06.26.08 kulturnatib

Fête

When fellow columnist, Raymund Fernandez, in his column last week, “Infiltrating Music,” writes that “we were told that 'Fête' is a day when France celebrates a day of free music,” they were told not quite the whole thing, particularly where the word 'fête' is concerned.

Still, Fête de la Musique is, indeed, a day of free music in France, throughout the world -- especially the French-speaking parts -- and for the the first and hopefully not the last time in Cebu last Saturday.

I missed that one. Likewise, the one that I had planned to attend and thought I had actually attended when a check in the internet proved otherwise. This is rather curious since if there is any place where the Fête de la Musique is sure to be celebrated in North America, it would be or should be in Quebec.

But, no, the official event was in Ottawa, just across the Ottawa River or Riviere de Outaouais from here. It was held through the auspices of the Alliance Francaise who organizes this event in many parts of the world including the Philippines.

Actually, the event we attended could have very well been an independently organized celebration of the Fête de la Musique. This was held at the oldest house here, in Gatineau, a building restored by the city and operated by the writers' association, hence now called the Maison des Auteurs.

This was a small event held appropriately in a small venue. Appropriately, too, music was the focus of the event, provided by a four-piece band playing mostly socio-political songs and mostly in the style of the ballad, a proper French word with an 'e' at the end since it is a feminine noun.

So, missing that 'fête,' at least the official one, I made sure not to miss the next and bigger 'fête' a few days later.

This 'fête' is also celebrated in the Philippines and throughout the Christian, particularly Roman Catholic, world. This is the Fête de Saint-Jean-Baptiste, or Feast day of Saint John the Baptist, or simply, to us, San Juan, celebrated June 24.

This feast was celebrated for the first time in North America with the arrival of the first French colonists centered in New France which is today's Quebec province of Canada. While it is still often and largely referred to by its religious name which was given further impetus with the imprimatur from the Vatican, by Pope Piux X who officially designated Saint-Jean-Baptiste as the patron saint of Quebec, it has now been overtaken by the more secular and designation, 'Fête Nationale' or 'Fête du Quebec.'

This is translated to National Day of Quebec, which is the official language of the enactment of this designation in 1977. This, of course, gave rise to controversy that in many ways attests to the deep-seated and widespread feelings of Quebec nationalism.

Thus, now this event is accompanied by, among other things, much flag-waving of the blue and white, cross and fleur-de-lis flowers.

This was the overwhelming sight, an undulating sea of Fleurdelisè -- as this flag is called, in Quebec City, the capital of Quebec which is also celebrating the 400th centennial of its founding, held aloft by an estimated 150,000 people celebrating three 'fêtes' at the same time.

The 'fête' we attended was a markedly smaller event. As expected it was bannered by musicians, who I did not expect to be familiar with, except perhaps for their musical genre. But to my pleasant surprise here was music I knew though not the singer, nor the entire song, which is, of course, in French.

The song is, 'Lady Marmalade,' made famous again through a remake featured in the hugely popular, Nicole Kidman starrer musical movie, 'Moulin Rouge,' with the popular line from the chorus sung or quoted in the Philippines in its various mispronunciations: “voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir . . . . ' and sung here by its original creator, 70s Quebec rock icon, Nanette Workman, ironically, an Anglophone.

So, 'fête' has many meanings. In English they are all etymologically related to feast and festival. Yet, the most common usage here of 'fête' is 'bonne fête.' Or, happy birthday.

This one goes to Raymund.

06.19.08 kulturnatib

Loot bag

Before it gained acceptance and widespread use among the upper and middle classes of the English speaking world, ours included, loot bag used to refer to the bag or sack slung over the shoulder of a thief tip-toeing nimbly away from the scene of a crime as caricatured in many television cartoon shows or cartoon strips. The bag contained the loot of the crime, hence the name.

Now, with thieves -- especially in government -- no longer bothering about tip-toeing away from the scene of their crimes but rather are being whisked away in heavily tinted SUVs with police escort to boot, loot bag more popularly refers to a bag containing gifts or giveaways usually given by fast food chains where, most likely, this particular usage got its head start and powerful popularizing boost.

Thus, loot bag refers now to a gift bag although with, again, thieves in government, this has, for them, always been one and the same thing. For them it has always and only been a matter of being at the right place, at the right time and the loot or gift, rather, is just there simply for the taking.

As a creation of the fast food industry, the loot bag is a favorite gimmick to snare customers, often children who are particularly susceptible to these gimmicks. And parents too, who actually pay for these gimmicks -- there is no such thing as a free lunch is a favorite fast food industry slogan -- and who can't be bothered any longer about what gifts to give to their children or the gifts their children give to other children.

Still, not all loot bags are enticements for mostly junk stuff from the fast food chains.

Last week Luz received a loot bag. Since at 7 weeks, crying is still the most eloquent form of communication and fastest form of mobility she is capable of, we received the bag on her behalf. She could have been given the bag earlier but she did not yet have the card that everybody has here that gives them access to government services and facilities: A health insurance card, also serving as one of the main forms of identification.

Having this card is a requirement, at whatever age, to being provided a city access card. One of the main access that this card affords is to the municipal library network consisting of 10 libraries in the 5 sectors of the city.

All these libraries have specialized sections for children including special reading and multimedia spaces for them.

Luz's access card is similar to all other access cards, including mine, save for one respect. Instead of her picture it bears a smiley face. Just as well. She wouldn't have been able to stay put or hold her head up for her portrait to be taken.

(Parenthetically, it reminds me of one of Budoy's UP identification cards with a similar smiley face that he somehow was able to have made despite this being already the credit card type of ID card. And, he was able to use it, too. Only he knows how he was able to pull it off, on both counts.)

So, with her access card, she also got her bag. It was a medium size brown paper bag with one color on the outside and a reverse print that said, 'une naissance, un livre.' Or, 'one birth, one book,' which is the name of the reading encouragement program of the Quebec government, the public library system and the private sector of which the loot bag is some form of welcome.

As can be expected, inside were materials that she will not have immediate use for save for what might have been a squeak toy but is now only a squeeze toy. The rest of the materials, guides for introducing children to reading and writing, a childrens' books catalogue, and a magazine on children, were clearly for the parents.

There was, however, one book that Luz can immediately make use of. Not necessarily read but can start associating with; words as sound and words as sight. This is also one book that one of her parents can start with in communicating with her in what will be her maternal language and his adopted tongue.

Both are beginners, one knowing better than understanding, the other vice-versa, especially with a language often beyond words. Cry, or sourir, for example.

06.12.08 kulturnatib

Book ukay

In boxing, heavy and weight mean simply that. The heavier, the weightier and, to the delight of boxing fans, the more brutal – not brutish, as this is supposed to be a gentleman's sport – if, occasionally, burlesque the fight. Remember Tyson biting off a chunk of Holyfield's ear like it was some particularly delectable morsel of piping hot lechon?

With books, however, heavy and weight are often sparring partners. The heavier are often not the weighter. They are, as often, pejoratively called 'door stoppers' whose heft lend nothing but a hand at preventing doors from closing shut.

Conversely, the slim volumes are often those who pack the most punch.

This leads to the problem of monetizing books. Or, putting a money value to them. Like the rest of the trade of goods and services – the economy in general – the price we pay for books are supposed to be the sum of complex equations involving anything and everything that goes into book production, not the least of which are factors that make books more confounding than boxing.

But why not forget or at least temporarily put aside those confounding factors and reduce books to their most elementary, equalizing characteristic? Which, of course, is weight since books are nothing but paper, ink, glue, binding materials and, for talking books or books with accompanying cds or dvds, some plastic and chemical coatings.

Why not, indeed?

This appears to be the tack taken by the annual “Grande Vente de Livres D'occasion.” This yearly used or second hand book sale is organized by the Gatineau Municipal Library. It pools books, journals, magazines, vhs tapes and dvds from the ten libraries of the city's five sectors that comprise the municipal library network and sells them to the public by weight. At the price of Can$ 2.50 per kilo of books.

Even for Filipinos who can and do try to afford books – realizing full well that this means roughly 4 kilos of food crisis rice per kilo of books – this is reasonably affordable. Enviably cheap.

No less here where by the time we arrived at the gym where the sale was held an hour and a half after the doors were to open, as announced, it was packed. In fact, not knowing exactly where the gym was located, we were led to it by the cars that had lined the road from the highway, the tail-end – our lead-start -- of which was about half a kilometer away.

Inside it was organized chaos, ukay-ukay style. In snaking, criss-crossing lines, people were pushing, pulling or hefting bags, back packs, sacks, boxes and all sorts of containers being filled up with books. Along the walls some were sprawled on the floor by themselves or together with their children poring over volumes that would eventually go towards their pile.

This pile or piles were the only claim, if only for that day, to book connoisseurship entitling them to become spontaneous or extemporaneous book critics; Have you read his latest?; This one is better; This seems to be a new edition; etc. And in a mix of English, French and other languages for the immigrant communities were well represented there.

As to my pile, it included, among others, “Letters to Father,” letters of Suor Maria Celeste the eldest daughter of Galileo from a convent in Florence where Galileo had placed her and, “The Professor and the Madman,” a tale of the strange contributor of nearly 10,000 definitions to the great Oxford English Dictionary who, aside from being a master wordsmith, turns out to be a murderer and clinically insane.

For sure there were as many reasons as there were people for what could only be the success of that event. Chief among them, I am inclined to think, is that people there, perhaps unknowingly, are simply heeding the advice of Gustave Flaubert in a letter to Mlle de Chantepie: “Read in order to live.”

That quote is taken from, “The History of Reading,” of course, another one among my pile.

06.05.08 kulturnatib

Red letter day

Thursday, next week, will be one big red letter day for the Philippines and, by international law because they are considered part of Philippine territory, Philippine embassies and missions all over the world.

For the embassy here in Ottawa, though, that is more an intelligent guess because, as of this writing, there has been no announcements in the regular media and even on the embassy's website as to what activities or events are scheduled to take place for Independence Day on June 12.

The website would actually be where I would think that this and such announcements would be better posted rather than the regular media. It is cheaper and could be targeted more precisely. After all, when registering or doing business with the embassy one is required to furnish an email address.

More than simple cost considerations, however, the web also allows for interactivity, immediate feedback or action and all other kinds of information, communications and entertainment advantages that all web savvy Filipino teens know about and use daily.

But, the embassy here, and I would bet elsewhere as well, is too adult for that. Proof of this is that on the site's main page the main feature is still the “Important Announcement Concerning May 2007 Elections.” How so yesterday is that?

And then, the first part of that announcement is a list of voter's who apparently had taken advantage of the newly instituted overseas absentee vote and had election related mail from the Comelec which they had to pick up from the embassy. Why not take advantage of email?

Of course, that is the Comelec. The Comelec of Abalos, to be precise, who is involved in some of the most monumental scandals in Philippine electoral history or just history in general.

Again, that is so yesterday for which we all suffer the regime of GMA today and in the days to come.

So, there probably is nothing going on to celebrate Independence Day here. Unless, at the last minute, something turns up.

Nonetheless, it will still be a red letter day.

It will be the opening of the exhibit of the Bank Street North Rehabilitation Project Bike Rack Art competition. This will be a one day exhibit where some 50 shortlisted submissions selected by an art selection committee for this competition from the total submissions will be subjected to public scrutiny and comment.

These comments will be taken into account by the selection committee to decide on the final 30 entries. The final designs will be plasma cut into half inch solid steel sheets measuring one meter square. Each will then be mounted on bike rack areas along the length of Bank Street.

This is just one of the many art projects that the City of Ottawa is initiating, including the just granted Wellington Street Art Commission sculpture project and the light emitting diode (LED) public art commission, which is still accepting entries, among others for this year.

These are among the projects and programs that support the thrust of the city for the promotion of the arts which is funded through the allocation of one percent of funds for municipal development. Together with the private sector, who enjoy their own government incentives, these not only beautify public spaces but more importantly guarantee public access and appreciation of the arts.

On the level of the artist, these allow a foot, so to speak, in the door to more prominent exhibit spaces like better known galleries and museums.

With the Bike Rack Project I have two feet in the door with the shortlisting of two designs I submitted. True, there is still one more hurdle towards final selection. But, like the British Booker Prize for literature, to be shortlisted is prize enough.