While at Philz, Looking Through Old Photos: Self with Masako Sato, Dearest Mum
December 14, 2019 at 8:51 pm (Dearest Mum, Family, Holidays, Pianos, Relatives)
Tags: Bacolod, Half Moon Bay, Manila, memories, nostalgia, Redwood City, Saturday, The Philippines, Ying
Two Pieces Out, One Upcoming
October 4, 2019 at 10:18 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Links, Lists, Memoirs, Pianos, Publishers, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, flash fiction, Just published, Literary Magazines, Readings, websites
Self is in the issue of Jellyfish Review curated by Grace Loh Prasad: SIGN. The pieces are so delicious and fun. All are really different, showing what self has always known: FLASH RULES. Grace’s opening essay is kick-ass.
(BTW: Seventeen Syllables will be reading at San Francisco LITCRAWL, 19 October, 6:30 – 7:30, at FELLOW, 820 Valencia Street, on the theme: Strangers and Ghosts! These readings are always SRO. Be sure and COME EARLY!!!)
Another story, Tu-an Ju (dystopian science fiction), just came out in Vice-Versa, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s e-zine. The theme for the issue was Otherworld/Underworld, a theme self felt could have been tailor-made just for her. Thank you to Pat Matsueda, Lillian Howan and Angela Nishimoto for putting this issue together.
And vol. 3 of msaligned is coming soon! Thanks again to Lillian Howan for soliciting a piece specifically for this volume, and Pat Matsueda for editing the series.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Featured in Jellyfish Review: Flash by Seventeen Syllables
September 26, 2019 at 1:03 am (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Dearest Mum, Filipino Writers, Memoirs, Pianos, Publishers, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, essays, fiction, flash fiction, inspiration, Literary Magazines, literature of medicine, memoirs
Grace Loh Prasad curated, Roy Kamada’s Grey Matter has just posted.
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
More goodness — from Caroline Kim Brown and Grace herself — to follow.
Grace’s introductory essay, here.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Captain Wentworth I
May 14, 2019 at 6:18 am (Books, Personal Bookshelf, Pianos, Recommended, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: angst, Cornwall, England, English writers, Fowey, Jane Austen, novel, reading lists
He swans into town, proud and unyielding, and makes mincemeat of Anne Elliott’s heart. While he is surrounded by eligible young ladies, Anne is called upon to play the music for the dancing, “though her eyes would sometimes fill with tears as she sat at the instrument . . .” Poor Anne!
Persuasion, pp. 69 – 70:
It was a merry, joyous party, and no one seemed in higher spirits than Captain Wentworth. She felt that he had every thing to elevate him, which general attention and deference, and especially the attention of all the young women could do.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Samson and the Piano: MY ANTONIA, Book II, Ch. VII
October 1, 2018 at 7:49 pm (Books, Dearest Mum, Family, Links, Pianos, Women Writers)
Tags: Mondays, novel, Philadelphia, reading lists, Willa Cather
Self’s mother attended Curtis as an 11-year-old who had never, ever left the Philippines before.
So when she reads the below passage in My Antonia, she is practically in tears:
They found he had absolute pitch, and a remarkable memory. As a very young child he could repeat, after a fashion, any composition that was played for him. No matter how many wrong notes he struck, he never lost the intention of a passage, he brought the substance of it across by irregular and astonishing means. He wore his teachers out. He could never learn like other people, never acquired any finish.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
SCALE: The Daily Post Photo Challenge, 11 October 2017
October 14, 2017 at 5:53 am (Artists and Writers, Dearest Mum, destinations, Family, Food and Drink, Links, Pianos, Places, postaday, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: art, Bath, England, Fridays, memories, museums, New York, Paris, postaday, postaweek, restaurants, Wordpress
Very interesting challenge from The Daily Post this week!
SCALE
Photography ” . . . is all about perspective, where and how you place other objects in the frame . . . ” — Erica V., The Daily Post
Here are some examples of SCALE: (1) at the Louvre, in front of the Mona Lisa (2) in Bath’s Royal Crescent, the entrance to Royal Crescent # 1 and (3) in New York’s Russian Tea Room, next to Carnegie Hall. Self’s first trip to New York City was with Dearest Mum, who once played at Carnegie Hall. This September, she took Dearest Mum, who’s now past 80, for lunch at the Russian Tea Room. We had the best time.
The Louvre, May 2017
Royal Crescent No. 1 (Royal Crescent Museum), Bath
The Russian Tea Room, 57th St., New York City (Next to Carnegie Hall): Dearest Mum took self here, her first time in New York City, decades ago. The place hasn’t changed a bit.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
9/11: Chelsea District, New York City
September 11, 2017 at 1:39 pm (Aunts, Dearest Mum, Family, Lists, Niece, Pianos, Places, Relatives, Traveling)
Tags: 9/11, Events, grief, memorials, memories, Mondays, New York, transitions
This city holds a special place in self’s memories:
- Dearest Mum began her piano career here, at Carnegie Hall.
- Self worked here for a year, before entering the Stanford Creative Writing Program.
- Her sister was married here, 1982.
- Her sister gave birth to three children here, one of whom was married here, two days ago.
- Her sister died here, December 19, 1991.
Because self is at the moment staying in Chelsea, here’s a view of this amazing city, on 9/11:
New York City: 9/11/2017
Here are pictures of the children who were, respectively, six, five and six months old when self’s sister passed away:
William and Christopher Blackett, 9 September 2017
Georgina Isabella: 9 September 2017
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
MVP: “Beyond the Wall,” GoT 7:06
August 21, 2017 at 5:16 pm (Lists, Pianos, Surprises, television)
Tags: adaptations, fantasy, Game of Thrones, Gendry, humor, praise, reading lists, review
“Beyond the Wall”: Game of Thrones, Season 7, Episode 6
MVP: The Hound
Because, seriously, the way he was front and center of all the fight scenes.
Self’s beloved Gendry was tucked safely out of harm’s way by his newfound bestie, Jon Snow. “Go run back to Eastwatch, Gendry!”
Points to the King of the North for doing his best to keep the last Baratheon Bastard alive until Season 8!
Best Lines:
Tormund/The Hound/Gendry/Tyrion
Most Heartstopping Moment: When she thought Tormund was going to be dragged through A HOLE IN THE ICE with white walkers grabbing his legs (Self thought they hated water???)
Come to think of it, there was another heartstopping moment, that she learned about on Twitter via spoiler, but she did not expect to worry that Tormund might die, so she’ll give the Heartstopping Moment Award to Tormund.
Self forgets everything said back at Winterfell. Oh! Brienne spoke. And she was honorable and doomed. Revealing her distrust of Littlefinger to Sansa? Not perhaps the best idea.
Arya’s collection of creepy Fun-House faces: probably a B. Sansa registered the requisite shock, but the mask (Frey’s?) looked like self’s neighborhood costume shop Halloween latex. To Arya’s overall affect this episode: also a B.
Sansa gets an A because the poor dear was so worried that her own sister might carve off her face. No one deserves to endure that kind of fear. No one. Not even Sansa.
A+ Wight: The one dragging the sword across the ice
B+ Wight: The captive wight; for sending the alarm, despite having half its jaw torn off by The Hound
Gendry’s buzzcut finally revealed its utility in this episode: it is easier to tell who he is, with hood down and buzzcut.
Also, the man does NOT run like a penguin. Do viewers understand the mechanics of running through snow? He did the best he could, considering he had never seen snow before and was probably falling into snow drifts and slipping and sliding and what-not.
Hmmm, what else?
Oh yes. The wounds on Jon Snow’s torso: they looked exceedingly fresh. And he looked very pale, almost corpse-like. Jon Snow’s wounds = B+
Gendry collapsing right in front of the Wall: YES! A+ !!!!
Ser Davos being the first of the rescuers to reach Gendry: All the FEELZ! A++
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
UNUSUAL: The Daily Post Photo Challenge, 19 July 2017
July 20, 2017 at 6:38 pm (Artists and Writers, Dearest Mum, Family, Food and Drink, Links, Pianos, Places, postaday, Recommended, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: Filipino food, memories, postaday, postaweek, Sacramento, Wordpress
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is:
The prompt comes from guest host Lignum Draco: “Experiment.” Try something “unusual.”
Don’t know whether self is interpreting this week’s Photo Challenge correctly but, without further ado, self’s takes on “unusual”:
Gina’s Filipino Café, 1101 Twelfth St., downtown Sacramento
- There is only one Filipino restaurant in downtown Sacramento. And it just so happened to be very close to the apartment self was renting. Adobo is the quintessential Filipino dish. Anthony Bourdain said the best pork he ever tasted was in the Philippines.
Still can’t get over the fact that this bridge over the Sacramento River is such a vibrant, fun yellow! Cool!
- It’s all there in the caption.
Dearest Mum was the reigning superstar of her day (She won the New York Times International Piano competition when she was just 14). In spite of that, she was very demure.
- Photos from a stash self had in her closet. She stumbled across them just two weeks ago. Dearest Mum as a shy flower. Before self was even a notion. She went on to marry Dear Dad, who took her home to the Philippines (She had grown up East Coast, mainly New York City) and with whom she had five children.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
For The Daily Post Photo Challenge COLLAGE: July 2017, So Vivid
July 18, 2017 at 6:06 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Dearest Mum, Family, Food and Drink, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, Pianos, Places, postaday, Relatives, Surprises)
Tags: birthday, California, Los Angeles, memories, Mondays, postaday, postaweek, restaurants, summer, Wordpress
Everything Summer 2017:
- Discovered an old stash of photographs of Dearest Mum in her younger days.
- Explored the inside of son’s closet in 2431 Hopkins Ave., Redwood City.
- Rediscovered one of self’s most treasured books.
- Had dinner with Jennie, son’s fiancée, at Himalayan Café in Old Town Pasadena.
- Found artwork by son (when he was in grade school).
- Got a Birthday present (for self) from son and Jennie: Nude Awakening (Self is so WOKE!).
- Amused by a giant stag at the end of a driveway in the Pasadena hills.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
