Sembreak scare

Ready for a new adventure this school break? A trip to the unknown perhaps?

by Nickky Faustine De Guzman
October 31, 2014

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The Smallville strip, an entertainment hub in Iloilo City, is where the cool kids and yuppies hang out, well most nights at least. Rich in culture and history, people, especially the young ones, can create their own adventures in Iloilo. One Friday we did just that and went on a different kind of night out—we visited one of Iloilo’s “haunted” houses: Casa Mariquit.

Mariquit means pretty, but locals say the 200-year-old Spanish colonial ancestral home is far from being beautiful.

Standing proud along Sta. Isabel Street in Jaro, Casa Mariquit is home to Maria Mariquit Javella Lopez, the wife of former Vice President Fernando Lopez Sr.—the couple eloped when they were teenagers. The house was built by Mariquit’s father, famous banker Ramon Javella.  It’s a home of memories—apparently, even apparitions. Caretaker Morel Ferrer says the two-storey residence lodges “good spirits.”

Image courtesy of Megaworld

“Any old house has spirits living in it,” says Morel, who has revived and turned Casa Mariquit into a museum in 1997. The owners abandoned the house in 1984. Morel restored the casa, with permission by the great grandson Robert Lopez Puckett. He dusted off the furniture, swept the floor, and hung each vintage memorabilia. Lined up on the walls are photos of personalities who visited the former vice president. There was Richard Nixon, as well as Chiang Kai Shek, Emperor Hirohito, and King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The casa induces a trip down memory lane. There is an old grandfather clock, a huge dial up telephone, and a Polaroid camera among others. For history buffs, it’s a major #TBT experience, but for those with extra sensory perception, it can be a spine-chilling experience.

I asked Morel about his spooky tales. He says there’s only a handful, but all of them are hair-raising. The house apparently served as a base of guerillas during World War II. Casa Mariquit was a witness to a number of Japanese soldiers being killed during the war. It has two secret underground tunnels, now closed, which provided as camp outs.

Morel says he saw a white lady on his first day. Sometimes, he could see the silhouette of a lady in Filipiniana. “They’re harmless,” he says.

“Do you want to see an example, Ma’am?” he says with a sheepish smile. Game. I don’t believe in ghosts, anyway. Morel says we should look straight into the eye of Don Ramon Javella’s old (and creepy!) black-and-white photograph. Morel says Ramon’s gaze follows you wherever you stand. He says there are many old portraits that seem to follow you wherever you go.

The human brain is so powerful it can imagine things. For someone skeptical (and with no extra powers at all), every creepy story is only a figment of our imagination. Many people have a tendency, called apophenia, to find connections between two totally unrelated events. Some interpret mundane things as something supernatural. I believe there’s a psychological explanation to seemingly paranormal activities. Google them and there you find a plethora of explanations. According to Zawn Villines in her article Psychological Explanation for Seemingly Paranormal Phenomena, published on Good Therapy website, “suggestibility can fuel myths about ghosts and haunted houses, particularly in an environment that seems creepy.”

She adds that people can be primed to see ghosts if they are told that an old house is “haunted.”

She says: “This means you might interpret a strange noise as a sign that a ghost is present. Old and abandoned houses and locations that have a scary story—such as a hotel where someone was killed, or a home where someone committed suicide—can further prime your mind to ‘see’ ghosts, even when you might otherwise explain away unusual apparitions and sounds.”

True enough, my mind was playing tricks on me. I felt a jolt every time the big grandfather clock made its eerie sound. Could that be a ghost? I felt heavy. I tried taking photographs of every nook and cranny of the elegant house in hopes of finding an extra silhouette or a blurry vision of a white lady. Alas, I didn’t find any.

To see is to believe. I haven’t seen one so I don’t believe in ghosts—yet. But it’s up to you. Renowned spirit questor Tony Perez, on his blog Tony Perez Philippines Cyberspace Book, shares psychic exercises for the members of his group Spirit Questors. He says anyone can develop his or her psychic abilities including his psychic feeling, smell, hearing, and taste. But he clears on his blog that he designed the exercises to lead anyone to “become more sensitive, more creative, more spiritual, more mentally alert, more compassionate, and more responsible” intelligent human beings.

Casa Mariquit is charming, rather than haunting, especially in the morning when you can see its glorious beauty. It evokes sweet nostalgia, of the memories of our lolos and lolas fanning themselves after siesta, when life was still simple. Casa Mariquit is an open museum—feel free to visit it anytime and see (and feel the feelings) for yourself. Hey, it’s sembreak.

Eat like an Ilustrado

Good food, great ambiance, historical significance, now catered at your own home.

by Nickky Faustine De Guzman
October 30, 2014

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King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, Gloria Stefan, Andrea Casiraghi of Monaco, The Bourne movie cast and crew, heads of state, dignitaries, and luminaries around the world have eaten at Ilustrado, the charming restaurant in the walled city of Intramuros. But some have come incognito. There are no mementos on the wall. “It will ruin the ambiance,” says owner Bonifacio V. Pimentel. Instead of a frame of Who’s Who on the wall, there are vintage paintings, movie posters, and sculptures that evoke the charm of old Manila.

Ilustrado restaurant, owned by father-daughters trio Bonifacio, Berniece (left), and Bea Pimentel (Images by Noel B. Pabalate)

“Besides, we’re not a commercialized dining place. We’re a dining foodie destination. You have to deliberately visit Intramuros,” he says. After all, Ilustrado boasts not of prestige, but of good old great food, hospitality, culture, and history. “Ilustrado means citizens of the world, the enlightened ones. Our customers are those with discerning tastes,” says Bonifacio. You don’t have to be a star to dine at Ilustrado, but you’ll feel like a star when you dine at this historic restaurant. All-time favorites are paella, callos Madrilena, lengua con setas, and Bonifacio’s own recipe, the adobong bagnet with prawns and crab fat in KBL (kamatis, bagoong, and lasona or shallot). Like any restaurant, Ilustrado also changes its menu (the all-time faves of course remain) quarterly. There’s baked Norwegian salmon in moringga pesto, baked eggplant with feta cheese, and crab soup, among others. Desserts are winners, too. Concocted by Bonifacio’s daughter Berniece, Illustrado offers pastries and cakes not even your Lolo can resist. Non-dessert persons will be converted to sweet lovers even just for a day, thanks to a variety of treats: a rich cheesecake on a chocolate bed, strawberry opera, and homemade ice cream flavors like sampaguita, pandan, peanut brittle, lemongrass, mango jubilee with flambé presentation, and the award-winning baked cheesecake.(The pastry corner offers buy one take one every 6 p.m.) Besides good food, Ilustrado has an ambiance that will bring you back to the old Hispanic era when bricks and wood and capiz windows were the designs of the times. It has a pretty main dining room, an al fresco courtyard garden, grand Sinagtala ballroom, and a casual Kuatro Kantos bar and café.

Norwegian salmon fillet

Strawberry opera cake

And now, 25 years after it first opened at General Luna Street, Intramuros, Bonifacio says nothing has changed. It is still a romantic place, a nostalgic venue for dates, weddings, and other Pinoy celebrations. Well, except, they’ve upped the ante. “If you can’t visit us, we’ll bring the food to you,” says Bonifacio. Ilustrado, apparently is not only a dine-in restaurant, it also offers catering services for events. It has banquets at Fernwood, NBC Tent, and SMX. It also caters for a sit-down, intimate date. Yes, you and your date can enjoy paella at the comfort of your home. It has its own private mobile kitchen to ensure the quality and freshness of each dish. After all, anyone can be an ilustrado anywhere, anytime.

Baked eggplant with olives and white cheeses in filo

Magic and Mexico

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and a lot more. Why this Mexican art exhibit is a must visit.

by Nickky Faustine De Guzman
October 27, 2014

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If the selfie queen Frida Kahlo (and her unibrow) is the only Mexican artist you know (and boxers do not count!), you have a hundred reasons to visit Ayala Museum and check out the “Mexico: Fantastic Identity 20th-Century Masterpieces” exhibit on view until Nov. 9.  Get to know other Mexican artists who inspired our own art. After all, our cultural relationship with Mexico dates back during the Galleon Trade.

“The influence of Mexican art in shaping the visual vocabulary of Filipino artists in the 20th century cannot be denied,” says Ayala Foundation senior director for arts and culture Ma. Elizabeth Gustilo. “Our sensibilities are similar. The story of the modern art in the Philippines wouldn’t be complete without the influence of Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist who was the inspiration of our National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco.”

Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Casamiento Indio

The exhibit presented by FEMSA is one of the most important modern and contemporary Latin American art collections in the world. It has more than 1,200 art pieces in painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and installation. Its exhibit at Ayala Museum, however, only displays 60 art pieces that illustrate the shared ideas and visual vocabularies of Mexican and Filipino artists in the 20th century. What was the context back then? Revolution, poverty, slavery, and a longing for a national identity. The similarities, in terms of style and aesthetics, is in our penchant for festive, vibrant colors, but the difference, says Mexican Ambassador Julio Camarena Villaseñor, is the “tone” of our colors because the “lighting in the Philippines tends to be hazy.”

“During the 20th century, Mexico had strong European influence, but after the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920, we formulated a new strong Mexican art,” says curator Emma Cecilia Garcia Krinsky. “And this is why the exhibit is called ‘Fantastic Identity’ because we already have a concept of fantasy even before the concept of surrealism reached Mexico,” she says.

A chunk of the presentation showcases Mexican’s magical realism art, a technique that integrates fantasy with reality. This genre travels across Mexican’s literature and films and everyday living. There’s book author Laura Esquivel and her novel-turned-movie Like Water for Chocolate. And though Colombian, the late author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his One Hundred Years of Solitude (among his many books) were inspired by surrealism. “In Mexico, surrealism runs through the streets. It comes from the reality of Latin America,” he says in his interview in the “Origins of Gabriel Marquez’s Magic Realism” published on The Atlantic website (www.theatlantic.com).

 

COLORS AND CULTURE What do Mexican and Filipino arts have in common? Look at Angel Zarraga’s September (left) and Antoino Ruiz’s El Corzo (right) and you’ll get the answer—colors, culture, and context. 

The exhibit begins with Diego Rivera (again, the artist who influenced Botong Francisco) and his cubist painting Spain’s Great, which he completed during his stay in Europe. Painters Diego, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco are Mexico’s los tres grandes (the big three), whose works encouraged a national identity after the revolutionary movement. Their counterpart in the Philippines are Botong, Victorio Edades, and Galo Ocampo, the Triumvirate of Modern Art, who led the growth of mural paintings in the country.

Then, there are artists like Frida Kahlo (who married Diego Rivera), Antonio Ruiz, Agustin Lazo, Guillermo Meza, and Juan O’ Gorman, among others who composed fantasy related images. Frida’s My Dress Hangs There 1933 painting (oil and collage on masonite 45.4 x 50.5 cm) is the most buzzed about. Though there’s not a trace of a selfie, it’s still considered a self-portrait because her dress is in the painting.

Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, Emma says strong changes took place in Mexico. Young generation artists were able to travel to Europe after the end of the war, which enabled them to learn other expressions, which they took back with them to Mexico.

“Organized in seven chapters that review the key moments in the construction of the identity of a country under a revolution, the exhibit shows the nearly 80 years of artistic expressions of the most influential artists not only in Mexican art but also in Latin America,” says the curator.

Coca-Cola FEMSA Asia division human resources and corporate affairs director Juan Dominguez says that the exhibit “promotes greater awareness of the Mexican art movement by bringing heritage pieces including works made by Mexican National Artists to build a stronger bond with the Filipinos.”

By the end of this visit, you’ll realize there’s more to Mexican art than Frida Kahlo and her unibrow.

Plastic and paper towns

It’s so easy to make (and break) a city. The price of development? Trees. Life. Us.

by Nickky Faustine De Guzman
October 26, 2014

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In John Greene’s Paper Towns, protagonist Margo calls her neighborhood “fake” and “not even hard enough to be made of plastic.” Her city is built on paper, easily destroyed, easily discarded.

Metro Manila is a paper town, too. All around us, things are disappearing right before our very eyes. We are boxed in a city of condo conversions and pop-ups. Green fields are sold (sometimes dirt cheap) to make way for concrete jungles. What’s the price tag of development? Nature. Life. Us.

Trees are cut down. Old historic houses are replaced with sad monoliths. The urban life is crumbling, turning into a paper (and plastic) town—again, easily destroyed, easily discarded.

“The Number 1 cutter who likes to cut trees because of road widening and transmission line projects is the government,” said Department of Environment and Natural Resource (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje at Sofitel’s Bulong Pulungan forum last Tuesday.

The Philippines has 197 illegal logging hotspots, says Paje. But since the government has signed for a total log ban, Paje says the hotspots are down to 31. Isabela, Surigao, Agusan, and Davao Oriental among others are the top provinces where illegal logging is rampant.

But Metro Manila and its neighbors are cutter towns, too. In Pangasinan, more than 1,000 trees are cut down for road widening projects. The sight of hundreds of centuries-old trees, now lifeless, now unable to give life, is depressing. Under the Executive Order 23 issued in 2011, the cutting of trees is banned and illegal but it spares the clearing of “road right-of-way by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).” DENR requires 100 new trees to be planted for every tree that is cut down. Unlike in European countries with four seasons, the Philippines and its climate offer a good opportunity for seedlings to grow as trees in a span of at least 10 years, says Paje.  To date, however, the country is number four worldwide in vulnerability because of climate change. This means bigger and stronger typhoons (the “new normal” says Paje) are going to wash out our paper towns, including trees and other greens. In defense, says Paje, the government is eyeing 1.5 millon hectares of land to plant trees, and trees, and more trees in.

We cannot stop progress—we’re building here and there—but what we need is more of Julie Baker (Jullie Yap Daza counts, too!), the champion of trees. Julie is the protagonist in Flipped,  the movie. She climbed up the sycamore tree of an abandoned neighborhood to stop home developers in making more pop-ups. Paje takes UP Diliman as an example. Its trees and streets and citizens are in harmony. It is a haven for joggers and pedestrians—and poets, too. The canopies give respite and even inspire them to create poems and soliloquies and stories.  Alas life isn’t a fiction (or is it?). The problem is here, glaring right before our plastic and paper towns.

Dreamweavers

That’s cute. Where did you get that? It’s from a bazaar. It’s handmade. It’s Pinoy.

October 20, 2014

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WEAR YOUR ART Indigenous handmade fabrics like inabel (from Ilocos and La Union), t’nalak (Sebu Cotabato), piña (Palawan and Aklan), hablon and patadyon (Iloilo), and yakan (Basilan) are made into creative and modern designs you can wear every day.
Images by Noel B. Pabalateate

You’re willing to invest in a Birkin—but I bet, not in a t’nalak or piña bag, when it’s also handmade from the best quality but at much more affordable cost. A Birkin costs millions. A t’nalak tote bag with leather strap and smeared with natural honey (for that long lasting luster) costs P7,000. And oh, just so you know, t’nalak threads especially handwoven by the dream weavers of Lake Sebu, South Cotabato are unique. No two designs are ever the same. Why? Because each blueprint comes from their dreams.

The presenters in the annual Likhang Habi bazaar, which showcases our traditional goods, admit that most of their customers are tourists and a handful of discerning locals with appreciation for our arts and crafts.

“You cannot stay forever in one place. You have to go with the signs of the times. The Philippine weaving industry is struggling to remain alive enough to pass its skills and art to the next generation,” says Habi: Philippine Textile Council chairman Maria Isabel Ongpin. The group, now on its fifth year, envisions promotion and preservation of our struggling textile industry. It was founded after the second ASEAN traditional textile symposium in 2009. Maria says our piña cloth—only found in the Philippines—is at par with the rest of the textiles in Southeast Asian regions, like Thailand and Indonesian silk. The group visits our weaving communities in rural areas to know their problems, which include the lack of contemporary designs, marketability, and the loss of interest in weaving among the youth. And so, the bazaar was born as a channel for suppliers, presenters, and buyers. On Oct. 24-26, Likhang Habi will be having its bazaar showcase at Glorietta Activity Center, featuring fabrics from Ilocos and La Union (inabel), Lake Sebu (t’nalak), Palawan and Aklan (piña), Iloilo (hablon and patadyong), and Basilan (yakan), as well as Mindoro baskets, among others.

On the fifth year (and counting) of its exhibit, Maria says, there’s still a demand for handmade, bespoke items. In keeping with the times, traditional textiles are now infused with modern twists and flavors. Gone are the days of the blah and in with the oomph, as seen in belts, bangles, bags, blazers, neckties, shoes, shawls. “Our goal is to mix our tradition with modern elements as seen in everyday items,” says Twinkle Ferraren, one of the presenters at the market fair. She sells handmade modern clothes made from indigenous textiles and infused with accessories like capiz and wooden beads. In her mini showroom are wrap dresses, miniskirts, and sleeveless shirts in modern cut. She says she buys the fabrics directly to her suppliers like Baguio’s traditional ikat weavers and transform them into whatever catches her fancy.

Images by Noel B. Pabalateate

Virgie Necodemus of Manila Collectibles (also one of the presenters in the bazaar) says she personally visits a province, like Cordillera, which produces pasiking, to inform the traditional weavers of the modern ideas and design demands in the city. “The traditional weavers live in far-flung areas, in the mountain sides, so they don’t have any idea on the demand for new styles. They tend to do the same thing over and over,” she says, “Sometimes, you have to inform and teach them about the new trends.” But in all fairness, Maria says, our indigenous industry is gaining its spotlight again. Other proofs are Kenneth Cobonpueand Anne Pamintuan’s handwoven home essentials and installations, Patis Tesoro and her recently unveiled boho Filipiniana collection, and Rajo Laurel and his Rags2Riches collection, among others. At malls, there’s Kultura as well as Tesoro’s (again). Other flea markets sell a plethora of native goods.

“Handmade goods are being elevated and gaining new respect. If popular appreciation is given to them, weaving will permanently keep its place,” says Maria. Check out Likhang Habi bazaar at the Glorietta Activity Center on Oct. 24-26.

Modern fashion items like shawls, headpieces, and handbags are made from 100 percent Pinoy fabrics.; Neckties made from handmade indigenous textiles; Cotton ikat from Bin Ai Kay, one of the presenters in the bazaar

Images by Noel B. Pabalateate

Images by Noel B. Pabalateate

Crazy Enough

Are you crazy enough?

Fall fast. Fall hard. Fall forward. A TED Talk fellow visits Manila. These are (among others) her wise words.

by Nickky Faustine De Guzman
October 17, 2014

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The Millennial heart has big ideas, big ideals, whether in fashion, music, education, film, or whatever world kids wish to venture on. In Steve Jobs’ words, “And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius because the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

In this mad world, new ideas are generated every day, every minute, every second. The next thing you know #normcore is out and in with…who knows?

 

At the recently concluded first symposium of the Ayala Mall Idea’Yala youth summit, where students and young professionals can have a roadmap on how to help the community, guest speaker Juliette LaMontagne inspires her audience on the theme: “Making Your Innovations Relevant for Today’s Generation.”  Juliette, by the way, is a TED Talk fellow and founder of Project Breaker, a New York-based organization that encourages thinking out of the box and learning outside the premises of school.

For her, innovation starts with empathy, or the ability to say to a friend or someone, “Yes, I so feel you.” In How to Kill a Mocking Bird, Atticus Finch says empathy is the opportunity to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. But what about empathy? Juliette says it’s the drive to your innovation, it’s the soul to your idea. After all, whose needs are you trying to solve anyway?

GOT IDEA? Idea’Yala speakers Juliette LaMontagne, graphic artist Dan Matutina, Idea’Yala co-founder Paloma Zobel, and DJ Katrina Razon.

In Project Breaker, the members are taught that every idea has to undergo three important things: Desirability (Does your innovation mean a real human need?), Feasibility (Can it be built now?), and Viability (Is someone willing to pay for it?).

Everyone at Project Breaker is an iconoclast. “In our world of education today, we’ve lost the sight of learning,” says Juliette. “Education is about following the bell system, carrying heavy books, memorizing…or not. The truth is there’s a disconnect in school and what the world demands.”

Juliette emphasizes the value of thinking out of the box and educating beyond the premises of school. After all, she says, learning can be in the service of solving real world problems (and not merely finding that elusive X in your formula) by connecting school with the industry, with the real needs of the people and the community.

“Seize every opportunity and lean in to it. We teach the value of failing forward. See every failure as an opportunity to learn. Fail fast. Fail often,” she says.

And here is something worth pondering on (whether you agree with her or not, you decide). Juliette says: “So often young people are told to follow their passion. But I would like to disabuse you of this idea. In fact, I don’t think you should follow your passion. I think, if you are engaged in solving a real world problem, which you feel you can have an impact on, you will be passionate.”

Idea Springboard
Thinking of inventing an environment-friendly bag that automatically liquefies plastic? Or maybe some sort of machine that sucks up greenhouse gases from the atmosphere? Here are answers that might inspire you to start that project. Juliette LaMontagne answers what young innovators are itching to ask.

Can you design something without imitating?
All artists steal. That’s part of adaptation. I strongly encourage it. But you can be original with your own flair.

How can one extract his or her creative juices?
Follow a process, brainstorm, listen, research. Sometimes it’s not as systematic. The greater the number of inputs, the greater the number of outputs, which is to say, be a sponge, soak up everything. Take risks and think out of the box.

How do you make your innovation stand out in a sea of other similar ideas?
A lot of people have the same idea but others can execute it better. Just try it out!

How do you know if the world is ready for your innovation?
It involves gut feel. If you’ve waited until your idea is ready, you’ve waited too long. Whether it’s a piece of cardboard with a drawing on it, it doesn’t matter. What you’re doing is testing assumptions and continually improving on the idea. It’s like a dialogue. You start with a seedling of idea.