Category: Uncategorized
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The Solidarity of the Beki Barkada
The cast of TEAM’s “Hanging Out”. Photo by JL Javier An edited version of this appeared in TEAM Magazine. When English journalist, novelist, and racist (he did write “White Man’s Burden“, after all) Rudyard Kipling wrote, “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack”, I…
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Bravo, “Fifty Shades Darker”: Here’s an Award for Consistently Fetishizing Abusive Relationships
Frankly, I really have no one else to blame but me for inflicting this movie upon myself. Mike, a good friend and one of the people behind Black Box Collab, invited us at TEAM to a special screening of Fifty Shades Darker at Newport Cinemas, sponsored by Japanese condom brand Okamoto. Despite how I already had…
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To Oppose the Pause
Photo taken in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, 2012 Stop. Stop right there. If you wish for it to make sense, the quickest way to do things is to stop. Sensibility demands precision; precision demands pause. But if you pause, that is surely the quickest way to leaving everything to non-completion. Because, as you know, once you…
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The Invisible Woman
A version of this essay first appeared in the December 2016 issue of 2nd Opinion magazine. Ate Belle died yesterday. She was 62. Or 63. I’m not sure. My mom said that her birth wasn’t properly recorded.I only found out about this when I told Ate Belle we were going to Singapore once she retired,…
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I had a fun year. What about you?
It was an amusing coincidence that, early today, I suddenly remembered an Aeon article on the value of Stoicism I read before. The article was posted exactly two years ago, so perhaps my mind just pulled a Facebook memories/Timehop on me. In this season which triggers depression among some (especially those who can’t lay off…
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The Things We Shouldn’t Forget
From the film’s Facebook page I pinged my good friend Gretchen a few hours before the screening of “2 Cool 2 Be 4Gotten” at Glorietta: The film, which won Best Picture at the recent Cinema One Originals, was directed by a friend, Petersen Vargas (who is also at the helm of TEAM Magazine‘s new web…
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When I Judge You
Image by postopp “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.” – “I Am the Walrus”, the BeatlesWhen I judge you, I close my mind to what you have to say. I close myself to the chance that you might be right and I might be wrong. For me, you are the…
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Doves & Serpents
It makes me think, sometimes, if the thing that makes us trusting is what makes us gullible.
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#TaiwanAwayWithMe: Taipei 2016
This is the part, you’ve got to say all that you’re feelingPacking a bag, we’re leaving tonight when everyone’s sleeping Hold on to me, I never want to let you go–Over the weekend, we can turn the world to gold Video: Charz MendozaMusic: “Run Away With Me” by Carly Rae Jepsen
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Taiwan, in a Few Words
I love traveling. I guess that comes to no surprise to anyone who knows me well. I’ve seen a lot of the Philippines ever since I was a kid, thanks to my parents’ insatiable wanderlust. (Yes, excuse me for using that word: I know it sounds so corny, how it’s thrown so easily nowadays.) I…
A Writer from Manila 