almost everyone has been giving their own 2 cents on the matter, so i'm jumping on the bandwagon and giving my own :)
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when you say 'spartan', the first thing that comes to my mind isn't the small brave band of greek warriors and their king valiantly defending a small mountain pass from an overwhelmingly huge persian army trying to invade greece. the first thing that i actually think about is 'tsinelas'. but of course, the movie 300 has nothing to do with footwear.
i went to cinema 1 of ayala center cebu expecting at least some amusement. but i didn't expect to get some before the movie started. while waiting for the movie to start, i had the funny misfortune of having budoy of pinoy big brother and junior kilat fame suddenly appearing and then sitting right *in front* of me. the towering structure on top of his head (which i presume to be his hair, if not a radio antenna or a bunch of snakes) partially blocked my view of the movie screen. i had to reposition myself a couple of times so i had an unobstructed view of the movie.
in a nutshell, the movie is basically a stylized storytelling of the battle of thermopylae (a.k.a. the "hot gates") based on the graphic novel by frank miller, where according to greek history, the spartan king leonidas led a small force of 300 men against an invading persian army numbering in the hundreds of thousands. like the previous movie based on miller's comic book sin city, the visuals of 300 adopted the look and feel of the comic book.
the movie actually reminded me of the lord of the rings. the persian emperor xerxes was leading an army of orcs, ogres, grenade throwing wizards, and even mumakil from the return of the king. the whole movie was essentially an extended lord of the rings battle scene. when the mumakil... i mean, elephants, came to attack the spartan positions, i half expected legolas to come out and slay the beasts. the movie was also accused of being racist (the bad guys were either black or arab looking, if not orcish). wait... wasn't lord of the rings accused of being racist also? hmmm...
i think most guys have the same favorite scene in the movie. c'mon people... don't be afraid to admit it... yes, *OUR* favorite scene was the dancing oracle---in semi nude. if only we had fortune tellers like *those* instead of strange old ladies like madam auring, then maybe we'd listen to them more.
xerxes the emperor (empress?) of persia was hilarious. i expected him (or her) to be more like sauron from lord of the rings, wearing thick iron armor, a big helmet showing eyes flaming red, and with a huge battle club in hand. but xerxes as a club fag? hahahaha... who would've thought of that?
and what's with the hunchback dude ephialtes? all it took for him to betray leonidas was neither gold nor glory, but a visit to the nearby strip club and a uniform (he tells xerxes, "i want a uniform!" ... huh?!). as my friend chick succinctly put it: "nadala ra sa pautog".
and poor queen gorgo. she had to sacrifice her ass (literally) to the evil politician dude theron ("this will not be over quickly. you will not enjoy this," he tells her) so she could get the chance to speak before the spartan council and convince them to send reinforcements and save her husband. yet it was all too late. but at least she had her revenge. he... uhh... "stabbed" her first, so she stabs him back, but this time with a *REAL* sword. now that's what i call justice.
unfortunately for leonidas, the movie portrays him and his 300 warriors as brave... and brainless. they were so brave (and brainless) they went into battle bare chested with no armor whatsoever (the unrestrained display of chiseled chests and six-pack abs served as an extremely effective form of advertising for fitness gyms the world over). they were so brave (and brainless) they went into battle with the odds of 300 to 100,000 X N where N > 1 (if you *really* want to know, you can research the value of N). and they were so brave (and brainless) they were actually *convinced* they could win (again the question... huh?!). apparently, spartan culture valued bravery over wisdom.
if stupidity is in the genes, it's a good thing leonidas and his 300 brainlessly brave warriors all died in thermopylae. we wouldn't any more of their DNA spreading in the human gene pool, or else the species homo sapiens would have been extinct by now...
..but judging by the way some of our own congressmen and cabinet members are doing, i guess they *DID* spread their DNA. we're doomed.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
assholes
the assholes who call themselves congressmen are at it again:
Congress pork doubles in ’07 budget
Pork used to buy overpriced fertilizer
Congress pork doubles in ’07 budget
Pork used to buy overpriced fertilizer
Friday, March 09, 2007
mathematical error
from the philippine daily inquirer:
According to Legarda, the fact that the survey was done by a US firm with 1,500 respondents nationwide -- 200 more than SWS’s usual 1,200 -- “added authority” to the results.
According to Legarda, the fact that the survey was done by a US firm with 1,500 respondents nationwide -- 200 more than SWS’s usual 1,200 -- “added authority” to the results.
Monday, March 05, 2007
the frustrated fan
my heart breaks. and no, not because the girl of my dreams turned me down. my heart breaks because the san miguel beermen just lost the 2007 pba philippine cup championship to baranggay ginebra in 6 games.
and with that, coach chot reyes gains the ignominy of being the only coach in pba history to have gained a 2-0 advantage in a best of seven championship series and have his team lose the next 4 games and the championship. and worse, he will be the only coach in pba history to have that happen to him twice.
i know, coaches tend to be the easiest scapegoats when a team loses. not to take anything away from coach chot, he's done a fine job. this is his first conference with san miguel. and with all the new guys around (which, along with the new coach, essentially makes smb a new team), it's impressive how he was able to make them work together and reach as far as the finals. all that while handling duties as coach of the national team.
but they shouldn't have lost game 4 the way they did. wasn't the 131-101 beating they got in game 3 enough to convince them to make adjustments? well apparently not. their record setting 146-111 game 4 loss was even worse, probably the worst finals loss in pba history.
but really, in that series, baranggay ginebra was simply the better team. coach jong uichico did a great job at the helm. "the fast and the furious" tandem of jayjay helterbrand and mark caguioa ran circles around the san miguel defense. the return of eric menk from injury was an inspiration to the team. there's rudy hatfield running the break and snatching all those improbable rebounds... what planet did this guy come from? ronald tubid proved to be a major nuisance for danny seigle, successfully getting to danny's head every now and then. and we saw flashes of the old johnny a. they deserved the title.
and let's not forget baranggay ginebra's 6th man. the ginebra fans were simply being ginebra fans: loud, exuberant, and numerous. they cheered every shot, every rebound, every steal. they stayed on even when ginebra was down 2-0 in the series and all seemed lost. that is what gives ginebra a distinct advantage over other teams in the pba: wherever they play, they always seem to have what the nba calls "homecourt advantage". it's like whatever court ginebra plays in IS their homecourt.
*******************
it's a strange thing this, being a fan. you consider as yours the fate of a bunch of people who you don't even know personally and haven't even met. you rejoice at their victories. you despair over their defeats. every high and every low the team goes through is yours.
i became a san miguel fan around the mid 90s, which was quite unfortunate. i had read about the glory of the old san miguel team of the late 80s and early 90s, the one with hall of famers like ramon fernandez, samboy lim, hector calma, and then later, allan caidic and ato agustin. but san miguel at that time was an aging shell of its old self. the new teams were dominating, like the vergel meneses led sunkist, and then the grand slam winning alaska, and occasional intrusions by alvin patrimonio's purefoods and the ever popular baranggay ginebra.
but i hung on. somehow, through those times when they almost won (like the 1995 governor's cup or the 1998 all filipino cup, both against alaska and both going to a game 7) or when they simply sucked (like the horrible 1996 commissioner's cup, when they didn't even get through the eliminations), in the back of my head, i believed they were going to start winning again. i kept the faith, even if reality was mocking it.
it's like religion, being a fan. you place your hopes (and your bets) on something which isn't a sure thing. sometimes, your team loses one game after another, and your faith waivers. sometimes you want to switch to what looks like a better religion, i mean team, because their promise of salvation, i mean victory, seems surer.
but then the new guys came. olsen racela, then danny ildefonso, then danny seigle, then nic belasco. and they actually started winning. first, the 1999 commissioner's, then the 1999 governor's. then in 2000 they successfully defended both titles. then in 2001, the most prestigious of the pba crowns, the all filipino, which they won against ginebra also in 6 games (i guess we can call ginebra's recent victory as mark caguioa's revenge). sports commentators were calling it a dynasty. finally, after all those years waiting, there before my very eyes, my team was kicking ass!
it was weird. after all those years waiting, after having invested so much passion and emotion, to actually see it right there on my tv screen... it was just weird. it was like finishing a 13k marathon in first place, but i didn't even do the running. i simply believed, and thus i basked in the reflected glory of their victory. if i may take the religion analogy a bit further at risk of sounding sacrilegious, it was like dying and seeing heaven. my faith had been proven right.
*******************
a friend suggested that if the beermen lost in the finals, coach chot should exclude all ginebra players from the national team. seemed like a farfetched idea at first glance, but now i think about it, if my passion for smb trumped my concern for the country's pride in international basketball, then that would have made some sense.
pushing that further, if i were a really passionate smb fan, i'd have waited outside the gates of araneta coliseum and when, say, mark caguioa or jay-jay helterbrand came out, i (or, if you're not the hands on kind of guy, hired goons) would have them kidnapped for a while, only releasing them once the series was over. wait... didn't i see this in a movie?
this reminds me of a recent piece of world news: the football game riots in italy that led to the death of 1 policeman and the indefinite cancellation of all football matches in all of italy. we can't deny it: they were passionate fans. they lived and breathed their football clubs. they were so passionate, it even drove them to the point of violence against fans of the rival team.
let me be clear about this: i do not advocate the use of violence. my point is, if we can invest so much energy and passion in just watching our sports heroes play (which in itself is of little use to society), imagine what we can do if we divert that energy elsewhere.
with that kind of passion, we can defeat poverty and hunger. we can stop corruption. we can bring true progress to our country. we can slow down and maybe even halt the destruction of our planet. we can change the world!
now, if we could only see living as a sport, then we could make ourselves fans of the world. and like true fans, we'd consider as ours the fate of the world, and then maybe we can make things better for everybody. empathy is the essence of compassion. i can almost hear michael jackson in the background singing "heal the world"...
pardon me, i'm preachifying.
but the next time san miguel and ginebra face off, i will pray to all the basketball gods and basketball saints i can call on (is there a patron saint of basketball? like maybe a saint michael jordan?) so smb can have its revenge. watch out ginebra, your time will come.
and with that, coach chot reyes gains the ignominy of being the only coach in pba history to have gained a 2-0 advantage in a best of seven championship series and have his team lose the next 4 games and the championship. and worse, he will be the only coach in pba history to have that happen to him twice.
i know, coaches tend to be the easiest scapegoats when a team loses. not to take anything away from coach chot, he's done a fine job. this is his first conference with san miguel. and with all the new guys around (which, along with the new coach, essentially makes smb a new team), it's impressive how he was able to make them work together and reach as far as the finals. all that while handling duties as coach of the national team.
but they shouldn't have lost game 4 the way they did. wasn't the 131-101 beating they got in game 3 enough to convince them to make adjustments? well apparently not. their record setting 146-111 game 4 loss was even worse, probably the worst finals loss in pba history.
but really, in that series, baranggay ginebra was simply the better team. coach jong uichico did a great job at the helm. "the fast and the furious" tandem of jayjay helterbrand and mark caguioa ran circles around the san miguel defense. the return of eric menk from injury was an inspiration to the team. there's rudy hatfield running the break and snatching all those improbable rebounds... what planet did this guy come from? ronald tubid proved to be a major nuisance for danny seigle, successfully getting to danny's head every now and then. and we saw flashes of the old johnny a. they deserved the title.
and let's not forget baranggay ginebra's 6th man. the ginebra fans were simply being ginebra fans: loud, exuberant, and numerous. they cheered every shot, every rebound, every steal. they stayed on even when ginebra was down 2-0 in the series and all seemed lost. that is what gives ginebra a distinct advantage over other teams in the pba: wherever they play, they always seem to have what the nba calls "homecourt advantage". it's like whatever court ginebra plays in IS their homecourt.
*******************
it's a strange thing this, being a fan. you consider as yours the fate of a bunch of people who you don't even know personally and haven't even met. you rejoice at their victories. you despair over their defeats. every high and every low the team goes through is yours.
i became a san miguel fan around the mid 90s, which was quite unfortunate. i had read about the glory of the old san miguel team of the late 80s and early 90s, the one with hall of famers like ramon fernandez, samboy lim, hector calma, and then later, allan caidic and ato agustin. but san miguel at that time was an aging shell of its old self. the new teams were dominating, like the vergel meneses led sunkist, and then the grand slam winning alaska, and occasional intrusions by alvin patrimonio's purefoods and the ever popular baranggay ginebra.
but i hung on. somehow, through those times when they almost won (like the 1995 governor's cup or the 1998 all filipino cup, both against alaska and both going to a game 7) or when they simply sucked (like the horrible 1996 commissioner's cup, when they didn't even get through the eliminations), in the back of my head, i believed they were going to start winning again. i kept the faith, even if reality was mocking it.
it's like religion, being a fan. you place your hopes (and your bets) on something which isn't a sure thing. sometimes, your team loses one game after another, and your faith waivers. sometimes you want to switch to what looks like a better religion, i mean team, because their promise of salvation, i mean victory, seems surer.
but then the new guys came. olsen racela, then danny ildefonso, then danny seigle, then nic belasco. and they actually started winning. first, the 1999 commissioner's, then the 1999 governor's. then in 2000 they successfully defended both titles. then in 2001, the most prestigious of the pba crowns, the all filipino, which they won against ginebra also in 6 games (i guess we can call ginebra's recent victory as mark caguioa's revenge). sports commentators were calling it a dynasty. finally, after all those years waiting, there before my very eyes, my team was kicking ass!
it was weird. after all those years waiting, after having invested so much passion and emotion, to actually see it right there on my tv screen... it was just weird. it was like finishing a 13k marathon in first place, but i didn't even do the running. i simply believed, and thus i basked in the reflected glory of their victory. if i may take the religion analogy a bit further at risk of sounding sacrilegious, it was like dying and seeing heaven. my faith had been proven right.
*******************
a friend suggested that if the beermen lost in the finals, coach chot should exclude all ginebra players from the national team. seemed like a farfetched idea at first glance, but now i think about it, if my passion for smb trumped my concern for the country's pride in international basketball, then that would have made some sense.
pushing that further, if i were a really passionate smb fan, i'd have waited outside the gates of araneta coliseum and when, say, mark caguioa or jay-jay helterbrand came out, i (or, if you're not the hands on kind of guy, hired goons) would have them kidnapped for a while, only releasing them once the series was over. wait... didn't i see this in a movie?
this reminds me of a recent piece of world news: the football game riots in italy that led to the death of 1 policeman and the indefinite cancellation of all football matches in all of italy. we can't deny it: they were passionate fans. they lived and breathed their football clubs. they were so passionate, it even drove them to the point of violence against fans of the rival team.
let me be clear about this: i do not advocate the use of violence. my point is, if we can invest so much energy and passion in just watching our sports heroes play (which in itself is of little use to society), imagine what we can do if we divert that energy elsewhere.
with that kind of passion, we can defeat poverty and hunger. we can stop corruption. we can bring true progress to our country. we can slow down and maybe even halt the destruction of our planet. we can change the world!
now, if we could only see living as a sport, then we could make ourselves fans of the world. and like true fans, we'd consider as ours the fate of the world, and then maybe we can make things better for everybody. empathy is the essence of compassion. i can almost hear michael jackson in the background singing "heal the world"...
pardon me, i'm preachifying.
but the next time san miguel and ginebra face off, i will pray to all the basketball gods and basketball saints i can call on (is there a patron saint of basketball? like maybe a saint michael jordan?) so smb can have its revenge. watch out ginebra, your time will come.
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