Thursday, April 20, 2017

Books from Plantation Bay Resort in Mactan #Cebu #Philippines #travel


I love Plantation Bay in Mactan, Cebu. This seaside resort and spa allows me to relax and commune with my Muses. When I'm there I feel refreshed, regenerated.

When I was last there, Manny Gonzalez (Founder and CEO of Plantation Bay and my cousin)  gifted with two handsome coffee table books, Tales of Plantation Bay and The Many Moods of Plantation Bay.  



Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Lucy Urgello Miller's Filipiniana Collection #Cebu


Standing l-r: Toinette Osmena, Lilia Tagorda Fischer
Seated l-r: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Lorna Jakosalem Edwards, Lucy Urgello Miller


I had the privilege of having lunch at Lucy Urgello Miller's house, after which she gave our group of Cebuanas and husbands a tour of her private Filipiniana collection.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

#CatPics Some Pictures of Tesla and Che




This shows Tesla and Che, and that's me in the background taking their picture. The pictures that follow show Che in the laundry basket during different times.  He jumps in as soon as he sees a full laundry basket. The last three pictures show Che stretching (doing Yoga) in the morning. 

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

#CebuLitFest Philippines: Chinggay Utzurrum's Article on Brainard Book Launch




Hendri Go forwarded this article by Chinggay Utzurrum about the book launch of my novel Magdalena in Cebu last February 11, 2017.  The event was organized by Hendri Go in conjunction with an Open Mic Reading at the Parkmall.

Thank you Chinggay and Hendri!

Read also

#CebuLitFest Articles about Launch of Brainard's Magdalena
#CebuLitFest Book Launmch of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Magdalena (Update)

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Guest Blogger: Poem by Mila D. Aguilar #Philippines


My Guest Blogger is Filipina poet Mila D. Aguilar whose nom de guerre in the Philippine martial law underground was Clarita Roja, which means Clear Red. When she was born again in 1990, the Red came to mean the Blood of Christ. Many thanks to Mila D. Aguilar for sharing her work. ~ Cecilia Brainard

~~~
Theater of the Absurd
By Mila D. Aguilar


"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist."
(2 John 1:7)


Ladies and gentlemen
Behold
The Theater of the Absurd.
Before you,
In real life but onstage
Good as dead.

Nothing here is real but
Everything is.
Contradictions abound
But
Consistency's the point.
Don't

Hold your breath, exhale it.
Satire
Overturned. It's on you,
Not the comic.
It's on us, not the farce.
You

Are the farce this time,
Onstage
Is real as hell is real.
Reel
Is you, keep on keeling
As he kills.

The future is here, folks.
No time
To hide or play nightmare
Unfolding
Before you right now
Without

Compunction while eliciting
Sympathy.
Oh, tears! Asking for gentleness
Babes.
The comic's no Lothario,
No!

He doesn't go for married women,
Mestizas
Met in Hongkong for the tryst.
Faithful
To two only. Telenovela of our time.
Opening

Tomorrow.

~~









Wikipedia's Bio of Mila D. Aguilar follows:

Mila D. Aguilar (born 1949) is a Filipina poet, revolutionary, essayist, teacher, video documentarian, and website designer. She wrote the poetry books A Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling and Journey: An Autobiography in Verse (1964-1995).
As a poet, she has written about 400 poems in English, Filipino, and Ilonggo, about 125 of which are in Journey: An Autobiography in Verse (1964-1995), a collection published by the University of the Philippines Press in 1996. The poems in this collection were culled from six books printed in Manila, San Francisco, and New York City between the years 1974 and 1987 (including A Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling), as well as from her writing in subsequent years up to 1995. Chronicle of a Life Foretold: 101 Poems (1995-2005) was published in 2012 by Popular Bookstore, and two more collections Poetry as Prophecy (2005-2013), and an untitled book, remain unpublished.
In 1971, Aguilar went underground, disagreeing with the policies of the Philippine government; she was arrested in 1984.
Aguilar has also written more than a hundred essays. A handful of these were done when she went "underground", first as an ordinary member, later as head of the Regional United Front Commission of Mindanao, and finally as head of the National United Front Commission of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the rebel organization from which she resigned in 1984.
She has produced, written, and directed almost 50 videos on subjects ranging from community organizations to regional cultures and good manners for government employees.
As a "webweaver", a term she invented,[citation needed] she has designed her own web pages as well as the website of a non-governmental organization.
She taught at the Department of English and Comparative Literature of the University of the Philippines, Diliman from 1969-1971, and again from 2000-2006.
She also taught at St Joseph's College.
Her full autobiography is entitled The Nine Deaths of M. It is a Kindle book and can be downloaded on Amazon.
~~~

Tags: Philippines, Filipina, poetry, literature, books, poems, writer, martial law, revolutionary, #PhilippineMartialLaw