Stepping Stones « MtCloud Bookshop

Stepping Stones « MtCloud Bookshop

My girls (or the sisterhood of the travelling sandals)

Being a believer in "inclusivity", I consider them all are my girls: daughters Kimi and Ida, their friends and the toddler who's been described by her mother as a swift temple runner. 

The older ones know how to work the Instagram. Fuddy duddy that I am, I think I have more than enough Net accounts to bother signing up for another so I just grab the photos as soon as I find time to sneak into their Instagrams for a quick peek. My latest viewing confirms my suspicion. They're way too busy relaxing to send a virtual "wish you were here" postcard. But I love how they're loving this summer and wearing its colors on their bodies and faces. 

By this time they should be considering taking the slow, slow boat home instead of the plane. While I'm in Baguio on a "staycation", let me remind them: Carpe diem!

 See you in a few, girls!

Butones wears her deceptively shy smile as she pauses from her temple run.

Half swathed in a towel, my Bit of Mango enjoys a mango macaroon.

The candy corn gang of Coco del Rosario, Marye Panganiban, Kimi, Butones and Ida

Mamay Kimi takes a cooling plunge.

Ida framed, the rice fields and coconut trees in the color of neon green

Ninang Coco (left) with Kimi, god-daughter Butones and Ida the Fair

Little Button in a white hat tries to figure out how boys turn play into real fishing.

Art and ballet for the summer

At the Art Room of Ayala Museum for people 15 years old and above:

 

DRAWING: CARTOONING
With Manix Abrera
April 3-5 | 3-6PM

 

TRADITIONAL ART: WATERCOLOR
With Eileen Escueta
April 10-12 | 3-6PM

 

TRADITIONAL ART: OIL PAINTING
With Abraham Orobia
April 17-19 | 2-5 PM

 

DIGITAL ART: iPAD
With Wilfredo Offemaria Jr.
April 24-26 | 3-6PM

 

For more information, visit the museum's website at http://www.ayalamuseum.org/index.php?option=com_ayala_content&task=staticcontent&category=116&id=173)

 

The Ballet Manila School will hold its annual intensive summer workshop, dubbed Just Dance XVI, from April 10 to May 26. Enrollment is ongoing. Classes offered: Ballet Technique Class (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3), Baby Ballet, Pointe Class (Intermediate and Advanced), Boys' Class, Pas de Deux/ Partnering Class,  Variation/ Repertoire Classes, Modern Dance/ Jazz, Yoga and Adult Ballet. They will be held Tuesdays to Saturdays at Ballet Manila's studios, at 1915 Donada Street, Pasay City. Each session will last from one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes. Prima ballerina and BM artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and artistic associate Osias Barroso lead the faculty roster. The workshop culminates in student performances of The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess on May 25 and 26, 3 p.m., at the Aliw Theater, CCP Complex, Pasay City. For inquiries, call Ballet Manila at 400-0292 and 525-5967, visit www.balletmanila.com.ph or e-mail info@balletmanila.com.ph.

Kristel Tejada and the Getaway Cafe

Photo from "Our Colorful World" in Google +

MANILA, Philippines - She just wanted to finish her studies and help her four siblings.
Kristel Tejada, however, still owed P10,000 in tuition for this semester at the University of the Philippines in Manila, where the 16-year-old was a behavioral science freshman.  

She asked for a tuition loan or installment payment and offered a promissory note.

When these were all turned down, Tejada’s mother, according to some reports, even knelt before UP Manila Chancellor Manuel Agudo and begged that her daughter be allowed to continue attending her classes.
 
When that still didn’t work, Tejada was forced to file a forced leave of absence (LOA) earlier this week.
 
At around 3 a.m. yesterday, the despondent girl drank silver cleaner at their home in Tondo. She was rushed to the Metropolitan Medical Center but emergency teams failed to revive her.--http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/03/16/920420/student-kills-self-over-tuition

how many hours
went by
this morning
i've used them all up
to stop at sites
like a getaway cafe

at first sight
i recalled a house 
i once knew
& where i felt loved
it stood by a brook
that swelled 
or petered
or dried up
depending on the season

i stopped by this cafe
in this delaying 
exercise of
facing the required 
one thousand words
i have to daily write
so i could earn
so i could pay
so i could repeat
the entire process
of paying monthly
bills over & over
under & under

i had to stop to mourn
silently for stranger 
kristel who could've been
a daughter 
a niece 
a younger self

she poisoned herself
by drinking cleaning silver

she couldn't afford
to spike it 
with wine or scotch 
or bourbon or mix it
with fruit juice

she had no means 
to use the web 
as pit stop
to rest
a desperate soul

no boyfriend
to take her to a real 
getaway cafe
where she could
sob into 
one paper napkin
after another
or let her tears
commingle with 
a shot of espresso
or a cup of americano

no girlfriends
into whose arms
she could fall
when all else failed

no phone to help
her dial a suicide line
while a counselor
heard her out 
& bought her more time

today i decided
to get away
from temporary ties 
to a real 
graspable world
of deadlines
to saunter into
a make-believe cafe

my reality
can be joyless 
or joyful
depending on seasons
inside me

kristel never
lived long enough
to face it
or know it

but i know she
is in another 
getaway cafe
perhaps even in 
a house by a brook
where kind
residents now
feed her hunger
"to finish her studies 
& help her four siblings"

the news report
cannot support
my surmises
cannot tell me more
cannot tell me how
to appease others'
own thirst for
silver or gold cleaning

--Babeth Lolarga
March 15, 2013
12:42 p.m.

Women artists define women and power

MALAKAS AT MAGANDA by KASIBULAN
Women Artists’ Definitions of Women and Power
Opens March 22, Friday, 6 pm
UP Executive House, Maramag Street, UP Diliman

Exhibit runs until April 6.

Guests of honor at the opening are : UP Professor Emeritus Thelma B. Lorna Kintanar, National Historical Commission Commissioner Fe Mangahas and Inang Laya composer Karina Constantino David 

Participating artists:
Brenda V. Fajardo
Vivian Nocum Limpin
Lia Torralba
June Dalisay
Doris G. Rodriguez
Elaine Lopez-Clemente
Yasmin Almonte
Eden Ocampo
Christine Sioco
Virgie Garcia
Tinsley Garanchon
Glenda Abad
Fel Plata
Sonia Alluso
Lot Arboleda
Baidy Mendoza
Pusongbughaw Romana
Dahlia Lara B. Abadicio
Lea Lim
Benay Reyes
Edda Amonoy
Raquel A. Jakob
Annie Carmela Rosario
Heidi Sarno
Amihan Jumalon
Rona Chua
Cynthia Alexander (see poster)
Aba Lluch Dalena
June Padilla
Rajelyn Busmente

  with Cynthia Alexander and four others

 

Aze Ong's light, healing touch and crochet art

The last time I saw crochet artist Aze Ong, she was leading guests, mainly students and teachers, in a dance at the opening of the group exhibition called "Lima-lima" at the San Beda Museum in Alabang Hill in December last year.

She let the audience hold her "instruments" or wear her creations. I haven't quite forgotten that because pictures of that evening help me remember. I've also stored some of her words in my files.

That's Aze at left beating a rhythm with her hands as teachers let go

Aze once went through what she calls her "lost" period. It's nothing unusual for artists and writers. She went to Bukidnon during that period to do volunteer work so she could try living away from her comfort zone and her family. That period taught her resourcefulness and the ability to listen to the silence within and without. She lived atop a hill with a view of mountains, trees, vegetation. Sometimes she saw eagles. Wild sunflowers grew and thrived in the cool climate.

Living with the Talaandig tribe also made her see that "art and life flow together, that art is life seen in the rituals for harvesting, their marriage rites and birthdays. Dancing and singing--it's a way of life."

After processing that whole experience, one day she finally saw the light. She realized that she didn't  have to belong to a tribe to make art or to perform. She said, "I just follow my instincts and do it. This [immersion]  is an experience I always go back to and share with others. That sharing of yourself to others is the best gift you can give to them.This made me realize the beauty in imperfection. There is no perfect world, no perfect people. Imperfection makes it perfect!"

Her works bring to mind the colors of butterfly wings or what one imagines to be colors of angel wings. It's no coincidence that Aze believes that wings are the symbols of freedom. She says, "When we are enlightened, we are free."

Woman shakes an Aze-made percussion instrument.

Aze, the woman in purple, with fellow travelers and seekers. On the left wall are framed paper cuts of Sinag de Leon who's holding a papier mache horse (called taka in Laguna) with a decopage of her paper cuts.

Nuggets: Life's Little Lessons: THİNGS İ LEARNED AS A TEACHER

Nuggets: Life's Little Lessons: THİNGS İ LEARNED AS A TEACHER: Not even in my wildest dreams did İ envision myself becoming a teacher.  Yet here İ am, doing it, loving it, believing that whatever tiny ...

The Logic of Ill Logic

"The next time you go out in the world, you might try this practice: 

directing your attention to people—in 

their cars, on the sidewalk, talking on their cell phones—

just wish for them all to be happy and well. Without 

knowing anything about them, they can become very real, by regarding each of them 

personally and rejoicing in the comforts and pleasures that come their way. 

Each of us has this soft spot: a capacity for love and tenderness. 

But if we don’t encourage it, we can get pretty stubborn about remaining sour." 

--Pema Chodron, Buddhist monk and author, "No Time to Lose"

i look at this family elder

the same one

who rules over us

the same dowager

who has been 

a source of amusement

the source of craziness

that she denies 

passing on to us

she is missus know it all

considers herself

100% right about all things

she is also all-knowing

like the god  & the god's mother

who are on her side

by sheer telepathy

& telephoney

she can will people

she wants to converse with

to call her

i look down at 

& feel grateful for

this sunday's

breakfast fare

of fried dried fish & rice

that i try

with effort

to chew mindfully

& swallow slowly

i look up again

at the family elder

who is still at it

lecturing on how

each of us will all be best

assigned to a condo

unit so she can

have a house

this house

our house

to herself

(in a split second

i briefly imagine

my siblings & i

occupying 

columbarium niches 

not unlike

condo units

only tinier

the final

resting places

her church

offers for those

who'd rather 

be burned

not buried) 

she refuses to room

with her daughters

declares before them

with the finality

of an empress

the kind who can

send slaves

to their slaughter

that she lives

in her living room

sleeps on the sofa

because room sharing

suffocates her

i gulp my water down

& decide

she can't

be that all-knowing

all flawless being

after all 

if a simple human

pleasure & comfort

like a real bed

she denies 

herself 

i cannot follow

her ill logic

so i give up

wish her wellness

wish her happiness

at the start &

end of another week

full of family

eccentricities

--Babeth Lolarga

March 9, 2013

9:13 a.m.

Photo of two old biddies crossing the street from the World Wide Web