February 15, 2011 – Eliza Victoria

Recall that I’ve written a recap of sorts of the Kritika Kultura soft launch. Check out these other links:

1) Adam David tries to articulate/define/pinpoint what the “new” is in Pinoy writing. He mentions the “Pinoy strain of Postmodernism” which could possibly be dubbed the “New New Romanticism”, which sounds just about right to me.

Read:

It could also be the country’s general Romantic Catholic aesthetic rearing its big red head, the Modern Pinoy Writer’s undying deference to the Sublime/Padrino/Matrona, to the Modern Pinoy Writer’s undying worship of Artifice: so, instead of it being a departure in the way the Postmodern is in the West, maybe it’s actually more a mutation of the Romantic Tradition, ie, the Old reregarded with rose- and sapphire-tinted spectacles. So maybe, the truer taxonomical claim would be that the antho is an exhibit of New New Romanticism.

And really, it does make sense. Despite the many experimentations of new Filipino writers in their prose and poetry, we can still smell a whiff of the sublime, the soul, the soaring spirit, and all manners of the awe-inspiring ek-ek we identify with Romanticism in their work.

But maybe the editors will have a deeper exploration of this thesis in their upcoming intro to the anthology.

2) Adam has also uploaded mp3 copies of the KK soft launch. Download them and listen to the roundtable talks and the poetry readings.

On Feb. 14 a little boy came over and handed me an apple tart from Rowena‘s.

The tart made me want to go back to Tagaytay already. Yum.

We were wary of the traffic, so we initially planned to go to QC, have food delivered from TGI Friday’s, and watch some shows while waiting for the food. But traffic was (surprisingly) light for Valentine’s Day, so we decided to dine at Mom and Tina’s. Jaykie’s treat!

Have you ever been? We’ve been to this restaurant several times. They have good food (soup, pasta, steak, sandwiches), and even better desserts. We go to the one on E. Rodriguez in Pasig, but there’s one now in Makati (G/F Unit 104, Tropical Palms Condominum, Dela Rosa St., Legaspi Village).

I had chicken and chips!

I always order their walnut tortes, but that night I tried their Baked Oreo Cheesecake. Our Awesome Planet swears by it.

Best. Oreo. Cheesecake. Ever.

Seriously. I’ll order this again next time.

And I only had the solo portion.

Before we headed out, the woman behind the counter (Jaykie wonders now if it was the Mom in Mom and Tina’s) stopped us and said we had a Valentine’s gift from them.

Yay free cupcake!