The map on the website of mag:net café shows a red triangle from Mag:net’s three established locations – the one at the Loop at ABS CBN, the one at Paseo in Makati, and the one at Katipunan. The first two were the only ones which had galleries for exhibitions before and the café was only about performances and selling books and other stuff. The art comprised mostly of paintings and other works on the walls and tables of the upstairs café, the framed collages almost shrieking down for attention from the endless rows of magazines. But all these has been revamped for the completion of Mag:net’s art triangle. The Mag:net café Katips has recently renovated its ground floor to accommodate a gallery for changing exhibitions. The gallery was inaugurated last Feb. 13 with a show featuring works by Ronald Achacoso, Gus Albor, Juan Alcazaren, Poklong Anading, Pablo Biglang-awa, Lito Carating, Roberto Chabet, Louie Cordero, Pardo de Leon, Rock Drilon, Nilo Ilarde, Jonathan Olazo, Jayson Oliveria, Bernardo Pacquing, Gerry Tan, Nestor Olarte Vinluan, MM Yu, Alvin Vllaruel, Regyuson. Nilo Ilarde who curated this show, had to do last minute hangings that afternoon as some of the works were still also trying to get the hang of it, to the newness of the space, giddy-nervy for the future shows to be held there. Almost everyone came early, even having had the chance of watching Anading removing the glass from the recessed box just outside the door and replacing what used to hang there - a yellow shirt with “This is what a destabilizer looks like” printed on it with his video installation. It showed shots of a performance where he, dressed as a magnet staff, asked guests to sign/write in air with a paint brush with a small camera attached to it. It was like reclaiming space with one’s signature. Or since it was installed in said white box, Anading somehow is also defining space for the literary set – the poet’s alcove.
At the gallery’s end, passing by two neatly paired desks which serves as the office and purchasing counter, are the books, also neatly pared down to columns of shelves tucked away at the walled corner, giving more privacy when perusing these books, and as I also found out that night, a perfect nook for a couple I chanced upon sneaking kisses. Hmm, well the books are always there to be perused and or purchased for the next couple of days anyway. So maybe next time I’ll look through them. But of course, Mag:net is prioritizing books by Philippine authors and by local publishers. You may also visit their website where they have a book/magazine list and an order form ready for downloading and sending.
Going for a pee at the upstairs cafe is a maze through bewilderment since the restroom was turned also into an exhibit space. The CR gallery, as it’s called was actually been opened last month by Mag:net’s prime mover Rock Drilon’s swirling serpentine brush strokes. Now, it’s being developed for more engaged and critical art projects with this month’s featured artist Gerry Tan. For his project, entitled Stripping, he had asked people to take pictures inside the toilet during the past gig nights he has attended. “The collected photos of walls, floor, ceiling, the urinal and body parts are installed horizontally at eye level around the walls of the café and runs over bare walls, speakers, glass panels, wine bottles and paintings. The work includes a small monitor inside the toilet showing a dvd loop of the video “strip” of the café where the pictures are installed.” Though the photos and the video installation are seeming documentation, they instead frustrate what may be seen in an otherwise private space, hence confusing the divide between public and private space, divulgement and concealment. Some photos were blurry you’d wonder if they were bare breasts or something else or just the alcohol’s effect on you – “The Ice will play tricks on you” as it says on a San Miguel Strong Ice napkin holder.
I didn’t get to watch the performances by sound artists Pow Martinez and Ria Munoz, electronica-based Drip, and drum and bass ensemble Nyco Maka that night as everyone’s so boozed out, the café so packed, the tables and seats all occupied. Oh well, there’s a month and a quarter year to catch them anytime at Mag:net café again. Just take note of the weekly schedules of performances posted on the website.
As the night wore on, tables and seats were ever being warmed by a round of new occupants. The steps leading to next door International Exchange Bank offered alternative seating which was way more open for moon gazing or waving to blissed out friends groggily hailing a cab and unto another night, another opening, another gathering, to this new-found haven for wondrous enchantment/engagement.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Explications, explanations
Texts to the works
(but I believe they're already incorporated in the Powerpoint portfolio but still my views of them might have changed now)
1) AAIMLN -
Maps are also presupposed to have that documentary tincture hence, their capacity to convincingly depict an otherwise imagined entity. Nonetheless, they’re accorded value as like all other documents.
Art further tenders such accorded value in that, it mediates how such objects are to be perceived and re-acquainted with, most notably in comprehending histories which are the assumed content of documents, thence invoked in memory which, as Walter Benjamin had written of as “ the true measure of life.”
Documents ,more often than not, conceal rather than reveal actual facts as they’re most influenced by the quality of its source and the subjectivity of their gatherer. As such, information gathered can precariously dangle between fact and fiction despite the weight of documents evidencing them. They can not fully claim certainty. But they manifest how we remember things and what we really truly remember.
Alternate version 2006 : Heck, Nothing is true. Maps are businesss ventures for urban developers. Or I'm a frustrated architect.
2) Search and Destroy Missions
a wall-bound installation featuring coke vending machines reduced to its miniature versions scattered around densely populated areas of Manila and some parts of Quezon City
why, what’s the bother to search for and document them? . . .ahm,. . . aah . . . ‘tis believed these are all part of a conspiracy, an invasion from an otherwordly body with the sole objective for world domination . . .. . .. yeah, right! . . . .but, oh! look at how they glow, how they blaze with an iridescent light that beckon and render pedestrians zombie-like before them ----- with the flicker of red, green and white, making everything around it so strange and cool!. . . . .. . are you sure you wanna do this? . . . . . . . . . .i think they’re teleporters or transmitters of secret information about planet earth. . . . . .gee,whiz! Get out of here!. . .. . . .. . . ..ever noticed why they’re near police stations? . .. .no and i don’t care. . . . .it’s to spy on them and to implant tiny transmitters in their belly when they drink it and then they’ll start acting strange also especially when they have taken in lots and lots of it. . . . . .Aw, gee, you’re just being paranoid because you’re seeing too many of ‘em. . . . .that’s the point, there’s too many of ‘em. how did they become that, how did they landed here and why do they glow only at night????. . . .. .why don’t you let it rest? here, have a drink.. . . .you won’t let me.. . . . .why not?. . . . . they’re strange
strange or not, these vending machines have been our new-found landmarks in a city that’s constantly besieged by changes that can also be considered barometers of our culture and which makes it ever so contemporary and dynamic to (yeah) the times. It’s advertising, it’s merchandising, it’s economics, it’s mass-based consumerism, it’s pure pop, but it’s there – unblinking and real and oftentimes taken for granted. It’s not always seen that a large part of the city is rooted in this which marks it as a bustling center of exchange and trade. Though it’s a trademark, it’s a public property because of how it has been used and placed in the city serving as repositories of pleasures and needs (thirst quenchers), aside from its being a landmark with trademark (Coke) sharing a great deal of identification with place name (where machines are located). The confluence of these two distinctions (trademark and landmark)as they blur at some point and gradually destroy each of their differences (at least, to my system of documenting and identifying them) is the point of all these. And it’s all so strange because it’s my own way of naming and locating things and places.
so, this is an installation about systems and lists and obsessions. No big deal, actually.
so, how did you go about it? . . . .simple, i searched for them on foot, then when i saw one, i shot it with my videocam, then listed it down where i found it, then went on about it for nth times, shot them again with a still camera, have them developed in to slides and labeled each of them following carefully my list, then made tiny boxes for them with little lights, put them on top of an enlarged map of Metro Manila, kind of like retraced my search for them machines and miniaturized everything, like creating a certain space, a very subjective one at that, like my city, my own city.
3) Terrible Landscapes
The title of my show is “All That Heaven Allows”.
There’s an old movie by the same title but I haven’t seen it. I just came upon it on a video listing. It sounded so aaaahhhh …….. lovely and divine, he he. Later you’ll see the connection when I talked about my work.
The images were reproductions of, or approximations of disaster images culled from clippings.
I have been quite obsessed with food ever since I started work on the puzzle set meals (exhibited at Plastique Kinetic Worms in Singapore and at Picture This at the Art Center some time). Maybe I got influenced by my sister who's constantly dieting, and my mom who ceaselessly worry about what we're going to eat everyday that she usually ends up buying a lot only to end up as moldy leftovers stuck at the bottom shelf of our refrigerator. I so hate such sight! That at times I’d argue with my mom when she asks me to cook. I'd sometimes refuse for reasons stated above. So, I developed a love-hate relationship with food. I would love to cook but I would hate it if they're left uneaten. I would love to eat but would so much loathe to get fat.
Originally, these images were meant to be painted. I so wanted to make ravishingly good landscape paintings in oil, masterworks. But I got limited by space and thought of using food as a medium. Also, I want to train myself as a food stylist because I heard that job pays well. But it's real hard work. With this work, this show, I’m trying to hit two birds with one stone – to get rid of the piling leftovers in our fridge and do work and to spend time at home with my mom. (still I refuse to cook for her.) Also, I notice in food styling and food photography that they use a lot of fakeries in presenting what is delectable that most of the time they're not actually edible, they just look so.
Delectability is also a quality much desired in the painterly oil paintings (think Elaine Navas, Wayne Thiebaud, Dutch still lifes & landscapes, Constable etc.),that an oil painting is only good, exceptional when it displays such painterliness. It's the romance of paint.
But why disasters ? In the same way that painting, masterworks should be sublime, to display nature's potency, yadda, yadda, yadda. Just as the absurdity in food plating, as they also vainly invoke nature, as they're tediously made and constructed only to end up as one big mush in the tummy or as waste after digestion.
The disaster images were taken from my collection of clippings accumulated through the years since ……. 2000? I compiled them by year and put them in handsome black boxes. These collection were meant to be just studies for future work but every week as I scan through the papers, I became more ardent in hunting down images and news stories that interest me. Usually they are hidden underneath the headlines – veering towards the banal, the incongruous, the outright silly or petty or utterly strange – gruesome murders, suicides, wanna-be Guinness- records-lister, missing persons, wanted suspects, cartographic sketches, printing errors, scientific discoveries & anomalies, misplaced bodies, espionage evidence – all these and perhaps more, including disasters and accidents of some sort, any sort. (This collection is entitled “The Labor and Delay of The File 7 vols.”, not entirely finished as I’m still avidly collecting clippings.)
or the Alternate version 2006 : gourmet cooking = painting in the sublime
4) The Making Of A Bad Copy
The video was based on a seminal 1970s film entitled “Mga Uod at Rosas” (Of Worms and Roses) about an artist (played by Johnny Delgado) struggling to find success in his career which he did quite dubiously or uncertainly at the end with the cunning wiles of an artist model (played by Lorna Tolentino) whoring herself for such similar goal. This despite the shame incurred and the sacrifices in which Nora Aunor’s character has actually done for Delgado’s sudden claim to fame and fortune. It was seminal since as there has never been a movie made in the Philippines about an artist although what it presented was quite hysterically romanticist and yet quite parallel to what’s happening in the art scene today. But still thankfully, I have never heard of anyone dying or committing suicide soon after being told that he/she is not a real artist. (That’s actually the piece de resistance of the whole film and where I mostly built my video on.)
Being an artist myself and moving around within such circle makes me feel that I’m in such a movie. Though what I presented here is a parody of it all. Guess it’s a reminder to all my co-artists that though they’re living it, they’d have to remember that it’s just all art, so better quit down the drama and start to laugh at one’s self sometimes or better yet work and let people keep on guessing.
5) Fillers
My aunt from Canada gifted me a Sony Video8 some 4 years ago and since then every copious mundane event in our household were caught on tape. (Later I soon tired of it and just wanted to relish more being in the scene than holding the camera and peering through that teeny-weeny view hole.)
Fillers was an accumulation of such. It was shown on a one-night exhibit only called “Satellite” curated by Ringo Bunoan at then Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation at Cubao in 2004.
Viewing through all these home videos and being a video junkie, it made me wonder what difference they made when you watch them just to kill time, and viewing them actually takes place in real time, especially when you screen them to a roomful of strangers. Which is just a mere filler and which is the main feature presentation? Or (did I just want to bore them with my own domestic drama? (he he he)
Alternate version 2006 : More of the tear-jerkies
(but I believe they're already incorporated in the Powerpoint portfolio but still my views of them might have changed now)
1) AAIMLN -
Maps are also presupposed to have that documentary tincture hence, their capacity to convincingly depict an otherwise imagined entity. Nonetheless, they’re accorded value as like all other documents.
Art further tenders such accorded value in that, it mediates how such objects are to be perceived and re-acquainted with, most notably in comprehending histories which are the assumed content of documents, thence invoked in memory which, as Walter Benjamin had written of as “ the true measure of life.”
Documents ,more often than not, conceal rather than reveal actual facts as they’re most influenced by the quality of its source and the subjectivity of their gatherer. As such, information gathered can precariously dangle between fact and fiction despite the weight of documents evidencing them. They can not fully claim certainty. But they manifest how we remember things and what we really truly remember.
Alternate version 2006 : Heck, Nothing is true. Maps are businesss ventures for urban developers. Or I'm a frustrated architect.
2) Search and Destroy Missions
a wall-bound installation featuring coke vending machines reduced to its miniature versions scattered around densely populated areas of Manila and some parts of Quezon City
why, what’s the bother to search for and document them? . . .ahm,. . . aah . . . ‘tis believed these are all part of a conspiracy, an invasion from an otherwordly body with the sole objective for world domination . . .. . .. yeah, right! . . . .but, oh! look at how they glow, how they blaze with an iridescent light that beckon and render pedestrians zombie-like before them ----- with the flicker of red, green and white, making everything around it so strange and cool!. . . . .. . are you sure you wanna do this? . . . . . . . . . .i think they’re teleporters or transmitters of secret information about planet earth. . . . . .gee,whiz! Get out of here!. . .. . . .. . . ..ever noticed why they’re near police stations? . .. .no and i don’t care. . . . .it’s to spy on them and to implant tiny transmitters in their belly when they drink it and then they’ll start acting strange also especially when they have taken in lots and lots of it. . . . . .Aw, gee, you’re just being paranoid because you’re seeing too many of ‘em. . . . .that’s the point, there’s too many of ‘em. how did they become that, how did they landed here and why do they glow only at night????. . . .. .why don’t you let it rest? here, have a drink.. . . .you won’t let me.. . . . .why not?. . . . . they’re strange
strange or not, these vending machines have been our new-found landmarks in a city that’s constantly besieged by changes that can also be considered barometers of our culture and which makes it ever so contemporary and dynamic to (yeah) the times. It’s advertising, it’s merchandising, it’s economics, it’s mass-based consumerism, it’s pure pop, but it’s there – unblinking and real and oftentimes taken for granted. It’s not always seen that a large part of the city is rooted in this which marks it as a bustling center of exchange and trade. Though it’s a trademark, it’s a public property because of how it has been used and placed in the city serving as repositories of pleasures and needs (thirst quenchers), aside from its being a landmark with trademark (Coke) sharing a great deal of identification with place name (where machines are located). The confluence of these two distinctions (trademark and landmark)as they blur at some point and gradually destroy each of their differences (at least, to my system of documenting and identifying them) is the point of all these. And it’s all so strange because it’s my own way of naming and locating things and places.
so, this is an installation about systems and lists and obsessions. No big deal, actually.
so, how did you go about it? . . . .simple, i searched for them on foot, then when i saw one, i shot it with my videocam, then listed it down where i found it, then went on about it for nth times, shot them again with a still camera, have them developed in to slides and labeled each of them following carefully my list, then made tiny boxes for them with little lights, put them on top of an enlarged map of Metro Manila, kind of like retraced my search for them machines and miniaturized everything, like creating a certain space, a very subjective one at that, like my city, my own city.
Alternate version 2006 : I want to be God without the corporate greed.
3) Terrible Landscapes
The title of my show is “All That Heaven Allows”.
There’s an old movie by the same title but I haven’t seen it. I just came upon it on a video listing. It sounded so aaaahhhh …….. lovely and divine, he he. Later you’ll see the connection when I talked about my work.
The images were reproductions of, or approximations of disaster images culled from clippings.
I have been quite obsessed with food ever since I started work on the puzzle set meals (exhibited at Plastique Kinetic Worms in Singapore and at Picture This at the Art Center some time). Maybe I got influenced by my sister who's constantly dieting, and my mom who ceaselessly worry about what we're going to eat everyday that she usually ends up buying a lot only to end up as moldy leftovers stuck at the bottom shelf of our refrigerator. I so hate such sight! That at times I’d argue with my mom when she asks me to cook. I'd sometimes refuse for reasons stated above. So, I developed a love-hate relationship with food. I would love to cook but I would hate it if they're left uneaten. I would love to eat but would so much loathe to get fat.
Originally, these images were meant to be painted. I so wanted to make ravishingly good landscape paintings in oil, masterworks. But I got limited by space and thought of using food as a medium. Also, I want to train myself as a food stylist because I heard that job pays well. But it's real hard work. With this work, this show, I’m trying to hit two birds with one stone – to get rid of the piling leftovers in our fridge and do work and to spend time at home with my mom. (still I refuse to cook for her.) Also, I notice in food styling and food photography that they use a lot of fakeries in presenting what is delectable that most of the time they're not actually edible, they just look so.
Delectability is also a quality much desired in the painterly oil paintings (think Elaine Navas, Wayne Thiebaud, Dutch still lifes & landscapes, Constable etc.),that an oil painting is only good, exceptional when it displays such painterliness. It's the romance of paint.
But why disasters ? In the same way that painting, masterworks should be sublime, to display nature's potency, yadda, yadda, yadda. Just as the absurdity in food plating, as they also vainly invoke nature, as they're tediously made and constructed only to end up as one big mush in the tummy or as waste after digestion.
The disaster images were taken from my collection of clippings accumulated through the years since ……. 2000? I compiled them by year and put them in handsome black boxes. These collection were meant to be just studies for future work but every week as I scan through the papers, I became more ardent in hunting down images and news stories that interest me. Usually they are hidden underneath the headlines – veering towards the banal, the incongruous, the outright silly or petty or utterly strange – gruesome murders, suicides, wanna-be Guinness- records-lister, missing persons, wanted suspects, cartographic sketches, printing errors, scientific discoveries & anomalies, misplaced bodies, espionage evidence – all these and perhaps more, including disasters and accidents of some sort, any sort. (This collection is entitled “The Labor and Delay of The File 7 vols.”, not entirely finished as I’m still avidly collecting clippings.)
or the Alternate version 2006 : gourmet cooking = painting in the sublime
4) The Making Of A Bad Copy
The video was based on a seminal 1970s film entitled “Mga Uod at Rosas” (Of Worms and Roses) about an artist (played by Johnny Delgado) struggling to find success in his career which he did quite dubiously or uncertainly at the end with the cunning wiles of an artist model (played by Lorna Tolentino) whoring herself for such similar goal. This despite the shame incurred and the sacrifices in which Nora Aunor’s character has actually done for Delgado’s sudden claim to fame and fortune. It was seminal since as there has never been a movie made in the Philippines about an artist although what it presented was quite hysterically romanticist and yet quite parallel to what’s happening in the art scene today. But still thankfully, I have never heard of anyone dying or committing suicide soon after being told that he/she is not a real artist. (That’s actually the piece de resistance of the whole film and where I mostly built my video on.)
Being an artist myself and moving around within such circle makes me feel that I’m in such a movie. Though what I presented here is a parody of it all. Guess it’s a reminder to all my co-artists that though they’re living it, they’d have to remember that it’s just all art, so better quit down the drama and start to laugh at one’s self sometimes or better yet work and let people keep on guessing.
Alternate version 2006 : Maco-kuchen sink drama
5) Fillers
My aunt from Canada gifted me a Sony Video8 some 4 years ago and since then every copious mundane event in our household were caught on tape. (Later I soon tired of it and just wanted to relish more being in the scene than holding the camera and peering through that teeny-weeny view hole.)
Fillers was an accumulation of such. It was shown on a one-night exhibit only called “Satellite” curated by Ringo Bunoan at then Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation at Cubao in 2004.
Viewing through all these home videos and being a video junkie, it made me wonder what difference they made when you watch them just to kill time, and viewing them actually takes place in real time, especially when you screen them to a roomful of strangers. Which is just a mere filler and which is the main feature presentation? Or (did I just want to bore them with my own domestic drama? (he he he)
Alternate version 2006 : More of the tear-jerkies
Eating Traps
List of crappy places to eat out in Manila
1. Tokyo Tokyo - tries to justify their value-for-money offering to the people by serving more free rice, to start with, their food is blander than ever. So while you're at it, try asking also for more soy sauce.
2. McDonald's - it's all the same greasy stuff to me, all chicken and fries. I have kinda developed a theory that bratty kids are born from soggy fries.
3. Chowking - it's just terrible. like fried dumplings. You'd get more of the stuff for 70% less from your freewheeling cart vendor. Their noodle soups - are like water from their mop cleaners.
5. Silver Lake - they just have very rude sellers. They might have even puked on all the food they're selling.
6. Pizza Hut - all branches - and what's with the crust with the filling? I remember a real bad time when I had to wait for someone at the gateway mall by the garden. And Pizza hut was just the food outlet which kinda hogged all the floor space that passers by are readily victimized by their callow barkers that I'd dare them eat all their pizza they can handle.
7. Italianni's - because they keep hogging all pedestrian spaces with their faux-Italian fresco dining tables. It's as if their restaurant is always filled up with diners that they have to extend to the sidewalks. Talk about a lot of chutzpah. They don't even come close to Bellini's or Amici's.
8. Starbucks - I'd say you take out all these starbucks branches and all Ateneans would die, also their wanna-bes. And many say their coffee is not even fresh and thus acidic. So next time please prefer Figaro instead, at least they serve local coffee beans.
9. Bagi or our neighborhood carinderia - Day in, day out their menu would only constitute the ff: Chicken adobo with toyo, chicken afritada which sometimes double as chicken curry, fried hasa hasa, pakbet nearly cooked or ginisang ampalaya barely sauteed you can taste its real bitter dewyness. When they had an Indian tenant, they used to serve biryani rice, lamb massala, choleh, shawarma and a lot more. The lady of the house kept changing business and tenants and cooks. So their cooking and carinderia I'd surmise is more like a hobby or as corporal punishment for delinquent renters.
10. Chunky far flung - sorry I have to include you in this list but I just don't get the idea of serving sandwiches with oishii. It's just so not it.
*Maybe more to come
The Best Places To Eat Out in Manila
1. Green Daisy - all organic, all fresh, all new, all free but only open to friends or what she terms as mga 'kapuso'
2. Amici - a canteen for Don Bosco school in Makati but serves authentic Italian dishes limited to PAsta, Pizza and gelato. Quite reasonable too. A whole pizza, as the crust is thin and soft and very malleable can serve one very hungry customer or maybe shared by two who's also sharing a plate of pasta. They observe the Catholic friday diet, so they don't serve meat on such days. And the gelato is real summer treat.
3. Bellini's - because it's conveniently placed within the quaint district of Marikina shoe expo that I could have all my appointments set there. Plus, the owner Sr. Roberto is very hospitable that he would even let us order even if they're about to close.
4. Jollibee - because they have meat pies, soup, salad, mais con hielo, shakes, daing na bangus,fruit salad anything and everything that McDonald's doesn't have.
5. JT's Manokan -
6. Brother's Burger
7. The kitchen of a friend who likes to cook - particularly Jet's, Poklong's, who else. . . . .it's more fun eating while drinking and experimenting on the cooking because whatever is produced you'll have to eat anyway as the alcohol dictates you to.
8. Cafe Ysabel - perfect date place, everything's made here. And having worked with Mr. Gene Gonzales amplified more the magic in cooking.
9. North Park - comfort food
10. Cafe Mediterranean- comfort food
11. Jamaican patties - comfort food especially when taken with chilly granitas.
12. Country style - the cheaper soup-sandwich alternative to soup kitchen - chicken sandwich with asparagus soups and their servers are equally polite , esp Alimall branch. Is this the reason why Gary also likes to have his coffee here?
13. Marikina shoe expo canteen - for their singular Tapsilog because cocktails are almost non-existent at FP.
*More to come
1. Tokyo Tokyo - tries to justify their value-for-money offering to the people by serving more free rice, to start with, their food is blander than ever. So while you're at it, try asking also for more soy sauce.
2. McDonald's - it's all the same greasy stuff to me, all chicken and fries. I have kinda developed a theory that bratty kids are born from soggy fries.
3. Chowking - it's just terrible. like fried dumplings. You'd get more of the stuff for 70% less from your freewheeling cart vendor. Their noodle soups - are like water from their mop cleaners.
5. Silver Lake - they just have very rude sellers. They might have even puked on all the food they're selling.
6. Pizza Hut - all branches - and what's with the crust with the filling? I remember a real bad time when I had to wait for someone at the gateway mall by the garden. And Pizza hut was just the food outlet which kinda hogged all the floor space that passers by are readily victimized by their callow barkers that I'd dare them eat all their pizza they can handle.
7. Italianni's - because they keep hogging all pedestrian spaces with their faux-Italian fresco dining tables. It's as if their restaurant is always filled up with diners that they have to extend to the sidewalks. Talk about a lot of chutzpah. They don't even come close to Bellini's or Amici's.
8. Starbucks - I'd say you take out all these starbucks branches and all Ateneans would die, also their wanna-bes. And many say their coffee is not even fresh and thus acidic. So next time please prefer Figaro instead, at least they serve local coffee beans.
9. Bagi or our neighborhood carinderia - Day in, day out their menu would only constitute the ff: Chicken adobo with toyo, chicken afritada which sometimes double as chicken curry, fried hasa hasa, pakbet nearly cooked or ginisang ampalaya barely sauteed you can taste its real bitter dewyness. When they had an Indian tenant, they used to serve biryani rice, lamb massala, choleh, shawarma and a lot more. The lady of the house kept changing business and tenants and cooks. So their cooking and carinderia I'd surmise is more like a hobby or as corporal punishment for delinquent renters.
10. Chunky far flung - sorry I have to include you in this list but I just don't get the idea of serving sandwiches with oishii. It's just so not it.
*Maybe more to come
The Best Places To Eat Out in Manila
1. Green Daisy - all organic, all fresh, all new, all free but only open to friends or what she terms as mga 'kapuso'
2. Amici - a canteen for Don Bosco school in Makati but serves authentic Italian dishes limited to PAsta, Pizza and gelato. Quite reasonable too. A whole pizza, as the crust is thin and soft and very malleable can serve one very hungry customer or maybe shared by two who's also sharing a plate of pasta. They observe the Catholic friday diet, so they don't serve meat on such days. And the gelato is real summer treat.
3. Bellini's - because it's conveniently placed within the quaint district of Marikina shoe expo that I could have all my appointments set there. Plus, the owner Sr. Roberto is very hospitable that he would even let us order even if they're about to close.
4. Jollibee - because they have meat pies, soup, salad, mais con hielo, shakes, daing na bangus,fruit salad anything and everything that McDonald's doesn't have.
5. JT's Manokan -
6. Brother's Burger
7. The kitchen of a friend who likes to cook - particularly Jet's, Poklong's, who else. . . . .it's more fun eating while drinking and experimenting on the cooking because whatever is produced you'll have to eat anyway as the alcohol dictates you to.
8. Cafe Ysabel - perfect date place, everything's made here. And having worked with Mr. Gene Gonzales amplified more the magic in cooking.
9. North Park - comfort food
10. Cafe Mediterranean- comfort food
11. Jamaican patties - comfort food especially when taken with chilly granitas.
12. Country style - the cheaper soup-sandwich alternative to soup kitchen - chicken sandwich with asparagus soups and their servers are equally polite , esp Alimall branch. Is this the reason why Gary also likes to have his coffee here?
13. Marikina shoe expo canteen - for their singular Tapsilog because cocktails are almost non-existent at FP.
*More to come
Monday, April 10, 2006
A Look Back At History
Surrounded By Water
With a name euphemistically speaking for its original location and all its attendant context , Surrounded By Water was founded in 1998 in Angono, Rizal a town known for having a citizen full of artists and where national artist Botong Francisco was from. Wire Tuazon, full fledged resident of said town gathered batch mates from UP Diliman - Yasmin Sison, brothers Jonathan and Mariano Ching, Katrina Miranda, Mike Muñoz, Amiel Roldan, Erick Sausa, Geraldine Javier, Paul Eric Roca, Mike Adrao and later on Lena Cobangbang - to work this thing out. Prior to this they were just organizing among themselves group exhibits at university galleries, the Australia Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and at Hiraya Gallery when Bobi Valencia was its curator.
Nestled between a lotto betting station and a mami house, SBW in Angono in its first year was very experimental and fun, actually as people were not yet familiar with artist-run spaces that some local media has clumped together similarly-operated spaces as "alternative spaces" or because it was a very 90s thing to do. SBW had a lot of firsts in its first year - the 1st ever Sound Art Festival, the first Zine convention, the first DogShow, the debut exhibits of emerging artists from our group - Alice and Lucinda holding a vintage clothes-sale way before it burgeoned to a sari-sari store-like industry, Lirio Salvador nearly fasting for three days and performing by one of Angono’s rivers, Bulacan-based artists opening their show with soot-covered performers, Jayson Oliveria seemingly carpeting the gallery floors with his diptychs ill-measured for the walls, Kreskin Sugay punching out one of his paintings, Jose Beduya painting the main road white and nearly being run-over doing so, Manny Migriño, Paul Mondok boring a hole through a wall and installing a surveillance camera, Chico Beltran, Louie Cordero, Gary Pastrana, Alvin Zafra, Ronald Anading’s guinea pigs, Katya Guerrero’s puzzling drive by sightings work, Vic Balanon, Ferdz Valencia, Bandoy and Lakay Ranjo. Well, that’s in between snacking goto in nearby Scrapyard and the boys carousing by the videoke bars just across the highway.
Then there's this sudden realization that we have to have money to fully operate this thing. With the help of older artists Gerardo Tan and Jose Tence Ruiz we held a fundraising raffle. This coincided with a kindly couple, Mr. And Mrs. King who owns the Pied Piper Place in EDSA to turn over said space, a former bakeshop cum cake school and music school, and convert it to another branch of SBW. This was in 2000.
However, juggling two non-commercial spaces all at the same time is quite handful, so we all decided to stick with just the EDSA branch and give up the Angono space.
Anyway, SBW in EDSA lasted for two good years and we had more members coming in at that time like – Chiristina Dy whom Yasmin Sison met while facilitaing art workshops in Ayala Museum, Eduardo Enriquez, whom Wire met at an art congress in Palawan, Lyra Abueg Garcellano and Louie Cordero who has consistently been exhibiting at SBW and with the group for exhibits curated by mentor Roberto Chabet.
But again, as the case always with such spaces and due to a multitude of factors, SBW has to up and move. It was also the time when Katya Guerrero is re-envisioning her family’s printing press in Cubao as an artist community. So she offered us a space in that compound in 18th avenue for a minimal fee. Barely surviving in that space for a year, we finally called it quits by 2003. This demise coincided with Furball, the production house, expanding and taking over the space where SBW was.
That commences the story of Surrounded By Water. This may have been slightly different with other artist-run spaces but that the struggles are more or less the same because the people who man these spaces are primarily and essentially artists. As such, there would always be a finiteness to these things. Nonetheless, these spaces taught numerous artists how to better manage their own careers. Is this the reason why business school AIM is now offering seminars on art management, ditto with Ateneo de Manila University ?
With a name euphemistically speaking for its original location and all its attendant context , Surrounded By Water was founded in 1998 in Angono, Rizal a town known for having a citizen full of artists and where national artist Botong Francisco was from. Wire Tuazon, full fledged resident of said town gathered batch mates from UP Diliman - Yasmin Sison, brothers Jonathan and Mariano Ching, Katrina Miranda, Mike Muñoz, Amiel Roldan, Erick Sausa, Geraldine Javier, Paul Eric Roca, Mike Adrao and later on Lena Cobangbang - to work this thing out. Prior to this they were just organizing among themselves group exhibits at university galleries, the Australia Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and at Hiraya Gallery when Bobi Valencia was its curator.
Nestled between a lotto betting station and a mami house, SBW in Angono in its first year was very experimental and fun, actually as people were not yet familiar with artist-run spaces that some local media has clumped together similarly-operated spaces as "alternative spaces" or because it was a very 90s thing to do. SBW had a lot of firsts in its first year - the 1st ever Sound Art Festival, the first Zine convention, the first DogShow, the debut exhibits of emerging artists from our group - Alice and Lucinda holding a vintage clothes-sale way before it burgeoned to a sari-sari store-like industry, Lirio Salvador nearly fasting for three days and performing by one of Angono’s rivers, Bulacan-based artists opening their show with soot-covered performers, Jayson Oliveria seemingly carpeting the gallery floors with his diptychs ill-measured for the walls, Kreskin Sugay punching out one of his paintings, Jose Beduya painting the main road white and nearly being run-over doing so, Manny Migriño, Paul Mondok boring a hole through a wall and installing a surveillance camera, Chico Beltran, Louie Cordero, Gary Pastrana, Alvin Zafra, Ronald Anading’s guinea pigs, Katya Guerrero’s puzzling drive by sightings work, Vic Balanon, Ferdz Valencia, Bandoy and Lakay Ranjo. Well, that’s in between snacking goto in nearby Scrapyard and the boys carousing by the videoke bars just across the highway.
Then there's this sudden realization that we have to have money to fully operate this thing. With the help of older artists Gerardo Tan and Jose Tence Ruiz we held a fundraising raffle. This coincided with a kindly couple, Mr. And Mrs. King who owns the Pied Piper Place in EDSA to turn over said space, a former bakeshop cum cake school and music school, and convert it to another branch of SBW. This was in 2000.
However, juggling two non-commercial spaces all at the same time is quite handful, so we all decided to stick with just the EDSA branch and give up the Angono space.
Anyway, SBW in EDSA lasted for two good years and we had more members coming in at that time like – Chiristina Dy whom Yasmin Sison met while facilitaing art workshops in Ayala Museum, Eduardo Enriquez, whom Wire met at an art congress in Palawan, Lyra Abueg Garcellano and Louie Cordero who has consistently been exhibiting at SBW and with the group for exhibits curated by mentor Roberto Chabet.
But again, as the case always with such spaces and due to a multitude of factors, SBW has to up and move. It was also the time when Katya Guerrero is re-envisioning her family’s printing press in Cubao as an artist community. So she offered us a space in that compound in 18th avenue for a minimal fee. Barely surviving in that space for a year, we finally called it quits by 2003. This demise coincided with Furball, the production house, expanding and taking over the space where SBW was.
That commences the story of Surrounded By Water. This may have been slightly different with other artist-run spaces but that the struggles are more or less the same because the people who man these spaces are primarily and essentially artists. As such, there would always be a finiteness to these things. Nonetheless, these spaces taught numerous artists how to better manage their own careers. Is this the reason why business school AIM is now offering seminars on art management, ditto with Ateneo de Manila University ?
More FYI! FYI!
MORE PROFILES THAN YOU CAN HANDLE (pilfered from Cubicle files 2005)
RONALD CARINGAL
A self-taught artist who believes art can save us all and whose works are largely influenced by Pop Art. He started painting seriously in 2000 and decided put up his own gallery, The Cubicle in 2002. He had been part of a couple of group shows and did his first solo show last June 2005. He incorporates sarcasm and comedy in tackling serious subjects. He tries to make sure that entertainment is a huge part of his art. He believes that his artworks should stir emotions and thought. And for him, going to an art exhibit should be as exciting as going to the movies. He hopes that his works serve as a light sigh or bring a sense of comic relief for his audience. With everything that is happening, we all deserve a good laugh.
CLINT CATALAN b May 10, 1980 in Makati City
An artist by heart and a designer by trade. He took up Bachelor of Fine Arts and Design – Major in Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Combining art and fashion, he was able to put up W.O.R.M.S. (Wearing One Really Makes Sense) – a line of bags and accessories in 1999 – definitely not for the faint-hearted. Having done a series of group shows and recently held his first solo exhibition last May 2005, he still continues to express himself in all sorts of ways – venturing in the movie and music video industry, cutting his own hair in all sort of ways, fortune telling in birthday parties and “spiking” things up.
ASTRO
A grafitti artist from Hamburg City, Germany – Astro visits the Philippines yearly to fuse art and grafitti. He did his first one-man show at the Cubicle last March 2005 with photographs of his “bombings” on trains back in Hamburg from the past years, Astro still continues to search the real meaning of life, with beer in his hand and house music in his ears.
BRU b September 18, 1978, in Makati City
A graduate of De La Salle University, major in Advertising Management, Bru is a pop culture junkie who writes and illustrates for a non-MTV MTV music magazine in the Philippines.She likes soft shapes, scraps of paper and sinking depths.
MIKE CRISOSTOMO b.August 12, 1975 in Quezon City
Most of his works deals with formalistic approach. He usually did automatic and expressive works in different types of media. His concepts intertwine with ringing sounds in his ears that create vast fusion of art forms. The play of mediums in Crisostomo’s works does not hinder his color blindness in creating art forms.
REINIER “BEMBOL” DELA CRUZ b the 2nd of June 1976, in Manila
He graduated at University of the Philippines, Fine Arts- Major in Painting. Bembol uses different kinds of media and does not only focus on a specific style. His works come from the polarity of representational to non-representational art-forms. For him, “art is conceptual because art only exists conceptually”.
RANELLE DIAL b. July 2, 1977
Completed her degree in Fine Arts major in Visual Communication at the University of the Philippines. Ranelle utilize a wide range of mediums and installation. Her keen interest in expressing art-forms deals with time and space. For her the thematic approach communicates the logic of time in a given space and form.
CARLO GERNALE ( B. 1979 ) BFA Painting Major, Institute of Fine Arts and Design, Philippine Women’s University [undergrad].
He participated in various Group Exhibitions around Metro Manila. Most of his work depicts issues of understanding, way of thinking, and behavior of common individual influenced by their surroundings.
MARCUSHIRO Born February 11, 1975, in Lucena City
A graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, BS Fine Arts - major in Advertising Arts.A graphic designer by day, Marcushiro moonlights as a children's book illustrator and takes pride in collecting junk from countless thrift shops. The pastiche-maker extra-ordinaire believes that red is the color of Monday, just like Kris Aquino.
JUCAR RAQUEPO Born February 11, 1973, in San Fernando, La Union
Has done several one-man shows and several group shows in Manila and has recently opened “Art Work Detailing” at the Cubicle July 2005. His shows of the past years featured abstract forms with graphic qualities, with just one genre of art that he does, he manifested yet another agenda in his art making and picture making, the freedom to do multi-faceted, diverse, and non-linear directions and intentions in art. Among others he has done and would like to continue to do are installations, mixed media art, and even realistic paintings of landscapes and still-life.
EUFEMIO RASCO, IV b 6th of June 1981, Studied at University of the Philippines, Fine Arts major in Painting.
He looks up at human figure as a basic form and shape. Whenever he paints, he treats it as a problem. That’s within the process and execution challenges him to find the solution. In his works, the child-like rendition of figure and almost non-recognizable images that quietly communicate a range of emotions or state of being from painful loneliness to introspection, whim and bliss.
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI Born in Kuwait City, Kuwait on September 15, 1984, raised in Italy
the Italian – Filipino finished BS Fine Arts and Design – Major in Advertising Arts at the University of Santo Tomas. He recently finished a two-man show with artist Allan Jay Balisi last July 2005 at Big Sky Mind Gallery Café. His art is very experimental and tends to shift from one art form to another usually with non-commercial subjects. The basis of his works are studies and sketches on paper using ink depicting his thoughts on god and the devil among other things before the actual canvas work begins. He has participated in various group exhibitions around the metro and was also a finalist in major art competitions. He is currently working on short films.
RONALD CARINGAL
A self-taught artist who believes art can save us all and whose works are largely influenced by Pop Art. He started painting seriously in 2000 and decided put up his own gallery, The Cubicle in 2002. He had been part of a couple of group shows and did his first solo show last June 2005. He incorporates sarcasm and comedy in tackling serious subjects. He tries to make sure that entertainment is a huge part of his art. He believes that his artworks should stir emotions and thought. And for him, going to an art exhibit should be as exciting as going to the movies. He hopes that his works serve as a light sigh or bring a sense of comic relief for his audience. With everything that is happening, we all deserve a good laugh.
CLINT CATALAN b May 10, 1980 in Makati City
An artist by heart and a designer by trade. He took up Bachelor of Fine Arts and Design – Major in Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Combining art and fashion, he was able to put up W.O.R.M.S. (Wearing One Really Makes Sense) – a line of bags and accessories in 1999 – definitely not for the faint-hearted. Having done a series of group shows and recently held his first solo exhibition last May 2005, he still continues to express himself in all sorts of ways – venturing in the movie and music video industry, cutting his own hair in all sort of ways, fortune telling in birthday parties and “spiking” things up.
ASTRO
A grafitti artist from Hamburg City, Germany – Astro visits the Philippines yearly to fuse art and grafitti. He did his first one-man show at the Cubicle last March 2005 with photographs of his “bombings” on trains back in Hamburg from the past years, Astro still continues to search the real meaning of life, with beer in his hand and house music in his ears.
BRU b September 18, 1978, in Makati City
A graduate of De La Salle University, major in Advertising Management, Bru is a pop culture junkie who writes and illustrates for a non-MTV MTV music magazine in the Philippines.She likes soft shapes, scraps of paper and sinking depths.
MIKE CRISOSTOMO b.August 12, 1975 in Quezon City
Most of his works deals with formalistic approach. He usually did automatic and expressive works in different types of media. His concepts intertwine with ringing sounds in his ears that create vast fusion of art forms. The play of mediums in Crisostomo’s works does not hinder his color blindness in creating art forms.
REINIER “BEMBOL” DELA CRUZ b the 2nd of June 1976, in Manila
He graduated at University of the Philippines, Fine Arts- Major in Painting. Bembol uses different kinds of media and does not only focus on a specific style. His works come from the polarity of representational to non-representational art-forms. For him, “art is conceptual because art only exists conceptually”.
RANELLE DIAL b. July 2, 1977
Completed her degree in Fine Arts major in Visual Communication at the University of the Philippines. Ranelle utilize a wide range of mediums and installation. Her keen interest in expressing art-forms deals with time and space. For her the thematic approach communicates the logic of time in a given space and form.
CARLO GERNALE ( B. 1979 ) BFA Painting Major, Institute of Fine Arts and Design, Philippine Women’s University [undergrad].
He participated in various Group Exhibitions around Metro Manila. Most of his work depicts issues of understanding, way of thinking, and behavior of common individual influenced by their surroundings.
MARCUSHIRO Born February 11, 1975, in Lucena City
A graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, BS Fine Arts - major in Advertising Arts.A graphic designer by day, Marcushiro moonlights as a children's book illustrator and takes pride in collecting junk from countless thrift shops. The pastiche-maker extra-ordinaire believes that red is the color of Monday, just like Kris Aquino.
JUCAR RAQUEPO Born February 11, 1973, in San Fernando, La Union
Has done several one-man shows and several group shows in Manila and has recently opened “Art Work Detailing” at the Cubicle July 2005. His shows of the past years featured abstract forms with graphic qualities, with just one genre of art that he does, he manifested yet another agenda in his art making and picture making, the freedom to do multi-faceted, diverse, and non-linear directions and intentions in art. Among others he has done and would like to continue to do are installations, mixed media art, and even realistic paintings of landscapes and still-life.
EUFEMIO RASCO, IV b 6th of June 1981, Studied at University of the Philippines, Fine Arts major in Painting.
He looks up at human figure as a basic form and shape. Whenever he paints, he treats it as a problem. That’s within the process and execution challenges him to find the solution. In his works, the child-like rendition of figure and almost non-recognizable images that quietly communicate a range of emotions or state of being from painful loneliness to introspection, whim and bliss.
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI Born in Kuwait City, Kuwait on September 15, 1984, raised in Italy
the Italian – Filipino finished BS Fine Arts and Design – Major in Advertising Arts at the University of Santo Tomas. He recently finished a two-man show with artist Allan Jay Balisi last July 2005 at Big Sky Mind Gallery Café. His art is very experimental and tends to shift from one art form to another usually with non-commercial subjects. The basis of his works are studies and sketches on paper using ink depicting his thoughts on god and the devil among other things before the actual canvas work begins. He has participated in various group exhibitions around the metro and was also a finalist in major art competitions. He is currently working on short films.
FYI ! FYI! FYI!
For Those Who'd Like To Know Who These People Are
Poklong Anading
His works are seeming documentation of accidents and forbearance for the physics of materials – be it sound, movement, dust, lines, light, bodily secretions – as to probe and capture their very essence despite their invisibility and primal quality. All these he translates to crisscrossing media of video, performance, painting, drawing and photography, as well as collaborations with other artists like Ringo Bunoan for the 4th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea and Ernest Concepcion, Jose Beduya, Tado Jimenez (for Gitaw) and all other willing conspirators, even blind street musicians in the name of intuitive music. While being a resident-artist of Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation in 2003-2004, he has spearheaded the setting up of Cantin Plate, a time-based photo-gallery/art hub for discussions and which doubles as commissary for the inhabitants of the compound during the day. One of such event inaugurated there was Food Pest, a bi-annual thing commemorating the significance of September 21 with a real gastronomic feast featuring artist-concocted dishes. He is also affiliated with Furball productions and earns his keep by doing designs and art directorial work for various productions for TV, films and other commercial firms.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Award
Argie Bandoy
Despite having earned his degree in advertising at the University of the East in Caloocan, Bandoy appears to be more attuned to the guttural poetry of the streets producing works that are but his esoteric meanderings petering on the visionary. This may have probably owed to a life enmeshed in the underground punk-metal-core scene with a band called D’ Squatters and enduring alliances with Victor Balanon, animator-illustrator that can lick the hell out of Raymond Pettibone, and Ferdz Valencia, a skater-ramp/obstacles/board designer who also founded the skate group and company Incubator. In the late 90s they released the 4-issue Quatro Comix of visceral urbanness. Bandoy scavenges material, text or whatever it is he may find on his way to work as a freelance grahic and web designer. He has held solo exhibits at home in quasi rural-industrial Cainta, Rizal and one in Mag:net. He was also among the 2nd batch of resident artists of BSM for 2004-2005.
Mariano Ching
His paintings, prints and illustrations are enriched by his training as graphic artist and by his experience growing up in the heart of Manila, weaving narratives of such existence and other probable realities hidden beneath the grime and squalor. He was a Mombusho-Japanese Foundation scholar attending Kyoto University in Japan as a research student of printmaking and ceramics for 2002-2004. He was also among those short-listed for the 2005 Ateneo Art Awards and has won illustration awards for children’s books Mayroon Akong Isang Puno and Bakit Matagal Ang Sundo Ko, both published by Adarna books. He’s husband to artist Yasmin Sison and their newly-born son Haraya.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards
Louie Cordero
A multi-awarded painter and creator of underground comics Nardong Tae which has already achieved cult-classic status. He is a graduate of CFA in UP Diliman and has been one of the recipients of the Ateneo Art Award in 2004. He was a resident artist of Big Sky Mind’s residency program from 2002 to 2004 and of the Vermont Studio Center in 2003, and has shown his paintings and drawings in Studio 3 in Japan, and in One Mina Art Gallery in San Francisco. He’s currently co-managing Future Prospects with Gary Pastrana, Cocoy Lumbao and Erick Encinares.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards.
Christina Dy
If her works bespeak of a propensity for the vainglorification of fetish, tis perhaps her means of coping with the psychological and emotional hazards of her work as an art teacher, designer, stylist and contributing writer for local fashion glossies and for one publication which has a predominantly male readership – FHM and newly-launched Pump Magazine. Yet this only demonstrates the industry with which she handles these multiple job descriptions and interlocking networks from fashion, music, film and publication. Accordingly, she is rewarded for some – for best production design for 2005 Cinemalaya Film Festival entry Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros directed by Aureus Solito and Michiko Yamamoto and produced by UFO Films. With partner and associate Jugs of the pop rock band Itchyworms, she manufactures a line of plush sex dolls and faceless teddy bears upholstered in black leather and/or lace. Her training and induction to art consisted of a 16mm film making workshop at Mowelfund in 1998, art workshops at Ayala Museum and at her alma mater Ateneo de Manila University, and joining SBW in 2001. Since then, she has been actively exhibiting with a group or by her own and concocting related projects.
Jed Escueta
The lomocam may have been a phenomenal hip fad accessory which soon faded out as soon as it conked out from overtly “shooting from the hip”. Nonetheless, Jed has pursued on “shooting” and never seems to miss a “hit”. Diaristic, ominous, and habitual is as he treats his photography, the camera his visual proboscis. His team up with Leo Saño have produced a series of short films starring the action figure JC in parables reconfigured for modern times i.e. JC Kicks Alien Ass. This was screened in Sp*t sa Pinilakang Tabing, a film festival organized by Arkipelago last 2003 in NY. He has been a resident artist of BSM for 2003-2004. He’s currently finishing his fine arts degree at University of the Philippines in Diliman, QC, at the same time fine-tuning production of a DVD with Jet Melencio where his photos of blurred skies and foliage was used as a compositional device for sound artists Mizuki Endo, Rubber Inc. and Melencio himself.
Lyra Abueg Garcellano
Has degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Fine Arts earned from the Ateneo de Manila University and at UP CFA Diliman respectively. As an artist-in-residence of Cemeti Art Foundation in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2002, she has worked on themes concerning land and property. These are symptomatic of and/or issues adjunct to societal and cultural definitions of territories – a consequence of how these cultures ordain values and identities to certain groups. She presents these power-culture dynamics in her postcard A Filipino Girl. Though traditionally garbed, she poses defiantly to such representation. These postcards has also traveled with Judy Freya Sibayan representing Scapular Gallery Nomad in the 4th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea in 2002. Lyra’s prior works finds her attempting to break these boundaries and reclaiming what was once denied or forbidden. This as seen in a serial photo of road blockades, broke-in vaults, and re-weaving the history of a maligned queen whose conquests were thought to be improper. Lyra works as a professional illustrator for numerous publications, including children’s books. She has also created the comic strip The Adventures of Atomo & Weboy the Buddha Bear syndicated in the Phil. Daily Inquirer. She’s a long time member of Ang INK (Ilustrador ng Kabataan).
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 artist awards.
Robert Langenegger
Inspite of all the ailments plaguing this third world resident, he manages to produce art with a little help from certain medicinal plants. His enlarged liver continues to overwork itself for art’s sake. He wanted to take up ethnobotany in college but found no such course so right now he’s studying the next closest thing, Fine Arts in Kalayaan College in Marikina City. He is an expert at any medium including amateur custom tattoo performed under unsanitary conditions. On a lighter note, air and noise pollution in his street is pushing him to the brink of insanity. What will happen to our children’s children ?
Also the painter to look out for this century.
Paolo Martinez
He had briefly studied Visual Communication at the University of the Phil. College of Fine Arts but soon transferred and continued similar studies at Kalayaan College. His works range from paintings, installations to sound experiments particularly that of ambient and noise. He also reconstructs such sounds from pre-recorded material using improvised gadgets and electronic toys.
Jet Melencio
He comes from an older batch of artists from UP College of Fine Arts who did such characteristic marvelously thick paintings. But he is never to be singularly categorized or solely named, having ventured into stage design for the musical Paulit-ulit na Paikot-ikot na Pag-guhit ng Bilog directed and choreographed by Paul Morales; art administration as an erstwhile curator of Ayala Art Museum in Makati in the mid 90s and having a hand in establishing art space/cafe Big Sky Mind with Katya Guerrero and Ringo Bunoan; performance as playing one of the leads in the musical Lean, a musical detailing the heroism of the legendary Fil. Activist of the 80s; and as lead vocalist of now-defunct but seminal bands of the 80s and 90s Sonic City Zoo and Poppy Field. This is reflective of his relentless foray into various media, format and materials in pursuit of highly affecting visuals. His photographs of Alimall mannequins is the result of of an art seminar project where Robert Chabet has instructed to take photos of sites of “shallow graves” around Cubao.
Jayson Oliveria
He approaches paintings as dilettante investigations into the linguistic games of clichés cannibalized from found materials, oftenly his past works. He identifies most with the slackers and wily jesters of art. He was awarded in 2004 the Ateneo Art Awards and was an artist-in-residence of Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation for 2003-2004 and at Art Space Tetra in Fukuoka, Japan in late 2004 and where he has also exhibited. He’s currently awaiting the opening of his solo exhibit this August at The Art Center of SM Megamall, his nth one since his last held at Green Papaya Artists Projects, Mag:net Art Gallery, The Drawing Room, Theo Gallery at Saguijo Café.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards.
Gary-Ross Pastrana
An artist/curator who now manages Theo Gallery, a small art space in Makati City that has shown works by Jayson Oliveria, Juan Alcazaren, Louie Cordero and Alfredo Aquilizan. He is also a graduate of the UP Fine Arts program and has had exhibitions in Thailand at the Bangkok University Gallery, and in Japan at the IAF Shop in Fukuoka. He also works as a production designer for stage and television.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards
Stanley Ruiz
His extensive experience with industrial design in various trading firms based internationally speaks forth for his installations and objects he exhibits as though these ‘works’ are prototypes of a mass-produced product or rather mere ‘interruptions’ from such serial kind of production. Mostly works with sound and has capitulated on the compositional possibilities of the ensuing chaos of engaged modern tools – batteries, carpentry equipment, old speakers – leading him to produce his own sound instrument called the Skonto. His punk history which consisted of independently producing albums for his band the PutangInas/P-I-NAS and customarily publishing his own zine Voice Out from 1993-1996.
Despite having earned his Industrial Design degree at UP CFA, Diliman, he has just recently enriched them with electronic media courses in the School of Visual Arts and Product Design at Pratt Institute NY.
Don Salubayba
He had largely been exhibiting since his teens at the Philippine High School for The Arts in Mt. Makiling as a Visual Arts major and even after graduating from UP CFA in 2000. Serving as artistic board member of the ANINO Shadowplay Collective, he has directed several of its production staged at CASA San Miguel in Zambales and at the Abelardo Hall of UP Diliman. He has also represented ANINO in the 1st Intl. Shadowplay Festival in Patras, Greece. He has been awarded several grants last 2004 by the Mowelfund Film Institute for their Film Animation Workshop and by the Asian Cultural Council for his art residencies at the Intl. Studio and Curatorial Program in New York and in Headlands Center for The Arts in San Francisco. He works as a visiting faculty of his high school alma mater and conducting workshops and staging productions of ANINO.
Yasmin Sison
She has earned her bachelor’s degrees in Humanities and Fine Arts, and a certificate in Professional Education all at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
Her paintings, collages and drawings deal with images encountered in popular movies, fashion magazines, pulp romances – which she manipulates to create another fiction. This she has extended with a series of collaborative works with another artist Lena Cobangbang as Alice & Lucinda respectively, investigating myths and procuring identities running parallel with their actual lives. They have also worked together in publishing the fanzine Lunar Landing which had a 10 issue run from its inception in 1998. Adjusting to a new life as a wife and mother, she shuttles between painting and teaching pre-school kids in the Montessori way. Her works having integrated images from archaic pre-WW2 grammar books somewhat reflects these concerns.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards.
Keiye Miranda-Tuazon
Her photographs, Underwater Scenes, compiled through the years as studies for her large oil paintings reveal an interiority quite foreboding. Her prior series of domestic spaces has more apparent undertones o f such unease. Hailing from Angono, she with her siblings, was nurtured earlier on to a life of art. This she passes on to her students and to her daughter with whom she balances parental duty with husband Wire Tuazon.
Wire Tuazon
He works with a wide gamut of format – painting, collage, sound, performance, video – including collaborations with other artists for projects which transforms into communities and/or networks. No project for him is to be so differentiated from the other as each one is a venue for discourse between the artist and the public. SBW may be considered as one of them. He was also instrumental in mobilizing the art scene in Angono from an idyllic tourist trap to a more dynamic scene via Neo Angono which handles activities during the town’s feast day. Being a former vocalist of ska band The Neighbors may have imbibed in him the same DIY fervor propelling him to such deeds.
In 2001, he was granted an artist residency Ashiya City, Japan by the Japanese Foundation. He was also a recipient of the 13th artist award given by CCP in 2003.
MM Yu
She lets her paints drip all the way down to the edge of the canvas, whereas her subjects – church steeples, fast food logos, bridges – in her series of photographs entitled Holding Someone’s Hair Back are similarly forced out of the frame by the wide expanse of sky as though playing hide and seek, pushing and pulling for exposure and obscurity. She has recently participated in 600 Images/60 Artists/6 Curators/6 Cities, a photo exhibit curated by Judy Freya Sibayan. This is simultaneously held in Lumiere in Makati, Bangkok / Berlin / London / Los Angeles / Manila / Saigon. She has opened 3 paintings exhibits locally and was among the 1st batch of resident artists of Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation for 2003-2004. She works part-time as a photographer for a commercial studio in between preparing for shows and collaborating with Poklong Anading for their book projects. She’s a member of IRIS, a photography organization based in UP College of Fine Arts in Diliman, QC.
Zine-verguenza !
Zine-verguenza !
A History of No F&*$#k!!!! Profit, No F&*$#k!!!! Fear, No F&*$#k!!!! Shame, No F&*$#k!!!! Rules,
No F&*$#k!!!! Censorship Publishing, Huh?!
Napag-uusapan lang namin noon ang maglabas ng fanzine habang tumatagay ng usong-usong gin pomelo sa may harap ng Surrounded By Water sa Angono. Naglaon ay nakumbinsi din ako ng dati kong kabandang si Yasmin aka Alice, na naglaon ay partner in crime na gawin ang tinatawag na Lunar Landing. Iniisip ko pa noon na mainam na excuse to para makalibre ng pasok sa mga gig at magsipuntahan sa mga sandamukal na mga opening at mga happening. Circa 1996-97, buhay pa Café Caribana sa Malate, ang Third World Café, nagtatanungan pa kaming magkaka-eskwela kung matutuloy ba ang gimik sa Reposo o sa may World Trade kung saan may rave o dance party. Nariyan ang pakikipagsulatan sa isang ka-penpal na manunulat kung makakadalo ba ang mga katropang Pranses sa aming lingguhang video-marathon at matapos ay gumawa-gawa ng kung anumang mga verso sa pang-anim na bote ng servesa sa Penguin.
Kung anu-ano tuloy na mga kuwento’t mga kadahilanan ang aking mga pinalulusot sa aking mga magulang para lang maging ganap na zine journalist kuno. At pagkuwa’y magakapaglimbag sa aking tinatanging publishing house na Routledge.
Kuwidaw ang maging zinester ay maging isa na ding scenester. At ano-ano ba ang mga scenes na to? Merong rrriot girrrrls, punk, oi, crust, crust core, rockabilly, psychobilly, hardcore, sXe, old school, new school, rock steady, ska, ska-punk, skinheads, Trojans, hammerskins, red skins, suedes, rudeboys, anarcho-punk, anarcho-skins, anarcho-femmes, anarcho-syndicalists, anarcho-primitivists, dark cabaret, goths, death rockers, rockers, chong, bluecats, disco, electroclash, junglists, new wavers, no wavers, dark wavers, new romantics, shoe gazers, indie pop, dream pop, space rock, art rock, avant rock, kraut rock, Prog rock, math rock, ravers, metal, death metal, black metal, Blackened death metal, gloom metal, rap metal, nu metal, thrash metal, Folk metal, Hair metal, glam metal, Power metal, Tech metal, Viking metal, Vedic metal, oriental Metal, Groove metal, Neo-classic metal, Celtic metal, Stoner metal, Gothenburg metal, Funk metal, speed metal, speed core, rap core, noise core, thrasher, emo core, sad core, slow core, mosh core, math core, grindcore, skate-core, skate-thrash, fashion core, queer core, hip hop, turntabolista, mobile, chavs, cyberpunks, cybergoths, reggae, raggare, skate punk, street punk, gutter punk, steam punk, horror punk, pop punk, conservative punk, Christian punk, SLC punks, Alcopunks, vegans, youthcrew, funkore, neo- Nazis, neo-fascist, neo-futurists, future pop, retro-futurists, Aristasians, hackers, demo scene, COSplayers, furries, teddies, MODS, swing kids, Edelweiss pirates, Hillbillies, gamers, MYSTers, freaks, hippies, Jesus freaks, Christian fundamentalists, visual Kei, BDSM, queer, nudists, rockers, Hells Angels, Bandidos, the Outlaws, the Pagans MC, the Black Power, Gypsy Jokers, the Nomads, the Straight Satans, the Rebels, The Rock Machines, Outlaw Motorcycle club, vampires, Japanophiles, Trekkies/Trekkers, filks, Goth Lolis, Ninnies, rivetheads, trancers, trainspotters, bosozokus, greasers, grungers, CB radio hobbyists, custom cars, cassette culture, Valley girls, Sloane rangers, COBRA group, Dadaists, surrealists, internationalists, situationists, fauves, trad jazzers, zootsuits, hepcats, beats, existentialists, surfers, new age travelers, yuppies, swingers, conspiracy theorists, CPP-NPA, NDF, huks, ABB, CND, Black Panther, Sapeurs, pachucos, dandies, bloggers, LJers, spooky kids, rednecks, white trash, rugby boys, nadsat, Luneta debaters, Barangka boys, Tandem, SLE, groupies in general, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. (parang entry sa slumbook – “too many to mention”)
Ang lahat nitong nabanggit at iba pa na maaring mabuo pa ay napapasailalim sa terminong “subculture”. Subalit, ang iba dito sa mga nabanggit na ito na mga subculture ay di kinakailangang taguriang “underground” tulad ng mga Mormons at mga fundamentalists o mga El Shaddai o mga nasa sa religious cults. (Although minsan kailangan ang iba dito ay maging covert dahil tinatawid na ang linya ng katanggap-tanggap at makataong mga rituales, kumbaga’y nagiging taboo na sa universal law of ethics. Maaring mataguri dito ang mga kasapi ng Church of Satan, Heaven’s Gate at iba pang kulto na nagpapalaganap ng mga ideolohiyang animoy taliwas sa Kristiyanismo.)
Ayon kay Dick Hebdige sa kaniyang seminal na aklat na “Subculture: The Meaning Of Style” (ang pangarap kong libro, baka meron kayo diyan na kopya, pahiram naman o paskor naman), ang subculture ay nabubuo bilang isang simbolikong reaksyon o diyalogo sa pangkabuuan o dominanteng kultura ng isang (kadalasan ay) industriyalisadong lipunan. Ang reaksyon na ito ay kadalasang kontra sa prevailing value system ng kulturang ito o parent culture kung tawagin. And because these subcultures are essentially reactionary, the elements or components of what makes them a subculture are actually taken from the subculture’s own environment, mores and history.[1] (Hindi ko kasi masabi to ng tama sa Filipinow, sorry.) Ngunit ang lumalabas na pinakaesensya ng mga ito ay ang pagdiskubre o paglikha ng sariling pagkakakilanlan (identity politics) at magkaroon sa mga miyembro ng mga subculture na ito ng solidaridad na nag-uugat sa pagkakakilanlan na ito. Ito marahil ang dahilan kung bakit ang karamihan sa mga subculture na ito ay napapalooban din ng mga alituntunin na sobrang detalyado, specific, elaborate upang ika nga magkaroon ng kaibahan sa karamihan : ang konseptong “us vs. them”. Ang konseptong ito ay maaring mailatag ng mga sociologist batay sa pangsosyo-ekonomiyang uri, lahi, paniniwala, sense of nationalism, uring pangsekswal.
Ang pagkakakilanlan ng mga subculture na ito ay nakikita sa kanilang pananamit, sa kanilang uri ng pagkilos o pagsayaw, kung paano nila gamitin ang kanilang leisure time, sa kanilang pananalita o jargon, sa pagbati sa kanilang kakapatiran, sa uri ng musika na kanilang pinakikinggan, mga pelikula’t lathalaing kanilang tinatangkilik, mga uri ng sasakyang pinamamadyak – lahat ng ito (atbp) ay kumakatawan sa kanilang ideolohiya bilang isang subculture at isa ang zine/fanzine na pumapaksa o nagdodokumento ng mga saloobin nito, ang pamantayan ng kanilang binuong kapatiran o pamayanan, ang manifesto ng kanilang kabuuan – bilang patunay sa kanilang pag-eexist, o maging uri ng pamamahayag ng kanilang kani-kaniyang pinaglalaban o pinagpupunyagi – be it noble or petty, man.
Ang Factsheet 5 ay mistulang bibliya ng lahat ng mga zinesters sa buong mundo na kung saan dun nila pinapadala ang kanilang mga gawang zines upang marebyu at makakuha ng mga contacts sa mga gustong umorder ng kanilang mga zines. Ito ay taunang lumalabas at mariing inaabangan sa mga booksale ang kopya nito kahit medyo luma na at noong mid 1990s pa ito nailathala. Dito madalas pinagkukunan ang kahulugan ng fanzine na : “ a small handmade amateur publication done purely out of passion, rarely making a profit or breaking even.” Ayon naman sa wikipedia (kung saan karamihan ng aking saliksik ay namgmula) ang zine o fanzine “ is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest.” Ang salitang ito ay naimbento ni Russ Chauvenet noong 1940 at unang lumaganap sa mundo ng mga sci-fi fans. Sabi naman ni Greg Shaw na naglimbag ng Mojo Navigator at Bomp[2], mga naunang music/rock zines noong 1960s sa San Francisco, mas maaga pa daw ito lumabas, sa katunayan ay noong 1920s pa dahil marami na daw noon ang mga sci-fi fanzine tulad ng isang sinimulan daw ng isang nangangalang Forrest J. Ackerman. Nagmula ito sa pakikipagsulatan ng mga fans na ito sa isa’t isa na sa simula ay nailalathala pa sa sci-fi magazine na Amazing Stories. Pero dahil dumadami at dumadami ang kanilang network, ang kanilang mga liham ay naging mga fanzines nang naglaon. Isa sa mga zines na ito ay ang The Comet na gawa ng isang grupo na kung tawagin ay Science Correspondence Club.
Ngunit ang self-publishing ay di namang bagong gawain na naimbento ng mga naturang subculture. Dahil natural lang sa isang indibidwal ang outlet na ito simula pa nang maimbento ang printing press. Sa gayong bagay, maaaring i-presume na ang mga malalaking polyeta’t mga pahayagan ay nagsimula din dito. Kaya?
Well, ayon sa Do or Die zine issue no. 10, ang mga posibleng naunang zines ay makikita sa mga nailathala ng Amateur Press Associations (APA) na umusbong noong 19th century sa US bilang reaksyon sa penny press. Ang mga amateur writers daw na ito ay nagbuo ng mga networks upang maipamahagi ang kanilang mga salaysayin na “walang pretension”. Ang mga manunulat na ito ay kinabubuoan din ng mga black and women writers. Pero parang natatandaan ko ang pinaka-forerunner ay ang isang farmer’s almanac na nailimbag ilang daang taon pang mahigit kesa dito sa nabanggit. (Pwede pakicheck, kasi nakikipirata lang ako ng signal pag nagi-internet ako. Salamat.)
Naging instrumental din ang teknolohiya sa development ng zines. Kumbaga ang produksyon nito ay sumasabay sa panahon kung kelan ito nagawa, maging ang interes o nilalaman nito. Ang zine kumbaga ay kumakatawan din sa zeitgeist ng isang naturang panahon. Hmm kaya lohikal din na ang mga naunang naglabasan na mga zine ay ukol sa sci-fi nang panahong nabanggit dahil kasagsagan ito ng mga scientific discoveries at una nang nararanasan ang epekto ng industrialisasyon – benepisyal man ito o pagulong sa dystopia.
Mula sa pagsulat kamay hanggang sa pag-gamit ng manual typewriter at carbon paper, spirit duplicator o hectographs, sa mga mimeograph machines at ngayon ang Xerox machine na pinupuslit ang pag-gamit pag wala ang boss o nagpapaalam pa na mag-overtime para makalibre sa paggamit nito, nagdaan din sa maraming anyo ang zine. Ang kadalasang nakikita sa kasalukuyan ay yaong binubuo ng mga 10 – 20 pahina ng short coupon bond na itinupi at naka-staple sa gitna. Although may mga iba naman na buong papel ang pinagsasama-sama at sa kaliwang gilid naman ito naka-staple. Karaniwang tinatawag ito na full-size, ang unang nabanggit ay half-size.
Anupaman ang nilalaman ng mga zines, ang nanatiling operative term is DIY na hango naman sa ideolohiya ng Punk. Kaya siguro marami ang nag-aakala na ang fanzine ay galing sa subculture na ito. Ang mga punks nga ayaw matawag na fanzine ang kanilang zines dahil ang salitang fan ay may nosyon ng pagpapasailalim sa exploitation ng capitalist commercial media na tahasan nilang nilalabanan. Kaya mas preferred nila ang term na punkzine.
DIY o Do-It-Yourself ay naging mahalagang motibasyon sa mga punks dahil sa sila nga ay taliwas sa conformity, sa mainstream, sa gobyerno, halos lahat, actually. Pero sinasabi naman ng mga cultural theorists, tulad ni Hebdige, ay naimpluwensiyahan lang daw sila ng mga Situationists, ng kosepto ng Society of the Spectacle. Understandably, punks then were at it, at first, for the bloody shock of Brittania, being anti-aesthetics, as an assemblage of ready-mades of cultural disposables (as were the Dadaists with their reams of pamphlets courtesy of Picabia, Tzara, i.e. Cannibale[3], among others ) and cultivating on salvaging/appropriating styles, slogans, eras, for their own search for meaning.[4] Hence, their zines which are all cut and paste affairs and which zine purists still adhere to on what constitutes a zine. Kaya tuloy minsan ang hirap basahin. Parang tingnan mo na lang siya, okay?
But I believe DIY is not wholly Punk as DIY is in essence the method of a dissenter. Or any dissenter for that matter. Hence, ang paggawa ng zine ay isang craft, a labor of love, a Molotov cocktail for the targeted offended party.
As a medium of dissenters maybe we can consider that the first zines (though not in that sense obviously as they were just conversing in spangol and tegalowg, and were using quills and inks or maybe even their own blood, hokay?) made here in Pinas were made by our own revolutionaries – Plaridel, Rizal, Jacinto, Bonifacio, and others who were within their circles at that time. These as evidenced by La Solidaridad, numerous pamphlets attacking the fat friars, the Kartilla which structured the Katipunan. Then there was also during the 30s Sakdal, isang lingguhang pahayagan na nasa tabloid format na nagsimbuyo sa pagkabuo ng mga Sakdalista. At noong panahon naman ng Hapon ay lumabas din ang nakamimeograph na Matang Lawin na ukol sa mga pagkilos noon ng mga guerilla.
And siyempre sa Tate nung naglabasan ang mga hippies and the counter-cultural movement (around late 50s – 60s), yung mga beat poets heroes nyo diyan, of course, naglabas din sila and they called these “chapbooks”, git? And these contained their poetry, heady stuff, git? Well, but Kerouac admitted that he, in particular was just influenced by Sartre, git? And drunk cups and cups and cups of coffee while listening to the most happenin’ hepcats, git? With burroughs, ginsberg, cassady, genet, and those other cool cats, git? In Haight- Ashburry, git? Which is nea’ Berkeley, git? So, there was also the comix thing, git? With Crumb, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch, Spain Rodriguez, Bill Griffith, Justin Green, Trinna Robbins, git? Y’know Zap, Furry Freaky bros, Funny Animals, them all comix that were put an x on it coz it’s not allowed by the comics code, git? ‘Cos these comix don’t give a F@#&*k about spandex heroes and we have cats f@#kn, and big boobies, and coke snorters, the like, git?
Freedom, git? Becoming your own media is the thing with the zine. Doubly deadly it attracts flies to honey, or dopes to glue, like Sniffin Glue, ang pinakasikat na UK punkzine na gawa ni Mark Perry at lumabas noong 1976 – 1977 for 12 issues. Sa Pinas naman, ay ang Herald X, kaya lang medyo huli na, bandang 1987 siya lumabas, sa 2nd revival na ng Punk movement.[5] Eto, ang hawak kong kopya naka-ziplock pa pero nahiram ko lang din sa isang kaibigan, di ko na naibalik. Maalala pa kaya niya? Hiniram ko kasi ito noong mag-organize ako ng zinecon sa SBW noong 2000. Me exhibit baga ng mga zines alinsabay sa mga illustrations nina Vic Balanon, Ferdz Valencia, LAkay Ranjo and Argie BAndoy mula sa sarili nilang comics na Quatro. Saling pusa lang daw noon si Fletch.
Ang Herald X ay naglalaman din ng mga gig, album reviews, reprints galing sa ibang magazine(New Musical Epress or Maximum Rock n Roll marahil) o zines. Kaya siguro siya naging landmark punkzine ng Pinas dahil sa comics article na Great Moments In The History of Punk plus The Evolution of Pinoi Punk. No other known publication published such and so Herald X was it. Otherwise, they were already printing articles about similar stuff sa Jingle magazine pa. And Jingle started some 10 years before Herald X. Moreover, they had the same staff, almost. The staff of Herald X was composed of Tommy Tanchanco as the editor and as the producer of those Twisted Red Cross albums and who now goes by the name of Jughead at The Phil. Mac Users forum/ site where he narrates his experience in Herald X as : “ pretty much a one-man show, well two, if you count the artist; the publisher who financed the project but who wasn’t really the hands-on type; and except for 1 or 2 contributions. I wrote just about everything. To create the illusion that the ‘zine was well-staffed and had many writers. I used different by-lines for most of the articles. . . .” He picked up the Jughead name daw kasi he’s a big fan of the Clash (the band that really matters, according to one music critic) and its guitarist Mick Jones “who is fondly called by music critics” as such. [6]
The others in the staff were : Edwin P. Sallan, Dodong A. Viray (who later in the 90s formed The Youth), Dominic Gamboa, Arnold Morales, Bong Arquiza, George Imbecile, Col. Popop, Ikang, Je Bautista, Al Dimalanta (of The Dead Ends), Bong Llamanzares, Mary Anne Gonzalez, Didits Gonzalez, Nigel Strange (sounds fictitious), Kathy Rosmer, Camille Ortanez; and the comix/ illustrations were provided by : Gari Santillan, Romeo Lee (of course, The Wild Thing), Gemo Tapales, (Emong) Borlongan (he became a very famous painter na), Roxlee (of course si Idol), Dengcoy Miel, Boyet Miguel, Casie Villarosa, Roehl Santillan. And a dozen or so letters from so called : BJ the Punk of Kanlaon Sta. Mesa Heights (who I also suspect as the same BJ of Rock n Rhythm, kaya?), the president of the punk tribe of Pasig – The Dead Rebels which was founded by Eric Amarante, Rey Payumo from LA who was a vocalist of a band BROADAX that’s based there, one who called himself Noodles and is a Fil-am punk from Livermore CA, Ronnie Leeches Romero of Punks For Peace of San Simon Pampanga who was then about to leave for Canada and was asking the editor if he can be a correspondent, a “confused” Arnel of Malabon who wanted to join War Resisters League an organization being set-up by Dominic then, Ronald Forfieda of Pateros who wrote about his bro/katribo being beaten up by an outsider at a gig at Ortanez and was quite pissed when he wasn’t seen on the screen when Probe did a coverage of that gig, he sent another letter, George Allan Poe of Las Piñas ranting against Satanists and the UG being mixed up with it, etc. etc.
Ilan sa mga nabanggit dito tulad ng mga illustrators na sina Romeo Lee, Roxlee at Dengcoy Miel, kasama ni Ladigohon, ay matagal nang nagco-contribute sa Jingle mag lalo na nung ¼ pa ang sukat nito, madaling ibulsa lalo na’t papasok ka sa kubeta. (kaya ba siya Jingle? At kaya ba ang logo nito isang kerubin na jumijingel?) Although, noong una itong lumabas, sumusunod ito sa karaniwang format ng mga music magazines – kasing-size nito na para ngang magazine at may mga reprints ng mga lyrics ng mga usong kanta, complete with chords pa. Mayroon kaming unang kopya nito na may larawan ng mushroom cloud bilang pabalat at ang laman nito ay pawang mga kanta ng Beatles at iba na may tamang peace, man. Kahit di man ikonsidera ang Jingle na isang zine, malaki din ang naging impluwensiya sa mga sumunod na lathalain na ukol sa musika, di man sa format o nilalaman (na may band/singer profiles, posters, comics, letters, record reviews/ratings, ads, guitar techniques, music history,) naipakilala din nito ang mga sulatin nina Ninotchka Rosca, Juaniyo Arcellana, Joey Ayala noong siya’y estudyante pa at iba pa na di ko na matandaan kasi naitapon na ng tatay ko ang mga kopya namin, ngunit nagbunsod at nagtanim ng mapupusok na kamalayan sa ilalim ng Bagong Lipunan ni Marcos. Noong kalauna’y nawala na din ang jingle dahil nagdagsaan ang maraming imprenta na naglilimbag na din ng mga music magazines, mas maliliit ang mga ito at kasing-laki ng mga komiks (i.e. Solid Gold) at mas tinangkilik ng masa dahil mas marami itong nafi-feature na mga kanta at artikulo tungkol sa Menudo, Raymond Lauchengco, and the like.
So, siguro, yung two-issue na Herald X ay mini project din kaya ng Jingle mag?
May isa pa akong nahiram na zine. Actually, nakaipit ito sa loob ng Herald X – ang The Shop, 16 na pahina na offset-printed sa newsprint, pero siyempre matagal na kaya madilaw na ito. Ipinagbibili ng 10 piso, nakabase sa proj. 2 kung saan din nakabase ang A2Z records. Ang may pakana nito ay sina : Leslie David, Manny Espinola at Ces Rodiguez. May lyrics din ditong nakapaloob (Blister In The Sun ng Violent Femmes at Damaged Goods ng Gang of Four). Halos kaalinsabay nito ang paglabas ng isa ding music magazine, ang Score magazine. Ngunit ang The Shop ay mukhang mas low-budget at mas “iba” ang nilalaman : Pussy Galore, Camper Van Beethoven, Sugar Cubes, Felt, Tupelo Chain Sex, Swans, Velvet Underground, kesa sa karamihan ng punkzines. At dahil nababaduyan sila sa commercialization ng New Wave at predicting another thing coming in the underground scene, or trying to get away from it all – the punk and the chong and to go back to listening good old rock so that’s why they called themselves a rock n roll fanzine. This is probably the precursor to Toti Dalmacion’s Groove Nation records (because they were also selling records) and/or the Scenester zine which came about in the early to mid 90s who were mostly writing about the same bands and/or the newer bands that were influenced by those mentioned and were trying to mesh the dance scene with it or be esoteric with such fandom of those genres. Or did I misconstrue them for their distribution venues such as dance parties?
Di ko alam kung naka-ilang issues tong The Shop.
Anyways, ang Score Magazine ay naka 10 issues at least, dahil di naman talaga ito zine. Mukha lang siyang zine pero glossy ang cover niya, take note. Maraming ads from Eurorock shirt, Top 40, Shambhu, Arte Linea, High Adventure at Khumbmela. Nakakuha ako ng 1 kopya nito sa isang booksale. Ang cover pa noon ay ang bandang Mere Mercy na nagko-cover ng mga kanta ng The Cult. And the usual, may profiles, reviews and lyrics, pero walang chords. Para siguro ito sa mga aattend ng gigs na manonood ng covers ng kanilang fave chong song so they can sing along.
Mga bandang early 90s, eksenang “alternative” music, lumabas naman ang Rock n’ Rhythm. Nasa isang boring na kolehiyo ako nang panahon na ito at pilit na umiiwas sa eksena ng Rhythm n Blues at Boom d’ Bass na nagkalat sa harapan ng San Beda sa katanghaliang tapat. Kaya nahalina ako noon na bumili ng mga issue ng RnR sa me bangketa sa harap ng aking Holy Mamaw skultoPhinish. Baduy ba? E wala e. Kasi 7 years old pa lang naman ako noong unang umusbong punk movement kaya no?
Ang Rock n’ Rhythm ay isa ding music magazine na mas nakapattern sa dating Jingle mag. Kasing sukat ito ng Solid Gold and the like pero ang kinaibahan nito ay ang pokus nito sa “alternative” music, foreign man o local. Well, kaya din siguro ito tumagal na napondohan dahil naging big business din kasi ang so-called “alternative scene”. Alam ‘nyo na yan, no. Ang punong patnugot nito ay si BJ Cabaluna na miyembro ng bandang Bad Days For Mary at may-ari ng Just Say Rock, isang puwesto sa Cartimar Recto na naging bagsakan ng mga zines, at iba pang DIY stuff, like shirts, posters, bootlegged cassette tapes, accessories, etc. Sayang.. . . sayang.. . . .di na maibabalik pa. . . . . . . ang .. . . . . Anyway, editor din siya ng isang sex zine na Wendy Says.
Ang iba pa sa staff ng RnR ay naglabas din ng kani-kanilang zines. Dahil masyado ding diverse ang kanilang interes sa music, viz ang “alternative music”[7] kasi ay pawang revival ng lahat ng mga nagdaang music genre, particular sa rock music, kaya nagsilang ito sa mas marami pang music genre na actually ay cross-over lang naman ng mga naunang genre, git? So, mula sa ilang mga staff ng RnR, may nabuo ding eksena ng mga zinesters, dahil ang karaniwang nilalaman ng kanilang mga zines ay di nakasentro sa musika o politika lamang. Pinakasinasaalang-alang nila ang kanilang mga personal na karanasan, insights sa pinagdadaanan nilang eksesang ito. Kumbaga, dahil sa pagbibigay pokus sa indibidwalismo ng 1990s kaya naging motto ng mga perzines or personal zines ay “ the personal is political.” Aside from the perzines, the staff also released a one-issue zine called Rolling Paper. It was in the same style as Herald X but only because they have seemingly convinced management to have one teeny-weeny hand at publishing. While the 80s had these punks against chongs or wavers, the feuds of the 90s were about hiphoppers against punks (again !) and rockers or rockistas and that’s were most zines were about – defending one’s own turf.
Ilan sa mga ito ay ang : w.r.i..n.g ni wendi, catatonia ni donna, La Puztiso, Tattle Tale nina Reji and Blessela among the throng. These were also the ones I first got acquainted with when I was introduced to the zine scene. Then I found out later that Yasmin has done something like it way back in Silang and has interviewed the band Abrasive Relations for it. It was actually her who made me do it, y’know, the zine.
Naririnig ko din ng mga panahon na yun ang grupo ng sining ekis na pinamumunuan ni Elvert Bañares.Gumagawa-gawa din sila ng mga comix trough their publishing arm Zenith Graphix. Isa rito ang Fever Fungus. Pero mas kapuna-puna ata sila sa eksena ng performance sa dating Club Dredd at iba pang mga events sa Malate. The only contact I had with him though is when I had to interview him for a term paper, then for our own zine, then sometimes during the openings ‘coz he also exhibits.
Then came Rey “Peace” Bravo’s employment as purchaser of reading materials at Tower Records in Makati which helped proliferate and marketed the zine to a broader audience – there were issues of Slug and Lettuce, Maximum Rock n Roll, books on homemade bombs, and such that were only available by mail-order or through trade. Also with the generous and unwavering efforts of the duo Claire Villacorta and Paolo Cruz. who with their created distro network and publishing company, Dumpling Press, was able to sell zines at Tower and through a lot more venues beyond gigs and conventions. This consequently produced such unprecedented fervor to produce and distribute a lot more zines, making zineing a scene in itself. The only con about this phenomenon is you’ll have to fish through the filth to find the gold because it’s that many and not all of them are what it’s worth for the trade. As Forrest Gump would eloquently address it : “Life is like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what u gonna get.”
However Perzines weren’t that novel as today as this has been realized before in the 60s by Greg Shaw of Mojo Navigator and Bomp and terms this instead as “personal journalism”. His zines were actually proses for the stuff which he liked, including his “comments on world politics, gossip, anything. It was self-expression trying to be entertaining and possibly humorous.. . . . and the people who had a good personality and could express it became the stars of that world. . . .. . . the culture of publishing these magazines, and meeting at conventions, and having parties. . . . .” So perzines, have increasingly become the path to a zinester’s 15 minutes of fame or until that ink holds on to that paper – the creation of a subculture of one’s self. So does that mean, if you don’t like his/her zine you won’t like him/her at all as a person? Hmmmmmmm……well that’s one way of choosing your fiends or friends, ain’t it?
Jump cut to 2001, Surrounded By Water, EDSA, 2nd Zine Con na tinulungan kong i-organize with Claire and Paolo. Wow, jampacked! Kung ganoon kadami ang scene, mas madami din ang zinesters, kasi ang iba dito ay dalawa-tatlo title ang ginagawa. And may workshops pa na kung saan doon ko na natutunan ang iba pang zinester tricks of the trade na pag-recycle ng postage stamp, pag-recycle ng envelope, pag-siksik sa lay-out ng contents, paano makabarat sa suking photocopier, atbp. Dito din ako nakakalap ng iba pang zines na bumubuo ngayon sa aking collecciones.
Dahil sa influx na din ng napakadaming impluwensiya sa media na dagling pinadali pa ng teknolohiya nitong pagdaan ng millennia – cable TV, ang internet, DTP, advanced computer softwares – at pagbaba ng presyo ng mga ito kaya mas naging madali na talaga ang maglabas ng zine. Ngayon ay di ka na makukulong sa estetikong cut and paste, although may iba pa ding gumagawa niyan at pinaninindigan ang purong dungis ng di-pulidong pag gugupit at pagdidikit, dahil maaari mo na itong i-lay-out sa PC gamit ang Adobe photoshop, pagemaker, at para sa mga di masyado techie nariyan ang mala-bobocam na MS Publisher. Karamihan nga sa mga una kong nakalap na zines ay ganito na ang pamamaraan ng kanilang paglalatag ng kanilang mga artikulo at larawan. Ngunit ang repro nito ay dumadaan pa din sa Xerox. Iilan lang ang lumalabas na offset-printed tulad ng Halo-Halo, ang unang zine na nilabas ng Dumpling Press, at ang mga Scenester, (yung mga glossy pocket versions ha, hindi yung mga Mario Alipio edited issues). May ibang newsletter/zines naman tulad ng Make Your Own na naka-Riso pero medyo mahal pa din ang method na ito kasi ang bayad dito per ream. Kung di mo balak magpamigay nga ng ganoong kadami (500 copies), aanhin mo nga yun?
Ngayon, nag-aaccelerate na naman ang presyo ng printing at papel, at dumami ang nagkaroon ng internet access sa promo ng PLDT DSL at instant phone line connection ng BAYANTEL. Ay sus, dati, abutin ka talaga ng taon bago makabitan ng telepono. Pero ngayon nga parang letsong manok at shawarmahan ding nagsulputan ang mga internet cafes. Kaya karamihan sa dating nagpi-print ay naging bloggers or LJers na lang, or Friendsters or Hi-5ers. Or gumagawa na lang ng kani-kaniyang website. MAs madali nga naman ito, menos gastos, at mas marami pa talagang maabot na network dahil dito, lalo na kung naka-WiFi pa ang Powerbook mo. Oi ang Lunar Landing di naman din nagpahuli at naglabas ng CDrom issue kasi can’t afford kami na magprint tsaka puro photos ang laman ng issue na to. Pero kailangangan pa naming mag-aral ng HTML para makagawa ng website. Iba na talaga ang kabataan ngayon, grabe!
Kung nasa liblib ka naman na probinsiya o di kaya ay di mo talaga matunton yang tech stuff na yan, mas pipilliin mo na lang din mag-print, kahit matagal, mabagal ang paglabas mo nito dahil at least walang mag-kacrash na system pag ginawa mo to this way. Ang pwede lang sigurong mag-crash ay ang utak mo sa kaka-isip o ang bank account mo sa pag-produce ng zine mo. It’s your choice, ma men.
“The Medium is the message.”
“Be your own media.”
“If you can’t lick ‘em, do ‘em in by self-publishin’.”
“Pirates all for the good of all.”
Yeah and world peace may be a selfish thing to wish for in this very diverse fractured world where everyday there’s a revolution going on. And what better way to be prepared for it than to be non-complacent. Look what happened to the town of Springfield when Lisa Simpson wished for it, they were gradually ravished by human-eating aliens. And you know what that metaphor means.
Mga pinagmulan ng sanaysay na ito :
ang aking alaala ng mga nagdaang taon kaya kung medyo may duda kayo sa mga pinagsusulat ko dito, check out the others, k?
Wikipedia.org – search for subculture
w.r.i.n.g the zine and the web site that’s linked to it
www.jawbreaker.ph
“Written Rebellions:Legitimizing Urban Subcultures of The Philippines Through Zines” by Lilledeshan Bose. 1st presented during an NCCA conference on New Filipino Writing. January 1999. Reprinted in Chopsuey. Published by Dumpling Press. 2002.
“Greg Shaw Remembers. . . .The Sixties Scene” from Scram issue 11, interview by Kim Cooper. Wikipedia linked to fanzines.
Zine Scene Revolution: Xerox Crazy Kids Sniffing Toner In The Office After Closing Time. Do or Die zine issue 10. pp. 299-309. googled through key word – fanzine history and/or the underground movement.
The Paper Trail : A Thriving Global Network Is A Boon To Local Zinesters by Jill Genio. Googled through key word – Zine convention and/or Dumpling Press
The Anthropophagic Dimensions Of Dada and Surrealism by Dawn Ades. Googled through key word – cannibale, Picabia, Dadaism.
Factsheet 5 : The Definitive Guide To The Zine Revolution. Issue 55. April 1995. USA.
Herald X: Alternative Music Read. Issue # 2. 4th quarter 1987. Manila.
The Shop: rock & roll Fanzine. A2Z Records. Anonas, QC.
The Function of Subculture. From The Cultural Reader. Edited by Simon During. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1999. pp 441-450. Googled through key words – Dick Hebdige, subculture.
Houghton Miffling Company Dictionary for the definition of subculture. Googled thorugh key word – subculture.
(Eto additional notes lang)
Read All About It (some accumulated zines, magazines all sorts )
The Bible (sham 69)
Sassy
Dirt
Down and Out In Berkeley
Cometbus
Halo-Halo 1 and 2
Dysfunxion 1 and 2
Martial Law Babies
Chopsuey
Monochrome Fiesta
Jawbreaker
Barangay Sesame
Newskaster
No More War
Oi Standard
Quatro
Ratroach
Rebel Tribe
Resist
Respire
Scrawlshop
State of The Scene
Get In Touch
Tattle Tale
Nerdcore
Thought Market
Unseen Assazine
Get In Touch
Dissent
Manila Oi
w.r.i.n.g.
maArte
cinemaregla
crest hut butt shop
book of frames
Illiterati
Monkey Milk
San’to
Tic Tiger
Johnny Longhand
Voice Out
And of course Lunar Landing 1 -10
[1] Di ko pa din masasabi na ito ang pinaka-accurate na definition ng subculture dahil patuloy naman kasi ito nage-evolve. Ang tuon ng pag-aaral ni Hebdige kasi nung gawin niya ang libro ay ang mga nag-emerge na mga subcultures sa Britain noong late 60s to 70s at ito ay ang mga teddies, mods, punks, etc – mga disenfranchised working class youths during Thatcher’s regime or earlier pa dahil nagsara ang maraming pabrika sa Inglatera.
[2] Mojo Navigator and Bomp were music writers like Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Danny Sugarman, Dave Marsh, Mike Saunders,etc debuted before selling out and writing for Rolling Stones, biographies of superstar bands such as the Doors and/or publishing analytical papers on specific musical genres, e.g. metal and the like.
[3] Interestingly, collage, pastiche and appropriation are forms of cultural cannibalism itself, “an iconic fruit of civilization according to Alfred Jarry. So Dada ate itself, and punk ate itself or rather devoured by the “other”. Inevitably, that’s the way all cultures will go.
[4] Of course, you can contest this. I haven’t read Guy De Bord’s Societe du Spectacle. Can I borrow your copy if you have one? Or better yet can I photocopy your book, huh dear reader?
[5] Di kaya ang Herald X ay lumabas lang ng 1987 dahil si Cory na ang presidente? Me zine ba na lumabas during martial law? Palagay ko wala kasi hulihan di ba? Kung meron man na galing sa UG, sinisira na nila agad ito para walang ebidensiya. Pero buhay ang Katrina’s noon. Hmmmmm.
[6] This may just be a wild guess as I just put two and two together. If you know some people I’ve mentioned here maybe you can ask them which is which. Thanks again.
[7] More of the “alternative scene” swindle – Levi’s appropriated the format of zines through “Fly”as a marketing tool during that time and these were given for free at dance parties. What made it worse was it so imitated Wired magazine that there’s nothing left to read, each graphic overlapped each other, like a photoshop lay-out gone haywire – sayang Lourd de Veyra used to contribute to that paper, and Chati Coronel of the comix collective Bedbugs did the graphics. Maybe they wouldn’t want to hear all about it now. Would you if you were them?
Another was an EMI mini-magazine which good ol’ Ernest Concepcion gave me as one of his pasalubongs from Tate. It was the size of a zine, and cut and pasted but through DTP but was all glossy and was just about their stable of artists. Man, what a rip-off that was!
A History of No F&*$#k!!!! Profit, No F&*$#k!!!! Fear, No F&*$#k!!!! Shame, No F&*$#k!!!! Rules,
No F&*$#k!!!! Censorship Publishing, Huh?!
Napag-uusapan lang namin noon ang maglabas ng fanzine habang tumatagay ng usong-usong gin pomelo sa may harap ng Surrounded By Water sa Angono. Naglaon ay nakumbinsi din ako ng dati kong kabandang si Yasmin aka Alice, na naglaon ay partner in crime na gawin ang tinatawag na Lunar Landing. Iniisip ko pa noon na mainam na excuse to para makalibre ng pasok sa mga gig at magsipuntahan sa mga sandamukal na mga opening at mga happening. Circa 1996-97, buhay pa Café Caribana sa Malate, ang Third World Café, nagtatanungan pa kaming magkaka-eskwela kung matutuloy ba ang gimik sa Reposo o sa may World Trade kung saan may rave o dance party. Nariyan ang pakikipagsulatan sa isang ka-penpal na manunulat kung makakadalo ba ang mga katropang Pranses sa aming lingguhang video-marathon at matapos ay gumawa-gawa ng kung anumang mga verso sa pang-anim na bote ng servesa sa Penguin.
Kung anu-ano tuloy na mga kuwento’t mga kadahilanan ang aking mga pinalulusot sa aking mga magulang para lang maging ganap na zine journalist kuno. At pagkuwa’y magakapaglimbag sa aking tinatanging publishing house na Routledge.
Kuwidaw ang maging zinester ay maging isa na ding scenester. At ano-ano ba ang mga scenes na to? Merong rrriot girrrrls, punk, oi, crust, crust core, rockabilly, psychobilly, hardcore, sXe, old school, new school, rock steady, ska, ska-punk, skinheads, Trojans, hammerskins, red skins, suedes, rudeboys, anarcho-punk, anarcho-skins, anarcho-femmes, anarcho-syndicalists, anarcho-primitivists, dark cabaret, goths, death rockers, rockers, chong, bluecats, disco, electroclash, junglists, new wavers, no wavers, dark wavers, new romantics, shoe gazers, indie pop, dream pop, space rock, art rock, avant rock, kraut rock, Prog rock, math rock, ravers, metal, death metal, black metal, Blackened death metal, gloom metal, rap metal, nu metal, thrash metal, Folk metal, Hair metal, glam metal, Power metal, Tech metal, Viking metal, Vedic metal, oriental Metal, Groove metal, Neo-classic metal, Celtic metal, Stoner metal, Gothenburg metal, Funk metal, speed metal, speed core, rap core, noise core, thrasher, emo core, sad core, slow core, mosh core, math core, grindcore, skate-core, skate-thrash, fashion core, queer core, hip hop, turntabolista, mobile, chavs, cyberpunks, cybergoths, reggae, raggare, skate punk, street punk, gutter punk, steam punk, horror punk, pop punk, conservative punk, Christian punk, SLC punks, Alcopunks, vegans, youthcrew, funkore, neo- Nazis, neo-fascist, neo-futurists, future pop, retro-futurists, Aristasians, hackers, demo scene, COSplayers, furries, teddies, MODS, swing kids, Edelweiss pirates, Hillbillies, gamers, MYSTers, freaks, hippies, Jesus freaks, Christian fundamentalists, visual Kei, BDSM, queer, nudists, rockers, Hells Angels, Bandidos, the Outlaws, the Pagans MC, the Black Power, Gypsy Jokers, the Nomads, the Straight Satans, the Rebels, The Rock Machines, Outlaw Motorcycle club, vampires, Japanophiles, Trekkies/Trekkers, filks, Goth Lolis, Ninnies, rivetheads, trancers, trainspotters, bosozokus, greasers, grungers, CB radio hobbyists, custom cars, cassette culture, Valley girls, Sloane rangers, COBRA group, Dadaists, surrealists, internationalists, situationists, fauves, trad jazzers, zootsuits, hepcats, beats, existentialists, surfers, new age travelers, yuppies, swingers, conspiracy theorists, CPP-NPA, NDF, huks, ABB, CND, Black Panther, Sapeurs, pachucos, dandies, bloggers, LJers, spooky kids, rednecks, white trash, rugby boys, nadsat, Luneta debaters, Barangka boys, Tandem, SLE, groupies in general, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. (parang entry sa slumbook – “too many to mention”)
Ang lahat nitong nabanggit at iba pa na maaring mabuo pa ay napapasailalim sa terminong “subculture”. Subalit, ang iba dito sa mga nabanggit na ito na mga subculture ay di kinakailangang taguriang “underground” tulad ng mga Mormons at mga fundamentalists o mga El Shaddai o mga nasa sa religious cults. (Although minsan kailangan ang iba dito ay maging covert dahil tinatawid na ang linya ng katanggap-tanggap at makataong mga rituales, kumbaga’y nagiging taboo na sa universal law of ethics. Maaring mataguri dito ang mga kasapi ng Church of Satan, Heaven’s Gate at iba pang kulto na nagpapalaganap ng mga ideolohiyang animoy taliwas sa Kristiyanismo.)
Ayon kay Dick Hebdige sa kaniyang seminal na aklat na “Subculture: The Meaning Of Style” (ang pangarap kong libro, baka meron kayo diyan na kopya, pahiram naman o paskor naman), ang subculture ay nabubuo bilang isang simbolikong reaksyon o diyalogo sa pangkabuuan o dominanteng kultura ng isang (kadalasan ay) industriyalisadong lipunan. Ang reaksyon na ito ay kadalasang kontra sa prevailing value system ng kulturang ito o parent culture kung tawagin. And because these subcultures are essentially reactionary, the elements or components of what makes them a subculture are actually taken from the subculture’s own environment, mores and history.[1] (Hindi ko kasi masabi to ng tama sa Filipinow, sorry.) Ngunit ang lumalabas na pinakaesensya ng mga ito ay ang pagdiskubre o paglikha ng sariling pagkakakilanlan (identity politics) at magkaroon sa mga miyembro ng mga subculture na ito ng solidaridad na nag-uugat sa pagkakakilanlan na ito. Ito marahil ang dahilan kung bakit ang karamihan sa mga subculture na ito ay napapalooban din ng mga alituntunin na sobrang detalyado, specific, elaborate upang ika nga magkaroon ng kaibahan sa karamihan : ang konseptong “us vs. them”. Ang konseptong ito ay maaring mailatag ng mga sociologist batay sa pangsosyo-ekonomiyang uri, lahi, paniniwala, sense of nationalism, uring pangsekswal.
Ang pagkakakilanlan ng mga subculture na ito ay nakikita sa kanilang pananamit, sa kanilang uri ng pagkilos o pagsayaw, kung paano nila gamitin ang kanilang leisure time, sa kanilang pananalita o jargon, sa pagbati sa kanilang kakapatiran, sa uri ng musika na kanilang pinakikinggan, mga pelikula’t lathalaing kanilang tinatangkilik, mga uri ng sasakyang pinamamadyak – lahat ng ito (atbp) ay kumakatawan sa kanilang ideolohiya bilang isang subculture at isa ang zine/fanzine na pumapaksa o nagdodokumento ng mga saloobin nito, ang pamantayan ng kanilang binuong kapatiran o pamayanan, ang manifesto ng kanilang kabuuan – bilang patunay sa kanilang pag-eexist, o maging uri ng pamamahayag ng kanilang kani-kaniyang pinaglalaban o pinagpupunyagi – be it noble or petty, man.
Ang Factsheet 5 ay mistulang bibliya ng lahat ng mga zinesters sa buong mundo na kung saan dun nila pinapadala ang kanilang mga gawang zines upang marebyu at makakuha ng mga contacts sa mga gustong umorder ng kanilang mga zines. Ito ay taunang lumalabas at mariing inaabangan sa mga booksale ang kopya nito kahit medyo luma na at noong mid 1990s pa ito nailathala. Dito madalas pinagkukunan ang kahulugan ng fanzine na : “ a small handmade amateur publication done purely out of passion, rarely making a profit or breaking even.” Ayon naman sa wikipedia (kung saan karamihan ng aking saliksik ay namgmula) ang zine o fanzine “ is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest.” Ang salitang ito ay naimbento ni Russ Chauvenet noong 1940 at unang lumaganap sa mundo ng mga sci-fi fans. Sabi naman ni Greg Shaw na naglimbag ng Mojo Navigator at Bomp[2], mga naunang music/rock zines noong 1960s sa San Francisco, mas maaga pa daw ito lumabas, sa katunayan ay noong 1920s pa dahil marami na daw noon ang mga sci-fi fanzine tulad ng isang sinimulan daw ng isang nangangalang Forrest J. Ackerman. Nagmula ito sa pakikipagsulatan ng mga fans na ito sa isa’t isa na sa simula ay nailalathala pa sa sci-fi magazine na Amazing Stories. Pero dahil dumadami at dumadami ang kanilang network, ang kanilang mga liham ay naging mga fanzines nang naglaon. Isa sa mga zines na ito ay ang The Comet na gawa ng isang grupo na kung tawagin ay Science Correspondence Club.
Ngunit ang self-publishing ay di namang bagong gawain na naimbento ng mga naturang subculture. Dahil natural lang sa isang indibidwal ang outlet na ito simula pa nang maimbento ang printing press. Sa gayong bagay, maaaring i-presume na ang mga malalaking polyeta’t mga pahayagan ay nagsimula din dito. Kaya?
Well, ayon sa Do or Die zine issue no. 10, ang mga posibleng naunang zines ay makikita sa mga nailathala ng Amateur Press Associations (APA) na umusbong noong 19th century sa US bilang reaksyon sa penny press. Ang mga amateur writers daw na ito ay nagbuo ng mga networks upang maipamahagi ang kanilang mga salaysayin na “walang pretension”. Ang mga manunulat na ito ay kinabubuoan din ng mga black and women writers. Pero parang natatandaan ko ang pinaka-forerunner ay ang isang farmer’s almanac na nailimbag ilang daang taon pang mahigit kesa dito sa nabanggit. (Pwede pakicheck, kasi nakikipirata lang ako ng signal pag nagi-internet ako. Salamat.)
Naging instrumental din ang teknolohiya sa development ng zines. Kumbaga ang produksyon nito ay sumasabay sa panahon kung kelan ito nagawa, maging ang interes o nilalaman nito. Ang zine kumbaga ay kumakatawan din sa zeitgeist ng isang naturang panahon. Hmm kaya lohikal din na ang mga naunang naglabasan na mga zine ay ukol sa sci-fi nang panahong nabanggit dahil kasagsagan ito ng mga scientific discoveries at una nang nararanasan ang epekto ng industrialisasyon – benepisyal man ito o pagulong sa dystopia.
Mula sa pagsulat kamay hanggang sa pag-gamit ng manual typewriter at carbon paper, spirit duplicator o hectographs, sa mga mimeograph machines at ngayon ang Xerox machine na pinupuslit ang pag-gamit pag wala ang boss o nagpapaalam pa na mag-overtime para makalibre sa paggamit nito, nagdaan din sa maraming anyo ang zine. Ang kadalasang nakikita sa kasalukuyan ay yaong binubuo ng mga 10 – 20 pahina ng short coupon bond na itinupi at naka-staple sa gitna. Although may mga iba naman na buong papel ang pinagsasama-sama at sa kaliwang gilid naman ito naka-staple. Karaniwang tinatawag ito na full-size, ang unang nabanggit ay half-size.
Anupaman ang nilalaman ng mga zines, ang nanatiling operative term is DIY na hango naman sa ideolohiya ng Punk. Kaya siguro marami ang nag-aakala na ang fanzine ay galing sa subculture na ito. Ang mga punks nga ayaw matawag na fanzine ang kanilang zines dahil ang salitang fan ay may nosyon ng pagpapasailalim sa exploitation ng capitalist commercial media na tahasan nilang nilalabanan. Kaya mas preferred nila ang term na punkzine.
DIY o Do-It-Yourself ay naging mahalagang motibasyon sa mga punks dahil sa sila nga ay taliwas sa conformity, sa mainstream, sa gobyerno, halos lahat, actually. Pero sinasabi naman ng mga cultural theorists, tulad ni Hebdige, ay naimpluwensiyahan lang daw sila ng mga Situationists, ng kosepto ng Society of the Spectacle. Understandably, punks then were at it, at first, for the bloody shock of Brittania, being anti-aesthetics, as an assemblage of ready-mades of cultural disposables (as were the Dadaists with their reams of pamphlets courtesy of Picabia, Tzara, i.e. Cannibale[3], among others ) and cultivating on salvaging/appropriating styles, slogans, eras, for their own search for meaning.[4] Hence, their zines which are all cut and paste affairs and which zine purists still adhere to on what constitutes a zine. Kaya tuloy minsan ang hirap basahin. Parang tingnan mo na lang siya, okay?
But I believe DIY is not wholly Punk as DIY is in essence the method of a dissenter. Or any dissenter for that matter. Hence, ang paggawa ng zine ay isang craft, a labor of love, a Molotov cocktail for the targeted offended party.
As a medium of dissenters maybe we can consider that the first zines (though not in that sense obviously as they were just conversing in spangol and tegalowg, and were using quills and inks or maybe even their own blood, hokay?) made here in Pinas were made by our own revolutionaries – Plaridel, Rizal, Jacinto, Bonifacio, and others who were within their circles at that time. These as evidenced by La Solidaridad, numerous pamphlets attacking the fat friars, the Kartilla which structured the Katipunan. Then there was also during the 30s Sakdal, isang lingguhang pahayagan na nasa tabloid format na nagsimbuyo sa pagkabuo ng mga Sakdalista. At noong panahon naman ng Hapon ay lumabas din ang nakamimeograph na Matang Lawin na ukol sa mga pagkilos noon ng mga guerilla.
And siyempre sa Tate nung naglabasan ang mga hippies and the counter-cultural movement (around late 50s – 60s), yung mga beat poets heroes nyo diyan, of course, naglabas din sila and they called these “chapbooks”, git? And these contained their poetry, heady stuff, git? Well, but Kerouac admitted that he, in particular was just influenced by Sartre, git? And drunk cups and cups and cups of coffee while listening to the most happenin’ hepcats, git? With burroughs, ginsberg, cassady, genet, and those other cool cats, git? In Haight- Ashburry, git? Which is nea’ Berkeley, git? So, there was also the comix thing, git? With Crumb, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch, Spain Rodriguez, Bill Griffith, Justin Green, Trinna Robbins, git? Y’know Zap, Furry Freaky bros, Funny Animals, them all comix that were put an x on it coz it’s not allowed by the comics code, git? ‘Cos these comix don’t give a F@#&*k about spandex heroes and we have cats f@#kn, and big boobies, and coke snorters, the like, git?
Freedom, git? Becoming your own media is the thing with the zine. Doubly deadly it attracts flies to honey, or dopes to glue, like Sniffin Glue, ang pinakasikat na UK punkzine na gawa ni Mark Perry at lumabas noong 1976 – 1977 for 12 issues. Sa Pinas naman, ay ang Herald X, kaya lang medyo huli na, bandang 1987 siya lumabas, sa 2nd revival na ng Punk movement.[5] Eto, ang hawak kong kopya naka-ziplock pa pero nahiram ko lang din sa isang kaibigan, di ko na naibalik. Maalala pa kaya niya? Hiniram ko kasi ito noong mag-organize ako ng zinecon sa SBW noong 2000. Me exhibit baga ng mga zines alinsabay sa mga illustrations nina Vic Balanon, Ferdz Valencia, LAkay Ranjo and Argie BAndoy mula sa sarili nilang comics na Quatro. Saling pusa lang daw noon si Fletch.
Ang Herald X ay naglalaman din ng mga gig, album reviews, reprints galing sa ibang magazine(New Musical Epress or Maximum Rock n Roll marahil) o zines. Kaya siguro siya naging landmark punkzine ng Pinas dahil sa comics article na Great Moments In The History of Punk plus The Evolution of Pinoi Punk. No other known publication published such and so Herald X was it. Otherwise, they were already printing articles about similar stuff sa Jingle magazine pa. And Jingle started some 10 years before Herald X. Moreover, they had the same staff, almost. The staff of Herald X was composed of Tommy Tanchanco as the editor and as the producer of those Twisted Red Cross albums and who now goes by the name of Jughead at The Phil. Mac Users forum/ site where he narrates his experience in Herald X as : “ pretty much a one-man show, well two, if you count the artist; the publisher who financed the project but who wasn’t really the hands-on type; and except for 1 or 2 contributions. I wrote just about everything. To create the illusion that the ‘zine was well-staffed and had many writers. I used different by-lines for most of the articles. . . .” He picked up the Jughead name daw kasi he’s a big fan of the Clash (the band that really matters, according to one music critic) and its guitarist Mick Jones “who is fondly called by music critics” as such. [6]
The others in the staff were : Edwin P. Sallan, Dodong A. Viray (who later in the 90s formed The Youth), Dominic Gamboa, Arnold Morales, Bong Arquiza, George Imbecile, Col. Popop, Ikang, Je Bautista, Al Dimalanta (of The Dead Ends), Bong Llamanzares, Mary Anne Gonzalez, Didits Gonzalez, Nigel Strange (sounds fictitious), Kathy Rosmer, Camille Ortanez; and the comix/ illustrations were provided by : Gari Santillan, Romeo Lee (of course, The Wild Thing), Gemo Tapales, (Emong) Borlongan (he became a very famous painter na), Roxlee (of course si Idol), Dengcoy Miel, Boyet Miguel, Casie Villarosa, Roehl Santillan. And a dozen or so letters from so called : BJ the Punk of Kanlaon Sta. Mesa Heights (who I also suspect as the same BJ of Rock n Rhythm, kaya?), the president of the punk tribe of Pasig – The Dead Rebels which was founded by Eric Amarante, Rey Payumo from LA who was a vocalist of a band BROADAX that’s based there, one who called himself Noodles and is a Fil-am punk from Livermore CA, Ronnie Leeches Romero of Punks For Peace of San Simon Pampanga who was then about to leave for Canada and was asking the editor if he can be a correspondent, a “confused” Arnel of Malabon who wanted to join War Resisters League an organization being set-up by Dominic then, Ronald Forfieda of Pateros who wrote about his bro/katribo being beaten up by an outsider at a gig at Ortanez and was quite pissed when he wasn’t seen on the screen when Probe did a coverage of that gig, he sent another letter, George Allan Poe of Las Piñas ranting against Satanists and the UG being mixed up with it, etc. etc.
Ilan sa mga nabanggit dito tulad ng mga illustrators na sina Romeo Lee, Roxlee at Dengcoy Miel, kasama ni Ladigohon, ay matagal nang nagco-contribute sa Jingle mag lalo na nung ¼ pa ang sukat nito, madaling ibulsa lalo na’t papasok ka sa kubeta. (kaya ba siya Jingle? At kaya ba ang logo nito isang kerubin na jumijingel?) Although, noong una itong lumabas, sumusunod ito sa karaniwang format ng mga music magazines – kasing-size nito na para ngang magazine at may mga reprints ng mga lyrics ng mga usong kanta, complete with chords pa. Mayroon kaming unang kopya nito na may larawan ng mushroom cloud bilang pabalat at ang laman nito ay pawang mga kanta ng Beatles at iba na may tamang peace, man. Kahit di man ikonsidera ang Jingle na isang zine, malaki din ang naging impluwensiya sa mga sumunod na lathalain na ukol sa musika, di man sa format o nilalaman (na may band/singer profiles, posters, comics, letters, record reviews/ratings, ads, guitar techniques, music history,) naipakilala din nito ang mga sulatin nina Ninotchka Rosca, Juaniyo Arcellana, Joey Ayala noong siya’y estudyante pa at iba pa na di ko na matandaan kasi naitapon na ng tatay ko ang mga kopya namin, ngunit nagbunsod at nagtanim ng mapupusok na kamalayan sa ilalim ng Bagong Lipunan ni Marcos. Noong kalauna’y nawala na din ang jingle dahil nagdagsaan ang maraming imprenta na naglilimbag na din ng mga music magazines, mas maliliit ang mga ito at kasing-laki ng mga komiks (i.e. Solid Gold) at mas tinangkilik ng masa dahil mas marami itong nafi-feature na mga kanta at artikulo tungkol sa Menudo, Raymond Lauchengco, and the like.
So, siguro, yung two-issue na Herald X ay mini project din kaya ng Jingle mag?
May isa pa akong nahiram na zine. Actually, nakaipit ito sa loob ng Herald X – ang The Shop, 16 na pahina na offset-printed sa newsprint, pero siyempre matagal na kaya madilaw na ito. Ipinagbibili ng 10 piso, nakabase sa proj. 2 kung saan din nakabase ang A2Z records. Ang may pakana nito ay sina : Leslie David, Manny Espinola at Ces Rodiguez. May lyrics din ditong nakapaloob (Blister In The Sun ng Violent Femmes at Damaged Goods ng Gang of Four). Halos kaalinsabay nito ang paglabas ng isa ding music magazine, ang Score magazine. Ngunit ang The Shop ay mukhang mas low-budget at mas “iba” ang nilalaman : Pussy Galore, Camper Van Beethoven, Sugar Cubes, Felt, Tupelo Chain Sex, Swans, Velvet Underground, kesa sa karamihan ng punkzines. At dahil nababaduyan sila sa commercialization ng New Wave at predicting another thing coming in the underground scene, or trying to get away from it all – the punk and the chong and to go back to listening good old rock so that’s why they called themselves a rock n roll fanzine. This is probably the precursor to Toti Dalmacion’s Groove Nation records (because they were also selling records) and/or the Scenester zine which came about in the early to mid 90s who were mostly writing about the same bands and/or the newer bands that were influenced by those mentioned and were trying to mesh the dance scene with it or be esoteric with such fandom of those genres. Or did I misconstrue them for their distribution venues such as dance parties?
Di ko alam kung naka-ilang issues tong The Shop.
Anyways, ang Score Magazine ay naka 10 issues at least, dahil di naman talaga ito zine. Mukha lang siyang zine pero glossy ang cover niya, take note. Maraming ads from Eurorock shirt, Top 40, Shambhu, Arte Linea, High Adventure at Khumbmela. Nakakuha ako ng 1 kopya nito sa isang booksale. Ang cover pa noon ay ang bandang Mere Mercy na nagko-cover ng mga kanta ng The Cult. And the usual, may profiles, reviews and lyrics, pero walang chords. Para siguro ito sa mga aattend ng gigs na manonood ng covers ng kanilang fave chong song so they can sing along.
Mga bandang early 90s, eksenang “alternative” music, lumabas naman ang Rock n’ Rhythm. Nasa isang boring na kolehiyo ako nang panahon na ito at pilit na umiiwas sa eksena ng Rhythm n Blues at Boom d’ Bass na nagkalat sa harapan ng San Beda sa katanghaliang tapat. Kaya nahalina ako noon na bumili ng mga issue ng RnR sa me bangketa sa harap ng aking Holy Mamaw skultoPhinish. Baduy ba? E wala e. Kasi 7 years old pa lang naman ako noong unang umusbong punk movement kaya no?
Ang Rock n’ Rhythm ay isa ding music magazine na mas nakapattern sa dating Jingle mag. Kasing sukat ito ng Solid Gold and the like pero ang kinaibahan nito ay ang pokus nito sa “alternative” music, foreign man o local. Well, kaya din siguro ito tumagal na napondohan dahil naging big business din kasi ang so-called “alternative scene”. Alam ‘nyo na yan, no. Ang punong patnugot nito ay si BJ Cabaluna na miyembro ng bandang Bad Days For Mary at may-ari ng Just Say Rock, isang puwesto sa Cartimar Recto na naging bagsakan ng mga zines, at iba pang DIY stuff, like shirts, posters, bootlegged cassette tapes, accessories, etc. Sayang.. . . sayang.. . . .di na maibabalik pa. . . . . . . ang .. . . . . Anyway, editor din siya ng isang sex zine na Wendy Says.
Ang iba pa sa staff ng RnR ay naglabas din ng kani-kanilang zines. Dahil masyado ding diverse ang kanilang interes sa music, viz ang “alternative music”[7] kasi ay pawang revival ng lahat ng mga nagdaang music genre, particular sa rock music, kaya nagsilang ito sa mas marami pang music genre na actually ay cross-over lang naman ng mga naunang genre, git? So, mula sa ilang mga staff ng RnR, may nabuo ding eksena ng mga zinesters, dahil ang karaniwang nilalaman ng kanilang mga zines ay di nakasentro sa musika o politika lamang. Pinakasinasaalang-alang nila ang kanilang mga personal na karanasan, insights sa pinagdadaanan nilang eksesang ito. Kumbaga, dahil sa pagbibigay pokus sa indibidwalismo ng 1990s kaya naging motto ng mga perzines or personal zines ay “ the personal is political.” Aside from the perzines, the staff also released a one-issue zine called Rolling Paper. It was in the same style as Herald X but only because they have seemingly convinced management to have one teeny-weeny hand at publishing. While the 80s had these punks against chongs or wavers, the feuds of the 90s were about hiphoppers against punks (again !) and rockers or rockistas and that’s were most zines were about – defending one’s own turf.
Ilan sa mga ito ay ang : w.r.i..n.g ni wendi, catatonia ni donna, La Puztiso, Tattle Tale nina Reji and Blessela among the throng. These were also the ones I first got acquainted with when I was introduced to the zine scene. Then I found out later that Yasmin has done something like it way back in Silang and has interviewed the band Abrasive Relations for it. It was actually her who made me do it, y’know, the zine.
Naririnig ko din ng mga panahon na yun ang grupo ng sining ekis na pinamumunuan ni Elvert Bañares.Gumagawa-gawa din sila ng mga comix trough their publishing arm Zenith Graphix. Isa rito ang Fever Fungus. Pero mas kapuna-puna ata sila sa eksena ng performance sa dating Club Dredd at iba pang mga events sa Malate. The only contact I had with him though is when I had to interview him for a term paper, then for our own zine, then sometimes during the openings ‘coz he also exhibits.
Then came Rey “Peace” Bravo’s employment as purchaser of reading materials at Tower Records in Makati which helped proliferate and marketed the zine to a broader audience – there were issues of Slug and Lettuce, Maximum Rock n Roll, books on homemade bombs, and such that were only available by mail-order or through trade. Also with the generous and unwavering efforts of the duo Claire Villacorta and Paolo Cruz. who with their created distro network and publishing company, Dumpling Press, was able to sell zines at Tower and through a lot more venues beyond gigs and conventions. This consequently produced such unprecedented fervor to produce and distribute a lot more zines, making zineing a scene in itself. The only con about this phenomenon is you’ll have to fish through the filth to find the gold because it’s that many and not all of them are what it’s worth for the trade. As Forrest Gump would eloquently address it : “Life is like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what u gonna get.”
However Perzines weren’t that novel as today as this has been realized before in the 60s by Greg Shaw of Mojo Navigator and Bomp and terms this instead as “personal journalism”. His zines were actually proses for the stuff which he liked, including his “comments on world politics, gossip, anything. It was self-expression trying to be entertaining and possibly humorous.. . . . and the people who had a good personality and could express it became the stars of that world. . . .. . . the culture of publishing these magazines, and meeting at conventions, and having parties. . . . .” So perzines, have increasingly become the path to a zinester’s 15 minutes of fame or until that ink holds on to that paper – the creation of a subculture of one’s self. So does that mean, if you don’t like his/her zine you won’t like him/her at all as a person? Hmmmmmmm……well that’s one way of choosing your fiends or friends, ain’t it?
Jump cut to 2001, Surrounded By Water, EDSA, 2nd Zine Con na tinulungan kong i-organize with Claire and Paolo. Wow, jampacked! Kung ganoon kadami ang scene, mas madami din ang zinesters, kasi ang iba dito ay dalawa-tatlo title ang ginagawa. And may workshops pa na kung saan doon ko na natutunan ang iba pang zinester tricks of the trade na pag-recycle ng postage stamp, pag-recycle ng envelope, pag-siksik sa lay-out ng contents, paano makabarat sa suking photocopier, atbp. Dito din ako nakakalap ng iba pang zines na bumubuo ngayon sa aking collecciones.
Dahil sa influx na din ng napakadaming impluwensiya sa media na dagling pinadali pa ng teknolohiya nitong pagdaan ng millennia – cable TV, ang internet, DTP, advanced computer softwares – at pagbaba ng presyo ng mga ito kaya mas naging madali na talaga ang maglabas ng zine. Ngayon ay di ka na makukulong sa estetikong cut and paste, although may iba pa ding gumagawa niyan at pinaninindigan ang purong dungis ng di-pulidong pag gugupit at pagdidikit, dahil maaari mo na itong i-lay-out sa PC gamit ang Adobe photoshop, pagemaker, at para sa mga di masyado techie nariyan ang mala-bobocam na MS Publisher. Karamihan nga sa mga una kong nakalap na zines ay ganito na ang pamamaraan ng kanilang paglalatag ng kanilang mga artikulo at larawan. Ngunit ang repro nito ay dumadaan pa din sa Xerox. Iilan lang ang lumalabas na offset-printed tulad ng Halo-Halo, ang unang zine na nilabas ng Dumpling Press, at ang mga Scenester, (yung mga glossy pocket versions ha, hindi yung mga Mario Alipio edited issues). May ibang newsletter/zines naman tulad ng Make Your Own na naka-Riso pero medyo mahal pa din ang method na ito kasi ang bayad dito per ream. Kung di mo balak magpamigay nga ng ganoong kadami (500 copies), aanhin mo nga yun?
Ngayon, nag-aaccelerate na naman ang presyo ng printing at papel, at dumami ang nagkaroon ng internet access sa promo ng PLDT DSL at instant phone line connection ng BAYANTEL. Ay sus, dati, abutin ka talaga ng taon bago makabitan ng telepono. Pero ngayon nga parang letsong manok at shawarmahan ding nagsulputan ang mga internet cafes. Kaya karamihan sa dating nagpi-print ay naging bloggers or LJers na lang, or Friendsters or Hi-5ers. Or gumagawa na lang ng kani-kaniyang website. MAs madali nga naman ito, menos gastos, at mas marami pa talagang maabot na network dahil dito, lalo na kung naka-WiFi pa ang Powerbook mo. Oi ang Lunar Landing di naman din nagpahuli at naglabas ng CDrom issue kasi can’t afford kami na magprint tsaka puro photos ang laman ng issue na to. Pero kailangangan pa naming mag-aral ng HTML para makagawa ng website. Iba na talaga ang kabataan ngayon, grabe!
Kung nasa liblib ka naman na probinsiya o di kaya ay di mo talaga matunton yang tech stuff na yan, mas pipilliin mo na lang din mag-print, kahit matagal, mabagal ang paglabas mo nito dahil at least walang mag-kacrash na system pag ginawa mo to this way. Ang pwede lang sigurong mag-crash ay ang utak mo sa kaka-isip o ang bank account mo sa pag-produce ng zine mo. It’s your choice, ma men.
“The Medium is the message.”
“Be your own media.”
“If you can’t lick ‘em, do ‘em in by self-publishin’.”
“Pirates all for the good of all.”
Yeah and world peace may be a selfish thing to wish for in this very diverse fractured world where everyday there’s a revolution going on. And what better way to be prepared for it than to be non-complacent. Look what happened to the town of Springfield when Lisa Simpson wished for it, they were gradually ravished by human-eating aliens. And you know what that metaphor means.
Mga pinagmulan ng sanaysay na ito :
ang aking alaala ng mga nagdaang taon kaya kung medyo may duda kayo sa mga pinagsusulat ko dito, check out the others, k?
Wikipedia.org – search for subculture
w.r.i.n.g the zine and the web site that’s linked to it
www.jawbreaker.ph
“Written Rebellions:Legitimizing Urban Subcultures of The Philippines Through Zines” by Lilledeshan Bose. 1st presented during an NCCA conference on New Filipino Writing. January 1999. Reprinted in Chopsuey. Published by Dumpling Press. 2002.
“Greg Shaw Remembers. . . .The Sixties Scene” from Scram issue 11, interview by Kim Cooper. Wikipedia linked to fanzines.
Zine Scene Revolution: Xerox Crazy Kids Sniffing Toner In The Office After Closing Time. Do or Die zine issue 10. pp. 299-309. googled through key word – fanzine history and/or the underground movement.
The Paper Trail : A Thriving Global Network Is A Boon To Local Zinesters by Jill Genio. Googled through key word – Zine convention and/or Dumpling Press
The Anthropophagic Dimensions Of Dada and Surrealism by Dawn Ades. Googled through key word – cannibale, Picabia, Dadaism.
Factsheet 5 : The Definitive Guide To The Zine Revolution. Issue 55. April 1995. USA.
Herald X: Alternative Music Read. Issue # 2. 4th quarter 1987. Manila.
The Shop: rock & roll Fanzine. A2Z Records. Anonas, QC.
The Function of Subculture. From The Cultural Reader. Edited by Simon During. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1999. pp 441-450. Googled through key words – Dick Hebdige, subculture.
Houghton Miffling Company Dictionary for the definition of subculture. Googled thorugh key word – subculture.
(Eto additional notes lang)
Read All About It (some accumulated zines, magazines all sorts )
The Bible (sham 69)
Sassy
Dirt
Down and Out In Berkeley
Cometbus
Halo-Halo 1 and 2
Dysfunxion 1 and 2
Martial Law Babies
Chopsuey
Monochrome Fiesta
Jawbreaker
Barangay Sesame
Newskaster
No More War
Oi Standard
Quatro
Ratroach
Rebel Tribe
Resist
Respire
Scrawlshop
State of The Scene
Get In Touch
Tattle Tale
Nerdcore
Thought Market
Unseen Assazine
Get In Touch
Dissent
Manila Oi
w.r.i.n.g.
maArte
cinemaregla
crest hut butt shop
book of frames
Illiterati
Monkey Milk
San’to
Tic Tiger
Johnny Longhand
Voice Out
And of course Lunar Landing 1 -10
[1] Di ko pa din masasabi na ito ang pinaka-accurate na definition ng subculture dahil patuloy naman kasi ito nage-evolve. Ang tuon ng pag-aaral ni Hebdige kasi nung gawin niya ang libro ay ang mga nag-emerge na mga subcultures sa Britain noong late 60s to 70s at ito ay ang mga teddies, mods, punks, etc – mga disenfranchised working class youths during Thatcher’s regime or earlier pa dahil nagsara ang maraming pabrika sa Inglatera.
[2] Mojo Navigator and Bomp were music writers like Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Danny Sugarman, Dave Marsh, Mike Saunders,etc debuted before selling out and writing for Rolling Stones, biographies of superstar bands such as the Doors and/or publishing analytical papers on specific musical genres, e.g. metal and the like.
[3] Interestingly, collage, pastiche and appropriation are forms of cultural cannibalism itself, “an iconic fruit of civilization according to Alfred Jarry. So Dada ate itself, and punk ate itself or rather devoured by the “other”. Inevitably, that’s the way all cultures will go.
[4] Of course, you can contest this. I haven’t read Guy De Bord’s Societe du Spectacle. Can I borrow your copy if you have one? Or better yet can I photocopy your book, huh dear reader?
[5] Di kaya ang Herald X ay lumabas lang ng 1987 dahil si Cory na ang presidente? Me zine ba na lumabas during martial law? Palagay ko wala kasi hulihan di ba? Kung meron man na galing sa UG, sinisira na nila agad ito para walang ebidensiya. Pero buhay ang Katrina’s noon. Hmmmmm.
[6] This may just be a wild guess as I just put two and two together. If you know some people I’ve mentioned here maybe you can ask them which is which. Thanks again.
[7] More of the “alternative scene” swindle – Levi’s appropriated the format of zines through “Fly”as a marketing tool during that time and these were given for free at dance parties. What made it worse was it so imitated Wired magazine that there’s nothing left to read, each graphic overlapped each other, like a photoshop lay-out gone haywire – sayang Lourd de Veyra used to contribute to that paper, and Chati Coronel of the comix collective Bedbugs did the graphics. Maybe they wouldn’t want to hear all about it now. Would you if you were them?
Another was an EMI mini-magazine which good ol’ Ernest Concepcion gave me as one of his pasalubongs from Tate. It was the size of a zine, and cut and pasted but through DTP but was all glossy and was just about their stable of artists. Man, what a rip-off that was!
High life-loafer
High!buhay Artist
Itong panulat/kolum na ito ay halaw sa isang regular na kolum sa Remate. Ngunit dito sa Xsena, ito ay isang melodramatikong paglalahad ng pakikibaka sa buhay ng mga alagad ng sining na kapupulutan ng aral ng ating mga suking buyers, gallery goers, groupies, curators, atbp. Bagama’t ’di tiyak na makakapaggantimpala ang mga patnugot ng Xsena sa mga tatanghaling Best Stories na inyong isusumite, ito nawa’y magsilbing gabay o kahit man lang panandaliang aliw para sa inyo, inspirasyon man kung sakali. Kaya’t simulan na ang pagtangkilik ng pahayagan na ito at mapabasakali na ang inyong buhay ay matuunan ng pansin (lalo na kung ramdam nyo na kulang kayo sa pansin). Maaring magpadala ang artist/pintor/skultor/ performance artist/photographer/ film maker/ writer/ art dept/ production designer/ set man/ gaffer/ foley/ soundman/ art teacher/ illustrator/ musician at sino pa man ng kanyang kasaysayan sa pamamagitan ng pagsagot sa mga katanungang makikita sa High!buhay Artist. Lakipan ito ng larawan na nasa aktong gumagawa ng obra at kasama ng pamilya o katropa saka ipadala sa High!buhay Artist c/o Xsena blah blah blah blah.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Jordan Leyva Orriocerio : Di Masaya Ang Opening Kung Walang Toma
Si Jordan Leyva Orricerio o minsan ay JLo sa kanyang mga malalapit na kaibigan ay isang pintor na nakabase sa Murphy, Cubao tabi ng isang overpriced na carinderia at isang shawarmahan na ang may-ari ay mga Ilokanong Muslim. Kasama niya ditong nananahan ay ang kanyang kasintahan na si Nelia Estuwardo na isa ding artist. Sa una’y mukhang mabangis na hayop ang anyo ni JLo dahil sa kanyang makapal na buhok at pasuray-suray na paglakad, ngunit sa malalapit na kaibigan siya ay matataguriang walang katapat – mabait, mahusay makisama, masayahin at mapagparaya. Marami ding mga kritiko at patron ang sa simula’y natatakot sa kanya ngunit naglaon ay nadiskubre din nila ang kaniyang pambihirang galing at kakaibang mga imahe kanyang naipipinta. Patunay nito ang pagkapanalo niya sa isang patimpalak para sa sining at pagdagsa ng mga alok sa pag-eeksibit sa ibang bansa. Ang iba dito’y kanyang tinalikuran dahil naniniwala siya na ang tunay na pakikibaka ng isang artist ay nanatiling sa kanyang sarili pa din at sa kanyang pinagmulan.
Xsena : Ano ang iyong pinipinta at estilo ng iyong pagpipinta?
JLo : Shit man. Ewan ko kahit ano. Style ? Wala!
Xsena : Bakit pagpipinta ang iyong napiling hanapbuhay ?
JLo : I’m a painter kasi.
Xsena : Gaano ka na katagal sa hanapbuhay na ito ?
JLo : This is forever, man.
Xsena : Ano ang dati mong trabaho ?
JLo : Tambay.
Xsena : Paano ang iyong kita bilang pintor: Sapat ba, kulang, katamtaman o sobra?
JLo : Kulang at sobra.
Xsena : Ano ang iyong kakayahan o talento bukod sa pagpipinta ?
JLo : Wala – matulog, kumain, tumoma. Tsaka pala mahusay akong kumanta ng “My Way”.
Xsena : Paano nakatutulong ang mga ito sa iyong paghahanapbuhay bilang pintor?
JLo : Wala. Walang epekto. Masaya lang kasi tumoma at kumanta, di ba?
Xsena : Ano ang paborito mo sa kwentuhan at bakit?
JLo : Kalokohan lang para masaya lang pero yung may sense naman, men.
Xsena : Sinong ibang artist o gallery ang paborito mo at bakit?
JLo : Wala ako lang. Gallery wala din, pare-pareho lang sila.
Xsena : Sinong ibang artist o gallery ang pinakaayaw mo at bakit?
JLo : Marami, halos lahat. Ewan ko kasi nagbabago naman ginagawa nila habang tumatagal. Siguro yung mga taga. . . . . ay huwag na lang. Baka bugbugin nila ako.
Xsena : Sa pagdating ng panahon, para kanino ka – kay Lord o kay Satanas?
JLo : Ay no comment ako diyan.
Xsena : Ano ang hindi mo makakalimutang karanasan sa iyong hanapbuhay?
JLo : Wala e, lagi ako knock-out o me hang-over.
Xsena : Ano ang mensahe mo sa iba kaugnay sa iyong karanasan ?
JLo : Huh? A. . . e.. . . .Pag beer, beer lang, hard, hard lang. O tapos na tayo?
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