post-coup chuchu

the day is sunny. it's early and bright for me, even if most of the country has been up and at 'em hours ahead of me. but who cares? as long as i'm happy, the world is happy, right? or so that book says. ay, iba pala yata yun. i'm ok you're ok chuva yata yun. whatever.

had a nice weekend, everyone? glued to the tv as usual, for those of us who cannot miron in person in makati. isn't it strange that some soldiers who have gripes about housing and salaries hole up in a posh place like oakwood in glorietta? sabagay, they didn't have to pay naman yata their initial deposit fees there or something, e di pinasabog nila ang parts of that place in a jiffy. haha takot lang ng may-ari nun no. ganda pa naman ng gym doon, at ng pool area.

pero hindi nga. di ba it's strange to have these soldiers gripe about housing and salaries when there are sooooooooo many filipinos out there
in urban poor areas who do not have decent living quarters? buti nga sila may barracks-barracks diyan eh, saka food and suweldo. eh just look at the streets man, daming batang di kumakain, begging, sneering at you if you don't give them alms. salary upgrade-salary upgrade pa hinahanap nila, eh hello, the teachers of this fucking country are the ones underpaid, and di ba may issue ilan sa kanila about not receiving their salaries on time and their loans na ang tagal approve ng gsis ata yun or something? tapos some of them pa handle classes under trees, for gosh sakes, because the government lacks funds in building extra classrooms and stuff. fotah, eh kung mga teachers kaya ang next na mag-mutiny chuva like those soldiers sa oakwood?

imagine it. disgruntled public school teachers taking up arms and taking sm megamall building A as their hole-in place. dialogues:
"we will teach you a lesson you should all learn!!!!!!!!"
"funding of our arms and ammunitions came from years and years of sales of longganisa and other cold cuts in classes!"
"we are making a statement on luxury. our students' favorite hangout place is megamall and this is where they watch movies, but we who teach them cannot even afford to watch a movie here in the deluxe section, so blowing up this place is poetic justice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"we are trained in hand to hand combat. why do you think we have heavy wrists when we hit your stupid (pronounced shtyupeed)little hands with wooden rulers!"
"just try to contort our remands and we will make you stand on the corner the whole day!"
"do not mess with us! we are trained snipers! of course, why do you think we can throw you a small piece of chalk more than ten feet away and still hit you bullseye in the middle of your eyes or noo? ha? ha? you talking to me? you talking to me? ha? ha?"

di ba, DIE HARD in megamall, starring your favorite biology teacher or something. kainis.

The Spoiler Room presents Bend It Like Dangerous Altar Boys

WARNING: FILM REVIEWS HERE TELL ALL, AND SPOIL DETAILS, HENCE THE SECTION NAME. SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FLICK AND WANT TO KEEP THE SUSPENSE, DON'T READ THIS. OTHERWISE, SORRY KA NA LANG!



BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
THE DANGEROUS LIVE OF ALTER BOYS

i decided to combine these two films for the heck of it lang. wala lang... bending it like dangerous altar boys sounds so...pornographic pala no, heheh. wala lang. syempre sinadya ko yun no! >:)

anyway, what do i think of these two flicks? i thank video piracy for making them available to me on dvd at 80 bucks each. heheh.

one is disappointing, the other is cute and likable. guess which is which. since ALTAR BOYS has jodie foster my love in the cast in a supporting role (as a nun with a wooden leg, pare, hello) and it was produced by her company egg pictures...i hated it. as in, chaka to the max. sorry jodieeee.....in the special feature interviews, isang sp o ep yata yun sabi niya, 'the script is so fresh, original, the story is so tight' pero hellooooooooooooooooo tight ba yun???????? walang nangyayari! tapos yung mga characters, helloooooo parang walang motibasyon. as in, a third of the film represents the catholic boys' fantasies in animated comic book format. that was actually good kasi aliw yung animation, malinis. pero the live action sequences suffer from lack of motivation and real conflict. parang some days in the life of these catholic school boys, and until i saw the production design on the street and in the houses, i didn't know that it was a period film. ngeh!

tapos yung young girl dun sa CONTACT, siya yung love interest ng bida. tapos biglang weird yung character niya kasi incest victim pala siya, she elicits sympathy as a victim, tapos later confess siyang siya pala nag-seduce sa brother niya. anobayaaaaaaaaaaaaan! where does all that fit in the picture? kelangan kasi ng isang angsty reason yung bida why he will go sorta haywire or something, na makakabangga niya ng konti yung best friend niya and something else. basta men, this doesn't work. if they wanted angst, they should have focused on what it's like being in catholic schools like that. of course, we all know how it is to be in catholic schools run by nuns, di ba? eh tapos sila, they were depicting the priest coach and jodie nun as evil persons pero wala naman akong nakikitang ka-evil-an sa kanila!!! hindi naman pinapalo ng ruler ang kamay nila, o pinapaluhod sa munggo na nakadipa. yung ang angst, pare! hello, eh eto, wala naman silang angst. walang motibasyooooooooooooooooooooon.

kung yung ALTAR BOYS aalog-alog sa luwag, ito namang BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM ay sobrang siksik sa plots and subplots and sana subplots. cultural fare, an indian girl who tries to fit in sa white brit society but still tries to please the traditional indian family chuva. when pitched like that, sounds boring. pero pag napanood mo na yung milieu na ginamit, this time soccer, winner na siya. basta fun siya, saka kahit yung ibang characters comical to the point na you'll think it's unbelievable, hindi rin ganun ang dating in the end kasi in the end, you'll end up saying 'hey, may kamag-anak akong ganoon!' or something. yun. alam mo naman ang asians kung kumana ng materyal na may family element, panalo, di ba? asian pride!

subplots yung sa mga parents ek sa pamilya ng brit girl at indian girl. sana subplot yung napagkamalan ng brit girl's parents na lesbians yung anak niya at yung indian girl. haha funny. i was kinda hoping doon din pupunta yung direction nila, pero they wanted a story arc na may love story ek e, kaya nilaglag yun at ginawang in love sila sa irish coach na hello shwangitz. sayang, it could have worked just as well, di ba? oh well.

nakakaaliw ding diskubrihin yung mga facets ng society nila. like instead of saying 'later!' in the american context, sila 'laters!' plural, pare, and drop the t because of the brit accent. :) saka dami pa. basta, cute siya. for a brit comedy ha, this is good. but then again, hindi kasi brit yung humawak ng material, so maybe that's the trick there. alam mo naman kasi ang brit comedies eh...

so yun...wala lang. it's almost nine in the morning and i'm feeling fine. :) friday's a nice day to tinker with the laptop...


agree or disagree? spin to win at jotjotjotblog@Hotmail.com.

The Spoiler Room presents Aimee and Jaguar

WARNING: FILM REVIEWS HERE TELL ALL, AND SPOIL DETAILS, HENCE THE NAME. SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FLICK AND WANT TO KEEP THE SUSPENSE, DON\'T READ THIS.

AIMEE & JAGUAR

Don't ask me why the film is called that. i don't know. i didn't even get it. something must have been lost in the translation.

this is a german-language film, set in nazi germany at a time when no one thought love could bloom...naks! pero it did! and happiness of all happiness, the blooming happened between two women! and the most happinesses of all, according to the kris aquino grammar rule of pluralization, is that this is based on a true story! one of the gals is actually alive pa! well, i don't know, baka na-chugi na yung lolang yun, pero at the time they made the movie and the special edition dvd release, buhay pa siya, and that was in the late '90s ata o 2000. basta sometime that time, i didn't pay much attention to the date eh. basta.

yung lola literal na nabuhay ay yung si aimee, or lilly, a blondina gel who was married to a nazi soldier, for crying out loud, with kids to boot, and the unfortunate jaguar was felice, this brunette byuti beb na very femme pero butchy ng konti, kaya kyuting-kyuti kami habang nanonood nito. pero nung nakita ko yung totoong picture niya, eh, o sya sige, pretty yung german actress who played her, period. basta cool. eh ang lola felice mo, hello, jew siya. pero kinarir pa rin niya itong si lola mong married. nadala sa passionate love letters -- hey, felice can write well. she also works in a newspaper office of sorts. at ang tapang niya! hindi siya talaga nag-flyzoom sa piling ng kanyang napaibig na misis, kaya ayun, natiklo siya ng mga hudas ni hitler. at nachugi ang lola mo sa concentration camp somewhere in germany.

ganda ng kuwento, and it was so chilling because it really happened. well, of course may konting reenactment or enhancement chuva for dramatic purposes, pero keri pa rin no. at laplapan galore ang mga pretty gels ditoh! naloka akoh! ganoon ba ka-open sa sexuality ang mga biyaning noon sa berlin? kaya siguro nagpagawa ng distinct symbol si hitler for the homosexuals, para ma-brand as outcasts. yeah baby, that was the birth of the inverted triangle, a reclaimed symbol of gay pride today. syempre kinulayan na ng pink ng mga bading, kasi yung original version ni hitler ay black, e chaka naman yun noh. luz sa fashion statement!

what else...ah basta, ang gutsy ni felice. cavorting with nazi high officials at the height of the war. grabe, at bineso pa siya ng ilang gestapo yata yun. grabeh girl siya! bilib kami! idol! saka talagang she worked on the passes of her other biyaning friends, yung isang kamukha ni kirstie alley na pumayat saka yung si ilse, yung kamukha ng magiging anak ni tori amos at renee zellwegger, i swear, ganun yung gene pool ng gel na yun.

at first, parang na-OA-an ako dun sa reaction ni lilly about trembling, the trembling contest ek nila. kasi she was soooooo friggin' overwhelmed daw with the love and all energies surrounding it chuva kaya grabeh sa foreplay, ang weird, para silang nag-a-acting workshop na performance level times ten! well, at least, siya. ang lola felice, cool pa rin, saka sexy sya ha. kainggit ang bod.

ano pa ano pa ano pa...o basta, if you are a sucker for romantic stories, kahit di ka biyaning, this is a good film to watch. very poignant. galing ng pagkakagawa ng director, who is male, and he looks het. that's so cool. at ang ganda ng cinematography. panalo ang color diffusing niya. basta anyway, if you're biyaning or bi, mas worth watching ito. it gives a new meaning to the concept of 'love in the time of war' eklat.


o, me reklamo? tapon mo sa jotjotjotblog@hotmail.com.

The Spoiler Room halfheartedly presents Ghost in the Shell (or homage my bakya!)

was actually contemplating on making a review of GHOST IN THE SHELL, that animé full-length film i recently watched courtesy of len's vcd. also viewed that interesting link about this film's frame by frame analysis vis-a-vis THE MATRIX. verrry, verrry interesting indeed...

o sya, sige na nga, eto na mini-review of sorts.


GHOST IN THE SHELL

i was actually impressed. GITS is good. it deserves the award/s it reaped. yun nga lang, maybe i'm not too much of a techie to appreciate it fully. i get lost sometimes in the technical jargon it is trying to invent. but somehow, when you invent jargon, the audience has to catch on para sakay din sila sa mood ng film. sometimes, GITS's jargon just flies above my head, unlike in BLADERUNNER where somehow, the story's pacing lets you absorb the scenarios it tried to invent, unfolding kumbaga. but maybe that's my shortcoming nga -- i'm not too techie. but that shouldn't be an excuse din.

well anyway, the film indeed had lots and lots and lots of similarities with THE MATRIX. just see the site for comparison, too many to mention siya dito eh. http://www.geocities.com/tacobelll/matrixgits/index.html ewan ko ba sa wachowski brothers na yan. sometimes talaga, when contemporary filmmakers say they are paying homage to their favorites ek, i have the feeling it's really just a hifalutin way of saying kinopya ko yung concept!!!!!!!!!!!! but i'm just bitching. maybe. tingnan mo si jlo. sabi niya paying homage siya sa FLASHDANCE dun sa isang video niya. but if you look at it closely, hello, they really imitated the film frame by frame! grabeh! iba rin kasi pag sinasabi ng artists na all-out borrowing cum influencing chuva talaga yung work nila ng isang work na very influential ek sa kanila, like what paula abdul said of her COLDHEARTED video when it borrowed elements from the bob fosse bioflick ALL THAT JAZZ. syempre lola paula redid all the choreo -- much better than fosse's sometimes, ha. yun. but i digressed too much here na. heniwey.

where were we? homage. oh yeah. parang yung isang aktor sa dos na nasa siyete na ngayon nung nagdirek siya ng commercial at gusto niyang mag-pay homage sa new york daw by imitating the ny look sa tvc. sabi ng kasama niya, ah, like woody allen's new york look? sabi ni aktor -- "who's woody allen?"

naturingan siyang nag-aral ng film sa ny, di nya kilala si woody allen. eheh. but i digressed again...

sarap mag-digress...

ala na kasi akong masabi sa GITS...except that it's also too philosophical, too much contemplation on life ek, but not in the pop-level way that the wachowskis did sa THE MATRIX, na talaga namang naroon din ang of simulation and simulacra chuvaness ni baudellaird ba yun (did i spell that right?) and other philosophical-spiritual meanderings ng magkapatid. pop level is good. the animé wasn\'t that pop. pa-profound, oo, minsan ganun eh. but again, that's just me.


o, me reklamo? tapon mo sa jotjotjotblog@hotmail.com.

chez moi: visual communiqué

just testing to see if special characters can be put here éñåæâ

was talking about advertising the other day. thought i'd share some of my bg regarding the topic.

i entered UP at the turn of the last decade (tama ba yun? basta student number 90) and i majored in advertising under the college of fine arts. but they didn't call it that. instead, they called it visual communication. but that made me wonder if advertising was all about visuals. at that time, the program dictated that yes, visuals are the primary thing. but i begged to disagree. well, anyway, i still stuck with the course for a few more sems until, in my first sem as a junior, i decided to transfer. and on my second sem that year, i decided to major in film instead.

why the change of heart? first, because i wasn't sold on the idea that i have to be the best illustrator in the world in order to be a good advertiser. maybe conceptualizer or visualizer, puwede pa. dapat nga ganun, pero hindi. look at the industry now. computers run the game. you can create great graphics using technology, kahit hindi ganun kaganda ang pulso mo sa pag-draw. look at what happened to justin sa queer as folk, magaling siyang mag-conceptualize at mag-visualize kahit nagka-defect yung kamay niya because of the gay-bashing accident.

plus another thing, they were teaching it as a business, from the business-side lagi. market-based approach, kumbaga. i somehow resented that. i thought i was in the college of fine arts. hindi fine yung art of teaching nila. or maybe i just had sucky profs. well, yeah, that, too, i guess. kaya when we were taught photography, i immediately loved it. it's better to find the art in something and try to capture it rather than creating it from scratch. and then, of course, i discovered the moving pictures when i was in third year. mas dynamic yung artform na yun. and that's when i realized that i was in the wrong course. so off to film i go, or went. but that's another entry.

during our internship naman sa film, we had the choice of choosing where to have it, sa advertising world, film or tv industry. i chose 25% sa ads din and 75% sa film. it was a good experience. i stayed for a month at production village in makati. i met and trained with a prodution manager and assisted a director in editing a tvc, among other things. it was cool. pero dun ko na nakita yung tinuturo nila sa fine arts. advertising was really a business, first and foremost. cut-throat, and soulless, even if their end products wanted to exude a soulful message. hirap lalo na when you\'re shooting and the know-it-all clients are there watching the shoot -- too many cooks spoil the broth. it was then i understood why that phrase was coined. maybe the one who coined it worked in advertising.

somehow, i realized that perhaps the art in advertising can only be appreciated when you look at the finished product from a very, very far distance, you know what i mean, that you get to appreciate the end product if you totally obliterate/disregard the process from which it was born. like nung nanood kami nung '96 nung traveling ad compilation show created by this french guy sa folk arts theater. this french guy started collecting the best tvcs in the world and archives them somewhere in france, parang library of congress of ads. and every year, he selects some from the collection and brings it around the world for a show. that was really cool. i got to appreciate ads when it was presented that way. i believe may art naman talaga sa ads, to a certain extent, like i believe may art din sa mga music videos...but again, that is another entry.

ad-en-promo grrl: 100million and counting -- tarush!

see what some advertising and promotion could do. boost up views. that\'s cool.

finally decided to email blast my friends who like reading my stuff on the net. hey, i got a hundred views when i last logged in some minutes ago. wow. that\'s cool. had no idea that that many people can be reached pala at the click of a button. but that\'s the internet revolution for you -- bridging the digital divide, sabi nga nila sa mga UN ek sites about the wsis and ICT chuva. but what kind of divide is it bridging, ah, that remains to be answered, sabi nga nila sa isis wsis meetings namin. heniwey...

the link directs people to the post of the moment. eh baka sawa na kayong madlang pipol sa charlie\'s angels review ko, kaya nagdagdag ako ng bago. saka it was fun pala to read the comments and feedback, merong kinarir ang review, merong natuwa lang siya, at merong bumati lang. pero ayos na rin yun, lalo na yung bati (hi ki, what u think? can i actually post pics here? btw are u still updating urs? kinda miss it).

now i understand the rationale of the guest book and the comments page noel put up in nativeswish years ago. it was fun reading what people thought of what you wrote. kinda helps you keep in check (ack! grammar police, help! tama ba yun?) or stay in touch with the world. kasi nga naman, a writer often works in solitude. kahit review pa man yan where you got to see the movie with your parents or friends or jowa, the thing is, you still go home and face the computer alone, even if there are people hanging around you as you do it. me, i\'ve learned to zoom in on the writing process kasi di naman maiwasang may environmental \'hazard\' diyan na maririnig or whatever, di ba? but still, i prefer writing and working in silence. makes me think better thoughts, and more pleasant ones pati. :)saka now that we\'re in our \'new\' place, it helps pala to see something green, a part of a tree or a section of the sky as you write. it somewhat clears up the thought processes -- kahit may nagbabadyang triggerhappy diyan sa tapat...but i digress. :)

for the record conconistas, i didn\'t really think of alluding to chat\'s ex when i was describing t.h. ha, promise! :P but then again, that\'s the power of advertising at work pa rin, i suppose -- people interpreting the work on their own and buying an idea totally different from what you were selling. how i wish 98% of the population could be that proactive! then, all the t.h.s in this country will be eradicted na...but that\'s wishful thinking, i know.

testing ulit:
where i work now, sorta
where i used to work, sorta

it's half past midnight this side of asia and i'm going to bed in a while. where are you going? banter with me at jotjotjotblog@hotmail.com.

ps. hope our fellow conconista henry is feeling fine now. i'm sure he'll be up and running in no time, and will get to read some entries here. ano ba kasi ang pinagagawa nila sa yo mama sa dos? hay, kaya ba nag-suffer ng konti ang storyline nina ara at christian dahil nag-suffer din ang health mo lately? hm, nauunahan na kayo ng medalyon at nina yuri ha, altho i find jlc's acting sooooooo friggin' o.a. these days. ask the 'soap expert' here at home heehee...hope to see you all at the 'adobong frodo concon' this sat! heehee.

The Spoiler Room presents Hell’s Angels: Full Bitchfest

WARNING: READ THE SPOILER ROOM RATIONALE FIRST BEFORE THE REVIEW BELOW. IT'S AT THE ARCHIVES TO YOUR LEFT.


Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle

the most horrible image of this film is demi moore’s bikini-clad body. she didn’t age!!!!!!!! my goddess, did she drink that potion of youth in death becomes her? grabe, retokasyon becomes her, pero di halata ha. galing ng dr. vicky belo niya kung ganon. weird lang yung muscles, they seem to bulge at the wrong places, not like lola madonna’s well-toned almost-sculpted look. galing ng trainer niya. binuntis pa siya! but i digress…

the film wasn’t that much fun unlike the first one. it suffers from the reloaded syndrome, as in matrix reloaded, na natuwa ang producers kasi tumabo sa takilya yung first film kaya all-out special effects and action sequences sila sa second film dahil akala nila yun yung major selling point ng pelikula kaya kinalimutan na ang mga maliliit na bagay tulad ng plot at characterization at back stories. hell’s angels sila dito, men – they ride dirt bikes, sumasabit sa fancy sports cars, they sprinkle fire sa enemies, tumalon from an exploding 16-wheeler yata yun at sumabit sa flying helicopter, da works! parang every shooting day is a major shooting day kasi major action sequences ang kinukunan. dyusko, ang gastos, pero laking tulong sa industriya ng mga stuntpersons at cgi pipol.

cameo-fest ito, since a lot of personalities made cameos, like demi-exhusband bruce willis and pink. but the campiest cameo was that of the original charlie’s angels girl – her name eludes me at the moment. basta she played kelly. yun. and it’s definitely not cheryl ladd. i think. homage-fest (more like spoof-fest) din ito, kasi daming references to other films like the sound of music. Even csi was spoofed tho i think it wasn’t necessary in the plot. ay, oo nga pala, kinalimutan nga pala nila ang plot. wutwuzithinkin!

scariest fest of ‘em all is the bitchfest among angels, or more appropriately, the angels versus an ex-angel, yung si demi moore nga. na for the life of me, i cannot fathom her angst against being an angel blah. saan galing yun????? motibasyon: absent. ewan. laki ng galit niya sa angels pero labo naman kung bakit. tapos there’s even a scarier thing: demi has some kind of lesbian erotic streak in her which she seems to direct solely at cameron diaz. again, saan galing yooooooooooooooon! hindi ko na sana babasahan ng ganun yun eh (in spite of the butchy swagger, the pa-sexy-han ek at the beach, the babasahan-ni-freud-ng-meaning-yung-the-way-she-handles-her-golden-guns ek, the way she stares at cameron with a male gaze na ikatutuwang i-critique ni laura mulvey) kaya lang man, when an antagonist smothers her face on (at? grammar police! ayudame!) the protagonist’s face like that – and she almost kisses cameron in disgust or in lust or in mistrust or whatever ust – kinilabutan po ako. ngyiiiiiiiii! as in, parang i want to see characters with lesbian tendencies or streaks in film, but not this character. not this demi-angel. shivers! kaloka siya! now i understand what the 365gay.com news review was talking (more like warning lesbian viewers) about. geez. chaka.

so ayun. bitchfest galore lang sila. sayang yun pera, knowing na films smaller than that have more potential yet tinitipid ng producers… ahh well, that’s another bitchfest entry altogether.



oy, may reklamo? throw ‘em at jotjotjotblog@hotmail.com.

The Spoiler Room: rationale

i think since i am soooo inspired to write (read: to lambast) about charlie’s angels: full throttle that I will create a film review column here that i really really like – one where i will NOT try to please all sectors by being all, as in ALL the things they said i was (were? grammar police, help!), like being:

a) academic
b) technical
c) patronizing
d) spoiling the details of the film for the readers
e) too intellectual
f) too feminist
g) too safe

remember my cut-to-cut column sa localvibe? chuck said i had to think that my audience is college-age konyo (like him? heehee. hi chuck!) so i shouldn’t be too techie or intellectual. complete opposite ng kanilang arch enemy, legmanila, run by the neo-intellectuals of peyups english dept. sa echoes naman, i had to turn on my film gaydar to the highest degree, while sa pinoy times, i have to be seriously critical of my reviews pero not too patronizing naman para may balanse sa mga pr contacts and audience and editors. haay, ayoko nah! basta i will review the film the way i want to – all out critique, intellectual and childish, no restraining of emotions, no ad placements or editors to think about, and ALL SPOILERS WILL BE INCLUDED, so better be prepared for what’s coming.

don’t say i didn’t warn you.

Chez moi: non-extra – wanna read all about it?

i worked as the entertainment editor of pinoy times, entered in 2000 when the then-editor left to pursue “higher goals,” whatever those may be. pete lacaba’s son kris, a good friend, just emailed me one day about it, asked me if i was interested. that was a jam-packed month. i was just picking up the vibe again of re-entering abscbn foundation’s epol apol show which i left to try out this fulltime mega-high-paying gig at a semi-dotcom company which i eventually left because the boss there was a complete idiot (he wanted us to COPY other websites’ designs, fotah. COO shit – child of owner). Never quite re-sparked the epol thing, in spite of headwriter sarah’s mucho encouragement, so i tried this pinoy times thing. kasi it’s in filipino, first time i’ll be working using that language, which is kinda cool. sir pete also vouched for me since he was the editorial consultant there, and a columnist. i think the editors actually took me in without reading my folio in its entirety. i guess sir pete’s word was enough for them. that’s cool. or they were just desperate to have somebody do the entertainment pages because they themselves hated doing that -- which was also cool, and worked to my advantage later on.

it was a fun gig while it lasted. met new and interesting people and characters. got to watch most of the movie premieres in town and i got lots of merch freebies, most enjoyable of which are the lara croft black shirt and the harry potter cap. my contacts also gave me lots of freebies, like tickets to concerts, merch, books, trinkets, the works. somehow, i got kinda sad when ma’am eggie apostol decided to close shop because i missed these things (konsensya: materialistic ka!). but at the same time, i’m glad she closed at the time she did.

i thought the work was rather weird at first, when most of the stories there approached a gossipy type of reporting, not entertainment news reporting. i tried to change that, and i got good feedback for it. i was glad. most notable feedback was from our columnist bobbie malay. ms. bobbie liked the change very much, said it wasn’t too showbizy chismisy anymore, you know, hindi na parang chipipay ang dating like other tabloids lang. and, i can tell, ma’am eggie liked it, too. so did her pre-pubescent grandson. that was cute. :) and even the catholic bishops’ conference of the phil (cbcp)-office of women ek liked how i jazzed up their weekly film reviews (and eliminated all anti-lgbt/feminist stuff heheh). but ma’am eggie advised i had to tone down on some sexy pictures, even if they were appropriate, because of the running priest – he was apparently distributing it to his parish daw, and que horror syempre ang dating sa kanila ng pakyut sexy poses ni, say, rufa mae, 'lam mo yun? he was a columnist there din pala. well, whatever. run away from religion and you run back right smack into it somehow. nyeh. onli in da pilipins.

i also tried to play with the layout more since my pages were the only ones in color (at first, before the pagtitipid phase started), and i had the nice pictures. plus the best part of all is that i got to create columns that i really liked, like “sine-suri” where i reviewed films and featured different types of entertainment analyses. i also created a woman-centered column where i put in features that have positive female portrayals or stories and criticized those that degrade women. i also had a column like that that featured the lgbt community naman. so it was totally fun. all bases covered. lifestyle+entertainment+advocacy. i was totally creative, and i thank ma’am eggie for letting me have that leeway. after all, it was all her call, right? not the publisher’s and certainly not the eic’s. but again, that’s another entry, and a mighty disappointing one at that. :|

the rebirth of snood (fun like dat)

downloading a demo version of snood, the unofficial game kuno of the pinoy times folks which they brought over from their manila times days and which i brought home with me and had the mabait street folks hooked on it as well. it's really addictive! i saw indi playing it in the isis office some weeks ago and it made me miss those days of playing it in the PT office as i wait for them to finally put the friggin' paper to bed and commence the friggin' weekly monday night meeting. also, when i brought that home, nek and i really played it to the max, as in tournament level, mama. alam mo naman yun, pati games kina-career. ;) we shared a copy to b and she got addicted to it as well. haha, those snood-addict days were fun.

but we called it snoods sa bahay. plural, pare.

blognote: can't believe the earlier entry had 30 views. what does that mean? then the previous one had around 55, i think. what does that mean? people like reading blogs a lot? as it turns out, when you click the link of sample blog sites at the home page of the blogsforwriters thang, it directs you to my blog. sample blog pala ako. i didn't know. hm, that's kinda nice, i think. shout out to shery. merci beaucoup for this again.

blognote2: this jot blog is beginning to look like a bin of vignettes, not the original nvmjotter i envisioned it to be. but i guess that's the way with writers and their works -- one shapes the other, taking turns in doing that, and sometimes the shapes are different from what you originally thought, and most times, the shapes turn out to be better ones. well, i's cool. i don't mind. as long as i'm writing. that's the most important thing. long live the word, sabi nga nila dun sa baguio workshop namin. keep the word alive, sabi rin nila. i thought they were all locos back then, shouting and writing things like that like language addicts or something. but it's only now that i am beginning to understand what they meant by that. it doesn't matter pala if the thoughts are highly unorganized or if you're swamped with work or whatever (remember when indi asked me kung nakakapagsulat pa ko ng fiction amidst the work thang and i said yes, apparently siya pala hindi na gaano these days, but i'm sure she'll pick it up again somehow. same with mayo, na nagreklamo dati na puro raket writing na lang ba kami at paano naman ang aming panitikan? well, i\'m sure he'll pick it up again as well). in the end (or in the middle, i guess, for if it ends, what's left to write about?) what matters is that there are thoughts still coming in, and you (or me, or us) having the energy to jot them all down. for posterity's sake? for literary's sake? (grammar police - tama ba yun??) basta whatever, as long as you are writing.

so long live the word. word. word. word.

we out.

chez moi: make contact part deux

naiwan sa pensacola -- jotjotjotblog@hotmail.com

remind me to switch off isis writing mode every wednesday night...'k? 'k.

and if you're curious -- http://www.isiswomen.org

c'est tout!

chez moi: make contact, if not, it's an awful waste of space...

remember that one? thank you carl sagan, wherever you are in the cosmos (did you like jodie foster my love's performance in the film? i did!) borrowed and paraphrased it for my jaspage pager greeting eons ago. gosh, pagers...so 1990s. ;P

i was at the office this afternoon so i created a new email address to accompany this blog, for those who would want to get in touch with me directly, privately, about whatever i write here. it's at . had time to kill in that cold place earlier so that's what i did.

pero erratum nga muna. i was just reviewing my previous posts here and i noticed that i kept saying 1996 UP writers workshop. ano ba yun! 1997, mama! hello. as in. '97, the year of the ek. kelan ba magkakaron ng edit function ito? hay...wutwuzithinkin! yoko ngang maging ka-batch sina third.

but back to business. who am i? (bg music up: "who are you" by the who found in the csi soundtrack)

nowadays, i work at isis international-manila, a women's info-com ngo. women and media and icts, what more could you ask for? (grammar police, please check -- tama ba yun? anyway, poetic license na lang, since it rhymes heheh) this is a part-time gig which i really like. imagine combining women's advocacy+writing+freelancing+hanging out online in one go. only at isis. the atmosphere there is very professional, multi-racial, fun and friendly. an all-women workspace! don't you just love the energy of women-only work spaces? i do. it's really a far cry from the last fulltime gig i had -- but that's another entry, a mighty mighty long one, at that. :|

a la alzheimer's / tag testing

i thought i will be able to update this blog at the office but it seems that i forgot to copy or at least email myself the codes for accessing this entry form before i left so nada, here i am again in front of my computer at home doing this but i should have done this earlier because i arrived at the office around 1.30p and by 2.20 i was finished with my work and so the time til six was spent browsing and browsing for materials for the next issue with a little outdoor break when i went to the bank and paid the rent and back at the office, i could have used some diversion, a creative one like this, but no, i had to forget the codes and stuff and so i now remind myself to email email email myself the codes and stuff i am repeating myself here so better stop for now and do the html tag tests.

grammar police:? did you spell alzheimer's right
chez moi: yes i did. and oh yeah, i work here
www.isiswomen.org

let's see...

chez moi: who am i?

a good getting-to-know-you thang once in a while is nice, n'est-ce pas? as lara croft says, welcome to my humble abode...

i was a fellow at the 1996 UP national writers workshop in baguio. fiction in filipino. lilia quindoza-santiago and jun cruz reyes facilitated the workshop of my stories. they were cool. the 'joe cool' story was a hit but the 'totoy diwata' story needed work. i learned a lot, believe me.

it was my first time to be workshopped. it was great! had lots of fun in that workshop. gave me two weeks off my work, and an introduction to philippine writing and literary writers. got to meet a lot of established fictionists, poets and playwrights. unforgettable characters are gilda cordero-fernandez, joi barrios and anton juan, who became sort of a friend after that workshop. i didn't know any of the writers except for maybe jun lana the screenwriter who visited us and wasn't part of the original panel. sir jimmy abad was cool, so is ma'am jing hidalgo. she actually encouraged me to pursue higher studies in creative writing. and i did. still am, pala heheh (thesis unfinished!)

my co-fellows were fun. off the top of my head: there's marnie who works in environmental ngos -- and a close friend now, since we share birthdays; tara who works in summit; irwin from ateneo who is in europe now, they say; rosa, the french major, who is based in the US now; noel, the other french major and teacher, who has a weird, er, accent; tony who now works in fma with al alegre; mario who already graduated from his malikhaing pagsulat MA (inggit ako!); mike the cebuano who's a good poet; the three ilokanos, arnold being one of them, who used to call and say hi once in a while from his liwayway office while i was working in pinoy times; kleng who, well, i'd rather forget, really; melissa, the poet-fictionist and techie girl whom i worked with at likhaan online after that workshop; vince the weird guy from ateneo who likes rilke (formula formed: never entertain ateneo poet guys who like rilke -- just a personal opinion here, folks!).

folks who were part of the workshop staff were also cool. there's oline "rubber duckie torch song version singer" howard who is now an anc news person/anchor/whatever, sandra who is mataray but nice din naman in her own accord, and ralph, my future co-worker in some workshops.

that workshop was a chance to meet new people, and i was glad i joined. we had a stipend which i wasted at ibay's silver shop and café by the ruins. we always hung out at perk's bar and cafe which was owned by kleng's friends. got to survey baguio after the big earthquake of the 1990s, and it was my first baguio visit as an adult. it was totally cool.

unforgettable moments: gin-drinking in a treehouse at salome's bed and breakfast (where we stayed), after midnight stargazing at the manmade lake in burnham park as anton sang french songs, and a change in orientation, sexually -- but that's another entry. :)