Remember that sleeping post I did? Well, some good came out of it as I've managed to do a short-short story on it for allmusicjunkie. The inspirational first line of the song? Madonna's "Like A Virgin", of course!
The Sleep of Prey and Predator
She walked out of the bathroom fully clothed and refreshed. She always cleaned herself after feeding. As she walked towards the bed, she thought of what she was, her kind that stalked the night and fed on only men. She had heard all the names that they had accumulated over centuries: succubus, the Old Hag, bangungot, - they meant the same thing.
More new stuff here (especially dodo dayao's excellent article songs for sci-fi adventures)!
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Here's our quote for the day coming from US President Barack Obama, which is FTW:
"As president, I believe that robotics can inspire young people to pursue science and engineering. And I also want to keep an eye on those robots in case they try anything."
Labels: music, phil spec fic
Courtesy of Kyu, here's the tentative table of contents of the upcoming Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 5 edited by Nikki Alfar and Vin Simbulan that's coming out this February 2010. It also has a shortlist of possible story submissions-- so for those writers, it's time to bring out those kneecappers, hmm? *winkwinknudgenudge*
But seriously, was looking over the TOC and it looks like a lot of stories-- 25 in all. Geez, is it me or are the number of stories in the PSF volumes growing every year? Based on charles' database, PSF4 had 24 stories, PSF3 had 21, PSF2 had 19, and PSF1 had 18.
What's nice though is that 12 stories were written by women so there's no Genderfail here. Moreover, I don't recognize 1/3 of the names here so that's also good: PSF has always had the rep of introducing new writers to the stage.
On the question of why should there be more recognized writers than unrecognized ones, well... the field of local spec fic still needs its writers to have some body of work and this is one way of doing it. Maybe in a couple of years, the ratio can shift from recognized to unrecognized.
Funny enough, me and andrew hold the awards for longest runs on the PSF volumes. But Allan B. Lopez still holds the award for the longest-title for a short story in PSF 2.
What's even cooler? It looks like Alex Osias has a new Pinoy Western story in the collection. Yes! Score another one for Filipino dicklit!
Labels: phil spec fic, submissions
"What can you do if you happen to have the kind of computer equipment you want and just $500 Canadian (US$400)? Do what two indie filmmakers did: make a movie! This is what gamer-filmmakers David and Ian Purchase did when they came up with a short film called Half-Life: Escape from City-17 in 2008. Using machinima and Valve’s Source engine, they managed to create a movie that combined CGI, photographs and traditional video." (Excerpt from here.)
Labels: fantastical, movies
"Combining samurai action with science-fiction graphics and manga influence, the trailer shows the stylized filmmaking reminiscent of movies like Zack Snyder’s 300, Frank Miller’s The Spirit, the Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer as well as Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City." (Excerpt from here.)
Labels: fantastical, movies
(Magic realism) defies conventional logic in modern, secular societies, to still believe, but more so, it defies conventional logic in modern, secular societies for those old beliefs and mythical deities to manifest themselves in our modern daily lives. Advanced as we think we are, we decide that such conventionally unexplainable phenomena are the province of the superstitious, backward, third world, unenlightened. We hear their testimonies of encounters with the fantastic with an air of doubt, and we judge them. In high literature, these stories become exoticized, objectified, hence, magical realism.
Labels: phil spec fic, writing
Currently suffering from the sniffles *sniff* and the cough *woof*.
Yes, I still don't have a Facebook nor a Twitter account. Why do you ask?
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In other news, if anyone is interested (or they know anyone who's interested), there's a nice condo unit for rent down south, i.e. near the South Luzon Expressway service beside Merville Subdivision.
Here are the details:
Raya Garden Condominium Unit, Surabaya Building, West Service Road, near SLEX and Merville, Airport view, 72 sqm unfurnished, 2 bedrooms, 1 T&B, monthly rent 20K, parking available for additional fee, contact #09178042005
It's a corner unit so it has two balconies and gives a great view of the airport and Manila Bay.
Here are some pics:
(A map of the premises)
(A view of the inside, on the 14th floor)
"Folk belief in Newfoundland, South Carolina and Georgia describe the negative figure of the Hag who leaves her physical body at night, and sits on the chest of her victim. The victim usually wakes with a feeling of terror, has difficulty breathing because of a perceived heavy invisible weight on his or her chest, and is unable to move i.e., experiences sleep paralysis. This nightmare experience is described as being "hag-ridden" in the Gullah lore. The "Old Hag" was a nightmare spirit in British and also Anglophone North American folklore."Sound familiar? As the lyrical poet told me, they may be all the one and the same: nightmares that haunt our sleep. But if that's the case, how come the mythology is the same, that of an old woman who sits on top of the male's chest and stealing their breath?
The first issue of the Filipino online magazine Usok is now up and ready for your perusal, so sayeth the e-publisher RocketKapre.
And for your reading pleasure, you can get stories by the doughty Kenneth Yu (of the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories), the missing chiles samaniego, the effervescent Crystal Koo, the quintessential Celestine Trinidad, and omnni-present Yvette Tan.
In particular, I love the cover art courtesy of Kevin Lapeña with its rendition of a jeepney and the scientific and mythological passengers riding in it.
Don't you just love the energizing power of the Internetz?
Labels: internet, phil spec fic
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