procrastination 101

after all the vexations it has wrought, my cough, particularly my cold is now over. i still feel weak in certain aspects, it's just maybe due to my perpetual laziness or i'm floating in my self-inflicted malaise. both blogging and house chores took a beating. i didn't like missing work as i've surely missed tons this year. this is what a change of season does to me, it's probably nature's way of saying i should change my eating habits --- eliminate some carbo loaded foods, include more fruits and vegetables in the diet.

since i'm imprisoned inside the comforts of my nest, i get to wallow in my inner bakya persona (i should use jologs, but i exteremely hate that term). baduy is my other favorite word. that's what i have always been, bakya, baduy. i was a vilmanian when i was one and a half (roughly that age), then after viewing all the nora aunor classics (post guy and pip) on cinema one in the early part of this decade, i've seen daylight and caught on with the critics. there's no replacement for good acting, whether she's a superstar, megastar, a character actress. what is sad though is the dearth of filipino films these days. was it only the last decade when there was at least a pinoy movie opening every week? i wasn't much of a fan of action pictures, but they provide a vehicle to ease the burden of the unemployment crunch. i didn't mind a tito, vic and joey or a dolphy starrer, though i've never paid on my own to watch a pinoy comedy on the big screen. not even okay ka fairy ko, the movie, whose tv rendition i was glued into during its decade-long run on three channels. i don't watch ai-ai or a spoof comedy film whether in the movies or on tv.

as i unearth tidbits from my memory reel, i go back in time when i was ten, i was bawling my tears for yagit the movie, venting my animosity on gretchen in 14 going steady (janice was flordeluna and i used to dig her big time), sat in the front of the theater for bagets 2 ( i was already 11 then), observed that eddie garcia was in one movie every week. but that was 1984 (1985 for bagets 2), and the marcoses were still in power. eat bulaga was the number one noontime variety show. fast forward to 2007, eat bulaga is still around, holding firm in this age of constant flux. these days, it's considered good business if there's a filipino film opening every month.

but despite the lack of pinoy movies being made ( i still have to dip my feet into cinemalaya indies) tons of actor-wannabes are being discovered through reality shows, ie -- big brother, one of the endemol-produced programs whose uk version is totally unpalatable (that's just me talking). before thalia's marimar conquered pinoy tv in 1995, not a single primetime local soap was in existence. now there are tons -- drama and fantasy. a dramedy soap started and ended with luv ko si babes. thanks to all the pangako sa yo coinage, the term teleserye was born. i like the term soap opera better as it's more universal.

bumping into a clip of pinoy marimar recently, made me shudder. i'm not into the network wars. perhaps i've been spoiled with the nora-vilma, even sharon, maricel characterizations of my youth, but i know bad acting when i see one. lured by the flawless skins of venezuelan actors in la traidora, i followed the dubbed exploits of marimar on rpn 9. most of the interiors were shot in a studio -- the santibanez house, the aldama mansion, event the resort's office. but the pace and specially the acting was convincing. probably that was the magic of thalia, who was also effective in maria la del barrio and rosalinda. the GMA writers maimed the story arc a bit. in the original, angelica was never sergio's ex-girlfriend, she was merely a young stepmom. plus sergio was not taken with the chutzpah of bella aldama and had a son with another woman.

but rags to riches stories are always a great fodder for a country in earnest third world image, specially the capital, metro manila. our psych is still concentrated on the appeal of the white skin or the knock-out figure of those babes on FHM. our market is flooded with whitening lotions and creams that never work. that's the attraction of marimar -- marian rivera's bikini-beauty fair skin, definitely not the acting. add to that manilans or the the whole urban luzon, no longer swayed by the conjurations of the lopez network. who cares about a fine performance when we all want to be white (while a tanned skin is such a charm for the whites)? it's not my ysabella subconscious talking. i don't watch judy ann santos for her body type. i hate confrontational scenes which are always a feature in her starrers most especially ysabella. but i can't see any of juday's "quickie" acting habits, picked up in soaps and anthologies, as interminably pointed out by nestor torre all these years. are those habits pertain to her facial tics and expressions, or the diction in delivery? i've read torre's article again and again and i still couldn't find any fault in judy ann santos' renditions, though i download ysabella everyday. what i see are her expressive eyes and with those bold and precarious tears, one can easily feel her pain.

through the fascinating atrributes of web video, i get stuck impairing my eyesights staring at the computer screen, as usual. i've forgotten tv. four episodes of ugly betty are still waiting. i'm now ruing having missed the elimination round of university challenge. it wouldn't hurt maybe if i'll play one episode through sky plus -- another product of the rupert murdoch domain, here at medieval britain, his son james is in-charge of cable operations.

one of these days, i'll watch tv.