Wild Turkey surprise?!?

I've been seeing shirts with Tweety Bird saying "I taw, I taw a puddy tat!" Please, if you're going to quote a cartoon character, get it right. It's "I tawt I taw a putty tat," followed by "I did! I did taw a putty tat!"

We are the generation who grew up watching Looney Tunes as filler on channel 13 (together with mini-documentaries on "Japan Today"), take my word for it; we know those spiels by heart.  

Diva

I've always had the impression that Cherie Gil was a diva.

I remember a performance of "The Vagina Monologues" (a V-Day celebration, I think) where, during the curtain call, she looked and acted that way. I got the impression that she was basking in the applause and felt that she deserved every little bit. Which struck me as diva-ish since there were other actresses involved in the production. 

Perhaps it's the combination of her physical features – the eyes, the height, that nose – and her numerous turns as contrabida in whatever movie she's in. The mestiza is one of only two things: the bimbo or the oppressor, and Cherie Gil (See, you can never refer to her using her first or last name only, she's always Cherie Gil) is best when she's playing the former, throwing water on Sharon Cuneta uttering that famous line.

But Maria Callas wasn't an oppressor (at least not according to the play) and Cherie Gil plays this perfectly. No cattiness, just professionalism colored by a little bit of narcissism.

Terence McNally's “Master Class”is set wherever the play is being performed, with Maria Callas addressing the audience as students. Even before the house lights dim the guy playing the pianist Manny is already cleaning up and tinkering with the baby grand on stage.

Then La Divina enters, captures everyone's attention, and tells the audience not to take pictures.

What follows is a lot of witty repartee and a discussion on what it means to be a performer and an artist. Callas proceeds to explain and demonstrate how singing is more than just technique. From the pretty girl with short skirt and a happy disposition to the capable but insecure soprano singing Medea to opera stud Tony "Tightpants” Candelino, Callas demolishes her students, admonishes them, and leaves them a little bit better than they were before.

But this isn't the story of three students who learned from the best; the show is about Maria Callas, the world's greatest diva. Apart from the permeable fourth wall the play's other conceit is flashback monologues. As her students sing she recalls herself singing those parts and reminisces her past performances segueing into her personal life. We catch glimpses of a hard, troubled past and a life dedicated to art and we understand why she is the way she is. 

She reminisces because other people don't matter. She's given all of herself as an artist and a person that she feels she deserves all the adulation she receives (or demands). And just as we're getting to know her the music ends and the class is finished. 

And we all stand up as she takes a long, long bow. She has given her all and (for now, at least) the divine Cherie Gil deserves all the adulation she gets. 

Failing to capture the spirit

If you've watched a movie recently you may have seen the trailer for Frank Miller's take on Will Eisner's "The Spirit." Anyone who hasn't read the original Spirit (or even the Darwyn Cooke remake) may come away with the impression that it's another Miller-esque misogynist bloodfest set in a dark city with hardboiled (almost stereotypical) characters saying pulp-y lines like "My city screams."

Miller completely misses the point and Io9's Graeme Mcmillan explains why. 

Ultimately, Miller's movie Spirit could, on its own terms, be wonderful. Despite the unpromising trailers and teases that we've seen, it may be the stylish, sexy, exciting action movie that it so clearly wants to be. That would be great. But there is nothing that I've seen, either in the pre-release material for the movie or in any of Miller's earlier work that shows that he has it in him to translate what was so special about the newspaper strip - the real The Spirit - onto the screen, or even that he has any real inclination to try.

Which is the sad part. Instead of trying -- like his "300" collaborator Zack Snyder -- to capture the feel of the series, Miller just uses the characters and transports them into his own cynical universe. 

Oh well, at least we still have "Watchmen" to look forward to. 

Reactions

I love watching audiences react to films. As anyone who has watched in different cinemas with different audiences knows, the viewing experience also varies depending on the people you're with. A Makati office weeknight audience at Glorietta laughs at different scenes from a Sunday afternoon family crowd. 

When showing films to my various classes I watch them and note their reactions. It helps me tailor my subsequent lecture to their level of understanding.   

Filipino film critic Noel Vera showed the Lino Brocka classic "Insiang" to American students and writes about their reactions.  Interesting questions, especially the one about Filipinos eating with their hands.  

And you thought WoW was addictive

We're used to playing "Warcraft" and "Command and Conquer" and various other multi-player games on the PC. For me it began with "Dune 2000," the first real-time strategy game set in one of my favorite universes. Now you have kids who barely know how to read logging on to online games. 

But the first real multi-player game is "Spacewar" created in 1962 to display something interesting in the CRT monitor. Here's the text of a 1971 Rolling Stone article about the groups of computer guys playing the "first intergalactic spacewar olympics." There's also great info on the development of computer graphics, hacker culture, and the internet.

Side Effect

I've noticed the proliferation of schools that aren't so much places of higher learning as they are factories for future white collar workers. I'm not talking about diploma mills that require only tuition and attendance (and are not even strict with the latter) to graduate. I mean schools that offer computer and business degrees that are little more than a series of seminars conducted over eight semesters.

Advertising themselves like deodorant, these schools take TV spots and use popular endorsers (who aren't even alumni) to attract the young and gullible. Some have even gone all-out on the sales promo, offering discounts and other perks to early enrollees, which, for me, casts aspersions on the quality of their service.

But I digress.

These schools generally offer programs that focus on learning how to operate software or write a barely recognizable (much less feasible) business plan. And there's really nothing wrong with that except they're NOT college degrees.

Being inducted into the ranks of the learned means knowing certain things and having certain skills that go beyond (or are basic to) whatever it is you need to know to land a job. A bachelor's degree that teaches you skills that anyone else can get from a series of weekend seminars or self-help books isn't exactly higher learning. There should be a difference between a degree-holder in business and an entrepreneur who graduated from the school of hard knocks.

College is, or needs to be, more than just a ticket to employment. While a degree will definitely increase one's chances of landing a job, it really isn't the point. Desirability in the job market is a side effect, not the ultimate goal, of being highly educated.

Clearing more than one passage

The title of the study says it all: "Ejaculation as a potential treatment of nasal congestion in mature males." Neurotopia comments. 

It just might work...

I'm a TNG Trekkie. When the series premiered on channel 9 back in the late 80s I was worried that the party my family was going to would prevent me from watching. Luckily my brother and I found a room in my aunt's house with a black and white TV and no usiseros. "Encounter at Farpoint" was a solid episode and the Enterprise's saucer section separation sequence was eye-poppingly great for an 11 year-old. 

Since then I've watched almost all of the Treks (except the execrable "Enterprise") and was worried at how JJ Abrams would approach his reboot. It looks good, though. I'd watch if only for the eye candy and to hear how they explain the miniskirts and baby tees for Uhura. 

You're so vain...

... you think that this song's about you.

--Carly Simon

* * * * *

Nerds did not complain when "Coupling" depicted Jeff (and later Oliver) as socially inept, old cops did not complain when "Life on Mars" depicted Gene Hunt as a barumbado chief inspector, and rich guys took it in stride when "Fry and Laurie" played them as clueless and effete. So why are Filipinos complaining when "Harry and Paul" shows a "Filipina maid" character giving an old bloke a lapdance? 

Playing up stereotypes has always been a part of comedy and the stereotype being played up here is that of the white man being aroused by the household help (the exotic, Asian household help).  It's a form or arrogance to assume that the point of the bit was us and not them. 

No one here would've complained if it were a Keeley Hazell-type sexy model, or a hoodied chav, or a generic Asian maid. But since "Filipino" was mentioned we automatically assumed that the show was making a statement about how low some of our countrymen have sunk. 

Bad Thinking I

Some unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers spike their milk products with melamine to meet government protein requirements. Those products, which have already killed babies in China, have found their way here so the BFAD and DOH are testing products and conducting information campaigns. 

Simple enough? Not if you're a cab driver. 

A DOH representative was discussing the idea on the radio so the cab driver asks me "bakit ba nila nilalagyan ng melamine yung gatas?" I answer something along the lines of faking protein content and compared it to "kalburo." 

The standard reaction would be to say "Ah, ok." and continue driving; the guy on the radio said as much anyway so there's really no reason to doubt me. But cab driver did and that's fine, the problem was his alternative theory

My cab driver thinks that the Chinese have devised a new cure/therapy for kidneys and are using melamine to increase the number of kidney problems. A plot worthy of Blofeld / Luthor, which he admitted he thought of while watching cartoons. 

The problem is that there are no new Chinese kidney therapies and no indication at all of a connection between milk manufacturers and the hospitals that developed these new medicines. Occam's Razor gives us a simple explanation that works with the information at hand. 

But simple isn't my cab driver's style. 

Madness

I'm not sure if it was from “The Phantom of the Opera” (the novel) or its Discworld parody “Maskerade” but I remember opera being described as “controlled madness.” You have divas and dancers and directors and conductors with their egos and idiosyncrasies trying to put together a show that involves singing and dancing and acting and music. During rehearsals you'd think that the thing will never fly but it miraculously does, come opening night

Yesterday we had the privilege of watching a rehearsal of Puccini's "La Boheme" at the CCP. I'm used to seeing “dress rehearsals” and press nights before a musical's run so a real one -- where the director or conductor stops the show to give notes -- was refreshing. As our host The Bachelor Girl mentioned, we caught a glimpse of one of the more vulnerable parts of the creative process, where things aren't quite right yet and the final product might still end up looking different.

Witnessing the “madness” (as Leroux or Pratchett put it) was amazing and I was half wondering if, two days before opening night, they would be able to pull it off. The backgrounds weren't quite right yet and the set changes still take forever. However you can see the concept behind the production and visualize how the actual show might turn out.


Real People

A highlight for me was seeing opera singers act like real people.

We have an image of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti and think that all opera singers are like them. With the exception of Nolyn Cabahug (who, in my head, is still is the Dequadin guy), Fides Cuyugan-Asencio, and Sylvia La Torre, the Filipino public (even theatergoers like me) have little to no idea how opera singers really look like.

I was delighted to see Gary del Rosario and Lawrence Jatayna (Rodolfo and Marcello) high-fiving each other after the last scene and Jennifer Uy (Mimi) and Gary making faces while conductor Helen Quach was giving notes to the orchestra. Instead of stuffy leads and divas we had amazing singers having fun on stage.


Real Professionals

The interview with director Floy Quintos after the rehearsals was fun and funny (ask a gay theater/showbiz guy to explain something and you'll be treated to something akin to a stand-up routine) and added to my respect for Filipino opera singers. They were perfectly fine preparing for four months to play (at most) two shows and would fret at not hitting a single note during a performance, something Quintos says straight theater people would just wing.

“It was so humbling,” says Quintos on working with opera people. For someone who is used to straight theater actors demanding more stage time and pop singers being too demanding in general, the gung-ho, professional attitude of local opera singers is simply heartening.


Mehodical Madness

And then it hit me. They're real people who do something well and love what they're doing so much so that they're willing to work under less-than-ideal conditions just to make it work. The egos are really just manifestations of their perfectionism and will match eventually because there is a method to opera's madness.

Opera works not in spite but because of it.

Elite

Some time after the invasion of Iraq (IIRC) Dennis Miller came out on the "Tonight Show" and made a joke saying the president of the United States isn't the guy on the "West Wing." I guess the idea was that people who think that an agressive stance is wrong aren't really connected to reality. But what I immediately thought was "You got that right, the guy from the 'West Wing' was smart; Bush is an idiot."

So what would the smartest president (he won the Nobel prize) say to the current Democratic candidate? The NY Times' Maureen Dowd called "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, to get an idea what Bartlet might say to Obama. He laments the fact that "elite" is treated like it's a bad thing.

Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

Which is why Sarah Palin's popularity is disturbing. Her recent interview with Katie Couric was so stupid that Tina Fey just needed to quote it almost verbatim to get laughs. 

The better alternative comes from another intelligent show. Monty Python's Michael Palin might make a better vice-president. Say n'more!