Thursday, February 08, 2007
8:40 PM |
Don Carlos Palanca Awards 2007 Opens
It's that time of the year again.
The Carlos Palanca Foundation has announced the opening of the
57th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. The country’s premier literary awards will accept entries
until the midnight of April 30, 2007.
The literary awards is open to all Filipino citizens and former Filipino citizens. The competition includes the following categories: Short Story, Short Story for Children, Essay, Poetry, One-act Play, and Full-length Play in Filipino and English divisions; Screenplay in Filipino division; and Short Story in Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Iluko regional languages. (The Futuristic Fiction and Teleplay categories have been discontinued this year.)
This year’s theme for the Kabataan Essay is "The Filipino Value I Would Like to Share with the World" for the English division; and "Ang Kaugaliang Pilipino na Nais Kong Ibahagi sa Mundo" for the Filipino division. This is a special category open to persons below 18 years old.
Established in 1950, one of the objectives of the Palanca Awards is to serve as an incentive for Filipino writers to craft their outstanding literary works. It is noteworthy that more and more first-time entrants are winning in the contest.
National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo noted that writers should take full advantage of the annual literary competition to hone their craft. "We are all privileged to have a good number of our writers and their best works being acclaimed and applauded -– and we, readers and writers may well wonder about the enormity of literary expertise and craftmanship and long earnest labor that must have gone into the performing of these chosen works."
Entries for the literary competition may be submitted in person, or sent by mail or courier service to Carlos Palanca Foundation, 6th Floor, CPJ Building., 105 C. Palanca Jr. St., Legaspi Village, Makati City. Entries may also be submitted through e-mail in Rich Text Format or in Microsoft Word Document as an attachment, together with the author’s resume, official entry form and original copy of the notarized authorization form.
Complete contest rules and official entry forms may be obtained from the Carlos Palanca Foundation office or via e-mail to cpawards@info.com.ph or palancaawards@yahoo.com. For inquiries, please call 818-3681, local 31.
Or go to the
Don Carlos Palanca Awards website for more details.
Labels: palanca, philippine literature, writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
8:33 PM |
RussLigtas the Show
More details
here.
Labels: art and culture
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
It's true what
Jimmyboy said: "As soon as you say, 'It's been forever since I...' -- it happens." Because a while ago, while watching
Oprah, I told Mark, "Hey, it's been forever since I've been depressed."
And now I am. I don't want to do anything. I feel like a slob. I'm behind most of the deadlines I've set for myself. I'm a zombie. Wake me up when this is over.
Labels: life, psychology
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
2:18 AM |
Free Movies!
I have just discovered ...
Bit Torrent. Well, not really discovered, because I had it before, but didn't exactly know how to use it. So I erased the program from my computer. Last week, I was looking for ways to get hold of Ron Howards'
Splash, the mermaid movie with Tom Hanks and Daryll Hannah. Mark's been on a mermaid addiction lately, and so we'd constantly hunt down every pirate stall and every video outlet in the city to find a copy. Nothing. We tried YouTube and Limewire. Still nothing. Finally, I tried Bit Torrent once more.
Still nothing.But what did I find instead? Fritz Lang's
M. Ingmar Bergman's
Persona, Silence, and
The Seventh Seal. Michaelangelo Antonioni's
L'Avventura. Luis Bunuel's
Un Chien Andalou. Woody Allen's
Husbands and Wives, Interiors, and
Zelig. Robert Altman's
Short Cuts. Francois Truffaut's
Jules et Jim. Francis Ford Coppola's
The Conversation. It was like being a kid let loose in a candy store.
There should be more movies out there, but I'm limiting myself to these classics for now.
It does take a while to download a movie, but I just leave them to slowly trickle in while I surf the Internet or watch TV. And suddenly, you have all these masters in your hard disk. I
love Internet technology.
Labels: film, life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
1:04 AM |
10 Men That Go Owww...
[inspired by
bulletproof vest]
This is the gayest thing I've ever done in this blog. But who cares. I'm also doing this on a dare. And like what
BV said, it's fun.
10.
Patrick Wilsonactor
The first time he enters the frame in Mike Nichols' adaptation of Tony Kushner's
Angels in America, you will want to convert to Mormonism forever.
If a missionary like him does appear in your doorstep.
9.
Ian Lawlessmodel
Most of us only got the PG version of his Lacoste commercial, and so there were only hints of what he had to,
umm, offer. (Find the uncensored version
here.) But he made nudity look like a wholesome thing, you just want to hug the man. (Yes, it's
that smile in the end that does you in.
Bastard.)
8.
Sacha Baron Cohenactor/comedian
He is odious as Borat, or Ali G. But when he does appear as himself, he is strangely composed, and gentlemanly. And his villainous French race car driver in
Talladega Nights was inexplicably sexy. Must have been the accent.
7.
Barack ObamaU.S. senator
He's the black JFK, embodying a fine balance of charisma, intellect, and a wise handle of issues. So he's not
that experienced in politics. I'd still vote for him any day of the week.
6.
Tom Fordfashion designer
The eyes!
The eyes! And the fabulous cut on those clothes! Even with all that fashionista air, he exudes a musky machismo that overwhelms.
5.
Reynaldo Gianecchinimodel
This guy is said to be the most beautiful man in the face of the earth. I wholeheartedly agree. I mean, wouldn't you?
4.
Joseph Cooper RamoTime Magazine senior editor
That intense look.
Those intelligent articles. It's impossible not to like the man. He makes brainy sound pervertedly sexual.
3.
Jonathan Bennettactor
I
hate Lindsay Lohan. But I completely empathize with her character in
Mean Girls. I mean, I'd fail math, too, to get the guy.
2.
Jude Lawactor
He has an odd look that is at once mesmerizing and dangerous. And he simply smolders, right from the very beginning when we first noticed him coming up from the surf in
The Talented Mr. Ripley. Venus would be jealous.
1.
Joel Steincolumnist/pop culture commentator
What can I say? He's got that puppy look that blends well with his nerdy, but I'm-cooler-than-you persona. Plus, I'm always a sucker for writers.
And maybe also...
Ethan Hawke.
Because he was in
Reality Bites and
Before Sunset, two wise movies that mirrored my own realities and delusions. And he wrote two novels, which I liked.
Where are the Filipinos? I don't know. There sure are a lot of eye-candies around, but nobody to really go "oowww" for. Oh, wait,
there's Jun Lana. And
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and
Raffy Ruiz and
Ronnie Salvacion, too. And that ABS-CBN reporter from Baguio or somewhere. (UPDATE: Si
Cris Zuniga! See him do his report
here.) And that's really it.
Next up: women, just to explore my heterosexual side.
Labels: crushes, queer
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
7:13 PM |
Everyday Wear
Mark's mom has a blog titled
Everyday Wear. She's really into it, so check it out.
It's quiet fascinating watching mothers discover something like this -- the way I once felt about my 74-year-old mother discovering how to use the cellphone some years ago. She was giddy, like a kid.
It was quite unsettling. Now, she would text me out of the blue, and say something like, "I miss you, I don't see you anymore."
Guilt by new technology.
Now, what if my own mom starts to blog? Will I want to read what she has to say? About me? About her secret life? Better still: will she be reading the shenanigans I post about in
my blog?
Egad.Hi, mom.
Labels: blogging, family
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
9:21 AM |
Maitim ang Ari
A good laugh makes your day. (And my day has been made.) I was rolling on the floor laughing when I read the following in
Frank Cimatu's blog,
ug sayang man pud kung dili nako i-share
ug lain. So here goes...
Literal translations in Filipino of American movies...Dead Man's Chest - Dodo ng Patay
Mary Poppins - Mariang Putok
Brokeback Mountain - Bumigay sa Wright Park
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Ako, Ikaw at Kayong Lahat
Four Weddings and A Funeral - Apat na Beses Ka Mang Magpakasal, Madededo Ka Rin
Waterworld - Navotas
Black Hawk Down - Maitim ang Ari
Swordfish - Talakitok
Kill Bill 2 - Kilikili at Bilbil
Gone in 60 Seconds - 1 Round, Tulog
The Fast and The Furious - Ang Bitin, Galit
Too Fast, Too Furious - Kapag Sobrang Bitin, Lalong Nagagalit
Never Been Kissed - Pangit Ka Ba?
Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone - Adik si Harry, Tumira ng Shabu
Employee of the Month - Ang Sipsip
Robin Hood: Men in Tights - Robin Padilla, Naging Kapitan Barbell
Snakes on a Plane - Ahasan sa Ere
[from
pine for pine]
Labels: film, humor
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
8:28 AM |
LitCritters Dumaguete Originals No. 1
It almost did not happen because of conflicting schedules and bad Internet connections and such. But they were adamant about not missing a LitCritters session this week, since last Saturday was already spent giving them free time to pursue some other extracurricular activities. (RJ and Odie had debates to do, etc.) But last night, LitCritters Dumaguete unveiled its first set of originals. I'm astounded by the works, even if admittedly most of what was written needed some precise editing and revision if only to make them work better as stories. Still, I am happy. Very happy. Given the fact that for most of them this is their first attempt at fiction, the outputs they gave me was highly satisfying -- and the way they critiqued each other's works made them grow in my estimation as passionate individuals who are in this endeavor for longer than a stretch. Who knew these kids had it in them, and in spades, too? When I first gathered them together for an informal weekly workshop, I had already known what they could deliver in terms of literary essays and such. The challenge was to get them out of their comfort zones, and to try fiction. One or three of the stories from last night may already be ready for eventual publication, if the authors do decide to shape their stories up with the relentlessness of unforgiving editors.
One thing I noticed though: only
one of them finally proved to be a real children's story. I asked them why. And got the expected response: writing for children is not a walk in the park, after all. It's hard. It's very hard to modulate the language, to straddle the thin line between passable and overtly childish.
A few weeks from now, we're going to produce another set of originals, this time starting out with the prompt I gave them a week ago -- which resulted in them writing what they thought would make a good beginning of a story.
LitCritters Dumaguete is turning out to be a fun experiment. (Thanks,
Dean.) What's more, it forces you to write on a regular basis, too. That's always good.
Labels: LitCritters, writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
5:30 PM |
A New Short Story
[edited version]I just finished my first short story for the year!
Woohoo! So, okay, it's a children's story -- and
older children at that -- but
still. It's basically about how not following one's artistic dreams can eventually deaden you.
Did I say "nursing"?
By the way, a previous version of this post contained the title of the story and included an excerpt as well. But in the last hour or so, I decided to enter it into a contest. Because I don't want to be accused once again in this blog for "trumpeting" my bid too much
(remember the whole Neil Gaiman Prize brouhaha?), I decided to edit out those portions of this post. And hope for the best.
Labels: writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
3:17 AM |
The Mouse Crawling Between the Walls
I've been thinking of children's stories for the past few days, and this is directly because the first LitCritters Originals I'm doing with the Dumaguete group is exactly that:
stories for children. (And also because I'm currently doing research for a paper I have to deliver during the Tamaraw Workshop in Iloilo later this summer.)
That said, I'm trying to write a children's story
now, and as usual, I'm going through my protracted ritual of putting down a piece of fiction by scanning my favorite stories, this time from Shel Silverstein's
The Giving Tree to Maurice Sendak's
Where the Wild Things Are.
But all that sticks to my head is this children's story included in John Irving's novel
A Widow for a Year (the first part of which was filmed as
The Door in the Floor, which is the title of a children's book written by one of the main characters).
It's titled "The Mouse Crawling Between the Walls," and it sticks to me because it scares me and seduces me at the same time. It goes...
Tom woke up, but Tim did not.
And Tom woke up his father... and asked him, “Did you hear that sound?”
“There’s the sound again,” Tom whispered to his Father.
“It’s a monster!” he cried.
“It’s just a mouse... crawling between the walls,” his father said, and thumped the wall hard with his hand.
And the mouse... scurried away.
"It’s just a mouse. That’s all,” Tom said.
And he quickly fell asleep.
But Tim, he stayed awake all night long.
And every time that thing crawling between the walls came crawling back, he’d hit the wall, and he’d listen to the monster... scurry away, dragging his thick, wet fur, and no arms and no legs with it.
Heavy, huh? And so much is going on in less than 120 words! By the way, the children's story "The Door in the Floor" is available
here, with illustrations by the actor Jeff Bridges.
Labels: writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
12:21 AM |
Back to the Trenches
Last night, I got scared --
terrified -- by my work backlog. It loomed above me like a terrifying monster -- and it's about to swallow me whole. So here's a little resolution to start my February (it's February
already?):
1. Stop watching DVDs for a while, and Goddamn it, stop buying them as well.
2. Better yet, turn off the goddamn television.
3. Tell yourself, "Bullshit," everytime you rationalize something like, "Well, I could always wake up early tomorrow to do this." Because you
know you
can't.
4. Map out what you need to do and prioritize, and zealously do everything one by one.
I used to be very O.C. with regards keeping a tight schedule. Now, I don't know how I learned to take everything easy. (
Too easy, in fact.) It's freaking out my innate sense of order. I'm putting a stop to this, and if I get the label "workaholic" any time soon, I'll take it with a sense of pride this time around. Because, really, if you don't do your all for your responsibilities, and if you don't succeed to do your jobs on time, your name is basically fucked.
I'll still blog, of course. Blogging keeps me sane. Also this: without me blogging regularly, nobody will ever know whether I'm still alive under that avalanche of lists of things-to-do.
So now I'm off to keep a dinner engagement at Esther Windler's, with Mark. Who says being a workaholic stops you from being sociable?
Labels: life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Monday, February 05, 2007
9:42 AM |
How Other People See Home
Peace Corps Tommy Schultz -- I've seen him around town -- has a
website containing journals and photo albums that document his very long stay in Dumaguete.
Quite interesting. (And it helps that he doesn't look too bad himself.) Then there's Fulbright scholar
Rosanna Brillantes documenting the filming of the infamous (or notorious?) shamans of Siquijor. The resulting documentary,
The Healers, should be a fascinating ethnographic look at a much-maligned (but I think completely misunderstood) local tradition.
It can be very interesting to know how outsiders exactly feel and see your world. I've long since given up trying to see Dumaguete with fresh eyes. Every time I take a photograph of this and that, I inevitably churn out generic stuff informed by the vocabulary of tourist brochures. (Is this because all locals have an innate need to shine positive light on own our places?) So when people like Tommy and Rosanna (and for that matter, my photographer-friend John Stevenson) show us some snippets of home through their work, we reel from the shock and the surprise of seeing the familiar in completely new light.
Labels: dumaguete, negros, people, photography
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Sunday, February 04, 2007
1.Sometimes, you stumble on
a piece of writing so funny and immediate that you are overwhelmed by sheerest desire.
I have a huge crush on Jun Lana.Read
Jun Lana's absurd take on the search for love and relationship in la-la (or hihi?) land, and recognize yourself.
2.It's not hype. When Jennifer Hudson as Effie White (the
Florence Ballard role in the original Supremes) launches into "And I'm Telling You (I'm Not Going)" in the middle of Bill Condon's
Dreamgirls, the screen tears itself apart from the power of her presence and her vocals. It reduced me to tears.
(I'm so effing gay.)Give her that Oscar already. It's a lock.
Labels: film, love, music, queer, writers
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
12:38 AM |
Sexy Scripture
According to
Slate,
Ezekiel Chapter 23 is
the sexiest chapter in the entire Bible. Well, I happen to like the sensuality of Song of Solomon and the undercurrent of homoeroticism in
1 Samuel 17:55 and
18:1-4 and
2 Samuel 1:17-27, but with
Slate's suggestion, I am leaning towards agreement. Oh yes, Virginia, the Bible can be very,
very sexy.
Labels: religion, sex
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Saturday, February 03, 2007
12:10 PM |
Edith Tiempo Tribute Program
A PDF copy of the
Edith Tiempo tribute program (which is in sepia, I have
no idea how it got blue after being uploaded), complete with all the testimonials, is
available for download. Click on the link.
Labels: philippine literature, writers
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
8:41 AM |
Delusions of Writing Grandeur
I
know people who are exactly like this...
Hehehe.[from
sinfest, via
bookslut]
Labels: humor, writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
7:54 AM |
Hungry for Food Mixed With a Little Fiction
I can't wait to get my hands on my copy of
this...
My story "Pedro and the Chickens of Dumaguet" is in it. (It has since been retitled "A Tragedy of Chickens.") I wrote the story in a rush for editor and writer Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. I had already finished half of a story titled "Kitchen" for the anthology ... when something clicked in my head. I went searching for Ma'am Cecilia's original email inviting me to submit something for the anthology. In it, she said she was looking for "lighthearted" fiction: "Can you look at your short stories to see if there's something light, funny, and short, that's connected with food?"
Light, funny, and short.God. But "Kitchen" was already too long, too sad, and too heavy. I immediately shifted gears, saved the story in my "Raw Fiction" file, and proceeded to start anew, this time telling myself that if I had to write a new story within 24 hours (the deadline given was the following day), I
had to write about my favorite Dumaguete fare: Jo's chicken
inato. And it had to be light, kinda funny, and short. That's the genesis of my story.
Also in the new anthology:
Dean Alfar's "Sabados con Fray Villalobos" and Mia Gonzalez's "Bread" (which I recommended for inclusion to Ma'am Cecilia.) The wonderful
Janet Villa also has a story in it, but I don't know what the title is. The other contributors are everybody's idols... Carlos Cortés, Jose Dalisay Jr., Veronica Montes, Oscar Peñaranda, Brian Ascalon Roley, Joël Barraquiel Tan, Linda Ty-Casper, Alfred Yuson, and others.
(The book launching is on
February 12, from 5:30-7:30 pm at the 2nd Floor of The Lounge, in front of National Bookstore Bestseller-Podium, 18 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City. Dean says he will be where the food is,
hehehe. Me, I'm still making up my mind whether to go or not.
I want to go.)
The mix of food and fiction always fascinates. Ernesto Yee says as much in his
testimonial for Mom Edith yesterday: "After her critique [of Ernie's story], she shared with me the delightful comfort of her food. Eating with Mom, even today, is always one glorious feast. It is one fond memory that you can take home with you and share with your family, your circle of friends. This must be the reason why, when in Manila, my usual conversation with my dearest Susan [Lara], Marj {Evasco] and D.M. [Reyes] is always about Mom's dinner table. We all tremble with youthful anticipation and excitement at the mention of
binakut -- soup of shredded chicken, shrimps, crab, sweet corn and sprinkling of horse radish commonly known as
kalamunggay, and the ground meat wrapped in
gabi leaves cooked in coconut milk. And of course, the
dinugoan, I jokingly refer to as Count Dracula's favorite pudding, that goes with Mom's golden
letchon. All prepared under her strict instruction and supervision! The sweet smell of pork and the steaming, crackling yet succulent skin tempt lasciviously our senses. Sight and smell collide. Our tongues are beginning to water. We crave for food. We start missing our Mom, our shared longing."
Which Rowena [Tiempo-Torrevillas], from Iowa, takes notes of in her email to me: "It's amazing that the
binakut that Ernie uses as his central image is exactly the same comfort food from Mom's table that I wrote about in Erlinda Panlilio's collection,
Comfort Food. My description of Mom's
binakut is on pages 15-16 of the book, and includes this thought: 'Filipino writers, all siblings adopted into my ever-enlarging family of writers, have eaten
binakut from my mother's table."
That said, get copies of
both books. They will make you,
umm, hungry.
Labels: food, philippine literature, writers
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Friday, February 02, 2007
9:00 AM |
Mom Edith and Her Stories
By the time most people have finished reading this post, the tribute for Dumaguete-based National Artist for Literature Edith Lopez Tiempo -- which I had coordinated for Silliman University, UP Likhaan, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts -- will have already become part of my grand recollection of wonderful things. (And hopefully other people's too.)
The event, which was one of the highlights of the National Arts Month, honored the National Artist for her lifetime of words, creativity, and nurturance of several generations of Filipino writers in a program that featured testimonials from various local writers -- including Ernesto Superal Yee (whose testimonial was read by Mom Edith's granddaughter Rima Torrevillas-Seamans), Myrna Peña-Reyes, Bobby Flores Villasis, Andrea Gomez-Soluta, and Vim Nadera Jr. -- including several dances inspired by the writings of Dr. Tiempo, choreographed by Ronnie Mirabuena and Marie Veronique Berdin of Silliman University's Kahayag Dance Troupe.
It was a tribute that was only fitting for someone whose poems, novels, essays, and short stories have enriched Philippine literature -- and have basically put Dumaguete on the map of the literary imagination. It was a long time in coming, but in today's tribute, I am grateful that Dumaguete --
and Silliman University -- has finally come about to honor a native daughter. Although she was born a Gaddang in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya in 1919, Mom Edith is --
by choice -- an Oriental Negrense. She was already a movie actress in Manila by the age 18 (appearing in
Nasaan Ka Irog, Ang Gagamba, Pugad ng Agila, and
Hatol ng Mataas na Langit, for what was then Parlatone Pictures), but she made the ultimate move to Silliman University where, together with husband and fellow writer Edilberto, she became a teacher and honed her literary reputation. "I chose to come here," she once told me, "to Dumaguete."
After furthering their studies at the prestigious Iowa International Writers Workshop, both came back to Silliman and founded the National Writers Workshop in 1962. The workshop is the oldest creative writing workshop in Asia, and to date is still considered the "mother of all workshops" in the Philippines. Under the continuing guidance of Mom Edith, it has produced most of the luminaries that now make up Philippine literature.
For this timely tribute to her genius and influence, it was my pleasure to introduce a dance based on my favorite short story by Mom Edith, "The Black Monkey," which was one of the winners of the Palanca when the prize was first inaugurated in 1951.
I have always known that to read the stories of Mom Edith is to enter a world of quiet. The writer Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo says exactly the same thing in her overview of Mom's short fiction for
The Edith Tiempo Reader (UP, 1999). From "Chambers of the Sea" to "Dark Joshua" to "The Dimensions of Fear" to "A Concept of the Primitive" to "The Black Monkey" -- we enter the small tempests in the quiet corners of a coastal village, or a small and sleepy provincial town, or a thick forest. In her stories, most of which have been collected in
Abide, Joshua and Other Stories, which was first published in 1964, and in her five novels, Mom Edith renders her quiet scenes in her strength as a poet, always striving for effect by evoking the sharp image or the striking metaphor.
Hidalgo has said of these stories: "Nothing very much seems to be happening in these quiet little stories. But at the denouement, the reader realizes that everything has been moving inexorably toward this inevitable end. And at the heart of every tale is the protagonist, who, again, seems a rather ordinary type of person—simple, unprepossessing, even nondescript. But something about him or her engages and absorbs and compels. So that when we are shown 'what happens to him inside' (Tiempo's phrase) we care."
We care, for example, for the character of Marina in "The Black Monkey." She is a young wife caught in the tentacles of World War II, hiding with her husband and the families of other guerillas deep in the forest, away from the menace of Japanese soldiers. Our concern for her lies in the very fact that she has twisted her kneecap while fleeing from the Japanese, and becomes partially paralyzed -- making her a dangerous liability for the rest of the villagers.
Knowing this, she relents to living on her own in a makeshift hut hidden away on a precipice, which could only be negotiated by lowering a ladder into the river. The other villagers bring her food, and her husband visits, but for the most part, she is entirely helpless and alone -- surrounded only by trees and the screeching monkeys that live in them.
One particular black monkey begins terrorizing her, and in the animal she sees
all of her fears manifested, including the fear of being discovered by an escaped Japanese soldier roaming the area. Her husband finally gives her a gun to kill the monkey -- bringing about her realization that only she, alone, could kill the monkey and rid her of her nightmares.
In the end, she does kill the monkey, and in so doing slays all her other fears.
According to Hidalgo, Marina is "perhaps the most impressive of Tiempo's female protagonists." And I agree. And maybe this is because I know Marina is really a fictional version of Mom Edith.
This is her story.
I remember my visits to Mom Edith's office in CAP Building when I was still quite new to the craft of writing, and in the middle of the morning she would regale me with stories of writers and writing, and of anecdotes from her interesting and colorful life. I felt that it was a privilege to be in that presence, and to be welcomed and nurtured as a writer as she had always done with generations of Filipino writers since the 1960s.
I must have been quite a listener because in her dedication to one of my copies of her books, she wrote: "For Ian, who likes to hear stories, not just to write them! Mom E." One of these stories she loved telling me was of her experience as a young wife in the jungles of Negros Oriental where most of Dumaguete hid when the Japanese invaded the island. She was Marina, and she lived Marina's nightmares
and salvation -- including the specter of monkeys, and the education of firing a gun.
Beyond the autobiographical elements however, "The Black Monkey" works as a magnificent, tightly structured, and highly dramatic piece of fiction, because the character in the story is someone whom we finally truly care for, whose story becomes our own story, and whose denouement also brings about a kind of finality and truth in our lives.
Mom Edith's been a little weak lately, but at her age (she is 87 years old) that is only to be expected.
Yet she continues to be prolific, easily shaming those of us who are still young but whose output are yet so meager. Now, there are plans to collect her early stories, even her children's fiction, for suitable publication. Then there's the personal anthology of the three Tiempo women currently in the burner, involving daughter Rowena Torrevillas and granddaughter Rima. She shows no sign of slowing down, and is still the doyen of Montemar, her residence in Sibulan town.
I will always be grateful for having known Mom Edith, and for the intimate and writerly circumstances that have allowed me to call her by such affectation.
Thanks, Mom, for everything.Labels: dumaguete writers workshop, philippine literature, writers
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
8:11 AM |
A Tribute to Mom Edith
[this is a post-dated entry. please scroll below for the new posts.]You are all invited to attend a tribute to
National Artist for Literature Edith Lopez Tiempo.
This event, slated on 2 February 2007 at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium in Dumaguete City, is sponsored by the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the
Likhaan: University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing, and
Silliman University Department of English and Literature. The tribute will showcase dances by the Silliman University Kahayag Dance Troupe, based on several literary pieces written by the National Artist. The event will also feature tributes by writers Ernesto Superal Yee, Myrna Peña-Reyes, Bobby Flores Villasis, Ian Rosales Casocot, and Vim Nadera Jr.
UPDATE: My
article on the tribute appears January 29 in the
Philippine Daily Inquirer.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Rima Torrevillas Seamans, Mom Edith's granddaughter and daughter of Rowena, will take the place of Ernie Yee in giving the testimonial. Ernie will be in Cebu for business. Reserved tickets available by tomorrow.
Labels: philippine literature, writers
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Busy, busy,
busy... I'm scrambling to make full use of what time I have left to juggle
everything. There are so many things to do, articles to write, deadlines to catch, people to meet, meetings to join, plans to put into action, classes to teach, and the Edith Tiempo Tribute tomorrow to make sure everything
flows. So if I'm a bit silent these days, you have to understand. Please? Gotta get a massage later in the day. My back's aching from stress.
Labels: life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
GO TO OLDER POSTS
GO TO NEWER POSTS
