Category: books

preacher

Jesse Custer, a preacher from a small town in Texas, is possessed by a powerful supernatural being named “Genesis”. The force of the possession hits his church like a nuclear bomb, and the members of his congregation are reduced to bones. Jesse, however, leaves the site unscathed, and with the new ability to command anyone with only his words. Witnesses call this the “Word of God”.

Jesse later learns that Genesis is the offspring of an angel and a demon, a creation of Heaven and Hell, and on its birth God left His throne and quit. Genesis is a being of pure power, perhaps even as powerful as God Himself, and Jesse wants to know what it wants, what it knows, and why God seems frightened of it.

This series is a perverted, hyperviolent mindfuck, and I loved it. There’s a point when I got tired of Jesse’s hard-on for Texas and his long speeches about the great American nation, and I was bored by the Salvation story arc, but I read every page. I love how Ennis and Co. just went for it. No fear, no holding back. With such big concepts and such a complicated set-up, I was worried the series would end on a disappointing note, but you know what? It ended the way it should have ended. It ended right.

I think its brilliant.

post-pedring, etc

Really bad storm yesterday. J and I were in his parked car around lunch and we felt the car rock as the wind slammed against us. Didn’t go to work, couldn’t. (Office work was suspended anyway, but I heard some office mates had continued with their shoots like a bunch of crazy people.) No electricity. Cell phone dying by midday. Back in Bulacan, my parents had to deal with the chest-high flood outside the house and the waist-high water inside and the fact that our refrigerator was submerged. I could replace the refrigerator, but I heard the frustration and the exhaustion made my father cry and that really broke my heart. So fuck you, Pedring. Fuck you very much.

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But today’s another day. (My parents said pretty much the same thing.) So yes – I have a poem in the fifth volume of Stone Telling called “Prayer“. Read and share, if you are so inclined. Lots of fantastic authors here.

And I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately! I’ve finished two memoirs. In Pyongyang, Guy Delisle talks about his stay in the North Korean capital with equal snark and sadness. For such a dark topic, Delisle actually manages to keep the tone light till the last page. There is a degree of outrage, but it is dampened with humor. I guess it’s a defense mechanism – if he allowed himself  to be affected by the apparent brainwashing and injustice going on around him, he’d go insane. (Hell, I would.) Or end up dead. (He did bring a copy of Orwell’s 1984 to his hotel, and even had the audacity to lend it to his North Korean guide. Ha!)

Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a brave introspection of her relationship with her father, his life and his death, and how his secrets had affected her family. And oh, what beautiful, vivid language to go with the art!


Some (ongoing) series that I would recommend:

Chew – Set in a post-bird flu world, where chicken and other bird meat are declared illegal,  and the Food and Drug Administration is kick-ass and the Department of Agriculture has sexy covert operatives. (I know, right?!) Tony Chu, a police officer, gets hired by the FDA after a chicken buy-bust operation. He is a cibopath, a person who gets information about the origins and circumstances of everything he eats. (Except beets. He gets nothing from beets.) He uses this ability to solve crimes, so yeah, sometimes he has to eat a severed limb. Or worse.

The Unwritten – A story about stories! That is all I’m going to say! Very engrossing.

Runaways – Set in a world where superheroes and villains are a regular occurrence. (Especially  New York.) A group of teenagers discover that their parents are members of a crime ring called The Pride. I think the quality is inconsistent – the series kept changing writers and illustrators – but I guess I’ll keep reading. I’ve heard this series is on hiatus.

Bone – Premium kids’ literature right here. Funny and exciting and I can’t wait to read the entire series.

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How much does a good refrigerator go for these days?

under the storm poetry anthology launch

September 2 at the Ayala Museum. Thanks to Ian for guiding us haha!

Got held up at work so unfortunately I missed a huge chunk of the event, but J and I got there in time to meet up with Charles, Jordan, Lyza, and Tin (who sassed the waiters at MCafe for being so goddamn slow). Met Eva for the first time, and forgot to tell her that I loved this poem of hers. Met Richard Bolisay for the first time (oo kailangan full name haha) and saw Gian again. And it was wonderful to see Andrea! So sabaw I forgot to ask for autographs. I would love to round up all of these lovely people in one corner of this city and just talk and drink – that would be nice, yes?

Read my poem, “Crime Scenes“. I was a member of a writing organization in college that regularly held poetry readings, but I’ve never read a poem before. Yep – never. So of course I was nervous and frightened but people said it was okay. Not too painful? Beautiful. I listened to Andrea’s recording of my reading (probably coming soon on YouTube now on YouTube, thanks to Andrea and Kate) and boy, did I hate my voice haha. Next time I’ll just make someone else read my work.

I regret not being able to arrive earlier, though. Bitin! But at least I got the chance to stay, even for a short while.

Again, thanks to editors Joel and Khavn for letting me be a part of this.

Photos from Jovie Angelica Dayon.

editor khavn de la cruz

long weekend

I have to say that in the four years I’ve been a member of the workforce, this is the first time I’ve experienced a long weekend due to the holidays. Sweet deal, except that a storm came. This always happens. I plan to see my parents on a particular weekend, and a storm makes landfall. Every. Single. Time.

I had to wade through knee-high waters to get home. But despite the storm and the flood, our pet chicken is alive and well! And she’s been giving us eggs! On Monday night my mother added them to the giniling! The eggs were yummy! I don’t know why I keep telling you about this fucking chicken but this is exciting!

Anyway. Flood. Nothing new here.

The bright side: 1) no work 2) it’s cold inside the house as opposed to hellishly hot 3) I was able to just relax and read and watch movies.

Ex Machina is created by Brian K. Vaughan (the same guy who wrote Y: The Last Man) and Tony Harris. I finished reading all of the issues early this morning (around 1 am) and I’m still thinking about it today. Ex Machina features Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer who receives powers from an unknown device that exploded at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The device gives him the power to talk to machines. After becoming a victim of a robbery, he decides to fight crime as The Great Machine, sort of like the goofy equivalent of the Iron Man. On 9/11 he stops one of the planes, allowing the second tower to survive the attack. Later on, he is voted Mayor of New York.

Vaughan loves devastating endings, doesn’t he? He gives you humor and hope until you start thinking that hey, maybe a happy ending is possible for these poor characters, then boom, a sudden dip until everything crashes. And I love it. I am devastated right now, but I love it.

I saw too many movies! Info overload!

Drive Angry is one of those redneck-y action films that I thought I’d hate but I end up loving. It’s a fun ride. (Pun!) Favorite character: William Fichtner as The Accountant.

Saw a lot of comedies: Hall Pass, No Strings Attached, Bad Teacher. All perfect for lazy afternoons. Go with No Strings Attached, if you just want something cute.

The Beaver. Huh. I have to say that when I saw the movie poster, I was confused

and the title made me laugh, but this is directed by Jodie Foster and I still somehow trust Jodie Foster (even if Mel Gibson is in the lead). I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve never seen depression and mental illness presented in such a simple, effective, disturbing way. BUT: wouldn’t this work better if it were less serious? More black humor than drama, with maybe Steve Carrell as the lead? Guess we’ll never know.

My brothers did not like Super 8, and I think I understand why. Super 8 as an adventure, as a coming-of-age tale, is adorable and pitch-perfect, but as a mystery monster movie, it’s 90 minutes of meh.

 

But I liked it. For some reason it reminded me of Eerie Indiana. (I miss that show.)

So how’s your long weekend?

the walking dead (comics)

I saw the TV series first and loved it, but having read the 87 issues (so far) of the original comic, I now fully understand why it got so big. Robert Kirkman has the (sometimes exasperating) tendency of filling panels with walls of text, but even then the series is a very compelling read. It’s definitely more violent than the TV series. I breezed through the 80+ issues because I couldn’t stop. I just had to find out what happens next.

Now I’m excited to see how the rest of the series will be translated to TV. Bet it’s going to be a pain.

The Mighty Reading List!

Feast for Crows

The Kobayashi Maru of Love

Showbiz Lengua

PGS Horror issue

Floating Dragon

El Bimbo Variations

The Tesseract

Faithful Place

Moxyland

Zoo City

Our Story Begins

Glass Soup

Here on Earth

The Pull of the Moon

Little Bee

Story Quarterly Issue 44

The Bell Jar

Philippine Speculative Fiction 6

Pacific Rims

The Name of the Wind

The Wise Man’s Fear

Pretty Monsters

A Dance with Dragons

Ang Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan

 

pictures from home

Saturday to Tuesday in Bulacan. Ah, what bliss. I missed staying home. Stay home and just read a book or watch a movie and wait for my mother to call up the stairs: “What would you like to have for dinner?” I feel like a child again! One who can ask someone else to do her laundry!

For lack of anything better to do (or for being lazy to do anything better):

  • I re-read The Devil Wears Prada, and almost finished re-watching Project Runway Season 5. Omigod, too much fashion, my teeth are hurting.
  • Realized that: Smart Bro prepaid runs fast in Makati but can be infuriating in Bulacan, so I just use my brother’s Globe Tattoo postpaid.
  • I was finally able to watch Rango. I should have seen that film on the big screen! The animation is remarkable. And it’s hilarious, watch it!

  • I finished The Name of the Wind (and started reading The Wise Man’s Fear, the Kingkiller trilogy’s second book). Starts slow but around four chapters in (when the protagonist Kvothe begins talking to the Chronicler about his life and the University) it grips you and never lets go. I love the lore and the world and how magic is presented in scientific terms. It is Harry Potter-ish in the sense that there is a school, there is magic, there is the jerkwad teacher and the archnemesis and the two friends and the orphaned protagonist who is brilliant but helplessly idiotic at times, but unlike Harry, Kvothe is proactive, and unlike the Potter series, Name of the Wind begins with Kvothe a fully grown man. You don’t grow up with him. You sit down for drinks with him and he just tells you his story. (Thanks Jaykie for another brilliant recommendation.)

  • I may have added a page or two to the new story. Siiiiigh. I write so goddamn slow now. In the olden days I used to be able to sit for eight straight hours just writing, typing, typing, typing away like crazy.
  • Bought my father a new phone as his birthday gift. It’s one of the cheaper phones, he has no use for the touchscreen ones.

  • Saw the Nokia X7 and experienced sudden phone lust. I want it. I. Want. It.

  • But it retails at 18K! BUT IT HAS AN 8-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA! BUT I’M POOR!
  • GODDAMN IT!

This is Ming-Ming (Dynasty), the noisiest cat we’ve ever had.

She likes big bellies.

Famous Fathers with Cats, # 1:

We were watching Rango here, and my brother just knew I was taking a picture.

My brother, who has no choice but to be with me till Tuesday, suggested I download an ebook reader into my phone, and added Office Suite. So now I can read books (and write books ha!) on my teeny-tiny phone! I WANT AN X7! SHUT THE HELL UP!

Remember our pet chicken?


It gave us an egg! I almost rolled on the floor laughing at my father because he burst through the front door with it. He was that excited.

And now I’m here with Jaykie as he reviews for That Big Exam tomorrow. Prayers? Good vibes? Hope you are all safe and warm, wherever you are.

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.