Too busy to blog

It has been a pretty busy week, and another pretty busy week is coming. So I'll be staying off the blogosphere for a while. See you when I've got the time to have a virtual life, blog. I'm currently occupied with real life right now.

Teacher and slam poet Taylor Mali performing "What teachers make"

I came across this video from Aussie blogger, Eden Riley's Edenland and I'm thankful she shared this video because this poem performed on stage by Taylor Mali, who is, according to his site, http://www.taylormali.com, "one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the few people in the world to have no job other than that of poet."

Anyway, this pretty much shook me to my core, being a bum that I am right now, doing nothing except blog and maybe accept a few odd writing and editing jobs that kind friends throw at me, felt that I really have ignored my destiny.


I know I should teach. Again. I know I should, but then, at this point in my life, after all the disheartening experiences and encounters that I have had in my three years of teaching, I feel like I don't want to be in that place again. It is very sad because I want to teach again, but I just lack the heart.

 Taylor Mali, who is "a vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching," with his works such as "What teachers make," is an inspiration. My desire to teach wanes from time to time when I remember all those ugly experiences that I've had with bosses and colleagues who should have been the first persons to encourage you. But then I guess, I'll just have to take that leap of faith, as they say, and just keep that thing inside me, the real reason why I took up Education, burning.

God, please light the fire and keep it ablaze.

Just one of those days when terrorism seems like a good idea

I want to write something. I mean, not just blog, or write articles. I want to write a book, or a screenplay or a short story maybe. But there are just a lot of things to write about. I know I have got a lot of material on my sheet to work on from, but I’m just not confident to share any of them to the critical public, nor am I any closer in trying to sort them into some semblance of a genre. I think I’ve become a rambler, really. I don’t know how to easily organize all these supposedly “exciting” vignettes of my “remarkable” twenty-five years of life into what I have been picturing out when I was thirteen as my “masterpiece.” And I know I was better when I was that age too. I’ve lost my touch now, I think. Lost it in all the panic and terror that has become my everyday life. No, I have not become a terrorist. Would have sounded less disappointed at myself if that were the case. Were that the case, I would have felt accomplished, contented that I have a purpose to the world, even if it is merely to destroy it.[Sad face].

A lost story

(or Murphy messing with me for the umpteenth time)

The Dream King, a.k.a. The Sandman, a.k.a. Oneiros, a.k.a. Kai'ckul, a.k.a. Morpheus, a.k.a. Murphy, among other names - my favorite Neil Gaiman creation, among others. (Illustration by Yoshitaka Amano, in "Dream Hunters")

I remember I dreamed about a great idea for a story last night, or early this morning. It might even be a whole story, although at this point it has already been lost.

I remembered waking, getting up, and smiling while eyeing my little red notebook and a pen that were both sitting together on the desk beside my bed. I was feeling triumphant because I have caught the idea/story in that place where it is difficult to hunt and actually capture something- that realm between sleeping and waking.

Apparently, however, it had all been in my imagination because by now, it had already been four hours after I've actually woken up (I wrote this first on the little red notebook at 12 noon today) that I remembered having that moment, if it was a real moment, or that dream, if it were indeed a dream.

And also, the little red notebook? It wasn't anywhere near the desk at all. I found it in the very bottom of my bottomless sack-bag. And the pen? I found one from another room.

Damn. Murphy is messing with my head.

More on Murphy next time.

Bacolod artists grace festival

(Published in Panay News Sunday, 20 March 2011)

Bacolod-based renowned artist and visionary Charlie Co, who did the ribbon cutting for Ugyon sa Dihon 2011 opening night on March 8, popped in with Dennis Ascalon, another one of Bacolod's most notable artists, on the third day of the exhibit, bringing with them a league of the younger artists from Bacolod City.

~o0*0o~

Roderick A. Tijing 

Roderick is a surrealist whose works are somewhat influenced by the colorful, dreamlike works of Charlie Co. Roderick's are however, more on the playful side, compared to Co's usually social commentary-charged pieces. He has a solo exhibit entitled "Dreamscapes 2" on going until March 25 at Negros Museum, Bacolod City.

~o0*0o~

Guinnevere Decena

Decena's "Refined Chaos"

Guinnevere's, or Gwen's (as what she prefers to be called) works are both graceful and thought-provoking. Her featured painting entitled "Refined Chaos" depicts an exquisitely done female bust with towering hair made of what looked like crumpled paper, a signature in her work, if you check out her Facebook. The title, according to Gwen, pretty much summarizes what the painting is all about. "It's a battle between control and accident," she states. She describes her style as being "minimal but maximal." In other words, she does with painting what poets do with words.

~o0*0o~

Ian Valladarez

Valladarez' "Femininity"

Ian is resident artist to Balay Negrense in Silay City, where he works on his specialty -continuous wire sculpting, from seemingly simple keychains to more complicated artworks such as his Ugyon exhibit piece, "Femininity."

~o0*0o~

Christine Bangero

Bangero's "Travelers Secret"

Christine is a photographer who also has a great appreciation for art, as well as a penchant for body art. In fact, the newest tattoo that she got from fellow Bacolodnon, tattoo artist Chaq Lobaton (for more info, visit his blog, Pain n' Ink) won third place in the festival's Metal Ink Tattoo Expo competition. The tattoo design is a lotus flower with vibrantly colored details.

Bangero's newest winning tattoo, by Chaq Lobaton

  

~o0*0o~

Supposedly, this should have been a sidebar to the main article

<<"Iloilo Art holds exhibition, talks"

which appeared 2 days later, 22 March 2011