Technorati Articles

As of early October 2011, I began to write as a contributing writer for the web’s largest blogging search engine, Technorati. Because I own more than one blog, the re-posts of the articles from Technorati would be in different places. Some articles may not even be re-posted in any of my sites, so it’s you want to read all of my articles published in Technorati that it’s best for you to bookmark my Technorati author page for the list of articles I’ve written.

This section here only features the article reposts that I posted on this blog. You’ll have to go to my other two sites if you want to read the rest, but it’s highly recommended for you to follow my Technorati profile if you want to read all my articles which also includes the ones not re-posted.

Beverage Review: Eat, Pray,Love,

(first published as Beverage Review: Eat, Pray, Love at Technorati on 10/26/11)

For all the readers and movie enthusiasts around, whenever you see the words “eat, pray, love,” it would automatically remind you of that bestselling memoir of influential writer Elizabeth Gilbert depicting her self-discovery journey in three countries: Italy, where she discovered the joy of pleasure (through eating); India, where she discovered the joy of spirituality; and Indonesia, where she discovered the joy of balance (the balance of pleasure and spirituality). The memoir became a huge hit with positive raves from literary critics everywhere that Hollywood became attracted with the story and produced a film adaptation starring Julia Roberts as Gilbert.
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206 days ago • Beverages, Foodie, Tea, Technorati Articles • Tags: black tea, eat pray love, elizabeth gilbert, republic of tea

A Fresh Look and Listening to the Balagtasan

(first published on Technorati on 10/09/11)

October 08, 2011 – In my hometown of Union City earlier today, I attended my very first Balagtasan Debate forum with my parents. The event was hosted by the City Council of Union City and the San Francisco Bay Area Filipino Community, featuring young Filipino-American spoken word poets on the first event and three prolific poets who flew all the way to the Philippines to hold a Balagtasan forum to Filipino-Americans familiar with the poetic debating and to those who have never seen or heard of a Balagtasan forum, such as myself. I have attended, watched, and listened to poetry events before during my school days, from watching my former high school’s Forensics Club to even listening to local poetry slam sessions at the neighborhood coffee shops. Today was the first time that I attended a type of poetry event that has solid cultural ties to my ethnic roots.

Balagtasan is a form of poetic debating that was founded in the early 20th Century (around early 1920s) during the American colonization of the Philippines. The term was coined from a prominent Filipino poet of the late 19th Century, Francisco Balagtas (1788-1862), often referred to as the Filipino William Shakespeare. Balagtas was known for his collection of epic poetry, most notably Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura), which was considered Balagtas’ poetic masterpiece. His poems were written in Tagalog, which was crucial to the Filipino linguistic identity during that time because the Filipino language back then was written predominantly in Spanish.