For devout fashion victims, what not to wear to church:
Gidili is Bisaya for verboten, we suppose. Fuck you is just fuck you.
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From Uniffors
Sulpicio Lines, You Asshole, You.
Let us pretend for a moment that Sulpicio Lines, Inc., owner of the M/V Princess of the Stars that sank off Sibuyan Island, Romblon during the height of Typhoon Frank’s mauling of the Philippines has absolutely no responsibility for the tragedy.
It was a freak weather phenomenon, after all, even CNN was caught with its pants down when the typhoon changed course and gained strength (a sudden population boom among butterflies in Brazil, probably.) Let us say that the Philippine Coast Guard and the PAGASA weather guys totally dropped the ball on this one and led the shipowners to believe that the voyage would be through calm seas and sunny skies.
Dummies For Dyslexics
When I was young, I used to think that Philistines and Philippines were the same banana (or ethnolinguistic group.)
It made me happy thinking that the Lord, our God, took personal interest in us not only during the first EDSA, but in smiting our ancestors for worshipping Dagon and Baal and all those other cool cats who have fallen by the wayside and are now lucky to be video game villains if remembered at all.
They must have been pretty bad ass to have merited so much Divine wrath. I mean, the Philistines were like the bumbay bogeymen elders used to frighten us when we were being disobedient, and when they were being racists. Except, of course, the Philistines really did conquer Israel more than once.
Fun June Fact: It is almost over.
Quiet Riot
FX Mega Taxi drivers and operators raised their fares by 5 pesos yesterday without the approval of, nor even consultation with, the Land Transport and Franchising Regulatory Board, the agency that grants franchises and approves fare matrices for Public Utility Vehicles.
Urduja, Pinoy Animated Film, Out on June 18
Alright, it’s old school, and it looks a lot like a Mulan transported to the Philippines, but it’s the first Filipino animated feature film in probably ever.
I’d get off my high horse for that. If it sucks, though, the horse and I are skipping town and torching all the houses.
Supermeng: National Costume
Bathala Is Dead
Marvel’s Invincible Iron Man #2 has been raising a small furor within the small portion of the Philippine blogosphere that reads comics. Not because Iron Man is particularly bad-ass or invincible (he is, though) but because of the Triumph Division, a Filipino superhero team that purists say lack both superhero kickassery and research by the writer. read more
Happy Birthday, Philippines
Today is Philippine Independence Day, not three days ago. It was 110 years ago that the Philippine nation was born. There was no such thing as holiday economics back then, or even a government to declare holidays, truth be told.
Independence from what, naysayers may ask after they say their prerequisite nays. Our economy is tied to the dollar and is shit, our policies are dictated to us by the US, UK, Japan, Korea or whoever is the foreign investor flavor of the month. There are American and Australian troops running around in Mindanao, and Chinese overlords have our government by the balls as well as our Kalayaan Island Group by default.
Tito Jun: Everybody’s Relative
While Tita Girlie, Tita Baby and Tito Boy (also, inexplicably, Lolo Boy) are the more well-known examples of weird, supposedly funny, Filipino names, there is no name more common in the Philippines than Tito Jun.
Tito Juns are the glue that holds our fragmented society together. We may believe in different gods (or none), and have a tendency to clash over politics, but we are united by this more than by our brown skin and pudgy noses: Like dark secrets, everybody has at least one Tito Jun. And as the song goes, well, that’s the one thing we’ve got.
Fun June Fact: Today is Kamehameha Day in Hawaii, a celebration of the founder of the Kingdom of Hawai’i and ’90s anime legend,
Kamehameha the Great.
He is not to be blamed for your summer days spent in plastic straw skirts and puka shells dancing to scratchy Hula music or the unholy alliance of pineapples and pizza. He was a pretty solid guy, apparently. Great, even.
Indolent Welcomes International Month of June
Ah, how time flies when, well, when it does. Around the world, people are getting ready for the month-long International Month of June.
Named for Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, June is a centuries-old Catholic tradition started by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Accordingly, both the Summer and Winter Solstices are celebrated on this month, being essentially the same thing.
Understandably, some cultures like the Jews, Muslims and Hindus will only participate half-heartedly since they have their own calendar systems, but it’s the spirit of the thing, really.
From today until the thirtieth, let us keep the June spirit alive by making each day a day in June.
Fun June Fact: Today is Madaraka Day in Kenya, commemorating the day that Kenya achieved self-rule, and, eventually, independence. Whether that was a good idea or not is not the point.