the year’s past. an attempt to detail victories and stories of defeat in 2013 might be tricky, considering i practically dont have time really to write and edit a real blog article. just putting this out there to welcome people into the new year and having an excuse to post our family photo taken on christmas eve. we are one member short as my dad has passed away 2 years ago. however, we remain determined to live out life fully and to hold on to what is important: fame and fortune. i kid, of course. it’s family. may the new year be kind to you.

ive setup in the living room. trying to consolidate notes from two versions of the script. reencoding my breakdown. coffee helps but i think i need more.

it’s january but we’ve been at this since july last year. sometimes, no matter the length of time to prepare for a project, it will always seem like you never have time to finish things perfectly. working on preproduction for HENERAL LUNA, a film im designing along with carlo for Jerrold Tarog, our director from cinemalaya’s mangatyanan. and senior year. and srr punerarya. and srr parola. it will be our first full length period movie. and the biggest in terms of requirements. it’s soo big i need to go through the script a hundred times just to absorb all the details. and im nowhere near done. we’ve done quite a lot the past few months and there’s still tons to do it’s insane.

here’s to ANTONIO LUNA and who killed him and has kept the country in the dark all these years. more on the making of this film later

made it to the gym tonight. 2nd time this year. ive about 10 pounds to lose since i let myself binge during the holidays. and still another 5 to my desired weight. i like my upper frame now as my slighty developed chest fills up my shirts nicely enough that it lessens attention on my tummy. no selfies! this is the year where tomorrow is another day. na hala!

can you blame me if this was what was served before me? ipasa ang kaldero sa kan-on palihog.

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one lazy afternoon while preparing for a shot, i started to make a short video (shot with my phone camera- a samsung galaxy note 2) of my colleagues on the set. featured in this vid are pepe diokno (director), carlo mendoza (cinematographer), and cris aquino (assistant director). ABOVE THE CLOUDS coming to theaters soon!

have to admit we got frostbitten by the Disney movie, FROZEN. i really don’t think we need to explain this obsession any further im sure my neighbors are sick by now listening to LET IT GO blasting from our speakers every 2 hours. this evening, for some reason we got around to writing the visayan version to the lyrics of DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMAN for fun (i included here an edited line from my godmother a.k.a ninang joni).  will post my 2 cents worth of a “review” for the movie soon but for now, sing this out loud. the whole thing is not perfect but just have fun with it. and please don’t ask me for a video, i might just do it. chos!

gusto ka’g himo ‘ta ug snowman?
hali na dula ta
dili na ta gakita
gawas diha
murag wala ka pud diri
close b’ya ta niadto
ug ambot karon
unta ingna ko’g nganooooo
gusto ka’g himo ta’g snowman
dili kailangan gud nga snowman
(hawa d’ra, anna)
ok byeeeeeee

gusto ka’g himo ‘ta ug snowman?
or dagan-dagan sa balay
kailangan kog kauban
kay gisturyahan ko na ang picture frames diri
“ok ka ra gurl?”
mingaw biya usahay
mingaw ang payag
sigig bantay ko’g oras
tic toc tic toc tic toc

sis, kaba’o ko d’ha ka
daghan n’ngita nimo
sigi’g ingon sila’g, “kaya mo ni”
adia ra ako
pasudla na akooo
kita nalang duha diri
ikaw ug ako
unsa’y buhaton ta?
gusto ka’g himo’g snowman?

we finally finished the first 8 days of shoot for HENERAL LUNA that has brought us to tanay, taal (batangas), bulacan, and all the way to ilocos (vigan and laoag). forgive me but i did plan to write a full blog article about HENERAL LUNA but the holy week has shut my mind down into rest mode. hence i wont be writing anything except this hi and hello. hi and hello! hopefully be back in full mode after this weekend. or after the end of this shoot in june. haha cheers!

dop pong ignacio silhouetted against the 18k sun

shooting a dining scene in the gorgeous villavicencio house

dressing up a vigan street early in the morning for a 1-shot scene at the break of dawn.

meta mode pointing my camera at the mobile monitor showing me pointing my camera at the mobile monitor showing me pointing…

my props and set boys. if rocks made up a mountain, i have a big mountain to lean on to. happy people make a happy set. keep smiling, boys!

during the shoot of pepe diokno’s 2nd full length feature, ABOVE THE CLOUDS, last year, bradley liew, a malaysian filmmaker, was tasked to create short featurettes for the film’s behind the scenes. bradley and pepe were able to release the first two featurettes that discussed the director’s vision and our 2 lead actors even before we finished shooting the whole thing. the 4th episode in this series, released just a few weeks ago, was about the production design and featured us ;-) as much as the requirements on paper seemed simple enough, it is not. whether you are designing for 2 actors on screen or 500, all film projects require careful planning and attention to detail. watch this vid and see if we actually made sense. the shoot of ABOVE THE CLOUDS took almost a year to do so my hair also went into different lengths and feels haha. cheers!

after a grueling race against time, the art department managed to finish enough of our train and station set for HENERAL LUNA to be able to shoot on time as scheduled last week. perhaps given another day of construction on location, sets such as this would have a bit more detail and more texture. as they say, works of art are always works in progress. that didnt stop us from celebrating when the day’s shoot packed up of course. and with pictures taken by our DOP, pong ignacio. (sorry, no photos of the set at this time)

bottom row: jetro, mike-abueg, sammy, iyah, arman, myself, carlo, kitch. next row: melven, docdoc, pollyboy1, chet, kuya jaime in white, vlad in the cap, kuya polly, mikee and monica right behind me, ciara, rhon. backrow: bong in red, rydel, pollyboys (sorry, i dont remember all of their names, will research), norman in blue, richard, mike with the buri hat. not in photo were ate lhen, lolafer, dianne, nikki (who decided to get a glass of water at this time and couldnt be found, hence she missed this).

and so we dance

i am a designer but i am nothing without a team that backs me up for everything that needs to be built and purchased and setup and stowed away after a shoot. i always believe that with the combination of talent, skill, time, and work put in by this people, we’d have a great movie. however, it also wouldn’t be worth doing if everybody was so cranky and serious. that is why i always pick easy-to-deal-with people and i like to keep my crew happy and not ngaragged as much as possible (new word, put it in webster. means, harassed and stressed out to the nth level). and of course, as they say, the more the manyer. thank you guys.you’re all awesome!

heneral luna day 25 done. 5 more days to go. gow!

we spent about 2 weeks in capas, tarlac to shoot the battle scenes of HENERAL LUNA in may. why oh why did we only find this cafe last week? found on the ground floor of mr blue inn (macarthur highway, capas tarlac), where monica and the pm team were billeted while doing preps for our train station shoot, id see monica’s posts of her breakfast on instragram but it wasnt until i got here that i was charmed by the place.

LES CAPEHAN DE TARLAC is currently on a soft opening status, serving only breakfast but will cook lunch and dinner meals if you book ahead and discuss with the cook on what you want to eat. we asked for pakbet and galunggong for lunch and ginataang kalabasa and fish fillet for dinner, of which some ingredients were harvested from their garden at the back. the coffee they serve is from baguio, freshly brewed with panutcha sweetener and you pay per head (unli coffee? yes). it’s almost the cafe carlo and i wanted to resurrect blumentritt into where id only serve coffee and beer. whatever is available in the ref would be offered for the day.

im also of course a sucker for nice cement finishes and the semi-industrial minimalist nature of the interiors. it felt like the dining room tambayan of a buddy, intimate and totally friendly. i hope this cafe will be a hit with locals and tourists.

les capehan de tarlac is found on the ground floor of the DEB building along the macarthur highway in capas tarlac. look for the signage of mr blue inn.

put myself in a rather tight spot as ive declared staying away from social networks until i get to watch the episode 9 of game of thrones lest somebody spoils it for me. with nothing else to do, i write this short blog and give you this video of one of the best vocalists ever, karen carpenter, in a stripped down version of For All We Know. manila just cooled down after a brief shower and the afternoon’s perfect with karen’s alto brooding over the speakers.

check out this post here.

it’s been weeks since ive shot anything. HENERAL LUNA wrapped up mid june and ive been in and out of bed in katipunan and in mindanao since. my 2-week birthday break was awesome but ive been restless since i got back here in manila. there are so many things i would like to do and pursue except that i dont have the energy and the funds for it. i need to be aggressive with my life decisions. i hope i dont fall into the trap of the usual and remain in my lazy, comfort zone. if there should be anything to come out of this, i know my future will be secure. and i will sit on my rattan rocking chair in a house i designed and built with a magnificent view. art is life. and my life is my expression. july 15.2014. 17.56hrs. cheers!

a lot of people on facebook (at least in my facebook news feed) have developed an annoying habit of sharing stuff from annoying websites like viral nova and sfglobe feature videos and articles with slogans that annoyingly challenge your curiosity to click on and see if it really will “blow your mind away, literally!” the content may be cute or interesting but what gets my goat is really the way they present stories that if you do not click on, you’re gonna lose half of your life. come on!

screencap of san francisco globe

i have to screen stuff all the time and well, today i found myself reading up on food waste in europe and how supermarkets can help out. the Philippines do have food waste but since we’re a much smaller country, i feel our food waste is still manageable and our daily produce somehow do end up somewhere where people still eat them. but still, a larger percentage of the food that have wilted or turned brown while in supermarkets and palengkes stay there until they are really bad and will have to be disposed. i heard that in SM supermarkets, a supplier has to keep his shelf fully stocked all the time. i wonder where the stocks that have wilted a bit would have gone. in palengkes, we do see that vegetables that dont get sold eventually just turn bad and then gets dumped. now i hear the philippine market is opened for imported produce from the states.

read on Veggie Tales: U.S. Fresh Vegetables Now Available in Philippines

is this really a good idea? we’re already dealing with so much surplus (not everything gets purchased and consumed) amidst poverty and hunger plus our farmers are already struggling to grow perfect vegetables that will fit the supermarket standard (good enough for a photo-shoot). it’s bad enough we are importing rice from vietnam instead of investing on our rice farmers. i think we cant really afford to have competition from importers. and we havent even discussed GMOs here.

so today i was also reading up on this supermarket’s goal on selling the not-so pretty vegetables and educate the public that these are totally the same as their pretty counterparts. they are just as nutritious and ok for consumption. and selling them at a cheaper price is a great marketing strategy to lessen europe’s food waste.

this other website talks about the first german grocery that attempts to lessen packaging by selling wholesale items into tingi-tingi, the same idea as our sari-sari store, except the store is prettier and they cut out excessive packaging. click on the photo for the link.

how are you as a consumer? do you have a healthy balance of purchasing from supermarkets and palengkes? here in katipunan, we have 3 choices of supermarkets: Rustan’s Fresh, SM Save More, and Shoppersville. of the three, rustan’s is obviously more expensive. their vegetables are pretty but that’s the premium of a high-end supermarket and obviously they are more expensive. SM Save More is cheaper and some packed vegetables are less in quantity so you get it “cheaper.” i like that shoppersville is not a chain supermarket and has been in katipunan for a really long time! their stocks are great and i really havent done a comparison but i think their vegetables are priced cheaper than SM Save More’s. if you really wanna go cheap, take a cab to marikina market and even if you compute transportation fare,  it still comes out cheaper than having shopped at rustans, i kid you not. we once spent P1000 ($23) on vegetables and a few crabs, fish, and chicken (including cab fare). had we gone to rustans, it would have set us off at around P2300+ ($53). how smart a consumer are you?

outside rustan’s in katipunan, there’s a fruit and vegetable stand where i sometimes buy my bananas after having shopped at rustan’s. lemons in rustans are p20 (46cents) a piece while the guy outside rustan’s sells his lemons for half the price. and they’re practically the same kind of lemon. which would be a smarter choice, eh?

we havent even talked about purchasing local and cutting down on carbon footprint. i once tried purchasing local products instead of my usual brands and i did find very minimal differences, or none at all. instead of colgate for toothpaste, i picked happy (produced by ACS, a filipino company). instead of head and shoulders, i tried human nature (pretty awesome local brand selling all-natural, organic products but slightly expensive). our products are as good as their imported counterparts. we’re just programmed to think imported is always better, unfortunately.

ive ranted enough. my blog is really going nowhere. one minute i talk about movies or set design then i talk about something like this. i should get back to regular programming.

i saw the trailer a few weeks back and i was excited for this. i totally forgot this was by luc besson when i went to watch LUCY this afternoon with my mother. i was a major fan of the professional and the rather quirky fifth element with corbin dallas multi-pass. the concept of maximizing human potential was interesting but i felt its writing in LUCY could have been more thorough and more fleshed out. the visuals were interesting enough but kubrick did a much more spectaular job in 2001: a space odyssey. having said that, scarlett was perfect for the role, with her raspy alto voice, and morgan freeman, for always being there when you need him. as i said, i forgot luc besson directed this film and while watching the movie, i kept saying, this feels like something luc besson would do. the pace, the damsel in distress, the empowered female, the basic feel of the movie, the french police and the car chase through paris, the musical score (by longtime collaborator eric serra), even a korean version of gary oldman. btw, included in a montage is a snipet from the philippines of our cebu prisoners dancing. and maybe another scene that involved delivering a baby (could also be any southeast asian country though). 3.5/5

heard a lot about this place from my sisters. it’s a cozy watering hole in an area surrounded by bridal shops. i do remember in the 80s the building burrow is located now used to house our favorite video store (honi music center or something like that) where we’d bribe our grandfather to take us during weekends so we can pick out and rent animated films on betamax.

the concept of this bar is pretty simple and straightforward. this supplements the bartending program of a vocational school located beside it. the interior is sparsely decorated but tastefully done and the bar features a wide selection of hard liquor and commercial beers. the beers are priced a bit higher than most establishments in the area (p50) and they dont offer it in buckets. it kinda works to keep the bar’s clientele within a certain age group or social class perhaps (it’s cheap but not that cheap haha).

came by tonight with my sister, cousin, and my mother. i wanted to see this place as i was intrigued by the concept. the acoustics could have been better but the lighting worked for me and i always love anything with dark grey walls (right wall of bar). the food is decent (i got to try their cheezy meaty fries; they were out of calamares) and they serve their beers in frozen mugs. the biggest come-on is that the place is indeed cozy (and clean!). carlo and i currently still maintain our dream bar to only serve coffee and beer and seeing this makes our dream feasible.

the burrow is located on capistrano street, in front of thai me up. the 1st image is borrowed from the bar’s facebook page. you can look up its location via foursquare here.

the film we worked on for about a year of our small, insignificant lives (compared to fallen heroes who fought for our liberation) just released a teaser trailer! sharing with you a glimpse of the biggest movie we’ve all worked on, so far! i give you jerrold tarog’s HENERAL LUNA!

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directed by JERROLD TAROG cinematography PONG IGNACIO production design BENJAMIN PADERO & CARLO B. TABIJE music JERROLD TAROG editor JERROLD TAROG catering JERROLD TAROG free coffee JERROLD TAROG sunscreen JERROLD TAROG (kadaghan bas imo ngalan diri JERROLD TAROG) screenplay JERROLD TAROG ED ROCHA HENRY FRANCIA producer ED ROCHA executive producer FERNANDO ORTIGAS

please like our HENERAL LUNA facebook page.

i booked plane tickets for my art department staff around august last year so they could join me in my mindanao birthday celebration this year. i planned out a week’s itinerary for them, most of whom never stepped on cagayan de oro before. this list of activities included white water rafting and ziplining. unfortunately, about a week before we were to fly out from manila, we received news of a tragic accident resulting to the death of a bohol tourist while rafting in cdo. i tried to tame down fear by explaining this is an isolated case–only 3rd death in 17 years since the rafting industry came about; happened also on friday the 13th (june 13 2014). yes, superstition but whatever. eventually i got the group to agree on no rafting and instead do a tour of camiguin.

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ive been to camiguin in the 80s and then around the year 2000. this would only be my third time there. the place almost hasnt changed and that’s a good thing. what’s also great about the place is it doesn’t cost much to go there. here’s my attempt to persuade others to visit camiguin by listing what we spent for this year (june 2014).

to get to camiguin from manila, you can take the plane to cagayan de oro. promo fares on cebu pacific normally are issued out 6-8 months before the travel period. after taxes and surcharges, one would be paying PHP1500++ promo fare round trip manila-cagayan de oro (no check-in baggage).  normal plane rates run around PHP6,000 round trip if purchased maybe a week before a flight, cebupac or pal (pal is normally more expensive by p200 haha). upon arrival at the airport, take a shuttle (ranges PHP 150 to 200 per head) to bring you to the city 30 minutes away (normal drop offs are at centrio mall or at limketkai mall).

from wherever you are in CDO, take a cab or jeep to agora market. ask to be dropped off at the bus terminal or where the vans going to balingoan pier are located. cab may be around p100. jeep is 7.50 per head.

there were 11 of us in the group to camiguin. the barkers struck up a deal with the driver (normally, you wouldnt be able to talk to driver until later not unless you have contacts) and explained to us the van had a 14-person capacity and they were charging us 1,650 package rate for all 11. we agreed, got on, and van immediately left for balingoan pier.

we wanted to leave CDO early and hoped to arrive at balingoan pier around 10AM (cdo to balingoan will take about 1.5 to 2 hours) but we got out of the house late. it’s always a challenge herding a large group especially on vacation where schedules are mere suggestions. the driver did assure us we’d catch the 11.30AM boat in balingoan pier. and we did.

upon arrival at balingoan pier, we headed straight to the ticketing office. ferry tickets to camiguin (benoni port) cost around P150 per head. plus P2 environmental fee. plus p2 terminal fee.

we arrived at camiguin’s benoni pier around lunchtime.  a driver with a multicab was supposed to meet us there (i made reservations prior). right when the boat approached the pier, porters started coming up the boat including a guy who came up waving a sign with my name on it. “that’s us.” we followed the guy who led us to a purple multicab and endorsed us to the driver from the resort we were staying at.

the day before leaving for camiguin, my brother-in-law and i were already in contact with the owners of paguia resort (contact number 0917-310-7085, look for ruel) and we booked for a big room/house that would fit our group of 11 for only P2000 a night, including an extra bed. the same resort also sent out that multicab jeep to fetch us from the pier and start us on our tour of camiguin immediately. charges were p500 for pickup from the pier and another P1500 for the day’s tour.

i asked him if we could stop over some carinderia for lunch and he brought us to some shack in the middle of nowhere for humba and other usual carinderia fare. lunch cost: p750 for 11 people (including 3 coke litro bottles).

we started our tour by visiting katibawasan falls (entrance of p30 per head). right outside the entrance there was a kiping store selling the delicacy for 3 for P100 (with a drizzle of coco jam). along the way to our next destination we stopped frequently by the highway to take pictures. stops included the sunken cemetery, the old church ruins, and the steps up the volcano. most are free (we didnt take the outrigger boat to the cross at the sunken cemetery and we only had to give a token donation at the church ruins).

kiping with coco jam

katibawasan falls

cross at the sunken cemetery site

our last 2 stops were at the cold spring (P30 per head), where we had fresh coconut water in its shell, (p30) and at the hot spring in the evening (P30 per head with around P150 for a cottage). it is typical to end the day at the ardent hot spring for a night swim. but first, our driver suggested we place orders for dinner at a nearby restaurant ahead of time. when we finished swimming and was ready to leave, we just called up the resto to fire up our orders and by the time we arrived at the resto, our food was ready for us. that nice resto filled us up well and our total bill was around P3000 (for 12 diners). not bad.

the next morning we woke up at 5AM so we could take the boats to the white island (P650 for 6 pax) by 5.30am. crossing the sea to the white island would take about 15-20 minutes. it’s best if you visit the island in the morning when the sun isnt too high up and the sea is not as turbulent as in the afternoon. since it was overcast that day, we stayed longer than planned. breakfast was hot pandesal peddled on the streets (p10/pack) and urchin at the island (P50 for 3 pieces).

we eventually left the island to check out of the resort and try to catch 12 noon ferry trip. we paid another P500 for the multicab to take us to the pier but not after doing a side trip at the ostrich farm and the kibila clam farm, which was along the way to the pier. well, sort of.  entrace to the clam farm was P25 and a cottage was P100. if you want to go snorkeling and see the clams in their habitat in the ocean, there are corresponding fees, including 150 for a guide plus rentals for gear. a really handsome aspin dog came to greet us and stayed with us the whole time we were there.

so far, i had the best time at the kibila clam farm beach. it was around noontime and it was high tide. the sea was clean and at a certain teal or aquamarine color and very inviting. waves were pretty big but that just added to the fun. instead of staying for 20 minutes, we stayed for almost three hours. we ordered for some recently caught fish to be cooked grilled, steamed, and in a soup. the cooks made suggestions on how to prepare and cook the fish so as not to waste any of the fresh produce. awesome! they charge by the kilogram (maybe around P180/10 grams) and it was one of the best meals ive had.

we finally had to leave in order to catch the last ferry out of camiguin that day. we made it 30 minutes before the boat had to leave (last trip 4PM). overall, it was an awesome tour of the island and my friends from manila had a best time ever. rest assured i will keep coming back for more of this unpretensious, laid back beach and provincial life.

for more photos during this trip, check out my facebook album here.

cheers!

im tired. emotionally, spiritually, physically, creatively. and social media is white noise, loud and empty. yesterday, i deactivated my facebook account. in times when im in this conflicted restless anxious state, i get off facebook and keep only twitter and my blog for sending out smoke signals when i need to. i tried to deactivate my instagram but there was only a delete option. without batting an eyelash, i went for the delete. no more instagram. my avoidance of the greater watering hole of online society tends to go for only a few days. i do hope i get revived faster than usual. i make no promises. what do they say about wizards again?

totally unrelated photo of ET being “bathed” by steven spielberg. cheers and have a happy, fruitful life. go read a book or something.

it pays to do research. while learning more about places worth visiting in bangkok i would come across a few articles mentioning the rot fai market. night markets are a dime-a-dozen in southeast asia and the biggest night market in bangkok is the chatuchak. however, little is said about rot fai except that if you were to look for vintage items, you would find them there. i enticed faisal, my friend based in bangkok, to bring us to this haven and on the 2nd day of our stay in thailand, we did find ourselves in rot fai (train) market.

and by a lot, i mean, this was the motherload! it’s like cubao x in manila except rot fai market is maybe 10 times bigger (about 6-8 long warehouse stretches of shops in brick) with so much more stuff . the shops are so gorgeously designed and their wares so nicely curated, it’s a pack rat’s candy store. except it’s as big as a mall. an outdoor big-ass mall.

look at all those trucks! most of the stuff on display is in pretty good condition (unlike the stuff we have left in manila). i did not bother asking for prices because it would only break my heart knowing i did not have money for them. waaaaah.

drool all you want, for a production designer it was practically disneyland!  the shop owners were nice and allowed me to just take photos. and shoot i did. they also had the regular tiangge market and a food area. when we were there, a real muay boxing match took place in the middle of the parking lot. more pics on that later. and more pics of rot fai shops HERE.

rot fai market is open from thursday (opens late afternoon) all the way to the weekend. previously, rot fai market was located near chatuchak but it has since moved to its current location in Srinakarin Soi 51, behind seacon square shopping mall at the west side of bangkok. get more information here.

we’re roughly midway shooting through the 2nd episode of regal film’s widely anticipated horror anthology, shake, rattle, & roll, now on its 15th version. carlo and i are working again with jerrold tarog (director), mackie galvez (cinematographer), and benjamin tolentino (editor). we did our first SRR episode years back for punenrarya (blogging about that here) and got a lot of notice for that episode, especially from the brilliant performance of our lead, carla abellana. this time she’s back working with us along with dennis trillo, john lapus, and the magnificent chanda romero. watch out for SRR 15’s 2nd episode in december 2014!

posted this a week ago on twitter. so far i think ive been productive in other things, including upping my game levels in the mobile x-men battle of the atom game hehehe and ive caught up on the all new x-men title with the time-displaced original x-men. it’s like reuniting with your favorite uncles in their teenage forms, including vintage costuming. suspension of disbelief helps here. the time and space continuum in the comics is just shit like the continuity in GLEE, including the ages of its actual actors. for the x-men, as long as cyclops continue to brood, im fine.

cyclops still does it for me, especially his current older self with the kick-ass costume. theyve already killed off professor x and wolverine. jean grey is currently dead and her younger self is dealing with her developing powers and all the convoluted events in her “future” and killing off an entire galaxy as the dark phoenix. younger cyclops has gone off to join his father out in space (and this runs off in another title) and corsair is constantly featured topless. ive no qualms about that obviously. equality for all. chos.

hopefully the next step is to actually pick up a book and be committed to read it. ive so many books in my college that ive never actually gotten to read (or have started and never finish) and is just cultivating mold in boxes in my room (and sometimes used as props for tvc shoots). hello gabriel, i missed you. i might actually get to pick this up again and finish it. pray for me.

another week off facebook and all other social media forms of distractions. tomorrow ill see how far i can stay away from twitter as it is currently my only connection to any form of national news, aside from the regular doses of online rants from friends, witty quips, and the occasional naked pics.

cheers and more later.