The Early November

photos from last night's 39th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights. salamat po sa suporta. kitakits ulit sa Nov 17th. :)

***

two of my recent poems ("Enclosures" and "Seeing Things") came out in the November 3 issue of the Philippine Graphic Magazine. thanks to Ma'am Marra Lanot for the heads up. :)

Happy Mondays XXXIX

below are the featured readers for the 39th installment of the bi-weekly Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe, Katipunan tomorrow, November 3:

1. Pocholo Goitia
2. Jonar Sabilano
3. Doodz Generoso
4. Keith Cortez
5. Carlomar Daoana
6. Rafael San Diego
7. Angelo Suarez
8. Lawrence Bernabe
9. Khavn De La Cruz
10. JC Casimiro
11. Sasha Martinez
12. Marie La Viña
13. Pancho Villanueva

14. Camille Banzon

readings start promptly at 730, followed by an open mic from 930-10pm.

*for those interested in reading during the open mic, we will leave a sign-up sheet with Rogel, the bar tender of mag:net cafe. please feel free to sign up and read your work. :)

Performing @ 10pm onwards are:

1. Roberto Nicholas

2. Boyet Vasquez

3. Patience, Dear Juggernaut

FREE ADMISSION the whole evening. kitakits po tayo! :)

Mostly in Monsoon Weather Book Launch

from sir marne kilates:

"After movies, poetry makes a good antidote to the recession blues.
When economies are in recession more people go to the movies, according to economists and movie producers. Some people read poetry, poets and publishers would say. If you belong to the second kind, Mostly in Monsoon Weather, the third collection of award-winning poet Marne L. Kilates, may just be the book for you for just slightly above the price of a movie..."

Certain Elders

Speak in monotones,
love to mumble, gather
around the mahjong tables
all night, their gibberish
wafting past the thin curtains.

They keep to their own counsel,
check that principles are intact
and when, having had too much
to drink, or having lost a good sum
of money, they start to drone,

buzzing about politics and business,
how when they were younger,
they were so beautiful, so more
musical, more iambic. Like the beginning
of My Way—as if they have lost

their interest (and now, the end
is near…) but still they assemble back
to the gamble, grand shuffling of ivory,
wrecks of old postures recovered now
in the palming of an upturned flower.

Characters and numbers occupy their
newly-built piles. Continuous dull trochees
of order, scatter, order, scatter. Counting
later their collective losses, they fill in
the dead air with more Sinatra syllables

and ringing Blue Bayou choruses.

O.M.G.!

semi-final cover design for my next book. due (hopefully) to come out this November. from my beloved Alma Mater's printing press :)

***

announcement from sir Vim Nadera:

Exactly a month ago, we got invited to the Camp Rock Drilon – better known as Mag:Net Gallery.

We were in his most beloved branch, along Katipunan, and all the boyz in the hood seemed to be in a brotherhood mood, like more the Bonifacios than the Jonases, so we got into the next best thing to a blood compact, after the proposed toast by the Rock, we agreed to host – Every Last Monday Of The Month!

E.L.M.O.T.M. is too forgettable as the name “Duane Johnson,” as against “The Rock,” so we settled, in less than an hour of red wine and bamboo shoot in coconut milk, for O.M.G.

Or Open Mic Gig!

Yes, everyone can jam but for its opening on October 27, from 7 to 9 p.m., so we invited special guests, headed by our National Artist Virgilio and University Professor Emeritus Gemino Abad.

They will be joined in by Joes, Nicks and Kevins of Philippine Literature --
Jose Marte Abueg, Yanna Acosta and her band, Tata Funilas, Marne Kilates, Ed Maranan, Nick Pichay, Danton Remoto, Joseph Saguid, Angelo Suarez, Joel Toledo, Lourd de Veyra, Krip Yuson, and the Neo Angono Artists Collective that will hold again its 5th Public Art Festival on 20-22 November!

And next month, too, in celebration of Jose Corazon de Jesus' birthday, Teo Antonio and Mike Coroza will relive the Huseng Batute heyday with Ony Carcamo, Alitaptap Storytellers Philippines, U.P. Speca, and the Tribu Rappers on November 24.

For more details, please email mb.malay@gmail.com.

***

btw, a newer poem of mine titled "Sun in Empty Room" is up in the October issue of sir Marne Kilates' Poet's Picturebook. :)

The Ongoing WOW! That Is Happening Right NOW!

City That Does Not Sleep

In the sky there is nobody asleep. Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is asleep.
The creatures of the moon sniff and prowl about their cabins.
The living iguanas will come and bite the men who do not dream,
and the man who rushes out with his spirit broken will meet on the
street corner
the unbelievable alligator quiet beneath the tender protest of the
stars.

Nobody is asleep on earth. Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is asleep.
In a graveyard far off there is a corpse
who has moaned for three years
because of a dry countryside on his knee;
and that boy they buried this morning cried so much
it was necessary to call out the dogs to keep him quiet.

Life is not a dream. Careful! Careful! Careful!
We fall down the stairs in order to eat the moist earth
or we climb to the knife edge of the snow with the voices of the dead
dahlias.
But forgetfulness does not exist, dreams do not exist;
flesh exists. Kisses tie our mouths
in a thicket of new veins,
and whoever his pain pains will feel that pain forever
and whoever is afraid of death will carry it on his shoulders.

One day
the horses will live in the saloons
and the enraged ants
will throw themselves on the yellow skies that take refuge in the
eyes of cows.

Another day
we will watch the preserved butterflies rise from the dead
and still walking through a country of gray sponges and silent boats
we will watch our ring flash and roses spring from our tongue.
Careful! Be careful! Be careful!
The men who still have marks of the claw and the thunderstorm,
and that boy who cries because he has never heard of the invention
of the bridge,
or that dead man who possesses now only his head and a shoe,
we must carry them to the wall where the iguanas and the snakes
are waiting,
where the bear's teeth are waiting,
where the mummified hand of the boy is waiting,
and the hair of the camel stands on end with a violent blue shudder.

Nobody is sleeping in the sky. Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is sleeping.
If someone does close his eyes,
a whip, boys, a whip!
Let there be a landscape of open eyes
and bitter wounds on fire.
No one is sleeping in this world. No one, no one.
I have said it before.

No one is sleeping.
But if someone grows too much moss on his temples during the
night,
open the stage trapdoors so he can see in the moonlight
the lying goblets, and the poison, and the skull of the theaters.

by Federico García Lorca

Translated by Robert Bly

"On this bridge, Lorca warns: life is not a dream.Beware, and beware, and beware!And so many think because then happened, now isn’t.But didn’t I mention, the on-going WOW is happening, right now!We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance, where even our inabilities are having a roast! We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel starring clowns!This entire thing we’re involved with called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be.Life is a matter of a miracle, that is collected over time by moments flabbergasted to be in each others’ presence.The world is an exam, to see if we can rise into the direct experiences. Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it, matter is here as a test for our curiosity, doubt is here as an exam for our vitality.Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write a hundred stories. Giacometti was once run down by a car, and he recalled falling in to a lucid faint, a sudden exhilaration, as he realized at last, something was happening to him.An assumption develops that you can not understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely, which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say, that life understood is life lived. But the paradoxes bug me. And I can learn to love, and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of Self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion.Before you drift off, don’t forget, which is to say remember. Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting. Lorca, in that same poem, said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream. And, as one realizes, that one is a dream-figure in another person’s dream: that is self-awareness!"

Timothy Levitch, monologue from Waking Life

Happy Mondays XXXVIII + Launch of Mads Bajarias' Book of Poems

featured readers for the 38th installment of the bi-weekly Happy Mondays Poetry Nights and the launch of Mads bajarias' first book of poems titled Pepsi Tastes Funny When It's Christmas Eve & You're Alone Eating Canned Tuna @ mag:net cafe Katipunan tomorrow, October 20, are as follows:

1. Lourd De Veyra

2. Adam David

3. Angelo Suarez

4. Conchitina Cruz

5. Voltaire Veneracion

6. Jay Bautista

*those above are reading poems from Mads' book

7. Camille Banzon

8. Arkaye Kierulf

9. Mia Tijam

10. Allan Pastrana

11. Marie La Viña

12. Emong De Borja

the launch of Mads' book will run from 730 to 830pm, followed the other featured 6 readers above for the regular Happy Mondays readings, which will commence at 830pm.

*the following books will be raffled off to lucky readers, courtesy of avalon.ph:

1. Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski (HB)

2. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (TPB)

3. The Natural by Bernard Malamud (TPB)

*for those interested in reading during the open mic at 930pm, we will have a sign up sheet left with Rogel, the bar tender of mag:net cafe. please feel free to sign up and read your work. :)

performers/bands playing 10pm onwards are as follows:

1. Boyet Vasquez

2. Johnoy Danao

3. Armando's XP

4. Broken Sauce

5. Biscochong Halimaw

FREE ADMISSION the whole evening. kitakits po tayo! :)

YEARS LATER: Imagining October

the second installment of Years Later, the monthly new wave music cover retrospective gig @ mag:net cafe Katipunan this coming Saturday, Oct 18 will feature the following bands:

1. The Late Isabel
2. XLuthor
3. Dream Kitchen
4. Angel Radio
5. Sleepyheads

the shadow cabinet opens at 7pm with spinning of '80s anthems, oddities, and rarities by MC Mike and DJ Rayg of 33 1/3 . everyone's welcome to show-off their new wave dancing skillz!

bands start performing at 830pm. gate: P100

The Years Later Sessions take place every second Saturday of the month.

"we'll be as we are
when all the fools
who doubt us fade away"
--The Icicle Works



***
and, in keeping with the post-punk spirit, check out this Über-hilarious version of A-Ha's classic ditty, "Take on Me" on YouTube.

Happy Mondays XXXVII

below are the list of readers for the 37th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe, Katipunan for tomorrow, October 6:

1. Karen Capco
2. Pancho Alvarez
3. Joseph Saguid
4. JL Poquiz
5. Sasha Martinez
6. Waps San Diego
7. Adam David
8. RJ Baliza
9. Pancho Villanueva
10. Marie La Viña

*reading starts promptly at 7:30pm followed by the open mic. for those interested in reading, we will leave a sign up sheet with Rogel, the bar tender of mag:net cafe. please feel free to sign up and read your work. :)

performers/bands at 9:30pm:

Johnoy Danao
Valet Parking

Agnes Ingarra
Pinup Girls

FREE ADMISSION the whole night. kitakits!

Happy Mondays XXXVI

below are the featured readers for the 36th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe Katipunan this coming September 29th:

1. Javie Bengzon

2. Mikael Co

3. JC Casimiro

4. Ramil Digal Gulle

5. Keith Cortez

6. Brandz Dollante

7. Camille Banzon

8. Angelo Suarez

9. Hussein Macarambon

10. Iñigo De Paula

11. Allan Hernandez

12. Totel De Jesus

reading starts promptly at 7:30pm followed by the open mic. for those interested in reading, we will leave a sign up sheet with Rogel, the bar tender of mag:net cafe. please feel free to sign up and read your work. :)

*poetry books will be raffled off, courtesy of avalon.ph

performers/bands at 9:30pm:

Johnoy Danao

Los Chupacabras

Enero

FREE ADMISSION the whole night. kitakits!

Velocities

No wonder the rain rarely falls
in parallels, always nudging walls
toward noticeable leanings. The atmosphere
teeming with invisible, moving things:
sentient wind ruffling the leaves, sentence
ending for lack of breath. Before

it begins again. Light breaking
past their allotted brilliances,
dismantled dark, peeling barks
of trees. Maybe you can hear it
as well-- see it gliding in the firmament,
stirring under the stone’s bottom

the swelling voice that sends wisps of hair
flying across a woman’s face, bristling
in the petals of surrounding wildflower,
firm and unconvinced stems holding in
the pollen, resisting bees. The woman sits
in the shade, thinking of how she gained

this strange patience, how come
she can now hear foolish comforts,
distant chimes, sway of far away song.
She has a story to tell, but how her words
would quiver in the telling. And she is older.
She remembers when she was still

rushing toward rain, her young body stumbling
over to the next, fluid, and, she had thought,
moving forever. Can you hear me? There is
aching everywhere, shadows hovering over
our shoulders. Small whispers. And I am
leaning over, equally soaked, hushed as well.

For Mikael

***

Christmas

Caught by the evening darting
into darkness, pursuing stars and fire-
flies. How flimsy, how brittle the years.
And how they fly by— breaking

so many hearts, wrinkling too many
hands. And mellowed now the colors,
lingering and yellow. This much
I know, dull glow on sunlit faces

and clever placings of days, those
gilded edges of Poinsettias, vivid
red and solid green, children waiting
in grand seasons, for Christmas.

For Sasha

Chiaroscuro Book Launch Redux and other Nux(s)

above's the teaser poster for the upcoming full-length fantasy play titled Amihan, which I co-wrote with the award-winning playwright Liza Magtoto. It's based on my 1997 novelette for young adults, Pedro and the Lifeforce.

Directed by another award-winner, Tuxqs Rutaquio. Rehearsals are ongoing. It will be staged this coming November at the world-class Marian Auditorium of Miriam College. Please come and watch. This one's for and about our rich Philippine tradition of fantasy and folklore. Tikbalang, Kapre, and Mananang-galore! ahehe.

***

The formal UST Publishing House launch of Chiaroscuro and other new titles from the UST Press will be held tomorrow, September 15 at 3pm as part of the ongoing 29th Manila International Book Fair. The launch and signing will be in Rooms 5 and 6 of the SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. kitakits!

***

btw, my poem "Piso" came out in this week's edition of the Philippines Free Press, which, btw, has shrunk a little in size--but not in value, of course; methinks it looks much better, actually. I'm talking about the magazine here, syemps. 'Yung Piso kasi matagal nang lumiit at na-devalue. hehe.

***

maraming salamat sa mga banda, kaibigan, at bisita na pumunta at sumuporta sa pilot run ng YEARS LATER: A New Wave Music Retrospective kagabi sa mag:net cafe, katipunan. kita-kita ulit tayo sa October 11 for the next installment of what we hope would be a monthly homage to the anthems of the '8Os. more bands, more post-punk, more to lose--este--gain! The people under X-FACTORY Projects are hoping to bring in some members of Identity Crisis.

btw, other bands interested in doing all-cover sets in tribute to New Wave, just let me know. tentative title for next moth's gig is YEARS LATER: Imagining October.

***

kudos to all my co-panelists and the fellows in the 14th Ateneo Heights Worskhop being held at the Casa Ibiza in Antipolo. The sessions began last friday and end today. mabuhay kayong lahat! let's "make... pitik" (sabi nga ng isang CNF manuscript) panitikan!

***

the book launch of the new workshop journal, Writing to the Future: Poetika at Pulitika ng Malikhaing Pagsulat edited by Rolando B. Tolentino and published by the NCCA and the U.P. LIKHAAN Institute of Creative Writing will be on Sept 19, 2008, 3:30 p.m. after the UP ICW Centennial Panayam of National Artist Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera at 2:30 p.m. at Claro M. Recto Hall Faculty Center, UP Diliman, Q.C. The book is a compilation/ anthology of poetics presented by 34 former fellows and speakers from the 2004 U.P. Writers' Kumustahan and the 2006-2008 U.P. Advanced Summer Writers Workshop in Baguio. Punta kayo at bili ng libro! :)

***

Boomerang

Threatening the throw,
the betrayal of weight
and the resistances
of wind, tail, aim.
Fingers unfolding
and darting into space.
Any moment now
you will let it go—
flick of wrist, the stroke,
and sullying forth now

the release. But this is not
the point. At the tip of all light
lies the consumed thing.
An eye for an eye, swish
and arc. Slingshot arched
toward bird or desired slope,
enough hope of hitting
the mark, voices that keep
coming back given uneven
mountains, right heights.

Such wide berths we give
to space, the many presences
that it keeps. We whistle
for wind, calling out
to the missing, and in the dark,
that elaborate maneuver
of pointing to ignited things,
great capture or failure.
Perfect human gestures forever
motioning risk, raise, return.

Back to the Old House

below's the Factory Records alternative, homage version poster for the upcoming first project of X-Factory. Please come and support this back-to-the-edge gig. Spinning starts at 7pm followed by performances of the five bands. An all-out cover night of anthems and rarities from the shadow cabinets of the '80s.

and below's the main poster. both designed by Pancho Villanueva. kitakits, mga tsong!

Happy Mondays XXXV: The Palanca Awards Night Edition

featured readers for the 35th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights tonight, September 1st at mag:net cafe katipunan as follows:

1. Sasha Martinez
2. Pancho Villanueva
3. Pancho Alvarez
4. Glenn Atanacio
5. Israfel Fagela
6. Iñigo De Paula

7. Kash Avena
8. Jonar Sabilano
9. Carljoe Javier
10. Lawrence Bernabe
11. Joey Nacino
12. Joselito De Jesus
13. Pocholo Goitia

14. Claude Despabiladeras
15. Allan Hernandez

*PLUS surprise guests and readers coming from the Palanca Awarding.

please do bring your works if you want to read during the open mic. thanks!

followed by the music of:

Angel Radio
Johnoy Danao
Whappak
The Love Team (featuring Wincy Ong)
Enero

7PM Onwards. FREE ADMISSION.

kitakits!

***
btw, congrats to bayaw Lourd De Veyra, Amado Bajarias, and Larry Ypil for winning in last wednesday's Philippines Free Press Centennial Literary Awards! at sa iba pang mga bayaw at hipag na hahabol sa Happy Mondays dahil nasa Palanca Awarding sila! wasak! dumarami na ipapatumbang baka!

Oppositions

The persistent
pairings of nature:

butterfly and moth,
all grace and flutter,

flame and death. Always
terror crosses over into

beauty, the tender
undersides of caterpillars.

Then wings. Tremor of color.
Great shakings of flowers

and from somewhere,
waft of burning candles.

Tell me, where do
they die, effervescent

and funereal,
where do they live?

August and Everything After

below are some photos from the 33rd installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights last August 8. huge thanks to all for the continuous support of the readings. hulaan n'yo kung sinu-sino sa mga 'to nanalo ng unang (o na naman ng) Palanca o Free Press o may padating na nobela, etc. this year. :)

______________________________________________________

finally, the debut collection from the criminally underrated Amado Bajarias is coming out! sometime later this month or early september. cover design pa lang wasak na wasak na!

"Amado Bajarias’ debut collection of poems heralds a Philippine poetics that chugs along with the rumble of the city’s decrepit trains, on the way to the gentle twittering of countryside aviaries. Inasmuch as the collection’s title Pepsi Tastes Funny When It’s Christmas Eve and You’re Alone Eating Canned Tuna is already a mouthful, the poems here likewise thrive on a kilometric and crafty gathering of modern wit, irony, and understatement. Within these pages are haiku-ish commentaries, Gonzo reprimands, and lots of longing for missed pets.

In many places reminiscent of both Bukowski and Simic, Bajarias’ often surreal and sardonic lyric is wide awake and dilated, forever poking and plucking at both the living and the inanimate (the departed?). The poet takes his sweet time digging for leftover bones and loves in rambunctious urban landscapes. And, whenever he gets tired of the act, there is always the great soda in his system insisting that the apartment door is always open, and there are miles and miles to go before he sleeps."

-- JMT

***

the first review and a little interview re: chiaroscuro is out, over at the abs-cbn news website. muchas gracias to Ramil Gulle for the kind words.

also, the poem "Sun in Empty Room" came out in this week's issue of the Philippines Free Press. Many thanks to Sarge Lacuesta. btw, the awarding of the 2007 Free Press Literary Awards will be on August 27.

Happy Mondays XXXIV: This is Not A Book Launch by KHAVN

the 34th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights on August 18, 2008 at mag:net cafe katipunan features the book launch of two books by Khavn De La Cruz -- Ultraviolins (Fiction, UP Press) and Lines On The Sole (Poetry, UST Press), with readings and performances by:

1 JOSE F. LACABA

2 BENILDA S. SANTOS

3 V. E. CARMELO D. NADERA, JR.

4 JUN CRUZ REYES

5 JOSE Y. DALISAY, JR.

6 CHARLSON ONG

7 BIENVENIDO LUMBERA

8 CONCHITINA CRUZ

9 ISRAFEL FAGELA

10 ALLAN PASTRANA

11 MARNE L. KILATES

12 L. LACAMBRA YPIL

13 DARYLL JANE DELGADO

14 NOEL DEL PRADO

15 KARL R. DE MESA

16 CARLJOE JAVIER

17 FRANCEZCA KWE

18 SARGE LACUESTA

19 LOURD DE VEYRA

20 ONY CARCAMO

21 MIKE COROZA

22 TEO ANTONIO

23 ARMI MILLARE

Cocktails: 6:30-7:30pm

Readings/Performances: 7:30-10pm

Hosted by ANGELO SUAREZ

followed by the music of:

Johnoy Danao

Toi

Black Monkey Idol

Taggu Ndios

Weedisneys

Jesus Mafia

kitakits!

The World And Other Expletives

"Ang Iba't Ibang Ngalan Ng Hangin".

Mikael De Lara Co.

Unang Gantimpala.

Tula.

2008 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards.

Sa'n ka pa.

Back to back.

1st Prize English 2007.

Ngayon sa Pilipino naman.

Bilingual.

Bi-medal.

Bayaw!

Wasak.

Tumbahan na naman ng ito ng Baka.

Mookie Katigbak. 2nd Prize Poetry in English.

Marie La Viña. 3rd Prize. Poetry in English.

Congrats sa inyong tatlo!

Happy Mondays XXXIII + Chiaroscuro Book Launch

The upcoming 33rd installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights on August 4, 2008 @ mag:net cafe Katipunan will kick off earlier than usual, with cocktails at 6:30 pm for the launch of Chiaroscuro, followed by readings at 8pm by the featured poets and fictionists listed below:

1. Marjorie Evasco
2. Jimmy Abad
3. Butch Dalisay
4. J. Neil Garcia
5. Marne Kilates
6. Krip Yuson

7. Rebecca Añonuevo
8. Mookie Katigbak
9. Sarge Lacuesta
10. Ramil Gulle
11. Larry Ypil
12. Mikael Co
13. Angelo Suarez
14. Arkaye Kierulf
15. Conchitina Cruz
16. Daryll Delgado
17. Pancho Villanueva
18. Waps San Diego
19. Marie La Viña
20. Joseph Saguid

21. Kash Avena
22. Sasha Martinez

23. Khavn De la Cruz
24. Kris Lacaba

Hosted by Lourd De Veyra

Readings up to 10pm, followed by music from
Los Chupacabras and Dead Pop Stars

FREE ADMISSION the whole evening. Punta naman kayo, pls.

At sana bili na rin kayo ng libro. :)

Stone-turning

Cover study for The Long Lost Startle (Anvil, 2009) by Pancho Villanueva

Sun in Empty Room

No need for furniture and moving figures
and heartbroken women. For now,
the light is enough to point out the many exits
existing in the shade, pointing to them as if
they have always been there and there

leaning sharply into the corner, found by the after
noon emerging from the floor, more and more
doors opening in the walls so that nothing
is remaining when you get there. And never
mind the window, which is only for entry.

After Edward Hopper

Happy Mondays XXXII

featured readers for the 32nd installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe Katips are as follows:

1. Emong De Borja
2. Kris Lacaba
3. Waps San Diego
4. Karen Capco
5. Enuh Iglesias
6. Marie La Viña
7. Adam David
8. Pocholo Goitia
9. Mia Tijam
10. Drey Teran
11. Jonar Sabilano
12. Keith Cortez
13. Chingbee Cruz
14. Khavn Dela Cruz

15. Angelo Suarez
16. Ramil Gulle

plus other guest poets and regulars. please bring your stuff for the open mic.

reading starts at 730pm sharp. please come earlier as the first 30 guests will get a chance to take home genuine Moleskine notebooks and journals courtesy of Jasper Ong from avalon.ph.

rakenrol begins at 10pm with the music of (dyandyararannn!)

Carnival

Taggu Ndios

Chongkeys

Dissent

FREE ADMISSION the whole evening. This Happy Mondays installment with be hosted by Gabe Mercado.

Taralet's!

Signs, Signs Everywhere

i rarely open forwarded emails, but this one was sure worth it. hehe.

***

Posted outside a house in Jaro, Iloilo:
HOUSE FOR RENT, FULLY FURNACED

On a glass window of a photography shop in Cabanatuan:
WE SHOOT YOU WHILE YOU WAIT

Posted at a construction site in Mandaluyong: BAWAL OMEHI DITO, ANG MAHULI, BOG-BOG!

On the fence of a makeshift parking lot in Pasay: PARKING PEE: P10

Printed on a streamer in front of a gym in Lucena City: We Almost Have Complete Set of Gym Equipments

In a supermarket in Baguio: FRESH FROZEN CHICKEN SOLD HERE

Outside a flower shop along Avenida Rizal: WE SELL ARTIFICIAL FRESH FLOWERS

In a bowling center in Congressional: PARKING FOR COSTUMERS ONLY

In a restaurant in Cebu: WE HAB SOP-DRINK IN CAN AN IN BATOL

On the glass wall of an eatery in Panay Avenue near National Bookstore: WANTED: WAITER, CASHIER, WASHIER

In San Andres, Manila: NO URINATION ON THE OVER WALLS

In a classified ads section:WANTED SALESLADY, 20-25 YEARS OLD, PROBABLY SINGLE

Outside a sari-sari store in front of Green Valley in Baguio:NO CRIDET

In a building in Cubao:NONE ID, NOTHING ENTRY

Outside a videoke bar in Pampanga: WE MAKE MODERN ANTIQUE FURNITURE

In Tiaong, Quezon: ROAN'S CONTRACTION SUPPLIES

Outside a shoe store in Pangasinan: WE SELL IMPORTED ROBBER SHOES

In a restaurant in Baguio: WANTED: BOY WAITRESS

Happy Mondays XXXI

Featured readers for the 31st installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe Katipunan tomorrow, July 7, are as follows:

1. Conchitina Cruz

2. Joseph Saguid

3. Marie La Viña

4. Angelo Suarez

5. Wincy Ong

6. Rafael San Diego

7. Enuh Iglesias

8. Keith Cortez

9. Denise Sajun

10. Adam David

11. Lawrence Bernabe

12. Lourd De Veyra
13. Kim Andrews

Plus other regular and guest readers. This installment will be hosted by Mikael Co.

WAIT THERE"S MORE!

Los Chupacabras!

Biscochong Halimaw!

Weedisneys!

ADMISSION IS FREE. Reading starts 7:31 pm, music at 10:37 pm.

Look! The clock is ticking! Kitakits! Makiwasak!

Books, Book

am selling the following titles. VG condtion, mostly paperback editions (not pocketbook size). pick-up in anytime between tomorrow, July 3, 6pm onwards in front of pizza hut Katipunan to July 7 at the Happy mondays poetry reading. buyers should indicate their interest via the comment box below. first to comment gets the respective title. thanks.

1. Vita Nova / Poems by Louise Gluck -- P300

2. The Best of the Best American Poetry (Edited by Harold Bloom) -- P400

3. The Martian Chronicles / Ray Bradbury (HB, new) -- P450

4. Something Wicked This Way Comes / Ray Bradbury (HB, new) -- P450

5. The Talking Horse and The Sad Girl and The Village Under the Sea / Poems by Mark Haddon -- P300

6. Eros, Thanatos, Cubao / Mga Piling Katha ni Tony Perez -- P150

7. Babylon In A Jar / Poems by Andrew Hudgins -- P150

8. The Arts of the Possible / Essays by Adrienne Rich -- P300

9. Hand to Mouth / Essays by Paul Auster -- P450

10. In Quest / Poems by Chou En-Lai -- P200

11. Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin -- P200

12. Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times (Essays) - P250

13. To Criticize the Critic and Other Writings / T.S. Eliot -- P250

14. Read 'Em and Weep: A Bedside Poker Companion (Literary Essays) -- P200

15. Ashes to Ashes / Richard Kluger (Pulitzer Prize) -- P200

***

btw, and finally, the launch of Chiaroscuro, my first book of poetry (UST Press) has a definite date. it will be on August 4, Monday, 7pm at mag:net cafe, Katipunan. more details to follow. sana bumili naman kayo. :)

Dark Backward

little announcement: the happy mondays poetry nights installment that was supposedly scheduled for tonight has been moved to July 7, so as to maintain that the readings are held on the 1st and third mondays of the month.

***

here's a song by Los Chupacabras. link to the video here.


Locked inside my room
I am just a ghost of myself
There’s so much to do
Somewhere else

Yellow suburban house
In this warm Manila town
I’d like to see it all
Tumble down

I don’t want to go out
I don’t want to go dark backward
I don’t want to go out
I don’t want to go,
I don’t want to go out

Take me somewhere else
Take me to a war-torn hell
Nothing, like something,
Happens everywhere

I don’t want to go out
I don’t want to go dark backward
I don’t want to go out
I don’t want to go,
I don’t want to go out

Don’t matter where we are we’re never there
Let’s close our eyes and watch the world die
Tinfoil animals, hanging over us,
Thrown matches burning up like shooting stars

Like shooting stars
Like shooting stars
Like shooting stars

-Easy Fagela

Juan Luna's Revolver

Forthcoming January 2009 from University of Notre Dame Press :

Juan Luna’s Revolver
by Luisa A. Igloria

The poems in Juan Luna’s Revolver trace journeys made by Filipinos in the global diaspora that began since the encounter with European and American colonial power. Luisa A. Igloria alludes to historical figures such as the Filipino painter Juan Luna and the novelist and national hero José Rizal, as well as the eleven hundred indigenous Filipinos brought to serve as live exhibits in the 1904 Missouri World’s Fair. The image of the revolver fired by Juan Luna reverberates throughout the collection, raising to high relief how separation and exile have shaped concepts of identity, nationality, and possibility.
Suffused with gorgeous imagery and nuanced emotion, Igloria’s poetry achieves an intimacy fostered by gem-like phrases set within a politically- charged context speaking both to the personal and the collective.
Luisa A. Igloria is an associate professor in the MFA creative writing program at Old Dominion University. The winner of numerous national and international creative writing awards, she is the author of nine books.


2009 Winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry
ISBN 978-0-268-03178-7
$18.00 paperback
104 pages

---

Advance Praise . . .

"In Juan Luna’s Revolver, Luisa Igloria establishes herself as a singular and revelatory voice in American poetry. Here, she explores the dichotomy of Filipino: interwoven yet hermetically singular, acquisitive yet inventive, docile yet amok. Her engrossing poems hide, behind their gorgeous scrims, a bristling wall of spears." —Sabina Murray, author of Forgery, A Carnivore’s Inquiry, and The Caprices

"When I read a Luisa Igloria poem, a bright enchanted light falls over my being. Juan Luna’s Revolver is Igloria’s best work to date. These poems never let us forget they are wrought from an immigrant’s love for family, country, and the history of the reinvented self." —Virgil Suarez, author of 90 Miles

" ‘What a world to have lived in, to have arrived in,’ Luisa Igloria writes early on in this brilliant collection that explores colonization and cultural displacement, and how the artist must live in the aftermath of both. Even when she writes about places many miles away, Igloria constructs a luminous portrait of what is utterly human and ultimately familiar. These poems reveal a poet devoted to the truth of her craft." —Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of Outlandish Blues and Red Clay Suite

"In sure and compelling measures, with richly textured turns, and attending to the mystery of matter, Luisa Igloria’s poems offer a powerfully tangible world, and a world within, and a world beyond." —Scott Cairns, author of Compass of Affection: Poems New and Selected

---
Order Form Prepaid orders only.

Please send me _____ copy/copies of Juan Luna’s Revolver by Luisa A. Igloria (978-0-268-03178-7) in paperback at $18.00 each plus $5.00 p&h for one book and $1 for each additional. Orders outside the U.S., please add $8.50 for each book ordered (shipped via Air Mail). Canadian residents add 5% GST; Illinois residents add 9% sales tax; Indiana residents add 7% sales tax:
Mail order to:
University of Notre Dame PresS
Chicago Distribution Center
11030 S. Langley Avenue, Chicago, IL 60628
Tel: 800-621-2736 • Fax: 800-621-8476
____ Payment by personal check or money order enclosed. (U.S. currency only)
Charge to my: ___ VISA ___ MasterCard ___ American Express ___ Discover
Exp. date:
Telephone #:
Account #:
Name:
Ship to:
Or order on the web at: http://www.undpress.nd.edu/
University ofNotre Dame Press • 310 Flanner Hall • Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

Happy Mondays XXX

Please come join us for the 30th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe Katipunan this June 16, Monday. FREE ADMISSION 7:30pm till midnight.

Featured readers for the night are:

1. Lourd De Veyra
2. Eric Melendez
3. Adam David
4. Mikael Co
5. Ronald Benusa
6. Kash Avena
7. Marie La Viña
8. Enuh Iglesias
9. Hussein Macarambon
10. Pocholo Goitia

plus other regular and guest readers. to celebrate this 30th reading, there will be special solo acoustic numbers by Wincy Ong of Narda, Johnoy Danao of Bridge, and Waps San Diego of The Bayaw Collective.

PLUS rakenrol performances by our main bands for the evening:

1. Los Chupacabras
2. Taggu Ndios
3. Weedisneys
4. Dissent

Moleskine notebooks will be raffled off courtesy of Jasper Ong of http://www.avalon.ph/.

Kitakits!

Poetrip

Here's Waps San Diego reading his new poem Galileo.

Galileo
Rafael C. San Diego

Because the wood is old and the varnish older
because we sleep under shafts of night
the full moon looks like a child’s finger
pointing at what it cannot trace and the songs

that blink out of the land rise to meet it
everywhere they are doomed to miss
each other like a word spoken to an ocean

like sin and a bird like a comet streaming
across the void and the blanket of dust
that burns but does not vanish like the memory

of a perfect rainbow in the sky when one
is out walking in despair and quickly smiles
after the rain but does not look for it again
like a child’s hand one day touching the fabric

of her mother’s last dress and reason
and logic trying to find its place in a masterpiece

made one day by a hungry man his feet
as ice his heart warm with understanding
knowing that his hand moves unwilled

that his eyes move across the canvass across
the notes with speed that does not come from
any sort of light any sort of pang any sort
of muse because the mind is made of meat

because the old are full of dreams because
the young are not so bright because the moon
is looking for us because it will not come back

until next month because that is how it all
began because the night is full of promises
and windows are bereft of color and the eye

can only dream of piercing the atmosphere
without technology honed through eons
of dreaming eons of telling everybody that
there is something out there something

that resembles the moon that resembles a song
resembles the world only they burn but do not
come closer because there are some things
that are not meant to touch like a finger and a star
like an eye and a soul like Galileo and the answers
he so yearned for like an empty chair waiting
for a god to finally sit down on it and take it far away.

Happy Mondays XXIX

Featured readers for the 29th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe, Katipunan tomorrow, June 2, are as follows:

1. Pocholo Goitia
2. Ken Ishikawa
3. Marie La Viña
4. Angelo Suarez
5. Easy Fagela
6. Glenn Atanacio
7. Gabe Mercado
8. Daryll Delgado
9. Adam David
10. Joseph Saguid
11. Khavn Dela Cruz
12. Eric Melendez
13. John Torres
14. Lourd De Veyra
15. Waps San Diego
16. Pancho Villanueva

plus other regular and guest readers. please come and bring your own poems for the open mic.

FREE ADMISSION the whole night. Reading starts at 730 pm. bands performing during and after the reading include
Carnivale
Shotgun Lola
Chongkeys
Khavn and Friends
Los Chupacabras

kitakits!