The risk of “Katy”*

Is its age.

There is something extraordinary of course about having the music of “Katy” jammed in my head. Like muscle memory the first strains of music from the live band had me tapping my feet and bobbing my head. The lyrics came rushing back soon enough. (more…)

the calm in “Owel”

t is easy to say that the homosexual relationship, if not the homosexual story, is one that’s been overdone and overtold, if not just also something that we should get over at this point. After all, in the same way that we get tired of the romantic-comedies that live off heterosexuality, there has become a tendency at redundancy for the homosexual story. It is not a question of more complex discussions, not even a call for more particularly unique experiences, as it is just less of what has become the stereotype of the gay story.

That is, it is rarely quiet, even less so calm.

That is, until “Owel.” (more…)

#SONA2013

the question is quite simple: if Bistek’s government, and in effect PNoy himself, allowed for the SONA rally to take place, as it always has, relative and as counterpoint to the president’s State of the Nationa address, would this have happened at all?  (more…)

dear Bistek,

you know that is a term of endearment, for anyone at all who grew up watching you on TV. you are rarely seen as one of them celebrities who should not have turned politician, which does mean you have more credibility as public servant. it helps that you never seemed too gung-ho about being mayor, and you waited for the right time to become so. you seemed more decent than most, is what i mean to say. but then again, what has happened since your May reelection? (more…)

…Which, if we think about it, actually makes sense. Its subject matter is Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian novelist, jailed by the Suharto regime for his writings, the closest a Southeast Asian has come to being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. (more…)