I recently read a fellow friendster's blog entry about Last Song Syndrome (LSS) which was pretty timely since I've been suffering from it these past two weeks. Nope, it's not a futile or terminal affliction . It's just that I often found myself humming and attempting to sing (often incorrectly) lyrics of songs that seemed out of character for me. As much as I take pride in having an ear for an eclectic variety of music, nothing seems to get me as energized for work like the pop music I have in a CD mix that I listen to while driving. One night, I started my shift repeatedly singing "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me", prompting my coworkers to incredulously lift their eyebrows . At another night, I was singing about bringing "Sexyback" which was apparently not too credible either as I heard someone chuckled down the hallway."Hollaback Girl" almost got me in hot water as I rapped "Let me hear you say this shit is bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S (This shit is bananas) (B-A-N-A-N-A-S) outside a patient's room. Yep, I'd better change my music selection soon or else...

Anyway, LSS might as well stands for Last Show Syndrome. I had a very restless sleep last night thinking over the recent episode of Amazing Race: All Stars wherein my best bets Rob and Amber got untimely eliminated so early on from the race after coming in first place at the pit stop three times in a row. What a blow! It didn't help that the couple might likely credit their loss of momentum to their inability to spell Philippines correctly. To recap, here's an excerpt from the CBS website:

In Sign It, Teams had to choose a pole and building supplies and carry them up a flight of stairs to Magellan's Map. Using the map as a reference, Teams needed to figure out his journey around the world began and ended in Seville. Then, they had to build a traditional local signpost listing in order the fourteen ports of call in his voyage. While the signs didn't have to point in the right direction, all the cities had to be spelled correctly.

Rivals Rob & Amber and Uchenna & Joyce began the complicated task of building the signpost with Dustin & Kandice while Teri & Ian, Oswald & Danny, and Eric & Danielle all set off on foot in search of the sailor with a compass. Apparent history buff Rob got a jump on the competition by knowing that Magellan began in Seville while Uchenna & Joyce incorrectly assumed he began in Guam since it appeared at the end of the map. However, Rob's good start took a bad turn when he misspelled Philippines on a placard by adding an extra L and omitting a P.

If it is of any consolation to them, I am a Filipino and have made that same mistake at times. Kenny admitted to having a difficulty remembering the correct spelling as well. I've also come across a lot of articles that spelled Filipino as phillipino. I have a feeling that Rob Mariano might still be reliving that scenario in his head and after last night's episode, he's probably getting comments from viewers and friends about his misstep. Not that I care so much but I hope that he won't think or feel ill towards our country just because its name is spelled kinda confusing.

The Philippines surely grabbed a bit of the spotlight last night and hopefully will prompt some people to learn more about our country and culture. It is disheartening that the Filipinos are not being as represented in the media and entertainment business like the other Asian cultures. It was indeed refreshing when one of the contestants from last season's Survivor: Cook Islands, Jenny, was a Filipino-American from Chicago. On the other hand, there was a scene in an episode ("Four Dreams") of Medium that showed a prostitute who spoke Filipino but was supposed to be in Indonesia. What gives? I was baffled and disappointed that the writers didn't even bother to be accurate about this. Perhaps they surmise that our language is way too obscure and unpopular that nobody would know the difference.  

 Who knows what other shows and movies are out there that are depicting the Filipino language and culture quite liberally and erroneously. At the movie "Jarhead", Jake Gyllenhaal's character mentioned "...studying of phillipino mail order bride catalogue" among one of the suggested techniques for the marine to use in the avoidance of boredom and loneliness (including masturbation, rereading of letters from unfaithful wives and girlfriend, cleaning rifle). Not exactly the best picture to project about Filipinas. Hearing that, I think I must have sunk in my seat in the movie theater, feeling very self-conscious. Maybe I was just being too overly sensitive but it was not a great feeling indeed.

Speaking of movies, I got a DVD copy of the movie "Sukob" during my trip to Michigan and I'm hoping to get a few of my friends together to view it. I know most of them don't get to see any original Filipino movies very often so it would be a fun thing to do. Although watching Kris Aquino's movie is not exactly a patriotic act, supporting the Filipino movie industry is. Hopefully, the movie makers in the Philippines will inject more quality and substance in their body of work so that one day, we will see one of them being nominated for an Oscar award for Best Foreign Language Film. That would just be fantastic!