Sing it like you mean it!

I have a confession to make. I’m a videoke maniac. I, like millions of Filipinos now scattered all over the world, cannot fathom a month, a week, or even a day of not grabbing a microphone and belt a tune at the top of my lungs.

And why not? We are, after all the true inventor of the Karaoke, calling it the “sing-along machine” way before the Japs stole the idea and branded it with a nifty, catchy name.

And so, it is no secret that this midnight creature has been fantasizing about owning a Magic Mic for the longest time. For those of you who can’t relate, the Magic Mic is one of the Philippines’ most significant contributions to this planet of ours. An ingenious invention composed only of a microphone, a number of buttons on the interface, a microchip and an RCA cable. Plug it into the boob tube, turn it on, and voila! An instant portable sing alone machine you can bring anywhere there’s television. And electricity, of course.

Rock on with Bon Jovi’s Bed of Roses to your hearts content while a skimpily clad Rebecca Romijn emotes to the rhythm on the screen. Release all your inhibitions and do it “your way”. Just a warning though, the song “My Way” has claimed 12 lives so far since the Videoke machine (a vendo-like contraption where you drop 5 peso coins in exchange for a song of your choice - see photo below) was invented some years ago. According to the Philippine National Police, seven people had perished in the year 2003 alone from videoke related incidents. Most of them sang Frank Sinatra's famous ballad "My Way" before they got killed. Another proof that patience is a virtue, but hearing a drunk singing off key is always an exception.

After the song, check out how you fared with the chanting of the score. Dyan-dya-ra-ran-dyan-dyan-dyan….Dya-ra-raaaaannn!!! (Message on monitor:) Your score: 68. You are a lousy singer. And you deserve death by a strong whack in the head with a beer bottle.

You see, the Philippines is a music-loving nation. And here, more than any other place on earth, the way you carry a tune is a matter of life and death.

And so, the advent of Magic Mic is a welcome innovation to most. No longer do you have to go to hole-in-the-wall pubs and endure the stinking breath of philandering drunks that has seemed to stick to the microphone. No longer do you have to carry bulky coins in your pocket. The Magic Mic is plug and play, and you can sing, sing, sing at the comfort of your own abode without fear that the next person on the table is giving you an evil eye because you were hogging the mic for too long.

But there is one catch, though. Magic Mic can drain your pockets. To some, it even costs a fortune. The microphone alone costs 10-12 grand (that’s more than 200 dollars to my dear readers in the US), and the song chip is about 3 grand each or 60 dollars for 3,000 plus songs. Unfortunately, unless you’re a radio station DJ or some sort of a musical genius, you can only sing (as you are only familiar with) about 300 of them. Some songs in the chip are also in foreign languages. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, etc., songs that only C-3P0 would appreciate. Moreover, if you want a decent sounding videoke, you’d have to invest on an amplifier and speakers, or at the very least, a nice home theater system. Otherwise, you’d have to be content of the music (and your voice) coming out of the TV speakers.

Needless to say, the Magic Mic has its flaws, price and practicality being the foremost reasons why this blogger cum rockstar has dilly-dallied on his purchase. But alas! There is an answer! It seems that Ursulla, Goddess of voice have heard our prayers!

Trumphet sound… Drum roll... Say hello to the DVD Videoke player. For just 5,000 bucks, (a gift from our Fairy Godmother) you get a DVD/MP3/CDR/DVDR/MIDI/VCD player, two free microphones, a songbook and a Midi disk with 9,500 pre-loaded songs. That’s right, 9,500 frigging songs! And the list is up to date, too. Only a handful of Chinese and Korean tracks here and there. I’m actually in the process of highlighting the songs that I am familiar with and I was giddy to have marked almost 80% of the song list per page! The player I bought, Karavision, gives Magic Mic and all its competitors a run for their moolah. There are also other brands like Daewoo and Platinum but are more expensive and appropriate for commercial use. Commercial meaning restaurants who have transformed their venues into Videoke joints.

Right now, I am still astonished over this wonderful thingamabob. And believe me when I tell you there is not a day that passed that I never got a hold of that mic. Or at least the songbook as I still have to battle with the first song choice over the household.

Eat your heart out, Magic Mic. I’m singing my way to stardom with my new videoke system. And to my fellow future belters out there, let me know if you’re interested. I can give you a tip where to buy your own DVD videoke system that’s way cheaper than sold in malls and advertised in Ebay.

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, folks. This rockstar is unstoppable. Today, the Philippines, tomorrow, the world!

Not bad for a writer

I've officially changed the look of my blog.

It's amazing, this blogging thing. One minute I'm a techno-dummy and next thing I know, I'm a frigging web wizard. Oh... ok, I almost wiped out all the data on my template as I went berserk trying to put back my web counter. Can you blame me though? I've had like, 480 plus hits already, man. Now I'd have to start all over again! Or, I won't. Hmmm...

So how'd you like my new blog's look? It's no webby awardee (I still can't figure out how to mess with the damn background, I mean, heck, it still is a template) but like I said, it ain't bad for a copywriter's blog.

Ain't it?

Morons!

Brainless. Dim-wits. Dumb ass. Imbeciles. Whatever you call them, there sure are plenty of them roamin’.

The following is a list of the stupidest crimes ever committed. Enjoy.

Power failure.

Karen Lee Joachimmi, 20, was arrested in Lake City, Florida for robbery of a Howard Johnson's motel. She was armed with only an electric chain saw, which was not plugged in.

Kentucky: Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. With the chain still attached to the machine. With their bumper still attached to the chain. With their vehicle's license plate still attached to the bumper.

Have a gas.

A gentleman awoke one cold morning and found that his car would not start; the problem was a frozen fuel line. No problem for Mr. Brilliant -- one need only warm up the gas, right? So he siphoned off the fuel, put it into a pot, took it into the kitchen and heated it up on the stove....

Lack of (sane) judgment.

Three guys decided, late one night, to rob a petrol station. Taking in baseball bats and knives they entered and demanded money from the station clerk. But they weren't aware of a couple of rather important things:

1. The clerk was an ex-Israeli.
2. The clerk was an ex-Isreali Army officer.
3. The clerk was an ex-Isreali unarmed-combat instructor.

Needless to say they ended up in hospital. For a long time. (No charges were pressed by the petrol station owner, and the police decided that there wasn't much point following through.)

45 year-old Amy Brasher was arrested in San Antonio, Texas, after a mechanic reported to police that 18 packages of marijuana were packed in the engine compartment of the car which she had brought to the mechanic for an oil change. According to police, Brasher later said that she didn't
realize that the mechanic would have to raise the hood to change the oil.

Wrong order.

The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 7:50am, flashed a gun and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

Arizona: A company called "Guns For Hire" stages gunfights for Western movies, etc. One day, they received a call from a 47-year- old woman, who wanted to have her husband killed. She got 4-1/2 years in jail.

(A man walked into a Circle-K (a convenience store similar to a 7-11), put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled -- leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars.

A robber in Panorama City, Cal., gave a teller a note saying, "I have a gun. Give me all your twenties in this envelope." The teller said, "All I've got is two twenties." The robber took them and left.

Not guilty.

The Belgium news agency Belga reported in November that a man suspected of robbing a jewelry store in Liege said he couldn't have done it because he was busy breaking into a school at the same time. Police then arrested him for breaking into the school.

Drug-possession defendant Christopher Johns, on trial in March in Pontiac, Michigan, said he had been searched without a warrant. The prosecutor said the officer didn't need a warrant because a "bulge" in Christopher's jacket could have been a gun. Nonsense, said Christopher, who happened to be wearing the same jacket that day in court. He handed it over so the judge could see it. The judge discovered a packet of cocaine in the pocket and laughed so hard he required a five-minute recess to compose himself.

Shit happens.

When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to a motor home trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

A woman was reporting her car as stolen, and mentioned that there was a car phone in it. The policeman taking the report called the phone and told the guy that answered that he had read the ad in the newspaper and wanted to buy the car. They arranged to meet, and the thief was arrested.

Not to be outdone, the Philippines has its share of dim-witted criminals. MANILA, May 25 — In a heist that sounded like the case of the fugitive hijacker D.B. Cooper, a crying man tried to commandeer a Philippine Airlines jet carrying 291 people then robbed everyone and jumped out of the plane wearing a homemade parachute. No one knows what happened to Cooper, who escaped by jumping out of a plane 29 years ago. But this man's fate is known: His body was found later in the day.

And finally in Portsmouth, R.I. Police charged Gregory Rosa, 25, with a string of vending machine robberies in January when he (1) fled from police inexplicably when they spotted him loitering around a vending machine and (2) later tried to post his $400 bail in coins.

Holly-Woody

Some people just don’t get Woody. He’s the love him or hate him type. And while I don’t absolutely adore the bespectacled, stuttering filmmaker, I respect him for all his accomplishments and admire his body of work. The guy has won 3 Academy Awards after all.

And I must say, I am not alone.

The Comedian’s Comedian, a 3-hour program broadcast on UK named the top 50 comics of all time as voted by their peers and listed Woody Allen on the 3^rd spot. Not bad for a Hollywood filmmaker, considering that the list contained 33 Brits including 3 members of Monty Python. Besting Woody on the list was the legendary Peter Cook and Monty Python’s main man John Cleese.

Other famous comedians on the list are Groucho Marx (the man responsible for the fake huge nose and moustache) at no. 4, Laurel & Hardy at no. 7 (funny, I thought Hardy was funnier), Peter Sellers and Steve Martin (claiming 14^th and 15^th spot, respectively, the often imitated yet inimitable Charlie Chaplin at no. 18, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean!) at no. 24, Robin Williams (no. 45), and Bill Cosby and Mike Myers at nos. 47 and 48. My only objection in this list is having Mel Brooks at no. 50 (the last spot) while Eddie Murphy sits comfortably at no. 32. What’s up with that, blokes?

Love him or hate him, the fact is, Woody Allen is a top-notch filmmaker. I just saw 3 of his films in a span of one week, the two for obvious reasons (that it has Scarlett Johansson in it) and the other one was because I read the back cover of the DVD and found the plot interesting. The movies were Match Point, Scoop, and Hollywood Ending. And no, I’m not doing reviews, but I have to say that Match Point is a worthy watch and Scoop is hilarious. So go grab a copy.

That is, if you like cerebral humor. Or extremely long dialogues. Or, at the very least, Scarlett Johansson.

What gives?

Well i'll be damned.

Been posting for almost a month now and i just realized that my page doesn't display correctly on Internet Explorer (about me, links, previous posts and archives are flushed all the way down the bottom of the page, when it should be flushed right, aligned with the posts.) I haven't noticed since I've been using Mozilla Firefox as a default browser for the longest time, wherein my blog displays perfectly. Paranoid, I ran to check how it displays on Macs using the Safari browser. No problem.

So how now, brown cow will I fix this problem? Any suggestions? Would appreciate your comment if you know how I can fix this damn problem.

Merci.

43 Useless Facts

don't say I didn't warn you...

1. Moths are unable to fly during an earthquake (told you this is useless)
2. Human saliva has a boiling point three times than that of regular water (see?)
3. Every Labrador retriever dreams about bananas
4. Contrary to popular belief, the white is not the healthiest part of an egg. It's actually the shell. (“Now go eat your egg shell, Timmy!” Scary.)
5. British pop singer Baby Spice is the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandniece of Archduke William Pinkley-Hogue of Standishfordshire, making her 103rd in line for the throne of England. (Now that’s scarier.)
6. Speaking of “Babies”, The top three names for female babies born in China last year were Huan Yue, Jia Li and -- unlikely as it seems -- Buffy.
7. Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling (hindi ka nga nangangati, amoy jebs ka naman)
8. Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers (totoo, sa susunod na kumain kayo sa Gerry’s Grill, bilangin niyo)
9. A cat's purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White. (Meow!)
10. Speaking of cats, "Hello Kitty" began as part of a covert propaganda campaign originally proposed by Prime Minister Tojo during World War II.
11. In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi (need I remind you how useless these facts are?)
12. The rhesus monkey is the only animal that can be taught to hum a tune
13. Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises (now you know why they’re humming!)
14. If an average human scrotum were stretched until all its wrinkles were smoothed out, it could hold a basketball (Ouch)
15. Ancient Egyptians used molted cobra skins as condoms (again, ouch)
16. Winston Churchill was born with a third nipple, which he removed himself with nail-clippers at the age of 14 (Mega Ouuucccchhh!!!)
17. Ingesting small doses of ink over an extended period of time will change your eye color slightly. (Amazing, now you can save money on colored contacts!)
18. Fewer divorces occur in families in which the children wake their parents before 6 a.m. on Saturdays. (Un-fucking-believable)
19. A futuristic automobile designed by Ford for the movie Blade Runner was produced and sold in limited quantities as the "Ford Harrison." (umamin na kayo, kaninong copywriter sideline ito?)
20. John F. Kennedy was an accomplished ventriloquist
21. A prominent organization of anthropologists has predicted that by the year 5000, humans will have two rectums, but only one nostril (lemme guess, they’re gays)
22. Glamorous movie star Brad Pitt once had a summer job posting warning signs at coal mine entrances
23. Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.
24. Contrary to their popular image as spinsters, the average librarian has 5.9 random sex partners per year (ikaw ba naman ang magbasa ng Kama Sutra araw-araw, ewan ko na lang)
25. The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra
26. The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball (I bet it’s those darn rhesus!)
27. Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam (bilib ako sa pasensiya niyo pag nagawa niyo ito)
28. The skin needed for elbow transplants must be taken from the scrotum of a cadaver (ok, enough of the scrotum facts!)
29. You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.
30. Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms (uhm, honey, I’ve been thinking, I think our wall looks better in blue…)
31. Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.
32. If you part your hair on the right side, you were born to be carnivorous. If you part it on the left, your physical and psychological make-up is that of a vegetarian.
33. Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos (If only Tom Hanks had Dorritos in Cast Away…)
34. Due to the natural "momentum" of the ocean, saltwater fish cannot swim backwards.
35. In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.
36. The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry (uy, Matrix!)
37. Because of their unusual shape, Hershey's Kisses contain more calories per ounce than the same amount of chocolate in other forms.
38. If the air in your car's tires is not completely replaced every two years, it can turn to liquid and cause severe damage.
39. Blue water in a toilet bowl causes males to urinate 7 percent more
40. It is physically impossible to urinate and give blood at the same time
41. If you place a fresh Viagra tablet in a houseplant's soil every six months, the plant will not wilt (lupet)
42. Children conceived on airplanes never suffer from motion sickness.
43. The steady, rhythmic sound produced by dripping water increases the capacity for sleeping males to experience lucid sexual dreams (Oh, and hon, can we also buy those miniature fountains ...?)

Move over, David Blaine

Here comes Dan Michael

...makes David Blaine look like an amateur

Better to burn out than to fade away

The Forbes.com website listed Kurt Cobain as the highest-earning dead celebrity, with the late Nirvana frontman raking in 50 million dollars in the past year, pushing Elvis into second place after reigning “King” on the list since 2001. The website ranks 13 celebrities who are still raking in the big bucks six feet under, with a collective earning of 247 million dollars in the last year.

The grunge icon was found dead, shotgun wound to the head in his Seattle home in 1994, where a suicide note was also located. A part of his “alleged” suicide note is the phrase, “It is better to burn out than to fade away”.

Alleged, because after the “suicide” shocked the world and left millions of fans stunned, a string of investigations followed, including that of private investigator Tom Grant, concluding that Cobain did not commit suicide, but was rather murdered. The theory was later on supported by a book called “Who killed Kurt Cobain? The mysterious death of an icon” by Rolling Stones Investigative Journalism award winners, Max Wallace and Ian Halperin, published in 1998, and a second installment, “Love & Death, the murder of Kurt Cobain”.

Was it murder or suicide?

Buy the books or follow these links (including a case study manual by PI Tom Grant) and decide:

www.cobaincase.com

www.justiceforkurt.com

www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Venue/6582/Nirvana/suicidenote.html

The truth is, only Kurt knows. And if the words he “allegedly” left on his suicide note is any indication of his posthumous success, I’d say he’s right on target.

Topsy-turvy

Left brain: "Why don't you make a Top 10 list?"

Right brain: "A Top what??"

LB: "You know, Top 10 movies, Top 10 books, Top 10 songs..."

RB: "I know what a Top 10 list is, dumb-ass, but why?"

LB: "Why not? Everybody loves making a list of their favorite things. Besides, it's entertaining to read"

RB: "That's the point! Everybody's doing it!!!"

LB: "So?"

RB: "So I'm not doing it!"

LB: "I get it. You want to be different..."

RB: "I am different!!!"

LB: "So what are you writing next?"

RB: "Ahm...about that... I haven't really figured..."

LB: "What about decoding Stephen Hawking's "A brief history of time?" You always say you want your posts to be informative"

RB: "Are you kidding? The book's too freaking convoluted, he had to write "A briefer history of time" just so people could easily grasp what he's saying!"

LB: "A movie review?"

RB: "Too time consuming"

LB: "A poem?"

RB: "Too cheesy"

LB: "A Top 10 list?"

RB: "What if I don't meet 10? What if there's just like, 6 or something?"

LB: "Round it up. There are Top 5's"

RB: "True. You really are good at math, aren't you?"

LB: "That's what we left brains are known for"

RB: "Hey! I have an idea! What if I don't call it a Top 10 list, y'know, give it another name so people will think it's unique?"

LB: "Very creative"

RB: "That way, I wouldn't worry about coming up with exactly 5 or 10... heck, I can write 131 things... or 37.5 if I want to!"

LB: "Brilliant! Besides, you're trying to be different..."

RB: "I am different!!!"

LB: "(and stupid...)"

RB: "Shut up..."

The Top 10 Advertising Campaigns of the 20th Century

1. Volkswagen, "Think Small" campaign by Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1959

2. Coca-Cola, "The pause that refreshes" by D'Arcy Co., 1929

3. Marlboro, The Marlboro Man by Leo Burnett Co., 1955

4. Nike, "Just do it" by Wieden & Kennedy, 1988

5. McDonald's, "You deserve a break today" by Needham, Harper & Steers, 1971

6. DeBeers, "A diamond is forever" by N.W. Ayer & Son, 1948

7. Absolut Vodka, The Absolut Bottle by TBWA, 1981

8. Miller Lite beer, "Tastes great, less filling", McCann-Erickson Worldwide, 1974

9. Clairol, Does she...or doesn't she?", Foote, Cone & Belding, 1957

10. Avis, "We try harder", Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1963

Time Space Warp

“Está quente”.

“I’m sorry?”

It’s Portuguese for what you said. “It’s hot”.

Turning around, I came face to face to where the voice was coming from, and found a 5-foot-11 woman staring at me, applying sunscreen on her long arms. “I’m being attacked by a man-eating Amazon!” My imagination was shooting through the roof. The fact that she was scantily clad in gypsy clothing didn’t help. But her face was too gentle, too beautiful, and too charming to be hostile. In fact, she looked more like a contestant of Project Runway. I took a gulp out of the mineral water I was holding and rubbed my eyes. And then I remembered.

Standing there in the desert, looking to an endless horizon of sand and mirage, sweating profusely under the scorching heat of the sun, I remembered where I was.

I was in a shoot. A location shoot far from where I imagined. The sand on my feet were actually lahar, the location was actually in Zambales, and the woman standing beside me with a quizzical look on her face was actually Isabella, a Brazilian model we flew in for a commercial.

“You better rub this in your body or you will get burned”, Isabella said with a thick accent, offering me her sun block. I didn’t decline.

4 and a half hours ago I was waiting for the driver to arrive while playing Tiger Woods: PGA Tour 2007 on my Playstation. I didn’t sleep. It was 3 am and the van could be arriving any minute. It arrived after 30. 4 more hours of travel and I found myself chatting with a Brazilian bombshell beside a Bedouin camp in the middle of the desert. Surreal. But then again, that’s how it is in Advertising.

Isabella, as I found out, was really friendly. Heck, she nearly told me her whole life story. She told me she started modeling at the age of 12, have done a lot of commercials in Brazil, London and Germany, and that it’s her first time in Asia. She seemed to enjoy the sun. I can tell, because I was slowly backing off one step at a time under the shade of a make-shift Bedouin camp while she didn’t budge. Deep inside, I was fighting the urge to warn her of dehydration and skin cancer, but then I realized that it’s only a two-day shoot. Besides, if they can survive a lifetime of tropical heat in Brazil, they can surely survive 16 hours of heat wave, her gorgeously tanned skin assuring me that she can take it.

A couple of minutes later, the director, a middle-aged Brit yelled. Time to grind. Wearing a pith hat, he sort of looked like Indiana Jones, trading his trademark whip for a camera. He called out for the talents with her thick British accent. And just like that, a multitude of individuals clad in nomadic Arab attire came out of the tents. I looked on, and sensing the confusion in my eyes, the producer was quick to tell me where they are all from. There were 5 Americans, 4 Brazilians, 1 British and 1 Canadian. Half more are Fil-Ams. Great. I’m in Tra-la-la-land.

I got the chance to talk to them during breaks. As always, I brought my trusty digicam with me, making sure that I document everything especially a photo-op with Isabella and Daniella, both lovely Brazilian models. I wouldn’t mind being stuck in here with these gorgeous girls. But then the thought of my wife holding a pair of Havaianas flip-flops and threatening to slap my face with it knocked me off my daydream. “Brazilian pala ha? Eto’ng sa iyo!” The irony was painfully grimacing. Just taking photos, dear. Part of the job.

Overall, the shoot went well. It got even more surreal when half of the cast changed outfit from see-thru laces and beads to thick, Eskimo garb. What’s more, on day 2, the production crew covered the whole Bedouin camp with ice (or at least made it appear like it is). But I’m not surprised. Not anymore. I’ve endured the heat wave and besides, I am part of the team who wrote this commercial.

And so it ended. After 2 days of intense heat and rubbing elbows with cute foreigners, the shoot was packed up. Abruptly, actually as rain poured while we’re shooting the product shots. Night fell and we bid our multi-racial cast goodbye. Isabella is going back to Brazil in 2 months, Monica to the US in a few weeks and Daniella is flying to Hong Kong for another shoot in a month’s time. As for me, I’m going home. 4 hours of bumpy ride awaits. Back to reality. Another day has ended. Though I still curse the shoot’s schedule being on a weekend and the fact that I can’t take the next day off because of major deadlines, I sat in the van and try to catch some long-overdue sleep. I can’t wait to come home and download the photos I’ve taken. I can’t wait to post this entry on my blog. I can’t wait to publish the photos on my Multiply*

Above all things, however, the most important thing I can’t wait to do, is seeing my wife and kids.

*click on the “My Photos & Videos” link on the right for more photos.

Time's up!

Been working on weekends, catching buses at 2 am, missing my bed.

In an effort to keep this blog updated, I’ve listed down some topics that I am planning to write and post when I finally have time to spare:

1. Advertising gurus – words of inspiration or otherwise from advertising legends Bernbach, Ogilvy, Burnett and modern-day favorites Droga and French.

2. Dissecting TVs medical genre – House, Gray’s Anatomy and Scrubs

3. The yellow brick road to Oz

4. 48 hours of sun, sand, more sun, and lovely Brazilians

5. Adspeak – advertising lingo for the curious

Some titles may change without prior notice. See posters and print ads for details.

The Road to Damascus

Never thought I would, but I’ve taken the Road to Damascus.

An idiomatic expression referring to a great and sudden change in a person’s ideas or beliefs, the Road to Damascus is not an easy path to take. For one thing, there’s pride.

See, I used to hate blogs. I despised every single page of it like pickles on my hotdog. I remember myself asking, what’s with these people writing daily entries about their daily lives, and worse, what makes people read them? When did journals become so public? Since when did diaries become open property? Besides, who the hell cares if you grew a wisdom tooth this morning, saw your crush in the lobby, and found out that Nick Lachey is now single? I’m sure your parents would, or your bestest bestest friends, or your posies, or homeys, or whatever it is you call them, but I don’t! Jeez, the crap that people come up with. On a daily basis, at that!

I tried. Believe me, I did. I tried to understand what these people are going through and discover what the fuss is all about by making my own blog. But it did not last long. One post and I had to delete it.

And then I chanced upon seeing others. Other blogs posted by other people who apparently has other things better to do than posting mundane things in their blogs. Theirs were unique, amusing, and yes, sometimes even educational. And then I realized that I have been misled. That the entries I was forcefully trying to swallow don’t represent the entire blogging community. There are, in fact, some entries that are worth reading. Thought –provoking. Stimulating.

And so I decided, I will make one. Again. This time, I will jump into the bandwagon and take my blindfold off. I decided to do it without pride or prejudice. Besides, sooner or later, I have to stop those people who kept bugging me to start blogging, and use my insomnia to be more productive. Alright, people. You win. I give in.

So to all loyal bloggers out there who have been offended by my callous remarks above, I apologize. I hope you find my posts worthy of your time. Call it poetic justice but I am now one of you guys. I hope you welcome me back like the prodigal son.

‘Nuff said. Let’s blog.

You're in advertising? Cool!

Let’s set the record straight. In my 5 years of working in the industry, people have asked me what I do for a living. And every time I tell them that I work in advertising, they always have the same giddy remark. “Cool!”

So to all of you who think landing a job as a copywriter in a prestigious multinational advertising agency is pretty funky, you’re right. To those who think that it’s hip to write TV commercials, print ads and radio spots and then scream at the top of your lungs or in your head when there’s no one around (otherwise you’re a nutjob) “I did that!” every time you see your work on print, hear your ad on the radio or watch your commercial on the boob tube, once again, you are right. And to the curious individuals who presume that a career in advertising is financially rewarding, well, let’s just say you are not mistaken. But if you think that working in the creative department of an ad agency is all glamour, vanity, and hedonistic fun, well, I hate to spoil the party but you’re most definitely wrong missy.

Yeah it’s true that we get to play video games in our own workstations (see, in advertising, that’s what we call cubicles. Cool, huh?), get to surf porn and download mp3s for “inspiration” on our next ad, or get to work and exchange chit chats with famous celebrities during shootings and parties, but that’s just about the fun part. See, unlike boring routine jobs where you work in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week operating the same procedures, making the same calls, meeting the same people or filing the same reports over and over, we do get the chance to walk out of the office, eat free buffets during shoots and hobnob with a lot of people from all walks of life on a fairly “routine” basis. No offense meant, (lower your eyebrows now), my wife works in a bank, and those boring routine stuff is exactly what she complains about day in and day out. All I’m saying is unlike other jobs, ours is a little more flexible, a little more unpredictable, and a little more than the usual. But the thing is, it’s also a little more stressful. Now I’m being polite. Hell, it’s a lot more stressful! It’s true. I wouldn’t write it with an exclamation point if it’s not.

First of all, we have to deal with deadlines. Now, there’s a reason why they call it a “dead” line, simply put, it means that if you don’t reach it, you’re dead. There’s also the fact that we use the right side of the brain more than the left. Accountants, bankers and call center employees use most of their left brain for numbers, speech, and analysis, while we abuse the right. It’s a thinking job, where there’s no formula, no fixed rules nor complicated equations, just a lot of God-given talent and imagination. Some advertising gurus would even attest that advertising creatives are born, not made. You can’t learn to be creative. You have to have “it”, like a supermodel with an X Factor. And knowing that all it takes is to think, imagine, and draw a concept in your brain with a simple brief, a single line of an objective in mind, is like producing a rabbit out of an empty hat. It’s creating something out of nothing. It’s trying to sell an overpriced soap with no unique benefits and make it the preferred brand of mothers in the Philippines. And since we mentioned selling, let’s not forget that the role of an advertising creative doesn’t end with a brilliantly crafted tagline or an eye catching layout. You have to sell it, first, to your peers, then to the client for approval, and ultimately, to the market.

And then, there’s the working schedule. Time is flexible in advertising but only if there’s no “sabit” (that’s adspeak for a deadline). Wanna hunt for some DVDs in Makati Cinema Square after lunch? Go ahead. Want to go straight home after a 4 pm meeting with a client in Ortigas? Bring your bag already. Just make sure that you’re not leaving a deadline for granted. Heck, if you finish your sabit a day ahead and you have nothing to do the morning after, you can oversleep and come in before (or even after) lunch and no one would mind. But come crunch time, you have to be prepared. If the shoot is scheduled on a weekend, kiss your Saturday mall time with the kids goodbye because you’re coming to work. There are even times when we work 48 to 72 hours straight, getting only 3 to 4 hours nap in the office to re-fuel. Working that long, you have to wonder how we handle our love life. Not easy. In fact, I’ve seen to many people, heard too many cases of split-ups around the industry, and I can’t blame their partners. Whether we like it or not, we are married to our jobs, like doctors to his patients and lawyers to his cases. We are fated to miss birthdays, reunions and even Christmas Eves with the family if our jobs get in the way. My boss even jokes that we are worse than whores. At least they get paid more by the hour.

All those hitches aside, life in advertising can be really rewarding. You get to face new challenges on a daily basis, new demands, new barriers that were never there before. And overcoming these obstacles is very fulfilling. It’s what motivates you to push harder and dig deeper to outdo your last performance. Because, in advertising, you’re only as good as your last great ad. And speaking of great ads, there are award-giving bodies that recognize your work where you can create your mark in advertising history. Locally, there’s the Ad Congress or Araw Awards, Creative Guild, and Diwa Awards. And then there’s Cannes, Clio, New York Ad Fest or The One Show, to name a few – a host of international recognition given to the carefully selected few.

Sure, there are a lot of other jobs that are way cooler than advertising. Like that of Hugh Hefner’s or Ron Jeremy’s, or the game testers of Playstation 3. But for now, I cannot think of anything else I’d enjoy doing than copywriting. Ultimately, not long from now (I hope), I would like to move on to commercial filmmaking. Be the one to call the shots (literally and figuratively), and make my mark further in the industry.

So, is working in advertising cool, funky, phat or hip? Most definitely. Do I love my job? Absolutely. Should you join us? Maybe. But then again, wherever you are, always remember that the key to a successful career is not the financial reward, the car plan nor the cash incentives. The single most important thing is that you love what you’re doing. See, you could be a customer care representative, a car salesman, a bank manager or a bookkeeper, but at the end of the day, like all things in life, and however cheesy it may sound, love is all that matters.