Looking tomorrow night...

Saying goodbye to Patrick, Dom and Agustin tomorrow night.

I wish the series lasted longer.

But as the line in that poster goes, "The end is a new beginning."

The series may be over...

... but farck, this song is super nice.

Add to that the fact that it's Bai Lou Yin who composed and sang the song... Awww...

Addicted to Addicted...

There's this new web series I'm getting addicted to. Haha!

And how fitting that the name of the series is Addicted (while the other translation is Heroin).

It's a Chinese web series that started a few weeks ago.

I'm hooked! Thank goodness for people who have the patience and the time and the kindness to translate and make English subtitles!

Cutest Korean couple ever... hehe...

Once in awhile, I would do a random search for LGBT films on YouTube. Most recently, I stumbled upon the Korean movie "No Regrets." Story was quite okay. Weird ending though. (Not going to say here whether it's a happy one of not, so you'll be curious to watch it. Hehe!)

Last week, I can't remember what it was that I was watching on YouTube but I saw on the side bar a number of clips named Tae Sub & Kyung Soo (eng Sub) Part.

I clicked and watched one vid, and that was all it needed for me to get hooked. Haha!

Tae Sub and Kyung Soo are the two gay characters in the Korean soap "Life is Beautiful." The series is about the lives of the members of a family living in Jeju island. Tae Sub (played by Song Chang-ui) is a His partner Kyung-soo (played by Lee Sang-woo) is a photographer/university lecturer. The latter was living the "picture-perfect" life - beautiful wife, beautiful daughter, affluent family. The drama when his affair with Tae Sub results in him being outed and his wife filing for divorce.

You won't see any of this in the vidclips on YouTube. The clips available on YouTube (which are actually more interesting... hehe!) follows the story of Tae Sub & Kyung Soo as a couple.

There are 29 clips, I think. I'm on clip 14 now. It's sooo addicting. Haha! If you're into cheese, you have to watch this. If you're into drama, you have to watch this. If you're just into good-looking Koreans, you have to watch this. Hehe!

The issues faced by the two characters, both as individuals and as a couple, are certainly familiar to LGBTs.

I'm a bit surprised to find out that the Korean culture is still dominantly conservative, so kudos to the network, the writer and the cast of this series for being courageous enough to put out a show with gay characters... on daytime television!

The series aired in 2010. From what I read, there were about 60 over episodes. In each episode though, the Tae Sub and Kyung Soo story  will only get about 15 minutes airtime. That's why it's awesome that their vids are available on Youtube. Whoever was behind the clips, thank you!!!

Or should I say kamsa hamnida. :P

Pride March 2009...

If I didn't have the streetkids commitment last Saturday, I would have gone to the Pride March.

I've never attended one, and with the recent Comelec decision, the "tibak" (ask a UP student what that means) spirit which I knew is somewhere inside of me was somewhat activated. (Still on that subject, I'm still outraged at how these idiots at Comelec used "morality" as a basis for disqualifying Ang Ladlad.)

Anyway, I didn't get to attend the entire parade, but I saw the tail end of the march as it passed by Pedro Gil. Fellow volunteer Jay and I were on our way to Robinson's when we saw the parade as we stepped out of the College of Medicine gates.

The colorful banners, huge rainbow flags, placards that called for equality and tolerance, elaborate costumes were not the only ones I saw. At the corner of Orosa and Pedro Gil was a small group of about 7-10 anti-gay religious group members.

They wore shirts that said Fear God, Jesus Hates Sin, and so on. The placards they carried had the same messages. I didn't see any placards that bashed homosexuality, but they did shout it out loud. "Walang bakla sa langit." "Turn or burn."

As the parade participants passed by, the group yelled out their messages calling for repentance and a change of life. The parade participants meanwhile answered back with their own messages. "Karapatang Bakla. Karapatan ng Tao." (Some of them were also playful and yelled out "Oral Sex" repeatedly instead, to drown out the chants of the anti-gay groups. Haha!)

There was a point where I thought that a fist fight would erupt, but I'm really glad that didn't happen.

Seeing the parade did me a lot of good. I've never felt prouder. It may not have been as grand as the ones in the West, but it's a good start. And it's really great to see that the local community is doing something to deliver the message, "We're queer. We're here. Get used to it." (Or as one poster I saw says it, "Some people are born gay. Get over it." Astig, man! Hehe!)

But at the same time, it's kinda saddening seeing upfront how prejudice and differences in beliefs really breed division among people. If we would just simplify things, wouldn't it all lead to just one plain fact - that we are humans who are capable of loving? Why can't we just concentrate on that simple reality? Our ability to love. Disregard gender. Look past the color of skin. Drop the ethnicity. Forget the religious beliefs. Focus on one thing - the ability to love. Hay. But it's not that simple. Otherwise, "It's complicated" would've never been included as an option in the relationship status section of social networking sites.

The few minutes I spent watching the parade go by was more than enough to make me want to celebrate that night and greet people "Happy Pride!"

So around past midnight, Winston and I were in Malate to join the celebration. We hung out most of the time at Bed. It was great seeing familiar faces - Jayce, his friend Norman, then Dom, and then I also saw JM and Melo, too. And it was just great to have spent the night dancing and celebrating to the superb music of Brian and Toy.

Speaking of music, my fave dance track that night was Cheryl Cole's Fight for this Love. Check out the cool Moto Club and Cahill remixes from Mediafire. Hehe! The song is just so appropriate for that night.

==========================

Anything that's worth having
Is sure enough worth fighting for
Quitting's out of the question
When it gets tough gotta fight some more

We gotta fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for this love
We gotta fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for this love
We gotta fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for this love
If it's worth having it's worth fighting for

==========================

Happy Pride, Ladies, Gentlemen and Undecided!

Hungry for volunteer work...

I'm looking for volunteer opportunities that's LGBT-oriented. I heard somewhere that there's a retirement home for LGBTs somewhere in Pasay, but I have no details about it.

I've written about this before and I'm going to mention it again. After college, my first job was with Pahinungod - the volunteer service organization of the University of the Philippines. For three years, I've been heavily involved in volunteer activities.

Pahinungod became my life, my home. My real home became more of a boarding house for me. Haha! There were times when I would just go home to do my laundry and to get new clothes for another trip to some unknown place. I was lucky because my parents knew and understood what Pahinungod is. And they knew that even as a kid, I would always be away involved in some community activity.

When I started my corporate work, I lost time for any volunteer activities. I no longer could attend Pahinungod activities, even though they kept me in the loop of upcoming activities.

And while my work still involved volunteerism - corporate social responsibility - I would still like to get into non-work related volunteer activities, preferably LGBT-oriented.

Back when I was still doing work for ICON, I was quite informed about the various LGBT-oriented organizations here in Manila. One of the things I loved about my ICON work actually was getting to interview/talk to the people behind these organizations. I dunno. Somehow, they sparked the "tibak" in me, and really brought out the "UP activism" that's hidden in me somewhere. Haha!

I know that in the US, there are a lot of non-political NGOs that cater to the LGBT community. I did a short profile on Noel Alumit, who was part of the group APAIT in California, for ICON. I met his colleague Jimmy who visited the country early this year, and hearing him talk about his work and what the group does for the LGBT community somehow made me want to look for local volunteer opportunities that's LGBT-related.

Locally, I really dunno what organizations there are anymore since I lost contact with the groups. Once in awhile, I would stumble upon an email from good friend Angie about forums on LGBT-related topics. I have yet to attend one.

Uhm, anyway, I usually have weekends free so I thought I could spare a couple of hours during those days for volunteer work. And I’m up for almost any kind of volunteer work. It would really be great if someone could share some leads.