Late Night

Teaching How to Fish

No Bull on 23

Infographics on Dirt

Holding Hands

Female writers invited to submit essays on 'holding hands'

Women around the world are invited to submit non-fiction essays on the topic of "holding hands," for publication in the upcoming issue of World Pulse, a magazine that tells of global issues through the eys of women. Works will also be published online, and the top three stories will receive US$100. Deadline: June 4. World Pulse invites writers to tell a story about "holding hands," which might explore themes of mentorship, connection, taboo, solidarity, violence, relationships, sensuality, family, love, friendship, healing, bridging difference, or anything in between. Full guidelines are available on the Web site.
World Pulse is seeking unique, honest, personal, and creative entries that showcase the true-life stories of women and their allies in their own words. Stories should be 400 words, maximum.
For more information, click here.

Muggy

I used to have a wide collection of cups from Sagada and Quezon; you know, those ethnic cups with rattan handles and lizards on the side. But I lost them all because my friends who came in for coffee would also bring home the cups as well. Some I gave away. Now I'm back to regular cups given or bought. Here's the mugs in heavy coffee rotation:

Election Reflection

Inside the Fire Cube

Censor This

Kigao's Works

Call for Po Mo Legends

ALTERNATIVE ALAMAT CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Philippines is blessed with a multitude of mythologies and legends, yet too few of these tales are known and read today. While it is understandable that the modern reader might find it difficult to relate to ancient oral tradition, we've all seen how the gods/goddesses and heroes/heroines of other cultures have remained relevant because of writers who incorporate the old myths and legends in modern tales. (See: The Percy Jackson series, or the many re-imaginings of the King Arthur myth.) I think we need more Filipino tales in that vein–hence, our new anthology, “Alternative Alamat”.

Story Guidelines:

* The story should make use of characters, events, and/or artifacts from Philippine myths or legends

* The element taken from myth/legend must be integral to the story. Even if your protagonist owns Bantugan's sword, if he/she never uses it, then that doesn't count.

* The myth/legend from which the element is taken must be integral to the story. Even if your protagonist wields Bantugan's sword, if that history doesn't come into play (in other words, if you just treat it as a generic magic sword), then that doesn't count.

* While we're drawing from myth/legend, I want stories written with a modern sensibility. Note I don't mean the stories need to be set in modern times–what I mean is that I want stories that the modern reader can relate to and enjoy.

* Because part of the mission of this anthology is to raise the reader's awareness of our myths and legends, you need to be able to point me to your source material: the name of the myth/legend, the book/site where you found it etc. If it's simply part of the oral tradition of your area, let me know and we'll see if we can transcribe it and put it online somewhere, because it's important that readers have the opportunity to read the source material.

Length: 3,000 – 7,000 words.

Language: English.

Who May Submit: Filipino authors, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad. Age is immaterial, but if you're a minor you'll need parental consent for the contract.

Reading Period: June 1, 2010 – August 30, 2010. Plenty of time to hit the books and find that perfect, obscure myth just begging to be put back in the limelight.

Compensation: PHP600.00 + a copy of the anthology when we release the book the first time, either as an ebook or as print. If /when release it a second time (as an ebook if it was initially print, or vice versa), we'll add another PHP400.00 and a copy of the new version of the anthology.

http://www.rocketkapre.com/submissions/anthology-short-stories/alternative-alamat/

Rimbaud

Rimbaud
He threw away this trash
I envy his saying no to this work
to this cheerless masturbation
I don't give a damn about beauty
with her chancre
I don't care about perversion or conversion.
No to magic. Yes as ever to the ever-deceiving proof of
......what is
and what words scratch, and that
I also poetize
This is a bad habit you can only break the way he did,
......scornfully
and he could, in fact, block himself in his neurosis
and lose his tongue at the hands of the plague
and that not being a yes to the lust of the plague

All roads lead me to the impenetrable
to what's good for nothing
Poetry guilty perhaps of what exists
So many words for each thing
such an excess of rhetoric even on the least little ant

But he threw away this trash once and  for all
his fierce hat in the woods.


by Enrique Lihn
from The Dark Room;
New Directions Books,1963

translation: Jonathan Cohen, John Felstiner, and David Unger

Cat Bed

Blog Anatomy

Bedford and Breakfast

"A part, a large part, of travelling is an engagement of ego v. the world. The world is transport, the roads, the clerks behind the counters who deal out tickets, mail, messy money, keys; it is the porters, the waiters, the tourist industry, the natives, the weather. The world is hydra-headed, as old as the rocks and unchanging as the sea, enmeshed inextricably in its ways. The ego wants to arrive at places safely and on time. It wants to be provided with entertainment, color, quiet, strong coffee, strong drinks, matches it can strike, and change for a large paper note. It wants to find a room ready, warmth, cool, hangers, the right voltage, an ashtray, an enough clean towels. It wants the shop to open and dinner at six-thirty or at half past ten P.M. It wants to be soothed, reassured, attended to, left in peace. It doesn't want to be stared at."
And so starts "The Quality of Travel" by Sybille Bedford. This long delightful essay was published by Esquire in November 1961. Bedford's Pleasure and Landscapes, a collection of essays about her travel in Europe is a rare find. Bruce Chatwin adored her. And so should you.

All Alone in the Moonlight

Four takes on memory

Children's Book Not for Children

More here

Yellow Submarine

Baboo asked me to join them in a trip around Northern Luzon after that Noynoy rally a month ago at the People's Park. Things weren't jelling then; there were no funds and Baboo and Vicky Clemente wouldn't dare ask the Noynoy camp for funds. Not their style. I said, Yes. The last time I joined Baboo on a road campaign trip was during the last elections with Anna Angara. We had a fun time and we made a difference. Baboo got me because she said I was familiar with the Northwest side. We thought of Leilani Adriano to take care of the hotter Northeast because she was from Laoag and Pudtol. Apayao. But we hardly knew her and Laarni had her old number. She called and it was Leilani agreeing. More miraculous for me is that the old phone number was working. No cellphone robbers in Laoag? Wow! Son we planned and planned. Beleive me, when Baboo plans, it's more of a  Let's drink and that tapa looks delicious thing. We met last week at 5 AM in Volante. I was the earliest because I need to drink my coffee. Knowing Baboo when she arrives, it's go go go. True enough, she arrived. Go go go. I was the only one to finish my refill. When we later went to Abra and met 4 AM again at Volante, Vicky's coffee just arrived when it was go, go, go and not even a bitten lip touched the lip of the cup. In the black van, it was Vicky in front with Noel, the driver. At the back was me and Merci, who jsut commemorated the 40th day of her son's death. With Baboo in the middle in Mang Opring Versola, our guide for Apayao. A tall and nervous man. I took the wrong CD packet and so our trip would be marred by Lisa Ono, U2, John Pizzarelli. We arrived in Candon at about 9 and had our first radio interview with Arlon at DZTP, hooking up Noynoy's sister. Baboo and Vicky made their assessment about how to undergo later interviews: slower, certainty of where Noynoy is, not be defensive about the depression issue, speak a phrase in Ilocano. Then off to brunch. After a few U-turns, we ended up at Michelle's near the Dominion Bus station. We ordered imbaliktad, pork steak, pinakbet, bunog, bagnet and sinanglaw. Michelle's was transformed into a sudden Noynoy camp with all the yellow posters and ballers for the waitresses. This is, after all, Ground Zero of the attempted Oranging of the North, when the Northern Alliance, a group of 30 Ilocano congressmen, said that they will support Villar. A few wanted Gibo (for the funds and also because their opponents are LP). It promised to be a fun trip.