09.27.07 kulturnatib

Biking for life

I do not know of anybody who bikes for death. Biking, like any other sport or activity that requires physical exertion always involves somebody who, in varying degrees, has to be conscious of life, of their life, of the workings of their muscles, tendons, sinews and will at that moment of engagement with that activity.

But there are those who when they bike, they do so, not only for their own lives, but for the lives of others. They are the ones for whom biking for life goes beyond its slogan-content into its life-affirming context.

I had heard from friends that last year the Cancer Warriors led by James Auste the founding-president of the foundation with the same name, were in town. I don't know what I was doing or where I was then that I failed to join the ride. This year, I vowed, I will not miss it.

This ride on bicycles is the main activity initiated by this foundation its supporters and friends in a particular locality in order to highlight their cause which is summed up in the foundation's slogan or vision: 'A world where no Filipino child will suffer a diminished quality of life because of cancer.”

For the local supporters and friends this ride could just be a cruise around the city or town which will often be no longer than a few kilometers. Certainly less than the regular kilometrage serious bikers log every time they go on a ride.

Or, it could be serious distances, like this year's edition of the Bike for Life is embarking on. This edition is, by far, the most ambitious and challenging for the foundation and this project. This year a total of 21 bikers, together with James Auste will pedal 1500 kilometers from Alabang to Davao City.

Along the way local supporters and bikers will make this number swell from the tens to the hundreds.

A bike parade is always inspiring to see. Especially at this time of global warming and the climate crisis when people are beginning to be conscious of the carbon footprint of an activity or the energy consumption of such.

But beyond that, what is specially inspiring about this year's Bike for Life rides is that together with the core group are 9 special bikers. They are otherwise quite ordinary people who, because of special circumstances, are in a very extraordinary situation. They are fathers of children with cancer who are beneficiaries of the Cancer Warriors Foundation.

Romeo Patnugot is one of them. He was a tricycle driver. He is the father of 9 year old Regine who is battling acute lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia accounts for 50 percent of all child cancers in the Philippines. Because of the burden of single-handedly caring for Regine he has had to sell his tricycle and give up his main source of livelihood. He now does laundry for his neighbors to make ends meet.

As quoted in the handout provided by the Cancer Warriors, he says, “To see my kid rise up with a smile every morning, to imagine her laughing and playing again, to know she has a chance to be healthy again and live a full and long life – this is what motivated me to get on the bike, prepare myself for this long, exhausting ride . . . .”
He continues, “This will be an opportunity to inform everyone how difficult and demanding childhood cancer is, especially if you are a child of poor parents. People out there need to know that children can have cancer and that they can do something to help these kids face cancer . . . .”

For me that was getting up early in the morning, hopping on my bike and joining these courageous people on a ride to dramatize and further their cause. Or that should be, our cause. This, I know, is a small thing. But it's something I can do.

For more information on the Cancer Warriors please log on to www.cancer-wariors.org.

9.20.07 kulturnatib

Greenpeace Cebu

Greenpeace is one of the most visible environmental organizations internationally. They have become synonymous with direct actions, as they call it, that are designed to confront the issues as much as make it to the front pages of newspapers and the prime time news on TV.

They are known for huge banners that are unfurled over the facade of buildings, often without the building owner's permission or knowledge, and other prominent structures by their activists in harnesses and rappel ropes. Or their small, zippy zodiac boats that skim along the waves to harass - as much as this is possible, given the David and Goliath proportions of these encounters -- Japanese, Norwegian or Russian whaling ships.

In short, Greenpeace is one environmental organization that is extremely media-savvy. They have learned to harness the power of media for their cause.

It is no wonder that they were one of the main partners for the Live Earth : SOS Concert for a Climate in Crisis. This global event last July 7 (070707) was tailor made for the media with simultaneous concerts in key cities worldwide bannered by some of the global music industry's top acts and personalities.

Here, the local version of this event – one of the biggest among those that were officially accredited by the Live Earth organizing group, -- Greenpeace SEA (Southeast Asia) was also one of the main event partners.

One of the biggest enviro-cultural events to have happened in Cebu in recent memory, this event, though,clearly riding on the momentum of its global counterpart, was organized by a disparate group who did not belong to any single organization, but who realized that 'we had to do our share.'

Even while the event, that turned out to be successful by most measures, was still on-going, the question occurred to many of those in the organizing group: What should happen next?

When Greenpeace SEA (Southeast Asia) inquired about holding an exploratory meeting for organizing a Local Group, weeks after the event, the next step had apparently presented itself to some of those in the organizing group who lobbied for the inclusion of Greenpeace SEA’s Simple Lang Campaign in the event program and facilitated the invitation and participation of a Greenpeace SEA representative in the event.

That exploratory meeting became a confirmatory one. About a dozen people signed up to be the core group members of the Greenpeace Local Group Cebu, or simply Greenpeace Cebu.

“Some of us have been volunteers for some of Greenpeace’s earlier campaigns. It's about time that this gets organized more formally,” says Gelena Asis, Greenpeace Cebu Assistant Coordinator.

Tomorrow (September 21) Greenpeace Cebu will be launched at the Outpost restaurant, Veteran's Drive, Lahug, starting from 8pm onwards.

Kicking or pedaling-off this launch will be a bike-a-cade – in lieu of a motorcade – at 7pm. Spearheaded by the Bike4U Foundation, this fun ride will wind its way through the city's main streets from the IT park down to Plaza Independencia then back up to the Outpost restaurant.

An hour-long program that will include the relaunching of the Simple Lang campaign, the introduction of Greenpeace and a briefing by some city and provincial officials on their respective environmental programs and projects will be the main focus of the evening.

After this, the bands, who were also involved with the 070707 concert will take over.

The first projects of the group will be related to the Simple Lang Campaign. A recent radio appearance by Greenpeace Cebu over Mom's Radio (88.3 FM) led to an invitation to present the campaign to a community group where the radio station has continuing projects.

Along this same line, a proposal to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the national radio-TV industry organization to involve particularly the radio stations in this educational campaign is being mulled.

09.06.07 kulturnatib

Lullabies

When I moved to my present apartment almost seven years ago, – a bachelor's pad until recently when I hung up my bachelor's togs – one of the deciding factor's was how quiet this village was.

And, my unit at the back of a big house, whose present configuration now accommodates three families or large households really, has a nice view of the city whose enjoyment often requires silence for maximum effect.

For all these years and through all the changes in the tenancy of this house, that general quietness has held. Even when, I am immediately reminded that, once, upstairs, was a neighbor who fancied himself a drummer. His practice sessions, however, were mercifully conducted at hours that I was away. But, he was also a womanizer, often bringing more than one woman into his place, and this went on, quite disturbingly, at all hours.

I survived that, as I do now when I realize how noisy this place can really get.
I realized this because recently I needed absolute silence. Or as near absolute as is possible in this decidedly non-audio studio apartment environment.

I had to record some guitar music for an upcoming performance event. This will be next week, September 12, at the Tapas Lounge, at Crossroads, in Banilad.

This music is to be passed on to Winston, a professional musician, who I have mentioned several times in this column.

We have been collaborators in a few performance art pieces. More immediately, he provides the live music or auditory element, either alone or in tandem with some canned music or sound. But, more generally, he is, himself, an element in the performance piece that adds to the the overall layers or trajectories of meaning of the piece in its entirety, enriching it.

We have already discussed the concept for this piece and what was needed was for him to have an idea of the actual music I will play on the classical guitar for his guidance in playing percussion; On a pillow.

More than just the music itself, there is a crucial sound effects track, whose timing is critical for our separate but related actions to be synchronous.

So, with a digital video camera that can also record sound, I went about making the recording.

Almost immediately my difficulties started. First, part of the music I have thought of playing – a series of short lullabies – was a variation I have developed myself from a somewhat Arabesque tune I have the tablature or musical notation for. With the notation, I have no difficulty. With the variation, I have plenty of difficulty. But, nothing that practice won't mitigate, if not entirely erase; Something I cannot say with the noise.

While true that this recording was only to be some kind of guide and not necessarily one with any high-fidelity quality, noise would be anything from mildly irritating to disturbingly distracting. Especially from my music generating end.

Distracting it was. Even the birds whose song accompany the slow rhythm of this near mountain idyll were now interferences. What sort of bird would make that call? Have I heard that before? I should really try to connect calls with configurations. Etc.

Thoughts like this, innocuous sounding as they are, tripped me.

And then: How many babies do my neighbors have? What are they doing awake at this early afternoon hour? Shouldn't they be taking their afternoon nap? Why are they conspiring to altogether shriek at the same time? Where are the yayas?

Then the dogs, the roosters, the motorcycles, the jet liners that often pass through this approach corridor over our hills seem to be flying lower than usual, even the water pump is noisier than ever. Then the cicadas jump into the concert.

Impossible.

But, I press on. I guess that's what this performance piece is saying. In the general chaos of life there is or, should be, a silent space, lullabies, to help us keep on. Though it's never as neat and easy as that.

08.23.07 kulturnatib

Where were you?

Oh no!, was my first reaction. The event streamer that I had painstakingly worked on by hand – with Pentel Pens! -- the whole day of Sunday and Monday was gone. Stolen, I thought. Just as quickly, I thought proudly; that streamer should be good enough for stealing!

But going into the lobby, I saw it hanging over the musical instruments. I heaved a sigh of relief. I should have known. I knew there was going to be instruments, but Iwas surprised at the professional set up that it was. A drum kit, keyboard, mikes, speakers, lights; the works.

At half past eight we were ready. The instruments were getting tested. The musicians were moving among the instruments. It was a kind of musical chairs. You had to admire their versatility and it appeared to be a simple matter of course. There was no need for a sound check.

The crowd started gathering in front of the lobby columns of the administration building of UP Cebu, the site of the performance art memorial, Where Were You When Ninoy Was No.1? Some because they knew about the event and others because they were just attracted by the music and the lights in what would ordinarily be just another dark part of the campus at night.

The performance art group XO? which I actively collaborate were to have another of its performance events. It was one of the first events the group has planned that was specifically social-historical in theme.

Still, in our planning meetings, we expectedly moved towards our stylistic approaches or leanings based on experience and strengths.

Russ would do something with dance, Chai something with some song she would sing, Doggie something that was quite original and, at this point, surprising, since being a newbie to performance art, she has, of yet, no body of work for comparison.

I would do a concept-performance-installation piece and Raymund would be working with music, play the saxophone and provide the musical direction for the pieces that required music and among the musicians whose participation would also be another first for the group.

Phillip and Ivan were last minute participants. Ivan wouldn't show up at all and Phillip would eventually do a performance-installation piece we were not informed about. But it found a natural fit with the rest of the pieces.

Winston Velez, who had already worked with us in a previous performance event was instrumental in bringing in the musicians. He plays with them in a regular band. He said that this was opportunity for musicians to be exposed to the visual art and even to realize the art in their music.

It turned out that one of the musicians, Oliver, who plays base guitar, has a background in theater. In fact in troupes that was quite activist at that time.

For this event, two other musicians, Nonoi on the guitar and James on keyboards, would sit with us in meetings and rehearsals and they would have their taste of such idea or concept meetings that would typically meander from one trajectory to another then would suddenly explode as some idea gets latched on and planning around that would quickly develop.

In one of these, we had a glimpse of Winston's inventiveness – a definite plus with performance art. He grabbed an empty beer plastic case and proceeded to play it like it was a regular drum.

The crowd was admittedly quite sparse. Yet they were quite appreciative contributing a sizeable amount to a Cat In The Hat hat that would go towards paying for the instruments, audio equipment and the lights.

The music had not quite died down – already, by this time, the venue had moved to Turtle's Nest Book Cafe and percussive music was playing almost endlessly as musicians and guests had some kind of instrument in hand – and talk was already about another performance event for September 21.

Again, we had to remind ourselves that publicity should be the first order of the day. So, next time you shouldn't have any reason not to be there.

16.08.07 kulturnatib

Baguio's beacons

Until lasts week, the only time I had been to Baguio City was almost a quarter of a century ago. I don't remember much of that trip except about something that kept me from having much of anything to remember.

I was bedridden most of that time. I had the most severe sinus attack. I could hardly open my eyes for the pain. The friend with whom I took this trip became my eyes, ears and even taste, for any pain, especially in the vicinity of the head, does overpower the sense organs clustered there.

Still, for all that enforced absence of memory material, I do remember something. A feeling mostly, of coldness, dampness, the smell of pines and some vertigo that all cities on hills inspire. All these, I admit, are post card feelings.

So, when a Baguio trip was proposed I looked forward to going beyond those feelings; To experience things for myself and also to validate the experiences of others, artist friends and colleagues mostly, from whom almost everything I 'know' about Baguio originate.

Traveling to Baguio, especially from as far as mid-Philippines, is a ballet. It takes meticulous planning, timing and, best, with practice. Thankfully with the help of friends and the internet, we planned well, scheduled our timing and could dispense with practice.

The weather, however, was a giant sledgehammer that could and often does pulverize the best of plans like fine china. At Mactan airport on our departure, – delayed – we were treated to the telenews of floods, landslides, avalanches, collapsing houses, fences, roads stalled with vehicles and rain, rain everywhere in Luzon.

But we pushed on, arriving in Baguio in one piece though some of our pieces were wet. Flood waters soaked through them as we, somewhat innocently, put our bags in the bus's cargo hold that, at some points, were lower than the flood water level.

Our first stop was the Tam-awan Village. But, before proceeding there we made a short detour to the house and studio of artist Ben-Hur Villanueva across Tam-awan's entrance. I had never met him nor his art before. In fact, as soon as we entered the gate and I saw the bronze sculptures, the first name that came to mind was that of the artist Solomon Saprid. But, they were Villanueva's and there he was, taking a rest from work to entertain us.

He and his wife had been to Cebu in '84, guests of the Garciases. He gave a workshop at UP though UP professor Raymund Fernandez doesn't remember when I asked him. He has taught art at Ateneo University for more than 30 years. He has traveled and exhibited widely. He sports a graying ponytail. He is a perfect host offering us cookies and soy coffee at his Disperensiya Cafe, named so because originally it was to have featured only cups and dishes that have some imperfection with them, rejects, in other words.

Lastly, and not leastly, he is the elder of Roberto Villanueva. Roberto is among the legends of Baguio. Like many legends, he appears to be bigger than life. I have never met Roberto, but my most reliable source about him is Raymund who is able to put Roberto in a more reasonable perspective that is informed by personal encounters.

After the warm meeting with the elder Villanueva, on to Tam-awan. This facility – galleries, spaces for outdoor installations, gatherings and workshops and authentic traditional Cordillera huts available for rent -- is one of Baguio's cultural gems. It was set up many years ago by a group of artists who collectively give Baguio its renown in the national art scene.

After this rain-soaked visit we retire for the day. The following day it was the turn to visit Kidlat Tahimik's domain. Born Eric de Guia of a family that is said to practically own the city, he turns his back on a career in economics, changes his name, dons a bahag and megs this world-famous film 'Perfumed Nightmare.'

The space is atop one of the family buildings in the city. As one climbs higher, – stairs, no elevators -- one feels like crawling out of a hole and onto this fabulous space with sky light roofs, a pond with carps, three mini-buildings including one that has Russian style domes, a giant cloth snake-eel-dragon hung across the ceiling space and spaces that are divided and defined by materials that seems to have grown instead of put together.

For all the seeming clutter, it is quite a meditative space. Two men were putting additional structures, the purpose for which was not immediately evident. I poked around in corners and marveled at how objects seemed to exist in this space where it didn't matter whether it was art or not.

We left soon after, but, as is the nature of Baguio, she hasn't left us. Not yet. Not ever?

08.09.07 kulturnatib

A new discovery of the old

Anton Ego, the crowish food critic and tasting terror in all off Paris, sums up the movie Ratatouille beautifully. He writes a review of the revitalized Cafe Gusteau whose main chef, it is revealed to him, is, incredibly now, a rat. In the first part of this review, that turns out to be a valedictory as well as he is fired for crowing about a rat, he says something about critics that I like.

This bears an extensive quote; “In many ways the work of the critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy the position of those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism which is fun to write and to read but the bitter truth we critics must face is that the average junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times that a critic truly risks something and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. . . .”

Watching or listening to Ego read out his review – with the inimitable voice of Sir Peter O'Toole – as he writes it reminded me that being a critic is sometimes what I do. How true what he says.

Especially that last line in the above quote.

Yet, there are risks and Risks. The latter we experienced recently.

Recently, my partner and I were in Siquijor. We had planned this trip some while ago. Only this time did we have the opportunity to put into action our plans.

Our plan was to bicycle around the island, reputed for its mystical attractions and terrors as well. As with many islands in the Visayas, this was easily accessible from Cebu.

The same accessibility goaded Jens Funk, a German with Cebuano kasing-kasing (heart), as he vehemently puts it, into the exploring the Visayas on two wheels. Not only that, he has written the first ever bicycle guide to these islands and more; Palawan, Romblon, etc.

Armed with this book, “Cycling Philippines : Visayas Edition” we boarded the slow boat to Larena. Immediately we hit upon what the book in Page 16, 'Useful Hints' says of traveling on boat with bikes. There is mention of 'Arrastre.' The explanation of what this is is somewhat confusing.

Truth is, this is extremely confusing. But it is a 'Bill of Lading' that is required in order for bikes to board the boat. But, as the book suggests, if the bike is contained in a bag, this bill does not apply. Why? Who knows?

The 'arrastre' part is the monopoly 'rights' of a port handling company who considers all cargo to be subject to a handling fee whether or not they do any handling at all. Not all ports have the sophistication or curse to have such monopoly. Cebu City port is cursed with this highway-robbing monopoly.

On the boat, we are already planning our bike routes. The book offers plenty of options, detailed ones at that. We have our tentative course for our 3-day jaunt. This, pending what the real conditions would be on arrival; weather, road conditions, physical resistance.

We arrive at night. We are glad that there are street lights, as few and far between as they are. Our own lights are either underpowered or do not focus well. We find our resort, a quarter of a kilometer from the main coastal highway that is well paved and maintained, we learn later.

Morning is blanketed with clouds. We've agreed to take the route that goes northeastward from the resort up to Maria and then cuts across to Basak at the peak then downwards to Larena. The climb to Basak is a bit strenous and persistent. But the views are well worth it. Our bikes though are showing more their age than we are. The gears complain, are recalcitrant and you feel them in your teeth.

After a forced rest in Basak due to rains that have held back till then, it was downhill all the way to Larena in slopes that told us the wisdom of the route we took. Going the other way would have surely been a killer.

The next day was the round about Siquijor. We took the southwestward or counter-clockwise route. As the book says, nothing in Siquijor is flat. Indeed. But, the inclines were manageable. All the better in looking forward to the downward freewheels on the other side. Starting off early at 8am, we completed the circuit of 73 kilometers by 5pm. Not a speed for winning any race, but it was an easy, rest punctuated ride that had us fully appreciating the sights, smells and simple but sumptuous food.

Thursday was rest day. Friday we leave. Again, in rain threatened and smothered weather. We bike to Siquijor, the capital municipality, with hours to spare before we board the fast craft that slices the sea to Dumaguete like a bucking zipper.

Back in Cebu, we write notes on the book. A fine whittle to an excellent work, really.

08.02.07 kulturnatib

my apologies for the late posting of this column. this column was actually written and sent to the editor quite early in the week. but i didnt have time after the writing and the sending off of this column and before my partner and i had to go on another trip. this time to siquijor island where we had for months now been planning to bicycle around. were back now from this trip and i made it a point to post this as soon as i could. it is possible that my column for this week will be about the siquijor trip. if so, or even if not, you should get first glance at it sooner than most, as has happened before.

I will never kayak again

I will never kayak again, in a kayak that keels this way and that, seemingly with a mind of its own and taking as much time and much more energy to keep its bow on target towards its destination.

Last weekend, a motley international crew of Filipinos, three Brits, an American, a Canadian, a Korean and a German embarked on one of the Moonlight Paddles that used to be regularly organized by JumpOff Point, and before that the Baruto Paddlers, if I got that right.

Recently though, this night paddling trek that heads for designated islets – in a hop to one or one to another and, sometimes, yet another -- that dot that passage way from Olango Island to Bohol, one of the world's most biodiverse marine stretches in the world, had not been quite that regular.

But last weekend, with the full moon approaching its most ovoid state, JumpOff Point organized this trip. It proved to be the most well participated in, so far, in this activity's uneven but always eventful history.

Based on those who attended the mid-week preparatory meeting prior to the trip, one would not think that such a group would grow from the handful there.

But, the group it was, the final composition continuing to be fluid until almost the last minute.

As we set off at a little past 10pm from the Karancho Resort, two hours after our STD or set time of departure, we were composed of 13 kayaks; 3 singles and 10 tandems or two-seaters of paddlers with varying kayaking experience. One or two had no prior experience at all and an equal number were experienced enough to be certified by the Singapore Canoe Federation.

Stay as close together as possible. Don't stray away. Keep to the blinker in front of you. Use your whistles if there is anything wrong. Eli will be the sweeper and will sweep for those who will lag behind or will stray. There is a possibility of light showers. We will regroup every so often. Count off.

And, off we were. Almost immediately, we sensed there was something not quite right with our kayak. Of course, we thought of it as there is something wrong with how we are paddling. We could not hold a straight line. The kayak went through extreme leftward, rightward swings. Not just once did we find ourselves almost going around in a circle.

Frustrating to the extreme. But the gibbous moon peeking out from black cottony clouds, at times casting its spotlight presence on the entire sky when the clouds deferred to it, the mirror flat waters and then the small islet of Sulpa, when we arrived there a little over an hour from our start, more than made up for it.

Over drinks and food – including, quite incredibly, gourmet salad and Hungarian sausages – the group enjoyed an evening of cross-cultural exchange that centered around the mock rivalry between otherwise good friends and budding business partners, a Brit and a German, with an American keeping a running score of points scored for number of jokes told, witty comments or ripostes made, etc.

The sun bore down on everybody not long after we retired chasing us out of tents, hammocks, sleeping bags and mats towards a reluctant but, mostly, full breakfast. By 10am the reloading of the kayaks commenced.

By half past the hour, we were on our way back via the mangroves of the southern tip of Olango island. We thought that our kayak, lighter now with a lesser load, would behave better now. Going over the previous evenings zig-zag we thought the cause might be the unequal loading of cargo, favoring the fore cargo hatch.

But, no, this didn't seem to be the case. Somebody, during a regroup as we reached Olango, suggested that we might consider switching places. Up to that point, I was on the steerer's seat. I thought there might be a point to that. So switch we did, but, in the process, overturning our kayak, throwing my partner overboard. Still, this gave us ample opportunity to test whether we knew how to right an overturned kayak and reenter it. We passed the test.

The kayak still couldn't hold a straight line. So bad, at one point that we found ourselves in the thick of the mangrove patch with its leaves and branches right up to my face.

It was a struggle to get back, helped none by a blazing noonday sun. But, we made it back. Extremely tired, burned despite sunblock, and euphoric. We made it.

But, I will never ride that kayak again.

07.26.07 kulturnatib

Welcome to the club

The performance art troupe in Cebu is a fairly small one. It numbers from anywhere between two hands full to a couple of fingers. Although this easily balloons to more than many times that during the annual MindWorks of the UP Cebu Fine Arts Program.

When this event started almost three decades ago, this was a purely voluntary happening initiated by the students with the support of some faculty members. When erstwhile students became the majority of the faculty of the program, this event became some sort of centerpiece for the program. The other being, and continues to be, the Jose Joya Annual Awards and Competition.

Soon, participation in this event became compulsory for third and fourth year students of the program. This saw the popularization of the MindWorks far and beyond the cliqueish corners of the Fine Arts Program to even other campuses.

This even saw the event becoming a revenue earning one, with the collection of entrance fees. Not surprisingly, this aspect of the event gets less talk time between the organizers, their advisers and whomever is interested – for whatever imaginable reason – since, here, revenues and expenses always tend to be the proverbial dog chasing after its own tail; A situation not uncommon with the arts here.

Nevertheless, this event continues, still with fees though no longer compulsory – or, maybe, not as widely or strictly -- for the students, in a bid to return to the original intent and spirit of its founding.

It used to be that this was the only opportunity for performance art in the city. But, since late last year, performance art has had a surge of expression and exposure here.

Since that time there has been almost a dozen performance art events. Some of these have been spontaneous, almost spur of the moment performances – guerilla performance has been a term used with these – with only a handful of people in the audience. Yet, many of these have been well organized, well publicized events attended by scores of people. Some are steadfast supporters of the arts while others are fairly new to this art form and willing to go along for the ride.

Others still, are not content with just being simply passengers, or worse, being bukongs, literally hangers-on for a fare-less jeepney ride. They want to try the driver's seat. Either solo, or, for now, with co-pilots.

So, the next performance event at the Tapas Lounge will feature two of these. This will have taken place last night. It must be mentioned parenthetically that Stephan Senz of Tapas Lounge has been one reason for this surge of performance art. The others are Turtle's Nest Book Cafe, the Outpost Restaurant and Bite Magazine. These are businesses. For sure there are the countless individuals who have opened their hearts and mind to performance art. How else can one say this?

Yes, there are two new initiates to performance art in Cebu. Not having obtained their express permission for their identities to be disclosed, they shall remain nameless. Suffice it to say that one is a famous drummer – a demigod of the drums, very highly regarded among local musicians -- and the other works in well known resort in Mactan.

Different as their trajectories are, their target is the same: being able to be a part of an artistic expression that is fairly fresh, compellingly challenging and positively pioneering.

I don't know exactly what their parts are. Although, for the drummer, since he is helping me with my performance art piece called, “Human Security Art,” I know it is a pivotal one. Also a friend from way back, I am confident that his training in jazz music with its roots in spontaneity and improvisation will stand him well.

As for the resort girl, I can only say that her long friendship with the other performance artists involved in the event, with their own solo and group performance pieces, will also be her one sure hand on the steering wheel. Her other hand will be her curiosity and her willingness to embrace the fact that in medieval times the performance artist was the king's favorite subject: the Royal Fool.

07.20.07 culinary review

Caribbé ready

For most people a picture of the Caribbean includes images of ports swarming with sleek cruise liners, beaches littered with skimpily clad women and streets choked with dancing and swaying bodies. That's the bright, sunny and touristy side.

In the shade, the picture includes and the slightly suspicious looking skinny man with dreadlocks, garishly painted offerings of stuff that would be immediately illegal in most of the world and, most fearsome of all, voodoo rituals with skulls, daggers and blood.

None of these pictures include food. At least, in the local imagination. It is as if the natives did not eat and the tourists brought their own baon, their own food.

“Caribbean food is actually very similar to our own,” Chef Ludo Estingoy intones. “At least the ingredients are. We are both tropical islands, after all. It's just the way of cooking that is different.”

This was something we did not know. For us, who frequent the Outpost Restaurant, it was only fitting, if not long in coming, that there was this Fine Food Festival and that, at the time we had our opportunity to sample this culinary event, Caribbean cuisine was in the menu for the month.

We say fitting because the Outpost Restaurant is, after all, is a strong supporter and exponent of reggae music and most things rasta. On any given weekend evening, this place hosts the biggest single concentration of the dreadlocked crowd than any place in the city.

Pork, poultry and seafood are the main foundation ingredients for Caribbean cuisine, says Chef Ludo. Familiar, indeed. Grilling, too, he adds, is a commonly shared cooking method, but in the Caribbean it involves more marinating with more spices in the marinate.

In fact, the dinner for that evening consisted of a main course of either meat or fish with three side dishes. Both set-menu offerings came with a welcome cocktail, a Margarita, a starter or appetizer and desert.

This is the common pattern for this Food Festival that started last month with French cuisine.

The Margarita was light with a twist of fruit, a bit of bite of the white rum and the unmistakable pull of cinnamon. This lubricated the conversation at the table, which, as happened, revolved around a recent activity that most of those present there were involved in.

This was disrupted, pleasantly, with the introduction of the appetizer. The dish, an avocado, yellow corn and cream dip decorated by stalks of spring onions – which one could eat for added edge -- surprised us with its slightly sour-salty taste that owes its regard as a vegetable instead of a fruit, which to our palates must necessarily be sweat.

This Avocado Creole originates from Sta. Lucie.

I opted for the seafood main dish, fish gumbo. From Les Barbades or the Barbados, this main dish shows how similar Caribbean cuisine is to our very own table tenants.

My side dish consisted of a vegetable stew of green peas, 'Marquechou' and okra.

Okra is the mainstay of all gumbo dishes we associate more commonly with New Orleans, or Cajun cuisine. Gumbo comes from an African word for okra, okambo.

The okra was boiled then coated with a light batter of corn meal with its accompanying white sauce dip contained in a slice of cucumber with its center seed column gouged out that one could proceed to munch after the okra and the dip were history.

The fish ingredient was three pan de sal size fillets of grouper (Molmol) lightly battered and fried. It's tender but firm texture went well with the crunchiness of the other vegetables, the crackling stringiness of the okra and the cool milky coating of the dip.

After polishing off the main dish, we were ready for desert although truth to tell our stomachs, – at least mine was, -- were already stretched to bursting. But being the consummate gluttons that we were -- I am -- we actually could not wait for next Caribbean culinary creation of Chef Ludo.

On the face of it, it may sound or look like an anticlimax. Pineapple? Only? But, the Fruits Foster from Jamaica looked and tasted divinely inspired by none other than Jah himself through the instrumentality of our humble chef.

Creatively cut in alternating advancing and receding cubes, this desert with glazed sugar was a perfect round up to an exquisite though familiar enough meal.

It wasn't only food for the stomach, it was also food for thought as well. The thought that it is simple enough to try at home. And you don't even have to tell the difference between Jamaica and Jamaique. They're the same difference.

There is more to come with the Fine Food Festival, says Chef Ludo. We will keep everybody posted, he adds. We will be on the look for that, we all agree.

Now who says that the Outpost Restaurant is just a drinking, jamming, chilling out place for slackers? Say what, mon?

07.19.07 kulturnatib

Capitan Maldo

Two Friday's ago while we were getting ready for the following day's celebration of Earth Calling Cebu, another group of friends and colleagues started off, from where we were making our preparations, to head to where the call of the earth issued from her deep and dark recesses.

That group, members of the Cebu Speleological Association were on their way to the municipality of Tabuelan, north Cebu. They were going there for further mapping and exploration of a cave system named Himaroto Cave, in Barangay Kanluhangan that Saturday. After this, the following day, a Sunday, they were to present their findings and recommendations to the community in an assembly organized by the Barangay Captain.

They met this village official last year when a smaller reconnaissance group were scouting for caves to explore that they had heard were plentiful in that municipality. They were eventually led to Himaroto Cave and to Romualdo Montecalvo, 56, the Barangay Captain.

The village chief was welcoming enough, while the rest of the community had their suspicions. Treasure hunters, were what they thought of the group. Not surprising for a community tucked away in the mountains where to get there takes some special effort and an even more special incentive to go there at all.

The group were indeed treasure hunters but not of the kind imagined by the community. But it didn't help that on that first ever venture into the cave primarily to map it, they were seen to leave – in a hurry, it was said -- with big soggy sacks.

Indeed. But the sacks were to better carry their ropes and other caving equipment that had become wet, hence, heavier, by the water in the cave and the rain outside as well.

But more than the sacks they carried out, they left with the conviction that this was a cave well worth studying. More, they found the Captain to be sympathetic to their overtures about cave conservation as well as conservation of cave creatures particularly the bats who lived in the cave and whose droppings or guano was an important link in the cave's food chain. They were also useful for plant life outside the cave.

True enough, they found the cave system teeming with life. Some they could not readily identify. Not even with the help of leading local biologists connected with the Cebu Biodiversity Conservation Foundation to whom they showed pictures and described the creatures.

These same biologists, Lisa Marie Paguntalan and Godfrey Jakosalem, accompanied the group in their last inspection of the cave system to have a first hand look and they also spoke to the community during the assembly.

Up until this writing some of these creatures remain to be identified definitively.

Through those initial visits and in subsequent ones, the group got to know Capitan Maldo. He was a simple subsistence farmer, unschooled but who understood the underlying connections of life and the need for environmental conservation for there to be any life at all. They had no children except for all the children in the village. He was respected, looked up to. For this, he earned a number of leadership and governance awards from local civic and development organizations.

The group was looking forward to fruitful relationship with the community led by their Barangay Captain. The Barangay Council had been getting ready to pass a cave conservation ordinance with, among others, plans of deputizing the owner of the land where Himaroto Cave was located.

Then last Monday the group woke up to tragic news. Capitan Maldo and four others had been stabbed dead the previous afternoon by a deranged villager who went on a stabbing rampage, even wounding a responding policeman, a cousin of the Captain.

Like the community, the group was stunned. An emergency meeting was called. It was decided that they would attend the wake and the funeral of Capitan Maldo and the rest of the fatalities as a show of support and solidarity not only for the bereaved but also for the entire community. It was also agreed that a wall on the main entrance chamber to the Himaroto Cave shall be officially identified in the maps as the Capitan Maldo Wall.

Though not explicitly mentioned during the meeting, there was also the silent consensus that the group will continue to support the community, support the leadership of the First Councilor who, by law, is the successor to Capitan and support these first steps of this community towards being better stewards of their resources.

07.12.07 kulturnatib

Cebu answering

Last Saturday, despite the deafening silence from government, local government particularly, about leading the people in the search for and implementation of solutions to solve global warming, the climate crisis and general environmental degradation, a small corner of the city was in tune with the global movement for just such solutions.

At the Outpost Restaurant, more than a thousand people showed up for an event that was highlighted by a concert with more than 25 local bands, audio-visual presentations on global warming and the simple things individuals can do to contribute to solutions, live feeds via the internet of similar concerts that were taking place in 7 major cities worldwide, performance art pieces and the launching of Greenpeace Philippines' Simple Lang campaign.

This event lasted from a little past 4pm of July 7 until a little past 4am of July 8.

That itself was quite remarkable. Especially since this being the rainy season, the event got rained on intermittently. Yet the people just crowded together under several large tents that had been pitched around the concert area for that eventuality and the music didn't skip a single beat.

More remarkable still was the spirit of voluntarism and civic mindedness that bound up the event starting with the organizers or the conveners group, who, many times, acted on their own initiative without much direction or decree from a central authority.

Also, behind the scenes, were many ordinary individuals who simply started from asking what they could do to help and then proceeded to deliver when they learned what there was to be done.

When an airline turned down the request for a sponsorship of a round-trip ticket for the Greenpeace representative to fly from and to Manila for the reason – quite valid, for sure – that the request was made at the last minute, several individuals stepped up and contributed for those tickets.

That airline would have been one of the biggest big corporate contributor to the event. Yet, the organizers, perhaps conscious that big endorsers tend to end up endorsing themselves, did not aggressively court such endorsements and contributions.
Instead, small local businesses donated goods, products and equipment. The Outpost Restaurant leads this short list. They not only made available the venue gratis but also donated a percentage of sales on drinks for the Bike4U Foundation.

This donation totaled some 18,000 pesos.

The Outpost will likely continue to be the focal point for continuing actions or campaigns to follow up on the initiatives launched during that event as many of those in the organizing group feel should be done.

In the U.S. the campaign for tackling the global warming crisis head-on is led by individual states – California, most prominently – and local governments, while the federal government only now is starting to move away from its denial state that this problem exists and is reaching crisis proportions.

That can be the case here as well. Though more likely to be led my individuals and the private sector as local executives are busy consolidating their power soon after the elections or simply busying themselves with business as usual.

The message of Saturday's event was that it is no longer business as usual. It can no longer be.

07.05.07 kulturnatib

Earth calling Cebu

Where do good ideas come from? From other good ideas.

The good idea that spurred ex US vice president Al Gore to write his best-selling book, 'The Inconvenient Truth' that became the Oscar-winning documentary of the same title and is the inspiration for a worldwide event come Saturday, July 7 called “Live Earth : SOS For A Climate In Crisis” is, like all good ideas, a simple one.

The good idea behind all these is that ordinary individuals can do something about the present climate crisis, global warming and other environmental problems that beset us and ultimately threaten the human habitability of planet earth.

This good idea is also what is encouraging a group of individuals, disparate in age, gender and profession, but united behind this good idea; to get together and organize a similar event here.

The idea is to use the drawing power of music and the arts to put across the message that ordinary people can do something, mostly quite ordinary things, to address the present challenge and, most importantly, to start doing them now.

Thus, like the worldwide event that will take place simultaneously or one after the other, given time differences, in places such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Melbourne, Johannesburg, London and others, musicians and other artists will take center stage on this day.

Sharing the stage will be local environmental NGOs such as Fisheries for Sustainable Harvest (FISH), Cebu United for Sustainable Water (CUSW) and others and the national Greenpeace Philippines who will launch their nationwide campaign called Simple Lang that suggests practical things to do to conserve energy, consume wisely and behave with respect to our communities and planet.

The simplest of these, Greenpeace encourages, is the signing of a personal pledge for the planet. The signing of such pledges will also be the centerpiece of Greenpeace's involvement in the event.

Already more than 25 top local bands have committed to participate, as well as two literary groups, Women in Literary Arts (WILA) and Bathalanong Halad Alang sa Dagang (BATHALAD) and the performance art group of UP, Performa.

Randy Su, of the Outpost Restaurant, the venue for the event and the lead convenor, says that, “While the line-up of bands will guarantee that the crowd will have a rollicking good time, we would like to ensure that they leave the event remembering not only the good music but, more importantly, the message that they are empowered. That they can contribute to solutions to global problems and they can start contributing now.”

The organizers say that the concert is free. But they encourage people to bring used books and clothing that will be turned over to groups who can distribute the same. They also encourage people not to bring their cars or vehicles in order to already practice one of the things that can be done to reduce carbon emissions which is to utilize mass transport or the jeepney.

More, practically, since the event will be at the parking lot, parking will be a problem that is best avoided, they say.

Lastly, in order to attract an early crowd, the organizers are making provisions for giveaways though on a limited, first come first sever basis.

This event will be among the 6,000 local initiatives worldwide registered with the Live Earth Organization that will contribute to global awareness and, the organizers believe, local action.

6.28.07 kulturnatib

Dear Ms Ensor

Thank you for your letter.

This column, hopefully, ends this series of open letters that started two columns ago with a letter to Cebu Pacific Air CEO Lance Gokongwei. The second letter/column was in response to a comment by reader, now regular correspondent and hopefully soon, finally-we-meet good friend, Paul Gerschwiler.

In his letter Mr. Gerschwiler suggested that Cebu Pacific can play a major role in funding promotional materials on how to treat tarsiers and other wild life more respectfully.

In my response to him in the previous column that I did not forward to you, I said that I was more sanguine than him.

I said that it would be a good enough first step for you to admit that to continue to promote the misrepresentation of the wide-eyed tarsier, especially through a photo taken so obviously at daytime, is detrimental to the tarsiers.

I ended by saying that that step is still forthcoming from them or you.

Your letter is indeed a step. A half-step, actually.

You thanked me for 'highlighting the issue of the tarsiers.' Further, you 'very much value our comments.' And, lastly, you 'will make sure that Smile promotes ecologically sound tourism in the country and the region.'

You are most welcome.

But, I suggest that you do more than just two sentences worth of action.

With Cebu Pacific Air's increased passenger load – so much so that it is causing bottlenecks at major domestic airports, your vaunted boast that it is the airline that is 99 percent of the time on time is now wearing very thin and one of your pilots has complained that the 30 minute turn-around time mandated by management is simply not workable – you wield tremendous influence.

Not just because passengers are captive audiences, but also because your magazine is well designed, well written with articles that have or try to have more meat than the usual travel fluff.

For you to publish a statement to the effect that in the interest of your commitment to ecologically sound tourism you recognize that the picture that was judged as among the winners in your photo contest is not the best way to promote this would be wielding this influence positively and responsibly.

It is not necessary to rescind the award.

But it is necessary as one of the leading actors in the tourism industry in the Philippines, that you make your stand on what you would call ecologically sound tourism but I consider simple decency and respect afforded to other creatures, especially those who are threatened with extinction, or immediately, with grave abuse and wanton exploitation.

Should you do this, you will contribute much towards an enlightened attitude towards the tarsiers who because of the description that they are creatures with large, round, staring eyes and photos to go along with it are now expected, nay, obligated to keep those eyes open even when it is in the middle of the day where, as if that were not bad enough, it is then subjected to a million blinding lumens of flash bulb white light.

You might even lead the way when the tourism and environment authorities are clearly not.

This you can do as a publication.

As an airline, Cebu Pacific Air can then go into campaigns of the kind that Mr. Gerschwiler has suggested. Put up promotional and educational billboards in Bohol and elsewhere. Distribute in cabin educational materials. Go into creative overdrive to support your drive for ecologically sound tourism.

And, then there are other creatures and habitats that need equal support and attention.

There are many things to do. You are in a position to influence the doing of these things. Should you wish so.

Thank you, again, for your letter.

06.21.07 kulturnatib

Dear Paul

Thank you for your letter. You hit the proverbial nail right on the head. Several nails, actually.

Ignorance and not malevolence is, indeed, often the root of behavior that is, at the very least, disrespectful of other creatures – humans included -- and their habitats.

Yet, when it is ignorance from up and down the whole chain of actors, which you have rightly identified as from the Department of Tourism (DOT) officials – which you can then extend all the way to the top of the executive link in government – to airline and travel magazine executives to the lowly tourist attraction stall attendants – though you should excuse the last as they really have no say in that matter – then you have to wonder if this is not a question of willful ignorance and not all that simple ignorance.

Is this not the ignorance of the wide-awake who are the most difficult, as to be impossible, to awaken?

Thank you for mentioning and quoting extensively from a travel guide book, The Philippine Travel Atlas, that identifies Bohol as being an “emerging prime tourist destination,” home to the tarsier that, among its other features, has “large, round, staring eyes.”

I do not think that you meant to single out this publication among the dozens out there that more or less say the same thing and would show the almost obligatory picture of a clinging tarsier with eyes that are in varying degrees of largeness, roundness and fixedness of stare.

But, yes, your point in mentioning this publication is that airlines, airline and travel publications are but cogs – important ones – in the tourism industry. While they mouth the correct sound bites about eco-tourism, responsible tourism, etc., the fact is that everything, or nearly everything is only second voice to the soaring solo of the higher registers of the cash box.

Here is where there is serious disconnect between the promotional and the regulatory functions of the DOT and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DENR). In fact, the disconnect is serious enough to believe that the DOT is all promotion and hardly any regulation, and with the DENR, regulation is so obviously selective as to be mostly ineffective.

What else to make of a photo in an entry on the Philippine tarsier in Wikipedia that shows a sign that says, “DENR PERMITTED CAPTIVE TARSIER!?” This sign is in Loboc, where this Wikipedia entry identifies as the only place that tarsiers can be seen not in the wild but in such conditions that necessitated the very law in the first place that the DENR is supposed to implement in order to prevent the tarsiers abuse and extinction.

This is a case – one of the numerous in this country – where the authority of a government department is invoked against its very self by (supposedly) permitting something it has no authority to permit, and if so, which this sign purports, such permission can only be a mockery of that very same authority.

Still, as you suggest, most people, tourists are better than that. True, in many zoos and wildlife sanctuaries elsewhere that are accessible to the public, the public will respond accordingly to instructions about how to behave towards the animals. The place is designed, too, in such a way as to encourage compliance and discourage abusive behavior sometimes with disincentives like fines.

Fortunately, there is such a place for the tarsiers and tourists in Bohol, in Corella, where both can meet – though this is by no means always guaranteed – in a manner that heightens the enjoyment of the latter and hardly at the expense of the former.

You admit that you haven't seen a tarsier, but your wife has. I encourage you to visit the Philippine Tarsier Foundation's Tarsier Research and Development Center in Corella. This is a bit out of the way – off the tourist path, as that Wikipedia entry puts it -- and the roads there may not all be that well paved. This, as far as I remember, from the last time I was there years ago. It might have actually been improved now.

However the present condition of the sanctuary, it still remains, for me, one of the best places for visiting tarsiers that are truly in the wild. You can inquire before going there as to when the best time and season to go, or you can just wander in as I did. The wardens are really very knowledgeable and there are plenty of instructional, informative material around.

As for your suggestion that Cebu Pacific can play a major role in funding promotional material, i.e., billboards, on how to treat tarsiers and other wild life more respectfully, I am more sanguine.

I just think that it would be a good enough first step to admit that to continue to promote the misrepresentation of the wide-eyed tarsier, especially through a photo taken so obviously at daytime, is detrimental to the tarsiers themselves even if they are somehow cute and it is how everybody else is promoting them.

So far that step is still forthcoming from them. Or, so, I hope. Otherwise, there are, fortunately now, other airlines.

06.14.07 kulturnatib

Dear Lance Gokongwei

my apologies, kulturnatibists, for that screw up in last posting's date. it should have been 06/07/07. thats not what came out. but it seemed like not too many of you tripped on that one. still, i should acknowledge that mistake. and, no, that was not deliberate to try to see if you are paying attention. im sure you are.
salamat.


Even before your airline was founded, I had always patronized airlines that went up against the then monopoly Philippine Airlines. I flew Aerolink, the upstart that first tested the waters even when the liberalization of the airline industry was still a white paper in the economic plans of then aspiring Pres. Fidel Ramos.

Unfortunately, this company went belly up. Before they could get their full franchise from Congress, one of their planes went literally belly up due to pilot error – he was reportedly drunk -- and crashed into the swimming pool of one the houses of Mervil Subdivision in Paranaque, killing every one on board and a few on the ground as well.

Your airline went on to take full advantage of airline liberalization and since then, I have always made it a point to fly with you. With the launching of your cheap fare campaign whose slogan is the sexist “It's time every Juan – what about Juana? -- flies,” this point has been easier to make, even if the success of this campaign is beginning to be its own undoing. But, that is another matter.

Concomitant with your aim to make flying accessible to every Filipino, is your aim to promote local tourism. And not just any kind of tourism but one that is sustainable and responsible; in a word, ecotourism.

For this you have your inflight magazine, Smile, which features stories about local – and now, foreign -- tourist destinations where your planes fly.

These have been quite interesting and informative and are a good company especially when one is flying alone, as I often do.

But, during my last trip, your magazine, the June-July issue, didn't give me much reason to smile. In fact, it gave me all the reason to be indignant, which, fortunately, was tempered somewhat by the fact that, this time, I wasn't flying alone and I had company other than just your magazine.

This issue featured a four-page spread of the top ten entries to a photo competition you sponsored to commemorate your 11th year.

On the title page were four of these entries. The very first one sickened me.

Some years back I had written about how, in Loboc, Bohol, a tourist stall there had some tarsiers put out like they were circus creatures. The tourists, locals mostly, behaved accordingly. Like they were in a circus. They proceeded to manhandle the tarsiers, going so far as to blow on the poor creature's eyes in a bid to open them for the cameras that, then, proceeded to explode their flashes which, for these nocturnal animals, is not far off from an electroshock for humans.

I would not be surprised if this winning entry that has the cutesy and totally clueless accompanying caption, “Don't cringe at the sight of this creature peering at you! It fits comfortably in a human hand,” was taken at some place like this place in Loboc. It could very well have be taken at this very same place.

It is evident in the photo that it was taken in the daytime. It is very difficult to find tarsiers at daytime in the wild. You simply won't find them. The wardens at the Tarsier sanctuary funded by Prince Charles in Corella, also in Bohol, will warn you against looking for them. Not only because it is difficult but more so because it is rude, inconsiderate and downright immoral.

A picture is truly worth a thousand words. Your distinguished panel of judges sadly missed six of those very important words – DO NOT TAKE PICTURES LIKE THIS!

Pictures like this should not have space in your magazine, let alone win in your competition. It sends the wrong message. It makes your claim or advocacy for ecotourism sound hollow, hypocritical. Or, at the very least, it pops a flash on your inexcusable ignorance.

Ecotourism, most of all, means respect. This picture does not show respect. It shows the exact opposite.

It is not only high time that every Juan and Juana flies but, more importantly, that they fly with a socially responsibly carrier that not only values profit, promptness, service -- good values all -- but more so, the most important value of all, respect.

You can still be that carrier.

05.17.07 kulturnatib

Lesson for teachers

Almost a month after I was in Davao City to participate in the opening of an exhibit there – 'Miting de Abanse' -- with a performance art piece, I was, once again, back there. I had promised I would be back and I was, last weekend, to keep my promise.

The commitment was simply not to be back but, more importantly, to conduct a performance art workshop. The idea for a workshop and the impetus for it came from, one, I was going to be in Davao City anyway during those dates and, two, those I had broached the initial idea to were very enthusiastic and encouraging.

So, upon my return, I sent a formal proposal for the workshop, detailing the requirements and how the workshop would be conducted. The reply was positive. The requirements present no insurmountable problem, came the reply, except for a minor one: fees.

My idea of a token, was, for them, too keen. Could it be lowered, they asked. Expected participants are mostly students. No problem, I answered. So, it was a go. I made final preparations for the workshop which, involving editing video presentations, took me up until the early hours of the morning of my departure.

Arriving at the airport, a flurry of text messages welcomed me. Good news, bad news; 100 more people were interested in joining the workshop. They were from a multinational youth group of Christian missionaries, Y-WAM, on a 3-month outreach program in Davao.

That is simply too big a crowd to handle, I answered. I will adjust and do two sessions, but that number will still have to be cut. Before I arrived at the hotel, we had agreed on 50 as being the cut-off number.

Fortunately, I had one more day to fine-tune preparations. The first session will simply be an introduction to performance art, I decided. The second, in the afternoon and lengthier, will have the workshop component consisting of video and live performance art presentations and subsequent critiquing.

A little past 3 pm the following day, the workshop started. Late. The morning sessions, to my relief, had, after all, been scrapped. Back to the original plan.

For the most part, I explained, the method for the workshop will be show and tell. This will be preceded by a short discussion on the historical background of performance art, followed by its philosophical and art-practice underpinnings.

The show and tell part will consist of showing performance art videos and live performances followed by discussion and critiquing.

The live performances, it turned out, were the best part of the activity. The prepared performances of the participants – that was part of the requirements -- were quite good. The impromptu performances -- also a surprise -- had some rough edges, as expected.

The performance piece that most impressed me was that of three very young girls, aged 12, 14 and 15. Mitzi Jules, Dhyris Cajes and Sheera Mae Peñaranda, respectively. They are peer facilitators of a group called Anak OFW. Their parents, one of them, are either out of the country or are preparing to leave.

Their performance consisted of them sitting on the floor, in a triangle about 3 meters from each other. They brought with them sheets of white paper that they then made into paper airplanes. These they made carefully, deliberately, slowly. Just as the first planes were finished, the audience knew – or thought so -- what was next. Still, they continued making the planes, building up the impatience of and the tension in the audience. This was released only when they flew the planes towards each other, then towards the audience.

It was a short, simple performance art piece. Yet, within that short span of time and that simple set of actions was distilled the emotional experience of children of OFWs. The waiting, the seemingly meaningless activities, the tension, then the flight either towards or away from them. We know it, right? No, we don't.

Experiencing those performances, I experienced what can happen best to teachers: In teaching, to be taught.

5.24.07 kulturnatib

From Yoyoy to Budoy

Like most people now, the first order of my day is to check my email box. More than from the newspapers – I should be ashamed to admit this, as I do write for this newspaper -- I get most of my news from or through my email box.

So, the other day, I get mail from one of the numerous electronic groups (egroups) that I have signed up with entitling me to get whatever mail these groups send out regularly. To be sure, many of these get thrown away soon after only their headings are read.

The other day I get email from an artists egroup. It was news from yet another artists subgroup; the filmmakers, whose mail routinely ends up in the trash or recycle bin. Not that I'm not interested in filmmaking but often, their news is too particular or personal – as with most egroups -- and hardly ever intersects with my interest in the kind of filmmaking news that I will read.

Not this time though. The heading just grabbed my attention, even if it was only peripherally related to filmmaking. It said, Yoyoy Villame succumbs to heart attack. Along with the brief news article was a picture of Yoyoy Villame with a palor, sagging jowls and a wide neck common among men and some women who, as they age, get to be more and more like the young Michelin man.

I have never met Roman 'Yoyoy' Villame in person. I would have wanted to. There are many things about him and his music I wanted to know that only a personal encounter or close observation could provide.

Yet, by the time my writing had veered towards cultural reporting or reflecting Yoyoy was off the charts and he himself had moved away from the haunts where he first made his mark; the bus terminals in Bohol through which his buses plied and when they stopped would echo with his songs entertaining fellow drivers, assorted passengers, terminal denizens and, soon, the whole country.

He had moved to Las Piñas City where he got into local politics. He became a city councilor. He served in that capacity for 10 years then ran for vice-mayor in 1995, but lost.

I am not familiar with his discography but it would be a reasonable guess that some of the 40 albums he made in his career he would wax after this move. I would only recently know that he did, in fact, star in some movies – reason enough why his death would be news for a filmmakers egroup to carry and post – some of which were said to be critically acclaimed. Perhaps the movies and not so much his roles.

His first song and album carrier, “Magellan,” was for me, his best. It wasn't so much a novelty song as a parody of historicism at the precise time when Marcos was to launch his grand vision of reshaping or revising Philippine history with himself playing the grandest role of all as the then present day Malakas of the bamboo birth myth of the Filipino leading the Philippines to her historically fated greatness as a country rebaptized as Maharlika.

Of course, at this time, I didn't realize it as such. I would mostly remember it as a song that two daughters of an American missionary would sing endlessly to the chagrin of their parents. This they admitted as being the first Filipino song they really liked enough to want to introduce it to their friends back in the States when they would go home on furlough.

They had no problems with the lyrics. They were in English. But what they really liked and liked to learn that got them into stitches every time was the inimitable way Yoyoy sang it. For this they asked our help.

Unknown to them and to us and decades before anybody has ever heard of call centers, we were already training for speaking English the way our mutha would be and is proud of. We were, to their frustration and, somehow, our triumph, no help.

Fast forward. Errol 'Budoy' Marabiles was beginning to make his mark in the local music scene. The press was beginning to notice him. I would be among those who would interview him. In these interviews and in informal conversations, even before his star was beginning to rise, Yoyoy was a name he always mentioned.

Yoyoy was Budoy's idol. Budoy realized that Yoyoy's enduring appeal was his mass appeal. Yoyoy was a man of the masses. For the music executives and critics Yoyoy's songs were novelty songs. Meaning, quite disparagingly, his songs were baduy.

Budoy knew that his songs should be more than that. His songs had to be more than baduy. They had to be Budoy. And, that's what they are.

Budoy still has a long way from 74 years old, 40 albums and a few movies. Yet, he is already there. Like Yoyoy, his songs might fade, his star might fall, but his music will remain. Like Yoyoy's, it has always been there.

05.17.07 kulturnatib

Miting de abanse

If I did not know better, I would have thought the queue was for Spiderman 3. No, it was not. The line, made up of college kids mostly, was for registering to get into an art exhibit. Well, technically, to be able to join in the mock elections that was part of the opening activity for the Miting de abanse exhibit.

The exhibit, running until the end of the month, is held at a bar, Impit Purok, that had closed down at the Matina Town Square (MTS), Davao City. It is organized by the Davao Arts Foundation, Inc. (DAFI) and its recent offspring organization DAFI Jr.

DAFI apparently has this arrangement with MTS that has them using for exhibit space – nominally named Dugukan -- whatever space becomes available when a tenant clears out and, conversely, has them clearing out when a tenant moves in. So, for the previous Miting de abanse, in 2004, the space available then was across from the space that is being used now.

DAFI Jr., is made up of students from colleges and universities in Davao City and they contribute the bulk of the works that make up the exhibit. In fact, this is their inaugural project under the curatorial guidance of senior artist Rey Bollosos.

The older DAFI seems to have done an exemplary job of guiding and inspiring these kids whose works show a precocious maturity, technical facility, experimental bent and thematic depth.

One notable example is the mix media work of Boboy Buenaventura. It is a picture of the boxer-hero turned politician-wannabe Manny Pacquiao. It is cut up into small pieces and pasted onto matchboxes which are set a centimeter apart on all sides.

The picture is in sepia tone and Pacquiao is dressed in the turn of the century coat reminiscent of those coats worn by Rizal, Aguinaldo and the rest of those heroes. It has the archival feel appropriate for such pictures.

Because of the distance between the boxes, it takes a while for the gestalt to be complete. But as soon as that happens, there is no mistaking the image.

It is funny. It shows how ridiculous a Congressman Pacquiao can be and mostly because how he could even try. But then, it is also sad. The joke seems to be on all of us.

Angela Chi is another of these young firebrands. She is a budding performance/installation artist. More than the rest we were able to converse longer as she helped me locate a printer and a photocopying machine at which my artist statement for my performance piece was printed and multiplied.

She expressed her desire to get into art school, perhaps even at the UP Cebu Fine Arts Program while even now finishing a course in creative writing.

Her piece in the exhibit is the most experimental involving a live participant, who, cannot immediately be distinguished as such. Perhaps, this is the point Chi wants to make. But, the making of such point is fraught with difficulties the least of which is the general unreadiness or inability of the audience to perceive it.

Still, if she persists, she will learn something. Along with her and the rest of the DAFI and DAFI Jr, the general audience as well.

If there is anything good that will come out of the elections it will be how the artists in Davao are continuing to realize that art and life may not be so separate after all and such separation means the poverty of both.

05.09.07 kulturnatib

An invitation

Some weeks back I received an invitation. This same invitation was sent, I believe, to other artist-colleagues in the network of the Visayas Island Visual Arts Association (VIVAa) of which the groups I belong to, the Lunâ Art Collective and Pusod, Inc, are active members. The invitation was to participate in an exhibit in Davao City.

This exhibit is organized by the Davao Artist Foundation, Inc. (DAFI). It is entitled, Miting de Abanse 2007: An Art Exhibit. This will be the 3rd of such exhibits that have been organized by this group and have been timed to coincide with national elections such as that in 2004 and 2001.

The title is obviously taken from the very language of our political exercise. Although, in recent years with the weakening or even disappearance of a clear-cut party system, the miting de abanse hasn't been the grand election campaign opening salvos of yesteryears.

Thus, while the miting de abanse of the politicians have been on the wane and going on its way to becoming a political – and expensive – curiosity, or even memory, the miting de abanse of the artists – a threadbare affair, if I know anything about these efforts - are making a headway into the consciousness of the general public, at least in that part of the country.

Abe Garcia, a leading member of DAFI, claims that the immediately previous miting de abanse, 'Miting de Abanse : A Satiric Exhibit of 2004, at the MatinaTown Square, a leading commercial establishment in the city, was such a hit, that it caused heavy vehicular and human traffic. It continues to inspire many of the Davao youth especially the artists, according to him.

The DAFI is among the growing number of art groups in the country who, though eschewing the often exclusivist label of 'social realism,' believe that art does have something to say about the life and times of a people, of persons and even individual artists and that relevance is an important yardstick by which art and artists should be measured.

Thus, this show as with the previous ones, encourages the participating artists to be at their critical best. These are the critical votes in the ballot of paintings, sculptures, prints and other media, that could help inform or influence the actual votes. More than fifty of such votes are expected to be cast in this exhibit.

Mine is going to be one of them. I have accepted the invitation. I am doing a performance piece entitled, 'Piggy Party : Yet Another Year of Our Piggetry.' This performance was originally done during an art event, at the Tapas Lounge, Crossroads, Banilad.

As with many of my performance pieces, this is an interactive piece, where audience participation is a critical element of the entire work. The audience is going to made to swallow a piece of wafer. The host partaken during holy communion.

These will be taken from a ballot box where earlier a poster calendar from one of those liquor companies that feature a bikini clad girl is paraded around then torn to bits and, like ballots, stuffed into the ballot box.

The entire performance will be accompanied in the background by the most famous soundtrack cum ringtone of the 2004 elections featuring the incomparable voices of Garci – who is running for congress in his home district a few hundred kilometers from Davao City – and GMA who is running for her political life in a continuing drama about the open secret of how elections are massively manipulated and cheated in this country and by her highness then and, widely expected again, now.

Along with DAFI and the participating artists, I am or should be under no illusion that we will be no more than flies in the ointment in this thoroughly cynical electoral exercise. If, even that.

But, we should also be able to say, especially to ourselves, that we did not just curse the darkness. We lit our lights. Even if these will cast the hues of sarcasm, irony, confrontation, denunciation and, yes, disillusionment and hopelessness.

05.03.07 kulturnatib

Cavemen and women

Had a bum stomach not intervened last Saturday, I would have had my first initiation into the small group of cavemen and women in this city. I would have been able to join them on a cave mapping exercise at Baombil Cave in the mountain barangay of Lusaran. But, my abdominal caves had a different agenda.

This, however, would not have been my first time inside a cave. The first time was years ago when, on an improperly considered invitation, we went inside the underground river that is the source of Kawasan waterfalls in Alegria. Also, that could have turned out to be our last.

That was the worst possible way to get into a cave. We only had one plastic bag wrapped flashlight wielded by this crazy German whose name I now forget. He was our host, guide, the self-appointed guardian of the waterfalls and he went so far ahead of us that we were in complete darkness as soon as we cleared the mouth of the cave. We didn't have a line, no helmets and no shoes; only had a fool's appreciation of the danger we put ourselves in.

That was foolhardy, bravado caving. That was the proper and potentially fatal introduction to how NOT to do caving. It was scary enough that since then caving was not up on my to do outdoors list.

That is until JumpOff Point, an outdoor specialist company set up shop, and I became friends with the cavemen and women of the Cebu Speleological Society. Many of them were part of that group last Saturday as well as staff of JumpOff Point.

Ursulo 'Dondon' Dimpas, Jr., was in that group. He works with a computer company to earn his living. But, he works with nature to live his life. While we were climbing Mt. Kanlaon last Holy Week, he was vertical caving with another group in Mabinay, farther south from where we were in the same island of Negros.

Also in that same group – both the Mabinay group and the group last Saturday -- was Gelena Asis. She is the president of the CSS. She teaches sustainable tourism subjects in a local university while pursuing a Masteral Degree in Environmental Science. Her Masteral thesis proposal is on the conservation of Cebu's caves which was reportedly turned down by her professor for being such a pioneering study. None in the faculty had enough competence on the subject to adequately review it.

Dondon, Gelena and the CSS – about 20 or so members half of whom are active -- are exemplary representatives of our modern cave people. They are professionals committed to exploring, conserving and protecting our caves as a unique biosphere that is important for our larger environment.

This, especially for Cebu that, even with severe forest denudation, continues to have water from caves and pools that is characteristic of its geological formation which is mostly limestone or karst.

Aside from increasing our knowledge of our cave system, of which Dondon says less than 10 percent have been explored and an even lesser percentage mapped, the CSS does an immediately appreciable service of helping to pinpoint water supply sources.

Being able to do thus, they are able to advise residents especially in the mountain areas on whether their water supply is clean or contaminated depending on its source. They are also able to better explain to these same residents and students in general how it is imperative that water sources are protected from becoming contaminated or polluted by showing how this happens as, indeed, it is happening with pesticides and other ground water pollutants.

In both the Mabinay and the Baombil explorations, there were representatives from the US National Speleological Society, Glen Malliet and Charles Festersen, who were in the country on a familiarization trip. They, as well as other foreign groups – a British team did some pioneering cave exploration and mapping in Toledo and elsewhere in the early 90s – are interested in our cave systems and, especially with the NSS, being able to help develop local expertise and experience and, most immediately on this trip, sharing some equipment with the CSS.

Caves are beautiful. But, they are also very fragile and susceptible to damage. A hundred years worth of accumulated formation at a few millimeters per year can be damaged just by the touch of our normally oily hands. And then there are the unique dark-adapted organisms.

This beauty and also its utility is at the same time the dilemma most serious cavers face. To call attention to this beauty is also to run the risk of its destruction.

Yet, as the experience in Lamak shows only the concerted effort of the community with the help of groups like the CSS and government agencies like the DENR in regulating access, extraction of resources and then the education of people in general will ensure the continued existence of caves in their natural state.