FRESH PAPAYA ] A favorite space undergoes a little retweaking

Post-reopening guests, artists Patricia Eustaquio, MM Yu and Nona Garcia.

Of the local galleries, Green Papaya holds a distinguished spot. It can be outrageously intellectual one moment, say, in exploring the interrelationship between performance and dialogue (“The snobbish tone of a roundtable discussion belies the possibility of taking something much seriously than how it already appears to be because surely there is nothing as tedious than witnessing steadfast attempts of repeating patterns to the point of their own exhaustion.” Whew, ka-exhaust.) Or when talking about the annual Serial Killers group show (“Serial Killers is a response to parallel notions of seriality, non-seriality, or counter-seriality.”). Still, from that high up, nowhere in the art scene is the atmosphere most grounded than at the rough-around-the-edges halls of this space near the corner of T. Gener Street and Kamuning Road in Quezon City.

Here, far from the polished, finished walls of the spaces everywhere else, despite the occasional presence of collectors and other demigods, the artist surveys the new works of their colleagues, then parties about unencumbered, owning the space like home. Maybe it’s the artists who run it. Maybe it’s the San Miguel. The thing is, no matter the culprit, Green Papaya is—to use a not-very-cool description—fun. And now that the space is on its third incarnation—as a full-fledged bar but with art on the side—the interiors remain possessed of its original resolve: to carry the best and, ugh, wasak in contemporary art, and to give the community an all-embracing second space to come home to.JG

The ground floor space is the bar and art shop (selling small, old works by the likes of Maria Taniguchi and Nona Garcia), the second floor has been turned into a studio and living space for artist and gallery owner Norberto "Peewee" Roldan. Clockwise from top left: the bar had been moved further to the front and serves, the last time we were there, red wine, vodka, Johnnie Walker and beer, of course; works by New York-based artist Gaston Damag unearthed from the Papaya archives; more works by Damag who recently had a show of installations at sLab; and lightboxes by Nona Garcia.


Green Papaya Art Projects is located near the corner of T.Gener Street and Kamuning in Quezon City. It's open from 4pm onwards Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.


Photographs by Rico Quimbo.

THE WEEKEND IDEA ] If you're not watching The Backstreet Boys

The invite to Manila Transitio 1945 via celdrantours.blogspot.com.

In February of 1945, the City of Manila was completely destroyed in a battle between the United States Armed Forces and the Japanese Imperial Army. An estimated 120,000 people were lost and our beloved City of Manila was never the same again.

Tomorrow February 27th, To mark the 56th Anniversary of the Battle of Manila,Intramuros Administration and Carlos Celdran, will present the 2nd TRANSITIO MANILA 1945. This art event hopes to become an annual commemoration/memorial where we as Manilenos may reflect upon the passing of this event in our history. The evening will start with a sunset fundraiser tour of Intramuros at 6:30. Art installations and performances will follow at the Fort Santiago at 8:30pm. The evening will be highlighted by the release of spirit balloons by the gates of Fort Santiago. A reasonably priced buffet and refreshment will be available. Picnic baskets are allowed.

EVENINGS ACTIVITIES AND COSTS:

TOUR
6:30PM
I will be holding a SPECIAL sunset tour of Intramuros. It will be a bigger show than the usual. The tour will be followed by a special party at Fort Santiago. Ticket holders to the tour will enter the party/picnic for free and recieve a free glass of wine. Tour starts at 6:30PM - Please arrive earlier than that. Tour ends at 8:30PM
Php1,000.00.

Assembly point is Plaza Roma in front of Manila Cathedral.
Proceeds will go towards the procurement of scooter bikes for the Intramuros Kabayan Security Force (An NGO).

MANILA TRANSITIO 1945 ART EVENT
8:30PM
Gates open by 7:30PM
The evening proper will start with readings about the Liberation of Manila curated by Mabi David and a performance by Donna Miranda, it will be followed by music by Junjie Lerma, Caliph8, and P.G. in the gardens fronting the moat. Flamenco music by Yerbaguena will follow. There will be an exhibition of art installations by Denis Lagdameo, Dranreb Belleza, Reg Yuson, Tad Ermitano & Team Manila. Current artists in residence at the Living Room Vince Galvez and Alex Felipe of Kapisanan Toronto will also present a video work specially made for the evening. The evening will be capped by the release of spirit balloons at the gates of Fort Santiago (video above).

Feel free to pack your own picnic basket and set up a blanket in the grass to watch the performances. A reasonably priced buffet (Php450.00) by Ilustrado Restaurant will be available for those who do not bring their own food. Vuqo Vodka will be available and a wine bar by PREMIER WINES & SPIRITS. www.sexandsensibilities.com and Frenzy Condoms also supports the event.

Entrance to this event only is Php250.00 with a free drink.

Text 920 9092021 to make reservations (Lesley)
or email celdrantours@hotmail.com

Please indicate on text whether you are reserving
for TOUR alone or TOUR/PARTY or PARTY only.

Stall map of Art in the Park in Salcedo Village.

Or take a stroll at Art in the Park this Saturday 27 February 2010 at the Jaime Velasquez Park at Salcedo Village, Makati City from 2PM - 10PM.

NOVA Gallery shall be participating this year taking with works by Norma Belleza, Jayson Oliveria, Trek Valdizno, William Gaudinez, Nunelucio Alvarado, Raul Agner, Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi and a lot more.

THE DECENT GOODBYE ] Carlo Tadiar on how to write a eulogy. Or why bother

Bea Camacho, Portrait Series, 2007, Artist Book. Photo from Magnet Galleries

The all time worst eulogy I have had the misfortune to endure was Kit Tatad’s for Larry Cruz. What made it egregious was not its excruciating length (Claude Tayag had to cut his charming eulogy short for Mr. Tatad), banalité of thought and expression, and the pompous dirge of its delivery, but the fact that it had nothing to do with the deceased. It was an exegesis on the movie Babette’s Feast. A crappy exegesis.

Hoping to make Mr. Tatad come to a stop (as well as to pass the time), I texted my pew-mate Alya Honasan, who was sincerely bereaved by the death of Mr. Cruz, if she knew the eulogist’s number. She texted back: “1-800-BORE”. And yet still more about Babette and her feast. On and on and on.

As soon as the eulogies came to an end, I jolted out of my pew for a cigarette. Who should walk out from the other end of the chapel but the bore himself. I felt like I ought to go up to him to tell him that that was the crappiest eulogy I’d ever heard in my entire life. But I thought the better of it and had a cigarette nalang. I’m told he wields powers over fire and brimstone.

One of the best eulogies I’ve read is by Teddy Boy Locsin for the recently departed and much beloved Corazon Aquino. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch its delivery as I was engaged in one of the countless quotidian senselessnesses I must endure para buhayin ang sarili ko, those things that fritter away at life so that you might make a livelihood.

Mr. Locsin enunciates his love for his President and describes how she had changed him. Of all her advisers, Mr. Locsin says, he likes to think of himself as “the one who loved her most.” And the desire for vengeance on the few so many suffered under went away even as her victory put him in a position to seek it.

“It never again occurred to me that I had scores to settle,” he remembers. “And not until today, that I had passed up every chance to get even…

“I certainly never noticed that I had left my anger behind. I don’t know how it happened. Except that Cory Aquino ennobled everyone who came near her.”

As a conscientious speaker, Mr. Locsin is reflexive. Tragedy is so easy to exploit.

If you saw me as I felt myself to be, anyone would fall in love with me.

I saw myself in that hospital room, a knight at the bedside of his dying sovereign,

on the eve of a new Crusade, oblivious to the weight of the armor on his shoulders

for the weight of the grief in his heart.

'Nothing can be said. This is especially true of violent, sudden, senseless deaths.'

I always cry at funerals. I will not shed a tear at a wake, but once final rites are underway, I cannot stop the tears. It embarrasses me. In part, it is the rapacious finality of death, its terrifying material sunder, that grieves me so. But it is in greater part the commonality of humanity so often quoted from the articulation of John Donne that makes me weep. The verses have been so often quoted that I cannot bring myself to even point to them.

“Grief too sad for song.” Who was it that coined that verse and in which poem? There is an aspect of death which cannot be addressed in any kind of notes. Nothing can be said. This is especially true of violent, sudden, senseless deaths. I live in terror of those words, of pain which cannot be assuaged by any human intervention. Only madness follows.

WH Auden wrote:

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Even that death, cataclysmic as it was for the author, had the grace to be put into song. They used it (the song, the poem) in a movie.

The one who grapples with words in the face of death grapples with the difference between truth and art. Which is which, what is what? If I had the answers I would charge you for it.


Written exclusively for TheSwankStyle.com. Carlo Tadiar is the editor of Metro Home & Entertaining.

THE FASHIONISTA IS DEAD ] Welcome the era of the housewife

Written originally for the Women's Month issue of Free Press, a spinoff from one of my blog entries as editrixiagomez, this essay came out in the current issue of Uno Magazine.

You have to give it to Anna Wintour for knowing how to negotiate the complexities of capturing the mood of the times in a venue like the Vogue cover. Look ma, no numbers! No insufferably mundane declaration of 348 Pages of Sparkling New Clothes! Even the announcement of the Spring Fashion Special, almost a whisper at the bottom right corner, seems a little embarrassed for itself. In one of the two big fashion issues of the year, rather than pop the champagne for the barrage of the season’s new fashions, the editor Anna made a cover girl out of Michelle Obama, “The First Lady The World’s Been Waiting For,” wearing a shift dress, quietly seated on a beige sofa, surrounded by an equally beige curtain and beige lamp. Sobriety is the new chic, the cover seems to say, and even the First Lady's smile suggests she's a little tentative about doing this glamour thing. On the inside pages, she looks more relaxed in Annie Leibovitz’s photos, wearing subdued wifey little separates as a pencil skirt and a cardigan. The opening spread’s photograph perfectly echoes the writer Andre Leon Talley’s observation: "Curled up in the corner of a huge taupe velvet sofa, wearing knee-high boots as she nestles into the cushions, she almost seems like any other mom recently relocated to a city because of her husband's new job."

The fashionista is dead. It's the era of the housewife.

Of course, we’re not forgetting O-mama was Princeton-schooled and graduated from Harvard Law and looks like she can outscore any of the Williams sisters at the tennis court any day. But her public image will always first and foremost be the wind beneath Barack’s wings, reading to Malia and Sasha before they sleep, and pleasuring her husband after a long day’s work (hopefully not simultaneously. At least not in the same room). She is the icon of the moment and she is joined by an illustrious cast: some of the most popular women in the world who are proud carriers of the housekeeper badge.

Not a day passes when you don’t get a glance of Angelina Jolie on television, exiting yet another airport terminal, clutching one or two from her United Colors of Benetton brood, confidently announcing that she may be the biggest star in the universe but no Oscar win could come close to changing diapers while on holiday in the South of France. Or while visiting another orphanage in Zimbabwe.

Which brings us to Salma Hayek who most recently volunteered her left boob to a thirsty, nutrition-challenged African infant. She should lend her right one to any of the eight newborns of Nadya Suleman, certainly the most celebrated mom on tabloid television, already a mother of six before she gave birth to octuplets in January. With the size of Salma’s breasts, she could easily cover at least two Sulemans at a time.

Closer to home, Gretchen Barretto and her Bvlgaris have retreated to a quieter life while her sister Claudine is on headline news. She may not be appearing in the cineplexes and doesn’t even have a teleserye in the can, but the former Folded and Hung image model is in the limelight lately, in tears, desperately begging for a new law that will protect her two kids from kidnappers after her Sabina was almost snatched by a “fan” in her pre-school. Previous to this, she only managed to make her presence felt to the outside world by endorsing not a Secosana bag but an artificial food flavoring. There she is brandishing a huge bandehado of Adobong Ilongga she claims she herself cooked to members of the press--with Raymart, Sabina and Santino immediately behind her. And there she is again in another mommy magazine cover wearing the colors of Knorr’s Real Sarap All-in-One Seasoning Mix. The fashionista has become what the ad’s creative team have conveniently coined a “realista”—whatever that means.

The mom is indeed back in fashion. Manila Bulletin just put out a new mothering mag called HIPP. And we all know that the biggest blockbuster movie this year will be a mommy film: Ate Vi’s return to the big screen playing, whatelse, a mom, this time to a child with AIDS in the most important Star Cinema project in years.

How did we get to this, one might be compelled to ask. That in a matter of one fashion season women the world over have killed their cravings for the moment’s It bag and Balenciaga sandal? How did they go from obsessing about Carrie Bradshaw obsessing about Jimmy Choos to watching Tina Fey in 30 Rock obsess about chew toys for her yet-to-be adopted child. Now we all want to be Tina: smart, sassy, “America’s New Sweetheart” according to the January Vanity Fair, and in real-life, an always-beaming mother of one.

Blame it on the recession, of course. As we speak, hundreds of thousands of moms are going back to the home after losing their jobs due to corporate downsizing. After years of working the balancing act of a successful career and a happy home life, the reality of an economic depression has led them no choice but to tread the road back to life inside the picket fence.

Even Celine Lopez, Manila’s most famous fashionista is writing about such homely things as growing up in a politico family and, very recently, the introvert’s party scene, facebook. Just last week she was in Cebu for the design expo buying not a new cocktail dress or jewelry but furniture. Yes, she’s not a housewife but if you’ve given up the alcohol and the partying, as she has, then you may as well be. I sat down for drinks with her famous girl friend lately, the stylist Jenni Epperson. She spoke to me about missing those notorious party hardy days at Embassy, how fabulous those days were when the “freaks” were spilling their designer duds with their eleventh Cosmopolitan (and who knows what else). Yet there is a calm in her demeanor, a sincere sentiment peeking, when she starts talking about her daughter and how she’s become even taller now than her fashionista mom. Jenni doesn’t go out anymore. Although I still see her photo in some society page once in a while, appearing almost makeup-less, wearing trench dresses (goodbye zebra prints!). Or a roomy black shirt that allows for her healthy little extra weight—-as in the night of the Mark Nicdao show at Greenbelt 5. Of course I heard a couple of bitchy quips whispered behind her back—-mostly about the shirt and the unapologetic extra pounds.

But that’s the price you pay for changing your priorities, for going from fab to flab. When you’ve given up the spotlight for the less glamorous things. Gwyneth Paltrow should know. Formerly the biggest fashion icon in Hollywood, queen of the red carpet and the Vogue cover, she has traded designer clothes for baby strollers and began a career that echoes that of Martha Stewart’s. While raising an Apple and a Moses, she is at home blogging, writing about making meatballs, appropriating a personal uniform and asking her friends what books they read. Soon enough, the haters started crawling towards her with their claws. What right has she, they ask, to dispense advice about motherhood?

But isn’t that a mom thing to do? Moms like to share stuff, advice, discoveries, the best deals. They’re the designated doctors of the house, the Mother Confessor, the principal advisor. Every mom does what Gwyneth does. Its just that Gwyneth is famous and blonde and beautiful and friends with Madonna.

Without needing to take to the streets and burn a bra, women are finding themselves the rulers of this era, the icons of this age of going back to the basics. Us men couldn’t possibly join this bandwagon. We can’t even take care of ourselves. So we do it in other ways. Willie Revillame, early this year, coughed up close to half a million pesos supposedly from his own pocket to sponsor the plane fare back to Manila of 32 women OFWs being abused by their employers in Dubai.

A move not even our own president could afford to do, although she is a woman herself, let’s be clear about that. Because she’s more of a goon now the way the media and her critics have portrayed her (not that she’s entirely undeserving). Now here’s an idea: maybe, like the homecoming OFWs, it might do her well to return to being a housewife. Mike Arroyo will probably be the better for it. God knows the rest of us will be the better for it.

IF YOU WANT TO READ ] Free Press celebrates 101 years

I wrote the Maricar Reyes cover story for them a month ago. Of course, we also have a Cory tribute (written by Malou Mangahas and Neni Sta. Romana Cruz) over at my new HQ, but for the love of Ricky and Erwin...

The FREE PRESS celebrates its 101st anniversary in this issue. We also take this occasion to pay tribute to the late President Corazon Aquino. Cory!—the private woman who was thrust out of her domesticity to the arena of politics, the prison cells of the Marcos regime, the parliament of the streets, the leadership of the Philippines and the world stage. Manuel L. Quezon III’s “Filipino of the Century” is an inspired retelling of this now-legendary story—one that resonates even amid the flamboyance and machismo prevailing in our culture, as the late FREE PRESS editor Teodoro M. Locsin pointed out in his eloquent editorial on Mrs. Aquino. The highlight of Mrs. Aquino’s international acclaim is, of course, her triumphant 1986 address to the US Congress, which we reprint here.

A tribute to Mrs. Aquino also serves as a tribute to her martyred husband, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., whose association with the FREE PRESS is underscored by Locsin being thrown in jail together with Aquino (and nine other critics of the Marcos regime) in 1972. Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.’s interviews with Aquino are fascinating chamber pieces that hint at Marcos’s impending dictatorship. Another cellmate of Aquino and Locsin Sr. is the brilliant political analyst Napoleon G. Rama, whose article on martial law has unfortunately become more relevant in our time. With the articles by Rama and Locsin Jr., we also reprint the classic political cartoons of former FREE PRESS art director E. Z. Izon.

Former FREE PRESS executive editor Gregorio C. Brillantes wields his lyrical journalism as he takes a retrospective look at Rolando Galman, the much-overlooked casualty in Aquino’s assassination in 1983. We also look back to the body of work of the FREE PRESS and some of the writers who helped shape it. “The Ruling Money,” by the late associate editor Nick Joaquin (writing as Quijano de Manila), is an exhaustive business story as only he could write it—and a departure from his reporting on politics, history and pop culture. Kerima Polotan’s “The Woman of Fashion” is a quiet critique on the thriving bourgeois scene of the Sixties and its devotees at the time. Then there’s the other side of that milieu, lauded by Jose F. Lacaba’s now immortal “Notes on Bakya,” an inventive variation on Susan Sontag that counsels against elitism in art and culture. Finally, here too is Aquino’s soul-searching poetry, written during his eight years in prison. The themes are familiar to victims of political persecution like Lacaba, Locsin, Rama and this magazine, which was padlocked on the eve of martial law and revived in time for Cory’s historic presidential campaign.Ricky S. Torre

Available at all National Bookstore Outlets and 7/11 Branches. Or you can call 844-2316, 844-2251, 844-2275, 0919-583-8487 for orders.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED ] In Bacolod while half-drunk, half-hungover

Photograph by James Ong

Start drinking as soon as you land. You never have to worry about anything anyway. Heavy meals end by lunch. The beer should keep you going from cocktail hour to midnight.

The best chicken inasal is in Bacolod Chicken House located at the back of artist Charlie Co's Orange Gallery, inside the Lopue complex. In Manila, I know there's a branch at Intramuros across the Manila Cathedral.

It's kind of amazing to see the house where they shot Oro Plata Mata, possibly the most stylish Filipino film, and to be able to walk in the second floor area where they shot that fabulous opening sequence. There are three balkonahes in that house built in the '30s (four when you include the ground floor terrace), and I wanted to take a picture of James getting the kuto from Raymond's hair as homage to the scene where Fides Cuyugan Asencio and the rest of the girls were being fussed over by at least three maids each.



The mestizos don't go out a lot. Or I was going to the sakada places.

The Ruins (topmost photo), the remains of what is touted to be the most gorgeous house in Negros had it not been burned by the Japanese, is quite magnificent. But the landscaping of the garden that surrounded it was a little too Hizon's Catering for us. They should have given the job to an art director.

To reach the ruins, you drive through a long rough road lined with tall sugarcane plants on either side. I complained about it halfway to the trip but our companion said even the hacienderos had to go through them. So I kept quiet.

That during those days, people, even the rich ones, slept in beds without cushions, only the solihiya weaves.

Drinking in the afternoon in Bacolod is the best. Well, drinking in the afternoon anywhere is the best.

No point eating expensive Italian food when in short vacation in province where they have a lot to offer. Even if the pasta is good, its a little pretentious.

The pilipit is Bacolod's Pringles. Once you pop...

The kansi (like bulalo but a tad sour) is the bomb. Especially after extended hours of drinking.

The empanada at El Ideal is, well, ideal.

THE TOP 12 ] Reasons why we're back

And so are they for Season 6.

1 Because recent weather forced us to stay home with nothing to do. Hence, we also saw Episode 1 of Season 6 wherein for reasons unknown to man E is portrayed as The Hot One, and Vinny is relegated to side dish. There is a hot Ari vs Lloyd battle but it fizzles out in the end.

2 Because we just appeared in Garage.

3 Because we just appeared in Metro Society.

4 Because Joel Ruiz called us excellent in his blog. And me love Joel.

5 Because Manila's chicest reads us. And while we are tempted to drop names, we're too cool for that.

6 Because two more people decided to sign up and follow us. Ooh, and another one just now.

7 Because we haven't earned from this and we want to.

8 Because its Cinemalaya season. I mean wherelse will we voice out our grievances/joy from watching all those films? The trip from QC to CCP is not a joke, you understand. It's P400 if we take a cab, or jeep+2trainrides+CCPorangeshuttle then cab again to go home, or we ride with someone and pressed to talk to person-with-car.

9 Because we just nominated ourselves to the Philippine Blog Awards, and we might just win. If by chance the confirmation link finally works.

10 Because if Lolit really orchestrated that whole Hayden-Katrina-Vicky circus, we have to continue existing to prove that there is more good than evil in this world.

11 Because we've already gotten the hang of this. And, like the boys in the photo above say, a lifestyle is a terrible thing to waste.

12 Supply your personal reason here.

THE PARTIAL OBSERVER ] Lessons from a week's worth of occasional glances at the telly

1 Simple doesn't work for simple people. They need a little bit of styling, a little upping the glamour ante. If you make a peasant wear a peasant blouse, it ceases to be a peasant blouse--it's a uniform.

2 She's looked better.

3 Some people are so used to thinking cheap headline: Pinoy makes good abroad! Makes nation proud! Saves Philippine Cinema! Whatever. Brillante Mendoza won Best Director at Cannes. Congratulations to him. He should be proud. And maybe we should be happy for him. But his trophy doesn't begin to solve the problems of local films. It doesn't have anything to do with my pride as a Filipino. I'm already proud to be a Filipino, I don't know about you. I don't need constant reminding. If I don't like Charice, I don't like her. If I don't like Arnel, I don't like him. Pure and simple. Being a Filipino has nothing to do with it. We haven't seen Kinatay and people want us to rejoice for it. And these people rejoicing for the entire Pinoy citizenry, will they still feel the same way when they finally get to see it? Will they even pay to see it?

4 It's a good thing Kim Chiu knows how to do body contortions.

5 People still believe the cliches: if you're the accused, you should wear a white shirt. And if you, and your mom, give an exclusive interview from your home, you have to make sure your backdrop includes a saint. Because nga you're already living a prayerful life.

6 While my heart broke a little when she said, "Ang kapal ng mukha mo, nakakatingin ka pa sa'kin ng ganyan," it doesn't change the fact that she was the K word. And I don't mean kikay.

7 We must stop dragging Victoria Beckham's name to refer to the new dos of local stars. Layo 'no!

8 Phillip Salvador should have stopped at skinhead. He already won points for ditching the Fanny Serrano bangs.

8 After catching a rerun of the original Kim Sam Soon, I know now why Koreanovela works, and why it doesn't quite work when we produce the entire thing. Their actors are Koreans.

9 The stylist Liz Uy has a sense of humor. She had Kris Aquino wear a feathered headpiece on SNN.

10 But you have to love Kris. We here at TheSwankStyle have an idea who John Lloyd is seeing. And this afternoon while watching The Buzz on mute, Kris seems to have the same idea, too. And she wasn't afraid to show it.

KIPING IN TOUCH ] The urban planner returns to his Lucban roots

Photograph by Mark Vivas

Mark Salvatus's works has a lot to do with the city, employing art to create an urbanscape that is both aesthetically pleasing and feasible, and aimed at infusing the metropolis with a vibrant visual energy that go beyond Bayani Fernando's cheap puns (cheaper than this post's title, we mean: a street sign that says Lee Kuan Yew for Likuan U) and pink metal trimmings. Every third summer, however, Mark goes back to his hometown Lucban to help put together the family's Pahiyas decor which, he says, is a big influence on his more citified pursuits.

When I was 5 or 6, we lived in a small house at the center of Lucban. I helped during the preparation: simple decorations lang with kiping, some vegetables. It’s like the whole town was transformed into a wonderland--very colorful, very festive--like the Hansel and Gretel story where you can eat the houses. It’s a family thing, a communal gathering where everyone was involved. The route of the Pahiyas changes yearly so our area only gets to do the decoration every three years.



My lolo Ramon Salvatus was a local historian, poet, teacher and a former Municipal Secretary of Lucban (in the 70’s). I heard a lot of his stories about the San Isidro Festival. He also coined the term “Pahiyas” which means to decorate, and jewel (hiyas) refers to the rice grains and other produce.

Before the Spanish came to Lukban, the locals were already offering their produce and crafts as a sign of gratitude for a good harvest to the gods like the sky, water, trees etc. When the Spaniards came, they saw this ritual. They introduced San Isidro Labrador to the locals as the patron saint of farmers and told them to offer their harvests in honor of him.

The ritual of offering harvests evolved as a local Catholic celebration, wherein Lucbanins bring rice, vegetables, fruits etc to the church so the priest could bless them. The church got so jampacked with people and offerings, the parish priest decided that instead of the people bringing the produce to the church, he will go to their houses and bless the offerings there. So the locals displayed their best produce outside their homes.

Usually the family decides what to do. Everyone is involved. It’s like a big production. From studies, then production then to the presentation---the Pahiyas day itself. The materials used are local products/produce of Lucban, reflecting the livelihood of each house: longganisa, hats, bakya. Its possible to use other materials as long as its not synthetic or plastic. Some use bread, cotton candy, pansit habhab etc.

Usually the preparation takes about a week to 3 weeks. Meron ding mga simple lang, but the point is that they still participate in the celebration, kahit na simpleng bamboo with kiping okay na. But this last Pahiyas, I'm kind of disappointed with a lot of banners of politicians. Mukha nila ang naka-pahiyas--mukhang kamatis at talong.

The Pahiyas is some kind of a big installation art or public art. It is also some kind of collaborative art--a relational art- wherein people are part of the process of making it. My works now are process-oriented, involving the public and the environment. Like the Pahiyas, its about collaboration and public space. The communal aspect of my practice has a big impact on the tradition I grew up with. I always go back to Lucban if I have time to look for inspirations. The tradition makes us very creative. The lambanog doesn't hurt, too.


Pilipinas Street Plan, of which Mark is co-founder, has a show tonight at Pablo Gallery in Cubao X called Strip Stick and Drip. For Mark Salvatus' urban projects, visit marksalvatus.blogspot.com and pilipinastreetplan.blogspot.com.

Neo-Urban Plan is now accepting contributions that are related to matters on Philippine urbanity and the visual culture within the urban space - it may be photos, text, essay, drawings, experiences etc. email it to markrams@yahoo.com

THE BAGETS ISSUE ] Here's to the old times (and 25 years of growing up)

Cover design Neil Agonoy

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?” sabi ni George Orwell nu'ng 1949 sa librong 1984. “A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain.” Obviously, hindi na-imagine ni Orwell na ipapalabas ng Viva Films ang Bagets ng taong ‘yun.

In this, the second issue of TheSwankStyle, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of 1984. Those days before another Marcos-for-President campaign went full throttle, isang taon pa bago mag Edsa Revolution at mayanig ang mundo. Anong ginagawa mo no’n? Ako, sumayaw sa field demo ng “Always Something There To Remind Me” nakasuot ng canary yellow shorts, nandaya sa school spelling bee (at nanalo!), at nanood ng pelikula. Ng maraming pelikula. Sakay ng Kawasaking motor, dinala kami ng tatay ko sa Maristel Theater sa Valenzuela para manood ng Bagets. “Say something!” inis na sabi ni Rosemarie Gil sa anak niyang si Raymond Lauchenco, na forever deadma sa kanya. Sagot ni Raymond: “Something.” Hindi na pa-tweetums si Sharon Cuneta sa Dapat Ka Bang Mahalin? “Kung saan, kelan at papano ang labanan, magpasabi ka lang, hindi kita uurungan,” hamon niya kay Chanda Romero. Nag-liplock at nag-brush moustaches sina Ronaldo Valdez at Mark Gil sa Apoy sa Iyong Kandungan. Ominous ang car accident sequence sa Sinner or Saint sa buhay--at pagkamatay--ni Claudia Zobel. May carinderia sila Tito, Vic and Joey sa Goodah! Hindi pa pinaghihinalaang bading ang mga thirtysomething na lalaking walang asawa nang gampanan ni Jay Ilagan ang geeky bachelor sa Soltero. Hindi makagat-kagat ni Eddie Garcia and mala-labanos sa puting si Lyka Ugarte dahil nakabantay si Gloria Diaz sa May Lamok sa Loob ng Kulambo. Laging naka-wet kamison ang mga softdrink beauties--Pepsi Paloma at Sarsi Emanuelle at Coca Nicolas--sa Naked Island. Pa’no naman kasi, naligaw si Al Tantay searching for the meaning of life.


“Hindi mo na ‘ko ikakahiya ngayon,” sabi ni Gina Pareno kay Raul Leuterio (Tommy Abuel) sa Working Girls, “I’m a Makati girl now. I can speak English already. Ansafaflu, ansafafla!” “Sabeeeel! This must be love!” pahayag naman ni Carmi Martin. Matapos mag-brief lang sa swimming pool ni Baby Delgado sa Bagets, walang pagod namang nag-layer si Aga Muhlach complete with MJ gloves sa Campus Beat. “Ayoko ng masikip,” sabi ni Maricel Soriano sa Kaya Kong Abutin ang Langit, “Ayoko ng mainit. Ayoko ng putik,” habang naka-finger comb with gel ang kanyang hair from the sides to the back. “Pinapangako ko inay,” sabi ni Sharon Cuneta habang naka-daster at nakatingin sa langit, “Bukas luluhod ang mga tala.”

That year alone, we made 142 movies. 53 action. 35 na drama. 25 na bold. Anim na youth-oriented. 22 comedies. At isang horror. Pili ka lang kung anong gusto mo. “Kung hindi tayo ang kikilos, sino ang kikilos? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan?” sabi ni Vilma Santos sa Sister Stella L. Hindi ako natulog sa image ni Julie Vegang possessed sa taas ng aparador sa Lovingly Yours. Nakakatakot din in a different way si Ace Vergel sa Basag Na Pula. Larawan si Lenny Thantoth at PJ Abellana ng misunderstood youth sa klasikong coming-of-age film, The Punks. “Hindi mo kami maiintindihan, Ma. Punks kami.” "I'm standing on the shadow of time," sabi ni Raymond Lauchenco sa Hotshots. Ang hebigat nila Cookie at Albert, Maricel at Yam sa Teenage Marriage. Tinupad ni Vivian Velez ang pantasya ng sangkabaklaan nang maligaw siya sa isang island with ten robust young men all vying for her attention sa Sampung Ahas ni Eba. Nanggagaya lang ng designer patterns noon si Gretchen Barretto sa 14 Going Steady. How kawawa naman the kids in Mga Batang Yagit. Hindi pa natatapos ang taon, may sequel na ang Bagets. “So this is how it feels to be in love, I feel like I’m floating in the skies above,” kanta ni Ramon Christopher kay Claudette Khan, anak ni Odette. “Do you feel the same way, too, when you hold my hand? You don’t have to say a word, I understand.” Quiet lang si Ate Guy sa ‘Merika. May special wedding footages sa The Best of Sharon and Gabby. Nag-boxing match si Maricel at Snooky sa Anak ni Biday vs. Anak ni Waray. Lumabas tuloy hindi talaga marunong mag-Waray si Nida Blanca.

Naka China-chop si Ate Vi sa Alyas Baby Tsina. Nakapangingilabot si Gloria Romero sa Condemned. Kung Harot si Anna Marie Guttierez early in the year, Charot naman si Roderick Paulate. The beginning of the end of the Gabby-Sharon sizzle ang Sa Hirap at Ginhawa. Puwedeng pang On The Lot ang pitch ni Abbo dela Cruz para sa Misteryo sa Tuwa: Anong gagawin mo pag nasa gubat ka’t may nag-crash na eroplanong punong-puno ng pera? Assuming hindi sa'yo nag-crash 'yung eroplano. Pero walang nanood. Is it the title kaya? At nagtapos ang taon with a Regal shocker: the first of a franchise that haunts us hanggang ngayon: Shake, Rattle and Roll. The original, sabi nga ni Ate Luds, is always the best. Biruin mo, a deranged William Martinez getting off on watching Janice de Belen getting it off with a possessed refrigerator? Why not naman? There was something for everyone noong 1984.

I recently saw Bagets again sa relatively big screen ng Mogwai. And to see it again, at 35, hindi ko na inexpect that I will still like it. Pero tumawa pa rin ako, na-charm, goosebumps ng konti. Ang saya-saya ng pelikulang 'to. Siguro sila Maryo J, Bernal, Zialcita, Brocka, Gallaga etc. they made so many good things then dahil naisip nila that we won't be doing quite as good in the decades that will follow. So that in the '90s and the 2000s, wala na tayong gagawin kundi mag-revive at mag-tribute at mag-retrospective. They gave us the most fun, well-made films so that we can just keep looking back. Obviously, pag dating sa prediction-prediction, mas magaling sila kay Orwell.

Photograph from the personal collection of Cesar Hernando.
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THE RECOMMENDATION ] Are you man enough for Hay! Men!?

Kung tunay na lalake ka, Erap, bakit ka naka-headband?

Called "Ang Blog ng Mga Tunay na Lalake," Hay! Men! reminds me of an Esquire story from several posts ago defining the modern man. This blog does the same except its credo is stripped of bullshit, and its samplings of men, and whether they are tunay or not, can be totally hilarious. Is John Lloyd "tunay na lalake?" Yes, despite the fact that he's pa-cute, "nagtatrabaho siya para sa trabaho." Is Pops Fernandez tunay na lalake? She's under consideration. "Na-link siya kay Jomari, naging asawa ni Martin, pero kayod-kabayo hanggang ngayon at hindi nagfa-falsetto masyado--itinatapat lang sa audience ang mikropono pag mataas na ang tono ng kanta at sumisigaw ng "O, kayo namaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Clearly produced by someone from the literary/music circle whose Tom Cruises are Lourd de Veyra, Norman Wilwayco and Khavn dela Cruz (Lourd and Khavn are "tunay," Norman has yet to be tried), it's an irreverent look at the Filipino man and can often be bitingly true. Although it can't seem to say why Piolo and Tim are not "tunay," it may be implied in the phrase "kung ano-anong shet." Is the blogger not man enough to say it? Oh, let's not get too Esquire-y about it.

Here, the "Manifesto ng Tunay na Lalake":

1 Ang tunay na lalake ay di natutulog.

2 Ang tunay na lalake ay di nagte-text-back, maliban na lang kung papasahan ng load. Gayunpaman, laging malabo ang kanyang mga sagot.

3 Ang tunay na lalake ay laging may extra rice.

4 Ang tunay na lalake ay hindi vegetarian.

5 Ang tunay na lalake ay walang abs.

6 Ang tunay na lalake ay hindi sumasayaw.

7 Ang tunay na lalake ay umaamin ng pagkakamali sa kapwa tunay na lalake.

8 Ang tunay na lalake ay laging may tae sa brief.

9 Ang tunay na lalake ay di naghuhugas ng pinagkainan o nagliligpit ng kanyang mga gamit dahil may babaeng gagawa noon para sa kanya. Mas lalong nagiging tunay ang pagkalalake kung di niya kilala o di niya maalala ang pangalan ng babae.

10 Ang tunay na lalake ay di nagsisimba.

THE WEEKEND IDEA ] Recommendations from the Swank commune

Photograph by MM Yu

DO
First, turn your lights off at 8.30 tonight and leave it that way for an hour as the earth-conscious citizenry of the world does the same. What to do in your hour of darkness? 1 Revisit your childhood and make shadow animals with your hands. 2 Revisit Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve by lighting a candle. Face full-length mirror. Wait for ghost to appear. 3 My friend Kathie Dee says go to town with this revisiting-your-youth idea by playing hide-and-seek outside. Or tumbang preso. If no one else will play with you, invite ghost from May Day Eve exercise. 4 Take a moment for your friends whose lives have been rendered tragic by the sudden change of the Facebook layout. Pray that they may have other things to worry about. 5 Take a moment for the lady who jumped on the LRT tracks in Tayuman station to commit suicide. Have our train tracks become unfriendly to suicidals? Am I seeing a discrimination issue? Would she have succeeded on the Marikina-Recto LRT? Or the Libertad station? Did you know that in Obama-era Africa they don’t call it “blackout” anymore? They now say “previously lit.”

SEE
If you’re planning to go out early, my friend Raymond Lee asks “why not break your routine and approach the sublime for a change” by seeing the ongoing exhibition of the Paulino Que collection of figurative contemporary art at the Finale Art Gallery (Pasong Tamo, Makati City). FROM RAYMOND: “The compulsion to create and to collect works of terrible beauty is on display, powerfully, lovingly, transformatively.” If that doesn't sell it, I don't know what will. All large works and mostly never-before-seen from some of the country’s most brilliant artists including Manuel Ocampo, Geraldine Javier, Alfredo Esquillo, Jose Legaspi and Yasmin Sison. You can see a slide show here but what good would that do you?

Carlo Tadiar, my editor at Metro Home says I should watch the Tony Award-winning musical Spelling Bee, or The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, "a hilarious tale," says the press release, "of overachievers’ angst as it chronicles the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime." FROM CARLO: "Although ostensibly played out among kids, Spelling Bee is PG hilarious, wry and wise. The melodies are intricate yet fresh, and each performance a tour de force of vocal artistry and physical dexterity." Runs til next weekend at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza (For tickets, call 8927078, 8401187 or 8919999).

READ
If you’re staying in, the filmmaker Coreen Jimenez, one of the brains behind the engagingly riotous Big Time, is raving about The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King who was apparently so blown away by the amazing collection. Mr. King asks: “I’m getting paid to read this?” Coreen recommends these three “mind-fuck” selections: "Toga Party" by John Barth, "DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story" by Lauren Groff (click here for excerpt) and "St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell.

Of course you have to get your ass out of the house to get a copy of the book, so if you’re sofa-bound today, Coreen's friend, the director Joel Ruiz, says there is this Pulitzer Prize-winning article about Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists, playing street musician at the Washington DC subway station for a social experiment on art and how we appreciate beauty in the midst of our harried lives. It's called "Pearls before breakfast." Reminds me of the time I stopped to listen to this brilliant voice from a blind girl at an MRT station who was singing “Rain.” It was the Donna Cruz “Rain,” not the Madonna.

If you're the Madonna-type, and "Pearls" seems too long for you, one of the guys here at Swank, JR Agra, who designs some of our pages, sent me this most amusing New Yorker story entitled "Intelligent Design" by Paul Rudnick (of that Tom Selleck-starrer In and Out), a designer version of The Story of Creation. I find it a little sacrilegious (and I assume the other page designer would agree), but if, like Madge, you don't mind that at all, it's an engaging, sassy burst of flamboyant imagination.

Click orange notes for links. MM Yu photograph, The Light at The end of the Tunnel Has Been Switched Off, installation by Mawen Ong, curated by Roberto Chabet, February 2009. Courtesy of Green Papaya Art Projects, 41 T. Gener Street corner Kamuning Road, Quezon City. ...Read more

RECOMMENDED VIEWING ] Word of the Lourd

This is the Word of the Lourd. In which the poet plays modern day philosopher looking for the meaning of tarpauline, whitening potions and life itself in the gloriously rioutous streets of Manila in a capsule commentary aired regularly over ABC5’s The Evening News. Mixed with mostly original music and lyrics from the frontman and lyricist of Radioactive Sago Project himself (with an occasional collaboration with a guy named Raimund Marasigan), de Veyra’s wry humor, occassionally surprising perspective on issues, and often hilarious footages, this capsule commentary is probably the most intelligent and provocative three minutes you’ll spend on free TV these days. Here, a few bites for your brain to nibble on.

Makinig sa simbahan, makinig sa mga pari. Bakit hindi mo paniniwalaaan ang mga taong walang alam sa pagpapamilya? At ang mga taong hindi kinakailangang magbanat ng buto para mapakain at mapa-aral ang sampung anak-bata? Sa dami ng krimen at aksidente, hindi ba nababawasan ang dami natin? So ibig sabihin (dapat) gawa lang tayo nang gawa ng kapalit. Alam mo naman baka matulad tayo sa Europa. Baka magkaron tayo ng tinatawag nilang demographic winter. Ibig sabihin (magiging) puro na lang tayo mga tan-ders.—“Go forth and multiply”

Is your accent better than mine? Bakit nga ba kailangan natin baluktutin ang sarili nating mga dila? Para saan? Para kanino? Hindi ba maintindindihan ng mga tao ang English mo pag di ka nag-slang? What-eber. Iinom na lang ako ng ber. Chers!—“Slang”

Wag ka na kumain. Para tipid. Imbes na bumili ka ng Xenical at kung ano-ano pang pampapapayat diyan. Pag di ka pa sumeksi, ewan ko na lang. At saka pag di ka kumain, di ka na magluluto, at siyempre di ka na bibili ng LPG.—“Krisis Tipid Tips”

Ano ang mas pagkakagastusan mo ng isandaan: isang digital film na pagkalungkot-lungot at pagkadilim- dilim? O isang pelikulang punong puno ng kantahan at sayaw at kilig moments? Marami nang tao sa planetang ito na nabuhay, lumigaya at namatay na wala namang kamuwang-muwang sa sining. Sino nga ba ang nagpapahalaga sa kultura? Sa isang bansang ang dami-daming kumakalam ang sikmura. Malamang ang sagot ay ‘wala.’—“Walang silbi ang art?”

Eh ano ba naman ang problema kung malaki ang tiyan? Eh bakit sila Alfred Hitchcock, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Mao, bakit sila para silang buntis lagi? Ano ba naman ang naiambag ng magandang abs sa kasaysayan ng mundo?—“Bitin sa kanin"

Word of the Lourd airs Mondays 11pm on Ten (The Evening News) on ABC5. It can also be seen on Youtube, just click on the orange quotes above. ...Read more