Korean Sporting Joke

Halo Halo Ween

1) AV Club brings the 23 weird Vampire variations
2)
Ivan Brunetti on An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Vol. 2 from Yale University Press on Vimeo.
3)A Halloween book list for adults
4)A Halloween jazz list
5)

David Sedaris and the Undecideds

New Yorker has a short feature from Sedaris about the Undecided Voters

Kurt Cobain and the Ungrateful Deads

RollingStone shares unpublished photos of Kurt Cobain
And if you are still in love with The Dead, here's the complete annotated lyrics of the Grateful Dead

Undying Admiration for Zombies

Zombies can’t die. But even if they could, we wouldn’t let them. Zombiephilia has been alive and well in pop culture at least since 1968, the year that George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead inaugurated the genre and The Zombies released “Time of the Season”. It’s still that time. Romero’s zombies have fortified the shopping mall they took over in 1978’s Dawn of the Dead and are making quick inroads to politics and global economics. Popmatters talk about the undying love for zombies

And There She Blows, Ms. Cathy, the New Amazing Philippine Beauty

The Amazing Pinoy Kathoeys

Liu Jianan

Periodic Elements of Artists

Hey, this is cool. If only there is something like this when I was memorizing all these stuff. This is ununhexium, one of my favorite elements. No. 116. Exists only in theory

Blog Updates: Delfin Montano and Mandaya Moore-Orlis without the Hyphen

It's been so long since we snooped on The Blog. The blog to my surprise had gone into as many facelifts as Imelda Marcos but it's still snappy. I learned a lot today from his blog: Jon Santos marrying a Canadian man, Imelda Marcos and Trixie Cruz Angeles. Of course, the Gucci Gang. But it was a different blog from the one we followed in March and April. Brian wrote:

When the blog first started, I was a much different person indeed.
Just a very easy going, normal, regular guy really.
I was a Boracay party boy (no other option, hahaha).
I was also a property owner with a huge life in Australia.
Before 'it' all happened.

The Philippines has changed me though, NOT the other way around.
I've had to learn to fight dirty, almost against my will.
Because the system and people I'm dealing with are very dirty themselves.
In some cases, FILTHY dirty!

The Philippines will change anyone who gets emotionally involved with it. If you go into battle with any nations shortcomings, prepare for the worst. Because those in denial can be quite brutish.

It's incredible how much has happened to me since March 4th 2008.
Having said that, I'm on top of the world today!
I feel quite blessed for a Gabillion and one reasons.
But back then, I never thought it would be possible.
To be this fulfilled was something I thought would take years to get back.
It was that bad.
I have no savings, but I have happiness deep within me.
The fiance is a superstar!
My golden shimmering Pinoy.

True. Another blog I did not open for a month was that of Mandaya Moore - Orlis. Jawo had to tell me the news. The hyphen might disappear. Grabe. Look at the link below and read the sad dizzying event.

Bigote

Reconsidering Kundera

Milan Kundera is one of our favorite East European authors. Bought and read all his books. Now it has come to this.
Which brings us to another of my literary hero, Gunther Grass, who was in the same predicament but has triumphed over it.

Auden's Physics Poem

After Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics
W.H. Auden

If all a top physicist knows
About the Truth be true,
Then, for all the so-and-so's,
Futility and grime,
Our common world contains,
We have a better time
Than the Greater Nebulae do,
Or the atoms in our brains.

Marriage is rarely bliss
But, surely it would be worse
As particles to pelt
At thousands of miles per sec
About a universe
Wherein a lover's kiss
Would either not be felt
Or break the loved one's neck.

Though the face at which I stare
While shaving it be cruel
For, year after year, it repels
An ageing suitor, it has,
Thank God, sufficient mass
To be altogether there,
Not an indeterminate gruel
Which is partly somewhere else.

Our eyes prefer to suppose
That a habitable place
Has a geocentric view,
That architects enclose
A quiet Euclidian space:
Exploded myths - but who
Could feel at home astraddle
An ever expanding saddle?

This passion of our kind
For the process of finding out
Is a fact one can hardly doubt,
But I would rejoice in it more
If I knew more clearly what
We wanted the knowledge for,
Felt certain still that the mind
Is free to know or not.

It has chosen once, it seems,
And whether our concern
For magnitude's extremes
Really become a creature
Who comes in a median size,
Or politicizing Nature
Be altogether wise,
Is something we shall learn.

Finally!! Our Soundtrack

5 Million Ways to Kill a C.E.O.

Artist: The Coup

Album: Party Music

The next time a politician accuses another politician of "class warfare" because of some tax policy or other, listen to The Coup's "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO" and remember what class warfare is really about: the systematic and literal annihilation of those above or below you on the social ladder. With that in mind, does asking for an extra 40 cents an hour seem that out of line? Do it! March right up to the manager and say, "I've been working at this Arby's for four years, and it's time my hourly wage reflected that!"

• Listen
• 
  

There Is Power in a Union

Artist: Billy Bragg

Album: Talking with the Taxman About Poetry [Bonus Disc]

Lots of singers address the struggles of everyday people, but Billy Bragg is one of the few to move beyond empathy and map out policy solutions. There's nothing abstract or metaphorical about "There Is Power in a Union," a rabble-rousing reminder that you wouldn't be begging and scraping for a raise if a union were bargaining on your behalf. But if you're stuck going it alone, Bragg's performance is stirring and committed enough to render you a union of one.

• Listen

Gimme Some Money

Artist: Spinal Tap

Album: This Is Spinal Tap [Video/DVD]

After fantasizing about revenge on greedy CEOs and engaging in grandiose talk of workers' rights, it never hurts to take a step back and ponder what you're really after: some more damn money for yourself. As always, Spinal Tap blurs the oft-discussed line between stupid and clever while coming down squarely on the side of the latter, celebrating money-lust in the most bluntly straightforward way possible.

• Listen

Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More

Artist: The Wonder Stuff

Album: Eight Legged Groove Machine

It takes about half a second for The Wonder Stuff to get to the heart of its intentions in "Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More" -- or about the amount of time it takes for that cash register to chime. On its surface, the track is a paean to greed circa 1988 (not to mention a nice companion piece to "It's Yer Money I'm After, Baby" from the same album), but Miles Hunt's celebration of wealth is about wanting and hoping, not having: "I hope I make more money than this in the next world," he sings, adding, "I hope there's a lot more in it there for me."

• Listen

From NPR

The Smiths are Reuniting!!!!

Morrisey is writing his memoirs and tabloids are insisting that The Smiths are reuniting. Ay, fascinating depressing songs ahead!

Pirates

Story of my life?

Harry: I'll roll down the window. Why don't you tell me the story of your life.

Sally: Story of my life?

Harry: We've got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.

Sally: The story of my life isn't even going to get us out of Chicago I mean nothing's happened to me yet. That's why I'm going to New York.

Harry: So something can happen to you?

Sally: Yes.

Harry: Like what?

Sally: I can go into journalism school to become a reporter.

Harry: So you can write about things that happen to other people.

Sally: That's one way to look at it.

Harry: Suppose nothing happens to you. Suppose you lived out your whole life and nothing happens you never meet anybody you never become anything and finally you die in one of those New York deaths which nobody notices for two weeks until the smell drifts into the hallway.

This was included in Nora Ephron (who wrote this for "When Harry Met Sally" in her latest book

To Barrack Barrack is to Obambulate McCain

Barrack is a word. And so is obambulate. Obambulate means to walk about. Ob plus ambulate. Barrack menas to cheer for. Also the singular of barracks, which is where soldiers are housed. Palinode and palindrome share the same root. Palinode means poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem.
Illustrator and humorist Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) once wrote a poem called The Purple Cow:

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

The poem became so popular and he became so closely linked with this single quatrain that he later wrote a palinode:

Confession: and a Portrait, Too,
Upon a Background that I Rue!
Oh, yes, I wrote 'The Purple Cow,'
I'm sorry now I wrote it!
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'll kill you if you quote it."

McCain needs to write a palinode about Palin, if they lose.

Orangeness

Starbucks Predictor

The more Starbucks a country has, the more that its economy failed because of the global recession, Slate said. Sure enough. Baguio has two.

Palin Dromes

Two Pinoys in Man Asia Literary Prize

Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado and Krip Yuson's Music Child made it to the shortlist together with India's Kavery Nambisan and Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi and China's Yun Hua. The last two are considered the favorites with Krip as dark horse.

The Second Part

Three Trillion

Three? Si Dennis Trillo, Joaqui Trillo at si Sen. Sonny Trillanes. But then, $3 Trillion? The US spent for the US Iraq War and the cost is still running faster than the meters of the Manila taxis. Makes you think. If Andy and Mau can not find money from their wives for their caddies fees, how did the US guvment manage to spend that much? This chart can help:

Physics Professors

I was a table away from a group of Physics professors probably having a meeting in Baguio. They were so nice to overlisten to. Their leader, I presumed because he has white hair, had to ask everybody if they all like local cuisine because they are meeting in a restaurant later. Someone called and he gave the precise location of the restaurant. They checked and rechecked their agenda for their dinner meeting. A few minutes they left. Somebody left an umbrella.

Feminism in Decline

This comes with an earlier post about the declining use of some keywords in many scholarly papers. Here you would see that feminism as a keyword started in the 1970s, rose abruptly and is now on its way, way down

To Make a Long Impeacment Short

This should come with Joey DV's impeachment evidence vs PGMA. Ha ha ha

Bad News for Postmodernism

t




Someone graphed the use of postmodernism, postcolonialism, marxism and others in the JSTOR (the google for literary theorists and others) and this is what he got. All our keywords except for Said's orientalism are following the Dow Jones ride to WTF

Religious Logic

How the CBCP and their angels (Atty Sison of Philippine Star, that contributing editor of Mla Times, that horrible Mindanao columnist of Inquirer and their cartoonist in his pontifical mood) campaign for the RH Bill.

Nature of the Campaign

Classic New Wave Videos Literally Done

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

For this generation which wanted everything served instantly and simply, without irony

US Teaches the World How to Torture

Here's their guide

Txting

New Yorkers takes on texting language with why English is the easiest. I wrote a similar article almost 10 years ago.

Who's on First

Cheating Nerds

Oh Bama

Man Booker Prize and the Pinoy Contenders

A 33-year old Indian journalist wins the 40th Man Booker Prize for his debut novel, The White Tiger. Great, now the four Filipinos shortlisted in the Man Booker Asia Prize get a winning chance because:
a) an Indian sweep would not bode well for British, American and Canadian literatures
b) India and Philippines fared terribly in the last Olympics. This is their consolation.
c) Filipinos don't read books. They winning in this prestigious thing could shake things up. (Asa ka pa, si Bob Ong nga hirap na hirap na silang intindihin)
d) Arivand Atiga is only 33 years old. Three of the Pinoy longlist shortlisters are as young. Sorry, Krip
e) selection is made through texting

Economic F Shirt

Billy Collin's Hunger

Poverty Poem

A Poor People’s Poem

©1998 Olga Angelina García

This poem
angry
corajudo
bold
has got
a bad attitude
un genio from hell

and you
you’re afraid
of my poem

afraid of this
deep dark red poem
that bleeds
woman words

you
you’re afraid
cuz even though
this poem
*is*
about survival
it isn’t about
endangered whales
or dying forests

Listen
this is a poor woman’s poem
a Mexicana
Chicana
Mestiza
India
Mujer
Este de Los Angeles
poem

Yeah
this poem’s
got roaches crawling
all over it
and tiny pink mice
nibbling at the edges
and corners of
simple-everyday words

Listen this poem rides the bus
works 12 hours a day
7 days a week
with no medical benefits
and no paid vacations

Listen
this poem
has crossed rivers
and mountains
jumped over
and crawled under
barb-wired fences

this poem
has slaved
in hot-sun pesticide fields
picking
piscando
your lettuce
tomatoes
oranges
onions
picking
piscando
the vegetables
and fruits
that make your meals
nice and balanced

And this poem
has worked all kinds of shifts
in inner-city factories
sewing
packaging
stuffing
cutting
folding
ironing
the clothes you wear
the jeans
the shirts
the jackets
that keep you
in style

Yeah
this is a poor woman’s poem
a brown people’s poem
so you see
right now
we don’t want to talk about
the ozone layer

We
the people in this poem
we wanna talk about where we live
about affordable housing
about how the hot water doesn’t work
and the windows don’t close
about the Never-no-heat-in-the-winter
Sit-u-a-tion

we wanna talk about drugs
about the alcohol cocaine crack heroin
impregnating our communities
making modern colonized brown black slaves of us

we wanna talk about food stamps
about jobs and fair wages
about 12 hour shifts
and working conditions

we wanna talk about the police
about choke-hold
and billy clubs
about busted heads
and handcuffed minds
about sharp-teeth dogs
and shackled freedom
about racist cops
who hate
poor
brown
black
people

we wanna talk about dying
about the river of blood
flowing where we live
about the heads of 2 year old babies
scattered on concrete floors
about the mountain of bodies here
outlined in white chalk

So you see
right now
we don’t wanna hear you preach
about recycling
cuz poor people like us
we’ve always recycled
we invented the damn word
and out of necessity
recycled our papers, cans, bottles
recycled our socially constructed poverty
recycled even our dreams

So you see
we do wanna talk
but talk about lies
about Am er i KKK a
about treaties broken
and lands and people stolen

we wanna talk about
S L A V E R Y
U.S. colonization
Third World penetration

And you
you’re afraid
of my poem

afraid of the East side poem
holding hands
with El Salvador
Nicaragua
Tijuana
Chiapas
Pico-Union
holding hands
with
SWETO
South Africa
South Central L.A.

Yeah
I know
you’re afraid
of this
brown black
poor people’s poem

This poem
pregnant with power
waiting to be born

Poverty Poem

The Laborer

In the sizzling heat of the afternoon
Clothes drenched and shoes filled with sweat
Last nights long shift makes the body ache
In growing age when the muscle is the only strength
The will like faith growing stronger with each passing day
A disease knocking at the visceral parts of the body
Joints now like the hinges in the machine need oil
Moved in hundreds and like all others
Away from the family and the little ones memory
A letter from the home in need of money
For the doctor’s fee as education is forlorn desire
Minimum wage half robbed by the supervisor
And like a true competition in economics
Out on the metal gates a replacement is waiting
Alienated from the production of the product
Creating surplus for the consumption of the rich
His toils are in the shine of the markets in goods glittering
Unaware of the political upheaval
No care for his welfare
He has no future; his children will also work like him
The power of the muscle, will and faith
He is a laborer who if not given the job
Will go for a daily wage and sleep on the road side
Poverty is his bread, poverty his butter
Poverty that alienates
Poverty the missing link
Poverty the slogan
Poverty it said is loved by the prophets
Poverty it said is gods chosen creed
Poverty the banner
Poverty the tears
Poverty the helplessness
Poverty the consciousness
Break it free
The ordained writing on the book of fate
To bring it down
Open its pages
Remove the names
Of all the people poor
Break it free
The pages they call divine
For divinity is me
Divinity is you
For I shall write
My own destiny
On the book of fate
Up from the skies
Down to the earth
In poverty I will live
But on my own choosing
Break the bond
Of eternal slavery
Poverty
Thou art the bitterest vice

Sadiqullah Khan

Cabagnot

Veteran Philippine film critic Edward Cabagnot says history has shown that smart Asian filmmakers have been able to look to the West and learn.

"We love our heroes in Asia," he says.

"In the Philippines for example we have taken what America has given us and made it local.

"That's why a character such as our Darna, who has been around since the 1950s, is basically Wonder Woman but with local characteristics. Like Philippine society itself, her stories are a mix of Catholic guilt with Hollywood glamour."

The Real Karate Monkey

Mondo Marcos

The anthology is finally coming out after 8 years! Anvil will bring it out just in time for EDSA. We will post other details later

They are Also Laughing at This

The 7 days of the "Oh, Fuck" : FYI
The Independent gives you the countdown

Laughing Dogs

They are laughing at this

Truman

Truman's essays here

Ethics

ethics is when I can still stay human
even when god’s throne is empty even when I have no
work no home no days off or public holidays
ethics is when a lion attacks a lamb and some infant animal’s mother
tries to save its life against overwhelming odds
rather ethics is a teaching in
where we should draw borders and lines
sometimes doing nothing
not interfering, indifference saving one’s own skin staying silent
may be horribly unethical

from Metrics and Ethics
Jürgen Rooste

I Heart The Economist

French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio won the Nobel for Literature

Yes, another writer we have not heard of and now afraid to announce because we might be mistaken in our pronounciation. But from what I read, hey I think he is exciting.

The Waiters are Monkeys!

Of course, at The Tavern.

Magtanong sa Palin

Election Fix

Books to look for in the P99 hardbound section of National Bookstores (because they are new and not written by Harold Robbins):

Spiderman and God