the microeigengrau carcosite

Clearance

2011-02-01T19:28:00.003+08:00

Bagong buhok. Bagong buhay. Bagong blog.

Pag nababadtrip ako, baka dito na lang ako magpakasabog! Apir. Rakenrol.

Disband

2011-01-28T11:05:00.000+08:00

I know this is an old story, but I just want to say that any Portnoy may opt to quit or not quit his particular Dream Theater, for reasons that no one would fully understand. BUT let me insist that there has to be some mutual agreement, some sort of resolve to seal off the years of world domination as one Dream Theater. I ...need some sleep. A sleep devoid of dreams. Yup. And theaters, too.

0124

2011-01-24T10:57:00.007+08:00

This blog shall be a cemetery in about a month.

0123

2011-01-23T22:04:00.006+08:00

The title does not mean anything.

Nothing means anything.

This implies nothing.

***

Confession

by Charles Bukowski

waiting for death / like a cat / that will jump on the / bed

I am so very sorry for /my wife

she will see this / stiff / white / body / shake it once, then / maybe / again

"Hank!"

Hank won't / answer.

it's not my death that / worries me, it's my wife / left with this / pile of / nothing.

I want to / let her know / though / that all the nights / sleeping / beside her

even the useless / arguments / were things / ever splendid

and the hard / words / I ever feared to / say / can now be / said:

I love / you.

***

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you except because I love you;

I go from loving to not loving you,

From waiting to not waiting for you

My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love;

I hate you deeply, and hating you

Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you

Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume

My heart with its cruel

Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who

Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,

Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

***

Without You

by Herman Hesse

Translated by James Wright

My Pillow gazes upon me at night

Empty as a gravestone;

I never thought it would be so bitter

To be alone,

Not to lie down asleep in your hair.

I lie alone in a silent house,

The hanging lamp darkened,

And gently stretch out my hands

To gather in yours,

And softly press my warm mouth

Toward you, and kiss myself, exhausted and weak-

Then suddenly I'm awake

And all around me the cold night grows still.

The star in the window shines clearly-

Where is your blond hair,

Where your sweet mouth?

Now I drink pain in every delight

And poison in every wine;

I never knew it would be so bitter

To be alone,

Alone, without you.

***

Conversation

by Charles Baudelaire

Translated by William Aggeler

You are a lovely autumn sky, clear and rosy!

But sadness rises in me like the sea,

And as it ebbs, leaves on my sullen lips

The burning memory of its bitter slime.

— In vain does your hand slip over my swooning breast;

What it seeks, darling, is a place plundered

By the claws and the ferocious teeth of woman.

Seek my heart no longer; the beasts have eaten it.

My heart is a palace polluted by the mob;

They get drunk there, kill, tear each other's hair!

— A perfume floats about your naked breast!...

O Beauty, ruthless scourge of souls, you desire it!

With the fire of your eyes, brilliant as festivals,

Bum these tatters which the beasts spared!

***

The Bliss Of Sorrow

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

NEVER dry, never dry,

Tears that eternal love sheddeth!

How dreary, how dead doth the world still appear,

When only half-dried on the eye is the tear!

Never dry, never dry,

Tears that unhappy love sheddeth!

Barren

2011-01-16T13:24:00.008+08:00

Everything might be a work of fiction. This is fiction.

I should've written something here, and published my supposed last 2010 entry, but I opted not to. I tried to read, to write, to rationalize, to make sense of things, but I failed. I tried to breathe. I tried to think and to remember vivid images of the dilemma of others and the harsh social realities and other problems plaguing and threatening humanity that lead me to conclude that most of my problems as a petty bourgeois are trivial. Now, I doubt the objective truth of my realization. Things seem abstract during these illogical times of subjectivity when Reason is a Stranger. All these reduced everything I thought I learned into vagueness and speculations and footnotes and memories and information and inanimately psychedelic everything, though I've seen and felt the concrete backslap of this System during my soulsearch. I thought I knew how to handle things until I am confronted with something I did not expect AT ALL. I had a lot of things withdrawn. I wanted to refrain from unsolicited disclosure of internal torment. While everything I am trying to do ends up as failure, I maybe succeeding on one thing. Or so I thought. As I've often said, everything doesn't seem to make sense. Everything doesn't seem to make sense. Everything doesn't seem to make sense. But this painting and its description somewhat does. Thank you for sharing this link, Jonallin Yang. "All this pain is an illusion," sings Tool.

"About Distance: The title for Distance is very literal. It is a painting about growing apart, feeling cut off, alone. It is about the feeling of being able to sit right next to a person and yet feeling as if you are worlds apart."

Some writers on writing

2010-12-19T14:19:00.014+08:00

from [source]

hindi ko alam kung anong maitutulong nito sa mundo. pero, eto. andito na ito eh. at andyan na yan dati pa. ikaw na ang bahala sa maari mong gawin sa mga ito (Disclaimer: I don't necessarily agree to these, pero nafilter ko naman na, somehow, yung mga pinakahindi ko pinaniniwalaan. Pagpasensyahan na ang formatting, lalo pag nafeed sa FB):

"Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?" / "We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down." / "Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."

Kurt Vonnegut

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

Maya Angelou

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect."

Anaïs Nin

"Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for." Alice Walker

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

Henry David Thoreau

"Always be a poet, even in prose." Charles Baudelaire

"Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write." Rainer Maria Rilke

"A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him."

Dylan Thomas

"DWIGHT: Stay smart. Stay cool. It's time to prove to you're friends that you're worth a damn. Sometimes that means dying. Sometimes it means killing a whole lot of people." Frank Miller

"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

Sylvia Plath

"Fiction is the truth inside the lie."

Stephen King / Truman Capote (anu ba goodreads :L nambabluff ka ba?)

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." / "Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule." Stephen King

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." Isaac Asimov

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way." Ernest Hemingway

"In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody." / "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

Oscar Wilde

"A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper." Ursula K. Le Guin

"You're miserable, edgy and tired. You're in the perfect mood for journalism."

Warren Ellis (TRANSMETROPOLITAN ito, ano! Wasak talaga nun!)

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Toni Morrison

"I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness." Franz Kafka

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." / "Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair. Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species. (--speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1962)" John Steinbeck

"Better a good journalist than a poor assassin." Jean-Paul Sartre

"Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." Virginia Woolf

"Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him."

Vladimir Nabokov

"A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it to be God."

Sidney Sheldon

"The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen ... Perhaps it can't be done without the poet, but it certainly can't be done without the people. The poet and the people get on generally very badly, and yet they need each other. The poet knows it sooner than the people do. The people usually know it after the poet is dead; but that's all right. The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world."

James Baldwin

"When my horse is running good, I don't stop to give him sugar." / "Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.

Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."

William Faulkner

"A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends."

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Everybody gets told to write about what they know. The trouble with many of us is that at the earlier stages of life we think we know everything- or to put it more usefully, we are often unaware of the scope and structure of our ignorance."

Thomas Pynchon

"Writing is both mask and unveiling." E.B. White

"What is the purpose of writing? For me personally, it is really to explain the mystery of life, and the mystery of life includes, of course, the personal, the political, the forces that make us what we are while there's another force from inside battling to make us something else." Nadine Gordimer

"Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins."

"This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It's that easy, and that hard." Neil Gaiman

"Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like."

Walter Benjamin

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple." Jack Kerouac

"Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way." Ray Bradbury

"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself." Albert Camus

"Every writer I know has trouble writing. " Joseph Heller

"An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere." Gustave Flaubert

"The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text." Umberto Eco

A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul." Aldous Huxley

"Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth." Khaled Hosseini

"great writers are indecent people / they live unfairly / saving the best part for paper. / good human beings save the world / so that bastards like me can keep creating art, / become immortal. / if you read this after I am dead / it means I made it." Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems)

"To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing."

William Gibson

"Vigorous writing is concise." William Strunk

"No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell." / "All writing is filth." Antonin Artaud

(Tas naggoogle ulit ako para malaman nang ang somehow saktong words nito:)

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

Bertolt Brecht

“The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.”

Karl Marx

Post;poned / Proseproned

2010-12-18T14:01:00.007+08:00

I am thinking of bidding farewell to this blog. Or maybe focus on another blog. A new one untainted with shadows of the yesteryears--which shall not be possible, of course. And by the way, is it true that there yahoo!services are shutting down, besides geocities? I hope google, gmail, blogspot and other tied-in web service wont follow suit. I have too much to lose, if blogspot fvcks up and decides to fvck others by completely fvcking up into non-existence. (Well, perhaps this is an exaggeration since, maybe, we all still have something left to lose. Now, most of us, I think, can do without their friendster, multiply, myspace and other similar accounts in social networking sites. The case of excesses is most probably similar with stock e/ comic /books, films, music and other media--piling up, as we speak, remaining unread, unwatched, unlistened to, and so on.)

Anyway, back to microeigengrau carcosite concerns, I think I have at least five unpublished drafts kept in this particular carcosite and I am still hesitating or maybe opting to prolong their temporary deferral (sic! madi-dig ito ng mga tagaUPLB na medyo nagaabang ng updates sa campus issues!). For now, I want to start a webcomics project. But I don't know if I'll be able to regularly keep it updated. Would post the new website here, after posting the first entry. I have ten blogs at the moment. And only this one is being utilized. Ugh. I need to sort a lot of things out, and sort my life in the process, as well. I hope to get everything done before this year ends. Or, initially set things and other related matters for the grand design. Whatever that means. Early holiday greetings to all. I'd like to recycle something from last year to end this post:

(Imported the microeigengrau carcosite here. Shall fix things soon.)

Freed, the 43

2010-12-17T23:51:00.008+08:00

Detained for ten months

Were forty-three healthworkers

Freed by the People.

Morong 43.

Illegally arrested.

Released through Protest.

[news]

ZINE LAUNCH after STRIKE!

2010-12-13T20:06:00.005+08:00

DEKALIBRE cultural night / ZINE LAUNCH after STRIKE! [source]

Time 15 December · 07:00 - 10:00

Location CAS ANX @ Ruins University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines

Created by: Karma Komiks (spearheaded by UPLB Writers' Club)

More info the ELBI LAUNCH of "PANAYAM KAY IO" and

"COLLECTED VANDALISM: The Portable Gallery of Karma Kolektib #1:

A Small Press Against the Large Lecture Class Policy + Karmalendaryo 2011"

COLLECTED VANDALISM shall be sold at ??php

(This shall be updated as soon as possible!)

PANAYAM KAY IO, and LIHIM ng mga LESPU at 35php

ANG ENGKWENTRO SA PALMA BRIDGE NG MGA BATANG

PINALAYA(S) SA SINAPUPUNAN with a new cover at ??php

(depende kung ixexerox o ipprint)

mula sa UPLBWC

"Sa gitna ng nakaambang pagkaltas sa badyet ng UP at pagtaas ng

bayarin sa dormitoryo, pagningasin natin muli ang pagkundena sa

pinakamalaking bigwas sa demokratikong access sa edukasyong UP

- ang Tuition and Other Fees Increase.

DEKALIBRE: Depamilyarisasyon sa oryentasyon ng

Dekalidad at Libreng edukasyon sa UP

Disyembre 15, 2010 | 7:00PM | CAS Annex 2 Ruins, UP Los Baños

Hatid ng UPLB WRITERS' CLUB

sa pakikipagtulungan sa KARMA KOLEKTIB."

12th of 12th! 3 days to go and we STRIKE!

2010-12-12T00:31:00.016+08:00

I've said most of what I wanted to say in the Foreword part of the first anthology of Kartunista (KarMa) Manunulat. Feel free to browse any zine-like whatever I have with me, upon any ELBI encounter. Thoughts are, supposedly, free anyway. To sum up what has been said (and, perhaps done), the stakeholders of UPLB are faced with challenges larger than the large class policy. Amidst U.P.'s 300% tuition increase in 2006 under the Roman Empire, austerity measures were implemented--and any dissent was ignored, if not prohibited or violently silenced. Student institutions were paralyzed with administrative orchestrations, organizations were harassed and so on.

Now, four years after, amidst the P1.39B budget cut, there is an impending dorm fee increase (1000php / month?) and there are, as usual, upcoming commercialization schemes. The difference, though, is that the students, I think, now knew how to face these violations of academic freedom and democratic rights (in UPLB's case, without their University Student Council that, again, allegedly went to the beach while other councils during the GASC were deliberating on the stance re: budget cut! Isn't this delinquency, if not an utter manifestation of mediocrity? or even neglect of sworn duty, ie, to represent the students? Is this what they deem collegial and academic? Honor and excellence pala, ha.). There was once a day when it seems like the global education sector is on strike. Now, four years after, the 15th marks the 4th anniversary of Tuition and Other Fee Increases.

Some students though chose to divide to studentry by instilling malice against student leaders they deem delinquent--and this grouplet (same students that I'm pertaining to in the previous paragraph!), upon further scrutiny are actually the ones who fail, not just in their academics. They are delinquent in being scholars of the people as well, since they often shun the title as they'd rather call themselves scholars FOR the people, thus separating them in their ivory towers as mere charity or donors or givers to their poor, invalid, helpless, uneducated countrymen. The admin lapdogs, rabid lapdogs, in studentskin are, again, hiding in the guise of their flawed and ridiculous advocacies, which include pointing a finger at the Left and digging up insignificant corpses and magnifying trivial issues. Pero campaigning against budget cut and commercialization of education? May pasok / exam / field trip / gimik / akads / date / party / meeting / beach / escapade / atpbng excuse sila!

This is what KarMa's objective reality is, during its fourth anniversary and Kartunista-Manunulat Kolektib would still live up to the challenges of the most trying of the times. It is in this light that we encourage our fellow students to join the ranks of the larger studentry (and join with 'benevolent' forces even outside the youth sector) to assert for higher state subsidy for basic social services and criticize state abandonment of education. This is why we shall support and join the STRIKE on December 15. DEKALIBRE, a cultural night for free and quality education, then follows. Raising particular concerns re: education-related issues are the zines that we shall make available during the consecutive events.

LIHIM NG MGA LESPU has always been a rarity during comics conventions since, I think, no local komiks / illustrated narrative dares to be this political, especially during these dark times when a statement against the fascist state is equivalent to putting one's life in danger--other than being unpopular. The story is about a keen photographer who discovers something after joining the LAKBAYAN or the long march of the peasants from the Southern Tagalog region to Mendiola. LESPU, originally an ENG106 (Creative Writing) submission, was accepted as a workshop piece at the 10th IYAS Creative Writing Workshop.

ANG ENGKWENTRO SA PALMA BRIDGE NG MGA BATANG PINALAYA(S) SA SINAPUPUNAN, with a new cover (and title?!), and PANAYAM KAY IO are loosely connected stories that attempts to reimagine the Oblation and other related matters / issues / symbols / whatsoever U.P. stood for. Both also tells of an implicit war. Anyway, the former was a FIL20 (Piling mga Katha sa Panitikang Pilipino) requirement while the latter was the first wall komiks of KarMa. While jumpstarting and developing my other narratives including the coma200(Creative output) ANG FEBRUARY FAIR NG DIS PATER), PANAYAM was incubated for four years and it shall be released for the very first time in ELBI on the 15th. It was first sold at the BLTX.

Finally, the COLLECTED VANDALISM #1: THE PORTABLE GALLERY OF KARMA KOLEKTIB titled "A SMALL PRESS AGAINST THE LARGE LECTURE CLASS POLICY" + KARMALENDARYO 2011, our very first anthology, is the star of our ZINE LAUNCHING (Salamat sa UPLB Writers' Club). The title said everything I have to say.

So, cross the 15th on you calendar and please do attend the STRIKE then the DEKALIBRE cultural night tentatively set at the CAS Anx2 Ruins, before going on vacation, if you call what you are about to have "a vacation." Anyway, we might leave copies of the zines at Crazy Carabaos. We shall deliberate re: participating in KOMIKSTRIP 2011. Presyong negosyante kasi ang tables for indie eh. Sana makadiskarte, madala man lamang doon kahit papaano ang campaigns!

15, before the 15th!

2010-12-11T10:19:00.005+08:00

Dahil nakakatamad magplug, copypaste ko na lang ang nasa FB. Katatapos ko lang maglayout ng isa at after maglayout ng ilan pa, tsaka na ako magpproofread. Anyway, eto ang stat message na walang pakialam sa character constraint shit:

"UPLB! Markahan sa Kalendaryo: DEC15! STUDENTSTRIKE! DEKALIBRE cultural night kontra-state abandonment of education! Karma Komiks LAUNCH mala-ZINES: ELBI launch ng PANAYAM KAY IO, may copies pa ng LIHIM NG MGA LESPU at siyempre, ang COLLECTED VANDALISM: THE PORTABLE GALLERY OF KARMA KOLEKTIB #1 na tentatively titled THE SMALL PRESS AGAINST THE LARGE LECTURE CLASS POLICY. May kasama itong 2011 Calendar! Kaya markahan sa Kalendaryo, DEC15! To be announced pa ang venue, pero somewhere sa ELBI lang yan. Umaga til afternoon siguro ang STRIKE, gabi, malamang ang CULT NIGHT at ZINE LAUNCH."

Laos na to, pero wala akong pake, trip trip lang!

15 Characters

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books, video games) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what characters my friends choose.

01. Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment)

02. Spider Jerusalem! (Transmetropolitan)

03. Homer Simpson (Malamang!)

04. Mack the Knife (The Threepenny Opera)

05. "Pinhead" (Hellraiser)

06. The Great Cthulhu (Lovecraftian Mythos)

07. Qfwfq (Cosmicomics)

08. Tralfalmadorians (Slaughterhouse-Five)

09. V (for Vendetta!)

10. Diablos (Final Fantasy VIII)

11. Folken Fanel (Vision of Escaflowne)

12. Reiko (Contemplating Reiko)

13. Nathan Explosion (Metalocalypse)

14. Lord Fanny (The Invisibles)

15. Joker-Batman Tandem (Eh?)

KarMa Month?

2010-12-10T22:06:00.021+08:00

[

image: Eliphas as portrayed by (Clockwise)

Tilde Acuna, Regine Genato, AK Castillo
Ruffa Solano, Aye Sarapuddin, Bangs Colona.
*]

It is the 10th of December. Besides Kartunista-Manunulat Kolektib's 4th anniversary, it is the 62nd Anniversary as well of International Human Rights' Day. Somehow, this is good news, though, of course, it should have been done earlier and the 43 healthworkers should not have been detained in the first place, and they shouldn't have suffered 43 weeks of detention as computed here. As mentioned in the previous entry, this is human rights week, though, of course, human rights week should be observed not just on this season of the year. Anyway, please allow me to tell of this week and other related matters of concern (parang lahat ng bagay ata yun a, kasi lahat magkakaugnay. Ay, nga pala "KarMaalala Mo Kaya" dapat ang pamagat nito, nagbago lang ang isip ko! Ang wasak na ang lame na ewan!)

After BLTX, the FACTSHEET5 exhibit opening and RIGHTSv.3 NCR screening, came another tiring week. And another. And another. And I remain unemployed. Anyway, the week started with the discovery of a carinderia / canteen / food stall / whatever-you-want-to-call such, that sells second hand books (may tutubusin pa ako sa Monday na mga libro! Nasa akin na ang "Frida Kahlo: A Spiritual Biography," "Success and Failure of Picasso" ni John Berger, at Three Plays ni Bertolt Brecht). Bargaining for books with the reservation bulk piling up, we talked with the owner, and later, ended up leaving copies of LIHIM NG MGA LESPU. Future events might be held here, since the place is not the "usual" canteen and it does not feel like high end restaurants and ...wait, tama na ang advertisement pala!

The first to buy a copy from CRAZY CARABAO (located somewhere near UPLB) was a pastor affiliated with UCCP (United Church of Christ in the Philippines). I remembered Josel of QBCCC when a nun asked for his autograph and even a picture with him and his work. Haha. I think I felt the same when the pastor and his wife who teaches at CSI (Christian School International?) appreciated LESPU. We even invited them to the RIGHTSv.3 screening. (Ganda ng "43," isang shadowplay tungkol sa Morong 43. Ambigat :| akala ko nung una sa UPD lang ipapalabas.) Here's our 1-minuter public service announcement re: Human Rights. It is supposed to show how the AFP channels its counter-insurgency frustrations against legal, unarmed activists.

It was Wednesday, I think, when KarMa planned a zine launch as anniversary celebration. Then, the following day, we performed during Teatro Umalohokan Incorporated's ARTIKULO "Muling Pagtatala ng Nagpupumiglas na Sining: A cultural Night for the advancement of People's Struggle through Arts for the Masses." (Again, as in the previous entries, please pardon the spontaneity resulting into cluttered writing and expression of my train of thought. I blog for the sake of remembering important days of my life, and if you're interested, and willing to dig through the clutter, then do continue visiting. Anyway, I just recalled, Monday was Komiks workshop / discussion day with Umal Inc., thank you for the gas-lamp-like token!) It somewhat feels fulfilling that we haven't "repeated" a performance. This time, the performance seemed two-part, though the on-the-spot visual arts "jamming" on a human canvass (salamat ulit, Pura!) was done all throughout. The "first" part was something like a spoken word performance followed by a song from UPLB Kulayan.

Way back then, we used to stage shadow play performances, but after having no accessible or ready overhead projector, etc., we used to perform and think of gimmicks that would be unique to the particular performance, while, of course, living up to our name as cartoonists and writers, thus the performances shall have visual and literary elements. Somehow, KarMa is "returning" or inevitably "reverting" back to its roots: UPLB ibarang, a performance group. And I find this relieving and um... re-living?

Anyway, before this blog entry turns into Karmaalala mo kaya, I would like to end by inviting you to UPLB Writers' Club's cultural night titles DEKALIBRE (Depamilyarisasyon sa oryentasyon ng dekalidad at libreng education), where PANAYAM KAY IO and the very first Karma Kolektib Kalendaryo and/or Portfolio shall be launched (I've just thought of turning the folio into ones like SHELL's! Very National Bourgeois idea, against one of the sickest commercialization schemes, ie, LARGE CLASS POLICY in UPLB). This is set on December 15, as a celebration of KarMa's 4th anniversary and, of course, the group's collective and consistent stance against the P1.39B Budget Cut and other commercialization tactics against the education sector. Venue shall be announced ASAP. Teasers are meant to be released on the 12th of the twelfth month. I am also thinking of having an "anniversary edition" of PAKIO.

Hm... Two layouting jobs then. Two weekend headaches! Ay, to whom it may concern, by the way, had the rumours I heard been true, this is all I have to say about award-giving bodies that stink of dirty politics: I think fighting for rights is more worthwhile than fighting for privileges, so if that is the way you want it, so be it and enjoy your academic pretense. Let's find out soon. 'Nuff said!

UPLB STUDENTSTRIKE DIN ON DECEMBER 15! ANIV NG TUITION INCREASE!

Human Rights Week?

2010-12-04T21:09:00.004+08:00

December 10. International Human Rights Day.

Here are two human rights-related activities this week.

If you have the time, please do drop by the UP Film Institute, at the Ishmael Bernal Gallery, in particular. My installation "I want you so bad I've driven you mad" is part of the FACTSHEET 5 Visual Arts Exhibit, that had just been opened to the public yesterday. The factsheet I was tasked to visually interpret is about this human rights violation case committed by the CAFGU (a paramilitary armed group that serves the reactionary government) against a minor.

RIGHTS v.3 shall also be launched at the NCAS Auditorium of CAS, UPLB on Dec 7. The compilation of Public Service Announcements includes "Pissed Off (Pikon)," a 1-minute stop motion video against political killings. This is in collaboration with Mikel Mozo, who did ...nothing. Kidding. Mozo, who, ano, took care of the musical score and the still camera shots of the chess pieces I custom-made for this mini-production. The rest of the production was a collaborative effort, in cooperation with ELBi friends who agreed to let us use their humble abode.

Also, KarMa Kolektib celebrates its 4th year on December 10.

Panayam Kay Io etc.

2010-11-30T03:30:00.010+08:00

Okay. Here goes nothing. PANAYAM KAY IO is expected (at least I expect it) to be "launched" at the BETTER LIVING FOR XEROXOGRAPHY Press Expo at Ilyongs Project 4 Cubao, Dec 3. I am not sure whether I'll be there at 7pm, or Ill just appear at, say, 9 or 10pm. So far, I think I can make it and cram things before the event proper. (See, I used photographs as--well, see for yourself how I cheated my way to "break the deadline," while there is no actual deadline. The layout though was still a pain in the neck and the eyes and *some text missing*. You may browse, of course, and not buy it if you think I flunked and I am just ripping you off or something and you think your @35php does not deserve a copy of the mentioned komiks.) A few copies of the remaining LIHIM NG MGA LESPU shall also be sold. Xeroxed copies @30php and printed ones @35php (almost quite settled to not print another set of copies). I mentioned here that I shall post the final list, but so far, there is no final list YET. The 2007 illustrated narrative ANG ENGKWENTRO SA PALMA BRIDGE NG MGA BATANG PINALAYA(S) SA SINAPUPUNAN with a new title and new cover is also expected to be sold at @25, if it shall be photocopied, as, as of now, I am not sure whether it shall be printed as well (emphasis on "expected"). I resorted to printing, by the way, because the dark areas suffer from photocopying centers. Anyway,

If some things should further go horribly wrong, PANAYAM KAY IO wouldn't be launched then. But I am sure that it shall be finished not later than the fourth Anniversary of Kartunista-Manunulat (KarMa) Kolektib at the 10th of December 2010--the international human rights day.

The artwork "I want you so bad I've driven you mad," shall be installed at the Ishmael Bernal Gallery, UP Diliman on December 1. I received this FACT SHEET 5 poster by email and it confirmed that the Actual exhibit opening commences at 3pm and the event ends at 5pm. Details of the 3 December 3 events, including the RIGHTS v. 3 public screening [FB Event here] can be found in this previous entry here.

***

Beyond this point are quick musings.

***

At this point, I think I wouldn't be doing any komiks or any visual-arts related things anymore. Not that I've achieved anything in the komiks scene--as PANAYAM KAY IO shall actually be my first komiks. I consider all the others as either illustrated narrative or mere komiks pages such as KarMa works (this site needs an update). It just doesn't work. Or, maybe, I can talk with komiks artists for collaborative work and make thumbnail layouts or illustrations if needed. Or draw for myself and for my eyes alone. I might continue quasi-literary endeavors to preserve my sanity. By the way, I am Elbi-bound in a while. How I hate Elbi now. I have to have warnings before these tendencies to disclose. This carcosite is, still, for personal use after all. And I hope nobody minds since this is "my" public space. Thank you and please do come to the events mentioned. I am also thinking of not committing to such anymore. Just thinking. Well, you don't have to read this but I want to thank you for reaching. this. point.

"Kamusta 'tol?"

2010-11-29T19:07:00.006+08:00

O anumang katumbas nito. Pakiusap, huwag itong itatanong sa akin in public. Gagawan mo ako ng malaking pabor kunsakaling iiwasan mo ang tanong na iyan. Kung sincere sa pangangamusta, magpapakamusta ako sa kung saan, basta hindi in public. Bawal magtanong sa post na ito kung bakit. (Actually, wala namang nagbabasa talaga ng mga posts ko.)

3 December 3 Events

2010-11-25T21:08:00.017+08:00

Combo. Just like these three simultaneous studentstrikes: Italy | UK | Philippines

Still hesitating to post these, but, come what may. Huwag sanang ma-jinx:

FACTSHEET 5 Visual Arts Exhibit Opening [source]

featuring artworks based on actual human rights cases

03 December · 15:00 - 18:00

Ishmael Bernal Gallery, UP Diliman

Artists' ARREST | ST eXPOSURE | KARAPATAN-Southern Tagalog

UPFI Cine Veritas | UP Diliman University Student Council

RIGHTS v. 3 public screening [source] [previous entry]

A pioneering compilation of independently produced and human rights themed short films/public service advertisements (PSAs) initiated by Southern Tagalog Exposure and the Free Jonas Burgos Movement in 2007, RIGHTS exposes the incessant human rights hostilities in the Philippines. It is an open and continuing call for filmmakers to participate in the growing movement to defend and uphold human rights.

03 December · 19:00 Plaza Miranda / FEU / Mirriam College [?]

07 December · NCAS Auditorium, University of the Philippines - LB [?]

Artists' ARREST | ST eXPOSURE | KARAPATAN-Southern Tagalog

UPLB Zoomout Multimedia Collective | FREE JONAS BURGOS MOVEMENT

Better Living Through Xeroxography [source]

* A VERY SMALL SMALL PRESS EXPO *

BOOKS! KOMIX! ZINES! SHIRTS! OTHER STUFFS!

03 December at 19:00 - 04 December at 03:00

Ilyong's / Kalantiaw / Project 4 / Cubao

Thomasian Writers Guild! Aklat Kurimaw! Ink Elephant! Tilde Acuna! Gelo Suarez! Macoy! Papermonster! Cavite Young Writers Association! Mark Angeles! Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium! the Youth & Beauty Brigade! Mike David! UP UGAT! UP Writers Club! Heights! High Chair! Gerilya Komix Krew! Kuliti! Komikasi!

And maybe some other peeps who might decide to drop in unannounced!

There'll be free books and zines! Text 09279439836 for more details!

Here are maps to the venue [map1][map2]

* DITO NA BUMILI NG PAMASKO * SUPPORT THE PINOY SMALL INDIE PRESS *

*Beyond this line ay mga paliwanag!*

Never mind the supposed release of PANAYAM KAY IO.

I am supposed to sell somewhat "new" editions--na either new covers lang naman or edited shameless plug pages--of Lihim ng mga Lespu, Ang Engkwentro sa Palma Bridge nung mga Batang Pinalaya(s) sa Sinapupunan at Killing Disease. Would post a final list of releases ASAP. Sure na though ang Lihim ng mga Lespu kasi lumanding dito. Yung mga natira noong Komikon 2010 na photocopied versions ay 30php. Yung bagong mga printed versions (kasi, tingin ko, badtrip ang kalidad nung photocopied) ay 35php (pasensya na sa +5php).

Muli, dito ko na siguro pasasalamatan ang mga bumuhay sa akin noong isang linggo habang nasa ELBI kung saan ang punks ng pakiramdam kasi nakikitulog at lagalag at walang tiyak na pera ako noon: Yung mga bumili ng unang bago at printed na editions ng Lihim ng mga Lespu: sina Rico, Seth, Ayel, Ta-tuh, Charmie, Magtan, Xean, TJ at Blocmates ni Aye.

Asahang bago matapos ang taon, irerelease ang PANAYAM KAY IO, pero, so far, possible pa namang mairelease siya sa third of December at parang willing ako, ata, na hindi umattend nung ibang events matapos lang ang komiks na tingin ko eh "nagsimula ng lahat."

UPLB Perspective Nostalgia

2010-11-11T17:12:00.004+08:00

I think it has almost been a year since the release of the first and only regular issue of UPLB Perspective SY 2009-10. Student funds were not collected, paralyzing the publication but never its dissent against repressive administration policies. I'd keep this entry short--still had things to do. A lot. Sigh. Anyway. Download the pdf file here. I just had the urge to post this entry for Tisa. Salamat. Because I remain unemployed, I've been doing projects that shall be posted on this site.

RIGHTS v.3 / QBCCC Plug

2010-11-08T13:15:00.014+08:00

This is only a preview for the entry of Tilde and Mikel Mozo. Here's the original intro lifted from the call for submission of Artists' Arrest:

"The Southern Tagalog Exposure and ARTISTS’ ARREST “Artists Response to the Call for Social Change and Transformation,” in cooperation with KARAPATAN-Southern Tagalog and the FREE JONAS BURGOS MOVEMENT is now organizing the third installment of the “RIGHTS” project - a compendium of short videos intended to increase awareness and rally support behind the respect for human rights. RIGHTS was designed as a continuing project. It has successfully produced 2 volumes containing the works of budding and established filmmakers alike."

The FACTSHEET 43 Art exhibit left One Caldi Place, UPLB. I think it is in Sagada this week, then it shall later rest in Baguio City for another week. Please visit the UPLB Zoom Out Multimedia Collective Page for further details about these activities. Along with the premiere of RIGHTS v.3 shall be the opening of another FACTSHEET in December. These films and artworks shall also be brought to UPLB soon. Abangan!

Got the image here. The fanpage here. The preview here. More info here. The Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium, available at the November 13 Komikon. Starmall. Tickets at 80php [?].

Fifth of November Rigmarole!

2010-11-05T15:10:00.008+08:00

disclaimer, before anything else: a spontaneous super-extra rough draft!

Remember remember the fifth of november bla bla bla, shall (re)post the comics later or some day in the near future. Guy Fawkes, V for Vendetta whatsoever, wiki elaborated about the 5th of November: "1605 – Gunpowder Plot: A conspiracy led by Robert Catesby to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is thwarted when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the House of Lords."

***

First stop, general GASC adventure! Backgrounder: The General Assembly of Student Councils convene to amend the Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection (CRSRS) and eventually select the next Student Regent (SR)--the student representative in the highest policy-making body of the University of the Philippines System. There has been this post (and this post), to which this post responds, but I shall try not to dwell on those issues they already discussed.

Amendments have been proposed ad infinitum, but has then been rejected by the GASC. Only in 2005 has those amendments been "accepted," but that resulted into our deliberation until daybreak (actually, if I remember correctly, the 2005 GASC that selected Raffy Jones Sanchez in UPLB was concluded at about 7am the next day)! No argumentations and hypothetical hocus pocus: this clearly is just one of the downsides of the one-council-one-vote proposal, given that the SR shall be selected by a two-thirds vote to represent the UP students in the Board of Regents policy-making. Imagine the intimidation Malacanang regents and their cohorts might inflict upon an SR roughly voted by a simple majority. With the current CRSRS, the SR has been harassed. What more if s/he was not voted by a relatively larger fraction of the student councils.

Another forever proposed is the grade requirement for the SR post. Time and again, grades are subjective. There are even student leaders (including me!) who were suspended because of admin-manufactured cases further trumped-up by their lapdogs disguised as student leaders. And, if the SR nominee's academic record is exceptional, then why not try convince students that his/her grades can suffice for the SR post by including his/her awards or whatsoever in his/her CV and mission and vision statement? Nothing bars the SR nominee to announce that s/he is running for honors, a super genius, and the like! Let the students decide. Democratize the process by not excluding those student leaders who are not, really, delinquents--but rather opinionated and principled enough to be targets of political harassment, especially of governing powers in universities and colleges. And if you assume the SR nominee's delinquency, then grill him/her during the deliberation process. Nothing shall stop anyone from doing so! Ask the SR aspirant, "Kaklase mo ko sa English 2, bat ka bagsak?" at your own risk, especially if you really think that THAT failure shall hinder her serving the students.

***

Next stop, GASC 2005! (GASC lang naman ata etong post na to eh!). I vividly remember how one of my co-councilors cried telling me that (Ate) Shine (Salgado) is really his SR choice because they (his political party, I presume) have worked with her already, and they know her work ethics and her competence for the SR post despite her failure to answer my general question about the World Trade Organization (as general as "If you exit this room and find yourself at the WTO meeting, what would you tell them?"). I alone (and Irvin Rivera during the CRSRS segment ata ano?), based on the grilling, wanted Raffy Jones Sanchez to be selected because of how he performed during the deliberations. As mentioned in a comment, the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council (CASSC) voted for the aforementioned amendments plus the removal of KASAMA sa UP (Kalipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP, which by the way, invites ALL student councils of the UP system but they (majority of the 2005 CASSC and their superfriends) wanted it removed from the CRSRS document because of its alleged "bias" despite KASAMA sa UP's role in the SR Office as merely secretariat) amendment.

Though such political differences exist between myself and my co-councilors that are present during the Assembly, I have to commend their recognition of my disagreement with their decisions. I still remember Karl Marx Conde saying "The CAS Student Council votes for the amendment with the strong contention of Mr. Acuna." But, I shall never forget when the CASSC sponsored the "Malacanang on the spot" forum where a Cabinet member of Arroyo was invited as speaker. All these without the consent of the council members, including those who ran under their political party. I later found out that only the chair decided on the matter. O well, sorry, another issue pala iyon, but I can't help but remember. I think, though, that this tyranny of numbers of the current USC UPLB is worse than the 2005 student councils.

***

Last stop, GASC 2007 [?], o was it 2008? Ugh, basta USC 2007-08 ang representatives. (Sabi na nga ba, GASC nostalgia ang post na to eh. Related pa rin naman sa 5th of November kasi British Parliament ang pasasabugin.. tama na.. obyus nang palusot.) Er.. sorry for the self-reference, but this was my GASC performance art event. In essence, what I said on the podium was about the carousel of an argument for/against the amendment barrage of parliamentary blabber from the majority and the grouplet that endlessly propose the amendment annually as if that is their pledged obligation or whatever they wanted to call that twisted pilgrimage of their heroic deeds! (agit! sorry naman. inhale-exhale. wrong grammer? k!) Anyway, I did actually revolve around the podium like an earth to a sun while stating what the USC UPLB 2007-08 thinks regarding the assembly and the amendment in consideration.

It is quite infuriating that up until now, the same amendments from the same proponents in the same event that is the GASC plague the solidarity of UP students against the 1.39 billion-peso UP education budget cut--later to find out that allegedly, the so-called "student leaders" of UPLB walked out and expressed their dissent under the pretense of a beachscapade! Do not dare be judgmental. That is an alternative form of protest! As I've said, never ever walkout from your classes to campaign against education budget cut, because grades are the end-all and be-all (hence the "we are students first before we are leaders" law and other sorts of individualistic crap)! If you have the urge to walkout for the welfare of the students, do so during a meeting de avance when you can no longer answer the other politcal party, or during a deliberation re: the mentioned UP budget cut, so you could protest while having fun in the beach like hip and cool (never grim and determined! ew!) student leaders--alternative activist leaders for the students: "iskolar ng bayan para sa bayan."

***

It came to an end and all I loudmouthed, in written form, was all about the GASC. Meanwhile, where is the stand of the current USC of UPLB on other issues? Where is the promised assessment of the FIRST State of the Nation Address of the Haciendero Republic? Is the GASC the favorite activity of this USC? Next perhaps to the February Fair and Parties against Large Class Policy? O I remember this Council of Student Leaders meeting!

***

All these are inquiries from an alumnus (Naks!). May the current USC take these as questions and challenges rather than mere bashing. I think I had my statements backed by somehow objective conditions, with, of course, my inevitably subjective inputs.

***

[eto kung ayaw magclick ng link. statement ng usc uplb]

The Golden Post / First Carcosite Aniv

2010-11-01T17:39:00.006+08:00

This is a celebration of (re)birth amidst reminiscent mournings over the deaths of our loved ones. It has been a year since the Shade-inspired Microeigangrau blog has been put up, later evolving into the microeigengrau carcosite. This blog has been my "dumpsite" of personal musings and socio-political inquiries--much like your own personal blogs, perhaps. The Carcosite has served its purpose well as an outlet and repository of experiences towards what I am and what I am to be. So, I think a retrospective shall be imminent. Let me begin, then.

[Ugh. I was just hyperlinking and discussing my previous posts, then I decided to stop. The darkhives are right there anyway. I shall just post a top 10, I guess. Here we go, in no particular order, besides chronological. Labo Mehn.]

01. The New Year Reflection.

02. The Iyas and literature and such.

03. The Factsheet 43 Art Exhibit.

04. The Schools of Thought.

05. The Tribute of Tributes.

06. The Lakbayan 2010.

07. The Bookseller Walanghiyang Shameless Plug!

08. The Sunday Times Walanghiyang Shameless Plugs!

09. The Meme / Bandwagoner Collection.

10. The Intro / Welcome to Microeigangrau.

more from wiki! October 31 - November 01 Happenings!

OCTOBER 31

This day is internationally known as Halloween, also known as All Hallow's Eve, Reformation Day, and Day of the Dead for the Philippines. It is the set date for the annual Egg Challenge.

Events:

1517 – Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

1941 – After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed

1954 – Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

Births:

1795 – John Keats, British poet (d. 1821)

1959 – Neal Stephenson, American author

1970 – Linn Berggren, Swedish singer (Ace of Base)

Deaths:

1926 – Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician (b. 1874)

1984 – Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)

1987 – Joseph Campbell, American author and expert on mythology (b. 1904)

NOVEMBER 01

November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 60 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events:

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.

1954 – The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.

Births:

1567 – Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, Spanish diplomat (d. 1626)

1889 – Hannah Höch, German Dada artist (d. 1978)

1935 – Edward Said, Palestinian-born literary critic (d. 2003)

Deaths:

1907 – Alfred Jarry, French writer (b. 1873)

1972 – Ezra Pound, American poet (b. 1885)

2010 – Ernesto Presas, Filipino martial artist (b. 1945) [eh?]

AND just as I am into writing and nostalgia and all the crap, PLDT myDSL and my wifi connection and Gehenna is pissing the hell out of me. So, that's it for now. :)

First Samhainniversary

2010-10-31T22:45:00.002+08:00

Panget ng pun. Anyway, thoughts too cluttered to be communicated. Might post about "microegangrau" that later became "the microeigengrau carcosite" in the soonest time possible. No one seems to be reading, anyway. Good night. Pray.

Cyberpunking Again: A WRSD PS!

2010-10-26T11:25:00.021+08:00

Hyperlink-laden ito!

Somehow, this is going somewhere. Got my copies of sunday times. Had very insightful exchange of ideas with Rhodge and Julien re: prose, poetry and life (Naks! paDeepsh*t!) . Then, an accidental World Raising the Standards Day enlightenment. Reminiscence of the the not-so-recent past comes next. Have read a Neonomicon review, and Alan Moore's take on magic and comics and Watchmen here, and here. Currently (re?)reading cyperpunk-related essays that seem quite familiar such as these two matrix essays, this Transmetropolitan review with scans, and this list of sci-fi films that I might watch later. And, would also queue two threads from filipinowriter.com. Hm.. Where would I schedule Steampunk and Automatik Kafka, then? :L Viewed a steampunkd tumblr here. And a geeky alphabet here. Somehow moved on with the NU issue. Few days to go and it is someone's birthday and something's anniversary. In between is The Deadline! And as we speak, here's a link to news that media conglomerates would not dare cover. Spontaneous post. Reflects how I need focus. That's 20 links, if I counted correctly. I need sleep. But I can't.

Wouldn't be in any social networking sites for around five days. Please kontak me via yahoo messenger or email or sms, had there been anything that you need to tell me.

PS (within a PS [within a PS! Nakailang [re]copypaste ata ako!])

An announcement from The Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium that would be launched at the November 13 Komikon, then I would logout!:

ATTENTION! First volume ng QBCCC! Contributing creators: Adam David * Ammathorn * Apol Sta. Maria * Bugsy Garcia * DJ Legaspi * Hub Pacheco * Jim Faustino * Jobert Cruz * Josel Nicolas * Mervin Malonzo * Norby Ela * Rex Romano * Tilde Acuña * Teddy Pavon

70 - 80 pages of craziness! November 13! Komikon!
p.s.: Those who still owe us stories for this volume, HURRY UP & SUBMIT (AJ!)! Thanks.
p.p.s.: Lineup may still change... sana hindi na. Pero final na yan! Wala nang aangal!

NU107, No More?

2010-10-25T19:10:00.010+08:00

After reading this shared FB link, I felt pissed. More pissed, of course, than I was back then when I stopped listening to NU107.5, the home of nu rock, after being unlucky enough to hear a lot of 6cyclemind, and the like, that they aired (You know what I mean, I assume. And, Tanduay + 6cyclemind et al is another issue, as told by Cabring Cabrera of Datu's Tribe--another screwed up reality in the music industry. Actually, in the art industry, as shown by Banksy!). The decision to shut the only radio station--which served as a venue to a variety of rock and even metal genres--down is just.. so wrong. Especially in this case, where it appears that the reason is "financial" and "commercial." I only had my taste of FM metal during those friday nights eons ago... Metal Madness, I believe, that was Metal Madness, right? Googled and found a thread that predicted the downfall of NU. Nostalgia is all there is now, it seems. I did not like the latest NU107, but I did not want it gone. Sigh. Hello, another novelty radio station in the making. Goodbye, FM radio. Go, torrent! And WDRS! HAY.

LAKBAYAN 2010

2010-10-23T21:30:00.003+08:00

This would be short. Though we did our own Lakbayan march on our own and we arrived just after the burning of the Haciendero Republic effigy, this peasant activity is something I would remember. Way back then, I was one of those who documented the March (I need to find those videos. THAT dramatic march against the rising morning sun! Sigh.). And how I wish to have done the same--every Lakbayan--had my primary contradictions been resolved. Anyway, this time, despite almost being seemingly a mere spectator to the strength of the movement and listener to the mind-opening speeches of mass leaders, I can say that this day shattered, again, all my constructed beliefs /theories about art, and the like. What those realizations are, I cannot relay and discuss in detail at the moment. All I can say is the "scene" outside the academe is not what I thought it was--as told/warned by our mentors in educational discussions. Well, I would like to end this short entry with two of Ka Daning's quotable quotes, as I have heard (Or what the 'essence' of the quote is.) "Nagkamali tayo nang rinig, pero ngayon, malinaw na ang sinabi ni Pnoy: Kano ang boss ko!" and "Ang kamote, pag tinatalbos, dumarami sa ilalim."

Back to Drawing

2010-10-15T05:30:00.005+08:00

Seems like somehow, it is going well. I hope it really is.

Zombie-ing again really gives the productivity illusion.

About two days to go, and it's LAKBAYAN. Another hope.

15 Filmmakers

2010-10-14T03:57:00.006+08:00

Game! Bandwagon ulit! Hehe. Andami nga lang cartoons. Tagged ni PJ sa FB.
Madaya ito, pero andito ang mas madaming kinseng mas madaya.

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen filmmakers who've influenced you/you have an affinity with/that will ALWAYS STICK WITH YOU. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag [at least] fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what filmmakers my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.)

00. Adam Jones
01. Brothers Quay
02. Mamoru Oshii
03. Fritz Lang
04. Jan Svankmajer
05. Lino Brocka
06. Wong Kar-wai
07. Tim Burton
08. Ridley Scott
09. Hayao Miyazaki
10. Peter Chung
11. Matt Groening
12. Christopher Nolan
13. Satoshi Kon
14. Guillermo del Toro
15. Alex Proyas

***balik inks!***

***nalimutan ko si Linklater! Kaso wala akong maalis sa list!***

The Ouracle [ii] at the Sunday Times

2010-10-10T00:06:00.008+08:00

The last of the two parts of the walanghiyang shameless plug last week. Read the previous entry here. Read the part ii here. Go directly to part i without reading the blog entry here. I hope I could watch Juan Isip at the park later, so I could then have a side trip at the Manila Times office somewhere in Manila. The problem is, I've no cash left. The elbi trip two days ago was a miracle of the gods. Anyway, it is 10.10.10, and I do not have any copy of the stories: Killing Disease and The Ouracle yet. During the recent elbi visit, I saw the copy at the Department of Humanities in UPLB though. I think that is more than enough. Thanks again, Sir Ordonez and Sir D. * yearn for the US vs John Lennon * sigh * publish post * Good sunday morning.

An Excerpt from a John Lennon Interview

2010-10-09T23:05:00.008+08:00

Before the day of John Lennon's birth ends, here's an excerpt from an Interview. Copied and pasted from Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview. Happy 70th. Exit Through the Gift Shop, then this? At least I had some thinking to do. Mao wants balance and success with form (aesthetics) and content (politics), right?

After something about form (here's a copypasted nitwit from twitter),

(_tilde) thinks Banksy and Mr. Brainwash. Questions art. Speculates that it is all a joke that people buy. Well, what isn't? Diba, The Comedian? Sigh11:53 PM Oct 7th via web

Here's something about content:

TA: No ruling class in the whole of history has given up power voluntarily and I don’t see that changing.
YO: But violence isn’t just a conceptual thing, you know. I saw a programme about this kid who had come back from Vietnam – he’d lost his body from the waist down. He was just a lump of meat, and he said, ‘Well, I guess it was a good experience.’
JL: He didn’t want to face the truth, he didn’t want to think it had all been a waste…
YO: But think of the violence, it could happen to your kids…
RB: But Yoko, people who struggle against oppression find themselves attacked by those who have a vested interest in nothing changing, those who want to protect their power and wealth. Look at the people in Bogside and Falls Road in Northern Ireland; they were mercilessly attacked by the special police because they began demonstrating for their rights. On one night in August 1969, seven people were shot and thousands driven from their homes. Didn’t they have a right to defend themselves?
YO: That’s why one should try to tackle these problems before a situation like that happens.
JL: Yes, but what do you do when it does happen, what do you do?
RB: Popular violence against their oppressors is always justified. It cannot be avoided.

YO: But in a way the new music showed things could be transformed by new channels of communication.
JL: Yes, but as I said, nothing really changed.
YO: Well, something changed and it was for the better. All I’m saying is that perhaps we can make a revolution without violence.
JL: But you can’t take power without a struggle…
TA: That’s the crucial thing.
JL: Because, when it comes to the nitty-gritty, they won’t let the people have any power; they’ll give all the rights to perform and to dance for them, but no real power…
YO: The thing is, even after the revolution, if people don’t have any trust in themselves, they’ll get new problems.
JL: After the revolution you have the problem of keeping things going, of sorting out all the different views. It’s quite natural that revolutionaries should have different solutions, that they should split into different groups and then reform, that’s the dialectic, isn’t it – but at the same time they need to be united against the enemy, to solidify a new order. I don’t know what the answer is; obviously Mao is aware of this problem and keeps the ball moving.

World Teachers' Day

2010-10-05T01:31:00.025+08:00

Hindi ko maaalala lahat, pero hindi ko naman malilimutan ang mga turo lalo pag gagamitin na sa tunay na buhay. Bale, malilimutan ko pala kasi hindi nagagamit sa tunay na buhay ang karamihan ng tinuro sa Pamantasan. Syempre joke lang, maams at sers. Pasasalamat sa tiyaga. Iuupdate ko na lang ang post na ito kapag naalala ko ang iba. Paunang pasintabi na sa malilimutan.
Kinder to Hayskul muna. Teacher Annie Zarate, Teacher Dolores Usa [?] na lang ang naalala kong mga teacher nung first half ng elem. Ms. Rey at Ms Almazen nung lumipat. Teacher Roda, Pastor Andy, Teacher Christine. Maam Malou, Maam Josie, Sir Art, Maam Eugel, Pastor Daniel [?] ang Titser naming natutulog sa klase hehehe. Maam Abello. Tsaka Maam Jo.
College naman. Maam Jo Crisostomo. Sir Bob Figueroa. Sir Dulds. Sir Jaime Samaniego. Maam Pleni [?], Maam Rizza, Maam Jen Aguila, Maam Marge Paterno, Alan Jay Natividad, Sir Arlegue, Maam Saniano, Maam Larcy Bello, Maam She Bano, Maam Eloisa Martinez, Maam Arejola, Sir Glenn Lubuguin, Maam Ong, Maam Janette Malata,
Kailangan kong ihiwalay ang mga sumusunod bilang mga mayor na impluwensya. Sir Dennis Aguinaldo, Sir Emmanuel Dumlao, Maam Beng Espinosa, Sir Paul Zafaralla, Maam Kei Tan

Kung ang hinahanap ay pahayag na may kinalaman sa education at sa kakulangan sa budget nito, nasa facebook ang statement ng mga makabayan nating guro. Andito ang press release ng ACT Teachers' Partylist, at ito naman ang statement ng CONTEND (Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy). Ang susunod ay personal nang pasasalamat sa mga naging propesor sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Los Banos at syempre, sa labas ng apat na sulok ng silid-aralan, minsan, sa lansangan.

Hm... Second thoughts, second thoughts. Huwag na pangalanan lahat. Magtatop-five na lang ako ng nasa academe, tas another top five na hindi "pormal" na guro, ano? In no particular order ha. Depende sa memorya.

1. Kapalitan ng kuro-kuro mula komiks, agham, panitikan hanggang ilang current events national o campus issues man, ang nag-encourage sa aking magpasa ng mga akda sa mga publikasyon at mag-apply sa mga writing workshop at dumalo ng mga kumperansya tungkol sa panitikan, ang kritiko ng creative output ko, si Sir Dennis Aguinaldo.

2. Isa sa mga facilitator ng unang dinaluhang poetry workshop sa labas ng Pamantasan kung saan tinalakay niya si Jose F. Lacaba, gurong may magaling na handling sa FIL20, naging seminarista kaya isa sa mga nagturo sa akin ng ibang teorya ng liberation theology, ang propetang thesis adviser kong si Sir Emmanuel Dumlao.

3. Guro sa Thea107 na isang memorable na bahagi ng buhay CommArts kung saan marami akong natutunan sa loob ng Produksyon tungkol sa teatro at sa pakikitungo sa ibang tao--sa iba't ibang uri ng mga tao na malamang sa malamang ay makakasalamuha at tingin ko eh nakakasalamuha ko na nga sa labas ng Pamantasan, si Sir Joey Vargas.

4. Ang art critic na gumawa para sa akin ng typewritten (as in written sa typewriter, yung may ribbon na itim, yung makinilya) recommendation letter para sa [P] Editor in Chief selection process, ang nagpareport sa akin tungkol sa sayaw tas kailangan daw may "example" (kaya buti pumayag ang Filipiniana magperform sa class), Sir Paul Zafaralla. Phinotocopy ko ang nasabing recom letter, Sir. Kaya may kopya ako. Ganun din ang ginawa ko sa recom letter ng

5. Kilabot na prof, lalo na ng mga sumusunod: hindi nagbabasa, lutang ang utak habang nasa klase, nagbasa pero hindi naintindihan ang readings, walang alam sa ibang bagay maliban sa acads, di mo maintindihan gusto palabasin sa ipinasang paper, etc., at masasabi kong isa ako sa pinakaswerteng mga taong napabilang sa mga naging estudyante ni Maam Beng Espinosa.

Mga hindi naman teacher by profession, pero nagshare pa rin ng leksyon:

1. Ermats. Siyempre. Life's first lessons. Well, kahit hanggang ngayon naman.

2. Mark. Bagamat mayabang, matiyaga, hindi lang sa pagtuturo kundi sa paghahanap ng oras para makapagturo. Mahusay magbigay ng mga halimbawa. Tulad ng madaming instruktor, hindi nagsasawang magpaliwanag, nasa gitna man ng diskusyon, o kahit bago magpahinga, bilang housemates kami.

3. PJ at Nikki. Sa kanila ko ata unang nalaman ang Social Realism.

4. Mickey. Nitong mga huling araw, sa kanya lang ako nakakapagpalitan ng mga ideya tungkol sa iba't ibang schools of thought. Wala rin sawang sumagot sa mga tanong kahit pa epal lang at nagmamaganda ang mga tanong, tulad ng mga sa kapwa philo niyang si Sandra.

5. Teta. Ang nagpakita sa akin kung paano pasayawin nang tama ang mga anino.

Muli, salamat. Sana magkaroon uli ng pagkakataong magkatalakayan tayo.

BONUS

Allan Jay Natividad - Artistahing (daw ) philo 1 prof na nangcultureshock sa akin noong ako ay musmos na freshman pa lamang. Bumalik ka nang elbi, ha Allan Jay. Napakasabog ng klase natin.

Jerrold Tubay - Una at huli kong singko noong college. Freshman ako noon. math17

Jonnah Valero - Sis. Gusto kong maka-uplb-ibarang-handshake ka ulit.

At IKAW. Buwan natin ito dapat, ano? Taon na rin sana at 10.10.10.

Taon, lampas kalahating dekada, na rin ang nakalipas. Sana andito ka.

Gusto kitang batiin at kamustahin at tanungin, para malinawan ako.

Apir. Salamat. Magkikita din tayo, balang araw. Hehe. :)

The Ouracle [i] at the Sunday Times

2010-10-03T11:36:00.020+08:00

Walanghiyang shameless plug ulit.

It is the first Sunday of October, and here is the first part of The Ouracle. I do not know what it would imply now, because the State and the Church are having lovers' quarrel or something. The said story was written without any references to the recent Spectacle. But since, I think, any work of fiction (or even art, in general) is inevitably interpreted with external factors that give particular meaning/s to it in a particular context, then it is, of course, up to the reader to comprehend what the writer attempted to communicate. Again, while reading Transmetropolitan, which was written in 1997, I took Warren Ellis for a Nostradamus,commenting on 2010 Philippine politics. But of course, he is not. Anywaaay. Would again extend my gratitude to Sir Dennis Aguinaldo of UPLB and Sir Elmer Ordonez of the Sunday Times.

PS I would have plugged this upon the story's completion, but Kathy June Fiel posted the link on facebook. And I think Hani Julien also did. Pero, matsala pa rin, mga chong. Sana abangan ang susunod na kabanata. Hehe. Pa-kritik na rin, kung maaari.

[source]

***

Okay, from here, I would like to "update" what I think of the Spectacle. There are also speculations--grounded ones--about the business angle of the RH Bill. The US would have its business interests fulfilled if the RH Bill is passed. We would, of course, import contraceptives from them. And, again, the issue also shifts focus on the heretic-heroic Noynoy being another important opposition against the "DAMASOs", therefore a champion just like Celdran and the liberals. This is of benefit to US Imperialism and its bureaucrat capitalist puppets, with (as mentioned on the previous blog entry) the advantage of diversion. (Forget Arroyo, extrajudicial killings, human rights violation, the hostage crisis / PNP incompetence, the agrarian revolution, the issue of rising unemployment when nurses apply as call center agents, the education crisis, among others.) However, my problem is, why and how would Noynoy retain pogi points in the rural areas, where the Church, I suppose, is still powerful enough to influence politics? And, adding Gloria Arroyo to the equation/s further blurs the image of what the actual agenda is, at least for me. Who or what institutions would then be sacrificial lambs for the preservation of the status quo? Seeing most of the posts of RH Bill advocates, they are indeed neo-Malthussians, blaming the poor for their poverty, and in conclusion blaming this poverty on overpopulation--and not on the power relations concerning the distribution of wealth. Thus, deviating away from the issue of class conflict as the primary contradiction: the root cause of the problems of society. As most liberals keep on bitching about overpopulation and the irresponsible scums (poor people! duh?) that went forth and multiplied like an epidemic--threatening the good hardworking people who abide by the(ir) law. BUT, yes, the Church does rip a lot off the religious. I do not know. I really do not know how I myself can be enlightened, though most of you, probably, have positions already.

Or perhaps I tried, and that's enough, ano? Hehe. "Over thinking, overanalyzing, separates the body from the mind," Tool hummed.

[source]

***

Out of whims, I want to end this post singing "Ktulu! Ktulu so baaaaad!"

Ktulu (He's So Heavy) by Beatallica.

***

The Celdran in a Prison Cell

2010-10-02T13:23:00.012+08:00

Ang Celdrang nasa Selda / The Celdran in a Prison Cell

Please consider this post as an inquiry. As my face book status remains, up to this point: Tilde doesn't get it.

Celdran is free, as all of you might already know since it was broadcasted by facebook. And now, what? I have been thinking how to disclose what I have in mind, but by the time I thought I knew how and what to say, he is already free. Either his creative form of protest happened as a mere quick spectacle, OR I am too slow to respond to such novelty, in fear of possibly offending the pro-RH bill block and/or the Catholic Church. OR both: he is too quick and I am too slow, but it is often better late than never, right? (Apologies for the lengthy segue. And impending spontaneity.)

Let me begin by attempting to weigh both sides and (based from by observation adrift the cyberspace) present what both sides claim--though there are, as there would always be, what we call grey areas. Those that somehow lean towards the Church say that Celdran is misleading us. Those that somehow lean towards the RH Bill say that the old Church is being medieval and being an old fvck that wants to drag us back into the dark ages. There are those who stand for the RH Bill AND believe that the way Celdran staged his protest was just plain rude, since he may show dissent in means that would not offend those who run to the Church for their religious needs. And there are those who think Celdran is cool, because using condoms and contraceptives and having a lot of sexual partners is cool—though the RH Bill, once passed would, I think, merely legalize norms of promiscuity which are actually deemed as the norm.

Now, what am I attempting to drive at? Maybe, Celdran is right in echoing the dissent of those who want to remind the Church of its supposed separation with the State. But maybe the Church is right too in having Celdran arrested because that was kind of similar to, I think, trespassing (though the Church is a place of worship for all)—and, of course, the institution, that is, the Church was not the only offended party here. Most city-dwelling people think the Church is obsolete and it does not have any influence anymore, but I personally think otherwise. The neo-colonial semi-feudal society implies and indicates that the Church, especially in rural areas, would still somehow have that tinge of influence they enjoyed during the Spanish era. If we were already an industrialized country, then the Church might have less influence—but we are not, since the industries in our country are often own by foreign companies as national industrialization could not be advanced, thanks to the neoliberal policies that benefit first world countries.

Now, what the hell am I blabbering about, when all we are talking about is Celdran? Both sides have their arguments against the other side, but both could actually co-exist and help one another to resolve what the RH Bill wanted to be resolved: the population. Isn't the population the rationale behind the RH Bill? Now, taking that into consideration would bring us into the age old theory of Malthus that most intellectuals still believe up until now: that the increase in population is exponential, and that of the resources is linear—this same theory justifies wars of aggression, since we are too many for the limited resources, let us go kill each other because that is the law of nature. But of course, Malthussian theory is bullcrap, if not insane. We have been increasing in population, yes, but that does not mean our resources cannot suffice. The solution to the problem the RH Bill raised is not what the most vocal of its advocates ...advocate. :L I believe the solution to the (over)population problem is the proper distribution of wealth—and not primarily population control (though, again, it may help, but not like the long-term solution that distribution of wealth would offer). It might also lead to the question: Is overpopulation really THE primary problem? THE primary contradiction that would overhaul society into another society with better living conditions? And that would be another long story.

Now, what is Celdran and his performance, for me? Though, yes, it stood for something, but as I have mentioned before, it is a spectacle. It misled us into a trivial issue—and our energy could have been channelled to other issues bigger than that of contraceptives and religion and science and chastity. Because in the end, these matters are still under the powers of the class that dictates how these should be used. Remember that though the Inquisition plagued humanity in the name of God, God himself did not create nuclear weapons with his godly powers. Point: Religion can be used to rule over the people, but so can the Sciences—and even education. The only problem is, the latter would not be too obvious since Religion, especially to the liberals, are a target to direct their enlightened dissent, rather than focus the attack on what and who the real enemy is, rather than concentrate on the bigger picture. How to solve the population problem? You might not like this, but, we would have to go back to the streets for land reform, minimum wage increase and higher state subsidy for education among others. If not, there are means that would not be non-violent. Your contraceptives might stop producing babies who would just starve and die upon birth and latter development because of poverty, but it cannot stop bullets from killing those babies who are now grown human beings, struggling for the sake of humanity.

I do not want to sound preachy, so to make things clear, I'd urge you to please take these as sincere statements of curiosity and inquiry: Why the high five, salute, kudos, whatsoever to Celdran who was simply jailed because of rudeness ( or radical sacrifice for thioe who treat him as their modern Jose Rizal) for the sake of the RH Bill's cause? And no say at all about people who devoted their lives in asserting for human rights that the Constitution guaranteed? Nothing for Morong 43 who served as health workers and got arrested, nothing for the Hacienda Luisita / Hacienda Yulo farmers who struggle for genuine land reform for decades, nothing for more than 10 victims of political killings under this regime and thousands during the previous hell ride of a government—emphasis: these are not mere detention, again, killings—of activists? Like novelty noontime shows, I think Celdran's performance is just like wowowee (sorry, I haven't been watching television, what are the brand new titles of the same old shows?) for the liberal intellectuals who have access to new media.

Just like the date [1002 2010] that happens to be an anagram by the way, Celdran reshuffled, deliberate or otherwise, the supposed prioritization of social issues according to significance. I think it was Andy Warhol who said that time will come when people would be famous for 15 minutes. Celdran’s fifteen minutes is over, now can we move on to pertinent matters? Can we have the same manifestation of social awareness during Celdran’s performance, but this time, re-channelled to bigger causes, for the larger chunk of the born population? Or are we to return to our routine of posting status messages about what we eat or how our day was, 99% of the time?

Also note that the mainstream media lean towards Noynoy. Remember the hotdog. I have also read somewhere that the excommunication threat against Noynoy was a hoax, or rather, an exaggeration. I initially thought that Celdran is a diversion, since Noynoy’s 100 days are almost up but I cannot immediately translate into words what the thought, and how it should be delivered without offending anyone, though that would be impossible. Anyway, Celdran's show is, apparently, stirring sympathy from the liberals. That is what this hysteria against the Church is all about, as it seems to me: Liberals championing Noynoy and urging him to stand for "Reason." Or is it? I sincerely want to know what you think. Would post the link to this post on facebook, and would tag more people later. And you know how late later is for the blogspot feed. Anyway:

Everything in this blog entry remains a question. No conclusions, no impositions, mere questions. Consider this post as an inquiry. As my face book status remains, up to this point: Tilde doesn't get it. This is what I think: Noynoy probably smiles at this commotion. The Church is news, and his failures are, seemingly, forgotten. But still, his 100 days are almost over.

[read the poem here]

Tulagalag: Ang Smiley

2010-09-29T21:53:00.027+08:00

Bahagi ito ng Tulagalag:100 mobile poetry project
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ng kilometre64 poetry collective. n
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Ang Smiley

Nabasa ko kung saan na:
“A smile is a curved line
that sets things straight.”

Dalawang tuldok na nagsisilbing mata,
at isang kurbadang nakaguhit bilang labi,
sa loob ng dilaw na bilog

ang tinubuan ng katawang-lupa
at 3D na mukhang
may apat na matang bulag

at isang bungangang nag-islogan:
“Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap,
Pagbabago, for Ma and Pa, Now na!

Tama na’ng Mendiola Massacre intriga,
Let’s forget Hacienda Luisita,
Basta, I’ll do something ‘bout Gloria.”

Ngiti nang ngiti sa Kapamilyang umawit:
“P-N-O-Y means smile!” kahit na
napagkamalang siraulo ang kandidato nilang

nanalo. Naging bituin sa takilya:
ultimo pagkain ng hotdog ng may hotdog
ay itinuring na pangunahing balita.

Nasa sariling wika ang unang SONA
ng napakamakabayang Smiley,
na ipinagbunyi ng Kapamilyang umawit,

at ng iba pang nananalig sa liwanag
ng dilaw na haring palaging nakangiti
sa gitna ng anumang pagsubok,

o itinuturing niyang pagsubok bagamat
malinaw namang kapalpakan sa pamumuno.
Ngisi, kung hindi hilik, ang naging tugon niya

sa nagpoprotestang mga estudyanteng hindi makapag-aral,
sa nakikibakang mga magsasakang walang lupang mabungkal,
sa mga nagaaklas na manggagawang pinapaslang ng neoliberal

na mga polisiyang pinatutupad niya, nang may ngiti.
Ganito niya rin itinuring ang karumaldumal na
hostage crisis sa Quirino Grandstand,

kaya nagngalit ang mga Tsino
sa mga migranteng nasa kanilang poder
dahil walang disenteng trabaho sa bayan

ni Smiley na nanawagang: “Huwag nang magsisihan,
Mga kapwa Pilipino. At pakinggan natin ang isa’t isa
nang malutas natin ang ating mga problema.”

Pero si Smiley itong hindi nakikinig.
Bakit? Ganito. Pansining mabuti: Walang tainga
ang mga smiley. Wala sila kundi

dalawang tuldok lang na nagsisilbing mata,
at isang kurbadang nakaguhit bilang labi,
sa loob ng dilaw na bilog.

Narinig ko sa isang banda:
“If ignorance is bliss,
then knock the smile off my face.”

[source]

Self-Handicapping/Disclaimer: Dahil andaldal ko magsulat, tinangka ko

yung tinatawag na prose poetry. Same content, different line cut.

Pero mukhang mas ubra yata, though mahaba, yung naunang bersyon.

Sana lang hindi magulo ang format pag nafeed na sa facebook.

~~Ang Smiley~~ Transmiley

Nabasa ko kung saan na: “A smile is a curved line that sets things straight.”

Dalawang tuldok na nagsisilbing mata at isang kurbadang nakaguhit bilang labi,

sa loob ng dilaw na bilog

ang tinubuan ng katawang-lupa, 3D na mukhang may apat na matang bulag

at isang bungangang nag-islogan: “Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap,

Pagbabago, for Ma and Pa, Now na! Tama na’ng Mendiola Massacre intriga,

Let’s forget Hacienda Luisita, Basta, I’ll do something ‘bout Gloria.”

Ngiti nang ngiti sa Kapamilyang umawit: “P-N-O-Y means smile!”

kahit na napagkamalang siraulo ang kandidato nilang

nanalo. Naging bituin sa takilya: ultimo pagkain ng hotdog ng may hotdog

ay itinuring na pangunahing balita. Nasa sariling wika ang unang SONA

ng napakamakabayang Smiley, na ipinagbunyi ng Kapamilyang umawit,

at ng iba pang nananalig sa liwanag ng dilaw na haring palaging nakangiti

sa gitna ng anumang pagsubok, o itinuturing niyang pagsubok bagamat

malinaw namang kapalpakan sa pamumuno.

Ngisi, kung hindi hilik, ang naging tugon niya sa mga nagpoprotestang

estudyanteng hindi makapag-aral, sa mga nakikibakang magsasakang walang

lupang mabungkal, sa mga nagaaklas na manggagawang pinapaslang ng neoliberal

na mga polisiyang pinatutupad niya, nang may ngiti. Ganito niya rin itinuring

ang karumaldumal na hostage crisis, kaya nagngalit ang mga Tsino

sa mga migranteng nasa kanilang poder dahil walang disenteng trabaho sa bayan

Ni Smiley na nanawagang: “Huwag nang magsisihan, mga kapwa Pilipino. Pakinggan natin

ang isa’t isa nang malutas natin ang ating mga problema.” Pero si Smiley itong hindi nakikinig.

Bakit? Ganito. Pansining mabuti: Walang tainga ang mga smiley. Wala sila kundi

dalawang tuldok lang na nagsisilbing mata at isang kurbadang nakaguhit bilang labi,

sa loob ng dilaw na bilog.

Narinig ko sa isang banda: “If ignorance is bliss, then knock the smile off my face.”

[cropped sa Transmetropolitan]

Yerright!

2010-09-27T00:20:00.028+08:00

Pasintabi. A ten-minute long outburst of being pissed off.

Really. Sh%t does add up at the bottom.

Dequasynchronized. Deconstructed.

Deduce. Decide. Deicide.

Disintegrate...

Because

You Know You're Right.

Right? Right. Save us all from the wrath of fvck.

I sure wish I were Spider Jerusalem, so I could make journalistic quests for Truth:

***

"It's the journalism of attachment. It's caring about the world you report on. Some people say that's bad journalism, that there should be a detached, cold, unbiased view of the world in our news media. And if that's what you want, there are security cameras everywhere that you could watch tapes of."

-Spider Jerusalem, the pissdrunk outlaw journalist / junkie columnist of the Word / general merchandise / action figure / bastard / commodity / dissident / sh%tbag / lumpen, from Warren Ellis / Darick Robinson's postcyberpunk hyperdystopian world of Transmetropolitan.

***

PS. So far, despite all the decadence of the said futuristic comic series set in Third World America, it reflects this "past" in another portion of the globe, which is, needless to say, our "present" when * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * spoiler warning * * * * * * * * * * the president won because of the sympathy vote and the law enforcers stage manslaughter, protect powers-that-be, and massacre protesting people either because of the state's incompetence or the commonplace corruption coupled with the usual nepotism and discrimination. On to issue #32 - The Walk.

An update you probably will not give a fvck about (and you actually shouldn't): I am done. Finished TRANSMET. All the 60 issues. I want to smoke. I think I would want to learn how to smoke. And do all the things Jerusalem did to write.

Because I hate it here. *Vertigo Encyclopedia, you're next*

My Life According to Doom/Avantgarde Metal

2010-09-26T09:50:00.006+08:00

Since I have only one draft left undone, here is another meme.

My Life According to Cathedral, Meshuggah and Tiamat

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! My life according to "my life according to (band name/artist)."Tag your music loving friends!

I knew the rules before I broke them. My Revision, for overdoing's sake:

Using only song names from ~~ONE~~ THREE ARTISTs, answer these questions. You can't use the bandS I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! "My life according to (band name/artist)." Tag your music loving friends!

My Life According to:
Cathedral / Meshuggah / Tiamat

Are you a male or female:
Birthmachine 2000 / Future Breed Machine / Circles

Describe yourself:
Iconoclast / I / Nihil

How do you feel:
Imprisoned in Flesh / Quant's Quantastical Quantasm / A Deeper Kind of Slumber

Describe where you currently live:
Beneath a Funeral Sun / Qualms of Reality / Church of Tiamat

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Nightmare Castle / Corridor of Chameleons / Into Sumerian Cry

Your favourite form of transportation:
Vodoo Fire / Mind's Mirrors / Light in Extension

Your best friend/s is(are):
One Dimensional People / Choirs of Devastation / Necrophagious Shadows

Your fear:
Ashes You Leave / Internal Evidence / Raining Dead Angels

What is the best advice you have to give:
A Funeral Request / Blessed Be Thy Hate / Vote For Love

Thought for the Day:
Corpsecycle / Paralyzing Ignorance / To Have and Have Not

How I would like to die:
Soul Sacrifice / Obsidian / In a Dream

My soul's present condition:
Grim Luxuria / Vanished / A Winter Shadow

My motto:
Enter the Worms / Re-Inanimate / However You Look At It You Lose

Timewarp+++++++++

the anathemarbeen multiply blog entry dated Mar 14, 2009 11:04 PM

Rule: Pick a band/artist. Using ONLY SONG TITLES FROM THAT ARTIST/BAND, cleverly answer these questions. (Overdid it again. Picked two.)

ANATHEMA / FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM

1. Are you a male or female:
Balance / Preacher Man

2. Describe yourself:
A Natural Disaster / Reanimator

3. How do you feel about yourself:
Crestfallen / Venus Decomposing

4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend situation:
They (Will Always) Die / Dead to the World

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation:
The Silent Enigma / Still Life

6. Describe your current location:
Childhood Dream / At the Gates of Silent Memory

7. Describe where you want to be:
Where Shadows Dance / Xiberia [Seasons in the Ice Cage]

8. Your best friend is:
Inner Silence / Endemoniada

9. Your favorite color is:
Black Orchid / Pazuzu [Black Rain]

10. You know that:
All Faith is Lost / Trees Come Down

11. What’s the weather like:
Shroud of False / Mourning Sun

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called?
Re-Connect / Dead but Dreaming

13. What is life to you:
Scars of the Old Stream / One More Nightmare

14. What is the best advice you have to give:
Destiny is Dead / Slow Kill

15. If you could change your name what would you change it to:
Memento Mori / Requiem XIII 33 [Le Veilleur Silencieux]

Calliope: Again, I Plead

2010-09-24T02:09:00.015+08:00

I have been in isolation for almost five days. I have deprived myself of social networking sites, and other pleasures. I have (re)read at least five works of fiction (Vonnegut, Atwood, Wong, Mieville, Calvino), excluding at least four comic books (Gaiman, Ellis, Morrisson, Ligotti) and at least two nonfictions (Susskind, Lynch). I even tried listing fifteen things. I wrote what I dreamt about. I also tried writing prompts. And clustering. I read and researched about my preferred topic. And all I have is a concept. An idea. For one draft. I had another idea to turn into a draft, way back then. I needed three. So, I just need another idea. And three rough drafts. Blabbering did not help. Back inside my head and Microsoft Word. Or Not. Back to comics, perhaps. Or drawing. Or layout. Or anything. Later, UPLB would walkout against the P1.39 billion UP Education Budget Cut. And, here I am, procrastinating, just like the old days when I was a student, who walks out of class to protest against campus repression, and such. This would later be fed to fb, though. Since I have neither been interacting through likes or comments nor tagging contacts, I think I would not receive unsolicited comments. And as I indicated on the "labels" or "tags" here in blogspot, this is indeed just a senseless, irresponsible, worthless rant.

Oh, and I am thinking of selling another book. Anne Rice's Tale of the Body Thief, for 150php. Bought that book eons ago for, I think, 175php. I am also thinking of selling Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale for 180php. This is the link to the original quasi-bookseller entry. After re-reading "Brief Lives," the Sixth Volume of the Sandman series, I further thought that I just could not sell any of them. For now.

For the Nth Time and Six Fifteens

2010-09-22T10:20:00.028+08:00

For the Nth Time