dindin for putting Pinoy viewers inside the heads of the White House team. Congratulations, you can claim your prize when I get back to Manila in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, here’s Fil-American comedian Rex Navarrete on Manny Pacquiao.
No I meant this video but couldn’t find the embed file. http://www.lopeztonight.com/episode_recaps_and_highlights/
rex_navarrete_is_a_chinese_chicano.php
Yesterday the White House released this photo of US President Barack Obama and State Secretary Hillary Clinton watching the live video stream of the raid on the compound of Osama Bin Laden.
Your assignment for the Weekly LitWit Challenge 5.6 is to tell the story of this photograph in 500 words or less, from the point of view of one of the people in it.
As always, post your entries in Comments. The deadline is Sunday, 8 May 2011. The prize is this:
PacMan: Behind the Scenes with Manny Pacquiao, the Greatest Pound-for-Pound Fighter in the World by Gary Andrew Poole.
We predict that the streets of Manila will be traffic-free on Sunday morning because everyone will be watching the Pacquiao-Mosley fight. Of course we’re looking forward to the release of Manny’s CD featuring seven versions of his favorite song, Sometimes When We Touch. And Manny’s signature fragrance, which should be called “You Know?”
Ogie Alcasid as Angelina and Michael V as Yaya in the Bubble Gang sketch, Ang Spoiled
# 8 Yaya ni Lily
Author: rice_cooker
Location: the United States
Summary: Youngish, separated from husband she describes as mama’s boy, and from her daughter Nene. The husband has “filed for infidelity”, according to Lily. (The correct term is “adultery”.) Yaya has the hots for her employer’s older son. She loathes little Lily, who is vicious. Yaya’s goal is to find a boyfriend who will finance her lawsuit for custody of Nene.
# 10 Yaya ni Madame Tsui
Author: thesocialinception
Location: Hong Kong
Summary: Madame Tsui insists that she learn Chinese, so Yaya goes to a bookstore to buy a dictionary. She is said to be well-read, so we cannot understand how someone who’s finished Anna Karenina and Tess of the D’Urbervilles does not know who Mao Zedong is. She finds her employer repellent and does not know why she puts up with her.
# 11 Yaya ni Baptiste at Margot
Author: theOrbiter
Location: Paris
Summary: Yaya’s employer and charges are rather cruel and given to laughing at her. When she takes a day off, Madame disparages her and her lack of French. Yaya is looking forward to her date with Marlon, a Filipino cashier at a souvenir shop, but she resolves not to put out.
# 12 Julie Recuerdo
Author: cochise_miz
Location: the US
Summary: Julie is in her 20s or early 30s. She supports her parents in Manila and sends her younger brother to a private high school. She is fond of her alaga, Hannah.
# 13 Imogen Dimaculangan
Author: Askaniclan
Location: Dongguan, China
Summary: Imogen, 35, is feisty: her hunchback and wobbly eye do not dent her confidence. She likes her life and has designs on her male employer. Her speech is supposed to approximate a Leyte native speaking English.
The winner of LitWit Challenge 5.5: Yeah, yeah, Yaya is theOrbiter. Of the five candidates we found her Yaya to be the most life-like.
Congratulations, theOrbiter. You can have your prize picked up any day starting tomorrow, May 4, 2011, at National Bookstore at Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Just give Customer Service the email address you used to register on this site.
The next LitWit Challenge is coming up.
The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.
Despondent at losing William? The NY Daily News proposes the following alternatives.
HRH Carl Philip of Sweden
Juan: I can’t believe the top story in all the local news websites is the British royal wedding and not the resignation of the OMG (ombudsman).
Me: Because social-climbing is more fun than investigating corruption and the people are better-looking?
We asked our friend Carlo the pastry chef to pick the winners of our Blow 10 Million Pesos in 48 Hours contest. We said, “Use any criteria you like.” So Carlo used the following rules:
1. Sounds cute
2. Made me laugh
Yes, he picked them like a date. (He is not a charter member of Overthinkers Anonymous.)
“It was a tough job having to choose only two,” Carlo notes, “They were so hilarious. I was alone, laughing in my room.” The winners:
# 4 julesmariano. “He sounds cute, except for the name. (I’ve never had a crush on anyone named Jules.) And anyone who likes expensive watches must be cute. I wanna see his legs.”
# 21 lzlsanatomy. “This one is really witty. Made me laugh. A smart idea too, putting Willie on the spot.”
Congratulations, julesmariano and lzlsanatomy! You each get a pair of tickets to Kaos at Resorts World Manila on May 13, 2011. You can pick up your tickets any day starting Tuesday, May 3 at Wild Ginger in the basement of Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Just give your usernames (Sorry, don’t have time to wait for your full names. Momelia, we’ll leave your Kaos tickets at the same place).
Thanks to Archie Nicasio and his staff at Resorts World Manila.
By the way cochise_miz, you can pick up your prizes for the LitWit Challenge at National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell any day starting Tuesday, May 3. Sorry for the delay.
One of the narrators of Mona Simpson’s new novel My Hollywood is the nanny, “Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who is working in America to pay for her own children’s higher education back in the Philippines.” Let’s hear from Lola in her own words:
I live Sunday in this life. There is a light wind, teasing. The sky you can see through to ships far away at sea. We sit in Starbucks, Bing asleep in his stroller, and I write my letter home. This one is a toddler, very easy. I do not have to clean. My career in America it is up. For the first time, I keep my numbers private. They will guess a raise, but not this big.
I need another international stamp. Tomorrow morning I will walk Williamo to the post office. Those machines take pennies. I will have to find things to stack so he can reach the slot. On the stamps are pictures. I know from Bong Bong, that is the job of someone to draw. But a needle starts in my heel; sand scratches my mouth, opening a bad taste. I never asked for too much, from Bong Bong, from the teachers of my children, even from God. If you ask for only a little, maybe then the answer it will be yes.
We’re all for a Filipino protagonist in a novel by a major American author, but…hmm. Uhh…um…IT’S BLAH. We’ve known lots and lots of yayas, and they’re way more complex and vivacious than that. This one seems a little defeated by life. Foreigners just don’t get it. No matter how hard she has to work and how much time she spends away from her own children, Yaya knows that all things considered, life is good. Yaya is Invincible!!! (Clearly Ms Simpson has not encountered anyone like Gareth’s Yaya in the Gaz 365 blog.)
Your assignment for the Weekly LitWit Challenge 5.5: Write a story told in the first person by a Filipino nanny working in a foreign land. Remember, Yaya is our agent of world domination, and must behave accordingly!
Maximum of 1,000 words, deadline on Saturday, 30 April 2011. The prize is a hardcover copy of My Hollywood by Mona Simpson.
The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.
Photo: Todd Louiso, John Cusack and Jack Black in High Fidelity.
The Sudden Death Read-Off is as cruel as T.S. Eliot’s April. The second the Yucch-meter reads a badly-written sentence or steps into a plot gap, the contestant is Out.
#1 eyeonthesparrow did not survive the first sentence, a feat considering that the first five words were prescribed. Wordy and pretentious.
#2 The Rei lost us at the first sentence, also a feat. Awkward construction.
#3 Hibernates lost us at “He greeted me and said they had a last minute agreement to have a reunion.” Who are they and why have they decided to have a class reunion at that very minute? We can extrapolate who and what the writer means but it is too tedious.
#4 Pokemon lost us at “B is currently committed with D.” From the choice of preposition it would appear that they are sharing a room at a psychiatric hospital.
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