[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Milk For Breakfast

It's been far too long since my last Pinoy Gay Blog review, I know. As is always the case for busy, career-driven gay men like us, I've been torn away from my blogging time by work and other real life demands.

But enough of that and let's just get into this month's featured blog who is a somewhat newer member of the PGB blogroll. Just a few days shy of his blog's one year anniversary, here is Milk For Breakfast.

Milk For Breakfast is the creative product of JP, which is short for John Paul. His blog has been up for almost a year now (technically his first post was on February 28, 2007), and he seems fairly consistent in getting entries out at least weekly. Given he is a trainer in the BPO industry, I can completely relate to how busy he probably gets.

I'm not quite sure why the blog's name involves milk in this manner, but I have to admit it's certainly quite the tasty and somewhat wholesome treat to read. When I say wholesome, I'm more referring to the richness of the topics and discussions that he gets into as opposed to this being "clean" from the office-supervisor-looking-over-your-shoulder perspective. This Blogger-hosted blog is NSFW, but delightfully so.

He writes about a variety of things such as the hottest guys in town or perhaps interesting readings he's picked up here and there about relationship advice or just the random forward of interest that comes along just in time for the pertinent holiday. He also discusses a fair number of movies here and there, revealing to all of us that JP is quite the movie buff. I suppose you could say it takes one to know one, haha.

That's not to say he doesn't cover the personal side of things in his blog. He does document a few of his experiences as separate entries here and there apart from the little insights and tidbits you draw out from amidst his other entries about more general topics.

If these are the kinds of things you're looking for in a Pinoy Gay Blog to add to your reading list or RSS reader, then this is definitely one you might want to try for yourself. Enjoy!

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] What Makes a Gay Blogger?

Note to Readers - I notice that this post still gets a lot of traffic from the web even though it was first published in 2008. Unfortunately, Pinoy Gay Blogs no longer exists as a site and so an actual list of local LGBT blogs is not readily available. Nishiboy maintains a PLU Blog List that serves a similar purpose. There are probably a few other lists out there, but none of them appear to be active, at least for now. Hope this helps!


Rainbow flags by BůřpSÉäN™.

With a new year tends to come a lot of involuntary introspection and thinking, if there is such a thing. I guess it's just human nature to reflect on everything that had happened before as one plans ahead.

With the coming of 2008, I found myself unable to immediately jump back into my Pinoy Gay Blogs reviews without first addressing a question that's been mildly nagging me - What makes someone a Pinoy Gay Blogger? As much as the question seems easy enough to understand, especially when you start going over the various blogs listed on the Pinoy Gay Blogs List thus far, I thought it would be interesting to define this first in lieu of a blog review this month.

We can go about this process in many ways, but of course the geek in me has me going by definitions and terms initially.

First comes the term Pinoy, which seems easy enough. As long as you're Filipino in terms of nationality / citizenship and such, you're pretty much good to go. I could go into the technical side of defining what makes you "Filipino" as based on our constitution, which is pretty liberal compared to most countries. You remember your old Araling Panlipunan classes, right? As long as (1) you were born on Philippine soil or (2) have at least one Filipino parent, you are pretty much entitled to claiming citizenship. It's not just about residency, which supports our many out-of-country Pinoy Gay Bloggers out there.

Then comes the term Gay, which does seem to be the most important one. There are so many types and levels to homosexuality, that a precise definition isn't quite possible. It might be best to say that this is for people who simply, well, aren't straight / heterosexual. As long as you like guys and whether or not that includes wanting to be a girl, you're pretty much gay in my book. Let's not get started on the confusion over the terms "gay" and "bisexual" right now and just focus on the whole non-straightness of all this.

Lastly comes the term Blogger,which means someone who maintains a weblog or online journal. The term blog is pretty widely used today and has grown to include sites that before would just be considered to be personal websites but are now just lumped together with all other blogs. As long as you are actively updating a site about your life, whether or not you are using a free service or hosting your own domain, you fit the bill.

Based on this definition, the focus is more on the person behind the blog and not so much the blog itself. I get this feeling that people are worried that in order to be on the Pinoy Gay Blogs list, you need to have a blog that focuses or features only overtly gay content. This blog, The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything fits the above definition but when most people first visit it, it may not seem like a stereotypically "gay" blog since I don't have too many rainbows nor do I write solely about gay-related issues and events. There's nothing wrong with doing that - it's just that there's more to it than just content.

I hope this helps encourage more people to sign up for the list and allow themselves to be counted as proud Pinoy Gay Bloggers in this virtual community. As in all things, it's the people that are far more important than just the things we produce or the facades we put on.

Be Proud fellow Gay Bloggers!

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] kawadjan

One of the best things about Pinoy Gay Blogs from a sort of "project" sense is how it manages to connect not just Filipino bloggers here in the Philippines but it also allows us to redefine the community to include those Filipinos living beyond these islands. We've already featured a few international Filipino bloggers and it never hurts to add another one to the list.

Today we travel to Thailand to discover another Filipino blogger living there. kawadjan is an interesting blog from Documentation Officer living there (at least that's what his Blogger profile says). He's certainly more than worth the read, believe me.

kawadjan is the personal blog of Girard (that's his name on Friendster at the very least) is a 27 year old Filipino currently living in Bangkok but originally from Surigao. That naturally explains the name of the blog, which turns out to be a Suriganon word for "bamboo" based on his translation thereof.

The blog has been around since 2006 as hosted on the Blogger platform and while he may not be the most prolific blogger around, he does post fairly consistently, which is always a good thing. It's a primarily English blog, which is always a good thing for international readers curious as to learning more about queers like us and his blog isn't that heavy from the bandwidth perspective. The blog is mostly Safe For Work (SFW) except for an odd image here and there that may have your co-workers eyebrows rising ever so slightly should the venture too close to your computer.

What strikes me most about the blog is definitely the quality of his writing paired with the very tasteful images that accompany most of the articles. I'm not talking about the stock photos were all known to use from time to time but his original shots of the various goings-on in his life even with the black bars used to censor the eyes of those in the photos with him (which is actually a very considerate gesture on his part to respect their privacy).

At times it seems that this is practically a travel blog since he documents all that places that he visits around Thailand which is always a treat. That is not to say that's all he writes about - I did say it was a personal blog for a reason. Most if not all of his entries retain that highly personalized slant to things, taking in the world and various events and such through his eyes and his unique point of view, which is what blogging is all about, really. If one just wanted to read a cold third-party account, we'd satisfy ourselves with Wikipedia articles or new feeds from the likes of Reuters and the AP.

Girard definitely feels like someone I'd love to meet in person, at least based on his writing and you may feel similarly as well after you've read a decent number of his entries. I guess the only puzzle that remains is to understand why he named his blog after bamboo - it's something I definitely intend to find out for myself.

[Geeky Guide] G*Spot Finalist for November 2007

Well this is certainly a unique honor for any out and proud Filipino gay blogger! The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything is a finalist for this moth's G*Spot Award, an award given out monthly by hush and listen, a pretty popular and well-written blog that was previously featured here on the Geeky Guide.

While I'm pretty sure our chances are a tad slim given we're up against some pretty big-name blogs, I'm going to sound totally cliche by saying that it's an honor in itself to be nominated, hehe. Still, if you want to support the Geeky Guide, then go on and visit the site and vote for this blog in the voting widget found further down the right sidebar.

Wish us luck!!!

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Las Tres Estrellas

First, a little shop talk. In an attempt to maintain a more manageable cycle for these reviews, I'm going to try to consistently get the reviews up during the first week of every month, so if you have blogs of interest that you feel should get featured, be sure to let me know before the end of the month so I have time to screen.

And now to our main event, this month's featured blog is colorful in more ways the one. Let's all get to know the diverse personalities behind Las Tres Estrellas!

The vibrant colors and classic Hed Kandi art definitely shock the sense when you first hit this blog but hardly in a negative way. In fact, it somewhat helps prepare any new reader to fully digest the sensationally fabulous writings of this group of bloggers.

Las Tres Estrellas (The Three Stars in Spanish) refers to the three bloggers behind this site, namely Lyka Bergen, Kelly Carson and Ekra Tan with all three supported by their producer / "mother" known only as The Oracle. They're all fabulous women at heart as you'll soon see in the way their entries are written with such flair and panache.

This blog isn't quite for the faint of heart - you might not be queer enough to survive their divinity for long. If only for that reason I'd tag it as NSFW for now given that you can never really tell what's going to come around the corner from the depths of their creative minds. Lyka appears to be the most prolific writer as of late, and that's no issue at all given that her posts seem magazine-worthy more often than not.

The site is hosted on the Blogger platform, so that comes with its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. Normally I try to address language and I suppose I'd start by saying that it's a mixed language blog but to be more specific I'd need to warn that you need to be able to understand English, Filipino and Swardspeak in order to fully appreciate all that this blog has to offer. I thought I was pretty proficient until I really sat down to try and read these entries. Still, don't let that hold you back from visiting the site - the language challenge is an experience it itself and still at the end of the day, you'll more than enjoy the parts that you do understand.

Las Tres Estrellas is also the host of the monthly Crystal Titi awards for best comment on the site and clearly the voting gets pretty fast and fierce, which is just how I for one like'em, hehe. I can't capture it well enough - you just have to go see for yourself to fully appreciate the zaniness that takes place as people vote for their favorites.

So if you're feeling the need to explore your inner diva or you simply want to let your hair down for a while and stop playing the discrete game, then this is the place for you. It's a fun site where you get to fully appreciate just how colorful Filipino queers can be and feel a little bit prouder to be part of such a vibrant community.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] The Return of Oboids

By the time the original review for 'Kwir 'A-thE-ist (then oboids.com), the blog soon disappeared and we were left with a horribly garish "Account Suspended" message.

Thankfully, shortly after I posted the Where Are They Now? feature, Oboids started to make himself felt once more. First he announced on MyBlogLog that he was involved in a new blog entitled The Bhloom Project.

Eventully, he made the announcement we've all been waiting for - the return of his blog. After a change of domain hosts and even a change in URL, he's finally settled down as simply Oboids™ (http://oboids.net/). The blog still features a lot of great queer comic goodness for everone to enjoy so make sure to update your bookmarks, favorites and RSS readers with the new location of this fun and quirky blog.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Your Gayness!

As previously mentioned, I'm resuming my reviews for various blogs found on the current list at Pinoy Gay Blogs this month and to kick things off we're starting with a blog with a more personal focus.

While we've all spent our fair share of time in the closet (and many remain there for now), everyone's experience remains unique to the person yet something we can all relate to given our shared sexual orientation. This week's blog feature is a reminder of that time as seen through the eyes of a young man with a somewhat complicated arrangement for things. Ladies, gentlemen and everyone who hasn't made up their minds, I give you Your Gayness!

Your Gayness! is a blog that covers the personal experiences ofIan as he continues to survive as a gay man still in the closet. His situation is rather unique given that he's technically already told his folks that he's gay - usually the penultimate definition of coming out for the Filipino gay male - and yet things didn't get any easier after that.

Your Gayness! may seem like a plain-looking Blogger blog at first glance given its general lack of images and such but the true strength of the blog is in the writing. The entire site seems to reflect that fact that Ian remains to be in the closet in terms of the rest of the world with only his family and perhaps a few random strangers knowing the truth about him. He's rather witty and his writing is better than most I've seen in a while, which says a lot about the intelligence behind this site.

He's a very involving blogger and he often responds to comments rather directly and at length, which is great. It keeps things highly personal and I'm sure even first-time readers of his site will come to appreciate that. This blog is quite Safe for Work given its general lack of images that most office supervisors might find surprising, but perhaps its the words themselves that really strike hard.

So this is us starting the month right with closeted adventures of this smart young queer who may one day find the strength to truly come out to the world - perhaps with the help of your comments and insights should you decide to visit the site.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Where Are They Now?

When I first started working with Pinoy Gay Blogs more than six months ago, I was really excited about the opportunity. It took me a while to get a definite feel for it and eventually I settled for aiming to write a review once a week.

In recent weeks I've noticed that sites that have been featured in the past are no longer as active as they used to be so I thought it might be a good idea to check on everyone first before moving forward once more.

So here it is, every blog featured thus far and where they are now:

It's a Gay-Gay-Gay World!!!
Review Date: March 30, 2007
Status: Active - Now with a Google-initiated content warning for visitors to the site.

The McVie Show
Review Date: March 31, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 2, 2007 and now on Season Six without changing URLs.

Ernesto's random blah
Review Date: April 3, 2007
Status: Inactive - Last entry dated June 19, 2007.

Pink Panties
Review Date: April 6, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 3, 2007 plus he's single and staying that way for now.

Misterhubs
Review Date: April 10, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 3, 2007 and still devoted to Leandro Okabe.

Life Funtastique!
Review Date: April 15, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated September 27, 2007 and remains fabulous in Melbourne.

The Queer Chef
Review Date: April 30, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated September 25, 2007 with a new blog layout.

Fresh Mess
Review Date: May 7, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated September 30, 2007 and now moved to WordPress (bookmark update needed).

United
Review Date: May 17, 2007
Status: Uncertain - Last entry dated September 19, 2007, posting frequency seems to have dropped somewhat.

They Call Me Maruja
Review Date: May 20, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 2, 2007 and with a slightly new look (and a wittier banner avatar).

hush and listen
Review Date: May 29, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated September 28, 2007 and back from a brief writing semi-hiatus.

Wentle's Sojourns and Thoughts
Review Date: June 5, 2007
Status: Inactive - Last entry dated July 31, 2007.

Lows, Highs and Alibis
Review Date: June 17, 2007
Status: Active - Last Entry Dated September 27, 2007 and now tagged as Version 3.0 at a new location (bookmark update needed).

the dan and rye show
Review Date: June 25, 2007
Status: Active - Last episode dated October 2, 2007 and now on Season Two.

Musings of a Filipino Lesbian
Review Date: July 1, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated September 26, 2007 and still making the blogosphere think.

The Emancipation of Thadie
Review Date: July 10, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 1, 2007 with a new banner and still exploring a different path in life.

Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?
Review Date: July 16, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 2, 2007 with a frequently-changing look.

Homme Sanctuario
Review date: July 23, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated September 29, 2007 and still serving out not-so-wholesome goodness for queer men everywhere.

The Amateur Misanthrope
Review Date: August 1, 2007
Status: Active - Last entry dated October 1, 2007 and back from the bar-induced hiatus.

'Kwir 'A-thE-ist
Review Date: August 20, 2007
Status: Inactive - Site now returns an "Account Suspended" message.

As we enter the month of October, we'll resume with the weekly features in the hopes that more of the blogs manage to survive in the long run. If you feel strongly about any of these blogs or want to have your blog featured, feel free to leave a comment here or get in touch with me directly.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] 'Kwir 'A-thE-ist

With the recent weather, fluctuating ISP performance and just how busy I've been as of late, I haven't been able to post PGB reviews as much as I'd like to. To make up for lost time, here's this week's review of a pretty interesting and diverse site - 'Kwir 'A-thE-ist.

'Kwir 'A-thE-ist is the personal blog of Oboids, a training practitioner within the call center industry with some pretty strong views in life and who's not afraid to share those same ideas.

The site is based around the WordPress platform and would have to be tagged as NSFW due to some graphic imagery. It's a mixed-language blog so international readers who don't speak Filipino / Tagalog may have some difficulty with certain entries. The site covers a diverse array of topics ranging from his personal exploits to his various interests.

I like the site given it covers a lot of topics that I personally find interesting and yet you might not naturally expect them to appear in a single site - a testament to the amazing diversity of humanity I suppose. For one thing, Oboids talks about a lot of highly technical items that excites the geek in me and yet also posts movie reviews of striking LGBT films as well. He writes about his exploits in the call center industry while at the same time posting entries about Yaoi, which is the Japanese term for manga and anime content that is highly homosexual in nature and in many cases sexually explicit (hence the NSFW tag). I never realized there was so much more to this genre than I had initially assumed, haha.

Oboids writing style in itself is pretty dynamic as well. At times he's playful and simple, the kind of guy you might enjoy talking to on any given day or perhaps best over drinks with the craziest topics that can possibly come to mind. Then again, he shifts as well and has entries that are rather deep and pretty profound that have you thankful for being able to remember some of the things you learned back in college. Depending on the topic (and perhaps the day of the week or the phase of the moon), you're bound to encounter a different aspect of this provocative blogger, all of which are more than worth reading.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] The Amateur Misanthrope

This week's featured blog may not initially seem as what most people would coin to be a stereotypically gay blog. A lot of the blogs that have been reviewed thus far often touch on entertainment, fashion, celebrity items and of course loads and loads of beautiful men in various states of undress. These are all well and good, but there's more to us than that right?

Hence this week we remind ourselves that there's a lot more to being gay than just that, and this is what The Amateur Misanthrope tells us all too clearly.

The Amateur Misanthrope appears to be another blog written by someone in the legal profession. Of course, this blog is far different from that of the ever-popular lawyer Misterhubs, so let's not be hasty in expecting the exact same thing. For one thing, this blog is predominantly SFW unless your manager reads too closely and picks up on the subtle sexuality in some of the entries - then again they're so slight, even you might miss them at times.

Apart from the entertainment fascination and a lot of male eye candy, the notion of being gay is often connected to a certain degree of intelligence and depth, a more than generous amount of culture and distinction and above all good taste. Hence comes in the love of operas and classical music, fine literature and Broadway musicals, right?

From a technical aspect, the blog is hosted off the Blogger platform which lends it to dynamic page-loading and general stability these days since the full migration to Google servers. Despite that potential, the blog is very straightforward and has little clutter in terms of flash gadgets and excessive widgets. The only media you'll find are a few choice images well-suited to the topics and perhaps a video embed here and there. While the blog has been around since October 2006, his entries are a tad few and far between and one can only hope this review might spur him to increase his writing frequency.

The Amateur Misanthrope tends to touch more on topics of this nature with many entries discussing his respectable book collection (that's saying a lot coming from a book fiend like me, hehe), his even larger classical music collection and other such items. His tone is a bit serious but still light and not overbearing or anything like that. There's definitely a keen intelligence behind the entires and you can see that in what he chooses to write about and even in the photos he likes to post from time to time. Case in point - his recent hagdanan series of entries has me beyond intrigued at the kind of eye that saw the poignancy in taking these photos.

This is not to say this is a boring blog or that the writer is a stick-in-the-mud or anything crass like that. This cannot be farther from the truth. While the term misanthrope can be defined as a general dislike or distrust for man, this blog isn't actually about that. You won't get a feeling of misanthropy from reading his entries but instead you might find a new appreciation for what makes humanity so striking in terms of its writing, music and day-to-day activities.

So if you're looking for a smarter read than most, then this is a great blog to add to your RSS Reader or your daily reading list. It's already on mine right...now.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Homme Sanctuario

We follow blogs for a variety of reasons - to find the latest entertainment gossip, to get reviews of movies or books or even to find new friends. There is no limit to the possible reasons we do the things we do and why we favor one site over another.

Recently a lot of the blogs featured on Pinoy Gay Blogs have caught my attention because of how striking their writing has been and how moved I was after reading their entries. Today's feature still has great writing, but a whole lot of eye candy as well. It's time we visited Homme Sanctuario...make sure you have something to wipe your drool with.

Homme Sanctuario is the brainchild of Satoshi Hamasaki (if my Google research is correct), a half-Japanese, half-Filipino marketing consultant. What is it with people of mixed heritage that makes them so beautiful? I guess the rule of hybrids applies to appearance, haha.

Before you start emailing him or IMing him for his details, lemme put it out he's taken and he's clearly in love with his beau whom he affectionately calls "Dhada" or "Dha" - this I know not because I've interviewed him or anything but because of the many heartwarming stories he shares about his relationship along with the many poems, songs and such that he dedicates to his partner.

However this blog is not just about writing - it's also way HOT (and it truly merits the capital letters). Sure, the author is quite the looker as well and it helps that the person who first greets you is Leandro Okabe in the masthead of the site, but more importantly he also takes the time to post a lot of entries about hot celebrities, hot models and hot anything, haha. This blog is clearly NSFW given full frontal shots, guys in various states of undress and XTube video embeds. I told you to have a towel ready...

This Blogger-hosted blog is fairly new given it only started in April of this year (why have so many queer people started blogging this summer?) but given his steady updates and seemingly limitless supply of eye candy, I don't see this sanctuary closing shop anytime soon. Just be sure to visit this page from the comfort of your own home...room...and perhaps in the dark, too. Hahaha...

This is a blog for any gay man looking for a great mix of intelligence and more simple pleasures of the flesh. You won't regret paying this site a visit and while you're there be sure to try and strike up a conversation with the author - he seems fairly into feedback and is ready to get into a lengthy discussion at a moments notice. At least that's why I think - I could be wrong - but then we'll soon find one once I fire up the old IM client, haha.

[GeekyCast] Friends from the Blogosphere

No, you're not seeing double.

This is indeed what appears t be a second GeekyCast for the day. In fact, it is a new one for today as opposed to the last one, which was an update for yesterday that got delayed.

Anyway, today I talk about friends I've made through the blogosphere, in particular because of The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything and Pinoy Gay Blogs.

Curious to know if you were mentioned? Well then, you'll need to listen, haha.

Cheers.


Download this episode (12 min)

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?

I think some of my biggest challenges that stems from managing the reviews for Pinoy Gay Blogs are that (1) I'll never get my own blogs reviewed on the site and (2) I always feel guilty about reviewing the blogs of friends. It's a silly notion at times, but then again I've always been big on doing my best to be impartial. Let's also treat this as a hint for anyone else to run a review on my blogs The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything and Beyond Dinobot Island, haha. *hints even harder*

So today I'm finally going to review a blog of a friend of mine and I'm sure you'll agree with me at this is long overdue. Allow me the pleasure of re-introducing everyone to Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?

Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?, also known as BAMR or BaklaAko.com is the brainchild of AJ - undoubtedly you must have encountered him online somehow. He has a pretty large cyber-presence given the popularity of the site, his aggressive marketing and the fact that he also maintains a pretty long blogroll of local gay bloggers.

BAMR is the site that almost any Filipino gay man can relate to. His topic range from the politically relevant to the simply amusing depending on his day. The site has a mix of public topics like celebrity news, events and televisions shows and also a fair share of personal entries about his life in the metro as a single gay man.

The site is hosted over on MyJournal.PH, although it's a lot easier to get to the site using AJ's redirect domain BaklaAko.com. The site is pretty dynamic and supports a variety of content from photos, videos and even podcasts. Depending on content, it might be safer to initially tag this blog as NSFW given he does have his entries dedicated to eye candy that your immediate supervisor just might not appreciate, even without full frontal nudity involved. Despite the blog's title it's actually predominantly in English although course he has his mixed-language moments that you'll only fully appreciate if you speak Filipino and of course the local gay lingo.

BAMR is a pretty smart and candid blog and AJ updates fairly often (unless he's an another blogging hiatus, which happens from time to time) and always remains very responsive to comments and questions visitors leave on the site. He's active in almost every social network and IM client so there's no shortage of ways of getting to know him better - something that I can say is definitely worth your time, this being based on my personal experience with him, haha.

If you want to add a refreshingly interesting and realistic blog to your feed reader, then Bakla Ako, May Reklamo? may be just what you're looking for.

[Geeky Guide] Manila Gay Guy Entry

Today The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything was somewhat mentioned in Manila Gay Guy because of my on-going reviews done for Pinoy Gay Blogs. Coolness!

Thanks for the citation, Migs! I appreciate it über much. I'm just glad that PGB has achieved so much in so short a time, it's pretty staggering. Plus I've gotten to meet a lot of new friends in the local blogosphere like Misterhubs, Ruff and Q the Conqueror. Here's to more friends in the queer blogosphere!

If you're interested in having a blog featured on PGB, feel free to drop me a line or you can contact Migs and he can let me know. It's not a guarantee but it'll certainly help bring your blog to our attention - the list is getting pretty big and it's getting harder and harder to choose! Hahaha!

Cheers Everyone!

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] The Emancipation of Thadie

My general rule of waiting for a blog to hit three months of consistent posting tends to limit what can be reviewed on Pinoy Gay Blogs, mainly because many of the blogs are fairly young. It's great that the site seems to inspire members of the LGBT group to "pick up the pen" as it were to start blogging, I try to feature blogs that appear to be ready to go the long haul in the blogosphere. I'm not always right, but I try.

I've been watching this particular blog for a while and while technically "new" based on the aforementioned standards, in less than three months he's generated more posts than most around here - a significant feat in itself. So as he has crossed the three-month mark, let's celebrate the writing behind The Emancipation of Thadie.

The Emancipation of Thadie may not seem much at first glance, depending on the latest entry. Just looking at the screenshot above, you might not see much to draw your attention - it's a sea of white, few images of interest and a whole lot of text. Then again, perhaps that's the point.

As diverse as the blogging medium is these days, at its core it's still all about writing. Videos, images and all these other things support and help enhance the words we choose to post but still at the core of the blogging experience is writing. This blog is a prime example of great writing, something a friend of mine would call performance writing at its best.

I think what strikes one most about this blog is the honesty behind it - the tone is amazingly candid and Thad Hinunangan has chosen to free himself of inhibitions by being very honest in his writing. In fact, he chose to create this blog to help him come out of the closet - you can't get more honest than that.

The Emancipation of Thadie is hosted on the Blogger platform is loads fairly well on most browsers. His layout is far from cluttered and brings to fore what he has to say more than just pretty images or interesting videos. This is not to say his blog is boring or anything along those lines - far from it! His words alone are incredibly striking and it speaks of an intelligence and a creative that cannot be determined simply from a person having a GWA of 1.72.

I've already added this blog to my Google Reader page and I think it won't hurt any of you reading this now to add him up to your RSS Reader as well. I feel compelled to try and backtrack his entries further just to get the whole story, so I imagine I'm going to be busy for a while.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Musings of a Filipino Lesbian

When the term "gay" is uttered these days, more than half the time are bound to first think of the image of a drag queer in their heads or things along those lines - representing how we tend to associate the term more with male homosexuals. However that is not the case - being gay is about being homosexual and not about being male.

It's with great pleasure that Pinoy Gay Blogs finally has a blogroll member that helps flesh out the fuller definition of the term gay - Musings of a Filipino Lesbian.

Musings of a Filipino Lesbian is a very well thought-out blog that speaks of the keen intellect behind the writing. The blog author, Joy-joy, is a UP graduate, so that help should explain that side of things but beyond that she clearly demonstrates significant skills with the pen (or in this case the keyboard?)

Musings of a Filipino Lesbian is a Blogger-based blog that covers a variety of topics related to LGBT interests. Entries are fairly diverse in tone starting with the light of humorous pieces to deeper social commentaries and hard looks at what's going on these days. She also posts literary pieces of interest.

The blog has been in existence for about a year now and it's more than worth your while to dig through her previous entries to see what she's had to say about a number of different things. If you want to try reading through one of the smartest blogs listed on Pinoy Gay Blogs, then this is certainly one blog more than worth your time.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] The Dan and Rye Show

Blogging is such a dynamic medium and living in this Web 2.0 world we've come to appreciate that the internet doesn't have to be just one big book. There are so many ways to communicate and express yourself and one of the methodologies that has continually gained popularity in light of the iPod is of course podcasting!

So allow me the pleasure of featuring our very first podcasting duo - The Dan and Rye Show!

The Dan and Rye Show is a pretty robust podcast site given they take the time to maintain a full website along with a Yahoo! Group to provide followers of the podcast a venue for meeting fellow fans and to exchange ideas.

One can expect a new podcast to become available once-a-week at the very most but more likely one every three days based on recent trending, which is fine by me. You can either download the podcasts from the site or via iTunes or you can listen to the updates from the site itself. The variety of options is great and helps many different users get access to the "entries".

As for the content in itself, they're loads of fun. This is a mixed language podcast so non-Filipino-speaking followers might have some difficulty understanding this particular pair but for the rest of us we're more than free to enjoy the fun.

Topics range from entertainment to whatever it is that comes to mind for Dan and Rye. Some updates may seem to have what heavy topics for discussion while others are downright campy, as they should be. If you want to add a refreshing Filipino gay podcast to your playlist, this is definitely a must-have for your subscriptions.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Lows, HIGHS and Alibis

Real-life obligations have been keeping me busy and I apologize for being unable to post a review last week. You know how things go.

So let's not delay any further and jump right into the world of Lows, HIGHS and Alibis...

Instead of just reviewing the most popular blogs around these days, I thought it might be interesting to scan the blogroll of Pinoy Gay Blogs to find newer, less-known blogs who have a lot of interesting thing to say for the local pink community.

Lows, HIGHS and Alibis technically isn't a new blog, but it does have few entries. From the looks of things, the blog author Kai Santorino started posting in 2005 and has been posting intermittently for most of 2006. Recently he seems to be working on updating this blog more frequently and the results are pretty interesting.

The blog is hosted on Bravenet, a platform I'm not entirely familiar with. For the most part, Kai's entries are text driven, which is not a bad thing since he clearly has a lot to say. He posts a lot of stories about growing up as a gay man, although he does have somewhat of a disclaimer that the entries are not 100% true in order to protect the identities of some of the people involved. Either way, the stories in themselves are the sorts of tales that most any gay man can relate to at one point in their lives or another.

Given the blog is mostly text, you can probably get away with reading at work apart from the wallpaper and some of the entry titles. Keep your ALT+TAB fingers handy, just in case.

The blog is still developing but it shows a lot of promise. As long as Kai keeps up his posting frequency and readers interact by submitting comments and feedback, then I'm sure this blog is going to go places, so to speak.

Enjoy!

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] Wentle's Sojourns and Thoughts

As a rule of thumb for these reviews, I try to avoid featuring relatively "new" blogs, normally categorized as being around for less than 6 months or so. It's even rarer still that I really, really get into following the blogs I feature - no offense meant there. I feature blogs that I think different groups of people might like, not necessarily just me. Then there re those rare times that a relatively young blog really strikes me and causes me to subscribe to blog - this time it was Wentle's Sojourns and Thoughts.

Wentle's Sojourns and Thoughts is a rather refreshing blog given its light tone and candid writing. It's the personal blog of a 23 year old "...architect by course...designer by profession..." based on his blog profile, which is pretty thorough. You have to appreciate bloggers who take the time to let everyone know more about them and so freely too. Then again, it fits with JR's writing style to be this open about things.

The blog is hosted on the Blogger platform and is pretty straightforward. The colors are pretty bright and they really come out at you, which gives things a relatively energetic feel. For the most part, it's a personal blog full of his day-to-day stories and experiences, all written in such a way that perhaps even the most mundane occurrences might seem interesting - no small feat for any blogger / writer.

For now I'd tag the blog as SFW given he mostly writes about life in the Metro including restaurant reviews and random blog memes. There have been a few entries of, well, somewhat more adult interests but he hides them behind entry cuts fairly well and I've yet to be bombarded by explicitly sexual images, hehe. The blog is still young, so this may change in the future.

While Wentle's blog may be young, it definitely shows a lot of potential for bigger things. He's been updating fairly regularly, which shows a significant amount of dedication on his part. This is one of those blogs I'd highly recommend following, if only to see where he'll be taking things.

[Pinoy Gay Blogs] hush and listen

Some might actually complain why it's taken so long for this blog to be featured - I beg your forgiveness, I can only process so many blogs in a day. Let's cut to the chase and explore the words of hush and listen.

Most of the blogs we featured thus far tend to share a lot of themes and ideas and common. There's nothing wrong with that, of course - it just shows the interests that run common for most of us in the community, may it be entertainment or the latest hot guy to hit the scene. hush and listen is a bit different compared to most given what it chooses to tackle.

Every gay man has been known to dabble in writing to some extent, whether in terms of short stories, entire novels, poetry or songs. I guess it's the whole cultural role we tend to take on naturally. What makes hush and listen so different is the level to which Khalel, the author, appears to take his passion for writing into something far greater. His words are terribly striking and any gay man is sure to be able to relate to at least one but more likely many of his pieces which he faithfully posts. To complement these beautifully crafted words are images and pictures that are equally strong, artistic and sensual at the same time.

hush and listen runs off the Blogger platform and remains largely simple in its content although heavy in terms of syndication support and recognition around the blogosphere, as evidenced by the many citations and ranking banners that litter the site freely. I'd have to caution this is definitely a blog that is NSFW - not to say it's vulgar, but of course there's a thin line between art and, well, the other thing that your boss might not be so quick to discern. Then again, given weight of the entries, I doubt you'd want to read this at work - some pieces just might move you to tears that your co-workers will be left scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened to you.

It's not all heavy despite the somewhat emo-ish tone to the very design of the blog. hush and listen has it's share of somewhat lighter entries and short personal stories from the blog's author but for the most part it does not stray from its core philosophy - as an avenue for Khalel to share his thoughts with the world through his writing. This is a definite must-read for any gay man or for any poetic soul for that matter.