Beijing 2008 Report Card: Tatlong Itlog? or is it?

And so it ends. Another olympics of frustration, another 4 years of waiting for the next redemption.

The hyped bets in taekwondo and boxing did not even produce a single victory as all lost in the preliminaries. Looks like Recah Trinidad and his genius friends will once again be happy and rejoice insulting everyone on his no brainer articles.

The Infamous post olympic blaming game (now on its 3rd Straight leg) continues. As those in the seats will read their scripts saying "The moment we entered the Olympics, we're already winners" excuse.

However, there is still a spark of light

The Philippines got a consolation prize in the form of a Olympic Demonstration Sport Gold Medal in Wushu courtesy of Willy Wang and was also accompanied by 2 more bronzes by Benjie Rivera and Mary Estimar from the same sport. Even though it is only a demonstration sport, it is still something to be proud of in the midst of 15 straight disappointing setbacks.

It is like having to join a beauty contest, whereas the country always fails to have a delagate reach the top ten, but always gets the consolation award instead. Like the philippines, which rarely gets to the top 10 semi finals but always manages to bag home a friendship or photogenic award. Its a spark of hope, a spark of promise. But in reality, it does not count.

So the RP's First official gold medal is still a dream, Unless they include singing in the olympics.

Artwork of the week: Wall.E (Photography)

Disney and Pixar's Newest CGI film.

Just saw the film yesterday and without a shadow of a doubt, the best film ever made by pixar and one of the best CGI Films ever! Taken with a Cannon Eos 400d
Taken with a Cannon Eos 400d

Who to Please?

When a station or a TV network acquires an anime license in the country, who should they try to please--The General Public or the Truest of Fans?

The kids, fickle and innocent, would feel happy and refreshed to see their favorite anime characters and heroes after a tedious day at school. They jump and cheer for joy every time the Autobots hold their own against the Decepticons, they religiously follow Naruto as he succeeds in each of his ninja missions while making them laugh with his antics, or they would wait for another season of Digimon with the cute and cuddly characters turning to mystical beast-like creatures.

The teens, on the other hand, would take to Asian drama series, watching San Chai (or Makino in the Japanese version), the most unpopular girl in class, being friends and hooking up with the Taiwanese and Japanese versions of the F4. These young viewers would watch the series, hoping that they don’t have to do drastic changes in their lives to attract their handsome prince and finally live happily ever after.

The working class, after facing the harsh realities of day-to-day living, go to their respective homes and try to forget all their stress and problems by watching soap operas.
Watching these makes them feel positive in life, giving them hope that they could do anything if they work hard for it, that good will always triumph over evil, and that even if the society is so degraded now, they can still find a way to have a happy ending someday.

There is, however, another subset, made up of die-hards and purists. These take the series to heart, patronizing only the original creators, actors and seiyuu. They buy their beloved series through pirates or even download them from torrent servers. Some of them love their shows so much that they buy the official merchandise, create fan art, and act out the characters through cosplay or role-playing. They don’t treat the shows as mere programs but as perfect, high standards of art that are beyond reproach. Some, however, take their zeal to a ridiculous level. They go around in their blogs, ranting about shows that they hate due to what they perceive to be sub par scripts or voice acting. Others even poke fun at regular fans of the series they hate, for example, labeling kids who are big fans of Naruto as “Narutards.” For them, every acquisition of the local networks is a target for criticism.

What’s good about these people is that they love and appreciate these shows. It would be so fulfilling for the original creators to be adored that way. On the other hand, they make it out as if no one translating their series can get anything right.

So which direction should TV networks take? Should they please the majority of the public wherein they could make money with the mainstream, or keep a concentrated but loyal niche, and lose some ratings in the process? You decide.

Ginebra Captures 3rd Crown in this decade.

After losing their first five games and searching between imports to get their first win, Barangay Ginebra won the Fiesta Conference Title and had their Eight PBA Championship overall.

Ginebra, With some of their Stars bugged by injuries and at played its last 2 games at the brink of elimination, defeated Air 21 Express 97-84

Chris Alexander, Paced with 19 rebounds, 16 points, 4 blocks, 1 Steal and 1 Assist. Eric Menk came back from his 2000-2004 form along with Tubid, stepped up and helped the Reigning best import with the scoring load

Air 21, Down for most of the 3 Quarters refused to go down without a fight, lead by a valiant effort from Steve Thomas, They fought back, came within a point or two and still lead by a little. But in the closing minutes of the game, they gave way through the fighting heart of the wounded kings and the thousands of their "Sixth Man". Still, a valiant effort

In other news, with this being the final game of the 2007-08 Season, The anchors from TV 5 (formerly ABC) said goodbye from the audiences. Starting next Season, The PBA will be broadcasted by C/S 9 and Basketball TV. No offense to The former channel, But with BTV's Expertise and Better Coverage/ Reception Next Season is going to be an exciting one.

Now That The PBA season is already finished, let us hope that their head honchos would start planning on next year's Fiba Asia team which is the qualifying team for the 2010 Championships.

PTF will Shut up and Accept Defeat

After Tshomlee Go losing to Australian Ryan Carneli 0-1 and suffering from a no count axe kick to the face in the second round of competition, PTF President Robert Aventejado Accepts defeat even if they disagreed with the results.

Earlier,The canadian delegation protested their Jin's (Ivette Gonda's ) Loss to the committee for its questionable loss to the swede . Even with the protest, it looks hard that there will be a rematch.

While it is usually a sore loser's mannerism to complain after any form of competition, and complaints in international competition, particularly to subjective sports like taekwondo, boxing and skating end up futile. There is no shame in filing up a protest if you know that you have enough ground and evidence to show for it. After all, its years of preparation gone to waste. Rivero and Fabrega are the last 2 left for the competition.

Will the Philippines land another big fat zero?

Sadly, Toni Rivero and Tsomlee go are the only pillars trying to prevent a third straight big fat zero for the Philippines. Rexel Fabrega is still there but as his Chinese coach made negative comments about his weight, looks like its a far cry from the medal.

After a Much anticipated media hype by sports officials regarding the possibility of a medal in their sports jurisdictions. Majority of the Philippine contingent fell one by one. Though in reality, the only medal bets for RP are Harry Tanamor, Tsomlee Go and Toni Rivero. The Smokin Nike Clad Harry, fell to an upset by a little known boxer from Ghana.

What is more sad is that Sports had slowly diappeared from the scene of national interest. Before, they can easily be seen on news even if it was just some of the daily basketball scores added by other international/ local sports news. Nowadays, Sports news that were a fixture of daily six o clock news shows are now rarely shown, only if there are special events, James yap kicks, Pacman training montages or an international sporting event like the sea games or nba finals. Sports have now been overshadowed by politics, showbiz news and socialite events.

Forget the Sea games Championships, The Record tying Gold medal haul in the Doha Asian Games, the Olympics is and should be the grandest stage of them all. The Country, knowing to perform bad in the quadrennial event, having only 9 medals in its 78 year participation. Notably it suffered two 12 year medal droughts from 1948 to 1960 and 1968 to 1984. It bounced back to 3 straight medals from 1988 to 1996 with its second silver medal courtesy of Onyok Velasco. The country also had won multiple medals in a single event only once in 1932.

So there it is, only 3 remain in the medal hunt. Two of them are slight favorites and one underdog. While this country only had its success when the prople are trained by non government institutions (Singing, pro boxing and billiards). Lets see if that turns around in the final stages of the games.

GMA is a Skrull! And another Pinoy Tribute to Francis magalona

As most Filipino marvel Fans were shocked (delighted?) of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo being portrayed as a skrull in disguise (beside John Mc Cain) in Marvel Comic's Secret Invasion series.

Others in the page are Tom cruise, Paris Hilton, John Mc Mcain, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama and Her.

The Reason for this is that Leinil Yu, The Artist for the Secret invasion series is a Filipino.

There is another Filipino Tribute being shown in the Background. This is Francis Magalona's Clothing line or FMCC. This is a good tribute considering the Philippine Rapping legend is currently suffering from leukemia. Yu and The Master rapper are good friends.

In the news last night, Yu States that this was not in any way or form not intended to malign the president. But rather as a pun and a way to show more of our culture.