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Wednesday, October 08, 2008

NATIONAL ARTIST: F. SIONIL JOSE

Much to my great delight, I've finally located and visited Solidaridad Bookstore yesterday. Hailed as the finest in the Philippines, it reminds me of the quaint specialty book shops in New York that have been made extinct by the superstores like Barnes & Noble and Border's. However, unlike those specialty Manhattan bookstores now long gone, Solidaridad has managed to thrive for more than forty years now.

The foreign titles it carries -- in fiction, poetry and other subjects like humanities, philosophy, history and political theory -- including its impressive inventory of Filipino books, makes Solidaridad a favorite haunt by serious book collectors and wordsmiths. Its name was inspired by the fortnightly journal La Solidaridad, mouthpiece of leading Filipino nationalists during the Spanish rule.

According to a PDI article by Tina Santos, each and every book sold in Solidaridad is painstakingly scrutinized by its owner, making sure that it is interesting, important or have a permanent value. For my initial purchase, out of deep respect for its owner, F. Sionil Jose, I got two books he authored: Ben Singkol and To the Young Writer and Other Essays.

Fortunately, on that particular morning, Mr. Jose was in his office at the store's mezzanine; thus, the store clerk was able to have him sign my copies. Although I didn't meet him, I did get to meet his wife, Teresita. We enjoyed a brief, though lively, conversation that revolved around her travel experiences abroad, as well as the couple of years she had lived in California with her daughter. Incidentally, our fellow blogger Noypete was her son Tonette's college buddy.

As a prolific essayist and novelist, Mr, Jose prefers to write in English rather than in Tagalog or Ilocano. His works have become some of the most widely-read in the English language.

It was in 1962 when his first novel, The Pretenders, was published. And since then, his catalog of published works has grown to include twelve novels, seven books of short stories, a book of verse, and five important books of essays.

His writings, which are available in 28 languages, often depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society,

He has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards; two of which were the 2004 Pablo Neruda Centennial Award from Chile and the notable and most prestigious award of its kind in Asia, the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts. On June 11, 2001, Mr. Jose was awarded the prestigious title of National Artist for Literature in an official ceremony at Malacañang.

Born in Rosales, Pangasinan on December 3, 1924, Mr. Jose started writing while in grade school. As a fifth grade pupil, he frequented the school library and immersed himself in the novels of Jose Rizal and those of great foreign authors.

According to Wikipedia, "reading about Basilio and Crispin in Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere made the young Jose cry, because injustice was not an alien thing to him. When Joe was five years old, his grandfather who was a soldier during the Philippine revolution, had once tearfully showed him the land their family had once tilled but was taken away by rich mestizo landlords who knew how to work the system against illiterates like his grandfather."

Recently, Mr. Jose reportedly walked out during the tribute to Lucrecia Kasilag at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The reason: he couldn’t stand finding himself in the company of Imelda Marcos; worse, seeing the former first lady mount the podium to eulogize Kasilag and then regale the audience with her own major role in the birth of the CCP. That was too much for Mr. Jose, so he decided to get up and leave.

In his statement to the CCP officials, Mr. Jose begged them not to honor Imelda Marcos in any of the CCP activities. Furthermore, he asserts:

In ostracizing her and denying her honor, you honor the memory of Ninoy Aquino and the thousands upon thousands who were unjustly jailed, tortured, killed or salvaged by the Marcos dictatorship.

In honoring the plunderers of this nation and letting them off easy without any punishment (like Erap) we not only condone their infamy; other rapists of this nation will also feel redeemed, convinced that they did no wrong. Then, they pave the way for future criminals to do the same, sure that, like Imelda and her gang, they will not be punished and that after their foul deeds, they can even preen in the limelight before a people without memory.

The Marcoses were in power for more than 20 years — they gave patronage with the people’s money to many. These recipients of their patronage are grateful. I can very well understand that, but keep in mind that the evil that they did far outweighs the miniscule good that they achieved, the Cultural Center is one and the appointment of King is another.

The Center and King helped deodorize a little a murderous dictatorship. And don’t you ever forget, it was your money, my money, OUR money that built the Cultural Center — not Imelda’s.

In his book To The Young Writer and Other Essays, Mr. Jose asks our young writers:

Be an honest witness to your time, and be strong when they revile you for telling the truth. Your vocation will also condemn you to solitude, but remember -- he who stands alone is the strongest. Even in our shattering loneliness, remember you are writing, not for critics, academics, or other writers, but for your own people who, in their silence and perhaps poverty, cannot express the aspirations and anguish. You are their voice but only if you have not deserted or betrayed them.

These days, Mr. Jose and his wife continue untiringly to mind their bookstore's daily grind.

Solidaridad Bookshop
531 Padre Faura Street
Ermita, Manila
Telephone: (632) 523-0870

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Labels: Featured Writer, national artist

posted by Señor Enrique at 7:25 AM | 74 comments

Monday, September 29, 2008

ON WRITING AND BLOGGING

"Quiapo deserves a thorough visit from every writer worth his or her salt. I'd begin with a jeepney ride (no cars or taxis, please) from Quezon City of Makati, getting off at Quiapo Church (where you might get your fortune told or have someone pray on your behalf, for a small fee), then walking to Avenida Rizal via R. Hidalgo, Carriedo, or Raon then on to Plaza Sta. Cruz, Escolta, and Chinatown, emerging on C. M. Recto (Azcarraga, when I first set foot on it). Spend some time at Arranque Market, a stationary caravan featuring plump exotic chickens, riotous parakeets, and flea-bitten Persian kittens (and, father up the street, everyone's stolen cell phone, typically if understandably sold without their chargers). Somewhare along the way, eat - preferably in some nondescript but jumpacked hole-in-the-wall with ceiling fans to cool the hototay.

As you walk around, practice sizing up situations and asking yourself 'Where's the story?' or 'What's the story here?' At worst, you'll end up with a bag of details, a literary pack rat's delight, that you can dip into on those still, dry days. At best, you'll come up with a story suggested by the scene at hand."

Labels: blogging, Featured book, Featured Writer, photography, writing

posted by Señor Enrique at 1:07 AM | 16 comments

Saturday, August 30, 2008

12 LITTLE THINGS EVERY FILIPINO CAN DO

I bet you're wondering what this is all about.

It's about a little book, "12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do To Help Our Country," 105 pages, written by Alexander Lacson, 40, a lawyer by profession, a UP graduate, College of Law Class 1996, with postgraduate studies at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Four years ago, he and his wife Pia had a serious discussion about migrating to the US or Canada because the Philippines appeared hopeless as it only got worse year after year. They asked themselves this question: “Will the Philippines progress in the next 20 years?” If the answer was yes, they’d stay. If no, they would leave and relocate.

After a long discussion, they could not give a definite answer to the question, until they realized that the answer to that question is actually in them. They also realized that the answer is in us as a people, that hope is in us as a people.

Since then, Alexander and Pia decided to do more for their country. Thus, this book — one way of their ways of doing more for the country.


I won't go into details here, for these 12 basic steps are self-explanatory but the author's arguments are valid and his recommendations, feasible. Get a copy. It's a quick read and besides, you may be inspired to become a part of the solution to alleviate our country's ills.

And If you agree with what this book says as doable, buy one for a friend, and then request that friend to give a copy as well to another friend. Come to think of it, our balikbayan friends and relatives should buy some copies to bring back as pasalubong to our compatriots abroad.

To buy copies, you may call at these telephone numbers: 840-0338 to 41.

You may also contact the author via email: alacsonph@yahoo.com

Labels: Featured book, Featured Writer

posted by Señor Enrique at 10:45 AM | 71 comments

Friday, August 11, 2006

ON BOOKS AND WRITERS

For all blogmates game enough to have done the six weirdness meme a week or so ago — and may now be having regrets for revealing their uniquely strange characteristics — I say don’t sweat it. Check out instead the following five accomplished writers and their peculiar habits*:

- Henrik Ibsen hung a picture of August Strindberg, his mortal enemy, near his writing desk.

- Friedrich von Schiller couldn’t write unless his bare feet were immersed in cold water.

- Jack Kerouac wrote only by candlelight.

- John Steinbeck suffered from the fear of putting down the first line.

- John Cheever used to put on a business suit, leave his apartment, and go to his basement where he would hang his suit on a hanger and proceed to write in his underwear.

We may laugh at them now, but guess who in the end laughed all the way to the bank?

Speaking of writers, recently, I was tagged by a newfound blogmate, Ipanema of Lands End. Her meme is all about books. This, I must admit, has got to be the toughest meme yet only because I’ve read quite a few and to choose one title as the singular response to each of the following questions is absolutely tough. There were instances where I was convinced I was done, but only to go back to make some changes. At one point, it seemed like I was going through one of those neuroses common amongst New Yorkers.

Finally, I just had to say to myself, “Stop it! No more changes. Post the damn thing!”

So here are my responses:

One book that changed your life:

The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes -- absolutely the finest book on anger management.

One book you have read more than once:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – though small and a quick read, it is truly a feel good book.

One book you would want on a desert island:

U.S. Army Survival Manual – I’ve got to eat eventually.

One book that made you laugh:

356 Daily Instructions for Hysterical Living by Benrik – a celebration of one’s innate desire to be silly and frivolous, but too ashamed to admit it.

One book that made you cry:

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron – the challenge alone of reading it from start to finish can make any grown men cry.

One book you wish had been written:

The Deliriously Blissful Life, A Manual -- to be awarded at birth right after you get slapped on the butt by a masked, white-gowned stranger.

One book you wish had never been written:

The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels – it doesn’t work mainly because it lacks an understanding of/consideration for human psyche. Not their fault – when the book was published in 1848, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) wasn't even born and Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was still a high school student.

One book you are currently reading:

The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfield – more appropriately, a book I’m currently trying to finish reading

One book you have been meaning to read:

Freakonomics by S. Levitt and S. Dubner – if I could only find a copy here in Manila

Now tag five people:

Since it was a newfound blogmate that tagged me, thought it’d be fitting for me to tag other newfound blogmates as well for this meme. So here you are:

Aurea — Boxing, Grad School, Life…
Bugsybee — Blogging Bugs
Houseband00 — My Life With D (The Houseband Chronicles)
Ladybug — Of Law and Badminton
Wil — Miskina Ano Na Isip
Jhay - Pinoy Explorer

You may post your response on my comment box if you do not wish to post a separate entry of it on your site. Others who may wish to join in the fun can post your responses also on my comment box.

Have fun, y'all!

*Source: Art and Soul, 156 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit by Pam Grout

Labels: Featured book, Featured Writer, meme

posted by Señor Enrique at 9:07 PM | 30 comments

Sunday, July 16, 2006

SUNDAY GOOD READS

One of my favorite pastimes in New York was going to Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Broadway in front of Lincoln Center. This is an entire building with about four floors of books galore.

On its very top floor is a café and near it is an entire wall of racks of magazines — from consumer to specialty trade. Although these are for sale, you can browse through them at your heart’s delight provided, of course, that you handle them with care and not crumple the pages.

What I would do is grab a couple of magazines after getting myself a mug of decaf coffee or green tea and then find myself a stool by the counter that runs along the immense floor-to-celing window. With Lincoln Center as my view, I would leisurely read those glossies as I sip my hot beverage. This super bookstore also offers tables and comfortable couches for its patrons, but when alone, I usually prefer sitting by the window where, after reading, I would just gaze at the Manhattan skyline and space out. Quite meditative, actually.

The magazines at Metro Manila newstands are oftentimes enclosed in clear plastic bags and sealed shut. This is to prevent passersby from making a public library out of their kiosks. Understandably so but a potential customer can only base his decision to buy on the merits of a magazine's cover (back covers are superfluous since they're mostly contracted to major advertisers). However, regular customers are sometimes privileged to open the plastic bag and quickly browse through a magazine's table of contents, as well as its inside pages prior to making a purchase.

These days, instead of Barnes & Noble or the local newstands, I go online and bloghop. Incidentally, I recently came across some fine reads that you may want to check out (if you haven’t already). On Manuel L. Quezon III's site, I discovered the behind-the-scene story about The Beatles and their alleged snubbing of Imelda Marcos during their Manila visit 40 years ago. Manolo also cited Carlos Celdran’s 2000-word essay about the Spanish mestizo's ouster from the Philippine's privileged class .

One of my favorite smart kids on the blogosphere, Jhay, has an entry that we ought to implement nationwide — ICE (In Case of Emergency). That is, in our cellphone's phonebook, we should add a contact and name it ICE. This will contain the name and number of the person we have designated for the police or paramedics to call in case, God forbid, we find ourselves unconscious in a gutter somewhere; in dire need of medical attention.

Global Voices has picked-out two entries by our fellow-Pinoy bloggers: Torn and Frayed’s circa 1762 Manila when it was attacked by the British and Synesthetique’s requests from the ghost that frequents her office.

And there’s Conrado de Quiros’ previously published, Ten Things to Love About Being in the Philippines, Part 1 and Part 2. Mr. de Quiros included the abundance of DVDs in Quiapo as one of his reasons, but quickly quips, “Those who feel like berating me for listing the DVDs from the Quiapo district in Manila among the things that make this country livable might first wish to examine whether the Windows they're using to boot their PCs and the software they're using to write their furious letters with are original or licensed.”

Oookay... I think that’s enough selection of good reads for this cloudy in Manila Sunday.

Labels: Featured Writer, Life in New York

posted by Señor Enrique at 9:02 AM | 17 comments

Friday, February 24, 2006

Philip Seymour Hoffman as CAPOTE

A highly-esteemed literary figure, especially among baby boomers, Truman Capote was best known for his Breakfast in Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood (both works have been turned into films).

He was undoubtedly a prolific writer; a regular contributor to The New Yorker and other publications, as well as having been rumored to have ghost-written the entire book, To Kill a Mockingbird (his friend, author Harper Lee's novel). However, right after the publication of In Cold Blood, he went dry. His effort in writing this book, which eventually became an international best-seller, was the singular event of his life featured in the film, Capote.

The movie appears limited in scope. Its basic premise deals with the main character, Capote, developing friendship with the convicted murderers with the intention of writing an accurate explanation of their heinous crime — the murder of a family of four in rural Holcomb, Kansas. The murderers, on the other hand, welcomed his friendship; they were hoping to gain absolution through this book he was writing, as well as through the author’s purported intimate friendship with certain influential people, win their appeal for a lighter sentence. Hence the bizarre bond between Capote and one of the murderers, Perry Smith, became the highlight of this movie.

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s superb portrayal of Truman Capote as a flamboyant literary figure of New York's cafe society with a high-pitched lisping voice tinged with a Southern drawl was absolutely worthy of a Best Actor Oscar nomination. The film’s screenwriter, Dan Futterman, was also nominated by the Academy.

What others may not know is that Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dan Futterman, and Bennett Miller, Capote’s director, have been friends since their teenage years. And while at NYU, they’ve made a drunken pact that whoever wins an Oscar later on in life, would bark their acceptance speech; that is, not bark only for a couple of seconds, but throughout his entire allotted time until pulled out from the microphone. Hoffman revealed this pact publicly while a guest of David Letterman recently.

For this year’s Academy Award, I am rooting for either Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)or Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) to grab the Best Actor award. However, after knowing about this drunken pact, I’m now exclusively rooting for Hoffman simply because I’d like to see if he’d actually make good on his agreement to bark his entire acceptance speech.

Labels: Featured Writer, films

posted by Señor Enrique at 10:21 AM | 2 comments

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Featured Aphorism by BALTASAR GRACIAN

Deal solely with men of honor; may such only may you be involved, and such only may you involve. What they have done is best pledge of what they will do, even in the business of shuffling the cards, for they deal above board, and so it avails more to lose with men of honor, than to win with men of dishonor, for there is no profit in crookedness, because it is unbeholden to honesty; on this account there is no true friendship among thieves; nor are their protestations of friendship true, even when they seem it, for they are not made in good faith, and those without such should ever be abnominated of men, for they do not cherish honor, do not cherish virtue, and honor is the throne of virtue. - Baltasar Gracian

Labels: Featured book, Featured Writer

posted by Señor Enrique at 6:33 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Featured Article by CONRADO DE QUIROS

My own belief is that our peculiar version of Catholicism contains humongous elements that are inimical to both morality and progress. The most patent of which is its obsession with ritual and form at the expense of interiority and substance. Our entire concept of salvation is investing in heaven. The "investing" is completely literal: People who donate to the building of churches and charitable works by the Sisters of Mercy imagine themselves exempt from having to live exemplary lives. We hear Mass, go to confession and receive the sacraments, and imagine that, like taking a bath, we are cleansed of our sins, enough to go back to lying, cheating and stealing with a vengeance. We flagellate ourselves during Good Friday, managing to become an episode for Ripley's, and imagine ourselves entitled to commit bloody murder all the other Fridays of the year.

Read complete article…

There's the Rub: Goodness Gracious
11/23/05 Philippine Daily Inquirer






Link

Conrado de Quiros There's the Rub blogsite

An Interesting Discussion of "The Prodigal Son"
Journey to Honeyville

Labels: Featured Writer

posted by Señor Enrique at 7:43 AM | 2 comments

Friday, December 02, 2005

FEATURED QUOTE BY MAYA ANGELOU

Born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, she is an African-American poet, memoirist, actress, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings1969).

She was an unwed mother. To support her young son, Clyde Bailey "Guy" Johnson, born in San Francisco, she danced in night clubs, conducted cable cars, cooked at a Creole cafe, removed paint at a body shop, and was a madam and prostitute at a San Diego brothel. However, she soon returned home, to Stamps, Arkansas, then Louisville, Kentucky.

She was given a lifetime appointment in 1981 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration at his request.


Read more…

Labels: Featured Writer

posted by Señor Enrique at 4:52 AM | 2 comments

Thursday, November 24, 2005

The Wit & Wisdom of MARK TWAIN

I love pizza. I practically lived off on them while a working student in New York. I had them for lunch and dinner, including the right-off-the-fridge leftover on Sunday mornings. When you get up at 7 in the morning and don’t get home until 10 at night, pizza was more than good enough.

It was while enjoying some chilled brew and feasting on a large pizza pie—on my birthday almost 10 years ago with my two best friends—when I learned something new about Mark Twain. It was because one of them gave me a copy of Sitting in Darkness; the backdrop of which was the Filipino-American War.

While flipping through its pages in between taking bites off a slice of pizza, I learned the title of the book was taken from one of Mark Twain’s essays. And much to my surprise, I also learned he was a staunch anti-imperialist who gave the Filipinos a voice in the American press during the turn of the century.

Through his essays, Mark Twain articulated his sentiments against America’s occupation of the Philippines. He became an active speaker at anti-war rallies and flooded newspapers with his letters of protests. With a caustic tone he even suggested a new flag for the Philippines — "just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones."

In his 1901 essay entitled, To the Person Sitting in Darkness, Mark Twain pointed out how the occupying Americans treated the Filipinos.

He wrote, “We had lent them guns and ammunition; advised with them; exchanged pleasant courtesies with them; placed our sick and wounded in their kindly care; entrusted our Spanish prisoners to their humane and honest hands; fought shoulder to shoulder with them against the common enemy (our own phrase); praised their courage, praised their gallantry, praised their mercifulness, praised their fine and honorable conduct; borrowed their trenches, borrowed strong positions which they had previously captured from the Spaniards; petted them, lied to them—officially proclaiming that our land and naval forces came to give them their freedom and displace the bad Spanish Government—fooled them, used them until we needed them no longer; then derided the sucked orange and threw it away. We kept the positions which we had beguiled them of; by and by, we moved a force forward and overlapped patriot ground—a clever thought, for we needed trouble, and this would produce it. A Filipino soldier, crossing the ground, where no one had a right to forbid him, was shot by our sentry. The badgered patriots resented this with arms, without waiting to know whether Aguinaldo, who was absent, would approve or not. Aguinaldo did not approve; but that availed nothing. What we wanted, in the interest of Progress and Civilization was the Archipelago, unencumbered by patriots struggling for independence; and War was what we needed. We clinched our opportunity. It is Mr. Chamberlain’s case over again—at least in its motive and intention; and we played the game as adroitly as he played it himself.”

One scholar, Tom Quirk, noted, "Particularly in his later years, the fierceness of Twain's anti-imperialist convictions disturbed and dismayed those who regarded him as the archetypal American citizen who had somehow turned upon Americanism itself."

Who would have thought that Mark Twain—the author of Huckleberry Finn, the first truly American writer known for his wit and wisdom—would be so radical and intrepid as to speak for the Filipinos and against the American occupation of the Philippines?

Labels: Featured Writer

posted by Señor Enrique at 7:31 AM | 4 comments

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

A Master Storyteller: JOSEPH CAMPBELL

If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, “Bliss and Sacrifice”



It’s interesting how people in New York behave with some of their neighbors. They can be living in the same apartment building for years, but the extent of their interaction — when in the elevator or in the laundry room — is often limited to a nod of acknowledgement. Such was with my neighbor, Marc.

He was already living in the building for about two years, but I only got to know him when we ran into each other at a lecture about Joseph Campbell and his influence in film and television storytelling. It was held at the Institute of Religious Science on East 48th Street in Manhattan; the speaker was at that time the curator of the Joseph Campbell Library at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. A lot of people in the audience were graduate students of Jungian depth psychology, as well as writers in film and television. Marc, I later found out, was a writer for Late Night with David Letterman.

It was a delightful evening with the speaker citing several popular films and pointing out the basic storytelling elements they all shared; elements that are imbedded in our universal subconscious as expounded upon by Joseph Campbell in his book, A Hero With A Thousand Faces.

This master storyteller gained major prominence in 1988 when millions were introduced to his ideas by the broadcast on PBS of Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. It was a series featuring electrifying conversations that the two men had videotaped.

When he died in 1987 before his PBS series aired, Newsweek noted that “Campbell has become one of the rarest of intellectuals in American life: a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture.”

Since that evening at the lecture hall, doing the laundry became more interesting. Whenever I ran into Marc in the laundry room, we would talk about Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. Other people would join in and then someone would collect money for pizza and soda; before realizing it, we would have a pleasant weekend afternoon party going on in the laundry room. Oh well, that’s Manhattan for you. When Mark’s contract with David Letterman expired he headed west to Hollywood with his fiancé.

Here’s an interesting trivia for fans of Star Wars: PBS is a network of publicly-supported television stations. When Bill Moyers was scouting for an affordable location for his series with Joseph Campbell, George Lukas heard about it and immediately offered his facilities at the Skywalker Ranch in California for free provided that he was allowed to sit in during the videotaping. George Lukas is one of the many storytellers greatly influenced by Joseph Campbell.

Labels: Featured Writer, Life in New York

posted by Señor Enrique at 6:29 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

ELEMENTS OF STYLE - Part 2

Although offering an almost infinite number of things to do and see, New York, the veritable city that never sleeps, also breeds a certain loneliness felt most during its bleak bitter winters.

With a mug of hot chocolate, a book often provided solace for me during those times. From the controversial Jerzy Kozinski’s psychological novels to Carl Jung’s mystical theories, I’ve become an ardent fan of an eclectic bunch of thinkers and their published writings.

And so when I relocated to Metro Manila, I once again resorted to books as an introduction to the city's pervading culture. Browsing at a local bookstore, I was thrilled to have discovered Jose Rizal’s seminal works, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo as translated in English by Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin. I read them in earnest. There were other books by contemporary Filipino writers that I delved into. My favorite is Swatting The Spanish Flies by Margarita Ventenilla Hamada, a well-crafted scathing commentary on the Filipino zeitgeist. I even bought several copies of which to send as gifts to my New York bibliophile friends.

After gaining somewhat of a fairly good insight about the local terrain, so to speak, I began to take more notice of this brilliant writer whose column appears in the editorial section of The Philippine Daily Inquirer. His name is Conrado de Quintos. He usually writes about the political affairs of the state. However, the issues and personalities he featured were mostly unknown to me then so, I would involuntarily Zen-out, by the third or fourth paragraph.

Surprisingly, there was a couple of occasions in which he wrote about music. I was impressed by his deep insight and ethereal sensitivity to music in general, and to the featured artists in particular.

Eventually, as I became more cognizant of the nuances of our political arena, as well as the roles of its major players, I came to fully appreciate Mr. de Quintos. Indeed, I am humbled by his literary style, including his courage to confront certain powers that be. I often wonder though if his voice ever went unheeded by most regular folks -- the masses -- for he writes so eloquently in English.

Be that as it may, I oftentimes pray that we as a nation succeed in eradicating aberrations from our local politics and corruptions by our civil servants. This way, Mr. de Quintos, will write more about music.


To check out a sampling of Mr. de Quintos’ column, click on any of the following links:

http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=2&story_id=50257&col=77

http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=2&story_id=50980&col=77

Labels: Featured Writer

posted by Señor Enrique at 7:36 AM | 0 comments

Life in Manila as observed by a former New Yorker who with a laptop and camera has reinvented himself as a storyteller. Winner of the PHILIPPINE BLOG AWARDS: Best Photo Blog in 2007 and three Best Single Post awards in 2008.

 

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