Bisaya Bloggers

TV shows these days are becoming crazier and crazier. From reality shows to game shows to countdowns, you name it! I have been glued to the boob tube for a week now and I have seen really strange...

This is only a teaser. Visit my blog for full links, other content, and more! betterthanezraH.blogspot.com

Yesterday, that is June 12th, was the commemoration of the very elusive Independence day of the Philippines (since some historians argue among themselves whether it took place during the late 1800s or Post-Commonwealth). In fact, I’ve heard smart alecky remarks from some that we’re not a free nation at all so the theory in practice is rather pointless. But never mind that, ABS-CBN enshrines freedom and have televised that “symbolic interaction” by simultaneously doing a 411 primary school flag ceremony in all ABS-CBN headquarters nationwide. Back at the mothership you realize that they come across as unpretentious, just as long as you think about Eugenio Lopez in all his dignified exuberance say the words, “Mabuhay ang Lahi ng Kayumanggi” without first expounding this profound idea. It’s interesting really, so many social issues to digest in such a short declaration. Are we really a nation who embraces Kayumanggi? What with all this hype of Glutathione and Eskinol sikerto ng mga gwapo? What is the social construct behind Kayumanggi? Was Lopez particularly lauding an idealistic view of our lahi? What does that mean also? Race? Culture? Essence?

You can only relate to this if you’re a Filipino and watched TV most of the day like I did.

A particularly odd segment followed this commemoration: the media coverage of the funeral service dedicated to Rudy Fernandez, a Filipino action star. We’re not close or anything, but since he’s dead I guess it’s okay to say at this point, “Too bad we never get to see a movie starring Rudy Fernandez and Lorna Tolentino”. If Rudy was well enough there was a script waiting for him and his wife. I don’t own the rights to the script but the premise of the story is based on a woman’s unwavering love for her partner despite her own personal desires. This would have been their life story. Anyway, what is my conclusion about Rudy’s death? I roughly quote my friend, “Reality is more unbelievable than fiction. Fiction (film) is there to convince us that they are unbelievable indeed.”

My condolences to the actor’s family.

Anyway, did Noli de Castro turn his back on his ABS-CBN family, finally? By smashing the oligarchs no less! Smash, smash, smash. Why are you talking just now de Castro? Are you disappointed in how they’re handling the Ces Drilon kidnapping? I’m glad you could air your testimonial about being kidnapped by the Abusayyaf yourself. He throws a caveat, “Never let the station handle the negotiation with the group.” When he says this you can just see the traces of disappointment in his voice. He’s making parinig ABS-CBN twice in one day! Wow. I wonder if PGMA promised him a cut in the Meralco hostile takeover…

So much for a free nation. Cheers to the social entrapments we are in and the bright box that tells us all about it.

Tags: TV, ABS-CBN, Rudy Fernandez, Lorna Tolentino, Eugenio Lopez, Noli de Castro, Meralco

These clips have been getting way too many replays from me. Great great stuff. God bless these talented folks.

Watch this before YT takes it down. :P


My favorite number in tonight's So You Think You Can Dance is by Katee and Joshua. The song is "No Air" by Chris Brown and Jordin Sparks. Great choreography is by Napoleon and Tabitha. I think this is one of my favorite numbers in SYTCD history, maybe tied for first with last season's Sabra+Neil "Sweet Dreams" jazz routine. Ahh, great stuff.

Sabra & Neil, both contemporary dancers
Choreography by Mandy Moore
"Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics

I love the emotion, fluidity, story and choreography in this number. Katee and Joshua brung it. Me blown away.



This one is my favorite cover by Maria Zouroudis. It's "4 Minutes" by Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake. The original, I think, was overly processed. I didn't even remember that Madonna was singing. Now, this acapella cover is much better than the original. Seriously, this girl is so talented! Great harmonies, use of ordinary things, vocals, editing. Girlfriend needs to release a CD. Yay, for Maria.

Talented artists, keep on shining.
All my love,
frustrated dancer me. ^_^

Unlike most people, I do love to watch anything on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and the Crime and Investigation Channel. One of my favorite shows on...

This is only a teaser. Visit my blog for full links, other content, and more! betterthanezraH.blogspot.com

waahhh! I just finished episode 12. Okay, I think I can explain now why I like C even if she can appear to be weak and martyr-like. C's character is gentle and people-pleasing. Most of the time people take advantage of her because she chooses to just stay true to her character.

However, C is not a martyr, as evidenced by her choices to just leave J and raise her baby and to go to Shanghai. C escapes my hatred for martyr characters because lately she's been choosing to not become a doormat. Being a martyr involves an active choice of hurtful sacrificial ways. Oh, I'm all for self-sacrifice when it's in the right place. My issue is with blind acceptance. And here, I apologize to those who are literally blind, because even without vision, they can accurately perceive things through other means.

So on to Shanghai we are. I'm excited. I'm definitely looking forward to a whole lot more groveling on J's part. Bring it on.

***
As I was typing the 42nd comment in a 3-way conversation in an earlier post on Fated to Love You, I realized that our FTLY conversations need to move to a new post. Ate Rai and Ate Yammy, here's to the coming Shanghai episodes!

Cookchuleta...hmmm that does have a nice ring to it! So, any guesses as to who will win the next American Idol (so we can go on and have another Am Idol try-out)? For sure, David will win! But...

This is only a teaser. Visit my blog for full links, other content, and more! betterthanezraH.blogspot.com

I am now hooked on Avatar: The Last Airbender! Although, I have been hooked pretty much since last year and I am so excited! I am now almost done with watching all the episodes of Episode 3 and I...

This is only a teaser. Visit my blog for full links, other content, and more! betterthanezraH.blogspot.com

Raise your hand if you have a television in the bedroom? How about the kids' bedroom? It's not hard to put a television in every room, especially if you keep upgrading to sleeker, flatter, sharper television sets. I don't have kids, yet I have three televisions in the house, and yes, I have the obligatory flat-panel display in the bedroom because I'm a news junkie who likes to watch CNN in the morning.

It seems to me that lately, researchers are focusing on the effects of having a television set in the bedroom. In a nutshell, having a TV in your sleep sanctuary is bad, very bad, but we already knew that. I guess what we may not have known is how bad it really is, especially when it's in the kid's room. So to bring you up to speed, I've gathered the latest findings hoping to shed some light on this bad habit.

New York Times and IO9 have good articles on the subject so I'll start there. Here's what they say in a nutshell:

TV makes you dumb: In a 2005 study of six Northern California schools, 70 percent of students who had their own TV scored "significantly and consistently" lower on math, reading, and language-arts tests. Those who had computers scored higher. It's believed the TV is a distraction during homework and may interfere with sleep. Seventh graders in Montreal also had the same problem. Those who spent more time in front of the TV, had lower grades. No surprise there.

TV makes you overweight: Several studies have suggested that kids with TVs in their bedroom are likely to be overweight. In a two-year study by the The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers found that kids snacked less when a device (I'm assuming BOB) was programmed to cut into the child's TV viewing time. Kids weren't inspired to exercise more, they just ate less calories a day. A French study found that boys with TVs in their bedroom were more likely to gain weight.

TV makes you a smoker: Yet, another study of 700 middle-school students between 12 and 14 years old, found that kids with TVs were twice as likely to start smoking. Of those surveyed, 42 percent who smoked had a TV in their bedroom.

TV messes up your sleeping patterns: Ok, so all the above figures have been for kids, but adults are also affected by bedroom TVs. Blog IO9, found a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey (ATUS) shows that late night TV watching can control a person's sleeping patterns. Once upon a time, the day and night cycle determined our sleeping patterns, but with modern technology, mainly that television in the room, people's sleeping patterns are getting worse. Those most vulnerable to TV-timed sleep changes are people who work in services sectors like education, health, leisure, and hospitality, and people who live in the Eastern time zone.

There you have it. A few more reasons to kick that bedroom TV out.

Guides for laptop users please visit us here Stockbridge Consultants

This was more or less the context of the second segment of Holy Week show of NoyPi, ABS-CBN's post-Bandila show. NoyPi would stage situations to determine how the Filipino would respond. Reactions would then be analyzed by sociologists and psychologists and other experts.

Last Monday, the second segment was about a guy posing as Jesus. He'd approach people in or coming from the church and start a conversation. At some point he would ask them, "Maniniwala ba kayo kung sabihin ko na ako si Kristo?" Would you believe it if I told you I was Jesus Christ?

The reactions were quite expected. Some got angry, some thought him to be a lunatic, and one even responded, "Oo. Lahat tayo si Kristo." But there were some quite interesting reactions from a couple of people.

The guy approached this old lady who just finished lighting a candle and her prayers. He went and told her that she should just lift up her concerns to God. To which she responded, "interesado talaga ako diyan sa sinasabi mo. Interesado talaga ako. Maari ba kitang makausap?" And so they had a conversation about her problems. In the middle of it all, the guy spilled his spiel of being Christ. The lady looked at him, with slight doubt and was somewhat apologetic, "Pasensiya na, kung ako ay may agam-agam pa." But in the end, it was all good. She appreciated the conversation and a chance to unload her yoke.

In another story, the guy was talking to another person when a woman listening in to the conversation approached him and said, "Maari niyo bang mahilot ang aking asawa?" It turns out, she and her husband were homeless. The husband was paralyzed for a few years already and had trouble moving. She asked the stage Jesus to massage her husband. The stage Jesus was actually doing a great job, being accommodating and solemn the whole time. He massaged the man and probably had a conversation about lifting burdens to God. When asked what the paralyzed man felt, "malamig lang." But his wife answered with a slight sense of hope despite the discovery that it wasn't Jesus who held his husband. She was saying, "first time ko kilabutan ng ganun nung sabihin niya na siya si Kristo." What could've those goose bumps meant?

Several others, who may not have believed him to be Jesus, were just glad to have someone come up to them and have a conversation with.

Was there a black and white response to such a situation? The priests and sociologists don't seem to think so. Those who deny or accept the man as Jesus can not be branded as lacking in faith or strong with it. It just goes to show, we all love God in our own ways and believe in Him in the way that we are most comfortable with. And at the end of everything, people just need to believe in something greater and something better. Thus the goose bump reaction from that lady, maybe? Hope is enough to keep going.

What would my reaction be if I were approached? I'd definitely be a doubting Thomas. With Judiel Nava surgically transformed into a woman, it's a little difficult to just accept any man who comes and claims to be Jesus.

Sidekuwento: Timing how this story was featured at a time I was reading C.S. Lewis "The Last Battle" where the Ape pushes the Donkey to pretend that he is Aslan so they may control Narnia. Wala lang. ko-inki-dink.

Too bad it seemed to be NoyPi's last episode. It was only my second time to watch it in full, then bye-bye already? I do hope it's a temporary hiatus. With all the not so good things happening in our country, a certain sense of positive nationhood and personhood is necessary. I think NoyPi does a good job in reminding Pinoy's of good ole' Filipino traditions.

This a disgrace! Just because we are from a third world country doesn't mean that we can't perform as well as...if not better than American doctors! True, we are not up to date with all the medical...

This is only a teaser. Visit my blog for full links, other content, and more! betterthanezraH.blogspot.com

SURPRISE SURPRISE! I just finished watching High School Musical 2 and I honestly think that it's better than the last one! Actually, I didn't really like High School Musical because I felt it was...

This is only a teaser. Visit my blog for full links, other content, and more! betterthanezraH.blogspot.com

I say the trailer was a teaser.

Nickolodeon has graciously allowed Avatar: the Last Airbender fan sites to offer the show's season 3 trailer for download to the internet community. Avatar Spirit.net has links to compressed and full versions hosted on other servers. I've seen the compressed version online, and I'm still waiting for my high quality download to complete.

Nickolodeon has requested one thing, though:

"Please do not post this video on youtube or any other file sharing service."

That's not so difficult. Considering their extreme graciousness, I don't even dream of posting this anywhere. It's just for my personal use, on my own computer, to tease my own self. I hope others think the same way, too.

I love this show.

the boys of the family and i love game shows. while my father and i would argue over the remote on sunday afternoons as he wanted to spend it with pepe pimentel watching "kuwarta o kahon" and i wanted to watch the apo hiking society (and the potential appearance of my latest crushes) in "sa linggo nAPO sila," it was jeopardy and wheel of fortune that my dad and i would agree on. my big bro would join watching it.

those two shows would be our bonding sessions. we'd show off how much we know or how quick we can guess a phrase. i'm often the third placer in jeopardy because i don't know squat about history which is an often-used category. wheel of fortune thankfully offers a more equal opportunity of showing-off.

pat sajak and alex trebek were awaited guests in our home. and now that there is 2nd Avenue on sky cable, my usual "i have to sleep at eleven" mode has been changed to "i have to sleep after jeopardy." i'm still kulelat in jeopardy, but it's still so much fun learning new, generally useless trivia.

the creator of the show, merv griffin, succumbed to prostrate cancer yesterday. while i have no affinity for him personally, i feel i owe him a short tribute for giving me wholesome, intellectual entertainment that i enjoy until now.

merv griffin, thank you! if not for you, there would be no jeopardy. if not for jeopardy, i would not have known that -40 degrees is the temperature which celsius and fahrenheit actually become equal. say hi to my dad. he's a big fan. ;p

In a place where I usually spend my precious time, I found this question:

Your first drama ever...

My first dramas were Filipino soap operas. The one that first captured my imagination was called Familia Zaragoza, but my all-time favorite would have to be Bituing Walang Ningning, a story of a popular singer's fan who would eventually surpass her idol.

Then of course, the Mexican dramas dubbed in Tagalog swept over the Philippines beginning with Marimar. My favorite telenovela, as those imports were called, was something titled Lazos de Amor about triplet sisters played by a very pretty actress (All the girls in my school wanted to grow up to be Lucero).

My first ever Korean drama (that started this personal obsession) is My Name Is Kim Sam Soon. My all-time favorite is a tie between My Girl and Delightful Girl Choon Hyang. I just can't decide. Every time I hear/watch anything related to either drama, my preferences would get swayed. I think I like the director and scriptwriters too much. :D

My first ever Japanese drama is the wonderful Itoshi Kimi e, for whose subs I'm still waiting and hoping for (Dear God in heaven, please hear my prayer). While my first ever Taiwanese drama is It Started with a Kiss, but I have to admit I skipped a lot before I got to the very cute last 2 episodes.

That's the long version of my answer to the 4-word topic question.

No amount of entertainment can ever add up to watching primetime Pinoy TV. Like me who doesn't have cable, amusement and annoyance is still rest assured. Last night while occasionally glancing at the TV (I was reading a book), which is now officially owned by my two little half brothers during primetime thanks to Super Twins and Aejan Jejurs (go figure):

1. The daily dose of political crap-o-mercials with sickening pop tunes and politicos smiling devious laughs in sheep's clothing. (Magsaysay, tara-tara-taralets. Fuck, I swear he's from some kind of hybrid alien who dropped on Earth with a big thud.)

2. Dina Bonnevie comparing the aging of Vic Sotto to THE George Clooney. Clooney is a film writer, producer, director and actor rolled into one with a witty political consciousness to beat. Vic is Enteng Kabisote. I rest my case.

3. Super Twins. I know its for kids, but couldn't Pinoy superheroes (and their writers) exhibit some sentido kumon? Naman naman!

4. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita wished for birthday boy Erap long life and many more birthdays to come. (Update!) And Erap adamant in the new GO pol-ad saying that we should revolt against corruption in the government.

5. Pacquiao impersonating Mike Enriquez.

6. The histrionics of self-important wannabe artistas and their self-important life stories in Half-Pinoy Big Brother. (How come it's Pinoy when everybody seems to be half-something. Half-German. Half-Aussie. Half-British. Half-Alien. Half-Male. WTF??!!

7. Christian Bautista's effortless attempt at being gay. Sing: Sa Pinoy care, walang tatalo, Pinoy care, handog mo sa mundo!!!!

8. (It's not Pinoy but I'm counting it.) Oprah interviewing Janet Jackson.

Now your turn.

Almost all of us when we were kids might have fancied becoming a doctor. Clad in antiseptic white medical gown, the most recurrent childhood image would be one with a hanging stethoscope by the neck. I always had this caricature in mind being a kid who once ambitioned to become a life-saving hero. Such aspiration wasn’t sustained though unlike those who really went on to labor through pre-med to med school. But truth is, surgery is where the real action is. A doctor could get some serious ass-kicking saving lives when he's best a surgeon with the OR as his playing field.

This surgical action is what really makes me stick through every Grey’s Anatomy episode. The melodrama is a bit soap-ish but then it humanizes the mechanical and artificial feel of the Seattle Grace Hospital. In the operating room, you feel the tension and the knife-sharp precision of every procedure. You think you’re watching real doctors, but in fact they’re really characters who one minute away from the OR are irritably twitchy, sex-starved, egotistic, attention-grabbing bitches and assholes.

They get weird sometimes and totally unpredictable. As weird and unpredictable from the cases they handle – male ‘pregnancy’, spontaneous orgasms, a ticking bomb inside a thoracic cavity. Their candid exchanges sometimes feel perfunctory and unflinching as their initial diagnoses. But they feel – sometimes putting enough emotional baggage in a patient – and sometimes they cry over the death of someone whose life they were heroically saving a minute ago.

I just finished the two-season marathon of the series. (The local channel showing it has 3 episodes left before the explosive finale.) After 30 or so episodes, I realized it was not the amount of blood shed or flesh cut, that would have prevented me from being a surgeon or a doctor for that matter, but the feeling after one declares the time of death. That sudden plunge into silence and grief. Having faced death, it's an emotional pit I don’t think I could ever get out of. It’s a difficult feeling knowing that you could not save lives at all times.

David Denby, The New Yorker film critic, sheds light on current trend in filmmaking. He refers to it as ‘The New Disorder’. This emerging type of film narrative distorts time and chronology and (for me) actually makes fun out of the unsuspecting audience. The Innaritu-Arriaga trilogy which ends in Babel falls perfectly. Others: Traffic, Pulp Fiction.

Some of the directors may be just playing with us or, perhaps, acting out their boredom with that Hollywood script-conference menace the conventional “story arc.” But others may be trying to jolt us into a new understanding of art, or even a new understanding of life. In the past, mainstream audiences notoriously resisted being jolted. Are moviegoers bringing some new sensibility to these riddling movies? What are we getting out of the overloading, the dislocations and disruptions?

***

I’m prolly on my way to a new addiction. It’s called Justice. No I didn’t join the Crusade Against Violence. It’s the legal thriller/courtroom drama which just premiered last night in a local channel, which is a miraculous thing to have (for those who can’t afford cable), given the tons of crap on TV right now.

Victor Garber who played Sidney Bristol’s father in the recently concluded Alias is ballistic on last night’s episode. I can sense his character is way different than his laid-back one on Alias. And there’s Kerr Smith who you may not prolly remember because you were swooning over James Van Der Beek who, by the way, is where now?

I haven’t seen Boston Legal so I have no chance to compare. But I can sense this will be the closest I can get since The Practice.

The lawyers’ swagger and their scorching arguments (objection your Honor, argumentative!). The unbelievably convincing witnesses. The judge who we could care less about. The conniving jury. The evidences (exhibit 288A) and crime scenes displayed and re-enacted in such sensational fashion.

Sounds like fun.

I was watching the local news’ reportage on events around the globe. The news about the soccer riot in Italy caught my eye. It seems like Italy may have seen the best of the game. Italy, of course, the 2006 FIFA World Cup champs, has recently been caught in a soccer scandal months before. Now, they may have seen the best of it, as a riot ensued between a game of two Italian teams causing the death of a police officer. A soccer official threatened to cancel games for quite a time.

See story here.

I continued to read Sophie’s Choice while my two young half-brothers were watching Atlantika, a local fantaserye (as what it’s called). Since we’re living in one cramped room, I often glance at the TV to see what’s happening. From what it’s called, you can easily guess it is largely a Filipino version of Atlantis: The Lost City.

Piranos (Paolo Contis) is beating the hell out of Aquano (Dingdong Dantes), but a fit of conscience occurred to him and offers Aquano a fair chance at their battle (believe me, it’s not like any battle you’ve seen). He lets Dingdong choose between his love Amaya (Iza Calzado) and her mom. On the other side of Atlantika, Katrina Halili and Jean Garcia were wailing because they have been captured by the Centurions and were awaiting their doom. (Don’t you wonder why damsels keep on wailing “bitiwan n’yo ako!” in unbelievable octaves when the fact remains that the abductors aren’t close to letting them go, and never in a thousand years?) The badass of a ruler, Barracud (Ariel Rivera) and his aliporeses are entering the portal to the new Atlantika signaling the old one’s destruction. It seems like everyone is set for cinematic grandeur only that it isn’t close to even the smell of it.

I don't want to jinx him but I can't keep myself from writing about him. He's really good. Jimmy Marquez, from Toledo, Cebu, did very well on the Gary Valenciano-themed episode of Search for a Star in a Million Season 2. He chose Gaya Ng Dati, and made the song his. Wow! Gary V. himself was impressed. The song developed more meaning for me because of Jimmy's rendition. Wow, I was blessed by Jimmy's song. So, right after, I sent a text message to vote for Jimmy ("siam JIMMY" to 23661 for T-mobile subscribers).

I hope he will win it all or at least get a chance to record. I definitely want to buy his album. Watch out, world, Jimmy Marquez is rising!

---
Gaya Ng Dati
lyricsbox.com

Dati-rati
Laman ng puso mo ay ang pangalan Ko
Lagi Ako sa isip mo
Dati-rati
Inaawitan pa labi ay may ngiti
Mga mata’y nagniningning
Ngunit ngayon nagbago ka
Nasa’n na ang init ng pagsinta
Pangako mo’y hindi magwawakas

Di ba’t noon
Samyo ng bulaklak at ihip ng hangin ay kapansin-pansin
Di ba’t noon takbo ng oras ay di mo napapansin
Laging naglalambing
Ngunit ngayon naglaho na
Sigla’t tamis ng iyong pagsinta
Pagmamahal Ko ba’y kailangan pa
Ooh

Dati-rati
Mga pangako Ko’y kandungan mo’t lakas
Sa pagsubok ay kay tatag
Di ba’t noon
Sa kaibigan mo’y Akong bukambibig
Bakit ngayo’y anong lamig

Di mo alam Ako’y nasasaktan
Sa di pagpansin sa Aking pagmamahal
Lumapit ka’t Ako’y naghihintay
Naghihintay, ohh

Ako’y nasasaktan
Sa di pagpansin sa aking pagmamahal
Lumapit ka’t ako’y naghihintay

Di mo alam Ako’y nasasaktan
Sa di pagpansin sa Aking pagmamahal
Lumapit ka’t Ako’y naghihintay

Panginoon
Ako’y nabulag ng mandarayang mundo
Ako ay patawarin Mo
Mula ngayon ang buhay kong ito’y
Iaalay sa Iyo gamitin mo ako
Gaya ng dati
Gaya ng dati
Gaya ng dati

----
I had a great time this weekend at Wild Waves. My vocal cords are still recovering from all the screaming.

"will you say that you love me?"

For a long time I resisted Regine's version of Say That You Love Me. I felt like it was just so ... wrong. Now I'm listening to it, and it feels just right. Well, I've seen the video too. Raymond Bagatsing is so papable there. I've always liked Martin's version. I also heard Lea's version. It took me quite a while, considering that we are talking about Lea here, to warm up to it too.

I read that Regine surprised Sandara during the taping of a Sandara TV special. I've heard so many stories of Regine's generosity that I don't believe there was any menace to her "I'm freaking Regine Velasquez" quote. She has always been gracious to her fans and colleagues that it just seem so out of character.

"ikaw ang lahat sa akin"
it's a rainy day in seattle. this song is so perfect because of its melancholy tone. i really like this version too, as well as that of ella may saison's. claudine's soap of the same name is very cute. i can see me getting hooked on it. :)