TFAL

Episode 253 – Original Pilipino Musings with Les the DJ – Toyang, Alapaap, and Analyzing vs Appreciating Music

In part 2 of our mini-series “Original Pilipino Musings” with Les the DJ, we dive into two seminal Eraserheads classics, “Toyang” from their 1993 debut album, Ultraelectromagneticpop!, as well as “Alapaap” from their 1994 follow-up, Circus.  Listen as we talk about what the songs mean to us, and debate whether or not it matters if…

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Episode 252 – Original Pilipino Musings with Les the DJ – Eraserheads, OPM+, and Les Lore

In a few weeks, Combo On The Run, a documentary chronicling the rise of the band Eraserheads, is set to hit movie screens across North America.  It’s not often that a film from the Philippines gets a release and a reception as high profile as this film has been getting, let alone a documentary about…

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Episode 234 – Dirty Kitchen with Jill Damatac

  In this episode the crew has a conversation with author and filmmaker, Jill Damatac, who shares her journey from the Philippines to the States to the UK all through the lens of an undocumented immigrant. Instead of a traditional cookbook, which predominantly focuses on recipes and then sprinkles in family stories, Jill does the…

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Episode 227 – Coming Home for the First Time – Elaine and Producer Mike go to the Philippines

Is it truly “More Fun in the Philippines?  Well technically not any more, because that marketing campaign ended in 2023.  Now it’s “Love the Philippines”, but do we?  They say there’s “no place like home” (which is especially fitting, since this is episode “227”… look it up, kids), but for Elaine and Producer Mike, who…

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Episode 223 – TFAL x Toronto – Sounds of the 6ix with Pantayo and Ruru

If it’s a music episode, you know Producer Mike is behind it! In our 3rd and final episode in our Toronto series, we got to get a hangout with Michelle and Kat, two members of the “queer Filipinx kulintang gong punks” crew Pantayo whose incendiary yet soulful music defies even the sheer idea of a…

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Episode 215 | Island Woman Rise: Connecting with Producer Kat Carrido Bonds

  In this episode the TFAL crew talks story with Kat Carrido Bonds, our fam and frequent fill in for food appreciator Ryan. Kat shares her journey from music aficionado to college student turned pcn coordinator turned cultural affairs commissioner to Filipino American cultural events producer. Kat and her producing partners with AKB Media are…

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Episode 213 – Go for Gold: TFAL Talks Olympics

Every four years (two years if you care for winter sports) athletes from around the world come together to compete in sporting events at the Olympic Games.  It’s a time when we care about such sports as swimming, track and field, gymnastics, and dressage. (Seriously, how many of us really care about these sports between…

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Episode 209 – Tagnawa: An Ilocano Response to the Maui Fires

On August 8, 2023, Maui experienced the largest wildfire in the “United States” in more than 100 years, killing 101 people and displacing 6,500. National media portrayed the disaster as an unfortunate incident to Maui’s idyllic setting for tourism. However, hidden from this mainstream narrative is the larger context of how the wildfires and its…

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Episode 205 – Hilaw Pa 6.0

Here it is again…another edition of Hilaw Pa! For those not in the know, Hilaw Pa is where the TFAL Crew shares our half-baked ideas that should be out there in the world. Of course, we’re not going to do it ourselves – thinking them up is our job. It’s up to someone else to…

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Episode 202 – Vision Boarding Abundance

New year new TFAL?  Or are we back to our usual shenanigans? Actually, for the first time in months, and thanks to Ryan’s terrible internet, we met up in person and recorded an episode! One New Years’ tradition that many of the folks in TFAL (and maybe some of you) partake in is the creation…

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