It really isn’t over! (the Great Book Blockade… again!)

blockJust got back from the post office. Apparently, the rumors that have been swirling around for some months now are true — they’re taxing books again. The Great Book Blockade is truly not over!

I haven’t been to the post office in a while so my parcels had piled up this week– I had fourteen packages waiting for me. I had no problems with the other parcels, but as the customs official was going through the packages, they found one with a declared value of $60.

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What I’ve been busy with

You’ve probably been wondering about the sporadic posting for the past couple of weeks… Well, on top of other things going crazy as the holidays draw nearer, I’ve been busy working on a piece for a special group exhibit with the most awesome illustrators ever!

Lookee —  it’s Blowing Boxes!

boxes
Blowing Boxes, til Dec 29 at 1/of Gallery, 2/F Shops at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Gallery hours: Mon- Sat 1-9pm

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El Indio

el_indio_coverimage

If you’ve been a regular visitor to this site, you’ve probably noticed I’ve been slowly acquiring the taste for graphic novels, as more and more of them seem to be making their way to my shelves.

Last week I had the chance to read Francisco V. Coching’s El Indio, a action adventure “komiks” (local comics) series first published in Pilipino Komiks back in the ’50s, which is said to be the golden age of Philippine comics, which flourished until the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines.

Francisco V. Coching dominated this era of comics, hailed by general consensus as the Philippines’ greatest komiks illustrator, with 61 komiks novels, all but 10 of which were turned into popular films. El Indio is one of Coching’s most popular works, the sequel to the komiks “Sabas, Ang Barbaro.”

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Bah, Humbug!

christmascarol

I saw the Christmas Carol movie this weekend, and I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand the animation was amazing! Five years has certainly done wonders for 3D performance capture — compared to Zemeckis’ 2004 Polar Express, Christmas Carol looks phenomenal! The musical score (especially Bocelli’s God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) was hauntingly beautiful too.

I’m glad Disney didn’t “cutesify” this movie, but for a holiday flick, it didn’t do much for my holiday spirit, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come  terrified quite a few kids in the audience — a bunch of parents had to take their kids out of the theater because they started screaming and bawling. I think the film lacked the warmth and goodwill that the classic story evoked.

Anyway, this post isn’t the start of my Christmas posts, but it is related to A Christmas Carol.

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More Po-Mo picture books (Picture book roundup 10)

Wolves

I’ve been fascinated with postmodern picture books ever since I took a course in children’s books back in college. Since then I’ve been building up my collection of po-mo picture books, and I’ve now got over 20 of them, mostly from rummaging through bargain bins.

I love how po-mo picture books challenge the reader to look at things in a different way, offering an enjoyable experience to both the young reader, the parent reading to the child, and even an older reader randomly picking up the book and flicking through the pages.

The multiplicity of meanings also encourages creativity and imagination in constructing the meaning of the text or illustrations, as well as the interest to reread a book.

I also marvel at the writers and illustrators’ creativity in taking the craft of picture books one step further,  defying convention and structure

I have several books in this picture book roundup: The Story of a Little Mouse Trapped in a Book by Monique Felix; Wolves by Emily Gravett; Zoom and Re-Zoom by Istvan Banyai; Bamboozled by David Legge; and Pinocchio the Boy, or Incognito in Collodi by Lane Smith (books 175-180 for 2009).

(In case you missed it, I previously discussed the characteristics of po-mo picture books in the post I did on The Three Little Pigs.)

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