Don DeLillo’s Falling Man. Reading this now. The prose is just perfect.
Yesterday I re-read this piece I had been working on and had set aside for what felt like forever, and lo I still like it. I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I can finish this thing.
I don’t think I can write poetry anymore, hm. Everything turns into prose. But meh, the words can take whatever form they want, as long as they leave my head.
‘Tis the time for year-enders eh? Members of Livejournal group bookish here lists their worst reads of the year.
I’ll just list the books I enjoyed this year. For individual reviews of some of these books, just click on “books” and/or “reading” in ze tag bubble.
Boy do I read a lot.
I’m still reading The Beauty Myth and Ender’s Game, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be first on my 2010 list. :)
Happy New Year, all. ♥
wherein we talk about whatever
Transmetropolitan
Journalists! A perverse government! Investigation! Data-gathering! Bowel disruptors!
Excellent series. Special thanks to Jaykie for lending me copies.
Orayt. Planetary naman. ;)
Collage Me This
Tearing things up = therapy = FUN.
No, really. Try it. Did me wonders.
(So yeah, picture resolutions are shitty. Let me go find a digicam, then maybe I can upload these again.)
Gig Book Contest Awards er Brunch
I almost said “awards night”. But these are writers for children, so let’s be clean and nice and alcohol-free.
Awarding was on Oct. 10, at 10 a.m. There were ten winners. See what they did there? :p
Didn’t have cam. Will ask Andrea and Kate for the pictures later. (Thank you pala to Andrea’s parents for letting me hitch. If I had gone there alone, I would have gotten lost. For sure.)
EDIT: Pictures!
Thank you Jake and Katt for coming. So nice to see you guys again. Ke gaganda niyo!
:D
I graduated with a degree in Journalism. I actually now work for a paper. (Hey, fancy that.)
I began reading Warren Ellis’s Transmetropolitan last night, and this panel just cracked me up.
That you are, Spider Jerusalem. (Dude needed to interview another dude. I understand his frustration completely.)
I want to print this out and stick it on my office computer.
What if: you can live your life through a robot proxy?
You don’t have to get up from bed. You don’t even have to brush your teeth or take a bath, because through your proxy, or Surrogate, you always look perfect.
What if: something goes wrong?
I enjoyed watching this film.
Photos from Filmofilia.com
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In other news, I’ve finished Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris (Neil Patrick Harris!), and written by Joss Whedon et al. I hate you Mr. Whedon, you are too awesome.
I’ve also started reading Warren Ellis’s Transmetropolitan.
I couldn’t write anything because I just found out yesterday that my MS Office (and my antivirus) has expired. Darn it.
I went on Saturday with fellow book fair first-timer Eula. Promised myself that I will only buy local books, since I’ve already amassed several foreign books from the bookstores and other book bargain sales. Promised myself that I will never buy another book till mid-2010. No, really. Control yourself, damn it.
– Wow, ang laki ng SMX.
– Wow, books.
– WOOOOOOOW.
– First stop, Visprint, so I can finally get me those dead-tree versions of the Trese books.
– I did not recognize Trese author Budjette Tan. I asked, Magkano po yung Trese?
– Eula’s spidey sense tingled, and so we asked Manang Cashier. She said, “Oo, siya ‘yun. Papa-autograph kayo?”
– Me, to self: SO KUMUSTA NAMAN YUNG KABOBOHAN MO, ELIZA.
– Went back to the author. Budjette asked, “What’s your name?” I felt the temptation to say, “Pedro”.
– I went, Oh I’ve read the first seven issues online, so-and-so is my favorite. Nagpa-charming ang lola mo para maitago ang katangahan haha. :D
– No, I don’t think it worked either.
– Kajo (Trese artist) was also there. Woo-hoo, great art!
– Pre-ordered the third Trese book. :) Nawa’y hindi mawala yung libro at makarating naman siya sa ‘kin before October 18.
– I want a Trese poster featuring the Kambal, nyorks.
– UP Press. Got Nouveau Bored by Marc Gaba (I am in love with the cover art, seriously), You Are Here by Mabi David, and Libot ng Durungawan by Allan Popa (I haven’t read a Filipino poetry collection in a long while).
– Ateneo Press: Got The Highest Hiding Place by Larry Ypil.
– Ayos ‘tong book fair, at least I didn’t have to go all the way to UP or Ateneo just to buy the books. (That’s what I did to purchase the Conchitina Cruz books.)
– Can’t wait to crack these books open and be inspired and write my own stories/poems and all that cal.
Friday. Dinner and coffee with Ace, who was overflowing with chika. I was bombarded with stories even before we could properly sit. I loved this of course. I particularly enjoyed the “promdi moment in New York” anecdote: standing in awe of Times Square, immobilized by the sight—and being pushed and prodded by New Yorkers, who were nice enough to call her “bitch”. I mean, they could have used harsher words. She was in the way.
Also, I didn’t know it was possible for alienation and homesickness to force you to watch Daisy Siete. I had never thought of turning to the Sex Bomb dancers for comfort. Interesting. Haha.
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Saturday. Gig Book photo shoot with Mandy Navasero. I went with Andrea, who had French classes and knew the place, and also because Makati is still for me a senseless collection of streets. Hay, kailan kaya kita makakabisado.
Ms Mandy’s studio is housed in a building filled with art galleries and all sorts of pretty things. Even the restaurant inside looked like an art show! (Thank you to Andrea and the menu displayed outside the glass doors – if I were alone I would have gone inside the restaurant and looked at the display, nodding every now and then in appreciation, instead of, you know, sitting down and ordering. Wonder what the staff would have thought of me appraising their furniture like that.)
We took photos! I’ll wait for Andrea to upload.
Oh wait, here they are:
These stuff are actually inside the restaurant:
Andrea also smuggled me into Alliance. Now I want to take French classes. (French or Japanese? I’ll toss a coin, maybe, or consult my savings. I think Alliance offers cheaper rates than the Nihongo Center.)
(I am waaaay too lazy to apply for a master’s degree – I know this now. Le sigh.)
* * *
Thanks to Charles, I have finally gotten my hands on the Sept. 12 issue of the Free Press, which contains my story, “Reunion”. (End subtle plug.) This issue also has an article about the Free Press Lit Awards and holy shit, Tim Yap was there? I thought Sasha was only joking.
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Charles also lent me two books: Year’s Bet SF 14 and The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Vol. 3. I now tenderly put them atop my overwhelming pile of unread books (I now have 10 in my list; I’m halfway through Eden Express and Blind Assassin, almost done with The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.). And yet, and yet – I dream of going to the Manila Book Fair to purchase more. Am I insane? (Yes.)
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Sleepaway, an anthology of writings on summer camp edited by Eric Simonoff – I recommend this. Contains some of the most interesting essays and short stories I’ve read so far. What happens inside Jewish summer camps, leftist summer camps, music summer camps? Lev Grossman talks of a music summer camp he once attended, where the campers during an unsuccessful softball game avoided the ball “for fear of spraining their long, limber fingers”. James Atlas, in one of my favorite essays in this anthology, talks of a summer camp for intellectuals and writers, where instead of flashlights they were asked to bring Bic pens, and where nobody played baseball and the “tennis court was deserted”. In a letter to his parents he rattled off his activities (panel discussion on modern poets, Shakespeare Festival, jazz music and Chekhov) and ended with “Culture! I can’t take it anymore; send comic books – anything.”
Eliza Victoria 