Hesitant to go Ga-ga

Someone has to convince me about Lady Gaga. And that person must consider that I am not a hater. There are several things I do not understand about her and her reputation as an artist. She’s a performer, yes, no doubt, her antics, I learned are a cross between Showgirls and Kiss.  I’ve read several articles about Lady Gaga and have visited her official website but none enlightened me on what the hype is all about.

First, I heard her song, Poker Face, sung, unfortunately, by my cousin Suzette at a local event. The tune was catchy enough, and I sort of realized that my playlist has not been updated in more than a year. Gasp! The second time I heard about her was during a conversation with friends where they raved about her music. Since I have a decent regard for my friends’ preferences, I sort of assumed that she must be really big.

However, I had difficulty placing Poker Face in my list of knock-off tunes. And she was perceived to be a knock-off artist. This list is populated by Jewel, Radiohead, Bjork, U2, Jeff Buckley, Queen, Led Zeppelin and Britney Spears, among others. I am currently reviewing nominations to the list for Fergie, Richard Cheese, Lilly Allen and Taylor Swift.

Her music feels flat. I am frequently hearing Paparazzi, and the impression on me is the same. Her words are simple and she repeats a syllable and turns it into the whole point of the song. Po-po-po-popopopo…I can not go on.

Lastly, her publicity photos are not very exciting; there something missing. I don’t know, I can’t see the ooomph everyone else sees.

Stubborn Kalye

A lot of people must have had the same sentiments Joanna and I have about Kalye’s journalistic performance. And these comments have probably reached them just in time for their taping for yesterday’s episode.

Atom Araullo’s documentary was shown first, possibly to dispell the trend of switching to a different channel due to his disinteresting documentaries. However, I give him credit for more effort in choosing to immerse into the routine of sewerage workers.

Although this has been earlier documented by Kim Atienza in his Matanglawin show; it was still a better topic and less disinteresting than his previous works.

Sandwiched between Araullo’s and Anthony Taberna’s good documentaries is Sol Aragones’s stubborn effort. Stubborn is good and Ces Drilon’s showcase of stubbornness does not make her any less of a journalist.

But Aragones’s brand of stubbornness is annoying, either she does not listen to feedbacks which reached her co-hosts or these never reached her at all.

Watching her makes me want to hurl a slipper at her. Her questions and remarks, albeit sincere, are irrelevant. I have seen that kind of adlibbing with much charitable words in Karen Davila but she can pull it off, and has mastered the style through years of experience.

Among Aragones’s adlib in “Mandarasal” which annoyed me are; “sige Lola ihahatid ko na lang kayo”, “Sa tingin nyo ba ipinagdadasal din kayo ng mga ipinagdadasal nyo?” and “Nakakatulong ba yung dasal nyo?” She might as well have said “I don’t believe you.”

And in her own crooked ability, ruined her documentary with several wrong turns, bad script and even badder(sic) imitation of brilliant journalistic prowess.

I might not watch it next week, I think I’ve had enough and I think Aragones will not improve very soon. It’s good to know there are two other persons on the show.

A few worthwhile airtime

After enduring last night’s Kalye, I was relieved to know that right after the show GMA’s I-witness was on. It was Howie Severino’s timely take on the upcoming Reproductive Health Bill.

The topic, sex and sexuality education, was awkward, but it was wisely plotted; it appeared carnally disinterested.

Sunday night’s special was also intelligent; a documentary on the last five presidents of the Philippines. It was so good that my biases on these presidents were a little bit disturbed. If this special aimed at presenting an unpublic facet of our ex-presidents to know them better, they hit it big time.

Our lack of TV for two years made me miss intelligent documentaries, for which I am now catching up for to enrich my social awareness. But GMA’s shows start really late, it’s because they know, we will stay up late just the same.

There is one thing I hope; I hope GMA’s journalists NEVER run for public office.

Sad documentary by ABS-CBN

Joanna’s egregious reaction to ABS-CBN’s Kalye’s pilot episode caused me to watch it’s second airing last night. It was to judge if Joanna’s comments were merely prejudiced in favor of GMA’s journalists.

She also remarked on Anthony Taberna’s being the only sensible among the three documentaries presented on the show. I have to agree with her because Taberna’s journalistic reputation has been cemented with his AM commentary on DZMM. Being that, he is safe.

Sol Aragones’s segment was a laugh trip. It was a distorted, undecided mush of a documentary. An overview of her documentary promised to give light as to why is pornography rampant on dvd stalls.

But then it becomes a by-bust operations step-by-step documentary with Aragones running around with the police and herself interrogating the arrested persons. I really had to laugh.

Though I haven’t made my own documentary, it would have been good if she took the neutral ground and went undercover to know the nitty-gritty. If you can find in youtube a video of this documentary, you may want to see it just for kicks, and some cycnical chuckling.

And there was Atom Araullo’s out-of-place documentary about Freerunners. It is an extreme sport also known as Parkour. That was all I got from his segment, in addition to the freerunners in the Philippines and the impending danger of it.

It was all clips of freerunners and nothing was asked about how it was done and where it started. It was not even parallel to the two other segments.

This is a sad documentary.

I was on national TV!

Well, it was actually my hind that appeared on TV. It was on the early evening newscast TV Patrol World. I would’ve preferred myself to be seen on GMA’s newscast because I am more partial to them. But GMA’s cameraman appears to be all business because he doesn’t rove his camera all over; whereas ABS-CBN’s took footage of anything and I surmise to further sensationalize their shoots.

It was a fire that broke on the 8th floor of our residential condominium which brought the media to our place. I was anxious to see the news the following day. Just like everybody else, I’d like to be seen on TV, however cynical I am about fame.