Schnooks

Pusod House

2004-12-09T02:14:00.000-08:00

So yeah,

Today i went to the Pusod house with Claire. It was intereseting first off because i realized how useless my AC transit sticker is, cuz that was the first time i rode the bus in over 3 months. Then when we got to the house, we got there as it opened. From the presentation, i thought we were going to walk into some big, darkly lit room, like at a club or museum or something. But yeah i found out it was a small room below a house. When we arrived we came in between exibits but what they had were pictures of this yellow aquatic like guy in what looked like a ran-sacked land. The garden was also very pretty with all the bird houses and stuff. Yeah, i just looked at the layout of the room and it was cool to think of the open mic nights and other activities that would go on there. Like a basement hang out for everyone!

Riko

1 paragraph and thesis

2004-11-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

yeah right. Having a tough time trying to figure out what to write. So yeah, I have another blog on xanga, and I was trying to figure out how it's so easy for me to blog there and not here. So then I realized it was because I try to write all fancy-like rather that just free write and be comfortable with my misspellings and poor grammar. So I will just experiment with blogging here and free writing until i can get a subject down.

What I originally thought would be a lot of fun would be to go in depth of the subject of Kali.It was shown in it's dance form in The Debut so I thought I could relate it to how its a part of filipino culture that is becoming less prevalent in america. The children are becoming americanized I guess you can say. But really i cant find a way to incorporate my thesis. So i then thought about The Debut. There are three main characters that get the story going and whom the director uses to explain three types of filipinos. Annabell *i think that's her name* who maintains the culture and the dance, Augosto *spellin?* who denies his heritage while dealing with the complexities of a white stepfather, and Ben who is on the fence of which side is safer to be a part of.

So yeah, that seems something more worth writing about cuz then i can go and incorporate certain scenes from the movie like their friends *the surounding characters*, and family. Also, the food, the objects in Ben's house, and of course, Kali dance!

I am so proud of maself. :-P

Pinay Poetry

2004-11-23T01:52:00.000-08:00

I read "Essay 2356 on Poems" by Sarah Gambito and I honestly don't know what the title is supposed to mean. Gambito has three poems listed, one that talks about the land and work, the second about a love? and the third about a woman being happy. If i misinterpret these three it must be because the subject jumps back and forth. Is this typical of Pinay Poetry? Do they make things complicated to set themselve apart from pinoy?

The Debut

2004-11-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

So yeah, I read some interesting reviews on this movie. Some were nice, others not so nice. There was one review that made me interested in watching this movie however because of the way the writer described some of the scenes. The review said that in the movie there are two party scenes that flip flop. One scene is Ben (the main character) at his sister Rose's birthday, the other is a party with his friends. The odd thing is, that review said that Ben feels more comfortable with his "white" friends, but I didn't see and white people in the preview off the official website. So that was a bit confusing. I guess the main point is that Ben struggles with his philippino identity.

Tomas

2004-11-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

Tomas is portrayed differently in part 3 compared to parts 1 and 2. Is he good or bad?

Part 2

2004-11-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

So yeah, I have a question. It seems as though Gabe is fallowing into Tomas's footsteps by ignoring his philippino heritage. Is that still common today? I ask this because this book seems to be set in modern times.

American Son Part One

2004-10-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

I like the way that the author structured his book. Not only does he divide things with main sections, but also creates sections for each chapter. This made the book seem faster to read and held my attention best. Also, I noticed that when the author uses narative and other people are speaking, no proper punctuation is used. That may get confusing later on, I'm not sure, but for now it seems pretty easy to fallow.

The story so far is told from the perspective of Gabe, who lives in a suburb with his mother Ika and brother Tomas. Tomas is quite violent in behavior and seems to take on a mexican/gangster identity while denying his philippino heritage. He is angry at Gabe, who seems to be impartial somewhat like how Bulosan was in "America is in the Heart".

I feel sorry for the mother Ika. She was left by her husband who used to abuse her and now she has to raise these two boys by herself. It seems as though she contemplates in returning to the Philippines, but she refuses the thought.

I think that there is only so much that either brother, Tomas or Gabe, that can take of his current lifestyle because Tomas seems angry the majority of the time and Gabe takes all of Tomas's aggression.

Riko

Penoy Poetics p.261

2004-10-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!! My blog works again!!!

So yeah, I didn't like Tony Robles narrative before the "Eatings Man's Best Friend" poem. I thought it was too cliche which would really go along with how he said that he didn't know what to write. Also, I was a bit bored by him saying that he finds poetry in everything (like i said, cliche). I didn't see an individual writing the piece but rather someone trying to immitate someone elses style. Although I did like his sense of humor when he wrote stuff like how he found poetry in the elastic of the underwear that doesn't stay up.

I noticed that he capitolized some words that aren't usually capitolized like "They Came" and "they Could" both on page 262. I don't know what that is for but I can guess that it is to emphasize thah the people he was talking about were real people and not the subhumanbeings that they were criticized for in that era.

What I liked most about this section was the poem "Eating Man's Best Friend". They way that Robles introduced the poem made it seem as though he was going to talk about how bonding occurs over dining, making the experience of eating "Man's Best Friend". So I was completely thrown off by the fact that he was talking about eating dog. I liked the sick humor that was in that piece. It made me chuckle.

Riko

Chapter 2

2004-09-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I don't know what a Carabao is, so I did a search on the net and found some guy's vacation pictures and yeah, it's a huge cow!!! (water buffalo) Mooo!!!

Website where picture was found:

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/LIGJASON/TalofofoRiverTrip/TalofofoRiverTrip.htm

Lol, I had so much fun finding out what it actually was that I went a bit nuts and searched more links on these big moo cows.

Philippine Carabao Center Official Website
http://www.pcc.da.gov.ph/

More Pictures!!!
http://www.philippines.hvu.nl/animals8.htm

How to Work with Carabao
http://www.training.irri.org/courseware/pdfs/rp3series2001/rp3-01-2001.pdf

A really old picture of a Carabao pulling a cart. The good news is, you can send it as a postcard to someone!
http://cebu-online.com/picture_gallery/index.php?g=Old_Cebu&p=4&amp;frpg=1&f=

Try to explain this to me...
http://www.carabao.org/

And here's a site dedicated to the Tagalog Language (said the intro paragraph)
http://carabao.maxximum.org/

Here's a picture of Muang Carabao
http://home.swipnet.se/muang_carabao/pics/pic_aet4.htm

Hee hee... even a diving school in Asia made their name after the moo cow.
http://www.carabaodiving.com/

Chapter 1

2004-09-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I decided a good way to keep the ideas fresh is to do a sorta, chapter summary/analysis throughout the book.

In chapter one I noticed that the young boy who spots a stranger who is unrecognizable, yet the boy thinks it is his brother whom he had never met. This may go along with the view on "dogs" that was in the introduction. The boy is quite young and most likely, at the bottom of the hierarchy in his family since his is about 5 at this point. So in a sense he is the "dog" metaphor. His child inoscence allows him to view everything objectively and from those observations he concludes quite intelligently that this stranger is family.

When the boy goes to speak to his father that he had thought he saw "Leon" the older brother, the father instantly dismisses the subject and proclaims it to be false. That he was probably already killed in Europe. Now, if it were me that was working hard on the land, I doubt that I would be so quick to dismiss. I would miss my son and run out to see if it really was him, hoping for the best. Maybe it's cultural differences, but I think the father probably wasn't to happy to have his son leave for war, so in that sense Leon may have been dead to him. But since Leon had returned, all was well again.

I find it interesting, and slightly shocking that the cultural tradition even in the 1940's was to ostricize women who weren't virgin upon marriage. Even though her husband loved her and didn't seem to care about that (because he defended her against the villagers), the villagers would still not let up. They would even beat Leon and his father for trying to protect the girl. I think this shows that the villagers refuse to adapt to change. They want to hang on to traditions and will fight anyone to hang on to it.

Yuriko

America Is In The Heart

2004-09-28T01:29:00.000-07:00

Not too many things catch my eye or rather inspire me to write about, but I thought there were a few things to this introduction in "America Is In The Heart" that were quite interesting.

The first would have to be coming from vii to viii. It specifically stated that it is hard to imagine that all that Carlos Bulosan writes about actually happened to him, but rather at some point or another it may have happened to other Filipinos in America. I like how that is said simply because it shows some rhetorical devices in which writers will place themselves as the ones who recieved all these punishments and injuries, but in actuallity it may be the representation for the group they belong to. I think it's quite poetic based on the fact that I can infer, that when one of Bulosan's countrymen is hurt, discriminated against, or battered in the way that the introduction implies, that Bulosan feels the pain itself (therefore saying it occurred to himself).

Also within that first few lines of the opening, there was talk about running away from a crime you didn't commit. The crime was being Filipino in America, so it shows the emotional distance people had to maintain to understand the society. I think that also is reflected in modern times now. A certain sense of alienation from your environment can be felt by anyone in any setting; a person moving to a new town, a student going off to college, having to sell one's house, etc. I feel this greatly relates to my current situation but as well as many other people I know who become homesick. I feel as though, being a Filipino in America at that time is like being at school with no home to return to.

The next section entitled "About the Penoy" really got me to think sociologically. Since I am along that path for a major I began to wonder why it is that all these men fell into the gambling and drinking. But then there was a part on pg. xi where it said that the farm labor contractors brought in prostitutes to the labor camps. I found that interesting simply because the contractors created systematic limitations on the Filipino community. They put in place certain forms of corruption in order to maintain balance and order among the laborers. By bringing in prostitutes, gambling, and alcohol the contractors created distractions to keep the Filipinos poor. They couldn't save up too much money if they spent it on all those items, so they had to continuously work to make more money. Since it was hard work they would then need those items once again to maintain an internal emotional balance. This cycle kept them restricted.

And finally, I liked on pg. xx about "The Underview" were it first states that the dogs have a better view of the world despite their limitations. The dogs see the deciet and all the other wrongs that are prevallent in society yet the rich cannot see this trend. This idea goes along with a lot in sociology on the subject of the "undeserving poor". The Filipinos are seen as the "undeserving poor" by the rich so therefore, not one person feels the need to help because they feel that the Filipinos should help themselves first. This idea also projects laziness on to the Filipinos, that they aren't motivated enough to obtain better jobs than farm work, but as we know, this isn't necessarily the case. Legislation and other policies keep them down along with no real implementation of education. So since the Filipinos can't defend themselves in English, they can't communicate what they feel or see. But also, even if they could, the rich wouldn't be receptive to the statements because then it would cast blame on the society that they love so much.

But so yeah, that was my lil' spark of inspiration.
Riko

Filipinos in World War 1

2004-09-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

I couldn't find anything on why the Philippines participated in world war 1. The lack of documentation almost makes it seem like they weren't involved in the war at all, which is really sad to say. Anyways, I found an interesting link about the Philippines and the history.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~vmitchel/

The Filipino Student

2004-09-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

A combination and collection of ideas and feelings were composed in this packet. The ones that I found most interesting would have to be "The Young Filipinos and the Independence of the Philippines" by Maximo M. Kalaw. Kalaw's formal style of writing is one that fits in with other works that we have read thus far in the course in a sense that he is addressing a board. A theme that starts out with "Mr. Chairman". This shows how politically active Filipinos are I think. They strive for change and head out to officials to obtain that change.

But one thing that I don't quite understand as I have been reading these articles is why Filipinos is spelled with an "F" and is missing one "p". It could just be the nickname and how it formed but I would really like to know how it got to be that way instead of "philippinos".

A plethora of posts

2004-09-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I really have to make up for lost posts. So from this post on there will be a lot of posts. Just a warning!
-Riko

Philippine Short Stories 1925-1940

2004-09-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

I found it interesting on how most of the literature, the comics, and the movie that we have watched in this class has revolved around filipinos in the media. I believe that it was in the Filipino Student that said specifically that Filipinos go to college so they can get a degree and work on a newspaper as a result of everything. Perhaps I am wrong.

That theme seems prevalent in Philippine Short Stories. I was really able to grasp onto the character Alfredo Santos and I felt sorry for how his life came out to play. I also thought it was funny how Santos' boss, Mr. Reyes, was treated in the same fashion that he treated Santos by his boss. I know all too well what it is like to be stuck in a job that you have to keep because you need the money, but yet, your stuck with horrible pay. However I never got phisically ill over my job so while I can feel Santos' pain up to an extent, I still don't think I understand it completely to be a slave to my own job.

Yuriko Yamamoto

My First Post Here Ever!

2004-08-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

So uh... yeah, not sure what to put. I'm HORRIBLE at English, so whoever reads this, don't be offended by my blatent ignorance. I may not spell everything right either.
Riko