here's praise for the Pinoy Bayanihan Spirit

BAYANIHAN is probably one of the most ubiquitous concepts of the Filipino Values system. If you're not familiar with it, the closest equivalent to the English language is collective community spirit.

The image most associated with Bayanihan is of a bahay kubo [nipa hut] borne on the shoulders of men to be moved to its new location... the image of an entire village helping out one of their neighbors in this most arduous task is one of those things that are taught by Social Studies teachers when they discuss certain Filipino Values or Traits once you hit first grade. [If it's not a crude first grade textbook drawing, I think there was a painting of it with a mother and child peering out the hut's window as they are being moved -with much artistic license, I remember...]

As the aftermath of the last tropical storm that hit the archipelago still looms over us, my praises go to the Filipino people as we all come together and help each other out through this most difficult time. Relief operations, donations, pledges, volunteers, are all but testaments to the Bayanihan Spirit. We as a people are resilient.

Some find solace in the fact that they are not alone in this, some find themselves with a stronger resolve to get through, some -though their faith may have been tested- still hang on to it... Hope doesn't run out easily for us.

But on the other hand, there's a lesson to be learned here. I hate to sound a bit preachy here but as a society, we seem to be very good at reacting to crisis but not in the calculated preparedness or the planned avoidance of it. I have seen my share of urban planning experts claim they had the solution to this years ago on paper, or experts uttering consequences to climate change, or government officials in their capacity or lack thereof reasoning to a broken people about their failure to respond to their needs... a waste of words, as I see it.

So I won't waste more, and will do what I can, and pray...

photo courtesy of heinzkieh [just click on the link]

...thus spake The Barefoot Baklesa

Thoughts of You...

"Once upon a time, I wanted to know what love was. Love is there if you want it to be. You just have to see that it's wrapped in beauty and hidden away between the seconds of your life. If you don't stop for a minute, you just might miss it."

~quoted from the movie CASHBACK

I think in the current state of things, I'm beginning to think that I keep doubting things too much, that I seem to not live in the moment, that I have certain fears about where this takes me...

But don't get me wrong, I'm in a very happy place -I have not been in a place remotely near there in like five years- thus the jaded and cynical shell of Barefoot Baklesa isn't one to shake off so easily.

There's really no such thing as a normal state of anything when it comes to love or loving -we are all weaklings and the wisest of us would not know better. Maybe that's why Shakespeare went as far as saying that "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid's eyes painted blind." [A Midsumer Night's Dream]

Frailty, flaws, and futile-fruitless-fits of infatuation all seem funny to some but as we know, some people spend an enormous amount of energy just to be normal and be above these.

Here's me, trying to shake off this undesirable shell of fear and doubt.

Bawal na talaga ang aning-aning...Hahahaha!!!

[oh yeah, the video above is for emphasis...]


thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

tell me not in mournful numbers...

I shall speak this is the vernacular, Perhaps it will come across the way it should...

May mga tao talagang kung magsalita o magparinig eh akala mo sila ang iniwan mo sa gitna ng kawalan, ano? Minsan nga naman, kung wala ka nang silbi ay itatapon ka na lang gaya ng gamit na napagsawaan... Mahirap marinig yung mga salitang, "Parang wala tayong pinagsamahan ah," pero minsan nga naman magagawa mong masambit katagang ito...

there's a point about people's worth i wish to hammer on here, but it's so not worth it at this point... this is me, smug, knowing I made the right choice.



thus spake, the Barefoot Baklesa

Impressions of a Bishounen Boy: Ryu Daigo

From his photographs alone, this young man’s charm and unique multi-racial looks affords him the adjective best defined by the Japanese word ‘Bishounen’ which literally translates as ‘Pretty Boy’. For any of you who aren’t privy to that aesthetic nuance, there is this cultural penchant albeit curious amusement the Japanese in general have for guys with soft yet appealing features which oftentimes borders on the androgynously attractive [ just look at their male Japanimation or Anime characters and you’ll get what I’m saying ] . It is indescribable at times, yet guys like Ryu Daigo, do turn heads and make some take a second look.


Currently a boy of 19 [and I do mean ‘boy‘ in the impression he gave off], standing 5 foot eight inches, and just about a hundred and forty pounds, Ryu is what we can consider a ’Japinoy’ - a child of that successful multi-racial mix of the Japonois-Filipino persuasion which affords him that look that appealed to me, the first I saw him.

Ryu Daigo’s popularity, by observation, is at its best on the internet. There’s this Korean pop-culture phenomenon called “uljjang” which by etymology takes from the Korean words “pretty” + “picture” = “internet popularity” -this was actually the way Boy Meets Boy and Jenny/Juno star Kim Hye-Sung catapulted himself to fame; the pretty pictures he uploaded of himself gained him popularity and the rest is KPop history. -I’m going stop there, I’m shifting into Pop Culture Analyst mode again… Hahahaha!


But Ryu Daigo’s showbiz path began way before he even knew how to type on a keyboard and upload photos. As he tells me, “My mom told me my first job was endorsing a milk product when I was a baby.” I reckon from a young age, it came naturally to him; for most of his young life has been oriented towards the biz.

It was around early this year when I first chanced upon some photos of him online. But it was not until recently that I began learning about the boy by getting to know him on the social/beta networking sites. Funny thing to mention, and Ryu regales, “There are seven Friendster accounts of me, and I added them all! Hehehehe!” -So if any of you guys have him in your network, be sure you have the real one, okay… Also, after reading his profile online, I noticed that he was once cast as a regular in one of the shows I did for network television, but in the rush of things at the time I never bothered with the talents anyway.

When I asked him what was the weirdest showbiz job he has ever done, he answers, “When I was a regular talent on a show called Kamandag, I was fully covered in make-up that I did not recognize myself.” And he adds, “Weird in the sense that this gay guy who was a wardrobe attendant dressing me up, would try to have his way with me and he couldn’t.” By that, I took it, that Ryu has a good head on his shoulders and he had a sense of humor about the ways of the biz.


So I dared to ask him, “As you are, do you ever get proposed indecently in any way?” To which he answers, “I make sure I tell them I’m not interested.” Then further adds that he often goes, “You are getting on my YM Nerves! Hehehehe…” I never asked him if that works all the time, but I’m going to ask the boy permission to use the second statement if someone is starting to get on my YM nerves. Moving on…

I guess in that pool of many showbiz aspirants, Ryu has gone the way of doing stints that most young people who want to be noticed in the industry have done while waiting for that big break, so to speak. At that, Ryu actually had to forego full-time college for a while and took that path that had him earning from his stints in television and modeling. He knew the value of earning your own way and what it does to the developing maturity of a person.

Of all the online portfolios I have seen of up-and-coming or practicing models of recent vintage, Ryu’s portfolio is what one considers quite versatile. He tries to experiment by himself and/or collaborates with other creative people exploring the many possibilities he can take his visage and form to.


It was when I came upon the artist and photographer Bubum Melgar’s site that I began noticing him with amusement and admiration -Okay, I admit, I’m a fan! Go and hang me! Hahahahaha! My compliments to Mr. Melgar and his creativity for with that, I think, Ryu’s portfolio is never to be the same.


And after confirming from Ryu himself, he nearly got on Mr. Melgar’s nerves for being a little bit of a “pasaway”. Ryu recalls having said something to this effect, “That’s what happens when the model is like a mannequin and statuesque, the photographer just clicks away” -I can only envision Mr. Melgar raise an eyebrow, that eyebrow traveling as far as C.M. Recto Avenue, and having someone pick it up form there and return it -laughing out loud… That’s why I mean by Ryu still being much a boy.

You can accuse him of being a little vain and he knows he’s guilty of it. “My day is not complete when I don’t even get a compliment about the way I look. It feels weird if I don’t get at least one,” he admits candidly. Well, that is forgivable… they say we are at our most good looking from the age of 17 to 27. I do hope Ryu’s not the type that has a pocket mirror being a Narcissus about his reflection or takes a photo of himself on his camera phone checking out how he looks by the quarter hour like some people I know… Hahahahaha! I actually forgot to ask him his vanity quirks; maybe next time.


One of the questions that popped-up in our exchange was how does he deal with being a mixed race kid and if there were any difficulties about it. To which he replies, “Its funny since Filipino's always make fun of it... Well, its okay with me because it makes me different than the others. I love being unique.” That says much about the ‘Pinoy-Mestizo-Complex’ that not unless they are of a mixed Caucasian-Pinoy variety, it’s okay to make fun of the other multi-racials. And it’s really being mean, the playground variety kind of mean. Good thing Ryu is comfortable in his own skin.

At this point in his life, aside from his interest in fashion in general, he is quite engrossed in learning the ways of a photographer. As much as he loves being in front of the camera and getting to play with his looks like the next Zoolander in the room, Ryu says, “I like taking pictures, its my dream to be a photographer and not a model;” with a laugh at that. Well, it looks like he’s enjoying being in front of the camera for now.


Having said that, Ryu impressed me a little more by saying “Having a school degree is still a priority. I can’t model all the time.” -I’m sure it seems a clichéd and ubiquitous answer we’ve heard from some before, but I sensed a bite of reality realized too young there; and it made me think about the many showbiz dreams that sputtered and went into obscurity for some. As I write this, Ryu is back in school full-time, taking up Hotel and Restaurant Administration at the Cavite campus of the Lyceum of the Philippines. Modeling and the biz takes a second priority for now, to which I’m sure he’s going to be a better off person as the pretty boy grows into the man that’s going to be/have more than just a pretty face.




thus spake The Barefoot Baklesa


photos courtesy of Mitoy Sta.Ana, Ryu Daigo, and Bubum Melgar

Walang Modong Salanggapa: Carlo J. Caparas for National Artist [the farce, the insult to my intelligence, and the travesty]

Again, the tomatoes and the knife are for emphasis...




This was posted as my response to GIBBS CADIZ's latest post on the Necrological Service for the National Artists Awards last Friday, the 7th of August...

First of All, i prithee, PEACE... such silence is deserved of this mournful day.

I would have wanted to say this in my own blog, however for the time being, i reckon this would be the appropriate place to share it.

I am fortunate enough in my lifetime to have learned from two National Artists: first, as a student of Salvador "Badong" Bernal when I was still in theatre school, and under the supervision of the late Leonor Orosa Goquingco -one of the first National Artist Grantees.

I admit, I am one of those people who put National Artists on a pedestal, primarily because even at their age, Badong Bernal can still turn BIC Ballpoint pen crystal casings into chandeliers and bed canopies in one quick set change; and in her late years, Leonor Orosa-Goquingco showed us one last time why she is the original Filipina Creative 'Dancing Queen'

That is why I am passionate about this, because I know what it took to be granted the honor of the Order of the National Artists of this nation. I think we owe it to them and those others that came before, to not take this sitting down.

A beloved friend of mine and former mentor said something so fitting: "Dios mio! Mahal ko ang aking sining at alam ko kung kailan ako magpapaka-gutom rito at kung kailan ko kailangan ibenta ang aking sarili. Marahil ang pinaka-pangit na sa ating mga obra pa man ang iyong piliin ay hindi pa rin ito maihahambing o mapapantayan ng isang likha ni Carlo J Caparas. Isa itong kalapastanganan sa nasabing parangal."

I will get some flak for being an elitist -well, i have gotten some from the "tinga" and dregs of the wannabes and pretenders out there who have been found wanting after their futile attempts at being controversial at my expense- but thou canst begrudge me if that is where I and most of my colleagues are coming from. We do few things but we do them well, that is the initial definition of artistic integrity in my book.

How can they thus, for shame, look over the likes of a Mars Ravelo, a Larry Alcala, a Dolphy for that matter, or even one of the deserved in that list for the likes of one whose contribution to art and popular art is really fit only to wrap 'tinapa' from the local palenque?

How can you have a National Artist for Film and Visual Arts if he never drew those things in the first place? Where is the visual artist in that? and let us not get started on film being another category from cinema... Sin verguenza!!!

And Carlo J. Caparas actually displays no humility about it at all with his reactions... this only goes to show that being "deserved" is far from what I can describe him at present. I can hurl expletives his way, but i reckon he won't comprehend them. Thus amended, I quote Rolando Tinio's translation of one from Shakespeare he might just get: "WALANG MODONG SALANGGAPA!"

thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa
http://thebarefootbaklesa.blogspot.com/

"Let us take charge of the world before it's gone as we know it."