I will go to Baguio.

When I am troubled, I think of Africa. Or that part of Africa where a large golden sun sets on a savannah, and silhouettes of gazelles are tearing through the golden landscape. Somewhere in Africa now, it might still exist as I hope it should, because sometime in the future, I will stand on a blessed spot of African soil and witness the reality of a dream.

afternoon 01/04/08

I think the only time I took my deepest, cleanest breath was this early morning when I was in my tent in a rain-swept beach, alone and with little sleep. Half-asleep, I remember hearing the rain pelting and the wind beating the walls of my tent. I took a deep breath and breathed out fully like all my soul was coming out.

Give whatever a drunk man needs especially if he’s riding the same jeepney with you…

Give him space and give him a free ride.

Whenever I ride a jeepney

I long for a crash

I need to crash

and tumble and fly

to the fairy-blue sky.

Down here is a trip

to need to find a steady grip

as I go by.

It’s good to get hit

once in a while

and feel the wind

blow through your mind.

I gotta go

to feel me grow

and fly

to the pastures of the sky…

Anything goes trip

Is just around the block. Been thinking about it for long. Will walk new streets right after Christmas.

Hoping to be back with a lighter heart and brighter eyes.

And notebooks filled with good, useful thoughts.

It’s now CHANel

With CHAN Marshall aka Cat Power as Chanel’s new face.

How it happened?

Cat Power Named New Face of Chanel Jewelery
Rock singer Cat Power has been tapped as the new face of Chanel’s jewelry collections. “This, this and this, is Chanel,” she said, pointing to her chunky gold necklace, ring and matching bracelet at a raucous party Friday night at the VIP Room for Karl Lagerfeld’s new mix CD. The songstress related how Lagerfeld “discovered” her in front of New York’s Mercer hotel. “I was outside waiting, sitting on a pile of Louis Vuitton luggage, drinking water, with an apple and a cigarette in my hand, my cell phone, oh, and two guitars, and out comes Karl,” she said. “He walks up, looks at me and says, ‘Only a woman can look glamorous when smoking.’ And I lowered my glasses and pointed to [the shadows under my] eyes and said, ‘With these?’” Clearly, Lagerfeld appreciated her sense of candor.

Another love letter

From Leonard Cohen

You’re going to leave me. I know you’re going to leave me. Like you left Laporte. Like you left Arif. I’ll be someone you call by his last name. Laporte didn’t look too good tonight at the Alhambra when he limped over to say hello to you. He didn’t want to give me his hand because it was so wet. He took the tips of my fingers and he smiled cheerlessly, as if to say: The greatest fuck you’ve ever had, the deepest love you’ve ever known, and she’s going to leave you very soon, you poor stunned sonovabitch. In the car you told me that his hands always get that wet when he has to meet people. You know his terrors, don’t you? As you know mine. We haven’t seen too much from Laporte lately, film-maker of a certain period, when you were his juice, when he was allowed to tie you up, and you commanded him to treat you like a slave. Then you told me to look at the moon, so I looked through the windshield at the moon. Then you told me to be impressed by the colour of the sky, so I applied myself to a study of the royal blue Paris sky. The turbaned Sikh assigned you, as he always does, the most impossible space in the garage, and when we walked past his window, he said, as he always does, The Champion of Parking. In the room you did sail so sweetly into my arms. I’m yours. For tonight. Your big joke. And my heart still leaps up between the declaration and the punchline. Like you left Laporte. Like you left Arif, and then slept with his twin brother. I leave them just before they leave me. It’s better that way, no? Not to have a crying girl on your hands. Okay, darling, you’re sleeping, the night has come to an end, and I’m nervous as hell. You’ll either read this by yourself one day, or we’ll be reading it together. 1980

I have yet to meet someone whom I can be with in contented silence.

Question

If there was a Heaven, would there be aliens there?