by Leonard That you are reading this blog at all today means that citizen-journalism, mass media, communications and the inter-web have come a long way since you could only get your news from the paperboy on your porch in the morning.
Somehwere in between print and the blogosphere was a site called Pinoylife. It was the first of its kind at the time -- an online magazine dedicated to Filipino life, specifically Filipino-American life through the eyes of the younger generation.
Moonie Lantion was the Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster and some stuff I remember him covering was The Debut (making fun of Dante Basco), Rex Navarrete's earliest performances and I remember he even reviewed Lolo's Child. Remember the classic article "The Pinoylife Guide to Not Being a Kuya"? That was Moonie. Moonie was a blogger before it was commonly called a 'blog'.
Back in the day, for those of us who were brash Filipino-Canadian college kids in Toronto trying to forge some sort of conciousness north of the border, Pinoylife gave us something to shoot for -- an example of what a new generation of Filipino Youth could look like if we embraced culture, heritage and community and fused it with our own modern sensibilities, attitudes and influences. It showed us a shade of what kind of community we could become. (For an old-skooler like me, looking back on those days and seeing that today we have KPC, things like Clutch, Baggage by PMC not to mention each and every person who makes the scene work in this city... it makes me more happy than anyone can ever believe. Look, we did it!)
Then, at some point -- Pinoylife disappeared, and so did Moonie.
Meanwhile, we got working and years later (and I really speak for Toronto), it's obvious that we've come a lot closer to getting to realizing that vision. It's years later and things have changed so much as far as the media and how we get our information.
Again, this blog is evidence that we've got so much power to express ourselves at our fingertips -- and we should use that power by blogging and communicating every chance we get.
It's only fitting that after all these years... Pinoylife.com - the site that started it all (for me, at least)... is back. The best thing though, is that now it's not the only voice out there in cyberspace reppin' for our team.
That other voice is YOU!