Masked

There's a story behind this all-cotton face mask sewn for me by Aya Justiniani of Aya's Store. I needed such masks for my then repeated trips to the Medical City for the rehab of my new knee until the physical therapy sessions were suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Still, I thought the family should invest in masks should we need to go out, eventually. The items available in the drugstores or supermarkets were the disposable, not eco-friendly, kind.

Under what Dr. Melendre Araos now calls "the new normal," masks will be part of our outfits, whether we like it or not. And for immuno-compromised individuals like myself who has to live with hypertension and diabetes, there's no arguing anymore about what's comfy and what's not.

Amy Tan, in her FB author's page, showed how stylish masks can be made to look even for someone in her late 60s.

And then I saw Aya's wares in Facebook. She was making and selling them for Pph25 each for the adult size, Php15 for the kid's. My sisters and I decided to commission her to sew 52 masks, some for shipping to Iloilo.

We received our orders yesterday, thanks to a quick online banking transfer and Lalamove PH Delivery. Aya carefully and lovingly folded her paninda in individualized plastic resealable packs. The packs can be recycled later to contain maybe one's fancy earrings or necklaces to protect them from dust.

When I showed my mask, one of six varieties in my collection, Martin Masadao had the capital idea of also bringing his retazos to some old gentlemen tailors in San Andres, Manila, to give them business during a difficult period. When Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño saw mine, she said friends in Baguio have also taken up sewing these things. Let's keep the sewing going.

I'm not saying a mask will completely shield you from the notorious virus. But with life's full promise still awaiting us after the lockdown, it's best not to take risks so we can sing, like Shirley Horn or Gou de Jesus, when we emerge from the quarantine: "So here's to life / And every joy it brings / So here's to life / To dreamers and their dreams."

Willful gladness

"In the darkest times, we are the most starved for delight – for the self-permission for delight." ~ Maria Popova

The title phrase is also Popova's. This is a tale of willful gladness in a woman's and a child's search for meaning during uncertain times.

My grandchild Kai and I Facetimed last night before she called it a day. She's based in Baguio, I'm trapped by the lockdown in Pasig. Worse,my eight-year old talk and text cell phone picked the wrong time to die on me. Can't go out to a shop or mall to look for a replacement. COVID-19 took care of all our best laid-out plans.

But thanks to Facebook Messenger, Kai remains in constant touch, complaining, like me, about nearly going out of her head looking for ways to fill up her time. She feels bereft of a gin rummy partner (me). We play a game of two or three nightly, our routine at home up there. I taught her the rudiments of the game, and she has been defeating me consistently. Not that I don't try hard enough in the only card game I know.

My daughter Kimi Fernandez recently got Kai out of her holiday languor by encouraging her to make Spam sushi rolls. Kai has odd tastebuds--between the sweetness of ice cream and the sourness of yogurt, she'll pick the latter in a heartbeat. Here she is a picture of concentration.

Then visiting friend Precious Leano was impressed when we once went to Hill Station on Upper Session Road, Baguio, and Kai straight away ordered the artichoke dip with Melba toast.

My sister Pinky Lolarga Susi once brought Kai and her cousins Machiko Skye and Jared Franco to an Asian grocery. While the other two kids bought popsicles and candies, my grandkid chose a packet of salty nori wrappers. I think this may be the same packet from which Kai is making the sushi.

As a baby, she also had a pronounced taste for certain types of viand. Martin Masadao noted, while observing her on her high chair feeding herself, that she knew the most delish part of daing na bangus--the belly!

She loves "stinky" cheese, and when the Christmas queso de bola is sufficiently aged come the New Year, she requests slivers of it cut and popped into the microwave oven for what she calls "cheese puffs." They're as salty as any Jack and Jill product.

Cheese is a standby in the house along with eggs. Should Kai not find the food served come mealtime to her liking, the go-to dish is a cheese omelette enriched with milk.

I don't know how her food likes and dislikes are doing these past days. Hoping that my husband, her grandfather Rolly Fernandez, and Kimi are inculcating the lesson of being grateful for every meal served. And I hope they all gather around the table for a shared repast.

Our not so little Kai is turning nine years old in two weeks. Apart from making pancakes and omelettes, she has now added Spam sushi rice or Supamu sushi meshi to her repertoire of recipes.

So you see, Kai, if you can feed yourself and feel good about it, you can also extend your hand to feed others. Happy birthday soon!

Now that he's 64

My husband of 30 years is shown in his garden beside an anthropomorphic planter that represents his wife who is 59 to his 64. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

Masarap i-good time si Rolly--that's what I can say after being his girlfriend of five years, his wife for another 30 with gaps in between since ours is a continuing long-distance liaison amoureuse. By "good time" I mean pulling a surprise or a prank. But last year I told him after another suprise birthday party when he turned 63 that I'd stop, mainly out of concern that his heart might not be able to withstand another one of my exercises in what he terms "mischief". Every time he sees that picture of mine as an eight-year-old kid, he always points at the black and white portrait subject's eyes and says, "Maliit pa lang, kita mo nang mischievous."

I will take mischievous any day, not malicious or worse, evil.

So on this day as his phone pings and toots to announce an SMS from another greeter, I sing another old song whose lyrics I've adjusted (mangled?) with hopefully witty asides to suit Rolly's/Tatay's/Tats'/Sir Rolly's/Kuya Fern's age as of 12 midnight Sept. 6, 2014. Thank you, Beatles, for providing a soundtrack for every milestone in many people's lives.

When you get older losing your hair, (the Good Shepherd Convent's gugo shampoo has guaranteed haba ng hair mo!)
Many years from now, (not yet bokalites, I hope, by age 70)
Will I still be sending you a valentine (of course naman po)
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine? (isn't this the whole blog's point?)

If I'd been out till quarter to three (which I can no longer do, I'm asleep by 10 or 11 p.m.)
Would you lock the door, (oh no, you won't, because our daughter Kimi has the extra key, and I can always wake her up with a call)
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When (it's my turn to be) sixty-four?

Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo
I'll be older too,
And if you say the word,
I could stay with you. (pa hard to get muna, delaying tactics, including part-time teaching and projects here and there that require a presence in the lowlands)

You could be handy mending a fuse (with help from the village electrician)
When your lights have gone.
I can knit a sweater by the fireside (no, I'll just order from Martina Knittera a.k.a. Martin Masadao)
Sunday mornings go for a ride (except that you're so tamad to get out of the house when it's a Sunday and it's your day off)

Doing the garden, digging the weeds, (you're so good at that)
Who could ask for more? (no more, but may I request daisies instead of anthuriums?)
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When (it's my turn to be) sixty-four?

Every summer we can rent a cottage (no, the tightwad in you will protest)
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear (Panglao, Bohol, is just about right soon, mah deah))
We shall scrimp and save (you do this, I'm terrible with any form of budgeting)
Grandchildren (Kai/Butones) on your knee
Vera, Chuck, and Dave (Kai, Kai and only Kai)

Send you a postcard, drop you a line, (I still patronize the postal office and SMS you daily)
Stating point of view. (I always lawyer for myself, nobody else will do this for me)
Indicate precisely what I mean to say (very concrete and specific, we both trained to be journalists)
Yours sincerely, Wasting Away. (not exactly wasting away, just getting rosier and a little less chubby)

Give me your answer, fill in a form (FORM?!!!xxxx I'm a content person!)
Mine for evermore (we don't need pieces of paper, do we?)
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When (it's my turn to be) sixty-four?

Whoo! (Dial 1-4-3-4-4!)

Images of young and old love (they're the same, by the way) from Babeth's Pinterest board

Martin Masadao knits, among his many talents

One of the first knitted accessories that Martin made. I was its proud owner after I received it from Rolly Fernandez's Express Service.

I write this as Typhoon Glenda is swirling above the sea/ocean and readying to hit land. So before the power goes down, I'd just like to give Brookside Baby's space to independent scriptwriter-director Martin Masadao who is adding another hyphen to his description soon, and that is indie film producer. He wrote and directed Anac Ti Pating which won for best film and best actor awards in the 2012 Sineng Pambansa festival.

He recently sent an email to select friends about his innovative way of raising funds for his next film project. The big-hearted Martin is also setting aside an amount for the super-typhoon Yolanda rehabilitation cause.

Like I always say in past blogs, artists are great philanthropists. They will respond with a generosity that no Henry Sy or John Gokongwei or coño millionaire or society matrons with Botoxed faces can ever match. And artists do so without strings (or in this case, yarn) attached. The good artists can be counted upon to sacrifice their total beings for a heavenly cause.

He knitted me a cobalt, or is it electric, blue accessory that I wore around my throat on two consecutive occasions: the opening of Gilda Cordero Fernando's painting exhibit at Silverlens Galleries last week and the Mostly Mozart 2014 Festival at the Philippine Stock Exchange auditorium (renamed Lanuza Hall) just this past Friday. Enough people saw it--the kind of crowd Martin wanted to catch.


With Jacqui Magno, who sang "Hindi Kita Malimot" and "Bridges" at GCF's opening program, manager Anna Ylagan and writer and editors' editor Lorna Kalaw Tirol

Karla Delgado (right), my former editor and a Baguio resident in her childhood, points to a Martina Knittera creation. Photo by Rolly Fernandez

One of my fave shots from that Silverlens evening. This one's with artist Robert Alejandro, all covered in black, his "daring" costume. Photo by Wendy Regalado


Arthur Espiritu holds up his hand-me-down "throat protector" given by the self-proclaimed presidentita of the Arthur Espiritu Fan Club of the Philippines, Northern Luzon chapter. Note his wedding band. Photo by Rolly Fernandez

I told Martin that I couldn't resist bequeathing the piece to Arthur Espiritu who leaves the country again for a six-month engagement in European opera houses (he's on contract there). He has always protected his throat from the cold, whether the cold of faulty air-conditioning or the bitter cold of winter. His soaring tenor is his means of livelihood, after all.

Once he got hold of the neck piece, he called his wife Christine from below the stage to safe-keep it. Arthur also emailed, thankful for the accessory.

He wrote:

Thanks so much again for that memento. I hope that Martin reaches his goals in raising funds. Please extend my warmest thanks and regards.

All the best,
Arthur

I promptly forwarded the note to Martin. See? That's what I like about our cultural ambassadors of goodwill. May breeding sila. The great ones never ever exhibit a sense of entitlement.

Mabuhay ka, Martin! Long may Martina Knittera live!

For orders of knitwear or knitted accessories, please look for Mr. Masadao in Google+, the more subdued social media platform (no offense to Facebookers).

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Friends!

Greetings! Hope all is well with all of you! :-)

I am going to write a script come September, full-length feature film, which means I will be holed up in Baguio City come July.

While writing, I am planning to use the time as well to knit. I figured I will have all the 'free' time and knitting will help me while thinking in front of the pc.

Here's the deal, if you guys have any old sweaters/knit wear (crocheted items will also do) that somehow you can't seem to get let go of or perhaps are attached to but no longer use because probably they're out of style? Send them to me and I will make tastas the yarn and fashion something 'new' out of it! :-)

Perhaps a cowl, shawl, vest, muffler, scarf, purse, bag, whatever!? Design will depend on color and type of yarn. I will personally hand knit the item. I'm thinking of charging 750 pesos, 500 to cover my labor and 250 to be donated to 'Threads For Life'*.

Rest assured that whatever I make for you will not be replicated for others. Sana you can take a 'before' pic of the item you will give me then we take another 'after' pic of whatever I will knit. I will maximize yarn of your pre-loved sweaters, ergo, you will not get only one item. (I can knit coasters, placemats, iphone case, etc. from leftover yarn).

Payment will be asked on delivery of knitted product. Let me know if you guys are game! Tulong nyo na yan sa akin. (500 will most probably go to cigarettes and beer! While writing manuscript! Haha!)

For those in Baguio, you may drop off your sweaters at Rm. 209 Laperal Bldg. Session Rd. Mon - Fri from 9am to 5pm and Sat fr 9am to 11am. For those in Manila, let me know via text or email when and where to pick up your sweaters.

Thanks very much. If you'd be satisfied with end product I would appreciate endorsement to your friends via word-of-mouth.

I think they would make personalized Xmas gifts, dont you think so?! :-)

Best Regards,

Martina Knittera!

P.S.

Threads For Life is a fund-raising initiative of our dear friend Marta for Yolanda effort. TFL sells pre-loved clothes, shoes, bags etc and all proceeds go to Yolanda. The 250 from the knitting project I will donate to Yolanda as well. :-)

Ode to a cupcake

And not just any cupcake--it has to be red velvet. I'm a very late convert to it. My daughters have been into red velvets, oh, since five years ago, maybe more. I guess I was put off by the color and the cloying richness. It made me think of a vamp actress. Can't explain the association.

That was until Martin Masadao introduced me to his friend Odette Mills, fellow Baguio resident who also played a cameo role (but with spoken lines) in Martin's short film "Kitoman (Red Rice)." You see, the word "red" makes an appearance again. Odette brought a sample of her red velvet cheesecake in a neat box that seemed to have been folded by an origami master. I was hooked.

The taste was never replicated, and I refused to touch any other red velvet cookie, cake or cupcake. Not until I could save up for a dozen of Odette's babies. I raved about it to my husband and my granddaughter; the latter was the most excited. Rolly thought it was a frivolous expense because for a lesser price, we could get a box of assorted JCo Donuts (we both like the Alcapone).

The little vamps come in this dainty box with Odette's contact details. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Odette delivered the goods at Rolly's office two afternoons ago. It was an interminable wait for Kai and myself as we counted the hours until Rolly arrived in time for dinner. Well, the rest is, as they say, history and satisfied cravings.

P.S. If I use Cupcakes by Sonja as my standard, Odette's CakeBaby products are up to par.

We had one with the cream cheese butter frosting. Odette's red velvet cupcakes come also with lemon buttercream frosting. She deliberately makes the cake part not too sweet so the consumer doesn't get umay (hard to translate that Filipino term). Or the consumer doesn't easily tire of it.

One rugrat in the background about to demolish a cupcake.

In today's Google

What a coincidence to see Audrey Hepburn as image/icon-of-the-day for the Google search machine. A coincidence because just yesterday afternoon, I viewed Jerry Maguire for the third time, I think, and there was this scene where Renee Zellweger's character asks Tom Cruise's Jerry on their first date if her little black dress is "too Audrey Hepburn."

The day before I caught another film, You, Me and Dupree, where Owen Wilson's character, an overstaying house guest in newly weds Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon's lives, is watching Roman Holiday, also for the nth time. He admired Ms. Hepburn for representing "style, grace, ethereal beauty."

Weeks earlier, at a Baguio Writers Group meeting, Padma Perez (or was it Desiree Caluza?) arrived wearing big sunglasses. Martin Masadao tried them on, tilted his head upward and asked if he was more Sophia Loren or Audrey.

Was it coincidence that Ms. Hepburn's name cropped up with some regularity? Maybe not. Maybe it was a lead to her 85th year, if she were still with us.

Happy birthday, AH, angel of ours.

Masadao's 'Red Rice' and my screen debut

By opening oneself to newness, there are such things as a screen debut in one's dotage when a double chin is prominent, when stains on the cheeks are not freckles but just that--stains from exposing oneself unprotected to the sun.

Baguio's Martin Masadao's short film (seven minutes exactly) "Red Rice" made it to the semi-finals at the Tropfest Southeast Asia early this year. To me it is still a winner in both form and content. But as the Abbess in The Sound of Music said, when God closes a door, He opens another window.

Since February, Martin has updated me by SMS on the road show that "Red Rice" has become as it took part in the exhibition portion of Cinema Rehiyon in Cagayan de Oro. He described his high with the good reception at its first screening at an SM Cinema there and how a Tropfest finalist said, "Dapat nakapasok tayo sa Tropfest. Maganda daw yung entry natin, better pa nga raw than the other finalists."

What followed were invitations to screen "Red Rice" in Bacolod City and at a short film festival at De La Salle University-College of St. Benilde early this month with a request from students to meet the cast, particularly stage-screen pro Banaue Miclat, who played the mother, and her "son" Deuel Raynon Ladia (the same kid who won best actor honors in the 2012 Sineng Pambansa for his starring role in Masadao's Anac Ti Pating). In all of Martin's films (may his filmography grow longer), our city of affection plays a major role; it is more than a setting. May its writers and directors continue to mine these materials. It's the kind of material that goes to its very heart--the diverse people.

My role was a non-speaking part--I played Banaue's mom who must be pillar of strength and comfort as the mother deals with...no, I won't give the plot away. Let's wait until "Red Rice" makes it up to Baguio for a public screening.

Banaue, whose lines were in Iluko, wrote of her role in a note to Direk Martin: "Your story is so beautiful kasi, kaya madaling buhayin at buuin three-dimensionally."

Ladia as a hard-working son in his last scene with his screen lola and mother

When the short film was done (it was filmed in one whole day, plus a few night hours), Martin "premiered" it among friends, including British expats and their spouses, to get feedback from a "foreign" perspective. He wrote, "They were all one in saying that we have a good film. Ang galing-galing ng scene ninyo! Kudos were given to both of you, the lola and mom! Naiyak, in fairness, ang mga puti. Pati ako, nung napanood ko uli sa big screen after how many weeks of not viewing the film, naiyak din ako!"

As Banaue built up her emotions for the final scene, I felt her arm and upper body tremble and I had to contain my own swell of empathy by biting my lower lip. Mabuhay, "Red Rice" team!

What makes a good movie script | Vera Files

What makes a good movie script | Vera Files

Direk Martin Masadao and the Baguio he loves

How often does a movie come along that reflects the heart of Baguio that is invisible to the naked eye? Rarely, if not at all.

Scriptwriter-director Martin Masadao (seated right) with cast and crew

 And then comes Martin Masadao’s Anac ti Pating (an Iluko phrase roughly translated as “child of a shark”), written and directed by him and winner of the Grand Festival Prize at the Second Sineng Pambansa of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). Anac’s main lead, Deuel Raynon Ladia, barely in his teens, is best actor prize winner.

Masadao says, “We hope to tour the film around the country, especially in schools. We’ve been invited to Sineng Rehiyon in Los Baños in February. I believe FDCP will show the Sineng Pambansa 2012 finalists in various cities this year.”

Those used to the pacing and editing of Hollywood movies can put this preference outside a movie house’s door. The style Masadao adopted in his debut film has the contemplative, and therefore, slow pace of a European film. It reflects his sensibility shaped by directors like Francois Truffaut and Woody Allen, who is funny but cerebral.

The pacing suits Baguio’s rhythm of life. Although it is a city, old-timers like Masadao, his cast and crew know how the ticking of the clock up there is like a long drawn-out sigh. Timepieces move slowly.

The time frame of Anac covers one academic year. It captures the non-stop patter of rain during the monsoon months when many residents, especially adults, can get afflicted by Seasonal Affective Disorder (with it apt acronym of SAD), a Christmas eve with a fireplace a-glow, the games unique to Baguio kids (sliding on a pine needle-covered slope using a flattened cardboard as makeshift sled), the preparations and rehearsals for Panagbenga Festival’s street dancing.

Sixto writes the letter that holds the film together.

Mother (played by Luchie Maranan) and son in noche buena scene

The opening scene catches the main character, Sixto Mangaoang (Ladia), only in his elementary grades but mature and intelligent beyond his years, in deep thought. He is scribbling a note. What follows afterwards is an entire flashback that returns to that original scene (the present) and to Sixto’s not-so-rash but well-thought-out decision to seek a life elsewhere away from Baguio, once referred to by Masadao in his play Baguio Stories as similar to “Peyton Place.”

The maturity and sure-footedness of Sixto for his life ahead is manifested by his sleeping in his school uniform so he can be ready to get up early for his classes. He just needs to down his breakfast and thoroughly brush his teeth and cleanse his tongue, and he’s off.

Although one notes a reluctant trudge in his walk to school, it isn’t because he dislikes school work. Like any ultra-smart kid, he puts up with bullying and is able to extract his sweet vengeance on the culprits in many ways like when he earns extra money by doing their homework.

Sixto and his Korean friend research in a library.

But it is his ties with a Korean boy named Clark (Steve Chong) that fills the void in his life. He must put up with warring parents, a drunken wastrel of a father (Nick Prill Calinao) and a hard-working mother, a richly nuanced performance by Luchie Maranan (herself a writer and compared jokingly by her older brother Ed as the new Lolita Rodriguez in terms of dramatic flair), whose real love is elsewhere, a schoolboy crush on a physical education teacher that is quickly crushed and other failed expectations.

Sixto and Clark embark on a cross-cultural friendship that has them addressing one another with swear words in their respective languages: okinam (your mother’s vagina in Iluko) and shibal lom (asshole in Korean). With Clark’s help, his playmate develops an environmentally themed story about a shark stranded in the Cordillera forest, a story accepted by a Manila publishing house.

Classroom scene at the Mabini Elementary School in Baguio City

The English composition teacher, played by journalist-playwright Nonnette Bennett, is able to bring out the budding writer in Sixto. One is reminded of a brief scene in the 1973 movie The Way We Were wherein Robert Redford plays a novice writer, and the professor reads aloud his work to the class. That same mix of pride and embarrassment is reflected on Sixto’s face as his teacher praises him and his classmates tease him, mainly out of envy.

Trained in past films as art director and production designer, Masadao and his unerring eye for detail intrudes lovingly in almost all scenes, some of them especially symbolic like the cracks on a green and white Baguio home, the rubble that is part of an overpopulated city, his assigning bit roles to Caucasian-looking Kawayan de Guia and newsman Frank Cimatu who play themselves and tapping the community talents in theater like Karlo Altomonte who can steal a scene with just one or two lines.

The next Masadao project, whether film or theater, will be eagerly anticipated.--Text by Elizabeth Lolarga and photos by Spyke Pat-ogan

First published by Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines, Jan. 15, 2013.

Anac ti Pating will again be screened at the Baguio Cinematheque in Casa Vallejo, Upper Session Road, Baguio City, on Feb. 1 and 2. Screenings: 1.30, 3.30 and 5.30 p.m. 

Sweet 60 birthday tribute to Jingjing with the smiling face

It was through the assignments given by Chato Garcellano, then travel editor of Philippine Daily Inquirer, that I got a chance to reconnect with Jingjing Romero. During the time Chato was travel ed, she'd send me off to media familiarization tours of Boracay, Palawan, Laguna, Batangas, with Jingjing as organizer and contact person.

Jingjing always impressed me with her warm, as against cold, professionalism. These tours were so efficiently organized. Not a minute was wasted. Not only did one get the main story with enough spillover materials for sidebars and private diary entries, one also got enough space and time to catch one's breath. Brava, Jingjing and her Stratos staff!

Jingjing Romero and a posse of media in Laguna: she is somewhere on the second row wearing a red blouse and a wide-brimmed hat.

What's more and what's better, Jingjing has a big heart, bigger than her fair, moon-shaped face that hasn't been visited by a frown or the lines and spots of age since the time I met her.

She showed this facet of herself many times in my life when some writers and I in Baguio City were reviving the Baguio Writers Group. One of our projects was a fund-raising jazz concert for a cause (e.g., the treatment and recovery of Napoleon Javier, a founding member of the Group who suffered and survived a major stroke, the holding of writing workshops for the city's young writers and also for retirees who'd like to leave a legacy, etc.).

Through her private donation along with those of other donors, the Baguio Writers Group, now under Luchie Maranan, has continued its mission of sharing writing expertise and opportunities with others.

When she's in the city up north, she calls and asks me to join her group for lunch or supper, even if I feel awkward because I'm not really a part of Baguio media in the sense of being a permanent resident there. When we part, she never fails to hand over a small gift, a bar of chocolate, an umbrella at one time (very useful during the monsoon months). This thoughtfulness I appreciate--it sets her leagues above other public relations practitioners (it's a profession, I agree, and a good one), but those others can appear user-friendly, sometimes.

For as long as you're connected to a major, even a minor, media outlet, they flit by you as though you're close and intimate and even loosely sign their notes, "With love." Jingjing is above insincerities like that. After all, mahigpit na ipinagbabawal ang plastic ngayon!

When music aficionado Pablo Tariman and I, as his assistant, embarked on the classical music education series billed as Intimate Concerts at Kiss the Cook Gourmet Restaurant, Jingjing was there with her gang called "Six and the City." Their presence at the initial concert of pianist Oliver Salonga helped to raise funds for the halfway house maintained for Aeta schoolchildren in Barangay Bayan-bayanan, Dinalupihan, Bataan, a project of former Audit Commissioner Evelyn San Buenaventura.

We saw Jingjing again, her son and another group at another intimate concert fund-raiser at the same venue, this time for the legal fees and other needs of Pablo's son-in-law, political prisoner Ericson Acosta, who was thrown in a Samar jail with trumped-up charges.

Another occasion, a recent one, when Jingjing responded to an SOS was when I referred film director Martin Masadao, also of Baguio City, to her. He and I asked her if she could request Seair to provide two seats for an under-aged member of the cast of Anac Ti Pating and a guardian, his lola, for a flight to and from Davao City.

This was in November of 2012 when the Sineng Pambansa awarding ceremonies were held in the southern city. Jingjing moved quickly to grant the request, and the boy, Raynon Ladia, went on to win the Best Actor trophy  and the film, the Grand Jury Prize.

When a gift is freely given, the returns are plentiful.

I predict that Jingjing's 60th year in this world and the additional grace years that will follow will be a time of great harvest not only in terms of material wealth (Who wants that alone? Not the Jingjing I know, I'm certain of that). Only someone like her whose faith in God is unwavering and who infects others with this faith deserves a period of grace such as this one tonight.

Thank you, Jingjing, for being a blessing to others.

--Babeth Lolarga

This piece serves as the blogger's testimonial to Ms. Elena "Jingjing" Romero of Stratos Inc. who is celebrating her 60th birthday tonight somewhere in Filinvest 2, Quezon City.

Victory party for Martin plus more on 1st Sunday of Advent

He and his Baguio friends had every reason to celebrate. Martin Masadao, scriptwriter and director of Anac Ti Pating, adjudged best film at the recent Sineng Pambansa Festival in Davao City. gave us the blow-by-blow account of the awards night wherein one of his actors, Deuel Raynon Ladia, also won the best actor trophy. 

When Martin's name was called, he was so flustered and nervous that when he went onstage, he was shaking all over. He had to hold on to his Grand Festival Award trophy lest it fall. This would have been his thank-you speech:

"The entire cast, staff and crew behind "Anac Ti Pating" -- Ferdie Balanag, Hendrix Sanchez, Shant Verdun, Randy Cruz, Spyke, Paul, John, Willy, Laydeh, Bishi, Raynon Ladia, Luchie Maranan, Nick Prill Calinao, Steve Chong, Dr. Charles Macalalag, Joaquin Fianza, Nonnette Bennett, Laurence Yee, Endong Nevada, Sam Borcena, the students of Mabini Elementary School, Paul Ignacio, Kokoy Palma, Athena Masilungan, Gabriel Palma, Karlo and RL Altomonte, Art Tibaldo, Dave Leprozo, Ani Bongaoen, Stella Lagasca and the other bit players... (kung may nakalimutan ako, pasensya na lang, alzheimer's lang, walang personalan)

"Thank you to Norman Adefuin for the poster lay-out and design. And to Richard Balonglong for the photo we used in the poster.

"During the course of writing the script last year up to the pre-production days from January to August -- the following  people housed me, fed me, occasionally got me drunk -- Susan Tagle, Reji Regalado, Dra. Yvonne Soriano, Atty. Lyssa Pagano-Calde, Bien Benitez, Jay Adlao-Block -- Thank You!!! But most especially for the support you've given me through the years!

"(Special mention to Endong Nevada and Ellen Lao who in December last year lent me financial support so I could submit the manuscript in time. Maraming salamat, kahit na late ako nakapag-bayad nung utang. Hehehe.)

"To the Baguio Writers Group -- Merci Dulawan (who helped me out with some of the Ilocano dialogue), Baboo Mondonedo, Grace Subido, Desiree Caluza, Jenny Carino and Padma Perez -- Maraming Salamat sa encouragement!

"To the Film Development Council of the Philippines -- Chairman Briccio Santos, Exec. Director Ted Granados, Nonoy, Ma'am Wilma, Ma'am Cely, Monchito, Ina, etc. -- thank you for your understanding and having faith in the material/script from the very beginning.

"To Babeth Lolarga who helped me secure round trip tickets for Raynon Ladia and his Grandmother, Alejandra de Jesus -- through Babeth, we were able to get sponsorship from Seair -- thanks to Ms. JingJing Romero of Stratos! And to Michelle Uson-Laurel for the generous pabaon she sent for Raynon and Grandma for their trip to Davao. To our beautiful and gracious host in Davao, Mymy Andong, daghang salamat!

"To my Sagittarian mothers -- Mitos Yniguez, Laida Lim and (my real Sagittarian Mom) Gertrudes 'Didi' Masadao -- for the love, support, great food all these years and hopefully more to come!

"To Wilfredo Pascual, Nonnette Bennett and Frank Cimatu -- I may not be a member of your secret coven, but thank you for all the positive energies and vibes you've sent my way through the years! Baka pwede akong maging honorary warlock/witch?! Cheers!!!

"To my family -- Budi, Joy, Geej, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles and cousins -- thank you for all the fond memories of growing up in Baguio.

"To my dearest sister, Felina -- the keeper of the flame...

"I send my love to all of you!"

Meanwhile, Kuya Fern and I hosted a victory party-cum-potluck Christmas party at our Green Valley digs. 

Early birds Robert Abano and his children Mira and Igi brought Everything Nice cassava cake. The beer flowed, courtesy of Baboo and Kuya Fern. She also brought mechado with yum dee yum yum mushroom gravy. 

There was spaghetti from the Maranan siblings Ed and Luchie, vegetarian pica pica from Desiree Caluza, lengua from Merci Javier Dulawan that made us all chatty till dinner time and beyond. Jenny Carino brought a bottle of red wine, and she had every reason to celebrate--she was grand-slam winner in the bunutan and at the raffle of artworks from the Lolarga-Fernandez collection. She brought home a watercolor by Baboo and a Roland Bay-an oil on canvas work with three Igorot women as subjects. Latecomer-from-work Nonnette Bennett, also in the cast of Anac Ti Pating, brought kimchi. 

I opened my big bottle of Jack Daniels, the only pasalubong I requested from my kuya who went on a media fam tour of Dubai, for sharing with fellow scotch drinker Baboo. The Pacis couple, Oscar and Toottee, led a thanksgiving prayer for Martin's award and for Luchie's Palanca  prize for her children's short story and wished us well in our writerl-y, even painter-ly, endeavors, reminding us never to forget to plug in to The Source, The One when we begin anything creative. Shy mango EV Espiritu, who's also a mask-maker, theater director and choreographer when he isn't a photo correspondent of a national broadsheet, shared some photos of that enchanting evening.

There was also a dance-time-at-GV contest to the music of Sergio Mendes when he still had his original Brasil '66. Toottee and Oscar, who have a son who is a ballet dancer with a Hong Kong company, served as judges and ruled that Baboo and Ed deserved to be crowned dancing queen and king because they showed grace and intuitive timing. 

The compromising video of the contestants dancing for the prizes (a Tawi-tawi banig and a 1/1 print of Brent School's Ogilvy Hall by Pandy Aviado) has been stored away for private viewing. The videographer promised within an inch of his life that he wouldn't upload it on YouTube. Here we are at a party to remember.

Merry-makers all (from left): Baboo, Oscar and Toottee who brought home a Roberto Acosta terracotta sculpture, Babeth holding up the scarf Martin gave her (he emphasized that it didn't come from ukay-ukay but from Germany), Martin, Jenny, Luchie, Merci and Desiree. Kneeling on one knee is Rolly with his signature prop.

Next time someone please bring a tripod so everyone can be in the picture. This time another manong, EdMar, joins Rolly on the floor.

It was the kind of wild-tame party that'll long live in our memories as another year comes in and adds another year to our respective ages. This time, shy mango EV joins Rolly on the floor.

Photos courtesy of EV Espiritu

Congratulations, Martin Masadao!

Martin Masadao is the scriptwriter-director of this made-in-Baguio film, Anac ti Pating, which won for him, his cast and crew the Best Film Trophy at the Sineng Pambansa that culminated in last night's awards in Davao City. Sineng Pambansa is a showcase of the best of regional film-making.

I don't have the details, except for Martin's joyful SMS. His lead child actor in the movie, Raynon Deuel Laida, won the award for Best Actor. I received this bit of happy news at a late supper with two other young film-makers, Sari Dalena and Keith Sicat, and their young children, and sculptor Julie Lluch after the opening of Roberto Chabet's latest show, "Towards one thousand and one isthmuses", at the mo_space gallery at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. And this Quezon City-based family shared my joy even if Martin is still unknown to them.

I couldn't concentrate on the food on my plate because I just had to let friend Jingjing Romero of Stratos Inc. hear about this. Through Jingjing's help, she was able to get Seair to sponsor Laida's and his guardian's air tickets to and from Davao City to be part of the film fest there. That boy's plane ride, probably his first,  to Davao was truly meant to be. At the end of that journey,when he returns to Baguio, he will  have done himself, his family, school, the entire city of Baguio proud, most especially its community of artists and writers. They say angels are around us. I know one with a euphonious name: Jingjing.

Congratulations, Martin, your victory is well-deserved after an uphill battle. And thank you, Jingjing, for your untiring support for the Baguio Writers Group (Luchie Maranan, its president, is also in the cast) and this crop of young film-makers putting substance and decency in a sordid industry.

Watch for announcements in the papers or in the incredibly fast social media for screening dates, time and venue of Anac ti Pating.

The Travelling Notebook

Around the time Noynoy Aquino was sworn in as the new Philippine President, a couple of Baguio friends talked about organizing another visual arts and poetry project timed to celebrate our city's 101st charter day. We decided on an open-media exhibit at the Cafe by the Ruins (now that the cafe is under renovation, we hope the exhibit "Explorations" remains when it reopens for the selfish reason that I haven't seen it yet).

Martin Masadao thought of a travelling notebook of handwritten poetry passed from one Baguio poet to another. The plan was to have a slide show of some sort, with projector and all on opening eve so that the poets' calligraphy would be visible to guests instead of passing the notebook from one person to the next. According to Martin, there was some technical snafu so our brave friends ended up reading our poems. The notebook, whose leaves were just a bunch of modest manila paper Martin lovingly bound together with a picture of a Moorish-looking character and setting on the front and back covers, did get passed around and stayed beyond due date with me (over two weeks) while I struggled with the usual mental block. The prospect of sitting down and allowing melancholia to take over me is not attractive, but when Baboo Mondonedo texted that someone was waiting for her turn to write, my adrenaline shot up (always a deadline beater).

Here's one of my three poems that form part of the "collection" whose whereabout is unknown:



Drawing Lesson



this boxed landscape is presented

to you on an eigth of a page of

your yasaka sketchpad.

today marks your sixth lesson.

the instruction: enlarge the landscape

on the rest of the page.



your grip on the chunk of oil pastel

is unsure.

you stare at a representation of the sun,

feel its rays, violent in yellow orange,

singe your lashes,

you hear the rattle of bones beneath

the grass, you watch a spectral

mist coil like a cobra around

the trunks of hapless trees.



in the heaving distance, blackbirds caw

a dirge of warning: stop

romancing the mountain,

reduce the drippy sentiment that

has chained you to summers past

of cousinly camaraderie.



those companions true have scattered

far. what's left is this rectangle.

inside: sunny orb, horizon of hills, grass

fading like your infrequent dreams of mountains.

watercolor shows part of my lola's home in Baguio

Join scriptwriting workshop

Martin Masadao, freelance production designer for stage, film, and tv, who has written, directed, and mounted six plays at the University of the Philippines Baguio, will conduct a scriptwriting workshop for one-act plays or film and TV.

Sponsored by the Baguio Writers Group (BWG), the workshop will be held for two consecutive weekends--Jan, 24, 25, 31 and Feb. 1 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. each day. Venue will be at a room at UP Baguio.

The workshop "echoes" exercises from modules in different workshops Martin attended, including Ricky Lee's scriptwriting workshop and Writers' Bloc under Rody Vera.

The workshop will accept a minimum of five participants and a maximum of 15 participants, first come, first served.

Participants may send their story-lines to Masadao not later than Jan. 22 at this email address: masadao@gmail.com, cc: lotusbearer@yahoo.com .

Participants must bring their own favorite writing materials (paper, pens, notebooks, laptops). For reservations, contact BWG president Padma Perez at 0908-361-2844. Martin's photo by LUCKY BESA