Trapping Apartments

Damn, I never realized finding an apartment would be so tough. I thought I'd stay for 2 days, Tuesday and Wednesday, in Manila just to look for one. I wanted one in the Malate/Paco area so I would be near where Wasted will be shot. I don't like "Bedspacer" spaces because I want a room all to myself. And a room really, is just what I was looking for. With it's own toilet and if possible, already furnished. There were two ways I could find one, and that is through the classifieds and through house to house search. I got a room at a hotel in Malate and I immediately started looking. I first tried looking via house to house and I spent hours walking the streets of Malate just looking for "Apartment For Rent" signs. I listed down places that I liked to call on later. Those whose landlords I did get to talk to preferred mostly tenants stay a minimum of a year. I would be needing a place for only 2 months. So I soon got nowhere fast. Some of the places were just too expensive for me. I eventually got tired, went back to the hotel and started calling. I tell you, talking to landlord owners are like talking to parents of a girl you're courting. They want to know what your job is to see if you could pay for the place, they demand to know just exactly what you intend to do with the place. No business, no offices allowed. This one particular landlady I talked to was specially protective, and she really didn't have anything to worry about, but the problem was she just couldn't understand the kind of work that I had.

Landlady:" So where do you work?"
Me: "I work at home."
LL: "What? You mean you don't have a job?"
Me: "No, no, I have a job, I just take it home with me."
LL: "You don't have an office?"
Me: "Well, not really. My home is my office."
LL: "What? No, you can't use the apartment as an office."
Me: "No, no, I won't turn the place into an office. The kind of work I do, I just so happen to be able to do it anywhere I wish to live."
LL: "What kind of work do you have?"
Me: "I'm an artist. I guess you can consider the place to be my art studio"

(At this point the woman goes ballistic.)

LL: "WHAT? ART STUDIO?? No! NO ART STUDIO!!"

Well, I gave up after that.

I guess it was probably my fault as well because I somehow failed to explain my situation to the woman. I guess to some people, "ARTIST" is still a tag that labelled one as someone who didn't have money and just lays about all day dreaming. The next time, I'll tell them I'm an ARCHITECT and that I had a BIG project in Manila which I need to supervise closely. I would just be needing a place to stay. I'll avoid terms like "Working at HOME", or "ART STUDIO", or stuff like that.

Day turned to night and night turned to day and I was ready to start again.

Having run out of places to call on my list, I turned to the classifieds and I found one that looked promising. I called and a nice sounding and quite an accommodating woman answered. Now this is more like it, I thought. So I told them I was an ARCHITECT, and that I had a BIG PROJECT in Manila that I needed to supervise. In a way that was true. I was an Architect, and I also had a big project I need to look after in Manila. I wasn't really lying, I was just telling the truth selectively. Sufficiently impressed, the woman gave me instructions on how to find the place. It was quite complicated but with map in hand, I was sure I could find it. And it wasn't very far. She instructed me to just find this certain commercial building, and the apartment would be exactly right in front of it. Ok, off I went.

Confident that I may have found a nice place, I sent a text message to my girlfriend Ilyn saying that I may have finally found a place. After some walking I found the commercial building and when I looked right across it, I found....a clump of houses that looked like a slum area. What the fuck? Ok. I checked again. The right commercial building, and right across it...oh man. The place looked beat up, patched together with used plywood. I got out of there really quick. I'm not going to pay money they asked to live in a dump like that. Shit.

Terribly disappointed, I called Ilyn to tell her what happened. After a shock, I usually walk it off. After half an hour of just aimless walking, I suddenly found myself on a real nice street with lots of bedspacer spaces for students. And there I found a studio for rent. The place isn't Manila Hotel, but it was allright, I called the owner right away and I'll see the inside of the place on Friday. The owner did warn me that he can't reserve the place for me, apparently burned by people who reserved the place and never followed up. I hope the place is still available on Friday, and I hope I do like it, which I have a feeling I will. Hopefully. Maybe. Let's see.

!IMPORTANT NOTICE!

Starting a week or so from now, I'll be moving to Manila for a couple of months. Maybe more. I'll be taking an apartment somewhere so I could be near where our little movie WASTED is being shot. It will just be an apartment with a bed and a drawing table. I won't be bringing my computer or my TV and DVDs. Maybe just a CD player for music. I'll be in Manila on weekdays and I will go home on the weekends. So Saturday and Sunday are the only 2 days I will be able to check my email and check on my message boards. To those I am doing work with, don't worry, I'll be bringing all my work with me there, but I will have only the weekends to scan them and send them off. I might be able to visit an Internet cafe once in a while to check the message board, but that's about it. So if you write during the next couple of months, I'll be able to reply to you only on the weekends.

I'm actually looking forward to it. I miss living in Manila a lot. And it would be interesting to see how I will react to not having my usual hi tech distractions. I expect to really like it. :)

Information has been sketchy, but I do believe that the Danish pop group AQUA has broken up. It's too bad because I really don't like most of today's pop music, except for Aqua. I thought they were pretty good, their millions of clones notwithstanding.

Well, it's been fun guys. So long!

Updated the Ochlocrat page with a review from Ninth Art.

Whoo hoo! I'm buying a new computer on Thursday. Well, a new CPU at least. I got this old one in 1998, which doesn't seem so long ago, but it's already starting to fall apart and there are already some programs that I can't use with it because it has gotten too "slow".

After having finished inking High Roads #2, I'm taking a couple of days to work on Yellow Shawl as well as an Alamat short story called "The Assault". Alamat is planning something big by the end of the year and I'm really happy to be part of it. "The Assault" is an over the top science fiction story which I'm doing without any sort of reference. I'm just drawing it using whatever comes to mind, very much like what I had talked about wanting to do in my Ochlocrat page. I'm having really big fun with it and I can't wait to see it in print. :)

OCHLOCRAT REVIEW

The following is a review of Ochlocrat by longtime comics writer Tony Isabella (Moon Knight, Black Lightning, Avengers, Spiderman) and comic book reviewer. Thanks Tony!


TONY'S TIPS!
by Tony Isabella

Installment #535 for CBG #1477
February 8, 2002


******

The Ochlocrat (Comics Conspiracy; $2.95) was more to my taste. This time
out, Doug Miers brings us a world where the high and the mighty are subject
to the rule of the mob, as expressed and enacted by an on-air and
on-the-streets "hero" called the Ochlocrat. The one-shot is drawn by Gerry
Alanguilan, best known as an inker, but proving here that he knows how to
wield a mean pencil as well. His realistic style plays nicely off the
mania of the story.

The Ochlocrat is always on, downloading the electronic wishes of millions
of certified voters before he takes action against his targets. Lawyers
have no place in this system of instant justice, except as opportunities to
jazz up the program with an explosion or two. It's the will of the people
that carries the day and, if the audience want their hero to have sex with
his target's mistresses, well, that's what the adults-only channel is for.

The reader, and perhaps Miers himself, feels both respect and contempt for
the Ochlocrat's audience. That audience wants what's right, but it also
wants its big explosions and sexual titillation.

The resultant comic book is a challenging mix of social satire and
sophomoric pandering. It won't be to every reader's taste, but I found it
funny and thoughtful.

The Ochlocrat earns three-and-a-half Tonys...and 78% of CBG's 65.8 million
readers think it would be funny if I wrote next week's Tips while wearing a
Wonder Woman costume. Been there, done that, still paying damages to the
thousands of people traumatized by the sight. But, hey, just to show I'm
willing to work with you, I'm making Diana the focus of next week's column.

Hera help me.

******

"Tony's Tips!" is Copyright (c) Tony Isabella, 2002.
840 Damon Drive
Medina, OH 44256
330-723-1989

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!

This website got in touch with me for a 20 question interview. Check it out! :)

And speaking of interviews. I've uploaded the WASTED Interview conducted by my pal Gabriel Banaag to my site because NBCI, which was hosting the interview, finally shut down. It's been updated with new questions, specially about the Wasted movie. I think some of you are in a surprise when you read the end...:)

Have you ever done anything that seems stupid, but you can't help doing it because your heart just won't allow you not to do it? It's happened to me many times. In many ways it's why I draw comics today. It's done me good most of the time, and yet sometimes it's put me in harm's way. But what can I do? My heart has always been stronger than my mind. And I seriously doubt that I am where I am today if it were otherwise. To Amploy, I'm sorry, but I can't change what I am.

Today I found myself thinking about the last 10 years a lot. For some reason it just went by so blindingly fast that it just felt like a blink. February 1992 I was in the thick of practicing drawing comics, spending hours and hours at my table just trying to figure out how to do it. A Conan painting of mine just came out at the fan art section of Wizard Magazine. We still did not have a phone in the house. I only knew it came out when Oliver Pulumbarit called me long distance on our neighbor's phone. Portia Laxamana was still my girlfriend and I was still writing her at least 3 times a week. I remember that time well. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Earlier today I was rummaging through my box of letters again, and I gotta say it's a big box because I've kept all the letters I have so far received. Sometimes I'd open some of them and read them again. I read this letter by Cecile Katigbak, a girl whom I met because of Star Trek (and is now married to Wasted director Noel Lim), letters by this guy named Derek Scott McNair who called the offices of Wizard and asked for my address, letters from mini comics creators in the US Morgan Parducci and Carrie McNinch, letters from old classmates Susan Chumacera, Salie Salvador, Jenie Aesquivel, Apol Leynes, Ana Pabello, Rosette Balderama, Evie Calayag, good friends in comics Karen Kunawicz, Budjette Tan, Aris Lim, Mark Gatela and just so many many more.

All of a sudden I'm 34. I'm the oldest in my generation of comic book artists which include Gilbert Monsanto, Arnold Arre, Leinil Yu, Roy Allan Martinez, Edgar Tadeo, etc. I've been working in comics for the last 8 years. It seems I've done a lot, but I personally don't think so and I feel I still have a lot yet to do, so many stories I still want to write and draw. I fully intend to do all of them, if I don't die first that is.

Speaking of Star Trek, I just saw "The Cage", the original version. For those not familiar with Star Trek, "The Cage" was the very first Star Trek pilot which was made in the mid 60's. It had a different cast. Jeffrey Hunter played Captain Christopher Pike, Majel Barret played "Number One", and Leonard Nimoy played Spock, a smiling Vulcan. NBC executives thought that this pilot was "too cerebral" and felt that the stupid masses will be too dumb to appreciate it so they asked for a 2nd pilot with lots more action and less philosophizing. They also asked to fire the entire cast and hire a new one. The 2nd pilot, entitled "Where No Man Has Gone Before" featured William Shatner as the now familiar Captain Kirk, De Forrest Kelley as Leonard "Bones" McCoy, and Leonard Nimoy as emotionless Vulcan named Spock. "The Cage" was then cut up, and re edited into "The Menagerie". The original version of "The Cage" has been rarely seen and being a Star Trek fan, I just can't bear not to see it.

William Shatner has just opened his official site, expectedly enough, WilliamShatner.com. I immediately wrote Mr. Shatner a fan letter and a Jane Singer replied to my email. This is the message:


Dear Gerry,

Thank you for your kind letter to William Shatner. He very much appreciates your interest in him and his career and is glad that you enjoyed his books and especially "Star Trek V" which is very close to his heart.

You might be interested in knowing that Mr. Shatner has signed another 3-book deal with Simon & Schuster for more "Star Trek" novels which will take up where Star Trek: Preserver left off. The first book is due out this fall. Meanwhile, he has written a book on the science of "Star Trek" called I'm Working on That which should hit bookstores (in the US) in late summer.

If you'd like to keep apprised of Mr. Shatner's activities, visit his official website at http://www.williamshatner.com. As you may know, right now the website is in the process of being upgraded, but it will offer a host of interesting features when it launches on February 20th. Meanwhile, Mr. Shatner's calendar of appearances is posted online and it will be updated on a regular basis, so keep checking back.

Information on joining Mr. Shatner's official fan club, Shatner & Friends International, is also posted online at http://www.williamshatner.com/fanclubinfo.shtml.

Thanks for writing.



I thought it was kind of cool.

Anyway, a new Star Trek movie is now being shot and I got news for you Trek fans. DATA DIES!! Now I've spoiled it all for you. HA! HA! HA!!!!

I went to Manila today to get a new monitor. I got a 17" one, which is so cool. I never realized how better a bigger monitor is than my old smoking 14" inch was. And yeah, that old thing literally smoked when I tried to turn it on the other night. I had to unplug it real quick because I was afraid it would catch fire.

At the mall I saw it was the opening of FROM HELL!! I wanted so bad to watch it, but I had to go back home so I could finish High Roads #2 by Saturday. I got myself a couple of comics/books. One was DK2 #2, and KIMOTA! The Ultimate Companion to Miracleman. Let me just say that Kimota is absolutely awesome. Since I'm a big Moore fan and a big Marvelman/Miracleman fan, this book is like treasure. As for DK2....no comment. Bah.

Wow, how ironic in the face of the article in the paper today. I'm using my brother's computer to write this just to let visitors to my site know that the monitor to my computer just went DEAD. I'm going to try and find a monitor, new or not, so in the meantime, I won't be online. So if you email me at this time and I don't respond, this is why. Sorry!! Post to my message board if you like, I just might be able to respond sooner there...

INK and HTML

Ruel S. De Vera writes something about the webmaster of this site! he.he. Thanks Ruey!!
http://www.inq7.net/mag/2002/feb/03/mag_4-1.htm