I Think Therefore I Don’t Watch Telenovelas (A research writing exercise for my EnglOne class)

I am relatively fond of the Filipino culture for some good reasons. Primarily because it is mine and I have spent all my life immersed in it. Secondly, because it is the culture that has produced a lot of interesting ethnic characteristics, historical events and social phenomenon that can baffle even the most toughened travelers and zealous cultural dabblers. The Philippines is not difficult to love: we have wonderful cuisine, abundant natural resources, numerous and astounding scenic spots, and beautiful and hospitable people. There is one thing though that I do not always hold in favor of--an aspect of current, popular media: Local television programming.

If one needs to be specific on the matter, my pet peeve in local programming is the ubiquitous telenovela/teleseryes that parade across the screens come lunch time up to primetime. In hindsight, though, I have not always harbored dislike for them. I do remember liking a few (i.e. Isabel, Agila, etc. back in the late 80s or early 90s). But those seem to have come from a totally different era. As Mano Figueras puts it: “Soap operas in the Philippines have gone from true-blue baduy to true-blue Mexican to true-blue powerhouse productions” (2002, p. 68).

Figuera (2002), in his article “The Road to Sudsville,” articulates a skeptical view of teleseryes or telenovelas as legitimate media. The author is doubtful of the purpose of telenovelas as educational or as something that can improve the lives of Filipinos who watch them. In the end he concludes that most telenovela viewers merely patronize these shows to escape from their daily travails or to fulfill a fantasy (p. 68).

Perhaps a few of aspect of local telenovelas that I find most disconcerting are the ones mentioned in a personal essay entitled “Television Torture by Telenovelas” (2009). I agree that sickening melodrama generated by torturous minutes of the camera unnecessarily focused on an amateur starlet’s weeping face, and the stereotypical, double-standard roles that women and men occupy in these shows, render local telenovelas unprogressive (Zytryxx). That is, if progress is measured by the level of mental maturity, capability for critical thinking and the capacity for creativity that products of media can lend to its viewers.

Sadly, so far, I do not see this as a quality of Filipino telenovelas.


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References:

1. Figueras, M. (October 2002). The Road to Sudsville. FLIP: A Official Guide to World Domination (vol. 2 no. 1), p. 68.

2. Zytrexx (July 1, 2009). Television Torture by Telenovelas. October 5, 2010. http://zytrexx.multiply.com/journal/item/256

An Introduction to ArtMusc, 2nd term 2010-2011

A presentation for my ArtMusc class; to get things started.




Now, if this doesn't load correctly, please follow this link instead:

https://prezi.com/secure/765b1bbc5f92b19f7cf6effee4b1150502d62026/

Testing Embed Audio

Hola. The reason I seemed to have been neglecting this blog is that I've been busy having many of my students set up their own blogs and microblogs. It should be that I be giving an update about the previous term--a list of my EnglishOne and LitForm students websites, that is. I will get to that in a bit, if not today, then...okay, give me a couple of days. (Aaargh so busy). For now I just need to test this audio embed thing using 4shared and the google media player.

Here goes:




YES! It worked!! Mwahahahahaha!!
Now, time to have my students test it on their own blogs. Another round of headaches I foresee.

Umagahang Hatid ni Manong Magpuputo

Napaisip ako nung isang araw, nung tinanong ako ng kaibigan kong hindi pamilyar sa lokal na kultura tungkol sa magpuputo. Nakatambay lang kami nang siya'y magitla sa narinig na torotot. Nanlaki ang mga mata--pagkatapos ay natawa. Ano yun? (pero sa Ingles). Sabi ko nagtitinda yun ng puto, sabay takbo ko palabas para hanapin, habulin kahit man lang ng tingin ang nagbebenta ng kakanin. Tanong niya ulit, bakit ganun yung tunog? Akala ko meron nang payaso sa likod ko. Natawa ako sandali, pero napaisip ako pagkatapos...Oo, nga no. Lahat ng ibang nagbebenta ng mga samu't-saring pagkaing pangkalsada ay isinigaw ang kanilang bentahe. Pero bakit si Manong Magpuputo'y nantotorotot? At bakit ganun ang tunog ng kanyang torotot?

Mabilisan akong naghalungkat sa kalat ng aking karanasan na hindi ko na naisip pang ayusin dahil sa mga nakagawian. Hindi ko na matandaan kung kelan ko natutunan ang mga patakaran ng mga bagay-bagay na ganito na mistulang maliliit at hindi "consequential" para sa mga Pilipino. Nagtagpi ako ng mga "lohikal" na dahilan. Mabilisang sabawan na may halo na din sigurong bolahan. Sabi ko na lang... Para hindi malito ang mga tao. Kasi magkasing tunog yung "taho" at "puto"...at ganun yung tunog ng torotot para hindi akalaing jeepney o tricycle o kung ano pa. May gumagamit na din kasi ng bell, yung mamang sorbetero. Kung tugtog naman, baka akalaing basurero.

Parang naniwala naman siya. Pero ako... iniisip ko pa kung tama. Mababaw ba?


[ang mga comments ay iincorporate/ico-consider para sa Illiterati zine issue # 2]

It doesn't matter how slow you go

All these thousands of years of human evolution has led us to a point where what seems important is how fast we can all get to somewhere and how fast we can get the job done once we get there. Fast cars, fast trains, crash courses, fast food, instant noodles, one-click friendship requests & confirmations, etc etc. A friends of mine shared an age-old adage from Confucius (not sure, and I refuse to google to confirm, leave me alone) which I have encountered some time back. "It doesn't matter how slow you go, as long as you don't stop." Incidentally, I have had a conversation with this same friend regarding time and relativity weeks ago.

This weekend is one of those rare slow ones. It's not that there is nothing for me to do; in fact my "to do" list is a mile long as usual (and I suspect it will be like that for all time unless I will myself to stop). I found that if I don't step out of the house, time slows down more. The minute I go out to do some errand, especially if I go to a mall, the minutes and the hours zoom past as fast as a jeepney driver with diarrhea. Anyway, the point tonight in resurrecting this Confucian quote, out from under all the subsequent data it has been buried under, is that I think, sometimes, people should do more than just slow down. I think there are times when we need the absolute silence and resolution in stopping. Once in a while. Just stopping and dropping everything.

And DO NOTHING--without falling asleep of course. I used to be good at this...when I tried it earlier, it felt... ridiculous.

I miss my tai-chi and eskrima arnis classes. And no I did not wear costumes like that, I don't think I ever left the beginner's level; it's just really the exercise and the calming effect on the mind these martial arts offer that I were after--something I realized much later on in life. There had been a few things in life that I got into that taught me the value of stopping, these sports were some of them. And then there is photography. You can't always shoot moving and relying on fast lens. I have always imagined photography as something akin to whatever it is that snipers do (snipering, teehee). You have to just stop and disappear so you can compose through the viewfinder and shoot what you want how you want when you need to.

Right, am I still making sense?

With that I share some photos I uploaded at AUDRNing (but which I set to public anyway). The first is some activities during the second day of the workshops and the other one is photos on the way to Intramuros, Manila coming from Miriam College in QC. Check out the cute kiddie laptops, XO. I had so much fun playing with these, and I don't think I'm the only one who did. :)

*Sigh* Here comes Monday. A toute a l'heure!

The weekend that was not (aka, How to not save a stray cat)

I knew when I got that phone call from my father last Friday that the weekend ahead was going to be rock n roll. Ay nako, it was.

I was getting ready for class when my phone rang. Having read somewhere that the secret to a less stressful life is to not gadgets such as clocks, watches, beepers, cell phones, email and appointment notifications run your life. That is, if you are currently preoccupied with something, especially if it is something you are enjoying such as eating a meal, pampering yourself, talking with a friend; don't be pressured to disrupt these things just because someone unwittingly encroached unto your personal time by sending a forwarded, pa-tweetums SMS.

Anyway, I virtuously ignored the ringing phone until I found a suitable Friday shirt to wear to school; and I gasped the moment I realized who had been trying to call me. Erpatsko_SMART. It rang again, and I answered in a split second.

"BAKIT HINDI MO SINASAGOT TELEPONO MO??"

Argh.

So anyway, I got scolded for that and for something else. Apparently, my Uncle Sonny who is based in Toronto flew in last week but only told the clan (my Aunt's family and my father) of his local presence on that Friday. What we think he did was he went the rounds visiting and hanging out with his friends during that week; and since he's done with that he can now hangout with family. When he was "interrogated" for this he told them that I knew about it all along because he told me about this trip. My father was now demanding why I didn't tell them. I was a bit taken aback by all of this and I was quick to tell them that I knew nothing about him being here. It's true!

Anyway, the whole Saturday the next day saw me and the rest of the clan at my aunt's. I used to dislike going to family reunions, they were the most stressful things. But now that it doesn't happen that often and everyone's older and have kids (the attention is no longer on my generation), I realize that reunions can actually be fun and relatives can actually be endearing.

I still have to tell you about the kitten that I found lying half-dead on the side of the road somewhere on Laguna Blvd. near Metrobank LTI. It was as if I didn't have a choice at that moment, and I instinctively picked it up and placed it inside a plastic bag I had been toting around. It meowed a few times but on the walk home, it was more or less silent. I can tell that it was very weak and sick and cold. I posted a status message asking for help; on twitter too. But no one responded to help; except for one person who, unfortunately, lived 8500 miles away from me.

Here, let me show you how the conversation went.










I tried my best to nurse her back to life but I really think that kitten had lost it's will to live. It looked depressed as hell and I suspect that it once was a house pet (it looked well-kept for a street cat). It probably died more out of sadness than hunger or disease. It had these really big and beautiful pair of green eyes that just stared at me every time I came near her to try to give it something to drink or eat. I couldn't help but get the feeling she was trying to remember me so just in case we meet again in some lifetime, she would recognize me. I stared back at her one time, for several minutes--you know those staring contests you played with friends as kids? It made me think if I was right in prolonging her suffering like that just because I felt guilty about the cruelty of mankind on the rest of life on earth.

She died around 10pm last night; I buried it in my backyard a couple of hours ago. I'm off to work now. Til next time.

Just sharing some music

I made a playlist for a friend who I recently found out also listened to / appreciated some of the kinds of music I am crazy about. My first venture into ska,neo-swing, swingska, then later on jazz and fusion types all started with (believe it or not) PUNK. The first punk bands I really got into were the old school, punkrock/streetpunk/oi/punkska/hc bands like Operation Ivy (which later on went to become Rancid), The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, the Clash, Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, SickOfItAll, BlackFlag, UKSubs, MightyMightyBosstones, etc etc etc... I can go on forever.

I made a short playlist (15 minutes lang, enough for a morning's jog) of my choice Operation Ivy, btw. I'll upload that again next if I find enough people who'd be interested (raise your hands please).

But these songs are from two of my fave ska/jazz/swing&whatnot bands. I'll share it with you. Download while it's there (will be taking it down in a few days). Enjoy Skatmondo!!!