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I have nothing but love for Charice. No, I am no fan really, but I find it infinitely interesting when popular culture icons give their mass audience the unexpected or taboo, or something difficult to talk about, something against what we know to be proper or consider as important.
there is no doubt in my mind that joking about the rape of a woman is a no-no, which is like joking that you will kill a faggot. these are black and white, they are premised on gender discrimination, these are violent thoughts we do not think, and do not think to articulate when we actually do think about them out of anger or spite. and yet i get it, too, that really fantastic comedy, the kind that’s intelligent enough to… Continue reading »
which is to say what exactly? that she is honest about her earnings? well you see, she has no choice but to be honest, seeing as she likes to display her wealth, talking about it on TV, mentioning it in her interviews, if not using it for the pages of her very own magazine. if you were Kris Aquino, you would have no choice but to pay your taxes. you display your wealth like that, you earn from your life in this way,… Continue reading »
We’ve always known Kris Aquino to be shameless. And no, to me this didn’t start with her wanting to join show business, neither was it about the fact that her mother’s presidency was riddled with her love affairs with “wrong” men, with a couple even fighting it out in Malacañang, no less. To me, the shamelessness began in 2003, September to be exact, when Yes Magazine featured this ex-presidential daughter as nothing but her clothes, her make-up, as nothing but… Continue reading »
I am the last person to defend SM, and I do think we’ve got enough malls and condos in this country. But one of the first things I asked when the petition to save the Philam Life Theater began to gain ground was: why? And no, not why did SMDC buy the Philam Life property, but why was this property sold at all? Yet that doesn’t seem to be a question that many people are asking. Instead we are asking… Continue reading »
thank yous are in order, and while Angela and i always difficult to go all me! me! me! or I! I! I! on our blogs, almost two months into 2013, it would seem wrong to not fall back on that i, if only so i can talk to a you and articulate gratefulness. the year kicked off with being offered a regular Opinion column over at The Manila Times. i had hoped i could get away with putting a logo instead of… Continue reading »
Making Lemonade There is a romance that we like to imagine about writing, and especially the writing of a book. And while my rebellious self would like to tell you that this was not the case for Of Love and Other Lemons, that would be a lie. Certainly it came from a personal history of love and loss and sadness, complete with the high – if not OA – drama of buckets of tears. But the writing of this book… Continue reading »
As it turns out, nowhere. On an otherwise regular Friday night this single girl would find herself in a non-descript bar on the Fort Strip – the most recent incarnation of which has less of the sosy clubbing crowd, thank goodness. The years might have taught me of the need to dress appropriately for certain spaces, but adulthood has made me more stubborn about being myself too, especially for a night when all I need is a round or two… Continue reading »
don’t know about the depths of non-fiction ha. baka the narrative lang that surrounds our notions of depth. see you UP Baguio!
which is what Ricky Lo is. and yes, we can go on and on about how bad that interview was, and the wrong questions he asked, or you know, we can go the way of wanting more hits and ask people: what do you think? but what we might want to ask too is the question of why: why is Ricky Lo the one we’re sending out to represent good ol’ Pinas? why are his interviewing skills so bad? why is he… Continue reading »
in light of your dot.gov website being hacked, Andrea Pasion-Flores has said: “We are an agency that promotes books, instruments of expression. I cannot express enough how much we value the act of expression. Now I have to redirect public funds to fix this problem. It delays the announcements we have to make, such as a fabulous subsidy grant to a regional conference I wanted to tell you about soonest. I guess you’ll just have to watch the NBDB’s FB… Continue reading »
“My wife and I are now both very old – my wife just turned 80 and I am turning 80 next year. We would willingly spend this coming Christmas with our son as we did last year, if not for our failing health. We may have but a few years left and our only wish is to see Ericson walk free again.” — Isaias P. Acosta, father of Ericson Acosta, detained cultural worker and activist.
did this on Monday: my favorite question during the open forum, which to me was also the bravest one asked: how can we stop being silent, when everyone else is?
“<…> artists are constantly in the position of having to work in order to produce work.” here’s a project of Donna Miranda, which reminds of how artistic work, cannot always and necessarily be about exhibiting work in galleries and art spaces; which reminds of how the work of the artist, is always work to begin with, is borne of the work outside of it. it is labor, full stop. read up! hanep ‘to. ***
you have to register but the process is easy enough. Mark Salvatus is one of the few artists I would do an exhibit note for in a heartbeat, not so much as a matter of friendship, but as a matter of believing in his work, the kind of thinking that goes into it, the kind of artistic vision he constantly has. this exhibit note for his “The Other View” exhibit in late 2011 is an assessment as well of his… Continue reading »
but i thought it quite timely to re-post this piece on the Manila International Literary Festival (MILF) 2011, while the PILF (yes, they changed Manila to Philippine) 2012 is happening. because i hear they were laughing as they wondered whether i would go this year (no), or if GMA News Online would send me (yes, but i said no). because you know this year they take from prostitution and objectification of women, to sell Philippine literature. what fun.
is about you and me, culture and nation, desire and disappearance. please go see it.
What to do with Imelda’s embarrassment of riches
been writing about the Cinemalaya 2012 movies i saw, slowly but surely, sitting on them mainly because i saw the winning new breed film “Diablo” last, and i couldn’t quite wrap my head around the fact that it won. so as i try (very hard) to get a handle on the results of the Cinemalaya Awards, i write about the rest of the films that i saw, hopefully to write about that winning film last, too.
I’m a fan of original Pinoy music, always have been, and I grew with a Kuya who spent good money on cassette tapes of The Dawn and Neo Colours, Gary V. and Randy Santiago, Ogie Alcasid and Francis Magalona. I was enamoured with Smokey Mountain, loved “Ryan Ryan Musikahan,” and thought the world of Ryan Cayabyab. When Kuya left for Holland, he’d come home to buy every local CD he could get, rip them and leave most of them with… Continue reading »