ultraelectromagneticblog

I just realized...

2009-09-12T03:24:00.002+08:00

...that I haven't updated this blog in a long time. I don't know what to put here anymore; it used to be a place where I put these things:

thing I wanted to share/pass along
thoughts about sports
thoughts about politics and issues
book reviews
various kwento about love life

#1 has been pretty much replaced by Facebook; there's no more need to share links here when it's just as easy to post a link and a quick thought on the Facebook wall. #2 went away after I started Fire Quinito.

I've been doing a lot of #3 elsewhere, for the PCIJ and for FHM. It's odd, FHM's managing editor for the web contacted me about writing for the site, and I thought I was going to get to write about hot babes; instead, my articles for them have been about politics: political speeches, a Cory Aquino tribute, and a Ninoy Aquino tribute. In between, I was able to write about basketball and music.

I still pinch myself about how lucky I am to have the opportunity to work for the PCIJ. A few months back, the whole staff drew lots for potential presidential and vice-presidential candidates, with each person keeping tabs on his or her candidate for a later feature. I drew Noynoy Aquino, and at the time we all figured it would be easy since he was a long shot candidate. Show what we know.

My feature on Noynoy was the first big story I wrote for the center, and it is perhaps the biggest story I'd written in my life, ever. Let me point out, too, that our editor is so mind-blowingly good. The final piece is about a thousand times better than my drafts, just because of great editing. I'm grateful too that the spirit of the story was retained, and my voice was unchanged. If you'd been reading me, it's not hard to figure that I wrote the story, even if you didn't see the byline.

The story was published by the Manila Times, and also posted by GMA News and ABS-CBN News. So that was nice.

(I also wrote this cheeky blog post after Mar Roxas' announcement last week, if you're interested in this sort of thing.)

I'm embarrassed to report that I haven't been doing #4, writing about books, as much because I haven't been reading books as much. The last book I read was Nick Hornby's Slam, a light breezy read, which is just about the only thing I have energy for reading right now. Hey, I'd been reading up on Senate bills authored and filed by Noynoy.

Oh, and happily (or sadly), I don't do #5 anymore. This month, I will have had a blog for 10 years now. Took me long enough to figure this one out.

Kitakits

2009-08-20T06:07:00.001+08:00

Hayup talaga si Conrad:

Me mga nagsasabi na hindi naman tayo nawalan ng tapang, nawalan lang tayo ng paki. Gano’n din ’yon. Kaduwagan din yon. O higit pa ro’n. Dahil ngayon hindi ka lang takot mamatay, takot ka pang mabuhay.

Bukas, maraming mga pagtitipon-tipon sa paggunita ng makasaysayang Agosto 21. Isa na dyan ay ang prayer rally sa Ninoy statue sa Ayala na gaganapin sa ika-3:00 ng hapon hanggang gabi. Na ang hiling ng mga organizers ay kung maaari ay magsuot ng dilaw ang mga tao para ipakita ang pakikiramay, pagpupugay, at pakikiisa kay Cory. Hanep din tayong Pinoy ano: Dilaw ang kulay ng kaduwagan sa ibang bansa, dilaw ang kulay ng katapangan sa ating bansa.

Pwede kang sumama rito at sumigaw ng “Tama na, sobra na, palitan na” para sa kinabukasan ng mga anak mo. Pwede kang sumama rito para magsabi kay Inang Bayan, “Hindi ka nag-iisa,” handa rin kaming mamatay nang dahil sa ’yo, at higit na handang mabuhay nang para sa yo. Pwede kang sumama rito para ipakita na hindi pa nawawala ang katapangan sa bayan ko, binihag ka, ang dugo ng mga bayani ay nananalaytay sa mga ugat mo.

O pwede kang huwag sumama rito dahil ang bukang-bibig mo ngayon ay hindi na “Hindi ka nag-iisa” kundi “Bahala ka sa buhay mo.” Pwede kang huwag sumama rito dahil marami ka pang mahalagang gagawin, kagaya nang manuod ng “G.I Joe.” Pwede kang huwag sumama rito dahil mas okay sa yo ang maging patay kahit buhay pa kesa maging buhay kahit patay na. Pero kung gano’n:

Mag-isa ka.

Conrad

2009-08-07T17:47:00.000+08:00

By now, everyone should have watched or read Conrado de Quiros' beautiful elegy for Cory, and if you haven't, go read it here. His column the next day went into further detail about his conversation with Cory at his mother's wake, and is just as good a read.

But I finally found his column from last November, I guess even before he and Cory became friends. It was just after the election of Obama, and he wrote:

Can we produce our own Obama?

Well, I do not share the pessimism of those who say none of the “presidential aspirants,” remotely carries the spark. That is looking at the wrong place. We did have a Cory Aquino long before the US had an Obama, and she did not come from the ranks of the “presidential aspirants,” or “Ferdinand Marcos’ successors” as they were called then. She came from far afield, “an ordinary housewife,” as Marcos derisively called her, a “walang alam” [ignoramus] in contrast to his being a man of experience, just as McCain tried to belittle Obama as someone without experience. Well, having no experience in wreaking evil, or being party to it, is the best qualification there is in a situation like that. Cory became the symbol of someone who quested for justice, who longed for an end to the oppression. Just like all of us. “Hindi siya nag-iisa.” [She was not alone.]

I don’t know that we can have another Obama or Cory. I do not discount the possibility; darkness has a way of compelling light by the sheer need for it, though as Obama, Cory and “Lord of the Rings” show, light has a way of coming from the most unlikely places. Abominations are not ended by kings and elves and wizards, they are ended by lowly Hobbits, who are least impervious to the temptations of power.

In any case, “Obama” doesn’t have to take the form of one particular face or person. It can always be an idea. The only thing to thank people like George W and Gloria for, if you can thank them for anything, is that they make you want change, even so radical a change as driving you back to your fundamental roots or condition as a human being. If Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has done us a service, it is to show us a tyranny that can make us shout, “Never again!” and truly mean it. It is to make us crave the kind of “radical reforms” Archbishop Angel Lagdameo and several other bishops were calling for last week, the kind that “conquers complacency, cynicism and apathy.” It is to make us see the face of utter evil and rediscover the need for unrelenting good.

Darkness does make light bright.

Cory

2009-08-06T19:40:00.002+08:00

I know everyone's a little Cory'd out at this point, but I just wanted to point everyone to a bunch of stuff I wrote about the former President. Here's a report (with video I took) from the ground at Ayala Avenue, when Tita Cory's remains were transferred from La Salle Greenhills to Manila Cathedral. I also wrote a Cory feature for FHM (yes, FHM--I figured you wouldn't miss it because you go there to read the articles, but on the off-chance you did). Then today, my article on Cory and Edsa from the point of view of a People Power Baby, was posted on the PCIJ blog.

I didn't have...

2009-07-27T18:16:00.002+08:00

...much of a weekend, after working on the formatting of the SONA articles uploaded on Saturday and Sunday, and the additional tweaks for the interactive graphic. I did manage to write a couple of things for Fire Quinito, about the last couple of games of Powerade Team Pilipinas and the UP upset over Ateneo.

Today was a fun day, with the SONA going on. I stayed behind at the office while most of my colleagues got to go out to cover on the field, but I had a fun time manning the PCIJ twitter desk. It was just me and our executive editor, Malou Mangahas in the office, and she actually got pretty into it with the Twitter thing. Awesome. I love how the updates weren't particularly different from the updates I do on the Fire Quinito twitter feed.

(Sample tweet from me: "Angelique Lazo to Sec. Peter Favila: 'Happy SONA!' Happy SONA?!")

Also loved how the media completely embraced the social networks for this event: SONA was second on the trending topics list this afternoon, while GMA News and Sun Star rolled out impressive streaming coverage of the event using different social media tools. Nice.

Oh, and I also spent the weekend researching and writing my first piece for the FHM website. I was hoping it would somehow involve boldstars, but alas! It was about political speeches, in time for today's events.

In the piece, I quoted an excerpt from a Ninoy Aquino speech (which is available on the Internet in nine parts, starting here). I would recommend watching the whole thing, if you have the time, but again let me post my favorite part here:

I am a human being, my friends. I have suffered eight years of imprisonment, I have suffered loneliness like no other man has suffered loneliness in my life, I have been away from my children and my family, and I am financially ruined after eight years. It is only instinctive for a man to look for his peace. I debated with my mind, and I debated with myself, and I debated with my wife and my children whether I should go back to the arena of combat. I felt that I have already earned my peace, I have done my best, I waited for seven years and seven months, and the Filipino people did not react, and they would even give me the impression that they love their chain and their slavery. What can one man do if the Filipino people love their slavery? If the Filipino people have lost their voice and would not say no to a tyrant, what can one man do? I have no army, I have no following, I have no money, I only have my indomitable spirit.

But the letters kept pouring in, and they said, We waited for you for eight years. Will you now abandon us?

Grading Gloria

2009-07-27T01:47:00.004+08:00

The PCIJ has been publishing stories ahead of today's SONA all weekend long. The past two days, it looked at her SONA promises and looked deeper into the numbers behind her economic record.

Today, Dr. Benjamin Diokno, former Estrada budget secretary and current UP economics professor, wrote a perspective piece looking at Gloria's record, and handed out grades. As most university professors are wont to do (heh), his piece is long and full of facts and figures. I stitched together this interactive graphic for Prof. Diokno's grades.

A yellow ribbon for Cory Aquino

2009-07-24T20:48:00.004+08:00

The ‘yellow ribbon’ that became the symbol for the revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship is a takeoff from Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree, a pop song by Tony Orlando and Dawn – the same group that gave us Knock Three Times. Former Talking Heads main man David Byrne noted the peculiarity of the choice during his 2005 visit to Manila:

Yellow was adopted due to the song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” which was adopted in celebration of the return of Aquino to the Philippines — the welcoming crowd wore yellow. Surreal, these pop connections — a connection between Tony Orlando and Dawn and a grass roots uprising that overthrows a dictator — it makes my head spin.

Unfortunately Ninoy Aquino was gunned down at the airport…but Cory and her supporters kept with the yellow from then on.

Before it was co-opted by the revolution, the song belonged to Cory and Ninoy, their theme song while Ninoy was incarcerated. The tune about the return of a long-lost lover helped tide the couple over during more than seven years Ninoy spent in prison.

I remember reading somewhere, I don’t know if it was an interview or a book about Cory, where she related how she felt when her husband died (unfortunately, I couldn’t find the exact quote). She said that she wished that it was her who was killed instead, so that Ninoy could live. But then, she thought to herself, why in the world would anyone care if it were just a plain housewife who died?

It was the sweetest, most heartbreaking thing I'd ever heard.

Stakeout

2009-07-19T18:05:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago, I went with a colleague at work to go to the office of the Total Information Management Corp., who were then embroiled in a controversy over their breakup with foreign partner Smartmatic, putting the election automation project of the Comelec in jeopardy. We staked outside their office building, and when we saw one of their senior officials alight a van, we chased him across the lobby all the way to the elevators.

I'm mentioning this because I caught the John Lloyd Cruz-Sarah Geronimo starrer You Changed My Life over the weekend, and I noticed that Sarah Geronimo's office building was the same one where we waited to ambush-interview the TIM official.

Clandestine

2009-07-13T22:04:00.003+08:00

As I mentioned last week, I missed the FHM 100 show to go out-of-town for work. The result is this report about the communities in Tanay, Rizal affected by the Laiban Dam project. It was a follow-up on a previous report by the PCIJ on the San Miguel Corporation's clandestine deal for the P52-billion dam project with the MWSS.

Coincidentally, I spent the weekend bitching about another San Miguel clandestine deal, this time about the Beermen acquiring superstar forward Arwind Santos from Burger King in exchange for a plate of roasted highland legumes.

Musical

2009-07-13T01:45:00.000+08:00

Last night, I trooped to Greenbelt along with Tseri to watch a musical, which Mika and her organization were presenting.

Anyway, I chuckled when I saw the poster for the musical and noticed that the male lead looked like one of Kuya Germs's alaga on Walang Tulugan with the Master Showman (no, not Shalala). And it turned out, it was him!

I had...

2009-07-09T22:23:00.001+08:00

...tickets for tonight's FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World Party, but had to give away my tickets at the last minute because I had to go out-of-town to do some field research for work. The town we visited wasn't that far away from Manila, but we had to go visit a couple of really remote villages. We had made preparations to stay the night, but it started to rain, so we decided to head back to the city because getting stuck might mean staying there for the next few days.

The places we visited had neither cellphone signal nor electricity. But they were not quite as remote as the place we had originally wanted to go to, which required a river crossing (ideally on a 4x4 vehicle). We did not end up going but we did make plans to go next time.

Overall, it was a fun day. Also, if it would make for a great excuse if I ever end up having an affair; I could always use the excuse that I couldn't reply to calls or text messages because, "Walang signal sa [name of remote village]."

I wrote...

2009-07-03T15:28:00.001+08:00

...a short sidebar for the PCIJ's latest two-part report on the automation project for the 2010 elections, and it made it to the front page of the Manila Times this morning. It's odd because I've been writing online (a lot!) for a long time, and I think this is the first thing of mine ever printed. Like, ever, ever.

The Times version was (poorly) cut, which is always a danger with print media. It's funny though, because the lopped off most of the meat of the story, but left in the Transformers joke.

The full version of the sidebar, which makes infinitely more sense, is online at the PCIJ site. Of course, you also owe it to yourself to read the first and second parts of the report.

UPDATE: Here's Ed Lingao's video on the story, drawing on the second part of the report.

Gossip

2009-07-01T07:41:00.002+08:00

A couple of months back, a friend and I were discussing the different trends of journalism on the web, and I shared with him a piece I found that featured a talk at Cal's J-school on the subject. Curiously enough, the resource person was Harvey Levin, the guy who runs the popular TMZ gossip site (and the centerpiece of the related TV show). While I am a fan of the show -- and Levin comes off as a smart guy on it -- I didn't really take him for the type who would be able to impart sage knowledge to J-school kids. But Levin was actually really good, and his stuff really was worth sharing. The guy gets it.

Levin and TMZ are now back in the spotlight after they broke news of Michael Jackson's death -- just the latest in their long line of accurate breaking exclusives. For all the flak it gets because of the tabloid sensationalism and the smug snarkiness, sites like TMZ, with smart guys like Levin at the helm, might be the future of journalism as we know it.

Funniest Eraserheads interview ever

2009-06-29T02:02:00.001+08:00

This was just a train wreck from start to finish.

Little Miss Sunshine

2009-06-25T00:35:00.002+08:00

Just caught an interview of Abigail Breslin on Jimmy Fallon, and well, dalaga na siya. She was talking about how excited she was about turning 13, and I just realized, my sister Icay is turning 13 later this year. How fast is time going? I would freak out that I'll be turning 30 in a couple of years, but seriously, I'm feeling like such an old man at 27.

Game show

2009-06-05T16:12:00.001+08:00

I was making a presentation this afternoon to the PCIJ board, including members David Celdran, Howie Severino, and Malou Mangahas, among others. When David, the board chairman, asked me a question, it gave me a moment's pause, thinking, "Hey wait, why am I on Battle of the Brains?"

Con-ass

2009-06-04T00:55:00.002+08:00

I wrote about the con-ass at Fire Quinito, just because there's a bigger audience there. It's a sports blog, and I intend it to remain one, so I tied it up with our biggest sports star.

Fire Quinito: Maybe Manny Pacquiao won't be so out of place in Congress after all

PCIJ report on press freedom in Timor-Leste

2009-05-29T17:23:00.000+08:00

As Timor Leste turns 7, PCIJ's Ed Lingao takes a look at the state of the country's press and the challenges that journalists still face in the world's youngest democracy.

Read the full story here.

Video: PCIJ report on access to information issues

2009-05-28T21:57:00.003+08:00

The PCIJ’s Multimedia Producer, Ed Lingao, produced this short video on the issues surrounding the difficulty of accessing information from various government agencies:

I got home early from work today...

2009-05-27T23:17:00.000+08:00

...because I didn't go to the office. I was in the field the whole day, beginning with a press conference at Blue Wave. I wasn't there to cover the event, but as a show of support, as it involved a bill that would require government agencies to provide easy access to documents and other information to the public for greater transparency; the PCIJ was part of the civil society group pushing for the passage of the bill. As I was just there to look pretty (heh), I ended up in a photo-op for the different member groups, because my colleagues (naks, naki-colleagues ampucha) didn't want to be part of the picture.

Then we headed off to the Senate to get some documents for some research projects that the center is working on. I was with Ms. Tita, PCIJ's training director and a former beat reporter with the Congress, and it was fun seeing her in action and hearing her chitchatting with all the people she knew. I heard a lot of interesting things, unfortunately, stuff I couldn't share on this blog. But everyone working there was abuzz with what's going to happen tomorrow, as the plenary will be busy hearing the Katrina Halili case.

I was MIA...

2009-05-22T19:48:00.000+08:00

...for the past couple of days as I was in Pampanga to hold a lecture/workshop on blogging. The participants were teachers and students from various public high schools across the country. While I'm not exactly sure how the experience went for them (boses-puke kasi yung instructor nila), it was a very enriching experience for me, and I was just grateful to be part of the whole thing.

The teachers were more thrilled to be there than the students. It was a especially challenging trying to teach certain members of the class who were not at all comfortable with surfing the Web or even operating a personal computer, but everyone came through in the end. Everyone ended up taking to blogging, at siyempre, sila ma'am at sir, kinarir ang pag-upload ng pictures, kasama ang kanilang mga boypren, gelpren, asawa, at mga anak.

Most of the blogs ended up looking like your usual Multiply blogs, peppered with pictures, but they were happy with the result. It wasn't all just meaningless fun though. Some of them told me of plans to use the blogs to share their lessons for their students, others mentioned that they'll be passing on their knowledge to their students, while a couple even started blogs for their respective schools to be able to keep in contact with alumni who are already in Metro Manila or abroad.

Some of the other teachers, though, had to temper their excitement a bit. "Sir, we'll continue blogging," they told me, "once we finally get Internet connections in our town."

Best article on the book blockade...

2009-05-20T18:16:00.001+08:00

...by Conrado de Quiros, natch.

Awesome news

2009-05-18T12:53:00.003+08:00

Chuck has been renewed for a third season. Yay! Now we get to see our favorite nerd doing kung-fu. Now I'm just hoping he finally gets to nail Sarah. Also, I hope he does it with the lights on and for one whole episode.

Hoops exchange

2009-05-11T21:27:00.001+08:00

Fire Quinito gets some love over at the Basketball Exchange. Thanks Gary!

Did Espele Sales really say that novels and reading books are not educational?

2009-05-11T12:08:00.004+08:00

By now you've probably heard of the hold-up of all imported books at the Bureau of Customs because of a new interpretation of officials such as Department of Finance Undersecretary Espele Sales. Book importers are now being levied duties by customs, which are apparently against international agreements.

Anyway, recently, a new meme has started over Facebook and the blogosphere because Sales said that novels and reading books are "not educational". All references to that statement can be traced back to this story from the Philippine Star:

Sales and the BOC agreed that “only books or raw materials to be used in book publishing” are to be exempt from taxes and duties.

Critics said their interpretation has violated the 1950 Florence Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials, of which the Philippines was a signatory in 1952.

The treaty has provided for duty-free importation of books to guarantee the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” between countries and declared that imported books should be duty-free.

But Sales reportedly brushed off this argument, saying novels and reading books are “not educational.”

(Emphasis mine.)

The word "reportedly" bothers me here. Who "reported" this? Apart from the McSweeney's report, all other stories about the issue do not contain any such quote attributed to Sales. In fact, the only time the quote appears in the timeline for the issue is during the Star report itself.

So if it was not a previous report, then it must have been the author's sources who reported the quote. If that is so, then it was irresponsible for the author to (1) not indicate that this was the case; and, (2) not make an attempt to contact Sales before attributing the quote to her.

I'm not saying that Sales did not really say that, what I'm saying is that with the Star report, there really was no way to know if that really was the case.

I know I'm splitting hairs here, but this should be a big deal. I agree with the cause, and I'm a big lover of books, so it is important for me to make sure that the facts that my side is reporting is absolutely correct

As Roger Ebert wrote about Michael Moore:

The pitfall for Moore is not subjectivity, but accuracy. We expect him to hold an opinion and argue it, but we also require his facts to be correct. I was an admirer of his previous doc, the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine," until I discovered that some of his "facts" were wrong, false or fudged.

In some cases, he was guilty of making a good story better, but in other cases (such as his ambush of Charlton Heston) he was unfair, and in still others (such as the wording on the plaque under the bomber at the Air Force Academy) he was just plain wrong, as anyone can see by going to look at the plaque.

Because I agree with Moore's politics, his inaccuracies pained me, and I wrote about them in my Answer Man column. Moore wrote me that he didn't expect such attacks "from you, of all people." But I cannot ignore flaws simply because I agree with the filmmaker. In hurting his cause, he wounds mine.

(Emphasis mine.)

Bandana

2009-05-10T17:48:00.001+08:00

This is a screenshot from an episode of Celebrity Duets. The bandana looks familiar.

Hacks

2009-05-08T17:39:00.002+08:00

I've been doing a lot of coding lately, and just because I was in the mood, I hacked together my own URL shortener:

http://x.firequinito.com/46

Wala lang. Nerd.

Kwentong barbero

2009-05-07T23:36:00.000+08:00

My second day at new work today was interesting. I work a few feet away from Ed Lingao, who recently transferred from TV5 to PCIJ. Not only has he been to war-torn Afghanistan, Iraq, and Jolo, but tonight at the Jollibee drive-thru, he ordered a triple patty Yum. And that's only because they wouldn't allow him to order a double patty Champ. He is the man.

I also had coffee this afternoon with Howie Severino. Of course, we ended up talking about Ate Vi, Kobe Bryant, and Quinito. It's like Twitter, but in person.

What's odd was that both Ed and Howie were wearing the same outfit. It must be the uniform for TV documentarists. It's funny too, because back in college our choice for Monday night fare was usually either The Correspondents or i-Witness.

Yes, this is my brand of investigative journalism.

Speaking of Howie, a recent trip to his barber opened a thread on his Facebook account about his, well, barber. It reminded me of a scene from an old Tito, Vic, and Joey film, the name of which I can't remember.

Anyway, so nakatambay sina TVJ sa barberya sa kanto. Tapos yung barbero talak nang talak. Lahat ng tsismis alam.

(Pina-paraphrase ko na lang yung dialog.)

Tito: "Nabalitaan niyo ba yung si Boyong dyan sa may kanto? Yung nasaksak daw..."

Barbero: "Ah oo, nahuli daw yun na nag-aakyat bahay eh, (etc. etc.)"

Vic: "Eh si Aling Nene diyan sa kanto, alam niyo yun? Pinalayas daw sa bahay..."

Barbero: "Ah oo, di daw nakabayad ng upa yun kaya pinalayas ng kasera eh, (etc. etc.)"

Joey: "Eh si Aling Lydia, yung misis niyo, ang balita nangangaliwa daw ah..."

Barbero: "Ah oo, ang kasama yung kumpare kong si Pitong, doon sila sa bahay kapag nandito ako sa barberya..."

Balita

2009-05-05T23:22:00.001+08:00

This afternoon, I signed on to join the crazy gang over at the PCIJ. I'll be writing, research, blogging, webdesigning, webdeveloping, tweeting, facebooking and janitoring over there. Right now I'm just hoping I don't sink the damn boat.

Also, Fire Quinito's doing pretty well:

I know the numbers are still pretty modest but the site's only been up three weeks. Oh, and the site already got some love from the best boxing blog on the planet. Nice.

Hopefully everyone comes back even after the Pac-fever dies down. Thanks to everyone who clicked, shared, re-tweeted, plurked, and otherwise tolerated my annoying hard sell. I still have lots of really cool shit coming up, including something insane for the college basketball season.

And watch out for some other projects I'm cooking up, which should be online soon enough.

Finally, there should be more updates to this blog soon, perhaps even some of those mushy stories I know y'all are waiting for. Hahahaha.

Watch the Fantasticks on July 12

2009-05-04T10:58:00.003+08:00

My friend Mika's org is presenting this play along with Repertory Philippines, and I'm going. Come, let's join us!

One of the longest running shows in the history of the American theater. It opened at an off-Broadway theater in the spring of 1960, where it remained until the production finally closed in early 2002.

In a clever reverse of the Romeo and Juliet story, two fathers, Hucklebee and Bellamy, a pair of small town fathers who in a well-meaning attempt to spark a romance between their children, devise a scheme in which they pretend to feud.

As a carnival arrives to bring some excitement to the sleepy village, the fathers persuade a mysterious interloper named El Gallo to stage a mock abduction of Luisa, which will hopefully prompt Matt to come to her rescue. However, while El Gallo's plan succeeds, he also awakens his innocent charges to the darker and more disappointing side of love.

What unfolds is a timeless story of innocence undone, of illusion lost and wisdom gained; a story of growing up and facing the sometime cruelty of the real world and in the process, finding that love was waiting in your own backyard.

For more details, ticket sales or for iinterested sponsors, contact MIKA SARMIENTO at (0915) 926-39-65 or SAM DAVID at (0917) 803-08-01 or email mika.sarmiento@yahoo.com or samanthadavid@gmail.com

Labor day

2009-05-01T16:49:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was my last day at work. Hopefully this wouldn't be an annual thing. This time though, I have a clearer idea of where I'm heading, although the details are still fuzzy.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to blog, a lot, over the next few days, here and in a couple of other places.

(Btw, thank you everyone for the clicks, and sorry for the hard sell.)

"Yung Eheads, nagbati na... tayo, hindi pa ba?"

2009-04-28T17:24:00.000+08:00

Tanginang linya yan.

Would you like bat-tea, bat-coffee, or sala-bat?

2009-04-27T15:18:00.002+08:00

While trolling around the Internets, I found out that a friend of this blog (and my buddy Ivan's sister) is getting married. And not only that, she's having the ceremony in the (haunted) chapel at Paco Park.

All this is just a way for me to post this exchange from Joey de Leon's classic musical, Alyas Batman en Robin, between Joey's Batman and Dawn Zulueta's intrepid reporter:

Reporter: "Batman, pwede ba kitang ma-interview?"

Batman: "Sure. Magkita na lang tayo mamayang gabi sa PPC."

Reporter: "PPC? Baka CCP, Cultural Center of the Philippines?"

Batman: "Hinde, PPC--Paco Park Cemetery."

Now that was a great Batman movie, right up there with The Dark Knight. Rene Requiestas played The Joker. Panchito, whose character is usually named Tiyo Paeng in Joey de Leon movies, plays the penguin. But not just any penguin: in this one, he's Tiyo Paenguin.

Swine flu outbreak in Pangasinan?

2009-04-27T07:32:00.004+08:00

While the whole world is on alert over the swine influenza outbreak in North America and New Zealand, the Manila Times seemingly has a scoop on their hands with a report stating that swine flu has already reached Pangasinan. The pig story is a little fishy (heh)--there's already a denial from the director of the Bureau of Animal Industry--but it would really bring a lot of comfort if one of the big news outlets went ahead and checked the story out.

Seven days will quickly go

2009-04-26T23:37:00.002+08:00

Fact remains, I love her so
Seven days, so many ways
But I can't run away

(Will Sunday be too late? Do I have to tell the story of a thousand rainy days? It's a big enough umbrella, but it's always me that ends up getting wet.)

Ate Vi

2009-04-25T00:34:00.000+08:00

On Facebook, Howie Severino posted a picture of him interviewing Vilma Santos for a story he's doing for i-Witness.

(At least I hope it's for a story he's doing for i-Witness. Because if he's, like, just interviewing her for shits and giggles, that'd be weird.)

Anyway, it just reminded me of this old joke, my favorite, about Vilma going to McDonald's to bring home snacks:

Vilma: "Miss, isang cheeseburger at isang fries."

Counter Girl: "For takeout, ma'am?"

Vilma: "No, for Lucky."

FQ cross-post

2009-04-23T18:36:00.003+08:00

Several months ago, uncertainty surrounded the staging of the Donaire-Viloria card because of the lack of sponsors, and Solar was forced to postpone the fights. It did turn out to be a good move, and the sponsors must have been happy with the 32.3 rating that the event scored in Mega Manila, despite the absence of Pacman to pull the ratings up. Here's a chart to put the rating in context, against some of the most popular shows and events in the country:

No one expected that the ratings for this event would scratch Pacquiao fight levels; only big events such as the Marimar finale or Angel Locsin's first transformation into Darna ever get into that stratosphere. But the fight, despite numerous commercials and a dead timeslot, managed to draw about as much viewers as GMA's primetime programs, and more than either network's noontime shows. Put it this way: more people cared to watch Donaire and Viloria fight Raul Martinez and Ulises Solis than watch Gerald Anderson fight Jake Cuenca over Kim Chiu.

Read the whole thing over at Fire Quinito.

Status update

2009-04-20T20:26:00.000+08:00

Had the best weekend stretch in a while.

Thursday: Dinner with old friends at Bagoong Club.
Friday: Will Ferrell night at Nomnomnom with Oli and Leks. Enjoyed this much more than grown men should be legally allowed to.
Saturday: Frank and Ria's birthday dinner with high school buddies, at the new Eastwood mall.
Sunday: Private pool swimming party in Calamba with officemates.

The only drawback is that without my usual lazy weekend, I'm really dead tired right now... and it's only Monday!

What about you, how was your weekend?

Fire Quinito

2009-04-18T18:47:00.003+08:00

I have a new blog that's all about sports, and it's up now. It's called Fire Quinito, and it's a different, fun look at Pinoy sports.

I don't ask for much, even though a lot of you have been reading my blog for years now, so go there. Read it. Bookmark it. Subscribe to the RSS feed. Share it on Facebook.

(Also, as Frances Ellen points out, if all the sports stuff from this blog [which she and most of you skip through anyway] move to that blog, there'll be more girly stuff left on this blog.)

If you're not a sports fan, I'd still highly recommend taking a look at this post about Chris Tiu and Joseph Casio's brewing bromance. And there's this insane story about a star Fil-am basketball player that's all kinds of crazy.

And if you're hooked, check out the ongoing primer on the amateur Philippine Basketball League, which contains, among other things, an anecdote about Melanie Marquez and a discussion of the state of generic drugs in the Philippines.

Numbers

2009-04-08T07:01:00.001+08:00

PEP has the television ratings from the weekend, and the numbers say that the Eraserheads Live: The Final Set broadcast was a big winner.

But first, a note about the ratings. PEP actually mis-reports the ratings (and have been doing so for two years now) by representing the ratings as percentages, but they are not; they are rating points. The difference is that rating points are absolute numbers; that is, a primetime program such as "Tayong Dalawa" that gets a rating of 20.0 has about the same amount viewers as a noontime show like "Eat Bulaga" that also gets a rating of 20.0. In the AGB Nielsen reports, there usually is another column for audience share, which is represented as a percentage. This indicates the percentage of the audience watching a particular program versus another program at the same timeslot.

A few years back, I read somewhere that for AGB Nielsen's Mega Manila report, 1 rating point is equivalent to 30,000 households. I can't find any documentation anywhere though, so take that number with a grain of salt.

Anyway, for last Sunday, the Heads concert got a rating of 21.1. For the day, the top programs were as follows:

1) Sharon - 21.9
2) Ful Haus - 21.5
3.5) The Final Set - 21.1
3.5) Rated K - 21.1
5) Mel and Joey - 20.6

But wait, these numbers don't tell us the whole story. Sharon and Ful Haus each run for only about thirty minutes, while the Heads concert ran for about two hours. The 21.1 rating, then, is an aggregate of the rating for the whole two hours. If you consider that there were probably a lot of viewers who dropped off during the latter part of the broadcast, it's a good bet that the first half hour or so of the concert was actually the most watched program on television last Sunday.

(The nationwide numbers for the Heads concert are much more modest. This might be a factor of the inherent nationwide weakness of GMA Network; ABS-CBN has traditionally dominated the ratings nationwide due to the station's reach and popularity in Visayas and Mindanao.)

But back to the concert's Mega Manila ratings. How well did it really do? Consider the ratings for Eat Bulaga and Wowowee for the past few days:

Thursday, April 2: Eat Bulaga - 20.5; Wowowee - 19.6
Friday, April 3: Eat Bulaga - 19.4; Wowowee - 18.5
Saturday, April 4: Eat Bulaga - 23; Wowowee - 18.1

So while the Heads concert did well, it only did about as well as a good episode of Eat Bulaga.

But then again, the noontime slot has a built-in audience already, so of course many viewers will be tuning in. But how many viewers usually tune in during Sunday nights?

Sunday, March 8: SNBO "Missing You (Martin and Pops Reunion Concert)": 12.5
Sunday, March 15: SNBO (no program indicated): 14.0
Sunday, March 22: SNBO "Walang Pera": 13.9
Sunday, March 29: SNBO "The Matrix Revolutions": 13.4

The ratings have been pretty consistent, and the Heads represented a 50% increase in viewership in the time slot.

Eh

2009-04-02T12:30:00.001+08:00

Rick Manzano usually does fine work over at Project Manila, but there was something that ticked me off in his last post:

Last February, I received an email from someone in the US telling me how fascinated he was with the art galleries that I go to in Cubao X. Apparently, this Filam lived here before. Too bad, he’s only seen the “tourist spots” though. I think these are the worst places you can ever take tourists. (Think Luneta Park. LOL)

First, it's a pretty good spot to take tourists. Forget the Rizal monument for a moment; Luneta has a beautiful rainforest-like orchid garden that too few people know about (along with Japanese and Chinese gardens elsewhere in the park), calesa rides, art-deco architecture in the vicinity, and the single prettiest thing Manila has to offer.

(I haven't even mentioned my absolute favorite part of the park, Children's Playground!)

Second, what was up with the "LOL" at the end of the post? What is so laughable about the idea about going to Luneta? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but was it the prayer rallies at the Quirino grandstand? Or the old joke about maids and drivers going out on "day-off dates" in Luneta? Or the general un-hipness of the place?

I probably should take all this with a grain of salt, and this was probably just a throwaway comment, but yeah, it kind of bothered me. Not least because it's just waay to easy to be a hipster douchebag these days.

Dead Links

2009-03-23T01:56:00.002+08:00

While doing some research for a project, I dug up old archives of Ang Aming Katha, and it was interesting, to say the least. I had already sent links to the texts to their respective authors, and apparently, old articles from back in college can be just as cringe-worthy, if not more so, than old pictures from back in college. At least with pictures, you can see how thin you looked way back when.

I did get a kick out of the "About the Author" write-ups:

Mika is in her sophomore year as an English Lit major at the Ateneo. She has books as her constant companions, and she has her head in the clouds, but she manages to keep at least one foot on the ground. She runs http://gossamer.effronte.org/ and you can reach her at flowerchild@edsamail.com.ph.

(Mika is now a junior at the Ateneo Law School, after years of singlehandedly making LiveJournal cool for everyone. Everyone wishes she'd blog more often.)

Jill is a 15 year old senior at the PAREF Woodrose in Alabang. She's an member of the the school's debate team and the editorial staff of her paper. She likes ice cream. You can visit her site at http://dragonfly.effronte.org/

(Jill is Mika's classmate at the Ateneo Law School. She's still part of the Ateneo debate team, which unfortunately doesn't allow her to blog much anymore.)

Frances Ellen is an 18-year old BS Computer Science sophomore at the De La Salle University. Visit her site at http://littleboyblue.org/frances.

(Frances has been part of the IT industry for several years now, and though she doesn't write much, she still takes breathtaking photographs.)

Macy is an 18-year old sophomore at the University of the Philippines at Diliman. You can know more about her, including her other works, at http://luminouz.net/blush/

(Macy is deputy managing editor for CandyMag.com, and runs a brilliant site that combines her fifty-five word fiction pieces and her lomographs that is updated daily.)

Stephie, 18, is an AB Comm Arts freshman at the UST. She has a lot of hobbies, including web design, eating, texting, and shopping. She absolutely loves Harry Potter, and she likes Survivor, green tea, good music, movies and weepy books. You can visit her site at http://koolasa.com/joyride/

(Stephie works alongside Macy for Candy Magazine as its art director, after spending several years with BusinessWorld.)

Katrina,16, has the same surname as the current president and is thinking about entering politics someday. She likes reading tragic love stories while nibbling chocolate chip cookies AND listening to alternative music. She does not think she is a very good writer, but she loves writing anyway. Visit http://katrina.imess.net to learn more about her.

(Katrina, unfortunately, still shares the same surname as the current president. After a very colorful college journey as a campus activist and a writer for the Philippine Collegian, she is now part of the UP Diliman Faculty.)

Angela really likes the real Autumn Tree especially when it's shedding its leaves, because she thinks autumn is the most romantic part of the year, even if there isn't any autumn in the Philippines. And romance, for her, is the fuel of life. More of her romance with life (among other things) at http://angela.unjaded.net.

(Angela moved to Singapore a couple of years ago to be part of Yahoo!'s technical team, but she's still active in various web projects.)

It shows how long we've been around; by September, I will have been blogging for ten years now. That is several lifetimes ago.

Earlier, I was chatting with a couple of them about this, and I was thinking that we came up with were not, well, very good, at least it served as a showcase for everyone's talent. The fact that we found each other and became friends and collaborated online, that was pretty special, isn't it?

Or perhaps is it a case of all these years--since when?--I had been seeing the light of dead links, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the Internet. *

* - with apologies to Paz Marquez Benitez.

Online goals

2009-03-17T20:44:00.000+08:00

"Jae, why aren't you on Facebook or Plurk?" is the question most online friends and acquaintances ask me most often, right after "Jae, bakit sa mga picture mo sa Internet, mukha kang hindi naliligo?"

In response to the first question, I usually come back with another question, "What, I don't overshare enough of my life?" (I don't really have a reply to the second question.)

But it's part of the plan. In fact, for the year, I made up this list of my goals for my online life:

Join Chictopia. (It *is* the people's fashion destination.)

Start a cooking blog, one that's aimed directly at single guys trying to cook. Recipes would include ways to fry the perfect Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdog.

Revive Ang Aming Katha because there's no more mushy love stories in the blogs. Everything you read includes people beating up other people in golf courses.

Grow a mustache (as per my fearless leader Brad Pitt's instructions) and document the adventure online. It'll be my political statement.

Start a blog about blogging about blogging. I'll cover blogs that write about blogging. .

Join Facebook, then "like" everyone else's bikini pictures to creep everyone out.

Join Facebook and get this over with.

But I'm not joining Plurk. Jologs ang Plurk eh.

Heads up ulit

2009-03-09T12:18:00.002+08:00

Tonight's i-Witness by Jay Taruc is all about the Eraserheads. With GMA-7's co-presenting the big concert, the i-Wit documentary crew got unfettered access to the rehearsals leading up to the show. Catch it tonight after Saksi.

(Or don't, it'll probably show up on YouTube this week anyway.)

Econ

2009-03-07T13:24:00.005+08:00

It's odd how I've been reading a lot of news about the global economy lately; I know that it's been all over the news, but it's still remarkable how fresh the recent stories about the topic have been. Here's some that I liked in particular, promise they won't make you guys fall asleep:

The maestro Michael Lewis is back with an in-depth look at the financial troubles of Iceland. Usually, 10,000-word features about financial systems aren't really recommended reading, but remember that opening narration in Elizabethtown about failures and fiascos?

"As somebody once said there's a difference between a failure and a fiasco. A failure is simply the non-presence of success. Any fool can accomplish failure. But a fiasco...A fiasco is a disaster of mythic proportions. A fiasco is a folktale told to others that makes other people feel more alive because it didn't happened to them."

Well, this is a total fiasco, and Iceland might as well be renamed Shitland. The economy is a total clusterfuck (the country's debt is 85 times its GDP), and Lewis gets to the bottom of it while painting a funny picture of the typical quirky Icelandic people (and the unpleasant Icelandic men). It's such a caricature that it couldn't possibly be true, could it?

Because Iceland is really just one big family, it’s simply annoying to go around asking Icelanders if they’ve met Björk. Of course they’ve met Björk; who hasn’t met Björk? Who, for that matter, didn’t know Björk when she was two? “Yes, I know Björk,” a professor of finance at the University of Iceland says in reply to my question, in a weary tone. “She can’t sing, and I know her mother from childhood, and they were both crazy. That she is so well known outside of Iceland tells me more about the world than it does about Björk.”

A Wired Magazine feature titled Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street takes a look at the research of David X. Li, a Wall Street actuary who came up with a way to model correlation between securities.

It was a brilliant simplification of an intractable problem. And Li didn't just radically dumb down the difficulty of working out correlations; he decided not to even bother trying to map and calculate all the nearly infinite relationships between the various loans that made up a pool. What happens when the number of pool members increases or when you mix negative correlations with positive ones? Never mind all that, he said. The only thing that matters is the final correlation number—one clean, simple, all-sufficient figure that sums up everything.

The effect on the securitization market was electric. Armed with Li's formula, Wall Street's quants saw a new world of possibilities. And the first thing they did was start creating a huge number of brand-new triple-A securities. Using Li's copula approach meant that ratings agencies like Moody's—or anybody wanting to model the risk of a tranche—no longer needed to puzzle over the underlying securities. All they needed was that correlation number, and out would come a rating telling them how safe or risky the tranche was.

We all know how it all turned out, right? Then from later in the article:

No one knew all of this better than David X. Li: "Very few people understand the essence of the model," he told The Wall Street Journal way back in fall 2005.

"Li can't be blamed," says Gilkes of CreditSights. After all, he just invented the model. Instead, we should blame the bankers who misinterpreted it. And even then, the real danger was created not because any given trader adopted it but because every trader did. In financial markets, everybody doing the same thing is the classic recipe for a bubble and inevitable bust."

A couple of weeks ago, CNBC analyst Rick Santelli went on a rant against Barack Obama's housing plan, saying that it rewarded "losers" who took on more debt than they could afford. The whole sentiment carries on a theme in the rich people wing of the American right about going back to Ayn Rand and her writing.

Back in college, some friends of mine were into Ayn Rand, but I never really got into all that. Some of it was because I wasn't really comfortable with Rand' philosophy, but most of it was because I found her writing style to be garbage. But that's just me.

Anyway, it's funny to note that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (along with other, uh, architects of this economic collapse) are huge Ayn Rand fans.

That's about the second worst thing to come out of Ayn Rand's career; in 1999, there was this awkward sex scene between Helen Mirren's title character and Eric Stoltz from The Passion of Ayn Rand.

Here's a more pleasant video: Jon Stewart rips another asshole into Santelli and CNBC for their history of fuck-ups, after Santelli cancelled on going on The Daily Show.

On the other side of the intellectual spectrum, you really ought to be reading New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman these days. Krugman named his blog after his book, "The Conscience of a Liberal", and his work deals with the "politics and economics of inequality". His columns don't go over the head of the regular reader (regular readers of NY Times, at least) while he saves his nerd shit over on his blog.

Krugman isn't a very big fan of Obama; unlike most of Obama's critics, Krugman though feels that Obama doesn't go far enough, and his criticism of Obama's stimulus legislation drew a reaction from Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel.

Anyway, Krugman was pleasantly surprised over budget proposal, and in his most glowing piece about the new administration yet, explained why there's so much to be excited about, and how excited he is about the transparency of the document.

[Budget priorities] are laid out in a document whose clarity and plausibility seem almost incredible to those of us who grew accustomed to reading Bush-era budgets, which insulted our intelligence on every page. This is budgeting we can believe in.

But can Obama deliver on his promise to reduce the deficit? "Yes, he can!" writes Krugman:

Right now the deficit is huge thanks to temporary factors (at least we hope they’re temporary): a severe economic slump is depressing revenues and large sums have to be allocated both to fiscal stimulus and to financial rescues.

But if and when the crisis passes, the budget picture should improve dramatically. Bear in mind that from 2005 to 2007, that is, in the three years before the crisis, the federal deficit averaged only $243 billion a year. Now, during those years, revenues were inflated, to some degree, by the housing bubble. But it’s also true that we were spending more than $100 billion a year in Iraq.

So if Mr. Obama gets us out of Iraq (without bogging us down in an equally expensive Afghan quagmire) and manages to engineer a solid economic recovery — two big ifs, to be sure — getting the deficit down to around $500 billionby 2013 shouldn’t be at all difficult.

Now that he's in office, it's great to look back at this feature about Obama's economic philosophy (I linked to it back in August). The article predicts and predates all of Obama's moves so far, including his plans for large-scale spending, his commitment to deficit-reduction, and even his reluctance to go ahead and nationalize American banks. Awesome.

Baller-in-Chief

2009-03-06T06:03:00.002+08:00

This is a couple of days late (I've been busy, you know, working), but this is just all kinds of awesome and really needs to be shared.

The Washington Wizards earlier this week played host to the Chicago Bulls, so Chicago native Barack Obama took the opportunity to watch his home town team in the nation's capital. And instead of sitting in a luxury box, he actually sat courtside and mixed it up with die-hard Wizznuts, including this little Tuff Juice fan:

And the President even started to enjoy a cold one:

Then things started heating up on the court, and a Wizards fan started talking trash to Obama, who was rooting for the visiting team:

[Wizards fan Miles Rawls] told the President that if he was rooting for the visitors, he was "gonna have to keep it to a low roar, because we're cheering for the Wizards over here." Obama, in turn, repeatedly needled Rawls about the Wizards' habit of letting leads evaporate, especially when the Bulls made a run.

"We was just going back and forth," Rawls said. "Once Chicago started coming back, he told me, 'Now I think you need to sit down.' When Tyrus Thomas dunked on somebody, he turned around, was talking smack. Then JaVale McGee had that alley-oop, and he gave me the high five. We was just supporting each others' team, having a good time."

O ayan, excited na talaga ako

2009-03-05T11:43:00.002+08:00

Raymund Marasigan posted this on the Cambio mailing list:

dear kids

its thursday morning. i woke up too early (played a late pedicab gig last night). i'm getting excited about the eraserheads show this coming saturday.

i haven't been excited up to this point so let me back track a little. sandwich just got back from rocking singapore, pedicab is preparing a new video and getting ready for the mosaic festival, cambio is writing songs for the next album, gaijin (my new band)is in the studio recording.
aside from the busy gig sked, i've been (distracted) skateboarding downhill with the whiskey hill crew.haha

the eheads rehearsed again last tuesday. we played the whole show without breaks. we did it that way the previous session to test our endurance (and to go home early haha). rehearsals are more taxing mentally and physically than the actual show. we played for more than 3 hours straight repeating a few songs that needed some work. some friends dropped by, romeo lee even jammed some old tunes from the u.p. days.

i'd like to report that everyone is healthy and in tip top shape to perform this saturday. (i had a minor surgery early this month and have been recovering steadily these past few weeks.)

the stage in moa is getting built as i type, i've picked the shoes i'm wearing haha if you don't know what to wear check out the team manila website for some shirts we designed.

excited is good, the band seems to be in good spirits. ely hinted that we might extend the show if the crowd behaves haha.

its going to be a different show from the previous one. its a different set of songs. no countdowns, no wigs, no green hair, yes yes yo! i'm going to play drums now, see y'all this saturday!

raym < s >

Hala, let's all behave!

EXCITED NA AKO SA CONCERT...

2009-03-04T14:41:00.002+08:00

...ng Journey sa Manila!

So wait, how does this work again?

2009-03-03T19:27:00.003+08:00

I just send her a text message, right?

Wait, shouldn't I be, like, calling her for this? That would be more polite, right?

Or should I send a few text messages first, then call her? That sounds better.

Ah screw it, I'm just going to create a Facebook account and send her a message there..

(Probably more productive than, you know, blogging about it.)

YES!!!

Quick hits

2009-02-26T07:46:00.000+08:00

Just checking in. Haven't had the chance to blog much with so many things going on... hopefully everything gets sorted out next week so I can tell everyone about the plans.

Anyway, some things I liked over the past couple of days:

- The new Vanity Fair has an article about all the trouble the filmmakers went through for the first Godfather film. Awesome, awesome read. My favorite part was Frank Sinatra's intense antipathy towards the film getting made. The character Johnny Fontane, who was allegedly based on the Chairman of the Board, was marginalized in the movie even it was featured very prominently in the book. Francis Ford Coppola disputed that Sinatra had much to do with it, stating that the actor who played Fontane just sucked. Also, it was interesting to note that Marlon Brando was only 47 when he played Don Vito--and he was totally washed up in Hollywood eyes at the time. Isn't that crazy? For reference, Robert De Niro, who played the young Vito Corleone in the sequel, was also 47 when he did "Goodfellas". Oh, and Tom Cruise turns 47 this year.

- Here's a Slate piece about a guy who tries to apply the lessons from the Michael Lewis basketball article. The moral would resonate with every guy of marginal athletic talent who plays pick-up basketball.

- Speaking of number-crunching, analyst Nate Silver gives a roundup of his Oscar predictions after the fact, where he discusses the model he used and possible changes.

- The New York Times looked for a washed-up wrestler who didn't end up screwing up his whole life, and they found Tito Santana, who's now living comfortably as a high school teacher and basketball coach. Oddly enough, like Randy "The Ram" Robinson, he still spends weekends wrestling men who are half his age.

- Studios are bidding for the new buddy cop movie "The B Team", which would star Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. It's kind of amazing that Ferrell hasn't played a cop in any of his movies yet, right? Seems like a natural fit. I just hope there's a scene where Marky Mark starts talking to animals.

- While we're on the subject, Ferrell shakes and bakes with Nate Robinson! Haha, and Nate scored a season-high 41 points too. Not a bad month for Krypto-Nate.

The Man Who Laughs

2009-02-19T03:42:00.001+08:00

The image of the Joker, Batman's arch-nemesis (not the maverick Filipino senator/Pipol's Dragon), was based by Bob Kane on a photo of actor Conrad Veidt from the film The Man Who Laughs. The film was an adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, which is, oddly enough, described by Wikipedia as one of Hugo's more obscure works.

This iconic image from "Batman: The Killing Joke", Alan Moore's twisted one-shot about the psychotic clown, was drawn by artist Brian Bolland, who cited the film for his inspiration for the Joker's look. In 2005, "Batman: The Man Who Laughs", another classic Joker one-shot akin to "The Killing Joke", was released.

Love and basketball

2009-02-15T07:08:00.002+08:00

A few years ago, I spent way too many evenings staying up way too late, and drinking way too much. Fortunately, most of my friends also spent their evenings the same way, and quite often I would spend the wee hours of the morning chatting with a friend about, well, life. Quarter-life funks were all the rage back then (perhaps it still is), and our conversations would invariably turn to issues at work. After a particularly rough evening, I found myself trying to find words to make her feel better about the job she was doing, which isn't really a good idea after six (or seven, or eight) beers.

"In basketball," I told her, "there's the glue guy. There's this guy on the Rockets, Shane Battier, who's the reason for their resurgence. He's not a superstar, he doesn't score the most points, he doesn't hit any fancy shots, no dunks, no highlights for him on ESPN. And yet, anyone who knew anything about basketball would know just how important he is to the team; they don't win without him. To the team, he's just as essential as the superstars who grab the headlines."

"Do you have a point?"

"My point is, on your team, you're the glue guy. You might not get any of the headlines, but you're the one makes things happen. You're the one who always knows what to do when issues come up. You're the one everyone could turn to when they hit a snag. And you never lose your cool at the heat of the moment; you remain calm and everyone else draws from that. And I guess you just let it all out when we go out drinking afterwards, like, you know, now."

She took a puff, and sighed. I wasn't sure at that point if she was still listening to me. She probably wasn't. I continued.

"See, the thing is, you're just as important as anyone else on your team. And everyone who knows about what you do would--should--know how much you mean to everyone. And I'm sure everyone appreciates you. Everyone sees that. I see that."

Obviously, there are a couple of things to take away from this: (1) alcohol really does kill your brain cells; and, (2) comparing women to 6-8 NBA forwards with weird hairlines is never a good idea.

But I was reminded of this episode in my life because of an article about Battier in this weekend's New York Times magazine. The lengthy piece was written by Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball, which chronicled one team's use of statistical tools to run a baseball team, and which ended up revolutionizing how most teams in Major League Baseball are run.

The story examines Battier's impact on the Rockets, whose GM Daryl Morey is one of the proponents of the use of objective metrics for basketball analysis. Why is Battier, with his marginal stats and limited offensive game, just as important to his team as an all-world superstar like Yao Ming?

Before the 2006-7 season, Battier was traded to the Houston Rockets, who had just finished 34-48. In his first season with the Rockets, they finished 52-30, and then, last year, went 55-27 — including one stretch of 22 wins in a row. Only the 1971-2 Los Angeles Lakers have won more games consecutively in the N.B.A. And because of injuries, the Rockets played 11 of those 22 games without their two acknowledged stars, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, on the court at the same time; the Rockets player who spent the most time actually playing for the Rockets during the streak was Shane Battier. This year Battier, recovering from off-season surgery to remove bone spurs from an ankle, has played in just over half of the Rockets’ games. That has only highlighted his importance. “This year,” Morey says, “we have been a championship team with him and a bubble playoff team without him.”

Here we have a basketball mystery: a player is widely regarded inside the N.B.A. as, at best, a replaceable cog in a machine driven by superstars. And yet every team he has ever played on has acquired some magical ability to win.

Of course, this is part of my original thesis in the tragic comparison I mentioned above. Any smart basketball fan of course would know just how important players like Battier are. (Dumb basketball fans, on the other hand, just root for Kobe Bryant.)

But anyway, you should read the Michael Lewis article if you are: (a) any kind of basketball fan, because it details not just why, but how, Battier makes himself so important to his team (i.e. while guarding a bad rebounder, he gravitates to Lakers' center Pau Gasol to help his teammates block out, a move that is never reflected on the box score); (b) you're the girl mentioned in the anecdote above, if you still read this blog; or, (c) you have friends who are prone to bring up basketball analogies in the wee hours of the morning after late night drinking sessions.

Jazz

2009-02-10T04:00:00.003+08:00

Here's a good interview at Pulse.ph with Itchyworms drummer Jazz Nicolas about being the fifth Eraserhead during last August's concert. Apparently, when Buddy had called him up to do session work, no one had confirmed the gig to him either:

“’Uy, busy ka ba? Kailangan namin ng keyboardist.”

“Para sa’n?”

“Sa…gig.”

“Ano’ng gig?”

“’Heads.”

Office favorites

2009-02-10T02:33:00.001+08:00

Greg Daniels, the man who adapted The Office for American television, lists down his ten favorite episodes:

Health Care

The Alliance

Office Olympics

Performance Review

The Injury

Gay Witch Hunt

The Convict

Business School

Local Ad

Chair Model

Here's mine:

The Client - Jan and Michael hook up!

Booze Cruise - "You know what, I would save the receptionist."

Conflict Resolution - The part where Dwight enumerates Jim's pranks, and Jim explains them, still makes me laugh out loud.

Casino Night - "Not your fault. I'm sorry I misinterpreted our friendship."

The Convention - The scene where Jim 'fesses up that he left Scranton because of Pam still kills me.

Initiation - Love the end where Jim gets Pam on the phone accidentally, and they end up having this long chat.

Traveling Salesmen - The Dunder-Mifflin crew at their very best.

Branch Wars - "I think I cut my penis on the lid!"

Job Fair - Andy was hilarious at the golf course.

Goodbye Toby - The debut of the adorable Holly Flax

I know I've turned a couple of people who read this blog on to watching the show, so what's your favorite?

The Delicious Dish

2009-01-25T00:45:00.002+08:00

Alec Baldwin's SNL special was on earlier tonight, and I watched out for "The Delicious Dish", which is one of the best SNL sketches ever. I'd been looking for a video online, but could only find audio on YouTube. It still works though, since the sketch features a fictional NPR radio show:

And here's to you Bishop Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you will know

2009-01-20T22:58:00.004+08:00

Bishop Gene Robinson gave this beautiful opening prayer at the kickoff event for Barack Obama's inauguration:

“O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears -- tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger -- anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.

Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace. Amen."

Gene Robinson is famous for being the first openly gay clergyman to be ordained bishop in a major Christian denomination. Though Obama's people have denied the connection, his appointment to deliver the opening prayer came on the heels of the President-elect's choice to have Pastor Rick Warren to give the opening invocation for his inaugural. While Warren is most famous in these shores for "The Purpose-Driven Life", his selection came under fire because of previous incendiary comments by the popular pastor about gay people--comparing homosexuality to incest, bestiality, and pedophilia--comments that were hurtful, bigoted, and decidedly un-Christian.

I've yet to read this long GQ profile on Bishop Robinson, but it looks very interesting, and I've bookmarked it and should be able to get to it soon. There's also this quick interview with the bishop at Beliefnet, where he talks about, among other things, the Warren selection.

Hopelessly devoted to you

2009-01-12T02:31:00.001+08:00

I'm watching Pushing Daisies right now for lack of anything else on TV. This is actually the first episode I've ever seen, though I'm familiar with the premise: Ned (Lee Pace) is a pie maker who discovered as a child that he has an unusual power: He can raise people (and dogs and flies...) from the dead by touching them. There are two catches: If he touches them again, they die again, forever. And if he leaves them resurrected for more than a minute, someone else dies to take their place. He forms a partnership with a private eye (Chi McBride); Ned temporarily brings murder victims back to life, asks them who killed them, ices them again and they split the reward. But one day, the murder victim is the love of Ned's life since childhood, Chuck (Anna Friel). He leaves her alive--but can never touch her again.

The waitress at the pie shop, Olivia (played by the always-awesome Kristen Chenoweth) also happens to be madly in love with the pie-maker, even as she's able to manage a healthy relationship with him and his girlfriend. Still, she makes no secret of that, which led to this dialogue that caught my attention a couple of minutes ago:

Olive: Can I ask you a question? If you loved me....

Alfredo: Yes?

Olive: And we could never, ever, ever touch. Wouldn't you eventually get over it and move on letting someone else have the slightest hope that you might move on to them?

Alfredo: If I loved you?

Olive: Yeah.

Alfredo: Then I would love you in any way I could. And if we could not touch, then I would draw strength from your beauty. And if I went blind, then I would fill my soul with the sound of your voice and the contents of your thoughts until the last spark of my love for you lit the shabby darkness of my dying mind.

Olive: Eh, forget it.

Is the whole series worth watching? I've heard good things but the first season was cut short because of the writer's strike, and the second season will be cut short as well as the show had been cancelled due to low ratings. Should I bother?

Final set

2009-01-10T11:56:00.004+08:00

Supreme carries the scoop that the continuation of the Eraserheads reunion concert will be on March 7, 2009.

UPDATE: Raymund Marasigan posted this in the ~~Sandwich~~ Cambio and Pedicab mailing lists:

dear kids

i got a lot of messages yesterday asking about the eraserheads concert. apparently there was a press release already in the papers. anyhoo, here's what i got so far.

yes its true. that much i know. but after the first one i got darwin (soupstar, sandwich) to iron out my concerns before anything.i want this one to be smoother. in other words i just want to rock.

the band has not me yet officially but i know the promoters have been talking with our respective representatives since december.

we have a dysfunctional relationship haha. we play well together but i think we can only stand each other for short periods of time.

i see buddy a lot cos were band mates in cambio. i bumped into marcus at mogwai last week. he just got back from the beach. im glad ely's getting his groove back. sandwich played with pupil at guijo last friday.

we dont talk about the show. i know everyone agreed to do it so ill guess well see each other at the presscon or rehearsals , whichever comes first.

this wont be as top secret as the marlboro gig. there will be tickets, sponsors and details in the papers. and well be allowed to talk about it. haha.

PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL OR TEXT ME about it. its just a rock show. i just want to rock.

see you all there

raim<s>

Heads up

2009-01-05T14:27:00.003+08:00

I haven't read any written confirmation from anyone who would know, but people in the Eraserheads and Sandwich mailing lists are saying that apart from Pupil (and the other bands), Sandwich (!!!) will also be playing at Friday's benefit gig.

Let's see, the last time Pupil played a benefit gig (at Route 196), they were in need of an extra hand. Oh, and Markus just happened to be there:

[T]here was already beer-fueled Markus Adoro, who went there as a customer.

Since Adoro didn’t bring any guitar, Buendia handed his to the former bandmate.

Then they played three songs from their original group—“Alapaap,” “Pare Ko” and “Huling El Bimbo.” It must be recalled that “El Bimbo” was supposed to be the last song in the aborted August 30 reunion.

That night, it was goose bumps all over. But as a final song, it’s Pupil’s “Disconnection Notice.” Adoro was hesitant to play it but Buendia insisted. On the spot, Adoro asked Pupil’s original guitarist, Yan Yuzon, who took on bass duties, the basic chords and the magic continued.

UPDATE: A friend who's related to the band just confirmed that Sandwich will indeed be playing this Friday. Ayus!

Pac-man

2009-01-03T16:28:00.002+08:00

Manny Pacquiao's wife Jinkee had originally wanted to name their newborn daughter Julia Margarette, but he didn't like the name. The champ put his foot down, and he got the name he wanted for his baby girl: Queen Elizabeth.

Perfect, since it looks like he'll be challenging the people's champion from Britain, Ricky 'Hitman' Hatton, for his next fight.

Disconnection notice

2009-01-03T00:37:00.002+08:00

Pupil is playing Saguijo on the 9th, along with Sugarfree and the Itchyworms. Haven't seen them play since that final Rivermaya gig a couple of years ago. Let's watch!

Goodbye '08

2008-12-31T21:29:00.001+08:00

It was a crazy year, wasn't it? Lots of big, important things happening at the global (Obama winning, the Beijing Olympics, the possible start of a new Cold War) and the local (Pacquiao beating Oscar, the Eraserheads reuniting) levels.

It was the craziest year for me too, off the top of my head, the craziest ever. What I do know is that I don't think I can take another year like this. Was it the Chinese who had the saying, May you live in interesting times, which was meant to be both a blessing and a curse? Because that was what 2008 was for me, a blessing and a curse.

It started well enough in January, which I spent on my first vacation in years. Then at the tail-end of my vacation, my mom called me that my grandfather had fallen ill. He died a few weeks later, and that was a difficult time, and I remember crying at the funeral, something I never did, and up to now I'm unable to articulate exactly how I feel about it.

A month later I resigned from GMA, and it was weird, because they'd just announce my promotion, and there really wasn't any good reason to do it on the surface. Of course people there still have their theories, but my reason for leaving is also something I'm still unable to articulate clearly, even to myself.

There was a lot of trepidation going into it, just because it felt like I was letting down a lot of the people that I worked with, so I ended up giving the longest notice (I stayed for two more months after telling my boss I wanted to leave). But midway through my notice period, it was apparent that everything would go on smoothly (well, as smoothly as things went back there) even after I left, so that made it easier. I made a couple of visits afterwards and and it looks like everyone is doing well, and everything was steady, which I figured was a good thing.

I was a hermit for the next few months (no, I don't look like that anymore). There were a couple of offers, but none I was particularly enthusiastic about. I did some consulting work for a bunch of people, including an old friend who offered me a job to leave computers and just do business stuff. It was interesting, but I ended up turning it down because I didn't feel like dealing with the nasty stuff that came with, well, dealing with people.

In September, we had our 10-year high school reunion, which was sort of anti-climactic because we saw each other all the time anyway. It was true for most people from our class, the people who wanted to stay in touch with each other were for the most part in touch with each other. That's a great thing, I think.

I finally accepted a job offer and started back at work in September, almost as a whim, because I was bored and I felt like I needed a change. Also, the company had offices in Makati and Fort Bonifacio, places I'd never worked before, so it was a new environment. Circumstances also made it easy for me to move out of my condo and move into an apartment in Bagtikan in November, closer to work, so there were even more stark changes.

I also finished graduate school this year, officially in October, but I was pretty much done with all schoolwork by August. I graduated earlier than everyone else in my class except for one, and I think I have a pretty good shot of graduating at the top of my class (and delivering the valedictory address next March)--I was university scholar for three straight semesters, the semesters I had enough units to qualify. I don't know how exactly they choose it, and I wouldn't be heartbroken if I wasn't the top graduate, but I really wouldn't mind getting it either.

There were also a bunch of weddings. Oddly enough they all involved M+K. I was back in Boracay for their wedding last October, and they also happened to shoot the other two weddings I attended. Awesome.

So let's see, here's what happened to me this year:

-- had the longest vacation of my adult life
-- had my grandfather pass away
-- quit my job after three years
-- attended the Eraserheads concert (hehe)
-- attended our 10-year reunion
-- started a new job
-- finished graduate school
-- moved to a new apartment halfway across the metro
-- saw Obama win
-- watched pacquiao beat up De la Hoya

Oh and there might have been a girl in there somewhere, sometime this year, but I try not to think about her anymore.

That was my year. How was yours? No resolutions for 2009 for me, I just hope it would be boring. Happy New Year everyone!

Beyond the mat

2008-12-31T19:57:00.005+08:00

Watched Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler last night, and well, it is what it is. The film was the first thoughtful fictional cinematic look at professional wrestling, and the movie itself is as blunt, unsubtle, and manipulative as its subject.

I don't know if it flies with people who never got into wrestling (Ebert gave it four stars, but as he mentions, he does watch wrestling), but Mickey Rourke's transformation as Randy "The Ram" Robinson--he not only looks, but sounds like an ex-wrestler from the Hulkamania era--is nothing short of amazing, Marissa Tomei's stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold (isn't that the biggest cliche in indie films) is a joy to watch, and the wrestling scenes are good, but not too good. The tight, handheld camera shots take a bit of getting used to, but they end up working perfectly; you really do feel like you're in the ring with The Ram, and you really feel like you're getting a lap dance from Tomei's Cassidy. Both are very good things.

The plot is simple, and if you haven't been under a rock in, I don't know, the past 25 years, the turns are predictable, but like a good wrestling match, it's often the nuances that make the movie special. My biggest qualm would be The Ram's physique; for a washed-up wrestler, he seems in too good a shape. Seriously, have you seen how those those wrestlers from the '80s look these days?

(No, I don't know why Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, the greatest wrestling barber ever, is dressed up like a gay zebra.)

But back to the movie. The Wrestler reminds me of a 1999 documentary called Beyond the Mat by Barry Blaustein, which followed various promotions, featuring what was then the WWF (with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access), the then-fledgling ECW, and a garage wrestling promotion in Northern California. The documentary also follows closely several wrestlers, each of whom were at different phases of their careers, and most prominently featured Mick Foley (at the height of his rivalry vs. The Rock), hardcore legend Terry Funk, and late '80s/early '90s icon Jake "The Snake" Roberts.

I don't know if Aronofsky or screenwriter Robert Siegel was inspired in any way by Blaustein's documentary, but Randy Robinson's life echoes much of Roberts' plight as portrayed in Beyond the Mat. Like The Ram, Jake was a gifted entertainer, at one time among the most popular wrestlers in the world, with a preternatural gift for connecting with the crowd.

The documentary shows us a washed-up Roberts, like The Ram (and dozens of wrestlers from that era), several years removed from his heyday and plying his trade in pathetic venues with audiences in the low hundreds. Again like the Rourke character, Jake is estranged from his daughter. Now a born-again Christian, Jake expresses a desire to get his daughter back in his life, and the documentary films a tearful reunion between the two. A few hours after their meeting, Roberts disappears from his motel room, and Blaustein narrates that Jake had snuck out to do crack. After their meeting, Jake and his daughter never get in touch again.

Roberts has since railed against the documentary as misleading, a hatchet job on him, and claimed that he has finally reformed after entering rehab. But he was back in the news earlier this year, after TMZ posted a video of him wasted at a wrestling event:

The footage shows a stumbling, overweight, rambling Roberts struggling to form a coherent sentence, while addressing the crowd moments before his match in the Firestorm Pro Wrestling league.

But the story behind the scenes is even more tragic. According to several sources, the 53-year-old legend was found passed out backstage moments before he was scheduled to perform. We're told when Snake was woken up, he was aggressive, violent and asking for "an 8-ball."

We're also told nearly two dozen empty airplane bottles of vodka were found by his gear.

During the match, Roberts was clearly unable to perform, barely responding to the barrage of "fake blows" he received from the other wrestler, J.T. Lightning. Around one minute into the match, Roberts' opponent -- clearly frustrated with the situation -- whispers to the ref to end the fight. Afterwards, Lightning grabbed the mic and told Roberts, "I've wrestled drug addicts ... you are a piece of s**t, Snake. You gypped these people. F**k you."

After the verbal assault, Jake pulled down the front of his pants and exposed his penis to the crowd.

After watching The Wrestler, I found myself downloading Beyond the Mat again, and it still holds up. If you've been any kind of wrestling fan at all, you really ought to see both movies.

The year in Steve Nash videos

2008-12-31T18:07:00.003+08:00

2008 was the year that Steve Nash finally lost the mantle of "Best Point Guard in the World" to Chris Paul, and it saw the demise of the "Seven Seconds or Less" era in Phoenix as well. The team looks like a shell of its former self, and the effect is most apparent in Nash.

But 2008 also marked Nash's stake as the funniest NBA player, like, ever. Things started off promisingly this summer with his Stepbrothers spoof alongside Baron Davis:

Then there was this fall campaign for Vitamin Water featuring Nash in an odd series of videos. The first is a take on his awesome Training Day commercial last year. The worm at the 28-second mark made me laugh out loud:

Next on tap is a photo shoot, with Nash channeling his inner Zoolander. "It's like people say, Hey, don't swim with sharks... but I'm faster than sharks, so it's not a big deal."

Finally, there's Nash visiting the Vitamin Water offices to motivate the staff, and does his best David Brent/Michael Scott. "Excuse me, while I'm here... does anybody need an autograph?"

Baby-faced assassin

2008-12-30T03:50:00.004+08:00

Awesome line about New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul over at True Hoop:

Off the court, Paul is the prince who guest stars on a NPR's precious weekend game show. On the court, he's the nastiest point guard since Gary Payton's prime, and shouldn't be defended without a tetanus shot.

The post then segues into a story about Paul's competitiveness, basically willing his team to win after getting annoyed at a heckling Pacers fan. Fun stuff.

Just last week, True Hoop also had an entry about how Paul basically cheated in a jump ball situation to save the game for his team, and he punked no less than Manu Ginobili.

This all reminds me of that Charles Barkley quote about the NBA's original baby-faced assassin, and the guy to whom Chris Paul is compared by everyone, Isiah Thomas. Thomas was so competitive, Barkley said, that he "would cut your balls off to win."

Too bad everyone knows him now as the guy who ran the Knicks into the ground. And then OD'd on sleeping pills afterwards. And tried to pin the whole mess to his daughter.

He used to be so much more, and here's video to prove it. Check out the putback dunk over Kevin McHale at around the 45-second mark. Man, Zeke was a bad motherfucker.

Heh

2008-12-28T21:16:00.004+08:00

Just a couple of hours after the last post, Purefoods got eliminated from the ongoing Philippine Cup after laying a big fat egg against, ironically, Air 21. It got so ugly that during a timeout midway through 4th quarter, James Yap got into a shouting match against Purefoods assistant coach Koy Banal, after Banal chewed out Yap for a missed defensive assignment. Yap then threw a towel at Banal, who had to be restrained by the other guys on the bench from going at Yap.

Yeah, it was as bad as it sounds. At that point, the team was down by something like 20 points, and Yap had been carrying the team, scoring ~~I think 28~~ 26 points. After that, Yap went back on the court and basically stopped playing, just jogging up and down, and the rest of the team just played dead.

Now, I never root against any of my favorite teams, and there was no excuse for what Yap did, but I hope this is the last straw against the Purefoods coaching staff. They're the worst offensive team in the league (something that shouldn't happen with Yap and Kerby Raymundo in the lineup), they don't have any offensive structure, their defensive rotations are lousy, the in-game coaching is horrible, and they never seem to execute off timeouts. The body language by the players are terrible, and everyone looks like they'd rather be someplace else.

Meanwhile, the whole coaching staff is just full of it. Head coach Ryan Gregorio is quick to make excuses, while Banal, the team's "defensive coordinator" has been ineffective all conference. In fact, it was odd that Banal started going at Yap for the missed assignment when Raymundo and Peter June Simon were missing assignments all game long, and the defensive gameplan coming into the game was just horrible.

The whole coaching staff really needs to go. Man, I hope they finally pull the trigger on it. National team coach Yeng Guiao might be available.

Meanwhile, the second conference of the PBA won't be on until March. I need to find something else to get into until then.

UPDATE: GMANews.TV reports that Yap and Banal have patched things up. Gregorio still needs to be fired though. I hope they get Yeng Guiao.

The year in James Yap videos

2008-12-28T19:07:00.001+08:00

As a Purefoods fan, I've learned how to live with James Yap as my team's MVP. Well, lifelong Purefoods fans have had plenty of practice; for starters, we've spent most of our days not just rooting for the Hotdogs, but the Tender Juicy Hotdogs. They renamed the team, but it hasn't gotten marginally better. The team was renamed the Purefoods Chunkee Giants, to promote the company's corned beef brand, and when it was time to go back to promoting hotdogs, management apparently liked the Giants moniker so much that the team is now known as the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants.

That wasn't the end of it though. We still had to deal with stupid crap about Alvin Patrimonio (usually from the ignorant, unwashed masses), his being an overpaid crybaby, and his offcourt dealings, like his short-lived showbiz career (and even more short-lived affair with Kris Aquino) and insinuations about Nap Gutierrez being his boyfriend.

So yeah, you kinda let all that crap (Kris, Baby James, Hope, the whole K-Pop metrosexual thing) and concentrate on the basketball. And because I do spend an ungodly amount thinking about things like when the Giants' moronic coach Ryan Gregorio will finally be fired (I did a Google search for 'Ryan Gregorio sucks' and found an article that I wrote for Peyups.com four years ago) and wondering whether backup point guard Chico Lanete is mildly retarded (especially after he airballs another fadeaway 3-pointer with 18 seconds left on the shot clock, the 294th of his career).

Anyway.

The first video was a from a game against Red Bull last conference, as James Yap hits a fadeaway jumper from the top of the key with 0.7 seconds to go:

I remember watching this at my old apartment while my housemate Urk was having dinner. Even he let out a yell when Yap hit the shot. And because of the awesomeness of YouTube, here's a fan video of the play:

It's been an infamous year for Yap. He was in the middle of the controversy during the Philippine Cup finals against Sta. Lucia for being suspended for a game in the Finals after smacking Joseph Yeo in the face. Although, to be fair to Yap, wouldn't you like a chance to smack that smug look off Yeo's face too? Purefoods lost the game wherein Yap was suspended, and ultimately lost the series in seven games.

But no, Yap's craziest moment came during a brawl against Talk N Text during the last conference. He wasn't involved in the initial altercation, but he gave a sucker kick to Talk N Text's import Terrence Leather, which led to Leather chasing Yap all over the court:

Good thing he wasn't caught, because Leather was just about ready to take his head off. Leather got ejected, and Yap escaped with a mere technical foul.

It wasn't all bad though, because just recently, Yap had a highlight for the ages during their first game against Air 21 in the current Philippine Cup. Purefoods was down by three with the ball, and Kerby Raymundo had just missed a shot in the dying seconds. So Yap beat Arwind Santos for the offensive rebound, chased the ball to the corner, tiptoed the baseline and the sideline, and launched a turnaround, fadeaway three-pointer from behind the backboard to tie the game.

Read that paragraph again.

Yeah, it's as awesome as it sounds:

Yeah

2008-12-26T22:09:00.003+08:00

Remember a few years ago, when the biggest teen stars Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff were feuding (and over Aaron Carter, of all people)? Then Mean Girls came out and Lohan looked like she was going to be the hottest star of the decade, while Duff still had guns worthy of Vina Morales? While Lohan's career is in the toilet, Duff is looking so improbably hot in her new Maxim shoot (NSFW). Damn. Whodathunk?

The best kind of nice

2008-12-24T15:10:00.003+08:00

It's noche buena tonight, but it still doesn't feel exactly like Christmas. Despite all the parties (and the traffic, and the stupid cab drivers in Makati), it hasn't felt like Christmas for me all month long.

I'd been working crazy hours this month (and I'm posting this from the office). I know I said I wouldn't do that anymore with this job, but at the back of my mind, I knew it wouldn't last. It happened at my first job, all those years ago. It happened at GMA. I suspect that it's no coincidence that this keeps happening, like it's written into my DNA or something, that I always end up doing this. After all, there are about ten other managers in the whole company, and none of them end up doing things that require them to work the hours that I work. So yeah, Christmas this year hasn't been Christmas-y at all for me.

I did catch a tiny whiff of Christmas cheer the past couple of days, after giving (and receiving) presents to (and from) my officemates. Since I had no time to go shopping for presents anymore (and my office list is at 60 people), I just figured I'd try ordering home-baked cookies from Macy (the cookies are called Macy's Fields, natch). It was a big order and I'm so glad she came through.

The cookies were a hit with officemates, most of whom ended up eating the cookies right in front of me, which led to the following exchange:

Officemate: "Boss, ang sarap ng cookies."

Me: (deadpans) "Oo naman. Ako nag-bake niyan."

Officemate: (looks at the package) "Ikaw si Macy?"

Me: (to myself) "Shet, dapat tinanggal ko na lang pala yung label."

Also, when I first brought the cookies to the office and they were sitting under my desk, my whole workstation ended up smelling like cookies all day (and it was good, since I ended up staying till 10 in the evening last night). Yum. That would be my whiff of Christmas for the month.

The Wrestler

2008-12-22T15:17:00.004+08:00

As a lifelong wrestling fan, someone who occasionally ~~spends~~ wastes weekend evenings glued to Raw and Smackdown on JackTV, and who still visits wrestling news sites a couple of times a week, I'd been looking forward to Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler." I've heard so many good things about it, and in the stills for the film, Micky Rourke actually does look like a washed-up wrestler from the '80s:

Last week, the AV Club had an interesting chat with Aronofsky about the process of making the film, while Slate has a rave review of the film by none other than former WWE champ Mick Foley.

Person of the year

2008-12-18T18:40:00.002+08:00

Time Magazine's person of the year is an obvious choice, but there are still loads of good reads in there. I should go get a copy.

The cover was done by the same artist who created the iconic Obama poster

Really

2008-12-16T03:25:00.000+08:00

At our team building activity last week, in the tell-everyone-about-yourself segment, I started talking about High Fidelity (which is, aptly enough, my desert-island top book of all time), and I ended up speaking to a dumbfounded audience. No one there knew anything about the book or even the movie. I guess John Cusack is not so big around these parts.

Then at our company Christmas party, The Camerawalls (Clem Castro's new band) played a cover of The Cure's Just Like Heaven, so I started singing to it. The only problem was, of the 100 or so people watching, I was the only one who seemed to know the song. Not only that, but when some officemates noticed me singing along to it, they were all like, Hey, you know this song? We've never heard of it before. You're such a dork.

Which I am. Really. But still. High Fidelity, really? And Just Like Heaven? Really? What the fuck is this place and how did I get here? Hehehe.

You've lost that lovin' feeling, now it's gone, and I can't hold on...

2008-12-15T17:53:00.003+08:00

The last time I was in these clothes, I'd just bade her goodnight at six in the morning, and I was happy.

But that was another lifetime ago, and she, she is just another girl.

Wala lang, ulit

2008-12-08T18:16:00.003+08:00

The finals of the Philippine Collegiate Championship between Ateneo and La Salle has been sloppy. La Salle's leading late in the fourth, and if they win, this would be the first time they beat Ateneo this season in five tries. The highlight of the game? Sharon Yu's doing sideline reporting again.

(Tapos wala lang, ipo-post ko lang ulit yung picture niya.)

Earlier, Letran won against San Beda in the battle for third, which was nice, and almost makes up for the one-point heartbreaker against Ateneo the other day.

Golden Boy

2008-12-08T16:31:00.002+08:00

Bad Left Hook takes a close look at Oscar de la Hoya's career:

When Oscar was 11 fights in, he took on Denmark's Jimmy Bredahl for the WBO junior lightweight title, and he kicked his ass. Two fights later, he got rid of tough Mexican Jorge Paez in two rounds, winning a lightweight title. John Avila, John John Molina, Rafael Ruelas -- they all fell to the young de la Hoya. These were good fighters.

Genaro Hernandez suffered his first loss at the hands of Oscar in 1995, retiring after six rounds. Hernandez's only other career loss came to Money Mayweather, who never lost to anybody he fought. Jesse James Leija was another '95 victim.

When he fought Julio Cesar Chavez in 1996, Chavez was 34 years old and had a history of wars that probably made him feel older. Oscar, perhaps in an attempt to become the new idol of the Mexican fight fans, took him on and destroyed him. It never sat well with a lot of Mexican fans, and neither did their 1998 rematch, when Oscar beat him again.

Between the two Chavez fights, he took the undefeated record of Miguel Angel Gonzalez, beat Hall of Famer Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker, dumped David Kamau in two rounds, stomped Hector "Macho" Camacho over 12 rounds, and knocked out Wilfredo Rivera.

This is the period of Oscar's career that most interests me, because these days, you'd almost think he didn't do all of these things. You just read the name of some great fighters. Whitaker made the Hall of Fame in 2007. Chavez will as soon as he hits the ballot. There is real substance to the guys Oscar was beating in the 1990s.

It's easy to forget how invincible Oscar used to be; prior to that dancefest against Trinidad, he was 31-0. I think everyone who ever followed boxing, however, knows that Oscar jumped the shark in the Quartey fight.

(I still remember the fallout from that fight, which happened back during freshman year in college. All my buddies who are into boxing think Quartey got jobbed.)

Superstar

2008-12-07T17:31:00.004+08:00

Pac-man beat De La Hoya from pillar to post, and the whole world was watching:

There were the mainstream sports publications:

- ESPN
- Sports Illustrated
- Yahoo Sports
- Fox Sports
- Sky Sports
- Deadspin
- The Sporting News
- AOL FanHouse

The big papers:

- LA Times
- USA Today
- (UPDATE) The Guardian UK
- New York Times
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Seattle Post-Inteligencer
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Boston Globe

And dispatches from odd places:

- The Daily Nation (Kenya)
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Of course, the world is atwitter as well:

And even MC Hammer is tweeting the action!

This is me pinching myself, because I still couldn't quite believe it.

Bottle Rocket

2008-12-04T20:36:00.004+08:00

Triumph of Bullshit comes up with a personality test based on polarizing filmmakers:

It’s not strange to disagree about movies that are wildly different, and there are surely a few random movies that are very polarizing. What I find most interesting is which movie people consider the best movie from a particular director, as it is usually very telling and polarizing in a different way, so to this point I will propose a new personality test where you reblog your favorite movie from each of these directors:

1. Joel Coen: No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, etc
2. Wes Anderson: The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tennenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, etc
3. Hal Ashby: Being There, Shampoo, Harold and Maude, etc
4. Kevin Smith: Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Clerks, etc
5. Quentin Tarantino: Grindhouse, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc.

And Kottke adds:

6. Stanley Kubrick: 2001, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Strangelove, Lolita, etc.
7. P.T. Anderson: Boogie Nights, Hard Eight, There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia.
8. Errol Morris: The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War, Mr. Death, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Gates of Heaven, etc.

My result:

1. Miller's Crossing
2. The Royal Tenenbaums
3. Shampoo
4. Clerks
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Dr. Strangelove
7. Punch-Drunk Love
8. Eh?

I'd only seen one Hal Ashby film though (Shampoo).

Speaking of polarizing figures, there's an interview over at the AV Club with Wes Anderson over the Blu-Ray release of Bottle Rocket. I hated Rushmore, hadn't seen The Life Aquatic, and absolutely loove everything else. Perhaps its time to give Rushmore another shot?

Wala lang

2008-12-03T19:58:00.004+08:00

Was watching the Philippine Collegiate Championship tournament game between Letran and FEU earlier, and I just wanted to share that (former La Salle and current Solar Sports) sideline reporter Sharon Yu totally floats my boat.

Also, Letran won! Up next for the Knights are the big bad Ateneo Blue Eagles (minus Chris Tiu) in the Final Four.

Fey

2008-12-02T19:01:00.002+08:00

NY Times's Maureen Dowd on Tina Fey for Vanity Fair:

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey started as a writer and performer with a bad short haircut in Chicago improv. Then she retreated backstage at S.N.L., wore a ski hat, and gained weight writing sharp, funny jokes and eating junk food. Then she lost 30 pounds, fixed her hair, put on a pair of hot-teacher glasses, and made her name throwing lightning-bolt zingers on “Weekend Update.” Speeding through the comedy galaxy, she wrote the hit Mean Girls and created her own show based on an S.N.L.-type show: 30 Rock. The comedy struggled in the ratings for two years but was a critical success, winning seven Emmys last fall and catapulting Fey into red-hot territory. Before she even had a chance to take a breath, a freakish twist of fate turned her from red- to white-hot, and enabled her, at long last, to boost the ratings of 30 Rock: Fey was a ringer for another hot-teacher-in-glasses, Sarah Palin, the comely but woefully unprepared Alaska governor, who bounded out of the woods with her own special language to become not only the first Republican woman to run on a national ticket but also God’s gift to comedy and journalism. So where does Fey go from white-hot?

Niebuhr

2008-12-02T00:04:00.002+08:00

Watching the introduction of Obama's security team on CNN right now. With focus on the new administration's foreign policy, some attention has been showered upon Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian born near the turn of the last century who is said to be one of the president-elect's favorite philosophers. Over the course of the campaign and the election's aftermath, various articles came out detailing the scope of influence that Niebuhr has had on Obama, and how his work has shaped Obama's worldview. Obama himself said:

I take away [from the works of Reinhold Niebuhr] the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.

While reading up on Niebuhr, I found out that it was he who wrote that beautiful prayer about serenity: "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

Bill Buttlicker

2008-12-01T21:36:00.003+08:00

I've been working on my backlog of the newest season of The Office, which has been awesome so far. I'd just finished the episode Customer Survey, which was directed by the British series co-creator (and all-around genius) Stephen Merchant. The episode contains what has so far been the funniest scene in the season, a scene that you could just imagine David, Tim, and Gareth going through:

There was one other great scene in the episode that rocked the PB&J boat just a little. The shot with Jim reacting to the developments was totally Tim and Dawn.

Klosterman on Chinese Democracy

2008-11-30T14:17:00.003+08:00

And Chuck does it like only he can:

Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom? I've been thinking about this record for 15 years; during that span, I've thought about this record more than I've thought about China, and maybe as much as I've thought about the principles of democracy. This is a little like when that grizzly bear finally ate Timothy Treadwell: Intellectually, he always knew it was coming. He had to. His very existence was built around that conclusion. But you still can't psychologically prepare for the bear who eats you alive, particularly if the bear wears cornrows.

The surprise verdict? It's pretty good.

Twitter de leon

2008-11-28T16:02:00.002+08:00

My Twitter account is barely a couple of days old, but already contains the following gems:

- "astig, may stardust din pala sa makati" about 20 hours ago from mobile web

- "pag shina-shampuhan ka ba nung bading sa salon, pumipikit ka ba?" 7:20 PM Nov 26th from mobile web

There's really no good reason to follow it, but then again, you could say the same thing about this blog, right? Hehe.

College buddies

2008-11-28T15:12:00.000+08:00

Dinner last night with Mika and Richelle with a nerdy discussion of our home Internet connections, which was fitting, considering how we all met. It had been a year since we had dinner together, but it's like we didn't miss a beat when we get together. Funny how Mika would always refer to us as her "college friends", which is technically true, since we all met while we were in college anyway.

We had a couple of drinks afterwards (mostly me drinking, and them gabbing away about boys and oversharing), and we toasted to eight years of friendship. Eight years! That was a whole lifetime ago... now Richelle's a lawyer and Mika's deep into law school, so at the very least, I won't have any problem getting legal help for the slew of lawsuits that would probably come my way in the future (I'm thinking paternity suits... or estafa).

Over halo-halo

2008-11-28T13:19:00.003+08:00

Pagkatapos naming maubusan ng kwentong tungkol sa trabaho, barkada, pamilya, gastos sa bahay, pagbili ng kotse, at kung ano-ano pa, bigla akong tinanong ni Ais.

Ais: "Umalis ka ba sa GMA dahil sa babae?"

Me: "Huh? Saan mo naman napulot yan?"

Ais: "Sa blog mo. Nabasa ko."

Me: "Wala namang entry sa blog ko na tungkol sa ganyan ah."

Ais: "Eh marunong akong magbasa... between the lines."

Me: "Hahaha!"

Aksyon!

2008-11-25T21:48:00.000+08:00

Nung weekend, sa binyag ng anak ng isang common friend, nag-uusap kami ni Alekos tungkol sa Hot Fuzz, at napunta ang usapan sa mga action movies-- yung mga action movies na pinapanood ng mga tatay at lolo namin, na kinalakihan nating lahat, na pinapanood mula pagka-musmos sa betamax hanggang sa pagtanda sa mga VHS tapes sa pag-biyahe sa bus. Kelan nga ba tumigil ang Hollywood sa pag-gawa ng mga ganitong action movies? Bourne Identity? Pfft.

Ilan sa mga 'fond memories' na pinag-usapan namin ni Alekos:

- Point Break: FBI agent si Keanu Reeves, na in-infiltrate ang sindikato ni Patrick Swayze. Memorable kasi, tangina, si Keanu Reeves, FBI agent? Yung sindikato, surfer slash skydivers slash bankrobbers sila, at habang nang-ho-holdup ng bangko, suot nila ang mga maskara ng American presidents. Dito galing yung pinaka-kwelang eksena sa Hot Fuzz.

- Road House: Na-bring-up ko lang dahil hindi pa napapanood ni Alekos. Ako, na-abangan ko lang siya minsan sa Star Movies. Hayop, hindi ko kayang bigyan ng justice sa mga kwento. Panoorin nyo na lang kung makakuha kayo ng kopya - ito ang pinaka-astig na pelikula ni Patrick Swayze (higit pa sa Point Break, Ghost, o Dirty Dancing).

- Under Siege: Nung pinag-uusapan namin 'to, hindi alam ni Alekos na si Seagal yung cook sa under siege na barko. Nakakatawa kasi nagkaroon pa ng Under Siege 2; cook pa rin siya.

- Death Wish: Hindi ko maalala yung title nitong pelikulang 'to nung pinag-uusapan namin, pero naalala ko siya bilang yung pinakasikat na pelikula noon ni Charles Bronson. Kaya ko na-bring up dahil sa plot niya: pinatay yung asawa ni Charles Bronson, tapos ni-rape yung anak niya, kaya naging vigilante siya para maghiganti. Ang matindi dito... nagkaroon ng apat na sequel yung pelikula. Hindi kaya siya naubusan ng ipaghihiganti? Sino yung pinag-higanti niya sa part 5, yung tsimay nila?

- Executive Decision: Eto yung Steven Seagal-Kurt Russell movie na, tangina, wala pa sa kalahati nung pelikula, namatay na si Steven Seagal. Bwiset. Sa SM ko pa naman to pinanood.

- Time Cop: Memorable dahil may VHS nito sa dorm, tapos inulit-ulit yung pag-replay dun sa isang sex scene to the point na nasira yung part na yun nung VHS.

- Sudden Death: Eto, sa SM ko rin pinanood. Para siyang Speed, pero sa hockey game (at mas astig). Security guard si Van Damme sa hockey arena na nilagyan ng bomba ng mga terorista, tapos pag natapos ang laro, sasabog ang bomba. Eh na-injure yung star goalie ng home team, so kinailangan ni Van Damme na mag-goalie (bukod pa sa pag-gulpi sa mga terrorist). Tanginang yan, parang plot ng Tito, Vic and Joey movie ah.

- Iron Eagle: Hindi ko maalala yung plot ng Iron Eagle (sorry, Top Gun kasi ako eh), so pinaalala sa akin ni Alekos. Basically, yung bida tinulungan ni Lou Gossett, Jr. para magnakaw ng mga Air Force fighter jets para i-rescue yung tatay niya (na nahuli ng mga terrorist sa Middle East). Ang matindi diyan, umabot pa sa part 4 ang Iron Eagle series.

Give us this day

2008-11-24T17:30:00.002+08:00

Ran into this banner for the upcoming Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight over at Pinoy Exchange. It leads to this microsite by Nike, which looks awesome (but is ultimately pointless). I wish they sold posters of this.

Geek we can believe in

2008-11-21T20:04:00.004+08:00

Chuck Norris-style riffs on Obama's geekiness. My favorites:

- Obama called the hotline to kill Jason Todd.

- Obama played a fifteenth level elven fighter/thief/mage. And got away with it.

- Obama knows more Star Trek trivia than you ever will. He just doesn't see the need to talk about it and scare off the women.

- Obama wants to start his inaugural address with "I have come here to govern wisely and chew bubble gum."

- Obama knows that Hal Jordan is the best Green Lantern. But he'd rather hang with Kyle.

(I agree with Coates though, he probably preferred John Stewart.)

- Obama knows that Captain America is not really dead.

(Although I think it would have been better if they said: "Obama always knew Bucky wasn't dead.")

The Big Twitter

2008-11-21T17:58:00.003+08:00

Sittin next to steve nash, tryna get hi to join twitter about 7 hours ago from txt

Just saw the the great phil jackson, gave him a kiss on da cheek about 7 hours ago from txt

On my way 2 da arena. I feel like the main charachter n da movie 300 about 8 hours ago from txt

Ok, just had to post this: here's a link to Shaquille O'Neal hilarious Twitter feed. It's really him; he got himself an account after a fake Shaq twitter came to his attention. The impersonation was also good, but not quite as awesome as the real thing.

It's everything you would expect from the big fella, who once gave himself the nickname Osama Bin Shaq (because he terrorized Keith Van Horn under the boards during the 2002 NBA Finals).

Blog typing

2008-11-21T13:33:00.002+08:00

Typealyzer is a tool for determining a blog's "type", sort of a personality test for blogs. Ran this blog through it, and got this:

The analysis indicates that the author of http://ultraelectromagneticblog.blogspot.com/ is of the type:

ESTP - The Doers [ESTP]

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Eh?

I ran some of my friends' blogs, and their results seem more apt.

Postcript

2008-11-19T14:22:00.002+08:00

Isa lang yung wish ko. Siyempre, hindi siya natupad.

Anyway.

Admit One anniv mamayang gabi sa Saguijo. Nood tayo. Tabi lang ng bahay ko yun eh.

27

2008-11-18T14:38:00.000+08:00

When I left my old company, I asked our admin veep if I could take my phone line with me, because I'd been using it for personal stuff (heh) and I didn't want to lose the number. It wasn't a big problem for her, so I filled up the necessary paperwork and I got to keep the phone. The problem is, I don't think Smart ever did process the transfer application, so the account was never transferred to my name. Because of this, I never got the bills. But this wasn't a big problem because Smart usually called me up whenever there was a bill due, and I'd just head off to their business center to pay for the account. This had been going on for five months or so, since I left my old company.

Anyway, last Friday, they decided to cut off service because of an overdue bill, this time without notifying me. I looked around and found that they have an online portal for their subscribers, so I signed up for that, hoping that I could through that facility. I was able to get in and was able to check my bills, but I had to enroll to be able to pay online. I called up their customer service who said that for me to be able to pay the bill online, I'd have to email them my financial info etc., which misses the whole fucking point of having the online facility in the first place.

I was annoyed, but figured what the hell, I'd just swing by their business center in Ayala to pay the bill on my way home. Turns out their whole system was under maintenance and offline, so they just had everybody pay through the ATMs. The line was long, so I decided to just go home and pay through the ATM the next morning, which I did. Then I called up their customer support to inform them of the payment, but I couldn't get hold of a customer service rep. I tried all weekend, but still no answer from them. I wasn't able to talk to someone from Smart until yesterday morning, and my phone line wasn't back up till around after lunch, which really wasn't so bad.

So this long post is just my way of saying that my line was cut all weekend until mid-Monday, and that I'm not sure I got all your messages, but I remember replying to most everyone, and if I didn't, I had an excuse. Thanks to everyone who remembered.

Crap

2008-11-16T22:30:00.002+08:00

I moved apartments a couple of weeks ago, and since the new place is much closer to work, it's been great so far. I'm sharing the place with an old buddy from GMA whose family lives in Laguna, so the apartment's all mine during weekends. The only thing is, the place is empty. I don't really have much stuff, save for a TV, a fridge, and several old monoblock chairs. My mom and my aunt kicked in a stove and a rice cooker, respectively, to the cause, but that was pretty much it. The only other furniture in use here at the ground floor is a creaky table I picked up a couple of weeks ago at Ace Hardware, and a dirty couch that the previous tenants had left.

Oh, and I have a shelf full of books. As Nick Hornby pointed out, "For readers, a wall lined with books is as attractive as any art we could afford to put up there."

Books in the living room. I need to buy more shelves.

Actually, while I don't have a lot of stuff, I do have a lot of crap I'd brought in. I have this terrible habit of never throwing any stuff away, and when I moved, I kinda had to force myself to throw some of it away. So when I moved, I had boxes full of old notebooks (which contained drafts of the mushy stuff I wrote on my old blog, yuk!), old Kris Kringle presents from officemates, old ticket stubs from concerts and basketball games, tens of keychains, and lots of other crap I would probably have no use for but still keep anyway (a stuffed penguin toy, anyone?).

The shelf in my room. A few more books, and some of my crap.

My favorite crap, off the top of my head:

- a CD rack that looks like a case of Pale Pilsen
- a letter-opener from Kenya, from Howie Severino one Christmas, because I'd set up his blog
- a pair of decorative chopsticks from Thailand
- a water bottle labeled "Sugar Free: Sa Wakas" from the album launch of the band's first album
- a pen whose end is shaped like a hand flipping everyone off
- a mini-bar bottle of liquor from the Czech Republic (from Ellen)
- a silicon cellphone holder I use to keep my house keys
- a Voodoo doll from New Orleans that a reader of my old blog had sent

According to the note, it was supposed to be a charm so that I'd finally get a girlfriend. Totally didn't work.

Rahmbo

2008-11-14T16:36:00.002+08:00

My favorite character from one of my top-five TV shows, The West Wing *, was Josh Lyman, the abrasive Deputy Chief of Staff in Aaron Sorkin's fictional White House **. He had a special gift for getting the dirty work done (with his fine political mind) and for pissing people off (with his cockiness and sarcasm), and his antics are among the best things about the show. The character was based on Bill Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Emanuel has been back in the spotlight for his recent appointment as President-Elect Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff. With the announce of his second WH tour-of-duty, there have been numerous profiles detailing his colorful personality. A Salon article called Obama's Designated A--hole painted Emmanuel as a tenacious negotiator with a proclivity for profanity. An older story noted, "he raised millions of dollars by browbeating donors and candidates with cellphone calls that invariably ended, 'Fuck you. I love you.'"

Off of that alone, the television character that seems closest to Emanuel's personality wouldn't be Josh Lyman, but Entourage super-agent Ari Gold. And it's probably not a coincidence because the character was based on real-life Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel--who happens to be Rahm's younger brother! Yep, Obama's new Chif of Staff is Ari's big bro ***.

Speaking of The West Wing, the final season of the show back in 2005 experienced a revival of sorts with its focus on the elections for the new US president. The fictional campaign featured Democrat Rep. Matt Santos from Texas (Jimmy Smits), who had won a hard-earned primary against the establihment candidate (the incumbent VP), opposite Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), a moderate Senator from the west who has had a record of going against his party. Santos, the charismatic minority newcomer who ran on a message of hope, ended up winning the election.

While molding the character, the show's writers looked for a model on whom to base the character. They found a young, promising politician whose star was beginning to rise on the national scene and crafted their imaginary presidential candidate after the politician.

The politician? Barack Obama.

Funny how life ended up imitating art that imitated life ****.

* - My list, in no particular order: The West Wing, Veronica Mars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the post-Angel years), Friends, The Office (I'm cheating and putting both the British and the American versions, though Tim will always be the man)

** - Bradley Whitford was so good in the role that Sorkin wrote the part of Danny Tripp for Whitford in his next project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

*** - Their eldest brother, Zeke, is one of the foremost experts in healthcare policy. Wonkette had a funny quiz about the brothers. Can you imagine how Thanksgiving Dinner at their table must be like like?

**** - Matt Santos' White House Chief of Staff? Josh Lyman.

Post-mortem

2008-11-14T14:44:00.002+08:00

Here's an interesting tidbit from the New Yorker's report on the Obama campaign:

Obama, who is not without an ego, regarded himself as just as gifted as his top strategists in the art and practice of politics. Patrick Gaspard, the campaign's political director, said that when, in early 2007, he interviewed for a job with Obama and Plouffe, Obama said that he liked being surrounded by people who expressed strong opinions, but he also said, 'I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director.' After Obama's first debate with McCain, on September 26th, Gaspard sent him an e-mail. 'You are more clutch than Michael Jordan,' he wrote. Obama replied, 'Just give me the ball.

The piece itself is a great look at the people behind the campaign, how they matured and adjusted over the course of the campaign, and how they ultimately won the elections.

Newsweek has a much longer report, in seven parts, that came out this week. The magazine's reporters had previously negotiated for total access with the Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain campaigns with the condition that the stories wouldn't be published until after the elections.

- Part 1 - How He Did It
- Part 2 - Back from the Dead
- Part 3 - The Long Siege
- Part 4 - Going Into Battle
- Part 5 - Center Stage
- Part 6 - The Great Debates
- Part 7 - The Final Days

Haven't read all of it yet. I printed out the whole thing (22 pages in 6-point type) to read for the weekend.

Just four years ago

2008-11-06T10:56:00.006+08:00

Via Lang Whitaker's Slam Online post about the new American president, I came across this old feature on Barack Obama from four years ago, in the middle of his campaign for a U.S Senate seat and months before the speech that catapulted him to political superstardom. I was amazed at this tidbit, considering it was just four years ago:

Still loose and alert after a long day, Obama was sipping iced tea in a busy, Caribbean-themed restaurant in a small shopping center in Hyde Park. But he had already spent sixteen months running for the Senate—and seven years as a state senator—and he could ruefully sympathize with the political apathy of the average beleaguered citizen. Tonight, he had turned his cell phone off and dismissed his aides; he just wanted to get home for the bedtimes of his daughters, who are two and five. His wife, Michelle, is also a lawyer, and their daily lives are the familiar three-ring American family circus—even without the steroidal additive of Barack’s political career. Yet Barack had been reluctant to take even a semester off from teaching while campaigning, partly because he needs the income. To survive this campaign financially, the Obamas will take out a second mortgage on their apartment.

(Emphasis mine.)

Also, this:

Jan Schakowsky told me about a recent visit she had made to the White House with a congressional delegation. On her way out, she said, President Bush noticed her “obama” button. “He jumped back, almost literally,” she said. “And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a ‘b.’ And I explained who he was. The President said, ‘Well, I don’t know him.’ So I just said, ‘You will.’ ”

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2008-11-05T15:02:00.001+08:00

(Sa mga Pisay 98 na makaka-relate)

Kagabi, sa Shopwise sa Pasong Tamo, habang namimili ng gamit, nakasalubong ko si... Robert Umali!

May kasama siyang babae (ewan kung girlfriend o misis niya), pero otherwise, ganung-ganun pa rin siya.

Obama wins!

2008-11-05T11:12:00.002+08:00

Slate calls the race for Obama. A few moments later, Salon follows suit:

After his win in Ohio, and with victories in blue states like California assured, Salon is ready to project that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

As the election currently stands -- and assuming the calls on Ohio and Pennsylvania hold up -- Obama has 207 Electoral College votes, 63 short of the 270 needed for victory. But with California's 55 votes sure to follow, along with Hawaii's four votes and Washington's 11, it's now clear that Obama will get to the magic number and win the presidency.

Johnoy and Kakoy

2008-11-04T17:52:00.003+08:00

There are at least a couple of reasons to post this cool feature on Johnoy and Kakoy, which includes funny behind-the-scenes moments and a rare pure acoustic performance.

Also, Johnoy YM'd me a couple of minutes ago and asked me to post it. Hehehe.

Chorva

2008-10-29T14:31:00.002+08:00

Sa dati kong opisina, hindi na rare para sa mga taong gumamit ng salitang chorva bilang placeholder word para sa mga bagay-bagay. Dulot ito ng lax na environment sa trabaho, pati na rin ng sangkatutak na bading na naglipana sa opisinang nabubuhay sa creative flow ng mga tao.

May isang meeting ako noon, dalawang taon na halos ang nakaraan, kung saan kailangan naming i-present sa presidente ng kumpanya ang marketing plan para sa isang bagong project. Maganda ang naging daloy ng presentation, meron pang astig na video, at sobrang galing ng presentor namin, ang production manager ng creative team. Steady na yung presentation nang biglang sumabit yung production manager namin sa huling bahagi:

Production manager: "And the website would feature a comprehensive portal for the users, and will include videos, photos, blogs, and other social networking..."

At this point, nasa dulo na ng lahat ng dila namin ang kasunod na salita: "Chorva!" Alam din namin na yun ang gustong sabihin ng production manager namin. Pero siyempre, dahil para sa company president yung presentation, hindi niya masabi.

Production manager: "...and other social networking..."

Buti na lang, nag-step-in yung presidente namin at kinumpleto yung sentence para sa aming lahat.

Company president: "Chorva?"

Siyempre, hindi lahat ng kausap ko, sanay na sa pag-gamit ng salitang yun. Naalala ko yung incident sa presentation na yun nung isang araw. Tinanong kasi ako ng boss ko kung busy ba ako at kung pwede siyang makisingit ng isang ipapa-interview. Meron akong isa pang appointment sa ilang minuto, ang Manila Cost Efficiencies Initiative briefing.

Ang gusto ko sanang sabihin:

"Sir, hindi ako pwede, meron akong Manila Cost Efficiencies Initiative briefing in a few minutes eh."

Pero ang muntik ko nang masabi:

"Sir, hindi ako pwede, meron akong chorva in a few minutes eh."

So ang sinabi ko na lang:

"Sige sir, sino ba yang i-interview-hin natin?"