Naunahan ulit! GRRR!
November 26, 2006Sci-Fi Channel announces its retelling of the classic THE WIZARD OF OZ, but with a futuristic twist.
“The Wizard of Oz” is getting a makeover, morphing into “Tin Man,” an edgy science-fiction fantasy to be produced as a $19 million, six-hour miniseries for the Sci Fi Channel.
“Our goal is to take ‘Wizard of Oz’ to the next level and make it relevant, modern and fresh to a new generation,” said Dave Howe, general manager of Sci Fi Channel. The producer is Robert Halmi’s RHI Entertainment, which produced a previous mini for Sci Fi, the 2004 “Legend of Earthsea.”
The writers of “Tin Man,” Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, also will serve as co-exec producers with Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr.
RHI has begun the search for a director and a cast, with production slated to begin in Vancouver early next year for a proposed air date on Sci Fi of December 2007.
Sci Fi’s license fee will cover less than half of the production budget, so RHI gets the international rights to “Tin Man,” with no participation by Sci Fi’s parent, NBC Universal. Sci Fi gets multirun, multiyear exclusive rights to the mini in the U.S.
Using adjectives such as psychedelic, twisted and bizarre to describe “Tin Man,” Sci Fi said the mini turns Dorothy into a young woman named DG, who finds herself plunged into a netherworld called the Outer Zone. Other celebrated characters are reimagined in “Tin Man”: the cowardly lion as a wolverine-like creature without backbone, the wicked witch as a sorceress called Azkadellia and the wizard as a larger-than-life figure called the Mystic Man.
“Tin Man” continues Sci Fi’s relationship with RHI, which will produce 10 original movies for the network in 2007.
My problem with this is, I thought of my own retelling of THE WIZARD OF OZ a few years ago, with a futuristic twist. Dorothy and her dog falls into a space-time vortez into another world. She meets a hard-light construct without a processor, a cyborg without a soul, and a mutant without courage. She ends up facing a warlord from who also fell into the same vortex years back. I let it stew in my head for a while, because at its rawest level, its a complete rip-off.
And now it’s too late.
So I know many of my ideas are completely viable. What’s next? Siblings follow a boy who never grew up into cyberspace, to battle internet pirates? Rizla and his indios bravos fight Jack the Ripper, not to mention an illuminati-style brotherhood?
Experimental Manga Workshop at the Marikina Shoe Expo
November 15, 2006
The Japan Foundation, Manila, in cooperation with the Future Prospects Art Space and the Artists Den, presents “Experimental Manga at the Expo“, a series of manga drawing workshops at the Future Prospects Art Space, Marikina Shoe Expo, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City on November 18 & 25, December 2 & 9 2006 and January 13 & 20, 2007, from 2-5 pm.
Poster 1; Poster 2; Map to Marikina Shoe Expo ;
Topics to be covered are:
1) Illustrating Emotions Through Facial Features by Elmer Damaso (Nov 25);
2) Exploring and Expressing the Darker Emotions by Marius Funtilar (Dec 2);
3) Alternative Media in Emotional Drawing by Nelz Yumul (Dec 9);
4) Women, Emotions and Drawing by Joanah Tinio (Jan 13); and
5) Techniques in Expressing Emotions with Drawings by Melvin Calingo (Jan 20).
Lyndon Gregorio will facilitate the initial workshop on November 18. The culminating activity will be an exhibition of the works by the participants on January 28, 2007 at the Future Prospects Art Space.
Workshops are free but participants are required to bring their own drawing materials (sketchpad/ paper, colored pens and pencils and, other coloring materials). Only fifteen slots are available per session, thus, interested workshop participants are encouraged to call and register their attendance on or before Friday, November 17. For inquiries and reservations, please call the Japan Foundation, Manila at tel. no. 811-6155 to 58.
The Japan Foundation, Manila
12/F Pacific Star Building
Sen. Gil Puyat cor. Makati Avenue
Makati City, Philippines
Tel # 811-6155 to 58
Fax # 811-6153
Beerkada Tokyo updates!
November 1, 2006Visit beerkada.i.ph/blogs/japan for regular updates from Lyndon in Tokyo.
Lyndon G. has left the country
October 26, 2006If things worked out, Lyndon Gregorio has just left for Japan at 2:50pm, Manila time. He is representing the Philippines in the 11th Asian Cartoon Exhibit, sponsored by the Japan Foundation.
Wish him luck.
Komikon 2006
October 23, 2006
I’m posting the images from the 2006 Komikon by installments because I took a LOT of pictures. Anyway, more people attended this year compared to the first one. Security’s tighter, thanks to the efforts of Henry and the marshalls. (Thanks, guys!)
I’m especially impressed by the innovations developed this year by the indie creators. The top prize for innovation must surely belong to JP Cuizon, Manix Abrera and the rest of the team who created Captain Barangay Captain, a series of animated shorts that spoofed Marvel characters. Plus points goes to them for the effort of telling a Filipino story. I hope they come out with more episodes.
The next batch of innovations goes to the indie comics that FINALLY went straight to line art and tones. Previous indies photocopied colored originals, resulting in poor reproductions. This time around, they stuck with monochromes.
Ah, this year’s convention is finally over. Some months rest, then onto the next one. See you all next year!
Child Geniuses
October 14, 2006I saw a TV documentary recently about former former child geniuses and and how they fared upon growing up.
Days before, in Fully Booked Rockwell, I saw the book of Alexa S. Kitchen, the youngest ever published cartoonist. When I heard how young she was when she got published (age 7), I cynically commented, ‘By 16, she’ll be a drug addict.’
We see these child geniuses and child celebrities, and we reflect on how we spent/wasted our own youths, eating paste and playing video games. What we don’t think about is the pressure these youngsters face, and the question being bombarded at them from then on: “What’s next?”
Think about it. You will never be as brilliant as you were when you were young and brilliant. People will always compare Macaulay Culkin to his adorable performance in Home Alone. The same culture that cherishes talent at youth will insist greater talent at maturity.
The thing that is a little better than being a young genius is having famous parents. Your success will never be your own, your failure is amplified by the waste of genetic potential.
Here’s the thing you can wish for: next year will be better than last, and your greatest accomplishment is yet to come.
Dane Cook, Self-Promotion, and Merit
October 12, 2006I just read a review of Dane Cook in Slate.com. Dane Cook is a comedian and an actor who is starring in this year’s Employee of the Month. I’ve seen him perform in previous movies, and he’s Will Ferell-ish in his contribution to pop culture. (i.e. you can expect him to headline banal family movies when he’s in his forties.)
The article states that Dane’s success is due to his self-promotional activities. He regularly updates his website, has 1.5 million ‘friends’ in MySpace, and very responsive to his fans. Unlike his peers who appear nonchalant, even disdainful to their following, Dane eagerly talks to them , both on- and off-line.
All well and good, but I’ve been doing these activities back when Friendster was the in-thing in online networking. (I gave up on Friendster when it only allowed 500 friends in its list.) Heck, I still regularly post my cellphone number in my strip, despite all the requests for winning suwertres numbers.
The good news is it confirms my theories in promotional activities. I would go on to say these activities have contributed greatly to whatever success I’ve attained. I would say the bad news in all of this is it works for both talented and non-talented (i.e. crappy) entertainers, but I’m comforted by the idea that time would decide who would prosper, who would stagnate, and who would sink.
Here are my new theories in promotions, for those who are interested:
- supply the content in multiple channels, and let fans choose the format they want.
- respond immediately to fans.
- build up your skills. Keep 90% of who you are under wraps. Keep surprising people.
- the competitive advantage of today is design (see IPod). Just before, it was customer service. After design, it will be mass customization.
One more thing: Dane Cook avoids topical humor and current events in his observational humor. Like me, he wants his material to maintain relevance over time.
The Pet Exhibit 2006
October 2, 2006
Ariel, Lico, Chompy, Snow and I spent an entire Sunday caricaturing in the 2006 Pet EXHIBIT in Megamall Atrium last October 1, 2006.
Click the image for pics.
The atrium (stage area running the length of Megamall A) packed with pet owners and pet lovers alike. The event was dominated by dogs (one one cat in sight, that one was a store showcase).
Highlights of the day included:
- a molting cockroach
- a python (so THAT’S what a python feels like…)
- a massive rottweiler
- Snow barking at every dog she sees
- Snow engaging in heavy petting (by humans)
Videoke fun
September 28, 2006Beerkadet Kai treated some of the Artists Den and other Beerkadets to her videoke party last Friday. The following strip is a tribute to the events in that party.
Thanks for the blowout, Kai! Happy birthday!
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Update 10-2-06
Here are pics from the event. Enjoy!
The 9th Asian Cartoon Exhibit
September 18, 2006
The Japan Foundation is currently hosting the 9th Asian Cartoon Exhibit at the 4th floor of EDSA Shangri-La. Cartoonists from various Asian countries are participating, including our very own Bayani ‘Barry’ Jose.
As some of you may know, I am participating in the 11th Asian Exhibit this October 26 in Tokyo, Japan. I am thanking to the Japan Foundation for this opportunity and I am asking everyone to drop by EDSA Shang to see asian cartoonists interpret the theme of I.T.
I think the 9th Exhibit will last all week.
BEERKADA MMS - deja view
September 17, 2006The new and improved BEERKADA MMS is now operational!
Together with partner ODYSSEY, the number one music store in the country, the BEERKADA MMS COLLECTION is rereleased in selected kiosks throughout the Metro. The collection features three years worth of designs (900+ wallpapers! some of them even original!)
- only P10 per download
- independent of service provider; uses bluetooth/infrared for transfer (take that, conservative telecom who won’t support anything with ‘BEER’ on it!)
- find your favorite wallpaper/s in a expansive archive, and download as much as you want
- pay only for successful downloads. no more ‘hey! i paid already. where’s my wallpaper?’ moments
- new designs available every month
You can now download from Odyssey stores at SM Megamall, SM North EDSA and Gateway mall.
Starting September 19, you can also download at Powerplant Mall and SM Ermita.
Starting September 26, you can also download at SM Manila and SM Centerpoint.
Chompy tried to download a wallpaper on her mms-capable mobile phone, and it worked. Eventually. Just make sure your bluetooth is set to ‘discoverable’.
BEERKADA strips will soon be available for download as well. Keep posted for updates!
Talk in San Miguel Corporate Headquarters
September 15, 2006Beerkadet Rex invited the Artists Den to give an informal talk for the San Miguel Corp. corporate planning group on comics-related topics.
Here’s a tribute strip for the event. Thanks, Rex!
And here are some images from the event.
UP student s interview
September 14, 2006Last Friday, a couple of UP students interviewed me for their arts studies class. The topic was about comic book cover designs.
To Cris, Neil, and the rest of the group, I hope I was able to help.
VA Anniversary
September 13, 2006Last Wednesday, Via-Astris celebrated its anniversary with a big party.
A lot of the irregular attendees showed up, including Chompy and me. I was quite impressed with their all-new uniforms (including one Captain Adama from Battlestar Galactica) and setup which I suppose they wore last Scifi-Fantasy con.
Go, VA!
The companies in my neighborhood
September 12, 2006For the longest time, I wanted to take a picture of a particular office in my neighborhood. (Click on the images to enlarge and see what I mean..)
Wait, wait, it gets worse.
I see Johnny Cruise
September 5, 2006I took the liberty of paraphrasing Isagani Cruz’s article DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL by replacing HOMOSEXUALS with PINOY, GAY with FILIPINO, MALE/MEN and FEMALE/WOMEN with ARYAN and CAUCASIAN, QUEER with BROWN, FAIRIES with BROWNIES, EFFEMINATE with ASIAN, LESBIAN with FILIPINA, and Philippine places, events, items & names with their American counterparts.
After reading the results, I thank God that ‘I. C Johnny Cruise’ isn’t a white supremacist.
Read the original text here.
Pinoys before were mocked and derided, but now they are regarded with new-found respect and, in many cases, even treated as celebrities. Only recently, the more impressionable among our people wildly welcomed a group of entertainers whose main proud advertisement was that they were ‘brown‘. It seems that the present society has developed a new sense of values that have rejected our religious people’s traditional ideas of propriety and morality on the pretext of being ‘modern’ and ‘broad-minded.’
The observations I will here make against pinoys in general do not include the members of their group who have conducted themselves decorously, with proper regard not only for their own persons but also for the Filipino population in general. A number of our local shopkeepers, to take but one example, are less than white but they have behaved in a reserved and discreet manner unlike the vulgar members of the Filipino community who have degraded and scandalized it. I offer abject apologies to those blameless people I may unintentionally include in my not inclusive criticisms. They have my admiration and respect.
The change in the popular attitude toward pinoys is not particular to the Americas. It has become an international trend even in the so-called sophisticated regions with more liberal concepts than in our comparatively conservative society. Pinoy marriages have been legally recognized in a number of European countries and in some parts of the United States. Brown people — that’s the sarcastic term for them — have come out of the closet where before they carefully concealed their condition. The permissive belief now is that pinoys belong to a separate third race with equal rights as Caucasian and Aryan persons instead of just an illicit in-between race that is neither here nor there.
When I was studying in the Boston Elementary School in Massachusetts during the last 1930s, the big student population had only one, just one, pinoy. His name was Joe but we all called him Jose. He was a quiet and friendly boy whom everybody liked to josh but not offensively. In the whole district of Boston where I lived, there was only one pinoy who roamed the streets peddling ‘kalamay’ and ‘puto’ and other treats for snacks. He provided diversion to his genial customers and did not mind their familiar amiable teasing. I think he actually enjoyed being an Asian.
The change came, I think, when an association of pinoys dirtied the beautiful tradition of the Thanksgiving parade by parading their kind as the ‘colonizers’ instead of the comely young caucasians who should have been chosen to grace the procession. Instead of being outraged by the blasphemy, the watchers were amused and, I suppose, indirectly encouraged the brownies to project themselves. It must have been then that they realized that they were what they were, whether they liked it or not, and that the time for hiding their condition was over.
Now pinoys are everywhere, coming at first in timorous and eventually alarming and audacious number. Stores now are served mostly by pinoy attendants including Asian bearded owners to whom white shopkeepers have lost many of their Caucasian customers. Local shows have their share of ‘brownies‘ , including actors like the one rejected by a beautiful wife in favor of a more caucasian if less handsome partner. And, of course, there are Asian directors who are probably the reason why every movie and TV drama must have the colored man or two to cheapen the proceedings.
And the schools are now fertile ground for the pinoy invasion. Walking along the University grounds one day, I passed by a group of boys chattering among themselves, with one of them exclaiming seriously, ‘Aalis na ako. Magpapaputi pa ako!’ [’I’m leaving. I still have to whiten my skin!’] That pinoy would have been mauled in the school where my five sons (all Caucasian) studied during the ’70s when all the students were certifiably white. Now many of its pupils are brown, and I don’t mean tanned. I suppose they have been influenced by such shows as ‘Big Time’, our own ‘Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros’ (both of which won awards), ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ and that talk program of Kris Aquino, an admitted Filipina.
Is our population getting to be predominantly brown? Must we allow Pinoys to march unobstructed until we are converted into a nation of Asian persons without the virility of Aryans and the grace of Caucasians but only an insipid mix of these diluted virtues? Let us be warned against the pinoy population, which is per se a compromise between the strong and the weak and therefore only somewhat and not the absolute of either of the two qualities. Be alert lest the American flag be made of delicate pina and adorned with embroidered burloloy.
Raul Gonzales and those wacky State Scholars
August 27, 2006Raul Gonzalez made an interesting to the Philippine Daily Inquirer SUNDAY Edition, Aug. 27, 2006.
He said the UP educational system breeds destabilizers and naked runners.
I’m not going into detail about Gonzlez’s prudish stance torwards the human body. Nor am I going to comment about his view on the way “students should repay the government for giving them a world-class education”.
I am, however, going to remark on his final statement. Asked what school he graduated from, Gonzalez replied: “University of Sto. Tomas… that’s why I am well-behaved.”
Mr. Gonzalez may have forgotten one particular Thomasian who was a notorious rabble-rouser during his time.
A certain Dr. Jose Rizal.
No, wait: Rizal failed to graduate from UST.
Go figure.
