Visiting Iceland

I'm going to riff off The Alchemist

2009-01-27T21:51:10Z

yes, that book about Personal Destiny with a forced come-full-circle plot.

Sometimes I'm afraid I don't hear things anymore. I'm afraid the universe is trying to tell me something, I'm afraid the universe is trying to tell me something but I shut it out because

Poetry is not going to get me anywhere. I suppose that was never to point, getting anywhere, somewhere, whatever. I suppose I simply have no time for something that doesn't "get me..."

Manila feels like underpasses where the bus horns and carhorns and engines all echo against each other and cancel each other out some kind of phase effect and certain frequencies attenuate I don't even know what attenuate means anyway it's not really silence rather a half-sound I imagine being inside a car with the radio turned up woofers rumbling and some kid with sampaguitas is gonna grease the windshield with her palms

Wait wala namang mga batang kalye sa mga underpass ay meron 'ata ay wait kaya nga "imagine" eh

As if naman kinakausap talaga ako ng universe. Ano ulit 'yung universe sa Tagalog?

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

2008-10-28T13:20:43Z

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

The allusion to Christ was done so smoothly I didn't notice 'til like the third reading. Wait, no, it's just me being dense. Anyway when I did notice it I got turned off for one second then decided to just let it go. Verdict: I still love this poem.

I have almost 20 poems,

2008-10-27T19:43:32Z

over half of which y'all have never seen.

Massive workshopping is in order when I get home, and I would like us to all exchange drafts please yes?

Must... have... beer while we're at it.

(By the way, my previous blog entry is NOT an indicator of the kind of work I've been preoccupied with.)

Si Mike may kopya pala, at si Xenia may onti. That's basically it. Anyway let's workshop at least once. I miss doing that.

A Kind of Beauty

2008-10-27T14:50:08Z

I.
Many love poems have been written in relation to laws of science
because science seems unchallengeable: in geometry it is the eternal
space between parallel lines, in physics the problematics of bodies
actually ever touching each other, on a molecular level—
these are often sad poems.

There are also somewhat happier poems written around
the certainty of reaction, which in itself—physics-wise—is almost
spiritual, karmic. I was once told by a physics major
that silence does not exist, that all molecules vibrate with echoes
of the first sound ever created, therefore each time I say your name
it is infinite.

II.
In chemistry, electrons exist in clouds and can never be located
in a single place at any given time—that's one theory—
yet, concerning reactions, there are signs that change has occurred;
that out of "destruction", a new substance has formed. The outcome

is often tangible: paper has become ash, juice has aged into wine
and in the latter case, there is a kind of beauty
in arriving at a certain sweetness or dryness
and then in detail being able to explicate such a process,
even repeating it.

I have high IQ supposedly

2008-10-26T22:25:38Z

My professor asked me why someone with an IQ such as mine is doing shitty in class. I mean, attendance-wise and assignment-wise.

I told him it's because I'm afraid of success and the commitment success entails.

Now, is that bullshit or what?

What I noticed about people who have psychological problems, such as in one anger management class I saw on TV, is that they're usually more eloquent than the usual person. Which is perplexing, given the fact that psychological problems relating to controlling one's emotions should perhaps entail low intellect? Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks this phenomenon is counter-intuitive.

And, I don't have anger management problems. I have time management problems. Management. So the example was not valid I suppose, and there's no conclusion therefore.

I wish I could be successful without having the feeling that I'm just copying someone else or doing it for someone else or living someone else's life, basically.

Oh well, I'm too old for this. But I miss being vulnerable without being judged/appraised. I haven't felt that in a long time, just being able to let my hair down, roll my socks off, and say "I suck" without anyone having to pity, condescend, encourage, or say/do anything at all.

I suck.

Hello

2008-10-22T22:15:17Z

I really only signed up for LJ so I could still be in the loop with you, my friends. I really have nothing to say except that I'll be in Manila from December 10 - February 21.

See you then!

Notes on Fruity Loops: Timbre, part 1

2008-08-10T00:48:05Z

What first overwhelmed me as I began learning how to make music on my computer was the vast and perhaps infinite potential for timbre. It was like being given a box of 128 colour Crayolas--I was already happy with 16! What am I ever going to do with Perriwinkle?

(More on the palette metaphor later--I also plan to write about the democratisation of music via synthesisers, the synthesiser as an instrument in its own right, waveforms and how to manipulate them... Lots!)

As I began exploring the different samples and presets, I discovered that most sounds can be classified under basic groups, which I think are like templates. Of course these are all constructs and can vary between cultures, but in terms of the music I know, which is mostly Western, I've noticed synthesised sounds fall under general categories (this is a classification based on personal observation more than anything else) like the following: string (bow), string (plucked), brass, keys, wind, accordion, percussion [kick, snare, hat, bell (metallic), xylophone (wood)]...

Of course, all you need to do is look at the buttons on a Casio toy keyboard to figure this out. Synthesisers are named such because obviously, they uhh synthesise instruments that already exist (this was the original intention, at least), so it goes without saying that sounds are grouped in electronica as they are in non-electronic music.

I should mention that instruments are classified by how they produce sound and not necessarily by the timbre of the sound they produce, but it mostly follows that sounds produced in similar ways are likely to sound similar. In electronica of course, "instruments" are really just patches of synthesised sounds (re)produced by a machine (usually just one or two main machines, as all the other gadgets are just input devices).

But the amazing thing about actually making this kind of music and (more importantly) having the tools needed to manipulate these basic templates is that over time, when listening to electronic music, one can--with practice--be able to pinpoint what template a musician used to create a particular sound, and how the template was manipulated to make it sound the way it does (it's almost unrecognisable at first).

Being a late bloomer into music appreciation (took me a while to figure out that there was more to music than the Backstreet Boys, plus I struggled with classical piano for so many years), it took me some time to figure out what a bass guitar was, or the differences between nylon, steel, and electric guitars, or the difference between a wurly and a hammond (I'm still not sure which is which actually LOL), or the difference between a saxophone and a trumpet.

I've realised that it's the same with electronic music as well. No matter how removed it initially sounds from "live music" (liveness is a debatable term but for purposes of this writing I hope you understand what I mean), electronic music for the most part can be broken down into elements based on live music. After all, it's based on the concept of synthesising.

NEW MUSIC ON MULTIPLY

2008-07-19T22:58:18Z

Yehey. I made it all on my computer. I'd like to call it "electronic" but really, I'm still stuck in the "band mentality". I've yet to move to that next level where I replace stuff like hi hats, cymbals, snares, n kick with bleeps, white noise, n other shit. Then there's a whole higher paradigm shift which is sort of like I guess post-structuralism in literary terms or like anxiety and self-irony and all that.

But yeah it's http://migidebelen.multiply.com/music/item/11/Nights_of_Rizal I will create a myspace account soon and I do realise that puns are tacky but what the heck. I'm doing a split CD with my Malaysian friend Adam K http://www.myspace.com/pujanggasaturn. Ahhh netshop closing

I'm OK Computer

2008-07-16T14:29:49Z

Yup! No sarcasm! No internet though... Incommunicado for a month. None at home either. So, I'm oke

Meme from Gab (let's reinforce the canon, shall we?)

2008-06-27T00:35:39Z

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

***

Astig talaga dystopia. Total: 12. For a once-CL major, that's a fucking tragedy. (I intend to read 19.)

I am ashamed of my sadness

2008-06-26T17:35:06Z

My first pet bird, a lovebird (budgee?), died a year after I bought it. I was 10 years old. I don't remember where we buried it but I was crying. The maid left it outside, where we hang up our laundry, for an afternoon of fresh air. A cat reached into the cage and killed it, I remember how the top of my pet bird's skull (his name was Boo Boo) was all featherless and bloodied. For many years I would hunt cats in our neighborhood with a BB gun, I would never have the capacity to slay any. My cousin though used a .22 calibre rifle, a foldable one that when disassembled fits neatly into its own rifle butt, becoming the size and weight of maybe two Mary Grace fruitcakes. Yes, the ones people give each other at Christmas when they can't think of anything else to give. The rifle also floats on water in its disassembled state, and that adds to its utility. I should've killed those cats.

Being a Filipino in London,

2008-06-23T03:05:56Z

I want to say that after showering, I wipe the fog from the bathroom mirror with my palms, out of a newly-formed habit. I want to say that my skin is so dry all the time that it now cracks at the folds painlessly. But these are not things I can talk about with other Filipinos here.

The practical thing is to distance myself from their grief, among other things. Pass myself off as Malaysian if need be. Especially in winter, I make an effort to work up a sweat on a treadmill that displays, digitally, how far I've been running.

So I put on earphones to drown out the noise from the other treadmills, turning up the music as I do when I'm on the streets, on the train on my way to work, and on the train on my way home; as others do. I can't hear myself breathing, but I can feel my sweat.

And not sweating can lead to diabetes—I must be thankful for this advice and am, actually, by following it. Stay away, they also say, never trust our fellow Filipinos. They say, nakakailang: the word itself resisting translation, inviting silence.

Revision # 1

2008-06-22T03:41:45Z

Logos, City

To mean city is to say
there is middlegrounding distance or discrepancies
or to say, even, that there is distance, therefore a point B,

to mean city is to say a street
is the dragging pilgrimage to elsewhere,
to say a street is the pockmarked face of a god
or what scars the face of Earth,

to say a street is a pocketful madly possessed
by thugs and policemen, to say a street once rose up,
red and sacred and raging with rebellion,

to say a street rises like the smell of piss,
to say a street is a darkening memory, a drugged pair of eyes,
the smugness of green light and glisten of spit soaking sidewalks,
is automatic shuffle of feet, crowding claustrophobia, an enormous grey mall,

to say a street laden bright with billboards is suicide,
towering, glaring, inevitable suicide,
a graveyardful of flattened cats,

to say a street is the mounting blare of horns
the crashing tsunami of cars and jeeps and buses and trucks,
to say a street is a winding trail
of guts, burning stomachs, a blind guitar
and beggars always begging for change, or glint of a tear,

a street rainwet reflects a row of dying lampposts
and tangled with shadows is a shadow, what leads stumbling lovers
to each other under one umbrella, waiting for a bus,
a street is a length of neon sex. To mean city

is to say a street is a black asphalt sky, strewn with glassbit stars,
a street emptying itself into itself is emptiness, to say a street is anything
but a street, leading to other streets that lead to other streets.

Some thoughts on desire & Why I need to get a 2nd job

2008-06-22T00:33:51Z

Capitalism offers a historically enhanced version of Plato's notion of 'person' as half a sphere. In this version, the desire of the 'person' for unity of being is routed away from the affective sphere and into the economic sphere.

--Jordan, Andrew. "Formulary for a New Globalism". 10th Muse, Issue 11, 2001 http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=14525

I probably seem naive for picking this quote out, indeed this is a notion that doesn't seem new at all. I just like the way it was said. I've always been interested in themes of the city (which I now realise seems to be the epitome of capitalism), and to an extent, desire, which, before meeting Quill and Camsy, to me was not really something I associated with theorising (I didn't even know what theorising was...)

I really like the phrase "heart of the city" even if it's tacky. I miss Manila. And I write about London always with Manila in my heart (yes, I'm overusing the word "heart"). Kind of like what Marco Polo in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (possible spoiler with the url?) did for Venice. Not to say that I'm as good a writer or even comparable, but I never approached the novel in this light. Now I understand why there is always a woman figuring in Marco Polo's (Calvino's) cities.

I guess like memory, and perhaps every other abstraction, desire can only be apprehended in spatial terms. And, space, through the ideology of the ownership of land, is staked with economic/capitalistic notions.

Sorry for the pun, and the overgeneralising.

PS
Even though I mentioned in the past that Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse seems to have interesting applications in songwriting, I can't seem to pick it up or even look at the cover. I also bought this novel by (apparently, philosopher) Georges Bataille "The Blue Hour" because on the back it says he "intellectualises the erotic, and eroticises the intellect", and I'm bored out of my mind stuck somewhere in Chapter 3.

I don't want to sound like I'm namedropping and I'm sorry if I do.

...the 'self' becomes more fractured as the individual attempts to achieve 'wholeness'.

The mysteries obscured are now the mysteries of economics rather than the mysteries of Lord and Lady, but the function is the same; to make the unequal distribution of power seem natural, so the powerless, or less powerful, accept it.

Gravity

2008-06-17T03:31:59Z

Let the falling out begin.

Choices

2008-06-14T03:31:35Z

Blame sucks. Basta, tama na. Enough. Siyempre sarcastic tayo 'til the very end.

Changes must be made

2008-06-06T13:00:14Z

1. Stop wallowing in mistakes. They're done. How to fix?

2. Stop making mistakes.

3. Don't blame yourself for things you don't understand. (When you understand, then you blame yourself.)

4. Devote more time to reading news. You are, after all, a Journalism & Broadcasting major.

5. Watch more documentaries.

5. Finish reading the books that you've bought so you can send them home to your friends. (Any takers?)

6. Edit your resume and make it decent (e.g. don't forget to put your birthdate!)

7. Go to fucking Camden and look for a job for a day. If unsuccessful, it's McJob time.

8. Make more lists, they're actually useful.

I've downloaded Bjork and Radiohead discographies, in 256kbps and 320kbps quality respectively

2008-06-04T11:17:47Z

I want to make something grand. I want an orchestra of giants with cellos the size of skyscrapers, I want bleeps and clinks that pan out like constellations in the summer, I want bass that sounds like the part of the ocean that sunlight doesn't reach. I want paranoia and despair and that feeling where I have to sing and/or write to save my own life. (Or someone else's.)

See? So self-centered again. Why does the word "drama" have the connotation that it's something self-centered?

If this is despair, it feels kinda stupid.

What's wrong with me? Is this self-pity? I'd like to think it's a noble quest for self-actualisation (and consequently world peace?), I'd like to think that this is a good thing, this striving, this restlessness. Mostly I come off as ungrateful and hedonistic, especially to myself.

After us, the deluge.

Perfect by SP (Simple Plan, not Smashing Pumpkins)

2008-05-14T04:18:51Z

In many ways, I judge the value of friends by how vulnerable I can be with them. And I just figured out why.

My whole life has been about putting up a front for my parents, for believing them too much when they believe in me and think I'm so smart and great and perfect and all. Siguro that affects all my relationships, that conflict of idealised VS actual self.

I suppose it's only now that I finally have the guts to question my parents' sanity, and to blame them (not fully, though) for leading me to think I'm something I'm not. I'm not brimming with potential, I'm not "just confused". I'm tired of proving things to people because "I can", tired of doing things just because "I'm capable naman eh, so why not, sayang naman 'yung skills ko if I don't." Until now actually napapa-"What's wrong with that?" ako eh.

I give up. The funny thing is, this is about me bringing shame to them more than it is about me not believing in myself per se.

Okay so after all this emo shit wala pala akong plan of action, "I give up" is an abstraction. Okay let's brood and wallow. May luxury naman ako to do that eh, mayaman kami, I can afford to have angst like this.

Xenia Clawy

2008-05-13T01:48:08Z

Tagged by: xenia_chloe

Tagging: adiohead, amphoterism, caramel_pixie, el_pomstar, little_noun, maragtas, monsterofthesea, timespacewarp

[X] People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blog. Tag 8 people. Those who are tagged cannot refuse.

[X] These 8 people must state who they were tagged by. You cannot tag the person who tagged you. Continue this game by sending this to 8 other people.

1. What are you worried about?
I feel like a character from the movie Final Destination, sans urgency.

2. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
If I said yes that would be an acknowledgement, so would I be any less confused?

3. Is there anything that made you unhappy recently?
I'm sensitive to weather changes.

4. What did you last cry over?
I don't have that capacity.

5. Have you ever dated someone?
Too many people, I suppose.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
I used to be sure about this.

7. If the person you like doesn't accept you, would you continue to wait for them to change their feelings?
Does choice have anything to do with things like these? (No, this is not a rhetorical question.)

8. If the person you like is secretly attached, what would you do?
Magjajakol ako pretending to be the liked one.

9. What do you want most in life?
To stop wanting. (Uy, dahil lang nabasa sa English 12 ang Bhagavad-Gita, nag-feeling na.)

10. What's the most important thing you look for in a significant other?
If I could put it into words, hindi pala siya significant. Ineffable daw eh. Cool.

11. Have you ever had your heart broken?
It's a process, really, a gerund.

12. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Single, and rich enough to later denounce material things and be all Buddha and shit.

13. Do you like someone right now?
Yes.

14. Do they like you too?
Yes.

15. If you fall in love with 2 persons simultaneously, who would you pick?
Is that even love? Sa bagay, it's not like "falling in love" is love. Therefore, I'd go for both or neither, depending on the circumstances.

16. What type of friends do you like?
Ones that don't pull punches/don't want punches pulled.

17. If you played a prank on someone, and she/he fell for the trick, what would you do?
I'm usually the incredulous one.

18. If you were betrayed by someone, what would you say to that person?
I'd just turn the other cheek kaya.

19. If the person tagging you likes/loves you, what will you do/say?
My dad once answered the phone when Xenia called and said "Migi, it's Chloe daw... Chloe, clawing her way into your heart."

20. What do you think of the person who tagged you?
She needs to free herself from herself.

Somebody tag Birthday Boy ornubs, as I've got my eight tagged already! Dali!

Suicide

2008-05-07T12:20:42Z

Alam ko na kung bakit ako fascinated sa konsepto ng Suicide. I'm not satisfied with my current self, my past self. Ngayon ko lang maaamin sa sarili ko na I'm not as good a person as I've allowed myself to believe. Really, all my subconscious is telling me to do is to Change. Death nga raw is not an end, rather it is a transition.

Nakakatakot kasing magbago, kasi hindi ko alam kung makikilala pa rin ako ng mga kaibigan ko pag-uwi ko, hindi ko rin alam kung makikilala ko pa rin ang sarili ko. Pangalawa, natatakot akong mag-invest sa bagong kaibigan dahil hindi ko rin naman alam kung makikita ko pa rin sila in the future. Natatakot akong mag-invest ng sarili sa London.

Why do I care so much about what people think of me anyway? Kung mawawala kayo, edi mawala kayo. Wala pala kayong kwentang mga kaibigan kung ganu'n. At kung mabitawan ko ang iba sa inyo, wala rin pala akong kwentang kaibigan. At least alam na natin.

Besides, totoo bang the more you change, the less you feel ? Siguro mas angkop para sa sounds ko ang I'm afraid of changing, 'cos I built my life around you. Admittedly hindi naman si Billy Corgan ang nagsulat nung latter. So, I choose not to let the fear take the wheel and steer, ayan, para hindi magselos si Brandon.

Actually, marami na nga ang nagsabi na ang tunay na "kamatayan" ay ang pagiging static. Stasis is unnatural, synthetic, like plastic—nilibing mo na nga't lahat, andu'n pa rin siya after millions of years, walang pinagbago.

*ang kadiri ng death/life stasis/change binaries

Pop Music and Poetry: Some Findings

2008-04-28T04:39:49Z

Disclaimer:
Admittedly, the author needs proper referencing, and examples of both poems and songs to support his claims. Hyperlinks would also be useful.

The Claims:
1.
The pop song form closely resembles the ballad in poetry, notably for both its (sometimes brilliant) use of repetition and for its incomplete yet still discernably narrative structure (admittedly, a deeper understanding of what "narrative" means is still being sought by the author).

Other forms of poetry such as the sestina and villainelle also employ repetition, and perhaps the villainelle would also be comparable to the pop song in that respect. What is important about repetition here is the capacity to add layers of meaning vis-a-vis the temporal element of the art form, and vis-a-vis readers' (or listeners') expectations regarding formal conventions. In pop songs this capacity increases with the presence of a musical element (when musical elements are repeated while lyrical elements change, or vice versa). The changing of one chord or note can have as much impact as the changing of one word depending on the degree or contrast.

1.5
The narrative structure of a pop song is neither linear nor totally non-linear but circular/cyclical: seen in the pop song form of verse-chorus-bridge. Represented graphically, this would be seen as a spiral as opposed to a plateau or wave.

Being cyclical has much to do with the music as with the lyrics, with the use of tension (and its ultimate resolution) through transitions between verses, choruses, and bridges. Tension is easily built up through simple repetition (by simple repetition I mean the repeated use of the exact same words and exact same melodies/chords), although it can be established through other means such as in the musical tendency to always return to the root chord, or to follow an established chord progression or pattern (perhaps this is also repetition, but in a different sense).

2.
With regards to literary movements (particularly in poetry), the culture of pop music most resembles Romantic poetry, as the element of personality or stardom (iconography) in pop is a metatext that is inescapable from the music and lyrics. Of course, poetry never truly exists a vacuum, but in Romantic poetry more than other movements, the aspect of personality is most evident.

(I want to mention Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads and other similar manifestos of the Romantic period just to tie things up, but my arguments are still cluttered right now.)

Reading material:
The Contexts of Poetry by Hazard Adams
Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture by Andrew Goodwin

Desired readings:
(will update this after my next visit to the e-brary which can only be accessed from school)

An aside:
Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse has many applications from a pop perspective.

On the word "meaning": some translations

2008-04-21T13:48:59Z

In Filipino, meaning is "kahulugan", which can be read as how things fall: a slippage, a violent shove, or an act of letting go. Meaning imposes the certainty of gravity, the helplessness.

Meaning can also be translated as "saysay", which, through the word "kasaysayan", connotes history: a looking back, a returning.

The phrase "ibig sabihin", or desired utterance (what is supposed to have been said?) is also commonly used.

Supposedly

2008-04-18T16:06:18Z

Ako: Supposedly 2 years na kami ni Camsy ngayon.

Kaibigan ko: Supposedly congrats!

#tripping

2008-04-06T04:48:58Z

Napapraning ka 'pag gising ka pa rin
pero dahil natutulog na silang lahat,
patay lahat ng ilaw sa bahay.

Ang kulit mo daw kasing mang-threaten
via cellphone, kaya ka nadulas,
sana sinigawan mo na lang siya since 'yung bintana
ng room niya kaharap mo lang.

Honestly nabo-bobohan ako.
Pero I mean that the way friends don't
actually mean it.

Parang naaawa din ako sa guy
kasi he'd recycle daw the love
letters you wrote, nili-liquid paper lang
'yung mga pangalan.

There was this one night
na tayong dalawa lang 'yung online, so
I asked for your number tapos called
para may kasama kang mag-abang ng sunrise.
You were singing R&B songs tipong Toni Braxton
pero theatrical, and I hate R&B pero mas okey siya
du'n sa kung anu-anong mga ume-echo
sa utak ko.

You were still breathing daw
when they lowered you from the tree.