The Wheel and Axle

On my way to Colombia last February, I had a 4-hour layover through Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. From there, I would fly for about 10 hours to São Paulo, Brazil and wait for about 8 hours before the final 6-hour leg to Bogota. Noooo, it wasn’t a long trip at all.

Ataturk Airport, 07 February 2016

I had a fleeting moment of paranoia on the plane from Manila to Istanbul, thinking about the France attacks, the geopolitical climate in Europe and the Middle East, as well as the pockets of terrorist and rebel activities in Turkey itself. What if something happened while I was in Ataturk Airport?

All fears and concerns were dispelled the moment I landed in Turkey and stepped out into the cold breeze. I love the cold. I’m from a tropical country, but I hate the heat and the damned humidity vehemently. This is why I loved traveling to Bulgaria during winter last January, and this is why I loved the cold breeze of Istanbul that dark morning just hours before sunrise.

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So as I recently wrote, I made a resolution way back to travel more, and in 2015, I did.

I created this video at the start of this year to highlight my travels last year and to spur me on to do more in 2016 and beyond.

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After several months of being unable to write here, I’m back!

Vitosha Mountain (Sofia, Bulgaria)

In the past, my procrastination has been excused by the reliable, “I’m sooo busy.” I shall rely on that again this time. It might be truer in this case, but it’s really no excuse.

Writers, after all… write.

Still, it has been an exciting flurry of activity. Aside from busy times at work, I found myself in Bulgaria, Colombia, and Indonesia during different times in the last six months.

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So I’ve been based outside of Metro Manila for about a month, with weekends generally reserved for dropping by. I would have thought that it would take me so much more time to getting used to living outside the capital (or thereabouts), but surprisingly, I’ve adjusted quite well – and the last couple of weekends have shown me why.

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Aswangan, Part 4: The Good, The Bad, and The Unseen

You gotta lick it.

5. Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles (2012). I’ve ranted enough about this, so see my thoughts here and here.

4. Manananggal, SRR (1984).

One of the true classics on this list, this is probably one of the scariest features in Pinoy cinema. Peque Gallaga directed this third segment of the seminal Shake, Rattle, & Roll film, which gave us two of the most famous local horror stories (this piece along with Pridyider). Showing early mastery of the genre, Gallaga would later follow through with many more aswang tales in both individual flicks as well as SRR features. This would set the standard for the aswang genre for generations to come, and its influence in future movies of the same theme would become apparent as time went by.

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Aswangan, Part 3: Don’t Tick Off The Tiktiks!

The release of Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, along with a review by Jessica Zafra, made me think what my favorite (and not-so-favorite) aswang movies are. Being a horror fanatic, I’ve always enjoyed aswang cinema and had not realized I’d watched so many across the years.

In these lists, I included the manananggal because, although I think them slightly distinct if not altogether different, many consider them under the “aswang” category. Besides, I’m not sure I could come up with enough manananggal movies separate from aswang movies, hee.

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Aswangan, Part 2: Tiktik-TAC, Tik-TAC

*** There Be Spoilers ***

At the heart of it, Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles is, rather than horror, really more of an action movie with some dark humor spread throughout in appropriate places. Its posters show an action hero battling the ferocious creatures of the night, and even its very tagline (“Ang pelikulang may puso… bituka, atay, at iba pang lamang-loob“) betrays the macabre humor waiting in the wings for those who expect straight-out horror. Its trailer also echoes more of an action-adventure movie, the type that is adapted from super-hero comic books.

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Aswangan, Part 1: The As-wunk Phenomenon

*** There Be Spoilers ***

No, not THAT “Tiktik.”

This year, the aswang makes an explosive comeback in media with the recent release of Erik Matti’s Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles. Which, upon realization, can be abbreviated “Tiktik: TAC.” It is an innovative movie that sets a new standard in local filmmaking and focuses on one of the most famous aswang types, the tiktik.

The tiktik, it is said, is an aswang that makes a bird-like sound (hence, its name) – with the sound being loud when the aswang is distant and growing faint as it approaches, confusing potential victims. Others claim the tiktik is not the aswang itself but the aswang’s familiar – a bird that basically heralds the coming of an aswang. Regardless, it usually perches at night upon rooftops, looking for a hole through which its long proboscis-like tongue can slither down to reach the belly of sleeping pregnant women.

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It’s Halloween season again, and all the ghouls and goblins are out and about asking for candies and coins. Although Westernized trick-or-treat Halloween has been a relatively recent local activity, mostly in affluent areas and/or malls, the season has always been a big deal here due to the Filipino counterpart, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day a.k.a. Undas. Hordes of people flock to the cemeteries to commemorate their loved ones, making a fiesta out of the whole thing – complete with food, drinks, and even gambling beside the nitso.

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