Egroups for UP-CMC Subjects

Attention, classmates!

I have already sent the invitations to your emails, but Kit says that she has not received the invitation (which I already sent twice). I'm still the only member of our two groups. I'm actually getting nervous about the readings already because it's going to be a while before I get back to UP.

Anyway, if you did not get the invitation, please log on to the following groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comm240 (COMM240 class)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/commres2012008 (CRES201 class)

Urduja

I'm not going to go into technical detail. You can probably read an in-depth technical review from one of my former Multimedia Arts students. Let's just say that the entire production would look better on TV than on the big screen because of some glitches. These can be digitally remastered, however, so I don't have issues on this aspect. In fact, I applaud the entire team. I could imagine the hard work amidst the budget constraints of this valiant effort. Many of the techniques applied here, save for the 3D CG scenes, were very very traditional. In short: painstaking labor. We did pretty well on our first try and I hope to see more of these in the future.

As for the comments about it being too Disney. People, I hope you are aware that most of the artists that worked on this project do work for Disney either as key animators or in-betweeners. So please, I don't really want to hear anything of that sort. We'll come around.

What really ruined it for me was the script. Whoever thought that inserting Taglish (English-Tagalog slang) into the dialogues was a good idea had to have been smoking something organic. Or just didn't make time to do research. Urduja's story is set during the pre-Hispanic period. Choose your language: pure Filipino (or Pangasinense) for authenticity or pure English for ease of comprehension. Add subtitles if you need to. Don't bastardize both languages in a film that's supposed to have cultural relevance.

Emphasis again on research. I know Disney screwed up Pocahontas' history by giving her a love angle with John Smith (who was at least 3 decades older than her in real life), but I thought we could've been smarter than that. Urduja was a warrior-princess, who declared that she will only marry the man who defeats her in battle, causing so many other warriors to avoid her for fear of embarrassment. In this movie, she not only is embroiled in a love triangle but also sings about not being treated seriously because of her gender. I guess people forgot that the Philippines used to be highly matriarchal during the pre-Hispanic era! You can't just twist a woman's arm into marriage. You friggin' proved it by showing your masculinity and providing her family with a hefty dowry!

I'm going to nitpick even further by stating that Urduja commanded an army of male and female warriors who were renowned fighters and equestrians. I didn't know that riding water buffalos, as what's often depicted in this motion picture, would turn one into an equestrian...

The male protagonist, who actually took over for Urduja halfway through the plot, is the dashing Chinese pirate Lim Hang. He could've been lovable as a character, as manly as Mulan's Shang, if he just didn't break into a ballad written by Joey de Leon and Ogie Alcasid. It's just so out of character.

It took a while to get to the meat of the story. The entire plot is overburdened with sub plots that you'd feel you were being swung this way and that. Very unfocused. There wasn't any room for character development either. In fact, the only remotely interesting character I found there is Daisuke, Lim Hang's Japanese right hand swordsman. He's very handsome (much more than Lim Hang), quietly supportive, has really impressive sword skills. And the voice actors had to murder his name by pronouncing it "Daisooooke".

I will still buy the DVD, only because I highly support the artists and animators that worked on Urduja. I just wish they could've gotten producers, directors and scriptwriters that had more (and real!) concern about history and education than commercial value.


On an interesting note:
My cousin, Firesenshi, was able to find an old old Filipino movie entitled Urduja. It starred Amalia Fuentes and Vic Vargas.
http://andrewleavold.blogspot.com/2008/03/chiquito-filmography-1970-1975.html

Rating: 6/10

This Hulk is cute. =^_^=

Watched The Hulk with Elena. While I actually prefer Jennifer Connelly over Liv Tyler, Edward Norton fits the scrawny geek Bruce Banner more than Eric Bana did.

Anyway, just look at this particular Hulk's eyes. He looks so...innocent. So cute! Although for some reason, this Hulk seems to think. I thought that the Gray Hulk was the only one that had kept Bruce Banner's intelligence.

Catch at least 3 cameo appearances. One from the usual dude you see in Marvel movies. One from an 80s series (^_-). And another from a dude  you've just seen in a previous Marvel flick. Hehehe.

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To all my COMMRES201 Classmates

Dr. Portus just called me up to say that we won't have classes on Wednesday, but she will require us to attend the UP Centennial Celebration at CCP. Here are her instructions (sent via email...*nosebleed*):


COMM RES 201 STUDENTS (under Dr. Portus)

Our class on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 will be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), 6pm. You will be required to attend the Centennial Celebration, a grand opening concert. Attire is formal - ala Filipiniana.

Your attendance will be a class diagnostic and baseline activity and you will be expected to observe the program and submit a think paper focusing on the ff:

1. Attendance - quantity and quality
2. Activities in the Program
3. Content
4. Form
5. Relations to Communication Research


Also, include in your Think Paper, answer to the following question: If you were to do a research study on this activity, what would be a possible topic problem, objective methods? Explain why?

The think paper is due on Monday June 30, 2008, 5pm.

Thank you,

Dr. Lourdes M. Portus

Professor, CR 201

My Aunts' Prediction

Out of boredom, I plucked an old "contemporary" romance novel off my aunt's shelves and began to read voraciously. I instantly fell in love with the male protagonist -- a tall, dark, attractive scientist/author with a PhD and three bachelor degrees in different fields -- and I announced this to my aunts as I temporarily paused in my reading.

Tita Yna exclaimed, "I knew it! We had been talking about this since you were in high school!"

Upon seeing my confused expression, she clarified, "We predicted that you'll never have a boyfriend, much less marry, because you didn't care about how you looked and you always locked yourself up in your room, reading those romantic drivel about men that can't possibly exist. You want intellectuals that look like Fabio!" (Fabio was the most in-demand cover model during those days.)

I shamelessly admit that I was addicted to romance novels when I was in my early teens. Especially when it comes to the historical kinds written by Iris Johansen (she's very keen with historical details and weaves fact and fiction so intricately that you may have difficulty separating them), Johanna Lindsey and Jude Deveraux.  But when it comes to contemporary romances, Jayne Anne Krentz is the queen.  In her world, leading men are hot uber geeks who broke codes long before Dan Brown ever thought of Robert Langdon.

Though I did have at least three ex-boyfriends that would prove their prediction wrong, I still wonder if those books actually ruined my chances for a decent marriage.  I've yet to meet a man who has three bachelor degrees (that's one more than I do, since I only have two) and a PhD, is a successful scientist/author, has quick reflexes, is tall, dark, attractive...and not gay or aging. A man who, despite the heroine's mean, independent streak, will still try to rescue her so he can prove that she needs him after all.  The sad part is, I think I'm still on the lookout for him -- a guy that does not exist.

And it's all because my head's been messed up by seemingly harmless romance novels. The reality is, no hero outside of fiction can rescue a girl who can do a man's job.

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