Happy Old Year

Last few hours of 2008 and I'm all set for the new year. It was fun, 2008. Traveled a fair bit again: KL, Tokyo, Hongkong, Singapore. First time I started seriously writing drama scripts and look, one won a Palanca and another was aired in a TV show in Singapore. Launched a new channel and about 20 new shows. Our home was made happier with the arrival of our dogs, Sydney and Melbourne. And we were blessed with all the important reasons to celebrate: health, friends, family and, of course, love.

It was a good year, 2008. Here's to more reasons to laugh, to love, to celebrate and to be thankful in 2009! Happy New Year, everyone!

Sydney and Melbourne

That's Melbourne on the left and Sydney on the right. 6 months old and it's like raising twin boys - every 15 seconds we have to check what the ruckus is!

What's with the names? Jun and I both love Australia but Jun likes Melbourne better, while I like Sydney. So there. Standby for Tokyo...

Palanca Newbie

Sometimes when you least expect it, life throws the ball your way and you just need to make the split-second decision to catch it.

Never would have thought of joining the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. It's not only that I didn't think I'd win, I didn't think I'd ever be able to put together an entry!

Last May, Jun told me that Palanca extended the deadline for entries. My reaction was something like, "okay, so?" He told me I should try. I laughed it off. I'm not the literary type and in college my writing gave me a C+ at best (except for that one film review that I did for Dr. Zhivago that got me an A even though I didn't even see the film!) Still, Jun egged me on. I had about 4 days til deadline. He said I can write a one-act play in that time, easy.

Easy? I don't even watch plays!

But day 1 and day 2 passed and for some reason, despite tons of work stuff to do, I did think about it - and wound up with a story. I just disregarded the fact that I don't watch plays and that I have never joined any writing competition before. I just thought of a story that I had a fair chance of telling: a comic book story.

I called it "Secret Identities" and it's about a closeted gay superhero and the day his boyfriend decided its time for them to get married.

And so, that was it. Day 3 and 4 saw me madly typing. And to cut a long story short, I didn't just make it to the deadline, I got Second Prize! Not bad at all for a first time writer!

Unfortunately, i couldn't upload a pdf file of it here so I'm posting the first 10 pages as jpegs. If you want to read the rest, just leave me a comment and let me know if you want me to email the pdf file to you.\

birthday proxy

My mom stood us up on her own birthday party! She turned 81 recently and I joked that it will be her debutante ball in reverse. So we spent a good part of the week calling relatives and booking the venue, Pilita’s -- which is perfect for her because not only is it cozy with good food, you’ve got entertainment courtesy of the owner, Asia’s Queen of Song, Pilita Corrales herself! My mom and everyone in her generation loved it last time we were there (for her 80th birthday).

Yesterday, the day of the party, my mom got dressed as early as 4pm (for a 7:30pm party). All was set. Then at 6:30, I get a call from my sister that my mom wasn’t feeling well. Nothing serious, she just wasn’t feeling up to going out. Just like that. It freaked me and my sisters out because we had guests on the way to the Pilita’s and no birthday celebrant!

So my sister and I tagged team. She took my dad and went to the venue to meet the guests. Meanwhile, I went to my mom’s house and tried to convince her. When I got there, my mom was complaining of muscle pain but she looked ok – at least she looked ok enough to me that she could stand up and easily have gotten into my car and to the venue and be with her guests. But no. So while all the guests at her party were eating paella, there I was with my mom having take-out chicken at our dining table. After about an hour and a half of trying to reason with her, I gave up. She just said, we should enjoy the party.

So I called my sister and we decided to look for one of my mom’s guests who had a birthday closest to my mom’s! Fortunately an uncle of mine just had his birthday just 2 days before. When I got to the party, Pilita was already onstage and asked me in front of everyone where’s my mom, I shrugged and said she can’t make it… but hey, we have another celebrant: my uncle! So there was my uncle, really surprised and in a bit of a shock when Pilita started singing him Happy Birthday and for the rest of the night, it became his birthday party!

As with most family drama, all’s well that ends well. We all had a good time. My uncle and some relatives even sang with Pilita onstage. We called my mom on the phone and kept her posted on what’s going on and she was laughing.

We decided that we’re throwing my uncle a party every year now. Hopefully my mom attends so we can celebrate her birthday then.

Ultimate Spiderman

“Ultimate Spiderman” is a fairly recent guilty pleasure. It’s been sitting there on bookstore shelves for a while but I thought it was a story I already knew. Peter Parker bit by a spider shooting his webs away. It’s the movie right? But not told with so much wit and humor as how Brian Michael Bendis wrote this. Here you really get involved with Peter’s life and how crappy it can actually be. He's juggling school, a job, a girlfriend and saving a city that hates him. He has to buy ingredients for and mix his own web fluid. He has to wash his costume and ask Mary Jane to help stitch it together after every fight. His Aunt May can be a right bitch at times. And worse, he had to actually endure having a Hollywood movie made out of him that he didn’t get a dime for.

It also has some moments that do make you think, like this scene (my partner’s favorite). In volume 8, “Cats and Kings,” Peter asks a teacher how come the courts allowed the Kingpin to be set free despite being caught on tape murdering someone. The teacher just replies “I think that our judicial system has it’s flaws, but it does serve us well, you have to look at the bigger picture… I guess, well, he does a lot of good for the city as well.” Enraged, Peter lashes out “When does it happen exactly? During college? After college? When you turn thirty? When do you just give up? To the point where you can actually look me in the eye and say ‘sure he murders, but he’s got good qualities too.'” And for that Peter gets kicked out of class.

I read this around the time a very famous political figure who, ousted from office 7 years ago, found guilty of his crimes, was then suddenly pardoned by (of all people) the very person he was ousted for. For healing, she says.

So, when did it happen exactly?

Enter Sandman

“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.” – Dream, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (from “Dream Country”)

“The Sandman” is how I got started again in comics (er, graphic novels). Prior to this, I think my last comic was Archie and Jughead. Then, here I was, in the Pearl Jam-era 90s, seeing all my drama in an equally angst-ridden Dream and his Endless siblings: Death, Destiny, Desire, Despair, Delirium and uhm, one more that has gone missing. Written by Neil Gaiman, at-the-time god of my idolatry...until he started visiting Manila a lot and I discovered I wasn’t so special anymore. You want to feel profound and serious and raise your cool factor, go for this one. Not always a linear story so don't expect light reading. Lots of story arcs that seem to go nowhere, then some of it resurfaces about 10,000 years later, literally.

My favorite volumes: “Seasons of Mist” in which Lucifer quits Hell, “Fables and Reflections” with the short stories of the first and only Emperor of the United States and the story of the Wise King of Baghdad who wanted his city to live forever, and “Dream Country” where one cat tries to rally a thousand cats to change the world.

“So what I want to know is, when I’m asleep, do I really remember how to fly? And forget how when I wake up? Or am I just dreaming I can fly?” – Chloe Russel to Dream (from "Brief Lives")

“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.” – Dream (from “The Kindly Ones” where he caught one of his staff mocking him behind his back)

Comic Picks

I haven’t finished a book in years. I always say it’s because of my eyes – after a page or two my eyes get tired. Something to do with wearing glasses since I was 5 years old. The sentences all blur together after a while. So it’s amazing that I even finish reading books like Lord of the Rings, The Once and Future King and those Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles that go on and on with descriptions about the décor in each and every room.

But now I’ve come to admit, it’s not my eyes as it is my impatience. Sometime in my early 20s, I rediscovered the joy of reading comics (ok, graphic novels, just to sound a bit more mature). After all, what I have to read through an entire paragraph to get an image of, I can just glance at one panel. Worth a thousand words.

So, in over a decade, the late bloomer that I am in comics (er, graphic novels) now has stacks of trade paperbacks and hardcovers and single issues. I won’t say I’m a comic-con level expert at comics (er, graphic novels). But I do know what I like. And for those who have always been curious where to start, I decided to start dedicating a series of blogs on the titles I would recommend. (Don’t worry, I will do my best not to put spoilers.)

Why watch Roxxxanne on Feb 2

Here's the updated trailer with some rather interesting quotes from those who watched at UP Film Center last October. You have to watch Roxxxanne! Opens Feb. 2 at Robinson's Galleria IndieSine, Metro Manila, Philippines. For more info, please check out writer-director-producer jun lana's site. (Oh and yes, I agree, it's better than Y Tu Mama Tambien!)