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At the very first Metro filmfest in the 70s, Vilma Santos starred as a striptease artist in Celso Ad Castillo’s Burlesk Queen. I was in elementary school at the time, and my parents were not about to accompany me to a movie with “burlesque” in the title, but I remember the furor surrounding that movie.

“Burlesque” is “a theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous, often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits, and striptease acts”. It’s been around since Aristophanes wrote his comedies thousands of years ago. In Tagalog, “pagbuburles” meant “to take one’s clothes off in public”. It was something to be shunned by respectable people. Apart from its subject matter, the film was controversial because it starred superstar and former teen idol Vilma Santos, it was directed by Celso Ad Castillo, self-proclaimed messiah of Filipino cinema, and it contained a truly shocking dance sequence. Burlesk Queen climaxes with Vilma bumping and grinding in front of a wildly cheering audience; her gyrations cause her to have a miscarriage. Lurid, yes, and not likely to be forgotten.

The Filth and The Furor, in Emotional Weather Report today in the Star.

P.S. Kaboboyan (see comments) is probably right: Burlesk Queen was from the third, not the first filmfest. I remember that it came after Ganito Kami Noon; my source was a little hazy about the year. Then again, the video I watched began with a list of the awards the movie won at the First Metro Manila Film Festival. Hmm.

Two women were highly influential in my upbringing (and maybe yours), and until recently I didn’t know their names.

Joan Ganz Cooney was the creator of Sesame Street.

Sesame Street turns 40 this year. The Complete History of Sesame Street was published recently. It details how the show was conceived as part of a grand social initiative. High and low culture mingled—educators, the ad industry, game show producers and New York intellectuals developed a TV series aimed at the urban underclass.

The book tracks down every Sesame Street personality. Remember Mr. Hooper the storeowner? When Will Lee, the actor who played the character, died, the producers decided to address the concept of death directly. There was that episode in which Gordon explains to Big Bird that Mr. Hooper is not coming back. The book also covers the sad story of Northern Calloway, who played the storekeeper David; he became manic-depressive and died in a psychiatric hospital.

In the 90s, the show’s ratings dropped because Sesame Street was seen as a reminder of urban decay. The audience preferred clean suburban schoolyards and. . .Barney.

I always get on the wrong train, and a couple of times I wound up in Harlem. It looked like Sesame Street. If I hadn’t been late for meetings, I would’ve sat on a stoop for hours. Come to think of it, this must be where I got my fondness for steps. I like meeting people on steps—the New York Public Library, the Met, the Museum of Natural History. In college I read entire books while sitting on the steps of the UP Main Library.

Mildred Wirt Benson was the original “Carolyn Keene”, ghostwriter of the Nancy Drew books.

Nancy Drew was the first character I ever met who could go wherever she wanted and stay out late without getting a scolding. Not to mention that we always knew what she was wearing (She threw on a fetching yellow cardigan, etc) and she was perfectly-coordinated. The thing that boggled me: If Nancy was always 18 and there were 52 mysteries (at the time), then she solved one case per week. When did she have time to go to school? Or to the salon to maintain that flip.

From Dead Caulfields.

90 today. Still no new book. But Axl Rose wrote a song called Catcher In The Rye.

When all is said and done
We’re not the only ones
Who look at life this way
That’s what the old folks say
But every time I’d see them
Makes me wish I had a gun

The original source of the title: “Coming Through the Rye” by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Coming thro’ the rye, poor body,
Coming thro’ the rye,
She draiglet a’ her petticoatie
Coming thro’ the rye.

Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro’ the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body –
Need the warld ken?