There was something fulfilling about Ded na si Lolo, the second installment of the Sine Direk project of the Director’s Guild of the Philippines, Inc. (DGPI). Written and directed by Soxie Topacio, it began by establishing the kind of noise and screaming – and melodrama – that is true for the majority of communities in this country, the kind that we rarely see truthfully represented on TV and the movies, for fear that it will give us a sense of our REAL conditions as a nation. (more…)
a version of this essay was published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer on May 4 2009.
It took a while to get used to the sounds of Rico Blanco’s solo album Your Universe (Warner Music, 1998). It didn’t help that the first song “Say Forever” begins with a distinct electronica sound, made even more disconcerting by Blanco employing what sounds like a British accent (I’m at the central stay-shun/Without a des-ti-nay-shan). It has everything that would make a non-fan move on to the next CD on their shelf.
And yet, this just might the biggest mistake one can make. As soon as the strains of the title song “Your Universe” begins, it’s easy to see why Blanco became the soul of Rivermaya in his last years with the band. He has the writing chops that can melt anyone’s heart, without being mushy or corny about it. In this title track, as with many of the love songs in this debut, Blanco employs a distinct kind of songwriting that’s reinvents the formula with a different vocabulary and perspective altogether. (more…)
It was easy to fall for watching the movie Fuschia, directed by Joel Lamangan co-written by him and Ricky Lee. There was veteran actress Gloria Romero in the lead role, a really interesting title, and an even more interesting synopsis. More importantly, it is part of the Sine Direk project of the Director’s Guild of the Philippines, Inc. (DGPI), sold as a showcase of films created with unbridled freedom – no capitalist producers to consider.
But there’s more to good films than just a director’s freedom. In the case of Fuschia, it is about knowing when to stop. Unless of course the point is to befuddle the audience into confusion. (more…)
a version of this was published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer on 13 April 2009.
Over lunch, the foursome more famous as the AngFourgettables talks about their nickname, Charice Pempengco, Arnel Pineda, the all-OPM concert month, and everything else in between.
They haven’t disbanded, if that’s what you’re thinking. In fact they insist on two things here: one, that all they’ve done is lie low as a group which allowed their individual careers to flourish, and two, that they’d really rather be called Ang4. Please drop the “gettables” and use the number four, if only to make them sound younger. (more…)
I can’t help but delight in the ManoloQuezonIII-ChipTsao debacle. First came ChipTsao and his satirical take on the Philippines versus China on the Spratlys. Second was the expected general public sentiment that this was racist, unacceptable, and off with ChipTsao’s head! Third, Manolo writes this status on his Twitter and Facebook via Ping.fm: “All the crap …” Fourth, hindi na kinaya ng powers ng bloggers na sina Dona Victorina at Reyna Elena, hindi lang si ChipTsao, kungdi pati na rin si Manolo. (more…)