Sadyah

Reading this book is a wonderful experience. A good read. It’s like tip-toeing through a garden of roses with butterflies hovering around and in the distance, at dusk, on the acacia trees, are fireflies.

It’s about a piano tuner who traveled to Burma to tune the Erard piano. This piano was specifically and highly requested by a doctor-colonel who also proved to be a historian, a poet and reader of Homer, botanist, and expert in "peacekeeping" through music.

One needs to read this book slowly. Mason pays attention to sensory details and paints the scenery vividly. A perfect example of "showing vs. telling." One also learns a great deal about the history of British colonization of Burma, and even Siam (old name of Thailand). This is a charming historical novel because the language is lyrical. Reading it is like listening to a wind chime; like smelling hibiscus and jasmine; like listening to an old tale chanted on a rainy night.

Violence and betrayal sound like a murmur here; the kind that disturbs you because you still have to decode and understand it.

I’ll require this in my HUMALIT Class in the coming term. Or I will do a dramatic reading of a chapter to my CREWRIT class this week. I will not deprive my students of Mason’s eloquence, gift of imagination, and dedication to his craft.

Ega Sai 2007 at Shangrila, Edsa: I came before 12 to make sure I can have the ticket for the 2 pm show. No luck last night for the 8 pm show when I dropped by, past 7, from Josh’s birthday party in Cainta.

I ordered mocha frap at Starbucks while waiting, while going over for the nth time the entries I ranked as my 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices for this year’s Palanca in the Hiligaynon short story. I was ready to defend them. Our first meeting was set at 6, in Muang Thai in Q.C.

It was "Kamikaze Girls." It was hilarious, brilliant, beautiful, funny, and subtle in its commentary on Japanese pop culture. It was about friendship as it was about the salvation of human spirit from the greediness (Me, Me, Me) and isolation (because of betrayal and selfishness) fueled by commercialism and disintegration of traditional structures like family.

It affirmed my conviction these days: that one should mourn alone because family members and friends have enough of their own pains. So I must not drag them into the trivialities of my heartaches and crisis; unless it’s too terrible to bear. That I must control my impulse to whine; to stop being needy and clingy even if he announced ours is For Life! For Real!

This is the way to Unselfishness; to Unconditional Love - to Being the Best Lover!

Anyway, It was a happy ending as it should be and I felt good. I thought of requiring my students to watch it. They will love it, I’m sure.There will be a screening at CCP’s Dream Theater on the first week of July. I will have the time and energy to watch the rest, too, which for sure, will pulsate in me thoughts and feelings good enough to be recorded.

The dinner at Muang Thai was a delight. It was raining when we ended and I decided to flag a taxi all the way to Cityland, Vito Cruz. I paid 160.00. It was a "Me" moment because I could have chosen to take MRT-LRT.

There was a firework display when I arrived but I forgot June 24 was Manila Day. Jerry said it lasted 20 minutes and it was spectacular. I could have watched it from my veranda. But around that time, I guess I was absorbed in Daniel Mason’s The Piano Tuner while all along, checking my YM via my cellphone, thinking of the guy I recently called mahal and wondered why he has not been online since our last conversation 4 days ago.

Woke up past 10. May text message si D. Sa CCP tana kuno gaparigos kag gusto na lang ipamaan nga nabuol anang dandruff sa almost 2 months nga paggamit kang Likas Papaya. Hambal na, try ko, instead of a shampoo.

Nakayuhom man ako pero wara na ako mag-reply. Mayad nga okey tana.

Nagraha ako. Tinolang manok. With latoy kag kamote tops. Daw wara it nami pero sige lang. Sayang. Dapat kan-un gihapon.

Decided ako nga makasulat kaya so ginsaylo ko ang akon writing table kag chair sa terrace. Dulom, daw mauran. From a distance, ka-kalma kang parte kang Manila Bay nga masakup ka akon panglantawan.

Pay sagi ka katul akon ulo. Dandruff to the max. Buhay gid man dun ako wara makapa-parlor. So nanaug ako sa groundfloor para sa hot oil. Daw matintar ako ipa-trim pero hambal ko, apalbugon ko anay it gamay. Kon magpa-trim gid man, bukon sa amo ra nga parlor. Dapat sa Freddy’s ukon sa Ricky Reyes ukon David’s.

Anyway, nabuol ang katul kag amo dya, nagsulat ako with a plate of apple and nearby, ang tarapuson nga nobela ni John Irving, ang Until I Found You.

Nagsabat ako ka mga emails: halin sa Africa, Singapore, kag Japan.

Mall of Asia, Sunday - Nagkitaay kami nanday Pong (halin sa Cinta), Rodel (halin sa Bahrain/Baclaran), kag Che (halin Las Pinas) para lunch kag tsika sa Azul Restaurant overlooking the Manila Bay. We had calamares, pinakbet, steamed lapu-lapu, lechon paksiw, amon other delectables. Pagkatapos nagdiretso kami sa sangka coffee shop (ano gani ‘to man, Che?). Gutok abi ang Starbucks. Anyway, we had blueberry cheesecake kag ang sara pa nga choice ni Pong. Forgot it pay namit. Will order that next time.

Salamat gid kay Rodel. Libre na. Hehe.

Sadya gid istorya, e. Halin sa reunion last December hasta sa mga istorya sa Dao kag sa kabuhi ka kada sara. Utoy-utoy gihapon kadlaw sa mga antics ni Pong.

We decided nga makitaay liwan antes magbalik si Rodel sa Domingo, June 8. Sa place ko sa Cityland. Ma-showcase si Pong ka anang vongga nga sinigang. Daad may iba pa nga maagto. Like Jesse.

Sa mga batchmates, welcome gid kamo. Just buzz me here before Friday. Hehe.

Seabiscuit. I watched it after my Friday class while eating Sneakers on bed and outside, it was about to rain. I love this line: "You don’t throw a whole life just ’cause it’s banged up a little." This is one inspiring film. Well, Seabiscuit is a horse and though small, he won big time races and ended up "fixing" people’s twisted and jaded faith in themselves and in humanity.

Sideways. I love the case’s cover; reminded me of the need to conceptualize for my book’s cover. It made me want a cool, hip cover. Hope the UST guy will email me soon his concepts so we can start working on it. This is one funny movie about a mismatched pair who went for a week of travel with wine and girls in order to, as always,find themselves.

88 minutes. I remember watching it with R but we did not finish. It’s Al Pacino, playing as a college professor who is moonlighting as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI. The thrill begins when he received a death threat saying he has only 88 minutes to live. The significance of this number? His baby sister Kathy’s murder lasted 88 minutes. Now, a serial killer in death row is after him because it was his forensic expertise that convicted him. I love this film because it deals with truth and justice.

Criminal Lovers. A creepy psycho triller. They sneaked out into the wood to bury the guy they murdered  and then cannot find their way back out. They were trapped by a an old man with a house there who ended up teaching the guy with a thing or two about goodness that in the end, when the police caught them, the guy expressed his desire to spare the old man because he was not, actually, an accomplice to the crime.

Ginpabangon ako, banda alas otso, kang tawag kang Globe Visibility. Ka Sabado it gabii, nagtawag ako sa customer service sa pag-terminate kang akon internet subscription. Luwas sa gaugtas ako sa kabuhayon, magasto - 2 thousand per month, kag sabad sa akon pagsulat, wara run si R para maka-chat. Te, ano pa abi ang pulos kang internet kay may access man ako sa office. Kag tana ang rason kon andut naghirimutol ako subscribe last Dec.

Okey, gin-confirm ko. Sa June 20 ma-take effect kag may 12,000.00 nga termination fee. Bale parehas lang nga mabayad ako ka hasta sa December. Pay ginapaminsar ko, 24,000.00 ang akon gastuson ko n magpadayon pa. Te, bala maka-save man ako it 12,000.00.  Kon kinahanglan mag-chat, te, duro man internet cafe.

Kag I hope nga makasubsob run gid sa pagsulat. Aguy, Hunyo run. Kag nawili gihapon ako imagine lang kag lantaw ka DVD. Nagbakal dun gani ako ka nami nga lamesa kag purungkuan. Amo nga daw nainit man ako sa gahud kang construction sa Tower 2. Pagguwa ko, nagreklamo ako sa guard sa front desk. Mayad man, may aksyon lagi. Pag-uli ko, wara run it gahud.

Nag-text si D. Pero ginsarado ko akon cell. Daw gusto ko magbalik ruman sa prepaid. Daw gusto ko run magpaka-mongha. Siguro dapat lang. Gusto ko actually ang amo dya nga baratyagon nga nagakamang kadya kanakon. Basi pa lang amo run dya kag makasulat ako tayuyon.