Archive - Arts & Culture

  By ELIZABETH LOLARGA Photos by KIMI FERNANDEZ IT is good corporate practice to set aside a sizable space in a mall so the public can enjoy live symphonic music. Not only is it good, it should become SOP in a country where people have an innate musicality and are always up to date on

  By LEILANIE ADRIANO PAGUDPUD, Ilocos Norte—Steady winds make Caparispisan village in this northern most part of Ilocos Norte town a favorite destination of thrill-seeking foreign and domestic tourists who love to play with the waves while kite surfing. And, soon, tourists can look forward to an added attraction: windmills— just like those in neighboring

  Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA TRANQUIL and quiet beside Juan Luna, who shot and killed his wife and mother-in-law in a crime of passion that landed on the front pages of several newspapers in Paris, painter Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo is perceived to be a bit of a mama’s boy. In his “Visualizing Philippine

  Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA IN the 19th century, Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Jose Rizal and other expatriates in Europe were already doing their versions of the “selfie” and “wacky shot.” They were unaware of the greatness that was their destiny. Historian Ambeth Ocampo, who specializes in 19th-century Philippines, including the arts

  Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA IVAN Niccolo Nery is one of four brothers whose first name is a variation of John. There’s a Gian Francesco, a Johann Frederic and a Jan Lambert. Even his sister Anna has a name that is the female version of John. Nery’s first two names fittingly point to

    By PABLO A. TARIMAN BOMBARDED with the stench of pork barrel which made one Janet Lim Napoles an instant billionaire and with the shocking details of the money trail as related by whistleblower Benhur Luy, the country is now pictured as one big, well-organized gangland peopled by shrewd shenanigans luxuriating in bathtubs awash

By JOSEPH ARNEL DELIVERIO Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte—Moro National Liberation Front rebels grabbed the limelight when they laid siege to Zamboanga City Sept. 9, but most former MNLF forces, like those living in this town, are quietly fighting a different kind of war. Four decades ago, this town was a hotbed of strife and a

By ELIZABETH LOLARGA WHERE once he was an infant so fragile that the family pastor was called in to baptize and give him the last rites, Julian V. Araos has learned to be street smart, even in coping with the still painful loss of his father Jerry, whom he calls “Ama.” Like a mature man,

  BY PABLO A. TARIMAN THE members of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) were preparing for their next season concert on September 14 at the BDO Francisco Santiago Hall when they received a pleasant surprise: an American clarinet player who played in the historic 1945 concert of the orchestra in the ruins of Sta. Cruz

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA THE end of Buwan ng Wika in August marked the beginning of a writer’s exercise in examining one’s heart before writing. This is among the challenges given by this year’s Gawad Pambansang Alagad Balagtas awardees. Karina Bolasco, chair of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) that hands

  By ELIZABETH LOLARGA  IN the gentle gospel according to Robin Lim, a woman grows wise and grows young at the same time with every baby she bears. Lim, CNN Hero of the Year in 2011, has just delivered twins, After the Baby’s Birth: A Guide for Mothers and Wellness for Mother: Postpartum Recipes and

  Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA “COULD I tell Loretta about all of them? Those myriad involvements and entanglements which concededly would run the scale from major to minor, elegant to prosaic, satisfactory to not so very, every single one of them, nevertheless, having helped me grow as a person, as a woman? None

  By ELIZABETH LOLARGA THE P28,000 prize and Julie Lluch trophy that the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation Inc. gives to each winner in the English, Filipino and Chinese poetry categories every other year may not match the more endowed Carlos Palanca literary awards. But these prizes reflect the foundation’s commitment to allow talents 28 years

By ELIZABETH LOLARGA THE jazz circle concedes that Jacqui Magno possesses a versatile vocal range that enables her to move breezily from Alto to Soprano 2. At her solo concert “Sparkling Diamond,” she showed how this strength could be applied to an eclectic repertoire that gladdened the pre-war, Baby Boomer, Gen X, Y and Z

   Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA WHILE other teens her age are on the throes of puppy love, Maria Jeline Llorin Oliva is marshalling her energies and pouring them in the study of the works for the violin by Zarasate, Paganini, Saint-Saens, Vitali and Beethoven. They are the only men who have a room

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN  WHEN a music critic referred to him as a “dazzling pianist” during his graduation recital at the Philippine High School for the Arts many years back, it seemed that Oliver Salonga’s winning streak was sealed He won the University of the Philippines Concerto Competition with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2,

By MA. THERESA ANGELINA QUINTANA TABADA IT’S squeezed in among a sardine cannery, a mattress wholesaler and junkyard on Hernan Cortes Street in Mandaue City and requires the carless to endure a jeepney then tricycle ride through heavy weekday traffic dominated by container vans and trucks. But book hunters hardly mind the perils of the

Photos and video by DANIEL ABUNALES FILIPINOS had a field day making fun of corrupt politicians who love taking “pork,” in the biggest spontaneous citizens’ gathering in recent years. The event was billed the Million People March and even though there were not enough rallyists to meet the target, they more than made up for