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For the past 20 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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‘ISMS’ are cool as hell. I love most of ‘em.
Romanticism, eroticism, even Ism shoe mart!
Seriously, Isms have shaped human history in so many ways: Communism, Fascism, Capitalism and more.
But I have also come to hate a lot of isms - racism, for one and most recently, Music-ism.
Well, there is no actual Music-ism, I kind of just coined it to connote a form of elitism in music - the discriminating kind.
Some people find other people’s musical tastes as basis to judge whether they’d be saved or damned. To put it in another way, music has become a measuring stick to size up a person’s cultural and social standing.
I hate Music-ism. And I hate it more because I myself am guilty of this.
Music-ism works like this: If you listen to a certain artist or genre, then you are this type of person. Musical preference has become the newest harbinger of modern stereotypes. Some common manifestations of Music-ism:
1. If your CD player gets a lot of April Boy, Aegis or Renz Verrano, most likely you are person who comes from the southern part of the Philippines, and wears a baseball cap all the time, and always dress up in acid-washed denim jackets and pants with a white, high-cut basketball shoes and, chances are, sports a mullet hairdo - short top- long back.
2. If your iPod is loaded with stuff from Side-A band, Freestyle or MYMP, you fall in the category of the Glorietta-dweller- A person who wears Girbaud or Armani jeans, RL or Lacoste shirts, owns a cool car, speaks in Tag-lish and, chances are, wears mouth braces.
3. If you listen to stuff by Grace Nono, Heber, ASIN, Noel Cabangon and Cynthia Alexander, there is a near 100 percent chance that you are from UP, has an innate hatred for fashion -- therefore prefers to wear plain white shirts and faded unbranded jeans, perhaps a vegetarian, and most likely hates organized religion-except for religions that border on being a ‘way of life’ like Buddhism or Hinduism. Oh, they also despise anyone in government or generally, any person with authority, and at one point in their lives had made out on Luneta.
4. If you listen to music by The Clash, The Dead Kennedy’s The Ramones or The Sex Pistols, then you are a foul-mouthed person, who always wear black-tattered clothes loaded win safety pins, and never hesitates to rob a granny of her pocketbook loaded with her dentures.
You may even scare stray pigs and dogs because it is assumed that with a slight glance from your red eyes, you can hypnotize living things and eat them later on for supper. You may also fancy fighting for every right: Animal rights, gay rights, the right to vote, gay rights, the right to party, the right to get high and the right not to have any rights at all. And, oh yes, you are a sex maniac as well.
5. Jazz. If you only listen to all things Jazz, you probably won’t even read this article. Because you think your intellect is way over the required limit and won’t waste time reading a stupid, pretentious article like this one
But if ever you do read this kind of stuff, you do it because you want to read stuff like this that will boost your ego and make you snicker more at musical low-lifes. You might also believe that improvisation is more than a musical approach. You might think that it also applies to sex, which is good and fashion, which is bad - long-sleeved shirt, shorts and slippers with socks.
6. Classical music listener. You laugh at Jazz fans for trying too hard to be classical, and you would be most likely be reading Jean Benard Leon Focault, Sarte and Kant than wasting your time with The Happening.
There is also a 30 percent chance that your sexual preferences hang on a balance and your taste for food ranges from Tajikistan delicatessen to the underground Christian cuisine of Red China.
There are a lot more social stereotypes brought about by Music-ism. These are only but the tip of the iceberg.
That is why it pays to have a conversation about musical preference nowadays, as it gives you the entire picture all at once.
I have been dumped, kissed, hugged, punched, sensory deprived, interrogated, driven out, loved, spat on, laughed at, praised, promoted, demoted, and spanked all because of the kind of music that I listen to.
I loath Music-ism.
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MANILA -- Iza Calzado turned 22 on August 12 and instead of having a party, she opted to spend her birthday with some cancer patients. “Actually, matagal ko nang ginagawa ang magpasaya ng mga pasyente, kahit hindi ko birthday,” she says. “It gives me a nice feeling to bring joy to sick people.”
Her mom and step mom succumbed to the disease, so she knows the terrible situation that patients and their families experience. “I also believe that it’s important to share your blessings with the less fortunate in your own little way. The Lord has given me so much, lalo na ng mag-hit ang ‘Moments of Love’ sa takilya. Heto may follow up movie na kami ni Dingdong Dantes, ‘Eternity,’ which is even more romantic and touching than our first film.”
In “Eternity,” she plays Milagros, a girl who comes from a wealthy Spanish family. She falls in love with Dingdong, who plays Crisanto, a poor farmer. How they fight for their love even after many generations is something you’d root for. “We show that love can really be eternal and that a love that does not have fulfillment may still succeed in another lifetime. Incidentally, the film’s theme song is Gary V’s ‘In Another Lifetime,’ na bagay talaga sa story.”
For the first time, she agreed to do a bed scene. “It’s needed in the story to show how passionate our love is for each other. Also, very tasteful ang execution ni Direk Mark Reyes and I’m comfortable with Dingdong, so I agreed to do it.” (MNS)
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MANILA -- Kris Aquino said she and husband James Yap need, at least, P35 million, to have their dream house built in La Vista, Quezon City where they own a property. This amount does not include, however, the furnishings they will have for their new residence. Kris, after all, has this habit of giving away her old furniture every time she moves to a new house.
Kris as everyone knows has a lavish taste. Her penthouse at the Juan Salcedo Condominium in Makati which she shares with James and son, Joshua, tells of Kris’ high standards when it comes to the design and furnishings of her house.
In an interview, Kris reportedly revealed that they need to move out of the condominium by January. By then, their lease for the unit would have expired.
Guess how much Kris and James are reportedly paying for the rent of the unit. It’s a staggering P500,000 monthly.(MNS)
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MANILA Singer-songwriter Jim Paredes has scored a newspaper article that said he had given up on the Philippines after immigrating to Australia.
He clarified that he mainly stated that he felt frustrated with Philippine politics “but to say I have given up on the Philippines is to put it mildly, a naked lie.”
Paredes, one third of the popular Apo Hiking Society, was one of the most vocal critics of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. In 1989 he returned his green card to the American embassy, saying that he wanted to help preserve the gains of the 1986 EDSA Revolution while staying in the Philippines.
Last March he immigrated with his wife, three kids and two-year-old granddaughter to Sydney.
The first two paragraphs in the August 20 Philippine Daily Inquirer report “Finally, Apo’s Jim Paredes gives up on RP” reads:
“The singer-composer who helped topple the Marcos dictatorship but years later gave up all hope for a better Philippines is doing just fine in his new-found home in Sydney, Australia. Five months into his new life as an immigrant, Jim Paredes is slowly becoming the face of a new set of overseas Filipinos, one of the many disillusioned millions who left the country in search of kinder, greener pastures.”
In the latest entry in his blog Writing on Air (haringliwanag.pansitan.net), Paredes said he immigrated to Sydney for his personal growth and because of his growing frustration with the Philippine political situation.
“I said that I was tired. But not once did I ever say that I had given up on the Philippines. More correctly, I have always said I would fight another day,” he said in the entry.
“Everyday in Sydney, I wake up to discover the things that work well and wonder how we can do it back home,” he added.
Paredes said he was very disappointed with PDI, adding that he did not know how the newspaper came to that conclusion based on the interview. He added that he was not “one to trash the Philippines just to feel good about migrating.”
He also refuted two items in the PDI article -- that he was a member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board and that Apo sang “Handog Ng Pilipino sa Mundo” during a concert in Melbourne.
Paredes said PDI has scheduled a follow-up interview to clarify the article. (MNS)
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MANILA -- Mark Herras denied that he felt jealous when former girlfriend Jennylyn Mercado was linked to Patrick Garcia.
“Hindi naman ako exactly nagselos,” he says. “I just want to show na concerned pa rin ako sa kanya since we remain good friends. Somehow, I felt relieved when she told me friends lang sila talaga.”
Looks like he’s still hoping they’d reconcile. “I’m not closing my doors naman to that possibility. But right now, mas smooth ang lahat na friends lang kami. Natapos nga agad ang movie naming ‘Eternity’ na wala kaming away-away like before na naaapektuhan pati work namin.”
He believes they’ve made one of their best films ever in “Eternity,” a romantic drama about love being eternal, knowing no bounds even after lovers have died and have been resurrected in future generations. “I just feel proud to be part of a film na ganito kaganda ang story at ang production values,” he adds. “Our director, Mark Reyes, made sure no stone is left unturned para mapaganda ito nang husto and viewers will surely fall in love with it.”
In their TV show, “I Luv NY,” Mark and Jen exchange partners with rumored sweethearts Alfred Vargas and LJ Reyes, the latest twist in the top rated romantic show on GMA-7.
Alfred as Seb tries to court Jenís Natalie while LJ as Ponyang admits she has strong romantic feelings for Mark’s Baste. Natalie had an operation in the story. She expects Baste to be by her side when she wakes up, so she gets shocked when she sees Seb instead. Her dad (Tirso Cruz III) tells her that Baste had left her. The truth is that her dad’s bodyguards prevented him from seeing Natalie. Baste tries to move on by spending time with his friend Ponyang, who admits that she’s secretly in love with him.
The show nears its ending and Mark and Jen, along with Jolina Magdangal and Marvin Agustin, will be returning to New York City for its grand conclusion. Both pairs found true love there, yet lost it along the way. Will they finally realize that they’re really made for each other, especially in the case of Marvin whose heart condition worsens and might never be cured so he wants to sacrifice his love for Jolens and pretends to go back to Isabel Oli? (MNS)
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