A feast of books

Launched a couple of Wednesdays ago at the UP Balay Kalinaw were Pete Lacaba’s and this writer’s UP Jubillee Student Edition books, Kung Baga sa Bigas and Eight Stories, respectively, together with Hairtrigger Loves: 50 Poems on Woeman (this poet’s fifth collection) as a regular UP Press title. Also launched that day was the UP Press website, www.uppress.org

UP Press has also taken over the ground floor of Balay Kalinaw, turning it into a bookshop that promises to stock up on university press titles other than its own. Seeing Nick Joaquin hunch his way – San Miguel beer bottle in hand – between the shelves to scrutinize a volume here and there, we’d say that the opening day augured well for the bookshop’s future.

The guests were soon herded up the second floor for the book launch emceed by do-it-all scholar Ruth Pizon. UP Press Director Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, she who has initiated all the right moves since taking over the UP Press, gave brief remarks.

Theater and movie actors took centerstage for the readings. Bart Guingona, Pinky Amador, Lara Fabregas and Joel Torre formed a wondrous quartet for a dramatic, no-mic rendition of a Collage in Four Voices —- excerpts from Hairtrigger Loves.

For their part, young actress Diana Zubiri, clad rather demurely in blue jeans, with but a barely discernable navel, and the perfectly polished Ricky Davao each did great justice to Pete’s cult-classic poems in Tagalog.

The book signing took all of an hour while everyone partook of buffet offerings and eight cases of San Mig Pilsen and Light generously provided by SMC Director for Media Relations Jane Francisco. Oh, would all book launchings be as well lubricated.

Followed a post-launch party at Crowded House, that pizzeria cum antique store-junkshop cum bookstore-art gallery that’s taken over the large basement space which used to house the University Bookstore at the Student Center Building. It’s a perfect place for spicy samosa, free-flowing socialization and BYOB carousers, with each wave of arrivals faced with a choice of seating: either indoors, amid the bric-a-brac and eclectic table arrangements, or al fresco to enjoy the vast parking space, a starry sky and a live band on occasion, as was offered that night.

Our own table with Pete soon grew to include fellow poets Heber Bartolome (yes, the distinguished folk singer-composer), Marne Kilates and Fidel Rillo, film director Butch Perez, Tau Alphans Francois "Primo" Libatique the architect and Eric Villegas the book seller, and University of St. La Salle Distinguished Alumnus Joel Torre.

In all that haze we thought we espied some late arrivals from the Ateneo’s Dean’s List Awards night, including young poets Ruey de Vera, Naya Valdellon and Angelo Suarez. We wondered out loud if all three had joined the competition for the 28-and-under Maningning Miclat Foundation poetry contest that’s currently being judged in three languages: Filipino, English and Chinese. But then we realized that De Vera may have recently gone safely past his first Saturn cycle of emotional turmoil. We couldn’t be too sure, however, seeing him still clad in his all-black flak jacket.

All we recall with a smidgen of clarity is that everyone moved out into the open-air, ersatz piazza close to midnight, and that soon after we had to take our leave, since Mo Ordoñez had already supplied us with fresh herbs for a new day.

For several years now the impression has formed that August and September have become our intensely literary months, due to a program of coincidental activities that highlight the workings of the pen. Book launches galore are held during these months, when the Manila Bookfest and the Manila Critics Circle’s National Book Awards are held, followed soon after by the Writers Union of the Philippines’ (UMPIL) National Congress and Palanca Awards night.

On some years, however, February and March also bid fair as a literary season with its flood of releases. We recall that Gode Calleja’s courageously indie publishing house, Kalikasan Press, used to stage a mass launch around Valentine’s, and that UP Press duplicated the practice sometime before graduation week.

Well, if it’s any indication to support the observation, we seem to be finding our hands full with fresh titles each week of late. Pardon then these brief reviews of three of the more notable titles that have been brimming up our backlog.

Launched over a fortnight ago at Penguin Café and Gallery in Malate was the handbook Ukay-Ukay: What to Do in Baguio When You’ve Seen the Sights, published by an apparent consortium of conceptual and design talents from the summer capital. From what we can make out from the snazzy credits page, the concept and text are by Martin Reyes Masadao, who holds the copyright together with Joseph Norman C. Adelfuin, while photo editor and consulant is Steven Fernandez Rosario. It’s an exceedingly well-designed handbook that celebrates Baguio’s prime come-on these days: those wagwag or ukay-ukay centers that provide gloriously cheap used clothes and what-have-you, name brands and all.

A foreword of sorts, titled "The Semiotics of Ukay-Ukay," is written by recent Philippines Free Press first-prize poetry winner Frank Cimatu. This alleged enfant terrible it was who, clad during the awards night in a thick woolen coat of suspect provenance, handed us our copy, which soon had us salivating for a Baguio weekend for our share of prized-find apparel, and then some.

This full-color booklet, lovely to look at and handle for its visuals and pertinent info, cute to browse through for its cheeky quotes and quips, may be headed for some regularity, since the partners-in-crime behind it also trumpet a website: ukayukayhandbook @yahoo.com

Some readers not too familiar with Baguio might cavil, however, over why the ukay-ukay sites aren’t featured at all in the city map provided. Oh, never mind; just ask around. But don’t you dare beat us to that Bruno Magli Patent Oxfords at P500, DKNY Leather Latte Jacket at P250, and Genki Sushi Dog at P50.

A couple of other recently released books transport us back to our language roots.

Bullets and Roses: The Poetry of Amado V. Hernandez, A Bilingual Edition (Translated into English and with a Critical Introduction) by Cirilo F. Bautista, published by De La Salle University Press, Inc., is a must read for lovers and students of Tagalog, and/or its translation into equally impeccable poetic English. And the multi-awarded doyen of Filipino poetry in English is just the man to accomplish something like this long-awaited volume.

The translator’s Critical Introduction alone, running to 42 pages, is a jewel of a critical essay, with its championing of Hernandez as "a Filipino poet of the first magnitude," and its insights into the poetic value of both languages.

Bautista "reread Isang Dipang Langit, Hernandez’s poetic masterpiece, and chose 46 poems to translate… They reflect to a great degree the growth and culmination of Hernandez’s socially realistic romanticism. For the journey of his imagination was also the journey of Hernandez’s intellect —- they were one and the same, for he was a creative writer as well as a journalist, labor leader, and critical collaborator – and these two aspects of his being merge and emerge with passionate metaphorism in his poetry, signaling the undiscovered lode of his genius."

Bautista writes further: "’Socially realistic romanticism’ looks like a contradiction in terms, but a close examination will justify its signification. Every movement contains within itself the elements of its opposition. Its installation is necessarily a prefigurement of its termination, its history an ebb and flow of contradictions.

"(I)t is in ‘An Armstretch of Sky’ that Hernandez best manifests the fusion of realism, proletarianism, and romanticism, which we have called ‘socially realistic romanticism.’"

Here are brief excerpts from Bautista the translator: "A crafty leader imprisoned me/ in his desire my spirit to enchain/… From the narrow window all I can see/ is an armstretch of sky full of tears/… The same armstretch of sky cleansed of tears/ tomorrow, right there I shall behold,/ the golden sun of triumph will be shining…/ and, freed, I shall walk into Freedom’s fold."

The second book must be a first in Filipiniana: a coffee-table book in Filipino; a paean to place, much like its predecessors that extol provinces or cities, but do so in English. Here the province that engenders all the textual and visual glory is one that would not have it in other than the native language that it has cradled and cherished.

Bulacan: Lalawigan ng Bayani at Bulaklak, is published by the Pamanang Bulacan Foundation, Inc. Virgilio Almario serves as editor, with Malang as editor sa disenyo at sining, Nicanor B. Tiongson, R. Romulo delos Reyes, Benjamin Basildez G. Bautista, Cecilia B. Gulla and Almario as contributing writers, Noli I. Yamsuan, Jr. and Ricardo Lopez, Jr. as photographers, and Wilfrido T. Co and Edgar B. Santiago as katulong sa disenyo.

Punong Lalawigan ("at ina ng mahigit na Dalawang Milyong Bulakenyo") Josefina M. de la Cruz writes in her Foreword titled "Sa Ngalan ng Kasaysayan": "(N)ais naming maging bukas na aklat sa sinumang mambabasa ang bawat pagsisikap ng mga Bulakenyo upang maabot ang aming sintang kinalalagyan ngayon, gayundin ang aming pagsisikap na magdagdag ng marka sa kasaysayan ng lalawigan ng Bulacan, isang markang mananatili sa puso ng lahing Filipino."

Almario writes the Panimula, a feature on "Mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining," and the chapter on Kabuhayan. Tiongson dwells on Kasaysayan, Delos Reyes on Kaugalian, with feature essays by Bautista and former Governor Roberto M. Pagdanganan ("Linggo ng Bulacan"). Gulla writes the section on Kinabukasan, while the afterword, "Tungo sa Bagong Siglo," is of course provided by Hon. Blas F. Ople.

From the most eminent man of letters in our government (as Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the nonce) to have come from the feast of a province, here’s an excerpt:

"Sa pagdating ng Bagong Siglo at ikatlong milenyo, nakikita ko ang bagong pamumukadkad ng lalawigan ng Bulacan. Ang ating mga bayan ay sagana na sa makabagong impraestruktura at nakaugnay sa malawakang daloy ng kabihasnan at kaunlaran sa buong daigdig…

"Ano pa’t maganda at maaliwalas ang kinabukusan ng Bulacan lalo na kung matitiyak natin ang isang malakas na diwa ng pagkakaisa na kailanman ay siyang naging susi sa pag-angat at pag-unlad ng Bulacan sa lahat ng larangan ng buhay."

Finally, allow us to note that appropriately enough, the feast of books we’ve been gorging on appears headed for a grand highlight of sorts with the conduct of "book feast @ libris" from April 5 to 13 (reset from the original March 28 start) at the Libris Bookshop at 17 President’s Avenue in BF Homes, Paranaque. (Note: It’s about 20 meters from the main gate to Tahanan Village.)

What the book feast will offer, according to the energetic proprietor Eric Villegas, who started with a purely online service only a couple of years back, but has since expanded his service to book lovers with a couple of physical shops and stands, are new arrivals of foreign-published books – all 4,000 copies, with deep discounts up to 50 percent, book raffles, free coffee and refreshments. served in a friendly and informal book cafe setting. Wine will be available at cocktail hours on weekends.

We have purchased countless hardbound books from Libris, including a Beatles keepsake, poetry volumes, NBA books, that have averaged something like 300 pesos per. These books are what are called remainders in the US, mostly from Barnes & Noble. You can’t get a better deal than from Libris’ shelves, as Makati Rep. Teddy Locsin (pound for pound and phrase for phrase unarguably our best wordsmith) found out to his satisfaction recently. 

Villegas’ book categories include the academic and scholarly, business and management, computers, I.T. and Internet, children’s books, psychology and self-help, sports, fitness and health, fiction, religion and spirituality, art and architecture, cookbooks, nature and science, history and current affairs; in brief, the works. He runs an independent (read: non-chain) Mom-and-Pop bookselling operation that offers a wide variety of quality books at extremely friendly prices. Libris Bookshop’s coordinates are 809-0621, e-mail: book@libris. com.ph, with website at www.libris.com.ph But heck, better visit on a weekend with the family, and enjoy the wine and the cornucopia of (virtually ukay-ukay) books.