April 16, 2004
milan, mangarap ka, my gift, and other horrible things about piolo pascual
nah. slash that. i bash piolo pascual with the greatest pleasure and utmost pride. sometimes i wish rico yan was alive just to push this irksome actor back to the shadows where he came from. if rico were alive, piolo would never have been linked with claudine, would never have created that horrible, horrible movie milan (i never saw it, mind you. there's just a vibe of awfulness emanating from the posters and the trailers on tv.), and would never have had a show of his own. mangarap ka? dragon king? a love team with angelica panganiban, for decency's sake? whaaaaaat? oh rico, how we miss thee.
but it would have been all okay, at least for the meantime, at least for me. even though this pretentious actor does not deserve all of this fame, i still could accept his rise to stardom. after all, he's a decent actor and has a decent face to boot. i have friends who giggle at the mere mention of his name, and who dare not miss a single film he stars in. fine. accepted. i will not criticize his acting ability and his physical qualities. but now, this. the final straw that broke the camel's back: my gift: the concert.
it was bad enough to have the album, but i accepted it as a matter of course. after all, judy ann santos had her own awful album (who could forget "i won't last a day without you?" oh, i see you have.) at least, judy ann santos had the sense to place a limit on the things she was made to do. she knew that her vocal abilities were not at par with her acting abilities, so a concert was definitely a no-no. piolo, on the other hand... i have no words. did he really think that his voice was concert material? he could carry a tune, but having that ability merits not a concert, but a videoke session. or a stint in asap mania. or something. but not a freaking araneta coliseum concert!
of course, piolo's not the only one to be blamed. shame on you, abs-cbn, for forcing this pretentious little scam down our throats. shame on you for the relentless pluggings. shame on you for giving away free concert tickets in masayang tanghali bayan (ang saya-saya!) for fear that only 1/250 of the coliseum will be filled. shame on you for the exclusive report on piolo's alleged father in cebu. shame on you!
and shame on everyone who dares send me hate mail. hee.
April 13, 2004
trips
trip 2: i'm planning to change the lay-out of the site. kasi trip ko lang. hee. it still suits me, but i feel that a lighter color will bring out a more optimistic kerwin. i'm also planning to make this a duo blog, a partnership with someone else, but while that person still makes up his or her mind about it, i won't divulge any more information just as yet.
reality tv jeers and cheers
cheer: camille's out. i haven't watched the past few episodes of american idol, because (1) i'm not in the dorm and can't download the episodes, and (2) our stupid cable company, homechannel, does not provide us with star world. thankfully, abc-5 has included the series in its list of programs, but i'm afraid that the series will be over in the states even before abc-5 shows camille getting the boot.
so why am i not siding with the filipina? our very own? well, for one thing, she does not have the confidence to win. and honestly, i don't find her that appealing. i listened to her mp3's and found them to be really good, especially her rendition of son of a preacherman, but i can't help but juxtapose her voice with her performance. and when i see her sing, i cringe. my face contorts in the same way that hers does. i think she's a nice girl with a real pleasing personality (unlike the other filipina, jasmine, but that's another story for another time -- perhaps when she gets booted?), but she does not seem to enjoy what she's doing. if only just to set her free from her apparent misery, i'm glad to see her go.
survivor: all stars
jeer: lex's out. i feel really sorry for lex getting the boot. not because i like him. in fact, i don't like him. i hated him in africa, and even though this level of hate has waned in the all-stars edition of survivor, i still don't like him. i think he's a scheming fraud to whom anything can be negotiated and everything can be sacrificed.
so why do i feel sorry for him, then? well, i think he was duped. he was duped by someone whose personality i hate even more. boston rob. if lex's a scheming fraud, boston rob's the devil. his eyes, his sneer, even his facial hair all scream DO NOT TRUST THIS MAN. after that "brotherly" negotiation the previous episode where lex and the team sacrificed jerri for amber, it would have been proper for rob to return the favor. or if it wasn't in his grand plan, it would have been proper not to make any promises to lex. but alas, the devil had a plan, all right, and propriety was not in that plan.
grrr... i know this is all part of the game, that everything in this game's a game, but it's still grrr. sometimes i forget, in my excitement and awe at the challenges, why i don't like this show that much. these moments bring back that dislike. survivor forces people to connive, pretend, and stab one another in the back. i may be wrong, but the person who gets to be the ultimate survivor may be the one who gets to pretend the best and connive the most.
April 11, 2004
talk of the town
the issue today concerns itself with the much-debated constitutional amendment and the change of form of government. many senatoriables agreed with an amendment in constitution, given that it is to be done in a constitutional convention, and not in a series of sessions in the congress. some senatoriables have even gone so far as to require a referendum to get the public vote on the matter. as to the change of government, most seem to agree on a parliamentary or a federal form of government.
i am not very knowledgeable about these issues, so i will not try to delve deeper into them. however, i do feel that an amendment in the constitution is in order, since most of its contents are not in accordance with the changing times. many people fear that an amendment may result in an abuse of power, but they presuppose that the people who are in charge of these constitutional changes are corrupt and greedy. if we vote the right people this may, then we, the filipino people, may see that a constitutional amendment may not be a very frightening prospect, after all.
penitence
it seems i have done all these forms of penitensya at least once during this holy week, but not necessarily because i was motivated by spiritual or contritional reasons. in fact, some of them may have been done out of chance. you see, i am not a deeply devout catholic, so i am not keen on whipping myself or slashing my back with razors. neither am i too enthusiastic on sitting, kneeling and standing for a 2-hour mass.
i would have gone on with my life without having to engage with the less masochistic practices of the Christian faith (such as that 2-hour mass), but thankfully for parents, i was prompted at times to do so. last black friday, my father "prompted" me to accompany him and kenneth to join a penitence hike. it involved hiking up a known elevation here in davao (under the very searing heat of the sun), stopping at every Station of the Cross to pray (with a lot of other people), and finally meditating at the Shrine, which is at the top of the elevation. i guess that was my self-flagellation. the problem is, it seemed more of a hike than an act of repentance for me. i was thoroughly enjoying it, with me and kenneth bantering each other every step of the way.
fasting was another form of penitence which i did, i think, by chance. instead of eating fish, which was proper these days, we ate lucky me noodles, instead. again, this was not an act which i willfully engaged into. i was merely following the dictates of the refrigerator, and the refrigerator did not seem to have any supply of fish, which i would have preferred.
i don't know if it's part of my penitensya, but not blogging for two days also took a lot of resistance and effort from me. it just kept tugging my mind how pitiful my blog looked like now that it was not being updated. and being physically inactive was just an invitation to being more mentally active. oh well, i guess that doesn't count. besides, it's not like not being able to blog is too much of a torture (aggghhh...
sometimes, my father calls me an atheist (jokingly or seriously, depending on his mood) because of my lack of show of the Christian faith. i disagree. i believe in God. i don't, even for a moment, doubt His existence. i do realize, however, my why father thinks this is so. theology has taught me the three dimensions of the Christian faith (doctrine-moral-worship), and the failure to engage in all three implies a problem in one's faith. yes, i acknowledge that there is a problem, but i have yet to find the solution.
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