November 2010 – Page 4 – ellen tordesillas

Ella in Manila

Published by Ellen on November 6, 2010

Ella del Rosario who enthralled us with such mega hits “Pers lab” and “Mr. Disco” in the 70’s with the iconic Hotdog Band will be in Manila in December. Don’t miss her homecoming concerts Dec. 14 – Strumms; Dec. 16 & 17 – Music Museum

Maria Angela Rafaela Manzano del Rosario or Ella, for short, started singing at age 3 accompanied on the piano by her dad who played the keyboards – lounge-style.

She honed this talent in singing shows and programs during her elementary and high school years at Assumption Convent.
While performing with a high school garage band in 1974, Ella was discovered by Dennis Garcia – leader of then newly formed Hotdog band – and invited her to be the frontline female singer of the group. This move established a major milestone in Pilipino music because, back then, convent girls wouldn’t be caught listening to (and God forbid – singing) Tagalog songs. (Tunes in the vernacular were considered “bakyang-bakya”.)

But the taboo didn’t deter Ella. Her first single with Hotdog – “Pers Lab” – was one of two Hotdog songs that cemented the emergence of the “Manila Sound” – and the unexpected appreciation of original Pilipino music by local music lovers from the entire spectrum of Philippine society.

In 1976, Ella decided to go solo and her first single was produced by Dennis Garcia – “O Lumapit Ka”… also a huge hit.
This was followed by several more popular songs like “Mr. Disco”, “Meron Na Bang Iba?”, “Shake It, Baby”, “Pabulong” and more.

Ella graduated summa cum laude from Maryknoll… packed her bags 22 years ago… and left for America – without saying goodbye.

Weder-weder lang

Published by Ellen on November 4, 2010

Update from GMA News: Nilo has left for Australia

Dr. Prisco Nilo, the former weather bureau chief disgraced by President Aquino, has been reported to have availed of early retirement.

The ABS-CBN report said quoted Agham party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones as saying that Nilo’s early retirement has something to do with his lack of Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) eligibility.

Under Aquino’s Memorandum Circular No. “2. All non-Career Executive Service Officials (non-CESO) occupying Career Executive Service (CES) positions in all agencies of the Executive Branch shall remain in office and continue to perform their duties and discharge their responsibilities until October 31, 2010 or until their resignations have been accepted and/or until their respective replacements have been appointed or designated, whichever comes first, unless they are re-appointed in the meantime. “

DFA as dumpsite

Published by Ellen on November 2, 2010

It used to be that during cabinet meetings, the secretary of foreign affairs sat next to the president, to his right underlining the importance given to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Nowadays, if you look at the videos and photos of cabinet meetings , the one sitting next to the president is Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa. I’m not sure where Foreign Secretary Romulo sits. In the unspoken language of power, propinquity is an eloquent indication of one’s standing in the exclusive circle.

It is not only in this administration that foreign relations is unappreciated. The decline was evident in the post-Marcos era. The Arroyo administration was notorious in making it the dumpsite of retired military and police and other persons, like former Supreme Court Justice Hilario Davide,whom she owed her continued hold to her unelected presidency.

Tweets are forever

Published by Ellen on November 1, 2010

To control the damage wrought by her tactless tweets, Mai Mislang, President Aquino’s trusted speechwriter, has removed her twitter and facebook accounts.

President Aquino took note of that in defending her. He said, “Upon realization, she had tried to correct what she did wrong.”

Unfortunately, in the wild, wild cyberspace, once you post something it stays there forever. IT expert Victoria Gaerlan sent me the tweets that Mislang had taken down.

Meanwhile, someone also directed me to the photos by Bob Guerrero of Mislang performing with her rockband, Blue rats. Guerrero has given me permission to use these photos. He just asked to link the post to bhobg.multiply.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhobg.

Here are the photos. Click to view them enlarged:

Gaerlan said those who think that because they post on twitter, it will stay on just with their followers in twitter are mistaken. She said there is such thing as syndication:”It blasts your tweet to several other sites and it does NOT get deleted even if you delete your original tweet. Why? Because when content is syndicated in another site, it gets stored on that other site’s database.”

Here are some of the tweets that Gaerlan recovered from http://maimislang.tweetboard.com:

Snooty and ignorant

Published by Ellen on October 31, 2010

Mai and abby — Mai Mislang (left) and her defender, Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson

Will somebody please give Mai Mislang, the “hardworking and trusted” speechwriter of President Aquino, according to her boss Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, a copy of guidelines on social media?

The ones available in the internet are by the U.S. National Public Radio and the Los Angeles Times.

The guidelines have been issued in the advent of what is now called social media (Facebook and Twitter are the most popular) where the line between private and public statements has become blurred.

This part from the NPR guideline should be underlined for Mislang: “Recognize that everything you write or receive on a social media site is public. Anyone with access to the web can get access to your activity on social media sites. And regardless of how careful you are in trying to keep them separate, in your online activity, your professional life and your personal life overlap.”

This should also be relevant to Mislang: “You should conduct yourself in social media forums with an eye to how your behavior or comments might appear if we were called upon to defend them as a news organization (in her case Office of the President). In other words, don’t behave any differently online than you would in any other public setting.”

Month: November 2010

Ella in Manila

Weder-weder lang

DFA as dumpsite

Tweets are forever

Snooty and ignorant