Monday, January 03, 2005

dawn at thirty six

salamat

Thank you to everyone who wrote, texted, called and sent/gave stuff on my birthday. Really, I am very touched that you took time to bring a little cheer this old(er) man's way.

Shout outs especially to my beloved wife who spoiled me silly with a deluge of presents (which I gleefully tore open, careful not to give her the sense that I wanted to repurpose the wrapping paper - LOL), my family (from all over the country and across the sea - thanks, Jo!), my barkada (Vin, I love the new Chabon hardcover), and new and old friends (Banzai Cat - I am speechless with delight, thank you! But you did promise to tell me when you'd drop by! Dinner soon?). You all made my day.

I spent the day with Nikki and Sage, eating and sleeping, vegetating in the comfort of nuclear family, until the night came. I took my friends to a Chinese dinner before crossing midnight with a throatful of songs at Music 21.

The future just flashed before my eyes: I will be one of those rotund gentlemen, bald by nature and bristling with tired bravado, mike in hand and crooning to the dismay of young people everywhere - but happy, happy,happy.


wow, again

From the SF site's review of the anthology (thanks, Luis):

...the editors give nod to fantasy's non-Americans and to Philippine writer Dean Francis Alfar, whose "L'Aquilone du Estrellas" (The Kite of Stars) reads with the knowing sadness of Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist and with the magic of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Happily, Alfar's story of an obsessed woman trying to get the attention of the local astronomer is less convoluted and easy to follow than Marquez's story. At the same time, Alfar writes a more emotionally complicated story than Coehlo presents in his short novel.


Two things: first, being in the same sentence with Marquez is just as amazing as a woman's impossible quest to build a wondrous kite; second, surviving comparisons to two novels (one of them THE NOVEL as far as I am concerned) makes one quite giddy (though normally I'd be appalled at a short story being compared to a novel, in this case I make a happy pair of exceptions LOL).

What this does is really, truly, irreducibly make me want to write more.

"...fantasy's non-Americans..." Heh. Makes me smile.


bitten

Go and check out Oliver Pulumbarit's spankin' new blog, the latest victim of the blog bug. Welcome to the Blogosphere, man!

Oliver just released his labor of love, Lexy, Nance & Argus: SEX, GODS, ROCK & ROLL, an insightful, sexy and well-written oversized comic book about love, life and gender identity. His flair and honesty in pushing the gay agenda is evident in one of the strongest Filipino comic books of the past few years. And yes, he wrote and illustrated it all, the bastard.



His book is available at all ComicQuest branches across the land.



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