Writers in the Mountains: Day Three (Writaz 4 Life)

Today was a good day, especially for the inhabitants of Room 2, or, as we like to call it out of sheer lack of imagination, the Girls' Room. The panelists and fellows seem to be in general agreement that Rica Santos is a genius at writing personal essays, Tara Sering is a fiction-writing genius, and Mookie Katigbak is a poetic genius. (During the photo-taking session today in between discussions, the three geniuses struck Charlie's Angels poses together.) Am very happy at the way their discussions turned out, and am now looking forward to Mookie's first book, Tara's upcoming novel, and buying Rica's Love, Desire, Children, Etc., when I get back to Quezon City.

After dinner the workshop participants bonded in the way writers always do: by sitting in a circle and taking turns reading classic epic poetry in stentorian voices. Just kidding. Writers bond via alcoholic drinks and filthy jokes, like everyone else.


What does Jimmy Abad think of Mookie's poetry?


HE FREAKING LOVES IT.


Jun Lana can't believe a word he's hearing.


FYI: Jing Hidalgo and Rica Bolipata-Santos aren't laughing with you -- they're laughing at you.


Nick Pichay looks on while Tara Sering demonstrates her carnival-worthy ability to read manuscripts via osmosis. Meanwhile, something is stuck in Frank's nose.


"Wassup my writaz?! Big Daddy Bien is in the hizzouse. What!" National Artist Bien Lumbera gives it up for his literary homeboyz. Writaz 4 life, y'all. Word.

Fox You

We interrupt our daily UP Writers Workshop broadcast for an important announcement: there's a new book company on the block! They're launching the line next Monday, April 14. (Click on the image above for a bigger version of the poster.) Fox Books: "quality literature for quality readers," they declare. These don't look like your typical 'literary' titles, however -- so they're screwing with your expectations, as any enterprise involving Adam David is bound to do. (Hi, Adam!) Anyway, looks interesting.

Funny fact: the latest entry on the Fox Books blog is a letter from Jun Balde, on Fox Books: "malaking improvement ito, hindi lamang sa kaayusan ng pagsulat ng mga kuwento, [kundi] sa anyo at sa pagiging attractive sa mambabasa [rin], kung ikumpara sa mga libro ng precious pages at psicom. " And Jun Balde, unless this is a different Jun Balde, happens to be one of my fellow fellows this week at the UP workshop. Whatta coinkydink.

Writers in the Mountains: Day Two

Where... Where am I? Oh yeah, that's right.


Me just outside the Igorot Lodge entrance. Literally, chillin'.


Workshop sessions: Won't anyone sit with Tara?


Mookie will! Yay!


Sir Butch and Ian: "That's right folks, the first-generation iPods were this big."


Rica listens intently to the discussion, unaware that a giant camera strap is creeping up on her and Frank Cimatu.



The Notorious V.I.M. and Bobby A., famed hip-hop duo, launch into their rendition of "Ain't Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang."


Vince Serrano can kill you with the power of his mind.

Writers in the Mountains

Hello Baguio City! Woo hoo! It's cold and oh so quiet here in the lobby of the Igorot Lodge of Camp John Hay. Am here for the 47th UP National Writers Workshop. Was sort of zonked out on the way up; hadn't slept properly in two days due to deadlines and other matters (maybe I shouldn't have watched that mixed martial arts tournament at Metrowalk the night before. But hey, guest appearance by Manny Pacquiao!). So I fell asleep right after the orientation. Which explains why I'm up at a little before 5 AM.

The whole experience -- bus ride, meals, orientation, hanging out with the other fellows -- has been very pleasant so far, but the real work begins today, with the workshops proper. We'll be discussing stuff by Jun Balde, Vince Serrano, Ian Casocot, Allan Derain, Bobby Anonuevo, and, well, me.


All aboard the not-so-short bus.


On the way to Baguio. I have no idea where this is.


First meal at Camp John Hay. Rica is amused and Mookie is a-textin'.


It's Ian's first visit to Baguio, ever.


Vince wonders what the hell Allan Popa is doing here.


Laid-back literary legends. *singing* Please be careful with our art!

Okay, time to get back to my readings now. Am unsure of my ability to criticize poetry and anything not written in English, but we'll see what happens. In any case, am looking forward to breakfast.

Sci-Fi High

My fellow science fiction fans: our favorite concepts may not be fictional for long! Of course this is not news -- we've been living in a sci-fi world for at least a couple of decades now, which is partially why it's so hard to write in the damn genre. But anyway! Had a blast reading a couple of brief interviews on the NYT book blog with Michio Kaku, Professor of Theoretical Physics and author of Physics of the Impossible (hideous cover design, but still), on what may or may not be possible in the near future. I love it whenever he says that "There’s nothing in the laws of physics preventing it," whether he's talking about force fields or light sabers. "Einstein’s equations, believe it or not, do allow for time travel." Goosebumps, I swear. Read here and here.

Baguio Bound (Show Me the Music)

I love I Can Has Cheezburger. And no, the boxing hamster has nothing to do with this blog entry. It just made me LOL. :)

Anyway! Will be in Baguio City from April 6 to 13, for the UP Writers' Workshop. I never thought I would attend another national writing workshop -- not because I've ever had a horrible experience with one, quite the contrary -- but because I always saw them as most beneficial for writers just starting out. That was certainly the case for me, with my first one: I was the youngest writing fellow there, at 18 (a fact that I'm glad went unknown until the directories were issued on the last day). However, apparently since 2005, the thrust of the UP workshop has changed, as "there is now a proliferation of creative writing workshops on both the national and local levels" and "beginning writers now have many other options," so "the UP ICW has decided to re-conceptualize its annual workshop to address the changing needs of writers.”

So I was pretty happy to be invited to this year's session, especially when I found out who else was going: Tara, Mookie, Ian, and even my old grade school classmate, Vince! Am looking forwward to meeting and hanging out with the others, as well. I still have fond memories of that first workshop -- it was held in Baguio, too -- and while we won't have George R. around this time to run naked and drunk through Burnham Park, stricken by love at first sight, am sure this one will be memorable as well.

And now we come to the sing-along portion of our presentation. Is anyone who's reading this familiar with the Baguio music scene? Would love to check out some bars and bands while we're up there, and possibly write about them for my weekly music column for the Bulletin. Please post suggestions here, or email me at thekingofnothingtodo at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Drip's Second

Anyone who reads my blog more or less regularly probably knows how big a fan I am of the fantastic electronic band Drip. So as you can imagine, I'm really psyched about this Saturday, when they're set to launch their second album, Identity Theft. Have been listening to an advanced reviewer's copy for a few days now -- at home, on the MRT, even on a pedicab trundling down Agham Road -- and it's great. Those who liked the first one will LOVE this one, and it's entirely possible that even if the first one didn't grab you, this one will. It's better. As Erwin Romulo put it in a well-written (as always) review for the Star, it builds on the first album's achievements to "reach vertiginous heights."

Cool Drip trailer here and Erwin's review here!

Last week's gigs were pretty excellent. Enjoyed the Stripped gig at Route 196 -- especially since Kidlat, Fran, JB and Steph were able to make it. Interesting and entertaining to watch all-covers acoustic sets by the Dancel brothers Ebe and Vin, and Ace of Bagetsafonik (we joked that Ace and JB should have had a face-off with the Dancels: musically-inclined brother tag teams!). And Ene's set was all hair-metal songs, which of course was a lot of fun. I scared myself when I realized that I still know all the words to "I Remember You" by Skid Row.

The Narda reunion gig was no less fun, of course. Yvette and I finally got to watch Quark's new band, Us-2 Evil-0, and we are instant fans. :) We just missed Ang Bandang Shirley, but enjoyed the sets by Pedicab and Taken By Cars a great deal. And of course, it was wonderful to watch Katwo and Co. take the stage again.

Rogue in March

So, you really should get a copy of this month's Rogue magazine -- it's their First Annual Philippine Cinema Portfolio, which means fantastic photographs and short, sweet write-ups featuring local cinema's luminaries (Lav Diaz, Raymond Red, Ping Medina, Katrina Halili, etc., and of course Cherie Gil -- check out that cover!).

Yvette and I both have work in this one -- she wrote great profiles for Teddy Co, Eddie Romero and some others (Teddy Co's room makes mine look spartan and minimalist), and I wrote a new story, called "Little Fears," to accompany a series of evocative photographs by Frank Callaghan. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! There's also a lengthy excerpt from Butch Dalisay's new novel, Soledad's Sister. Plus, did I mention the Katrina Halili pictures? They're really nice. Butch Dalisay AND Katrina Halili! What more could you ask for?

Gigs This Week - The Return of Narda, etc

Lotta good gigs this week -- hope my money holds out. This Wednesday, you've got the latest installment of Stripped, my favorite new production. (I wrote about the first Stripped night here.) Lineup looks great -- Francis Reyes of The Dawn, Ebe Dancel of Sugarfree, Vin Dancel of Peryodiko, Ene Lagunzad of The Ronnies, Justine Javier (I don't know who she is), and everyone's favorite Cada brother, Ace of Bagetsafonik! (Just kidding, JB. He he he.)

And of course I'm excited about the Narda reunion gig this Thursday at SaGuijo. They were one of my favorite bands until they decided to break up (read Joelle's account of the split here). To be honest though, I'm still not sure if I'm going. Might be a bittersweet experience to watch a band I was so crazy about perform again for one night only. But I want to see Pedicab and Taken By Cars and the other acts too. We'll see.

Finally, according to a text from Cris Ramos Jr., the Revolver production night celebrates its big Five-O this week too, at Route 196 on March 7, Friday, featuring Hansom, Hilera, Juan Pablo Dream, The Lowtechs and Roots of Nature. See y'all there.

No Such Thing as a Guilty Pleasure

Got email from Sam M. RE: the many many recent versions of "Umbrella" floating around. Got me thinking about covers of popular songs, and how they sometimes turn out even better than the originals. (Am reminded of the way some of my favorite local artists remake songs at the Route 196 Stripped gigs. Somehow, cool artist + cheesy-yet-catchy song = good times.

Been enjoying three such covers lately, and you would do well to download all of them before they're taken down: go to these blogs to get The Gossip's excellent reworking of Wham!'s Careless Whisper, The Wedding Present's version of Take That's Back for Good, and, quite possibly my favorite, The Bird and The Bee's version of the Bee Gees' How Deep is Your Love. You'll thank me.

PS. The Poofy panel has nothing to do with this entry. But I like Poofy. So there.

MCR in Manila

Talk about the Black Parade. Just got home from the big My Chemical Romance concert at The Fort -- the last time I saw that many people in black shirts wandering around was probably at the Summer Slam, or the last Fete de la Musique I attended, the one in Ortigas. There seemed to be even more people tonight though: the Fort Bonifacio Open Field was host to a massive army of chair-climbing, arm-waving, top-of-their-lungs shouting MCR enthusiasts. Yvette and I got a pretty good spot -- thanks, Yonina! -- and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. Woo hoo! I love you, Gerard Way! (Well, not really. But since he is both a bona fide rock star AND a genuine RPG and comics geek -- can't wait to read The Umbrella Academy -- I do love the idea of him.)

And you know, the band's music is pretty good. I haven't been able to listen to their first two albums in their entirety, but I really liked The Black Parade, apparently their most ambitious work yet. Before they took the stage, the sound system was playing songs by different acts, and it was like a roster of their influences: Queen, Green Day, Pink Floyd, et cetera. When we attended the presscon the day before, every single journalist I spoke to seemed less than enthusiastic -- they all identified themselves as not-fans -- so on the way to The Fort, I was wondering if MCR would draw enough people to fill the venue. I should have realized that their dramatic, romantic, death-obsessed and anger-fueled songs would inspire as much -- if not more -- devotion as derision.

High points included "Welcome to the Black Parade" ("Sing along -- I think you know the words," Gerard Way said, playing off the audience near the stage with the bigger crowd at the back), "I'm Not Okay," "I Don't Love You," and, for me, that part when G. sang a snatch of a Queen song, the "Just a man..." bit from "Flash" (a-ah!). And of course, when they did "Helena," everyone howled along to the "So long and good night" refrain. The band seemed surprised and touched by the size and enthusiasm of the audience -- "It looks like the whole city is here tonight!" Gerard marveled, later adding that "This is something we'll remember when we're all old men... you know, four years from now."

Lotsa pictures (and amusing-as-usual commentary) from the MCR presscon over at Niña's LJ! (My favorite part of the presscon? When Curtis of Summit's morbid questions caused guitarist Frank Iero to say, "...I think she wants us to die.")

So this is the New Year

So this is the New Year! Yes, I know; we're almost a month into 2008. But since I've pretty much spent the past four weeks holed up at home, sick and bedridden for the most part, I'm still getting used to the idea. Life is slowly starting up again for me, though; this week I was able to go out with my family a couple of times, meet Yvette a couple of times, and drop by the apartment in QC. Just heard Mass a while ago, as well. Aside from some lingering side effects and occasional tiredness, am doing okay. Will be fully up and about soon, going to gigs and bothering people and such, I hope.

Great big thanks to Yvette, Kidlat, Lissa, Erwin, Yonina, Fran, Jovan, Denise, Cassie, Percy, Noelle, and of course my family, not to mention everyone my illness-decayed brain has probably forgotten, for the company, concern, chismis, advice, messages, reading material, listening material, and etcetera.

Speaking of reading material, here's some good stuff. From The AV Club -- My Favorite Movie Year: 1986 (go Ferris Bueller!), and from Cracked, 9 Words That Don't Mean What You Think (you may be surprised at the actual meanings of "peruse" and "pristine" -- I know I was), and 8 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Geeks (Natalie Portman's an obvious one, but I didn't know Kate Beckinsale was so accomplished a writer. Nor was I aware of Vin Diesel's extreme D&D geekiness).

And now, dinner. Yay!

Me and My Hamster

Hello from me and Burroughs! Posted some pix on the Hamsters LJ Community. For more hamster hijinks click here. (Those who are rodent-averse need not apply.)

Rogue Party

Yvette and I will be going to the Rogue party later. Rogue is a class act: a magazine with great visuals and great writing that just keeps getting better (and yeah, I'd honestly say that even if Yvette and I weren't fairly regular contributors). :) The current issue -- dated December 2007/January 2008, with Jasmine Maierhofer on the cover -- has a brand new story I wrote, in collaboration with the amazing artist Yvonne Quisumbing-Romulo. More on that in a future blog post. Right now I needs some breakfast.

Aoki on the Decks

I got to meet and interview DJ Steve Aoki yesterday and it was the most fun I've had with an interview in a while. The man has such an appetite and enthusiasm for music -- it's really inspiring. Nothing less than I would expect from the founder of Dim Mak records, who broke Bloc Party, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and tons of other acts. We talked about the Manila crowd (this is his second time here), the changes in the global music industry, the first record he ever bought... Then I broke out the showbiz fanboy questions and asked him about Uffie (oh man, Uffie!), Lindsay Lohan, and of course his actress/ model sister, Devon. We talked about Chromeo and Kid Sister and Cat Stevens and all these other artists. At one point he got so excited talking about music he was waving his arms wildly, conducting an imaginary electronic orchestra. It was great. Applause for Styles, for bringing him here again!

Everything Must Go

Hello all! As you know, I'm going to be moving out of my home of some eleven years this December, to a new apartment. As much as I'd like to keep all of my stuff, I really do need to lose some of it. (Also, every little bit helps when it comes to making money for rent.) So: GARAGE SALE! Woo hoo! I'll be selling books, magazines, CDs, comics and some other stuff, really cheap (everything's going to be Php 5. up, with an upper limit of about Php 50). Hope you all can drop by! It'll be on:

This SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, from 10 AM to 10 PM,
at 191-D MAGINHAWA STREET, SIKATUNA VILLAGE, QUEZON CITY

The place is in a compound with a green gate, right on the corner of Maginhawa and V. Luna Extension. Easy to find. You can contact me at 0920 678 8358 or 927 1854 (landline) for details/ directions. You can also email me at luiskatigbak at yahoo dot com.

Luis Listens

There’s this word I learned from Q magazine—“chuffed.” I gather that it means delighted, glad, pleased as punch. If so, then I am chuffed to inform alla youse that today marks the first installment of my brand new column in the Manila Bulletin: Luis Listens. Check it out, it’s on page G-4, in the spiffy i section. Here’s the blurb at the bottom: “LUIS LISTENS is a new column devoted to music. Luis was a staffer on PULP and MTV Ink, the first Editor-in-Chief of the online music magazine Pulse.ph, and is the co-founder of BURN Magazine.”

In this first installment, I react to last week’s NU 107 Rock Awards: "Last November 30, I attended the 14th installment of the annual NU 107 Rock Awards, at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. I always enjoy going to the Rock Awards—at the very least, there are always a few great performances, some laughs, lots of eye candy, and if the audience is lucky, one or two unscripted surprises, like the time Rosanna Roces flashed her mammarian assets while presenting an award, or the time the audience almost lynched Diether Ocampo for calling them jologs. At last year’s awards, there was an air of excitement, of near-giddiness—not just because NU had the good sense to make me one of the judges, but because bands were still riding high on the resurgence of rock, labels were still making good money on CD sales, and fans were enjoying releases by well-known favorites like Sandwich as well as fantastic new acts like Up dharma Down. [...] So, did this year’s awards ceremony measure up?"

I also plug Rock the Riles, and the launch of The Purplechickens’ second album, next week. Oh, and I crack some cheap jokes and threaten people with violence, but that goes without saying.

The BURN Year-Ender, Revisited

You know, I always loved those Vanity Fair issues that would focus on music or the movies and showcase the most prominent and/or interesting players in each field with great photo shoots, usually displayed in two-page spreads, often teaming up people you wouldn’t expect to see gathered in the same room together. So what I’m trying to say is, I’m really proud to be part of the November-December 2007 issue of BURN.

I know I’ve blogged about our year-ender issue before, but Denise just posted some pix of the pictorials, and you should go look:

http://dakneez.multiply.com/photos/album/223/BURN_Magazines_Year_Ender_Photo_Album

Of course, to get the full effect, you really must get a copy (available now! For the insanely low price of Php70!).

I did the short write-ups for “We Are the Champions” (Kamikazee + Kjwan), “Don’t Call Them Divas” (Sitti + Skarlet + Bituin Escalante), “Video Visionaries” (Pancho Esguerra, Marie Jamora, Avid Liongoren, and Quark Henares) and—my favorite—“Hip-Hop and They Won’t Stop” (Nimbus9, The Out of Body Special, Sinag, and Corporate Lo-Fi). A close contender for my favorite shoot of the bunch is “Soft is the New Loud,” pictured here, which features Sino Sikat, Julianne, and Up dharma Down. [Insert exclamation of rabid enthusiasm here.]

There you go: 17 pages of pix of the best musicians of 2007! Again, I applaud Denise and Conch for actually pulling this off, and am very happy to have played a small part in it. :) The immensely talented photographers involved were Tom Epperson, Carina Altomonte and Aldwin Aspillera.

Thanks Denise! :D

Couches Are Exactly 34 Awesome

Time travel, dinosaurs, claustrophobic pirates vs. hyperchondriac ninjas, and why your boyfriend hates Christmas -- all these are addressed here: 50 Answers. Never forget: Your lost socks become babies because you are so pretty.

(Thanks to Beaucoup Kevin for the link.)

Rock for Real: The NU107 Rock Awards

Went to the NU107 Rock Awards last night with Yvette. Wrote about it for Pulse.ph. Who won? Who lost? Who made me go "WTF"? Results and reactions here!An excerpt: "2007 marked the 20th year of the radio station’s existence, and the 14th installment of the awards show. We missed the pre-show, which featured a performance by Marcus Highway, but we got there just in time for the show proper, and to have our senses assaulted by a sex-themed intro video starring Asia Agcaoili, Ramon Bautista, and various cylindrical fruits and vegetables. Our main hosts for the evening were Asia, who, true to form, seemed to be wearing less and less clothing as the evening progressed (although who can blame her, considering how sweltery it got in the hall), and Zach Lucero, who looked rather dapper in a red sweatshirt that in the wrong context would have gotten him confused with a doomed Star Trek extra."

The BURN Year-Ender

Wow, three blog posts in a row! One would think I didn't have a full-time job any more... oh wait, I don't. ;p Actually, these posts have been sitting in my hard drive in half-finished form for quite some time; it’s just that I realized that most of them are about publications that came out in November, and November's almost over. So: November spawned a blogger. (Those of you who got the reference, feel free to scream and throw rocks.)

ANYWAY! If you are at all interested in music -- particularly the local scene -- and you haven't grabbed a copy of the new BURN yet, then... then... I'll come up with some amusing metaphor for how wrong that is, later. The year-ender issue is out now (I love year-ender issues), and as you can see, we pulled out all the stops. On that front cover alone, we've got Nimbus9, Kat of Sino Sikat, and Julianne in the front row, and Nyko Maca, Marc Abaya, Aia of Imago, and Jay Kamikazee in the back row. Big hand of applause to Denise and Conch for pulling off the logistically nightmarish shoots (and for much else, besides)! And there's lots, lots more inside, a whole parade of fantastic musical artists who made their mark in 2007. And of course, there's our Best Albums of 2007 feature. This time around, partcipating reviewers were: Cris Ramos Jr., Denise Mallabo, Dodo Dayao, Erwin Romulo, Kristine Lim, Lester Hallig, Thor Balanon, Yvette Tan and myself. Thanks, people!


This picture was taken during the first time I interviewed Sitti, over a year ago. That’s her on the far left, with me and Yvette on the far right. (Yes, I still had hair then.) The guy in the middle is photographer and clothing designer extraordinaire Che Katigbak, who also happens to be my Kuya.

Speaking of music, check out the i section of the Manila Bulletin today (Wednesday, November 28). In this week’s installment of my column, “The King of Nothing to Do,” I have an interview with the lovely bossa nova sensation Sitti.

LUIS: If you could talk to the younger you—the one who was working her way through college, singing in hotel bars—what would you say?

SITTI: I would say two things: one, all your efforts will pay off, just hang in there and work hard, and second, ironically, treasure your lounge act memories, where you are freer and there is no pressure at all from anyone. [smiles]

Imagine That

You may have seen this new magazine on the stands: it's massive, colorful and attention-grabbing, and it's called Imagine. Congratulations to Yonina Chan and company on the first issue! :)

Imagine is very visually-oriented, so in its pages you'll find spread after spread of fashion concepts and other forms of eye candy. There's lots of good stuff to read as well, of course. I'm one of the Contributing Editors, and for this first issue I wrote two short short stories ("Emily Around the World" and "Zo Invents"), as well as a short feature on award-winning comics creator Arnold Arre and his upcoming projects. An excerpt:

“I'm in the process of developing two stories,” Arnold tells us. The first is Martial Law Babies, “a coming-of-age story about a group of 30-somethings. We follow the lives of the characters, from their childhood memories to a present-day setting. It's a very personal story, and it came to me during one of those conversations with college friends over coffee. I also wanted to tackle some issues like where have our peers gone, what did they become? Why are we losing more and more talented people to first world countries? What role do we play in society? And aren't the younger generations getting better breaks in terms of work since they're adept in technology and from our perspective, more pampered? So I guess in a way another take on the title is that of us being trapped, we're under Martial Law so to speak. It's nearing completion, so hopefully we’ll get to see it in printed form sometime soon.”

The second project in the works is “another fantasy story, a different take on Filipino myths. The story is geared towards a younger audience, which I find to be a challenge since it's very new to me. In a nutshell, there is a worldwide organizing body of magic and myth holding friendly competitions for all creatures, gods, folklore beings and characters. Imagine an Olympics for the world of magic. Our delegates are a hodgepodge of troubled characters trying to band together as one team-a problematic tikbalang, a rebellious kapre, and several others being led by the team captain, a mambabarang who tends to be misguided in her decision making.”

Both projects are definitely something to look forward to -- not just for fans of local comics, but for people who appreciate stories in general.

Homestylin'

Man, I can't believe November's almost over! Been fairly busy on the freelancing front lately. I wrote the cover story for the November issue of the recently-launched Homestyle magazine. ("Redefining the Filipino home," goes the tagline.) If you're the kind of person who loves poring over magazines like Dwell and Vogue Living, and daydreaming about interiors and unusual designs, you should check it out. Much to my relief, my architect cousin Miguel, who is a partner in an Ortigas-based firm and whose taste I trust, has expressed his approval of Homestyle. (And he's very picky about his magazines.) Here's an excerpt from the feature:

"Like his home, Mikko Sison seems fairly normal at first. When I meet him, he is wearing a smart pair of glasses, a neat white shirt, pants with a subtle checkered pattern, dark brown suede shoes and an easy smile: the overall impression is that of a friendly, casually stylish intellectual. He’s pleasant and a little upscale, just like the brick-and-concrete façade of the two-story row house he is renting in Ecology Village, Makati City. And just like its inhabitant, the house may look perfectly respectable on the outside, but it harbors strangeness within."

Yvette = Winner!

L to R: Jaime Daez of Fully Booked ("Hellooo, ladies"), the lovely and overjoyed Yvette, and some English bloke

Great big CONGRATULATIONS to Yvette for her Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards win! *mwah mwah* :D Sponsored by Neil Gaiman and Fully Booked, this is the only competition in the country that focuses on speculative fiction, and due to a number of reasons -- Gaiman's involvement, the amount of prize money -- it's become perhaps the most anticipated and strived-for writing award in the land. Gaiman himself established it when he visited the country a couple of years ago: he noted that the Philippines has "a very strong tradition of realism" in its fiction, and he wanted to encourage "Philippine unrealism."

Yvette won 2nd place in the Prose category (there's a Comics category as well) for her wonderful short story, "The Bridge." Set during the time of a certain dictatorship, it's about a little girl in a small town with psychic abilities who encounters the First Lady. During the awarding ceremony, Neil praised it effusively, calling it "very, very creepy and really nicely done."


L to R: Half of Lyle Sacris' head, wild-maned Ramon, boyishly beaming Elbert, the amazing Arnold, gorgeous genius Yvette, and myself.

The awarding was held last Sunday, November 25, just outside the giant Fully Booked branch at The Fort. It was great to see so many familiar faces and to catch up with everyone. Arnold and Cynthia, Erwin, Ramon, Quark, Charles, Elbert, Ian, everyone. Dear friends Waya and Lala -- last year's grand prize winners for the Comics category, for "The Mad, Sad, Incredible but True Adventures of Hika Girl" -- were there too, with family and support crew (Fran, Elaine, Krissy etc.). Waya and I had gone on a day trip to Subic just the Thursday before, for Neil Gaiman's lecture on the imagination and its importance. (We got to talk to him briefly afterwards; will probably write about that too, eventually.)

After the event, the winners and some stray significant others like myself had dinner with all the judges and Mr. Gaiman. A very memorable end to a very memorable day.


Waya to the right of him, Lala to the left of him: Neil Gaiman flanked by the insanely talented Gallardo sisters.

These photos were taken from Cynthia's Multiply page. Thanks to the ever-masipag Charles for all the transcripts and updates. Neil Gaiman blogged about his visit here.

Diablo Cody Strikes

Is it wrong for me to adore Diablo Cody before I’ve read her book or any of her scripts? A couple of interviews, plus this picture, taken from her blog, tell me no. Such admiration is in all likelihood not misplaced.

Read more about the former stripper turned book author turned hot young scriptwriter at New York mag’s Vulture, at Entertainment Weekly (“Ex-Stripper Turned A-Lister”), and at Esquire, in the -- where else? -- Women We Love section. The EW piece is particularly informative and entertaining. Lots of stuff about Juno, the movie she wrote “sitting in Target in suburban Minnesota”:

When Jason Reitman, who'd made a name for himself with 2006's Thank You for Smoking, read the script for Juno, he scrapped plans to direct his own project to work with Cody instead. ''When I think of the response to Diablo and her screenplay,'' he says, ''the only person I can equate it to in recent history is Tarantino, that kind of overwhelming excitement about a fresh new voice.'' But the movie would have imploded fast without the right actress in the title role. Enter the impressive Hard Candy actress Ellen Page, who, Cody believes, beautifully embodies her wry, tough-talking, secretly tender main character. ''It would have been really heartbreaking to meet Ellen if she was like, 'Oh, hey, wassup?' while talking on a rhinestone-encrusted cell phone,'' says Cody. ''But she's so cool, she scares the s--- out of me. She is Juno.''

Ellen Page! I loved her in Hard Candy, even if I didn’t love Hard Candy itself. And I thought she made a great Kitty Pryde too. Lots of great buzz about Juno -- I can’t wait to see it. Funny though, this is probably the first time I’ve ever seen a film’s scriptwriter get as much, if not more than, buzz than the film itself. Not that that’s a bad thing, in my book.

Oh, almost forgot to include my favorite quote from the Entertainment Weekly article on D.C. Here it is:

"I'm f---ing sick of actors!" declares Cody, stabbing the lime in her third vodka soda. "They look airbrushed in reality. I swear Jennifer Garner has to be bathing in the blood of virgins because she has the most beautiful skin that I've ever seen on a human being. The boys too! I met Brandon Routh from Superman last year. He looks like a special effect. He's too beautiful to live. And actors are all tiny people. Why is that? I'm a hulk compared to them! If you look at pictures of me with actors, I look like I ate them all."

Making Magazines with Conch and Joey

Uploaded a new article on Pulse.ph: it's an interview with Clarissa "Conch" Concio and Joey Dizon, on their experiences as editors-in-chief of two major local music magazines, BURN and PULP. They gave pretty interesting answers.

Special thanks to Mari Arquiza for the great picture of Conch in performance. :)

The Adventures of Jobless Bunny, Revisited

So after over a year of working at a 9 to 5 job in Makati, I’ve gone freelance again. (Please don’t cry, Mom.) To commemorate my joblessness, I’m posting links to my old Jobless Bunny comics.

See, one night, two and a half years ago -- after I had left PULP magazine and before I started working at the Supreme Court -- I stumbled across a create-your-own-comics site called gnomz.com and quickly dashed off three installments of the adventures of an unemployed lagomorph (yes, I learned that word from Sam & Max). Never wrote any further episodes after that night, but I still look back on these three with some affection and amusement. But then of course I would, wouldn’t I?


Read part one of The Adventures of Jobless Bunny!


If you have even more time to waste, please peruse part two.


And finally here's part three. Yay!

Stop DJ Worship

Freaking hilarious. You must read: The Trancecracker. Now.

"But... we... glowsticks..." "How else do you think I lost my eye?" HAHAHAHAHA. Jack Chick tracts make the perfect template for making fun of so many things.

Balut Rules; or, We're Number 1! We're Number 1!

Read: The 6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World. I'm going to spoil the suspense for you right now: in a list that includes maggot-infested cheese ("This cheese is a delicacy in Sardinia, where it is illegal. That's right. It is illegal in the only place where people actually want to eat it,") and wine with dead baby mice in it ("Do you wince at the thought of swallowing a tequila worm? Imagine how you'd feel during a session on this bastard,") the NUMBER ONE MOST TERRIFYING FOOD IN THE WORLD is none other than balut.

I'm actually really happy that we ranked number one, if only because it makes us look like culinary badasses. ("[Balut is] enjoyed in Cambodia, Philippines and the fifth and seventh levels of hell. They are typically sold by street vendors at night, out of buckets of warm sand. You can spot the vendors because of their glowing red eyes, and the faint, otherworldly sound of children screaming.") And what's great is that even though this article is on a humor site that should ostensibly have little concern for being P.C., the writing is funny about the food described without actually implying that the people who enjoy it are idiots. Cracked.com is without a doubt one of my favorite humor sites right now.

Also, I find it interesting that we're so used to the idea of balut that I find every single other item on the list more terrifying. (Except for the "buttery and slightly nutty" escamoles, which I would totally try.)

"Live without fear. After all, you've already eaten a goddamned duck fetus."

Picked by Preview

Yvette and I are very happy indeed to be featured in the October 2007 issue of Preview magazine, on this year's "Creative 'It' List." :) According to the feature's intro, the list "rounds up a list of 26 bona fide talents that have earned distinction in their respective fields, and helped set the standards for artistic excellence." Woo hoo! We're especially delighted to be in the company of many people we genuinely admire, such as dynamic duo Marcushiro and Bru (a.k.a. Electrolychee), musical genius Malek Lopez, director Marie Jamora, production outfit Furball, singer Sitti, and some long-haired filmmaker named Kidlat de Guia, among many others. Thanks to Preview and to everyone involved!

Welcome to Dystopia

There's a a fun list up on At the Movies now: The Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time. I've only seen about half of these, so I guess it's time for another trip to Makati Cinema Square. In case the ranking makes you scratch your head, please note that it's based on averaged-out IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores as opposed to, say, the workings of a single rational mind. Hence I Robot ranks higher than Logan's Run or Strange Days or Idiocracy. Still, great list, though. And I can't argue with A Clockwork Orange, Brazil and Blade Runner coming out on top.

And speaking of Blade Runner! There's a great Ridley Scott interview up on Wired, about Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which I really really hope they will show in some nice theatre here when it comes out.

Finally, on a related note, there's this interview with Cory Doctorow about his short story "Scroogled," which depicts a frightening and all-too-possible scenario involving the misuse of the world's most popular search engine (read the short excerpt in the sidebar; it will ensure that you pause and think for a moment before punching in your next search query). Doctorow recounted:

I had a really interesting meeting a couple of years ago with some of the [chief information officers] of Danish ministries. We sat down to talk about data interoperability and document retention. Document retention's a really thorny one, because hard drives are cheap, and governments don't really understand why they shouldn't just save everything. Who knows when it will be useful? I started to talk to them about this, and a gentleman put his hand up and said you know, you may need to talk to people in other countries about this, but you don't need to talk to the Danes about this.

Because after the Nazis occupied Copenhagen, they went down to the police station and got from the files all the addresses of the people they wanted to round up and stick in boxcars, and they took them away. We don't retain anything here. As soon as we're done with it, we throw it away because we understand that you can't always predict how information will be used, and the only way to ensure it's not misused is to get rid of it when you're done with it.

I think it's important to note here that what makes Google Google, what makes them such a good target for this stuff, is that they make the best search product on the market. They are so important to all of our lives that it's vital that we start thinking about what they mean and how they work, and what it could mean to have that much power concentrated into just a few hands. And what will happen down the road if the company's culture changes.