What I’m Reading: Beyond real
In another attempt to update this blog more regularly, which I have repeatedly promised myself I would do, I shall post at least once every week a list of items I have seen online that sparked my interest, in whichever way.
1. Taylor Swift’s 1989
Award-winning singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has released her first full pop album, which raked in more than a million copies sold just in its first week. The album in itself is worthy of much of the buzz anyway, especially since it marks Swift’s transition from country to pop. What’s more, the singer decided to pull out her songs from online streaming sites, such as Spotify. Case in point, no song from her latest album is available on YouTube, as of posting, aside from those in her verified account, those which are covers, and those which were “edited”.
1989 is named such to celebrate Swift’s year of birth, with the Grammy-winning singer saying that this is her “most personal” album so far. Included in the physical copy of her album are 13 Polaroid photos, which come in five sets, personally signed by Swift with lyrics of the songs from the album.
^ My personal favorite
Also, with the recent release of her latest single Blank Space, Swift did not just exceed boundaries, she crashed them. As well, the new interactive app that comes with the song, seriously, makes all music videos dull and boring.
2. More on the Super Typhoon Yolanda
(Video) Al Jazeera: Philippines: After Haiyan
Interestingly, while it is not uncommon to find stories about the devastation and the (lack of) recovery and rehabilitation efforts in areas struck by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in November last year, there is a place called Barangay 62-A in the most affected city of Tacloban in Leyte which recorded no casualty. Find out how they surpassed the deadliest typhoon of 2013:
Rappler: Revisiting the good pied pipers of Barangay 62-A
3. Beyond ‘realism’
I do not claim to be someone knowledgeable in arts, but I deeply admire and appreciate the craft, in any format, as it beautifully encapsulates the obscurity of reality and the abstractions of emotions into something that is tangible.
Venezuela-based artist Gustavo Silva Nuñez has been producing paintings that look too good (and realistic) to be true. His artworks come alive, literally, the moment one sees them.
TIME: This artist paints hyperrealistic scenes of people swimming
^ Photo courtesy of Nuñez/TIME
4. ‘Seven circles of hell’
Italian poet Dante Alghieri eloquently depicted divine justice through his epic poem The Divine Comedy, which starts with a graphic representation of hell and its seven circles of eternal punishment for sinners, due them according to their sins.
“Gates of hell”, meanwhile, was a controversial description of Manila in Dan Brown’s novel Inferno because of the horrendous, stressful traffic people have to endure every day.
To make things worse, the already infamous situation of transportation in the metro, which depreciates the Philippine economy as the country, according to studies, lose billions of pesos a day due to traffic, is aggravated by self-righteous “traffic sinners”, like abusive taxi drivers and gun-toting road ragers.
The Philippine STAR: 7 circles of hell for traffic sinners
5. Binay’s strike 2: the story so far
Vice President Jejomar Binay withdrew his participation in a public debate with Sen. Sonny Trillanes IV, originally scheduled on Nov. 27, saying he did not want to appear “oppressive and opportunistic” as Trillanes projects himself to be an “underdog”.
Trillanes seemed not surprised, noting that Binay has always lacked integrity for his words. He then revealed how Binay left him and other soldiers of the Magdalo group in 2007 in the attempt to overthrow then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in what is now dubbed as the Manila Peninsula standoff. •
For youngsters like me, who at that time were too immature to care about political issues, here’s some context:
Philippine Daily Inquirer: What Went Before: Trillanes’ 2nd try to oust Arroyo
1. Taylor Swift’s 1989
Award-winning singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has released her first full pop album, which raked in more than a million copies sold just in its first week. The album in itself is worthy of much of the buzz anyway, especially since it marks Swift’s transition from country to pop. What’s more, the singer decided to pull out her songs from online streaming sites, such as Spotify. Case in point, no song from her latest album is available on YouTube, as of posting, aside from those in her verified account, those which are covers, and those which were “edited”.
1989 is named such to celebrate Swift’s year of birth, with the Grammy-winning singer saying that this is her “most personal” album so far. Included in the physical copy of her album are 13 Polaroid photos, which come in five sets, personally signed by Swift with lyrics of the songs from the album.
^ My personal favorite
Also, with the recent release of her latest single Blank Space, Swift did not just exceed boundaries, she crashed them. As well, the new interactive app that comes with the song, seriously, makes all music videos dull and boring.
2. More on the Super Typhoon Yolanda
(Video) Al Jazeera: Philippines: After Haiyan
Interestingly, while it is not uncommon to find stories about the devastation and the (lack of) recovery and rehabilitation efforts in areas struck by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in November last year, there is a place called Barangay 62-A in the most affected city of Tacloban in Leyte which recorded no casualty. Find out how they surpassed the deadliest typhoon of 2013:
Rappler: Revisiting the good pied pipers of Barangay 62-A
3. Beyond ‘realism’
I do not claim to be someone knowledgeable in arts, but I deeply admire and appreciate the craft, in any format, as it beautifully encapsulates the obscurity of reality and the abstractions of emotions into something that is tangible.
Venezuela-based artist Gustavo Silva Nuñez has been producing paintings that look too good (and realistic) to be true. His artworks come alive, literally, the moment one sees them.
TIME: This artist paints hyperrealistic scenes of people swimming
^ Photo courtesy of Nuñez/TIME
4. ‘Seven circles of hell’
Italian poet Dante Alghieri eloquently depicted divine justice through his epic poem The Divine Comedy, which starts with a graphic representation of hell and its seven circles of eternal punishment for sinners, due them according to their sins.
“Gates of hell”, meanwhile, was a controversial description of Manila in Dan Brown’s novel Inferno because of the horrendous, stressful traffic people have to endure every day.
To make things worse, the already infamous situation of transportation in the metro, which depreciates the Philippine economy as the country, according to studies, lose billions of pesos a day due to traffic, is aggravated by self-righteous “traffic sinners”, like abusive taxi drivers and gun-toting road ragers.
The Philippine STAR: 7 circles of hell for traffic sinners
5. Binay’s strike 2: the story so far
Vice President Jejomar Binay withdrew his participation in a public debate with Sen. Sonny Trillanes IV, originally scheduled on Nov. 27, saying he did not want to appear “oppressive and opportunistic” as Trillanes projects himself to be an “underdog”.
Trillanes seemed not surprised, noting that Binay has always lacked integrity for his words. He then revealed how Binay left him and other soldiers of the Magdalo group in 2007 in the attempt to overthrow then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in what is now dubbed as the Manila Peninsula standoff. •
For youngsters like me, who at that time were too immature to care about political issues, here’s some context:
Philippine Daily Inquirer: What Went Before: Trillanes’ 2nd try to oust Arroyo