tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77980903175691983382009-12-30T22:04:24.311+08:00BY EXIE ABOLAexie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-41192116705876846002009-09-20T16:50:00.006+08:002009-09-20T20:06:44.811+08:00

For the Sunday Lifestyle section of the Philippine Star, 20 September 2009.This was intended for Art & Culture, but my editors decided to run it today in a section devoted to books and reading. The published version features minor paragraphing and stylistic changes. This article is one in a short series on reading I said I would try to write more than a year ago. I've finally managed to finish

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-72112587192441201712009-09-16T20:50:00.001+08:002009-09-16T20:52:27.707+08:00

For section ‘M’ of the Philippine Star, 16 September 2009.This is how it went: I’m sitting in my cubicle with a senior, a girl of twenty-one years who is two months away from graduation. She’s sitting a few feet in front of me. We are having consultations, and the discussion is going well. I tell her how dramatically she, a creative writing major, has improved throughout the year that I have been

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-52673040870984559252009-08-27T18:58:00.001+08:002009-08-28T07:55:15.750+08:00

Only those who were around in the 1980s when MC Hammer was a star (but not for very long) will get a real kick out of this video. A flash mob of dancers wearing "hammer" pants invades a posh garment store on Sunset Boulevard selling skinny jeans. Hammer time lives!And in case you want more, here are Darth Vader and his stormtroopers grooving to the same tune. (Chicks might dig Han Solo, but tell

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-1090350424133915122009-08-26T20:52:00.003+08:002009-08-26T21:01:59.423+08:00

For section ‘M’ of the Philippine Star, 26 August 2009.My editors changed the title of my piece, but I'm posting it here with the original title, which I much prefer.Last year my fortieth birthday came and went, and just a few weeks ago my forty-first birthday whizzed past too. So far I am happy to report that I have not gone out and bought a shiny new saxophone or an expensive sports car, or

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-82504547367259770512009-08-24T14:00:00.004+08:002009-08-24T20:51:20.885+08:00

Here's a New York Times piece on how Filipinos realize, in the wake of Cory Aquino's death, that little has changed in the country since the People Power revolution of 1986.Filipinos Lament How Far They Haven’t ComeBy Seth MydansThe New York Times / August 20, 2009News AnalysisMANILA — When former President Corazon C. Aquino died this month, Filipinos filled the streets in mourning and in

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-8964222305543635642009-08-22T13:00:00.001+08:002009-08-22T13:00:01.606+08:00

As a followup to that Penguin ad campaign for reading, here's another lovely one, this time a TV commercial. (I'm sure I got this from among one of many online contacts, but I've forgotten who. My apologies.)

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-28815390543778993852009-08-20T13:00:00.001+08:002009-08-20T13:00:01.994+08:00

This article is from four years ago, but I read it just recently. It's from Emerald City, a web site that publishes reviews of fantasy and science fiction. In the piece the author recommends works of literary fiction to readers who don't usually read that kind of fiction (readers of sci-fi and fantasy, to whom the site is targeted). Some of the names are not familiar to me, but the larger points

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-77307103064777601922009-08-19T13:05:00.007+08:002009-08-19T21:55:54.358+08:00

Now here’s an ad campaign for reading I like: “unputdownable” Penguin Classics.More good stuff here.

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-26224776183485506852009-08-18T17:01:00.002+08:002009-08-18T17:04:58.154+08:00

It is very painful to become frozen with your poems, to gain too much recognition for a certain set of poems. The real life is in writing, not in reading the same ones over and over again for years. We constantly need new insights, visions. We don't exist in any solid form. There is no permanent truth that you can corner in a poem that will satisfy you forever. Don't identify too strongly with

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-73381357542026128862009-02-23T15:28:00.009+08:002009-02-24T16:59:12.672+08:00

For the Art & Culture section of the Philippine Star, 18 February 2009.Photos by Hilda Abola of the My Manila photoblog.In May last year I wrote about the Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group, or Philstage, and its effort to become the first awards-giving body focused solely on the performing arts. Well, these efforts have borne fruit. This past Wednesday, the 18th of February, Philstage

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-21065484758587917062009-02-01T22:25:00.003+08:002009-02-01T22:32:44.512+08:00

On the heels of yesterday's weirdness comes this new discovery, a trailer for an upcoming movie titled Romeo & Juliet vs. the Living Dead.O happy chainsaw!(Hat tip to Yvette.)

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-82843114474342966902009-02-01T22:22:00.002+08:002009-02-01T22:27:50.006+08:00

In previous posts (the abrupt version here and the lengthier explanatory one here) I said that I would stop writing about theater or at least watch less and write less. I also said that I've applied for support from my university, Ateneo de Manila, through the Loyola Schools (formerly the College of Arts and Sciences) grants for research and creative work. I sent two proposals, one to finish

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-82164082991193344422009-01-31T22:22:00.001+08:002009-01-31T22:28:25.741+08:00

I don't usually mind classic works of literature being updated or adapted into new mediums every now and then, but this case is just a little ridiculous: a publisher has come out with a new version of Jane Austen's most famous and well-loved novel and given it a twist. The title of the new work says it all: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The cover:The plot summary:Pride and Prejudice and

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-20303923796156298062009-01-23T22:23:00.000+08:002009-01-23T22:25:31.152+08:00

Isagani Cruz wrote a short but trenchant post titled "Paradox of Philippine education" a few days ago. It speaks for itself:I have often wondered why Filipinos who speak bad English, who have no doctorates in English language or linguistics, who have never lived or worked in the USA or UK, who have never taught in the public schools, or whose children do not study in public schools are the most

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-61494135667862845452009-01-22T23:24:00.001+08:002009-01-22T23:24:52.506+08:00

John Nery's blog Newsstand, that is. The new site is here. The look is cleaner and better organized, methinks. A recent post is an Inquirer column on the untimely death — is there ever a timely one? — of a Jesuit friend, Joey Fermin. An excerpt from early in his meditation:Too young, much too young, many mourners at the wake murmured.  Maybe. Being in the same age group, I would certainly like to

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-34612215691503961372009-01-19T23:58:00.003+08:002009-01-20T00:10:37.253+08:00

In my previous post I said I was giving up reviewing plays because of a lack of "institutional support." As a way of elaborating on the point, here is an excerpt from an email I wrote to a member of the committee that gives out grants for research and creative work in my university.The context: I submitted two grant proposals in November. Last week this committee member emailed me to ask for

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-48588504144579074122009-01-18T20:11:00.005+08:002009-06-29T22:18:27.438+08:00

For the Art and Culture section of the Philippine Star, 26 January 2009.Update: The article did not come out in the January 19 issue, as I expected it would. Perhaps next week.Update, January 26: The article appears in today's edition of the Star. I made some changes to the announcements in the last four paragraphs, and the title as well.Finally: here is a belated list of what I thought was the

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-7875330041935027502009-01-11T20:42:00.001+08:002009-01-11T20:44:52.130+08:00

See cellist Wells Cunningham play the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia for cello and violin with violinist Wells Cunningham. The video is titled, appropriately, "The Impossible Duet." (The violin guy plays his instrument kinda funny, don't you think?)I wonder if these two blokes are related to guitarist Wells Cunningham, here playing Van Halen's "Spanish Fly" on acoustic guitar. He's pretty good, too.

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-64996731320060811802009-01-11T20:40:00.000+08:002009-01-11T20:41:32.456+08:00

According to a BBC news report that came out on the eve of the new year, women in Naples threatened to withhold sex from their partners if they refused to forgo setting off illegal fireworks: Naples sex strike over fireworksDecember 31, 2008New Year's Eve could prove to be something of a damp squib for some men in the Italian city of Naples. Hundreds of Neapolitan women have pledged to go without

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-34701618600003318332008-12-03T22:25:00.000+08:002008-12-03T22:27:38.942+08:00

Friend and fellow Ateneo alum John Nery spent a large part of his November 25 column discussing "the most famous manifesto" in Ateneo de Manila's history: "Down from the Hill," a document published in the college paper forty years ago. Much has changed since the five writers put their heads and hands together to write the piece. Faculty members, John notes, often "involve themselves directly with

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-56780056601465054102008-11-27T21:59:00.001+08:002008-11-27T22:01:54.782+08:00

In his essay "Bush's Last Days: The Lamest Duck," Time's Joe Klein bids farewell and good riddance to the current occupant of the White House, the end of whose term can't come soon enough.(Emphasis added.)In the end, though, it will not be the creative paralysis that defines Bush. It will be his intellectual laziness, at home and abroad. Bush never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-37463792010608831762008-11-27T12:30:00.000+08:002008-11-27T12:32:03.575+08:00

After a long pause, here's another installment in this series. To play a jazz solo on a horn, who says you actually need to know how to play one? Here's turntablist (yes, that's a word these days) Kid Koala and his awesome "drunken trumpet": Hat tip to Alex Belth of my favorite baseball blog, Bronx Banter.

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-13139626168986577352008-11-26T22:45:00.003+08:002008-11-26T22:52:19.747+08:00

Comedy is natural to both award-winning composer, arranger and musical director Vincent De Jesus and theater director / professor and Manila Times critic Joey Ting. This is the fourth time they will be doing a theater project together since their first Dulaang Talyer project under the artistic directorship of film and theater director Paul Morales in 1997.De Jesus wrote an original script Quinn,

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-13839216159090085652008-11-14T22:40:00.000+08:002008-11-14T22:42:45.266+08:00

The second semester has just begun, which means my firstyear literature classes are starting their foray into the world of poetry. And when I teach poetry, I usually begin by assigning a short essay by Billy Collins, "The Companionship of a Poem," copies of which I give out on the very first day of class. Collins, a former poet laureate of the United States, is also a teacher, and in his essay he

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7798090317569198338.post-55290675673239968422008-11-04T22:36:00.000+08:002008-11-04T22:38:35.383+08:00

Alex Ross posts a short quote from Wallace Stevens about nobility in his blog, The Rest Is Noise. The entire quote is worth reading, but here's a trenchant snippet:[Nobility] is not an artifice that the mind has added to human nature. It is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without.Beautifully phrased. And tellingly, Ross titles the post "For Barack Obama." Amen.Do the right

exie abolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364538169186540208noreply@blogger.com0