And not just today

End all forms of violence against women and children!

Oscar-Punch-Drunk-Love

I was feeling fidgety the past week thinking about the 2009 Oscars and the prospect of me missing its live broadcast. I've been watching award ceremonies for-like-ever and wouldn't let my Bahrain exile break this little indulgence.

Thanks to a kind soul, Ate Josie, who lent me her internet device, I was able to watch the spectacular spectacular 2009 Oscars in Bahrain at 4 o'clock in the morning of 23rd Feb over at justin.tv (Yep, I definitely need to subscribe to an internet connection, and pronto!)


The production is done in absolute good taste this year. (to my taste, that is) The crystals had some magical effect, I suppose.


And oh, the Wolverine sings and dances, too! I was actually quite skeptical of The Jackman's hosting skills (though I've thought long before that he has an ooh-so-delish! chocolate-y voice) but, well, the guy pulled it off. He did. Better than some funny, totally ugly comic actually, come to think of it. Maybe, the Academy ought to rethink their choices next time, same as Philippine TV did with Edu and Cesar (but no Richard, puhhlease...)


I love Marissa Tomei's gown. Engineered yet very flowy, feminine. I'll remember that cut, for sure, for some day.


It was such a delight watching the happy happy faces of the Indian cast of Slumdog Millionaire most especially those of the dear dear slum angels. What a win for Slumdog Mil!

Jai Ho Oscars!

Dare to be Stupid

Word of Wisdom I got from The Zahir:

“Stupid people should have the word ‘stupid’ written on their identity card.”
“Stupid people are a real danger to society. They should be tested once a year and have a license for walking the streets, like drivers do to drive.”
“Stupid people really should be issued their own special identity cards because they are the ones who feed the collective stupidity.”
“Stupid people should all be marooned on a ship on the high seas and forced to attend parties night after night, being endlessly introduced to people for several months, until they finally manage to remember who is who.”

I don’t think I liked it much though. The book I mean.

25 Not-so Random Things (Tagged by Reg, Al and Leyla in Facebook)

There's this tagging game around the social networking world. I got tagged in Facebook and had to respond. The rules are pretty simple: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

So here goes nothing:

1. I always fancy myself a film maker. But that's not gonna happen.
2. If there's a film I'm ashamed I haven't watched as yet, that'd be Dogville. Don't kill me just yet, please.
3. My daily dose of killer headaches comes at around 5 or 6 p.m.
4. A young Bob Dylan, smoking and looking super hot, is staring at me as I write this.
5. I think Indian people are some of the most beautiful people in the world. Yes, especially them sruffy construction workers.
6. I haven't been admitted to a hospital or the like, ever.
7. I believe in Murphy's Law. And I'm still waiting when everything that's gonna happen which will happen ever happen.
8. No I'm not drunk or stoned as I write this.
9. I always tell myself that I want to experience paranormal things like seeing ghosts and what-not, when in fact I really dread of ever seeing or feeling the presence of spirits and the like.
10. I'm in Bahrain, working. My work visa says I'm a fashion designer. I'm really working as an interior designer.
11. I always thought I couldn't draw until freshman college and got an A+ for my very first esquisse.
12. I wish I had some sort of real talent like singing, dancing or playing music.
13. I always get duped by taxi drivers all over(except maybe in my little city, Tagbilaran) and I know it but I'm too afraid of these arseholes to even complain earnestly, assert my rights, whatever.
14. I have glimpses of memories that I think aren't of my present life. I think.
15. I hate my voice. And I hate it that I hear it while I'm thinking.
16. I easily get irritated by stupid, shallow and completely uncreative people.
17. I still don't get it why some people think I may be Chinese.
18. I wish I could listen to all the good music in the world. As it is, I may have listened to or have been exposed to less than 5 percent of it. That's sad.
19. I only knew how to curse when I was a college freshman. At first it was just shit, and then fuck, until I could finally say the Cebuano, Yawa!
20. I think my demise would be road-related. But that won't stop me from being on the road. Motion-sickness didn't.
21. I have two pencils that I've named Pinkie and Blackie. Seriously.
22. I used to seriously dream of becoming a pro tennis player when I was about 10 or 11. Yet, I still don't know how to play the game until now.
23. I find it hard to sleep before 12 midnight. Not even here, 5 hours away from the Phili time that I was used to.
24. I used to hate urban poor people. Not that I was rich. Nor poor. But I understand them now. Sort of. I could maybe say the same to the absurdly rich, except for the 'understanding' part.
25. Some, nay, most of what I've written here I may have made up. Ha!

Every Juan should Juana Change

It's quite disturbing that people actually enjoy the Juana Change brand of political satire videos in YouTube. These videos aren't meant to entertain. They're meant to disturb. To shake us off of our deep slumber, inaction, indifference, apathy, and change, at last, finally.

My Holga gets a mate in Dalek

I just got my Holga a mate. She's gonna slumber for a while because 120film+crossprocessing is hard to come by here.

The International Lomographic Society's Super Sampler Dalek blurb reads:

The green beauty that you see before you is the fruit of our very first artist-collaborative camera project. Our good friend Dalek has applied his graphic magic and signature “Space Monkey” motifs to dress up our own four-lens serial-shooting queen: the Supersampler! Included inside is “URBANIZE!” - a 168-page book consisting of graphics (courtesy of Dalek) and breathtaking Supersampler images (courtesy of Dalek and over 50 ultra-talented Lomographers).

Pinoy (Dutch) Treat

An invite from Joel's friends (and friends of ours now, too), Taekwondo jins, in a rank promotion ceremony in their dojang at the Al Majd School somewhere near Al Manama, got us into a treat of taekwondo kicks, slaps and what-not plus a sumptuous bonus of Pinoy food served Dutch style. Yum.

Friday Habit

Walking around. What car-less people like us do. In Al Manama, Bahrain. Might as well. And camera-less, too, as we are. These are the camera-phone pictures that came out of it. Our little gang of three. And all that walking.

Points of Reflection

Praise Song for the Day
A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration
By Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other's
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what's on the other side.

I know there's something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Bahrain, though a close ally to the US, does not keep mum to the sufferings of their Muslim kin in Gaza. Though I haven't seen an actual demonstration/rally, I've read in the news about it. The rallies definitely speak more strongly against Israel and their crimes towards the people of Gaza and Palestine.


Commercial billboards and posters calling for support for Gaza such as these are everywhere in the streets of Manama.

Sinulog! ala-Manama

Yesterday, we received an SMS from Joel that there was gonna be a Sinulog celeb in Sacred Heart that afternoon. Lester, Joel and I (our little Bohol mafia) agreed to go. It was (Free)Day after all and what else was there to do?

Nope. I haven't gone religious or something. I was in it for its cultural worth. Ehem.

The Sacred Heart Church celebration of the Sinulog (feast day of Sto. Niño) was not much but it was okay for a Catholic celeb in a Muslim country.





Sacred Heart Church grounds in Manama, Bahrain.