The Carver's House

An Intent to Disturb? I promised myself that I'd do a book a year, but concepts and plotlines don't follow that schedule. Presently, I have quite a number of concepts for stories that would last me for the next five-plus years, granted that I write them to my satisfaction. The sticker-label "creator of gay comics" is slowly unrolling across my wide forehead, and most of the story concepts I've thought up do have gay lead characters. But as an artist (and I say this with a shiver), I'd like to present that gay personality in different ways under different circumstances. Most of the stories I've come up with aren't necessarily about gay love or the gay lifestyle. While Part Two of Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah has yet to be released, my extra brain cells have been mulling over the next solo work meant for late-2003. It's something light-years removed from the vulgar camp of Zsazsa Zaturnnah, or the love angst ...

Speaking of Zsazsa Zaturnnah , I feel it's fitting to announce that I won't be able to keep my February promise. So if you got the book, I apologize for the delay. Self-publishing is so stressful on the pocket, and it eats up a horrendous amount of time, aggravated by my decision to work for my good friend Dean at his company Pipeline Media . Part Two will definitely 'come out of its closet.' I mean, it has to, right? I'm targetting mid- to late-March. I have no excuse this time. *sigh*

Quickies Films I've recently seen are: The Hours (Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore; directed by Stephen Daldry) Kidman, with her prosthetic nose, is Virginia Woolf in the early 1920s writing her great novel Mrs. Dalloway. Moore is Laura Brown, an American housewife in the 1950s who reads the novel. Streep is Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway in the year 2001. This Oscar-nominated drama subtly dissects the nature of happiness when subject to restrictions dictated by society or the self. It's one of them talkie films, and I like talkies. My Rating: 8.5 out of 10 El Crimen del Padre Amaro (Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancon; directed by Carlos Carrera) The most unapologetic portrayal of the Catholic priesthood I've ever seen. (Okay, so the last one I remember watching was The Priest.) This Oscar-nominated film from Mexico depicts Padre Amaro's struggle to keep true to his faith and vocation, yet having to compromise that with his weakness as a hum...

Updates on My Life I keep two logs. Mid-last year, I started a journal on one of 'em expensive notebooks, the kind I won't normally buy. And I was able to keep it up till now, detailing most current events about four times a week in long hand which, in this keyboard-savvy day and age, is a dying art. My written journal has become one of my 'bestest' friends, with whom I can be myself and vulnerable. This on-screen journal is my second log, a receptacle of my observations of day-to-day things trivial and otherwise. If you're hoping to get some mush and gush in here, that won't happen unless the circumstances really call for it. The juicy stuff gets written down, not typed up.

Another PowerPoets Year Once a month, a motley crew of aspiring poets gather at PowerBooks Arnaiz (Makati City) for an Open Mike Poetry Session (with no mike). A few hours ago, I hosted the third anniversary of the Sessions and did my darndest to keep things upbeat and interesting, the same way as last year. I introduced brain-tugging poetry exercises to the group to give the session an added flavor. Nobody seemed to complain. Before ending each session, we have a rengga , wherein everyone contributes one line to a poem. The catch is, a writer is only allowed to read the line before his, making for an intriguing challenge to the collective intelligence. Effectively, no one is quite sure what the poem is going to be about. And more often, the poem spirals down into a blob of nonsense, crassness, and ill-respect, like this piece written collectively during last year's session: Naiwan ang 'yong amoy sa iyong kamison Maliit na parisukat na nagkukubli ng iyong katawan Ka...

A Ghostbusting Aquatic Feline? My niece, in her past life we assume, was a cat by the name of Findette who lived with her dad near the sea. Later she found herself in a spider's web where she grew up to become human. This is the revelation my four-year old niece made to me and my mom this morning. We didn't ask her about her past life (she had already been talking too much since she woke up); she just volunteered the information as if it happened only yesterday. And you know kids... they say things as they are. On one occasion, she was minding her own business, playing by herself on the terrace when her gaze suddenly darts to the window leading to the living room and staircase. She blurts in Filipino, "Get away from there, or else I'll punch you in the face!!" Her mom asks why she was shouting, and the reply was, "The white lady's disturbing me! She's at the window looking at me!" Wow, she could be a Ghostbuster! Little niece h...

For those who've been here before, you may've noticed that I changed the template. From time to time I'd like to post some new art on the large left-hand space, make things a li'l purty 'n customized.