The image in the header is a detail from a small ink painting I did called “Sudden Language.” I wish it came out a little clearer, but oh well.

Mistah Lucas adds his own dark (musical) poetry to Ladislaw Starewicz’ 1912 surrealist film, The Cameraman’s Revenge. Fits my mood today, exactly (which is to say that I feel just slightly like a character in a Kafkaesque play).

On the Surface and Beneath It

Michelle Bautista on the boundaries of pain and awareness in the martial art of Kali. (By the way, I’m very fortunate to have Michelle as the book designer for Prau).

But the body has different levels in which it can receive a hit. The body can take strikes harder in some places than with others. And I’m not sure they believed me when I said, when you go without pads, the fighting gets even better. You can take more risks, go even harder, faster, stronger because you can also stop on a dime. You save yourself from the strike before any pad can.

One guy I talked to replied and said, that means you’re always on. Well, yes, because if you’re off then someone is going to really get hurt. The person striking or executing the technique is the one responsible for the other person’s safety. The uke is simply entrusting their body to you. And I guess this is a difficult concept because it seems that always being on takes alot of energy, and it does initially, but once it becomes engrained you don’t even think about it anymore. Your body knows what it’s doing even though your brain can’t comprehend the speed. And in the end, it’s a very relaxing thing to do.

And on “meandering” under the surface:

…Or perhaps Filipinos are just always doing something slightly different from what they say they’re doing. And maybe it’s a language thing, there is no word in English to be able to meander multiple realms. But this weekend I saw it and it’s so clear in my mind. This Filipino mindset, yeah, I can do what you do, speak what you speak, nothing is foreign. I can become anyone, but I am always me.– Michelle Bautista.

Read more here.

This business of being human has its pleasant moments, but is also incredibly awkward, fumbling, often disappointing.

I know this is depressing, but really – we should get ready for the pandemic flu. Flu Blog.

Lorna on Blogging

It’s interesting to read the different responses people (especially poets) have to blogging — from cynicism, suspicion, anxiety or chatty social gregariousness, to all-out erotic embrace.

From an E-interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes
conducted by Francisco Aragón:

“I blog to push through the plug of prose, that clot in the lower vertebrae of
the soul between the inner eye and the third planet from the mind. I blog to
open the doors I hide behind whenever someone knocks on the real. I blog to
answer the phone. I blog to always be home. I blog for the dead—literally. They
like it. They like to see their names written in electrons of light, shooting
out of the dark or slowly blinking in this self-made sky. I blog to remind. I
blog to recommend. I blog to revel. I blog to reveal the bald spot on top of
God’s head. I blog to call out the goddesses. I blog for the goddesses of
documentation. I blog because I lose my calendar even on a good day. I blog
like the ocean comes in on waves. I blog like delivering hot meals to shut-ins.
I blog to not be a shut-in. I blog to sing, “Yo soy!” I blog because I am
misrepresented, misquoted, misunderstood and missed—often. I blog to set the
record straight. I blog because it’s never straight and there’s never any
record. I blog to record. I blog because I can. I blog, because, I am. I blog
because I can’t sing worth a dam.”

—Lorna Dee Cervantes, posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Tom as we’ve never seen him

Hey, speaking of films, my computer finally calmed down long enough to watch Tom Beckett on Continental Review (thanks to Pantaloons). Loved it! ; ))

This has been quite a week, I must say. Ups and downs. And Now I’m having a quiet, self-indulgent evening, eating gelato from Mangiamo’s. Just me and Gracie. She’s had a little gelato, too. Down the street, the Guerrilla Drive In is showing a film on the side of one of the warehouses. I’m surprised to see a lot of cars parked over there. They’ve varied the venues. I hear they are now showing films in a cave somewhere, and under one of the bridges. Tonight they’re showing Kon-Tiki, and Style Wars. Seems like a rather odd combination. Well, I’m not into it. I’ve had enough excitement for the week.

Galatea 6

Galatea is resurrected, and resurrects once again. 6 is the magic number…

Dion Farquhar has pointed out an interesting journal of poetic responses: Pom2.

OK I’ve started celebrating.

Whew, that was tiring. But fun.

‘night.

Bigmouth Strikes Again

The Queen is Dead by the Smiths has got to be the most fun CD to sing along with in the whole wide world.

I especially love:

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt
Now I know how Joan of Arc felt
As the flames rose to her roman nose
And her Walkman started to melt
Oh …