Archive - Arts & Culture

By ERIN EMOCLING Photos from CURIOUS SETTING FASHION stylist Pam Quinones has a library in her home, which is accessible only by using a ladder. The library’s unusual location (the loft) is not due to space constraints; on the contrary, her French-themed house with its high ceiling and muted earth colors is quite spacious. Quinones’

   By PABLO A. TARIMAN  THERE are many things going for a TV network (with a film outfit) running a symphony orchestra. For one, it is assured of resident musicians who can service the music needs of its telenovelas and film releases. It doesn’t have to run to CCP or elsewhere for its music events

By ERIN EMOCLING “NOT all those who wander are lost,” said J.R.R. Tolkien in his  book, The Fellowship of the Ring. They discover a thousand and one things. Some even find themselves. Seven young artists from the University of the Philippines show their stirring take on what wandering, being lost, and subsequently found. Their artistic

 Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA LABAW DONGGON was that rare epic drama set to music complete with a chanter, a chorus, whose members moved as though they trained as gymnasts, dazzling costumes and a natural setting, all of which didn’t detract from a complicated plot line. Afterwards, one emerged from the makeshift outdoor theater

Text and photos by VINCENT GO THE city of Manila marked the end of Lunar New Year celebrations with a cultural exhibit featuring performers from Suzhou, China. The end of the Chinese New Year, also celebrated as the Lantern Festival, fell on Feb. 24, which happened to be the 15th day of the first lunar

By PABLO A. TARIMAN  FILMS about hometowns are rare indeed and if they come, you get to share a part of the director’s rarely known childhood. Lino Brocka’s “Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang” is a classic example and it was a reflection of his childhood in San Jose, Nueva Ecija and perhaps, Donsol, Sorsogon where his

Podcast and photo by CHARISSA ORJALO DATING back to pre-colonial days, sabong, or cockfighting, remains very much a male pastime in the Philippines. The blood sport is played out in arenas throughout the country, especially on weekends, almost always sending bettors and spectators into a frenzy. Charisse Orjalo visited a Malabon arena one Sunday where

  By JOSEPH CORTES WE take it for granted that the musical “Miss Saigon” did much good for Filipino actors. Since the musical first premiered at London’s West End in 1989 with Lea Salonga in the lead role, so many local theater talents were discovered and have starred in productions that covered Europe, the United

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA THE former members of Circus Band and New Minstrels, no matter what batch they came from, have tapped into the mother lode that will keep them grooving onstage for more Valentines to come: equally maturing Baby Boomers and martial-law babies who aren’t quite ready to ride into the sunset

  By  PABLO A. TARIMAN  THE opening of Carlo Pacis’s “A  Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the CCP  Friday  night showcased a totally new generation of dancers, not to mention an equally young emerging choreographer brimming with new ideas. When Ballet Philippines artistic director Paul  Alexander Morales acknowledged the company’s co-founder, Eddie Elejar, the gala audience

 By ELIZABETH LOLARGA Photos courtesy of CHS alumnae THE College of the Holy Spirit (CHS) on Mendiola Street, Manila, has found a better way to address its centennial year than hosting fund-raising parties or issuing commemorative stamps, plates, key chains and the like. “High Spirits,” featuring 15 alumnae visual artists, led by Imelda Cajipe Endaya

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA A good number are, including illustrious names in the Philippine literary canon. In a controversial article in a magazine last year, Katrina Stuart Santiago wrote that the house of Philippine letters was on fire while the Filipino reader remained indifferent because the house’s masters continue the tradition of patronage

  By JOSEPH CORTES AN epic tells the aspirations of a people: where they come from, what they are, and what they hope to be. At times of hardship and despair, retelling the people’s glorious past in the form of an epic, and not its history, serves to rally the masses to gather together and

By DESIREE CALUZA DEDICATED to the proposition that “Love is beyond gender and sexual orientation,” a church in Baguio City makes possible same-sex love to bloom and have it formalized in a marriage ceremony. Last Dec. 23, Myke Sotero, 44, exchanged “I do’s” with his long-time partner Gregory Rugay,40, in a solemn ceremony conducted by

    By JOSEPH CORTES CONSIDER yourself lucky if you were one of those who enjoyed The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s 40th anniversary concert last month because it may take some time before you will have the opportunity to listen to Ryan Cayabyab’s violin concerto that premiered that night. It has something to do with the

Text, photos and video by VINCENT GO THE sound of firecrackers filled the narrow streets of Binondo as crowds packed the district to watch traditional lion and dragon dancers welcome the Lunar New Year. Binondo, as Manila’s Chinatown is known, joined the world’s Chinese community in greeting the Lunar New Year with fireworks, feng shui,

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA COLUMNIST-HUMORIST Chit Roces-Santos has joined the respected ranks of hyphenated women authors at the launch of her first book, Personal Space and Other Essays. At the well-attended event at Powerbooks in Greenbelt Makati, the author marked other milestones: another birthday in her senior citizen’s life, coming out with her

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN  THE most encouraging thing about “Daragang Magayon: An Istorya Ni Mayon” is that it was spearheaded by the provincial government of Albay as part of its tourism pitch. Very few in the government sector believe in the immense power of culture to perk up the tourism landscape. Albay, for one,

By WINNIE VELASQUEZ AS dragon and lion dancers usher in the Year of the Water Snake at around three in the afternoon Sunday, Feb 10, families and friends will gather to wish one another wealth, longevity, happiness and prosperity. And as cries of Gong Xi Fa Ca! rend the air, rituals steeped in centuries-old tradition

 Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA THE sixth of this month will linger long in the head and hearts, like the “last song syndrome,” of those who watched tenor Arthur Espiritu as he breathed life into the lyrics of poets and the music of the masters. The Ayala Museum lobby in Makati City was filled

  By NORMAN SISON Queen Sofia’s photo  by CASA DE S.M. EL REY / BORJA FOTÓGRAFOS IF you are a Filipino, most likely you can understand the Spanish headline above. Because of 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, Spanish is part of Filipino culture since Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines in 1521. There are about

By NORMAN SISON Photos by ERIK C. LIONGOREN LATE last month, a Manila court sentenced activist Carlos Celdran to prison on charges of “offending religious feelings” for staging a theatrical protest in 2010 at the Manila Cathedral for the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to a family planning bill that was then pending in Congress. International

By CHARMAINE DEOGRACIAS WHEN the Cultural Center of the Philippines launched master classes last year as part of their artist education program, it was honored by no less than world-class Filipino artist, Arthur Espiritu. Not only was it CCP’s first voice masterclass offer, it was also a rare first to have a tenor conduct a

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THE most followed teleserye on local television is no doubt ABS CBN’s “Ina, Kapatid, Anak” featuring Kim Chiu, Maya Salvador on one hand and Enchong Dee and Xian Lim, on the other. The big bonus is that the young stars have a power-house supporting cast in the person of Cherry Pie