Friday, March 08, 2024

RECOMMENDED. Book. “Delta of Venus" by Anaïs Nin.

RECOMMENDED. Book. “Delta of Venus,” fifteen short stories by Anaïs Nin, published posthumously in 1977—though largely written in the 1940s as erotica for a private collector. Before I continue, my warning: Don’t even try to find the 1994 film version by Zalman King. First, that movie sucks. Second, this classic is meant for reading, imagining, and imagining, and imagining. All in your mind, feel it, into your loins. You dig? Don’t watch the movie!



       I must admit, I did see the movie. As I did see all movie adaptations of “Lady Chatterley's Lover” by D.H. Lawrence. Although you may contest me on the cinema versions of “Wide Sargasso Sea,” the postcolonial feminist novel by Jean Rhys, or both 1946 and 1981 Hollywood takes of James M. Cain’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”  

       Nin’s erotica is sexuality or sensuality without malice yet it is straight through. If you are the kind of animal who gets turned on by Sophia Loren’s covered hips and open mouth and never with Pornhub, then this book is your firestarter. 

       A closer parallel is Erica Jong’s 1973 novel “Fear of Flying,” and “The Sleeping Beauty Quartet,” a series of four novels by Anne Rice under the pseudonym of A. N. Roquelaure. But still, “Delta of Venus” is my #1 erotica of all time. Mind you, I discovered this book when I was 13. Along with Ms Loren, Anais Nin introduced me to self-stimulation. TMI? 

       “Delta of Venus” is collection of short stories that were commissioned to then unknown “perv” (LOL!) a.k.a. The Collector who also sought erotic fiction from Henry Miller. Sure, you know that Anais was Henry’s paramour. The Collector dude was later revealed as Roy M. Johnson, a wealthy Oklahoma businessman and oil magnate. Who cares. But thank to him for the commissioned Anais work.      

       Mr Collector actually asked Ms Nin to chuck poetry and instead go for the jugular and deliver sexually explicit stuff. Yes, no Pornhub in those years yet. But Anais instead produced exemplary literary flourish and mindfuck (literally) that’d go way beyond pornography. You get it, Kama Sutra, the ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment, was a major reference but Nin’s reading takes us to the climax without really knowing it. I mean, that we were already there per episode. 

       These days when visual bombast and cryptic nonsense proliferate? Where is your imagination? Try “Delta of Venus.” But I am sure it is “banned,” LOL! No, it ain’t. Additional reading: “Little Birds,” also by Anais Nin. 📚✍️📚

Monday, February 05, 2024

Famous Photography. And Stuff.

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHY. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines was the 2nd-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Eruptive activity began on April 2 as a series of phreatic explosions from a fissure that opened on the north side. Seismic events happened for weeks. With a news crew, I covered some right in most hit areas. Tremors every 3 minutes, no power, a storm was raging. On our way back to Manila, a coup was rockin’ the city. ⛰🏝🌋




D-Day or Normandy landings. Airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune, it was, and still is, the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later Western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Memory of war that shouldn’t be repeated. War is doom. ☮️☮️☮️




FAMOUS MOMENTS. On 30 January 1969, the Beatles (with Billy Preston) performed an impromptu concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters in central London. They played a 42-minute set before the Metropolitan Police ordered them to reduce the volume. It was the final public performance of their career. The shoot was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The photographer, Ethan Russell. 🎼🎸🎼


PHOTOGRAPHY of HORROR. On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. The bombs killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima, and a further 74,000 in Nagasaki. In the years that followed, many of the survivors would face leukemia, cancer, or other terrible side effects from the radiation. ☮️☮️☮️




STRANGE PHOTOGRAPHS. While Americans are still inclined to think UFOs are not alien spacecraft, close to half believe alien life forms exist beyond Earth. A June 2019 poll found 49 percent of Americans believing there are "people somewhat like ourselves" living on other planets. A much larger percentage, 75 percent, said that "life of some form" exists elsewhere in the universe. This “UFO” was photographed in 1979 by Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson of Marshall County in northwestern Minnesota. 

       IN August of 1835, the New York Sun printed astronomical findings that detailed the discovery of life on the moon. The article was the first in a satirical series describing lunar pyramids, rivers, unicorns, bipedal beavers and bat-like people, all spied through a fictional seven-ton telescope in South Africa. The newspaper had underestimated the public’s gullibility. (Text: Smithsonian.) 🛸👽🛸


Photo credits: Albert Garcia. Army.mil. International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

RECOMMENDED. Movies. “The Godfather Trilogy.”

RECOMMENDED. Movies. “The Godfather Trilogy.” Released in 1972, 1974, and 1990 and all directed by Francis Ford Coppola, “The Godfather” is inspired by the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo. The films follow the trials of the fictional Italian American mafia Corleone family whose patriarch, Vito Corleone, rises to be a major figure in organized crime. His youngest son, Michael Corleone, becomes his successor. 



       The trilogy is heavily awarded, winning 9 out of 28 total Academy Award nominations, but there are more to the Corleone saga than the cinematic accolades. The kickass ensemble acting is an understatement. However, it is the screenplay by Mr Coppola and Mr Puzo, that kept this masterpiece set a brilliant Hollywood treasure. Mario Puzo, who passed away in 1999, also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 “Superman” and its 1980 sequel but “The Godfather” is his true legacy. 

       Perhaps a major reason why the Corleones easily penetrated the cultural psyche is their startling contradictions. Generous and kind but wicked when turned down. Iron-willed and they mean it when they say it; palabra de honor. They can be peaceful per “gentlemanly” truce. Soft-spoken but equally loud when provoked into a rage. 

       Calculating with awesome business acumen albeit the illegal version. Good parents but won’t double think to take out fathers of children as well. Resilient and patient; well, for a time, LOL! And a sense of Catholic morality that baffles the wicked. And a searing love for family and allegiance to friendship yet when you cross them, run for your life. 🎬🎭🎬


Wednesday, January 17, 2024

RECOMMENDED. <>Music. “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen. / <>Literature. John Steinbeck books.

Music. “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1975. The album that “made” The Boss after the relative failure of his first two LPs: “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” and “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle,” both released in 1973. With this set, Mr Springsteen entered mainstream popularity. I may be exaggerating but suddenly Bruce is the rock `n roll John Steinbeck. 



       “Born…” garnered widespread acclaim on release. It has since been considered by critics to be one of the greatest albums of all time. If you’d want to stretch your fandom fix, score the remaster of the album, released in 2005, as a box set including two DVDs: a production diary film and a concert movie. I don’t have that set though. I am fine with the LP and CD. 

       This collection chronicles Americana with evocative lyricism, bold howls of stubborn hope, and glorious fatalism told in dramatic earnest. Yet this collection is also solid rock defiance, the sound. No revolutionary inventiveness, in fact—this is old school rock `n roll with a new telling and more robust delivery. 

       Easily, my favorite cuts are also the most popular: “Thunder Road,” "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," and the title cut. 🎼🎹🎼


Literature. John Steinbeck books: “Of Mice and Men” 1937, his 7th book, and “The Grapes of Wrath” (1939), 10th book. All Steinbeck books are, of course, recommended reading but these two are my most favorites. 



       For me, John Steinbeck, who died at age 66 in 1968, is the best narrator of economic hardship. Devoid of exaggerated dramatics, almost journalistic. The universal themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to everyday people are central in Steinbeck’s work, which pulled me deeper since at the time of my reading/s, it was the years of my so-called awakening to sociopolitical realities back home in the Philippines, during dictatorship. 

       The novella “Of Mice and Men” narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression. “The Grapes of Wrath” is also set during the Depression, this time the story focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. 

       Both books draw from John’s own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager in the 1910s. The title “Of Mice and Men” is taken from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse,” which reads: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Many of Steinbeck's works are required reading in American high schools. Should be. 📚✍️📚


Tuesday, December 19, 2023

RECOMMENDED. <>Music. “Led Zeppelin IV” by Led Zeppelin. <>Non-fiction book. “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.”

Music. “Led Zeppelin IV” by Led Zeppelin, 1971. The album is notable for featuring "Stairway to Heaven,” which has been described as the band's signature song. This is also one of first LPs that I ever owned, purchased via my weekly pay as printing press circulation help in my grade school years. And, of course, “Stairway…” is simply a part of this rock classic album. You say you are a rock fanatic but don’t own this, you ain’t. 



       “IV” is a perfect follow-up to the previous album “Led Zeppelin III,” which wasn’t so good, if you ask me and other critics. Also, Led Zep’s musicality and lyricism considerably matured on “IV.” They also added new individual sound character via invites to vocalist Sandy Denny on "The Battle of Evermore" and pianist Ian Stewart on "Rock and Roll.” And you wouldn’t miss the New Orleans blues/soul shimmer of "When the Levee Breaks,” a hard rock re-interpretation of the Memphis Minnie blues standard. 

       Almost all the cuts here are undying rock `n roll gems: Add "Black Dog,” "Misty Mountain Hop,” “Four Sticks," and "Going to California.” Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham had it all covered: Heavy metal, folk, pure rock `n roll, and blues. 🎼🎹🎼


Non-fiction book. “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China,” a 2011 biography about Deng Xiaoping written by Ezra Vogel. Deng Xiaoping (1904 – 1997), a revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Deng gradually rose to supreme power and led China through a series of far-reaching market-economy reforms earning him the reputation as the "Architect of Modern China.” 



       I can safely state that Deng Xiaoping laid down the blueprint of China’s trade expansionism in shrewd, quiet effectivity as 21st century marched in. He ushered the economic shuddering of geopolitical power that was dominated by the West for many centuries. 

       I have read three other fine books on Deng: “Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic” by Maurice Meisner; “A Village with My Name: A Family History of China's Opening to the World” by Scott Tong; and “The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State” by Elizabeth C. Economy. But Mr Vogel’s book is the most concised and detailed and well-grounded, research-wise. 

       However, surely, the book didn’t escape criticism. From John Pomfret of The Washington Post: “Ezra Vogel clearly believes that Deng — known in the West mostly for engineering the slaughter of protesters in the streets near Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 — has been wronged by history. His tome is an attempt to redress the balance." Perry Anderson of the London Review of Books called it “an exercise in unabashed adulation" in which "anything in Deng’s career that might seriously mar the general encomium is sponged away."

       As for you, I recommend this book to understand China better beyond the usual demonization simply because we are bereft of knowledge of the giant nation’s leadership, culture, and economic persona. Whether you agree with what you read, or not. I learn a lot from insight, opinion, analyses, and data that I disagree with. 📚✍️📚


Saturday, November 25, 2023

RECOMMENDED. <>Movie: “Dog Day Afternoon.” <>Book/Poetry. “Federico Garcia Lorca: The Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition.”

“Dog Day Afternoon,” a 1975 biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, and stars Al Pacino. This is more dark comedy than crime drama though. Based on the Life magazine article "The Boys in the Bank" by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore, the movie chronicles the 1972 failed robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn. 



       As Sonny Wortzik (based on John Wojtowicz), this is Al Pacino’s best performance, regardless of 1992’s “Scent of a Woman.” And “Dog Day…” has the best dialogues ever. Example: Sonny: “Is there any special country you wanna go to?” / Sal (John Cazale): “Wyoming.” / Sonny: “Sal, Wyoming's not a country.” 

       Plus, of course, Sonny yelling “Attica! Attica! Attica!” in reference to the Attica (upstate New York) Prison Riot in 1971. The rebellion resulted in the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States prison uprisings, 43 fatalities. The tragic event has been described as a historical event in prisoners' rights movement.

       In 2009, “Dog Day Afternoon” was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. There’s no dull moment in the movie. Everybody’s having fun. And Chris Sarandon delivered the most compelling gay character internalization ever. Less talk, less screen-time but “loud.” 

       Weekend fun movie watch with friends? “Dog Day Afternoon” is very much recommended. “Attica! Attica! Attica!” 🎬🎭🎬


Book/Poetry. “Federico Garcia Lorca: The Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition.” An ambitious collection across many years of the poetic works of the Spanish poet. Senor Lorca or Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (1898 – 1936) achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting mostly of poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature.



       Definitely and absolutely, Lorca is the most powerful influence in my poetry. Beyond his “Cogida and Death” and “Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias” or “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias,” his works are virtual jewels: “Ballad of the Moon,” “Before the Dawn,” “City That Does Not Sleep,” “Death of Antoñito El Camborio.” You may want to read the original Spanish versions and read them aloud, for pleasure of the musicality of words. Especially the gacelas and casidas from “Divan del Tamarit,” 1936. 

       In case you’d venture to dig up more of Lorca’s work, start with 1928’s “Romancero gitano,” depicting life in his native Andalusia. My most favorite, and which I can easily relate in re my life in New York City and America per se, is “Poeta en Nueva York,” 1942.

     Federico García Lorca was assassinated by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). 📚✍️📚


Monday, November 13, 2023

RECOMMENDED. <>Literature/illustrated history. Works by Rius or Eduardo Humberto del Río García. <>Music. “Music from Big Pink” by the Band.

Literature/illustrated history. Works by Eduardo Humberto del Río García a.k.a. Rius: Economics for Dummies, Philosophy for Beginners: From Plato up to a Little While Ago, Marx for Beginners, About Che Guevara, Cuba for Beginners etc etcetera. Also, another on Kama Sutra (ha!) “Kama Nostra.” 



       Before there was ever a “Chicken Soup…” by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, or “…for Dummies” by Dan Gookin, there was already Rius for Beginners. But, of course, you may argue timelines. As for me, I discovered Rius in 1970s; Chicken Soup/Dummies in the 1990s. 

       Born in 1934 (he passed away in 2017, age 83), Mexican native Rius was born in Zamora, Michoacán. Definitely, he is one of the most popular Mexican cartoonists; I rate him among the top 5 best political cartoonists, all-time. Name some: Martin Rowson, Thomas Nast, Homer Davenport, Charles Werner, Signe Wilkinson, Clint C. Wilson, Sr., Matt Wuerker, and so on and so forth. Rius is a marquee dude.

       His work is easy and accessible, even a 5th grader can navigate the political themes. And the drawings are humorous, witty, and detailed. Reading Marx, Plato, or Che Guevara seemed like “Calvin & Hobbes.” And more. 📚✍️📚


Music. “Music from Big Pink,” the debut studio album by the Band, released in 1968. The Band is my band, a fusion of genres that’s entirely their own: Country, rock, folk, Americana, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. Along with the obligatory guitars, drums, and keyboards, add fiddle, organ, accordion, saxophone, mandolin etc etcetera. 



       My dudes: Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Levon Helm. Music that feels easy as moonshine in a barn with the street feel of Bleecker Street, bayou grit of Muscle Shoals, and sweet decadence of the French Quarter. 

       Though the album was recorded in studios in New York City and Los Angeles, as inferred, the songs were composed partly in "Big Pink," a house shared by Rick, Richard, and Garth in West Saugerties, upstate New York. This LP came after the band backed Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour. The relationship eventually produced the collaboration “The Basement Tapes,” released much later in 1975.

        What makes “Music from Big Pink” enthralling? The organic quality of the instrumentation, means no overdubbing. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice puts it so succinctly: “Country-soul feeling without imitating it…" and "…human roughness around the edges” although he altogether found the album boring. Could be in some ways. But The Band’s music requires (re)listening as we tend to with good-stuff literature. We flow into it. Other took note the absence or lack of energy, but what “energy” were they looking for? The Band isn’t Led Zeppelin, certainly. Need I explain?

       There have been several “reissues” of the album, remastered gold CD, DVD-audio etcetera with bonus tracks. I don’t pay attention to those marketing-savvy peripherals. I own the original vinyl. My most favorite cuts: "This Wheel's on Fire," “Long Black Veil,” "Tears of Rage," and of course, “The Weight.” The a-capella of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released" is a no-brainer. 🎼🎹🎼