Babbling Point

"A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high full of the single greatest commodity known to man - promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, the way she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it's going to be okay." This was one of our favorite movies back in the 90s. If we developed the biggest crush on Natalie Portman in LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL, we absolutely fell in love with her in this movie. I also loved this poster back then—loved it so much that we used it as a peg for a cover of BATCH72. (But now that I look at it, I quickly noticed the awful Photoshop job done on the poster.) I was cleaning out my folders today when I found this poster again, which made me check IMDB and found the quote above. Just wanted to share. More qu...

I was surprised to get this message from Mark Torres on my Facebook: Hey Budj, congrats on being PowerBook's Filipino Author spotlight! was very pleasantly surprised to enter PB Megamall and see your stand. It's great that the shop's recognizing your great work and contribution to the local fiction industry. It's a pleasure being able to collaborate with you. Keep up the fantastic work... And so, I clicked on the link and found out I am PowerBook's Filipino Author of the Month! Oh wow! Talk about having a Happy Easter! Thank you PowerBooks! And remember kids, you can order TRESE via http://powerbooks.com.ph Just click the links below! Order now! TRESE: MURDER ON BALETE DRIVE http://powerbooks.com.ph/webinternal/products.asp?product_id=4204 TRESE: UNREPORTED MURDERS http://powerbooks.com.ph/webinternal/products.asp?product_id=4770 TRESE: MASS MURDERS http://powerbooks.com.ph/webinternal/products.asp?product_id=5049

Last Wednesday, in between last minute meetings and last minute revisions, I went to the clinic to get a boil checked. The boil aka a carbuncle aka a “pigsa” was under my left armpit and was becoming a source of major discomfort. So, the clinic referred me to the surgeon on duty. He took one look at the pigsa and said we needed to incise it. The procedure took less than five minutes. He cut it open, cleaned out the puss, put a whole lot of gauze pads and medical tape and sent me out of the clinic with a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers. I stepped out of the clinic around 5pm. I went back to work, attended one more meeting, rewrote a script and finally got to have dinner around 10pm with Wella. Got home a little before midnight. In the bathroom, I took off my shirt, looked at my bandaged underarm, and noticed the gauze was soaked with blood. I poked it with a finger to check if it was dried blood or fresh blood. It looked okay. I suddenly felt this warm, liquid gush on my ...

"A few years ago, a young taxi driver drove me to John F. Kennedy Airport on Long Island. After a few minutes of conversation, I discovered that Mike had belonged to my synagogue years before I came to the community. "So, rabbi," he asked while we sat in heavy traffic, "what do you say to a Jew like me who hasn't been in a synagogue since his bar mitzvah ceremony?" Thinking for a moment, I recalled that in Hassidic lore, the baal aqalah (the wagon driver) is an honored profession. So I said, "We could talk about your work." "What does my work have to do with religion?" "Well, we choose how we look at the world and at life. You're a taxi driver. But you are also a piece of the tissue that connects all humanity. You're taking me to the airport. I'll go to a different city and give a couple of lectures that might touch or help or change someone. I couldn't have gotten there without you. You help make the connection hap...

RJ Ledesma was lucky enough to have a really long interview with Neil Gaiman (and managed to hug him as well). It was also great that RJ got to ask Gaiman about what he thought of the local comic book creators. RJ: Did you also like Budjette Tan’s Trese? GAIMAN : I really liked it. What I’m really enjoying right now is that people from the Philippines send me and give me comics. This makes me happy. And I just love the fact that these are comics using Philippine culture and folklore. One of the things I really love about the contest is the feeling that I got to point out to people that this stuff is cool. Because when I first came out here, people were giving me books of local folklore and I was reading them. And I was loving them. People would then ask me, “What do you like?” and I would tell them “I liked the aswangs and the manananggals.” After that, they would ask me if I would put them in my stories. Then I started feeling as if I did (write about them) it would lend them some ki...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdSP1TyiugA Client: Jack N Jill (URC) Product: Magic Flakes Junior Agency: Harrison Communications Creative Team: Budjette Tan, Mark Mendoza, Rivelle Mallari Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzalez, Jello Tan-Goloy, Ethel Diño Producer: Barbie Leyba Production House: Provill Director: Ricky Villabona Post House: Road Runner

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The ...

Thanks to Tracy for posting this ad in her Plurk page. It reminded me of this poem by Charles Bukowski: if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it. if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it. if it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it. if you're trying to write like somebody else, forget about it. if you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. if it never does roar out of you, do something else. if you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend...

"Be authentic to your dreams. Be authentic to your own idea about yourself. Grind away at your own minds and bodies until you become your own invention. Be Mad Scientists." — Warren Ellis Art by Ivan Despi http://acidhousepost.tumblr.com/ more quotes from warren ellis at: http://www.goodreads.com/search/search?q=warren+ellis&search[source]=goodreads&search_type=quotes&tab=quotes

Last November, we attended the 40th anniversary of the Kanlaon Broacasting System . I was supposed to give a speech about my dad, but didn't get to do so. Today is my dad's 11th death anniversary. I upload this speech today in memory of him Good evening KBS! How many people here worked with my dad? How many people here got yelled at by my dad? How many people here were in the path of deadly flying objects thrown by my dad? We apologize for that. You had it easy. My dad yelled at me and he didn’t just throw stuff at me, he threw me. He got so angry that one time that he picked me up and threw me towards the bed. So, there was brief moment when it was thrilling – I’M FLYING—and it was quickly replaced by terror as I came crashing on the bed. I remember one time he got really mad and my mom got really mad that he got mad and my dad said, you know I’m not really mad at them. I just want to keep them on their toes. Earliest memories of KBS My dad’s office had a long conference table...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH34BEh_27U Introducing PAPA LOOMPS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw7exqK0Qv0 LYRICS: Ilang PAPA Pals na ang kilala mo? I-PAPA na nang malaman mo. There's PAPA NOKS, (I'm Oh-So-Sweet) And PAPA DAWG, (The Big Hot Dawg) And PAPA LOOMPS, (we're Loomp-yum) Here's PAPA TILAPS (Aaarh!) and PAPA TORTS! (Tortally!) Pa-pa-pa-pa-parapaaa We're the food you want to eat each day! behind the scenes Client: SAFI Product: Papa Sweet-Blend Ketchup Agency: Harrison Communications Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzales, Madel Palman, Tracy Ampil, Arvon Fernandez • ECD: Alex Arellano / Budjette Tan • CD: JB "Taps" Tapia • Writers: Taps / Carlos Garchitorena • Art Directors: Reinard Santos / Louie Aquino • Mastermind: Raul Castro Production House: ProVill • Producers: Cris Dy-Liacco / Alec Humphries • Director: Luis Tabuena • D.O.P.: Take Onishi • Post House: Optima Digital • Music by Dan Gil

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out." --Roger Ebert quote found at http://www.jonathancarroll.com/blog/index.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pngd_lPVzVE Many thanks for Dan and Dang of IDEALS Creatives for inviting me to be part of last year's Pecha Kucha. In Pecha Kucha " each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up." So, I decided to do make my presentation a tour of Trese's Manila, which became a 6 minute 40 second Trese short story. Doing this event was a dream come true. One of my favorite scenes in the move CAPOTE was the part where he read the opening chapter of his book to jam-packed theater. It amazed me at how people were willing to spend a night watching a man standing in front of a podium and slowly read his tale to them. No special effects. No grand soundtrack. Just the man, his story, and the sound of his voice. Watching that scene, I wondered when I would get the chance to do the same thing. It was wonderful to be given the chance to do just that. So, thanks again to Dan...

TRESE: I CARRY YOUR HEART “I came from one of the dorms, near the university. College boy was found dead in his room. It was locked from the inside. No sign of forced entry. No signs of struggle and no wounds on the body. And since there were no visible means of suicide and no note, my guess is he died of natural causes. We’ll just have to wait for Spunky from the morgue to tell us otherwise.” Guerrero finished the rest of his tale as well as his coffee. Trese closed her eyes and asked, “Was the body drenched in sweat? Or at the very least, did his forehead and lips have beads of sweat?” Guerrero thought about it for a second and said, “Why, yes! Yes, it was!” “And did the air smell sweet? As if you were standing near a lot of fruit?” Trese continued. “Yes. I thought it was the boy’s cologne or something. Why? You know what killed him?” “It was a bangungot!” the Kambal raced to answer the question. Trese raised her glass to the Kambal for giving the right answer. READ THE COMPLETE STOR...

FEB 12(FRI) I will be at U.P. DILIMAN along with Manix Abrera to talk about comic book writing (so says this poster below) And on FEB 13(SAT) I will be at U.P.L.B. along with the other guys from Alamat. (Kajo will not be able to join us on this day, since he will be far, far away.) More details at: http://komikstrip.jonasdiego.com/

August stood in front of the speakers as the DJ started to play that song -- the song they danced to that night in Boracay, the song that they asked the DJ to keep on playing because they loved it so much and the DJ didn't mind because they were the only customers in the bar that rainy, summer night. As the song reached its peak, August stood still and let every pore of his body absorb the music. For a split-second he had hoped that the sonic blast would be powerful enough to hurl him back to the beaches of Boracay; propel him through time to that very night when everything was all right. The rising beat, gave way to the female vocals that promised him an endless summer. And August just kept on dancing.

...then without rhyme or reason The two birds did rise up to fly And where the two birds were flying I swear I saw you and i I swear I saw you and i I walked out this morning It was like a veil had been removed from before my eyes For the first time I saw the work of heaven In the line where the hills had been married to the sky And all around me Every blade of singing grass Was calling out your name And that our love would always last And inside every turning leaf Is the pattern of an older tree The shape of our future The shape of all our history I was brought to my senses I was blind but now that I can see Every signpost in nature Said you belong to me lyrics by Sting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OM3DF1Az-Q Client : Unilab / Neozep Agency: Harrison Communications ECD: Alex Arellano Creatives: Bow Guerrero, Ronnie Tres Reyes, Budjette Tan Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzales, Jello Tan-Goloy, Ethel Dino

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFUI4iTyNfs Client : Jack N Jill, URC Agency : Harrison Communications Creatives: Bow Guerrero, Ronnie Tres Reyes, Budjette Tan Accounts: Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, Monday Gonzales, Jello Tan-Goloy, Ethel Dino Producer: Datu Gallaga Music/song: Digitrax Animation: Holy Cow Director: Vince del Rosario

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Dangerous-Things-Should-Children/dp/0984296107 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-VacaaN75o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvHViFc0ekw (Thanks to Mark for the link)