Today, my favorite day of the year, I took a 400-peso Grab ride to a sterile building on a sterile street to a tiny sterile room where someone took my biometric information. The thing was blessedly brisk–thank god for antiseptic ISO modernity–though at one point I was instructed by the person behind the computer to…
Category: Blog
Leg day
I went to the gym at 2 PM today, a Tuesday, like someone who had control over their life. The ten-minute walk was hotter than usual; the air-conditioning inside felt more assertive. There were fewer people at the place, on account of either the weather or people having jobs. Lower body at mobility today, sir,…
Five or six notes on Y*
I considered calling it my ‘Palparan novel.’ Handy shortcut, like ‘call center-call center’ for TQO. I remember struggling to describe the then work-in-progress to my cohort at a residency, going straight to capsule–political killings in Arroyo-era Philippines–rather than what the novel is about (although, not to be a social realist on main, isn’t historical context what novels…
Views
In one of the many heart-wrenching images taken in the aftermath of Ulysses, about a dozen people can be seen half-crouched and trying to walk on top of the flimsy-looking GI roofs of shanties, held-up umbrellas impotent in the pouring rain, the wind visibly upending their steps, while behind them in the hazy distance residential…