Cultural work

Clockwise: Frank Cimatu, Mae Paner, the blogger, Edna Aquino, Kervin Calabias and Kelly Ramos

Yesterday marked my first official meeting for 2019. Meaning, this was no longer socializing and meeting holiday obligations. This was defining a project, setting realistic goals, assigning duties, sourcing possible funds.

It helped that convening the meeting were cultural activists Mae P. Paner, a.k.a. Juana Change, and Edna Aquino. After initial sips of coffee or tea, we buckled down to work at a long table at Hill Station. The January afternoon weather was kind, not bitterly cold, so it was conducive to agreements and agreements to disagree. With us were fellow writers Frank Cimatu, Kelly Ramos and Kervin Calabias.

The project is the mounting of, hope I can announce it now, guys, "Tao Po," described as a a monologue for four characters on extra-judicial killings by Ms. Paner on Feb. 8 at the University of the Cordilleras (time and specific venue at UC to be finalized).

The next day, Feb. 9, Ms. Paner will conduct a theater workshop for Baguio youth to raise their awareness of human rights. The all-day workshop will culminate in a showcase of the participants' output. Venue is still the UC.

The organizers of these twin events, which are part of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)-led "Artists for Human Rights / Luzon Project," are Let's Organize for Democracy and Integrity (LODI), Dap-ayan ti Kultura iti Kordilyera (DKK), the UC, HUDYAT (Artists for Human Dignity) and the Baguio Writers Group led by newly elected president Kelly Ramos.

Expect that in the next couple of weeks, we will be making some social media noise about "Tao Po" and the theater workshop--two avenues for promoting, at the risk of repeating myself, human rights. Mabuhay!

‘Jazzy Little Christmas’ for non-traditional school in Baguio

Romero de Guia as Evita Peron in a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lissa Romero de Guia, vocal artiste, writer and mother, headlines “Jazzy Little Christmas,” a fund-raising dinner-concert to benefit the eight-year-old Balay Sofia, a Steiner-Waldorf school in Baguio City. The event is on Dec. 13 at Hill Station restaurant inside the historic Casa Vallejo on Upper Session Road.

De Guia, whose son Kalinaw also goes to the school, was a cast member of the original German productions of “Miss Saigon,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Rent.” She was the first Filipino actor to play the lead role of the narrator in “Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat.” She also served as the first understudy for the role of Gigi in the United Kingdom tour of “Miss Saigon.”

She understudied the role of Mimi for Atlantis Production’s Manila production of “Rent.” Now a freelance writer, she has been living in Baguio, her father’s hometown, for six years with her husband, the filmmaker Kidlat, and their two children.

Among the songs she will sing are: “A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square,” “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” “Hallelujah,” “Pasko Na, Sinta Ko,” “Lullaby in Birdland,” “My Favorite Things.”

She will also share the stage with pianist Jessica Cruz Ladines . Ladines is a voice and piano teacher at the Normita Pablico Music Studio, former choirmaster of the St. Louis University Glee Club, vocalist-pianist of Cortado Band and an arranger of choral and string ensembles. She and De Guia worked together in an Open Space Production concert version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” also in Baguio.

Romero de Guia with husband Kidlat and son Kalinaw

De Guia said she enrolled her son at Balay Sofia “because I wanted him to be in school that allowed him to be a child. I’m not attracted at all to schools that force early academics. I want him to enjoy.”

Steiner-Waldorf schools were first built after World War I in Stuttgart, Germany, to foster and guide a new generation to build a harmonious society. Balay Sofia started by offering classes in early childhood. Today, it has classes up until the fourth grade. It is expanding by adding more grade levels. The expansion means more classrooms and outdoor grounds are needed.

The fundraising committee, led by parent Michelle Tan-Dance, is looking for at least 3,000 square meters of land within a 30-minute drive from downtown Baguio. The new school is envisioned to house more students and grade levels.

Parents, teachers and students at Balay Sofia

With yearly visits from parent advocates from the Manila Waldorf and Acacia Waldorf Schools in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, as well as longtime Waldorf teacher David Simpson from New Zealand, the parents of Balay Sofia are guided into building the ideal school they want for their kids. “Jazzy Little Christmas” was organized for this purpose.

Restaurant owner Mitos Benitez is lending her space for this cause. She said, “I’m always happy to have Lissa perform here.” The last time De Guia performed at Hill Station was at the Baguio Writers Group’s pre-Valentine fundraiser in 2015. The house was full.

Benitez created a special menu for the event to include: Mrs. Claus Welcome Soup, Hill Station Green Garden Salad, a choice of three dishes for the main course (vegetarian pasta dish with mushroom and truffle oil, home-baked ham or white snapper fillet), as well as dessert and iced tea.

For tickets, contact 0917-511-6945 and (074) 424-2734. Or visit Hill Station.

Namcya champs jam in Baguio

Namcya champs jam in Baguio

Andrew Constantino holding his clarinet

Pianist Gabriel Paguirigan

The music never stops for this couple

Soprano Stefanie Quintin and classical guitarist Anton Luis Avila have been sweethearts since their high school years in Baguio City. The way the romance began depends on who’s telling the story.

Avila said they met during the National Music Competition for Young Artists in 2005. “I was competing in the Category B Guitar Competition. She was part of her school choir for the Category B Choral Competition. It's a long story from there, but that’s how Stef first fell for me.”

Quintin protested, “I did not notice Anton back then until my friends started having a big crush on him. Having a crush on a guitarist was inevitable. So there, we became high school sweethearts and eventually became colleagues. We have been performing together since 2007.”

The two plan to make their chemistry evident on June 5 in “Acoustic Adagietto,” a dinner concert production of the Cultural Arts Events Organizer (CAEO) as part of the Baguio Summer Music Festival at Hill Station on Upper Session Road, Baguio City. Dinner starts at 6 p.m., concert at 8 p.m.

Quintin, with Avila as accompanist, will also give a free lecture-demo-cum-mini recital on June 4 on “The Miracle of the Human Voice” at 3 p.m. at Sarmiento Hall, the alumni center of the University of the Philippines Baguio.

Stefanie Quintin

Quintin has degrees in vocal pedagogy and vocal performance from the University of the Philippines. She trained with Fides Cuyugan Asensio and Rica Nepomuceno.

She said, “I was fortunate to have The Fides as my teacher. When I entered the UP College of Music in 2008, I had no idea who she was until my batchmates told me that Tita Fides is one of the pillars of classical music here in the country. How naive of me.”

She described her teacher’s teaching style: “She lets her students explore their own capacity as singers and musicians. She gave me the freedom to choose my pieces and at the same time assigned challenging ones like Darius Milhaud’s ‘Chansons de Ronsard,’ Strauss’ ‘Madchenblumen,’ most of which are rarely performed here.”

She said Asensio’s influence on her could be seen in her selection of “rarely heard pieces,” she said. “I expand my repertoire and at the same time make the audience appreciate various compositional styles. Tita Fides taught me that singing is not just about high notes. Singing should be about the message of the music, how we can transmit it to our audience. The best thing that I learned from her is to always sing with intention, never sing for attention.”

After earning his degree in applied mathematics from the Ateneo, Avila studied guitar at UP under another legend, Lester Demetillo. The young man said, “I’ve learned a lot from him both in playing the guitar and in life. The most interesting would be these: Be creative in solving technical problems; always play musically, artistically and intelligently; and at a certain point, speed is detrimental to musicality.”

Anton Luis Avila

He found a corporate job, but, he said, “The cyclical life in the corporate setting drained me. So my dream of studying music came knocking again.”

After he convinced his parents for support, he entered the UP College of Music as a student. He said, “I was relatively successful as a guitarist during my stint there. There were realities to accept. I wanted to stay but after discerning, I realized that getting a degree in music wasn’t for me. While my pursuit for a degree was put on a halt, being a musician, being a student of music never stopped.”

Asked why they chose Brazilian music, particularly bossa nova for the second part of their June 5 program, Avila said everything was Quintin’s choice, adding, “She always challenges herself technically and musically. My own curiosity for Brazilian music started in 2005 when I was 14. I was intrigued with the syncopations and harmonies of South American music. They were different from classical and even pop music. This comes from a deep love for the classical guitar repertoire, built largely on Spanish and South American music.”

He said, “Classical music is here to stay. What most consider as ‘classical music’ is different from what it actually is. When we think of classical music, we think of Bach. This is a limited perspective. That’s why people often fear classical music. The reality is some music, like those of Juan Carlos Jobim and Laurindo Almeida, are now considered standard repertoire for classical musicians. Thus, they’re here to stay.”

What makes their style of bossa different from Sitti or Astrud Gilberto is theirs is more deeply rooted in the traditions of classical music. Quintin clarified, “Mostly, what we’re going to play are composed music by Brazilian composers rather than songs played bossa nova style.”

To their Baguio counterparts, the duo has this joint message: “We hope that our humble efforts will somehow open the hearts, minds and ears of the people in Baguio to classical music.” -- Elizabeth Lolarga

For tickets and inquiries, visit Hill Station, call (074)424 2734, 0915-829-2166, or emailinfo@hillstationbaguio.com, or contact CAEO at c.p. nos. 0906-526-7241, 0920-954-0053, 0918-347-3027 or landline (074) 997-9483. The Baguio Summer Music Festival and “Acoustic Adagietto” are made possible by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Smart Telecommunications.

A shorter version of this article appeared in today's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Bound by their love for one another and for classical music

Piano prodigy’s counsel: ‘Love what you do’

Hansel Harel Ang by a handcrafted Seiler piano Photo by Elizabeth Lolarga

Piano prodigy’s counsel: ‘Love what you do’

Baguio folk pool resources to get ‘Bach vs Beatles’ concert treat

Baguio folk pool resources to get ‘Bach vs Beatles’ concert treat

'Bach Vs. Beatles' rematch and MSO's Music Everywhere in Baguio

Queue outside the museum. That's historian Benito Legarda Jr.'s back on the right.

The size and mix of Bach Vs. Beatles audience--it's any concert organizer's dream

Of the rush-hour concerts that the Ayala Museum has hosted for Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) since 2013, none matches the standing-room-only crowd and ovation that the country’s oldest orchestra at 89 years received for “Bach Vs. The Beatles.”

Even before the museum’s doors opened on March 26, two orderly queues formed, one for those who reserved their tickets and were paying on the spot, another for walk-in customers who waited for the others to be seated before they could be admitted.
The lobby buzzed with excitement. The all-black plastic chairs were uniformly pegged at P500 each, including the ones that businessman Jaime Zobel and wife Bea sat on.


A winning combination

Although tickets and chairs were numbered, there were accidental duplications. The ushers diplomatically sorted these out. To reserve seats for concert companions who were still lined up outside, some parked hankies, bags, even the small four-page program printed on folded coupon bond paper.

Jeffrey Solares, MSO executive director, served as annotator for the evening, announcing that 10 more rush-hour concerts are lined up for the year. The next is “Soundtracks and Symphonies” on April 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Ayala Museum.

He noted that the audience’s size was, for the series, “unprecedented for the classics,” adding, “I know. Some of you came for The Beatles.”

The program was divided into three rounds like a boxing match, with Bach preceding The Beatles. Jeffrey gave informative tidbits before every round.

Jeffrey Solares, MSO's executive director and associate conductor

He told of how Johann Sebastian Bach composed a lot of church music, then tried to seek a job in the royal court. Failing at this attempt to improve his finances, he put his Brandenburg Concertos in a baul and didn’t hear it performed in his lifetime. When the box was opened and the music sheets discovered after his death, that was the beginning of the concertos’ acclaim. It continues to be performaned to this day.

Flutist Gaille Ramos in the number "Beatles in the style of Bach"

The baroque treatment given to the British quartet’s hit songs—“Eleanor Rigby,” “Yesterday,” “Blackbird,” “Lady Madonna,” “Michelle,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I Will,” “Hey Jude” and a medley of “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “When I’m Sixty Four” and “Get Back”—proves how timeless they are. They can be thrown back by centuries to Bach’s period and given a fresh interpretation.
These arrangements/adaptations were made by Solares himself, David Johnstone, Peter Briener, Allison Krauss and David Garret.

The next day, the administrator of MSO’s Facebook page threw the gauntlet: “Who wants a ‪#‎BachVsBeatles‬ REMATCH?” The status received a lot of “Likes.”

Any flower child, even members of Generation Y, can identify the faces of the four men projected onscreen.

Meanwhile, Joseph Uy and Alan Andres of the Cultural Arts Events Organizers (CAEO) met up on March 27 with Hill Station’s Mitos Benitez and marketing consultant Vixienne Calulut on the possibility of beginning a classical music concert series in Baguio this summer.

Concertmeister and first violinist Gina Medina Perez has a solo part in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G-major

Given the many private music schools in the city and the fairly new music program and conservatory of the University of Baguio (UB), the summer capital could also be a cultural capital. Envisioned are summer music camps for students and teachers alike, all hinging on a gamble like a fine music series.

Present at the meeting were music aficionados Ben Tapang, a retired UP Baguio economics professor, and this blogger who both thought there was nothing wrong in indulging in wide-awake dreaming.

Supposedly to jumpstart the series, now named “Classics at the Hill," was Viva Voce, a group of classically trained singers under soprano Camille Lopez Molina. But they were unavailable because of a commitment to do Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury at the Cultural Center. Viva Voce, however, will do an abridged concert version of Puccini’s La Boheme on May 24 in another dinner concert at Hill Station.

As they were about to leave Baguio, Uy and Andres learned that the MSO was available on the weekend of April 24-26 for a possible concert and outreach activities to the northern city. Jeffrey’s dream was to give the musicians a much-needed break from their city routine of open technical rehearsals at different venues, performances and outreach concerts. The latest one was in Cavite with pianist Ingrid Sala Santamaria as soloist..

Mitos hesitated a bit when she considered the orchestra’s size, but was assured when she learned that “Bach Vs. Beatles” involved 20-25 MSO members rotating at any given time. Baguio woke up to news that Hill Station, housed in the city’s oldest building, would kick off its classical music series with a bang: a repeat of “Bach Vs. Beatles.”

The format is a buffet dinner on April 25 at the restaurant’s Justina Garcia function room downstairs at 6:30; the concert at 8:15 at the main dining hall upstairs.

Perla Macapinlac of the ICM House of Prayer with Al Andres and Joseph Uy of the Cultural Arts Events Organizers

The ICM House of Prayer under Sr. Perla Macapinlac and the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary (MES) under administrator Olive Gregorio are housing the MSO musicians, their instruments and crew. Choosing these open and spiritual spaces as shelter was deliberate on the organizing team’s part to give the MSO rest, recreation, retreat and renewal for more challenges in Manila. Hopefully, for the first-time Baguio visitors among the MSO members, the lushness of these spaces will enable them to appreciate the quiet activism of the religious community that enabled these open and green spaces to remain evergreen

Genesis Transport Services Inc., under its president Riza Moises and with help from its marketing officer Loren Zubia, offered two air-conditioned buses with wide luggage space below to transport 45 musicians and a crew of five to Baguio. UB, through its president JB Bautista and John Glen Gaerlan, UB Chorale adviser, is sending its instrument majors and teachers for the MSO’s morning masterclass on April 25 at Maryknoll and partially supporting the MSO’s board and lodgings.

Jeffrey had earlier voiced a desire for the MSO members to interact with Baguio's musicians.The Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation, the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) and Don Henrico's (Pizza Pasta and More) stepped in to also help make the season opener happen.

Ground support came from the Baguio Writers Group (the president is Jennifer Patricia A. Carino) in drafting and endorsing letters, organizing transport between venues, including a short city tour, looking for housing for visiting artists. The BWG is part beneficiary of what has become a community project. On May 18, the BWG together with the University of the Philippines Baguio will host "Aspulan: A Gathering of Literary Writers, Journalists, Teachers and Students of Literature." Conference convenor is Junley Lorenzana Lazaga, BWG vice president and UPB assistant professor.

The free masterclass follows the 10 a.m. matinee of “Soundtracks and Symphonies” at the MES’s courtyard this coming Saturday. The free half-popular, half-classical matinee is for the religious community, the staff and families of the retreat houses, the Baguio Writers Group members and families and interested cultural workers. Attendees are advised to RSVP with the MES at tel. no. (074)424-5745 or c.p. +63915-6555-745 because of limited seats or bring a portable chair, banig, umbrella or hat.

Who says Baguio has become a city of potholes this summer? The art community (writers, visual artists, musicians and art and music patrons) has always made the town a happening place. It still is in the summer of 2015 in spite of the simultaneous roadworks on major thoroughfares and small streets of the city, driving some commuters, residents and tourists alike, almost batty. There's always solace in the arts.

There's a universal force/source out there, too, that makes pipe dreams possible.

The driveway leading to the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Baguio and classical music: MSO serenades summer capital

Baguio and classical music: MSO serenades summer capital

My Camelot in the sky

Kai/Butones/The Wee One and I were both dressed warmly to catch another sunset in our lives. We knew how the temperature could take a sudden dip so we arrived at our special spot quite prepared with caps and jackets on.

Although the sun was so radiant at 4:22 p.m., when we reached our high spot, it was suddenly awash with gray--low clouds, fog rolling in, etc., the things that make the City of (vanishing) Pines so appealing to migrants like my family. These are the same elements that lured the American colonialists in the past to seek for their sweaty pale skin the coolness of a hill station. The Cordilleras' rich earth was (still is in some parts) a magnet for miners and mining companies with dreams of striking it richer than rich.

To me Baguio remains that special time-space continuum that allows countless others to come up and begin their lives afresh.

To those who love the Baguio that was, that still is and that, with all our hopes, still can be, here's my sonata of photos in the sequence that I took them, a vision of a sunset that looked like a moon rise.

This was a Holy Tuesday afternoon that was not entirely wasted.

Thanks, Kai, for keeping me company again in this city of my misspent youth, a city that hopefully will be haven for a graceful ageing.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Belated pats on everyone's back

With less than a month to plan, plot, market, rehearse, look for sponsor/s, the Baguio Writers Group under Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño, my hijada, I always like to boast, produced in cooperation with Hill Station Restaurant "Fever: An Evening of Love Songs and Poetry" early this love month. Before the Panagbenga, the Philippine Military Academy alumni reunion, before other Arts Month activities took off.

Being writers, the group must have the good or bad habit (depending on how you look at it) of getting last-minute dopamine-cum-adrenaline shots that enable us to converge and put together our energies, whether we're composing commissioned handwritten love letters, baking heart-shaped rum cakes or singing and reading our hearts out to keep The Word alive.

To all who were there for us, family, friends, lovers and other strangers, a big thank you for making Feb. 6 a night that continues to sparkle in our memories. Onwards to the next project!

Guitarist Ian Paolo Acosta and singer Lissa Romero de Guia testing the Hill Station's sound system before the evening performance Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Merci Javier Dulawan and Padma Perez "womanning" our "Love (Letters) for Sale" table at the Hill Station Bar. On the piano is one of the pre-ordered rum cakes baked by Toottee Chanco Pacis. We had, if my count is correct while it was my turn to watch the table, five commissions that evening. More came in through our online campaign.

Jenny Cariño reads her lovely poems from the cell phone's screen.

Kervin Calabias recites from memory Joi Barrios's poem honoring the disappeared (desaparecidos).

BWG vice president and literature Prof. Junley Lorenzana Lazaga reads an Iluko poem by Leona Florentino, a cultural and literary heroine.

Lissa enchants, enthralls and engages us with her wonderful voice. To this day, her encore piece "Lullaby of Birdland" is stuck as my last song syndrome.

Lissa, queen of the night, with her bouquet and some members and officers of BWG. Thank you, whoever took this shot. I was in Cloud 9 then.

Writers' minds, hearts, hands at work

My painter friend, Corazon Patarata, who has retired from the foreign service, reminded me in an SMS yesterday, after she learned that I was recovering from surgery, to "go easy muna. There is a time for writing with passion again. Let it wait awhile, you will have new perspectives."

I surmise this is why we have friends apart from blood kin. We can ignore the kin's reminders to guard our health but not our friends'. I noticed many changes after the surgery to remove a tumor that turned out to be benign. Since the incision cut through the leftmost side of my face and neck (that brought about jokes before my hospital confinement that I was disappearing from the world temporarily for a face-lift or cosmetic surgery), there is still numbness and a dull, throbbing ache.

I can't chew without exerting much effort so I now prefer soups, soupy oatmeal, soupy champorado, soft breads with melted butter and cheese, viands that have broth like sinigang with veggies softened. Crunchy stuff like tortilla chips cause great discomfort and a loud ringing in my left ear, no matter how I crave for salty and meaty food. I can no longer, hope this is temporary, put the entire spoon in my mouth. Suddenly, I have to eat daintily!

My way of coping--which is what I do with my other ailments--is to keep my mind, heart and fingers busy. Just what Pope Francis recommended: use our minds, hearts and hands, think, feel and do. For God's glory.

Well, Cora, if I stop, I feel the spirit that moves me to write even a blog entry will be the one to take leave of me. I do appreciate friends' concerns.

Lissa Romero de Guia promises to bump and grind to the song "Let Me Entertain You" from the musical Gypsy. Her program includes Broadway and jazz favorites.

Ian Paolo Acosta, guitarist, singer and composer

But February is looking to be a busy month for this cultural worker. On Feb. 6, the Baguio Writers Group is mounting a pre-Valentine dinner concert, "Fever: A Night of Love Songs and Poetry," at Hill Station, Casa Vallejo, Baguio City. Featured are Lissa Romero de Guia and jazz-blues guitarist Ian Paolo Acosta, all Baguio-based talents, apart from our resident poets who'll outdo one another in passionately reading or performing their love poems.

As if pushing a concert ain't enough alongside selling tickets (only P850 each inclusive of a full-course dinner with a Moroccan theme plus a drink), the BWG "think tank" also thought of a sidelight (side show?) to our concert: a booth for "Love (Letters) for Sale."
To paraphrase new member Nash Tysmans, the BWG members blessed with good to fine penmanship will serve as Cyrano de Bergeracs to help the timid, receding or inarticulate to express their feelings for real Roxanes. But these letters can also be love letters to parents, children, pets. We can't guarantee a "Yes" to romantic proposals, and we won't accept break-up letters.

The letters don't end there. They come with a heart-shaped rum cake with semi-fondant icing baked and packaged by everyone's favorite mamita and BWG senior member, Toottee Chanco-Pacis. We know her for her to-die-for brownies, lemon squares and now, rum cake!

A Google document form has already been set up where those keen on tapping the services of eloquent love letter writers can write their specifications. Just copy and paste to another tab or window the link that follows:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yMt_SqJa1yXYpZpramYWTqUcyaYyGDHzB6ub5O5eCUU/viewform?c=0&w=1

Truly, the world I live in will not slow down to wait for the full restoration of my senses. I'm off antibiotics and pain-killers, the doctor pronounced me fit to work (does that include "to socialize", too?). Since my outer ear is numb and only parts of it will recover feeling in due time, I was told by him, half-kiddingly, that I can have it pierced in several spots and wear all the studs and earrings I want. Which may be the right accessories for a Moroccan pre-Valentine party!

Some of the BWG members at their planning meeting (from left): Merci Javier Dulawan, Nonnette Bennett, Toottee Chanco Pacis, the blogger with her grandchild, Junley Lazaga, Frank Cimatu, Ben Tapang, Padma Perez, Lissa and Jenny Cariño.

A is for apple pie, C for crumbly crust and coffee

It isn't Baguio's best kept secret yet. The best apple pie is on the dessert menu of O'Mai Khan, the Mongolian buffet place on Upper Session Road. I thank Mitos Benitez of Hill Station for sharing this long-ago discovery of hers. Even if her restaurant in Casa Vallejo offers the same dessert, with at least 12 sliced apples in each pie, she takes a hike to nearby O'Mai Khan when she has a certain craving. Pair this with brewed coffee and request a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make pie a la mode. Instant heaven! Photo by Babeth Lolarga

Lovely Casa Vallejo must stay where it is

The original title of this article, which first appeared in a 2012 issue of Cocoon Magazine (part of Inquirer's Hinge Publications), was "This lovely casa is here to stay." Due to the latest developments in Baguio that threaten the continued existence of this landmark building, I've asked the permission of editor Thelma San Juan to re-post this piece in this space. The photos are from the public Facebook pages of Casa Vallejo and Hill Station.

To find out more about what's happening to Casa Vallejo, please go to Change.org, particularly this site, and if you have time and you agree with the petition, do sign and make your voice heard. To paraphrase another passionate lover of Baguio, fellow blogger and theater and film artist Karlo Altomonte, we can't let Baguio turn into "a highland Divisoria."

www.change.org/petitions/felipe-de-leon-jr-chairman-national-commission-on-culture-and-the-arts-declare-the-1909-casa-vallejo-building-in-baguio-city-a-heritage-site-or-important-cultural-property-and-ensure-its-future-protection-and-preservation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Casa Vallejo remains Baguio’s oldest building, as old as the city, in fact. Despite its place in the city’s history, it had fallen into disrepair until some adventurous developers, who’d rather be unnamed for the time being, saw the possibilities of turning this grand dame of city landmarks into a fine example of architectural adaptive reuse.

Today, it is not only a hotel with 24 remodeled rooms (standard, family, deluxe and honey room) and 21st-century amenities like flat-screen TVs and Wifi, it has become a well-located hub of culture on Upper Session Road, overtaking a giant mall on Luneta Hill and big universities that are supposed to feed the students’ souls apart from their minds.

Inside Casa is the two-year-old Hill Station of Mitos Benitez that has earned for Northern Luzon and the Philippines a place in The Miele Guide for 2011-12, a annual regional guide for the best Asian restaurants.

It’s an honor that moved restaurant Filipinas Salazar to tell the staff in more piquant Filipino: “Hey, take note, we’ve gone international so our standards have to be raised. We’re not just for the locals anymore.” The staff is motivated to improve on all points from service to testing new dishes.

Hill Station was described as “like stepping back in time” with its warm wooden beams and large windows. It menu was also cited for “a hearty repertoire” that “meanders from Old World Europe to New America and Asia.”

For Benitez it was a citation far from any dream she had when the revived Casa Vallejo and its partner restaurant opened. The resto itself occupies 300 square meters that include the main dining hall and two function rooms named after Salvador Vallejo and Justina Vallejo Garcia, the grandfather and mother of columnist-heritage advocate Maribel Garcia Ongpin, respectively, and a garden for outdoor events like weddings where 80 people can fit comfortably under parachute tents.

Benitez, who had served the family-owned Mario’s Restaurant since she was 22, was offered the space for the restaurant. She recalled that “aha moment”: “The minute I walked in, I said to myself, ‘This is it! It’s meant for me.’”

For the interiors of the hotel and restaurant, Gerard R. Mendoza, who has done Manila Sofitel and other projects in Boracay, Australia and England, was tapped. The only big change in the dining room was the addition of a grand staircase, which Benitez privately and jokingly calls “The Titanic,” to connect it to the hotel upstairs.

Before Mendoza started work on the interiors, Benitez gave him a tour of her house where she wanted the wooden floor-to-ceiling French windows with little squares replicated.


He removed the dining hall space’s low ceilings of and exposed the original beams, never touching the original wood, except having them painted brown. He retained the posts, some windows, the fireplace with a full-length mirror by its side, the slanting art deco supports by the doors. No cement was used for the restoration work for which began in earnest in July 2009 as the city was celebrating its centennial.

Casa Vallejo and Hill Station opened in March 2010, and when Ongpin saw what had been done, Benitez recalled, “she loved it—the look, the menu—and was very proud.” Her children and grandchildren make frequent return visits when in town.

Photographer-cinematographer Boy Yñiguez, Benitez’s spouse, told Mendoza, “The walls are mine.”

Forthwith, he set up on the bar’s walls his personal collection of black and white photos from the ’70s and ’80s by his friends, mainly photographers with Baguio roots or ties like Tommy Hafalla, Butch Perez, Mannix Santos, Wyg Tysmans. Somewhere on those walls is an Ansel Adams print. Benitez likes to make guests play a guessing game of identifying it. The fairly new Vallejo-Garcia function room also has on its walls photos and paintings from the Benitez-Yñiguez collection.

Benitez’s personal touches can be found in the leather place mats that she asked Rhona Carrantes to design and execute. The floral design is repeated on the menu. The dining and serving plates are all from the kiln of Lanelle Abueva Fernando, Benitez’s chum from their university years. For the Sunday buffets, the staff brings out the pots hand-thrown by Sagada women Tessie Baldo and Siegrid Bangyay.

In keeping with the building’s natural ambience, Benitez also has a pot shaped out of petrified wood by Greg Sabado, always with fresh flowers in season (a bunch of Alstroemeria, a kind of lily, at the time of Cocoon’s visit).

Landscape artist Marita Manzanillo has tamed the once unruly garden at the back of the building. Like Benitez, she doesn’t believe in an instant garden so the old pine trees co-exist with 28 younger ones and new plants and trees like the jacaranda. Capiz lamps are lit for Christmas and special occasions. A trellis was set up so the sanggumay can slowly creep on it and cover an old water tank. There are abundant large gabi leaves in one spot and an herb garden planted to rosemary, oregano, pandan, among others, for use in the restaurant’s kitchen.

With all the acclaim Hill Station is receiving, Benitez has remained committed to “pleasing the locals from Day One. The white guys, those on work detail in the city and are frequent customers, too, come and go.” - Elizabeth Lolarga

Weather condition and an unplanned purchase

Saturday
May 24, 2013

Weather condition: "Back to Baguio weather." The person in charge of the Cinematheque made this comment after he stepped out of the cinema's darkness to take a breather.

The hem of my gray sweat pants is damp from rain, and so are my socks. The rain was sudden, strong. The downpour caught me along upper Session Road on my way to Hill Station. The entrance or patio portion, though covered, started to experience a small flash flood as water flowed down the steps so I moved to the bar where I ordered a cappuccino with Splenda. The slice of dark decadent chocolate cake I asked the server to return to the chiller until my coffee-drinking companion arrived.

Coffee and Baguio--they go together like tea and sympathy (honk! honk! for being corny there) or mangga at suman at the height of an Antipolo summer.

My old journal has a few more blank pages--the entire time I was here, I couldn't bring myself to open it, except for the times when Kai wanted to doodle lines and circles.

Simply irresistible

Page marker, with a reminder to also write the day of the week and the weather conditions

I fell in love at first sight with this new journal when I swung by Mt Cloud. I just intended to browse, but I couldn't help myself. The cover illustration was truly death by cuteness!

Twice L tried to drive out of her place to get here, twice the rain held her back. But I know of people who'd rather be up here in this weather than when it's dry and sunny.

Only the bar and its smoking area are open--the Hill's main dining room is being prepared for a product launch so tables are scarce, including my favorite one. But the light at the bar is good, and the bartender Albert is familiar with my face.

Nice amber light cast in bar area

That table with the only couch I already reserved once it empties. The couch is what a couch ought to be--cushy, comfy, gray from its thin black and white stripes and tiny white dots. There I can slouch and write at the same time. What to do with my old notebook? Maybe my lesson plans for the first weeks of classes will go in them.

Proprietary about this couch

Finally, I realized that I have this "timeout" hour to myself outside the house. I'm not counting the whole days when I chose to remain home alone.

This.... (unfinished thought)

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Jacqui M at the Hill

Jacqui Magno (and, I hear, a full jazz band) will have a  show at Baguio's Hill Station on Upper Session Road on March 9. Tickets are P950 with dinner and a glass of wine and P450 for the show only. The occasion is Hill Station's third anniversary.

Jacqui at the Hill