Alternadad : Neal Pollack

I Never thought Neal Pollack writes shit about parenting after reading Never Mind the Pollacks. It was a hell of a read stumbling dazed across decades of rock and roll from Elvis to Joan Baez to Bob Dylan to Sex Pistols to Iggy Pop before he became Iggy Pop to Lou Reed before Velvet Underground to REM's Stipes to Kurt Cobain with Neal Pollack at the center of the rock and roll universe. And I was freaked thinking it was a real honest to goodness rock and roll book until realizing that I am taking the piss for actually believing everything as gospel truth, until learning that it is, actually, the gospel truth.

Neal Pollack's character was sincerely crazy and moribund that added more to the glitz and glam of being with the rock stars as a self professed rock critic. The book was fast and vicious without any soft spot for any change of heart shitiness and ended without any remorse for whatever happened or transpired in his life. It is rock and roll, it is.

I cannot wait to check out his book Alternadad and his take on parenting.

Book Fair Blast

September 19, 2010 was the last day of the Philippine International Books Fair at the SMX and we arrived just in the nick of time just before it closed its doors to the public. Andres, Ponso, and Paco did not lose time losing themselves in the crowd. Their Tita Hana went with Paco while I stuck with Andres and Ponso. Being around books gives that vibrant feeling of being surrounded with knowledge. It was interesting to see people with different interests bumping into each other to get to their preferred bookstalls. I got a five peso children’s book. So cheap, and is written in Tamil. But the pictures will suffice. For five pesos, the price of two sticks of Marlboro cigarettes bought from a takatak boy, you get a full color Tamil script book. Where can you get a five heaping cheap peso book written in Tamil?

(Clockwise from top: Ambeth Ocampo, Andres, Paco, Ponso)

We also got the chance to see Prof. Ambeth Ocampo, the noted historian and newspaper columnist, at Anvil's booth for his book signing. He gladly obliged when I requested him to pose for a picture with Andres and Ponso. Then I saw Paco streaking towards them and so politely asked Ambeth Ocampo again for another photo shoot. I guess the two boys still don’t know the impact of this picture for their posterity as Paco wiggled his way out of the frame while Ponso stared out in the distance.

It’s always a blast (head blast for the migraine, my nuts blasted for running after the boys, voice blasted for calling out their names) going to the annual bookfair with three boys running amuck in the exhibit area.