the gapanese invasion is nigh!

"pinakamaganda ka nga sa buong kapuluan, pero latina na naman ang magwawagi ng korona at sash sa miss world! racism ba ito? lupasay!"

Saturday, January 31, 2009

social trends in entablado ateneo's expres


Entablado’s Expres is an hour-long presentation of five short plays in Filipino. In here, it not only lives up to the name for the speed in which each play proceeded, but also lives up to the idea of literature being a reflection of what happens in society. As such, each play shows trends of macro and micro social theories which mark the play as a legitimate mirror of the behavior of society. Three of these five plays will be under study.
In “Babymaker,” a woman works as a baby factory: she sells her body to foreigners whose goal is to impregnate her so that when she gives birth to her baby, she will get paid for the whole bother. From this short glimpse into the life of the babymaking character, it may be gleaned that her social role is being performed within the network of structural functionalism. By selling herself, she does the part of a commodity that the society needs to buy in order to sustain the human population, to which she contributes by creating babies the childless couples cannot make. Her commodification stabilizes the society by replenishing the need in the birth-death ratio, fundamentally. More importantly, her infant creator role prevents the crumbling of the social structure that’s the family by way of offering her babies as complementing factors in frustrated fathers and mothers. With the consequences of her babymaking service, the society tends to have balance because the threat of childless couples not becoming full-pledged fathers and mothers (therefore, full-pledged families) gets addressed by her. She even takes the social role seriously, ignoring the advances of a suitor in the name of business. No matter how demeaning her bodily commodification is, she is a babymaker who genuinely contributes to social order and stability by way of completing the most basic social unit of family.
In “Walang Iwanan,” a sugar mommy and her kept boy were meeting in a motel for the last time, the boy being a soon-to-be groom. The woman, however, decides to poison the guy because she cannot let go. The kind of relationship going on between the two may be seen in the light of exchange theory. This is the case because their social interaction, i.e. with each other is marked by what they lose and gain mutually. On the one hand, the kept boy loses by trading his dignity for money. With his gained money, however, he is able to sustain his survival. On the other hand, the woman loses by disregarding her self-respect if only for the love of the boy. With her gained attention from him, however, she is able to complete herself. This setup of bargaining between the two is about to be disrupted because of the looming marriage of the boy, who may find answer to his economic instability in the more stable structure of family life promised by marriage. Because the woman stands to lose because she has nothing weightier to compromise the boy in, she resorts to poisoning the boy because the latter disillusions her about being able to reciprocate her love.
In “Eyeball,” two chatmates agree to meet personally. Their setup may be seen in the framework of symbolic interactionism because at their specific social level, society exists in the form of their interaction with each other. Their individual interaction is facilitated by the use of the cyber-language: they talk over the net, and the girl is such a good conversationalist that he decides to engage in an eyeball with her to complete his attraction. Her capacity to talk well to him is his kind of subjective reality; however, seeing that she is not pretty at all, he associates this ugliness to the idea that she can hardly carry on with a conversation. The fact that while online, he was drawn to her by way of her good talk escaped him. For him, only the subjective reality that good talkers are actually good looking too matters, because this is how he constructed his identity as well without necessarily being aware that he, himself, becomes good-looking only due to the strength of his self-confidence.
These three plays succeed in manifesting the social theories that apply in all interactions among humans. Whether the social interactions occur in the macro or micro level, it is important to note that all these individual encounters amount to the shaping of the entire society.

Friday, January 30, 2009

bakit masama ang masama?


Noong bata pa ako, maraming bagay ang ipinagbabawal na gawain ng mga nag-aalaga sa akin. Bawal ang abutin ng gabi sa paglalaro sa kalsada, bawal ang magmura, bawal ang makipag-away, bawal ang matulog nang busog. Sa mura kong isip, naitatanong ko kung bakit hindi ako puwedeng makipagpatintero o makipaghabulan kung maliwanag naman ang buwan, kung bakit hindi ko puwedeng ibulalas ang nararamdaman ko sa porma ng bulaklak ng dila, kung bakit hindi ko puwedeng sugurin ng tadyak at hambalos ang mga nang-iinis na kapwa-bata, kuing bakit hindi puwedeng iidlip ko ang masarap na pakiramdam ng katamaran pagkatapos kumain. Bilang makulit na bata, asahan nang lalabas sa bibig ang mga tanong na ito ngunit dalawa lang ang masasabi ng tagapag-alaga: bawal, masama. Gusto ko sanang maipaliwanag sa akin nang mabuti kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng bawal, masama pero hindi pa naman ako sanay sa diskurso noon, kaya patay-malisya na lang ang ginawa ko kahit ni dedma ay hindi ko pa naman alam ang kahulugan.
Ano nga ba ang kasamaan? Bakit ang mga pamahiin ng matatanda, masamang gawin pero may mga naaabutan naman akong nagtsa-chinese garter kahit lagpas-dapithapon na, may mga nagmumurahan sa isa’t isa na parang wala nang bukas, may mga nasasabunutan at nagsasapakan habang umaastang cheerleaders ang iba, at may namamatay sa bangungot. At hindi limitado sa mga bata ang ganito, dahil hindi kakaunti sa mga sumusuway ay matatanda. Kung nasusunod sana ang istriktong pagsunod sa hindi dapat gawin dahil bawal, malamang sandamakmak ang populasyon ng mga santo at santa. Kung bawal dahil masama, bakit may sumusuway pa rin?
Sa palagay ko, may kasamaan dahil may kalayaan ang tao na piliing ipreserba ang ipinagbabawal o suwayin ito dahil sa tukso ng pagkakataon. Dahil buhay ang tao bunga ng kanyang natural na hangarin, mayroon at mayroong hadlang na sumasalunga sa pagpili o pagkilos bilang pag-abot sa hangaring ito. Kung may kalayaan, sasalungain nito ang hadlang para maabot ang hinahangad. Kung may kalayaan, mapipili ng tao na maging mabuti o maging masama sa pamamagitan ng pasgyakap alinman dito.
Ngunit papasok na rito ang konsepto ng kung gaano kahalaga ang hangarin para sa tao para sa kanyang sariling kapakinabangan o para sa kapakinabangan ng iba. Matapos ang murahan, ano na? Matapos ang pakikipag-away, ano pa ang kasunod? Hindi ba ang nararamdamang ligaya ay panandalian lang dahil naabot nga ang hangaring magmura o makipagsuntukan, ngunit sa proseso ay may nasaktang kapwa at hindi masasabing kapakinabangan nila ito? Kasamaan ito hindi lang dahil hindi produktibong gawain sa kaso niya o ng kapwa kundi dahil ginamit ang kalayaan nang hindi isinaalang-alang ang moral na responsibilidad. Anumang hangaring itinutulak ang tao para kumilos, may kalayaang mag-isip at humusga kung anong nag-aangat sa hangarin upang piliting maabot ito. Nasa kapangyarihan ng tao na piliin kung magdadala ng masama o mabuti ang hangaring ito sa puntong ang desisyon ang magsasabi kung naging mabuti o masama ang isang tao bilang bunga ng paghatol na sundin o hadlangan ang pag-abot sa hangarin. Kasamaan ito kung nabulay-bulay nang may masasagasaang iba, maaaring kapwa-tao o ang Diyos, ngunit initsa-puwera ang moral na responsibilidad at inabot pa rin ang hangarin.
Ang kasamaan ay ipinagbabawal ng Diyos dahil may inihatid siyang mga batas moral na bubuo ng dignidad-pantao habang sinusunod. Ipinapaalaala ito ng konsensya ng tao, na nagdidikta na piilin ito bilang basikong opsyon. Sa pagsunod ng tao sa mga batas moral na ito, ginagamit ng tao ang kalayaang bigay mismo ng Diyos upang iangkop sa mga batayang moral Niya. Kaya nga ang kasamaan ay pagpili sa bawal, isang pagpiling may angkop na kaparusahan.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

charlie green's hotter brother

When I went to Jel’s house, she was eager to show me less of child singing sensation Charlie Green than his hotter brother. Hotter brothers like the Kuya Troy of my ex Sam and the lawyer kuya of my tutees Melo and DJ never fail to remind me of Tagalog movies like Milagros and Tuhog. Anyway, I gathered that the boy, his English father and his Filipina mother had been interviewed by media rivals ABS-CBN-2 and GMA-7 and in the photos below, the trio was joined by the brother and by the members of the former presidential family for the rare press snapshots. The moment my eyes descended on the family picture of the Michael Buble version of Britain’s Got Talent, the Caucasian-looking hunk colonized my line of vision. I felt like dancing to Buble’s cover of “Fever!” What’s more, he was pictured next to my student’s bright uncle Jake, former President Joseph Estrada’s son. Choose who’s more smoldering.
P.S. Zazu imagines that Charlie Green belts out OPM classics like “Laguna,” “Tukso,” and “Sinta.” Interesting. Meanwhile, I imagine a conversation between the UK-born Charlie and Jake, who is currently studying in London. The British twang must have dominated the air.





Wednesday, January 28, 2009

ang banal bilang mysterium tremendum et fascinosum


Isang nakamamangha at kaaya-ayang misteryo: ito ang ibig sabihin ng mysterium tremendum et fascinosum. Sa pakikipagtagpo ng tao sa buong kakaiba o ‘di-pangkaraniwang karanasan, nakadarama siya ng ‘di-maipaliwanag, nakasisindak, nakaaaliw, nakakatakot na nakakamangha. Maiuugnay ang karanasang ito sa banal. Ngunit ang pagkamanghang ito ay hindi tulad ng sa mga astronomo kung namamalas nila ang kalakian ng sandaigdig, o ng mga kosmonaut kung nakikita nila ang mundo mula sa kinapal, o ng mga makata at artista kung sinisikap nilang ibulalas ang pagkagulat sav karanasang nadama nila sa kalikasan o sa sining ng pantaong teknolohiya, o ng mga paleontologo o iba pang makaagham kung kinakaharap nila ang mga misteryosong pagsisimula ng daigdig. Nakiakaramdam din tayo ng ganito kung nakikita ang taluktok ng bundok, ng ganda ng paglubog ng araw, ng lakas ng karagatan, ng lalim ng mga awing sa lupa, ng pag-uga ng lindol o paghampas ng bagyo. Ganito ang sagot natin sa mga kagila-gilalas na pangyayari sa sandaigdigan. Hindi lamang ito limitado sa mga totohanang nananampalataya o kinakailangang maging relihiyoso, pero maaring ispirtwal dahil may indikasyon ng malalim na damdaming pinupukaw kahit na wala namang kaakibat na kababalaghan. Ganito ang mysterium tremendum et fascinosum: isa itong pakikipagtagpo sa banal kaya nga nakadarama ng kagalingan at iba pang mga bagay na bumubuo sa daigdig, at ang tao ay nadarama ang banal na ito bilang misteryoso at kagila-gilalas na presensya. Sa pakikipagtagpong ito, nakadarama ng banal na pagkamangha. Kaya nga ang taong kaharap ang banal ay parang tumingin sa araw na nakikita lamang ang dilim. Ganito rin ang pagtagpo sa banal: nakikita lamang ang sariling dilim, karupukan at karumihan, and pagkamakasalanan ng sarili. Hindi makikita ng tao ang Diyos dahil hindi kaya ng taong tanggapin ang kadakilaan Nito. Sasabog siya sa npakalakas na kuryenteng aantig sa katrawan ng tao. Kaya nga nandito si Hesus upang sa pamamagitan Niya, Makita natin ang Diyos at bigyang kapatawaran ang sarili natin. Ang daan, katotohanan at ang buhay ang paraan upang makatagpo ang banal at mamalas ang wagas na pag-ibig ng Diyos.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

10:17, sa recto






















(note: this poem was written after president gloria macapagal-arroyo declared a state of emergency in yet another instance of bending the law.)
***
Apuhap ka ng paningin
Tuwing tinutunton ng mga panlakad
Ang kahabaang ito ng malalamlam na ilaw
Sa mabagsik na dilim
At sa panulukang kinatatayuan ng Isetann,
Susulyapan kita sa gilid ng mga mata,
Paglalaruan sa guni-guni ang kakinisan ng iyong
Kutis at kalakihan ng iyong
Bisig, kung paanong ang Adonis na kinakatawan mo
Ay ginagatungan ang lagablab sa aking dibdib.
Sa pagdaan ko’y masasamyo ko ang halina
Ng iyong Polo Sport
At sa tititig ka’y mangungusap ka ng "Halika…"
Ang kakisigan mo’y sapat na pangrahuyo
Ngunit sa ‘di kalayua’y taban na ng mga pulis
Ang kanilang batuta
Kailangang magmadali ako
Dahil sa 10:17
Ay kalaliman na ng gabi
Sa Recto.

Monday, January 26, 2009

the uneventful in the eventful


the chinese have just greeted the year of the earth ox and the day coincided with an ominous annular solar eclipse. as a teenager, i got so fascinated with eclipses that i wrote a paper about eclipses for my senior paper. however, for the superstitious in our midst, the celebrating chinese especially, there is nothing fascinating about these celestial phenomena because they are supposed to bring bad luck. imagine the life-giving sun being unable to do as it naturally does just because of a sudden dimming: that must be a cue to some calamitous happenings from war to famine to floods.
in the face of these spectacular events, a weird feeling bedeviled me for most of the day. i lacked sleep last night, but i managed to be in the office early enough to bring the gift delicacy of tikoy for refrigeration in the mutineers' secret meeting place. i didn't get to see louie in his ate's kiosk, although i would relish his awesome smile later in the day. not long after, kenneth warned me and rr that a memo has been issued yet again, although the content said that a laguna party for employees is in the offing, not the usual grammar-mangled threats of insubordination charge. i immediately declined to join the outing, knowing that the interpreters of maladies will be around to ruin my moment. also, my colleagues' original plan to go undertime to conduct jobhunting didn't push through, so another setback in my career move paralyzed me temporarily. it didn't help that at the time the moon appeared to block the sun's disk in my vantage point in the big city, clouds have rendered the apparition invisible.
i could not figure exactly what's eating me, so i just slept early and missed replying to twenty-five texters (including my ex, TY, N and louie) from 7 p.m. onwards. maybe the morning after would prove better, since there are no more penumbral shadows to wait the passing of nor evil spirits to frighten with firecrackers. since tomorrow is just another day, i hoped that the dancing dragon of the new year would have already chased the demons away instead of gorging the sun of my mind forever, denying me my luck and obscuring my sanity.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

the thin line beyond sanity


At some points in my life, a feeling of weirdness weaves itself into my system. One time, I feel like something is trying to rip me inside out. Another time, I feel like something is eating my head off. Yet another time, I feel like I am losing it—I want to slap people around me for no reason except the stupid look in their faces, or I wish to hurl things and sleep endlessly afterwards. Fortunately or unfortunately for this dear life of me, I get through the feeling intact, and then move on to spend the rest of the day productively like any normal person does and can.
Shrinks have a name for it, I am sure. Nonetheless, I do not think that getting informed of the psychological label for this bizarreness will make me feel better once the weird moment starts coiling my senses. I may be offered counseling, medicine or other forms of help, but I think it is futile. Why should I think otherwise, when the strange descent will make its way to me yet again in some other time in the future. No number of pills and no amount of advice will ultimately drive it all away.
Which is not to say that I am relishing the experience. Nobody wants to be branded psychotic, unless one is crazy enough to enjoy the tag. There is nothing to delight about struggling to contain one’s instability of the mind, just so one can safely belong to the normal crowd, notwithstanding if studies show that there is always a tinge of quirkiness in everyone of us, that normality is now a thing of the past, an obsolete hallucination of the memory.
Thankfully, there is art to resort to when my world begins to turn upside down again. Others unleash their inner demons through painting, dancing, singing, whereas I write to describe my twisted but personal view of reality. I write as a therapy, and when words pour out of my system, I hope that I make myself clear enough for others to sympathize at least instead of inspiring them to call me names or dismiss my feeling as incomparable to the ills of the world. I hope to make them see through my artistic refuge that indeed, we are unified humans for feeling this weird way one time or another.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

traveling north


















Past the imposing Arayat,
The bus marches through vast armies of sugarcane,
Red-purplish stalks standing like identical soldiers
Upon the brown earth, against the martial sun.
From my window to the world,
Your tropical island adjoins mine
Though only in dreams.
The panorama of sugarfields
Unravels the force of saccharine loves
Silent as crystals
But brave as platoons of canes
Facing death in
Negros’ battle mills
Seeing light as sugar, sweet,
Pure in body and spirit.
Many are the armies, but one.
Traveling north is always shuttling somewhere:
There, the voices are muted—only hearts speak
And even when the sun spares tomorrow,
Always, there are the sugarcanes to follow.

Friday, January 23, 2009

my heart sings the 80's

new wave seems to be surging into a tsunami in my social life. after swiss boy, here comes lette's brother louie.
readers out there, grab a pen and list this down: lette's stopover sits along tandang sora avenue near new era university, opposite culiat high school and is juxtaposed by a laundry shop and a netcafe. for all you know, the person in the congee-and-dimsum kiosk is the pretty owner herself, her equally lovely brother leo or, if the stars are on your side, this mesmerizing teenager.




Thursday, January 22, 2009

how sweet...world peace is

it's not what you think, but i did flirt with the idea. (sorry, interpreters of maladies, you do not have any right to participate in the discussion owing to your lack of literary training. despite obscurity, all of you know who you are.)
the caption of this photo from a leading broadsheet reads: "two members of the Palestinian National Guard embrace each other at their bombed headquarters in Gaza City on Wednesday following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip." ganyan nga mga bro: magmahalan tayo!
do i hear a naked tracy torres chanting "make war, not peace! make war not peace!...(15-second funereal silence)...ay mali!"?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

battle of the bibliophiles...almost

RR and I found this rare piece of treasure under the rubble of titles in National Bookstore SM North Edsa. Upon eavesdropping my ravings about this magic realist novel about the glories and tragedies of an eccentric Colombian clan, a bibliophile asked to touch the book with 60% discount, regretful that she didn’t grab hold of it ahead of me. When it appeared that she struggled to let go of my extraordinary find, I poised my nails for combat. Fortunately she released it in time or there would have been a bravura showdown of geeks over Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Monday, January 19, 2009

meteor rising





















Kaleidoscopic Zenith moves my soul:
A meteor cuts across the firmament;
Regal in its glide, it burns Air’s bowl,
Lighting its pale track mildly, imminent
Of getting me consumed by its rich fire
As I lie waiting for the moon to soar,
Chase this dim night away, then calm its ire
To yield the stars, Andromeda and more.
Lest I go undermined by lapse again,
Out comes this brilliant streak to save my hour;
Yes: it has borne the moon, has failed the bane,
Obtruding the horizon’s sleeping power.
Lantern of the night, you are astral,
A true breathtaker, so phenomenal.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

ang kasalukuyang lugar ng relihiyon sa daigdig


Sa “Religion vs. Science” at sa “The God Debate,” pinagtalunan ang pakakalugar ng relihiyon at siyensya sa daigdig dahil nga sa ngayon, nag-aagawan ang dalawa sa pagiging pangmundong pananaw ng mga tao. Sa isang banda, ang mga tradisyunal na tao ay naniniwala pa rin sa relihiyon dahil nga may pananampalataya sila sa Diyos na luimikha ng lahat. Sa kabilang banda, ang mga makabagong tao ay naniniwala naman sa siyensya bilang otoridad na makasasagot ng lahat ng bagay. Dahil dito, matindi ang tagisan ng dalawa dahil habang namomodernisa ang tao, lalong nanganganib ang relihiyon na mapalitan ng siyentipikong paniniwala.
Sa kasalukuyan, masasabing matindi ang pinagdaraanang pagsubok ng relihiyon dahil sa matitinding pagtuklas at imbensyon na nagaganap bawat sandali, lalong nailalaan ang paniniwala at, sa kalaunan, pananampalataya para sa siyensya bilang kasagutan sa lahat ng mga problema, tanong at mga misteryo sa daigdig. Gayunpaman, ginagawan ng paraan ng mga relihiyoso na iakma sa pagbabago ng panahon ang relihiyon upang manatili itong buhay at hindi basta maetsa-puwera ng siyensya bilang pangmundong pananaw. Halimbawa nito ang tinatawag na “intelligent design” kung saan ang mga nilikha ng Diyos ay nilalapatan ng siyentipikong termino upang maging ebolusyonaryo ang relihiyon. Masasabing may lugar pa sa daigdig ang relihiyon dahil hindi naman lahat ng bagay ay masasagot ng siyensya. Katunayan nga, hindi pa rin naman lubusang nasosolusyunan ang mga problema ng daigdig kahit na may pangako ang siyensya na ibigay ang utopia. Hindi rin basta mapasusubalian ang sobrang akmang pagkakabuo sa daigdig na hindi masasabing nagkataon lamang. May isang kinapal na puno ng karunungang dinisenyo ang sandaigdigan kaya nga nabuhay tayo. Hindi nakikita ang Maykapal na ito, ngunit hindi ibig sabihn ay hindi Siya umiiral. Sa halip, hindi talaga lubusang malilirip ng tao ang misteryo ng Diyos at kahit na siyensya ay hindi tuluyang mapabulaanan ang pag-iral ng isang intelehenteng Meron na nagging dahilan ng pag-usbong ng taoat daigdig. Hindi masasagot ng siyensya ang mga tanong ngunit may sagot ang relihiyon: ang Diyos. Kinakailangan lang na manampalataya upang maintindihan ang mga bagay sa daigdig, mula sa kultura, batas, sining, kalikasan, kahit na ang siyensiya. May lugar ang relihiyon sa daigdig hanggang hindi kakayanin at hindi talaga kakayanin ng siyensya na ilantad ang lahat ng misteryong hindi lubusang mauunawaan ng tao maliban na lamang kung may pananampalataya.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

joni's baguio birthday bash

my dear friend joni celebrated his birthday in baguio so i took the chance to revisit the city of pines that's the current home of friends colyn and carl. my student maryann's wedding was scheduled the following day in nearby pangasinan so i thought everything fell into place neatly.
i make it a point to experience the chilly climate of the upland city once a year, and now that the temperature has dropped to a teeth-chattering 7 degrees, i regretted having brought a UP jacket only. it's just timing that before the twilight completely gave way to the cloak of evening in popular session road (photos below), i met a hot davao-born mestizo who invited me for a warm shower in his pad in quezon hill. some half hour later, i met carl and off we went to ambiong road in aurora hill, where joni's father's house is located.
it figured that the road snaked its path all the way to la trinidad, benguet, and the random numbers of the residences all the more added to the confusion. i said to carl when some drunk men swaggered along the ravines overlooking the citylights, "hindi ito ang tamang oras ng paglilimayon ng mga taga-poveda." the driving cabs were getting fewer and fewer, with the throbbing starlights seeming to mock us with "belat!" for being lost in translation.
good thing that joni found us out just before i started shouting my existential frustration in the middle of the road. in a while, we and other manila-based friends were all trembling in the howling cold amid the skyward posts of bayan park's pine trees, which reminded me of the vampire movie Twilight. the group (photos below) lit a bonfire before proceeding to a campy version of The Buzz. The unsuspecting straight couples served as guests while jobben and i, as hosts who invoked such unlikely sponsors as dagupan bangus, forme apparel and faces music gallery. the miss gay pageant didn't push through as expected because as jobben and joni would have it, my penetration into the circle of five will likely cause the other finalists to bungle the crucial question and answer portion. thinking of queer theory, popular culture, philosophy and other disciplines, i couldn't agree more.




Friday, January 16, 2009

love me again?!?

just went out on a date with my ex. i imagine you cheering us on to return in each other's embrace, but then you abhor the thought that we are plagiarizing sam milby and anne curtis' romantic saga. we planned to watch The Thank You Girls, but the roadtrip involving beauconeras who always get trounced in miss gay pageants will not be commercially shown until next week. it was with a mild effort that marvin and i avoided throwing a fit before the sizeable crowd in robinsons movieworld.
then, i saw something in the movie list that almost made marvin run screaming in the opposite direction: Love Me Again starring piolo pascual and angel locsin. discrediting parallels in our own turbulent love affair, i convinced him that he need not mind the theme, adding that piolo's hypnotizing abs was bared in the movie about lovers who rekindle their passion in the land down under. No go. We went eating noodles hongkong-style instead--in the mall's foodcourt down under.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

ysabella meets isabelans

carmi martin must be knocking on my door because long after learning that an old crush studied in santiago city, isabela, i would discover that N hails from jones town. as if that wasn't enough to make teachers rhea and rhoda taunt me mercilessly for my partiality against people from far north, i would set eyes on a dashing mestizo who, i researched, originates from cauayan, isabela. maybe i should start taking karma seriously since my mind welcomes the idea of paradigm shift anyway. the other beautiful boy, hopefully, lives somewhere else, or i would have to review my definition of false consciousness.



Wednesday, January 14, 2009

ploning's oscar bid may have failed, but...

Now it can be told rather lamentably that Nico Garcia’s Ploning fails to make it in the shortlist of the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film category. Early buzzers like Germany’s The Baader Meinhof Complex, France’ The Class, Japan’s Departures, Sweden’s Everlasting Moments, Canada’s The Necessities of Life, Austria’s Revanche, Mexico’s Tear This Heart Out, Turkey’s 3 Monkeys, and Israel’s Waltz With Bashir were unsurprisingly present, and their strong showing means that the Judy Ann Santos starrer of an island lass who waits unfailingly for the return of a lover gone offshore was up against heavyweights.
Which is not to say that Ploning lacks merits sufficient to propel it to the finals. While epic films are understandably noteworthy in movie derbies because of their inherent qualities, films that show a panoramic view of human life are more recognizable, notwithstanding if they originate from the Third World. This is what Ploning is about, told in a beautifully subdued manner and against a picturesque tropical backdrop: the many nuances of love that people may feel apart from the much-explored romantic variety. Why, First World countries do not hold a cinematic junta of significant human experiences like the aforementioned; their unfair advantage is that they can raise enough funding to mount screenings that create promotional works and, ultimately, that have voting members taking notice. That did it in, but I will never lose faith in Ploning not only because my favorite pop icon plays the role of the poignantly amorous protagonist, but also because it is a homegrown film I can be proud of for its sincere portrayal of a largely unexamined slice of Philippine life.
And in order to prove how I salute the team that produced a world-class Filipino film out of the all-encompassing emotion that’s love, here:

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

the witching hour















The lights are low, the party’s in full swing,
Half-naked beauties traipse the silken dark—
Some gym-sculpted, face and skin aglow;
Some honey-colored, blest by solar burst.
But then, the doomsday cards are held aloft:
“Tisoys are sure to steal the evening’s show.”
Before I plunge myself to eat the dust,
A sudden dragon dims the midnight suns,
Eclipsing tricks against majestic tricks,
Wand’ring past the shocked, defeated forms.
The longing look and then, the scorching blaze
Bring the quick delirium to a boil
Fleeting, yes, yet supernatural,
Like a wizard’s chant forged in memory.
When fires sparkle in his China eyes,
Skins pale and fair envy my gorgeous brown.
Latinas dominate, but mine’s the crown.

Monday, January 12, 2009

stream-of-consciousness in a nutshell


Virginia Woolf’s name is practically synonymous to the literary term stream-of-consciousness because any of her great works employs this technique. Mrs. Dalloway, for example, is a novel that uses this unconventional mode of narration which attempts to encompass the entire range and uninterrupted flow of the character’s mental process. First used in 1890 by writer Henry James’ psychologist brother William, it illustrates the continuous flow of thought and awareness of the conscious mind. With its appropriation in literature during the flowering of modernism in the beginning decades of the twentieth century, stream-of-consciousness has been contextualized to mean novelists’ narrative method of depicting the unspoken thoughts and feelings of their characters minus the objectivity and the need to verbalize them. There are associative and dissociative jumps in syntax and punctuation, i.e. ellipses and dashes, reflecting the characters’ fragmentary thoughts and sensory emotions but making the text hard to follow. Thus, the characters’ sense perceptions fuse conscious and half-conscious thoughts and memories, feelings, experiences, histories and random links, revealing an internal exploration that manifests significant traits. Alternately known as interior monologue, it broke the ground of literature through writers like Woolf, James Joyce and Dorothy Richardson who narrated image and thought flows lacking structural coherence and cohesion and whose writings have plots that move in and out of place and time. As such, the technique creates a textual parallel to the fictional characters’ consciousness, making the readers eavesdrop on what goes on in the characters’ minds and making them access their most private thoughts. Some of the prominent stream-of-consciousness masterpieces include T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Richardson's Pilgrimage, Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, Woolf's To the Lighthouse and The Waves, Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness, Samuel Beckett's Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, William Burroughs's Naked Lunch, J. D. Salinger's Seymour: An Introduction, Julio CortĆ”zar's Rayuela (Hopscotch), Nadine Gordimer's July's People, Clarice Lispector's The Apple in the Dark, among others.
Stream-of-consciousness is a departure from the traditional literary style because it provides an insight into fictional characters’ genuine state of minds and feelings, which may otherwise be concealed in insincere dialogues and ambiguous actions. It is a way of divulging the inner lives of characters for readers’ interpretation, something unattainable in real life. Hence, it is a modern device that provides believable textual expressions of imagined thoughts still prevalent in contemporary world literature.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

amparo party with f4 minus san chai with jao mapa featuring mia pratts and with the special participation of mai-mai davao

we academic mutineers went on the loose when we graced the funky debut party of our common student jeramee. food, drinks (both soft and hard) and peals of laughter filled the moonlit night that must have been the longest we've had. just who are being referred to in the kilometric title, go guess. all i can say is that jobby and friends came, saw, and conquered, right?







Saturday, January 10, 2009

ang pag-iral ng diyos ayon kay san anselmo


Bukod kay San Tomas de Aquino, nagbigay din ng pruweba si San Anselmo tungkol sa pag-iral ng Diyos. Argumento niya, maipriprisinta ang pag-iral ng Diyos gamit ang prinsipyo ng ontolohiya lamang; sinabi niyang ang pagmemeron ng Diyos ay tumutugma s kakayanan ng taong makita ang konsepto ng Diyos sa isip. Sa unang pasakalye, credimus te esse aliquid, quo nihil majus cogitari posit o naniniwala tayo na may bagay na mas malaki na hindi masasaisip. Sa pangalawang pasakalye, convincitur ergo etiam insipiens esse vel in intellectu aliquid, quo nihil majus cogitari potest… Et certe id, quo majus cogitari nequit, non potest esse in intellectu solo o kahit na ang mga mangmang ay dapat umaming may isang mas malaking bagay na umiiral na maaaring umiiral lamang sa kanyang isip, at dahil hindi ito maisasaisip, siguradong hindi lamang ito sa isip umiiral. Kaya nga existit ergo procul dubio aliquid, quo majus cogitari non valet, et in intellectu, et in re o samakatuwid, walang dudang may isang bagay na napakalaki na hindi maisip ngunit umiiral sa pag-unawa at sa reyalidad. May bentahe ito sapagkat mas malamang na tama ang pasakalye at tumutugma sa reyalidad and teorya. Makikita pa sa silohismo na pinapatunayan ang pag-iral ng Diyos bilang isang solusyon sa isang siyentipikong problema. Mahina lamang ito kung ang taong pagpriprisintahan ay wala talagang pananampalataya, dahil anumang paliwanag sa kanila, hindi nila tatanggapin ito. Kaya nga hindi maiisip ang hindi maisip kung ndi nagkakaroon ng pagtutulay sa pagitan ng paniniwala at lohika. May pagtatagpo ng mga elemento rito upang buuin ang isang kumpletong larawan ng kaisipang Katoliko. Sa ganitong sabi, misteryo nga ang Diyos, at naipapakita lang siya ng higit sa lohikal na pamamaraan kung para lang magkaroon ng pagpapahalaga. Matatagpuan ang pagpapahalagang ito sa kooperasyon ng paniniwala at katwiran upang mahikayat ang tao na mag-isip upang maintindihan ang argumento. May lohikal na patunay ang ontolohikal na argumento ni San Anselmo. Ngunit hindi man maintindihan sa iba pang lohika, hindi kinakailangang Makita ito kung hindi naman ito silohismo. Sa anyo nito ngayon, naipapakita ang misteryosong kalikasan ng pag-iral ng Diyos sa isang paraang nakakaakit ng pang-kaisipan at ispiritwal na pagtuklas.

Friday, January 09, 2009

'sarap maging pepsi max

Straight, dark N on a (friendly) date. Paradigms are shifting, and i don't just mean to say coca-colonization's about to end its global reign in human civilization's diet.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

ang patunay ng pag-iral ng diyos ayon kay san tomas de aquino


Bilang debotong Kristiyano, natural na naniiwala sa Diyos si San Tomas de Aquino, ngunit gusto niyang patunayan ang pag-iral ng Diyos sa mga hindi tumatanggap ng mga bagay-bagay sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya. Hindi kasi binibigyang permiso ng lohika ang pagpapaliwanag sa pag-iral ng Diyos. Kaya nga may limang pruweba ng pag-iral ng Diyos base sa lohika at pagmasid sa kalikasan. Sa unang argumento, sinubok ni Aquino na patunayang may unang kumikilos, at tinatawag itong Diyos. Pinatunayan niya ito sa pagsasabing anumang kumilos ay pinakilos ng iba pa. Hindi ito walang hanggan, kaya aabot sa konklusyon na may unang pagkilos na dahilan ng mga sumunod na pagkilos. Mas madali kung tutuusin ang ikalimang argumento dahil sa pagmasid ng mundo, makikitang lahat ng mga bagay ay patungo sa katapusan. Hindi puwedeng matapos ito nang hindi dinidirekta ng isang matalinong maykapal. Lagpas sa kakayanan ng tao ang idirekta ang malalaking bagay sa sandaigdigan gaya ng mga planeta at bituin, kaya mas makapangyarihan ang may kontrol sa mga ito. Ang dalawang argumentong ito ay magkaiba ng pamamaraan sa pagpapatunay na umiiral ang Diyos, sa isang banda, nagsimula ang lahat sa unang kumilos, samantalang sa isang banda, may isang kumokontrol sa iba pang bagay na lagpas sa kaya ng tao. Sa unang patunay, paano sasagutin ni Aquino kung ang tanong ay, “Ano ang nagpkilos sa Diyos?” Masasabing wala sapagkat dati nang umiiral pa ang Diyos, kaya patutunayan ito ni Aquino na walang hanggan nang umiirla ang Diyos. Kung bibigyan niya pa ng patunay ito, magiging paulit-ulit lang ang argumento. Iba ang kaso ng ikalimang argumento, dahil ang ayos na ng sandaigdigan ang nagpapatunay na gumagalaw ito sa gawi ng batas. Samantalang hindi basta lumitaw ang batas na ito, lumitaw ito sa paglikha ng sandaigdigan. Kung tutuusin ang teoryang Big Bang sa pagkakalikha ng sandaigdigan, ganoon din lumitaw ang batas ng kalikasan. Hindi naman maipaliwanag ito ng siyensya, na magsasabing may isang misteryosong puwersang gumawa nito upang gabayan ang gawi ng mundo. Ganito ang ginamit na argumento ni Aquino, na kayang suporthana ang sarili at walang pagkukulang sa lohika. Ang pagpatunay ng pag-iral ng Diyos ay isang mabuting gawi at kung may makagawa nito gamit ang mga argumentong hindi mapasusubalian, wlaang pagpipilian ang mga tao kundi maniwala sa pag-iral ng Diyos. Kahit ganito na ang ginawa ni Aquino, hindi makukuha ang lahat sa lohika at pangangatwiran. Lagi nang may elemento ng pananampalataya na meron lagi upang maniwala. Kung walang pananampalataya, kahit anong patunay na umiiral ang Diyos ay mababalewala.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

the academic mutineer


The year is starting right, eh? The last three days saw me visiting the obscure college' human resource department regarding my and four of my colleagues' absence during our Christmas party, among other issues. Apparently, we got the goat of the management after the receiving copy of a memo that had been passed around for signing appeared crumpled (how come the faculty copy reached the hrd office, some pencil sharpener must have most likely interceded). Hence, the issue has become blown out of proportion, without the need to. The following correspondence might seem interesting for readers for both the overt and covert contents (or the lack thereof) as well as the vast gulf separating the styles in which the letters were written. Why, I'm thinking of fictionalizing it soon because of the sheer hilarity of the situation. The following is the body of the memo I received, quoted verbatim:
Please be informed that you had (sic) failed to attend the Christmas party last December 23, 2008 without prior notification from (sic) the management. In this connection, you are advised to explain in writing within 24 hours why you should not charge of insubordination (sic).

This will serve as your Written Reprimand upon the receipt of this written notification. Failure to comply shall forfeit the right to be heard.
***
This is my response to my summoner regarding my failure to notify the management about my absence during the Christmas party:
In reiteration of my verbal explanation last January 6, 2009, I write to inform you that I hurriedly left Manila to take my two-week vacation in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. Owing to the relative isolation of that resort town, I did not get to contact the school via e-mail or mobile phone. Hence, a charge of insubordination is not necessary.
While we are at the subject, you may want to review whether insubordination is the appropriate disciplinary charge for a considerably minor incident. I and my colleagues are prevented from doing the review ourselves due to the invisibility and inaccessibility of a faculty handbook, the textual proof on which your penalizing interpretation was based. I deem the non-attendance way too incomparable to, say, the deliberate disobedience to a superior’s order. It likewise vigorously implies that attendance to said party is compulsory. While I understand that I had earlier signified my motive to be present through my signature on the attendance sheet, I indeed intended to go in order to celebrate the Christmas spirit with this institutional family. The opportunity to spend the holidays out of town and for free, however, got in the way. It is solely for this overlooked notification that I feel sorry.
***
Belated Happy New Year, Senator Trillanes and Edsa Revolutionaries!

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

the cruiser
























The drizzle shaped you
Till I could take you home
You were warm, ‘twas damp outside
You asked why I shivered.
“This, and this—”
My flirty fingers pointed,
And your low laugh
Made your chest heave,
Audible with heartbeat,
More as I touch it.
Down south
Where hidden beauty flourished,
My lips mapped the contours
Where drizzles of desire
Cascaded.
Even today,
When you are several kisses away,
The drizzle returns to shape you
Till your beauty soothes
The savage beast.

Monday, January 05, 2009

marx' alienated labor


In the intricate web of political economy, there are four aspects of alienated labor that the laborer endures and these are (1) his alienation from his “species essence” as a human being rather than a machine, (2) his alienation with his co-worker because capitalism brings labor down to the level of a commodity that is traded on the market instead of a social relationship, (3) his alienation from the product because this is appropriated by the capitalist and, thus, goes beyond the worker’s control , and (4) his alienation from the very act of production, in such a way that work becomes a meaningless activity, lacking internal satisfactions.
The alienation of people from one another is a prevalent motif in the contemporary times. Since the object of the production, the product, does not belong to the laborer, then it belongs to another human being, namely the capitalist class. In such a case, the enriching commodity alienates the capitalist from the laborer by making the capitalist richer while denying the product maker himself the profit and giving him mere wages for his rendered labor. In other words, the capitalist outstrips the laborer in terms of enrichment, alienating the latter from the former by virtue of the latter’s profit ownership. As such, the laborer’s act of production is an instrument to secure survival from another human being, the capitalist in this case. The laborer’s alienated relationship with the capitalist cannot be called an act of free will, therefore, because he has no choice but to undergo the experience if he needs to survive. Also, workers are alienated from one another because they treat one another as rivals in getting a job. Instead of being drawn toward one another by friendship, laborers compete against one another because their survival rests on their capacity to outshine others in securing labor.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

swiss boy meets swiss miss


it started with one hello.
then the innocuous question "may i take a picture of you by the sea?"
the foreigner gladly posed for me, his eyes rivalling the sparkling emerald waters of puerto galera. after the shoot, i showed him the picture and ended the conversation with the note "thank you."
but he has other things in mind, for he revived the talk, asking me where i hail originally, where my university is, what sort of things did i take a holiday break from. i gathered that he's from switzerland but on an extended asian tour. he had been to cambodia and laos, but discovered the philippines through his traveling grandparents. i told him the country's different, being more western than asian, from natives who speak english fluently to american-style socio-cultural institutions. i wonder if he knew french, italian and rumantsch, because he spoke in german and english. something in the manner he smiled made me think of chris evans.
we could have gone on and on with the chat, but the weather's sunny (it drizzled most of the time) and i was worried his camera wouldn't be of much use if he went on talking and talking instead of capturing the picturesque scenes of the island paradise. the swiss boy walked northward, heading toward the promontory where i read alone while sunbathing. i took the ambiguity as a sign, i followed and it seemed i would reach the edge of the world on foot and with him.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

on family ties and in her shoes


Curtis Hanson’s In Her Shoes (20th Century Fox, 2005) is the story of two sisters whor are disparate in so many ways: the character of Toni Collette is a lawyer who is a hopeless romantic deep inside while that of Cameron Diaz is the obscure starlet who dreams of hitting it big in fame and fortune. Other than their genes, they also share the similar shoe size, but they are ultimately intertwined by family values as they learn to bond as sisters.
After seeing the film, I realized that no matter how different my family and I are from each other, we are always linked by special clan ties. It is already hard to deal with people outside the domestic sphere—how much more with one’s own kin whom one shares a room with, does house chores with, connects with in times of domestic troubles and bliss? The film was able to show the universal appeal of blood being thicker than water, and no matter what hardships embattles the family to rip it apart, one can only have one’s parents, brothers, sisters or, in the case of the Filipino experience, extended family members to turn to. At times, relationships can be contemptible, and I for one can only wish I were not part of my sometimes un-understanding family. However, at the end of the day, my family is the only foundation I can rely on, fair weather or not.