komentaryo

miracles

I helped out with the August 26 Million People March, with the September 11 EDSA TAYO, with Pork Day the 13th and Rock and Rage Against Pork on September 13. It was all a matter of knowing that extra hands would be useful, and while for the August 26 MPM it was clear that one person who was part of the meetings to organize the event was going on a totally different tangent, the rest of us were united in the call to Scrap ALL Pork. A call that has not changed across the other rallies I’ve helped out in; a call that has been carried by other rallies I wasn’t part of (the September 19 No Remittance Day and the September 21 rally in Luneta) all the way to the October 4 MPM@Ayala. (more…)

kultura

the unedited “Closer” review

NOTE: a version of this review was published in GMA News Online, which begins with a scary em dash that lists down the writer, director, lighting designer and set designer with no explanation as to why, and which uses the word “comparability” — that i never EVER use, because it sounds like … a word Rappler would use (haha!). (more…)

kultura

on “Der Kaufmann” … and on an editing fail

NOTE: i’ve been contributing writer for GMA News Online for the past four years, and was always accorded enough respect to have edits pass through me. this is the first time in four years that my work has been so heavily — and badly — edited, with opinions not even mine, paragraphs that establish context removed. 

a version of this review was published in GMA News Online on October 6, without many sections that establish my assertions about Tanghalang Pilipino’s “Der Kaufmann.”  the discussion on the second and last sections, the reasons why Marco Viana’s and Ricardo Magno’s performances were great, the praise for sound and music, and Jonathan Tadioan, and lighting design, got lost in the edit.  (more…)

kultura

OTC: on the contrary (OTJ, Transit & the indie)

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.

(more…)

komentaryo

freeze

If there’s anything that fascinates about PDAF or pork barrel, and now the Development Acceleration Program (DAP) fund, it’s how much money this country actually has. No, correction: it’s how much money government has.

I’ve said this before, and I say it again: it is fantastic that we are talking about the National Budget, that we are being forced to scrutinize these numbers, that we are looking at the state of nation vis a vis the amount of money that’s unaccounted for by government and our politicians. (more…)