wednesday warbles: rocket kapre, new books in the pile, carlo caparas, philippine spec-fic antho

Noynoy just announced his intent to run for president a few hours ago. At least now we have an option and we won't have to settle for the "lesser evil", so to speak.

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Erstwhile courtroom hero, Paolo Chikiamco, has given up his suits and barong to don a new custome to become a superhero for the cause of Philippine speculative fiction by launching his new digital imprint Rocket Kapre. Aside from the ultra-cool name, Rocket Kapre intends to bring Filipino speculative fiction to the entire world via its website -- rocketkapre.com -- and books as well through Eight Ray Sun Publishing.

Pretty soon, Filipino spec-fic writers will be able to submit stories and books for possible publication (via traditional means and through ebooks and ezines). For now, RK has several articles up including an interview with spec-fic writer Kate Aton-Osias.

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Three more books have been added to the erstwhile collection stacked in one corner of the bedroom (along with assorted oddities like old HDDs, documents, DVDs, game CDs, school supplies and make-up kits) and once again reminded me that a bookshelf is needed (anyone care to donate an old one?). On the other hand, two boxes under the staircase are quietly being turned into burrows by the bubwits. I dread the idea of what is happening to the books and magazines (including my precious old issues of Dragon magazine) stored in those two boxes.

After receiving a hardbound copy of Watchmen from my boss and colleagues from the old company, three more books have been added to book pile (and I wasn't even actively looking for new books) including:

• Martial Law Babies - the graphic novel by Arnold Arre


• Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology - edited by Nick Gevers and features steam-driven stories by Stephen Baxter, Jeff VanderMeer, Paul Di Filippo, Michael Moorcock and others


• A Time for Dragons - Filipino spec-fic anthology edited by Vin Simbulan and features draconian-laden stories by Dean and Nikki Alfar, Paolo Chikiamco, Oscar Alvarez, Dominique Cimafranca, Angelo Lacuesta and others

I'm in talks with my sister, Wheng, who is in Dubai so that she can buy books for me not readily available here in the P.I. I'm sending her a list real soon and that means I will have to temporarily stop purchasing books by non-Filipino authors until the balikbayan box gets sent.

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Watched The Correspondents last night (the first time in so many months) and Adrian Ayalin tackled the mess that is the National Artist Award and the whole dagdag-bawas that has happened whereby our beloved GMA dropped one of the four nominees submitted by the CCP and NCCA and added her own four.

Of the four new nominations by GMA herself, the inclusion of three have raised more than the eyebrows of several sectors including National Artists themselves. But I won't be discussing the issue here as it has been discussed, printed and broadcast by many organizations, media outlets, and individuals.

The point is, even the National Artist Award is being used by GMA to express her political gratitude to those who have supported her. National Artists and relevant sectors have protested the apparent demeaning of this prestigious honor.

However, if you've watched Correspondents last night, you would ask yourself -- what the hell is Carlo J. Caparas talking about?

Is he on drugs or something? His remarks and reactions to the entire debacle are off-key and off-topic? And despite his apparent ignorance or stupidity of the issue on hand, mayabang pa siya.

And I'm not even about to talk about why he wears shades all the time. Kirat ba siya?

He even claimed that even before his work in comics and film, he has been an illustrator. Isn't that baloney? I've seen the so-called "illustrations" he has done in other shows where he was featured including Jessica Soho's and even I can draw better than him.

And there's also the issue of him being hailed as the Komiks King -- his own colleagues from the Philippine comics industry believe that honor should be bestowed on more note-worthy and praise-worthy stalwarts of Philippine komiks, not to one who caused the industry to further wallow in depths of obscurity and irrelevance.

If you want to find out why CJC is not qualified for the National Artist Award, head on over to Gerry Alanguilan's blog where he has extensively, clearly and validly argued and proven that CJC is no Alagad ng Sining.

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Barely a month to go before the October 15 deadline for submissions to the next installment of the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology to be edited by Nikki Alfar and Vin Simbulan and I am still at a crossroad -- a three-pronged crossroad actually -- on what story to submit.

I've got three stories in mind to work on, all in various stages of development, and I'm still self-debating which one to work on and eventually submit.

Last night, I took a look at my fiction-writing folder and saw that I have about a dozen stories in there with just one story completed (though yet to be re-edited). The rest, including the three stories being considered for submission next month, are still works-in-progress :) Lots of writing lay ahead.

why not go for a good president?

Yesterday, erstwhile presidential candidate Sen. Mar Roxas announced he was withdrawing his bid for the Philippines's highest office in order to maintain the Liberal Party's unity and thereby give way to Sen. Noynoy Aquino who will be officially announcing his presidential bid (unofficially, it's a foregone conclusion unless you haven't been watching or reading the news for the last month or so) for the 2010 elections.

As much as I stay away from talking about politics on this blog of mine, a comment made by the business sector represented by Mr. Peter Wallace in Inquirer.net's banner story "Roxas Gives Way to Aquino" today that was "unimpressed" with the recent events. I've excerpted the specific piece of the article:

Business unimpressed

Markets however are likely to be unimpressed by the events.

“The business community has no experience of him at all, we don’t know what he is like and what his policies will be,” said Peter Wallace, head of the Wallace Business Forum consultancy.

“He has not shown in his time in Congress or the Senate to be a very active person, or take a leadership role,” he added.

But Wallace said an Aquino candidacy on a clean government platform could be successful although the momentum would need to be sustained.

“The outpouring of affection and sympathy for Cory and family was in part an expression of disappointment, disgust with the current government’s inability to maintain the morals and honesty that people expect in a government,” he said.

“And so his running would be a popular choice in that regard. But we have to remember that what we are seeing today is a reaction to the death of Cory just a couple of weeks ago, and we are talking about elections nine months away from now,” Wallace said.

Read the entire article here.

I don't know if Mr. Wallace truly represents the entire business sectors as other business leaders, I believe, are just about as fed up as the rest of us. Moving on ...

Now, it might be true that Noynoy doesn't really have the "experience" that so-called experts believe presidents need to have gained prior to their ascendancy to the presidency. And I share the similar observation that Noynoy has not been really that "active" in both Congress and Senate unlike other congressmen and senators who are quite active (many I believe active in enriching themselves, their families and friends and doing just about all the dastardly deeds one abusive of power will do). And yes, Noynoy might just be riding the wave of euphoria sweeping the Philippines right now (the so-called Cory Magic) and yes as well as that Noynoy will be a popular choice given the lack of morality shown by the current government leaders.

But don't you think it's high time we put morality and delicadeza and plain good manners and proper conduct to the highest office in our country?

Noynoy might not be a perfect president (but then again who is), and he may not be an economic standout that the business sector will like or a very charismatic leader who can lead his flock into total righteousness and Godliness. But then we will have a president who will be of good moral character. A president who, like his mother and father before him, will put the interest of the country first (unlike a president who puts her and her family's interest first and foremost) and that bodes well for the business sector as well. A president whose actions will always be subject to the scrutiny of his family (I can just imagine Noynoy being lambasted by Kris in public if he goofs up) and who has a moral obligation to his honored parents to remain guilt-free and stained of immorality.

Don't you think it's time we get a good president again?