On extended run until Jan. 8, 2025 at the basement of the centrally located Baguio Convention Center, “Naked City: Futures from the Crossroad,” the visual arts exhibition that’s part of the recent Ibagiw Creative Festival, indeed strips from the city all those romantic, nostalgic notions and reinstates the significance of the once shunted indigenous peoples and culture.

Filmmaker Carlitos Siguion-Reyna who just arrived in New York managed his jetlag and went straight to Carnegie Hall. “Saw a wonderful recital of Cecile Licad. The pianist again did the music world, the Philippines, and herself much honor through her deeply personal readings of a rich, diverse, and interesting program generously supplemented by two encores. Hoping for more concerts of her again soon in Manila.”

The name Kevin Eric Raymundo doesn’t trigger automatic recognition in the way the alias Tarantadong Kalbo does. The alias is undeniably catchy, and intriguing, especially because tarantado is hardly a mainstay of polite conversation. It makes one wonder if the man, Tarantadong Kalbo, is simply a jerk (albeit a creative one) or a rebel with a cause (he’s the latter). The identification is shored up by his kalbo (bald) style that he wears with aplomb.