Textures and patterns

There was a time I brought my Canon digicam everywhere I went and trained my eye on anything interesting I saw. Such were these photos I took while we were having a bienvenida lunch with old friends Myriam and Steve Benito, now based in New Zealand.

Friends used to ask how I kept myself busy in Baguio. Well, here's evidence from years past--not yet erased by the need to create more gigabyte space in the computer.

Location: Iggy's Inn and Bonuan Seafood Restaurant

Myriam and Steve Benito, plus Del Tolentino and Babeth at Iggy's Inn and Bonuan Seafood Restaurant

Except for the last picture, all photos by Babeth

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 65 looks like if you're content

Six years ago, writer-painter Gilda Cordero Fernando painted "Gilda's Morphing Tower of Hearts" dedicated to one Rolly Fernandez. She used to tell the all-women members of First Draft, of which I was then a junior member (age-wise, the other was Karina Bolasco) that she has no choice but to love our husbands more than she does us because "I know you all well enough to know what they have to put up with."

Recognize the object of affection?

Rolly, husband, provider, friend, adviser has put up well and can put up with more. I am confident about that because my indicator is his shock of white hair. His thick hair hasn't fallen off (I'm the one with the thinning, falling hair problem) in all the years we've been together and not together.

Hanging out on a Friday night at Del Tolentino's famous kitchen on the occasion of a farewell dinner for Inquirer Northern Luzon Bureau's Robert Abaño. From left are Desiree Caluza, the host Del, Rey Rimando, Robert and the man who is not Santa Claus

At our lunch date yesterday at Chaya, best little Japanese restaurant in Baguio City. Behind him are quilted items for sale.

Today, Kai Curly Tops and I took turns documenting Tats Rolly's preparation for his birthday lunch. Friday night while at a dinner at Del Tolentino's, he suddenly seemed to have an epiphany and realized that he couldn't let a milestone go by without celebrating, even if he had to market/do the groceries/cook the food himself.

Meanwhile, he had a few moments of quiet with Kai and his partner in crimes and misdemeanors for 31 years. Truly yours and his

Kai took pics of her grandfolks after we had just cleared the table of breakfast fare and were preparing it for today's lunch. I had written before that this four year old is more assured when handling gadgets. She isn't afraid to turn the camera around, even if some photos look vertiginous. Middle photo should've been deleted if she had her way, but I found it cute. She went through so much trouble setting up her Hello Kitty toothbrush on the foreground. After all the picture-taking was done, she ended the series with a selfie. Photos by Kai Fernandez

He's got these duties down pat: going out for supplies, loading the trunk of the car, etc. With a little assist from his favorite gal in the world Photos by Babeth Lolarga

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?

Poetry in stillness

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry." — Emily Dickinson

Photos of Bric-a-Brac the book by Babeth Lolarga

While going through the heaps of digitized and re-sized photos saved on the hard drive of this computer that I'm using, I saw or "read" the book art made by Baguio artist and scholar Del Tolentino for his "Bric-a-Brac" exhibition over a year ago at Mt Cloud Bookshop. I had written about that show for VeraFiles.org (See http://verafiles.org/the-playful-the-serious-collide-in-del-tolentinos-book-art/)

These are the "out-takes" from that article, the photos not sent and that stayed behind.

While again "flipping" through the pages of the the book Bric-a-Brac (scrolling through the photos, I mean), I realized how the biography of a person can be told through a series of still life. There is the thoughtfulness behind the selection of what bric, what brac should go into a home. Clearly the man is an aesthete, too --from the books to the bookends to the lamps to each exquisite piece of china, textile, wooden figurine, basketry, earthenware.

There is also the intellectual history of the person in the book titles that remain on display for he is also known as someone who generously gives away the books he has read. But what remains behind--there's the telling tale.

We always thank writers, whether from the classic canon or those from the margins, who shaped what we were and are today. My sister wrote recently to say how she overstayed by choice with Nancy Drew creator Carolyn Keene for the sheer pleasure of it.

I thank a living book artist for "writing", through his images and some words, that there is poetry in the unnoticed spots and swirls on a leaf, in the profile of a wayang kulit puppet, in the light bouncing off the cheek of a waxed mask...and more!

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