Day: January 11, 2009

wanted: writing help

mparaz Leave a comment

11 days into the new year, and I’m struggling. I need your help in getting my blog started again.

I know I have a lot of things to write about, but I need more convincing. Or encouragement.

If you know me, please suggest a topic that you know I could write about. Or ask a question.

Help me remove my self-censorship filters, too.


Wolfgang: at the Mosaic Music Fest this March

Karla Redor Leave a comment

After the release of their 6th album, “Villains”, Wolfgang will be rocking Singapore in the upcoming Mosaic Music Fest where they will deliver a 70-minute unplugged set dubbed as “Wolfgang - Acoustica“. The Mosaic Music Fest will be held on March 22, 7:30pm at The Recital Studio, Esplanade (each ticket is at $38 and there are also ticket packages available). Their recent album “Villains” will be available at the performance and at the Esplanade Shop during the festival.

Wolfgang fans in Singapore may also have a chance to have a short meet-and-greet session with the band at the Mosaic Studio Foyer right after the band’s performance. Fans may also go to the “In the House FM” interview session (March 21, 6pm at the Library@Esplanade) where they could chat with them up close ) .

Wolfgang is Basti Artadi on vocals, Manuel Legarda on guitars, Ramon Legaspi on bass, Francis Aquino on drums. They will be joined by guest guitarist Tirso Ripoll of Razorback for this unique performance in Singapore.

New BookMooch Acquisitions!

admin Leave a comment

So…I came home from the BookMooch Pilipinas New Year’s Party about 2 hours ago. Extremely grateful to the guardhouse guard for hailing a cab for me. I brought home 3 heavy bags full of books. Happy, happy moocher!

The ones I was dying to get are in bold. Basically, they’re the I-can’t-believe-I-own-them-now books. The ones I found highly interesting are in italic. May be because other people recommend them to me, or they’re written by authors I’ve read before, or I read about them somewhere, or they touch on interesting topics. Some of these books are actually brand new.

Hardcovers

  • Rise Mindanao!: Stories of Peacebuilding and Development from the Land of Promise (coffee-table book)
  • Ballyhoo Buckaroo and Spuds (Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins) - Michael Quinion
  • Leadership and the Customer Revolution (The Messy, Unpredictable, and Inescapably Human Challenge of Making the Rhetoric of Change a Reality - Gary Heil, Tom Parker, Rick Tate
  • Love Always, Petra (A Story of Courage and the Discovery of Life’s Hidden Gifts) - Petra Nemcova and Jane Scovell
  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt
  • Babyproof - Emily Giffin
  • What Southern Women Know About Flirting (The Fine Art of Social, Courtship, and Seductive Flirting to Get the Best Things in Life) - Ronda Rich

Trade Paperbacks

  • Suite Française - Irène Némirovsky
  • A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (US edition) NOTE: I actually already have a trade paperback of this in UK version, but, *ahem* Oh, well, haha.
  • Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
  • Read the Beatles (Classic and New Writings on The Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter) - June Skinner Sawyers
  • Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
  • Friday Night Lights (A Town, a Team, and a Dream) - H. G. Bissinger
  • The Queen’s Fool - Philippa Gregory
  • Possession - A. S. Byatt
  • Blind Submission - Debra Ginsberg
  • The Divide - Elizabeth Kay
  • Holes - Louis Sachar
  • Black Robe - Brian Moore
  • The School for Husbands - Wendy Holden
  • The Book of Ruth - Jane Hamilton
  • An Eye for an Eye - Malorie Blackman

Mass Market Paperbacks

  • The Bookwoman’s Last Fling - John Dunning
  • Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn
  • The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank - Ellen Feldman
  • The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Will tell the story some other time. For now, just drool over the impressive list of books. Here’s to hoping I actually get to read all of them. Haha.

Oh, yeah. Have you seen my reading challenge for 2009? ;)

Takipan at takutan

admin Leave a comment

Natakatawa itong mga prosecutors sa Department of Justice. Nananakot na mag-resign daw sila at low morale na raw.

Sinisisi nila ang Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, lalo na si Marine Major Ferdinand Marcelino na siyang nag-expose na may lagayan sa Department of Justice para ma-dismis ang kaso laban kina Richard Brodett, Jorge Joseph, at Joseph Tecson na nahulihan ng marijuana at cocaine noong Septyembe 2008.

Sinong tinatakot nila? Hindi naman siguro ang taumbayan na pesteng-peste sa kanila. Hindi naman siguro ang PDEA.

Mukhang ang kanilang tinatakot ay ang kanilang justice secretary, si Raul Gonzalez.

Siguro ang mensahe talaga nila kay Gonzalez ay, “Huwag mo kaming ilaglag. Kasama ka namin dito.”

Kung maayos sila sa DOJ, hindi sila kay Maj. Marcelino dapat magalit. Doon sila dapat magalit sa mga namba-bastos sa kanilang departamento katulad ni Atty. Felisberto Verano na siya pang gumawa ng trabaho nila. Di ba gumawa si Verano release order, sa letterhead pa ng DOJ.

Bakit hindi man lamang nainis ang mga prosecutor doon? Dahil ba sa ‘yan ang kalakaran sa DOJ?

Bakit hindi sila magalit kay Gonzalez mismo na hindi nagbigay ng klarong guideline na hindi maaring i-release ang mga akusado kung hindi aprubado ng secretary of justice ayon sa Memorandum Circular 46. Noong Lunes , Jan. 5, lang nagpalabas ng klarong guideline samantalang limang taon na ang memorandum na yun.

Sadya yata na gawing malabo ang policy sa pagdismis ng mga kaso para ma-interpret depende sa “manok” na ibibigay.

Mukhang umubra naman ang panakot ng mga prosecutor dahil kinampihan naman sila ni Gonzalez. Ang Malacañang naman, siyempre prutektahan si Gonzalez.

Kung hindi, ipaala-ala ni Gonzalez kay Gloria Arroyo na kung hindi nila mina-ubra (kasama si Sen. Kiko Pangilinan) ang canvassing noong 2004 na eleksyon, wala siya ngayon sa Malacañang dahil talo naman talaga siya kay Fernando Poe, Jr.

Kaya, ngayon lang “cleared” na ng Malacañang si Gonzalez dahil siya ang inutusan mag-imbistiga. Alangan ba naman sabihin ni Gonzalez na guilty siya. Siyempre ang sasabihin ng NBI, na nasa ilalim ng DOJ, walang ebidensya sa suhulan sa kaso ng “Alabang boys”.

Hindi ko masisisi si Major Marcelino sa kanyang hindi pagsipot sa NBI.Ano naman ang mahihita niya doon? Baka siya pa ang lalabas na may kasalanan.

Ngunit ito ang klaro sa mamamayan: may nahuling gumagamit at nagtutulak ng droga. Dinismis ang kaso. At kamuntik nang mapalaya ang mga nahuli.Mabuti lang nag-ingay ang PDEA.

Ang laki ng anomalyang ito. Hindi ito makuha sa takipan at takutan.

‘