As early as seven in the morning, during an ordinary
workday, the speed of trucks that sends the streets to convulsion and the drowsy
pace of pedestrians ambling in their search for good breakfast would not
prevent one or two individuals to grab the microphone from the nearest videoke
and belt out songs by Parokya ni Edgar. They could effectively send many
wincing with aural pain, but they are
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New Cebuano music
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The world of Lorna, a storyteller from Cebu
For someone who spends most of her time with books as
a school librarian, Ms. Lorna Eguia was still in awe at the sight of books that
lined up the cozy shelves of La Belle Aurore Bookshop along Junquera Street, Cebu City.
“I work in a library, and here I am, staring at books
as if I have never seen them before,” Lorna chuckled, pointing out that it was
her first time to enter the quaint
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Best friends (an original short story by Nancy Cudis)
Nadia has
always been a silent child, but not really lonely. She almost always went
anywhere alone. In high school, the company she kept were polite classmates who
are her neighbors. They have no choice but to ride the tricycle with
her because their parents asked them to. The bigger the crowd, the safer, their
mothers would point out. For Nadia, she did not mind either way; she was used to
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Reading: parental support is advised.
One does not need to do a lot of analysis to figure
out that many poor parents in Cebu are too
hard up to put food on the table and send their children to school. But there
are others who are propelled by the belief that a good education for their
children can end the vicious cycle of their hardship, and so they send their
eldest of five or so kids to (almost free) public schools, while they
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Two verses from “Canto Voice” by Cornelio F. Faigao
For a change, I attempted something I have never done
before in this blog: read aloud a couple of verses written by Cornelio
Festin Faigao, record my utterly nasal and dry voice on my phone, and
uploaded them on Soundcloud. Ta-da.
Perhaps my next statement will sound off-putting to
you, but I think that one cannot be in Cebu, Philippines
for long and not know who Faigao was (and is, in the
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Crazy wicked aunts in a Maranao folktale
Many
fairytales in the West present stepmothers as evil. They are tall, with arched
eyebrows and tightly clipped hairstyles; and they are, if I may say so,
exceptionally fashionable. At least, that is how I picture them in my mind, a
personal view reinforced by children’s picture books and animated movies. As
obvious examples, there is the intriguing stepmother of Snow White, the predictable
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Filling a child's world with stories
Let me tell you a story, a heart-warming one about how
stories can be good company to a lonely child, the magic of friendship, and how
a friend’s energetic retelling of memories as fairy tales can inexplicably
restore a sick child to good health.
In her short story, Pure Magic, Lakambini Sitoy, an
award-winning Filipino writer, illustrates the therapeutic power of stories. It
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The concept of a library (and a giveaway)
A public
seminar about libraries and book reviewing in Cebu
is a rare gem, something I don’t get to hear often. So when Tarie Sabido of
Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, one of my favorite bloggers, announced on
her blog that she and Zarah Gagatiga of School Librarian in Action, another
favorite blogger, were coming to Cebu on July 20, for a public tête-à-tête with
librarians, I signed up
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Book Beginnings: The Calder Game by Blue Balliett
This is my first time to join #BookBeginnings hosted by Gillion of Rose City Reader and my renewed
attempt to join a meme. When I started reading The Flight of Gemma Hardy by
Margot Livesey and began following Gillion’s blog at the same time, I was
tempted to join in. That was a long time ago. For some reason, I never managed
to punch the keys and submit my post.
Now, I’m beginning to read
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The aswang phenomenon
Oh, the old valuable books our libraries publicly make available but hardly
borrowed! This was my first thought when I came across—and borrowed—The
Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore, a 1971
paper-published-into-a-book by Maximo D. Ramos, considered the “Dean of
Philippine Lower Mythology” from the library of St. Theresa’s College (STC).
The smell of book is nauseating, proof that
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Wallowing in peril
Joining in the annual reading challenge, Readers
Imbibing Peril (RIP), is a decision made naturally (perhaps inevitably)
after a couple of blog posts that tackle peril, without me consciously aware of
it. These include “Crazy
wicked aunts in a Maranao folktale” and “The Aswang
Phenomenon”.
Readers Imbibing Peril is hosted by Carl Anderson of
Stainless Steel Droppings. I have to thank Nina
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The Filipino Cinderella
Cinderella is not really a personal favorite
fairytale, what with Cinderella being physically and emotionally persecuted, bad
sisters basking in the joy of making other people miserable, and the prince,
er, not exactly an admirable character. I understand they are part of the fairytale
formula, but that does not mean I have to like it. Still, the way her story has
survived and adapted in
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The Aswang Phenomenon: Collected Stories
This post is a sequel to the entry I made on an old paper byMaximo D. Ramos. Did I mention how his paper published into a book by the Philippine
Folklore Society in 1971 became my first non-fiction book in two years? It is
divided into two parts—the first part explains the behavior of the aswang in
five different aspects while the second part shares stories contributed by
students in
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A celebration of books and anything bookish
What is the best way to celebrate books? Read them, of
course. Better yet, share what you have read with others, and encourage others
to read, if not with you then on their own.
These endeavors have been happening in Cebu, one event after the other such that this post has
become some sort of a summary of what has happened in the past month rather
than the past week. While the
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Another humbling, inspiring experience
The moment was tense. With heart fluttering, I crossed
my legs, smiled at anybody and everybody without really seeing, as the names of
the nominees of the Blogger of the Year for the Globe Cebu Media Excellence Awards
2013 last Sept. 18 at Marriott
Hotel Cebu were flashed onscreen and read:
Adrian Lino S. Arquiza, Eat’s My Life for “The Ten People You’ll Find in a Buffet”
Bjornson Bernales,
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Gaisano Country Mall 20th Anniversary Run
Gaisano Country Mall is a place of many good memories.
In its early years, it was where my family went to buy goods for our sari-sari store because of its near
location and convenient parking space. On Sundays, when I was younger, we
attended masses inside one of the mall’s cinemas, followed by lunch at Jollibee
and another round of grocery shopping for home. While on my first year as a
civil
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What was Cebu City like in 1970?
What was Cebu
City like in 1970?
I was born sometime between 1980 and 1985, so I
wouldn’t know the answer to the question. But a thin 1970 book report prepared
and edited by Concepcion G. Briones and published by the Office of the Cebu
City Mayor gives readers, especially the Cebuano millennials like me, an idea
of the face of Cebu’s capital a decade or so before they were born.
I
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A new journey and a story
Yesterday was the official end of my corporate
employment. Today, I embrace my state of joblessness. This very minute, like
every minute for the past 30 days, I look forward to the good things that I
gut-know will come.
To borrow the term, corporate slave is what I was for
nearly nine years. In between months, I attended parties, won awards, got
promoted, and busied myself with volunteer work
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The scene of the earthquake
It takes a strong earthquake to distract an excited
blogger like me from writing a series of blog posts I have planned to do here.
Distraction is putting it mildly, actually. When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake
shook Carmen, Bohol yesterday and rippled to Cebu
where my family and I live, we all became traumatized. We still are; stressed and highly tensed,
too. According to people older than me, they
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Making my first syllabus for college
In the Philippines,
classes in the tertiary level ended last week. It’s another semester off the
back of the teachers. For many schools, a new semester will start a couple of
days after All Souls’ Day. So what does this mean? It means that while many
students are off jaunting about and having the time of their lives during what
I’m sure they would call “academic freedom” (though that would not
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