defy gravity!

…a wall full of beautiful art and fingers filled with brilliant stones and an airstream safari wouldn’t hurt at all but until i can afford all of that, i’m gunning for the basic building blocks…a brick at a time is always a good idea.

my friend, the brilliant visual artist dodong bandibas brought doxch and myself to emotions gallery, where he is a featured artist. i fell in love instantly with this Badon sketch, a different take on the madonna and child…in stark black and white. inding, the owner, pointed out this fact: his every stroke is deliberate. true artists practice restraint, a trait i lack and therefore have a high regard for (as with most things one does not have, yes?)

it now hangs on my wall, joining the other pieces of art i have acquired through the years, mostly bestowments by good friends. the first ones were portraits of me by CAMMA and Palanca awardee (and Sunstar cartoonist) Josua Cabrera. another Josua was later given to me by the artist, my favorite of a series he displayed at the maribago gallery…of a woman hanging her laundry to dry…a visual metaphor for revealing ones’ emotions…which struck a chord in reserved, detached me.

an abstract by high school classmate (now UP professor) Sio Montera made of asphalt and nigo (coconut fiber) hangs in my living room, another gift from the artist. it is called “chance encounters”, which sealed my love affair with the piece. it is of seven circles, like molecules ceaselessly floating and banging into each other in space…until a chance encounter bumps you into a particle that was destined for you. of course i had to have it
i had a total of five of dodong’s works (all generously given): a duo of his tindera series, because i’ve always loved vegetables and rural scenes like this…done in his Malang-inspired style…and a triptych of abstracts in delicious Armani hues (that are now on loan to anne marie and hang in her house in baltimore).

behind me hangs a lovely Adeste piece (complete with dedication at the back), a coffee-stain depiction of a flores de mayo flowergirl , which freaks my brother seth out because of her piercing stare.

and just to underscore how eclectic this little, er,collection is…a digital painting by Leandro Panganiban and Paolo Gomez, which i have written about before.

somewhere in this house (i will find it, James) are unframed scratched photographs by James Niesche, which i thought were absolute genius! just when you thought nothing new could be done with photographs, he takes shots of empty spaces (hallways, corridors, rooms) and scratches figures entangled in various stages of pre-coital frenzy right on the surface of the photos. again, ingenious!

and, of course, my pwede na ko mamatay karon/i can absolutely die now piece…a large de Pio portrait of me done in ‘03 done in his signature order-in-chaos style.

next on the list? i’m moving on ahead, fearlessly, into the world of nudes. there is a gorgeous Jun Martinez nude i’m lusting after in the emotions gallery.well, two actually…the green framed one of a woman that looks uncannily like wendy of PBB fame…and an unframed supine woman. lovely, lovely.

as for the handful of jewels? i fell in love with a round amethyst set on sterling silver cocktail ring by monique del gallego-jarque and had to have it. she’s resized it so my fat fingers will finally be adorned nicely where i want them…the index finger as well as the ring one it’s lovely to own real stones, so start getting some too. you can check out her real bling at tothebeach.multiply.com

who needs a boyfriend, eh? teeeheeeee

me

the badon, sorry jay aldeguer

my amethyst ring. this gemstone is said to have the power to protect one from drunkenness. watch out red horse!

damn these memories, they always reduce me to tears. the date,well, dates me.

here i am in 1993, getting ready to put the paddle on some expectant neophyte whose folks made the fortuitous mistake ( i have yet to regret a moment of it) of choosing unit 4 of the men’s dorm to dump their son in. they did not know what they were in for, nor did they know that it was hard to say goodbye to these nasty walls…this darn campus.

i… became… in UPLB.

perhaps soon i shall put it all down, commit it, finally, to paper. and we’ll have a laugh, a few sniffles, a lot of bawling, and big, big hugs all around. damn these memories.

me in a striped esprit shirt (all the rage even then), pepe jeans folded at the cuff, suede loafers, and a signature fan

i dread interviews.

well, only when i’m not the one asking questions. i tend to clam up when asked to, er, elaborate. especially if it is about myself. it is altogether disagreeably vainglorious and chesty to go on about ones self, but since i was asked so nicely by Arrah Quistadio, i said yes and indulged
her piece is coming out in Volume 3 of the book Cebu Journalists and Journalism to coincide with the annual Press Freedom Week this September.

i’m sharing the raw correspondece here, in its entirety. can’t wait to read what she does from it
p.s.
i’m deep in Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. salacious, delicious, dark, and worlds apart from the musicale. but i am further convinced that i AM elphaba!

Questions for Jude Bacalso

1.Please tell me about your college education.

I’m a Genetics major from UP Los Banos. I specialized in Entomological Genetics, my thesis on “Preliminary assessment of within- and among- population variabilities in host preference of local populations of the rusty plum aphid Hysteroneura setariae (Thomas)” It’s quite a mouthful, but the Biology program, which was our umbrella program, encouraged us to go into research (UPLB is the science research center of the system) instead of a career in medicine; until I was sidelined by other interests, I was working towards a PhD in Molecular Biology and not an M.D. Although I was steeped in the hard sciences, the discipline of the Scientific Process and research came in quite handy in journalism.

It may paint a clearer and more concise picture of me if you knew that, simultaneous with my career in journalism, I have kept a separate career as an Aquatic and Wildlife Biologist doing Environmental Impact Assesment on behalf of private corporations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (recent projects: the F3 building and the one fronting it, the IAFT Film School in Mactan). I do not speak of this much as it only confuses most people.

It would seem, having said that, the hardest question for me to answer with a straight face is: what do you do?

My standard line? I’m a professional mermaid. Since I spend half of the assessment time underwater, it’s not a complete exaggeration. But doesn’t that sound loads more fun than aquatic biologist?

2. Kindly narrate your involvement in the media from most recent to least recent, including the job description, inclusive years and the media outlet.

I first began writing in 2000, as a contributor to the then magazine pullout Weekend under its then editor Erma Cuizon. Orly Cajegas (formerly of Sun.Star) gave me that break. He had seen me performing for private functions as a stand-up comic/singer and assumed that, since I could speak good English, perhaps I could write just as well.

A little after a year, Sun.Star Lifestyle (as Live! was known then) absorbed me first as a contributing writer and, soon after, Contributing Editor under Pura Kintanar (Editor), a title I have kept until a few days ago when I resigned. That position had me involved in the planning of the issues on a daily basis, farming out stories to writers, gathering them at deadlines, copy editing text, organizing the logistics of shoots (between subjects, our photographers, the venues, and all that nitty-gritty), supervising daily layout, as well as writing stories for the section (and Weekend, too until around 2005 when I was asked to concentrate on the Lifestyle section). In 2006, when the entertainment section was made a separate entity called Show, I was named its first editor.

I also started as a writer and stylist for the People section of The Cebu Yearbook 2004, Sun.Star’s prestige publication; Managing Editor for 2005 and People Section Editor for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

In 2005, ABS-CBN approached me to host a segment of their Sunday morning talk show Chikahay Ta!, which was hosted by Angela Calina and Rico Lucena. The five minute segment eventually became the one hour Cebuano-language show Jud Morning!, when the management decided to reformat the existing program. It became one of their highest-rating programs on both the local network and The Filipino Channel consistently for its two-year run, until I left it abruptly a month ago.

Last year, I also fulfilled a long-time fantasy. I finally became a radio jock for Y101, a station I had grown up with from high school. June Rabin, the station manager, asked me to co-host a raunchy Sunday evening talk show we call Roommates, which is on every Sunday from 4-8, and streamed worldwide.

3. Do you have any significant achievements/recognition given to you in honor of your work? Kindly name the award/s you have received.

Does best-dressed count? J Well, there was that one time we were nominated for the CAMMA for Jud Morning as Best Talk Show, I think in 2006. This year the show was also nominated for Best Live Program in the KBP Golden Doves. I’m not really sure on the years and the categories since I never kept track.

4. How many years have you been in the media?

Seven.

5. What led you to the world of media?

People who have given me a big break (whether it be on print, television or radio) based solely on their assumption that I could J

6. What standards do you set for yourself in your work as entertainment editor and radio host?

It’s the same for everything I do: do things to make my momma proud, as they say. I would like to believe I did work that would hold its own on the world stage, especially with it getting smaller each day. We are read, heard, and seen all over the globe, and not just on our side of the planet.

7. What personal characteristics do you think helped you to be where you are now?

Adaptability. Put me in any situation and, given some time, I will have made myself comfortable in whatever it is. I also have a natural curiosity for everything and anything…the scientist in me, I guess. I expose myself to new things and ideas all the time so as not to be dated. And, something I learned from my science…I am fearless in the face of the novel because simply by dissecting it to its component parts, anything can be understood.

8. What is a common misconception about your line of work (entertainment media)? How do you want to correct such misconceptions?

Ah, this is a touchy subject. Because I had a bad precedent in my position, I have tried so hard to live down the same expectation of me: that we wield the power of media to amass personal gain and enforce influence. It is true on some fronts, sadly.

And also that the entertainment sections/media carry no weight, and are of no real consequence.

How to correct that? I can only deal within my sphere of influence, I wouldn’t dream of overturning the status quo overnight. At the end of the day, that is the best anyone can do.

9. What does it take to be successful in the entertainment media?

A keen eye for the next big thing, a ready ear for the next headline, an intuitive heart that keeps on going, and, yes…a good, thick hide.

10. What would you say is your contribution to Cebu journalism?

Making people sit up to think that, perhaps, fun, glib, terse, and an all-around import are not mutually exclusive. Not taking yourself too seriously is always a good thing.

I think, from the look of things, that Ysabel and I were fish in a previous life.

she’d be a dolphin, all friendly and mothering and playful. and i, well, i could be a barracuda…beautiful and deadly. immersed in the ocean, playing with the fish in Hilutongan reef, we lost ourselves in a weekend that held so many surprises. down there, we were in familiar alien territory, returning to the womb of a sea from whence we were spewed into evolutionary top dog positions, but where we return every now and then for comfort. like water babies again.

it’s wonderful to see Cebu through touristy eyes, even for a fleeting weekend. and i had not realized in a long time just how lucky i am to be living on this island. the boat was a recommendation from my brother’s dive buddies, and cost only 2,800–quite the steal, considering Nong Ponce (09202012678), the boatman, took our call at midnight and was ready to go at 9 a.m. the next day.

we would have stayed longer in the sea, but after the lunch of fresh seafood (countless shellfish (sa-ang and its ilk) and adobong octopus, spicy abalone, and a half kilo of rice) on one of the islands between Nalusuan and Hilutongan, i had to rush to makeup for the Mr. and Ms. UV Nursing as they say, from the frying pan to a roaring inferno of men!

the evening capped off with dancing at both formo and vudu. we began with ’80s and ’90s…belay and i transported to where we met, baker hall for some student night or other (freshman night? or was it the vanguard’s annual dance?), and ended up, boozed and friendly, with R n B upstairs at vudu.

i can’t wait to do this all again this weekend for our LB reunion,and next month for the bohol bee farm adventure! ahhh, i was born to be a nomad, no single doubt about it:-)

me

belay and i beneath the surface, quite at home…and defying gravity!

a year ago, i wrote this and meant every word of it. now that it’s out, my first published poem…well, Joey Albert said it better (and in perfect pitch,too)…I remember the boy, but I don’t remember the feeling anymore

the artwork, though, is fantastic! it is by two time CAMMA-winning editorial cartoonist and Palanca awardee Josua Cabrera, whose artistry has found a new medium: pixels. enjoy!

i haven’t left the house in two days.

my brother calls me the hermit, snuggled in my tiny shell…like the crab, thank you…and not in a Unabomber kinda way.

when i wake up in the morning, i head on to my little corner that overlooks D. Jakosalem. the morning sunlight streams in, and i break it up by drawing half the shade, just enough to allow a sliver in. i turn on the computer and head on to the loo. anne’s “trigger” is talking to me, my brother’s is choosing DVDs at Joaquin’s house, mine is sitting in front of the laptop. with number two done, i start work.

i surf for the paper’s entertainment stories (at most an hour) and write the stories that keep piling up in my to-do list (at most, forever). gawd, i have to finish the Mooon article, the Shang chef story, and my Fads and Trends for the Cebu Yearbook. but this damned writer’s block just keeps getting in the way. i try to get past it (nudging myself over the block forcibly) two ways: maybe i just need a drink, go out with friends to gulp down a couple, and find myself unable to write because of a serious hangover; or…shop. i headed on to the home section to buy new shower curtains,a matching hamper, sheets, and do the grocery with my faithful wingman,and come home unable to write because i am too pooped from redecorating this cozy shell
i recently found a third way to try and get over the block: exercise. this week i’ve gotten back to the healthy habit of walking for an hour in the abellana track, increasing aerobic activity just might do the trick. no such luck. what it did, though, was open up a whole world of possibilities…i had no idea so many cute guys hung around the track in various stages of undress
maybe i should try writing at a different time…late in the evening? when the world is shutting down, can i rev myself up to put words on electronic paper? or perhaps i just need a new place to do my writing, after all, i got myself a laptop for that reason: i fancied myself an ambulant wordpress at one time or another.

someone suggested more sex. that’s one more than what i have now, i daresay, teeeheeee. any suggestions?

me

photos: my morning corner; my shower goes Paul Smith!

We find our deliverance in the strangest of places.

Mine came in a song, thrust to me in a palpable sense of urgency, in a quickening, a surge. My Mother-of-Pearl Pia bent time around me as she asked for a pause, in her car, as we listened to the first few bars of For Good.

Pia had just come home from watching Wicked the musical in Broadway,and just like everyone else that has seen (or heard) it, one is changed, indelibly, permanently, by it. I’ve heard it said people come into our lives for a reason, Idina Menzel’s Elphaba starts. Pia and I nod (she, knowingly; I, tentatively).

Who’s to say if I’ve been changed for the better, Kristin Chenoweth’s Glinda the Good cuts in, but because I knew you…I have been changed For Good.

By the time the song ends, I am in tears, and Mother-of-Pearl lets me go to attend to wounds whose scabs the words have carelessly dislodged.

Since then, and especially this week, forgotten scars needed the salve again. I had to play For Good for a friend who did not want to go quietly into the night. She went noiselessly, nary a rustle, yet left a bang so loud not even frantic, panicked, disgusting pleas could silence. She slid into a pool of her own peace, slicing into it without a splash, but leaving a wave so large it threatens to drown those whose comeuppance is long overdue. Cryptic? Not really, we all knew. Know.

For once, I wish for a ghostly visit. To congratulate her for a feat I was too busy to celebrate, to lend an ear that was too occupied with noises of its own, to have asked her–even belatedly–to have hung on. Why didn’t you hang on? When your road forked, I could have reminded you of the other meaning. But you were the poet, you knew better where to turn your words towards.

i’m one to talk, as hanging on was never one of my stronger suits. This week i also said goodbye to the show, abruptly and without a forwarding address. I simply disappeared, in one way or another. Incompetence had whittled down my patience to nil, and it was already rubbing at my raw nerves.

Jud Morning grew phenomenally into something that their feeble minds could no longer comprehend, perhaps, pushing us into a precarious plateau–with no ascent in the horizon, and a sinister chasm in the offing. I was tired of dumbing myself down, and Last Minutes, and Unfinished, and Hurried.

I truly did not care about the ratings, they are a matter to be taken personally by those in the second running, by the catchers-up. How boring it must be, if one was to suspend reality and imagine, to have a monopoly. No choices. Just That One. A single channel. The Other made each of us a better deal, a wiser mind might deduce. But none was the wiser.

The deal, as Billy–who is not one to lavish praise–made clear to me is this: Jude, good job. And stay relevant. How could I do that, and maintain a fighting stance, if two hands were tied behind my back to one leg? And then some.

The show had ceased to become relevant, and had begun to become a farce of what it was in the beginning.

It’s a good thing we are a forgetful lot, it will make it easier to live this down. To re-claim Bacalso from Morning.

It’s a bad thing that we are a forgetful lot, it will make it harder to keep Ana relevant. To re-claim her from Meddlling and Muddling.

Perhaps, finally putting these thoughts down, will help. To both, a hearty fare thee well. Oh yes, roads will cross–sooner, later, When.

Who’s to say if I’ve been changed for the better. But because I knew you…

I have been changed For Good.

The cake topper says it all. Noel’s cousin Ica, who flew in from LA with her husband-to-be to get married in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, chose well.

this is just a test,you guys…this blog under construction…discovered that you can add photos!
me

i almost threw a hissy fit when we arrived at the San Carlos City pier.

“Mao pa gyuy pag larga sa barko,” the trisikad driver triumphantly informs. and just in case my dismay wasn’t apparent behind the Versace bug-eyes, he pauses and underscores the alacks and alases with: “Makit-an pa gani nimo ang lobot pag liko o!” it was a minute after four.

we sped off to Guihulngan, a good hour away to catch the 5:15. busoy, wenwen’s twin brother was already waiting for us at the Toledo pier, and i had to call him to meet us at the Tangil pier in Dumanjug instead. i hate inconveniencing other people, knowing that he had to travel further to the other pier, negotiating some rough territory in Aloguinsan. i was silent for the full hour, which hung heavily in the car. a silent jude is not a happy jude.

“There’s the boat,” Michael echoes the triumph in the trisikad man’s voice. we made it in good time, and i breathed a sigh of relief that came out in a sentence: “I would have killed you if we hadn’t made it.” but i was already smiling. i would have loved to have gone to Dumaguete to catch the midnight boat to Cebu, if it wasn’t for busoy on the other side. maybe next time, eh?

“Oh, no…not airconditioned,” I sighed as we made our way to the 2nd tier of the ferry. i was all set to go on bitch mode again when the lady with the apple mangoes sped past. Ay,kalami! i bit into the salted raw mango and grimaced in delight…this was heaven! shrugging off my gloom, i quickly surveyed the, ahem, snack bar and took in my favorite chips: taquitos! I was saved. little did i know that the silver lining behind all this hassle was still to come.

a few minutes into the trip, i tell Jesse Glova (my makeup artist) that if it was morning, and given the glassy sea, there would have been dolphins along the Tanon strait. he nods, expecting nothing…and moves to take a leak when, suddenly, out of the still water…a head bobs! then two,then four…dolphins! i scream for him to come back as the passengers are enthralled by a single dolphin that jumps, twists, and swims beside the boat for a good 10 minutes. the family travels with us halfway to Cebu.

“Di na sila musulod ug Cebu kay hugaw naman ang tubig,” Jesse jokes. but there might be some truth in that. as soon as we come close to the Tangil pier, flotsam and jetsam of a sinister kind greet us: plastic bottles and all sorts of nonbiodegradable packaging. the biologist in me shuddered.

but the treat was A treat. i had to travel to Palawan to see dolphins in the wild when they travel alongside inter-island vessels a few kilometers from home all the time.

hissy fits just seem so unecessary when the sun sets on Canlaon volcano behind you, hiding behind muted red clouds, the glassy sea broken in places by a dolphin showing his stuff beside you. and singing bahasa songs, we lull ourselves into seeing the silver linings.

i spent the weekend at the badian island resort and spa in zaragosa island, a small island off southwestern cebu. it took me 25 years to wisen up and enjoy the catral-scholz couple’s unique brand of entertainment: marked with genteelity and more than a dollop of intelligence.

at silver, the place is still ravishing as opposed to ravished, and beating kris aquino or president GMA to staying at staying in the resort’s spanking new pool villas (with your own private infinity pool complete with giant shell to bask in) with their signature european check-your-modesty-at-the-door open bathrooms sure was a thrill.

i’ll tell you more about it at my,ahem, other blog…sunstar! hahahaha! (log on to www.sunstar.com.ph for our online version which carries a number of my past adventures). the four hand massage was a tad bit disappointing, although it was quite the experience nevertheless. but the food was superb, and the service EXCELLENT!

i’m calling that article The Misadventures of Miss Amarula (and other Badian tales), watch for it next thursday. i figured people get hooked in by my unusual titles, not for a while have i been stopped on the streets to get compliments as i did recently for Apologies to Boracay, a piece i did last week. i love it that people recognize me as a writer still, TV tends to overshadow everything else that i do. not that i’m complaining, we’re going strongly into our third year and riding on top of the ratings game worldwide. and we get to continue our book donation campaign. i want everyone to start reading again!

in the meantime, my travelling days are far from over. papa ace (secretary ace to the rest of you suck-ups, teeheeee) confirmed i will be going to tokyo on july 14 for the philippine fiesta and moscow in september. had to exclaim Arigato and Spaceeba to him when we spoke this morning. no more vladivostok, much more to see in these other missions,he says well, father knows best, and he is, after all, my papa.:-)

next week i fly off again to iloilo for noel’s cousin’s wedding. i look forward to meeting his family, finally! especially this hunky brother i keep hearing about. and,oh yes, the trip to robertos and, later (very much later) in the evening, paraiso bar!
i love my lives all five of them!

p.s. yes, robert…i did meet someone. we’re hooking up tomorrow. we’ll see how this goes. didn’t realize how hard it was to get back in the saddle