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The Wowowee state of viewer IQ

It’s no laughing matter to realize that the so-called mainstream media most Filipinos are exposed to these days can really dumb down a generation. I am deeply concerned about a story I heard about filmmakers speaking to some kids in Malaybalay, Bukidnon who were asked what they aspired to become. Their daunting reply: to become one of the dancers of Wowowee.

I don’t mind gregarious lunch time entertainment but some things are definitely exaggerated. The usual exchange between Willy and his contestants is only humorous when the latter is made fun of. Touching, maybe, but their momentary joy in being part of the festivities hardly compensates for the reality after the show. Moreover, the mechanics of acquiring the coveted cash prize has been a guessing game for the most part. And self-jest. Filipinos are used to it, we can argue, we’re all good sports - that’s always good. But the image you put forth is that when it comes to poverty, nothing lifts the spirits but a game of chance. And that’s why kids would rather be good at dancing for Wowowee someday. Easy money.

But nothing is easy. While Wowowee was playing on, if you go through the other channels, you’ll find that news about corruption in our country is at a plethora. A mind numbing plethora. I bet so many people count more on “Papi” than they do on our nation’s leaders. The reason why we turn to the horse blinds is because we don’t want to see. Numerous Filipino viewers have self-denial in their psyche. It’s too painful to watch your struggling life and its entire infrastructure crumble to the ground.

And why has everyone forgotten about the Wowowee stampede? I can’t imagine why such a display of recklessness had been easily forgot. I’m so angry. Are people simply apathetic or pathetic these days? There’s a fundamental difference, and neither is the other’s consolation prize.

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The Democrats dominate, finally!

(A somewhat irrelevant reminder:) I hope these Dems will do something about Proposition 8, hmph!

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Proposition 8 a Proposition of Hate

Imagine that just a few months ago, you and your sweetheart were finally married after so many years of restriction to do so.  And then suddenly you hear that the state no longer recognizes you’re married; that it is void. As newlyweds, it’s simply outrageous.  But for us homosexuals, it’s a reminder of the loathsome movement that goes against the freedom of a certain kind of people, otherwise known as discrimination.

The bigoted heterosexual America contends that marriage is an institution designed for heterosexual pairs. That society cannot legitimize, incentivize and recognize love relationships of people who happen to love the same sex.  The implications of the same-sex marriage ban trickles down to the true meaning of how freedom, respect and happiness are upheld for the US.  It’s wrong.  Proposition 8 is bigotry.

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Mirah - 100 Knives [Download] [Lyrics]

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Southisms officially endorses Obama

Just so we’re clear, kids, I am not a US registered voter nor am I a citizen yet. My mom’s Republican husband is voting for McCain (despite initially rooting for the more formidable Ron Paul), naturally with the intention of keeping Obama from winning the presidency. If you are a registered American voter, I advise you to vote for Obama instead and let me tell why you shouldn’t vote McCain.

If you are voting McCain, you will give the presidency the political leverage to continue to spend more money on the expensive and highly unethical war in Iraq.  As Nicholas Kristof of NY Times had put:

An American President who keeps troops in Iraq indefinitely, fulinates about Islamic terrorism, inclines toward military solutions and antagonizes other nations is an excellent recruiting tool. In contrast, an African-American president with a Muslim gradnfather and a penchant for building bridges rather than blowing them up would give Al Qaida recruiters fits.

If you are voting McCain, the likely chance that your ability to afford medical services will not change from the way they are now.  Under McCain’s policy, it will result to Americans still battling with self-interested insurance companies rather than government securing that the insurance is not a question but a right. McCain proposes that the US government should have nothing to do with insurance and is leaving your health care in the hands of those who wish to make money out of you.  Good luck.

If you are voting McCain, you will be backing a leader who is hesitant in sending foreign aid where the world needs it, panders to the interest of private corporations and has a little or no humanitarian world view.

Finally, if you are voting McCain, you will give the government the power to withhold or insufficiently subsidize important government responsibilities apart from health care, and that is education, advanced medical research and improved domestic welfare.

Listen to the Global preference, a cry for reason.   You are not only voting for an American leader but a world power.  Understand the gravity of your choice and how it impacts people across the globe.  Sense the desperation for renewal in American leadership and political narrative. 

Vote Obama. Vote Change.

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I was able to do a phone trial for WOMWorld for the new Nokia E71. I wrote an extensive review on my other blog which I hope you guys should check out. Here’s an excerpt:

Their E71 model inspires enthusiasm among Nokia consumers especially among the growing number of people who have jumped in to the Wireless LAN bandwagon. Personally, it’s about time that mobile phones began to fully embrace the internet and enhance its flexibility and capability to surf it.

It also has its own built-in music player which comes in handy if you don’t have your own mp3 player like in my situation. I use the phone to listen to the Music I’m in to at the moment so I’ll let you in on some of the songs on my current list.

  • Ellen Allien & Apparat - Do not break
  • Sigur Ros- Gobbledigook
  • Trentemoller - Miss you
  • De la Mancha - Lotus seven

By the way, the song from Sigur Ros on my playlist from their newest album entitled in a long Icelandic name I can hardly pronounce. The album is a bit happier than the more epic tunes we’re so used to hear from the band like from the original soundtrack of the movie Vanilla Sky. Speaking of movies, the movie The Fountain which is a personal favorite features the song from Trentemoller, a pensive new age tune. Check ‘em out.

Y’all have a nice weekend!

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The movie The Wackness starring Josh Peck and Ben Kingsley was so nostalgic.  It might be a classic Sundance bleeding heart movie, but you could easily forgive the theme when you listen to the music featured on the film.  It was the music of 1994 - such a great year for music, championing in that time are greats like A tribe called Quest and even The Smashing Pumpkins who really shook the scene with the release of Siamese Dream, which was in my opinion the best album they released.

But let’s talk about the state of Hip-hop now. The truth is, I’m a snob when it comes to mainstream Top 40 Rap, Hip-hop and RnB, if you could call it that.  It all began when these Hip-hop artists wanted to sound more like SoSoDef.   Suddenly, Hip-hop wasn’t soul music anymore, or talked about the harsh realities of racism and ghetto violence.  It wasn’t the music that we used to call in the 90’s as Urban.  The tripe you hear from Hip-hop these days are about grinding, girls on the side, car upgrades and partying.   Not that these wouldn’t count for realities, but where’s the depth?

I knew that the death of Tupac changed the face of hip-hop.  Kanye West is trying to revive part of the glory that belonged to that great era of Urban, but he doesn’t have the exquisite rhyme of old school artists nor enough humility to really overcome the insipidness of the mainstream that riddles his exposure. We can’t identify deep issues from the likes of new hip-hop artists like Eminem or Nelly or T-Pain.

The groups who managed to resist the trend of materialism that is evident in most Hip-hop music have disappeared in the background of the multimedia spectacularism, simply because they choose not to.  If you’re attentive enough, you realise that music pundits harp about them, appealing to everyone’s music sensibility.  But strangely, there’s just not enough promotion: most of the MTV generation just doesn’t buy in to that kind of music anymore.   The mainstream music entices its lot with people’s vanity and hype not their intelligence.

The Roots are one of those artists who have stood their ground.  In 2002, they released an album entitled Phrenology. Phrenology is the pseudo science of assessing the figure of someone’s head to determine their intelligence - an idea which used to justify racism.

Peace out.

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The Roots - The Seed [Download] [Lyrics]

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I know this is a couple of days late, but I believe I have never mentioned to anyone on this blog that I’d love to go to Istanbul someday.   My curiosity was piqued when Kaye gave me a promotional music CD for a hotel in Istanbul.  It’s a full album featuring different Turkish artists, and although still bordering on the electronica, it wasn’t the Trance Eurasia music I had expected were proponents of their country’s scene.  The Music was more diverse than I expected. The Point Hotel’s album collection is aptly titled, “Sweet Dreams”, like you could dream about a very culturally sacrosanct Byzantine Turkey while you’re in Modern Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). I am very in love with the track entitled, “Pink Wings”, which sports undertones of the Islamic beat combined with ethereal vocals.

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Point Hotel - Pink Wings [Download]

Again, Eid’l Fet’r.

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Rainy days and Mondays

The Carpenters is by far the most articulate pop band of their time when it comes to love melancholy.  People who grow up to their songs will not wonder why the story of these two siblings is as tragic as, say, their song Aurora.

Yesterday, I felt rain on my head.  Walking through a crowded place, everyone is bustling, running for cover, scrounging for a ride home.

Yet I moved through the noisy crowd like the film and music was slow and sad. Like Karen Carpenter cooed at my ear with her cold voice.  I have always wondered why the rain was such a sad occasion on most literary references.

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Scarlett Johansson - Falling Down [Download] [Lyrics]

Oh, and by the way Scarlett Johansson can sing.

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Andrew told me that I could write anything I want on this blog, ANYTHING I was passionate about to write. If you know me personally, it’s hard to tell what field I belong to.  That is because I’ve been all over the place and am practically interested in EVERYTHING.

A few months ago, I took the bold step of turning this blog into everything I was interested in.  And now it’s turn out to be an “anything goes” kind of blog.  But I haven’t done it any justice by waiting for its 2D walls to grow cobwebs.  WELL. That’s always been my bane.  Being too busy living life to write about it.  I even missed writing about the very eventful Kadayawan, but if I released anything at this point, I suppose it’s like stale cheese.  Which is worse than the smell of freshly fermented cheese…you get my point.

So, it’s back to basics for me and that’s the fact that I love music.

Did I tell you that I love music?

The other day, I was just thinking about it when I finally reunited with my lovely guitar after TWO YEARS. That’s a fairly long time to be away from an object you held on to practically everyday.  Imagine you lost your phone and found it two years later: that’s how I felt.

See, when I left Manila two summers ago, someone (who I had kindly sought favor to load my things at the back of the car while I prepared for my trip to the airport) forgot to load my guitar (among other valuable electronic gadgets, irritatingly so).  So by the time I got to the airport, I was cities away from my lovely wooden thing.

A few days ago, I got in touch with my cousin who I haven’t seen for the same number of years and found out that she took the liberty of taking MY guitar with her to Davao.  I just love her, she is definitely the best. That’s why I forgive her for the pink heart-shaped butingting that she pasted on my guitar’s pick guard, it’s alright by me. Even though I would never have approved of it to begin with.  Never mind, we can easily arrange its…removal.

What got me thinking even more while I was finally strumming the thing was how hard it is for a musician to love music without an instrument.  Or to REALLY love music without being able to play anything.  I know you’re all sick of my metaphors, but here’s another one:  It’s like, you can’t really appreciate sex until you’ve done it, in my humble opinion.

I finally get to play a song I’ve been dying to play myself which is Joy Division’s monumental single, “Love will tear us apart”.  For this post, I won’t have you listen to how I played it.  Instead, check out this superb cover from Jose Gonzales (who also made an equally superb rendition of Heartbeats by The Knife as well as Teardrop by Massive Attack).  For me, it’s always a joy to listen to guitar players and hear them sing to the songs that they play.

What more if I was THAT guitar player.

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Jose Gonzales - Love will tear us apart (Joy Division cover) [Download]  [Lyrics]

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Tomorrow is supposed to be an historic day for the Blogger community of the Philippines, that’s because a Wordcamp is taking place in Manila for the first time.  It’s too bad I’m booked to fly to Manila on the 18th instead which concludes how impractical it is for me to decide to fly in earlier for Wordcamp, come back to Davao then back again to Manila on 18.  When I accidentally called Ria this morning (mistaking her for my friend Ria Lumapas), I got to ask her where she was and she replied matter-of-factly, “I’m in Manila.” Hearing those words, I suddenly felt a crushing sense of panghihinayang.  The closest English equivalent of which would be…regret.

Oh well, life moves on.  Hopefully when I move to the States I’ll catch the Wordcamp in San Francisco, booya!

Meanwhile, a blogger who’s not in the field is obviously mulling about the internet.  Just now I downloaded the beta version of Google’s new browser Google Chrome and for a Beta version it has so far impressed me with its speed.  It’s phenomenally faster than Mozilla 3.0 and is apparently more efficient than Safari.  Apart from the exciting fact that Chrome is Open source, it introduces a very unique way of managing javascript by incorporating multiple process in one browser.  Now the brainiacs from Google can best explain what that means not me, definitely, no.  Luckily, they came up with a very friendly way of helping us understand…through a comic strip!

Read the rest of this entry »

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