Remember to Love

Some links I love this week¹:

Remember to Love at NPR - Somebody I knew tweeted that 9/11/11 was "a heartbreaking day to be in New York City". True enough, most of the New Yorkers I know shared how gloomy it felt to be in NY at a time when the city and its inhabitants were still mourning the tragedy that struck exactly ten years ago. I listened to parts of "Remember to Love: Let Us Love One Another", a concert at St. Paul's, honoring the fallen of 9/11. Located right across the World Trade Center, St. Paul's has become a center for healing and comfort after the attacks. You can listen to the concert (it's about two hours long) at NPR by clicking the link.

25 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names - I, for one, love the word "Tittle" because it sounds so obscene but it's really not. I await the day when I can finally use it. Some "words" (or phrases), like Morton's toe, Arms Akimbo, Philtrum and Crespuscular Rays, are already familiar to anyone who took P.E. or science classes. These names aren't useful though, and it has to be known that anybody (unless said person is a doctor) who would use Rectal Tenasmus in a sentence must be punched in the face.

Jackie O's Diss List at Slate.com - Whenever Slate.com does a Double X list, trust that they will do it right. Two weeks ago, the excellent people of Slate came out with "Ten Mistresses Who Change History", a list filled with women who literally kicked ass (Mob wives, authors, Cuban revolutionaries, a Chinese concubine turned Empress--just to name a few.) This time around, Slate compiled a list of Jackie O's not-so-friendly thoughts about people she has met while her husband was in office. It's nothing short of scandalous. In fact, it was feisty enough to pique the interest of one young (pseudo) Suri cruise. Incidentally, Suri's burn book is one of my favorite websites. It's obviously not written by the real Suri Cruise but whoever's behind that blog, writing as a bossy and snobby baby, is hilarious. Respect.

Sen. Miriam Defensor - Santiago's Reproductive Health Bill Logic 101 - This was Sen. Santiago's speech during the RH bill forum in UP a few days ago. I thought it was well-written and the small jokes made it very appealing to the students. My favorite part of the speech was her discussion of the fallacies surrounding the RH bill. I think it's a fresh respite from hearing all the moral arguments presented by politicians and groups against the RH bill. One does not have to agree with Senator Santiago to say that she does her homework, she knows what she's talking about and she takes a stand so definitive that her arguments are almost always sound. I really like that about her, she appeals to logic and intelligence. I think I've had enough of appeals and arguments riling up the moral passions of the masses. I really don't like that. It furthers my belief that religion (or the misuse of powerful religious institutions) is an Achilles' heel to our country's development.

Why we are shallow at The Philippine Star - This piece was written by F. Sionil Jose for his column, Hindsights. It tried to answer why, despite having many talented and successful citizens, we remain shallow as a nation and how being shallow hinders us from achieving our full potential. Of course, gross materialism, arrogance and religion were pointed out in the selection but my favorite parts were the ones about the lack of significant content in our media and our lack of desire to read:

"We are shallow because our media are so horribly shallow. Every morning, I peruse the papers and there is so little to read in them. It is the same with radio — all that noise, that artifice.

I turn on the TV on prime time and what do I get? Five juvenile commentators gushing over the amors of movie stars, who is shacking up with whom. One of the blabbering panelists I distinctly remember was caught cheating some years back at some movie award. How could she still be on TV after that moral destruct? And the telenovelas, how utterly asinine, bizarre, foolish, insipid moronic and mephitic they are! And there are so many talented writers in our vernaculars and in English as the Palanca Awards show every year — why aren’t they harnessed for TV? Those TV moguls have a stock answer — the ratings of these shows are very high. Popularity not quality is their final arbiter. They give our people garbage and they are now giving it back to all of us in kind! So I must not be blamed if, most of the time, I turn on BBC. Aljazeera, rather than the local TV channels. It is such a pleasure to read The New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Washington Post, to listen to “Fresh Air” on US public radio and public TV where my ever-continuing thirst for knowledge (and good entertainment) is quenched.

We are shallow because we don’t read. I go to the hospital on occasion — the long corridor is filled with people staring into the cosmos. It is only I who have brought a book or a magazine. In Japanese cities, in Korea — in the buses and trains, young and old are reading, or if they are not holding books and magazines, they are glued to their iPhones where so much information is now available.

In these countries and in Western cities, the bookshops are still full, but not so much anymore because the new communications technologies are now available to their masa. How I wish my tiny bookshop or any Filipino bookshop for that matter would be filled with people. I’ll make an exception here: BookSale branches are always full because their books are very cheap. But I would still ask: what kind of books do Filipinos buy?"

This week's Top 5 songs:
1. Are You That Somebody? - The Gossip
2. Flash a Hungry Smile - The Mystery Jets
3. White Nights - Oh Land
4. Fuck Me Pumps - Amy Winehouse
5. Clap Your Hands - Sia

_________________

¹ The list is shorter than usual because I didn't have time to read things online this week.