Freddie Aguilar vs. The World = The Worst in the Filipino

I wanted to post here the speech of Alex Lacson, author of the book “12 Little Things Filipinos Can Do To Help Our Country”, at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government during the GK Global Summit in Boston on June 12-14, 2009. It is about what he believes to be the core values that could serve as the foundations of the culture of greatness we wish to build for the Filipino. But I will post that tomorrow. Instead, let's take a look at the current word war between Freddie Aguilar and some Filipino singers, and its aftermath. The situation is a good example of what Alex Lacson is talking about.

Background: In an interview Freddie Aguilar made unfortunate remarks against Arnel Pineda and Charice Pempengco, the current toasts of the local music industry for their recent success in the American music scene. Ka Freddie lashed at Arnel and Charice. He boldly said that the two proved what Mariah Carey once said about Filipinos being like monkeys for aping others' styles. That was uncalled for since the Mariah Carey remark was just an Internet hoax, in the first place. Then Ka Freddie also dragged Gary Valenciano into the word war by saying Gary would be more popular if he does not imitate Michael Jackson and Al Jarreau. Needless to say, the singers responded (1, 2). Other columnists joined the fray, and a full word war erupted.

Freddie's beef was primarily the choice of songs by Charice, Arnel, and Gary. Somehow he equates nationalism with singing Tagalog (not Filipino). Just for that, he may yet enter into another word war with Cebuanos and those who speak other dialects. I believe his is a narrow-minded mindset in view of the globalization trend. Arnel and Charice catered to specific markets, just as Freddie captured the folk market before. Their styles, however American oriented, don't undo their being Filipinos. In fact they are billed as coming from the Philippines. In the light of the many influences in our culture, what is a real Filipino anyway?

I will not venture an answer to that this time.

Let us reflect on what Ka Freddie's thoughtless thoughts led to. For all those remarks, many now call Freddie Aguilar names like unggoy, crab, talangka. He is accused of having crab mentality. Those who got angry with Freddie jeer him as the proverbial Filipino talangka that tries to pull down anyone who attains success. The Wikipedia article about him was altered . The defaced article described him as crabby and the worst song writer in the region. His contribution to the anti-Marcos movement was changed from "Bayan Ko" to "Talangka Ako". A screenshot appears below.

Initially, I found it amusing. Since the interview came out last July 6, the Wikipedia page was repeatedly edited to disgrace him. All attempts to correct it was countered by another defacement. This is a link to the revision history of the article. But on second thought, those who defame Ka Freddie this way is not only doing the Filipino legend a great disservice. By their vandalism, they abuse the wiki concept, and they who maliciously edit the page are being mga talangka themselves.

This is not productive at all. I hope they get to read Alex Lacson's speech. I will post that tomorrow.

Michael Jackson's inspiration

In a 1999 interview with MTV, Michael Jackson revealed that one of the driving forces behind his video concepts was the Three Stooges. “My dream was to always make short little films, because I’m a big fan of the Three Stooges, and I love watching Curly, who I think is wonderful. They make these 15-minute shorts, and I said, ‘I’d love to do something like that some day,’ and ["Thriller"] was my opportunity.”

In the recent MJ memorial, Marlon Jackson said growing up they always watched the Three Stooges. MJ wrote a somehow revealing foreword of a book about Curly. Here is MJ's foreword from Joan Howard Mauer's 1985 book, 'Curly':

"My memories of the Three Stooges, and especially Curly, are still with me to this day. In my childhood, around our house in Indiana, it was a daily ritual for me to watch the Three Stooges on television. All my brothers loved them then and even more so now. Chaplin and the Stooges are the greatest to me--their humor survives each generation. Even my mother love to see us have fun watching them. Rehearsing as a team and watching the Stooges were the only times we got together as a whole family.

The Stooges' craziness helped me to relax and to escape life's burdens. They influenced me so much that I even wrote a song about them.

Curly was definitely my favorite Stooge. He was unquestionably a comic genius who understood ad-libbing better than anyone. I loved the Stooges' slapstick action and especially Curly's funny noises and his silly, child-like mannerisms and attitudes. He should be honored much more than what has been done for him in the past, for everyone who loves him.

As a kid, I imitated Curly all the time, and I enjoyed feeling superior to and smarter than those three, silly grownups. I owe so much to them that I feel they belong to me. That's why I had to write the Foreword for this book.

Joan, the author, asked me whether I thought that Curly had suffered when he had to shave off his wavy head of hair in order to become a Stooge. My answer was that I was sure he did, that underneath the smile may have been a tear--after all, he was a clown. But it is our duty as entertainers to satisfy the people--to give of our souls even if it hurts.

Curly had a magic. He was God-gifted--a natural. Even when he didn't intend to be funny he was magic.

Today, thirty-three years after his death, Curly still has legions of fans because he was a natural. Such people appeal to the masses young and old--like the color blue.

I love everything about Curly and I would give anything to really know what he was like.

Thanks to the author, this book will clear up much of the mystery of Curly for me and his millions of devoted fans."

Michael Jackson

---

Even in just the foreword of a book about another celebrity, MJ allowed us a glimpse of his suffering amid his heart-felt duty to entertain. The words MJ used - greatest, genius, child-like, suffered, magic, God-gifted, natural, entertainer,  mystery, millions of devoted fans - are the same words he could have used to write his autobio. I am sure many books about how he became an inspiration will come out, but none will clear up the mystery of Michael Jackson for his millions of devoted fans.

Basic Instinct + Technology = Sex Scandals

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Wow! This could really be a warning!?@#$%^&*()

I woke up at the usual time, started to cook breakfast for the kids, opened the PC and tried to eke out a blog post about the Hayden Kho sex video scandal. It is not earth-shaking no matter how Hayden tries. But a childhood friend thinks the issue had died down. Then I suddenly noticed that quite a few readers are reading the earthquake prediction post made last month (June 24). Aha, I thought, July 18 nears. And I realized that Twitterfeed re-fed the post to Twitter and then Facebook picked up the tweet, while I was sleeping. Wow, what, why, and how! This could be something big indeed.

Barakong Obama gawks, whats next global cop?

In the G-8 summit last week, US President Barack Obama was photographed covetously ogling at the booty of a 17-year-old junior G-8 delegate. The Clintonesque stare was snapped moments before the group photo was taken.

Also shown enjoying the rear view was French President Nicolas Zarkosy who must be thinking of excuses to his MILF wife Carla Bruni about the stimulus package he saw at the conference.

But we have not seen the end of it. AbcNews reports that the gaze was really quite innocent. Barakong Obama was on a higher step and was stepping down - so he looked down to watch his footing and at the same time help a lady step down - while the girl was walking up the stairs. Butt barako Zarkosy was not cleared.

Butt wait, there's more. Barakong Barry and Zarkosy are again at it. The shy third man who is too ashamed to look is Italian President Berlusconi, himself caught in worse photo controversy. Ahh, boys will be boys!

Butt wait, there's even more. The boob tube reports that the White House has invited GMA to a one-on-one meeting. Barako's top spook, who met GMA just moments earlier before the announcement, must have confirmed to him the recent boob job. Now Barako must see for himself. Will the global cop cop a feel this time?