Arts and culture on the net (2nd week of 2010)

Another week, another serving of arts and culture--an aspect of our nation that we might want to pay a bit more attention to, given that the Philippines has been named the "Cultural Capital of Asia," at least for 2010 and 2011 (according to the Manila Times), as we play host to an ASEAN meeting on culture and arts in March. With that in mind, here are a few selected posts from our favorite sources, divided into categories for your convenience, which were published in the second full week of 2010.

Image source: http://munimunistories.com/v1/?p=414

Komiks:

Lola: A Ghost Story is a graphic novel from Oni Books, with a story by J. Torres (Love as a Foreign Language and Teen Titans Go!) and art by Elbert Or (Bakemono High and The More the Manyer). It tells the story of a boy who returns with his family to the Philippines for the funeral of his grandmother. The book should be out in comics stores, with bookstore distribution to follow. You can check out some reviews at School Library Journal, Comic Book Resources, and Comic Impact, or check out the 17-page preview at the sites mentioned here.

Speaking of comics, komiks creator macoy (I recently reviewed his “Ang Maskot“) posts an embedded video of a Kubori Kikiam motion comic (which is obviously NSFW) and an animated mock opening to “The Metro” by Jerome Jacinto –which, I confess, I’ve never heard of before, but it looks awesome.

Television:

MTRCB suspends ABS-CBN morning show “Showtime” (Brink Notes Entertainment Daily): Noontime shows must be our controversy-magnet equivalent of America's late night shows. Once you're done reading about the fallout on Rosanna Roces' supremely tactful comments (if by tactful one means the exact opposite), you can then read her reaction to the penalty imposed on her (by ABS-CBN) and on the show (by the MTRCB). Surprisingly, the Teachers Dignity Coalition, one of the groups which denounced Roces' statements, took the position that the penalty imposed by the MTRCB was excessive.

Cinema:

The Best of 2009, the Best of the Decade (Critic After Dark): Noel Vera posts a series of lists to help put the previous decade in Philippine and International cinema into perspective, putting down his bets for Best Philippine and International Films of the Decade, as well as his choices for top filmmakers and movies that deserve to be better known.

Ambisyon 2010 (ABS-CBN): six rookie filmmakers have won the right to join ABS-CBN's "Ambisyon 2010" project, which aims to produce short films that tackle pressing national issues like poverty, population control, education, health, and others. The six now join fourteen pre-selected filmmakers amongst whose number are included the likes of Brillante Mendoza and Raymond Red. No pressure right?

Poverty at Large (Click the City): a review of the movie "Puntod", which in some ways can be seen as an addendum to the discussion of Poverty Porn in the Philippine Star during Week 1.

Book and Words:

And the 'Word of the Decade Is'… (ABS-CBN) : It's not 'truthiness', more's the pity. I wonder what the Philippine word of the decade would be? I'd bet on a top five that includes "i-memorize." Sigh.

On Publishing (Makamisa): Over at her new blog, Editor-in-Chief Kristine Mandigma posts some thoughts on publishing in the Philippines in the wake of the release of El Indio.

Project 20:10 is a project with the two-fold mission of drumming up support for local creators, and increasing the amount of local content in fiction, comics, animation and gaming. I’ll have an interview with project organizer Ria Lu (of Talecraft fame) here on Metakritiko soon, so watch out for that.

The Poems of Tulaan sa Tren (POC): In case you guys missed the new "Off the Beaten Track" banner at the top right of the POC homepage, here's a reminder that the POC has posted the poems of Tulaan sa Tren 2 online.

Amazon DTP goes International (Philippine Genre Stories): When the Kindle went international, Amazon made its book reading hardware available worldwide… Now it's doing the same with its self-publishing platform.

Visual Arts:

Juvenal Sanso: Global Filipino Artist (Manila Times): A profile piece on world renowned Filipino artist Juvenal Sanso.

Through rose-tinted lenses (Philippine Star): Maria Jorica B. Pamintuan reflects on the importance and popularity of cameras in modern life.

Music:

‘Kundiman’ singing competition (Manila Times): a look at the government's attempts to revive the art of the Kundiman via a competition aired on NBN 4 show "Sining Gising."

Fashion:

Henry Calayag's Best Tressed List (Philippine Star): Tim Yap gives us the "Hair Hall of Famers" according to Henry Calayag. I wonder what Mr. Calayag would say about Conan O'Brien's hair?

Fandom:

Leading local anime/manga blogger Magnetic-Rose has posted a few helpful top fives that might help over-enthusiastic fans from getting themselves into trouble: Top Five Tips on Holding Cosplay Photo Shoots and Top Five Tips on Buying Anime and Cosplay Merchandise from Multiply Sellers.

Event Announcements and Schedules: No summaries here, just a list of links with dates you may want to mark in your event/deadline calendars.