The Benildean Volume 2 Issue 5: Identity

The vol. 2 no. 5

Benildean

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

BENILDEAN PRESS CORPS AY 2015-2016

EDITOR IN CHIEF Katsy Garcia

WRITERS Denielle Alvarez, Anya

LAYOUT ARTISTS Jacob Israel

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Neal P. Corpus

Ang, Eya Arceo, Gian Franco

Camaro, Alberto Cinco, Jr.,

ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR PRINT Ralph de Vera

Bernardino, Kurvine Chua, Jason

Christian Mata, Lorentzen

ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR DIGITAL MEDIA Jomari Vista

Fajardo, Aya Garcia, Katrina

Montoya, Camille Bianca Ortiz,

MANAGING EDITOR EJ Lanuza

Lerios, Bea Mendoza, Evangelica

Camille Santos

Monzon, Bryan Nonay, Camille NEWS EDITOR Bea Mendoza

Bianca Ortiz, Hannah Rodrigo,

MANAGERS Clyde Antes, Niña

SPORTS EDITOR David Tongol

Monique Aousha Yamar

Mahmood, Thea Torres,

FEATURES OICs Neal P. Corpus + Ralph de Vera

Pamela Batac

KULTURA EDITOR Charlotte Mae Martin

PHOTOGRAPHERS Cyrill Araga,

LITERARY EDITOR Jona Bisuña

Xi-anne Avanceña, Alberto Cinco,

DIGITAL MEDIA STAFFERS Pamela

ART EDITOR Sofia Abellera

Jr., Inah Maravilla, Sace Natividad,

Barrios, Lance Florentino,

PHOTO EDITOR Abby Magsanoc

Yves Publico,

Rosabella Mercado, Sace

LAYOUT EDITOR Nicole Valencia

John Dominique Roxas

Natividad, Ramos freedom isSid never absolute.

DIGITAL MEDIA EDITORS Mika Abad + Tricia Castillo ILLUSTRATORS Alberto Cinco,

SPECIAL THANKS Crossfit Alpha

HEAD Ms. Dianne May E. Torres

Jr., Jelenie Custodio, Rica Diaz,

Strike, Spartacus Fitness & Martial

COORDINATOR Ms. Rizalyn Lagman-Manalili

Christian Mata, Camille Ortiz,

Arts, Mr. Ramon Papa and O Bar,

SECRETARY Ms. Janice C. Mones

Christian Anthony Pacis, Sid

Mr. Rico Fernandez, and

Ramos, Lyra Tan, Natasha Ting,

the SDA Equipment Center

Jaz Yabut

is the official magazinejournal of the students of De La SalleCollege of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB). No part of this magazine-journal may be reproduced, whether by photocopying, scanning, or by any other means, without written permission from the Student Publications Office (SPO).

Copyright 2015. For inquiries, visit the SPO at 2/F Br. Miguel Febres Cordero Bldg., DLS-CSB, 2544 Taft Avenue, Manila, or call (02) 230-5100 local 1521.

THE COVER

New school year, new look. Gracing the cover alongside our redesigned nameplate is BP Valenzuela, one of the freshest faces in today’s music industry and among the forerunners in the reinvention of the Filipino music scene. In this issue, we share her story, and other musings on the topic of identity. photo Abby Magsanoc styling Neal P. Corpus sittings editor EJ Lanuza assistants Gerard Del Mundo and Yves Publico

CONTENTS

PULSE 6 World War W 8 Hip and equipped 10 In winning form 12 A different shade of green 18 Unpop-u-lar 19 Geek in the pink 20 Neue 21 Double negative 22 Wisdumb 23 Tick tock tour 24 Paruparong bukid

KARILYON 26 Mais pikon yelo 28 Feel-na-feel novelas 29 Pinoy bahayan, anong meron ka?

ABLAZE 32 Love in the time of .coms

36 Living libido loca

Today, a world exists where restaurants are chatrooms and your date’s biography is summed up in five hundred characters or less.

34 Filipino fist fighters

BLIP 50 From guys to goddesses

42 The spark in the general scheme of things

56 Humming judgments 58 From rice to riches

PLATFORM

Finding the Filipino identity through cuisine

68 Just going through the motions

62 Transcending trends 64 The right fight

66 A written legacy

EDITOR’S NOTE

Of all the burdens we bear as humans of this good earth, one remains ever present: the search for the self. From our first moments of consciousness up to the last expansion of our lungs, we are constantly discovering, changing and creating who we are.

However, our lives are ridden with stereotypes of issues like gender, profession, and perfection. Day in and day out, we are lambasted with the persistent screams of the status quo—of which not all of us are willing to conform to. We want to fit in—but, we also want to stand out. So amidst the turmoil, how are we expected to know ourselves?

This issue, in an attempt to break down our being, we explored the idea of identity in four different areas. We are Benildeans and Lasallians. We visited the Jaime Hilario Integrated School-La Salle in Bagac, Bataan to remind ourselves of the true vision and purpose of Saint La Salle. We also challenged the old notion that Benilde is a dropout school by highlighting the winning culture of the College. We are Filipinos. We summed up typical Filipino household and cuisine, and got down to the bottom of why we love our cheesy telanovelas.

We are millenials. We give our two cents on generational entitlement, the new trend of yuccies, and share our thoughts on online dating.

We are who we are. We talk about the rise of the spornosexual, revel in the fascination of drag queens, and take a moment to mourn the death of personal style.

After reading this issue, I leave you a challenge. Open your mind.

Fight for who you are and who you want to be. Explore the uncharted waters of the world outside the mold. Finding yourself may not immediately change how things are—but hey, it’s a start.

KATSY GARCIA Editor in Chief

NEWS ANALYSIS + EDITORIAL + OPINION

PULSE

Benildeans have given emphasis on the word extraordinary, through our recognition as a birthing place for accolade aspiring individuals. From Taft to Bagac, our boundless spirit as One-La Salle is demonstrated through our Christian promise of education for all.

EDITED BY Bea Mendoza

EDITORIAL

WORLD WAR W In a new world where passive aggressive tweets and social justice warrior status updates are second nature, it’s about time someone shed light on the prolific lack of tact online.

We, the kids of Generation Y—an umbrella term pinned to individuals born in the 1980’s and early 1990’s—were raised in the illustrious age of the internet, an era where rapid fire, easy-access information and social media was everything. Our most crucial years of childhood and adolescent development were parallel to the rise (and fall) of platforms such as MySpace, Xanga, Livejournal, Multiply, and now Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Instagram, among others. All these different social media platforms gave an incredible—albeit slightly dangerous—new power to our generation: the ability to broadcast our views to the world—instant feelings to anyone, anywhere. Think about it—the ability to immediately vent our thoughts and frustrations, handed to us on a platter during our emotionally turbulent, hormoneridden, and aggressively angsty teenage years. Because we can, we feel entitled to give our opinion—and this isn’t always a good thing.

Growing up, our parents and grandparents were denied the luxury of instant gratification.

Wanted to call someone? Call the operator on your home landline and wait for your line to connect.

Wanted a photo? Take a snap on a film camera and wait for the developed photos before you can actually see how you looked.

Thinking of getting in touch with a friend abroad? Write a letter—yes, with your hands, on paper—get out of the house and mail it, and wait for weeks before a reply. In contrast, having grown up with the capability to access information and contact people in a snap, it has become second nature for our generation to do so. Technology and the Internet is seamlessly integrated into our lives, and not all of us realize just how terrifying the repercussions can be when these powers aren’t used with precaution.

In a normal face-to-face social interaction, we are taught to filter our statements into polite, rehearsed phrases. On social media, this

mask can be stripped away. The shield of anonymity offered by sites such as Tumblr and Reddit can turn even the most bashful human into a snarky, opinionated know-it-all. With the revolution of digital information and connection came a culture of phenomenons such as “hating”, “trolling” and even worse, “slut shaming”, which cause a lot of widespread disputes and negativity among the world’s netizens—and often over the stupidest things. The old saying “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,” seems to be lost on our generation.

Because the Internet breaks down the walls between cultures around the world, we often forget that the people we talk to online may not absorb statements the same way we do. Online and free, we forget we are speaking to an audience of the world. What is acceptable for you may be highly offensive that one Facebook friend you totally forgot about. It’s no wonder people everyday get triggered over something they read or saw online. There’s technically nothing wrong with putting your opinion out there—but when the intention is selfish and ends in disruption of the peace, maybe you should check yourself.

Yes, the Internet has made many good things happen, but on the flipside, it is also capable of being used to spread chaos. Maybe you won that heated quarrel online about why you think marijuana should be legalized. Okay, and then what? If you genuinely want to improve a social issue, get out from behind your screen and head towards those who can actually make a difference. Our global society is already divided as it is, and there’s no point wrecking the social construct even further. Speaking out on the Internet is a privilege, not a right—and although it can be empowering for today’s generation, it has to be exercised with prudence.

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art by Katsy Garcia

Yes, the Internet has made many good things happen, but on the flipside, it is also capable of being used to spread chaos.

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hip hip and and equipped equipped As hipsters take the backseat, yuccies take the wheel of this generation’s culture carousel.

text Camille Ortiz and Bryan Nonay art Camille Ortiz

For a long time, hipsters have been at the front line of do’s and don’t’s for cultural and social supremacy, but a new breed of hybrid millennials is taking their place.

Noticeable by their aesthetics inspired by Hipsters’ craft combined with the egocentric mind of Yuppies, they’re now dominating mainstream living.

An abbreviation of “Young Urban Creative”, Yuccie comes from blogger David Infante, who coined the term and defined it as Millennia-Intelligentsia, a “generation engaged in playing the lead in shaping the society’s culture and politics.”

These millennials are cultural offsprings of Hipsters—creative, trendy, rebellious—and Yuppies—young, successful, and thriving.

These are the guys you see working your third wave corner coffee shop, with an inspiring passion for fairtrade and coffee farmers. They’re not into this stuff because they want to be cool, they’re in it because they actually care.

The origin of the Yuccie remains a unicorn, but if you live in a large, metropolitan area (the ‘U’ in Yuccie does stand for Urban) you’ve probably encountered a few.

Places like New York, Brooklyn and San Francisco are known to be their breeding grounds to run their own successful businesses, or seek jobs that they both earn a decent living while getting the stimulation needed for pursuing their passion.

Most Yuccies are thought to be the same as Hipsters, and some, if not most actually fall into this category, but Yuccie was coined because “being called a Hipster

offended me for its inaccuracy,” wrote Infante. What sets the Yuccie apart from your hobo-dressing-streetwalker-lookalike is that these youngsters actually have a good foundation to build from. It’s not that they don’t appreciate what they’ve been handed, it’s that they want to do something greater with what they’ve achieved so far.

For instance, the said urban creatives possess enormous privileges, a more professional drift towards the creative industry. They’d rather go with practicality over passion, and others would choose passion over anything. For the newborn urban creatives, it’s always going to be a balance of practicality and passion. They seek jobs where they can earn a decent living, and at the same time, something that they are passionate about. It’s more of a combination of being creative and deliberate both at the same time.

Yuccies most likely acquired their talents and skills by studying any art or multimedia related degree. With the help of the internet and social media, promoting themselves has become a walk in the park. There are some called as “unrequited” Yuccies. Graduated from a master’s degree or courses that are not really related to art or freelance works.

Some of which are doctors or lawyers that decided not to pursue their professions and instead seek a better living as designer, artist or a writer. Most of them preferred to own a coffee shop, bar, or an advertising company rather than work in a bank or a law firm.

In this industrialized society, wherein people deal with technology, being a Yuccie

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is a new form of living that can satisfy the world’s demand. According to Richard Florida, an American urban studies theorist, these people have the potential to foster the economic development of the big cities in this era, also stating that, “But to extend them (the Yuccies) across the board, to build a more open, more diverse, more inclusive creative society that can more fully harness’ all of its members’ capacities.”

Some consider Hispters as dead, and some might actually consider being labelled as a Yuccie. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Hippie, a Yuccie or a Yuppie. All those consist one common characteristic that will always be relevant in our everyday living—being a creative. The goal is to not limit the gains that the creative class has made, but to actually build a more open and more distinct society and its members in terms of being a creative.

in

winning form

Who knew that the school once called a “tapunan” would now be home to some of the best and most competent students in their fields of expertise?

text Bea Mendoza art Sid Ramos

After years of struggling to have the College’s name in a good light, we can now say goodbye to all those negative stereotype accusations because right now, it cannot be ignored that Benildeans are excelling and earning a reputation in their respective industries across the international scene.

Negotiating like a pro Whether they be international or local, joining and competing in Model United Nations (MUN) has always been the norm in the Consular Diplomatic Affairs (CDA) community—and they have all the awards from the past years to prove it. It doesn’t always happen right away—for Junior CDA student Royce Pantua, “perhaps it was not yet my time,” he said, after his first attempt to join a National Model United Nation (NMUN) in Korea failed.

But, starting local, Pantua joined the 16th Philippine MUN held at the College last 2014, sharing that the eventful encounter served as his “inspiration, a stepping stone to bring out the best seeds” within him. After being accepted the next year into NMUN-Europe to be held in Rome, he also participated in the 17th (now called) Benilde MUN and won Outstanding Position Paper and Honorable Mention awards. As for the former, he did not win any award but “nevertheless, it did not discourage me a bit”. He then joined the yearly NMUN in New York and together with the College’s NMUN-NY delegation, brought home the Distinguished Delegation award—a first time for our institution to receive that award from the MUN which was considered as the largest and most competitive of all NMUNs. According to Pantua, his secret is applying one of the Benildean Core Values,

which is professional competence. For he believes that as a Benildean, even if there are a lot of things that may pull you down, especially in competitions, you must choose right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over popularity. “It is okay for me to go home without anything than to give up my values just for the sake of a printed piece of paper,” he shared. “Our adviser sees us Benildeans as a ‘David’ of the community.

Just doing simple things with extraordinary efforts and succeeding to overcome the ‘Goliaths’.”

Selling experience The College’s Young Hoteliers’ Exposition (YHE) partnership with the Manila Food & Beverages Expo (MAFBEX), paved the way for School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management (SHRIM) students to easily get exposure and experience in their field of expertise through participation in the event competitions and exhibits.

Among the many SHRIM participants in MAFBEX were junior Tourism Management students Steffany Leonida and her partner Carmela Manalo, who competed and won in Destination Marketing.

Choosing the Land of the Rising Sun as their destination, they both believe it to be easy to market with Japan’s interesting festivals and tourist attractions. Only three weeks before the competition did the duo get to finalize their presentation through pop art. They also added Christmas lights to give more focus on the attractions. Leonida shared that being deeply rooted in faith, competent learners, open to opinions, and learning how to work well with others are what helped them to achieve their goals in the competition. With Leonida currently 11

taking Japanese language class, she was also able to create a script in Nihongo. “We think one of the things that made us win was that we spoke in Nihongo [during the presentation],” said Leonida.

Constant evolution The Mother of Modern Dance Martha Graham once said, “great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.” And for the past years, from competing in national competitions like The Philippine Hip-Hop International to doing fund-raising concerts to financially support themselves when competing internationally, the College’s resident dance group Saint Benilde Romançon Dance Company (SBRDC) has sure been busy trying to defend their consistent placing in all those.

According to the updated profile of the dance group and its recent achievements, they have been winning competitions since 2009, are 3-peat champions in Dancelebration: Dance Competition in the Contemporary category, second runner up for two years in the Gatsby Dance Competition under the College Crew Division, while internationally, were finalist in the 11th Seoul International Dance Competition last 2014 and silver medalist in Hip Hop International 2015 under World Adult Division.

“Very thankful kami kay God for all of this. Talagang dine-dedicate namin lahat sa Kanya,” shared one of SBRDC’s dancers, CJ Terol, in an interview before.

a different Four hours away from the mother university—surrounded by green and white and brimming with Animo cheer—is a humble school by the sea, filled with the Lasallian spirit.

text Jason Fajardo and Denielle Alvarez photos Xi-anne Avanceña

What once started as a mission of human and Christian education has evolved into a brand of intelligent and diverse individuals who are well-off enough to afford top drawer tuition fees.

With majority of present day De La Salle schools being too expensive for most Filipinos, Jaime Hilario Integrated SchoolLa Salle (JHIS-LS), a school situated in the province of Bataan, takes us back to what St. John Baptist De La Salle advocated when he first started the Lasallian legacy—education for all, especially the poor.

Humble beginnings Located near the seashore of Bagac, Bataan, JHIS-LS is the 16th district school of De La Salle Philippines (DLSP). So far, it is the latest institution by De La Salle Brothers in the country since it opened its doors in 2006 with three grade-one sections. It offers Kindergarten and is also a primary and secondary school that aims to cater to those marginalized by society with Christian and Human Education.

Three and a half hectares of land were donated by Amb. Carlos Valdes, a De La Salle University (DLSU) alumnus and former ambassador of the Philippines to Japan, Mongolia, Italy, among others. It has four buildings with 17 classrooms, a science laboratory, kitchen, covered court, and chapel.

The school community Currently, JHIS-LS has 446 students, 98% being indigent non-paying students who are thoroughly screened, and 2% academicallyexcellent students who pay their tuition fee, ranging from Php 30,000.00 to Php 35.000.00. With the school almost one kilometer away from the main road, a bus fetches the students from different stops.

The school has 26 employees, including four volunteers from a group of Lasallian volunteers called “Kaakibat Community” who teach kindergarten, and four brothers namely: Br. Rey Mejias FSC, Br. Abet Pia FSC, Br. Aikee Esmeli FSC, and Br. Edmon Viroomal FSC, all of whom teach and help in the administrative work of the school.

Along with the JHIS-LS community are companies and individual donors who are part of the “sponsor a child” advocacy of the school. They give back generosity they impart through supporting the education of the scholars.

Student life and Lasallian core values The school currently has one section each for elementary and two sections each for high school.

For their Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH) subject, a Housing System is applied wherein students are mixed with other students of various interests as they perform the activities set.

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shade

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Most of the student population are sons and daughters of fishermen, farmers, and laborers.

A brother’s guidance: Brother Rey serves as both the school’s Brother and principal

Stewardship: every Friday students participate in gardening and cleaning school premises as part of their “Work Education�

Br. Rey expounds the FSC core values as implemented at JHISLS. For faith, they practice meditation, imparting values of honesty, knowledge of faith regardless of religion, inclusivity, and respect for religion.

The school also imparts the perspective that “Life is service.”

This mindset makes it easy to help others, which later on allows them to learn gratitude.

Lastly, they promote communion in mission by letting them feel that they are not working alone, reminding them to share in the community.

Aside from the usual classroom discussions, teachers actually practice immersion with students and their families to better understand their way of living. These are conducted through home visits of their advisory classes. By that, they become participative, thus open for correction and change for the mission.

“Masaya. It feels like home,” says grade 10 student Alicia dela Rosa describing her stay at JHIS-LS. In terms of the culture they have, she also shared that they practice respect for the elderly and fostering quality relationships with each member of the school community with certain limitations in terms of distance between authorities through various ways of interaction. This positions the school as their second family.

“We have [the] advantage [of] being enrolled at La Salle. Kapag lumipat ka sa college, malaki ang impact,” shared dela Rosa.

Challenges faced Being a non-profit institution, JHIS-LS encounters a lot of challenges. For their employees, some teachers do not serve the school for long due to lack of salary competitiveness.

Apart from that, it is always a challenge for them to find funding from both individual and group donors, which they continuously need to sustain the operations of the school.

The school also face problems with property, as there are illegal settlers on the area, which limits the capability of the school to maximize its land.

Change of administration is also a challenge for them, since the transition of the present and future administration affects the way they do projects. The current turnover process has both parties coordinating with each other to agree on certain projects they want to continue on.

Lastly, the decision to open the school to the middle-class becomes a question, as many families want their child to be sent

there. For Br. Rey, it is a challenge if whether or not they are to change the nature and mission of the school.

Students also encounter problems in a different nature. Dela Rosa mentioned the normal problems that a student experiences—one of them being time management. Apart from that, she noticed some students have a hard time using current technological innovations like computers.

On the teacher’s desk According to Ms. Josie Anne Tamaño, head teacher, most of their students are sons/daughters of laborers, fishermen, and farmers within the province—whom for her are more “disciplined, changemaker, and happy” people.

Other teaching methodologies they implement are inquiry-based, with values and real-life experience integration to the lectures.

At JHIS-LS, there are no textbooks, just modules that are prepared and photocopied by the teachers, and funded by the school. But they have mini-libraries in each room that contain books students can borrow.

The school’s future Although met with various challenges, the school is already set for its improvements. JHIS-LS is eyeing to improve its services through developments in its various aspects.

For the academic aspect, they are to cater Grades 11 and 12 for the next two years, following the K-12 curriculum. They will also be offering a Vocational and Technical track rated with National Certification 3 and accredited by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) as a response to the needs of the Bagac students. Subjects under said track are Tourism, Industry, Front-Desk Cookery, Bartending, Coffee Making, among others.

A mini-hotel is to be built starting July 2015 with seven rooms and complete laboratory rooms as a response to the upcoming offering.

Along with other plans of making more classrooms and laboratories, and a gymnasium, these improvements aim to make JHIS-LS a premiere learning center that will help students, even if they cannot attend college.

In four to five years time, they also aim to apply for Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) accreditation.

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The school also imparts the perspective that “Life is service.� This mindset makes it easy to help others, which later on allows them to learn gratitude.

UNPOP-U-LAR

Jomari Vista

generation why posts after blog posts of unrequited love, infidelity, three or four-way relationships (because why not?) plague our screens. Our constantly struggling image has become the dialogue to recite at Sunday mass: absolution is delivered through the adherence of idealistic standards set by right-winged individuals.

Only few really question the insurmountable hatred directed towards us. With generation-specific struggles involving liberalism, gender equality, sexuality, and mental illness, many drown themselves instead in parties, drugs, sex, and the superficial. That does not mean that we are not aware of our responsibilities. We may be in denial of the hardships we will face, but that’s only because the real world has become more burdensome than ever before.

It’s easy to say that life back then was harder, but the world today is different from just over a decade ago. It’s normal for a college student to have experienced on-the-job training even before they are required to do so. It’s no longer strange to see someone join and be active in five organizations. Fresh grads don’t seem to be more appealing than they were back then, nowadays, they pretty much need to have a lifetime’s worth of work experience.

We are burdened with what the world needs us to contribute today and are judged by how hard we party. There may be lower crime rates and drug use today as compared to statistics back in the 80’s, yet we are still somehow becoming the image of the world’s alleged degeneration. Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start The Fire” fits the bill perfectly: our generation did not start the problem—it has been there since the world is turning. We have our different priorities, and for us, it doesn’t have to mean saving the economy we didn’t even break in the first place. We may travel down different paths, but we strive to stick to the future others dreamt for us. But our dreams have changed: maybe we no longer want the perfect family life with the perfect house and perfect kids. Maybe we just want to be happy and make others happy.

Our generation may be brash, but we still have the potential to do great things. If people let go of their narrow-mindedness and focus on the best aspects of our youth, the future would’ve been brighter. But today, in truckloads of sticks and stones, Generation Why remains broken. Perhaps the only way to fix us is through ways equality, diversity, and human rights have gone through: revolution.

art by Lyra Tan

Reckless, emotional, and highly volatile—we’ve heard it all before. We, the youth, have been criticized, scrutinized, and lambasted by those who came before us. Pop culture continues to paint us as a generation of irresponsible, iPhone-toting keyboard warriors enslaved by the Internet. Our professors, bosses, and even our parents may have said a thing or two about how our actions signal the end of times. Against the overwhelming sea of stigma, no one has dared to ask: why?

Many have always assumed that technology played a big role in turning us, Generation Y or Millennials, into a cesspool, attributing computer and internet usage to our “destruction”. Social media and mobile technology have become catalysts for revolutionizing the way we interact with others. However, the benefits of our connected generation came with almost an equal amount of vitriol from the generations that came before. Even the next generation, dubbed Generation Z, has begun receiving hatred from us and even our precedents just because of their perceived negative traits.

It’s now very easy for mainstream media to portray the youth as rebellious and immature. Thousands of posts from sites such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy illustrate the battle between the generations, from shaming bathroom selfies to screenshots of how adults struggle with the dark magic known as autocorrect. Blog

GEEK IN THE PINK

EJ Lanuza

art by Christian Anthony Pacis

heroically human

It’s hard to find superhero comic books, films, and television shows that are relatable in this day and age. A lot of these mediums run with the trend of turning the stories and characters darker, but to make them more relatable, writers, filmmakers, and showrunners must go back to basics and make them more human.

The idea of making superhero stories more relevant and grounded is not something entirely new in the comic book, film, and television scene. It was back in the 1970s when writers, filmmakers, and showrunners began to deviate from the bizarre and out-of-thisworld style of storytelling—prominent during the Golden Age and Silver Age of comic books—and paid more attention to realism and made sure that characters were portrayed in a way that are human.

It does seem logical that these characters would be easier to relate to if they undergo circumstances that are close to the human experience because—surprise, surprise—the audience themselves are humans.

However, the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy sparked a line up of superhero films and TV shows that tried to imitate the dark and gritty formula Nolan utilized for the franchise. A lot of the human element from these subsequent films and TV shows were diminished in favor of a darker take on the genre—something that has further influenced comic book stories in the Modern Age (of comic books), such as the majority of the X-Men titles of Marvel and DC Comics’ reboot of Animal Man. Unfortunately, it’s not a “one size, fits all” kind of formula, and it did more bad than good for a lot of these mediums.

The tendency of this kind of treatment and tone is to give exaggeration to tragedy, violence, and overplaying of emotions.

In Zack Snyder’s reboot of the Superman franchise with the Man of Steel, the heavy emotional scenes, and “emo” portrayal of the

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character resulted into a completely different version of Superman— one that was trying so hard to be relatable, but ending up falling short on many levels.

What people should realize is that being human doesn’t always have to be all doom and gloom. Being human means experiencing both the good things and the bad things in life. The stories of these characters are something that we are, one way or the other, hooked up with and are gripped by their exploits—stories that keep our inner child alive.

Some may consider reading comic books, watching superhero movies and television series, and identifying yourself with one of the characters as something childish and insignificant in the height of all these worldly problems and impending chaos. However, these things remind us to never give up on the power of imagination and to never lose hope on the premise that no matter what happens, in the last panel, good will triumph over evil.

It’s true that the superhero genre is sometimes hard to relate to because of the nature of the characters, and even more so because of the circumstances they face. Simply turning their stories darker and edgier does not guarantee that it would make the story more relatable—it could actually backfire and result in a less desirable story and characterization. However, with proper treatment and emphasis on a human approach, these stories have the potential to bring out the best from these characters.

As the Man of Steel points out, “it’s not about...what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest.” More than otherworldly powers and twisted storylines, being a hero entails being human, and that’s what makes them relatable to the audience.

Neal P. Corpus

1985 anymore. Circumstances have changed, opinions and views have changed, the way we think has changed. And if we are able to scrutinize the most minute details about a TV show and how it propagates misogyny or inequality or white privilege, what more the clothes on our backs? What does that say about us?

If the way we think and talk about critical issues on social media is any indicator of how the youth is involved with what’s going on, the way we look at fashion is lagging behind by a thousand miles. And no: they are not just clothes—I read somewhere a while back that clothes are “a semaphore; sometimes a quiet, sometimes a blaring set of signals.” This couldn’t be any more true; clothes have the ability to broadcast and sum up a person in a glance. The power of fashion in the everyday is that we get to represent who we are and who we want to be without having to say—or type!— anything.

And that’s where the problem lies. we look to much on the internet and imbibe its style so much that we lose ourselves. We lose the very essence of our individuality because we look at the same thing for too long and too often.

There’s nothing about today’s style notes that makes Manila any different from those L.A.styled girls who follow Rumi Neely as if she was Anna Wintour’s gift to the world. And if you think wearing the normcore trend still makes you a special snowflake, open your Instagram, look around the #ootd hashtag and think about it: why are you really wearing that?

“Fashion is supposed to be fun, fashion isn’t supposed to be serious, yada yada yada…”

I’ve heard it all before, and no, that is not an excuse to look like a basic bitch. Because clothes are not just clothes, and the choices we make around them add to the definition of who we are. And if that doesn’t convince you, take a long, hard look at your wardrobe and ask yourself: where does “personal” and “style” fit in? Nowhere? Thought so.

style.com

Personal style is dead. For the Internet generation, at least. You will hear a lot of people say that the big, bad WWW made fashion more democratic—and that is true—but it also made us a big bunch of clones. Being “dressed by the Internet” has become such a common occurrence that the chances of seeing true and genuine style on the street are slimmer than a size zero model on the catwalk.

All it takes is a quick look at what the populace is wearing—it’s not about what’s trending on the runways, because there’s always a lot going on there, but what’s going on in the street, in our hallways, in our classrooms.

There’s a collective indifference about the everyday ensemble. Fashion is out of style.

Everybody’s wearing Roshe Runs, baseball caps, and peg-rolled jeans. Is there a fuccboi convention in town? You could argue that these pieces have a significant cultural cachet, and that kids from the 80s would have dressed for the same reasons. But the thing is, it’s not

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art by Jelenie Custodio

NEUE

DOUBLE NEGATIVE

art by Natasha Ting

pride

Ralph de Vera

or

Society’s ideology of what a man is, or should be, is skewed. We see the typical male as adamant, unoppressed, and horny. When events like abuse, domestic violence, or even rape happens, be it from a woman or another man, they have to choose to either undergo public humiliation, or quietly suffer in silence. It’s disheartening, because most of the time, the latter is what usually gets picked.

I came across a video on Youtube called ‘Why Rape Is Hilarious’ a long time ago. In the video, a man named Will shares his experience with being violated by his social studies teacher and how he coped with it all throughout his life. At first, his face is masked with his smile and his laughter that he “scored” from someone older than him. His facade however disappears as his tears slowly melt his smile, revealing his obviously pained face. It was heavy having to watch the whole video from start to finish, but it was even harder to stomach when a heavy part of the (now disabled) comment section lacked any sympathy for him—mostly from other men—because he demonstrated traits that they didn’t deem manly.

The Philippines is one particular nation that writhes itself in the ideology of the macho persona men need to have, with some defending it as something based on tradition. It’s also ironic that most of these are being passed down by men as well. We’ve taught, as a society, that men who cry are weak and pathetic. That men are resilient. We taunt them into sucking it up because “men don’t cry” or aren’t even allowed to. This way of thinking carries over into adulthood, so in the event that a man becomes victim of an assault, he’d rather constrain the pain than be seen as someone vulnerable, as a man who couldn’t have prevented the assault himself. But the thing is, we can be helpless. We can be fearful of things. We can be victims.

For some people, other men in general, you are deemed lucky to have even experienced such a thing, especially if it was done by a

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prejudice

woman. It’s a twisted notion that men generally always want have sex because we are easily aroused and how easy it is to stimulate our Johns. However, there is a line between arousal and stimulation.

There is a difference. Society somehow turns a blind eye to this difference because the victim so happens to get hard wood during the assault.

Social stigmas and patriarchal ideologies are hurting people, and they do so by hurting themselves. We are forcing these victims to either pretend they liked the attack, or worse, hide it. We are allowing them to wear masks they feel they need to wear because the society around them will excommunicate them, ridicule them and shame them if they didn’t do so. They aren’t asking for help when they need it the most.

The more we tell them lie or hide it, the more damage it does emotionally and psychologically. Men are not immune to trauma. In “Modern Medicine, the Irish Journal of Clinical Medicine”, Dr. Maeve Eagon notes that because men couldn’t express themselves, they feel more anger and shame, despite the fact that both male and female victims experience the same feelings of depression after being sexually assaulted. They would rather cripple themselves instead of asking for help, simply because it’s social suicide to do so.

In the online article, “The Silent Epidemic of Male Suicide”, men have a higher rate of killing themselves from women 3:1 because they are stripped of the ability of expression, and this goes hand in hand with the stigma of it all. We need to understand that assault is assault. This problem was caused by society, and it’s got to be solved by our society. The only time we’ve succeeded is when guys like Will won’t have to lie or hide again—because they had to.

WISDUMB

Sofia Abellera

Just as the paintbrush or the chisel is useless without the painter or the sculptor, digital tools, like traditional media, are useless without the artist—and yet it is still believed that creating art digitally is cheating. Because technology has reduced several tedious activities to the convenient press of a key, many people have been led to assume that digital art is simply generated by creative softwares with one brainless click.

What people need to realize is that digital tools are nothing without the artist’s touch.

Technology is a wondrous device that removes heavy loads of work off of our shoulders. In the creative field, it is true that technology has made the technical aspect of making art a lot more convenient, but the process of realizing and conceptualizing still relies on the artists themselves. Acquiring top-of-the-line equipment and software will definitely guarantee smooth performance and many helpful tools, but unfortunately they are not packaged with an automatic appeal and substance engine. Hence, the expression and the execution of a digital artwork is still the product of a human mind, not artificial intelligence.

Although the myth that digital art is artificially generated has been debunked over and over, some stubborn minds still insist that digital art isn’t real. To them, just the use of shortcuts makes the art unnatural. They look down on digitally transforming and adjusting drawings instead of redoing the whole thing from scratch. Making use of digital tools helps save time and money and therefore makes the whole process more efficient. It’s simply more practical to correct mistakes than to flip over a new page and start again. In the end, what clients look for is an original output at the soonest possible time, not a tally of how many times Ctrl+Z was used.

Another reason digital art gets bashed is that it isn’t as messy to do, “mess” here being equated somehow to artistic prowess. However, pencil shavings, rags, and paint splatters aren’t compulsory for a “legitimate artistic experience”. Even without the solid mess, digital art still takes hours of effort. What ticks people off is that digital artists don’t have to withstand the wait for paint to dry, the strong smell of turpentine, and the spills and smudges on clothes and shoes. They get spared from having to mop up afterwards and yet are still able to produce a masterpiece.

There is also an issue on having nothing of no “original piece”, strictly speaking. To some, if you can’t hang it on a wall and say it’s one-of-a-kind, it’s not art. The logic here is that the artwork is not unique as long as the soft copy exists in someone’s computer ready for printing into exact replicas anywhere in the world. It has to be understood that some people value art by its rarity, not its message, while other people think the other way around. Digital art is not designed mainly to be a singular piece. It has the capacity to be mass produced and distributed throughout the world, which makes it useful for making information widespread. The aspect of digital art that takes away its one-of-a-kind-ness allows it to cater to commercial use, making it valuable in reaching large audiences.

Traditional artists will always have so much respect for producing something that’s one-of-a-kind with no shortcuts and a big mess of an aftermath. But digital artists don’t deserve the disrespect they get for not following that formula in creating their pieces.

Technological aid does not cancel out an artist’s hard work. We need to start recognizing the value of art not simply through what it’s made of or how it’s made, but through what it says, and how it affects people.

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art by Sofia Abellera

art-ificial

TICK TOCK TOUR

Jona Bisuña

art by Natasha Ting

your time, your story The thing about time is that it holds most of my fears, doubts, and happiness. There will be circumstances of deep contemplation, like when you’re in bed staring at the ceiling and questioning about how tomorrow will be like or 10 years after, with no assurance that you’ll get an answer. You ponder on choices of opportunities, whether you take them or not, because whatever decision you make could greatly affect the future that waits ahead. Yes, time would tend to trigger deep thoughts and fears.

Oftentimes, there is a tendency to compare one’s achievements with those of others, which leads to more pressure in trying to reach the same level of success. Simply scrolling through social media and seeing posts of friends who have accomplished so much since you’ve last seen them leaves lingering thoughts of always being one step behind and ends with you trying to figure out your next move.

However, achieving is not a race, nor is it a competition. There is plenty of time to finish your objectives to reach the ultimate goal. It all takes time and persistence, and you’ve got to get through that, whether you like it or not.

Many times in the past we’ve struggled with our fears, and the same is true even until now and so on. On my part of the story, being shy, unconfident, and tremulous in trying new things and opportunities cost so much of the time I could have used to become a better person. It took a lot of time and courage to push myself out of my comfort zone when I finally accepted an opportunity. I had to, or else I wouldn’t have gotten this far and have a taste of the real world.

If, even to this point, time is still a scary figment of your fears, it’s normal. But think of it this way: every passing hour of time is a sentence that would someday form the structure of an amazing life story. Your own story. Think of the many possibilities, interesting, and inspirational stories that one day people might talk about. Would you want to miss out on something like that?

Each person has their own story; different goals, aspirations, and challenges to encounter at their own certain time. Not everyone is destined to have the same beginning, climax, and ending in this journey. “Make your own story”—always keep that in mind. Being the authors of your own book gives you the power to make a compelling life story.

Life has its flaws and complications, but it’s all natural. These fears and trials are just temporary challenges meant to help us grow to become better people. An amazing concept artist once said, “Everything happens for a reason. You don’t see it now but you have to keep going.”

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Take advantage of the time for risks and be courageous, strong, and confident in whatever trials are there ahead. The only thing standing between you and your goals are your fears and doubts.

Take it one step at a time because it’s a process. Even the little efforts can take you farther from where you are at the moment.

Now, I am on the verge of beginning to write my story. How about you?

PARUPARONG BUKID

Charlotte Mae Martin

pag-ibig, himig at tinig na nakapagbibigay ng panandaliang kilig, sa harana mo na lamang yata mararanasan ang pagkasabik, kilig at kasiyahang may halong pawis na malagkit dahil sa pagharap sa kiming dilag na iyong tunay na tinatangi. Sa aking wari’y hindi matatawaran ang sikap na iniaaalay ng binatilyo sa pamamagitan ng harana.

Natutulog lamang ang harana sa isang natatanging bahagi ng ating pagkatao bilang Pilipino. Sa ganitong sitwasyon maiisip na maaari itong gisingin nang muling marinig ang himig ng isang pusong sumusuyo sa isang dilag na kay ganda. Dito mararamdaman ang haplos sa bawat kalabit sa gitarang siya na ring humahabi sa dalawang pusong unti-unting nagsasanib sa ngalan ng pag-ibig.

dibuho ni Rica Diaz

Hindi lang ang makasaksi ng isang aktwal na harana ang aking pinangarap. Sa katunayan nga’y pangarap ko rin ang maranasan na haranahin ng isang binatilyong akin ding tinatangi. Isang bagay na sa ngayon ay tila malabo nang mangyari dahil kahit na saan ko pa ibaling ang aking paningin, samu’t saring makabagong pakulo na ang aking nakikita. Gayunpaman, aking alintanang maaaring nariyan lang ito sa aking paligid kasama ng gitara; umiibig, humihimig at sumasamong mapakinggan ang tinig.

Sa dinami-rami ng aking mga babaeng kaibigan, ni isa’y hindi ko nakitaan ng manliligaw na magtyatyagang umawit sa tapat ng kanilang bintana upang siya’y suyuin. Puros sa kuwento at sa mga teleserye ko na lamang nalalaman at napapanuod ang tungkol sa nakakakilig na tradisyong ito. Nariyang may mga parody pa sa pagkanta ng “O Ilaw” tuwing isasalarawan ang harana. Tantsa ko pa nga ay marami pang taon na pabalik ang kailangan kong takbuhin para masilayan ito—isang bagay na imposibleng mangyari. Ngunit nakakalungkot isipin na natigil na lamang ang tradisyong ito sa ating mga nanay at tatay, kundi man ay sa ating mga lolo at lola.

Tayo ngayon ay namumuhay sa isang panahong mas pinipilahan ang mas mabilis at mas madali. Magpasa ka lamang ng link para sa isang kanta na nais mong iparinig sa iyong hinahangaan nang hindi kayo nagkikita, maaari mo nang maiparating ang mensaheng ninanais mong ipabatid. Sa aking hinuha ay laos ang harana sa ganitong aspeto—olats, ‘ika nga nila. Ngunit sa isang banda ay naabot ng aking hiraya ang napakagandang dahilan kung bakit dapat na masilayang muli ang tunay na harana—ang makita ang pagpapalitan ng matatamis na sulyapan ng dalawang taong nagsusuyuan. Sa pagtitig pa lamang sa mata ng isa’t isa’y agad mo nang masasabi ang nararamdaman ng iyong tinatangi. Ito ang isang bagay na hindi maibibigay ng teknolohiya. Hindi nito maipaparirinig at maipadarama ang bawat tibok ng pusong sumasabay sa himig ng pusong nanunuyo’t umaawit.

Paborito ko ang parte sa ilang makalumang pelikula kung saan ay nararamdaman ko na ang kilig, pagkasabik at pagkabitin ng isang manliligaw na naghihintay sa sagot ng kaniyang iniirog. Bukod sa sinseridad na ipinapakita ng mga ganitong eksena, nasa likod ang thrill na mararamdaman mo dahil sa panghihinayang sa bawat pagkakataong muntik nang sambitin ang oo na pinakahihintay ng isang binatilyo. Ang harana ay isang napakagandang paraan upang mapanatili ang ganitong damdamin. Sa dami ng paraan ng panliligaw

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CULTURE + TRAVEL

KARILYON

EDITED BY Charlotte Mae Martin

Lulutang pa ring tulad ng palitaw ang magiliw na samahan ng isang pamilyang Pilipino sa kahit na anong sitwasyon, sa teleserye man iyan sa telebisyon o sa isang mala-teleseryeng kaganapan sa tahanan; sa asaran man iyan ng magkakapatid o suyuan ng magkasintahan, hindi maikakailang dugong Pinoy ang nananalaytay sa ating ugat at nasasalamin sa makulay nating katauhan.

mais pikon yelo Hindi mauubusan ng baon ang mga Pilipino pagdating sa umaatikabong asaran.

Mabansagan man na mga “pikon” ay sige pa rin nang sige, masabi lang ang nais ipaglaban—katangiang tunay na Pinoy.

akda Daniella Faye Cruz at Monique Yamar mga litrato Inah Maravilla

Mula pagkabata’y hindi na nawala ang pikunan sa magkakaklase.

Nariyang nasabihan na ng titser o ‘di kaya’y naipadala na sa Principal’s office dahil dito. Ito ay kinagisnan nang gawain ng mga Pinoy sa kabila ng samu’t saring pangaral mula sa mga nakatatanda, tulad na lamang ng kasabihang “kapag binato ka ng bato, batuhin mo rin ng tinapay.”

Tayo’y tumatalima sa katagang ito; huwag lang mahilis at mapunta sa kantyawan, tiyak na ang unang mapikon, siya ang talo!

Pagbabalik tanaw Malaking bahagi ng kulturang Pilipino ang impluwensyang naidulot ng 333 taong pagkabilanggo ng Pilipinas sa kamay ng España. Simbolo ng tindig ni Magellan ang bansang uhaw sa kapangyarihan na maging angat sa iba. Egoistical, sa madaling salita, ang pagiging o ­ verprotective sa imahe bilang isang tao. Halimbawa na rito ang pagiging ma-pride, kung saan hindi pumapayag ang isang tao na maangatan siya o kaya naman ay pagtanggi sa tulong mula sa iba. Sa kabilang banda, halos apat na dekada ring sumailalim ang Pilipinas sa pamamahala ng Amerika—isa sa mga bansang may low context culture na ayon sa teorya ni Edward Hall ay may mentalidad silang sarili lamang ang

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iniisip. Samakatuwid, mas sinusuot ng mga Pilipino ang damit ng kanluranin kaysa sa silangang kanilang kinalulugdan.

Pikon talo Sa kabila ng mainit na suportang ibinibigay ng mga Pinoy sa mga boksingero mula sa bansa, nandoon din ang pangungutya sa magiging kalaban nito. Sa bawat pagbitaw ng mga salitang kontra sa kalaban, naroon ang takot nating maibalik sa atin ang mga ito.

Likas na sa mga Pilipino ang pagiging pikon. Ayon kay Dr. Danny Tuazon, isang neuropsychologist ng UP Diliman, pikon ang mga Pilipino dahil sa kolonyalismo. Ang salitang “pikon” ay walang direktang kahulugan. Nakakatuwang isipin na sa Pilipinas lamang lubos na kilala ang kahulugan ng salitang ito.

Pindot, sabay takbo Nang magsimulang sumulpot ang iba’t ibang social networking sites, umusbong din ang batuhan ng mga panlalait sa kapwa. Dito tila ginigisa nang mabuti ang pagkatao ng bawat isa at dumarating pa sa puntong nagiging personal na ang usapan. Bahagi na ng araw-araw na pamumuhay ng mga Pilipino ang social media—mula sa pag-like, pag-comment ­at pag-share ng mga posts na kadalasan ay kung hindi masamang balita tungkol sa Pilipinas ay hindi magt-trending o ‘di kaya’y ‘pag hindi ito tungkol sa kahihiyan ng isang tao ay hindi ito share-worthy. Nakakalungkot isipin na tila naging Dear Diary na ng mga Pinoy ang ibat-ibang social networking sites tulad na lamang ng Facebook. Dito matutunghayan ang mga tila online na debate at gyera, dahil sa mga wantusawang pagpuputak sa kung ano-anong mga bagay. Nakakadagdag ang social media sa pagiging pikon ng mga Pilipino, sa kadahilanang hindi mapipigilan ang iba’t-ibang trip at gusto ng mga tao.

Likas na sa mga Pilipino ang pagiging masayahin. Ngunit sa kabila ng kasiyahan ay kadalasang nadadapo na sa pikunan. Hindi naman masama ang maging pikon paminsan-minsan. Nagiging masama na ito kung ikaw na nga ang nang-asar, ikaw pa ang napikon. Ika nga ng isang kasabihan “Lakas mang-asar, kapag siya na ang inasar, pikon naman”. Huwag sanang makalimutang magbigay ng respesto sa iba’t-ibang bagay, laging tandaan kung may respeto walang pikon, at walang mapipikon kung magbibigay ng respeto.

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feel-na-feelnovelas Maaksyong kaganapan man o mga dramaramang paulit-ulit na lang, di mawawala ang mga teleseryeng kinalakihan na ng mga Pinoy. akda Hannah Rodrigo dibuho Jaz Yabut

Ang mga Filipino soap opera ay tukoy mula sa mga mahaba nitong storylines, star-studded cast, at mga boy meets girl na plot twist. Karamihan sa atin (kasama na diyan ang lola at nanay mo) ay pinaiyak, ginalit, at pina-ibig ng mga palabas na ito. Malaki ang naging papel ng mga teleserye sa ating mga buhay. Kaya naman nararapat lang na masubaybayan mo rin ang mga posibleng epekto nito sa ating buhay at lipunan. Lights, camera, action!

Santino fever Tayong mga Pilipino ay sadyang katangi-tangi dahil sa malalim nating pananampalataya sa relihiyong Katolisismo. Kaya’t hindi nakapagtataka kung bakit tinangkilik ang mga “faith themed” na palabas tulad na lamang ng Nathaniel, 100 days to Heaven, at Pare Ko’y. Hindi lingid sa kaalaman ng nakararami na ang mga ito ay hindi nakasentro sa pangunahing turo ng simbahan, sapagkat nagpapakita ang mga ito ng mabubuting asal. Ang mga ganitong uri ng teleserye

ay nagpapakita na ang bida ay napupunta sa langit samantalang ang mga kontrabida ay napupunta naman sa impyerno. Nakakatuwang isipin na patuloy pa ring naaantig ang mga Pilipino sa mga ala Santino-serye na nagpapakita ng values gaya ng pagpapatawad, kababaang asal, at pagmamahal sa kapwa tao.

Kabitelebabad ba kamo?

Karaniwan nang tinatawag ang mga “other woman” na querida, kabit, o kaya naman ay third party sa mga isyu ng pangangaliwa.

Hindi man sabihin, ngunit todo-relate ang iba sa “No other woman situation” dahil ito talaga ay nangyayari sa tunay na buhay. Patunay na diyan ang paghataw ng mga teleserye gaya ng Two Wives, No Other Woman, at My Husband’s Lover na halos may pare-parehong tema ng panloloko. Ang pangangaliwa o adultery ay labag ayon sa Article 334 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines sa ating bansa. Gayunpaman, hindi naman masama ang mga ganitong konsepto ng panood na ipinapakita sa mga viewers, sapagkat nagpapakita pa rin ang mga ito ng kalakip na aral kaugnay sa pagiging tapat sa isang relasyon.

Kuwentong forever Simula nang sumikat ang teleseryeng Forevermore nina Liza Soberano at Enrique Gil ay nauso na rin ang katagang “#WalangForever” lalo na sa mga kabataan. Ang Forevermore ay isang boy meets girl na teleserye, ang temang pinakatinatangkilik sa lahat. Sinasalamin ng mga ito ang pagkakaroon ng pusong romantiko ng mga Pilipino. Wala namang masama sa tema ng mga panood na ganito, pero nagiging paulit-ulit na lang ang cycle ng pag-iibigan ni babae at lalaki. Sa kabilang banda, malaki ang audience ng mga ganitong teleserye. Ngunit sana’y gamitin ito upang ipalaganap ang kahalagahan ng edukasyon, ekonomiyang pambansa, at kalusugan.

Huwag sana masyadong ma-istuck ang mga Pilipino sa tema ng pagpapakilig lalo na sa mga kabataan.

Sabi nga ng manunulat na si William Shakespeare “The eyes are the windows to your soul”. Sa mga Pilipino, ang ating mga teleserye ang sumasalamin sa ating lipunan. Sa lakas ng impact ng mga ito, ang mga ideya nito ay maaring maghulma sa paniniwala at pagkatao.

Masarap tumawa, umiyak, at mapa-ibig sa mga teleserye kung ang mga tema ng mga ito ay mas aangkop at mas makabuluhan sa totoong buhay ng ordinaryong mga Pilipino.

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Pinoy bahayan, anong meron ka? akda Katrina Lerios at Charlotte Mae Martin dibuho Christian Mata

akda Katrina Lerios at Charlotte Martin dibuho Christian Mata

Masasabing Pilipinong totoo ang isang tahanang laman ang isang pamilyang salo-salo sa bawat kabig ng buhay. Dito’y saksi na rin ang bawat silid sa mga pakikipagsapalaran ng pamilyang nagkakaisa sa isip, sa salita, at sa gawa.

Hindi lahat ng luma o nalipasan na ng mahabang panahon ay maituturing nang laos

isipin na bihira na lamang magkasabay-sabay kumain ang pamilya. Sa nakaraang 60 taon halos 90 minuto ang average dinnertime, ngunit ngayon ay mahigit kumulang 12 minuto na lamang.

Lutu-lutuan o sigaw-sigawan?

Sa kusina natin makikita ang isang masayang hapagkainan na puno ng nakakahawang tawanan at kulitan. Kung saan nariyan maririnig ang mga paboritong linya na “‘Nay, ano po ang ulam?” o kaya naman “Amoy palang ulam na”. Dito rin makikita ang isang mapag-aruga’t mapagmahal na ina, kasama si ate na katuwang niya sa pag-aasikaso. Sa ngayon, bihira nang masisilayan ang mga ganitong eksena sa ating kusina. Maaaring si nanay na lamang ang nasa kusina, habang nasa kani-kaniyang gawain na ang iba pang miyembro ng pamilya. Nariyang non-stop nakaharap sa gadgets si ate at kuya at sa telebisyon naman nakababad si bunso. Ang mga ito ay naging dahilan ng pahirapang pagtatawag ng mga magulang sa kanilang mga anak na humarap sa hapagkainan na siyang nagiging bunga ng sigawan sa loob ng tahanan. Dahil sa mga modernong kagamitan ngayon, nagiging sapilitan na ang pagharap sa hapagkainan sa tamang oras kumpara noon.

Sa madaling salita, marami na ang nagbago mula nang pumasok ang teknolohiya sa buhay ng bawat pamilyang Pilipino. Nakabaling na ang atensyon ng bawat isa sa iba’t- ibang bagay na naglalagay ng dibisyon sa tuwing magkakasama ang pamilya. Magkagayon pa man, di pa rin maitatangging iba pa rin ang tipikal na katangian ng pamilyang Pilipino. Hindi lahat ng luma o dinaanan nang mahabang panahon ay maituturing nang laos.

Ang mga nakagawian ay patuloy pa ring nagdudulot ng pagkakabuklod-buklod na pinagtibay ng panahon.

Malaki man o maliit ang pamilya, malawak man o masikip ang tahanan, ang mahalaga pa rin ay ang pagbibigay ng importansya at respeto sa loob ng tahanan.

Salang masaya Tinaguriang tambayan sa bahay ang sala kung saan pwedeng manood ng telebisyon habang nakataas ang mga paa. Ito ang saksi sa kasiyahan ng pamilya na nagaganap tuwing bonding time. Noon ay tumutugtog ng iba’t-ibang instrumento (gaya na lamang ng gitara) ang isang miyembro ng pamilya habang pinapasayaw si bunso na siyang nagsisilbing entertainer ng pamilya. Ayon sa pag-aaral ng University of Iowa sa tulong ng National Institute of Health noong 2012, Ang mga batang nalalapit sa kanilang magulang sa pamamagitan ng ganitong uri ng “bonding” ay may mababang tyansa na makaranas ng emotional at behavioral problems.

Samantalang ang mga low-cost activities gaya ng paglalaro ng board games, pagkanta sa videoke o movie marathon na tinatawag na core leisure activities ay nakakatulong sa kakayahan ng bawat miyembro ng pamilya na mas mapabilis ang pag adapt sa mga pagbabago ayon sa libro nina Ramon B. Zabriskie at Bryan P. McCormick.

Hapag-kuwentuhan Masarap ang kumain lalo na kung kumpleto ang pamilya.

Tuyo man o prinitong itlog ang ulam ay tila fiesta pa rin sa harap ng hapagkainan. Tatlo sa bawat apat na kabataan ang nagbabahagi ng mga nangyayari sa kanilang magulang tuwing hapunan ayon sa Columbia University’s Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) 2010. Kaya naman madalas na humahaba ang usapan hanggang mapunta sa pag-amin, pagbabalik-tanaw, drama at sermon. Napag-alaman sa isang pag-aaral noong 2009 ng CASA na ang mga kabataang madalas kumakain kasama ang pamilya ay may mas mababang tyansa sa paninigarilyo, pag-inom, paggamit ng droga at pati na rin sa pre-marital sex. Ngunit sa panahon ngayon, nakakalungkot

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dibuho ni Christian Mata

Kadikit nito ang mga salitang pagmamahalan, pagkakabuklodbuklod at pagkakaisa. Sa panahong malayo na ang nararating ng teknolohiya, nagdudulot ito ng pagbabago sa sistema ng komunikasyon sa isang pamilya. Sa paglipas ng panahon ay tila nadala na ng modernisasyon ang pagbabagong naganap sa katangian ng bawat pamilya. Ating libutin ang bawat sulok ng tahanang Pilipino.

SPORTS + FITNESS + TECHNOLOGY

ABLAZE

Cyberspace is the breeding ground of online dating and spornosexuals, aspects of culture cultivated by us—the millennials. As we deviate to other generations, we shouldn’t forget the rich heritage our nation has.

EDITED BY David Tongol

lov e i n t h time of

text Aya Garcia art Rica Diaz

Today, restaurants are chatrooms and your date’s biography can be summed up in 500 characters or less.

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e f .coms Today’s hormone-induced love fests aren’t about table-for-two dinners or a stroll in the park on Valentine’s day anymore. The digital world isn’t just for research, entertainment, or porn; it’s now also about matchmaking. In this world of algorithms, dates are chatrooms, and anniversary nights are Skype sessions. Online dating has led people to the altar, and the success stories just keep on piling up. Soon enough, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this brand of dating captures the heart of the majority and takes the driver’s seat from traditional dating.

It was in the 1970s that David Woolley and Doug Brown decided to create the first online chat system, Talkomatic. It enabled a group chat with a small number of people to communicate with each other in real-time. From Talkomatic, the first widely available multimedia chat system, Compuserve CB Simulator, unlatched in 1980. Not only was it a haven for the bored, but also to love seekers.

In just a few years, the first “online wedding” happened in the CB Simulator. Online dating flourished dramatically in the 90s. It was 1995 when Match.com, the father of Hitch, Kik, and Grindr, went online.

Within the span of two years, 16 online dating sites went live as the world slowly accepted this new age way of dating.

It wasn’t until 2002 where passé sites like Friendster and Myspace pioneered the culture of social media and dominate our social lives, while Facebook created the boom needed to thrust the genre into the matchmaking scene and become a nesting ground for people looking for their Casanovas. By 2005, Pew Research Center stated that three million Americans were in long-term relationships or married with the help of online dating sites.

Though there is still a small stigma when it comes to meeting your possible significant other through the cyberspace, it has now become a part of everyday life for most soul searchers, especially after the big bang that is Tinder. The captivating allure of these dating applications and platforms comes from the fact that most possible misters and misses are handed out to you like a menu where you can simply pick the ingredients you deem fit for the perfect dish, be it dimples, porcelain skin or Kylie Jenner lips. With each swipe comes a new choice that provides an exciting glint,

and that glint becomes a spark. It’s like speed dating, minus the fancy restaurant, the effort-requiring outfit, and the few seconds of awkward chatting with random people.

In a different vantage point, online dating would be a nest for felons. This would be the argument of the usual person who still has a stigma for online dating. After all, Instantcheckmate.com stated that 80% of online daters fib chunks of their profiles. But if you think about it, there could be more danger going out with someone you just met on a party last night than with someone you’ve met and stalk all the the time online. In 2012, 18-year-old Kelley Galbraith, went on a date with Anthony Maldanado, a guy she met at a party the week before. Turns out, while they were having lunch, Maldanado had an accomplice rob Galbraith’s home. Properties worth $4,300 were stolen. In online dating, dodging affairs like this could be easier with their social media accounts that are there for you to stalk. If they don’t have any account, then that paints the picture: leave them.

Aside from romance and happyever-afters, people also resort online for risqué steamy sex-with-a-t. With nude photos to spread and losing the v-card out of the question, the act of sexting becomes a handsome alternative for some. Today, more than one in every smartphone user confesses to sexting or at least sending a nude photo of themselves to another person and, surprisingly, uKnowKids.com stated that there are more female sexters than male. But beware, it becomes a federal crime once a minor is involved.

Online dating could be a thundering thought, but it’s real.

Maybe tradition will always be at odds with change, but sooner or later, online dating will not be an “alternative” anymore. Phones, computers, and the cyberspace were formulated to link people.

And now is the best time to embrace their normality. It’s a matter of letting algorithms find you a match, doing a background check, making sure that it’s not a catfish you’ve caught, and making the final decision. If online dating is shameful to you, maybe it’s time you gave it a try. After all, admit it—online is where we all are basically all the time.

Most possible misters and misses are handed out to you like a menu where you can simply pick the ingredients you deem fit for the perfect dish.

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FILIPINO FIST FIGHTERS

Asia has always been known for giving birth to plenty of today’s most practiced martial arts.

Despite living under Spanish rule for three hundred years and more under other colonizing countries, The Pearl of the Orient was able to preserve one of the things it is most proud of: Filipino Martial Arts.

text Anya Ang photos Sace Natividad

As Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Taekwondo race for martial arts hegemony in the country, we take a look back to the ways our ancestors have been trained and taught the art of defending oneself.

Galawang dual-wielder Arnis, Eskrima, and Yaw Yan are, quite arguably, the three most popular forms of Filipino Martial Arts (FMA). But as history tells us, FMA was not traditionally written or drawn in books much like its counterparts from different countries have, but instead passed down from generation to generation of fathers teaching their sons the ways and forms which had no labels—thus individual styles had no names. Practitioners were also traditionally the pintados, the tattooed warriors of the villages.

Every FMA style would have its birth among different families, as these families would pit their own style against other FMA practicing families in competition.

FMA has roots in history for as far as 1,500 to some 2,000 years ago, but it wasn’t until the Spanish Colonial Period ended that Filipinos had to label FMA terminologies—hence the various styles and types of FMA. It’s no wonder many of FMA-related words sound Tagalog, or even Spanish: for example, “eskrima” came from the Spanish word esgrima, meaning, “fencing.” Cadena de mano means “hand-tohand,” “weaponless,” or the Filipino word, “suntukan.”

Atapang Andata Much like Japanese and Chinese martial arts, FMA has an array of weapons to choose from as well. For one, we have, the very popular balisong, which is a tiny foldable knife. We have the arnis sticks which are traditionally 28-inch wooden sticks, though with variations across practitioners in the modern setting. We also have the bolo knife, also known as the itak, which is often associated with the great Mr. Andres Bonifacio in most paintings and statues.

The yoyo, adopted from ancient Greece, was also once used as weapons by ancient Filipinos.

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Isang daang porsiyento Filipino Martial Arts is not as underrated as some would think: even the great Bruce Lee was a known practitioner of FMA. He displayed Eskrima techniques with double bastons in the movie Enter the Dragon (1973) and again in the 1978 Game of Death against his real life good friend, Filipino-American, Dan Inosanto.

Inosanto, who is now 78, has played a big role in the popularization of FMA, as he has been involved in the integration of Filipino Martial Arts in action movies’ choreography. FMA was even seen in Fast & Furious 7’s fight scene between Vin Diesel and Jason Statham when they dual-wielded metal pipes and blade-like car parts. Even Denzel Washington, who was a student of Dan Inosanto, used FMA dagger techniques in the 2014 movie, The Equalizer.

Batman’s first Robin, Dick Grayson, became an Arnis wielder when he decided to become Nightwing. The movie Bourne Ultimatum had plenty of Kali (a form of FMA), and mind you, all four Bourne movies had heavy FMA influence as the choreographers were all Dan Inosanto students.

Pilipinong Martial Arts Even today, FMA is an emerging form of fitness regimen. There are gyms all around the world that teach the rare art and its discipline.

But for the average Filipino, gyms can be found around the metro too. The gym Pekiti Tirsia Kali in Bonifacio Global City teaches Kali, the bladed form of Filipino Martial Arts. De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde itself has an Arnis varsity team.

If you’re not feeling the college crowd, Crossfit Halcyon in Fisher Mall also offers Arnis.

Certainly you aren’t less of a Filipino for earning that Taekwondo black belt before even learning to wield Arnis sticks. But there is a sense of pride and cultural significance in learning your country’s own, for it is only in enriching our culture that we can bring it back to its full glory.

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L i v i n g text Jomari Vista

photos Yves Publico

styling Neal P. Corpus

model David Licauco

When desire for flesh meets desire to be desired, it may be time to look at the uprising of extreme male self-objectification.

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i b i d o It’s Friday night, and your friends are out while you are stuck in the gym. To make yourself feel better, you resort to posting on Instagram, showing off those mean biceps with the caption #healthyliving. But in reality, it was never about living healthy. That’s just a bonus in this new age where being desired—no, lusted after—is your own true motive. This is the age when you wake up to the smell of your own sex drive, where your body is a banquet to be feasted upon by girls and “girls” alike.

This is the age of the spornosexual, where having a body to die for is what makes you live.

Spornosexuality—a play on the words “sport” and “porn”—was coined last 2014 by Mark Simpson, a journalist who writes on topics dealing with pop culture and masculinity. He noticed the development of this “sporno” culture in high fashion magazines back in 2006, where there seemed to be a bigger focus on male hypersexualization than on other factors. Describing the new wave as “sport got into bed with porn while Mr. Armani took pictures,” it diminished the importance of a high sense of style, focusing instead on what a man should look like at his most virile. Unlike bodybuilders, who develop muscles to their highest peak, spornosexuals focus on being lean and mean: to look ripped without being overly large, the perfect athlete’s body with the sex appeal of a pornstar. Social media is the spornosexual’s biggest weapon, with guaranteed legions of worshippers—if you meet the standards.

Spornosexuality credits its presence to its predecessor, the “metrosexual”. Predicted back in 1994 by the same Simpson, a metrosexual man is “a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis—because that’s where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are.” In 2002, Simpson crowned (or in his own terms, outed) David Beckham, a football player known for his devilishly handsome looks more than his skills, its icon. This resulted in an explosion of a culture

l o c a obsessed with designer clothes and slick hairstyles, expensive perfumes and fashion trends. While metrosexuality focused on looking great and stylish, spornosexuality is a more body- and sex-obsessed version: their bodies are their most painstakingly sculpted temples. Both however, rise from the very same drive that Simpson accurately predicted: the male desire to be desired.

Spornosexuality deals with almost the same issues metrosexuality did in its inception. Is male narcissism a good or bad thing? Are looks more important than intellect? These questions are asked to challenge the superficiality of the movement. Yet as people try to break down this unrealistic idealization, many others continue to subscribe to it. A simple hashtag search can lead to millions of images, with hundreds to thousands of likes and comments. Everyone has at least one Facebook friend that has made a shirtless selfie, yet some people act like male vanity is the end of the world.

There is nothing wrong with abolishing unrealistic standards and reminding others that true beauty lies in one’s intellect and personality. Metrosexuality, and now spornosexuality, however, are cultural waves that can cause harm only if you yourself let it. You can choose to subscribe to it, or you can choose not to.

You can preach about loving others unconditionally, or you can swipe right on that next picture on Tinder.

You can show off your ripped muscles, or dress like a parish priest. It really doesn’t matter, because no one’s forcing you to be like Brad Pitt when you can only be yourself.

But you gotta admit—if you had a body like Brad Pitt, you would show if off, wouldn’t you?

opposite page: cropped sweater by ALEXANDER WANG for H&M grey cotton trousers from BENCH

a

powder blue bomber jacket from H&M

mesh t-shirt by JUSTINE BAUTISTA

LIFESTYLE + INTERESTS + PEOPLE

BLIP

EDITED BY Neal P. Corpus & Ralph de Vera

Carving out an identity is always a challenging undertaking, but what we find through music, food, and the story of one artist (and a couple of drag queens!) is that the self is never too far from the things we love.

t h e

s p a r k

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s c h e m e

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t h i n g s

t h e

g e n e r a l

Behind the beeps, you’ll discover a whole different side of the music.

text Kurvine Chua photos Abby Magsanoc styling Neal P. Corpus make-up Aquinna Duyan sittings editor EJ Lanuza assistants Gerard Del Mundo and Yves Publico

BP Valenzuela—everyone’s heard this name by now.

Being one of the most recognized musicians in today’s local indie scene, she started gaining attention when she released her EP, be/ep, online. Her goal wasn’t fame—all she did was write a few heartfelt tunes, and before you could say “Geomorph,” her songs were on the radio. Shortly after came her debut full-length, The Neon Hour. Next thing you knew, she was playing in Wanderland and was selected to represent our country in Singapore’s Music Matters Live festival. Now before you pass her off as some goddess, you should know upfront that she’s just a living, breathing human being like the rest of us.

Ever since time immemorial, music has been a huge part of her life—she listens to virtually everything, citing particularly 90s alternative rock bands such as Jimmy Eat World and Oasis as having special places in her heart. BP incorporates the lyricism from that era into her songs and combines this with synths and beats—what results is a unique blend that proves just how organic the electronic genre can be.

“I used to carry a Discman up until I was around 12,” she laughs as she finishes making coffee for her customers at the Satchmi store.

Back then, everyone had iPod Minis, but because she broke her mom’s and because she prefers tangibility, she stuck with CDs. There’s just something about the physical form that resonates with her. True, she makes music on a computer, but the seamlessness of it all scares her. She sees to it that whenever she makes music, there’s some analogue involved.

Just enter her room and you’ll find various old world elements. She keeps a shoebox filled with letters from friends, which for her are extra special because, according to her, no one really writes on paper anymore. She also has her precious record collection, which includes some of her all-time favorite albums—Ryan Hemsworth’s Guilt Trips and Prince and the Revolution’s Purple Rain, among others. Aside from these, you’ll find her production equipment laid out on a table. There are also fairy lights hanging from the corners of her ceiling, along with various posters on the wall—The Endless Summer and Dragon Age 2, to name a few. Out of everything, though, it’s books she has the most of—from the early age of two, BP has already been reading. She owns so much books, they don’t fit in shelves anymore. A lot are piled on the floor, are kept in storage, or, for some reason, have found their way to her mom’s room.

Out of all things BP can’t live without, though, it’s coffee that makes it to the top of the list. Take that away and prepare to get punched in the face. As long as she can remember, she’s been drinking coffee all her life—okay, maybe just since high school.

“I need around three cups a day,” she admits. She recalls her first sip of the drink, a tale of which involves some romance. “I was 13, out with someone I liked. I didn’t want to

“When i w everything,

fall asleep and embarrass myself, so I went to a Figaro before entering the movie theater.”

Her first genuine experience with love, which also served as the cause of her first real heartbreak, came much later.

During this dark period, there were days she couldn’t get out of bed. The only way she could deal was through music. It was memories like these that had the greatest influence on the creation of her EP. She remembers looking out the window, watching everything go by, thinking how minuscule she felt— how no one probably even cared.

“I felt like a speck in ‘The General Scheme of Things’.

That’s how the song came about,” she reveals. Suicide felt like an easy option, but thankfully, she’s over that. “One of the things that keeps me going is the hope for a brighter future, simply knowing there’s always something to look forward to.” And it’s true. A difficult situation may initially seem like a dead end, but with time, everything gets better. Our friendly neighborhood musician wouldn’t be where she is if she hadn’t stood her ground.

Besides, why worry about complications when you’ve got animals? BP thinks they’re more lovable than people.

“It’s weird,” she reflects, “because when I was younger, I was frightened of everything, inanimate objects included.”

Now she finds every animal the cutest. Her favorite is the Honduran White Bat—they’re smaller than your palm and love snuggling with each other. “You know, I’ll never consider humans as animals. We suck—all we do is mess up the planet.

Animals do so much more. I don’t even want to get married. I mean, unless I were to meet someone I really liked. It’d suck having to share everything with somebody, not to mention legally binding.”

BP believes having to conform to standards and having your future set out for you is nothing short of boring. When she looks in the mirror, she can’t believe everything she’s been through. She doesn’t even recognize her face anymore.

“I used to look like a Korean boy!” she recalls. “When I was in Japan, I was on the Osaka subway when I saw this salon.

Wanting to try something new, I stepped inside and just got my hair cut really short.”

Eventually, she decided to start growing it out, only to find the awkward phase extremely annoying, so she started wearing caps. “That’s how I got into them. I realized I liked how caps looked on me, so I now have a whole collection.

I’m especially fond of weird ones—my favorite is my Family Computer cap.”

Aside from her interest in caps, another thing people often ask her is how she’d managed to fit everything she’s accomplished into her 20 years of existence. The answer is simple, really—she was alone a lot. She liked being by herself, and although she used to be paranoid what other people might think of this, she’s way past it now.

Even though she was alone, she was busy, even as a high school student. During her freshman year, she joined the student council. Being an officer, one of her jobs was to tell

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white no. 1 crush pullover from PROUDRACE / white baseball cap from BENCH

was younger I was afraid of , inanimate objects included.�

black baseball cap from BENCH / black asymmetrical vest from OXYGEN

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powder blue bomber jacket and gray trousers both from H&M

people off—things like “Don’t write on the bathroom door!” and “Don’t text right now!”

“I’d be this really honest person, even outside the council, so I got bullied a lot. I swear, high schoolers don’t want to hear the truth. Not just high schoolers, come to think of it—it applies even to the local music industry. We lack criticism, don’t you think?”

Her worst bullying experience was when everyone in the classroom ignored her. Because of experiences like this, she ended up having a lot of time to herself. It was during these moments she realized she had to stop trying to please others, and instead start liking herself.

“It’s funny, because some of those who used to ignore me are now suddenly friendly. I don’t blame them. I guess people change.” As her high school days went by, she was able to find a few who mattered. To this day, she still considers them among her closest friends.

Aside from these, BP also did a lot of arranging, writing, and conducting. She was also part of the video production club, so she’d sometimes find herself scoring films and directing them—one of the shorts she’d created with her group even made it to a competition in Japan. With all the stress, she had to find a way to stop herself from becoming a turnip, so she delved into some physical activities, her favorite being soccer.

After class, she’d usually have practice with her band until 7:00 p.m. There wasn’t really much instrument playing as far as practicing went, but there was a dangerous amount of food.

“We ate so much it was crazy! There was a lot of listening, too, most notably to the band, Muse. Music appreciation stuff.”

BP owes it to her high school band for pulling her out of her comfort zone. She was their lead guitarist, so she was also able to learn a lot from them, musically.

“And then I went to Ateneo, majoring in Sociology and Anthropology,” she relates. “I joined the Musicians’ Pool, so I usually hung out with the members there. Other times, I’d hang with those from the Loyola Film Circle. There was a lot of hands-on experience. That was also around the time I’d learned to ride a bike, so it became my mode of transportation to and from class.”

A year later, she’d transferred to Benilde to pursue her dream. With all the attention she’s been getting, she feels as though she’s losing her privacy. What’s more, she fears not being able to allot time for herself anymore.

“I tend to doubt myself a lot, too,” she admits, but she tries her best not to care. For her, once you start caring, it’s difficult to constantly follow up. She uses deciding on her outfit of the day as an example. “I just grab whatever’s in my closet. There was a time when I’d dress a bit more, particularly because of people taking pictures with me, but I’ve since reverted to dressing casual.”

Talking about her faith, she says she still doesn’t know what she believes in, exactly. “I’ve been in Catholic school all my life. I go to Church, but I always question whether or not I really believe what they teach—things like saying no to the Reproductive Health Law and women not being allowed to become priests. I think I’m kind of agnostic, to be honest. If there’s one thing I’d die for, though, it’d be equality—gender equality, racial equality—the equality of everything.”

When asked about plans for her second studio album, she says she doesn’t want to rush things. In fact, she plans to release another EP before anything else, so she can return to her roots and work on something experimental first.

“You know, I think I need a break! Maybe not now, but in the near future.” By break, BP doesn’t mean doing nothing, though.

She can’t stand being idle—it drives her crazy. With time to herself, she’d probably read the stockpile of books she’s been meaning to, play her favorite video games, and write emotional essays again.

“You know how some musicians are afraid of becoming irrelevant? I mean, like, when did we even start measuring relevance? To be honest, I’d be totally fine if I stopped making music right now, took a different degree, and opened my own coffee place. Anything else, really. I just want to be comfortable.

And then one of these days, probably when I’m 25, I’d finally have three dogs, two cats, and a super cute apartment!”

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from

guys

We delve into the glitz and glamour of the world of the “queers of the night.”

to

text Evangealica Monzon and Ralph de Vera photos Cyrill Araga sittings editor Neal P. Corpus

“It’s not just about putting on exaggerated makeup and lip-syncing and putting on high heels; it’s about loving what you do and engaging the people who are watching you.”

In a predominantly Catholic country where criticism is consistently thrown at the LGBT community, there is no question that without their Hollywood and entertainment staple, drag queens receive more prejudice than gays, lesbians, or bisexuals due to their extravagant female representations. However, what most people don’t know is that beneath the comedic masquerade of drag queens is a chance to truly be themselves and that, it’s not just something they just play with.

Thick contouring, lavish costumes, and high-rolling wigs. In a global perspective, drag queens have a damaging stigma as drug addicts, drunkards, or sexually promiscuous. They are predominately defined as men who dress up as women for the reason like entertainment. However, this isn’t actually the case for most who do drag. “Most of us have day jobs. I like doing drag because I get to be myself.” says Ms. Didi, a draq performer in O Bar, a popular gay bar in the metro, “I get to inspire people, especially the young people who underwent a crisis in identity. They don’t know what to do with their lives creatively, and they can express it through this.”

In fact, most of those who do drag have unanimously said that they do it because it’s a mixture of freedom, mystery, and creativity. Ms. Didi adds that, “Honestly, I don’t want to take the makeup off, the dress off, the wigs off. When I’m in drag, I feel empowered. I feel like I can conquer anything and achieve everything. It’s a sad feeling when you have to remove everything, because you’ve worked so hard on that image. But at least you get to look forwards to the next night, where you again, change personas.”

There are some who do it as a way of expressing their inner diva, like Ms. Didi. Others perform in drag as a source of livelihood. “Some of us perform in drag as our bread and butter,” states Ms. Katkat, who considers herself a professional drag queen. “I didn’t really plan to do this for a living, but luck paved me the way to this life, and I’ve never looked back.”

It isn’t easy performing in drag, despite the freedom it portrays. Ms. Katkat says that, “You need to be fierce and palaban. You need to have charisma, uniqueness, and talent. You need to have the passion for it. It’s not just about putting on exaggerated makeup and lipsyncing and putting on high heels; it’s about loving what you do and engaging the people who are watching you.”

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What sets the drag queens apart from the others in the LGBT community is the factor that most people judge them about their extravagance. There are cases in which they are considered as sexist due to their perceived mockery of women. According to Daniel Harris’ book, Diary of a Drag Queen, they are most likely to be “an object of amused pity” due to the stereotypical views of drag such as being failures of manhood, yet there are very few cases when drag performers are really straight when they’re offstage, and at times, use drag for gender experimentation, challenging society’s traditional views of gender structures.

“It’s hard to be yourself, especially here. I know I’m not a real woman, but if you want to be a girl, then live as one.” shared Wabby, a transgender performer in Malate. When asked about how she deals with discrimination, she simply retorts that she doesn’t care because getting involved in fights are a waste of time. “I want to be happy,” she said. And Wabby really is together with her long-time boyfriend. “You need to enjoy being who you are,” retorts Ms. Katkat, “Who you are is who you are, so accept it. Overthinking it will just affect you negatively too much. The decision is always yours.”

For those who do drag, blending different shades of eyeshadow, wearing glitter studded dresses and combing hairspray-infused locks is a way of expressing creativity, individuality, and of their inner selves. It’s not wrong to wonder if the Philippines will ever celebrate full diversity. What most draq queen’s advice is to continue being who you are. “You just have to show how you are as a person, because you don’t really have to pretend just to be accepted. You have to show who you are. When we perform, it’s a great bridge to the audience. That’s when you grab the chance for them to know you as an individual,” declares Ms. Katkat.

For now, these entertainment queens will continue to perform Mariah Carey chart-toppers with all the glitz and glamour the stage they preside has to offer, and for sure, the audience will furiously applaud for more. And for those who still find their lifestyle vulgar, Ms. Didi has only a few words to say to them, “Suck it up! I’m the queen here,” as she Z-snaps her way to the roaring crowd.

humming judgments There exists a social issue we’ve been ignoring for too long now.

text Kurvine Chua art Jelenie Custodio

Music is supposed to be a universal language that brings people together. What happens instead is that we have pretentious fans isolating themselves, blasting what’s on their playlists, pushing away the people who “just don’t get it.” A good number feel as if their favorite songs and pieces are superior to another’s, hence the obsessive urge to constantly educate in an attempt to save souls. This really shouldn’t be the case—just because a Liszt piece uses more complex theory doesn’t make it better than that latest Sam Smith hit.

Our society has become so used to shaming people for their tastes that there are now stupid terms that feed on this.

“Guilty pleasure” is one example—simply put, this refers to something one genuinely likes but hides because of what others might say. Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean?” is a song that most were surprised to find appealing, calling it a step forward from his earlier hits. These people, though, didn’t want their hardcore images shot down, so they chose to hide this interest from the world.

People have become insecure about silly things like this. It’s reached the point where the music doesn’t even come first anymore. What happens is that we’re now more concerned about whether or not what we’re wearing is “punk” enough or “indie” enough. It may all be part of the culture, but when we start putting these at the forefront, the main purpose gets drowned out.

During one of Wanderland’s music festivals, some audience members spent more time judging others than enjoy what was being played on stage. We can’t blame them—it’s the peer pressure from

around that’s made them develop these insecurities. We need to start making things about the music again. John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls said it right—”If you put the leather pants on and write a song to fit the pants, you’re a total poser. You’re being more conscious of your image than your craft.”

One can’t help but wonder if people purposely build walls around their genres to keep newbies out, forcing the latter to try whatever they can to belong. Subgenres, for example—the average listener probably won’t be able to tell the difference between

We’re now more concerned about whether or not what we’re wearing is “punk” enough or “indie” enough. hard trance, goa trance, and psychedelic trance. To them, it’s just trance, period.

When they make an innocent error in this regard, some will start making fun of them.

You’d think they’d be glad someone is willing to join their small community, but no—they scare them away. Another example can be found in the Facebook group, The Defend Pop Punk Group, which is supposedly dedicated to defending the pop punk scene.

Every time someone there posts about a band the rest don’t agree with, they curse

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that person to death.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to music—changes in perceptions over time prove this. The Cure’s phenomenal album, Pornography, initially wasn’t well-received by critics. It was labeled stale, dull, and too depressing. Fast forward to present, and it’s now considered a masterpiece, constantly being included in top albums lists. During the 1980s, songs from Madonna and Tears for Fears were repeatedly being played on the radio. This was the music considered popular at the time, but guess what? The indie kids shunned it. The funny thing is that now, it’s these very bands and artists being embraced by the cool kids—the so-called anti-mainstream crowd.

At the core of it all, there’s one thing we’re sure of—this elitism has to stop.

Just as with everything else, we need to learn to respect one another. People fight against gender inequality and political corruption, so it only makes sense that music discrimination be part of the picture (or soundscape, rather). Music has become such a vital part of society that we can no longer allow injustices like this to go unnoticed. To every true music lover out there—it’s time we raised our fists and hummed our melodies with pride. Whatever sound comes out is that of our resistance, and no one can tell us otherwise.

from rice

In the perpetual tug of war between authenticity and popularity, will Filipino cuisine hold onto its roots or be forced to adapt to the times?

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Italians are known for pizza and pasta.

The French are known for baguettes, macarons, and escargot. Filipino cuisine, on the other hand, has long struggled to grasp its identity and present itself to the world as a gastronomical powerhouse. The question is: what it would take for Filipino food to emerge as the next dominant cuisine? What mantle it would hold in the international arena? Through the latest trends in the culinary world and the development of the nation, it seems that the potential for greatness that has always been there is now more evident than ever.

The Filipino cuisine is an untapped ocean of culinary gems which would have farm-to-table chefs jumping at the chance to reinvent themselves and their practice.

However, the reality is that the common Filipino has never really seen his food as “haute-cuisine”. It is for the most part, poor man’s food. From balut to isaw to sinigang, it is easy to see why a lot of our food is viewed as such. Take for example bulalo, which is simply bones and marrow tossed to the poor by the colonizing Spaniards, which was then cooked into a broth for the Filipino to eat. While the insulares were munching on tapas and paella, we had our bulalo and pakbet. There is nothing wrong with this—a lot of nations have their own version of the working man’s meal, such as France’s ratatouille—but for centuries, this has left us without an identity or pursuit of refinement in our cooking.

When we think of Japanese, French, or Italian food, we think sosyal, but most people up until recently would have never considered Filipino to be just that. We could have never been more wrong. Despite all the challenges and criticisms against our food, it is moving on to greater things. It has often been said that our food is too divisive and different for each province, but the same applies to other countries with prolific cuisines. India has different versions of curry for each region and the same with Japanese ramen or Italian pasta. What is important is that there is a standard and an internationally recognizable profile that the world can identify as distinctly Filipino.

Equally as important is the pursuance

to riches text Gian Franco Bernardino photos Yves Publico

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of good taste and art in the creation of food, a mentality which creates gastronomical delights for enjoyment rather than just for sustenance. This mentality has not been afforded to the Filipino people up until recently. This adds up to the heritage of centuries of a recipe growing alongside a culture.

One of the pioneers of Filipino cuisine in the international scene is Paul Qui, a Filipino-American national born and raised in Manila, and trained in Le Cordon Bleu, Austin. Qui has taken heavy influence from Filipino and Southeast Asian food and incorporated these influences into modernist techniques—the result was his own restaurant named after himself, Qui, opened in 2013. Americans who were tired of their Thai or Vietnamese food were discovering a new delicious face of Southeast Asian cuisine. Diners from all around the globe wolfed down Paul Qui’s version of our proud dishes. The servers and brigade were all Americans of whom most had never been to the Philippines in their lives and, in fact, could barely pronounce kare-kare.

The menu included Filipino classics, shared with a modern take.

Part of the line up were calamansi cocktails, lamb kare-kare, and sisig, among others. Sure, the dinuguan was served with soft Italian gnocchi, the kare-kare was made of USDA lamb and its peanut sauce was served as an accent rather than in a rich pool that drowns the meat; yes, the champorado was not really champorado but rather a chocolate coated rice pudding with wafers and bacon bits—none of it was completely authentic, but that was okay. Paul Qui’s take on Filipino cuisine proves the potential for international acceptance of the cuisine exists, while still tasting much better, if not different altogether, than most of the existing “authentic” restaurants today.

But why just now? Why have restaurants like Qui, Purple Yam, Jeepney Gastropub, and Maharlika been experiencing a boom in prominence? It is simple: the Filipino finally has more money to pursue these sensibilities today. Restaurants all over BGC, Makati, and Maginhawa are constantly raising the bar because there is the economic capability to do so. With the economic success of the country comes foreigners living and investing in our country and culture, sometimes taking home pieces of us with them. Some, like Qui, took a part of our culture and made it their own. Where previously the Filipino lived through centuries of forced multicultural influences, today there is a more prosperous nation and a longing to define who we are.

Today could be the golden age of our national cuisine.

We are defining our language, our culture, our heritage, and our food. Local chefs are setting aside their French or Italian aspirations and are starting to develop what we always had but overlooked. Say what you want about execution, but restaurants such as Claude Tayag’s Bale Dutung or Carlos Garcia’s Black Pig are setting the wheels in motion for a great revolution in Filipino food. From Margarita Fores presenting the kinilaw at Madrid Fusion to the enthusiast at home trying to create delicious meals for his family, the local dining table is beginning to have pride in what it is and what it serves. Long dormant was the greatness of the Filipino flavor, but it has been awakening—and the world is starting to take notice.

What is important is that there is a standard and an internationally recognizable profile that the world can identify as distinctly Filipino.

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ART + DESIGN + LITERARY

PLATFORM

EDITED BY Sofia Abellera, Jona BisuĂąa,

Abby Magsanoc, & Nicole Valencia

With the increasing popularity of social media as a stage for creatives, branding and protecting works have never been more important. In the platform of art, design and literary, it is significant that creative expression is complemented with knowledge of one’s identity and rights.

transcending

How does an artist establish and maintain his/her artistic identity in a world filled with countless trends and influences?

trends

text Eya Arceo and Zen Montoya art Alberto Cinco, Jr.

With the spread and growth of all things digital, artists are scrambling to produce outputs that will not only capture attention, but also remain in their audience’s memories. Social media networking has created a platoon of platforms from which either budding or veteran artists can showcase their works and be updated on various trends or competition to take note of. In this day and age, artists must maximize these experiences as they explore their artistic identity.

Artistic identity can be defined as one’s personal style of art or design evident in most, if not all, of one’s output. Works of artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, or even our own Juan Luna can be identified through their subject matter, style of painting, use of colors or media, and more, making artistic identity practically limitless in its applications. For graphic designers, this is more popularly known as branding, a signature aesthetic parallel to one’s product and philosophy. This identity or branding helps a designer communicate the nature and narrative of their design, promote their services, and accumulate a bigger following. In short, it is an artist’s voice meant to differentiate them from another.

But in recent years, trends in art and design have taken over the world by storm—or perhaps become more apparent—due to the extensive presence of social media. These days, it’s easier to notice if a person is practicing what is popular, and it’s much easier to to be influenced by what is in. Take flat design, for example. It was in the summer of 2013 when Apple released its operating system iOS 7, which functioned with flat design, and this simple and efficient form stole the spotlight. Though some would argue that Microsoft spearheaded the craze back in 2010 with its large, bright, and grid-based design called Metro, it cannot be denied that Apple’s loyal patrons contributed to the sudden popularity of this style. Since then, other companies and brands followed suit.

Trends like this have dictated the outputs of artists who either want to get famous, stay relevant, or just go with the flow. The downside is that it makes it harder for artists to establish their individual identity. Developing one’s aesthetic has never been easy.

One has to continuously make, break, and remake one’s habits and processes in creating until one finds comfort and consistency in art and design practices. For some, discovering artistic identity is never-ending, and those who are still unsure of their inner artistic voice will have trouble finding it with trends popping up left and right.

It also doesn’t help that popular culture labels those who deviate from trends as “hipster”, further discouraging artists to expand their horizons and develop their own identity. Aspiring artists still compare their own work with the works of those who are wellknown and are often disappointed when their art does not get as much attention, likes, or shares. When they fail to see appreciation for their output, they are discouraged, and sometimes even choose to give up their dreams.

What of trends becoming influences or inspirations to one’s work? Creative blogger Oliver Wetter would say that the two concepts are different in their effects, stating that if the talk were about chemicals, he’d describe influence as toxic and inspiration as ephemeral.

For Wetter, neither concepts are wrong, but influence can lead to being “too much in love with another artist’s work,” and a highly comparable style one can no longer call his or her own. Inspiration, on the other hand, can lead to artists rendering original outputs with their own personal take on today’s trends—the fad is present, but the self is sustained.

(y)

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Let’s face it—being an artist or designer is difficult, and finding one’s artistic identity is even more so. But trends come and go.

One day, flat design manipulates the mode of media; the next, something else outshines it. Drawing from inspiration can help create something that hasn’t been done before. Making it a habit to always stay inspired, surrounding yourself with creative people, and refraining from being brainwashed by mainstream media can help discover one’s artistic identity. Through it all, an artist’s identity must remain, withstanding what’s in at the moment, transcending trends toward being truly memorable and timeless.

the

right

fight

text Eya Arceo art Natasha Ting

Social media is fast becoming grounds not only for sharing, but also for stealing ideas.

We’ve seen it before—a budding artist posts his work online and next thing he knows, a company is making profit off his work without his knowledge or permission. Social media is making it easier for artists and designers to increase their audience reach, but beware: it’s also making it easier for others to steal.

Sites like Flickr, DeviantArt, Behance, Tumblr, and even Facebook have evolved into platforms where both new and experienced artists and designers can showcase their creations and gain exposure and a bigger following. Once work has been posted online, however, anyone can simply download their works, repost them on another page or site, and claim them as their own—especially if there are no watermarks or other proofs of ownership. And because the Internet also offers anonymity, violators can simply take down the content when they are flagged, and subsequently escape legal ramifications.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), intellectual property refers to “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names, and images used in commerce.” Because these works belong to a specific person or group, they are subject to laws that protect them.

Patents, copyrights, and trademarks give creators and innovators the right to earn from selling their products should they wish to do so, and, more importantly, be recognized and respected as the legal owners of their output.

However, these days, cases of copyright infringement—the unauthorized or unlicensed use of a work subject to copyright— are becoming more common because of the accessibility that the Internet provides. Despite the fact that copyright is a statutory or common law “automatically secured when the work is created”, many still violate or fall victim to its violations. Content sharing is essential in the mechanisms of the digital world, but without giving proper credit to where it is due, perpetrators may be subject to imprisonment of two (2) to five (5) years and a fine ranging from Php 50,000 to Php 200,000, according to Republic Act No. 8293 (RA 8293) or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.

Benilde has also taken steps to ensure the protection of the intellectual property of its students, faculty, personnel, and even guests. With the release of a handbook entitled Intellectual Property Rights Policy with Implementing Rules and Regulations 2015-2017 earlier this year, the College aims to provide guidelines based on the

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policies of RA 8293, Benilde’s own form of education, Mission-Vision, and breakthrough goals of inclusivity and innovation.

Nevertheless, the continuously changing experience we have as we use and develop the Internet and social media is challenging the implementing rules and regulations of the existing copyright laws.

Many believe that these laws are becoming outdated or are simply not suited for digital content because of the way producers and consumers are indistinguishable in the world wide web. Creative Commons (CC), a global non-profit organization established in 2001, seeks to correct this and enable the “sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the free provision of free legal tools” which are “designed specifically to work with the web.”

Each of the licenses they come in what they call “three layers”: (1) the Legal Code, which is written in the style most lawyers are familiar with; (2) the Commons Deed or Human Readable, which is written in a way that laymen can better understand; and (3) the Machine Readable, which is written in a format for search engines, softwares, and the like to understand. CC also provides a way for creators to indicate that their works are obtainable and free for use in the public domain. For more information about these licenses and how to acquire them, you may visit CC’s website at http:// creativecommons.org.

Apart from this free license provider, there are also simple ways to protect yourself or at least make it harder for these thieves to steal your content. Consider using sites that don’t allow anyone to save or download images—such as Flickr or Pinterest for your photos—or applying watermarks on your artworks. It is also important to brush up on the rules and regulations for your intellectual property and those of others, and be alert for cases of their breach. If such a case happens to you, contact the violator immediately, as it may not be their intention to offend you in the first place. With the growing number of platforms where artists can share their work comes the increase of theft. When it comes down to it, artists and designers want two things when it comes to their work: respect and recognition. Whatever happens, be ready to fight for your right.

text Jona Bisu単a art Sofia Abellera

a

written

legacy

What makes Philippine literature Filipino?

Literature has played an important role in the Philippine culture and heritage. Our culture has been host to writers known to deeply touch the hearts of readers with their words and stories. Having been colonized for over 300 years resulted in a huge impact to the Philippine culture and, consequently, literature. With this, there is a question whether the country was able to retain its identity in literature, or whether the Philippines had lost it during the colonization era.

The first system of writing was the preSpanish Philippine scripts called “Baybayin”, which was developed in 300 B.C. Several systems of writings emerged from Baybayin used by the indigenous people, such as Hanunó’o (Mangyan), Buhid, Tagbanwa, Kulitan (Kapampangan), and Suwat Bisaya (Bisaya).

Over the years, the Filipino literature has changed. During the colonization of Spaniards, people would speak and write in Spanish and Filipino. In the modern times, literary works are usually composed in the language of a foreign country; specifically English. The intrusion of foreign language pushes the question on whether the Philippines really lost its identity in literature.

Though the Philippines might not have preserved its own system of writing, there is uniqueness in the themes used for writing. “Our culture has always been the type to put faith and family first before anything else. Because we rely and believe in these elements so much, we tend to be very romantic since we very much treasure these elements. I think that Filipinos have a very rich and strong bond with the idea of love and family. We always connect to those elements, no matter what the theme of the story is,” says Ruth Gutierrez, a 113 ABMultimedia Arts student. Filipinos have a way of writing that normally contains strong themes of of family and love in literary compositions.

Aside from the fact that these values make the

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country different from the others, in the literary sense there is always the Filipino essence in the subject manner that would clearly identify the work as a part of Philippine literature.

Other countries would often use a variety of themes because their culture is different from ours. Our history started in a simple and tribal community, while other superior countries started from a powerful empire. Today, they have been constant to that idea from the start and focused on elements of the human life other than love and family.

“As such, it is my belief that what makes Philippine literature Filipino is not the language with which the art is written, but the subject and its treatment,” said Anna Bea D. Geronga in her article entitled, “What makes Philippine Literature Filipino.”

One of the more well-known Filipino short stories entitled “Dead Stars,” was written by Paz Marquez Benitez and serves as an example of a Filipino expression in literature. It is a story that revolves around love, but in the same way talks about how society can dominate individuals. The classic Filipino stories usually involve real life issues and situations expressed through words or portrayed through television.

There is importance in knowing and having a Filipino identity in literature. “Our languages and literature define our identity and the rich cultural heritage behind it.” says Amando Doronila of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in his article “Literature and Filipino identity”. The works that have been written and those that are yet to be written will carry on the Philippine name, identity, history, culture, and heritage.

As stated by Geronga, “Whatever the decade, whatever the circumstance, I believe what makes Philippine Literature Filipino is the sentimentality buried deep within the craft, our tenderness.”

it’s a nervous tick, a sickening reaction. whatever it is, it’s a habit we all can’t quit.

just going through the motions

by Cyrill Araga, Alberto Cinco, Jr., and Neal P. Corpus models Selina Bhang, Kurvine Chua, and Denise Nayve sittings editor EJ Lanuza assistant Zen Montoya

chambray button-up from FADED GLORY

beige pullover from H&M

green pullover from NORDSTROM

nude dress with leather detail by JUSTINE BAUTISTA

denim jacket from TOPMAN

STAFF NEWS Denielle Alvarez, Jason Fajardo, Bea

Juliano, Katryna Lino, Katrina Mariano, Bryan Nonay, Timothy Santos SPORTS Anya Ang, Jhey De Leon, Eliesse Del

Rosario, Nicole Ganglani, Aya Garcia, Aien Rustainne Mayores, David Zantua FEATURES Gian Franco Bernardino, Cecile

Cabrera, Kurvine Chua, Kitkat Elane, Nicole Mananquil, Mark Sarile, Earl Roxas KULTURA Brian Paolo Castillo, Daniella Faye

Cruz, Jim Dela Cruz, Katrina Lerios, Hannah Rodrigo, Monique Aousha Yamar LITERARY Eya Arceo, Mark Baltazar, Chelsea

Perez, Zo谷 Rosal, Gab Torres PHOTO Cyrill Araga, Xi-Anne Avance単a, Joriel

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DIGITAL MEDIA Pamela Barrios, Shereen

Ce単as, Lance Florentino, Uzair Hayat, H&M G/F SM Megamall, EDSA corner Julia Vargas Avenue, Mandaluyong CIty

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JUSTINE BAUTISTA +63 906 419 2738 PROUDRACE proudrace.com

MANAGING Clyde Antes, Pamela Batac,

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