Baguio Idol

Philippine Idol was finally shown in Channel 5 last Sunday. It was as impressive as the American Idol. There was one Baguio boy featured in the auditions. Benjamin Cruz wore a ten-gallon hat, cowboy boots and tight Levis. His idol is Garth Brooks and yes, he made to the second round. Mark Cielo, move over.

Mending Kids

Ms Menchu sent us this. If you know a child in need, please don't hesitate.

My West Coast contact, Cris Embleton of Mending Kids International, has about five (5) slots available for indigent children with the heart defect known as ATRIAL SEPTAL DEFECT who can be treated with the Amplazer Septal Occluder in Los Angeles this October (date to be finalized later). The Philippine Airlines Foundation has sent children for free care at UCLA, Cedars Sinai or the Shriners Burn Hospital through Mending Kids International in the past.

As recovery from the amplazer procedure only takes about a week, Mending Kids wants children old enough to travel to the States and able to stay in the hospital without a parent. Another Fil-Am charitable organization called the Guardian Angels of America Foundation will make sure the children are not unduly anxious and lonely during their short stay. A day at Disneyland will be the highlight of their recovery and release from the hospital. They will be escorted by myself (I am a licensed foster parent and have had training in CPR and First Aid) as the Philippine Airlines Foundation will provide the Trip Pass for a round trip ticket from the
Philippines to Los Angeles. However, you must find other sponsors for the child's passport, US Medical Treatment Visa application and for the terminal fee, taxes, insurance and other surcharges on the ticket that will be issued by Philippine Airlines.

Mending Kids will take care of hosting family arrangements for the times when the child will not be in the hospital and will send proof of the host family's suitability and the Special Power of Attorney to the child's family as well as other details of the child's medical care.

Please send me the accomplished forms below if you are referring a child for this treatment. Thank you.

Ma. Carmen "Menchu" Aquino Sarmiento
Executive Director
Philippine Airlines (PAL) Foundation
Gate 1, PAL Maintenance Base Complex
Andrews Avenue, Nichols, Pasay City 1309
Phone: (632) 851-2980; (632) 855-8000 extension 2563
Fax: (632) 852-6096

Suko

This Being the Lion Month, We Give You The Bachelor

Honeymoon Period

Marriage Sets In

Shot. Shot.

I haven't drunk for a week. Spare me. But this should not dissuade you from drinking (its cold and raining in this hemisphere) because the esteemed Frank Rich gave us 40 reasons why you should drink. I hope this is the New York Times Frank Rich. Kung hindi, basta Frank magaling

1. If you don’t drink that booze, by God, someone else will.

2. The brewing industry alone employs 1.7 million people and that’s a lot of mouths to feed.

3. Bad ass nicknames like “Chuggybear,” “The Alabama Hamma,” “Pukey McPukerson”
are not awarded to people who stay home to do laundry.

4. Your favorite bar stool needs just one more sitting to break it in.

5. This is the one and only night your soul mate will wander into the bar. Seriously.

6. Word on the street is the booze has been trash talking you all day.

7. Without your brilliant wit and charm all those poor bartenders will be so dreadfully bored.

8. Dude, after what you did last time, you gotta go back out there and explain yourself.

9. It’s far better to have a good time you won’t remember than a dull one you will.

10. Remember that English high school teacher you and your pals used to call “Mr. McTightass?” You are so starting to remind me of him.

11. You can bet something really important and worthy of celebration happened on this day at sometime or another.

12. How the hell can you walk around sober when you’re an insignificant speck in an infinite and uncaring universe?

13. Churchill and FDR got drunk, Hitler didn’t. So what are you, some kind of Nazi?

14. If you don’t you’ll wake up in the morning all bright eyed and bushy tailed, and who the hell wants to go through life acting like a goddamn squirrel?

15. Your friends can’t have a good time without you.

16. Your friends might have a good time without you.

17. The Man says you shouldn’t and you don’t want to upset the Man, eh slavebot?

18. There is a 1000 percent better chance you will land a starring role in the upcoming Paris Hilton video Vegas Orgy.

19. Your lawn is so much more comfortable when you’re loaded.

20. You’re much less likely to remember doing all that embarrassing stuff.

21. That feisty barmaid might finally, you know, pick up on what you’re laying down.

22. Listen, are we down on this goddamn rock to have a good time or watch other people have a good time on TV?

23. Your girlfriend has rented a bunch of chick flicks you can snuggle to.

24. You’re under a lot of stress and if you don’t get crazy drunk you might do something crazy sober.

25. You gotta figure the odds of getting thrown in the drunk tank twice in one month are practically negligible.

26. If you don’t hunt the booze, the booze will surely hunt you.

27. When you write your memoirs you won’t have to go through the hassle of making up a bunch of decadent adventures.

28. Al-Qaeda forbids drinking and since when did you start taking orders from Al-Qaeda?

29. Let’s face it: modern life is a shit storm and booze is the only umbrella without any holes in it.

30. 7-11 nachos with extra cheese substitute and chili only taste good when you can’t remember eating them.

31. You did your goddamn monkey dance for the Man and now you get your monkey treat.

32. God hates the sight of you.

33. God won’t stop staring at you.

34. Your boss gets all weirded out when you get drunk during the day.

35. Three Stooges episodes you’ve watched a hundred times are suddenly hilarious again.

36. The day will come when you will have to single-handedly face death, and there isn’t a person alive who can tell you what will happen next.

37. Hemingway shot himself after being sober for two months.

38. When your coworkers ask “What did you get up to last night?” you can smile all cool like and say “Maaaaaan, you don’t wanna know,” instead of chirping “I alphabetized my DVD collection and found out I have two copies of The Truth About Cats and Dogs! Two!”

39. Remember your childhood dream of meeting a brewery heiress and jet-setting around the world on her dime? You think that’s going to happen while sitting in your goddamn apartment watching Captain Picard surrender the Enterprise for the tenth straight episode?

40. It’s so much easier to ring up those old flames and explain exactly where they went wrong.

Choi's Record

Thomas Pynchon

Our Literary God, Thomas Pynchon, is said to be lurking here. Amazon reported that he made the blurb for his yet untitled novel.

"Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.
With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.

The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx."

Wow!

VOA on Pronouncing "Cimatu"

Thanks to my famous cousin, the world through Voice of America knows how to pronounce my name.

CIMATU, ROY
Philippines
ROY SEE-mah-too

Your Name

Coming out with a nice name in the Internet needs careful planning. Otherwise you would end up like that hapless Chinese or Taiwanese boy who ended up in Photoshop Hell. For example, you are a power generating company, so you have powergen.com. Taken. So you include your country: www.powergen + Italia = www.powergenitalia.com. Ha ha ha. This was first said to be a hoax but there is indeed an Italian battery company which owns www.powergenitalia.com though you need an ID. Then there is a group of experts selling or exchanging their expertise in the net. experts + exchange = expertsexchange.com. Instead of consultations, they get requests for sex change. so now they are known as www.experts-exchange.com. They are still boring but they get fewer trans calls. The name that started it all is a PR group which wanted to answer the basic call for customers: Who Represents Us? So they came up with, of course, www.whorepresents.com. Nice hook. So now we have an Australian company selling sushi in a train. www.sushitrain.com.au. Then the unfortunate Pen Island Homesite. www.penisland.net Hmmmm. Queer Eyes. They are selling pens. Even during the comedian Benny Hill's time, therapist/the rapist joke was already on. Imagine the pigheadedness of www.therapistfinder.com and even www.leagueoftherapists.com. New South Wales has a Mole Station Native Nursery for frost hardy native shrubs, cut flower varieties and farm trees. In their website, they took out "native" and so, www.molestationnursery.com selling pedophiles and therapists. Joke! It is actually www.molerivernursery.com. So they are back to being ho hums. Call 1-800-GoTahoe for a vacation to Lake Tahoe, one of the cleanest lakes in the world. Only, when your website is www.gotahoe.com, you are back to being dirty but good. Ah! The speed of webdesign! The speed of art! but www.speedofart.com gets you the uncomfortable swimwear breakwind. Pastor William (Bill) Gothard (www.billgothard.com) should preach at the First Cumming Methodist Church (www.cummingfirst.com).

Hackers, It's Time for Us to Show Them What People's Power is About

It's being alone and united

Go USA !!!!! You May Have the Power But You are (All?) Tina Morans!!!

What Countries in the UN Support the Ceasefire in the Middle East?

What Countries in the UN Do Not Support the Ceasefire?

Googling Hwang

They say Men are From Google, Women are From Yahoo! Men, here's your man!!!! The artist who does the Google logos.

Raising Toilet Humor to a Higher Level

Will Floyd Landis Be The New Armstrong?

No. Three reasons:
1) He already has a website and he is already selling "Limited Edition Floyd Landis Tour Shirts." How presumptuous! Of course, when Lance Armstrong first won the Tour de France, only Louie Armstrong has a website dedicated for him.
2) Lana or even Carole Landis had better legs
3) Sure, I can wear "Livestrong" bracelets but you can't make me wear "Ma-Landis."

Sickness Time

These are the photos of Leoncio Balbin who was also sick of flu though he was in Candon. There they heal the sick differently by branding them and sticking toothpicks on their faces. he he he. Acupuncture and venthusa by Korean students there.

Sick

I was sick for the past four days. Been in bed for the past three. My head is still aching (I reckoned it is caffeine withdrawal) but I said what the heck or whatever is the Ilocano of it (kenana metten). I am in danger of losing three rackets already. Lost one assignment (Sorry Jessica. I will send you that weird shoes book!). Missed one going-away party (Bye, Choi). Sorry, Eros for our I-get-one-model-as-long-as-I-watch-your-show-and-review-it deal. Sorry Mr. Tsinelas for the botched story. This is what sickness gets you. Time to read. Time to reflect. Actually no. Ha ha ha

Lindsey Lohan as Pinay

This is from drunkenstepfather.com:

With new beginnings, come new goals and new ideas. I don’t know if I am going to continue stalking Lohan anymore. I haven’t decided yet. I did have a good time talking to the fake Lohan on Myspace. I am pretty sure she was a 15 year old Filipino. I wouldn’t be surprised if her relatives work for some of you, you know, cleaning your house and stealing your mom’s jewelery and shit. Either way, I am definitely impressed by the trouble they go to to re-create a celebrities life and to make their fake profile believable. They create relevant profiles of their love interests and they have fake Nicole Richie and fake DJ AM profiles leave fake comments on their fake Filipino pages and it’s an overall amazing time.

The reason I don’t want to stalk lohan anymore is cuz I don’t find her body hot. I am shallow like that, and like stalking looks not personality. I felt the same way about sex and marriage before needing citizenship, then I took whatever table scrabs I could find, married her and now watch her emotionally eat herself to death in hopes of it ending my misery. That’s the story I heard.

Masakit Isipin Ang Nakaraan

How To Vanish

Our telephone number has the wrong number for almost a decade. I tried asking the stupid Piltel to change it but they haven't. Until I discovered the beauty of being invisible.

Don't you know that according to the BBC, almost half of Britons are ex-directory. Meaning they are not listed in their telly directory.

"With Britain's much-discussed long-hours culture, there is a sense that workers' few hours at home are sacrosanct. Having slaved all day, we want at least one sphere where we can defend ourselves from intrusion and observation," it noted. How true.

And there are many professions where because of contact with potentially unstable members of the public, considering disappearing from the listings would be advisable.

If you are a criminal lawyer, judge, social worker, journalist, estate agent, or a host of other professions who might have made enemies during the course of your work, not "being in the book" is a must. The Police Federation, for instance, advises officers working in some specialist or more risky roles to consider it.

So, maybe Piltel may not be stupid after all.

This is your Life's Soundtrack?? Get Away From Me.

SIDE A
Debby Boone
“You Light Up My Life” 1977


Michael Jackson
“She’s Out of My Life” 1979


Dan Hill
“Sometimes When We Touch” 1977


Celine Dion
“My Heart Will Go On” 1998


Bread
“If” 1971

Whitney Houston
“I Will Always Love You”


Chicago
“You’re the Inspiration” 1984


Dan Fogelberg
“Longer” 1980


Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
“Our House” 1970


SIDE B
Lionel Richie
“Hello” 1984


Loggins & Messina
“Danny’s Song” 1972


’N SYNC
“God Must Have Spent A Little More Time on You” 1998


Charlene
“I’ve Never Been to Me”


Stevie Wonder
“I Just Called to Say I Love You” 1984


Air Supply
“All Out of Love” 1980


Morris Albert
“Memories”

Lighter Salute

First, for the uninitiated, an explanation of the lighter salute: You're at a concert. The music slows, the first guitar wails of a power ballad begin, and hundreds of disposable lighters illuminate the audience like so many sequins on a vest.

Three or four (or 10, if it's a particularly long solo) minutes later, the song ends, and you pocket the Bic and get back to headbanging.

But fear not, "Free Bird" devotees. Lighting up en masse isn't all that bad for the environment. The butane in disposable lighters is a compound made up of carbon and hydrogen; as it burns, these elements combine with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water vapor.

A typical lighter releases about 237 milligrams of carbon dioxide per minute. If 1,000 Night Ranger fans burned their lighters during the entirety of "Sister Christian," they would collectively release about 1.2 kilograms of CO2. Compare that with the 12,200 kilograms a typical power plant produces in a minute.

In fact, if you were to give a one-minute salute with each of the 1.46 billion lighters that Bic sells annually, the amount of CO2 you'd create would equal only 28 minutes of said power plant's emissions.

Willy C writes 30

Let's give the floor to Manong Paul Baquirin

If anyone can speak out for Baguio, it was Willy Cacdac. He has always aligned himself with the oppressed and the weak. Cockfighting aficionados will describe him as "dehadista". And with the unceasing onslaught to Baguio's environs, Willy had always spoken his mind and influenced his fellow Baguioites to act on major issues. Most often he would be a key player in conceiving an impact community project. Perhaps it was his exposure to the political savvy of his former boss the late Mayor Lardizabal. . This is how I recall Willy whom I first met at City Hall while he was Mayor Lardizabal's secretary and I was a neophyte employee right out of college connected with the City Budget Office. I was then part of a section of that office, the Economic Development Staff charged primarily with the Mayor's impact projects. So most of the researches for projects we recommended for initiation in the communities, to the Mayor without a miss would find their way to Willy's desk. Willy Cacdac and Freddie Mayo, they were the dynamic duo. I recall all those happy days working with them. I learned a lot of things from these guys i.e. when not to barge into the inner sanctum, when to tread lightly and when to voice out what you think. They knew the old man to a T and everyone who needed to get inside will need to get the queue from them when it was the right time. His was a thankless job. He stayed there until the old man left and only on rare occasion will he leave early. At most times he will go around the city after office hours so Willy had to tag along. He only gets a breather when his boss goes out of town but still had to stay on top of everything as he gets a phone call ever so often. But in all he did, he did smartly and with finesse. You would see him at the office with a pen tacked on the right ear and with his long sleeved shirt rolled up until the elbows. Mayor Lardi's eloquence when he spoke in public can be attributed to the dynamic duo. I never saw them stressed out. Or perhaps the after office hours visit to those "shot" places that I also got initiated to was their way of distressing.

I left city hall when Gen. Bueno was appointed in place of Mayor Lardi. So did Willy who went back to media to do what he did best fighting for Baguio through excellent journalism. We lost touch only meeting occasionally at Dainty or Star Café or Session Café when I catch him with common friends from media, Peppot, Steve, Bembo and trade news. It was after several years when again we had the chance to work together. With his media friends, they organized Bangon Baguio in response to the earthquake calamity in 1990. It was a movement that unprecedented united all sectors of the community and rise up from the disaster. It proved to one and all that the people of Baguio can be united for a common cause. Right after the earthquake, the electric cooperative was also going through its own crisis and its consumers were caught in the conflict with deteriorating services. Willy entered the fray and came out regaining the confidence of consumers to its cooperative. He was branded as traitor by some but despite this, he was convinced what he did was right. I did to because I worked alongside him, developing strategies and proudly contributing to the complete turnaround of the electric coop to being ahead of the rest of the coops in the region in terms of performance. He became the voice of the cooperative fighting for it over the air waves, writing its press releases, organizing dialogues with media, hitting the road to preach the gospel of rural electrification to the people of Benguet, training its employees in leadership and consumer relations. He played a key role in putting back the ailing utility firm on its feet. You get motivated by just seeing him do what he does. Then I heard he left the coop. This surprised me. Then I just read he became editor of Sun Star. So I realized he moved on to that thing he really is passionate about. One memorable project he did was to convince the coop to lead the way in helping disaster victims of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. With his old friend Swanny Dicang, who envisioned "Operation Sayote" they led a convoy of truckloads of goods for those affected by the eruption. On their second trip my son Bien who was a classmate of Swanny's son Peds, asked permission to go. And I let him. Here is one anecdote of the trip he narrated to us.

It was raining when they reached some part of Zambales. With then fog, visibility was very poor so they had to stop for awhile as the drivers were having a difficult time on the road.. They found a shelter near by. So they gathered wood and built a fire. When suddenly Swanny told Willy his stomach was grumbling and told Willy in the dialect " Willy makaramraman nak ti pinikpikan!"(I feel like eating "pinikpikan"). To that Willy countered "Pagalaam ti lubong iti ipikpik mo nga manok? (Where in the world will you find chicken to cook?) Swanny countered, "Anya nga manok?...Manok ken pato, ah!" (What chicken? We need a chicken and a duck!) Willy asked, "Ni apay ngay?" (Why?) Swanny: " Wen ah, tapno CockDuck!" And Willy swore at him in the dialect and ran after him with a piece of wood! They eventually found a chicken but not a duck. Now we can't forget Willy whenever there is pinikpikan. And who knows he is right now with close friends Freddie Mayo, Bembo, Steve, Peppot enjoying themselves around a campfire swapping yarns and enjoying their shots with pinikpikan as pulutan.

Farewell Willy!

Rashomon Zidane

As they say, it's depends

And don't forget. July 20 is World Jump Day

Murphy's Lawyer

I found these. I don't believe some of them but hope it destroys your day like Florita destroyed our day here en masse. Anyway. none of these laws were mine but the annotations were made by me.

Murphy's Sex Laws


1. The more beautiful the woman is who loves you, the easier it is to leave her with no hard feelings.
2. Nothing improves with age.
3. No matter how many times you’ve had it, if it’s offered take it, because it’ll never be quite the same again.
4. Sex has no calories.
5. Sex takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.
6. There is no remedy for sex but more sex.
7. Sex appeal is 50% what you’ve got and 50% what people think you’ve got.
8. No sex with anyone in the same office.
9. Sex is like snow; you never know how many inches you are going to get or how long it is going to last.
10. A man in the house is worth two in the street.
11. If you get them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.
12. Virginity can be cured.
13. When a man’s wife learns to understand him, she usually stops listening to him.
14. Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.
15. The qualities that most attract a woman to a man are usually the same ones she can’t stand years later.
16. Sex is dirty only if it’s done right.
17. It is always the wrong time of month.
18. The best way to hold a man is in your arms.
19. When the lights are out, all women are beautiful.
20. Sex is hereditary. If your parents never had it, chances are you won’t either.
21. Sow your wild oats on Saturday night — Then on Sunday pray for crop failure.
22. The younger the better.
23. The game of love is never called off on account of darkness.
24. It was not the apple on the tree but the pair on the ground that caused the trouble in the garden.
25. Sex discriminates against the shy and the ugly.
27. Before you find your handsome prince, you’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs.
28. There may be some things better than sex, and some things worse than sex But there is nothing exactly like it.
29. Love your neighbor, but don’t get caught.
30. Love is a hole in the heart.
31. If the effort that went in research on the female bosom had gone into our space program, we would now be running hot-dog stands on the moon.
32. Love is a matter of chemistry, sex is a matter of physics.
33. Do it only with the best.
34. Sex is a three-letter word which needs some old-fashioned four-letter words to convey its full meaning.
35. One good turn gets most of the blankets.
36. You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine women.
37. Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
38. It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
39. Thou shalt not commit adultery…..unless in the mood.
40. Never lie down with a woman who’s got more troubles than you.
41. Abstain from wine, women, and song; mostly song.
42. Never argue with a women when she’s tired — or rested.
43. A woman never forgets the men she could have had; a man, the women he couldn’t.
44. What matters is not the length of the wand, but the magic in the stick.
45. It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
46. Never say no.
47. A man can be happy with any woman as long as he doesn’t love her.
48. Folks playing leapfrog must complete all jumps.
49. Beauty is skin deep; ugly goes right to the bone.
50. Never stand between a fire hydrant and a dog.
51. A man is only a man, but a good bicycle is a ride.
52. Love comes in spurts.
53. The world does not revolve on an axis.
54. Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation; the other eight are unimportant.
55. Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.
56. Don’t do it if you can’t keep it up.
57. There is no difference between a wise man and a fool when they fall in love.
58. Never go to bed mad, stay up and fight.
59. Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
60. “This won’t hurt, I promise,”

Headbutt

The best blog on "le headbutt" is by Jessica Zafra.

Severed Horsehead Pillow, Zidane and Fred Savage

I am reading Copolla from Virgin Book's Film Series. Nice to know there is a "severed horse head pillow" being sold for Godfather fanatics. Speaking of heads, the Zidane headbutt is still the talk of the town, at least in my side of the town na mahilig ng futbol. Here's another controversy on Zidane sent by a friend. Also involving Brazil's Roberto Carlos. Coincidentally, I am wearing Carlos's Brazilian jersey. And watching The Wonder Years' Pilot Episode. Nice, no?

Aswang in Daly City

Willi Pascual is now in San Francisco was commissioned to write the screenplay for the return of Nora Aunor. La Aunor would appear as "The Aswang sa Daly City."
To help Willi, he should know about the tale of the two aswangs.
The aswangs woke up in the middle of the night and needed to feed on blood.
"Let's look for a warm body," one of them said.
"We're new here. Bagong salta. Illegal aliens," the other said. "Don't know anyone. Maybe we wait for other aswangs"
"Other aswangs? Here in California? C'mon we are the only ones here. Capiz is far, far away" So off she flew away.
When she returns, she is covered with blood in the mouth.
The first aswang said, "Buti ka pa. Where did you get the blood?"
"See that black building over there," the second aswang asked.
"Yes naman," the first one said.
"Well," the second one said, licking blood. "I didn't."

Into Thin Air

The First Mt. Everest Philippine Expedition is in town! I emt them Sunday and on Monday decided to gatecrash their meeting with the Department of Tourism so I can have my "Into Thin Air: The Illustrated Edition" by Jon Akenauer. They all did sign my book and Leo Oracion, the first Pinoy (arguably) to climb Mt. Everest (he looks like a Sherpa)even wondered aloud where I got the book. Well... Must be good for eBay

Ichiro!

This just in. Mariners finally won although Ichiro was still in a mini-slump this July. Even as we speak, the Red Sox and Chicago White Sox are tied 5 all in the EIGHTEENTH INNING. Grabe!!! Chicago's Mackowiak extended his hitting streak with a single in the 17th! Who else would be given such a chance? Now they are on their 19th. The Chicago White Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers played a game lasting 8 hours and 6 minutes on May 9, 1984. The Chicago White Sox eventually won 7-6 in the 25th inning. The White Sox used to be known as the White Stockings. Ha ha ha. Even as we speak the 2nd time, Iguchi singled to give the White stockings the win at the bottom of the 19th.

Sports Putcha and Pitcha.

We can now sleep here in the Philippines. The World Cup is over with Italy winning 5-3 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw. I was thinking, nandoon ba si Baggio for Italy. I recalled watching the World Cup 1994 in Los Angeles. Yes, I was there when the Buddhist Baggio kicked like a Filipino also in the penalty against Brasilia. Anyway, I was here when Zidane acted like a toro and headbutted an Italian in extra time. He could have ended his futbol career highkicking but he was gone, gone with a red card. He gave the only goal given up by the Italians in the Cup. It was their 4th. The ghost of Baggio is exorcised. It was not the only sports event I watched in that stretch. Last night, Federer won over Nadal. Imagine 6-0 in the first set! Then two hours each for the next set, both tiebreakers. Nadal won the 3rd set but he knew it coming! I even heard him blurt out, Puta! But you won't hear that. Pinoys watching knew he said that, although Pinoys would say Putcha, similar to the way they pronounce pizza. Pitcha. With a pie. Pitcha pay as in tinapay. Then there is the Cialis Western Open. Cialis is the better Viagra, I heard. Woods lost by two over Immelman, although he was hot from the 10th to the 15th holes, birdieing 4. Then he became average while Immelman was in the zone. Today, the Mt. Everest Expedition of the Philippines would be in Baguio. I already met them Sunday and talked with them but today, Monday, I brought my Into Thin Air: The Illustrated Edition by Jon Krakauer for autograph. It was already signed by Jon so the signatures of Oracion and Emata would make it extra valuable. Hooray!

The Ballad of John and Yoko: Pepe's Version

Sometimes you get the most palatable (or unpalatable) details from somebody as you hack an innocent story. Take my interview with Pepe Smith about the Beatles Snob of Imelda 40 years ago. Forty years is forty years no matter how memorable it is (see stoy below). Sometimes you need to anchor it to something else to make it memorable. In my interview with Pepe, he was insisting that it happened in 1965. It was in 1966 but I saw no point in arguing.

Kasi it reminded me of something else, he said. What's that? Ganito yun, he replied. I was in Tokyo when the controversial album of John and Yoko came out. (This is the "Two Virgins" album) They were naked. The Queen (of England) later ordered it to be taken out. But in Tokyo, the order came late so we saw the cover. Confirmed. Supot si John.

Rewind, rewind. So the Beatles had the concert in Rizal Coliseum. Pepe even detailed out the concert venue. How big and how tall the stage. Etc. Etc.
Pepe belonged to the D'Downbeats. They were also with the D'Cavalcade Dancers, I learned later. They must be agogo dancers because the owner of the D'Downbeats owned El Mundo which is THE CLASSMATES/PEGASUS at that time when Roxas Blvd was still the center of the Manila Universe.
So after the concert, Pepe told me that the owner of El Mundo sent four girls to the Beatles. When they came back the next afternoon, Pepe and the other bandmembers teased the girls. So how were they? One of them said, Iyun ba yung sinasabi niyong John Lennon? E supot yun (complete wiht Bisaya accent).
Pepe said that he thought nothing of it until he was in Japan and saw that cover. Confirmed!! His exact word. So that's the bitch on the dear old late John Lennon.
And that's how Pepe was able to remember July 4, 1966.

Pepe

I remembered when Pepe Smith jsut came out of jail and was back on solo tour. He played in Bistro 70 one Rizal Day. There were only about four of us in the audience. What Pepe did after playing a few songs was gather all of us and he told his story.

Let's Singalong with Neil Young

Let’s Impeach the President

Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he’s racking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean

Googling Chuck Norris

Masyado nang maraming Chuck Norris jokes kaya sinubukan ko siyang igoogle. Ito ang nagoogle ko.

Zipper Sich

A situation and let David Letterman get you out the sich.
Top Ten most Polite Ways to Say Your Zipper Is Down

10. The cucumber has left the salad.
9. Quasimodo needs to go back in the tower and tend to his bells.
8. You need to bring your tray table to the upright and locked position.
7. Paging Mr. Johnson… Paging Mr. Johnson..
6. Elvis is leaving the building.
5. The Buick is not all the way in the garage.
4. Our next guest is someone who needs no introduction.
3. You’ve got a security breach at Los Pantalones.
2. Men may be From Mars…..but I can see something that rhymes with Venus.
And the ..1 way to tell someone his zipper is unzipped….
1. I always knew you were crazy, but now I can see your nuts.

Compare thee to a Summer's Day

This is Shakespeare's famous sonnet:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

When a computer rewrites it:
var summer:Object = {};
var thee:Object = {};

summer.name = "Summer Day";
thee.name = "Thee";

summer.lovelyness = 9;
thee.lovelyness = 10;

summer.temperature = 98;
thee.temperature = 98.6;

summer.lease = new Date(2006, 7, 31).getTime() - new Date(2006, 5, 1).getTime();
thee.lease = new Date(2042, 6, 12).getTime() - new Date(1970, 8, 25).getTime();

summer.complexion = 0xFFCC33;
thee.complexion = 0xFFCCCC;

summer.fair = 10;
thee.fair = 10;

summer.getValue = function():Number {
return --this.fair;
};
thee.getValue = function():Number {
return this.fair;
};

summer.incrementTime = function():Number {
return --this.lease;
};
thee.incrementTime = function():Number {
return this.lease;
};

var man:Object = {};
man.hasEyes = true;
man.canBreathe = true;
man.lease = 10000;
man.liveLong = function():Void {
this.lease *= 10;
};
man.giveLife = function(o:Object):Void {
o.lease++;
trace(o.name + " is given life");
};
man.compare = function(o1:Object, o2:Object):Void {
if (this.canBreathe && this.hasEyes) {
this.liveLong();
var n1:Number = 0;
var n2:Number = 0;
var o1isBetter:Boolean;
for (var i in o1) {
if (typeof (o1[i]) == "function") {
o1isBetter = o1[i]() > o2[i]() ? true : false;
} else {
o1isBetter = o1[i] > o2[i] ? true : false;
}
n1 += Number(o1isBetter);
n2 += Number(!o1isBetter);
}
this.giveLife(n1 > n2 ? o1 : o2);
}
};

man.compare(summer, thee);

Men Read News After Fight to Fight Again

When men and women are angry, they both choose the news media articles they read with the goal of regulating their moods, a new study suggests.
But, in some circumstances, men choose to read articles that will fuel their anger, while women choose articles that will dissipate it.
Researchers found that when men were angered and anticipate the chance to retaliate, they chose to read negative online news stories, presumably to sustain their anger until their opportunity to get even.
Women faced with the same situation, however, chose to read more positive news to help dissipate their anger before a possible confrontation.
“For women, it is not seen as appropriate for them to retaliate when they're angry, but it is OK for men. And that's reflected in their selection of media content,” said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University.
“This shows that even our news consumption is not motivated just by information concerns. We use news to regulate our moods.”
Knobloch-Westerwick conducted the study with Scott Alter of the University of Michigan. Their results were published in a recent issue of the journal Human Communication Research.

Clark Kent

From Clay Bennett of the Christian Science Monitor

France - Italy. I told you, Gobleth

The Attack of the 50-Ft Woman. XXX Edition

Well, Back to Baseball

Kape, Padli

Italia!

Italy vs France, I think I wrote it somewhere.

The Golden Age of Cool

This is supposed to be a bikini party.

Your National Hero

"Every hero becomes a bore at last" Ralph Waldo Emerson. At last

Saging ni Pasing

Those memories slip by me

Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch

I have all the movies of Bruce Lee but it's just not enough

Here's Mr. Lee fighting the whole school. This scene for Fist of Fury was instrumentla in my choosing Fine Arts Men Sphinx Karate Club over JKA, thinking the former was more Bruce Lee.

Praying

for Barthez and the old frogs. Go France!!!!

I Read The New Today Oh Boy About the Beatles Snubbing Imelda

The Beatles played two concerts at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium exactly 40 years ago. The first concert at four in the afternoon drew 30,000 people while the evening concert attracted 50,000, the second biggest concert attendance for the greatest band in history, second only to the Shea Concert in New York in August 1965.

But that was not why July 4, 1966 was very memorable not only to the Beatles and their fans but to the whole Philippines as well.

The date was important for what did not happen. Eric Gamalinda started his novel, "The Empire of Memory" with it. It was called the "Hard Day's Night in Manila." Robert Cuevas, who recently died, entitled his Manila Chronicle article, "Furor Over Beatles Snub Mars Show" and this was shown in the definitive "Beatles Anthology" which called the whole thing, "Incident in Manila" and found it important enough to start Part VI with it.

Apparently, the Beatles snubbed an appointment with then First Lady Imelda Marcos (with about 300 children of politicians and military officers including the Marcos children) at the Malacanang.

Joseph William Smith, more popularly known as Pepe Smith and was a member of the "Eddie Reyes and D'Downbeats" which was one of the front acts of the Beatles concert, said that the Beatles have nothing to do with the snub.

"They were unaware of the appointment. It was out of their schedule," he said.

"(There was) no invitation. Or maybe they were informed about it two hours before,' Pepe Smith recalled.

Different people had a different version about it. The Beatles blamed their late manager George Epstein for the booboo and who, of course, is not alive to defend himself. Others said Epsteain's message not to go on with Malacanang visit did not reach Imelda.

"No one thought about it during the concert. But when I woke at about 11:30 the next morning, the whole neighborhood was glued to Channel 3 showing the presidential table all set up with no Beatles on sight," Smith said.

Apparently, even the Beatles had a rude awakening.

Ringo Starr in the Anthology said that when they woke up, the service at the Manila Hotel suddenly went cold with their requests for breakfast and newspapers went unheeded.

"Still nothing happened, so we put the TV on and there was a horrific TV show of Madame Marcos screaming: "They've let me down." There were all these shots with the cameraman focusing on empty plates and up into the little kids' faces, all crying because the Beatles hadn't turned up," Starr said.

"We sat there in amazement. We couldn't believe it. We just had to watch ourselves not arriving at the presidential palace," said George Harrison, as quoted from the Anthology.

Taking cue from the snub, only one motorcycle escort accompanied them to the airport; compared to their arrival motorcade when "there were thousands of kids, with hundreds upon hundreds of policemen," as Ringo described it.

Pepe Smith, who, together with some of his band members, escorted the Beatles to the Manila International Airport, said that things even became uglier at the airport.

"A caliber 44 revolver was pointed at them. An attaché case said to contain their money was taken from them. No shuttle was provided and they were made to walk to their plane," he said.


Reports said that the money the Beatles made in Manila was indeed taken from them.

"There were a number of them coming up to us, pushing and screaming, "Get over there!" They forced us back and then another one would come around the other way, doing it again: "Get over there!" I was trying to keep my eye on all the people, keep moving ahead of them to stay out of their way. It was all really negative. I saw a couple of Buddhist monks and went and hid behind them," Harrison recalled.

"There was chanting, with people hating us all the way. They started spitting at us, spitting on us, and there's the famous story of John and me hiding behind these nuns because we thought, "It's a Catholic country, they won't beat up the nuns," Ringo recalled.

"There was a group of nuns in the corner of the airport and when all the fisticuffs broke out we went over to the nuns. It was rather a nice little shot, nuns and Beatles in the corner. They didn't actually protect us; they just stood there looking a bit bemused. Whenever they moved, we moved the other side of them," said Paul McCartney.

McCartney must have seen the connection of the nuns and People Power because he would say alter in the Anthology: "It was an unfortunate little trip, but the nice thing about it was that in the end, when we found out what Marcos and Imelda had been doing to the people - the rip-off that the whole thing was - we were glad to have done what we did. Great! We must have been the only people who'd ever dared to snub Marcos. But we didn't really know what we were doing politically until many years later."

Needless to say, the Fabulous Four vowed not to come to the Philippines after what happened. Not even if the once-unnamed green pomade sold in little packs would later be renamed "Beatles" in their honor.

The Beatles also swore off making live concerts after what happened to the Philippines and had their last big concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in August 1966.

Pepe Smith said that it was unfortunate that the "snob" was given more prominence.

"After a few weeks, the whole thing was forgotten anyway in the Philippines," he said.

"Bongbong (Marcos) would say later, "Well, I now prefer the Rolling Stones" and that's it," Smith said.

Young Beatles fans also became apologetic after watching the Beatles Anthology.

Typical is musician Chino Singson's plea: " Maybe, just maybe, one of you would consider swinging by Manila one of these days to perhaps do a few numbers? I promise nothing of the same sort will happen. No pressure, sirs. Take your time.Finally, I'd like to say thank you. Your music and ideals have so deeply penetrated my life and my own music. I will be a fan forever."

What Pepe and the more than 80,000 who attended the concert was the music or the lack of it.

The local front acts for the Beatles concert included Dale Adriatico, Wing Duo, Lemons Three and The Reycards. Lemons Three became Lemons Three Quartet because Pilita Corrales joined them. Corrales was included because her brother is the promoter of the concert.

D'Downbeats composed of Smith on drums and vocals, Eddie Reyes on keyboards, Tony Jalandoni on lead, Charlie Miehleib on rhythm and Tonette Fabie on base was the glamour band then.

To make a big impression, D'Downbeat's first song was "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones.

Smith said that their act made an impression on the Beatles crew because they said that it was like watching the Stones and the Beatles at the same time.

Smith recalled fixing the drums when he heard some people talking with a London accent behind him.

"When I looked, Whoa! It was Paul and George. They wanted to know if the number of the crowd. Now there's a rule among musicians that you don't peek but the two did on opposite ends of the curtain,' he said.

Harrison recalled that in their contract they were supposed to play for only a few thousands.

"But we got there it was like the Monterey Pop Festival. There were about 200,000 people on the site," Harrison said.

Smith recalled that after their act, he and his bandmates went down and they were pushed around below the stage.

"Unknown to us we had the best seats in the house. The screams were so loud though but we could almost hear their natural voices,' he said.

Unfortunately, a video or audio recording of the Manila concert has yet to surface but musical historians said that they played the same set as the one in Japan and their repertoire was: Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music followed by their compositions" "She's a Woman," "If I Needed Someone," "Day Tripper," "Baby's in Black," "I Feel Fine," "Yesterday," "I Wanna Be Your Man," "Paperback Writer" and "I'm Down."

Smith was able to get guitar strings from Harrison and drumsticks form Ringo. "I don't where I kept them but I used a smaller model than Ringo's although there was a gig when I used it,'" he said.

Others who kept their tickets (P20 for the general and P30 for the ringside) are raking it in for 1000 times their price in Internet auctions