So last Saturday’s book launch of Trese volume 4, “Last Seen After Midnight” was a smashing success. Not every Trese fan could be there of course, which is why I’m uploading the question and answer portion of the event. After all, how else is the world going to know the rift running through the middle of Trese fandom: should Alexandra ever get a romantic interest? Budjette and Kajo also address fan influence on the storylines, a Zsazsa Zaturnnah crossover (make it happen!) and when book 5 will be coming out.
Here’s are videos of a talk given by Professor Maria Stanyukovich Ph.D., with one of the most interesting titles ever (or maybe it just seems so to a Phil. myth geek like me): “Epic as a Means to Control the Memory and Emotions of Gods and Humans: Ritual Implications of the Ifugao Hudhud”. This is the last of the videos I have from the Songs of Memory International Conference on Epics and Ballads held at the Ateneo last 20-22 January, 2011. You can see an index for all the videos here.
Continuing the posting of videos from the Songs of Memory International Conference on Epics and Ballads held at the Ateneo last 20-22 January, 2011, here’s the last part (I came in late) of the first talk of the event, given by Professor Fernando N. Zialcita Ph.D. (co-author of the Soul Book), entitled “Chanted Landscapes: The Interweaving of Tangible and Intangible Heritage”. Parts of the video involve introductions of the delegates to the conference, but that may give you a good idea of the diversity of the experts who participated in the conference.
This video was short, but for our final video on Monday, I’ll post the longest one yet, a talk by Professor Maria Stanyukovich Ph.D., entitled “Epic as a Means to Control the Memory and Emotions of Gods and Humans: Ritual Implications of the Ifugao Hudhud”.
The first video from the “Songs of Memory” International Conference on Epics and Ballads is a talk given by Professor Rosario de Santos del Rosario Ph.D., entitled “Introduction to Ifugao Culture Sung Tradition”. The professor talks about aspects of Ifugao sung tradition that don’t receive as much attention as, say, the hudhud: songs like the liwliwa, lelle’, hehewwe, talidummay, and tulok, from the pre-hispanic songs to post-World War 2 songs.
Two weeks ago, the Ateneo de Manila University hosted “Songs of Memory”, an international conference on epics and ballads (this is where the Ateneo’s online archive of Philippine epics and ballads was launched). Here’s how the official site describes the mission of the conference:
Songs of Memory seeks to make the Philippine Epics and Ballads Archive of the Ateneo de Manila Universityaccessible to all. Preserving epics helps conserve Intangible Heritage, fosters pride of the self in cultural communities and in the nation, as a whole, and advances UNESCO’s emphasis on the conservation of Intangible Heritage.
I wasn’t able to attend all the talks/lectures, but I did manage to catch a few that may be of interest to Rocket Kapre readers, and anyone interested in the mythic heritage of the people of the Philippines. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be posting the videos I managed to take of the event. Each talk will be a separate post, but for greater convenience, this post will serve as an index to the videos.
Congratulations to the Ateneo and all those involved in “Songs of Memory” for what seems to have been a very succesful conference. Special thanks to Professor Calasanz for inviting me to attend the conference.
As I mentioned last week, the House of Representatives (or at least the lobby of the North Wing) got a dose of science during a three day visit from representatives of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), our student representatives to the 7th World Robot Olympiad, and a pair of home grown terminators robots, who were more than willing to show me their evident superiority moves. Well, actually the robots ignored me, but luckily their human attendants were more gracious, and allowed me to take a few videos with my N8.
Nerrisa Nicolas, one of the team of high school students from Dr. Yanga Colleges Inc. who brought home the gold medal at the 7th World Robot Olympiad, gives me a demonstration of Pnoy (note the glasses), the multi-lingual tourist robot who helped them bag the gold. She tells us what materials he’s made of (you may be surprised), how long it took to create him, and what he can do–make sure you stick around until the end of the video for a ‘dawww…’ moment (well, for me at least).
More videos, this time with Larry Labuyo, after the cut.
Since I’m giving a talk tomorrow at Adamson University, I thought it might be a good time to finally post this. Last October 15, 2010, I was invited to be one of the resource speakers at the Real People Write symposium at the Ateneo de Manila High School. The symposium is held during Communication Arts Month, and different Filipino writers are invited to deliver a talk to Third Year High School Students in order to “expose students to Filipino writers from different genres, and help foster in students both an appreciation for the art of writing and a love for reading”. With the help of fellow speaker Carljoe Javier, I was able to take a video of my talk (more an audio file than a video file though – my recorder isn’t equipped for low light), which I finally got around to posting today, for the benefit of anyone who wants to hear me ramble about why I write, why I love spec fic, and my four tips to help new writers keep away from the one unpardonable sin: giving up.
It was an interesting experience. all in all. High school boys can be a tough crowd for any speaker, but I don’t think anyone walked out, so I don’t think I was a complete waste of their time @_@ During the open forum (not recorded), most seemed more concerned about the admittedly lousy picture I painted of law firm life… I’m not quite sure if I should hope I didn’t dull the enthusiasm of budding legal eagles, or hope I did. Ah well…
Thanks to the good people of the Ateneo High School English Faculty, particularly Katz Navarrete, for inviting me (and to Mia Tijam and Joey Nacino for suggesting me).
Karl de Mesa is a horrible man – and by that I mean he’s one of the more prolific purveyors of horror at the moment, coming fresh from his co-editing stint for Estranghero Press’ “Demons of the New Year” anthology, he’s all set to launch his collection of horror novellas, “News of the Shaman” at the Bookay Ukay bookstore, on August 28.
Neil Gaiman read two poems at the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards last March 17 (because, as he said, who was going to stop him?) and, while I was a fair distance away from the man, I think I managed to capture his twin performances adequately–even if my Vado was at the most minimal setting. Surprisingly, my Internet cooperated, so I’m posting these videos tonight instead of tomorrow.
First up, Neil read his poem “Locks”, which he said could be found in the Smoke and Mirrors anthology. You can also read it online at the Journal of Mythic Arts archive here.
Second, Neil treated the crowd to a reading of an unpublished (!) poem, which he says he finished only weeks ago. The title of the poem is “In Relig Odhráin” (you can spell that as “Oran” and it seems to be pronounced as “Orrin”) or, in modern English, “Saint Odhráin’s Graveyard”. He says that the poem was inspired by an old legend from Scotland–I did a bit of digging, and I found a page which details several versions of the legend, as well as a site with a picture of the actual chapel.
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