In an attempt to help spread the word about the status in Eastern Samar, we are going to provide Eastern Samar updates daily for the coming days. These updates are current as of Nov 12 mid-day in the Philippines. As a rule, we are trying to find meaningful updates in social media that are not […]
Just saw on CNN that Anderson Cooper is now on the ground at the airport in Manila and reporting from there. (Actually more than reporting — he’s hosting two full hours a day of coverage from there.) He tried to get into Tacloban but they had to turn back to Manila because another tropical storm […]
LenDante Clarino shared this with me on Facebook, and I think it’s important to get this kind of unvarnished reality out there as the media moves on and starts covering other things. It came as a private message to Len with a request from the author to share. Everything the author says tracks with what […]
It’s been 42 years since my father died. He was a career Army officer who was serving in Vietnam when the end came. Over the years it has evolved that it is this day — Veterans Day — when I pause and consciously spend hours remembering him and all that he meant to me. In […]
A few years back I came across this lovely theme song for Lawaan and had filed it away until this morning, when I went looking for it on Youtube and, watching it, just felt heartbroken about what is happening to Lawaan, Eastern Samar, and the rest of the central Philippines in the aftermath of typhoon […]
Interview with Mon Isberto, Public Affairs Director for Smart Communications about what Smart is doing, and is planning to do, to alleviate the communications problems in the typhoon affected areas.
http://anc.yahoo.com/video/smart-sets-libreng-tawag-stalls-032211403.html
The youthful Mayor of Giporlos, Mark S. Biong left his devastated town at 10am Friday via motorcycle and after more than 8 hours (on a trip that normally takes two hours) was able to get through to Tacloban even though the coastal road is impassable to anything bigger than a motorcyle (see pictures). His trip […]
We will add to this as new sources of information or opportunities to help are available. This is just a starter list.
Google People Finder — Typhoon Yolanda Page
If you are looking for a family member, or want your family to know you are safe.
MGive Foundation is Collecting donations […]
I often find myself wishing that my American friends could actually get a taste of the wonderful quirkiness of Filipino pop culture. Typhoon Yolanda has given us one sweet bit of buzz that I’ve got to share. It’s a situation that is developing around Atom Araullo, a reporter for ABS-CBN. The Fiipino spirit is on […]
At last a substantive report on Eastern Samar. The article quotes Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone as saying 200-300 died in one town, Hernani. I’ve made a map to show where all the towns referenced in the article are located — as well as where Lawaan, the municipality that includes Rena’s hometown of Guinob-an , […]
We finally gave up and went to bed at 2am, a full 36 hours after typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda barreled through the Leyte Gulf — and still not a word of the situation in Eastern Samar, Rena’s home province, where the typhoon first made landfall. This morning, up again at 6:30 to find that on some discussion […]
If you go to CNN and scroll to the comments after their main article on Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda you will see that the following comment by dudesk001 has been voted to the top and is starting to go a little viral is this one:
Time to get to the know the hardy Filipino people…unbelievably resilient, […]
To all our friends and family in the central Philippines and especially in Lawaan, Eastern Samar — we are REALLY thinking about you and praying for you as typhoon Haiyan (Philippine name “Yolanda”) approaches. Please be super-cautious and careful. CNN is saying that it is among the top 12 biggest and most destructive storms in […]
A dear lifetime friend and extraordinary human being died yesterday. Jim Flower was the best friend you could ever want — he was the best man at my wedding and a stalwart and true human being who was a rock in my existence for the 45 years that I knew him. Last night I had […]
A little bit of pure inspiration at a time when I, at least, could sure use some.
By the way, she just won the EC Sakharov Award.
One of the central features of the current impasse over a government shutdown is the fact that it has been John Boeher’s refusal to let a “clean CR” come up for a vote that has stymied the situation in Congress. If such a CR with no Obamacare attachments were put to a vote in the […]
In the government shutdown standoff, this morning there is evidence that Republicans are gaining traction in the standoff as far as public opinion goes.
Democrats should be worried.
When this whole standoff began, public opinion was clearly on the side of the Democrats as most people, even those who only casually follow politics, “got it” […]
I originally wrote this for A Hollywood Republican in 2011, where I am tolerated as a not-overly-inflammatory opposing view. A Facebook thread today reminded me of it, and I realized I’ve never logged it in here on my own blog — so here it is. Keep in mind the original publication date of May […]
As elements of the Republican party continue to fight to derail Obamacare by defunding it, I find myself being struck by the degree to which those pursuing this approach seem to feel that it is a legitimate political tactic to in effect repeal a law that was passed by both Houses of congress by attaching […]
My Filipino friends all know this story by heart — but many Americans don’t, and I hope you will read it, and listen to the BBC report.
Last night on NPR I came across this excellent radio report from the BBC on The Assassination of Ninoy Aquino, which happened 30 years […]
Every once in awhile you come across something that is so right and true and beautiful that it stops you in your tracks and gives you goosebumps. That just happened for me five minutes ago when an email landed in my in-box from ERBist Bob Zeuschner, replying to a post on the ERB Chain of […]
A couple of my blogging buddies are extremely excited about two developments this week . First, they love Eric Holder’s address to the American Bar Association in which he signaled a new, more sane approach to the sentencing of low level drug offenders after decades of draconian mandatory minimums that caused the US prison population […]
From All Things Crime Blog
A veteran CIA officer who served in Moscow during the climax of the Cold War in the 1980’s sat down with All Things Crime Blog for an interview to discuss the spy scandal that erupted in Moscow on Monday when U.S. Embassy Third Secretary Ryan Fogle was arrested by the […]
Here’s a great article — “34 Signs You Grew Up Filipino” – which, on closer inspection, should be entitled “34 Signs You Grew Up Filipino in Los Angeles”. (It eventually becomes clear.)
Now, I’m not Filipino. I can’t even claim to be an honorary. But but my wife is a Filipina, gloriously so, and one […]
UPDATES
11:30 PM Feb 5 (30 minutes before launch): We’ve laid as much groundwork as possible. My son and biz partner Patrick Sellers is helping me. We’ve signed up at all the major sites, set up Tweets with all the relevant hashtags to go out regularly; we have an email blast ready to go out to my […]
Those who have followed the meanderings of this blog over the years know the basic outlines of my life story and my interests — that I was a film school graduate who got started in Hollywood, then went on a 10 year detour as an intelligence officer working for our government before returning to film […]
Last month I was one of those in attendance at “Cinemartini“, the brainchild of Nick Monteleone, a producer-in-process who used to work as my assistant and who is off on his own now making things happen. The idea for Cinemartini is pretty cool — once a month, an evening of short films presented […]
Thanks to my pal Gary Neely for finding this and forwarding it to me. Culpepper is a thoughtful sportswriter and his reflections on the last effects of Pacquiao-Marquez 4 are spot on.
The Power of One Punch
by Chuck Culpepper in SportsonEarth
What a weird Las Vegas hangover, even if it does lack […]
If you’re a Filipino you’re probably already seen this, and you may not be that surprised because you understand Manny Pacquiao, and the tears he sheds in this interview are easily understoo. But I truly wish the rest of the world would watch this and contemplate it. Can you see Floyd Mayweather, or Kobe Bryant, […]
