Social Media has made waves in recent years and it’s about time that someone rewarded the people who have effectively used this new tool to make a difference in the way we think and pass the time. The Tatt Awards seeks to identify those who have excelled and led the way in innovating the way Filipino netizens have used the internet and social media towards creative and worthwhile ends.

There are ten categories and all are very compelling. Another good reason to want to nominate your favorite celebrities, close friends or even yourself is the reward that awaits the winner – aside from products and services from Globe, the one who would be named the best for 2011 will win 100,000 pesos! That’s not chump change and it’s definitely a good reward for being a moving force in social media.

Nominations are set to end tomorrow (July 14) so head to the Tatt Awards site to nominate. The council that would eventually decide a good chunk of the scoring is composed of very well-respected personalities who have made their mark in social media over the past years.

Be part of history. Nominate your bets to the first ever Tatt Awards!

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Wolfgang recently had a very successful show at the historic Metropolitan Theater in Manila and I was lucky enough to have covered the event from up close. Please head over  As Oceans (the unofficial Wolfgang fan blog) to see my review of the event. Over 130 people have shared this link on Facebook. Please share it on your wall as well.

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WOLFGANG will be playing their first solo show since Basti Artadi has decided to stay for good in the country. It will be a major event and it seems like the band picked the perfect venue for such a momentous occasion. The Metropolitan Theater (or the Met) has always been one of the most enduring examples of Art Deco architecture in the country but due to decades of disrepair, it has now become a shadow of its former glory – the City of Manila is trying to change that by making it more relevant to present-day events and Wolfgang’s concert will certainly breathe new life to this theater that was once one of the finest in the country.

Metropolitan Theater is located at Lawton, Manila – just next to the bridge that connects South Manila to Quiapo.

TICKET PRICES (exclusive for the FB Wolfpack and those enrolled at the Wolfgang hotline texting list)
Orchestra Center (rows 1 -20): P850
Orchestra Side (rows 1 -12): P850
Orchestra Side (rows 13 – 20): P525
Orchestra Wings (Front bleachers, free seating): P425
Orchestra Wings (Rear bleachers, free seating): P326

Tickets will be on sale starting tomorrow!

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This is a very fitting group shot of the participants and volunteers of the third annual Couchsurfing Manila Summer Scramble. Don’t stress yourself looking for me (or my teammates Ann, Mikoy and Verge) – this shot was taken before we even arrived at the finish line.

I took the first two editions of the race very seriously. I was lucky enough to finish third during the first one despite having to face adversity in the form of an extremely uncooperative and inconsiderate teammate. I was teamed up with a very athletic trio on Year 2 (Mon, Angel and Mark de Castro) but my wrong decision to take the LRT Line 2 to get from the Chinese Cemetery to the La Mesa Eco Park cost us the race and we had to settle for a fifth place finish.

I was less enthusiastic about the third edition of the race but I guess I’m still a competitor. Unlike in previous races, I didn’t really try to psych myself up. Maybe the fact that I have failed to win despite giving it my absolute all during the first two races disheartened me a bit. I was a bit excited to find out that I was going to be on the same team as Mikoy, Ann and Verge. I would be hard pressed to name a week wherein I didn’t see at least two of them. We’ve been really good friends this year and for all it’s worth, quantitatively and in terms of time spent together, these three are definitely among my closest friends – at least for the fiscal year of 2011.

I even made a joke that we were the tallest team in  Couchsurfing Manila Summer Scramble History – with no member falling below 5’7″, I guess my unresearched remark could’ve held water.

I would love to elaborate on the things that happened during the race (maybe that’s for a later post), but to cut the long story short; my team (seen by some people as one of the stronger teams for some reason) bombed out in hilarious fashion as far as the results were concerned.

My team finished 11th… out of ELEVEN TEAMS!

This didn’t come to us as a shock since we made a lot of critical errors with how we commuted around the city. None of us were that adept in taking jeeps and tricycles around Marikina and Quezon City and in a race where taking cabs was not allowed; it was certainly our undoing.

We didn’t really make big errors  but we made many little ones that added up to create the huge 90 minute gap between us and the eventual winners (a team that included Angel Juarez – my teammate of two years, co-blogger in Visit Sagada and hotshot travel blogger at Lakwatsero.com). Congratulations, Angel! Well deserved!

Our team (Team Midora) finished the race after a very disappointing run around the course, but it was all in good fun. I think the team’s morale was heavily affected by the things that transpired during the race (more on this on the future posts), but I don’t know if it would have made a difference. This year’s race was a lot more unforgiving – it was harder to catch up since you were taking the same train system and the clues while much harder were still being solved fairly quickly by all the teams in the game.

Finishing last this year makes me one of the few people in the history of the race to have competed three times. I’ve finished 3rd (more or less upper tier), 5th (middling) and 11th (dead last). The only thing left to be done is winning. At this point in my racing life, I don’t think I have it in me to win. I might be feeling low right now about my chances, but we’ll see next year.

Cheers to the organizers and the other racers!

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SCAMS and CRIMES

These three numbers were wrongly drawn as the winning combination in a Pepsi bottle cap promotion in the early 90s.

This man is now serving a 150-year sentence for being responsible for the largest known crime
of fraud in US and possibly world history. He was sentenced in 2009 and is a former stock
broker and chairman of the NASDAQ.
This man is the inspiration for the Academy Award-nominated film Catch Me If you Can.This
person famously pretended to be a doctor and pilot among other things.
During the golden age of Dutch history, this flower became so popular that one bulb sold for ten
times the wage of a day labourer.
This is a scam principally involving a bundle of cash padded inside with sheets of paper cut in the
size of money.
In 1973, US President Richard Nixon said this now classic quote “I am not a ______” to dispel
any rumors that had something to do with the Watergate Scandal.
In his 2004 book “My Prison Without Bars” this athlete admitted that he bet on his own team
while he was still playing – confirming rumors that he was involved in gambling during his
career. Despite claiming that he never bet against his team, he has never been allowed into the
Hall of Fame of his sport despite his great career stats.
This CNN reporter was arrested by police back in 2008 at Central Park after volunteering that he
had meth inside his pocket. To add to this, he also had a piece of rope with one end tied to his
neck and the other tied to his genitals.

PHILIPPINES

Contrary to popular belief, it was NOT Ferdinand Magellan who coined the name “Filipinas”. Magellan originally named the islands that he saw “Islas de ____ ____” because he found the Philippines during this saint’s feast day.
During the end of the Second World War, over 1 million Filipinos lost their lives as a direct
result of the war. Out of these, two hundred thousand died of an epidemic due to this disease.

This president was the one tasked to do most of the reconstruction of the country following
the Second World War. He defeated Jose P. Laurel during the first election following the war.

This bridge that spans over the Pasig River is Asia’s first ever suspension bridge.
This was the highest position in the Kataas-taasan Kagalang-galangang Katipunan na Mga Anak
ng Bayan. This post was held by Deodato Arellano and Emilio Aguinaldo.
Who was the first vice-president of the Philippines to have successfully become president later
in his/her life?
This province was the first province established under the American period. This northern Luzon
province is named for the native word that means “lake where water does not drain”.
This group of islands was reinstated as a province in March after the Supreme Court ruled that
they met the criteria for provincehood. The islands are located just off the northeastern coast of
Mindanao.
This was the term for the educated upper class during the Spanish Regime. This group was
typically composed of the gobernadorcillo, the cabeza de baranggays and the awardees of civil
merit.

SCIENCE

1. The pathogen or disease-causing agent in Mad Cow Disease is NOT a living thing and is actually

a misfolded protein that could propagate within a host cell. What is the scientific term for this
specific type of misfolded protein that is known to cause infections of the nervous system.
True or False. Ganymede is larger than Earth.
What country has the highest number of scientists per capita?
Evangelista Torricelli invented which famous scientific device?
This type of bird was the type that Charles Darwin collected while studying natural selection in
the Galapagos Island.
This tightly wound coil of wire could be turned into an electromagnet when current is passed
through it due to the generated magnetic field of the flow of electrons through the coil.

The microscope was invented in which European country?
This Siberian-born scientist was the one responsible for creating the earliest known version of
the periodic table of elements.

GEOGRAPHY

1. After Palawan, this is largest island in the Philippines that is only comprised of one province.

Addis Ababa is the capital of this Northern African country that is also the second most populous
country in the continent.
This European country that is not in the Euro-zone is known as Teyrnas Unedig in one of the
nation’s major languages.
This is the smallest sovereign state in South America with an area of around 64 000 sq mi.
In terms of land area, this peninsular country in Europe is the closest to the Philippines. The
margin is less than 1% of the relative total of their land areas. According to the 2010 report of
the IMF, this country had the fifth largest economy in Europe and the tenth largest in the world.
This Asian nation is only behind Lithuania in terms of the highest suicide rates in the world. It is
estimated that 31 out of 100,000 people in this country will commit suicide.
Excluding countries with abbreviated names like USA and UK, the shortest country names are
the ones with four letters. Name four of the ten nations with four-lettered names.
This nation can also be called Bharat in its citizens’ native tongue.

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The band responsible for the album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. - easily one of my favorite albums of all time – is coming back to the Philippines for their third show in seven years.

The show will be on July 28 at the Araneta Coliseum. Tickets go for as cheap as 750 and go all the way up to 6500! Check out Splintr for more Incubus concert details.

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It’s always a daunting task to come up with a list that would encompass a span of time that stretches through a vast expanse of experiences, sensations and sentiments. Memory and recall can be quite selective at times and the things that are at the top of your head may not necessarily be the best picks. This list only reflects my personal preference and I do not wish to impose this standard on anyone. I know my taste can be quite quirky and a bit offensive for some but I just can’t help loving the songs that I put on this compilation.

To ensure more or less equal representation, only one song per band will be mentioned.
With that obligatory disclaimer out of the way, let’s go down to business.

No Falter – Wolfgang

There will definitely be a Wolfgang song in this list so I’m choosing to mention this song right off the bat. “No Falter” is one of my favorite songs of all time and Black Mantra is certainly the most underrated album in Wolfgang’s discography. Hearing it live during last year’s concert was an almost surreal experience. The band didn’t get to play the songs from Black Mantra a lot since they broke up less than two years after the release of the album.

Hallelujah – Bamboo

This song is on the list not just because I was totally over the moon when this song came out (no judgment) but also because I can wail out this song almost effortlessly (again, NO judgment! haha). It sounded really fresh right off the bat and even if the album it came in did sound a bit one-dimensional, ‘Hallelujah’ sure was a welcome addition to the wealth of discography that the past 11 years has seen. No one is saying it but Bamboo single-handedly kept Pinoy rock relevant after the disbandment of the Eraserheads and the quasi-disbandment of Wolfgang.

Blind Conviction - Badburn

This song has got to be the least known of the songs on the list of ten that I’m making so I’m going to put it up here on the top. Philosophically, this song reflected much of my internal debates about the thought processes and logical progressions of people I interact with on a daily basis. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a very catchy track. It’s impossible to not move to this. It’s heavy, but there’s a method to the madness. Adding Marc Abaya in the end was a good touch. I haven’t seen these guys in a while so maybe it’s high time for me to check em out again. After all, this song came out 10 years ago.

Unos – Sandata

I’ve told this band’s vocalist at least a dozen times that this song is one of the best songs that I’ve heard in the last five years. I wouldn’t have heard of Sandata if it weren’t for Couchsurfing so my discovery of this band is certainly a product of the social media revolution! When I still had a band, this was the sound that we were trying to capture. I guess that’s this explains my affinity for their music.

Steve – Cheese/ Queso

This is an extremely tough call – not because I didn’t want to put the band on the list but because I love the two albums that the band released during the last ten years. In terms of layering of different sound influences and philosophical nuances, Cheese/ Queso absolutely executes it the best compared to the other bands that are usually bunched with them (the so-called rap-metal movement that has become some sort of a misnomer). As I’m ending this paragraph, I’m so close to removing Steve from the list and putting ‘Parusa‘ instead. I first heard the song during P.O.D.’s concert for the “Satellite” album and it blew everyone away.

We Give In Sometimes – Up Dharma Down

As far as I’m concerned, the past decade belonged to Up Dharma Down at least for discussions about local music. They splashed down the scene and quite honestly, a lot of people didn’t know what hit them. They were so unique and bold with their choices to the point that their two-albums’ worth of heart-break-therapy is still widely considered to be uplifting and somehow inspiring. Honestly, I could have picked any song by Up Dharma Down – there was no way that they weren’t going to make the list. Do watch the video, it’s stunning!

An Argument – Chicosci

I was absolutely in love with this song when it came out. I remember putting it on repeat for hours (!) on end. Chicosci seems to be an easy target for people who want to make fun of emo kids without really listening to the music first but I think this is were the perceived image of the band hurts the real quality of their musicality and songwriting. They’re able to put into words the nostalgia of growing up and getting into your quarter life crisis through sound

Forever Young – Valley of Chrome

Speaking of capturing youth in a bottle, one of the bands to have done this trick is Valley of Chrome with the last track on their debut album. It’s hard to find a fault in this song, it’s simply a triumph in dashboard-thumping musicality. Just listen to the track, it’s really awesome. It’s a very good call-to-arms song for the young – and soon to be un-young like me (/wrist).

Carino Brutal – Slapshock

Yes, the band responsible for ‘You’re way too cold, like Eskimo’ makes it to the list. Whether you agree with Jamir Garcia’s lassez-fairre approach to the English language or not, there’s no denying that Slapshock makes very catchy music – the type that taps into your viscera and just makes you want to have the sound permeate through your core.

Wakasan – Razorback

This is the final song on the list and I will close it out fittingly with ‘Wakasan’ by Razorback – from yet another underrated album from the middle of the past decade. This apocalyptic whirlwind of sound has a built-in theater atmosphere. It’s definitely among the best Razorback songs of all time and if you ask me, IT IS the best one ever.

—

It was a tough cut. I worked on this for one week, and I actually made two revisions on the supposedly final list as I was making the blog entry!

The last cut for the list was ‘PASILYO‘ by Implement Project.  Yes, that’s a song by my band. I’m humble like that. Haha. If you have time, do check out the track, it’s a decent song (at least in my head).

Here were the last cuts, some of them were last minute omissions and it was really hard to come up with the final ten.

Ipo-ipo – Bright Club

Your Puppet and Clown – Greyhoundz

Motorbykle – Cynthia Alexander

Burnout – Sugarfree

With Me – Ciudad

Ang Ating Araw – Dicta License

Emergence – Diwa de Leon

The Start – Sleepwalk Circus

First of Summer – Urbandub

Again, this list was made with no consideration for other people’s opinions and preferences. It’s all me so don’t be too pissed if my list is totally different from yours.

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Social media has changed the game in many fronts and that includes the way that bands engage their fans. Before, artists would set up exclusive clubs and mailing list to somehow limit the amount of people who would get updates from them. With the explosion of the Facebook and Twitter phenomenon, the game has been more about building larger communities to ensure that the message does get across to as many fans as possible.

I scanned through the local bands who maintain a Facebook page and ranked them according to the number of members of each community. Before, popularity was based on whose songs stay on top of the charts for the longest time. Now, there’s a better and more tangible and comparative metric to really gauge the breadth of influence of artists.

Feel free to tell me if I missed anyone. The stats are as of April 5, 2011.

Here are the top ten artists in the Philippines according to Facebook:

10. Slapshock - over 39K fans

9. Kamikazee - over 72K fans

8. Greyhoundz – over 76K fans

7. Up Dharma Down -  over 103k fans

6.  Bamboo - over 120K fans

5. Wolfgang – over 125K fans

4. Chicosci - over 189K fans

3. Urbandub – over 306K fans

2. Eraserheads - over 702K fans

1. Parokya ni Edgar - over 1.1M fans

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Baguio City 1990

I find it amusing that two of my foreigner friends (Risto and Hugo) almost posted this link from CNN that reveals that Manila would be unprepared on the event of a devastating earthquake. Manila has a major fault running along the eastern spine of the city and thousands of homes and buildings are currently standing on top or right next to the fault line.

There was a study done by Japanese experts from 2002 to 2004 projects that over 50 000 deaths could result from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Aside from this, the experts also predicted that well over 1.3 million buildings could be destroyed and 500 fires could be simultaneously ignited due to the tremors. Given how the Philippine government responded to the Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) aftermath, it’s very likely that the federal response to a disaster of a greater scale and magnitude would be as negligible. 

If you’re not confident about how sturdy the skyscrapers are in the country, you would probably shudder at the thought of how improvised houses made out of concrete and scraps would hold up in the intense shaking of a catastrophic quake. While Manila does get its share of mild tremors, it has yet to be rocked hard by an earthquake in the past eighty years. In fact, the strongest one in recent history would have to be 1863 Manila quake that all but leveled parts of the Manila Cathedral. The simple truth is that Manila has yet to be tested by a big bad earthquake that could be comparable to the likes of what Tokyo, Kobe, San Francisco, Santiago (Chile) and parts of China have experienced in recent history.

In this map completed by the Manila Observatory and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, it’s possible to see the most vulnerable places in the Philippines when it comes to tectonic activity. The darker the shade of red is, the more likely it is for a region to suffer grave damage from an earthquake. Nueva Ecija which lies on top of the very patch of land that generated the deadly and destructive 1990 Luzon Quake is in the deep red along with Benguet, La Union, Zambales, Pampanga, Nueva Vizcaya, Pampanga, Tarlac, Ifugao and Mountain Province (where Sagada is).

It must be noted that while most of these provinces are not as densely populated as the other provinces in Southern Luzon; the geophysical location of these places would potentially make it hard for much needed help to come in. The provinces in the Cordillera will definitely get cut off once a major earthquake strikes and aside from Baguio (which actually lies on the remote western bank of the region), there are simply no other urban centers that can support the needs of the Cordilleras should something happen in this area. Landslides have been happening along the Halsema Highway (the ONLY road that links the towns of the Cordillera Administrative Region) even without much rain or shaking, so an earthquake would certainly be a major headache.

When the big one does happen, Manila would be a big mess. The shoddy implementation of the building code would make one believe that many buildings – even those that are over ten storeys high – would probably collapse in the event of a major quake. Manila hasn’t been hit by a magnitude 6.0+ quake in a long while and the new buildings have yet to be tested. Once buildings collapse into roads, the whole search and rescue operation would be compromised – assuming that there’s an operation to begin with. The corps of volunteers and professionals who are tasked to do these things. It would be a wild and personal battle between survivors to lobby, plead and threaten rescuers to make them pick a particular collapsed building first instead of another nearby edifice. It’s going to be nasty. We are already seeing the worst in many people now – just imagine how’s it going to be when the fecal matter literally hits the proverbial rotary fan.

Prominent architect Jun Palafox related a very detailed ten-year plan for Metro Manila shortly after the quake that devastated Port-au-Prince January 2010. To this day, no visible concrete actions has been done to step up regulations, improve public awareness and institute a culture of preparedness among the Filipino people. There’s a level of fatalism that is so entrenched in the Pinoy psych. As a nation, the country has seen one of the worst tragedies of the past 100 years (one of the worst floods, worst volcanic eruption, worst maritime disasters etc.) but no one seems to care. And these are just the NATURAL disasters – we’re not even talking about the political and societal disasters that we face everyday.

The US Embassy provides its citizens in Japan a document of what the Japanese people are taught from childhood – earthquake preparedness. While we await the actions of the glorious Noynoy Aquino regime, take time to thumb through these pages.

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Only a few delicacies in Southeast Asia could rival the balut’s (also called balot) reputation for being a gastronomical rite of passage.   It is very common to see night vendors selling this delicious egg in street corners and there are even some who walk all night to search for potential buyers. A quick internet search would reveal that people in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand also consider balut as a nice treat. The term balut is the one that stuck because it was the one used in popular culture the most. The reality show series Fear Factor has routinely used the mysterious egg as one of the hurdles contestants must face to win the 50 000 USD cash prize.

Before we go any further, I guess it’s important to first discuss what it is. The balut is essentially a fertilized duck’s egg that was carefully aged to around 17 to 21 days. Depending on how far along the egg is, one could more or less surmise the size of the chick and the amount of yolk remaining inside. As a rule of thumb, the older the egg, the more likely that the resulting chick inside has a beak, feathers and oh-so-crunchy-bones! It is believed to be an aphrodisiac because nothing is sexier than eating an aborted baby duck before getting it on!

Since we at Couchsurfing Manila routinely entertain guests, the balut eating challenge has sort of become of a ritual. Some foreigners have been able to down one or two eggs as well as an average Filipino can but as you’d expect; a vast majority gagged, squinted and pulled faces towards conquering the balut challenge. I can honestly say that I’ve forgotten the names of the people who were able to eat balut easy – the ones that stick are the ones who totally made a fuss about it and took more than ten minutes just to eat the contents.

Eating a balut egg is quite simple:

1. Take the more rounded edge of the egg and slightly tap it against the edge of the table;

2. Peel off the shell on that rounded edge;

3. Tear the thin membrane exposed on the top of the egg, doing this would allow a liquid to pool;

4. Add salt and drink the liquid;

5. After drinking the liquid, you may proceed to taking the shell off completely;

6. You may enjoy the balut by eating the entire thing whole or dissecting it further to smaller components.

One thing that foreigners would need to know is that there are also a lot of Filipinos who don’t eat balut – especially among the members of Couchsurfing! Some would eat only the yolk and the hard chorion component and skip eating the chick (read: eating the chick is the actual challenge). I actually ate my first balut chick in Couchsurfing event three years ago. Sometimes, peer pressure could be a good thing!

This got me thinking. Is it worse that you don’t tell anyone what they’re about to have and hence make them more uneasy with the uncertainty of the whole situation; or is it better to tell them that it is an aborted duck embryo? Interestingly, NOT knowing about it seems to work like a charm in favor of the foreigner – they tend to gobble it down like it was no big deal at all!

If you’re heading out to Manila or just hanging out with the CS crew, you would probably have to down one of these bad boys. There’s no possible way to prepare for this one so yeah, you’re screwed. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Photo by Edgar Alan Zeta Yap.

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Day 3 marked our last morning in Cebu and our first day in Bohol. I went to pier early to buy our tickets, the tickets to the Super Cat ferry to Tagbilaran were already sold out so I had to go to Weesam Express – a company that doesn’t have a website that shows up in the first page of Google search results when you look for pings. Despite this ominous red flag, the trip to Bohol was relatively free of any inconvenience. Aside from the atrocious subtitles on the onboard movie (“Crash”), the ride was mostly tolerable and uneventful.

We reached Tagbilaran City after about two hours at sea. We were fetched at the pier and we quickly made our way to my friend’s beach front rest house. It was a big house with three rooms that easily fit the nine other people who went with me for the trip. The photo above was actually taken on the last day – when all of us were at least heavier – both in terms of shades of tan and actual body weight after all the beach bumming and scarfing.

Day one in Bohol was quite an exciting experience for four of us. During the first day, four people from my travel party decided to swim out to the edge of the island’s reef shelf to check out the corals and teeter off the dark edge.

The visibility was excellent and there were a good number of fish. Kage (the one responsible for the underwater shots) had to go back because her mask was fogging up. She would later share that her saliva wasn’t potent enough to be a defogger – to the three people who haven’t heard it yet – yes, saliva has been used by many snorkelers and divers to defog masks. Risto, our token foreigner guest tried to get the hang of snorkeling but it just didn’t work out for him. I guess he didn’t get enough snorkeling practice in the tropical paradise of Finland. Jim was trying out his new fins and mask and even had a diver’s knife with him – ya’know, to ward off the evil giant squid!

We lit a good-sized bonfire in front of the beach house early in the evening and roasted a few marshmallows. A good amount of alcohol was downed – perhaps a case of Tanduay Ice and around a dozen bottles of Red Horse. For some reason, I took this as a cue to talk to some friends of mine about the intricacies of learning about the brain works (perhaps using my limited knowledge from my past life as a medical student), Darwinism, cosmology and as always, music. Day three was quite a tame day especially when you compare it to what was to come the next day.

Special request, please go to Risto‘s blog, locate the poll on the sidebar and vote for TAGALOG, PO! Thanks.

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The idea that an entire nation of intelligent and opinionated individuals would stand side by side for common causes is certainly a dream that resides in the minds of the idealistic members of the blogging community. I’m a bit shocked though that is something that is considered by people whom I consider to be pragmatic and fairly reasonable individuals.

This point has been hammered home so many times already – the beauty of the blogging medium lies in how free it is and how personal of an experience it is to the person writing the posts and maintaining the sites. While blogging, a person is free to just express his thoughts and just allow himself to be at the mercy of an audience that is largely anonymous and at times appreciative or judgmental. The blog has become a soapbox that has allowed people of different interests, backgrounds and affiliations to spill their minds on a virtual space and engage the rest of the world in some form of correspondence or communication. 

I can wax poetic about these things because up to now, it blows my mind that thousands of people can potentially read what I write in a day. I have been on many blogging networks and each time I joined, it has always been for one reason – to quell the insatiable need to write and put my thoughts on record fearing that I might forget them in the future.

The formation of a gaudily named National Blogger Association would simply destroy or at least erode the very reasons why blogging is such a great thing. Marocharim has already said his piece in more eloquent words in his blog, but the point can not be highlighted enough. The diversity in the community stands to be threatened if a mega-body were to be instituted and would be somehow allowed to make standards for a group of people that it wrongly represents.

Bloggers are not sheep. Nobody joined blogging to be part of a big club – and that’s essentially what the National Blogger Association is. It’s going to be an organization that makes standards on what a blogger should do and outsiders will see it as the legitimate organization that all bloggers should join to gain recognition – even if ironically, at this point, most bloggers are averse to the idea of the establishment of such a group.

If the framers were to continue with organization with the same name in mind, it would really make me think that it puts them ALMOST in the same level as Ang Galing Pinoy (Mikey Arroyo’s party list). The numbers can never be scientific since no one will likely fund a real poll for this purpose but it seems like it’s hard to get someone who would support the National Blogger Association concept. A lot of people seem to think that preserving the dynamism and the status quo is still a better option than constructing a group with a pretentious name.

The current system is not perfect. There are people who may be considered to be part of the blogging elite and there are a lot of people who detest the people who are in that elite group. When those two groups come together to slam one new idea, you know that there’s a big consensus there – and they didn’t need to form an organization to come up with that coincidental stance. Consensus may seem like a good word in most settings but in blogging wherein reaching such an agreement is close to impossible, it is best to let things organically develop and grow on their own instead of coming from the high halls of the blogging hierarchy.

Blogging has grown so much in the past decade without the aid of an organization. If anything, organizations that were formed around blogging have dwarfed in comparison to greater movements that were spurred organically outside the context of an SEC registration. Yes, blogging organizations are still around; but the growth of the community has been so vast that the impact of these organizations (even the really big ones) have been reduced to a small trickle in the very rich and dynamic blogging community that the country has.

The organization can always try to set up shop and prove their worth to bloggers as soon as they grab the reins and try to make some moves but they give themselves a big disadvantage. Once you name yourself the leader of a demographic that doesn’t recognize your leadership and in some cases your credibility; it’s easy for people to be cynical and doubt your intentions. Perhaps tyranny would be a strong word, but that is somewhat close to what happens here. Hijacking the terms national and blogger is akin to snatching the crown from the king’s head and putting it on your own while trusting your personal benevolence to make the right call every single time.

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The first day in Cebu was an absolute trip – there was great food all throughout the day and we closed out the night with an awesome set courtesy of Next Stage in VuDu. Day 2 meant that our small group of three was to expand to a merrier band of nine as the other members of Team Manila flew in to the city.

Before meeting up with the rest of the team, we stretched the time we had in Hotel Pier Cuatro and relished every minute of shut eye that we could get. Before making our way to the other hotel that the team would be staying in, we trooped to CnT first to grab our second lechon lunch for the trip. Yup, healthy eating was definitely in the agenda for this trip.

Verge and Stephen elected to come with the majority of the group to check out the city and do the touristy stuff. I on the other hand picked the relative comfort of the hotel room and chose to catch a few Zzzzs before leaving in the afternoon to meet up with one of Cebu’s most prominent bloggers. The meeting place was quite convenient for me considering how close it was to the hotel and I did have Starbucks Coffee gift certificates that I needed to use so it was a pretty opportune moment.

After an hour of small talk with Focal Glass, I went back to the hotel to prepare for the main event – Cebu Trivia Night. It was their first year anniversary and they invited teams from Manila to go head to head against the best teams that Cebu has to offer. The concept of quiz nights has taken off in the city and it would be pretty easy to find a venue that has a house quiz on any given week night.

The quiz was set in the really posh Anzani restaurant that’s just across Bellini. The complex has a very nice view of the city thanks to its good elevation relative to the other parts of Metro Cebu. My team came into the event very nervous and a bit tentative (we were after all representing the 15 million people from Manila!). As the great Jim Gow said, it was probably what Michael Jordan felt when he played for the Loony Tunes team in Space Jam.

By the end of the night, one thing was clear – WE WERE THE BEST TEAM…

… from Manila! Four really good Cebu teams raced to a really good starts and we were just in awe of just how fast they could write down the answers to the questions! Truth be told, the pace of the game in Cebu is a lot faster than in Manila – and for some reason, the Cebuanos were REALLY fast. It seemed like we were the only team bother by the speed of the game! The Manila game has always been slow and while it has its disadvantages, it does make the game more easily regulated – less time means less time to cheat (and yes, there are teams who cheat in some venues in Manila). In Cebu, it was either you know it or you don’t – nobody has a fast enough GPRS connection to beat the time limit! We related this observations with Kacey and Kristine after the game and hopefully they’ll get to experience the Manila game where the pace is slower and the venues are smaller. Haha

It wasn’t that shabby a showing though. Our team still finished fourth out of thirteen teams – and we were just three points away from winning it all. It was such a shock since we were down eleven going into the final rounds. I played the individual round on local airport codes and I’m guessing we made a big move in closing the gap during that category.

In the end it was still a great showing. The questions were impeccably done! I would really want to congratulate Cebu Trivia Night for pulling this one off. The quality of the game and the hosting are definitely the reasons why people keep coming back for more.  I remember saying in the TV interview after the game that our team isn’t easily impressed but this quiz was easily up there as far as the standard of the competition and questions was concerned. It would have been far sweeter had we won, but it was a great experience. Win or lose, I still look quite good in gray shirt and silver tie, yes?
For updates regarding Cebu Trivia Night, follow their Facebook Page.

all photos were stolen from the album of Kaia Aguas.

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We were invited by Cebu Trivia Night for a Manila versus Cebu special last weekend (this will be tackled on a later entry) and for some reason, two of my friends and I decided to fly the day before of the event to give us a chance to see what the city had to offer. It’s been almost four years since my last trip to Cebu so I was pretty sure that there would have been a lot of changes already.

We stayed at Hotel Pier Cuatro – a hotel that’s near, well, Pier Cuatro. The accommodations were quite basic but the price was a good deal – 1380 pesos for three people with free breakfast sure sounds like a steal, yes? The staff was very friendly and helpful and the guard even helped me retrieve a bag that I accidentally left inside the cab that we took from the airport (I know…). This hotel is NOT in a posh area of the city but it is close to Park Mall and SM Cebu. Pier 4 is also the same pier that one would go to to catch the SuperCat ferry to Tagbilaran, Bohol.

There were two highlights of that fateful Thursday. The first one would be the exceptional food that they serve in a lot of unassuming food joints in Cebu. I will be posting photos as soon as I get them but if you’ve been to Cebu, you definitely know that the lechon (especially the one from CnT) is to die for. Well, you can literally die due to eating too much of it to tell you the truth. We scarfed down 3/4 kilo of lechon with six cups of rice and ended up paying a little over 130 pesos each. Getting lechon can be quite a chore though; I was in line for around 20 minutes before somebody took my order.

After sleeping the afternoon away, we went to AA’s Barbeque as suggested by the helpful lady in Hotel Pier Cuatro’s front desk. We sampled a good assortment of liver barbecue, clam soup, gizzard, giant squid (!) and other things that I can’t remember right now. The bill was once again ridiculously inexpensive – around 160 for each person for a feast of a dinner.

I was traveling with Verge and Stephen so the next step was quite obvious – we had to drink somewhere. I think I can squarely blame credit these two for getting me to drink again; or at least getting me to drink in amounts that I have never really managed to down in a long time. Verge has been to Cebu the most number of times (I’ve only been there thrice and Stephen was on his first time) so he made the call that we should check out Loft near the IT Park. When we got to IT Park, we find out that the place was closed and that we had to go to Plan B.

Well, well, well… good thing the Plan B was to go to VuDu. This was clearly the best break we’ve caught for the day! I really thought that VuDu was more of a dance club but apparently, it morphs into a rock venue during week days. We settled in as the band Next Stage was about to start their set. Obviously, we had no idea who they were but they seemed like an ordinary run-of-the-mill cover band who would probably play hits by Freestyle, Side A and just about every crowd-pleasing sappy band out there. The fact that their main vocalist was a girl didn’t help in breaking the stereotype.

Boy, were we wrong.

The band started out on a  more mainstream slant when they went with an Alicia Keys song. They also covered a Carrie Underwood song (Before He Cheats)before going all out with the videoke staple Alone by Heart. Then, it started getting weird.

Next Stage then segued to Love Song by 311. Now this song was pretty popular back in the day but I’m sure this wasn’t a big number on most show band’s play lists. Sensing that the band had some edge to them, I decided to request the song Plush by the Stone Temple Pilots. True to form, I also requested that I sing with the band. They were more than generous to let me do that and yes, as usual, I nailed the song without even needing the lyrics sheet. This song has always been my go-to-song and anyone with a good grunge growl can sing this hit and come out on the other end sounding like a seasoned pro. I think Verge has a video somewhere so I’ll be posting that once he uploads it. The band ended the first set with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.

We were already happy with how the band was choosing their songs. There was nothing cliche with what they were playing – they weren’t covering Before I Let You Go or Forevermore. They were really doing songs that we actually liked for reasons other than kitsch.

And then came the second set. It was so weird that what transpired could be written into an episode of The Twilight Zone. Next Stage played a recent hit by Three Doors Down (Here Without You) and from that point forward, it was sheer madness.

They played Black Dog. Yes, BLACK DOG by Led Zeppelin.

Just as we were reeling from the shock of that song choice, they started playing the opening riffs to Deep Purple‘s Smoke In The Water. It was a very good surprise that a lot of people were also into the music and were singing back the lyrics to the band.

And then came the iconic song of Pink Floyd – The Wall that comes from a highly conceptual album and concert series of the same title. It blew my mind – but I’m guessing the impact on Stephen was at least three times more of what I was experiencing.

The band then played two songs by the same artist. Would you believe it if I told you that they played two songs by AC/DC?! Well, they did. They covered the living hell out of It’s A Long Way To The Top and Highway To Hell. WHAT.THE.FUCK. The three of us had a lot of drinks already and we were already on our feet. By this time, we were convinced that we’ve stumbled on an alternate universe! I told Stephen that nothing can surprise me now. I won’t even be surprised if they started playing Metallica.

…and right on cue, the guitarist played the opening riffs to Enter Sandman. It was absolutely surreal. This song being the most recognizable tune from Metallica absolutely whipped the crowd of around 40 that Thursday night into a total frenzy. The space was to big to mosh in but everybody was certainly singing and jumping around.

The band closed out the night with the Guns ‘N Roses hit Paradise City. It was a very fitting end to a night that seemed like it was going to be a downer but ended up being an amazing and unforgettable experience.

From our searches on Google, we’ve found out that Next Stage has been playing on cruise ships before! There’s no surprise there. They definitely know how to work a crowd and their individual technical abilities are simply exemplary. Hopefully they’ll be in Cebu the next time I’m in town. They’re really awesome. I hope they get to read this.

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I’ve received a copy of a so-called manifesto that was being drafted by the framers of an organization that wishes to call itself the National Blogging Association. I’ve publicly responded to the parties who were trying to form this group via Twitter and my answer has always been an emphatic NO. Many people have been writing about it (Juned and Jayvee - two of my blogging idols) so I think it wouldn’t hurt if I threw in my two cents regarding the issue.

For all intents and purposes, I would like to believe that blogging as it stands now is free from regulation and no one person or party can claim that they have the mandate to directly influence it or somehow make resolutions or standards that would be the de facto conventions of an entire community. Blogging has become so big now in terms of breadth and reach that a club composed of the big guns in the scene couldn’t possibly organize and herd a large group of independent minds.

Bloggers are from very different backgrounds and the idea of homogenizing the way that one is supposed to blog (one of the main thrusts of the proposed group is to have a ‘code of ethics’) was a red flag for me – and yes, to anyone who believes in free speech; any attempt to curtail freedoms should be resisted with the strongest possible terms. Considering that the possibility of curtailment is coming from within the community, I would even suggest that such a move even triggers a chilling effect among those who support the right of people to self expression – caveat: the legal limits still apply regardless of how much freedom we have.

I also have an issue with the name. Calling your group the National Blogger Association can come across as a bit misleading.  There was no mandate to begin with – what essentially happened is a meeting of the minds of two relatively influential bloggers who also attempted to form a strong bloc by approaching bloggers who could somehow bolster the significance of the manifesto. I would have to give the organizers the benefit of the doubt that they really want to do something good in behalf of everybody else who blogs. Unfortunately, the perception of false representation in this context is really hard to ignore. I am very uncomfortable about the notion of being called a founding member of an organization like the National Blogger Association. It just feels wrong. It’s almost feels like the name “blogger” is being hijacked. I would like to think that that wasn’t the intention of the organizers but it’s really easy to make the connection if you don’t give them the benefit of the doubt.

On the other hand, if no one will do it, there’s a good chance that someone else will try to do it – a wily traditional politician perhaps, or another blogger who clearly is less qualified than the two people who are putting their necks on the line to lead a community (that isn’t exactly asking to be led). Should there be another party who dares to attempt what Janette and Tonyo are trying to do now, I’m pretty sure that they will face the same amount of resistance.

At the end of the day, this whole issue isn’t about Tonyo and Janette – it’s about whether or not we need an National Blogger Association. Those two people could’ve been other people and the result will still be the same. Perhaps the rebuke will even be stronger had it been other people, to be honest.

Homogenizing what is good from bad blogging under the umbrella of an organization just sets off alarm bells in my head and I’m sure that’s the case for a lot of bloggers as well.

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