slurrings

crash, a best picture winner in the 2005 academy awards, is one hollywood gem that touched my insecurities. the movie tackled racism in the vast landscape of los angeles. gripped with strain inside the cinema as i was watching the reel, it showed the various facets of my multi-racial existence, a dimension full of disdain for certain cultures. when i was growing up in bacolod, i frequently observed filipino films stereotyping actors from the visayas as maids and the butts of the jokes. that was status quo and i didn't find it derogatory. there's this hint of swagger in all of us. one of my friends, who's not even from manila but from a popular tourist destination somewhere in luzon, blurted out this line about one of our superiors, "baw si inday, mukha siyang katulong." my friend may wear her goody-goody shoes from the outside, but in the cores of her emotions, she could be haughty and stucked-up.

although i haven't seen sakal, sakali, saklolo yet. i'm quite familiar on the impact and impression of the controversial dialogues. i can only watch the movie through dvd, because i'm bounded by the limited media of my location to help out in its box office receipts. besides there's not a chance in my swamped sked i'm going to miss this film even sans all these vociferations. in all likelihood the voices against the so-called slurs in the flick had a specific agenda that easily gathered media mileage and got pushed into the pages of entertainment blogs and torn into pieces by adherents of rival festival outputs. the impressionable teens (is it really PG-13?) who would bear witness to the negative remarks in the dramedy, whether they're from luzon, or visayas and mindanao, will find out for themselves how the world revolves, that in our native land, denizens from the capital look down on individuals from all the provinces and not just from areas beyond region four.

lola (gloria diaz) to yaya : bakit ninyo pinapalaki na bisaya ang apo ko? ~~ angie (judy ann) to yaya : speak to the kid in tagalog. parang pinoy.

i have an idea how those lines were actually presented. they were not meant to offend. accord our gray matter a work out, it's always a charm to see beyond the literal pitch.

in a bigger context, wherever parts of our beloved archipelago you were born and bred even if you're from the lovely capital, the progressive spheres still see all of us collectively as a nation of upheavals. we are required a visa to enter the boundaries of most countries in europe, north america and the powers that be in the G8. plus in the eyes of most caucasians, richer asians, the lads who follow football, or the faces i see everyday, by virtue of our phyletic heritage, we were already bequeathed the smaller portion of the tasty pie and therefore beneath them.

rugby, football reveries

i tried but i can't really pinpoint who uttered this age-old adage "football is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans while rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen." i've never been to a live rugby match but i've been to live football matches. my knowledge of expletives have surely grown in all these years being bombarded by the beautiful game day and night. we are all through the news and scads of documentaries that football firms exist. in reality, it's not unreachable to stay level-headed in such chaotic surroundings. but through all the docu's and football specials i've seen about the fan rivalries in europe and south america, i could attest that the english premier league is a much safer environment.

rugby, having its name derived from the rugby school in warwickshire, the oldest public school in england, is a posh sport. i thought with all the aggression of the game, it might have a working class following but no. it's a sport of the middle class. and despite looking the other way, the great divide between the rich and the poor, truly and utterly exists. it's fair to correlate rugby with polo or equestrian, both rich man's sports.

basketball matches in RP in comparison are usually mild and serene. the police don't surround the area, there are no stewards to separate the home and away fans as there are no such things as home and away fans. the supporters of both teams can actually co-exist and cheer together. football may appear boring to the average pinoy but it's actually the most tension-filled atmosphere i've ever been subjected myself into. when you're very tiny and surrounded by inebriated, highly-partisan seven-footers and with all the screaming testosterones, it can become scary. but then football unlike most north american sports with all the timeouts alloted in the world do not go on forever and before i know it i get to go home as soon as the whistle is blown.

the match at home against fulham on boxing day was fantastic.
glory, glory tottenham hotspur.
it's nice to see ledley king back.










amongst the crowd and the police
outside the ground

a sniff of the holidays

i'm exhausted. that's in addition to this lingering query whether or not i jotted down an entry in one clinical form during the last shift. when the next days are going to be swamped with the holiday grind and the answer wouldn't be until friday, i'm held in deep suspense. again, i've learned some critical insights. if only the world doesn't screech to a halt during christmas day in the uk.

my brother P woke up at three am on the 25th to prepare the menu for a christmas day with my parents at the hills. the thought of losing my dearest mom and dad still reverberates, especially when i get condescending stares and vehemence from the wicked witches of the north who never ceased to manifest their tempers to the world, while my folks were taken away from us. but the stares are no longer as rooted as the early days of the year. the change of scenery breathe a few perspectives professionally. although i want nothing more than for my brothers to glide along in career contentment.

this year, no matter how tacky, we got a christmas tree. i'm so reluctant to let go of the presents. they're nice adornments. the tree would be so bare without them. it remains to be seen how long can i last without opening one wrapped item. coming up with only a middling array of gifts for the eternal loved ones didn't deter my "no-time-to shop" mindframe in reveling in the spirit of the season. although i know this so-called christmas free time would soon fade as i'll be stuck welcoming the new year in the pink walls of our work station. would the new year fireworks be grand? we'll see.

happy christmas everyone!

two bits of laurie

i love watching hugh laurie. his sardonic wit can easily hold his audience captive whether he's in character or not, although there seems to be a chasm (only to the uninitiated) between his two personas. he may be the yankee brillitant jerk in house but he is high-brow british. eton and cambridge educated. both fry and laurie pushes me to ponder whether a school background is vital in attaining, in the words of jane eyre, fervid eloquence. based on some examples, not necessarily. but it's still bliss to be enveloped in profound and astute ambience.

brothers and the pba

my younger brothers and i have been through a lot. if you're one of those people who've been nice and kind to any one of my dearest brothers through our trying times, bless your heart. don't mind me. i can take comments like , "o, bakit mestizo mga kapatid mo, ikaw mukhang native?" ha? knowing my mom, she would only produce a hearty chuckle upon hearing that comment.

anyway, the two youngest brothers watched the pba swing in bacolod. purefoods against some team. was it Air 21?

i asked king's --- "wala gid kamu nagpa-picture upod kay james yap?"
P -- "masal-an pa to kami karon nga a_i. kadamu pa nga daan ko to chicks nga kilala."

if i were there of course, i would be able to tap kris' husband's shoulders and ask for an autograph. only for fun.

dvd wait

in the mid-90's, i was sucked into the vortex that was mara clara. i'm still relishing being submerged in that same vortex. ryan agoncillo describes this dramedy better than anyone else, even better than the director himself who also wrote the film and also one of my favorite essay writers. i think the former review night host was talking to boy abunda during the promo. or was it in another showbiz oriented show? anyhow, a sneak preview from a jasry fan site. thanks.

wintry glares

this time of the year is always a rush. i'm not talking about christmas shopping. it's the season of long nights and short days. i'm always in a rush to catch daylight. the layers i have to wear get my ire and they're always not enough. as a tropical country oldie, i'm cold. not freezing cold, but it's frosty.

bracing myself for an atonement sweep in the BAFTAs, the golden globe's announcement ushered a brand new awards season. i have this habit of not snuggling the projects of actors who aren't in my slumbook list -- keira knightley, brangelina, cb, etc. though reading that one half of the brangelina duo snared a nomination is a bummer, i do what i do best, look the other way and admit the power of their tabloid machinery which is espoused by one fan too many.

it's just human nature to take sides and not like someone, especially when it comes to celebrities, or politics or sports. i don't like roger federer, one bit. or any other nba team aside from the lakers. being partisan constitute our personality structures in this world and that's way better than not having a choice at all.

i'm dreaming of the sun and white sand beaches.
if only....





season's greetings!

creep

i'm supposed to talk about boxing, the welterweight fight between ricky hatton and floyd mayweather as the topic. however, as it was pay per view, i didn't get to see the action and the five am start time (uk time) did me in. i can't wake up that early and i can't sleep too early either. but it would have been neat to be able to witness two great fighters spar. when is the dela hoya fight?

it's not easy being a sports fan. not a lot of the work colleagues follow sports (who cares who won the last table tennis world championships?) and none of my friends. so i live a pretty lonely existence. when you have no one to share your interests, it's like talking to a wall. but i got used to it over the years. so many extroverted atmospheres are not my scenes. it's probably great to meet new people at parties, but i always have this urge to distance myself from the penetrating gazes of muckrakers.

in another scope of fascination, the london concerts of both foo fighters and radiohead at wembley stadium and victoria park respectively, are sold out. the playdates are in june. but my sweet babe has told me that it's only sold out from their own websites. hopefully there's still hope.

it's also like the west end production of othello with chiwetel ejiofor as othello and ewan macgregor as iago. also sold out. i know i should have watched macgregor in guys and dolls two years ago. or try to sneak into christian slater's gig in swimming with sharks in its remaining run. but who knows something might come up in the next few weeks.

a lovely art site

my tita wan gave me a link to her heartwarming art site. for someone like myself who can't even draw a straight line, her artwork never fails to bring a sense of pride. i was walking along hampstead more than two weeks ago, passing along the galleries in the ritzy neighborhood, when it dawned on me that she deserved a full scale exhibit. when that time comes, i'll be one of the firsts in the queue.

a date with macbeth

it was a rainy night. if hubby and i sat nearer than where we were reserved, we would have been more drenched. in watching plays, shakespeare in particular, it's always a good idea to be a few seats back. remember gary oldman's advice on friends? "actors should enunciate!" meaning, it's not intended, but the enduring efficacy of drool permeates during crescendos, and it did during that wintry shakespearean night.

the play was word by word shakespeare. my upbringing wasn't that crude, but it wasn't high-brow either, i got by, though impatiently. macbeth may not be as long as hamlet. but it was still almost three hours. i got to see patrick stewart act, in the flesh and acquired an even greater admiration for shakespearean actors. those super long monologues. wow!

i couldn't wait to read some more classics. shakespeare is very relevant. macbeth is about murder and greed that the first world inhabitants couldn't comprehend. it's like the renegade soldiers in my country. why do rebels rebel? what do they want to accomplish? it's not about the country or its people, it's for their own selfish pursuits.