Lille and Mich are both in town for a few weeks so I brought them to Remote Lounge the other night.
We spent the first few minutes looking at other people, giggling over them until we noticed the camera at our booth was moving, which meant someone was looking at us. Interesting social experiment when you're with a small group of friends, but I don't know that it would be so much fun with a large group or if you were with your date or partner. Or parent, for that matter.
Last Sunday I got to see both the Wau Wau Sisters and Kiki & Herb with Chris, Sparky, Glenn, Andy and a few other people at Bowery Ballroom.
Chris did a great job of summing the night up so I'll just tell you about my favorite part. We were right up at the stage so I got lots of photos of the Wau Waus and Kiki, and while I was trying to frame one of my last shots of Kiki as she was talking between songs she stopped and said,
Kiki: Excuse me, are you trying to take a picture up my skirt?
Lia: No, Kiki, just your legs! Your gorgeous legs!
Kiki: Herb, Herb, she just paid me a compliment. (to the audience) Remember, it's not about how I make you feel, it's about how I make ME feel.
We had a moment, people. Fleeting, yes, but still.
Runner-up moment was having my picture taken with Tanya of the Wau Waus. She's incredibly nice and although it seems impossible she's even hotter off stage than on—but (like Andy) I think I have a bigger crush on Adrienne. Their Sister Christian number finally makes the ten years I spent in Catholic school totally worthwhile.
Happy Holidays to you and yours from Jarvis and Lia!
For your listening pleasure, we present our all-time favorite Christmas earworm, "Last Christmas" by Wham!:
update: You can obtain even more seasonal musical goodness from the wonderful Chris and Philo. Those of you with sturdy constitutions, be sure to check out Paul's astounding (frightening) ten versions of "Last Christmas" collection, including covers by the Backstreet Boys and worse yet, Hillary "Lizzie McGuire" Duff.
[ last link via Little Yellow Different ]
Johnny 13's advice after I complain about some trouble I'm having writing a final paper on women and weblogs:
Buy an already written paper about hogs, and change all the "h"s to "bl"s. If pigs are mentioned, insert an n so that it reads "pings." If the teacher does not like it, tell her she is not smart enough to understand our technical jargon.
In other important news, I just got my first Paris Hilton sex tape spam:
From: "Imprecations G. Disadvantageously" <arvid@portugalnet.com>
Subject: See Parls HlLT0N getting slammed on tape i0RpxeWHGakG8PlYOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET? GET IT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
Andrew says it won't be long now till we start getting spam that starts "Dear Friend, My name is Nicole Richie, a friend of Paris Hilton the debutant millionaire. Recently I was entrusted with 15 million dollars..."
lia: omfg they got saddam
lia: which is nice
lia: but really where the fuck are all the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION they invaded for?
adam: they weren't in the spider hole with him?
...
adam: the caption used to say "Saddam Hussein was shown in video filmed just after his arrest"
adam: now it says "later his beard was shaved off"
adam: bizarre
lia: also they gave him different clothes
lia: a t-shirt and is that blue thing a hoodie?
lia: saddam is stylin'
adam: maybe they got Neighborhoodies to make him a TIKRIT sweatshirt
...
lia: i hope we get a new get your war on out of this!
adam: oh yeah definitely
adam: i think we just wrote one
[ x-posted to randomWalks ]
Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople died in Taiwan today after suffering from a heart attack on a plane while he was on his way from Japan to Bahrain on official business. He was a former senator and spent almost twenty years as the minister of labor under the Marcos administration.
Here's another photo I took while walking through Chelsea:
Yes, HP! I do blog! Thanks for asking!
But I still won't buy your stuff.
For the past week I've been thinking about Gina Vera Perez de Venecia contemplating a run for the Senate next year, and you know what? If she decides to run, not only would I not mind her candidacy, I'd probably vote for her. Shocked? Let me explain.
Sure, she's best known for being a) very rich, b) for hosting a tv show, and c) the House Speaker's wife, but as a congressional spouse over the years she's done much more for the public than most elected officials. She has a serious work ethic—unlike other political appendages (or politicians, for that matter) she doesn't just campaign during elections and then disappear. She works all throughout her husband's terms to make sure the Congressional Spouses Foundation is more than just a gathering for bored rich housewives (which is what it's traditionally been), building shelters for abused women and children around the country. I know where she stands on important issues, and I know she uses her money, time and yes, her celebrity such as it is, to help people.
Meanwhile all we can get out of Fernando Poe Jr's camp is he's pro-poor, pro-unity and anti-crime. First of all, everyone says that, it means nothing. Second and most importantly, what has FPJ done for the Philippines? He's one of the richest men in Philippine showbusiness, he makes more from endorsing a product than most Filipinos will ever make in their lives, but what's he ever done for the people that I should vote for him? Aga Muhlach puts his wealth and fame to work every single year to raise money for the neediest children. Cynthia Patag, long an activist, has gone back to college for a second degree so she can teach public school kids. Regine Velasquez does sold-out charity fundraiser concerts all the time. As much as I distrust and dislike Richard Gomez and think Mamayan Ayaw sa Droga was an exercise in anti-drug hysteria, at least he was doing something. FPJ's filthy rich, semi-retired and in good health, so what's he been up to these past few years, besides making the occasional movie with a love interest young enough to be his grandchild?
I don't give a shit about someone's background—galing Harvard, galing showbiz or galing bangketa, I'll vote for them if I know they can do the job, that they genuinely care about the country and are running because they do, not just because they know they can win. I have no confidence in either FPJ's ability or his sincerity, and for those reasons he won't be getting my vote.
From "Pardon my French" by gordonzola:
Fancy cheese is funny to most Americans. Nobody except elitist foodies really laughs at processed cheese. 40 lb. blocks of commodity jack and cheddar demand grudging respect, if anyone bothers to think about them, because they are honest and relatively cheap.
But moldy, stinky, fragile little cheeses? People love to come to our store and laugh at them. I had to make a special sign for the Le Farto brand of Reblochon because I got tired of hearing the same attempts at humor every day. The sign starts off by saying, "Ok, first off, we don’t wanna hear your cutting the cheese jokes". The need customers have to make fun puts a visible strain on their faces. Now I get to see people physically trying to hold their comments to themselves, nudging their friends, and showing them the sign.
And let’s be clear, it is the French cheese that mostly gets made fun of. There’s an element of homophobia to it too, because we all know that as far as Europe goes, France is the "faggy" country. When heterosexual couples are shopping, the guy often will uncomfortably point to the cheese and say something like "That looks weird." I always have a sample of the moldiest cheese behind the counter just for baiting them. "I know a lot of people are afraid to try this one …"
Bless you Ananova for bringing the world headlines like "Granny says 'nothing wrong' with Timberlake's penis"—what would we do without you?
NEWS FLASH!: Roco Agrees to run as FPJ's Vice President
Intramuros, Manila -
Roco agrees to run as FPJ's vice-president
"It was a very difficult decision to make, but FPJ is sincere and pro-poor. I'd rather win as vice-president than run as president and lose. If you look at the constitution, nothing prevents people like him from running for the presidency. Hindi ko na rin matanggap ang panglalait na "artista lang yan." Ang artista ay may karapatan ding mamuno ayon sa konstitusyon.
"I accept the offer to run as his vice president.
"Mabuhay!"
- Bembol Roco
One out of every two or three hundred email forwards I get is worth something, and this is clearly the one for the year. So if you have my email address, please don't forward me stuff unless you know it's going to make me laugh as hard as this!
Last night's much talked about "Saturday Night Live" hosted by Al Sharpton was a bust, generally boring and very uninspired. Maya Rudolph was in nearly every sketch, for crying out loud. Three other women in the cast—including the UCB's very funny Amy Poehler—and yet we got Rudolph again and again and again? What the hell? There have been precious few SNL cast members over the years that can pop up in every sketch the entire hour and not make me want to claw my eyes out, and Rudolph is not one of them! Ugh! Lorne Michaels, please produce an SNL movie for her so it can tank and I never have to see her again except maybe on "Hollywood Squares" or "Celebrity Jeopardy".
The "Al Sharpton's Casa de Sushi" sketch was especially bad, even if Rudolph was barely in it. It would've been super lame even if I hadn't already seen the infamous (and far superior) "Stevie Nicks' Fajita Round-Up" from 1998, with Lucy Lawless touting the wonders of flautas and quesadillas in chiffon while channeling my favorite cocaine-snorting, chiffon-wearing man-eating rock goddess. Never seen it? Now's your chance. Or read the transcript courtesy of The Nicks Fix.
*Granted, I missed Paris Hilton on "Weekend Update" during an ill-timed bathroom break, but then again, how can you go wrong making jokes about having Paris Hilton hold your balls? Also: the image of her standing beside Al Sharpton at the end of the show looking incredibly ill at ease was priceless.
Friday was my girl Margaret Cho's birthday, so yesterday I wore my Cho Revolution shirt and took this self-portrait of me in it with David's Nokia 3650*.
Okay, now where did my boobs go, in that photo? Sure I'm just two steps up from a training bra, but still. I want my boobs back!
*The 3650 now comes free when you sign up for a plan with T-Mobile but it's way too bulky for me and none of Nokia's cameraphones that I've seen so far make me happy, so I'm thinking of breaking off my eight year long love affair with Nokia and getting a Sony Ericsson z600. I know MobileBurn loves it, and they're usually very reliable, but I'd love to hear from any of you who've played around with z600s (whether they're yours or a friend's) or those of you who have other camphones to recommend.
[The senator] "bewailed" the fact that "so many people have jumped over to the bandwagon of FPJ without FPJ's even saying a word."
He said Poe should explain what he stands for and what his economic program for the country is.
"There is a blind stampede just because of a perception that he is going to be catapulted to the presidency by the sheer popularity of his being a movie star. I don't think this is the way intelligent people should decide on the next president of the Philippines, least of all political parties," he said.
Now only if the senator who said all these things was actually someone I trusted, i.e. not John Osmeña.
Forget the occasional five minute snow flurries over the past few days, the first real snow fall of the winter just started a few minutes ago.
(Cecile and Grass, wish you were here! Mich, see you soon!)
Silly Amazon went and changed the way their wishlist urls work, screwing up many an url just in time for Christmas, so if you posted yours on your site more than a few weeks ago, you should go fix that link, PB-style.
(I've fixed mine, so go buy me something off my wishlist.)
...There are the songs that everyone knows, but hates. The songs you’ve heard a thousand times in doctor’s offices and Jiffy Lube waiting rooms. The songs that make your toes curl, your brain hurt, and your throat gag with battery acid bile.
Think you're brave? Go dumpster diving with Todd Dominey and the iTunes Music Store!
[ thanks Brad! ]
Dr. Consorcia Quizon, the OIC of the Department of Health’s National Epidemiology Center, in UNAIDS' “Joint Efforts to Fight HIV/AIDS Threat” statement from earlier this year:
"Perhaps, we have not had the critical mass of infected people from whom other people will be sex-infected. The truth is that we are slow and low now but that’s only a snapshot. We cannot say that it will be the same situation next year or in the next five years. We should seize the window of opportunity to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS now while we still can," she elaborated.
I agree, of course, but how is the government supposed to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS when the Catholic Church (in league with the usual band of small-minded, selfish grandstanding politicians) flexes every muscle it has to make basic sex education unavailable to the general public?
Just last month the Vatican was telling people in AIDS-stricken countries not to use condoms because they don't prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV. Today, World AIDS Day, the Vatican defended that position once again. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, said AIDS campaigns should be based on "sure and authentic human and spiritual values, capable of establishing relevant education in favor of the culture of life and responsible love."
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I remember being taught to love my neighbor—and I don't for the life of me understand how lying to people and putting their lives and those of their loved ones in danger falls into "the culture of life and responsible love."
As someone said in this MetaFilter thread, "A Pharisee by any other name smells just as rotten."
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit on the spread of AIDS in the Philippines:
While the number of those infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that leads to AIDS, remains relatively low in this largely Roman Catholic country, "the virus is there and it could spread," Dayrit told reporters on World AIDS Day.
Official figures show 1,935 HIV cases since 1984, with only 628 infected with full-blown AIDS. But based on conservative estimates, there could be between 4,000 to 6,000 "unreported cases," Dayrit said, most of whom could be Filipino workers who have recently returned home.
...
Between five and seven million Filipinos work abroad, official figures show. Many are sailors who dock in ports such as Mombasa in Kenya where AIDS rates among prostitutes are nearly 75 percent, Dayrit said.
However, Dayrit said only 0.1 percent of all Filipino overseas workers are believed to have contracted HIV/AIDS.
From the Remedios AIDS Foundation's article Populations at Risk:
About 20 percent of the 1.2 million seafarers worldwide are Filipino. In 1996, there were 307 shipping companies deploying 200,000 Filipino seamen.
Macho values put seafarers at risk because of the belief that it is but natural for men to pursue sex at every opportunity. FGDs and interviews conducted by HAIN revealed that seafarers believe that one of the benefits of becoming a seafarer is to "taste" women at every port. Many commercial sex workers are available in almost every port, and are sometimes brought on board. But according to a study by the DOLE-OSHC, only 49 percent of seafarers practice safe sex. Knowledge on HIV/AIDS among seafarers was found to be low, accompanied by the high-risk secxual [sic] practices.
Forget for a moment about the seven million overseas contract workers, and all the sex tourists from North America, Europe and Japan who visit the Philippines (many of them in organized sex tour groups), and the many sex workers that service them in the major cities and tourist resorts. 51% of the 200,000 Filipino seamen don't practice safe sex and are having sex with multiple partners in different countries. The government has 2,000 cases of AIDS/HIV infections on their books, and says there might be 6,000 cases at the most at this moment. Does their math sound realistic to you?
Today is World AIDS Day and I'm participating in Link and Think 2003, so all of tonight's posts will be about AIDS and HIV statistics and resources in the Philippines.
(I also participated in Link and Think 2001, you can see all my posts from that day here).
