Love Speaks Its Name

Random no. between 1 & 256, page 26 of Love Speaks Its Name: Gay and Lesbian Love Poems features "Sonnet" by Richard Barnfield - one of 25 poems under the theme chapter "Longing". #goliwaliwph #june2018 #pages #lgbtpride pic.twitter.com/thZNRKBfOH

— glenncruz (@glenncruz) June 13, 2018

Random number between 1 and 256, page 26 of Love Speaks Its Name: Gay and Lesbian Love Poems, part of the series of Everyman's Library Pocket Poets (Alfred A. Knopf, publisher), features "Sonnet" by Richard Barnfield - one of 25 poems under the theme chapter "Longing".

In the Foreword, by the book's editor J.D. McClatchy (page 15):

Our lesbian and gay poets have been forced to learn love's harshest lessons the better to understand its sweetest instructions. They know more about what is disallowed in the pursuit of happiness, more about the false leads and wrong turns of passion, more about the emergencies of a double life, more about love's secret passages, its private mythologies, its defiant pride, its beguiling joy. 

This month on liwaliw Pages, I pre-selected titles from my personal library for the observance of LGBT Pride. Love wins.


[This posting is antedated: 20180614]

Doo-wop all night long

Tag that friend 😂👇 Credit: @merguezstudio #hotvocals #dance #funny

A post shared by Singing & Inspirational Videos (@hotvocals) on May 30, 2018 at 1:02pm PDT

I have other stuff I wanted to post, but since discovering this on Instagram last week, I've watched this so many times and I already lost count on how many. My idle thoughts kept being invaded by the infectious doo-wops and hooks and adorable dance. (Found on the comments thread that they were wearing what was called Jojo's Jammies. Ugh! This may be #fakenews) By sharing this, I also hope to exorcise it from my system.

It wasn't hard to Google search the accompanying music, strangely. The song "Katchi," an Ofenbach vs. Nick Waterhouse single, is even on Wikipedia, and the official music video on Youtube. Couldn't find a verifiable claim to the meaning of katchi, though.

Latepost: Politicked

Second of 8 in my exhibits marathon at #bulwaganngdangal #updiliman #quezoncity: #kahayupansadangal by @chonggoart #2018gac05

A post shared by Glenn Cruz (@glenncruz_ph) on May 25, 2018 at 8:01pm PDT

Dateline: 25 May 2018, UP Diliman, Quezon City

Second of eight exhibit visits I did in the University of the Philippines; this one fitting to be right next to Toym Imao's ML/Marcos Era critique. The lengthy title of the MFA exhibit of associate professor Jose Santos P. Ardivilla offers a succinct summary: Kahayupan: A Bestiary of Political Animals as Visual Encapsulations in Large-Scale Political Cartoons that Represent the Administrations, Institutions that Enable Corruption and Impunity in the Philippines from 1978 to the Present at the Bulwagan ng Dangal, Gonzalez Hall, UP Diliman in Quezon City. The artist introduced the exhibit: "Politics is a beastly thing. Political cartooning is either trying to pet or poke the animals."

A carousel of seven deadly sins, the politics of the day is characterized as wrath, evidenced by a quote from a Philippine Star headliner "Duterte: Shoot suspects who fight back, make them fight if they don't" *shudder*


[This post is ante-dated: 20180611]

Latepost: Perfumed ML nightmare

Did an exhibits marathon at #updiliman in #quezoncity yesterday. This was first of 8, Super Robot + Suffer Reboot by @toymimao at #bulwaganngdangal #2018gac05

A post shared by Glenn Cruz (@glenncruz_ph) on May 25, 2018 at 7:54pm PDT

Dateline: 26 May 2018, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Birthday leave, took a day off from work. Decided to spend it on a marathon visit to exhibits in UP Diliman: Bulwagan ng Dangal, Vargas Museum, and the College of Fine Arts. Wanted to visit UP Press bookstore too.

First of eight exhibitions was Super Robot + Suffer Reboot by Toym Imao at the Bulwagan ng Dangal, or part of the basement of Gonzalez Hall (more commonly known as UP Main Library) with entrance access separate from the Library. The entrance used to be a tambayan in my time (UP Mountaineers, I think).

Many references to childhood - Voltes V, Mazinger Z, Daimos, and of course, Marcosian and Martial Law histories. The accurate versions, or before this social media onslaught of revisionism. Full of color, lighting effects and symbolism, the exhibit is both fanciful and disquieting. It's worth hours of experiencing and repeated visits.

Toym Imao, in introducing this exhibit, explained: "This was my childhood, old school, analog filled with fictional super robots and real life heroes fighting the bad guys and villains in all of its incarnations and manifestations."


[This post is ante-dated, 20180611]

June slides in

The goodest boy of them ALL!💍😍🐾 📹:@summit_the_golden_retriever

A post shared by Insta Puppies (@lnstagrampuppy) on May 29, 2018 at 6:23am PDT

May crawled out with almost no energy left. When I was working in HIV and AIDS, May was understandably hectic because of all the organizing the goes into the observance of the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial. I am no longer working in the HIV program, and still May proved to be a very hectic month. June slid in unceremoniously.

Still, a welcome is in proper order for the month that for me meant return to schooling, commemoration of Philippine independence, and the LGBT Pride.

June is also traditionally the month of brides. Not sure when or how this came to be, but some of the  popular but largely unverified claims and explanations were summarized by these librarians. Filipinos though, according to the national statistics authority, prefer to marry in the months of February, April and May. So here's a matrimonial woofy cuteness for you all.