Tag: July 6, 2013

THERE'S a new strain of respiratory virus and it has worried medical specialists here and abroad.

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has already caused 77 infections and 40 deaths worldwide as of early July. Of the cases, 87 percent were recorded in its region of origin where around two million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are located.

Although the country remains free from the virus, the continuous rise of cases abroad caused the health sector to consider MERS-CoV a threat to Philippine health.

ART REFORMATION and cutting-edge solutions to urban problems were among the focus of this year’s best theses from the Colleges of Fine Arts and Design and of Architecture.

Advertising Arts student Portia Hizon focused on fashion design and merchandising. Titled “Patched: Shabby Chic Casuals,” her thesis offers patchwork quilted clothes in shabby chic style with young women as target audience.

“As an artist, I am really into details,” she said. “This is probably why I chose the very intricate technique of patchwork quilting as my thesis topic. I chose shabby chic because it brings out the feminine side of women in a subtle way.”

THE MANILA production of Tarzan: The Musical, based on the Walt Disney animated film which in turn was very loosely based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, about a man who grew up in the jungle with apes, was staged at the Meralco Theater from June 14 to June 29, captivating audiences with its fancy production design and popular tunes.

Some adjustments were made to cater to the Filipino audience. Costume designer Eric Pineda said he used native materials in constructing the costumes. The loincloth of Tarzan was made of hand-loomed native cloth to provide a Filipino flavor to the US-branded musical.

THE SALINGGAWI Dance Troupe (SDT) is perhaps the most popular pep squad in the country, an eight-time champion in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Cheerdance Competition, and a 45-year-old dance group that is rooted on its culture of excellence and grace.

But the dance troupe has become more and more remote from its original identity—as a folk dance group.

On Aug. 13, 1994, the first UAAP cheerdance competition was held as sideshow to basketball. All teams were rookies except for two pep squads: Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion and De La Salle University Pep Squad.

STAYING true to its promise of presenting “untried, untested and unpublished plays,” the ninth Virgin Labfest did not disappoint with its nine one-act plays written by up-and-coming and established playwrights staged at the Cultural Center of the Philippines from June 26 to July 7.

Em Mendez, who studied BS Psychology in UST, is now on his second consecutive year in the fest. Mendez presented his one-act play, “Ambong Abo,” a tale of a copra farmer from Bicol struggling to adapt to New York after his daughter petitioned him to be a U.S. citizen.

Ambo begins to hallucinate about the legendary characters Magayon, whose grave was said to have turned into the Mayon Volcano, and Handyong, Bicol’s legendary hero who killed the deceptive serpent Oryol.

EDWIN Tres Reyes’ latest solo exhibit, Dream Machine which ran at the Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery in Makati last May 29 to June 8 combined oil-on-canvas and resin sculptures in depicting dream states.

However, the emotions in the eyes of subjects in the paintings differed from the sculptures’ seemingly large, lifeless eyes.

“I want to tickle the minds of my viewers and I want them involved in the completion of the stories behind my works,” the artist said.

TWO Thomasian artists emerged victorious in the recent Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Art Competition at Pasay City last June 24.

Jesus Santos’ “The Unseen Beauty Beyond Poverty” bested 294 pieces in the representational category. He also won last year’s grand prize in the same category with his entry, “Kanlungan.”

Santos used dark colors such as brown and gray to portray the depression brought by poverty. He used the rule of thirds to place a subject behind a more vibrantly colored and light-infused background to break the monotony of the composition.

WRITERS and friends paid tribute to the late writer-editor Norma Miraflor last June 22 at the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies.

Miraflor, at one time editorial director of the Singaporean publishing firm MPH and a highly successful editor with an international reputation, passed away last summer in Australia, where she had been partly based with her husband. journalist Ian Ward.

The cause of her death was not officially known, although friends said she was suffering from breast cancer. Still others said she died of a massive stroke shortly after arriving in Australia from heat-choked Manila. She was in her mid-sixties.

LEO BOBADILLA lived a simple life. He was a fisherman living in a rundown shack near the shore of Santa Filomena, Romblon who would rise every day at 2 A.M. to let his net trap sleeping fishes. This, along with the responsibility of raising and tending to his sickly seven-year-old daughter, was his life. His wife had left him five years ago, choosing to marry a rich man from the city.

For someone like Leo, the early morn was a call for his thin downbeat body. Lying on a rough tattered mat that lied on the cold floor, he woke up to massage his poor daughter’s back. This was the third time that she was wheezing and coughing blood. His heart broke as he saw his daughter’s twitching eyes as she bore the pain in her chest.

Leo’s heart sank.

SA PAMAMAGITAN ng makabagong teknolohiya na karaniwang gamit ng bagong henerasyon, maaari nang mapasiglang muli ang panitikang pambata sa bansa.

Noong 2011, naging hudyat ang pagbabagong-anyo ng mga aklat pambata nang inilunsad ng Vee Press, isang digital publisher ng Vibal Foundation, ang kuwento ng “Ibong Adarna” sa isang e-book application.

Ang naturang paglulunsad ay sinundan ng iba pang mga kuwentong nasa e-book, kabilang na ang mga gawa ni Eugene Evasco tulad ng “Kata-Kata: Paghahanap kay Ma’ajarat-Tornorka,” “Naglalakbay si Tulalang sa Araw at Buwan” at “Mahiwagang Kamiseta.”