Slip of the Pen

The journey that began half a year ago is ending on a night of metaphors and imagery.

Awww.

To translate the original invitation in Tagalog:

The members and this year’s fellows of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA) invite everyone to the celebration of its 22nd anniversary on December 11, 2007 in Conspiracy Bar, Visayas Avenue, Quezon City. LIRA is an organization of poets fervent in writing in the Filipino language.

The celebration will feature the launch of the SIDHAY literary folio of the LIRA Fellows Batch 2007. This collection includes several of the poems written by each Fellow after the lectures and workshops which started last June 2006. Let yourself be swept away by the verses of: Christa De La Cruz, Guia De Leon, Rogerick Fontanilla Fernandez, Pau Hernando, Kel Juan, Phillip Kimpo Jr., Christine Magpile, Alev Maniago, John Montoya, Por Requinto, and JC Sola.

A preview of the folio:

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Update 11/17/07: Airing will be on November 18 at 7 P.M.

Update: The airing has been postponed to November 18. And even that date is tentative. Sorry for this belated notice; their own notice to me was also belated.

If you have the time, catch me later on At Your Pleasure, Nancy hosted by Nancy Castiglione, airing at around 2-3 pm (basta hapon daw e) on the new Makisig Network (channel 76/82 at SkyCable/ HomeCable, ch. 84 if you have an analog box installed).

I think the weird lighting wreaked havoc on our faces. The two sides of my face don’t match. Heh.

The episode is about toys, and I will be sharing my experiences in amassing airplane collector’s models. It will mark the first time in over a decade that I’ll appear on TV. (For some reason, I don’t miss those days as a ‘budding child actor’. I guess I prefer staying at home and writing/reading books/playing video games. And blogging.)

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Some tidbits from the episode’s taping, which was held last October 30 (a few days after our Youthlinks radio guesting):
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Earlier this day, I got the chance to guest in a radio show along with two of my LIRA co-fellows, Pau Hernando and Guia de Leon. Nothing grand an event — there are thousands of people hosting a radio show around the globe at this very second, for example — but still a notable experience. Well, every first-time experience should be.

We came into the PIA Building expecting to zip in for around 15 minutes, promote our upcoming LIRA Fellows’ Night (more on that later), rattle off a few poems, and zip out. Instead, we found ourselves being the ‘main guests’ (is there such a term?) for today’s Youthlinks program at DZSR (918 Khz; the online streaming version can be found here). We stayed for the show’s full hour-long duration.

We felt at ease with the show’s great staff, which includes co-hosts Allan Elman, Rommel Brillantes, and Jacky Chan (yes that’s his first name; I failed to catch his surname). After talking a bit about our personal backgrounds, the LIRA fellowship process, and workshop details, each of us three was given the time to read two poems. I chose two “battle tested” (pinalihan, or dumaan sa palihan in LIRA-speak) works, namely Talà (”Star”) and Fast Food.

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Drum roll please…presenting Karimlan, my new blog where I finally let loose some crisp curses in Tagalog.

I’ve got one admission to make: I’ve been losing the urge to write in English these past months. Even my choice of books has slowly been tilting to Tagalog. Credit that to LIRA; aside from getting invaluable workshop lessons and appreciation for the native language, there I met a couple of minds attuned with mine, and to cut a long story short, the new friendships formed have led to what could become a major development in my life as a Filipino writer in Filipino. (This post’s postscript adds a bit more intrigue to it.)

Given all that has happened, I saw it a travesty that I wasn’t keeping a Tagalog blog. Right now, my Karimlan posts are more diary- and rant-ish types than serious works, but as time flies, poems and stories will find their way in.

(FYI: You’d be surprised to see how frequently I’ve been updating Karimlan. Even I am. Poor Slip of the Pen.)

That said, I won’t be abandoning this blog, much more writing in English. Sooner or later, my muse will swing back to Anglosphere-speak, and Karimlan will be the one with a dearth of posts. I’m betting that I’ll be long-suffering from a struggle between the foreign tongue and the tongue in which I dream.

Okey, tama na ang dada.

Pasinayaan ang Karimlan!

P.S. To get the best of both worlds the hassle-free way, you can subscribe to the Karimlan blog feed and this blog’s feed. Saves time.

We recently launched Komiks.ph, the new portal for Filipino comics and comic creators. By we, I mean yours truly, Ia, and Garro).

Yes, I’m a fan of comics, Pinoy and foreign. Though my fanaticism level might not be at par with most members of the Komiks community, it’s enough to sustain my rabid outbursts when my dad hectors me into selling my balikbayan box-sized comics collection to the junk shop. Collection age: more than a decade. In fifty more years, these comics will be classics, heh.

In the months ahead, Garro and I will be very busy creating our own comic book/s, considerable previews of which will appear in Komiks.ph. A graphic novel is also in the works; aside from Garro and Ia, the only person to know something about the story is Paolo Manalo. Ah, so the Corsarius is now becoming a comic book writer. Is there no limit to his insanity? I’m betting against myself that something (blogging, Filipino poetry, English prose, work) has gotta give. Hopefully not soon.

Before I forget — Komiks.ph offers free blog hosting and a cool subdomain for comic artists, writers, historians, producers, and so on. Also, we’ll be regularly featuring up-and-coming Komik creators (especially the indies), so pay us a visit if you wish to get exposed! Learn more in my related post on Crimson Crux.

Do visit Komiks.ph!

Last night, my snail mail Gmail was the harbinger of good news — I’ve been accepted into this year’s Filipino poetry workshop to be held by the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo, more popularly known as LIRA.

LIRA was founded by National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario (a.k.a. “Rio Alma”). He’s going to deliver the first lecture to the workshop’s fellows — all fourteen of us, according to the email’s recipient count — but I’m not sure if he’ll conduct more lectures after that.

One thing’s sure, though — I won’t have any excuse not to blog in the next two months. I’ll be having plenty of blog fodder, as the workshop will run from June 2 until August 5, 2007. I’ll be honing my Filipino wordsmithing every Saturday and Sunday, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Suddenly my weekends are booked!

I’m thrilled with this chance to once again learn new things inside the best of places — UP, my alma mater. Of course, there’s also that tinge of nervousness blended in, akin to what I always felt during the first day of classes, from prep school all the way to college. Heck, I’m just probably getting anxious waiting for the lit criticism to roll in, haha.

Wish me luck!

Just as I was looking for something to blog about this weekend…!

My piece, Learning Early, won this week’s If My Life Were a Book essay writing contest held by National Book Store, The Philippine Star, and Globe Telecom. You can read it at today’s Sunday Lifestyle section (1st of 6 sections, page 2).

It was a pleasant surprise, because I just submitted then forgot about it (as I’ve been engrossed in balancing my time between work and Tagalog poetry, which I’m beefing up for several upcoming contests).

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Welcome to blog.corsarius.net, the new home of my very first blog, Slip of the Pen. While my two-year Blogspot space was serviceable, nothing beats having your blog hosted on your own domain and powered by Wordpress.

This transfer comes after Slip of the Pen (and me, as a blogger) turned two years old last December 29. Please update your links to this blog, and feel free to browse through the old posts, which are now categorized (at last!).

Special thanks goes to Ia, who helped me (that’s an understatement) port my Blogger “Minima” theme to WP.

That said, on to another year of writing literature!

Two Fridays ago, I had the privilege of picking up my contributor’s copy of the Literary Apprentice Lite 2006 during UP’s Writers Night. In the folio’s pages was my first English poem published in print.

Though I don’t show it here, I prefer to write unabashed street-talk poems in Tagalog. In the same way that I can let loose some grandiloquent pieces in English, I’m fond of having my Tagalog pieces emanate some shock value with regard to the word choice and plot premise. In fact, I fancy myself as a writer who can challenge my readers’ sensibilities more effectively when using the strong words of my native tongue.

Needless to say, it was a great feeling to know that my English poetry is publication-worthy. The fact that the Lit Apprentice Lite is a good folio is a real morale-booster in times when I can’t write that much anymore due to work.

The folio, titled A Long Time Coming and a Long Time Gone, is quite the untraditional publication. Aside from the usual printed zine, it also comes with an audio CD and some mini-zines. Heck, it even has a paper boat, not to mention almost-pornographic images adorning some of the lit works. The UP Writer’s Club was really creative with this one, which leaves me pondering as to the form of the main Literary Apprentice, coming out next year.

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It dies in a blaze of glory and is reborn from the ashes.

An elegant line. Unfortunately, one that can’t be applied to Corsarius.net. That’s for the phoenix.

It dies in an ignominious Fil.ph crash –
there, that’s more apt, though it must be conceded that –

and is reborn from the ashes.

Reborn, in a blaze of glory.


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