It’s just one of those weird things

I’ve been commuting from Manila to Cavite (and back) almost everyday for the past four years. In all those years, I’ve witnessed this queer phenomenon fairly consistently. The first few times I noticed it, I thought it was just coincidence. Then it happened again and again and frankly, I don’t know what to make of it.

It’s this. Roxas Boulevard intersects EDSA in Pasay through a fly-over. Sometimes, if it rains north of this flyover (going to Ermita), south of it (Pasay going to Cavite) is dry. If south of this fly-over is experiencing rain, north of it is dry. It’s weird because as soon as you cross the flyover, the road is no longer glistening and rain drops stop pattering on the window and vice versa. Mind you though,this doesn’t happen all the time. I’ve seen it maybe less or a little more than ten times so far. It actually happened again yesterday. Weird no?

Love Me Again (Land Down Under). LOL.

Ever since the death of bomba films at the turn of this century, Filipino movie fodder has consisted mostly of a smattering of drama and comedy, a pinch of horror and fantasy. Mostly, however, Filipino movies are now all about romance or chick flicks. The biggest stars today like Piolo Pascual, Angel Locsin, Marian Rivera, and Richard Gutierrez only make romantic films and these usually turn out to be the most anticipated and top-grossing ones every year.

Romance films have kissing scenes and some sex scenes, but nothing nearly as intense as those in the bomba films of the past. The question is, has the Filipino appetite for sex films been quelled? Is that the reason why producers dont make them anymore, or is it because of the strict censorship laws? No, no, yes. Well, I think Filipinos still like watching sex and I think that bold films will still sell if made as how bold films should be made and marketed virally. There are still “bold” films actually, once in a while, but no one watches them because it stars faded actors, censored scenes, bad storylines, half-baked production and (if everything else is good anyway) poor marketing strategies.

If Filipinos still like to watch sex on the silver screen then, how do producers give it to them?

Why, duh, make Love Me Again (Land Down Under) starring Piolo Pascual and Angel Locsin! It’s got sex written all over it, from the title, setting, plot, choice of actors and especially the trailer. Did you see that part when Angel Locsin rubs Piolo’s abs just before they were about to have sex? Deliciously scandalous. The title, Love Me Again (Land Down Under) is already very provocative. If they didn’t want to imply intercourse, why didn’t they just call the movie Love Me Again (Australian Edition) or something?

The movie has cowboys, cows, horses and a lot of heat. It also stars the most-fantasized actors of the Philippines today, the ones with the perfect bodies and sex appeal. I think that everything about it is screaming “sex” but it’s far from being actually bomba. I guess, this is a new evolutionary phase for Pinoy films. We want to see people getting hot and heavy on the screen but we’re not really allowed to so producers give us an alternative. We get romance laced with generous amounts of sexual innuendoes. 

We get blueballed.

So Funny!

I never fail to chuckle inside whenever I see this particular page. Why? Because it says that Marco is Male and Taken. Like someone bound him by his feet and whisked him away to (where’s a macho place) Alaska.

Is Alaska a macho place? Hm. 

How I Get Progressively Bored

When I have some free time, I check out clothes and makeup online.

When I’m slightly bored, I look at the unread stuff in my feeds.

When I’m bored, I Plurk a lot. I bother Marco a lot too.

When I’m very bored, I refresh Plurk obsessively and check out who’s online every other five minutes so I can bother someone. Anyone.

When I’m super bored, I Google the names of people I knew in the past but haven’t talked to for a loooong time. Some people call it stalking but it’s not stalking when they freely post information about them for public consumption.

Re: Inquiry

Hi Margaux! Thats such a nice name.

Anyway, yes, I do study at UP Manila. I’m the kind of student who cuts class a lot, doesn’t bring notebooks or paper and usually borrows a pen. And yet, I was one of the college scholars last semester since my general weighted average was 1.75.

Now, it sounds like a nice grade to have for someone who practically didn’t work for it. That’s because my course is Political Science. In my opinion, the course load is light and manageable enough that I can afford to be a delinquent student. If my course were, say, Biology, Nursing, Public Health, or Computer Science then I would have been kicked out of UP Manila long ago. I would never have been smart or determined enough.

It is my belief that your academic life in UPM is determined by your course and the professors you get. Of course, there’s also that bit about being actually intelligent enough to handle the whole thing, but that’s really relative. You also have to be emotionally and mentally stable enough to handle UP because studying here can really absolutely change your life and everything you ever believed in. No kidding. It’s a life-changing (and for some), life-shattering experience.

Let me tell you a story about a block mate of mine. She is very kind—one of the kindest people that I’ve ever met in my life. Not the fake kind of “kind”, but she shows genuine kindness in everything she does. She’s also very hardworking. She came from a poor family in a province far away to the north and I think she was determined to do her best to succeed in life, backed up by a good education from UP. I like her a lot.

Then one day, she went to the library, climbed on top of one of the huge tables there and started to scream about Jesus being her husband. She tried to remove her clothes. After she was pacified, she was confined to Ward 7 (the psychiatric ward) of the Philippine General Hospital. I didn’t see her for a few months, then she went back to school last year, but now I haven’t seen her again. I don’t know what happened to her.

I’m not trying to scare you and I’m not saying that this will happen to you. I just want to let you know that the pressure exerted on us by people, institutions, and events vary. Some people don’t feel the pressure at all and some people reach their breaking point easily. If you feel that you’re tough enough to handle UP then by all means, transfer. You will learn so many things that can make you a better person.

Look, I’ll even tell you a secret. In my first year studying in UP, I felt like the stupidest person in the university. I realized that my high school education was inferior to what my peers had. Hell, these people came from science high schools and schools that only rich kids can afford. Most of them had the best secondary education that this country can offer. And me? I went to a small private school in the province not knowing half of the things my classmates know. My first few months were really frustrating ones. I failed two subjects in my first year which dealt a terrible blow to my ego. I couldn’t believe it—I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was.

Eventually, I adjusted my attitude and expectations and learned how to handle the academics. It also really helped that there was barely any math in my second year, haha. The point is, the privilege to study in UP is worth all the stress, pressure, pain, and suffering. You don’t even need to get good grades to learn valuable things that you can carry with you for the rest of your life. 

So many things have happened and even more have changed in how I think and feel, handle my relationships, and ultimately, how I perceive the world. It’s all because of UP.

Hope this helped.
 

Ex Oh

They say, if you don’t know what to write write the first thing that comes to your mind. You don’t have to care about your grammar or spelling. Political correctness be damned. You just have to write and screw what comes out of your head.

I like Sugarfree’s “Prom” a lot. It reminds me of my junior prom. It was a very romantic and special time for me and whenever I remember it I feel so…young and unencumbered. My date was my crush (although I knock myself silly thinking about how I could have possibly liked him. He’s nice, but not really my type when you come right down to it). Anyway, I wore a lavender dress, I was thin, we danced to “King and Queen of Hearts” and I still remember every moment. Sugarfree’s song didn’t play during the prom nor was it anything near to being one of my favorite songs at that time, but its beat, tone, and general joie de vivre reminds me so much of how I felt during my first ever prom: young, free, kilig. Naks.

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They Got Bored

 
at the end of the world all wed see is a purple sky
we havent behaved enough to have the darkness
descend on us like a quiet sleep
and for those who have been deemed worthy by others
deemed worthy by others
a special seat with the rest of the damned is reserved

you think you know where youre going when youre dead
a life of rigorous dogma would have prepared you
for majestic horsemen and pretty angels riding out from the sun
lakes of fire and dancing imps casting deliciously evil shadows on the wall
maybe you should get ready for something
less…dramatic

maybe

a grey pall muffling the world with dust and debris
emphasized by beautiful sunsets with no one watching
since they are busy scavenging for mice to eat and piss to drink
hiding inside the wombs of crumbling skyscrapers as they give up survival
a little more everyday

it might not end with a bang
it mind end with a sob.

(The drawing is mine, it’s in Indian ink applied with a toothpick.)

Happiness Is A Double-Edged Cheese Grater

I’ve been writing less and less lately. I usually post at my beauty blog, but come on, that’s just brainless drivel. It is so easy to rag on about a new piece of clothing or an amazing shade of lipstick. In fact, it is so easy that I’ve virtually ceased to do anything else. My attention span has severely devolved that I coulnd’t read, much less write, anything with any substance. The Internet does this to people and I am online for almost twelve hours everyday.

Aside from that obvious reason, something has been clawing at me from beneath the surface. It is this: the things that used to be important to me are not important anymore. I used to like sharing my ideas with anyone who would care to listen. I used to like learning new ideas from people who would care to share them. I don’t write, I don’t read. I’ve become into something that I fear most—stupid. Stupid and jaded, to be exact.

I don’t know exactly what I’ve done to myself. I can only trace my decisions up to a certain point and I seem to have lost track of them. I said somewhere here that I am a generally happy person, which I believe I still am. But happiness is a double-edged cheese grater. It works fantastically enough on both sides but it will skin your knuckles if you don’t pay attention to the cheese you’re working on.

I hope that this is just a phase, a pre-graduation drama, maybe. What I need is a long trip or a really good haircut.

Question and Answer Portion

A lot of people begin their new year by painstakingly enumerating the things that they want to give up.

What won’t you give up this year?

Thoughts On The Phantom of the Opera

I’ve always been curious about The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Weber. When I finally finished downloading it, I sat down to watch with only the most minimal of expectations since the movie received generally bad reviews. First of all, it’s true that the visuals were very breath-taking. The gothic atmosphere was perfectly and faithfully rendered with the tall brass candelabras, ornate upholstery, carved metal chairs and bedframes, Renaissance sculptures and intricate gowns and dress suits worn by the actors.

Emmy Rossum was very beautiful as Christine, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about her—she was very beautiful. She acts like a wooden statue most of the time, eyes wide and mouth agape with dumb bewilderment. All she does is sing, sit/stand, and watch. She just looks pretty and empty. Raoul, the pretty count, is her knight in shining armor. He has no depth at all and is just The Man Dumb With Love. In fact, the only real person in that movie is The Phantom, Erik. He’s the only one who actually does something, who feels a whole range of complex human emotions which apparently are beyond Christine and Raoul.

The movie failed to capture the moving tragedy and desperation of the Phantom’s love for Christine. There was no sense of suspense in the fight scenes nor a sense of horror and disgust for the deformed stalker. Sigh. The concept is so good but so badly executed. I’d really love to see “The Phantom of the Opera” on stage someday.

I like the movie, but I replay it only to the parts where there’s Erik. My favorite songs are “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Music of the Night”.

—

I read the book by Gaston Leroux, “The Phantom of the Opera” right after I watched the movie. It was published around the early 1900’s, eighty years before Weber created his famous musical. In the book, Christine and Raoul had more life. Christine is portrayed as a rather simple but talented girl, torn by her sadness at her father’s death. She is easily deceived and more easily frightened. Raoul is a young man of twenty, madly in love with his childhood sweetheart. He is weak and not so brave, but he tries to be.

And of course, Erik. In the book, Erik is a well-traveled man who has been to India and Persia (in the play/movie, he was just a child picked up by Mme. Girey from a Gypsy travelling freak show). He is a genius in architecture, art, music, and pretty much everything else. He worked as an assassin for several Asian governments where he used the Punjab Lasso, a deadly killing technique (”keep your hands to the level of your eyes”). He fell in love with the beautiful Christine and kills himself in the end after he set the lovers free although in the movie he’s still alive 48 years after the curious events at the Opera. I like that ending better.

Last note: he is uglier in the novel. He has no nose and he only black pits for eyes, eyes that you can see only when they glow yellow in the dark. On the other hand, he looks very human in the 2004 film version with only half his face deformed. In the last part, he tells Christine that he just wants to live like a normal man. He has invented a mask to make him look like everybody else. And this, I think, is where the plot hole lies. Erik is a genius; he was an inventor of secret trap doors, subterranean houses, torture chambers and tons of other things. If he’s so smart then he should have just made a convincing mask from the start and saved himself the trouble of scaring Christine away and sending gigantic chandeliers crashing over people’s heads.