No Room for Rockstars - Never Shout Never

It's a different and difficult thing growing up on the road. For Chris, every opportunity on stage is a chance to positively affect people's lives with their music.

Rockstars are also human beings. I just felt very sad and annoyed on the part where the fans are still chasing and badgering Chris for a photo or an autograph even if he's injured. I'm a fan too and I know how it feels to see your idol. But seeing him in that terrible condition, please just let him go.

Fans, especially girls, have to understand that Chris is also human--  who gets sick, tired, hungry, sad, and most of all, who also wants to go home just like every normal person. Maybe they're forgetting that.

"Live with love!" 
-- Christofer Drew Ingle, Never Shout Never

Liberal Arts

They say that when you get out of college enthusiastic and all, you'd be totally surprised to know that not everything you learned in school is handy. You'd have to learn how to unlearn.

When I saw a copy of Liberal Arts from the DVD stack yesterday, I just know I have to buy it! It's a bonus that Josh Radnor is in the cover (I love this guy!).

Liberal Arts kicks off when Jesse (Josh Radnor), a 35-year-old charming college admissions adviser, went home to his alma mater for his former professor's retirement dinner. There, he met Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), a 19-year-old drama student, whose kindred spirit attracted him in ways he cannot fathom. They exchanged letters and talked about stuff they like. I am pretty sure that if Jesse had lived to be a poet or scribe in the past, he'd have many clients!

They say that age is mind over matter: if you don't mind, it doesn't matter. I, myself, do not mind age gap as long as they perfectly connect with each other. Back to the movie, Jesse was later on faced with an issue he considers a moral one (if you know what I mean). It's the guilt that creeps into him before doing that spontaneous thing.

Being in his old school makes Jesse feel young again. There are some things that change over the years but we can't help it not to want to change at all. As what Professor Hoberg said, "Nobody feels like an adult. It's the world's dirty secret." We feel young but we're no longer young anymore.

When watching Liberal Arts, you'd realize that the characters in the film are the people you see in school everyday (no intention of stereotyping). There's the terror yet brilliant professor, the funny teacher/buddy, the smart kid who has depression problems, the pretty girls who love to party, etc. By the way, Zac Efron has a cameo role here! He's the wise guy with a hippie/bohemian/homeless look who likes to suddenly appear from nowhere. My favorite line of his: "There's no reason to be afraid because everything is okay."

Since it's an indie film, a special selection during the Sundance Film Fest, be assured that it's not your mainstream rom-com movie that satisfies your ending of choice. Some characters like Ana were not really built up but the film is really giving her favors. I would have wanted a particular ending for Jesse and Zibby but it's all problematic for our guy here. For Jesse, their relationship is complicated and not age-appropriate. Their minds may be on the same page but not their generation. It's indie!

In one of the correspondences between Jesse and Zibby, Jesse wrote an epiphany that rings true about life and God's presence. He said:

"The other day, I was crossing the street, lost in my head about something -- a not uncommon state of affairs. I was listening to the overture and as the music began to swell, I suddenly realized that I had hands and legs and a torso, and that I was surrounded by people and cars. It's hard to explain exactly what happened but I felt in that moment that the Divine -- however we may choose to define such a thing -- surely dwells as much in the concrete and taxi cabs as it does in the rivers, lakes, and mountains. Grace, I realized, is neither time- nor place- dependent. All we need is the right soundtrack."

Literati would love this film! Jesse is seen at the beginning reading The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It did not show a closeup shot of the book but if you're a reader, you'd know it by just seeing the cover from afar. There's also a mention of Blake, Wordsworth, and Franzen. For music, there's Beethoven, Mozart, and indie rock bands.

They say that when you're young, you're open to trying new and crazy things like hugging a stranger on stage, giving him a mixtape, saying you want to take things slowly but kissing him anyway, those kind of stuff!

One recurring theme in Liberal Arts is disappointment. Almost all the characters were disappointed at one point in the film. Jesse's Romantic Literature Professor Fairfield believed that "people are disappointing." This is quite true if you'd try to understand it. The real world is different from how we see it before in the classroom. After college, people go out and realize that contentment is hard to find. You try to get your dream job but after two to three years of working, you're still stuck at being a modern slave in a job you don't want. What happened? Life happened.

Liberal Arts is filled with book scenes readers would love. I feasted my eyes over the bookshelves, the inspiring Snellen chart, the library, the coffee shop -- everything!

Hope you'd watch this film. It comes in handy!


*I do not own the photo used in this blog. No intention of copyright infringement.

Man of Steel

In Plato's The Republic, a person's fate is determined by the social class he's born into (gold for rulers, silver for warriors, bronze for workers). It all depends on which metal is mixed in with one's soul. 

Plato's Myth of Metals suggests that we all have predestined lives. But let me share with you the good thing– in reality, there is personal freedom. We can change our destiny. One brilliant point from the Man of Steel!

Obviously, the plot of the movie is allegorical to the biblical story of God sending His only Son to earth in order to save mankind; however, mankind, in return of His sacrifices, still doubts what He is.

Superman is an alien– a hero not from earth but still chooses to be a part of the world he's supposed to be apart from. This life offers so many options– safe ones, risky ones... but in the end, it is still our own choices (not our predestined path) that will define who and what we truly are.

Bayan Ko

Among all the usual series we see on television (by this I mean too melodramatic), one TV program is finally worth the following. Bayan Ko, directed by award-winning indie filmmaker Adolf Alix, Jr., is an original groundbreaking series of GMA News TV that represents the political and social conditions of contemporary Philippines rendered in the micro-level perspective happening in the fictional town of Lagros.

Either it be a political drama or just, well, pure drama, we can always observe in all Philippine TV programs the clash between social classes— proving true the words of James Madison that the “most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property.” For him, the haves and the have-nots both form their own distinct interest in society.

Indeed, the Marxist notion asserting that society shapes our consciousness explains how social and economic spheres affect what we are and what we value.

Upon his installment to office, idealistic Mayor Joseph Santiago (Rocco Nacino) faced a lot of problems. For one, he immediately found out about the wrongful actions of some municipal employees such as bribery and illicit use of government property. His other dilemmas were the proliferation of illegal gambling or “jueteng” and illegal logging. Obviously, Joseph's major problem is political dynasty led by Governor Antonio Rubio (Pen Medina), a corrupted politician.

In any unequal society, we see in the superstructure that the base is always the densest. The dominant class or the bourgeoisie is at the top exploiting what the working class has produced. Yes, the poor is getting poorer while the rich is getting richer.

Mayor Joseph refuses to receive special treatment. He would still choose to commute to work without bodyguards, sweep the ground around the municipal hall, and personally visit depressed areas against threats. Real public service, indeed!

What the citizens of Lagros need is freedom from the monopolizing power of the Rubios. As expected, Governor Antonio has “cronies,” one of them his mistress, to make sure unlawful negotiations with money-hungry associates are accomplished.

On a lighter and comical note, Bayan Ko has this, for lack of a better word, "cute" love team (Go Team KarTon!) in the persons of Congressman Anton Rubio (Ping Medina) and Atty. Karen Canlas (LJ Reyes), Mayor Joseph's smart and loyal chief of staff. The third episode of the series showed Karen confronting Anton for his pathetic lip service and his popularity as top absentee in the congress. Karen apparently showed her disinterest on Anton's good-for-nothing life. However, we later on see how Anton, through his own little ways, tries to redeem himself from becoming a croc like his father. How? He starts off attending congressional sessions.

Bayan Ko mirrors the real proceedings in the Philippine political landscape— the corrupted politicians and their schemes, especially during election where their faces on posters (and wherever they could paste it) are all over the place. Add to this the crooked road works, the glossy effect of deceitful charity, and the greed for power. All of these personal interests to acquire more property while snatching the rights and stealing the taxes of the poor are indeed a microcosm of reality.

What is alarming is how the dominant class takes advantage of the poor by letting them do the dirty work for them; thereby making these poor folks believe that their own ways to get money justify their ends to survive poverty. As long as they could feed themselves, they’re fine with it. This total portrayal of what is happening today is what Bayan Ko wants to achieve so the series can serve as an eye-opener for everybody— to inspire the wanna-be’s and to set an example to those who are already elected, especially now that the senatorial/ mayoral election is very near.

Mayor Joseph values honesty and responsibility in his personal and professional life. He truly understands the hand-to-mouth existence of his people. Sadly, Lagros is facing so many problems on education (lack of classrooms, teaching materials, and trainings), livelihood (unemployment, low investments, small wages), health (malnutrition, lack of medical facilities), and environment (illegal logging, pollution). If we'd look a little closer, the problems that are driving this town mad are the same issues that the country is facing right now.

The young mayor believes that honesty, hard work, and goodwill should be on top to help Lagros ascend to progress. If only the oppressed would collectively stand against injustice and assert their personal rights, they’d learn that the world can be fair after all. Meanwhile, the greedy and chauvinistic Governor Rubio and the other “trapos” must brace themselves for an upcoming awakening. A revolution in the public's state of mind. This may or may not be the kind of protest they do in the streets but this revolution would definitely mean a change in ideology and values of the masses.

*I do not own the photos used in this blog. No intention of copyright infringement.