The Easter Egg Speaks

This is the link to the video. Lifted the original text from ANC 24/7 facebook page. Side comments enclosed in parenthetical remarks. Also try reading the naked emperor's 7 last words here. See? If we are all Christs, then this rotten egg is Pontius Pilate. Or Herod. Or any statist power that condemns us into calvary, washes his hands clean and tells us to unite for the common good--which is, needless to say, the common good of their class. Would saying that his apologists are the pharisees make sense? Before the yellow king's rhetorics, I'd like to quote Sir Gerry Lanuza: "God as the supreme Tyrant who plays cruel superego games with us, demanding payment for our sins, etc., is Satan himself. The legalistic reading of the Crucifixion that sees it as Christ paying the price exacted by the justice of the cruel Father is the “Satanic reading” to be opposed to non-Satanic reading: Jesus is put to death not by his father, but by the State."

(Bago mo simulan, sasabihin ko na ngayon pa lang na bargas ang post na ito. Huwag asahang magpapa-academic ako o anumang parang ganoon. Okay? Apir.)

"Kaisa po ako ng sambayanang Pilipino sa pagdiriwang nang pagbangon ng Panginoon mula sa kamatayan, nang tubusin Niya ang sangkatauhan sa kasalanan.

(Kaisa siya o! Digs? Joke lang. Pero, okay ha. Pa-messiah ka sa issue ng RH Bill. Kahit ma-excommunicate and shit. Feeling ko, roleplaying lang yan! Pero, feeling ko lang naman yun. Tsaka hindi naman ito baseless. Kahit sino namang naghuhudas sa mga constituents eh ginagamit ang Panginoon mara mag-appeal sa mga pinamumunuan o inaakala niyang pinamumunuan niya. AT, tubusin mo mukha mo.)

"Sa pagwawakas ng Semana Santa, hindi sana magtapos dito ang ating taimtim na pananalig sa Panginoon. Ipagpatuloy natin ang pagtupad sa Kaniyang mga aral at lalo pa nating paigtingin ang ating pagkakawanggawa.

(Sana rin lang, kahit hindi Semana Santa, taimtim ang pananalig mo sa Panginoon. AT ikaw ang magpatupad ng Kaniyang mga aral. Alalahanin mong bukod sa pakikipamuhay sa mga latak ng lipunan, tinuligsa din ni Kristo ang mga Pariseo at ang iba pang ipokritong gusto daw mailigtas ang kaluluwa ng mga tao pero ang ginagawa lang naman e panatilihin ang impluwensya nila. Therefore, tuligsain mo rin ang sarili mo!)

"Ito ang unang Pasko ng Pagkabuhay na ipinagdiriwang ng ating bagong administrasyon. Gaano man kadilim ang kabanatang ating dinaanan, ang pagsusulong ng tapat at mabuting pamamahala, kaakibat ang matibay na pagtitiwala at pagkakaisa, ang pundasyon natin upang malampasan ang kalbaryong ating dinatnan.

(Zzzzzz... May sinasabi ka? Eto, kalbaryo. Nagpapasaring ka na naman sa madilim na nakaraan, ha. Naipakulong mo na ba sina Arroyo? Eh yung mga Ampatuan? Eh yung paglilibing kay Marcos--na dumeadshit sa ama mo--sa libingan ng mga bayani? Eh yung mga namatay na journalist at advocates ng human rights at maging ng kalikasan? Eh yung mining sa iba't ibang panig ng bansa na nakakahasel sa mga katutubo, at di magtatagal eh eepekto nang malupet sa buong bansa? Tingin mo, may tiwala pa sa yo ang mamamayan? Just asking!)

"Patuloy nating alalahanin ang tunay na diwa ng Kaniyang dakilang sakripisyo. Bawat isa sa atin ay may maiaambag sa pagtuldok sa katiwalian upang maisalba sa hirap at pasakit ang marami nating kababayan. Sa pamamagitan lamang nito, mararamdaman ng bawat Pilipino ang tunay na liwanag ng pagbabago.

(Alalahanin mo ang tunay na diwa ng sakripisyo. AT, liwanag ng pagbabago mo mukha mo. Ang mga pinaka-recent na pagbabago? Wala. Walang mabuti. Palala. Latest na mga balita na lang! Dito sa bulatlat. Labor issue. Media killings. At environmental. Siyempre, sa pinoyweekly din meron. Oil price hike. Balikatan exercises. At mining. More mining.)

"Isang mapayapa at mapagpalang pagdiriwang ng Pasko ng Pagkabuhay sa ating lahat."

(Ayan, andami nang nabuhay na isyu ngayong linggo ng pagkabuhay. Payapa? Walang ceasefire, ata? Kahit anniv nila? Tama ba? Kaya mister president, ceasefire mo mukha mo. Ayusin mo muna ang mga isyung matagal naman nang buhay. Init init, nagpapainit ka pa ng ulo sa mga shit mo. Piprituhin ka ng taong bayan sa mayo uno. Happy easter. PS pala, AFP. Gasgas na gasgas na yung pamagat ng concert na "Himigsikan." Try something else nextime!)

After Three Days We Shall Rise

An inquiry: Why does Sabado de Gloria translate to Black Saturday and vice versa? That is not what this piece is all about. Just a random question. As random as anything else you can think of. Now.

I am uncertain of what I want to say and I do not even know what this piece is all about. To you or anyone who would come across this fragment of the cyberspace that exists nowhere you can drop by.

I am only certain that three days from now, after this holiday recluse, we shall rise and siege the stage to show them what we have learned.

(War drums beat. I am unsure though whether they strike at or from within my ribcage.)

Resurrected Art Enthusiasm

On The Critical Attitude by Bertolt Brecht

The critical attitude

Strikes many people as unfruitful

That is because they find the state

Impervious to their criticism

But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude

Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms

And states can be demolished by it.

Canalising a river

Grafting a fruit tree

Educating a person

Transforming a state

These are instances of fruitful criticism

And at the same time instances of art.

It is not easter Sunday yet and if I am not mistaken, Jesus is about to die after couples of hours, but I would want to share something today and celebrate this good Friday by posting a blog entry. (There should have been another blog post prior to this one because April Fools' Day is over--I've talk to people about this though there are still problems with the unearthing process and its repercussions--and I have found truths that lead into this return to whatever I am returning to.) But I'd keep the sharing short. After dealing with the most crucial hinge of the release from the deep shit that held me captive for almost three months, I've spent a week far away from home. Again. And it helped a lot, but it could have been a better experience if I tried talking with people more. And if *on second thought, I'd rather not elaborate*

As I have expected, the week-long cultural caravan and the Mangyan day, like most activities that expose one to social realities, shattered my established notions and placed question marks and exclamation points with what I had initially planned. This disruption of the direction I thought I would take is, I think, healthy--since contradictions such as internal conflicts cause progress within the space where the thesis and the antithesis collided. This spark of the need to reconsider--or even rectify?--my truths was followed then by questions leading into my rethinking of my poetics. Thus the exchanges of ideas re: writing with friends and writers, ie both by interactive communication and by reading essays and even poems of writers I consider literary models. Glad to have friends who can engage in critical discourse and all the profundities and pretensions and philosophizing that comes with it.

"(...), if either Foucault of Althusser’s theories of power and subjectivity have even grain of truth to them and we are all always already subjects, then counter-hegemonic cultural production must inevitably proceed from within the bounds of that subjectivity. Thus, the Romantic view of the artist as standing aloof from socio-political reality must be seen as a myth, most likely as a product and effect of that very reality the artist is said to escape."

Althusser and Foucault on the Limits of Ideology by Phil Tomson

Realizing that there are still a whole lot of art shit that need to be done and possibilities to be explored and questions not just to be answered but to be asked first, I again felt the urge to involve my self in the creative process rejuvenated. And now, my pen and my notebooks are not in vacation anymore. (Or so I thought!) Three months of rest is--not enough but--too much already. Now, I have to work with what I have (yes, I wasn't totally idle during those three dead months!): fragments that need to be put together to make a whole. And I am not alone in putting these pieces together--the social ills and my personal demons are there to help me conceive ideas and put them into a somewhat decipherable form.

With the re-discovered bliss of writing after that phase when I forgot who I was and I was not being my self and I kept both eyes fixed, neither on the commercial market nor the avant-garde coterie, but on the what-should-have-beens, I am back from the void, ready to tell stories about the monsters in the abyss I created. See? I thought I'd keep this entry short. And I failed. A good sign, I believe.

"Only this: if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don't even know yourself."

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

PS! Happy Earth Day! Fvck Mining! Save the Earth! Serve the (Indigenous) People!

Kritika Kultura Omnibus + QBCCC panel

Check out the omnibus pdf of the first issue of the Kritika Kultura Anthology of New Philippine Writing in English. Download it here. More KK info and links here. Pasasalamat ulit sa editors Mark Cayanan, Conchitina Cruz at Adam David.

***

To whom it may concern, I have recently changed my email address to tilde.acuna@gmail.com and I have (temporarily?) restored my FB account. I will try to access other email accounts from time to time, but to be sure, please send your concerns to the aforementioned email address. To collaborators and clients (naks, amfeeling!), I am still working on things. Please do bear with me. Thank you.

***

For an illusion of productivity, here's a panel from my contribution titled "PSR:5MMiRV" to the Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium Vol. 1. I shall publish the whole three-page silent komiks online soon. Maybe. See the link to the tumblr acct of QBCCC at the carcasses tab because I am too lazy to link. Salamat kina Josel Nicolas, DJ Legaspi at Mervin Malonzo.:

This is to inform you--

(Skip this post if you don't want to read my senseless rants. I didn't posted links to this post anywhere anyway. I just want to "feed the will to feel this moment"--this is from Tool's Lateralus. I just need to vent out. A little. Give me a while.)

--though you may not give a fvck--

that worse days are yet to come. I hope 2011 ends soon. I think 2012 would be better. I hope 2012 would begin the end. Sigh. Brr. Whine. This. Post.. Digs?;

that I have deactivated my facebook account, and it shall remain deactivated until god knows when. I now have no network to shamelessly plug my bull and my shit;

that I communicate via tilde.acuna@gmail.com and you may reach me via email or ym or sms, had there been any concerns about abandoned or forgotten projects or whatever the fvck you wanted to remind me about such as deadlines I failed to meet and, yes, projects I could have committed to but have not done my share yet. I would also take this opportunity to apologize for things I have and haven't done. Yet. I shall continue doing my best to make things work;

that I thought and expected this "new" blog to be professional, but I just can't not fvck around. I still tend to disclose though unsolicited, but at least I am learning to leave the details unsaid. I am somehow learning to contain my self. Or so I thought;

that I am still in deep shit. And I hope YOU are reading this, though you never gave a fvck. And you would not. And I hope you are having a good night's sleep.

Kritika Kultura Links

Kritika Kultura, a refereed electronic journal of literary / cultural and language studies launched its first literary issue, the Kritika Kultura Anthology of New Philippine Writing in English. There has been a soft launch last February, and the discussion has been recorded in mp3 format by Adam David.

About the Issue

The Philippine literary community has a relatively longstanding tradition of releasing anthologies focusing on young writers. However, it can be gleaned that the notion of the “new” remains unarticulated, as recent anthologies simply focus on the “young,” and what becomes apparent is the persistent maintenance of an aesthetics solidified in various creative writing institutions and workshops, a notion that is rapidly rendered inaccurate by a healthy production of writing that these anthologies do not include.

What this issue of Kritika Kultura intends to accomplish is to represent the kind of writing that is rarely published, the kind that is not often legitimized by mainstream publications. The kind of writing that we, as editors, can confidently call “new.”

New, in this case, as the word that most succinctly describes literary texts that are mindful of—by way of formal response/appropriation and/or thematic confrontation—several cultural phenomena such as the preponderance of piracy, the simultaneous/schizophrenic sociopolitical conditions of the nation, the “new” government that includes so many of the old names, the highly provisional stances in criticism pertaining to society and art, the currency and increasing value of topicality and ephemera (as evidenced by BPOs, SEOs, and Facebook), the persistent dominance of celebrity culture, and the gossip paradigm of discourse. The anthology welcomes contributions that transgress genre boundaries, revise traditional modes and forms, formally engage with the largely oral, nontextual/extratextual literary practices of the Filipino audience, and display a technical alertness to the quandaries presented by blog-driven writing, Facebook fiction, protest poetry, the malleability of languages, the hegemony of academic publishing in “legitimate” literature, the dominion of western literary models, and, in light of these, the strategic and arguably fictionalizing construction of Filipino identity.

Here's the Introduction by the issue editors Mark Cayanan, Conchitina Cruz and Adam David. Here are the Exquisite Corpses ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ) of the QBCCC peeps Josel Nicolas, DJ Legaspi and Mervin Malonzo. Here is the piece of IYAS co-fellow Alyza Taguilaso. Here are entries from UPLB--Kat Elauria's and Sir Christian Tablazon's. Here's the link to the 320-page issue itself.

And here are my contributions: Entry Taken from the Encyclopaedia of Biomechanical Convertebrates and io (text) (image). The former, as implied by the title, is a wikipedia-ish article about an organism called the Doom Maggot--special thanks have been mentioned at the end of the article. The latter is a visual poem, with stanzas that snowball using the Fibonacci sequence--this piece was performed by KarMa Kolektib during TALENTADOS, the event of UP PhotoS last February.

Salamat. Salamat din sa mga nauna nang nagshare at nagbasa.

U.S. with Butterfly Wings

U.S. with Butterfly Wings. I think this is my first drawing for 2011 that is, somehow, presentable enough to be uploaded. I googled the smashing pumpkins song and yes, I know "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" has been visually interpreted in different ways, but I'd still want to share something against another war of aggression that will most probably kill more people than earthquakes and tsunamis. And, butterflies are scary according to someone I know.

Clearance

Disclaimer: I know the world doesn't care about my hair. The world doesn't care about the minute details of anyone's lives anyway. Unless you are a rockstar or a politician or something in that vein. And, so it goes.

I've cut my hair short. That short. After seven long years, my hermit strands are trimmed to make things seem less ...burdensome, maybe. This change, in physical appearance, I guess, matters somehow to those who know me--or at least for those who are familiar with me during those days. (And, somehow, as reactions of people went, I think this change of image meant a lot and seems like a big deal.) I hope those people would still be able to recognize me, because I am, or at least I intend, to visit Maria Makiling's dominion soon. And I thought cutting my hair short would make things better. Nothing changed. I still think the thoughts I think. Or rather, nothing changed for the better. The soulsearch failed. Or I failed. I think I'm worse. You could take the shift from the dark color scheme of my previous blog to this lightness as sarcasm. Everyday, life is being more of an evil motherfvcker. And believe me, that is an understatement.

Though it is more important to mark this day as the first day of commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Diliman Commune (arkibongbayan pictures here.), and besides being the first anniversary of The Butterscotch that somebody gave me during those dreamy good olde times of bliss and illusions, I also want to celebrate this day as the Carcosite day, since this is the first actual post that was not imported from the Micoreigengrau Carcosite. And, being the same day of the Diliman Commune anniv, I... Well, I am expecting my self to rant less about things that does not really matter that much. Just thinking out loud. And hoping. And talking to myself. And showing how I fail to do what I plan. Welcome then to the Carcosite.

New glasses. New hair. New blog. New lenses. Same self. More moderation. I hope.

UPLB Perspective Nostalgia

I think it has almost been a year since the release of the first and only regular issue of UPLB Perspective SY 2009-10. Student funds were not collected, paralyzing the publication but never its dissent against repressive administration policies. I'd keep this entry short--still had things to do. A lot. Sigh. Anyway. Download the pdf file here. I just had the urge to post this entry for Tisa. Salamat. Because I remain unemployed, I've been doing projects that shall be posted on this site.

(Note: This blog isn't ready yet. The posts here are old imported entries from the microeigengrau carcosite. For more old entries that wouldn't help anybody's miserable life, please do go there instead and die.)

RIGHTS v.3 / QBCCC Plug

This is only a preview for the entry of Tilde and Mikel Mozo. Here's the original intro lifted from the call for submission of Artists' Arrest:

"The Southern Tagalog Exposure and ARTISTS’ ARREST “Artists Response to the Call for Social Change and Transformation,” in cooperation with KARAPATAN-Southern Tagalog and the FREE JONAS BURGOS MOVEMENT is now organizing the third installment of the “RIGHTS” project - a compendium of short videos intended to increase awareness and rally support behind the respect for human rights. RIGHTS was designed as a continuing project. It has successfully produced 2 volumes containing the works of budding and established filmmakers alike."

The FACTSHEET 43 Art exhibit left One Caldi Place, UPLB. I think it is in Sagada this week, then it shall later rest in Baguio City for another week. Please visit the UPLB Zoom Out Multimedia Collective Page for further details about these activities. Along with the premiere of RIGHTS v.3 shall be the opening of another FACTSHEET in December. These films and artworks shall also be brought to UPLB soon. Abangan!

Got the image here. The fanpage here. The preview here. More info here. The Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium, available at the November 13 Komikon. Starmall. Tickets at 80php [?].