Secretary Gonzales' Big Mouth

Secretary Gonzales is at again. GMA's court jester can't help keep his deepest obsessive compulsion to run out of his seemless tireless mouth. I think he has this predestined burden of responsibility to be always have the media's attention and that is why he needs to pick a fight with anyone in random who is in his boss' critics. And the lucky Gonzalesean flavor of the month? The University of the Philippines.

From INQ7.com: "This time, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has picked on the University of the Philippines school system, saying it mainly produces militant protesters and fraternity men and women who run around the campus naked. " (to view the rest of the article, click here.)

Personally, I can't blame him for this. Raul Gonzales is first and mostly, a politician; a very shrewd and a giant political operative at that , if you ask me. He knows the golden rule of politics: "Offense is the best defense." He knows that UP is one of the biggest thorns on his boss' side. He also knows that UP was a constant thorn to anyone who held Malacañang. Not that people from UP knows how to run this country better, but they know that they have the historical responsibility to be in the forefront of any battle that puts ordinary people on the losing side of the fence (who obviously pays for their tuition fees, and not the government which Gonzales preaches).

However, I think that Gonzales has grossly underestimated his appointed bitch-of-the-moment. Don't blame him though, he made a very brave move. Nobody in this Republic's history who has a sane mind, locked horns with this country's premier university. Yes, a brave move, but he might as well be writing his own political obituary.

It's not because UP is untouchable. UP, had it's share of shady characters from time to time that permeated the society (His boss, for one, got her PhD for economics in this university). The reason why Gonzales made the mistake of picking on UP is that because UP was on the right side of the debate. Up to now, his boss wasn't able to clear up her "victory" in the previous polls and the numerous killings made by Gen. Palparan and his merry men were not given light and justice. All should have been well if they have gathered all their balls and faced the inquisition and come out clean instead of hiding inside the skirt of a big word called "technicality."

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guards? This is how history ordained UP. It could have been any other institution. But history ordained UP this responsibility since the Martial Law. However, UP does not wish to keep the responsibility for themselves, in fact, they want all the others to share this responsibility. UP has lent its halls for symposiums , its bastions for mass actions, and its people for voices so that the public may know. UP does not claim a monopoly for truth either, that is why it's inviting everyone for debates and forums and fights for constitutional exercises like the impeachment not to be derailed, so that the truth, whatever it is, will get out and will ultimately set us all free.

What Sec. Gonzales did was a textbook move from the Art of War. It is expected of him and noble to be the first one to put the shots. However, as history teaches, UP never backed out from any fight nor any war. It is a war for the truth. Sec. Gonzales sure does need to check which side he is on.

Missing a Coupled Life

Friday yesterday, I went home tired from a long day of working and not to mention going home through an onslaught of ravaging weather. Also, I still feel a bit slurred since I just survived from a flu throughout the week while I was doing may day job as a PR guy side by side with my hidden identity as manager of a rock band who is currently having their recording from a place so remote, we need Global Positioning Sattelites (GPS), 18th century-made maps, and shirts worn wrong-side-out just to get to the studio and not to get lost.

Anyway, going home is a welcome feeling, so I thought until I opened up the gate and went in.

I notice that our garage was flooded. I was puzzled where all that water came from. I suspected that it came from the rain, however, living in that house for more than four years now, that would be the first time that thing happened. Also, yes the weather is bad but not that bad enough for our street to be flooded. Mysteriously, only our house was marooned.

I tried to trace the source of the water and I found out that the water came inside our house... INSIDE THE HOUSE !?!? I immediately got my keys and unlocked the door and when I opened it I saw the inside of our house, in all its glory, flooded.

When I say flooded, I didn't mean like the floor was wet or something. Flooded as in water inside the house was like a centimeter deep. Perfect for sailing paper boats which obviously was not my mood at that moment. The first thing that came to my mind is to do the most logical thing to do, to panic.

Panicked I did. I called everyone I can call to help me solve the mystery of the marooned house. While waiting for them, I did the initial clean up. Still in my work clothes, I grabbed a stick broom and tried to dislodge the water by sweeping it out of the house. The house looked like it came from the set of the James Cameron's Titanic without Leonardo Di Caprio... or more importantly, without Kate Winslet.

Everyone arrived thirty minutes later. Good thing I practically did everything from the inside so that they can be spared from the shock I felt when I first saw it. However, the proof of the flooding is still in the garage, the only place I was not able to start sweeping. Everyone tried to be Sherlock Holmes and tried to find out where all this water came from. It couldn't be the rain because there were no leaks in the ceiling. My brother then realized that our water tank is empty. Now as if everyone got hit by a truck that instant, we all knew what is the culprit. An unclosed faucet inside the bathroom.

Now, that solved what is the culprit. But who is the culprit, that is another story.Who was the last person to leave the house? Everyone looked at me.

Yes, I was the last one who left the house but I defended myself that I bathed using the water stored on the container because when I took a bath, the village already turned off the main tank. However, that even more incriminated me since it can be easily deduced and assumed that when I turned the faucet on to see if there was water, I forgot to turn it off. And when the village turned the main tank on... well the rest is history.

I really don't know what to feel at that time. Obviously it was my fault. Nobody scolded me though because I was the one who pays the water bills. However, since I know I will be paying a lot higher this month, I wanted to be mad at the culprit. The doggone moron just wasted money and precious water due to his stupidity. Obviously, I cannot be mad at myself.

Anyway, coming to terms with myself, I suddenly missed the feeling of having special. Because times like these when you know that you made a very stupid thing and feel very bad about it, just feeling the warmth of a hug from your special someone erases everything. No words need to be spoken, just a tight hug. It's funny, being with someone you love makes time stop and go fast at the same time. Just being sitted on the same couch with her, and do nothing just co- couch potatoes watching TV makes bad feelings like those go away.

I need to find my caveman club and look for one now.

Sandler's Candid Camera Trick (Review of the Movie, "Click")

Adam Sandler pulled out a fast one on us. He orchestrates his own version of Candid Camera ( or Punk'd for the MTV generation or Victim for Filipino telly-viewers) to us who watched his latest movie, Click.

We thought that this will be a typical Sandler flick, but nooooo sir, we were at the butt of a Sandler joke and instead of us laughing at him, I'm pretty sure that he is the one laughing at us. Might as well at the end of the movie, he jumps out of the theatre and shout at us: "You all are in Candid Camera!" ( or "You've been Punk'd!" for the Ashton Kutcher fans or "Ikaw ay isang veeek-teeem!!!" for Carlos Agassi ... er...fans.)

From adamsandler.com: Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a family man whose busy career as an architect does not leave much time for his wife Donna(Kate Beckinsale) and his two kids. Unable one day to determine which of his many remotes turns on the television, he decides he needs a universal remote that does it all. On his search for the perfect device, he meets Morty (Christopher Walken) who gives him a one-of-a-kind remote that has magical powers. With each click, Michael can control his career and personal life. But complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices.

Again, the plot sounds like your typical Adam Sandler movie, and on the start of the movie, it is an Adam Sandler movie. The Sandler formula is there: the pseudo-slapstick shmucks, the juvenile humor, animals, kids, the "Hidden Mickey" Rob Schneider cameo (Didn't see him? Look closely at the Arabs) and many others. Interesting to note too is Baywatch's David Hasselhoff who was great as Sandler's chauvinistic boss.

However, as you watch comfortably and get sucked into this "Sandler movie," you feel that your heart is being stabbed. You do not know what hit you because as the film progresses into the climax, you will feel that you cannot stand it anymore and will begin to cry. Of course it will start as your eyes feeling moist, and then after a few more minutes the dam will burst. When I watched Click for the second time with my friend, Toothfairy, I looked at her at the particular moment, I saw her bursting into tears (and so half of the theatre, I suppose).

The only thing you can ask yourself is this: "What happened? Am I still watching the same movie?" while wiping your tears and blowing your nose (if you're lucky to bring with you a roll of tissue paper).

Ahhh, yes. What hit you? You're on Candid Camera. Adam Sandler's Candid Camera. You've been punk'd. Imagine Adam Sandler saying: Ikaw ay isang veeek-teeem!!!

Chito's Stern Warning (Review of the Movie, "Sukob")

My buying and watching of pirated DVD's has finally caught up on me.

I bought a pirated copy of Chito Rono's new film "Sukob" and watched it alone in the comforts of my room. This turned out to be a dumb mistake. I began watching the Kris Aquino - Claudine Barreto starrer lying on my bed trying to catch some zzzz's, but I ended watching the movie crouched, holding my pillows tight and my blanket covering my whole self.

I shouted so many times, that I'm afraid that my neighbors would call the cops to report that I am being raped inside my own home.

"Sukob" is Chito Rono's way of sternly reminding us to follow traditions and superstitions that are considered too mundane and petty in our high-tech world. He makes us believe that we already know what's going on in the story and throws us all off track in the last second. And on the very last microsecond, he throws us off balanced again. If you've been to Puerto Galera and rode the "Banana" or "Pencil" boats (I heard there's one on Boracay as well), you'll get what I mean.

I am glad to know that this is a Filipino film. Although there are points in the movie that I think are a chopseuy of hommages to Asian scare movies, "Sukob" still stands out to be its own movie. This is the first time I saw a good acting from Kris Aquino and Claudine Barretto did great in justifying her martyr-clueless role. Even the supporting roles are substantive to develop the plot and not follow the usual pinoy style of cut-out cardboard characters. Ronaldo Valdez ,for example, shows us again in this movie why he is on the top echelons of actors in the country.

Chito Rono is very saddistic in this film, not to his characters though, but to us, his viewers. He scares us, then scares us again while being scared just for him to scare us again on that instance.

After watching this movie, I resolve that I:

1. Marry ten years after a sibling of mine or my future wife's get married, to avoid being jinxed. And;

2. Never buy pirated DVD of a spook movie from Chito Rono and watch it alone in my room.


****

Thank you, Ms. Jessica Zafra, for that short and sweet email that you sent. As my overlord and dominatrix of this universe, that's the only thing a sentinel like me can do. :)

Childhood Heroes (Hommage to Nitelite)

"May tomorrow be a perfect day,

May you find love and laughter along the way,

May God keep you in his tender care,

'Till he brings us together again....Goodnight everybody!"

-DJ Monica (every closing of "Nitelite")

(actually originally coming from "Donny and Marie")

Everyone has one. Fictional or not, everyone has someone they look up to. When I was a kid, it used to be Superman. My mom bought me a Superman costume when I was little and she recalls that I always wear that and run around the house. There was this episode that they caught me above a step ladder, ready to jump with the belief that like Superman, I have innate powers that can make me defy the laws of gravity. Good thing they caught me before I jumped, or if not, I might be hating Superman for the rest of my life.

Another story my mom recalls about it is that, I love wearing that Superman costume that I demanded to wear it 24/7. That's the same age when I can say that I am not yet properly potty-trained. So it's always a constant scenario when Super-me flew around and bludgeoned my enemies while there's a little something deposited on my behind.

I was a kid then and I don't do it anymore, if that is what you'll be asking me.

I had so many childhood heroes, but let me skip ahead when I was in High School (I am including this because my childhood officially stopped when I was 24).

By accident, I vaguely recall, I was given a walkman as a birthday present. One of those nights when I can't sleep, I happen to stumble into an FM station and right at that very moment there was a program just having their pilot episode. If I can recall, I enjoyed it so much because it's a talk show on FM. After that, every Wednesday when it strucked 12AM (So, it's technically a Thursday by then), it became a habit for me to listen.

I found out that I was not alone. Nitelite had it's mammoth share of insomniac listeners as well (They are insomniacs, for me, it's an effort). Every Wednesday night (no, it was already a Thursday morning), many folks from different strokes call them and share anything they want to talk about. The triumvirate of the show, Little David, Monica, and The Blade, will then give their cents worth about the caller's topic. This ain't your usual Joe D' Mango thing because many of the topics does not concern love at all. Nitelite was your weekly radio free-for-all. It was a fun program, if I knew better they might have been using a technology via the radio to inject addictives to its listeners, because I know that I for one, am a Nitelite addict, a Nitelite junkie.

There's no other word to describe the program but FUN. You have The Blade who was good in making voices (I remember his "Inday Badiday" spoof) , and there's Monica who is always ... happy. She's a talking energy bar, perky and funny. She always bring with her her "tickle me Elmo" doll. Show's not complete without Elmo laughing on-the-air and saying "It tickles!" To complete the triumvirate is Little David, the "voice of reason" among the three (I know the other two will object if they get to read this).

Anyway, the show is a riot. It's fun. When you're listening you really feel that you are a part of the show. It's just like that you're all seated on the carpet on your sala, eating chips and drinking coke. It's a "spritual" bonding session between you, the three hosts, and the thousands of listeners. (Boy, if the analogy is true, then you must have a very big sala.) I remember calling the show twice, using the code name DrumsAway. I even recorded the two episodes (which I f***ingly lost when I moved houses). I remember the problem I called about was a dilemmna about love and staying in the seminary (well, I left the seminary for the girl... and four years later, the girl left me for another guy... you know the story). I forgot what their advice were, but it doesn't matter. Just the feeling of actually talking to them and hearing your voice on radio was a mind blowing experience. It's like chatting with the Beatles.

The show was running for years, and I tried to be present in all the classes. I was so young then, I cannot attend their movie nights, that is why I never got the chance to meet them face to face. When I entered the seminary, however, it became hard for me to listen to them because there is a schedule we must adhere to and it's lights-out by 10 PM. I tried to sneak my walkman there but I just cannot keep pace anymore. During vacations I get to renew my listening vows to them but when classes in the seminary starts again, it's listening hiatus one more time.

Nitelite singlehandedly made me want to go into radio. When I was in the seminary I always ask my English teacher to help me enunciate better and give me exercises to make my pitch low (my pitch is annoyingly high, which up to now unfortunately still is). I found out that a priest friend of mine is friends with the owner of 94.7 Mellow Touch FM which is just a door away from Nitelite's station! I went to the Mellow Touch for their monthly mass and sneaked out to see if my fave trio was on their station (also to give them a kilo of mangoes), but unfortunately, they weren't.

I finally left the seminary 2001. I again resumed listening to Nitelite. But cruelly as fate would have it, the show's run is nearing it's end. I am not good with dates but I was present on the last episode until Little David said the immortal, "This is Nitelite now signing-off."

That was a very sad day for me. Afterward, I heard that Little David and Monica left the station. Nitelite, and the chance of meeting any of my childhood heroes, became wishful thinking just right then. For a time, I tried pursuing radio. I had a stint as a talking head for 4 months but it was on an AM band (hey, at least it's still in radio). Afterwards, I interned for Mellow Touch but I wasn't given an on-board chore. I was tasked to do events and PR. Anyway, I accepted finally that radio wasn't for me and that is why I concentrated into PR. Here I am now, a company spin-doctor (of course, after my call center career).

If given the chance, and of course the right salary, I would want to do radio. Thinking now, I concerned myself with things that is easily connected to radio like PR work, managing a band, writing, etc. Maybe it's like a Hansel and Gretel thing. I am leaving breadcrumbs so that when the time comes, I know how to find my way back. I'm even doing a podcasts as a practice for my upcoming charity radio stint in Aklan.

Then a miracle came. When I was psyching up and making myself ready for my upcoming podcast, an insane thought popped into my head. It's been more than 4 years now, how are the Nightlite crew doing? At that point, I needed my original daemons in radio. If you don't know where you're headed check where you begun. I don't know where to start, but thank God for technology when I remembered... GOOGLE!

I googled them in every possible way and I found forums that talked about them. I jumped from one forum to another to another. I was like Robert Langdon jumping from one clue to the next, hyperlink per hyperlink.

And then I found it. One forum led to a blog. A blog just like mine. It was Mano's blog, her recent update is about her wedding and it has her wedding pictures posted. I'm like Robert Langdon face to face with what he thinks is the holy grail. I posted a reply into her journal asking her if she was the Monica from Nitelite.

She said yes. She was Monica from Nitelite and the wedding pictures were of her's and Little David's (yes, they ended up together) and The Blade was the best man.

Now, this is kinda overacting, but please let me. You know the feeling of having your body being jolted? That's how I felt. For years, I found them again, and there is a very beautiful story that came with it. They are now married, it's like Camelot in radioland.

This is one of my longest blogs ever written. This is my hommage to Nitelite and it's crew. And apparently, this story is not ending yet. It seems like this is just a beginning of another chapter. I intend to be friends with them as what I wanted and should have done for more than 7 years now. Yes, this is just a start. What's cooler than having your childhood heroes as your actual friends? I can even settle with acquaintance. It's like being friends with the Beatles.

My First Attempt

I'm still working on the kinks of producing a podcast. I produced a 50-second podcast technical test to see if everythings okay. I kinda made a promo about the upcoming podcast. Background music is the theme from "Entertainment Tonight" (kinda like "The Buzz" or "SFiles" of the U.S.). I recorded my voice using a Palm Tungsten T, that's why the voice part is a little horrible, but bearable. In the future, the Podcast will be produced into a more conducive place with better equipment. Hey, this is just a test, =)

Anyway, what do you think? Here it is :

Project: Marooned Promo (Technical Test)

Maybe I'll Podcast Soon

Yes, this is embarrassing for me to write in this blog. And yes, there are still things that I am embarrassed writing about. This is one of them.

An N.G.O. based in Aklan (same province where you find Boracay and The Ati-Atihan Festival) will be putting up a local radio station there... To make the long story short, I was invited to do a local radio talkshow in Aklan.

I'm not moving there though, the plan is, I will make "canned program" (meaning I'll be pre-recording the show) here in Manila and I will send it there so that it can be broadcasted there to cater to my same age-group listeners (And what group is that? Between 3 and 9 years old).

Yes, I had radio experience before. During my college years, I interned for 94.7 mellow Touch FM and I was part of a talkshow aired on Radio Veritas on the AM band. But that's just about it. Like the gazillions of people around, I am still but a novice in this field. So imagine my nervousness about it.

And that is why I need to practice. Since I have this website and a good amount of storage space, I will try to do podcasts, hopefully on a regular basis so that I can practice my future stint. This may sound an egotrip because I'm the least credentialled to do talk (internet) radio. And let's face it, a Howard Stern or Ryan Seacrest I'm not. I'm just me, holding a microphone nervously and attempting to spew some sense out of my mouth.

Anyway, if my "podcasts" do come true, I hope that you will listen to at least some of them. I'm not asking this so that I can have a "fanbase" or anything, sheeeesh.... I'm asking you to listen so that you can tell me a.s.a.p if my grammar was wrong, or if I mispronounced my e's and p's, or, if you felt that I sounded geeky, etc. Well, you know the drill.

Well, that's it then. Now, where to find my trusty old recorder...

Superman Never Left, He was just Busy Being Me.

It's been sometime now since I last wrote something about anything and publish it on the net. I missed the good old days when I used to blog a lot. However, I became busy with mundane things like having a job, screwing my employers and paying the bills, to name a few, and that is why I gave up many little sweet things in my life, blogging included.


Writing again after a long time feels weird. The first thing I tried to do is to look up the blogs of my contemporaries and see what's going on with them and hopefully, to catch up on old times. But most of the URL's that I remember pointed to a blank webpage. It's either they changed web hosts, or just like me, they became busy with things.


I tried going to my old webpage and I was surprised to see a picture of a teenage girl with her breasts exposed. God knows I remember that I did not run a porn site before, so just imagine my shock (of course after the 2 minutes I ogled at the picture) of finding what happened to my blog site. It turned out, that my web provider closed shop to their free hosting and decided it's better to put naked women on their site (not that I object to it).


So here I am like a writer without a home. I dont know where to start and where to write. I have to content myself from the time being in putting my rumblings here at Friendster Blogs. Which is okay because nobody here reads the blogs anyway. Come on now, I never heard anyone say "Hey, I'll open up my friendster to read those maginificent blogs!" 99% of people logging in friendster is just waiting for their network to expand (so that they can finally put the word "full" beside their name, that's the badge of honor around here), or see if they have new testimonials (I even know people begging for one. Pathetic.). Why do I know about those 99%? I am one of them.


Anyway, I pray that I be more consciencious in doing this. As an epitome of procrastination, that would be a challenge and knowing myself better, I am betting that I will fail. But hey, I terribly missed my old life as a blogger. That might give me the push.


I hope, my blogging will make me meet new freinds just like before. I also hope that I would see my old blogmates blog again, just like the old goodtimes.

As I am now writing again, I feel like Superman coming back to earth. But hey, Superman never left, he was just busy being me.