Granddaddies of Rock and Their Sounds of Silk

Filipina in Hyderabad

2011-07-27T23:22:00.001-07:00

Having replaced writing blog entries for writing book chapters and conference papers since heading to grad school, it seems like this blog needs a bit more recent action! Most recently, I had a grand adventure in Hyderabad, meeting up with old friends from the environment movement, Vikram and Aparna! Of course the legitimate reason for this green reunion was 100% academic. I shared research on

Punk Rockin' in Bangkok!

2008-02-10T11:53:00.002-08:00

My friend Tina is the hot bassist for the indie punk band here in Bangkok called "Tender Preys." They're a trio composed of a French frontman/lead guitar, a British drummer and a Pinay bassist:) All original stuff here, reminding you of happy 80's old school punk.Checked out their gig last Saturday at the Immortal Bar on Khao Sarn Road (the famous backpacker district)--and it was great! Happy

Pad Thai Numero Uno, other food favorites

2008-01-31T00:24:00.000-08:00

My favorite Thai dish hands down: pad thai!In my adventures, there is a shop that I frequent in Soi Ari that serves the best pad thai. It serves nothing but pad thai--with small shrimp, jumbo prawns, glass noodles, ramen noodles, etc. It's pad thai heaven sprinkled with peanut bits and lime juice all over:)My favorite escape includes a big order of pad thai, and a cool glass of kwe kiao,

Holidays in Thailand

2008-01-03T05:48:00.000-08:00

Spending the holidays in Bangkok was a blast--especially with Mei coming in from Hawaii to be with her family! It's been a year since we've met up in person since Singapore but it couldn't have been more perfect to hang around, be silly, play with their four cute dogs and go to church in Thai:)Come new year, there was a blast from the past--with Bjarke and Juan who I had met in Bangalore coming

Filipino Flash Fiction

2007-11-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

I remember a girl's stress-management/back-to-nature weekend with Kris and Mitz from my english block in uni.Aside from eating healthily, breathing in countryside air, and taking long long showers, and a lot of girl talk--we actually had some time to read/write.Kris was settling in with a book by Jostein Gaarder, which was something she hadn't had time to do in between medical residency. And our

Call for Kids: UNEP's Childrens' Conference 2008

2007-09-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

The next Tunza International Childrens' Conference on the Environment will be held in Stavanger, Norway from 17 to 21 June 2008. Environmentally-involved children between 10 and 14 years and their chaperones are eligible to apply to participate. The last Children's Conference was held in 2006 in Malaysia.The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is hosting the event as part of its 'Tunza

Like an old Chinese favorite....

2007-09-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

My dad and I have a thing for cashew nuts--especially in food. We're the only ones in our foodie family to actually love an order of stir fried chicken with cashew nuts in Chinese restaurants whether at home or on the road.And lo and behold, one of my favorites has a Thai incarnation--made with fish sauce, oyster sauce and a lot of scallions and sweet onions:) And no, it is not spicy...At the

Thai spice and everything nice

2007-08-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Having recently moved to Thailand, I've realized how much training my taste buds need to acclimate to the culture, particularly through the food! There is the chili for one thing--and the mixture of tastes all at once bursting on your tongue. Take my current object of fixation--pad thai. Thai style fried noodles, which I think I have had at the cafeteria and different other places more than

A Cleaner, Greener Business Model this World Environment Day!

2007-06-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's World Environment Day today! Happy W.E.D friends:) Posting a picture of the savannahs of Transvaal in South Africa--since last year's W.E.D was themed "Don't Desert the Drylands." This year, climate change and global warming affects even more people in other communities.One way to think of W.E.D. is the spirit of idealism to remember we are one world environment.In the business world,

Melting Ice, Sinking Villages This World Env't Day

2007-05-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that the theme of this year's coming World Environment Day on June 5th was eerily relevant to the spotlight climate change has been thrust in? The most potent manifestation is the melting polar ice, but also the change in life for a lot of families and towns in those regions. A story in the recent International Herald Tribune shows how the melting ice had already affected

Cathy Collage via Imagini's VisualDNA

2007-05-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

Tripping at the Bacolod IYAS Workshop

2007-05-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

The past week in Bacolod was a blast--especially with oysters, beer, lit-talk about writing in dialect among fellows and panelists at the IYAS workshop. Among the works in English, Filipino, Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a served up during the workshop was the heady combination of food, nature-tripping, visits to haunted homes from the turn of the century and of course, the steady stream of libation---

Bacolod Bound--IYAS Natl Writers' Workshop

2007-04-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Ana kulit-meister is the reason why I actually got off my butt and sent in an application for a Fellowship in English Poetry at the IYAS National Writers Workshop. One of the few opportunities for a free writing vacation/inuman/bonding over everything written down in our country. Ana and I met in 2005 at as roomies and co-fellows at the UP Writers Workshop. And once again, because of her constant

Weekend Book Hunt--She Scores!

2007-03-17T21:30:00.001-07:00

Being a Sunday after a lot of dizzying changes--drastic ones that I've been unable to wrap both head and arms around--it wasn't far from my thoughts to spend the weekend to decompress with a lot of old hats like the Rolling Stones, the Doors, the Cream and other rockers of by-gone eras for company.To compliment the time travel, been meaning to get my hands on and finally get started on my Maxine

Anita Brookner, Dumaguete Natl Writers' Workshop

2007-03-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

It's cough and colds time once again at the office--and I didn't stand a chance. Everyone's sniffling and snarling at each other with the office bug in the air. Last Friday, I couldn't take the aching feeling in my bones. This weekend, I took advantage of bed-rest and curled up with Anita Brookner's novel "A Closed Eye" for a little 'me' time. It struck me that "A Closed Eye" and Brookner's other

Mosque Memoirs

2007-02-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

The 10 ten list for this picture: New Mosque, Brunei GUZZLING..GAS1.Diesel is cheaper than bottled water so everyone drives. Climate change!!!MOCKTAIL GIMMICK2.An idea of a good time includes "mocktails"-virgin everything at midnight, or a hotel room of Malaysian vodka.PRAYERFUL LIFT-OFF3. Airplane rides begin and end with a prayer for safe journey.MEETING KABABAYANS4. At Thai restaurants,

Missing the sweet-dead smells of jungle

2007-02-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Recently, our friend Wouter from the Netherlands emailed our entire forest management class--he was a sweetheart who was very opinionated but also very open to talking about issues across continents. It was from him that I heard about how Dutch men were one of the tallest in the world (as a country, their men are taller on the average than most Europeans). So Wouter was taking a trip across the

Are You A Damned Good Atenean?

2007-01-30T04:12:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is looking for a few good Ateneans. Young din dapat. How young, let's just say you have to have left school from the 1990's onwards--and gone howling, shrieking, bawling into the throngs of the real world away from the cliff overlooking Marikina.And if you're the right one, drop her an email and get feature in a video presentation for scholarship programs sponsored by

Multi-media Poetry Exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines

2007-01-24T07:53:00.000-08:00

One of the variations of written art that I appreciate is when it speaks with other disciplines--multimedia, visual, auditory arts. The spoken word against the background of beats of the bongos. The strum of guitars against an installation of sculpture, film and pulsing lights. Yeah baby:) A feast for the senses--assaults from every which direction--at the CCP Main Gallery:)*****Chromatext

How the "Beats" Turned Things Around

2007-01-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school, I was crazy in love with the Beat poets--a group of crazy, drug-happy, love-happy counter-culture poets obsessed with the spontaneous word and the fact that American street language was as joyeous as Handel's Messiah on speed. Music was in every syllable that escaped their lips--and thus spoken word, of an oral tradition poetry began with Homer, was rebirthed into 1950'

Open Call for Poets Writing in Filipino

2007-01-23T03:08:00.000-08:00

A group of impassion Filipino poets are at it again--open, merit-based, for anyone who writes in Filipino find a workshop call below:)Wish I could poetry in Filipino! Hearing poetry read in Filipino seemed to always resonate more when I heard them out-loud. Hearing the "Greats" like Becky Annonuevo and her brother Bobby, Rio Alma (the other name of Mr. Virgilio Almario, National Artist for

Maybe trees talk to each other at night

2007-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of the lines from Gamalinda's poem Subterranean that I love is about the persona's suspicion that "trees talk to each other at night." It reminds me of a Buddhist koan about trees falling in the forest. It reminds me of the gorgeous rainforests I've seen in treks around the region, most especially the amazing grandfather trees in the Kuala Belalong center in Brunei. This is one of them--real

Excesses of beauty

2007-01-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

There are a few poems I have nearly memorized. Nearly, being the operative word, forgetful lover of words that I am. These are the few which continue to mean different things for different moments in my life and continue to speak to me.When I cannot sleep, a particular poem by a one of my favorite Filipino poets comes to mind--Eric GamalindaHe teaches at the Asian Studies Program at New York

iPhone and The Who - Substitute?

2007-01-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

"The Who," a British classic rock group, had a song called "Subsitute" that poked fun of them being a "substitute" for the Rolling Stones. In this case, the word meant a similar item and yet still a place-holder for the real deal.An almost, and yet never quite.In the song, it was about people in relationships substituting one another for the real thing. Pete Townshend blares: "You think we look

Reel Lives - Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo

2007-01-14T05:09:00.000-08:00

In the world of books, metafiction, a technique which recreate worlds conscious of themselves, any one will tell you, is not an easy topic to talk about to the average college freshman. In this case, I felt it best to let Woody Allen do the talking. Yup--I mean who doesn't love Woody Allen right? Funny, neurotic and painfully stuck in a time of old world charm. So essentially I was forcing kids