Day: September 13, 2012

here be a recording of my WIT talk

For those who were not able to attend Visprint Inc.’s WIT 2 event (I will get your excuse letters later – loljk), Flipside Publishing has generously uploaded a recording of my talk (a mix of English and Filipino). Follow @Flipsidepub on Twitter for updates.

Click here for the recording! Might contain nuts and awkwardness.

From Flipside:

For our second podcast (you can find the first one here), we recorded the talk and Q&A panel that Eliza Victoria gave during Visprint’s WIT 2012 event held last September 8, 2012. Eliza Victoria is the author of Lower Myths and The Viewless Dark, and the collection A Bottle of Storm Clouds (from Visprint). Introducing her work during the event is Karl De Mesa, author of Damaged People: Tales of the Gothic-Punk and News of the Shaman: Four Novellas of Horror.

|MP3| 21.5 MB

If you enjoyed the podcast (or have suggestions who you’d like to hear from in the future), feel free to send us comments below, or via our other social networks like Facebook or Twitter (@flipsidepub).

We’ll have more recordings from Visprint’s WIT 2012 event in the next few days. Stay tuned!

We’re also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlipsidePublishing and on Twitter@flipsidepub

https://www.facebook.com/Visprint

stuart: a life backwards

(Based on a true story. TV film by BBC and HBO – you might catch it on HBO one night.)

Alexander Masters (Benedict Cumberbatch) works for a charity group that helps homeless people. One day, their facility gets raided and the two charity workers in charge, later dubbed as the Cambridge Two, are arrested. Apparently, some of the homeless men they are helping have been selling drugs. Alexander helps set up a campaign to free the Cambridge Two, and in one meeting, he meets Stuart Shorter (Tom Hardy), who has brilliant ideas to help free the charity workers. “My name is Psycho, but you can call me Stuart,” he says, and he and Alexander become fast friends. Alexander tells Stuart that he wants to write a book about him, and though baffled by his interest, Stuart tells him to tell it backwards, to make it exciting, “like a Tom Clancy novel”.

In one scene, Stuart asks Alexander why he considers him – a criminal and a man with an unstable mind – as a friend. “Because you’re funny, intelligent, good company- what do you want, a fucking love letter?” Alexander says, but in the end that’s what Stuart gets. A love letter in the form of a biography, and later, this film, from a friend who has heard his darkest secrets but still loved him and wanted him understood and remembered.

Fine, fine performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy. I can’t praise them enough.

stuff: compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of ThingsStuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A compassionate, well-written book about the psychology, compulsions, and distress of hoarders. Contains detailed, fascinating narration of some cases, and interviews with people afflicted with this disorder. The first case presented is the heartbreaking tale of the Collyer brothers, who died surrounded by 140 tons of their hoarded items. The tale hooks you and pulls you in. Good read.

View all my reviews