The Wily Filipino

Nightline, Tonight.

Paraphrased from an e-mail from MoveOn.org:

Tonight, ABC's Nightline is airing a special (and what will surely be moving) tribute to soldiers who have died in Iraq, by reading the names of each one while their photo flashes on screen.

But some ABC affiliate stations won't be airing it at all, because they're owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group (who have given $136,000 to Republicans since 2000). According to them, this is no tribute, as "the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq."

So you folks know what to do: show Nightline your love -- they'll undoubtedly be swamped with hate mail as well -- write letters to your newspaper editors, post on your blogs, or call up Sinclair:

David D. Smith, CEO
Sinclair Broadcast Group
(410) 568-1500 x1504

(But I've been getting nothing but a busy signal for the last hour or so, so something's happening...)

Online Music Geekness.

I was going to post about the wonders of Listen-to.com, but unfortunately, it looks like they may be shutting down by the end of June. This is unfortunate; like Audioscrobbler (more about this in a moment), Listen-to tabulates the music you, uh, listen to, and breaks it down in endlessly fascinating ways. Endlessly fascinating to me, anyway.

Check out my profile, for instance: it says that I listen to 48 songs per day -- and that's only on the computer -- and that Guided By Voices (naturally) is my most-played group.

You can also look at the .jpg on the right side of my blog that tells you what I'm currently listening to. (I guess it'll be back to BlogAmp after June.)

[Update: the .jpg is now from Viralsound, which works like a charm.]

Audioscrobbler is extremely cool as well, doing much of the same things but displaying the results in neat bar graphs. Here's my profile, which has GBV leading by a mile. (Eileen may be amused to discover that she's right between Kanye West and Radiohead on my list.) Still unimplemented -- at least for people who signed on only recently -- are music recommendations and a display of other Audioscrobbler-enabled people who have your same musical tastes.

The problem with both sites/plugins are their constant outages; there are 226,418 submissions currently in the Audioscrobbler queue, which means that what used to be real-time reports now take hours before they show up in your profile. (As I write this at 10:22 in the evening, the songs I listened to this morning are only just showing up.) This, unfortunately, is the result of its popularity, and the fact that it's absolutely free.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM GUIDED BY VOICES

After almost 20 years, assorted lineups, and countless albums, EPs, singles, triples, stolen bases, misdemeanor convictions, and broken hearts, Dayton, OH's fortunate sons are taking leave of your senses. 'Half Smiles Of The Decomposed,' to be released August 24 on Matador Records, will be the final album from Guided By Voices, one of the most acclaimed independent rock bands of all time.

"This feels like the last album for Guided By Voices," explains Robert Pollard, GBV's lone constant member, lead singer, and famously prolific songwriter. "I've always said that when I make a record that I'm totally satisfied with as befitting a final album, then that will be it. And this is it."

And there's more here, where Pollard talks about the last concert (Dec. 31st, in New York):

We are the kings of indie rock. When we quit, indie rock will die.

But Pollard, hopefully, will continue making music on his own...

Mix Tape: RT/NU.

I love a little brain dump every now and then; it reminds me of how much useless junk is stuck in my head. My brother has listed what he calls his favorite new wave songs.

My list is more like 48 definitive singles (not necessarily my favorites, and the titles may be wrong) from Philippine "college radio" from the early to mid-'80s (with some exceptions for the late-'80s). There were two stations that played this stuff, 99.5 RT (before it disappointingly switched to an American Top 40 format) and NU 107. (There was a third -- BX? -- but I could never get it in Los Banos on our dinky radio.) The "sound," luckily, spread to other stations, so some singles are bigger than others. This is, in any case, a little snapshot of that era.

I won't call it New Wave, but Filipinos sure called it that. And it's 48 because it's getting late and I can't free-associate any further. In no order:

1. The Cure, "In Between Days" [this should really be "Fire in Cairo"]
2. Psychedelic Furs, "The Ghost in You"
3. The Lotus Eaters, "The First Picture of You"
4. Wire Train, "Chamber of Hellos"
5. Prefab Sprout, "When Love Breaks Down" [better: "Cars and Girls," but that was later]
6. The Style Council, "You're The Best Thing"
7. Seona Dancing, "More to Lose"
8. Aztec Camera, "Still on Fire" [better: "How Men Are," but that was also later]
9. Fiction Factory, "Feels Like Heaven"
10. Modern English, "Melt With You" [though "Ink and Paper" is probably the better song]
11. Vitamin Z, "Burning Flame"
12. Fra Lippo Lippi, "Everytime I See You" [better: "Light and Shade"]
13. Cock Robin, "The Promise You Made"
14. China Crisis, "Wishful Thinking"
15. New Order, "Thieves Like Us" [better: "Temptation"]
16. The Smiths, "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
17. Orchestral Maneouvres In The Dark, "Secret"
18. Depeche Mode, "Somebody"
19. Tears For Fears, "Change"
20. A Flock Of Seagulls, "The More You Live, The More You Love"
21. The Icicle Works, "Birds Fly (A Whisper to a Scream)"
22. Red Flag, "Russian Radio" [awful]
23. The Care, "Whatever Possessed You"
24. The Fall, "C.R.E.E.P." [though "Cruisers Creek" and "No Bulbs" are my faves]
25. Gene Loves Jezebel, "The Motion of Love"
26. The Bolshoi, "Away"
27. The Sisters of Mercy, "Walk Away"
28. Big Country, "In a Big Country"
29. The Mighty Lemon Drops, "Inside Out"
30. Nik Kershaw, "Wouldn't It Be Good"
31. When In Rome, "The Promise" [a little later]
32. The Adventures, "Two Rivers"
33. Industry, "State of the Nation"
34. Simple Minds, "(Don't You) Forget About Me" [big everywhere]
35. Everything But The Girl, "When All's Well"
36. Alphaville, "Big in Japan" [horrible]
37. The Alarm, "Absolute Reality" [even worse]
38. Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Cities on Fire" [what a great goddamn song]
39. Xmal Deutschland, "Matador" [another great song]
40. Echo and The Bunnymen, "Seven Seas"
41. Talk Talk, "It's My Life" [way better than what's-her-face's version]
42. Cactus World News, "Worlds Apart"
43. Joy Division, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" [earlier]
44. Propaganda, "Duel"
45. The Primitives, "Crash"
46. Real Life, "Catch Me I'm Falling"
47. The Fixx, "One Thing Leads To Another"
48. Ultravox, "All Stood Still"

Sigh. I feel like firing up Soulseek and looking for this stuff now, but... Man, dial-up sucks.

Campaign Slogans We'd Like To See.

From the Bush Sloganator, via ToT.

More Buddhas on Bikinis!

Is there some secret group of swimsuit designers who have Buddha on their minds? Or, in this case, Buddha somewhere else:

Images stolen from Onda de Mar -- that closeup wasn't due to my crop-and-enlarge skills, it was really on their website -- though don't be surprised if the images are taken off soon. (Thanks to Enji (or are you Heidi?) for the link.)

The fetching bikini above is called "Baby Buddha Bikini" on this website, and is described -- mystically, serenely -- as follows:

Totally Zen...

Take a mystic journey in ths fabulous bikini by Onda De Mar Swimwear of Colombia. Colorful watercolor scenes are embellished with tiny jeweled beads giving it serene beauty.

And Ondademar can be contacted here, and enjoy the runway music, too. Hey, I'm just providing a link -- I wouldn't dare suggest you fill up their mailboxes with complaints!

Meanwhile, Victoria's Secret tries to cover their, uh, behinds (see this forum for the entire thread):

Dear Minh,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the Asian print tankini, #173444. We are pleased to address your inquiry.

Based on the information provided to us by our merchandise department, we do not believe that the personage depicted on the tankini is Buddha. Be that as it may, our photographs have offended you and for that we are all truly sorry. Please accept our sincere apologies as our intent was certainly not to offend anyone.

Although we feature this item in our catalogue, we do not manufacture this tankini. If you have additional concerns regarding this tankini, we recommend contacting the manufacturer, Ondademar? directly.

Again, thank you for expressing your feelings about the tankini. We appreciate your candor, and hope you will accept our regrets for any distress we may have caused you.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this e-mail or call anytime.

Thank you for contacting Victoria's Secret.

Sincerely,

Iris I.
VictoriasSecret.com Client Services

Someone politely asked me, in a comment to my previous post, to take the image(s) off my website. I fully realize the offensiveness and insensitivity of these depictions -- which is why they're staying on my site so that people remember. (Someone on another list commented that the Buddha himself would probably say that we should instead overcome our own delusion of anger and continue to strive for inner peace and happiness. True, but my point here is that such contempt for religion is inexcusable -- and yes, that goes for my flippant comment about Jesus on a bikini too.)

(Meanwhile, Bali Dog has a whole line of ugly exercise wear with Buddha, Ganesha, Krishna, Shiva, Durga, Tara -- hey, collect 'em all!)

Your New Favorite Song.

[Update from 2007: the mp3 is sitting here.]

I have a couple of mp3s ready for download and sitting on my server, but I'm interrupting it for an oldie from the early '80s. I had no idea that one of my favorite songs of all time (it's actually listed on my brain dump from last year) -- one of those drop-dead awesome, take-you-all-the-way-back-to-high-school, super-cheesy but oddly moving, Romantic New Wave singles -- was actually sung by one of the funniest people in the world, Ricky Gervais from The Office. (Thanks to Boyong Valencia for the forwarded info.)

Seona Dancing's "More to Lose" keeps being described in current profiles of Gervais as a "failed band," with their songs going nowhere on the charts. But the vagaries of the pop music business in the Philippines made the song a massive, massive hit.

It first popped up, if I remember correctly, on 99.5 RT as an odd "white-label" single of sorts; the DJ (and I can still hear Jeremiah Junior's perfect American accent to this day) would announce it as "Fade" by Medium, or at other times, "Medium" by Fade. Who knows why -- for about a year, they would also play an "exclusive" extended mix of the song, and insert a "99.5 RT" station ID into the middle of the instrumental break to prevent other radio stations from playing it. (This also meant that I couldn't tape the damn song on my little Sony portable radio.)

Finally, they revealed the real title of the song and band after much hoopla ("Is it 'Fade' by Medium? Or is it 'Medium' by Fade?") -- not that it mattered, since no one had heard of Seona Dancing anyhow. It was finally properly released on vinyl on a local New Wave compilation, which I think I still have back home, sharing a side with "Fire in Cairo" and "Hongkong Garden," and accompanied by this wrongly-scaled picture. Is the future David Brent the one cupping his chin? And surely he can't be the guy in the sailor hat?

Admittedly, the lyrics were bad. I've edited them a little, but I can't vouch for their accuracy because of that Slough accent. =)

We used to cry
About the day when one of us might fall
Weak and blindly into another's arms

Demands are gained from jealousies
Would flow like water drowning us
But leaving us with just another
Lover's false alarm

And now it's over
Both of us free
But I feel colder

A thousand tortured lives have fallen
Wounded dying cut down by the
Questions that we've sharpened
Just to save our losing days

We thought we'd nothing more to lose
We'd tear our hearts with jagged truths
And everything we'd hung to for so long
Just slipped away

And now it's over
Both of us free
And I feel colder

I was tired of thinking that
Our love can shine your thoughts
Of our arrangements
Were really not like mine

I thought it over
And it was plain to see the love you said
You once needed
Could just not come from me

And now it's over
Both of us free
And I feel colder

And now we're moving to new beginnings
But as we move we looked once behind
To see what we might find out
Lost loves and old thoughts of our nights of winnings
That lunge, tear and grasp
at lost wanting minds

But Good Lord, Ricky Gervais. Who would have known? So this is where free love on the freelove freeway comes from.

So here you go, folks: all six minutes and three seconds of this masterpiece.

Hear it (5.7 mb).

They Should Have Called It An "Oh-ree-yen-tal Tankini."

In the interest of scholarship -- just so you know I'm not posting just any ol' skin on my site -- here's a photo (click on the image for a bigger size) of that "Asian Floral Tankini" that Victoria's Secret used to sell on their website, but has now been taken offline, presumably due to complaints (though here's their comment page anyway):

Up next: Jesus on a bikini bottom, if Mel doesn't beat them to it.

The Trauma of EDSA.

The conference I attended over the weekend -- in particular, UC Santa Cruz scholar Sherwin Mendoza's comments on Linda Ty-Casper's Dream Eden (which I haven't read) -- made me think about EDSA and trauma. Mendoza argued that narrative arcs in novels from what he called "the EDSA genre" followed similar structures, from euphoria to disillusion, which he described as a "fall from utopia."

I like to think of it as an "atopia," if there is such a word. What happened in February 1986 is constantly characterized as creating a singular, atypical moment of social solidarity, perhaps in the way that Durkheim imagined it: the free sharing of food and water, the seeming obliteration of social differences, the pervading sentiments of oneness with the crowd -- in short, a sense of this historical rupture as being outside of time and place. Think of it as the ecstasy of revolution.

Or, in this case, "revolution:" things sour quickly, and in each novel -- indeed, every single year -- the Filipino public is painfully reminded of this traumatic loss, the government's attempts to rein in or at least renarrativize such uncontrollable memories notwithstanding.

This is a different structure of the traumatic event as Freud conceived it: here, the loss happens afterwards, in a protracted non-eventful decline quite unlike the swift act we normally associate with trauma. In this respect it is closer to something like melancholy, resulting in a diminution of the melancholic's ego (or the Filipino ego). As Freud writes:

In melancholia the relation to the object is... complicated by the conflict due to ambivalence. The ambivalence is either constitutional, i.e. is an element of every love-relation formed by this particular ego, or else it proceeds precisely from those experiences that involved the threat of losing the object.

You say you want a revolution, but -- well, you know...

But there is a sense in which EDSA can be seen as precisely reproducing the paradigmatic structure of trauma. By the time "EDSA II" (and the intervening coup attempts both before and after) rolled along, the happy communitas of the original had dissipated, owing, as Courtney Johnson put it, to the difference between the spontaneity of the first and the forced busing of the second (and the "third"). People Power had settled, at this point, into a predictable, reproducible modularity.

One could then understand the EDSA Revolution -- and not just the squandering of political opportunities which happened afterwards -- as a traumatic event in and of itself. Now the great anxiety of the Filipino public is perhaps the frightening possibility that "EDSA" -- now pre-approved, sanitized for one's protection, and packaged with its own narrative template -- could return as an uncontrollably repeating event, forever haunting the nation, infinitely reproducing as EDSA III, IV, V and its sequels thereafter.

Ari's Back.

And after a nine month hiatus, too: pu-pu platter rises from the dead. I can't recommend Ari's blog enough.

No time to write more -- just came back from a great all-day conference on newspapers and novels in Southeast Asia, and will be back for round two tomorrow -- but suffice it to say that the Cornell Mafia was in full force. Say it with me: "Homogeneous! Empty! Time!"

Four More Years.

Maureen Farrell has a new column out on Buzzflash, and it's a scary one. She has written some slightly hysterical columns before -- and yes, I know fully the implications of using a term like "hysteria" to describe her writing -- but the message we should get from her writing is to never underestimate the Bush administration. (I've written a blog entry before on a possible October Surprise, i.e., Osama bin Laden is discovered in yet another hole, but this is worrisome.)

My good friend Jens and I were talking over the weekend about the likelihood of Bush winning the elections and how it may not be so terrible. Four more years, as he put it, may give the Republican Party enough rope to be hanged by the voters, or at least stave them off for a couple of terms.

I can see his point -- it's a kind of long-term optimism -- but I'm more hopeful for the short term. President Smirk arguably did more damage in his first 100 days of office -- reproductive rights, the environment, social welfare, not to mention everything post-9/11 -- than his dad did ever did in four whole years. Meanwhile more troops will die needlessly in Iraq (and will the war be brought to Southeast Asia this time?). Four more years of this nightmare will be hard to swallow.

Catching Up.

I could write about the unexploded World War II mortar they found in Fort Funston this morning while we were walking the dog and the baby, or the Asian American Studies conference in Boston, or the deformed fetuses at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, or buying snacks at Zabar's, or hanging out with Happy and Clarissa in their Philly apartment, or the exceedingly comfortable beds at the Fairmont Copley Square Hotel, or playing in a playground in 40-degree weather on the Upper West Side, or the awesome Five Friends from Japan exhibit at the Children's Museum of Boston, or the tongue sandwich at Artie's, or the transplanted Chinese house in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, or drinking a pint of Magic Hat No. 9 again with Romeo at the Westside Brewing Company, or procrastinating about the papers I'm supposed to comment on for a conference at Berkeley in a few days, or procrastinating about grading student papers on heavy metal (I'm trying to get them to think about how "the mainstream" is politically constituted), or procrastinating about reading an ethnography we're discussing in a few days, but I won't.

No, what I'll be writing about is how I removed my BlogAmp script on the right column and changed it to an Audioscrobbler link instead. I just registered (there were bugs with the server for a long time, but they're fixed now), but it tracks what you're playing and how often you play it. Unfortunately I won't get any recommendations or whatnot until I've submitted 250 songs or so -- but that shouldn't be difficult because I often have music playing anyway. The best part is that it works with the best players out there (QCD, Winamp, iTunes). Now loading up my blog page will take a little less time, and the two jpgs there will probably stay until the end of 2004...