…people in the newspaper industry saw the web as a newspaper. People in TV saw the web as TV, and people in book publishing saw it as a weird kind of potential book. But the web is not just some kind of magic all-absorbing meta-medium. It’s its own thing. And like other media it has a question that it answers better than any other. That question is: Why wasn’t I consulted?
WWIC
New designs for Philippine Peso bills
It may take a while before BSP themselves release proper photos of the new Philippine notes because we all know how internet savvy government agencies are. All I’ve seen are photos of the designs on exhibit from yesterday’s launch. Bills will start circulation within the month, while current bills will expire in three years (the same time it took for these designs to be conceptualized).
I like that the designs feel modern (people have compared them to the Euro) and not completely monochromatic. The word “Pilipino” is also integrated in Baybayin. Most of all, it’s good to know Philippine branding can be done well, unlike the Pilipinas Kay Ganda tourism slogan failure a month ago.
P20 bill
Obverse: Manuel L. Quezon
Reverse: Banaue Rice Terraces and a palm civet from the Cordilleras, which are famous for producing the civet cat coffee or kapeng alamid.P50 bill
Obverse: Sergio Osmeña
Reverse: Taal Lake and the Giant Trevally (locally known as Maliputo), a delicious milky fishP100 bill
Obverse: Manuel A. Roxas
Reverse: Mayon Volcano and the “butanding” or whale shark, the world’s largest fish and the main attraction of Donsol, SorsogonP200 bill
Obverse: Diosdado Macapagal
Reverse: Bohol’s Chocolate Hills and the Philippine tarsier, one of the world’s smallest primatesP500 bill
Obverse: Corazon Aquino and Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.
Reverse: Palawan’s Subterranean River National Park and the blue-naped parrot, which thrives in the forests of Palawan and MindoroP1,000 bill
Obverse: Josefa Llanes Escoda, Vicente P. Lim, and Jose Abad Santos
Reverse: Tubbataha Reef Marine Park and the South Sea Pearl, which is produced by oysters that thrive in the South Seas of which the Sulu Sea is part
Fitzgerald and other classics reimagined by Coralie Bickford-Smith
Over the walled gardens
WordPress.com has already adopted two Tumblr features (likes and reblogs) but the third one coming in version 3.1 may complete the transformation: post formats.
That’s not to say it hasn’t been done. And can you really replicate the Tumblr experience on self-hosted systems?
Beyond the debates of regurgitating posts killing originality/identity/attribution though, I’m more interested in the ability to interconnect blogs, tweets, tumblelogs, notes in the most seamless way possible. (We are all products of our surroundings; the more connected these platforms are the easier it is to trace back the original author.)
Retweeting should give me the option to post that tweet on my blog, and tweet replies to that post should show up right alongside normal comments, and so on. RSS and pings/trackbacks are supposed to facilitate those things, but they’re pretty much dead on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.
People seem perfectly happy playing inside their walled gardens. This isn’t just in the context of publishing, but in this mobile/tablet boom, where native apps are the way to go. Continue reading ›
The click trade-off
I don’t like it when links automatically open in new windows or tabs. I want to be able to control where I load a URL and prefer CTRL-clicking or middle-clicking instead.
But when I keep switching tabs and windows and then return to the URLs I opened in the background, I forget why I opened them or what led me to them in the first place.
Maybe I need to unlearn middle-clicking, embrace target="_blank", and stop multi-tasking.
My father the stalker
Realization: parents stalking you online and showing relatives what they’ve found is the modern equivalent of sharing embarrassing baby pictures and anecdotes.
Hi Daddy.
Information for Foreigners
Sometimes art isn’t just an imitation of life, but a phenomenon that blurs the lines between fiction and fact, the humane and unjust, creating a whole new reality unto itself. Information for Foreigners is quite indescribable in that regard. It’s not entertainment (it’s not enjoyable at all, really). It’s not performance art for the sake of art (“Why scream? Why pretend? When no one can really open his mouth, why would anyone scream just for the heck of it?”). It’s the most provocative, innovative, and relevant production I’ve seen.
I won’t go into all the details (this may help a bit), but these are the things you need to know:
The play is presented as a tour. The viewers are the foreigners (how well do you really know your own country?) and some of the actors are tour guides hurriedly leading groups divided into 6 through the hallways, classrooms, and staircases of the CAL New Building in UP Diliman, and not in a theater.
There is no linear plot. Adapted from the original work of Argentina’s Griselda Gambaro, it’s a burlesque, grotesque gallery of the torture, kidnapping, and killing of activists since the 1970s all the way to the present. Water torture becomes a shoot-the-target carnival game where an audience member is asked to participate; each activist’s story is on display like an artifact as the tour guide laughs nervously at each tragic display. It’s no coincidence that the show ran during the anniversary week of Martial Law.
As if bearing witness to and being complicit in the sadistic acts in dark, cramped spaces is not enough, the final act presents the mother of Jonas Burgos searching for her son, getting tossed around by bureaucracy and misdirection, only to pull out his skull out of a giant magician’s top hat. Each actor comes out carrying a poster containing a dead or missing person’s name and face. One guide yells: “Does anyone really need an explanation?” Then, actual relatives of the desaperecidos go on stage and introduce themselves one by one. The last, Jonas’ younger brother, tells us: “We are not actors. This is real. Welcome to the Philippines, foreigners.”
After alternating screams and whispers of “katarungan” echo the atrium, the tour ends with the announcement: “The tour is over. Foreigners, go back to your country.”
