Author: elizavictoria

Hello, morning.

Happy we were finally able to go home to Bulacan, despite the near knee-high flood submerging the subdivision. Happy, too, that Jaykie agreed to stay till Monday morning, and he was able to finally meet my sister and my lola. They were showing Pak Pak Dr. Kwak on the bus, and I laughed at times, to my utter horror. We arrived late Saturday and had my mother’s (famous!) caldereta, Reese’s ice cream, leftover sansrival cake, yema, and possible diabetes. My father insisted that Jaykie drink; isang shot lang daw, pero maya-maya ubos na ang laman ng bote. Also learned that he was going to have an air-con installed in the master bedroom, but every time he sets an appointment for the workers to come in, a storm enters Philippine territory. All of my siblings enjoyed Jaykie’s iPad, lured by Fruit Ninja. Discovered this new TV game show via my sister: R U Kidding Me? where host Vic Sotto (si Vic na naman, sinundan kami galing sa bus!) on Saturday night mistakenly said, “Magbabalik ang Who Wants To Be – ” Then we all got freaked out by this segment on Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho about people who eat raw meat. Kare-kare for lunch the next day, then spaghetti, then fish for dinner, then these banana cookies made by the creators of Boy Bawang (they’re yummy), then more sansrival, and the entire second season of Justified. On our way back to QC they were showing You To Me Are Everything on the bus, but I think I fell asleep.

PS I’ve sold a science fiction story called “The Mechanic” to Kaleidotrope. Hooray! Details to follow.

daytripper

Brothers Gabriel Fá and Fábio Moon have received numerous praises for this ten-part masterpiece. I don’t have to be forced to add my own. The series dissects the life story of aspiring novelist and obituary writer Brás de Oliva Domingos, each chapter looking into an important day in different years of his life. He is 34, he is 11, he is 21, he is 76. Every chapter (except, quite fittingly, the last one; in my opinion, the series could have done away with the ninth issue and still be cohesive, but that’s a personal opinion) ends the same way. I was stunned by the first issue, and confused by the second, but by the third chapter I understood what the creators were doing and was impressed by their genius.

How else can the writers make us treasure a chronicled life, if not by dangling the constant specter of death? Suddenly, with this knowledge, our senses become knife-sharp, and we notice Brás’s shallowness and stupidities and mistakes, his irrelevant fears and useless obsessions.

We, like Brás, who do not know how or when our chapters will end, wake up each morning and believe we will live forever.

poetry nomination

My poem, “Variations on the Expulsion from Eden”, is a finalist in this year’s Free Press Awards. The Awards covers poetry and fiction that have appeared in the pages of the magazine from January to December 2010.

Here’s the list and announcement, posted by Lit Ed Joel Toledo:

FICTION:

1. Erscheinung – Michelangelo Samson

2. Panopticon of El Hogar – Russel Stanley Geronimo

3. After The Body Displaces Water – Daryll Jane Delgado

4. When You See A Dog – Jenette Vizcocho

5. Recuerdos de Patay – Caroline Hau

6. Sweet – Marguerite de Leon

7. Spawn – Popi Laudico

8. Desert Winds – Jean Gerald Anuddin

9. Numb – Jenette Vizcocho

10. A Study of Insects –  Irene Carolina Sarmiento

11. Works Cited – U. Eliserio

12. Fade to Red – Twink Macaraig

POETRY:

1. Variations on the Expulsion from Eden – Eliza Victoria

2. The Painted Prince – Frank Penones Jr.

3. Duwende – Myrna Peña-Reyes

4. Love is How We Come Undone -Amado Bajarias

5. How to Kill a Whale Shark – Timi Siytangco

6. Warrior’s Wife (After Li Po) – Ino Habana

7. Weight Without Gravity – Andrea Teran

8. The Widow, Upon Learning That Her Old Lover Had Returned to the Island of San Antonio – Merlie Alunan

9. Zeno’s Paradox – Luisa A. Igloria

10. Weight of the World – Michellan Sarile-Alagao

The 2011 Philippines Free Press Literary Awards covers Fiction and Poetry that have appeared in the pages of the magazine from January to December 2010. 

The Awards Night will be on July 12, 2011 (Tuesday)

6-10 p.m. 

Venue: Club Cafe, Makati Sports Club

formal invitations and detailed poster to follow

IMPORTANT NOTES:

*Finalists are advised to notify me if there are any mistakes in the typing of your names, especially in regard to the possible prize money if you do win and the respective bank account conflict. Anyone who has contacts with some of the finalists that are not on facebook can email me via ramblingsoul@yahoo.com so I can notify them as well.

In any case, all finalists will receive their respective  invitations. This FB post is just to fast-track the info dissemination.

*Finalists are advised to visit the magazine’s website, http://www.freepress.com.ph and read the guidelines, policies, and notes for the annual Literary Awards posted there carefully.

*Congratulations to all the finalists and winners who will only be notified that they’ve won and be informed of their respective six judges (three per category) during the Awards Night.

*Winners must be physically present during the awards night (all the finalists will be formally invited) to claim their prize money and their respective trophies, lest the monetary prize be forfeited (winners can claim the trophy anytime they want to at the Philippines Free Press office). This is as per the magazine’s policy.

meds

medicol, biogesic, serc, dizitab, kremil-s, no-drowse decolgen

I didn’t notice until last night that I had accumulated so much meds in my bag. There was a day when I took four tablets at the same time. Medicol for my painful foot, Serc for my vertigo, Kremil-S for my tummy, and Decolgen to unclog my right ear. I feel so old.

weekend update

I wasn’t too fond of this series last year, but later in the season the acting and writing got better, scenes got to that level of dark they needed and deserved, and now Pretty Little Liar‘s among those shows I look forward to seeing every week.

Ezra still bores me though. Jesus.

Ugh. Go away, Ezra.

*

And that’s all I can say about the weekend. Oh wait, I also finished the first season of Justified (very good), and we’re also almost done with the third season of Damages (Patty Hewes is less crazy this time around). With the city flooded, there’s really nothing to do but stay indoors, sleep, read, monitor the flood via Twitter, or watch something entertaining.

I wasn’t able to go home for my mother’s birthday. I am majorly pissed. I monitored the news and made phone calls, hoping I might make it home. But the flood was already thigh-high outside our home on Saturday and there was water inside the house and it won’t stop raining so my mother decided that it’d be better if I just stayed put.

I wish we could move. I wish we could move the river.

*

Before that, Thursday night/Friday morning was a bit crazy. For a while there the office looked like an evacuation center. There were reports of five-foot high floods in the metro, and roads were either unpassable or congested. (When we say “traffic jam” we mean “parking lot-like”.)  Fortunately, I was able to go home to the condo in my jacket and flip-flops because the flood outside the office was only ankle-deep.

Jaykie and I meet up on Thursday nights, and he wanted to go that night, but Chino Roces cor. Vito Cruz Extension looked like this from 9:30 pm to I-don’t-know-what-time-really-because-I-fell-asleep-waiting.

I suddenly woke up at around 2 in the morning and saw from my window that the streets were clear. I texted Jaykie this, as a joke, thinking he was asleep anyway, but he replied and said he’d go pick me up. Before I gave him the go-signal, I called MMDA’s hotline number (136) to check if the roads he would take were flooded. They weren’t, so we met up, had food from Mini-Stop, downed some Gilbey’s, and went to sleep.

That was one unproductive weekend, I have to say.

diaspora ad astra toc and cover

Guess what: Estranghero Press is set to launch its science fiction e-anthology this month to complete its free fiction trifecta.

Diaspora Ad Astra is edited by Joseph Nacino and UP’s Prof. Emil Flores. Visit this link for more details.

And here’s the TOC. :)

  1. War Zone Angel, Professor Emil Flores
  2. The Day the Sexbomb Dancers Invaded Our Brains, Carljoe Javier
  3. The Malaya, Dean Francis Alfar
  4. The Cost of Living, Vince Torres
  5. Ina Dolor’s Last Stand, Raymond P. Reyes
  6. Oplan Sanction, Alex Osias
  7. The Keeper, Audrey Villacorta
  8. Ashes Ember, Dannah Ruth S. Ballesteros
  9. Rizal, Eliza Victoria
  10. Gene Rx, Katya Oliva-Llego
  11. Robots and a Slice of Pizza, Raydon Reyes
  12. Lucky, Raven Guerrero
  13. A List of Things We Know, Isabel Yap
  14. Taking Gaia, Celestine Trinidad
  15. Space Enough and Time, Anne Lagamayo

Not a spoiler: My story does not feature Jose Rizal, the hero. It’s a place. And I can’t wait for you to read it.

insidious: a film review in chat form

Here be an online conversation between the blog owner (me) and Lawrence, who has seen the film. Twice.

tl;dr – I start the film in an excited mood, then grow grouchy. Insidious has an excellent first part – great atmosphere, effective score, cute nod to the horror films of the 80’s – but the second act is dragged down by too much exposition and back story. It creates its own myth and thus must anchor the scares on its own myth (instead of on people’s preconceived beliefs, like the Devil and Hell and the afterlife), but the myth is just a handful of words spewed by one of the characters in a single scene. It’s not strong enough to make the horror last.

"Is that so?" Yes, Leigh Whannell, my horror movie crush. I'm sorry. I liked Saw though. Does that make you feel better?

 

(Cut for spoilers.)

Continue reading insidious: a film review in chat form