Babbling Point

Differential Diagnosis 2 The ultrasound results came back and it found nothing: everything’s okay. My kidney, my gallbladder, my liver, my prostate are all okay. So, after almost four hours of waiting in line and 30 minutes getting scanned, and another 30 minutes of waiting for the doctor to see my again; my doctor took one second to look at the results of my ultrasound and said, “Everything’s normal. You still have that pain? Go get an endoscopy.” The next day, I was the hospital at 6:30am. I went up to the endoscopy area and gave them my name. The nurse checked the schedule and confirmed that my name was on the list. She then looked around and asked, “You’re all alone?” I looked around as well and said, yes. “You don’t have a companion?” I nodded. I asked, “Why? Do I need a companion?” She then explained that I was going to be sedated and that it’ll take 30 minutes to an hour for the effects of the drug to wear off. I said okay and she asked me to turn over my belongings. When I br...

Differential Diagnosis There is this nagging, constant dull pain on my lower-left abdomen. It started last Sunday. It would call attention to itself everytime I stand up or walk or move. I don't notice the pain when I am still. I Googled it and was expecting to find an illness called: lazyass-itist. (No such thing.) Possible cause for the pain? Kidney stones, muscle cramp, or I'm pregnant. I'll get an ultrasound tomorrow. (I hope it's a boy.)

A Daunting Task Many, many years ago (actually I'm not sure when this all happened, but I'm sure it was very long time ago), Gerry Alanguilan was riding a bus and he was on his way home to San Pablo. It was on that bus ride when he wondered, "Who would win: Superman or God?" (Well, I'm not sure if those were his exact thoughts, but it eventually got boiled to that sort of Hollywood-pitch.) So, he called up (or did he write to) David Hontiveros and pitched to him the idea of a book: what can a "superman" do during the end times? Can the world's most powerful man be strong enough to stop the hand of God? David got excited and run away with the idea. He ran and ran and ran. Gerry thought David would come back with a 40-page script. Nope. No way. Not Dave. David came back from Mt. Sanai (actually, he just lives in Merville) and David came down with 200-page script for the graphic novel "Superman vs. God" (not the actual title). Obviously, we n...

His Next Bright Idea Our mom already has her usual playlist of stories to tell to people about me and Brandie. She usually tells that story of how behaved I was as a child. How she’d make me sit in one corner of the room, give me a toy, tell me not to move and she’d come back an hour later and I’d still be at that corner playing with that toy. Brandie did the opposite of that. Our mom also loves to tell about the time a five-year old Brandie decided to sleep on his own. We used to all sleep in one bed. One night, Brandie supposedly got out of bed and brought along his little blanket and pillow. My mom asked where he was going. Brandie said, “Masyadong masikip diyan. Doon ako sa kwarto ko!” (It’s too cramped there. I’ll go to my room!) So, he went to our playroom which had a bed in the shape of a Formula 1 racing car. Those are two fine examples of how we’ve been living out lives. I’m usually the one that quickly establishes a comfort zone and will happily play with whatever toy I have...

“The Beach” She sits beside you and starts tell about the place. Her voice drops to a whisper, as if she doesn’t want anyone else to hear, even though there’s just the two of you. And so, she shows you the pictures. “This was our favorite spot. After lunch, we’d just lie here… and hear my honey would snore in the other hammock” “Here, we’d watched cotton-candy dragons float by. And named the ones we liked.” “Some days we’d spent it here And tell each other stories.” “He once jumped off this cliff and yelled that he loved me. My only witnesses were a school of fish.” “Standing at this doorway, you could stretch out your hand and pretend to hold the setting-sunset.” "As the sun blazed on his palm, he said would not let this day end without knowing the answer to the question, 'Will you marry me?' " That was the script of TV commercial that was supposed to be part of a pitch, but was never present. I found it again while digging through my files. Just wanted to post it, w...

Every Friday night, after the last band had played its last set, she would get on stage and sing. She would sing about him; about him leaving, about him not returning. Before she reaches the refrain of her lament, the band would go back on stage and accompany her. Nobody knows her name. Nobody knows where she comes from. Yet, all the players know her by face, all the waiters and bartenders know her lyrics by heart. It was on her third appearance when the owner of the bar recognized her. She was the singer who was once found in the dressing room; found with an empty bottle of pain-killers, downed with a bottle of gin. The manager does not mind that his bar his haunted. Every Friday night, she gets on stage and sings the saddest songs. Which makes everyone order more drinks. (Art by Argem Vinuya) Happy Friday the 13th ;-)

what's your answer? "cellphones" "journal" "name tag" BPI “Questions” Client: Bank of the Philippine Islands Agency: Harrison Communications Executive Creative Director: Teeny Gonzales, Emily Abrera Creative Director: Budjette Tan Accounts: Manny Martinez, Madel Palman, Jakey Yulo “CELLPHONES” Copywriter: Biba Cabuquit, Puneet Kapoor, Budjette Tan Art Director: Puneet Kapoor, Reinard Santos “JOURNAL” and “NAME TAG” Copywriter: Biba Cabuquit, Reinard Santos, Budjette Tan Art Director: Reinard Santos

Sabado Nights Last Saturday, me and Wella finally got to try out Angel’s Kitchen, a small restaurant on Connecticut St., Greenhills. It’s run by four ladies that will probably remind you of your favorite aunt who spoils you silly. Since they personally attended to your orders and request, it really feels like you just visited aunties’ home and they’re just so excited to see you, they’ll stuff you with everything that’s in their fridge and cupboard. (Except in their case, they’ll hand you a bill after your meal.) If you ever go there, try our their lamb curry and the roast chicken. After which, their chocolate molten cake will definitely make you forget about your diet, at least for the night. By the time, we were finished with our meal it was too late for any movie, so we just went back to Wella’s house. Now, despite the fact that we did nothing but eat that Saturday, Wella felt that her feet got strained from all the walking and needed a massage. So, seated at the couch in their livi...

Joey the BladeMaster MMS from my boss Maricel: Joey was inspired by the Final Fantasy animation movie. He made the design. Recycled old foam board from a Fine Arts project of mine. He got our helper to help cut it out. Written on the blade, in curlicue font: Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Expect this weapon would not be a comfort to its victims. More about Joey's adventures (and words of wisdom) at: http://joeyworld.blogspot.com/

Who You Gonna Txt?! Here's the text-thread of my conversation over dinner: FROM NIKKO: Hi budj, do you still have the number of your friend who can communicate with the supernatural? I need a second opinion on our old mango tree. Thanks! FWD TO JEDI JOBERT: It's wonderful how one can get a text like this and it's just so normal > Hi budj, do you still have the number of your friend who can communicate with the supernatural?I need a second opinion on our old mango tree. Thanks! FROM JEDI JOBERT: hehehe... nothing like good time like the old times. Tell your friend I sense two trees, not just one. But that's the most since I don't deal with elementals. I'm just plain vanilla dead people. hehehe FROM ME: Hahaha! Is that it works? So, you just see dead people. You don't see duwende and tikbalang ? FROM JEDI JOBERT: Haven't seen one, felt one nor bought one... I think that's another plane ofn existence. That's why you never hear of a house that ha...

Remote Lessons and Sunday Dinners Last night, I finished reading a book about a family and the author placed emphasis on her relationship with her father. Last night (or I should say, a little after midnight) I watched the 17th episode of HEROES and it was also focused on a father and his child. And so we come to today, which is the 8th death anniversary of my dad. His name was Salvador Tan. Almost everyone knew him as Buddy Tan. (Which makes me wonder if his mother ever called him Salvador whenever she was angry at him for being hard-headed.) Makes me wonder if my dad if trying to tell him something. In Brandie’s eulogy, he observed that our dad always seemed to get into some business that was relevant or important for his family. You see, our dad was a workaholic. He usually came home near midnight, and even then he sometimes worked at home. Even though he was usually not around six days of the week, he brought in TV shows that somehow kept us company. For example, he might not have ...

The Tale of Two Dum Dums I don't know which aunt or uncle had the bright idea to give us that gift, but I'm glad he/she did. It was one of those Christmases, and after getting excited with the robots and spaceship and video games, we opened this one gift and were left scratching our heads. It was a Fisher-Price Printing Set. Wow. Exciting. Yup, it was a Fisher-Price Printing Set that came with its own rubberized typeset, plastic letterpress, ink, ink pad, and colored paper. We took one look at it and went back to playing with the robots and spaceships. Couple of months later, some of our cousins were at the house and we had quickly gotten tired of the robots and spaceships. We pulled out the printing set and decided to print our own newspaper. It was partly inspired by the Daily Bugle and MAD magazine. We called it: THE DAILY DUM DUM. I pretended to be editor-in-chief. Brandie and our cousins were the reporter. They pretended to go out and get stories. When they came back from ...

Couple of weeks ago, Ms. Diyco featured another campaign made by the creatives here at Harrison Communications. Here's her review about the Neozep "Neozerye" TV campaign: Romancing the mighty colds cure ADS AND ENDS, Nanette A Franco-Diyco BUSINESS WORLD Vol. XX, No. 139, Friday-Saturday, February 9-10, 2007 http://www.bworldonline.com/Weekender020907/main.php?id=marketing_diyco The four television commercials that serialize the life of pretty housemaid Luwalhati, culminating in a storybook wedding to her once-upon-a-time señorito from the imposing mansion belong to an ad campaign awards class all its own. There have been other spoofs of soap operas selling other brand categories in the past. But for several reasons put together, the Neozep series of commercials that began with honest-to-goodness ad teasers that looked and sounded like teasers for true-blue soap operas proved ultra entertaining and more importantly, "reinforced Neozep’s leadership and further s...

WE HAVE SUCH SITES TO SHOW YOU For those of you who don't know yet, Gerry has moved to a new blog... http://gerry.alanguilan.com/ Jonas Diego also got a new address... http://www.thecomicblurb.com/ Meanwhile, David Hontiveros has finally moved into his blog... http://iguana5legs.blogspot.com/ ...which currently contains an avalanche of movie reviews and TV show reviews. So, if you want the latest about HEROES, LOST, THE DRESDEN FILES, then go click on the link please. Leinil Yu has set up his web home at: http://leinilyu.com/ I recently read DE:TALES and Eli pointed out to me that the creators of that comic book are blogging (and drawing) at: http://fabioandgabriel.blogspot.com/ Okay? Have a happy weekend everyone :-)

I wish my phone-cam could’ve taken… Photo that was never taken #1 On my way to work, at the corner of our street and EDSA, I stopped and clicked on the right-turn signal-light and slowly tried to merge into that historic avenue. That’s where I saw him standing against the vast white wall that separated the rails of the MRT from the traffic on EDSA. He was a “taong grasa”; dressed in tattered military green shorts and not much else except his dark, grimy skin that was wrapped taut against his skeletal frame. He stood on the sidewalk-that-wasn’t-a-sidewalk. Even though I was all across on the other side of the four-lane traffic of EDSA, I could imagine the heels of his feet trying to find footing on that slim side of concrete. He looked across the street, as if meaning to challenge the 10am traffic of buses, trucks, and cars. The skeletal man seemed to shiver as the steady stream of vehicles caused this great wind to rush southwards. Seeing his dark figure against that white wall made me...

(G)ood Old Days I had this grand plan to upload a new story for today. (But I didn't get to do it.) So, here are some old pictures / ads from Globe's (G)moment days. It still seemed relevant for today's occassion.

romance(G) (click photo to see larger version) I found Shiloah's blog via a link from Mark's blog . I think it was one of her 2002 entries when she wrote about her love and longing for her boyfriend who was studying in the US. I cut-and-pasted it because it was such a wonderful entry. Couple of months later, we got a Job Order to make an IDD ad for our client. I dug up Shiloah's entry and presented it to my boss, but for some reason I now forget, we didn't get to present it. Cut-to: January 2003, we go another Job Order and this time it was for an IDD ad that was going to come out in Valetine's Day. I presented the idea again and my boss said okay. When we presented it to client, we showed the the usual IDD ads first, which showed couple talking on cellphone and had the usual price of the IDD call in really large font. I presented the Shiload ad last. I didn't show them the ad at first. I just read the copy out loud. I read it slowly and paused before I read the...

RAMBOL NA NAMAN!!! I recently found out that we're already airing this version of the Magic Flavors TV commercial, so I can now post it. When we first presented and shot the commercial, this was supposed to be the game that the wrestlers were playing. (We have no idea what it's called, so all through-out the meetings and production, we just called it the Slap-Clap Game.) During the shoot, Direk Jeorge and the team thought of making the wrestlers do another game: the bato-bato-pik aka rock-paper-scissors game. During the editing, we found the "bato-bato-pik" version funnier, so that became the launch material. The cast and crew of Proj:Rumble aka Proj:Happiness aka Proj:Trip Direk Jeorge in the middle of d'Wrestlers Agency: Harrison Communications Client: URC Product: Magic Flavors crackers ECD: Teeny Gonzales DECD: Alex Arellano CD: Budjette Tan Copywriter: Biba Cabuquit Art Director: Erwin Trivino Accounts: Wella Balagtas, Ethel Dino, Sinta Rosales, Lou Bogn...

I've posted this TVC before, but it was recently review in Business World. It's not everyday we get a glowing review like this, so... here you go. :) Subtlety in communication ADS AND ENDS NANETTE A. FRANCO-DIYCO BUSINESS WORLD, Vol. XX, No. 134, Friday-Saturday, February 2-3, 2007 http://www.bworldonline.com/Weekender020207/main.php?id=marketing_diyco I must salute Harrison Communication for the totally different look and feel of BPI in its 30-second television commercial launched during the holidays. It adopted a market leader stance that could not have flown high without the heritage and the confidence of a bank like BPI. The first time I caught the commercial, I mistook it for a teaser ad. I thought it was a commercial that deliberately left the viewer hungering for more facts. Ergo, I concluded that there must be a sequel to it, the major material scheduled for launch perhaps after a week or two. This was the role of a teaser ad: It is meant to titillate the viewer and ca...

NEOZERYE You can finally watch the "complete first season" of the Neozep "Neozerye". The team had a lot of fun working on this project. It was also great how client recognized the potential of this campaign and approved the production of four commercials that went beyond the usual 15 or 30-second time limit and also took a leap to do something rarely done by other brands in the category. Here you go! PROLOGUE PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 Agency: Harrison Communications Client: Unilab Product: Neozep Creative Director: Isabel Gamboa Copywriter: Darwin Bamba Art Directors: Elvin Julian, Rommel Joson Producer: Chona Bustamante Director: Erik Matti