mababang langit

well, chris costello and mihk vergara's short film adaptation of "ang maskot" unfortunately did not make the cut for this year's cinemalaya festival.  the directors, however, have their sights set on november's cinema one film festival, so we will be crossing our fingers that the film will fare better there. direk chris says the film's chances are pretty good, so, positive thoughts, visualizing, asking the universe, etc. that said, after the cinamalaya rejection, and with reboots being all the rage these days in hollywood, i think i'd like to do a reboot of "ang maskot," you know, to make it more palatable to local film fest judging panels. NOTES FOR ANG MASKOT: SOCIAL RELEVANCE EDITION 1.) instead of a fastfood restaurant mascot, the protagonist is now a gay dancer working in a seedy furry fetish gay bar, in which all the lights are tinted red. 2.) the manager is mean to the protagonist because the latter rejects the former...

1.) use a bombastic title sure to arouse controversy, for example, "I HATE FILIPINO CULTURE;"  just be sure to take back your words in the actual post. "i don't actually hate filipino culture. what i really meant to say was..." 2.) gather up a bunch of the worst stereotypes you can think of and condemn the hell out of them. who'd disagree? 3.) preface everything. for example, every elitist remark should begin with, "i'm no elitist, but..." do the same for all your colonial mentalitist and other -ist statements. 4.) don't be afraid to fudge your definitions. after slamming "filipino culture," later describe said culture as "not filipino culture." 5.) make things easy on your reader. who needs nuanced arguments when emotional appeals are so much easier to read and like and share? 6.) open the post with a lot of "them," but close with a lot of "we." 7.) above all, ignore the fact that you...

as a comics fan and someone who makes self-published comics, i've spent the last decade or so watching pinoy komiks redefine itself and struggle to bounce back from the 90's malaise that saw mainstream comics dwindle down to near zero. i've watched the independent komiks scene, led by creators like budjette tan, gerry alanguilan, arnold arre, carlo vergara and the komikon team, make slow, gradual progress toward establishing itself as critically and financially viable. komiks shifted business models, moving from the banketa to the bookstore,  the newfangled comics convention circuit, and the web. and yet, some people still insist that pinoy komiks is "dead." their definition of death varies slightly, but the thought remains the same. the longtime komiks blogger/s who goe/s by the name "aklas-isip" posted a blog titled "WHY THERE IS STILL NO COMICS INDUSTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES Part 1" late last october, where he/they stated: "...we...

underappreciated musician seeks greener pastures abroad, boo hoo what a tragedy. our teachers doctors scientists artists are underappreciated and seeking greener pastures abroad. you know who never do? politicians showbiz folk now you can weep.

i find it pretty pathetic that almost all my blog content these days is inspired by stuff i read on facebook.

i mean the book. spoilers. i was expecting to read about a heroine plunged against her will into a deadly game of combat and survival. but what i got instead is some kind of bizaare prom queen story. plain jane is selected! she is given a nice dress and is the center of everyone's attention! which hunk will she choose? will she become prom queen despite the odds? i did not like how katniss went from kitten-drowning outlaw to rose-kissing, dress-twirling, camera-conscious media darling literally overnight. can we please stop with the titles? "the boy who lived." "the girl who was on fire." howsabout "the reader who rolled his eyes"? i did not like how the other tributes had no personality at all. the strongest, funniest, most interesting character in the book was actually peeta. but with a name like that who cares. i did not like how the actual games' narrative was driven neither by the human interaction/tension amongst the tributes no...

discrimination against senior citizens? check. discrimination against the physically handicapped? check. way to keep it classy, PDI.

hey DOT, i heard you spent P5M on your new ad campaign, and yet you used  let BBDO use a frikkin FREE FONT.

this blog post first showed up on my facebook newsfeed two days ago. i read it, hated it, ignored it. after all, you don't feed the troll. however, as more people kept re-sharing and it showed up under my "top stories" again and again, i began to wonder why these intelligent, sensible people would share such condescending, inflammatory drivel, much less claim to agree with it. sometimes when we read something that, on the whole, jives with our own established preconceptions, we stamp our approval on it and say "agree", without bothering to take a closer look at the finer points of the writer's arguments. in this case, look, we all have our long-standing disappointments with philippine cinema. but do you really, really agree that pinoys are dumb because our films are dumb? because that is ilda's thesis statement. it's right there in the opening paragraph. you market your comics/writing to basically the same audience. do you consider your aud...

is GMA even trying?! seriously. two years ago, it was this . in 2011, we have these: yep, it's the motherlovin' wicked witch of the east. also: the sand ninjas. still there. i'm pretty sure GMA films didn't intend it, but those sand ninjas are a perfect representation of their production philosophy at the moment: they keep trying the same old tricks over and over, hoping maybe this time they'll finally score a hit. EDIT: since this post is getting so many hits, i decided to add some more of the "borrowing" that people have noticed. also, if you're familiar with the "marlboro man" theme from way back, you'll probably hear it in the trailer below at around 1:45. i don't know how much swiped music made it into the movie itself. my guess is that people immediately noticed, and that's why the producers had ely buendia rush out that awful theme song. "flavio 'wag kang matakot"? you gott...

why does that make me depressed as hell. could be worse i guess, could've been a businessman-politician.

so gma's news portal just started its first-ever webcomic, manix abrera's news hardcore . yay, right? mainstream media-supported webcomics. but then you notice that it's been filed under "home > nation > top stories". also it doesn't have its own rss feed for fans to subscribe to. it's like gmanews said, "webcomics, yeah whatevs, just slap that on anywhere." i am disappoint.