2nd of three installments.
Pol Medina leaves his mainstream pugad. And finds another mainstream pugad really, that thought it wonderful that you could choose-your-own-punchline on comic strips. But that’s getting ahead of the story. First was a Pugad Baboy strip that was submitted by Medina in April of this year, which was rejected by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It would then be published in June to public social media outcry. (more…)
For three years I put together year-enders on arts and culture and found that there is plenty to be thankful for. There is after all a great amount of productivity, the kind that is independent and persistent. There is also a lot of private money that fuels the arts and culture scene —which is of course to point out how government only comes in when it gets embroiled in questions of censorship and freedom of expression.
The latter is a cause we hold dear, even more so given the Internet and social media, and how we have so engaged with each other and the issues of the day in blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It seems important to do now a year ender that is about precisely this balance that we are forced to strike—or fail to strike—between absolute free speech that the Internet affords us, and the issue of responsibility. Too often in the past year our world was defined by what was happening online; sometimes we got carried away, it seemed like we were changing the world. But were we? (more…)
The truth is that while we celebrate local films, especially independently-produced ones, it seems important to point out that many other things come into play at this point as far as declaring any movie a critical success. That is, there is the social media bandwagon, where “public perception” is deemed powerful, and no one is allowed to think differently about a movie lest one is pounced on like some enemy.
this is not the first time that purported “new media” proves that it doesn’t know to use the internet. no wait, it doesn’t know to read, full stop. in many instances in the past, rappler would publish essays and articles as if they are the first to write about issues, not even forcing its writers to revise based on what’s already been said. (more…)
The recent spate of critiques against activism brought about by the violence at the SONA rally – one by the way, that could’ve been avoided had PNoy himself told Bistek to allow the rally as it has been allowed all these years – is not just a bandwagon bias against street protests per se (because you know, it gets so traffic right?), or activism in general (there are other ways of helping nation, you know). Neither is it just unconscious redbaiting (jail the communists!) or love for our policemen (because, yeah right!).
At the heart of this discussion made larger and gone longer than most, one that has revealed how superficial Pinoy discourse – within and beyond social media – can be, is happiness and contentment. At the heart of this discussion is the notion of positivity, if not the need for it. Being critical is a negative by default. (more…)