The Wheel and Axle

Fran Drescher has always been and will always be an inspiration to me: funny, creative, and strong, all while having faced several tragedies in her life – including rape as well as cancer.

And now that I’ve seen this interview with Oprah from a few years ago, I appreciate her (and now, also her ex-husband) even more. As she says in this interview, “It’s turning lemons into lemonades and pain into purpose.”

May we all be as strong as this wonderful woman!

As my mentor Jessica taught me when I was developing my aswang novels, the best monster stories work on three levels… and I quote her notes to me back in 2013, “the horror tale, which should be scary/creepy as hell; the psychological, in which the monster embodies some part of the protagonist’s character that he denies or is not aware of; and the metaphorical, where the monster symbolizes some social reality. Hence Frankenstein: homicidal monster, creator with a god complex, the Industrial Revolution.”

Indeed, all the blood and gore and creep factors are great, but what elevates a tale are the added psychological and social dimensions that provide a richer experience for the audience. Otherwise, it’s just blood and gore and creep factors. This is why the likes of Dracula, The Vampire Chronicles, Lovecraft’s works, Stephen King’s novels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Penny Dreadful, Ringu, and Ju-On work so well. In the Filipino context, we see these layers in Ang Pamana: The Inheritance, Patayin sa Sindak Si Barbara, Sigaw, SRR2’s Aswang, Yanggaw, Dagim, and Trese, among many others.

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Less than 24 hours after I posted about how timely and relevant Madonna’s anti-war video American Life still was, an explosion hit Davao City’s Roxas Night Market, attributed to violent insurgents that have been preying upon the south for over a decade.

Whatever differences we might have, we all should strongly condemn this cowardly terrorist attack.

Vigilance is important. We should not be cowed.

We are the sovereign Filipino people.

I recently finally got to watch the banned version of Madonna’s music video for American Life.

As a Madonna fanatic, I’ll be the first to say that, when the song was released, I wasn’t exactly fond of it. It must’ve been the rap. Madonna, my queen, I love you, but unless it’s Vogue‘s spoken portion, please never rap again.

However, watching this banned video, hindsight once again schools me to show just how ahead of her time Madonna really was (and continues to be).

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Christmas is just around the corner. For Filipinos, anyway.

Are you ready for those jingles yet? 😄

Anyone who thinks male privilege and male oppression do not exist should see this perfect example that I came across.

Credits: LaSauvageJaune

Seriously, with these cultural standards, what’s a woman to do?

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Madonna + Ukrainian Gymnasts = Art Levels Up.

This was perfection, and I could watch it over and over again, endlessly wondering, “How the hell did they do that?” and simply just… applauding.

Video credits: BBC Sports

No amount of black propaganda or foolish attempts at historical revisionism will ever change the fact that Ninoy Aquino was a true hero of the sovereign Filipino people.

He was just one of the many victims of Martial Law, that atrocity that fools deign to underplay or – even worse – deny.

And yes, there were many victims. Tens of thousdands, in fact: tens of thousands of Filipinos tortured, raped, killed, or who simply vanished without a trace.

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Because there is no shortage of stupidity in any field, today I present to you a fine example of idiocy in the “academe.” I actually hesitate to call it the “academe” by sheer virtue of how utterly moronic this is, but all right, let’s accept the technicality.

On one hand, I could almost respect a (private) school’s right to ban whatever they want to…

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