Archive for April, 2010
Ray Bradbury: Library Love
INTERVIEWER
You’re self-educated, aren’t you?
BRADBURY
Yes, I am. I’m completely library educated. I’ve never been to college. I went down to the library when I was in grade school in Waukegan, and in high school in Los Angeles, and spent long days every summer in the library. I used to steal magazines from a store on Genesee Street, in Waukegan, and read them and then steal them back on the racks again. That way I took the print off with my eyeballs and stayed honest. I didn’t want to be a permanent thief, and I was very careful to wash my hands before I read them. But with the library, it’s like catnip, I suppose: you begin to run in circles because there’s so much to look at and read. And it’s far more fun than going to school, simply because you make up your own list and you don’t have to listen to anyone. When I would see some of the books my kids were forced to bring home and read by some of their teachers, and were graded on—well, what if you don’t like those books?
I am a librarian. I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library. Before I fell in love with libraries, I was just a six-year-old boy. The library fueled all of my curiosities, from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt. When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week. I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school.
INTERVIEWER
You have said that you don’t believe in going to college to learn to write. Why is that?
BRADBURY
You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do—and they don’t. They have prejudices. They may like Henry James, but what if you don’t want to write like Henry James? They may like John Irving, for instance, who’s the bore of all time. A lot of the people whose work they’ve taught in the schools for the last thirty years, I can’t understand why people read them and why they are taught. The library, on the other hand, has no biases. The information is all there for you to interpret. You don’t have someone telling you what to think. You discover it for yourself.
Read an excerpt from the Paris Review interview.
Robin’s window
Filipino fashion designer Robin Tomas’s work is being featured in the windows of the Philippine Center on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. This ensemble is a fully hand-beaded bodice in ivory, and duchesse satin ball skirt.
Robin, a graduate of Parsons School of Design, interned for Anna Sui and Valentino in New York, and has worked for various retail brands such as Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and J. Crew In 2009, Robin present his first solo collection of eveningwear at Philippine Fashion Week. In 2010, he won the Supima Design Competition in New York for the best reinvention of the T-Shirt. His design will produced and sold in all Bloomingdales stores in the US.
All photos by Giulia Piccari.
The “Best of the Philippines on Fifth Avenue” project of the Philippine Consulate General New York showcases the amazing pool of creativity and talent that the Philippines has to offer. Robin Tomas’s work will be on display throughout the month of April 2010.
The Bakla’s answers to our questions
Managed to nag Danton into answering our questions; he only managed a few before he was dragged away for another interview. Hopefully we will get more answers in the days to come.
Newsflash: Ang Ladlad has just announced that they are supporting Noynoy Aquino for President and Jejomar Binay for Vice President. Does this alter your opinion of Ang Ladlad?
Jessica: Darling, why do we need a gay party list? Aren’t gay people already in power? One might argue that people aren’t oppressed for being gay, they’re oppressed for being poor.
Danton: The poverty of the LGBTs (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered) reflects the poverty of most Filipinos. This was also asked of me in Comelec. Hairdressers don’t get the minimum wage. They get a pittance, and make money mostly from tips. Same goes for casual LGBT salesclerks who are the last to become permanent workers, if at all, in our department stores.
There are no anti-homosexual laws in the Philippines, but the Labor Code is silent on violations of LGBTs in hiring and firing in the workplace. There are other similar legal codes that do not protect LGBTs from discrimination in the schools, workplace and getting of licenses to work or to practice a profession.
Jessica: Why should we vote for Ang Ladlad when you’re not their nominee? Explain again why you’re no longer eligible to sit as congressgay?
Danton: I cannot run for party list because I lost in my bid for Congressman in May of 2007. The Party List Law, or Republic Act 7941, forbids a person who has lost in a previous election from being a party list representative. So I can only run in 2013.
Continued in Comments.
Who stole the Mona Lisa?
The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered. In an excerpt from their new book, the authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime.
Read an excerpt from The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, in the May issue of Vanity Fair.
Freebie!
The X10 retails at P32,500.00. According to the salesperson the DVD player costs about P3,000.
The Sony Ericsson Xcite! Xcite! will be at Powerplant Mall, Rockwell, Makati from April 15 to 21, and at Glorietta 4, Ayala Center, Makati from April 26 to May 2, 2010.
Yeah, yeah, you’ve got Blu-ray, you’ve got torrents, you’ve upgraded your system. What’re you going to do with that mountain of dvds?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
