same same, but different

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

we're making waves... even in pinas!!!

oh yeah....the phil arts fest 2008 fever is on!

we got published in phil star!

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Arts%20and%20Culture&p=49&type=2&sec=40&aid=2008060868

here's the content:

Pinoy arts fest in Hong Kong
KRIPOTKIN By Alfred A. Yuson
Monday, June 9, 2008
On June 20, the latest book on National Artist Bencab’s art, BenCab: Nude Drawings, will be launched at Substation: A Home for the Arts, on 45 Armenian Street, Singapore (beside the Asian Civilization Museum).

This will be in conjunction with the opening of a two-week exhibit of 25 of the works featured in the book — all fairly recent drawings of female nudes, in different media, mostly pastel, charcoal, acrylic on paper, done from 2005 to 2007.

Also to be launched at the event organized by Singapore-based broadcaster and Bencab collector Rico Hizon is Tabayag: Lime Containers of the Cordilleras (from the Bencab collection), with photographs by Wig Tysman. This National Book Award winner was published by Bencab himself and released in Manila in 2006. A selection of the objects that are the subject of the book will also go on display, together with Wig’s photos.

BenCab: Nude Drawings is designed by RayVi Sunico, with text by this writer, and published by Anvil Publishing Inc. The Manila launch will be at 4 p.m. on June 28 at Silverlens Gallery at 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., marking the last week of the artist’s current exhibit there billed as “Related Images,” which opened on May 31.

The way our artists keep on making waves in Singapore, as recently seen in the successful auction sales of works by up-and-coming painters, continues to confirm our early prognosis that Filipino visual artists, performers and filmmakers are set to dominate the Southeast Asian region when it comes to art and entertainment.

Singapore and Hong Kong are steadily being taken over by our strike force of visual artists.

We just received good word from our friend Rex Aguado, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of the impressive Review Asia monthly magazine, that his efforts at organizing Filipino expatriate artists continue to bear fruit.

Two years ago, in June 2006, Rex spearheaded the staging of the first Philippine Arts Festival in Hong Kong, billed as “Unang Sulyap.” That was followed by last year’s fest, “Estilo” — also featuring a series of art exhibits and other cultural events spread out over several weeks.

This year, the annual fair that focuses on Filipino creativity continues with “Tricolor: A Cultural Celebration” — the heading given the third Philippine Arts Festival, which formally opened at 1 p.m. yesterday, Sunday, at The Peak Galleria.

Rex Aguado issues this invite to all Filipinos residing in or who may be visiting Hong Kong within the coming weeks:

“To our friends in the community and beyond, please do visit any — if not all — of our shows across the city this month and into July. We have prepared a bountiful harvest of around eight exhibitions and events around Hong Kong, with the help of the Consulate General of the Philippines in Hong Kong, the Philippine Association of Hong Kong, and the generous galleries and venues that have offered their spaces to our artists and photographers.

“This is the first time that the Philippine Arts Festival is being held under the auspices of the newly formed Philippine Arts and Cultural Society (Hong Kong) — a group of Filipino artists, photographers, creative types and their friends and patrons. The society is also planning a host of other activities to promote Filipino creativity throughout the year — every year!

“For our June 8 opening, for instance — and on every Sunday thereafter for the month of June — cultural groups from the Filipino community here in Hong Kong (consisting mostly of overseas Filipino workers) will be entertaining the crowd at The Peak Galleria. Our kababayans have offered to perform for free to share their culture with the community, but we are appealing for any financial assistance to cover the cost of transporting our performers and their merienda after the show.

“The society is still in the process of setting up its financial system, but you can send your donation (preferably in HK dollars) to HSBC account 133 133298 833 (my account). Please e-mail me at rex.aguado@gmail.com or Aldrin Monsod at aldrinmonsod@yahoo.com or Rowena Gonzales atwena55@yahoo.com about your donations and we will acknowledge and record them astutely. We will be reporting all donations and the donors (unless anonymity is requested) in our website at www.philartsfesthk.com — which is also your official source of updates regarding our festival this year. We hope you could join us in this wonderfully enriching and enlightening event, and help us share the cultural bounty of the Philippines.”

The series of activities actually began on June 3 with “Tiny Studio + — A Live Painting Performance” at the Sara Sene Gallery, 5A, Winner Bldg., 27-37 D’Aguilar St., Lan Kwai Fong, with featured artist Joel Eugenio Epistola Ferraris starting to paint randomly small images on large blank canvas panels, with the objective of completing a mural-sized art piece by June 24.

The artist says it will be all about his experiences as a visual artist “forced by circumstances to live and do art inside ‘luxurious boxes’ in this world city,” where he arrived in 1996.

Last Thursday, June 5, an exhibit of photographs by members of the Pinoy Photographers Club-Hong Kong opened at the Philippine Consulate General, 14th Floor, United Centre, 95 Queensway. Billed as “ex-press,” the show will last until June 19. Participating photographers are: Michael Azucena, Victor Bautista, Gerard Boragay, Bryan Chanco, Butch Durias, Baban Gozum, Wilbert Jarata, Ric Manzano, Jojo Mamangun, Peter Mercado, Phey Palma, Eli Remolona, Mario Rivera, David Roquel, Ben Rosagazo, (my name) , Aldrin Victoriano, John Villavicencio and Joshua Viray.

Last Saturday, June 6, a four-man show titled “Chronicles of Pain Colored” — featuring the works of Justo Cascante III, Charlie Co, Arnel S. Agawin and Bobit Segismundo — opened at Osage Soho on 45 Caine Road, Lower Ground Shop 1, corner Old Bailey St., Soho, Central. The show lasts till June 24.

I’m familiar with the works of Co and Agawin, two of our more accomplished painters who are still relatively young, and as the notes on the show mention, “have a penchant for visual narratives, expressive symbolism and mystical drama.” Along with Cascante and Segismundo, they are seen to be “politicized, not just in terms of national issues but also in the ways they deal with personal relationships and all that these entail — distress, betrayal, loss, frustration, exhaustion and pain.”

From June 13 to 27, another group show featuring four Filipino artists, titled “Alternatibo,” will be on exhibit at Floren Gallery, 52 Po Hing Fong St., SoHo, Sheung Wan. The artists are Rene Caintic, Noel de Guzman, Han Lualhati, and Dani Packer.

The PAHK Ball and Art Auction will be conducted on June 14 at the Conrad Ballroom. The next morning and afternoon, on June 15, sketching sessions, art installations, a drawing clinic for kids and an amateur painting contest will be undertaken by all of the festival participants at Chater Road and Garden.

From June 16 to 28, in the evenings, Armida Adaza supervises “Acting for Non-Actors,” a 16-hour acting workshop spread over three weeks, at the Peng Chau Municipal Services Building at Peng Chau.

From June 19 to July 3, featured at Asia Fine Art, G/F, 12 Sik On St., 99 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai is “Take Five,” another group show, with Filipino artists Jun Cambel, Genaro Gomez, Ben Guia, Charito Helgason, and Manuel Rubio.

Opening on June 26 and lasting till July 10 at Karin Weber Gallery, ground floor, 20 Aberdeen St., Central is a one-man show by Noel de Guzman, titled “Cyclic Circles.”

On June 29, from 3 to 7pm, “Dramatherapy Workshop for Helpers” will be conduccted by Mida Zada at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Rehearsal Hall.

The photo show “ex-press” moves to The Fringe Club fotogalerie, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, from July 3 to 15.

And from July 4 to 31, Sara Sene Gallery features “It Runs in the Blood: The Ferraris Artists Group Show” — with Joel, Nelson, Jocelyn, Noel, Egar with Sally and Pamela Reyes-Ferraris, and the special participation of the Ferraris children (David, Daniel, Jemimah, Kulay, Neo and Violet) and the Ferraris-Merel kids (Ronnie, Faith and Joseph). Quite uniquely, a clan show it is.

So is the entire Pinoy arts fest in Hong Kong in the next several weeks. Do try to catch it, compañeros y viajeros!

find my name! quick!

i've got something big this coming sat. i'll write about it next time. i have never been so nervous in my life. daig pa nito ang pregnancy test! syet!

Friday, June 6, 2008

me, during the last four months

i was browsing my fellow ppc-hk member john v's flickr photostream..

eto libre photo op... yey! next year magpapabayad na sya!

and i noticed that these photos were shot with my few favourite things!

last few weeks of winter.. avec beloved nikon

sometime march con ipod

last night, at the 'express' launch with my favourite person.. b will surely kill me for this.. but what the heck.. this is my blog... and no, im not pregnant...

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

photographer - officially... yey!

hey guys, i am officially a photographer! yey! not just a member of photography club, they are now calling me a photographer! look at the phil arts fest's poster:

can you see my name? famous, eh? imagine there are more than 100,000 pinoys in hk, and im one of the magic 40! una pa ung train image ko sa poster!

who would have thought that not catching the train one hectic afternoon in moscow would result to something like this? weeheee!!!

Monday, June 2, 2008

past, present, future

i upgraded my yahoo mail and now i'm using the newer version. now it's so much easier to navigate. finally i was able to delete the 600 unread emails without clicking the next page button to get the succeeding 25 emails. it's like using an outlook that could easily arrange the email by sender, subject, date, etc. i know it's been there for a long time now but i only found out just last week. read: complete tech idiot.

i cleared my inbox before i left for hk. when i arrived here i wanted to start anew, basically read new stuff from people in a different perspective. it's nice to be unaffected by their qualms yet still get excited with the new things going on in their lives. i think that's one of the advantages when you're away. when you're in pinas you get too attached with your family's and friends' problems. even your neighbors' or the neighbors' dog's or even the starlet's that you see on the boobtube. when you only have to fend for yourself, you may not have anybody to depend on but at least you learn to stand up on your feet. you are responsible for your own action and no matter the outcome, you know that there's no better way to do than following what you think is right.

homesickness is a pain but it's actually more peaceful here.

it's funny reading may inbox from july 06 til now. you could see the evolution of my relationship with people. i read ex #1's emails about our supposed illicit set-up. then i saw ex #2's sorry letter which never affected me at all.. then the indian guy's jerky emails. then mine and b's purely friends moments.

i know i sound like a broken record here, but i now believe that things happen for a reason. imagine if i gave in to ex #1's unfair set-up, or if i'm still bitter at ex #2's happy life and worst if i still give in to the jerky indian! i wouldn't have met b and enjoy life now.

i know the future is uncertain, but im sure that when i read my inbox in two more years, there will be lots of interesting stories to look back to.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

our photo exhibit

yey! same period as last year! more exhibitors, bigger venue, more sponsors! saan ka pa? i predict that ppc will be the biggest photo club in the world in the next 100 years!

all of the members were forcing me to include the Moscow Train image. I never really liked it. it was so bare. but i had to due to insistent public demand. hehe... they even used it as my rep image.

here is the brochure!

other side

b's is the one with guitar. hats off to tita joann for thinking of the caption - strumming my pain with his fingers... genius! genius! very apt for a rockstar wannabe.

we will rock you the musical

if there is one thing i adore about my father, it would have to be his obsession about music. i grew up listening to oldies song - engelbert humperdink, frank sinatra, bee gees, credence clearwater revival, and queen. i would always wake up at 6 in the morning with bohemian rhapsody in full blast. that's the way it has always been.

now here comes 'WE WILL ROCK YOU'. a musical playing around the songs of the legendary band queen. i think no other band can surpass freddie mercury and the gang's skills. join a singing contest and sing a queen song perfectly, and you'll be undoubtedly declared the winner. only people with guts can give justice to their songs.

b and i were celebrating our --- monthsary (haha, i was able to use that word again!) and we opted to spend it at the hong kong academy of performing arts and watch the musical. he's an aspiring rockstar, and i am... well an aspiring girlfriend of a rockstar.

who gets to play the lead? mig ayesa! yes, the aussie born pinoy who rocked the world with his stint in inxs' search for their vocalist. he's really good. i was watching that show before but i never thought he's THAT good. he's not only a good singer, but a very good actor and dancer - a complete performer to say the least. i told you we pinoys shall rule the world!

this is the first international play that i was able to watch. i thought of watching phantom of the opera before but backed out last minute because i thought of the money i am spending - i am not that 'cultured' to begin with.

but it's really different watching a musical with an unlimited budget. you'll be amazed at the coordination of it all. it's like all your fantasies are coming true, in more ways that you could imagine. it's an experience. and when you look back, you'll realize the money isn't anything at all.

and dig this, i was able to take videos of some highlights of the play! sneaky, eh? b used his dslr and the theatre people noticed him and asked him to erase all photos - all 500 of them!

these are no-look-videos. i hid my digicam inside my jacket and pretended that i was just raising my it. i was praying most of the time that i just raised it enough to get a good angle. yehe, sneaky, sneaky....

see the videos!

venetian macau

i swear you'll be amazed at the structure of venetian macau. hats off to its engineers, architects, interior designers, construction workers etc. i assume that the founders of the venetian hotels are obsessed with everything italian. and they would go all the way to faking clear skies to maximize the 'european effect'. every corner is really a sight to behold. it would have neen better if all visitors were wearing victorian suits to get the perfect feeling!

please note that everything here is on an enclosed structure.

gondolas on dock