Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Well Wisher
LagosZine Issue 1-4: The One-Page Issue
Issue, issue, issue
Here, the word ‘issue’ takes on a double meaning – one, the descriptive one since it is obvious that we really have a one-page output; and two, the probable question that we are now getting complacent with the making our ‘petty project’. Perhaps the first one would only hold. We, well yes I, have our (my) own reasons for opting to a one-page release.
In reality, we are only two in the core of this thing, Essej and I, having proceeded with the project without the (semi) prof guidance of a friend. The reasons, I have said already in an earlier issue.
Then vacation came that greatly complicated the matter. My partner, having no extensive communications means (a bad thing for two people having a common work to do, you see), could not comply now with our agreement to release a written-issue for this month. Having no update at all, I decided to resort initially to a one-page written issue, then looking with all those pile of books I have mercilessly imposed upon myself, I decided resolutely to have a one-page Adobe-facilitated last issue.
A Look Back
There is not so much to look back really. We have only released three issues that barely had readership at all (even an intimate never bothered to touch the copy I lent). But it’s good to realize for now (at least) that readership is not a big-time issue yet. One thing that’s important here is that we get to pool our thoughts and creative ideas (if there are, really), and have it as a collective output, meant to be shared to the people.
Although in many instances I have felt the sways of my thoughts for the project, I know that our desire to focus this thing on
What’s Next?
I personally wonder too what’s in store for this little zine project of ours. Sold it to somebody else and get away with the burden of a release every month? Nah, not that gross I think. In fact, plans are undergoing to fully revise LZ in a manner that it shall be treated more seriously by the chance readers. Although we were not able to fully have a dictionary-type meaning of the slogan we gave for it, we nevertheless want to adhere to what ‘socio-lit’ mean to us. We are not literature masters, but certainly each person is in complete freedom to express his/herself under the many forms of lit.
Expect LZ to be relatively readable: easily by the common people and other who understand such endeavors, and tolerably by those who are more after the ‘form’ than the contents. And a possible ISSN, don’t you think? (Smugs)
Cheers!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Call for submissions for High Chair 12
We are inviting poets and artists everywhere to submit responses to the following questions:
1. What did you feel upon hearing about the Maguindanao Massacre?
2. How could poetry be written/art be made so that it has value to the event?
We are interested in poems (whether old or new, unpublished or previously published) that offer ways of thinking about terror, horror, and other pertinent ideas/terms.
We are interested in essays and reviews that examine the role and state of Philippine poetry and art in the context of the Maguindanao Massacre.
We recognize the need to engage with the Maguindanao Massacre immediately and to ensure, through an ongoing discussion, that the event remains current and urgent. Thus,High Chair 12 will take on the format of a work in progress, with content uploaded by installment from mid-December to mid-February.
The deadlines for submission for possible inclusion in the four installments of High Chair 12 are: December 10, 2009, December 26, 2009, January 15, 2010, and January 30, 2010.
We welcome submissions in Filipino and English. Please visit our site (highchair.com.ph) to get a more comprehensive idea as regards the work we do and the poetry and essays we publish. Please send no more than five pages of poetry. There is no page limit for essay contributions.
Please email your submissions or queries to highchair@gmail.com (subject heading: High Chair Issue 12). Feel free to circulate this call for submissions to other interested parties. Thank you.
Conchitina Cruz and Adam David (Issue Editors)
Monday, November 30, 2009
LagosZine Issue 1-3: KAPWA sa UPLB
There’s no more fitting title here than our org’s name: after all, this issue is dedicated solely to it.
We are indeed in a beautiful junction in the life of this organization. To put it in another way, we are in a historic period of its existence. Whatever term one call it, it is an undeniable fact – we are at 20. I do not profess that such age would amount to strength, although that one should accompany it as it (in this case, the org) ages. Prior to the celebrations, we, the resident members were in confusion, reluctant to partake in the activities planned by the organization’s founders. It meant two things to me: the residents’ demise and my own demise as the presiding officer. But things do not always come out the way we expect it. Instead of having a barrage of scolds and interrogations, I went home that day changed.
And I say changed.
Lagos (despite the lateness of this particular issue) contains today a recollection of our twentieth anniversary celebrations as well as a number of thoughts collated from some of the members and the org’s online group. I do not guarantee that this release is sufficient to reproduce the feelings that we had as members and as persons present in that memorable celebration. Here, we put together what we want to preserve in Lagos as a form of tribute to the organization.
If ever I’ll still be around when the year doubles to forty, I would gladly open Lagos for another set of its records of the celebrations.
Long live Kapatirang Pitong Lawa sa U.P. Los Baños!
Musings of a 6th Grader (LagosZine Issue 1-3)
(appears on 'Centerpiece' section)
Six years indeed.
I entered the gang totally ignorant of what it is all about, pushed only by the encouragements of my batch mates which seem to me, as I look back now, to be nothing more than words of invitation, devoid of any complete reason or idea of what it is all about. It was destined for me to find out for myself.
First year came like a passing wind, with all those activities barely piercing my then hyper-active self, too busy to stop and internalize the events within the org. I felt at that time that there were many more things to be discovered in the university than just being shoulder to shoulder with my org mates.
My second year came as quickly as the previous one for I was more attentive to the life in our church than in the university. But within this period I was starting to sort of discover my mates.
On the third year, it was more than presence that I saw. It was participation. For despite my seemingly naïve desire to take the highest seat in the executive committee, I was nevertheless intent on getting things done good and clean within the org. I remember the time when a particularly ‘bright’ student clashed with me concerning an answer in our review and I vowed to polished things in this activity if ever I get the presidency.
The wish was granted in the fourth year and it was not paradise at all. Constantly plagued by inactivity by the members and lack of support in the activities, cracks were introduced to my ideals towards the organization. Eventually, the cracks reached my head and I, in turn, treated things personally – I lost the concept, the principles that should bind us, the members, together. The org was barely grasping the minimum number of members to have us recognized.
The (seeming) fall extended right into my fifth year, getting the presidency again which seemed to me more of a joke than a serious choice among the members. I do not even remember having new members then. There were activities then alright. But it was geared towards saving face I believe. The cause was lost in the sea of problems about missing tarpaulins, stolen tents, low budget, and membership. Things acquired a more serious tone when we finally failed to put up a booth for the annual Feb Fair.
But for so many downfalls that I have personally experienced, there came catalysts from all directions, seeking the org that they have experienced. And in these times I saw myself, dealing things about the org solo, not even bothering to enjoin everyone in the endeavors. I only had a few intimates and to them I only shared the dilemmas. The cause was lost for I allowed the problems to get into my head. We are an organization. A group composed of individuals. And among these individuals reside the heart of the org. Not in the president, not in the past officers, not in the founders. All of us constitute the org.
I am not a believer in the ‘mystic’ (if I can call it that) of numbers but six seem now a number of life to me. For in this beautiful year, with me almost exhausting the allowed years of stay in the university, I saw the ascent of the org, not back to the glory days of its past, but into something loftier – to the continued discovery of its heart-its members-and its identity. As of this writing, we have just acquired new peers for the group, people that I see not propelled by mere pity for the org but by the desire to be part of a dynamic group and to serve to its purpose and goals. Some of them, discerning my happiness in seeing the org alive again, even urged me to stay longer to be with the org longer. If given the chance of course, I would gladly to do it. But things must move forward. I must deal with my personal life and find my calling and career. It was more than enough to be part of the re-emergence of the org from its half-slumber.
Finally, I know that my life shared in the organization is not, in any way, confined in those six years of being a resident. Life within the org is but a seed that would continue to grow even outside the university. It may not be even needed to say this but, once a KAPWA, always (if not ‘til death and even beyond) a KAPWA. Mabuhay tayo!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
LagosZine Issue 1-2: Pensees II
Two works for the month’s issue appear here. Indulge!
+team mates for this issue +
pransisem.emralino + jesse.essej.cervantes
Flew (LagosZine Issue 1-2)
by Jesse Cervantes
(appears on ‘LakeSayers’ section)
I was walking through the streets of San Pablo, down the lane of Balagtas Avenue when I saw this cute little shop that cater different party needs. A sudden curiosity rushed to me about a simple toy that every one of us knows. I’m a bit sure every one of us had held one of them once in our lives. It is one of the simplest toys there is. We dreamt of having them displayed at our seventh birthday once. I think you know what I am talking about. It’s that round, shiny, cute, and simple balloon. Bartolomeu de Gusmão, a Brazilian-born Portuguese priest, was 45 years old when he invented the first balloon and showed that air was something more than nothing. This balloon was exhibited to the Portuguese Court on August 8, 1709. Meanwhile, the rubber balloon was invented by Michael Faraday in 1824.
The purpose of Faraday to create such balloon is to investigate the gas hydrogen. It is amazing to see how this tool for experimentation became a common toy that was started to be sold for a penny in parks and circuses in America. The most common latex balloons were said to have been manufactured in London by J.G. Ingram. The mass production of balloons emerged during the late 1930s. Today, there are about one billion balloons produced a year in the whole world and about 97% of these balloons are used for birthday parties and common gatherings.
Balloons are classified according to their uses - for protest rallies, medium of art, publicity tactics, flying machine. The most common of all is for party use. Party balloons are mostly made of natural latex from rubber trees and are filled with air, water, helium or other suitable gas or liquid. They are the ones we as children dreamt of having in our birthday party someday.
The Issue
There had been a lot of questions from the people of San Pablo if the city is really growing as a community. The city had been exclaiming to the world that it is the “Coconut City” (if I may term it like that) but the numbers showed a great dispense in the production of coconut and other related products. I have once talk to a supervisor of Franklin Bakers Company when I was in high school and he said that before, they can get their raw materials solely in San Pablo but today they are now getting their sources from other places like Quezon, Batangas and other provinces. And at the end of 2008, almost 1,300 of the workers feared of losing their jobs because of the said company’s closing. What does this indicate? Are we really growing as a community?
Overlooking the Fact
I have been joking once that an urban community will never be deprived with "rugby boys" and the like. I know that was not a funny joke…it was not even a joke at all. I said before that one of the requirements for a place to be called a city is that you have to see street children roaming down the street and disturbing some passengers waiting for their rides home.
I am amused by this fact before…but not anymore. Whenever I see some boys fighting over a bottle of rugby, I can’t help but be sad for them. I can’t imagine the kind of future those boys will have. Do these scenarios really have to be present in an urban community? I wonder if those kids had their own birthday parties. But I am quite sure they have dreamed of having one before. Have they ever held a balloon before? I’m sure they wanted to but just like any other dream they had, I think it faded along with their supposed to be innocence. As I have been noticing for these past few years, there had been very seldom events wherein a birthday celebration would constitute party balloons. Can this indirectly indicate how the people of San Pablo barely survive their daily lives? I know it’s a bit far fetched to conclude based on only these facts but when you see the faces of these children on the streets, how can you be sure that the city will progress further? With these kinds of scenarios, how can we be sure that our children will hold on the simple, shiny, cute and cuddly balloon? How can we be sure that they would hold strongly to their dreams, when they know that just like that shiny red balloon, they might fly away and never return again? Let’s try to ponder on these simple things and try to act now before it’s too late.
References
Robertson, Patrick. The Book of Firsts, Bramhall House, NY, 1978;"Balloon History". BalloonsIT. Retrieved 2007-04-29;
“Franklin Baker Closing?”
Thrust (LagosZine Issue 1-2)
The first steps were necessarily faulty.
For if we did not push through with the first issue, all the plans would go down just like all other brainchild we had in the past.
And it was obvious that until last month (and as the confession have attested to it), we were still on a hazy stage of marking in particular the thrust of Lagos. San Pablo was the starting point; it has always been that. But it was necessary to hold now a coherent identity of our collective works.
The inspiration came from the hospital in a nearby city in which I was compelled to spend a few days. Placed amongst patients of different illnesses and needs, I saw in them the real situation of the people of that city, concealed unfortunately behind the brightly painted hospital walls. The pervading anguish and the tiredness are strong enough that it is unavoidable to notice the sad state of their living.
And thus the seed that was acquired from that brief experience magnifies itself now, giving us the finer thrust of aiming Lagos towards a thorough travel through our city and know and understand its soul. It is a much exciting prospect I believe for it goes well beyond the dressed up public parks giving brief recreation and relaxation to our city dwellers, beyond the attractive lights of the city’s establishments and stores scattered around. The soul of our city is not confined to what is typically known by the public and devoured by tourists.
We shall travel even to the length of the rusting railways in the city; eat with the laborers of the day; share the streets with the vendors and beggars; breathe in the dirt of the roads and highways; share the choleric tap drunk in common by our tired breadwinners, among other. For in the bare experience of the city we shall experience and feel the Soul. But of course, it is our desire not to confine ourselves with such an activity. For it is out belief that there are commonalities of the different places in our country, and there is a collective anguished soul that we must endeavor to characterize.
Lagos shall be our transcribing board.