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

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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:
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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!

Wednesdays I'm-N-Love

mam'ya na 'to. mga prends. the monthly poetry (and poetics kuno) readings at Green Papaya Cafe next to St. Vincent School along Maginhawa St., Teachers Vilage. According to host Drey Teran, FREE BEER starts at 8pm. kitakits!

Happy Mondays XXVIII

and 28 weeks later...

featured readers for the 28th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights TONIGHT @ mag:net cafe katipunan as follows:

1. Allan Pastrana
2. Kris Lacaba
3. Douglas Candano
4. Naya Valdellon
5. Adam David
6. Marie La Viña
7. Angelo Suarez
8. Khavn Dela Cruz
9. Mikael Co
10.Lourd De Veyra
11. Daryll Delgado
12. Jonar Sabilano

plus other guests and regular readers.

Los Chupacabras will play a couple of songs in between the readings.

free admission. reading starts at 7pm and runs up to 10. please bring your poems for the open mic.

despedida na rin para kay naya, na babalik na sa canada. at welkam bak reading naman para kay doug, na kababalik lang.

kitakits, mga prends.

***

a bit of good news. anvil is publishing my newer poetry collection this coming september, just in time for the bookfair. wasak!

Seeing Things

An eye darting into the landscape
is a stab at attentiveness. It is mid-September,
the branches swollen and wind-ridden.
There is a street lamp igniting the streaks
of rainfall and the tender collision of water
and leaf. In this weather, everything is possible.

You press a palm against one eye and suddenly
the curve of that cloud is tracing the neck of a mammoth,
huge and gray and now the creature is briskly shaking
its head, covering everything with torrents of fur.
You find yourself whispering there, there,
stroking the mammoth’s face as if to calm it,

to settle the rampage now flooding the atmosphere.
Or simply to convince yourself that yes, this is permissible.
Seeing things is a delicate and gentle duress. Look again.

Happy Mondays XXVII

Featured readers for tonight's 27th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights reading series at mag:net cafe Katipunan are as follows:

1. Naya Valdellon
2. Adam David
3. Waps San Diego
4. Eric Melendez
5. Pancho Villanueva
6. Kash Avena
7. Sasha Martinez
8. Mikael Co
9. Krip Yuson
10. Khavn Dela Cruz vs. Tengal Drilon

plus performances by Khavn and Friends and up and coming band Dreadspot.

Admission is Free. Readings begin at 730; performances run up to midnight. See you!

Happy Mondays XXVI

featured readers for tonight's 26th installment of the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net cafe katipunan are as follows:

1. Ramil Digal Gulle
2. Angelo V. Suarez
3. Costantino Zicarelli
4. Pancho C. Villanueva
5. Keith Cortez
6. John Torres
7. Khavn Dela Cruz
8. Adam David
9. Marie La Vina
10. Andrea Teran
11. Mikael Co
12. Ken Ishikawa
13. Pocholo Goitia

plus Krip Yuson, Jimmy Abad, Marne Kilates, regular Happy Mondays mainstays, and special guests.

Admission is free. runs from 7pm to 930pm. please bring poems if you want to read for the open mic. Kitakits!

Happy Mondays XXV

sorry for the late post. been under the weather the past few days. anyway, Happy Mondays Poetry Nights @ mag:net Katipunan tonight, 7 to 930pm. It's the 25th installment and this week, we'll be giving a tribute to the late poet,visual artist, and architect Sid Gomez Hildawa, whose works some of the poets present tonight will read.

featured readers as follows:

1. Lourd De Veyra
2. Eric Melendez
3. Marie La Viña
4. Angelo Suarez
5. Yol Jamendang
6. Pocholo Goitia
7. Mikael Co
8. Jonar Sabilano
9. Marne Kilates
10. Lawrence Bernabe
11. Patty Laurel
12. Krip Yuson

please come and read as well. free admission. kitakits.