Hey folks, Galatea Resurrection Numero 11 contains Katherine Levy's review of Kali's Blade as well as a long list of other possible reads this holiday season!
In addition, Senor Priego has come out with the The Amazing Adventures of Gravity & Grace.
Some time during the 5 hour program of Pilipino OURstory 2008, they will be broadcasting a review I did of Eileen's last two books, "The Blind Chatelaine's Keys" and "The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes".
The review is about 5-8 minutes, though I don't know what they will edit it down to for broadcast. In any case, they plan on posting a longer version of the review online as well. My first take was 20 minutes long. What can I say? Eileen's books make one prone to blather! After the initial blather I was able to segment and isolate themes to make it easier on my sound editor.
Will post the online link some time when it's up. But if you're in the Berkeley area 94.1 on Sunday evening 10/26 5p-10p!
I get to be single for a week while the hubby takes a brotherly bonding trip to Washington DC.
In the meantime, I get to do a few things that I don't usually get to do while he is around: reorganize and redecorate a bit and try out a couple of hotspot restaurants.
I'm the kind of person that needs stuff out in the open when I reorganize. I like to spread everything out then try to regroup, but of course we don't necessarily have the room. The other thing I like to do, is try something out for a few days to see how it feels. Both habits mean that I don't finish redecorating projects or even start them if I can finish them in a day. As the hubby gets frustrated with clutter, especially clutter that falls along pathways through our place.
I've started changing out some of the photos we have up on the wall with ones we more recently took. And I found a wall space to put up more family pictures.
The other thing I get to do is try out some crowded bars and restaurants that I've been wanting to try. The hubby, again liking the space, doesn't like going into crowded bars and restaurants. Tonight I tried Pizzaiolo on Telegraph. It was crowded as usual even though there are ample tables that go all the way to the outdoor patio. It was a 30 minute wait to get a seat at the bar, which is fine by me.
I had a the spicy butternut squash soup (about as spicy as the sprinkle of dried red pepper garnish on it, so not spicy at all), one of their cocktails called the Derby, the squid pizza with aioli and tomatoes and the bread pudding with pluots for dessert. Yeah, I overate a bit as I hadn't calibrated my ordering for one person. The drinks are strong, and the paperthin dough on the pizza has just enough structure to deliver the delicious combination of ingredients to your mouth. The squid pizza was excellent, it wasn't too chewy and some of the tentacles had a nice crunch. The bread pudding was a nice light tasting dessert with a cookie crumb cookie and a slight tartness from the pluots that balanced out nicely. Overall I really liked the place and the food, though if I came with others, I would make reservations.
The other day I tried Bake Sale Betty. I bought a tray of their brownies and the fried chicken sandwich that alot of people rave. the brownies and the strawberry shortcake I got were really good! But I don't see what people are raving about in the fried chicken sandwich. I have to admit that the chicken is perfectly fried with a fine golden crunch batter, plus it's alot of chicken. But the rest of the sandwich didn't really support the chicken. I thought the cole slaw would bring more contrast: either a sour or tartness or maybe a creaminess to the crunch, but it provided neither. The thin slices of jalapeno pepper gave it a nice kick, but stepping back, it basically looked like an American version of a Vietnamese sandwich. And I can get 3 of those for the price of 1 of these in Chinatown. I think I like Vietnamese sandwiches better.
Tomorrow I go to Spenger's in Berkeley for a Crab Chef Challenge. All I know is that there's lots of crab and that's all I need to know.
Monday, I'm set to go to the City after work and meet up with a friend in town for a convention. She said she wanted seafood and that the place not be a dive. OK. Drop me a line if you have any suggestions.
Thursday, I may continue my trek of places the hubby doesn't like going to, by finally visiting the Trappist, a European style bar that specializes in lots and lots of beer. The place is barely up to fire marshal code in terms of aisleways to the door, but if you want to feel like you're in Europe without hopping a plane for 12 hours, this is the fastest way to do it. I might go there with a coworker, then also try the new tapas wine bar, Mono Restaurant in Jack London. They have Happy Hour on Thursdays. But we'll see if we make it that far.
Friday, I head to the City once again but this time to record a book review for an upcoming Filipino Roots episode for Filipino History Month that will air on KPFA. I'll reveal the books and the author when I get the air date and time.
Just got our copies of Blind Chatelaine's Keys. You just have to get a copy for yourself, plus get the special value deal over at The Blind Chatelaine herself where you will get 3 books for the price of 1.
I know, the math, is weird, usually you have to buy 2 books to get one free, but in this case you buy 1 book and get 2 free. But so goes the mathematical theories along with the economic theories of poetry, it's like the parallel opposite universe where up is down and down is up. Poetry always has a way of flipping thing upside on its head.
Yet if you're into the sci-fi/fantasy type realms, feel free to peruse the pages of the Blind Chatelaine's Keys because you will feel like you're in some other universe. As with people without sight, it is not the words on the page, but feeling the space in between. Reminds me of 2nd grade when the teacher pointed to a row of trees and asked us not to draw the trees, but the sky above it, which forced us to see the space between leaves and branches and how the sky permeated into the ground. Somewhere between the otherness the biography of someone appears, of someone there and not there, fiction and real.
It is also a rather interesting view of biography, from the vantage point of the Other and what one inspires. And the mirror is not necessarily the prettiest thing as it also reflects a harshness at times, but the Blind Chatelaine is not afraid of this reflection because it is still an honest one. It is often the critic artists are most fearful of, but their reactions to the Chatelaine's work is a collaborative effort of inspiration and reaction. This exchange that runs from pure and sublime to downright harsh.
The harshness can be found in part IV, "To bring a poem into the world, is to bring the world into the poem" a juxtaposition of poems involving a young boy with an ongoing narrative of a letter that begins, "Dear GOVERNMENT AGENCY IN CHARGE OF CHILDREN," a plea for someone to save M. It does not sugarcoat nor make assumptions. There is a melancholy in wanting to love a boy whose life experiences in ten short years may become the ingredients to an adult sociopath, that even in the adults we see as monsters had at one point an innocence to them. That even love may not enough for someone who does not know how to receive it. That even a child understands the veneer we hold up to the world, makes the reader question the views of others in creating biography which brings us back to the secrets beyond the page which are both secret yet apparent.
Journeys Within: The Princess Arisen
Red Malong (2008)
I fell in love with the Princess Josephine the first time I heard Tuhan tell her story during a demo at CSU (what was then Hayward) for the Sikilohiyang Pilipino conference in 1994. I had gone there on a whim. Ross, a senior at UC Berkeley and head of PAA, invited me to go. I was a freshman who lived at home, but he thought I was a junior transfer.
A friend who practiced Cabales style escrima also was doing a demonstration there. I was looking for a new martial arts school at the time, having swiftly realized that I was not fit for judo and it's slamming into the ground ways.
Tuhan and Guro Ira did the demo. I remember listening intently as he told the tale of the Princess Josephine and of Grandmaster Villabrille's search for a master. I had seen several martial arts schools, but nothing resonated in me like this. I didn't sign up right away. The classes were in San Francisco. San Francisco was still a far away place that my nascent driving skills had not traversed. It would be later when some guy friends agreed to check out the class with me in one of the old factory garment buildings just off the bridge that are now high end condos. I never looked back.
The tale of the Princess Josephine comes alive again in this journey of sisterhood as the Princess Josephine and her cousin Jin, like their mothers before them take the journey to the land of the Little People. They are the Frog women, guardians and leaders of their tribe, who watch and study the signs of nature. With the omen of the earth's demise rumbling under their feet, can they return to complete their compact with the Little People to bring balance to the world once more? It is a journey that tests their will, their spirit, their bodies as they face the demons of the past in order to make the hard choices of today to save the world's future.
I cannot tell you how giddy I am about this book coming out! Once you start, you cannot wait to see how it ends!
