I'm sure it does. And I'm not just bored today. I exist in an unrelenting state of boredom.
So what does Inquirer's Super tell me to do? Clean up my room! Throw away things that don't fit my definition of beauty and being useful! Move twenty-seven things around my house! And that, apparently, will unblock my qi (which is apparently how chi is really spelt) and make me less bored. *rolls eyes*
Next page. I'm bored because I'm go-with-the-flow, unlike all the great people found in the pages of Super! You mean the generic pretty people making sure their abs are well-focused on in the who's-in-Bora photo section? Or their columnist who calls himself an *ahem* "eventologist"? Yeah. Real envelope-pushing types. The only thing more annoying than the see-and-be-seen set is the see-and-be-seen-pseudo-intellectuals. Please. Using British slang instead of American does not a better person make. You can practically hear the thesaurus pages flipping while these goofs search for big, self-important words to use.
But what to do? We live in a boring country, no ifs or buts about it. And so long as individuality and assertiveness remain qualities frowned upon by society in general, we're going to stay that way. Social and cultural development will continue catering to the group instead of the individual, and we will remain stuck in the office/school-mall-bahay-'di-ako-pinayagan-ni-mommy routine.
So, till society falls, and a more interesting one is born, bring on the mind-altering chemicals.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Why in Hell Do I Watch Six Feet Under?
More reprinting. Para may laman naman ang blog.
From Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Now don't get me wrong. It's a fantastic show. But as I was watching the new season premiere, I couldn't help noticing what complete whack jobs they all are. Let's break it down:
And before anything, to set the weird mood, they run a funeral home.
Nate Jr. Just lost his wife. Who drowned. Whom he married because he'd knocked up. Who, while his wife was still missing, and not declared dead, went around screwing random women, including the daughter of a serial killer. Who, before the marriage, had just ended a most toxic relationship with Brenda (we'll get to her later).
Claire. First boyfriend - druggie, knocks over 7-11's, gets killed violently. Second boyfriend- knocks her up, has sex with her (male) professor. She aborts the child, of course.
David. Doormat. In a completely toxic relationship with Keith, who is eternally grumpy. Breaks up with him after "coming out" to his family. Comes out to the world in general. Dates a bunch of guys who are into him, but who he isn't into. Gets arrested with a male hooker. Has his ex bail him out. Gets back together with his ex and immediately begins to squabble with him over inane things. Gets into a fistfight with him, after which they promptly screw. Has a three-way with him and this guy I totally didn't think was gay. Has a big fight with him at Keith's family's place. Leaves in a huff. Screws someone else. Is now broken up(?) with Keith.
Ruth. Missed her sexual twenties because she got knocked up by Nate Sr. and had to marry him. Has now spent most of the time since his death shagging. She actually seems to have the most active sexlife of the four... Her hitlist includes: her hairdresser, whom she was having an affair with when Nate Sr. was alive and began seeing openly upon his death. She shagged him once while (mistakenly) high on E. That's over. Nikolai, her old boss at the flower shop she worked at. That seems to have just been sex. Also over. The freaky mortician they just hired. No sex there though. Also over. She's now married to George, a guy she hasn't known for very long. Their "honeymoon night" kept the whole house up.
Brenda. My favorite. A genius. Completely damaged by her psychologist parents who spent her whole childhood studying her and passing her on to other friends to study. Had her and her brother's childhood bandied around in a book for all the world to see. Had to miss college to take care of her bipolar brother who only listens to her. Her brother, incidently is in love with her. Not loves her. Is in love with her. Has parents who were openly having affairs till the dad died. Had a sex addiction and went around shagging anything with a dick and a pulse. As she's recovering from that and finally meeting a decent guy, Nate re-enters her life and it looks like they're on the verge of restarting their toxic relationship.
Federico. Employee and now partner. Seemed the most normal. Till we see his family: his wife, depressed over her mom's death and post-partuming. His big macho married cousin, whom he thinks is shagging his wife while renovating their house. Till he catches him shagging another man in the house. Having a non-affair with a stripper, whom he got a blowjob from, whom he confessed to a priest about, and whom he's now seeing and getting gifts for, even though he doesn't want to shag anymore.
Nate Sr. Dies in the first episode. Appears as a ghost/imaginary whatever to everyone. Accepted favors from clients who couldn't pay including a rent-free room in the back of a store where he'd have pot sessions, with his family none the wiser. Currently torments Nate on the meaninglessness of life, David on the morality of being gay, Claire... well he likes her, and Ruth, for shagging other men.
Now why would I watch this? Everyone seems rife with emotionally masochistic tendencies, constantly seeking out relationships and situations that will hurt themselves. I suppose there's an element of morbid fascination and voyeurism here, akin to watching a car accident. Its awful but you can't tear yourself away. Plus, the thrill of seeing if they can possibly manage to screw their lives up more than they already have. Oh wait. They can.
But I watch. Because as extreme as the situations they are in, I know they're just extreme versions of what happens to a lot of us. Because just like them, everyone seems completely normal on the surface, and is completely abnormal just beneath. Because there is no normal. Abnormal is normal. Because watching them is like watching yourself, I suppose.
But mostly I watch because its real. And fun. And completely insane. Go catch it.
From Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Now don't get me wrong. It's a fantastic show. But as I was watching the new season premiere, I couldn't help noticing what complete whack jobs they all are. Let's break it down:
And before anything, to set the weird mood, they run a funeral home.
Nate Jr. Just lost his wife. Who drowned. Whom he married because he'd knocked up. Who, while his wife was still missing, and not declared dead, went around screwing random women, including the daughter of a serial killer. Who, before the marriage, had just ended a most toxic relationship with Brenda (we'll get to her later).
Claire. First boyfriend - druggie, knocks over 7-11's, gets killed violently. Second boyfriend- knocks her up, has sex with her (male) professor. She aborts the child, of course.
David. Doormat. In a completely toxic relationship with Keith, who is eternally grumpy. Breaks up with him after "coming out" to his family. Comes out to the world in general. Dates a bunch of guys who are into him, but who he isn't into. Gets arrested with a male hooker. Has his ex bail him out. Gets back together with his ex and immediately begins to squabble with him over inane things. Gets into a fistfight with him, after which they promptly screw. Has a three-way with him and this guy I totally didn't think was gay. Has a big fight with him at Keith's family's place. Leaves in a huff. Screws someone else. Is now broken up(?) with Keith.
Ruth. Missed her sexual twenties because she got knocked up by Nate Sr. and had to marry him. Has now spent most of the time since his death shagging. She actually seems to have the most active sexlife of the four... Her hitlist includes: her hairdresser, whom she was having an affair with when Nate Sr. was alive and began seeing openly upon his death. She shagged him once while (mistakenly) high on E. That's over. Nikolai, her old boss at the flower shop she worked at. That seems to have just been sex. Also over. The freaky mortician they just hired. No sex there though. Also over. She's now married to George, a guy she hasn't known for very long. Their "honeymoon night" kept the whole house up.
Brenda. My favorite. A genius. Completely damaged by her psychologist parents who spent her whole childhood studying her and passing her on to other friends to study. Had her and her brother's childhood bandied around in a book for all the world to see. Had to miss college to take care of her bipolar brother who only listens to her. Her brother, incidently is in love with her. Not loves her. Is in love with her. Has parents who were openly having affairs till the dad died. Had a sex addiction and went around shagging anything with a dick and a pulse. As she's recovering from that and finally meeting a decent guy, Nate re-enters her life and it looks like they're on the verge of restarting their toxic relationship.
Federico. Employee and now partner. Seemed the most normal. Till we see his family: his wife, depressed over her mom's death and post-partuming. His big macho married cousin, whom he thinks is shagging his wife while renovating their house. Till he catches him shagging another man in the house. Having a non-affair with a stripper, whom he got a blowjob from, whom he confessed to a priest about, and whom he's now seeing and getting gifts for, even though he doesn't want to shag anymore.
Nate Sr. Dies in the first episode. Appears as a ghost/imaginary whatever to everyone. Accepted favors from clients who couldn't pay including a rent-free room in the back of a store where he'd have pot sessions, with his family none the wiser. Currently torments Nate on the meaninglessness of life, David on the morality of being gay, Claire... well he likes her, and Ruth, for shagging other men.
Now why would I watch this? Everyone seems rife with emotionally masochistic tendencies, constantly seeking out relationships and situations that will hurt themselves. I suppose there's an element of morbid fascination and voyeurism here, akin to watching a car accident. Its awful but you can't tear yourself away. Plus, the thrill of seeing if they can possibly manage to screw their lives up more than they already have. Oh wait. They can.
But I watch. Because as extreme as the situations they are in, I know they're just extreme versions of what happens to a lot of us. Because just like them, everyone seems completely normal on the surface, and is completely abnormal just beneath. Because there is no normal. Abnormal is normal. Because watching them is like watching yourself, I suppose.
But mostly I watch because its real. And fun. And completely insane. Go catch it.
Random-ities v1.0
Actually Che, ang real blog ko nasa myspace. Pero ililpat ko siya sa actual blog site. Wais 'di ba?
Tinatamad akong mag-post ng bago so magre-reprint ako a la isang dating colleague na tinamad magsulat ng article kaya nag-reprint din.
From Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Note to my neighbors: Wreaths or parols around your house - okay Christmas decor. Outlining a huge star in Christmas lights on your wall - vaguely satanic. Unless you really are going for a pentagram effect. In which case, I should probably be careful passing your house...
Yes, Christmas is but a few weeks away. I'm up to my neck in sappy Christmas songs. The other day, I passed a bunch of people dressed in (ugh) green and red, one of them armed with a guitar. Obviously carolers. And we're getting empty envelopes from total strangers expecting money. You know its the holidays when total strangers try to mooch off of you. No wonder the grinch stole Christmas. I wonder if he does Manila...?
And oh yes! I'm freezing my balls off. My sister would probably tell me this is nothing, but then again, she actually spent a year studying in the frozen West. I, on the other hand, haven't spent a day outside Asia, and have spent the past thirteen years in Manila, one of the hottest and most humid cities this side of hell. Any temperature dip below 20 degrees C is freezing for me.
So, more on the floods. Apparently, 1200 are feared dead, not just 600. And apparently, we already have had a selective log ban in place for years, obviously not much help. So I guess I'm leaning towards a total log ban. We may have to import wood but that's better than having loads of people dying, eh? And there's always tree farming. On the up side, a bunch of people were pulled out alive from a house that'd been buried in landslide mud for ten days. May we hear more such stories.
On the more self-centered side, thanks to the storms, I missed the NU Rock Awards. My friend had free VIP tickets, one of them with my name on it. Free. VIP. Tickets. God damn. Why'd those morons go on with the show anyway? At the height of a supertyphoon at that. People could've had electric poles dropped on them getting there.
I finally got my Queen of the Damned CD after many, many years. Now that's the best collection of seduce-me rock songs I've ever heard. I especially liked "System" by that Linkin Park guy Chester Bennington, "Before I'm Dead" by this group called the kidneythieves, and Deftones' "Change (In the House of Flies)" which, by the by, also got used in this really neat gunfight scene on Alias. Gets me all hot and bothered listening to them LOL.
So, what I thought was a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 actually turns out to be a good show. My other sister was watching Third Watch in my room the other day. So I sat down and watched it and it was pretty neat. And I watched it this week too. We'll see where this is going.
Later.
Tinatamad akong mag-post ng bago so magre-reprint ako a la isang dating colleague na tinamad magsulat ng article kaya nag-reprint din.
From Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Note to my neighbors: Wreaths or parols around your house - okay Christmas decor. Outlining a huge star in Christmas lights on your wall - vaguely satanic. Unless you really are going for a pentagram effect. In which case, I should probably be careful passing your house...
Yes, Christmas is but a few weeks away. I'm up to my neck in sappy Christmas songs. The other day, I passed a bunch of people dressed in (ugh) green and red, one of them armed with a guitar. Obviously carolers. And we're getting empty envelopes from total strangers expecting money. You know its the holidays when total strangers try to mooch off of you. No wonder the grinch stole Christmas. I wonder if he does Manila...?
And oh yes! I'm freezing my balls off. My sister would probably tell me this is nothing, but then again, she actually spent a year studying in the frozen West. I, on the other hand, haven't spent a day outside Asia, and have spent the past thirteen years in Manila, one of the hottest and most humid cities this side of hell. Any temperature dip below 20 degrees C is freezing for me.
So, more on the floods. Apparently, 1200 are feared dead, not just 600. And apparently, we already have had a selective log ban in place for years, obviously not much help. So I guess I'm leaning towards a total log ban. We may have to import wood but that's better than having loads of people dying, eh? And there's always tree farming. On the up side, a bunch of people were pulled out alive from a house that'd been buried in landslide mud for ten days. May we hear more such stories.
On the more self-centered side, thanks to the storms, I missed the NU Rock Awards. My friend had free VIP tickets, one of them with my name on it. Free. VIP. Tickets. God damn. Why'd those morons go on with the show anyway? At the height of a supertyphoon at that. People could've had electric poles dropped on them getting there.
I finally got my Queen of the Damned CD after many, many years. Now that's the best collection of seduce-me rock songs I've ever heard. I especially liked "System" by that Linkin Park guy Chester Bennington, "Before I'm Dead" by this group called the kidneythieves, and Deftones' "Change (In the House of Flies)" which, by the by, also got used in this really neat gunfight scene on Alias. Gets me all hot and bothered listening to them LOL.
So, what I thought was a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 actually turns out to be a good show. My other sister was watching Third Watch in my room the other day. So I sat down and watched it and it was pretty neat. And I watched it this week too. We'll see where this is going.
Later.
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