The Wily Filipino

Scenes from Los Banos, Part 1.

1. Izzy has survived jet lag, having finally slept from 6:30 to 5. We'll try to keep her up later. (It was brutal the day before -- she was up from 1 to 4 in the morning, with me crashed on the sofa while she watched a vintage Scooby-Doo episode, and was cranky all day.)

2. (We were, alas, dealt a bad blow yesterday during our 65-kilometer journey from Makati to Los Banos when a fuel truck fell off a bridge and onto a house below. We left around 5 and arrived at home after 9:30 with stop-and-go traffic all the way. Izzy, alas, only sleeps in her crib, or in her car seat when the traffic is smooth -- many tensions arose around that car seat, which people don't use in the Philippines -- and it was way past her bedtime.)

3. It's a little strange posting when I really have no time to surf and read anyone else's entries -- my folks have only one phone line and a 33.6 modem -- so I'm going through Eileen Tabios-withdrawal right now. =)

4. I've decided that Lyn Hejinian's My Life is just about the perfect thing to read, a poem at a time, before going to sleep. (I think dream work is necessary to process this kind of poetry anyhow; the half-remembered images slowly unfold like a flower that blooms only at night.) My wish: to take a class that walks me through a close reading of this book, one step at a time.

5. I've also started picking a fight with my 7-year old niece, Issa (she speaks flawless English, better than I ever could):

Me: Don't show any violent cartoons to Izzy; it's not good for her.

Issa: But these aren't violent.

Me [looking at the TV while Wolverine slashes some villain]: You don't call that violent?

Issa: But those were bad guys.

Me: So it's not violent if it's done to bad guys? What about the civilian population of Iraq, did you think that wasn't violent?

Issa: Huh?

6. My good friend Mike -- who I knew as "that kano who walked around Los Banos with a pick mattock on his shoulder" -- is asking me for updates on what LB looks like now.

a. Well, that store that sold fresh milk from DTRI at the corner of Lopez Avenue and Demarses Subdivision -- I'm sure the women there flirted mercilessly with Mike -- has been gone for well over a decade now. The main drag is now a long strip of internet cafes and restaurants, quite unimaginable in the '80s. A few years ago the Vega Arcade expanded across the street into a three-story building with McDonald's, Goldilocks, etc., and is still going strong.

b. There's also a Robinson's department store / supermarket / mall right before Crossing, just before you get to Jollibee. Huge, but it doesn't have the nice provincial feel that Olivares Mall does.

c. What this all means, of course, is a decline in sari-sari stores -- I certainly don't see very many anymore, especially since a South Supermarket also opened up between Maahas and Bay.

d. LB is more congested than ever, even without the students. Haven't driven around the campus yet, though -- Mike, did I tell you about the jeepney waiting shed that the Thai grad student alumni set up next to the Auditorium? I have to send you a photo, and you'll have to write about it sometime.

e. My folks took us out to lunch to this restaurant near Bay called Kainan sa Palaisdaan (Eatery at the Fishery, or something like that). About a dozen huts on bamboo rafts, circled around a pond with fish, the wind rustling the bamboo leaves. And the meal: grilled spareribs, sisig, pancit canton, kangkong, and other greasy Filipino fare. Excellent.

f. More on LB later. The heat and humidity is still the same; it's still raining every day, almost all day, since Typhoon Chedeng left.

7. No other fruit in the world can compare to a mango from the Philippines. Mmm.

[Up next: video piracy, more child-rearing tension, wedding preparations and more in "Scenes from Los Banos, Part 2." (I'm going to have to work tomorrow, so all you constant readers won't see it for another few days.)]

They Just Don't Get It.

My friend Mike, who sent me the guest list to the Gloria and George dinner, weighs in on the subject. As he writes:

For all its glitter and buzz, Monday's White House state dinner in honor of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo could not conceal the tired, misconceived nature of America's approach to Southeast Asia. Now, just as for most of the past half-century, Washington views the region's problems merely as local variations on its own global preoccupations. Its distorted understanding has led to a long series of bad choices -- bad both for Southeast Asia and for the United States.

(My previous take on the proceedings was that it very much lacking in glitter, and simply seemed like an elaborate sop thrown to the Philippines for supporting Bush's "war on terror.")

Made It.

Made it to Los Banos alive -- Izzy actually slept pretty well on the floor of the plane, and wasn't as cranky as we feared she would be. (I'm appalled at how my blog looks on my parents' computer's web browser -- are the links on the right always that huge??)

Anyway, we're all ok -- severely jetlagged, but all right.

Farewell For Now.

We're all heading off today -- except for Shelby, alas -- to Los Banos for my brother's wedding and my conference and some quality time with Lolo and Lola. (And we're steeling ourselves for the 15-hour plane flight as well.) So I'll be blogging more infrequently for the next few weeks, as my folks have only one phone line.

Till then, I leave you constant readers with an image of Madeline and Shelby at Fort Funston, walking off into the distance:

Forcefed.

The U.S. is gleefully strong-arming its way around the world again -- this time via genetically-modified crops, the rejection of which from the EU would mean the loss of a huge market for U.S. companies.

The Philippines is one of the battlegrounds as well. After the Philippine government allowed the distribution of Monsanto's Bt corn in the country, members of the Philippine Greens and SEARICE, among others, went on a hunger strike to protest. (It ended 21 days later; by then, the Bt corn seeds had been "quietly distributed to corn plantation owners, which have started planting them in North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.")

There are two major facets to the conflict over GMOs in the Philippines. The first is simply about questions regarding their safety. Faster evolution of antibiotic-resistant microbes, insecticide-resistant bugs, new allergies -- it all seems like an awfully big chance to take.

But no -- it's because anti-GMO people are backward, and against progress, and paranoid, and "anti-science" (the latter epithet from Dean Jorge Bocobo). (It all sounds suspiciously like modernization-theory rhetoric to me (and yeah, like similar discourse about the Philippines a century ago) -- but I can see some of you rolling your eyes already, so I'll drop it.) Much of this proceeds from the common belief that science, as objective and value-free as it is, is good for you. It sounds so -- dare I say it? -- benevolent.

Pro-GMO folks also love citing the statistic that "genetically modified crops account for 75 percent of U.S. soybeans and 34 percent of American corn." This is hardly reason to jump on the bandwagon just yet; obviously not everything good for the U.S. can be good for the rest of the world, as Monsanto's P.R. people learned from angry European farmers. (You can read more (eloquently written, but objectionable to me) pro-GMO screeds at Belmont Club and at Bocobo's blog Philippine Commentary -- the links are probably screwed, as with a whole bunch of blogspot blogs, so I didn't post the entry links, but they're in the archives.)

Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc drops this little bomb, which brings me to the second facet of contention: the fact that a dependence on genetically modified crops -- almost all of which are produced in the United States -- would almost certainly foster a dependence on foreign capital as well. Now, I'm no economist, but I think it's clear who's lining whose pockets here. Even USAID, which has been actively pushing for higher integration of biotechnology into the Third World, says so on their website:

The principal beneficiary of America's foreign assistance programs has always been the United States. Close to 80 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID's) contracts and grants go directly to American firms.

I'm not one of those people who rail against multinational companies per se -- a strategy sometimes carelessly deployed by activists of my youth, who saw every MNC as threatening national economic sovereignty, whatever that meant -- but there is something troubling about the eager embrace of a product that seems so inherently risky and seems so clearly meant to reap profits for American biotechnology companies. Science or pseudo-science aside -- and yes, unhelpful scare tactics are used by the anti-GMO camp as well -- there is a very clear economic and political agenda all wrapped up here, encapsulated in a few grains of corn. If the crops will actually save Filipinos from starvation, then they should benefit from it, by all means. But let's not pretend that lots of money will be made in what will obviously be a monopoly -- and at whose expense?

Quick Link Roundup.

Some links for you:

- Ron Silliman on doubt and certainty (the link may be blogged up, but it's May 23).
- Valis on Bush, Hitler, and The Matrix Reloaded.
- Katie D (to me, one of the stellar representatives of the New York school of bloggers) on living designer handbags.
- The no-nonsense jk has updated the no-nonsense Tarot FAQ (seriously recommended).
- I'm appalled at the results of a poll run on TristanCafe, where Toper asks, "If these women run for senator, who would you vote for?" -- only 9% of the votes have gone to Jessica Zafra? And that horrible Imee Marcos is leading??
- Lysley Tenorio's latest short story ("Monstress") in The Atlantic Monthly.
- The schedule for the Sangandaan 2003 conference in Diliman is now out. (I'm speaking at the "Filipinos on Exhibit" session.) (Fellow blogger Erna Hernandez is also presenting -- kita-kits tayo, Erna!)

And a hearty blogroll welcome to the beautifully-designed HeyMarvin.com.

About that Dinner Again.

Eileen -- you have no idea how many times I've tried to connect to your site (as with other Blogspot sites) -- excerpts an article from the Washington Post about that dinner again:

Bush praised Arroyo as "a fierce fighter of terrorism in your own country. You've earned the respect of the American people for your resolve. And after September the 11th, you were one of the first leaders to contact me and express your strong support for the war against terror. And you have not wavered."

"Friends stand by each other," she responded. "In times of crisis, friends do not ask why. They ask how."

There's a nice rhythm to this give and take -- obviously they weren't actually having a conversation, but it reminds me of those skits that I used to put on to promote Sunday School and Bible study fellowship to the teenagers in my church. (Believe it or not -- I shall have to write about my fall of grace one of these days... the post will be called "The Road to Apostasy.")

No, wait -- it reminds me of how Emily Elizabeth would sum up the lesson for the day on Clifford, the Big Red Dog (no offense to the show, which my daughter really likes). ("Today, Clifford learned about cooperation...")

One of the presents in Macapagal-Arroyo's "goodie bag" -- man, Philippine News is getting sharper and sharper -- was this:

The two Presidents agreed on legislation extending new benefits to Filipino WWII veterans based in the U.S. Among these are: full-rate service connected disability compensation; eligibility for burial at national cemeteries and burial benefits for New Scouts; full-rate dependence and indemnity compensation (DIC) to the survivors of New Scouts, Commonwealth Army veterans and guerrillas, and comprehensive health care eligibility to Commonwealth Army veterans and New Scouts.

Which explains why Principi, Ganio and Lachica were invited to the dinner (but they didn't get the pension, though). (Jennie Ilustre emphasizes at the beginning of the article, however, that the Philippines had wanted to get more -- $380 million vs $100 million. "It became clear the state visit was more about photo ops, and less about opportunities," she writes.)

But what a photo op for her anyway. Nelson Navarro compares Macapagal-Arroyo's relatively stellar reception to the lukewarm brown-bag lunches Ramos received way back when, but it's still "begging-bowl diplomacy," as he puts it, when all is said and done.

Emil Guillermo, right underneath Navarro's mug on page 5, has gone amok as usual and pushes her to remember Filipinos overseas as well:

The World Bank just released figures that said that in 2002 for the first time, more money flowed from poor migrants in rich countries like the U.S. than the combined total of government aid, private bank lending and IMF/World Bank aid and assistance.

Do you understand what that means?

That means Manong Boy and Auntie Baby who work the hotel/restaurant beat and send back money through LBC to their family back home, are doing more to prop up the Philippine economy than anyone gives them credit.

And he ruminates, no pun intended, on the possible "chew toys" GMA might receive:

All the hoopla and attention of the week should be a nice payback to President GMA for loyalty beyond the call of lapdog.

So of course, now she’s looking for her bone.

Guillermo holds back on criticizing what's humming in Gloria's goodie drawer -- he does get a nice potshot at Bush's "doggy-style politics" -- but man, can't anyone see what she's traded to get equity for the Filipino veterans?

But back to that dinner. My first reaction was that it was extremely different from the guest lists during Clinton's administration. My second reaction was that it was decidedly low-watt. I mean, who selects the people to be invited? I can see that there were really rather few business connections -- eBay, UPS, a few others, and Gigot to write all about it -- but otherwise, not that much there. Is this par for the course at state dinners, or...?

The other interesting point were, as I'd pointed out before, the Filipino Americans. (I can't imagine Gloria gettin' down to Neal McCoy, much less even heard of him -- can you?) What an odd coterie of people: a former Miss America? An Olympian boxer? An ex-mayor? And none of the usual Philippine News quotables -- no Veloria, Cayetano, Mabilangan-Haley, Nicolas-Lewis, Clemente, Bulos, or even good ol' Alex Esclamado? And jeez, doesn't Michelle Malkin deserve a doggie treat thrown her way at least? Are Filipino Americans simply under Bush's radar? (Well, there are all those chefs and stewards in the White House...)

There are a couple of ways to interpret this: one, that the guest list was slapped together by some clueless drone, or, more likely, that this was never really about Filipinos (or Filipino Americans) in the first place. This simply looks like an elaborate scratch behind the ear for the U.S.'s ally in the Far East, a big thumbing of the nose to Chirac and Schroeder and all those other folks who won't be eating out of the same food bowl with Bush anytime soon, a relatively inexpensive gesture to remind the world that the war on terrorism in Asia apparently isn't over.

And so I'll end with an excerpt from Sen. Robert Byrd's recent, much-quoted speech, which reminds us why being on Bush's buddy list is ignominious anyhow:

...the Bush team's extensive hype of WMD in Iraq as justification for a preemptive invasion has become more than embarrassing. It has raised serious questions about prevarication and the reckless use of power. Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were countless Iraqi civilians killed and maimed when war was not really necessary? Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the world?

And so Byrd ends -- god, this speech should be disseminated far and wide:

I contend that, through it all, the people know. The American people unfortunately are used to political shading, spin, and the usual chicanery they hear from public officials. They patiently tolerate it up to a point. But there is a line. It may seem to be drawn in invisible ink for a time, but eventually it will appear in dark colors, tinged with anger. When it comes to shedding American blood - - when it comes to wreaking havoc on civilians, on innocent men, women, and children, callous dissembling is not acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie - - not oil, not revenge, not reelection, not somebody's grand pipedream of a democratic domino theory.

And mark my words, the calculated intimidation which we see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall.

The Friday Five.

This is a rather ho-hum Friday Five -- no offense to the great folks who bring this to the blog world every week -- so I'll jazz it up by writing the questions in Spanish:

1. ¿Qué marca de pasta dental usas?
Can't remember -- yo lo me siento, or something? (God, how embarrassing.)

2. ¿Qué marca de papel sanitario prefieres?
[Given up, and used Babelfish to massacre my already bad answers] Esos paquetes del grande-asno de Costco. ["Asno?" Could that be right? Maybe it is. "All began to make fun of of Pretty Rose, calling it Skin of Ass."]

3. ¿Qué marca(s) de zapatos usas?
I poseer pocos pares de zapatos -- un par de los sandals de Birkenstock, batio' -para arriba al par de Timberland que iba de excursión cargadores, a un par de los monkstraps negros de Alfani (pienso que es marca de fábrica de casa de Macy), y a mi favorito de la 5ta cuenta de Saks (un par de los cargadores de Tod).

4. ¿Qué marca de refresco bebes?
Coca-Cola.

5. ¿Qué marca de goma de mascar masticas?
No. [This was supposed to be "I do not," but it's being translated as "No." It's not "Yo no se," is it?] Mis mentas preferidas de la opción no son ningún Altoids más largo, sino estas mentas del hardcore del gremio parado de los filósofos.

Call for Papers.

Posted by Tim Yu (the anthropologist in me is mightily tempted to prep an abstract):

Call for Papers Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs ABSTRACTS DUE JUNE 30, 2003

Ed. by the University of Minnesota Blog Collective
Smiljana Antonijevic, Laura Gurak, Laurie Johnson, Jim Oliver, Clancy Ratliff, Jessica Reyman, Sathya Yesuraja

The editors invite submissions for a new online edited collection exploring discursive, visual, and other communicative features of weblogs. We are interested in submissions that analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and the weblog community. Although we are open to a wide range of scholarly approaches, our primary interest is in essays that comment upon specific features of the weblog and that treat the weblog as always a part of a larger community network.

Categories around which essays may cohere include:
--Social and Psychological Perspectives
--Visual Features, including Interface Design and Navigation
--Rhetorical and Linguistic Features of Weblog Discourse
--Pedagogical Implications
--Intellectual Property
--Race, Class, and Gender
--Intercultural Communication
Because blogs, like the Internet, have a global reach, we encourage an international scope as well.

Along with this being the first scholarly collection of its type focused on weblog as rhetorical artifact, we are also taking an innovative approach to publishing and intellectual property. Weblogs represent the power of regular people to use the Internet for publishing. The ethos of blogging is collaborative and values the sharing of ideas; bloggers are not dependent on publishers to get their words out. In the same manner, the editors of this collection will publish the collection online. We will use a peer-review process to ensure scholarly quality. But like a weblog, the collection will be available to all, although authors will retain their own copyrights. We intend to obtain a version of a Creative Commons license.

The members of the collective welcome the opportunity to discuss the scope of the collection or directions for essays with prospective authors. We may be contacted at collection@intotheblogosphere.org.

Abstracts of approximately 250 words should clearly identify the disciplinary focus as well as the specific case or artifact to be studied. Send abstracts via email by midnight, June 30, 2003. Our editorial collective will review the abstracts and make an initial selection. We will respond by early August. Full submissions of approximately 3,000 words will be due in November; these essays will be peer-reviewed.

The War on Terrorism (the Philippine Front).

For those of you who don't read the Philippine newspapers, here's the great Conrado de Quiros on Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's "splendid little war:"

Bush never found the weapons of mass destruction that he used as his excuse to bomb Iraq, if indeed he expected to find any. GMA will not find any links between al-Qaeda and the MILF, which she is using as an excuse to bomb Muslim Mindanao, if indeed she expects to find any.

It is a cynical war, manufactured cynically, prosecuted cynically, and done for cynical ends. The senators who are crying foul over the timing of the bombings, which was just in time for GMA's presumably triumphant march to Washington, have every reason to do so. Salome got the head of John the Baptist as a gift for dancing for King Herod; GMA wants the heads of Abu Sabaya and Hashim Salamat, or the next best substitutes, for dancing for King George.

As an unfortunately glowing editorial enumerated the pasalubong Macapagal-Arroyo received along with the pat on her back (and that state dinner):

The United States will extend 30 million dollars in new grants and aid for equipment and training of the AFP. Another 30 million dollars will go into new bilateral development assistance focused on Mindanao and support for the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. A combat engineering unit will be established with a 25-million-dollar grant to train and equip the unit for civic action. Up to 10 million dollars in US defense goods and services will be made available through a presidential draw-down authority for equipment, spare parts and maintenance.

Twenty UH-1H helicopters will be sent to support the AFP in fighting terrorist groups, plus 10 other helicopters for spare parts... New joint military exercises are to be held, although the rules of engagement are still unclear -- a contentious aspect of the exercises.

More than the aid package, Bush elevated the status of the security relationship by making the Philippines a special non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally in the same category as Australia and Egypt. While this status does not make the Philippines a Nato member, it provides the mechanism that can fast-track Philippine access to US weapons in the war on terror. As Bush puts it, "That puts the Philippines right up there with Australia, Egypt, Israel ... which means it will be easier for us to answer questions on military equipment and to provide parts to make sure that the defense capabilities of the Philippine military are modern, and the choppers fly and are maintained. When the President orders up a strike, it happens quickly."

But go read the rest of de Quiros's op-ed piece.

Kids Nowadays...

So I was in the Tower Records in Stonestown Galleria this afternoon, looking for a present. Three high school kids were at the magazine section, looking through High Times:

Kid #1: Omigod! That is the biggest joint I have ever seen!
Kid #2: Wow. That's all the cops need, to get them busted. [Pause.] They just have to see that photograph, and it's proof.
Kid #1: Yeah, but maybe they didn't inhale.
Kid #2: [pauses] You're right.
Kid #3: [pointing to a different page] Is that a boob?
[Kid #1 and 2 snicker.]
Kid #1: Hey, do you guys get National Geographic?
Kid #2: Yeah, I don't know why my grandma thinks we like that stuff.
Kid #1: I used to read it for the boobs, but that was before I realized there was better porn in the world.

And in the "what the--?" section, a student of mine in my undergraduate anthropology class hands me a writing exercise that he wrote for an English class.

It's about me. "Hope you have a sense of humor," he says, before he runs out the door.

His first sentences go:

In my English class I was given an... assignment to study a person of my choice and determine a number of inferences through keen observation. Ironically, I choose an anthropologist for an anthropology type assignment. The hunter has now become the hunted.

I read on:

Benito Vergara portrays himself as a young studious professor, but with dork-like attire he has "nerd" written all over him. Vergara is old enough to be a college graduate, but his young baby-face makes him resemble a scrawny youthful boy with glasses, a book worm.

I'm totally dumbfounded by this point -- one-third puzzled, one-third amused, and one-third amazed at this guy's balls. (Alas, the guy looks like he's in the bottom half of the grade curve, but I digress. A good kid, but...) But perhaps some choice phrases may round it out for you:

- "coffee-charged and sometimes eccentric enthusiastic behavior"
- "sloppy combination of his nappy hair and wrinkled clothes"
- "Although Vergara may have nice clothes, the clothes do not make him look nice."
- "animated and anxious smile"
- "corrupt behavior from this mad Filipino"
- "cruel trickery and insane lecturing speed"
- "making other people suffer is Vergara's bliss" [I should qualify this point: the student was referring to my early morning laziness suddenly dispelled by a few sips of coffee, where he writes that his anticipation of "an easy, brainless hour in class" was now gone, and he had to "suffer."]
- "peculiar taste in music" [I laughed out loud at that one]

And finally, the merciful end:

...he may very likely be a gothic vampire, who lives without sleep secretly plotting out strategies of making a student's life miserable while taking advantage of a wholesome image as a college professor. Even though Vergara may look simple and innocent, his interestingly unique personality suggests something darker and far more complex residing within him.

And to end with my favorite sentence so far from this last round of grading (gleaned from another student's paper) -- a bit misinformed, but that's not why I'm quoting it:

...I would hate to live in India because I think that the caste system is immoral, wrong and simply lame.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Forwarded to me by my good friend Mike, from The Washington Post:

The Guest List

Tuesday, May 20, 2003;
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of the Philippines, and Jose Miguel T. Arroyo
Franklin M. Drilon, president of the senate, and Mila Drilon
Jose C. De Venecia Jr., speaker of the house of representatives, and Gina De Venecia
Alberto G. Romulo, executive secretary
Blas F. Ople, secretary of foreign affairs
Jose Isidro N. Camacho, secretary of finance
Angelo T. Reyes, secretary of national defense
Manuel A. Roxas III, secretary of trade and industry
Albert F. Del Rosario, ambassador of the Philippines to the United States, and Margaret Gretchen Del Rosario
Roberto R. Romulo, senior adviser on international competitiveness
Maximo V. Soliven, journalist
Spencer Abraham, U.S. secretary of energy, and Jane Abraham
John Ashcroft, U.S. attorney general, and Janet Ashcroft
Angela Perez Baraquio, Miss America 2001, and Tinifuloa R. Grey
Ernest Z. Bower, president, US-ASEAN Business Council, and Mrs. Sam Bower
Tom Brokaw, anchor and managing editor, "NBC Nightly News," and Meredith Brokaw
Karen Brooks, director for Asian affairs, National Security Council, and Scott Faber, Keen Inc.
Marvin P. Bush and Margaret Bush
Catalina Camia, Gannett News Service, and Cliff Roberts, HNTB Corp.
Andrew H. Card Jr., chief of staff to the president, and the Rev. Kathleene B. Card
Lupo Carlota, President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Lilibeth Carlota
Elaine Chao, secretary of labor, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Vice President Cheney and Lynne V. Cheney
Jeff Coleman, state senator of Pennsylvania, and Rebecca Coleman
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Tom Daffron, executive vice president, Chesapeake Enterprises
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Sandy Cornyn
Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Meredith Daniels, daughter
John J. DeGioia, president, Georgetown University, and Therese DeGioia
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Danielle DeLay Ferro, daughter
Paula J. Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs, and Bruce Friedman, special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States

George M. Drysdale, chairman and CEO, Marsman Drysdale Group, and Diane Drysdale
Donald B. Ensenat, U.S. chief of protocol
Michael Eskew, chairman and CEO, UPS, and Molly Eskew
Jose Esteves, mayor, Milpitas, Calif., and Susan Esteves
Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Karyn Frist
William P. Fuller, president, Asia Foundation, and Jennifer Beckett
Patrick Ganio, national president, American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, and Eric Lachica, executive director, American Coalition for Filipino Veterans

Paul Gigot, editorial page editor, the Wall Street Journal, and Rebecca Randall
Susan Graham, soprano (performing), and Betty Fort Graham and Janet G. Jaquess
Michael P. Guingona, council member of Daly City, Calif., and Teresa Guingona
Stephen Hadley, deputy national security adviser, and Ann Hadley
Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor, The Washington Post, and Margaret Shapiro, staff writer, The Washington Post
James A. Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Audrey Pool Kelly, artist
Colbert I. King, deputy editorial page editor, The Washington Post, and Gwen King
Robert P. Koch, Wine Institute, and Doro Bush Koch
Rep. James A. Leach (R-Iowa) and Elisabeth Leach
Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Char Lugar
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, and Bishop Kevin Farrell
Neal McCoy, singer, and Melinda McGaughey
James F. Moriarty, senior director for Asian affairs, National Security Council, and Lauren Moriarty
Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mary Jo Myers
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and John Jay O'Connor III
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.)
Colin L. Powell, secretary of state, and Alma Powell
Anthony J. Principi, secretary of veterans affairs
Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., ambassador to the Philippines, and Marie Dunn Ricciardone
Condoleezza Rice, assistant to the president for national security affairs, and Gene A. Washington, National Football League

Donald H. Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, and Joyce Rumsfeld
John Snow, secretary of the Treasury
Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano and Vivian Soriano
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Catherine Stevens
Gaddi H. Vasquez, director, Peace Corps, and Elaine Vasquez
Ann M. Veneman, secretary of agriculture
Brian Viloria, U.S. Olympic boxer, and Gary Gittelsohn, attorney
Ronald Walker, former managing director, Korn-Ferry International, and Anne Walker
Leslie H. Wexner, chairman and CEO, Limited Brands, and Abigail Wexner
Meg Whitman, president and CEO, eBay, and Griffith Harsh
George Will, syndicated columnist, The Washington Post Writers Group, and Mari Maseng Will
Gary L. Wilson, chairman, Northwest Airlines, and Barbera Thornhill
Brian Zeger, pianist (performing), and Benjamin C. Moore

Interesting to see the Filipinos invited: an ex-mayor and mayor, a former AAJA president, the Hawaiian Punch, the highest ranking Filipino in the U.S. Army, veterans' rights people, a country singer, a prominent Republican, and a former Miss America. No other Asian Americans except for Chao.

Williams vs. California.

As some of you probably know, Williams vs. California is a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU three years ago on behalf of one million California students, who want Gov. Gray Davis to "set minimum standards of school quality."

Nanette Asimov from the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Lawyers suing the state on behalf of California's low-income students have retained 14 experts from around the country to argue that children who are denied modern textbooks, qualified teachers and other basic resources suffer a permanent disadvantage in life. Lawyers for Gov. Gray Davis have hired 13 other experts who say just the opposite -- that low-income students are unlikely to do any better in school even with the same educational benefits as middle-class students.

Davis, who has spent $18 million in public funds for countersuits and housing lawyers in fancy digs, has trotted out Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby, who gives us the following doozy of a statement:

In a section titled "How Important Are Schools in Determining Achievement? How Important Is Parental and Local Involvement?" Hoxby argues that heaping too many benefits into schools can undermine parental influence. "The vast majority of variation in students' achievement is explained not by their schools, but by what their parents do and how much their neighborhood supports education," Hoxby writes. "Parents' and neighborhood effects on students are so great compared to schools' that a policy that decreases parents' or neighborhood effects will almost certainly be harmful overall, even if it improves schools' effect on students."

There's obviously more to this than I can understand, and on the surface, Hoxby's statement isn't exactly disagreeable. But the "minimum standards" that the lawsuit addresses all have to do with food, playgrounds, lighting, bathrooms, teachers, and textbooks -- and arguing that parental influence is greater on children is simply no excuse for substandard conditions.

Read the rest.

Tanong.

Kumusta na? Kailan ka dumating? Matagal ba ang biyahe mo? Sino ang kamukha niya? Nakakakain ka na? Anong balita? Kumusta ang biyahe mo? Anong ginagawa mo doon? Tapos ka na ba? Marunong ba siyang mag-Tagalog? Napanood mo na iyong bagong Matrix? Anong gusto mong kainin? Pupunta ka bang Maynila? Anong pinanood ninyo sa eroplano? Anong pasalubong namin? Kumakain ba siya nang Pilipino food? Hindi ka ba natatakot sa SARS? Sinong kapitbahay mo doon? Madalas mo bang makita si Sulpicio? Anong naman ang gagawin mo sa conference? Matagal ba kayo sa airport? Saan kayo natutulog? Anong uso ngayon doon? Pumunta ba kayong duty-free? Marunong na ba siyang maglakad?

Ilan ang ibon sa batok ko? Ano ang sinabi nang bata sa papaya? Binili ba noong madre iyong pipino? Malapit ba ang salamin sa baso? Kailan ka papasok sa kubeta? Sino ang kumuha nang tatsulok galing sa kahon? Binanatan mo na ba? Kinuhanan mo na nang litrato ang puno? Marunong ka bang kumatay nang matsing? Saan nawaglit ang relo? Madalas ka bang nakakasira nang computer? Wala ka bang napapansin sa buhok ko? Malaki ba ang opisina nang principal? Wala bang magamit na santol? Gusto mo bang magpalampaso? Hahanap ba ako nang gatas? Mainit ba sa gubat? Malayo ba iyong lalakarin niya?

Anong oras kayo umalis doon? Anong sasabihin mo sa kasal? Kasya ba kayo diyan sa kuwarto? Kailan kayo bibisita ulit? Kailan kaya kami pupunta diyan? Magsusulat ba kayo? Anong kinakain niya? Sinong nagaalaga sa aso ninyo? Saan kayo nakatira doon? Anong pinapakinggan mo ngayon? Gusto mo bang magpagupit dito? Kailan kaya kita mabibisita? Iyong kotse ninyo, saan ninyo pinarada? Gusto ninyo bang mag-swimming? Alam ba nang mga kapitbahay mo na wala kayo? Magiimbita ba ako nang kaibigan mo? Malapit na bang mag-expire ang passport mo? Gusto mo ba nang talunan? Malamig ba ngayon sa San Francisco? Sinong nag-aalaga sa bata? Maraming bang imbitado? Iyong utol mo, kailan ang punta doon? Kumusta na?

Tres Benitos (Plus a Matrix Spoiler).

Where my brother writes about names -- my dad's, his, and mine. Happy, just remember: none of this is our fault. Oh, how they laughed whenever someone called and asked for "Benito" and invariably the person picking up the phone would go, "Which Benito?" Oh, and how they all thought it was so cute to name us "Sunny, Happy and Joy." Oh, and how my mom totally dined out on the proceeds. (And yeah, my mom is named Lina, as is my sister as well.)

p.s. Slight Matrix spoiler totally unconnected to this post, so don't read: Eileen Tabios mentions "the hokey ending" to The Matrix Reloaded -- but that's because you probably weren't sitting in the back of the movie theater where I could see the whole audience twisting their heads to one side to get a better glimpse of the final frame. Cool.

I loved it, by the way. Ate up the "hundred Hugos" scene, totally dug Carrie-Anne Moss in her catsuit (there's life after Models Inc. after all!), was tickled at the Cornel West cameo, enjoyed the barely-veiled references to consent and hegemony, was blown away by the car chase (which apparently took 45 days to film)...

Oh, and here's a slightly shameless cash-in: it works, though.

[Update: okay, after some discussion, Madeline and I agree that there were a few hokey scenes, like the "cave rave/sex" scene and the "digital psychic surgery" scene. The first is gratuitious-boob-shot filler, though there was something amusing about the clash of the cheekbones between Neo and Trinity. (I also liked the fact that all the party people were shot in a light that made everyone look the same shade of brown.) The second -- well, less said, the better.]

England's Hidden Reverse.

Coming out in June, David Keenan's long-awaited England's Hidden Reverse -- here's the press release:

Together, Steven Stapleton's Nurse With Wound, David Tibet's Current 93 and John Balance and Peter Christopherson's Coil represent the real English underground in all its sexual, cultural and artistic variety. A shadowy scene whose work accents peculiarities of Englishness through the links and affinities they've forged with earlier generations of the island's marginals and outsiders, such as insane cat artist Louis Wain; writers like death decadent Eric, Count Stenbock and ecstatic mystic novelist Arthur Machen; and occult figures like Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley. In many cases, a combination of social inadequacy and the received critical wisdom that deemed their work too damned perverse, decadent or mad resulted in them being ignored in their own lifetimes and condemned to obscurity thereafter.

Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Coil have helped disinter the art and lives of such lost figures, factoring them into their portrayal of England's Hidden Reverse. Bathed in their light, Englishness is not always a pretty sight: Oh Rose, thou art truly sick.

For all that, the three groups of friends have maintained a symbiotic, yet uneasy relationship with the mainstream of popular culture, even as their beliefs and practices repel them farthest from it. Their impact goes deeper than is usually acknowledged. Coil's early pioneering work with samplers, tape loops and electronics has been soaked up and assimilated via the fringes of dance culture while Nurse With Wound's surrealism in sound and Current 93's eschatological folk music has helped re-wire the underground.

Through close friends and collaborators such as Nick Cave, Björk and Marc Almond, they retain a loose connection to contemporary pop. That said, they'd be the last people to deny that theirs remains very much a secret history. Until now.

Based on several years' worth of exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to all three bands' personal archives, David Keenan's 'England's Hidden Reverse' is the first, definitive, biography of Nurse With Wound, Coil and Current 93.

David Keenan writes for 'The Wire' and contributes a regular jazz column to 'The Sunday Herald'. His work has also been published in Mojo, NME, Melody Maker, Ugly Things, Uncut and Firm 'n' Fruity. He lives in Argyll, Scotland, with his wife Sarah.

Those Wacky Japanese!

From the Nicholas Kristof school of reportage on Japan comes some pictures from my friend Jane, who swiped them from engrish.com:

Yes, there's the not just faint whiff of racism about it. But it's funny. And I'd bet that "auto rock" photo will make it onto the cover of a Sebadoh album one day, if not some other oh-so-ironic indie band. Maybe some Stephen Malkmus album. Yeah, that's it.

On the site there's also a photo of a woman wearing a T-shirt that says "Spread Beaver." I thought that was funny for some reason.

("Spread Beaver" -- good lord. Google is indexing this practically as I write. This reminds me of the time when I checked my "link to" pages and found that someone reached my site by typing "filipino+boys+fucking" in Google. Who are these people?? Bet they were disappointed, though.)

When You Can't Find Those Masks.

My mom tells me to stock up on surgical masks before we fly to the Philippines in about a week's time, primarily because of possible price gouging. But what if we forgot, and didn't want to pay outrageous prices in Los Banos? Swiped from cheesedip.com : there's always another solution.

The Friday Five.

Last week's Friday Five was a little icky -- it was about doing something nice for someone else, blah blah blah -- so I didn't bother answering it. This week is a grab-bag of food-related questions. (And answering them makes me feel like I'm part of a high school slumbook network, even though I'm probably the oldest person who's bothering to do this. You know, a network kind of like those pretty young things (before you accuse me: male and female) at Rice Bowl Journals -- I mean, look at them! Isn't all that pulchritude just, I don't know, absurd and totally unreal?)

Anyway, on with the show:

1. What drinking water do you prefer -- tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?
The cool thing about our refrigerator, aside from the pull-out freezer located at the bottom, is that it comes with a built-in Brita water filter with a spout.

2. What are your favorite flavor of chips?
Lay's KC Masterpiece barbecue chips used to be up there, as was Tostitos lime chips.

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?
My friend Andrew once chortled when Madeline announced that I cooked adobo really well. "Every single Filipino male knows how to cook that!" Andrew scoffed. Yeah, Andrew, but you can't do it like me. Ah, but adobo -- Mark Bittman writes that his friends claimed was the best chicken dish in the world -- is truly a wonderful dish, bringing up memories of home and horrifying your non-Filipino neighbors with the smell.

I usually just eyeball the measurements, but brown some chicken parts in a pot with a little oil, then add 1/3 cup of vinegar and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, and bring to a boil. Throw in a bay leaf, two tablespoons of crushed garlic, two teaspoons of peppercorns, and lightly simmer for as long as you want. (My mom likes browning the chicken after simmering, but I find that it gets too dry.) Tastes great heated up the next day, too.

Another way of doing it is with coconut milk, in which case you use 1/4 cup of soy sauce and half a cup of vinegar, then add a head of minced garlic. After the simmering process, dump in a cup of coconut milk, stir, and you're set. Skim the oil so as not to kill your non-Filipino guests.

There are a couple of other dishes that I like cooking and eating: peppered steak in oyster sauce reduction, and broiled lambchops with anchovies, but I really do like my adobo.

4. How do you have your eggs?
Scrambled.

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?
Madeline's making a big pot of curry chicken right now, and I know it's going to be fantastic.

Rambling On.

It's grading time again, which means... more Merzbow! Nothing like thick slabs of pulsing electric screech to clear the air.

God, doesn't Merzbow ever stop? First there was that Merzcedes (a bit of a joke, really), then the 50-CD Merzbox set (complete with buttons, T-shirt, poster, screensaver, and now, from Ant-Zen, a day planner? (At least it's not as wacky as Aube's Embers, which came with a lighter, or Pages from the Book, which appealed to my fanboy geekiness even more because it came with a page from the Bible that Akifumi Nakajima himself touched.)

Speaking of "seminal" again, I was listening to DJ Z-Trip and DJ P's Uneasy Listening, Volume 1 in the car and, instead of nodding my head, I was shaking my head in disbelief instead. You know all those DJ mixtapes made by people -- too cool, obviously, for me to hang out with -- who apparently listened to nothing but crusty funk 45s and the UBB comps, while everyone else grew up to AM radio? Kind of like how the handful of people who bought the Velvet Underground's first album all went out and started a band, but in reality was probably only this bunch of critics who couldn't play to save their lives, and how the rest of America listened to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Duran Duran anyway? Well, this is the DJ mix CD for the rest of the world: with Hieroglyphics and Nas sitting uncomfortably with Phil Collins and Glen Campbell. DJ Z-Trip and DJ P raid the crates of middle America, and come up with the "What's good for the goose..." intro from Ready For The World's "Oh Sheila" segueing into Kansas's "Dust in the Wind." With a breakbeat. It's that weird. It's cringingly funny too, especially the hiphop version of Bruce Hornsby and The Range's "The Way It Is."

And did you notice the blogamp section enabled on the right? Cool, no?

Everything's Seminal Now.

From Viceland.com: a list of "seminal" and "irrelevant" bands -- hilarious, unapologetically politically incorrect (as is the rest of the site -- don't read if you're easily offended), totally off-base, and they name-check my favorite Swans:

808 State, Big Black, Swans… they look great on a T-shirt, but if that was the only CD you had to listen to on your next bus trip you’d go "aw, fuck!" and stare out the window thinking to yourself "fuuuuuck!"

I love the Swans too, but I was listening to the Greed / Holy Money CD while driving down from Davis to San Francisco and pretty much thinking the same thing. (And as much as I love Merzbow... god, I need a break every now and then though. Maybe put on some James Taylor or something.)

Telling the Truth.

There's a fantastic essay here by Linda O'Brien entitled "To the Candidates: Speak For Us!" As someone who has more or less thrown in the towel, I find something deeply moving about her open letter to any prospective presidential candidate running against Bush:

...if the election were held right now, the voters would be choosing between an individual and a myth. You, versus a larger-than-life image concocted of flags, music, branding and good speechwriting, SurroundSound, a cast of thousands in uniform, and the benefit of all the tax dollars spent on the "war on terror."

And more (I swear, parts of it gave me the chills as I was reading):

The Bush image is not invincible; it is the most hollow thing imaginable. It is built on lies, obscene amounts of money, and war; the one thing it does not contain is life. Not the lives of Iraqi civilians killed or maimed yet never mentioned or mourned, nor the lives of soldiers sent to Iraq without baseline health screenings, or veterans whose benefits are being cut, or the poor, seniors, and kids here at home who are losing government programs they desperately need to survive.

Tim Robbins gave a magnificent speech to the National Press Club right after the Hall of Fame brouhaha. He grasped the connection between our ideals and national policy and communicated it brilliantly. In another time, I'd love to see him run for president. If you are to counter the Bush myth, you must do what he did. Combine compassion with outrage, remind us of our dreams, get fierce, and speak them. Raise them to the level of a vision for the future and make it a platform for action... I am betting that the real majority of the American people will recognize it when they hear it, if they get the chance.

I realize I'm betting everything, as are you.

With all due respect, damn moderation. We risk losing everything -- life, liberty, freedom -- if you don't risk telling the truth now. We may not get another chance. We're in the game of our lives. Have a little faith.

The other day I found out that a good friend of mine is moving to India "to get away from Bush's America," as he puts it. And yesterday I spoke with one of my students who is extremely active in Students Against War (S.A.W.) and talked about how demoralized we all were. The war on Iraq had effectively "ended" in the news media (since it seems to be Laci Peterson and The Matrix 24/7), Bush was getting an extension on his FastPass by the media (you'd think his free ride would end soon, but people seem to have forgotten about those missing WMDs), he's asking more money for the defense budget (and building more warheads!) while budget cuts are devastating schools, the shameless lies are growing everyday, and worst of all, it looks more and more that "re-election" (in quotation marks because I'm not counting the first as such) is right around the corner.

But if you feel the same way I do, go read O'Brien's essay. It's beginning to change my mind already.

A San Francisco Day.

So yesterday Madeline and I had lunch at The House in North Beach with Dorothy and Jeff Santa Ana. Much academic gossip ensues, but the funniest tidbit we uncovered was that Dorothy is actually this guy's second cousin.

And to think he was the butt of my jokes earlier this year when I was teaching my Asian American Studies class at UC Davis! (Daniel did "play the race card" at Tribal Council, and while I have no doubt that Roger just didn't like "Orientals," and that Rob was a little too defensive when Daniel brought it up, but all in all, he was simply a loser, falling off that log every single time.)

And so, after wasabi noodles with pork, and lamb tongue with vinaigrette, and ahi tuna, and caesar salad with scallops, Dorothy and I made our way to Green Apple, and I totally scored: a Richard Scarry book for Izzy, Truong Tran's Dust and Conscience, and a collection of the first three issues of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, among others.

Blog Plugs.

It's about time I gave much-deserved props to the indefatigable Mac Diva, whose Mac-a-ro-nies and Silver Rights blogs are essential daily reads for me. I don't know how she does it; she takes on such disparate topics as the Confederate South, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Jayson Blair, sexual reassignment surgery, Trent Lott etc. (with little mercy for clueless bloggers) with so much energy and wit.

And on body and soul, an ongoing thread on Bill Gates and the politics of philanthropy.

Going, Going, Gone!

Even though it's not over, I can see people shaking their heads in disbelief: "You paid $103 for this? (Swiped from my brother, who's unfortunately waffling on GMOs.)

[Update: alas, eBay has pulled the item. It happened to be a Chili's deep-fried, crispy chicken tender that was shaped like a penis.]

C93, SF, 5/9/03

The setlist for Current 93's once-in-a-lifetime concert at the Great American Music Hall, May 9 (as posted on the C93 list) -- I'm at a loss for words, and I'm even more stunned than I was at the amazing Angels of Light / Devendra Banhart / Vetiver concert last month:

1. Judas as Black Moth
2. Larkspur & Lazarus
3. Gothic Love Song
4. Mocking Bird
5. Soft Black Stars
6. Anti-Christ and Bar Codes
7. Signs in the Stars
8. Moon Light or Other Dreams or Other Fields
9. Whilst the Night Rejoyces Profound and Still
10. Sleep Has His House
11.In the Heart of the Woods
12. Mary Waits In Silence
13. A Silence Song
14. Be
15. All This World Makes Great Blood
16. The Great Bloody Bruised Veil of this World
17. This Carnival Is Dead And Gone
18. Calling for Vanishing Faces I
19. The Blood Bells Chime
20. Calling for Vanishing Faces II
21. All the Pretty Little Horses
22. The Magical Bird in the Magical Woods
23. Immortal Birds
24. Anyway, People Die
25. Alone
26. A Sadness Song
27. Oh Coal Black Smith

Scenes from the AAAS Conference.

1. We stuffed about 600 nametags and folders! (I personally did "A," "D" (I think -- or was it "H?"), "P," and "W." I could have made a separate page for "Park" and "Wang.")

2. Didn't get to go to as many panels as I would have liked: as part of the site committee, I was on registration desk-detail, and as a dad (Madeline had to go all the meetings and banquets), I had to take care of Izzy in the evenings.

3. Been thinking more about Stephen Eagle Funk lately after a great paper ("American Insecurity: Filipinos, the Vulgarity of Power and the War on Terror") by Nerissa Balce and Robyn Rodriguez on Funk -- "hunky Funk," as Nerissa put it -- and Filipino airport screeners being laid off. One of the reasons why Funk was omitted from Rodel Rodis's list of "Filipino American war heroes" -- aside from the obvious fact that he was a conscientious objector -- was that he wasn't otherwise captured, maimed or killed like the others. (Or was it because he was gay?) In any case, the moral of Rodel's piece is that one is finally "rewarded" the (full) benefits of citizenship only after sacrifice to the nation to prove one's loyalty. Obviously the altar of American citizenship has great demands upon its immigrant subjects. (All very reminiscent of OFWs being called bagong bayani, or "new heroes," by the Philippine government, as a belated reward for their genuine sacrifice.)

4. I was also treated to the rather shameless spectacle of very senior, often-cited scholars try to weasel their way out of registering for the conference. Sample dialogue:

Harried reg desk person: I'm sorry, but you need to register for the conference to get a name tag.

Senior scholar, who obviously isn't lacking for funds: I'm [insert much-cited name here]. [Pause, waiting for the name to sink in.] I'm not presenting a paper, I'm only going to be a discussant.

Reg desk person, trying hard to be polite: I'm afraid that's the policy; you need to register to participate in the conference.

Senior scholar, going off in a huff: Fine, I won't speak then.

Dear E., R., L. and L.: thank you so much for gracing us with your presence. (As much as I would like this to be an Asian American studies version of Gawker, I have miles to go before I get tenure, so...)

5. The Filipino caucus was packed, with what seemed like 50 people crowded in a room. Discussion of the need of a commitment from departments and deans, etc., to hire in Filipino Studies -- and not just the one token Filipino either. People getting promoted and published and hired left and right -- now to lock in a plenary next year in Boston...

6. Fascinating paper from Lisa Park of UCSD on consumption and citizenship and how second-generation immigrants fantasize about buying their way out of racism. (That's a horribly reductive summary of the paper, but...) It neatly dovetails into the work I'm doing on Filipino immigrants in Daly City -- but I argue, though, that their conspicuous consumption does not simply perform a quasi-assimilative function, but is a way of asserting their (transnational) belonging to the upper-middle class in the Philippines as well (i.e., as fulfilling the ideal middle-class Filipino lifestyle, but outside of that nation-state's borders).

7. Snapped up a whole bunch of books (god knows when I'll get around to reading them), including Sunaina Maira's Desis in the House, Josey Foo's Tomie's Chair, Anthony Robles's Lakas and the Manilatown Fish (for Izzy), Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge's Summits Move With The Tide (thanks to Stephen Doi, who charged me way, way, way less for what it's going for on Bookfinder), Lawson Fusao Inada's wonderful Legends from Camp, and Eileen's Black Lightning. (And check out her photo on the last page!)

8. Izzy grew out of her bowleggedness over the weekend and decided to celebrate by running all over the book display room and in front of the registration desk.

9. The aforementioned Filipino American DJ panel (alas, no Q-Bert): it honestly felt like history in the making, what with all those DJs in one room, including DJ Apollo (!) and DJ Shortkut (!!), Oliver Wong's excellent social history paper setting up the context (I can tell his diss will be fantastic), and Dawn Mabalon's spot-on comments on locations and gender. (And props to Jeff Santa Ana for the sexual politics question -- Oliver had to answer for that...)

10. T-shirts from Blacklava: "I Will Not Love You Long Time," "I Am Not A Terrorist," "I Suck At Math..."

11. And great papers from Vernadette Gonzalez on tourism and the "Muslim problem" in Mindanao, Krystyn Moon on Chinese American vaudeville performers (in blackface!), Arleen de Vera on "loitering" Filipino farmworkers and surveillance...

[And up next, if I ever have the time: a rambling and totally uninformed post partly on Edward Hirsch, Mary Oliver, religious experience and aesthetics, and a lesson that sounds like a writing exercise: Write a poem starting with the line, "I think I would like to sleep with a poet."]

Amazon Reviews.

Tim Yu asks: "Does anyone else write Amazon reviews?" Not me (though I think I have a review of a Suehiro Maruo collection somewhere there).

Rob Wilson does, though, in all his "Postmodern X" glory. Here's his review of Pamela Lu's Pamela: A Novel, and I quote it in full, totally without permission (Tim, you might be interested in his review of Wittgenstein's Ladder as well):

Proustian "new sentence hits Bay Area streets in a novel called "Pamela" and the formations of space, time and subjectivity are irrevokably altered in this splendid book. Like Henry Adams, Lu is caught between one world dying and another world being born, and she is the cyborg maker of this mongrel syntax, part novel, part autobiography, cool, lyrical, perverse. It is a work of great abstraction and reverse specificity, creating the ethnoscape of silicon valley selfhood in a way that alters reading habits and creates the retro-fitted syntax of postmodern post-fordist subjectivity. It is a poem in motion towards the dismantlement of boredom: should be required reading for high school prodigies, Wheeler Hall savants, and shopping mall saints.

Word.

Pretty Busy.

I'm probably going to be off blogging for a little while -- it's the end of the semester, papers are coming in, and the big Association for Asian American Studies conference is going to be at the end of the week. SF State (along with USF) are the hosts of the conference, so this afternoon we'll be collating programs and whatnot into folders -- all 800 of them. It's going to be a record turnout after the last three conferences (Phoenix, Toronto, and Salt Lake City).

I'm also chairing a whopping three panels -- a SFSU grad student panel prior to the conference itself, then another on "contemporary APA music," and finally one on "Filipino transnationalism." And right in the middle of the whole thing: the Current 93 concert at the Great American Music Hall. I'll probably be the only person there not in full goth makeup -- but I'll probably dig out my old Current 93 T-shirt anyhow. (Tibet has, in any case, moved long ago from his goth-beloved, Crowley-worshipping persona to his recurring image of a Christ-afflicted, tubercular mystic starving in a garret.)

(One of the panels that will inevitably be crowded is Oliver Wang's (aka DJ O-Dub) panel on hiphop (Dawn Mabalon will also be a discussant). But one of the amusing details about this panel is how one of its participants is listed in the conference program index (being one of only two "Q" entries):

Q-Bert, DJ; 2.5

with the numbers denoting the panel number. There you go: the man himself. (Though I'm told he divides his time between the Bay Area and Hawaii, and he may actually still be in Hawaii this week, alas.)

And then it'll be Mother's Day, where we'll be having Sunday brunch down in Pacifica (the Cliff House, just up the road from us, is closed for renovation), and then our good friend Dorothy is coming to stay for a few nights, and then there's the big Survivor finale on Sunday night, and...

Hey, I Got Published!

In an otherwise excellent op-ed piece, Rodel Rodis lauded "the new Filipino American war heroes" -- Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa, Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Nino Livaudais, Army Spc. Sgt. Joseph Hudson, Marine Lance Cpl. OJ Santa Maria -- and proceeded to take the U.S. government to task for their numerous anti-immigrant policies (Filipinos swept up as INS "absconders," veterans without equity, airport screeners fired from their jobs). True, but...

So I wrote, in part:

Conspicuously missing from his list of "Filipino American heroes," however, is Marine Lance Corporal Stephen Funk, who is half-Filipino and was the first American conscientious objector of the war on Iraq.

In this current political climate where simple dissent is automatically characterized as traitorous, Cpl. Funk stood up for what he believed. He, too -- to quote Rodis -- "[represents] a new generation acting on the courage of their convictions." That makes him a hero in my book as well.

I'm sure Rodel was just playing it safe -- why muddy up the argument when he's already established that Filipinos are heroic, and therefore do not deserve the unjust policies wrought against them? But he glosses over the complexities: of dissent within the Filipino and Filipino American community, of the reasons why Filipinos "comprise 20.6 percent of all noncitizens in the U.S. Armed Forces" (as he himself writes), of Cpl. Santa Maria receiving automatic U.S. citizenship (bestowed personally by Bush, by the way) after being injured, of veterans of Corregidor and Bataan "risking death to defend America," of the multiple meanings of "heroism" itself.

More Amnesia.

Mark Lewis's valuable correction to the amnesia that surrounds American empire is well-taken, but as a (still slightly blinkered) letter from a reader points out (scroll down), the most glaring parallel between the Philippines and the Iraq -- they're called war crimes, Mr. Lewis! -- are cheerfully ignored.

Indeed, Lewis blithely writes:

That was the biggest problem with America's Philippines empire: Its acquisition put us on a collision course with Japan that led directly to Pearl Harbor.

I think this nicely illustrates the purpose of all this imperialist nostalgia. For instance, Niall Ferguson, in an appalling article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine a couple of weeks ago, was essentially warning the Bush administration not to be wimps and handle Iraq right, i.e., colonize 'em like the Brits.

But the point of recovering memories -- of ostensibly "learning" from history -- is not simply to learn how not to bungle up the occupation of Iraq, but why not to embark on such bloody campaigns in the first place.

Silliman Surfs!

After a few days of banter and discussion on the theory and practice of blogging and the imagined community between Tim Yu, K. Silem Mohammad and Joseph "Jim" Duemer =), among others, Ron "Rick" Silliman =) has gone and surfed and linked with a vengeance. (I won't link to the post because all you Blogspotters' recent archive links, once again, seem to be dead. Go follow Caterina Fake over to Movable Type! =)

I feel like a total interloper here, being an anthropologist by training and having a comparatively underprepared education in lit as a communication undergrad. (I did write my senior essay on F. Sionil Jose, but that was a long time ago.) I don't write poetry, or even write about poetry, I just read the stuff when I can.

Every Picture Tells A Story.

Via Metafilter again, The Memory Hole examines a seemingly doctored photograph from the London Evening Standard.

Which makes me wonder whether Bush was Photoshopped into that fighter plane as well... =)

Song, after Beltane.

Jean Gier's disquieting poem ("Out of this lead grow a willow. Out of this willow grow a man. Out of this man grow a coffin. Out of this coffin grow a raven. Out of this raven grow a hair. Out of this hair grow a dress. Out of this dress grow a woman. Out of this woman grow a snake...") reads to me, at least, as a wonderfully eerie sequel of sorts to the Maypole Song from Anthony Shaffer's film The Wicker Man:

In the woods there grew a tree,
And a very fine tree was he.
And on that tree there was a limb,
And on that limb there was a branch,
And on that branch there was a spray,
And on that spray there was a nest,
And in that nest there was an egg,
And in that egg there was a bird,
And on that bird there was a feather,
And on that feather was a bed,
And on that bed there was a girl,
And on that girl there was a man,
And from that man there was a seed.
And from that seed there was a boy,
And from that boy there was man,
And from that man there was a grave,
And on that grave there grew a tree.
In the Summerisle wood.

The fact that it was posted on May 2, right after May Day, made that connection for me, as a parallel and no less natural progression. In Gier's poem, however, the earthly (and earthy) cycle of birth and death and rebirth is "disrupted," as it were, by cogs and bombs and thimbles and shovels. I think it has to do with fecundity, all right, but not a straightforward flowering into a tree or Maypole, but into a veritable thicket of language.

Images are entangled with one another, the artificial with the natural, leaves with words, the thimble from the maggot, the eye from the well. What I see here instead -- no, not "instead," but alongside that natural cycle (I think that brutally dissonant "grow" shoves the reader perpetually into the present) -- is the birthing and rebirthing of metaphors and, finally, almost painfully, the poet herself. "Out of this thigh grow I," the poem ends. Born by words, born through words, borne by words, the poet and the poem emerges.

[The permalink doesn't work -- damned Blogspot! -- so just go to her blog and scroll down to May 2.]

The Dragon Belong To Our Chinese.

In which Tim Yu discovers a poem and reflects on immigrant diction.

[Update: The permalink's screwed -- not your fault, Tim, it's Blogger's -- so just head over to tympan and scroll down to May 2.]

Noam Poem.

Making the rounds of Metafilter and the poetry blogs: Rob's Amazing Poem Generator.

Here's a poem based on Noam Chomsky's talk, "Old Wine, New Bottles: Free Trade, Global Markets and Military Adventures:"

Old nomenklatura, the rest of 92:
Economy in the
line, with
his,
favorite maxim, all of democracy, in
a meaningful question. was
a decent human freedom and overcome.
They know trying to 23%, the old
Communist party. to run it, may never reported
in pursuit of public are disrupting our
way you know, Europe is that they like
allowing generic drug and
if you destroy the activist community. You look for
Clinton.

And, as a PS, a poem generated from my infamous Wit and Wisdom of Imelda Marcos page:

The Philippines is also
for president, quoted in self
defence, anything that I would
most excruciating manner any of
the poor have the Centre for money. and love, someone
is also fun in The Philippines, is where
did the sea. But me, that you paradise And
the opening of
these quotations, are
permanent. Later on the time I am
corrupt. God! manifest in Beatriz Romualdez Imelda: can
hell for my hand and in a person
a resource not aware
of an example.

Paging Screenwriters.

Filed into the journalistic Orientalist category of Why Japan Is Deeply Weird: couple-busters who, for a fee, will break up a couple for you.

Asked by a woman to break her ex-boyfriend and new girlfriend's relationship:

"We started gathering information about the [new] girlfriend... And we learned that she went to a kick-boxing gym sometimes after work and we decided to send a male operative to the gym," the 30-year-old bespectacled detective said.

The male operative in his 20s approached her there to start "communications" and one month later they started going out.

This is simply begging for treatments:

Romantic comedy with a happy ending: the next Meg Ryan vehicle.

Set in high school: Freddie Prinze Jr.'s last film before he ends up like Robert Downey Jr.

Restoration comedy without the come-uppance: the next Neil LaBute film.

Girlfriend still tries to wreak horrible revenge: a sequel to Takashi Miike's Audition.

Hidden cameras following "the operative:" the next reality show on FOX.

The Friday Five

It's high school slumbook time again here at The Wily Filipino, courtesy of the friday five:

1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.
Hanson's "Mmmbop."

2. Name two songs that always make you cry.
Well, I don't weep helplessly, but "In My Life" by the Beatles would probably be one of them.

3. Name three songs that turn you on.
Next question!

4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.
Yo La Tengo's "Sugarcube," Spiral Starecase's "More Today than Yesterday" (an embarrassing admission), Matthew Sweet's "I've Been Waiting," and Ray-An Fuentes and Tillie Moreno's "Umagang Kay Ganda."

5. Name five songs you couldn't ever do without.
Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road," Eraserheads' "Alapaap," Bjork's "Hyperballad," Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane's "My One and Only Love," (though Rickie Lee Jones's version would do just fine, actually), and just about any random Beatles song, with the exception of "Got To Get You into My Life," the entire George Martin section of Yellow Submarine, "Savoy Truffle," and "Dig It."

Oops, Part 2.

An October 2002 article from The Seattle Times: or, why not to trust Filipino websites. =)

You know, some people really need to learn that just because something is on the Internet doesn't mean that it is true.

Pinoy Celeb Blog.

Via my brother -- who somehow gets the coolest Filipino links before I do: a blog supposedly written by the most famous daughter of a former Philippine president, not counting those horrible sisters Imee and Irene Marcos. (She describes herself in her profile as "actress slash commercial model slash talkshow host slash most talked about media personality in the philippines. ")

If anything, you non-Tagalog readers may get a nice strong, caffeinated dose of kolehiyala Taglish unleashed (you can take her out of college, but you can't take the kolehiyala out of her):

okay, so i'm watching the other channel ha, and i am seeing geneva cruz strutting around onstage sa labas ng gma complex. baring her navel as usual. but what's really funny is that she's singing the charlie's angels theme as done by destiny's child. tapos poor her, she has no back up singers, so she makes habol the "i bought it" part. tipo bang thecarimdrivingiboughtit!theshoesimwearingiboughtit! etc. kawawa talaga.

dati naman she made gaya the video of JLo, now this? iha, konting originality naman.

Real or not, it's just too, too funny.

SARS in Perspective.

Madeline and I were planning to visit Shanghai this summer -- obviously not a good time to visit China at all -- and so we're scuttling the idea. But putting SARS in perspective takes a bit of the fear off. (Note: this is a .pdf file, but it might be easier to go to the main op-ed page and scroll down to Howard Markel and Stephen Doyle's "The Epidemic Scorecard.") Much of the so-called underdeveloped world, for instance. has kids dying of measles -- measles! -- when the vaccine is (ostensibly) readily available.

WMD Scoreboard.

Via Mac-a-ronies, a link to Eric Alterman's Altercation blog -- jeez, Alterman should get MSNBC's web techies to archive his stuff weekly or something! -- and a letter from Santiago Zorzopulos:

It is Friday, and that means it is time to update our SotU-WMD scoreboard:

“...Saddam Hussein had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax - enough doses to kill several million people. He has not accounted for that material. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it.”
Liters found in Iraq this week: Zero
Liters found in Iraq to date: Zero

“...Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin - enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He has not accounted for that material. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it.”
Liters found in Iraq this week: Zero
Liters found in Iraq to date: Zero

“...Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard, and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents also could kill untold thousands. He has not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.”
Tons found in Iraq this week: Zero
Tons found in Iraq to date: Zero

CZJ?

Since some people asked (and I aim to please), here's one that hasn't been taken down by her lawyers. (Not safe for work, by the way.)

Now stop bothering me!