PLANETANG PAPEL | paper planet

12 Days of Xmas

2011-12-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

Space Battleship Yamato, Star Blazers (2005 Bandai Mechanic File)

2011-11-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

SDCC 2007 Marvel Legends Exclusive Stan Lee (Review)

2011-09-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

Marvel Legends, atbp.

2011-08-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

Legend's Lord of Darkness & Hellboys

2011-08-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Mini Popy

2011-08-03T04:08:00.000-07:00

I<3PR* #0 MISTEXT

2011-08-01T21:53:00.001-07:00

Hon? Ney? You never call me that, Love. Who's "Hon"? Who's "Ney"? Who the f*ck are you texting? Tell me, who the f*ck?!

5 minutes. 10 minutes. No reply. 15, 20, 30...still no answer.

My breath races with my thumb as it clicks 'Contacts' types 'T' scrolls to 'Tin My Lab' and presses 'Call'. My heart joins the race.

"Sorry, the subscriber cannot be reached. Sorry--" My head explodes.

DAMN YOU B*TCH! DAMN YOU! P*TANGNAMO! F*CKING SL*T! p*tangnamuhuhuhu...

Remembering hurts. Like squeezing calamansi on a fresh open wound. I should've seen it sooner. The signs and f*ck all. Terms of endearment were the first casualty. She used to call me "Babe". After that cute pig in that movie. But I'm not cute. I'm just a fat vegetarian driven by hormones. Next to go was her Victoria Court voice and Ocampo Street accent. Then came the hurried "hi"s and short "goodbye"s. The cancelled dates and her long alibis. The unfeeling kiss. "Mwah!" "Tsup!" and "*" replacing the actual contact. Her wrong 'Send's. Outboxes left unanswered. I should've seen it coming. Like sh*t hitting the electric fan.

The clear cold liquid burns my mouth. Now I know why it's called blue--G.S.M. Blue. I flush it down with Tang strawberry. That's her favourite flavour too: Trust strawberry. Tears well up again behind thickly framed black glasses with bottom-of-Coke-bottle lenses. As Marlboro comforts my lungs, but never my heart. I fill them close to bursting. Will pumping them Hope make a difference? I mope. I munch on peanuts for pulutan called Happy, but no, not me. On the background plays Dashboard Confessional. 'Screaming Infidelities' echoes in my room long after the Ipod's battery has ran out. Just as luck and my girlfriend have on me. I feel like the stick in a barbecue. The piece that people nibble on but don't eat. Like the sh*t that gets left on the side of the plate in debut birthday parties. Arrrgh, the burden of her thought is killing me.

Please, pull the f*cking plug of the fan already!

*I Heart Punk Rock

Parang sonnet*

2011-08-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

How do I love thee? Let me count to three:
1. I love thee to the depth of the acne scars on your face
in comparison, Manila's potholes--even the moon's craters
would pale in any case
2. I love thee to the breadth of your mouth and forehead
you almost swallowed me remember? first time we kissed
oh what thick lips and false teeth my tongue won't miss
so I settled for the chopping board that is your brow
like NAIA's runway and EDSA's highway, beauty you are endowed
3. I love thee to the height of your six-inch high heels
'cuz I call to mind horses and races with the sound they make
but I fear for our love when we walk hand-in-hand
for illegal possession of firearms My Precious in jail may land
I love thee blindly, as one deprived of 20/20 vision
I love thee doubly, with cross-eyed indecision
I love thee triply, with a slacker's passion
I shall but love thee better after watching TV

*inspired by Scribbler's "A Parasonnet" which was inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee?"

160/1_#0-1

2011-08-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

POOR-GA
Saging_na_saba,tatlo
=P10.MWF,maghapong_m
eryenda.Pag_TTH,suma
n_naman,P10=dalawa.K
apeng_3-in-1_isang_l
inggo.Pag_a-kinse_ka
tapusan,sa_value_mea
l_ng_McDo_magpipista

TRUE-LIE
I_love_you_truly.-Um
amin_ka_hon,sino_si_
Truly?-Sino_bang_Tru
ly?-Kasasabi_mo_lang
,mahal_mo_siya.-Sira
!Ibig_sabihin_nun_"t
otoo".-Ah_ganun,toto
o_pala'ng_balita_ha!

Life SOCs! (Soul Of Chogokin) FHM! (Fucking Heavy Metal)

2011-06-04T01:35:00.000-07:00

Starblazers/ Yamato, Arcadia, Astroboy, Tokusatsu, Robocon, Gatchaman, Devilman, Marvel

2011-03-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Transformers The Movie/ Revenge of the Fallen: Leader & Legends Class

2011-02-27T03:31:00.000-08:00

Transformers Universe: Autobots vs. Decepticons (Classics/ Generations, Encore, Cybertron, Armada, Binaltech/ Alternators, Masterpiece)

2010-12-05T01:19:00.001-08:00

Update: December 28, 2010

Update: February 27, 2011

Jumbo/SD (Super Deformed) Kamen Riders, Ultramen & Tokusatsu Heroes

2010-10-17T01:21:00.000-07:00

Kaijus: Godzilla, Ghidrah, Gamera, Mothra, Gigan, Rodan, atbp.

2010-08-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

Update: December 28, 2010

Gundams: from UC (Universal Century) to Seed

2010-08-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

Tokusatsu: Kamen Riders, Super Sentais, Metal Heroes

2010-03-27T02:23:00.001-07:00

Super Robots Part 2: from Shin Getter to Mazinkaiser

2010-03-07T03:50:00.001-08:00

Super Dimension Fortress Macross/ Robotech, Orguss

2010-02-07T02:07:00.000-08:00

AT THE DRIVE-IN - One-Armed Scissor by FB*

2010-02-06T03:12:00.000-08:00

*FingerBoarder circa 1991

Gundam SD's (Super Deformeds): from UC (Universal Century) to Seed

2010-01-31T01:40:00.001-08:00

Jollijeep #1: Mga Kwentong Kwik-kwik*

2010-01-30T00:46:00.000-08:00

DYUS

Di na kayang ibsan nang sunud-sunod kong paglunok ng laway ang disyerto sa aking lalamunan. Dangan kasi'y wala pa itong putanginang si Miyong. Ilang oras na nga ba kong naghihintay? Damang-dama ko na sa batok ang nangangagat na sikat ng araw. Kung may kuwelyo lang sana itong tisert. Teka, kailan ba ko huling nagsuot ng may kulyar? Di ko na matandaan. Pasado alas-dose o ala-una o alas-dos na. Tirik na siguro ang araw kaya manakanaka na ang mga nag-ooberpas. Di pa ko kumakain. Tanghalian na...o lampas. Miyong, putangina ka saan ka na ba?

Tandang-tanda ko, Sabado noon--huling araw sa pabrika. Plantsado na ang inuman namin nila pareng Pilo at ng demonyong si Domeng. Sosolohin ko si Nila mamayang gabi pagkatapos. May panglabas ako--labas na sa intrega kay misis. Suweldo ngayon, ilang oras lang uwian na. Petiks muna...mabagalan nga itong pesteng makina. Tutal kanina pa ko kota, sapat na 'yun. Baka sumobra yaman ng putanginang si Mister Tsipeko. Yosi muna dito sa likod ng tangke, wala namang nakaka-- Kabum!

Mula nang maaksidente ako ay lalo kaming nabaon sa utang sabi ni Hulya. 'Yun ang huli naming pag-uusap. Nang ilabas ako sa ospital, nalaman kong wala na pala akong pamilyang babalikan. Sumama raw sa ahas na si Domeng ang aking putanginang asawa. Ang mga anak ko naman ay inuwi sa probinsya ng aking putanginang biyenan. Mag-isa na ko sa mundo ngayon. Gusto ko mang iyakan sila muli ay wala na kong luhang mapipiga. Tulad ng lalamunan ko, tuyot na rin ang aking mga mata...matagal na.

Katsing! Kalansing ng latang nakikipagpatintero sa mga paang umaakyat sa hagdan. Uy! May nagbigay. Dagling hinanap ng mga daliri't kamay ko sa semento ang pinagmulan ng tunog. Natunton ng mga ito ang isang nagyeyelong bakal sa loob ng nagbabagang sisidlan. Galing erkon: mayaman! Malaki ang bilog, mabigat...salamat. Iniwan ko ang barya sa lata bilang pangati para makaakit pa ng iba.

"O 'sensya na ha, pumonta pa kong Dyolebi, wala sa Makdonal e." Tumigil ang panginginig ng kalamnan at pagwawala ng sikmura nang maulinigan ko ang boses ni Miyong. Sa wakas, grasya! Nangangatal na dila't mangilan-ngilang ngipin ang nagpaunlak sa mga buto't litid ng pritong manok.

"Nga pala, tiba tayo ngayon, nakapuno ako ng dyos." Mula sa isang basong plastik ay nagpiyesta kami sa pinyapol dyus na lasang kape, ayskrim, aysti at sopdringks.

*Flipino fastfood/flush fiction

Super Robots Part 1: from Aphrodai A to Mazinger Z & SDs (Super Deformeds)

2010-01-30T00:45:00.000-08:00

HAInaKU! TAngiNA GA? #22-28

2010-01-30T00:42:00.000-08:00

22-28) EYEBALL-AG
I.
cel number na paninda
sa abante'y nabenta
"cute girl" raw na chinita
maganda't simpatika

II.
text ay agad lumipad
planeta'y ginalugad
si "cute girl" ay nagalak
nang mensahe'y lumagpak

III.
"cute boy" raw ang pangalan
ng gwapo at mayaman
agad nagkasunduan
araw, oras, tagpuan

IV.
si "cute boy" berdeng damit
ang kay "cute girl" nama'y pink
sila'y parehong sabik
na makita ang ka-meet

V.
nagka-indian-an yata
sa mrt trinoma
lampas isang oras na
si "cute girl" nakatanga

VI.
hindi na napigilan
tisoy sa may tiketan
kanya nang nilapitan
para ba pagtanungan

VII.
walang kaabog-abog
mama'y dedmang sumagot:
"green ba miss, aking suot?"
sabay sibat at kamot

HAInaKU! TAngiNA GA? #13-21

2010-01-30T00:41:00.000-08:00

13) TINA MORAN
probinsyanang si tina
labandera, cook, yaya
'pag ate'y nag-office na
sina-sideline ni kuya

14) PINING GARCIA
sekretaryang si pining
di alam ang gagawin
nang sa banyo'y yayain
ng mestisuhing bosing

15) CUTARUNGAN
umabot sa sukdulan
ginahasa't sinaktan
binaboy na utusan
amo ay pinutulan

16) O JUICE KO
mighty bond ba ang sagot
sa nabasag mong puso?
o 'tong juice na may halo
ng hinebrang panglimot

17) FAKELAT
naghilom ba ang hiwa
ng nakangangang sugat?
o parating sariwa
sa kabila ng peklat

18) SORRY I HEART U
naglagos ba sa likod
karayom ko sa dibdib?
o tumagos sa pusod
at nagbunga ng tinik

19) LOVE LATER
huling email ko'y tangan
nang ika'y matagpuan
bumubula ang bibig
ang puso'y walang pintig

20) QUEEN OF HURTS
payapang nakahiga
palibot ng kandila
koronang iaalay
sa reynang isang bangkay

21) HARI NAWA
huling text mo'y nai-save:
"i wil always luv u babe"
bago ka nagpa-delete
may signal ba sa langit?
(nang "im sory"'y mai-send)

HAInaKU! TAngiNA GA? #1-12

2010-01-23T02:59:00.001-08:00

1) HAPAG-SOSYALAN
facebook yaring agahan
twitter ang tanghalian
myspace sa may kapihan
friendster kapag hapunan

2) 143-3210
kinalimutan kita
hanggang sa inistapa
si motorola v3
sa ayala mrt

3) NAGKAPENG PSP
sabi nang wag magkape
pag tsina-charge sa pc
ang libangang psp
nasa huli ang sisi

4) ODA KAY RHODA
di dahil takot ako
sa erpat mong sundalo
kundi tinanggap mo ko
kahit na siraulo

5) AMBIDYOSO
kulang na lang kabaong
at lapida sa pinto
nang sa bidyo nalulong
laruang walang hinto

6) TEXTM8-R8ED GP
lunes unang nagtextan
martes nagkabiruan
myerkules nagpikunan
hwebes nagkabatian

7) TEXTM8-R8ED PG
lunes unang nagtextan
martes nagkakulitan
myerkules nagyayaan
hwebes nagkakangkangan*

*nagka-count-to-10

8) TEXTM8-R8ED X
lunes unang nagtextan
martes nasa sinehan
sa dilim nagtirahan
hanggang masaraduhan

9) SHORT TIME
oras ng pagniniig
kasing-igsi ng palda
sa silid na malamig
dalawa naging isa

10) GOTO NEPA-Q
sinabunan ng alak
at chicharong bulaklak
serbesa ang binanlaw
at walang-lamang lugaw

11) VALIWAG COURT
di ko ipagpapalit
sa aspaltong malamig
yaring upuang bakal
sa baliwag terminal

12) NOODLES & PINS
sikmurang bumaligtad
sa maghapong paglaklak
isipang lumilipad
lucky me ang katapat

Mazinger villains & Masked Riders: from Kuuga to Den-O

2010-01-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

Neon Genesis Evangelion, Jumbo G.I. Joes/ EVAs, Revoltechs, Super-Deformeds, "Angels", "Children"

2010-01-16T02:50:00.001-08:00

Update: October 31, 2010

Transformers Universe: Autobots vs. Decepticons (Legends Class, Combiners, Heroes of Cybertron/ SCFs, G1, Armada)

2009-12-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

Update: February 27, 2011

Si Jesus Christ ang Pasko

2009-12-23T18:56:00.000-08:00

Isang mapagpalayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

Si Jesus Christ ang Pasko
ni Bobby Balingit ng Wuds

Walang colored TV
Walang refrigerator
Walang parol
Walang Christmas lights

Si Jesus Christ ang Pasko
Hindi mga regalo
Hindi damit na bago

Wala si Santa Claus
Walang medyas
Walang maluto
Walang madiskarte

Wala ring syota
Walang pangkarnabal
Paano na ba ito?
Ok lang iyan pare ko

Si Jesus Christ ay Pasko
Christmas, Merry Christmas

Kahon

2009-12-13T02:17:00.000-08:00

Ang maikling palabas na ito ay produksyon ng Piglas-Sining (2004) at mga tropangks sa Pamantasang De La Salle-Dasma. Maraming salamat, painom kayo!

Ang maikling kuwentong ito ay nagwagi ng Unang Gantimpala sa Amado Hernandez National Award for Literature (1999). Kasama ito sa 12-kuwentong kompilasyong Responde (2007)--ang ikalawang aklat ng awtor. Hayop ka Iwa, painom ka rin!

Kahon ni Norman Wilwayco

I
Isinilang kang nakakahon

Lumaki si Marie na kapiling ang mga poon. May poon sa altar. May poon sa kusina. May poon sa ibabaw ng tokador sa kuwarto. May poon sa banyo sa ibabaw ng mga lalagyan ng sabon. Ang mommy ni Marie ay suki ng Baclaran at Quiapo at St. Jude at St. Michael at St. Andrew at Manaoag. Ang daddy ni Marie ay nag-oopisina sa Makati. Malaking tao sa kumpanya. Maraming tauhang sinisigawan. Ang mga kuya at ate ni Marie ay masunuring mga anak. Nagsisimba kung Linggo, hindi nagsisinungaling sa magulang, masisipag mag-aral ng leksyon sa eskwela. Ang pamilya ni Marie ay nagdarasal bago kumain. Nagdarasal bago matulog. Nagdarasal sa tuwing mayroong sakit ang isang miyembro ng pamilya. Ang daddy ni Marie ay may kabit na sekretarya na sa dalas lamasin ay lumaylay ang mga suso at nawalan ng puwit. Ang mommy ni Marie ay nagdarasal na sana'y matapos na ang ginagawa ng daddy ni Marie sa kanyang sekretarya. "Lord, patawarin mo ang asawa ko, hindi niya alam ang kanyang ginagawa." Hindi alam ng mga kapitbahay na sa gabi ay umiiyak ang mommy ni Marie habang paulit-ulit na inuusal ang mga panalanging pampaalis ng libog ng kanyang asawa. Lumaki si Marie sa mga pangaral ng Ebanghelyo. Sa murang gulang ay nakabisa niya ang ilang linya ng Bibliya. Ito ang turo ng kanyang ina. Ito ang turo ng kanyang mga ate at kuya. "Ito ang gusto ng Diyos para sa mga bata. Dapat na laging takot sa Panginoon ang mga bata. Ang mga bata dapat laging nagdarasal. Lord, sana magkabati na sina Daddy at Mommy. Lord, sana mamatay na ang kabit ni Daddy. Lord, sana masagasaan ng pison ang kabit ni Daddy. Lord, sana masunog ang bahay ng kabit ni Daddy. Lord, sana tamaan ng kidlat ang kabit ni Daddy. We pray to you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen."

II
Kahon din ang silid-aralan

Mula sa tahanan, binagtas mo ang landas ng karunungan. Nag-enrol sa elementary at high school. Sinikap malampasan ang dunong ng mga kamag-aral. Isinaulo mo ang mga leksyong hindi mo alam kung ano ang magiging silbi sa iyo kung ika'y tapos nang mag-aral. "Dapat sa bata ay masunurin. Masama sa bata ang sumagot at mangatwiran sa mga nakatatanda. Dapat sa bata ay huwag sumabad sa usapan ng mga matatanda. Opo, Ma'am. Yes, Ma'am." Mula elementary hanggang high school hanggang kolehiyo ay tiniis mong hindi magsalita, hindi magpahayag ng mga opinyon, ng mga pananaw, ng mga haka-haka, ng mga pagsusuri. Kinabisado mo ang mga batas ng grammar. Halos mabiyak ang ulo mo sa kamememorya ng mga parasites na nakikita sa lente ng microscope. Gabi-gabi'y napapanaginipan mo ang mga linear at quadratic equations, mga simbolong nagsasayaw sa isip mo, ayaw kang tantanan, dahil ang mga ito'y gagamitin mo sa iyong pamamasukan kung ika'y graduate na. Sinikmura mo ang ginagawang pagyurak ng pamantasan sa iyong mga batayang karapatan. Bawal sumama sa mga organisasyong hindi rehistrado sa Office of Student Affairs. Bawal sumama sa mga welga. Bawal magsalita ng kahit anong labag sa mga batas ng pamantasan. Bawal umutot sa loob ng classroom. "Yes, Ma'am. Yes, Sir. Opo. Oho." Sa tindi ng krisis sa bahay, sa awayan ng babaerong daddy at relihiyosang mommy, at mga moralistang mga ate at mga kuya, naisipan mong lumihis ng konti sa tinakda nilang landas para sa iyo. Halimbawa: Masamang manigarilyo. "Tol, pahingi ng yosi." Masamang uminom. "Tol, toma tayo sa likod ng school."

III
Gusto mong lumabas ng kahon

Lito na ang isip ni Marie. Hindi niya alam kung paano niya sasabihin sa mga magulang na siya'y hindi na bata. Na siya'y may karapatang magdesisyon para sa kung ano ang gusto niyang gawin sa buhay niya. May karapatan siyang magdesisyon kung anong klaseng buhay ang gusto niya. Paano niya sasabihin sa mga magulang, sa kanyang relihiyosang mommy at babaerong daddy at mga moralistang mga ate at kuya na ayaw niyang manatili na lang na isang babaeng walang kibo. Na siya'y hindi isinilang na mahina. Na kaya niyang lumaban sa ginagawang pagyurak ng lipunan sa karapatan ng mga kababaihan. Kanta ng Kalantog: "Sa telebisyon, ang babae'y nakakahon. Nakakahon parang bareta ng sabon. Sabong panlaba o sabong pampaganda, ang babae ang laging bida." Mula sa pamantasan ay lumabas siya patungo sa lansangan. Ayaw niyang iluha ang mga pasakit. Ayaw niyang magpakatanga sa pangangayupapa sa mga lalaki. Tumindig si Marie, kasama ng iba pang babae. May karapatan siya tulad ng mga lalake. Siya ay babae, matatag siya, marunong siya. Mulat siya sa mga di pagkakapantay-pantay. Aral siya sa mga pagdurusa ni mommy. Batid niya ang mga kalibugan ni daddy. Alam niya ang hirap ng katayuan ng mga nagiging kabit ni daddy. Sana, ganoon na lang. Sana, nakahon na siya sa pakikibaka sa mga usapin ng kasarian. Ang kaso, gusto niyang lumabas ng kahon. Hindi naglaon, napagtanto niyang may kinalaman ang imperyalismo sa hindi pagkakapantay-pantay ng karapatan ng mga lalake at babae. Eventually, naisip niya na ang bulok na sistemang panlipunan ang isa sa mga pundasyong nagpapanatili ng pagkaapi ng mga babae. Kailangan niyang basagin ang bulok na sistema para palitan ito ng bago. Malaki ang pangangailangang tuntunin niya ang madadawag na gubat, tawirin ang mga ilog at bagtasin ang mga larangang kinukulambuan ng mapulang silahis ng paghihimagsik.

IV
Nakakahon ka nang umalis

May mahinang ambon noon nang magpaalam sa akin si Marie. Nakaupo kami sa catwalk, sa may parking area ng pamantasan. Pinigilan ko ang pag-iyak. Nakakahiya kay Marie. Kalalake kong tao'y iiyak ako. Anyway, matagal ko nang alam na hahantong sa ganito ang relasyon namin. Noon pa man ay nag-aalala na ako na baka hindi na siya masapatan sa lansangan. Kailangan niya ang mas mataas na antas ng struggle. Kailangan niyang gumampan ng tunay na pakikibaka.
"Kailan ba ang alis mo?" cool ang dating ng pagtatanong ko. Para bang balewala sa akin kung anumang pinagsamahan mayroon kami.
"Sa isang linggo," sagot ni Marie.
"Kailangan mo ba talagang gawin iyon?" tanong ko. Sa puntong ito'y hindi ko na napigilang gumuhit sa magkabila kong pisngi ang mga luha.
"Kailangan ako ng bayan," matipid na tugon niya. Pagkuwa'y napaiyak na rin siya. Siguro'y napahiya siya sa kanyang pag-iyak. Senyales ito na mahina ang mga babae. Tumayo siya't mabilis na humakbang papalayo sa akin.
Sinundan ko siya.
"Marie!"
Humahagulgol siya habang niyuyugyog ko ang balikat niya at pinauulanan siya ng mga tanong.
"Ganun na lang ba? Pagkatapos ng mahigit tatlong taong relasyon natin, basta mo na lang ako tutuwaran at sasabihin sa aking kailangan ka ng bayan?"
Tumutulo na ang uhog ko. Sirang-sira na ang macho figure ko pero wala akong pakialam.
Mahalaga sa akin ang relasyon namin ni Marie. Paano na lang ang pinagsamahan namin. Mabubura pa ba sa isip ko ang mga sandaling kahit wala kaming kapera-pera ay masaya at sweet pa rin kami? Matatanggal pa ba sa alaala ko ang mga oras na pinagsaluhan namin sa sine, sa park, sa mga konsiyerto, sa motel, at sa kung saan-saan pang sulok ng Maynila?
"Kung gusto mo sumama ka sa akin," sabi ni Marie.
Iyon ang hindi ko maaaring gawin. Hindi sa dahil wala akong bayag para mamundok. Hindi sa wala akong makitang sense sa gagawin niya dahil maski ako nama'y medyo mulat din sa mga injustices na nakikita ko araw-araw.
Hindi ako maaaring sumama kay Marie dahil hindi ako handang magsakripisyo. Hindi ako handang talikdan ang mga luhong kinalakhan ko. Paano na ang bisyo ko? Kapag ba sumapi ako sa NPA, papayagan nila akong uminom ng beer at humitit ng marijuana? Pinapayagan ba ang mga long-hair sa hanay ng mga gerilya? Paano na ang pagpipinta ko? Paano na ang mga sinusulat kong nobela?
Sabi ko nga, noon pa mang nagsisimula na si Marie na magsasama sa mga rally, alam ko nang hahantong sa ganito ang aming relasyon.
Matagal kaming nagtitigan. Wari'y kapwa namin sinasalat sa pamamagitan ng pagtititigan kung dapat nga ba kaming manghinayang. Kung dapat pa bang i-work out namin ang aming relasyon.
May nakikita akong determinasyon sa kanyang mga mata. Determinasyong nagbibigay ng kapahayagang wala na akong dapat pang asahan.
"Paalam." Pagkasabi nito'y tumalikod na siya. Naiwan akong nakatingin sa kawalan. Pamaya-maya'y nagsindi ako ng isang joint.

V
Iniuwi kang nakakahon

Binaboy ka muna bago ka pinatay. Isang basong semilya ng mga demonyong army ang nakuha sa puwerta mo. Ang buong katawan mo'y tadtad ng paso ng sigarilyo. Ang puwit mo'y pinasakan ng batuta. Ang sabi sa report nila'y encounter daw. Pero hindi kami naniniwala. Ang butas sa noo mo'y tanda ng baril na pinaputok nang malapitan. Gayunpaman, namatay kang nagtatagis ang mga bagang. Hindi ka sumuko. Tiniis mo ang lahat ng pahirap. Ngayo'y naiisip kita. Sa mga pagkakataong nakakabasa ako ng mga balita sa diyaryo o nakakapanood ng balita sa telebisyon tungkol sa mga encounter ng militar at NPA, naaalala kita. Alam ko ang tunay na nangyari sa kabila ng pagtatakip nila. Alam ko dahil nakita kita bago ka ilibing. Nang buksan ang ataul mo ay nakamarka ang kabulukan ng lipunan sa bawat hibla ng laman mong pinaso ng sigarilyo. Nakatatak sa mga sugat mo ang katotohanan, kung gaano kahalaga ang armadong pakikibaka. At muli't muli, naiisip kita. Iniuwi ka nila dito sa lungsod mula sa bundok, nakasakay ka sa kahon, isang ataul na yari sa mumurahing plywood pero kinarpintero at pinatibay ng mga luha't pananalig, ng mga hinagpis at galit, ng mga kawalang-katahimikan at pag-aalsa. Nakakahon kang iniuwi ngunit ang kaluluwa mo'y malaya. Naglalakbay sa papawirin, sa mga bundok at gubat at batis at sa iba pang lupalop na ni sa hinagap ay hindi narating ng nakakahon kong isipan.

Working Clash reunion

2009-12-13T02:07:00.000-08:00

Makalipas ang 17 taon, mula sa Kaliwang ibaba pataas, countercultur...err, counterclockwise: Hippie (pulang Bulls[hit] jersey)--walang dating, kalbo na pero ungas pa rin; Gary (itim na Eskapo tshirt)--dating Baliwag punk/ka-CEGP*, now Kadena guitars-vocals/Bayan-USA secgen; Xavier (puting Fatal Response tshirt)--dating bahista-bokalista ng Mongoloids/former BHB**, ngayon ay happily married; Odel (puting IOV*** tshirt)--dating lider-estudyante, kasalukuyang tagasi[n]gaw ng Tolonguez Death Squad/full-time communi[s]ty organizer.

Soundtrack: "I Fought The Law" by the Clash and "Rebolusyonaryong Istratehiya" by Mongoloids as heard on the Middle Finger compilation Never Forget The Cause (1993)

*College Editors Guild of the Philippines
**Bagong Hukbong Bayan (sa Ingles, New People's Army)
***Intoxication Of Violence

Existence: System Manipulate

2009-11-15T02:29:00.001-08:00

Maraming salamat kay Tantan ng Davao at sa Black Sheep Video Art Production & Unwritten Future Guerrilla Theater Collective! Nawa'y dumami pa ang mga itim na tupa sa inyong kawan! Mabuhay ang mga maboteng pastol sa katimugan!

City Culture

2009-11-08T02:21:00.000-08:00

I Am Your God

2009-11-08T01:47:00.000-08:00

Be In Control Or Be Controlled

2009-11-08T01:14:00.000-08:00

Marvel Universe/Legends super-heroes & villains: Avengers, Fantastic 4, X-Men, etc.

2009-11-08T00:46:00.001-08:00

Update: October 31, 2010

DC Universe/Elseworlds: Justice League super-heroes, G.I. Joes, Cobra legions, Arashikage ninja clan

2009-11-08T00:42:00.000-08:00

Update: October 31, 2010

Update: February 27, 2011

Bulacancorecords: The first four years

2009-10-25T01:35:00.001-07:00

These are the 10 CD albums (complete discography) that I've put out on my small indie-slash-UG-slash-DIY record label, Bulacancorecords (named after my birth place), from 2003 to 2007 with a little (make that a LOT of) help from my friends and in between getting married, raising my kid, and keeping a day job.

BCR-01: HUMAN ERROR - Demo (2003)

Tracks:
1 - Alone (Version 1)
2 - Alone (Version 2)
3 - Bend
4 - Victims Of War
5 - Greed
6 - You Gone Too Far (Version 1)
7 - You Gone Too Far (Version 2)

BCR-02: ZONE ZERO - Land Of Promises (2003, originally released by the band)

Tracks:
1 - War
2 - Frontline
3 - Hopeless
4 - Land Of Promises
5 - Decision
6 - I Against You
7 - Enough
8 - Mantra

BCR-03: TARTARS - Liborio Kids (2003, originally released by the band)

Tracks:
1 - Boot Brigade
2 - Hand In Hand
3 - Skin Reign
4 - Onward Socialism
5 - Officer Down
6 - Boljack Theme

BCR-04: ILL ASKATRACH - Geeky Noise Euphoria (2003, originally released by Whatcore Records)

Tracks:
1 - The Hate Song
2 - What's In Store For Him
3 - Redefining Human Love
4 - Dividing Lines
5 - Skinny Approach (To Hardcore)
6 - In Pain, In Struggle
7 - Strings And Chains
8 - No One
9 - Got To Get Hold

BCR-05: VARIOUS ARTISTS - In The Name Of Revolution (2003, co-produced by Dirty Shoes Records)
Featuring: FLATTBUSH, ESKAPO, KADENA, MINORITY BLOCKS, DISABUSE, TARTARS, FINGERBOARDER [my one-man band]

Tracks:
1 - FLATTBUSH - Peasant Women
2 - FLATTBUSH - Vigilante (L.I.C.-Total War)
3 - FLATTBUSH - Workers
4 - FLATTBUSH - Foxhole
5 - FLATTBUSH - Mendiola Massacre
6 - FLATTBUSH - Rebolusyon
7 - FLATTBUSH - Ka Mayang, Guerilla Fighter
8 - MINORITY BLOCKS - New Army
9 - MINORITY BLOCKS - Wake Up Call
10 - MINORITY BLOCKS - We Are The Minority Blocks
11 - ESKAPO - Kalayaan
12 - ESKAPO - Mamamatay Ang Mundo
13 - ESKAPO - Bataan Death March
14 - DISABUSE - Pain Of The Masses
15 - DISABUSE - Social Unrest
16 - DISABUSE - Militarization
17 - FINGERBOARDER - Violent Terrorist Attack Vs. State Violence
18 - KADENA - Welga
19 - KADENA - Shut It Down
20 - KADENA - Another War
21 - KADENA - Globalization
22 - KADENA - Rebolusyon
23 - TARTARS - Hand In Hand
24 - TARTARS - Skin Reign
25 - TARTARS - Onward Socialism
26 - Gumising Ka Kabataan (bonus)
27 - Martsa Ng Bayan (bonus)
28 - Resurgence, NDF 25th Anniversary (bonus)
29 - KADENA - Turn The Other Way (bonus)
30 - KADENA - Police Brutality (bonus)
31 - KADENA - Militarisasyon (bonus)
32 - KADENA - P.I.N. (bonus)

BCR-06: VARIOUS ARTISTS - Down With Imperialism (2004, co-produced by Dirty Shoes Records)
Featuring: DOGS OF IRE, SCARRED FOR LIFE, SECRET JANET, AK-47, ESKAPO, KADENA, A.D.A., FINGERBOARDER

Tracks:
1 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
2 - DOGS OF IRE - We Bear The Lashes To One Day Crack The Whip
3 - DOGS OF IRE - Dance On The Ashes
4 - DOGS OF IRE - Why Do Airplanes Crash Into Building
5 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
6 - ESKAPO - Pangulo
7 - ESKAPO - Illegal Alien
8 - ESKAPO - Hour Of Crisis
9 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
10 - SCARRED FOR LIFE - Powers That Be
11 - SCARRED FOR LIFE - Kept In Control
12 - SCARRED FOR LIFE - Empty Promises
13 - SCARRED FOR LIFE - Master Race Control
14 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
15 - A.D.A. - Globalization Fuck Off
16 - A.D.A. - 30 Seconds Of Noise
17 - A.D.A. - Message To The People
18 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
19 - SECRET JANET - Big Fat Liar
20 - SECRET JANET - Hero
21 - SECRET JANET - Hella Weak Is The New Tight
22 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
23 - AK-47 - 2-Bit Terrorist
24 - AK-47 - Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win
25 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
26 - AK-47 - I Won't Forget
27 - AK-47 - Empire In Decline
28 - AK-47 - Prison House Of Nations
29 - Sa Ngalan Ng Kalayaan
30 - KADENA - Work Not War
31 - KADENA - Imperialism
32 - Pandaigdigang Awit
33 - Internasyunal
34 - FINGERBOARDER - Plato
35 - Bush In 30 Seconds - T.H.I.N.K. (bonus)
36 - Live Chanting From DC Protest (bonus)

BCR-07: FINGERBOARDER - Brave Old World (A Tribute To New Wave) [my 2005 debut album]

BCR-08: VARIOUS ARTISTS - Punk And Liberation (2006, co-produced by Dirty Shoes Records)
Featuring: A.S.P., A.S.S., V.O.D., PINKCOW, NERVES CRAYOLA, SNEEKERS, AK-47, ESKAPO, KADENA, FINGERBOARDER

Tracks:
1 - AxSxPx - No More Hate
2 - AxSxPx - Animals
3 - AxSxPx - Third World Country
4 - AK-47 - Arise Again
5 - AK-47 - The Day After
6 - AK-47 - Every Fucking Note
7 - A.S.S. - Together We Will Fight
8 - A.S.S. - Burst
9 - V.O.D. - Revolt
10 - V.O.D. - Propaganda
11 - V.O.D. - End The Pain
12 - PINK COW - Never Give Up
13 - PINK COW - Through Music
14 - FINGERBOARDER - Pag-ibig Sa Tinubuang Lupa
15 - NERVES CRAYOLA - Don't Play Innocent
16 - NERVES CRAYOLA - Shower Bullets
17 - NERVES CRAYOLA - World Domination
18 - SNEEKERS - Frustrated
19 - SNEEKERS - Free Flow
20 - ESKAPO - If All The Rebels Die (unreleased)
21 - ESKAPO - Bottomless (Live @ Kalx Berkeley)
22 - ESKAPO - Tumakas Sa Dilim=Mankind (Live @ Kalx Berkeley)
23 - KADENA - Tuition Fee
24 - KADENA - Anakpawis
25 - KADENA - Kababaihan (Oust Gloria)
26 - Pandaigdigang Awit (bonus)

BCR-09: FINGERBOARDER - Finding Emo (2007)

BCR-10: VARIOUS ARTISTS - Know Your NME (unfinished concept album, released by Dirty Shoes Records as "Know Your Enemy" in 2008)

Bulacancoreview: The unfinished and unreleased issue

2009-10-25T01:29:00.001-07:00

This is the first issue of my last zine project, Bulacancoreview (named after the province of my birth--just as my record label), which never got off the press back in 2005...until now.

Read/download Bulacancoreview at Scribd.

AID Kolektibo: An anarchist alternative for the Philippines

2009-10-25T01:24:00.001-07:00

Ang Anarchist Initiative for Direct democracy o AID Kolektibo ay isang malayang samahan ng mga kabataan-estudyante, mga artista't manunulat, at mga punkistang musikero na nagsimulang mamayagpag noong taong 2006. Mababasa sa ibaba ang dalawang mahahalagang papel na isinulat ni kabisyong Bas Umali--isa sa wikang Filipino at isa sa Ingles--na siyang nagsilbing manipesto sa publiko ng anarkistang grupo.

Kompederasyon ng malalayang istruktura at pormasyon

(Pebrero 7, 2006: Ito ay mungkahing dokumento hinggil sa alternatibong kaayusang pampulitika na labas sa iminumungkahi ng mga maka-Kaliwang kilusan. Samakatuwid, ito ay "non-state" na alternatibo batay sa kasalukuyang konteksto ng Pilipinas.)

Ang mga nakaraang EDSA ay mga pampublikong ehersisyo na iniluwal ng mga perenyal na krisis ng mga kaayusan kung saan sentralisado ang kapangyarihan na lumilikha ng mga pribilehiyo sa iilan habang nagsasaisantabi ng pinakamaraming bilang ng mamamayan sa pagdedesisyon at bahaginan ng benepisyo at yaman ng lipunan.

Kailanman ay hindi naging neutral ang estado. Sa maraming pagkakataon, instrumento ito ng iilan para protektahan ang kanilang interes. Ang rehimen ni Marcos sampu ng kanyang mga cronies ay walang dudang kinatawan ng elite na nais panatilihin ang sarili sa kapangyarihan sa lantad na puwersahang paraan na ang isa sa mga layon ay makontrol ang pinakamalaking bahagi ng yaman ng lipunan.

Ang administrasyon ni Erap ay isang paksyon ng elite na may malaking impluwensya sa mga mamamayan dahil sa pantasyang nalikha niya sa tulong ng pelikula at media. Ang pantasya niya ay lumikha ng batayang pagkakaisa kung bakit dumagsa sa EDSA pa-Malakanyang ang daang libong lehitimong mahihirap at inaapi sa lipunan at mayoryang mamamayan.

Ang mga nagdaang EDSA ay dinamismo ng agawan sa kapangyarihan ng mga elite. Ngunit isa sa hindi maitatangging aral na makukuha sa mga ito ay ang kapangyarihan ng mga mamamayan na lumikha ng pagbabago sa pamamagitan ng direktang partisipasyon.

Ang pampulitikang krisis at lumalalang kalagayan ng ekonomya sa kasalukuyan ay hindi naiiba sa pangkalahatang usapin ng nabanggit na krisis subalit hindi sinasabing isang panibagong EDSA ang kailangan upang magkaroon ng substansyal na pagbabago.

Sa mahabang panahon ang mga mamamayan ay lumalahok sa pampulitikang ehersisyo dahil sa impluwensya ng mga karismatikong lider, mga sentralisadong institusyon at mga pampulitikang istruktura na may herarkikal na oryentasyon.

Ito ay tipo ng pulitika na hindi nakatuon sa pagpapataas ng kamulatan ng mamamayan. Sa halip, ginagawa nitong pasibo ang mga tao, pinapakilos ang mamamayan dahil sa agenda at interes ng partido, indibidwal, at mga elite na grupo.

Ang partisipasyon ng ordinaryong mamamayan ay nalilimita lang sa mga nakagawiang eleksyon. Ang pagiging inaktibo at kawalan ng paglahok sa mga pampulitikang gawain ay lalo namang nagpapalawak ng burukrasya at nagpapaigting ng sentralisasyon upang umano'y mas maging episyente. Ang mga pulitiko ay naging propesyunal sa halip na isaalang-alang ang prinsipyo at interes ng publiko. Kadalasan, ang kanilang motibasyon ay nakabatay sa pansariling interes at pagsekyur ng propesyon o career.

Ang direct democracy

Ito ay isang alternatibong tipo ng pulitika na maaaring mamaksimisa sa pagsusulong ng panlipunang pagbabago. Ito ay nakabatay sa mga ekstraparlamentaryo't mga independyenteng organisasyon sa mga komunidad; mga organisasyong hindi nakaugnay sa anumang partido at estado.

Ang mga mamamamayan (kabataan, kababaihan, senior citizen, manggagawa, magsasaka, mangingisda, at iba pang marhinalisadong sektor sa serbisyo) ay magkikita at maghaharap-harap sa publiko upang pag-usapan ang mga kinakaharap na isyu. Magaganap ito sa pamamagitan ng mga popular at lokal na malalayang pormasyon kagaya ng mga pulong baranggay, assembliya, asosasyon, organisasyon, kooperatiba, religious group, counterculture na mga grupo, mga advocates at iba pa. Ang kalikasan ng mga pormasyong ito ay hindi upang magpakilos ng tao para igiit ang mga interes at agenda ng anumang eksternal na pormasyon. Nakabatay ito sa pulitika ng mga pamayanan na ang proseso ay edukasyon ayon sa mga aktwal na pangangailangan at kundisyon. Ang layon nito ay hindi upang makuha ang pampulitikang kapangyarihan, sa halip ay pagsasakapangyarihan sa mga marhinalisadong mamamayan.

Ito'y naglalayong makalikha ng pampulitikang pormasyon at makabuluhang maimpluwensyahan ang pampublikong opinyon para sa bisyon ng prosperidad na ang benepisyo ay pinakikinabangan ng lipunan. Samakatuwid, walang sinuman ang magugutom. Ang lahat ay may akses sa mga panlipunang serbisyo gaya ng kalusugan, pabahay, edukasyon, tubig, kuryente, at transportasyon. Ang likas-yaman ay angkop ang utilisasyon at nakabatay sa likas-kayang prinsipyo. Ang bawat mamamayan ay direkta at makabuluhang nakakalahok sa pagsasagawa ng mga polisiyang nakaayon sa pangangailangan ng mga komunidad, pabrika, industriya, agrikultura, at iba pang istruktura ng lipunan.

Ang pulitikang ito ay itatatag hindi sa impluwensya ng pulitika ng partido at estado; ito ay pulitika na malayang malalahukan at maiintindihan ng mamamayan at sila ay boluntaryong aako ng mga responsibilidad.

Kailangan ba talagang i-sentralisa ang kapangyarihan?

Hanggang sa kasalukuyan ay napakapopular ng malawakang paggo-gobyerno sa porma ng napakasentralisadong organisasyon na pinatatakbo sa pamamagitan ng mga istrikto at sekular na mga burukrasya na kadalasang pinapatupad ng mga kinatawan at ng mga nanalo sa eleksyon.

Hindi maikakaila sa kasaysayan ang karahasan, panggigipit at panunupil ng mga pamahalaan sa mga mamamayan magmula ng maitatag ang sentrong pamahalaan sa pananakop ng Kastila. At nag-uumapaw ang datos hinggil sa pag-iral ng hindi pantay na distribusyon ng yaman na pinatutupad at pinatatatag ng estado. Mas maigi pa bago dumating ang mga Kastila ayon kay Pigaffeta, tagatala ni Magellan. Ang inabutan nilang mga pamayanan ng katutubo ay malulusog, walang may kapansanan at nagugutom. Maaaring hindi perpekto ang kalagayan, subalit mas mainam ang panahong yaon kumpara sa ngayon na halos higit sa 50 porsyento ang bilang ng mga mamamayan na dumaranas ng kahirapan sa iba't-ibang dimensyon nito.

Huwag gamiting argumento ang paglobo ng populasyon para patatagin ang kahirapan. Ang estatistika ay makakatulong para matukoy kung gaano kalabis ang pag-aari at yaman ng iilang pamilya at kung gaano katalamak ang kahirapan ng maraming mamamayan. Ang produksyon ng cereal ay tumaas ng 12 porsyento noong 1975, sapat upang magbawas ng importasyon ang Bangladesh ng signipikanteng porsyento. Ang kanlurang Asya naman sa kabilang banda ay binaha ng mais mula sa Tsina. Maging ang disyerto sa Saudi Arabia ay nagkapagbebenta ng wheat; ngunit dahil sa labis na produksyon sa Finland, ang wheat ay ginagawang glue. Ang produksyon ng India ng grain ay na-triple sa pagitan ng 1950 at 1984; ang suliranin nila ay hindi paglobo ng populasyon kundi transportasyon upang maibiyahe ang mga produkto mula sa mga lugar na labis ang produksyon patungo sa mga kapos--ito ang pangunahing naging dahilan ng kagutuman sa naturang bansa.

Mahalagang banggitin na ang isyu sa World Trade Organisation ng pagtatambak ng produkto ay manipestasyon ng labis na produksyon at hindi populasyon. Ang suliranin ay kung paano ibabahagi ang yaman ng mga mauunlad na lipunan sa malaking bahagi ng populasyong naghihirap sa daigdig.

Matagal na panahon na ring namaliit ang kakayahan ng mga mamamayan na patakbuhin ang kanilang mga sariling ugnayan. Maraming karanasan ang magpapatunay na kayang organisahin ng mga produktibong uri at sektor ang kanilang mga gawain at ugnayan upang makalikha ng pangangailangan ng lipunan.

Ang boluntaryo at malalayang asosasyon ng mga pamayanan, syudad, at citizen assembly na naka-kompedera mula sa lokal, rehiyonal at hanggang sa kontinental ay may mga modelo at isinapraktika sa Espanya ng mga communeros noong ika-16 na siglo. Ang kilusan ng "American town meeting" na umabot sa New England hanggang sa Charleston noong 1770's. Gayundin ang "Parisian sectional assembly" noong unang bahagi ng 1790's na naulit sa Paris Commune noong 1871 at hanggang sa Madrid Citizens' Movement noong 1960's at unang bahagi ng 1970's.

Maging bago maging "Pilipinas" ang arkipelago ay may tradisyon na ito ng desentralisasyon. Ang bawat barangay ay independyente sa ibang barangay subalit may mutwal na mga kasunduan sa mga pag-angkin ng teritoryo. Partikular sa agrikultural na bahagi katulad ng kaingin, ang pag-angkin ay hindi nangangahulugan ng pribadong pag-aari. Ang pag-angkin ay nakabatay sa paggamit; matapos anihin, ang iba pa ay malayang makagagamit.

Naging miserable at dumanas ng kahirapan at pang-aapi ang mga komunidad dahil sa pagse-sentralisa ng kapangyarihan sa iilang mananakop. Walang kaginsa-ginsa, ang mga likas-yaman ay pag-aari na ng mga dayuhan sa pamamagitan ng mga sentralisadong pamahalaan at simbahan. Bakit biglang nagkaroon ng autoridad ang mga sentrong gobyerno na maningil ng buwis sa porma ng lakas paggawa o produkto sa mga pamayanan sa ngalan ng pamamahala ng mga umano'y "sibilisadong Kristiyano", samantalang napapamahalaan naman ng mga pamaayanan ang sarili nilang mga ugnayang pang-ekonomya at pampulitika na may maayos na pakikipag-ugnayan sa iba pang mga komunidad?

Totoong napakahirap isiping ganap na idesentralisa ang pampulitikang kapangyarihan lalo't sa kalagayang ang mga tradisyunal na pulitiko ang tiyak na mananamantala. Sabagay, kahit na anong pampulitikang kaayusan ang gawin ay tiyak na magsasamantala ang mga trapo sapagkat ito ay kaangkinan nila. Ganap lang na malulusaw ang trapo kung wala nang tumatangkilik sa kanya. Samakatuwid, ito ay nakabatay pa rin sa kamulatan ng mga tao.

May ilang mga iskolar ang nagbabanggit na nakaigpaw na raw sa patronage politics ang mamamayan; nalampasan na rin halos ang fantasy politics na maiuugnay umano sa pagbaba ng popularidad ng mga personalidad sa showbiz at media. Kung totoong ganito ang kalagayan, higit na pagkakataon ito upang isulong ang direct democracy para mapabilis ang pagbabago ng mga istruktura sa lipunan.

Ang tagumpay ng desentralisasyon ay nakabatay sa antas ng kakayahan ng mga mamamayan. Hindi ito kagyat na magaganap katulad kung paano inilulugar ang Transitional Revolutionary Government (TRG) ng Laban ng Masa.

Ang pulitika para sa pagsasapraktika ng direktang demokrasya ay proseso ng pag-eeduka sa mamamayan. Sa paglawak ng kapasidad ng mamamayan ay siya namang pagbawas sa hegemonya ng mga institusyong nagsesentralisa ng kapangyarihan. Ito ang magsasakapangyarihan ng mga malalaya at boluntaryong pormasyon sa mga pamayanan at batayang komunidad na magko-kompedera mula sa lokal patungong rehiyonal na nakabatay sa balangkas ng mutwal na kooperasyon at ganap na pagkakaisa.

Ano ang pagkakaiba ng delegado sa representasyon ng kasalukuyang mga herarkikal na organisasyon?

Ideyal na maisangkot ang lahat ng mga kasapi sa mga usaping pang-organisasyon na may kinalaman sa paglikha ng mga pampublikong polisiya. Subalit dahil sa mga praktikal na usapin, may pangangailangan na magtalaga ng mga delegado na magiging kinatawan ng organisasyon sa mas malalawak na antas ng pagdedesisyon para sa pagseseguro ng mutwal na kooperasyon sa antas ng baranggay, munisipyo, probinsya, at rehiyon.

Ang popular assemblies ay isa sa mga klasikal na kaisipang anarkista para sa pag-uugnay-ugnay ng mga gawain sa pamamagitan ng mga recallable na delegado. Wala silang espesyal na pribelehiyo ngunit may mandato na maging kinatawan ng kanilang kinabibilangang organisasyon. Ang pangunahing responsibilidad ay makisangkot sa mas malawak na antas batay sa mga pinagkasunduan ng mga kasapi. Ang pagsasagawa ng desisyon ay nanatili sa mga assembliya.

Kumpara sa kasalukuyang konsepto ng representative na may kakayahang gumawa ng pagpapasya at may autoridad sa ibang tao o sa kanyang mga botante, ang sistema ng kompederasyon ay pag-o-organisa ng mga kinakailangang bagay mula sa lokal o ibaba pataas. Sa halip na mula sa itaas pababa, desentralisado ang kompederasyon at ang mga network subalit mahigpit na pinag-uugnay para sa kanilang mga mutwal na interes na ang bisyon ay para humubog ng lipunang malaya, pantay-pantay, sagana, at likas-kaya.

Archipelagic confederation

(April 26, 2006: This article will attempt to present an alternative political structure advancing genuine citizens' politics through free assemblies and independent structures from the barangay and communities in current political crisis in the Philippines.)

Introduction

Many of us will agree that in our context, democracy seems elusive. Until now, a vast number of people are in extreme poverty, deprived of basic needs, and are politically marginalized. We know that poverty is caused by the uneven distribution of power where only a few can decide over critical things such as the use of natural resources and distribution of its benefits. Who among us was ever asked or consulted by the government in its program of environmental destruction which has only profited big corporations which are then controlled by a few families and foreign corporations? Did the government bother to ask peasants, farmers, fisher folk, workers, women, youth, gays, consumers, and other sectors with regard to the Philippine government's accession to the WTO and its conclusion of various bilateral agreements? Who wants E-VAT and debt payment?

The list is overwhelmingly long, proving that the democracy we have today is a farce.

The heart of the struggle of all the revolutionary efforts in our history is about making people participate in power. Part of the movement's usual rhetoric is people's participation in decision-making because without people's participation in the political exercises that directly influence every dimension of their lives, democracy will not be realized.

This document will attempt to discuss an alternative anarchist political structure that will promote people's direct participation in power and, in broad strokes, discuss the flow of political power from the bottom to the top. It is a concept that is heavily derived from the idea of Confederation advanced by libertarian author Murray Bookchin. His ideas of course are not detached from traditional anarchist movements and contemporary anarchist activists; we believe it is significantly relevant to our current political crisis.

Confederation offers an alternative political structure based on a libertarian framework--i.e., non-hierarchical and non-statist, which is doable and applicable. It is doable compared to the 35-year old struggle of the CPP-NPA-NDF which, after taking tens of thousands of lives, delivered no concrete economic and political output to the Filipino people. More so, the alternatives being offered by mainstream leftist groups outside NDF offer no substantial difference, for they all adhere to the state and of capturing political power--an objective that cannot be realized in the near future.

In the light that anarchism is exaggeratedly misunderstood, let us first discuss some fundamental principles of stateless socialism: libertarianism and anarchism.

"Purely utopian!" That's one of the common reactions of those who do not understand the word "anarchy" and its alternatives. Another misconception is its affinity to "chaos".

These nuisances and misinterpretations are not surprising at all. Historically, anarchism has long opposed oppressive systems and fought monarchy, oligarchy, and the totalitarianism of the state socialists and authoritarian communists alike. It continues to carry out the struggle to fight new forms of colonialism, capitalism, and other exploitative systems that hamper the development of humanity. Every ruling regime has its share in imputing fear and terror on the anarchist movement in order to discredit it.

It is improper to escape the fact that violence is part of the anarchist movement. Along with the nationalists and republicans, anarchists carried out terroristic methods to advance social revolution. The "Propaganda by the Deed" was meant to encourage people to act against the state and the old order by launching violent activities such as the killing of French president Sadi Carnot by Sante Jeronimo Caserio (an Italian anarchist) in 1894. Italian anarchist Michele Angiolillo also shot Canovas of Spain in 1987. Luigi Luccheni (another anarchist from Italy) stabbed Empress Elisabeth of Austria to death in 1898, while Polish anarchist Leon Czogolsz killed US president McKinley in 1901. There were also two attempts on the life of Kaiser Wilhelm I, the first by Max Hodel on 11 May 1878, then followed by Karl Nobiling on the June 2 of the same year.

And the list is long.

These of course were used by the dominant regimes to their own advantage. In order to demonize anarchism, they shrewdly tailored it to violence and chaos. And this was even reinforced by the state socialists and authoritarian communists when the anarchist movement in Ukraine challenged the Bolshevik regime, the White Army and other foreign invaders.

Nuisances and misinterpretations are bound to occur in situations wherein power is asymmetrically distributed. The political structure that is controlled by the economic and political elite would not allow anarchism to flourish. Moreover, the country's revolutionary tradition is highly influenced by Red bureaucracy which is historically hostile to anarchism.

Contrary to common misconceptions, anarchism is a theory that firmly upholds the idea of an organized world that is free for all. As Noam Chomsky once stated in an interview, "anarchy is a society that is highly organized wherein many different structures are integrated such as the workplace, the community and other myriad forms of free and voluntary associations, with participants directly managing their own affairs".

Unlike the existing order where people are motivated by power, profit, private property, and individualism; anarchy on the other hand is a society that fosters mutual cooperation, solidarity, freedom from exploitation and oppression, and where decisions are made by those who are directly concerned. Any form of political structure that centralizes power is totally unacceptable.

The word "archipelago" on the other hand recognizes the geographical characteristics of the Philippines and the very essential role of its rich natural resources that strongly influence the lifestyle of its inhabitants. Myriad historical accounts indicate that the bodies of water surrounding the different islands actually connected rather than separated them from each other, and that the economic, social and political activities of the inhabitants were developed due to the interconnectedness of their immediate environment.

It is also important to note that the rich natural endowments of our archipelago allow diverse cultures to flourish and develop into a heterogeneous way of life that are interlinked through mutual cooperation.

Historical context

The famous victory of Lapu-lapu against Magellan is one of the earliest symbols of Filipino resistance. A considerable number of his men defeated the well-armed and battle-hardened Spanish conquistadores in a low-tide battle on the shores of Mactan. One can espouse the idea of an on-going rivalry between Lapu-lapu and Rajah Humabon which Magellan used--winning the trust of the latter as he attacked the former and met his death. But one can also elaborate the idea that Lapu-lapu's group was set to defend the autonomy of their community.

Prior to the nationalist struggle, "Moro wars" took place from 1565 to 1898 which prevented the Spaniards from subjugating the inhabitants of the southern part of the country. Colonizers mobilized Christianized locals to fight Muslims, thus laying the foundation for the "perpetual" Christian-Muslim conflict in Mindanao.

The Philippines was one of the first Asian countries to stage a revolution against the colonialism of the West. The early phase of the Filipino struggle was initially carried out by local privileged bourgeois intellectuals in the likes of Jose Rizal and Marcelo Del Pilar. The revolution was nationalistic in character, which is understandable because at that time, nationalism was in the height of propagation in many parts of the world--specifically in Europe. This profoundly influenced Rizal's works and inspired the oppressed masses, culminating in armed resistance organized by the proletariat Andres Bonifacio in 1896.

With the growing influence of the US combined with the simultaneous armed resistance in Cuba, the Filipino nationalist resistance was able to substantially reduce the influence of the Catholic order, and finally drove out the Spanish colonizers. But American expansionist policy immediately took effect as expressed through the Treaty of Paris of 1898.

Shortly after the inauguration of the First Philippine Republic in January 1899 the Filipino-American War broke out which claimed 600,000 Filipino lives, mostly due to starvation and diseases.

The revolutionary tradition in the country was further enriched upon the arrival of Isabelo De Los Reyes in Manila in 1901 from his exile in Barcelona, Spain where he brought a
collection of books, including those written by Malatesta, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Marx, Darwin, Aquinas, and Voltaire. This was followed by a successful wave of protests and strikes within and around Manila that paved the way for the establishment of the Union Obrera Democratica (UOD). This marked the shift of the revolutionary struggle from a mere nationalist to an anti-imperialist one.

UOD disintegrated in 1903 and from its remains, the party upholding communism and socialism was established in 1938 which later led the Hukbalahap guerilla movement. They were the foremost opponents of the Japanese forces prior to the reinforcement provided by the Americans. This was also the period when the revolutionary movement began to feel the Bolshevik/Russian influence.

The tradition of struggle later proceeded to the establishment of the Maoist/Chinese-influenced Communist Party in the late 1960's which adopted a nationalist strategy and protracted people's war in the countryside. It gained enormous support from the masses, but it failed to grab power until its fragmentation into smaller party formations due to the Rejectionist-Reaffirmist split in 1992.

Hard facts in the current context

Indeed, the country's historical development has continuously enriched its revolutionary tradition, not to mention the resistance efforts outside of the national democratic/communist movement, such as sectoral and community-based resistance, and the Moro struggle among others.

However, such richness failed to translate immediately to the interest of the people. In the 1970's, the poverty rate was as high as 40% as compared to the current rate which is 34 to 36 percent according to the National Statistical Coordination Board. This indicates marginal improvement in terms of the state's poverty reduction effort.

Unemployment, on the other hand, is pegged at 11 million while underemployment is up to 7 million. This is aggravated by the massive destruction of our natural resources due to our export-oriented economy and the government's incapacity to manage and utilize them properly in a sustainable way.

Furthermore, liberalization, coupled with chronic rent-seeking practices in government offices and the absence of a logical economic development plan, inflicted serious injuries to the domestic economy which further exacerbated our deteriorating social condition.

Another equally important issue is the marginalization of a huge number of citizens in making decisions that directly and indirectly affect their political, social and economic lives. The existing political structure makes citizens passive, inactive and apathetic. Their political participation is reduced to routinary electoral exercises where they will occasionally choose politicians who will represent them in making and implementing policies.

We can hardly identify a historical period wherein Filipinos lived in prosperity, abundance and relative peace, except during pre-Spanish times. As described by Magellan's historian, Pigaffeta, the inhabitants of the archipelago were in perfect health and had no physical defects. He got the impression that food scarcity was not prevalent. While William Henry Scott and a host of other writers validated the presence of slavery in the archipelago during the pre-Spanish period, they never mentioned any sign of poverty among local villages.

These findings make us think that the phenomena of poverty in the Philippines occurred with the advent of Spanish colonization and coercive formation of a centralized government. Unfortunately, several studies have the tendency to conveniently pin down population explosion as the cause of poverty, thus undermining the fact that this is brought by systemic oppression. For instance, in Southern Asia, around 30 million households own no land or very little, and they represent 40% of nearly all rural households in the subcontinent. Both the African and Latin American continents, on the other hand, have similar data. Moreover, land distribution in the nations of the South favors large-scale commercial agriculture controlled by a few landowners. Ergo, poverty can be rooted socially.

The Philippines is not an exemption. In 2000, the country ranked 77 out of more than 150 countries with a poverty incidence of 34% and where the human development index (HDI) figure was 0.656. In the fisheries sector alone, 80% of fisher folk households live below the poverty line. Four primary factors are widely accepted by most of the players in the fishery sectors: (1) low productivity of land-based resources or lack of access to land; (2) low productivity of aquatic resources due mainly to habitat destruction and stock depletion; (3) resource-use conflict, particularly in coastal waters; and (4) lack of adequate basic services delivery (i.e., health, education, shelter, infrastructure, etc.).

Though the Fishery Sector Program Report of the ADB (1993) also cited high population density in most near shore areas, this must not lead us to the conclusion that we are reaching the limit. We know for a fact that the increase of population in coastal communities is due to migration patterns. As noted by ASEAN-SEAFDEC in their technical report in 2001, households displaced in agricultural lands seek economic opportunity in coastal areas that are de facto open to anybody who wants to use fishery resources. Poverty therefore is not rooted in the natural-limit crisis; this is clearly brought about by structural problems, such as the distribution of wealth and the control of natural resources.

It should be clarified that the idea of "carrying capacity" is well recognized. This concept sets the limit for a number of organisms and non-living matter in a specific ecosystem, based on the availability of food, space, and other vital materials necessary for their existence. Also, part of this is the capacity of a specific ecosystem to absorb pressure brought by extraction. But to set the record straight, the destruction of natural resources (which resulted in the death of many citizens and the loss of billions of pesos in livelihood) is not directly attributable to population. In fact, it is public knowledge that big corporations benefited from large-scale logging operations. And together with large commercial mining, this eventually led to the denudation of our forests. It should also be noted that mineral extraction is one of the notorious polluters in the coastal zone that significantly reduces fish stocks.

There is no sufficient evidence to prove that the country's population of 86 million is close to the limit imposed by the carrying capacity of our ecosystem. Clearly, food production is no longer a problem. In fact, developed and even developing nations like China, India, and Brazil, are extra-aggressive in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements in order to have full-market access to the economies of poor and other nations where they can dump their huge surplus. In our case, the best available data on poverty is highly attributable to low agricultural and fishery productivity, and poor economic performance. All of these can be directly traced to the government's negligence, incompetence, irresponsibility, and non-accountability. Poverty is caused by unemployment, lack of land to till, degradation of natural resources, lack of economic opportunities, lack of social services, corruption, and the absence of a logical economic development agenda.

The huge profits being produced through massive extraction of natural resources do not deliver anything concrete to the people. We have enough sources of food to feed the entire population due to the highly abundant natural resources of the archipelago. But our finite resources are being limited only to fuel our export-oriented economic growth and sustain the greed for profit of the elite.

With this conviction, we should be reminded that in order to establish a society that is free, equitable and rational, capitalism must be abolished and oppressive hierarchical political systems be replaced by a system where citizens are highly involved in all political exercises, specifically in decision-making.

The logic of centralizing power

By the 16th century, the state was described as a "large-scale governmental organization effectively centralized by means of strictly secular bureaucracy, often implemented by some kind of representative body". Since economic activities profoundly influence the operations of centralized governments, the state's definition continuously evolved, but its original nature did not and will not change--i.e., to concentrate power and its desire to increase inexorable sovereignty. Theoretically, political power resides only in the state, but complete concentration of power is impossible. That is why it is reasonable to say that the existence of the state depends on its fairly concentrated power. Another very important consideration is that the state is the only institution that can use "legitimate" violence to those who do not recognize its hegemony.

The hierarchical nature of the state inevitably creates a bureaucracy that concentrates governance and decision-making in a few representatives (Congress and Senate), akin to the institutional arrangement of the Red bureaucracy, corporate business structures as well as the church's religious hierarchy. A handful of representatives will not constitute a democracy; on the contrary, it is nothing but the rule of the few over the many. Democracy will only be realized through meaningful and substantial participation of the people/masses in politics to which they can relate, understand, appreciate, contribute, perform, benefit, and share duties and responsibilities.

The question is, how are we going to involve ordinary people in political exercises if they do not have any interest in engaging in politics?

Such disinterest can be possibly rooted to the notion that the current political status quo cannot offer anything to the people. All are reduced to promises and texts. For the common people, politics require complicated technical skills and knowledge that can only be earned in local prestigious and expensive universities (UP-La Salle-Ateneo), if not abroad. Such an undertaking requires technical jargon and an expensive outfit which gives the impression that politics is an enterprise solely for the educated and rich families. The term "polis", as we trace it back to the tradition of the Greeks, refers to the management of the community by the citizens. This has apparently lost its meaning due to statism that turned politics into a career and lucrative profession that marginalized ordinary people.

Our effort in imagining alternatives beyond the politics of the state will be facilitated by regaining the lost meaning of "politics" and calibrating it in our own context.

Libertarian alternatives

Anarchist alternatives which were precisely reflected in Russia during the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution were characterized by spontaneity and the self-organized revolt of the masses. Powerful united fronts of various forces developed and crushed the oppressive Tsarist monarchist regime within three days. The massive unrest of the people and other heterogeneous elements led to the abolition of the old regime without any particular alternatives and without any instructions from any group. The majority of the masses did not directly articulate the ideas espoused by the anarcho-syndicalists, but what the people had done was exactly what the anarcho-syndicalists had in mind. Upon the abolition of Tsarist state, the people spontaneously organized themselves. In Kronstadt, houses were socialized through the house committees which extended to the entire streets that resulted in the creation of street and block committees. The same thing happened in Petrograd. The factory committees that appeared almost out of nowhere were geared toward establishing "Producer Consumer Communes".

During the Spanish Civil War, the eastern part of Spain was under the influence of the anarchist movement. Workers' direct management took place in industrial and commercial establishments through the 2,000 collectives in Catalonia. In February 1937, 275 peasants and farm workers' collectives with a total of 80,000 members were formed in Aragon near the front line, which occupied vast lands that were abandoned by their landlords. In three months time, these collectives increased to 450, with a total number of 180,000 members.

There are a lot of experiences worth citing in Latin America, Asia and Africa, but these are poorly articulated and are seldom mentioned in our history books. The anarchist movement is barely mentioned despite its profound influence in the early stages of Philippine nationalist resistance and the early part of the anti-imperialist struggle in the country.

Direct democracy

Direct democracy is not a new idea. This was and still is being practiced in many parts of the world. But this concept is poorly explored due to the power-hungry behavior of the political and economic elite, not to mention some Leftists who actually advocate and practice authoritarianism.

To refresh our minds, the original Greek meaning of politics came from the word "polis", which entails that the people directly formulate public policies through face-to-face processes called "assemblies" which are based on the ethics of complementarity and solidarity. Of course, the idea was not perfect because the citizens who had the privilege to participate in community management were those who owned slaves and had the luxury of time. But the tradition of direct democracy was evidently workable.

Confederal structures have appeared in history time and again, like those of the 16th century Spanish communeros and the American town meetings which even reached New England and Charleston in the 1770's. This also includes the Parisian sectional assembly during the 1790's, and which occurred again in 1871 in the Paris Commune, and so on.

Instead of organizing a Party, why do we not go back to the communities and localities? Political parties can easily claim that they have an organized network and mass base on the local level, which we will not try to refute. Our concern will focus on the kind of politics that they are employing. Their organizational set-up is inherently top-down due to the representation system wherein a few individuals from the party would represent the interests of the entire nation. This breeds "bossism" wherein a few people are in the apex of the hierarchy. Moreover, they have authority vis-à-vis their members which will eventually end in a leader-and-led relationship. Hence, people become simpletons. Instead of having active, creative, imaginative and dynamic citizens, we have passive and mechanized constituents whose duty is reduced to attending mobilizations and the routinary selection of party leaders that merely reinforces the culture of obedience.

Democracy is not about making obedient followers. It is not about imposing uniform rules to a complex and diverse population in terms of their interests, views, way of life, prejudices, economic activities, social and natural environment, culture, and spiritual life. Rather, democracy is about creating a political atmosphere which is participatory and inclusive of this highly diverse population, which is then based on the actual needs and interests of these communities.

We do not intend to undermine the initiative of political parties when it comes to advancing the interests of the community. But perhaps it is plausible to think that since Leftist parties are only among the minority, they should strive more to gain political value and leverage so that they can mobilize the ordinary people. Their interests therefore are not necessarily identical with those of the communities or localities since the latter are characterized by their diversity. Traditionally, Leftist parties are class-based and have a great tendency to overlook other sectors and groups which are also exploited and are significant in number. This approach often fosters elitism upon the glorified party class.

In a broad sense, direct democracy will be applied by organizing free assemblies at the local level. People's organizations that are based on their nature such as peasants, fisher folk, women, youth, indigenous people, vendors, tricycle drivers, jeepney drivers, the homeless, gays and lesbians, neighborhood associations, religious groups, and other formations at the localities should be encouraged to organize among themselves.

Based on experience, people will surely participate in political processes if the topic to be discussed is directly related to their interests; to their daily activities and to the immediate and strategic needs of their communities. People will conduct face-to-face meetings at the barangay level to tackle their immediate concerns; they will share ideas, duties, and responsibilities to address their issues in relation to other barangays. They will be encouraged to engage in discussions and debates on public facilities using their own language and the existing local mechanisms to facilitate local political mechanisms.

Obviously, an ideal political structure should not mobilize people for the purposes of elevating the political value of certain parties for elections or for the goal of taking political power which, in a sense, would merely reinforce the inactivity of their constituents. This kind of political structure will bring the political arena to the very doorstep of the people. This will create a political atmosphere that encourages the citizens' active, creative, imaginative and dynamic participation.

The ultimate direction of this process is to empower the vast number of marginalized citizens from below. This politics is educative since it will enhance the people's capacity to democratically discuss, decide, formulate, and implement plans with regard to their common resources and own affairs.

Confederation

In general, the pre-Hispanic barangays were interdependent but loosely federated. Among their bases of interaction were trade, commerce, and war (raids for slaves and wives, and of course, revenge). "Highly" federated barangays were usually found in river mouths or wherever the ports were strategically located for commerce and where economic activities were high. This is not to romanticize the idea of the barangay system, but rather to trace our traditional practice of decentralism which actually proved to be far more humane than the statist model that was imposed on us by Western colonialists, and that is still in place today.

Our idea of decentralization here should not be mistaken as "parochialism" which might lead to the isolation of the locality from the rest of world. Confederalism as defined by Murray Bookchin is above all "a network of administrative councils whose members or delegates are elected from popular, face-to-face democratic assemblies". In our context, structures will be independently organized at the barangay or community level. Every barangay or community assembly will elect delegate/s whose function is purely administrative, such as transmitting information and other practical functions. Policy-making will take place strictly at the popular assemblies in the barangay and community levels. Delegates have no power to decide and they are totally recallable and accountable to the assemblies that mandated them. More importantly, delegates posses no privilege and authority over the citizens.

Confederal councils comprised of substantial delegates will be organized at the municipal and city level; then municipalities and cities will be confederated at the provincial level. The regional level will then comprise the "Archipelagic Confederation". A confederation that connects and interlinks politically and economically every community of the archipelago, and where the functions are administrative and coordinative only. The ultimate idea of the confederation is to integrate all social structures, not in a hierarchical or top-down orientation, but rather from the bottom up. Public policies will be formulated at the grassroots, which will then be expressed at the municipal, city, provincial, and regional levels.

The basis of integration is not competition but rather mutual cooperation, complementation, and solidarity. Every sector, group, and other formations in a municipality will find their place in production processes to ensure the needs of the communities.

We cannot blame groups inclined to the party system and statist model if they immediately express a low appreciation of the proposed alternative political system. Indeed, taking political power is a shortcut to institute desired changes, but such quick changes are not necessarily meaningful for those who did not participate in the seizure of political power. In many instances, the great bulk of the masses are reduced into mere spectators to the political exercise initiated by the few who grabbed power, again making passive, inactive and obedient constituents--the proverbial same dog, different collar.

True, this process is strategic because it also involves changing the behavior of people who are highly influenced by the dominant institutions that promote and reinforce an order based on competition, individualism, and imposed uniformity. As part of processes that resist the current order and the behavior that reinforces it, direct democracy can be employed. In the heist of the brutal effect of grow-or-die market capitalism and a corrupt centralized state, communities should persistently defend their own physical and social space by defining their specific interests in connection with larger communities. We should encourage locals to self-organize and maximize their traditional networks to protect and advance the interests of their localities in relation to the interests and needs of other communities.

References

Anderson, Benedict. "Under Three Flags: Anarchism and Anti-Colonial Imagination" (2006).

ASEAN-SEAFDEC. Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security in the New Millennium. "Fish for the People" (2001).

Bookchin, Murray. "Libertarian Municipalism". Article published in Green Perspectives (October 1991).

Bookchin, Murray. "The Meaning of Confederalism". Article published in Green Perspectives (November 1990).

Bookchin, Murray. "Municipalisation: Community Ownership of the Economy". Accessed online from Anarchy Archive.

Bookchin, Murray. "The Population Myth". Accessed online from Anarchy Archive.

Bookchin, Murray. "What is Communalism? The Democratic Dimension of Anarchism". Accessed online from Anarchy Archive.

Chomsky, Noam. Interview by Red and Black Revolution (May 1995).

Friedrich, C.J. and Brzezinski, Z.K. Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1972).

Maximoff, G.P. Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution.

National Statistics Office. "Socio-economic Characteristics of Households in the Philippines" paper.

Quimpo, Nathan Gilbert. The Philippines: The People Power Revolution of 1986.

Scott, Henry William. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society (1997).

If I could only grow these on FarmVille...

2009-10-25T01:15:00.001-07:00

...I'd get rich smuggling and selling them at Mafia Wars and Café World hahaha! Or why I moved to Facebook just when I finally got my own Friendster account after hanging out with a bunch of fucked-up musician friends at MySpace for a couple of years. In other words, let's (not) do the "Goodbye Geocities! Hello Blogspot!" thing again ok...or so I thought.

Have Heart Philippine Tour

2009-09-12T01:45:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Have Heart (USA) Philippine Tour
WHEN: May 11, 2009 | Monday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: Baypark Center, Roxas Blvd., Remedios St., Manila
BANDS: Have Heart + Half The Battle, Mihara, Play, The Beauty Of Doubt, Kaktus Karuka, Tame The Tikbalang, Staid, Bystorm
GATE: 250 pesos

Half The Battle: "What We Have" Record Release Party

2009-09-12T01:44:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Half The Battle: "What We Have" Record Release Party (Take-Four, Major Malfunction, Positivity Studios)
WHEN: September 20, 2009 | Sunday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: Ten02 Bar, Quezon City
BANDS: Half The Battle + Bystorm, Play, Talk Sick, Divided We Fall, Bound By Fury, Mihara, YFC, Nuclear Punishment, Richard Collier, Towards The End
GATE: 100 pesos/free with purchase of HTB’s new full-length album

This Is Microwave Fest

2009-09-12T01:42:00.001-07:00

WHAT: This Is Microwave Fest (Jaja’s Nuptial Extravaganza)
WHEN: April 3, 2009 | Friday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: Phase-3A, Bahayang Pag-asa, Imus, Cavite
BANDS: KDSistema, Legarda, End Of Man, YFC, Staid, Sauna, Rust Phantom, Loss Of Control, Bystorm, Hampaslupa, Half The Battle, Censorshit, Kill Ratio, Tame The Tikbalang, Richard Collier, Nuclear Punishment, State Of Calamity

Takeover of the South: Davao Leg

2009-09-12T01:41:00.002-07:00

WHAT: Takeover of the South: Davao Leg (Take-Four Collective)
WHEN: August 21, 2009 | Friday | 7:00 PM
WHERE: Arvince Bar, Frissans Compound, Claveria St., Davao City
BANDS: Staid, Bystorm, Half The Battle, Frontal, Disaparacidos, Sacrifix, As A Whole, Roundhead, Clobeerin’ Time, Iron Will, Anxiety To Hysteria, Stolen At Gunpoint, Caitlyn Bailey, Life Sentence, Quinz St., Murder Weapon
GATE: 50 pesos

Sunday Matinee: New Blood

2009-09-12T01:41:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Sunday Matinee: New Blood
WHEN: April 26, 2009 | Sunday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: Ten02 Bar, Scout Ybardaloza cor. Timog, Quezon City
BANDS: Sister Bastard (Cainta), Legarda (Manila), Judgement (Batangas City), Oh Man! Oh God! (Parañaque), Utter Dismay (Manila), Battle Fury (Pagbilao), Bonded By Fury (Manila), (A)mok (Cavite), Talk Sick (Bulacan), Kingkong Battery (Cavite), Standout (San Pablo City), Rayhak (Samar), Staid (Quezon City)
GATE: 100 pesos

Sunday Matinee

2009-09-12T01:39:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Sunday Matinee (Non-Compliant Issue No. 3)
WHEN: March 22, 2009 | Sunday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: Ten02 Bar, Scout Ybardaloza cor. Timog, Quezon City
BANDS: Antagonist AD (New Zealand) + Mouthful Of Air (Borneo) + Isvarah, Omerta (Bulacan), West (Manila), Prayer Of Endurance (Baguio), Staid (Quezon City), Istukas Over Disneyland (Pampanga), Noise Conspiracy Project (Manila), Half The Battle (Cavite), Bystorm (Manila)
GATE: 150 pesos

Turn the Tides

2009-09-12T01:38:00.002-07:00

WHAT: Turn the Tides (Baguio City Rust Crew & One Voice Records-Asia)
WHEN: September 19, 2009 | Saturday | 7:00 PM
WHERE: Overtones Music Gallery, Assumpion Road, Baguio City
BANDS: Bear The Scars, Bison, Limitbreak, Din, Prayer Of Endurance, Above Fading, Beyond Silent Wars, 10 Tons + more
GATE: 70 pesos + 1 beer

Weezer Night

2009-09-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Weezer Night (Tubby Trousers & Geek Fight)
WHEN: September 10, 2009 | Thursday
WHERE: Al’s Bar, Aguirre Ave., BF Parañaque
BANDS: Marty Mcfly, Your Imaginary Friends, The Bernadettes, Nameless Heroes, Nevertheless, September Issue

Veganfest: In Celebration of World Food Day

2009-09-12T01:35:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Veganfest: In Celebration of World Food Day (Diypinoyhcpunk.com)
WHEN: October 16, 2009 | Friday

Tori Amos Night 2009: Assorted Fairy Tales

2009-09-12T01:29:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Tori Amos Night 2009: Assorted Fairy Tales
WHEN: August 21, 2009 | Friday | 9:00 PM
WHERE: Conspiracy Bar, 59 Visayas Ave., Q.C.

The Rizmala Connection

2009-09-12T01:28:00.001-07:00

WHAT: The Rizmala Connection (Awesome! Totally Awesome! & Crank Music Relief)
WHEN: September 5, 2009 | Saturday
WHERE: Cuerdas Bar, Pasig City
BANDS: Last Lie Told, Intolerant, Badburn, West, Piledriver, Brawler, Fallen Oppression, Curse Of Violence, Sucket Seven, T.A.S.A., Curse Of Lita, Apostate
GATE: 80 pesos with 1 free beer

No Turning Back: Stronger World Asian Tour 2009

2009-09-12T01:26:00.003-07:00

WHAT: No Turning Back (Netherlands HC) Live in Laguna!
WHEN: October 3, 2009 | Saturday | 7:00 PM
WHERE: Brusmick Boxing Stable, 2nd Flr. Brusmick Place, Balibago, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna
BANDS: No Turning Back + Dead On Arrival, Mihara, Brawler, Unheard, West, Badburn, Piledriver
GATE: 150 pesos

October!

2009-09-12T01:26:00.001-07:00

WHAT: October! (Baby Bong Production & My Last Stand-Laguna)
WHEN: October 31, 2009 | Saturday
WHERE: Saltwater Bar & Grill, Calamba, Laguna
BANDS: Unheard, Peligro, Embercore, Rodatam, Vital Surge, Dropout, Death By Mistake, Tempest, Self Hatred, No Time, Kalasag, Imasash, Damod, Decydon
GATE: 80 pesos

Diypinoyhcpunk First Anniversary Show

2009-09-12T01:25:00.002-07:00

WHAT: Diypinoyhcpunk First Anniversary Show (Diypinoyhcpunk.com)
WHEN: August 29, 2009 | Saturday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: Ten02 Bar, Quezon City
BANDS: Richard Collier, A.D.A., Bad Omen, Staid, Rush ID, Play, Sister Bastard, Kaktus Karuka, Guerra Mundial, Noise Conspiracy Project, Oh Man! Oh God!, Nuclear Punishment, Half The Battle, Curse/Gift, Bystorm, Legarda, Eyes Of Fire, Omerta, Paraconflict
GATE: 100 pesos with 1 beer / iced tea

Metalcore/Malolos City HC friends and fellow Bulakeños, OMERTA, starring: Raymond667 on mics, Louie Taba on guitars, Ryan Aso on bass, and new guy on drums. Photos courtesy of the band and Keith Dador.

Defend Jobs Lives: Music for Social Justice

2009-09-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

WHAT: !Defend Jobs Lives: Music for Social Justice (Musicians For Peace)
WHEN: September 9, 2009 | Wednesday | 6:00 PM
WHERE: Cuerdas Bar, Pasig City
BANDS: Bakjaw, Deadbrain, Gazera, Halfmast, Rebel Patatas, Serefamus, Talumi, Tambang Musika, Tolonguez Death Squad, Triumph Cultural, Zenith

Another Night, Another Day

2009-09-12T01:24:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Another Night, Another Day (Diliman Collective & Middle Class)
WHEN: September 5, 2009 | Saturday | 8:00 PM
WHERE: 9 Mile Bar, 16 Kalayaan Ave., Diliman, Q.C.
BANDS: Piledriver, Marcos Cronies, Amok, Censorshit, Putanginas, Alambre, Good Morning Towel, Antroprine, TASA, Mighty Contras, Malignant, Private Pyle, Breastfeed, Squat, State Of Calamity, Balingkuko, Mass Hypnosia, Dai Ichi, Disband, U.K.Nams, 5 Sins Manifest, 12XU

Cosplay Man!a ‘09

2009-09-12T01:22:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Cosplay Man!a ‘09
WHEN: September 13, 2009 | Sunday
WHERE: Megatrade Hall 2 & 3, Function Room A & B, 5th Level Bldg. B, SM Megamall
WEB: cosplay.ph

(Pinoy) Punk's Not Dead: An iWitness video documentary

2009-08-30T02:54:00.000-07:00

GMA-7 iWitness Punk's Not Dead Trailer

GMA-7 iWitness Punk's Not Dead Part 1

GMA-7 iWitness Punk's Not Dead Part 2

GMA-7 iWitness Punk's Not Dead Part 3

GMA-7 iWitness Punk's Not Dead Part 4

GMA-7 iWitness Punk's Not Dead Part 5

Musikang mainstream, alternative, at underground

2009-08-29T01:16:00.000-07:00

(Lumabas ito sa isang music fanzine noong unang bahagi ng 1996--huling taon ko sa kolehiyo. Matapos ang isang dekada, nagkaroon muli ng band explosion sa ‘Pinas at sa halip na “alternative” ay “indie” o “independent” naman ang naging uso at bukambibig ng industriya. Bukod sa mga bago--at lumang--mukha, may nabago ba sa content at form ng “orihinal” [kuno] na musikang Pilipino?)

Ano nga ba ang pagkakaiba nila sa isa’t isa? Kung ang pagbabatayan natin ay ang isang makabuluhang depinisyon ng tatlo, masasabi nating ang musikang mainstream ay ‘yung uri ng musikang dominante o naghahari sa ating lipunan at kultura ngayon. Ito ‘yung musikang pinapatugtog sa halos lahat ng istasyon ng radyo (mapa-AM man o FM); pinapalabas sa MTV at iba pang TV shows; at tuwi-tuwina’y nagiging laman ng mga songhits, magasin, dyaryo, at iba pa. Samakatwid, ito ‘yung musikang komersyal na tanggap sa pandinig ng pangkaraniwang tao o simpleng masa. Ito’y dahil na rin siguro sa pangkaraniwang paksa at mababaw na pananaw nito, katamtamang haba ng kanta, at himig na madaling sakyan o sabayan ng kahit sino. Maihahanay natin sa mainstream ang pop music (dahil nga popular ang dating nito), OPM, Billboard/Top 40, love songs, disco, hip hop, corporate o commercial rock, at marami pang iba. Ang musikang mainstream ay masasabi rin nating may pagka-reactionary o conservative dahil sa pinapanatili nito ang status quo o ang umiiral na sistema o kalagayan sa ating lipunan ngayon--kahit na nga ba hindi ito makatarungan sa lahat at pabor lamang sa iilang sektor. Kaya nga’t di nakapagtatakang ang content at form ng musikang mainstream ay maamo at sunud-sunuran lamang sa uso o di kaya’y sa dikta ng mga kapitalistang major record companies at ng status quo.

Samantala, ang musikang alternative naman ay ‘yung uri ng musikang maaaring pamalit o panghalili sa mainstream o sa umiiral na musika ngayon. Kaya nga alternative ang tawag dito kasi pwedeng mapagpilian o balingan ito ng isang mapanuring tagapakinig kapag sawa na siya o sukang-suka na sa nakabobobong tugtuging naririnig niya araw-araw sa radyo. Ang karaniwang katangian kasi ng musikang alternative ay ang pagkakaroon nito ng social at political content na karaniwan na’y humahamon at kumekwestyon sa status quo sa halip na magpatangay na lamang sa agos nito at sa bulok na sistema. Ito rin ang malaking dahilan kung bakit hindi ito maging commercial dahil sa itinuturing na radikal ang mga paksa at mensahe nito. Mas pinapahalagahan kasi ng mga alternative musicians (tulad ng Musicians For Peace) ang content kaysa form--ang makapagmulat ng tao kaysa kumita ng pera. Progressive, wika nga. Kaya nga maaaring parehong pormang love song ang isang kantang mainstream at ang isang kantang alternative, ngunit tiyak na mas malalim at mas may kabuluhan ang lyrics o content ng huli kaysa una. Bukod dito, gumagamit din ang ilang alternative musicians ng ethnic forms o mga katutubong instrumento at iba pang areglong experimental para lalong mas maging masining ang dating ng kanilang musika sa madla. At dahil sa mga katangiang ito, malawak ang sakop ng musikang alternative.

Maihahanay sa musikang alternatibo ang protest music, na pangkaraniwan na’y nasa pormang ethnic o folk song dahil na rin sa pananaw nito na ang rock ay isang kanluraning (Western) o dayuhang impluwensya; ang developmental music, na karaniwan na’y cause-oriented; ang revolutionary songs, na itinuturing ng iba na pang-komunista raw; ang alternative rock, na umunlad mula sa new wave o new music noon at ang siyang tawag sa non-commercial rock ngayon; ang experimental music, na gumagamit ng iba’t ibang artistic medium para maihatid ang tema at musika; at marami pang iba. Salungat sa mga mainstream musicians na hawak sa leeg ng major record labels, independent naman ang paglalabas ng mga alternative musicians ng kanilang mga albums (tulad ng mga do-it-youself musicians) na karaniwan na’y self-produced o di kaya’y galing sa tulong ng mga progresibong Non-Governmental Organizations at People’s Organizations. At ang isang halimbawa nga dito ay ang Backdoor Records [ni Gary Granada].

Noon, kapag sinabi mong alternative, ang pumapasok kaagad sa isip ay ‘yung hindi naririnig o pinapatugtog sa radyo. Ngayon, medyo malabo na ang depinisyong ito dahil na rin siguro sa ginagawang paggasgas ng istasyong LA105 sa salitang “alternative” sa ere. Kung noon ay alternative ang LA, ngayon ay hindi na--komersyal na rin ito. Tuloy, naging palasak ang paggamit ng salitang “alternative” at pati nga ang mga walang kwentang banda ngayon--na kung hindi tungkol sa toma, droga, at yosi ang kanta ay tungkol naman sa sex, libog, at iba pang kabastusan--ay natatakan na rin bilang “alternative”. Bukod dito, nakiuso na rin ang mga kapitalistang major record labels at sinakyan pa ang sinasabing “alternative scene”--na kung susuriing mabuti ay di naman talaga alternative kundi “rock explosion” lang naman--na dati’y di naman talaga nila pinapansin ngunit ngayong pumutok na ay biglang sinakyan na rin upang siyempre’y pagkakitaan, kaya nga’t heto’t kabi-kabila ang pagsulpot ng mga bandang “alternative rock” daw kuno na ang tanging pangarap lang naman ay mag-sellout, sumikat, at kumita ng pera. Ano ngayon ang alternative doon? E di wala! Sa ngayong mas lumabo pang lalo ang linyang naghihiwalay sa mainstream at alternative, masasabi ko lang na ang tunay na natitirang alternative sa panahong ito ay ang mga musikerong tulad nina Jess Santiago, Gary Granada [bago siya binayaran ng Barangay Ginebra], Susan Fernandez, The Jerks, Heber Bartolome, Joey Ayala, Pol Galang, Inang Laya, Grupong Pendong, Patatag, Buklod [Bukluran ng Mapagpalayang Musiko noon, hiwalay na ngayon--salamat kay Joma, at sa pagbili ng McDo sa “Kanlungan” ni Noel Cabangon na sinulat ni Rom], at lahat ng iba pang katulad nilang kumakanta hindi para kumita lamang ng pera kundi para magmulat din sa masa.

Hinggil naman sa musikang underground, alam na natin marahil na ito’y tungkol sa pagbasag at pagkawala sa nakagawian ng content at form ng musika. Deconstruction, wika nga sa post-istrukturalistang pananaw. Kaya nga’t radikal ang lyrics ng anarcho-punk [lolo ng crust], at ilang segundo lang ang grindcore [tiyuhin ng powerviolence], at brutal ang boses ng death, at napakabagal ng doom, at mala-Satanic ang black metal, at nakakabingi ang noise experimental, at nakakaulol ang industrial, etc., etc. Ito’y dahil na rin sa konseptong dapat palayain ang musika mula sa kontrol ng mga kapitalistang record companies, ng mapang-aping estado at tutang mass media, ng elitistang lipunan, ng mga moralistang institusyon tulad ng simbahan at eskwelahan, ng mapaniil na tradisyon at kultura, at ng lahat ng pwersang nais supilin ang kalayaan ng indibidwal na kumanta, magtanong, magrebelde, at magpahayag.

Lasang bebelgam

2009-08-29T01:13:00.001-07:00

(Nailathala ito sa isang literary journal noong kalagitnaan ng 1993. Tulad ng karamihang tibak na kabataang estudyante, kulay pula ang utak ko at lumalangoy sa DHM--dialectical and historical materialism--ng mga panahong iyon. Sa pagdaloy ng panahon kasabay ng iba’t ibang substances, lumabnaw na’t kumupas rin--kulay kahel na ngayon, a la “Trainspotting” at “Clockwork Orange”! Diabolical and hysterical moronism.)

Bugtong-bugtong: Anong bagay ang matigas na matigas na kapag nadilaan at nalawayan at unti-unting naipasok sa bibig ay nanlalambot at naglalabas ng kanyang katas?

Sagot: Bebelgam*, este, bubblegum

Alam kong may sumagi sa utak ng iba sa inyo na isa pang sagot na sa letrang “b” rin nagsisimula (”b” na berde) pero sa pagkakataong ito, hindi ito iyon. At alam ko rin na may hindi sumagi sa isip niyo na isa pang sagot na sa titik “p” naman nagsisimula na maaaring ito iyon. Ang nagsisimula sa letrang “p” na di niyo naisip? Panitikan. O literatura (meron pa bang iba?). Oo, ‘yung nilakaran na mga salita’t letra ng inyong dalawang mata kanina bago kayo nakarating sa sanaysay na ito (o baka naman parang tipaklong na tumalon-talon ang mga mata niyo papunta rito?). Paano’t paano man, ito ‘yung atay, puso, apdo’t balun-balunan ng pahayagang ito--ang mga tula’t kuwento.

Iniisip niyo siguro kung ano naman ang koneksiyon ng panitikan sa bubblegum. Pero sabi nga nila, hindi natin dapat tingnan ang isang langgam na naglalakad sa lupa bilang nakahiwalay o nakatiwalag na langgam, bagkus ang relasyon at interkoneksiyon ng langgam sa lupang kanyang nilalakaran at sa iba pa niyang kasamahang langgam ang dapat nating masilayan. Maaaring sa una, ang mga relasyon at interkoneksiyon ay hindi kara-karaka makita ng inyong dalawang mata kahit na mag-microscope pa kayo, ngunit ito pa rin ang pinakaabante’t pinakakritikal na pagsusuri sa realidad--ang pagtingin sa relasyon at interkoneksiyon ng mga bagay-bagay, proseso, at penomena sa mundo. Ngayon, mabalik tayo sa usapin ng bubblegum at panitikan. Kung minsan, di ba’t parang bubblegum ang panitikan, at kadalasan nga’y lasa pa itong bubblegum? Magulo ba? Suriin natin at siyasatin.

Upang maging sistematiko, makatotohanan, at siyentipiko ang isang pagsusuri, dapat ito’y may konkretong materyal na basehan sa realidad, kaya’t bumili kayo muna ng tigsi-singkwenta sentimos na Bazooka Joe bubblegum sa tindahan bago natin simulang himay-himayin ang laman (content) at anyo (form) ng panitikan.

Hawak-hawak niyo na ba ang Bazooka Joe sa inyong kamay? Ngayon, tingnan natin ang pagkakahawig ng bubblegum sa panitikan. Tulad ng singkwenta sentimos na bubblegum, nabibili rin ang panitikan sa tindahan sa karaniwang bihis nitong pocketbook. Minsan nahihiram, minsan narerentahan. Parang betamax. Balatan niyo na ngayon ang Bazooka Joe. Di ba’t kulay pula, puti, at asul ang balat na mala-papel at mala-plastik? Parang cover ng isang pocketbook na obra maestra ng isang pintor. Kumukutikutitap, parang Hapee tutpeyst. Ang disenyo’y nakakaakit.

Ngayon, isubo niyo na ang mabango at matigas at may hiwa-hiwa at kulay pink na bubblegum. Matapos hubaran ng supot ng tindahan, ang nabiling pocketbook ay inaamoy-amoy natin at kung misan, pagdaka’y bubulatlatin na at sisimulang basahin ang unang pahina di ba? Para tayong humaharap sa hapag-kainan, para tayong kumakain ng teksto sa pagbabasa. Nilalasahan muna sa umpisa, nginunguya sa gitna, at sa huli’y nilululon. Nabubusog nga tayo pero ang tanong, masustansiya ba?

Sa pagsusuri, dapat tayong maging mapag-usisa. Mapagtanong. Mapagkuwestiyon. Gayon din sa pagkain, hindi tayo dapat subo na lang nang subo at lunok na lang nang lunok. Iba ang pagkain sa paglamon. Dapat muna nating lasahan at nguyain ang isang pagkain bago natin ito tuluyang lunukin upang kung sakali mang panis ang pagkain ay mailuwa natin ito hanggang maaga, dahil lubha yatang masakit sa tiyan kung sa huli’y nalunok na at bumagsak na sa sikmura’y isusuka pa. Kung mamalasin pa kayo, maggigiyera-patani iyan sa inyong bituka at pagkatapos ay mapipilitan kayong makipag-peace talks sa kubeta.

Gayon din sa pagbabasa ng isang kuwento o tula. Dapat ay may sinusunod tayong kalansay, este, balangkas o framework sa pagtanggap ng akda. Sa pagsusuri ng isang akda, dapat nating isaalang-alang ang limang batayang tanong sa kritikal na pag-aanalisa upang mas maintindihan at maunawaan natin ang panitikan. (1) Ano (what) ang nilalaman o ipinararating sa atin ng akda? (2) Paano (how) ito ipinararating? (3) Sino (who) ang nagpaparating? (4) Saan (where) at kailan (when) ito sumupling? At (5) Para kanino (for whom) ang akdang ito?¹

Bago kayo bumili sa tindahan ay dapat alam niyo muna kung ano ang inyong bibilhin. At kung sakaling nakabili na kayo ay dapat niyo naman ngayon itong alamin. Sa kaso niyo, Bazooka Joe bubblegum ang pinabili ko sa inyo. Alam niyo dapat kung ano ito. Sa pagbabasa ng panitikan, dapat nating malaman kung ano ang anyo nito. Ito ba’y tula, nobela, sanaysay, o maikling kuwento? Ano ang mga ideyang ipinararating ng manunulat o makata? Ang damdaming ipinadadama? Ang paksain? Siyempre, masasagot ang katanungang ano sa pagbabasa niyo sa teksto. Ang pagbasa ay praktika tulad na lamang ng pagbili niyo sa tindahan ng Bazooka. Ang paglasa at pagnguya ay praktika upang mapatunayan niyo na Bazooka Joe nga ang nabili niyo at hindi butong-pakwan o bibingka. Praktika ang nagpapatibay sa teorya. Praktika muna bago teorya.

Nang balatan niyo at isubo ang Bazooka, alam niyo ba ang mga sangkap ng inyong isinubo? Kung hindi pa ay pulutin ang itinapong parihabang balat na pula, puti’t asul at basahin sa itaas o ibaba ng wrapper ang ingredients ng Bazooka. Sugar, corn syrup, gum base, softeners, critic, este, citric acid, etc., etc. Ngayon, alam niyo na siguro kung bakit iba ang kunat at lasa ng Chicklet sa Bazooka. Kung sa panitikan, paano ba ipinarating ng may-akda ang kanyang kuwento o tula? Dapat nating isa-isahin ang mga paraan, teknik, artipisyo, at pakanang ginamit ng manunulat upang maihatid sa atin ang kaisipan at maipadama sa atin ang damdamin ng kanyang obra. Suriin natin ang klase ng pananalitang kanyang ginamit. Ingles, Tagalog, Taglish, o Englog? Kolokyal ba (pangkaraniwan), pormal, dalisay, haluan, bulgar, o balbal (slang)? Ang indayog ng mga katagang pinagdugtong-dugtong. Malumay ba, malumi, malikot, mabilis, malutong, mabigat, o maragsa? Ang tono at ritmo ng mga pinagtagni-tagning pangungusap at parirala. Ang ayos o balangkas ng mga talinhagang pinagsanib-sanib upang makatinag ng isipan at makaantig ng damdamin. Ganito ang pagsusuri sa porma ng isang akda--parang klase sa human anatomy.

Bago niyo lamukusin at tuluyang itapon ang wrapper ng Bazooka ay basahin niyo muna kung sino ang gumawa. Manufactured in the Phil. by Storck Products Inc. under licensed by etc., etc., USA. Mala-kolonyal kumbaga. Ngayon, malaking tulong sa atin kung bukod sa alam natin ang pangalan ng awtor ay tiyak pa natin kung saang uri at lipi siya nagmula. Siya ba’y Pilipino o dayuhan? Babae, lalaki, o panggitna? Mahirap, mayaman, o katamtaman? Saang uri ba siya nabibilang? Burgis ba (malaking kapitalista, panginoong maylupa), petiburges (estudyante, propesyonal, maliit na mamumuhunan), proletaryo o manggagawa, magsasaka, mangingisda, lumpenproletaryo (istambay, tanggero, o isnatser sa kanto)? Anu-ano ang mga impluwensiyang relihiyoso, artistiko, at pilosopo sa kanyang kamalayan? Mahalaga ito upang malaman natin ang punto de bista ng kanyang teksto. Ang ideolohiya’t pilosopiya--ang mga paniniwalang sa di-lantad at di-malay na lebel ay naisangkap ng manunulat sa kanyang nilulutong obra. May taglay na kapangyarihan ang kuwentista o tulala, este, makata na suriin ang masalimuot na realidad sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga karanasan at gamitin ang mga ito sa paglikha ng kanyang mga kuwento o tula na sa tingin niya ay siyang representasyon ng realidad. Kung gayon, hindi lahat ng akda ay obhektibong repleksiyon ng katotohanan. Maraming klase ng salamin ngunit hindi lahat ay nagbibigay ng kahalintulad na anino ng realidad--marami ang may distorsiyon, marami ang may lamat, kundi man basag. Ngunit posible rin namang magkaroon ng di-paglalapat ang mga politikal na opinyon ng isang manunulat at ang kahulugan ng kanyang sinulat.² Minsan, ang unang layunin ng may-akda ay hindi nasasalamin sa sining niyang nilikha.

Ang Bazooka Joe bubblegum na binili niyo noong isang taon at kinain niyo lang kahapon ay tiyak na mala-gulong ng Nissan Sentra ang kunat at paghamon. Marahil, namamanhid na ang inyong panga ngayon sa kangunguya ay wala pa ring katas na sumasayad sa inyong dila. O di kaya naman, matapos niyong nguyain at pagsawaan, ang bubblegum ay idinikit niyo na lang kanina kung saan; makasisiguro kaya kayong masasalat o makikita niyo uli ito sa kanyang pinagdikitan kung sakaling bukas makalawa’y inyo itong balikan? Magkakambal ang panahon at lunan. Magkakambal ang katanungang saan at kailan maging sa panitikan. Saan ba ginawa o nilimbag ang akda? Sa Pilipinas ba o ibang bansa? Ano ang mga lantad na kondisyon ng mga mamamayan sa lugar na iyon? Taghirap, tagyaman, o taglibog? Kailan nilikha ang akda? Noon ba, kahapon lamang, ngayon, o kanina? Ano ang mga pangyayari sa lipunan noong mga panahong iyon? Samakatuwid, ang posibilidad ng isang kuwento o tula ay limitado ng aktuwal na historikal at materyal (pang-ekonomiya) na kondisyon ng lipunan kung kailan at saan ito ginawa. Dahil nga nakakahon sa isang yugtong pangkasaysayan at isang espisipikong lipunan o kabihasnan (time and space) ang panitikan, ang kritikal na pagsusuri kung gayon ay ang paghusga sa isang akda hindi mula sa mga pamantayan ng kasalukuyan kundi mula sa posisyon nito sa partikular na yugtong pangkasaysayan na kinapapalooban nito.³ Ano ba ang nagawa ng akda sa panahon at lunan nito nang ito’y nilikha? Meron ba o wala?

Para kanino ba ang Bazooka Joe bubblegum? Para ba sa bagong silang, sa greyd wan, sa nagliligawan, sa tinutubuan ng ngipin, sa may postisong ngipin, sa naka-braces, o sa walang ngipin? Sa mga naunang batayang katanungan, itong huli ang pinakamahalaga at pinakamatimbang. Sino ba ang mambabasa ng nobela, kuwento, o tula? Sino ba ang inisip ng awtor nang pandayin niya sa papel ang kanyang akda? Sila bang mahihirap o mayayaman? Sila bang nakararami sa lipunan o iilan? Kabilang sa anong uri sa lipunan ang kanyang pinapanigan? Ang kanyang pinaglilingkuran? Elitista ba siya o makamasa? Ano ang nagawa ng kanyang akda sa ikabubuti ng mamamayang higit na nakararami? Muli, meron ba o wala?

Kung gayon, ang nararapat na maisulat na panitikan ay yaong sumasagot sa pangangailangan ng kasalukuyan at inihahasa sa pinakaprogresibong puwersa o tunguhin sa isang yugtong pangkasaysayan ng isang lahi o sangkatauhan.⁴ Sa halip na itampok ng may-akda ang kanyang mga tauhan sa punto ng kanilang kahinaan sa kasalukuyang kaayusan (status quo), ang pagpupumiglas nila’t pakikibaka upang maigpawan ang kanilang kahinaan sa loob ng umiiral na sistema ang dapat maging punto de bista ng isang humahawak ng pluma.

Hindi dahil ginawa para sa kagustuhan ng inyong laman ang Bazooka Joe bubblegum, ibig sabihin nito’y pinaglilingkuran na kayo ng may gawa nitong mga kapitalistang dayuhan. Ang bubblegum ay naghahatid nga ng ligaya sa inyong bibig, ngipin, at dila; ngunit masasabi niyo bang gayon din ang nagagawa nito sa inyong hungkag na sikmura? Lingid sa kaalaman ng karamihan, hangin ang tanging hatid sa kanilang tiyan sa pagngata nila ng bubblegum. Alin sa dalawang “u” ang dulot nito--utot o ulcer. Kabusugang parang balloon--puro hangin, walang sustansiya, walang laman. Ganyan din kadalasan ang mga babasahing palasak sa ating lipunan--mga mapanlinlang. Mapa-magasin, diyaryo, o libro. Nabubusog nga sa samu’t saring salita at letra ang inyong mga mata, napupuno nga ang puso niyo ng madadamdaming teksto, ngunit di niyo alam, para pala kayong buhay na manikang tinuturukan ng opyo (o shabu) upang huwag niyong maramdaman ang hapdi’t kirot na dulot ng sistemang kinapapalooban niyo, at unti-unti, sa di pagkilos, nadadapil ang inyong ulo. Minsan, parang bubblegum na pinapalobo ang inyong kamalayan na kapag napuno na’y unti-unti na lang tataas sa alapaap at doon, habang kapiling niyo ang mga ulap, ay gagawa kayo ng sarili’t tiwalag na realidad. Walang pinagkaiba sa mga gumuhong kastilyong buhangin at palasyong gawa sa hangin. Hiwalay sa lahat ng sistema sa lipunan. Walang relasyon, walang interkoneksiyon. Ito ang magiging realidad na sa tingin niyo’y ang tamang larawan ng mundo at ang tamang lugar para sa inyo. Walang kontradiksiyon, walang tunggalian, walang pagtatalo, walang pagbabago, wala--hindi gumagalaw, hindi umiikot, estatiko. Ito ang popular na eskapistang panitikan--parang bubblegum. Tumatakas sa katotohanan. Ayaw makisangkot; madalas nananaginip ng gising, puro naman bangungot.

At kapag namanhid na o napasma ang inyong panga at wala nang katas na makuha, ang Bazooka Joe bubblegum na makunat pa sa balat ng pulitiko, este, buwaya ay idudura niyo na sa lupa; nasayang lang ang oras na ginugol niyo sa walang kapararakang pagngata. At mula naman sa alapaap ay bigla na lang mapuputulan ng uten, este, pekpek, este, pakpak ang mambabasa--“The End” na pala ang nakasulat sa ibaba ng pahina, salamat sa may-akda--ilang segundo lang, babagsak na sa konkretong realidad at lalagapak ang mambabasa. Iniwan sa ere ng awtor. Pilay tiyak ang mambabasa kapag bumagsak, hindi pa rin kayang ipaliwanag ang ginagalawan niyang masalimuot na realidad. Parang batang nagpapalobo ng plastic balloon o Bazooka Joe, matapos magdangkaihi sa pag-ihip ay masasaputan pa ang mukha ng maskarang pink. Bulag ka na pala--nadikitan ng bubblegum ang talukap ang iyong dalawang mata.

*mula sa patalastas sa telebisyon ng tutpeyst na Pepsodent.

¹Nicanor Tiongson, Ang Paghuli sa Adarna: Tungo sa Isang Pamantayang Pangkultura

²Friedrich Engels

³Vladimir Lenin

⁴Virgilio Almario, Ang Makata sa Panahon ng Makina

Gabi ni Samhain

2009-08-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

(This is my short-story entry to a book/anthology* on Philippine transgressive fiction in 2006. The compilation remains unpublished ‘cuz the editors are dead broke and too stoned to go to the presses.)

*Call for Submissions: You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake, you are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. Revolutions are first born in the mind, move to the street, and then rise up like a conflagration to burn the whole catastrophe down. If you feel the same way, write with an agressive spirit and have kickass, mindfuck stories that burn like a firebrand, then we want you to give us that cool narrative. Edited by Norman Wilwayco (author of “Mondomanila”) and Karl De Mesa (author of “Damaged People: Tales of the Gothic-Punk”), “Wasak! Stories of Pinoy Transgression and Deliverance” tracks the same territory that writers like Hunter S. Thompson, Irvine Welsh, Douglas Coupland, and Chuck Palanhiuk have explored and mapped in all its brutality, dysfunction, and senseless beauty. This is an anthology that breaks the rules and finds personal salvation in burning the flag of mediocrity.

“To be rich today is merely to own the largest number of meaningless objects [toys not included ok.--Ed.]--to possess the greatest amounts of poverty.” (Donald Trump, rich wanker)

--Hwraak! Hwraak! Ptuuh! Oops, there goes my fucking supper.

--Ano Z- kaya pa? Sige ilabas mo lang ng maginhawahan ka. Mrs. V- runs her silky smooth hands up and down my spine. I feel like a big fucking dick that’s being masturbated and about to cum, but instead of spunk I spurt vomit.

--K-kaya pa po mam. K-ka- hwraak! There goes my pride and sobriety as well.

--S-sorry po mam. Linisin ko na lang. I turn to face her but my head is playing see-saw with my neck. I pull myself up and steady my carcass on the puke-covered car floor. --A-anong oras na po mam? --Mag-aalas dos na. Okey lang, pa-carwash ko na lang. She releases the Light button of her Tag Heuer watch and runs her candle-shaped fingers on my close-cropped hair. She makes them play on my face and I snatch her middle finger with my mouth. She tries to pull it out but I suck on it as if it were a viable source of nourishment. It goes in-out in-out, in-out in-out.

--Aoow... Z- tama na. Tama na pa. Now I know how her cunt feels when she’s finger-fucking it. I snap out of the sensation and give her dirty finger back. --N-naku mam uwi na po ko. --‘Kaw naman, para kang others. As if naman di pa tayo nagkakilanlan. --You mean, nagkakangkangan po mam. --Ganun na din ‘yun, pinaganda mo lang. She gives me a wink, licks her upper lip, and rubs my crotch.

8 pm: All Hallow’s Eve--Adam Is Dead!

Greenbelt is teeming with the dirty rotten filthy stinking rich when I entered the dimly lit Tavern bar. On the band stage hangs a tarpaulin streamer that reads: Welcome Guests! F- Corp., Inc. Octoberfest & Halloween Party. It might as well read: Die Yuppie Scum!

I survey the familiar faces on the dance floor and the range of overpriced drinks and expensive pulutans on the tables. I spot my stupid cubicle-mates in a corner, getting bombed out of their senses with San Mig Light. They catch my attention and the leader of the pack gestures at me. I bare my teeth and approach them cautiously.

--Kumusta mga kaibigan? Okey ba kayo riyan? I greeted the bastards to the tune of an old pinoy rock song.

--Super, pre. Take a seat. Join us, pre. B- initiates me into his circle of conyo friends. They flash lukewarm smiles as one of the cunts hands me an ice-cold bottle of their poison of choice. --Libre ‘to pre. One to sawa. Drink-all-you-can. Pa-morningan, R- assured me.

--Wala bang Red Horse o kaya bilog? Di ako tinatamaan dito e. I said from a position of strength, letting out a grin. --Sabaw sinaing, I thought, refusing the offer.

They exchange furtive looks as tension escalates. --Wala kaya dito nun. Try mo kaya sa Mini Stop. Baka kaya meron dun. G- dismissively sneered as he downed his nth bottle of beer. Bottoms up but still sober ey? See what I mean assface shit for brains! He quickly composes himself and calls a toast to my name as much as it is for his own personal safety. --Isa para kay Z-! Kampai!

--Sige tingnan ko na lang sa bar. I excuse myself and wish to fuck I brought along a shotgun.

I clock E-, the kikay from Accounting, leaning against the bar, looking bored. I say hi! to her with my eyebrows and flash a smile straight out of a toothpaste commercial. She gives me the cold shoulder and takes a shot of her tequila. I feel like a fucking doormat. I leave with two bottles of pale pilsen and two cans short of a six pack.

9 pm: Pop’s Not Dead! The Night the Music Died

1...and 2...and 3...and 4... Grooving to the show band’s mu-sick, my IQ tells me, is an exercise in futility. Move as I might, in no direction would the hardcore punk skinhead in me budge a muscle. My surroundings tell of a different story.

--Pucha, pre, astig ‘yung banda! Plakadong-plakado. Kuhang-kuha ang [name of famous sellout mainstream copycat band here]. B- gives a blood-curdling hoot with his fingers and sings along like a fucking cassette tape played at the wrong speed. --Rock on, men, rock on! R- flashes devil horns with his hands, headbangs, and all...to a fucking R&B pop song! Appropriateness isn’t exactly one of his strong points, stupidity is. Fucking bobollocks!

The mind-numbing sound from the amps and speakers lulls everyone to a head-swaying, finger-tapping, foot-stomping frenzy. I sit still, drink my booze, and pick my nose. I’m out of step with the world, who cares, I don’t give a fuck.

--Tangna, mas masarap pang tumae kesa makinig senyo!

As if to humiliate me further, the sick bastard on the mic cows the audience to --Put yo’ hands in the air and wave ‘em like ya just don’t care! I could’ve saved him all the trouble by blowing his head off. Of course, everyone follows suit. Fucking sheep!

Deriving no measure of satisfaction from the band’s unimpassioned set, I prayed for a blackout in Makati, let alone a technical screw-up on stage, anything to spare my ears from further bleeding--but to no avail. God must be bleeding deaf, for nothing snapped--save my nerves--not even one single guitar string.

Already my sanity is fraying at the ends, soon I will be enveloped by every fucking most requested Top 40 MTV Billboard FM radio payola tune out there, giving in, selling out would prove to be my ultimate fate--of this I am certain. I must escape.

From my ukay-ukay backpack, I bring out my Made-In-China discman that’s pretty beat-up owing to its rough life on the road, and plug in my pirated copy of Napalm Death’s “Scum” CD. I crank up the volume to crush kill thrash destroy mode and await the soundtrack to the end of the world. The background noise fades into obscurity as the four musicians of the apocalypse bludgeon my ears. Thank fuck for grindcore!

10 pm: God Save the Queer--The Art of Sucking Dick

It was a piece of piss, a total piece of piss, a bloody piece of piss--that’s what drinking beer is. My bladder’s close to bursting at the seams, thanks to free beer! Must fill myself to the brim, enjoy the shit while it lasts. I don’t get that shit from the slums where I come from, it’s either Emperaning or stainless, day in, day out. In my place, gin-bulag sells, but in this yuppie shithole, who’s buying? No wonder the fucking club owners are making a killing selling the piss-colored liquid.

The alcohol and stupid live mu-sick have fueled the pack’s conversation to a dumbfuck level with B- waxing philosophical. --Why do men have nipples when they (nipples, not men) serve no apparent useful purpose? R-, his accomplice in stupidity, drops his science. --It’s because we, men, are basically just women with dicks and as such have one of the most instantly recognizable prized possessions of the other species--nipples. Fucking Batman and Robin! My IQ drops a hundred points. I excuse myself and wish to fuck I brought along a grenade launcher.

The CR was deserted when I entered. I take a squirt in a cubicle and remember the pig-fattening pen I inhabit at my call center slave job. Same shit, different place. Ah, the requirements of efficiency. How am I affected by being moved around in prescribed paths, in office buildings, shopping malls, housing projects, mass transport systems? In buses, jeepneys, FX taxis, MRTs, escalators, pedestrian lanes? By living, working, pissing, shitting in two-dimensional grids, in prisons we have built for ourselves--a one-dimensional man in a three-dimensional world? How much freedom of movement do I really have? Freedom to move through space, to move as far as I want, in uncharted territories and unexplored directions? How am I affected by being immobilized rather than wandering, roaming freely and spontaneously? Fuck it! I hate moments of clarity.

The long piss allowed me a quick drift to delirious sleep--my legs spread apart, one hand holding my cock, the other propped against the wall to maintain vertical position. From the corner of my eye I spy a figure moving steps behind me. I wake with a start, my head jerking like it’s going to snap off my neck, and feel a hand on my behind. Fucking sick bastard is groping my butt!

--PUTANGINA KA! BAKLA! I smacked him right in the face so hard my knuckles hurt. A tooth flies out of the cunt’s split mouth, his shaking hands trying to stem the flow of blood.

--Isang libo’t isang putangama mo, hayop ka! I let him have it in the balls with my combat shoes. He lands on the floor coldcocked and curls into a ball. I give him the boot without let-up.

--‘Wag po, ‘wag po! Sorry po, sorry na po! Di ko po sinasadya po! He pleads and sobs in his blood-soaked party shirt. Die, cocksucker, die! My face reddens and tingles from the rush of ultraviolence. I’ll beat the crap out of him, make him pay.

--Tama na pre! Tama na ‘yan! Some cunt pulls me off. B- grabs my arms, I brush his grip off. --Awat na pre! Awat na! R- tugs at my hands, I turn to face him, he backs off, I recognize the Dynamic Duo, Dumb and Dumber. I turn to cross-examine my handy work. --Buti nga sa ‘yo, tarantado! Magbiro ka na sa lasing, ‘wag lang sa gagong gising! I spit at the inarticulate mass of convulsing gay matter under my feet. G- needs plastic surgery for his face badly and a life-support machine for his body. I light a fag and exit the can. My job there is done.

11 pm: Alive in the Land of the Living Dead

A specter is haunting [name of fucked-up third-world developing cunt-ry here], the specter of sosyalism.

My head scans the smoke-filled bar with a blank expression on my face. To me, every bird in the place is a potential target. E-’s still hanging out where I left her, getting smashed this time with SMB. --Banlaw na, I observed. She arrests my gaze by dragging long on a Winston Lights, I imagine it was my cock.

--Ahem, may yosi ka pa E-? I said casually, the words evaporating from my dry mouth, and if I were to add --Tangna, tigang na tigang na ko! My mouth waters over her red well-manicured nails, I fancy my cock between her fingers.

--Nada. Alaws. Ubos na eh. She forced the syllables out of her tightened pink lips and smiled at me in a slightly condescending way. Her hand burrows its way through the contents of a maroon Lacoste imitation bag. I spy a pack of cigarettes and a pack of condoms amid all the fucking cosmetics. The lying bitch! With an air of haughtiness she pulls out her Nokia [name of latest expensive phone model here] and dials a number. A photo of a bald man old enough to be her daddy flashes on the screen. Some guys have all the fuck!

I guess I want to be famous in a certain degree, to be seen, to be in the public eye. For I’ve come to trust what is seen more than what is actually lived, where images seem more real to me than experiences. To know that I really exist, that I somewhat matter, I have to see ghosts of myself frozen, preserved in pictures, wallpapers, camerafones. How much of my life comes at me through a screen? A mobile phone screen? A computer screen? A television screen? An automobile screen? All four screens combined? What am I being screened from? If my life were made into a movie, would I watch it? What’s the point of watching anything if nobody’s doing? What’s the point of doing anything if nobody’s watching? Fuck it! I hate moments of clarity.

In the din of the crowd, E- flirts loudly and tries hard to be noticed--the way girls do before getting screwed. She chatted up in between retouching her makeup and brushing her brown cellophaned rebonded hot-oiled hair. Just being near her reminds me of how long it has been since I’ve shagged a real woman. All the girls I’ve fucked in the past months--and they were many if truth be told--either appeared in Playboy, FHM, Remate or Bulgar, or in some cheesy sex scandal video--kung sa’n mukhang katulong ‘yung kinakantot! That’s all I can do, fantasize. Wankers of the world, unite! We have nothing to lose but our shame.

She chucks the cellphone in her bag, show’s over, end of fucking story. She looks pretty smart, or at least her fake designer-clothes, clearance-sale accessories, and bargain-bin signature-shoes packaging does, but it misses by miles the socialite sophistication she’s aiming at. --Chipipay. Pokpok, the upper class women derisively snort from their pedestals. It all boils down to the fashion show of life where pointing out other people’s problems makes one’s own seem far away and the moral cunts are above you. She can’t fall any further from burgis grace and exits the room, leaving a trail of A. Moi Belyas perfume and visible panty lines behind.

Then it hits me, I scream in silence. Feeling like a social tool without a use, I chase after her, sheer desperation propelling my unsteady feet toward the closing door. --E-, hatid na... but she’s gone --kita sa labas. I realize the depressing haste with which the sexually successful separate themselves from the flock of failures lest we infect their kind. Talk about chlorinating the gene pool.

In the joy of the faces around me, I sip my beer alone. I fight back the urge to cry. Loser! Just like tonight’s drink, the pit of misery is a bottomless one, it loves company, and I’m descending there fast. I’m looking into the abyss, and the abyss is gazing back at me.

The amount of alcohol consumed and the painful passage of time conspired to muddle my already melancholic mind. With an hour left to go before party’s over, I struggle to compose myself. --Bangenge na naman. Too stoned to sleep, too drunk to stay awake, I try to focus, set my sights on something, concentrate, zero in ...4 ...3 ...2 ...1 ...bingo!

I clock two chickababes from Marketing, futuristic K- and balbonic P-, invading my turf. My spirits soared anew as they drew near, I greeted them with my raised eyebrows and poster boy smile. As usual, I’m the Invisible Man, they look right through me and plant their butts on the other end of the bar. A cold breeze runs through my body, I sigh about the way we are all alone in the end. Makes me wonder if success with the other species is based on one’s ability to raise the one eyebrow. In my case, both my brows keep rising at the same time, so there goes my career on being a chick magnet. Of course, who needs eyebrows when you’re bloody rich.

With the receptive ear of a showbiz reporter, I listen in on the sexy-cutives’ conversation. The fucking dolls try to affect a tonsil-swallowing colegiala accent and put on an air of crass, este, class as they talk ceaselessly about their shitload of cash, cars, condos, credit cards, checking accounts, candlelight dinners, career opportunities, cosmetic surgeries, calorie-free diets, catwalk fashion shows straight out of the pages of Cosmopolitan, making sure their crap is heard for miles despite the chorus of disapproval from every low-life in the club. What a crock of despicable shit!

It’s all about fucking image isn’t it? For all I care, these cunts are wallowing in the same deep shit as I am and all up to their fucking necks in Citibank debt yet they strut around as if they’re on six-figure salary a month and eating caviar for breakfast. --Mga punyeta kayo! Kung di ko pa alam, nag-uulam din kayo ng tuyo at galunggong! Violent Playground from my high school days is playing in my head:

Another day of pretending, blending in / Going around town in your chameleon skin / You go out to town only with friends you need / You don’t really like them but on them you feed / There’s a tupperware party for people like you / There’s plastic food and plastic drinks and plastic girls galore...

From those blurred and fragmentary moments I may infer much, but prove little. Life doesn’t get any easier under capitalism does it? Cutthroat competition. Consumer culture. You sell your soul to the highest bidder to buy into the symbols and images that big business and society are feeding you. You pay to eat, pay to sleep, pay to keep warm, pay to make friends, pay to make love, pay to have fun, pay to go to school, pay to get a job, pay for the most useless of products, pay for a space just to exist. Fuck it! I hate moments of clarity.

12 am: Oedipus Rex--The Jesus and Mary Chain

The air in the bar has ceased to be breathable. It has become so damn polluted you could actually see it. Summoning all of the powers possessed by my lungs, I set out to Greenbelt park below. It’s an okay park, quiet, dead central like, and probably the only place in Makati where they don’t charge you money. In the unearthly stillness and palpable darkness of midnight, I reclaim a concrete bench as my bed. I’m on my nth nicotine fix when it dawns on me that I’m way past the range of prying eyes. I chuck the yosi and reach into the secret pocket of my shattered maong for the teabag of chongki.

I roll a joint, light it up, toke up, and watch it burn, baby, burn. Inhale-exhale, inhale-exhale. When it came, I savored the hit, felt the earth moved, and heard the sound of one hand wanking, err, clapping. --Tangna, lakas amats! Tirang pasok! Basag. Wasak. Sabog. Solb.

Vainly I struggled with my drowsiness, my brain--sore and dazed with fatigue, my head--heavy and reeling from intoxication, drooped to my chest, and when next I looked up it was in a dream. I have often wondered if the less material life is my truer self, and that my existench in the waking world is merely virtual reality. For is it not that “life is a dream on the way to death?” [The Crow: City of Angels]

I shut down my brain, the joint burns away in my hand.

DRUNKANDISORDERLYDILEMMAS#666:whatifeveryonedecidedrightand wrongforthemselveswithoutanyregardforconventionalmorality whatifeveryonedidwhatevertheywantedtowithecouragetofaceany consequenceswhatifeveryonefearedlovelesslifelessmonotony morethantheyfeartakingrisksmorethantheyfearbeinghungryor coldorindangerwhatifeveryonesetdowntheiresponsibilitiesand commonsenseandaredtopursuetheirwildestdreamstosethestakes highandliveachdayasifitwerethelastlivelikethereisno tomorrowhatabetterplacetheworldwouldbe.

A hand dabs a hanky on my face, the scent of Christian Dior hangs artificially in the cold nocturnal air, competing with the natural high of Mary Juana. 12:05--remain in coma until 12:35, wallow about, racked with pain and remorse until 12:45, enter spiritual stage of hangover, when pain has gone but material reality is not yet working, by 12:55 begin to feel the miracle of consciousness.

All sleepiness left me as my eyes beheld an apparition in black, a gothic angel of mercy--black mini skirt, black stockings, black high heels, black lipstick, black framed glasses, pale white face. Blessed Fucking Virgin Mary!

--M-Ma’am V- y-you shouldn’t have. I force a smile as I stagger on my feet.

--You sure, iho? I saw you pass out from the bar’s veranda, I thought you were dead so... It’s alright, she said, ruffling her dark long hair.

--I-I’m okay now. B-Better than okay, ma’am. I-I can manag-- she puts a finger on my lips, sealing it before I can finish, then guides my head into her breast like a mother to a son. I nosedive into her cleavage and try to cop a feel.

--Kelangang maka-score!

--Z- anak, please, not in here. She pushes me away. The bitch deserves a fucking Famas award!

It was a scene right out of the Passion of Jesus H. Christ as Mrs. V- dragged my carcass along Dela Rosa St. at a slow panting funeral pace. I feel like sheep to the fucking slaughter. After what seemed like an eternity, we reached Fucking, este, Parking Lot 1. She got out her remote, opened the door of her Honda [name of latest expensive car model here], chucked me in the back seat, turned on the aircon, tuned in to some jazzy radio station, took off her clothes, unbuttoned my shirt, and unzipped my jeans. I felt a sense of power, a sense of attractiveness, a sense of affirmation I’ve never experienced before.

1 am: A Crash Course in Adultery (and Other Half Revolutions)

As she undressed, the question of her fuckability crossed my mind. I’m free+thirty-something, she’s got grandkids+shrivelled. Despite her sagging breasts, I managed to get a hard-on. I’m stoked, abstinence and alcohol fanning the flames--no, make that embers--of my long neglected libido to such an extent that I’ll fuck anything with a hole on it. She starts off by swallowing my cock. --God, she gives one hell of a blow job, there’s no doubt about it! I guess there’s more to her job description as a Q fucking A Manager. Then she goes on top of me. --God, she must’ve weighed a ton! and lowers herself into my knob, enclosing it completely, penetrating her deeper.

--Let’s. Volt. In! The Voltes V theme song from my grade school years plays repeatedly in my head. For a bitch way past her menopause, she’s well lubricated. She goes up-down up-down, up-down up-down, my tarugo holding firm...but not for long. Months of wanking have taken its toll on my sperm count and muscle control, I thought I was going to come straight away, way ahead of her. So I wait, E-J-A bringing myself off the boil...and wait, C-U-L putting my mind off the climax...and wait some more, A-T-E surrendering to sleep. How am I affected by waiting? Waiting in line, waiting in traffic, waiting to urinate, waiting to punch the clock, waiting to get served at the fastfuckingfood counter, waiting at the jeepney terminal, waiting at the ATM for my own fucking salary--learning to punish and ignore my spontaneous urges, by holding back my desires? By sexual repression, by the delay or denial of pleasure, starting in childhood, along with the suppression of everything in me that reveals my wild nature, my membership in the animal kingdom? How am I affected by being scheduled, by standardized time designed solely to synchronize my movements with other automatons of the corporate world? Fuck it! I hate moments of clarity.

When I came to, my erection has started to subside, Mrs. V- has dismounted me and wipes with Kleenex the strands of thick sticky egg white-like fluid trickling down the insides of her thighs. She sure rode herself into a climax, our combined cum shooting through the car roof! The explosions of Mt. Pinatubo and Mayon volcano combined would pale in comparison. --Nakailang putok kaya siya? Ako kaya?

The smell of spunk and sweat filled the car, overpowering the air freshener, fogging the tinted windows. For once it is free from the stink of deodorant, perfume, hand sanitizer, mouthwash, lotion, shampoo, hair conditioner, and soap. I felt unique, like a dirty animal, body odor and all. A creature who is openly sexual and fucks on the roof of buildings, who eats things off the ground--not out of plastic wrappers or styrofoam, who doesn’t get its hair and nails done, who doesn’t wear suits or ties, who doesn’t need logos/brands/labels to stand out from the herd, who doesn’t need I.D. cards to feel like an individual.

--Ano Z- isang round pa? There’s nothing in her eyes but need, screaming infidelities, and memories of a once happy marriage.

--T-Teka muna po mam, mahina ang kalaban. Nakikipaghabulan pa po ko sa ‘king hininga, I reply, breathing heavily like a hunted animal.

--Ganun ba? Bueno, eto anak, baka sakaling makatulong sa iyo. She unlatches the car’s glove compartment, gets a compact mirror, opens its clam-shell casing, and draws a small packet of tin-foil. Unwrapping it reveals white tiny tawas-like crystals. Yuppie shit. Fucking garbage. Poor Brown man’s cocaine. Bato.

--N-Naku mam, kayo na lang po. Hanggang ganja lang po ‘ko, di po ‘ko nagsha-shabu. Beggars cannot be choosers, but in this case --God made grass, Man made crack, who do I trust?

--Ganun ba? Bueno, kung ayaw mo talaga ng ubas, iho, sosolohin ko na lang ito. Mrs. V- cooks up a hit with Zippo lighter in one hand and Panda ballpen in the other. As soon as the gear starts melting and the miracles of chemistry start doing wonders--turning solid into gas, she snorts the fumes up her nose, frying her brain--or what’s left of it. As the last trace of white smoke leaves the blackened foil, she pulls her head back, shuts her eyes, opens her mouth, and gives out a groan of orgasmic proportions. --This beats sucking any fucking cock in the world! --Nagtampo tuloy si manoy. I try to feel my limp dick through my jeans pockets to see if it’s still there.

As if on automatic pilot, she chucks the works out of the window, composes herself, and checks her reflection on the compact mirror--wrinkles, lines in the forehead, folds, pouches in cheeks, bags, dark circles around the eyes, leathery skin, dyed hair, and all--like when you know you’re not going to win in the Lotto, but you still check your numbers just the same.

                                 t na ang aking tama--g
--Kelangang b            a                              i
               u             y                              s
                  m          k                         hwraak!
                  a             a                              w
                  b            m                              n
                  a ’pagkat u                          a.

2 am: V for Vendetta, A for Anarchy

[email zernando@yahoo.com for the ending.--Ed.]

Hippie is a “punker”: punk rocker. punk slacker. punk writer. punk wanker. punk whatever.

On the back of a truck: A punk rock sumvac

2009-08-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

(I sent this to the 2007 “If My Life Were a Book” essay-writing contest of the Philippine Star, and I don’t think they’re going to publish this...for obvious reasons.)

Parental advisory: This article contains four-letter words not suitable for adults (but there isn’t anything in here that you haven’t heard/used before).

They say that if a writer pours his heart and soul into his work, that work lives--or gets turned into a movie. If my life were a book I wish its pages would burn with the passion of On the Road--a mid-50’s paperback that hardly anyone reads. But it appears that a certain Jack Kerouac has done his job rather well. For life does imitate art--even fiction of the transgressive kind. And these are two days from one of those lives:

April 30, Monday. Work is a four-letter word and we were all so pretty vacant. I was on forced leave from my Makati slave job after my five-month contract expired. Louie was on summer vacation from his sixth year in art school. Philip had just gotten out of college and, like all of my friends, was jobless as fuck. Slowly being killed by the heat wave in Bulacan and the hopeless boredom of our modern existench, we thought of going up north: Baguio. Only problem was, we were all dead broke.

Not to worry, with a combined total of 200 pesos in our pockets, Louie and I grabbed our good old backpacks. Two shirts, two shorts, a pair of underwear, a sweater, a sleeping bag, and a lot of courage are all we’ll need for a week. From Malolos crossing, we took a jeepney to Tabang tollgate (several rides actually, ‘cuz we just hitchhiked). Then we were off on a van carrying drums of chemicals to Manila. We arrived at SM City in time for supper and met up with Philip who came all the way from down south--Cavite.

Before hunting/gathering food at the basement, we planted our butts on the mall’s benches and watched all the credit card-operated automatons, este, people around us. The masa window-shopping; coños and phonies speaking in colegiala tongues; the burgis and jologs displaying their signature clotheshoes, expensive cameraphones, and all the scum of consumer culture. Ah, the fashion show of life where you are no more than the logo on your shirt, the model of your celfone, or the contents of your shopping bag. At the food court, I had quite a fill of food scraps and leftovers from plates half-full and soda bottles half-empty. Imagine all the waste our fastfood mentality churns out every single day, while many of our kababayans subsist on instant mami noodles--if they’re lucky. By the way, Louie and Philip are vegetarians while I’m “freegan”--that is, I’ll eat anything as long as I don’t have to buy it. Lured by posters saying “Sale!” I took the up-escalator to the department store and indulged in a shopping spree. Socks, a towel, a bonnet--I got ‘em all on 100% discount. Thanks to the overworked sales ladies and underpaid security guards who, like me, are just cogs in the machine.

It was closing time when the three of us jumped on a bus going to Balintawak. From Cloverleaf interchange, we walked to the Camachile tollgate under the cover of darkness, and waited in the shadows. Our prey came in the form of a ten-wheeler truck with “Vegetable Dealer” scrawled on its sides. As the driver stopped to pay the toll, we pounced on it and scaled its eight-foot high body. Fat-assed Louie had trouble getting on and was left dangling like a pile of shit just as the truck was speeding towards the North Luzon Expressway. A bunch of shocked tollway cops tried to give chase on foot but thought better as the herd of speeding vehicles overran them. Hanging on to dear life, Philip and I hauled poor Louie’s carcass onboard.

With hands for pillows and frayed ropes for beds, we lay on our backs, faced the night sky, and told our stories as if around a campfire. It’s the sensation of sucking the marrow out of life, of the wind rustling your hair, of bathing in the light of the moon, of counting the stars, of sleeping in a blanket of clouds. At two in the morning, the driver, who hadn’t the slightest idea of his extra cargo, made a stopover at Hacienda Luisita. We dropped ourselves off and hopped on another truck, much to his dismay. Surveying my surroundings, I couldn’t help but wonder how much land a person really needs.

May 1, Laborday. The red skyline greeted us at Rosario Junction, just at the foot of Baguio. From there, we got a ride to Pogo, then to Marcos Highway. A great thing about riding on the back of trucks is that I get to interact with the scenery and all. It’s an experience alien to commuters who are trapped inside the comfort of their airconditioned cars. For one, I get a certain kind of high smelling the air and the grass and the soil and, somehow, the cow dung. Can you put a value on a beautiful day?

Touchdown. First on our list was the City of Pines’ downtown ukay-ukays or wagwagans. I always thought that changing our consumption patterns, buying second-hand stuff, or recycling saves a lot of things: labor, raw materials, energy, and money. Not to mention it minimizes the junk we dump on earth. For lunch, I asked this girl at the carinderia if she could spare me some tutong. She obliged with a bagful, plus tirang ulam. Ah, the kindness of total strangers. There is hope for humanity. As for my two companions whose food group is different from mine, they had to find other means to secure their nourishment. Asking vegetable/fruit vendors for rejects, my friends had proven that if you use fictitious pet rabbits as an excuse, you’ll get free food. For some strange reason, telling people you’ll eat their spoils turns them off.

As the last light drained and the cold mists rolled into the empty streets, we found ourselves climbing one of the tribal Ifugao huts on display at the Botanical Garden. Amidst the wet cobblestones, eerie animal sounds, creepy plants, and thick fog, we rested like modern primitives and slept the sleep of the just. For no matter what glamor magazines and reality TV shows profess, there is a difference between life and survival. There is more to being alive than just having a heartbeat and brain activity.

So, if you’re life were made into a book, would you read it? Is reading things as exciting as doing them? Could danger be joyous? How much of your life comes at you through a book, vicariously?

Hippie is a punker masquerading as a writer. He is not a president of anything and spends his time daydreaming. You may reach him at myspace.com/abcdefghippie

Coexistench

2009-08-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

(This was published in a straightedge fanzine back in 2005 I think.)

I was hanging around a bookstore when I got another text message from Alex. He was asking me if I could send my article tomorrow ‘cuz he would be putting out his zine, Why Sit Down? , by next week. I replied: no problem, it’s nearly finished, and gave him a title for my piece. So what have I written? God, not a fucking word!

It was 7 p.m., Friday and I couldn’t think of anything. I got mental block and my mind was blank. My work early in the day had eaten up whatever was left of my brain. I visited the sci-fi section and browsed some books. I came across The Sandman Book of Dreams. I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman and his Sandman comics, and the book is some sort of tribute to him--a collection of short stories by various writers. I read the preface and these words caught my attention:

“How do gods die? And when they do, what becomes of them then? You might as well ask, how do gods get born? All three questions are, really the same question. And they all have a common assumption: that humankind can no more live without gods than you can kill yourself by holding your breath.

“(Of course, you may be the kind of arrant rationalist who huffs that modern man has finally freed himself from ancient enslavement to superstition, fantasy, and awe. If so, return this book immediately to its place of purchase for a refund; and, by the by, don’t bother trying to read Shakespeare, Homer, Faulkner, or, for that matter Dr. Seuss.)

“We need gods--Thor or Zeus or Krishna or Jesus or, well, God--not so much to worship or sacrifice to, but because they satisfy our need--distinctive from that of all the other animals--to imagine a meaning, a sense to our lives, to satisfy our hunger, to believe that the muck and chaos of daily existence, this, after all, tend somewhere. It’s the origin of religion, and also of storytelling--or aren’t they both the same thing? As Voltaire said of God: if He did not exist, it would have been necessary to invent Him.”

I then remembered this lady at work who’s so fucking proud of her being a born-again Christian and all, that she wears her religion like a fucking badge and tries to ram her beliefs down everybody’s throats. Every time I talk to her I see “ultra-right-wing” stamped on her forehead. Or was it the number of the beast? She badmouths Catholics, the I.N.C., the Muslims, and anyone else who doesn’t share her faith--even other Protestants! She believes she and her church are the only children of God; that they’re going to be lifted up to heaven come rapture/harvest time while the rest of us, infidels, rot here on earth or worse, in hell.

I told her that God isn’t as close-minded as she’d like to think. God likes to be appreciated through different means (Buddhism, Taoism, Krishna Consciousness, Islam, etc.). That although God is one and the same, He/She/It is known by different names (Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Govinda, etc.) just as we have nicknames. And that God is so powerful She can appear to us in different forms or incarnations/expansions (human, alien, angel, animal, etc.). She cussed and branded me a Satanist. I replied: in fact, God is so kind that He can even appear to you as Satan if that’s how you perceive Him to be. She threw a stapler at me, missed, and never bothered me again.

Then I called to mind my girlfriend in college. She was a fellow left-wing activist--a grim and determined commie at that. She used to mock me ‘cuz, though I shared her dream of a classless society, I never quite gave up my belief in a Supreme Being. While I was into liberation theology, she was heavily into dialectical & historical materialism. I’d kid her that if she died, her epitaph would read: here lies an atheist, all dressed up but nowhere to go. I’d also tease her on her claims of disbelief in God. I’d go: science and logic are, in reality, your gods--just as someone may worship money as a deity or put Karl Marx on a pedestal.

I’d tell her that the concept of heaven we create here on earth will be the same heaven we will go to when we leave this material plane. It goes without saying that your concept of heaven may be different from mine. Like, yours may be a tropical paradise with old people in it, while mine is a playground populated by kids who never grow old. The same thing goes with the idea of God. I may perceive Her as very beautiful, just about my age, my best friend, and a cool buddy to get drunk with; while yours is a bearded old giant in white sitting high up there on a big throne whose face no one is allowed to see. For all we care, dogs have dog heaven, and dog gods too.

Of course, one night I discovered that my girlfriend does believe in God. She was just afraid to admit it to me. I mean, all I could hear from her was “Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God” till morning while we were in that run-down motel. In another occasion, I even caught her reciting the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” while tears and blood flowed abundantly out of her. She was wearing sandals, like most activists do, and she accidentally stepped on the remains of a broken Molotov bottle during an anti-U.S. bases rally a decade ago. Was it an act of God? I haven’t a clue. I rest my case. Either we live and let live, or we kill each other till the end.

Earth Decay 2009

2009-08-21T02:40:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Earth Decay 2009
WHEN: October 24, 2009 | Saturday
WHERE: San Pablo City, Laguna
BANDS: Armas, Aunt Audrey, Ang Bandang Shirley, Bombo Pluto Ova, Caitlyn Bailey, Ginseng Luzon, Goo, Kaktus Karuka, Legarda, Mihara, Omerta, Piledriver, Play, Richard Collier, Settled Down, Shoulder State, Staid, Standout, Syke, Tame The Tikbalang, Tether, The Basking Sharks, The Dorques, The Spirals, Tiger Pussy, Towards The End, Van Gogh’s Ear, Walk Me Home

This Is Bulacan Not Singapore

2009-08-21T02:39:00.001-07:00

WHAT: This Is Bulacan Not Singapore (Bisikleta Productions)
WHEN: September 18, 2009 | Friday | 7:00 PM
WHERE: Leprechaun Bar, E. Rodriguez cor. Tomas Morato, Q.C.
BANDS: TSA + Against Man, Throw, ASS, No Peace In Silence, Bad Omen
GATE: 50 pesos

WHEN: September 19, 2009 | Saturday | 8:00 PM
WHERE: Ten02 Bar, Quezon City
BANDS: TSA + Throw, Betrayed, G.I. & The Idiots, Tsunami Tsunami, Against Man, Descant Gott, T.R.A.
GATE: 50 pesos with 1 motherfucking ice-cold beer

SRA Cebu City Tour

2009-08-21T02:36:00.001-07:00

WHAT: SRA Cebu City Tour (Struggle for Radical Action)
WHEN: September 11, 2009 | Friday | 9:00 PM
WHERE: Kukuk’s Nest, Cebu City
BANDS: Istukas Over Disneyland, Omerta, Strongwill, More Than Linda, Talk Sick + Armed (Leyte), One Man Down, Twinkle Dudu, No!, 90 Proof, Hard Feces, Minority Blocks, Vampire State, Toxic Orgasm, Gardo, Self Will, Meat Murder, Queen City Crew, 7 Months Later, Guilt To Flow, 3X+1
GATE: 35 pesos

Neighbors - Still Sharp at 14

2009-08-21T02:35:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Neighbors-Still Sharp at 14 (Soundblasters)
WHEN: August 28, 2009 | Friday | 9:00 PM
WHERE: Station 7 Restobar, Col. Guido Ext., Brgy. San Roque, Angono, Rizal
BANDS: Neighbors + G2 & The Bundocks, Marcos Cronies, TRA

Climate Action

2009-08-21T02:34:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Climate Action
WHEN: August 28, 2009 | Friday | 7:30 PM
WHERE: Volleyball Grounds, Q.C. Memorial Circle
BANDS: Mihara, Divided We Fall, His Divine Grace

Working Class Night, Volume 2

2009-08-21T02:33:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Working Class Night, Volume 2 (K4th United Crew)
WHEN: August 22, 2009 | Saturday | 6:00 PM
WHERE: Ten 02 Bar, 43-B Scout Ybardolaza St. cor. Timog Ave., Q.C.
BANDS: Marcos Cronies (Pampanga), Mobster Manila (Manila), The Mighty Tartars (Bulacan), Hopskatch (Makati), Lasenggos (Q.C.), Rocket Punch (Taguig), Settled Down (Batangas), The Exsenadors (Q.C.), Spectators (Makati/Q.C.), Overcome (Manila), Against The Wall (Laguna), Coffin Ride (Manila)
GATE: 50 pesos

T4 - SRA Cebu City Tour

2009-08-21T02:32:00.001-07:00

WHAT: T4-SRA Cebu City Tour (Take Four/Struggle for Radical Action)
WHEN: August 22, 2009 | Saturday | 3:00 PM
WHERE: FNB (Food Not Bombs), Labangon, Cebu City
BANDS: Staid, Bystorm, Half The Battle + Embrace Thy Pain, Area Lockdown, Crooked, 7 Months Later, Passing Through, Toxic Orgasm, No!, Vampire State, Queen City Crew, Substance 32, Shrapnel, Boundary, Strike It Down, Guilt To Flow

New Breed of Casualties

2009-08-21T02:31:00.001-07:00

WHAT: New Breed of Casualties (Uprising Collective)
WHEN: August 22, 2009 | Saturday | 8:00 PM
WHERE: Brgy. San Mateo covered court, Dasmariñas, Cavite
BANDS: Noise Conspiracy Project, KDSistema, Vex, Giliganne, Befall, Killratio, Censorshit, Anal Fissure, Guerra Mundial, Flash Elorde, Manang’s Curse, Youth For Crust, Afflicted By Addiction, Eyes Of Fire, Voice Of Tranquility, Aggressive Dog Attack, State of Calamity

Fail! Serve

2009-08-21T02:30:00.002-07:00

WHAT: Fail! Serve (*Collective & Diypinoyhcpunk.com)
WHEN: August 16, 2009 | Sunday | 5:00 PM
WHERE: Fourth Door Art Gallery, 2450 Karapatan St., Sta. Cruz, Manila
BANDS: Talk Sick (Bulacan), Sister Bastard (Manila), Legarda (Manila), Birds In Formation (Manila), Oh Man! Oh God! (Manila), Planet Shh! (Mandaluyong), Call Them Quits (Pangasinan), Au Revoir (Manila), Omerta (Bulacan), Shirley Steinberg (Bulacan), Ginseng Luzon (Manila), Bee Eyes (Manila), A.W.U. (Manila), Bystorm (Manila)
GATE: 60 pesos

13 Years of Drunkness & Kinship

2009-08-21T02:30:00.000-07:00

WHAT: 13 Years of Drunkness & Kinship (Downtown Sampcore Collective)
WHEN: August 15, 2009 | Saturday | 5:00 PM
WHERE: Floyd Rose Bar, Araneta Ave. cor. Victory St., Quezon Shitty
BANDS: Co-Arse, Disabuse, Destruction Of Trust, Paraconflict, Ixion, Noise Conspiracy Project + A.D.A., Askals, Amok, Bloodshedd, Brutal Punishment, Death After Birth, Guerra Mundial, No Peace In Silence, Play, Resurrected, Sedition, Tadjak Pisara
GATE: 30 pesos per drunkard

Final Entry - Symmetry Breaking

2009-08-21T02:29:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Final Entry-Symmetry Breaking (Darkmatter Collective)
WHEN: August 14, 2009 | Friday | 5:00 PM
WHERE: Ten 02 Bar, 43-B Scout Ybardolaza St. cor. Timog Ave., Q.C.
BANDS: Torture By Roses, Decay Transit, Filter Filter, Firefly Logic, Names Are For Tombstones, Scarlet Tears, Skies Of Ember, The Slave Drum, Odd, X9

Dreamworlds 3 - Film Showing

2009-08-21T02:28:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Dreamworlds 3-Film Showing (Anonymous/Diypinoyhcpunk.com)
WHEN: August 2, 2009 | Sunday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: 9 Mile Bar, Q.C.
BANDS: Eyes Of Fire, A.D.A., Legarda, Guerra Mundial, Play

Beat the Count Round 2

2009-08-21T02:27:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Beat the Count Round 2 (Railroad Records)
WHEN: July 18, 2009 | Saturday | 7:00 PM
WHERE: Rockapella Bar, National Hi-way, Brgy. Bubukal, Sta. Cruz, Laguna
BANDS: Ammunition West, Mihara, Piledriver, D.O.A., Brawler, At Full Strength, Unheard, Lie A Sin, Strait Jacket, Pray For Silence
GATE: 50 pesos

Collecticon 2009

2009-08-21T02:26:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Collecticon 2009 (Hobbiworx Inc./Pinoy Toy Kolektors)
WHEN: October 10-11, 2009 | Saturday-Sunday
WHERE: Robinsons Place Ermita, Midtown Mall Atrium
WEB: pinoytoykolektors.com

Otaku Taiiki 2009

2009-08-21T02:25:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Otaku Taiiki 2009 (Otaku Zine)
WHEN: August 23, 2009 | Sunday
WHERE: Megatrade Hall 3, SM Megamall
WEB: otakuzine-mag.com

Metro Comic Con 2009

2009-08-21T02:24:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Metro Comic Con 2009 (Hobbylink Productions)
WHEN: August 8-9, 2009 | Saturday-Sunday
WHERE: Megatrade Hall 1 & 2, SM Megamall
WEB: metrocomiccon.com

MINDstyle Family Art Tradition Exhibit & Toy Launch

2009-08-21T02:17:00.001-07:00

WHAT: MINDstyle Family Art Tradition Exhibit & Toy Launch
WHEN: August 7-9, 2009 | Friday-Sunday
WHERE: BratPack, Greenbelt 5 Level 2
WEB: mindstyleph.com

Custom Ex

2009-08-21T02:16:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Custom Ex (Customizers Workshop & Exhibit)
WHEN: July 11, 2009 | Saturday
WHERE: Kramer Toy-Warden’s shop, Makati Cinema Square mezzanine

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - TK/TRU Exclusive

2009-08-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

WHAT: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra-Toy Kingdom/Toys R Us Exclusive (Cybertron-Philippines)
WHEN: July 11, 2009 | Saturday | 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
WHERE: Event Center, SM Megamall/Activity Center, Robinsons Galleria

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - TRU Exclusive

2009-08-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - Toys R Us Exclusive (Cybertron-Philippines)
WHEN: June 27-28, 2009 | Saturday-Sunday
WHERE: Activity Center, Robinsons Galleria

Focus on Toys/Cosplay Fusion

2009-08-21T02:09:00.001-07:00

WHAT: Focus on Toys/Cosplay Fusion (Maxicollector)
WHEN: June 26-28, 2009 | Friday-Sunday | 4:00 PM
WHERE: South Court, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell
WEB: cosplayfusion.multiply.com

8th Philippine Toys, Hobbies & Collectibles Convention 2009

2009-08-21T02:07:00.001-07:00

WHAT: 8th Philippine Toys, Hobbies & Collectibles Convention 2009 (PTK)
WHEN: June 13-14, 2009 | Saturday-Sunday | 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM
WHERE: Megatrade Hall 2 & 3, 5th Level Bldg. B, SM Megamall
WEB: toyconph.com
GATE: 100 pesos

The first wave of Pinoy punk

2009-08-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

(In celebrating the 20 years of Punk in 1996--which broke in ‘76 or ‘77, depending on who’s talking, doesn’t matter cuz punks have always been broke!--I wrote the following article: “1976-1996: A PinOi Punk Revolution” in Teenage Anger Fanzine #2 back in the day. Inspired by Edwin Sallan’s “The Evolution of Pinoi Punk: A Chronicle of the Finest Hours” which appeared in Herald X #2 (1987), this timeline has since been reprinted by friends in other local/foreign zines and posted a couple of times online as the “Unofficial History of Philippine Punk”, “Pinoy Punk: The Early Years”, or “20 Years of Pinoy Punk”. For the 30th anniversary of Punk in 2006, a friend-slash-financier and I were supposed to put out a full-length book Loud, Proud, Brown & Punk but the fucker backed out at the last minute [to tie the knot...around his neck hehehe...married, buried, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!]. And as fate would have it, my friend somehow got to talk about our project with a DJ friend who works at an FM radio station, who in turn has a friend who does documentaries for TV. So, thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend, “Punk’s Not Dead” was aired on GMA-7’s iWitness program in the same year. Oh, and here is a “sanitized” version of the article that inspired it in part.)

1976
A new form of music and lifestyle takes the American and British underground scenes by storm. Punk is born.

1977
Time magazine runs a two-page cover story on “Punk Rock’s Primal Scream” on its July 11 issue entitled “Anthems of the Blank Generation”. The article popularizes the term “new wave” as punk develops into a musical and cultural phenomenon worldwide, overshadowed only by disco’s peak of popularity then. Manila becomes curious.

1978
A wave of wealthy teenage Pinoy expatriates brings punk to Philippine shores from Britain. Filipino punkdom, however, would derive most of its features from punk fanzines in the U.S.

Influenced by his girlfriend, Delilah Aguilar, DZRJ-810 AM--the “Rock of Manila”--radio jock Dante “Howlin’ Dave” David [r.i.p.] introduces punk rock to stunned Manila listeners via the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.”

RJ gets the rights to air BBC-London’s “Rockline” which regularly features the music of the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the Boomtown Rats among many others. Filipino awareness becomes apparent.

1979
Among the biggest hits of the year are The Knack’s “My Sharona”, Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”, and M’s “Pop Muzik”. Dyna Products, the local distributor of A & M Records, releases The Police’s debut album “Outlandos D’ Amour”.

Top 40 radio station DWRT-99.5 FM, which mainly caters to the so-called “A-B crowd”, includes The Police’s “Roxanne” on its playlist.

1980
On Disco, a small but progressive joint along Roxas Blvd., opens its “New Wave Nights” during weekends. It plays punk rock and new wave, initially featuring Joey “Pepe” Smith of the Juan Dela Cruz Band as regular live performer. Habitués are required to dress up in “new wave gear”. Punk buttons are sold at 10 pesos each.

The Jerks, a five-member group led by former folksinger Chicoy Pura and guitarist Jun Lopito, replaces “Pepe” Smith (whose asking price becomes exorbitant) as On’s regular performer and becomes Pinoy punk’s first major discovery. “Lopito invited me to sing with them and he introduced me to punk rock. They were playing songs by the Ramones, the Damned, and the Dead Boys, as well as the Rolling Stones, which Jun was partial to.”--recalls Chicoy.

Local rock queen Sampaguita goes new wave with her second LP “Sampaguita Vol. II” which features the hit “I’m Behind You” and three more others.

1981
Haribol/Hare Krishna devotee Pabs Dadivas, whose solo pop career enjoyed a brief resurgence, is heckled and jeered during a guest stint at On Disco. His manager and bodyguards maul lead singer Chicoy Pura of The Jerks in disgust.

Two original songs from The Jerks’ debut seven-inch single--“Romantic Kill” and “Big Deal”--and their punk cover of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” receive extensive airplay over DZRJ’s “Pinoy Rock & Rhythm” program.

Manila is treated to more punk and new wave releases from the Sex Pistols, Ramones, XTC, The Cars, The B-52’s, Devo, The Police, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, and The Clash.

Channel 9’s noontime TV show Eat Bulaga launches “Punk Rock Philippines”, a dance contest participated in by weird-dressed couples. Howlin’ Dave and wife Delilah are among the judges during its grand finals.

“Breaking Glass”, a punk movie starring Hazel O’Connor, is shown in Metro Manila.

Jingle magazine, the most respected music rag in the country at that time, starts a series of coverage on the growing punk scene in Manila. The Jerks is the first band to be featured.

The very first Brave New World concert [conceived by Howlin’ Dave from his love of Aldous Huxley’s apocalyptic novel] is organized at the conservative Philippine Trade Exhibits grounds (Philtrade). It sees the debut of Chaos, a teenage punk quartet led by concert organizer Tommy Tanchanco. “Music is just part of the punk lifestyle. What bothered me was that bands were just copying foreign pop music... I got bands to submit original music. They could only play at the concert if they did, so they were forced to write.”--explains guitarist Tommy. The BNW Movement is born.

1982
Student Canteen, Channel 7’s noontime TV show, organizes “Rock Explo”--a contest for rock bands judged on its grand finals by the visiting Little River Band. The Jerks makes it as finalist of the said contest.

New wave flicks like “Liquid Sky”, “Brimstone and Treacle”, and “Pink Floyd: The Wall” are shown during the “Manila International Film Festival” at the CCP Complex.

“Brave New World Part 2” takes place at U.P. Los Baños. “BNW Parts 3 & 4” are held at Philtrade.

On Disco cancels its “New Wave Nights”.

1983
Punks are talking about “The Tribes of Britain”, a seven-page cover story on Time magazine’s October 24 issue about the latest fashion trends and lifestyles in England.

More BNW concerts (Parts 5 & 6) are organized in Philtrade as more local punk and new wave talents emerge; the most noted of which are The Zoo, College, The Lost Boys, Private Stock, and Goons.

Local punks become more creative. They begin designing their own clothes and make their own gear, including their own punk buttons. DIY (do-it-yourself) punk is born. “Punk dresses louder than words.”--Tandem punks

English hairstylist Stephen Bradley establishes Public Image, an expensive hair salon in Manila specializing in punk haircuts.

Punk and new wave classics like “Times Square”, “The Rocky Horror Show”, and “Quadrophenia” are shown at the Manila Film Center.

The Zoo, renamed Ocean Zoo, releases “Animal Party”, a seven-inch four-song EP under their own Insect Dance label. It becomes a first of sorts in the local independent recording industry.

College is banned by radio station DZRJ from further airplay after the group smashed a car’s windshield during a concert at the station’s parking lot. “We don’t read the news, we make it!”--retorts a drunken Arnold Morales, the band’s lead singer and a U.E. music conservatory dropout. At that time, their song “Manila Girl” is the most requested by the station’s listeners. [The same song would become popular in the 90’s via Arnold’s ska outfit Put3Ska.]

RCA-Vicor records Chaos’ “We Are the One” and “Quitter” as a seven-inch single release, and films a music video for both songs.

Wuds, formerly spelled Woods, makes their debut as a transcendental punk rock band [with folk rock as their roots] at “BNW Part 6” and at the second “Punk for Peace: Neighborhood Concert” at Singalong. [The trio would eventually survive the 90’s’ onslaught and continue to make music, first on folksinger Heber Bartolome’s controversial Akasha Records--with “At Nakalimutan ang Diyos”--then on a major record.]

1984
“Now it is nineteen-eighty-four...” [of George Orwell’s dystopia and the Dead Kennedys’ classic] Punks organize themselves into regional or area tribes (“armies”) with names like the Two-Tones (Pasay), Slabs (short for Salabusabs, Sta. Mesa), Mess (Singalong), Nazi-Haters, Wasted Youth (Pasay), Androids (Quiapo), Depraved (F.E.U.), Exploited, Criminals, Dead Paranoids, Rebels (Philippine Rebellious Youth, Paco), Abnormals (Q.C.), Hazards (U.E.), Sub/S.A.D. Army (Search And Destroy, Pandacan), Ruins (Caloocan), and many others; each supporting a certain band or musical style.

Urban Bandit Arnold Morales chases a startled heckler with his stainless switchblade/balisong during the “Rock of the 80’s” concert at Trinity College. Arnold would later be remembered as the rude boy singer who had a repertoire of stock phrases and wore red socks on stage just when the government was cracking down on suspected commies.

Dyna signs Chaos to an unprecedented five-year contract under the Tower label. “Anyway it’s just a piece of paper for us.”--is Chaos’ take on the deal. The group releases its first and only album New Move for Error under the name Third World Chaos [I wonder if Brazilian thrash gods Sepultura bought themselves a copy?]. The NME LP and cassette would suffer from poor promotion and minimal radio exposure, thus finding their way into the bargain bins of record stores. [now worth thousands of pesos on Ebay!]

Formed in “BNW Part 5” and dubbed as the “fastest band in the land”, Betrayed--formerly Jump Boys, originally formed by vocalist Eddie “Tokwa” Siojo in the U.S. (1980) before he attended U.P.--introduces hardcore (HC) to euphoric punk concert-goers as gigs become more violent than ever.

Dead Ends debuts as a HC trio at the “Crappy Halloween” concert organized by the promoters of BNW at the Pasay City Sports Complex. Fronted by high school English/Journalism teacher Al Dimalanta and younger brother Jay, Dead Ends is the Philippines’ answer to the U.S.’s DK. Though DE started out as a heavy metal band (Traffic Jam) practicing in their home studio in Navotas, their lyrics are probably the most thought-out in the scene. “We play punk rock but we aren’t punks, punks are petty hoodlums.”--Al would always point out.

Likewise, the Philippine Violators (Young Offenders at first) makes their debut at the “Oi! Wednesday” concert somewhere in Caloocan. Like Dead Ends, PV is fronted by the brotherly tandem of Bong Espiritu on mics and the younger Jesus “Rotten” on guitars. “School is a place where you must do what you are told and no questions asked, as if you’re some kind of slave.”--Rotten on education. [And like Wuds, PV would carry on into the next decade. The Espiritu brothers would later establish an underground record label in the 90’s called RMD (Rare Music Distributor) and help many struggling local bands in the UG scene before the quartet finally signed to a major.]

College guitarist Enggol “Sid Bukol” survives a stabbing incident at Quezon City.

College disbands. Arnold Morales founds an Oi!/punk outfit called the Urban Bandits, guitarist Enggol forms the Sex Militants with Chiloy on vocals.

Softdrinks giant Pepsi Cola sponsors a punk band contest in Channel 4’s noontime TV show Ito Yun Ang Galing. New wave band Ethnic Faces (formerly Ocean Zoo), fronted by the enigmatic Jack Sikat, wins the grand prize. The Runaway Boys, a rockabilly group, and pop outfit Slyk emerge as runners-up. Other finalists include Betrayed and Wuds. Dead Ends fails to make it to the finals.

The Jerks takes their act to Olongapo City. Guitarist Jun Lopito, an avid fan of Keith Richards, insists on an all-Rolling Stones repertoire.

So-called “punk parties” are organized in the plush outskirts of Forbes Park, Corinthian Gardens, and Valle Verde. The mobile disco business is born.

Punks declare war against preppies (also called “chongs”* or new wavers) and breakdancers (rappers), and vice versa. The Glorietta in Makati, as well as Harrison Plaza and Farmers/Ali Mall-Cubao, becomes the most frequent battleground.

“BNW Part 7” is held in summer at Philtrade. Aloy, a member of the Slabs tribe, attacks Betrayed guitarist Buddy Trinidad with a padlock during a slamdancing spree at “BNW Part 8” held in December. Buddy’s friends come to his rescue and almost maul the poor Slab to death in return. Newly formed acts like the Urban Bandits, Sex Militants, Dead Beat, Vex, Black Signals, Living Entity, 52 Busy Streets, D.D.T. , Negatives, Bio Sparks, Combatants, Underground, Unknown, Androids, Public Scandal, and others support the concert.

Tommy Tanchanco of Chaos forms Paralyzed Body Inc., an indie entrepreneurial company. Twisted Red Cross, an underground cassette label, becomes his first business venture. Recorded at AD & AD Recording Studio**, TRC’s first release Rescue Ladders & Human Barricade is a compilation of sample recordings from the Urban Bandits, Wuds, Betrayed, Dead Beat, Private Stock, Sex Militants, and Public Scandal. The tape, TRC-01, is formally launched at the Glorietta the following year.

Wuds, obsessed with the Hare Krishna religion, begins their “Punks for Peace” campaign. They sponsor a couple of small gigs at their Singalong turf like the “Soldier’s Feast for Peace”, their third neighborhood concert. “We write songs to simply raise the consciousness of every individual because material things won’t make them happy. It’s more on spirituality.”--comments Bobby Balingit, Wuds frontman. Punk vegetarianism and straightedge (sXe) are born.

Converse hi-cut Chuck Taylor colored sneakers become the official shoes of Pinoy punks. Oftentimes, colors are worn mismatched [as in the teenage movie “Bagets” at that time].

Shortly after the conclusion of the “Pepsi Punk Band Contest”, Howlin’ Dave talks Pepsi Cola into organizing a 36-day daily punk concert at the Folk Arts Theater grounds, then called the “Pepsi Fun City”. The affair lasts for barely a week because of too much violence.

Punk buttons, whether imported or homemade, become a prerequisite for the local punk attire. Likewise, spiked and studded wristbands also become essential to the post-Jerks punks.

A locally produced film, “The Punks”, starring the popular That’s Entertainment love team of Rey “PJ” Abellana and Leni Santos, flops at the box office. Punks believe it is due to its wrong interpretation of the local underground scene.

Betrayed disbands, with bass player Chris Carrere and vocalist Eddie Siojo leaving for the U.S. for good. [“Speedy” Eddie would later make a comeback in the 90’s and reform Betrayed with Buddy, this time as a half-American, half-Pinoy hard rock quartet and release an album on a major label.]

Ray “Decay” forms T.R.A.S.H. (Total Rebellion Against Society’s Hypocrites, their song “Teenage Anger” was the inspiration for my fanzine) with Noel Luczon on vocals, Neil on guitars, and Tammy on drums; while somewhere in Navotas, George “Imbecile” Cruz founds Girls. “It’s the music that binds us. Remember when the Beatles came the music was so fast people didn’t know how to deal with it? But it’s not only in the speed but in the lyrics. Our music appeals to the psychology of kids who want to be different, who don’t want to look like anybody.”--remarks the not-so-stupid George Imbecile.

Nito Palacio, formerly of Aunt Irma, records a demo tape of synthesized music for DZRJ’s “Pinoy Rock & Rhythm” program under the name Integrated Circuit. The song, “Rollers on Her Hair”, becomes a DZRJ classic and Nito earns the moniker “Mr. Chips”. [90’s hard rock group Rizal Underground would later popularize the song.] “Warning! Psychologist Sigmund Freud himself said: I should define this cassette tape as a piece of fiction that has unity of expression and that can be listened upon by children below 20 years of age so that they may learn to speak faster, to write faster, to read faster, and to listen faster.”--would be Nito’s intro on TRC-09 three years hence.

Homecoming senator, Ninoy Aquino, is shot dead upon his arrival at the Manila International Airport [now named after him hehehe] by alleged minions of then incumbent president, Ferdinand “Macoy” Marcos. Pinoys become furious [rather short-lived though]. The Urban Bandits pay their respects to the dead solon via their subliminal song “Do You Rebel Rebel” with the chorus lines: “And I know why... (N-I-NO-Y) Oi! Oi!”.

*The term “chong”--to distinguish new wavers from punk rockers--originated from the jocks that spun for the A2Z team. Stubborn teens that couldn’t get into punk music would approach the DJ’s booth and irritatingly ask: “Chong, chong, new wave naman.” The name stuck forever.

**TRC bands would later record at Studio Z in Greenhills, HQ Sounds in Roxas Blvd., and Red X Studio (a.k.a. Tommy’s library room)

1985
Punk becomes a profitable business for T-shirt and RTW (ready-to-wear) manufacturers based in Cartimar, Recto. Shops like Shambhu [no, not shabu!], Khumbmela, Hard Stuff, Arte Linea, and High Adventure among others make a killing in selling punk and new wave gear and clothing. Likewise, the stairs of Tandem Cinema become the favorite hangout of punks and hardcores, and the nearby Dapitan Sports Complex, the favorite concert place. [The coming of the 90’s, however, would see these shops closing down and going out of business, and the stairs of Tandem, vandalized and deserted.] “Hindi ka [Pinoy] punk kung hindi ka pa nakakarating ng Tandem.”--Goodie, wasted punker

Imported vinyls and cassettes of locally unreleased punk and new wave albums, as well as their pirated counterparts, start to proliferate in the underground market. The most notable distros are A2Z Records (owned by Jingle’s Ces Rodriguez) along Anonas St., Q.C. and Third Mind Rare Tapes, among many others. Music distros and pirated tapes are born.

DWXB-102 FM, the “Capital Radio”, becomes the “station that dares to be different”. Located along Donada St. in Pasay City, “102 Music” to the station’s listeners means the new music of New Order, Joy Division, The Cure, and occasionally local wavers Dean’s December, Violent Playground, and Under Blue Skies.

DZRJ (both AM & FM) stops programming punk and new wave in the air, thanks to the station’s owner, Mr. RJ himself [boo!]. DJ Howlin’ Dave distances himself farther from the punk scene and has a bitter falling out with TRC’s Tommy Tanchanco, reasoning that “music has to move on”. Whatever the reasons, the only album-oriented station in the air [as opposed to the prevailing singles-oriented format of most radio stations at that time] has finally signed off.

Betrayed reforms. This time with a new-lineup: Dominic “Papadom” Gamboa (of Absolute Zero) on vocals, Boyet Miguel (of Ethnic Faces) on bass, and Manny “A.J. Peanuts” Pagsuyuin (of Ironic Trauma) on drums [a.k.a. DJ “Jimmy Jam” in the 90’s]. Only Buddy Trinidad on guitars is a remnant of the original Betrayed.

The Jerks disbands. Chicoy Pura forms Triad. Chaos changes its name to Excommunicate. Genocide, The N.E.X.T. (Not Exactly Hardcore Type, which released their debut “Talamak” in the 90’s), and R.D.A. (Rapid Deployment and Antidote) are formed somewhere in the streets of Manila.

Rock critic and punk photographer Didits Gonzales organizes weekly punk gigs at Katrina’s [the Philippines’ answer to the U.S.’s CBGBs], a pub operated by his family at Mabini St., Malate. Slamdancing is allowed during “hardcore Saturday nights” but only when a “referee” is around. Entrance fee is pegged at 10 pesos per punk. Betrayed and Private Stock are the first to play.

The Matimyas House (where Tommy’s condo is) rooftop concert series is organized by the promoters of BNW as more punk groups like George Imbecile & The Idiots (formerly Girls), with a new vocalist by the name of Jun “Idiot” Ortega, and the Phil. Violators are discovered.

Twisted Red Cross releases more UG cassettes: Brave New World Live! Part 3 featuring the live acts of Betrayed, Wuds, TRASH, Sex Militants, Dead Ends, Dead Beat, Urban Bandits, Private Stock, Public Scandal, Excommunicate, Ethnic Faces, and rockabilly group Zoot Suit at “BNW Parts 8 & 9”; Dead Ends’ debut Complaints (which was bankrolled by Al’s pop, “Daddy McLaren”); Urban Bandits’ debut Independence Day; Wuds’ debut A.R.M.S.T.A.L.K. (or Armies’ Reunion for Modern-age Service and Training in Attainment of Love and Knowledge, phew!) [which they reissued in the 90’s as “Oplan Kahon” under their own Criminal Records]; and the “Rescue Ladders & Human Barricade” second compilation, Fatal Response, featuring Dead Ends, G.I. & The Idiots, Wuds, Urban Bandits, and Zoot Suit. The tapes, mixed and recorded at Jim Sarthou’s Studio Z, are sold cheap at 33 pesos each and generally have poor sound quality. The tapes’ cool cassette liners are designed by Dodong Viray [later with A2Z’s Jing Garcia and the Racket Music Group in the 90’s, now s.l.n.]. Lyric sheets are also provided to enable the listeners to relate to words uttered in a rapid half-yelp, half-bark, half-scream style. The bands, with producer Tommy, also drop by mainstream TV shows like the Big, Big Show and Eat Bulaga to promote their cassettes to the public.

Betrayed releases their long-awaited self-titled debut under the DMZ label. It is the fastest selling indie recording at that time. Shortly after that, guitarist Buddy sells all his equipment and vinyls, and leaves for the U.S. indefinitely [to work as a cook or spinner I think].

Rock Ola, a dance club along Vito Cruz, becomes the hottest hangout of punk and new music lovers all over Manila until it decides to jack up its entrance fee. The chong place closes down as expected.

Arnold Morales brings a golf club with him during an Urban Bandits guest stint at Channel 7’s TV show Discorama. When interviewed on the spot, Arnold says he uses the golf club to “smash the heads of assholes that are against the local punk movement”.

CMT combat boots replaces Converse colored sneakers as the official shoes of Pinoy punks. Tie-dyed jeans are also the “in-thing” with punks. The more financially gifted and more resourceful ones begin displaying their Doc Martens/DMs safety shoes and one-inch-soled Creepers (mostly made-to-order at some of Recto’s veteran shoemakers like Glenmore and Luciano) as part of their so-called “Type A” get-up. Bondage pants and surplus military gear are also a common sight among updated punks.

The last original BNW concert (Parts 8 & 9) takes place at Philtrade for two successive weekends. It marks the end of an era.

Arnold Morales forms Y.S.M. (Youth Solidarity Movement) after the sudden inactivity of the BNW Movement. YSM aims to continue what BNW has begun: to organize more punk gigs and to support small and lesser known underground bands. [Jun Tisoi would later take over the helms of YSM when the 80’s came to an end.] “The concerts ended with Howlin’ Dave singing the Sex Pistols’ version of ‘My Way’ over the 1980-85 run of BNW, and he was backed up by whoever was there that night. The song was transformed into a anthem of Pinoy punk.”--Buddy of Betrayed

1986
A four-day “revolution”...no, make that “uprising” [better yet, “fiesta”] at EDSA overthrows the 20-year old puppet government of Marcos from power (listen to G.I. & The Idiots’ classic “The Flag”) and installs the new puppet government of Cory Aquino. Punks couldn’t care less [I mean, who the hell cares!]. “Punk and politics don’t mix.”--Arthur “Seda” Bandalan, punk before, now N.P.A.

Katrina’s pub closes down. The punk movement needs something to keep it alive and kicking.

DWXB is sequestered by the new administration’s Presidential Commission on Good[?] Government. Normal operations, however, resume on a voluntary basis. Still, the station manages to discover local talents playing new music like The Dawn and Identity Crisis, and is still able to organize a couple of new wave parties.

Chaos plays their last gig at Rock Ola (just when the club reopens its doors) and calls it quits indefinitely. Likewise, Ray Decay disbands TRASH and forms Deceased with Bubboi “The Bones” on bass and Jun “Bandit” on drums.

More TRC releases, including the reissue of Betrayed’s debut, invade the underground market. Among them are Dead Ends’ second effort Second Coming, G.I. & The Idiots’ debut Fascinating World of Garbage; the last “Rescue Ladders & Human Barricade” compilation 3rd Bombardment which features the Phil. Violators, Private Stock, Deceased, R.D.A., Chaos, Betrayed, Collision, and I.O.V. (Intoxication Of Violence); and Katrina’s Live! (Tamana Away!!!) recorded live during the last gig at the said pub featuring Betrayed, Wuds, G.I. & The Idiots, and Private Stock.

Private Stock, the rockabilly/mod group who wears their schoolboy uniforms on stage, releases their debut Hype’s Cool! under Payola Records, an indie label put up by then Jingle writer Butch Maniego [yup, the former P.B.A. guy] to bankroll his younger brother’s album--guitarist Mel.

The cult film “Sid & Nancy: Love Kills” is shown in some of Manila’s movie houses.

More than 700 punks, mistaken for drug addicts, are rounded up by the police during the concert “Suicide: The Only Alternative” at U.E.-Recto while G.I. & The Idiots is playing. The incident makes headlines in such broadsheets as the Philippine Daily Inquirer and tabloids like the People’s Journal. The drug charges are later dropped by the cops due to lack of sufficient evidence. “Well, what were the police supposed to think? All these people in black, slamdancing, the music. Many people don’t understand us, even some people in the movement itself.”--George Imbecile on the arrest.

Former Absolute Zero bass player Je Bautista [s.l.n.] joins Betrayed replacing Bong “Fluoride” who suddenly does a disappearing act.

An uninvited Betrayed jams at a chong concert at the ULTRA [“Ultrastorm”?]. Lead singer Dominic Gamboa smashes two microphones in excitement, and is beaten up in “excitement”. Dominic is later charged with destruction of property by the concert organizers. He counters by threatening to file charges of serious physical injuries. Case settled.

Violence erupts from slamdancing during a guest performance of Betrayed at the recognition night of the “1st Independent Film and Video Festival” at the Wave Cinema in Cubao. Mowelfund director Lamberto Avellana, who is present at that time, is culture-shocked and utterly disgusted with what happened.

Triad disbands. Lead singer Chicoy Pura returns to folk singing and reforms The Jerks in Olongapo City with a new line-up. [Though a pioneer in the indie scene and probably the most influential band in the early 80’s, it wasn’t until the late 90’s that The Jerks was finally able to cut an album. First, a live recording during a gig at Mayrics pub on activist Gary Granada’s “progressive” Backdoor Records, then later their debut album on a major label, long after other bands (whether punk or not) that they’ve influenced have released theirs.] On the other hand, guitarist Jun Lopito (and wife) enters a drug rehabilitation center to detoxify. [The guitarist would eventually become a Buddhist and play his instrument again with the coming of the new age.]

Allan, a skinhead punk, is found brutally murdered, “salvaged” allegedly by cops, in one of Manila’s slums. TRC-11 is dedicated in the memory of the slain tribesman.

Heavy metal band Warhead releases their debut album, “Meltdown”, on a major label.

1987
The Urban Bandits disbands. Arnold Morales forms Music Front with former bandmate Fur on bass, ex-Zoot Suit Rainier on guitars, and ex-Sex Militants Chiloy on drums. “We’re not a band, we’re modern newscasters.”--Arnold on his previous band. Not long after, the group also disbands and Arnold suddenly finds himself singing in an opera [at least for a while].

Betrayed plays their last gig at the “World Annihilation” concert at Ortañez University and calls it quits permanently. Vocalist Dominic Gamboa, a prime mover of the International Music Workers Union and the War Resisters League then, founds the first generation of reggae group Tropical Depression. The line-up consists of The Jerks’ Chicoy Pura on guitars, ex-Betrayed Je Bautista on bass, and ex-Dead Ends Harley Alarcon on drums. The same group later forms a ska outfit called the SkaVengers for fun. SkaLawags, another pioneer ska band, also graces the scene. [Ska would eventually gain more local adherents in the 90’s, particularly its bastard child “ska-punk”, thanks to its American proponents like Operation Ivy and the rest of the “California sunshine” punks.]

Smile Plenty, an experimental noise outfit, is formed. Within time, noisecore/grindcore/splattercore would make its deafening presence felt in the underground, courtesy of some of Manila’s lesser talented bands...and their utter lack of musicality.

Private Stock disbands. [The group would resurface in the 90’s, as full-fledged dentists, and do a couple of club gigs before finally fading into oblivion.]

DWXB closes down. Its DJs try to organize a couple of new wave parties to save the beleaguered radio station, but to no avail. As a last-ditch effort, the station organizes “The Final Countdown”, its farewell concert-party, at the CCP Complex and forms the 102 Club as its lasting legacy to its listeners.

DWNU-107 FM-- the “Home of New Rock”, and DWBM-105 FM--the “Power Station” hit the new music airwaves. [Though NU would carry on into the next decade’s alternative rock scene, BM wouldn’t be as lucky. Another radio station, Ed Formoso’s “Rock of the World” DWLA-105 FM, would shortly join NU on the air in the early 90’s, though it too would suffer XB’s fate. Still, LA would be instrumental to the second wave of pinoy punk, even if some of its DJs blatantly pitted punks against hip-hoppers in a vain attempt to attract more listeners--really, what a cheap marketing ploy. Said radio jocks also made an overkill on the term “alternative”.]

The Philippine National Red Cross threatens to sue Tommy Tanchanco in court for using the international Red Cross symbol on his TRC products and tapes. Tommy, being the son of an influential ex-government minister, brushes the threats aside.

G.I. & The Idiots drummer Louie “We Gotta Go” Guiang [r.i.p.] survives a stabbing incident at the “Self-Destruction” concert at Ortañez University.

Dead Ends--with G.I. & The Idiots, IOV, Genocide, and others--takes their act to Olongapo City. The gig, sponsored by Tropical Viruses, is marred by skateboard-bashing, bottle-throwing, several knifings, and good old fistfights. The concert eventually ends in total chaos and violence as Manila’s punks clash with Olongapo’s punks. The tribal war between Manila’s punks and Olongapo’s punks has begun.

TRC releases more UG cassettes: IOV’s debut Another Destructive Century, Dead Ends’ third album Damned Nation, RDA’s (now Reformed Destruction for Action) debut Brave United in Trust, and the Phil. Violators’ debut At Large! [All four bands would make a comeback in the 90’s after some period of hibernation. Ex-IOV bassist Rady (minus vocalist Xeres, guitarist Gerri, and drummer Undo) would later join forces with vocalist Jun Idiot of G.I. & The Idiots (sans guitarist Benjie, bassist George, and drummer Louie) to form Hard K (“K” for Kulangot). GI would later reform and release their DIY second album “Technology Eats the World” (under their Recycled Records & Tapes outfit), which contained the anthemic song “Spirit of the 80’s (Where Have All the Tribes Gone)”. RDA would still be RDA and vocalist Ollie “Punk rock is the last revolution!” Malolos would still be the wasted punk that he is, with some members (guitarist Angelo, bassist Mandy, or drummer Ferdie, I’m not quite sure who) joining the local PNP police force. PV would release two more indie albums under their RMD label, “State of Confusion” and “The Third Offense”, before landing on a major. Dead Ends would pursue the thrash metal grind (a la Slayer) and self-produce their fourth and last album, “Mamatay sa Ingay”, with all songs sung in Tagalog (a Dead Ends’ first). Soon afterwards, bassist Jay Dimalanta would die in his sleep, marking the end of DE’s career.]

TRC tapes find their way into the review section of Maximum Rock ‘N’ Roll, the U.S.’s (and probably the world’s) longest-running punk fanzine. Local punk bands couldn’t be any prouder.

Punk fanzine Herald X hits the newsstands. Sold at 20 pesos and published by Tommy Tanchanco and friends, HX becomes the “alternative music read” for the country’s bored generation. Published in newsprint, it becomes a first of sorts in the local DIY publishing industry and immediately becomes the official paper of the local underground movement.

A short experimental film, “Generation Loss”, makes it as entry to the “1987 CCP Short Film and Video Festival”. The punk film’s soundtrack features the music of the Urban Bandits, Dead Ends, Betrayed, Dead Beat, and Wuds.

The Catholic Church and other religious groups--with the help of the country’s leading print and broadcast media--discredit the local punk scene and brand hardcore as satanic. Rumors and black propaganda falsely accusing punk tribes as satanic cults roaming Manila’s streets and stalking public elementary schools to look for human sacrifice [as in eating children’s hearts and all that shit] strike the scene. “Satanism” becomes the main course in most TV and radio talk shows, making newspaper headlines and all--with punk as their favorite whipping boy of course. In response, some punks reluctantly forbid the wearing of all-black clothing or anything black for a time until the hubbub and rumors die down. “How can we be Satanists when some of us don’t even believe in a god?”--blurts one devout Tandem punkster.

Herald X comes out with an exposé on the satanist-cult scare menacing Manila. The article exposes the public fear as nothing but the top secret works [read: psy(chological)-war(fare)] of the U.S. government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Philippines as part of its Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC) program on third world countries hostile to its foreign policies. With the blessings of the Aquino puppet regime, the satanist rumors are concocted to divert the public’s attention from the bloody Mendiola massacre that happened right in front of Malacañang Palace early in the year, and also to silence the peasant movement’s growing clamor for genuine land reform in a predominantly landlord-class bureaucracy [the President herself owns a hacienda for fuck’s sake!]. The massacre is foretold by the Urban Bandits in their song “Battle of Mendiola”, and RDA in “Violent Dispersal”.

Punks celebrate the yuletide at the “Merry Christmess” gig in U.P. The concert is a mess as expected as punk bands thrashed the instruments, scaring the shit out of new wave groups who never got to play. “O-organize organize kayo ng gig hindi naman ninyo kilala yung mga banda. Buti pa ako hindi organizer pero kilala ko lahat ng banda pati mga members nila.”--Jojo Aseclo, attending punk gigs on his crutches/wheelchair.

1988
Asia magazine runs a one-page cover story on the Philippine punk scene with the title “Punk’s Alive and Well” on its September 4 issue. “Punks believe in anarchy. We believe in self-rule, whether what we do conforms or does not conform with the system.”--Tommy Tanchanco interviewed.

Crossover, a mix of hardcore and heavy metal, slowly invades the punk scene as more metal acts, particularly thrash, emerge from the UG. Skate rock or “skate punk” also becomes popular as more and more punks are getting into skateboarding, headbanging, and the mosh pit (the pogo’s “more energetic” version). Pinoy thrashers are born. [Crossover would eventually evolve in the 90’s as crust and reclaim Sampaloc’s downtown area.]

Friday The 13th, D.F.A. (Death From Above), A.O.D. (Agony Of Destruction), M.A.D. (Mutual Assured Destruction), V.O.D. (Valley Of Death), Discant X, Tribulation, Mere Mercy (which sold out to shitty new wave), and other new thrash/crossover acts emerge from their respective garages.

Foxcore or “femcore” and the riot grrrls movement (yup, even before 1991) make their presence felt in the male-dominated underground scene with female-led bands like the Tribunals, Suicidal Syndrome, and Fatal Disguise.

In Laguna, the hardcore crew (New York style) of Biofeedback is formed. [BFK would eventually pave the way for the development of NYHC in the scene (both old school and new school), particularly down south. BFK’s only album “Hardtimes”, under the DIY Mutilated Noise label, was released in the mid-90’s and was a ground-breaking achievement from the provincial scenesters.]

Deceased’s debut cassette, Never Rest in Peace, is the lone release of TRC for the year as X-producer Tommy gets more and more inactive in the punk scene. Recorded at Fullerton Audio, the tape is produced by George Imbecile of G.I. & The Idiots fame. [Deceased would also pursue the thrash metal grind in the 90’s (like Dead Ends) and self-produce their second album “Reborn”, under their Darkmoon label].

Skate-contests-cum-concerts become the trend in many punk gigs like “Nightmare on Skatestreet”, “Aggression Session”, and many others. Some notable gigs of the year that are either forcibly stopped by cops or ended in total chaos and violence are “Start the Conflict” at the Dapitan Sports Complex, “Glad to Be Alive” at the Y.M.C.A., “No Stopping Us” at Philam Homes, Q.C., and “A Twist in My Nerve” at Trinity College.

DIY fanzines, which are usually handwritten or typewritten [no computer shit yet] and then photocopied/xeroxed, flood the underground market after Herald X’s inactivity after only two issues. The most noted zines are Garbage, Blatant Underground, Mutilated News, Anti, Manila Oi! Paper, Warewolf, Scrap, and Grrowll (which is the first local zine to feature foreign scene reports and bands), among many others.

Chong magazine Score appears on thick glossy paper. Sold at 35 pesos, it features new wave and a little punk stuff. It comes out with only four issues before finally folding up.

Red Rocks, an alternative rock pub at Timog Avenue, Q.C. (Club Dredd’s predecessor) becomes the hottest hangout of punks, thrashers, and chongs alike when there are no major gigs around.

1989
The Duke of Charlez organizes the RAD concert tour (“Rock Against Drugs”) featuring thrash, crossover, and punk bands from the UG side by side chong/new wave groups. The tour starts at U.P. and makes the rounds of Manila’s universities.

Punk concerts become harder to get by as TRC releases Philippines: Where Do We Go From Here? TRC-19 is a punk-thrash compilation featuring the music of Discant X, Infernal Wrath, MAD, Banned, VOD, Death Threat (not that former rap outfit), Fatal Disguise, Distorted Minds, and UdK. Produced by Benjie Sengson of GI, the compilation becomes TRC’s last as the “music that makes headlines” ceases to be. [In fact, the question posed by the V/A compilation’s title is in itself a sad statement on where the punk scene is heading. TRC tapes would later be reissued in the mid-90’s by the bands themselves after ending their long leave of absence from the scene that spawned them.]

Somewhere in Tondo’s slums, the country’s first death metal outfit is formed. Crematorium is born. This birth would mark the dawn of more sinister things to come to the local underground, particularly of the death/doom/black metal kind.

1990
Tommy Tanchanco, like Howlin’ Dave and the rest, leaves the punk scene for good and becomes the manager of chong band Introvoys [ha! what the?]. “It’s hard to respond when people ask, ‘Are you a punk?’. Some people think it’s all in the look, but it’s all in the attitude.”--comments Tommy for the last time.

Bad Omen is founded by former Phil. Violators groupies. [Bassist Jon Fishbone would soon establish an underground record label in the mid-90’s called Middle Finger and, like PV’s RMD, help many struggling bands in the UG to express and unite themselves through its various compilation albums. MFP would eventually become the 90’s’ answer to the 80’s’ TRC.]

As the 80’s come to a close, many punk/hardcore bands either have to disband or lie low. Some groups begin pursuing the thrash/death metal genre while others start joining the core of future mainstream/alternative acts. As for the average punk-in-the-street, a few choose to grow their hair to chest-length and become headbangers while many decide to just cut their mohawks and spikes and live regular 8 to 5 lives. Though some may have moved on and forgotten the whole underground scene which they’ve helped sustain for over a decade, still, a few brave souls would remain to continue the struggle into the 90’s and carry on with what the movement had begun and stood for. Punk’s not dead!

Metal fanzine Bakal hits the newsstands. Punk and new wave are unofficially pronounced dead in R.P...but the revolution continues. [this article, to be concluded in a book]

Today, only these tell the story:

Soundtrack: "Spirit of the 80’s (Where Have All the Tribes Gone)" by G.I.

Voltes V GT & Gashapon: Vintage reissues

2009-07-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

To some people, owning the “original” is the only thing that will suffice. As someone who appreciates “vintage”, I can fully understand this point of view. I can’t think of a single toy collector who wouldn’t absolutely adore playing with/displaying a diecast 1977 Voltes V DX or ST. Sure, a plastic “reissue” isn’t the “real” thing, but in many cases, it does have that cool vintage look and nostalgic vibe. With toy reissues being a passion of mine, I now give you Voltes V GT-10.

Made by Bandai-Japan in 2003 as part of its “The Chogokin” line, the GT-10 is a small reissue of the 6-inch Voltes V ST. This 4-inch plus diecast replica is highly accurate--from the leg articulation, spring-loaded fists, and laser sword down to the red/blue/yellow/chrome/white colors, tummy sticker, and firing head! Transforming the GT-10 from robot to “Voltank” mode is also the same with the ST: you flip the treads around and bend the feet at the ankles. The push-button firing action mimics the original as well, giving you the chance to experience firsthand the thrill of the ST in a lightweight and pocket-size mold.

Sometimes, replica toys are presented in boxes that emulate the original toy’s packaging--completing the illusion. Such is the case of the Voltes V Capsule Popinika which was also released in 2003 by Bandai as small plastic gashapons (capsule toys in Japanese vending machines) inside boxes no more than 2 inches in any dimension. Taking off on Popy’s Voltes V DX and modeled after its PB line, the five carbon-copy gashapons were labeled CPA-14 Volt Crewzer, CPA-15 Volt Bomber, CPA-16 Volt Panzer, CPA-23 Volt Frigate, and CPA-24 Volt Lander. In like manner, the vehicles came out in a mini Volt-In Box packaging (anyone got a pic of this?). As with my take on the DX, here’s a rundown of each Volt machine with borrowed pics and toy reviews from Ben of CollectionDX.

Forming the head of Voltes V is the red Volt Crewzer. With crisp details behind the cockpit just like in the DX, its clear yellow canopy opens upward to reveal a visible pilot. The rear landing gears have no hinge mechanism and are made of two separate pieces. So, to deploy them, the pieces have to be removed and re-pegged into small holes. With the gears being incredibly thin, they look fragile at times and bend while being mounted. To transform to combination mode, the entire jet folds in the middle on two hinges, revealing the face of Voltes V.

Forming the arms and hands, we have the Volt Bomber. Though featuring good detail and mold, the fit around the yellow elbow joints is a little off. The one-piece red tailfin assembly slips over what becomes the neck of Voltes V, and is warped because of the thin material. The blue fists are detachable and all the landing gears are molded--not functional as in the Crewzer due to their small size. Switching to combination mode involves removing the tail piece, adding the fists (which fit nice and snug), and spreading out the articulated shoulder bars.

Forming Voltes V’s torso is the bulkiest vehicle of them all--the Volt Panzer. It features fixed black tank treads and a two-barreled silver gun mounted to a bar on top of the body--all removable to allow for transformation. The distinctive red digger claws are swappable pairs of “open” and “closed” pieces--lacking good slots to really peg their arms into. As the GT is to the ST, the Panzer features the detailed Japanese cartoon logo printed on its belly like in the DX. In combination mode, the tread arms are swung around behind the body, the closed claws are stowed, and the red cockpit piece is pried upwards.

Forming the legs is the Volt Frigate, featuring the most detachable parts. It has pairs of swappable antenna bases--“raised” and “lowered”--and highly detailed yellow wings with pegs for their “open” and “folded” positions. Like the Bomber, the Frigate is solid with molded landing gears. Changing to combination mode involves placing the wings in their folded position, installing the lowered antenna bases, and removing the silver antennas.

Finally, forming the feet of Voltes V is the Volt Lander. Despite its diminutive size, its front black panels actually open to reveal pairs of hidden silver cannons! No drills though, but the detail is just as great, especially on the fixed wheels. The only problem with the Lander is that the two halves do not lock together tightly. During combination mode, the top parts of each half is replaced with the cockpits folded down, and the little silver antennas removed.

Now for the main attraction, leeet’s vooolt iiin! Forming Voltes V is relatively easy, starting at the feet, the big square pegs at the ankles of the Frigate mount to the grooves on top of the Lander cockpits. The Frigate cockpit then slides into the bottom of the Panzer firmly after folding up the Panzer cockpit. Next, the Bomber cockpit slides into the groove at the top of the Panzer, and finally the Crewzer mounts on the neck slot of the Bomber. Created in the image and likeness of the colossal DX Godaikin, this 4-inch Voltes V looks solid, well-proportioned and detailed--down to the tiny Popy copyright inscriptions and screws on the bottom of each vehicle!

Missing from its arsenal are the DX ultramagnetic top and chain knuckle, but the laser sword will do just fine. True to the DX tradition, three blade segments (that come with three of the five vehicle boxes) form the silver sword and handle, with the red “M”-shaped emblem on the Panzer’s chest forming the hilt. Thanks to the hinge mechanism of the Bomber, the arms have a little lateral motion, allowing Voltes V to look surprisingly dynamic with its sword. In fact, it is more poseable than the DX, with articulation at the shoulders, double-jointed elbows, and rotating wrists!

As for the Voltank mode, which is basically Voltes V lying face down, the combined figure can almost transform into it, had it not been for the missing ankle joints or pegs to really do it. However, by un-pegging the feet from the ankles and resting the legs on top of the feet, it looks like you have achieved Voltank--even though the feet are loose and doesn’t fit. At any rate, this once cheap plastic gashapon set and the diecast GT now command prices starting at P2,000 ($40) each and up.

Next: Voltes V GX: Soul of Chogokin

New wave diary entry #1: Liverpool

2009-07-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Listening to music is an emotional experience. Sometimes I select a band to set a mood, other times I pick an album for precisely the mood already working on me. When I’m angry I listen to punk. When I’m happy, new wave. Music that follows the anarchic sound of the Sex Pistols is “punk”, music that tends toward the more polished sound of Joy Division is “new wave”. For some strange reason, English new wave acts--specifically early Liverpool bands--provoke a specific mood in me. As REM would put it: a shiny-happy-people-laughing/holding-hands kind of feeling.

And that mood was started by The Teardrop Explodes (1978) which got their name from a Daredevil comic book. Its members included future Echo and the Bunnymen (1978) vocalist Ian McCulloch and keyboardist Paul Simpson who, together with guitarist Jeremy Kelly, formed The Wild Swans (1980). Kelly went on to form The Lotus Eaters (1982) while Simpson founded Care (1983) with guitarist Ian Broudie. Parting with Simpson over musical differences, Broudie began recording alone under the name The Lightning Seeds (1989), and the rest they say is British indie-slash-alternative rock history.

Trivia: Care wrote a song called “Chandeliers” which was ripped off by local band Orange and Lemons as “Pinoy Ako” for reality TV show Pinoy Big Brother back in 2006. They denied the allegation, but considering the group wasn’t even aware--or so they claimed--that their moniker was derived from an album by another UK wave outfit XTC, what more could you expect?

Soundtrack: “Liar” by the Sex Pistols

Voltes V ST Chogokin: Heeere’s Junior!

2009-07-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

Now that you’ve read about the big Voltes V DX, let’s check out its kid brother--the Voltes V ST. As with most deluxe diecast super robots of the time, a smaller and simpler Chogokin ST (standard) version was also made by Popy-Japan for its Godaikin and Popinika toy lines. Dubbed the GA-80 and released in the same year (1977), the ST is a 6-inch plus scaled-down replica of the towering DX and weighs more than 1/4 kg.

Compared to the DX, the ST figure has less detail and minimal transformation ability. Though it can form the “Voltank”, the ST is stuck in robot mode and cannot volt out into five separate vehicles like the DX. The main feature of the ST’s Voltank mode--which is not found in the DX--is its ability to fire the Volt Crewzer head part like a large missile by pushing a button. Incidentally, the Voltank mode is a Popy toy creation and can’t be seen in the original Voltes V TV anime by Toei.

While the ST kept the spring-loaded arms, they don’t bend at the elbow joints as in the DX--with the forearms and hands in one piece. As one might expect, transforming the ST from Voltank to robot mode is a simple process, largely involving turning the feet and treads around. In spite of the surface details being basically cosmetic, it can’t be denied that the ST looks solid as the DX in robot mode--with leg articulation more impressive than the DX, thanks to Popy’s “walking” knee joints.

Included accessories with the Voltes V ST are two red “M”-shaped sword hilts (one extra and one on the chest), two chrome blades that go into the hilt (like in the DX Volt-In Box), and four blue firing fists. While the ST pales in comparison with the larger DX, it does display nicely in its own right--Japanese craftsmanship and quality overcoming a few potential snags. And as ST vintage toys from the late ‘70s go, this Voltes V incarnation can also be a bit expensive--with selling price starting at P10,000 ($200).

Thanks to JoshB of CollectionDX for most of the photos.

Voltes V DX Godaikin/Popinika: Let’s volt in!

2009-07-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

I’m a martial law baby. Born a year after Philippine military rule was imposed in 1972 by the Marcos dictatorship, I grew up watching Japanese super robot cartoons in the 70s. Mazinger Z, Grendizer, Daimos, you name it. I can still shout the name of some popular weapon attacks a super robot would use like: “Rocketooo puuunch!” “Breastooo fiiire!” “Double blizzaaard!”

But nothing appeals to me more than Voltes V. For one, it hit our living room in 1977--the same year that punk rock broke! And then there’s the toy that hit the stores in the same year, making it every boy’s childhood dream and every parent’s financial nightmare. Considered by many Pinoys to be the masterpiece and god of diecast super robot toys in the 70s, I now present to you Voltes V--old school edition.

Made by Popy (Bandai)-Japan in 1977, the first version of Voltes V came out in five separate green Japanese boxes and blue for the second release (less expensive), with the following product numbers and names in its Popinika line: PB-04 Volt Crewzer, PB-05 Volt Bomber, PB-06 Volt Panzer, PB-07 Volt Frigate, and PB-08 Volt Lander.

Later in the same year, the five Volt machines were combined and released in a Japanese DX (deluxe) Volt-In Box. This boxed-set version included two full swords instead of one segmented blade that came with the separately packaged PB-06 Volt Panzer. Likewise, subsequent versions of the Bomber came with red arm joints instead of yellow (and more expensive) ones.

Finally, in 1982, Voltes V was repackaged into the English volt-in box and brought to the U.S. under the Godaikin toy line. Throughout its run, aside from subtle variations in vehicle stickers and colors, there were minor packaging changes like black trays instead of blue, different locations or the absence of pen and book accessories, as well as the small rubber beast fighters.

First, let’s have a rundown of the five Volt machines. The following descriptions and instructions--as well as most of the photos here--were lifted in part from JoshB’s toy review at CollectionDX:

Volt Crewzer is the red ship that makes up the head of Voltes V. It features small chrome missile launchers under each wingtip and three fold-out wheels. Included with it are six small yellow missiles. This is the only Volt machine to feature a visible pilot in the cockpit and a yellow canopy that opens up--the other four have fixed ones. Be careful, however, of the plastic joint that connects the front and rear of the vehicle as it is very fragile and prone to breaking.

Volt Bomber forms the arms and hands of Voltes V. The vehicle comes with a pair of blue fists that fire from the spring-loaded forearms. It also includes a spinning black/gray/red ultramagnetic top, a string for the top, a firing chrome chain knuckle, and a tail section with a spinning rotor. Two sets of fixed wheels are found in the rear while a landing gear folds down in front. This is the only Volt machine that doesn’t carry any missiles.

Volt Panzer is the tank-like vehicle that forms the torso of Voltes V. It features a pair of articulated red claws, working rubber treads around two sets of wheels, a detachable red “M”-shaped sword hilt on the chest, and firing missiles. Included with it are six big yellow missiles and three chrome sword segments (if boxed separately). Watch out for the black rubber treads as they tend to deteriorate/harden over time and begin to crack/crumble.

Volt Frigate forms the legs of Voltes V. It features four missile launchers--two on both wings and two that pop out under the antennas. The wings fold out and the three landing gears fold up. Included with the vehicle are two chrome satellite antennas, six big blue missiles, and six small red missiles. When buying separate boxes, this is the hardest Volt machine to find.

Volt Lander forms the feet of Voltes V. The vehicle has six pairs of free-rolling black plastic wheels, retractable front magnets, opening black hatches, and drill missiles that fire from the sides and from the hatches. Included with it are two chrome antennas, six chrome missiles, two black plastic fuel hoses, and two white connectors for vehicle mode.

Ok now, leeet’s vooolt iiin! Holding the Panzer with the red sword hilt on the chest facing you, pull the tank legs/treads on the sides outward and rotate them from front to back. Insert the Bomber (cockpit first) into the opening on top of the Panzer until it clicks. Then, turn the Crewzer’s cockpit/front part upward so that Voltes V’s face is exposed, connecting the front landing gear below it with the tube at the rear of the Bomber (after removing its tail section first). Next, insert the cockpit of the Frigate into the base of the Panzer, clicking it into place. Moving on to the Lander, remove the white connector of the cockpits and separate it into two halves. Then, fold the cockpits downward until they lock. Finally, rotate the rear landing gears of the Frigate so that the Lander attaches to them.

In robot mode, Voltes V has a couple of weapons at its disposal. For the laser sword, remove the red hilt from the chest and slide the chrome blade into place (if segmented, assemble it first). Insert the chrome chain knuckle into a forearm in place of a fist and press the button to fire it. The same goes for the ultramagnetic top. Wound the string around it, pull, and watch the top spin and launch from a forearm. As for the robot’s “Voltank” mode, swing the treads around, bending the feet at the ankles, and see Voltes V roll like a giant tank. Not a remarkable transformation, but still fun nonetheless. And there you have it, 12 inches plus of heavy fucking metal (more than 1-1/2 kgs) and one hell of an expensive toy!

Trivia: With most removable parts often being lost, did you know that Voltes V DX accessories/replacement parts like missiles and antennas are sold at P1,000 ($20) up each? And did you know that a sealed, mint condition Voltes V DX Volt-In Box can start selling at P100,000 ($2,000) and above?

Next: Voltes V ST Chogokin: Heeere’s Junior!

Trip lang: Kinareer na opportunities

2009-07-19T01:57:00.000-07:00

A day before payday, July 14, I entertained the thought of making a career change. So I logged on to Shelfari and tried to impress some posters of “Help Wanted” ads in the discussion boards with my credentials. This is one of those headhunter ads posted by a hottie named !pinkadink:

Desperately seeking job applicants, muchos apologies for the repetitive cross posts
We are looking for a Products/Data Entry Specialist to be based in Makati on a five-month contractual basis.

Job Description
- Write, rewrite (if necessary) and format product description according to company-approved Product Style Guide.
- Proofread product description to ensure that copy is clear, complete and accurate.
- Research, gather and collate information from supplier or online.
- Contact suppliers to request or verify product information.
- Upload product description and prices to website.
- Update product description and prices when necessary.
- Review existing descriptions for necessary updates and/or improvements.
- Record all changes, updates, and rewrites done as they occur.
- Note and document all sources of information used as the basis for the update/rewrite.
- Keep track and maintain an organized file of all product information received from suppliers.
- Any other duties assigned by management.

Requirements
- College graduate of any four-year course, preferably in Journalism, Communications, Literature, Humanities, Liberal Arts and/or Multimedia Studies
- Excellent writing and oral communication skills
- Must be highly analytical with excellent reading comprehension skills
- Able to follow complex and detailed instructions
- Strong working knowledge of computer and online applications, including MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, etc.
- Geographical knowledge and/or passion for travel is a plus
- Highly organized, with excellent time management skills and able to multi-task
- Strong problem-solving, analytical and quantitative skills
- Adaptable to change and able to work under pressure
- Able to set priorities and meet deadlines
- Focused, goal-oriented and with a strong work ethic
- High standards of ethical and professional conduct

We can offer
- A competitive salary package
- Performance bonus
- Food and transportation allowance
- A fun yet professional environment

We are open to fresh grads and undergrads looking for internship
opportunities in the web and/or travel industry. Interested applicants
may email their resumes to xxxxx@xxxx-xxxxxxxxx.com.

And this is hippie’s reply to her:

pede po ba ko, mam?
--ako po’y isang hayskul gradweyt at may mataas na grado sa P.E. at music
--magaling po akong mag-inggles...lalo na pag lasing, at ayos naman po ang aking grammars at speling
--mahusay din po akong magsulat at mag-rewrite; natutunan ko po sa mabilisang pangongopya ng assignment at paggawa ng kodigo tuwing may exam
--ok din po ko sa proofreading...kase di bumababa sa 90 proof iniinom kong gin
--i’m also good in research, lahat ng email addresses at last names ng mga crush ko sa friendster na-google ko po
--madami din po kong contacts; mostly textmates at syempre, suppliers ng kung anu-anong bawal isulat dito
--uploading and updating is my game...di po lumalagpas ng 24 hours login ko sa friendster
--ayos din po ko sa “any other duties assigned by management”. kung di niyo po naitatanong, floor manager ako dati sa isang opisinang multinasyunal; di lang po mop, sanay din po ko mag-operate ng floor polisher
--excellent reading comprehension skills? paborito ko po ang Libre sa MRT at si Xerex ng Abante
--strong problem-solving skills...marami po kong problema sa buhay
--focused, goal-oriented? athletic din po ko; magaling ako sa basketball at bilyar
--high standards...highly organized...tamang-tama, lagi po kong high!
--a competitive salary package, food and transportation allowance...ayos! mahilig din po ko sa mga regalo at padalang package, not to mention pagkain: street food, junk food, you name it; and of course allowance, kahit wala pong salary basta meron nito: baon
--finally, a fun yet professional environment...masayahin po akong tao at isang environmentalis!

So do you think I’ll bag the job?

Soundtrack: “Career Opportunities” by the Clash

Goodbye Geocities! Hello Blogspot!

2009-07-19T01:46:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, July 10, I got this email from Yahoo telling me that they’re closing down GeoCities. I got three web sites running on their free servers since the late 90s. One is Bulacancorecords--my indie record label, another is Namatay Sa Ingay--all about the Pinoy punk scene, and the other is Teenage Anger Fanzine--my online personal zine.

Back in the day, publishing on the Internet meant setting up your own web site. In the spirit of DIY (do-it-yourself), most self-published punk writers like myself jumped on the GeoCities bandwagon and issued our zines online. Though there’s a gut-level difference between zines started on paper and those started online, we took to the web like alcoholics to gin bilog (also bulag).

With the advent of social networking and blogging, isolated web pages like those hosted by GeoCities turned out to be the kangkungan instead of the mainstream. Just as yesterday’s cut-and-paste paper zines are slowly being taken in by the less romantic online tambayans, GeoCities has lost its appeal as a favored means of expressing ideas for kids raised on Friendster and YouTube.

As the end of an era in online self-expression draws near, I’m moving out and moving in. To rephrase Hob Gadling in The Sandman Season of Mists: “Here’s to online friends, lost uploads, old emails, and the season of blogs; and may each and every one of us always give the Internet its due.” GeoCities is dead! Long live GeoCities!

http://www.geocities.ws/namataysaingay/index.html

http://www.oocities.org/teenageanger/index.html