Inbetweendays

bcd / mnl

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"Umiiyak Na Nga, Pinaghugas Pa Ng Pinggan"

This drawing went viral among graphic artists and illustrators a few days ago. The story here is that the artist was surprised to find that his unfinished pencil sketch of a crying lady was vandalized with text by someone in the household.

It's hilarious. And sad. And it made me think about how a lot of people still regard acts of creativity in the country (or the world) as things of lesser importance compared to... well, doing the dishes. Look, clean plates are important, I get it, auntie... but no one's lining up for a Masterclass In Plate-Cleaning in The 21st Century*.

It's a reminder that there are always barriers to creativity that we need to crush or get around (like economics, pressure, self-doubt, or family). That we should appreciate the people who allow creativity to thrive, and that by being part of this community of doers and makers we have to continuously fight for our value.

Anyway, I got in touch with the artist and bought it. That's my hand holding it on the right. It's my reminder to always finish house chores and hide all artworks and red pens, away from da haterz. Am I making sense here? I don't know, I took various amounts of Sinutab, Bioflu, and Robitussin for 2 days now.

Keep drawing Bert, and for the love of your crying ladies in the future, please wash the dishes this time.

*there should be one, btw. Maybe i'll make it for a dishwashing soap brand

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sacada wins gintong aklat awards for book design and literature in filipino*

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i. first of all, this honor wouldn’t be possible without nida ramirez and the amazing people at Visprint Inc.

there would be no sacada, no lord pls, alas, dumot, and girl trouble without the visprint pasay posse, and these trophies are a celebration of our 11 year relationship together. 11 years of printing thought vomit into paper. 11 years of working with them to have people flip through angst-ridden tirades about heartbreak, office culture, existentialism, selling out, and faith

salamat

ii. in a world that feeds itself to us in continuously accelerating speeds too fast for the human brain to comprehend, these 2 heavy pieces of wood are for those who believe in committing to the printed image and letter: establishments like visprint, my friends and colleagues who helped make sacada, all its readers, other writers, designers, illustrators, and everyone else in the relentless pursuit of creative expression and greater human understanding

iii. sacada is about living with the idea of selling out. it reveals how i feel about submitting to a system that commoditises our selves, our thoughts, skills, and words because we need to pay for things that cost more than how we feel, more than what we stand for. i hope that the book’s recognition helps people realize that everything we do has value, and even though there are forces that may say otherwise, it falls on our hands to fight for our worth: the makers of the world

thank you — *look it says "literature in filipino", not "grammar in filipino", okay. so don't go waving filipino dictionaries at me when i make mistakes spewing and squawking in tagalog

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the dark place

there is a dark place we all go to. some of us keep it at bay, some work with it, some of us stay too long and get consumed by it. but it is there. i tend to go there once in awhile. if we find each other there, just say hi. let’s talk. maybe have a drink and a laugh. then let’s walk each other out together

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all i really wanted to do was take a photo of Lord Pls along with all my other books for record purposes. what i got was a sudden realization: it’s already been ten years since Visprint put out Girl Trouble. That was in 2007. Dumot was released in 2011, Ang Panlimang Alas Ay Nakabaon sa Iyong Dibdib in 2012, Sacada in 2016, and Lord Pls just a few days ago ten years. that’s a long time. that’s like a dog’s entire life. an angry, neurotic, emo dog with amazing taste in music and in the opposite sex, cursing at its own reflection ten years of ranting and railing about heartbreak, corporate slavery, existential panic, selling out, and the curse of belief, hoping to make sense of what’s inside my head by putting it on paper the truth is that i treat writing as a kind of exorcism through stream of consciousness written as life happens. the more i write about something, the easier it is for me to contain my own issues and concerns. from abstract visions of panic and rage they become tangible objects i can understand, accept, laugh at, and destroy. it is a very selfish form of expression, which i feel explains the low-key but supportive readership that has managed to surround the books after all these years i don’t write these books to make money (but i would gladly take it so i can write more, thank you), i write to save myself from myself. so to have people interested in what i do, to have strangers and friends support what i do after all this time is a real blessing and i’m really grateful for that so this is me thanking nadia, nida, kyra, the visprint family, peque, angelo, vince, budjette, my usls hs nerd gang, the pink dragons, the bacolod art community, friends in commercial production, tv prod, and advertising thank you to the readers who tell me how the books have somehow helped them, the readers who keep messaging me random dark shit during different times of day, the readers who keep asking me hyper-intelligent literature-related questions which i can never answer, the strange kids from UP who i keep hearing about but never see, and the readers who couldn’t understand or like the books but at least paid for them. salamat gid sa inyo tanan thank you for accepting my world into your heads, and see you on the page alone but never on our own, alan

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some cigarette warnings to smoke up for the new year

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i’m calling these SACADA shorts, hence the logo :D

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"Are you Filipino?"

I asked the cab driver, to which he replied "no". Nine years in the Philippines. Filipino wife, 3 kids. I then said, "My country's in a weird mess right now."

"No, no. Is beautiful country. Beautiful people."

Interesting. I wanted to know where he was from.

"Syria. So, you see..."

I did. I apologized for bringing it up. As we passed through the Bronx side of Makati, I looked at the rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of the hope in his eyes.

"Is okay. God has plan."

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— everything comes with a price, especially the things we keep saying money can’t buy —

just wanted to talk about some design elements of SACADA. it’s supposed to be a catalog, so an “item” here is a phrase and it’s priced at php 28

the icons on the side add more detail about the item. the “bust” icon means the item is totally about someone the writer knows in real life. the “trident comb” means item can hurt and/or make you look good. the “pyramid eye” means god had his hand in the matter. and the icon shaped like male genitalia means that the item was the result of an activity with a copulative nature…

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like this sort of stuff? please get SACADA from LAZADA here: http://bit.ly/29sSvxn or at Fully Booked

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funniest two words in the book

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when will it stop, whimpered i when will you begin, whispered the night