I have returned

Yes, I've been gone for almost a whole month now, and even then I won't be bringing much to the table in terms of this post. Just wanted to remind everyone who isn't following me on Twitter that yes, I am still alive and well.

Aside from work, I've had time to do a little reading as well. I finished reading Let The Right One In, although I haven't gotten around to writing about it yet partly because I don't have the time and mostly because I am lazy.

I also meandered around with the girls following around Sam Bradley, which was a lot of fun, if I say so myself. I even got myself a hug!

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Dublin says good-bye to Boyzone star Stephen Gately.

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James Franco owns a mask of his prosthetic penis. Which no one in the Philippines got to see because they cut up that scene in Milk.

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The Marge Simpson spread in Playboy.

When I first saw the cover, I thought I would be ok with it, but now that I've seen the pictures...it kinda feels weird to me.

Coming out. Sort of.

When we featured Danton Remoto in 60 Minutes, he talked about how there is no coming out process for the gay man here in the Philippines. Everything is always implied, and it is up to everybody else to read what's between the lines.

That has also been my experience. While there has never been a formal coming out process with my own parents, I have never hidden the fact that I openly appreciate cute guys being shown on TV. I tell them point blank that I am going to a gay bar or am walking with the Pride Parade. And while my parents have never been uncool about it, they've never talked about it with me either.

Which is why what happened yesterday really took me by surprise.

As most of the Filipinos on my flist already know, the latest season of Pinoy Big Brother begins today, and I have an unhealthy obsession with it. I commented that they should really include a gay housemate, and from out of the blue my mother hits me with this stunner: "Why don't you join?"

I guess I should have expected it, in a way, going on and on about cute guys and gay rights the way that I do. But the straightforwardness of it all still caught me by surprise. I think that may have been the first time my mother has out loud acknowledged me being gay

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However, the awkwardness of that particular situation can't be compared to what these guys must go through. I can quite honestly say that I would have no idea what it would feel like to come out to my parents at 12 years old. I don't think I would have the courage to do so.

But it does make sense that they're doing so at an earlier age. And I also understand why the first reaction of the parents is to ask "Are you sure?" I definitely knew I liked boys when I was 10, but I really only came to terms with it when I was in college. In between that I had this belief that i was really bisexual and bound to find the right girl any moment soon. That didn't exactly turn out the way I thought it would.

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This entertained me more than it really should have.


172 students. One shot

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.