[Pink Scene] SARI-SALI: Pride in Action - The 2012 Metro Manila Pride March

It's official - this years Manila Pride March 2012 will be on December 8, 2012. The theme for this year's event is SARI-SALI: Pride in Action, which is basically a big call to action for more people to join the fight for LGBT rights in all sectors of society.

The Pride March is a most unique experience that I have come to look forward to since I started marching back in 2009 and it's certainly something I'd recommend to all of you whether you're gay, lesbian, closeted or just a friend to the LGBT community.

More details will be forthcoming in the weeks to come, but here's the initial press release from PinoyG4M, who is this year's Secretariat group for Task Force Pride:

The 2012 Metro Manila Pride March is scheduled on December 8, 2012. PinoyG4M was selected as as the Task Force Price secretariat organization handling the Metro Manila Pride March this year.

This year's March theme is "SARI-SALI: Pride in Action" with the following objectives:

1. Get commitment from the city government to protect the rights of LGBTs via an Anti-Discrimination Ordinance (ADO).
2. Get commitment from student organizations to push for LGBT-friendly school policies.
3. Get solidarity statements from members of the private sector calling on the city government to pass an ADO.
4. Get support and affirmation of acceptance from families, friends and allies of LGBTs.
5. Gather support from contingents and individuals for the Ladlad Partylist.

Please visit the Metro Manila Pride March Facebook page or follow PrideMarch_MLA in Twitter to get updates on the Pride March theme, venue and guidelines.

http://www.facebook.com/manilapridemarch
http://twitter.com/PrideMarch_MLA

Other organizations and clans could pre-register by going to: http://bit.ly/PrideMarch2012

[Events] Banned Books Week 2010

Welcome to Banned Books Week!
Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) takes a week in the year to celebrate our freedom to read pretty much whatever we want. Of course this hasn't stopped people from trying to get books out of public libraries because of content that they find objectionable and thus this little even came to be. Still, thanks to the ALA, we all get to get together to celebrate the wonder of books and how even the fundamentals of what are thought to be internet-only principles of freedom of information truly started with books.

This year's Banned Books Week runs from Setember 25 - October 2, although I can't seem to find any official local events related to the week. Sure, it may not be an international event (yet?), but we seem to copy almost everything else from the US, so why not a meaningful even like this, right?

When it comes to Banned Books week, the ALA provides a lot of resources for you book fiends to explore. Sure, you can start with the short list of Banned & Challenged Books from 2009-2010, or maybe even just the Top 10 Challenged Books of 2009. for a look at just what people have been fussing about.

Thus in the spirit of this week, I'll do my best to post reviews related to some of these banned and challenged books and continuing to spread the work that creative works should remain free - the act of censorship or policing context is best left to the individual!

And as stated on the Banned Books Week website - Free people read feely.

[Pink Scene] White Party Manila 2010

Hey you fabulous geeky queers out there - this is week marks the last weekend of June and you know what means. It's time for for the 9th annual White Party Manila at Malate! Mark the date - June 26, 2010. As always the Malate bars along with Task Force Pride have organized this year's big queer event.

As much as there's a theme for the year - this year being IllumiDANCE, the rule of thumb is to wear white, bring your gay friends and your fag hags and party until you drop!

And here's the official blurb from Task Force Pride Philippines:

Task Force Pride Philippines brings you "IllumiDANCE: The Lunar White Party"

Manila's 9th Annual White Party on Maria Orosa strip!

10pm Saturday, June 26, 2010,

Celebrate LGBT PRIDE under the brilliant full moon!

Come in your fiercest and most luminous white costumes and 

celebrate love, laughter and life in this annual and global celebration of PRIDE!

Donate and support Task Force Pride Philippines in making this year's Manila PRIDE in December the biggest, the bestest and the gayest PRIDE march ever!

Presented by:

eZ Lubricating Jelly

Frenzy Condoms

In Partnership with:

BED, Che'lu, Home, Lookal, O Bar, Silya , Smart Venue

For more info, visit www.taskforcepride.blogspot.com.

Look for TFP on Facebook: Task Force Pride Philippines

Follow us on Twitter: TFPManila

If you're curious as to catching the Geeky Guide and his wonderfully geeky partner, then feel free to try and look for us most likely around O Bar, Malate. See you there on Saturday night!

[Metro] 30th Manila Book Fair 2009

Today marks the first day of the 30th Manila Book Fair 2009. The annual event is a great place to celebrate a love of books, writing and all things literary. Plus you can definitely expect many exhibitors selling their books with varying discounts, including big names like National Book Store and Power Books.

The Manila Book Fair runs from September 16-20 and will be open from 10:00am - 08:00pm at everyone's favorite event venue these days - the SMX Convention center at SM Mall of Asia. Beyond just the books, one can expect many events, lectures and even games so it's definitely worth checking out. In fact, the Fandom Live! folks will be covering Scholastic's Hunger Games LARP on Sunday at 01:00pm - 05:00pm.

See you geeks there!

[Geeky Guide] A Fairly Geeky 2008

Image by Patrick Doheny via FlickrWell fellow geeks, it's the last day of the year. This may not have been the most productive year in terms of the Geeky Guide, but we certainly made some interesting steps forward.

It was great that I finally go back to the US this year although it was a shame that I didn't get the chance to meet any Geeky readers that might have been in the Los Angeles area. Sure, it drastically reduced my posting frequency, but I did get to see a lot of great things while I was out there and I got to watch the LA production of Wicked to boot!

This year was one of my most gadgetful since I finally had a laptop and a pretty gnarly digital camera but sadly I lost both when someone broke into my home. That forced me and my partner to move out of Pasay over to Makati and thus further reduced my posting frequency given the initial (and somewhat on-going) challenges with our internet provider.

This was also the year that I finally decided to get a domain for this blog and while I probably haven't maximized its potential given the domain, at least we already have it and that's a good start. Maybe as we move forward we'll think of bigger and brighter things to do with it, haha.

So to all you fellow geeks or just wandering readers who lost their way and ended up here, let me just greet you a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Geeks are coming for you 2009!!!

[Philippines] Oktoberfest Ridiculousness

Image via Wikipedia Traditionally, Oktoberfest is a 16-day celebration in Munich, Bravia, Germany that starts at around the tail-end of September and ends around the first Sunday of October. It's touted as the the world's largest fair with at least 6 million people attending annually and of course lagers upon lagers of beer served.

Naturally, many countries, including the Philippines, have copied this particular celebration and instead of the traditionally darker beers we tend to market the paler ones. Also instead of this being a celebration of several key beer makers in the country, it really is just the celebration of one brewery - that being the San Miguel Corporation.

While I don't mind the artistic license that generally goes into the country-specific Oktoberfest celebrations around the world, what they're trying to do this year is just outright ridiculous.

This year, San Miguel's cheap gimmick for celebrating Oktoberfest involves somehow trying to set new records. Locally we've always celebrated Oktoberfest in, well, October for lack of originality. I guess it's always made it easier to remember. This year Oktoberfest has been officially started as of September 5, 2008, which is a pretty early date. Why the shift?

It seems that San Miguel wants to push the limits of our alcohol-drinking ability and at the same time our ability to discern a cheap marketing idea when we see one. They're calling this year's event as "Oktoberfest 120" in an attempt to host the longest Oktoberfest celebration in the world given it's going to span 120 days. WTF?

120 days of Oktoberfest - am I the only one seeing something wrong with this picture?

At the same time, they're trying to pull the "we want a Guiness record" shtick by claiming they want to use this event to win in two categories: most number of people toasting and the longest beer bar. Riiight.

I have nothing against Oktoberfest in itself nor do I have anything against wanton consumption of alcohol in a festival setting - I am a gay man who hits the club scene after all and I've had my fair share of alcohol-colored evenings. What irks me is that we're dragging the Oktoberfest concept through the mud this year for no good reason.

Let's face it - this is laziness on the part of the marketing group of San Migue; Instead of trying to think of new event concepts of themes month after month, they've decided to just extend the most popular one, this being Oktoberfest) and having it span their entire third trimester. This sucker is going to come up against Christmas for pete's sake and I don't know if this truly means we're celebrating one continuous event for 4 months straight.

It's tacky and unoriginal and it just shows how we can't even come up with our own celebrations so we end up mutilating an internationally acclaimed beer celebration and turning it into a party that doesn't know when to end and goes on for far too long. I'm pretty sure that before the month of October is over, we're all going to be sick of hearing he term Oktoberfest and will shudder at the thought that we still have 2 more months of this foolishness.