Looking to help

I haven't been doing a lot for the victims of Ondoy, I'm afraid. For the most part I have just been re-Tweeting information about the affected areas and hoping that someone in authority or better yet, someone with the resources to provide assistance, finds out about it and does something. I can't wait for the weekend to arrive so I can finally head off to whichever volunteer organization needs hands and at least try to do something more concrete than just clicking on computer keys. Anybody want to come with?

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Did you guys know that Mariah Carey, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, and Britney Spears are all releasing albums and/or singles today? As the post author quips: "Today is a day that will live in ginfamy. (That is gay infamy.)"

Le Deluge

Considering how everyone else is suffering right now, what me and my family went through the past two nights was nothing. The worst we had to endure was a lack of electricity and a few babies that had to be evacuated to the nearby hospital. Throughout Ondoy we were dry, while some of my friends, colleagues, and co-workers were either stranded in buses or had their homes flooded in.

Walking to work yesterday, however, was quite a trip. I felt like I was in a Mad Max movie: people were walking down the streets dazed at the extent of the damage. The Quiapo underpass was completely underwater, and children and adults were using it as an impromptu Olympic-size diving pool.

Where I live now is looking much better. The sounds of traffic is now lording it over everything, which is something one wants to hear when all you could hear last Saturday was the dreary monotone of Ondoy's downpour.

Everyone else, though, needs help. This is a consolidated list of all the numbers and sites for those who want to help out the typhoon victims: http://ow.ly/rfjT.

I also took some pictures of the flooding Tropical Storm Ondoy caused in some areas of Manila, which you can view here: http://bit.ly/Fwip5

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Here's something that will hopefully bring a little smile to your faces.

Of virgins and anal economics

From the same woman who brought us Enchong Dee is a gay comes a delightful assessment of John Lloyd Cruz' character in the newest Star Cinema offering "In My Life", which is incidentally the "big gay movie" around these parts right now.

I quote (paraphrase is more like it, since I don't have a copy of the tabloid with me right now):

"Nagulat ako nung sinampal ni John Lloyd si Vilma. Pero bakla nga pala 'yung character niya, so hindi siya gentleman." (I was surprised when John Lloyd slapped Vilma. But then he plays a gay character, so he's not a gentleman.)

Yes. Really. Those words were indeed printed. On actual paper. For everyone to read. Im'ma take off my weave and cut this bitch.

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Now, that James Franco? He seems like a guy who knows how to deal with the gays. He was in Milk, after all. And he's taking up Queer Cinema at NYU.

How queer is Queer Cinema? Here's a sampling of the syllabus:

Week 1: “You Don’t Know Dick: The Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men” (1997 documentary)

Week 2: “Mom’s Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mothers’ Custody Movement” (2006 documentary)

Week 3: “Loads” (12 minute film from 1971)

Week 7: “Bottom Values: Anal Economics in History of Black Neighborhoods” and “When are Dirty Details and Scenes Compelling? Tucked in the Cuts of Interracial Anal Rape,” both readings pulled from Kathryn Stockton’s book, “Beautiful Bottoms, Beautiful Shame.

I am especially interested as to how Anal Economics and Interracial Anal Rape is going to work out.

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A radical discovery from the Values Voters Summit in Washington DC: All pornography is homosexual pornography.

To quote one of the Gawker commenters: "My 12-year-old self wishes that were true."

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Read the agenda, virgin!

A 56-year-old declares to everyone that she is still a virgin, as part of testimony for a hearing about sex education. Unfortunately, the hearing was held the day before.

I am loathe to admit it, but I feel like I am looking at what I will be like when I am 56.

The paradox of gays in Philippine media

I think anyone with half a mind is well aware that the local entertainment industry owes so much to the local gay community. People in showbiz are not only dependent on the gays when it comes to their styling needs, they depend on gay men to even make it in the business in the first place. Just try to imagine how many of today's matinee idols started out by catching the eye of some gay talent manager.

While not all of them are well made, I would like to think that the plethora of gay "indie" movies are providing more than enough help to our ailing film industry. Much of them may not add anything to our cultural heritage, but the sheer number of gay men who consistently patronize these films must stand for something. Otherwise they would have stopped making them a long time ago.

With showbusiness needing gay men in and out of the industry for it to survive, you would think that gay men would be treated a lot better, but then you'd be wrong.

Just this morning,this was the top story in the entertainment section of the tabloid Balita: "Bakla, tawag kay Enchong Dee sa set" (Gay is what they call Enchong Dee on set)

Now there's nothing wrong with this title per se, but the way that the writer -- who is a woman -- fleshes it out makes me bristle a bit. These lines in particular really rubbed me the wrong way:

"...bakit tinawag na bakla si Enchong, e lalaking-lalaki naman daw ito? (Why do they call Enchong gay when he's very manly?)

Ngayon na rin lang tuloy namin naisip na wala pala siyang ipinakilalang girlfriend simula nu'ng mag-showbiz siya, pero hindi namin siya pinag-iisipan ng hindi maganda tungkol sa pagkatao niya, huh! (I realized just now that he's never introduced a girlfriend ever since he entered showbiz, but I never thought there was anything wrong with him, huh!)"

I hated the first part because it just assumes that because one is they gay, then they are probably limp-wristed fairies who cross-dress and can not be trusted with "manly" things. It's a way of thinking that's not only very demeaning towards gays, but towards women as well -- the implication is that nothing is more embarrassing than a man acting like a woman.

It also makes it sound as if all gay men are disgusted of their penises and would like nothing more than to exchange it for a vagina, which of course is so far from the truth. I think it would be fair to say that gay men love their penis. And other men's penises as well.

The second line riled me up even more. In just one fell swoop, the writer condemned single people and gay men as having something wrong with their personalities. Because we apparently have not entered the new millennium just yet.

But the most horrible part of it all is that it's not just the straight writers doing this kind of reporting, but the gay ones as well. I remember most of the gay entertainment writers condemning BB Gandanghari for being "too gay". How in the world can one person be too gay? All I see a lot of self-loathing.

The whole situation is just so frustrating to me because the Philippine entertainment industry has such a powerful hold over the people, and with mostly gay men in charge you would think they would be smart enough to use it to their advantage and change the way people think about gays. Instead they just keep on perpetuating the same old cliches about themselves. Sheesh.

Thank you for your time. Here's a picture of me with Enchong Dee to thank you for making it through that rant.

Two guesses as to which one I am

Dan Brown, mutant snakes, and barely legal teens

So I was in line last night for the new Dan Brown book. Not by choice, mind you. I don't dislike the books, but a Dan Brown novel isn't exactly the kind of novel I would line up for in the middle of the night just to get a copy. I was there because I had to review the book and I honestly do not trust the people handling the marketing to give me a copy on time.

Over the past week I had a sort of crash course on Brown, reading the past two Langdon adventures. He writes at a fast pace which is a big plus, but he does tend to have a penchant for the melodramatic that just makes me smirk a little. Haven't started on "The Lost Symbol" yet, but let's see if the pattern still works for a third time.

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As most of my RL friends -- and even online friends -- know, I am all for equal opportunity. So if the straight guys had a clock counting down the days to Hayden Panettiere's 18th birthday, I certainly see no trouble with girls and gays counting down to Taylor Lautner's 18th.

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Snake with clawed foot and leg found in China. Interesting. To say the least.

This is like prom for me

The Manila International Book Fair is happening this week, and once again I have to crawl out of my hole, stare awkwardly at the sun, and hoard the books that I can so that I have enough supplies during the long hibernation I engage in while waiting for the next book fair to arrive.

I don't have a wish list of books this year -- I can quite honestly say that I am not experiencing a shortage of books at the moment -- but I will still be on the lookout for little treasures to be found in the Anvil Bargain Bin and the other assorted stalls that will no doubt deprive me of all my hard-earned money once again.

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I can not.

The perils of being a technological idiot

I spent the whole night trying to make a Facebook Fan Page for the section I write for, and what should have been a simple process ended up taking hours because I am an idiot who knows nothing about clicking simple buttons. I swear I am never doing that again.

Which probably means this will happen again next week.

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A couple of weeks ago a big fuss was being raised over track and field athlete Caster Semanya and the fact that she looks like a man and participates in the women's division.

Like most people, I was all "Just because she looks like a man doesn't mean she is, HDU!" But then tests come out saying that Caster Semanya is, well, something in between.

Now I don't know what to think.

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The British government officially apologized to gay mathematician Alan Turing. I don't think it really changes anything or how horrible he was treated, but I guess no one can deny that it is a classy gesture.

Boxer shorts full of meh

I just got back from the Bachelor Bash, and I have to say that if you're not a new gay or a teener, it's hard to find it as exciting as before. Now it just seems to fly by so fast and you just get a dissatisfied smirk on your face.

I do have to say that working in media certainly detracts a lot from enjoying the experience. The fact that I've already met most of the centerfolds this year -- and seen them shirtless at closer quarters -- just makes watching them from afar deeply unsatisfying.

The audience, however, is always fun. One thing that will stick to my mind from this year's Bachelor Bash is how the new gays around me scrambled and literally fell on top of each other to catch a wayward piece of underwear that one of the models threw into the crowd.

Back from the dead

I have been remiss about a lot of things lately -- Project Runway Philippines recaps, the general Twitter and Plurk craziness -- and I hope to remedy that starting today. Although I can't promise anything, because even as I type this I have to rush off to work and do a million other things.

For the moment, have a shirtless Rafa Nadal being kissed by a male fan.

I love how he's so cool about it.