Monday, July 27, 2009
I didn't have...
...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?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Stakeout
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.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Musical
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!
Labels: hehehe, kuya germs, television, theater
Thursday, July 09, 2009
I had...
...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]."
Monday, June 29, 2009
Funniest Eraserheads interview ever
This was just a train wreck from start to finish.
Labels: eraserheads, hehehe, music, video
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Little Miss Sunshine
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.Labels: hehehe
Friday, June 05, 2009
Game show
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?"Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I got home early from work today...
...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.
Labels: hehehe, news and issues
Monday, May 11, 2009
Hoops exchange
Fire Quinito gets some love over at the Basketball Exchange. Thanks Gary!Labels: hehehe
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Kwentong barbero
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..."
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Would you like bat-tea, bat-coffee, or sala-bat?
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.
Labels: comic books, hehehe, movies
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Ate Vi
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."
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Online goals
"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.
Labels: hehehe
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
So wait, how does this work again?
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!!!
Labels: hehehe
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Quick hits
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.
Labels: basketball, hehehe, movies, wrestling
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Delicious Dish
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:Saturday, January 03, 2009
Pac-man
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.
