Proud to have the same birthday as revolutionary Tandang Sora

“…one can really reflect how in the late 1890s, an old lady stood up to help Filipino rebels in their fight for freedom. Tandang Sora actually joined the Katipunan at 84 years old, easily the revolutionary army’s oldest member.

Despite her old age, she joined the Katipunan and helped the wounded Katipuneros during the Filipino revolt against the Spaniards. Her small sari-sari store housed the group’s secret meetings and often supplied their food. It is said that Tandang Sora remained poor but found content in helping her countrymen.” –From Loqal

 

Help Typhoon Sendong Victims! Help Northern Mindanao!

What to donate? Drinking water, ready-to-eat food in easy-to-open containers, medicine, toiletries, sanitary pads, soap, shampoo, infant needs, baby bottles, milk, diapers, clothes, mats to sleep on, blankets.

Where and how to donate? Bayan Muna Partylist partnered with LBC Foundation so we can send our relief goods to Typhoon Sending affected areas for free. Do the following:

1. Pack your goods properly.
2. Bring to LBC TIMOG Branch (in front of GMA 7).
3. Look for the manager, MS. Gina Torre.
4. Fill in the form with the following info: Consignee: PANDAY BULIG, Cagayan De Oro City

Let’s all make our holidays more meaningful, help Mindanao! Tell your friends, spread the word!

Barikada Official Music Video

Get a copy of the song here. Play it online here. More music here. Maraming salamat sa Tudla Productions!

A whiff of fresh air for the radicals’ ears

Thanks for the review John!

I was browsing Facebook when I stumbled upon Karl Ramirez‘s page. I have known him earlier from my friends, but I only remembered his name when I saw the page. I checked out some of the songs, and I was instantly hooked.

I was listening to radical songs since my first exposure to it when I became connected to the radical student movement in our school. However, for someone who was accustomed to listening rock/metal/ and other heavy stuff, the popular radical songs within the activist circle is not quite a comfortable listening for me. Many of these songs usually employ the folk, Bob Dylan-ish musical form (with the guitar as the main accompanying instrument, and a few ticks of percussion) which became popular during the 70s and usually has lyrics about the experience of workers, peasants and other marginalized groups in the country. Generally, the songs have simple accompaniment and structure, and lyrics are more or less straightforward.

via Karl Ramirez: A whiff of fresh air for the radicals’ ears.

Barikada live at Tudla’s film launch

Performing Barikada, the official sound track of the short film ‘Barikada’ during the film’s launch last November 26, 2011 at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Auditorium.

Justice still elusive two years after Ampatuan Massacre

First published at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

Slain botanist Leonard Co remembered

First published at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

Interview with Open Source Enthusiast, Indie Songwriter and Human Rights Activist Karl Ramirez

Thanks Suzanne Bowen and PinoyKubo!

Just a few weeks ago, we interviewed another extraordinary human rights activist, independent song writer, and musician, Karl Ramirez, of the Philippines. He grabbed my attention with the following words and more so that I recorded an audio podcast interview with him, “I really think when people are organized and united for a certain cause, they have a certain strength to build a better country, to build a better community.”

PinoyKubo Team receives hundreds of suggestions each month when we ask for help in finding innovative and inspiring persons from the Philippines anywhere in the world that we can interview and share news, accomplishments, advice, and experience. Someone sent us to www.Jamendo.com and said, “You have to go listen to the music of Karl Ramirez. The lyrics tell stories, real stories, about a side of life in the Philippines that most people don’t know about and/or maybe don’t even care about.”

Listen to the podcast here.

Artists press for freedom of political detainee Ericson Acosta

First published at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

Barikada, a song and musical score project

Barikada is a song and musical score project in progress. Watch out for Tudla Productions’ short film where the title of this song came from. This one’s rendered with an acoustic and orchestral accompaniment. You can download this one free at www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_10546151 and you can support it by re-tweeting, re-posting, sharing, and downloading. Thanks!

Art on insurgency and freedom

First published at The Philippine Online Chronicles.

Software Freedom Day celebrates open source software

First published at The Philippine Online Chronicles.

Human rights groups join solidarity fast for political prisoners’ freedom

First published at The Philippine Online Chronicles.

Peace forum on the GPH-MILF peace negotiations

First published at The Philippine Online Chronicles.

Filipino groups commemorate 9/11

First published on The Philippine Online Chronicles.

Free

Here’s FREE, a song for a free mind and the struggle for a free society. Also a contribution to this year’s Software Freedom Day (SFD) and the campaign for Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) spearheaded in the Philippines by the Computer Professionals Union (CPU).

Thanks to everyone who listened and downloaded the song at Reverb Nation and Jamendo! Thanks to everyone who shared, posted, tweeted and blogged about it, and bought a copy at Band Camp! Thanks a lot for the continued support to makibaka music and this makabayang OPM artist. Rakenrol!

(Update October 2, 2011) Free has been listed along with two other songs at the Resources page of the Software Freedom Day wiki. Thanks a lot softwarefreedomday.org! An OGG version is available at the wiki page wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/Resources/FreeASongForSoftwareFreedom.

Below is also a video featuring the song and with behind-the-scenes footage of Software Freedom Day Philippines. Thanks Developer Society!

Tumugon sa Hamon

Heto po ang isang bagong awitin!

Tumugon sa Hamon calls out to everyone to look at the plight of the country’s working people and listen to their stories, grief, hopes and dreams. Join them as they collectively struggle for meaningful wage and their basic labor rights, including better working conditions and the right to organize.

The song was written for the Church People and Workers’ Solidarity, a conference that aims to strengthen cooperation and solidarity between church communities and workers.

You can stream and download the song for free at Reverb Nation but if you want to support the music and this makabayang OPM artist contribute a bit via Paypal at the song’s BandCamp download.

The icon on the left by the way is a photo taken by Kodao Productions’ Raymund Villanueva. Salamat Bukaneg!

Makibaka CD now available at the IBON Bookshop

Grab a copy of the Makibaka CD at the IBON Bookshop, 114 TIMOG Avenue, Quezon City!

Salamat Tine for supporting & promoting the Makibaka CD!

ALTERNATIB NA, MAKABAYAN PA Karl Ramirez, protest artist and a personal friend of mine, has recently released his first album “Makibaka.” From winning Net25’s Convergence song-writing contest using only his voice, guitar and music-arranging software to becoming a favorite performer during cause-oriented concerts and events, Karl and his intelligent lyrics have … Read More

via Tine.

Makibaka Music Video Trailer

This music video was produced as a trailer of the limited copy Makibaka CD (with the cover art below painted by Jay Jamoralin). Maraming salamat sa lahat! At yang pasasalamat na yan ay nakasulat dito haha!