I think it's utterly horrible how accurate my mini-essay here is, in light of current local news, and how stupid, in light of current personal concerns. But I suppose that's why making/problematising/enjoying art continues, precisely because of such horrible horrible events - a constant reminder of the heights humanity has and can still actually attain, rock-on-rock sparks in spite of the darkness. Vita brevis - ars longa, but also: humanity endures as art endures, and vice versa.

Two paragraphs from my review of Coching's El Indio:

"Despite its employing of words and pictures for narrative purposes, komix is a medium with mechanisms that are closer to music and poetry than painting and prose: its elements' awareness of each other in their placement on the page, all working in synch to evoke a certain reaction, to tell a certain story, to make the characters move from one action to the other, one turn hingeing on the one preceding it and at the same time anticipating the one next to it, all laid out as a linear track of images albeit also happening all at once - all the words and pictures are on page, your eyes providing the machine to make them "move" - is a process that operates more on patterns and rhythms - movement and closure: panel one opens, panel two closes - than the more linear (prose) or static (painting) media that constitute its parts that make up its whole.

"It's hard not to look at Margarita's page-38-and-39 dance sequence without seeing her actually dancing her seduction dance with Fernando, without hearing busy percussive beats of brass and strings with her arms' every snap and pose - and it's because every movement logically follows the one before it and anticipates the ones next to it, like a particularly skillful nylon string guitar solo, or a really smoothly executed enjambment - it wouldn't have been anything else but what and how the artist laid it on the page."

Been a bit busy, thus not too many new things in the blog. I'm prepping stuff for a new column sort of thing for Vibal Publishing's mediahub the Philippine Online Chronicles. Hopefully I can do it regular enough for it to be a weekly thing. My proposals for the essays, to get a few things started, will be a set of maybe six essays aimed towards komix kritisism, shuffled with essays on what will ultimately be a book on the Eraserheads' Stickerhappy album, where I'll try to situate and analyse the state of Pinoy Pop Music when it took quite a few turns here and there, where it was back then, and where it is today. So lofty!


The first of the essays on komix kritisism will be on Vibal Publishing's very own albumised El Indio by Francisco V Coching, which I'm presently longhanding in bed. This book is a curious artifact, and an important one academic-wise and aesthetic-wise, ie, history-wise, and I'm efforting to show exactly why it's a curious artifact, and why exactly it's important in the historical sense. Here are the first few sentences:

"I always find it strange to be constantly continuously reminding people that komix is art, that komix is lit, as being from a generation and lineage that grew up around komix, it being art and lit was already a done deal - moot and academic - even before I was born, but perhaps people always need reminding lest we forget, and so we get books like Francisco V Coching's El Indio (Vibal Publishing, 2009) quite possibly the one book of this millennium's first decade that will be universally loved and praised by komikeros and critics alike, although for what reasons, exactly? Is it one of those books that we automatically love and praise because it's a classic, an artifact from what is generally considered by most fans and practitioners as the Golden Age of Pinoy Komix, drawn in that distinctly classic/al "Pinoy" way? Do we love it and praise it because it's komix that is quite obviously unabashedly art and lit? Do we love it and praise it because of its inherent historical value? And it definitely has historical value, as most komikeros will see this book once again as impetus for a sermon on how much contemporary komix are without a relevant sense of artistic history, and unfortunately for most contemporary komix, the sermons will be right, and right on the money."

ISANG PALIWANAG

Ang tunay na kuwento ay kailangang malaman. Mahihinuha ang "tunay" mula sa ayos ng naratibo kaba-kabanata, at sa malinaw na takbo ng salita at parirala at pangungusap kada-lipat ng pahina. Ngunit, ibahin/ilipat ang ayos ng mga ito mula sa kani-kaniyang konteksto, lilitaw/lilinaw ang iba pang kahulugan na maaaring hindi mahihinuha mula sa isang striktong pagbasa ng tuluyang sistema ng salita/parirala/pangungusap/naratibo. "Tunay" pa rin ba ang ganitong klase ng pagbasa? Malalaman ba ang "tunay" na kuwento mula sa proseso ng paglikha na nakabase sa gunaw/gulo? Ang tunay na kuwento ay kailangang malaman.

I've decided to note everything I eat and drink, and to do this daily, for a year, and call it poetry. This is week five.




One pork bistik. A handful of squidballs. A handful of chickenballs. Two fried chicken thighs. Six slices of bread. A plate of liempo. A stick of chicken barbecue. Some chicharon. Some spicy salsa. A bowl of fried chicken with beans. Four tuna nuggets. A bowl of kernel corn. Some California maki. Four slices of garlic bread. A few hotdog bits. One sizzling plate of liempo with assorted vegetables.


Three sausage & mayo sandwiches. Six tuna sandwiches.


A cup of bulalo soup. A bowl of curry carrot noodle soup.


A whole and a quarter of cheese omelette. One Mystery Midnight Meal.


Two bowls and a plate of palabok. A bowl of hotdog & tomatoes spaghetti. One bowl of tuna nuggets & mushroom carbonara. A bowl of batchoy noodles. A bowl of Jennifer Sevilla's Body. A bowl of dilis, tomato, & red eggs pasta. Six slices of Pizza Festiva.


Four and a half bowls of steamed rice.


Two bags of Oishi. A bag of cornflakes. Five chocolate chip & raisins pancakes with vanilla ice cream. A bag of Clover Chips. A bag of Mister Chips. Two plates of birthday cake. One ChocNut. Some fish & chips. Half a bag of pretzels.


Sixteen bottles and twenty-three glasses of water. Three glasses and a cup of Royal Tru Orange with lemon. Eleven glasses of Coke with lemon. A can of Oettinger. Five bottles and three glasses of Red Horse Beer. A bottle of Sparkle with calamansi.

a webproject on rumor that requires your active participation here. tell your friends!

I've decided to note everything I eat and drink, and to do this daily, for a year, and call it poetry. This is month one.




Two bowls of pork paksiw. Four sausages. A plate and two bowls of red eggs & tomatoes. One tortang talong. One bowl of egg salad. Some siomai. Some steamed chicken. A bowl of egg tokwa. Three chicken hotdogs. Seventeen and a half hotdogs. A stick and a half of chicken barbecue with peanut sauce. A bowl of atsara. One grilled prawn. Half of a medium rare steak. Three lumpia. Six salami. A bowl of munggo. Half a tilapia with mayonnaise. A small dried fish. A plate of pork steak. A plate of blood pudding. A serving of french fries. A plate of fish fillet with lemon & butter sauce. A bowl of beef caldereta. A bowl of crispy pata. A bowl of chicken curry. A bowl of corned beef. Four bowls of chicken adobo. A bowl of pork-&-beans. A bowl of toge. A piece of pork katsudon. A bowl of pork sinigang. Two pieces of daing. Half a bowl of chili corned beef. Two slices of pastrami. Six cheesesticks. Four corned beef sticks. Four pieces of garlic longganisa. Half a torso of fried chicken. A dozen kikiam. Three fish patties. One beef pares. Two tinapa. Eight slices of eggplant crisps. A large and small bowl of pork stew. A plate of tokwa sisig. A bowl of broiled beef. Half a fist of kimchi. Six slices of Spam.


Half of a cheese steak sandwich. Four dinner rolls with cheese. One chicken fillet sandwich. One salami sandwich. Three tortillas. One quarter pounder with cheese. One chicken fajita burger. A sandwich grilled on a pan. A loaf and a half of bread. Two omelette sandwiches.


A bowl of kangkong soup. Two bowls of corn soup.


One garlic steak omelette. A plate and a half of a cheese mushroom omelette. Half a cheese omelette. A plate of two-cheese & tomato omelette. A third of a plain omelette. A quarter of a tuna omelette. A slice of quiche. Half a two-cheese & tomato omelette.


Four slices of pepperoni pizza. Half a beef & mushroom pizza. A bowl and a half of red eggs & tomatoes spaghetti. One bowl of canton with fish- & chickenballs. Seven bowls of chicken noodle soup. Two bowls of Jennifer Sevilla's Body. Two plates of lasagna. Half a bowl of tomato spaghetti. A plate of garlic & labuyo spaghetti. A spoonful of baked ziti with meat sauce. A bowl of tuna & tomato spaghetti. Half a Tupperware of spaghetti tinapa. Two packets of instant noodles. A bowl of lasagna. Half a bowl of sopas. A bowl of macaroni soup. A bowl of Thai rice noodles. A plate of tinapa pasta. A plate of spaghetti & meatballs. A plate and a bowl of spaghetti & tomatoes.


Thirty-one bowls and a cup of steamed rice. Two bowls of garlic rice. A bowl and a half of java rice. Two bowls of fried rice. Two bowls of poorman's nasi goreng. A bowl of chicken & vegetable paella.


Two foods of the gods. Half a bag and a handful of cocoa cereal. A bowl of feta cheese & apples. A handful of Tortillas. A handful of Green Oishi Ridges. A handful of peanuts. A box of chocolate pretzels. Nine slivers of Orange Swits. One Chocolate Mallow. A bag of galletas. A bowl of banana saba. One large bucket of white cheddar popcorn. A pack and a half of Cheese Ring. Four mocca sponge cakes. Three chocolate chip pancakes with vanilla ice cream. Three bites of sambos. A slice of butter rum cake. Some biscuits. A glass of mais con hielo. Three chocolate chip cookies. Eight pieces of nachos. A bag of puto & kutsinta. Six pieces of ChocNut. Two bowls of banana, nuts & raisins yogurt. A glass of vanilla ice cream & chocolate cereal. Two spoons of corn with butter & cheese. One tuna empanada. One chicken empanada. One sweet cheese empanada. Two spoons of homemade ube. Five fried banana slices. Seventeen pieces of a variety of pastries. Four oatmeal cookies. A packet of pretzels. Half a pack of Tempura. Two raisin cinnamon pancakes. A handful of fried pears. A cup of blueberry yogurt. Two pancakes with vanilla ice cream.


One hundred-and-two bottles and forty-two glasses and five cups of water. A glass of Lacutus. A glass of Merlot. Two glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon. A cup of brewed coffee. Four cups of brewed coffee with vanilla ice cream & cinnamon. A glass of Red Blend iced tea. Two glasses of Coke with vanilla float. Two cups of hot chocolate. One Strawberry Zagu Grande. A glass of iced Milo. Half a liter of Royal Tru Orange. Two glasses of white grape iced tea. A liter and a half and six glasses of Coke. A glass of raspberry iced tea. Two glasses of Eight O'Clock. Eight bottles of beer. A bottle of C2 Apple. A glass of iced coffee. A glass of tropical fruitshake. A glass of lemonade. A small bottle of Sparkle. A small bottle of orange Tropicana. A glass of red lemonade.