UPTAKES

i’ve started watching america’s next top model season, ooops, i mean cycle, 6 again. i stopped watching it at some point because i just couldn’t take how bad some of the contestants looked. yes, real bad. as in, fugly kind of bad. i know it’s mean to say that and all, but i can’t help it. i mean, i’m just telling the truth. and besides what’s the point of watching tv, reality tv specifically, if you can’t be snarky, right? anyway, now that the number of contestants has been trimmed down, i realized there are actually some girls who are pretty and photograph well, which i think i didn’t see before, because there was so much, well, unpleasant distraction. but i didn’t really start watching again because of these girls. it was because of one of the fuglies remaining on the show, jade, who turns out to be, surprise, surprise, a master of words. every time she showcases her linguistic prowess, she just gives me such joy.

last week, she coined the word ‘cut-throatiness’ to refer to the cut-throat business that is modeling. then, she composed a poem and said she wanted to share it with the viewers. it went this way: ‘heaven and hell, earth power wind force, make me listen, and my strength will be my source.’ profound, huh? and it rhymes. (does it also remind you of a certain singing group?) this week, when they, the contestants, were tasked to sell themselves to the judges, she described her body as ‘proportionable.’ in closing, she also said, ‘i’m blah, blah, blah, what you see is what you get. don’t judge the book by its cover.’ yes, she said that. exactly like that. i have to say jade makes the english language very exciting indeed. oh, and she refers to herself as the undiscovered supermodel. hahaha. thank god for jade. she makes me so happy in these dire times.

wtf is going on with philippine idol? this is the second non-elimination week, and it just doesn’t seem right. i mean, the first time was understandable with milenyo and all, but this time, i just don’t think i can buy the technical problem whathaveyou reason they came up with. i think the real reason has to do with better contestants getting voted off week after week, and they’re trying to do damage control, since i suppose, another one of the better contestants would have gotten the boot this week too. oh well. whatever. i didn’t really think that how much money a contestant has will factor so much in this competition, because it never seemed to be an issue in the other countries that have the idol franchise, but i guess it’s different in the philippines. it’s kind of sad, really, that the good singers are getting booted out simply because they don’t have family and friends who can afford to call or text a gazillion times or buy boxes upon boxes of those philippine idol phone cards (or whatever that new voting thing they’re having is called).

then again, the show’s demographics is not really clear. since it’s hard to tell who’s watching, where they’re coming from, and how huge a group they make, it’s hard to judge and make generalizations about the voting results. it may be the case that those who watch the show don’t really vote–unless they’re related to the contestants in one way or another. as a case in point, i watch the show, but i’m hardly the type who’d vote. (and given where i am and that i see the show days later, i can’t anyway.) it’s also possible that since the show is on channel 5, it doesn’t really get the kind of promotion and viewership that competing shows in other, more established networks get. maybe, not many people outside of the contestants’ circles, e.g., family, friends, colleagues, kapitbahay, watch the show, which, i guess, means that even if these people do vote, their votes won’t make much of a difference in light of the heavy voting some contestants are getting.

often, i ask myself why i even bother watching philippine idol. i mean, i just saw jeli mateo’s performance of ‘paglisan’ and it was such a god awful mess. (it was especially hard for me to listen because ‘paglisan’ happens to be one of my most favorite songs ever, and i really like the rawness and vulnerability with which cookie chua sang it.) let me put this in perspective, i’m not exactly the type of person who can make judgments about singing ability, quality of voice, etc (i myself couldn’t sing if my life depended on it–though i try, haha), but i knew, in this case, her rendition was really horrible. i mean, she was all over the place and didn’t seem to know what to do with the song. i also didn’t like how she kept closing her eyes and gesticulating with her free hand. it was probably her way of showing emotion, but to me, it was just awkward. it was the picture of someone trying very hard to reach the notes and failing miserably.

and i can’t even begin to talk about ken dingle’s version of ‘ligaya.’ somebody shoot this guy already and put him (and me) out of his (my) misery.

here’s something i found while googling stuff for the transcription bit of my research. i didn’t think something like this would pop out, and was quite taken aback, jolted in fact, after reading it. i’ve been so focused on methodology and design and objectivity issues all this time i forgot about those things that cannot be captured in transcription, those that i probably won’t be able to be objective about, try as i might. i know this is not exactly the kind of thing i’ll be transcribing, but nevertheless, i think it’s worth thinking about. here it is:

The transcriber speaks

I was the commission’s own captive,
Its anonymous after-hours scribe,
Professional blank slate.
Word by word by word
From winding tape to hieroglyphic key,
From sign to sign, I listened and wrote.
Like bricks for a kiln or tiles for a roof
Or the sweeping of leaves into piles for burning:
I don’t know which:
Word upon word upon word.
At first unpunctuated
Apart from quotations and full stops.
But how to transcribe silence from tape?
Is weeping a pause or a word?
What written sign for a strangled throat?
And a witness pointing? That I described,
When officials identified direction and name.
But what if she stared?
And if the silence seemed to stretch
Past the police guard, into the street
Away to a door or a grave or a child,
Was it my job to conclude:
“The witness was silent. There was nothing left to say”?

-Ingrid de Kok

just got back from some much-needed r&r, and also, a bit of research. i’m not exactly glad to be back to the daily grind, but i guess, i can’t really complain, as i’ve had my break–and i’ve to say it was just perfect. here’s why:

1. i got to visit some new places, one a garden, the other a cafe, and tried, well, flowers for food. i don’t think i’ll make a habit of it, but, i realized flowers aren’t so bad–when they’re mixed in with other kinds of things, that is. hehe. whatever. the flowers were good.

2. i got treated to a kundiman serenade over dinner, and simply loved it. the man singing was old and didn’t look like a professional singer, which, to me, made his singing somehow more real and heartfelt. he was singing as if he really knew how it was to love and lose and love again.

3. i got to sleep in starched linen that felt and smelled so good i never wanted to get out of bed. i don’t know if it was the linen, or maybe it was just the fact that my 1st comprehensive exam was over, or a combination of both perhaps, but i was finally able to sleep without waking up every 15 minutes or so. for the first time in a long time, i woke up refreshed and cheerful–and ready for more flowers. hehe.

4. i also got to taste the best hot chocolate and peanut butter cookies ever. the hot chocolate was just the right bittersweet; it also had chocolate bits that would make you stop whatever you were saying or doing, so you could just smile silly and savor the drink (or, in one friend’s case, so she could order another pot, hehe). the peanut butter cookies were actually an afterthought–or was it the chocolate muffins, which were, ahm, good, but not remarkable? anyway, the cookies were huge and moist and so peanut-y we immediately regretted not buying more than the one bag that we did and made a promise to come back if only for the cookies.

5. i was given a classic didion, an artemis fowl, and 2 books written by bob ong. this means i got some new books that are not at all school-related. yay!

but i guess, more than all these, it was the quiet and peace and slowness of the whole thing that made this break truly remarkable for me. now, as for the research bit, i finally got the stuff i needed, and nothing and nobody could stop me now. hahaha. seriously, i was able to do some work in between the sleeping and eating and lazing around. i was actually surprised i got a few things done. nothing major, but enough to keep this week, and perhaps, a bit of the next, less hectic. at least, that’s what i’m hoping for.

oh, and some good news: i managed to pass my 1st comprehensive exam, despite failing to resolve structural ambiguities through a common enough exercise in syntax: tree diagramming (i know, i know, ma’am flores won’t be too happy to know about this), and despite explaining the notion of minimal pairs in terms of presence and absence (whatever, it’s still a binary, and i like presences and absences!). so congratulations to me! but it’s not over yet; i’m on to the 2nd, which is scheduled on 1 nov. when i told my brother, he jokingly said they’d include me in their prayers back home. (my family usually says a litany of all saints’ day prayers. ) i have a little over three weeks to prepare for the exam, and the reading list is more than i can possibly read in half a year, that is, if i really keep at it, so i say, whatever helps.