After 14 years, Baguio City’s Mt. Cloud has new premises and finally opens its own publishing house
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – We remember 14 years ago when Padma and Fifi Perez used to hang out in one of the huge rooms in Casa Vallejo. It was empty then, but slowly the shelves were built and the extension ladder was finally put in place. Padma and Martin Masadao put an old typewriter and empty bottles of Irish whiskey on top. And the huge rice paper lanterns that looked like moons were put up before opening day.
Fourteen years later I was in their new premises opposite Brent Road. The lampposts, typewriters and extension ladder were still there. “Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme selected.” (The more things change, the more they stay the same)”, as we would say in the south of France.
I was stuck up front on the third Monday of the sun while Hungry Cow and Danum.PH served hors oeuvres or bugnay wine, which we somewhere call “inabsolute currant”.
As the young poets read their poems, I thought of 14 reasons why Mt. Cloud will stay for a long time:
1. Poetry slams. I thought we started doing this about a decade ago. It was supposedly a pre-Valentine’s Day gimmick. I remember attending a reproductive health event in Manila in the morning and carrying hundreds of condoms as I arrived just in time as the slam event started. We were surprised by the people who came to participate in the poetry slam and since then it has become a highlight for the cafe. We even had a “Baguio vs. the rest of the country” poetry slam event where the UP Writer’s Workshop folks had a war of words with us. At first the UP folks took the spotlight but we managed to steal the show a little. Padma and Fifi must have amassed a lot of videos and should have a documentary about it in the next few months.
2. We had a special ghost reading with Amnesty International where we read “real” ghost stories to remind people of the horrors of EJK. Dana Batnag, Chi Vallido, Diane Mendoza, Abbie SJ de Lara and I formed Graveyard Shift and later collaborated with the Midnight Photographers and Artists of Manila. We hope to make this a more regular Halloween feature. Monsters are still among us.
3. Third Monday of the Sun. Padma thought of using this (every third Monday of the month) as a way to “train” the young people for the poetry slam. They would read their poems from their notebooks until they were all reading from their phones. Even during the pandemic, these young poets would meet over Zoom to keep the spoken word alive. For the 15th anniversary, Padma said, they would bring together the best readers for a reunion.
4. We had a ghost in Casa Vallejo. It was even immortalized in the Manix Abrera comic. This friendly ghost dropped the book for a certain person. We knew it was a cat because of his tendency to drop books, but Martin insisted it was a clumsy Spanish ghost or something. We didn’t know if the ghost had followed Mt. Cloud to Brent.
5. Speaking of cats, the Hot Cat underneath the bookstore now lets you order coffee and bring the brew back to the cloud while you browse through the books you got.
6. The book recommendation package is back, said Padma. Launched in 2015, this popular feature takes you to the “Mt Cloud Subscription Slumbook,” where you’re asked about the author you want to rap with, your favorite color, your favorite genre, and all that. Then you give the sellers two weeks to find the book you or your giftee would like to read.
7. Tchotchkes! Tchotchkes! (Okay, we’ll wait while you Google the meaning and pronunciation.) Mount Cloud has a ton of interesting and fascinating tchotchkes that Padma and Fifi found somewhere, and local artisans brought them here.
8. They also have the best bookmarks.
9. As I write this, I just read an article in the New Yorker by cultural critic Louis Menand about how bookstores may not be the best place to keep books, like Amazon’s warehouses, but the great thing about independent bookstores is that they build communities of readers.
“The main reason for brick-and-mortar bookstores today is that they are community-building spaces. This is how Friss describes the Three Lives bookstore – forgive me, Business– and so almost all of the shopkeepers in ‘The Secret Lives’ (and many of the librarians) explain what they do and why it gives them satisfaction,” Menand said.
“They practice bibliotherapy. They introduce people to books that help them overcome their grief or help them with confusion about life choices or their personal identity.”
10. In the essay, Menand mentions Walter Benjamin, who talks about the auratic joy of reading books. Never underestimate the feeling of holding a book in your hand and reading a passage. That’s why Mt. Cloud advises against wrapping books in plastic. If valuable books are wrapped in plastic, you can ask the sellers to open them.
11. Let’s talk about the Mt. Cloud salespeople, past and present. I’m friends with them and so proud of what they became when they left the store. Many are poets, songwriters, artists, and writers. And they’re all proud to be Mt. Cloud graduates and what they learned at the store. They still recommend books to me, too.
12. The “Baguio Book Section” is of course the best. Also the Martial Law Section and the Poetry Section. They also love their Baguio authors. The book launches of these local authors are so well attended that you would think they are throwing a party like no other. Non-local authors love to have their launches here because it brings them luck in their sales and career.
13. There are also special events like Nick Joaquin’s “May Day” reading on the evening of April 30th, which is like a panata for Gabe Mercado and Lissa Romero-de Guia. Also a gay pride night.
14. You finally open your own publishing house. The first is an anthology on the topic of “Why we read”. It will appear on your website.
– Rappler.com
