George De Jesus III:If artists are not responsible for the context and meaning of the things they say, and if we simply ignore or give excuses to comments made "out of context" and deem it innocuous, then what's the point of art?
As a theater actor, I've been trained to have clarity in each line and intention. If there's no meaning or intent in the art that we do, what's the point? If we are not clear in what we say, what's the point of saying it? If we let go of everything said because it was taken out of context, when can we ever learn to speak clearly? If we don't learn how to convey a clear message in our art (whether it's intellectual or emotional), what's the reason for continuing?
So, to those who say that the issue of "skyflakes and cat food" was taken out of context, enough with being polite and "trying to be understanding" and considerate. What was said (no matter how good the intentions were) is a reflection of how theater actors are regarded. And it is not good. Excuses will not change the perception. Perhaps over-reacting and being unforgiving will.
Bea Garcia:I think the bigger question for us now is, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS? Rafa may have joked about how we are treated as actors but I think the reason why the reaction from our sector is huge is because there is truth in it. Sure we are not paid in cat food and we actually eat rice and ulam on set during shoots, but it is a known fact that we do not expect high talent fees and will do things for the love. Now, is that really so bad?
What I think we have is passion--passion for the work we do, passion for acting, passion for telling stories. And if we choose to accept jobs that pay low, it is no fault but our own and we should not blame anyone else. I for one have done probono work to help people, or simply because the material is so good that I cannot let the opportunity of being part of it pass. Lines can be drawn. We can always choose the work we do, demand for higher pay, and demand that we be treated just like any other talent, celebrity status or not. After all, we are good at what we do and deserve no less than that.
I think that this is a wake up call. A harsh one, but a call to action nonetheless. Now that we know the perception of people in the industry about theater actors in terms of rates and fees, we can work together in changing this paradigm. All we really need to do is assess our worth and accept no less than what we think we deserve.
FOR ACTOR-DIRECTOR José Mari Avellana, who died of aneurysm Sunday, it was an all-too-brief Indian summer. But while it lasted, it was a dazzling, sometimes heart-stopping, reminder of all the brilliance, substance and drama that must have attended the high noon of the man’s career in Philippine theater and the arts.
In January 2008, 15 years after having done his last play, Avellana returned to the stage in Repertory Philippines’ production of “Tuesdays With Morrie,” based on the Mitch Albom bestseller. His turn as the dying but unbowed professor Morrie Schwartz, opposite Bart Guingona as the Albom alter-ego, occasioned wide acclaim, culminating in his winning the first-ever Gawad Buhay! Best Actor honors the next year, given by the theater organization Philstage.
“Before this production,” I wrote in this paper, “few young theatergoers had heard of the august actor, the scion of two National Artists for Theater—Lamberto Avellana and Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana—and himself a fixture of local stages in decades past.
“‘Tuesdays With Morrie’ was to be Avellana’s first foray into theater in 15 years. It was a gruelling part, requiring the actor to deteriorate, within two hours, in front of the audience’s eyes as Schwartz succumbed to Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“Avellana had to be sickly but inspirational--a prefabricated occasion for any lesser actor to make a treacly ham of himself. Avellana, instead, employed the potent resources at his disposal--the rust-proof acting skills, but also the wisdom of his advanced years, the gravitas he wore with wry, graceful lightness--to sketch a rigorous, unsentimental portrait of a man unfazed by the dying of the light.”
Over at the Philippine Star, writer and teacher Exie Abola was moved to rhapsodize: “By so completely embodying Morrie, Avellana makes what is otherwise prosaic speech acceptable as the epigrammatic poetry of the quotidian.”
Spectacular
As comebacks went, it was a spectacular one. But, unknown to many, it was fraught with peril. Avellana was already in fragile health at this time, but his return to the boards seemed to energize him, and with “Morrie’s” success, he and Guingona found themselves on an extended run.
At a performance in Alabang that May, the unthinkable happened. As Guingona recalled (in a piece he wrote for the Inquirer), Avellana “collapsed onstage just as he was about to take his curtain call. In full view of a full house, I ran to where he lay and found him stiff as a board, eyes glazed and defocused. I was horrified... When I turned to the audience to call for a doctor in the house (a phrase I never dreamed I’d use one day; I mean how clichéd is that?) I was faced with an uncomprehending audience, glued to their seats. I later learned that many had thought it was all part of the show.”
It turned out Avellana had, earlier that week, sprained his ankle while on location shoot in a mountainous area for a foreign film production where he worked as assistant director, production designer and scriptwriter. He was taking over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs, not knowing it would aggravate his stomach ulcers.
“Two minutes before the show started, Mari was feeling faint and nauseous but just kept it to himself,” Guingona recalled. Avellana went through the two-hour show, progressively getting weaker--as his character did--but this time for real as the painkiller had begun to cause massive bleeding in his stomach.
“But Mari finished the show! In extreme pain and with a possibly fatal condition, he actually forced himself to make it through to the end!” Guingona could only marvel afterwards.
Avellana was rushed to the hospital and thankfully recovered. Even while still in bed, he made light of his whole ordeal--“In a cracked basso profundo he joked [to Guingona] ‘Wasn’t that a great publicity stunt?’”--and was back to work soon after.
Renaissance man
The next year, he was back at Rep, directing a revival of the Nick Joaquin warhorse, “A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino.” The production was, in many ways, both a homecoming and a family affair. The streamlined text was the work of his mother and father, and had formed the basis of the 1965 film that Lamberto had directed, starring Daisy as Candida and Naty Crame Rogers as Paula. The Rep play not only took after the film’s template, it also used the musical score by another Avellana—Lamberto Jr., José Mari’s brother.
At the 2nd Gawad Buhay!, the revival ran off with eight nominations, including Best Play, Best Director and Best Musical Design for Lamberto Jr., as well as acting citations for Ana Abad Santos and Liesl Batucan as the Marasigan sisters, and Dido Dela Paz as Don Perico (who would win Best Featured Actor in a Play).
His scary brush with death onstage was but the most dramatic demonstration of Avellana’s extraordinary commitment to his theater work, which had by now stretched more than five decades. He was thrust into the stage in his teens, playing various roles in his parents’ Barangay Theater Guild productions, then eventually flitting to various other theater groups. At BTG, he was Tom Wingfield in “The Glass Menagerie,” Jamie Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” At Rep, he was Dr. Dysart in “Equus.” With Teatro Pilipino, he played Abdalap in “Orosman at Zafira” and the title role in “Cyrano de Bergerac.” He was also in Filipino adaptations of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Wait Until Dark.”
On film, he was last seen in the 2009 Cinemalaya entry “Colorum,” for which he nabbed a Best Supporting Actor nomination in the 2010 Gawad Urian. He was also a writer, director, production designer, photographer, radio broadcaster--the kind of Renaissance man that had all but vanished by the time he burned the stage once again, decades later, as Morrie Schwartz.
Graciousness
He possessed another Old World trait: graciousness. Before his triumph at the first Philstage awards night, we had never met Mr. Avellana, but when our review of his performance in “Tuesdays With Morrie” came out, he staggered us with an e-mail. “Thank you very much for that ‘shot in the arm’ you gave us grizzly bears,” he wrote. “Your generosity has inspired me to do more work on the boards.”
Later that year, when we picked him as Best Actor in a Play (a cinch, really) for this paper’s year-end theater round-up, out came another e-mail: “I am speechless. I am humbled. I am inspired. Thank you very much for including me. You touched a warm spot in this grizzly’s heart.”
And when we posted in our blog a video clip of his brief but warm and classy acceptance speech at the Gawad Buhay!, he was his usual generous, self-deprecating self in our mailbox: “I was thrilled to see that you posted my little acceptance speech, because I do not remember what on earth I said and was worried that I had made an ass of myself. Happily it was short and not as rambling as I thought.”
Generosity--clearly the same spirit that goaded Avellana to finish the show, to honor the audience and his art, in the face of excruciating odds, even of near-death itself. Or as Guingona put it, “You are generous beyond imagination. You almost died to entertain us. The least we can say is bravo!”
Avellana passed away on Sunday, June 26, at Cardinal Santos Memorial Medical Center. He was 70. Grizzly, Sir--bravo.
PLUS: His “little” acceptance speech at the 1st Gawad Buhay!--
[Update: Correction--Mr. Avellana's last film appearance was in the 2010 Cinemalaya entry Vox Populi, directed by Dennis Marasigan.]
“Ito ay isang malinaw na insulto sa ating Civil Code at sa katuruan ng Simbahang Katolika! Kawawa naman ang mga taong ito! Wala nang kinikilalang Diyos! Wala na rin silang paggalang sa kanilang sarili! Dapat na matigil ang kahibangang ito! Ang mga nagpakasal at nagkasal ay mayroong mga problema sa pag-iisip.”
-- Catholic Bishop Carlito Cenzon reacting to reports that pastors of the Metropolitan Community Church of Metro Baguio officiated the wedding of at least eight gay couples in Baguio City last June 25. [From The Professional Heckler]
Thirty one digital films in competition, plus more than a hundred in exhibition, new sections, and a second festival venue, all make Cinemalaya bigger and better this year. With the tagline “See the Unseen,” Cinemalaya films this year tackle such themes as passion, memory, truth, despair, obsession, terror and splendor.
Cinemalaya will reach a wider audience as it will be held in two places at the same time: its main venue at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, CCP Complex; and at Greenbelt 3 in Makati City, in cooperation with Ayala Theaters Management. The addition of Greenbelt 3 as a second major venue for the festival is part of the vision of Cinemalaya organizers to make the festival more accessible to the growing number of audiences that attend Cinemalaya.
Now on its seventh year, Cinemalaya is a project of the Cinemalaya Foundation, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Film Development Council of the Philippines and Econolink Investments, Inc. It is an all-digital film festival that aims to discover, encourage and honor cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity.
Competition films
Cinemalaya’s main competition categories are the New Breed full-length feature category and the Short Feature category, featuring works by new directors. The Directors Showcase is a competition for works by established directors.
Nine films will compete in the New Breed full length feature category, 10 in the Short feature category and four in the Directors Showcase.
Competing in the New Breed category are:
• Amok (Amok) by Lawrence Fajardo
• Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank) by Marlon Rivera and Chris Martinez
• Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa (The Dance of Two Left Feet) by Alemberg Ang and Alvin Yapan
• Bahay Bata (Baby Factory) by Eduardo W. Roy, Jr. and Jerome Zamora
• Cuchera by Joseph Israel M. Laban
• I-libings: Your Loss, Our Luck (E-funerals) by Rommel Andreo Sales
• Ligo na U, Lapit Na Me (Star Crossed Love) by Noel Ferrer, Jerry Gracio and Erick Salud
• Nino by Loy Arcenas
• Teoriya (Father’s Way) by Alistaire Christian E. Chan.
The nine finalists of the New Breed Full Length Feature category each received a P500,000 seed grant from the Cinemalaya Foundation as investment for the production. The Best Full-Length Feature Film will receive a prize of P200,000 and the Balanghai Trophy. The New Breed Full Length feature category is open to Filipino filmmakers who have not yet directed more than three full-feature films.
The 10 finalists in the Short Feature category are:
• Debut by Pamela Llanes Reyes
• Every Other Time by Gino M. Santos
• Hanapbuhay (Source of Living) by Henry Frejas
• Hazard by Mikhail Red, Immanuel by Gabriel “Gio” Puyat
• Nino Bonito by Rommel “Milo” Tolentino
• Oliver’s Apartment by Misha Balangue
• Samarito (Samaritan) by Rafael L. Santos
• Un Diutay Mundo (One Small World) by Ana Carlyn V. Lim
• Walang Katapusang Kwarto (An Endless Room) by Emerson Reyes
The winner of the Short Feature Category will receive a prize of P100,000.00 and the Balanghai trophy.
The four finalists in the Directors Showcase are:
• Bisperas (Eve) by Jeffrey Jeturian
• Busong (Palawan Fate) by Auraeus Solito
• Isda (Fable of the Fish) by Adolfo Alix Jr.
• Patikul by Joel C. Lamangan
The finalists of the Directors showcase each received a P500,000 seed grant from the Cinemalaya Foundation. The Best Film in the Directors Showcase will receive a prize of P300,000 and the Balanghai Trophy. The Directors Showcase is open to full length feature works by Filipino directors who have directed at least three full-length commercial feature films.
New sections, venues
New sections will spice up this year's Cinemalaya menu. Focus Asia will feature eight independent works by Asian directors from Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Japan. The Ronwaldo Reyes Retrospective, presented in cooperation with the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film, will highlight the directorial works of National Artist and iconic action star Fernando Poe Jr. The Cinemalaya Documentary section, presented in cooperation with Calata Corporation, offers a hefty and more substantial helping of films on various aspects of Philippine life and society.
Two theaters at Greenbelt 3 will be dedicated to Cinemalaya on July 16-24, 2011. The films to be shown at Greenbelt will be those in competition in the New Breed Full Length-Feature category, the Short Feature Category, the Directors Showcase, and NETPAC Philippine Premieres. The films of the new Focus Asia section of Cinemalaya will also be shown at Greenbelt.
At the CCP, the Festival will be held in seven venues. The opening ceremony is slated on July 15, 6 p.m., followed by the festival opening film at the CCP Main Theater. The Cinemalaya Awards Night will be held on July 24, 7 p.m., at the same venue.
Other sections of the Cinemalaya are the NETPAC Philippine Premieres with eight competing films, Ani (a harvest of the best Filipino Indie Films of the past year), Kids Treats (indie films for children) and Midnite Specials (indie films with adult themes). Cinemalaya will also organize the Cinemalaya Film Congress, which will carry the theme “Building Bridges Across Asia Through Films,” and other film-related events such as the Sine Taktakan (forum with 2011 Cinemalaya filmmakers), lectures and exhibits.
For more tickets and information, please call the CCP Box Office 8323704 and CCP Media Arts 8321125 local 1204/05, or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph and www.cinemalaya.org
No need to introduce the man, of course--those 16 musicals of his, and the cavalcade of irresistible melodies they have spawned through four decades, more than make the case for him.
Now, the blockbuster Lloyd Webber songbook is coming to Manila via a supersized revue-concert conceived in Australia, greenlighted by the man himself, and to be performed by top-notch Australian musical-theater performers, including Delia Hannah, the Grizabella temporarily replaced by Lea Salonga in the Manila run of Cats last year (also from the same producers). Short of watching any of Lloyd Webber's full-length musicals (a privilege many of us are unable to enjoy in Manila), this theatricalized concert distillation of his remarkable body of work would surely do.
From the press announcement: Through state-of–the-art technology, audiences will be swept from the avenues of Broadway to the magnificence of Eva Peron's Argentina, to the speedways of “Starlight Express,” in a dazzling journey through the many settings of Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest works. All the big moments from “Evita,” “The Phantom of the Opera, “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “The Woman in White,” to the current “Love Never Dies,” will be there.
The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Stuart Maunder with live orchestration by Guy Noble, will run for 13 performances at the CCP's Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) from June 24 to July 3, 2011. It's presented in Manila by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises, All Youth Channels and Concertus in association with Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Really Useful Company Asia Pacific.
For tickets: TicketWorld 8919999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph. Bambi Rivera-Verzo,Managing Director of Concertus, Inc. 0917-5370539/4038646/4038678, or e-mail
bambi@concertusmanila.com. Or Dincee Caluag, Concertus Media Relations Officer 0922-8353528/4038646/4038678, or e-mail dincee@concertusmanila.com, dincee.concertus@gmail.com
PLUS: If you still can't make it to this show but are dying to have your fill of Lloyd Webber anyway, check out the numerous CD compilations of his hits that are widely available out there (he's not the most commercially successful musical-theater composer in history for nothing). Or, you can take a peek at two DVDs that offer roughly the same concept as the upcoming Manila show--a greatest-hits songfest where Lloyd Webber songs are sung mostly concert-style or, in rare cases, recreated along with the specific scene underpinning the melodies (eg, Glenn Close as an in-character Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration).
There's Masterpiece: Live in Beijing, where a troupe similar to the one that's about to perform in Manila travelled to China's capital in September 2001 to wow a highly appreciative Chinese audience at the cavernous Hall of the People. Elaine Paige was the only marquee star in a cast that also included soloists Kris Phillips (Fei Xiang), a Chinese-British performer; and Tony Vincent--Simon the Zealot in the 2001 video version of Jesus Christ Superstar. An excerpt--the electrifying Macavity from Cats:
Masterpiece came three years after the much grander Royal Albert Hall Celebration, where Paige had stars of comparable wattage to contend with, among them Close, Sarah Brightman, Michael Ball, Kiri Te Kanawa. Antonio Banderas, glowering hammily both as Che and the Phantom in his three numbers (Oh, What a Circus/High-flying, Adored and The Phantom of the Opera) also made an appearance. Ahem, there's no excuse for any musical aficionado hereabouts not to have seen this show. The DVD is practically everywhere!
My favorite part of the show--you might have guessed by now--is the magnificent Glenn Close as Norma Desmond, who, though rather weak vocally (that is, compared to other Normas such as Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley, Paige herself, even Diahann Carroll) owned the part completely through her near-blackly comic, larger-than-life take on the role. She had to be in costume for this concert, she said, because she always thought Norma's two big musical numbers were the equivalent of monologues. Spoken like a true actress. Watch her nail that conviction home:
Ima Castro, last seen onstage by her countrymen 10 years ago as the post-Lea Salonga Kim in Miss Saigon-Manila, is headlining the Elton John-Tim Rice musical Aida, mounted by Atlantis Productions and directed by Chari Arespacochaga, that's opening this Friday, June 24, at the RCBC Theater. The show runs until July 10.
From my earlier entry on Ima: For “Aida,” her co-stars include Myke Salomon as Radames, father-and daughter Hajji and Rachel Alejandro as Zoser and Amneris, respectively, Alys Serdenia as Nehebka and pop singer Josh Santana, in his musical-theater debut, as Mereb. Directing the show is Chari Arespacochaga.
With Aida, says Ima, she's learning to adjust to a lower vocal register. The score is difficult to sing because of the range--there are high notes aplenty, which is her forte, but the role of the captive Nubian princess, especially as incarnated by Heather Headley, who sang and acted the part to a triumphant Best Actress Tony on Broadway, calls for a darker, more soulful sound, pitched to a lower timbre.
Here's what Ima means--Heather singing up a storm in Aida's Act 1 closer, The Gods Love Nubia:
PLUS: Another interesting thing to see in this Aida is the father-daughter team-up of Hajji and Rachel Alejandro, who last shared the musical stage in Rolando Tinio's Larawan, The Musical, 13 years ago. Rachel was Paula, the youngest Marasigan daughter, while Hajji played Don Perico, the poet-turned-politician whose great Contra Mundum speech literally changes the lives of the spinster sisters--and pivots the play toward a new direction. Tinio translated/condensed Nick Joaquin's words--the first part of the speech--into Filipino lyrics of poetic regret and resignation, with Ryan Cayabyab providing the complementary melody and Hajji singing it to short and simple perfection:
Atlantis Productions' “Aida” runs June 24-July 10, 2011 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City. A limited number of shows are now available for show-buying and fund-raising opportunities. Call Atlantis 8927078 or 8401187.
We've got call-in questions from readers! A first for our podcasts, and a welcome tweak to our usual pace, routine, even energy (wait till you hear part 4, where the back-and-forth became so heated our friends in the peanut gallery thought it had become a full-blown spat).
Part 1: The one where corporate guy Ton asks for pointers on how to handle a work colleague who's been trying to out him forcibly, spreading stories about him in the office, including the bit that--que horror!--they've supposedly slept together.
Music credits:
Ask by The Smiths Shut Up And Let Me Go by The Ting Tings
Part 2: The one where blogger Rocky Sunico asks whether, now that June is Pride Month, there is still relevance or importance in coming out. I just had to clarify before he signed off: Did he mean coming out to one's self, or to other people? Is it about someone who has more or less come to terms with himself, and is now pondering the next stage, whether it's important, perhaps even necessary, to let the people around him know? Rocky says the latter. All right--Fabcasters, go!
The last heart-stopping moments of perhaps the most lavish original Filipino musical ever staged. The clips are made available online by special arrangement with Franco Laurel and Ayen Munji-Laurel of ML Entertainment, owners of the copyright to the musical. No DVD copy of the musical, whether bootleg or original, is available commercially, so--thank you, Franco and Ayen, for this wonderful gift to Pinoy musical theater fans.
From my original entry on these musical excerpts: For those who caught the production at the UP Theater, here's a chance to relive its magic. For those who missed it, now's the time to watch, from dazzling opening number to exhilarating finale, the most-talked-about theater event of that long-ago season.
This video captures the closing performance of the musical on the evening of March 6, 1999, with Ariel Rivera as Rama, Chiqui Pineda as Sita, John Arcilla as Rama's brother Lakshmana, Robert Sena as the villain Ravana, Jaya as Ravana's sister Soorphanaka, Mr. Laurel as Rama's youngest brother Bharata, and Edward Granadosin as Rama's teacher Vishmavitra.
11. Ginoong Ermitanyo/Type Kita, Rama/Tingnan mo ang Aking Byuti--Robert Sena, Chiqui Pineda, Jaya, Ariel Rivera, John Arcilla. Ravana, dressed as a hermit, attempts to seduce Sita (Ginoong Ermitanyo), while Soorphanaka is all over Rama and Lakshmana (Type Kita, Rama). But the brothers see through her designs, and when she tries to hurt Sita, Lakshmana maims her, sending her back screaming to her underground lair, demanding that Ravana take revenge on the brothers (Tingnan Mo Ang Aking Byuti).
12. Kaya N'yo Bang Tumagal--Chiqui Pineda. Ravana succeeds in snatching Sita and spiriting her away to Lanka. To rescue her, Rama asks help from the monkey army of Kiskinda. Sita, meanwhile, refuses Ravana's advances, but in an optical illusion, Rama's monkey spies see a Sita look-alike cavorting with Ravana. The hasty report crushes Rama.
13. Magbalik Ka Na, Mahal/Tagistis ng Ulan--Chiqui Pineda, Ariel Rivera. Rama and Sita's mirror laments, one waiting to be freed from captivity, the other missing his bride but ruing the frailty of love.
Just to complete your Rama at Sita experience, here is (alternate Sita) Lani Misalucha's version of Magbalik Ka Na, Mahal, from the original cast album:
14. Finale: Sadyang Pinagtagpo/Huwag Takasan (reprise)--Ariel Rivera, Chiqui Pineda, Chorus. In the great war that follows, Rama's forces defeat Ravana. But believing that his wife is now impure, Rama refuses to take Sita back. Sita, heartbroken, decides to end her life by being burned on a pyre. The gods intervene just in time to commend Rama and Sita for their fealty to dharma (duty), no matter how difficult. Rama and Sita reunite to reclaim their love and the throne of Ayodhaya.
15. Bonus: Curtain call--Watch the star-studded closing-night crowd erupt in thunderous cheers as the performers and creative crew take their bows. If you feel like joining them in applauding the remarkable all-Filipino production you've just seen, by all means, go ahead! Bravo, indeed!
Every self-respecting gay man should encounter, and grapple with, the cinema of Gregg Araki at least once in his life (good entry point: Mysterious Skin, the most accessible and “conventional” of his movies, with Joseph Gordon Leavitt in a breakout performance).
From the Irish Times: American auteur Gregg Araki exploded on to the independent cinema scene during the 1990s with a hip, underground milieu that owed as much to 'The Breakfast Club' as it did to Stan Brakhage. Extreme, erotically charged, hilarious and nihilistic, each Araki picture was a new post-MTV, post-everything sensation.In his own words--
On his films:“I see myself as very much a cultural sponge. I am exposed to all kinds of different stuff: advertising, photography, commercials. I have always been influenced by album art. Design. Colour. All that stuff is in my brain. When I sit down to write a movie, it comes from a secret place. I don’t think about it. I don’t make conscious homage. The Hitchcockian shots just come naturally now.”
On the forest of academic commentary that has grown around his movies:“I was aware of it, as my background was in film studies. I had a masters and I went to film school so I was literate in that language. It was very flattering to be the subject of that amount of critical work. But as a film student, I know the critical work is creative work in its own right. It ceases to be about the movie. There is a lot of projecting, which is not a bad thing. There is a separation between what I do and what they do.”
On sex:“My movies have always been interested in sex, but it’s not really about titillation or exploitation or gay or straight. It’s about having access to a private, intimate moment. My feeling about people--in general and in the cinema--is that sex is the moment at which you are both emotionally and physically naked. You could be somebody’s best friend for life and never see them that way. Everybody has that public face that they put on when they walk down the street and go to Starbucks. But I am more interested in the hidden face. I also feel that--less so in Europe, maybe--there is a real hypocritical attitude to sex. America is obsessed with sex in an unhealthy and fucked-up way . . . [whereas] my characters express themselves and define themselves sexually. It’s dishonest--like the 'Twilight' movies, where there is so much titillation but also this weird Mormon abstinence.”
“Departures,” winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, opens this year's Eiga Sai, the Japanese film festival, on July 1 (Friday) at the Shang Cineplex Cinema 2, Shangri-La Plaza, EDSA, Mandaluyong City. The filmfest is part of the month-long activities for Philippines-Japan Friendship Month.
Eiga Sai will play at the following venues: Shang Cineplex Cinema 4 (July 1 to 10), Gaisano Grand Citimall, Davao (July 22 to 24), Ayala Center Cinema 4, Cebu (August 2 to 7) and UP Film Institute (August 17 to 20). Departures
In “Departures,” Masahiro Motoki plays Daigo Kobayashi, an aspiring cellist who becomes an embalmer--a role that won for Motoki Best Actor awards at the 32nd Japan Academy Prize in 2008 and the Kinema Junpo Awards in 2009. The film was directed by Yojiro Takita.
The film festival officially reels off with an invitational screening and special performance of Renato Lucas, the principal cellist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, together with pianist Naomi Sison, at 7 p.m. at the Atrium Plaza, Shangri-la Plaza.
Completing this year’s roster of films to be featured are “The Summit: Chronicle of Stones; “The Chef of South Polar,” “One Million Yen Girl,” “Your Friend,” “Yunagi City, Sakura Country,” “Summer Days with Coo,” “Climber's High,” “Feel the Wind” and “Villon's Wife.”
“Eiga Sai,” which literally means “film festival,” is now on its 13th year in the Philippines, and is organized by the Japan Foundation, Manila together with the Embassy of Japan, The Shangri-La Plaza Corporation, UP Film Institute and with the support of Lyric Piano, ClickTheCity.com and NET 25.
All films will be shown with English subtitles. Admission is free. For detailed screening schedules and inquiries, visit the Japan Foundation website, www.jfmo.org.ph, or call (+632) 8116155 to 58.
PETA-Kalinangan Ensemble is holding auditions for “William,” a new musical play written by Ron Capinding, to be directed by Maribel Legarda.
Auditions will be held at the PETA Theater Center on June 17, Friday, 3 p.m. (for PETA members only); and on June 18, Saturday, 3pm (for non-PETA members).
Please prepare a song with a rap portion, and memorize a monologue from any of the following Shakespeare plays: “Merchant of Venice,” “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Macbeth.” Bring a copy of your resume with picture.
PETA is looking for actors who can sing and dance to play the following roles:
Mga Estudyante sa Ikatlong Taon, mga 15-16 anyos:
1. Erwin Castro--matamlay at mahiyain, di-katangi-tangi
2. Estela Carandang--honor student pero medyo manang
3. Richard Austria--bibong mataray, student leader
4. TJ Domingo--makisig, atleta, mahina sa akademiko, siga
5. Sophia Reyes--maganda, bibung-bibo ngunit di-matalino
Mga Nakatatanda:
6. Ms. Lutgarda Martinez--nakasisindak na English teacher, mahigit 40 anyos
7. Ama, mahigit 40 anyos--to do multiple roles
Paiba-iba ang edad: Koro (mga 3)--na magsisilbing mga Kaklase, Mang-aawit, Tagapagsalaysay, Komentarista ng mga Nagaganap sa Dula, at/o iba pa.
Look for Aaron Deniega or Grace Sioson on the audition dates. Or text/call 7256244, 0917-5391112 or e-mail petatheater@gmail.
PLUS:
For its 44th Theater Season, PETA produces modern, educational and
entertaining plays and events that reintroduces Shakespeare and his works.
Help us demystify the Bard--make him less fearsome, easier to understand, and lovable for all. Create a modern icon that will capture PETA’s hip, fun, young and modern interpretation of Shakespeare that will appeal to the youth!
MECHANICS:
1. Contest participants must create a hip, fun, young and modern Shakespeare icon for PETA's 44th Theater Season.
a. Entries can be hand-drawn or digitally made (e.g. Adobe Photoshop).
b. The image must be in .jpg format. File size should not exceed 500kb.
c. Originality is encouraged.
2. Contestants must pass their electronic artwork via e-mail to petatheater@gmail.com, together with the following information: Entrant’s Full Name, Age, Contact Number.
3. All artworks received during the contest duration will be uploaded on July 16 via PETA’s Facebook Page: Peta Tapets
4. Contest Duration
Contest starts on June 10, 2011.Deadline for submission of entries is on July 15, 2011 at 6 P.M. Deadline of voting (via Facebook likes) is on July 30, 2011 at 6 P.M. Winners will be announced on August 2, 2011.
5. Criteria for judging
• 30% Popularity measured via Facebook likes
• 30% Creativity
• 40% Originality and Adherence to PETA’s hip, fun, young and modern theme
The winning artwork will become the official icon of PETA’s Shakespeare Season and will appear in PETA’s posters, flyers, merchandise and other collaterals. The winner will be given P5,000 plus (20) complimentary tickets to PETA’s “William” and “Haring Lear” productions, as well as complimentary playbills for both productions.
Winners will be notified by PETA via phone call and public announcement on PETA’s Facebook Page.
In celebration of Dr. Jose Rizal's birth sesquicentennial (1861-2011), the United Artists for Cultural Conservation and Development City of Biñan Inc. (UACCD), in cooperation with the Philippine College of Surgeons Southern Luzon Chapter and the Office of the Biñan City Mayor Hon. Marlyn Alonte-Naguiat, present "SI RIZAL AT AKO: Isang Pagpupugay at Pagkilala sa Natatanging Anak ng Biñan".
Script devised by Raymond Vergara, the presentation will showcase anything about Jose Rizal--music, texts, letters, news and even hoaxes. The young Jose Rizal's first formal education took place in Biñan, his parents Francisco and Teodora also both hailed from Biñan, therefore making Rizal a true-blooded Biñanense.
The show will be staged on June 18 (Saturday), 8 p.m., at the Biñan Multi-Purpose Hall, Plaza Rizal, Biñan City, Laguna. Admission is free.
The performers are members of Biñan Youth Performance Council, a local community theatre founded in 2005 and students from St. Gabriel Archangel Academy. Singapore-based Cinderella Mayo composed the original music for the show, with dramaturgy by Bimbo Sta. Maria, UACCD executive director and president. BJ Borja, a theatre arts graduate from UP Diliman, directs the show.
First, write a witty script that sparkles with class while also accommodating words like sodomy (the kudos, in this case, go the composers of the previously Tony-nominated Cry-Baby). Second, get the fabulous Neil Patrick Harris to deliver it. Third, have it announce nothing less than a tectonic shift in culture: Cause it's not just for gays, it's not just for gays--we'd be twice as proud to have you if you go both ways--Broadway is not just for gays anymore!
The complete lyrics, from here--because they are simply irresistible:
Performed by host Neil Patrick Harris and ensemble members from the various Tony-nominated productions, the song was titled "Not Just for Gays Anymore." The lyrics for this specialty number as well as Harris' introduction and banter with several celebrities in the audience follow:
Neil Patrick Harris: Good evening! I'm teen heartthrob Neil Patrick Harris. It's an honor to be back hosting the 65th Annual Tony Awards, and I'd like to deliver a very important message on behalf of all of us who care so deeply about this community.
If you've seen a show, then you already know how magical theatre can be. It's a two-hour, live-action, barely affordable, un-lip-synced version of "Glee." So, this song goes out to the rest of you--those who've never seen theatre before--because Broadway has never been broader--it's not just for gays any more!
If you feel like someone that this world excludes, it's no longer only for dudes who like dudes.
Attention every breeder, your invited to the theatre. It's not just for gays anymore.
The glamour of Broadway is beckoning straights—the people who marry in all 50 states.
We're asking every hetero to get to know us better-o. It's not just for gays anymore!
It's for fine, upstanding Christians who know all the songs from Grease.
It's for sober-minded businessmen who yearn for some release.
So, put down your Playboy and go make a plan to pick up a Playbill and feel like a man.
There's so much to discover with your different-gendered lover.
It's not just for gays, the gays and the Jews, and cousins in from out of town you have to amuse, and the sad, embittered malcontents who write the reviews, and also foreign tourists, and the groups of senior citizens and well-to-do suburbanites and liberal intellectuals —though that group is really only Jews and homosexuals—I've lost my train of thought.
Oh yes, it's not just for gays anymore.
See what I'm talking about? Thank you. Wow! You can smell the testosterone in the room, can't you? Look at this place—it's full of straight people. Angela Lansbury, you're super-hot. Are those things real? Stephen Colbert, you're straight as they come. Any thoughts?
Stephen Colbert: I enjoy the theatre. I've enjoyed it all my life. I enjoy it with my female woman wife.
Neil Patrick Harris: Nice. Don't we all, Stephen. Look at all these straight people. James Earl Jones, you're straight. Vanessa Redgrave, you're straight. Joe Mantello—thanks for coming. Brooke Shields, you're super-hot. You made me believe I was straight for 23 years.
Brooke Shields: When I'm up on stage, there's lots of men who like to watch. In fact, one guy sent a Twit-pic of his crotch.
Bobby Cannavale: Broadway touches parts of me that never have been touched. I love it very CENSORED much.
Neil Patrick Harris: We've got swarms of Mormons, showgirls, sailors, dancing boys and nuns, plus a Spider facing, death-defying, budget over-runs.
So, people from Red states, and people from Blue, a big Broadway rainbow is waiting for you.
Come in and be inspired, there's no sodomy required.
Cause it's not just for gays, it's not just for gays—we'd be twice as proud to have you if you go both ways—Broadway is not just for gays anymore!
From artistic director Rody Vera: 105 script submissions down to 10 untried, untested, unpublished “virgin” plays, plus three more from VLF6! Here is the lineup for the 7th Virgin Labfest at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute, June 29-July 10, 2011.
LABFEST REVISITED:
JUNE 29, 3pm/8pm; JULY 7, 8pm; JULY 8, 3pm
• HIGIT PA DITO by Allan Lopez, directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio Featuring: Cris Pasturan, Angelina Kanapi Bing, a single mother, leaves her two grown children to live on her own. Still grappling with uncertainty, she moves in her new apartment with the help of her son Kael. In the deceptively simple conversation between mother and son, ambiguous and seemingly random recollections paint a portrait of a woman trying to rediscover strength, and the drive to revisit her long abandoned desire.
• ONDOY by Remi Velasco , directed by Ed Lacson, Jr. Featuring: Cai Cortez, Jelson Bay If you were trapped on your rooftop with nothing but only your wimp husband or nagging wife in the middle of the tragic typhoon Ondoy, what would you wish for? Mercy demanded for an annulment while Obet wanted only his son to stay and Mercy to be booted out of “roof.” The storm begins, the battle begins. The couple’s struggle to save their lives was awkwardly turned into a fight, crystallizing their own family “storm”--their chronic, even futile problems. But when Ondoy subsided, who will be booted out?
• BALUNBALUNAN, BINGIBINGIHAN by Debbie Ann Tan, directed by Issa Lopez Featuring: Bembol Roco, Missy Maramara, Paul Jake Paule Gilbeys and Brandy, 20 years apart are husband and wife, pimp and whore who love each other dearly. Brandy with her repertoire of roles as nurse, baker, cook or tutor does her trade with perfunctory ease that brings to the table Gilbey’s sole diet: chicken gizzard. However, life gets more difficult. They decide to take in a boarder, someone who could help them in this covert trade as well. Enter Whiskey,a virile lad who looks and acts nice. The couple take him in as a bedspacer. They eventually reveal their trade to Whiskey and insinuate an offer to work for them as a “plumber.” But three is always a crowd. Jealousies and hate begin to tear this odd trio apart. Whiskey proffers his love for Brandy. Gilbeys suspects Whiskey of being a traitor and a thief. Brandy is torn between the two. But Gilbeys and Brandy's love for each other runs deep--a love that has to do with the matter of eating chicken gizzards.
SET B
JUNE 30, 3pm/8pm; JULY 6, 3pm; JULY 8, 8pm
Full-length play
• ISANG GABI BAGO MAGBUKAS ANG “A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS FILIPINO” NI NICK JOAQUIN by Carlo Pacolor Garcia, directed by Paul Santiago Featuring: Angelina Kanapi, Che Ramos, Christian Bautista, Roeder Camañag, Lao Rodriguez, Olive Nieto, Chromewell Cosio, Kathlyn Castillo, Acey Aguilar, Yong Tapang, Roli Inocencio, Skyzx Labastilla, Russel Legaspi, Irene Delarmente, Joel Saracho Just another typical night at the theater: the director’s mad, stage manager’s losing his wit, and the actors are, well, acting up—until one by one, they all start dying. Then the fun suddenly begins: who’s out to get a bunch of old and forgotten stars trying to get another break; why here and why now, why The Portrait; perhaps a prank,a pure coincidence; or has the past finally decided to play cat and mouse? It was a dark and stormy night, indeed, and everyone’s a suspect. Look sharp, find your light, and break a leg!
SET C
JULY 1, 3pm/8pm; JULY 9, 3pm; JULY 10, 8pm
• STREETLIGHT MANIFESTO by Mixkaela Villalon, directed by Ed Lacson, Jr. Featuring: Paolo O’Hara, Adrienne Vergara, Bong Cabrera, Ness Roque Every night, a streetlight is the lone witness to the meetings between two hired killers responsible for the string of murders in a particular area in Manila--and every day, dead bodies are left underneath it for a police detective to find, and a young journalist to investigate and report. Streetlight Manifesto tackles the subjective nature of truth and justice, and frames the discussion on dignity of work amist the backdrop of Manila’s business casual culture of violence. But for every day the investigation remains unresolved, the body count continues to rise.
• KAWALA by Rae Red, directed by Paolo O’Hara Featuring: Cris Pasturan, Regina de Vera, Jerry O’Hara, Peewee O’Hara, Tess Jamias, Jelson Bay, George de Jesus A famous actor and his snobby manager. A posh, religious husband and wife. A promiscuous gold digger. A mysterious priest. And an innocent young woman. Seen through the eyes of a puzzled elevator boy, “Kawala” tells the story of intertwined lives in a condominium and how they affect an important life choice of a confused employee.
• EVENING AT THE OPERA by Floy Quintos, directed by Jomari Jose Featuring: Ana Abad Santos, Frances Makil Ignacio, Jonathan Tadioan Miranda Beloto, wife of Governor Bingo Beloto is obsessed with the idea of bringing to her impoverished province the first staging of a full length opera. As she prepares to face her corrupt, insensitive husband, she must also deal with the pressure from her own manipulative mother. It seems that Miranda’s foolhardy vision of beauty is all she can cling to in the face of so much brutality. Or is she herself a crucial part of the cycle of corruption?
SET D
JULY 2, 3pm/8pm; JULY 6, 8pm; JULY 7, 3pm
• MGA LOBO TULAD NG BUWAN, written and directed by Pat Valera Featuring: Mary Jane Alejo, Katte Sabata, Chic San Agustin A mother, wife and daughter remain in the realm of resistance to seek justice. Each has lost a loved one from the tragic sinking of MV Princess of the Stars where 773 people died. One of the worst maritime disasters in recent years, the vessel sank because of the shipping line’s insistence to sail amidst a looming typhoon. Three years since the sinking, the women persist. However, they slowly forget. Time consumes them, great powers offer bribes, the cost of the struggle becomes insurmountable. Most of all, the memory of pain stabs each time it is remembered. Some succumb to the solace of oblivion, leaving the seemingly endless battle while some remain amidst certain pain and uncertain answers. This is an elegy for all those lost at sea and their relatives left behind. This play allows us to understand their struggle.
• BAWAL TUMAWID, NAKAMAMATAY, written and directed by Joey Paras Featuring: Leo Rialp, Kiki Baento, Mark Jones Simbit, Vera Capiral, Bham Sumooc, Eva Madera, Giovanni Cadag, Paolo Ballesteros, Floid Zulueta, Biboy Ramirez It is February 14, Valentine`s Day. Eva is trapped in a bus stop along EDSA. Desperately trying to get a cab to make it to her father`s burial in La Loma, she asks passersby how she could make it to her destination. She sees an easy access to make it to the other lane--an opening in the middle of the highway that bears this sign: BAWAL TUMAWID, NAKAMAMATAY. In the meantime, Eva meets a stranger, an old carpenter named Mang Caloy. The old man gives her options on how to make it to La Loma but she remains indecisive. Heavy traffic and the heavy rain engage them into a peculiar conversation. A coffee shop near the bus stop becomes their refuge and here they begin sharing sentimental and funny stories about their past. Eva talks about her father`s death and her simple dreams as a hopia vendor. Mang Caloy breaks the serene conversation by telling the story behind the signage. An unpredictable revelation of the old man`s past marks the climax of the play. As the busy avenue becomes expansive again, an unexpected accident happens, leaving Eva in deep shock.
• VALLEY MISSION CARE by Russel Legaspi, directed by Missy Maramara Featuring: Siegfried Sepulveda, Mayen Estanero, Richard Cunanan An old man, Francisco, finds himself stuck between the comfortable landscape of a nursing institute and the promise he holds dearly to be with his love. A promise he intends to keep even if it means he dies trying.
SET A
JULY 3, 3pm/8pm; JULY 9, 8pm; JULY 10, 3pm
• KINAUMAGAHAN by Rachelle Rodriguez and Wennielyn Fajilan, directed by Riki Benedicto Featuring: Via Antonio, Noel Escondo How will Liz and Red make their relationship work if time is not on their side? 6:00 AM—that’s the only time they see each other… and the moment does not last long. Liz, a nurse, is on her way to morning duty while Red, a call center agent, is just coming home from graveyard shift. Conversations, make-outs, jealousies, fights and make-ups happen during this short span of the early morn. Every day, they are left with no other choice but to continue these hanging vernal issues--the morning after.
• REQUIEM, written and directed by Juan Ekis a.k.a. Christian Vallez Featuring: Joel Parcon, Frankie Pascua Alvin and Mina go back to their ancestral home for the NCCA's tribute to their dying father who is a National Artist for Music. As Alvin settles down in his old bedroom, Mina enters and asks if she can sleep in his room. She could not sleep because of the Music being played in the house. Mina thinks it sick that their father is having a "funeral" even before he is dead and that his having cancer was just an excuse to get them to go home. Alvin could not understand her resentment towards their father. As Alvin tries to hide his feelings towards his adopted sister, Mina tries to sleep away the demons of their family's past in the comfort and solace of her brother's room.
• KAFATIRAN by Ricardo Novenario, directed by JK Anicoche Featuring: Acey Aguilar, Abner Delina, Jerald Napoles, Marco Viana “Kafatiran” is a story of love and freedom. At the dawn of the Philippine revolution, another revolution is brewing. Deep within the ranks of the Katipunan is a special faction composed of young men who are smart, art-loving, and sometimes a bit too mild-mannered. Young Antonino Corpus wants to join this special faction and goes through some tests to know if he does belong into this group. Unfortunately, the night of Antonino’s recruitment is also the night that sparks the Philippine revolution and the recruitment house was surrounded by several guardia civil. Should they leave the place where they are free to be themselves so that they can attain true freedom? Should they finally come out?
STAGED READINGS
Three full-length plays will have staged reading performances at the Bulwagang Amado Hernandez (Conference Room) at the CCP. ONE PERFORMANCE NIGHT EACH ONLY.
• CHIAROSCURO by Lito Casaje, directed by Dennis Marasigan
JULY 1, 6pm “Chiaroscuro,” which in Latin and art parlance means the contradiction of light and shade, posits a universal worldview that life is likewise full of human contradictions. This Chekhovian play also paints the world of the Malate visual artists and the challenges they face in their struggle for economic survival vis-a-vis their unrelenting pursuit to perfect their craft. It also essays the universal theme on the artist’s option to compromise his art in exchange for commercial satisfaction, or rather, is the kind of compromise merely an option or a painful necessity for one to survive?
• THE HOUSE OF CANDLES by Nicolas Pichay, directed by Jose Estrella
July 7, 6pm “The House of Candles” is set in Manila and New York. It is an exploration of the consequences brought about by extreme personal desires. It is a rumination on the topography of progeny and legacy, and problematizes the act of creation. The play is a first draft of a work-in-progress.
• HERMANO PULI by Layeta Bucoy, directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio, music by Vincent de Jesus
July 9, 6pm After being executed by the guardias civiles in the Tayabas Plaza, the body of Apolinario dela Cruz aka Hermano Puli was dismembered and hang all over Tayabas. The different ways by which some members of the Cofradia cope with the death of their leader are reflected in their individual “interaction” with Hermano Puli’s disunited body parts: from Pausto’s outright rejection of one of the basic tenets of the Cofradia, Matea’s unwavering faith in the resurrection of Hermano Puli, Rosa’s plan of trekking to Mt. Banahaw to string together Hermano Puli’s body pieces, and to Juana’s desire to snatch the Hermano’s hanging foot.
Last May, two dancers and two musicians from Tabawan, South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi province visited the Ateneo de Manila University to teach theater students the “igal,” the traditional dance of the Sama, and play native musical instruments.
The six-day workshop, entitled “The Igal of the Sama-Bajau,” held from May 16-21, launched the Traditional Performing Arts Series of the Ateneo’s Fine Arts Program and was done in cooperation with Tanghalang Ateneo. The series seeks out ways to fuse traditional and modern performance styles for intercultural theater projects.
The workshop served as a prelude to Tanghalang Ateneo’s 33rd season opener, “Sintang Dalisay,” where the “igal” will be deployed as the movement motif and the sama music as the core of the play’s musical repertoire. The intercultural production, a collaboration of traditional dancers from the South and urban theater practitioners from the North, also between Muslim and Christian artists, will open on the third week of July at the Rizal Mini-Theater, Loyola Schools.
The four “master teachers” included Calsum Telso, an elementary school English teacher who teaches igal to children in the community; Abdul Said K. Hailaya, who was voted the Best Male Dancer in an event called Pesta Igal held at the UP Asian Studies Center last year, besting dancers from Malaysia and other parts of Sulu (he is also a renowned costume maker in Tabawan, eagerly sought out by residents for clothes to be used for dances and formal occasions); and musicians Nur Perong and Dalino Kamamihare, who devoted much of their time teaching the students to play the kulintang, the gongs and the drums.
“Sintang Dalisay's” direction will be by Dr. Ricardo Abad, choreography by Dr. Matthew Santamaria and production design by National Artist for Theater Design Salvador Bernal.
“Sintang Dalisay” opens on the third week of July at the Rizal Mini-Theater, Loyola Schools. For more information, contact Regina Aquitaña at 0915-1129301.
[Photos by Paolo Maddela, text by Eunice Rodriguez]
Have you noticed that you are only seeing updates and posts in your news feed from the same few people lately? Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, only the same circle of people are commenting and you are not hearing from any others on your friends list that perhaps you were used to?
The problem is that a large portion of people on your Friends list can no longer see anything you post! Here's why: The "New Facebook" installed a new news feed setting that by default is automatically set to show posts from ONLY those people with whom you've recently interacted, or interacted the most over the couple of weeks just prior to when people started switching to the "new profile" format.
Therefore, for both business and personal pages, unless you and your friends/fans commented on one another's posts within those couple of weeks, you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you! Here's the fix:
• On your "News Feed" home page, click the "Most Recent" title on the right of the News Feed, then click on the drop down arrow beside it to show the drop-down menu and select "Edit Options."
• Click on "Show Posts From" and change the setting to "All Of Your Friends and Pages."
• Another way to do it is to access the "Edit Options" link at the very bottom of the Facebook homepage on the right. (Note: Business pages do not have a news feed. Owners of business pages should adjust the settings on their personal accounts.)
The good news is: You can now view the posts and updates of all of your friends and fans again. The bad news is: YOU ARE STILL INVISIBLE to a large portion of your friends on your friends list. If you want to re-establish contact, you will need to get the word out to ALL of your friends. You can help your friends by sharing these changes so that they can also apply these to their accounts.
The social-networking giant had 687 million users at the start of the month, according to data from Inside Facebook Gold. However, the data shows that Facebook's growth rate has declined for the second straight month.
Until two months ago, the typical growth rate for the previous year was at least 20 million new users, but Facebook logged 13.9 million new users in April and 11.8 million in May, according to Inside Facebook's data. While much of the company's growth comes from late-to-the-party countries, early adopting countries such as the U.S. and Canada posted significant user losses during May, according to Inside Facebook data. The U.S. lost nearly 6 million subscribers to end the month with 149.4 million users, and Canada lost 1.52 million users to finish with 16.6 million. (More here.)
The Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (SOFIA), in cooperation with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, proudly presents Dindo Angeles' 1976 movie version of Dr. Onofre Pagsanjan's musical, "Sinta!" tomorrow, Saturday, June 11, 2011, 2 p.m., at Tanghalang Manuel Conde, Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The film stars Bernardo Bernardo, Cathy Melendrez, Subas Herrero, Noel Trinidad and Ariosto Reyes Jr., with musical direction by Quito Colayco and arrangements by Ryan Cayabyab and Bong Peñera.
Admission is free but seats are limited. For more information, please email sofia@arkivista.org or contact 0917-8291165. Visit www.arkivista.org.
This screening is made possible with generous assistance from IBC Channel 13.
I should have blogged this while that damned wedding was top of the news, so some of the online traffic could have detoured here, snicker. But anyway... The “in” part, unfortunately, has no pictures, since a tour of London's Buckingham Palace disallows photo-taking--not until the tour disgorges you at the back exit and its lovely garden. There you can begin snapping away again. But I'm getting ahead of the story.
My entry point was through the ubiquitous London tourist bus, where the cheery tour guide made it a point to ask everyone where they came from. I said Manila, he said “Philippines, what a lovely country!” Aww, I thought--then he said the same thing to a pair of girls from Brazil and a middle-aged couple from Croatia.
One of the bus stops is beside the Ritz Hotel. You're given the option to get off here, enter a side street that winds along Green Park where lots of Londoners were taking in the soft afternoon sun, and emerge on the courtyard of Buckingham Palace. Afterwards, you can go back to the same stop and wait for the next red bus to pick you up for the rest of the city tour. (The ticket is for one day of hop-on, hop-off activities; you can customize where you want to go or what you want to check out. Neat.)
A bend in the park trail, and there it was--OMG, the palace. Breathtaking. It's around 2 p.m. as I reached the courtyard; the sky was overcast, but lucky for us there was no rain. Pictures and more pictures: the Victoria monument, the gilded gates, the balcony where Charles and Diana executed the first royal public kiss, the palace guards in their crimson uniforms, the flowerbeds, the avenue bristling with banners that I learned later on led to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.
Done, I asked a guide where the palace tour started. Go to the side, I was told. A side gate led to a covered area where one could buy tickets and fall in line. If you carried a camera, young men and women in spiffy royal-blue uniforms went up to you to say, in a crisp but courteous manner, that no pictures were allowed from hereon.
So, for a description of what I saw inside and the background of all of it, I'll let the Palace-run Royal Collection website do the talking:
Buckingham Palace serves as both the office and London residence of Her Majesty The Queen, as well as the administrative headquarters of the Royal Household. It is one of the few working royal palaces remaining in the world today.
Today the State Rooms are used extensively by The Queen and Members of the Royal Family to receive and entertain their guests on State, ceremonial and official occasions. During August and September when The Queen makes her annual visit to Scotland, the Palace's nineteen state rooms are open to visitors.
The State Rooms form the heart of the working palace and are lavishly furnished with some of the greatest treasures from the Royal Collection--paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin and Canaletto; sculpture by Canova; exquisite examples of Sèvres porcelain; and some of the finest English and French furniture.
Let me reel off snapshots in my head of the palace interiors, some of which were also glimpsed during the Kate-William wedding: the vast ochre-colored inner courtyard that's the first thing you'll see upon entering the palace grounds; the majestic staircase designed by John Nash; all manner of splendidly appointed state rooms, one of which was described as the room where the Queen receives the new UK Prime Minister (reminded me of that scene in The Queen when the Blairs first paid their respects to Elizabeth II); richly carpeted hallways, magnificently embellished ceilings, countless artworks. All of them, by the way, excellently annotated by an electronic Walkman-like tour guide that allowed you to zoom in for a short discussion on, say, a painting or a piece of furniture with a touch of a button. Kainggit--because this part is something we could do as well even with minimal resources.
I couldn't take pictures, as I said, so here's the next best thing: The official website of the British Monarchy provides an interactive 360-degree view of four palace tour highlights: the Grand Staircase, the Throne Room, the Blue Drawing Room and the White Drawing Room. Here.
At the end of the tour, you're let off at the back of the palace, where there's a cafe, rest rooms, a souvenir shop, and a garden leading out to a London street.
Described as a 'walled oasis in the middle of London', the Palace's garden is home to thirty different species of bird and more than 350 different wild flowers, some extremely rare. Visitors end their tour with a walk along the south side of the garden, with splendid views of the west front of the Palace and the famous lake.
A walk through this cool, shady patch of green--it was nippy September last year when I did this tour--is just the right reinvigorating cap to that fascinating but also rather exhausting trek through man-made splendor. My reward to myself: a cup of strawberry ice cream stamped--what else--Buckingham Palace.
