when you think the gods are playing games with you...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I chanced upon Javvy at the computer the other day watching this...
I found this quite hilarious and I want to share this with you guys.
This is for the days when you think the gods above are messing with you, and hopefully they aren't.

So, if you feel like it's not your day, just laugh it off like I did with this one.


Thus spake, The Barefoot Baklesa

"Were The World Mine" [the Barefoot Baklesa Review]

What happens when an eccentric English teacher decides to stage Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" wherein the fairy Puck, is played by a fairy in the queer sense?

The Bard meets coming-out in this gay journey -and by gay- they literally break into song and dance that is unlike any musical about teenagers doing a musical. "Were the World Mine" is director Tom Gustafson's take on the Bard's most popular play of four lovers getting mixed up by a playful fairy [I just love using that word today]; cleverly blending the dynamics of Shakespeare's characters into the homophobic world in which Timothy [Tanner Cohen] sticks out like a sore thumb -bullied by the jocks, misunderstood by his own mother, and finding solace in the closet -LITERALLY, he retreats inside his room closet. Classic fairy tale, right? [there I go again, hehehehehe...]


But what is a fairy tale without magic? I believe that inside each and every one of us lives something the bard called "love-in-idleness" [if you've read/know the play, you know what I mean; but if you haven't, take it as it is] and it may take a little fairy dust to awaken it -and it's not always a purple flower as Oberon knows it to be. Not to give away anything too much, let's just say Timothy comes upon this magic to which he has the power to simply make someone love another.


"If you could make someone love you, would you?"

Sick and tired of being the odd one out [get it, "odd one OUT"?], Timothy has his way with this newfound power, and does what Puck would, finds himself in the loving arms of the Jonathan the Jock [Nathaniel David Becker], and makes sure he's not the only fairy out there. Personally, I just love the way the wit of Shakespeare's play bleeds into the film's writing ever so subtly.

When the lines of gender are blurred, and social conventions are thrown out the window, Timothy's postcard perfect suburban town finds itself in the midst of the homosexual threat. Trust me, it's not as serious as I have typed away. But it is indeed a mess of Shakespearean proportions.

Yet one wild night of doing mischief in the wood, is just that, one night. And when all else that seems romantic the moonlight submits itself to the harsh light of the sun, some things are better left to the night. But I ask you, not to be discouraged by that last sentence for there is some magic left for our fairy, and Love being the most potent magic of all leaves a few more surprises.

The rest I leave to thee...

thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

On the Feast of the Black Nazarene...

[the wooden statue that draws millions to the the streets of Quiapo has a devotion that is over three centuries old. image courtesy of Dennis Villegas]

Today, over two million devotees will make their way to the old Manila district of Quiapo where upon those narrow and labyrinthine streets a wooden image of Jesus Christ bearing the cross called the Black Nazarene or Poong Nazareno [Poon translates to "lord"] will be processed on what I personally claim to be the longest a religious image takes to complete an entire procession cycle.



If you are a Filipino and a Filipino Catholic for that matter, you know how these processions are expected to end from anywhere between eight to twelve hours after it begins at noon. The sea of people and devotees in bare feet pulling and tugging at the rope that goes before the carriage [called Carroza in the local Hispanized vernacular], and the motion that seems to explode in all directions as people try to hang on to the rope while moving the procession forward as some attempt to climb and touch the wooden image of Christ, are images immortal to this Feast.



A few years ago, The Barefoot Baklesa absent-mindedly headed to Quiapo on the actual feast day of the Black Nazarene, and he was unprepared for the sight he would behold. Coming down from Palanca Street did I realize that it was the famed day when once a year, that black wooden image would grace the streets of the old Manila district. Why is it black you ask?

Well, there are a few legends associated to the tint of the skin on the statue. Some say it was due to the fires that struck Quiapo Church in the 1700s and some time in the 1920s, others say it was due to the dark wood they carved the image out of, then there's that of the galleon that brought it here having been set fire to, or that one where the Black Nazarene was brought to the country with a Black Seated Christ Crowned with Thorns [Cristo de la Pacencia being the title of the iconography here] which was housed in the nearby church of San Sebastian, which perished in the fires of the war.

[one of the many replicas of the Black Nazarene makes its way through the streets of Quiapo; hundreds of such images usually follow the main image throughout the procession. photo courtesy of docarlonasol]

But, I'm getting carried away again...

I guess other that the fact that Quiapo is such a melting-pot worthy of Socio-Anthropological study where contrasting worlds seem to stand side by side with a magic all it's own, Quiapo was the place where I got jolted -so to speak- to a Genuine Spiritual State.

As I stood there frozen, the tail end of the explosive crowd that bore the the wooden image of Christ passing before me, at that moment, there was this humming silence as the crowd moved on; and for what seemed like an eternity crammed in mere seconds, I felt as if God himself had walked the Earth and just passed by in front of me... Still sends chills down my spine a few years on -also this is the first time I am writing about it.

I wish thee all the blessings that come with this day.

thus spake The Barefoot Baklesa

TEN THINGS IN MY GAY MIND: end of year special

I obviously have not done this in a while; ergo I found it fitting that as the year draws to a close, that the Barefoot Baklesa posts one before the new year...

10. The Travesty that comes with Suffrage or should we call it SuffERage is upon us once again. The claws are out and the fangs are bared, as the monsters that are every Politician and Political Wannabe with enough spending power hath made their presence felt.

From the screeching of Regine Velasquez singing a worn out slogan ["Hindi Ka Nag-iisa"] that was better left in the 80s; to Erap Estrada's gloom and doom television ad signalling his return and the bad things that come with him; to Villar's sing-along videos that teaches us that former fish vendors must marry rich women with two episodes of Maala-ala Mo Kaya to support it; and special mention goes to Eddie Villanueva which summarizes to "Eddie Ako ang Nahihibang" [Dude, nobody made you president last time. Get a clue] "Eddie Ako and Walang Originality [What's with wearing color yellow? The last I checked, the Aquinos have worn that as a political color since the 80s... You don't know who you're messing with. Don't you know that Kris Aquino can throw you into media purgatory?]; all these are but signs that the dark cloud of National Elections are hovering over the islands.

And my latest pet peeve, I saw a tarpaulin ad of some local councilman that goes like this: "NINOY BIG BROTHER DOUBLE UP" -complete with the house and logo of the popular reality television show. Can anyone spell COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT? If the elect politicians themselves have/display a blatant disregard for basic laws, then we should think twice about what else he has no regard for.



Oh heaven help us... For I think we have not seen the last of Mar Roxas' constipated acting.

9. I'm thinking of recommending to have someone submitted for psychiatric evaluation or better yet, admitted to a psychiatric institution... will blog about this more soon... I think the United States Immigration Bureau takes the mental health of their people coming into their country seriously. Hahahahahaha!!!

8. Truly, someone like Efren Penaflorida deserves the honor of a CNN Hero and CNN Hero of the Year. There's much to be said about Filipino creativity and ingenuity with what he was able to come up with and continue to do. Hats off to you, brother!



However, this is my take on this: During one of my Sociology classes at the Ateneo long ago, our professor once said that, "We must never use education as the ready answer to society's problems." It seems easy to say, "Get them educated and they'll know better" but education doesn't really do much if the system and socio-dynamic to which they exist is not conducive to any kind of solution to the problem. Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

It's not easy what you do, Efren... I'm praying that you have enough strength to go on.

7. There is much to be appreciated with crisp starched sheets... I have to admit, that at this day and age, it is quite a luxury to have your sheets and pillowcases starched the old fashioned way and not the starch spray that comes in a can; but it just feels so good to sleep in starched bed linens.

That's one for the Barefoot Baklesa's Luxury List

6. To anyone who has seen him before, Jarrett Moreland is just the hottest!!! I reckon in this case, a picture's worth a thousand words, so I'll give you three...





5. "We put up a theatre company at the most difficult time, and here we are, three years later. Still surviving, still able to sell seats and shows, still able to do what we set out to do on day one."

-quoting Michael Williams, Artistic Director for Theater Down South



Here's one for gratitude [first to the Divine Maker]; for Theater Down South's third year in the theater scene. We'd like to thank our family, friends, sponsors, little supporters, and dare I say it -FANS- who bought tickets to our shows, applauded our performances, and asked us "What's next?"

YOU GUYS MAKE LOVING/DOING WHAT WE DO SO WORTH IT

click here Theater Down South to learn more about us...

4. Believe it or not, ubiquitous as it is with Christmas Ham, I actually missed Christmas Fruitcake. I just could not stop munching on it! And the ones we got were homemade; which made it all the more addicting!!!

3. I can say that the last quarter of this year was the time in my life that I used up enough glitter to last a craft hobbyist three lifetimes... Crazy-cut, Regular, Fine, Glass Dust, Opaque, Translucent -name it, I have used kilograms of it. I'm sure somewhere out there, Martha Stewart is very proud of me...



2. To my dearest Kenneth, you already know this, but its worth saying it over and over: "Sometimes, people who argue over the stupidest things are those that care about each other the most."

You know how I feel about you, ergo like you said, there's no need to be cheesy about it. Hehehehehe....

1. Whoever it is that invented the "hot-melt glue gun" should receive the recognition he/she deserves for making all our crafting lives easier.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!


...thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

On the Sixth Day of Christmas: Looking Back at the Chris_MESS

Before anything else, allow me to greet you a Happy Christmas and wish you the warmest this most joyous of holidays.

If the infrequency of my Blog Posts are any indication of the current state of schedule juggling I had to deal with, then permit me to do and Uncle Scar and go, "You have no idea..."


Week after week since the middle of October, deadline after deadline seemed to have just replaced the previous one that I seem to have faced the Holiday Rush-slash-Crunch quite unprepared. Those who know me personally, can attest to the fact that Christmas is such a big deal for me... And by big deal, I mean "Put-on-your-Martha-Stewart-apron-and-Better-Homes-&-Gardens-rubber-gloves". I have exhausted every Christmas issue of every home magazine I could find to plan the theme and treatments for the coming Christmas. It's usually after I take down my Halloween stuff that I start working on sections of the house in the weeks that would lead to December 1st.


However this year, such was not the case. It was already December 8th when I had the chance to start on some parts of the house and not until the 17th that we had some cohesive Christmas look -left to be finished. Case in point, twas by December 24th around 7:00pm that I was able to hang the last wreath at the cathedral window at our stairway. Oh yeah, that's really cutting it close. Consider then, the fact that I had just come from setting-up three venues the night before for the three mall shows we had come Christmas Day.


Yup, you read it right...three mall shows on Christmas Day...and two of those three malls had two performances each.We literally were tasked to bring joy and cheer then.


On the days leading to that, you could hear people in the company going, "Good luck sa atin, Kapatid!" or "Double-Dead Rehearsals today." or "Life? What Life?"

Sidebar: As I type away, I noticed how I can't seem to get into my blogging pace or call it groove...


But the point is, we survived. And I am thankful for the people that were with us during those days when we just had to push to get things done.

You gotta love what you're doing to be able to do the impossible.

So there, enjoy the rest of the Holidays!


...thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa