Trackback to May 29, 2008. To read about it, go to this link: http://xn3cts.com/one-sorry-horse/
One Sorry Horse, a.k.a. Balinguyngoy
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
Panimulang Tala Ukol sa “Eros at Agape” ni Emerson “Ogie” Salmorin
2011
10.15
10.15
Panimulang Tala Ukol sa “Eros at Agape” ni Emerson “Ogie” Salmorin
Noong una kong makilala si Ogie, nahinuha ko agad na isa itong taong ubod ng libog. “Bang-libog!” ika nga. Patunay ang malimit na temang tinatalakay ng kanyang mga akdang sining, mga hubad na katawan na kung minsan ay eksaherado pa ang maseselang bahagi. Bukod dito, giliw na giliw ako sa kanyang likhang awit na pinamagatang “Ang Aking Ting-a-ling.” Muli, indikasyon ng isang taong “bang-libog.”
Ngunit huwag sanang masamain ang aking pagturan at pagtingin kay Ogie bilang isang taong “malibog.” Sa katunayan, may kanta dati si DJ Alvaro na ang tipo raw niyang lalaki ay yung maginoo pero medyo bastos. Hindi ako gaanong sang-ayon sa kabalintunaang ipinahahayag dito. Higit na katanggap-tanggap sa akin yung “maginoo at ubod ng libog.” Ang kabastusan kasi ay nagpapahiwatig ng kawalan o kakulangan ng paggalang. Sa kabilang banda, ang pagkakaroon ng libog (kahit pa siksik, liglig, at umaapaw) ay hindi agad-agad na maitutumbas sa kakulangan o kawalan ng respeto.
Sa eksibit na pinamagatang “Eros at Agape,” muling binabalikan ni Ogie ang mga hubad na katawan bilang paglalarawan ng iba-ibang anyo at antas ng pag-ibig at pagmamahal. Nariyan ang “Eros,” masidhing pagnanasa, pagnanais, pag-ibig, libog… Nguni’t hindi rin naman pinagwalang-bahala ang “Philia” (pagkakaibigan) at “Agape,” pagpapahalaga, pagmamahal, pagkalinga, pagkakaloob ng sarili hanggang sukdulan…
Sa pagkukuro ng mga dalubhasa sa larangan ng pag-unawa ng pag-ibig at pagmamahal, mahirap tahasang iwalay ang eros at agape sa buhay ng tao. Dahil tayo ay tao, lagi nang may kakulangan at pangangailangan hindi lamang ang ating mga katawan kundi maging ang ating pagkatao. At dahil dito, laging mababahiran ng eros. Ang eros ay hindi lang kahinaan ng tao; kaganapan niya rin ito. At kahit eros ay may eros din (masidhing pagnanasa) na igpawan ang kanyang pagiging eros lamang… upang tumulay, manganak at magbigay-buhay… sa agape.
Sa madaling salita (kahit pa may kindat at paglalaro ng dila): “Hubu!”
- Michael Ian Lomongo, Setyembre 25, 2011
Those Were the Days of Black and White Protests
2010
10.25
10.25
Mga kababayan at kapuso(d),
>
This is one of the messages that I’ve forwarded that has generated some “piping-hot” (like some coffee) reactions.
>
from jun s., something like this: “ang labo! ba’t hindi na lang ipunin ang perang gagastusin dito at gamitin sa mas makabuluhang paraan?”
from lena c., something like this: “why starbucks, of all places? your protest action is so cono…”
from ogie b., something like this: “marketing director siguro to ng starbucks…”
from allan m., see end of my message.
from ate lea: “puede ba sa starbox?”
>
I forwarded the message because I thought some people would be interested in finding out one of the hundred ways of skinning a cat, or, in this case, ousting GMA from her stolen office.
>
Personally, I don’t like Starbucks. In the first place, I’d rather drink beer. Or, if we’re talking about something hot like coffee, I’d rather have tea, my dear. Pero puede rin naman coffee. Paminsan-minsan, pag me mga kaibigan akong gustong mag-Starbucks at outvoted ako, napapa-Starbucks din. (Eto, e pag may pera ako…)
>
A cup of starbucks coffee would probably get me 3 bottles of beer during happy hour in most bars… or two red horse grande… pero no, I’m not an alcoholic. (Stage 1: Denial… or is it, stage 2?).
>
My proposed mass action: Taho! Maglilibre ako ng taho (yung tiglilimang pisong cup lang, ha? That’s around 20 cups of taho for a cup of Starbucks coffee), tapos pag ubos na, we’ll all say “Gloria, all the way down!”
>
best regards,
ian
—
From: “Allan S. Manalo”
Subject: Re: Black Friday Bulletin #1 – Details of Flash Protest for March 3
I admire the organization of this and I really love the flash mob concept, but this particular task has got to me the lamest I’ve ever heard of. Are you sure that Starbucks is not up to this? I mean, really. You are actually instructing people to “buy a drink.” If you read up on flash mobs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob) no one goes to a place and spends money.
===
— “Vicente R. Romano III” <enteng@HealOurLand.ph>
wrote:
> To: <elagda-forum@yahoogroups.com>,
> <elagda-makati@yahoogroups.com>,
> <elagda-ortigas@yahoogroups.com>,
> <moral-majority@yahoogroups.com>,
> <Moral-Majority-Forum@yahoogroups.com>
> From: “Vicente R. Romano III”
> <enteng@HealOurLand.ph>
> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 20:47:38 +0800
> Subject: [Moral-Majority] Fw: Black Friday Bulletin
> #1 – Details of Flash Protest for March 3
>
>
>
>
> Designated time and place of flash protest for March 3:
> Any Starbucks Cafe, 6 to 7 PM
>
> Plan of action:
> 1) Wear black
> 2) You and your friends proceed to any Starbucks Cafe near you anytime between 6 to 7 pm
> 3) Buy a drink. Each person should queue up at the counter, instead of just one ordering for the group.
> 4) After getting your drink, take a seat or just stand up outside the cafe and hang out for about 30 mins.
> 5) When your group decides it’s time to leave, someone should give the cue and everybody should do the “thumbs down” sign
> 6) Disperse as peacefully as you came in
>
> Suggested preparations:
> 1) Invite as many friends, or officemates, as you can
> 2) If you’re an employer or a manager, invite all your subordinates to join you. Offer to “treat” them, if you can afford it.
> 3) Agree to meet in a place (not Starbucks), or if you’re from the same office, arrange for carpooling
> 4) From the meeting place, proceed to Starbucks as a group. This will have more impact than just agreeing to meet at Starbucks individually
5) If you’re staying in a city where there is no Starbucks, any other “cafe” or restaurant will do.
>
> Forward this message to as many friends, relatives, colleagues, and egroups. I’ve also included below a brief description of the Black Friday Protest Movement, so those receiving your forwarded mail and hearing this for the first time will understand what we’re trying to accomplish.
>
> Let’s paint Starbucks BLACK on Friday.
>
> God bless,
>
> enteng
>
——————————————————————————–\
——————————-
> BLACK FRIDAY – A NEW FORM OF PROTEST
>
>
> The Black Friday Protest Movement was launched by eLagda on March 1 to give professionals, students, businessmen, and other sectors a venue to express their protest against the continuing and escalating acts of repression of the GMA administration as manifested in its series of proclamations – CPR, EO464, and PP 1017 – all designed to curtail basic rights and oppress the people.
>
>
> Patterned after the flash mob concept, the Black Friday Protest calls on people to gather at a designated time and place every Friday wearing a black attire as a symbol of protest. There will be no programs or speeches. Instead, people will be given specific instructions on what to do, and the whole exercise should last about 30 minutes at most. It’s safe, non-confrontational, and within the bounds of the law, even under a repressive one like PP 1017. The mere “flash” gathering of the people is the expression of protest.
>
>
>
> Where will people get instructions?
>
>
>
> Details of the Black Friday Protest action for the week will be published at its blogsite -> www.BlackFridayProtest.blogspot.com every Wednesday evening. Those who would like to receive instructions directly can also subscribe to the movement’s bulletin service by sending a blank email to BlackFridayProtest-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
>
>
A Letter to Sands
2010
10.17
10.17
jan. 11, 2006
>
hi sands,
>
that was macbeth himself who said that (“out, out brief candle…”) in his monologue, after learning of lady macbeth’s death (“tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow/ creeps in this petty pace from day to day…”). you were thinking about lady macbeth’s other monologue with the “out, out damned spot” (or something like that) when she tries to wash out the imagined stains of blood from the killing of duncan.
>
yeah, it’s that time of year when thinking about death and life, and its meaning and worth becomes heightened. finally read marquez’s “a hundred years of solitude” and jeanette winterson’s “the powerbook” and “the world and other places” during the holidays and alternated between joy and depression.
>
i told someone that i’ve been in a depressive state for about two years now… that may not be entirely true. it’s probably more of frequently alternating between states of joy and sadness/depression.
>
yes, all human creation could be seen as an attempt to overcome the destruction of death. we will all die and be forgotten anyway. so why bother at all?
>
“ars longa, vita brevis.” so they say. “art is long, life is short.”
but even works of art, no matter how monumental, no matter how seemingly eternal, will suffer the ravages of time.
>
time devours all his children.
>
why bother at all?
>
because……………………………..
>
best regards,
ian
tula, sabon, at bula
2010
10.05
10.05
tula, sabon, at bula
(para kay marielle)
>
salamat sa sabon
binalot sa kahon
regalong akma
sa anumang panahon.
>
wala akong sabon
na maikakahon
meron namang tula
kinatha, ginawa.
>
mabisa ang sabon
pamatay ng mikrobyon
mabisa ang tula
pampasigla ng diwa.
>
ang sabon, tulad ng tula
naglalaho, nawawala
ang tula, tulad ng bula
naglalaho, nawawala.
>
salamat sa sabon
salamat sa kahon
salamat sa tula
salamat sa bula
>
salamat sa dula
salamat sa diwa
salamat sa panahon
salamat, ngayon!
>
ang sabon, tulad ng tula
naglalaho, nawawala.
ang tula, tulad ng bula
naglalaho, nawawala.
>
- ian lomongo, nov. 8, 2005
Tessa de Guzman’s poem about Angono
2010
10.03
10.03
November 20, 2005, for the 2nd Neo-Angono Public Art Festival, we held a free outdoor screening of indie films (shorts by Mes de Guzman, Tessa de Guzman, and Lloyd Blancaflor; full-lengths by Ron Bryant and Sig Barros-Sanchez) at the parking lot of Metrobank Angono. Billed as “Sine-silip sa Sinagtala: Revisiting Star Theater,” it was a tribute of sorts to the theater that used to stand where Metrobank Angono now is. A run-down, third-class theater with a double-feature program (and seats full of “surot,” bedbugs?), Star was where I (and many of my contemporaries in Angono) watched movies with friends. It was where I saw “Superman II,” “Ghostbusters,” “Never Say Never,” “For Your Eyes Only,” and of course, the unforgettable (for me) “Alapaap” by Tata Esteban.
Below is a poem by Tessa de Guzman on her “Angono experience.”
best regards,
ian
— Tessa de Guzman wrote:
> Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:24:17 -0800 (PST)
> From: Tessa de Guzman
> Subject: angono
> To: Ian Lomongo
> Angono
> para sa Neo-Angono Artists Collective, sa pamilyang Vitor, at sa atin
>
> Angono,
> kinupkop mo kami- / you adopted us-
> wanderers, wayward children of the arts,
> mga anak ni Brocka. / Brocka’s children.
> Kala namin uulan / We thought it was going to rain
> but you held a painting up
> so we would not get wet.
> It was a painting
> of starry skies
> a clear, cloudless night
> stretched between two bamboo poles
> where we watched our lives unfold
> at 24 frames per second:
> Ian jumped off a building
> while Santi played piano like a madman-
> Dra. Shane couldn’t do a damn thing about either.
> In the guise of another
> I murdered my abusive husband
> and flirted with Chris Stein.
> Dino sang the slow old songs of our parents
> and when JP started a joke,
> none of us could stop laughing.
> Later on Diane confessed
> that dreams are her reality
> as Aeon wondered what she was going to do now
> with all this time.
> Eventually, Mike begged Roxanne to turn off her red light,
> and though he don’t get a kick out of champagne,
> Sledge got a kick out of an evening
> that was totally Pinoy
> and purely Mhajica.
>
> It was hard to leave you, Angono.
> On our way back into the city
> nakaramdam kaming lahat / we all felt
> ng kakaibang pangungulila. / a peculiar sense of abandonment.
> We couldn’t stop the roads from getting wider
> or the buildings from growing bigger-
> just like all kids can’t be stopped
> from getting older
> from leaving home
> from travelling by narrow roads
> into the unknown.
> But what we can promise you
> is that we will travel light
> bringing only
> the best of what we left behind
> with us
> everywhere we go.
>
> Thank you.
Notes on a Nude Sketching
2010
09.11
09.11
Here’s a poem drawn by poet/writer Richard Gappi:
>
*Talababa sa Isang Nude Sketching
>
Ipinapako ako ngayon
sa krus ng aking pagkatao.
>
Mantel sa pisngi ng aking pwet
at sinag-araw-alas-tres ng hapon na nakabalabal
sa hubad kong anino.
>
Nagsasa-Veronica ako
sa puting tela.
>
Guhit ito na pinihit ng totoo
kung saan naroon
ang nakasilip na puwang ng naikandado—!
>
Palayain siya!
Palayain siya!
>
Sa apat na sulok
inuutusan niyang lumayas
ang inaalihan
ng kampon ni Satanas!
>
Lalayas ako!
Lalayas ka!
>
At magkakapit-kamay
tayong magsasa-Lazarus
habang dama natin ang hapdi
ng bigat ng batong ipinukol
ng sumang-ayon sa hatol.
>
Puta!
Nakikiapid!
Malibog!
Pera-pera!
Magdalena!
>
Hindi Magdalena
ang isang putik
kundi nagiging
eskultura sa pilantik
ng canvas
ng
isang
artist.
>
- Richard Gappi, Oct. 1, 2005
>
My English translation:
Notes on a Nude Sketching
>
To the cross of my humanity
I am being nailed.
>
Mantle on the cheek of my butt
and the rays of the sun at three in the afternoon
cloaking my naked shadow.
>
I become Veronica
in the white cloth.
>
This is drawn
by the truth
where the imprisoned space
that peeps lies—!
>
Liberate her!
Liberate him!
>
In the four corners of the world
he commands the ones possessed
by the minions of Satan
to leave!
>
I shall leave!
You shall leave!
>
And holding hands
we shall become Lazarus
Living the pain
of the crushing weight
of the stone
thrown by the ones
who consented to
the verdict–
>
Fucking whore!
Adulterer!
Wanton!
Prostitute!
Magdalen!
>
Magdalen is not the mud.
Sculpture in the graceful waves
of the canvas
of an artist
>
She Becomes.
>
- Richard Gappi (Eng. trans. Ian Lomongo, Oct. 3, 2005)
>
best regards,
artes-ian, well!
Made in Vietnam, Born in the Philippines
2010
04.02
04.02
(old letters: May 7, 2000)
Kathleen, Michaell, Jan, Leanne, Carl, and Dante,
Still trying to catch up reading your letters. Congratulations! to Carl, for making it to Steppenwolf and to Jan, for completing your doctorate…
Am annotating a six-week workshop for basic acting (adults), am learning a lot in the process…
Cameron Macintosh’s “Miss Saigon” is going to be staged here… not too happy about that… they are spending a lot of money to do that, money which could have been used to produce shows which are more relevant and “Filipino.” As some have remarked, it’s a western play with a western viewpoint, conceptualized and directed by westerners, utilizing asian talents.
No doubt, because of it, Filipinos came to be recognized as more than mere “domestic helpers.”
And it would certainly be a rare treat for Filipinos to watch big mechanized, revolving stages and helicopters descending on the stage… but the thing is, it won’t help much in the development of Philippine theater. In the process, they’re also displacing the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Ballet Philippines, and Tanghalang Pilipino (where I am a scholar-member of its Actors’ Company) from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (where Miss Saigon’s gonna be staged). Of the eight to ten plays mounted by TP per season, only four would be at the CCP (because of Miss Saigon). The CCP conference room, which has been the regular rehearsal room of TP’s plays, would be transformed into an office of the Miss Saigon guys.
I don’t know, even though I was made in Vietnam (really! my parents met there.), I’ve never really liked Miss Saigon… (I’ve never seen it… but I’ve never seen “Les Miserables,” too, and I like it.)
Am intending to become a freelance writer, while also auditioning for plays, etc.
Salamat.
ian
Flatline Series 1: A Draft (A Video Installation by Infinity and Accident*)
2010
03.13
03.13
Flatline Series 1: A Draft
(A Video Installation by Infinity and Accident*)
I. Dying to See the Light
I’ve heard accounts of people who’ve had Near-Death Experience detailing their encounter with some tunnel of light, or their lives flashing before their eyes.
Like almost everyone, I have this morbid fascination with Death and Dying and everything that comes and goes with and after it.
But what if there is no light at the end of the tunnel?
What if nothing, just this big nothing, awaits us?
Like everyone, I’d like to end this life with some sense of fulfillment or completion. Yes, I’d like to see the light. More, I’d like to be “enlightened.”
And this, before dying.
II. Dog is God Spelled Backwards
A pseudo-intellectual joke: A dyslexic agnostic insomniac was kept awake in the night wondering if there was a dog.
In a past life, I was a dog.
III. The Grand Sex
They say that the orgasm of sex is called “la petite mort” because the release that one goes through is tantamount to some kind/form of dying, “a little death.”
Imagining death as the ultimate experience, would it then be “the Grand Sex”?
Moments before dying, what I felt was an intensification of sensation accompanying the palpitation of my heart. It culminated in an “orgasm,” centered in my heart. It was coupled with everything around me appearing brighter and clearer, as if bathed by a light coming from within. After which, I passed out.
————————————
I woke up, five minutes later (so they told me), on a hospital bed, gagging, struggling, (alive!) and kicking.
ian lomongo
march 13, 2010
(*Infinity and Accident is Wire Tuazon and Ian Lomongo)
On Umberto Eco, Dan Brown, Signs and Symbols
2009
08.21
08.21
Brown’s devices are rather stilted… contrived… Although I laughed at that scene when Brown was thinking of some woman in the past and then the police driver who fetched him asks: “Did you mount her?” The Eiffel, of course… harharhar!
One particular scene that I loved (not for any “high”/literary reasons but for the seeming naturalness of the playfulness of the characters) in “Foucault’s Pendulum” was when the narrator, Casaubon, was reading up on the Rosicrucians in bed, with his girlfriend Amparo. There are no narrative descriptions about what goes on. But Casaubon from time to time remarks, “Stop that!” or Amparo gets some food and eats and feeds Casaubon, too, and repeats a curious word or name or detail from what Casaubon reads aloud, and you know that they’re teasing each other and having some kind of a foreplay. Parang si Dumas din sa “Count of Monte Cristo.” Alam mo kung ano’ng nangyayari sa dialogue lang… sa tone, sa manner of responses and counter-responses… wala nang description o (kung sa play, stage directions).
Wala talagang binatbat ang “Da Vinci Code.” (A comparison can’t be avoided because both works talk about the knights templars, rosicrucians, the grail myth, conspiracies, etc.)
best regards,
ian
—
An excerpt from “Foucault’s Pendulum” (This is Lia, Casaubon’s girlfriend (after Amparo) and mother of his child, talking to Casaubon.):
…she patted her belly, her thighs, her forehead; with her spread legs drawing her skirt tight, she sat like a wet nurse, solid and healthy — she so slim and supple — with a serene wisdom that illuminated her and gave her a matriarchal authority.
“Pow (Lia’s pet name for Casaubon – ian), archetypes don’t exist; the body exists. The belly inside is beautiful, because the baby grows there, because your sweet cock, all bright and jolly, thrusts there, and good, tasty food descends there, and for this reason the cavern, the grotto, the tunnel are beautiful and important, and the labyrinth, too, which is made in the image of our wonderful intestines. When somebody wants to invent something beautiful and important, it has to come from there, because you also came from there the day you were born, because fertility always comes from inside a cavity, where first something rots and then, lo and behold, there’s a little man, a date, a baobab.”
(I’m reminded of an exhibit by Gabby Barredo at Hiraya Galler in 1998 or 99. There was a monstrance (the thing where priests put the sacred host during an exposition of the holy sacrament), but instead of a host, what you find inside was a vagina. – ian)
“And high is better than low, because if you have your head down, the blood goes to your brain, because feet stink and hair doesn’t stink as much, because it’s better to climb a tree and pick fruit than end up underground, food for worms, and because you rarely hurt yourself hitting something above — you really have to be in an attic — while you often hurt yourself falling. That’s why up is angelic and down devilish.
“But because what I said before, about my belly, is also true, both things are true, down and inside are beautiful, and up and outside are beautiful, and the spirit of Mercury and Manicheanism have nothing to do with it. Fire keeps you warm and cold gives you bronchial pneumonia, especially if you’re a scholar four thousand years ago, and therefore fire has mysterious virtues besides its ability to cook your chicken. But cold preserves that same chicken, and fire, if you touch it, gives you a blister this big; therefore if you think of something preserved for millenia, like wisdom, you have to think of it on a mountain, up, high (and high is good), but also in a cavern (which is good, too) and in the eternal cold of the Tibetan snows (best of all). And if you then want to know why wisdom comes from the Orient and not from the Swiss Alps, it’s because the body of your ancestors in the morning, when it woke and there was still darkness, looked to the east hoping the sun would rise and there wouldn’t be rain.”