GMA-Thanks for helping to wreck my country to the ground you assfucks

Now, before I begin, I have a story to tell. In highschool, I took a media class. It was the most god-awful boring class in the world. It also didn’t help that the teacher was an utter dick who wrote like a fucking epileptic retard. He would hand papers back, and his comments were indecipherable. I would come up to his desk to ask him which word was which.
‘Uh, sir, what does this say?’
‘Common’
‘and , uh this one?’
‘better’
‘oh, ok thank you sir’.

Now the teacher wasn’t all that bad, he was actually a decent guy. He just didn’t really seem to know where his priorities lie. or he just didn’t give a shit about us, which was commendable, and quite understandable. Now, the funny thing is, this class, is the one I remember the most. Its lessons sticking to me like dead flies on fly paper. The most important thing I learnt was “televisions uses emotion, to sell you anything and everything”. And the news is the guiltiest at this, their selling you fear. Television on the other hand uses emotion to sell you, well, literally everything. From food, to personal hygiene products. But don’t worry citizens, sure here in the western world, we’re kind of starting to detach from the whole hubbub of this television commercial relationship mess. (Now it’s just an all out war between us, the consumer and them, the companies; who will try to push their product on us like a group of glorified drug lords).

But this isn’t really about the whole issue of commercialism; I want to talk about television in the Philippines, my home country. Now my personal friends know that I’m a self hating filipino, but it is not a hate towards being Filipino. No, I’m actually proud to be Filipino. I’m proud of the fact that we have a martial art that uses rebar covered in light foam for duelling and that we export the largest amount of child pornography (suck it you thai-boxing bastards!) But, what I am not proud of is how the Philippines is running it’s self into the ground. Our people are going into further poverty and the country is not going to be any better. Not with the presence of GMA, the worst TV channel in the world. Now, I will give them this, they did play some of the most awesome anime on TV and got me hooked to anime. I mean they played Voltes V and mojacko for fuck’s sake!


BUT as I reflect back and look at it now, it is disgusting decadent and retarded. Pure retardation. One of the biggest examples of this is that they have three, count them THREE fucking shows just for celebrity talk. THEN they have three more variety shows dedicated to MORE celebrities. You know what this does? It takes away from what’s important. It tells the people “hey man, Francis M’s death? Yeah more important that the fact that we have more murders than in most countries. You know Gaby Conception was seen with another woman? Yeah more important than the poverty rates and rising gas prices.” But the news media is surprisingly eye opening. It’s as if it’s a subtle but deep stab at society. One time, I saw how they reported on this large festival involving the poor people. And they showed all these idiots who believed that by touching a cloth touched by the statue, their lives will default to something better. They also showed these people running towards the statue, getting run by the cart, people accused of stealing.

It was religious chaos, and it was retarded, and the news media showing it knew it, and they knew it good. But, they still sell fear, but I think in the Filipino context, if you talk about a murder, it would be a common thing and not at all shocking. Since even living conditions for the middle class aren’t much higher than low class citizens (it’s high enough to live a nice peaceful life). But the news media is still trying to sell its reporters as people who you have to be attached to like characters in a bad “telebabad” (filipino soaps, and don’t get me started on them, this would be longer than needed)
Now, to those who are media savvy and are into Marshal MacLuhan’s theories about TV, you will see that the Filipino TV is like that, but worse, MUCH WORSE.

Another example is when this asshat, some fucker named Francis M died. They wouldn’t shut up about it. They wouldn’t even show what he did or how he was relevant to humanity. All they said was He was just a “nice guy” or he was “my friend” OR “he worked with us, so we’re only doing it out of corporate obligation. When I die, I want people to say things like “I remember how he saved my ass form poverty” or “I remember when he saved a small child from being raped by a bear”.
Or the most awesome “I remember when he conquered the song empire for all of the Mongol peoples, gave us sweet meats, slept with the women of his enemies, rode their horses and ate their foods.” (That one I would have said for my homeboy Genghizzle Kahn). What I’m trying to say is that, just like American television, It shares the same problems. But the problems are magnified and worsened in Filipino television.

Things are so sensationalized that even the lives of stars are being sold similarly as real life soap operas. I guess this all comes from the fact that the poor outweigh the middle class and the rich. So there is this demand for escapism, but escaping doesn’t fix problems, it only lets them fester and grow. I guess what I’m trying to say is, fuck you Francis M, may you be burning and hell, and I hope the Filipino infrastructure crumbles, so when it looks up and shouts “save us” I will be standing there, looking down and whispering “no”. Also fuck you GMA, keep poisoning the masses with your arbitrary garbage. I hope you all puke and die on it.






P.S. This article does not do justice to the rage I am feeling at this moment, so again, go suck a cock GMA execs, may Satan and God double team your mouths and asses in the afterlife. Like they are doing to your precious Francis M, I hope he is being double teamed by God and Satan, you fucks.

Re-writing Gundam History

(The picture may not be particuarly relevant to the blog post, but it sure is pretty.)

So I’m 30 episodes into Turn A Gundam, and so far it’s got a lot of things going on in it which really appeals to me, though probably not a lot to many others. I think when Tomino was directing this he wanted to break the conventions of the franchise, which is understandable as the series was made when Gundam was beginning to seem stagnant. There had already been seven different shows in the franchise and to a casual fan they would probably all blend together.

Turn A Gundam stands out however, and its obvious just by looking at it. The titular mecha the Turn A, or White Moustache as it’s sometimes called (Designed by Syd Mead of BladeRunner fame, don’t cha’ know?) seems to be a purposely bizarre design, most obviously because of the V symbol on its mouth which resembles a moustache. The other mecha are just as odd, usually looking a little like animals (not necessarily any real animals I can think of, just strangely animalistic) and overall less flashy than your usual Gundam mecha, and at times, dare I say, more realistic. (Actually, realistic may be a bad word to use when describing mecha.)

(A pretty good example of the animalistic design I was talking about, though maybe I'm stretching. Still, the idea of adapting MS's from animals isn't exactly new, I'm sure I remember some sort of Mobile Suit in Zeta which resembled a Bat, and I'm pretty sure there was an octopus like design in the original series.)

Then there’s also the main character of the series, Loran, he’s very different than what fans are used to when it comes to the hero’s of Gundam. For one thing he’s not aggressive, he’s shy and well spoken, and also seems pretty sensitive. And yet he doesn’t whine like other gundam pilots do, he takes everything in stride and does whatever he can to make those around him at ease, and the world more peaceful, unlike most he has a very idealised view of the world (the last part is actually more of a gripe I have with the series, but maybe I’ll get to that into another article.) And of course, the main difference between him and other Gundam pilots (at the time at least) is that he’s very feminine, voiced by a woman, and even forced to cross dress in some episodes (For perfectly non perverted reasons of course) He’s more the kind of hero I’d expect in a shoujo work than shounen robot show, but I can’t say I dislike him, he’s no where near as grating as
most Gundam pilots.


The biggest difference though is probably the setting. As I said in my last entry I REALLY like the setting of the Universal Century, but at this point it’s been diluted by constant sequels and side-stories, some of which were so bad Tomino had to state they weren’t canon. The Alternate Universes were supposed to solve this problem but more often than not they just rehashed the same ideas with a new set of paint. Turn A Gundam however does exactly what one of these AU’s should, it creates a completely new world. The setting (and the series itself) has been compared to a Studio Ghibli film, and while it’s not quite as beautiful, I can see where the comparison comes from. Turn A Gundam is set in America in the very far future, and it is in an age VERY similar to the 1800’s. Aside from the earths mecha (all of which has been recovered from thousands of years ago.) everything is very low tech, and really a lot of the show is just about setting. There are plenty of episodes which don’t rely on action to progress the story, but rather show simple things like the effect the war has on a hospital, how businesses collapses, and even just how the characters react to one another. In the original gundam series I’ve always found the politics and mecha intriguing, but the characters and dialogue are generally the low points. In Turn A just seeing people interact is a plus.

I can help but think something like Turn A Gundam just couldn’t be made nowadays, at least not in the Gundam franchise. Gundam 00 for instance is enjoyable, but it doesn’t really try to make any huge changes to the formula. Hell, I’m surprised Turn A could be made back then, though I’m sure it was because of an assortment of factors. Perhaps it was because the series before it (X) had done so badly that Sunrise decided it was time for a change, or maybe its because Tomino was finnally working on a Gundam series again, Sunrise would probably let him do whatever he wanted as long as his name was on the finished product.

Either way, shockingly it turns out anime fans don’t much care for change, since Turn A was not a commercial success. Still damn good though.

Gran Torino "Grampa Clint, I love you"

Clint Eastwood's persona has always been the "tough guy" the "bad ass"
"fucker you didn't wanna mess with". But have you ever seen Clint Eastwood as a caring, kind old man? Someone who gave a lost young man his way in life, and grew to understand a culture so alien and foreign to him?

This is the premise of his latest film, Gran Torino. It's the story of a retired war vet who sees a world changing and growing in front of him. A world of both unfamiliarity and familiarity. In this film, we see the world through Walter Kowalski's(Clint Eastwood) eyes. He sees the youth as disrespectful and brash. His own family ungrateful, and their concerns misplaced. The story begins after Walter's wife has just been buried. We get to see how his own family acts around him. The viewer sees them not as his family, but ungrateful vultures. You can see this in his granddaughter. She asks if she can help her grandfather, only to ask for his prized posession, His Gran Torino.


At first glance, it seems like the average Clint Eastwood film. Clint here plays a cantankerous yet higly respectable old man who brandishes his gun and isn's afraid to talk dirty. But this isn't what this film is about. It's about the old America, seeing the new america. America not as white America, but America as the global america. Walt Kowalski represents old America. Racist, angry, stubborn,hardworking, kind and respectable. His Hmong neighbors on the other hand, represent a new america, they are foreign, they bring something new to the melting pot of america. The way he treats the Hmong is also very reminiscent of old white america. At first, he is afraid, racist and insecure. But slowly he warms up to them, even enjoying their food and company.

During the first half, I couldn't help but laugh at Walt's actions to everything. He would swear up a storm, and I would laugh, he kicked his family out of his house on his birthday and I laughed, he taught Thao how to be a man, I laughed. But halfway through the film, and pretty much near the end you sympathize and grow to love Walt. Eastwood's performance brings life to the character. His performance was so great that me and my friend kept saying how much we wanted to be like Clint. Imagine two 19 yr old guys, wanting to idolizing a 75 yr old man. This film was a tug to a heart, it is a man's "chick flick".

This film almost made me cry (I had a tear in my eye). It's a lovely film, especially the ending, which I won't spoil but it has to do with inheritance and who gets what. This film was beautiful, human and powerful. It's truly a man's film. It reminds us manly men that no matter how tough we act, we're gonna need people to love us, and remember us when we are long gone. If you're gonna watch something more than once, watch this film. IT is the best film of the year. If we ever look back and want to see what life was like in this benchmark era of ours, Gran Torino should be the film.


P.S It really got to me in the end when he's singing the song, fuck I love this film.