photo by Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews
“On July 9, 2000. Camp Abubakar, the main MILF camp, fell to government forces after weeks of heavy fighting. Former President Estrada said this would end the war in Mindanao. Nine years later, the fighting goes on and the issue still remain unresolved”– Froilan Gallardo’s Facebook status
photo by yvette malahay kim/ circa 90s
Circa 90s photo of me taken with film by Dumaguete artist Yvette Malahay-Kim at the yard of the Endhouse gallery, the former hous of Dr. Faurot located near Edith Carson Hall in Silliman Universtiy. I think I was around 18 years old at the time this was taken.
I grabbed this from the latest photo album she uploaded about our Endhouse Artists Days. It was so much fun and amusing looking at the photos. Reminded me of how proud we were when we finished setting up that gallery. Looking back now, I’m proud of being part of that history of artists in Silliman University and Dumaguete as a whole. It felt like such a long time ago yet the memories are very vivid and clear for me. The camarederie, the friendships, the laughter, the discussions, the heartaches, even the fights, were all worth it.
In one of the photos an image of the late Kennedy Rubias stares back at me and I recalled the last time we talked. In Kahayag Cafe one night in Cebu, I heared a man with long hair and beads around his wrist call out to me “Claire? Claire? Kaw na?” And I remember how I was so happy to see a familiar face, one of my early mentors in visual arts especially, during that turbulent time in my life. That was the last time I saw him. A year after, when I was already in Davao, I receive a text message from Jutse telling me that Kennedy died.
But above everything else, I guess the pictures are a reminder of amazingly far I have traveled, figuratively and literally. I will never be ashamed of my past (as some people I know are). Those things (bad or good) made me who I am right now. It is always filled with moments of celebration, these acts of remembering.
I’m a big fan of Lea Salonga’s blog and her column “Backstory” in Inquirer.net.( Obviously because I’m a fan of her since I was 8 years old.) Anyway, this recent article she wrote offers good advice for me who’s soon leaving for NY. I’ve been wondering about walking, you know the endless walking which I’m not a fan of, and Lea offers really helpful advice: have a good pair of shoes. Here’s her article. I’m sharing it to those who are planning to visit the place. 
“How does one make a trip to this wonderful city something to remember? Does it include visits to the tourist spots, Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, sports events, and restaurants? Does it mean travel on foot, by train, or by cab?
Here’s what it means for me:
1) Plenty of walking. New York City is a fantastic place to walk. The sidewalks are quite wide (no invasion of personal space) and there are many interesting shops and restaurants you can dart in and out of while on a trek.
A piece of advice: Make sure you have a good pair of walking shoes. No, not your pretty ballet flats or Brazilian-branded flip-flops. I mean something with cushioning and support, lest you’re looking to get a bad bunion.” read more here
Happiness
My sister Pearl and I went out for dinner at Blu Grey at Matina Town Square to celebrate what we call “twin blessings.” That means that on the same day, the twins Pearl and Rose received blessings. Pearl finally got regularized/tenured in her job at IID. I’m so happy for her considering that she’s such a workaholic and she believes in what she does as Information Management Officer. And then Rose also got her own blessing by winning first prize in the Red Point National Thesis Competition for Architecture. She got the Best in Research award besting 10 other finalists from the different architecture schools in the country. Her prize is amazing too (100k and participation in the global apprenticeship program).
So yeah, we were both so happy that Pearl and I managed to eat two servings of Tuna Pesto Pasta and two cups of hot Chocolate ala Mode. Then Pearl had one bottle of beer at Kanto bar while I drank a glass of iced tea. We talked til midnight. It was a fun way to celebrate blessings. Of course, we didn’t forget to thank the universe for everything.
The pictures we took while goofing around in Blue Grey.
dako kaayo ngisi uy!
i’m sure people my age can still remember those childhood moments when your parents would drag you to the most popular landmark of your hometown, in my case the quezon park and freedom park in dumaguete city, for a family picture or two taken by the most popularly known best park photographer. in the 80s, that photographer would have most likely used a Kodachrome film. now, that seems to be such a long time ago. your family pictures have slowly faded among the photo albums piled inside your parents’ closet. in my case, the albums are somewhere inside a shelf in one of the rooms of our old house in dumaguete. faded memories are still memories and are still stuff for nostalgia.
now that Kodak has finally decided to stop producing Kodachrome films, finally i could say “those were the days.” abs-cbn news reports:
“NEW YORK – Kodachrome, the film brand touted as the stuff of memories, is about to become a memory itself as Eastman Kodak stops production due to overwhelming competition from digital cameras.
Eastman Kodak Co said it will retire Kodachrome color film this year, ending its 74-year run after a dramatic decline in sales.” more here.
a decline in sales was obviously pending and expected what with thousands of professional, amateur photographers and photography enthusiasts deciding to go digital. from somebody who has stubbornly used film for the longest time before switching digital, this is some bittersweet news. i still love the soft look that film allows. and currently, i’m still learning to use my digital camera and trying to appreciate everything it can offer. the good thing is that going digital means less expenses. in my shelf at home are several rolls of Kodak films i haven’t had developed and printed because the process would definitely burn holes in my pocket.
some photographers have paid tribute to the Kodachrome. find out from this site.
*trivia: one of the most famous pictures taken with a Kodachrome is the picture of an Afghan girl with those haunting set of green-gray eyes published in the National Geographic
Since I resigned and my contract ended at the University, I have been sleeping entire mornings everyday. I don’t know why but it seems that my body is trying to collect and compensate for all the lack of sleep I had in the five years I was working in the University. Someone told me that it’s good that I have time for myself before I leave for graduate studies, which I kinda of agreed with except that sometimes it’s been really easy to give in to the boredom and tedium of nothing else to do. I think I have been trying so hard to adjust to my present rhythym which is far from the stress-filled one I had last year and a year ago when I was juggling projects here and there on top of teaching. Methinks I am a closet workaholic.
But no worries. I guess I feel much better now that I have time to do my DIY projects and other activities I’m happy to be doing minus the stress. I have enough sleep too. Yeah, I oversleep also. Might be the reason why today someone told me I’ve been gaining weight rapidly “because of oversleeping.” Otherwise, another person told me that I look healthier, filled in the right parts, but healthier compared to how haggard and skinny I looked a few months back.
The thing is, I don’t want to look plump. Sigh. Figures why my clothes won’t fit me anymore. And due to my going cold turkey on smoking, I’m also eating like crazy.
So when does one say being stress free is good when one isn’t gaining weight to boot?
Before I flew home to Davao last January after celebrating New Year in Cebu City, my friends Bombee, Blessy, and I had a videoke party in one of those unassuming, quaint videoke bars lined along Mango Street. They had convinced me to drink a few beers and sing videoke style with them over the night until my 3am flight. I knew it was risky because there was a big chance that I’d be late for boarding, but my friends were very convincing.
Anyway, the most memorable moment of that party was when Bombee and Blessy both stood up to sing and dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. After a few bars, they managed to pull me out of my cocoon of a chair, and we all ended up doing the Thriller dance moves that were surprisingly still etched in our memories. I remember laughing out loud while we were doing the zombie moves. It felt like being in the movie 13 Going On 30 as we all squealed, “thriller!” in unison.
That’s how memorable Michael Jackson songs are for us who grew up in the 80s. So finding out this morning that he died of cardiac arrest sent chills to my spine. For me, Jacko’s death symbolically signifies the death of an era, a past that will be lost, and a reminder that we have indeed all grown up. It is time to leave Neverland.
I bet he’ll still be wearing his glove and clicking his shoes out there in the big unknown.
finally, after such a long time, i checked Taboan account today and found there are already a lot of messages and friend requests inside. i also noticed the administrator has changed the look of the social networking site. this time it’s more user-friendly and the design is minimalist, something i liked better compared to the older look which was kinda horror vaccui. i know i know, i’ve noticed that among most designs here in mindanao. perhaps it’s the mindanao aesthetics. there is always a need to fill every space! and there is always a need to have an ethnic design here and there. so tiring already. but don’t mind me, i’m just being critical.
anyway, the Taboan site (and I’m not talking about that writer’s festival with the same name) is really interesting because you get to connect to people from all over the world who have same interest as you. that is, mindanao. i find it a good venue for those working in the field of advocacy and or those who are doing communication campaigns. the blogs section is perfect for those working in advocacy, i reckon. i mean you can blog a post about your recent campaigns and then voila, that post can be distributed to all the members of the social network.
i wonder who writes the articles in their news section though. or are those articles syndicated or part of a subscription scheme. hmm.. i say this because frankly, the stories there are really good and some are up-to-date and carry information i rarely get.
to those who came up with this really neat concept of Taboan, kudos to you and more power! really. i can’t wait to witness the evolution of this social networking venture.
The top one most searchable keywords of today (according to Google Trends) are for me reminders of how we are all voyueristic species. And we shouldn’t be so hypocritical about it. The keywords “demi moore bush pic” became number one after web users started looking for the picture Demi Moore had taken of herself in the 80s which showed parts of herself which shouldn’t be exposed. Of course, people who are curious but who I bet are the first to cast the stone, immediately searched for the picture in web using the keywords “demi moore bush pic”. And so there goes the hits shooting up like crazy. Only to satisfy a thousand voyeuristic tendencies.
This reminds me so much of how quick a lot of Pinoys condemned the whole Hayden Kho fiasco only to be the ones who first went out there to search for a copy of the videos themselves. Hypocrites indeed. I find it very ironic hearing women rant about how Hayden Kho has exploited these women by shooting a video of them having sex without their knowledge. As it turns out, most of these women I know, are the ones who even encourage other people to watch the video; even copying the files and sharing them among their friends. What a twisted world this is. Aren’t they also “exploiting” the subjects of these videos by patronizing their viewership. My gulay.
As for the “demi moore bush pic”, nobody has really condemned the reporter who first wrote about the picture online. Except that it is clear that most people really aren’t concerned about those things. If asked, they just say “they were satisfying their curiousity.” Same response I get about the Hayden Kho videos.
It would be great yet ideal if we start acknowledging our levels of voyeurism, don’t you think? Instead of having to always answer to some moral/religious standard that we ourselves twist in whatever we can to make ourselves feel better. But then again, who am I too judge? One can argue that I am also inadvertently using these famous keywords in this entry to gain more hits for my blog.
Always we are part of these layers of users, creators of meaning.
Yet again, from an academic standpoint, it would be interesting to find out what is it about the digital image that immediately dissociates viewers from the phycical living subject? I would like to learn more about this soon.
With news about Pinoys confirmed of having the H1N1 virus, the DOH is obviously strengthening their information campaign on prevention and detection around the country. Apparently still there are a lot of Pinoys who lack sufficient knowledge on the virus resulting in cases of paranoia. One reported incident happened in a public elementary school where even teachers (educators as they are) committed the mistake of concluding that one of their students was experiencing H1N1 symptoms. Another incident involved a person who volunteered himself in the DOH clinic because he thought he had the virus. When asked if he was experiencing sore throat, high fever, coughing, and all the other listed symptoms of H1N1, he said NO to all questions. His medical check-up also indicated that he wasn’t suffering from all those symptoms. What a case of acute hypochondria!
However funny they might have sounded to others watching the evening news, these incidents are for me evidence of how important other sectors are aside from the DOH in disseminating proper information about health matters, such as, H1N1. One thing which I find really necessary is an effort to reduce panic and increase awareness, which is something I find that broadcast media especially large TV networks have tried but failed. It has proven to be so difficult for these TV networks to distinguish the difference between sensationalism and fair, straight to the point reportage.
Of course this is better said than done considering the culture of Pinoys.
Recently, I realized that what I find really difficult to make Pinoys understand and inculcate would be the habit of handwashing for hygienic purposes. Suffice to say that most of us don’t actually wash our hands often than we should. Call it a hasty generalization if you will. I have no figures to back this up. But really, you know what I’m talking about.
Most foreigners (especially Americans) I’ve met have shared this observation about Pinoys often, not really as a racial slur but more like an honest observation. (Not that they are the cleanliniest bunch, but that’s another story). It has been part of our stereotypical habits. We don’t wash our hands often than we should. And even when we have taken to buying those alcohol-based handwash sold in every drugstore and pharmacy, we don’t really use them as often as we should. We only use them before and after we eat. Which really begs the purpose because still the best hygienic way is to wash your hands with soap. Period. And I wonder why nobody has emphasized this. Instead we hear news about schools having alcohol-based handwash in their restrooms instead of soaps.
But even the act of frequent handwashing with alcohol we have stigmatized ever so often. We hold grudges against politicians who often wash their hands with alcohol after the shaking hands of a crowd of followers. We call that person “arte” and “mata-pobre” or anti-poor because we seriously believe that a public servant shouldn’t be so iffy about shaking his/her constituents’ hands. We take the act personally even though we shouldn’t. Because come to think of it, that politician has been shaking hundreds of hands both clean and dirty, hands that possibly belong to the unhealthy, those who are suffering from whatever disease there is, or a possible carrier of a virus. And this politican should have a right to protect his/her health, right? But we begrudge that “maarte” person because we associate constant hand-washing with alchohol as bourgeoise or elitist. read more…
