Category Archive for: arts and culture

komentaryo

letter from China 1

A trip to China at this point in time can only be embroiled in questions about the crisis that is the West Philippine Sea dispute.

But also it is about everything that we know of China from third world Philippines, where global news means Western media, talking about China and Asia using a gaze that is far from objective, and always necessarily – and maybe inevitably – about protecting the interests of the world-power-that-be, i.e., America.

There is nothing like seeing Asia as separate from America, to realize that we might really only be understanding very little about the world. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

Women. Freedom. Rakenrol.*

Tres Marias made up of Bayang Barrios, Cookie Chua and Lolita Carbon will be having a concert at the Music Museum on September 4, Friday. I have no idea what it’s going to be like, but having seen these women on stage, and reading this piece from 2012, tells me it’s going to be quite a show. Click here for tickets!

via Tres Marias Facebook Page.
via Tres Marias Facebook Page.

It would’ve been a random night over at 70’s Bistro, though it was so wrong to even imagine that to be possible.

Dubbed Tres Marias, the promise of Bayang Barrios, Cookie Chua, and Lolita Carbon had us three girls traveling from across the city —the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila to be exact— after stopping over for some free cake and drinks in Makati. By the time we arrived at Anonas in Quezon City, it was close to midnight, we had missed Bayang’s set, and Cookie was on stage.

For some reason, we could feel that we would be bowled over tonight. We just didn’t know how. Or why. (more…)

komentaryo

the F question #mystealthyfreedom

Probably the one thing I am most thankful for having gone to UP Diliman for an undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature in the latter half of the 90s, were the set of literature teachers and minds available to me, the ones who were well-grounded in nation and how and where theories are limited in capturing where we are, what we think, where to go from here.  (more…)

kultura

on Rai Cruz’s Urban Modifications

NOTE: Urban Modifications is on exhibit at Vinyl on Vinyl at The Collective in Malugay.

Seize The Daze
Photography has always been embroiled in the question of impropriety: what is it that you seize, that you catch in a frozen frame, other than what is expected, if not what is obvious?

H

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komentaryo

beyond boxing

Pacquiao could have been our Michael Jordan, that homegrown boxer turned global iconic athlete. He could’ve spent time and energy building training camps and schools, to provide local boxers from all over the country with the best free training possible. He could’ve nurtured the new Pacquiaos, made the Philippines known for having the best boxers in Asia, if not the world. (more…)