Philippine TV's finest hour

GMA's documentary program i-Witness makes the claim about being Philippine TV's finest hour, and rightfully so. The show has won numerous accolades for such work as Howie Severino's Little Bad Boy: Batang Rizal sa Europa.

So naturally, the MTRCB had to step in. The board recently suspended the show because of another Howie Severino documentary, this time featuring a 200-year-old ritual of women playfully parading and displaying wooden phalluses during weddings. The episode, ironically enough, was titled "Hindi Ito Bastos" and featured the ritual's role of celebrating marriage and binding the community. The show was found to be offensive for “showing … exaggerated large phalluses and masturbation” which “do not fall within G and PG classification applying contemporary Filipino values and good customs as standards.”

(Can I just say that I loove the line about how that exaggerated large phalluses weren't part of good values? So if they had just shown small penises, that would have been ok?)

You can follow all the fallout over at Howie's blog. He also posted the YouTube link to the controversial documentary, as well as a link to a previous feature about Pepe's Myth.

Labels: news and issues

- posted by jaemark @ 7/14/2006 12:42:00 AM   2 comments

Look at the stars, look how they shine for you

Heard this on an episode of The OC (you know, the one where they were trying to figure out where to go for college).

Enjoy :)

Labels: music

- posted by jaemark @ 7/12/2006 06:09:00 PM   0 comments

Advertising

I heard this ad from GSIS a couple of weeks ago on the radio while I was on the way to work, and it bothered me greatly. Heard it again this morning, and it still did:

Tita: "Uy, alam mo ba, nanalo ako sa GSIS scholarship raffle..."

Niece: "Talaga, tita? Congratulations!"

Tita: "Congratulations sa 'yo, dahil ikaw ang beneficiary ko. Buti na lang hindi ako nag-abroad para mag-nurse. Teka, ano bang course ang balak mong kunin?"

Niece: "Eh di siyempre, nursing!"

(They both enjoy a hearty laugh.)

Wtf?

Labels: wtf

- posted by jaemark @ 7/07/2006 02:04:00 PM   0 comments

Gnarls and Charles

Right now I'm listening to the brilliant Gnarls Barkley album. It reminds me of this article a few weeks ago where Cee-Lo denied that the name of their band is a reference to Sir Charles. Which is, well, crazy. As talented as the group is and as great as their music is, they probably won't be on TRL if they didn't share the name of the basketball player who dunked on Godzilla and the cornerstone of the best sports studio show on the planet.

Or perhaps they're just savvy enough to deny the connection because of potential legal implications. It's all good, though, as even Charles Barkley admitted to actually liking their music.

Meanwhile, if I ever come around to forming a band that blends funk, soul, and hiphop, I'm totally going to call it Mojo Lastimosa.

No relation to the player, of course.

Labels: basketball, music, sports

- posted by jaemark @ 7/03/2006 01:48:00 PM   1 comments

Walang tulugan

Ok, so I was watching Master Showman earlier (oh don't judge me, I'm not a book), and I got excited when Kuya Germs's sidekick/boylet John Nite started talking about an "Internet diva" doing a return performance on the show. He was, of course, talking about Alyssa Alano of Keys Me fame.

After doing a rendition of The Corrs' "Breathless" (yeah, I know) with her trademark aplomb, Alyssa sat down with the Walang Tulugan crew, where she had to sit there smiling sheepishly as they peppered her with jabs about her previous performance. There was even this exchange between her and Shirley Fuentes (remember her?):

Shirley: "So, Alyssa, may nagbago na ba sa career mo mula nung kumalat yung video sa Internet?"

Alyssa: "Ah marami po... marami po ang natawa."

She was still breathing heavily after her performance (and it *is* a taxing performance, did you see her grinding it during Keys Me?), and now she had to take all this abuse from Kuya Germs and his army of has-beens and starlets. I mean, it's one thing to get ribbed by Joey de Leon on StarTalk (because at least, Joey's cooler than being cool), but having to take all that from John Nite and Shirley fucking Fuentes? She must have been thinking, "Tangina, ang hirap naman kumita ng pera."

(Actually, Alyssa's not bad-looking. She's prettier than, say, Keanna Reeves, and I guess she can't complain about all of these because Keys Me has absolutely made her career. But between Keanna winning PBB earlier this year, and now this, I mean, what the hell's happening to our country?)

While we're on the subject I figured I'd share some of my favorite Kuya Germs-related tidbits:

-- At GMA, employees get to go on a "birthday lunch with the president", where they set up a luncheon for the month's celebrants with the company's president as guest of honor. Kuya Germs always hosts these things (yeah, can you believe he's available, what are the fucking odds?) Anyway, I went for the free lunch last November, and I was having a hard time eating my spaghetti without laughing, because it was such a surreal experience trying to eat spaghetti while Kuya Germs, fifteen feet away from me, was talking in the background, doing a mini-Master Showman.

-- Kuya Germs loves to hang out at the old co-op canteen after his afternoon radio program. It's been renovated now, but it used to be this absolute shithole that everyone endearingly referred to as "Cholera". I saw him once there taking Mark Bautista for a snack after his show, and I remember thinking how Mark Bautista must have gone out of his way to go on his show, only to be treated by Kuya Germs to a bowl of spa-ketchup.

-- There's this Master Showman tarp just outside the GMA Network compound that absolutely kills me. It features the whole crew of the show, with John Nite dressed up as your garden variety New York hipster. I absolutely love it because I have no idea how to react to it. I mean, he probably has a stylist because it's not like he dresses up like a member of The Strokes on Master Showman, right? So what the fuck was the stylist going for there? Am I supposed to go, "Hey, John Nite looks cool in that photo, maybe I should check out Master Showman some time?" Like, who the fuck are they kidding?

Labels: showbiz

- posted by jaemark @ 7/02/2006 02:28:00 AM   8 comments