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It is rare to meet a woman you would trust with your life, but here was Cheche Lazaro, telling me about why she was retiring, what it is she’s most proud of, and where she will go from here—it was difficult not to be overwhelmed. After all, Cheche’s Probe Productions has so many awards tucked under its belt, and even more achievements that are invisible and non-material. One such intangible honor is this: for my generation (I was born in… Continue reading »
So congratulations are in order, or at least, a shout out, literally: Mabuhay Ang Federasyon! The landscape of male objectification in cinema has evolved because of you. I might complain, but I do with all my heart, appreciate it. After all, plenty needs to be said about the fact that women can now fawn if they wish to. And that is thanks to you my gay bestfriend who has become the bigger market. basahin ang kabuuan dito.
and no, this isn’t about hayden kho, at this point staying in bad relationships and publicizing them seems more stupid than it is unacceptable. but really, the way this woman has crossed that line between selling beauty and making it an ideology, even a religion, as if beauty is the end all and be all of our lives, and no do not tell me about artistas. because there are plenty of artistas who don’t have, and will choose not, to go through… Continue reading »
speaking literally, in the sense that you carry your own bags, with no real options for help, no man to take pity, at least no man that’s yours. and this is the story of you, having a boy all the time, since you were in college to post-grad, working as teacher, living alone. there was always a boy. and you do this on purpose of course, calling all your men, boys. because that’s how they become, you find. they become such in… Continue reading »
If there’s anything that Anne Curtis’ swimsuit malfunction highlights about us all, it’s that we are ill-equipped to handle the advance of technology. And I mean, all of us, those who hold cameras in our hands, and those who love being in pictures. In this sense, Anne Curtis is a victim of both the one who shoots, and she who has enjoyed being shot, and even makes a living out of it. Because in fact, the victimization of Anne could’ve… Continue reading »
This turned out to be a different creature altogether from what I imagined I would write about being invited to a Playboy launch party. Not surprisingly, talking about feminism and womanhood in the face of other Pinays just turned everything personal.
this is something that Female Network asked me to write, an election primer of sorts, for its Pinay market. www.femalenetwork.com is the umbrella website for Summit Media’s pinay-targetted magazines: Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping, Smart Parenting, Candy and Preview. but of course this is for every voting Pinoy, in 2010 and beyond, regardless of gender and sexuality, and whatever other demographic or category or label we may imagine we fall under. my personal top 10 issues in relation to the 2010… Continue reading »
my friend Andrea Teran wrote and posted this on her Facebook account. absolutely worth reading, and just so goddamn true it’s crazy that we have yet to hear/read speeches such as this. just missing a section on freedom of expression and extrajudicial killings, pero winner pa rin. and presidenteng papatol/gagawa/maniniwala sa speech na ‘to. at si Drey of course. :) ****** For This and No Other Or, A Draft Campaign Speech for Any of the Next Possible Philippine Presidents, Provided… Continue reading »
As with all year-ender lists, this is necessarily full of itself, and can be accused of having a false sense of power, imagining itself to be comprehensive and truthful and correct. Unlike many of those Best of 2009! lists though, this is conscious of itself and its limitations, and is willing to be shot in the foot for missing the point entirely. Too, this isn’t really a Best Of list (haha!); this is really just a list of my top… Continue reading »
We are told many things about being an artist, one of which is that you must start young. The other is that there’s no money in it, unless you’re one of the lucky ones who ends up having a fixed market for your art, or the one to whom money doesn’t matter. Jane Arietta-Ebarle doesn’t fall under any of these categories. In fact, she falls nowhere near them. This isn’t just because she has come into painting again only after… Continue reading »
Or when Derek Ramsey just ain’t enough. There are many good things about I Love You Goodbye really, including of course the fact that Derek Ramsey exists in it at all. It did want to talk about the travails of a May-December affair, as it did try to highlight the problematique of class when it comes to love, as it did use as premise the necessity of migration in the creation of a young Filipino couple’s dreams. With all of these… Continue reading »
a version of this was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Arts and Books section, October 26 2009. She was obviously overwhelmed silly by the fact that she was chosen as one of ten most exciting young artists. Which is no surprise really. Dina Gadia is the youngest of the group at 23, and just might have more going for her other than her age: she has a clear sense of what it is that interests her, where her art… Continue reading »
a version of this was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, September 14 2009. It was on two seemingly disparate occasions that the interweaving of art and music came to life for this writer. The first one involved the unfinished and unfulfilled CD project of the arts organization CANVAS and Ambient Media, where local musicians collaborate with visual artists on the theme of Filipino identity. The second was what seemed to be a run-of-the-mill album launch of Grace Nono, in… Continue reading »
whatever it is that has happened since this time and the present, since her rise to motherhood and wife-hood, since her now overexposed face selling every possible product on television — since the death of Cory — i daresay we have all forgiven Kris Aquino. or at least we’ve tolerated her. or maybe we’ve become immune to her? which is really why she’s getting away with ruining Noynoy Aquino’s chances at a decent win when he does run for president… Continue reading »
the only thing that links me to Cory Aquino is really memory. because while yes, it has been about these images of yellow my grandfather and mother carried, as her death sinks in it’s also about many other images in my head. of Butz Aquino and ATOM, and an uncle who was part of it. of Kuya at 13 asking that he be allowed to go with our older cousins to EDSA because, as he told my mother, what if there… Continue reading »
last friday, along katipunan avenue, ugly pink MMDA street dividers had yellow ribbons. today, driving through The Fort, lampposts and trees adorned with the same. on GMA 7′s sunday noontime variety show earlier today, all artists had yellow ribbons and pins on their shirts, Judy Ann Santos was in a crazy yellow bustier. the UAAP’s main game between U.P. and Ateneo this afternoon had all basketball players and coaches with yellow ribbons attached to their uniforms. and as in 1983,… Continue reading »
a version of this was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday, June 8 2009, Arts and Books Section. It begins simply enough, with four chairs, four small tables, and two clothes racks onstage. The moment the actors begin the first monologue “I Am Man” though, it becomes clear that this is going to be more complex than that stage and its four actors. Because there is more to making a powerful and revolutionary play than just being inspired by… Continue reading »