#AlDub

Here are my thoughts about #AlDub:

I think Alden Richards is very good-looking. Way too good-looking for Maine. But that's me, an48-year-old hag, being bitter. I am old enough to be his mother.

I think Maine is a talented, funny and smart young lady, with an average face and figure, read: 'normal' Filipina. Not the ones who dress up like sluts, with full make-up, topping that with the best app for photoshop. She uses MAC lipstick in that shade of red which got sold out in the country after learning she uses the brand and color. But she plays the character of a maid, or 'yaya' in the 'kalyeserye' so she dresses in the character.

I think that Wally and the rest of the bunch are great at comedy. They portray real-life people, show us the funny side in all of us, spontaneous and honest. No scripts needed, really. They simply poke fun at our truths, and I love that. The hypocrites hate that. 

I think that Joey de Leon, who is pushing 70, is just teasing whoever is eager to take his baits on social media. There are plenty who take the bait. And he is happy about that, I am absolutely sure. The more negative reactions, the better. The man is deep, he is an artist in the true sense of the word, and we are only making ourselves look stupid if we think that what he portrays now as arrogance is his true character. I saw his artworks somewhere, read his poems, watched him cry unabashedly at the sound of his daughter's voice over phone patch (greeting him or expressing support of some sort) on live television. He is one sensitive soul. 

I think that the whole 'kalyeserye' clicked among Filipinos because all characters can be related to. They see themselves in the storyline: the young ones dream of being Maine/Yaya, 'sa tamang panahon', will meet their 'Alden'. I, admittedly, relate more to Lola Nidora, well, for obvious reasons.

I think that my daughter, Ana, is validated and justified when she puts both her hands on her mouth to muffle the giggles and the 'kilig' while watching AlDub. She does the watching, while standing up. That's how exhilirated she becomes at the sight of Alden and Maine together. 

I think that from the millions of tweets regarding the kalyeserye, to jumping to 'Filipinos can unite to solve this nation's problems instead of spending precious time for useless AlDub'-type of commentaries, to intellectuals analyzing the phenomenon, is such a huge, comedic, ridiculous, annoying and sad leap. I know Filipinos can all pitch in to do something good for noble causes: typhoon Yolanda and its aftermath is a clear example. Or in simpler form: Filipinos do fall in line in jeepney/taxi/LRT queues, except in extreme cases where the educated ones shove past the less learned. 

Still and all, wtf is wrong with being happy and entertained by AlDub? Does it make me less of a decent person to feel happy and entertained? Will the two hours spent by Filipinos to watch it on television everyday suddenly cause our economy to turn around and make it flourish? Will it make EDSA less of a hell on earth? Will it change our unemployment rate? Will our infant mortality lower? If we turn off our television sets during AlDub, will the crooks in government stop stealing? 

Elections are approaching and I have always thought of the exercise as that chance to write the name of the person on the ballot, who will think and speak in my behalf. At times, I am simply too tired to think. And speak. So I vote for the ones who know better than I do. That's their job.

I think that my job as a citizen of this nation is to choose wisely who will think and speak for me, given the fact that it is either I am too lazy to do that on my own, or I am busy watching AlDub. But I do not forget my responsibilities, I falter at times, but I still do my best, well, despite the tv watching everyday. I help in any way I can, one person, one life. 

Whatever. In the end, what matters to me is that Filipinos are given this little glimmer of hope and happiness and laughter by the kalyeserye. No matter how fleeting. They feel the love. And the production continues its advocacy to give chairs to schools needing them. Now they are building libraries. What about this guy who wrote on Rappler a really intelligent analysis on AlDub, calling it 'implicit religion'? I wonder what he has done in his small way to assuage another's difficulty, aside from riding his high horse?