Choose, Daze, Hum Presents: The Alternative '90s

'90s references, reverences, and one-hit wonders this coming tuesday @ mag:net katipunan. 7-9:30pm. kitakits.

Winding Up

I live on the water,
alone. Without wife and children,
I have circled every possibility
to come to this:

a low house by grey water,
with windows always open
to the stale sea. We do not choose such things,

but we are what we have made.
We suffer, the years pass,
we shed freight but not our need

for encumbrances. Love is a stone
that settled on the sea-bed
under grey water. Now, I require nothing

from poetry but true feeling,
no pity, no fame, no healing. Silent wife,
we can sit watching grey water,

and in a life awash
with mediocrity and trash
live rock-like.

I shall unlearn feeling,
unlearn my gift. That is greater
and harder than what passes there for life.

--Derek Walcott

for discussion (E-109), reporting (E-106)

---

btw, drop by the Rock Ed Radio website and scroll down re: updates and photos on the Los Chupacabras guesting last July 1. muchas gracias for inviting us over, Gang and Lourd.

---

at eto na! final cover design for the band's upcoming album this september! abangan!

Hoppy Mondaze

some photos from the Happy Mondays VIII reading last July 16th. pics care of Ramil and Corin. thanks, guys! see you again on the 6th of August for the next reading. Shinjuku Lager Club and Los Chupacabras gather all the animals after.

Mind

The slow overture of rain,
each drop breaking
without breaking into
the next, describes
the unrelenting, syncopated
mind. Not unlike
the hummingbirds
imagining their wings
to be their heart, and swallows
believing the horizon
to be a line they lift
and drop. What is it
they cast for? The poplars,
advancing or retreating,
lose their stature
equally, and yet stand firm,
making arrangements
in order to become
imaginary. The city
draws the mind in streets,
and streets compel it
from their intersections
where a little
belongs to no one. It is
what is driven through
all stationary portions
of the world, gravity's
stake in things, the leaves,
pressed against the dank
window of November
soil, remain unwelcome
till transformed, parts
of a puzzle unsolvable
till the edges give a bit
and soften. See how
then the picture becomes clear,
the mind entering the ground
more easily in pieces,
and all the richer for it.

--Jorie Graham

for discussion, E-109

Choose, Daze, Hum

reminder lang. starting tomorrow, and (hopefully) the many tuesdays thereafter, i will be literally inserting my cds into the cd player of Magnet Katipunan (read: not really spinning, as i don't have the gadgets for that. hehe). the "listening sessions" are officially dubbed, Choose, Daze, Hum Nights (pun intended, hehe). It will run from 7-9 pm.

we will have a unique and specific theme per tuesday. the other friday, i played mostly new wave reveries and post-punk rarities from aeons ago. tomorrow it'll be new rock, post-punk, and indie stuff released in 2007, mostly from established and up and coming bands. plus, some not-too-obscure anthems from the last few years.

expect to hear cuts from new releases from artists like Interpol, The Decemberists, The Cribs, Spoon, Field Music, Feist, Andrew Bird, The Hold Steady, Sun Kil Moon, Bright Eyes, etc.



free admission, mga prends. do drop by and hang around. i'll say a little something about the songs or bands or artists, too, if you'll just come and chat (and drink) with me. ahehe.








kitakits! first to arrive gets a free beer from me.









---

btw, see you tonight (where else?) for the Love Poetry Night Reading with Delakrus and a bunch of poets including Aldus Santos, Teo Antonio, Noel Del Prado, Angelo Suarez, Gabe Mercado, Dean Alfar, Karl De Mesa, Roxlee, Tengal, Ricky Abad, Kael Co, Mark Angeles, , Easy Fagela, Danton Remoto, Trix Syjuco, Cynthia Alexander, Chito Miranda, Kit Kwe, Andrea Liamzon, Costantino Zicarelli, Fidel Rillo, and Ramil Gulle.

Cover Studies

watchathink?

A Piece of the Storm

                                                                       For Sharon Horvath

From the shadow of domes in the city of domes,
A snowflake, a blizzard of one, weightless, entered your room
And made its way to the arm of the chair where you, looking up
From your book, saw it the moment it landed. That's all
There was to it. No more than a solemn waking
To brevity, to the lifting and falling away of attention, swiftly,
A time between times, a flowerless funeral. No more than that
Except for the feeling that this piece of the storm,
Which turned into nothing before your eyes, would come back,
That someone years hence, sitting as you are now, might say:
"It's time. The air is ready. The sky has an opening."

-- Mark Strand


(for discussion, E-106 classes)

Rearrangements

Syntax

Is the thing you first learn, twisting text,

Scrabbling words: A B.A.

Language and Literature

Student with a sure hand turning

The world quickly over, over

That semester I was inspecting the fallen

Cracked face and all the

While insisting on order on

The page.

Later you are in a cold room

Watching, world-wary sophomore,

Your country’s history dismantling

On TV, a documentary, how it was arranged

Into tricky poetry: Aguinaldo is not the hero

We were made to believe and keep

In our pockets, the precious face on five-peso bills

And they were not

Benevolent, only themselves: an empire

Expanding, but surely noble in trying

To glue back the world together

How they wanted.

At the turn of the last century,

An assembly of twenty houses.

Kafagway was discovered on a mountain

To be ten degrees cooler, igniting

In the heat-hating settlers’ heads, an idea:

Smooth the slopes with systems of streets,

Train trees to grow in grids, carve a city

On the mountain’s plain face, build a lake.

Commemorate the drowned. Name the creation

After the old village word for moss:

Begyiw. Open its arms

To benefactors and later, to summer

Vacationers who would take it, slowly

Apart again, like so many bachelors

Of arts. Later you leave,

Graduate, the room, mountain.

Later you are looking at the structures

Across an office window and the random

Punctuations of trees in between

So that the city is rambling on and on and on and on and on and

I still do not get it. You are ordering

The words. Be still.

Relax. What you are doing is normally starting: sorting your life through

The page. Later you will let yourself out and in

The world. For now, write

History. Make it

Scrambled and twisted like your country's.

Feel free. Only now there is a kid tearing

Open a book way after classes

And dreaming. He might be yours

In the future, which might be good. But this is getting ahead

Of yourself.

--Kash Avena

Syntax

When I build the golden city, I will begin first
by building a zoo. It will house lizards and monkeys
and other hairy creatures. Beside the zoo
will stand a shiny steel building. This will contain
all the city’s politicians. And beside it will rise
a chocolate factory to produce all the candy
sufficient to make the citizens happy all year round.
Of course there will be a park with grass,
where the artists will be allowed to frolic and make love.
Around this city I shall build a wall so high
anybody who will behold it would say it is so high.
But there will be only one gate to this city,
so you leave it the way you went in.
Outside the walls there is nothing. When a citizen dies
he does not necessarily leave the city,
because he can be reborn in another form.
Nothing ever crosses this gate. It is the law.
Now, in the middle of this city is a circular river.
It goes around and around infinitely that you wonder
what gives it force or movement.
But there is nothing really golden in this city
except for a golden phallus
locked away in a tower.
At the center of the circular river
is, of course, a naked woman.
She is fingering herself in a dignified way.
The golden phallus is shining.
She is calling for it.

--Arkaye Kierulf

Syntax

The old sages always know what to say.
find life in what you mean and only then
will you find meaning in your life.
And always their pupils follow some path,

from point A to point X concentrating
on what they have learned. That before
you close your eyes, your arms
must rest on your lap. You must be perched

on something conspicuous like a tree stump
before you meditate and turn to living stone.
After a fierce battle with the usual forces
of darkness, there must be born a quiet,

a quickening of insight while tending
to the injured. And if nothing comes,
Unlearn what you have learned. Look
within to find what is beyond.

But sometimes the teacher survives
and the young one, once full of promise,
dies or surrenders, or just opts
to become some random ordinary baker.

With this, wisdom cascades into
a hundred futile things:

A lonely rock, a bird dipping into water
the early coming of rain, broken
swords and embers drifting,
the sound of a stream when there is nothing

around to listen to it. A tree stump,
on it a stone, a hermit hoping for some rogue
youth to stumble into the wilderness
with a long unspoken order of words

in his mind, the many children unaware
of what they could be afraid to learn,
about beginning and end, about the center.

--Rafael San Diego

All Hallows

Even now this landscape is assembling.
The hills darken. The oxen
Sleep in their blue yoke,
The fields having been
Picked clean, the sheaves
Bound evenly and piled at the roadside
Among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness
Of harvest or pestilence
And the wife leaning out the window
With her hand extended, as in payment,
And the seeds
Distinct, gold, calling
Come here
Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.

Louise Glück

(for discussion, E-106 classes)

Happy Mondays VIII + Wahijuara + Sago

Featured poets for the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights in magnet katipunan this coming Monday are:

1. Gémino H. Abad
Poet and literary critic Dr. Jimmy Abad obtained his B.A. in English from the University of the Philippines in 1964 and his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Chicago in 1970. Since then he has fulfilled a number of functions at .P., particularly as Secretary of the University, Secretary of the Board of Regents, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Director of the U.P. Creative Writing Center, now an institute. He continues to contribute to the growth of the Institute of Creative Writing as an active member of its Board of Advisers. At present, he is Emeritus University Professor at the College of Arts and Letters in U.P. Diliman.
He co-founded the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC).

2. Marne L. Kilates
Sir Marne has published two books of poetry, Children of the Snarl (Aklat Peskador, 1987) and Poems en Route (UST Publishing House, 1998), both of which have won the Manila Critics Circle National Book Awards. He was educated in the province, at the Divine Word College in Legazpi City, and has attended the Silliman and U.P. writers' workshops. His third collection, Mostly in Monsoon Weather, will be published by the University of the Philippines Press.

Apart from writing his own poetry, Sir Marne is also a translator of Tagalog poetry. His most recent translation is that of National Artist Rio Alma's, Sonetos Postumos (UP Press, 2006). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) and is an Associate Fellow of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC). He has also won several Palanca Awards and the 1998 SEA (Southeast Asia) WRITE Award given by the Thai royalty.

3. Glenn Vincent Atanacio
Glenn obtained his AB Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas in 2005. One of the most promising poets of his generation, he has honed his craft on the streets of Manila as much as in the conference halls of workshops and seminars. He has been a writing fellow to the UP, Ateneo and IYAS National Writers Workshops and has received due recognition, including the award Thomasian Poet of the Year 2003-2004. Glenn has served as associate editor and literary editor of UST's The Flame journals and the organization's head literary folio, Dapitan, which was awarded Best Student Literary Folio by the Catholic Mass Media Awards.

4. Enuh Iglesias
is a law graduate, an instructor in the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and a banned show dog trainer. She is interested in events-organizing, blogging, podding, and troubleshooting her ibook. She is one of the prime-movers of BANNED Movies.

5. Andrea Liamzon
Deep in her heart, Andrea desires to be a professional birdwatcher and/or amateur iconoclast. In her spare time, she likes diagramming the confusion in her head. She will be leaving for St. Petersburg this August to continue her studies in Russian Literature.

6. Alexander Barrios Agena, Jr.
Alex is a budding and published poet from the University of the Philippines, Diliman.
His poems have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including Caracoa 2006. He currently works as a technical account executive in Makati. He is a member of the U.P. Quill, the web-based Peaks, Pinoypoets, and Guni-Guni. He was a fellow of the 3rd UST National Writers Workshop.

7. Nash Benitez
is an interior designer, part-time writer, and part-time host. She is interested in architecture, art, design, travel, reading, football, extreme sports. She says she is passionate about life and her country. She believes that to whom much is given, much is expected. She loves the latin phrase, Carpe Diem.

8. Arkaye Kierulf
is a chemistry senior at the Ateneo de Manila University. His works have been published in various literary journals and nationwide magazines, including the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, The Philippines Free Press, the and Ateneo Heights Journal. In 2005, he won the San Francisco-based Meritage Press Poetry Prize.

9. Ramil Digal Gulle
Ramil is a two-time Palanca-winning poet and the author of several books of Poetry, the most recent of which is Textual Relations, published by the UP Press in 2006.

10. Kris Lanot Lacaba
Kris "El Pinoy Matador" Lacaba is a well-published poet, performer, and filmmaker. His works have appeared in various literary magazines. He was a fellow of the U.P. and Dumaguete National Writers Workshops. He recently finished his M.A. degree in Creative Writing form the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He now works for the Manila Bulletin.

11. Kash Avena
is "magnet" incarnate. A senior student of Miriam College, Kash is finishing her degree in Comm Arts and is keen on working in an advertising agency soon, or becoming a full-time poet. She gets enough credit for her passion for poetry and distinct poetic voice. She was the literary editor of Miriam's literary folio, Fragments, last year.

12. Corin Arenas
is a junior Comm Arts student in Miriam College. She is into visual arts, poetry, music, and theater. She is a co-founder of PINAY, a theater group in Miriam.

13. Drey Teran
will host the reading with Joel Toledo.

14. Mikael De Lara Co
Kael graduated with a BS degree in Environmental Science from the Ateneo de Manila, where he is currently pursuing his masters in Panitikang Pilipino-Malikhaing Pagsulat. He was a fellow for poetry in the Ateneo, UST, IYAS, and Dumaguete National Writers Workshop. He is the lead guitarist of the band Los Chupacabras.

15. Angelo V. Suárez
Gelo is an MA Communication student at the University of Santo Tomas, is the author of two books of poetry: The Nymph of MTV and else it was purely girls. He has won prizes from the Carlos Palanca and Maningning Miclat Foundations, and the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle and the first Bridges of Struga International Poetry Prize from UNESCO and the Republic of Macedonia for Nymph. He is currently working in close collaboration with visual artists on his new book, Dissonant Umbrellas: Notes Toward a Gesamtkunstwerk.

16. Lope Cui, Jr.
is the deathbringing, harmonica-toting singer of the art-goth-snore-core band, Tabloid Lite and an up and coming poet and Mall of Asian. He holds an MBA degree from UP Diliman and is a business professor at Miriam College.

17. Lourd Ernest De Veyra
is a multiple Palanca-winning poet and essayist, music critic, musician, and chef to friends. He was a fellow of the U.P. Advanced Writers Workshop in 2006 and the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop. He is the frontman and lyricist of the acclaimed band, Radioactive Sago Project.

18. Joel M. Toledo
will host the reading along with Drey Teran.

19. Israfel Fagela
Easy was a fellow for poetry in the UP and Dumaguete National Writers Workshops. He is a practicing lawyer, and the lead singer, composer, and instigator of the band Los Chupacabras.

20. Rock Drilon
is a much-acclaimed and recognized prime-mover and figure in the realm of the visual arts. He graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He owns the Magnet chain of galleries, cafes, and bookshops.

21. Michael Balili
Mike is a member of the U.P. Quill, winner of the Amelia Lapenia-Bonifacio award for Poetry, and a published poet.

22. Bianca Consunji
works for the 2BeU section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A graduate of U.P. Diliman, she is a former winner of the Ramon Magsaysay awards for the essay.

23. Ken Ishikawa
is the co-editor of the upcoming anthology of new Philippine Poetry with PLAC founder Cirilo Bautista. He is a former fellow of the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop, a published poet, and the proud father of daughter, Yuuki.

24. Adam David
is the random fandom fellow of the recent U.P. Advanced Writers Workshop in Baguio. He experiments and innovates with his fiction and poetry. His works have appeared in the UP Writers Club folio, The Literary Apprentice and the Caracoa 2006.

25. Khavn de la Cruz
is a filmmaker, writer, and musician, and two-time Palanca winner. Since 2002, he has been the festival director of the .MOV International Digital Film Festival. With his independent film company Filmless Films, he has produced ten digital features and more than forty short films, several of which have won prizes in the Philippines, Tokyo, Spain and Italy. He has served as a juror in the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France) and Jeonju International Film Festival (Korea). He has been invited twice to the Berlinale Talent Campus, and has received the Hubert Bals Fund grant thrice. He is the lead singer of the bands, The Brockas and delakrus.

Reading runs from 7 to 930pm. The prog-stomping, nearly experimental, almost famous, and semi-obscure band Shinjuku Lager Club plays in between the reading.

and after, the wasakan continues as Wahijuara and Radioactive Sago Project rock the house!!!

New Dreams For Old: New Wave Friday TONIGHT @ magnet katipunan

7-9pm, NO ENTRANCE (and no friggin' trance, too)

Post-punk anthems, New Romantics ditties, Friday-the-13th Goth, and other '80s must-hear ka-chong-ngan. I'll be assuming my DJ JT self tonight. hehe.









punta kayo, mga tsing tsong tsai!

Talkin' Bout a Revolution

...sounds like a mime. check out Johann Lippowitz' funny interpretations of the songs, Torn and Don't Look Back in Anger over at youtube.

---

and while you're at it, let's go bananas!!!

Happy Mondays VII + Los Chupacabras!!!

Very nice. I Like.

Reading starts at 830pm. Magnet Katipunan.
Featured readers for tonight:

1. Ken Ishikawa
is the co-editor of the upcoming anthology of new Philippine Poetry with Cirilo Bautista. He is a former fellow of the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop and a published poet.

2. Daryll Delgado
is a faculty of the Ateneo English Department and published fictionist and former fellow of the UP Advanced Writers Workshop and the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop.

3. John Torres
is the multi-awarded director of Todo Todo Teros and the Otros Trilogy. He is currently working on his second full-length film.

4. Lourd de Veyra
is a Palanca-winning poet, essayist, playwright and the frontman of Radioactive Sago Project. He is the co-host of Rock Ed Radio which airs in NU 107 every Sundays, 8 to 9 pm.

5. Lope Cui, Jr.
is the deathbringing, harmonica-toting singer of Tabloid Lite and an up and coming poet and Mall of Asian. He holds an MBA from UP Diliman and is a professor at Miriam College.

6. Pancho Villanueva
is a painter, poet, and illustrator. He was fellow for poetry in the most recent Dumaguete National Writers Workshop.

7. JR Moll
is a graduate of the Ateneo, an adopted member of the Thomasian Writers' Guild, and one of the most underrated young poets in the country.

8. Merv Espina
is a poet, filmmaker from the University of Santo Tomas. He is currently working on and curating several film projects.

9. Kristian Abe Dalao
was a fellow for poetry in the recent Dumaguete National Writers Workshop. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Poetry at De la Salle University.

10. Andrew Leavold
is a filmmaker from Brisbane currently finishing his vivid documentary on the endeared '80s action star, Weng Weng.

Also reading and performing are Khavn dela Cruz, Angelo Suarez, Voltaire Alferez, Mike Balili, Adam David, and Enuh Iglesias. Please come and read with us during the open mic segment.

Los Chupacabras howlin' basagan set follows.

Kitakits mamaya! Halina't makiwasak!!!

Los Chupacabras @ RockEd Radio Tonight!

8-9pm, NU 107.

SUS GINOO!

Gentleman pa ba ang mga Pinoy? Mahinhin pa ba ang mga Pinay?

Malakas na yata si Maganda, at tama lang yon. Si Malakas naman, kamusta na?

A light discussion on gender differences. Listen to the poets of Los Chupacabras level it off with Ms. Earth 2006 beauty queens, CATHY UNTALAN and some the other queens of her court. AH HAH! And joining us tonight will be the legendary film-maker -- KIDLAT TAHIMIK. Sayang hindi kita ang bahag sa radyo. And the lovely writer MS. SYLVIA MAYUGA. (kwela 'to, si Ma'am!)

After discussing homelessness, (ANG BIGAT KASI NUUUUNN) magpahinga muna tayo at mag usapang ugali muna. Magaan, malakas, maganda. Whew.

Magtanong kayo ng KAHIT ANO! si Team Chupacabras at si Team Earth ang makakapanayam, kasama si Kidlat sa Team Earth. Dahil mas maganda pa pwet niya kesa sa mga byuti kwin naten.



Note:

Malakas at Maganda
Philippine Folklore

Malakas and Maganda is about the origin of the native Filipinos.

When Bathala (God) was done creating the world, he was bored. He looked down over the earth and sent a bird into the world. The bird was flying around when it heard some sounds and tapping somewhere in the forest.The bird landed and found out that the sound is coming from a huge bamboo. He started pecking on it and pretty soon it split in the middle where a man came out of it. His name was Malakas, which means strong, and he told the bird, "My mate is in the other piece of wood." They got her out and her name was Maganda which means beautiful. The two got on the bird's back and flew away to find some place to live. They went flying around the world, and then finally, the bird saw a land and let the two giants set foot and live on it. When Malakas and Maganda stepped on the land their weight separated the land into islands (Philippines has 7,200 islands). Malakas and Maganda live on and produced millions of children, which came to be the Filipinos.