I’ll catch you on there!

Edited by two of her friends:
MABEL LOOMIS TODD & T.W. HIGGINSON
by Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886)

I. LIFE
X. IN A LIBRARY.

A precious, mouldering pleasure ‘t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

—

Also, just so you know, the reason why I haven’t been around the site is because I’ve been spending most of my time on Lit Wit: The blog of the literary witty. Feel free to check it out!

Like any typical concert, there were food kiosks all around. Most of them were unnamed and appeared like they were brought in by the local government. An IT tent was placed in the middle of the park. The tables and chairs, placed near the kiosks, were protected from mild showers by umbrella-like red cloths. The wind buffeted them gracefully though they were held in place by tendered ropes. A lot of the people who came in early were groups of old men, families with young children and giddy fan girls.

I was with Khalleen that time, since it was also our monthsary, and we waited for my sister Joy and my cousin Mia. Mia’s boy toy, Ar-ar, was to arrive later but he didn’t sit with us because he brought his uncle along and it would have been awkward.

A lot of people were complaining, especially because they arrived around 7 and Spongecola didn’t play until 9-10. I found it amusing since the concert wasn’t for Spongecola, it was TM’s marketing strategy and obviously revolved around the product with the hosts struggling to ensure the success of promotional games and gimmicks. It was really disrespectful for some to yell out sexist slurs but then again those people were mostly drunk.

The best band from Davao, as the hosts called them, the Eumonics (or Euphonics, I don’t really remember their name) played before Spongecola. They offered more songs than the main event band and the vocalist was pretty entertaining. They sang songs ranging from Eraserheads’ Magasin to Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi to that pro-gay song written by bums (yes, that’s a literal interpretation and not sexist in any way). The vocalist resembled Bamboo from afar but I honestly think the Davaoeño’s awesomeness as an entertainer can not be compared. He strutted like a pretty model and danced like a slutty pole dancer during some of their numbers.

When Spongecola took the stage, with some respectful prepping by Eumonics (or Euphonics), the crowd went wild like there was no tomorrow. Everyone rushed to the center to take pictures and a closer look with the band. Yael Yuzon, the vocalist, was especially fun and funny. He introduced their new drummer and ushered in crowd participation with his jokes and cutesy charm. He also took a kid fan, who he named Jeffrey, into the limelight by introducing him to the crowd and playing with the young rocker. The fans were separated from the stage by a distant barricade so Yael took it to himself to go near his throngs of adoring fan girls and boys. He wanted to jump right to the crowd but the concert officials highly advised him not to. So, instead, he sat on the rails and got as close as he could with the masses. The band played their songs (Bitiw, Puso, Tuliro, Nakapagtataka, Di Na Mababawi, Closer You and I, etc) as well as other songs (Our Heart Will Go On, an Eraserheads Song that I can not remember, Crazy For You, etc). Their concert duration was roughly 3 hours, from 9pm to 12mn.

“Kiss? I’m sorry, my mom’s conservative,” Yael joked in Tagalog when a screaming, highly elated fan girl asked him if she could kiss him. Yael would then grant her request after those words.

Another quirky aspect of the concert was when Yael sang two songs that were pretty weird for his contest. He sang a Christmas-ish song for the intro and a Children’s Song before they exited the stage.

He also spoke in a British accent when he asked for water. He spoke really great English and his voice is so well modulated he puts Michael Buffer to shame (rock song-wise, anyway).

I’ll have pictures soon on my Facebook. Joy and Mia are still busy uploading them.

† Jofer

LITERATI: REPLICATE BOOK FAIR AND FILM EXPO

LINNE’S DEBUT: SAMPAGUITA GARDENS

COPRE 2009

MACKIE’S CORONATION

YEAR ENDER WITH CHASTITY

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

The New Year always brings out opportunities to either change yourself for the better or for the worse or to remain who you’ve been for years whether you’ve been good or bad. This year, I’ll be graduating and then I’ll either be attending UP Diliman’s Creative Writing Graduate School or I’ll be teaching for a year to earn professional experience. One thing won’t change though and that’s me writing for the sake of writing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

…it was all Santa’s fault! (so I killed him in one of my latest deviations)

With that said, I made compensations and would like to wish you all the following pre-written greeting:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Happy Holidays as well!

———–NEW DEVIATIONS

BEING THE BIGGER MAN.

The intended audience of this poetry is everyone who has experienced being the go-to-guy of the pack, the breadwinner of the family or even the savior of an entire species. Good luck to you all and continue…well…being doormats.

For #Writers-Workshop, specifically for the YOU Poetry Workshop hosted by `lovetodeviate.

CHRISTMAS DEAD.

I know. I’m weird. But this is just me saying:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
…seriously though, stop killing the fat man with sugar.

source: deviantART

† Jofer

It’s probably no secret – I am obsessed with the color pink. This Christmas season, I tried to incorporate the girly color into whatever I could get my hands on and I could only get them on the spatula. I had thought about this endeavor a few weeks back and I thought it probably would work so I stocked up on the ingredients, bought them and made my ultimate favorite pasta dish: Shrimp Pasta with Pink Sauce.

Ingredients

•    2 pounds medium shrimp – peeled and deveined (last term means to take out all those icky veins. XD)
•    4 tablespoons tomato puree (crush them tomatoes)
•    3/4 cup water
•    4 teaspoons lemon juice (for that zesty taste)
•    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
•    1 cup heavy cream (leftover from my mom)
•    1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root
(or ginger powder, whatever suits you)
•    1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adds the oomph!)
•    1 tablespoon mustard seed (yes, mustard has seeds)
•    2 cloves garlic, chopped (bad for vampires)
•    1 teaspoon ground cumin (don’t sniff it in or you’ll sneeze really bad)
•    1 teaspoon salt (salty)
•    1/2 teaspoon white sugar (sweet)
•    ground black pepper to taste (adds flavor, I think)

Directions for (Shrimp) Pink Sauce

1.    First, place the tomato puree in a measuring cup for…good measure. Add enough water to make a total measure of 1 cup and then place them in a medium bowl. Now, with both tomato puree and water, you have to trust your instincts. I used tomato sauce but you can also puree your own tomatoes, as long as the tomatoes are going to give some real flavor for this dish.

2.    Stir in your cream, the ginger, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, black pepper to taste, and then sugar. Cover and refrigerate until needed. This part takes a little time. I usually go over the top by checking every 3 hours but that’s just me. The black pepper is just there to enhance the flavor and you have the option to not use it. I like using it though because I’m one of those guys who drown their batchoy in black pepper. Instead of that, however, you can use soy sauce but limit salt to ½ teaspoon if you’d use that idea. I like to break the cayenne peppers and exploit their seeds for maximum fire. By the way, this is your pink sauce.

3.    Heat oil in a large frying pan, by large I mean suitable, over a medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds. Warning: mustard seeds pop. As soon as they begin to pop, add the garlic. Stir before adding the shrimps. Stir and fry until they just turn opaque. Trust your instincts again. You can also sprinkle the mix with salt (or soy sauce) and ground pepper to taste.

4.    Pour in the pink sauce (the cayenne pepper concoction) and stir frantically (because my little sister would have smelled this by now). As soon as the sauce is bubbling, the dish is ready to be served with hot cooked pasta. You didn’t forget the pasta, right?

I don’t usually recommend using the soy sauce, not at all, but it’s probably cheaper for some since it’s a ready condiment. That said, salt might be a little cheaper compared to soy sauce but it depends on your taste…or style.

With regards to cumin, be careful with it since it’s pretty much a strong condiment and a pungent spice. It may overpower the other flavors. Instead of tomato puree, you can also use tomato paste aside from the tomato sauce. That way, it brings out the natural lycopene flavor of the tomato. For garnish, feel free to add black olives and grated parmesan cheese. Instead of ginger root, ginger powder is a fine substitute.

A warning though, if you use milk instead of cream, it will be a whole lot watery. That may not be a problem to some but most have argued that the recipe is better less watery than Espana Road watery. Regarding the pasta, I highly recommend you use thin spaghetti.

To thicken the sauce, you can add cornstarch. You can also use half of the required cumin (depending on your taste) and extra lemon juice to satisfy. This can be a really spicy pasta if you get the flavors right.

We had this for our Noche Buena, because we celebrate Christmas being in a Christian Nation like the Philippines, and our leftovers can’t even reach ¼ of the original amount. I serve my pasta side by side with the sauce, not ready with all the sauce poured over it, to give the diners the option to customize their plates.

The leftovers, by the way, are now gone because I ate them as I wrote this entry.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday!

† Jofer

I can’t say I’m a hardcore fan of the genre but I like how most literature included under its belt make me think. The detective genre can’t fail to work like a puzzle, involving the reader to make use of his or her brain, unless the author misses a few road signs or is a complete newbie.

One detective author who hardcore detective fiction fans should not forget is the grande dame of crime novelists herself, P.D. James of The Private Patient fame. She just published her 14th novel last year starring Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard. 89 years old, she has been writing detective novels for 50 years. This time, her latest literature is a non-fiction entitled Talking About Detective Fiction, by request of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

“There must be a central mystery,” she writes, “and one that by the end of the book is solved satisfactorily and logically, not by good luck or intuition, but by intelligent deduction from clues honestly if deceptively presented.”

The book, according to USATODAY’s Carol Memmott, is “filled with fascinating anecdotes about the genre’s famous and infamous novelists. If you’re trapped in the library with the butler, a body and a candlestick, you’ll have plenty of detective-novel trivia to throw about until the police arrive”.

In addition, here’re a few tidbits from the book:

•The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins, about a diamond stolen from an Indian shrine, is considered the first true British detective story.

•The writers who most influenced the development of the detective genre are Arthur Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles) and Edgar Allan Poe (The Murders in the Rue Morgue).

•The four most “formidable” women of the genre: Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh.

Although I have yet to read this new sampling of James’ literary genius, I’m assuming it’ll be fascinating and rich in characters and details just like the novels that have made her famous.

As for my own dance with the genre, I tried to flirt with it on this year’s NaNoWriMo. It was supposed to be heavily influenced by Japanese Culture, mostly with the Yakuza, and have a confused heroine at the helm. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time (any time) for NaNoWriMo. Maybe next year, if I get lucky.

† Jofer

Think of the Guy as Me and the Girl as my Muse.

Recently on deviantART, 2 out of my 3 recent works I submitted to the Writers-Club group were accepted and featured for a week. Those two were poetry under the Horror & Macabre category. I made those during an inspired week after months of writer’s block (also known as my personal laziness). Unfortunately, Chestnut Glow, a creepy prose I wrote during the same week and submitted during the same time is still in the Approval Stage.

I submitted Tap-tappity-tap-tap last November 18. As of this time, it got 10 comments, 57 views and a single download. 2 deviants added it to their Favourites folder: hakeberhut and CursedArchangels on December 11 and November 19 respectively.

Bottomless was submitted last November 20 and it got 2 comments, 43 views and a single download as well. 4 deviants added it to their favorites: animorph4ever, hakeberhut, misamattnmello and CursedArchangels on December 10, December 11 (for both hakerberhut and misamattnmello) and November 23 respectively.

I normally don’t get this much exposure – only for about once a week per month or even per year depending on how active I become with my writing and on the site – but with the new settings and options deviantART has made accessible with Groups, things are getting friendlier for artists and writers alike.

Currently, I promised myself to be more dedicated to my writing but things don’t always go according to plan. There will always be other projects, school activities, personal emergencies and etcetera to contend with so whatever little literature I come up with is considered a big thing with my current predicament.

This year, I plan to finish a supernatural thriller novel entitled GRAY before my birthday lest I want to kill myself with a spork. Hopefully, I’ll make good with my word. My fiancée’s backing me up so it’ll be less painful along the way.

I’ve got body bags ready.

† Jofer

CALLING ALL ARTISTS, WRITERS AND ART CONNOISSEURS!

REPLIKA invites YOU to BREAKING BARRIERS, its first-ever art exhibit to be held within the campus during the International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2009. Before that, however, there will be an ART SCREENING on December 07, 2009 (whole day) at the college canteen.

All forms of art (visual art from paintings to sketches, literature from prose to poetry, live media from one act plays to musical intermissions) are welcome. THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS as long as the event’s main theme – INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS – is depicted well. You also don’t have to be a member to join since the screening and the exhibit are open to the general public.

BREAKING BARRIERS’ ART SCREENING aims to acknowledge the responsible artist for standing by his creation and understanding what art really is for him or her. This will serve as an audition, as all art presented will be inducted as part of the exhibit on the International Human Rights Day, and soapbox, as artists will find access for self-evaluation and exposure to the general populace. The officers will serve as the core panel while members are given the right as audience and responsible critics.

Between writing my break out novel – the supernatural mystery that is GRAY – and steering the first ever student artists organization in Aklan Catholic College history – REPLIKA – in a less than unfortunate path, I still find time to write new literature in my deviantART portfolio. The latter includes a collection of horrifically inspired poetry and prose: Chestnut Glow, Bottomless and Tap-tappity-tap-tap.

I’ve been caught up with Facebook as well, mostly playing games such as Vampires and Vampire Wars to inspire the night stalker in me. It could also be just me stalling myself from writing anything decent. For a determined writer aspiring to become a full pledged author and literary theorist, my recent string of events seem to be destructive even for my own good.

Hopefully, I’ll get in a minimum of one literature related entry this month. By literature related, I mean critiques and lessons that’ll help my fellow literati out there.

Until next Saturday!

† Jofer

I decided to cancel that blog after realizing that I don’t really need extra dead weight. I only created it as practice for COPRE 2009′s Sportswriting English. Now that the event is all over, it no longer has a purpose to exist.

It was fun while it lasted. The daily updates (or should I say nightly), whether through plurk or Blogger, made me feel like I was really a beat reporter. It was an awesome feeling and one that I’ll miss.

Cecille pointed out an interesting truth to me the other night – there is a big difference between a writer and a journalist. Just because you’re a pretty good writer doesn’t mean you’ll be an effective journalist and vice versa. Both fields might have distinct similarities but they also have differences. For one, you have more freedom with the former while the latter binds you to the truth, to service and standards that can sometimes be constricting. In my case, since I’m a writer before a journalist, it was true.

There’s a reason why I only placed in the Column Writing category. That reason was because I loved playing with words without the necessary caution that I might overfeed my readers. Sure, there are instances in writing that word economy is required but it’s not as strict as in journalism.

With news, you always have to watch out for adjectives and features, though they allow you to mix it up, need to stick to the topic. We were supposed to feature a global warming discussion but it bored me so I wasn’t able to fully grasp the message and transform it for the readers. I still have a long way to go with separating myself from my article, if I’ll need that.

Column writing allows the columnist to integrate his own feelings and opinions with his article, thereby giving a sense of freedom for personal slices. I may be the most opinionated writer within the region but I’m not that good of a columnist. I only placed 4th overall.

Lessons learned, experiences gained, growth achieved.

Life is a book with different endings depending on the writer and the reader. There will be a lot of drafts before anyone can publish their respective books. Some drafts, pages, never make it through.

† Jofer