Now/here no/where woman

Wanting More and More to Live Unobserved, Unobserving Wanting more and more to live unobserved, unobserving, like a dog who takes the bone and goes to another room where it just fits under the low-legged table or couch. In the farthest depths, no sunlight reaches. Yet certain fish, now eyeless, streak with luminescence when excited; a lowered bathysphere turns on a floodlight and is mobbed, the strange-formed bodies drawing in for miles. No one was ever meant to see this. Certainly not the fish, who see nothing, whose tentacles travel the cold light, and no one knows how or why. Like human beings to a mystery they imagine feels some passion for their fate. And the dog? Fallen into the marrow-pleasure completely. Jane Hirshfield.

"The human heart harbors two conflicting sentiments. Everyone of course sympathizes with people who suffer misfortunes. Yet when those people manage to overcome their misfortunes, we feel a certain disappointment. We may even feel (to overstate the case somewhat) a desire to plunge them back into those misfortunes. And before we know it, we come (if only passively) to harbor some degree of hostility toward them." From the short story, The Nose, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Guilty as charged.

This comes at a time when I will believe anything I am told about the benefits of taking it easy. "... the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less." I know it's the 21st century and all but after at least a decade of several rounds of manic multi-tasking, I don't find it to be as hot as people make it out to be. I think ten years of trying is enough. More than enough. I want to do less, and in that way, do more.

"Arriving from always, you'll go away everywhere." From Arthur Rimbeaud's "To a Reason" (translated by John Ashberry)

Oh wow (: for several reasons :) Baguio Green Ride coming soon! Watch this space for details.

This feels familiar. Eep.

"... I just hope and pray that I'll find a way to say, Can I dance with you?..." Yo La tengo - A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo .

I know this is going to seem silly but things like this fill me with inexplicable happiness -- which is the simplest and bestest kind of happiness there is.

I've been thinking about... why Manila wasn't prepared... When a 1977 government study saw the possibility of this happening. I've been wondering about... how we might get our acts together in the face of all this... ... when the administration's allies are busy undermining the government (that's us, the people, that they're undermining). I've been awed by the outpouring of love and the amazing resilience among Filipinos and our creativity in times of crisis . I respect and am grateful for those that have turned to prayer, and yet I ask myself, is prayer enough?

I have two questions. 1) If you by these Dole Cavendish bananas in 7-11... are you buying into the use of poison rain in corporate banana plantations in Mindanao? "In May 2009, the Department of Health released its study (“Health and Environmental Assessment of Sitio Camocaan, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur”) which showed that residents exposed to the spray were found to have pesticide traces in their blood. Air and soil outside plantation boundaries were also found to be contaminated. The study recommended banning aerial spraying and a shift to organic methods... "'We are not bananas. We are not pests.' This is the cry of communities near banana plantations in Mindanao who have to suffer the adverse effects of regular toxic aerial spraying. Imagine yourself sipping coffee under the open sky when suddenly something lands in your cup. Imagine yourself a child on your way to school and getting sprayed with pesticides. Farmers working on their small farms and people doing their ...

Here. Read all about annoying clichés in the natural sciences. In my dissertation I am guilty of "shedding light" on the messy complexities that get tangled up in each other when nature conservation and indigenous peoples' rights meet. I am pleased to note that I didn't call for any "paradigm shifts" but I probably said as much, given that there are countless "missing links" in the interactions between agents of conservation and indigenous communities . The former are searching for the "holy grail" of indigenous peoples living in harmony with nature and the latter just want a "silver bullet" with which to shoot the conservationists and other bossy werewolves in the head.

After our nation's outpouring of love for Cory, what next? What next? What next? Ipat Luna's wonderfully simple suggestion.

Image source: The Daily Dose by Manuel L. Quezon III 11 bottles of $510 champagne. Macapal-Arroyo must have been celebrating something. Some victory, perhaps, after her visit with Obama? What would that be, I wonder? Did she clinch yet another dirty deal at our expense? What does she have in store for us next? Image source: The Daily Dose by Manuel L. Quezon III A $20,000 dinner. Shameless. Oh please give me the strength to hold back all the cuss words piling up on my tongue! Read more At Midfield.

I absolutely love this video of Harlan Ellison ranting about monetary compensation for writers' work!!! I have Cor to thank for finding and sharing this gem! This brings me back to my own thoughts (not half as rabid, but ok, kinda rabid) and dilemmas about writing for free . I have more to say about this. Real soon!

Image credit: Why, Mika Oshima of course! "Some day, I'm going to write stories and my best friend Mika is going to illustrate them." I feel brave enough to say that now that Carlo J. Caparas is National Artist for Visual Art and Film. (Ooh and next time let me tell you about my digital fantasies too.) Comics illustrator Gerry Alanguilan has a very straightforward opinion on why the award is undeserved, here and here . National Artist for Visual Art, Bencab had scathing yet sensible things to say about it too . I've been holding to my comic(s) fantasy for years but I haven't yet written a single story. I'm still saying I'd love to try my hand at short fiction almost everyday, like it's a mantra of some sort. (That is to say, I'm still trying to get over the fear of making the attempt.) But anyway, I'm so happy that Mika is turning her comic(s) dreams into reality. She's churning them out in Dense Valley . Yey, Mika !

In this time of unfettered political disillusionment, it's good to remember that there are people in government like Grace Padaca and the members of her anti illegal logging Task Force. A heroine and heroes of the Sierra Madre forest. This page requires a higher version browser For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV