I’m filing reports on Smart Gilas in the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup for InterAksyon.com, the official news website of TV5. If you’ve been following this site from the very beginning, you’d appreciate the delicious irony of me covering the team for a website of a media company owned by Manny Pangilinan himself.

Anyway, yeah, click here for my report on tonight’s spanking of Saudi Arabia, starring the much-maligned Japeth Aguilar himself. Hopefully he’ll continue to play this well when the competition gets better. Also, check out the schedule, ticket, and TV info if you wanna see the games yourself.

I’ve been a fan of SLAM since high school, and up until a few years ago I still bought the magazine every month, until the hefty price tag (~P500-P600 a pop) made me reassess its place in my life’s list of priorities.

Continue reading "SLAM Philippines out now!"

Got a text message earlier this afternoon from Pacific Rims author and occasional Fire Quinito contributor Rafe Bartholomew. He’s been back in town for a few weeks now, and he has some great news to announce about his book:

Great news! The paperback of Pacific Rim will be released tomorrow. This is two weeks before the U.S. release, and I would be honored if you could join me at the book launch. It’s tomorrow, Saturday, May 21 6:30 PM at National Bookstore Bestsellers, 4th Floor Robinsons Galleria. Hope to see you there!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to swing by tomorrow because I’m in Caramoan for the weekend. But show Rafe your love and head on over to Galleria tomorrow. He’s got all the details in his blog, and he made it clear he’s willing to sign chests – male or female.

This weekend, basketball fans subscribed to Global Destiny Cable were shocked to find that Basketball TV was no longer part of their channel line-up. The cable company announced that Solar, which owned the channel, had signed an exclusive deal with their competitor, which everyone took to mean Sky Cable, the country’s biggest CATV provider. It’s a curious turn of events given the history involving Solar, Sky, Destiny, and BTV.

In 2007, Solar Entertainment Corporation had a falling out with Sky, which at the time was broadcasting six Solar channels: BTV, Solar Sports, Jack TV, Crime/Suspense, ETC, and 2nd Avenue. Reports differed on the reason of the rift between the entertainment companies; some said that it had to do with Manny Pacquiao – Solar, which owned the rights, chose as its broadcast partner GMA-7, the biggest rival of Sky Cable’s owner, ABS-CBN – while others Sky simply wanted to drop some of Solar’s channels in favor of its own.

Continue reading "Solar screws Pinoy basketball fans, pulls Basketball TV out of Global Destiny Cable"