Tag: August 11, 2007

CAUGHT at night in the bustling city, Sonia lingered inside the quaint coffee shop where she usually soothed herself after a tedious week of work at the advertising firm. While smoking cigarettes, she drank coffee to calm her nerves until she fell into a state of wakeful dreaming where the senses seemed to merge into a hazy spell.

It was in this state that Sonia found herself under a familiar gaze.

“Adam!” she shouted as the face registered in her thoughts. Adam returned the greeting with a hug and treated Sonia to a feast of Japanese dishes in a nearby restaurant.

SIGNIFICANT literary traditions in Philippine fiction in English were tackled last June 29 commencing the University of the Philippines (UP) Likhaan Centennial Lecture Series, titled, “Fiction as Response to History: Philippine Fiction in English,” by Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, UP Vice President for Public Affairs and former Likhaan director.

PART of growing up is the in-between world of innocence and maturity, and the Filipino dimension to this developmental limbo is portrayed and problematized in Growing Up Filipino (Philippine American Literary House, 2004), a collection of short stories for young adults edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard.

THESE days, media-hyped potboilers, paranormal anthologies, and international tear-jerkers crowd many shelves. But every now and then, there is that cranial knock that yearns for reading of another kind: reading that engages the brain cells, and at the same time tugs at the heartstrings.

Now, how can one make the right choice? When most readers are not adept at literature, or blessed with a worthy literary pedagogue, to judge by the cover is not an option.

TINATAHAK kong muli ang daang nilisan ko noong isang taon.

Tandang-tanda ko pang may baong panibagong pag-asa ang bawat hakbang ko papuntang Maynila. Sa wakas, matutupad na ang pangarap ko at ng aking mga magulang na makatapos ako ng kolehiyo at maging isang abogado.

“AKO ANG tipo ng manunulat na mulat sa (panlasa ng) kanyang audience. Gusto ko, ‘pag may sinulat ako, may magbabasa. Hindi ako kontento na may naisulat lang, (dahil baka) wala namang nagbabasa sa aking mga gawa.”

Sa mga linyang ito inilahad ni Manolito Sulit, Tomasinong makata at direktor, ang kanyang dahilan sa pagsabaak sa larangan ng paggawa ng pelikula. Nais niyang bigyang-buhay ang nilikha niyang dulang pampelikula o screenplay upang mabatid ng nakararami ang mensaheng nais niyang iparating hinggil sa pagbibigay ng halaga sa kasaysayan ng bansa.

HEROES live among us, and usually they start becoming one through simple acts of selflessness and dedication.

Dwelling on social realism, Haw-Ang looks into the story of a missionary nun who becomes a catalyst and an advocate of hope and faith amidst a world of turmoil and conflicts. Directed by indie filmmaker Bong Ramos, Haw-Ang (“before harvest” in the Ifugao dialect Tuwali) is a story of heroism amid the challenges posed by cultural and ideological clashes.

TELEVIEWERS are getting younger nowadays: 68% of viewers are between 16 to 25 years old, says the latest survey by the Association of Governing Boards-Nielsen Media Research.

To cater to the youth market, television companies have increased the number of youth-oriented television shows.

EVERYBODY loves a rebel and the recent Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film undeniably banks on this fondness as director David Yates unleashes the boy wizard’s defiant mettle against the establishment.

As the fifth installment from J. K. Rowling’s bestselling novel franchise, Yates takes on the Herculean task of squeezing a 700-page novel to a screenplay running 200 minutes while keeping up with the epic story’s pace.

DESPITE his acclaimed artworks, businessman-artist Joey Velasco still doesn’t like to be labeled a painter. He prefers to be called a “heartist’.

“I make it a point that I experienced first what I feel strongly about before I paint something,” Velasco told the Varsitarian.

Indeed, Velasco uses his heart most especially in depicting the sad reality of the oppressed in most of his paintings. According to Antonio Meloto, executive director of Gawad Kalinga, Velasco’s paintings are meant to make their audience see the suffering of the unfortunate.