Riffing the Stories: The Sleep of Prey and Predator

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)!

***

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

A Side Look at the PSF5 TOC

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

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Escape from City-17

"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

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Cup of Tears

"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

Taking Back our Stories

(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

Blogger Update (and other stuff)

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?

***

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)

(An outside view of the Surabaya building)

(A view of the inside, on the 14th floor)

Labels: humour, life

Sleepless in Seattle (and almost anywhere else)

Labels: horror, ideas

Smoke Gets in your Eyes

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

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

I love trailers. I always make it a point to catching the trailers before the start of a flick at the moviehouse.

So at my new job, I get a chance to check out interesting stuff online-- including trailers for upcoming movies. And for 2010, there are two great movies that I'm looking forward to based on their trailers: The Expendables and Tucker and Dale vs Evil.

For the first movie, how can anyone resist a movie that has all the great action stars in one flick? You've got Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, and Eric Roberts (with cameos of Bruce Willis and Arnold "The Governator" Schwarzenegger).

The second movie doesn't have a great casting call but it takes all the tropes in woodsy-farmhouse slasher flicks like The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn, etc. and give them a funny turn. Think of Shaun of the Dead but with hillbillies and moronic teenagers. It also has Alan Tudyk of Serenity fame in the lead role.

Admittedly, these movies may actually suck when I get to watch them finally but I don't care. They're great trailers and you'll see why when you click on those screens.

Expendables

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil


Ah, don't you just love trailer tease?

Labels: movies, work

Riffing the Stories: Memoirs of an Ex-Zombie

Oooh, my third short-short story for allmusicjunkies has come out and this one I really liked doing. This time I'm riffing off from Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze." Check it out:

Memoirs of an Ex-Zombie

And you know what was really bad about the infection? Sure, your brain may’ve been turned off but you were still aware of what your body was doing.

The docs don’t like that idea. They say the infected were “thankfully, fully unconscious of their actions” and that “it was a blank phase in their memory”. Bullshit. We knew what we were doing but we were all in a purple haze and feeling too good to be bothered by what was happening around us.

The website also keeps on moving and improving so check out their new stuff here.

Labels: music, phil spec fic