Babbling Point

:) The blog entry is brought to you by the letter F. Astig! This month, Brandie starts his job as a faculty member in the Academy of Arts in San Francisco. He'll be teaching advertising to undergrads and will also serve as thesis advisor to senior students. Please do say hello and congratulate him by going to his phlog .

FANTASTIC CON! Hey Gerry ! Thanks for inviting us to join the KOMIKERO booth at The 2nd Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. It was fun! Fun! Fun! Sweaty and hot, but fun. :) It was also great to finally meet the Komikeros! Happy-perky-hyper-Ryan was the first to greet me, say hello, and try to sell me their comic books. He also took all my coins and spare change... hehehe... Finally got to meet Jonas Diego after all those years of snail mail and email. Hey Jonas! Yup, we must work on something soon! Geoffrey was there to give away preview copies of his comic book debut SERVANT. Hello na rin kay Jac , Johnny, Jerald, and Mylene, their newbie Komikero. :) And finally got to EB with Tobie! (Sorry... still can't find the script!) Ryan Orosco passed-by and gave Gerry a CULTURE CRASH calendar. heheheh Philip Tan came by stayed for awhile and was able to do a sketch or two. On the Alamat side of the booth, it was just me and Carl and his sold-ou...

THESIS STATEMENTS A year will not pass without us being interviewed by a student for his report of thesis. It started early this year as I was interviewed by a student from AIM who was making a business case about local comic book publishing. More specifically, his thesis was about studying the current comic book market and determine what kind of comic book is the market looking for and to create a comic book to cater to that market. To which I asked, “Isn’t that called, SELLING OUT?” He smiled and said, “Well, I hope to be able to synthesize everything I find out and still come up something that doesn’t look like a sell out comic book.” Like with every interview for a report or thesis, they would usually ask, How’d you start? What are you influences? What were the problems you encountered when you started your business? And so it becomes another episode of THIS IS YOUR LIFE and you are forced to remember the mistakes of the past, while trying to force yourself to smi...

+ "You bleed onto the page. This is your lifeblood. Minutes and hours and days and years of your life, transmuted into letters and words and sentences. A scattering of drops, globules of plasma. Punctuation. Period. Umlaut. "In the end, perhaps this is all you have to show for yourself. Your whole, messy life, smeared across the white pages that stop you from hemorrhaging." from David Hontiveros' PUSOD HA RAGAT Feels like he was also talking about making ads. In the end, what do you have to show? A couple of tearsheets, some commercials which some people considered cool for 30 seconds. There must be something more to all of this.

A funny thing happened on the way to Endor.... or, that's what happens when you smoke that Ewok weed. Wow... never knew this issue came out. I think Jobert told me about this site but never got to check it out. You can even buy Leia's metal bikini if you want to. Wonder if anyone will dress up in this at the SCI FI CON this weekend. :)

Got to watch half of THE GATHERING last night. During the first half of the movie, I was running around the mall trying to look for my lost car park card. I never found the card and had to pay P230 to get out of the mall. So, by the time I got in the movie, I missed most of the set-up, which was okay since Dang and Doris told us about the premise of the movie, which was the main reason we watched that instead of ROTK. (Well, we watched ROTK Saturday night anyway.) THE GATHERING felt like a extra-long episode of THE TWLIGHT ZONE. Well, it was more like that episode of RAY BRADBURY MYTSERY THEATER called THE CROWD, where a mysterious crowd would always appeared whenever there was a car accident. Turns out "the crowd" was composed of people who had died in other accidents and were "acquiring" more members by making sure that people in other auto accidents die. In THE GATHERING, that concept is taken to a Biblical scale, where a "crowd" gathers at ...

+ Ilang tulog na lang... dadating na siya! You're 12 years old and you discover you have super-powers! Are you a mutant? A strange visitor from another planet? Nope... turns out, you're God. Chosen #1 is tentatively scheduled to hit stores on January 21st.

PHLOG PHLESH The Ombundsman of Tech has once again discovered another interesting mobile blogging site. Jason was the first one to tell me about PHLOG.NET . And now, the wild side of moblogging... www.phonebin.com!!! Actually, it's quite funny. Wondering when the first Pinoy (or Pinay) will make a post there. Click here to see the strip show . Meanwhile, back in blogland... You can read the diary of a London callgirl , a porn star's journal , or, if you wish True Porn Clerk Stories . Take your pick and click. Looking at these sites, it would make for an interesting marketing tool if all of the Viva Hot Babes kept a blog/phlog. Just to make sure they're all okay and doing well. :)

00:00 DAY ONE In 15 minutes, Jan1 will become Jan2. Here we go... Spent most of the day in bed, then went to mass, then the mall, then back home. Deliver some gifts and went around Greenhills and Makati looking for an internet cafe that's open on New Year's Day. Found that old reliable Station 168 is open, but ended up in using a keyboard that had Korean keys. So, I blame the keyboard for any typos. Got to spend the second to the last day of the year with old friends. We ended up at 90 PROOF , where we talked about... oh... work... and girls... and life in general. Parted ways around 4am. Wow... 4am... been awhile seen we did any of that. Usually, when I'm going home at 4am, it's because I'm coming from work (and would usually have an 8am meeting to deal with.) Was supposed to meet up with the guys again early this morning, after all the fireworks had been spent and as the smoke and smog would blanket the city, but they all texted that they were too t...

+ READY, AIM, FIRE! Joey is Maricel's seven year old kid. One night, after playing MECH WARRIOR, Joey went up to his mom and asked her... JOEY: Mama, what mech warrior do you want to be? MAMA: I don't want to be a mech warrior. I only want to make love, not war. JOEY: Then you can be a LOVE MECH! We can set the mech for love. And you can be armed with torpedos of peace. More of Joey's crazy ideas at: http://joeyworld.blogspot.com/

:( ON A BLUE NOTE Got to watch the Blue Rats Friday night. As I listened to them sing about lost love, rant about life, and occassionally yell out their frustrations, I realized that I could've been a blues singer. And with those same prerequisites, I could also find work as a death metal vocalist. Maybe... in an alternate universe. And in that parallel existence, I'd end up with a legion of fangirls who'd love me and cry for my songs. But they'd never ever want to hear me sing happy songs. So I'd have to remain blue for all eternity, until I get sick of all the success and decide to become a popstar, by which time I'd be too old to join a boy band and end up writing about my failed career which becomes the number of song in the charts overnight. Yeah :)

Smells like Teen Dollars Young Ancient One??? Teen Thor??? Interesting ideas, but just makes me wonder if this is all an attempt to manufacture their own SMALLVILLE. Then there's Manga Sabrina . Which also makes me wonder, if the publishers of Archie's decided to revamp their whole comic book line and have Archie and the gang drawn in manga-style, would fans be happy or go berserk?

A funny thing happened on my way to the SIGLO book launch... Telly texted that she was able to get us tickets to LOTR: THE RETURN OF THE KING. (sorry guys!) Well, despite the rave reviews, I didn't like it as much as I liked LOTR: TWO TOWERS. Felt like it was more of the same. But at the end of it, felt sad... sad that it was the end of a wonderful, fantastic, grand adventure and that it won't happen again next year. It was like getting together with the same bunch of friends for the past three years and going through all that... and now it's over. Goodbye. Won't see you again. You go through four years of high school and four years of college, become good friends, share some interesting adventures, go through so much hardship and trials, and at the end of it, you all part ways. Well, you try to meet up whenever you can, but some reason or another that doesn't always happen. The group is never complete. The group is never the same. Some have to tak...

And so you attempt to solve for Y... You make all the right computations and to arrive at the correct answer. You double check and get the same answer over and over again. Yes, it is definitely the correct answer. Then you realized it's not the answer you were looking for in the first place. Maybe it's because you were trying to solve the wrong problem to begin with.

The other night, I took a cab home. When I got off, I looked back and realized that the name of the taxi was the SHUTTLE TYDIRIUM. I texted some people about it. Nikko replied... NIKKO: Did he have the right codes? You can use an old code and get through but beware of furry little critters armed with staffs. Then Brandie and I had this exchange via text: BRANDIE: You sure the driver has the right command codes? BUDJETTE: I'm not sure, but I told him to drive casual. BRANDIE: I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about it.

+ “The law doesn’t shape people’s opinions, TV and Hollywood do. I tell my students, `If you want to change the world, be a TV or movie producer, don’t become a lawyer.` Popular culture is the most powerful force.” Larry Kramer, New York University Law Professor Makes me wonder if Professor Kramer has ever been to the Philippines where popular culture / popular personalities have used and abused their popularity to attain even more powerful positions in government. Which makes me go back to my babbling about the need for heroes in Pinoy pop culture. Which makes me wonder if the characters of our tele-novelas and so-called Chi-novelas offer enough “heroes” for the people. More importantly, do we have enough heroes for our children whose minds are being shaped by the things that they see and watch and read. Something to keep in mind as we create these characters for the sake of entertainment— that they can be so much more.

+ DING! ANG EXHIBIT! Mars Ravelo: Sixty Years Retrospective 13 December 2003 – 15 February 2004 The Edge Gallery U.P. Vargas Museum Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines Diliman An exhibition organized for the family of the late comics creator Mars Ravelo, explores his many talents and other facets of his life. The retrospective gathers all material culture in his family’s collection such as original illustrations by Ravelo, memorabilia items and other materials inspired by the artist’s creations. The exhibition is a contribution to the growing academic and popular interest in Pinoy komiks and to further contemporary appreciation of nearly 75 years of the local comics industry. Mars Ravelo: Sixty Years Retrospective will run from 13 December 2003 to 15 February 2004 at the Edge Gallery of the U.P. Vargas Museum. For more information, please contact the U.P. Vargas Museum at telephone numbers 928-1927 and telefax 928-1925, or e-mail at vargas.museum @ up...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. FLYING PHANTOM illustrated by Bow Guerrero. After many years of avoiding a 9-to-5, punchcard-kind-of-life, Bow is now part of the Globe Team. In theory, this would allow us to work on comic book projects while the boss isn't looking. But the workload is a killer. It's a Sunday and I'm in the office and I'm trying to avoiding work. Oh no... here comes the boss!

WHY AM I HERE? Below is the talk I gave at GENERATION WHY, a series of seminars organized and conducted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. 300 students from all over the Philippines attended the talks last Saturday at the Li Seng Giap Auditorium in the University of Asia and the Pacific. Like I mentioned in my other blog entry, I was part of the panel that talked about "How young Filipino innovators and entrpreneurs are reshaping our country's business landscape". I got lumped together with well-established entrepreneurs. I thought I'd be out of place. I was... kind of. But I'm glad I went. I had fun and felt really good, especially when a couple of the students came up to me and said they wanted to start writing again. + + + + + + + When I was invited to give this talk, the email I got said that the objective of today’s event is: “To inspire the participants to harness their energy and idealism to initiate positive change in society by prof...

:( FOUND AND LOST I've been searching a long time For someone exactly like you I've been travelling all around the world Waiting for you to come through. Someone like you makes it All worth while Someone like you keeps Me satisfied. Someone exactly Like you. I've been travellin' a hard road Lookin' for someone exactly like you I've been carryin' my heavy load Waiting for the light to come Shining through. Someone like you makes it All worth while Someone like you keeps Me satisfied. Someone exactly Like you. I've been doin' some soul searching To find out where you're at I've been up and down the highway In all kinds of foreign lands Someone like you... etc. I've been all around the world Marching to the beat of a different Drum. But just lately I have Realised The best is yet to come. Someone like you... (van morrison) Bad trip.