Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine


Ask me anything
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josealainaustria: PROUD DAY FOR ROWERS, EMBARRASSING ONE FOR SPORTS OFFICIALS by JOSE ALAIN AUSTRIA Photograph by Erix Leano / Original post by flyingjeepney.tumblr.com. “A few months ago, a former Philippine rowing team member told me of the dilemma of the country’s dragon boat squad. They were literally robbed of their chance for a gold medal in the Guanzhou Asian Games last year because some “talangka” in our sports hierarchy commented that the PHI Team’s recorded time is “too fast” and may have been a fluke, an error. We lost our chance to be Asian Games champion…worse…the team had to literally beg for funding as those tycoons in the PSC and POC ignored their requests. Fast forward to 2011…and the Philippines emerged as one of the superpowers of dragon-boat racing in the world…practically dominating the Tampa edition of the world championships. Short of funding and official support from the state that they represent, the ordinary people came to the rescue.Touching to see all those Filipinos in Florida doing their own version of bayanihan...cooking meals and sending money to our squad. Now that they proved to the “people up there” that they made a terrible mistake in under-estimating their winning potential…I wonder if those corrupt culprits will still have the nerve to appear in the victory celebrations and lead the toast for PHI team? Sad but true, ang nagmamaliit sa atletang Pilipino ay kapuwa rin niyang Pilipino. It will take time to get rid of this useless crab-mentality. But for the meantime, I would like to extend my congratulations to the Philippine Dragon Boat Team for making the country proud and uplifting our spirits amidst the toxicity of everyday news. flyingjeepney: Congratulations to the Philippine Dragon Boat Team! Our very own three-time World Champions are roaring despite limited funding, clinching their back-to-back-to-back world title, new world records, and, the admiration of a country. Let’s support the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation!

josealainaustria:

PROUD DAY FOR ROWERS, EMBARRASSING ONE FOR SPORTS OFFICIALS

by JOSE ALAIN AUSTRIA

Photograph by Erix Leano / Original post by flyingjeepney.tumblr.com.

“A few months ago, a former Philippine rowing team member told me of the dilemma of the country’s dragon boat squad. They were literally robbed of their chance for a gold medal in the Guanzhou Asian Games last year because some “talangka” in our sports hierarchy commented that the PHI Team’s recorded time is “too fast” and may have been a fluke, an error. We lost our chance to be Asian Games champion…worse…the team had to literally beg for funding as those tycoons in the PSC and POC ignored their requests.

Fast forward to 2011…and the Philippines emerged as one of the superpowers of dragon-boat racing in the world…practically dominating the Tampa edition of the world championships. Short of funding and official support from the state that they represent, the ordinary people came to the rescue.Touching to see all those Filipinos in Florida doing their own version of bayanihan...cooking meals and sending money to our squad.

Now that they proved to the “people up there” that they made a terrible mistake in under-estimating their winning potential…I wonder if those corrupt culprits will still have the nerve to appear in the victory celebrations and lead the toast for PHI team? Sad but true, ang nagmamaliit sa atletang Pilipino ay kapuwa rin niyang Pilipino.

It will take time to get rid of this useless crab-mentality. But for the meantime, I would like to extend my congratulations to the Philippine Dragon Boat Team for making the country proud and uplifting our spirits amidst the toxicity of everyday news.

flyingjeepney:

Congratulations to the Philippine Dragon Boat Team! Our very own three-time World Champions are roaring despite limited funding, clinching their back-to-back-to-back world title, new world records, and, the admiration of a country. Let’s support the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation!

(Source: sports.inquirer.net)

On Catfood and Actors

Bad taste, shallow humor and lack of tact aside, Santos is a product of a bigger monster that we artists (both behind the camera and on stage) are trying to fight. I personally believe that exerting efforts to boycott, humiliate and damage him is inefficient and transient. 

The boy already shot himself in the foot, and it would be like fighting a child if we flail our fists against him and his amateur work. He has done himself over without our help.

But in a really sick way, he did us a favor; bringing to light, discussion and dialogue industry issues that are long over due for discussion in a multi sectoral and public forum. 

The Monster to fight here is the present state of industry. Apart from verbalizing the gripes of every striving artist offended by his remarks, Santos also really just reminded us of the existing situation. He was careless and flippant, and attempted to criticize the current state, without really comprehending it.  I love my actors too much to joke the way Santos does, but it pains me to know that I can never pay them the true monetary value of their performance and dedication to my film and to their craft. It is just physically impossible sometimes. 

Boycotting his film means neglecting the work our fellow artists put into it. As arrogant as the director is, he is only one out of an army of filmmakers collaborating to make  that work possible; actors included. 

The last thing we want is to demonize Santos and not the real issue. His simplistic views and arrogant demeanor only shows how young he is; for all we know people will love his amatuer work. Maybe even win awards abroad, but that’s beside the point. 

 Let’s collect our efforts to fight the current situation and not this careless spoiled brat. Because even if we eliminate him, discredit and ruin any chances of his career; there will always be other filmmakers, producers and directors who’ll continue to exploit, abuse and allow atrocities to happen to artists.  Let’s use the momentum he’s given us to show him how unimportant his comments are, and how important the prevailing situation is.  He’s set the stage for us, but let’s not make him the star. 

Joaquin Pedro Valdes

Film Director and Theatre Actor

FULL Trailer for my upcoming film DAGIM (Rain Cloud) released as one of the entries for this year’s Cinema One Originals. Help pass it around!

Time to cut out the fat.

Been a little down lately. Things aren’t turning out the way I’d like them to be. Plus I have to clean after other people’s mess. 

Just really thankful for friends..

and beer.

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