TRUST YOUR BLACK SHIRT

WAVE YOUR BLACK SHIRT GOODBYE

2011-04-23T00:04:00.000+08:00

I have come to realize that I've been keeping this blog for a bit over five years. Five geddem years!

To think I was the picture of reluctance when started my foray into social networking and Web 2.0, on the urging of my girlfriend that this would be a great tool to market my books, my works, thoughts and generally just inflict my aesthetic on the blogoverse.

This started out as a space to continue the thrust of the TYBS columns that were originally printed in the (now defunct) Philippine Chronicle --a daily that lived for a bit over a year and then got swallowed up in the maelstrom of financial problems and politicking that eventually envelops most Philippine media entities) That column seemed to me too good to be abandoned to the fickleness of the local print industry. Thank God scribblers and have-nots can always turn to Web 2.0. A middle finger to the dabbler merchants and the moneyed hangers-on who know nothing about beauty or how hard it is to create something and set it loose in the harsh wild of other minds, other souls to thrive or wither.

It's now Black Saturday 2011 and TYBS has become too ragged around the edges, too thin and faded and just as worn as an old but fond band shirt that contains a lot of memories -- a lot of them good, some of them catastrophically bad. For what it's worth it's served its purpose as a sounding board while still keeping to the dark stuff in media theme.

For the followers, lurkers and whoever else has visited here you have my gratitude. And of course thanks to my friend at the Absurd Republic Studios for customizing this site.

Now moving to a bigger HQ. With more guns!

Don't fret, though. I'm only shedding the shell of this blog to move house and cover a wider range of topics with a more punk-laced strategy. TYBS will be merely the chrysalis that gives birth to a hopefully more defiant, beast.

So kindly point your browser to the link below and, hopefully, subscribe to that. Hope you enjoy the new shit, too.

DESTROY THEE

And thaaat's it. Again my thanks to you who's reading this. To sing the eulogy of this blog I've put down a short and sweet ditty on a down tuned guitar. Paaalam TYBS.

Wave your black shirt goodbye.

I HAVE SEEN THE DYING OF THE LIGHT by tzaddi salazar

FOREIGN PARTS

2011-04-04T21:22:00.003+08:00

Just finished watching Turistas.

I know I've been behind in the massacre films bit. But this 2006 movie is a purty decent and straightforward big budget gem that's got a lot of things going for it. There's the classic vacation plot (bored, thrill-seeking tourists get more than they bargained for in exotic tropical country), the twist (you can probably figure this out by yourself, HINT: what can you trade in the black market?) and the no bullshit, clean as a guillotine cut acting of the Hollywood stars.

They do an amazing job at levelling up what could have been a sleeper of a horror script.

Josh Duhamel (aka Fergie's hubby) is probably the biggest A-lister here though the whole thing is livened up a lot by the inclusion of the hotness trifecta of Melissa George, Olivia Wilde and, my personal fave, uber chick Beau Garret.

If you remember she also starred in one of the Fantastic 4 movies and the Tron remake.

I thank my lucky stars I scored the unrated version from a local book shop.

Beaches, topless girls, philantropically-crazed local doctors and loads of tiny swimsuits and that distinct Brazilian sizzle.

Beau Garret has mean curves. I mean, just look at that. . .

ROOTS BLOODY ROOTS 2.0

2011-03-29T10:34:00.003+08:00

A Max Cavalera interview on the Australia-based I Heart Guitar Blog.

Max Cavalera may have left Sepultura well over a decade ago but he certainly hasn’t rested on his metallic laurels. Soulfly has kept him in the brutality game with album after album of metal fury, sometimes tempered with the tribal elements of the Seps classic Roots and sometimes more straightforward thrash. A few years ago Max re-teamed with brother Iggor in Cavalera Conspiracy, a thrashy new outfit which picks up right were Sepultura left off their thrashier elements around the Chaos AD era. New album Blunt Force Trauma is out now and Max couldn’t be happier about album #2.

Last time we spoke you said you’d actually recorded this album last year, before the latest Soulfly CD was released. Is the album exactly as it was when you finished it or did you take the opportunity to go in and tweak it?

No, we didn’t change much. It took a little while for the artwork to get done. I was doing the artwork with Iggor. We wanted it to look punkish, like European 80s punk – like GBH and Discharge – so we needed to find a special way to do this artwork. But we figured it out and it turned out really cool. We really love the way it got done. We also worked on a special edition. It comes with a DVD that was filmed live in France. It’s got a lot of great songs. It’s a full Cavalera concert. It’s a really cool show and it’s really cool for the fans. They get something extra, the full DVD along with the album, some more artwork, some more photos from the studio. But as far as the sound, the album is exactly the way it was finished. I didn’t touch anything. I love the way it turned out. I love the work that Logan [Mader, producer] did. It’s heavy, it’s crisp, it’s big-sounding, it’s aggressive, it’s brutal. It’s more brutal than Inflikted, and I wanted to get that result. Right now I’m just very excited to have people hear the record.

When you were writing it, were you like ‘That’s a Conspiracy song, that’s a Soulfly song…’?

When I write, I write all together. I just write riffs al the time, not really thinking which one it’s going to go into. It’s later on when I listen to the songs that I make that decision, whether it goes for Soulfly or if it goes for Cavalera. But when I’m writing I just write them all together. When I get in writing mode, it’s like a factory. Riffs come out one after the other and I don’t even stop to think about where it’s going to go. I just put it on a CD and put it aside then listen later. It’s working so far. It’s a good technique that’s been working for me for a couple of years. Since Sepultura days we did things like that. I started writing like that on Arise. That’s when I started getting my drum machine and my guitar and starting to write albums full of songs by myself. I really love doing it. It’s a therapeutic kind of thing. I lose myself with a guitar and a drum machine. They feel like a real song because of a drum machine. They have beginnings, middles, choruses, vocal parts. Some of them are really quite finished songs when you listen to the demos. I have some demos of Refuse/Resist that are like that… Arise, Dead Embryonic Cells… songs I wrote at home first then took to the studio to show the guys. It’s a technique that’s worked for me for years, and if it’s working it doesn’t need to be changed.

Read the full interview HERE.

And the cover of an old classic. . .

SOME GOOD/BAD NEWS FROM THE FUTURE

2011-03-28T10:00:00.003+08:00

A commercial break from all the blood and gore for a bit of sci-fi rhapsodizing. My article about The Singularity came out on GMANEWS.TV a couple of days ago. And the Transhumanists actually wrote me back a thanks letter. Much appreciated, too, Mr Tom McCabe.

Below are excerpts. Or you can go read the whole thing right away HERE.

In the future, there will be robots. And that future

will happen less than 40 years from now.

Transcending the flesh:

The coming Singularity

In the future, there will be robots. And that future will happen less than 40 years from now. If you believe that humans and machines will eventually become one, then the Singularity movement is for you.

What is The Singularity? It is that point in time when humanity’s technological capacity so outstrips itself that a moment of near apotheosis for the race takes place. This means many things, but chief among them are: a) technology will become so small and cheap that body augmentation (through nanobots) will become as routine as an injection’ and b) we will give birth to machine artificial intelligence (AI) so smart it surpasses all the smart human brains of the world put together.

Ray Kuzweil’s book The Singularity is Near (When Humans Transcend Biology) defines it thus: “The Singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality."

If you experience a profound feeling of terror and shock at having grasped the full meaning of that statement, please don’t be alarmed. It’s a sane and valid reaction.

It’s pretty easy to dismiss the concepts and predictions of those who believe in the coming Singularity (they call themselves Singularitarians or Transhumanists —or even Post-Humanists) as wish fulfillment of futurists and tech-fetishists. Mad ravings, even.

Read the rest HERE.

WE HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU

2011-03-24T09:34:00.001+08:00

Free PDF of the Hellraiser comics prelude! Am already downloading mine : D. Check it out HERE.

Thanks, Clive!

Official Press Release:

March 23, 2011 - Los Angeles, CA - Today at comic book shops worldwide one of the genre's most celebrated franchises returns with Clive Barker ushering in a new vision of Hell in the all-new ongoing HELLRAISER comic book series! BOOM! Studios celebrates this launch with an all-new, all-original “PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1” PDF available for download FREE from your favorite horror and comic book news sites — both written by Clive Barker himself.

That's right, to kick off the release of HELLRAISER #1 — available in comic shops across the nation today — Clive Barker and BOOM! Studios is making available for download an absolutely free, all-new, all-original “PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1” to whet your appetite for the insidious horrors of HELLRAISER #1. So head on over to your favorite horror or comic book news site to get the “PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1” and check it out. After you’re done reading, spread the word, and share the PDF by emailing, tweeting, facebooking, and torrenting as much as humanly possible. Help us evangelize the new series to all those horror fans, Hellraiser fans, and Barker fans that may not know about the comic or haven’t ever been exposed to comics.

“This is an unprecedented chance to spread the word of comic books,” said BOOM! Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ross Richie, “with one of the biggest authors and with one of his signature creations. Non-comic book fans, lapsed comic book fans, and horror aficionados who don’t go into comic book stores will all be excited and interested in this. And we are calling on the fans to get the word out to them. Send this via Facebook, Twitter, torrents, and e-mails to everyone in your life that you think would dig this, and let’s increase the overall pool of people worldwide who read comic books! I can’t think of an easier way to share this great comic. They don’t call it Portable Document File for nothing!”

The biggest and the best comics and horror sites have joined BOOM! to launch this franchise classic with its original founding father, Barker himself. BOOM! will be updating its Twitter account with locations where you can download this must-have Hellraiser essential! Search the hashtag #HellraiserPrelude to suss out participating sites!

BOOM! Studios has made it easier than ever to join Clive Barker, who along with writing partner Christopher Monfette and HELLBLAZER artist Leonardo Manco, serve up a masterfully chilling trip through Hell and bring fresh nightmares to new and old fans alike.

This new comic book series marks only the third time Barker has written the character: first in the original novella THE HELLBOUND HEART, second in the original seminal horror classic HELLRAISER film.

“With all the tremendous work and effort poured into the HELLRAISER comic series, we're confident that the second readers feast their eyes on those first pages they'll be clamoring for more,” says Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. “Whether you're a regular comics reader or not, HELLRAISER and Clive Barker are unmistakable names in horror, and if you read the free PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1 I'm sure you'll agree HELLRAISER is a series worth picking up!”

“Have you ever heard of an offer like this from any comic publisher ever? I think not,” says BOOM! Studios Marketing Director Chip Mosher. “We know how die-hard HELLRAISER fans are and to show them we mean business we're offering this fantastic PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1 ready to download free! Are we crazy!? No, just BOOM! Studios.”

Visit your favorite horror and comic news websites to download your free copy of the all-original PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1, then run to your local comic shop to pick up your copy of HELLRAISER #1!

HELLRAISER #1 and the PRELUDE TO HELLRAISER #1 PDF are written by Clive Barker and Cristopher Monfette with art by the sensational Leonardo Manco (HELLBLAZER). HELLRAISER #1 is a 40 page giant with a back-up story by Larry Wachowski (THE MATRIX) and Marc Pacella and ships with A & B covers in a 50/50 split with art by Tim Bradstreet and Nick Percival respectively, as well as a very special 1-in-50 incentive cover drawn and signed by legendary master of horror Clive Barker himself! This title is suggested for Mature Readers.

DOG EAT GOAT

2011-03-23T09:40:00.000+08:00

From Discovery Channel. Well that's disappointing.

Chupacabra Mystery Solved

Halloween stories about the ghostly "chupacabra" circulate every year, but now scientists have solved the mystery surrounding this legendary animal.

Instead of being vicious, fanged creatures that supposedly drink the blood of livestock, chupacabras turn out to be wild dogs inflicted with a deadly form of mange, according to University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor.

The myth about chupacabras, also known as goatsuckers, started after reports of livestock attacks in Puerto Rico and Mexico, where dead sheep were discovered with puncture wounds, completely drained of blood. Similar reports began accumulating from other locations in Latin America and the U.S. Then came sightings of evil-looking animals, variously described as dog-like, rodent-like or reptile-like, with long snouts, large fangs, leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and a nasty odor. Locals put two and two together and assumed the ugly varmints were responsible for the killings.

OConnor, however, and other scientists conclude that an 8-legged mite that burrows under the skin of coyotes can give these animals the "chupacabra" look.

He explains that the mite responsible for the extreme hair loss seen in "chupacabras syndrome" is Sarcoptes scabiei, which also causes the itchy rash known as scabies in people. Human scabies is an annoyance, but not usually a serious health or appearance problem, partly because our bodies are already virtually hairless and partly because the population of mites on a given person usually is relatively small---only 20 or 30 mites.
Humans have likely evolved natural defenses for this mite over the years. When we began to domesticate dogs, we likely spread the mites to them. When the mites then transfer to wild dogs, such as foxes, wolves and coyotes, the victims appear to be less able to fight them off. . . .

READ THE REST HERE.

The 20 Greatest Metal Guitarists Ever | Total Guitar Magazine | MusicRadar.com

2011-03-22T16:03:00.001+08:00

The unbearable heaviness of being metal: The 20 Greatest Metal Guitarists Ever | Total Guitar Magazine | MusicRadar.com

GO BATTY

2011-03-22T15:27:00.000+08:00

Paul Allender's PRS signature model now has a red and green finish. Dontcha just love the Cthulhu Emerald (the official color is actually emerald greenburst) color? Of course the winning cosmetic coup de grace here are the detailed bat inlays on the ebony fretboard.

“More metal that your gran’s left hip.” ~ Paul Allender

And here's some live stuff of the first purple finish.

WINTER IS NIGH

2011-03-22T15:11:00.002+08:00

HBO has ordered a whole season's worth of the first book of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series.

This is Daeneyrs Targaryen, dragon princess, played by Emilia Clarke.

While some of the characters aren't as I pictured them in my head, the sheer production values and enthusiasm the crew have obviously put into this makes it stunning.

Can't wait to see the Greyjoys. And those zombies from the great white north.

Hmmm, Sean Bean's Eddard Stark looks a tad too much like Boromir here but I hope he pulls it off acting-wise. which he probably will.

We'll just have to wait `til late April. Meantime HBO's official website is getting exponentially more chok full of teasers and BTS stuff as the airing date nears.

WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK

2011-03-08T09:40:00.002+08:00

Mahirap talaga ang buhay pag may umaaligid na horde.

THE HORDE IS COMING FOR US by tzaddi salazar

Run, French bastards, run!

SALSA PLUS METAL

2011-03-06T17:40:00.002+08:00

Salsa + Metal = P.U.Y.A. Well, mostly nu metal and rapcore-ish stylings but still quite heavy. The guys just call it Latin Metal. There's also lots of nods to Sepultura and generally the stuff the Cavaleras have become influential for.

Didn't know this was a 90s Puerto Rican band. Discovery courtesy of Poldo. I love the video, too. Reminds me of Gani's (illus for The Magdalene Fist) style. And the attack is reminiscent of SkinDredd and other metal fusion bands. You can dance AND bang your head to it!

RESSURECTION

2011-03-03T17:38:00.000+08:00

Darna Lives! By Gerry Alanguilan and Arnold Arre. This thing is gorgeous in full color and such a teaser. Oh, and I love the new, 21st century, streamlined itsy bitsy suit.

Read the whole nine pages HERE.

SCENES FROM AN AXE CONCLAVE

2011-02-26T11:22:00.001+08:00

From It Might Get Loud. One of my fave docus.

THE EDGE: The tech of guitar is spiritual
Step into my effects room

JACK WHITE: Rock is a war is a fight against ease of use
Raconteurism is good for the soul

JIMMY PAGE: The perils and privileges of rock `n' roll decadence.
And I can do some funky some mandolin, too

GOD AND THE CORPORATE SIGIL

2011-02-24T14:33:00.002+08:00

We're pretty proud of this one. Soon to hit all major Philippine bookstores nationwide.

David Duchovny ain't got nothing on our hot Brazilian nun.

Gautama will bless you more if you give him more gold in those there durned Black Hills.

WHEN I PUT ON MY SPIRITUAL ARMOR

2011-02-24T11:05:00.005+08:00

And now for something more brutal. Black metal from Taiwan! Currently listening to their Mirror of Retribution. You have to give ti to the black metallists, they certainly know how to parlay production values. I mean, just look at this vid.

From their Wiki entry:

Chthonic (sometimes typeset ChthoniC or ChThoniC) is a Taiwanese black metal band, formed in 1995 in Taipei. The group incorporates influences from traditional Taiwanese music including the classical Chinese instrument erhu (which is called a hena in their native Taiwanese). They are supportive of Taiwan independence and democracy, as well as self-determination movements in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Since their formation, Chthonic has released five studio albums. . .

While some songs have their lyrics partly or entirely written in Taiwanese, Japanese, English, or Taiwanese aboriginal languages, most of the band's songs have their lyrics written entirely in classical Chinese (with Mandarin pronunciation), which is rarely seen in contemporary Chinese music. Taking advantage of classical Chinese's feature of being a monosyllabic language, many songs, especially those in earlier albums, used parallel sentences in their lyrics.

The themes mostly surround the defiant spirit of early Taiwanese colonizers, fictional wars between aborigine's gods with Han's gods, Taiwanese folklore and mythology, and the historical event known as the Wushe Incident, which was a rebellion against the Japanese governor by the Seediq people.

* * *

Also, their bassist, Doris "Thunder Tears" Yeh, sure reminds me of La Sexorcisto-era Sean Yseult. It'll try not to make it obvious I got a huge crush on her.

On FHM Taiwan. Yeah, hot stuff, huh?

All masked up for battle.

And without make-up. Oh how cute : D

Yet another reason to get an ESP/LTD

SOME WITCHERY

2011-02-22T14:29:00.004+08:00

Just found out about UK neo-goth trio ESBEN AND THE WITCH from the pages of SPIN.

There's lots of 4AD in there mixed with The Cure and loads of shoegaze, garnished with Joy Div and slacker pop and some entirely electronic noodling that actually reminds me of a reigned in Primal Scream. -- and about 70 percent of the whole Projekt Records catalog The reverb-saturated girl vocals are a direct line to the swirly aerials of Elizabeth Fraser.

Always good. Now if I can only find a working torrent of their Violet Cries LP. Meantime, am loving the new single "Marching Song." The video is smart, brooding and obviously endeavored to be elegantly unpretentious (okay, and minimalist -- or maybe they really just had a limited budget). Never falls into mere gloomy arthouse posturing. And that's saying a lot because there's a lot of literary references and mythopoeic alluding going on here to keep even the most OC hipster digging through Wiki entries for a week. If that doesn't make them discover Joseph Campbell then we might as well let the machines take over now.

Talk about the effects of sonic injury.

CHAOS, IT'S ON MY "TO DO" LIST

2011-02-20T16:40:00.000+08:00

It's not all blood and rough sex. Mass mayhem takes some doing, you know. So cut us some slack when we leave out some details. Anarchists are busy people, too.

ADVANCED HABERDAY, KURT

2011-02-19T22:28:00.000+08:00

Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994). In memoriam.

"The worst crime is faking it"

CATHOLICS, BEWARE! KHRISTIANISM IS COMING! (And Gonzo Army supports the praxis seizure)

2011-02-19T22:09:00.002+08:00

Wasak kung wazek!

Join the kult of Ianmadrigal Aka-Mardigrass at the upcoming KHRISTIANISM exhibit on FEBRUARY 26, 2011 at the PROSE GALLERY, MAKATI and get a free, name embroidered towel in your color of choice (neon green, not available)!

Or simply participate in the pentecostal exorcism as Gonzo Army speaks in your fave drop-tuned tongues. It's definitely not fun for the whole family! Offer good while supplies last. Best before your mother finds out.

Remember, kids: Khristianism is the patented antidote to the virulent app addiction of Mapple dictator for life Steve Mobbs and a proven repellant against the evil, alien gods of Scientology

One of the featured paintings. Station to station we release our woes.

Here's the map to the gallery, peeps.

TRAIN WRECK

2011-02-19T21:47:00.001+08:00

Christ. I could hardly believe what the FX driver told me yesterday. Walang ganyan sa States, boi. Good thing nobody was in those boxcars.

Probe on LRT train collision starts; retrieval disrupts EDSA traffic

Even as it allayed fears of a collision involving trains with  passengers, the Light Rail Transit Administration started Saturday an  investigation into the collision of two of its coaches in Quezon City.

LRTA spokesman Hernando Cabrera said they will have to retrieve the  “black box" data recorders of the two trains that collided at the  reversing track on Friday.

“Each of the trains in Friday’s mishap has a black box that recorded the  systems data at the time of the incident. We have to download the  information once the coaches are brought to the yard at our Baclaran  depot," Cabrera said in Filipino in an interview on dzRH radio.

He said cranes had already been deployed to the site of the incident,  but had disrupted traffic along the southbound part of Epifanio delos  Santos Avenue (EDSA).

Cabrera advised motorists to avoid the southbound lane for now and take alternate routes.

Friday’s incident occurred at the reversing track near the LRT’s  Roosevelt station, forcing the LRTA to cut operations between Roosevelt  and Monumento.

In an interview on dzBB radio Friday, Cabrera said the LRT operations between Monumento and Baclaran would continue.

Probe on LRT train collision starts; retrieval disrupts EDSA traffic - Nation - GMA News Online - The go-to site for Filipinos everywhere - Latest Philippine News

IN SYNC EXHIBIT

2011-02-14T18:22:00.000+08:00

Helping out a friend with her fashion exhibit. Lifestyle, beauty and fashion editors/writers, you might wanna check this one out.

Happens tomorrow, Feb 15 at Georgetown Coffee Club, Malate. Digs?

NOTS REVIEW IN THE PHILS GRAPHIC. FEB 21 2011 ISSUE AVAILABLE NOW

2011-02-14T17:28:00.000+08:00

Thanks again to Chief Editor JOEL SALUD of the Philippines Graphic for the review and their support of Pinoy literature.

Take a shine of this.

 "Only the awesome and spectacularly 

gothic live here. . ." 

In the Phils Graphic. February 21, 2011 issue

FEARLESS

2011-02-13T09:04:00.001+08:00

Or the night DEFTONES gave us whiplash and made us shove it (shove it, shove it, shove it -- haha) on their Diamond Eyes Tour. Chino Moreno was fearless, diving into the crowd, climbing barricades and generally stirring us into beautiful fury. He had certainly cut down and lost a lot of weight.


At the WTC. Love for the vatos, girl

Managed to touch the hem of his shirt as he rushed by. Hallelujah, ese, I have been saved! Loved the set, especially on "Back to School / Mini-Maggit." We went to chill out at the Scout area later.

Stephen Carpenter, you were big, hairy and awesome. So, um, how about one of those seven string ESPs ey?

NOTS REVIEWED IN THE PHILS GRAPHIC

2011-02-12T00:51:00.006+08:00

Thanks to Chief Editor JOEL SALUD for this review. Please do grab a copy of the Philippines Graphic, available at all National Bookstore outlets by next week.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

De MESA'S NEWS OF THE SHAMAN 

“He shrugged, puzzled, opened the door and found he was  overlooking a mosh pit working itself into frenzy. The sound of thumping  bass, drums and guitars got louder.”

In Karl R. de Mesa’s News of the Shaman, literary moshing  and bodyslam are taken to the next level of the imagination. Jazzy and  frenetic as only de Mesa can pen it (who is probably a tad spunkier than  beat era fictionist Jack Kerouac), this collection of stories delve  into worlds where quiet tours into the human condition are not found;  only the awesome and spectacularly gothic live here, where one’s sense  of being is most strangely linked with the rough feel of sizzle in the  grass, the scent of blood-red cumulus from a distance, and the slow  rumbling of unpronounced verbs from a drum. Definitely working itself  into frenzy.

It’s one of those books that most poignantly show freshness and  originality, but not the way most readers understand the terms. The  book’s freshness has nothing of daffodils in it. Originality for de Mesa  apparently breaks the rigors of tradition if only to spur the public  into a winding spell, or a perennial state of transience, bravely  straddling worlds and words, consciences and hallways, doors, floors,  time and grime—and the quintessential washroom—places no sunrise would  dare touch:

“Before he can open his pants, however, he coughs, and the cough  quickly turns into a deep, growling phlegm fit. He directs his mouth  over the urinal just in time to point the green and yellow vomit that  comes out of his lips. At first it’s just a dribble, timid and slow,  then it promptly turns into a forceful surge that reminds me of the way  water from a fireman’s hose is so powerfully expelled when the hydrant  if first turned on. By this time he’s bent nearly double over the urinal  and the small sink that is only built to catch piss is overflowing with  the wretched, half-digested remains of his dinner, lunch and breakfast.  Complete with clues.”

No, it’s not an attempt to uselessly shock and awe, to grab the  reader in a vice-grip of stunningly crafted images, or the things we’d  rather not read about. Apparently, the nature and tone of his stories  demand the grotesque in everyday life, the bizarre and grossly misshapen  cogs that wheel us into literary sleeplessness, or flurry. News of the Shaman gives one a peek into worlds thick with seraphs and lovers, wizards, bishops, nuno and duendes,  and corporate disciples with even less moral bearing than an imaginary  Hitler after solvent rehab. De Mesa was even kind enough to give stocky  elfins a face and Florsheims. . .

CONTINUED. For the rest of the review please click HERE.

YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES BUT THE DEATH IS ROMANTIC

2011-02-09T10:37:00.001+08:00

Opting out in the face of corruption charges. Doesn't seem very heroic to me. And this must be the most dishonorable way for a soldier, let alone a leader of soldiers, to exit. Nevertheless I hope the General finds the peace he craved that so eluded him in the last days of his life.

The General shot himself over the grave of his mom. Mind the blood spatter.

Ex-AFP chief commits suicide, police confirm
By Katherine Evangelista
Agence France-Presse, INQUIRER.net
First Posted 08:53:00 02/08/2011

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 6) “Sorry.”

That was the last word that former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Angelo Tomas Reyes apparently uttered as his sons and aides frantically carried him and rushed him to the hospital on Tuesday.

Doctors at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City tried to revive him for 45 minutes but failed.

Reyes, 65, who had also served as defense secretary and in other Cabinet-level posts, died from a single bullet fired into his chest, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said.

Eastern Police's District chief Superintendent Francisco Manalo said investigation showed that the gunshot wound Reyes sustained was “self-inflicted.”

Ona said the wound on the left side of the chest near the heart was the cause of death. "He was dead on arrival (at hospital). They were not able to revive him,” he told reporters.

Reyes, together with his two children and a bodyguard, was visiting his mother’s grave at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City Tuesday morning, Feliciano Recorba, a cemetery maintenance staff, told Radyo Inquirer.

"He asked his children and bodyguard to go ahead and wait for him in the car,” Recorba said. A few moments later, a gunshot rung out, he said.

“Sorry” was the last word Reyes uttered as his shocked children rushed to the scene and found him lying on the ground holding a gun, Recorba said.

“Ang narinig ko po na sinabi niya ay ‘sorry’, palagay ko po ay para sa anak [I heard him say ‘sorry’, perhaps to his son],” he said.

Reyes, who loved his mother very much, had told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a previous interview that he would never do anything that would besmirch the name of “my good mother.”

Read the rest of the Inquirer story HERE.

Here's a vid for you, Gen Reyes. It's by Filter.

You fought and you were right, but they were just too strong.

TZADDI ON SOUNDCLOUD

2011-02-06T20:52:00.000+08:00

Please do send your heavy, atmopsheric, post-rocking tracks and music to my drop box on soundcloud. Just click the box below.

Send me
your sounds

VAMPIRES. . .IN SPACE!

2011-02-04T18:26:00.001+08:00

What's worse than rampaging blood-suckers? Demonically-possessed vampires who want intergalactic domination! This looks awesome though.I just love the crucifix shurikens. Originally a Tokyo Pop title.

KNIVES OUT

2011-02-03T09:42:00.001+08:00

Grab a copy of The Philippines Free Press (which turned a venerable 100 years old this year -- congrats FP!) February 2011 issue and check out my essay "My Transcendental Knife."

Thanks to literary editor Joel Toledo for releasing this. Incidentally, Joel's going to Italy soon for a (drum roll) literary fellowship. Wasakaderci baiao!

KEEP TURNING LEFT

2011-02-01T20:13:00.000+08:00

Sometimes finding the center isn't enough. After Borges and Eco. Am having this phase with navigationally-challenging architecture for some reason.

LABYRINTH, RECONNAISSANCE OF by tzaddi salazar

WHEN WE ALL LIVED IN THE CASTLE

2011-01-31T18:15:00.001+08:00

From Mervyn Peake's novels. You will wander these corridors until you grow old, grow mad or grow a beard of Jewish/Rip Van Winkle proportions -- whichever comes first.

An old sketch circa mid-2000s i think. Still obsessed with that synthy taste in the mix.

GONE TO GORMENGHAST by tzaddi salazar

SKIN SUIT -- WHEN WE WENT TO THE Myth of the Human Body EXHIBIT

2011-01-31T15:23:00.002+08:00

We went to the Myth of the Human Body exhibit in the AFP community suburbs of Taguig. The building itself (called Neo Babylon, i kid you not) is decorated on its facade with what seems to be precise stone cuts of the gods in aptly massive proportion. Atlas was at the top. He seemed so precariously tilted you feared he'd drop the globe.

The exhibit itself was a mix of bad copy ("the duodenum is shaped like a chubby eggplant" and "the exhibit over 20 millions people has seen!"), choppy and hurried tour spiels (I did some consultancy in the Met Museum and this shit would never fly there), a confusing video of the workings of a birth and amazingly preserved, mind-blowing specimens with divided parts that put the "uh" deconstructed the whole thing left you in a head-shaking, confused mess. Well, if that didn't make you self-conscious of your biological cogs and screws then you're certainly one tough cookie. It's easy to see how cannibals and/or zombies see you as walking lunches after all that.

My favorite is called The Red Man. A human shape with toes pointed and raised off the floor a couple of inches made entirely (or so they claimed) out of plastinated blood vessels. Also, the man holding the skin like a molted carapace in a gentlemanly pose is uber creepy. Gives whole new-Lecter meaning to "skin suit."

It was worth the price though. And, yes, we noticed that Lydia's Lechon is one of the sponsors.

Oh, and there was strictly no photos allowed inside with the specimen dioramas so all I got was this lousy pix with the exhibit site map. Yep, each system is divided into its own Grecian god. Why Hades is designated as the circulatory system is a marvel of shoddy analogy and PR contortion.

This exhibit runs til April, I think.

WITH THANKS TO AMIRI BARAKA

2011-01-26T15:28:00.000+08:00

Yet another post-rock cookie. I know, I couldn't resist the title. It was just precious and bombastic and, well, atmospherically science-y.

BLACK ARTS WE MAKE IN BLACK LABS OF THE HEART by tzaddi salazar

DON'T GET ON THE BUS

2011-01-26T15:18:00.002+08:00

When your bus driver's last name is "danger," you know the terrorists have been watching too many old Keanu Reeves movies. This is just pure and utter terror tactics. The fact that no group's claimed it actually suggests a misdirection strategy our formulaic military and police minds commonly employ.

That certainly pus a damper on my bus rides.

EDSA bus bombing: 4 dead

Bomb under seat of bus driven by Maximo Peligro

MANILA, Philippines—“Who is responsible? At this point all we can say is speculation,” President Benigno Aquino III said Tuesday night as he also disclosed that all intelligence agencies were in the process of identifying those behind the EDSA bombing that killed four, two instantly, and injured 14 others.

The bomb placed under the seat in the middle of a passenger bus driven by a man ironically named Maximo Peligro went off just before 2 p.m. on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) near the north gate of the upscale Forbes Park subdivision in Makati City.

The blast blew a huge hole on the right side of the northbound Newman Goldliner plying the Baclaran-SM Fairview route.

Makati Mayor Junjun Binay said the explosion was so powerful that it punched a hole in a nearby concrete fence.

“It appears that it was a big bomb that exploded but we’re still determining what kind of bomb,” said the Makati police chief, Senior Supt. Froilan Bonifacio.

The explosion shattered the windows of the air-conditioned bus (Plate No. TXJ-710), which was approaching the loading bay on EDSA and Metro Rail Transit station on Gil Puyat (formerly Buendia) Avenue.

Police said the sixth row on the right side of the bus sustained massive damage...

EDSA bus bombing: 4 dead - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

TOOK MY DELAY DOWN TO THE SEA

2011-01-18T13:20:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year! And for the start of the rabbit year i took my delay down deep into the abyss and came up with some swirly, airy sounds.

Check it out here: post-rock cookie.

Or here it is on Soundcloud.

YEARS WE SPENT SWEPT BY THE TIDES by tzaddi salazar

Thank you Sigur Ros, Sonic Youth, Explosions in the Sky, Set Fire to Flames and God is an Astronaut.

THIS IS THE NEW SHIT

2010-12-21T18:43:00.000+08:00

Presenting the new face of metal gaze in progressive hues. Animals As Leaders is the real thing. Not in six, not in seven, but in a double eight-string guitar attack!

Tosin Abasi is the firebrand of the new wave of virtuosos.

METAL ON METAL

2010-12-15T13:51:00.000+08:00

While sick I have now watched this achingly emotive and brilliantly-paced docu on one of heavy metal's lost sons. Let's hear it for the resurrection of Anvil. Thanks for the suggestion, Pao Seen.

NOTS GETS NOD FROM Trese's BUDJETTE TAN

2010-12-09T09:16:00.000+08:00

Trese writer and co-creator Budjette Tan picked his "Best of the Year" list on the UK's Forbidden Planet International. Is it that time of the year now when we make our retrospective, listomanias? Had the pleasure to hang out with Trese's artist Kajo Baldissimo a month or so back and he was a very cool, tranquil dude.

Thanks for the pick, Mr Tan! You certainly have good taste : )

Read the whole post HERE. Have excerpted it below.

Best of the Year: Budjette Tan

Today’s Best of the Year guest blog comes courtesy of the award-winning Filipino creator Budjette Tan, one half of the creative team behind the excellent Trese graphic novels (UK & US publishers, please have a look, this needs a wider audience). Over to Budj. . .

NEWS OF THE SHAMAN by Karl De Mesa (Published by Visprint) This is an anthology of loosely connected horror novellas. The book lends you a flashlight that badly needs batteries and asks you to point at certain spots in Manila, giving you a glimpse of this city where angels and demons roam, where creatures of Philippine folklore and lower-mythology have found new jobs and hobbies in the metro, where people casually practice magic and shamans are hailed like heroes and treated like rockstars.

~ 30

WAVE THE BLACK FLAG

2010-12-09T08:49:00.000+08:00

Circle Jerks, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, SS Decontrol, Articles of Faith, Minor Threat, Battalion of Saints, DOA, etc and the great Bad Brains.

A comprehensive documentary albeit stutteringly paced. Did you know Pinoy restaurants and clubs played host to some of the seminal hardcore punk outfits? A; yes sir, the Mabuhay Gardens at San Francisco. A joy to watch. Extreme pit violence is required.

Now. This. Is. Hardcore.

MONSTER MAGNET CIRCA 2010

2010-12-06T19:31:00.000+08:00

It's a great Christmas for stoner rock. The new Monster Magnet album Mastermind is here!

Check out their video for the single "Gods and Punks." Thank you Mr. Wyndorf for the gift of weed, sleaze and occult references in a pure mix of rock and roll.

MONDO HERE, MONDO NOW

2010-11-26T12:54:00.000+08:00

After a thousand years and a several abortions Khavn De la Cruz's film of Normwan Wilwayco's novel will now hit the big screen. Spoiler: mawawasak kayo!

Presenting: MONDOMANILA

MFMF! Mondomanila Filmfest MotherFuckers!

Wednesday, December 1 at 4:00pm - December 4 at 10:00pm

Cine Adarna, UP Film Institute

University of the Philippines, Diliman

Quezon City, Philippines

Screening Times:
December 1-4. 7pm.
December 2-3. 5pm.

Kamias Road presents

MFMF!
Mondomanila Filmfest MotherFuckers!

December 1-4, 2010
Cine Adarna, UP Film Institute
University of the Philippines, Diliman, QC
Mondomanila, Philippines

National Premiere: MONDOMANILA
This is not a film by Khavn De La Cruz

Tickets: P50 only

For inquiries, contact Kristine +63.916.292.9870
or email oracafe@rocketmail.com.

SKATE AND RESIST -- SKATEISTAN, THE DOCUMENTARY

2010-11-23T22:28:00.000+08:00

One of the best documentaries I've seen for a long while. And it's just 10 minutes long! Awesomely told stories like this that are full of woe and informed by the culture of resistance make me go a big, wet one. And not in the way you think, pervert.

Watch and get yer heart strings pulled.

From the Wired article:

Skateistan Examines Struggles of Young Afghan Skateboarders

by Erik Malinowski

Sports, in its most profound sense, can be cathartic in ways beyond our comprehension. In times of turmoil and anguish, sports’ therapeutic abilities can lead us out of the darkness and toward a better place — if not tangibly, then in the recesses of our minds.

Sometimes, all it takes is a skateboard.

In the war-ravaged streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, that’s what a group of youngsters is experiencing today, thanks to Skateistan, which hosts more than 300 boys and girls from the community every week in classes that focus on skateboarding and education in general. This nongovernmental organization is also the focus of a fascinating, emotional new documentary called Skateistan: To Live and Skate in Kabul. This raw look at young Afghan ‘boarders illustrates the daily struggle to survive in one of the most-violent and poorest places on Earth, and how skateboarding is helping them rise above it all.

Murza, a 17-year-old from the Khayr Khana neighborhood of Kabul, once had to support his family by bringing in extra cash as a car washer, but now he works at Skateistan, cleaning up the facility as well as training other would-be skaters. For him, the violence has become part of his daily routine — “It’s been happening throughout my life, and it will continue into the future” — but Skateistan’s mere existence has given him hope that better days are ahead.

Sharna Nolan, an Australian expat now living in Afghanistan, co-founded Skateistan back in 2007, and has witnessed first-hand how the hobby has changed the lives of those who walk through her doors. “Skateboarding’s a fantastic way to communicate with each other and build relationships with each other,” she says in the film. “There’s nothing like watching an Afghan woman roll down the ramp for the first time and she’s achieved something that she never thought she would.”

Read the whole thing HERE.

NEWS of the SHAMAN, KIMOMACHINE AND NAERMYTH @QUANTUM CAFE

2010-11-18T13:48:00.001+08:00

Thanks to Atty Pao Chikiamco of RocketKapre for the exposure! Punta kayow mga peeps. may Karen ka na, may Manix at KMFDM ka pa : )

Nov 29, 6PM at QUANTUM CAFE, MAKATI

Here's the map to the place. It's at Kamagong cor Bagtikan sts.

GONE TO WAZAKSTAN -- GONZO ARMY @Fete De La WSK!

2010-11-16T19:04:00.001+08:00

Gonzo Army is proud to be part of the glorious post-music and sonic bricolage (and all that fancy noise jazz terminology). We play with the rest of our INC (Innovative Noise Collective) friends at the NOV 28/Sunday gig @Victoria Court. See you there!

Dig the fantastically twisted poster!

France's TUJIKO NORIKO and Thailand's KIJJAZ are just some of the big international artists who are participating.

Find out more about the participating artists HERE.
More about the event details HERE.

NOTS REVIEWED AT "TAKING A BREAK" BLOG

2010-11-15T20:36:00.002+08:00

They really just get on my nerves sometimes. Salamat sa review, though, at sa pagbili ng libro. I like "Bright Midnight," too sir/ma'am.

Bit of a tip to blog reviewers, it'd help if you actually substantiate your opinions with supporting evidence instead of ranty non-sequturs, digs? "why couldn’t there have been more to the story?" is reaaaly not a complete, self-contained or apt turn of phrase in any publishing universe. Nor is it a substitutes for astute commentary (or attempted witticism).

Props for italicizing the book titles though. Still, read on. I've posted the whole thing verbatim below. The actual post is HERE.

BOOK: NEWS of the SHAMAN

from what i can understand, NEWS OF THE SHAMAN is a collection of four stories all happening in the same universe. heck, the bulk of the story happens in the same town in quezon city: novaliches. and there are four separate stories happening in this universe.

the first one, ANGELORIO, sets up the premise of the story. of how the supernatural has already found acceptance in our world of science and technology. they are effectively married, and their magical properties are already being abused.

ANGELORIO also sets up two characters who will play a major part in two separate stories later on.

NEWS OF THE SHAMAN is the second story from the book; and it’s the one i found hardest to follow. it’s a collection of transcripts from different forms of the mass media: you have a radio show, newspaper clippings, and news broadcasts. the second story tells of cruez, an influential man seeped in the supernatural–and he is being tried for a murder he may or may not have committed.

i must say that i was a little disappointed of NEWS OF THE SHAMAN the story. i thought it was an idea worth exploring, but the “clippings” approach felt very much like a cop-out. at the same time, i think the “clippings” approach made it harder for me to follow, since i don’t belong in that universe. sure, the court proceedings described in the story is very similar to how a trial would be held for a celebrity here in real world philippines. but we’re talking about supernatural people here. why couldn’t there have been more to the story?

to be clear, i’m not saying i want a clear-cut explanation of what’s going on. i’m also not saying that everything needs to be spelled out. what i want to say is that maybe the author could’ve just picked one character and followed the story from his (or her) point of view.

the third story, FAITH IN POISON, goes down memory lane with one of the characters from ANGELORIO. since the events of, or maybe even before the events of ANGELORIO, the protagonist seems to have already been steeped in the world of recreational drugs.

i found myself not liking the third story mainly because of a bias. i’m not a fan of stories where recreational drugs are used by characters without, it seems, any repercussions for their actions. yes, we get one character who reflects on how the drugs are affecting him, but that’s pretty much it.

by this story, NEWS OF THE SHAMAN the book was starting to read not like a horror novel, but a bleak outlook into the lives of filipinos. so much for the blurb “enough of boring epiphanies, quiet middle-class household conflicts…” that lourd de veyra gave the book.

reading the book became a bit of a chore by the time i finished FAITH IN POISON. and then we get BRIGHT MIDNIGHT. it saved the book, in my opinion.

in BRIGHT MIDNIGHT, we go into the life of a tertiary character in the first story (ANGELORIO) and follow the lives he had affected when he was alive, and after he had died. it tells the story in four perspectives, four threads, that weave one amazing story–and then it takes you back to the events of the first story.

i’d recommend for people to buy this book if only for BRIGHT MIDNIGHT. the rest of the stories found in NEWS OF THE SHAMAN, i think would only attract the more academically-inclined people, those who will probably find deeper meanings in the words the author had written.

KMFDM AT THE MANILA INT'L LITERARY FESTIVAL / LOL (LIT OUT LOUD)

2010-11-15T18:33:00.001+08:00

The MF is glad to be part of. . .

Am speaking as part of a panel on genre fiction on NOV 19 (FRI) 10AM at the Hotel Intercon Makati's Bel-Air and North Forbes Rooms. I know it's an unholy hour of the morning for print peeps but I hope you can check it out.

Some of the big dogs included in this three day gig are:

Andy Mulligan (UK)

Acclaimed authorof young adult novels Ribblestrop and Trash

David Parker (Hong Kong)

Chairman ofthe Man Asian Literary Prize

Vikas Swarup (India)

Bestsellingauthor of the Academy award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire and Six Suspects

Jose Wendell Capili (Manila)

Literary Criticism

Michael Coroza (Manila)

Poetry

Isagani Cruz (Manila)

Literary Criticism

Jose Y. Dalisay (Manila)

Fiction

KMFDM ON MANILA BULLETIN

2010-11-13T09:12:00.004+08:00

Found this on Manila Bulletin on-line by Ronald S. Lim. It's one of those short survey thingies about Hallowe'en when our Feast of the Dead season arrives.I talk about Clive and Joe Hill in it. Read the whole article HERE.

The one that made them shiver…

By RONALD S. LIM

October 29, 2010, 5:04pmThrough the years, writers have been able to make chills run down our spines with tales of tell-tale hearts and voices in the dark. But even the hardiest of authors will readily admit that even they have read or heard one particular story that has made them quiver with fear.

With Halloween upon us, the Students and Campuses Bulletin sought out several writers and asked them this: What’s the scariest story that you’ve ever read or heard?

BUDJETTE TAN, writer of the graphic novel ‘Trese.’ – “When I was growing up my dad would tell me stories about aswangs, and our maids would tell of scary creatures from their province. But the scariest story I’ve heard happened to my mother and me.

I was just a five month-old baby and we supposedly moved into a haunted house in Merville. Strange things were seen by my relatives, the maids, and the driver. They talked about lights being switched on and off, about hearing angry voices being in the hallways at three in the morning, and slippers moving on the floor on their own. One time, as the driver was backing the car out of the driveway, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw a young lady seated in the backseat. When he turned around to look, there was nobody there. My mom and dad didn’t believe in all these so-called ghost stories.

One afternoon, after my mom gave me a bath, she noticed that the right side of my face wrinkled up like that of an old man. My right eye stared at her. Angry. Defiant.

She slapped my right cheek and commanded the spirit to leave me. Even though she slapped me hard, I did not cry but just stared back at her. She ended up praying the entire rosary before my face returned to normal.
A séance was held in the house and the medium discovered there were two spirits, a father and a daughter, who died and still believed the house belonged to them. The medium explained that they were already dead and that they needed to move on. The father got angry and didn’t want to leave the house. He took over the body of one of the psychics and tried to make everyone leave. After the struggle, he and his daughter were convinced about their state and were asked to finally depart. Supposedly, after the séance, the weirdness stopped.’’

G. M. CORONEL, author of “Tragic Theater’’ – “It was the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” since exorcism is the subject of my book. What made it scary was the fact that the victim was possessed by not just one but several demons all at the same time.’’

KARL DE MESA, author of “News of the Shaman’’ – “Right now it’s a toss-up between the old Clive Barker short “In The Hills, The Cities” and Joe Hill’s novel “Heart-Shaped Box”.

For “In the Hills. . .” it’s mostly because I know exactly how people in the hinterlands, especially in the mountain boondocks like the Czech location depicted in the story, get up to some very bizarre things that somehow make perfect sense in the context of frontier life, but also since this is the only story I know that has capsulated for me perfectly the horror creature metaphor of what a body politic truly is.

“Heart-Shaped Box” is a crystal clear evocation of a modern haunting that is also a critique of our vicious, media-saturated consumer culture. Somehow it both frees and enslaves us; and yet with all our gadgets and fancy attempts at a global community we still seem to be none the wiser or compassionate for it. Spooky sh*t right there. ’’

NOTS ON JUICE.PH

2010-11-11T17:52:00.001+08:00

Ms. Gel Galang included News of the Shaman in a list of must-reads that included big heads like Chuck Syjuco's Man Asia winner Ilustrado and sir Butch Dalisay's Soledad's Sister. NOTS clocked in at number eight. Ayuz.

Btw Ms. Galang, Joaquin is the guitarist of fictional band Shadowland; the vocalist's name is Miguel. Digs? : )
Read the whole post HERE.

8. NEWS OF THE SHAMAN by Karl de Mesa

Why you should read it
If you think you’ve seen the dirtiest, most fetid and putrid parts of our beloved city, these four novelas will take you for a ride with fading rock stars, druggie photographers, puppeteer politicians, and otherworldly creatures to a different Manila.

The Bida
Lucas the tripped-up photographer in “Faith in Poison” and “Angelorio.”

The Badass
Joaquin, the vocalist of Shadowland who committed suicide in “Bright Midnight.” Before you say “Kurt Cobain,” make sure to take in the unusual trips, the talking cars, and personal demons that come his way.

GIMME SHELTER (FROM THE WALKING DEAD)

2010-11-11T16:13:00.000+08:00

Because you need to know your alternatives when the zombie apocalypse finally comes. This is a real contest for undead shelters where you can vote for a winner HERE. Below are two of the contest entries.

I think the SS Huckleberry is the best option for an island nation like ours. Not that borders would be applicable in the post-human world.

MOUNTAIN GETAWAY

THE 40 DAY Z-POD

NOTS IN FHM NOVEMBER 2010

2010-11-08T14:34:00.001+08:00

Thanks to Bong Sta. Maria and the editors of FHM Philippines.

This is inside the Ehra and Michelle Madrigal cover. Grab your copy now! Whoohoo!

TAG YOUR FACE

2010-11-07T12:13:00.000+08:00

My awareness of street art first got deeper when STATUS MAGAZINE assigned me to interview the eloquent and articulate Brooklyn tag artist Caledonia “Callie” Curry, better known as SWOON, about her magnificent work.

With amazing, nail-on-the-head insight that transcended the usual Q and A stuff I did for profiles one of the things that Swoon said that stuck in my head was her motive and manifesto for doing street art.

She said "{Grafiti is} A way to change your city with your bare hands. A way to change someone’s day on their way to and from a routine. A way to participate. A beautiful collage. A massively vulnerable act, masked as aggression." Wow.

The danger, passion, risk and sheer effort it took to pull off their acts of beauty (that was, in its very nature, an art form that would likely disappear next week or when the wall owner decided to repaint) stunned me.

The entirety of that piece can be read in the Status archive here.

Recently my co-editor recommended I watch the Banksy docu on the history on the movement and so I downloaded that shit (thank you, Lord, for the gift of peer to peer file exchange -- or perhaps more aptly, thank you, Sean Parker, for the seed) right away.

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP isn't just a documentary on the history, gestation and current state of the street art movement and the outlaw curation of urban spaces, it's also a cautionary tale about creative shortcuts and how art can at once be so misunderstood and appropriated by the people closest to it and those with the best intentions.

In short: this is mind-blasting stuff. You should watch it. It is wasak. You don't even need to like street art and graffiti to appreciate it, though I dare say it takes a lot not to be moved by a BANKSY piece.

OHRWURM

2010-11-03T21:50:00.000+08:00

Ang kawasakan ng Cephalic Carnage video. Bow. Watch and be awed.

SMOKE ON THE BLACK BLACK WATER aka USOK 2

2010-11-03T13:40:00.000+08:00

Usok2 from Rocketkapre is out. Below is webmaster and editor Pao Chikiamco's love letter to Pinoy genre fans. And isn't the art just sexy sexy?

View the new antho HERE.

Usok 2 is Live

The second issue of Usok is now live! I’ll post my introduction here, but you can also see it on the front page of the new issue itself. I hope you enjoy the stories and the art, and if you do, please comment and encourage the creators, because feedback is sweet ambrosia for writers and artists. For those who are looking for Usok #1, you can get a PDF of the illustrated edition in the Past Issues section of the Usok site.

Introduction: Hidden Selves

Kept you waiting, huh?
It’s been a long journey to get to the second issue of Usok, and while I’ve had to deviate from my original plans for the magazine, I’ve learned a lot about editing, working with creative people, and the speculative fiction scene in the Philippines, during the past year. There were ups and downs, but I have no regrets; sometimes the only way to get any solid data about an endeavor is to try it, to let your plans and dreams drum against the craggy shore of Reality. Usok will continue to evolve from here on out, and I hope you will all continue to support the magazine.

One thing I’ve learned is that it’s easier to find a unifying theme among stories that I’ve already accepted, than it is to assign a theme and wait for the stories to come in. Or maybe it’s just serendipity that all three of our stories in this issue (released days after Halloween) touch upon the theme of hidden selves, the masks we put on for the sake of blending in with “normal” society. It’s a common enough theme in speculative fiction, but it’s one of my favorites, and I hope you’ll find that each of these stories engages it in an intriguing way.

My thanks to the authors, Kate, Elaine, and Eliza, all of whom were very gracious and patient during the editing process. I’d also like to thank Kevin for the wonderful cover and for recruiting our latest batch of excellent digital artists: MJ, VN and Mark.

As with the previous issue, some of the stories contain scenes that may disturb those who have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction – children, the easily offended, etc. – so please keep that in mind. (Kate’s “100% of Me”, however, should be 100% safe for all but those who are allergic to percentages.)
Okay, it’s been way too long since I said this last, so without further ado: Kwentuhan na.

- Paolo Gabriel V. Chikiamco

THE SCRUNK FILES PART TROIS ON PULSE,PH

2010-11-03T13:10:00.000+08:00

. . .And we wrap up our feature presentation on the scrunks here. Below are excerpts.

THE SCRUNK FILES, PART 3 OF 3: G3TTING FREAXXXY

PART THREE: In which we present the “hits” of the emerging scrunk canon and where we inform you that neither the author nor the company is liable for grand mal seizures or similar traumatic reactions to extended listens. You’ve been warned.

HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD

Rap rock is back with extra crunk

Listen, these are the members of Hollywood Undead: Charlie Scene, Da Kurlzz, Funny Man, J-Dog, Johnny 3 Tears. All of the band members also wear their own unique mask, mostly based on a common hockey design. The use of the mask and the pseudonyms are never explained, though it’s most likely a nod to how rappers take on monikers and how Slipknot made the stage mask cool again.

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, this band is the current poster-boy for the heavy rock side of crunk core. They’re notable for the lack of auto-tune in their vocals. The band originated in 2005, from a song titled “The Kids” that Jorel Decker (J-Dog) and former member Aron Erlichman (Deuce) posted on the band’s MySpace profile to astronomically positive response and click through hits amounting to something in the vicinity of 500,000 in a mere few weeks.

With badly rhyming anthems to youth empowerment, the perils of Californication, and reprazenting LA, this is the way Fred Durst would likely sound if he was 13 and dyslexic and had Papa Roach as his backing band. Still, their debut album Swan Songs (released September 2, 2008 under A&M/Octone Records) reached number 22 on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release and sold 21,000 copies.

Their song “Young” is featured as a downloadable for Rock Band 2 and an instrumental version is featured in the trailer for the video game Velvet Assassin and also currently has three remixes and covers by other artists. Another song, “Undead,” is featured in the video games Madden NFL 09 and UFC 2009 Undisputed. An instrumental version of “Undead” is featured in a trailer for GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

The Critics Say: “While rap rock bands like Limp Bizkit mined old-school hip-hop […] screamo-crunk bands like Hollywood Undead look strictly to the new school: get drunk, get silly, wear loud clothes, have fun at all costs.” (Revolver Magazine, May 2009)

Similar Groups: I Set My Friends on Fire, Aiden, Jakewolfe, Outta Play, Scene Kidz, SnapKracklepop

TO READ THE REST CLICK HERE.

THE SCRUNK FILES PART DEUX ON PULSE,PH

2010-10-29T18:50:00.000+08:00

The second part of my Scrunk article on Pulse.ph. Excerpts below.

THE SCRUNK FILES, PART 2 of 3: AUTO-TUNE THIS, SON

PART TWO: Where we dissect the blemishes and barfs of the scrunk vanguard.

The crunk core kids aren’t too sure themselves about what exact message their music wants to say; but what they are sure about is that they want to party hard, drink lots of booze, get inked, and—as the BrokeNCyde song “FreaXXX” goes—“get fucking freaky now!”

Crunk core (also scrunk, crunk punk, and screamo-crunk) is the newest emergent genre to come out of middle America. It resonates strongly with global teens and tweens and spreads itself via the MySpace and Twitter virus. It combines the rollicking suburban style of dirty crunk rap and the belligerent screams of post-hardcore. More specifically, I should say it tries to.

The Boston Phoenix describes it as “a combination of minimalist Southern hip-hop, auto-tune croons, techno breakdowns, barked vocals, and party-‘til-you-puke poetics.” The way scrunk awkwardly saturates its songs with auto-tune, in particular, is so odious it can make T-Pain sound like Enya.

If you’re not familiar with it, auto-tune is a vocal effect that sounds like Cher, Lady Gaga, and a very horny robot had a vicious animal orgy inside your mouth. [Time answers the question of why pop music sounds perfect—or intentionally imperfect—here—Ed.]

TO READ THE REST CLICK HERE.

THE SCRUNK FILES PT 1 ON PULSE,PH

2010-10-26T11:55:00.001+08:00

The first of a three-part article on the emerging Crunkcore genre released on local music Net channel Pulse.ph. Thanks to the EIC Aldus Santos. Here are some excerpts.

THE SCRUNK FILES, PART I: GET SOME LAMB, DAWG

PART ONE: In which we shake hands and fists with the post-emo brethren.

Seven in the evening and the sky’s awash with PET bottles. Raining with it. I’m in the middle of Amoranto Stadium about 30 meters from the stage barricade surrounded by a couple of thousand strong metal heads, emo kids, freaks, punks, and orcs. A lot of orcs. This is Pulp Magazine’s annual Summer Slam circa 2010.

The torrential downpour of plastic has been an impromptu invention of the kids I’m sharing this sprawling arena with. We’ll call it Inter-Pit Bottle Pong. This new game comes close to being hazardous to my shaved head. And so I hold my crossed arms up to shield my head, fists curled down to the top of my spine, elbows to the sky in self-defense.

Why am I smack dab on ground zero of this heaving, malodorous mass of young flesh bent on destroying each other with a massive display of hurled objects?

THRASH THE SCRUNK

When you hit your thirties you start to doubt if you can survive a violent mosh pit at a venue the size of Amoranto. I’ve never been to a Summer Slam but all reports previous pointed to an extremely hazardous environment freed from the comfy walls of a club. There are no safe corners here, bub.

Plus, Testament and Lamb of God headlining this event was just too good to pass up. A couple of things came free with the general admission ticket: a copy of the magazine, a condom (variously flavored), and a Pepsi in a PET bottle. They inflated the condoms and tossed it around the arena like a beach ball. Guess what they did with the PET bottles?

Still, the bottles didn’t hurt per se. They were empty 80% of the time. The remaining 20% were packed with arena soil, dirt, and/or contained urine. So here I am with my hands above my head cursing the idiot who armed the little buggers. When Lamb of God finally started I took my angst out on the nearest punks unfortunate enough to be in the way of my St. Vitus dance.

TO READ THE REST CLICK HERE.

THIS WAY DOWN

2010-10-25T17:58:00.000+08:00

Just finished watching a couple of horror movies and one that struck me as astounding with its pace and build-up to its no redemption, no apologies climax is The Descent.

A barkada of hot, athletic girls go caving and get lost in a subterranean maze after a tunnel collaspses. What do they find there? No cute li'l bunnies I assure you. The great thing is, since they're mostly athletic they're no damsels in distress.

ARMING HOT GIRLS WITH LIGHTSABERS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

2010-10-25T17:53:00.001+08:00

I first encountered Clare Grant in the Masters of Horror episode titled "Valerie on the Stairs" where she played a very naked (90% of the time she's in her birthday suit) and very horny succubus/mental construct.

Turns out she just got hitched to hardest working Hollywood geek Seth Green. So how about a nude pix of Seth's wife?

Nice eh? She's also apparently part of a gamer girl group called Team Unicorn that does great parody stuff. Like this girl on girl saber duel, for example.

Star Wars - Saber from Darth Anonymous on Vimeo.

WE HAVE DETERMINED THAT YOUR SYSTEM SUCKS

2010-10-20T11:13:00.000+08:00

Journalist Raissa Robles recounts the horrors of trying to get her senior citizen mother her rightful monthly pension. And they say Pinoys are famous for caring for the elderly? Bull crap.

Faith in our national governance? They can't even get their lousy biometrics to work.

Still, read on. The whole post is HERE.

GSIS Killed My Mother

By Raissa Robles

Let me tell you how GSIS killed my mother.

Actually, she’s still alive.

But GSIS simply decided she was dead.

Even after I personally brought my mother, Gloria L. Espinosa, on November 5, 2009 to the GSIS office along Quezon Memorial Circle. There, she dutifully sat in front of the biometric machine and the technician tried to re-register her existence not once, not twice, not thrice, not four times, not five times, but SIX #!*^#!! times.

Finally, the technician told my mother that maybe the skin on her fingers was just too thin for the biometric machine to read.

This did not happen only to my mother. Other elderly pensioners who used the same machine at that time also failed to register. Now I wonder, is that intentional on GSIS’ part? To have a machine that cannot register and read the fingerprints of elderly pensioners?

It was actually the second time my mother, Gloria L. Espinosa, sat in front of a GSIS biometric machine. About a year before that, she had gone to the GSIS main office in Manila. The technician there was also NOT able to get her digital fingerprint. !!!!#%$^&!!!!! But GSIS obtained her new address and keyed that into its database. That is the proof that my mother actually went to GSIS to register her existence.
Because she again could not be registered on the biometric machine that November 5, 2009, the technician just keyed in my mobile number (for contact purposes) into the machine.

Just to be sure they had a record of my mother’s personal presence, my mother painstakingly filled up a ‘VISITOR’S REQUEST FORM” to tell GSIS she was still alive. I even submitted a photo of her which I took during her October 24, 2009 birthday. When you become a pensioner, be prepared to lose your dignity. You are required by both GSIS and SSS to pose with a newspaper, much like a kidnap victim.

Let me add something for the record. Before I took my mother to GSIS, she gave me her power-of-attorney and I personally went to the GSIS Quezon Memorial office four times to nag them that she was still alive and they should recognize her existence. I went through the process and did not for once try to short-circuit it by invoking the power of the press. (What power?) I was advised to bring my mother and so I did.

Last month at 11:58:10 of September 29,2010 I got this text message from GSIS:
REMINDER: Pls RENEW ACTIVE STATUS AS PENSIONER ON UR BIRTHMONTH 2 ensure uninteruptd receipt of pension Go w/ecard 2 any GSIS Ofc If cmplyd pls disregard Ty”

I must confess, so many unprintable words rushed through my mind upon reading this.

You see, the GSIS Quezon Memorial office told me and my mother last November to have patience since the GSIS computer system was having glitches. We were told GSIS would not be able to encode my mother’s name into their database until early this year.

Ha, ha. They fooled us.

My mother’s troubles began when she went to Canada to visit my sister for several months and she was unable to appear personally in GSIS on her birth month of October.

In February 2005, GSIS simply killed her without notifying her.

Since then, my mother has not received the monthly survivorship pension as the widow of my late father. GSIS Quezon Memorial told us that on April 13, 2008, GSIS prepared a check worth P101,634.85 for my mother but GSIS CANCELLED it because she never came to get it. How could she? They never !!!!#%$^&!!!!! told her about it.

My mother’s monthly pension is quite small – only P3,504.65 – compared to then GSIS chairman Winston Garcia’s salary and benefits.

But GSIS even tried to cheat my mother my preparing a check for her worth only P101,634.85 for the uncollected pension from March 2005 to March 2008.

Read the rest of the post HERE.

ZOMBIE DRAMA

2010-10-17T23:58:00.002+08:00

Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead will soon be released as a TV show adaptation. And Frank Darabont is directing. This is a great thing. Rick's story and the saga of a world in the grip of a zombie apocalypse can now be told on celluloid.

I love the comics series. You should, too. It's a no-brainer.

MAMBABASANG PINOY REVIEWS N.O.T.S

2010-10-17T23:08:00.001+08:00

I find it very amusing how bloggers are the ones who most often complain about the hassle of going on-line to check out stuff they'd like/need to find out more about. As a journalist who started out with just landlines, phone books, snail mail and good old legwork, I tell you it's really really nice not to have to go to an interview cold.

I digress. This is a confusing review at best, but at least he took the time to write all his thoughts down. Thanks, bro. The original post is here

News of the Shaman by Karl de Mesa: A Review

Oktubre 7, 2010, 8:34 umaga

Excited ako ng bilhin ko ang librong ito. Tulad ng maraming Pilipino, mahilig ako sa mga horror stories. Kumpleto ko nga ang lahat ng libro ni Stephen King. Mahilig din ako magbasa ng mga True Philippine Ghost Stories na libro. Kayat masaya ako sa kuwentong katatakutang ito na sulat ng isang Pinoy.

Nang buksan ko ang librong ito, bigla akong napaisip: Sino ba ang mga taong ito na pumupuri sa librong ito? Dapat ba ay kilala ko sila? Well, buti na lang at nandyan si kaibigang Google. Aba’y, mga kilalang personalidad naman pala ang mga taong ito. Bakit hindi na lang nila nilagay kung sinu-sino sila? Nag-research pa tuloy ako. Pwede naman nilang ilagay: Carljoe Javier, author of And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth. Di ba?

Anyways, ang librong ito pala ay hindi isang nobela, kundi apat na maiiksing novellas. 4 Novellas of Horror, sabi nga sa title page. Ito ay ang Angelorio, News of the Shaman, Faith in Poison, at Bright Midnight. Medyo magkaka-konekta ang apat na ito bagamat stand-alone stories naman sila. Sa kabuuan, maganda ang pagkakasulat sa libro. Hindi ito masyadong masalita tulad ng ibang mga nobelang ingles na gawa ng ibang Pilipino na para bang ipinagmamalaki ang laki ng kanilang bokabolaryo. Makatotohanan din ang mga dialogue, hindi masakit sa tenga. Makikita mo rin ang iba’t ibang personalities ng mga karakter sa kuwento. Matagumpay ito bilang isang literary fiction. As a source of entertainment, well…

Sa Angelorio, dalawang lalaki, sina Raul at Lucas, ang naghahanap ng kasagutan sa kani-kanilang mga katanungan. Matatagpuan nila ito (o hindi matatagpuan) sa isang club na pinatatakbo ng mga nilalang ng kadiliman. Ang Angelorio. Nagustuhan ko ang istilo ng awtor kung saan nagpapasalit-salit ang pagsasalaysay ng mga nangyari sa dalawang lalaki. Nakakadagdag ito ng suspense at tension. Nagustuhan ko rin ang mga stories na nakapaloob sa kuwentong ito, ngunit para medyo misplaced sila at parang wala namang kinalaman sa kuwento. Kahit medyo marami na ring mga kuwentong naisulat na katulad ng Angelorio, medyo naging unique naman ito dahil sa paggamit ng awtor ng mga nilalang at mga ritwal mula sa kulturang Pilipino.

Nagustuhan ko namang mabuti ang News of the Shaman. Nakakapukaw ng interest ang alternative reality na iprinisinta sa kuwentong ito. Dito, ang mga shaman, salamangkero, at paganismo ay isang pangkaraniwang bagay lamang at normal na parte ng ating buhay. Maganda rin ang istilo ng pagkukuwento, sa pamamagitan ng mga radio broadcasts, interviews, at mga newspaper clippings. Medyo nabitin lang ako sa ending dahil parang naging parang si Batman ang bidang Shaman.

Hindi ko naman masyadong na-gets ang kuwentong Faith in Poison. Siguro ay mayroong malalim at lihim na kahulugan ito ngunit sa kasamaang palad ay hindi ko ito natuklasan. Pasensya na po dahil ako’y isang simpleng mambabasang Pinoy lamang. Ang kuwentong ito, na masasabing karugtong ng Angelorio, ay tungkol kay Lucas at sa naging buhay niya pagkatapos ng kanyang di malilimutang karanasan sa Angelorio. Naging isang addict siya at parang walang direksyon ang buhay. Tulad ng Angelorio, mayroong ilang mini-stories dito na para bang walang kinalaman sa kuwento. Parang pangpakapal lang. Hindi mo alam kung ang mga nangyari sa kuwentong ito ay totoo o dulot lamang ng droga. Siguro ay maiintindihan mo ang kuwentong ito kapag high ka din sa droga.

Ang huling kuwento ay ang Bright Midnight. Tungkol ito sa buhay ng isang banda matapos magpakamatay ang kanilang gitarista. Hindi ko talaga alam kung anong masasabi ko sa kuwentong ito. Hindi naman ito horror story, at least, hindi yung horror na kilala natin. Siguro ay ipinakikita sa kuwentong ito ang tunay na horror ng buhay, mga problema at hirap na kailangang harapin ng tao sa mundong ito kasama na ang pagkawala ng isang mahal sa buhay.

All in all, masasabi kong medyo misleading ang paglalagay ng subtitle na 4 Novellas of Horror (dapat siguro ay Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol na lamang ang inilagay). Although narito ang mga bampira, manananggal, kapre at kung anu-ano pa, hindi naman sila ang sentro ng kuwento. Para bang extra lamang sila at kung aalisin mo sila at palitan ng mga pangkaraniwang tao, walang magbabago sa istorya. Mas ipinakita rito ang mga kadiliman na nasa puso ng tao at sa mga katatakutan na kinakaharap natin sa totoong buhay. With 183 pages, masasabi kong masyado itong maiksi. Hindi ko alam kung sinadya ba ito ng awtor o ito ay isang limitasyon ng mga publishers dito sa atin.

Magugustuhan ang librong ito ng mga young adults, lalo na yung mga college students. Pwedeng-pwede nila itong gawing subject sa discussion sa klase o kaya naman ay gawing thesis. Pwedeng-pwede itong pagdebatihan ng mga cum laude. Ano ba ang sinisimbolo ng Angelorio? ng kerubin? ng manananggal? Ano ba ang ibig sabihin ng Afterword?

Kung gusto niyo namang matakot at ma-entertain, nandiyan naman ang True Philippine Ghost Stories.

Overall Rating: 2.5 Stars

MEET PEACEFUL-FOUNTAINS-OF-DESIRE

2010-10-12T22:54:00.002+08:00

It's not every day you get to sit down and interview a Bond Villainess (from Die Another Day). Rachel Padua Grant -- actor, model, martial artist, Fright Night presenter, Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider body double, charitable causes diplomat and all around perky adventurer -- is one awesome half-Brit, half-Pinoy gal.

Cheers, Rachel.

ALICE GOES WAH

2010-10-07T22:22:00.001+08:00

Ah GAS! Dunlop me hates you.

GO TO THE WAKE

2010-10-05T17:48:00.000+08:00

Gonzo Army is honored to play at the local goth scene's annual Hallowe'en Ball. Us spook you long time.

THE HAUNTING OF BEAKER

2010-10-03T10:42:00.000+08:00

Love the Muppets! Better living through pseudo-science with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. So who you gonna call?

KMFDM’S MENTAL SNAKE OIL (THE UST SPEECH)

2010-10-03T09:31:00.001+08:00

Back in August I delivered this speech in front of a crowd of UST communication majors with the rest of the Visprint authors for promotional purposes in line with my new book News of the Shaman. This is where a student asked me the "JAWS question."*

HORROR STORIES AS SHAMANIC REMEDY AND PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE FOR THE 21^st CENTURY

Thank you to the Thomasian Writers’ Guild, UST’s Faculty of Arts and Letters, The Varsitarian, Visprint Enterprises and the other awesome authors. And you guys for coming down to hear us natter on about scribbled stuff.

When I was a kid growing up in the ghetto of Novaliches the water would only flow from the tap at intervals. Usually it came on early morning and late afternoons.

So I had this daily grind of filling up several buckets of water for our family’s daily use at around 6AM. I did this before I used the water to take a bath myself and prepare for school.

Eventually this routine became my space for daily meditation. A Zen time to muse and dream and make-up stories in that state between the daze of just having woken up and still trying to get in control of your senses.

Eventually the bathroom became a place for me to think out things. Stuff. Knots. Girls.

Over the years I’ve been in worst places trying to iron out plot points (very odd, little odd, extremely odd) but filling up a bucket with water with a pail, especially if it’s a very big pail, NEVER fails to put me in a contemplative Zen mood.

Today, the water from the faucet was black. Probably from some fluke of cloud seeding up at the dam or probably some secret experimental serum designed to make me and my neighbors the first official bio-engineered mutants in the country.

I tell you, it took a lot of courage for me to take a bath today.

* * *

Anyway, this black water got me to thinking about horror stories. And how important a role they’ve played in the choices I’ve made both as an individual and a fictionist. And how it all came to be in the book that Visprint has just released. I can’t tell you how many times reading and writing stories of dread, fright and terror have saved me from a self-destructive abyss.

What I CAN tell you is that we tell stories in psychic self-defense because all sensation is already memory.

Many of my colleagues say journalism is a gun. If journalism is a gun then horror is the serrated knife of fiction that can be used as surgically precise as a scalpel or as brutal as a bucher’s hack.

Horror is the only genre that’s named after an emotion. Horror is the attempt to keep us from forgetting sensation, to enshrine all that intensity in memory before the wind blows it away. It’s the fiction equivalent of a shock and awe campaign.

Nothing but a display of SHEER power. Horror is a Blitzkrieg. Horror is a Brock Lesnar. Horror is the majesty of a millennia-old octopus god that eats planets.

Sometimes you just gotta say “fuck subtlety.”

* * *

In Japan they have a rite of passage for being brave. It’s called kimodameshe. It’s literally translated as “test of guts.” These tests can range from staying overnight at a haunted house or enduring a hazing of a 2x4 plank. Usually it’s the teenagers go for the haunted house. They even have theme parks especially built for it. You can even get a group discount.

Why do we Pinoys have nothing like that? I think maybe getting into your first brawl or your first unwanted pregnancy are probably the things that come close. Anyway, why DO the Japanese do it?

The experience of kimodameshe returns us to the primal experience of living in caves, curled up like bitches dreading the dark and the things that live in the dark who want to eat us. Or worse.

It is a HUMBLING experience. It is also a THERAPEUTIC experience.

It returns us to the fact of our primal being. That behind you stands a long line of people who have experienced the very same thing and lived to tell the tale. As a corollary it sends a message to the depths of your being that if you DO survive this then you CAN certainly tackle future challenges. TOUGHER ONES

Half of the fun of horror stories is the schadenfreude of it. Schadenfreude = pleasure at the misery of others. I mean, let’s face it, the heroes in horror stories are in really bad situations.

So you, the reader, can go say: Thank God I’m not possessed by the Devil (Exorcist)! Thank God I’m not being chased by a haunted car (Carrie)! Thank God the dead stay dead in the real world (any number of zombie films)!

If you haven’t noticed, horror is also highly educational. Where else do they teach you how to survive a zombie apocalypse? Or what kind of gear to pack for a righteous exorcism? WAIT, OR DO THEY TEACH THAT AT UST?

Horror not only lets us resist the psychological drought that comes from having a lack of stories, it also arms us with the weapons to heal ourselves with an inoculation of terror in manageable doses.

It’s like those miraculous concoctions or snake oil that travelling medicine men use as a cure-all. I imagine this liquid thing as black and neutrally scented. Like the water that flowed out of my tap today.

For me, yes, horror is a kind of mental snake oil. It may not taste good but it sure gives you the confidence to charge the zombie horde at your doorstep with a machete. Screaming all the way.

Often, that’s all it takes to survive the horrors of the 21^st century. The catastrophe of 9/11 and our drowned city. The sudden outbursts of political violence. A new President. Magunidanao.

Sometimes. With all that. I often think it’s a miracle we’re sane at all.

* * *

Which brings us to my new book. NEWS OF THE SHAMAN. Wow. Five years waiting in its Pandora’s box to be released into the wild and shake hands with you bright, young, ghoulish, Dominican-educated minds.

The biggest themes in this book I think are heartache and loss. For some characters it’s the loss of a friend and comrade that drives them to do things they can’t fully explain even to themselves.

For some it’s the heartache of discovery, and yearning for more of that mystery only glimpsed that becomes their motivation. For some it’s the loss of faith in your fellow man. For some it’s the loss of God.

At the core of each story is a return to a primal state of the human condition. And how that can either destroy or heal them.

Again, without stories there is only psychic drought. With NEWS OF THE SHAMAN I hope those of you who pick it up find your way back to that primal state of mystery and grandeur and terror. Find your own kimodameshe. Find your own salvation in the sea of darkness.

The shaman bears good news for all of us.

But only if you have the courage to drink the snake oil and follow him into the void.

Somewhere in there is the key to an infinite, obsidian wisdom.

Or more likely you’ll find a huge and hairy beast bent on devouring your brains and guts.

The shaman will be with us either way. Thank you.

*THE JAWS QUESTION: "Sir, when JAWS the movie came out tourism in Australia took an all time low. When is horror going to be held accountable for all the damage it's inflicted on the minds of its viewers and readers?" (or words to that effect. i kid you not)

SPIKE YOUR HAIR FOR ALLAH

2010-10-02T11:09:00.003+08:00

First chanced on the term Taqwacore in a Rolling Stone piece. Then saw Mike Muhammad Knight's book at a local bookstore. Well, now there's a documentary on them. Bands, a book, a SXSW film and a US inter-state tour. I'd say that qualifies as a bonafide movement.

Wonder if this has reached our young Manila muslims? Hmmm, that's the makings of an interesting investigation there. Makes my journalistic balls go all tingly. TAQWA = consciousness of God

Check out The Kominas' "Sharia Law in the USA" below! I am an Islamist / I am an anti-christ ftw

SXSW THE TAQWACORES film trailer

TAQWACORE documentary trailer

On Mike Muhammad Knight (Taqwacore author)

The Kominas (Iggy Pop would be proud, I think)

DA COUCH TOMATO REVIEWS "NOTS"

2010-09-17T09:23:00.002+08:00

Found another review of NOTS on-line.

Not really familiar with who these bloggers are but they do say interesting stuff and certainly feel strongly about their opinions. Feedback is always appreciated : ) The post itself is here.

NEWS OF THE SHAMAN Review by "Claire" of Da Couch Tomato Blog

One thing that the News of the Shaman sealed the deal for  me: Never, ever, ever again read Introductions, Afterwords, and all  those parts where other famous writers try to beg the audience to read  this author pleeeeeaaaase.

It. Just. Sucks. And that's putting it lightly.

So anyhow, I bought News of the Shaman because the  cover makes it look like a young adult book, which I thought it was. But  it isn't. I also thought it was a whole novel. It still isn't.

It actually has four stories in it. Short novels, they call  it. Novellas, actually. But I don't know. I think it's too short to be  called a novella, and I'm not even thinking page-wise or those big  fonts. It just feels short.

1. "Angelorio" 

"Angelorio" is a nice frontman for the book. It has the most  meaty and the most appropriate story to begin the book with, holding  your hand and leading you to the depths of the underworld and all that  horror/fantasy thingamajig. So there's two mortals both looking for this  taboo/forbidden/unknown/mysterious place that only the unearthly forces  can take them to. It starts with a club (or was it a bar?) and secret  hallways and other creepy crawlies of the dark that makes up a wonderful  formula of being transported into an alternative and dark Wonderland.  There's also gambling with the devils─cards actually─which is a nice  "fate versus chance" touch. And also, a manananggal. A Filipino horror/ fantasy book will probably never be complete without one.

8/10

2. "News of the Shaman"

If I were younger, I would have fawned over this book and  included it in my mini-thesis, which dealt with hero construction. I  find few authors who make proper stories about communities, the whole  shebang of different points of views all cooked into a cohesive meal,  served to make us wonder: Was the Shaman really a hero, or a pathetic  dangerous spoiled brat? Using different forms to tell the story, from  news clippings to radio talk shows, makes it all the more engaging.

8/10

3. "Faith in Poison"

Oh, hello. Another let's-glorify-drugs story. Whatever. And don't get me started on the annoying anti-hero.

0/10

4. "Bright Midnight"

"Bright Midnight" will probably entice music geeks. Which I'm  not. And also those in a band. I imagine it must be  a touching story  for those who are in a band. Which I'm not. So I actually found it  cheesy. It's about a rock/punk/goth band (duh) simultaneously torn apart  and brought together by the death of their bandmate. Who committed  suicide. Which is probably the main reason why I have qualms about  "Bright Midnight". I'm not sure if it's glorifying suicide but hey, it  worked for Cobain. Anyhow, form-wise, it's tightly wound. The archetypes  each band members represent were not that one-dimensional, so all is  cool.

6/10

All in all, News of the Shaman is an engaging and  page-turner book. It's also cute how characters from the other stories  are connected to the other stories, not necessarily a continuation of  one story to another. Probably a statement of how many stories one can  weave with just one single character draft? Or it could be just laziness  to make more characters. Who knows?

8/10

DON JAUCIAN REVIEWS NOTS AT THEPOC.NET

2010-09-15T09:36:00.002+08:00

Okay I guess I should see what Mieville and Vandermeer are up to. Below is an excerpt of the review that's up now at the POC.

GODS OF THE INTANGIBLE  (News of the Shaman Review)

by DON JAUCIAN

We see the city in an ambient rush, in the cadence of city lights  blurring, souls drowning in the mist. As the sun fades, the night  gradually stakes its claim on the individuals that drift in different  directions, aimless. In Karl De Mesa’s new book, News of the Shaman,  a collection of four novellas, we are shown the underbelly of Manila.  Fetid, dark and unabashedly otherworldly, De Mesa’s Manila is a  different monster, operating in the same vein as China Mieville’s Bas  Lag and Un Lun Dun, as well as containing elements of the weirdness of Jeff Vandermeer’s Ambergis.

Here, we meet fallen angels, fading rockstars, drugged-up  photographers and sly creatures of the underworld conducting their  affairs. We sit in anticipation of the creatures that would lap up our  already terrified imaginations, unfazed by the dread of the murky alleys  that de Mesa leads us down... But there are no pasty white ghouls  seeking for revenge, only stranded souls stuck on this earth, looking  for retribution to for their transgressions.

The interconnected novellas of News of the Shaman weave for  us a different perspective of the cities we have come to know. The  normalcy of things that we encounter every day never merits our notice:  the faces we pass, the voices we hear along the way, and the occasional  graze of someone else’s fingers on the commute. Like the characters in  the novella, we’re all searching for something that validates our  existence.

* * *
Check out Don Jaucian's full book review here.

PUSH BACK THE SQUARE

2010-09-01T16:15:00.001+08:00

Cause back in school. . .

GONZO ARMY is coming to Lipa with the rest of the noisy gang. Now it's time for a real education, so get 1/4 piece of paper and stuff it in your ears. It's going to be a cacophonous day, children.

STOP HARRASING DR. CRISTINA PANTOJA-HIDALGO

2010-09-01T14:38:00.003+08:00

The sheer absurdity of this situation is like something out of an Ed Wood film. And not in a good-bad way at all. This is harassment, pure and simple.

Kindly re-post this and send it to your friends and family. Let's get all up in the faces of the creeps who're hassling ma'am Jing.

WHY AM I BEING HOUNDED BY THE OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN?

By Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo

From February 2005 to May 2010, I was Vice President for Public  Affairs of the University of the Philippines System, serving under UP  President Emerlinda R. Roman. Under me were the Information Office, the  Office of Alumni Relations of the UP System, and the Gurong Pahinungod.

Because  UP was preparing for the celebrations of its Centennial in 2008, our  work load—heavy at best—became considerably heavier. A slew of other  tasks was added to the regular responsibilities of running three  newspapers, maintaining the UP System website, producing regular  magazine-sized reports, writing and sending out regular media  announcements, providing support for the Office of the President during  the annual presentation of the UP Budget to Congress and the campaign in  Congress for the approval of the new UP Charter, and providing  communications support for the offices of the other Vice Presidents.

Among  these additional responsibilities were President Roman’s alumni  caravan, which took us around the country to involve UP alumni in the  celebration and in the fund-raising campaign; and several special  projects—a coffee table book, another book called Kwentong Peyups, a  short documentary film, a UP history book project, supplements for the  print media, and several Centennial contests (for the Centennial logo,  the Centennial literary award, the Centennial song, the Centennial short  film, etc.). My Assistant VPs and I worked long hours, including  weekends, and out-of-town trips.

Throughout this period, I continued to teach graduate courses--sometimes one, sometimes two, each semester.

On  one such weekend in June 2006, Lydia Arcellana (AVP and Director of the  Office of Alumni Relations) and I had a lunch meeting with a group of  UP alumni at the Dulcinea, a restaurant on Tomas Morato.

On  September 14, 2006, UP received a Subpoena from the “Task Force O-Plan  Red Plate” of the Office of the Ombudsman, directing it to submit my  driver’s Trip Tickets “and all other appurtenant and relative documents  authorizing the use of government vehicle with plate no. SET-536 (the  car assigned to my office) for the period June 13-28, 2006.” It  contained the ominous threat that failure to do so within 3 days of  receipt would “merit the filing of criminal charges” as well as  administrative charges. The document, signed by Atty. MARK E. JALANDONI,  Assistant Ombudsman, “issued by authority of the Honorable Ma.  Merceditas, Tanodbayan,” did not state what these “charges” were.

Read ma'am Jing's complete note here.

HOT LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE

2010-08-31T09:22:00.001+08:00

Looking for love? Throw Craigslist out the window. Wipe Buy and Sell's pesonals on your ass. Look no farther than the sky above. Merely raise you eyes to the heavens and spot the gargantuan, flaming ship descending on you like the hand of an angry and bespectacled god. Is it an invasion or are they out of rocket fuel?

One thing's for sure: the geeks are coming!

Therefore you must attend the book launch of CARLJOE JAVIER'S The Kobayashi Maru of Love at Ilyong's at Proj4, on SEPT 6 (Mon), 7PM.

Yep this is the same Javier that exhorted you to boy NOTS and open up your mind to the psycho-lubricious thrust of the shaman's ritual like a great mental phallus. What kind of sick, demented man would do that, you say? Well, but the book and find out.

I mean, just look at the pix of the author! Which is incidentally one of the many designs you can have printed on a shirt. Yes, a shirt. You can't beat wearing the pithy words of the revolution on your beer belly. Take that, hipster schmucks! Ha! I say, ha!

WASAK NA WASAK NA WASAK NA NAMAN

2010-08-31T09:07:00.000+08:00

All things considered we had a blast and one hell of a wild time that many of us still had the vague trail of a hangover two days later. If you missed it, don't worry here's some photos that'll make you feel much much worse for not being at the party. Hehehe.

Thanks to everybody who came down and bled with us, to the bands who played (am still reeling from the sheer power of Surrogate Prey's set and the disturbing weirdness of Lintech's set), the Visprint family, the people who helped out and just rocked the hell out with their cocks out.

More photos from Scarlet Tears' Ayn Azarcon are here.

PILIPINAS READS HORROR IN PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE

2010-08-25T13:40:00.001+08:00

Atty Pao Chikiamco of Rocket Kapre was at UST's St. Thomas Aquinas Auditorium for Visprint's "Literature from Shakespeare to Bob Ong: Bridging the Gap Between the Canonical and the Popular." He was also got most everything on video.

As a testament to his fastidiousness (and the large memory of his SD card) you can click on the vids below and watch me ramble on about "Horror Stories as Shamanic Remedy (and Psychic Self-Defense for the 21st Century)." Something I stole from Iggy Pop -- Thanks, Mr Osterman.

The complete post thingie is here.

In other news the book launch for NOTS is fast approaching. Lets have a toast to the void. See you guys ther!

And video 2

(DON'T) GET IN THE BUS

2010-08-24T13:32:00.002+08:00

A couple of weeks back a student at an open forum asked me when horror would be held accountable for all the mental damage it's inflicted that spills into the real world.

It is exactly our inability to face facts about our dark nature that horror tries to depict. And it is such a rarity that anyone is motivated by a work of fiction to inflict damage on one's fellows that it's statistically easier to get struck by lightning twice.

Mimesis is not a daily occurrence. It's always been my belief that any kind of fictional terror I can conceivably imagine pales in comparison to real world evil and the things that human frailty motivates us to do. And the real world never fails to deliver.

As an editor and journo, I often dream of making an impact through journalism (one of the reasons why I got into this profession in the first place, as others did I suspect) but it's always a surprise when it actually works. And in ways you never intended.

I tell you now: no eternal reward will forgive those of us in big media for committing grave mistakes.

As me and my team spent yesterday toiling at the studio, we were riveted by the bus drama unfolding at Quirino Grandstand.

Photo from PDI ONLINE

Gunman, 7 hostages die in 11-hour bus drama

By Marlon Ramos, DJ Yap

MANILA, Philippines—Rolando Mendoza knew he was not going to come out alive of the bus he had seized with 25 people aboard, mostly Hong Kong Chinese, when SWAT teams began moving toward the van parked in front of Quirino Grandstand as night fell Monday.

“They are all around,” the former police senior inspector demanding reinstatement after he was dismissed on extortion charges two years ago said in Filipino in what was his last radio interview after an 11-hour standoff turned into a bloodbath at Rizal Park under a heavy downpour.

“I know they will kill me, I’m telling them to leave because anytime I will do the same here,” said Mendoza, who was armed with an M-16 rifle.

Gunfire rang out moments later before local and international television cameras.

Read the rest of it here.

HELLRAISERS' HOLIDAY -- THE NOTS LAUNCH POSTERS

2010-08-16T23:38:00.000+08:00

From the sick, awesome minds of Gani Simpliciano and Tom Estrera III. Be there.

INDOMITABLE SLUDGE (WITH OCCASSIONAL SOUL) FROM OUTER SPACE

2010-08-13T14:25:00.002+08:00

Here's GONZO ARMY playing at the opening of the "Indomitable Spirits" exhibit by Thomas Daquioag. Ambient sludge drone with some soul (and djembe percs) = super duper wazak noize.

Outer Space Gallery, Makati X, Aug 11, 2010. Tupada sa Kalye Siningdikato. The Army that night were KMFDM + J. Luna+Roger Lopez aka Inconnu Ictu+Ian Madrigal and new axe slinger collab Aurelio Castro III of Juan Pablo Dream.

Video by Au Castro

GET YOUR GOD/GODDESS HERE

2010-07-24T18:55:00.000+08:00

Atty Pao Chikiamco (the man behind Rocket Kapre) has compiled a very useful and quite exhaustive reference list of local gods and goddesses from various tribal pantheons. The complete list is here.

While Tungkung Langit and Apo Malayari are my go-to head honchos for sheer recognizability and resonating use (hey, there's something to be said about shamans still invoking their names in rituals as a "by your leave") there's some truly interesting stuff in Pao's dictionary of the divine.

Check these out:

Busao – Bukidnon – God of Calamity. The deity most feared by the Bukidnon. (Outline of Philippine Mythology)

Fun Lalang – T’boli – God of Baldness.

Malimbung – Bagobo – Goddess who made men crave for sexual satisfaction. (The Soul Book)

And my fave:

Mebuyan / Moibulan – Bagobo – Goddess of the Underworld. (NCCA) Daughter of Tuglay and Tuglibong. Sister of Lumawig, she refused to ascend to heaven with him. Instead, she drilled into the earth with her mortar, while tossing rice into it to symbolize that from then on, people would die and descend to her in Gimokudan rather than ascend to heaven. When she shakes a lemon tree someone on earth dies, an old person if the fruit that falls is ripe, a young person if the fruit is green. Mebuyan is ugly, her whole body covered with nipples, but she uses these to care for the dead babies. (A Structural Study of Bagobo Myths and Rites)

If you find your mind blown by any of the divinities listed and are inspired to write a story about it you can also submit it to Pao, who's looking for shorts for his "Alternative Alamat "compilation. Details for submission are here.

NOTS AT NATIONAL AND POWERBOOKS

2010-07-18T21:05:00.000+08:00

News of the Shaman (Four Novellas of Horror) is now available from Visprint at selected National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches and all Pandayan Bookstores. Thanks to Joey for the heads up and getting a book.

You can also order online from National's site and have it shipped to you. Also check out Visprint Enterprises' site for more details.

"Open up to the shaman now. Experience awe" ~ from the Introduction by Carljoe Javier

ASSAULT ON 55 MAGINHAWA

2010-07-04T21:04:00.000+08:00

At Bookay Ukay Libruhan's 2nd Year Anniversary Party circa July 3, 2010. Gonzo Army with Annoy (Ian Mardigrass and Inconnu Ictu). Here there be sonic tigers.

Thanks to Dan and all the filthy beasts for letting us play!

Vid by Dianne Cuaresma

MINA, MAZIKEEN OR SONJA?

2010-06-30T12:33:00.000+08:00

After scrimping on meals and shit for a couple of months I finally scavenged enough to put a downpayment on my new axe. The boys at the office were pleased as well. Courtesy of a vox metal portable practice fx we plugged her into a set of PC stereo speakers and let her rip. The EMG actives glowed even with just that.

Now to think of a name for the hungry, satanic bitch. It's a toss up between the bride of Dracula, Lucifer's girlfriend or Howard's sexy, sword-swinging she-barbarian.

Behold Schecter's Hellraiser Solo 6 in black cherry. Ain't she a bloodthirsty beaut?

THE INTERVIEW (PART DEUX)

2010-06-28T12:53:00.000+08:00

Here's the second part of my interview with The POC Pinoy Pop's Pao Chikiamco. You can read the whole thing here.

Here's a pix of the first book Damaged People (Tales of the Gothic-Punk), still available at bookstores.

Excerpts from the interview with Atty Chikiamco are below.

Horror is transgression: interview with Karl De Mesa (2 of 2)

This is the second part of our interview with Karl De Mesa (Trust Your Black Shirt), editor (of Playboy Philippines, and several anthologies), journalist and horror writer. He recently co-edited the horror anthology Demons of the New Year from Estranghero Press (reviewed here and here), and has a collection of novellas entitled book "News of the Shaman" coming from Visprint Enterprises. He is a part of several bands: a post rock group (Biscochong Halimaw), a stoner metal group (Ninja Empire), and a post beat duo (Gonzo Army). In this portion of the interview, De Mesa speaks about his definition of horror, and the state of the genre in the Philippines, as well as tips for young writers.

What's your personal definition for your type of "horror"? It seems to be, in its own way, just as broad as fantasy or science fiction.
Exactly. For me, I've outgrown the "Creature Fights" sort of horror. What I'm going for with my horror is a cross between gothic punk and transgressive literature, the type where characters might reach enlightenment through a haymaker, or when their legs are cut off at the knee. It's very Sith.

Is it right to say, then, that horror for you is not a shock and gore thing?
Right, it's about confronting taboos, coming face to face with the unarticulated, the places we simply do not want to tread, because of who we believe we are. Take a look at Japanese horror, as one good example: there's this one movie called "Audition" where a woman is slicing up a man using piano wire.

Would you say that it's easier for a visual medium such as film to evoke that sort of disturbing emotion in its horror?
Yes, it is easier, but at the same time, I don't think that film can stimulate the other senses--aside from vision and hearing-- in the same way that fiction can. Good fiction can make you smell something, touch it, taste it… Only good prose can do that.

What about comics? You did one for Demons of the New Year.
Comics are great, especially if a writer finds an artist like Gani (Gani Simpliciano, who drew De Mesa's The Magdalene Fist: Search for the First Edition) who can execute the images in the story. Gani even slices himself up sometimes to get the red "just right"… so yes, I'm trying to avoid having too much of that color in our future collaborations!

When you're dealing with taboos, with that kind of transgression, you take the reader far beyond their comfort zones. How do you ground them?
You ground them with characters who are real people, with sympathetic concerns and motivations. This is something Philip K. Dick was great at. Even monstrous creatures can have drives that people will understand: hunger, for example, is something we're all familiar with--I used that for my were-dog story in "Tales of Enchantment and Fantasy". Other creatures can be motivated by a need for control, say a Tikbalang in a crime family. The characters can be inhuman, but their motivations can still be human. They may have special needs, but that's still a motivation that can be sympathetic.
I think this is one of the powers of horror: defamiliarization. That can also work to make the central form of a metaphor stronger.

THE INTERVIEW

2010-06-18T13:25:00.000+08:00

I talked to Atty. Pao Chikiamco, who runs the POC's Pinoy Pop channel and the Rocket Kapre website, a while back and here's that interview. Dang, ganda ng graphics. Mukha ko lang panira hehe. Salamat, Pao!

Excerpts are below.

PART 1
Karl R. De Mesa (personal blog: Trust Your Black Shirt) is one of the more radical and vocal writers in the Philippine horror scene, a writer who draws from a childhood grounded in urban reality to come up with tales of supernatural horror. His new book "News of the Shaman" from Visprint Enterprises, a collection of novellas, will be out in major bookstores this month. He is also the newly minted Executive Editor of Playboy Philippines, and part of several bands: Biscochong Halimaw, Ninja Empire, and Gonzo Army. He also co-edited Demons of the New Year (which we reviewed here and here) We spoke to him not long ago about his childhood, his beliefs, and his writing process. This is the first part of our interview.

Pinoy Pop: I gather you're a believer in the supernatural? I gather at much from your introduction to Demons of the New Year.
De Mesa: You mean creatures and the like? I used to be very… mixed up, let's put it that way. I mentioned this once in an essay in Likhaan: My parents used to be NPA urban agents. So we used to move around a lot, every three months at the most, sooner if we were spotted by surveillance. It was very tough for a child in that environment to make any friends, so my outlet was a lot of action figures--marami akong G.I. Joe dati, at mga Voltron, Voltes V, Matchbox--and when I got old enough I started gravitating towards the occult. I'd experienced a lot of strange events by then--I'd get sick all of a sudden, or I'd natter on to my parents about the dark man I'd seen in the trees. The first venture I made into organized occult material was a Pranic Healing course, basic energy healing. From there I went on to Tai Chi, meditation, enchanting… I also did research on my own on topics like witchcraft. I joined up with a lot of f*cked up kids who studied a lot of demonology, and I remember when they'd try to summon something there would be this smell, like sulfur or sh*t, and I felt we'd actually brought something over… a few days later, our neighbor seemed to be possessed.

Were there any repercussions to any of this?
I think we did a lot of harm in those days. One of my later teachers said my aura was black, like I'd done a lot of bad things in the past. But, yes, sometimes these things--say, wishing ill luck on an ex-girlfriend--they come back to you. That's just basic karma.

I take it that not everything you've done counts as "bad stuff"…
After college, before I went into journalism, I supported myself by reading fortunes. I had a knack for divination, as it turns out.

Did you tell your customers the truth?
Not all the time. It was hard. Women would come in and ask questions about their boyfriends and husbands and ask me when the cheating would stop… and while you can see some stuff clearly, others you can't, but they don't want to hear that. Sometimes you make it up as you go along: "avoid donuts" "your lucky number is 72", things like that. It entertained them.

Read the whole of PART 1 here.

THE JOY OF RAISING HELL (PART 2)

2010-06-17T17:09:00.000+08:00

Fidelis Angela Tan's review of Demons of the New Year (Part 2) is now uploaded at Metakritiko. Check it out!

Here's an excerpt.

I've already begun my review (see part 1) of Demons of the New Year (for mature audiences only; NSFW), the entirely free, entirely online horror anthology from Estranghero Press edited by Karl De Mesa and Joey Nacino. As mentioned, the anthology presents a variety of takes on the concept of "demons", and here are my takes on the remaining nine stories. Spoiler warning still applies, so go check the stories out first.

Salot
Eliza Victoria
Salot brings us to the birthing place of horror stories – the “probinsya.” A good portion of the story involves the main character – a girl from the province about to go to the city for college - going over the horror stories she’s heard from friends and family. These stories are strange little blurbs about sighting apparitions and hearing voices in the night – the kind of stories we’ve all heard before, from maybe a family member or friend, and which more often than not take place outside the safeties of big cities.

The main character gripes over these stories – they’re part of an absurd, backwards culture she’s ready to ditch. But just as she’s about to leave all those old superstitions behind, the old superstitions (in typical horror story fashion) come to her. This is when the story takes a sharp turn for the unexpected – the salot, the supposed bringers of plague and ill fortune, are not quite what she’s always been told they were, and the way she treats them is far from how other people have.
Salot is a sweet read, and the suggestion that the things that go bump in the night might have much more to them than the probinsya-type horror stories suggest, is in itself enough to make it worth reading.

The Different Degrees of Night
Don Jaucian
The Different Degrees of Night is a thickly narrated, sensual read. It transports the reader to a mysterious city where shadows run deep and cold and things like comfort or beauty are hard to come by and difficult to keep.

There are two demons here – one is a strange shape-shifting creature which the main character encounters at various points in his life. There’s little that is revealed about this creature, except that it always brings wide-scale disaster and that it seems to be following the main character around – even appearing (possibly) as an attractive human being.

The other demon is the city itself, where the dregs of society seem to gather to die. As the story says, “Every shadow in the city has a name. In every corner, every alley and every murky divehole of this city lives these forsaken beings, whose only meaning of existence rests in their ability to resuscitate the city’s flatlining vitality. It’s not a complicated equation. They live, fend off for their lives and the city takes back whatever’s left of them, if they’re lucky enough not to kill themselves.”

This is a story less about the ‘scary’, and more about the feeling of slow decay – something the reader gets to feel every step of the way.

IS EVERYBODY IN? THE CEREMONY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN

2010-06-12T19:34:00.000+08:00

The shaman is here. The ceremony begins now. NEWS of the SHAMAN, released under Visprint Enterprises, will be available in all major bookstores next week. Hope you can check it out, biblio-ghouls : )

INTERVIEW WITH THE WARLOCK

2010-06-08T17:42:00.003+08:00

The hexing side of The Craft, according to Mang Edol, is divided into three major techniques: barang, gaway and paktol. Over at POC's Buhay Pinoy channel scribbler Dennis Villegas went to Siquijor and sought out the arguably most popular and powerful sorceror on the island.

This is pretty decent, efficiently verite reportage, if not of the new journ/gonzo caliber. All in all an illuminating read. His complete interview can be read here.

Here's some excerpts.

Witchcraft and sorcery are alive and well here on the island of Siquijor,Philippines. This mystical island is considered the navel of sorcery and magic in the Philippines---in this place, I found that it was never a question of whether these sorcerers exist or not, but rather if their powers are truly effective or not.

In particular, I was constantly hearing about this powerful sorcerer who lives in one of the remote villages of Siquijor, whose name is invariably mentioned by residents whenever sorcery is being discussed -- Mr. Alberto "Manong Edol" Baroro.

I decided to meet Manong Edol and perhaps interview him and photograph his work, if he permits it. Incidentally, my habal-habal driver, Johnson, frequently transported clients to Manong Edol’s house. When I told Johnson my intention to meet Manong Edol, he arranged a late afternoon meeting between me and the Siquijor sorcerer.

It was a rainy late afternoon last April 1 when I met Manong Edol. He lives in the little uphill village of Cang-Atuyom, on the slopes of the mystical Mount Bandilaan in the town of San Antonio, Siquijor. Mount Bandilaan is the highest point and dead center of Siquijor island.

The house where Manong Edol lived was accessible only through a narrow dirt path from the unasphalted main road. The path was an alternating upward and downward slope that, when it rained like it did that day, became very slippery. After several minutes of rough climbing and descending, we finally spotted the house of Manong Edol, a structure made of wood and concrete, surrounded by huge trees.

In front of Manong Edol’s house was a garden planted with various kinds of shrubs and herbs. I noticed that the house was isolated. The nearest neighbor was one we passed by earlier, some two kilometers away.

THE JOY OF RAISING HELL

2010-06-08T17:13:00.003+08:00

Fidelis Angela Tan has done an excellent review of DEMONS OF THE NEW YEAR over at The POC's Pinoy Pop channel. You can read the complete text here. You can still check out the DNY antho here. Salamat ng marami!

Below is an excerpt from Tan's review.

Demons of the New Year (for mature audiences only), the entirely free, entirely online horror anthology fromEstranghero Press edited by Karl De Mesa and Joey Nacino is worth perusing just to get a taste of a different kind of horror. These are not the kind of stories where you take a bunch of “good people” (pure-hearted, or at least innocent people), pit them against the forces of darkness (the “demons”) and then count on the light of day to save them in the end.

Instead, the anthology (which features short stories, a comic and a hypertext fiction piece) comes with a variety of perspectives on ‘demons’, tackling the idea in a multitude of twisted, sometimes subversive ways. We’re familiar enough with the faces of the demonic – we know them as ghosts, or aswangs, or those creatures that crawl out of Biblical Hell. But the stories show demons don’t just belong to the night – they’re hiding behind religious icons, or at desks in multi-national corporations, or in karaoke bars, or in the walls of old buildings, or old cities. More importantly, they aren’t the kind of demons one can exorcise with prayers and good intentions.

THEY WON'T LET YOU EAT, THEY WON'T LET YOU SLEEP

2010-05-19T13:00:00.000+08:00

What if you were being controlled. . .by THEM?!!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

DOUBLE NEGATIVES WILL BE SHOT ON-SITE

2010-05-19T12:42:00.000+08:00

Exactly the kind of project consultant we need during pre-press production crunch time.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

ATTACK ATTACK! aka GONZO ARMY PLAYS AT GOOD LEAF ALBUM LAUNCH

2010-05-19T12:38:00.000+08:00

The agony of post-beat (wtf does that even mean, Joel?!!) with JLuna and KMFDM goes to Dasmarinas. Bringing noize to provinces and provincial lasses. Well, sorta.

HER HEART LAID BARE

2010-05-03T17:11:00.001+08:00

Referred by Atty. Pao Chikiamco, editor of local genre community site Rocket Kapre, Mervin Malonzo's work reminds me of those old tabloid horror komiks and the House of Mystery before it was Gaiman-ized (hmmm and some Tales From the Crypt eps).

All in all gory, good fun. Check out his webcomic Tabi Po.

DARK LORD OF ILL (RHYMES)

2010-04-27T11:18:00.000+08:00

Must love Alicia/Leia. And her ensaymada DJ headphones. Darth-Z has some ill rhymes, fo shizzle.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

ECHO PARK

2010-04-21T19:11:00.000+08:00

In support of our friend and dear Gonzo Army collaborator Ian, let us all go to the Rizal Park on May 2 to adore the noise. Amen.

HURTS SO GOOD

2010-04-20T09:37:00.001+08:00

You start to doubt if you can survive a violent pit at a venue the size of Amoranto Stadium. Especially when you're in your thirties. I've never been to a Summer Slam but all reports point to an extremely hazardous environment freed from the comfy walls of a club -- no safe corners here, bub.

Testament and Lamb of God playing in Manila, you see, was just too good to pass up. Hence, me and my friend J Luna got off work early and braved the sea of emo kids, metalheads, freaks and young orcs on the general admission p300 ticket determined to enjoy ourselves, if a tad anxious at how pit protocol has probably changed since we were last at a concert this huge. Who knows? The filthy little beasts might just think it's now cool to sneak in little shivs or razor blades and wound every other fan in the place, bouncers be damned?

After seeing how dozens of kids dropped down to Indian sit, enervated amid the dust, sweat and heat in the goddamn middle of the Lamb of God set way past 9PM and we were still standing I felt such relief. Relief and pride. We still had the stamina to stand with the best of the teen maggots for almost six hours straight (we sat down behind the elevated sound booth in the middle to recuperate for about an hour before LOG came on. our rest interrupted only by a trio of colorfully -- and I do mean crazy colors here -- dressed -- and, yes, they wore dresses -- girls who gleefully took pictures with me and a shirtless J Luna) and destroy with old skool St Vitus seizure flailing. Wow.

J Luna actually had a great way to free an immediate space around us to mosh: lean forward and whip your dreadlocks to the front, lean back and whip your dreadlocks to the back. Hurts don't it, orclings? For instant respect though I still had to resort to the tried and tested push, shove and growl.

Probably the only nitpick I have is arming the filthy young beasts with plastic Pepsi PET bottles. What do you think they did with the damn things when they got bored waiting for Testament and LOG's road crew to set up? I think we'll call it Inter-Pit Aerial Bottle Pong (occasional piss included).

Still in all it was definitely the best pit of recent memory. The chicken inasal we devoured after never tasted so good. \m/

CLIMBING TO YZORDDOREX

2010-03-30T10:38:00.000+08:00

KMFDM is honored to be a part of the 49th UP National Writers Workshop. Who thought a horror writer could mix it up/hang out with such big lit and art names?

Thanks alma matter and UP ICW.

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

2010-03-29T10:08:00.001+08:00

I look forward to seeing you in the mosh pit pagbaba kong Baguio : )

Wasakan na, ninjas!

PULP SUMMER SLAM 10
**APOCALYPSE**

Saturday, April 17, 2010 (at) 01:00PM
Amoranto Stadium
Roces Avenue, Quezon City
Philippines

FEATURING:
LAMB OF GOD
TESTAMENT

SHE'S SO COLD

2010-03-26T11:53:00.003+08:00

Just finished watching this. At turns hilarious, cringe-inducing and even downright disgusting, DEADGIRL gives whole new meaning to being necro-romantic (insert more sophomoric zombie love shit here). Albeit uneven in places with an obviously spotty script and a shoestring fx budget, the download was worth the wait.

Daring, original and utterly genre-busting, Deadgirl is a terrifying journey to the dark heart of the American high school generation. Fantastical, frenzied and darkly hilarious, this is a horror movie, a high school comedy and a coming-of-age movie all turned on their sick and twisted heads.

When teenage misfits Rickie and JT cut school one day, they find themselves in the derelict remains of an abandoned hospital. The gruesome, unnerving discovery they make in the bowels of the facility will test the very limits of their sanity: a woman, naked, chained and covered in plastic. Shes abandoned, shes beautiful, shes dead...or is she?

What follows is a warped odyssey that forces this pair of outcasts, their high-school tormentors and adolescent crushes to all decide just how far they're willing to stretch their understanding of what is right and what is very, very wrong.

From the producer of the seminal Hellraiser and the legendary Heathers, Marcel Sarmiento & Gadi Harel's Deadgirl is a new genre classic and a no-holds-barred look at the horror of growing up. Starring Shiloh Fernandez (The United States Of Tara), Noah Segan (Brick), Michael Bowen (Kill Bill), and Candice Accola (Juno).

Ah, Jenny Spain thou art one hawt zombie. Sigh. You can't blame the guys for wanting to keep her to themselves, man.

Even in such a bad state of, uhm, torpor.

VAMPIRES VS DEMONS VS ZOMBIES

2010-03-19T20:51:00.001+08:00

Here's something I wrote for Metakritiko (The Phil Online Chronicles) on the monster movie trend and which big creature is up next for the big pop culture push.

Hope you can check it out. Can't wait for the Hellraiser remake!

SHREDDING IN PINK

2010-03-10T15:11:00.001+08:00

Jacqueline Mannering is smoking! Ms Shred Princess knows her stuff : ) Enuff said.

PS To the small, small man who bought my metal guitar and doesn't know how to do the shred. Take note: THIS is how it's done.

REQUIEM ON THE RADIO

2010-03-06T20:15:00.000+08:00

Pix by Tanya

That's me on live streaming vid inside the booth at NU107.5FM on DJ Roanna Ruiz's (aka dj kung fu xtreme) show The Reel Score.

We talked about the excellent soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream and generally had a great time commenting on Jared Leto, Jennifer Connely and Marlon Wayans going down the downward spiral of addiction and disintegration.

Thanks to everyone who listened and sent an SMS or took an interest. Thanks to Roanna and Martin for the wazak time!

WELCOME TO HELL, BABY

2010-03-01T09:58:00.001+08:00

Here's the cover of the DEMONS of the NEW YEAR anthology from Estranghero Press. Edited by yours truly and Joey Nacino, and the exquisite cover designed by Tyron Caliente, this ebook will be on-line soon.

So watch this space for further details.

Thanks to all the fictionists who sent us their stuff! We'll have a round of drinks purty soon.