adventures in neverland

of course i have stopped watching teevee more than a decade now. local teevee shows offer nothing but silly news, unbelievable opinions from brilliant broadcasters, deafening screams from excitable and articulate hosts who speak fluent english better than the queen, vapid soaps, crazy noontime shows that make fun of gays, ugly people, housemaids and exploit children. what else? what do young people get out of it these days? expressions like "bigyan ng jacket," or "basa-basa din pag may time," or the worse one, "yes naman oo." gosh!! so now we have a whole generation of kids whose ambition in life is to become a movie star, singer, talk show host or fashion model. then run for congress and the senate afterwards, when their showbiz careers are over. with the advent of technology and cable teevee, people should be watching bbc (no cnn for me, please!), national geographics, bloomberg, cnbc, french movies, instead of local shows. but definitely not america...

i wish manille would have a venue, even a small one, that would show non mainstream foreign films and classique, award winning filipino movies. not the so-called art films that only a few ones could appreciate. something in between the popcorn junk blockbuster variety and the high brow art films. greenbelt three could have one. mall of asia, shangri-la plaza or gateway mall could also allocate one of their smaller movie houses for these kinds of films. i hate to sound snooty serna, but there are quite a number of interesting films out there that i am sure will find an audience in manille. in hong kong, they have broadway cinematique in yau ma tei (i don't know if i spelled it right) where so-called art films are shown. the complex also has a bookstore called kubrick that sells mostly books about movies and a specialty video shop where you can find titles that are not usually sold at hmv or at hong kong records. this is where i shop for those japanese, french, swiss and ...