye West
Back To Black, Amy Winehouse

Song Of The Year
Rehab
Before He Cheats
Hey There Delilah
Like A Star
Umbrella

Best New Artist
Amy Winehouse
Feist
Ledisi
Paramore
Taylor Swift

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Rehab, Amy Winehouse
Candyman, Christina Aguilera
1234, Feist
Big Girls Don't Cry, Fergie
Say It Right, Nelly Furtado

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
What Goes Around...Comes Around, Justin Timberlake
Everything, Michael Bublé
Belief, John Mayer
Dance Tonight, Paul McCartney
Amazing, Seal

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5
(You Want To) Make A Memory, Bon Jovi
Home, Daughtry
Hey There Delilah, Plain White T's
Window In The Skies, U2

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals
Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On), Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Steppin' Out, Tony Bennett & Christina Aguilera
Beautiful Liar, Beyoncé & Shakira
The Sweet Escape, Gwen Stefani & Akon
Give It To Me, Timbaland Featuring Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake

Best Pop Instrumental Performance
One Week Last Summer, Joni Mitchell
Off The Grid, Beastie Boys
Paris Sunrise #7, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
Over The Rainbow, Dave Koz
Simple Pleasures, Spyro Gyra

Best Pop Instrumental Album
The Mix-Up, Beastie Boys
Italia, Chris Botti
At The Movies, Dave Koz
Good To Go-Go, Spyro Gyra
Roundtrip, Kirk Whalum

Best Pop Vocal Album
Back To Black, Amy Winehouse
Lost Highway, Bon Jovi
The Reminder, Feist
It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5
Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
Icky Thump, The White Stripes
It's Not Over, Daughtry
Working Class Hero, Green Day
If Everyone Cared, Nickelback
Instant Karma, U2

Best Rock Album
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Foo Fighters
Daughtry, Daughtry
Revival, John Fogerty
Magic, Bruce Springsteen
Sky Blue Sky, Wilco

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
No One, Alicia Keys
Just Fine, Mary J. Blige
When I See You, Fantasia
If I Have My Way, Chrisette Michele
Hate On Me, Jill Scott

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
Future Baby Mama, Prince
Woman, Raheem DeVaughn
B.U.D.D.Y., Musiq Soulchild
Because Of You, Ne-Yo
Please Don't Go, Tank

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
Disrespectful, Chaka Khan Featuring Mary J. Blige
Same Girl, R. Kelly Featuring Usher
Hate That I Love You, Rihanna Featuring Ne-Yo
Baby, Angie Stone Featuring Betty Wright
Bartender, T-Pain Featuring Akon

Best R&B Album
Funk This, Chaka Khan
Lost & Found, Ledisi
Luvanmusiq, Musiq Soulchild
The Real Thing, Jill Scott
Sex, Love & Pain, Tank

Best Contemporary R&B Album
Because Of You, Ne-Yo
Konvicted, Akon
Just Like You, Keyshia Cole
Fantasia, Fantasia
East Side Story, Emily King

Best Rap Solo Performance
Stronger, Kanye West
The People, Common
I Get Money, 50 Cent
Show Me What You Got, Jay-Z
Big Things Poppin' (Do It), T.I.

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group
Southside, Common Featuring Kanye West
Make It Rain, Fat Joe Featuring Lil Wayne
Party Like A Rockstar, Shop Boyz
Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You), UGK Featuring OutKast
Better Than I've Ever Been, Kanye West, Nas & KRS-One

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Umbrella, Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z
Good Life, Kanye West Featuring T-Pain
I Wanna Love You, Akon Featuring Snoop Dogg
Kiss, Kiss, Chris Brown & T-Pain
Let It Go, Keyshia Cole Featuring Missy Elliott & Lil' Kim

Best Rap Song
Good Life
Ayo Technology
Big Things Poppin' (Do It)
Can't Tell Me Nothing
Crank That (Soulja Boy)

Best Rap Album
Graduation, Kanye West
Finding Forever, Common
Kingdom Come, Jay-Z
Hip Hop Is Dead, Nas
T.I. vs T.I.P., T.I.

Best Female Country Vocal Performance
Before He Cheats, Carrie Underwood
Simple Love, Alison Krauss
Famous In A Small Town, Miranda Lambert
Nothin' Better To Do, LeAnn Rimes
Heaven, Heartache And The Power Of Love, Trisha Yearwood

Best Male Country Vocal Performance
Stupid Boy, Keith Urban
Long Trip Alone, Dierks Bentley
A Woman's Love, Alan Jackson
If You're Reading This, Tim McGraw
Give It Away, George Strait

Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
How Long, Eagles
Proud Of The House We Built, Brooks & Dunn
Moments, Emerson Drive
Lucky Man, Montgomery Gentry
Sweet Memories, The Time Jumpers

Best Country Song
Before He Cheats
Give It Away
I Need You
If You're Reading This
Long Trip Alone

Best Country Album
These Days, Vince Gill
Long Trip Alone, Dierks Bentley
Let It Go, Tim McGraw
5th Gear, Brad Paisley
It Just Comes Natural, George Strait

Amy Winehouse Performs in the 2008 Grammy Awards

2008-02-12T00:57:00.000+08:00

It was refreshing to see Amy Winehouse's reaction and acceptance speech when she received her award for Record of the Year. This, after being denied a US Visa to attend the Grammy Awards personally.

It's nice to know that some artists who really do deserve it find it surreal that they don't deserve such accolades, unlike Kanye West's reaction in the MTV Awards before. And yes, Kanye West was nominated in the same category.

Ok, so Amy's a crackhead who isn't pretty, but she's made her music and I've heard it and it speaks to me and I like it. I can't understand Kanye's self-indulgent plan to be the best artist of all time, indirectly comparing himself to the likes of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Madonna. It's hard to say who is best, but there is always a place there for someone great. I've heard Kanye's music. I tried to feel and hear its greatness to no avail. And all I really hear is a self-imposed suggestion to think of him great. That or maybe I just loved Amy Winehouse's half-hopeful, half-reflexive reaction after a really really subdued but equally powerful performance. Even if she is a crackhead, who isn't as pretty and as responsible as she should be (so said someone in this forum), it is never about drugs or the ambition or the award. The music speaks for itself.

Jumper

2008-02-10T07:43:00.000+08:00

Finally saw the trailer of Jumper on a significantly larger screen, and I was thrilled by the special effects you don't get to catch on places like YouTube. The details are lost on its 425-pixel screen. Anyway, here goes the 2.5 minute trailer I first saw there:

Forbes: Madonna Richest Woman in Music

2008-02-03T17:56:00.000+08:00

NEW YORK - Madonna is the richest woman in music.

The 49-year-old entertainer leads Forbes.com's list of the top 20 "Cash Queens of Music," earning $72 million between June 2006 and June 2007.

The pop star's "Confessions" world tour pulled in $260 million, Forbes said. She also made money from album sales, her fashion line with H&M and a deal with NBC to broadcast her concert performance at London's Wembley Stadium.

Forbes.com said it compiled the list by examining concert grosses, merchandising revenue, album sales and other revenue from clothing lines, fragrance deals and endorsements.

Barbra Streisand is No. 2 with $60 million, thanks to her comeback tour of North America and Europe.

Celine Dion ranks third with $45 million, largely from her successful "A New Day" show in Las Vegas, which she wrapped up in December after a five-year engagement at Caesars Palace.

Shakira is fourth with $38 million, followed by Beyonce ($27 million), Gwen Stefani ($26 million), Christina Aguilera ($20 million), Faith Hill ($19 million), the Dixie Chicks ($18 million) and Mariah Carey ($13 million).

Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne and Martina McBride each banked $12 million.

Britney Spears ranked 14th on the list, earning $8 million from music royalties and sales of her fragrances with Elizabeth Arden.

Spears is followed by Carrie Underwood and Nelly Furtado ($7 million each); Fergie, Jennifer Lopez and Sheryl Crow ($6 million each); and Norah Jones ($5.5 million).

Project Runway Season 4

2008-01-31T14:48:00.000+08:00

The pilot for the 4th season of Project Runway was aired in the Philippines only last week. The composition of the contestants is interesting, to say the least. Add Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn to that cast and you have a bunch of kookoos.

Most kookoo of them all is Elisa, a 42-year old performance artist. She does everything, and I think that her entry to the world of fashion has been only incidental. In the past two weeks, she has gone from bottom two to top two, she's way off when she doesn't get the world's practicalities, but she's right-on when she manages to find a way to translate her vision (or those voices in her head) to something wearable.

Elisa's First Week Designing

Elisa's Second Week.

I have no favorites right now, and while I am tempted to scour through the internet and on Bravo TV's website for photos, videos and information, I will wait. So far, I am enjoying the work put out by Sami and Victorya, and the ego of Christian who was a slot short of winning last week's top prize, and a slot short of going home this week. The guy's such a bitch, it's just fun to see him fall flat on his face.

Sega Superstars Tennis

2008-01-29T09:29:00.000+08:00

All of us who played with Sega as kids will like this: a collection of Sega's greatest from past to present are making their way to centre court. Sega Superstars Tennis has over 15 playable Sega idols including Sonic the Hedgehog, AiAi from Super Monkeyball fame, Ulala of Space Channel 5 and Amigo from Samba De Amigo. In addition to their own unique attributes, each character will also come equipped with their own superstar tennis skills, putting a whole new spin on each match played!

Exhibition mode offers the chance to challenge Sonic, or the character or your choice, to a match on one of many courts, including Sonic’s home court of Green Hill Zone, or Amigo’s Carnival Park court. Wherever you play there will be a host of Sega celebrities cheering you on from courtside and by partaking in crazy doubles matches with your choice of partner, you could end up playing against some pretty unusual couples! Prove your Sega hero is the shining star of SegaSuperstars Tennis by collecting silverware in the Tournament Mode.

Madonna is Rumored to Have A Concert in the Philippines in Mid-2008

2008-01-28T22:42:00.000+08:00

Yes. Plans for a Madonna concert in the Philippines are brewing for July of 2008. Everything is still under negotiation, but the possible venue will be in the Taguig Open Fields.

With an album featuring collaborations with Justin Timberlake and Pharell Williams coming out this year, the concert hopefully will feature new material as well as the trustworthy oldies we have failed to see live in this part of the universe.

Damn, I need tickets.

Damn, I want tickets.

Damn, I will kill for tickets.

Madonna, come here please!!!

Sweeney Todd's Opening Credits

2008-01-28T15:43:00.000+08:00

The opening credits for Sweeney Todd, itself an animated short on its own, was released earlier than the movie itself to perhaps entice moviegoers to watch it. Found it on YouTube:

If you have seen the movie, you know quite well that the blood trail here is the motif that will be laid out in the entire film.

I want to watch this again.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

2008-01-27T20:11:00.000+08:00

Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street couldn't have fallen into better hands. Tim Burton is this generation's Hitchcock, possibly more, who tickles fear without hesitation, purging thoughts like cannibalism and incest through stylistic rituals that are half-funny and half-insane, all leaving a seething bite to our tingling bones.

Johnny Depp (his sixth collaboration with Burton) Helena Bonham Carter brings Sondheim’s score and libretto to life. It was brilliant, getting actors who can carry a tune rather than getting people who sing like Jennifer Hudson. There was stylistic restraint in actors like Depp and Carter who know their best ace in interpreting a musical character is by piercing through the role instead of singing their hearts out. The result is a macabre musical that is reminiscent of Brechtian and Jacobean drama, rather than just a musical.

Sweeney Todd (Depp) is a barber who was put in prison on false charges by the corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who lusts after his wife. Fifteen years in prison have done much to change Sweeney (originally Benjamin Barker), and have left him a hardened man as he returns to London. The news of his wife poisoning herself from former landlady Mrs. Lovett (Carter), and Turpin adopting his now-grown daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) do nothing but increase his bloodlust for revenge. It’s the news of Turpin’s intention to marry Johanna that sends Todd over the edge, slitting the throats of his customers, and sending the corpses down to Mrs. Lovett’s oven so that she can make meatpies of the remains.

Mrs. Lovett's love for Sweeney Todd leads to the overlapping twists in the story, that sets-up a heart-wrenching climax. Forget horror and suspense movies, the bloodletting here from a triangle of obsessions besetting all the characters is much, much better. Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd makes this movie impressive. Depp is as astonishing a comic sociopath here while being empathically tragic.

It's unsettling, this film. But it's worth it.

OpenOffice.org Writer as an Alternative to MS Word

2008-01-27T08:33:00.000+08:00

I have yehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gift to use the latest version of OpenOffice or OOo. According to an article by Bruce Byfield, OOo's Writer, its word processor presents more exciting features than that of MSWord. Which is strange because I could barely get through the former application the last time I tried to use it.

Byfield makes a side by side comparison of OOo Writer and MS Word based on the following criteria:

Styles
Templates
Outlining
Bulleted and numbered lists
Tables
Headers and footers
Indexes and tables of content
Cross-references
Conditional text
Master documents
Drawing tools
Unique features

OOo Writer edges out MS Word in a lot of the categories mentioned above. It has structured composition when it comes to styles, templates and master documents, has more effective outlining capabilities, headers and footers and indexes and table of contents, and even has provisions for conditional text--a block that can be hidden or revealed as needed. This functionality is most often used for maintaining two versions of a document in a single file, which is good for someone like me when you're making an objective exam because you can write in the answers in the conditional text as you write the exam itself. MS Word still has better list and tables capability, and not to mention better support for cross-referencing. On other things, they are supposed to be equal.

What the review leaves out is interface. I guess my main issue against OOo Writer is how intuitive is it's interface since I remember it to be clunky and awkward. While it's true that it has all that potential in it to outword Word, the question really is whether it will allow all that potential to be used or if it will remain hidden instead. I guess I have to see this for myself.

Amazing Race Asia 2, Stranger Brews Still

2008-01-26T23:27:00.000+08:00

After coming in last three times in a row, Terri & Henry were finally eliminated in The Amazing Race Asia 2 Episode 9. Somehow, that was long overdue. The poster kids for controversy, you can feel the show hoping against hope that the old couple pull it together if only to have more shouting and drama in the show. The rest of the pack is quite a snooze with only Rovilson & Marc and Adrian & Collin showing the grits and the mental ability to finish the race. With the exception of Anne & Diane, the remaining teams are a good-natured happy bunch and show no sharp claws towards the other teams. They all hate Anne & Diane, and the reasons for that remain to be concretized. The bickering sisters Vanessa & Pamela are getting too dramatic.

Teams headed to Budapest, Hungary, 443km away by train. Adrian & Colling outsmarted everyone else by taking a connecting train ride that left earlier instead of a direct ride that left two hours later. They won the tenth leg by a considerable margin with Marc & Rovilson in second. Third goes to Pamela & Vanessa, fourth to Ann & Diane and fifth to Paula & Natasha who were not eliminated.

Just how many non-elimination legs are there?

Manual cars have provided entertainment again. Not all teams were skilled at driving manual cars, and the struggle with them have brought mishaps that are nice in the beginning but have just dragged on throughout the episode.

Pixar-less Toy Story 3, Can Disney Pull It Off?

2008-01-26T11:11:00.000+08:00

Disney is proceeding with Toy Story 3 under its contractual right to produce sequels to the Disney/Pixar films without the help of Pixar. At a recent recruitment pitch, Disney offered up story details. Buzz Lightyear is recalled to Taiwan after a series of malfunctions. Learning of a productwide recall, all the toys in Andy's room, under Woody's leadership, head to Taiwan to save Buzz from doom.

A second project, tentatively titled A Day With Wilbur Robinson, based on the book by William Joyce, follows a time-traveling 12-year-old orphan who hooks up with a 13-year-old kid from the future in settings that recall 1930's Metropolis and the cartoon television series The Jetsons (similar to the look and feel of The Incredibles). The project stars stylized young human protagonists and a mustachioed and bowler-capped villain.

There's also Rapunzel Unbraided, scheduled for release this year. Longtime Disney animator Glenn Keane, best known for animating the Beast in 1991's Beauty and the Beast, is making his directorial debut with the movie starring a computer-animated princess.

Novak Djokovic Whips Roger Federer 3-0 in the Australian Open Semi-Final

2008-01-26T07:48:00.002+08:00

Roger Federer lost to Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (5) Friday in the Australian Open semifinals, leaving the top-ranked Swiss one match short of making an 11th consecutive Grand Slam final. Even if Djokovic won three seets over Federer, the match was pretty close with a lot of breaks coming in Djokovic's way.

It's been a while since I got caught up in a tennis match. And this has been an exciting one, considering how the two answered each other with brilliant returns deep into the corners of the baseline, hard-smashing serves and even harder, more angled returns. Surprisingly, the 20-year old Djokovic seemed to be in control of his nerves, and took shots more confidently than his opponent.

It was the audience that appeared more tense. They were there on the background: cheering, jeering, hissing, booing and making every imaginable noise as the game progressed.

Anyway, here's match point, complete with Djokovic ruining the moment by taking his shirt off:

Djokovic will now play unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Sunday, setting up one unlikely title match. The women settle their championship Saturday when Maria Sharapova faces Djokovic's compatriot Ana Ivanovic.

RJ Jacinto

2008-01-26T00:25:00.000+08:00

Ramon "RJ" Jacinto is probably the most self-indulgent personality on Philippine TV.

He pimps his own band called RJ and the Riots, with RJ Jacinto himself on lead vocals, playing inside his own bar/restaurant called the Bistro RJ, airing on television on his own station called RJTV.

I chanced upon an airing of the said program which probably sports a title containing his name, and there they were: the letters R & J plastered on every corner of the TV screen, his name being shouted everywhere, his voice promoting his collaborative concerts with someone who's name got drowned by all the R's and J's in the television show.

The son of a steel and banking mogul, RJ Jacinto owns radio and TV stations, a music shop, restaurants and a slew of other businesses, many of which are just surviving. Granted the guy did a lot to introduce Rock N' Roll to the country and spent his fair share of building up a collective sense of self through his anti-Marcos protest music, I think it would do more good for him to champion more talent apart from himself.

80th Oscar Awards Nominations

2008-01-23T09:22:00.000+08:00

The Oscars have come out with its nominees for 2008. There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men led all nominees at Tuesday morning's Oscar announcement, with each picking up eight nods, including Best Picture. Michael Clayton also came up big, scoring a Best Picture nod as well as acting nominations for George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson. Daniel Day-Lewis received a Best Actor nomination for There Will Be Blood, and Javier Bardem picked up a Best Supporting Actor nod for No Country. Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson and No Country directors Joel and Ethan Coen both received nominations for Best Director as well as for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Cate Blanchett manages the rare double nomination, one in the lead category for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, even if the movie sucked, and one in the supporting category for I'm Not There. The last person to score two acting nominations in the same year was Terrell's own Jamie Foxx in 2004, for Collateral (as supporting actor) and for Ray (lead, which he won). The last time an actress turned the trick was 2002, when Julianne Moore scored for Far From Heaven (as lead actress) and The Hours (as supporting actress). She was robbed of both.

Whether or not the Writers Guild of America holds a strike on the Oscars remains to be seen. The striking writers guild said Tuesday it has decided against picketing the upcoming Grammy Awards. However, the Writers Guild of America's board of directors has yet to grant the music industry show a waiver that would allow writers to participate, a guild spokesman said. In any case, the Oscars is said to have been preparing a plan B just in case.

Anyway, the complete list of nominees are here:

BEST PICTURE

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away From Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman, Juno
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Diablo Cody, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sarah Polley, Away From Her

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

BEST ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Assassination of Jesse James…
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd

BEST DOCUMENTARY
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari’s Mother

BEST EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort (Israel)
The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Katyn (Poland)
Mongol (Kazakhstan)
12 (Russia)

BEST MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
''Falling Slowly,'' Once
''Happy Working Song,'' Enchanted
''Raise It Up,'' August Rush
''So Close,'' Enchanted
''That's How You Know,'' Enchanted

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Peter & the Wolf

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Brokeback Star Heath Ledger is Dead at 28

2008-01-23T08:15:00.001+08:00

A Yahoo blog reports:

Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan apartment, naked in bed with sleeping pills nearby, police said. The Australian-born actor was 28. It wasn't immediately clear if Ledger had committed suicide.

He had an appointment for a massage at a residence in the tony neighborhood of SoHo, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

A large crowd of paparazzi and gawkers gathered outside the building on an upscale block. Ledger's body was still inside, and several police officers guarded the door.

The medical examiner's office planned an autopsy Wednesday, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was a respected, award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on his heartthrob looks. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," where he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.

Ledger most recently appeared in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker this year in "The Dark Knight," a sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins."

He's had starring roles in "A Knight's Tale" and "The Patriot," and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in "Monster's Ball." He also played a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian film "Candy."

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 in Perth, in western Australia, to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and co-starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," a teen comedy reworking of "The Taming of the Shrew."

Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, 'You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat.'"

His movie career caught on anyway, culminating with his Academy Award nomination opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback."

"Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said earlier this month that Ledger's performance as the Joker would be wildly different than Jack Nicholson's memorable turn in 1989's "Batman."

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."

Going Linux?

2008-01-22T08:31:00.001+08:00

Found several interesting reads on why we should go Linux:

SourceForge gives a concise reason why: "Linux is a freely available operating system which has gained a lot of attention in recent years. There are many reasons someone would want to use Linux. As an individual, you may want to save money on Windows XP licenses. You may be sick of re-installing everything after you get hit with the latest worm or virus. You could be looking to learn more about how a computer works or how to program. You make yourself very valuable in the job market if you know how to operate a Linux system.

"If you're looking into Linux for your organization, you may also be looking to save money. That's not all that Linux can offer your organization, though. By choosing Linux, you avoid being locked in to one vendor, relying on that company whenever something goes wrong. With Linux, you have the blueprints of the whole system so that you can fix the problem yourself. People are realizing this, and companies are realizing this as well. Many of the same companies who used to depend on customers being locked in--IBM, HP, Sun, Novell--have changed their strategies to include Linux.

"Whatever your reasons, I have to tell it like it is: there are trade-offs involved. I'd say that the biggest trade-off is the learning curve. You may have heard that Linux is hard to use. This is true only when you don't know how to use it. Once you figure out how to use it, you've done the hard part. This problem leads to other problems, like the cost of training people in an organization to use Linux. It's also hard to learn the internals of your computer or learn to program in Linux when you don't even know where to start. And who cares if you're free from being locked into a vendor and have the option to modify the system when you don't even know how to use the system?

"So, this steep learning curve leads to other problems. By specifically targeting this problem, I hope to make it easier to reap the benefits of using Linux."

Major companies have also considered forging ahead with Linux so those hardware, applications and support we think we'd miss from our iffy PC's and snobbish Macs will be covered since the f-ing capitalists have bought into the practice. Making compromises to customer comments, Dell has blogged about their commitment to Linux: "At least half of the comments effectively said "we want Free Software, GPL-licensed drivers which are maintained in kernel.org, for all hardware in Dell systems." This request is not new to us—it's been our standard operating procedure for the last 8 years on PowerEdge servers, which today have no closed-source drivers necessary. For new Linux desktops and notebooks, we’ll use drivers already in the mainline kernel.org kernels for as many components as possible. In these cases, the drivers will be included in your distribution of choice. This includes storage, wired networking, power management, USB, and more."

According to DesktopLinux, HP is also making the move. And so is Hollywood as many visual effects companies rendered their skills on a Linux platform. In short, what I make from all these articles is that since there's money lost on users who have shifted to Linux, then there's money to be made with Linux. Let's just hope they don't turn it into another Microsoft.

Asus Eee PC's are Sold-Out

2008-01-22T08:17:00.000+08:00

We were trying to look for Asus Eee PC's yesterday and they were sold out. We were initially at a meeting, trying to overcome boredom by talking about the Eee PC during lulls so my colleague and I went out to look for one just to convince ourselves that we really needed one.
Unfortunately, it was sold out in seven shops in one mall alone. One of the girls told us they sold all of their units in two days.

Damn it, everyone has caught on!!!

Another Reason to Hate Apple

2008-01-20T20:34:00.000+08:00

Apparently some Mac users are having problems with the latest 10.4.11 update, myself included.

I installed the following after being prompted by a scheduled update:

"Compatibility Update for QuickTime 7.2" (1.0)
"iTunes" (7.5)
"Java For Mac OS X 10.4 Release 6" (1.0)
"QuickTime" (7.3.1)
"Security Update 2007-009 (PowerPC)" (1.1)

While my Mac's generally ok, my Safari stopped working, which is a bummer considering all my links and passwords are saved there. Someone prescribed downloading the 10.4.11 update and Pacifist but it didn't work for me. Later on I discovered that Software Update, iTunes, Mail, iChat and Widgets are not working. There could be more utilities but I have no time to tinker through them now.

For others, the problem renders the Mac useless on reboot after the 10.4.11 update fails. The Geniuseses at the Apple stores are recommending full disk wipe but data can be recovered via Firewire.

There's another method prescribed in the Mac Forums, but I fear it will take half a day or more, and I simply do not have that time right now. If you are asked by your Mac's software update to download the 10.4.11 package, better back your files up first.

Right now, Linux is getting prettier and prettier by the minute.

Touch Panel for Asus Eee PC?

2008-01-20T15:51:00.000+08:00

Touch panel component makers sampling for future Eee PCs
Susie Pan, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Friday 18 January 2008]

Sources at touch panel and related component makers have revealed that companies are currently having their products undergo sampling with Asustek Computer in bids to win orders for next-generation Eee PCs which are set to launch later this year.

The second-generation of Eee PCs will support panel sizes of 8-, 9- and 10-inch, the sources said, of which, the 9-inch panel versions will feature a touch panel.

The 9-inch touch panel-equipped Eee PCs will adopt four-wire resistive touch screen technology. The expected bill of materials (BOM) to add touch panel functions is under US$15 , the sources said.

Although the list of panel partners for the new-generation of Eee PCs has not been finalized, the sources said Asustek will give preference to Taiwan-based vendors. Some industry players estimate that shipments of touch screen Eee PCs will only reach several hundred thousand units in 2008. They noted that if shipments for a specific configuration are too low, not only will the benefits from production scale be limited, but also yields will be affected.

Industry players estimate that Asustek shipped a total of 300,000-400,000 Eee PCs in its first quarter of sales. They project Asustek will ship a total of 4-5 million units in 2008.

Right On: Is Apple a bigger danger to our lives than Microsoft?

2008-01-19T09:40:00.000+08:00

Found this on TechDigest:

"Jonathan Weinberg writes... I thought I could rely on Apple so this morning I awoke to disappointment in Steve Jobs after his Macworld announcements yesterday. I was sure he'd launch a new iPhone with either 3G or bigger storage memory, thus annoying the FOUR MILLION people who have now, like cult followers, signed up to the iPhone religion.

But it was a clever move. Save that announcement for a couple of months time, and bring a second-generation device out around a year after the first and no-one can have any complaints... can they? After all, technology is always changing and those of us who spend fortunes on gadgets and gizmos, only to see them bettered just weeks later, are fools of our own making. I do it, as much as you.

So unable to make any real iPhone jibes, I must first start my Macworld reflections by hitting out at the CHARGE imposed on people to upgrade their iPod Touch software. Sure, you're getting new programs but £13 for the privilege when you've splashed out a couple of hundred or so for the player itself a few weeks back is a massive liberty from Jobs. To quote Ricky Gervais in Extras: "Is he 'avin a laugh?'

That's the biggest slap in the face to Apple fans since the iPhone price came down $200 in the States and all early adopters got was a $100 voucher for the Apple store in return for their troubles.

But then Apple can do it, because like Microsoft, they have a growing monopoly on many of our daily lives and I worry it is yet another sign they are becoming too big for their (re)boots.

For many Apple can do no wrong, even when they do wrong. Imagine if Microsoft started charging for Windows Vista service-packs, what an outcry there would be! I don't think we'll hear such noise over the $20 Touch charge with people blindly paying it, and not thinking about the precedent it is setting.

The new iTunes movie rental services is yet another sign of Apple's burgeoning dominance on the entertainment industry and the way we consume media such as music and films. I actually think it's a brilliant idea, and one that is a clear sign digital delivery for this type of thing can and will work.

They've signed up all the big movie studios, assuming they ever make any more films seeing as the writers' strike continues a-pace, and that now gives them a stranglehold on this type of technology.

For while Blu-ray and HD DVD each have their own backers, for Apple to win the rights to so many blockbusters from so many sources, will make it hard for any other firm to gatecrash the party.

That, of course, is the idea. It is why Apple will make a fortune from this in America from today and then internationally when it launches in Britain and Europe, hopefully later this year.

In the past, all the fears about techno-dominance had revolved around Microsoft and Windows. Yesterday's announcements by Mr Jobs won't deter the Bill Gates haters from laying into them, but perhaps we now need to look further towards another US giant.

It's never good for one company to own, run and provide so much to society, and both MS and Apple now account for a huge percentage of the way we work and enjoy life.

When you throw Google into the mix - and even they are increasing their partnerships with Apple - it makes for a very worrying war of the tech worlds that is now heading our way at light-speed.

Whether there can be more than one winner, I'm unsure. But I'm certain it will now start costing us dearly... both in monetary terms for once free rights like software updates, and then in freedom choice.

PS: I love the Macbook Air, although it is a little on the pricey side!

Asus Eee Pc vs. Apple MacBook Air

2008-01-19T08:29:00.000+08:00

I'm torn between Apple's new ultraportable and Asus's subportable. I know they shouldn't be compared considering they cater to different markets, but I am contemplating my next purchase, and I have an inkling it doesn't have to be as expensive as it should be.

Style-wise, Apple's MacBook Air is a zillion years ahead of the Asus's bulky and boxy Eee PC. What's not to love with the MacBook Air's appearance, it's everything you wanted in an ultraportable: paperthin, light-weight looking, elegant and fashionable.

Asus Eee PC

Apple MacBook Air

Despite its looks, the MacBook Air seems glitchy. The screen size is nice, plus the promise of being able to squeeze it in a backpack, a messenger bag, or a kraft envelope like what Steve Jobs did is wonderful. It's expandability leaves a lot to be desired though, it has no replaceable batteries, and it eliminated its ethernet port. The Asus Eee PC has replaceable batteries, more USB ports, an SDHC slot and a modem. While it isn't paper thin, it's size is formidable, is reminiscent of a book, and can easily fit a satchel or a moderately smaller bag you can sling around your shoulders minus the weight of the world. Specs to consider:

In the end, it all boils down to principle: an Apple shouldn't be that expensive. I loved Apple computers before when they presented simpler alternatives to Windows. I am beginning to hate them now as they seem to be turning into Windows themselves. Given that they have made their money, they should consider democratizing their technology, make their products not just stylish but affordable as well, and take steps in postulating technology's departure from commercialism.

The Taiwanese are doing a better job at it. It's not just Asus who have taken steps in making affordable PC's, there is also Everex, who promises to be "The Alternative PC" as they sell their Cloudbook:
As to what "alternative" means can still be put into question. For sure, right now, it's no longer Apple.

Related Links:

Applied Life: Asus EEE PC vs. MacBook Air
Comparati: MacBook Air vs Asus Eee PC 701
TechDigest: One MacBook Air or SIX Asus Eee PCs?
Reg Hardware: Clash of the compacts: Eee vs Air
Reg Hardware: Everex follows Asus Eee to announce 9in sub-notebook
Reg Hardware: Second-gen Eee PC a CES no-show

Apple's MacBook Air

2008-01-19T07:38:00.000+08:00

Non-replaceable batteries! Are they kidding? I wanted to drool over the MacBook Air, expecting to find a reason to hate myself even more, but at US$1799+ this is not something you can show your grandkids in the same way we get to still enjoy an old Rolleiflex camera or a 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt. You'd expect longevity out of something that expensive.

Granted you can put the MacBook Air inside a paper envelope, what else is there to love? It still isn't as powerful as its MacBook and MacBook Pro counterparts. A lot of reviews have wondered about stability and speed, especially with regards to how the system will do when you have a bunch of programs running.

As a Mac user whose fascination with the Mac has gone bittersweet, I’m skeptical if paying a premium for the MacBook Air for its design is worth the price. Or if everything Air-y in this incarnation of the MacBook is just fluff, and that Apple is turning into its own Microsoft.

MacBook Air Specs:
Size : 0.16 to 0.76 x 12.8 x 8.94 inches
Weight: 1.36 kg
Processor: 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Display: 13.3-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen LED 1280 x 800 pixels
Memory: 2GB (onboard)
Hard drive: 80GB Parallel ATA, 4200 rpm; 64GB solid-state drive
Optical drive: Option: External MacBook Air USB SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Graphics: Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
Price: $1,799.00 (80GB); $3,098.00 (64GB solid-state drive)

Related Links:

Google News: MacBook Air Reviews
San Francisco Chronicle: Closer look at Apple's innovations - MacBook Air...
USA Today: Many laptops are lighter than MacBook Air
Info World: Mac users: MacBook Air lacks features
ZDNet: Yes, the MacBook Air is light. But so what-Dell XPS is a better deal on price (January 17, 2008) "Maybe the Mac OS is a little better than Windows, but if I can save my business several hundred dollars at the cost of a pound or few- with more storage to boot- you know the way I’m goin."
NGadgeti: Thinnovation
PC Magazine: Apple MacBook Air "The MacBook Air is officially the thinnest laptop, and the lightest of those with a 13-inch screen. But there were compromises that had to be made."
WIRED: Breaking: Apple Insider Leaks Ultra-Portable Details
Unlawyer: Early Review of MacBook Air
Wired: 15 Minutes Of Fame With The MacBook Air "The MacBook Air is clearly an awesome piece of engineering, Apple should be proud of itself. I don’t see the Air as a replacement computer though— this is a secondary notebook for travelers. "
Crave: Apple's MacBook Air: A design review "If all you need is a display, a keyboard, and a WiFi interface, and you don't mind paying a slight premium for high style, maybe the MacBook Air is for you, too."
CNET Reviews: Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz) "This seems at first glance like a solid addition to the MacBook lineup. However, we'll have to keep waiting for a true ultraportable, something that's been missing from the Apple lineup for several years."
PC Magazine: Apple MacBook Air Video Review
PC World: Putting the MacBook Air Laptop Through Its Paces
infoSync Video: Apple MacBook Air ultra-thin laptop review
Mahalo's Guide to MacBook Air Negatives
TUAW: Macbook Air: The downside
Engadget: MacBook Air doesn't have a user-replaceable battery

Asus Eee Pc

2008-01-19T02:09:00.000+08:00

I am redirecting my gadget withdrawal to the new Asus Eee PC, an ultraportable notebook (the screen is 7" small) that costs less than P20,000.00!!!

The only source of hesitation: it operates on Linux--which means no MS Office and that you will have to get used to OpenOffice. Not really bad, if you are looking for a word processor. But the keyboard is smaller than normal, which makes you think twice whether it will be convenient to use for typing longer documents. I now suffer from lower back problems which I suspect comes from having to lug around my powerbook almost everyday to every place imaginable.

The Eee PC specs according to the website:

Mobility & Reliability

At 7" and weighing only 0.92kg, you can take the Eee PC anywhere.

Bumps and shocks are no longer issues. With a dependable solid-state disk, you get unparalleled shock-protection and reliability.

Power-efficient design provides longer operating time when on the go.

Ease & Technology

With a rapid start-up time, the Eee PC is always ready to get into action.

No technical manual required with the specially designed, user-friendly and intuitive graphic interface.

Work & Connectivity

You’re always connected with built-in WiFi 802.11 b/g that automatically detects and connects to the Internet at any hotspot.

The Eee PC includes the documents and the e-mails software, and a suite of other productivity software to help keep you on track.

Upload photos and videos and share them instantly on Flickr or YouTube without waiting till you get home.

Media & Entertainment

Enjoy music and videos with extensive support for a wide range of digital multimedia.

Log on to Skype or other network, and you can connect with friends anywhere, anytime.

Clear up wire clutter with the built-in card reader, camera, speakers, and microphone.

Related Links:

Asus Eee PC on Wikipedia
Asus Eee PC Tweak Guide
Asus Eee PC on NotebookReview
Asus Eee PC on PC Perspective
Asus Eee PC on The Sources Mouth

Lyrics of Paul Marturano's Stalker Song For Paula Abdul

2008-01-17T15:51:00.000+08:00

There is this girl I know,
I follow her around;
She hasn't noticed me,
It really gets me down.

I broke into her house,
When she wasn't there;
Took off all my clothes,
and tried on her underwear.

I'm always thinking of her;
I really think that I love her.
I'm not much of a talker,
So I guess I'll just stalk her.

And I'll stalk her.
If she were a doggie,
I would walk her;
If she were a blackboard,
I would chalk her;
If I were Colombo,
I'd Peter Falk her;
But I'm not,
So I'll just stalk her.

If she were a bad pitch guy on first,
I would balk her;
If she were unintelligible from Good Times,
I'd be Jimmie Walker;
If she were a bathtub,
I would caulk her.

American Idol Season 7 Begins

2008-01-16T14:28:00.001+08:00

American Idol premieres tonight in the Philippines at 6pm both on QTV and StarWorld. Here's a glimpse of the inanities:

There's this bit from James Lewis, a Phillidelphia tour guide:

And then there's Alexis Cohen:

My favorite is Paul Marturano's piece on stalking Paula Abdul:

Vanilla Sky Covers Rihanna's Umbrella

2008-01-16T13:35:00.000+08:00

Surprisingly, I like this cover by Vanilla Sky better than Rihanna's original version. I feel the same way about Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry", I hear it being sung by a grunge band.

Coffee Love

2008-01-15T15:12:00.006+08:00

I wasn’t supposed to drink coffee as a kid, but I always loved its smell and I would sneak in a cup or two when there was no one looking, taking my cup in the dark, always looking forward to the taste of bitter coffee mingling with the sugar settling in the bottom of the cup.

In a lot of ways, I am still that child when it comes to coffee. Working as a teacher full-time and claiming odd part-time jobs from writing to graphic design have rendered me with 14-hour workdays that confound me with unwanted attention from more people than I would want in my life. I always find myself in a coffee shop not just to catch up with work or with friends but also to catch up with myself, with my own thoughts that lose their way in the demands of my day-to-day routine.

Despite the abundance of coffee shops that have turned drinking coffee into a social event, I have to go to a coffee shop on my own to slow down, and the time I spend there is sacred. I developed a taste not just for masking coffee’s bitterness with a lot of things—cinnamon, nutmeg, liqueur, a sprig of mint, chocolate, even orange rinds, but I always go back to a warm cup of Caramel Latte. Somehow the simplicity of bitter coffee blended with melted saccharine always, always takes me back to my childhood.

The 2008 Golden Globes

2008-01-15T07:55:00.000+08:00

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Awards skipped their usual sit-down dinners and just read, literally, their winners in ceremonies held last Sunday, January 13 in the International Ballroom of The Beverly Hilton.

The dismissal of the program was brought about by threats coming from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) to hold picket lines in the event. It's amazing how the WGA can destabilize Hollywood in such a manner, even if the tactics are a bit shrewd. Stars have lost one big event to amplify their status and the surrounding commercial hoopla has somewhat dissipated.

Anyway, the nominees of the Golden Globe Awards for film are listed down below with the winners highlighted:

Best Motion Picture
Atonement
American Gangster
Eastern Promises
The Great Debaters
Michael Clayton
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Motion Picture (Musical Or Comedy)
Sweeney Todd
Across The Universe
Charlie Wilson’s War
Hairspray
Juno

Best Foreign-Language Film
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Kite Runner
Lust, Caution
Persepolis

Best Director
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Ridley Scott - American Gangster
Joe Wright - Atonement

Best Animated Feature Film
Ratatouille
Bee Movie
The Simpsons Movie

Best Actor (Drama)
Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
James McAvoy - Atonement
Viggo Mortenson - Eastern Promises
Denzel Washington - American Gangster

Best Actor (Musical or Comedy)
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd
Ryan Gosling - Lars and the Real Girl
Tom Hanks - Charlie Wilson’s War
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Savages
John C. Reilly - Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson’s War
John Travolta - Hairspray
Tom Wikinson - Michael Clayton

Best Actress (Drama)
Julie Christie - Away from Her
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Jodie Foster - The Brave One
Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley - Atonement

Best Actress (Musical or Comedy)
Marion Cotillard - La vie en Rose
Amy Adams - Enchanted
Nikki Blonski - Hairspray
Helena Bonham Carter - Sweeney Todd
Ellen Page - Juno

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I’m Not There
Julia Roberts - Charlie Wilson’s War
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best Screenplay
Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Diablo Cody - Juno
Christopher Hampton - Atonement
Ronald Harwood - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Aaron Sorkin - Charlie Wilson’s War

Best Original Score
Atonement
Into the Wild
Grace is Gone
Kite Runner
Eastern Promises

Best Original Song
“Guaranteed” - Into the Wild
“Despidida” - Love in the Time of Cholera
“Grace is Gone” - Grace is Gone
“That’s How You Know” - Enchanted
“Walk Hard” - Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

New Blog: Idol Philippines

2008-01-13T14:37:00.000+08:00

'Todo na 'to!

I set-up another blog here called Idol Philippines, an online resource on anything Pinoy Idol. So why do it? I guess it's one way to keep the sanity intact, forcing myself to watch TV, and find more time for myself.

But I can't do it on my own.

If you or anyone you know is interested in ranting along with me. Just send me email and I'll welcome co-writers or co-ranters in that other blog who can offer other perspectives. I don't want tweetums or people with hardly any opinion outside the usual fanfare, but I don't want bwitches who keep cowering under the first ammendment either.

Funny! John Cusack Gets Mistaken for Kevin Spacey

2008-01-10T22:07:00.000+08:00

Funny. This interviewer should hang herself. And yet I have to thank her for giving me another example to give to my students why research should be taken seriously before any interview.

The girl is a film student from the University of Southern California. John Cusack is one of those capable actors who has made more memorable choices rather than appearances. He is good, but he really has to choose his material well. He stars in High Fidelity, one of my top 5 films of all time, and The Thin Red Line, another film I remember so well. Thank goodness, John Cusack was nice enough not to storm out of the interview.

Ever Seen A Walrus Doing Push-Ups?

2008-01-10T12:08:00.000+08:00

Saw this on Martha, and got inspired. The walrus is called Seahook, an orphan adopted by SeaWorld. He does push-ups, and, even cuter, sit-ups! I did two push-ups too! I got tired after the second push-up (still recovering from the flu) that I just ommitted doing the sit-up routines :p

American Idol is Coming

2008-01-09T12:04:00.000+08:00

Was leafing through the American Idol website, and found this interesting picture of old Idol losers auditioning:

Top (L-R) Mikalah Gordon, Katherine McPhee; Bottom (L-R) Jasmine Trias, Sanjaya Malakar and Nadia Turner.

Hahaha! American Idol premieres on January 15 and 16. Can't wait.

Dancing Weather Girl

2008-01-08T14:42:00.000+08:00

This is strange:

I'm under the weather. I don't know why but this somehow raised my spirits a bit.

Fascinating! Robbie Maddison Jumps 98 Meters on a Motorcycle

2008-01-08T13:37:00.000+08:00

Down with the flu. The only thing that has excited me today is this, one of the most fascinating feats I have seen in my life:

Australian daredevil Robbie Maddison jumps a record-breaking 98.34 meters (322 feet, 7.5 inches) at the Rio All-Suite Casino and Hotel, Las Vegas. He breaks the old record of 84.6 meters (277.6 feet) set by his countryman Trigger Gumm in 2005. He plans to break the 100-meter barrier in another attempt in March this year.

Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo

2008-01-06T04:35:00.000+08:00

Fans of last year's Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo will be happy to see this bastardized sequel to the movie characterize everything you can expect in an ABS-CBN production reeking of crass commercialism complete with Fitrum product placements at every opportunity. Last year's film was pleasantly surprising, fresh and upbeat; this one is downright slow, incoherent, a torture to watch and was decidedly riding on the coattails of the original with hardly anything else to show.

At the core is a badly written screenplay that can't get its act together. Jed and Angie (played by real-life sweethearts Ryan Agoncillo and Judy Ann Santos) are back problematizing the travails of marriage. Despite being gifted with a veritable cast of well-rounded characters from the original film, many of the characters fall flat and their motivations weak. Angie uses money as a reason to take in more difficult work in one scene only to splurge on a honeymoon to Barcelona in another. While in Barcelona, Jed's wallet is stolen and even that didn't amount to anything but an ill-contrived and painful restaurant scene which also didn't amount to anything. Even Gina Pareño's hilarious role of Angie's mom is lost here. Once providing wisdom to Angie in the first film, she is corruptible and desperate in this sequel, and her outbursts no longer register as funny but sad and pathetic.

Even if they present realistic issues for most part, the manner in which these are presented is unnatural that you can feel the film struggling through its plot and what it wants to do. Conflicts are thrown everywhere, and never develops any single one of them to thread the film together. Worst of all, the film has gone sappy and romantic. When its predecessor has made important strides in demystifying the illusion of happily-ever-after, this one revisits feudal notions of romance, recasting the mold the first film struggled so hard to break.

WGA Strike Update + The Homefront for Writers

2008-01-04T11:10:00.000+08:00

Everyone on TV seems optimistic that the WGA strike will come to a close soon. Letterman and Leno have come back, The View has had an optimistic talk with Dana Delaney (of China Beach fame) over the possible outcomes of the strike, and TV shows on E! and the likes of Entertainment Tonight have posted nearly optimistic stories on the matter. The WGA has fought hard over issues concerning residual royalty for DVD releases, Internet broadcasts and jurisdiction over genres like reality and animation. While these issues may not be fully addressed in the WGA's next collective bargaining agreement, they are taking steps to get there. Steps which I envy.

Here, in the land of overworked, abused and almost non-existent writers, we have to deal with a lot of things before we can bargain over proprietary rights. First is the question of contractualization. Writing jobs are offered to almost anyone with an overzealous passion to write or make more money, but there are no contracts to protect them. Some may argue that these are only things they do on the side and shouldn't be taken seriously, which is crap because most writing activities are the bread and butter of most information industries. I am often the victim of being paid with Rustan's and Sodexho Gift Checks instead of cash or a cash-convertible check, my checks usually arrive later than usual, and my rates are often cut short halfway through a project. Then there's also that perennial problem of being contracted for a writing job that conveniently forgets to contact you anymore after having published what you have done.

(Exasperated breath)

If you know of a Writers' Union, a working union concerned with professionalization and doesn't practice the usual parochial politics, tell me. I'll be more than happy to join.

Xiamen in Photos

2008-01-02T18:42:00.000+08:00

Xiamen, at a glance, is a less exhausting version of Beijing. Provincial in character, its Portuguese colonial architecture lends it a quaint and easy feel to soften up the blow of poverty hidden in side streets and less-touristy places. Added to the layers of colonization is the redirection of global capital where, not surprisingly, the richer Filipino-Chinese capitalists have capitalized. From SM to Bench to David's Salon and Penshoppe, the local Filipino brand is here. Robinson's is on its way as well as a number of undertakings from real estate and interior design to IT infrastructure and a Manila Xiamen International School. They're all here. Like hungry sharks, hoping to make a buck from each member of the few billion-strong population.

Check out my photos here:

and here:

The Starbucks 2008 Planner

2008-01-01T22:31:00.000+08:00

I have an axe to grind against anyone who keeps flashing their Starbucks planner, especially those who use it as a diary complete with techni-colored pens and language reminiscent of copy for coffeehouse posters and menus. I am so annoyed with everyone racing to get their own Starbucks planner. I was in Starbucks a few weeks ago to get some caffeine before heading off to the gym and the bitch in the counter was insistent on making me keep the card that one needed to fill up with stamps to get your highly prized Starbucks planner. I said I didn't want it and the bitch just kept shoving it in my face telling me of the nice 2008 planner. I said no thanks again. She brought out the planner and showed me the wonderful fonts they used to mark the days in their planner. I lost my cool and said: "I don't need your pretentious planner. Can you just place my order of coffee so I can get it as soon as possible?" She was appalled. How could I not want a Starbucks Planner?

I kept my cool last year, only to lose it when a student who was doing a report sometime in January last year went up in front of class and read her report from her Starbucks planner. She kept leafing through it when she struggled to answer the questions thrown by her classmates, only to be stung by a sly remark from me to stop looking at the planner and to refer to the textbook instead since it kept most of the answers she needed. A few weeks later, the same student causes a commotion in class when she screams after a seatmate leafed through her planner. She apologized saying it was her diary, and that it should be private. If you want to keep it private then keep it in your bag and stop showing it off for the entire universe to see.

Diaries are never exposed out in public--they are never placed on top of books, nor are they placed on top of your workdesk for everyone in the office to see. They are kept in private, usually tucked inside a bag or in a keepsake drawer since they contain private thoughts and are written on in private moments. Even if you are using your Starbucks planner as a planner, treat it as it is: a planner, no more no less. You don't need to carry it with you to Church or take it with you to lunch along with your PDA and your PDA phone when you are obviously not going to use it. It's a Starbucks planner, it isn't a brand like Gucci or Zegna or Dior, it's a free item from the McDonald's of coffeehouses with branches in malls, gas stations, your neighborhood tambayan. It's an insidious way to reclaim all the money you are spending on overpriced coffee, when you could have bought a good coffeemaker, espresso machine, ground coffee, milk, honey, coffee liqueur, a mug, a silver stirrer, cinnamon, nutmeg and even marshmallows instead. You could even use the same money to send a couple of kids through a year of public school.

Meizhou Island, Off Fujian Province in China

2007-12-31T12:08:00.000+08:00

Meizhou Island is a small, crescent-shaped island in Meizhou Bay, near the city of Putian. The island is only about 10 square miles, but it draws thousands of visitors each year as followers of Mazu come to pay their respects. The temple on Meizhou Island is the most important temple for Mazu worshippers because of its reputed connection with her life. The temple has been renovated and expanded somewhat in recent years. The communists are not big on religion, but they love tourism and evidently see no contradiction in promoting Mazu worship for the financial benefit of the People's Republic.

Breathtaking from the top, Meizhou Island is reflective of Chinese progress: fast, grandiose and globally-oriented. Down by the shores below, you'll see that life is much much difficult for a majority of the population who take on the weight of the country and of the world working their asses off but will never be rewarded for the toils of their labor.

More photos here:

And more photos of Xiamen, Gu Long Yu Island as well as Fujian food, marital cultures and thoughts on babysitting aging parents on my next blogs after a well-deserved rest and merrymaking, minus the parents.

Anxious

2007-12-27T08:15:00.000+08:00

I have babysitting chores until Sunday--Monday, technically speaking--for my parents who I'm going with to Xiamen. I'd rather babysit my new niece. Travelling with my father is a nightmare now. Ironically, I always looked forward to the impromptu trips he planned when we were kids. It was fun, and it seemed like he knew the world, and I always wanted to see the things he saw. Now he loses boarding passes, doesn't give a rat's ass to immigration authorities as he often walks through their chambers, cuts through lines, hits the seat of the person in front of him, and often wants to go back to the hotel not even an hour after leaving. We find it impossible to shop, take photos, or even grab a sense of place since his moods often take center stage in our traveling woes. They're excited, I'm a bit nervous considering this will be the first time without my sister, my tagteam partner with anything that has to do with parents. For me it is an agitating trist that involves wrangling my father when he runs around like a kid excited, dragging my mother who has bouts with arthritic pain, and wrestling with both their emotions considering how erratic they have been in the last few years. In between I have to carry and remember medication, watch dietary intakes, monitor blood sugar and blood pressure, while making constant checks to see that my dad isn't annoying anyone, especially my mother who can be quite a handful herself after being provoked.

Cinemalaya 2008

2007-12-26T08:25:00.000+08:00

More and more friends have bit into the filmmaking bug. After Vim's forays into the short film business where his first short won the Cinemalaya grand prize, two other friends, Paul Sta Ana and Francis Pasion have received grants for their feature length films. I am terribly excited for both, Paul's especially, since I have had a hand in revising his screenplay "Huling Pasada". It's an interesting material that delves into the world of metafiction--or meta'filmmaking'--and self-reflexivity. Whether the audience is mature enough for it remains to be seen and depends on how Paul handles the material while filmmaking or if he falls into the trap of converting it into another melodrama, in true ABS-CBN style no less. More later, when the film has had its first public outing. Anyway, here are the 2008 Cinemalaya finalists:

1. “100″ by Chris Martinez
2. “Antiparang Basag” by Edith Asuncion
3. “Baby Angelo” by Joel Ruiz and Abi Aquino
4. “Brutus” by Tara Illenberger
5. “Huling Pasada” by Paul Sta. Ana
6. “Jay” by Francis Xavier Pasion
7. “Konsyerto sa Kagubatan” by Paul Morales
8. “My Fake American Accent” by Onnah Valera
9. “Ranchero” by Michael Christian Cardoz
10. “The Gift of a Smile” by Emman dela Cruz

Meanwhile, if I manage to snatch the writing projects I like to work on for this year, I will develop material for an ambitious epic. Only, I won't direct it. Hehehe. Pray that I may write more, and that I write the things I truly want to write about.

Inno Sotto Mondo: Huit

2007-12-25T01:57:00.000+08:00

Acclaimed Philippine women's fashion designer Inno Sotto surprises by coming out with three fragrances for men. I received one of the three scents called Huit for Christmas and I am liking it. Although the alcohol can be quite pungent immediately after spritzing it, it leaves a scent that reminds me of autumn breeze, of walking through a park filled with dried red leaves, the somber wait for death and its consequent rebirth. t's woody, cinnamon-y and peppery. It's also clean, simple, well-structured and extremely delicate--a charatceristic you don't find in a lot of perfumes these days that overwhelm the nose with layers and layers of complicated scents.

The packaging reveals it is made in France, and is composed of water and fragrance SD alcohol 39-C, the same base ingredient for a number of men's scents including Casswell Massey's Men's fragrances and Bulgari's Aqua, some of my other favorites. The only downside is that it comes at a price of P2,500, relatively cheaper but still a little too pricey to compete with foreign brands. Another downside is that it's distributed exclusively by Rustan's Essences, and doesn't make itself accessible to a wider market. While the establishment of exclusivity is a must to develop a local luxury brand, the price doesn't seem to suggest so since its quality will be scrutinized by the local market and who can find the perfume forgettable in an ocean of similar fragrances coming from more familiar brands. While Inno Sotto's foray into the perfume business is commendable, other slow but credible strategies for marketing and developing his brand should be considered in order to develop something globally competitive but still locally respectable.

Her Royal Babiness

2007-12-24T20:36:00.000+08:00

Spent Christmas "Eve" at my sister's house, welcoming the newest addition to our family. I babysat for most part of it, as little baby Robin refused to be put down on her crib or on the bed. I obliged the babysitting chores myself since it was just a calming joy to stare at the baby. She would yawn, pout, sniffle, burp, snicker, pee, poop and cry, and through all that I would smile.

May your holidays be as blessed as mine!

Christmas

2007-12-23T05:15:00.000+08:00

I'm not devoted to any God. But I do take the opportunity to celebrate Christmas because it provides one of the few moments every year to meet with friends and family, to feel attached to the randomness of the universe, and in the slightest way feel some form of purpose.

Meeting old friends again made me realize a few things:

1. That I have been out-of-touch a lot.
2. That we are ultimately alone.
3. That I am loved.
4. That I am old.

I wish life's urgencies do not consume me. But I always feel compelled by the frustration of not having done enough in order to say that I have made the most of what I have. It's damning, how everyone else seems to have lived their lives without a lot of the things I have been blessed with and still end up with more.

A Year's Worth of Fisheye Photos

2007-12-22T17:33:00.000+08:00

These took some time. I'm thinking maybe I should have gone through the process more devoutly and at a steadier pace so I can learn how to deal with the Lomo's Fisheye. But didgital technology has made me lazy. Lazy. These photos weren't as spectacular as I thought they would be. It's hard to imagine that these were the best for the year.

LBC + Digiprint

2007-12-22T16:47:00.000+08:00

I'm beginning to fall in love with LBC. Their delivery service has done a great deal of time saving for me especially in a season like this, where you are fragmented by the need to be in 27 different places in an hour and brave the metro traffic teeming with twice the amount of a populace out to get their loved ones something special for Christmas. While LBC's delivery service has proven invaluable for me in the last few years or so, they are coming up with even better ideas.

The one I like the most is their photography services courtesy of sister company Digiprint. I heard from a friend that it's possible to develop film negatives from there, convert them to digital files, without necessarily having to order prints from them. It's a welcome service since most film developing shops coerce you to have all your negatives printed out and charge you even for prints that you don't like or that aren't good. I spend about roughly 300 bucks for developing one 36-photo roll of film. With Digiprint, I spent less than 500 bucks developing the 8 rolls of film I have accummulated using my Fisheye camera and less than two hundred bucks developing the 2 dozen photos that I liked and wanted. The big bonus to the service, which I found out after visiting the Digiprint shop in Glorietta, is that they deliver the CD's and prints to you. So no need to pick them up yourself which, again, saves precious precious time.

LBC has also opened a bank, and features numerous creative remittance options for our friends and family members working overseas. They introduced a remittance ATM card, which allows one to withdraw remittances from any Megalink, Bancnet and Expressnet ATM in the country. It's different from a regular ATM in that you don't need to keep a bank account and a monthly maintaining balance, and claims not to have any encashment or withdrawal fees. All bank fees are handled at the beginning of the transaction process through the person sending the remittance who is charged a minimal fee for the remittances being made. Even if it isn't a savings account, you can enjoy the services of a bank ATM, by allowing you to withdraw a partial amount of the total remittance you have.

Anyway, you may want to try LBC yourself. If you want, you can send me gifts, including cash through LBC to see if it works ;) Hehehehe. Merry Christmas everyone.

Beijing, The Unofficial Soundtrack (Excerpts From A Work in Progress)

2007-12-20T08:51:00.000+08:00

It was 2001, and I was clearing up space at home to accommodate several boxes of books and things I was going to be taking home from work. I was going to be an exchange professor in Beijing later that year, and I was asked to clear out my cubicle since our department will be relocated to a smaller office temporarily while I am gone to give way to the renovation and expansion of our building. It was also the dawn of the MP3 age, and I was convinced that I could condense my growing CD library by ripping them into MP3 tracks to be stored in recordable CD’s that can be played in an MP3 Discman while making extra money selling my CD’s. It seemed daunting at first, but when I finally got to sift through my then 433-piece CD collection, it dawned on me that I wasn’t really fond of most of what I had. I could easily let most of them go, and only needed to copy a couple of tracks from a few CD’s I needed to sell. Before leaving for Beijing that September, I sold 357 CD’s and gave away 42 more, only keeping 34 albums I couldn’t part with.

Little did I know it then but my own taste for music started to evolve. What I had left was an embarrassing mix: all of Madonna’s major albums including those that flopped, Manila Sound classics from the Hotdogs to VST, Apo Hiking society, Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill, a couple of Eraserhead albums, The Cardigans, Regine Velasquez’s Retro covers, the Indigo Girls’ Rites of Passage, Seal’s first album, and the bests of the likes of Chet Baker, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrisson, The Monkees, Tears for Fears, Stan Getz and the Beatles. Those 34 albums and a few dozen more songs collected from the other albums I purged were condensed into 3 MP3 CD’s. It bothered me at first considering all the money I saved amounted to poor musical choices that didn’t express who I was as a listener. It was a joke, those CD’s, and the biggest blow was delivered by the fact that even I found my own music a laughable matter. Thankfully, something good came out of it eventually, as I got to clean my space of CD’s I didn’t need and my music library got smaller, my sensibility and appreciation for it grew even more; forcing me to define what it is that I wanted in music, blurring the lines between genres and those other rules people maintained, and focusing on those songs that really spoke to me.

Beijing provided the perfect setting to do just that. I had classes for only two hours each day at Peking University, worked for about an hour more to check and prepare teaching materials, and spent a couple more sharing a meal or two with a few Chinese colleagues or students. I was left on my own most of the time, reading away the afternoons and the nights, biking around the city, making the most out of the then antiquated scenery that was about to be gobbled up by an aggressive modernization campaign. Through all that I had my MP3 Discman slung around my shoulders and earphones plugged to my ears, digesting the music I brought from back home, providing the much needed reprieve from the ragged and jarring sounds of conversations I could barely understand. My selections became more precise as I began whittling down the songs I listened to. First gone were the local OPM songs written in Filipino which depressed me a lot. Even if they were speaking mostly about love and healing broken hearts for most part, the thought of hearing Filipino only in songs made me homesick. Not even a week after dispensing my Filipino OPM’s I also had to let go of my English OPM’s since they made me want to listen to the former. A great majority of love songs were eliminated next. Bulk of the casualties in this category of mine were those ludicrous pop songs since majority of them did talk about love, leaving only Madonna’s “Ray of Light” and “Beautiful Stranger” in the mix. Next to go were electronica and techno music since they struck me more as re-engineered elevator music. They became my sleep inducers back in Manila, after a friend told me that those were the best remedies for insomnia. The reduction process went on for several months. I tried to listen to the same playlist over and over again in the course of a day, for several days, even weeks at a time, modifying them every so often when I feel a certain mood or disposition in me needs a theme song. The dispositions were not purely a personal matter, they were also constructed through the aid of Beijing as I noticed many of what I listen to would express the very anxiety or excitement I had for the city I wanted to explore.

The exploration of a song became my metaphor for exploring an unfamiliar place. When I am confronted by the strangeness of waking up day after day in this city and I cannot articulate even for myself why in some days I feel betrayed by the calmness of autumn or why I am threatened by the first time I held a snowflake on the palm of my hand, I turned to songs to express that which I cannot express to myself. It isn’t just a matter of images conveyed by its lyrics since a song easily encompasses that. It is more a matter of finding the right song to lend you a voice in a context where you speak the unfamiliar, allowing the artistic decisions songwriters have made to become the very impulse by which you come to terms with the idiosyncracies of a place you otherwise won’t be able to deal with. Even if I take the same route to work everyday on my bicycle, I am overcome by the familiar and confronted by that inconsolable process of realizing that I truly don’t know what I think I know. Everyday, I pass through the University’s renowned Boya Tower en route to work, and not once did I fail to look at the intricate stone inlay of shingles in its multi-tiered ceiling that played with the rising sunlight. I would stop to take a picture whenever I felt compelled by it. I didn’t own a digital camera back then so I took photos liberally only to horrified by the discovery of having taken 22 photos of the tower in one 36-photo roll of film alone, each one a testament to a different unraveling. In all these is the rousing voice of the Indigo Girls singing Galileo, polishing paradoxes on truth and reincarnation, wondering, “if any human being ever reached that kind of light”. It’s the second track on my then 20 or so playlist, and the one that usually plays when I reach that part of my bike ride going to work that even without the song playing, its probing, questioning tone plays at the back of my head at the mere sighting of the Tower.

The Boya Tower reminds me of the different incarnations of light. Once a water storage for houses surrounding the old Yanjing University that once occupied this location before Peking University, it has become an important icon for the school together with the Wei Ming Lake (literally Nameless Lake) in front of it. It has come to symbolize a pen with the lake as its inkwell, epitomizing the spirit of the patriotic scholar immersed in hard work, responsibility and a perpetual quest for truth and knowledge. My students take pride in this metaphor. It was one of the first things they told me when we met for the first time and offered to take me to tour around the campus, and whose anecdote they repeat over and over again when we go near the lake for walks or shared meals. I find it comparable to the notion of the learned and the enlightened, the championing of reason informed by a clear perception of things, the kind that has mystified my colonial Catholic upbringing; the enlightened that has been translated to the wonder and discovery of knowledge in the West but has been muddled by centuries of re-equating the word and its numerous meanings with the self-righteous impositions of religious doctrine. My students’ light is of a different breed: it is laden with the unspoken duties of patriotism, of having to equate knowledge and truth with a commitment to the nation. When I see the Boya Tower towering above me or above the lake, I think of those two lights and the ill-fated demise of the self—my own especially—trying to conquer our feeble attempts to become like our imagined God or of our imagined nation. Add to the thought the taunting question of the Indigo Girls repeating over and over in the refrain: “Can anyone ever reach that kind of light?” The answer points to a million enthralling discoveries. There are mornings, for instance, when a student pauses in the same stance at the sight of the tower, and I can convince myself I am not at all foreign to marvel at the sight of such familiar wonders. There are mornings too, when I look at the shadow cast by the tower on the lake beside it, and I look to find no one around me to see what I see, and I am thrilled by the simple wonders which I can claim to, in more ways than one, enlighten myself.

Jordis Unga Covers The Man Who Sold the World

2007-12-19T18:38:00.000+08:00

My favorite cover of the song:

The Cybernauts Cover The Man Who Sold the World

2007-12-19T18:36:00.001+08:00

Again, no video, just the song with the Cybernaut album cover appearing the entire time. Watch out for the guitars near the end.

A Fan Covers Nirvana Covering The Man Who Sold the World

2007-12-19T18:30:00.001+08:00

A fan plays piano in an attempt to accompany Kurt Cobain and Nirvana's cover of the song.

This was the live performance of Nirvana:

Lulu Covers The Man Who Sold the World

2007-12-19T18:27:00.000+08:00

British singer Lulu, famous in the 60's, covers The Man Who Sold the World:

David Bowie: The Man Who Sold the World

2007-12-19T18:21:00.000+08:00

Forgive me, I am archiving. (In pursuit of higher learning)

This is the original song. There's no video, but it does display the album's original cover with Bowie in a dress:

This is a performance by David Bowie of the same song in 2000:

Sumilao Update

2007-12-19T13:56:00.000+08:00

San Miguel to be paid for Sumilao - Arroyo counsel
From GMA News

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's top legal adviser on Tuesday assured that San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) will be compensated when the government enforces the newly signed order placing the contested 144-hectare property in Sumilao in Bukidnon for distribution to agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol on Tuesday assured that SMFI, owner of the contested Sumilao Estate, will be paid through computations under Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

"Yes, definitely, oo ... Hindi naman libre ito e (yes ... This things isn't free)," Apostol told dzBB radio when asked if the SMC will be paid the value of the land.

He added that, "Since the land has been reverted back to agricultural classification, it can be placed under CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), if it is under CARP then the land can be distributed to tenant-beneficiaries."

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, after consulting with the President, signed the order revoking the conversion of the Sumilao property at 12:10 p.m. Tuesday.

"Based on the President's consultation with the farmers, religious and also based on the investigation of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the recommendation of the DAR states that there was a violation of the conditions of the conversion order. That was the basis for the order," Bunye said.

He said the Quisumbing family, the first owner who filed for conversion, initially announced that it will turn the area into an agro-industrial estate, with the Development Academy of Mindanao covering 24 hectares; the Bukidnon Agro-Industrial Park consisting of 67 hectares; forest development estimates to cover 33 hectares; and support facilities covering 20 hectares.

"Instead of the projects, they implemented a hog farm in the area which, according to the DAR, is a violation because it changes or it amends the conversion order," Bunye said.

San Miguel Foods, which purchased the land from the Quisumbings, wants to turn the area into a hog farm.

Bunye said he personally relayed the news to the Sumilao farmers at the nearby College of Holy Spirit. The farmers had "mixed feelings" about the President's decision, Bunye said.

Asked if Mrs Arroyo already spoke with San Miguel about her decision, Bunye said that, "I'm not privy to the discussions but on my own personal knowledge, I know that as of this morning, Secretary Ermita was contacting the head of San Miguel."

In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, Apostol said that, "The compensation that will be received by San Miguel will be based on 'CARL formula.'"

However, the landowner San Miguel "will be given 15 more days to contest the decision of the president through a motion for reconsideration filed at the Office of the Executive Secretary."

He said the Higaonon farmers who sought ownership of the estate will become CARP "beneficiaries."

Apostol also denied that the decision to finally give the land back to the farmers was made to save the plunging popularity of the President.

"The President is already helping the poor yet people are putting abad connotation to her actions. Why is this so? Her motives are pure," Apostol said.

The Sumilao farmers, who marched more than 1,700 km from Bukidnon to Manila since October, have opposed the conversion order which was issued for the 144-hectare land.

The conversion order, approved by then Executive Secretary Ruben Torres, effectively canceled a collective certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

A subsequent Supreme Court ruling upholding the conversion order allowed the sale of the property by the Quisumbing family to SMFI in February 2002.

Last November 16, the farmers filed their motion for reconsideration before the Office of the President seeking a reversal of the Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for the sale of the property to SMFI.

They argued that the conversion order must already be revoked since development in the area took place after the five-year period indicated in the conversion order.

Upon receipt of the motion, Ermita remanded the case to DAR for appropriate resolution.

The farmers had asked the DAR to issue a cease and desist order against SMFI.

Instead, DAR issued a status quo order, halting SMFI from further developing the property without preventing the firm from continuing with the construction of structures it had already started building. - GMANews.TV

Baby!!!

2007-12-18T10:02:00.001+08:00

The only bright spot to an otherwise drab week is seeing photos of my newborn niece and godchild, my sister's first. Here's one to share with everyone:

She's pretty, especially since she takes after me a lot. Made me jumpy and springy and fudgy inside.

She's six days old today. Merry Christmas everyone.

Takes on "Galileo"

2007-12-18T09:57:00.000+08:00

Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls wrote this song. She explains: "I was talking with my friend about reincarnation, what we believe. Does it mean that you come back as a dog or a tree or whatever, another human being, and the exchange of souls and all that stuff. And that just got me thinking about it. I wanted to write a song that was upbeat, that sort of took the whole subject sort of in a lighthearted way, even though I was thinking about it very seriously. There's this one point in the song where, as I understood reincarnation, you know it's a regeneration of souls for the betterment of all creatures and things over time. And I was thinking, you know, I'm so far from being the perfect soul that at least the world isn't going to experience nuclear holocaust while I'm alive, because I have to have my soul be regenerated at least once. So it was kind of like taking a heavy subject and sort of having fun with it.

I don't know if I believe in the exchange of souls, but I'm not a firm believer in reincarnation, and that I'm going to come back and be a dog, or another creature. I have a different belief system now, but back then, my friend really believed that we come back as something else, and it is a regeneration of souls until we reach Nirvana."

The Man Who Sold The World

2007-12-18T00:26:00.000+08:00

I was browsing through Songfacts' page on my world's most favorite song and had a blast reading the malevolent takes people had on this. It was hilarious:

"the song in my opinion is bowie in a dream meeting the lucifer,he then makes some sort of deal with him and heads away;maybe for eternal youth?the song is timeless because of this hidden message,i think bowies fear of madness brought him frighting dreams which interpeted into lyrics which are deep in the subconsious,maybe thats why we all identify with them

- lloyd, cork, Ireland

I believe this is about one person and appears to be about a suicide. One line reads, "Oh no, not me, I never lost control." At the end, it reads, "Oh no, not me, WE never lost control. You're face to face With the Man who Sold the World." In other words, the man who sold the world is himself. I'll guess that "we passed along the stair" is about the stairway to heaven or hell. This appears to be about a man remembering himself in the past (the man he passes is himself) and believing that he did not kill himself, was heading up to heaven. He is so convinced that he did not die from suicide, he splits himself into two people and is "surprised" that the man on the stair was his "friend." However, he does know that the man on the stair, a man that he is surprised to find out was his friend, DIED a long, long time ago. How would he know that if he doesn't know the man? In other words, "Hey, I thought you died but hey, I'm not you; I'm not that man." He laughs at the phrase, "You're face to face with the Man who sold the world," and continues on to heaven. Notice how it reads, "I searched for form and land." There is nothing around him except air and he's walking in nothingness. Ultimately, after many years he finds all the people who have committed suicide (in hell, I guess) and realizes that there are millions who died alone, just like him. But even to the end, when he realizes that the man on the stair was himself, he tries to convince himself that WE never lost control, even though he gave up everything.

- Thom, Boston, MA

look u guys are all wrong. its not about jesues its about moses. he was a prince who was about to be a king but instead he freed his poeple. HE is the man who sold the world.also after he got the ten commandments god told him to die alone.

- nick, sacramento, CA

The Man who sold the world could actually be Judas Iscariot , Cane , the Devil or a wandering lost soul. We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when - Judas & Jesus meet sometime in the future and discussed about the past and what happened. (They were friends once. remember?) Although I wasn't there, he said I was his friend - although Judas was not up there in heaven(upstairs) he was surprised that Jesus still considers him as His friend. Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes:"I thought you died alone, a long long time ago" - Judas thought Jesus died alone in the past. Oh no, not me I never lost control You're face to face With the man who sold the world - not sure who spoke this. I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home - Judas goes back home to sheol/hell/limbo?. (not exactly sure why he laughed. maybe sarcastic or just let out a devilish laugh.) I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed - Judas was probably cursed to wander aimlessly in another dimension or in limbo looking for form and land (similar to cane's curse if u read the Bible). I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here We must have died along, a long long time ago - Judas looks at millions of tormented souls in hell or limbo and told them they are already dead along with him ( they must have thought theyre alive all along ) Who knows? not me We never lost control You're face to face With the man who sold the world - Judas talking to the multitude and admitted he's the man who sold the world. Listen closely at bowie's version at the end of the song theres a kind of eerie back vocals. spooky. but it rocks. you can download it using winmx. but its hard to find. goodluck.

- Kurdt, Q.C., Other

Could the last guy be from The Q.C.?!!! What other Q.C.'s do you know? And I thought I had bad students who absurdly found a way to moralize everything! Everything! Anyway, here are the lyrics:

We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when
Although I wasnt there, he said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone, a long long time ago

Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You're face to face
With the man who sold the world

I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home
I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here
We must have died along, a long long time ago

Who knows? not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With the man who sold the world

Who knows? not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With the man who sold the world

I turn to it when I feel I've sold my own world to be in the comforts of the ordinary. Merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream!

Jaclyn Victor's Performances on Asian Idol

2007-12-17T14:17:00.000+08:00

This girl has been groomed to be a pop sensation and she knows it. She has the looks to play with exoticized images of what the West imagines an Asian to be, a perfect smile and beautiful eyes. Vocally, she's solid, but not quite there yet. A little more training perhaps.

Mike Mohede's Performances on Asian Idol

2007-12-17T13:50:00.000+08:00

This was my favorite. A little more pop embellishments, like knowing where the cameras are and playing a little more to the audience would have helped improve these performances a lot.

Mau Marcelo's Performances on Asian Idol

2007-12-17T13:36:00.000+08:00

At the expense of being unpatriotic, I didn't like these at all. Mau has had better days, had sung Better Days, and has had her brilliant moments. The brilliance of course having been imbibed by good song choices. What were they thinking? Making her sing, of all songs, Reach?

Singapore Idol Hady Mirza Wins Asian Idol

2007-12-17T09:13:00.000+08:00

I don't think anyone was more surprised than the winner himself since the judges made it clear that it was to be a competition between Mau Marcelo, Indonesian Mike Mohede and Malaysian Jaclyn Victor.

Anyhoo, here are the performances of Hady Mirza:

A bit affected with the rockstar vibe despite the inability to keep the seams together with the higher notes. Then again it wasn't about the winning.

Asian Idol

2007-12-16T22:32:00.000+08:00

Six country winners compete for the title of Asian Idol in a pre-recorded TV program in Indonesia. It was aired last night, and right now, we are awaiting the verdict as to who Asia will vote for.

The six contestants are as follows:

Indian Idol Abhijeet Sawant who sang Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It For You and Indian song Junoon.

Indonesian Idol Mike Mohede sang R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly and Indonesian song Mengejar Matahari, also the title of a local movie I remembered watching while there a few years back.

Malaysian Idol Jaclyn Victor. She sang the classic For Once in My Life and local song Gemilang.

Our very own Philippine Idol Mau Marcelo who sang Gloria Estefan's Reach and the classic Ako ang Nasawi, Ako ang Nagwagi.

Singapore Idol Hady Mirza sang U2's Beautiful Day and the Malay song Berserah.

And Vietnam Idol Phương Vy who sang River Deep - Mountain High and Just Falling in Love.

The contestants were obviously nervous, possibly aware that they are playing to a larger audience. But most were able to conquer their nerves and sing well, even bringing their own local vocal stylings to the fore even if half the competition was to be determined through a Western song. And I guess that would make this particular singing competition difficult to judge. What constitutes an Idol anyway, but a Western-inspired mold of a marketable singer who can duplicate the sheen of Western/American fluff that can be consumed by the masses? While the idea of an Asian Idol is commendable, perhaps it would be best to market this particular competition not as a contest but as an event celebrating the musical acheivements of different countries around Asia. In the end, who wins should not be relegated to a single country alone, but through the achievement of the region in general, producing their own kind of music and singers and setting it on stage for their neighbors to appreciate.

Hollaback Girl: The B-A-N-A-N-A-S Game

2007-12-15T10:42:00.000+08:00

Hollaback Girl lyrics below. If you have time, do play the mindnumbing game of B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Sing the song, and find a subsitute for the word bananas and spell it out the hollaback way. Some of my favorites include:

Bayabas, B-A-Y-A-B-A-S
Mansanas, M-A-N-S-A-N-as
Patatas, P-A-T-A-T-A-S
Lakatan, L-A-K-A-T-A-N
Bobitas, B-O-B-I-T-A-S
Fajitas, F-A-J-I-T-A-S

This amounts to nothing much, but then again it's mind-numbing. I did say it's mind-numbing right? Uh, this is my shit.

* * *

Uh huh, this my shit
All the girls stomp your feet like this

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl

Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit

I heard that you were talking shit
And you didn't think that I would hear it
People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up
So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack
Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out
That's right, put your pom-poms down, getting everybody fired up

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl

Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit

So that's right dude, meet me at the bleachers
No principals, no student-teachers
Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one
So I'm gonna fight, gonna give it my all
Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you
That's right, I'm the last one standing, another one bites the dust

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl

Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit

Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Again, this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
This shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl

Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit
Oooh, this my Shit, this my Shit

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

2007-12-15T08:56:00.000+08:00

"My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chief strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you all, as you see at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body of a week and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too. And think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any Prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm!"

This was Queen Elizabeth’s most celebrated speech, signaling her finest hour in power. She didn’t sit inside a guarded Palace while her people fought, but went to battle to "live or die" with them as they warded off invading Spaniards sent by King Philip to liberate England from their Protestant queen. She made her way to Tilbury, and like a true warrior queen, Elizabeth, upon a White Horse, inspected her soldiers, and showed nerves of steel guiding them to victory against Spain, the greatest empire in their time.

These were the events that were the centerpiece of Shekhar Kapur’s follow-up to his 1998 installment Elizabeth which launched the career of Cate Blanchett who played the title role. Blanchett, undeniably, essayed one of the best acting pieces of all time and got robbed off an acting Oscar to then It-girl Gywnneth Paltrow who delivered a paltry and forgettable performance in the speculative period piece Shakespeare in Love.

While the first installment from Kapur delivers a film with pangs that seethe with a perverse energy and rawness that complemented Blanchett’s acting prowess, this second installment pales in comparison. Blanchett is still great though, but that hasn’t been enough to save this film from over-written lines, clichéd images and a plotline that reeks of melodrama. Nestling its plot on a rumored romance between Elizabeth and her favorite courtier Walter Raleigh to balance the Queen’s divinity and her humanity, the film overdevelops the love angle with cheezy lines that belittle the poetic imagination of the same period that produced Shakespeare. It culminates in Raleigh’s saving of England, even if its highly doubtful if it was Sir Walter himself who single-handedly sunk the Spanish Armada, as many historical sources point to Charles Howard as the mastermind of the offensive.

The film, masquerading as a highbrow lesson in history, did get too campy. Its visual signals are overplayed and can be too literal. The pivotal execution of Queen Mary suffered as they juxtaposed images of the Catholic Queen being executed in red, and Elizabeth hyperventilating all over the palace after signing the former’s death papers in green. Rather than letting Cate Blanchett sit in her throne and give her good lighting so she can narrate the same kind of emotion sitting down—she is, after all, one of those rare breed of actresses who can do it—they had to transform the two actresses playing queens into Christmas mascots. The climax also suffered. As English ships stage a dramatic turn around against the gigantic Spanish fleet, the actor playing King Philip approaches a candle and mutters: “Elizabeth is darkness. I am light.” The candle imagery is overplayed in the next shots, culminating in the blowing of King Philip’s candle (pun intended) by the wind and Elizabeth looking out at sea to find the entire Spanish armada burning in defeat.

Jodie Foster Comes Out

2007-12-14T14:00:00.000+08:00

Jodie Foster, reportedly came out at the Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast held at Los Angeles' Beverly Hills Hotel last week. In her speech she thanked her rumored partner Cydney Bernard a production manager whom she met in the set of the forgettable Sommersby, which co-starred Richard Gere saying: "I would like to thank my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss."

This is reportedly the first time Foster has made reference to her relationship with film producer Cydney Bernard, her reported partner of 14 years. It comes as no surprise considering she appeared alongside CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on the cover of this year's May issue of Out magazine with the headline, "The glass closet: Why the stars won't come out and play".

She was also named number 43 on the American gay lifestyle magazine's list of "The 50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Lesbians in America."

Microwarehouse Sale

2007-12-14T10:52:00.000+08:00

It's the annual Microwarehouse sale!

It's the season for a really great depression.

Amazing Race Asia 2

2007-12-14T01:07:00.000+08:00

There is no reality franchise hungrier to make it than The Amazing Race Asia. While its American father featured a cast of almost non-celebrities in their show, the Asian version features an overeager mix of who's whos in the Region.

Hong Kong's Monica Lo represented Canada and won the 1997 Miss Chinese International Pageant.

Marc Nelson of the Philippines is one of the hosts of the Philippine sports-oriented show Sports Unlimited on ABS-CBN network while teammate Rovilson Fernandez is one of the hosts of another sports-oriented show, Gameplan and an executive editor of Maxim magazine's Philippine edition. Together, they have an extensive repertoire of physical challenges and travel experience that can help them to win.

Thailand's Paula Taylor is a VJ of Channel V.

Malaysia's Pamela & Vanessa Chong are the sisters of famous Malaysian singer Vince Chong.

Indonesia's Kinaryosih is a celebrity who has a string of TV commercials and box-office movies, and has competed in the shows Seleb Dance and its Indian counterpart Nach Baliye. She also appeared in Fear Factor Indonesia.

They all follow in the footsteps of last season's Aubrey Miles, an actress in the Philippines and Prashant Raj Sachdev, an Indian model.

Coupled with the warring spouses Terri and Henry from the Philippines, and the dumb and dumber girls Sophie and Aurelia, this show is poised to be an interesting display of toothpaste-perfect smiles, flawless skin and well-chiseled bodies more reminiscent of white notions of beauty. Plus, the show hardly has ever need for subtitles as everyone speaks English near flawlessly.

This is truly a celebration of Asia indeed. The show reminds me of how little we have achieved to overcome racial and social stratification and how we like to be colonized so much.

Jeff Morgan's The Dean and Deluca Food and Wine Cookbook

2007-12-13T15:40:00.000+08:00

If I were to have one book for Christmas, it would have to be Jeff Morgan's The Dean and Deluca Food and Wine Cookbook. Dean and Deluca is to New York what Cabalen is to Kapampangan Cuisine. Or maybe not. Even if this particular cookbook celebrates Napa Valley accomplishment more, its identity is undeniably New York. It represents a collection of streamlined dishes and cooking processes so that they can be made available outside New York. While the global directive underpinning the shift in production processes may seem scary, Dean and Deluca, like New York, promises to be a melting pot of the world's flavors. Whether its their Lobster, Cabernet and Shiitake soup or their Moroccan Rabbit Couscous, Dean and Deluca promises to stage the world on a dinner table. The downside of it of course are finding the ingredients. Where in Manila can I possibly find edible rabbit meat? Anyway, Dean and Deluca, for lovers of food everywhere who'd like to see familiar ingredients pan out to the rest of the world.