Category: Menagerie Feature

The news of the plastic surgery “transformation” of the internet sensation named Marlou Arizala, who now goes by the moniker “Xander Ford”, has been making headlines as well as memes on social media. Marlou had features typically associated with Filipinos: Dark moreno skin and a flat nose. His appearance when he was still Marlou got…

With the constant pressure to succeed heavy on our shoulders, and the everlasting existential crisis plaguing our seemingly mundane lives, we can’t help but sometimes feel alone and helpless, trapped within the confines of our minds. The struggle of battling bouts of depression and anxiety can be extremely difficult to overcome. Many have been victims…

The streets are filled with all types of creepy crawlers wafting through the sea of garbage and canal water and the rain seems to have no business in stopping. The squelching of your sneakers stop as your eyes are drawn to a small, curled up fur ball on the sidewalk right beside a sari-sari store.…

  Along the financial district of Ortigas lies an ubiquitous building with a studio perched on its top floor. Soft electronic music plays in the background as the women in the room stretch in front of ceiling mirrors. It’s an odd assortment of women of different sizes and ages, with the youngest among the bunch…

It is an era that is vividly remembered as a wound that hasn’t completely healed. A memory that refuses to dissolve into faded decades and a turbulent part of Philippine history, the mention of martial law sparks an outcry of different contradictions.  It was a grim era smeared with shades of scarlet insurgence—a period of…

Growing up with the question “How many siblings do you have?” was as much a burden to hear as it was to actually answer. I would always look down shyly and quietly tell whoever was asking that I had no brothers or sisters – I was, and still am, an only child. After hearing quite…

With October already upon us, more and more people are excited to partake in the month’s festivities. Attendance in Halloween costume parties, trick-or-treating around neighborhoods, binge watching scary movies, and last but not least, exchanging horror stories. Last month, however, Filipinos were unfortunately greeted by a rather early horror story: They had awoken to the…

There are a lot of things that clamor for your attention.   There’s that most recent notification, that friend request, and that red icon on top of your unread messages. There are posts from your friends’ recent hangouts, and then, sandwiched between the selfies and inspiration quotes that line down your newsfeed are ‘news’ that…

It is often said that to be truly healthy, a person must nurture their “mind, body, and soul.” The concept of a healthy mind and body is not one that is too hard to grasp, but that of a healthy “soul” may elude some people. The religious path is not for everyone, and while the…

Police knock, suspect pleads, and then a gunshot or two is fired—a sequence of events that has become all too familiar. In this day and age, the police seem to be painted in a negative light on news headlines—both internationally and locally—far more often than they previously were. Extra-judicial killings and racist acts have served…