The divide between prose and poetry in the country has always been present; maybe not blatant, but it is palpable at least. Whereas the concise verbosity of Filipino prose has so freely graced the palms of bored students and starry eyed wonderers, the same cannot be said of its more abstract and ambiguous counterpart. Its…
Author: Paulo Yusi
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25 Cents’ Worth: The Mocha Uson show
Mocha Uson. No two words in recent memory have elicited such a polarizing response from the general public. On one hand, she’s a cultural behemoth that has transcended the usually impenetrable walls of standard journalism. On the other, she’s the epitome of ignorance and oversimplified thought. However, taking sides is not an issue that I…
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The dunce’s guide to DLSU parking
The pains of parking around DLSU have become part of collegiate legend, right up there with tales of Thomasians braving through España’s flood waters and UP students turning into ardent political activists. There’s even a popular joke that makes it way around social circles saying, “Sa parking lang naman magaling mga taga-La Salle.” While it’s…
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Models Inc.
DLSU has always had a reputation for producing celebrities, from Edu Manzano in the 1970s, to Rico Yan in the 1990s, and all the way to Enchong Dee in the mid-2000s. However, the recent expansion of social media into the mainstream has helped usher in a relatively newer breed of Lasallian celebrity: the student-model, one…
Dr. Luis Dery has retired. It’s a rare sight, really. For someone who has spent the majority of his adult life writing and lecturing like there’s no tomorrow, he stands alone now, retired, seemingly desolate in the privacy of his nearly empty cubicle. No geeky colleague chatter to serve as music to his ears, no…
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A trip to Cinematheque Centre Manila
I make my way along the narrow and portion of Kalaw in Ermita towards a small structure, tucked away, made up of massive slabs of perfectly squared tiled blocks. It looks out of place among the other sights on the street—topless young boys flinging their slippers at each other, other young children begging for alms.…
A cold and silent theater, a friend (or just yourself if you’re more into that), and a movie that tries to dismantle the usual views on Filipino cinema. That’s the life. Nowadays, independent films are garnering attention as they tackle different facets of human nature. These indie films do not stick to one popular genre…
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The life of a research assistant
To most seniors about to graduate from the University, one of the culminations of their college journey normally comes in the form of an on-the-job training (OJT). Engineering students get to tinker with professional tools and gadgets, while business students try their hand at managerial work for multinational firms. In fact, both the University’s Applied…
“I have a pretty boring life and career so my answers might bore you,” Anne Frances Sangil warns me before the interview. But I beg to disagree—nobody who wears a pair of Wonder Woman Chuck Taylor trainers could possibly be such a mundane figure. And I was right. For the entire duration of our one-and-half…
Being a Filipino entails a certain amount of accepted irony—it is a nationality that prides itself in possessing one, unified identity in spite of having various distinct (and sometimes contrasting) micro-characteristics. In fact, the Filipino’s genetic makeup, you could say, is a hodgepodge of different foreign lineages. While some Filipinos have grown to view their…