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The Alem Fabcast, Part 2

Okay, so if you’re not sold on watching Ang Sayaw Ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa yet, then maybe listening to part two of our interview with Alem Ang, producer of the film, will get you even more interested.

In part two, Migs and Tony are joined by the late Gibbs and the even later McVie (D was also with me, but listened mostly to the discussion; he did contribute a comment or two later on). Here we discussed if the movie can be described as a “gay movie” or not, the art of the armpits of Rocco and Paulo, Rocco’s dancing, a couple of poems in the movie, and more kilig sa kilikili moments.

Listen and enjoy!

       

Download this fabcast (right click and save)

Music credits:
“Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” by Ultravox
“Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastorale,’ Cheerful gathering of country folk - Allegro” by Ludwig Van Beethoven; Christoph Von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra
“The De Lesseps’ Dance” (from the soundtrack of “Shakespeare In Love”) by Stephen Warbeck
“Waltz Of The Flowers” (from “The Nutcracker Suite”) by Peter Tchaikovsky
“Many Meetings” (from “The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring” soundtrack) by Howard Shore

 * * * * *

And if the Fabcast still doesn’t convince you to watch, then these pictures will! (*All photos from the Sayaw Facebook page.)

An Open Letter By The Fabcasters

Hello friends,

For some time now our friend and fellow Fabcaster, AJ Matela (of “Bakla Ako, May Reklamo” at http://baklaako.com) has been quite sick. Upon the advise of doctors, he has resigned from work and is now focused on getting his body back in shape. But he’s finding out the hard way just how tough this battle is going to be.

Some time ago AJ contracted mycobacterium avium complex. Nodules have been discovered in his lungs, and he has been coughing a lot. Immediate treatment is necessary to halt the spread of the disease. It means he needs to submit himself to several lab tests plus new multiple medicines on top of the daily ones he’s currently taking.

And today, Aug. 18, 2011, just after lunch, AJ was rushed to the emergency room. He has difficulty breathing on his own; on top of that, he has diarrhea. His weight has gone significantly down. AJ is currently confined in Medical Center Manila along UN Avenue.

All this time he has relied only on his family and relatives for help. All this time he’s kept details of his medical condition to just them. But it has now reached a point when help from relatives, generous as they have been, is not enough. Because he has resigned from work, he doesn’t have any health card to bank on.

All his life AJ has always prided himself on being self-reliant and self-sufficient. But now he realizes that he cannot do this alone. So now, as close friends of AJ, we turn to you for help.

Friends, at this point we appreciate any and every assistance we can receive. And with God’s help, plus your generosity and prayers, we hope for AJ to bounce back soon. You can personally send your help to me or any of the Fabcasters.

Joel McVie (on behalf of the other Fabcasters)

Whining In Unison

Let me begin with several clarifications. I am happy for the Philippine Dragon Warriors for bagging 5 gold medals and 2 silver medals. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the hard work and dedication that the Warriors have exhibited, all for the love of the sport, dragonboat racing. And D has also taken up rowing.

Also, I am neither a big fan of the Azkals nor of soccer. (I am a bigger fan of male players as underwear models, but that’s a whole different story.)

But the recent flooding of tweets and Facebook statuses pitting the Philippine Dragonboat team and the Azkals have made me somewhat wary of the paddlers’ online supporters. It’s great to be passionate, but I just wish their zeal be tempered by some good old fashioned common sense.

My beef started with all of the whining and the woe-is-us attitude that have accompanied the dragonboat press. The local media happily picked it up and made a spin on how the paddlers went into competition with no support and no sponsors. It has gotten to the point that my housemate, when he found out that D had taken up rowing, said, “Di ba yung RP team nanalo? Kawawa naman sila ‘no, hindi sila sinuportahan ng gobyerno.” Even from an average Juan’s point of view, the dragonboaters are better known as the kawawa team who gave the country honor.

Wait a minute here. They had Cobra Energy Drink and Philippine Airlines as sponsors. Sure, those two alone may not have been enough to cover all the expenses of the athletes, but that’s better than none. More importantly, they were still able to fly and compete.

Many of our athletes do not get a lot of financial support from the government, even if these athletes bring honor to our country. The reality is, when you talk of limited public funds you run into the problem of which to prioritize. Sports? The arts? Public utilities? Health? Reproductive health? Military and national security? Transportation?

The dragonboat supporters cry, “Unfair!” when they see how Manny Pacquiao and the PBA are seemingly prioritized more, both by government and private sponsors. Well, tough luck. You mean the three Bs (boxing, billiards and basketball) are more popular and more familiar with more Filipinos? Deal with it. So the Azkals are more billboard-friendly than your athletes? Deal with it. There are just too many sports, too many teams and too many players for the government to subsidize. Deal with it. The world is unfair, but I don’t hear our sepak takraw athletes whining (at least, not yet).

In 1987, President Cory Aquino had the daunting task of rebuilding the Philippine economy after decades of plunder by the Marcoses and their cronies. One of the first things she sacrificed was culture and the arts; in the budget she submitted to Congress, government subsidies for the arts were slashed mercilessly. 

I got a job at the Cultural Center of the Philippines the following year, and I saw first-hand how the CCP tried its best to maximize whatever monies they had. Yes, many of the artists decried Cory’s decision at first. And yet, after all that whining for support and pining for the good old days when Imelda was the patron saint (and primary purse) of the arts, the artists eventually just shut up and worked. They worked on getting corporate sponsorships. They worked on getting subsidies from abroad. And all the while they also worked on their craft. And despite the lack of government support, even up to today we still develop world-class Filipino artists, in ballet, theater, music and visual arts. (And an occasional Mideo Cruz, but I digress.)

If you really think about the bigger picture, a group of paddlers wailing “What about us?” pales in comparison to more urgent national issues. I wish they and their supporters stop bellyaching and crying to the government like a kid dependent on his parents’ baon, shut up and just start raising money on their own.

And as for their supporters, they should be more constructive instead of divisive. If they really believe that the dragonboat team deserves support, then maybe they should stop reposting and instead donate 1000 pesos to the team. Why wait for the government to decide to use taxpayers’ money on the team? It’s our money anyway, might as well give it directly to the athletes.

Support ba ka’mo? Then put your money where your mouth is.

Big

At the Love Yourself Open Call Photoshoot, one of the organizers grabbed my arm and introduced me to one of their volunteers.

“McVie, this is O,” he said. “He has a crush on you.”

Then another organizer told me almost the same thing: “Hey, have you met O? You’re his type!”

I checked O out. Pleasant enough face, quiet type, seems like the kind who will quietly blend with the background if you let him. Nice ass. It’s not everyday that I find out that someone has a crush on me; I was never the crushable type. So I played nonchalantly and engaged O in conversation.

“So how did you get to be a volunteer here?” I asked.

He was hesitant at first. “I was invited by Sir He Who Will Remain Nameless For Reasons That Will Become Obvious Later to volunteer for this event,” he replied.

“Oh!” I said. “And how come you know He Who Will Remain Nameless For Reasons That Will Become Obvious Later?”

O smiled. “We’re both members of Big Manila.”

“What’s Big Manila?” I asked, naively.

“It’s an online community for chubs and chub-chasers.”

TOINKZ!

Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find... out the answer, with a vengeance! LOL

So I wondered how he’d react to my next sentence. Smiling broadly, I asked him (again) nonchalantly, “So chubby pala ako?”

He just smiled.

Letche, hahaha! But come to think of it, even D said to me one time out of the blue, “Hon, I think I’m becoming a chub chaser.” I was going to pinch his singit but I realized he might actually like that.

Shet. Love Yourself ba ka’mo, ha? Ano nga yung letcheng URL ng Big Manila?! Charoz.

Shock Therapy

What’s the big deal with being shocked or offended? Watch the following clip of author Philip Pullman on freedom of speech:

(Okay, okay, so your internet connection sucks. For those people, here is his soundbite: “No one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if they open it and read it, they don’t have to like it. And if you read it and you dislike it, you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write to me. You can complain about it. You can write to the publisher. You can write to the papers. You can write your own book. You can do all those things. But there your rights stop. Nobody has the right to stop me writing this book. Nobody has the right to stop it being published, or sold, or bought, or read.”)

What struck me most were his first two sentences. If we are to champion democracy and freedom of speech, then we must be ready to be shocked, offended and presented with ideas different or even contrary to ours. That is the price we pay.

What democracy champions is a free market of ideas. In such a state, people are free to discuss, debate and even agree to disagree on ideas. What democracy does not tolerate is vandalism, threats of physical harm and the bullying of one Church over ideas contrary to theirs.

Of course, that is in an ideal world where adults are supposed to think in a mature way and act in a decent manner. Watching the Senate hearings on art and the Mideo Cruz exhibit issue, I’m woefully reminded of how much Reality bites.