Babbling Point

AFFIDAVIT OF LONGING I, _________, Filipino, of legal age with legal residence at __________________, after having been witness to the maddening rush of singles out to find a date on Valentine’s Day, after heckling them as headless chickens with a silly priority, after having narrowly escaped a stoning by these same singles after uttering that aforementioned remark, after having been sworn, do hereby declare and depose that: 1. I am a steeled, calloused woman, a small player in a game the big boys play, but a player nonetheless. 2. As such, I scoff at the cutesy stuff and do not spend precious time engaging in trite discussions on the merits of such weightless matters as where I can find a date, will he call or does he like me. To the best of my ability, I endeavor to rid my mind of such folly. Desperately. 3. I fully comprehend and wholly accept the crass commercialism of Valentine’s Day. I realize that it is a concept exploited, abused and capitalized – in the complete sense...

For 40 cents I can create the illusion that you are here. And I can say hi, I miss you, what time will you be home, I'm making meatloaf for dinner so you better not be late, I love you, see you tonight. It's just a silly game we play, pretending you’re somewhere in this city, that I will see you in four hours instead of four years. 40 cents won't make the oceans contract or the continents move. Heck, 40 days of prayers wouldn't change the distance between me and you. But for 40 cents, I can have you so near I can hear your voice in my ear (closing my eyes, it's as if you were beside me). Give me your spare minutes like spare change jangling in your days, I'm a beggar for your love. From the journal of Shiloah Matic Writer / Globe IDD user Her boyfriend, Russel Antonio, is currently studying in the U.S. * * * * * * * Shiloah wrote this in her blog around a year ago. I loved it so much that I bookmarked it. When we were asked to ma...

Carver House is now open. "Voyeurism! Exhibitionism! The Netizens are proud voyeurs and exhibitionists! Their seed dreams have blossomed, thanks to blogging.I join them after much resistance." -- Carl Vergara Hey Carl! Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging! That's right kids, Carlo "ZSAZSA ZATURNNAH" Vergara has started his own blog. CLICK HERE and find out what's up with Carl.

:) "I love you. And not, not in a friendly way, although I think we're great friends. And not in a misplaced affection, puppy-dog way, although I'm sure that's what you'll call it. I love you. Very, very simple, very truly. You are the epitome of everything I have ever looked for in another human being. And I know that you think of me as just a friend, and crossing that line is the furthest thing from an option you would ever consider. But I had to say it. I just, I can't take this anymore. I can't stand next to you without wanting to hold you. I can't, I can't look into your eyes without feeling that, that longing you only read about in trashy romance novels. I can't talk to you without wanting to express my love for everything you are. And I know this will probably queer our friendship - no pun intended - but I had to say it, because I've never felt this way before, and I don't care. I like who I am because of it. A...

WHERE WAS THE INTERNET TEN YEARS AGO WHEN I NEEDED IT ? ! ! ! Back In college, I wrote several research papers about comic books and one of them was about Frank Miller's THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Even though I found a lot of articles and critiques about it, one of the articles I could never ever find was Mikal Gilmore's Rolling Stone review of it. Well, finally I found a copy!!! It's in the ARTICLES section of this fansite. I just don't have time to read it right now, but I'm just glad to finally have a copy. Talking about BATMAN... "According to a report by Michael Fleming in today’s Variety, Memento director Chris Nolan has been tapped to revive the Batman movie franchise for Warner Brothers. It’s not clear whether or not Nolan would write a script for the project as well." Well, this should prove interesting, if they ever put it together. More talk about Nolan and the movie here .

JANUARY 28, 2003 Today is my dad's birthday. His name was Salvador "Buddy" Tan. He would have been 58 today. My dad is the proverbial tough act to follow. When he was only 28 years old, he became the general manager of an entire television network. He was part of that Golden Age of Philippine Television, although a lot of people only see it as the Martial Law years. At one point or another, he got to work with the great actors and actresses of his time. He even discovered a whole lot of them. He was also the one who brought in Sesame Street to Philippine television. I guess, in a way, he became influencial in teaching a whole generation their A,B,Cs. When he left the network, he set-up his own business and become a "blocktimer". He'd buy TV shows from abroad and sell them to the local networks. So, he was the one who brought in Twilight Zone, Marcoss, Voltron, Moonlighting, Transformers, Dangard Ace, the Oscars, Takeshi Castle, and other shows too numerous t...

11:46pm Still at the office. I shouldn't be blogging. I shouldn't be online. I should be writing... A WHOLE LOT OF THINGS. But I'm not. I'm stuck. Which is why I'm online. Found out several things, thanks to Migs blog . First of all, Dominic "CyberCafe" Rivera has started his own blog! Alright, Dominic! Dominic, along with his wife Tina, ran CyberCafe in Robinsons Galleria during the late 90s and that's where Alamat had many meetings, brainstorms, comic book launches. But most of the time, we just stayed there doing nothing. Ha! Mall rats, indeed! Despite the fact we consumed vats of coffee it wasn't enough to keep CyberCafe open. Dominic is now in New York. Hey Dominic! If you ever open a CyberCafe there, you can be sure that Alamat will be there in the next comic book convention. (I wish) Second, found out that Lia's Cheesdip has been nominated for Best Asian Weblog in 2003 WEBLOG AWARDS . I somewhat expected som...

ITUTULOY! Thank goodness someone finally put Dr. Soleded Reyes' essay about Filipino komiks online. These articles were essential in doing my research paper and reports back in college. Click and read. Here is an a overview of the komiks medium . And here is an analysis on "The Structure of Meaning in the Komiks". Also online are some of the sci-fi stories that won in the Palanca's Future Fiction category.

More komix online Follow the radioactive rabbit down the hole and discover ATOMIC UNDERGROUND , the comic book that won 1st place in the C3 COMIC-CON's "BEST INDEPENDENT COMICBOOK CONTEST". Atomic Underground was made by M3 studios (pronounced M-"cube") which consist of Marvin del Mundo (Mario and the SPY Incorporated), Mark Oliver Santillan (Untamed Reality), and Michael Seludo (the Penciler). Got to meet M3 yesterday and finally got a copy! Yay! :) Hopefully, they will be able to distribute copies of there comic zine in Comic Quest and CCHQ soon. Email them, bug them, pester them so that they'll bring copies soon. Check out Elbert Or's 24-HOUR COMIC PROJECT . "The 24-hour Comic Project is a response to critic Scott McCloud's challenge - to write, draw, and letter a full-length 24 page comic in 24 hours. The 24-hour Comic Project is thirty black-and-white pages of superheroes, fictionalized histories, sexual disclosures, mi...

Strange things you discover after 48-hours of no sleep Kato was an OFW?! There is an urban legend that nationality of Kato, the Green Hornet's valet, was abruptly changed from Japanese to Filipino in radio broadcasts after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. This is false, according to the SNOPES site. According to radio historian John Dunning... "who notes in his comprehensive encyclopedia of old-time radio that although Kato was voiced by an actor of Japanese descent (Tokutaro Hayashi, later `renamed Raymond Toyo by director James Jewell for professional reasons` ), he was `described as a Filipino of Japanese descent at least two years earlier` than the events of 7 December 1941. The `Japanese descent` part of his character may have been downplayed thereafter, but he had indeed been identified as a Filipino well before 1941." Which kinda explains why he was doing all that driving for the Green Hornet. And think about it, when he wasn't in ...

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STARSTRUCK Over the holidays, I bumped into people I haven't seen for a long time and attended several reunions. Most the time, their first question to me would be, "Hey! Where's Donita?" ha. ha. ha. They were all referring to that TV commercial where I get a hug from MTV VJ Donita Rose. To all my friends and relatives who still haven't seen the TV commercial that has made me (in)famous, you can now view it online. Just go to the website of the director... http://www.martinarnaldo.com/moments/main.htm And then click commercial entitled STARSTRUCK. Feel free to laugh. :)

Spent today typing the second draft of the story. Also saw pencils of the first 18 pages of 1602 part 3, and was thrilled by them. I phoned Andy Kubert to tell him. "You know, either people will like this a lot," I told him, "Or they'll say things like 'Well, there was the Howard the Duck movie, and there was 1602'." --NEIL GAIMAN Why do I suddenly feel so unsure about this project? 1602 is Gaiman super-secret project with Marvel Comics that supposed to feature Marvel's classic characters. (Spider-Man? Fantastic Four?) Anyd Kubert is definitely not in my top ten list of favorite artists, now Gaiman says this... hmmm... scary!

Medieval VCD Torture I'm at the office and the guys at the other cubicle are watching LORT: TWO TOWERS!!! NOOOOO!!! Must... not... hear... Must... not... know... what happens... Huh? Who's that screaming? Sounds of war? No hope??? NOOOOO!!! Reaching for CD... play 10,000 MANIACS really loud... arrrrghhh... 10,000 Maniacs no match for the orc army!!! Five more days before I get to watch it... five more days...

DILIMAN #4 now online! In which Gabe, Bambi and Rich are caught in a growing scheme by elements of the supernatural. Tarot cards, cellular phones and hidden schemes intertwine until a glimpse of the scheme's desired resolution is revealed.

And for our last song... Now available is the third issue of Batch72, which is the conclusion to the “It’s a Mall, Mall, Mall World!” storyline. Giving a new spin to the term midnight madness, the super-villain Morgue has encased the entire UltraMall in ice and now holds everyone hostage using his mindless Ice Zombie. Last time we saw Batch72, Pammy, Brown-out, and Kadi were frozen solid and the rest of the band were about to be attacked by Morgue’s Ice Zombies. Could this be the end of Batch72? Rushing to their rescue are the ULTRACOPS, Manila’s Finest Super-Enhanced Law-Enforcers and the JUSTICE COPRS, the most popular superhero team on Philippine television. But will they be enough to stop Morgue? Things get really interesting when the hostage situation is shown on TV and is seen by Kadi’s grandfather… and we all know that Kadi’s lolo is actually Doktor Kadiliman, that infamous villain from World War 2. Obviously, the old doctor will not just sit in his sec...

FROM THE FWD TXT DEPT: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Wishing you a life less ordinary. Happy new year!

AN EMAIL FROM FILIPINO COMIC BOOK WRITER J. TORRES They say that the early bird gets the worm so here I am with some early hype for a couple of upcoming projects... "Marvel Comics are set to chronicle a new adventure of the X-Men of the alternate Mangaverse reality with X-MEN RONIN, a five-issue mini-series set to debut in March next year. X-Fan Correspondent Benjamin Ong Pang Kean recently caught up with writer J. Torres and editor C.B. Cebulski to find out more about the mini-series." The rest of the article can be found here: http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14091 Then Oni Press said there's be DAYS LIKE THIS: http://previews.diamondcomics.com/products/comics/jan_03/13_days_like_this.html With the big x-books push by Marvel in March, I was afraid my l'il creator-owned graphic novel might get lost in the shuffle. So, when you order your copies of X-MEN: RONIN (and I know you will - winkwink), think about orderin...

Color Me Red Got a kiss from Cooky Chua last night--- what a great way to end the year! :) :) :) Went to 70s Bistro last night. It was Triple-A Night aka Anti-Alcoholics Anonymous Night. That what they call it whenever Pin Wheel, Hydrophonics, and Color It Red plays in one place. Don't know how long they've been doing AAA, but I'm definitely going back their for their next "session". IT'S NOT A HOAX! IT'S NOT A DREAM! NOT AN IMAGINARY STORY! Welcome to married life, Gerry & Ilyn ... hope you survive the experience! he he he The guest list of Gerry and Ilyn's wedding read like a list to a comic book convetion. I should sold tickets and had an autograph signing session at the reception. In fact, their give-away was a mini-comic book on how they met and fell in love. Awwww. I was giving hosting duties during the reception along with Chris, Ilyn's classmate. I should've drank beer or wine or taken severa...