“The words are not good for the secret meaning, everything always becomes a bit different, as soon as it is put into words, gets distorted a bit, a bit silly—yes, and this is also very good, and I like it a lot, I also very much agree with this, that this what is one man’s treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to another person.” ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Debunking Heroes like Lapu-Lapu while Upholding Colonizers like Magellan in Philippine Films A grandson of the country’s first Commonwealth president expressed concern and anger at the portrayal of his grandfather in the movie about his granddad. Quezon (2025) is the fourth movie in the Bayani (Hero) quadrilogy that included Bonifacio, ang Unang Pangulo (2014), Heneral… Continue reading Lapu Lapu Out, Magellan In; Revolutionaries Out, Colonizers In
There is so much hype about Chat GPT and other chatboxes nowadays. There are FB ads that proclaim that AI can write 10 ebooks a week for a person or that it can make one a millionaire in no time at all through stock trading or whatever. Chatboxes are being bandied about as the answer… Continue reading How reliable is AI or Chat GPT and other chatboxes?
David Lynch, the iconic filmmaker, artist, and cultural pioneer whose work pushed the boundaries of storytelling and surrealism, has passed away five days before his 79th birthday. Known for his ability to marry the dreamlike with the nightmarish, Lynch’s career spanned decades, earning him a devoted following and cementing his legacy as one of the… Continue reading David Lynch: Visionary Filmmaker Who Redefined the Surreal, Passes Away.
Misinformation or Disinformation is now more commonly called Fake News. But Mis/Disinformation is nothing new. World media, including Philippine media, have been doing that for a long time.While going through my old computer files, I saw this note I wrote to my classmates in a Media Literacy graduate class almost 20 years ago: ******** Feb.… Continue reading Fake News: Media Distorting Reality
With the Philippines being called the “Social Media Nation of the World” or the "Social Media Capital of the World", it is but logical to suppose that social media affect the country’s elections, esp. the presidential elections every six years. In a Dec 2019 SWS survey, almost a fourth (24%) of the Filipinos get their… Continue reading Social Media, the Philippine Elections & the Mindanao Vote
This is a mini lecture delivered on March 4, 2022 on the webinar titled Digital Journalism and the Mindanao Vote. Organized by Philippine Press Institute (PPI) and Journalism Studies Association of the Philippines, Inc. (JSAP, Inc.) supported by Hanns Seidel Foundation in cooperation with Internews in collaboration with USAID. I prepared for a one-hour lecture,… Continue reading Philippine Elections and the Mindanao Vote in the Age of Social Media
Postprandial Musings, 2.0 