Archive for the ‘Filipinos’ Category
2010
09.11
Tags: Nude Sketching, Poetry, Translation
Posted in Art, Filipinos, Life, Painting, Poetry, spirituality, Translation, Writing | No Comments »
Here’s a poem drawn by poet/writer Richard Gappi:
>
*Talababa sa Isang Nude Sketching
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Ipinapako ako ngayon
sa krus ng aking pagkatao.
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Mantel sa pisngi ng aking pwet
at sinag-araw-alas-tres ng hapon na nakabalabal
sa hubad kong anino.
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Nagsasa-Veronica ako
sa puting tela.
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Guhit ito na pinihit ng totoo
kung saan naroon
ang nakasilip na puwang ng naikandado—!
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Palayain siya!
Palayain siya!
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Sa apat na sulok
inuutusan niyang lumayas
ang inaalihan
ng kampon ni Satanas!
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Lalayas ako!
Lalayas ka!
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At magkakapit-kamay
tayong magsasa-Lazarus
habang dama natin ang hapdi
ng bigat ng batong ipinukol
ng sumang-ayon sa hatol.
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Puta!
Nakikiapid!
Malibog!
Pera-pera!
Magdalena!
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Hindi Magdalena
ang isang putik
kundi nagiging
eskultura sa pilantik
ng canvas
ng
isang
artist.
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- Richard Gappi, Oct. 1, 2005
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My English translation:
Notes on a Nude Sketching
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To the cross of my humanity
I am being nailed.
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Mantle on the cheek of my butt
and the rays of the sun at three in the afternoon
cloaking my naked shadow.
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I become Veronica
in the white cloth.
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This is drawn
by the truth
where the imprisoned space
that peeps lies—!
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Liberate her!
Liberate him!
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In the four corners of the world
he commands the ones possessed
by the minions of Satan
to leave!
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I shall leave!
You shall leave!
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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–
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Fucking whore!
Adulterer!
Wanton!
Prostitute!
Magdalen!
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Magdalen is not the mud.
Sculpture in the graceful waves
of the canvas
of an artist
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She Becomes.
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- Richard Gappi (Eng. trans. Ian Lomongo, Oct. 3, 2005)
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best regards,
artes-ian, well!
2010
06.08
Tags: Filipinos, Jamming, Music, Ninoy Aquino, Parokya ni Edgar, Yano
Posted in Filipinos, Life, Music | 1 Comment »
August 21, 2005. Early morning, Ninoy’s 22nd death anniversary, the moon’s on the wane after reaching its peak fullness the day before…
With Susan (my trusty old guitar now lost to typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana), I jammed with the street children who usually loiter at the corner street in front of Angono public market, where this Moslem guy cells CD’s and DVD’s. (From time to time, this guy would have free movie screenings, for the folks who happen to be loitering there in the wee hours of the morning.) I sang Yano’s “Banal na Aso, Santong Kabayo.” The kids responded with Parokya ni Edgar’s “Chikinini.” One even rapped a few (I’m thinking, improvised) bawdy verses…
I had fun. I think the kids did too. Checked the time on my cellphone. 4:00 am. Or thereabouts… Put it on the sidewalk where I was sitting. And forgot all about it. Somebody must have taken it while we were having a blast.
Oh well.
best regards,
ian
“The Filipino’s worth dying for.” – Ninoy Aquino
2010
04.04
Tags: Death, Dying, Life, Near-Death Experience
Posted in Filipinos, Life | 2 Comments »
A Rehearsal for Dying
By Michael Ian Lomongo
“To conquer death, you only have to die… you only have to die.” – Jesus Christ, in Webber/Rice’s “Jesus Christ Superstar”
I was a young kid then when my brother Errol and I used to play with toy guns, soldiers and tanks. Once, our mother heard us talking about wiping out each other’s “men.” She said that we shouldn’t be talking so cavalierly about killing and deaths because, in the real world, lives that are taken are lost, well, permanently.
At about the same time, during the proclamation of faith in one mass that we attended, I heard Errol sing “Si Kristo’y namatay, si Kristo’y nabuhay, si Kristo’y babalik sa wakas ng panahon.” I told our mom that my brother’s got it all wrong, that it should be “Sa bakas ng panahon.” Only to find out that I was the one who’d been singing it wrongly all this time.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. I tried to imagine what it would be like at the end of time. I thought there would only be trees and birds. (I even imagined the sunlight filtering through the trees and the birds chirping in an early “people-less” morning.) Everyone I know (including me), and even those I hardly know and don’t know at all, would be gone, dead. It was awful.
I thought people didn’t really die. I thought that they soon got up from their graves or from wherever or whatever they’ve been lying, just like those numerous people who get killed in action movies. And to top it all, there was such a thing as the “end of time.” Oh God!
(more…)
2010
04.02
Tags: Cultural Center of the Philippines, Filipinos, Letters, Manila, Philippines, Saigon, Tanghalang Pilipino, Theater, Vietnam
Posted in Acting, Art, Filipinos, Life, Theater, Writing | No Comments »
(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
2009
08.19
Tags: Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, Gender Issues, Nietzsche, Sacred Feminine, Values
Posted in Art, Books, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Nietzsche, Philosophy | No Comments »
Cultural symbols have some kind of consistency. And rightly or wrongly (I mean, one could always present arguments that would show the inappropriateness of a symbol or sets of symbols), the associations have been formed and set through the millenia. One cannot simply do away with a symbol that has been passed and accepted by cultures/traditions, etc. One can, however, question and undermine the seeming “naturalness” that these symbols have come to acquire (like what Nietzsche, Derrida, among others, have done).
The association of “black” with “male” and “white” with “female” (at least, symbolically) is not consistent with, and I’d even say, goes against the grain of, tradition of symbolical associations with gender archetypes. Check it out for yourself. Research on this topic.
Even the very moral association of “black” with “evil” and “white” with “good” is consistent with the disparaging of the “feminine principle” that Brown himself presents in his novel.
Which leads me back to Nietzsche… the earth/matter, feminine, black, deceptive, as opposed to the spirit, male, white, beholden to the truth… and which does he champion?
Neither.
Rather, he asks, probably with a grin on his face, “What if truth were a woman?” (which can be read as “what if the truth were lying/deceptive?”)
So, again, rather than simply overturning the tables or reassigning the good values with the opposing pole (i.e., saying that “male” is “evil” and “female” is “good”), one gains an insight into the interconnection/interweaving/inter-reliance, complexity, and perhaps, even complicity of the bipolar signs/symbols into our understanding of this world.
The world is to a large extent, amoral, and because of this, both cruel and innocent. It is us humans/cultures who assign values, depending on our perceived needs/wants in given situations. It is when these values harden/ossify that they become dangerous to life/living.
best regards,
ian
2009
08.15
Tags: Da Vinci Code, Daniel Day-Lewis, Foucault's Pendulum, Indiana Jones, Jason Alexander, Jeanette Winterson, Lara Croft, Literary Criticism, Lord of the Rings, Michel Foucault, Milan Kundera, Mystery, Philosophy, Rosicrucians, Sacred Feminine, Seinfeld, Templar Knights, The Grail, The Passion, The Unbearable Lightness, Umberto Eco, Written on the Body
Posted in Art, Books, Education, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Love, Movies, Philosophy, spirituality, Translation, Writing | No Comments »
I loved the Matrix and Moulin Rouge, despite their being hyped. On the other hand, I did watch Lord of the Rings 1 & 2, but stayed away from 3. Tried reading book 1, but just managed a few paragraphs, and then stopped… (Well, perhaps someday…)
Did “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” have that much hype? I love that novel, have read it twice, and think of it as the kind/type of novel I’d love to write if I ever get the chance of writing one. (Haven’t seen the film adaptation with Daniel Day-Lewis…)
As for “The Da Vinci Code,” if you find a copy lying around, it’s worth reading din naman. For one thing, I do subscribe to the recuperation/rehabilitation of the “sacred feminine.”
One other reason why I stayed away from Dan Brown’s novel is that I’ve read Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” and from what I had heard about “The Da Vinci Code,” it seemed to me to be a “Foucault’s Pendulum”-wanna-be.
I’m currently re-reading Eco’s novel. (I read it years ago, mistakenly thinking that it’d help me write a paper on Michel Foucault. Wala palang connect. Ibang Foucault ‘to… Or, meron din, if one looks at the obsession for power and techniques of power…)
(more…)
2009
08.13
Tags: Books, Dan Brown, Eternal Recurrence, Filipinos, Foucault's Pendulum, Friedrich Nietzsche, Himala, Lila, Lullaby: 100 Years of Songs, Matter, Movies, Robert Pirsig, spirituality, The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix Trilogy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Umberto Eco, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Posted in Art, Books, Education, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Movies, Nietzsche, Philosophy, spirituality, Theater | No Comments »
Read “The Da Vinci Code” in 2005, after deliberately ignoring it for quite some time because of the hype. And then saw the movie later.
Well, the wealth of information (esp. regarding symbols) is generally sound. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the erudition of Umberto Eco’s “Foucalt’s Pendulum.” (I have yet to understand the elaborate explanation of how Foucault’s Pendulum works…)
One thing I liked in the novel is the rather sympathetic portrayal of the head of the Opus Dei, Bishop Aringarosa. (Not so in the movie.) I’ve heard a lot of negative publicity regarding the Opus Dei and their founder Jose Ma. Escriva. (From the late Larry Henares, in his TV show and Philippine Daily Inquirer column, as well as from a Filipino priest who studied in a university run by the Opus Dei…) Bishop Aringarosa may be ultra-conservative in his theology but in the end, when the time came for his faith to be tested, his heart proved to be ultimately in the right place.
Also, it had a more hopeful, happy ending than “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which was darker and more poignant. Eco’s novel bewails the lack of understanding that so-called believers/enlightened ones have. Parang si Elsa sa Himala: “Walang himala! Ang himala ay nasa puso ng tao!”
(more…)
2009
08.11
Tags: Kabir Helminski, Lail Fourladvend, Poem, Rumi, Translation
Posted in Art, Books, Filipinos, Life, Music, Poetry, spirituality, Theater, Translation, Writing | No Comments »
A poem by Rumi:
Because I Cannot Sleep
Because I cannot sleep
I make music at night.
I am troubled by the one whose face has the color of spring flowers.
I have neither sleep nor patience,
neither a good reputation nor disgrace.
A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.
All my good manners have run a thousand miles away.
The heart and the mind are left angry with each other.
The stars and the moon are envious of each other.
Because of this alienation the physical universe is getting tighter and tighter.
The moon says, “How long will I remain suspended without a sun?”
Without Love’s jewel inside of me, let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.
O Love, You who have been called by a thousand names,
You who know how to pour the wine into the chalice of the body,
You who give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces.
O Love, You who shape the faces of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris, give me a glass from Your bottle, or a handful of bheng from your branch.
Remove the cork once more.
Then we’ll see a thousand chiefs prostrate, and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.
The the addict will be freed of craving and will be resurrected, and stand in awe till Judgment Day.
(translation by Kabir Helminski and Lail Fouladvend)
2009
08.09
Tags: Girls, Love, Michelle, Poetry, songs
Posted in Filipinos, Jokes, Life, Love, Music, Poetry, Writing | No Comments »
Let Me Go.
(To all the girls I’ve loved before, will have loved in the future, have been presently loving)
by Michael Ian Lomongo
Let me go.
Letlet…
Mimi…
Let me go.
Letty…
Amy…
Mi amiga…
Let me go.
Mei-li… Gong-li… Agogo…
Let me go.
Amigas, dejadme que me vaya.
Michelle… Mabel…
Let me go.
Son les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
Tres bien ensemble:
Let me go.
Yeah.
Let me be.
Words of wisdom:
Let it be.
January, 2005
2009
08.03
Tags: Dexter Santos, Dulaang UP, Earth Spirit, Frank Wedekind, Lulu, Morality, Pandora's Box, Sex, Theater
Posted in Acting, Art, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Psychology, Theater | No Comments »
Dulaang UP’s Production of Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu”
LULU is a story of a person who has no qualms about the body and its sexual needs. Lulu, who is the alluring woman in the English version and the captivating transsexual in Filipino, is a being able to explore and express her desires without compromise or guilt. Adored and lusted after by men, women and creatures of the world, she takes them to a dance of bodily freedom, of the mind’s liberation and of utter ecstasy. But like any other person, Lulu searches for the other that could accept and understand her seemingly deviant nature.
In her hunt, Lulu meets a myriad of “civilized beasts”: painters, writers, the educated and the ignorant, the rich and poor men, the young and the dying who are upright and honorable by day but transform to hungry animals in the dark. Lulu embraces each person only to find him or her weak and forever trapped by man’s idea of propriety.
English Cast:
Che Ramos as LULU
Angeli Bayani as GESCHWITZ
Jules de la Paz as GOLL / HUGENBERG / HUNIDEI
Missy Maramara as JACK / RINGMASTER
Paolo O’Hara as DR. SCHON / CASTI-PIANI
Meynard Penalosa as SCHIGOLCH
Gabs Santos as ALVA SCHON
Randy Villarama as SCHWARZ / RODRIGO
Filipino Cast:
Tuxqs Rutaquio as LULU.
Acey Aguilar as SCHWARZ / RODRIGO
Alexander Cortez as SCHIGOLCH
Jules de la Paz as GOLL / HUGENBERG / HUNIDEI
Ian Lomongo as DR. SCHON / CASTI-PIANI
Jojit Lorenzo as JACK / RINGMASTER
Andoy Ranay as GESCHWITZ
JC Santos as ALVA
Direction and Choreography: Dexter M. Santos
Filipino Translation: Joel Saracho
Production Design: Tuxqs Rutaquio
Lights Design: John Batalla
Dramaturgy and Additional Text: Patrick Valera
Sounds Design: J Victor Villareal
Photography and Poster Design: Jojit Lorenzo
Poster Art Direction: Carlo Vergara
LULU will open on Aug 5 and will run till Aug 23 at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, UP Diliman.
English:
5 August 7pm – Opening
6 August 7pm
7 August 7pm – Gala
8 August 10am, 3pm
9 August 10am, 3pm
19 August 7pm
22 August 10am, 3pm
Filipino:
12 August 7pm – Opening
13 August 7pm
14 August 7pm – Gala
15 August 10am, 3pm
16 August 10am, 3pm
20 August 7pm
21 August 7pm
23 August 10am, 3pm
THIS PRODUCTION CONTAINS SCENES AND MATERIAL STRICTLY FOR MATURE AUDIENCES.