SCTEX

NLEX, Japan-ized

The much-publicized, almost-finished Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) had its trial run last week. We thought we'd check it out since it was free and we were going to Subic anyway. We left late on Thursday morning and were caught in two chokepoints on NLEX:Balintawak and approaching Dau toll plaza. Our total time travel time from home to Subic was 5 hours (1.5 hours from San Fernando to Dau alone), but it only half as long to come back early afternoon on Sunday.

Left: no need for this when you're at a standstill
Right: the Pinoy Windows desktop

It was very hot on the road, true Semana Santa weather. Those riding vehicles with untinted windows or without aircon must have suffered. We only had one CD onboard to listen to. Since it was rewriteable, my brother was burning on-the-fly from a laptop so we could change our playlist. I really did not like it when people overtook using the unpaved part between the lanes because it was not only unfair but it also raised so much dust.


SCTEX itself was cool. It took only 30 mins from Clark to Subic at an average speed of 130 kph. Most of the interchanges are still being built and there are few streetlights. But if you compare that with the rough asphalt roads of the Freeport, it's a huge difference.

The expressway split so many hills in half. The views show off the natural beauty of that part of Luzon: the mountains in the distance, the verdant plains, the tiny mango trees that look like broccoli, the bahay kubos and the real sense of unspoiled rural life. How much of that will change, we don't know. But I wish nothing would.

Para sa Pasko ng Pagkabuhay

Maikling kuwento ni Arthur C. Clarke (na yumao kamakailan).

The Star
[via I am fuel, you are friends]

Some music to fall back on

I'm surprised I've never written about Jason Robert Brown until now. Although I haven't seen any of his shows yet (I was few people short of getting a return ticket for Parade in London), I'm a fan of the music of The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World. Mahirap daw siyang katrabaho , sabi ni Joanna Ampil, pero ganun siguro siya talaga.

I'll be away until Easter (you could subscribe so you don't miss the next post). In the meantime, listen to JRB's stuff here. Don't you just love it when composers sing and blog? It will be clear from the title which song is my all-time favorite. I had a phase two years ago when I listened to it over and over for days...

Two things to think over

A couple of artworks I thought I ought to point out from the FoEM exhibit of multimedia works: Buen Calubayan's Year of the Rat, which has hundreds of tiny plastic rats converging beneath an unframed portrait of the Pope (the former Cardinal Ratzinger), and Carlo Gabuco's Point and Shoot triptych of photorealist canvases--conversation pieces resonant with the national and global socio-political situation. Nick Tan has photos of the exhibit here.

FoEM, Art Center, SM Megamall until March 30, 2008 organized by Finale Art File

From VHS to YouTube

These are screen caps of the last of the three videos we shot in high school. It's a trilogy set in Baguio, stories that are a bit complicated to follow (my fault). My brother was kind enough to transfer it from analog to digital. Imagine how videos required for class were edited pre-Adobe Premiere, pre-Windows Movie Maker. That's right, using two VHS players.

This video is not on my YouTube channel and you won't find it unless you know my high school batch. And if you don't know that, it won't be worth your time (it's 40 minutes long including outtakes, again my fault). So why bother to share it? Just being sentimental. And for my classmates, in case they pass by.

It's the story of three friends...

Three other friends...

And two more friends. (The ninth groupmate never showed up.)

When I had Sadako hair and wore a self-tie-dyed shirt,
our backyard still had plenty of sky...

Actually, though I had my hair cut (see screenshot 1, extreme left), I kept the big hair until after college. And I still have that shirt, though it's faded to almost white. The screen on the right was the only shot taken at my house. All the interior shots were taken inside the same house, so we had to move things around to make it look like different places. That was part of the fun.

A walk around UP Diliman campus

Just happened to be in the University of the Philippines main campus, so I took a few shots of the places I passed by from Palma Hall to Chocolate Kiss Cafe inside Bahay ng Alumni. I took the long way around since I had plenty of time.

Ballet Philippines' Latin Heat

It's been a year since I last saw a ballet and I've nearly forgotten what a delight it is to see young dancers onstage. The BP company has changed a lot since I last saw them perform La Revolucion Filipina several years ago. Before that, I saw them in a couple of fairy tales told through ballet...in preschool. So when Ledz asked if I wanted to see Latin Heat, I immediately said yes.

The first number started off shakily because it didn't feel latin to me, but the three pas de deux with evenly matched pairs that followed firmly placed the show's toes back on the ground. I especially loved the expression of the third pair's female dancer--youthful energy in face and body. The quintet of female dancers made me think of the Sex and the City characters but I occasionally tuned out. The strength of the company obviously lies in its male dancers, highlighted by the capoeira-like number and the competition over the affections of a woman (who should not have taken off her pointe shoes--she was awkward in heels), where the men exhibited their best moves. And boy did they dance to impress!

The playful skits were popular numbers. I had a huge grin during the drunken dance, which was funny and entertaining. I only wish they could move the linoleum to the apron of the stage; the dance floor was too far from the audience.

The second half of the show was considerably weaker than the first. The dances set in the bar (Ibiza?) were often too busy. I thought the use of the headlamps was a novel trick, but a lot of movement was lost in the darkness and all I saw were backs and abs. Something I was unsure about the female soloist's role. She does give the show something to start and end with, but her style was so different that it became was evident that putting latin influences on classical ballet was easier than mixing latin with contemporary ethnic-like movement.

The music adhered to the canon of familiar Latin music, which was fine but would have left real latin aficionados feeling shortchanged. A bossa nova version of Til I Met You (Sitti, I think)? Current, yes, but somehow I don't think it was right.

Salsa Manila were guest performers. All that I can say is...they're a different animal.

It was nice to see dance students and foreigners in the audience. Friends of the company were seated behind me so I could hear one particularly enthusiastic guy's bravos and what they had to say about the previous night's show (secret!). Oy, I didn't eavesdrop, ha. Ang daldal nila eh.

Pity there are only four shows. Despite the show's uneven-ness, it is worth touring.

TuTOK: Kargado

"How can one be international if one has no national to be inter about?" --Emmanuel Torres

Oo nga naman. Whatever we do, we cannot escape our Filipino-ness and the society we belong to. The curator of TuTOK: Kargado, the latest exhibit at the Ateneo Art Gallery points to the fact that the biennials in the past 30 years "all acceeded to art as chummy bedfellow of politics, involvement, critique and assessment of the current human condition". And so you can imagine what was on display: commentary on the Filipino situation. What I found noteworthy about the exhibit is that the pieces selected were excellent. Here are some that had a strong impact on me.

You could almost hear the cacophony of the cast of characters in Emmanuel Garibay's Me Lugar Pa sa Mesa. Kirby Roxas' Cyan Imagenta (2008) is a multi-layered play on words. I thought the jeepney symmetry of Alfredo Esquillo Jr.'s Jack en Poy was brilliant. Brenda Fajardo's Baraha ng Buhay Pilipino was spread on the floor, to good effect. Edgar Talusan Fernandez's mixed media Kinupot (1977) and Lipad Diwa (2007) are similarly haunting despite the 30-year gap between them. (Has nothing changed since then?) Most striking for me was Jose Tence Ruiz's Blu-Skreen Kotillion, showing a woman in the twisted metal of industrialization in the guise of period dress. Or is it the other way around?

As an aside, Impy Pilapil's Interactive series of outdoor installations in between Dela Costa Hall and the Social Sciences building is a lively mix of large-scale works that deserve a place on campus and the attention of the community. I hope they stay a long time. It is an excellent way to greet the incoming freshmen and to expose them to art outside the gallery setting.

How CH are you?

POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

Being OC (obsessive-compulsive) is not just about keeping things neat and clean. Compulsive hoarding is also common among people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Over the past few years, it's become easier and easier for me to part with my things. I've learned to live with just one large suitcase and a fat backpack for a whole year.

There's no problem with having a lot of collections (I have beverage cans and a joint stamp collection with my mom, for example), but it does become a problem when you can't get rid of anything and your stuff literally get in your way. Do you know someone like that? Please show them this film.

For more documentaries, check out Martin Hampton's other videos here.

Seen and heard #1

I'm starting this series of posts on the simultaneously humorous and irritating side of city life. I'll start with a train ride where my seatmate was clipping her nails. Mabuti pa yung nasa tapat ko, nagbabasa ng To Kill A Mockingbird.. Serious.

Being no makeup expert, I feel for women who either have a wrong shade of blusher for their skin color (think pink more suitable for Snow White) or a very unnatural application. When someone satisfies both conditions and is a Tourism/HRM student, it's hard to sympathize anymore. Isn't there a class on grooming and presentation?

One saleslady to another, while watching Marian Rivera dance videos: "Mas may alindog si Katrina [Halili]."

Signs for an eatery in Manila: Healthy and nutritious food.
Under this sign: Sizzling Sisig. (Oo nga naman, fat is a nutrient.)

Sign on a grassy lot with goats grazing: Slow Down Populated Area.

Signboards on the way to Tagaytay. The revenge of the apostrophe + s:
Bird's for sale, Plant's for sale, Fruit's stand
(My brother's theory is that the same signmaker made them.)

Behind a golf cart: Please don't seat.

Woman taking empanada order to customer (me): "M'am, chicken or fork?" I think it's pretty obvious what I got.

Oh what a week this was, when the blogosphere was abuzz

If you were offline the whole week, here's what you missed (and I mean you, LG). ;)

Everybody was talking about Bb. Pilipinas-World 2008 Janina San Miguel and her fabulous Q&A and the continuing saga that is Gucci Gang controversy. Out of the blue, Malu Fernandez launched a horribly misinformed attack on bloggers. I'll let her get away with that. She's already getting more flack than her frame can take (meaning, a lot).

On the way up

Taking the shortcut to Talisay made me think of Initial D, with the twisting mountain pass. Going down the zigzag road was more exhilarating, but I was only able to shoot the way back.

MA dissertation update #9: revision time

Let this be a fruitful exercise.

It was a big gamble to take up a temp job at the time I should be revising my dissertation (bound copy due Monday the 17th), especially since my theory chapter needs a bit of work. But I have no regrets, even if I know I could do a much better analysis of my findings. At some point you just have to let it go.

Although there are things in the job that are not in my control, I get a sense of fulfillment when things do turn out in my favor. Fieldwork has always been fun for me. Once I get past the initial discomfort of meeting strangers and going places I've never been to before, I'm much happier gathering data, both quantitative and qualitative, than theorizing (though I would very much like to improve on that). I like finding out things. That's why I want to go into research.

To make matters more interesting, I found out two days ago that I have a research degree application due this Friday. *fingers crossed*

Kaya natin 'to!

Club Balai Isabel

Went on an overnight trip with my family to Club Balai Isabel in Talisay, Batangas. It's a lovely little resort community across the lake from Taal Volcano with that small village feel. The club embraces its tropical-ness and pays as much attention to landscaping as to other details: wood, stone, tile details, and colored glass. The themes are consistent--no scrimping on materials here.

We ate three times at the coffee shop and had good meals every time: laing, fried chicken, boneless bangus, tocino, biya, longganisa. My mom's only comment was that there was no kangkong in the sinigang. Given the many coconut trees, the buko juice cannot be fresher. On the downside, the HSM2 soundtrack playing in the background evokes summer but doesn't quite fit. Warning: there are plenty of red ants everywhere, on the beach, on plants, on tables, so you have to be careful where you rest your feet.

We stayed in a cramped room for four with two queen-size beds, but the villas and cottages are comfortable. The condotels under construction look really nice. What to do? The swimming pools make up for all the seaweed on the beach. There are outdoor tennis courts and an obstacle course for team building. But certainly Club Balai Isabel's best features are the view and the breeze.

Best viewed large. Complete Flickr photo set here, slideshow here.