CULTURE EXPRESS

www.superpasyal.blogspot.com

Busy with work and have no time to explore the city? Visit GUTS. GRIT. GUMPTION. and get your daily photo dose of buildings (old and new), dining places (what's hot, what's not?), and more! Come and explore the City of Our Affections - Manila - through the lens of the Guild President Dylan Yap Gozum.

Note: Photos were sharpened for dull monitors.

MABUHAY! WELCOME TO BACKSPACE!

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. (Isaac Asimov)

Manila Bay landing
Baywalk, Manila
Photo by Dylan Yap Gozum


Our assumption into office in SPi's Writers Guild was close to being a Napoleon-esque affair, to say the least. With only 7 people in attendance in what was supposed to be a General Assembly meeting, it was foisted upon us that an election had to be made right there and then to take over the duties of outgoing officers, who all were mired in work elsewhere. So, like what Napoleon Bonaparte did on his coronation day, we picked up the crowns placed before us and placed them on our own heads.

As we are not given to pomp and circumstance, we hit the ground running within 5 minutes of our "election". Already, we have calendared our activities for 2006 (please visit ABOUT US). It looks like a pregnant year, indeed, with several new and exciting stuffs coming up. Also, to address the twin issues of savings (read: cost cutting) and reaching a wider audience, we have agreed to make use of today's most exciting means of communication - the web log.

This literary blog, named BACKSPACE to denote a work in progress, will feature several writers' works every month. Yes, we will be featuring YOU here! Your work will go online for the world to read! Also, we will be rocking your world come June - the SPi Inter-Playoffs - as we all play the WORD FACTORY, and in July during the Festival of Clubs for something really fun- the much-missed FUN DEBATE (Fiesta Edition). We are doing this with the Toasmasters Club this year.

Also, I am happy to work with a lean but mean team, starting with our VP Pia - ever so articulate and proper and... just perfect for the job!, and JP and Alex (erstwhile Secretary and PRO, respectively), who form the Communications Group. A huge THANK YOU goes to Dhang and Ivy for helping us calendar our events for 2006 properly. With the advent of this blog, we look forward to reaching a wider audience.

We know it is unusual practice but we would like to declare 2006 as the Year of Writers in SPi. We may sound like we intend to outshine the other clubs (we really do), but we just want to drum up interest in you, our writers. We want you to know that you all have a home here. Please take advantage of this rare opportunity to join our new and exciting activities.

To our co-SPi colleagues who are called to this noble endeavor of being a writer, all of us who dabble in poetry, feature, essays, scripts, etc., please know that our time to shine has come.

Welcome and Mabuhay!



Dylan Yap Gozum
President, Writers Guild

Editorial Director, BACKSPACE

Writers Guild
SPi Headquarters

Parañaque City, Metro Manila
The Philippines

May 16, 2006

UPDATED: THE ANSWERS TO THE WRITERS GUILD BUGTONGAN CHALLENGE!

Bugtong is a native riddle, or palaisipan (something that makes you think really hard), that showcases the Filipino wit, literary talent, and keen observation of his surroundings. It involves references to one or two images that symbolize the characteristics of a different object that is to be identified. The art of bugtongan is as ancient as Philippine culture itself and the practice has been passed from one generation to another although it has already waned in this age of quick answers and solutions.

Hindi hari, hindi pari, Nagagamit ng sari-sari. (sampayan)

Hayan na, hayan na, Hindi mo pa nakikita. (hangin)

Dalawang magkaibigan, Unahan nang unahan. (paa)

Maliit pa si kumpare, Umaakyat na sa tore. (langgam)

Dumaan si Tarzan, nabiyak ang daan. (zipper)

Ayan na si Kaka, bubuka-bukaka. (gunting)

Binili kong patay, itinapon kong buhay. (sigarilyo)

Bumili ako ng alipin, mataas pa sa akin. (hat, cap, umbrella)

Tandang ko sa parang, namumula ang tapang. (siling labuyo)

Maliit pa si Nene, marunong na manahi. (gagamba)

Gumagapang pa ang ina, umupo na ang anak. (kalabasa, pakwan)

Dahong pinagbungahan, Bungang pinagdahunan. (piña)

Kung kailan mo pinatay, saka humaba ang buhay. (kandila)

Isa ang pasukan, tatlo ang labasan. (shirt)

Limang magkakapatid, iisa ang dibdib.(kamay, NOT daliri)

WINNERS:

Php 200 Gift Cheques from Coffee Republic
1.) Jayson Agus (SPS)

2.) Geremie Noble (SPS)

3.) Andrew Abingosa (SPS)
4.) Oriel Briguela (LDI)

5.) Jesus Niño Castillo (LDI)

Php 150 Gift Cheques from Coffee Republic
1.) Marianne Nivea (SPS)

2.) Semathar de Lima (SPS)

3.) Lemuel Sadama (SPS)

4.) Marjorie Adremisen (SPS)

The Guild's decision is final. Should you have any doubts on your place in the winners lineup, do not hesitate to let us know and and we will show you your original SMS answers. Please claim your prizes from the Guild's Vice President Pia Manzano (HR Office, 1/F - this is the office you see on your left when entering SPi) beginning Thursday, August 3, 2006.

Once again, the Guild wishes to thank all of those who sent their entries. Happy Fiesta!

POETRY OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE

Alexander dela Cruz de Juan
English Editor, Healthcare Documentation

BIYAHENG SIDECAR
(Alay sa sidecar boys sa Kalye Estrada, Malate)

Bumiyahe nang konting bagahe;
t-shirt at short ay okey na sa magaang pamamasada.

Tig-isang padyak lang; paa ay dalawa lamang.
Di naman ’to pabilisan kundi papursigihan.

Magpahinga rin paminsan-minsan
nang luminaw ang desisyon sa direksyong pupuntahan.

At di ka naglalakbay nang mag-isa;
may pasahero kang kasama.

Lubak-lubak man ang kalsada
ikaw naman ang gumagawa ng sarili mong daan.

At sa unahan, may magandang pasaherong nag-aabang,
kaya’t ’wag kang tumigil, pumadyak ka lang.

(Mayo 30, 2006)


MUTYA

Ang mutya ng makata
ay para sa mata lamang

Ang tanging pagnanasa ng makata
ay ang hubad na salita
at hindi ang hubad na katawan
ng kanyang mutya.

Alam ng makata
na nananatili ang ganda
ng hubad na kagandahan
kung babasahin lamang
at hindi hahawakan.

Kaya nga't nakasulat sa ilalim
ng naka-eksibit na nude painting:
"PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH."


AKO ANG PRESIDENTE NG AKING SARILI

Inay,
di po ba't sabi n'yo akong pangulo ng sarili ko
pero bakit po sila may Edsa Tres at Kwatro?

Inay,
kung ang pangulo ng bahay
ay ang mabait kong tatay
dahil 'pag sumigaw ako
ng "Ito ang gusto ko!"
sagot n'ya'y "Isipin mo
ang mga kapatid mo."
Kailangan pa ba natin ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas?

Inay,
kung ang presidente ng dyip
ay ang drayber na mabait
dahil 'pag sumigaw ako
ng "Para! Para! Para!"
ay sasagot s'ya,
"Sa Tabi lang po, ha."
Kailangan pa ba natin ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas?

Inay,
kung ako ang presidente ng aking sarili
ba't panagarap po nilang mag-Edsa Beinte-Syete?

(May 1, 2006)

BETWEEN THE STANDS: BOOK REVIEW

ELEVEN MINUTES (by Paolo Coelho)

By DYG

In a chic restaurant in Geneva, the walls of which are adorned by paintings of Joan Miró and while seated on the very table film director Federico Fellini had dined, Maria stopped being a child and started becoming a woman – more aware of the ways of the world and more willing to face her fears.

In what may be Paolo Coelho’s first book on sex and about prostitution in particular – inspired by Irving Wallace’s 1970’s book Seven Minutes – lead character Maria embarks on a journey from the desolation of Brazil to the world stage that is Geneva, Switzerland with three things in mind: adventure, money, and finding a husband. Bored by routine in a small town in Brazil, Maria is offered a job in Geneva by a French impressario who, as it turned out, comes to Brazil often to recruit pretty women to work for his Cabaret Cologny in Geneva.

Upon her arrival, she discovered that she was to get only a tenth of the salary promised her, and she was bound to work for the cabaret for a year. Stucked, lost, without a future in sight, Maria went on to spend her one year watching television, thinking of Brazil, confiding in a Filipina, and falling in love with an Arab man.

Unfortunately, Love – the word that either brings the world to its knees, or exalts it – is currently not in Maria’s vocabulary. Knowing that she can pleasure herself without a man (she learned masturbation as a kid), she only lived to experience pleasure and adventure, not to love. But when she met a man on the pilgrimage route called the Santiago Road, she discovered the power that true love can bring.

Eleven Minutes opens us to a world many of us may never know or personally experience but despite this, Coelho is not judgmental. Rather, he provides the female character a chance to redeem herself.Once again, master storyteller Paolo Coelho spins a web of unparalleled literary gem only Brazilians could possibly create.

Fresh from the success of Cry of the Valkryies and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Coelho – known in all corners of the globe for his seminal work The Alchemist –finally returns with a story that tugs at the heart but is food for the mind as well. Direct to the point but with the occasional segue ways that make this work completely amusing, Coelho provides us readers a new way to have fun, relax, and get away from our own miseries.

Like the works of Latin American writers before him and even those by his contemporaries, his new work allows us readers to conjure in our minds endless adventures, sometimes even make little decisions for the girl Maria as if her life was our own, and we want to urge her to go on and reach for her dreams. This is a book of endless possibilities, following a manner of exciting story-telling style – definitely not a book you can put down. Add to the fact that Maria is a true living person, now living with two kids.

If you are sick of conspiracy theories and church-bashing literature that are so the rage these days, this is for you: a return to basic good storytelling, with humanity captured in a new light - not in an intellectual or snobbish way - but in a manner that appeals to your sense of personal conviction. It is not preachy – Coelho is, in fact, never preachy – but draws from your own life experiences.

Eleven Minutes challenges your beliefs, and questions the morals and values that you hold dear, and finds in you the necessary affirmation that yes, life is good, and that life indeed is how we make it.

________________________

"L'exactitude est la politesse des rois" (Louis XVIII) "Punctuality is the courtesy of kings."

DA VINCI CODE (2006)

REEL REVIEW
by
DYG


I came, I saw, and I wasn’t conquered.

I will give it to you straight. The film version of the Da Vinci Code was a disaster, burdened by a brewing controversy of its own making (which, thankfully, helped it at the tills), and a ho-hum performance by its lead characters.



Directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, M*A*S*H) and screenplay by Akiva Goldsman (producer of Poseidon, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Constantine), the film successfully wasted the amazing sceneries of Paris and London by its irritating in-your-face photography. With the rare distinction of actually filming in all the locations found in the novel save for anything within the Holy See’s jurisdiction, there weren’t enough long shots of the Louvre and of the normally-breathtaking English countryside to provide a sense of grandeur, and the shots in the churches were given to trivial details instead of taking in their vastness, majesty – and emptiness - to capture the mystery that is most essential in this film’s success. After all, this is the very same thing that made the novel a winner. It has set fire to its readers’ imaginations, that to see the film version would be the next best thing to seeing the places mentioned in it.

But lo and behold, Ron Howard failed miserably in capturing the essence of the book. He focused too much on the controversial parts of the book (for obvious reasons) that he forgot that the novel was, first and foremost, a cultural trip across Old Europe’s most secret and mysterious locations. The controversial twists were merely that – twists.

The film also tried to end itself on an emotional and triumphant note, with a realization by Robert Langdon that Mary Magdalene was actually buried beneath I.M. Pei’s (in)famous glass pyramids at the Louvre. For those who’ve read the book, this is a new and totally different ending, but it only appears like an afterthought if only to close all the issues it raised during the length of the film.



Needless to say (but I’m still saying it), Tom Hanks is wrong for the character of Langdon. He doesn’t have gravitas to live up to Langdon’s reputation. Audrey Tautou is a pretty and swell actress as exemplified by the global success of Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain , but she appears staid and restrained in the Da Vinci Code. It must be because she has to speak in English, although this hasn’t been much of a problem with French actresses Sophie Marceau and Julie Delpy. Maybe she’d get used to it soon enough to be able to accept more English-speaking roles. (Note: a little-known film, Dirty Pretty Things, where she plays an illegal immigrant working as a chamber maid, is a must-see for fans and cineastes)

French films are to blame for this because they are rarely shown outside Europe – and available DVDs are almost always without English subtitles. Tautou’s last film, A Very Long Engagement, obviously was shown in Manila to cash in on people’s happy memories of her in Amelie, but I digress.

Sir Ian McKellen, playing the role of ‘The Teacher’, is the only winner in this film. Being English helps, I guess. French actor Jean Reno has done far better roles than this one. Léon comes to mind easily. Paul Bettany (Dogville, Wimbledon, A Beautiful Mind) as Silas is threatening enough but he could have given the role a little more oomph to incite fear, but I guess this wasn’t meant to be. He only went by the book, so to speak. Alfred Molina (Frida, Chocolat) as Bishop Aringarosa was forgettable.



Overall, the Da Vinci Code was a boring thriller sans the thrill. It wasn’t worth all the hullabaloo and I found myself in a semi-catatonic state all throughout. Well, just go on and see it; then, move on with your life.

Visit the official website here.

TIKIM: THE BED SCENE (MALL OF ASIA)

Nothing beats going out with friends and treating yourselves to a good dinner sometimes. Call it a reward of sorts, but the idea really is to get yourself a break from all that work (or whatever is left of it) and splurge on a good meal!

We recently checked out the newly opened Mall of Asia (claimed to be the largest mall in SEA, the 3rd in Asia) and found ourselves drawn to this place which is awashed in cool blue.

Welcome to the bed scene. Yes, that's what it's called. the bed scene is a restaurant-cum-bar located at the back of the mall facing the sea, hence that all-blue concept to give you a feeling of being under water. This is further supported by nicely located aquariums and light effects on the ceiling that mimics moving water.

The food choices are, more or less, something you'd also see in other restaurants but here, they've already simplified things by grouping certain entrees into set meals (or what we normally call in fastfoods as "combos"). There are about 4 set meals to choose from ranging from php 300++ (a salad, the main course, dessert) to something less than Php 200 (salad OR dessert, main course).

As usual, the rule in eating in never-been-tried-before places is to order the basic stuff. If they win in this basic test, then it's worth coming back for the complicated ones and the house specialties.

How is it related to the bed bar in Malate? The similarity in the font style is uncanny.

Nice, comfy pillows to lean or rest your tired feet on.

Light effects on the ceiling mimics underwater current

Be prepared to kick your shoes off and sit comfortably on huge, wide blue couches! Total relaxation while having dinner has never been this good.

The Linguine Vongole is okay. Not quite impressive because the linguine is overcooked and appears limp. The sauce is very light though, and the serving is enough to make you feel full but not overfed.

The goood ol' liempo updated! Rather enjoyable if it weren't a bit tough. Maybe the bed scene should learn to cook only when orders come in. If anything, this piece was very tasty and the presentation was very nice and sharp.

Overall, the experience was okay, but not something you'd really want to do over and over. The best thing perhaps would be to try the other things on the menu and see what other surprises can this place spring on us.

WG Rating (Perfect score of 5/5):

How the the bed scene fared:
3 forks for food
5 rounds of applause for ambience
5 rounds of applause for service (great satin pajamas except that satin doesn't look good on the male servers).

FIRST PERSON

WRITERS GUILD introduces a novel way of knowing more about our writers in SPi - the FIRST PERSON column. Here, in lieu of an interview, the writers get to write about themselves - what they think, how they feel, the ups and downs of writing, and everything in between. Enter the world of the writer. Here. Now.

Do you know that we have a Palanca winner in our midst here at SPi? Find out more about this person soon!