In the absence of family

The Lolargas and Fernandezes are Baguio migrants, the former having settled here in the early '60s, the latter in 1992 to be exact. But my cousins, with whom we used to live in the retirement house of my grandmother (ever since sold), have moved to the sprawling Metro Manila or abroad, leaving me the sole Lolarga in the city.

When Rolly Fernandez (second from left), our family breadwinner, started teaching at the UP Baguio, we had to sell a number of artworks so we could get by from day to day on his assistant professor's salary. It wasn't until he accepted the post of bureau chief of Philippine Daily Inquirer Northern and Central Luzon in '93 did we loosen our belts a bit and breathe a little easier.

Rolly and I chose to remember one Sunday who was with us all throughout a financially shaky start in a new city where our kids went to public school. That was one reason for hosting a small reunion of friends, chief of them two retired but still intellectually active professors, Del Tolentino and Ben Tapang (bookending the group shot). How the two get by without social media accounts you tell me!

Tita Eppie Blanco (in red) is another one who stubbornly rejects Facebook and prefers to engage on socio-political issues on a deeply personal level. She has an iconic portrait of Chief Justice (she still is ours) Lourdes Sereno hugging her.

Because Eppie had long served Philippine Airlines' ground crew she has a colorful knowledge of the who's who of Baguio, like social chroniclers George Sison or Maurice Arcache. Only better--she dealt with these people personally, and they remain her contacts.

Rolly and I love her buko sinigang, which she ladles in bowls while talking a mean streak about the President the country doesn't deserve and the voter education needed to make the small steps to real change possible. She has voting age grandchildren, and like her, they're voting straight Liberal Party.

Speaking of PAL, Maria Klaridelle A Reyes (with son Marco on her lap) shuttles between wherever the airlines flies her as an attendant and Baguio so visits to our city are definitely precious. She is my eldest daughter Kimi Fernandez's friend from their Baguio City National Science High School years. Marco and my grandchild Kai are playmates whenever the gap in their years is bridgeable.

To my left is another high school pal of Kimi's, Agnes, pregnant with her first baby and the latest would-be mascot of their play group. I bless Kimi who added (bought, not cooked) the soft lengua to the festive fare that included my chicken potato salad and longganisa spaghetti, Rolly's salad and ribs (bought them himself), Eppie's spicy sausages and chicken pastel.

Junley Lorenzana Lazaga brought wife Janine and children Inigo and Joaquin. The toddler Aquin is off camera playing with Rolly's collection of bells or sneaking sips from his father's bottle of beer.

I grew up in a large clan complete with a great grandmother, a grandmother, assorted uncles and aunts, multi generations of first and second cousins that met at Col. Ernesto and Dr. Erlinda Lolarga's home every Christmas. The tradition fell away as the old guard died and the new one joined the Filipino diaspora to North America.

In the absence of family, I still have these.

Photo by Junley

What else will we play next?

These served as my welcome remarks at the opening of "Sampayan Blues," my ninth solo exhibition at the Sanctuary Gallery inside the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary on North Santo Tomas Road, Campo Sioco, Baguio. The show of paintings and installation ends on Nov. 24. Come visit!

Kept it place by clothespins are the paintings "The Laughing Matryoshkas" and "Be Salt, Be Light, Be Seamstress, Be Doll."

The untitled installation in the middle of the gallery and surrounded by 18 paintings

Portrait of the artist by EV Espiritu and floating above an old wash basin and borne aloft by chipboard "bubbles"

EV Espiritu should have another solo show after his "Soul Catcher" photo exhibit from several years back. He's got one wild mind. Here he poses with the mobile that he had conceived and helped execute.

My collaborations with grandchild Kai who, when she entered the gallery, recognized her figures and announced, "That's my work!" From top: "BFFs in Flower Field" and "Oval and Round"

Good afternoon. Let me thank Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary, its genial and caring staff led by Olive Gregorio, curator Erlyn Ruth Alcantara for allowing us to turn this gallery space into our playground for a month.

Thank you, old comrade in arts and media EV Espiritu, my collaborating artist alongside Maryknoll’s Clem Delim, who is a quiet joy to work with. Yasmin Almonte, the Sarabia sisters Anna Leah and Wawie I thank for gifts of space so I can paint with no other concern except to breathe and paint.

Thank you Baboo Mondoñedo, Merci Javier Dulawan and Ben Tapang for choosing either the most barbed or kindest words for me. All of you who came today despite gray clouds, threatening rain and a bout of sampayan blues, thank you.

What else will we play next? This is the question my four-year-old friend and grandchild Kai asks when we’re done with an activity. It’s a question adults like us must also reinstate in our lives to put the element of play in things we do.

When I was painting “Storm Surge” in the aftermath of super-typhoon Yolanda, I couldn’t paint continuously and with joyous abandon. There was toxic anger in my heart at the way a national crisis/calamity was being handled. I put away my brushes, rolled up the canvas and as for the tiny tubes of acrylic, they dried up.

Until one day I found myself stuck up while writing another hanapbuhay article. Restless, I had to channel my fretfulness into something constructive lest I harm myself from frustration. That’s how I found myself returning to “Storm Surge” after it lay idle for a year. I recaptured the elusive lightheartedness that used to accompany a brushstroke.

Each visit to Baguio had me bearing witness to the ease with which Kai applied herself in her painting, coloring and drawing. Absolutely no self-consciousness about what others would think or say. I like to think I am now apprentice to this master.

Enjoy the show, and thanks again for coming and banishing the blues from my sampayan. May your own clotheslines be often visited by playful birds and butterflies, the scent of flowers, blasts of wind, rays of sunshine and just the occasional rain. Bless you!

Miko David Galang and the music of life

Soprano Mico Galang opens up her vocal cords and vocalizes with assisting artist Farley Asuncion by the Lyric piano hours before her July 28 concert at the Ayala Museum.

Nice, warm rapport between two music artists

Alone with piano or guitar (Angela Vinculado of Triple Fret) accompaniment, Miko is sight to behold, an earful to enjoy, especially when you hear rarely performed songs like the premiere of a Spanish song penned by National Artist Francisco Feliciano and dedicated to Miko's mentor Naomi Sison or an aria from the opera Lucia de Lammermoor. She herself admits it is not easy to sing the part of a madwoman. Outside the spotlight she's a regular gal hamming it up with friends some of who are in the classical music world, too, like fellow soprano Stephanie Aguilar, and newly won over admirers like writer Alma Cruz Miclat.

Miko's newly met Tita Babeth took her on a road trip to Baguio a week ago so she could be part of a surprise birthday party for retiring University of the Philippines Baguio Prof. Delfin L. Tolentino Jr., Del to us, Boy to his family. Cowgirl Miko takes a selfie of us inside the bus on a night trip.

Tita B introduces her to two art community members gathered for a lunch of salad, pasta, pizza and ribs at Amare (clockwise): Karen Lee Hizola, Miko, blogger and Jenny Cariño. A time for establishing common ground, where to shop quickly for pasalubong before we left for technical rehearsals at the Hill Station's Justina Garcia Function Room.

Miko testing the acoustics inside Hill Station

Miko meets her fellow Malolos person, Lolo Ben Tapang, who organized the surprise party with the Tolentino family in cahoots. The Tolentinos are also from the province of Bulacan.

More friends from Del's UPB years (from left): Ruth Tindaan, Grace Subido, Lolo Ben and Joy Subido.

Her popular repertoire for this evening includes her personal favorites: "I Could've Danced All Night," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "O Mio Babbino Caro," "Quando me'n vo," popularly known as "Musetta's Waltz" from La Boheme, "Sa Kabukiran" to celebrate the country girl in her.

When Del (left) and the guests heard Agot Espino's "Kundiman ng Langit," Miko's encore piece, it was a hushed moment. Del told her how "beautifully ravishing" the song was. The lyrics follow below the last picture showing Miko with Del's extended family of St. Paul de Chartres nuns.

The nuns went up to Miko after her short show to say, "You not only sang well, you warmed our hearts." Their words were the kind of acknowledgment we both needed as we traveled back to busy Manila a few hours later after this last picture was taken. Most photos by Babeth Lolarga

KUNDIMAN NG LANGIT

May isang kundimang naiiba,
Daloy ay kay haba, waring hindi magwawakas;
Nilikha buhat sa langit, ng Amang tapat umibig;
Awitin, kundiman ng langit.

Himig ay sinulat ng Kanyang dugo,
Titik ay hinugot sa pusong ‘di magtatampo,
Ang hatid ay kaligtasan, at ang ating kalayaan;
Dinggin, kundimang ito.

Kay hiwaga ng pag-ibig na dulot Mo,
Kasalanan ko’y nilimot nang totoo;
Sa kabila ng ginawa ko; ako’y mahal na mahal Mo,
May hihigit pa ba sa pag-ibig Mo?

Sana’y tugunan ang haranang ito
Na binuhay ng kamatayang pinangtubos,
Sugat ay paghihilumin. Dungis nati’y lilinisin;
Damhin, pagsuyong ito.

May hihigit pa ba sa kundimang ito?

Days like these...

...you wish you have your own fishbowl. Of course one that can fit you and me. The heat is on!

These are photos from my first, and in all probability my last, trip to Batanes in March 1998, the Centennial Year of the Philippine Republic. I was with a group of scholars (Del Tolentino, Ben Tapang, Weng Boquiren, Nela Florendo, and Rolly Fernandez when he was still actively teaching and not gardening).

I did get around to having these panoramic photos printed to illustrate an article in Chato Garcellano's Travel page in the Inquirer. It's among the selected essays included in my collection Catholic and Emancipated (UST Publishing House). Call that previous sentence an outright plug. (Copies are still available at better bookstores.)

The next time the pictures were printed was when old friend Jerry Araos, who founded the artists' guild Salakai, organized "Alay sa Kawani," simultaneous exhibitions of the members, including this wanna-be photog, at the GSIS Museum on Roxas Blvd.

I called my photo show that included poetry "Lost in Batanes." Jerry wanted to do an on-the-spot translation of my poem with the same title in Filipino while he was choosing the photos that would be enlarged by a friend of his who lived in Forbes Park, Makati. But we were in the thick of preparations. I even had to frame my photos with help from Jerry and Melen's daughter Roja who did the matting. How's that for hands-on training?

Call these the pinagpilian or the outtakes. Some I have also been given away as mementos to friends who were interested in them.

Okay, since my blog has had over 230,000 views, I'm giving the rest of these pictures away to the readers who happen by. Just write to me in the comments section, leave your email, and I shall find a way to reach you and mail the pics. These are my thank-you gifts to you, dearest reader, for sticking with Brookside Baby. The first eight who comment receive a photo each.

These are the only prints left. The negatives are lost to Forever and a Day.

Game!

All photos by Babeth Lolarga

BWG reloaded: Let's volt in

Congratulations and best wishes to the new officers of the Baguio Writers Group (BWG) that has opened itself to wider membership to infuse it with new and creative (read: out-of-the-box) ideas. All towards strengthening writing in this northern region and keeping its reputation as a voice in the Baguio and by extension the national community. Hip hip hooray to new BWG president Jenny Cariño who presided at the general assembly at another Baguio institution, Mandarin Restaurant on Session Road.

We started Saturday afternoon with a small table. From left are: Frank, Jenny, Grace Subido, Scott Saboy, Roland Rabang and Martin Masadao

Then more streamed in: Luchie Maranan, Baboo Mondoñedo and Junley Lazaga.

Among our recruits are Rose Urquico, Toottee Chanco Pacis and Auring Bautista

Audrey Beltran, Desiree Caluza, Pryce Quintos, Merci Javier Dulawan, Padma Perez and Frank again

Same gals from above listening to others introduce themselves this way: what I write, what I still want to write and what I expect from BWG and how I can help it

Retired economics professor Ben Tapang (seated fourth from left) says there must be more to life than the field he spent 50 years of his life on. This must mean that creative juices are still roiling within, waiting to be expressed. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Thank you, Frank Cimatu, for graciously hosting a merienda of pancit bihon (with extra pechay toppings, as per his instruction to the waitress), lumpiang Shanghai and a round of drinks.

A spread like that is conducive to the concoction of plans. Among these are reviving the Kulitan workshop (these are bi-monthly manuscript clinics fueled by coffee for the critique-ing of works in progress by the literature profs and literary critics in the group), young adult writing workshops (open to 12 to 16 year old kids, one is coming up May 24-25 at the Frangeli House on Bakakeng road), a spoken word workshop that'll train young poets to perform and pit themselves in the Third Monday from the Sun readings/performances at Mt Cloud Bookshop (Jenny is worthy resource person for this activity), an online and refereed literary journal, among others.

We started the meeting with one large round table. As Saturday afternoon wore on, Luchie Maranan exhorted us to "let's volt in." It meant connecting two additional round tables but still it was standing room only!

What excites me about the enlarged composition of BWG is the variety of experiences, knowledge and skills that the new members are bringing in. Some of them come from civil society (human rights and indigenous people's orgs), others from the worlds of visual arts (steeped in art and comic-book writing) and local journalism. There is one who writes for an evangelical magazine as she is a theology teacher. We didn't limit ourselves to purely creative or literary writers.

Shall we sing "Happy Days Are Here Again" or "Ain't No Mountain High" to Jenny, Junley Lazaga (vice president), Scott Saboy (secretary), Merci Javier Dulawan (treasurer)?

How to stage a surprise party in less than 2 weeks

...which was all the time I needed to work my phone and find out if my friends in Manila and Baguio could help me spring another surprise (the last was in 2009 at our silver wedding anniversary) on 63-year-old Rolly Fernandez. Ninety-eight percent of those I texted were game, the rest had other commitments that they couldn't get out of. The odds were in the birthday boy's favor.

My fellow conspirators had a credible cover: a Sunday meeting of the Baguio Writers Group combined with a thanksgiving lunch after BWG was conferred the Gawad Pedro Bucaneg by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (we did meet yesterday after the party spirit settled down over coffee to talk about future activities; the meeting wasn't just a clever diversion ploy).

The guests were game for the "roasting" of the diamond jubilarian. His quirks/habits, particularly the way he takes his job/s over-seriously (as journalism professor before he retired last year and as a working journalist), were uncovered by "grillers" Anna Leah Sarabia, former student Avigail Olarte (she said she and her female classmates from Batch 2000 were all sick with the Electra complex when they dealt with their teacher), Upsilon senior brod Des Bautista and Linc Drilon. Heckling from the sidelines was Rolly's UP Baguio colleague Del Tolentino. Maryland-based Baguio boy Benjie Abellera sent his message by email. Thank you again, fellow grand schemers, dreamers and heart-breakers. 

Well, for those who didn't make it, here are the photos from Anna's and my cameras that say, "Wish you were there!"

The yogurt-fed, organically raised roast suckling pig  was supposed to have been Rolly's offering to the BWG folks. He later realized it was also his gift to himself.

Our daughter Kimi picks Mario's key lime pie instead of a birthday cake. Good choice because everyone loves its lemon-y taste (pampaalis suya).

Early arrivals Oscar Pacis, who leads a Saturday Bible fellowship at his home with wife Toottee (seated rightmost), Anna Leah, who came all the way from Tagaytay, BWG vice president Jenny Cariño and Auring Bautista who made a lovely fish ceviche.

Linc Drilon with our youngest daughter, who also pulls her own surprise by coming home from abroad while awaiting a new work permit, and Kai of the tantalizing eyes

Scholars Del Tolentino and Ben Tapang bring in some booze. Therese Jison and Heiner Maulbecker bring up the rear, the apple pies and ice cream following them.

The girls at Green Valley (from left): Ida, Kai, Kimi, Luchie Maranan, BWG treasurer Merci Javier Dulawan and Anna Leah

Linc croons "Moon River" while Guido
Canero plays the violin.

Guido's solo of The Beatles' "Yesterday"

Mira Abaño accompanies herself in her cover of "Keep Breathing," her advice to many senior citizens in the audience.

Jenny Cariño heats up the afternoon with her "Volcano."

Avie Olarte speaks in behalf of UPB Journalism Batch Class 2000 whose members often wondered where Rolly got his perkiness for a 7 a.m. class. It must've been the beer from the night before.

Des Bautista (left) regales guests with anecdotes about how he, his family and circle of friends initiated younger fraternity brod Rolly into Baguio life. 

Scholars Ben and Del listen by the foot of the stairs. Ben tells Rolly that his made-to-order bulol buffet table is too Caucasian-looking with its tall nose and pointed chin.

Baboo Mondoñedo arrives in time for the BWG meeting with a box of Cafe by the Ruins ensaymada to go with the coffee. By quiet consensus no liquor allowed during said meeting. 

After his roasting, Rolly responds with the story of how 1992, the year our family moved to Baguio, remains the best year of his life. Born to parents from Cavite, he now calls himself a Baguio boy through and though.

They all laugh at what Rolly is saying.