Lourd de Veyra: Weather-weather lang yan

Basta yung may alak,” he answers when I asked him where he would want to hold the interview. He comes to the venue with his trademark long hair worn under a hat and a really cool vintage military jacket. He says it is his college ROTC jacket, but he never actually took ROTC. He instead wrote speeches for the commandant to be able to complete his ROTC units to graduate (which he never marched in as well, and he got his diploma seven years after he ended college). Sure enough as he sits down, the first thing he orders is a bottle of red wine. Not the typical image you’d think of when you say four-time Palanca award winner for Literature, anchor for TV5 news, and social commentator. Here are 10 things you should know about Lourd de Veyra. 

1. His father was a policeman, his mom a pianist, and Mike Hanopol of the Juan de la Cruz band is his uncle. 

His father (now retired) was part of the first batch of rookie cops to be part of the Western Police District, with Alfredo Lim as the ground commander. “Pag mahaba ang buhok namin nung kapatid ko, sinasabi niya, ‘ganyan ang buhok ng mga pinapalo namin sa Mendiola,’” Lourd shares about his father. His mother, “a pianist by profession and dietician by training,” was actually more strict than his father. He shares he never enjoyed any perks as the son of a cop and goes on to say, “Matinong pulis yun, hindi abusado.” Lourd’s middle name is Hanopol, and though he didn’t get to see much of his uncle Mike (“Tito ba talaga namin to?”) he has always been a big fan of the Juan de la Cruz band.

At the book signing of This Is A Crazy Planets, a collection of essays

Lourd went to Quirino Elementary School for grade school, Letran for high school, and UST for college. He started his master’s in creative writing twice (once in UP, the other time in UST) but only finished two semesters for both. 

2. The cult hit Baboy by Lourd’s band Radioactive Sago Project was born out of a combination of intoxicating drinks, Ating Alamin ni Gerry Geronimo, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

Lourd recalls he wrote Baboy in less than an hour before he first performed it. The program Ating Alamin on PTV4 and their features on “pagkakasta ng baboy” made an impression on him and was a big influence on the song as well. “It’s never performed the same way ever, not even once,” Lourd shares. The lyrics (since most of it is improvised) are quite flexible, which is why they performed the song during EDSA Dos and in rallies in Mendiola, as a metaphor for excesses and abuses. 

Radioactive Sago Project was somewhat of an accidental band. Lourd was promoting his first book, and instead of the usual reading, he got a bassist, trumpet player, and drummer to accompany him as back up for a spoken word performance. “From three instrumentalists then, naging nine na kami.”

3. His best-selling novel Super Panalo Sounds! was 10 years in the making. It was product of what he calls a “bizarre” ritual where he spends New Year’s Eve writing.

“Same concept sa talon talon. The idea is you write on the eve of the new year so that the rest of the year will be marked by industry and productivity,” Lourd shares. He usually starts writing by 10:30 p.m. of Dec. 31, joins in the countdown celebration for a bit, goes back to writing, and finishes 10 pages by Jan. 2, then forgets about it by Jan. 3. He realized he could put it all together and planned to submit the novel for the UP Centennial Literary Awards (with a half-million-peso prize), but was seven minutes too late for the deadline. As fate had it, in 2007, his first novel about “how high and how low you can go when you’re rocking and rolling” was published.

4. Lourd de Veyra in numbers:

17: Age he first tried drugs. “Because of friends, and abysmal curiosity. There are substances that induce creativity and substances that just induce violence. Tinalikuran ko na yun.”

Cover of forthcoming issue of 8 Magazine, Eastern Visayas travel + lifestyle magazine. “I’m from Tacloban, so they usually feature Warays on the cover. Here I am channeling my inner Leon Guerrerro.”

4: Number of years he was part of the table tennis high school varsity team in Letran, where they were consistently NCAA champions. Any sport in college? “Olympic drinking.”

7: Number of years he was copy editor for Metro Society magazine. “From a Marxist point of view, okay, ito lang pala nagcocontrol ng lipunan natin from the turn of the century.”

1: Number of hours it took for him to write his speech for the UP commencement exercises, where he coined the term “GMG” (Google mo, g***) for this generation.

38,421: Number of subscribers to the Word of the Lourd videos on YouTube. Of the 434 videos uploaded, the most viewed is titled Slang, with 303,202 views to date.

5. Among Lourd’s biggest influences are Dr. Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta, Teddy Boy Locsin, and Nick Joaquin.

He was a newspaper scholar in his last two years of college at UST, supposedly to work with the paper after graduation.When he got his last check (for book allowances, although in his journalism course, he didn’t have much books so “yung allowance ko napupunta lang sa ugat ko, pinang-iinom namin, among other things”), the company that paid for his scholarship was in a hiring freeze, so he applied as OJT for Today. “Idol ko si Teddy Boy Locsin, if only for that one photograph nung 1987 flipping the bird. Isipin mo ang gandang lalaki tapos naka-ganun, sabi ko, I wanna work for that man one day,” Lourd shares. His very first article was a piece for the lifestyle section on Bea Lucero and the World Youth Day in 1995. He left Today in 2001 when he won a writing grant from the NCCA worth P250,000. Since he hadn’t experienced just bumming around after graduating, he decided to do just that for one year. 

His interest in writing started only on his second year in college. “Sit in lang ako sa creative writing class niya, and then the gates of heaven opened,” he reveals about the late Ophelia Dimalanta, the professor who changed his life. “She both demystifies and mystifies literature. Yun yung klase na sabi ko parang wala na akong ibang gustong gawin sa buhay ko kundi magsulat.” Until he found out later on, “ang hirap pala magsulat.” Lourd wrote an essay about her which he finished before she passed away, but was always too shy to show it to her. “She never got to read it, which is my great guilt in life.”

Battle of the abs: Interviewing Derek Ramsey for Wasak. Medyo naparami ang extra rice ko that day.

One of the things that frustrate him are young people who don’t appreciate what they are given. “Minsan may lalapit sakin, problema niya, pinapasulat siya ng advertorial tungkol sa washing machine. When in fact gusto daw niya magsulat ng great Filipino novel. Bull****, ayusin mo muna yang advertorial mo bago ka mag-great Filipino novel.” Lourd shares an impressionable statement the late great Nick Joaquin said: “There are no baduy subject matters. Only baduy writers.”

6. He was once almost down and out with only a three-digit amount in the bank left to his name. His vice? Gardening.

“For some reason, kung kailan ang bisyo ko ay walang kinalaman sa krimen, tsaka pa naubos ang salapi ko,” he quips. It was around 2006 when he started to buy and care for ferns, flowers, and fruit-bearing plants. He says that one plant is not expensive, but when you collect them, it becomes expensive. His garden was beautifully flourishing when unexpectedly, typhoon Ondoy hit in 2009. “Yung pinalaki ko at inalagaan kong Traveller’s Palm, kinailangan kong apakan at gawing bridge to get from one end of the yard to the garage,” he recalls with a tone of regret in his voice. He has a mark in his home where the flood hit, and says that every time he gets the urge to make a mindless purchase, he looks at that mark. “Ah, the futility of material possessions.”

7. On his fearlessness in sharing his opinion: “It comes from the fact that nobody actually reads or watches my material.”

Lourd is also known for his criticisms and comments against some of the country’s most prominent figures, but has never had any case filed against him. His attention was once called by his TV bosses for wearing an apron with the face of Kris Aquino on it for his cooking segment in a morning show. (Yes, Lourd cooks. “Vegetable dishes.”) He got a call from his higher ups telling him to stop wearing the apron. That incident actually made an impression on TV5 big boss Manny Pangilinan, so much so that when MVP met Lourd, he said to him, “Ah, ikaw yung nagsusuot ng apron ni Kris Aquino.” “Opo.”

8. Lourd can talk about anything and everything under the sun, but keeps mum when asked about one thing: his love life.

I ask Lourd about this past interview with Cosmo magazine where he was asked what was the sweetest thing he’s ever done for a girl, and he answered, “To stay with her for five years.” He gives a puzzled look and tries to recall when he said that, but later on seems to just accept it. When asked how he is as a boyfriend, he just shyly answers, “Inertia.”

With co-host Jun Sabayton and special guest Joey de Leon for Wasak.

He shares that he once also thought about having kids, but is “past” that stage now. “Baog yata ako eh,” he jokes. “Okay na yung mga aso ko.” He currently has six dogs: Buddy the azkal, Petra, Lloydie (“John Lloyd, guapo kasi siya eh,”), Tekla, and Brownie, all Lhasa Apsos, and Billy Boy the blind shi tzu.

9. Lourd’s top Pinoy picks:

President: “Ramon Magsaysay. He was the only one who truly believed in genuine land reform.”

Sports icon: “Samboy Lim. Ang paradox ni Samboy Lim, sobrang galing niya, pero lagi siyang injured.”

Local restaurant: “Vivian’s Tapsilog sa Project 3, Quezon City.”

Actor: “Ronnie Lazaro. And John Regala. Intense.”

Director: “Mike de Leon. For consistency of vision, perfectionism, and depth of material.” His favorite De Leon films are Batch ‘81 and Kisapmata.

Journalist: “Nick Joaquin. He elevated the idea of reportage to an art form.”

10. He has one important piece of advice for young men and women: “Umasal lamang ng ayon sa ganda.”

Performing at the recent Fete dela Music

He has a whole essay on this topic on spot.ph, where he writes: “Sa mundong pataas ng pataas ang stress levels, dala ng banta ng climate change, kriminalidad, trapik, polusyon, wala nang mas nakakulo ng dugo kesa sa isang taong hindi umaasal ng ayon sa kagandahan.” He lists guidelines that include not posting beach pictures “kung di naman kagandahan ang katawan,” not putting on fake accents, and not speaking English if you don’t have a good grasp of the language. (The essay is written in Tagalog, which drives home the point better.) “Ang masama, ay kung pangit ka na, feeling ka pa,” he says.

In this age of instant everything and access to information through the Internet, he points out inefficiency is one of the biggest problems of a lot of young people today. “It wastes other people’s time, wastes your time, and parang gumawa ka ng sarili mong hukay,” Lourd explains. “Ngayon, konting lag lang ng pag-load ng page sa Internet, umaangal na kayo. As if naman na pag nag-load yung page, you’ll be able to produce a great Filipino novel agad.”

Lourd was included in spot.ph’s “Top 10 IT boys” (which also lists Borgy Manotoc and Erwan Heussaff), to which he says, “Seryoso ba kayo?”

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When asked what more he wants to achieve in his life, he says: “Super cheesy, but after age 25, tumigil na ako magplano ng buhay.” He is now 37. Not everyone may be a fan of his work or agree with his opinion, but Lourd is pretty much taking the road less traveled in terms of life choices and little decisions made along the way. This road is not for everybody, but it’s people like Lourd who snap us out of our pretty little worlds and shake us out of our comfort zones, reminding us that there are many other issues and people that we may not know of, but should care about.

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Special thanks to Erwin Romulo.

E-mail me at askiamsuperbianca@yahoo.com or follow me on Twitter <@iamsuperbianca>