Luis is Listening

Tricia Gosingtian for Esquire Philippines

2012-01-02T06:33:00.004+08:00

So, this video is pretty cute.

Videos of girls aside, Esquire Philippines is off to a great start, or at least the sales figures say. From the attention-grabbing launch to the first three issues packed with great original material (he said immodestly), it's been quite the experience so far. (Best to get the third issue -- cover-dated December -- while you still can, before the next issue replaces it; aside from the cover story on MVP, it's got our massive Best & Brightest section, a year-ender 'best of,' and lots of other stuff, including a feature on Alodia Gosiengfiao by yours truly).

And wait 'til you see what's up for January...

Esquire is Here

2011-09-11T11:35:00.003+08:00

I am the Associate Editor of the soon-to-be-launched Philippine edition of Esquire Magazine. We have been working our asses off on this thing and it will be unleashed in early October. It will not have Monica Belucci covered in caviar on the cover, but it will nevertheless be a very, very good magazine. Thank you.

Jay-Z = Batman

2010-11-28T18:42:00.004+08:00

The invincible (and frequently hilarious) Chris Sims, on the link between comics and hip-hop. ;)

Look at Jay-Z and Batman [...] Both are identities created by otherwise "normal" men (Shawn Carter and Bruce Wayne, respectively) that allow them to become something bigger than themselves, to accomplish things that normal men couldn't. Admittedly, the accomplishments might not be quite on the same level -- eradicating all crime being a slightly more lofty goal than, say, selling Armadale vodka -- but the point stands that there's a level over-the-top posturing there that's every bit as exaggerated as it is in comics. The only difference is that one has "The World's Greatest Detective" and the other has "The Best Rapper Alive."

One Year Later

2010-11-28T13:38:00.003+08:00

So, it's been a while. Over a year, actually, since I last posted here. I've been more active elsewhere online (see "Luis, Elsewhere" on the right). I thought it was time to update this blog, though, especially since it still turns up first when you run a Google search on my name.

Anyway. There have been changes, personal and professional, over the past year or so. The personal changes are quite significant, but I don't want to get into them here. Professionally, things are going well. I am the Executive Editor of the revamped UNO magazine, which if I may be so immodest, consistently showcases some of the best writing on the stands. Am still writing about music, though this time for the Philippine Star -- my column, "Senses Working Overtime," comes out every Friday.

I have a second collection of stories and a second collection of essays in the works, and am editing an anthology of fiction entitled Isolation Remembers What Repetition Forgets.

My hamster passed away but I may get a cat soon.

Waya Saturday

2009-11-06T16:34:00.003+08:00

Waya will be performing at SaGuijo this Saturday night, November 7, at 10:30 PM. (They're the first band playing for this installment of the excellent Ninja Kiss production night.)

If you've ever seen them before you know they are one of the best live rock acts in the country. If you've never ever watched them I feel bad for you. *sheds tear* BE THERE!!!

RJ Ledesma is Hanging Around

2009-10-22T12:19:00.002+08:00

"There is no end to writers that attempt to write comedy. Many comics are funny, but few are hilarious. Ledesma is, well, hilarious.

"What makes him even more hilarious than most writers of comedy (and there are not, sadly enough, too many of them in the Philippines, at least not as many as the grim-and-determined, anti-feudalist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-Manila, anti-English, anti-Malacañang constipated types) is that he finds even things familiar to us funny.

"Ledesma was my student in creative writing at De La Salle University. In the beginning, he fancied himself an economist, taking up an undergraduate degree in economics. I like to flatter myself by saying that I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by making him go the route of underpaid, unpaid, unappreciated, unwanted creative writers..."

(From Isagani Cruz's intro for RJ Ledesma's I Do Or I Die -- launching tonight, Thursday, October 22, 6 PM at National Bookstore Glorietta 5. There will be food and drink aplenty. Seeya there!)

Yvette Tan is Waking the Dead

2009-08-14T09:25:00.000+08:00

You know where you have to be tomorrow: at the launch of Yvette Tan's first book, the short story collection Waking The Dead. It is a dark, dream-filled delight, with fictions about strange circumstances, bloody bargains and fiendish fates.

The cover and the interior illustrations are by the amazing Andrew Drilon (see more here!).

Yvette's stories have won two Palancas, as well as a couple of nods from the Neil Gaiman-sponsored Graphic/Fiction awards organized by Fully Booked. Her work has been enthusiastically praised by Gaiman himself, as well as local literary luminaries like Gilda Cordero-Fernando.

"Tan’s stories rise like the enchanted river to meet their readers, the words like brackish water suddenly turning clear. Something is awakened in this book, an irresistible trap of terror and talent from Yvette Tan, whose seductively scary stories will make readers glad they acquiesced when offered this fateful bargain: 'Drink, and your eyes will be opened.'" That's from the advanced review that came out in the Inquirer last Monday. Read the rest here!

The launch is this Saturday, August 15, at Powerbooks Megamall, 4 PM. That's tomorrow! See you there.

Words and Shadows: This Year's Philippines Graphic Literary Awards

2009-07-15T05:23:00.000+08:00

So, it's been a long long while since I last posted. I've been terribly busy lately -- as I dash off this blog post, I can think of at least a half dozen things I should be doing, instead -- but also, I tend to post more on Twitter and Facebook these days. I guess I enjoy the more immediate -- and yes, somewhat more filtered -- feedback and influence. :)

There are some things that require more than 140 characters and/or a link, though. It was my great pleasure and honor to be one of the judges for this year's Philippines Graphic awards -- renamed the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards in recent years -- along with the illustrious Susan Lara, and of course Graphic literary editor Marra PL. Lanot, who chaired the trio of judges.

Getting a story published in the Graphic marked a definite turning point in my writing career. I was still in high school then, which made the acceptance letter -- with hand-scrawled note from Nick Joaquin, woo hoo! -- doubly mind-blowing. (Later on I would talk with other young writers who had received similar notes upon the acceptance of their first works for the Graphic, and we would get all misty-eyed and crap like that.) And it was always a pleasure to see the illustrations that artist par excellence Jimbo Albano would come up with to accompany my subsequent submissions.

Anyway, there was a big Awards night for the prize-winners, marking the Graphic's 19th anniversary -- and also bestowing honors on The Graphic’s 10 Outstanding Young Leaders, and former Graphic Editor-in-Chief and Palanca Awards Hall of Famer Gregorio Brillantes, who received the first Nick Joaquin Lifetime Achievement Award for "his lifetime of service and achievements as a teacher, journalist and writer of short fiction."

Here's an excerpt from the article by Alma Anonas-Carpio:

"The winners of the Nick Joaquin Awards for Literature were Rosario Cruz-Lucero, who brought home the grand prize of P50,000 for her short story titled “Papa’s Field” published in the August 25, 2008, issue; Erwin F. Castillo, who bagged the second prize of P30,000 for his story “Cape Engaño” which appeared as a two-part story in the Graphic; while the third prize of P20,000 went to Sasha Martinez for her short story “This Fleet of Shadows,” which was published on September 29, 2008."

And here are my comments on the winning stories:

On "Papa's Field" by Rosario Cruz-Lucero:

A long-overdue homecoming, a difference of sensibilities between siblings, the contrast of city and small town: at first glance there is much here that is overly familiar, but as always, it is in the telling that a story takes on its particular power. Each detail is presented with care and sensitivity and surehanded skill; each character comes alive. In the end we are enormously affected by this quiet tale of two sisters, the weight of personal and political history, and the ghosts of dogs and fathers.

On "Cape Engaño" by Erwin F. Castillo:

There is a dark fierce joy at work in this tale of the dead and the dying and the lost. From New Year's revelry to near-death delirium, the author assaults us with vivid imagery, snapshots of a "world unhinged," as the story of Dr. Mikkis Madamba, Regional Representative, and his larger-than-life mother, actress Lumen Madamba, is told. Along the way a young goat is hung from a showerhead and slaughtered, an olfactory comparison is made between Filipino and foreign lovers, and a 13 year-old rock star-worshipping death watcher in boots is hired.

On "This Fleet of Shadows" by Sasha Martinez:

Effortlessly and eloquently captures that early and all-too-brief time in one's life when mothers smell like mornings and every blank surface is a canvas. With colorful charm and a strong subtle sadness, this story depicts and demonstrates the childhood joy of catching words and shadows. Its serene mid-morning stillness reminds us of what we were and what we always end up leaving behind.

The complete article on this year's Nick Joaquin Awards, with all of the judges' comments, is in this week's issue of the Philippines Graphic (cover date July 13, 2009). Congratulations to all the winners! :D

UNO: Your New Favorite Magazine

2009-06-10T00:14:00.000+08:00

Click to make bigger.

"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation." ~ Wernher von Braun

It is perhaps not too farfetched to say that von Braun, the man whom NASA regarded as "without a doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history," may have known what he was talking about.

And that is my fancy way of saying that the utterly revamped UNO -- or what I like to call Your New Favorite Magazine -- is here. All new sections, new design and look, a slew of brilliant contributors, and a staff that should by all rights be in an underground lab creating mad science or in a maximum security prison, to be let out for the occasional choreographed dance routine. Here, read and read!

The launch party proper will be tonight, June 10, at the Mercedes Benz Showroom at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Those of you who got invites, I will be looking forward to seeing you there. :)

All hype aside, we've been working pretty hard on this thing, and we hope you like it. And oh, the things we have in store...

MTV EXIT: Live in Manila

2009-05-22T12:19:00.001+08:00

Been so insanely busy this whole week that I almost forgot to blog about this: the big MTV EXIT concert happening tonight, May 22, at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds, 6 PM.

"MTV EXIT is a campaign about freedom -- about our rights as human beings to choose where we live, where we work, who our friends are, and who we love. Millions of people throughout the world have had these basic human rights taken away. They are victims of trafficking -- modern-day slaves -- and have been tricked or forced into illegal labor, or prostitution. MTV EXIT aims to increase awareness and prevention of human trafficking."

Tonight, at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds, MTV EXIT is bringing you a FREE concert featuring: Christian Bautista, Parokya ni Edgar, Kamikazee, Callalily, Rico Blanco, Itchyworms, Pupil, Sponge Cola, Duster, Kitchie Nadal, Moymoy Palaboy, Kjwan, Bamboo, and Gary Valenciano. All coming together for the cause: to end expoitation and human trafficking.

Good show, good cause. See you there!

Lissy Trullie, "Boy Boy"

2009-05-10T02:49:00.001+08:00

Last March, thanks to my usual voracious reading of music blogs, I came across Lissy Trullie: an androgynously hot New York-based singer with a tight yet raw rock sound and a great swoon-inducing voice. I admit, it was her covers that drew me in first: her better-than-the-original rendition of Hot Chip's "Ready For The Floor," and her duet with Adam Green on "Just a Friend" -- yeah, the Biz Markie song. (Some of you may recall "Ready For The Floor" from that March mix I made.)

This one's an original -- thanks to Erwin for the link, and most of all for a copy of the single, signed by Lissy Trullie herself, acquired from his recent NY trip. I am immensely grateful and immensely envious that you got to watch her perform live. (I am immense, period.)

Every thing I've heard by Lissy Trullie, cover or original, has so far been fantastic -- go, listen. Her music brings back some of that giddy high school thrill that music always used to give me.

I'm On A Boat

2009-05-04T21:22:00.000+08:00

Ready to Rocket: Guardians of the Galaxy

2009-04-26T14:13:00.001+08:00

Images from Guardians of the Galaxy #13 (2009). Click to make 'em bigger.

Got a ton of things I'm supposed to be doing right now, but I just had to take a break and rhapsodize about how utterly awesome Guardians of the Galaxy is. You can keep your Secret Invasions and Dark Reigns and whatever the hell it is DC is doing; the current GotG series is consistently more cosmic and entertaining than any Big Event comics out there (and when it does get embroiled in a Big Event, it's worth it).

I owned an issue or two of the old GotG series in the 80s (and I believe there was some sort of horrible 90s incarnation), but this current one is way, way better. First of all, it has Rocket Raccoon in it. Rocket Raccoon. I used to read Hulk comics back in the days of Sal Buscema, and my single favorite issue was the one that introduced Rocket. And it has Star-Lord, and Mantis, and the insect-astic Bug, and giant man-tree Groot, and the most kick-ass incarnation of Drax the Destroyer (i.e., not the stupid one) ever. And an Adam Warlock who isn't annoying. In other words, it's got all of Marvel's most interesting star-spanning characters on one team, and actually tells stories worthy of that lineup.

I first got hooked on the whole Marvel-in-space thing with the Annihilation events, which were much better than I thought they would be. And the funny thing is, I'm not even that inclined towards space adventure stuff to begin with. But I hope this series runs for a long, long time.

Write a Novel While Commuting

2009-04-22T20:45:00.000+08:00

That's what this guy did, and wow do I hate him for it. He wrote a whole 400-page novel on his smartphone while going to and from work.

"I got very fast at writing with my thumbs. I found myself writing more and more." Soon, he was averaging 400 words each morning and evening. "I trained myself that at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. every day when I got on the train, that was my writing time," he said.

So his book (a demon-laden fantasy, the first of a series) hit the bestseller lists and he quit his day job and now writes full-time... but he still takes the F train. "He insisted his word per minute count is higher on the subway than at his desk at home, where distractions include the Internet and a 9-month-old daughter."

When I was working at Smart I used to eat up 2+ hours a day just commuting back and forth, from QC to Makati. Oh, the unwritten books! Of course I'm a freelancer now, with theoretically (I emphasize the theoretically) more free time on my hands... But, you know, those comics aren't going to read themselves. And there are TV series to catch up on. Priorities, man.

Shameless, Thy Name Is "Star Pilots"

2009-04-20T01:57:00.000+08:00

"Simultaneously the most gay and the most straight thing we've ever seen."

Thank you, Popjustice! Because "the problem with Top Gun was that it wasn't quite camp enough."

And those of you familiar with the usual sexy-girl-doing-a-car-wash routine may want to fast forward to around 1:49 where they do the same thing, except with a jet airplane.

Music Mix: Dreaming All The Ways That You Will Smile

2009-04-17T11:00:00.001+08:00

For your listening pleasure: an assiduously arranged, special summery mix of eight songs that I've been listening to lately, mostly culled from music blogs and the like. Please to download it from here.

Megaupload's interface can be a little confusing, so here are some instructions:

1. Click on the big "Download File" button. But first you have to enter the robot-filtering code above it.
2. When you fill in the code and click on "Download File," a countdown in the lower right corner starts: "Please wait __ seconds"
3. When the countdown ends, a "REGULAR DOWNLOAD" button appears. Press that. :)

And heeere's the tracklist:

01. Telekinesis - Coast of Carolina
02. Robbers On High Street - Shout to the Top (The Style Council cover)
03. Kennedy - Karate
04. Fever Ray - When I Grow Up (Lissvik Remix)
05. fun - At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)
06. Harlem Shakes - Sunlight
07. Theresa Andersson - Birds Fly Away
08. Amadou & Mariam - Sabali

Some comments. I took the title of the mix from the Telekinesis song, a great stick-in-your head slice of sunny pop-rock. The Style Council cover may hew a bit too close to the original but I like it anyway. "Karate" is silly and fun and dance-inducing. I haven't listened to too much Fever Ray yet but I liked this remixed number. fun is what The Format became after they broke up (I loved The Format). The voice of the guy from Harlem Shakes sometimes sounds too slurry and sloppy but they generally make great music and the singer gets it together on this track. You've probably seen the YouTube videos of Theresa Andersson playing all these instruments with her fingers and toes; disregard the novelty value and appreciate her excellent songcraft. Finally, you will love Amadou & Mariam. Damon Albarn says so.

All worthy acts. Click on their names to visit their sites!

World Rushing In

2009-04-15T04:51:00.000+08:00

Want to hear an excellent house track and help out a couple of well-regarded local music talents? Go here and check out "World Rushing In," by DJ Brian Cua and Medwin Marfil. (Click on the "LISTEN" button below "OVERALL RATING.") Excellent production, and a lush, catchy melody and vocal.

And then take time to click on "Register/Submit track" on the navbar near the top of the page so you can sign up and vote for the song. (If nothing else, they really need votes to offset that guy who mistakenly gave the track the lowest rating possible when he meant to give it 5 stars -- sigh.)

And then dance deliriously around the room because that's what the song is for.

Back in the Fun Machine

2009-04-14T21:45:00.002+08:00

Thanks to Aimee M's posts on Thundercats and Silverhawks*, I ended up going on a short 80s cartoon opening theme spree on YouTube. As a kid, I used to put a tape recorder in front of the TV speakers so I could record my favorite themes. Here's my Top 5!

(I left out Japanese giant robots because they really deserve their own post. And yes, I realize that most if not all of these cartoons were never on Saturday Fun Machine. I just love that name so much: Saturday Fun Machine. Genius.)

5. Mighty Orbots

Admit it, until you saw that intro again, you had totally forgotten about these guys. (I love that disco-clap bit after they introduce Bo and Boo.) This series had fantastic animation, but I really can't remember any of the stories, and I never liked the designs of the guy robots, who were too goofy-looking for my discerning grade school tastes.

4. Spaceketeers

The only instrumental on this list. I guess the Force Five folks couldn't be bothered to do an English translation of the lyrics. Even as kids we wondered why these people rode around outside their ships like idiots. I remember I had a toy of the big fat green one with a dial on his belly though.

3. Captain Future

Big in Germany, apparently. This might never have shown on local TV. A lot of these series I watched on Betamax compilations rented from Angie's Video House in Paranaque.

2. M.A.S.K.

'Cause Spectrum's got such super visionnn... MASK! Extended version here!

1. Captain Harlock

Whether they had giant robots or not, Japanese cartoons were a huge part of my formative years. That can't be good. Take to the skyyyyy...

I just noticed that the Captain Harlock vid ends with him winning a duel by stripping his female opponent naked with one sword-stroke. Thanks Japan!

*NOTE: I think I actually preferred the concept and designs of the Silverhawks over the Thundercats, when I was a kid (Cheetarah being the exception, of course. There's no improving on that.) Even the Silverhawks' rogues gallery (sorry, I meant "intergalactic mob") was well-designed -- check it out!

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, "The Sun Ain't Shining No More"

2009-04-13T02:44:00.002+08:00

Been listening to this song a lot for over a month now, and it's still fun. Mette Lindberg's voice startles when it first hits, but then after a split-second adjustment it clicks into place and you're shimmying along.

The Danish band was Amy Winehouse's opening act, and their music has been on an iPod ad as well as Gossip Girl, but don't hold all that against them. Watch and enjoy!

Official site here, and wiki here.

Zach Attack

2009-03-23T23:20:00.001+08:00

Holy crap, it's been a month since my last post! Lost internet access there for a while, and then for a while it seemed like there was too much to blog about -- Francis M's tragic and untimely passing, the Eraserheads' Final Set, even Watchmen (I am linking to my favorite review of the movie, by Thor Balanon). So of course I ended up not blogging about any of that. Also, I have not been blogging about all the fun stuff behind the scenes at UNO magazine; the ideas are flying fast and furious, and it will really be something special, believe me.

Something else that looks like it will be really special is Zach Lucero's solo album, launching tonight, March 24, at SaGuijo! Having worked with Zach on BURN I can attest without hesitation to his keen musical instincts -- plus, I heard a few snippets of the album a while back and it sounds really good. Other acts playing at the launch are Barbie Almabis, Imago, Techy Romanitics and Sandwich.The year in music is shaping up very nicely so far -- Pasta Groove, Corporate Lo-Fi, and now the fantastic Zach, with more to follow (like the new Outerhope, yay!).

UPDATE: Read my interview with Zach on my music column for the Bulletin, here.

Vote For This Shirt

2009-02-24T01:13:00.000+08:00

There are a few reasons to like this shirt. One, that design is freaking great. Two, that design is freaking great. Three, did I mention that design is freaking great? I could go on, but I think you get the gist.

Anyway, it was done by genius artist Yvonne Quisumbing. Go here to check out the design -- and then please sign up and vote for it. Hurry hurry. :)

It's the Pet Shop Boys, actually.

2009-02-19T22:36:00.000+08:00

With the exception of Chris Lowe's horrendous pink wig, there is nothing about this video of the Pet Shop Boys' performance at the Brits last February 18 that doesn't make me happy. They zip through no less (and possibly a little more) than thirteen of their songs, including two from the new album Yes, and are joined onstage, appropriately enough, by Lady GaGa and Brandon Flowers of The Killers (aside from an array of costumed dancers).

The Pet Shop Boys were granted the 2009 Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement, and I say it's about time. After all, "they were to the end of the 20th century what the Beatles were to its middle." Yeah, you read that right. Read more here!

Dealing With Dylan; or, The February 2009 Issue of UNO is Well Worth Getting

2009-02-10T11:22:00.000+08:00

So last January I got an urgent call: something about UNO magazine and how there had been a sudden staff shakeup. The upshot was that they needed to put together the February issue with breakneck haste. It had been decided that it was going to be a Music Special, so of course, that was something I was up for. We brainstormed on feature ideas, and I was so fired up I ended up writing four articles in as many days. That includes the cover story, on the dauntless Dylan Vizcarra. Here's an excerpt:

Here are a few facts about Dylan Vizcarra, the always-articulate, tattoo-sporting, devastatingly cute host of Jack TV's lifestyle program The Peep Show:

She is a cyborg of sorts, with a metal pin in her right leg—a souvenir of a recent horrific skateboarding accident that left her with a spiral fracture, a couple of scars, and a valuable life lesson (the lesson being, well... don't drink and skate).

She is the kind of person who would use words like "tomfoolery" and "shenanigans" in her writing without seeming pretentious or raising suspicions of time travel. She has also been known to invent words like "flabberfont" when the existing lexicon is insufficient.

Her real name is Karen; she has an identical twin named Karla. (All of you reading this who just had thoughts along the lines of "Oh, boy! Twice the fun!"—just put the magazine down and walk away; we don't want your kind in here.) Once upon a time, when they were both in college, Karen in La Salle and Karla in Ateneo, they decided to switch places for a day. They look so much alike that everyone was fooled—from the basketball players wishing "Karla" a happy day-after-your-birthday to the teachers who chastised "Karen" for talking too much in class and who forced "Karla" to deliver a report that she had no clue about.

I learn a few more things about her when I meet her one drizzly Thursday evening in a coffee shop on Bonifacio High Street.

Am quite proud of the story; I think it's one of my better-written profiles. The interview itself was great fun, and so was the shoot, which we did with my favorite Quarter Pounder connoisseurs, the very talented Ryan and Garovs, a.k.a. Everywhere We Shoot.

Anyway, the point of all this is: Go and get the new issue of UNO, already! Those of you who weren't inclined to ever pick up the magazine before should check it out this time, and those of you who were UNO fans already will still enjoy this. Erwin Romulo, Ramon de Veyra and I worked on it, so, you know, it must be good, har har.

As if you needed more reasons, here's a partial list of what this issue contains: an encounter between Shawn Yao (yay!) and Spider-Dan; Cynthia Bauzon on album cover designs; King Palisoc on making music videos; an interview with Aldus Santos, singing Purplechicken and author of Repeat While Fading; and best of all, NEW FICTION FROM YVETTE TAN! Aw yeah.

I Can Read Movies!

2009-02-07T10:20:00.000+08:00

I love these: covers for paperback novelizations that never were, done in a 60s graphic style, signs of wear and tear and all. I salute you, Spacesick! Visit his blog for the rest.

My other favorites include the Labyrinth cover and the Edward Scissorhands one. Fun and really really well done.

Sing Along to the Worst Song Medley

2009-02-05T15:10:00.000+08:00

Hey, I know all those songs! This clip made me grin like an idiot. Particularly during the Sixpence None the Richer and "Rush Rush" moments. Thank you, Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci, whoever you are.

Conch and Xandro are Married

2009-02-01T23:32:00.000+08:00

Congratulations Conch! Photo stolen from Denise Mallabo, he he he.

Whatever I may say about the old PULP/MTV Ink office, I can't deny that I met some amazing people there -- and none more so than Conch, immensely talented Conch, who had perhaps the hardest job to do and yet was somehow the most reliable and least whiny of us all. (Well, she was certainly less whiny than me.) I have had the pleasure of working with her on a couple of publications now, and I would work with her again in a heartbeat. Unless it was on a job that required cleaning other peoples' toilets, in which case I might have to think about it.

Wait. What was my point? Oh yeah. Congratulations to Conch and Xandro, who got married last January 31! I wish them much much happiness together forever. :D

Imagine The Groove

2009-01-23T09:27:00.000+08:00

Up Dharma Down photographed by Everywhere We Shoot for Imagine Magazine. Taken from Mrs Supergift's blog.

Imagine Magazine #3 is out! It's the special music issue, entitled Imagine The Groove. I'm Guest Editor for this issue (my usual title on Imagine is Contributing Editor), but while I had a bit more participation this time around, the real credit, as always, goes to brilliant EIC Joyce Fernandez, as well as Kai Magsanoc and Yonina Chan and some other people who will feel like kicking me for not mentioning them by name. But you know who you are. :)

The launch is TONIGHT, January 23, at Cubao X, 7pm onwards! Do drop by.

There's a lotta stuff in this issue, but the main fashion feature has Everywhere We Shoot (Ryan + Garovs), Matt Gozun, Jujin Samonte, Jerome Lorico, Kenneth Chua, Geof Gonzales, Rcxy Bautista, Lotho, Daryl Chang, Andre Chang, and Cecile Zamora interpreting music by Radioactive Sago Project, Up Dharma Down, Drip, Ang Bandang Shirley, Outerhope, Musical O, Paramita, Swissy, Daydream Cycle, Juan Pablo Dream, and Sleepwalk Circus.

Bands were photographed by Everywhere We Shoot, Aldwin Aspillera and Richie Castro. Articles on the bands were by myself, Erwin Romulo, Sarge Lacuesta, Mookie Katigbak, Aimee Marcos and Je Bautista.

Whatta lineup, eh? See you there!

Yvette's Dark Side

2009-01-18T12:24:00.000+08:00

Yvette hanging out with Neil Gaiman, who is also a writer.

Award-winning writer and "undisputed horror doyenne" Yvette Tan (mwah) was featured in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine today! For those of you who want to help stave off the death of print, dash to your local newsstand and get a copy now. For the rest of you, read "Her Dark Side" by Ruel de Vera heeere! Yay!

Yvette's first collection of fiction, Waking the Dead, will be launched by Anvil Publishing this year. We were just looking at the proofs the other day and they are lovely.

Ben and Zooey, sittin' in a tree...

2009-01-01T07:24:00.000+08:00

"That sound? Oh, that's just the breaking of indie loving hearts everywhere."

Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard are engaged.

(Incidentally, Zooey Deschanel's album with M. Ward, She & Him - Volume One, is one of my favorites of the year.)

Happy New Year, all! :D

Asshole Politicians Beat Up Father and Son Over Golf

2008-12-27T15:51:00.000+08:00

"The world has gone crazy. Two politicians beat up a defenseless 56-year-old father and his 14-year-old son. At a golf course. I swear to God, I thought golfers were decent people. You would think politicians were decent people. I guess not. I guess they gang up on 56-year-old men and beat up pleading 14-year-old kids."

Yesterday was the worst day in the life of young Bambee dela Paz. Read all about it on her blog, here. Go, read.

Just a bit of perspective, by the way: former President Fidel Ramos, who, as his title implies, WAS THE PRESIDENT OF THE FREAKING PHILIPPINES, also plays golf, and always asked for permission before overtaking anyone on the golf course. But apparently the mayor of Masiu City, Lanao del Sur is above such etiquette. So above it, in fact, that he will beat the shit out of you -- with the aid of his goons, of course -- if you even dare to imply that he is in the wrong. Even if you are pushing sixty, or barely in your teens.

Word about the incident is spreading. From Filipino Voices: "The Philippine State needs civilizing really fast. It is currently run by barbarians, murderers and thieves who cannot even follow simple golf etiquette. What more the moral code of the country as embodied by our laws?" From A Filipina Mom Blogger: "...my heart just went out to both father and son as Bambee describes how they were beaten up. I mean, wouldn’t you feel the same way if that was your father and brother or son? Yes, it could happen to you too."

I noticed that Bambee, a young golfer who has competed in over 25 international events in the past six years, claims Caloocan City as her hometown. Perhaps former Mayor of Caloocan City Boy Asistio, who is a golfer himself and would probably be offended the behavior of these politicians, can do something to help.

Yes, we don't have the whole story yet. And the dela Paz family will have a hard time getting justice, as the witnesses are apparently unwilling to talk about what happened. But it seems clear that major assholery was afoot here.

Also, note to the management of Valley Golf and Country Club, Antipolo City: you could have stopped it. Idiots.

To everyone who plays there, if you too would like to risk getting beaten up over a misunderstanding with a power-mad politician while security guards look on without lifting a finger, by all means, continue to go to Valley Golf.

You Better Watch Out

2008-12-24T05:31:00.000+08:00

From Bizarre Adventures #34 (1983). Thank you Marvel Comics for warping my childhood.

Merry Christmas to everyone! Ho ho ho!

Also, Santa, if you're reading this, this one's for you.

Christmas Party at Cubao X

2008-12-22T13:21:00.000+08:00

Me, Yvette, and Marian standing in front of Mogwai. Picture courtesy of the talented Miguel N.

May I just say, Furball throws a hell of a Christmas party. Fun people plus loud music plus food and drink galore (including an endless supply of deep-fried squid balls and other street vendor fare, as well as some apparently infamous brownies). We had a great time. Thanks Mads Quark Lyle and all the Furball peoples! :D

"He Offered His Anus To Satan" - The Further Adventures of The QLE

2008-12-20T10:48:00.000+08:00

QLE FTW: Photo by Arnold Arre

So the QLE -- Quark Henares, Luis Katigbak (thas me), and Erwin Romulo -- guested last night on a radio show called Headstart on NU 107. For those who were unable to tune in, the high point, for me, was Erwin declaring that even though he didn't like Rico Blanco's "Yugto," it still stuck in his head, me theorizing that Rico must therefore have cut some sort of deal with Satan, and Quark riffing that this deal involved the violent penetration of Rico's orifices by a trio of demons. "He offered his anus to Satan!" Quark said on-air, and then proceeded to sing -- along with Erwin -- the parts of "Yugto" that did, indeed, make more sense in that context. "Lumiyab ka..."

We were also interviewed by FHM yesterday, regarding the year in Pinoy pop culture. Apologies to Kim and Paul for my late late arrival; I sorely underestimated how bad the traffic out there is these days, and how long it would take me to even get a ride.

AND! The Inquirer ran a feature today on the QLE Awards Night, yay! GO GO READ IT HERE: "The point is the music." :D

Okay, this will be my last post on the QLE for a while, I think. Kind of scary that if you scroll down this first page of my blog, it's QLE this and QLE that. To be honest, like Erwin, I'm "All QLE-ed out," especially after yesterday. But it's been a blast, and I didn't think that a midnight rant about a roster of nominees seen on a web page would eventually become... well, whatever the hell it is this QLE thing has become. Thanks to EVERYONE and hooray for Ang Bandang Shirley, Ciudad, Intolerant, Itchyworms, Loss of Control, Markus Highway, Pedicab, Sandwich, Taken By Cars, Up Dharma Down, and Yosha, and all the brilliant Pinoy music-makers out there!

THE QLE AWARDS - See You Tomorrow

2008-12-09T03:11:00.000+08:00

So it's really happening: THE QLE AWARDS will be held tomorrow, December 10, 6-9 PM, at Route 196, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City! All thanks to Gang Badoy, Rock Ed Philippines, and Samarami Asia -- and of course the bands themselves, without whom these awards would not only have been highly improbable, but also disturbingly pointless. (Btw, that's not an official poster up there; that's just something I did for funs. Japanese giant robots rock.)

We are very happy indeed that some of the bands that Quark, Erwin and I gushed over will be able to play during the awards: Intolerant, Itchyworms, Loss of Control, Taken By Cars, and Up Dharma Down, woo hoo! (And maybe even more -- we'll see.) Special guest performers will include Juan Pablo Dream and Gasulina.

See you all there! Remember, the whole thing ends at 9, so get there early. :) Admission is free!

Robin in the Rye

2008-12-08T00:11:00.000+08:00

Fans of J.D. Salinger and Batman's bare-legged sidekick, please click here. Relive Holden Caulfield's adventures -- this time with Robin as Holden Caulfield. Oddly compelling, even touching. And funny, of course.

Reasons To Buy The Free Press

2008-12-07T20:10:00.000+08:00

There are quite a few good reasons to buy the recently-revamped Free Press weekly magazine, beyond the fact that VP Noli de Castro resembles a basset hound (aaaww) on the cover of this week's issue. (Spiffy cover redesign by Juan Caguicla, suckas!)

Reason #1 has to be that Erwin Romulo (former Features Editor of Rogue magazine), is now their new Associate Editor, which accounts for why the century-old publication is changing for the better, inside and out. Reasons #2 and up would be the creative people he's bringing on board -- photographers like Juan, writers like Yvette Tan, Lourd de Veyra, Alexis Tioseco, Tad Ermitano, Armi Millare, Adam David, Philbert Dy, and, ahem, myself, among others.

The new issue has my review/essay about Up Dharma Down in it. Last week's issue (Dec. 6 cover date, Alfonso Cusi on the front) has Adam's first book review for the FP, of Khavn's Ultraviolins -- and it is worth getting for that alone. It pulls no punches, and abounds in insights such as:

"It's an interesting phenomenon, these safe sanctioned transgressions, how we are "given" only a few things to complain about -- GMA, violence against women, corporate churchdom, globalization -- and how we are "given" only a few choice ways to complain about them. It's the height of absurdity, a simulacrum of a rebellion -- corporate punk."

Dig around more in the back issues and if you're lucky enough to find the recent one with the Bayani Fernando cover (mid-November, I believe), get it, because it has an amazing story by Yvette Tan called "Her Room Was Her Temple," another deft mind-mangling mashup of horror, sex and dark humor.

Erwin and I had some conversations about how to change the Free Press before his appointment as editor was confirmed. It's exciting to see these plans -- and more -- actually being implemented. (Everybody used to make jokes about how ugly the covers were -- well, now something has been done about that!) I used to buy the Free Press (and the Graphic) semi-regularly in the 90s, usually depending on who wrote the fiction feature for that week, but I stopped buying both almost a decade ago. So it's a thrill to be looking forward to finding the FP on the stands again these days.

And now I want you all to sing this song, to the tune of the chorus of "Reasons" by Earth Wind and Fire:

Free Press, the Free Press that we need
The Free Press that we read
To improve our thoughts -- and our deeds

Oooooh! And -- after a hundred years on the stands
All of the copies are now in demand
Because the Free Press is now in new hands

La la la la la, etc.

Aww yeah.

Alan Moore and Yvette Tan

2008-12-07T07:33:00.001+08:00

Get the October-November issue of Fully Booked online, here! (Link leads to a PDF file.) Not only does it have my feature on the legendary Alan Moore (in which he gives a shout-out to all his fanz in the Philippines -- word), but it also has a feature on the brilliant and lovely Yvette Tan, "an award-winning horror fiction writer climbing the literary ranks." :D Go go read!

NOTE: In the file I submitted to the magazine, I thanked Ramon de Veyra and Erwin Romulo for their help with the Alan Moore article. The acknowledgement is missing from the printed version, so I would like to thank them here: Erwin for suggesting one of the questions I used, and Ramon for being the biggest Alan Moore geek on the planet.

Young Girl and Piano Hamster

2008-12-07T07:07:00.000+08:00

I was like she was all he was all they were like we were all like oh my God like totally

Go here for the Parry Gripp-penned fun! And here for more one-minute masterpieces. (Yup, that's the Parry Gripp from Nerf Herder.) Do not miss "Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)." (Nakaka-LSS.)

THE QLE AWARDS - This Is Our Truth Tell Us Yours

2008-11-28T07:29:00.000+08:00

The QLE Awards are being held this December 10! :D Click on the image for a bigger version.

So Erwin's QLE article finally came out in the Star today (pages N-1 and N-3 in the print version). However, aside from publishing it later than the Bulletin and Inquirer installments, they also published the wrong version. (Erwin revised his when he realized it would come out a week later than ours.) Also, the pictures they used in the print version were wrong too: there are a lot of bands pictured that were not mentioned in the QLEs at all. (They were, however, NU107 Rock Awards nominees, which means that E's editors confused us with the NU Rock Awards, which is kind of deliciously ironic in a way).

So anyway! On Erwin's request, I post here his revised QLE article in full, along with Quark's uncensored intro (the Inquirer cut some of the best bits out of Quark's intro, in our opinion). Let's start with Quark:

THE QLE AWARDS
Uncensored Intro by Quark Henares

Here come the cranky old men, sourgraping about how the underappreciated geniuses of our time aren’t paid any attention.

You know what I’m talking about—people who blog about how blablabla should’ve won and how blearghiebleargh got the nom simply because they ladidad. But let’s face it—awards based on numbers aren’t exactly the most reliable ones, and I know for a fact that 90% of text votes for a certain band in this year’s Rock Awards came from only two cellphone numbers.

It just so happened that during one party Erwin Romulo, Luis Katigbak and I were sitting around and pointing out people who were really talented yet never seemed to get any loving from the RA. In other words, we were old man sourgraping. We decided to do something about it, and agreed to collectively write small tributes to our favorites this year. Hence, the QLE Awards—the most clever name we could come up with because we write for a living and are filled to the brim with creativity. Most of you might not agree with our choices, but you know what they say about opinions and assholes. It just so happened these assholes write for broadsheets as well.

Before I begin, I’d just like to clarify that I love the NU Rock Awards. Hell, I’ve even written two and directed one. But controversy is always great, so why not use that to highlight and point towards some of the artists who have truly touched us this year?

And now, Erwin's revised version of the QLE Awards article...

THE QLE AWARDS
by Erwin Romulo

To be honest, I’d rather call it the Anton Ego Awards, after the character of the critic in the animated film Ratatouille. If anything, he’s the best character in the film in the sense that all the presumptions about him were overturned in the film’s climax. He was feared and respected but only because he really knew what he was talking about and, above all, honest. Being obsequious or pandering didn’t influence his reviews but only whether he liked what he tasted or not—no matter if it was cooked and prepared by a rat.

It’s the role of the media to call it as they see it (or in this case, hear it). That’s our role and it’s no surprise that we court opprobrium whenever we do express our dissatisfaction at the state-of-affairs. Despite this, we are there to report and, in the case of columnists, to offer opinions on the goings-on regardless of whether or not we’re expected or invited to them. Just as the newsmakers or performers do their bit by making news, we’re there to gather what we can for our readers. In particular, rock n’ roll has a great tradition of journalists going to great lengths to get their stories, writing it as they see it. Some, including Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Jon Savage and our very own Jingle staff led by the venerable Ces Rodriguez, are as known and as vital to the genre as the musicians themselves.

This year, there was so much great music released locally that a couple of us—namely, music lovers Luis Katigbak and Quark Henares—decided that we should make up our own awards to point out the stuff that was regrettably overlooked by others. Let me offer apologies that we couldn’t think of a better title for it but let the winners be our saving grace. In any case, we did this for nothing more than love of music—and only that. No, we certainly didn’t agree on everything but that’s how these things go, especially with how opinionated we all are. What’s important is that we explain to you our choices and not just dish them out with no one the wiser. But then again, anyone who still wants to argue can buy each of us coffee and we’ll gladly discuss. After all, this is our truth; what’s yours?

1. ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Ciudad - Bring Your Friends
This is the Wonder Years soundtrack of our generation. Criminally overlooked and under-appreciated, it nonetheless confirms that unfortunate phenomenon that befalls all great artists. Remember, even during the Summer of Love, Engelbert Humperdinck beat The Beatles at the charts. But nonetheless, Ciudad will never need any more affirmation from me or any pundit. Listen to this album. Music like this will never grow old. [Erwin]

Drip - Identity Theft
You will never feel cooler than when you're listening to Drip. I don't mean that smug kind of poser-cool that comes with patronizing the band of the moment―I'm talking about that glorious experience when their music creates a world between your ears, dark and dramatic, a nocturnal urban narrative with you as the central character beset by sudden dangers and unexpected pleasures. With scratches and samples, keyboards and beats, and that relentless, yearning, sensual voice, Identity Theft delivers seeming contradictions―fierce vulnerability, emotional electronica―and changes your life for the better. [Luis]

Taken by Cars - Endings of a New Kind
From the opening salvo "Uh-oh" to the solemn "Shapeshifter," Endings of a New Kind could end up being a classic among the younger set. Credit must also be given where credit is due: producer Mong Alcaraz really pushed the band to the limits in this record, and when compared to the band's earlier demos this sounds like it was made by a completely different artist. Taken by Cars has never sounded so good, even compared to their live performances today. [Quark]

2. SONGS OF THE YEAR

Ciudad - “My Emptiness”
This is undoubtedly one of the most emotionally affecting ones I've heard all year. It deals in a genuine melancholy (and none of this “Take me to the other side” crap) but is never despairing. It's evidence of a settling maturity in the band's music and lyrics, but also proves they haven't lost their sense of humor. Despite its somber sentiment, it’s offset by a disco beat—you’d feel silly shedding tears to that. (You will anyway.) Like the Itchyworms' “Love Team,” it belongs to the canon of possibly perfect pop songs made in this century. [Erwin]

Up Dharma Down - “Unspoken Definites”
It's almost impossible to choose a favorite song off Bipolar―they are nearly all utterly excellent―but still, "Unspoken Definites" stands out, in its almost-painful honesty, in the openness of its music, in the way it takes its influences and shapes them into something new. [Luis]

Taken by Cars - “Weeknight Memoir (In High Definition)”
It starts in an ambient, quiet hum that suddenly erupts in Sarah Marco demanding at the top of her voice―"HEART STOPPING-LIAR, ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT JOKE?" Umm, ok, not that great in the lyrics department. However, for me "Weeknight Memoir (In High Definition)" is anthemic―the kind of song that makes you scream at the top of your lungs in the midst of traffic or start jumping up and down alone in your room. [Quark]

3. VIDEOS OF THE YEAR

Pedicab - “Ang Pusa Mo”
What else encapsulates best the weirdness and exhilaration of this year's music but a video wherein members of this band get tortured and beaten by a myriad of femme fatales? [Erwin]

Up Dharma Down - “We Give In Sometimes”
It's hard to match the trippy visuals your mind makes up when you listen to this intricate, dreamlike track, but this video does a great job. [Luis]

Pedicab - “Ang Pusa Mo”
16 words: Shawn Yao, Tricia Gosingtian, Kim Marvilla, Alodia Gosengfiao, Ashley Gosengfiao, Roni Callanta, Kat Velayo, Dylan, sadomasochism. [Quark]

…and RA Rivera. And yes, Shawn “Fiction na nga, speculative pa!” Yao will save us all. [Erwin]

4. LIVE ACTS OF THE YEAR

Itchyworms
Excellent musicianship, wicked sense of humor and just brilliant songs. I'd like to personally credit this band’s performances and music from dissuading me from putting my head into the oven this past trying year. Or a plastic bag. [Erwin]

Yosha
When a band gets me on my feet, screaming like a cheerleader, for a type of music I don't even usually like, then I know they've got something special going on. Drawing from soul and jazz, Yosha brings the groove, the virtuosity, and the sheer joy of music-making, straight to their lucky, lucky audiences. [Luis]

Sandwich
Though their latest album isn't their best, Sandwich still gives their proverbial 110% every time they perform. Also, as of late they've toned down the improvising and have instead focused on delivering solid performances, occasionally revisiting old favorites such as "Freestyle Analog" and "Cheese Factor Set to 9." It’s ironic how The Eraserheads Reunion seemed to remind Raimund Marasigan how much he loves this band, because his recent performances have a fire and vigor in them that seemed to be absent for a while. [Quark]

5. BEST NEW ARTISTS

Intolerant AND Loss Of Control
Just because they're metal, better than almost all of the bands on the charts at the moment and that, frankly, they don't give a fuck. [Erwin]

Ang Bandang Shirley
They're not rock gods or avant-garde experimentalists―they're the people that you meet, when you're walking down the street, each day. Except that they have an enormous talent for impeccable pop tunes and quirky-heartfelt lyrics. And enormous appetites as well. [Luis]

Taken by Cars
A lot of people accuse Taken by Cars of ripping Bloc Party off. I say they're better than Bloc Party. Endings of A New Kind is the kind of debut that feels like it was made after years of meshing and collaborating as artists, and individually the instrumentalists have that perfect balance of standing out yet sounding completely organic. [Quark]

6. COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

Markus Highway
Whoever would've thought that Marcus Adoro had it in him to make such inventive, winsome pop music? The sojourn from the music scene has certainly made his songwriting talents come to fruition. The first bona fide Pinoy surf album. [Erwin]

7. BEST ALBUM COVERS

Up Dharma Down - Bipolar
Not as genuinely complex and dazzling as the band's music contained within, but it sure does a neat job of inviting us into it. [Erwin and Quark]

Ang Bandang Shirley - Themesongs
C'mon. That Pepper Roxas cover is all sorts of adorable. [Luis]

8. ARTISTS OF THE YEAR

Up Dharma Down
Surely if any artists this year dominated it would be none other than the Eraserheads. But apart from them, it would surely be Up Dharma Down, who've just released their newest album Bipolar. Just for the fact that they seemed to be the only artist to still make an impact and not be swallowed up by the Eheads reunion. Also, the fact that the band is still constantly pursuing myriad ways of conveying and expressing the conflicting forces of human desire―but without resort to cliché―is admirable. Impressive. [Erwin and Luis]

Ciudad
It seems that Ciudad has always had an identity crisis of sorts. Their first album, Hello! How Are You, Mico The Happy Bear had that major-label-trying-to-turn-a-unique-artist-into-pop-fodder feel to it. The second, 'Is That Ciudad?', 'Yes,son, it's me.' saw the band exploring new musical directions and maturing as artists. The third release, It's Like A Magic, can't really be considered an album because it was mostly a hodgepodge of updated outtakes and old songs throughout their then-11 year history. This new fourth album, Bring Your Friends, is Ciudad coming full circle, with the band finally accepting that they can never be pop sensations and unknowingly fulfilling their destiny as one of the most brilliant and unique bands in the country. [Quark]

The QLE Awards - And The Winners Are...

2008-11-23T06:36:00.000+08:00

Here, as requested, is the QLE Awards article in full, as it appeared in my Luis Listens column in the Bulletin yesterday. Quark's version is here. Erwin's version will see print in the Star in a few days. Thank you to everyone for all the comments, online and in person. :)

The QLE Awards

Listen up: Quark Henares, Luis Katigbak and Erwin Romulo pick the Best Music of 2008

This was an unbelievably good year for music: don't let anybody tell you otherwise. That's why brash boyish filmmaker/ writer/ rakista Quark Henares, all-around artistic force of nature Erwin Romulo and yours truly decided to shout mash notes to our favorite bands from the rooftops via our own little “awards show.” We're calling it the QLE Awards because, well, those are our initials. (Also, as my Tita Pep pointed out, if you say “QLE” out loud it almost sorta sounds like “Quality”―he he he.)

My column last week, “Rage Against the Rock Awards,” generated a lot of feedback, almost all of it positive―thanks for all the emails and texts, everyone―and now, instead of just complaining about how established shows like the NU107 awards don't recognize all the worthy acts while nominating bands that constitute crimes against humanity, Quark, Erwin and I are presenting the artists and songs we feel strongly deserve your attention if not adoration. (To be fair, as Quark pointed out, a couple of these acts―Up Dharma Down and Ang Bandang Shirley for example―fell just outside the judging period for this year's NU107 Rock Awards, and may well be nominated next year.)

Luckily, we all happen to write for newspapers, so if all goes well, this roster of winners should be in all three major broadsheets this weekend, which must be a first of sorts. And so, ladeez and gennelmen, welcome to the first ever QLE Awards:

1. ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Ciudad - Bring Your Friends
This is the Wonder Years soundtrack of our generation. Overlooked and under-appreciated, it nonetheless confirms that eerie phenomenon that befalls all great artists. Remember, even during the Summer of Love, Engelbert Humperdinck beat [The Beatles] at the charts. But nonetheless, Ciudad will never need any more affirmation from me or any pundit. Listen to this album. Music like this will never grow old. [Erwin]

Drip - Identity Theft
You will never feel cooler than when you're listening to Drip. I don't mean that smug kind of poser-cool that comes with patronizing the band of the moment―I'm talking about that glorious experience when their music creates a world between your ears, dark and dramatic, a nocturnal urban narrative with you as the central character beset by sudden dangers and unexpected pleasures. With scratches and samples, keyboards and beats, and that relentless, yearning, sensual voice, Identity Theft delivers seeming contradictions―fierce vulnerability, emotional electronica―and changes your life for the better. [Luis]

Taken by Cars - Endings of a New Kind
From the opening salvo "Uh-oh" to the solemn "Shapeshifter," Endings of a New Kind could end up being a classic among the younger set. Credit must also be given where credit is due: producer Mong Alcaraz really pushed the band to the limits in this record, and when compared to the band's earlier demos this sounds like it was made by a completely different artist. Taken by Cars has never sounded so good, even compared to their live performances today. [Quark]

2. SONGS OF THE YEAR

Ciudad - “My Emptiness”
This is one of the most emotionally affecting ones I've ever heard this year. It deals in melancholy (and genuine melancholy at that―none of this “Take me to the other side” crap) but is never despairing. It's evidence of a settling maturity in the band's music and lyrics, but also proves they haven't lost their sense of humor. It's got a disco beat but isn't dance punk: rather, like the Itchyworms' “Love Team,” it belongs to the canon of possibly perfect pop songs made in this century. [Erwin]

Up Dharma Down - “Unspoken Definites”
It's almost impossible to choose a favorite song off Bipolar―they are nearly all utterly excellent―but still, "Unspoken Definites" stands out, in its almost-painful honesty, in the openness of its music, in the way it takes its influences and shapes them into something new. [Luis]

Taken by Cars - “Weeknight Memoir (In High Definition)”
It starts in an ambient, quiet hum that suddenly erupts in Sarah Marco demanding at the top of her voice―"HEART STOPPING-LIAR, ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT JOKE?" Umm, ok, not that great in the lyrics department. However, for me "Weeknight Memoir (In High Definition)" is anthemic―the kind of song that makes you scream at the top of your lungs in the midst of traffic or start jumping up and down alone in your room. [Quark]

3. VIDEOS OF THE YEAR

Pedicab - “Ang Pusa Mo”
What else encapsulates best the weirdness and exhilaration of this year's music but a video wherein members of this band get tortured and beaten by a myriad of femme fatales? [Erwin]

Up Dharma Down - “We Give In Sometimes”
It's hard to match the trippy visuals your mind makes up when you listen to this intricate, dreamlike track, but this video does a great job. [Luis]

Pedicab - “Ang Pusa Mo”
16 words: Shawn Yao, Tricia Gosingtian, Kim Marvilla, Alodia Gosengfiao, Ashley Gosengfiao, Roni Callanta, Kat Velayo, Dylan, sadomasochism. [Quark]

…and RA Rivera. And yes, Shawn Yao will save us all: “Fiction na nga, speculative pa!” * [Erwin]

4. LIVE ACTS OF THE YEAR

Itchyworms
Excellent musicianship, wicked sense of humor and just brilliant songs. I'm pretty sure that this band's performances and music were what kept me from any suicide attempts this year. [Erwin]

Yosha
When a band gets me on my feet, screaming like a cheerleader, for a type of music I don't even usually like, then I know they've got something special going on. Drawing from soul and jazz, Yosha brings the groove, the virtuosity, and the sheer joy of music-making, straight to their lucky, lucky audiences. [Luis]

Sandwich
Though their latest album isn't their best, Sandwich still gives their proverbial 110% every time they perform. Also, as of late they've toned down the improvising and have instead focused on delivering solid performances, occasionally revisiting old favorites such as "Freestyle Analog" and "Cheese Factor Set to 9." It’s ironic how The Eraserheads Reunion seemed to remind Raimund Marasigan how much he loves this band, because his recent performances have a fire and vigor in them that seemed to be absent for a while. [Quark]

5. BEST NEW ARTISTS

Intolerant AND Loss Of Control
Just because they're metal and they don't give a f**k. [Erwin]

Ang Bandang Shirley
They're not rock gods or avant-garde experimentalists―they're the people that you meet, when you're walking down the street, each day. Except that they have an enormous talent for impeccable pop tunes and quirky-heartfelt lyrics. And enormous appetites as well. [Luis]

Taken by Cars
A lot of people accuse Taken by Cars of ripping Bloc Party off. I say they're better than Bloc Party. Endings of A New Kind is the kind of debut that feels like it was made after years of meshing and collaborating as artists, and individually the instrumentalists have that perfect balance of standing out yet sounding completely organic. [Quark]

6. COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

Markus Highway
Whoever would've thought that Marcus Adoro had it in him to make such inventive, winsome pop music? The sojourn from the music scene has certainly made his songwriting talents come to fruition. The first bona fide Pinoy surf album. [Erwin]

7. BEST ALBUM COVERS

Up Dharma Down - Bipolar
Not as genuinely complex and dazzling as the band's music contained within, but it sure does a neat job of inviting us into it. [Erwin and Quark]

Ang Bandang Shirley - Themesongs
C'mon. That Pepper Roxas cover is all sorts of adorable. [Luis]

8. ARTISTS OF THE YEAR

Up Dharma Down
Surely if any artists this year dominated it would be none other than the Eraserheads. But apart from them, it would surely be Up Dharma Down, who've just released their newest album Bipolar. Just for the fact that they seemed to be the only artist to still make an impact and not be swallowed up by the Eheads reunion. Also, the fact that the band is still constantly pursuing myriad ways of conveying and expressing the conflicting forces of human desire―but without resort to cliché―is admirable. Impressive. [Erwin and Luis]

Ciudad
It seems that Ciudad has always had an identity crisis of sorts. Their first album, Hello! How Are You, Mico The Happy Bear had that major-label-trying-to-turn-a-unique-artist-into-pop-fodder feel to it. The second, 'Is That Ciudad?', 'Yes,son, it's me.' saw the band exploring new musical directions and maturing as artists. The third release, It's Like A Magic, can't really be considered an album because it was mostly a hodgepodge of updated outtakes and old songs throughout their then-11 year history. This new fourth album, Bring Your Friends, is Ciudad coming full circle, with the band finally accepting that they can never be pop sensations and unknowingly fulfilling their destiny as one of the most brilliant and unique bands in the country. [Quark]

*Yes, this is an in-joke. But yes, it is also an actual quote from Shawn Yao. I will explain someday.

The QLE Awards

2008-11-22T03:18:00.001+08:00

Well, we did it. Go out right now and get a copy of the Manila Bulletin or the Philippine Daily Inquirer! (Still waiting on word from the Star). Read the results of... *fanfare* The first-ever QLE Awards! And yes, QLE stands for Quark Henares, Luis Katigbak and Erwin Romulo. "The most clever name we could come up with because we write for a living and are filled to the brim with creativity," as Quark said with beautiful sarcasm. (I wondered out loud if it was a good idea to name it after ourselves, but Erwin pointed out that doing so emphasizes the personal nature of these choices. Good point.)

Excerpts from our respective intros:

LUIS: "This was an unbelievably good year for music: don't let anybody tell you otherwise. That's why brash boyish filmmaker/ writer/ rakista Quark Henares, all-around artistic force of nature Erwin Romulo and yours truly decided to shout mash notes to our favorite bands from the rooftops via our own little 'awards show.'"

ERWIN: "To be honest, I’d rather call it the Anton Ego Awards, after the character of the critic in the animated film Ratatouille. If anything, he’s the best character in the film in the sense that all the presumptions about him were overturned in the film’s climax. He was feared and respected but only because he really knew what he was talking about and -- above all -- honest. Being obsequious or pandering didn’t influence him but rather just whether he liked what he tasted or not. Even if it was cooked and prepared by a rat."

QUARK: "Most of you might not agree with our choices, but you know what they say about opinions and assholes. It just so happened these assholes write for broadsheets as well. Before I begin, I’d just like to clarify that I love the NU Rock Awards. Hell, I’ve even written two and directed one. But controversy is always great, so why not use that to highlight and point towards some of the artists who have truly touched us this year?"

Am very happy with what the Bulletin did with my part of all this. It sprawls over 2 pages (E-3 to E-4) and has pictures and stuff. Many many thanks to Yonina and Section Editor Joyce! :D

UPDATE: It's on pages C-1 and C-2 of the Inquirer. :)

QLE

2008-11-21T01:46:00.000+08:00

This is something I'm quite excited about: and yes, it does have something to do with this, he he he.

Explanations (and relevant links) very very soon. Let me just say that it involves all three major daily newspapers -- the Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Star, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer -- but that it is a very personal, undiluted undertaking (or crusade, if you want to be dramatic). It's not an event; no sponsors or budget or anything like that -- just three opinionated bastards who think too much about music.

Kuya and Spaceman

2008-11-15T01:54:00.000+08:00

So my cousin Lala got married yesterday! *whoops of joy and wild congratulations* :D

I was sitting next to my big brother during the Mass. The priest was going on and on about the sacrifices and hardships involved in true love. About how you have to suffer and endure and suffer and did I mention suffer? He made it sound like a pursuit for hardcore masochists.

ME: Wow, love sounds horrible.
KUYA: Yeah. It's what killed Jesus.

At one point Kuya informed me that the groom was Opus Dei, which I did not know before.

ME: Is that a problem? They're Catholics too, right?
KUYA: Yeah, but like, Extreme Catholics. Like Catholic terrorists.

And then he mimed whipping himself.

My brother. He iz a funnies. :D

On a totally unrelated note, the new Killers song "Spaceman" is great. Listen to it!

Martial Law Babies

2008-11-01T15:56:00.000+08:00

New comics by Arnold Arre are always a cause for celebration. Martial Law Babies is certainly no exception; the fact that it should be in stores by next week should have fans of the medium dancing in the streets. There are no superheroes or supernatural creatures in this one, but don't let that deter you. It's a great read, particularly if you grew up in the 80s. Here's a synopsis from the official site:

"Allan and his friends are Martial Law Babies: born during the Marcos regime, raised by TV, and shaped by 80s music. Their ambitions may be dampened by third world realities and malcontention but they also proudly belong to a generation of dreamers who fight for their voices to be heard. They are among the so-called "Bagong Lipunan" children, trying their best to live up to their name. But over the years, as Allan watches his friends leave one by one and feels his sense of idealism wane, he starts to wonder where they are all headed."

And here's an excerpt from a review I wrote:

"Martial Law Babies is the best novel I've read in a long time."

"Note that I did not modify "novel" with "Philippine" or "graphic" -- though both those words certainly apply. Like the best novels, it has its imperfections; like the best novels, it sprawls a little, and reaches for things that are not easily grasped. And with all of its vivid characters, class issues, pop-cultural archeology, unfiltered outbursts, flights of fancy, and seeming self-indulgence, it is also, like the best novels, deeply satisfying. Reading it makes you realize what conventional Philippine fiction and comics usually leave out."

"And yes, it's partially a nostalgia trip for those of us who grew up in the shadow of Martial Law, those of us who can remember that Sting concert or “Uncle Bob's Lucky 7 Club” or even that apple coin bank toy. Do I love it because I'm a MLB myself? Sure, that's one of the reasons: recognition, identification. I have to admit, when I first read it, I wanted to buy a stack of copies then and there, to give to fellow MLBs who I knew would appreciate all the references. But beyond that, Martial Law Babies is an honest, compulsively readable account of a group of people growing up in the Philippines, dealing with the good times and bad times and sheer madness. Like you and your friends, it's funny and sad and awkward and astonishing."

Check out the site, there's loads of visuals and notes and behind-the-scenes stuff!

Up Dharma Now

2008-10-23T16:41:00.000+08:00

It's here! It's here! Well, almost. Up Dharma Down's second album launch is nigh. Here are the official details:

Friday, October 24, 2008, 8:00 PM
Hexagon Lounge, RCBC Plaza
Ayala Avenue corner Buendia Avenue
Makati City, Philippines

P150 entrance with drink
P500 entrance with drink + Limited Edition CD + Documentary DVD

(Map here.)

Here's what I wrote in last Saturday's edition of Luis Listens:

"They’re young, they write fantastic songs, and they have a unique sound, drawing from rock, neo-soul, and various sub-genres of electronic music. There are those who see them as the saviors of Pinoy rock, and while that would be overstating the matter (and putting undue pressure on the band), I can see their point -- it’s not hard to imagine them making an unprecedented impact, not just here, but overseas. No less than the frontman of one of my favorite foreign acts, Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile, is a fan of theirs; in fact he called them his favorite group, and said that they make "beautiful, victorious, elegant, muscular music," which is high praise indeed, especially considering the source.

"The launch of Up Dharma Down’s second album, Bipolar is this October 24, around 8 p.m. at the Hexagon Lounge, 4th floor of the RCBC Plaza. When I first heard some of the new tracks performed live earlier this year, my feeling was that they had pushed the excellent songwriting on their debut Fragmented both ways: they were writing even more appealing, more accessible stuff, and they were also doing more challenging, more experimental material. Hearing some of the new tracks in advance seems to bear this out. It should be quite the album."

Iron Ani

2008-10-20T09:24:00.000+08:00

Ani de Leon is the first Pinay (and first registered Filipino citizen) to do the world-famous Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. I think that's awesome. Congrats Ani! :D

Read all about it here!

How To Be Cooler

2008-10-20T05:50:00.000+08:00

Read the whole thing here. I'm a hamsterpunk!

"Why I Blog" by Andrew Sullivan

2008-10-17T06:15:00.000+08:00

"You end up writing about yourself, since you are a relatively fixed point in this constant interaction with the ideas and facts of the exterior world. And in this sense, the historic form closest to blogs is the diary. But with this difference: a diary is almost always a private matter. Its raw honesty, its dedication to marking life as it happens and remembering life as it was, makes it a terrestrial log. A few diaries are meant to be read by others, of course, just as correspondence could be -- but usually posthumously, or as a way to compile facts for a more considered autobiographical rendering. But a blog, unlike a diary, is instantly public. It transforms this most personal and retrospective of forms into a painfully public and immediate one. It combines the confessional genre with the log form and exposes the author in a manner no author has ever been exposed before."
...
"Even the most careful and self-aware blogger will reveal more about himself than he wants to in a few unguarded sentences and publish them before he has the sense to hit Delete. The wise panic that can paralyze a writer -- the fear that he will be exposed, undone, humiliated -- is not available to a blogger. You can’t have blogger’s block. You have to express yourself now, while your emotions roil, while your temper flares, while your humor lasts. You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality. The faux intimacy of the Web experience, the closeness of the e-mail and the instant message, seeps through. You feel as if you know bloggers as they go through their lives, experience the same things you are experiencing, and share the moment. When readers of my blog bump into me in person, they invariably address me as Andrew. Print readers don’t do that. It’s Mr. Sullivan to them."
...
"Reason is not the only fuel in the tank. In a world where no distinction is made between good traffic and bad traffic, and where emotion often rules, some will always raise their voice to dominate the conversation; others will pander shamelessly to their readers’ prejudices; others will start online brawls for the fun of it. Sensationalism, dirt, and the ease of formulaic talking points always beckon."

Read the whole thing here.

Mapping Invisible Cities

2008-10-16T06:38:00.000+08:00

This Friday evening, October 17, I'll be going to the opening of the photo exhibit Mapping Invisible Cities, at the 3/F Shangri-La Plaza, 6 PM. "The upcoming exhibition brings together the works of young photographers from six cities: Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore, Hanoi and Jakarta. The photographers earlier took part in workshops conducted by celebrated photographer Peter Bialobrzeski."

The photographers from Manila are: Catherine L.Quiogue, Che Katigbak, Cristina Sevilla, Dennis S. Rito, Estan Cabigas, Kidlat De Guia, Maria Virginia Cruz, and Tammy David. Yup, Kids and my Kuya Che were two of the workshoppers/photographers. :) The exhibit has already been shown in Indonesia and Singapore and has finally come to our city. For more details go here and here!

Kidlat's pix for this show eventually became the jumping-off point for his amazing solo exhibit, Sleeping White Elephants. Aside from Kidlat's and Kuya Che's work, I was particularly impressed by the pictures of Tammy David, who took an all-too-familiar subject -- beauty pageants -- and managed to capture images both surprising and affecting.

Stranger Fiction

2008-10-08T07:12:00.000+08:00

All this talk online about Speculative Fiction has reminded me of the class I used to teach in UP Diliman: Creative Writing 111. Now, CW 111, or Fiction 2 as it is sometimes known, has always focused on writing stories outside of the usual realist tradition: when I took it under Butch Dalisay in the mid-90s, we studied stories by Eric Gamalinda, Donald Barthelme and Joy Dayrit, among others. When I taught it in 2004, I put Aimee Bender, Paul Auster and Cyan Abad-Jugo on my syllabus (Cyan herself was kind enough to drop by the class when we were discussing her story).

Blogs were a fairly widespread phenomenon by then, and one of the first things I asked my class (after "Am I in the right room?") was if they all had internet access. When they answered in the affirmative, I created a group blog instead of assigning the usual reading journals. This way everyone could read everyone else's reactions, and there would be more give-and-take, more discussion.

I was happy to learn that it's still up. (In fact, there was even a somewhat recent entry dated September 4, the first in four years -- possibly posted accidentally.)

Here's the first post, my intro to the class:

Hello, all. This is our CW 111 blog. I am your supposed teacher, Mr. Luis Katigbak.

According to the course description from the English Department, CW 111 teaches one how to write "experimental fiction," and involves forms such as magical realism, metafiction, and 'sudden' fiction. Rather than refer to the material as "experimental" -- which somehow conjures notions of unreadable prose, of soulless demonstrations of technique -- I will call it, simply, "stranger fiction," a term vague and evocative enough to encompass Auster and Atwood, Barth and Barthelme, Gamalinda and Garcia-Marquez, Murakami and McCormack.

Stranger than the mainstream, stranger than the CW 110 stuff, these are stories that contain entire worlds, that are told in mobius strips and phone conversations, stories where a businessman can befriend a giant talking frog. The idea is to explore the possibilities embodied in stranger fiction, to learn that no subject matter is too ambitious or unusual, that no technique is off-limits, as long as the writer knows what he or she is doing. It is also hoped that we will develop a sense of when certain techniques are appropriate or unnecessary, and that we learn that "stranger" doesn't mean "easier" -- that there are stories written this way because there was no other way to adequately tell them, and not because it's a hassle to write "realistic."

Welcome aboard!

Clicking through the archives reminded me once again of how lucky I was to get a class full of great students. Lines like "Paul Auster is wicked" and "Dan Rhodes seems to be addicted to biatches" would leap out at me and make me laugh all over again. I had fun reading through the reactions to Bender's "The Rememberer" and John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio," among other stories, as well as witnessing someone quote Eddie Vedder to illumnate Banana Yoshimoto and Martin Heidegger to react to Jonathan Carroll.

I gave my students a lot of writing exercises to do. One of them is recorded in this blog, in the early July 2004 archive. It was called "Impossible Objects." Basically I asked each of my students to come up with a real, mundane setting and an unreal, impossible object, and then write them down on pieces of paper. (We had just finished discussing "The Enormous Radio" in class.) We jumbled them up and reassigned them randomly so that each student had a setting and object to work with. Then I asked them to write the end of a story involving those two factors. The results were on the whole well-written, often highly amusing and occasionally even touching.

Gabby's, for example: "For my mundane environment, I got a posh bathroom, the ones usually found in five-star hotels. For my strange object, I got a headband that answers all questions that come to mind anytime it's worn." The result is here.

And then there's Kurt. "The impossible object I got: a spinning wheel that creates smoke and tells the future. The mundane place: Seattle's Best Coffee, Katipunan Avenue." Click here for the full post, but allow me to quote the very beginning: "The two friends hobbled out of the coffee shop, one supported by a crutch, the other dragging his twisted, bandaged right leg. They had it with trying to be superheroes. Finally, after everything that happened, reality sank in on them: the future was not for them to change." Fun stuff. (Kurt, where are you, and are you still writing fiction?)

I may teach again someday. I had a good experience with my students. And besides, I got a kick out of being called "Mr. K."

Book Clubbed

2008-10-02T01:41:00.000+08:00

Last Monday was fun. Attended the NBDB Book Club discussion of my first collection of short stories, Happy Endings. Answered questions and dispensed writing advice and ate pancit. Thanks to everyone who went --

Thanks to all the Book Club and National Book Development Board people, especially Andrea, and Dianne!

Thanks as well to erudite Erwin Romulo and marvelous Mookie Katigbak! (Pictured here stabbing her iced tea with a fork.)

And of course, terrific Tara Sering, and Yvette my love! :D

Hard to believe my first collection of fiction came out almost eight years ago. (That second collection is way overdue.) Am happy that people who read it now seem to feel that it hasn't dated much, except perhaps for a few stray references to PC XTs and pre-millennial fever. And am very happy that people still respond to its tales of messed-up love, bicycles passing in the night, and postcards from other worlds.

PS. Watch Rakista tonight (Thursday, Oct. 2) at 7 PM on TV5! It's the special Eraserheads episode, he he. :)

Let's Talk About Happy Endings

2008-09-23T00:30:00.000+08:00

If you happen to have read my first book, the short story collection called Happy Endings, and you're free next Monday afternoon, September 29, around 3 PM, it would be great if you could drop by Sweet Inspirations on Katipunan Avenue (it's sort of across Ateneo/Miriam, alongside Teriyaki Boy and Chicken Bacolod), in Quezon City.

The National Book Development Board has a little reading group called the NBDB Book Club, and they meet once a month to read and discuss Philippine-authored books. This September, their pick is Happy Endings, described on its back cover as a collection of "stories about reinvented identities, lost loves, thermoacoustic engines and Wednesday afternoons." The Book Club will be gathering at the aforementioned time and place -- and I'll be there as well, to answer any and all questions anyone may have about the book, from the writing process to whatever else. The session is open to anyone who's read the book; no registration required, just drop by. It'll be fun. (For more details, call the NDBD Secretariat at 9268238.)

On a somewhat related note, am very proud and pleased to point out that, thanks to my insane friends in television, Happy Endings plays what could be called a pivotal part in an upcoming episode (Ep. 9) of Rakista. (The show airs every Thursday night, 7 PM, on TV5, as if you didn't know already.) Thanks, guys.

R.I.P. DFW

2008-09-14T06:45:00.000+08:00

Holy crap, David Foster Wallace just killed himself.

More on the author here.

Some quotes from DFW.

"Fiction-writing's lonely in a way most people misunderstand. It's yourself you have to be estranged from, really, to work."

"I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

"I 've found the really tricky discipline to writing is trying to play without getting overcome by insecurity or vanity or ego."

"The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, "then" what do we do?"

"...To be willing to sort of die in order to move the reader, somehow. Even now I'm scared about how sappy this'll look in print, saying this."

How To Be a Freelance Writer

2008-09-12T09:22:00.001+08:00

You're going to the Book Fair, right? If not, then I don't know what to say to you... Except, perhaps, "Go to the Book Fair!" If not for the books, then at least to attend Trouble-Free Freelancing, which is all about, and I quote, "How to Succeed at Freelance Writing with power freelancers Luis Katigbak, Erwin Romulo and others." Yup, we're giving away all the secrets, including all the dark rituals involving limerick chanting, unemployed editors as human sacrifices, and fatted calves (mine; I really need to exercise).

It's happening on Sunday, September 14, 2008, 4:30 to 6 PM, at the Manila International Book Fair, at Meeting Room 4, SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia. And then it's happening again, same time and place, but on the day after, Monday. The second session will be even better, because then we'll be joined by the lovely and talented Yvette Tan. Yihee!

So many great events to go to. Later tonight at The Podium, 8 PM, is Drip's last gig for 2008, since lead singer Beng is gloriously pregnant and will be taking a break for a while, 'til about March of next year. (The gig also doubles as a baby shower, for those inclined to gift-giving.)

And then tomorrow, at the Book Fair, is the launch of my brilliant award-winning cousin Mookie Katigbak's first collection of poetry, The Proxy Eros, from Anvil Publishing, around 3 PM. Congrats Mookie! :D Afterwards there's the opening of Frailty at Cubao X, around 7 PM, a must-go-to for fans of the visually arresting. Starring Bernie Sim! Lala Gallardo! Cynthia Bauzon-Arre! And many many more! :D

CORRECTION: Our Book Fair talk/s are at 3:00 PM, not 4:30. Apologies. We were just informed of the mix-up yesterday, right before we went to the Fair.

Happy Birthday Yvette!

2008-09-09T01:18:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YVETTE!

There is not enough space on teh Internetz to describe how wonderful you are. :D

Pic taken at the launch of Cyan Abad-Jugo's "Leaf & Shadow," and stolen from Panch Alcaraz, illustrator of said book

Leaf and Shadow by Cyan Abad-Jugo

2008-09-05T07:09:00.000+08:00

"In this book you will find stories about some strange but essentially friendly creatures: a homesick anito stuck behind an old aparador; a musical rocking horse carved out of a very special block of wood; a poor kapre blamed by Old Manang for all the misdeeds in Lola’s house; and a shadow man who hosts parties in his shadow world." (Description from the Anvil Publishing page.)

The launch is tomorrow, September 6, Saturday, 3 PM, at Powerbooks Trinoma. Congratulations Cyan! :D

Kermit the Bale

2008-09-04T20:24:00.000+08:00

Some of you may have seen this already but if not... go, go look.

I think my favorite is the one where's he's standing opposite Russell Crowe.

Rakista Rocks

2008-09-04T02:38:00.001+08:00

So I've plugged Rakista, the new comedy on TV5 about a group of college kids who form a band, on my music column and on my Facebook status updates. (Fourth episode airs tonight, September 4, Thursday, 7PM on channel 5!) Now you can read an entire article -- written by Philbert Dy -- on the show. Some excerpts:

"First, you might notice that the voice of the narrator is Lourd de Veyra of the Radioactive Sago project, which is insanely cool. Second, you might start to get a whiff of a twisted sense of humor that has never been present in local television, one that’s somewhat self-aware, and ready to poke fun at all the tropes of the genre. And lastly, you get the strange feeling that the inmates are running the prison, that for once, the creative people have been given free rein over what they want to put on screen, without interference from the station.

"The end result is something part John Hughes movie, part The Adventures of Pete and Pete, a little bit of Joss Whedon, and all Pinoy. It’s a striking alternative to what’s usually offered to young people on television."

The show was created by quirky Quark Henares and dandy Diego Castillo, and features a wonderfully talented/demented array of directors and writers, including a certain (ahem) Yvette Tan. I got to sit in on a couple of meetings and co-write episode 3 (which aired last week) with Yvette, and I can attest to the fun, freewheeling nature of the work behind the scenes, which of course doesn't mean that these people don't work their asses off.

Philbert goes on to say, about the show: "We follow these characters as they go through the ups and downs of college life, band life, and life altogether. Every episode is a little bit different. The pilot feels most like a school dramedy, something akin to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. [...] The fourth [episode] is completely off the rails, following Sven as he tries to become part of the Cubao art scene. At one point, the episode becomes a heist flick, before turning into a zombie freakout." (Or, as Rakista writer Ramon de Veyra puts it, the episode is "utterly batshit crazy and works as a complete stand-alone, practically.")

Read the whole article on Click the City, here. And DO NOT miss the show tonight! Yeah boyee.

This Reminded Me Of My Old Job

2008-09-04T00:44:00.000+08:00

This made me LOL, and reminded me of my old job at Smart/Wolfpac. Because when we were putting together Pulse.ph, Rad wanted to add a button that said "Download The Internet."

(For those interested in reading Google Chrome comics, click here.)

And check out Cris Ramos' account of the E-heads reunion on Pulse here!

24 Postcards In Full Colour

2008-09-02T04:01:00.000+08:00

Listen.

Lovely little shards of song, wordless and wonderful. And yes, they're ringtones.

"The title comes from the idea that when a phone rings we have an expectatiion of news from another place -- much as we do on receiving a postcard. These 24 postcards come from locations across the globe -- real and imaginary."

The photographs are excellent as well.

Some of the pieces remind me of Graeme Revell's work on my favorite soundtrack of all time, for Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. And maybe it's just me, but listening to these 24 postcards makes me want to write stories. (Perhaps that's because they seem to be the musical equivalent of flash fiction.)

My favorites are "Cascade NW by W," "H thinks a journey" and "This picture of us. P."

This Was Our Eraserheads Reunion

2008-08-31T09:57:00.001+08:00

So I wasn't at the Eraserheads reunion concert last night. For people who know me as a big (no fat jokes, please) music fan, that takes a bit more explanation than I'm willing to get into right now. But I was happy that Yvette and I got to be at soundcheck the night before, to watch and listen to the reunited E-heads go through several complete songs from their repertoire, as well as bits and pieces of their other songs and even a couple of covers (I almost swooned when they did a bit of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust"). That was enough for me, really. And I was happy for the people who were going last night, who would be witnesses to the most highly anticipated concert in this country since... well, ever.

Around the time the concert was starting, I was having dinner at Pancake House with Kidlat and Lissa. Our talk naturally turned to music and bands and motivations and dynamics and the Eraserheads, just as I was getting texts from friends who were at the venue. A little over an hour later, Kids and Lissa had gone home and I had walked to the nearby Eunilaine supermarket to buy some groceries. That was when the texts about Ely being rushed to the hospital started to reach me. It was a very weird sensation, getting the news and having absolutely no one near me to share it with, to freak out with.

Walked to the Burger Machine down the street to buy food to take home. While I was waiting for my order, this fresh-faced couple dropped by. The girl was toting a Stephanie Meyer novel, the guy had that day's Manila Bulletin. I suddenly remembered that I hadn't checked yet whether my Saturday music column had come out on time (I had submitted it rather late), so I asked the guy where he had bought it. He ended up giving it to me (thanks, man, whoever you are), and I ended up talking to the two of them, complete strangers, about the E-heads concert and Ely's collapse. (They were E-heads fans, of course; the girl more than the guy. I think almost everyone in a ten-year radius of my age is an E-heads fan.) That was how much I needed to talk to someone about what felt like a triumphant/tragic moment in Pinoy music history.

By the time I got home I had learned that Ely was in Makati Med, in stable condition, reportedly. Denise called and gave me a first-hand account of the show and we talked 'til my phone battery died. I went online early this morning, and sure enough, everything was Eraserheads: aside from the official news stories on Ely's condition and the concert, more than half of the recent status updates on Facebook had to do with the Eraserheads, and friends were posting lengthy and in many cases quite affecting accounts of the night, on their blogs. Already quoted Sarah earlier, but two more posts in particular deserve mention:

First, Oli's evocative and extremely well-written account: “It was a transformative show. A countdown timer had people chanting, as if it were New Year's Eve, the seconds before the E-heads would be together again at long last. A drumburst from the darkened stage let us know that they were there and when the familiar chords to Alapaap broke through, we all felt tearjerky. The songs rolled out like old intimates welcomed back into our lives after years of absence. From my vantage point in the middle of the Patrons section, I captured some videos on my old point-and-shoot. What the official DVD release will not be able to capture is Ely's voice remixed with the voices of countless fans singing along -- in low intensity during less familiar lyrics, in full throated throttle during the choruses. The Eraserheads seemed to realize this, and at moments, Mr. Buendia would lay back, content with accompanying the fans who were doing the singing for him. This was our reunion concert too.” [Full post here.]

And then there's Katwo's amazing post, which covers her personal history growing up with the E-heads' music, all the way to yesterday's concert and the now-legendary follow-up jam at saGuijo right after. "This was the eraserheads. This was OUR eraserheads reunion 2nd set, because this was just US. Everyone in the room sang, it didn't matter who was at the mic. The band was just there to assist everyone to purge all feelings, memories and to commemorate the greatness that is the eraserheads. And the gig was such a contrast to the Fort stage. No state of the art stage production, raims and buddy didn't even have their complete instrument set up, there was no 5 meter barricade from the artists, there were only a about, at the most, 200 hundred people in the crowd, free beer getting served, there were no SVIP sections, no security guys, no swanky buffet food, no press. But there we were shouting Tang Ina to Pare Ko, singing Tito vic and joey with Aia on Spolarium, doing our lalalala-la-las to El Bimbo." [Full post here.]

Is it strange that I don't regret not being at The Fort for the first set, but sorely wish I had been at saGuijo for the unofficial second? For a glimpse of the sweaty shouty blissful fun, click here for "Magasin" (thanks to Quark) and here for "Ang Huling El Bimbo" (thanks to Mark).

I'll end with another quote from Katwo. "I finally gave in to my fan-girl self and told Buddy that they've changed my life in more ways than they can imagine. They might have inspired me, but I still did all the legwork to change my life." Well said, well said.

Awesome, Rocking, Surreal

2008-08-30T23:04:00.001+08:00

"Tonight was one of the most fun, awesome, rocking and... surreal nights of my life."

Here's an excerpt from Sarah Cada's account of last night's reunion concert of Ely, Raimund, Buddy and Marcus (or, as I like to call it, "E2: Eraserheads United.")

*

The crowd was going crazy (myself included) because... well, this was just the band that pretty much left a HUGE dent in Philippine music and helped shape it as we know it today. Those guys are legends. And they pretty much shaped my musical preferences, too, since I grew up listening to them since I was in 3rd grade.

They played my three most favorite songs: Minsan, Huwag Kang Matakot and, finally, LIGHTYEARS!!! My ultimate favorite song EVER!!! That was their last song for the first set, and they went backstage for a 20-minute intermission.

[...]

Twenty minutes passed, and the band wasn't back on stage.

Another minute. And another. And another.

I was starting to wonder what was going on backstage.

And then some people went on stage. Crew people attending to the instruments. and then some more people came on stage. Buddy, Marcus, and Raymund. And they were not making their way to their instruments. And Ely was not on stage with them.

No way.

*

Read the whole account here.

Last we heard, Ely was in stable condition at Makati Medical. Our sympathies and best wishes to him and his family.

Ultraelectromagneticsoundcheck

2008-08-30T02:25:00.000+08:00

So wow; it's really happening, and it's really happening tonight.

Just got home half an hour ago; the sun's up and I'm hoping I can catch enough sleep before a meeting I have scheduled for noon, but am all jangly-awake in a good way. It's like I'm all hopped up on caffeine. Which I am, actually, but the real reason I'm jangly-awake is this: We got to watch the Eraserheads soundcheck last night at the Fort's Open Field.

I think it took a few moments for the fact to sink in: Ely, Raimund, Buddy and Marcus were performing together, again, right in front of us.

Tonight should be great.

Ben and Rose and Archie and Betty and Veronica

2008-08-29T10:34:00.000+08:00

I never, ever thought I would read an article about Archie comics that would bring me to tears. (Though the advance press for Archie vs. the Punisher came close.) But, well -- here you go.

"They breezed in one Sunday afternoon, wide eyed and cheerful. Both must have been in their late 70s or early 80s. I watched as they casually walked the floor, browsing and whispering to one another. The one thing that immediately struck me was that they were holding each other's hands. I remember thinking about how lucky it must be to get to that stage of life and not only be with someone you love, but also want to hold their hand."

Of course, it's not really about Archie comics. But of course, it also is. Just read it.

The Best of Pulse.ph

2008-08-28T21:45:00.000+08:00

Kjwan triumphant at the Philippine IKON Finals sponsored by Pulse.ph

It's been almost an entire year since I decided to leave my position as Senior Web Editor of Wolfpac Mobile Inc. -- or more specifically, Editor-in-Chief of the music site Pulse.ph. By September 2007 I was out of there, though I did continue to write and upload articles through the CMS until 2008. I have some regrets, but I think I made the right decision. I did love putting together Pulse.ph though, and I do miss working with the Pulse people and the rest of Wolfpac: Joelle especially, and of course Pats, Rad, Richard, Deo, as well as Eric, Jaja, Mitch, Arvin, Ian, Bona, Coy, Butch, Jojit, Trish, Anna, Sweet, Rexy, everyone. They're great people.

So anyway, thanks to Aldus' recent interview with Marcus Adoro, I found myself clicking through the Pulse.ph archives -- and man, I don't mean to sound too self-aggrandizing, but there is a lot of amazing stuff there. It reminded me of the best parts of my old job. Suddenly I missed brainstorming with Joelle and Pats about artists to feature and events to cover and all that, and I missed choosing and assigning and even editing freelancers, not to mention covering and writing stuff myself. I missed impromptu lessons on hip-hop lore from Arvin and Rad's daily doses of sheer insanity.

Here are ten of my favorite features from the Pulse.ph archives (and yes, I did not exclude my stuff). The site's search function is a little off -- run a search on mine or Joelle's name, for example, and only a handful of results pop up (as opposed to the million jillion articles we actually wrote). Plus the Lowdown feature seems to have disappeared from the drop-down menu. But anyway, here are the ten favorites I came up with by clicking through the years on the right-hand side. (Click on the article titles to read them in full.)

Noel Cabangon and Hannah Romawac photographed at an Earth Day concert for the Pulseparazzi section

1. THE PULSE.PH TOP 10 SONGS OF 2006
by Joelle Jacinto and Luis Katigbak

“From dramatic death-obsessed screamo epics to Celeste Legaspi-sampling hip-hop: here are the best songs of 2006.” (Can you tell I had fun writing subheads for all the articles?)

I loved writing these "Best Of" features with Joelle. I wish we had done this again for 2007, but of course, by the end of that year, both of us had left Pulse.ph. Dividing the labor was fun. ("You write about Scissor Sisters, MCR and Muse, I'll take Lupe Fiasco, Lily Allen and Up dharma Down...") And of course, there's the companion piece:

THE PULSE.PH TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2006
by Joelle Jacinto and Luis Katigbak

"From sexy, dancepunkish self-reinventions to sexy, distinctively Pinoy R&B... You can tell that we like us some sexy. here are the best albums of 2006."

I might change some of the rankings and maybe replace one or two choices now, but on the whole, it's still a list I'd stand by.

2. LUNATICS LET LOOSE IN THE ASYLUM: PINOY ROCK IN 2006
by Erwin Romulo

"Music critic, film director and all-around creative force Erwin Romulo talks to old punks, looks at Pinoy rock's past and present, and identifies the most important acts of our time."

An overview of the lively 2006 scene, from mainstream to underground, that somehow manages in the end to be more inspiring than cynical.

Pulse people! L to R: me, Joelle, Pats, Rayna, Richard of IKON Singapore, and Jojit

3. SOMETHING VERY WRONG: ROBERT SMITH AND THE MALADJUSTMENT QUOTA
by Terry Gonzales

"Last July 30, legendary rock band The Cure played in Hong Kong for the first time. Terry Gonzales shares her thoughts on the matter."

Pulse.ph featured a lot of great events coverage, from people like Jewel Regal, Aldus Santos, Kristine Lim, Maniel O'yek, Nina Sandejas, and of course Joelle and myself. There are two events pieces that I particularly enjoyed though. Terry's sole article for Pulse.ph was one of them; had I stayed on as Pulse EIC I would definitely have bugged her for more. Here's an excerpt: "I arrived in Hong Kong in the perfect state to see a Cure concert: restless, lovelorn, and slightly unwashed. It was a day for an excess of eyeliner and melodrama."

4. NOFX IN MANILA: PUNK CLUNKS ERRORISM
by Paolo Enrico Melendez

"Eric Melendez reports from the front lines of the NOFX concert at the Amoranto Theatre last April 18: from slow start to fiery frenzy."

And here's my other favorite event coverage feature, by Eric. That last paragraph still gets me every time.

5. CHICOSCI: BLOOD BROTHERS
by Yvette Tan

"Their music may be dark and dramatic, but these guys have a sense of humor: Chicosci talks about haircuts, gayness, giant billboards along EDSA, and other bands' lyrics."

Yvette has written many an excellent article for Pulse.ph, but this one stands out for me: interesting, informative, amusing; even people who don't like Chicosci will have fun reading it. Here's Miggy and Mong explaining their appeal: "'Androgyny,' Mong adds, 'Or let’s just say it straight up. Our gayness,' he deadpans. 'Our gayness!' Miggy laughs. 'What’s up, bitches?'"

The Radioactive Sago Project: the only band to ever get a perfect score, 10/10, in the Pulse Reviews section

6. WISHING I'M FINE: 10 SONGS FOR HEALING
by Joelle Jacinto

"There are songs that can provide comfort from the literal and metaphorical storms in your life. Joelle Jacinto lists ten of the songs that do that for her."

Joelle, being a Pulse.ph writing staff of one, wrote tons of stuff, all of it good. I could make a list filled with "greatest hits" by Joelle alone: the Helen feature, her Lowdown piece on working at Sony, her piece on Jesus Christ Superstar, and so on. This one's special though. An excerpt:

"Sometime in mid-June, my friend Kathy put together a playlist for her friends. I listened to it and felt embraced, comforted, as if it were raining outside and she provided me warmth. I told her it sounded like a playlist for healing and she admitted that it was. [...] I've been broken before—by relationships, by lost career opportunities, by sprained ankles at the height of my dance career—and I've been healed by music."

7. DIVINE WRITE: SONGWRITERS AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS
by Aldus Santos

"Dong Abay, Ely Buendia, Vin Dancel, Owel Alvero, and Aldus Santos take turns in a slippery show-and-tell: how are these damn songs made?"

And speaking of people who could fill up a "greatest hits of Pulse.ph" all by themselves... Ladies and gentlemen, Aldus Santos. Excerpt: "There is nothing more elusive than the artistic process. Often, being asked to speak of one’s craft is like being asked to describe the sun, the stars, or the wind: you’d be right, but you’d be terribly mistaken as well."

8. MAKING A MIX TAPE
by Kristine Lim

"Heir to her dad's mad mix taping skills, Kristine Lim gives us rules for making awesome mixes (updated 04.23.2007 with a sample post-breakup mix.)"

Kristine, one of my favorite freelancers, no matter which magazine we're talking about. Always a joy to read. Excerpt: "Making an awesome mix tape can get you laid. I'm proof-positive. I wouldn't be here today if it weren’t for my dad's mad mix taping skills."

Eating at IKON: L to R, Cris Ramos Jr, Mitch Baylosis (both were there to cover the event), me, Pats (who seems incapable of not twisting his face for photographs) and Joelle

9. THE NU107 ROCK AWARDS HIT 13
by Luis Katigbak

"Who rocks? Who rules? Year in and year out, rock radio station NU107's awards show salutes the best bands, albums and songs: this 2006, they get their teenage kicks. (Updated with winners and commentary.)"

For this monster article, I interviewed almost everyone at NU about the history and purpose of the rock awards, and then covered the event itself as a follow-up. Exhausting but I'm proud of it. It may be the single longest feature Pulse ever ran.

10. NARDA'S LAST FLIGHT
by Joelle Jacinto

"Well-loved rock band Narda has fought the good fight for over four years. They've given us amazing performances and many wonderful songs: We're going to miss them."

What better way to end this list than with Joelle's farewell-to-Narda piece? It was originally just supposed to be a Narda feature, and then the band broke up. Sad, but well, it's not as if the members stopped making music.

The IKON contestants: in this picture are Julianne, Skarlet, Vina Morales, members of The Dawn, Truefaith, Kjwan, Kapatid, and more

There's a lot more good stuff in there: Nina Sandejas' feature on styling rock stars, Jewel Regal's Rock Ed coverage, Margarita Gomez on her gig-going history, Betty Tianco's stage girlfriend confessions, Denise Mallabo's story of a music video extra, a whole lotta reviews, and more. And of course there's a massive photo archive with pix by Eric Fernandez, Richard Garcia, Nina Sandejas, Kidlat de Guia, and others... though am not too happy with the new Pulseparazzi interface. Anyway, maybe I should come up with another top 10 sometime. But for now am just glad to reread this stuff and pat myself -- and my former officemates -- on the back.

All pix by the amazing Eric Fernandez.

25 Albums

2008-08-28T05:34:00.000+08:00

So I recently wrote the 25th installment of my music column at the Manila Bulletin (Luis Listens, every Saturday), and to mark the occasion, I started counting down my favorite albums for each of the past 25 years. As I wrote, "personal rocked-my-world significance trumps all considerations of pop-historical significance at every turn," so this is not a catalog of the most influential or critically-acclaimed stuff. ;p And I didn't want to repeat any artists, which resulted in, as Kidlat observed, a lot of "horse trading," so to speak.

There were some years (1989, 1992) where it was really really hard to choose just one album. Then there were others where no choice really gut-level appealed to me (1995, 2001 I think, and 2007 to some degree), but then I can hardly claim to have listened to everything worthwhile -- or even everything I might have enjoyed -- for a given year. ;p

Anyway, here you go: part one is here, part two is here. Part three should be up this Saturday... assuming I meet my deadline, mwahaha.

Yo, Joe!

2008-08-27T00:29:00.001+08:00

The GI Joe Killaz are "a three-piece group where a guy in a metal mask and a really hot brunette rap in character as Destro and the Baroness. And yes. Cobra Commander is their DJ."

"Aside from the general songs about life on the streets and/or in Cobra Command, the best bits on the album are the ones where they take an episode of the cartoon like “Money To Burn” and build an entire track around them. To repeat: This is a CD where Stacy and Des bust rhymes for three minutes about Cobra Commander’s plot to use radiation to burn all of the paper currency in the world and replace it with his own money."

Read about 'em (and download a track) over at The ISB. To be honest, it's not fantastic music. But it is amusing as hell.

Marcus Adoro on Rubber Shoes, Exercise, and the Eraserheads Reunion

2008-08-25T21:27:00.000+08:00

Anyone who is at all interested in the upcoming Eraserheads reunion concert should definitely check out this exclusive interview with Marcus Adoro, by Aldus Santos, on Pulse.ph. It's the only feature I know of about the matter that is an actual interview. Plus, it's funny and informative, particularly about their rehearsals, and the gear geeks among you will love it too. Kudos to Aldus! And applause for Mr. Adoro as well, for his candor. Here are some excerpts:

ALDUS: So, you guys…
MARCUS: Hindi kame nag-uusap; mental telepathy lang [laughs].

ALDUS: What are your feelings about the band, now that you’ve decided to play this reunion show?
MARCUS: Gusto ko lang magbigay. Party tayo, ‘di ba? Puta, ‘di ba? ‘Di alam ng lahat—para sa mga kids, ‘di ba? Gusto kong magbigay. [‘Tsaka] pumayag ako dahil tao lang ako, pare [laughs].

ALDUS: How are you preparing for the thing?
MARCUS: The usual—library. Ang importante, ‘yung ano, good vibes. Importante ‘yung good vibes, pare. ‘Yun ang pinaka-importante sa lahat. I'm preparing for it physically, I jog and swim at least every day, ‘tsaka I rehearse on my own s’yempre. ‘Tsaka, gear-wise, i-po-program ko na ‘yung bagong effects, ‘tsaka s’yempre kung ano hitsura ko [laughs]. And the guitars that I will use, isa-isa kong ina-acquire.

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

2008-08-18T21:00:00.001+08:00

Brian Eno and David Byrne, making music together for the first time in 30 years. Good stuff.

Itchyworms and Yvette

2008-08-17T11:38:00.000+08:00

Click here to watch the video for "Penge Naman Ako N'yan," the new Itchyworms single! Not only is it a fun song, not only is it a funny video directed by Quark Henares, but (as you can see from the screenshot above) it marks YVETTE'S MUSIC VIDEO ACTING DEBUT. Wheee! :D

I wrote about the making of the video for my music column at the Manila Bulletin, here.

New Story in Rogue

2008-08-16T15:20:00.000+08:00

I haven't gotten my own copy yet, but I have a new short story out in the August issue of Rogue magazine: "It's Not Me." Here's an excerpt:

"When Nema was little she believed that everyone was born with a twin. She was her parents' first child, and they had followed her up with two boys when she was four years old -- Ernesto and Emmanuel, identical twins. Sitting in the hospital room right after their birth with her recovering mother, she had wondered out loud, “Where's my copy?” Lengthy and patient explanations from her mother and father followed, but deep down she found these unconvincing, and just pretended to accept them. She figured that her parents were too embarrassed at having misplaced her double to tell her the truth. The fact that almost everyone she knew was deprived of a twin just meant that parents everywhere were unbelievably careless."

The story came about because of repeated listenings to Drip's excellent Identity Theft album and from reading a book about the neurological, anthropological, and psychological roots of self-recognition (The Face in the Mirror by Julian Keenan). I'm quite proud of it.

P.S. This is also the last issue of Rogue with contributions by ex-Features Editor Erwin Romulo.

Every First Second by Up dharma Down

2008-08-08T10:18:00.000+08:00

Yes, I know this is an old photo. They pretty much still look the same, though.

So I think I'm coming down with something. My nose is so clogged I can barely think. Couldn't stop sneezing and coughing, a while ago. Am hoping some sleep will help... In the meantime, this took my mind off my troubles and got me smiling: the "trailer turned electronic press kit turned music video" for the Up dharma Down documentary On Either Side, directed by Keith Tan.

Go here to watch it!

I've gone on at great length before about how much I love this band, and am very much looking forward to the new album, not to mention the docu. :)

R.I.P. Pauline Baynes

2008-08-08T02:18:00.000+08:00

From The Independent:

"Met C.S. Lewis. Came home. Made rock cakes." That's how Baynes's diary recorded one of only two meetings she ever had with the author whose work she so memorably pictured and with whom she is now inextricably linked.

Read the rest here. Also, go here for a more personal account by the same writer, and lots of artwork scans.

I remember those old Puffin editions of the Narnia books with great fondness. I read -- and loved -- The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a child, with no knowledge of the rest of the series. And then one afternoon when I was exploring my grandmother's vast bookshelves, skimming through titles spine by spine, I found something that looked promising: a book called The Magician's Nephew. It was the Puffin paperback edition, with all of the Baynes illustrations intact. Just before diving into the story, I was floored to realize that not only was it another Narnia book, there were five more books in the series for me to find and devour. Ah, that was a great moment in my life. :)

Guitar... And Some

2008-08-07T14:09:00.000+08:00

Paris Hilton Is, Like, Totally Ready To Lead

2008-08-07T07:24:00.000+08:00

So I'm not a Paris Hilton fan. In fact, I'm sort of the opposite of a Paris Hilton fan. But her response -- to being used in a negative context in a John McCain ad slamming Barack Obama for, um, being popular -- made me laugh, so there's that.

Watch the video here. It's here, too. (Scroll down.)

"Thanks, white-haired dude!"

As Alicia Is

2008-08-06T01:12:00.000+08:00

"That woman has been talking sexy to you all night," Yvette observed. "And in front of me!"

That woman was pretty shameless, I have to admit. "Nothing can stop us from feeling good tonight," that woman told me in her sultry, syrupy voice. "Nothing can stop us from being together tonight." Sorry, Yvette. I guess that woman just couldn't help herself. That woman, of course, was Alicia Keys, who Yvette and I watched last night (August 5, 2008) when she performed at the SMX Center at the SM Mall of Asia. "You're the only reason that I'm here!" she shouted out loud. For some reason, the 15,000 other people who happened to be in the SMX Center shouted back, as if she was addressing all of them and not just me. Tsk tsk. Poor deluded crowd.

It's great that Alicia Keys came to the Philippines again, especially since I couldn't catch her the first time; if I recall correctly, I was interviewing Kitchie Nadal for PULP magazine that same night, in front of a bar on Palanca Street. (That was the same year that Slipknot was supposed to come over, and chickened out. There were lots of jokes in the PULP office about Alicia Keys having more balls than all nine Slipknot members put together.) So a second visit was a good thing. But first, the bad news: the last-minute change of venue -- the concert was originally supposed to be in an open field, which, considering the weather, would have been a real risk -- resulted in some major fuckups, organization-wise.

The SMX Center is a great venue, though perhaps better suited for trade shows and conventions and occasions like that than big concerts. The way the audience was divided -- according to the three major entrances -- meant that there was a HUGE empty gap between the Bronze section (in other words, the cheap seats), and us middle-classers in the Silver section. I felt bad for them, actually. They could barely see the gorgeous Ms. Keys, at least aside from the huge projector screens. Then again, we could barely see the gorgeous Ms. Keys. When we got there, it turned out that the seating arrangements were so haphazard that the numbering system for the seats had been completely disregarded, and it was every audience member for his or herself, which naturally pissed a lot of people off. We kept getting assured that order would be restored and our seat numbers respected but it never happened.

In retrospect, I should have just grabbed a couple of monobloc chairs and steamrollered my way through to the front of the section, leaving a trail of broken bodies in my wake. Yvette and I ended up sitting in a spot with a great view of the giant pillar between us and the stage. (We found a better spot later, to the side.) If my tickets hadn't been complimentary I would have been really pissed off. It was just really bad organization. And then the concert started almost two hours late. An hour or so you expect, in the Philippines. Two hours is pushing it. ("This is not the way it's supposed to be!" the man sitting behind us lamented, as if to a cruel and uncaring Creator.) And if they were going to make us wait for two hours, then why not make some effort to fix the seating problems? Oh well.

Those factors -- the idiocy of the seating arrangements, the scattering of the crowd over too huge a space (with the cheap-seaters -- traditionally the most excited and excitable section of the audience, way way in the back), and the lateness -- all contributed to a dampening of the crowd's mood. But then Alicia Keys and her band went onstage, and for a moment we forgot all that.

Much as I enjoy her videos, here's something I never fully appreciated before: Alicia Keys is a fantastic performer. She gives it her all, singing the hell out of every song, shaking and thrusting her hips, whipping her ponytail around, doing kicks like she's David Lee Roth and seducing the crowd with her in-between banter like she's Barry White. Her material, it has to be said, isn't all strong -- she has yet to come up with a solid album with no filler-songs -- but she works that material to the best of her considerable abilities. And did I mention that she's gorgeous?

Alicia kicked off with "Go Ahead" from her latest album As I Am -- big brash opener, grabbing our attention -- then segued into one of her most popular songs, "You Don't Know My Name," improving greatly on the recorded version through sheer energy and a reggae-fied outro. And then "Teenage Love Affair," wow. My current favorite AK song, rendered as sweetly and as poptastically as you please. I couldn't imagine how she could follow that up without the energy level flagging, but she did, with "Heartburn," which is not as strong a song, but it's a sight sexier. Raising the temperature, so to speak. Those first four songs made up one of the best, most riveting concert beginnings I've ever seen.

The middle of the show was almost inevitably a bit of a letdown. The weariness and frustration of the hours beforehand seeped back into the audience, while Alicia played her slower, less compelling material, letting the songs stretch out instead of delivering them like one-two punches. This was where she showed off her talented band and backup singers, letting each of them take the spotlight as they played with such numbers as "Karma" and "How Come You Don't Call Me." Things picked up with a cover of "Tender Love" (done as a duet with Jermaine, one of her singers) and then AK stepped back from the piano, said something along the lines of "Time we had a little fun," then launched into what I believe was a modified version of "My Boo" (I could be wrong; it's been a few years since it was on heavy MTV rotation). "I can't believe she hasn't played "If I Ain't Got You" yet, I told Yvette. Then I realized she was saving it for last.

AK and her band did crowd-rousing versions of "No One" and "If I Ain't Got You" to wrap up their show (after mock-leaving to inspire the audience to chant "We want more!"). AK thanked the crowd for their enthusiasm -- though believe me, that crowd would have been much louder and livelier if not for the glitches -- and said, "We can't wait to come back!"

Well, I can say that seeing Alicia Keys perform live is well worth it, and that we were happy to be there, in the end (though we did seriously consider leaving during the whole seating fiasco). Just hope that the next show is glitch-free.

GMAnews coverage here.

Allstars = Winners

2008-08-04T23:50:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to the PHILIPPINE ALLSTARS, who just grabbed the Gold in the Adult Division of the 2008 World Hip-Hop Dance Championship held in Las Vegas! I've seen these guys perform a few times -- including Apl de ap's last visit here and the 2007 MTV VJ Hunt (I wrote the event, and Sheena, one of their members, was one of the most promising finalists) -- and they never fail to impress.

Read about their latest triumph here. Allstars Multiply page here!

I Want To Say It As Clearly As I Can

2008-08-03T04:06:00.000+08:00

From here.

Rick Astley + Roderick Paulate = Pure Awesomeness

2008-08-03T03:32:00.001+08:00

So we weren't at the Rick Astley concert at the Araneta Coliseum. Too bad, because by all accounts, it was a heck of a lot of fun. :)

Yvette and I first heard about Roderick Paulate joining Rick Astley onstage from a breathless description by Quark, who had actually witnessed the historic moment. And then I started reading more accounts, from various blogs.

From Dacs, the Mighty: "Rick opened the show at 9:15ish with "Together Forever". Of course the crowd went wild, and Menggai in particular felt like she was in high school again, gushing over her crush from the 80's. Heck, Rick wasn't from my time as a teen, but I do appreciate his good looks then and now.

"He was wearing a suit and tie (his usual gigging outfit), which he paired with Adidas sneakers (so cute!). He hardly danced and said that at his age, he only had energy to dance for one song, and the audience roared in excitement, knowing that that one song was "Never Gonna Give You Up."

"Early on, Rick mentioned that he knew about "this certain guy", which again prompted the crowd to cheer, knowing that Rick was talking about Roderick Paulate (famous in the 80's for singing/dancing Rick Astley songs). Then Rick said that this guy wouldn't come up onstage until the end, so that we'd all stay to watch the show."

From Gabe Mercado: "At 4:02 in the afternoon, I received a call from a my good friend Ken. Rick had somehow heard of Kuya Dick and was game to do a number with him. The producers had gotten in touch with Kuya Dick and while flattered, he felt quite reluctant to do it.

"So I sent him a message.

"Gabe: kuya dick!!! please sing with rick astley tonight! the audience will love it! please please please! :)"

I especially enjoyed Tals' account: "Rick Astley came up on stage to the deafening welcome of screaming fans of all ages. Dressed in a suit, skinny tie and sneakers, this hip-dated Rick Astley looked like he hadn’t aged a bit! In his adorable English drawl, he told the crowd: “I am so sorry you had to wait for this for 15 to 20…years.” Crowd went ecstatic. [...]

"It was all so endearing. I felt like I went back to my grade school self, when “Strong” was first released and I had finally understood what it meant to be kilig. My reverie was affirmed when I received a text at that moment from longtime pal Cybs, who was also in the concert that night. Her text: “Shit, I’m back to being hopelessly in love. I love you Rick, pota.” [...] And then, something happened.

"Rick Astley said the words, “I have been told…” OMGAHD! He mentioned that he had heard about Roderick, and that he invited him to come up on stage and perform with him at the end of the show. He even said it had to be towards the end of the show because he was sure people would leave after they saw Roderick perform. Oh, and Rick even said that he wasn’t dancing because “at (his) age, I can’t dance that much anymore, so I’m saving it for the last song with Roderick.”

"I couldn’t believe it. I nearly jumped off the balcony at Upper B.

"Finally, it happened. Chants of “Ku-ya Dick! Ku-ya Dick!” thundered the Big Dome. Rick Astley grabbed a guitar and motioned to his stage left. And up the stage came Roderick Paulate. They did an acoustic duet of “Never Gonna Give you Up.” Kuya Dick even did his signature side-to-side right (repeat left) dance moves! The crowd went absolutely freaking nuts. To quote Kung Fu Panda, it was pure awesomeness."

So, wow. Manila just got rickrolled! And we loved every minute of it. ;)

Is it a monsterrr?

2008-08-01T13:15:00.000+08:00

What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monsterrr?

"...it was like no animal anyone had seen before. A stout, hairless creature with a beak, claws, and the almond-shaped eyes familiar from renderings of space aliens, it looked, in short, like a monster. Hence the headline: "Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk.""

Story here!

Stuffed (or, Happy Birthday to Me)

2008-07-28T22:21:00.000+08:00

Thank you very very much to everyone who sent happy birthday messages my way last July 26! They are much appreciated. :D (Also appreciated are the stragglers who greeted me on the 27th and the 28th. I am not hypocritical enough to poke fun at those who greeted late, seeing as how I am often late for... well, for everything.) "Hey, for once it didn't rain on your birthday!" JB texted. "It did in Baguio," I answered, which was where Yvette and I happened to be that day.

We were participants of Appetite Magazine's Food Trip 2008 (sponsored by Carnation), which took place from Friday to Saturday, July 25-26. Basically, Appetite took a bunch of media people, writers for various broadsheets and magazines and blogs, and took us on a trip to Baguio, with a brief stop at Dagupan. We ate like kings for two days: first there was a lunch at the Lenox Hotel in Dagupan, where they prepared bangus in more ways than you may have thought possible. (My favorite item on the buffet was the peppercorn crablets though. I wish I had some now. Not to mention that gumamela tea.) From there we went on to Baguio, where we stayed overnight at the lovely Manor hotel. Chef Billy King hosted the dinner, which consisted of so many dishes that it made my head spin (Yvette, who is much more of a foodie than I am, seemed unfazed by the array. We ended up staying longer than most of the other writers, stuffing our cheeks like chipmunks preparing for winter.)

Marinated salmon and crab roulade! Steamed sole in berlinoise sauce! Malaysian goat curry! Mushroom brown rice risotto! Beef wellington with steamed marble potatoes! Predictably enough, my favorites were the pasta dishes: I had second helpings of both the tomato linguini with bolognese sauce and the spinach fettucine with seafood marinara sauce.

On the morning of my birthday I basically consumed the equivalent of four breakfasts. Omelettes and pancakes whipped up before your very eyes... Endless rashers of magically delicious bacon... Shrimp and egg fried rice... Oh bountiful buffets, I will miss you so! I will write more about it for my column, but for now, the pain of separation from all that lovely free food is too sharp. We had another gut-stuffing lunch, and then went to Burnham Park for the Grand Handaan, which was the last leg of our Food Trip, and which presented a variety of food from all over Northern Luzon. Then at around 3 PM all the delegates somehow managed to roll themselves back on board the bus and we headed back to Manila.

So, yes: a trip out of town with Yvette, lots of great food, and the company of happy friendly foodies -- it was a very good birthday, indeed.

(Special thanks to Annie and Rachelle of Appetite, Yvette's roomie Christine, my roommate Dexter Inquirer, Vanessa of Expat, blogger superwoman Noemi -- she's put up a bunch of posts about the trip already! That's me raiding the lunch buffet, ha ha ha -- all the Carnation peeps, Gwen, Jennie, Archie, Kiko, Mau, etc etc.)

Jimmy Abad Predicts The Internet

2008-07-24T01:54:00.000+08:00

Those of you who are not unfamiliar with Philippine Literature know Gemino H. Abad as an award-winning writer and beloved mentor to generations of language-addled undergrads. But did you also know that Sir Jimmy, as he is fondly known, has the power to friggin' see the future?

Last night, I was reading a book that he had written two decades ago, State of Play: Letter-Essays and Parables, when I came across the "Parable of the Googol Balloons." As any personality-crippled, unforgivably nerdy schoolboy knows, googol is the large number 10 to the 100the power -- in other words, the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros. It was also the inspiration for the name of the world-conquering company Google. I thought this was an amusing coincidence, but it turns out that the parable's title was chosen due to Sir Jimmy's precognitive ability. I present to you an excerpt from this prophetic text:

PARABLE OF THE GOOGOL BALLOONS

"From that time, everyone began to have an opinion on almost any theme and wished to convince others. Often there were endless disputes, for each one thought he had the best argument. Strangely, no one ever doubted in his heart that there was always somewhere a gap or absence, no matter how finely woven were one's meanings. But where exactly the rent was in one's net of words, no one could ever tell. But that hole too had one consistent effect; it only provoked yet more words until sense itself was dazed."

Holy shit, that sounds really familiar. It's like every message board or comments section discussion gone wrong (in other words, most of them). The parable ends with:

"Finally, each time anyone spoke, he spouted a balloon. It was a marvelous sight, for the sky soon filled with each one's balloons, every word a thousandfold replicated in grey solidity. It was a horror, for none of the balloons could burst, neither could any gale sweep them off the air. They simply mushroomed everywhere until all light was extinguished. An absolute silence reigned on earth."

INTERNETS! You have been warned.

Rogue is One

2008-07-23T07:38:00.000+08:00

All aboard the Rogue yacht! Photo taken last March, on a sunset cruise celebrating the special Philippine Cinema issue. L to R: Yvette, me, Lissa Romero and Kidlat de Guia. In the background is Juan Caguicla, holding on to his hat.

Has it been a year already?

So my copy of the July 2008 issue of Rogue arrived on my doorstep yesterday -- it marks the magazine's first-year anniversary. (Anne Curtis is the cover feature -- photography by Mark Nicdao, styling by Millet Arzaga, words by Nick Azarcon. Great job, Nick!) There are many very good reasons to grab a copy of this issue, but I'll focus on two: first and foremost, of course, is the new story by Yvette Tan, Seek Ye Whore. It's twisted, funny, sexy, and deeply disturbing. (Here's a quote out of context: "It was oddly exhilarating, making love to a half-formed body.")

Second is the "24-page recap of Rogue's past 12 months" -- Yvette and I have been involved, in one way or another, with almost every issue since the magazine came out, whether we wrote cover features or short essays or just made suggestions, and it was great fun for me to page through the retrospective and remember all that stuff. (Am particularly happy with the Sanya Smith interview I did, Yvette's account of her encounter with Neil Gaiman, and of course the fiction we wrote.) Reading through all the accolades just made me prouder to have worked on the magazine. Of course, it's fun to page through the feature whether you were ever a contributor or not; the pictures alone will make you swoon, and the little behind-the-scenes bits make for great reading. If you don't have a complete run of the first year already, be warned; you will feel the need to fill in the gaps of your collection.

Sadly, this anniversary issue is also the last for Features Editor Erwin Romulo. Erwin has decided to move on and do other things, and it's safe to say the magazine will never be the same again. It's impossible to overstate his importance to Rogue: whether it was absorbing and thought-provoking subject matter, beautiful and controversial photo shoots, or an array of expertly chosen -- if occasionally surprising -- contributors, from writers to photographers to visual artists, Erwin brought that edge that other magazines can only dream about. Personally, I credit him with breaking the years-long slump I had been mired in, regarding my fiction. "Tell the Sky" (from the December 2007 issue) was the first story I had written in a long time that I was happy with, and without Erwin's initial inspiration and constant encouragement -- plus of course Yvonne Quisumbing-Romulo's artwork, and the Rogue bosses' approval -- it would never have seen the light of day. (Yvette had a similar experience with "Seek Ye Whore" -- it was Erwin's persistence that compelled her to speed up her already-swift writing process.)

Erwin has a way of not only choosing the perfect people for a certain feature, but also getting the best work out of them. Whether he accomplishes this through undisclosed telepathic powers, the unspoken threat of bodily harm, or simply the assurance that whatever his contributors come up with will be presented in a way that they can be proud of, it's hard to say -- but whatever his methods, they were instrumental in shaping the first year of one of the best damn magazines in the country today.

(If it sounds like I'm sucking up to him, it's because I am. Because if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'd like to keep working with Erwin, and collaborating with the other creative individuals in his army.)

Best Batman Ever

2008-07-17T20:51:00.000+08:00

So I watched The Dark Knight today. Quite simply, it's the best film based on a superhero comic ever made.

I know that's a matter of opinion, of course, and I hate to inflate anyone's expectations -- that will just make it harder for those of you who have yet to watch it to just sit down and experience it sans preconceptions -- but it's the only film I've seen so far in that genre where I really felt that something was at stake. Not the lives of comic book characters, but the clash between principles and points of view. And if that makes it sound like a talk show, don't worry; there's plenty of fights and explosions, too. Of course, it helps that The Dark Knight has the best cast ever assembled for a superhero movie: all the notable players from the last film, from Christian Bale on down, with Maggie Gyllenhaal taking over for Katie Holmes in the Rachel Dawes role.

As for the late lamented Heath Ledger, his bravura performance as The Joker makes Jack Nicholson look like a -- well, a clown. To be fair, Ledger had much better material to work with: this is the best-written Joker I've ever come across. The Joker from the earliest days of the comics was somewhat scary but constrained by the standards of the time, and eventually weighed down by all that Red Hood nonsense. Frank Miller's Joker was psychotic and dangerous but in the way a punch-drunk homophobe might imagine a psychotic and dangerous supervillain (flamboyant, flirty, openly in love with his nemesis). Alan Moore's Joker talked too much. And wasn't funny. That's the amazing thing: sitting there in the Greenhills Theatre with a real live audience, I realized that the audience was laughing with Heath Ledger's Joker. He does get the best lines, after all. Never mind that he's a serial killer with a grin of scars.

I never thought much of The Joker as a villain or a character before, to be honest. He was always either too loony or lightweight to really get under your skin. It is only in The Dark Knight that he comes across as the perfect adversary for someone who is trying to maintain order and enforce justice, to hold on to certain ideals in a chaotic world. Those ideals come at a cost, and again, that comes across here better than in any comic book adaptation before.

I'll be surprised -- though pleasantly so -- if this makes more money than, say, Iron Man. It's not exactly a feelgood flick. It will not send you back out into the world with a song in your heart. (Statement overheard from girl in sun dress in the lobby afterwards: "Na-drain ako nun, ah.") But it is a hell of a movie, the darkest and best onscreen Batman story by far. And if that appeals to you at all, then go -- it's well worth seeing in a theater. Avoid all spoilers, begin at the beginning, and hold on to the handrails!

Well, okay, here's ONE spoiler (highlight to reveal): Batman doesn't win. Not really.

Eraserheads: The Circus is Back in Town

2008-07-14T11:57:00.001+08:00

So I first heard about it over a week ago -- the Eraserheads reunion, that is. Text messages from Cris Ramos Jr told me that the event that hordes of Pinoy rock fans have been hoping for for half a decade is about to come to pass: Ely, Raimund, Buddy and Marcus are going to be sharing a stage again, as a band, this August 30. The news reaffirmed the extent of my feelings for the band, which is to say, smack dab between indifference and enthusiasm. People assume I'm a big E-heads fan -- someone even wanted to interview me for a docu on the band recently -- but the truth is that while their early albums were an important part of my college life, I took the news of their breakup quite well. It was time, it seemed. And it's not as if the members stopped making music, or stopped making good music. (The last Pupil album, in particular, deserves more attention.) They just stopped being able to make music together.

I still remember being backstage at that recent MTV awards show where Ely was accepting some special honor on behalf of the band and said "I'd like to thank the three people that made this possible..." and went on not to thank Raimund, Buddy and Marcus, but Diane and two other people whose names I can't remember. It was an ugly moment, with animosity being snatched from the jaws of reconciliation. But apparently money can do what time and memory cannot.

The emphasis on the money, and the sponsor -- even in the very headline of the news item on Philmusic -- is off-putting of course, but then again let's not kid ourselves. That was the only way it was going to happen, and we are morbidly fascinated by the details of the deal. Besides, these guys all have families and day-to-day needs and they have arguably never been compensated sufficiently for their contribution to Philippine rock music. I don't begrudge them their payday at all, and in fact I'm happy for them. (It's unfortunate that the cash comes from a cancer merchant, but whatever. People are going to smoke with or without an E-heads concert to spur them.) Hopefully it means that Ely, Raimund, Buddy and Marcus will be less plagued by whatever financial concerns they have, and freer to work on their creative pursuits.

(This just in: the Age of Brillig points out that "just last week, a total ban on cigarette advertising took effect in the Philippines, and the ban covers the sponsorship by tobacco companies of concerts or cultural arts events. So the Marlboro rumor is probably incorrect.")

And if this event somehow serves as a shot in the arm for the music scene, no one will be happier about that than me. But even if it's just a one-afternoon nostalgia trip, that's good enough. I'm just hoping -- and this is probably a futile hope -- that it doesn't get too chaotic. It has the potential after all to be more of a draw than the past three or so Summer Slams slapped together. Unless friends or duties drag me to the event, I'll be staying well away, happy enough to watch the inevitable DVD. And looking forward to future albums by Sandwich, Cambio, Pedicab, Pupil, The Dawn, etcetera etcetera, not to mention the many bands who may not count ex-Eraserheads in their ranks but who owe a debt to that quartet who, over a decade ago, gave us songs that served as soundtracks for our days.

Rico Returns

2008-07-07T10:45:00.000+08:00

When Rico Blanco was wandering in the desert, a vision came to him: a glowing kitchen sink, floating in mid-air. "Heed me, Rico," it said. "I am the only thing that you will not throw into your next song."

When I was at the Imagine launch, I heard that Rico Blanco, former lead singer of Rivermaya, had recorded a new song, and that it was some kind of musical Frankenstein's monster, some freakish creation stitched together from the corpses of different genres and jolted to life by electricity. I admit to being intrigued, so when I saw the MySpace link on Mari A's blog I checked it out right away.

The song, "Yugto," sounds like a collision of Rivermaya, Kula Shaker, Big Country, Queen, and, um, Hagibis, with some nameless 80s hair metal band thrown in near the end. Oh, and some horn blasts and a spoken-whispered bit, too. It's pretty crazy, though not in a genuinely transgressive asylum-ready way, more like, "What are you -- crazy?!" Well, you can't say it's not ambitious.

Listen for yourself here.

A Goofy Bungle in the Filipino Jungle

2008-07-06T03:46:00.000+08:00

"At last I've found the lost tribe of Filipino cavemen!... And thanks to the power of my ring, they'll soon do whatever I command! Nyahahaha!!"

Holy crap, is what I say. I don't remember ever seeing this on Saturday Fun Machine:

"The plot -- evil Western scientist takes control of a lost tribe of Filipino cavemen (who resemble Bluto-sized Caucasian cavemen) found in Mindanao. He then steals a "power energizer" from a Filipino scientist who looks suspiciously like Lino Brocka (then fresh from his late 70s Cannes success). The power energizer is then used to empower said cavemen with superhuman strength. Rather than use the new and fortuitous strength to take vengeance on our foreign invaders, the cavemen are put to use to steal jewels from "the royal palace in Manila"."

Read all about it (and watch clips!) on the always-witty, frequently-updated, occasionally mind-blowing Age of Brillig blog, here.

(A look at the Wikepdia entry for Fangface reveals that the director for the series was one Rudy Larriva. Perhaps he was a Fil-Am?)

Old Books, Like Old Friends

2008-07-04T22:22:00.001+08:00

Thank you to wysgal, from whose blog I found out about Fine Lines: "the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth." That's YA as in Young Adult fiction -- I had such a blast looking through the titles, recalling preteen days of haunting the shelves of Natio and Bookmark. A Wrinkle in Time and The Girl With the Silver Eyes were particular favorites, so I was happy to see them featured. And Lizzie Skurnick's opening for her Wrinkle in Time reread is priceless:

"If I had my way, none of us would have to read this review at all. Instead, we'd join hands, hear a great dark thunderclap, and be whisked off to a rambling house in the country, where we'd view odd things bubbling in a lab with a stone floor, then eat limburger-and-cream-cheese sandwiches while swinging our legs at the kitchen table. We'd sidestep for a moment onto a planet inhabited by gentle gray creatures with dents for eyes, then be inserted into some mitochondria. We'd battle for the soul of Madoc/Maddox, and eat small crayfish with our lesbian kind-of aunt who insisted on calling us our full name (Polyhymnia). We'd hop on a freighter and solve a mystery, then go to boarding school in Switzerland. We would make a brief detour on the Upper West Side by way of Portugal, and be concerned with cell regeneration in starfish. We'd be smacked on the ass by a dolphin. Most important, whatever happened, we'd know we could get through it—because we are creatures that can love. GOD, HOW MUCH DOES IT KILL ME THAT WE CAN'T DO THOSE THINGS, ESPECIALLY THE DOLPHIN PART!"

Go, read, remember. There seems to be something wrong with their tags sometimes though -- keep trying. (Fran, I think you especially would love Fine Lines. Heck, I can imagine you writing it.)

I miss the bookstores of my youth (funny, a friend was just telling me earlier today about how when she was a child, her parents would take her on Special Trips to National Bookstore Quezon Avenue, as if it were a Disneyland of sorts, which it was, in a way). I know that's just the nostalgia talking, though -- the YA sections in bookstores now are more vast and colorful and captivating than anything I remember. And on top of all these flashy new books (he said geriatrically), all the old stuff is still there, the Judy Blumes and Madeleine L'Engles and Louis Sachars and Jerry Spinellis and Katherine Patersons and all, old friends who never really get old.

Music Matters 2008-0704

2008-07-04T04:53:00.000+08:00

1. Your New Influences

Fluxblog condemns the "seemingly infinite wave of faceless, deeply unimaginative indie bands and their tired, worn-out influences," and challenges the bands who fit that description to stop recycling the work of the same old artists, to come up with something fresh, to find new influences. His first suggestion? Janet Jackson circa Rhythm Nation 1814. Don't laugh, he's serious. And he makes sense.

2. Rolling Stone Feels The Rush

The music magazine critic guy over at Idolator says that historically, "Rolling Stone's past and present staffers regard [Rush] the same way as every American woman and non-nerd male: as an abomination." Apparently it no longer holds true: they finally featured the Canadian trio in a recently-released issue. Welcome news, I suppose, for the people in my life who adore the band. You know who you are. ;) "Let's have some more like this, RS! And to you what don't like Rush: reading Norris' article will begin the process by which you will acknowledge how very very wrong you are."

3. Taken By Bores

In the often too-cautious world of local music journalism (for lack of a better term), Erwin Romulo is like Daredevil, The Man Without Fear, except that maybe he shouldn't wear red spandex. When I clicked on the title of his latest column ("Being Boring,") I was looking forward to a discussion of the melancholy pop genius of the Pet Shop Boys' Behaviour. Instead I found an evisceration of Taken By Cars' debut album, Endings of a New Kind.

After describing one of the tracks as lacking "any imagination in approach or innovation," and saying that "it would’ve certainly been affecting if it didn’t sound so phony," he goes on to quote New Order’s Bernard Sumner -- "[Sumner] said he’d rather have exciting sounds made by machines and synthesizers than boring music made by people with guitars. However, Taken By Cars’ Endings of a New Kind sounds as if it’s been made by people with guitars and synthesizers who are as boring as machines." Holy crap! Tell us what you really feel, Erwin!

Any idiot can write an album review, as the interwebs proves every day. Sadly for Taken By Cars, Erwin is not some anonymous ignoramus -- his musical knowledge is vast and deep and I have no doubt that his distaste for the band stems from his unshakeable ideals of what popular music could, and should be. For the record, though, I like TBC's debut, even if they forgot to thank me in their liner notes.

What It Is, by Lynda Barry

2008-07-02T22:48:00.000+08:00

Q: What is an idea made of?
A: Of future, past, and also meanwhile.

Will be on the lookout for this new book by Lynda Barry: What It Is. Vulture describes it as a "memoir-as-master-class, a gorgeously illustrated guide to creativity and the power of images. Part collage, part autobiography, part inspirational lesson."

They have a 6-page excerpt up and it is great. It will have you thinking and reminiscing while you admire the art. (That stuff about the dead kingdom just gets to me.) More previews and info here and here and here. The publisher put up a 13-page PDF here. All of these excerpts online taken together give one a pretty clear idea of what the book is like. And it seems like it is well worth the search.

(Fun fact: Lynda Barry is one-quarter Filipina and spent at least one summer here, which she recounted in her book One Hundred Demons.)

If You Like Lists

2008-07-02T12:43:00.000+08:00

So Entertainment Weekly magazine has hit the 1000th-issue mark, and to celebrate, they're featuring what they call "the New Classics" -- in other words, the "1000 best movies, TV shows, albums, books and more of the last 25 years."

Since this is EW we're talking about, the lists are a little more, shall we say, populist (ha ha, popu-lists, get it? I slay me) than you might expect from anything with the word "classics." The Breakfast Club, Spider-Man 2, and Back to the Future all make the Movies list, for example -- which I think is great. (But WHAT?! No Ferris Bueller?) And over in the Books list, both High Fidelity and Bright Lights, Big City make the grade (and I admit, I thoroughly enjoyed both books, though I wouldn't have ranked the latter so much higher than the former).

The people over at Newsarama are happy, of course, that there are so many comics and comics-related properties mentioned in this special issue. Meanwhile, over at Vulture, they cite "The Ten Most Head-Slapping Pairings in the EW New Classics Lists."

Oh, and speaking of comics, I haven't read through the whole issue yet, but much as I enjoy lists, I'm willing to bet that the best thing in the magazine is a comic -- this comic, to be precise, by Alison Bechdel. "If you really want your children to read something, for God's sake keep it to yourself!"

J.G. Jones: Comics' Most Wanted

2008-06-30T04:43:00.000+08:00

Hey, check it out: the first issue of the free, freshly-redesigned official Fully Booked magazine! (Or, The Magazine Formerly Known as 'In Print'.) The cover doesn't really look like that, btw. I 'negatived' it, because I think it looks cool that way, and because this is my blog and I'll do what I want. (Not that the real cover doesn't look cool.) If your computer can display .pdf files, go HERE right now to read it. If your computer can't display .pdf files, I feel sorry for you.

Lotsa good stuff, such as articles by Yvette Tan (yay!), Cris Ramos Jr, and Tals Diaz on subjects like Kurt Cobain, the Kindle, and other things that do not necessarily begin with the letter K. (Fellow typography geeks will love Miguel Mari's "Top 10 Letters of the Alphabet and the Font They Look Best In.")

And yes, the cover story is by yours truly. Probably the best assignment I've gotten in recent memory: to interview comics creator J.G. Jones himself. (Thank you thank you to Editor-in-Chief Gabbie!) The very thought still sends me into paroxysms of fanboy glee. :D My favorite bit: when he talked about his upcoming creator-owned projects. They sounds inneresting.

FULLY BOOKED: Tell us more about the creator-owned projects that you're planning to do.

J.G. JONES: I need to finish Final Crisis so that I can quit talking about it and just do the thing. Both are period pieces, but about five hundred years apart. One is a horror thing and the other is more of a thriller. No spandex, I'm afraid. I also have worked out an adventure story set in the 80's and an idea I'm working on that involves a lot of religion and weird physics. We'll see how that goes.

Night Monkeys, Night Monkeys / We Know How To Show It

2008-06-30T01:12:00.000+08:00

"The Night Monkeys, Tahanan Books' much-anticipated collection of Palanca prize-winning stories for children, will be launched on Monday 30 June, from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. [NOTE: That's TODAY] at Mary Grace Café in Serendra, Fort Bonifacio Global City. The public is invited to attend. Ten stories and full-color illustrations from the country's best and brightest talents in Philippine literature appear in this charming edition featuring entries handpicked from Palanca archives from 1998 through 2005.

"The book is the long-awaited sequel to The Golden Loom, Tahanan's critically acclaimed first collection of Palanca prize winners published in 1997. The new anthology celebrates the exciting diversity of writing and illustrative styles that have vitalized the face of Filipino children's literature in the last decade. The genres of fantasy, social realism, and historical fiction illuminate this eclectic mix of tales ranging from a haunted old aparador to a magical chicken to an unusual World War II friendship between a Filipino child and a Japanese soldier. Lauded by children's book critic Carla M. Pacis as a collection that "raises the bar for Philippine children's literature," The Night Monkeys is a book sure to delight boys and girls (ages 8 to 12) as well as parents and teachers."

Word. And who are these "best and brightest talents" mentioned in the press release, you may ask? Ahem ahem! My story "Mico and Friends" is included (illustrated by the insanely talented Marcus Nada), as is Yvette's story "Kulog" (beautifully illustrated by Brian Vallesteros). Then there's Cyan Abad-Jugo's "Behind the Old Aparador" (wonderful art by Lala Gallardo), and Nikki Alfar's "Menggay's Magical Chicken" (art by Conrad Raquel). Artist extraordinaire Joel Chua did the cover image, based on the title story by Bing Sitoy. Other authors are Herb Fondevilla, Raissa Rivera-Falgui, Natasha Vizcarra, Celeste Flores-Coscolluela, and Honoel Ibardolaza. Plz to behold the illustrations here!

Hope y'all can drop by! :)

Gaze Upon These Comics And Weep -- Or Laugh, As The Case May Be

2008-06-29T01:24:00.001+08:00

"God, why is Napoleon eating cookies so funny?" These, and many other questions you have never thought of, are addressed in an online collection of utterly hilarious, wonderfully drawn comics with subjects that range from family and friends and childhood to fishing and dancing and pooping. You must go to katebeaton.com now and thank me later after you laugh your ass off. (My favorite sections are "Maybe It's a Journal," "People and Places" and "Nonsense.") My thanks to girl-wonder.org, where I first read about Ms. Beaton and her comics.

Beaton has made a name for herself doing funny comics based on historical fact, and those are great, but my favorites are the little personal and/or nonsensical ones (see: the magnificent Kate Beaton Stop Being So Hard On Yourself), the stuff involving writers, and anything and everything to do with Pope John Paul.

Wordled

2008-06-28T15:01:00.000+08:00

Oh, yay: yet another way to fritter away my hours! See that image above? It's my short story "Tell the Sky" in word cloud form. (Click on it to behold its full niceness.)

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends." Go to Wordle now and make yer own!

And now, the first page of my blog, word-clouded:

Imagine the Future

2008-06-26T02:24:00.000+08:00

Who's that gigolo on the street, with his hands in his pockets and his crocodile feet? That's right, it's Imagine magazine!

As some of you may know, I'm one of the contributing editors of this shiny beast, this thrice-yearly fashion-forward publication -- I wrote two short short stories and a feature on Arnold Arre for the first issue (which, btw, won the Gold for Best in Magazine Cover Design at the Asia Media Awards 2008 -- congratulations to EIC Joyce Fernandez, and Yonina Chan and the rest of the staff!). For the second issue, Imagine: The Future, I interviewed May Jurilla about the Philippine Book.

You (yes, you) are all invited to Capone's Bistro later tonight, June 26, Thursday, at 10 PM, as Imagine celebrates its second issue with "music, drinks, freebies and fun aplenty"! Artists and fashion designers will be exhibiting their visions of the future. Poptronic hiptastic retrofuturistic band Bagetsafonik will be playing. See you there!

'Chilla in Manila

2008-06-25T11:18:00.000+08:00

Now that it's raining more than ever/ Know that we'll still have each other/ I can has a baby chinchilla?/ I can has a baby chinchilla!/ Illa illa, ay ay ay/ I can has a chinchilla/ Illa illa, ay ay ay

Cute little sucker, huh? No, I'm not getting one. I don't even know if you can get them here, except perhaps in coat form. Besides, they don't seem as low-maintenance as hamsters. And while they're very cute as babies, most of them grow up really fugly. You know, just like humans. Their big advantage as pets seems to be that they can live for twenty years or more with proper care (which is ten times the projected lifespan of my hamster Burroughs).

I only got curious about 'chillas when I saw this one on I Can Has Cheezburger. ;) The photo above, btw, is from the Chinchilla-Lexikon.

Chinchilla is also, apparently, the name of a power metal band. That band must kick so much ass to have the confidence to name themselves after a tiny fluffy animal.

Okay, just checked out the songs on Chinchilla's MySpace. Wow. Major nostalgia trip. Check out "Fight" and "Take No Prisoners," especially the solo. It was like I was in the 80s again, listening to Whitesnake and Lion and... Hey. They're all named after animals! That's it. I'm forming a metal band called Death Hamster.

Living With Music

2008-06-25T06:43:00.000+08:00

My favorite regular feature on the New York Times Paper Cuts blog ("A blog about books") is Living With Music -- "A weekly playlist of songs from a writer or some other kind of book-world personage."

Recently they featured William Gibson. His selections were surprisingly... organic. (What, no tracks from the Johnny Mnemonic OST? Har!)

Thrown Down a Well

2008-06-24T15:11:00.000+08:00

"This goes out to all you folks who seem to think that admitting you’re an asshole somehow makes you less of one. (Hint: it makes you more of one.)"

Read the all-too-short Thrown Down a Well Comics. (Link from Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin.)

Rock Yer Frock

2008-06-20T22:07:00.000+08:00

This is fun: PAPERMAG's 25 Most Stylish Songbirds. Yay especially for Jenny Lewis, Karen O, Zooey Deschanel and Chan Marshall a.k.a. Cat Power (pictured above)!

"From Stevie Nicks' billowy dresses, to Grace Jones's power-suits, to Madonna's Gaultier bra, to Björk's swan get-up, female musicians have a long history of making fashion statements. These days, the current crop of songstresses, both up-and-coming and fairly established, are carrying on the tradition..."

If I were still EIC of Pulse or an editor on BURN, I would have loved to do something like this, for the local scene. :) We'd have to have different categories though...