Philippine Idol-ing

Hay, finally got back to this blog after more than a week of playing slave para mabuhay. I just came back from a weekend meeting.. . and happened, by chance, to watch the show Philippine Idol aired over ABC 5.

Watching Philippine Idol is watching how we are, as a country, in cultural identity and mindset-- brown hilaw and Sharon Cuneta-Bukas Luluhod ang mga Tala* believers dominated the kind of performances and mindsets (some were interviewed) I saw.

We are hilaw but we do not like hilaw, meaning something that is supposed to have been cooked but was not well-cooked. It is like rice that has finished boiling and cooked outside until you see the insides, just like an identity that is at nowhere, nasa alangan. Kung hilaw ka na naghihinug-hinugan, tatawanan ka lang, kahit wala kang natirang pamasahe pabalik papunta sa probinsya nyo. Ay, pasiyensa na kamo day. Dili ka ma-accept.

As always, those who have crossed or can cross over as singer-dancers who pass the accepted pop standard of how a performer should look, sing and move pass the audition. But I do appreciate that the judges Pilita C, Ryan C. and Francis M. accept Bisaya performers. They event accepted one transgender, I think she is pre-op. They accepted them even if it is obvious they won't pass another audition. Please do prove me wrong.

Philippine Idol is not just about finding the Philippine Idol and that's it. It is also shows how dyslexic we are in cultural identity. While the show's intellectual property holder knew how profitable it is to expose people's feelings of triumph and defeat as well as bravado and absurdity, even often make fun of misplaced ambitions and characters, the show franchise in the Philippines shows who we are and what we are, in the singular and plural senses.

Sometimes we see blind, sometimes cross-eyed... sometimes, we see that we refuse to see our seen and obvious selves. Keep on watching Philippine Idol--labanan ng mga hilaw at hinog, good luck na lang sa mga sunog at dugyot. Hiram lamang ang ating katauhan.
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*tomorrow the stars will kneel down