Archive (Page 7) • Notes on a Nation • Buttondown

hello there, 2020

January 5, 2020

Manila, 5 January—Happy New Year, friends! One could truly get used to extended holidays like that one, no? If you’re like me and you hauled yourself right...

notes on another year

December 31, 2019

Manila, 31 December—And so we have come to the end. My last entry of the year is mostly a mix of notes for myself—a laundry list of what worked, as well as a...

yearender: 2019 in movies

December 30, 2019

Manila, 30 December—This year, we went to the cinemas and squeed over some really good movies. Hence, I’m making a special segment out of my current 2019...

yearender: 2019 in review

December 25, 2019

Manila, 25 December—Merry Christmas to you and yours, friends! This yearender masterpost is the 50th post for this year—I’ll try to make two other yearender...

capricorn season

December 20, 2019

Manila, 20 December—Feels like I haven’t been on here since forever. Been spending the last handful of weeks trying to tear through my Strama paper—which I...

hello, december

December 1, 2019

Manila, 1 December—I figured I should do a drive-by update because just like that, it’s already December! Wow. How’s your Christmas shopping going?! Mine’s...

portrait of a lady on fire (2019)

November 17, 2019

Manila, 17 November—Céline Sciamma’s French historical drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is perhaps the best movie I’ve seen this year. (Spoilers after the...

jagged little pill

November 9, 2019

Manila, 8 November—Among my earliest memories as a child coming of age is riding shotgun in the morning with my mother on the way to school, turning the...

hiatus

October 30, 2019

Malay, 30 October—Just dropping this quick note to say I have been spending my after-work hours and entire weekends trying to power through writing...

how's your Q4 so far?

October 14, 2019

Manila, 14 October—In true Q4 fashion, my calendar for the last three months of this decade has been filled. Yes, just like that. Must be a common feeling,...

the last one thousand days

October 6, 2019

Manila, 6 October—It’s my first time to hear of this metric, but someone on Twitter mentioned that it’s time to countdown to The Last 1,000 Days of the...

What's the worst thing this administration has done?

October 6, 2019

Now that we’re on The Last 1000 Days of this admin, maybe this is worth a lookback. After all of THAT—what incidents and issues stand out as the Worst of the...

The perfect pitch

September 30, 2019

Manila, 28 September—How do you introduce yourself first? As far as first days of school go, this is perhaps the one thing I feel most pressured to get...

How would you pitch the current you to a younger you?

September 29, 2019

Scenario: You’re picking up your younger self’s report card and you have ten minutes to spend with said younger self to discuss it. What year would you find...

Martial Law in the Philippines, 47 years hence

September 23, 2019

Manila, 23 September—For a change, I thought of posting this year’s round-up of Martial Law reportage on this day instead of Sept 21, which is the date of...

And we're back (in school!)

September 21, 2019

Manila, 21 September—And just like that, I’m back in the classroom. This afternoon, I went back to class for the first time in three years. If anybody still...

amulets

September 15, 2019

Manila, 16 September—Once upon a time, we had amulets. Like, honest-to-goodness red mini-pillows with stitched-on crosses pinned to our underwear, or old...

an open letter to the transphobe down the hall

September 8, 2019

Manila, 8 September—This week has been heavy on the heart for anyone who has a stake in the SOGIE Equality Bill that is currently being discussed in the...

The L Word (and everything after)

September 1, 2019

Manila, 31 August—Nothing brings me back a dozen or so years as hard as Kinnie Starr’s “Alright”. I first heard the song on The L Word, which was a...

the first mayor

August 25, 2019

Manila, 25 August—When I was growing up, the only mayor I knew was Mayor Sanchez. Truth be told, I did not even know who Bacoor’s mayor was at the time, even...