I feel extremely blessed that I get to channel the artist/performer side of me through poetry. And TONIGHT, August 29, Paul and I will be performing our last duo act as singles (before we officially become Mr. & Mrs. Z) in Mike Unson’s show, “SINGLE and 30STH.”

Here is Mike’s description of tonight’s zany adventure:

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Catch the insane Mike Unson and his crew of misfits; LC De Leon, Stanley Chi, Uli Oposa, and Derf Hebrado deliver killer punchlines in:

eCircle Entertainment and Brain Barn Productions

MIKE UNSON: SINGLE AND 30STH!

This month will feature guest performances by Red Ollero, Paul Zialcita and Nina Terol. So be prepared for a one of a kind, adventure that promises original punchlines with a poetic drum beating, (The giant mineral water bottle type , twist!

Incidentally, this will also be Paul and Nina’s final show as an “in a relationship” couple as they are set to tie the knot very, very soon.

So mark the date August 29! As all roads will lead to Conspiracy!

Let’s conspire to inspire, and support renegade independence!

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Come join us as Paul and I celebrate the indie spirit and make our last big push before THE BIG DAY!

Talakayan 20.10

Leadership Forum for the 2010 Elections

An opportunity to listen to the candidates address issues on the Economy

Thursday, 27 August 2009
3:00 – 5:00 pm (Manila time)
SGV Hall, AIM Conference Center
Benavidez Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City

For reservations, please text, call, e-mail: 09209061148 or wedeservebetter.ph@gmail.com

Twitter keyword: #Econ2010

Registration fee: P200 per person with 50% discount for students, free for bloggers*

With live internet video streaming on www.PhilSTAR.com and www.veritas846.ph, radio broadcast on Radio Veritas and TV coverage on GMA7 . Broadcast times for selected cities below :

12:00 am – San Francisco
3:00 am – New York
8:00 am – London
7:00 am – Rome
10:00 am – Riyadh
4:00 pm – Tokyo
5:00 pm – Sydney

Media Partners:
www.PhilSTAR.com
www.PoliticalArena.com
Radio Veritas
GMA 7
Global Destiny Cable

The MGG Talakayan is the first empowered, interactive, and issues-based forum to enable national leaders to share their vision, programs, and positions by engaging key opinion leaders and voters through a live audience, online community, and global reach.

* Free entrance and free internet access will be provided for participants who will cover the event live on their blogs and social networks.

JOIN US FOR A NIGHT OF SPOKEN WORD AND POETRY ON

WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 26 | 7-10PM

HOUSE OF RUNES, SIKATUNA ST., QC

featuring:
kooky tuason spinning spoken word tracks

+
live performances by
siege malvar
gwen bautista
dako cutab
diego dela paz
gp abrajano
Ill-J
Pamilia Dimagiba
People’s Future
and more…

* read your poems, sing your songs. grab the mic and join us on the spotlight. *

P.S. Kooky and Gwen have asked me to read my poem Ang Dilaw ni Tita Cory.When poetry beckons, I cannot resist answering its call. See you then.

His readers span generations and geographic boundaries, and I can imagine what his staff and/or volunteers need to do on a daily basis just to keep up with all the fan mail, tweets, plurks, and other permutations of his social network messages. Heck, even I already have waaaay too much on my plate trying to keep track of all of my boss‘s correspondence and social network messages, and even he’s not Paulo Coelho (even if they share the same birthday–a fact that I am tickled about).

Regardless of how Mr. Coelho manages his online presence, I gotta hand it to the guy for making it all feel so real and sincere. There are a lot of things that you can fake and pay your way through–especially if you have the budget to simulate social interaction (and I’m pointing this pun at our politicos back home)–but sincerity you can never, EVER fake. Not even on the World Wide Web.

Two years ago, when I reposted one of my favorite blog posts featuring quotes from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, someone from his team immediately commented on my blog and said that “Paulo Coelho has gotten wind of your blog and would like to repost your entry on his site.” Of course I was tickled! I messaged her, Aart Hilal, back and said I’d be thrilled to have my stuff posted on his site. I wasn’t sure if it was a prank message, but I was such a Paulo Coelho fan that I was sure that message was for real.

Lo and behold, a couple of days later, Mr. Coelho himself emailed me to ask for my blog entry. He also told me to reply to his private email address with a certain subject header so he’d know that it was the email he was asking for. A couple of weeks after that, my blog entry came out on his blog. I was on Cloud Nine.

Shortly thereafter, I composed a super short story inspired by his autobiographical anthology of essays, Like the Flowing River. I sent him an email with the story, and again he emailed back thanking me for the story and saying a few nice words about it. For a fan and a fellow writer, THAT was validation enough.

It wasn’t our last online interaction, and since that wonderful series of encounters I’ve only come to love the icon and his works more. So because it was his birthday today, I made sure to greet him through Twitter. By the end of the day I received an update with this photo below:

So, you see… It doesn’t matter to me if it’s  not he himself who’s handling all of his emails; it doesn’t matter to me that I’m just one of the countless faceless names out there who interacts with him online. Even if I don’t ever get to meet him or get one of my Coelho books signed by him I’m still going to be an avid fan.

One thing we can learn from this man who’s already touched millions of lives through his words is that he knows how to show sincere gratitude and love to his fans–regardless of technology, means, and form. And, guess what? It only makes us love him back even more.

I woke up quite early today–to do some book editing and to finish other work matters that are difficult to do when the work week is already filled to the brim with meetings. My agenda was simple: open laptop, open files, read, edit, send.

Out of habit, however, I proceeded to open the following tabs before opening my files: Gmail, Plurk, Facebook, and Twitter.

On Twitter I saw several ongoing conversations that were hard for me to resist: @jimparedes was soliciting opinions on Sen. Manny Villar‘s declaration that Wowowee host Willie Revillame should pursue a Senate seat. I gave my opinion that not everyone who is popular and who “means well” should seek an elective post. Meanwhile, @mlq3 posted a question: “RP as failing or failed state?” Following this thread led me to the Failed States Index of 2009, which showed that the Philippines had risen from #59 last year (next to Indonesia), to #53 this year (next to Angola and Moldova). It was disturbing info, so I posted it on Facebook and texted it to some colleagues.

Then I saw a CNN article about “The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers.” There was a quiz; I took it and realized that I tend to be “self-indulgent and obnoxious” online. I wasn’t surprised at all.

All this was good–I received interesting bits of information, I got to interact with brilliant individuals I genuinely respect and admire, and I had interesting things to post and think about. All this in under an hour, I think. I got work done, too.

But when it’s a bright and beautiful Saturday, and there are a lot of great things to do away from the computer (such as WhyNot? Forum 7.0, which I’m missing to catch up on work), and when now would have been a perfect time to catch up on a lot of reading and writing, I seriously wish that I could just tune out and have a few hours of peace.

(But, see? I’m blogging about it–which means I just can’t kick the habit.)