From Sine Siete to Kuya Germs: Staying in Touch with you Inner Baduy

Don’t ask me to pick out from a line up people named Assunta, Ara, Juday, John Lloyd, Rufa Mae, Alessandra, Piolo, and Jenny Lynne. I have no idea how they look like, I just see their names in the online edition of Philippine Daily Inquirer, and it doesn’t always have pictures. Not that I would be able to keep track anyway. There are just so many new names, an extraordinary amount of which seemed to have been picked out of a Makati phone book!

Ask me any day about Amalia, Susan, Rosemarie, Juancho, Vilma, Nora, Amy, Hilda, Sharon, Pugo, Bentot, Chichay, Nida, Bella, Matutina, Dely, Babalu, Etang, and I’ll give you a smile. Okay, it’s many years past, and those of you who want to remain in the Tagalog movie closet, stay in there. Just smile secretly to yourself as you read this, and admit that YOU DID watch Sine Siete, and that YOU DID enjoy it!

I remember wanting to go home eagerly in the afternoons, so we could watch Sine Siete. My partner in crime was my sister, and it turns out, a great number of Assumption classmates! I have great memories of watching Dance O’Rama and Ang Senyorito at ang Atsay over and over and over again. Today, when we have pan de sal at home, I can’t help but say in my mind “At nasaan ang jamon?” And can anyone say “Dance O’Rama” and you not reply “Marlene, Marlene, you are the Dance O'Rama Queeng of My Heart.” Once my husband had all these errands for me to do, and I actually curtsied and said “Opo, senyorito.” My God, all these years, and I’m still messed up!

There were all those Pugo, Bentot, Patsy, and Cachupoy ones where it seemed they were always getting into trouble, and the funniest scenes were set in cemeteries. Remember the one where there was a character named “Dr. Kagaw” and the haunted house one where Rosemarie was a young girl in twin braids, that would rise whenever she got scared? There was another scary movie I remember called Gumising Ka Maruja and I think it was starring Susan Roces. And a whole bunch of Charo Santos and Hilda Koronel scary period movies, the titles escape me. Then there were those Luis Gonzalez, Gloria Romero, Amalia Fuentes, Nida Blanca, Bert Leroy, Nestor De Villa movies, where they wore native probinsiyano costumes, that clashed with their pretty and handsome city faces! Then there were those World War II movies, some with famous American actors in them, but where the mean Japanese captain would always be Vic Diaz! I learned all about Corregidor and Bataan and the death march from Sine Siete, before I learned about them in school.

Why is it that in the movies, someone’s mom was always dying, leaving the poor children “ulila” to be raised by a nasty aunt, or step-mother? Seemed to me like Charito Solis, Caridad Sanchez, and even Hilda Koronel were such abused, kawawa women. Such drama, such stereotypes, such fun!

And Dolphy always had some effeminate role, like Fefita Fofonggay vda. De Falayfay or something like that, and another wacky one called Buhay Marino. I know it’s not cinema but television, but are there videos of the John and Marsha series? I would love to see those all over again. Anytime I see my brother in ugly, old looking shorts (he’s notorious for hanging on to old clothes) I call him John Puruntong! And at Target, a few years ago, they sold those food covers that keep the flies out, made out of wire, the kind that John put over his face as he slept on the bangko! I had to buy it, even if we have no flies in the city, just to show my kids. Of course, they just rolled their eyes up at me. I also can't forget Dolphy's tv show called Buhay Artista where he or his sidekick Panchito would sing a song, and the other would translates it into either English or Tagalog, with such hilarious results!

I remember watching the original Darna, and all the impaktos that came with the movie. Like me, did you learn all about aswangs, vampiras, manananggals, tianaks, capres, and the like from Tagalog movies? What a wealth of cultural trivia they were back then. Then there was the Vilma Santos remake of Darna. Speaking of Vilma, you also need to speak of Nora. I remember my sister and I were closet Vilmanians. The household staff, including our yayas, were Noranians, to our dismay. I remember someone actually saying that we like Vilma cause we were maputi like her, and the yayas like Nora, who was maitim, like them. That was kinda offensive, even back then, I just could not explain why, but then again, when you think about it, one tends to identify with someone who is like oneself, so maybe it had anthropological truth to it? Then we would go into great debates about who was the better singer, and who was the better actor. In light of what they are today (Mayor of Lipa, and suspected drug smuggler), it all seems silly and irrelevant. (But you did watch Superstar, on Sundays right, with Ate Guy and Kuya Germs? Actually, you never missed Germspecial, or Inday Badiday on “The Truth and Nothing But the Truth” did you? Or were you the Flor de Luna or Anna Lisa type?)

Ah, that’s getting too deep into analyzing Filipino entertainment, but why not? A good part of my childhood was spent enjoying it. There was one of Chichay, I think it was called “Shootout sa Baboy Corral”, where they were cowboys but had pigs and not cows, a pancit luglug western, if there ever was one. Chichay would caress the pigs to sleep by massaging their tummies and chanting “Yatatata, yatatata” something like it. Just to show you how messed up I am, that is how I put my daughters to sleep. They laughed when I first did it, totally did not get my explanation about the movie, until I told them they were the little pigs I needed to put to sleep. They still request it. Look at that, passing it on to the next generation, indoctrination of Filipino movie culture.

My aunt remembers taking my sister and I to a Nora movie because we kept nagging her: Lollipops and Roses, which was set in California, with Cocoy Laurel in the lead. I used to think Cocoy was so cute, and followed him around their Matabunkay compound, where my parents always played in the Holy Week pelota tournaments. My tita still tells people that she had to buy us giant lollipops to eat while watching, and that we sang along loudly with the movie, to her ultimate shame. She'll never let us live that down. There also was Nora Aunor and Manny de Leon in “Tell Nora I Love Her”, and yes, I can even sing that song. Scary, no? What’s even scarier is that one night, on my way home on a bus with my husband Gerry, and his friend Ner Martinez (brother of Leo Martinez) I started to confess my Sine Siete obsession and it turns out, the Martinez family has one too, no surprise there of course. It got really sick and I thought my husband would throw up, when Ner and I started singing Tell Nora I Love Her right there on the bus. But it helped to know I wasn’t the only one in the closet, or just outside of it.

Now if you remember this, you have to admit it, just for my sake. Do you remember the Vilma Santos movie called “The Sensations” where they had all these love teams, etc. etc.? I can still remember the song especially the refrain, and that the fashion of the day was hotpants! I remember my sister and I went to Magallanes Theater to watch it, and as a treat to go with the movie, spaghetti at Pancake House with the yayas in tow!

We cousins used to scare each other just by saying this movie title, in our scariest possible deep voice: "Hatinggabi na, Vilma!"And were you afraid of Mary Walter, Etang Discher, and Bella Flores as I was? They looked so scary, mean, and witch-like, especially in the black and white movies they appeared in. How thrilled I was recently, to see a gentle, older, more graceful, still beautiful Bella Flores in Crying Ladies! Frankly, not only was it the high note, it was one of only two things that made me not regret wasting my $12! The other thrill was seeing a fat Edgar Mortiz as the noisy upstairs neighbor!

For much of my childhood, I remember that actually seeing a Tagalog movie in the theater was forbidden, since many of them were ‘bomba”. Then they started to make quality “Lino” movies, but still, I was too young, and would not dare sneak in. So the next era of my Tagalog movie enjoyment came with the Sharon movies, and Regal films. (Do you Section 7 girls remember that Mother Lily’s daughter, Roselle Monteverde, was our classmate in 3rd year high school? She was only there for one year. More about her in the Third Year blog, coming soon.) I actually remember seeing “Katorse” and “Bilibid Boys” in the theater, as well as “Bagets.”

Ah, the Sharon movies. This was to be Cricket Concepcion’s and my secret pleasure. Fun enough, that we would take the jeepney all the way from U.P. to Ali Mall, to be there on opening day. Not only did we watch them all, Cricket knew the dialogue by heart. Ah too late, she can’t kill me now, by the time she sees this, the deed is done. I don’t know if I was more amused by her amazing memory (she would start quoting soon as we left the movie house) or by her funny Tagalog. Actually, I believe Cricket expanded her Tagalog vocabulary, thanks to Sharon!

I think I continued to watch Sharon movies even when I moved to the States, via video of course. I did stop at one point, since I got bored. We grew up, but Sharon didn’t. She seems to think she is still this cute 14-year old ingénue, when she must be 40 years old by now. Pa-cute pa rin siya, nakakainis na. And when she is supposed to be poor in the movie, why in the world does she have marvelous haircuts and highlights, and perfect manicures? Gimme a break.

As an adult, I no longer need to sneak in, so when they showed these films at a festival in NY some years back, off I went to enjoy them: Itim and Karnal. I also saw Marilu Diaz Abaya's Rizal on video, and it was excellent.

In recent years, I’ve seen a few more, and was quite surprised that I enjoyed them: Milan, Mano Po (the first one), Ngayong Nandito Ka – with Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa (Wow! I know who they are!) Actually, for the latter movie, I ended up watching it thanks to my brother and my husband. One weekend, we left them at home while we went shopping. They had the entire house to themselves plus a bunch of videos my sister-in-law borrowed. They put in Ngayong… and by the time we got home, we found them in front of the tv with tears in their eyes!!! Mwahahahaha! Now they will really kill me for typing this! Magnifico was good, but not quite magnifique. I don't know what, but was it too gut wrenching with no redemption, and could there have been another way to depict the tragedy without all that weeping and wailing? Maybe living away has just changed my taste. This iyakan melodrama might just be what attracted me to Pinoy films in my childhood in the first place.

So my eras in Pinoy movies are the 50s and the 60s, then I jump into the 80s and am starting to discover the 21st century films. I feel like I missed out in the golden age of the Brockas and Mike de Leons and Laurice Guillen ones cause I was too young when they first screened and then I left the Philippines. Sometimes I wonder if they ever got shown on Sine Siete or its reincarnations, much like the movies of the 50s were. My only recourse now would be video, if they ever got into video. I stopped going to the Filipino video stores ages ago, when it seemed like the only movies I could rent were from the modern day versions of bomba films.

Recently, I heard that a Filipino restaurant near me holds Monday night screenings of old movies from the 50s, plus all-you-can-eat buffets for less than $10. And to top it all, the feature that I just missed was “Dance O' Rama” Oh my gawd, pan de sal, jamon, Marlene honey, and all the lechon kawali I want. What more could a Sine Siete die hard ask for?

Like The Colors of My Mind

What sort of future is coming up from behind I don't really know. But the past, spread out ahead, dominates everything in sight.

--- Robert M. Pirzig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

With such a busy lifestyle being mom to twins, working full time, and living in a fast-paced society, one needs to resort to power shopping. For me that means not just groceries (buy in bulk, buy online) or clothes, it also means books. When I find myself in a bookstore, I just stock up: perusing interesting covers, speed reading synopses, watching out for favorite authors, even if it means I won’t get to actually read the book ‘til weeks, months, even years later.

I do believe that when it is the right time to read a book, your fingers will find it (under the pile of clothes, stacked high on top of the pile of books, as they balance themselves on top of shoeboxes...) Somehow, when it is time for you to know what it is you need to know, the book will find you. Such is what happened to me when I found my copy of “An Alchemy of Mind” by one of my favorite authors, Diane Ackerman (thank you Didi Manahan for introducing me to her) under my bed a few weeks ago.

As the title suggests, the book explores the mind, as Ackerman only can and as best as one could, I suppose, since I believe the mind is as unique to an individual, as are fingerprints. I discovered with delight, the chapter on memory. I quote entirely from her below, I will not even attempt to say it better than she does. Here goes…

From the Chapter entitled “What Is a Memory?”…

Like tiny islands on the horizon, they can vanish in rough seas. Even in calm weather, their coral gradually erodes, pickled by salt and heat. Yet they form the shoals of a life. Some offer safe lagoons and murmuring trees. Others crawl with pirates and reptiles. Together, they connect a self with the mainland and society. Plot their trail and a mercurial past becomes visible.

Memories feel geological in their repose, solid and true, the bedrock of consciousness….Memories inform our actions, keep us company, and give us our noisy, ever-chattering sense of self. Because we are moody giants, every day we subtly revise who we think we are….

Without memories we wouldn’t know who we are, how we once were, who we’d like to be in the memorable future. We are the sum of our memories. They provide a continuous private sense of one’s self. Change your memory and you change your identity….

…Shared memories bind us to loved ones, neighbors, our contemporaries. The sort of memory I am talking about isn’t essential for survival, and yet it pleases us, it enriches everyday life. So couples relive romantic memories, families watch home movies, and friends “catch up” with each other, as if they’ve lagged behind on a trail…

…Picture yourself younger, and what image forms? Most likely it’s a static image, a snapshot someone took. Memories can pile up and become mind clutter; it’s easier to store them in albums. We remember our poses. Each photograph is a magic lamp rubbed by the mind. When we are in the mood, we can savor a photograph while sensations burst free….

From the Chapter entitled “Reflections in a Gazing Ball”…

…One excited person can somehow rally all the others. Stimulate one facet of a memory and the whole world can suddenly pop into mind…

…Add enough pieces to the mosaic and an individual finds shape. We take for granted these dazzling skills, and the most treasured gift of all, being able to time-travel and explore the lost kingdoms of yesterday. We may be the only animals with this rich form of episodic memory, in which we can revive our past, play it back like a film, we stop to look at, enter imaginatively, and revise as we grow older.

From the Chapter entitled “Remember What?”…

Say memory and almost everyone thinks of the past. But most of our memories are really about the future….

We complain about normal forgetfulness, but thank goodness we don’t have better memories….People cursed with comprehensive memories have minds like overstuffed closets – open the door and an avalanche pours out…Forgetting isn’t the absence of remembering, it’s memory’s ally, a device that allows the brain to stay agile and engaged….

So now I do not wonder, that my closets and my rooms look like avalanches, they are just reflections of my comprehensive memory! (Hah! Yet another excuse to give to my husband.) Thank you all for allowing me to be the excited person, to pour out the memories, just so my brain doesn’t overload, and short circuit soon….And yes, I still do not remember everything, so how about YOU start sharing your memories too? One last piece of advice from Ackerman:

Challenge, novelty, and rich environments can rejuvenate memory. So does gentle aerobic activity, and, quite possibly, eating a cup of blueberries each day.

So go out for a run, or play some badminton, have some berries, and remember away.....

PROM MEMORIES

These dinners we've been having in NY are lot of fun. They also stir up some more memories, as if I needed more, right? I don’t know how we got to the topic, but you all know how it is, one thing leads to another, and then it all comes tumbling out.

My jaded adult self does not know anymore what the idea of “prom” conjured in my teenage self. Maybe it had to do with visions of romance, being asked or asking someone you like to be your date on a special night? Getting to wear a pretty dress and shoes, having your hair and make-up done? Dancing the night away, maybe living happily ever after with your prince for the night? Hmmmm, not quite, in retrospect.

In 2nd year high school, I got asked to LaSalle’s Junior Prom by one of Nana’s friends. (I am going to omit many names here, to protect the innocent and the guilty!) Nana (and as a result, we her friends) hang around with a bunch of La Salle guys who were one year ahead of us. Many of us had “crushes” on them, and vice versa. I think I got asked in January, for the prom in March. Wow, how thrilling, my first prom! Not to speak of what it meant for my ego and reputation at home: my family, especially my sister, always teased me that I was a “manang” and I would be an old maid forever. Getting asked to the prom stopped all that! I just remembered what triggered this memory: Marichu, at dinner, reminded me of this guy, who was so handsome, and took me to his prom in high school. Ah yes, he was guapo, but, by the time the prom came around in March, PROM DATE was now the boyfriend of another girl GIRLFRIEND! But he was nice and did not “disinvite” me, but obviously, prom night was now not going to be romantic prom night! But it was not romance anyway for many of my friends. Just think about this mess: J asked K, but by prom time, J’s girlfriend was T. So R took T, so that she could be at the prom too. Another guy Matt took someone to this prom, but supposedly, by prom time liked someone else. GIRLFRIEND also managed to come to the prom somehow, can’t remember how anymore. So most of us girls got asked to this prom, but good friend Nana who introduced us to most of the guys, and who really really liked R, did not get to the prom at all. Is that ironic or what?

Add to this memory: My mom, of course, was thrilled I was going to my first prom, so she took me to her salon Budjiwara that afternoon for hair and make-up. I went home convinced there was something wrong with my face, but my mom said it was okay. So I went over to Toni’s house, where we would dress up and get picked up together. Soon as I walked in, Toni and her mom gasped and confirmed what I thought: my face was GREEN! Forever thank you to Toni and her mom, for fixing my face and redoing it all over again! And my Malu Veloso dress, pretty as it was, she even designed it in front of me, or so I thought – at the next family gathering, I wore the dress again, and in comes my own cousin, in an identical Malu Veloso dress. She also thought it was designed uniquely for her. Needless to say, it was my last Malu dress ever, and my last make-up session at Budji! Nice footnote: PROM DATE and GIRLFRIEND eventually got married, and as far as I know, still are 20 years later! And Nana and Matt also married each other, and 19 years later, are still together. Bravo to them all! I wonder how many other hook-ups arose from this prom drama at the Mandarin in 1979?

Third Year prom: Some of us sections banded together and organized our own “underground” prom at the Century Plaza Hotel. This time, I wanted to ask N to my prom, but before I got around to do it, he got a girlfriend P who was a friend of mine, so I did not ask him. I ended up going with C, the “crush” of one of my good friends S, with her permission of course. I don’t remember anymore why S did not ask C herself. I don’t remember much about this prom, and again, it was not the romantic Cinderella ball one dreams of as a young girl.

Fourth Year prom: Disaster in the making from the start. I wanted to ask this guy to be my date , BUT, somehow, one of his friends M, started to tell people that I asked HIM to my prom! How that happened, I do not know, and since I was so mabait, and did not want to embarrass anyone, I really did ask M. Forget romantic again, this guy M is really nice, but no sparks, sorry. If you remember, our parents came to this prom too, with strict instructions to my dad NOT to come over to our table at all! But we did get to dance the first dance with our dads, that is so sweet and I love that memory.

I don’t remember who my tablemates were anymore, except one good friend C, who was miserable cause her mom made her come to the prom and forced a date on her. Good old mother arm-twisting tactics. My mom tried that too this year. She said I HAD to take the son of one of her friends, someone that I know they’ve been plotting to set up with me since we were born. You know the drill, I am sure some of you have dictator moms too. But I stood my ground, and she gave up. (Hey mom, aren’t you glad I refused, that boy is now a bum!)

Ah but yes, I got my Cinderella wish, maybe even did better than her, because by midnight, I was home, horrors! My own parents came home much later than me, cause they went out hotel hopping with Tita Sarah and Tito Bert Anido, Tita Guila and Tito Raffy Maramba, and other parents! How shameful is that, I was long in my pajamas by the time they called it a night!

So there you have it, prom memories not quite “Carrie” but not quite Sandy and Danny’s “You’re the One that I Want” song from Grease either. But at least they still make me smile, and make for good and funny story telling at reunions 25 years or so later!