Archive - Arts & Culture

Nineteen individuals who defied risks and dedicated their life for the cause of truth, justice, peace and freedom for the Filipino people were declared Heroes and their names were etched in stone at Bantayog ng mga Bayani last Nov. 30.

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN  CLASSICAL guitarist Aaron Aguila III won the top prize in the recently concluded National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) followed closely by Aemilio Enginco and with the jury declaring no one was worthy of the third prize. “I was literally speechless I was almost in tears first when I

    By PABLO A. TARIMAN   Watching the new musical, “Fun Home” is like looking through old picture books where a cartoonist’s relives her once younger life with appropriate captions. The stage set is a circle of things you find in an old house – old lamps, tables and chairs – and when Alison

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN SOPRANO Anna Migallos is a millennial who loves thrillers like the “Millennium Trilogy” by Stieg Larsson but is just too human not to like drama like Anne Rice’s “Cry to Heaven.” But she can very well connect with Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” first performed in 1790 at the Burgtheater in

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA At age 80, Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel laureate for literature, described his relationship with the brothers of La Salle as “quite ancient.” His memories of these brothers, who taught him how to read and write, are “rich, vivid and moving.” There is one particular brother, a Spaniard named

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN MUSIC lovers braved the Friday night traffic to watch the latest season offering of the Philippine Philharmonic under its new vibrant conductor, Yoshikazu Fukumura. Now on its 34th season and founded four years after the CCP inauguration in 1969, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) founded by the late Luis Valencia

 By PATRICK KING PASCUAL Overseas Filipino workers are considered to be some of the hardest-working people in the country. But as unfortunate as it sounds, most of the fruits of their hard work are not put into something that can possibly gain great rewards – which in return, if managed properly, can give them the

JOURNALIST Desiree Caluza bagged the “Gawad Agong Para Sa Pamamahayag” award for her story on a human rights leader in the Cordilleras. The feature entitled, “Bontoc woman is a human rights icon,” published on March 30, 2016 by VERA Files, won first prize in the print and online category. The Gawad Agong award recognizes excellence in

Text and photos by COOPER RESABAL LOON, Bohol. Three years after the October 15 earthquake that hit Bohol hard, some residents of this island province are still haunted by the sudden loss of their loved ones. Many, however, have picked up the pieces of their lives shattered by the powerful tremor, and have since focused

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN WHEN Filipino baritone Zip de Guzman sings on Nov. 6 in Hiroshima, the tragedy that befell on the city 71 years ago will be very much in his mind. Near  the spot where  he will be performing – Hiroshima International House Festival –  some 70,000-people perished instantly when an American

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN SHAKESPEARE is a lofty subject in theater and literature but it is also one of the hardest to digest and to impart. When you mount an entire Shakespeare play, you run the risk of a box office deficit but you get the respect of the theater circle. As it is,

   By PATRICK KING PASCUAL HERE’S good news for all solo parents in the country, now numbering about 14 million based on the latest data released by the National Statistics Office. Solo parents may look forward to an additional basic personal exemption from individual income tax in the amount of P50,000. That’s on top of

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THE ballet excerpts were familiar but Ballet Manila gave them an entirely new look by letting the composer himself, Tchaikovsky (played by Miguel Faustmann), re-introduce the world’s favorite ballets. The composer recalls one tragic opening night when Swan Lake opened to bad reception but many years later would become a ballet

[metaslider id=48595] Text and photos by JOHANNA SON BANGKOK, Thailand (Reporting ASEAN) – The abrupt and deafening silence is akin to that which follows the sudden switching off of loud music or the television. A visual environment so defined by black – and some grey and white – that it feels like someone pulled down

    By PABLO A. TARIMAN   With the US and Russia still at loggerheads and with Facebook seething with arguments for and against a cursing head of state, the mounting of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has never been more timely. Quite aptly, Korean presentors called their October 15 CCP event as “Concert for Peace.” Indeed,

It’s not as if Filipinos drivers do not know the dangers of texting while driving. Simple text can turn deadly.

    By Pablo A. Tariman There is a virtual feast of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Cultural Center of the Philippines   as the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Yoshikazu Fukumura mounts one version on Friday, October 14, 2016 and another performance the following day, October 15, 2016 this time with the ABS CBN Philharmonic

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN ESCORTED by a phalanx of fans who promptly disappeared as she took her place on the stage, Sharon Cuneta looks slimmer in an all-black outfit and indeed she is fair game to all subjects brought up by the media. She has lost about 60 pounds and it shows. But more than

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS  GET yourself a copy of Rigoberto Tiglao’s book, “Colossal Deception- How foreigners control our telecoms sector.” The book, as its front cover states, is “a case study of corruption, cronyism and regulatory capture in the Philippines.” The book benefits from Tiglao’s experience as journalist (Business Day and  Far Eastern Economic

[metaslider id=48279] Text and photos by ARIANNE CHRISTIAN TAPAO HARNESSING their superpowers, siblings Violet and Bruce Wong embark on a space journey to save the universe from the planet-eating Space Chupacabra. But there are other negative forces to fight, including one from within: The pressure to conform, partly because of their Asian-American heritage. In the

By DINNA LOUISE C. DAYAO The extraordinary thing about Republic Act No. 10586 or the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013 is that it was enacted despite the lack of coherent data on drunk driving in the country. For years, three government agencies have been gathering data on road traffic injuries and deaths: the

[metaslider id=48197] Text and Photos by ALANAH TORRALBA THE country’s representative in swimming at the Rio Paralympic Games, the equivalent of the Olympics for athletes with disabilities, has just finished his first event yesterday. There was not much fanfare for Ernie Gawilan, 25, who finished 10th in the Men’s 400m Freestyle. Getting a medal would

By JAKE SORIANO CANBERRA, Australia — The Duterte administration waging a brutal war against illegal drugs has earned the Philippines all sorts of global attention. Yet another campaign promise, bringing lasting peace to Mindanao, has somehow been relegated to the sidelines. A book launched Sept. 2 at the Australian National University (ANU) here, following a

Artist Hermogena “Nene” Borja Lungay, a cultural icon in the visual arts in the Central Visayas region

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN  WHO would brave a maddening Friday night traffic and a torrential rain to listen to a Schubert song cycle based on 20 stanzas of Wilhelm Müller’s poems about a young man’s journey into doomed love? Just two hours before the August 26 concert at the Ayala Museum, ominous dark clouds

By FEONA IMPERIAL SEVEN o’clock on a Monday morning, the train station is swarming with commuters. After hours of queueing, it is Bibo Lee Perey’s turn to board the train’s first coach, squeezing himself in amid a bunch of women, children and elderly people. A guard blows his whistle at Perey. The man is singled

By ARIANNE CHRISTIAN TAPAO IT’S A platform like no other, and a first in the Philippines. The website daretohiremenow.com is a skills-based job platform that matches PWDs with an employer for free. And a month after its launch, around 200 persons with disabilities (PWDs) have already signed up. “Given the right conditions, they (PWDs) can

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS I hope the movies shown in the recent Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival would be shown in commercial theaters more widely later. I was able to watch only two: “Kusina” starring  Judy Ann Santos under the direction of  David Corpuz and Cenon Palomares and “Pamilya Ordinaryo” by Eduardo Roy, Jr. “Pamilya Ordinaryo”

By IRA V. PANGANIBAN Nine days before Christmas three years ago, a Don Mariano bus fell off the Skyway in Bicutan, Taguig and landed on a delivery van below, crushing the driver to death. The bus driver survived but 18 of his passengers never got to celebrate Christmas. At least 20 were injured. Investigation later

By BRENDA BARRIENTOS-VALLARTA The Senate Committee on Public Services on Wednesday started to hear proposals to grant President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers to solve the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila and other urban areas. In the House of Representatives, several similar bills had been filed. But while Congress deliberates on possible powers to negotiate