Headlines and Headlights #5
Three months' worth of news and media + general life distractions
Bonġu (“Hello” in Maltese) and welcome to Semi-Online #24, a.k.a. ‘Headlines and Headlights’ #5, or my latest list of read/watched/heard media consumed between my (already sparse) Substack posts, extended SSCD episodes, and other life matters that I want to show and/or recommend to you simply because I like dragging people into rabbit holes with me, pleasant or otherwise.
That long-ass intro also reflects how my brain’s been these past months: rambling, morbid, and strung out. To be fair, a lot’s been happening lately—to everyone, everywhere, and in every sense. So I took another long break, then wiped out the drafts sitting on my Dashboard since March. If only things are that easy for everything, no? 😄
Enjoy, and gimme your recommendations too 💗
Random thoughts
One of the few things I miss about my MFA years is the constant creative production. From 2016-2019, I churned out essays, short stories, and poems plus several one-act plays, a full-length screenplay (that I still hope to convert to a novel someday), and passable critiques and research. They could come back to life if/when I find the time and energy to rework them. But I was consistent with my writing back then because I was held accountable every weekend: not only to pass the courses I’d paid for, but also to pull my weight in reading and workshopping.
So I’m wondering if anyone’s interested in forming an informal writers’ group. Nothing too academic or hoity-toity, and no strict deadlines; just constructive feedback and different POVs for our works-in-progress and accountability for all. Let me know in the comments section!
Also: Laki Mata, one of my favorite artists, currently has a solo exhibit at Space Encounters Gallery in Pasig City! The Flower Eaters runs until May 31.
From Celine Policarpio’s Facebook page:
“The Flower Eaters” exhibit is an exploration of a dystopian island where society revolves around the worship of Liwayway, a goddess who provides flowers as sustenance. Once consumed, they cause the people to forget their dreams, their beliefs, and ultimately, themselves.
On this island, the women carry the heaviest burden. They are molded into ideals: well-behaved, quiet, obedient. Their voices are hushed, their needs suppressed, and their ambitions confined within the bounds of tradition. The flowers they eat represent the expectations they are forced to swallow, erasing their authentic selves in exchange for acceptance.
This exhibit confronts the cost and the mental toll of repressing one’s true self in order to fit societal norms. It is a reflection on how femininity is shaped, silenced, and sometimes reclaimed. The Flower Eaters invites viewers to witness the quiet rebellion of women who begin to remember, to feel, and to awaken.
Check out the catalog here; and contact Space Encounters for inquiries and reservations via Facebook, Instagram, or email.
Read
The COVID-19 lockdowns, five years on, courtesy of Foreign Policy, Business Mirror, The Guardian, BBC, and The New York Times. Honestly, I think I need a decade of therapy just for this worldwide event, and then its impacts on multiple parts of my life and mind.
ICYMI! Important for people like me who work online and rely on online access for everything: digital VAT kicks in on June 1, 2025. It affects streaming, software, and cloud services + online ads, gaming platforms, and mobile app purchases in the Philippines. Audit all your subscriptions and DON’T vote for the authors of this law in the next elections because we know damn well we won’t reap any benefits from this added taxation bullshit.
Speaking of elections (and that BIG Duterte arrest for the International Criminal Court last March that impacted our May 2025 polls), here’s a Reuters Institute article on Cristina Chi. She’s the reporter who told the world about the disinformation networks working hard during and after the arrest. This is how it’s done, folks.
We live in a world where stand-up comedians are assassinated while they’re on stage. Rest in peace, Gold Dagal.
We also live in a world where important documentaries like Baby Ruth Villarama’s Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea are pulled out of festival screenings two days before its premiere. Here’s some good news, though: it’ll finally debut in June… in New Zealand.
This is from February 2025 but still worth reading today, especially if this summer’s electric bills gave you sticker shock. The Huffington Post put out a two-parter on nuclear energy in Asia, with the Philippines front and center in the first installment. (China’s the focus for the second part.)
Another February 2025 thing: I noticed that my Substack was getting traffic from ChatGPT, which had apparently begun serving real-time search results. We’re just now getting actual numbers for generative AI search results’ impact on Google’s business model, and…
And another generative AI thing: I’m still leery of using it for work except for basic spellchecks and proofreading. But journalist Jaemark Tordecilla used it to convert a recent longform story into a video essay. I find his process interesting, though I’ll still hold off for as long as I can.
I also don’t know what to feel about using animal organs for human transplants. I do think my late mother, who needed a kidney transplant in 1992 and died without one, would’ve laughed then recoiled at the thought of having a genetically engineered kidney most likely sourced from a pig placed inside her body. Then again, most wouldn’t care about its provenance if it means they could live a bit longer.
If you have old/used or expired makeup, Heaven’s Palette is accepting donations. Your donated makeup would then be used for mortuary cosmetics. Our loved ones need to look good before we send them off! More info on this Rappler profile and this ABS-CBN feature.
Also about death: if given the choice and funding, I would love to die with dignity in a peaceful environment instead of in a hospital with chaos everywhere, or worse. The Guardian covers a palliative care unit in Denmark whose approach I wish would be the global standard.
Channel News Asia loves talking dirty to me via “Talking Point”. Specifically: how dirty our bath towels can get, and how often to wash them. Another favorite of mine from the same program: proper water bottle hygiene. Wash that expensive tumbler, for fuck’s sake!
Here’s the story of the ILOVEYOU computer worm, not-proudly made in Manila, 25 years later.
I am a lifelong atheist, but also a baptized and confirmed Catholic because those were mandatory for Catholic school students 🙃 I was curious about Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle’s sudden elevation to papal candidacy, and I even tuned in to the conclave livestream to see who popped that white smoke. Too bad I saw this VERA Files opinion column too late; it’s about Tagle’s silence during Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous presidency.
Remember that headline barrage about millions of Filipino HS graduates being ‘functionally illiterate’ (like this one, and this)? Here’s the actual 2024 FLEMMS report, and a May 19 clarification from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Just for exactness’ sake. But yes, we need to up our educational access and standards ASAP!
I have friends who suffered massive strokes and lived, and much more who didn’t. Survivors will tell you recovery doesn’t end at hospital discharge, and that you’ll rarely if ever have the same baselines for daily living. So this long piece on US senator John Fetterman’s pre- and post-stroke years is a tough read, more so because he holds public office and his actions and impact go beyond his immediate circles.
Apparently, Volkswagen sells more sausages than automobiles these days. Well.. it ain’t the wurst. Eyyyyyy. 🌭🌭🌭
Hobbies are pricier now, too. I see this in fountain pens, inks, and accessories as well as books and online streaming; but you’ll see it in your own hobbies, whatever they may be. And while this piece from The Atlantic focuses on Americans and their hobbies, I think the effect’s obvious worldwide. Higher costs = lost opportunities for building social ties and strong communities in dedicated places.
Related to fountain pens: a fun feature on how Filipino enthusiasts got started on the hobby. I know their names because I see them on the local Facebook and Marketplace group all the time. I’ve since muted both on my feed to curb spending, and it’s been going good so far. 🤭
The only media coverage I cared about in relation to that faux-feminist Blue Origin flight: those on Amanda Nguyen and Aisha Bowe. 💗
Lastly, from yesterday: massive changes in Philippine broadsheets are incoming (printing op cuts for Manila Bulletin, and layoffs and printing op shifts for The Philippine Daily Inquirer). This gives me depressing flashbacks of the death of tech print magazines in the ‘10s, including the Singapore franchise I used to write for. Call me naïve, but I never thought it’d happen to the major papers.
Watch
Let’s go back to the early months of COVID-19 in 2020. I was newly unemployed, stuck in the last place I ever wanted to be in with maybe the last person I ever want to be stuck anywhere with, and caught in a downward spiral of alcoholism and what I learned months later was SSCD. Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries novella series helped bring back some joy in my life, and I’ll always be thankful that I read it when I did.
Fast forward to 2025—the series now has five novellas and two novels, and an Apple TV+ adaptation starring Alexander Skarsgård. I haven’t read the newer titles and had my doubts about the streaming series (especially with yet another White man in the lead role, even if he’s Alexander freakin’ Skarsgård). But the reviews have been positive so far. Could be worth renewing my subscription once all the episodes are out.
I also read The Eternaut back in 2017, and liked it except for the bad female character writing. I wish I knew more about Argentinian history and politics before reading, though. I missed some of the political subtext, and I didn’t know the author Héctor Germán Oesterheld and his four daughters and their husbands were disappeared in the 1970s and are long presumed dead.
I’ve seen the first two episodes of the Netflix adaptation, but I’m holding off judgment until I finish all six.
Love, Death & Robots, Black Mirror, and The Last of Us are back, too! Also thinking if I should get on the Andor train now that it’s done at two seasons.
I watched The God of Ramen last month on JFF Theater, and for free! Its lineup changed this month; The Genealogy of Sake and A Handful of Salt look interesting to me. I recommend signing up, although casting to your TV can get tricky since it’s just browser-based.
YouTube’s algo serves up fun recommendations for me sometimes. Here’s one, from Max Miller of Tasting History:
Listen
Still in love with this rendition of “Otomo” by Bonobo and Anna Lapwood at the Royal Albert Hall!
I’m also pissed that the reunited The Prodigy got a lukewarm reception at Coachella this year. So I’ve been giving them the respect they deserve: playback at top volume with the scant level of dancing my disability allows.
Finally, some toe to calm down afterward:
It’s been fun. Until the next update! Take care out there 💗
I’m sorry your SSCD has been acting up. That must be really frustrating.
We just started Andor last week and are really enjoying it! All I hear are god things about the show, so we decided to give it a try.
Max Miller, yes.
Newspapers, huhu.