 | About Me | |
Words fail. ~ me "Purity of heart is to will one thing." ~ S Kierkegaard
|  | 24 July 2010 |
 | JBS8.mov | Apr 22, '10 3:50 AM
for everyone |
Juani's Photo Booth production
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| | Here are the pictures of the National Book Development Board and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People signing the Memorandum of Agreement covering the National Children's Book Awards. |
| | For the past few years, the annual Art in the Park in Salcedo Village has become a welcome pretext to enjoy not just art but also friendships. This year we started outside Salcedo Village, taking lunch in a hidden gem that served Hunan dishes near the Pasig River. Then, aglow with 7 delicious treasures in our tummies, we proceeded to Salcedo Village to fill our souls with eye food. |
To do justice to these lovely pieces by Ral Arrogante, one needs to capture them in motion.
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It was winter in Cologne, in whose great Dom the relics of the Magi were said to reside. The Wall in the east had not yet fallen. I was studying German and staying at a student residence in one of the city’s suburbs. My regular companion at the time was an Italian woman name Anna who wanted to be a film camerawoman, who had been to the edge of Europe from where she could see the migratory birds return from Tunisia, who kissed me in her Fiat while Mozart’s Requiem played, as we waited for our turn to file into a moviehouse to watch Wim Wender’s Der Himmel über Berlin, known in other places as Wings of Desire. But this was earlier in December. The snow was still light although the streets had already become treacherous being ice.
Anna, being on a more generous grant than mine, stayed near Zulpicher Platz, the U-bahn stop that served as one of the gateways to the university that had no campus set apart from the city by fences or walls. She stayed in a flat along Lindenstraße, a flat owned by a woman named Linde, Linde Rohr-Bomgard. She was a figure in Cologne’s vigorous art scene, having just donated shelves of old books wrapped in gauze to Museum Ludwig, that important center of contemporary art that stands cheek by jowl with the great gothic Dom that never fails to evoke in me the notes of the Darth Vader motif from Star Wars. Linde is a widow. Her husband Willi Bomgard was the first critic to develop an algorithm to estimate the appreciation of art. He and Linde were close friends of the conceptual artist and provocateur, Joseph Beuys whom Willi and others helped set up the Free International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research (Freien Internationalen Universität für Kreativität und interdisziplinäre Forschung). I remember how, as we got to know each other better when Linde was away, Anna and I would have to be careful not to overturn little sculptures by Beuys or to knock a Warhol (another good friend of Anna) soupcan into the bath which, despite all our care, we did eventually.
It was a magical, irregularly shaped apartment full of the pop art of the 60s and 70s. One would never know it, from the small door at street level that opened up to a narrow staircase. Below the flat was a high-ceilinged clothing store with plate-glass windows and equally austere vitrines of fashion accessories.
One day, it was decided by Linde, we were to have dinner on Christmas eve with her friends and her. Till then, her house was to be off-limits.
The 24th day arrived. We took the long U-bahn ride past Barabarossaplatz to Zulpicher Platz. It was late afternoon and we came to help with the preparations. Linde had just bought an enormous amount of spinach from a farm just outside the city and we were assigned to wash it in the same bathtub into which the Warhol fell. Other friends came to help with what Linde considered traditional fare: game like hare and venison and more regular stuff like capons and red cabbage.
A few bottles of wine into the afternoon, we noticed that food was slowly leaving the kitchen and wondered where the dishes were all going. Then, Linde reappeared dressed in her Christmas best to shoo us, not only out of the kitchen but also out of the apartment itself. We were to dine, she said with some élan, at the clothing shop downstairs.
Snow had fallen while we were cleaning the spinach and so we exited to a cold whiteness. It was only then that we noticed that the clothing store windows were covered in Kraft paper, the slow-moving glow behind the creased sheets goading us to enter.
We pushed past the aluminum door and entered, as the cliché goes, another world.
The mannequins and shelves had vanished. The vitrines and cash register were gone. The glossy tiled floor had disappeared under a white carpet of what appeared to be snow that blunted the edges of everything, except for the corners of the large space that was once the clothing store.
But we knew it was not snow the moment we stepped on it and into the room. It yielded under us and muffled the sound of our footfalls. Yet, it was neither cold nor wet nor slippery. It neither glistened nor gleamed. Instead it diffused what light there was and softened the peaks of every sound we made.
It was sand in winter and a fine sand with hardly any grittiness to it. Yet it was not so light that it turned into clouds as we walked. Nor could we smell it or breathe in any wispiness. There was about a third of a meter of it, covering the whole space or poured into thick crystal bowls that served as ashtrays. Off it were reflected the two main sources of golden light, suffusing this magical space with a calming lambency.
To the left, in the far corner, stood a five-meter pine tree, its branches adorned alternately with white, lit candles, and fresh, long-stemmed hothouse roses. To the center right of the room, was the Christmas dinner table groaning with hare and venison, boar and capons, a salad of red beets and green leaves, brilliant under a frame that like tree branches heavy with fruit held old-fashioned toys of glossy tin and bright enamel and Christmas balls of various sizes, some frosted with silver, some brash and gaudy, as if still slick with colored paint.
We were speechless Anna and I, in the center of room to which the lone door opened and through which we had entered. There we were caught in the warm half-light, half-darkness between primal tree and the humans’ table.
Linde approached us with the smile of an artist who succeeds. She offered Sekt, the bubbles in their flutes catching the glint from the tin toys of a more beautiful time. We smiled first at the other guests, our tongues thick both with wonder and the knowledge of our inadequacies in German. But the magic was infectious and soon we chatted in a spill of German, English and Italian.
Dinner would soon be served, Linde was to say but first, there was one last thing.
To the right of the tree, against the wall, was an old upright piano. One of Linde’s friends walked noiselessly up to it, sat on the stool and began to play old German carols. Once again, we were silent as we listened, to the descendants of Bach and Beethoven sing sans echo the music of salvation and kinship during sunless times. Then as a finale, Linde called the son of one of the guests. Anna remarked on his androgynous beauty, recalling Bjorn Johan Anderson, who played Tadzio, the silent boy in Luchino Visconti’s film of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.
The youth was clad all in white ~ from his jeans to the turtleneck and the scarf that reached down to his calves. But on his feet, as if to assert his reality against the magic of the tableau, he wore the heavy black high-cut Doc Martens boots so in vogue at the time. He approached the pianist silently, in his hands a thick brown battered book bound in soft leather. He paused to look at us and in a voice that first started tremulously but gained more confidence as he found his cadence, he read aloud:
“Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit, daß ein Gebot von dem Kaiser Augustus ausging, daß alle Welt geschätzt würde. Und diese Schätzung war die allererste und geschah zu der Zeit, da Cyrenius Landpfleger von Syrien war. Und jedermann ging, daß er sich schätzen ließe, ein jeglicher in seine Stadt. Da machte sich auch auf Joseph aus Galiläa, aus der Stadt Nazareth, in das jüdische Land zur Stadt Davids, die da heißt Bethlehem, darum daß er von dem Hause und Geschlechte Davids war, auf daß er sich schätzen ließe mit Maria, seinem vertrauten Weibe, die ward schwanger. Und als sie daselbst waren, kam die Zeit, da sie gebären sollte. Und sie gebar ihren ersten Sohn und wickelte ihn in Windeln und legte ihn in eine Krippe; denn sie hatten sonst keinen Raum in der Herberge. . . ." [http://www.bibel-online.net/buch/42.lukas/2.html]
“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. . . ."
It was the gospel of Luke, what Germans call the Christmas story.
A warmth enveloped all of us as we listened to this young man’s voice, our own minds filling in with our own languages the words we did not understand. All the way from this street in Köln, my heart flew to the bright crowded masses in Manila, seeking out those whom I loved. After a few words, dinner would be served.
Happy Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, Maligayang Pasko.
Ramón C Sunico © All rights reserved, Pasko 2009.
First photo: Linde Rohr-Bomgard and Joseph Beuys From: http://www.manager-magazin.de/fotostrecke/0,2828,PB64-SUQ9MzcxNzgmbnI9Mg_3_3,00.html
Second photo: Film poster for Mann/Visconti's Death in Venice, with an artists's portrait of Bjorn Johan Anderson as Tadzio
| | Albert Gamos was one of the most accomplished book illustrators in the Philippines. He specialized in illustrating children's books and helped make many memorable books for most of the children's book publishers in the Philippines. He was often cited and awarded in a number of international competitions like Noma Concours of the Bratislava Biennial of Illustration (BIB) of children's books, organized by the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU).
He passed away from complications from diabetes recently and on, 13 December 2009, his family and admirers organized a small religious and a memorial service where some of his artworks and a slide show were shown.
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| | Historic exhibit of Kidlat Tahimik, Katrin de Guia and their children Kidlat, Kawayan and Kabunyan. It is historic because this is the first time the family have had an exhibit of their works under one roof. |
 PINAY AUTHOR SCORES WORLDWIDE DEAL WITH UK PUBLISHING GIANT – BUT HANDS RP RIGHTS TO PINOY PUBLISHER
Former Philippine Daily Inquirer journalist Candy Quimpo Gourlay this week sold her novel TALL STORY to David Fickling Books (DFB), joining a prestigious list that includes John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) and Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass). DFB praises the book as “an outstanding and highly original novel”.
Candy, who lives in London, however reserved Philippine publication rights for publisher Ramon “RayVi” Sunico in the Philippines. Sunico is the manager of Cacho Publishing House, which has pioneered in bringing teen fiction to the Philippine publishing scene.
“It was so important to me that a Pinoy publisher will be the one who brings my writing to the Filipino public. I am thrilled that RayVi is going to be that publisher,” Candy said. In turn, Sunico writes, “From the moment I discovered Candy’s blog and read the wonderfully wrought prose of Volcano Boy and thenTall Story, I knew that getting her read here would benefit not only the growing field of Philippine Young Adult lit but inspire the many young Filipinos who will be her readers.”
TALL STORY uses the Bernardo Carpio legend and other Philippine folk lore as a stepping-off point to tell the story of a teenage boy named Bernardo who grows to eight feet tall. After years separated by immigration paperwork, Bernardo meets his half English sister Andi with by turns hilarious and touching results.
Says Bella Pearson, Editorial Director of DFB: “It isn't often that I am in fits of laughter one minute and in tears the next — TALL STORY is one of the warmest, funniest, most moving books I've read in a long time — and Candy Gourlay is a rare and new voice in children's fiction. We are feeling immensely excited (and smug!) to be able to add her name to the DFB list.”
A hardback of TALL STORY will be published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 and later in the United States later in the year. A publication date will soon be announced in the Philippines.
DFB is an imprint of Random House, one of the biggest publishing companies in the world.
“I can’t believe my luck. Not only do I get to work with RayVi Sunico who is himself a fabulous poet, but I get to meet David Fickling whom I’ve always admired — his books are always gorgeously published and his taste is impeccable,” Candy said.
Candy moved to the UK in 1989 after she married Richard Gourlay, who was the Manila-based correspondent for the Financial Times of London. In the UK, she became the London correspondent of the news agency Inter Press Service and later the editor of the pan-European magazine Filipinos in Europe. They have three children.
Notes for Editors
David Fickling Books is publisher of quality picture books and fiction, and is home to some of the most bestselling and highly acclaimed authors including Philip Pullman (published by DFB in the UK only), John Boyne, Mark Haddon (published by DFB in the UK only) and Jenny Downham. Its authors have won all of the major literary prizes including the Costa Children's Book of the Year, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and most recently the Carnegie Medal. David Fickling Books is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books UK and Random House Children’s Books in the United States and is based in Oxford, England and New York, USA.
For more information about Candy Gourlay see: www.candygourlay.com
For more information about DFB see: www.davidficklingbooks.co.uk
*********************************************************
Here is the UK announcement from David Fickling Books:
ACQUISITION ANNOUNCEMENT
(Embargoed until 09.00 Thursday 12th November 2009)
PUBLISHING GIANT ACQUIRES GIANT NOVEL
David Fickling Books is enormously proud to announce the acquisition of a new stand-(tall)-alone novel, TALL STORY!
TALL STORY by Candy Gourlay is an outstanding and highly original novel for 10yrs+. The deal was negotiated by Hilary Delamere from The Agency and David Fickling.
This is a book about Bernardo, a boy who lives in the Philippines, and Bernardo is tall. Not just tall, he’s 8ft tall. Bernardo is actually a GIANT! In a novel packed with humour and quirkiness, Gourlay explores a touching sibling relationship and the comedic results of two very different cultures colliding.
Editorial director, Bella Pearson, knew there was something special from the first page: “It isn't often that I am in fits of laughter one minute and in tears the next -TALL STORY is one of the warmest, funniest, most moving books I've read in a long time -and Candy Gourlay is a rare and new voice in children's fiction. We are feeling immensely excited (and smug!) to be able to add her name to the DFB list.”
Candy Gourlay was born in Manila during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. She was in her twenties when she moved to the UK after covering the revolution that overthrew Marcos. In addition to journalism and writing for children, Candy is involved in a range of media: blogging, designing websites and even creating YouTube videos.
Candy is passionate about embracing and exploiting the digital world to promote books, meeting other like-minded people and reaching out to younger readers online. She runs the popular blog Notes from the Slushpile for aspiring writers. TALL STORY will be Candy’s first full-length published novel.
TALL STORY will be published in June 2010 in hardback and will be launched with widespread digital publicity and buzz; David Fickling Books in the US will publish later in the year and Hilary Delamere has negotiated a separate edition to be launched in the Philippines by Ramon Sunico’s Cacho Publishing House.
For more information about Candy Gourlay see: www.candygourlay.com For more information about DFB see: www.davidficklingbooks.co.uk
Notes for Editors
David Fickling Books is publisher of quality picture books and fiction, and is home to some of the most bestselling and highly acclaimed authors including Philip Pullman (published by DFB in the UK only), John Boyne, Mark Haddon (published by DFB in the UK only) and Jenny Downham. Its authors have won all of the major literary prizes including the Costa Children's Book of the Year, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and most recently the Carnegie Medal. David Fickling Books is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books UK and Random House Children’s Books in the United States and is based in Oxford, England and New York, USA.
For more information please contact:
Georgia Lawe, Deputy Publicity Director at RHCB
T: 020 8231 6413 or E: glawe@randomhouse.co.uk
| | Cosplay originally stressed the importance of self-made costumes, although more and more cosplayers are making costumes for others. Seeing the fantasy, imagination and fine handwork that went into the costumes, I can only wonder whether the educational establishment has the potential and aptitude of our youth pegged wrong. They're definitely not destined to work like factory drones as some of our industry leaders seem to wish. Someone once referred to these cosplayers as "losers." Losers my foot! They were brilliant, friendly, decent, polite -- and the quality of their work speaks for itself. |
| | I had only seen the cosplay of Shibuya outside of the ones held here in Manila. There, the cosplay was on Shibuya's lanes and alleys in the vicinity of Dozensaka. Here the cosplay was concentrated in an exposition hall with people in costume spilling over the mall, disorienting the security guards and trickling out all the way to the pink caged busstops along EDSA. A beautifully bizarre Sunday. |
| | Cosplay (Costume play, costume roleplay, コスプレ ~ kosupure) >>> dressing up as comics, anime, graphic novel, video characters. Originating in Japan, the practice has become popular worldwide as an expression of fan loyalty for a whole spectrum of popular graphic forms/products.
Here, in the Philippines, the cosplay experience has become, inadvertently or not, a showcase for the so-called traditional Filipino genius for ingenuity and craftsmanship. The telling difference is in the choice of subject matter which it draws not from traditional sources but from the products of global digital media businesses that bind the youth of the world and define them against their own elders' ideas of play and fandom. |
| | Held at Marikina Convention Center, 9am to 12 noon
Would appreciate help with captions |
 Tomorrow, the 3rd Tuesday of July, is National Children's Book Day here in the Philippines. (Illustration by Jomar Rivera)
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