It’s the first time I came across Sinewaya while surfing the internet.

Ang Sinewaya ay isang kolektibo ng mga mahihilig manood ng pelikula at naniniwala sa makapangyarihang potensiyal ng sining na odyo-biswal. Ang Sinewaya rin ay isang online film journal na naglalathala ng mga kritikal na sanaysay hinggil sa masiglang ugnayan ng pelikula at lipunan. [about SINEWAYA]

There are a lot of worthy reads among the insightful reviews and articles. This one, “You Say You Want a (Digital) Revolution?” by Kenneth Guda, particularly catches my attention because I feel like it takes a hit at aspiring filmmakers. (And as a film student, I feel some sort of urge to react).

It is easy to understand why they call filmmaking the “new rock n’ roll.” Pinoys have been enamoured with Hollywood for more than half a century, but it is only in recent years that filmmaking has drawn this much interest from the youth. It is probably the “new rock n’ roll” in that many young filmmakers aspire for the usual life of fame, fortune and juvenile debauchery with the same wide-eyed innocence as the proverbial 90s garage band.

[…] What saddens us, therefore, that many young, aspiring filmmakers still buy this bullshit.

Many young filmmakers continue to aspire for fame and toiling in the digital realm, hoping to eventually break into the “big time” - pay a high price for their naivete, ultimately pawning their wide-eyed idealism at the altar of compromise. The best artistic minds are everday lost to advertising agencies, television sitcoms, and other commercial endeavors.

(There’s another article of the same author in the about page which has a similar tone and message).

I don’t understand sometimes why there’s so much contempt against mainstream cinema or making money with filmmaking. I just feel discouraged when some people easily throw he ’sellout’ bash to anyone who ‘foolishly’ assimilates himself into the “putrid world of commercial distribution” or into filmmaking as part of a “capitalist philosophy”. IF I become a filmmaker, I would want to recover my financial investment and even make a profit out of the movies I’d produce. I’m sorry for being capitalist-minded. Ultimately, I need the profit to finance the production of more movies. Even the revered Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal went into making forgettable takilya-tested movies in between their socio-realist classics, right? Yes, I realize that there is a perceived lack of output among film students/young filmmakers of socially relevant movies that confront present realities–perceived being the operative word. It’s just that I don’t think fulfilling a social responsibility as a filmmaker and wanting to earn a profit as one should be mutually exclusive of each other.

Of course, one can just easily call me young and naive film student.

Pumunta kami sa barbero ni Papa kaninang umaga. Noong tinanong ako ng barbero kung anong gupit ang gusto ko, sabi ko bawasan lang ‘yung buhok ko sa tuktok. “Eh ‘tong nasa gilid?” tanong niya. Kaunting-kaunti lang, sabi ko. Nagtaka ako noong naglabas siya ng electric razor, hanggang sa nag-umpisa siyang mag-shave ng buhok sa gilid ng ulo ko. Akala ko may kakaiba lang siyang diskarte kaya pinabayaan ko na lang, hanggang sa makita kong tuloy-tuloy niyang shinave ang buhok ko. Manong, nung sinabi kong “kaunting-kaunti lang”, ibig kong sabihin, kaunti lang ang ibabawas mo, hindi kaunti ang ititira! But of course I didn’t say that out loud. Nakakaasar.

Hehe, I’m the top search result for “I hate Gloria Arroyo” in Google. Pretty soon, I’ll probably need a “permit to blog” permit–which I probably won’t get.

Wow. The photos over at Estanli.net are simply breathtaking. It’d make anyone want to travel the Philippines ‘Lonely Planet’ style. I wonder when I’ll have the chance to do that.

I was at LTO (Land Transportation Office) last Monday afternoon to re-apply for a student license (I lost mine). My mom and I got there a little before 1PM. I got my license just before 5PM. Four hours is fine with me really. I just find it absurd that they charge us almost sixty pesos as computer fee. Of the four hours we spent, half the time was spent waiting for our queue number to be called, and the other half was for waiting for my papers to be processed. That’s just wrong. Why should people shoulder some dubious fee and not experience the comfort of having their licenses processed more efficiently by computers. In fact, why do we even have to shoulder such a thing as computer fees, when it’s part of a service the government must provide for free. The same goes for all the other ways various government agencies, including public hospitals and public schools (like UP), are beginning to ask the public, whom they’ve already been taxing, to pay more and more for services they’re supposed to provide as part their responsibility.

I hate our month-long sembreak sometimes. It can be torturously boring. I miss school. And my orgmates. And my blockmates.

Went to Malolos, Bulacan for Kim’s 18th birthday last Sunday night. Earlier that afternoon, I was at SM North buying her my gift (and Kid’s gift, which I gave on his behalf, which includes a bouquet of flowers). Went home right after, got dressed up, then I was brought to Malolos by my parents. Con, Bev, Ayeen and Andreo were there at the dinner party too. The rest were Kim’s high school batchmates/schoolmates (including Ayeen and Andreo) and relatives. It was a very simple but intimate debut. Kid should’ve been there (to give his gifts himself).

Last October 17 to 19, we had our CAST semender outing at some rented resthouse in Pansol, Calamba, Laguna. Yup, two nights and three days of unsupervised… fun. Hehe.

Making these photo collages exhausted me. I’m already too lazy to actually write anything substantial to chronicle the things that happened.

Check out this album from my photo gallery for more pictures.