Rough Groove

McDonalds Twister Fries ad, 1

Chika Minute’s usual adult themed reports

What’s with Chika Minute in GMA 7’s primetime news (1830H - 1930H) 24 Oras up to? It seems that every showing of the segment will surely feature adult themed reports.

Just last 28 August, the report was focused on the upcoming love scenes in the movie Marimar. A few days ago, it was the said kissing scene for the said TV novela. In previous weeks, they focused on the sexy pictorials for their star’s shoot in FHM. And these were just those that I have remembered recently.

What will come next? Can’t they instead place these in their late evening news?

Bloggers, a force to be reckoned with?

There is only one major player in the Malu Fernandez fiasco that largely effected the outcome:

Philippine Bloggers

Without the bearers of this new media, unhampered with conventions of traditional journalism, I’m sure that the reaction to People Asia’s article would be few and might just languish in the complaints section with nary an action except that reply from the author. But in a strange twist of fate, that arrogant reply was picked up, read and linked by bloggers and from there, it was history. It almost took a month for that posting (30 July) to end with her resignation, 24 August.

Will this eventually lead to a new kind of force to be reckoned with in the future? I bet it will. But it still remains to be seen if it can rival the text brigade that led to Estrada’s downfall. Only time, and further events, will tell.

When shit hits the fan

The Malu Fernandez fiasco is nothing short of phenomenal. What started out as blog posts has snowballed into a tsunami of opinion ranging from downright condescending and insulting, to personal attacks, howls of bigotry and pretense, calls for boycotts, and quite a few defenses. As for the death threats, it might be true but just mind boggling as well.

What particularly caught my attention was how mainstream media reacted. While the conflagration spread through the Philippine blogosphere like wildfire and crossing over via reactionary and condemning statements from concerned groups, alas, the greater media was caught flat footed that it was only when the concerned author apologized and handed her resignation that it merited a report from ABS-CBN’s primetime news 23 August, a blog post in GMA News, 24 August and a front page story in the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer’s 25 August issue.

Was it a case of a delayed reaction? Or was it a case of a wait-and-see attitude considering that its one of their own?

The bulol, a much misrepresented symbol

The bulol, or sometimes bul-ol, to us not from the Cordilleras has accepted the common notion that this carving symbolizes a rice god who guards the Cordilleran’s rice granary.

Represented both as a man (with phallic protrusions that would make the convservative blush) and a woman, are common staples of the Baguio, Sagada, Banaue and elsewhere up the mountainous north tourist trade as trinkets and souvenirs. It has also been used as an emblem of the annual Cinemanila International Film Festival. Its the most identifiable symbol of the northern tribes but one, if Tommy Hafalla is to be believed, widely misrepresented.

The noted photographer has been living in Sagada for the past years and has been accepted into the local culture. As he says, it is never a rice god. In fact, it is used by ritually transferring the sickness of the afflicted to the image. It is placed inside the granary so that thieves, upon seeing it would think twice getting in contact with the bulol and have the sickness transferred to them instead.

Now, will you still buy those souvenir items or collect antique images and perpetuate the misplaced idea of a rice god?