I'm back after a long hiatus! I know I haven't posted for quite some time now. A lot has been happening and I've forgotten that posting on this blog has been my way of destressing. Anyway, I have a pretty cool entry here.
My cousin Brian who is the oldest in the Cruz side of the family got married in the US. (He lives there) So we went to his wedding. I'll have a separate entry for that.
Anyway, after the wedding, Jonty and I had a side trip to Boston. I've been to Boston once but it was just for a day. My Lola was still with us then... Bitin na bitin ako. I wanted to see more of the city where my family lived from 1980-1983.
First stop was the new Boston Garden! It's called the TD Garden now. The home of the Boston Bruins and of course, THE CELTICS!
There was no game since there's still no NBA. But! They give daily tours at the garden. :) Part of my bucket list is to see the 17 Banners of the Celtics and I can now cross it out! Entering the arena was pure bliss. It was so frikkin awesome to see where the Celtics play!
Below you can see 2 ecstatic Celtics Fans.
I didn't know this and I'd like to share a bit of trivia. The TD Garden is owned by the Boston Bruins. The Celtics are just tenants of the garden. However! They are tenants that really well taken care of. :) Thus the banners are present. But it makes sense since the seats of the garden are black and gold.
At the lobby of the TD Garden
The entrance to the Boston Celtics' Locker Room. Sayang bawal pumasok.
The sacred Red Auerbach court!
Aww yeah! 2008! We were robbed in 2010!
Other than that, I'm a big Red Sox fan! Yes, I follow MLB and I don't like the Yankees! But I hate the Lakers more. Ugh... Don't get me started on the Lake Show... Anyway, I treated Jonty to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Just like the garden, seeing the home of the BoSox was fantastic! I particularly loved seeing the famous Green Monstah! (For the non baseball fans, the green monster is this huge green wall at Fenway Park :) It's a towering wall and you need to let the baseballs fly really high to get a home run)
At Yawkey Street, the entrance to Fenway Park :)
The GREEN MONSTER!!!
The Sox played the Oakland A's that day and unfortunately, Jonty and I witnessed a Beantown Beatdown on Boston! Sigh... They played so bad that day. But nonetheless, it was still awesome to see the Red Sox LIVE at home! I saw Dustin "Lazer Show" Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adrian Gonzalez, and of course BIG PAPI David Ortiz!
For a regular game, the place was FULL! Another bit of trivia, the Red Sox is the most loved team in Boston. The Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots aren't as popular as the Red Sox. Man, do they love the Sox!
BIG PAPI's intro
Let's go Red Sox! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
But the most significant part of the trip to Boston was meeting up with my Lola's Best Friend in Boston. We call her Tita Cherry. She's a dentist and she's married to a Doctor, Tito Steve. Unfortunately, Tito Steve passed away years ago. They were the best friends of my Lolo and Lola when they lived in Boston. Tita Cherry also took care of my mom and her siblings when they were in Boston. She's such a nice and warm person. She's lived in Boston since the 1950's.
With Tita Cherry and her grandson Stephen
She took us around Boston one day. We had lunch in Chinatown and went to Harvard Square. :) She also brought us to her home and there she showed us my Lolo's draft of his arrival speech. It was typewritten with corrections. He then gave it to Tito Steve. His typewriter was also given to Tita Cherry's family. :) It was so cool to see my Lolo's final speech. It was framed in their living room.
After the trip to her home, she brought us to Newton which is a town in Boston. It was where my Mom, Lola, Lolo and her siblings lived. They stayed in 175 Commonwealth Avenue. My Lola always said that it was the 3 happiest years. Now, 2 old women have been living there ever since. Jonty and I went down in front of the house to have a picture taken.
I fell in love with the city of Boston. I prefer the East Coast more really. Just the atmosphere, the brick buildings, the Charles River, the duck boats, the Boston Common... Aaahhh... Beantown! So cool! Til the next time! :)
Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington (Jade Castro, 2011)
English Title: Zombadings: Kill Remington with Fear
If there’s one thing a filmmaker needs to know about profitable filmmaking in the Philippines, it is to acknowledge that the only kind of filmmaking that actually earns money is genre filmmaking. If the film is not horror, comedy, romance, or laden with homosexual themes and titillation, it would probably not arouse enough interest to earn enough box-office rewards to at least break even. It seems that filmmakers are then left with the choice of either making a commercial but compromised film or a noble-intentioned film that nobody in the country would have seen or even hear of unless it makes waves in international film festivals.
At first glance, Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington (Zombadings: Kill Remington with Fear)seems to fit perfectly in the category of creative compromises. Producer and screenwriter Raymond Lee, screenwriter Michiko Yamamoto, and director and screenwriter Jade Castro ingeniously shower the film with elements from the horror, comedy, romance, and queer genres, assuring it, at least in essence, a chance at making monetary profit. However, Zombadings is more inspired than it sounds and looks. There is definitely more to the film than homosexual undead and slapstick. It is deliciously subversive, delivering a message that sadly and unfairly may not be universally accepted in the most universal of ways.
Set in a provincial town just like any other in the Philippines, Zombadings follows the story of Remington (Martin Escudero), the stereotypical macho boy next door who engages in manual labor during the day and downs shots of rum at night. Cursed to turn gay when he was a little boy by a gay man (Roderick Paulate) he angered because of his incessant insensitive teasing, Remington slowly but very surely turns gay, first with his gestures, then his language, then his sexual preference, leaving him in the middle of a love triangle involving his best friend Jigs (Kerbie Zamora) and literal girl-next-door Hannah (Lauren Young). While Remington is transforming, his mother (Janice De Belen), a police officer, is solving the case of uncovering who is responsible for the murders of the gay men in town.
Despite the having a story where crazy-looking gaydars, rollerblading widows, vengeful drag queens, homophobic serial killers and the titular gay zombies miraculously cohere, Zombadings is actually very intelligently and carefully conceived and crafted. Castro directs the film like a maverick conductor, leading an orchestra composed of traditionally jarring instruments but eventually coming up with a symphony that is not so hard to enjoy and adore.
The casting decisions are brilliant. Escudero, a teen heartthrob who has been relegated to playing supporting roles in haphazardly crafted horror films, is a revelation, hilariously portraying a straight man involuntarily turning gay, making use of all the clichés of gay-acting without looking forced or overdone. Paulate, who is instrumental in creating the sub-genre of drag queen slapsticks with films like Petrang Kabayo at ang Pilyang Kuting (Petra the Horse and the Naughty Kitten, Luciano Carlos, 1988), Bala at Lipistik (Bullet and Lipstick, Maryo J. De Los Reyes, 1994), and Ded na si Lolo (Grandpa si Dead, Soxie Topacio, 2009), generously and willingly lends his iconic stature to give Zombadings credibility within that genre, effectively making its use of homosexual stereotypes palatable within the perspective of being part of a cinematic tradition that began as far back as 1954 with Mar Torres’ Jack en Jill starring legendary Dolphy as the funny crossdresser.
On the other hand, John Regala, who starred in many action flicks of the late eighties and early nineties, Daniel Fernando, who most famously played the peeping tom in Peque Gallaga’s Scorpio Nights (1985), and Leandro Baldemor, who bared his skin while cavorting with starlets in many of the titillating films of the nineties, lend their iconic cinematic manliness to represent the other darker side of the fence of homophobia as machismo. Their much-valued machismo however looks useless once pitted against the leadership and industry of the characters played by De Belen, Odette Khan, and Mailes Kanapi who do more for the town than throw baseless and hateful tirades against gays (that are rightfully drowned and obliterated by a marching band in one of the film’s more clever scenes).
Zombadings is undoubtedly tons of fun, and it is perfectly alright to take it as it is, a very well-made piece of populist entertainment. However, the film becomes even more rewarding if enjoyed within the context of what it was made for, as a document of empowerment, a testament to the right of choice, and a blow against intolerance. It is packaged in a way that its freedoms and excesses should not be taken literally or too seriously, yet its jabs at still-existing constipated perceptions and opinions against homosexuality are too potent to be left unnoticed. Ladies and gentlemen, gay or straight, dead or alive, this film’s a winner.
IMPORTANT UPDATE ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST ON HOMOPHOBIA IN THE PUERTO RICAN SENATE EVEN AFTER SENATOR ARANGO'S RESIGNATION.
Last week Republican Puerto Rican Senator Roberto Arango became embroiled in a public scandal when images of a shirtless man who appeared to be him were leaked to the press.
The images were from the gay dating phone app Grindr, which was a tad curious considering Arango's public image was that of a divorced heterosexual man who was raising a daughter. The Senator was also known for voting in favor of several anti-gay bills.
Initially, Arango scoffed at suggestions that he was the man in the images. Then he admitted he often took photos of himself shirtless to document a weight-loss regimen but didn’t remember taking those specific images. When more explicit images leaked out, the Senator stopped talking to media altogether.
Our favorite Latino gossip site Guanabee, broke the news in the United States. Since then, several people have asked me if I have documentation of the Senator's homophobia. It’s been surprisingly tough to find articles and reports because most of it is offline. But, going through my files, I managed to find a few tidbits.
Senator Arango and civil unions / marriage rights for same-sex couples:
In early 2007 reports emerged that a legislative commission studying changes to Puerto Rico’s Civil Code was considering allowing civil unions for all couples regardless of sexual orientation. Conservative religious organizations were outraged and warned that civil unions would weaken marriage and change the family structure. They mounted a campaign against the measure and Senator Arango served as their messenger in the legislature.
From “La Católica contra unions de hecho / The Catholic leadership against civil unions” (El Vocero, March 27, 2007 - No online link):
From his seat in the Senate chamber, Senator Roberto Arango of the New Progressive Party spoke about the recent mandates from the Catholic Church regarding the governing body and announced he would present thousands of signatures against changes to the book of law. According to his statements, the signatures were given to him on Saturday during a rosary ceremony organized by the Catholic Church on the vicinity of the Capitol building. The signers want to put a stop to the proposed changes to the Civil Code that have received sustained opposition from the more conservative organizations. “We have received 150,000 petitions signed by people of all orientations in favor of maintaining the current Civil Code,” said Arango during yesterday’s senate session. “We will hand them over to the Secretary of the Senate so they take into consideration the massive support of the people.”
The pressure from conservative groups led the legislative commission to shelve debate on changes to the Civil Code.
Emboldened by their success, religious organizations went a step further and called for an amendment to the state constitution banning legal recognition of any relationship other than marriages between a man and a woman.
A bill was quickly introduced and, on November 7th of 2007, it passed in the Senate by a vote of 20 to 2 and 1 abstention. Senator Arango voted in favor (a tally of those voting in favor can be found in a blog post by leading Puerto Rican LGBT rights advocate Pedro Julio Serrano titled “The New Progressive Party and the LGBT community”).
"Resolución 99", as the constitutional amendment bill is known in Puerto Rico, was blocked in the House of Representatives that same year and proponents have dropped efforts to re-introduce it for now.
Senator Arango and adoption rights for same-sex couples:
In September of 2009, Senator Kimmey Raschke managed to sneak in a bill banning adoption rights for gays by keeping the language of the bill under wraps until the last day of the legislative session. Arango, a close ally of Raschke, defended the secrecy behind the bill and assured reporters that it would be brought to the Senate floor. From “La adopción en el menú del dia / Adoption on the day’s menu” (El Nuevo Dia, September 25, 2009) :
“You will see the bill. I already spoke with Tommy [Puerto Rican Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz]”, said Arango, who stated that he had yet to see the amendments despite being a member of the conference committee created to iron out the [bill language] differences between the legislative bodies.
Arango would go on to vote in favor of the adoption ban and the bill. It eventually passed both houses and is currently the law in Puerto Rico.
Senator Arango and the word “pato”:
The allegation that had been the toughest to confirm over the weekend were reports Arango had held a rubber duck at a public rally during his first electon campaign and used it to mock an opponent’s sexuality by making quaking noises and calling him a “pato” [“Pato”, the Spanish word for “duck”, is used in the island as a pejorative word for gays, akin to calling someone a “faggot” in English].
Lucky for us, today’s print issue Primera Hora includes it in a chronology of the Senator’s career and even provides a photo.
The chronology says that Arango’s political career began in 2004 when he led the Bush – Cheney presidential re-election campaign in Puerto Rico. It was then that Arango decided to run for office and became a strong ally of San Juan mayoral candidate Jorge Santini. And it was at a Santini campaign event that Arango called Santini’s opponent a ‘pato’.
From the chronology:
On October of 2004, at the closing of the San Juan mayoral campaign, rumors of [Eduardo] Bhatia’s homosexuality spread through the New Progressive Party’s rally and its leaders as they danced to a song with a chorus duck quacks. A featherless rubber chicken was thrown at the stage and rescued by Arango who referred to it as a ‘rubber duckie’
A photo caption reads Arango was overheard talking about Bhatia to someone else on the stage and saying "No le vamos a dar donde le gusta… sino hasta dentro del pelo". It's a difficult phrase to translate but could be interpreted to mean “We won’t give it where he likes it… instead we’ll drill it deep inside him.”
Reaction from Puerto Rican LGBT-rights leader Pedro Julio Serrano:
In researching these articles, I reached out to my friend Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of the leading LGBT-rights organization Puerto Rico Para Todos. He sent me this excerpt from a press release he released to Puerto Rican media yesterday (a full Spanish-language statement is available at Pedro Julio's blog):
This isn't a moment to kick someone when he's down, but I have to denounce senator Roberto Arango's complicity with a fundamentalist agenda that promotes the exclusion and marginalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. His votes in favor of Resolution 99 which would have amended Puerto Rico's constitution to ban the recognition of the freedom to marry for same-sex couples, his homophobic acts such as using a rubber duck to make fun of an opponent because in Puerto Rico the word duck means 'faggot,' and violating his constitutional duty to guarantee equality for all should be the real reasons for his resignation.
Senator Arango's homophobic legacy is still in full effect:
In the meantime, Arango might be gone from the Senate but his legacy remains.
Yesterday’s Primera Hora reports that the legislature seems ready to re-open debate of changes to the Civil Code --- except for parts of the draft that address civil unions or partnership rights for same-sex couples (“Family topic postponed in Civil Code debate”).
That sole part of the draft caused so much public controversy that it swallowed the rest of the work that had been done and there was no expectation that we’d get back to it,” said Jennifer Gonzalez, President of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives, “So what did we do? We looked at all the [Civil Code] books and we took out those issues that might generate public controversy and that might block passage of the other books, and we will start with those four.
Allegedly, once there is legislative agreement on the 'non-controversial' areas, they will come back to address whether the gays deserve human rights. In other words, Arango’s homophobic spirit lives on in the Puerto Rican congress.
While Arango has yet to speak to press about his resignation, it was a close ally, Senate Presdent Thomas Rivera-Schatz who yesterday told reporters he had received the resignation letter from Arango. Today, in an audio interview posted in El Vocero, Rivera-Schatz goes after Arango's past political opponents and tells them to watch their words.
So, get this: Arango quacked like a duck when making fun of then mayoral candidate Eduardo Bhadia all those years ago in 2004. Today, now that he has resigned, we get this from the Senate President:
People are tired of "the bla, bla, bla of the PPD President and the 'quack', 'quack', 'quak' from Bhadia"
So there you have it. The Puerto Rican Senate President calling Bhadia a fag just today. INCREDIBLE.
Pedro Julio has replied ("Rivera Shatz reckless and recurring homophobia condemned". He states, in part, "It's not the first time that Rivera Shatz has recklessly used sexist and homophobic comments, as he has called us 'mentally ill, deviant and criminal."
Pedro Julio calls for Rivera Shatz to keep his homophobia in check or resign.
Senator Roberto Arango's photo, as used above, is a photo capture from a video of an interview conducted by Juan Manuel Benitez on his political show "Pura Politica" on Time Warner Cable (NYC). The interview, in Spanish, can be seen here.
Joseph Israel Laban’s Cuchera, a rightfully shocking exposé of the lives of low-rent drug mules, one of the drug mules, opens with the obligatory and totally unnecessary factoid on how there are so many Filipino drug mules who are still rotting in jail in various countries. From the seemingly lofty implications of his advocacy-heavy introduction, Laban jumps into the middle of one of Manila’s slums. His camera is attentive to the most damning of details, like a torn and discolored Philippine flag, the grime, the mud, the heaps and heaps of garbage and the shanties that dot the dump’s perimeter. From the film’s first few images, it becomes clear that Laban is not interested in subtlety, and probably rightly so. The intentions of the film seem better communicated through shock and noise than lyricism and nuance.
Laban continues by following Rosa (Isadora), a matronly woman we later find out is in charge of making the falsified passports for the drug mules, and Isabel (Maria Isabel Lopez), a retired prostitute who now masterminds the recruitment of drug mules, as they spend the day preparing for the night’s operation. He fortifies the story’s progression with various details like Rosa and Isabel’s detour to a shady faith healer, or the comedic infidelity of Isabel’s husband (Simon Ibarra), or the crazed sexual appetite of Isabel’s nephew (CJ Ramos). From there, Laban introduces the drug mules one by one, giving enough background to rationalize their decision to become literal victims of the very real horrors of international drug trade.
Cuchera is best seen as a horror film without the entertainment goals of the popular genre. While Laban sympathizes with the drug mules who find themselves transformed into receptacles for bags of cocaine, he does not shy away from depicting the violence, depravity, and atrocities of the carefully mapped out process. Through the succeeding sequences of rape, drug use, and of the drugs being hastily and carelessly inserted into the victims, Laban fervently manufactures offense, disgust, and revulsion from the images and sounds he creates, emphasizing very well the indisputable perversity of the market for drug mules and the pervading poverty that forces men and women to become drug mules.
Near the end of the film, one of the drug mules, while aboard a pick-up van en route to the airport, suddenly tells the story of a white lady that is rumored to haunt a hospital. One by one, the drug mules recite their known version of the ghost story. The drug mules’ versions of the story are alarming, all involving rape and abortion as reasons for the lady’s death and her horrid afterlife. However, the dazed storytellers recount the stories without emotions, strangely without even a tinge of fear the stories normally deserve. It is as if their collective recent experiences have desensitized them to fictional horror, rendering them unfettered and unfeeling. It is as if humanity was but a distant memory. To Laban’s credit, watching his powerful debut film produced the same results within me, even if just momentarily.
PHOTOS: Above: The great Michael Musto at an ACT UP Times Square rally against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. Below: Former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey and I at the same rally.
I have lived in New York City for approximately a third of my life and I truly don't know anyone who has been as brilliant at capturing the city's queer nightlife and LGBT revolution quite as successful as Michael Musto. Michael is usually described as a gossip maven, which might be quite alright, but I just think he is so much more than that. We run in a few common social circles but I had never really gotten the chance to interview him. I am glad to say I finally had an opportunity to do so. One caveat: I was just as nervous as when I interviewed JLo and might have tried to cram too many questions into the interview.
Other than that, enjoy, plus or minus a tape-recorder snafu:
Blabbeando: It took a while for it to come out but it’s finally here. I know you have a new book. What’s it called, when is it out and what’s in it.
Musto: Well, it first was supposed to come out last year on Alyson but, then I don’t know – you can read the gossip columnists for what happened there. But now it’s coming out on Vantage Point Books and it’s currently available on Amazon and the official pub date is September 1st.
It’s called “Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back” and to me the title hopefully show the way I like to throw the bourgeoisie cultural standards against the wall and to shatter everything and say ‘I may have the fork in the proper place but I’ll definitely be using the knife to stab you in the back’.
Though of course I have gotten stabbed myself sometimes. It’s a collection of some of my best columns over the years. I’ve been doing The Village Voice column now for over 26 years.
Blabbeando: Are there some new essays as well?
Musto: There are. The introduction is new and I have a new essay about social media, a new one about what’s so appealing about blind items, I have one about the celebrity closet and I have one about why I finally started blogging and what that experience has been like.
Blabbeando: It’s not your first book but this one seems to have a specific focus on the 1990’s and the so-called noughties. I know a lot of things have changed since the days of Michael Alig days and kids voguing at the West Side Piers. I wanted to find out what you felt has changed for the better and what’s changed for the worse.
Musto: Well, in the mid-90’s the club kid scene imploded and this kind of ‘Sex and the City’ mentality started taking over – a very kind of affluent, little black dress, bottle service, Meat Packing District kind of lifestyle. And it seemed like the clubs were fading from view in favor of bottle-service lounges and it was all based on credit cards and just using your expense account as a weapon.
Blabbeando: So in some ways the 80’s are coming back and people spending all that money on drinks and all the other stuff…
Musto: Well, as tacky as it is, I hope it’s coming back in some ways because it would mean that there is some money being pumped back into the scene - but nightlife is usually not about money, it’s usually about the disenfranchised people. The people who own the clubs can have money but the people who go there should be the oppressed underprivileged people who come together to create family and to celebrate and to misbehave in interesting ways so that’s what I long for.
It’s like the Meat Packing District was the enemy that was destroying the nightlife but now it’s all come together on the same plane because every Tuesday and every Thursday all the club kids go there. You know, Le Bain is the roof top place there, so it’s almost like we’ve all have found each other on the same plane.
Similarly, I used to be against people like Jim McGreevey and I thought he came out for sleazy reasons - that he had a lawsuit for sexual harassment – but now we are all on the same level because I run into him at all the same activist events so we are all fighting for the same thing - and we all end up on the same level. That’s the great thing about New York.
Blabbeando: Well Jim McGreevey is always at the ACT UP rallies…
Musto: Yeah, you know what I mean? And some of the columns in this book are me sorta screaming about Ellen DeGeneres who believe it or not wasn’t out at one point? And there was a big debate about whether she should come out and even whether her fictional character on her sitcom should come out and I wrote a piece about the absurdity of how we were debating whether a fictional character should come out of the closet. But now Ellen gets all the props for being not only openly gay but really having done so in a very fierce out open way. And Rosie, same thing.
I mean so much has changed. It’s a whole different landscape from when I started out in the 80’s. Back then there were just a handful of people who were out. I think I was the only out gossip columnist and that, of course, was pre-internet – and that changed everything. Information became available and accessible to everybody and the proliferation of cable channels changed everything because everything became visible, drag queens and a whole variety of gay representation. So this is the world I dreamed of, in a way. But there is still so much more to fight for.
But you are right about Broadway; a lot of these super-liberal Broadway shows were leading the parade for gay equality.
[In setting up the interview I had mentioned Broadway Impact and their role in the marriage equality fight in New York State]
Blabbeando: I might be wrong, but I’ve been reading your columns since the mid-80’s and I think for a while there you wrote a lot about how bad your sex life was…
Musto: [Laughs]
Blabbeando: But then something happened recently, within the last five years, and you started writing about how it’s getting better. Does get better?
Musto: Yeah, it’s weird because I am past the age when you’d see anything happening. It’s probably because I dropped down my wall. I always had a wall around myself. If someone approached me I would do anything possible to scare them away.
Blabbeando: Well, I don’t know if you mom is alive, but did she react?
Musto: [Pauses....] To me getting fucked!?
Blabbeando: Well…
Musto: [Busts out laughing]
Blabbeando: …to you writing about all the sex you’re having.
Musto: Well, you know, I don’t really tell my family that much of anything. The less you let them know the better. Thank God they don’t read my column or if they did they’d have a heart attack.
Blabbeando: Going back to marriage equality and all that other stuff: I know there is talk about a new gay metropolis hotel with a huge gay dance club and we might have a lesbian mayor in Christine Quinn and all the gays are getting married and, you know, isn’t it a little bit much?
Musto: [Laughs] Well, I would never complain about it because it’s the world I fought for and dreamed of but as gay becomes more and more common-place there is a risk of it being a little bit banal. I think thanks to Lady Gaga and “Glee” and all that stuff ‘gay’ is kinda, you now…
[OMG, I know this makes me a Luddite dork but the cassette tape stopped at this point. Yes. Cassette tape. Don’t ask. Michael and I began discussing ways in which there are a plethora of issues that have yet to be tackled before achieving full equality, including transgender rights and the alarming issue of homeless LGBT youth. So, in other words, ‘we join this interview while already in progress’ as they say in the news biznez]
Musto: We are never going to be able to say ‘Oh, we’re there, we’ve arrived, we have a place at the table’. No way. To this day gay marriage is a huge issue, Christine O’Donnell just walked off Piers Morgan’s show because he asked her about it. So it’s absurd that we have to fight for the right to be human. It’s like we are living these incredible lives, we are doing all the things that we want and yet there are still people who think we have to prove our right to be American citizens? It’s so ludicrous.
Blabbeando: For a while there, all these channels - VH1, The E! Channel – everybody was rushing to do these talking head gossip shows and I know you were invited to be part of some of them but sometimes you’d get booked and then be dropped. What was that experience like and do you get recognized more out on the street for being on those shows.
Musto: I’m still all over TV. Just in the last month alone I was on talking head shows on Current TV, TV Guide Network and Biography Channel and then I pop up on Theater Talk, and I was on Keith Olbermann, so I’m still getting massive recognition from being on TV.
The funny thing is none of these things pay so you are basically a free unpaid whore and you have no rights. They can cancel you at any moment. Or you can do a two-hour interview where they grill you about every aspect of - let’s say Lindsey Lohan’s career - and then they’ll just use one sound-bite that you could have done in your sleep or you could phone it in. But ultimately it’s worth it because it is kinda intoxicating to see yourself on TV and people respond to it in a way that they don’t necessarily respond in print. You know what I mean? When they see you and they recognize you from TV they really wet themselves. And it’s nice for me, I get a nice feeling about it because I have low self esteem [laughs].
Blabbeando: OK, you now this is coming and I am going to ask for a reaction. I’m going to read something that Anderson Cooper read out loud live on TV sometime last week. He was reading a Tweet about himself and he said:
Watching Anderson Cooper giggle is like watching a unicorn fart rainbows.
Did he come out?
Musto: He said that?
Blabbeando: Well, Is he now officially out? --- or not?
Musto: Well, he giggles like a schoolgirl every New Years when he’s on with Kathy Griffith…
Blabbeando: Or like a hamster…
Musto: Or, like a gerbil, maybe, I don’t know, but he's in what I call a glass closet. In other words, he lives a gay lifestyle but he won’t say on the record that he’s out and I’ve always had a problem with it. And I think Don Lemon coming out kinda showed, obviously, you can be a CNN anchor and be out. You can do it.
Blabbeando: Well, I just felt that going out live on his show and mentioning ‘unicorns farting rainbows’ was pretty close to saying "Yes, I am".
Musto: That pretty much, yeah, that says it all. That’s basically his coming out. I thought the giggling itself was his coming out but the unicorn remark just confirms it.
Blabbeando: And, finally, I know you’ve taken to blogging and also to Twitter and I wondered if you had any advice for newbies who wanted to start.
Musto:: I would say first of all, to really find your voice and you can only do that by doing it, by writing. The more you write the more you’ll be able to find your particular tone as a writer. And also don’t just write about anything. If you don’t have any passion for a subject don’t even address it. I mean, I’m not gonna write about the Superbowl. I don’t even know when it is. I may write about the half-time show. But people can tell if you are faking it or if you are just doing some kind of rote, routine blog or Tweet. So just send out stuff you care about. And don’t blog or Tweet every time you go to the bathroom - unless it’s a really major bowel movement.
Blabbeando: And do you have any favorite bloggers that you read?
Musto: I try to follow as many celebrities on Twitter as I can. I just love reading Paris Hilton, Jane Fonda, Roseanne, anybody famous. And I think in a way Facebook took away from blogs, like it’s kind of a new blog. People that in the past would have had a blog or a website now just put their brainfarts on Facebook all day. So that’s where I find myself drawn. I post my blog posts all day there and it’s fun to see the conversations that you start when you throw an idea out there into the blogosphere.
Blabbeando: Yeah, and once you start blogging then there is something new, there’s Twitter and then there’s Tumblr, and whatever comes next.
Musto: I know! And my fingers are like in agony. All that linking!
Blabbeando: So anyway, thanks a lot for the interview, Michael.
It was a blind item coursed through an acceptance speech. Arnel Mardoquio, director of Sheika (2010), received the Urian Best Actress trophy for Fe Gingging Hyde, who was in Dubai and was unable to receive her award. The Mindanaoan director revealed that his film was then an entry for a local independent film festival and was removed precisely because Hyde was not famous enough to rake in publicists and moviegoers to be interested in the film. For Mardoquio, the Urian prize, like the NETPAC prize he won for the same film during the local independent film festival he was referring to, is sweet retribution. For some of us, Mardoquio’s speech reveals just one of the many concerns of the supposed “indie film” scene. For the rest, which probably consists of majority of movie-going Filipinos, the speech is nothing more than an ignorable anecdote that will do nothing for their hunger only for escapist cinema, whether locally produced or imported.
Ever since the international film community started noticing so-called indie films and bestowing upon them slots in prestigious film festivals and awards, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino quickly took charge in promoting their successes by offering nominations and wins in their annual Urian Awards. It is ostensibly a worthy effort. The films needed to be seen in the Philippines. However, the sad truth is that these films’ existences are kept secret not by some grandiose conspiracy but by simple ignorance. The Manunuri and their much-coveted awards have saved up enough integrity and goodwill over the years to make their decisions a matter of public interest...
UPDATE:La Prensa reports that a number of unknown individuals identified themselves as members of the Free Expression Foundation to get past security and removed the banner overnight on August 22nd of 2011. The matter is under investigation by university authorities.
I am not aware of additional information on efforts by the United States to assist Honduras in the investigate these crimes but a week ago members of the Honduran LGBT community staged a protest outside the Honduran Congress in Tegucigalpa once again calling for justice.
In such an environment you might think a campaign calling for respect for diverse communities might be welcome with open arms. Instead, a pro-diversity campaign organized by students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras has drawn the ire of some parents and faculty members who allege that a prominently placed banner promotes immoral behavior.
"I want the authorities in charge of making the banner visible to university youth to remove it for the sake of the mental health of the students - it does nothing more than to promote homosexuality among students" said María Antonia Cruz, identified by La Tribuna as the mother of two students attending their first semester at the university.
Editors at La Prensa, covering the story in yesterday's paper, stated rather matter-of-factly "This banner invites men to have relations with men, women with women and there is even an image of a threesome, which shows a man dressed like a woman grabbing the hands of two men."
Responding to the outrage and irresponsible press coverage, a representative of the non-profit student organization that developed the campaign said it only was meant to promote tolerance and that, while the focus of attention had been placed on a banner that alluded to sexual diversity, it was one of five different banners, including one promoting racial tolerance and another promoting and end to violence in sport events.
"Students are deeply engaged in their campaign because it's about tolerance, respect," said Angela Valladares of the Free Expression Foundation as quoted in Tiempo, "Young people have raised their voice [in favor of] tolerance, choice and respect".
The banner in the middle of the controversy shows a lesbian couple and a gay couple holding each other with a transgender woman in the middle holding the hands of a man and a woman. A legend on the top of the banner reads "Freedom starts with the respect of differences; you decide if you want to free." It hangs prominently from the side of a university building.
The banner promoting racial and religious tolerance shows five young women each holding a heart in their hands. The legend reads "It's not the skin that makes you different, but what you hold inside; we are more than 7 ethnicities and 2 religions - we are what we can do with our minds."
"In this country I think we sometimes lack profundity in the analysis, and institutional functions are debated and misunderstood because the role of the church is one thing and that of the University is another" said Julieta Castellanos.
Castellanos said the University did not function as the church nor did it exist to preach the gospel.
Adolfo Alix, Jr.’s Isda (Fable of the Fish) appears to be just another movie set in the overexploited slums of Manila. Lina (Cherry Pie Picache) and Miguel (Bembol Roco), a childless couple despite several years of being married who have just relocated from the province to the city to change their fate, arrive at the slums just in time to witness an unsurprising altercation between a slum dweller and the police, which is expectedly spiced by rowdy and overly involved onlookers. Unstirred by the unexpected but commonplace boisterous welcome of their new home, the couple settle in. Miguel finds a job in the nearby ice plant. Lina stays at home, taking care of the children of her neighbors if she’s not helping her husband in trying to earn money from the dumpsite. Despite the harrowing conditions of the place where they decided to live, Lina and Miguel’s new life is strangely perfect, except that they have not been blessed with a child of their own.
Then Lina gets pregnant, and gives birth, amazingly, to a fish.
Alix does not completely abandon reality in his foray into the supernatural. Picache and Roco admirably wear their roles with unquestionable conviction, blurring further the line that separates the gnawing reality of the depicted poverty and the fantasy of the couple’s situation.
Isda is also visually intriguing, with the scenes framed purposefully, either to direct humor or to forward the narrative. Cinematographer Albert Banzon ensures that the film is not too grimly lit or too bluntly framed. The music, melodies randomly conjured from a single violin, lends uneasiness to the affair.
Absurd is a word that Isda draws its power from. From the absurdity of families etching out decent lives from the indecent conditions of the slums and the dumpsite to the absurdity of Lina giving birth to a fish and attempting to be normal in an obviously abnormal family situation, Alix maintains an unwavering consistency in his depiction. The film is refreshingly mischievous, wearing a mask of seriousness amidst the hilarity of everything that is going on. The film appears to be just one big joke, the same big joke that screenwriter Jerry Gracio played on Lina and Miguel when he wrote Lina’s birthing to a fish into his screenplay. However, the film is indisputably bigger than the sum of all the chuckles the obliviousness of its characters of the blatant absurdity that they’re living could ever produce.
Beyond the absurdity and the tabloid-worthy uniqueness of the story that would most probably be the center of all discussions about the film is a very simple but very earnest portrait of a family. Alix maps the family’s story with astute tenderness, establishing relationships between each member, grounding them with logic and emotions. More importantly, Alix does not place his story within a lifeless vacuum. He concocts a community for the family to exist in and relate to. He has created a world, exaggerated it seems with people living and raising families side by side with garbage, that is ready to admit another glaring anomaly. The truths of Isda, I believe, are as weighty if not weightier than its delicious and deliriously memorable flights of fantasy.
You've been waiting all this time to read another entry from me?
Well, we aren't going to discuss what that may mean about your sanity (because, honestly, I can't imagine why anyone would hang on my every word), but if you insist on reading new entries on my blog, I am pleased to announce that your wait is now over.
*pulls body out of hole, dusts clothes off*
In case you haven't noticed, I've been on a self-imposed hiatus. And I'd like to share what I've learned during the past 6-7 months. But first, that requires a little explanation.
I've been gone for quite awhile. Mainly, it was because of the Cold of the Century, which was actually the Flu of the Century that turned into Complications from the Flu of the Century. I've been pretty sick, folks. Not that you knew that. (Nor did I really want to tell you. I'm a firm believer in keeping the negativity tucked neatly out of site. I'm also a firm believer in keeping the piles of paperwork at my house tucked neatly out of site, but oddly enough I'm not so good at that one. Huh.)
Anyway…
I've been sick enough that I haven't been able to write. Physically I didn't have the strength or stamina to keep up with the act of typing more than an email or two. Mentally I couldn't wrap my brain around a new story, or an old one for that matter. Emotionally I was a wreck while health care people tried to figure out what was wrong. And while I was dealing with that, my husband and I got the unexpected news that one of our children was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
*headdesk*
When it rains, it pours, and all that jazz, I suppose.
I realized that I wasn't in any position to pursue publication, so I decided to place the writing aside. I quietly parted ways with my agent, removed myself from as many online conversations as I could, and prepared to walk away for good.
I tried. I really did. Honest.
But oddly enough, the more I didn't write (or talk about writing) the worse I felt physically. It wasn't until I realized that writing, for me, IS what makes me feel better that I started to see an improvement in my physical health. So I started writing again. At first it was just emails to friends telling them I was getting ready to write again. Then it was journal entries to myself (with a good old-fashioned pen and paper--ahhh, heaven on earth). I also tiptoed back into the online conversation. I picked up the reins I’d dropped as fearless leader at From the Mixed-Up Files...of Middle-Grade Authors, and I started a twitter conversation with MG people which eventually blossomed into the weekly #MGlitchat.
And this week I started writing a new book. One that I love so much that I cry when I think about the story. (And I am so not a crier.)
But through all this, I found a balance between who I think I need to be (perfect mother, amazing wife, remarkable Asperger's Syndrome guru, inspiring champion of MG books everywhere, and all-around hero to anyone looking for one) and who I really am (terrible housewife, internet addict, mediocre writer, procrastinator and all-around normal human being). And I really get what matters to me now.
And maybe you won't be so surprised to hear that what matters most isn't a book contract or accolades from the industry or even an agent clamoring for my work, or anything that I thought aspiring authors needed. Instead, it's the love the my husband and children give me, the camaraderie I have with my writing peers and other industry people, and the amazing opportunity I have to make a difference in the life of a child (or a teen or adult, for that matter).
So why am I telling you this, you ask? Well...
I just wanted you to know I'm back at work. And that sometimes the sweetest experiences may come from the most difficult of trials. And that, no matter what happens in your life, there is always a reason for it. You may not see it at first, but eventually you'll figure it out. And when you do...that will be a good day.
And that I can't seem to find where I placed that last pile of notes about my WIP. You haven't seen them, have you? In times like these a good filing system would really come in handy.
Los Angeles-based music producer/remixer/writer Doctor Rosen Rosen is not necessarily a household name but I have been keeping an eye on his talents since he released a semi-authorized re-rub of UK singer Lily Allen's 2009 album "Allright, Still". He used Lily's original vocal tracks but built up a brand new aural soundscape around them delivering a pretty stunning companion piece to the original album. If you haven't done so yet, you can download all twelve tracks for free here.
If you love the original album and have yet to hear this companion piece, download it here and It still stands as a great companion album to the original.
The Doctor has also taken stabs at remixing tracks from other artists, some by commission and some not, including Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, La Roux, M.I.A. and Phoenix (you can download some of those tracks here).
GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!: This week, though, brought the release of Doctor Rosen Rosen's first proper original artist album in the form of a 4-track EP called "Girls, Vol. 1". And, let me tell you, it's a great blast of sugary summertime pop.
On his website, the Doctor explains that this is the first of several EP's he'll be releasing in the next few months and that each track will feature a different female vocalist.
For this release, the tracks are:
"Five O'Clock" (feat. Jessie & The Boy Toys)": A rollicking kiss-off track that starts with the tic-toc of a clock and, at times, sounds like a modern version of "Rock Lobster" from the B-52's.
"Poison" (feat. Meg Myers): Over at Arjan's blog, Rosen says he drew inspiration for this track from The Cure's "Lullaby" but, to me, it sounds a bit more like late 80's Siouxie infused with some M.I.A./Basement Jaxx swagger over a Nirvana-ish grunge guitar background.
"Hot" (feat. Kay): A slowed-down ragga-infused deep-bass party track. "All my party people are you feeling the bass yet?" Kay sings. Oh, yes.
"Sex-Ed" (feat. Anjulie): This is just pure NYC summer fun, circa 1985, probably the best song of the lot. Then again, I've always loved a bouncy, cheeky, blippy track you can blast while driving a jeep. And I don't even have a jeep.
Really, it's a great EP and I love the fact that it gives four different up and coming female performers a chance to shine. Go download it now and let me know what you think about it.
I met with his therapists today to revise his therapy plans as it has been six months. I can't believe it has already been six months! The first steps program has been so wonderful for us! Not only do we love our therapists but as a mom to have the therapy come to the house is amazing. We looked back at his previous goals and were able to check so many off the list. It is so easy to get focused on the day to day that we forget to look at how far we have come. In all honesty the last two months he really has stepped up his progress. I was also very thankful to revamp the new goals as we now face many different obstacles.
Our main issue right now is the major lack of sleep. This silly guy can't seem to fall asleep before 11:30 at night, is up throughout the night in our room, and is up for the day between 5 and 6, often with no daytime nap. The only way he seems to be able to fall asleep is burning the energy until he literally collapses in my arms asleep. Our sleep schedule is exhausting to me, so I can't imagine what it does to him. No wonder his behavioral problems have increased. We start the bedtime process around 8 and it is a full attention all hands on deck assignment until he is crashed, close to midnight. From weighted blankets, to massage, to singing, to rocking, you name it, we've tried it. We've even had Frank sleeping in the room with him, night lights, etc. He eventually squeezes into a space that is about 5 inches wide to sleep face down on the hard wood floor. He will move any pillow or blanket. Sometimes he sleeps upside down on his head with his bottom up in the air. Sometimes he falls asleep sitting up right in the corner. It is bizarre!
It is our ongoing prayer request that he could just fall asleep on his own at a normal bedtime and wake up without the screaming. That is our other main problem right now. He can't transition from sleep to wake without a good hour long wailing session. Usually it involves a lot of other deep pressure activities, like ramming his head into my chest. During which he lacks ability to think clearly at all. He won't let me touch him, won't answer questions, just screams and cries. This happens morning, afternoon, and sometimes at night.
He has actually made some major improvements in his vocalizing! We have increased our sounds and although they aren't exactly accurate he is making major progress. In his own way he is trying to say juice, baba (for milk), no, yes, bubble, ice, yellow (super random), boo (blue), mom, dad, and sis. The colors, bubble, and ice are only spoken upon request. But he is initiating the others. Which is a major major accomplishment for him. There may be a couple of others I'm not thinking of, they are just not clear to the average listener. So we are now going to start working on more vowels and more consonants as well as initiating sound without being asked. His time with first steps will end when he turns 3 in November, which will be so sad! It really has been so amazing and I feel like his speech therapist has become a part of the family. She has really gone above and beyond to not only help Cruz but help me switch over to gluten free. I couldn't have asked for a better match. She is truly an answer to our prayers. So, we have some lofty new goals to work on the next few months. Some of which include teaching him not to lick things in public (yes!). Please keep us in your prayers as we are seeing them answered, slowly but surely!
Looking back through pictures 6 months ago, there are not very many differences. The kids look about the same and most of the pictures include Cruz in some weird position for deep pressure. I tried to post some normal looking pics below. On the surface level, there aren't vast differences. Underneath, there are some major changes taking place. Instead of posting a bunch of side by side pictures, we will leave you with some fun summer pictures of Cruz and his best friend Frank, just keep us in your prayers.
On the early morning of July 15 of 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to grant full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Such a tremendous human rights victory did not take place in a vacuum: It counted with the support of the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and it was the culmination of a long and effective marriage equality campaigned led by the Argentinean LGBT Federation (FALGBT), a coalition of LGBT organizations throughout the country.
Even then, as they pulled efforts and resources towards the marriage equality fight, the FALGBT never lost focus on what they said would be their next battle: The push for a law which would allow transgender individuals to change their name on their ID's and birth certificates.
Several bills have been introduced in the Argentinean legislature and the day has come for debate on the law. From xQsi Magazine:
On Thursday, August 18, 2011, the Argentinian Congress will begin the debate on a proposed gender identity law. If passed, this law would allow anyone to correct hir name, gender and image registration in all public records through a quick and simple procedure.
Currently, trans people who wish to obtain a government ID with their true gender and name must wait years for a judges ruling, often being denied and forced to go through a lengthy and costly appeals process.
In preparation, the Argentinian Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans people (FALGBT) and the ATTTA (Asociación de Trasvetis, Transexuales y Transgéneros de Argentina) launched earlier last week, the campaign “Identidad: Derecho a ser” (“Identity: The right to be” in English).
As part of the campaign, ATTTA and the FALGBT contracted Director Juan Pablo Felix and producer Matías Romero to come up with the first video for the transgender rights campaign. It's amazing. Take a look:
If you recognize somebody from the video it's because you have seen him on this blog before. On December of 2010, Alejandro Iglesias shocked viewers of the Argentinean version of the Big Brother reality show by disclosing he was a transgender man and had entered the house seeking funding for gender-reassignment surgery. Once in the house, Alejandro found some allies and revealed his identity to his house-mates as well. The revelation quickly became common knowledge around the house, bringing with it a subtle and not-so-subtle rejection from some of the male house members, and a few outright transphobic questionning of his identy - particularly from a gay house member. Alejandro would eventually leave the house without making it to the final.
The most interesting part, for me, was watching Alejandro not only become a national sensation, but see his blossoming activist awareness. Challenged by ATTTA and the FALGBT to help them raise awareness about the gender identity bills now in play, after leaving the house, Alejandro kept his promise and became a visible partner of both organizations. In April, with their help, Alejandro became one of the few transgender individuals to receive a new ID card when he went to the courts to ask for it. The new law, if passed, would facilitate the process without having to go through a court battle.
In the meantime, as an aside and going back to marriage equality: The banner above is what you see when you go to Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's re-election campaign YouTube Site. It includes a video that celebrates diversity and the moment she signed the marriage equality bill into law.
It's not hard to miss, but that's Alex Freyre kissing his husband José Maria Di Bello right to the left of the president --- and this is on President Kirchner's general re-election YouTube campaign page!
Alex and José are, of course, the first gay couple to marry in Latin America. Alex tells me that it's not only the first time that a presidential campaign has used the image of a gay couple so prominently.
