The Wheel and Axle

Archive for May, 2017

Wonder Week: Wonder Gal

by on May.31, 2017, under Film & TV, Geeky, Queer

Wonder Countdown: one day to go in the Philippines!

And if you’re like me, it would be tonight as I plan to catch a midnight screening of Wonder Woman!

Here is the lady of the hour herself, Gal Gadot, as she speaks about the film.

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Wonder Week: Give Steve Some Love!

by on May.30, 2017, under Film & TV, Geeky, Queer

Wonder Countdown: two days to go in the Philippines!

Let’s give the wonderful Chris Pine some love as we prepare to see him bring Steve Trevor to life on the big screen!

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Wonder Week: Villainy, Inc.

by on May.29, 2017, under Film & TV, Geeky, Queer

Wonder Countdown: three days to go in the Philippines!

A hero is only as good as his or her villain, as the cliché goes. There is much truth to this. Superman and Batman wouldn’t be as interesting as they are without Luthor or the Joker. The same goes for Wonder Woman, whose rogues gallery – while not as famous as those of her male counterparts – is full of interesting characters, especially in the hands of the correct writer.

Many of them are metaphors, symbolic of the psychology and advocacies associated with Wonder Woman. Ares is the war to Diana’s peace. Dr. Psycho is a misogynistic freak. Various versions of the Cheetah, recognized as Diana’s archenemy, represent different things: the beast to Diana’s humanity, the predator to her hunter, the greed to her selflessness. The Silver Swan, in many of her versions, has always been about insecurity regarding beauty, a struggle many women relate in the face of sexist expectations. Circe represents a lot of things antithetical to Diana, including the transformation of men to beasts as opposed to the reformation Diana usually advocates.

And so on and so forth.

For the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, they’ve chosen Ares and Doctor Poison.

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Princess of Pop

by on May.28, 2017, under Music & Theater, Queer

“I am not a traditional gay icon. There’s been no tragedy in my life, only tragic outfits.”

– Kylie Minogue

Taking a quick break from Wonder Week, I just had to give space here to celebrate the birthday of the one and only Kylie Minogue, princess of pop!

The fact is, only Kylie can truly claim to be the heir to Madonna’s throne. Her long and ubiquitous career spanning almost over three decades shows just how versatile and amazing the woman is. She has faced personal difficulties, survived breast cancer, experimented in her music (I cannot be the only one who loved Did It Again from her Impossible Princess phase), campaigned against child abuse, been a gay icon and LGBT supporter, and been an inspiration to women everywhere.

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Wonder Week: Amazing Amazons

by on May.28, 2017, under Film & TV, Geeky, Queer

Wonder Countdown: four days to go in the Philippines!

Any good movie with great protagonists also requires a great cast of supporting characters portrayed by great performers. In the case of Wonder Woman, it’s even more imperative that those supporting characters have a strong female representation as, ultimately, the empowerment of women is one of the comic book’s primary themes. Fortunately, they managed to snatch some great actresses to portray key roles in the Wonder Woman world.

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Wonder Week: Driving Forces

by on May.27, 2017, under Film & TV, Geeky, Queer

Wonder Countdown: five days to go in the Philippines!

As we prepare for the arrival of the Wonder Woman film, let’s listen to the thoughts of the folks behind this movie that’s over seven decades overdue.

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Wonder Week: Glimpses!

by on May.26, 2017, under Film & TV, Geeky, Queer

Wonder Countdown: six days to go in the Philippines!

Several days ago, they released more clips from the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. They are all awesome and make me even more impatient to see the film. The great thing about the clips is that they give us nice bits here and there, but they’re not spoiler-y. Mostly, they’re extended scenes of those we’ve already seen in prior teaserspreviews, spots, or trailers (one is even just a further extended version of the alley clip).

Aunt Antiope surprises Diana but then gets her own surprise.

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Negros Summer 2017, Final Day: Apo Island

by on May.24, 2017, under My Life, Travel & Culture

I first visited Apo Island, a popular no-frills destination especially for divers, back in November 2012 with AJ.

It was a morning side trip during our vacation in Zamboanguita just outside Dumaguete. Thalatta, the resort we stayed in, faced Apo Island and is about a half hour boat ride away. That 2012 Apo trip was memorable; we nearly missed the famed pawikan (sea turtles) because our boatman was late and you had to get there really early to witness these lovely creatures. Thankfully, we still caught up with a few and snorkelled beside them (no touching allowed).

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Negros Summer 2017, Day 5: Sandbars, Dolphins, and Falls

by on May.24, 2017, under My Life, Travel & Culture

On Tuesday morning, we woke up before the crack of dawn for the busy day ahead. It was great that we were staying in U Pension House, a convenient and recommended hostel across Silliman, as it afforded us quick access to rides in the wee hours of the morning.

Our first stop was Bais City, where a pre-arranged boat ride with a local would bring us to the heart of Tañon Strait, the strip of water that separates Negros from Cebu Island. What we wanted to see were the popular sandbar of Manjuyod as well as dolphins in the wild. The former is easy, while the latter can be random. We were lucky to have caught the latter early in the day.

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