Sunday, May 3 at The Digital Sala
April 24, 2020 at 9:40 pm (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Filipino Writers, plans, Recommended, Sundays, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, fiction, historical fiction, inspiration, teaching, writing process
Reading Manuel D. Duldulao’s THE FILIPINOS: PORTRAIT OF A PEOPLE
January 13, 2020 at 7:23 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, destinations, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, Places, Recommended)
Tags: environment, Events, Mondays, The Philippines
In ancient times this was a land-track to Indonesia and even now one can see at night the quivering lights of Borneo towns from some of the Sulu islands. The Batanes Islands, off the northern coast of Luzon, sprinkle 18 tidbits to within 65 miles of Taiwan.
To this close proximity must be added evidence of early linkage with the “chain of fire” that once ringed the vast unbroken continent. One chain of volcanoes leads north from Borneo through Palawan and Mindoro to western and northern Luzon. Another line simmers from the same start but this time through the Sulu Archipelago and western Mindanao into Negros where Mount Canlaon still stands in turmoil after having poured out tons of lava that were to become fertile layers for the growing of sugar.
The eruption of Taal Volcano in 1965, after being quiet for 50 years, showed once more the hold of nature’s wrath on life in the Islands. The volcano, rising on an island in the middle of Lake Bonbon, 40 miles south of Manila, roared for three days, and blasted out untold tons of ash, mud, and glowing pumice. Steam shot 1000 feet aloft, spreading debris so thick that it buried houses and killed 200 out of the 3000 people who lived on the island.
The late Manuel D. Duldulao was a well-known Filipino journalist and art commentator.
San Mateo Farmer’s Market: Meeting Fellow Warren Campaign Volunteers
January 4, 2020 at 8:56 pm (Conversations, destinations, Food and Drink, Recommended)
Tags: causes, Elizabeth Warren, Events, farmers markets, inspiration, politics, Saturday
The California primary is March 3!
Stay tuned.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge 77: 2019 FAVORITES
January 2, 2020 at 5:58 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Family, Food and Drink, fpj-photo-challenge, Holidays, Links, Lists, Niece, Places, postaday, Recommended, Relatives, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: art, Bacolod, Christmas, Cork, Cornwall, Events, Filipino food, Fowey, Ireland, London, memories, Menlo Park, Oxford, Prague, Redwood City, restaurants, The Philippines, Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Great theme!
In 2019, self traveled the world. Her life triangulated between home in Redwood City, California, to England and Ireland, to the Philippines. Side trip to Prague with her niece, Irene!
Here goes, all the images that mattered most to self in 2019, arranged from most recent — December 2019 — to the earliest, January 2019: Starting with her home in Redwood City in early December; to London’s Blackfriar station; to Manggapuri Villa in Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental, Philippines; to Prague; to Oxford University’s Exam School for Alice Oswald’s first reading as Oxford’s first woman Poet in Residence; to Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park; to the Main House of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig; to the fire pit in Manggapuri Villas; to the Daku Balay in Bacolod City, the Philippines; to self’s bedroom; to the Blue Room in Café Paradiso in Cork, Ireland; to Fowey in Cornwall; to Courthouse Square, Redwood City; to the cover of last winter’s issue of Prairie Schooner, which included her story Things She Can Take
Prague, May 2019
Waiting for the Alice Oswald lecture to begin, 13 November 2019
Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Republic of Ireland, last week of October
Manggapuri Villas: September 2019
Daku Balay, 50 Burgos Street, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, The Philippines
Self’s headboard in Redwood City, CA: Made in the Philippines
Paradiso, Cork, May 2019: She bought the Converse sneakers in London a few weeks earlier. Now they are scuffed and smudged, everywhere.
Stay tuned.
2019: Grateful For
November 28, 2019 at 5:24 pm (Books, destinations, Food and Drink, Holidays, Memoirs, Niece, Personal Bookshelf, Places, Publishers, Recommended, Relatives, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, art, England, Events, Fowey, Fowey Festival, Ireland, Liverpool, London, memories, Oxford, Prague, Thanksgiving, The Philippines, Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Prague, May 2019
Two Handmaidens, London’s Canary Wharf: November 2019
Waiting for the Alice Oswald lecture to begin, 13 November 2019
Currently Reading
Christ Church, Oxford: Remembrance Day
Prague Castle, Last Week of May 2019
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge # 72: WAITING
November 18, 2019 at 1:21 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Links, Niece, Places, Relatives, short story collections, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: England, Events, Mondays, Oxford, poetry, Prague, Readings
It is easy for self to come up with pictures for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #72 this week: WAITING.
Less than a week ago, she and two other friends waited at Oxford University’s Examination Schools for the start of the inaugural lecture by newly appointed Professor of Poetry Alice Oswald, who is the first woman ever to be appointed to that prestigious position.
Self took the second picture while visiting London’s Canary Wharf. Evern since she saw the handmaidens, she’s been wondering what/ who they’re waiting for.
Waiting for the Alice Oswald lecture to begin, 13 November 2019
Two Handmaidens, London’s Canary Wharf: November 2019
The third picture is of self in Prague, where she’d gone in May with her niece. The other woman in the picture is a Filipina; we started chatting.
Prague, May 2019
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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.
3 CALIFORNIA CITIES (Tuesday Photo Challenge)
August 28, 2019 at 7:49 pm (Links, Lists, Places)
Tags: California, Events, festivals, Palo Alto, Redwood City, summer, weekends
Self loves whenever viveka of my guilty pleasures posts for a new photo challenge.
Yesterday she posted on Tuesday Photo Challenge’s prompt: CITY. She has pictures of Chicago, Seattle, Hong Kong, Stockholm, and several others.
Self took the picture below last Saturday, during the Palo Alto Art & Wine Festival.
Here’s a picture of Courthouse Square in self’s very own Redwood City:
Friday, Just before an evening concert, July 2019
Self gave a reading at Philippine Expressions in Long Beach in March 2018. The naval yards are huge. This is the marina at sunset. I have never seen so many boats gathered in one place, virtually stretching to the horizon. My feeling was awe:
Long Beach, California, March 2018
Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature, Day 2
May 14, 2019 at 1:28 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Lists, Plays, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: biographies, Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier, English writers, Events, Fowey, literary festivals, praise
Fowey: Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Have attended two talks, both of them brilliant. The one this morning was delivered by Kate Aspengren, an American playwright (from Iowa!): Where’s the Fire? A Playwright Considers the Plays of Daphne du Maurier.
Loved knowing about this other aspect of du Maurier. The woman tried her hand at everything: novels, short stories, plays — even poetry!
Aspengren talked about three du Maurier plays:
- The Years Between (first staged 1944, in Manchester)
- September Tide (first staged 1948, in Oxford)
- her own adaptation of Rebecca
Because self has read Tatiana de Rosnay’s Manderley Forever (one of her favorite reads of 2018), she knows of Daphne’s fraught marriage. Her husband was General “Boy” Browning who was mentioned (not flatteringly lol) in the book self just finished reading, Antony Beevor’s Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944. It was a very strained marriage, exacerbated by long absences. And du Maurier seems to have drawn on that for The Years Between.
As for September Tide, trust du Maurier to come up with this wickedly entertaining plot: A woman falls in love with her daughter’s husband. According to Aspengren, “the mother and son-in-law have an instant attraction to each other” despite an age gap of seven years.
Daphne du Maurier brings it.
Stay tuned.
Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge: BLUE AND YELLOW
January 24, 2019 at 4:18 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, destinations, Holidays, Links, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: art, Cambridge, Cee Neuner, England, Events, exhibits, London, museums, translation
This week, Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge is BLUE AND YELLOW.
As it’s a grey and chilly morning where self is, the Blue and Yellow will come from her archives.
Here’s a picture she took in Heathrow, December 2018. Somewhat blue and yellow:
The Oceania Exhibit at the Royal Academy of Art in London. The yellow is in the gilt frames on the wall.
Finally, sign on a sidewalk in front of Blackwell’s bookstore in Cambridge, England. Blue and Yellow, upper right-hand corner:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
