Saturday: Just A Few Hour & Counting
Friday, July 30, 2004
I'm really looking forward to this weekend since not a single one of them has been quite much of a dissapointment for the past few months. Anyways I hope I'll find the time to workout on the development of this site's link portion as well as in the overall appearance of it. Another is that this post is also a cause for celebration since non bloggers can now post their comments since louie of louiboi.blogspot taught me how to finally activate hy haloscan account which I have also installed at Pinay Blood Rush which is good because I've heard a lot from people who are visiting the blog who are interested in posting their comments but cannot. By the way I hope you aren't tired of browsing at my quiz results since I am a self-confessed addict of proving my intellect online so by the way just see them for yourself.
By the way please visit by monday because I'll be posting the best stuff (I think) that I've posted for the month of July since I've just established this 'tradition' last month.
You are AS LOVERS GO. You're in love with someone
who either has no clue or is overly cautious.
It's not that they don't like you -- they're
either scared or unaware, so either reassure
them or let them know.
What Saves The Day song are you? brought to you by Quizilla
You are Hold. You love/loved someone very much, you
find yourself lost without that person.
However, you are a deep thinker and often find
yourself needing to be alone. You are smart
enough to know that life is beautiful but all
you want more than anything is for that someone
to love you.
Hey Dude! Start your horse and come along, you're
one happenin' dude. Don't get lost out on the
range.
Which "Saved By The Bell" Character Are You?
You are "Cute without the 'e'"
According to the
Which Something Corporate Song Are You? Test...
Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.
My band in retrospect...
Thursday, July 29, 2004
People have said that pictures speak more than a thousand words and that it also serves as ones window into the past.
Though I have written the stuff here previously here at this link the only problem is that I still don't know how to post pictures during the time I posted it.
I'd like to post it then again in light of the fact that I've been long itching to post these photos of Life Is Trying in all its incarnations so that it'll give you some ideas as to what the pictures are about anyway. Another is the fact that I'm really finding it hard to write stuff recently my head doesn't seem to be functioning as it used to, I guess I just haven't gotten a lot of rest recently.
But despite of all that nonesense I'm currently in the process of doing another (sort of...) overhaul for the links portion of this blog so I hope you'll keep posted another is that I'd like to urge you also to please do find time to sign the guestbook located below of visit the
photo album because I've just been notified by its host that it might get removed because it doesn't generate enough internet traffic.
Thanks and I hope you'll find the post below interesting and worthwhile.
(Click on the thumbnail to see the entire picture.)
So what do you want to know? To start with Life Is Trying is in a very devious way a completely uncomplicated group. They were at their time just a bunch of single-minded punk rock-loving dudes who just so happen to have the endowment to write singular thoughts and ideas that are translated into seductive songs of love, hate, longing, anarchy, mortality, revolution and belongings all of which basically germinated of the very heart of suburbia which is conveniently located at 35-B Malingap St. or M35B as they would like to put it. All information above surely gives you somewhat of an idea as to who exactly are these devious uncomplicated punk rock group once were, certainly it would apparently give you the impression that they are one of the most secretive band to have come around in recent times, yet at times they could be the most surprising.
> What is this all about? This is a history of substance, apparent success and of moving on with our lives; a biography ghosted by the group themselves, the very best of irrational rock music, a question of identity, confessions cut with dry wit, a deflecting adventure in thought and space, a question of style, a parting of ways; the end and the beginning; a celebration of alienated consciousness; a sincere sellout; a voyage into the present; a full stop; a semi-colon; a question mark. Part punk. Part emo. Part indie. Part rock. And part whatnot. It’s the start to stop start; from QHS to PUP, from teenage innocence to young glory up to their apparent discharged college life anxieties, and to the eventual parting of ways caused by the sudden realization of Chuck Baclagon that his band mates no longer share the same passion and dedication that he once shared with them; from movement to movement; from the formulating and the shifting of priorities; from fate to wasted fortune; from Jaded to The Sane Side of Insanity to M35B to Life Is Trying and to the obscure nothingness of their wasted existence; from Jarme Mondragon to Mark De Guzman; from Christopher Villarante to Cedric Buenviaje to Reginald Unigo to then again Cedric Buenviaje; from Laixander Naguit’s guitar journey from Jim Croce’s broken chords to Billie Joe Armstrong’s distorted palm-muted power chords. It’s the putting together in a perfect new order the light and heavy public and private lazy and intense calm and frenzied concealing and the revealing of the hit and miss songs of Life Is Trying.
> What was the question? Here’s one answer. The anti-social ranting of Holden Caufield the infamous protagonist of J.D. Sallinger’s The Catcher In The Rye; Punk rock, emo, indie, ska, hardcore, straight edge, crust, rhythm times and technological agility and new wave music and computer mistakes and dynamic sensations and noise filled suspension and beside themselves and many meanderings and shy purpose and lyrical caress and remote vision and great crossing and clashing and trembling and splintering of the mind and a battered acoustic guitar and the sound of feelings and melodies falling from the sky or blasted to your ear by a resounding distorted electric guitar and shadowy beauty and grave ecstasy and inexhaustible restlessness and looking for life and stoned perfectionism and imprisoned perceptions and a low key engagement with a world of perplexities and uncertainties in which one can hope at best to achieve the small satisfactions a kind of innocence that surrounds the enigma and what was the question?
> Who are Life Is Trying? We may never know.
<
> Where are Life Is Trying? They’re at home I presume. Or they are flying across the ocean. Or they’re right in the middle of a jamming session inside a cork-filled box called a studio infamously owned by the notoriously grumpy grouch that has become an institution of Philippine rock music commonly known to your average twenty-something rocker as ‘Mang Jun Alberto’, which is basically their home from home, their flight from flight; the only place where for a brief 60 minutes in their life they take the center stage; step into the spotlight to indulge themselves and their guitars into a spiritual experience that cannot be expressed into words; an hour of feedbacks, static hissing and rapid drum rolls. Or they’re still waiting for their drummer to show up for their gig that’s scheduled two hours from now. Though there are some certain hints that I could give you to point to you where they are right now: One is teary eyed with his tears dripping on his bony hands as he types his thoughts on a battered keyboard comforted only by the fact that he has given himself to God's lordship and has finally found a partner whom he can share his life wholeheartedly with. Another is spending his time studying some boring stuff about engineering and the likes. There is also one who’s presently happy at home with his two kids and his pregnant wife. Another is contentedly reading the Good Book memorizing every passage with the conviction displayed only be the Filipino television evangelist that we have come to either love or hate. And another is presently head over heels with the fulfillment of his dream to be actually involved in the making of a comic book. But wherever they are right now, they are in their own special way telling right from wrong, and indulging in slight extravaganzas.
> Where do they come from? 1) The late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and a pinch of the year 2000 and beyond or so they say. 2) The North; the north of everywhere including the North. 3) Greenday, The Cure, MxPx, Blink 182, NoFX, Rancid, The Offspring, Saves The Day, The Ramones, The Clash, Pennywise and Dashboard Confessional; Anarchy and tackiness, machines and glitter, apathy and sympathy, war and peace, ordinariness and extraordinariness. 4) The Sane Side of Insanity. The badly drawn prototype that would become one of the (sort of…) longest incarnations that is centered on the intellectual and musical collaboration between Laixander Naguit and Chuck Baclagon, and the apparent drum playing of Jarme Mondragon who still doesn’t know how to play drums at that time which was also hallmarked by the irrevocable departure of their friend Christopher Villarante as a member of the musical ensemble and as a friend of the band. 5) M35B. The most devastating imaginative rock group between Greenday and The Cure. There are some saying that all of the curiously naïve, deeply biased and fundamentally instinctive music made up of Life Is Trying, their puzzling centerlessness and their edgy incompleteness, the question mark that surrounds their motives, reputation, presence, absence, it all comes from trying to escape their very self-righteous notion that they have the in their feeble minds that they are an underground super group that never was. 6) The tortured frustrations of Chuck Baclagon to prove himself as someone who isn’t a loser to the mediocre world, which utterly fell into oblivion with the realization that Laixander Naguit and Cedric Buenviaje never really shared the same love and dedication that he had for the band and to his vision of sharing his tortured rhymes to the unsuspecting public who would rather listen to cheap senseless rage manufactured by hordes of dreadlocked, Addidas wearing, hip-hop infusing, rap-influenced, metal-zone guitar effect dependent corporate rock bands who retail their ‘packaged rebellion’ on MTV Rockd’.
> So what’s the point of all of this? Nothing. Other than the fact that this is a very biased description of Life Is Trying as a working unit and as a set of friends who suddenly lost the innocence in the music that they make, mainly because of the fact that they’re no longer geeky high school kids who can’t even find the courage to talk to girls and to face a crowd without saying “I” and “we”. This is the frustration of Chuck Baclagon materialized into words, to give himself poetic justice of the emotional turmoil that he felt when his band fell apart with the shifting of interests and priorities and the constant assaillance of the Freedom Bar concert organizers, backed up with the realization that there were really people who would take the time and effort to really go there, pay for the ticket and order a drink or two to watch them play their music and sing their hearts out, and that for the first time in their long lived existence as a band they would finally get paid for doing it. But sad to say his other comrades would rather go out of their way to pick up lousy discs of mp3s containing downloaded punk rock songs at nine o’ clock in the evening. And how it all doesn’t matter anymore because as Greenday once put it: “nothing good can last.”
Back At Last...
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
I haven't got the chance to blog recently and the sad things about it is that I've had a lot of fun and meaningful things going on for me since last Saturday sad thing though is that these days are dangerous times for me to go blogging well anyways I was supposed to write about those stuff that happened and the things I learned during the weekends sad thing though is that I can't seem to get my thoughts organized. For the meantime the post below is something that I wrote yesterday and it basically speaks for itself. By the way check out the new online test results that I posted below. Thanks.
I know that I am not to complain and that I am not in a bargaining position here but based on my observation I cannot help but think that contemporay professional life as in "IT" employment that come in the guise of business process outsourcing (bpo) has sort of not made me think that I am no more different than cattle who is required to just merely meet a given quota. Same way that cows are required to produce a specific amount of milk where later on they'll be lead into their final fate as burgers. And I really think that I am just a commodity in this job but nonetheless I'll still continue to endure this for the meantime, because I know that there's more to this job than meets the eye and that this is just a part of God's work in building my character.
Bye for now. By the way check out the new posts at pinaybloodrush. Thanks.
I know that I am not to complain and that I am not in a bargaining position here but based on my observation I cannot help but think that contemporay professional life as in "IT" employment that come in the guise of business process outsourcing (bpo) has sort of not made me think that I am no more different than cattle who is required to just merely meet a given quota. Same way that cows are required to produce a specific amount of milk where later on they'll be lead into their final fate as burgers. And I really think that I am just a commodity in this job but nonetheless I'll still continue to endure this for the meantime, because I know that there's more to this job than meets the eye and that this is just a part of God's work in building my character. Bye for now. By the way chech out the new posts at pinaybloodrush. Thanks.
Old school punk! You just say what you have to say
regardless of what everyone else thinks!
You're one of my most favourite types of
music... You're raw and uncut! You're
surrounded by hype...just don't let it make you
go insane...
What genre of rock are you? brought to you by Quizilla
Tarzan!
Know What You Believe...
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Hey I'm so very busy at work right now and I am also under a lot of scrutiny from my peers here so I might not be able to post as much as I once did. But anyways have you ever asked yourself questions concerning the stuff that you believe in? Well I took this test a not long ago, and this is what came up...
Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (100%)
Orthodox Quaker (99%)
Seventh Day Adventist (84%)
Eastern Orthodox (82%)
Roman Catholic (82%)
Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (70%)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (68%)
Liberal Quakers (48%)
Orthodox Judaism (46%)
Jehovah's Witness (46%)
Hinduism (42%)
Islam (40%)
Unitarian Universalism (40%)
Sikhism (39%)
Bahá'í Faith (38%)
Theravada Buddhism (29%)
Jainism (28%)
Neo-Pagan (28%)
Taoism (28%)
Mahayana Buddhism (27%)
Reform Judaism (27%)
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (25%)
New Age (21%)
Non-theist (21%)
Secular Humanism (19%)
Scientology (17%)
New Thought (16%)
Anyways if ever you're interested in taking the same test please feel free to click
here, so that you may start taking the test now. Please do take note that this is just a test and does not substantially verify your faith, but still it still gives you enough insights to reflect on as to what do you really believe in with regards to your existence here on earth. Thanks.
Victory for Dela Cruz ; Eulogy To Falco
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Yes.
After a couple of weeks the Iraqi militants that have taken custody of Angelo Dela Cruz has finally released him and that goes to show that our prayers have not been in vain and also of how such a single man would be used to a change of foreign policy here in the Philippines, may those who prayed and those who have engaged in the militant assertion of opposing our country's support for US-imperialism look at this event as a signal to rebuild from the ashes of a tragedy that by God's grace ended in triumph.
On a sadder note, for those of us who grew up in the 1980s some of us might have heard of the name Falco. If in any case you don't know him he is more famous for this song called 'Rock Me Amadeus', which goes like:
Rock me Amadeus
Amadeus Amadeus
Rock me Amadeus
Well anyways this song was one of the very few songs that I could still remember from back then when music videos can only be watched on Casey Casem's America's Top 10, Video Hit Parade and Video Hot Tracks and it was the video of this song that I could still remember as one of the the very few videos that were made just for the fun of it and for that matter made it cool, and I could still remember me imagining myself as one of those party crashing people composed of mohawked punks, goths, easy riders, freaks and ghoulies marching over to this silly sort of medieval tea party, chanting: 'rock me Amadeus'. And that when I was still in high school I'd purposely watch MTV Classics just to catch a glimpse of that video as well as other notable videos from The Cure, Madness, The Clash and Human League simply because I would want to relive the happy music of my childhood courtesy of my older brother's Hitachi tape deck.
Falco died last February 6, 1998 due to a car accident, just as I was about to finish high school. This requiem may be late to serve as a tribute for such a now considered New Wave/New Romantic artist that have influenced groups such as New Order, Electronic, The Petshop Boys and The Bloodhound Gang (they even had they're own version of Rock Me Amadeus). But I know that it is not yet too late to say that I am grieved by the fact that a part of my childhood died also, but rest assured that the legacy of his influence in the way I enjoyed music as a kid would never be forgotten.
For
Falco's Official Site
For
Falco's bio
My Quiz Results
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Again I'm still wondering what it is with the internet quizzes that I can resist their charms, and well here are my results they're pretty self-explanatory.
You are He-Man from Masters of the Universe! You
take life very seriously, and you should,
considering you are the keeper of all that is
good and right in the universe! However, your
nonstop suspicion of Skeletor and his henchman
can start your friends wondering why you don't
loosen up once in awhile.
you are agent smith from the matrix
 I am a Pacman Ghost.
I like to hang around with friends, chatting, dancing, all that sort of thing. We don't appreciate outsiders, and do our best to discourage others approaching us. I enjoy occasionally wandering around randomly, and often find that when I do so, I get to where I wanted to be. What Video Game Character Are You?
|
I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile.
Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away
I let mine out, and chatter all the while.
I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day
Is any day that's spent without a friend,
With nothing much to do or hear or say.
I like to be with people, and depend
On company for being entertained;
Which seems a good solution, in the end. |
What Poetry Form Are You?
|
Which Member of the Endless Are You?
Which Ringwraith are You?
By Lisa
Mirkwood Elf (Grey Elf) - You hail from the fair
realm of Mirkwood, ruled by King Thranduil, and
his son Legolas. You specialize in archery.
I'm exceptionally artistic!
Find your soul type at kelly.moranweb.com.
I am the imfamous elves (of the shoemaker)!
Find your fairy tale character at kelly.moranweb.com.
Which Blue's Clues character are you?
You are Mike Ness, the frontman from Social
Distortion. You're a man's man who loves
everything manly, like drinking, fighting,
tattooes, man-pants, and Johnny Cash.
Which Horrible Affliction are you?
A Rum and Monkey disease.
I AM 53% GEEK!  Nerd, Freak, Geek, Dweeb. Sound familiar? That's okay, cause I will be the richest person at my 15th year high school reunion. If a "con" isn't happening that weekend. |
I AM 53% PUNK ROCK!  The intelligent punk. Tuff and Smart. I may be able to maintain a train of thought long enough... What was I talking about? |
You are: R'AS AL GHUL!
Which Batman Villain Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Congrats, you're Magneto! We all bow down to your greatness! You're powerful and regal, but a little snobby. We humans forgive your holier-than-thou attitude, though, because all you plans for mutant superiority end up busting anyway. At least your heart is in the right place. You constantly fight your bestfriend and his team, but manage to mantain that relationship. You're mean to your charges and use your own children. I suggest apologizing to all the people you've wronged before it comes back to haunt you.
*~*Which X-Men Evolution Villain Are You?*~* brought to you by Quizilla
You are Professor X!
There's Really Something Rotten About Rotten.Com
Monday, July 19, 2004
Tasteless jokes could be quite offensive. If you don't believe me then try going to this
link, and see for yourself whether its funny or not.
I don't know about you people but I really think that there's something wrong about the stuff that abounds on the web today.
I cannot fully comprehend how some sites, specifically rotten.com are allowed to propagate such slanderous statements against anyone who ever dared to stand up for making the world better. More over it also gives veneration to such tastelessness, so as to reserve numerous portions of their site for the sick art of making someone else's tragedy as a source of one amusement.
And it has recently come to my attention that the biography section has been spreading lies and slanderous statements against a lot of people, and thoughtlessly hurling insults at a lot of prominent people not because of the evils that those people have done but because of the controversy that the actions of such people have stirred.
The list covers wide number of people from Popes, piliticians, revolutionaries, serial killers, pornographers, televangelists and even deities.
I won't even touch their entries on the other portions but instead I'd merely concentrate on the site's item on religion where it makes fun of almost every organized system of faith and has subjectively given us the impression that belief in a God is irrational and fanatical.
Just imagine how they'd deal with the idea that they do not even examine the context of their hearsays nor do they try to focus on the theological constructs of doctrines that the religions they're making fun of, nor do they even backup their argument of the inconsistencies about the Gospel accounts of the Bible with a critisism of the Biblical contents of their supposed arguements, I know this was meant to be fun for some but the sad truth is that fun is also relative to the object of who you are making fun off, I am a Christian and I must admit that I feel sick of all the references that this site has used for Jesus and of how their apparent counter-thesis against Christianity wouldn't even amount to merit in answering the question that why is Christianity still here if it were a lie (one could argue that such is the same with Communism, but the sad thing about it is that Communism has indeed change the world in its image but so did Nazism but did it outlast Christianity? the same goes with every other existing ideological systems and fads not to mention the idea that in almost every country there is a thriving community of Christians whether it be under persecution); and why would there be countless Christian martyrs in its 2 thousand years of existence; nor do they counter the reality of the changed lives that have been touched by the Gospel of Jesus' death and ressurection on the cross.
One could also see that such statements also has no substantial proof of Scripture to point out their supposed inconsistencies and that they never even bothered to study religous contest with their argument of Judaism's misinterpretation of the prophesied messiah.
But despite all of that we still merely conclude that maybe they do not know of that maybe they just lack knowledge but still I find it insufficient because those people have the knowledge of typing html codes that eventually turn out into the complex site that they have now, but why is it then so that they could not even try of attempt to verify their illogical juxtapozing of Christianity at the very least convincing to the intellect?
Another thing that makes me very dissapointed with the site is the fact that it blasphemes and 'name-calls' Jesus and it deviates His deity and humanity by lining Him up to the same level of Anton LaVey, Alister Crowley and David Koresh.
So what are we as Christians to do of such sites?
Simple have nothing to do with it. (2 Cor. 6:13)
That's really the very reason why I wrote this because we need to understand that as Christians it is our equal responsibility to live our lives in reverence to the God that we worship and that we are no longer part of this world that thrives on malice and controversies.
Let us examine the things that we see on the net on the basis of this questions:
Does this speak of my identity as a Christian?
Does this glorify God?
Does this edify the Church and does this encourage me in continuing in the faith?
To end it like us all to keep in mind that as Christians we are supposed to shed light on the darkness and on the context of this is on the abundance of sham on the Internet, make it your goal to use your time on the Net as a means to spread your Christian testimony to the secular society of the world wide web.
Fight the good fight of the faith.1 Timothy 4:12
Vox Populi Cubao
Just yesterday me and Jeanie went out to visit Cubao after a long time of absence in the area.We visited it to shop for second hand clothes where we were able to be there just in time for its 50% off sale on all garments.We later on visited Ali Mall which basically no longer has the shops that we used to visit and that it has mostly clossed down a lot of the shops there that have in their one way played their parts in our lives once upon a time.But all that changed when we visited the new Shopwise located at the former building of fiesta carnival and well it also reminded me of the fondest childhood memories I've had at the Carnival when I was a kid, but at the same time I've also found joy in it now that its been converted mainly because of the fact that as me and Jeanie explored the place we were able to see a lot of happy families that are there together doing their grocery and we both had a lot of memories to share to you with regards to our memories of going to the grocery with our parents when we were kids.And I am glad that in these times that there are still places that are accessible to parents and kids where they could enjoy each other's company without one of them compromising their fancies. And that its nice to know that more people are benefiting from the conversion of the old carnival into a grocery since before the carnival moved to its new location (just a few blocks away from the old one), the place was a mess and that the only ones hanging there are scumbags and other people and that it no longer makes itself safe for kids to go to so I guess now more people are benefitting from it, but it could also be considered that a lot of childhood things and that other people have lost income in the conversion of the place, and for that I have mixed emotions about its conversion and also on the present rennovation of the Cubao area.So again if it were a question of whether change is good I guess for those of us who grew up with the old Cubao we better visit it ourselves and see the difference.
What's So Scary About The Bible Anyway?
I don't know about you but just this Saturday I got the chance to a dear friend of mine to the Saturday service of VCF, where later we also had the time to get together with other friends to eat pizza.And after a while we and another friend that I was discipling were about to start our regular Bible study the dear friend that I invited suddenly came into a frenzy of excuses and reasons why he shoudn't be in that place with us at that moment to cut the story short he was sort of frightened when I grabbed the Bible from my bag so as to start the Bible Study, so I just let him leave me and my other friend to our study, and though I said it that its okay, I must admit that I was offended not because of the fact that he left but because of the fact that he so easily dismissed the action to be by his standards I guess 'corny' or not his thing.And I cannot help but marvel and at the same time feel sorry for such since it they blatantly dismiss the Gospel without any hesitation of their refusal to heed it and yet chose continue to live in the confusion of their lives, the Bible does not speak of a special formula or of criterias and standards and of initiations it basically just speaks of the fact that we are all bound to die someday and that our present decisions have eternal consequences and that we are separated by sin from God who in the first place created us, but at the same time gave us the freedom to have 'free-wills' knowing that one way or another we'd end up making wrong decisions, and that the Bible also tells us that our wrong decisions could be justified in the eyes of God by giving us the gift of salvation, which has no secret formula other than to believe in our hearts that Jesus died and rose from the dead to rescue us from our previous wrong decisions.Now is that so hard to comprehend but then again, there are other invisible powers that blind our minds. This is just a simple case of having to relate to a good new and the bad news, but sad to say we'd rather just choose to listen to the bad news and dismiss the capability of the Good News to restore us from the pits that we are dwelling in right now.So how does this then apply to the event that I mentioned earlier, well very much this is just a part of God's working in me so as to build character and to elevate my dependence on Him to a higher level, and for that reason I hope that everyone who's read this, who've ever encountered harsh opposition of the Gospel message be encouraged to pray that the Lord will open the eyes of the hearts of those whom we are trying to reach out and also to admonish ourselves to continue in contending to live a life that can backup what we preach. May we all continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord.Thanks.
Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Vertigo Comics
Friday, July 16, 2004
I know not a lot of us (I included) rarely get the chance to read other comic books other than Spiderman or Superman, but in a sense we have also just been negligent to the fact that apart from super hero comics the genre of comics does not only span the realm of superheroes.
And for people like me who have been rummaging through the sale bins of P50 comics at Filbar's there is that wonderful line of comics under the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics.
Titles like Sandman, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Shade The Changing Man and The Invisibles have been great influences in the penchant that I have in writing. I know a lot have seemed to ignore these titles since they're don't have covers done by Todd McFarlance, Rob Lifefield, Jim Lee and the like, and this was way back in high school when everyone that I knew who read comics was so into Spawn, WildCATS and all those other muscle bound freaks in so-called "enhanced" comics I was then contented to reading obvious DC books like Batman, Robin, New Titans and Giffen-Era JLA.
But all of that changed sometime in 1995 while I was rummaging through the sale bins of Filbar's (that was a time when you could still buy a comic on sale for the price of P15) I was by stroke of luck able to grab a copy of Skin Graft, Children's Crusade, Shade and Doom Patrol, and I guess that was it for me I've come to abandon the super-hero genre altogether and replaced it with the habbit of scouring through old issues of Shade, Doom Patrol, Sandman, Swamp Thing etc. on sale bins, and on grocery store magazine racks. Where after a while of collecting I was able to amass quite a number of Vertigo comics that would qualify to be called a collection.
Being a long time reader of comic books there are quite a number of writters that I've respected for their craft.
Among them are:
Neil Gaiman, of Sandman and also the creator of Tim Hunter from the graphic novel Books Of Magic, the character that JK Rowling ripped-off for Harry Potter. (I'll resserve another post for my point regarding this); Pete Milligan of Shade The Changing Man, and Enigma; Marv Wolfman, (creator of the Teen Titans, and author of Crisis On Infinite Earths), the team of Keith Giffen & JM DeMatteis (the comedy Justice League); and John Orstander (creator of Oracle from Birds Of Prey).
But above them there were only two who seemed to have written at an intellectual level that is more superior thus proving the point that comic books were no longer just kids stuff.
Those two were Alan Moore and Grant Morrison.
For a lot of people Alan Moore wouldn't even remind them of something but to be certain his influence has gone way beyond the bounderies of comic books. A lot of us have watched LXG, The Road To Predition, From Hell and The Swamp Thing. And factually speaking he wrote all of them. Another war the fact that the Vertigo Imprint was created by DC in honor of him.
That would certainly merit him as a genius.
But for me the reason that I see him as a genius is because of this single Batman story that he wrote way back in 1988 called The Killing Joke, a very introspective story about the relationship of Batman and the Joker, which basically explains that to some degree both of them are the same and that it proves a point that it only takes one bad to drive someone into insanity. But apart from that the reason also that I loved the comic was the fact that Moore was the one who made the Joker into a villain that's worthy of the Batman, this is not the Joker that one would associate with Cesar Romero from the Adam West Batman show. Another is the fact that this story is of groundbreaking relevance which up to now affects the continuity of DC Comics, this is where the saga of Oracle started though it was not Moore who created her this was the starting point wherein John Orstander would pickup the broken body of a Barbara Gordon that was shot in cold blood by the Joker and afterwards taken pictures off to drive Comissioner Gordon insane and then left to be crippled for life. And later breathe life into her by turning into a cyber vigilante that maintained close ties with the SuicideSquad and a host of other heroes. And all that could be credited to Alan Moore.
Another was Grant Morrison.
Has anyone every heard of Grant Morrison?
Maybe I better re-phrase the question, has anyone ever read a copy of any of the following:
Animal Man
Arkham Asylum
The Invisibles
JLA
New X-Men
The Filth
St. Swithin's Day
Next to Alan Moore I think he's a heck of a genius. I loved the way that he wrote Animal Man and Doom Patrol. I haven't got the chance to read Arkham Asylum which he did with Sandman's Dave McKean. But that Invisibles series that he wrote was absolutely thought provoking, that comic changed the way I used to think about a lot of things concerning politics, culture and society.
And during the course of collecting there was this one comic book that got my head to tick: The Invisibles a saga about a team of anarchists terrorists who supposedly dwell in a battle to liberate the world's minds from an age long conspiracy that stretches all through out history and to my surprise the author of the comic was the same one who've written other comic books that I've also come to be a fan of, it was Grant Morrison a Scottish writer imported by DC to write for their mature reader's line of comics. Now considered a genius since he's brought the "big guns" back to the Justice League and has remade the X-Men to his own image (which is sort of like how he used to write Doom Patrol).
But before all that there were just a few who've really taken him seriously. And I am glad that I was one of those.
I can't afford to buy his comic books now but given the chance I'd gladly read them, but reality check, we all know how expensive comic books are here in the Philippines, and I think kind of sucks.
For an article about Grant go
here
To visit Grant_Morrison's website go
here
