When tennis meets poetry

Ilia Uy is currently a Media Studies (Film) graduate student at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Tennis is her third love, after Christ and reading/writing.

Who would’ve thought that hitting a yellow ball within an “imaginary” box had anything to do with writing? I may have written about the connection I saw personally as a writer and a tennis fan on this blog before but this year’s Wimbledon solidified that unlikely bond by hiring a poet to write all throughout the tournament. Matt Harvey, a performance poet, holds a very official sounding job for a fortnight: Official Poet in Residence for the 2010 Championships.

I can’t think of any other tournament who would be as brazen as to assume that its tennis-loving audience would be interested in reading (and hearing) poetry for two weeks. (And what do you know — tennis fans are poets too! Some have submitted their own poems to the site.) But then again, this is the Grand Slam that still demands the players to wear “predominantly white” outfits.

It makes sense, actually. Wimbledon, arguably the Mecca of tennis, holds tight to traditions and still exhibits that elitist air that tennis as as sport has always been accused of.  It was the last of the Grand Slams to agree to equal pay for both men and women players — and to this day, Wimbledon often schedules just one women’s match and two men’s match on Centre Court. It is also during Wimbledon that spectators expect to see more of the “dying” art of serving and volleying. Wimbledon’s on-court snack and beverage? Pimm’s and champagne with strawberries and cream.

In the same way, poetry has been historically regarded as the highest form of literature. (Granted, there have been movements to lower poetry from its pedestal and strip it of its “snobbery.”) It’s a craft that demands more discipline, expects a more profound sensibility, and feeds more on the writer’s spirit and emotions. It has been studied that poets, more than any other kind of writers, die earlier.

It isn’t really that surprising a move for Wimbledon to make poetry a part of the tournament. And whatever the reason for its inclusion and no matter if it implies how traditional (to a fault) Wimbledon is, I am happy that two of my loves occupy the same space at least for two weeks. I mean, this definitely beats the vuvuzuela (which, by the way, Wimbledon banned. Haha!).

Father’s Day Special: Sometimes you get lucky in the parent draw

Ilia Uy is currently a Media Studies (Film) graduate student at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. And because she has no background whatsoever in her chosen program, she is taking undergrad units with teenagers, mostly sophomores. She just realized how weird it is to be the “old classmate.”

When Michael Giacchino won the Oscar this year for Best Score for his work in the Disney-Pixar animated film “Up,” he gave the most inspiring — and yet the simplest — acceptance speech. Here’s an excerpt:

“When I was nine I asked my dad, “Can I have your movie camera? That old, wind-up 8mm camera that was in your drawer?” And he goes, “Sure, take it.” And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, “What you’re doing is a waste of time.” Never.”

This rings very true in my life. And I know how lucky I am. It’s not c0mmon  for creative people, especially writers, to have supportive, much less understanding, parents. Perhaps because the arts isn’t a conventionally profitable field and no parent wants their kid to starve (or to live in their basement forever).

The author and her dad in 2007. (Oh my gulay, my hair is horrible!)

Today is Father’s Day and I take this opportunity to give tribute to my dad and my mom for being awesome parents in this aspect.

First of all, I am amazingly blessed with parents who are readers. There are literally books all over our home. I was raised on the written word — not on toys or video games. By age two, I had memorized a Strawberry Shortcake book because my parents read it to me every night (or so they say ). When I was five years old, my dad taught me to read for the first time using “The Little Red Hen.” Almost every month since I entered grade school, we’d go to National Bookstore and my dad would let us pick out a book to buy.

 

My childhood heroes weren’t TV characters. Yes, I watched Batibot, Sesame Street, and the popular anime shows of that time but my heroes were Anne of Green Gables, Bilbo Baggins, the four Pevensies, Wilbur the pig, and Charlotte the spider — all thanks to the love for reading my parents passed on to me.

Make this summer count

If you’re in the Philippines, you’re probably feeling the intense heat. We can probably blame El Niño for that. Personally, the climate is making me think of the beach and something else that’s synonymous with summer: writing workshops. After two years (and not to mention two rejections), I am applying for workshops again. I encourage you to try as well.

I have previously been part on just one writing workshop about four years ago and while it wasn’t during the summer, that week was one of the best of my life. Whatever your motivation is — affirmation, fellowship, or network building — it is seriously enjoyable to be around people who share the same passion for writing, in whatever genre. You don’t get that very often.

Below is a list of workshops and other writing submissions you can get busy with this summer. And even if you get rejected, at least you have several finished pieces. Productivity is good for the morale.

1. Iyas Creative Writing Workshop

A national writers workshop held annually at the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City.
Genres: Poetry, Short Fiction, One-Act Play
Languages: English, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, Tagalog, or Filipino
Deadline: March 12, 2010
Learn more about this workshop here.

2. UST Thomasian Writers Workshop

Writing workshop for writers who haven’t been awarded any other national writing workshop fellowships. I am not sure but this workshop is probably exclusive to Thomasians. Please click on the link below for more details.
Genres: POetry, Short Fiction, and Non Fiction
Languages: English and Filipino
Deadline: March 15, 2010
Learn more about this workshop here.

Encounters of the crazy kind

Ilia Uy is a Communication Arts graduate from University of the Philippines, Los Baños. She likes to play and act like a crazy person but when she’s actually in the presence of one, she freaks out. Hypocrite.

Let’s take a break from all the serious “writer” stuff and allow me to tell you a story, a pointless story perhaps, but still a story. Before I begin, you have to know two things: 1. I am currently working on a story that includes a crazy woman inside a jeepney and 2. I am no stranger to crazy people (not to mention drunks) in jeepneys.

So, one sunny morning last week, as I was half-asleep on my second ride to work, someone sat on my lap. I scooted sidewards — my knee-jerk reaction — and was about to says something of a rebuke when I saw that it was a small woman. She was wearing dirty clothes, she had dried scabs all over her skin, and she had no footwear. You could tell that she wasn’t exactly sane.

I was scared — of what exactly I don’t know. My initial desire was to get off the jeep and just catch another one. But I stayed. I stayed because I thought it would be good research for the story I was incubating. I mean, how often would you get a chance to gather real-life information for a character? I was scared-paralyzed the entire time and my resolve was about to get increasingly tested.

At first, she was muttering and murmuring to herself. I observed that all the other passengers, including me, were trying hard to pretend that she wasn’t there — in the same space we were. And then, she started singing rather loudly which made her a whole lot harder to ignore. That and the fact that she was inching closer and closer towards me. At this point, I seriously wanted to scream, “Para!”

Do not abstain from “A Celibate Season”

Ilia Uy is a Communication Arts graduate from University of the Philippines, Los Baños. Still currently frustrated by her present inability to find appropriate endings to her stories.

I am a bit indignant about the lack of information — not even a Wiki page — on this delightful book I picked up in Booksale because (1) it’s half-written by the brilliant Carol Shields and (2) I found its premise intriguing: husband and wife of more than 2 decades are separated for ten months due to work and opt to write each other letters to save money. Granted it was published in 1991, so the reviews may not have been archived online but this book deserves some praise — even if it comes from someone like me.

The last time I enjoyed — and not to mention learned from — a book of fiction this much was probably more than a year ago. A Celibate Season was written by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard, both Canadian women writers who happened to be good friends. At the time they were writing the novel, they were also sending the manuscripts back and forth to each other — just like the characters in the novel were trading letters. Carol wrote the letters of Chas (Charles), the husband, a currently out of work architect living in Vancouver, B.C.  The letters of the character Jock (Jocelyn), a lawyer recently signed on to work on a commission in Ottawa, was written by Blanche.

As a reader, I relished the subtle intricacies of the characters’ marriage being stretched by distance, career trajectories that neither of the spouses understand, sexual disasters, and the occasional infidelity. Jock and Chas were living characters: I see them move, talk, speak. And almost all the minor characters are whole and 3-dimensional. The experience is akin to watching a really good sitcom — and all these achieved through the epistolary form.