komentaryo

remember by reading: EDSA Revolution 1986

two links for those who are truly interested in understanding and forming an opinion about the EDSA Revolution of 1986: a version of Chronology of a Revolution was published by the Foundation for Worldwide People Power in 1996, and Himagsikan sa EDSA: Walang Himala! was published by the same, in the year 2000, after it got an Honorable Mention in the Centennial Literary Prize in 1998. both have been online, and free to read, since 2000 for Himagsikan and about two years ago for Chronology. 

click here for the Chronology of a Revolution.
click here for Himagsikan sa EDSA. (more…)

kultura

space for troubled youth: on Toilet The Musical

It was funny that before I could find where exactly Toilet The Musical was being staged in the Ateneo campus, I first had to happen upon the Rizal Mini Theater where Antigone The Musical was being staged. It made me want to try and get into the latter — for how fun that sounded after all! — but then again, Toilet was making a promise difficult to refuse: it’s an all-original Filipino musical. That it had Ejay Yatco at the helm might be exactly what kept me walking towards Toilet even as Antigone was calling. Yatco after all was musical director of the underrated success that was Sa Wakas (2013).

In Toilet, Yatco does not disappoint. Neither do writers Bym Buhain and Miyo Sta. Maria. Neither does the rest of Blue Rep.

(more…)

radikalchick.lit

on friendship and sisterhood #beforeiforget*

there are friendships that happen later in one’s life, even with people whose names you’ve known for years, that girl who was always just the girl-who’s-the-ex-of-a-friend, or that one you’d see at gigs. you could’ve studied in the same university and college, but remain as nameless faces, or faceless names. a measure really of what else we were doing, how friendships can be as limiting as they are liberating. and how sometimes age and timing — if not twitter — might be exactly what one needs to find kindred spirits. (more…)

kultura

the anxiety of rain: on Rak Of Aegis

It was difficult to imagine a musical that could use Aegis’s diverse discography, one that spans 15 years of the band’s existence, and seven albums. From posters and press releases it was clear that PETA’s Rak Of Aegis was using the song “Basang-basa sa Ulan” as center, with the obvious premise of … uh … rain to tell what would be a painfully contemporary story for nation.

It was difficult to be optimistic, but it sure was easy to get excited. I was sitting after all on the balcony, right side, and from where I was I could clearly see the members of Aegis below, sitting on the second row. Not even an ill-behaved little girl who should not have been brought into the theater, could ruin that image of the Sunot sisters singing and laughing along to the musical that lives off their music.

via rakofaegis.com.

That’s getting ahead of the story. (more…)

komentaryo

Criticism: not (fun) in the Philippines*

The world knows of the Philippines by now, for reasons other than a senator who refuses to admit to plagiarism, being the setting for the bustling Asian city in “Bourne Legacy,” and a cybercrime law that might be the worst piece of legislation against freedom of expression since the world wide web.

There was a time when we could call out the Western eye for gazing at us exotic: the ones who eat duck fetuses, the pretty brown-skinned girls with wide smiles and a fascination for, who fascinate the, white man. In these times of transnationalism and globalized cultures though, these assessments might be closer to being correct. (more…)