mababang langit

TLDR: 1.) a 30% entertainment tax levied by the government throttled local cinema output and creativity in the 90's. bong revilla wrote a bill cutting that tax to 10% in 2009, so things are on the upswing of late. bong, you are forgiven for ang panday 2 . but only that. 2.) i wish diokno had talked more about how a screen quota system can be made to work in the philippines. i think it's disgraceful that iron man 3 is playing on 3 out of 4 of our neighborhood screens but when a man loves a woman   it takes a man and a woman  only played on one. 3.) films aren't just fluff. they bring jobs and contribute to the GDP. they advertise the philippines (philippine products, culture, tourism) to the world. and the world is starting to take notice. 4.) use your money to change pinoy cinema. watch good films. give negative feedback on bad ones.

after reading about the history of penguin paperbacks (or, "How the Paperback Novel Changed Popular Literature" ) i've been suffering from an extreme case of paperback envy. the idea behind penguin was this: to sell quality books for the price of a pack of cigarettes . that's a step in the evolution of literature that we in the philippines seem to have skipped over, for various reasons. but basically, it's a chicken-or-egg scenario out there right now: publishers claim a dearth of readers, while readers can't find any affordable local novels. we have pinoy romance and horror, but what else? where are the celebrity biographies, crappy potboilers, psycho thrillers, sex-soaked shoot-em-ups? they don't even have to be good. penguins were in part a reaction to dime novels--trashy, poorly-printed books that until then had been the norm. we could start with that. no one would mind. just make them accessible. people want to read. i don't care what anybody says...

in an article posted on thepoc.net, fidelis tan discusses the state of pinoy indie komiks, which, according to her, still has quite a ways to go: Despite the flourishing of comics in the Philippines, pundits invite both readers and makers to take a more critical standpoint. It’s true that more titles are coming out, and those who frequent comics conventions have more Pinoy superheroes, enkantos, slice of life and anime knock-offs to choose from. According to comics aficionados and critics Adam David and Carljoe Javier, it takes far more than a healthier show of comics produced to signal a true elevation of Philippine comics. tan points out three long-standing problems of local indie creators: aping western comics and manga, lack of techinical know-how, and "first-issue syndrome". now all of that is true, but also, i think, like saying that society's problems are poverty, crime and lack of education. look. there will always be copycats. there will always be slop...

lifehacker recently did an interview with lee david zlotoff, creator of everyone's favorite blonde mulleted jack-of-all trades action hero (and personal hero of mine), macgyver. highlights follow. on his source of inspiration for the macgyver character: Zlotoff: Yeah, I would say ... My dad was sort of the model for MacGyver. He was, by profession, a New York City junior high shop teacher. But he could fix anything, build anything, he was kind of an amateur architect ... plumbing, electrical, wood, metal. You name it, he could do it. on the numerous macgyver parodies that have sprung up over time: Zlotoff: Well, The Simpsons jumped all over MacGyver, which, bless 'em (laughs). The two aunts were rabid MacGyver fans. I think they even did an episode where they kidnapped Richard Dean Anderson, and I think he actually did the voice in the episode, which was pretty fun. You know, until they decided they could turn around and make a movie out of it, I thought the MacGruber skits w...

here's the local ad for nissin voice combo sandwich crackers featuring kim chu and gerald anderson: and here's the original music video for "hibi no neiro" by SOUR: tisk tisk, local ad agency.