Category: theater

that’s entertainment sa senado

caught just the last part of the jinggoy & mrs. ligot show, and wondered what mrs. ligot was on, she who was so teary and high-blood the first time she showed up in the senate investigation.   twitter provided quick answer, valium-laced testimony, said @wagmagalit.   ah so.   ilang mg. kaya, lol.   she was not only quite composed and alert, invoking her right against self-incrimination at every turn, she was also making eyes at the senator and the senator was returning an eye for an eye, LOL.   they were almost ummm flirting, she playing the coquette, appealing for mercy, and he playing gallant macho, willing to withdraw contempt motion if only she would oblige by answering allegedly harmless questions.   kulang na lang magkalabitan sila.   that’s entertainment, complete with innuendo about mrs. ligot’s “constant lady companion.”   thanks to
@drippingmind for the link.  thanks to @SagadaSun for the retweets.

cherie gil, master class!

joel reserved two tickets for us on friday the 13th, bel castro’s night, and so ina and i got to see cherie gil as maria callas in “Master Class” and, wow, what a worldclass performance, no less than a tour de force!   it’s great material, of course, by terence mcnally, but who would have thought we had a filipina actress who could would rise to the challenge, do a callas past-her-prime, relate to the highs and lows of a spectacularly operatic if stormy life in a virtual two-hour monologue (!) addressed to aspiring opera singers, with bits and pieces of greek and italian thrown in, all so clearly effortlessly seamlessly delivered, it was easy to suspend disbelief, see hear feel maria callas herself, what a woman, what an artist, what a diva, and just as easily snapping out of it and rising to one’s feet, almost electric was the impulse to pay homage with a standing ovation.   BRAVO, CHERIE!!!   and kudos to director michael williams and the philippine opera company for a great production!

ted in tears, ted in trouble

so why did the police behave so badly when they found out about ted failon’s wife trina?  i think because they were mad as hell that the shooting had not been immediately reported by the family or the hospital or their spies.  mahigit tatlong oras na ang nakalipas nang malaman nilang itinakbo ni ted sa ospital ang duguang si trina.  ibig sabihin, walang nag-tip sa pulis, they’re so out of the loop, ano ba yan.  siyempre, napahiya sila, and they took it out on ted and trina’s sibs and the househelp.

so why were the police so unbelieving that it was a suicide, preferring to treat everyone as a suspect?  because the crime scene had been tampered with by the time they were notified.  this is where ted has some explaining to do.  according to reports he was in the hospital for an hour or so and then he went home, i suppose, to be there for the young daughter karisma.  so had the househelp cleaned up na the bathroom by the time he got home?  or did he himself give instructions to clean up, to spare the daughter, thinking that since it was a suicide, no crime had been committed, the house was not a crime scene?

whatever actually happened, those were huge mistakes on ted’s part, not notifying the police immediately and not instructing the househelp to stay away from the bathroom (at the very least).  was it obstruction of justice?  it would seem so, but not for reasons of guilt, rather for the sake of the daughter, which should count for something.

for now i don’t believe ted killed his wife. but i can believe that trina took her own life.

i have a friend whose wife committed suicide a couple of years ago.  it was also over huge money problems that she wouldn’t share with her husband, she was supposed to know what she was doing. she also locked herself in the bathroom then slit her throat and stabbed herself several times in the chest.  it was also the husband who found her, and who removed the knife that was still buried in her chest so he became the prime suspect and was brought to court.

my friends and i were shocked and distressed.  knowing the husband as we did, we couldn’t believe he could have been so vile and violent. on the other hand, knowing his wife as we did, we couldn’t believe that the situation was so hopeless, or that she had no other way out but to die, and so violently.  in the end the forensic evidence of suicide was convincing; the court ruled that the wounds were self-inflicted, my friend was acquitted and finally allowed to grieve in peace and start over with the kids.

this trina etong case brings it all back. and only now do i see how much worse it could have been for my friend and his family had he or his wife been a public figure.  as neither was, the media were only mildly interested, and the police were  coldly professional had no axe to grind.  it helped too that my friend got himself very good lawyers.

fwd: “Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street”

Please read cover story of Philippine Stars’ sunday magazine, Starweek today, October 19, 2008. The article was written by my good friend Boying Pimentel, former San Francisco Chronicle journalist about the Filipino World War II veterans who have been living in the US waiting for almost 2 decades now for the enactment by US congress of the the Equity bill that will provide them with the same war privileges as their American counterparts.

Meanwhile, as these elderly veterans wait forthe passage of the bill into law, they live on scanty Supplementary Security Income (SSI), a portion of which, they send to their families here in the Philippines, the rest they use to pay rent for small units that accommodate 4-5 people. Some of the newcomers live alone, jobless, poverty-stricken, and in some cases, homeless. Many, if not all of them, experience homesickness, but put up with the loneliness, instead of going back to the Philippines, becauseby US law, they can only receive the SSI, as long as they are residing in the US. They would rather put up with the loneliness than lose the dollars that they are able to send to their loved ones.

Some of them, however, have “gone home”, but in urns, in coffins and some,if stories are to be believed, in boxes, not different from balikbayan boxes, together with some canned goods and other pasalubongs. I didnt mean this as a (sick) joke. I meant it as a serious call for all concerned to support the cause of our Filipino heroes who have been deprived not only of their material war benefits but also of their honor and dignity as human beings. Let’s help defend their cause, before it’s too late. Of the more than 200,000 Filipino war veterans, only about 18,000 are surviving, their ages ranging from 80-90 years old, one third of whom are living in the US waiting for something they deserve, but ironically, are practically begging for.

Please help us disseminate the information on the play “Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street”, opening november 7-10, 2008 and will run for the remaining 3 weekends of november at the CCP’s Tanghalang Huseng Batute, with Bembol Roco and Tommy Abuel alternating in the lead role. Direction is by Chris Millado. Rody Vera wrote the stage version of boying pimentel’s novel.

For further information, please contact yvette or paulo at the Tanghalang Pilipino office, (632) 8323661 or 8321125 and ask for the TP office. You may also contact yvette at ymacayan@hotmail..com

nandingjosef”