The Wheel and Axle

Today is May Day, an ancient spring festival for the Northern Hemisphere that had pagan roots (the Roman Floralia and the Germanic Hexennacht. However, as with many such ancient festivals, it has become both Christianized (with Catholics beginning May-long Marian devotions and celebrations) as well as secularized (with Western countries crowning the May Queen, among others).

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Yesterday, being a member of Babaylanes, Inc. (the alumni organization of UP Babaylan), I joined a meeting of various LGBT groups and allies. A number of these groups were part of the umbrella LGBT network Lagablab, including my two aforementioned orgs, although there were also plenty of representatives from non-Lagablab groups. There were also non-affiliated individuals. We all had one goal.

The meeting was held as a forum on what we as a community can further do to lobby support for the Anti-Discrimination Bill. As I’d previously noted, this important piece of legislation has been in congress for some time now, and the most recent version is the furthest the bill has made it so far. Of course, this being Philippine politics and all, interpellations kept on getting delayed and delayed until Congress went on hiatus in March.

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And these taxi companies have the gall to say Uber and Grab are taking away business from them. Reality check: TNVs provide the service that taxis have been unable to.

If the idiot taxi operators want their business to go up again, then they better start ridding themselves of these thugs and hooligans.

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I confess that I have never really read Margaret Atwood, not in full at least. My friend Deo is of course a fan, and he already piqued my interest when we first met in Jessica’s workshop a few years back. I still never got around to it, though.

This will soon change, I believe, after seeing the trailer for Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Just watching the trailer gives me goosebumps, especially given how relevant the story still is for the current global political climate despite having been written in 1985. And now, I definitely need to read the book before I jump into this series.

I get the feeling I’ll be in for a cross-media treat.

I have several all-time favorite sitcoms which I truly cannot rank. Almost all of them have retained a lot of pop culture recall either through continued reruns or reunion rumors. Golden Girls. Murphy Brown. The Nanny. Friends. Will & Grace. I Love Lucy.

A couple of these favorites, however, have not really had much discussion or attention since they ended. One is the under-rated and short-lived Veronica’s Closet, and the other is the wonderful Perfect Strangers.

Thankfully, the latter finally gets a revisit with the recent reunion of Mark Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot, aka Cousin Larry and Balki!

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I posted this on my personal Facebook account a year ago today. This was my tribute to a woman who helped raise me. It has been a year since she passed away, and I still miss her.

Not half an hour ago, I received a message from my mother telling me that my Manang Carmen, who was my yaya/nanny when I was growing up, has passed away.

Manang Carmen was my second mother. I was always close to my mom, but she was a breadwinner of the family and was always busy at work. So for the times Mama wasn’t around, Manang was always there. She’d always been there since I was literally a baby.

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I watched the original Kingsman: The Secret Service on a whim. I wasn’t even aware of what it was, but I was in the mall one day (when I was living in Pampanga for work) trying to think of what to do, and I checked out the available movies. The poster intrigued me, plus it was Colin Firth, so I went for it. And I’m glad I did because it turned out to be one of the best action/adventure spy movie I’d seen!

It also introduced me to the beautiful, young, and talented Taron Egerton and made me a fan for life. I also kind of want to marry him.

So boy am I excited to watch the sequel.

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Seriously, how could anyone not love Lucy? (And Ethel, of course.)

Absolute classic.

Mmm. Monday. Mmm. Michael.

A few months old, but still a great way to start the week.

Now that is just awesome. This guy spliced the ending of Rogue One with the opening of A New Hope, and you can see just how much attention to detail the Rogue One had to ensure seamlessness in its connection to A New Hope. They really could be just one movie.

I think it’s time for a little original Star Wars trilogy marathon.

“Rogue One” Spliced with “A New Hope” from Barre Fong on Vimeo.